Story
Powerful Enough to Tear Us Down
If words are powerful enough to build us up, then certainly one can see they'd be strong enough to tear us down.
Story
Music
Kris Kelli’s Dutty Pop Prestige
It's been five years since Kris Kelli moved from her hometown—and her home country—to branch out in the American music scene with the goal of not returning until she had …
Story
City & County
Kishia Powell: ‘I Don’t Steer’ Contracts; City Loan Debate; Guns, Payday Ordinances
Documents, including emails, released to the Jackson Free Press indicate that despite protestation from Mayor Tony Yarber and his administration, the City has been dipping into the ordinance-protected reserve fund …
Story
Hitched
Keeping Things Simple
When Sarah Gayden Hammond (then Harris), met Andy Hammond at Sneaky Fest at Sneaky Beans in Fondren in August 2011, she was wearing a Raggedy Ann and Andy shirt.
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Politics
Legislative Summer School: All About Performance
The Mississippi Department of Corrections is ending a paramilitary inmate program due to a state law and legislative efforts to enforce performance-based budgeting for all state agencies.
Story
Editor's Note
Living the Dream in Post-1523 Mississippi
Progressive thinkers here are working to leave hate-drenched politics behind, to get enough people motivated to vote to use our purple demographics to send a strong message at the polls …
Story
Jacksonian
Robert Rushton
Experience and a passion for cooking has helped Robert Rushton get an executive position in his field. Beginning with a summer job, he ascended the restaurant kitchen ladder and is …
Story
Food
Snacking Downtown
If people are at a show at downtown venues such as Big Sleepy's or headed to the King Edward Hotel, they may notice Downtown Snack Shop's blue neon sign glowing …
Story
Art
Videonauts Have Landed
Steven Pergande is the founder and CEO of Videonauts, a video projection-mapping company that transforms concert venue stages into 3-D psychedelic light shows.
Story
Business
Battle for the Airport: The Next Steps
Medgar Wiley Evers looked down from the wall of the memorial pavilion in the airport named after him upon the chairwoman of the soon-to-be-replaced governing commission as she lamented the …
Story
Politics
Infant Mortality Prevention, Social Service Jobs on Budget Chop Block
Efforts to reduce the state's infant mortality rate—the highest in the country—will go on the chopping block if Gov. Phil Bryant signs the Legislature's version of the state budget into …
Story
Bill Aims to Bring Out-of-State Physicians to Mississippi
A bill on Gov. Phil Bryant's desk could shorten the time it takes physicians licensed in other states to get licensed in Mississippi.
Entry
Report: Brandon GOP Legislator Drafting Legislation to Take Over Control of Jackson?
By Donna LaddWLBT is reporting that Rep. Mark Baker, R-Brandon, is "currently drafting legislation that would grant Governor Phil Bryant direct control over Jackson's city government," much as the Michigan state government did in Detroit and Flint.
“I’m working on it. This is something I’m looking at," Baker told WLBT.
The TV station, however, quotes Gov. Phil Bryant denying that he's part of such a plan: "I don't see any universe in which I would takeover responsibility for the City of Jackson."
Note, the Jackson Free Press has not confirmed any of this information, which WLBT is reporting tonight.
UPDATE: We're finding more information about this possibility. Rep. Mark Baker threatened to do this in a comment on Facebook: "Pete: if you think what we dos with the airport is so bad, you're going to really hate it when we pass a conservator law for municipalities like we have for school districts. Fair warning, they get it together or we will."
And then there is this screenshot of a Facebook exchange with Hinds County Republican Party leader Pete Perry (who is a member of the 1-percent sales-tax commission), so said he would help Baker with it, who responded: "I'm going to start drafting something this summer. I'll send you a draft for review."
See the longer exchange in the screenshot below.
http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2016/may/10/25667/
Story
City & County
City Reserves Dip, Mayor Dodges Budget Inquiries
Documents, including emails, released to the Jackson Free Press indicate that despite protestation from Mayor Tony Yarber and his administration, the City has been dipping into the ordinance-protected reserve fund …
Photo
Story
Biz Roundup
Mississippi Spay and Neuter, Shayna's Boutique and Sweat Sauna Studio
The Big Fix Clinic, a high-volume pet sterilization program that Mississippi Spay and Neuter operates, is offering free spay-and-neuter surgeries to cats in zip code 39213, the northeast Jackson area, …
Story
City & County
Schools, Guns, Family, Bad Policing: Chief Vance Discusses Crime-Fighting with JFP Editor
In the wake of fears raised after a parent pulled a gun at Forest Hill High School last week, the capital city's top police officer said Monday night that Jackson …
Story
Person of the Day
Kathryn Merrell Simmons
Kathryn Merrell Simmons, vice president of wealth management for Trustmark Bank in Jackson, is the co-chairperson of Habitat for Humanity's 19th Women Build in Jackson, which will see woman volunteers …
Story
Justice
Due to HB 1523, Plaintiffs, Kaplan Seek to Reopen Same-Sex Marriage Lawsuit
The Campaign for Southern Equality and Roberta Kaplan, the New York-based attorney who won same-sex marriage and adoption cases in Mississippi, have filed a motion to reopen the Campaign for …
Story
Justices Mull if Judiciary Has Role in Legislative Dispute
The Mississippi Supreme Court said Monday that it wants to hear arguments about a lawsuit a Democratic lawmaker filed earlier this year against the Republican House speaker.
