Jackson Free Press

At the Dec. 1 Stennis Press Forum, Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves spoke about upcoming efforts for education reform, touted school choice alongside greater funding and announced plans to move away from Common Core standards.

Mississippi Department of Education leaders responded with this statement:

Joint statement from State Board of Education Chairman Dr. John Kelly and State Superintendent of Education Dr. Carey Wright on Lieutenant Governor’s remarks on education

While we fully support the Lieutenant Governor’s desire to set the highest possible standards for the students of Mississippi, we have grave reservations about changing the playbook in the middle of the game. The Mississippi Board of Education adopted the state’s College- and Career-Ready Standards in 2010, which set a new baseline expectation for what students should learn and achieve. The need for higher standards was made evident by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which evaluated education standards in every state. The institute deemed Mississippi’s math standards “mediocre,” and described our English standards as among “the worst in the country.”

Mississippi’s College- and Career-Ready Standards are by far the highest academic standards we have ever had in the state or the nation. Mississippi is one of 46 states that voluntarily adopted these rigorous standards to prepare students for the demands of 21st century careers. Both Gov. Phil Bryant and former Gov. Haley Barbour endorsed the standards when they each signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that denoted the State of Mississippi as a Governing State in the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) consortium.

Though we now have our highest academic standards in history, the standards have always been viewed as the floor, or minimum, of what to expect from our students. The state Board of Education and Department of Education will continue to aim high by always raising the bar for academic achievement. We welcome the opportunity to partner with lawmakers and stakeholders in this effort.

We understand that the term “Common Core” has become a lightning rod in some political circles, and as a result, has become attached to an unprecedented level of misinformation. For example, Oklahoma had its U.S. Department of Education flexibility waiver revoked because it did not have standards in place when it dropped the Common Core State Standards. Having rigorous standards is a requirement of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Mississippi remains in charge of its education policies and must remain committed to higher standards.

The Lieutenant Governor’s proposal to drop Mississippi’s College- and Career-Ready Standards and write new ones is not as simple as it may appear. Developing new standards is a multiyear, and very expensive, process. Implementing new standards also takes several years. Just ask the thousands of educators and school leaders around the state who have invested a tremendous amount of time, work, training, and resources to implement our College- and Career-Ready Standards. These costs include millions of dollars invested by local school districts for textbooks, curriculum materials, and professional development. Changing course after our …

Here is a nice trivia question you can ask your friends next week: Do you know who was the first 2016 NFL Draft player to sign with his team?

If you said Moritz Boehringer, then you would be right. The rest of you might be saying, "Who’s Moritz Boehringer?"

Funny thing you should ask that, because depending on his success, he could have started a trend.

Boehringer is the first player in NFL history to be drafted directly from Europe. The Minnesota Vikings drafted him with the 180th pick in the sixth round.

The 22-year-old, 6-foot-4-inch wide receiver was the 2015 German League Rookie of the Year, who became interested in American football after watching highlights of Vikings superstar running back Adrian Peterson.

But Boehringer isn’t the only player from the Germany to find his way to a NFL training camp this summer. Griffin Neal played Division III football at Concordia College who graduated in 2015 and headed to Hildesheim, Germany.

Neal went to Germany after an invitation from an American coach and ended up playing for the Invaders, a second-tier team in the German Football League. He also worked with a quarterback coach that helped get him an invite to Tulane’s Pro Day.

That invite to a pro day was helped by rain that forced the Tulane players to workout at the New Orleans Saints' indoor practice facility. All the Saints decision makers were there instead of just one scout. Neal impressed the New Orleans big wigs enough to get another workout. He aced that workout and earned a contract for camp later this summer.

If the sport of football is going to keep growing, that growth has to come outside of the country. Every major North American team sport has already gone global.

Soccer, can be traced back 2000 years ago but England took the sport around the world, is the world’s biggest sport. Basketball and baseball are well-known around the world. Hockey is limited by weather in most of the world, but it is still more global than American football.

The German Football League started in 1999 and is still trying to grow in terms of talent and fans. Boehringer and others explained during the draft that most German players aren’t ready to play in the NFL, much less the Arena Football League.

Germany isn’t the only place where American football is trying to take hold. There's the Amercian Football League of China, and why not try to get American football in the country with the world’s largest population?

