Jackson Free Press

Here are the dates for the performances for this year's state fair.

October 1- Thompson Square
October 2- Ginuwine
October 3- Blue Oyster Cult
October 4- Rhythm & Blues Event: King Edward
October 6- Hinder
October 7- Marshall Tucker Band
October 8- The Charlie Daniels Band
October 9- The Spinners
October 10- Texas Country Showdown – Midway – Free
October 11- Country Rock: Acoustic Crossroads (pavilion) & Brantley Gilbert (coliseum)

For times and more information about the Mississippi State FAir can be found here: http://www.mdac.state.ms.us/departments/ms_fair_commission/state-fair.htm

It takes a big man to admit he was wrong.

Last night, that big man was five-foot funnyman and Daily Show host Jon Stewart, who had a little fun at Mississippi's expense last week when the news broke the state never officially ratified the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery.

In the bit, Stewart does what people who've never stepped a toe in Mississippi tend to do when talking about Mississippi, and lampooned the entire lot of state officials who were in charge when the Legislature ratified the amendment in 1995 -- I know, I know; we probably deserve that one -- as slavery-loving racists.

Among those officials was then-Secretary of State Dick Molpus, whose office was to oversee the handling of the official ratification paperwork. For reasons that remain unknown, the paperwork never made it to the federal archivist in Washington, D.C.

Stewart (or, more precisely, his comedy writers) implied that Molpus likely destroyed the documents -- you know, being the scheming white xenophobe that too many folks ignorantly presume every Mississippi politician to be.

But after getting a flurry of pushback from people who know Molpus, Stewart admitted last night that the show erred in using "Dick Molpus...as an avatar for racial bigotry, forgetting, perhaps that Dick Molpus is a real person with a real record on civil rights."

That record, as Stewart notes, includes apologizing in 1989 to the families of the murdered civil-rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. Despite the threats he received against his life, Molpus counts the apology as among his proudest moments.

In doing so, Stewart proved himself to be a class act (it was, after all, a bad week for satirists. See: The Onion debacle). And if any good came out of the whole thing, it's that the rest of America learned a little bit about the classy Dick Molpus and about Mississippi.

As expected, Ward 3 Councilwoman LaRita Cooper-Stokes last night tendered her resignation from the Jackson City Council to take a seat on the bench as a county judge.

Cooper-Stokes' departure makes the second mid-term resignation of a sitting council member in less than four months. In August, Ward 1 Councilman Quentin Whitwell left unexpectedly to move his family to Oxford. Whitwell's replacement will be determined by a runoff on Dec.16 between attorney Dorsey Carson and investment advisor Ashby Foote.

Now that Cooper-Stokes has officially vacated the seat, the currently five-member council will have to set a special election for Ward 3, which could happen as early as the next regular meeting on Tuesday Dec. 16, the day of the Ward 1 runoff.

Ward 3's special election could prove very entertaining.

Albert Wilson, who ran for the seat in 2013 and competed in the special election for mayor this year, reportedly already has campaign signs up.

Another question mark is Pam Greer, the founder of a nonprofit that promotes violence prevention and supports families of violent-crime victims. Greer also ran for the Ward 3 post in 2013 and has remained a vocal critic of city government on social media.

The most interesting possibility is that Cooper-Stokes' husband, Hinds County District 5 Supervisor Kenneth Stokes could seek his old seat. Stokes held the seat until he joined the county board in 2011; Cooper-Stokes replaced him in 2012 after a contentious special election that wound up in court. Stokes hasn't been very happy on the relatively quiet county board lately and could want to go back the higher profile city council.

Going back to the referendum on the 1-percent sales tax, 11 elections have taken place somewhere in the city of Jackson, since January 2013.

Tonight, the Jackson City Council is scheduled to discuss a date for a special election to replace former Ward 3 Councilwoman LaRita Cooper-Stokes, who will be heading to the county's judges' bench.

