Jackson Free Press

It’s WrestleMania season and NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament time, so what better way to mark the occasion than mix the two biggest events ending in April? Plus, the NCAA and WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon are two of the most hated things in sports. If you could throw in NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, as well, it would be the most hated triumvirate in all of sports.

My bracket started like Super John Cena and didn’t lay down for anyone early Thursday, March 16. Then, little slips began to happen, like No. 12 seed Middle Tennessee State University upsetting the No. 5 seed University of Minnesota, and No. 11 seed Xavier University beating the No. 6 seed University of Maryland.

By Friday, March 17, my bracket had turned from unbeatable into the Undertaker versus Mick Foley as Mankind in Hell in the Cell at King of the Ring 1998. My bracket, playing the role of Mankind, climbed to the top of the cell just to have the tournament, playing the role of Undertaker, throw it from 20 feet in the air onto the announcer's’ table.

Friday upsets included No. 10 seed Wichita State University over the No. 7 seed University of Dayton, the No. 11 seed University of Rhode Island upsetting No. 6 seed Creighton University, and the No. 11 seed University of Southern California taking down No. 6 seed Southern Methodist University.

Just like Mrs. Foley’s baby boy, instead of going up the ramp into the back on stretcher, my bracket decided to climb back onto the cage on Saturday, March 18. Once more, my bracket played Mankind to the tournament’s Undertaker and the poor bracket got chokeslammed through the steel cage.

That exact moment is how I felt when the No. 8 seed University of Wisconsin took down defending national champions and the No. 1 seed University of Villanova on Saturday. Xavier beating No. 3 seed Florida State University seemed like getting another choke slam but this time on thumbtacks. Yes, that is exactly how the match went after Foley lost a tooth and dislocated his jaw after the choke slam from the top of the cage.

By Sunday, March 19, my bracket had turned into Ric Flair with the tournament playing Shawn Michaels from WrestleMania XXIV. The tournament delivered its first Sweet Chin Music to my bracket with the No. 7 seed University of Michigan knocking off the No. 2 seed University of Louisville.

On Sunday night, the teary-eyed tournament looked at my bracket and mouthed the words, “I’m sorry; I love you,” just like Michaels to Flair, as it hit me with a second Sweet Chin Music as the No. 7 seed University of South Carolina upended No. 2 seed Duke University.

Things could have been worse for my poor, poor bracket if not for the Montreal Screwjob that the officials did on the No. 8 seed University of Arkansas in …

Every NFL team walks away from the NFL Draft telling its fans that the team got better with every pick. That can’t be the case, of course, since some teams are going to clearly be bad next season, and some picks are not going to make it out of training camp.

It is hard not to be optimistic during and after the draft, though. All the picks have the potential to make an NFL roster and help their teams win. Unless a team does something crazy in the draft, it really is hard to be cynical because none of the picks have even had an NFL practice.

But the optimism doesn’t mean the team made the right selections or that the drafted players will help the team in the next season or the years to come.

Now that it is over, let’s take a look at how the New Orleans Saints did in this year’s draft. If you have questions about your favorite team, jump on Twitter and send a tweet to @JFPSports.

Overall, I like what the Saints did in the draft. First-round pick and 11th overall Marshon Lattimore could start at cornerback for New Orleans if he can develop quickly and has left his hamstring problems behind him. He was a one-year starter at Ohio State University due to injuries, but he shined this season when he was finally healthy. Lattimore should make an instant impact.

New Orleans’ other first-round pick, Ryan Ramczky, might have been the best offensive lineman in the draft. Offensive linemen aren’t sexy selections, but ask a team with a bad offensive line how important drafting that position is. Ramczky, who played for the University of Wisconsin, could start this season somewhere on the line. I’m not sure if he can play guard, but he could take over for right tackle Zach Strief, who might move inside.

The Saints continued to work on the defense in the second round with safety Marcus Williams from the University of Utah. A pass rusher in one of three first picks would have been nice, but throwing on New Orleans got a lot harder with this draft. Williams should become a role player right away and is good at forcing turnover, with 10 interceptions over the last three seasons.