The sport is also making inroads in Brazil, Mexico, Japan, Australia, England and other places. The International Federation of American Football says there are 80 countries with some level of organized football.

Currently the most talented players are in Germany. That would make sense if you remember the old NFL Europe that folded in 2007, which had several teams in Germany to expose fans to American football. …

Unless you live without Internet, by now, you probably know that the first NFL Preseason game between the Indianapolis Colts and Green Bay Packers was cancelled due to poor field conditions. While it does hurt the NFL to have its first game of the year cancelled, it isn’t the end of the world.

This is not the first preseason game to be cancelled, but it is the first Hall of Fame game to be called off.

In 1995, a preseason game between the Houston Texans and the San Diego Chargers was cancelled due to turf problems with the Astrodome. This is the first game in NFL history to be cancelled due to field conditions.

The Colts and Packers weren’t even the second preseason game to be cancelled. That honor goes to the Philadelphia Eagles and Baltimore Ravens in 2001. This game was also cancelled due to field conditions because the same field was used for both baseball and football.

The Hall of Fame game is played on essentially a high school and Division II football field. Ideally, that is not the type of field you want to play a professional football game.

It didn’t help that the field was used for events all during the Hall of Fame weekend. When using an overworked field, it’s just a matter of time before problems start happening.

If the field couldn’t be safe for play during the one weekend the NFL needs it, maybe the game should have been moved to Cleveland, Ohio, which is an hour away from Canton, Ohio, where the Hall of Fame game is played each year.

The field is adjacent to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and is named Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium after New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson. In 2014, Benson donated $11 million to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, with $10 million going to a new field.

Speaking of the Saints, Drew Brees is having one of the roughest camps of his career. The future Hall of Fame quarterback has thrown seven interceptions during team drills through the first nine days of camp.

Last year, the Saints and Brees were deep into training camp before he threw his first pick. Hopefully, he is getting all his interceptions out of the way now, so he throws just a few during the season.

The only reason this story about Brees throwing picks in practice is a story because it is a future Hall of Famer throwing interceptions. The Saints have a young receiving unit, so all the interceptions are not Brees’ fault.

This story doesn’t mean much unless he keeps throwing interceptions during preseason games. It will really gain legs if he begins throwing picks in bunches during the regular season.

Speaking of the Saints receivers, youth won out over experience when New Orleans cut wide receiver Hakeem Nicks on Aug. 8. The former New York Giants receiver hoped that New Orleans …

Tony Romo takes back the role of starting quarterback job the Dallas Cowboys tonight, Aug. 19, at 7 p.m. against the Miami Dolphins. This will be the first game action in the preseason for Romo, who is recovering from an injury-plagued 2015 campaign.

It seems like a good bet that Romo will only play two to three series in this game. It would be shocking to see him play past the first quarter. However, when Romo’s night is done, there is still plenty of reasons to stay around and watch this game on the NFL Network.

Former Mississippi State University star Dak Prescott is one reason to watch until his night is done. Last week against the Los Angeles Rams, Prescott had perhaps one of the best NFL debuts in Cowboys history.

Sure, it was a preseason game, and the Rams didn’t play every starter or even have a game plan. But Prescott started the game in front of nearly 90,000 fans, and Los Angeles wasn’t playing the game with a defense full of guys who are going to be out on the street next week.

In that preseason game, the Rams played both starters and backups who will play a big part of the team’s success or failure this season. Prescott had a great night even for the preseason, and he could lock up the backup job in the next three games.

Prescott was as sharp as any quarterback in the league. Even in the preseason, quarterbacks still have to read the defense and make throws. It wasn’t like Prescott was throwing against air.

He completed 10 out of 12 passes for 139 yards and two touchdowns, and his only two incompletions were drops. He threw some nice passes that included a couple of back-shoulder throws and some pinpoint passes into tight windows.

Now it will be interesting to see how Prescott follows his big game from last week. He will have even more pressure on him to show the same level of play, but he will have to work with mostly backups this time.

Can he get in good plays for the Cowboys working with the second- and third-string offense? Can he overcome the inevitable false starts or holding penalties that tend to happen with backup linemen in a game?