The Jackson Advocate, one of two local newspapers highlighting news of interest to the African-American community, reported that Cooper-Stokes' husband, Kenneth Stokes, will indeed run to recapture the Ward 3 seat he held until 2011.

There had been wide speculation that Kenny Stokes, who represents District 5 on the Hinds County Board of Supervisors, would run for his old seat after having his power on the board greatly reduced in the past year.

Stokes, whose mother recently passed away, told the Advocate that he wanted to keep the seat in the family because of such traditions in the near-west-side ward, such as the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration. His mother blessed the decision before her death, he said.

"We've got to continue taking to the streets to encourage people to stop the violence. And it's not a little thing that they can't afford to to pay their water bills. Our people are struggling just to get by," Stokes told the Advocate.

With a Stokes get-out-the-vote machine that should be studied in political sciences, the announcement is likely to make Kenny Stokes the front-runner in the field.

Albert Wilson, who ran for the seat in 2013 and competed in the special election for mayor this year, reportedly already has campaign signs up.

Another question mark is Pam Greer, the founder of a nonprofit that promotes violence prevention and supports families of violent-crime victims. Greer also ran for the Ward 3 post in 2013 and has remained a vocal critic of city government on social media. She told the Jackson Free Press that is fasting and would make up her mind when the fast concludes.

Going back to the referendum on the 1-percent sales tax, 11 elections have taken place somewhere in the city of Jackson, since January 2013.

Apparently, in my native Missouri (also known as the most methy state in the nation), a billboard has popped up along an Interstate asking passersby to "Consider a contiguous 5-state secession" with Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Missouri and Mississippi.

That's interesting.

For one, that would be a pretty weird-ass-shaped nation (see image below). And, two, I checked all the Mississippi secessionist blogs that I read on a regular basis and found no discussion of a secession plan including those five states.

The Missouri billboard also asks about the pros and cons of forming such a union.

Well, here's a quick list, off the top of our heads:

Pro: Finally, Mississippi gets to disassociate from the awfulness of Alabama and Arkansas. Con: Mississippi would no longer have Alabama and Arkansas to deflect some of the negative attention away from us.

Pro: Mississippi would no longer be considered part of the South. Con: Mississippi would no longer be part of the South.

Pro: Mississippi would have the nicest beaches in the country and be the nation's literary and cultural capital. Con: We still wouldn't have a Six Flags or a Dave & Buster's.

Pro: Being lumped in with Texas and Oklahoma, Mississippi's politics would come off as moderate. Con: The Mississippi Legislature would lose its distinction as the nation's nuttiest legislative body.

What are some more pros and cons?

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A top city economic-development official says retail is alive and well in Jackson.

Jason Goree, Jackson's economic development chief, tweeted this afternoon that a Burke's Outlet store is coming to Jackson.

"It's gonna happen!!!!! Retail ain't dead in the Capitol," Goree posted to Twitter.

The city has struggled with attracting and retaining big-box retailers in recent years. Following the closure of Sam's Club, the Best Buy store on County Line Road announced this year that it would close. And after Jackson had been courting Costco, one of the nation's largest companies, that company is now in talks with the city of Ridgeland to build near the Renaissance.

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The Jackson Police Department announced an arrest this afternoon in the death of pro fisherman Jimmy Johnson. A Texas native, Johnson was only passing through Jackson to participate in a fishing tournament when he was shot and killed at a motel Sunday.

Rightly, there has been an outpouring of support for Johnson and his family over the past few days. And, also rightly so, there has been a fair amount of media coverage of Johnson's murder and the ensuing investigation. With today's news from JPD that a 17-year-old has been charged in connection to Johnson's death, local news and social media is once again abuzz.

The Clarion-Ledger has had three or four stories about the incident tacked to its front page all day while the comment sections of various news orgs are blowing up with comments about Johnson's death says about and means for progress in Jackson.

