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Civil Rights
Calling on Our Ancestral Mothers
Each year I make deliberate efforts to study women throughout history. This year I have dissected my celebration. With intentional focus, I am celebrating black women. I am dedicating myself …
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Editorial
Use the T-word: Trauma Matters, Must Be Treated
Without an understanding of trauma—what often lies beneath the surface of a child who was taken out of an abusive home or a teenager in juvenile detention—the wounds won't heal.
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Politics
Mississippi to Begin Tracking Assets Seized by Police Groups
Mississippi will begin tracking money and assets seized by police agencies and require more oversight of such forfeitures after Gov. Phil Bryant signed House Bill 812 .
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State
Understanding Trauma Key to Fixing State's Foster Care System
Like Michigan, Mississippi is under a consent decree to fix its foster-care system—and the State must fulfill several promises by year's end.
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Politics
Mississippi’s Women Deserve a Lot More R-E-S-P-E-C-T
"Improving women’s access to fair and equal pay not only uplifts them, but their entire families and their communities as well."
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Domestic Violence
Lawmaker Flips to Support Domestic Abuse as Divorce Reason
A Mississippi lawmaker breathed life back into a proposal Monday to make domestic abuse a reason for divorce, after coming under fire recently for killing a similar measure.
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Mississippi House Passes Domestic Abuse Divorce Amendment
By adreherThe Mississippi House of Representatives voted to add domestic abuse as grounds for divorce this afternoon when Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, brought out an amendment to Senate Bill 2680, which clarifies that abused and neglected children can be placed with their relatives when they are removed from their homes.
Gipson's amendment clarifies that "cruel and inhuman treatment" in the state's grounds for divorce law includes both physical and non-physical abusive conduct as a ground for divorce. The amendment thoroughly defines both types of conduct as well as outlines standards of proof that a spouse would need to make.
The amendment would allow the injured spouse's testimony to meet the burden of proof to divorce their partner. The House passed Senate Bill 2680 with the new amendments unanimously. Now the Senate will have to concur with those amendments or invite conference on the bill to keep it alive.
Last week, lawmakers and citizens alike criticized Rep. Gipson for killing Sen. Sally Doty's, R-Brookhaven, bill to clarify that domestic abuse could be grounds for divorce. Gipson initially said that domestic abuse was already included in the state's divorce grounds that says "habitual cruel and inhuman treatment" is a ground for divorce. Days after killing the bill, Gipson announced on Facebook and Twitter that he was working with the Center for Violence Prevention to come up with the "House plan for this issue." Today, before bringing up the new amendment for a vote, Rep. Gipson introduced representatives from the Center for Violence Prevention to the House.
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City & County
10 Local Stories of the Week
There's never a slow news week in Jackson, Miss., and last week was no exception. Here are the local stories JFP reporters brought you in case you missed them.
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National
Trump Accuses Obama of Phone 'Tapp', Calls Obama 'Bad (or Sick) Man'
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday accused former President Barack Obama of tapping his telephones during last year's election, lodging a startling allegation of abuse of …
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Domestic Violence
Abusers Get Another Divorce Pass from #MSLeg, But Senator Pushes Back
Sen. Sally Doty, R-Brookhaven, is not giving up on making domestic abuse grounds for divorce in Mississippi. Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, killed Doby's bill on Feb. 28, in committee, not …
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Politics
From Welfare to Divorce: What's Dead, What's Alive in the Legislature
Criminal-justice and welfare reform are alive to see another day, but adding abuse as grounds for divorce and election reform were dead on arrival.
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Politics
Legislators Kill Domestic Abuse Divorce Bill
A bill adding domestic abuse as grounds for divorce has died in committee. Senate Bill 2703 , which passed the Mississippi Senate, wasn't taken up Tuesday by the House Judiciary …
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Editorial
Stop the Mental Health Politicking
Lawmakers should and could have addressed mental health-care reform in previous sessions as well as this session. It turns out that addressing the problem with secrecy and an assumption of …
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Politics
Tort Reform, Sexual Assault Prevention and Fantasy Sports Bills Move Forward
"Tort reform" rose from the past at the state Capitol last week as lawyers in the House of Representatives battled it out over a short, seemingly inconsequential bill, House Bill …
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City & County
Murder in the City: Deep Causes, Harmful Biases, Unexpected Solutions to Gun Violence
On the night of Thursday, Feb. 9, a group of twenty-something Jacksonians were hanging out in Westwood Apartments at 3150 Robinson Road playing dominoes. Suddenly, several men walked in pointing …
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Justices: Utility Regulators Can't Set Rule on Water Groups
The Mississippi Supreme Court says state utility regulators don't have the power to set a rule affecting rural water associations.
