Jackson Free Press

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

Emergency room care remains their only health-care option.

Jackson auditions are Oct. 5.

Will the GOP pay attention to its moderates?

Well, that seemed easier than expected.

The Jackson Redevelopment Authority on Sept. 25 canceled, by unanimous vote, the contract of Farish Street Group LLC, the real-estate management company charged with luring businesses to the building on Farish Street.

In a move that Mayor Chokwe Lumumba called "long overdue," JRA chose to break ties with the group and its primary investor, developer David Watkins.

"Unfortunately, it just didn't work out and it was time for a change," Lumumba said. "Hopefully, some of the people who were involved with the previous group will be able to remain involved, but I just don't think they will be able to do what was originally planned. Either way, it didn't make sense for the city to be held hostage by one long-term contract."

Farish Street Group LLC hoped to have B.B. King's Blues Club open on the street by the end of 2012. Once architects finalized designs for the club, though, engineers discovered that not only could the current structure not support the capacity load, it doesn't even have a foundation.

Lumumba had called for the group to be kicked to the curb since December 2012.

The government is shut down.

The U.S. Air Force Academy has suspended travel, which threatens to cancel its game against Navy this weekend. And me and city reporter Tyler Cleveland couldn't even officially figure out how many Hispanics live in Jackson because the U.S. Census Bureau website is shut down. So we guesstimated the population be around 417,382ish, give or take.

By now, we all know what got us here.

Republicans in U.S. House of Representatives who still want to defund Obamacare pegged the health law to raising the debt ceiling. Leading up to the vote, there was a lot and back and forth about the pros and cons of Obamacare, the bulk of which went into effect today. There was also seemed to be an unusually high volume of congressional letter writing.

One such letter came from sometimes JFP columnist Jed Oppenheim, who shared his letter to U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker with me. It reads, in part:

"I am deeply troubled that you represent a state that is the least healthy in the country, has the greatest poverty, obesity, infant immortality and other negative life indicator rates in the country; and we are on the brink of closing hospitals and medical care due to not expanding medicaid, yes you continue to waste countless taxpayer dollars on a fruitless fight against a bill that has NEVER been allowed to succeed by the GOP. The time, money and manipulatives spent trying to prevent the implementation of Obamacare could have been used on our schools, hospitals, roads, bridges and military veterans to name a few. Yet nothing of this sort from the GOP--meaning nothing of this sort from our 'do-nothing' government."

Wow -- compelling and rich.

One would expect that such an impassioned pro-Obamacare missive would elicit a let's-agree-to-disagree form letter from Wicker's office. Here's what he wrote:

"Thank you for contacting me regarding your support for defunding and repealing the President's health-care law. I am glad to have the benefit of your views on this issue, and I agree that this massive government overhaul of health care in America should be fully repealed," Wicker's letter said.

Um, that's not exactly what Jed's letter said.

It actually said the opposite of that, but clearly Wicker isn't reading his mail.

No wonder the government's shut down.

Lots to do right here in Jackson this weekend.

The city of Jackson's water system seems to be fighting a battle against shifting Yazoo clay.

There's usually plenty to do on Fridays in Jackson, and if you are like me, you're going to have a tough time deciding exactly which of these awesome events to attend:

• The city of Jackson is celebrating National Night Out on Friday from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. at City Hall to increase crime prevention awareness. Here's the kicker: Jackson State University's Sonic Boom of the South will lead the "Confidence March Against Crime" from Smith Park to City Hall, beginning at 11 a.m.

• The Jackson premiere of the documentary film "SubSIPPI" from the creative minds of Greg Gandy, Vincent Chaney, & Lauren Cioffi is set for 7:30 p.m. at the Mississippi Museum of Art. Make sure to check out the trailer here. It's free to attend and it's on the lawn outside, so make sure to bring a blanket on which to sit.

• Jackson Prep (4-1) is riding high coming off last week's 19-13 win over Madison-Ridgeland Academy, but they are in for a real test when the country boys from Bassfield, Mississippi's 2-A reigning champs, roll into town for a public-versus-private-school matchup. Prep is a much bigger school with more players on its football team, but they'll hardly be able to keep step with the speed of one of Mississippi's best prep teams. Should be one for the ages.

Mississippi health-insurance rates could be as low as $8 a month after tax credits.

You ought to know you're in trouble when the folks who should be your biggest cheerleaders come and do a dance on your head and slap you around a bit.

Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has been a player in the Republican Party for decades. As a matter of fact, he was one of the big conservative brains (along with Lee Atwater) that came up with the Southern Strategy, a political mindset that has kept Southern politics stuck on the battlefield of black versus white since the days of Ronald Reagan. Barbour served as Reagan's political director and as chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Some might say that Mr. Barbour had a hand in stirring up the witch's brew that created right-wingers like the Tea Party—and I'd agree. But if he stirred the pot, he sure has no control over its content.

Now, Barbour is blasting conservatives, especially those on the ultra-shaggy edges of the right-wing fringe. The Washington Post calls them—the roughly 45 Republicans in Congress who refuse to bend at all, ever, under any circumstances—cast-iron conservatives .

“When you control the House, the Democrats control the Senate and the White House, you can’t exactly cram your stuff down their throat,” Barbour said in a Post TV "In Play" interview yesterday. “Some of our friends sometimes forget that.”

“The guys that wanted to make Obamacare the trip wire for closing down the government and making Obama cave in … that’s not going to happen; that was never going to happen,” he added.

Barbour goes on to blame the conservative troubles on—wait for it—outside agitators. The problem is, they're skunks of the same stripes:

Barbour went on to note that his bigger concern for the party moving forward was the number of outside conservative groups — he mentioned the Senate Conservatives Fund and the Club For Growth by name — who seek to vilify Republican Members of Congress for allegedly breaking with party orthodoxy.