Third-round pick Alvin Kamara out of the University of Tennessee is by far my biggest complaint against New Orleans in this draft. Running backs Mark Ingram and recently signed Adrian Peterson will eat up most of the carries next season, and Kamara is a first- or second-round talent in the third round, but was he needed? Plus, the Saints gave up a second-round pick in next year’s draft to select Kamara.

Again, the Saints could have found a pass rusher with this pick instead. Kamara can catch the ball out of the backfield, but will he do well in pass blocking? New Orleans wants to use him in the mold of Reggie Bush or Darren …

At one time, it seemed like as many as four baseball teams from our state might end up in the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament. That’s not how things worked out in the end.

Mississippi Valley State University failed to make the SWAC Baseball Tournament, and their year ended after the regular season. Both Jackson State University and Alcorn State University made the tournament but couldn’t win the title and the conference’s lone bid.

The University of Mississippi made the SEC Baseball Tournament but lost a single-elimination game to Auburn University. That ended up holding the Rebels, who were seeded ninth, back from the NCAA Tournament since the Tigers were seeded eighth, and the top eight seeds from the SEC made the NCAA Tournament.

It is possible that the Rebels might have been in the field if they beaten Auburn. Upsets, such as Rice University winning the Conference USA Tournament and Brigham Young University winning the West Coast Conference Tournament, didn’t help UM’s chances, though.

The Rebels are missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011.

Late Sunday, May 28, the NCAA announced that the University of Southern Mississippi would be one of the 16 regional host sites. That assured the Golden Eagles that they were in the tournament and hosting a regional for the first time since 2003.

USM scored a school-record 48 wins so far this season and won the C-USA regular-season title. In the conference tournament, Southern Miss made the championship game but came up short against Rice. The Golden Eagles are the No. 1 seed in the regional.

On Monday, May 29, the NCAA announced the full 64-team field, with Mississippi State University also playing in the Hattiesburg Regional. The Bulldogs are making their 36th NCAA Baseball Tournament appearance.

MSU is the No. 2 seed in the regional and received an at-large bid into the tournament. The Bulldogs will open the regional against the No. 3-seed University of South Alabama, which earned an automatic bid by winning the Sun Belt Tournament.

South Alabama lost two of three games to MSU during the regular season but won the last meeting 5-2. This is the second meeting between the teams in a NCAA regional; the Bulldogs got the win in the only other meeting.

Meanwhile, USM will open regional play against the No. 4-seed University of Illinois-Chicago. The Golden Eagles didn’t meet the Flames in the regular season. UIC earned an automatic bid into the tournament by winning the Horizon League Tournament.

The Bulldogs and Golden Eagles clashed in the regular season at Trustmark Park, with USM coming out on top 7-5. The two schools played once in a 2011 regional, which the Bulldogs won 3-0.

MSU hasn’t faced UCI in program history. USM defeated South Alabama twice in the regular season this year and won …

In a move that I wouldn't be surprised to see repeated in the near future in the Magnolia State, Governor Rick Perry of Texas declared today that he [won't be implementing Obamacare][1] in Texas. Specifically, he says the state will not increase its Medicaid roles to cover additional working poor with the program, and the state will not set up the state exchange that's required in the law.

Perry's office sent a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Monday morning asserting his opposition, both to accepting more than a hundred million federal dollars over the next several years to put more poor Texas adults onto Medicaid, and to creating an Orbitz-style online insurance marketplace for consumers.marketplace for consumers.

The story notes that the insurance exchange isn't optional, and that the Federal government will set up a "one size fits all" exchange for the state.

“If anyone was in doubt, we in Texas have no intention to implement so-called state exchanges or to expand Medicaid under Obamacare," Perry said in a statement. "I will not be party to socializing healthcare and bankrupting my state in direct contradiction to our Constitution and our founding principles of limited government."

Texas, according to the story, has the country's highest percentage of uninsured residents.

But Dan Stultz, president and CEO of the Texas Hospital Association, said without the expansion, "many will remain uninsured, seeking care in emergency rooms, shifting costs to the privately insured, and increasing uncompensated care to health care providers."

And for folks who think the current ACA is a "socialist" expansion, does anyone find it curious that conservative leaders would leave their state exchanges to the Federal government to set up? It seems you would want a hand in there, making sure free market principles reign and such.

Although I guess stamping your feet and say "No! No! No!" feels like better politics to Governor Perry.

