Jackson Free Press

Southerners (and my mom) rejoice: After halting production for what seemed to many like an eternity, Blue Bell is back.

Here's the announcement from the Texas-based company:

Brenham, TX, August 17, 2015 – Blue Bell Creameries announced today it will begin distributing ice cream to select markets on Monday, August 31.

Blue Bell has notified the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and state health officials in Alabama and Texas of its plan to re-enter select markets on a limited basis.

“Over the past several months we have been working to make our facilities even better, and to ensure that everything we produce is safe, wholesome and of the highest quality for you to enjoy,” said Ricky Dickson, vice president of sales and marketing for Blue Bell. “This is an exciting time for us as we are back to doing what we love…making ice cream!”

The Blue Bell production facility in Sylacauga, Ala., began producing ice cream in late July. Additional production facilities in Brenham, Texas, and Broken Arrow, Okla., are still undergoing facility and production process upgrades similar to those made at the Alabama plant.

Due to the limited production capacity while producing in one facility, Blue Bell will re-enter parts of 15 states in five phases. The first of the five phases will be similar to how Blue Bell began and include the Brenham, Houston and Austin, Texas, areas, as well as parts of Alabama, (Birmingham and Montgomery) where the product is being made. The next phases include:

Phase Two: North central Texas and southern Oklahoma Phase Three: Southwest Texas and central Oklahoma Phase Four: The majority of Texas and southern Louisiana. Phase Five: Complete the states of Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas and begin distribution in Arkansas, Florida, northern Louisiana and Mississippi. This phase will also include only parts of the following states: Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Blue Bell will move on to each phase based on product availability and when it can properly service the customers in an area. With the exception of phase one, no other dates have been determined for when each expansion will take place.

For more information and to follow the company’s progress visit bluebell.com.

You can view the announcement from our vice president of sales and marketing here https://vimeo.com/136514867

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It's April 7, the first Thursday in April, which means Fondren's First Thursday is tonight.

Among the local vendors who will come out tonight and celebrate (including Jackson Free Press), other events are planned as well. The event begins at 3 p.m. today. At 7 p.m., teams can race down Duling Avenue in the Duling Dash. The teams, which are composed of two to three people wearing their wackiest clothes, have to compete in racing segments that include a shopping-cart push, toilet ride (you read that right) and a crab crawl. The winning team will receive, T-shirts, gift cards and other swag. Entry for the race is free. For teams who didn't get a chance to sign up before FFT, they will have a chance between 5 and 6:30 p.m.

The sixth annual Walk Against Traffick Jackson is also tonight. Those who want to participate can sign up at walkagainsttraffick.org or at FFT itself. The event's proceeds will support The Hard Place Community's work against child sex trafficking. The event is from 5 to 9 p.m. The starting point is in front of Fondren Corner (2906 N. State St.). Participants will walk around Fondren, and the event will consist of about 10 miles. Groups are encourage to have six to 10 walkers with an individual fundraising goal of $100. People can make the donations themselves, or they can ask sponsors to support them for $1 per mile for 10 miles.

The Hustlers will play at Duling Hall from 5 to 8 p.m., and the Patterson Blaylock Photography Gallery will have live music from 5 to 8 p.m., as well as art from Laurin Stennis. The JXN Escape Room will bring a mini escape room to the Pix/Capri Theater from 6 p.m. until.

FFT will also have free DIY T-shirt printing, an outdoor pop-up art gallery, crowd-participation art, a Sneaky Beans dance party, a grand opening of technology start-up incubator Mantle, a Fondren Plaza music festival, a Mississippi Museum of Art pop-up event, a Kidzone, Duling Market, free outdoor yoga, craft beer, cornhole, dogs, food trucks, restaurant specials and other things.

For more information, visit the Fondren's First Thursday Facebook page.

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Ravi Gupta, the CEO of RePublic Schools, announced today that he will be stepping down as chief executive officer of the organization. Gupta opened ReImagine Prep in Jackson, which opened in fall of last year. Gupta plans to leave his position by December of this year. Read his letter below:

Dear Friends,

In 2011, RePublic Schools made a promise. We committed to a small group of founding families that we would reimagine the public school experience—not just for them, but for all the underserved children in the South.

Five years later, we are closer to realizing that dream: RePublic serves nearly 1,300 students in five schools across two states (and counting), and has leveraged the success of those schools to set in motion a movement for universal computer science education.

In our corner of the world, a child’s odds of rising from the bottom to the top are lower than anywhere else in the United States. These students must navigate the entrenched repercussions of systemic and historic inequity. Even in the face of these challenges, I’ve watched an inspiring collection of children, families, and educators dismantle one obstacle after another. Serving with them has been the greatest privilege of my life.