Johnson's was the 40th homicide in the city of Jackson this year, police records show. Yet, few have generated as much interest as the Johnson killing. There was the killing of William "Nod" Brown in September, which most people seem happy chalking up to the simple consequences of ghetto violence. And Quardious Thomas, whose cause of death was ruled self-defense because a homeowner claims Thomas was breaking into his unoccupied car.

So why does Jackson media seem to care so much more about Jimmy Johnson...

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Than William Brown?

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After the enduring the War of Secession, a tumultuous Civil Rights era, Hurricane Katrina, the reputation of being first in everything bad and even being compared in unflattering terms to the eighth month of the year, Mississippians have developed a thicker skin than denizens of most other states.

We expect it, and persevering in spite of it is the very thing that makes us Mississippi.

But the latest Miss. diss is almost too bizarre for words, and in some ways stings a little worse. In its coverage of Isaac -- the tropical storm that is likely to become a hurricane when it slams onto shore later this week -- a national cable TV weather network reportedly described the geographic area the storm will affect as the land mass between New Orleans and Mobile (Ala.).

To be fair, in the video we found, they didn't actually refer to Mississippi as a landmass. But in talking about about where Isaac might hit, the reporter did conspicuously decline to name Mississippi, which could get the brunt of the impact.

Perceived slight or not, proud Magnolia Staters did not hide our indignation from That Channel That You Leave On for the Cat During the Day.

"I know that a lot of awesome meteorologists come from landmass state university…also known as Mississippi State University," wrote one wise-cracking commenter under a Sun-Herald article about Landmassgate.

Overnight, a Facebook page sprouted up to carry Mississippi-related coverage of Tropical Storm Isaac and to let Mississippians show their statetriotism and disdain for That Channel Between That Guy Eating Gross Stuff and That Guy Eating Way Too Much Stuff. One page is already even selling Landmass-themed T-shirts.

Clarion-Ledger editorial cartoonist Marshall Ramsey lampooned meteorologists at That Channel Owned By That Network that Used to Have Really Good Shows in the '80s and '90s as feckless explorers discovering a nation it never existed.

If it seems like we're being sensitive, Channel That's Only Useful When Your Internet Isn't Working, it's because the national media never ceases to find new ways to thumb their noses at us. It happened during Katrina, and it's happening again.

As one Internet meme that plays on William Faulkner's famous quotation about Mississippi, states: "To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Land Mass."

The sooner people like those in charge at That Channel That Pissed Off Mississippi realize that, the better.

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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 Mississippi State Supreme Court has denied Attorney General Jim Hood's request for an explanation of their March decision in the case of Michelle Byrom, Tom Freeland of the North Mississippi Commenter reports.

Byrom had been on a death row for participating in the murder of her abusive husband. However, evidence came to light that raised strong doubts about the extent of Byrom's participation in the crime and the state's high court declined to schedule her execution and ordered a new trial with a new judge.

Hood, a former prosecutor and the state's only statewide Democratic official, blew a gasket and demanded that justices explain their rationale.

Not only did justices not bend to Hood's request on the Byrom case, just for good measure they also threw out the death sentence of a man named Roger Lee Gillett and ordered him re-sentenced.

The Associated Press reports: "Gillett was convicted in 2007 in Forrest County on two counts of capital murder for his role in the deaths of a Hattiesburg couple and the transporting of their bodies to Kansas in a freezer. While in custody in Kansas, he attempted to escape. That crime was one of the aggravating factors prosecutors presented jurors to support the death penalty.

"The Supreme Court, in its 6-3 decision Thursday, says not every escape is considered a crime of violence under Kansas law. Therefore, wrote Justice Ann Lamar, the Kansas crime cannot be used to support a death sentence in Mississippi."

Followers of Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber's social media accounts are no doubt familiar with his signature doodles and inspirational messages (and, oh, the subtweets!), scrawled onto disposable serviettes.