[1]: http://www.texastribune.org/texas-health-resources/medicaid/perry-tx-wont-implement-key-elements-health-reform/marketplace for consumers.

The True South Classic has battled rain every day of the tournament. Saturday was no exception with early morning showers holding up players from finishing the second round and starting the third round.

Players finished the second round late in the afternoon with 3-under being the cutline. There was not enough time Saturday to get the third round finished before the tournament was suspended for darkness.

When the tournament was stopped, Scott Stallings was in the lead at 18-under through ten holes. Three players, John Bohn, Billy Horschel and Heath Slocum, were tied for second at 14-under.

Bohn and Horschel were only through nine holes and Slocum had played 13 holes when play was suspended. William McGirt was in fifth play at 13-under after he was one of the few players to complete their full third round.

A group of eight players were tied for sixth place at 12-under. In that group is Brandon native Jonathan Randolph through 14 holes of his third round.

Defending champion Chris Kirk is still at 9-under through 11 holes in his third round. Kirk has some work to do at nine strokes back if he wants to repeat as tournament champion.

Play will begin Sunday at 7am with players completing their third round and the fourth round starting soon after. If the rain stays away the tournament should wrap up on Sunday but rain has slowed the tournament every day since it started on Thursday.

File this under the finally, about time file.

Augusta National Golf Club announced today that the club will welcome its first two female members when the club opens for its new season in October. For years, the home of The Masters has resisted allowing women to join the private all-male golf club.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore have accepted to join the club and will be the first female members to don a green jacket in the club’s history. This move has been coming since 2002.

Martha Burk of the National Council of Women's Organizations wanted the club to add women members in 2002 and lead a small boycott of the 2003 Masters tournament. Former club chairman Hootie Johnson, chairman during Burk’s protest, dug his heels in once saying Augusta National might one day have a woman in a green jacket, "but not at the point of a bayonet."

The Masters lost television sponsorship for two years and the club paid CBS to broadcast the tournament commercial free for those two years. Johnson retired in 2006 and Billy Payne has been more open to allowing women than his predecessor.

"These accomplished women share our passion for the game of golf and both are well known and respected by our membership," Payne said in a statement. "It will be a proud moment when we present Condoleezza and Darla their green jackets when the club opens this fall. This is a significant and positive time in our club's history and, on behalf of our membership, I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome them and all of our new members into the Augusta National family."

In the ESPN article linked above, it states from private sources that women have been considered for membership five years ago. It is about time, Augusta National added women members and hopefully these two women will not be the only female members added.

We've heard about a number of debate parties in Jackson and beyond. You're on your own to figure out the drinking games. Here are the ones we know about; feel free to add your own!

1. Hal & Mal's Red Room, downtown Jackson, tends to be a progressive crowd that likes to imbide.

2. Koinonia Coffeehouse, JSU parkway, also leans progressive but of more of the coffee-drinking type.

3. The @MadisonCoMSGOP is hosting a debate watch party in Ridgeland. Details here: twitpic.com/b0esqh -- decidedly not progressive. We don't know if they're drinking or not, but suspect there will be a flash or two at least.

4. If you're on the Coast, the @HCRepublican is hosting a debate watching party at their HQ in Gulfport. More info here: us4.campaign -- Republicans, duh. See flash guess above.

5. Pi(e) Lounge at Sal & Mookies (Fondren) is inviting people to come there and watch. Probably a mixed group, politics wise, but we wouldn't expect many birthers. The cocktails will flow freely.

6. The 29th Annual Fannie Lou Hamer Memorial Symposium starts tonight at the Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on Citizenship and Democracy at Jackson State with a keynote address by Dr. Mary Coleman at 6:30 p.m. in the Dollye M.E. Robinson College of Liberal Arts and will be followed by a debate watch tonight and will continue throughout the day tomorrow. We're guessing that the punchbowl won't be spiked. Go ready to think and be sick and tired of being sick of tired in honor of the great Mrs. Hamer.

7. Watch the debate at the Top Notch Sports Bar at 109 Culley Drive. We don't know their politics--football?--but clearly you can get a beer. It's a sports bar, fool.