Leading RePublic has been a gift. And it’s now time to hand that gift to someone else.

After six years, I’ve decided to put an expiration date on my time as CEO of RePublic. I have informed our Board of Directors that I will be stepping down in December 2016.

Although the transition itself is more than seven months away, I wanted to inform you now as we prepare for a new phase here at RePublic and commence a search for the best job in public education. I will continue to serve in my position for the rest of the calendar year, while supporting our Board of Directors in identifying and onboarding our new CEO. (See here for some words from our Board about the search and RePublic generally.)

As for me, I intend to move back home to New York City to give back to the city where I was born and raised. Even from afar, I will always carry with me the tenacity of the families of Tennessee, the soul of the civic community in Mississippi, and the courage of the most swashbuckling group of educators ever assembled.

Onward,

Ravi

Sierra Mannie is an education reporting fellow for the Jackson Free Press and The Hechinger Report. Read more at jfp.ms/education.

The International Association of Athletics Federations announced today that the Russian track and field team will be banned from the Rio Olympics, which is a historic move from the organization and might finally turn the tide against doping.

The IAAF voted unanimously to ban the Russian team, but individual athletes will still have a way to reach Rio as neutral athletes. Russia was first suspended back in November when a report from the World Anti-Doping Agency alleged state-sponsored cheating.

Today’s move was to confirm that Russia hadn’t done enough to earn reinstatement. The country claimed to have cleaned up its testing program, but a report from WADA showed that Russia was still working to obstruct proper drug-testing and violations of drug-testing policies.

In the WADA report, it claimed that Russian athletes tried to evade testing from February and May. The report also claimed that one female athlete had a fake clean sample hidden “inside her body.”

Russia said it would appeal the decision to the International Olympic Committee. The IOC has scheduled a summit of sports leaders for Tuesday to look at the anti-doping responsibility of the Russian team as a whole but will still allow clean athletes to compete.

Legal challenges to the ban are on the way after the ruling. Two-time Olympic champion pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva told Russian news source TASS that she would file a suit in the Court of Human Rights on the grounds of discrimination.

Some of the cases from Russian athletes could be heard in the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

There are grounds for Russian athletes to compete in the games. Those who have helped lead the fight against doping and athletes like whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova would get strong consideration to enter the games.

Other athletes who can show a strong case that they have been subject to rigorous testing and haven't been tainted by the Russian testing system could also be reinstated for the games. Athletes who entered the games couldn’t compete as Russian but as neutral athletes.

Many sport officials and athletes outside of Russia urged the IAAF to take a strong stance against the Russian team. The USA track and field team supported its ban.

The suspension of the Russian team might finally start to get athletes and the team to strongly consider the cost of doping to win major competitions. This is the strongest rebuke of athletes doping in any sports history.

The 2016 Olympics, or the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, are scheduled to begin on Aug. 5 in Rio de Janeiro.

The Farm Bureau Watermelon Classic has become a Fourth of July tradition. For the last 20 years, Jacksonians have spent their mornings running the 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) race before setting off fireworks and lighting the grill.

There have been as many as 1,800 runners in past events, and this year, race officials expect 1,500 runners to take part in the fundraiser for the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum.

While the 5K run is the main event this Independence Day, participants can also walk the 5K or enjoy a one-mile fitness/fun run for all ages or the Tot Trot for children under 3 years of age.

Registration for the event is now open, and there is a week to register before the prices go up on June 30. Currently, the cost is $25 to run or walk in the 5K race, and the mile run is $15.

After June 29, the price for the 5K run/walk goes up to $30, and the mile run goes up to $20 until registration ends on July 3 for individuals and July 2 for teams. The Tot Trot, which follows the 5K race, requires no registration and is free.

There is no registration on race day. Race packets will be available for pick up starting on June 29, and race officials encourage participants to pick the packets up before race day.

The race starts at the intersection of Lakeland Drive and the Interstate 55 Frontage Road to Eastover Drive and then moves on to Ridgewood Drive and Lakeland Drive before the finish line at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. Strollers are allowed but must stay in the back of the pack. No pets or roller blades are allowed.

There are three water stations on the race route. The top three overall runners—Master, Grand Master and Senior Master—will receive cash prizes. Last year’s overall winners were Joseph Chebet and Kristi Hall.

The 5K race begins at 7:30 a.m., and the mile run begins at 8:50 a.m. Fresh watermelon will be awaiting all the runners at the finish line.

Runners can also wear costumes for the race, with race participants voting on who will receive the prize for best costume. To win, the runner must wear the costume during the race.

Former “world’s fastest man” and two-time Olympic medal winner Calvin Smith, will serve as the race’s official starter for the second year in a row.

For more information, call 601-982-8264 or visit the registration page.