These are things to watch, along with how he controls the huddle and how he manages the offense in down and distance situations. He will be throwing to receivers who might be the Cowboys’ third or fourth wide receivers if they make the team instead of Dez Bryant and the starters.

How does he handle it when players make mistakes and run the wrong routes? There is a difference between starting a preseason game and coming in after the starters have left the game.

Prescott has a chance to show that last week wasn’t some fluke or great luck. He has a chance to …

It was a great first weekend of college football, with memorable games from Thursday to Monday. Hopefully the rest of the season will be a great, as the first week has had surprising turnouts.

One interesting thing from this past weekend is that all three FBS teams from this state were involved in games that featured comebacks. Two of those teams, University of Mississippi and Mississippi State University, were on the wrong end of comebacks, and the University of Southern Mississippi stormed back from what looked like a loss to a win.

MSU looked in total control of the University of South Alabama on Saturday in the first half. The Bulldogs were up 17-0 at halftime and looked like they were going to cruise to their first win of the post-Dak Prescott era.

Then the wheels came off in the second half, as the Jaguars outscored the Bulldogs 21-3 in the second half. MSU had a chance to win the game but missed a field goal attempt that bounced off the upright in the game’s final seconds.

It was the first win over a SEC team in USA history. Before then, the team was 0-4 in tits history against the conference, with two losses against MSU in 2012 and 2014. Both teams missed two field goals, but everyone will remember the field goal MSU missed for a long time.

In the second half, the Bulldogs defense struggled to get off the field as the Jaguars had touchdown drives of 75 yards, 99 yards and 71 yards. The MSU offense stalled most of the second half, as the team could only muster 143 passing yards on the day.

Saturday night was a different story between USM and the University of Kentucky. It was the Wildcats that stormed out to a big lead of 35-10 as the game neared halftime.

USM used a late drive to cut the Wildcats’ lead to 35-17 with 22 seconds left before halftime. The Golden Eagles outscored UK in the second half 27-0 and scored 34 unanswered points, winning the game.

The win was on a night when quarterback Nick Mullens was just so-so in the pocket, as he threw for 258 yards and two touchdowns but had three interceptions. It was on the ground where USM tore away at Kentucky’s will to compete.

Southern Miss had 262 rushing yards, and the Wildcats had just 96 yards. Both Ito Smith and George Payne went more than 100 yards rushing that night.

The USM defense struggled in the first half but became the “Nasty Bunch” in second half. The Southern Miss defense forced three turnovers in the second half, including a fumble that ended any hopes for a Kentucky rally.

Southern Miss offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson got ran out of Lexington last year as the Wildcats offensive coordinator. He saw his new team put up 520 total yards against his old team, as Kentucky amassed 409 total yards.

Mississippi State University completely dominated the University of Mississippi in the 2016 Egg Bowl. The Bulldogs’ players ran around and over the Rebels in a 55-20 road win.

MSU quarterback Nick Fitzgerald set a school record for most rushing yards in a game at any position with 258 rushing yards. The quarterback also broke Dak Prescott’s school record for most rushing yards in a season by a quarterback with 1,243 yards.

The Bulldogs jumped out to a 27-10 lead in the first half before the Rebels mounted a comeback. UM cut MSU’s lead to only seven points at the break, but the second half belonged to the Bulldogs, who outscored their main rival 28-0 over the final 30 minutes.

It was a disappointing end to the season for the Rebels. Entering the game, the team could have reached six wins to reach bowl eligibility but instead looked completely outmatched on offense and defense most of the afternoon.

MSU racked up 566 total yards with 457 of those yards coming on the ground. The Bulldogs only threw for 106 yards in the game.

The Rebels had 528 total yards but couldn’t keep pace with MSU on the scoreboard. All the rushing attempts wore out the UM defense and kept the Bulldogs’ defense fresh for the second half to finish off the Rebels.

MSU’s victory gave head coach Dan Mullen five wins in the eight Egg Bowls that he has coached. That is something he can hit the recruiting trail with to sell athletes on coming to play for the Bulldogs.

The Egg Bowl win not only denied the Rebels a bowl game, but it also set the Bulldogs up for a bowl. MSU got plenty of help on the final weekend of the regular season.