Reads one mouth-wiping device, posted about a week ago:

If You Love -Right- Eventually, it will hurt

Just Ask Jesus #Love #Longsuffer #Bye2014

Well, now someone apparently with downtown ties is taking aim at Jackson's resident napkiphile with an anonymous campaign and Twitter account called Jackson Napkin.

"You know what doesn't fix a pothole? A napkin," the inaugural photo tweet, on Jan. 6, says.

The following day, Jan. 7, a series of Capitol Street-themed napkins seemed to criticize the pace of the ongoing two-waying project.

"Wow, it sure is taking a long time," says the thought bubble of one of the stick-figure drawings.

The Capitol Street project is scheduled to be complete at the end of February. It is unclear if that timetable will be met or who's responsible for the campaign.

A #napkin seeking comment from the city's Department of Absorbency was not immediately Instagrammed.

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Dan Aykroyd, best known for his work as a ghostbuster, Canadian vodka mogul, and supporter of outgoing Sheriff Tyrone Lewis, still wants to help end gun violence in Hinds County.

Aykroyd, whom Lewis deputized into the reserves last year and hit the campaign trail for Lewis earlier this year, made a plea on his Facebook page yesterday:

"Congratulations to the new Sheriff Elect for Hinds County Mississippi. When he persuades enough Supervisors to alter the by-laws so that 'Gas for Guns' can proceed then I'll free up my $10,000 but not until it's perfectly legal as per stipulations pointed out by state Representative Gibson (sic). I believe this initiative and more like it are essential in a state where gun violence exceeds most of that in the entire Western world. I believe in the future of Hinds County."

As a point of clarification, Victor Mason, who defeated Lewis in August still has to get by Les Tannehill to be the sheriff for real for real.

But the stipulations Aykroyd is referring to came a few months ago when Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, and chairman of a House judiciary committee, put the kibosh on a plan for Aykroyd to provide $10,000 in gasoline gift cards in exchange for guns. Gipson intervened, issuing a statement saying that gun buyback programs are illegal. In 2014, after a few years of trying, the Legislature passed a bill outlawing gun buyback programs.

"I think it's a dangerous thing," Gipson, who sponsored the 2014 bill, told WLBT last year. "As we have seen in other states, it has the potential for corruption, the potential to increase crimes with stolen guns to be brought in. That's the reason we have the law."

It was a bill that legislators like Gipson and Rep. Gary Chism, R-Columbus, chairman on the House Insurance Committee, filed that the National Rifle Association has pushed for years. The JFP reported when the bill was going through the legislative process:

Doug Bowser, president of the Mississippi chapter of the NRA, told the JFP in 2012 that such programs are a "swindle" and "a feel-good thing" that do little to deter violent crime.

"I think the worst part is that people bring in unserviceable guns, and they get money for them," Bowser said. Bowser said he believes local governments should put more resources on imposing harsher penalties on criminals.

The 2010 report "Trace the Guns: The Link Between Gun Laws and Interstate Trafficking" determined that Mississippi supplied 50 out-of-state "crime guns" per 100,000 residents--triple the national average of 14.1.

In 2011, the NRA has also weighed in against a proposal for a pilot gun buyback program in Delaware in a statement at the time: "This legislation is nothing more then an expensive solution in search of a problem.

"While proponents of this bill claim it will reduce crime in Delaware, it will only serve as another drain on taxpayer money that could be better used by police to …

First, August Alsina skipped out on a concert in Jackson—and possibly lost hundreds, if not thousands, of local fans in the process. Now it looks like Lil Boosie won't make it to Gulfport.

Recently freed from prison, Boosie had planned a concert for a Gulf Coast neighborhood baseball park, but was denied a noise variance permit.

Promoters said they would ask the local band of hip-hop aficionados otherwise known as the Gulfport City Council to reconsider.

The Sun Herald (http://bit.ly/TpIIxv ) reported that the promoters pointed to Boosie shows across the South in his native Louisiana as well as Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas.

