Jackson Free Press

According to NewsMax (ugh) our esteemed former lobbyist/former governor/current lobbyist Haley Barbour was on Fox News this weekend complaining that President Obama isn't paying enough attention to the debt.

What's wrong with the American Economy? Income inequality, due, in part, to an over-emphasis on shareholder value as our prevailing metric for corporate success.

Vickie Stanford called me today. Her 15-year-old son Brennan needs a kidney, and there are no signs of match anywhere in sight.

The JFP featured Brennan as a Person of the Day in April. You can read the story here: POD: Brennan Stanford

Vickie said today that the Tulane University pediatric kidney transplant program shut down recently. Brennan, whose blood type is O positive, is now on the waiting lists for a kidney at University of Mississippi Medical Center, which just recently reopened its pediatric transplant unit, and at Ochsner Hospital in New Orleans.

There is no nationwide, or even statewide, kidney donation program. Each hospital that does transplants has its own waiting list and its own donor supplies. Vickie said that UMMC told her that they may receive one kidney a year that is a match for Brennan, who can only accept a kidney from someone with Type O blood.

Vickie hopes to get Brennan on the list at the University of Alabama-Birmingham soon.

Brennan is currently in good health, and doctors have told Vickie that now is the best time to give him a transplant, if she can find a donor. He currently takes 9 hours of dialysis every night, and Vickie said he cannot do that forever.

Brennan, whose father donated a kidney to him before his second birthday, has no other family with his O positive blood type. If Brennan is going to receive the kidney he needs to survive, he will most likely need a volunteer donor.

Further information about donating a kidney can be found in the JFP's Person of the Day story on Brennan. Brennan's health insurance will pay for all medical expenses related to a donation.

For more information on donating or to find out if you are a match, please call Silvia at UMMC at 601-984-5065, or Becky Guillera at Ochsner Hospital at 504-842-3925.

http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2012/sep/28/8655/

So if you're a presidential candidate pitching the idea that the government is too big and the private sector needs to be convinced to hire more people -- what data are you using to reach that conclusion?

Time once again for your Thursday, College football look back and look forward. [New to the JFP print edition is a look back at last week’s action][1], so this week will be more of a detailed look forward. There are several prospects for our weekly big winner. Mississippi State is 4-0 for the first time since 1999, Ole Miss is 3-1 and beating teams they should beat on their schedule, and Millsaps is a perfect 3-0 coming off a bye week.