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Candidate
The JFP Interview with Bill Luckett
In Clarksdale, Miss., Bill Luckett may as well already be governor. An attorney by training, he seems to have a hand in nearly every significant activity in town. Down the ...
Luckett, DuPree Push Education, Business Help
Mississippi's two leading Democratic gubernatorial candidates found much to agree on yesterday during their first one-on-one debate. Clarksdale attorney and businessman Bill Luckett and Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree both touted ...
Un-gifting JPS
State budget cuts are forcing Jackson Public Schools to scale back its gifted-education classes to the bare minimum required by state law. With their emphasis on hands-on learning and critical ...
Out of Time
Once the drugs started to flow, it took only a minute for Benny Joe Stevens' lips to stop moving. He slipped out of consciousness, and soon his heart stopped.
Restaurant Makeover
Belhaven mainstay Keifer's Restaurant is set to move to a new building in late September. Assistant general manager Jeff Stricklin told the Jackson Free Press today that the restaurant is ...
Witnesses Praise Edwards' Leadership
Jackson Public Schools Superintendent Lonnie Edwards has made major improvements to the school district but still needs more time, witnesses in the hearing on Edwards' contract said today. Vicki Davidson, ...
Burton: Schimmel Pushed Edwards' Ouster
George Schimmel, member of the Jackson Public Schools Board of Trustees, drove the board's consideration of whether to replace Superintendent Lonnie Edwards, said Otha Burton, his fellow board member, today. ...
State's African Americans See Higher Unemployment
Like many things in Mississippi, the hardship of unemployment during the Great Recession has fallen unequally on the state's population. African American workers in Mississippi experienced an 18 percent unemployment ...
Making An Urban Family
When Beth Kander moved to Jackson in 2003, she hardly knew anyone. Kander, an author and playwright who has also written for the Jackson Free Press, was far from her ...
KiOR Heats Up
Biofuels company KiOR has yet to produce any of its vaunted crude oil substitute in Mississippi, but the startup is making big moves on financing.
Talking It Out
Hakeem and Matthew have been fighting. Seated in a classroom at Blackburn Middle School, the two eighth-grade boys explain the origins of their conflict, an ever-escalating series of slights.
Mississippi Executes Benny Joe Stevens
The state of Misssissippi has executed death-row inmate Benny Joe Stevens. Sunflower County Coroner Heather Burton pronounced Stevens dead at 6:22 p.m. Stevens is the first person executed in Mississippi ...
Justin Schultz
Justin Schultz believes that Jackson's arts scene is exceptionally supportive.
Advocates Urge Canceling of Youth Prison Contract
Mississippi should cancel its contract with private prison company GEO Group, juvenile justice advocates said today. GEO Group, which operates the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility, is the subject of ...
Capital City's Tough Year
The Jackson Police Department is no stranger to the Capital City Alternative School. The Jackson Public Schools' alternative school, whose students usually have referrals from other schools for discipline reasons, ...
Fair Funds for Kids?
Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., increasingly seems like a holdover from another, kinder era of national politics. Cochran has largely removed himself from the hyper-partisanship of recent years.
Cynthia Stuart
Cynthia Stuart came to theater late in life. Winning her battle with cancer heightened her enthusiasm. Although she had worked in music education for years, Stuart did not consider herself ...
Byram Town Center Gets $5.5M TIF Boost
Construction workers have begun a commercial development that will bring new restaurants, shops and offices to the young city of Byram. The Hinds County Board of Supervisors voted today to ...
JPS Board Scrutinizing Principal Pay
The Jackson Public Schools Board of Trustees is considering whether to drop a district requirement that principals be the highest-paid employees at JPS schools. The revised policy could come up ...
Gwendolyn Magee
Jackson-based artist Gwen Magee, whose vibrant quilts elevated a traditional craft to nationally acclaimed works of art, died yesterday. Magee, who was intensely private, had been battling a long-term illness, ...
