Jackson Free Press

The following is a verbatim press release from the Office of the U.S. Attorney:

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced today that William Kirk Montgomery, 25, of Puckett, Mississippi, Jonathan Kyle Gaskamp, 22, and Joseph Paul Dominick, 23, both of Brandon, Mississippi, were sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Jackson for their roles in a federal hate crime conspiracy involving multiple racially motivated assaults, culminating in the death of James Craig Anderson, an African-American man, in the summer of 2011. Montgomery was sentenced to 234 months; Gaskamp was sentenced to 48 months; and Dominick was sentenced to 48 months.

Montgomery had previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act for his role in the death-resulting assault of Anderson, 47, of Jackson, Mississippi. Gaskamp previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act for his role in the conspiracy and in a violent assault of an unidentified African-American man near a golf course in the spring of 2011. Dominick pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy for his role. A restitution hearing will be set for a later date.

“The Justice Department will always fight to hold accountable those who commit racially motivated assaults,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta of the Civil Rights Division. “We hope that the prosecution of those responsible for this horrific crime will help provide some closure to the victim’s family and to the larger community affected by this heinous crime.”

“Violence fueled by hate spreads fear and intimidation throughout our community,” said U.S. Attorney Gregory K. Davis of the Southern District of Mississippi. “The prison sentences today make clear that our community will not tolerate hate, and individuals who commit such despicable crimes will be brought to justice.”

“The guilty pleas and resulting sentences handed down today are the result of the tremendous efforts by men and women in law enforcement who worked on this case,” said Special Agent in Charge Donald Alway of the FBI in Mississippi. “The FBI takes very seriously its responsibility to protect the civil rights of all Americans, and remains committed to its pursuit of justice for anyone who is deprived of those rights."

In prior court hearings, the defendants had admitted that beginning in the spring of 2011, they and others conspired with one another to harass and assault African Americans in and around Jackson. On numerous occasions, the co-conspirators used dangerous weapons, including beer bottles, sling shots and motor vehicles, to cause, and attempt to cause, bodily injury to African Americans. They would specifically target African Americans they believed to be homeless or under the influence of alcohol because they believed that such individuals would be less likely to report an assault. The co-conspirators would often boast about these racially motivated assaults.

Montgomery admitted his presence and participation in numerous racially motivated assaults, …

Well-known in progressive political circles, Cristen Hemmins and Joce Prtichett today announced that they would run for elected office.

In 2012, Jackson Free Press readers opined that Hemmins should seek public office. Hemmins, chairwoman of the Lafayette County Democratic Party, will challenge state Sen. Gray Tollison, R-Oxford, for the Senate seat he has held since 1996. Tollison, a one-time Democrat who switched over to the GOP in 2012, had been eyeing late U.S. Rep. Alan Nunnelee's House seat but announced this week that he wouldn't run for Congress.

Joce Pritchett, an engineer who lives in Jackson with her wife, Carla Webb, and their children will make an announcement Friday at the Capitol that she will run for state auditor. So far, two Republicans have announced intentions to run, incumbent Stacey Pickering and Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler. Charles E. Graham has also said he would run as a Democrat; Pritchett did not indicate which party primary she would run in.

Pritchett and Webb are plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging Mississippi's same-sex marriage ban. That case is pending in a federal appeals court.

Former Jackson Ward 1 City Councilman Quentin Whitwell will run for the seat left vacant by the recent death of U.S. Rep. Alan Nunnelee.

He wrote on Facebook: "With the outpouring of support and the blessing from my family, I am pleased to announce that I am running for US Congress. As a native of Southaven and current Oxford resident, I am ready to run a strong campaign. My business background and legal training distinguishes my candidacy from the field. I hope you will join me in fighting to bring America back to its finest moment!"

Whitwell left the Jackson City Council in October to move back to Oxford so that his son could be trained under tennis coaches at the University of Mississippi.