There are 80 slots for bowl teams with the first priority going to those with 6-6 records. That means the University of Southern Mississippi will get first shot at a bowl before other teams.

Next is the United States Military Academy and the University of Hawaii. Army currently has a 6-5 record but two wins over FCS teams—only one counts toward bowl eligibility—with a final game against the United State Naval Academy on Dec. 10.

If the Army Black Knights best the Navy Midshipmen, they are bowl eligible with seven wins, but in reality, with its current record, Army is already going bowling because there won’t be enough 6-6 teams. No matter how the Army-Navy game turns out, both teams are going to make a bowl game.

Hawaii is 6-7 and will play in the Hawaii Bowl because the Rainbow Warriors get to play 13 games. This is because it is hard to get teams to travel to Hawaii so they get an extra game.

Either way, Hawaii is bowl eligible, but that still leaves two teams that can get six wins this weekend, which are the University of South …

NFL teams try to balance between winning right now and winning in the future. It is hard to maintain, and the few teams are able to do it year in and year out.

One of those teams is the New England Patriots. The Super Bowl champions have been able to win titles and stockpile draft picks for nearly two decades in the Belichick-Brady era.

While New England is waiting to see if quarterback Tom Brady will ever slow down, the Patriots already have a quarterback that could help build the program’s future.

New England made Jimmy Garoppolo its first pick of the 2014 NFL Draft. Garoppolo was the 62nd overall pick out of Eastern Illinois University.

As Brady continues to bathe in the fountain of youth, the Patriots have to decide what to do about Garoppolo. It seems the answer will be to trade him to a team that makes the best deal.

One of the teams that should at least pick up the phone is the New Orleans Saints. It’s likely that the 2017-2018 season will be the final season that quarterback Drew Brees plays for New Orleans.

It would be a great idea for New Orleans to inquire about Garoppolo. If the Saints can swing the trade, he will have the chance to study under two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks.

The asking price is the question, as is what Garoppolo’s actually value is.

There isn’t a lot of NFL tape on the quarterback since he has spent most of his time in the league sitting behind Brady. In three NFL seasons, Garoppolo has played in 17 games with just two starts. He has thrown 94 passes with 63 completions with five touchdowns and zero interceptions.

He started two of the four games during which Brady was suspended at the beginning of this season. He played well in both games before an injury forced rookie Jacoby Brissett to take over at quarterback.

The small sample size of Garoppolo’s NFL experience makes it hard to judge what he is worth. New England has traded away quarterbacks who didn’t go on to have success elsewhere.

The Patriots traded Drew Bledsoe to the Buffalo Bills after the emergence of Brady. Bledsoe was at the end of his career and never did lead Buffalo to a Super Bowl.

Then, there was Matt Cassel, who took over for New England after a knee injury took Brady out for a season. The Patriots traded Cassell to the Kansas City Chiefs. He never turned into a star after leaving New England, and the Chiefs moved on from him.

Finally, there is Ryan Mallett, who the Patriots traded to the Houston Texans. Houston eventually released him, but he is currently playing for the Baltimore Ravens in a backup role.

Ultimately, it’s up to New Orleans to decide if Garoppolo is worth the sacrifice. Would the Saints best be served …

The regular season is over for the SEC women’s basketball teams. This week the conference will hold its tournament in Greenville, SC., from March 1 to March 5.

Winning the tournament means getting the SEC’s automatic bid into the NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Tournament. That automatic bid will be important for a team that is currently outside the projections to make the tournament.

In the latest ESPN Bracketology for the women’s tournament, eight SEC teams could end up in the field. Those eight need to make sure a surprise team doesn’t steal the automatic bid and possibly knock them out of the tournament.

Those teams are Mississippi State University, Texas A&M University, Auburn University, the University of Kentucky, the University of South Carolina, the University of Tennessee and the University of Missouri, which also happen to be the top eight teams in the conference standings.

None of the teams playing on the opening day of the tournament are from our state, so let’s skip to day two when 10th-seed University of Mississippi faces seventh-seed Louisiana State University.

The Rebels might make the tournament if they can reach the championship game, but at 17-12 overall and 6-10 in conference, they more than likely need to win the whole thing. UM is 10th in the conference and behind the University of Georgia, the eighth seed, and ninth-seed Auburn.

