Jackson Free Press

Weekly COMstat Report

The Jackson Police Department's weekly major crimes report was just released. The report covers citywide crime for the week of March 12 through March 18.

Senate Passes Charter Schools Bill

The after hours of debate, the Senate passed a bill this afternoon to loosen the rules for creating charter schools in Mississippi.

Fearless Jackson Goes to the Fair

Jackson Breland filed this video report from the last weekend of the Mississippi State Fair. Enjoy:

POV: YO MOMMA!

Yo Momma! Mtv Tarzan Takes The Ghetto By Storm

(Reprinted here in its entirety with permission: http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur26236.cfm )

Jamie Franks: ‘I'm Being Attacked'

Jamie Franks today sent out an e-mail to supporters, responding to the state (and national?) Republican Party's "liberal"-baiting campaign—"Too Liberal for Mississippi"—against him. Here is Franks' verbatim statement:

Mississippi is….WHERE?

The Associated Press is reporting the following:

Despite the wall-to-wall coverage of the damage from Hurricane Katrina, nearly one-third of young Americans recently polled couldn't locate Louisiana on a map and nearly half were unable to identify …

Last Day

I can not believe that my last day at the JFP is tomorrow. It seems like yesterday that I came in on June 1, and got right to work doing …

With Pressure On, JSU Releases Statement About Henderson Shooting

The statement, verbatim:

Amid allegations that JSU football players may have killed Nolan Ryan Henderson last weekend, as I blogged about this morning, Jackson State University just released a statement calling for information …

Lou Dobbs: American Bigot

A few comments on my last blog about immigration made my heart pound with indignation in a way that felt oddly familiar. Was it the Jackson 2020-- a group dedicated …

U.S. Abortions at Lowest Rate Since 1974

The Associated Press is reporting on a new study that shows that abortions in the U.S. are way down:

The number of abortions in the United States dropped to 1.2 million in 2005, the lowest level since 1974 and down 25 percent from the all-time high of 1.6 million …

The Ugly Death of Saddam Hussein

The New York Times is editorializing today about the gruesome way that Saddam Hussein was executed—and what that means for both the U.S.' reputation and the Iraqi people:

Going without Internet Service - I CAN'T STAND IT!

I am temporarily without an Internet connection at home, so I have been doing everything from going to a neighbor's house or the library to using my cell phone to …

Can You Get More Irrelevant Than This Guy?

Headline over at MSNBC: "Bush condemns noose displays President says displays 'have no place in America today.'" Thank you, Dubya Bush. Nice to see you go out on a limb …

Chief: No Wrongdoing in Cop Shooting of Unarmed Man

The Clarion-Ledger is reporting that Chief Shirlene Anderson is saying that a police officer who shot an unarmed man three times in the chest during a traffic stop committed no …

ARTICLE: Morgan crowned Miss Mississippi 2007

Kimberly Morgan, Miss Heritage, is the second African American in history to receive the honor. The first was Toni Seawright in 1987.

Talking About the Dee-Moore Murders

I just got a link to a radio interview I did with Pokey Anderson of "The Monitor," a progressive news analysis show on KPFT out of Houston. I almost missed …

Is The Clarion-Ledger Intentionally Misleading on Open-Records Law?

Or, is it woeful ignorance of the law? Either way, the corporate newspaper isn't making government transparency any better as Sunshine Week opens to publish articles such as this one …

Felder Rushing Featured in New York Times

On Wednesday, The New York Times featured Felder Rushing, local horticulturist extraordinaire and host of Mississippi Public Broadcasting's "The Gestalt Gardener," in a piece titled "Slow, Easy, Cheap and Green."

Legendary Filmmaker Gordan Parks Dies at 93

"Nothing came easy," Parks wrote in his autobiography. "I was just born with a need to explore every tool shop of my mind."

Jackson Superlatives

I'll be the first to admit that I was disappointed when my high school senior yearbook came out and I had not won any superlatives. But I did spend hours …