The following is a press release from the office of Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves:

JACKSON – One day after nearly half of Senate Democrats joined all Senate Republicans in passing the largest tax cut in state history, House Democrats voted almost unanimously to kill the same bill.

“Fifty-two House Democrats believe they can spend your money better than the 1.23 million Mississippians that this bill would have benefited,” Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves said. “The Senate passed this bill in a large, bipartisan vote in an effort to simplify the tax code and encourage long-term economic growth. Hopefully, a few House Democrats will hear the cries of the people back home that need a little more money in their pockets to provide for their families.”

On Tuesday, the Senate voted 40-11 to amend House Bill 1629 to include additional income tax cuts proposed by Speaker Philip Gunn plus relief for small businesses proposed under Lt. Gov. Reeves’ Taxpayer Pay Raise Act.

The $555 million tax relief plan earned praise from Americans for Tax Reform. It would have:

· Eliminated the 3 percent and 4 percent tax brackets levied on income, · Reduced the overall tax burden on small business owners, and · Removed the investment penalty, or franchise tax, on businesses’ property and capital.

Eliminating the franchise tax alone would have grown the state’s GDP by $282 million and added 3,514 jobs within 10 years, according to a Mississippi State University study.

In Season 3 of House of Cards, the Netflix dark political drama, President Frank Underwood devises a plan to circumvent Congress and fund his sweeping jobs plan dubbed America Works.

The plan involved Underwood's declaring that soaring unemployment created a state of emergency, which let him tap into the coffers of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide jobs for out-of-work Americans.

Not saying Mayor Tony Yarber is Frank Underwood, but I wouldn't be surprised if HOC has been marathon-streaming on the Yarber family Roku in the past few weeks considering the announcement Yarber made this afternoon.

During a press conference in his office, Yarber, said that his administration has been "talking out loud as a team about declaring a state of emergency" for the city's infrastructure woes.

"Over the last 24 hours, we've seen more breaks than we'd like to see in our water mains," Yarber said.

The declaration enables the city "to use a different form of procurement in order to get the supplies and resources we need," the mayor added.

The winter weather and heavy rains of the past few weeks likely caused shifts in the soils that created potholes and weakened already brittle and deteriorating underground pipes.

Yarber stressed the quality of the water coming out of the city's water-treatment plant remains high, but some residents might see boil-water notices, which the city is legally required to issue when busted pipes cause drops in water pressure. The Red Cross and Salvation Army could be called upon to provide bottled water to area dormitories for students who cannot boil their water, Yarber said.

Yarber added that Gov. Phil Bryant and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality support the declaration.

Council President De'Keither Stamps said he and his fellow council members are getting up to speed on the emergency-declaration processes.

"If the governor is supporting this, they've obviously identified resources," Stamps told the Jackson Free Press.

In recent weeks, the city council has expressed frustration with Yarber for not providing final budget numbers for fiscal-year 2013-2014 so that budget writers have a clear picture of the city's fiscal health.

Council Vice-President Melvin Priester Jr., who presides over the council's Budget Committee, said Yarber's declaration put the city in unchartered territory and he wants to see the details of the plan.

"If you can declare an emergency about aging infrastructure when there hasn’t been a tornado or hurricane or breakdown at the water-treatment plant, and magically be able to draw from a big pool of money with no strings attached, every municipality in Mississippi would have done it," Priester said.

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According to information from City Hall, Jackson public-works crews are working on the following projects today, April 13:

• Patching potholes on areas of Highland Drive, N. Cliff Drive, Colebrook Avenue, Barrett Street, Poindexter Street, Valley Street, Eastover Subdivision.

• Repairing curb and gutter on St. Mary Street.

On Friday, April 10, workers were completing the following:

• Patching potholes on areas Cedarwood and Woodcliff, Maddox Road, N. Siwell Road/Raymond Road/Western Hills, Laurie Lane, Maria Drive, W. Browning, W. County Line Road, Meadowbrook Road, Old Canton Road, Keele Street, Village Drive, Meadowlane Drive, Marshall Street, Webster Street, Lawrence Road, Magnolia Street and McTyere Street.