The latest Bracketology says Auburn is in the tournament, but the team faces Georgia, which is also 7-9 in SEC play. The Tigers are 17-13 overall and the Bulldogs of Georgia are 15-14. An opening-game lose for Auburn could knock the team out of the tournament and open the door for another one.

The Rebels enter the tournament after a 62-49 win over Texas A&M at the end of the regular season. UM is 4-6 in its last 10 games, which won’t look good to the committee. The team struggled in conference play after going 12-2 in the nonconference slate.

If the Rebels happen to get past LSU, they will have Mississippi State waiting for them in the quarterfinals on March 3. In two games against the Bulldogs, UM has lost by 11 points in the first meeting and 22 points in the second meeting.

But there is hope for the team.

MSU enters the tournament as the second seed but has lost two straight games heading into the postseason. That is not how you want to end the regular season and go into the conference tournament.

Teams want to be peaking at this time of year. Instead the MSU Bulldogs went from playing for the conference title to losing two straight games, ending up as the second seed.

MSU was considered one of the top four seeds overall in the NCAA tournament, but the two straight losses has dropped them to a two-seed in the latest Bracketology. The two …

One of the feel-good stories of the 2010 NFL offseason has come to an ugly end seven years later. The San Francisco 49ers signed undrafted free agent Tramaine Brock out of tiny Belhaven University in Jackson, Miss.

On April 6, 2017, Brock was arrested in Santa Clara, Calif., for suspicion of felony domestic violence against his girlfriend. He made bail the next day, and shortly afterwards, San Francisco released him.

Brock’s arrest happens to be the first major off-the-field incident for the new regime of General Manager John Lynch and Head Coach Kyle Shanahan. It is the third new coach in San Francisco in the last three years. They wasted no time in releasing the player.

Before Brock, no player in the history of Belhaven football had played in the NFL, and his road wasn’t the typical path.

He played at Long Beach High School in Gulfport, Miss., and then at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. He signed with the University of Minnesota after two years at MGCCC but left Minnesota after being suspended for academic ineligibility. He went from Big Ten-conference school Minnesota to tiny NAIA Belhaven.

Brock played his senior year with the Blazers but went undrafted in the 2010. He ended up signing with the 49ers and landed on the practice squad after training camp. In his rookie NFL season, Brock appeared in three games and made just three tackles.

The former Belhaven star played in 11 games in the following year and recorded his first career interception. He would play in all 16 games in the 2012 season and forced his first career fumble that season. The 49ers also reached Super Bowl XLVII that year but ended up losing to the Baltimore Ravens.

Brock had his best season as a professional thus far in 2013, with five interceptions, 13 defended passes and a touchdown. He played in all 16 games and started in seven during the season, which is also the first time that he started in the NFL.

Injuries derailed the Gulfport native’s 2014 season as he played in just three games with only two starts. Brock bounced back in 2015 with 15 starts in 15 games played with three interceptions.

Brock started all 16 games for the first time in his career last season as he set a career high in tackles with 49 total stops. He made one interception and forced this second career fumble.

The 49ers have a recent history of players, such as Ray McDonald and Aldon Smith, with off-the-field issues. The release of Brock was a message to the rest of the team on how things will now be done in San Francisco, even if Shanahan says it wasn’t message. When the team was winning earlier this decade, it overlooked bad behavior by some players.

Recently, San Francisco hasn’t been winning games, and that means the hammer comes down faster. Brock wasn’t a star for the …

College football hasn't been bad to Mississippi for the most part this season. There is hope everywhere, unless you're a USM fan, and you can check out last week's games in the JFP print edition or [follow this link][1]. The big winner last week was Mississippi State. The Bulldogs took care of everything in front of them to setup a showdown this week against Alabama.

After watching bowl games all Saturday, there is no reason to stop during the next week. Except for Christmas Day—that is for NFL games—there are bowl games every day from Dec. 19 to Dec. 24.

There are eight bowl games with three in the afternoon and five during the primetime hours of 7 to 10 p.m.

Outside of fans of the teams playing, most people don’t truly care about these games. They’re a great way to waste three-and-a-half to four hours. Nothing says “happy holidays” like an insane amount of video reviews and teams you probably didn’t watch all season.

