Story
A Year After the Gulf Tragedy
When the Deepwater Horizon disaster killed 11 men at sea last April and set off the worst oil spill in U.S. history, the tragedy exposed a number of weaknesses--not least …
Story
Feature
Ritual and Community
The wedding of Wendy Shenefelt and Michael Fleming paid homage to their passion for education and their heritage.
Story
Health Care
Governor: Wait-and-See on State Lockdown Despite 71 New COVID-19 Cases
Gov. Tate Reeves again rejected calls for a statewide lockdown at a press conference outside the governor’s mansion today in downtown Jackson, saying that “no expert had yet recommended” such …
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City & County
EDITOR'S NOTE: Time for Mississippi to Get Smarter on Crime
Dozens of officers from 15 federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies gathered in a circle in front of the new colorful Jackson mural facing State Street meant to symbolize a …
Story
City & County
EDITOR'S NOTE: Our Journalism Seeks Solutions Over Blame and Partisanship
I'm a journalist to find solutions for issues such as youth crime. And that means seeking the various causes first to get there. That is why the journalism in the …
Story
Crime
Flashing a Kid’s Mugshot Is No Way to Prevent Crime
Disseminating mugshots of minors should be rare due to the harm that it can cause to that kid and society to treat children as adult criminals, especially before they even …
Story
Politics
Hard-right Conservative 'Farmer Bob' to Announce Run for Governor
Freshman State Rep. Robert Foster will announce a bid for the Republican nomination to be Mississippi's next governor tomorrow in his hometown of Hernando.
Entry
Third Lawsuit, Fourth Legal Challenge Filed Against HB1523
By adreherThe Campaign for Southern Equality and Mississippi-native Rev. Susan Hrostowski filed a lawsuit against several state officials, saying that House Bill 1523 is unconstitutional, late last week.
The lawsuit states that House Bill 1523 violates the first and fourteenth amendments of the U.S. Constitution and asks the U.S. District Court to enjoin the bill from becoming law on July 1. New York-based attorney Roberta Kaplan, who won same-sex couples the right to marry and adopt in this state, will represent the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit names the governor, attorney general, the executive director of MDHS, and the state registrar for vital records as defendants. Several floor debate comments from the 2016 legislative session about the bill are used in the initial complaint. The complaint draws the distinction between Mississippi's Religious Freedom Restoration Act and The Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act.
"Critically, the Mississippi RFRA does not single out any particular religious belief or creed and privilege it above all others..." the complaint says. "HB 1523, however, starkly departs from this tradition and practice by providing additional rights and benefits and by extending well beyond those available under RFRA, but only to individuals or entities that espouse one of three specific beliefs: (a) that '[m]arriage is or should be recognized as union of one man and one woman,' (b) that '[s]exual relations are properly reserved to' a marriage between one man and one woman, or (c) male and female 'refer to an individual's immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at the time of birth.'"
The ACLU and the Mississippi Center for Justice have both filed lawsuits, asking the courts to rule House Bill 1523 unconstitutional, and Kaplan filed a motion to re-open the case that legalized same-sex marriage in Mississippi, due to HB1523's passage. The Campaign for Southern Equality's lawsuit is the third lawsuit filed against House Bill 1523 and the fourth legal challenge.
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Politics
Reeves to Issue Shelter-in-Place as COVID-19 Cases Swell to 1,073 in Mississippi
Gov. Tate Reeves is expected to become one of the last governors in the U.S. to issue a statewide shelter-at-home order for the next two weeks after a reassessment of …
Story
Food
Father’s Day: Things to Do
You'll have no shortage of great things to do in the Jackson metro for Father's Day this year. Here's just a few that the JFP has picked out.
Story
Sign the "Buffoonery and ‘Bad Hair'" Petition!
Ads from Dr. Miracle (http://drmiracles.com) have appeared in black magazines and are highly offensive. The same company also makes African Pride products. I see no African pride coming from this …
Story
High School Grid
The playoffs start in some divisions of Mississippi high school football on Friday night. Just in time for that, Dr. S has found a cool new site, http://www.mississippi.ihigh.com/, which has …
Story
Updated: Jackson Wildcats: An Endangered Species
The Jackson Wildcats were supposed to play their first home game in team history on Friday night. It was canceled because the Mississippi Coliseum evicted the team. Whether they ever …
Story
Cups Crazy
Soccer's World Cup and the NHL's Stanley Cup are going on this week. Both have lots of fans, but neither attracts hordes of casual sports fans the way the Super …
Entry
Updated: Child Found Dead in Stolen Car, Three Persons of Interest in Custody
By adreherUpdated: Three persons of interest have been taken into custody, WAPT reports, after a 6-year-old who was kidnapped early this morning was found dead in the back of a stolen vehicle in Madison County.
The Jackson Police Department has now confirmed that they found a deceased child in the backseat of the stolen Toyota. He was six years old. A multi-jurisdictional investigation is still underway, according to JPD tweets. JPD, Hinds County Sheriff's Department, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the Madison County Sheriff's Office are working collectively on this case.
WJTV and WAPT reported that the child, Kingston Frazier, was in the back of the Toyota, when the car was stolen from the I-55 Kroger parking lot.
A Hinds County Sheriff told WAPT that the deceased boy was found in Gluckstadt in Madison County at 9:30 a.m. WJTV is reporting "it is believed the child died from a gunshot wound."
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and JPD issued an Amber Alert for a missing boy, Kingston Frazier, early this morning.
JPD is posting on its Twitter account with updates. This post will be updated.
Story
[Balko] The Anti-Cop Trend That Isn't
Between Jan. 20 and Jan. 25, 13 police officers were shot in the U.S., five of them fatally. Two officers in St. Petersburg, Fla., were killed while trying to arrest …
Story
OPINION: Janet Yellen and Kamala Harris Keep Shattering Glass Ceilings—Yet Global Elite Boys Club Remains
Janet Yellen may soon become the first woman to lead the Treasury Department—about six years after shattering another glass ceiling at the top of the Federal Reserve. She’s not alone …
Story
National
Lethal Rejection: Will the Supreme Court's Lethal Injection Review Kill the Death Penalty?
If the nation's top court strikes down Oklahoma's lethal injection procedure, what would it mean for the death penalty? We've asked the experts what you need to know.
Story
National
Mississippi Lobbyists, Associates in Thick of Trump’s Ukraine-Russia Web
A key figure in Trump's impeachment inquiry has an ongoing and paid association with lobbying firm BGR Group, started by former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, as well as a paid …
Story
It's the Weekend!
For a taste of Broadway, see Leading Ladies: A Night of Nostalgia Friday and Saturday at Brent's Diner and Soda Fountain (655 Duling Ave.) presented by Fondren Theatre Workshop. The …