A good few great college football and NFL players have made a stop in Mississippi over the years to play in our junior and community-college system. Throughout the years, several of those teams have won national championships.

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College was the first to win a national title way back in 1971. Since that first championship, 11 national champions have come out of our state’s junior and community colleges.

Four of the last five National Junior College Athletic Association national football champions have been Mississippi schools. East Mississippi Community College has won three of the last five national titles alone. EMCC has not only won three of the last five national championships, but it has also been a feeder to the SEC.

Both University of Mississippi quarterbacks Bo Wallace and Chad Kelly spent time at the little community college in Scooba, Miss., as well as University of Alabama defensive linemen Jarran Reed, D.J. Pettway and Quinton Dial.

With all the success of ESPN’s sports documentaries, it should come as no surprise that other media would want to cash in on sports subjects. Inspired by a GQ article with the same name, the film, “Last Chance U,” looks at the 2015 EMCC team—a team that is good enough to win a third straight national championship, though it didn’t in 2015.

Northwest Mississippi Community College did. A brawl that took place between East Mississippi and Mississippi Delta Community College ended up getting the Lions disqualified for the playoffs.

East Mississippi was up 48-0 on Mississippi Delta with 59 seconds before halftime when the brawl broke out. Earlier in the season, head coach Buddy Stephens was suspended for two games after getting into an on-the-field altercation with a game administrator in a 48-24 win over Itawamba Community College.

One of the players featured in the film is D.J. Law, who famously, or infamously, signed with both the University of Mississippi and the University of Utah on the same day. He is now at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Another player featured is John Franklin III, who started out at Florida State University before heading to East Mississippi. Franklin is now the favorite to be the starting quarterback at Auburn University this season.

Greg Whiteley, whose other works include “Mitt” and “Resolved,” is the director and producer of this film. The documentary will only be available on Netflix, and all six parts can be streamed on July 29.

While the Olympics mainly banned just the Russian track and field team and a few other sports from the games because of a doping scandal, that wasn’t the case for the Paralympics. The International Paralympic Committee banned the entire Russian team from the 2016 games. No one on the International Olympic Committee was willing to go as far as a full ban.

On Tuesday, Aug. 23, the Court for Arbitration for Sports upheld the ban. That meant that the 267 qualification spots the Russian team held were returned to the IPC, which had the authority to redistribute the spots to any athlete in any sport.

The ban and redistribution of spots opened the door for Joseph “Joey” Brinson of Florence, Miss. to compete in the 2016 Rio Paralympics in wheelchair fencing. Brinson was a member of the 2012 Paralympic team.

He finished 14th at the 2014 Paralympics in Category B saber. Brinson has competed in saber. foil and epee for the U.S. team, and has medaled in all three events during his career.

He is also a four-time Wheelchair World Championship member. Brinson was selected to compete in Category B men’s individual saber competition at the 2016 Rio games.

Brinson was trying to earn his spot on the U.S. Paralympic team before he received his spot due to the redistribution of Russian spots. His silver medal in the Pan American Wheelchair championships in May kept him just short of the team.

Instead of silver, Brinson needed gold to earn a spot on the team and qualify for Rio. In April he earned gold at the Wheelchair National Championships.

Brinson is ranked No. 1 in the nation in men’s saber and ranked 17th in the world in Category B men’s saber. Being able to represent his country again in the Paralympic games came as a late 40th birthday present for the athlete, who celebrated his birthday on Aug. 22.

Joining Brinson in Rio will be 17-year-old Lauryn DeLuca of Parma, Ohio, as the two U.S. Paralympic fencers. DeLuca qualified for the games by winning gold in Category A women’s epee at the Pan American Wheelchair championships.

The Paralympics are set to begin on Sept. 7 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Wheelchair fencing will be held on Sept. 12-16.

Making the leap from national to international touring is rough for musicians, and after new fees from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services take effect Dec. 23, it may get much more difficult for artists coming into the United States.

On Oct. 24, the USCIS announced that fees for many immigration applications and petitions will be increasing for the first time since November 2010, in order to cover the costs of USCIS services, such as fraud detection, case processing and national security measures.

One immigration benefit request that the increase will affect is I-129/129CW, the "Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker," which includes "artists or entertainers, either an individual or group, to perform, teach or coach under a program that is culturally unique," and "persons with extraordinary ability in ... arts," among other fields.

At face value, raising the I-129 fee from $325 to $460 isn't so great a leap, but when one considers that this fee applies to every band member and person that the band employs, the cost certainly adds up. The increase will also affect bands of all sizes in different ways, of course.

For example, say there are two bands performing in Jackson: Band A, which is moderately successful stateside and plays at a larger venue such as Thalia Mara Hall, and Band B, which is perhaps newer to international touring and plays at smaller venues such as Martin's Restaurant & Bar.