Just in case you are on the fence about watching these bowl games, here are some reasons to tune in to every game. These facts have been gleaned from bowl previews around the web.

Looking for a reason to call in sick or leave early from work on Monday, Dec. 19? How about being home to watch the Miami Beach Bowl on ESPN at 1:30 p.m.

This game features Central Michigan University out of the MAC and the University of Tulsa out of the AAC—two “Group of Five” teams entering the postseason on opposite trends.

The UT Golden Hurricane enters the matchup on a two-game winning streak but the CMU Chippewas enter having lost four of the last five games played. Why should you watch?

Central Michigan beat Oklahoma State University on a controversial Hail Mary with a lateral in one of the craziest games of the year. If this game is close at the end, it could provide a memorable finish for the Chippewas.

Tulsa is playing for a 10-win season, and wide receiver Josh Atkinson needs just 73 receiving yards to make the Golden Hurricane the first team with two 1,000-yard running backs, two 1,000-yard receivers and a 3,000-yards passing quarterback. Who doesn’t like seeing history made?

The Boca Raton Bowl shouldn’t need much to get you to tune in to ESPN at 6 p.m. on Dec. 20. This game features 10-3 Western Kentucky University from C-USA and the 8-4 University of Memphis out of the AAC.

There will be plenty of offense on display as both teams average 40 points per game. Both have also returned interceptions and kick returns for touchdowns this season. Pour some spiked eggnog and enjoy the fireworks.

There are former conference foes battling in the Poinsettia Bowl at 8 p.m., Dec. 21, on ESPN, as Brigham Young University, formerly of the Mountain West Conference, takes on the University of Wyoming still in the MWC.

The score should be close late in the game since both teams have played seven games that were decided by eight-points or less. The Cougars lost four games by a combined eight points.

Wyoming is in its first bowl game in five years, and a win would put the program at 7-7 for bowl games. The Cowboys knocked off Boise State University in an exciting game.

The Famous …

Note: This story has been updated with a total donation figure that Lee's backers gave to federal Republican candidates since 2008. The new paragraph is bolded down below.

In the WAPT-Clarion-Ledger debate, Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. alluded to the fact that he is a real Democrat when he unloaded on opponent Jonathan Lee in his closing statement. This is clearly a continuation of some Jacksonians' belief that Lee is a "Rankin County Republican," a meme we've heard off and on for months now.

We have factchecked both parts of that allegation to the best of our ability and will address them both below.

First, Rankin County

Lee's campaign materials make him sound like a life-long Jacksonian. His website states:

Jonathan was born, grew up and lives in Jackson. Jonathan was born and raised in Jackson into a family with deep ties throughout the community. The son of two Lanier graduates and part of a family whose roots span three generations in Jackson’s Georgetown community, Jonathan learned early what it meant to be proud of one’s city.

Jonathan called all of Jackson home – from growing up on Meadow Lane to getting picked up by his grandmother (“Big Mama”) after school who lived in Georgetown. After graduating from high school, Jonathan attended Mississippi State University, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and a Master’s in Business Administration.

The part that is left out of that description is that Lee's family moved to Rankin County in 1988 when he was 11. He later graduated from Northwest Rankin High School and did not live in Jackson again until 2009 when records show that Lee and his wife moved into Jackson from Rankin County. When asked, he does not deny that he has lived less than four years in Jackson as an adult.

Lee, who is 35 now, took over as president of his father's company when he was 24, according to his campaign materials. He told the Jackson Free Press that he stepped down from the company, which he never owned, in December 2011, meaning that he ran it for about 10 years.

Candidate Lee ran into a Rankin-related controversy last year after a commenter posted on the Jackson Free Press site that he was still driving a Maroon SUV with a Rankin County plate. In response to an Aug. 10, 2012, query about it, Lee emailed the Jackson Free Press:

This particular rumor has been shopped around various media outlets all week. The vehicle I assume that they are referring to is my company vehicle. My personal vehicle is registered in Hinds County, a fact easily verified.

MPI is owned by an entity chartered and located in Rankin County. It was where our distribution company was originally located. In fact, MPI has only been located in Jackson for 19 years. For those 19 years MPI has paid property taxes, inventory taxes, and school taxes in Jackson, Miss. The parent company is still located in Rankin county …

In a move that should surprise absolutely no one, the leadership of the city of Jackson is united behind Jackson State University's proposal for a 50,000-seat domed stadium.