"Mississippi is the only place he hasn't been able to play," said Walter Malone of Gautier, owner of Magnolia Vivid Productions, the company trying to produce the show, of the Baton Rogue-born Boosie.

It's been rough going for Louisiana rappers and the Magnolia State as of late.

Over the weekend, New Orleans' August Alsina pulled out of a show at the Mississippi Coliseum. Promoters of that concert claim that they held up their end of the deal, but that Alsina pulled out at the last minute.

In a "public-service announcement" posted on Instagram late Friday Alsina said only that "there was a mixup with the date and venue" as the reason he wouldn't be doing the show, but that he looks forward to coming to Jackson during his summer tour.

Apparently, the date-and-venue mixup was that Alsina actually wanted to go to Yo Gotti's birthday party in Atlanta and ride around in a Lamborghini the same night as the Jackson show.

Update: The Sun Herald is reporting that the Gulfport City Council has denied promoters of the Lil Boosie concert the zoning variance they sought to move ahead with the show.

Go here to find your polling place.

Also, read about more about the candidates here, or at least the ones who talked to us.

Romenesko got a hold of an undated screenshot of a Gulf Coast-based news anchor's Facebook status that advises same-sex-loving folks to take a "gaycation" because the anchor thinks they've been in the news too much.

"I'm all for the LGBT community's ongoing fight for equality. I support their fight in every way," wrote Dave Elliot, an anchor for WLOX-TV. "But it seems like they've been in the news too much lately. Maybe they should take a short break. Go on gaycation, just for the weekend."

Indeed LGBT issues have been in a lot of headlines recently, especially here in Mississippi. This week, a number of LGBT groups rallied to demand human rights. Earlier this year, a handful of conservative lawmakers tried to sneak through a so-called religious freedom bill that would have turned the clock on civil rights back to Jim Crow times.

When LGBT advocates got wind of the bill, reaction was swift enough to slow the bill down. The House removed the most worrisome language, but the Senate wants to negotiate more, which means by Monday, the discriminatory language could end up back in the proposal and send it to the governor.

If that happens, it could put Elliot in the awkward position of having to read even more gay news, assuming he still has his job. Romesko reported that WLOX wrote on its Facebook page that “we are not happy at all with the post" or any "free publicity" that the station may be getting from the post.

Interestingly, Dave Elliot's Facebook page indicates that a couple hours ago shows that he was visiting Little River Canyon National Preserve's Eberhart Point Overlook in Alabama. So it is unclear whether WLOX— an ABC- and CBS-affiliated station—will send Elliot on a permanent vacation.

Here at the Jackson Free Press, we get a lot of mail.

Much of it is legitimate correspondence in the form of helpful news tips and provocative letters to the editors. Some of it is comprised of the off-the-wall brain leakings of people who clearly have more free time on their hands than other human beings to interact with.

But it's all good. We take the good with the crazy.

Every now and then we get a piece of mail that even sends a shudder through us grizzled newspaper veterans. Such was the case this afternoon with a manila envelope showed up addressed to Central Mississippi Tea Party c/o Jackson Free Press with a return address of Chicopee, Mass.

Donna, Todd and me all had the same initial reaction to the shady-looking epistle: Where the hell is Chicopee and is there a hummus factory there? Then we wondered why a Tea Party chapter on the East Coast would be sending us -- us! -- mail.

Maybe they saw our recent interview with three members of the local Tea Party during which the group's female president said the country might have been better off if women had never been given the right to vote and thought 'This is our kinda paper.'

When very, very cautiously opened the package, we were a bit surprised what was in it.

Can you guess?

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After thousands upon millions of requests -- okay, more like nine -- we're ready to reveal the contents of the letter that arrived at the JFP offices yesterday.

Drum roll......

It was just a couple photos and a rather bizarre letter denouncing Democratic Party ideals and complaining about how hard how tough it is to be a Tea Partier in the "liberal bastion" that produced the current Republican presidential nominee.

