Jackson Free Press

Tell Me the Truth, JoAnne

If nobody e-mails any questions to me (see below) or gives me any when they see me around town, I have two choices: (1) harass friends, neighbors and total strangers …

Scary Burbs

<i>Urban Flight May Shorten Your Life</i>

Last spring, during the media frenzy over crime in the city, I interviewed a Brandon woman who had been the victim of an armed robbery in Jackson. She wasn't physically …

[Drive] Mocked in a Mustang

I have never been in a hardtop Mustang that was made after 1972. But I have seen them around and wondered about them. So, I was determined a few weeks …

Time For Rebels To Cut Their Losses?

Here's what a loss to Memphis and a bad-looking win over Vanderbilt will get an Ole Miss coach:

David Cutcliffe shouldn't feel too bad. Florida "fans" have had http://www.fireronzook.com up and running since he day he was hired as Gators coach. Cutcliffe should be flattered if his site …

Fixin' the Burbs

We hear and read a lot about the hidden costs of sprawl, for example that the average American now spends 443 hours behind the wheel every year, the equivalent of …

[Ladd] No More Wink-Wink Politics

Waaaa-powwww, right in the kisser! So, what was that loud explosion that hit the middle of last week? Certainly, it could have been me letting out 42 years of pent-up …

[Ladd] Gentlemen, Tone It Down

Every day of the past week I've heard someone, usually a white progressive, ridicule City Councilman Kenneth I. Stokes. "He's crazy." "He's a lunatic." "He's a racist." The outspoken Ward …

Mobilizing the Hip-Hop Generation

To anyone who watches MTV all day—where P. Diddy, Ja Rule and Nelly dominate the screen flashing fancy cars, gold chains and an entourage of scantily clad women—political empowerment and …

[Talk] The Way to Serendipity

You've been looking at that blank living room wall or that empty display shelf one too many times. Absolutely nothing you've seen has called your name and said, "Take me …

Amy Tuck Revives State Flag Issue

Whoa. How should we read this interesting turn of events? Does Ms. Tuck believe it will be politically expedient to have a rebel flag debate as part of her race …

Green Party of MS Says Stop Buying Public Offices

(Aug. 16, 2003, press release) The Green Party of Mississippi announces its support for a new project called "White House for Sale" which tracks the special-interest contributions to President Bush's …

Gary Anderson confident about run-off

Gary Anderson, who could become the first African-American elected to state office since Reconstruction, told the Mississippi Link that he is confident about the Aug. 26 run-off with Rob Smith, …

School Daze: Testing Madness

As I proctored a classroom full of seventh-graders taking the Grade Level Testing Program (GLTP) test last April in a suburban Jackson public school, I couldn't help but think that …

Electronic Voting Easily Hacked?

The Washington Post reports that many states are backing away from electronic voting machines: "Since being released two weeks ago, the [Johns] Hopkins report has sent shock waves across the …

Blogging the Body Politic

Read about presidential hopeful Howard Dean's remarkable grass-roots blogging campaign. And add your voice at the end: Will this campaign change politics as we know it?

Will You Bother to Vote?

There's no argument that the right to vote has been hard won in Mississippi, but this election year only a fragment of the state's citizens, black or white, is likely …

[Talk] What's in the Water?

The City of Jackson was inconvenienced last week when officials released a precautionary boil-water alert because samples showed bacteria that can cause digestive problems. Everyone scrambled for alternatives. Residents lugged …

[Drive] Less Than Zero

Ms. D likes to point out that I'm less of a car reviewer and more of an obsessive car shopper. She's right on many levels—while I like to take sports …

Fridays: Malcolm X Radio Show

Heroes of Hedonism, by Alphonso Mayfield

To attend a 2 Live Crew concert is to experience a mixture of hedonism and mass hysteria. Between the kick of 808 drum patterns and thongs moving to the rhythmic …