The fees may seem like less of a hit to Band A, but larger audiences also mean larger expenses. These acts tend to have more musicians onstage and have their own sound engineers, lighting engineers and other employees to boost the quality and value of a live show. That means either the band sheds crew members or shells out the $460 fee for each person.

Meanwhile, the less-well-known Band B won't be much better off. Even with a smaller crew and fewer members, the group still has those fees to tend with on top of regular touring expenses and smaller payments per show.

It's worth noting that record labels tend to provide some financial backing for their artists. However, that's less common among independent labels, and a large majority of touring acts are self-supporting.

For some foreign artists, the fee increase will undoubtedly mean that, come 2017, touring in the United States will no longer be tenable.

In about two months of working the city beat for the Jackson Free Press, the thing I have run into and reported on more than any other is proposed development. And development is something Jackson needs, desperately.

Football is back. After an offseason where player activity has made more news than player signings, the New Orleans Saints getting back on the playing field meant more -- after one of harshest punishments ever given to an NFL franchise in the wake of "bounty gate."

In the NFL Hall of Fame game, New Orleans finally got back to football and away from the offseason drama. The Arizona Cardinals helped the Saints open the NFL preseason.

New Orleans received the opening kickoff and Drew Brees went to work. In a ten play drive that covered 77 yards in just over four minutes, the Saints first string offense looked in midseason form.

Mark Ingram scored on a one-yard plunge to give New Orleans an early 7-0 lead. Brees’ night was done after the score with him going four of five for 41 yards.

Brees' counterpart, Kevin Kolb of the St. Louis Cardinals, didn’t have quite the night the record-setting Saints quarterback did. Kolb was constantly harassed by the Saints defense as the Cardinals porous offensive line failed to give very much protection.

Kolb didn’t help make his case to be the starting quarterback when his first pass of the night was intercepted by Malcolm Jenkins. Kolb didn’t see Jenkins jump a short passing route as he made the first of several terrible defensive coverage reads of the night for Arizona.

While Brees only played one offensive series, Kolb kept playing as the Cardinals offense struggled. Kolb’s night ended after he was knocked down in his own end zone after an incomplete pass, injuring his ribs.

Kolb didn’t make it through three full series before he was injured. He was replaced by John Skelton, who is also fighting for the starting quarterback job.

Late in the first quarter, Skelton got the Arizona offense going, in a drive that went 89 yards in 14 plays that lasted over seven minutes to tie the game at 7-7.

After Brees left for the evening, he was replaced by back-up quarterback Chase Daniel. While the Cardinals quarterbacks were under duress most of the night, Daniel put up solid numbers as he played most of the first half and midway into the third quarter.

Daniel finished the night completing 15 of 20 passes for 203 yards. After the Cardinals tied the game, Daniels got the Saints offense rolling once more, driving to the Arizona four yard line.

New Orleans was unable to cross the goal line instead opting for a 23-yard field goal from 42-year-old John Kasay, also fighting for his job, to retake the lead at 10-7. The Saints field goal scoring drive lasted just over four minutes and covered 36 yards in 10 plays.

The Saints got a chance to run their two minute offense in the second quarter and Daniel ran it nearly to perfection. Daniel drove New Orleans 94 yards in seven plays in under a minute and half.

Daniel capped the drive with a Travaris Cadet catching the four yard …

According to NewsMax (ugh) our esteemed former lobbyist/former governor/current lobbyist Haley Barbour was on Fox News this weekend complaining that President Obama isn't paying enough attention to the debt.

Here's a quick rundown of what happened during the first round of the NFL Draft: The Los Angeles Rams made University of California quarterback Jared Goff the No. 1 overall pick, and the Philadelphia Eagles took Carson Wentz, a quarterback out of North Dakota State University, making him the No. 2 pick.

After Goff and Wentz went in the draft, all eyes fell on University of Mississippi offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil. In fact, it was a terrible night for Tunsil and got worse as the night went along.

Shortly before the draft started, a video on Tunsil’s Twitter account, which was hacked, showed someone who was wearing a gas mask. later confirmed to be Tunsil, taking hits from a bong. It didn’t take long for the video to go viral and for ESPN and NFL Network to begin discussing it and what it would mean for him.

Before the draft, Tunsil was considered to be one of the top players in the draft, and many thought he would be the first player to hear his name called. After the video got out, he began to fall down as reports came out that teams had taken Tunsil off their draft board.

Instead of being the first tackle picked, Tunsil watched as the Baltimore Ravens drafted Ronnie Stanley out the University of Notre Dame in the sixth pick, and the Tennessee Titans drafted Jack Conklin out of Michigan State University in the eighth pick.