Meantime, join our open discussion about the debate here. Follow us on Twitter @jxnfreepress and @jfppolitics for even more. (Where were you when Twitter broke? We expect it'll be tonight.)

http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2012/oct/29/9091/

Spirit Halloween, owned by ACON Investments, is running ads for costumes the company labels for teens and tweens with sexual references and innuendo.

The Mississippi State Chapter of the National Organization for Women, a liberal feminist group, and Concerned Women for America, a conservative group, are two organizations that rarely see eye-to-eye. Spirit Halloween's advertisements, which blatantly market sex to underage girls, have given the groups a common enemy to fight.

One advertisement for a "Rag Doll Teen Costume" finished with the lines: "you are all grown up now, so why not find out if big boys like to play with dolls!"

Spirit Halloween responded to a campaign on Twitter and Change.org by removing most of the sexual references in their teen and preteen costume descriptions. Many parents are still boycotting the company, though, because they still sell many costumes for minors which feature short skirts, low-cut tops and long stockings, which the women at NOW think are too sexual for young girls.

“Although Spirit changed the shocking sexual content in many of their kids’ costume ads in response to a Twitter campaign by outraged parents and consumers, the issue still remains that Spirit Halloween and its owner, ACON Investments have refused to pull their totally inappropriate sexualized children’s costumes off the market. They are marketing extremely revealing, short, tight-fitting dresses and skirts to our children – many of their kids costumes look like adult fantasy sex costumes. This is not about adult women's choices to wear sexy costumes, this is about Spirit Halloween and ACON marketing sexualized costumes to girls as young as 9 and 13 years old – they are offering sickening and horrible costume choices for children that parents don’t want,” Miss. Now president Laurie Roberts stated in a press release.

You can see the advertisements with the sexual innuendo here: Spirit Halloween

You can also sign the petition to boycott Spirit Halloween here: Change.org

I got my hopes up today when I saw an item on a city council workshop meeting agenda about a tax increment financing (TIF) for a hotel project in downtown Jackson. We've heard rumors for weeks the city is close to a deal with a hotel management group to build and open a much-needed convention center hotel.

Unfortunately, this wasn't it.

The city council meeting didn't happen because there weren't four members present at 4 p.m., but mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. stuck around long enough to fill us in on that item.

"This is not the much-anticipated convention center hotel," Johnson said. "This is another much-anticipated hotel down on West Street at the site of the old Mississippi Valley Title building. ... It's a good project, it's an exciting project, but it's not the convention center hotel."

Westin Hotels has apparently bought the old MS Valley Title building, and plans on tearing it down to put in a hotel at the same location. Details on the plan are not available yet, but the agenda item to be voted on by the city council at tomorrow's regularly-scheduled 10 a.m. meeting calls for the city to provide tax incentives not to exceed $1.75 million to the hotel group.

The mayor added that they are in talks with a hotel group about the convention center hotel project, and that hopefully they would have something to say about that before the end of the month, which is his last day in office before mayor-elect Chokwe Lumumba takes office on July 1.

"We just need to figure out exactly what we need to do to make sure of what the city's portion of the deal would be, and try to get some indication from them that that proposal would be acceptable," Johnson said. "Then they can move ahead with some financing. At that point, we'll pass some kind of resolution of support or something along those lines."

Hopefully the city council will get a quorum tomorrow, because I'd sure like to hear more about the deal.

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood's office sent out the following news release this afternoon:

Jackson, MS—A Hinds County resident has been arrested a second time for depraved heart murder, announced Attorney General Jim Hood today.

Tracey Lynn Garner (formerly known as Morris Garner), age 52, of Jackson was arrested Thursday (June 13) by Investigators with the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office Consumer Protection Division Intellectual Property Task Force, with assistance from investigators with the Attorney General’s Cyber Crime Unit, and charged with one count of depraved heart murder.

Garner has been indicted in Hinds County on the recent charges involving the death of a Selma, Alabama resident while Garner was performing a buttocks augmentation. The indictment alleges that Garner, on or about January 13, 2010, “did kill Marilyn Hale…by means of injecting a silicone substance into the body of Marilyn Hale, thereby committing an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved heart.”

Garner was arrested at his home where he was under house arrest facing charges in another depraved heart murder case involving the death of Atlanta Georgia resident, Karima Gordon, who also allegedly received injections of a foreign and possible counterfeit substance during an illegal buttocks augmentation performed by Garner at his 1020 Peyton Avenue address in Jackson.

