Jackson Free Press

Last week, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood was in Geneva, Switzerland representing the U.S. before the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

Hood, the only Democrat holding statewide office in Mississippi, serves as president-elect of the National Association of Attorneys General, and "responded to the committee’s questions concerning the death penalty, domestic violence, human trafficking, corporal punishment, zero tolerance in schools, life without parole for juvenile offenders, and reinstatement of voting rights for felons."

It would be interesting to know exactly what those questions, and Hood's responses, were. Especially considering that just a few weeks ago, Hood requested execution dates for two condemned Mississippi prisoners.

At Hood's request, Charles Ray Crawford and Michelle Byrom are scheduled to be put to death on March 26 and March 27, respectively.

Crawford was convicted of the 1993 killing of a college student named Kristy Ray in Tippah County.

Byrom was convicted of murder-for-hire in 1999 in connection with the death of her husband, Edward Byrom Sr. Even though big questions hang over Byrom's case, whose son wrote several letters confessing to the crime and that his mother did not participate in it, Hood moved ahead with planning her execution anyway.

Through a news statement, Hood said of his trip to human-rights mission to Geneva:

“It was indeed an honor to be one of the attorneys to defend America’s human rights record. ...It was rewarding to clarify many international misconceptions about Mississippi’s civil rights record and that of other states and our federal government.”

Duling Hall and new releases...

Verbatim release from the office of Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves:

LT. GOV. REEVES NAMES SMALL BUSINESS OWNER TO JACKSON SALES TAX COMMISSION

JACKSON – Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves today named small business owner and local architect Michael Boerner to the 1-percent sales tax commission charged with overseeing expenditures from a recent sales tax increase in the city of Jackson.

The 10-member commission will develop a plan for infrastructure repairs and address how tax revenues will support the plan. In January, voters in Jackson approved raising the city’s sales tax by 1 percent to fund infrastructure repairs.

“Michael has a passion for the city of Jackson and wants our capital city to be successful,” Lt. Gov. Reeves said. “His experience managing a business and expertise as an architect will be useful as the commission prepares a plan to address Jackson’s infrastructure challenges.”

Boerner, AIA, LEED AP, is the principal of Wier+Boerner Architecture in Jackson. He has a bachelor of architecture degree from Mississippi State University and a bachelor of science degree in business administration from Millsaps College. Boerner has architectural experience working for firms in Dallas, Birmingham, New Orleans and Jackson.

“Jackson needs a strong, reliable infrastructure to thrive,” Boerner said. “I look forward to serving on the commission and helping to shape the city’s future.”

The Jackson resident has worked on numerous projects around Mississippi, including Babalu restaurant in the Fondren neighborhood of Jackson, renovations to the Mississippi State Fairgrounds and Coliseum and the Iron Horse Grill restaurant in downtown Jackson. He also serves on the State Board of Architecture.

Boerner and his wife, Katherine, have one daughter and attend Galloway United Methodist Church in Jackson.

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.

Statement from Jackson City Hall on the arrest made in the shooting death of Jackson State University student Nolan Ryan Henderson at an off-campus party over the weekend:

The news exploded today that a Republican senatorial candidate in Missouri, Rep. Todd Akin, has declared that women can't get pregnant from "legitimate rapes." This idiot was defending his anti-abortion stance (including rape and incest, of course):

“It seems to me, first of all, what I understand from doctors is that’s really where—if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

and:

“Let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work, or something,” Akin said. “I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.”

Clearly, every woman who has ever gotten pregnant from a rape is lying about it being rape, according to this fool's logic.

Much has been made so far this year about the "war on women"—from Rush Limbaugh's horrendous attacks on Sandra Fluke to many Republicans supporting all sorts of anti-women regulation including outlawing in vitro and birth-control pills.

This latest affront to women—1 in 6 are sexually assaulted before age 18 as I was—is where we must say "ENOUGH"! We must demand that all of our elected officials disavow Akin's remarks. More importantly, we must demand pro-women and actual pro-family legislation from our elected officials, including right here in Mississippi. Women have the power to stop these attacks on us and our rights, if we only will.