The Miami Dolphins finally stopped Tunsil’s drop by taking him with the 13th pick. Tunsil was supposed to be a top-five pick, but he didn’t even go in the top 10.

The first reports said that the video of Tunsil was five years old, but then it changed to two years old. But it didn’t matter when the video was taken. The damage was done, and it cost him millions.

The top pick in the draft will sign for about $28.5 million, and the fifth will sign for about $24 million. Falling all the way down to the 13th pick means Tunsil will sign for about $13 million.

The video cost him $10 to $15 million in salary in his first contract.

But his bad night wasn’t over. After the Dolphins selected him, a post on his Instagram account showed the offensive tackle asking a coach for money.

That post came up during his first press conference.

A reporter asked a visibly sweating Tunsil about the conversation with his coach over money. At first he denied that it happened, but in a follow-up question, he said he did ask and took money.

The money reports said he did it to pay bills and rent. Tunsil already had to sit out games last season for the Rebels due to receiving improper benefits. The day before the draft, reports surfaced that his stepfather, Lindsey Miller, filed a lawsuit against the offensive tackle …

It’s the day after Christmas. All the gifts have been opened, and family is being family. What better time to find an empty room and watch football? Lucky for us all, the St. Petersburg Bowl kicks off at 10 a.m., Monday, Dec. 26, on ESPN.

This bowl game features two teams that got into the bowl picture late in very different ways. Both teams should be more than happy to be going to a bowl game, which should lead to highly motivated opponents.

Mississippi State University entered the 2016 season needing to replace the greatest player in program history, quarterback Dak Prescott, who now plays for the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL. MSU struggled with close losses against the University of South Alabama, Louisiana State University, Brigham Young University and the University of Kentucky, all by 13 points.

Thanks to a high APR score and a blowout win over the University of Mississippi in the Egg Bowl, the Bulldogs are playing a bowl game with a 5-7 record. It is a chance for a young team to get extra practice and build for the 2017 season.

Ohio’s Miami University, on the other hand, made NCAA history on its way to a bowl game. The RedHawks started the season 0-6, and any hope of a bowl game seemed like a distant wish.

Then, sophomore quarterback Gus Ragland returned from an offseason ACL tear and put the team on his back, carrying the RedHawks over the next six games. Miami won six straight games to finish the season 6-6 and earn bowl eligibility.

No team in the history of college football has started the season 0-6 and finished at 6-6. It was one of the most remarkable turnarounds this season and sent the RedHawks to a bowl for the first time since 2010.

MSU is making its school-record seventh consecutive bowl game. That record looked in danger before the Egg Bowl win, so there is some momentum for both teams.

The Bulldogs feature a stout rushing attack that averages 233 yards per game and is 24th in nation. Miami features the 33rd ranked rush defense, which only allows 140 yards per game.

This game will feature strength against strength, as the RedHawks’ rush defense tries to corral MSU’s rushing. Miami will focus on stopping Bulldogs quarterback Nick Fitzgerald, who rushed for 1,243 yards with 14 touchdowns, and running back Aeris Williams, who rushed for 656 yards and four touchdowns.

The RedHawks have one of the weakest rushing attacks in college football, averaging just 134 yards for 109th in the nation. MSU features a middle-of-the-road run defense that is 69th in the country and gives up 178 yards per game.

Stopping Miami for the Bulldogs begins and ends with Ragland, who has passed for 1,274 yards with 15 touchdowns and zero interceptions in six games. He is the man who makes the RedHawks’ …

When the Denver Broncos selected former University of Mississippi quarterback Chad Kelly, the draft officially came to an end. However, the work wasn’t done yet for the teams, and players who went undrafted still can live their pro-football dreams.

NFL history is full of players who went undrafted that went on to long careers, such as Kurt Warner, Wes Welker, Tony Romo and Jackson State University’s Coy Bacon among others. Most of the players hope to prove teams wrong for not drafting them.

Things change a little with undrafted rookie free agents. The players can pick their team, if more than one team is vying over their services. That means a player can pick the team offering the most money or the team that will be the best fit.

Undrafted rookies that can do several things, such as playing multiple positions and special teams, have a better chance of making a team. If an offensive lineman can play tackle and guard or center and guard, that player will be tougher for teams to cut later.

I spent the last two days scouring the Internet and watching Twitter to see which players from universities in our state signed with NFL teams. This list is broken down by NFL team with thoughts on some of their signings.

Arizona Cardinals

Javancy Jones, linebacker, Jackson State University

Arizona drafted a linebacker in the first round and signed another rookie free agent. The Cardinals have a solid defense, so it will be tough for most rookies to make the team.

