Jackson Free Press

Daniel MacGregor is an abstract artist and photographer with a studio in Flowood, and one thing I look forward to daily is seeing what painting he will share next on Facebook. HIs Facebook page has hit the 1000-like benchmark for good reason: his paintings are vivid and rememberable. A common theme of his is a landscape of trees with a rainbow sky in the background - my personal favorite. He sometimes asks Facebook visitors to name his painting, so I like this level of interactivity between artist and viewer.

MacGregor also offers acrylic painting classes every Thursday from 7-9 p.m. The classes are only $15, and you get $5 off if you bring your own 11-by-14-inch canvas. More details here. Sounds like a good way to spend an evening!

Lost in some of the Rand/Medicare/Taxes discussion of Rep. Paul Ryan was a glib line that he's now offered a few times on the stump, taking President Obama's "You Didn't Build That" line out of context to suggest that Obama was saying that small businesses didn't build their businesses.

The irony is two-fold (a.) Ryan has spent his adult entire career working in government in Washington, aside from a year he listed as a "marketing consultant" for his family's company and (b.) his family business, Ryan Incorporated, began in the 1800s building railroads for the government, switched to roads and highways (for the) government in the 20th century, had a hand in building O'Hare in Chicago, and more recently has made a a fair bit of scratch on defense contracts. In other words, the family fortune has done just fine by way of the government and, particularly, the infrastructure that Obama was talking about when Ryan misquoted him.

A current search of Defense Department contracts suggests that “Ryan Incorporated Central” has had at least 22 defense contracts with the federal government since 1996, including one from 1996 worth $5.6 million. … Mr. Anti-Spending secured millions in earmarks for his home state of Wisconsin, including, among other things, $3.3 million for highway projects. And Ryan voted to preserve $40 billion in special subsidies for big oil, an industry in which, it so happens, Ryan and his wife hold ownership stakes.

Speaking of his wife, Janna Ryan was a D.C. lobbyist before she became the "stay at home mom" that she has been introduced as -- for big pharma, big oil, "nuclear waste issues," health insurance and the cigar lobby, as they fought to keep the same warnings off cigars that cigarettes have.

I woke up this morning with cool breeze in the air and I couldn’t help but reminded of how close high school football is to starting. Several teams are traveling across the state tonight to participate in jamborees before the season kicks off next week.

Since the other local paper has gone to a pay website, finding football scores will become harder unless you want to wait and get a paper the next morning. Or hope that one of the television stations post scores on their website.

So, I am asking JFP Nation for help. If you guys can help me get scores, I will post them in a blog post each Friday night with updates as I receive them. High schools in the metro-area are my main focus but I will post any score from any team across the state.

Send scores to twitter by following @jfpsports, the JFP Sports Facebook page or email at [email protected]. I know JFP Nation can make this become a regular part of sports coverage.

Thank you in advance for your help.