“Our intellectual property task force is involved in these cases to investigate the possibility that the substances injected into the victims were a counterfeit version of silicone,” said Attorney General Hood

The Attorney General encourages anyone who may have received a buttocks or breast augmentation from this defendant to please notify the AG’s Consumer Protection Division at 1-800-281-4418.

If convicted of these crimes, Garner faces up to life in prison. As with all cases, the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The case is being investigated by Lee McDivitt and Richie McCluskey of the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division Intellectual Property Task Force. Prosecution of the case will handled by the division director, Assistant Attorney General Patrick Beasley.

http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2013/jun/17/12226/

Lots to do right here in Jackson this weekend.

Jackson auditions are Oct. 5.

When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. — Thomas Jefferson

This afternoon, Gov. Phil Bryant followed through on his promise to issue an executive order for BlueCross & BlueShield of Mississippi to accept 10 Hospital Management Associates facilities into their provider networks.

The health companies have been beefing over money for a few months now.

Bryant had said that if the parties didn't work something out, he would step in order to ensure continuity in patient access to care.

Obviously aware of that given his chest beating about the government staying out of the affairs of private businesses, meddling with BCBS/HMA might come off as hypocritical (see his opposition to Medicaid expansion and Obamacare in general), Bryant's statement to the press reads:

"The Order issued by Gov. Bryant does not attempt to resolve the parties’ dispute over prior payments under their contracts, and it expresses no opinion and has no effect on that issue or their ongoing lawsuit. Rather, the Order is intended to preserve access to care until a full investigation is complete."

Bryant hoped the sides could come up with a resolution, but when they did not, said "as governor, I cannot sit back and allow Mississippian’s access to care to be threatened in violation of state law."

His order, good for at least 60 days, comes one day after Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney announced a deal whereby four HMA would be considered part of BCBS' network.

If the governor's actions are puzzling in that context, remember that Bryant also fought Chaney, a fellow Republican statewide officeholder, on setting up a state-based health-care exchange for the Affordable Care Act. The tiff caused the federal government to step in and set an exchange on Mississippi's behalf.

So, yeah, our governor has some control issues.

Here is a verbatim statement just issued by the University of Mississippi:

At the request of Chancellor Dan Jones, the university’s Alumni Association has offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of two individuals involved in an early morning incident on The University of Mississippi campus.

The University Police Department (UPD) is looking for two men who were seen early Sunday morning near the James Meredith statue, which commemorates the 1962 integration of the university. One of the men was reported to have been wearing camouflage pants. The statue had been draped with a noose and an old Georgia state flag, and the men were heard shouting racial slurs.

Jones condemned the action as contrary to the beliefs and values of the university community. “These individuals chose our university’s most visible symbol of unity and educational accessibility to express their disagreement with our values. Their ideas have no place here, and our response will be an even greater commitment to promoting the values that are engraved on the statue – Courage, Knowledge, Opportunity, and Perseverance.”

Assistant to the Chancellor for Multicultural Affairs Don Cole reiterated the creed that the university stands by. “This is particularly painful because the James Meredith statue has become a gathering place for students to discuss many things, including the tenets of our creed, which calls for dignity and respect for all people.”

UPD has initiated a rigorous investigation and alerted Oxford Police. Anyone with information concerning the investigation is urged to contact UPD at 662-915-7234.

Contact: PR Director Danny Blanton, 662-915-1678, [email protected]

For more information about the University of Mississippi, visit http://news.olemiss.edu or sign up for our RSS feed at http://rebs.ms/umnewsrss. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter at http://rebs.ms/UMsocial.

The Mississippi Republican Party has responded to the McDaniel campaign in the form of a statement to the public and a letter to Chris McDaniel's attorney, Mitch Tyner, from Joe Nosef, MS GOP chairman. (Here's the letter in PDF format.)

The upshot is that the MS GOP is suggesting to Tyner that they go ahead and take their fight to court, in part because the MS GOP's executive committee would only have 24 hours starting Aug 13th (once the requisite seven days notice for a meeting was circulated) to figure out whether it makes sense to overturn a U.S. Senate primary result. That's just one day before McDaniel would be forced by law to go to court on Aug 14th.

