Jackson Free Press

To Die or Not To Die (for Love)

I have a problem with Bruno Mars. More specifically, I have a problem with the music producers and executives who heard his lyrics and instantly thought, "hit record," and with …

Sales-Tax Commission Needed for Jackson?

City leaders have only one major request this legislative session, but that doesn't mean they'll get it. Jackson lawmakers are pushing to revise a 2009 sales-tax bill that offered a …

Wyatt Emmerich's ‘Welfare' Chart Dissected by The New Republic

With a hat-tip to Jay, we bring your attention to the story From Mississippi to ‘The Corner': A Tale of Right-Wing Wrongness, where our star is none other than Northside …

Senate Passes Total Texting While Driving Ban

The Mississippi Senate wants to expand a ban on texting while driving to include everyone in the state.

Bill Targets Barbour's Jet Use

The Mississippi House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday that would limit the use of state-owned aircraft to official business only. The bill comes after concerns from lawmakers that Gov. …

Timothy Fizer

The front door of F. Jones Corner bursts open around 4 a.m. on a Friday, and Timothy Fizer emerges, holding a drunken man's arms behind his back as the man …

War On The Poor

Congress Embraces a New Southern Strategy

It was 7:30 in the morning, and the smallest beneficiaries of the Richard Brandon Head Start Center at 5920 N. State St. followed their young parents into the mass of …

Barbour Praises Health-Care Ruling

Read the ruling

Bill to Reinstate Ole Miss Mascot, Fight Song Likely to Die

A House bill that proposes to reinstate former Ole Miss mascot Colonel Rebel and require the university to play the controversial "From Dixie With Love" fight song during football games …

2011: Community

<b>Best Public Figure: 
Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr.</b>

Jackson's first African American mayor has been through it. Since he was first elected to the seat in 1997, he has weathered belittlement, racism, jealousy, direct attacks, vicious media coverage, …

Jamie Scott Hospitalized

Less than three weeks after her release from prison, Jamie Scott has been hospitalized. Activist Nancy Lockhart, who worked for more than five years to free Jamie and her sister, …

Lunacy: Tea Party Wants to Scrub Slavery History from Textbooks

It was bad enough when Gov. Haley Barbour tried to pretend the Citizens Council were the good guys. It's bad enough when people go around saying that the Civil War …

Bill Proposes to End MPB Funding

Mississippi Public Broadcasting Acting Executive Director Jay Woods said a proposed bill that would eventually end state funding for his agency due, in part, to its supposed "liberal" bias would …

State of the State: A Fact-Check

Gov. Haley Barbour used his final State of the State address, on Jan. 11, to tout his resume of accomplishments over two terms. Ever the savvy political communicator, the governor …

History's Return

Gov. Haley Barbour is a sucker for anniversaries, apparently. In his final State of the State address last week, the governor said that 2011—the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides …

Latinos and Loans

Mississippi could be headed for a courtroom showdown if the full state Legislature passes an anti-immigrant bill mirroring an Arizona law that forces law-enforcement to profile people they suspect to …

Reading the Tea Leaves: The Tea Party in Mississippi

Tea Party member Donald Wiggans was different. A small, wiry man, he stood quietly during an August 2009 town-hall meeting on health-care reform featuring U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson.

Arizona-Style Immigration Bill Advances, In A Hurry

The Mississippi Senate passed a bill modeled after Arizona's anti-immigrant law SB 1070 today, despite protests by some Democrats that the measure was rife with errors carried over from the …

[Balko] The Year in Clemency

It was a strange year for clemency, the often misunderstood and generally misused power that allows the president and governors to grant pardons (which overturn convictions) and commutations (which reduce …

Civil Rights Museum Stirs Controversy, Again

State lawmakers will have a chance to act on Gov. Haley Barbour's recent call to move a proposed state civil-rights museum to downtown Jackson. Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, told the …