This is too much, and it's time we decide what kind of nation we're going to be in the future. Speak up, women and men. An attack on one woman's rights and self-respect is an attack on us all.

OK, as if dinosaur (and Missouri Senate candidate) Todd Akin hadn't been offensive enough to women already, here's a fun one from the campaign trail today. The Kansas City Start reported that Akin said he is going to win the race because, in part, Sen. Claire McCaskill wasn't "ladylike" in their recent debate as she was against Republican Jim Talent in 2006. More:

“I think we have a very clear path to victory, and apparently Claire McCaskill thinks we do, too, because she was very aggressive at the debate, which was quite different than it was when she ran against Jim Talent,” Akin said. “She had a confidence and was much more ladylike (in 2006), but in the debate on Friday she came out swinging, and I think that’s because she feels threatened.”

Um, Akin, maybe she came out swinging because the majority of women in America right now wouldn't mind taking a swing at you after your disgusting comments about "legitimate rape" and your support of giving women no reproductive rights whatsoever that you don't approve.

Sir, you are no gentleman. You are a caveman. Ladylike enough for you?

On the "Sh*t Politicians Say" front, the JFP is collecting crazy things politicians have said (recently or further in the past) about women for our big Women in Politics issue next week. Please share your, er, favorites below. Direct quotes please, and a link would be great.

The current Mississippi Legislature, under the watchful eye of a radical-right governor, Phil Bryant, is attempting a number of disturbing pieces of legislation this session. But few, if any, are more disturbing in a heart-of-being-an-American way than their recent legislation to protect the identifies of the residents who apply for the privilege of carrying a concealed weapon.

Regardless of your views on guns, this legislation is textbook overreach by the government. They passed legislation to protect from public view the list of people who are allowed to concealed a weapon on their person. That is, Mississippi is walking all over the First Amendment in its over-zealous attempt to convince voters that they are for the Second Amendment.

Meantime, this means there is no accountability to the state's concealed-carry laws. Watchdog media (or what there is left) will not be able to get in there and determine whether the law is being enforced equally and in a non-discriminatory way. I personally have no interest in publishing the list of concealed-carry permit holders, but that is beside the point. Because the NRA freaked out because media in other states requested the names of the concealed weapon carriers—a First Amendment right—the Mississippi Legislature decided to pass a law that clearly violates both transparency ideals and the First Amendment.

This means that a parent who believes their child is at higher risk around a person with a concealed weapon, for instance, cannot know who in their family and friends circle carries one. Knowing that information gives everyone in the conversation the right to make their own decisions about whether to associate with people who secretly carry weapons. The state government is making this kind of parental and personal decision-making impossible. It is a vast over-reach, but entirely predictable from state lawmakers who are sold out lock, stock and barrel to the gun industry.

Very sad. We hope that the law will not stand up in court.

As we approach the mayoral runoff, which will most surely decide Jackson's next mayor, the rumors are flying fast and furious. One we heard yesterday is that Chokwe Lumumba "killed an FBI agent and got away with it." This is a false assertion. But it surely morphed out of his history as a young organizer with the Republic of New Afrika (RNA), based in Jackson in the early 1970s. As we explain in this article in 2005, the then-racist police department essentially had an angry stand-off with the militant Republic of New Afrika, headed by Imari Obadele, that culminated in an early-morning Waco-esque raid on the group's heavily armed headquarters in west Jackson. (JPD even brought the Thompson tank.)

The resulting gunfight left a police officer dead and an FBI officer injured. The legal battle that followed was complicated, in no small part because Obadele was not present, but local authorities wanted him punished for the crime. There were also state-federal jurisdictional hurdles to scale, but ultimately eight of the "RNA 11" ultimately served time, ironically because lawyers used the precedent set in the federal trial of Klansmen in Neshoba County who conspired to kill three civil rights workers. In the 1960s, a state court wouldn't convict them, but several went to prison for a time under a federal civil-rights conspiracy charge.

RNA member Chokwe Lumumba was not present, did not shoot anyone and did not serve time.

Read Obadele's 2010 obituary here.

In a unanimous and completely unsurprising move, the Mississippi Republican Central Committee rejected the federal Affordable Care Act, which Congress passed three years ago.