So, they're punting. (Which sometimes makes sense on Fourth and Forever.)

Jackson, MS. –– Joe Nosef, Chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party, issued the following statement today regarding a challenge to the results of the June 24th primary runoff and a letter sent today by Chairman Nosef to Mitch Tyner, lawyer for the Chris McDaniel campaign:

"Our 52-member volunteer Republican State Executive Committee has been asked to spend just five hours listening to legal arguments and then overturn a United States Senate primary in which over 360,000 Mississippians cast votes.

It is neither prudent nor possible in a single day for any political committee to process and review the significant amount of complex evidence necessary to make such a decision, and attempting to do so would be prejudicial to both candidates.

Under these circumstances, the only way to ensure that the integrity of the Mississippi Republican Party and our election process remains intact is to have a proper, public review of this matter through the judicial system in a court of law. Both candidates have said they look forward to such a review, and now is the time. "

The Tea Party’s Prayer:

“We ask for your blessing upon the conservatives in this state, that they might stand strong and firm. Father, we even ask for you to bless our enemies, and Lord they are truly our enemies that head the Republican Party and the whole political establishment.

‘We’re asking, Father, for two things. We’re asking, Father, that you would expose them, set division amongst them, set them one against another, bring confusion and fear into their camp, into their thinking, for the purpose of pulling them down, for casting them down out of their high offices and reducing them, Lord, to having no power in this state.

“So, Lord, that you might raise up and seek the righteous in the positions of power that this state might once more be a state that honors you in all that it does.”

I’m not this good at satire. These words, in this order, were truly spoken when Mississippi Tea Party Chairman Roy Nicholson included them in his opening prayer at a Tea Party meeting on Monday.

Something tells me this is not how Christianity works.

Still, the crowd gave a generous “mhm” as the man on the stage asked God to smite the GOP.

The group was welcoming blogger Charles Johnson from California to speak about the U.S. Senate election, through which he’s made a name for himself. Tea Partier Tricia Raymond called Johnson a fearless bulldog, saying “God gave us this red-haired man.”

The red-haired prophet then went on to chastise Mississippi’s 76-year-old U.S. Senator for living in a house with his executive assistant and defended the men who broke into the Senator’s wife’s nursing home to take pictures of her by using the First Amendment as justification.

“Father, we’re asking that in all of the tribulations were asking you to bring upon them, that it would work change in their heart—that you would use it to bring true Godly sorrow, that they might truly repent for their iniquity and their wickedness, for that they would be restored to you, that you would have honor in the state of Mississippi for the great works that you’ve done in correcting and purifying the government and rescuing and saving the worst of us,” Nicholson went on about the establishment Republicans.

It was the most ominous tea party I’d ever been to.

Jackson City Councilman De'Keither Stamps, of Ward 4, says he voted against the Trilogy Engineering Inc. contract to do a corrosion study for the city last week because it is an "unfunded mandate" by the State of Mississippi—and one the taxpayers cannot afford. In two videos on his YouTube channel, Stamps said his main priority wasn't who was getting the contract, but that the State was demanding that the City suddenly pay $400,000 for a corrosion study, instead of helping the capital city.

"I know several of the subcontractors personally," he says in the most recent video (see below). The issue is I don’t want to spend $400,000 when we don’t have it. This is an unfunded mandate from the State of Mississippi. If they can help us, I’m all for it. … It’s not something we’ve budgeted for."

Stamps, who has unsuccessfully asked for an emergency declaration over the lead issue several times, says the City needs stand and/or federal assistance in order to make sure Jackson residents are safe, especially in areas where 90 percent of the water tested positive for at least trace elements of lead.

"I want to test every child in the whole city that’s in these affected areas," he said in the second video below.

U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves dismissed the ACLU's lawsuit that tried to dismantle House Bill 1523 before it becomes law next week. In his order, Reeves wrote that the ACLU's complaint did not satisfy the criteria for him to issue a preliminary injunction to block HB1523 from becoming law. Reeves wrote that the plaintiffs needed to prove that injury was "imminent" in order for a preliminary injunction to be considered. The plaintiffs, Nykolas Alford and Stephen Thomas are engaged to be married but do not plan to do so for a few years. Reeves said for a threat to be imminent, it "threatens to occur immediately."