The proposed project, expected to cost approximately $250 million, got votes of confidence from the city council Tuesday night and from Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. Wednesday afternoon.

"I agree with this concept (of a domed stadium)," Johnson said. "I have gone on the record and said that I don't want to lose seats. We're the capital city and we have 62,000 seats in our stadium. We have to compete with Little Rock, Mobile, Baton Rouge and Memphis, as well as other venues in the south. If we ended up with a new outdoor stadium that seated 25,000 people, then I couldn't support that. Then I started meeting with the people at Jackson State, and a domed stadium would be unique to the state and the region. It also offers versatility that an open-air stadium would not offer. "

Jackson State officials have estimated the proposed stadium would infuse $64 million annually into the city's economy and host music and entertainment events and conventions along with sporting events.

The 50,000 seats would make the stadium the third-biggest stadium in the state behind Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford and Davis-Wade Stadium in Starkville. Both of those venues were built with private donations, are open-air and used almost exclusively for football.

Mississippi Democrats are basking in the post-electoral bliss of having held on to or picked up a number of mayor's seats yesterday.

A shock to no one, Democrat Chokwe Lumumba coasted to a W in Jackson (lesson here for future secret campaign engineers: being on the down-low never helped anyone).

Other incumbent Dems who also won reelection include Parker Wiseman of Starkville, Connie Moran of Ocean Springs and Patt Patterson of Oxford. Two sitting Democratic lawmakers, George Flaggs Jr. and Billy Broomfield, will also become mayors of Vicksburg and Moss Point, respectively. Each man defeated fellow Democrats and incumbents in those cities in primaries this spring.

What Democrats are beaming most about are the cities they took away from Republicans. In Tupelo, it was young Jason Shelton, in Meridian it was Percy Bland and in Booneville, it was Derrick Blythe. Tupelo was particularly sweet for Democrats, who haven't had the mayor's chair for three decades.

State Rep. Steve Holland, a Tupelo-area Democrat, credits Democrats' strong messaging and investment of "sweat equity" for yesterday's victories. Holland called Shelton a super guy with lots of energy and spunk.

"He had a cooler campaign that I would have had," Holland said of Shelton. "He tried to out conservative the other guy, and apparently it worked."

Two other Democrats--Glen Cook of Stonewall and James Young of Philadelphia -- also won election.

According to GovTrack.us, Representatives Alan Nunnelee and Steven Palazzo voted against House Bill 2775 this evening, which was the bi-partisan compromise in the Senate to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling in order that the bills owed--from budgets already passed and funds already appropriated by this same House--might be paid.

The rest of the Mississippi delegation -- Senators Wicker and Cochran, Representatives Thompson and Harper -- voted for the compromise bill.

For the two who voted against the bill, it's worth it to stop and think what they voted against tonight. After their tea party point was made -- and after their tactics failed and a compromise was reached -- they still voted to take the United State's good faith and credit down with their twisted politics.

This compromise was the vehicle for moving ahead; this compromise was the vehicle for getting back to work after a misguided stratagem -- shutting down the government in order to try to kill the Affordable Care Act -- blew up in one party's face.

After $24 billion lost, treasury bills getting more expensive, 0.6% shaved off GDP growth and countless people denied important, sometimes critical services, this was the way forward.

But along with Rand Paul and Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio, two of Mississippi delegation still voted against putting the government back to work and pulling the economy out of a treacherous nose dive.

Nunnelee and Palazzo put ideology over country. It was irresponsible, selfish and potentially very damaging to the United States and its people.

Hopefully their constituents will remember that.

After his election as mayor, one of the biggest questions hanging over Chokwe Lumumba's new administration was what kind of relationship he would have with the state Legislature.

Historically, that relationship has been icier than our weather the past few days. Lumumba's predecessor, Harvey Johnson Jr., wasn't known as someone who liked to hobnob and press the flesh.

Today, Lumumba opened what he called a new "era of cooperation" as he gave the Legislature a warm welcome to the capital city.

"I want you to feel welcome; I want you to to feel like you're home. Go out and spend lots of money," Lumumba told members of the Mississippi House of Representatives.