• Repairing utility cuts on Colebrook Drive & Springfield Circle and Northcliff Drive.

According to information from City Hall, Jackson public-works crews are working on the following projects today, April 14:

• Patching potholes on areas of Lynch Street at Highland Drive, Highland Drive, North Cliff Street, Ellis Avenue, Poole Street, Grand Avenue, Claiborne Avenue, Claiborne Avenue and First Avenue, Barrett Street from Dalton Street to Valley Street, Boling Street, Marshall Street, Woodhill Road, Old Canton Road & River Oaks Boulevard, Quail Run Road, Eastbourne Lane and Boxwood Circle.

• Repairing curb & gutter on St. Mary Street.

According to City Hall, Jackson public-works crews will be doing the following today:

• Patching potholes on areas of S. Charleston Place, Jefferson Street, Dewey Street, Ellis Avenue, Castle Hill Drive, Monterey Street, Claiborne Avenue and First Avenue, River Park Dr., Springridge Drive, Lake Trace Drive, Kristen Drive and Lynn Lane, Riverside Drive and Highland Drive, Woodward Avenue, Ridgewood Road and Briarwood Road, Bailey Avenue, Brinkley Drive and Winchester Drive.

It’s unclear exactly how Stephen Gene Davenport died, but what is clear is that more happened than authorities have publicly disclosed.

Davenport died on April 21 after an apparent scuffle with deputies from the Lauderdale County sheriff's department.

Sheriff Billy Sollie told media outlets two of his deputies were also injured.

"The individual was placed in restraints. The individual became unresponsive," Sollie told WTOK. "Metro Ambulance was contacted, and he was transported to a local hospital where treatment was rendered. But he passed away at a local hospital."

The news station reported that Davenport, 40, and another man were fighting when deputies arrived and tried to intervene.

WTOK also reported that Davenport's mother said he fought with drug addiction and had no ill will toward the police.

Davenport's death came one week after Freddie Gray died while in police custody in Baltimore.

Baltimore Deputy Police Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez said Gray died from a severe spinal cord injury.

"What we don't know, and what we need to get to, is how that injury occurred," Rodriguez said in a press conference.

Hopefully, the same is true of the Davenport case.

Here's the release from JSU:

The Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University is pleased to announce that renowned poet and scholar, Nikki Giovanni, will deliver a keynote address at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 23, in the JSU Student Center Theater. Her talk will open Dr. Doris A. Derby’s documentary photography exhibit, The Black Arts Movement, Black Power and the Struggle for Civil Rights in America, in the Johnson Hall Art Gallery on the JSU Campus, where a reception will immediately follow Giovanni’s remarks.

Poet Nikki Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 7, 1943. Although she grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, she and her sister returned to Knoxville each summer to visit their grandparents. Giovanni graduated with honors in history from her grandfather’s alma mater, Fisk University. Since 1987, she has been on the faculty at Virginia Tech, where she is a University Distinguished Professor. She has been awarded an unprecedented seven NAACP Image Awards, and she has been nominated for a Grammy and been a finalist for the National Book Award. Her books have included authored three New York Times and Los Angeles Times Best Sellers.

Dr. Doris A. Derby’s photography exhibit, The Black Arts Movement, Black Power and the Struggle for Civil Rights in America, will open immediately following Giovanni’s address with a reception in the Johnson Hall Art Gallery at JSU. Derby, who came to Mississippi with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1963, was a ten-year civil rights veteran. Her work has been recognized in several publications and documentaries. Derby is a contributor to Hands on the Freedom Plow, a book about SNCC women’s contributions to the civil rights movement, and she was Georgia State University’s founding Director of African American Student Services and Programs from 1990 until her retirement in 2012.

All events are free and open to the public.

For more information, visit the Center’s website at www.jsums.edu/margaretwalkercenter or contact the Center’s staff at 601-979-2055 or [email protected].