"Alford and Thomas’s injury, if one exists, would arise when they apply for a marriage license. But they declare that they will apply for their license sometime within the next three years," Reeves wrote. "That is not imminent. The ACLU has the same problem. If a member of the ACLU intends to enter into a same-sex marriage in 2017, any injury is at least six months away."

Human Rights Campaign state director Rob Hill reiterated that HB1523 is dangerous and hateful legislation, in response to the order.

“H.B. 1523 represents the worst of Mississippi. If allowed to go into effect next week, it will lead to widespread discrimination against LGBTQ Mississippians at work, school and in family life. The business community -- including local and national companies and organizations such as Nissan, General Electric, the Mississippi Economic Council, the Mississippi Manufacturing Association and more -- has roundly condemned this dangerous bill," Hill said in a statement. "It will do harm to our community, our families and our economy and we must not allow it to stand. In the coming weeks, HRC will continue our ongoing efforts to ensure this bill is ultimately struck down or repealed.”

Judge Reeves will hold hearings for the two other lawsuits filed against House Bill 1523 together on Thursday this week. HB1523 will go into effect on July 1 if Reeves does not issue a preliminary injunction blocking it from becoming law.

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has denied Gov. Phil Bryant and MDHS Executive Director John Davis' motions to stay the injunction that blocked House Bill 1523 from becoming law. Bryant and Davis asked the court to expedite their appeal, and that application was also denied.

The 5th Circuit did allow the two HB 1523 cases to be consolidated, but the court will not issue a stay on U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves' injunction or expedite the a hearing for the governor's appeal of the bill.

The conservative legal organization, Alliance Defending Freedom, is providing co-counsel for the governor's appeal in the 5th Circuit. HB 1523 was based, at least in part, on language from a model policy that ADF sent to the governor's office before same-sex marriage was legalized nationally in 2015.

Rob McDuff, one of the lawyers for plaintiffs, called the order a great victory.

"Two and a half months after we filed this challenge to HB 1523, the federal courts once again have held that the bill should not take effect. This is a great victory for the thousands of Mississippians who have opposed this bill in the name of tolerance and fairness and dignity for all," he said in a statement to the Jackson Free Press. "Although the Governor apparently will continue with his appeal, this is an important milestone in the battle against this completely misguided piece of legislation."

“We are pleased with the Fifth Circuit’s summary denial of the governor’s motion and look forward to final resolution of this matter in our favor,” said Beth Orlansky, advocacy director of the Mississippi Center for Justice said in a statement.

Read the motion here. Read more about HB 1523 here.

This post has been updated with statement from the MS Center for Justice and Rob McDuff.

Gov. Phil Bryant announced at MEC Capital Day on Thursday that Mississippi won the Business Facilities’ 2016 Economic Development Deal of the Year for sealing the deal with Continental Tire, which is set to open a tire plant outside of Clinton in Hinds County.

“To be chosen as the top recipient of Business Facilities’ 2016 Economic Development Deal of the Year national competition is a great honor for the state, the Mississippi Development Authority, Hinds County and the numerous individuals who worked tirelessly to bring Continental to Hinds County,” said Bryant said in an MDA press release. “This award confirms the state’s position as one of the top destinations for business and is something in which all Mississippians should take pride. I appreciate the team at Business Facilities for recognizing our efforts with this top honor.”

Bryant called a special legislative session last year to ram through the incentives package that brought Continental Tire to Mississippi in the first place. Continental invested $1.45 billion in the state, and eventually, the plant is supposed to create 2,500 jobs over the next decade. The state spent over $600 million in bonds and tax breaks to bring the German-based tire manufacturer to Hinds County, an AP analysis shows.

Bryant is a fan of tax cuts to bring in economic development projects. At the Jackson Marriott on Thursday, he reiterated his dedication to tax incentives to bring development and jobs to the state.

"Without tax incentives we've offered companies, they would not be here," Bryant told business leaders on Thursday.

The Hinds County tire plant will open with 100 jobs in 2018, but currently, the company is issuing contracts for development of the almost 1,000-acre plot. Mississippi companies are strongly encouraged to apply, but any company can bid on the contracts.