The state GOP said it was supporting the positions of the state's Three Tops--Gov. Phil Bryant, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and Speaker Philip Gunn--in resisting the implementation of the ACA as well as the expansion of Medicaid.

“Our party is unified and supports the prudent and careful approach advocated by the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Speaker. At a time when we learn more every day about improper government intrusion into the lives of ordinary citizens, it defies logic to embrace an expansion of that intrusion,” MSGOP Chairman Joe Nosef said through a press release.

Of course, Obamacare is being implemented anyway. Last summer's U.S. Supreme Court decision assured that the ACA, including its controversial individual mandate provision, would be the law of the land even if it lets states opt out Medicaid expansions, which the architects of the law hoped would pay for a big chunk.

Nosef is right on one point, though: Mississippi Republicans have been unified in saying they reject Obamacare.

Emphasis on saying.

Most Mississippi state Republicans have stated their opposition to the federal health law, but there is evidence that the party's armor is starting to chink, most notably Sen. Billy Hudson, R-Hattiesburg's recent coming out in favor of expanding Medicaid.

Meanwhile, Republican congressmen are quietly soliciting Obamacare funds for a Rankin County health clinic.

There'll be more about that in tomorrow's paper.

A couple of musical tidbits...

Despite the storm, there's some good shows in New Orleans this weekend...

Religious organizations are generally not allowed to donate to politicians, but often find clever ways to skirt the Internal Revenue Service prohibitions.

One way is just for the pastor and key church officials to personally make big contributions, and encourage their flock to do the same, to support candidates who share their values. Another is to allow candidates to speak to congregants directly, which lets the politician associate himself or herself with that particular house of worship.

Both are gray areas.

It's quite another thing, though, for a church to give directly to a political candidate. That's what appears to be happening in the case of Hinds County Democratic hopeful Willie Earl Robinson. Campaign finance reports show that Hill of Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Bolton made a donation of $500 to Robinson's campaign.

Robinson's challenger in the Hinds County District 2 race, Darrel McQuirter, is a pastor. The name of his church -- Pleasant Green Baptist Church -- does not appear on his finance reports, but McQuirter and his wife personally contributed more than $7,000 to the campaign coffers.

Under the Federal Election Campaign Act, charitable organizations (in fact, all corporations) are prohibited from making contributions in connection with federal elections. This is not a federal election. However, the IRS code, which applies to all organizations that have tax-exempt status, states: "(A)ll section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office."

A Guidestar.com search of 501c3 nonprofits as well as a search of charities through the Mississippi Secretary of State yielded no results for a Hill of Zion M.B. Church in Bolton.

An attempt to reach the church by phone this morning was not successful.

http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2013/oct/08/14003/

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?

http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2013/oct/11/14109/

http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2013/oct/12/14111/

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Josh Marks, a Chicago native who attended Tougaloo College and worked for a time in Vicksburg for the U.S. Army as a contract specialist, died Friday of a what the coroner has ruled a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The victim, of the South Side, was pronounced dead at 6:37 p.m. on the scene, according to a spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner's office. An autopsy conducted today ruled his death a suicide.

As an amateur chef, Marks was a contestant on the show Masterchef, having left Jackson to compete on the show's third season in 2012. In an article published by the JFP, Marks summed up his experience: Class Under Fire.

This past summer, Marks was arrested for assaulting a police officer and attempting to pull the officer's weapon; he faced multiple felony charges. According to the Tribune:

At the time of Marks' arrest in July, police say he claimed to have been possessed by "MasterChef" judge Gordon Ramsay who turned him into God. During the scuffle, officials say it took multiple officers to capture Marks, after he lunged at one and attempted to take his gun.

Just this past Wednesday a continuance was granted in the case to November 6th.

A special Record Store Day release, regional picks and new releases...

Two special concerts and new releases...