“Some of these same people go out and raise money for outside organizations that attack the other Republicans not over principle, not over policy … over tactics,” said Barbour. “There is no excuse for making people think a conservative Congressman who has a 98 percent conservative voting record is a bad person because you disagree with his tactics.”

See the WaPo's The Fix blog for the entire interview.

Companies building a new 582-megawatt power plant near DeKalb are not holding it up as a model for plants around the nation. The Kemper County IGCC plant, now about nine months away from completion, will burn low-grade lignite coal and capture carbon emissions. Kemper is the first plant to use TRIG technology, which Atlanta-based Southern Co. developed in the 1990s.

Southern has said it hopes to sell the technology around the world as a solution to global change, but recently told Reuters that Kemper could not be replicated nationally.

"Because the unique characteristics that make the project the right choice for Mississippi cannot be consistently replicated on a national level, the Kemper County Energy Facility should not serve as a primary basis for new emissions standards impacting all new coal-fired power plants," Southern said in a statement to the wire service.

Louie Miller, who heads the anti-Kemper Mississippi Sierra Club, took aim at the report. Miller said, through a statement of his own, that the company's "confession" that Kemper is not a panacea for the nation's energy woes "should come as a shock" to its customers.

“Since day one, Mississippi Power, its parent Southern Company, and its high-profile backers like Governor Haley Barbour and United States Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu have promised that the Kemper Plant would be a shining model for new coal-fired power plants across the United States, as well as overseas," Miller said.

The Obama Administration recently announced new carbon-limiting rules on utility companies. Southern characterizes its corporate stance as climate-friendly, but told Reuters the new rules "essentially eliminate coal as a future generation option."

• The Barnett Reservoir Foundation and the Pearl River Valley Water Supply District will host a Memphis Barbeque Network (or MBN) judging class at the Rankin Reservoir Community Center from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. It's $80 to enter, but this is awesome because A) An MBN team will cook ribs and pulled pork on site, and B) You get to eat it and learn how to judge the results. There are only 30 spots in the class, so check out the web site. The Barnett Reservoir Foundation and Pearl River Valley Water Supply District is holding an MBN contest called "Smokin’ on The Rez" on Nov. 1-2 at Old Trace Park at Barnett Reservoir.

• One of the best kept secrets in Jackson is Blue Monday at Hal & Mal's hosted by the Central Mississippi Blues Society. It's a celebration of the blues, and musicians are invited to come jam. That's every Monday night, 7:15-8:15 Front Porch acoustic hour, followed by CMBS's Blue Monday Band at 8:45 'til 11PM. Check out their web site here.

• One thing I've always enjoyed as a reporter is Friday Forum, an informational meeting held every Friday morning at Koinonia Coffee House. It's co-hosted by former mayoral candidate Jonathan Lee, and always has interesting guests talking about topics of interest. This week's guest is Kathy Times, Vice President/ COO of WhereToGo411.com. Times will be speaking about the State Institutions of Higher Learning's Minority Economic Opportunity Initiative/WhereToGo411 Partnership. Should be fun so come on out.

In WAPT's online video they don't identify the Jackson-area creek (is it Town Creek?) that turned into a "raging river" after today's rains, but one look at the video does force me to wonder out loud about the water quality of any lakes or riverwalk projects that we end up developing for downtown Jackson.

Jackson has many impermeable surfaces with oil, grit and other residue (not to mentioned trash, street drainage, etc.) that rush off to the creeks and Pearl.

I don't know the answer, but this visual at least suggests it would make sense to ask the question. Does still water somehow run cleaner? Am I judging this murky mess too harshly?

ON one had, the Pearl often looks pretty when you glance at it over the Lakeland bridge, and I've canoed it in the past and felt the water was clear and clean.

But the video doesn't make it this creek water look too appealing. Any river geeks have thoughts?

http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2013/sep/24/13833/

Go here to find your polling place.

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

Our fair city ranks as one of the most generous cities in the United States.

This week's new releases, regional picks, and even a correction...

The Animal Rescue Fund of Mississippi is making a desperate plea for donations.

It appears the Eastland Courthouse on East Capitol Street is getting a renovation and a re-purposing. The JFP received this press release (printed here, unedited) earlier this morning:

Tuesday, the developers of the historic Eastland Courthouse unveiled plans to renovate and reopen the 115,000 square foot building as a modern residential complex. With construction already underway, the development, named Capitol & West, is set to open in 2014 and will feature more than 50 residential units, a fine dining restaurant and bar, and first floor commercial space.

Capitol & West is located in the historic Smith Park Architectural District and is in the cultural, governmental, and business center of Downtown Jackson at 245 East Capitol Street.

“Capitol & West speaks to the soul of what this great city is about. This development’s uniqueness, high quality, and rich history set the standard for Downtown living. You can’t get this anywhere else. You have to come to Capitol & West,” said Jason Goree, lead developer.

The first unit buildout is expected to be completed in the spring of 2014 with the entire project completed later that fall. Residents will be able to choose from plans that include one-bedroom, two-bedroom and studio apartments with one to two baths. All apartments are retaining the fine materials and historical features significant to the building, but are being updated with contemporary finishings.

“We’re extremely excited about Capitol & West,” said David Pharr of Team Jackson. “This unique development is an important piece of the puzzle of Downtown’s resurgence. With more residents moving Downtown, it’s only a matter of time before more cultural amenities follow. Capitol & West is a big momentum boost.”

The total cost of the project is $20 million.

Capitol & West is being developed by local attorneys Tom Tardy, Marcy Croft, Jason Watkins, and Developer Jason Goree.

Duvall Decker is the architect of record.

Chris Albritton Construction Company, Inc. is the general contractor.

A couple of musical tidbits...