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Mayor Tony Yarber may have lost the battle with the Jackson City Council over his desire to issue a infrastructure emergency proclamation, but he's not giving up the public-relations fight.

This morning, the mayor's communications office sent out a press release touting a mention of the of the strategy on the website of Next City (formerly Next American City). The story, posted today, looks at quick-fix infrastructure strategies in Jackson and San Diego.

"The article cites the Mayor’s emergency declaration and San Diego’s proposal to prioritize maintenance investment, saying the strategies of both cities 'resonate,'" the press from Yarber's office states.

The story also called Yarber's strategy "more than a little unusual" and agrees with the city council's reluctance to go balls-to-the-wall with a declaration that, according to Yarber, could involve a relaxation of procurement protocols.

"Probably, he’s right to be cautious," writes Next City's Rachel Dovey, referring to Ward 6 Councilman Tyrone Hendrix. "Procurement laws vary state to state, even city to city, and though they tend to be a bureaucratic headache, they often provide some public safeguards in dealing with private industry."

Last week, the city council declined to approve a new declaration, even though Yarber said it didn't matter one way or the other because the city was going to go to work anyway.

Yarber did say then that having the council's imprimatur on his declaration would help the city get into rooms with state and federal influence-makers with whom the city might not otherwise have an audience.

He added that in issuing the declaration his administration had "changed the paradigm" and kicked off a national conversation on what constitutes an emergency. It's apparent that the Yarber believes the Next City article is part of that conversation.

As his news release points out:L "According to its website, 'Next City' provides daily online coverage of the leaders, policies and innovations driving progress in metropolitan regions across the world.”

The world is watching indeed.

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Buried deep within the city council's 78-item agenda for Tuesday, is a proposed resolution from Jackson Councilman Kenneth Stokes to name the Pearl Street Bridge for the controversial late Mayor Frank Melton.

It's unclear what Stokes's motives are beyond the fact that he was an ally of Melton, who died on Election Night in 2009, and he seems to enjoy prolonging city council meetings as long as possible.

We'll try to find out more next week.

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The Clarion-Ledger is reporting that president and publisher Jason P. Taylor is leaving the company.

On Wednesday, three employees--two sales people and one circulation staffer--also departed in the latest round of cuts at the C-L.

Taylor's announcement came less than one year after the announcement that he would take over operations at the Jackson daily as well as the Hattiesburg (Miss.) American and Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, succeeding Publisher Leslie Hurst.

One month later, Brian Tolley, then executive editor, said he was leaving the company; Tolley was eventually replaced by Sam Hall.

According to a story on the C-L's website, Taylor will go to work for Fairport, NY-based GateHouse Media as president and publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and serve as chief-executive officer of GateHouse Media Live and Virtual Events. In addition, he will oversee GateHouse Media's Western U.S. Publishing Operations as president.

"Over the past year, Mississippi Media has emerged and set a path to elevate The Clarion-Ledger, clarionledger.com and our suite of products and services. This team has come together to accomplish a true resurgence of a brand in motion," according to a quote attributed to Taylor.

Gannett East Group President Michael Kane said the Virginia-based company is working on a transition plan.

Taylor was the sixth C-L publisher since 2004.

Rachel Dolezal, the white woman who Keyser Söze'd the hell out of all of eastern Washington State and parts of Idaho by passing herself off as a black woman, apparently went to undergrad in Jackson.

According to her LinkedIn, Dolezal, whom the homie Be Mock aptly noted "out Teena Marie'd Teena Marie", by convincing people she at least might have some black in her, received her bachelor's degree at Belhaven in 2006.

Dolezal claims to have graduated magna cum laude before obtaining Latin honors in what could go down as history's most famous case of racial identity theft. The jig was up for Dolezal, the head of the Spokane NAACP, yesterday, when a Spokane-area reporter confronted her and asked her flat-out about her cultural background.