The U.S. Justice Department announced an investigation of the Raymond Detention center. Here's the full release:

The Justice Department announced today that it is opening a pattern or practice investigation of Hinds County Detention Center including both the Hinds County facility in Raymond, Mississippi, and the Jackson Detention Center, in Jackson, Mississippi. The investigation will focus on whether Hinds County protects prisoners from harm at the hands of other prisoners and staff. Attorneys for the County Board and the Sheriff were notified on June 2, 2014. They pledged cooperation with the investigation

The department opened the investigation pursuant to the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act. The investigation will include a comprehensive review of policies, procedures, and records, as well as interviews with county officials, jail administrators, staff, and current and former inmates. The Justice Department will also reach out to other stakeholders, including members of the community and groups with knowledge of conditions in the two facilities.

“Our investigation will focus on whether Hinds County protects prisoners from the harm that can result from prisoner on prisoner violence and the improper use of force,” said Jocelyn Samuels, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “We have not prejudged this matter, and will seek cooperation from county officials and other stakeholders during the course of the investigation.”

“The Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi will work diligently with the Civil Rights Division to ensure that the investigation into the detention center is one that will ultimately yield results that are helpful to the citizenry of the Southern District of Mississippi, and specifically, Hinds County,” said Gregory K. Davis, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi.

Individuals who have allegations about unlawful conditions in the Jail are encouraged to contact the Justice Department by phone at (202) 514-6255, by email at [email protected] or by mail at:

On August 3rd, Michael Johansson celebrated his 65th birthday and became eligible for federal government funded Medicare. While he said he is grateful for the coverage, he is saddened that other citizens of Mississippi are denied federal government funded Medicaid.

This is why he has coordinated a monthly rally called “Stand to Expand,” where Mississippi citizens will come to express support for Medicaid expansion the first Sunday of each month at the south steps of the capitol building from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Johansson pledged that he will rally until “Medicaid is expanded for the tens of thousands of women, men and children who are in dire need of healthcare.”

Johansson called the state’s failure to provide adequate healthcare to the people “shameful, inhumane and callous treatment of our citizens.”

“Most, if not all, who are eligible for this healthcare program—100% paid for by the federal government for the first years of the program & 90% thereafter—are citizens living under great financial stress. To add to their anxiety, having a sick child or a diabetic parent who cannot afford healthcare treatment is intolerable, if not cruel, for a society such as ours. This crisis could be solved by mere approval of the legislature and the governor's signature,” Johansson said.

Johansson points out that the number of uninsured Mississippians has risen, which is a disgrace when one considers the state’s reputation of being generous and hospitable. This, Johansson said, must change.

“This rally is unaffiliated with any organization. It is a TRYPARTISAN EFFORT (take out the "I" and ask the "Y") welcoming like-minded Republicans, Democrats and Independents who agree with Medicaid expansion for Mississippi. I urge any signage brought to the rally be respectful and be directed towards the cause of Medicaid expansion and not be directed against government officials or political parties,” Johansson said.

The next rally will be this Sunday, September 7th at 2 p.m.

The Human Rights Campaign issued the following statement on today's U.S. Supreme Court decision declining to hear several marriage equality cases before the court:

HRC Mississippi committed to advancing fairness and ensuring justice across Mississippi

WASHINGTON, DC—Today’s Supreme Court action provides momentum for equality work across Mississippi, and reinforces the need for protections in housing, employment and public accommodations for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Mississippians. The Supreme Court made history—bringing final marriage victories to five states and paving the way for possibly six more. But although marriage equality is now the law of the land in 24 states, today’s victory didn’t extent to LGBT Mississippians.

“Any time same-sex couples are extended marriage equality is something to celebrate, and today is a joyous day for thousands across America who will immediately feel the impact of today’s Supreme Court action," said HRC Mississippi Director Rob Hill. "But this news is an unfortunate reminder that LGBT Mississippians still lack basic legal protections against discrimination, and cannot legally marry the person they love in the place they call home.”

LGBT Mississippians are just as worthy of full legal equality as folks living elsewhere across the country, and they should be given the same dignity and respect. It is for this reason that HRC remains fully committed to creating one America for LGBT people, united under a single banner of fairness.

HRC Mississippi is working to advance equality for LGBT Mississippians who have no protections in housing, workplace, or public accommodations; legal state recognition for their relationships and families; state rights to jointly adopt children; and state protections from hate crimes. Through HRC Mississippi, we are working toward a future of fairness every day--changing hearts, minds and laws toward achieving full equality.