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Be the Change
It's now just about that time of year. Everyone is getting busier and busier, but as you're going through your Christmas shopping list, don't forget less-fortunate community members.
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City & County
Expanding Medicaid: ‘Something Smart’
David Becker believes the 21st century will be the health-care era. Based on a report Becker co-authored, Mississippi will practically be stuck in medieval times if policymakers continue to fight …
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City & County
Federal Money Restarts Projects
The Jackson City Council recently approved a pair of emergency change orders to restart work on Capitol Street and Fortification Street.
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City & County
Lumumba Wants More Siemens Oversight
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba has taken a city-first approach to infrastructure—he wants to pave city streets and fix the water and sewer network by hiring local contractors instead of handing …
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Jacksonian
Enyla Blackmon
The most incredible thing Enyla Blackmon has done in her short eight years of life is donate $5,000 to the American Cancer Society in early November. Not many children can …
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Editor's Note
Build an Army for Kids, Not Against Them
I was mortified, if not really surprised, to see some of the angry responses to R.L. Nave's excellent cover story last week about the killing of Quardious Thomas.
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Music
Rocket 88's Musical Gumbo
Oxford-based band Rocket 88 prides itself on combining genres such as juke joint gospel, old-time country and Americana.
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'Mary Poppins' Among 25 U.S. Films to be Preserved
Just in time for a new movie about the making of "Mary Poppins," the 1964 Disney classic starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke has been selected for preservation at …
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Bipartisan Budget Agreement Nears Final Passage
A modest, bipartisan budget pact designed to keep Washington from lurching from fiscal crisis to fiscal crisis and to ease the harshest effects of automatic budget cuts is on the …
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US Sending $25M in New Typhoon Aid to Philippines
Overwhelmed by the massive damage wrought by Typhoon Haiyan in a central Philippine city, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced nearly $25 million in additional aid Wednesday to help …
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Education Dept Awards $120 Million to Districts
Students will earn an associate's degree and a high school diploma at the same time. Every student will have a laptop to take home at night. And teachers will be …
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The AFA Warned Us! Polgamy Now Legal and It's the Gays' Fault
By Todd StaufferThe American Family Association's president, Tim Wildmon, sent out an "AFA ActionAlert" this morning to let us know that our worst fears are, indeed, coming true. Thanks to an "activist" Federal judge in Utah, "...polygamy is now essentially legal in the United States."
Whoa! I tell you, those activist judges are out. of. control.
Of course, Wildmon had tried to tell us...
We warned from the beginning that once the biblical standard of man-woman marriage was breached, there would be no logical place to stop.
The AFA ActionAlert somewhat surprisingly links to this USA Today story about the ruling—I say surprisingly because, presumably, we're not actually supposed to read the USA Today story, since it only barely says anything like what Wildmon's ActionAlert says.
There is a judge, and a lawsuit—one brought by the reality TV stars of "Sister Wives," a show which focuses on a polygamist family formerly of Utah—now in Vegas.
From USA Today:
U.S. District Court Judge Clark Waddoups said in the ruling that the phrase in Utah law that forbids cohabitation with another person was a violation of the First Amendment.
Utah, it seems, has the most limiting polygamy law on the books—while 49 other states have laws against polygamy (being legally married to more than one person at a time), Utah's law "makes it illegal to even purport to be married to multiple partners or live together."
In other words, it's illegal in Utah to pretend to be married to more than one person at a time; in every other state it's only illegal to actually be married to more than one person at a time.
Back to Wildmon:
Though we have been accused of exaggerating and scare-mongering, this ruling shows that we were right all along to sound the alarm. Bans against incest are now at risk of being overturned.
Ahhh. Well, I guess we could see that one coming. Feels like a bit of a stretch… unless those rumors I've been hearing about a new show being cast in Appalachia called "Cousin Wives," prove to be true…
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Sochi Olympic Critics Get Terrorist Treatment
They are fearless, stubborn and increasingly under siege. Environmentalists, activists and journalists in Sochi have spent years exposing the dark side of Vladimir Putin's showcase Winter Games—and now they're paying …
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Putin: Russia to Buy $15 Billion in Ukraine Bonds
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday opened his wallet in the battle with the European Union over Ukraine's future, saying Moscow will buy $15 billion worth of Ukrainian government bonds …
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Biz Roundup
Whole Foods, Godwin and Amtrak
Whole Foods Market, an Austin, Texas-based grocery chain that features natural and organic foods, recently put out a call for applicants for the company's upcoming Jackson location, currently still under …
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N. Korea Tries to Project Unity on Death Anniversary
North Korea vowed to unite behind leader Kim Jong Un during carefully staged events Tuesday to mark the second anniversary of his father's death, in an attempt to show it …
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Snowden: NSA's Indiscriminate Spying 'Collapsing'
National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden wrote in a lengthy "open letter to the people of Brazil" that he's been inspired by the global debate ignited by his release of …
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As NORAD Tracks Santa, Critics Track NORAD
The U.S. and Canadian military will entertain millions of kids again this Christmas Eve with second-by-second updates on Santa's global whereabouts. But there's something new this year: public criticism.
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Budget Deal Splits GOP Leaders in House, Senate
Senate Republican leaders are criticizing a bipartisan budget deal, parting ways with their House counterparts who shepherded the measure through that chamber last week.
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Person of the Day
Rep. Jeramey Anderson
The recently elected Rep. Jeramey Anderson, D-Moss Point, was sworn in to the Mississippi House of Representatives Dec. 6, which happened to be his 22nd birthday.