The letter also highlighted such weirdly out of context maxims as "'DEMOCRAT'" IS COMMUNISM WITH AN INVITING TAPIOCA FLAVOR" and "America--enchained and slowly eaten alive by the sofa."

If you're disappointed, so are we. We've come to expect so much lunacy from the Tea Party that we were dismayed that the envelope didn't contain Level III biohazards, effigies of progressive politicians, a Ted Nugent promotional CD or actual tapioca.

It's still early, though.

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Ahead of the Friday deadline to qualify for state and county offices, several Jacksonians have qualified as Democrats in several races. That includes some old faces from local politics trying their hands at new, higher seats.

Bruce Burton of Jackson has qualified to run for the Central District seat on the Public Service Commission; Democratic state Rep. Cecil Brown has been actively campaigning for the seat for months.

Robert Amos, who has run for Jackson City Council and mayor, will compete for the Mississippi Department of Transportation's Central District post.

Democratic Party records show that Stan Alexander, a former Hinds County prosecutor now with the attorney general's office, has qualified to seek the Hinds County district attorney's seat. DA Robert Smith as of this morning has not qualified for reelection, party information shows.

Plavise Patterson, a businesswoman and community activist who ran for Jackson city council's Ward 5 in 2013, has qualified to run in Mississippi House District 69 along with incumbent Alyce Clarke. Corinthian Sanders, another perennial name on local ballots, will run for House District 72 against incumbent Kimberly Campbell.

And Charles E. Graham of Jackson qualified to contend for state auditor in the Democratic primary as well. Republicans in that race include incumbent Stacey Pickering and Madison Mary Hawkins Butler.

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.

Bert Case has died.

He started in TV at WAPT before going to WLBT-TV for 40 years.

In 2014, Case rejoined WAPT.

Case, who would have been 77 this weekend, had been hospitalized since the fall.

Get more details about Case on WAPT.com.

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"I've not resigned and not received a termination letter," June Hardwick, a Jackson municipal judge, told the Jackson Free Press this afternoon.

Hardwick, whom Mayor Chokwe Lumumba appointed to a judgeship in 2013, was responding to rumors on a local blog that she had stepped down from her post last week.

Fueling the speculation that Mayor Tony Yarber, who has been cleaning house of many of the late mayor's appointments, is the fact that two municipal court appointees are up for nomination on tonight's city council—Gerald Mumford and Bob Waller.

The city's website lists six municipal judges, including Waller. Hardwick's name does not appear on the list, but it's unclear when the site was last updated.

Things have been tense between Hardwick, a former Hinds County public defender, and Yarber since May when Hardwick set a bond for a murder suspect that Yarber felt was too low. Yarber told WJTV that he would considering removing judges who weren't tough enough on violent criminals.

"We intend on ensuring that if you sit in a municipal judge seat in this city then the expectation is that you will value the lives and the families of those people who are affected by violent crimes by setting a bond that is appropriate in terms of that crime," Yarber told WJTV, "and $50,000 bond for a life that was taken...we're not tolerating that."

In that case, a 19-year-old named Wilber Clay was arrested for the Mother's Day shooting death of 29-year-old Ebony Hervey.

Yarber demurred when another WJTV reporter asked about the situation with Hardwick earlier today.

"I'm focused on the two (people) we have nominated," Yarber said.

The city code briefly talks about the rules of judicial appointments — "at the time provided for the appointment of other officers, not more than three municipal judges shall be appointed by the mayor and confirmed by an affirmative vote of a majority of the council present and voting" — but also stops short of stating specific circumstances for removing them from the bench.

In the meantime, despite all the consternation over Clay's bail being insufficiently tough, records from the Hinds County Sheriff's Office shows that Clay remains incarcerated in the Raymond Detention Center.

Hardwick is scheduled to sit on the bench Wednesday afternoon.