Lumumba even recommended a couple of his favorite haunts, Chitoes African Deli in west Jackson and Pearl's Southern Kitchen on Terry Road, and urged members in need of a new set of wheels to stop in at a Jackson car dealership.

Then, he struck a slightly more serious tone.

"Vote for all the pro-Jackson stuff," he said. "What's good for Jackson is good for Mississippi and what's good for Mississippi is good for Jackson."

Read more about the city of Jackson's legislative agenda.

The legislative session has not been without drama. But with the deadline to introduce general bills passing earlier this week, it seems like there have been relatively few bills related to traditional red-meat issues.

Only one bill title mentions abortion and it was put forth by Rep. Nick Bain, D-Corinth. Bain's bill, HB 513, says that "any discussion of abortion must be presented from the medical perspective of the potential long-term and short-term hazards presented to patients as the result of having the procedure performed."

Sen. Michael Watson, a R-Pascagoula, has a bill that would make it a felony if exposing a fetus or a child to a controlled substance or chemical substance causes serious physical injury to the child or fetus. Watson's bill carves out exceptions for legally administered prescription drugs.

Attempts at regulating immigration are also non-existent thus far. Besides a bill from Rep. Reecy Dickson, D-Macon, that authorizes a task force to study the role of immigrant communities in alleviating poverty, we haven't seen renewed attempts to impose strict show-your-papers kinds of immigration bills (at least not yet).

That said, there are a handful of gun bills.

U.S. Senate hopeful Chris McDaniel would prohibit state cooperation with any federal effort to ban firearms. Rep. Mark Formby, R-Picayune, has a similar bill in the House. Another proposal, from Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, makes certain exceptions to concealed-carry permits for gun and ammo-related companies.

Tons of new releases and Best of Jackson...

Here's the statement from the office of Congressman Bennie Thompson, a Democrat who represents the Mississippi Delta in the the U.S. House of Representatives, on today's vote in the House to pass a Farm Bill.

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Bennie G. Thompson (MS-02) released the following statement regarding his vote in support of H.R. 2642 (Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management FARRM Act), also known as the Farm Bill:

“I am pleased with today’s bi-partisan efforts to pass the Farm Bill of 2013. Today’s bill provides a safety net for farmers, while ensuring that no Mississippian participating in SNAP will see a decrease in their benefits. This legislation ensures that foreign grown fish will be subject to the same rigorous inspection as Mississippi Farm Raised Catfish. And this bill will provide funding for agriculture research at Alcorn State University, and for wildlife conservation programs in Mississippi.”

“Agriculture is Mississippi’s number one industry, employing over 29% of our state’s workforce. I am pleased that Mississippi’s over 42,000 farmers will now benefit from a robust federally backed crop insurance program. Today’s Farm Bill will also fund infrastructure projects, community facilities, small business grants and loans in rural areas through the USDA’s Rural Development programs, helping to boost Mississippi’s economy and increase job growth. I support today’s Farm Bill and urge my colleagues in the Senate to move quickly on this legislation,” said Congressman Thompson.

The John Horhn for mayor campaign sent footage of civil-rights hero Myrlie Evers last week for a paid ad on the JFP website of Mrs. Evers saying nice things about his "forward" leadership. The quote that has run on the JFP website in the ad for about the last week is "John's Horhn's motto is the way forward. Forward looking, forward acting, forward leadership. And that's exactly what we need today."

Today, we were a bit surprised to see a story by Jerry Mitchell in The Clarion-Ledger indicating that she is not endorsing a candidate and is telling people "to vote for a candidate of their choice."

The footage clearly indicated that Evers was backing Horhn and perhaps using scripted language: His campaign slogan, after all, is "The Way Forward."

We called the campaign today to ask if Mrs. Evers had backtracked on her endorsement of the senator. LaureNicole Taylor of the Horhn campaign respond: "No backtracking. She never said she is supporting John," she told reporter Haley Ferretti.

Still confused, I then asked to speak with her, and Taylor told me that Evers "can't officially endorse one particular candidate," but that she does support John Horhn.

Taylor, who sent the original footage to our advertising department for the ad, told me today that it should be taken down. I relayed that message to our advertising team.

Clear now?