Atlanta Falcons

Will Freeman, offensive line, University of Southern Mississippi

The Falcons are the defending NFC Champions but did have guard Chris Chester retire. That opens a spot, even if the team drafted a guard in the fourth-round and signed four other undrafted rookies.

Baltimore Ravens

Quincy Adebayo, wide receiver, University of Mississippi

Xavian Bingham, cornerback, Jackson State University

Baltimore didn’t draft a wide receiver but did sign three other undrafted rookies. The Ravens drafted a cornerback in the first round and signed an undrafted safety.

Carolina Panthers

Fred Ross, wide receiver, Mississippi State University

Carolina drafted a wide receiver in the second round and signed one undrafted rookie wide receiver, but this team needs receiving help so there is a chance to make the team.

Detroit Lions

Nick James, defensive tackle, University of Mississippi

The Lions only signed one other undrafted rookie but did draft a couple of defensive ends and signed an undrafted rookie defensive end. There is a chance to make this roster as a defensive tackle.

Green Bay Packers

Johnathan Calvin, linebacker, Mississippi State University

Green Bay took a linebacker in the fourth round and just one undrafted rookie. This is a good team, so it will be tough for rookies to make the roster.

Houston Texans

Daniel Ross, defensive tackle, …

After the Fondren "C Spire Summer Music Series" concert originally scheduled for Thursday was rained out, organizers have decided to move the concert to Monday, July 23. The event is free to the public and picnics are encouraged, although coolers are not. (Soft drinks and beer available onsite.) The concert features local bluegrass group the Vernon Brothers on the front porch of the historic Cedars House, located on Old Canton Road just south of Meadowbrook Road in Jackson.

Verbatim release:

Thursday nights' concert at The Cedars has been rescheduled for Monday, July 23

Join us this coming Monday night, July 23, for the C Spire Summer Music Series at The Cedars featuring the Vernon Brothers. Rain might have delayed our original date but there is no reason to cancel some summer fun!

Get together with your family and friends over the weekend and make your plans to attend this incredible night of music and fun. If you have never heard the Vernon Brothers, you are in for a real treat. They are a fantastic mix of country, bluegrass and hillbilly - just perfect for the "front porch" stage at The Cedars! Mother nature is showing she is all clear on Monday, so bring a blanket or lawnchair and a picnic supper - no beverage coolers please. Brown Bottling will be on hand with a variety of Pepsi product offerings as well as Aquafina Water. Southern Beverage will be offering a selection of craft beers as well as two popular regular varieties. Beer will be $4.00 in bottles - craft beers available will be Covington Strawberry, Shock Top Lemon Shandy, Tallgrass 8-Bit Pale, Diamond Bear Pale Ale, Steven's Point Belgian White, Back Forty Truck Stop Honey and Back Forty Naked Pig - new 8% craft beers we will have available are Steven's Point Raspberry Saison and Steven's Point Whole Hog 6 - Hop IPA - we will also offer Bud Light and Michelob Ultra.

Worried about the mosquitoes? No need, we will spray again Monday after the rain from the weekend! The Cedars is located at 4145 Old Canton Road and as always, convenient parking is available across the street at St. Andrew's Lower School.

So, join us in Fondren this coming Monday night for this great night offamily fun and entertainment starting at 6:00 p.m. - and remember, it's FREE! See you there!

A special thanks to all of our sponsors. This Fondren Renaissance Event is presented by C Spire in cooperation with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi, Pepsi, Southern Beverage and Trustmark. Mark your calendars now for the last concert in this series on August 16, "Delta Honky Tonk Night" featuring Pryor and The Tombstones.

The NFL announced Thursday that the referee lockout that never should have happened in the first place is over. And only three weeks too late.

The final play from scrimmage in Monday night's game between Seattle and Green Bay has been replayed, reviewed and evaluated by every media outlet in America at least four dozen times in the last 60 hours. That clearly was the straw that broke the owners' backs.

We all saw it coming. With the NFL, who answers to the individual team owners, and the referees nowhere near an agreement, it became clear that this lockout would not end pretty. As replacement refs made mistakes and showed their lack of ability to keep up with the professional game's speed and complexity, we all knew the fatal mistake was coming.

It came the only way it could. For the NFL and the referees to come to an agreement, it would take a game-changing call. A call that took a rightfully earned digit out of one team's win column and placed it in the opponent's. Thankfully, it didn't take until the playoffs for it to happen.

There is certainly an argument for the call Monday night. Under NFL rules, it two players have simultaneous possession, the tie goes to the offensive player. The play Monday was close. So close, I am not certain that the real NFL referees would not have called it the same way. Unfortunately for the replacement refs, and fortunately for all the rest of us, it looked like the Green Bay defender had the ball first, and had the superior control of the ball, but didn't get the credit.

