Jackson Free Press

[Williamson] 100 Years of Waste

You flip a switch, and the light goes on. It's like magic. It is easy to forget how much impact electricity has, how it allows us to work at night, …

Listen Up, Hospitals

Mary Jo went to the hospital recently and received a bill for more than $15,000. She was uninsured and unable to pay more than about $20 per week. It would …

Words Do Hurt

"Sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can never hurt you." Any child who's been the object of hateful, hurtful words knows down deep that it's a lie. …

Stop the City Council Game-Playing

Here we go again. When the Jackson Free Press started 10 years ago, the City Council members from Ward 1 (Ben Allen) and Ward 3 (Kenneth Stokes) were constantly at …

Owning Our Stories

The last time I talked to documentary filmmaker Micki Dickoff, we were standing on Center Avenue in my hometown during the Edgar Ray Killen trial. I was yelling at her …

Fix the System

The recent flap over Haley Barbour's 200 pardons and commutations has highlighted problems in our current gubernatorial clemency processes. At my request, the staff of the legislative Performance and Expenditure …

Stop the Wedge-Issue Politics

Conservatives love to rail against the size of government and the prospect of more government intrusion into American citizens' lives. However, in looking at the bills the Mississippi Legislature is …

Only the Best Will Do

I grew up thinking I lived in the worst state in the country. I wasn't alone: I was surrounded by people with a collective inferiority complex—especially the ones who protested …

[Balko] Ignorance of the Law is No Excuse

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse." That's the standard line motorists hear when they say they weren't aware of the speed limit, or gun owners hear when they say …

Vol. 7, No. 9

<b><em>The Crappy Alternative</b></em>

The Crappy Alternative While eating the other day, I noticed your paper lying above the garbage can. And after reading it, I put it where it belongs: inside the garbage …

Break-Neck Speed

In 1972 I went on a Girl Scout camping trip to Washington, D.C. One of the chaperoning mothers brought along her son, Terry. We kidded with each other that I …

[Sue Doh Nem] Refusing to Walk in the Shadow

Brotha Hustle: "Many of you know me as the cutting-edge, forward-thinking and constantly evolving Juicy Juice-selling entrepreneur. Many of you may also know I collaborate and coordinate other business opportunities …

A Long, Long Road

"Donna, you know what? I run Jackson," declared Mayor Frank Melton, scrunching his face up into one of his trademark snickers that are cute and creepy at the same time. …

Vol. 7, No. 5

<b><em>How Much is Enough?</b></em>

How Much is Enough? What is going to help people survive the crisis we are in is prayer and good common sense. I've had to live on the money I …

[Sue Doh Nem] Getting It Together

Cootie McBride: "On behalf of the McBride Family Center for Helping Everyone Get Their Act Together in the New Millennium, I want to thank everyone for attending the state of …

[Balko] The Police Blackout

Last November along the roadside of Richmond Highway, a major thoroughfare in Fairfax County, Va., a police officer shot and killed David Masters, an unarmed motorist, as he sat in …

[Chick] Hands Off My ‘You Know'

As Eve Ensler, author of "The Vagina Monologues," would say, I come from "down there" people. Actually, I come from "you know" people. That was our whispered code for vagina, …

[Head] Don't Tread on Her

Whatever political ideology the Rand Paul supporters who attacked Lauren Valle last week might have claimed to have, they became fascists the moment they held her down and stomped her …

[Hutchinson] Naked And Shameful

President Bush and the three top Democrats that want to replace him couldn't get to New Orleans fast enough last week for the second anniversary of the Katrina debacle. As …

Find Another Way

Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant is no stranger to right-wing nuttery, but he offered a prime example of conservative hysteria in comments in a July 12 article in The Clarion-Ledger. Suggesting …