"I don't understand the question....," responded Dolezal, who as a professor of Africana studies, likely understands that race is socially constructed and probably needs a whole PowerPoint to explain exactly what is going on with her.

While at Belhaven, Dolezal listed being involved with the following campus activities:

"Campus & community development through volunteerism and research. Petitioned for first annual celebration of MLK Day & led coordination for 250 student volunteers to work with Habitat for Humanity, Petitioned & developed first African American History course on campus with Dr. Ronald Potter as instructor, held first one-woman art show at Smith Robertson Museum with Black Poet's Society performing works inspired by my art. Tutored 25 kids ages 6-12 after school to help single moms in West Jackson. Taught Black History, Math & Art to students at Veremiah House summer camp. Taught drawing at Classical Christian Academy. Won Michelangelo Award (most prestigious art award given). Worked with the college president, Dr. Roger Parrot, for recruitment & retention of diverse student populations."

Dolezal is the second person with Jackson ties to become a viral Internet sensation in the past few days. Earlier this week, video of a young man named Courtney Barnes who purportedly witnessed a crash involving a JPD cruiser, also went viral. Barnes later turned himself into police in Ridgeland for warrants related to traffic tickets, according to media reports.

It is unclear whether talks are in the works for a reality show featuring Dolezal and Barnes. In the meantime, to borrow a phrase from Barnes, Lord be with them both. They need a blessing.

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The absence of three council members and Mayor Tony Yarber made last night's meeting of the Jackson City Council, unnervingly efficient.

Before going into executive session to discuss personnel issues and litigation around 8 p.m. -- a recent best for the ordinarily long-winded body -- the council adopted a new ordinance to regulate food trucks. Previously, food-truck vendors had to pay the city $500 per location, but under the new ordinance, operators pay a yearly license fee of $500 and can go anywhere in the city, but cannot set up within 300 feet from a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

The council also adopted an ordinance regulating the sale and display of tobacco paraphernalia, a move in response to complaints from community groups and citizens about local stores selling bongs, clips and pipes that can also be used to smoke marijuana.

(Apparently the city council doesn't realize you can make a bong out of just about anything, including, um, sources say, apples (see photo below); no word on whether this new ordinance means Granny Smiths will be disappearing from supermarket shelves).

An ordinance to lower the number of vehicles needed to be considered a cab company was held to allow for more discussion. Council President De'Keither Stamps or Ward 4 said his motivation was to lower the barriers of entry so that a person with one cab could start their own company. In Stamps' mind, the move would somewhat level the playing field with services like Uber, an Internet-based sort-of ride-sharing company similar to a taxi service.

Uber, often a cheaper option for getting from Point A to Point B, has been giving cabbies fits all over the world. Jackson is no exception, and representatives from local taxi companies showed up a city hall to state their case. Tyra Dean, with Deluxe Cab Co. in Jackson, cited "safety concerns" with Uber.

Since the company's rise in popularity and profile, a number of allegations of sexual assault have risen against Uber drivers in several American cities and abroad, according numerous media accounts.

Ward 2 Council Melvin Priester Jr., an attorney, said it would be hard for the council to regulate Uber because the company is a web service.

"We don't regulate the Internet as the city council," Priester told the taxi drivers present at the meeting.

With the absence of the mayor and so many members -- including Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes, who was in Houston attending to his brother, who is ill, Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote, Ward 5 Councilman Charles Tillman -- a number of interesting items were either pulled or held.

These included the city's lobbying contracts in Washington D.C. and Jackson and an item from Stokes to discuss the need for a downtown mall. In the coming weeks, the council will also consider an ordinance requiring Jackson police to report hate crimes to help make hate-crime reporting more uniform. In addition the council will consider renaming the basketball courts at Tougaloo Community Center in honor of Jesse …

Marriage—it's what brings us together.

That is, unless you live in Yazoo County and were planning on having a justice court judge officiate your ceremony.