That was all the fuel the media needed to create a 48-hour news storm that a Buddhist monk living in a cave on a deserted island couldn't ignore. Thankfully, neither could the NFL. It decided the league couldn't take another debacle like Monday night.

No longer could the owners pretend the replacement refs were a worthy option. No longer could they act like the men who have done such a fantastic job of almost never being in the spotlight were not a vital part of what makes the NFL the smoothest-running show in American sports. No longer could the owners deny the real referees what they have clearly earned.

So the NFL and owners did what they should have done a month ago, and settled with the referees. Thankfully, we can all go back to the NFL we love, starting tonight. The NFL where we watch the greatest football players in the world play the game as it was meant to be played: with referees enforcing the rules, interpreting them correctly and staying the hell out of the spotlight.

In an election this short, money can make all the difference.

Unfortunately, we won't know who the big money players in the Jackson mayor's race are for at least another week, however.

Information from the Jackson city clerk's office shows that pre-election reports are due April 1, 2014 — one week before the election. Candidates are required to itemize each contribution over $200; donations under $200 can be lumped together.

Runoff candidates would need to file another report by April 15. All candidates are supposed to file statements of economic interest (SEI) with the Mississippi Ethics Commission as are current office holders and some other appointed officials.

Since so many of the candidates are current or former officeholders, I decided to pull their SEIs.

Here's what I dug up:

First, there are two glaring omissions. A search of the ethics-commission website returned no results for Ward 6 Councilman Tony Yarber, pastor of Relevant Empowerment Church and consultant with Bailey Kirkland Education Group, LLC. Yarber has been on the council since 2009 and told the Jackson Free Press this week that he draws now salary from his church and earns a living doing educational consulting and through the generosity of others, which he called "Holy Ghost handshakes."

Only one result, from 2009, came back for Ward 7 Councilwoman Margaret Barrett-Simon. On her form, Barrett-Simon listed no business interests aside from her position on the city council; she listed her husband, Dr. Al Simon, as an employee of Jackson State University.

Former Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr.'s most recent report, filed in 2012, also shows that he held no economic interests outside of his office; he is seeking re-election to his former seat.

Democratic State Sen. John Horhn lists his wife, Gail, as an employee of Jackson Public Schools on his 2012 report. Horhn, a 2009 Jackson mayor candidate, also lists himself as an officer in three businesses: Branch Consulting Group LLC, Horhn & Associates and Landfair Solutions LLC that year.

Finally, in January 2013, Melvin Priester Jr., listed his law practice — Priester Law Firm — as a business interest and indicates that he has represented the Capital City Convention Center Commission. At the time, Priester was a candidate for Ward 2 city councilman; currently, he is seeking the mayor's office.

Go to any campaign event for either candidate, and you'll hear it.

Both Ward 6 Councilman Tony Yarber and Chokwe A. Lumumba claim to be the everyman who represents "everyday people." In fact, Yarber incorporates the phrase in his campaign literature and stump speeches. Lumumba has also adopted the mantra, to tie into his family's history of legal and civil-rights activism, especially for the poor.

Inevitably, you'll also hear something else: the familiar chorus of Sly & and the Family Stone's 1969 hit "Everyday People." At Yarber's events, the song plays as if it's on a timer. At Lumumba functions, the song appears in a slightly different form, as a sample in the 1992 song "People Everyday" from hip-hop group Arrested Development.

Both are great songs that celebrate diversity and question racial and ethnic prejudice. The songs also highlight generational differences in the candidates' bases.

The average Yarber voter, I suspect, is older, and maybe of the Motown generation For them, songs like "Everyday People" comprised part of the soundtrack of their youth, a time when the nation was amid cultural upheaval.

The Family Stone sings:

There is a long hair/ That doesn't like the short hair/ For being such a rich one/ That will not help the poor one/ Different strokes/ For different folks

"People Everyday," a Lumumba favorite, on the other hand, is emblematic of the conscious Afrocentricity that permeated hip-hop in the early and mid-90s. For a lot of people, Lumumba's father, the late mayor, embodied a lot of that spirit. I'd guess that the prototypical Lumumba enthusiast is younger, a Generation X-er or millennial, who was drawn to his father's revolutionary political philosophies that rejected bourgeois complacency.

"People Everyday" speaks to this; Arrested Development group member Speech rhymes in the song:

So they came to test Speech cause of my hair-do/ And the loud bright colors that I wear [Boo!]/ I was a target cause I'm a fashion misfit/ And the outfit that I'm wearing brothers dissin' it

It's now been a generation since Arrested Development came on the scene (use the phrase today and people assume you're referring to the cult mockumentary). And they came on the scene a generation after Sly and the Family Stone.

Interestingly, Lumumba and Yarber—31 and 36, respectively—and their candidacies embody the same kind of generational blending, between "old head" and "thundercat," as "Everyday People" and "People Everyday."

Tonight, after the ballots are cast and counted, one the songs and the campaign it represents will be more resonant than the other.

The Jackson Free Press is compiling a list of organizations aiding relief efforts from the recent storms in Mississippi. If you have any information about tornado relief efforts, please write [email protected].

Y101 is at the Flowood Walmart and the Flowood Chamber of Commerce is accepting donations of several items (see image below) here:

115 LAUREL PARK COVE, SUITE 108 FLOWOOD, MS

RELIEF DONATIONS CAN ALSO BE DROPPED OFF AT CERAMI'S ITALIAN RESTAURANT, LAKELAND DR., FLOWOOD

Verbatim release from the Mississippi Braves:

PEARL, MS -- The Mississippi Braves have teamed up with several other businesses in the surrounding area to assist in tornado relief efforts in the aftermath of Monday's devastating storms. In conjunction with the Pearl Chamber, Pearl Walmart, Miss 103, 105.1 The River, 95.5 Hallelujah FM, Z 106.7 and WJTV News Channel 12, donations will be accepted at Walmart in Pearl with the Salvation Army starting at 6:00 AM Wednesday.

The Mississippi Braves will also have U-Haul trucks parked at Trustmark Park to accept donated items as well as cash donations during the upcoming homestand, May 1-4. Donations can be made all day each day or at the games. The M-Braves will give each person making a donation, including those at the Pearl Walmart, two (2) free tickets to game Monday, May 12 at Trustmark Park.

The Salvation Army is in need of the following items: Bottled water, sports drinks and soft drinks 55 gallon heavy duty trash bags Lysol wipes Large bottles of hand sanitizer Baby supplies, diapers and wipes Clean up supplies: Lysol sprays, Clorox, Pine-Sol, paper towels, etc. Nabs, peanut butter crackers, Little Debbie snacks, etc.

If people would like to bring linens or clothes, the Salvation Army is accepting those items as well. They ask that people please bring them in trash bags and not just loose. No toys, please. The Mississippi Braves is the Double-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. Since making the move from Greenville, SC, in 2005, over 80 M-Braves have gone on to play in the big leagues. The M-Braves have made postseason play three times and went on to win the Southern League Championship in 2008. Tickets are on sale now. Stop by Trustmark Park or call 888-BRAVES4 Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. For the latest news and updates, visit mississippibraves.com, facebook.com/mbraves and twitter.com/mbraves.

http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2014/apr/29/17207/

Verbatim release:

Jackson, MS – Earlier today, Rashaad Crisler, the son of former city councilman Marshand Crisler, filed qualifying papers with the City Clerk’s office as a candidate for City Council, Ward 6; the seat recently vacated by Mayor Tony Yarber the day he was sworn in as mayor of the City of Jackson. A special election has been set for June 17th to fill the vacancy. Rashaad Crisler stated, “I am excited about the opportunity of continuing the work Mayor Yarber initiated during his tenure as city councilman of our ward, and I’m equally thrilled about the possibility of achieving a similar community service record as my father when he served two terms in that very same seat.”

It is well known that Crisler’s father, Marshand Crisler, was a big supporter of Yarber’s bids for both city councilman in 2009, and recently, as mayor; hence Rashaad Crisler sees a direct correlation between his bid for the Ward 6 seat and the efforts of Mayor Yarber and the elder Crisler during their respective tenures as city councilmen.

The younger Crisler, who will turn 28 years old next month, went on to say, “I believe Ward 6, and South Jackson as a whole, have a lot to offer citizens throughout this state. In an effort to enhance those amenities, our campaign is committed to conveying to the citizens of Ward 6 that we intend to vigorously promote a safer community by working with local law enforcement as they enforce existing laws, and when elected, helping create new city ordinances when necessary. One of our primary focuses is on major street resurfacing projects throughout our ward in an effort to address our failing infrastructure, which will also assist with job creation, along with offering incentives to small business owners who want to do business in Ward 6.”

Crisler will officially announce his candidacy for the Ward 6 seat at a press conference scheduled tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. in front of City Hall.

About Rashaad Crisler Crisler is a product of the Jackson Public School System; graduating from Forest Hill High School in 2004. He is also a graduate of Jackson State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Management in 2011. He is currently working towards receiving a master’s degree in theology while attending seminary school at Flag Chapel Baptist College. Crisler serves as an associate minister at Flag Chapel Independent Baptist Church. Crisler is also a 7-year veteran of the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department, and he was recently hired as a (part-time) mail carrier with the U.S. Post Office. He has been married to the former Amy Sims, for almost 7 years, and they are the proud parents of a newborn son, Aiden Rashaad Crisler.