Earlier this week, Judges Pam May and Bennie Warrington sent a letter to the board of supervisors saying they wanted to opt out of having to perform marriage ceremonies.

In a WJTV news report, Yazoo Supervisor Caleb Rivers presumed the letter was spurred by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing same-sex marriages across the country. Rivers said the board voted unanimously to let the judges stop doing any marriages at all.

It was only a matter of time. Not long after the SCOTUS at the end of June, state Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, suggested that the state get out of the business of marriage licenses. Up in Grenada County, a circuit clerk who was retiring anyway bowed out a few months early because she didn't want to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

"I believe you can do whatever you want to do in the privacy of your own home but as for Yazoo County we're just not going to allow it," Rivers, the supervisor, told WJTV's reporter.

Love birds looking to tie the knot in Yazoo County needn't fret, though.

Robert Coleman, the circuit clerk there, confirmed to the JFP that his office will still be issuing marriage licenses.

It'll just be up to couples to find someone—other than justice court judges—willing to perform the marriages.

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Sadly, it was only a matter of time before it happened here in Mississippi--a black man was killed by a white cop amid mysterious circumstances and officials are trying to keep tensions from simmering.

It happened on late Wednesday night in tiny Stonewall when, according to various media outlets, a 39-year-old black man named Jonathan Sanders had some sort of altercation with a white officer named Kevin Herrington.

Stewart Parrish, an attorney Sanders had once hired to represent him on a case, told Meridian television WTOK that Sanders was riding in a buggy exercising his horses when Herrington stopped Sanders, initiating an altercation that ended in Sanders' death, reportedly by choking.

The exact details are, of course, muddy. Early reports suggested that Herrington used a flashlight to subdue Sanders. Stonewall Police Chief Michael Street denied those reports, but hasn't gone into much detail about the incident that happened between 10:30 and 11 o'clock at night, citing his department's ongoing investigation. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is handling the case.

"We just ask that the citizens allow that to take place, not to try to take anything out in the streets. Our door is open," Street told WTOK.

Street's comments are an obvious reference to protests sparked by the deaths of African American men by--often white--police officers in the past year. Sanders' death is hauntingly similar to that of Eric Garner in New York City last summer. Like Garner, Sanders reportedly told Herrington that he couldn't breathe in the moments before he died, Parrish told the media.

The Guardian reported that Chief Street said "Sanders had no active warrants against him and that Harrington did not know who he was when the confrontation took place."

However, that didn't stop Jackson's local daily newspaper, the Clarion-Ledger, from using Sanders' mugshot (most other media outlets chose a picture of the victim warmly smiling with family members or with his horses; see below) and devoted the end of its story to talking about his rap sheet, writing:

"Sanders had crossed paths with authorities before. Circuit Clerk Beth Jordan said Sanders was out on bond from an April arrest for possession of cocaine, and that he had been convicted on charges of sale of cocaine in 2003."

The paper went on to point out: "MDOC Communications Director Grace Fisher said Sanders was given five years to serve with five years probation. He was released on May 23, 2007. Sanders' arrest record also shows arrests dating back to 2001 for disturbance of the family peace, sale of a counterfeit substance, domestic violence, and some traffic violations.

Several dozen commenters took the paper to task. Said one woman in the comments section: "Never fails; the weaponless dead victim is always prosecuted in the media to deflect how they ended up dead at the hands of police. Shame on the Clarion-Ledger."

As for the officer, the C-L made a point of noting that Herrington, according to Chief Street, "has never received any complaints of …

The city's new water billing system, part of the controversial $91 million Siemens contract, is scheduled to go live at the end of August.

According to a city press release: "Residents will soon experience updates to their water billing as part of comprehensive upgrades the City of Jackson has initiated with Siemens through its water infrastructure improvement project. The Customer Care and Billing System (CC&B) implementation will provide the City with a modern software platform and enhanced management tools that will greatly improve the customer experience."

The new system should increase "efficiency of meter reading and water billing, eventual elimination of the need for estimated bills, and a reduced need for personnel to enter property" and "will also be able to track usage patterns, allowing the city to potentially detect leaks on a property through abnormal usage patterns. Implementation of the new system will occur in two phases."

Three key changes become effective Monday, August 31:

· Water bills will be sent MONTHLY (instead of every other month) for more timely information and more efficient budget management. Payments will be due on a monthly basis and bills paid through an automatic bank draft will be drafted every month.

· Customers will have a NEW ACCOUNT NUMBER that will need to be used for payment to be processed.

· The new bill format will be EASIER TO READ and provide more detailed account information. During the initial installation period for the CC&B, the City may need to estimate bills every other month as it verifies the system upgrade. The estimated bills will be based on an average of actual consumption from prior billing periods, and will be identified on the bill with the abbreviation (EST) immediately after the reading. Once implementation is complete, bills will begin moving to the monthly cycle and eventually will be based on actual meter reads/consumption each month.

The city continued: "Phase Two of the CC&B implementation is expected in late 2015, and will involve rolling out the system’s full capabilities so customers can experience the complete benefits of the system. This includes the ability to view water usage online, online payment options, and the ability to consolidate irrigation and residential water bills. Customers will be notified when these features are activated."

For more information on the CC&B implementation and the water infrastructure improvement project, please visit: www.jacksonms.gov/water. Customers with specific concerns about their bill should contact the City’s Water and Sewer Business Administration Office at 601-960-2000.

The mayor's office just sent out the following the release about the situation in south Jackson:

The City of Jackson will temporarily switch to the well water system in south Jackson as crews work to locate a 42-inch water line break.

The transition to the well system begins immediately to allow the city’s water system to recharge and alleviate low-water pressure in areas of south Jackson and the City of Byram.

As a result of the switch to the well water system, customers may experience discoloration and changes in taste and odor due to the well water mixing with surface water. This mix of well and surface water is safe to drink and use. City crews have already begun flushing hydrants to remove any discolored water from the lines.

Effective immediately, The City of Jackson is strongly urging voluntary water conservation measures for all customers served by the City’s Water System. The city’s Department of Public Works has determined that system-wide voluntary water conservation measures are needed at this time to allow the system to recharge and to improve areas of low water pressure as the city’s crews work to determine the location of a critical water line failure.

While the voluntary water conservation notice is in effect, all water system customers are strongly urged to eliminate nonessential uses of water, which include the following:

· The use of hoses, sprinklers or other means for sprinkling or watering of shrubbery, trees, lawns, grass, plants, vines, gardens, vegetables, flowers or other vegetation.

· The use of water for washing automobiles, trucks, trailers, trailer houses or other type of mobile equipment.

· The washing of streets, driveways, parking lots, service station aprons, office buildings, exterior of homes, sidewalks, apartments or other outdoor surfaces.

· The operation of an ornamental fountain or other structures making a similar use of water.

· The use of water for filling swimming or wading pools.

The city greatly appreciates your assistance in ensuring that all customers will continue to receive safe, adequate and reliable water service.

If you have any questions or concerns, please call 601.960.2723 or 601.960.1777.

Here are the election-night parties we know are happening. If you hear about of any others, please let us know. Polls close at 7 p.m.

Gov. Phil Bryant Tonight at 7:30 PM at the Mississippi Republican Party Headquarters (415 Yazoo St, Jackson)

Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves will speak to supporters and members of the media at 9 p.m. Tuesday at Parlor Market, 115 W. Capitol St. in Jackson.

Vicki Slater, Democratic candidate for governor Hal & Mal's 200 Commerce St., Jackson

Sheriff Tyrone Lewis Lewis Campaign Headquarters 4255 Robinson Road

Victor Mason, candidate for Hinds County sheriff The campaign headquarters are located at 955 I-20 South Frontage Road, on top of the hill at the Gallatin Street Exit.

Stanley Alexander, candidate for Hinds County district attorney Martin's 214 South State Street Jackson, MS