Jackson Free Press

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 …

What will the election of new Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba mean for our somewhat besieged city and the communities that surround it? (anyone who lives in the Jackson metro area and who doesn’t believe that as Jackson goes so goes the metro area is being both short-sighted and provincial). How will he choose to govern the city, and how will his lifetime of civil rights activism and his career as a defense lawyer influence his decision making and term as mayor?

College football finishes rounding the midway point this weekend. Last week was great for some and painful to watch for others. If you missed anything, check out the recap in this week's JFP or [with this link][1].

Finally, the Saints can play football instead of talking about suspensions and bounties. Although, on Friday New Orleans got some good news when the players who were effected by "Bounty Gate" got their Suspensions lifted. That is not the end of the bounty situation but it does end it for week one. New Orleans opens the season at home against the Washington Redskins and their rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III. Facing a rookie quarterback is an advantage for the Saints in week one. Preseason games feature vanilla defenses and offenses so RG3 hasn't seen a complete NFL defense but more than likely the Saints didn't the Redskins full offense featuring Griffin in the preseason.

Campaigns at their heart are moments in time. The successful campaign will seize on a feeling in the air, the candidate and his or her supporters will walk the streets and gather intelligence on what’s being discussed in the barbershops and beauty shops and salons and supermarkets and churches. Then, having figured out what the people think is important, and what they think needs to be changed or improved or eliminated, the campaign will take that grass roots intelligence and fashion it into a rationale for their candidate, will create a memorable campaign slogan and set of reasonable and somewhat bland priorities packaged into a 4- or 5- or 6-point plan. (4 seems to be the number this year in the mayoral race). And to most people, that will be the “campaign” that they see.

Today, Tate Reeves addressed the 40th annual confab of the American Legislative Exchange Council in Chicago.

In praising ALEC, Reeves took a shot at venerated Mississippi columnist Bill Minor.

Reeves said:

"Well, a few months ago he decided to attack ALEC," he said of Minor. "You see – Mr. Minor doesn’t believe legislators from around the country should gather to share ideas on how government can get out of the way so businesses can grow. Even more sinister, legislators also listen to businessmen and women on ways to add jobs and raise the personal income of our constituents.

Know that Steve (Seale) wasted no time in setting Mr. Minor straight on ALEC’s purpose – to act as a “forum for lawmakers to share ideas, grow a stronger Democracy and help make government work more efficiently and effectively.”

For the uninitiated, ALEC is like an Obamacare health-care exchange for conservative legislation. It's where conservative lawmakers shop for conservative legislation to earn political support of conservative voters.

Here's a press release from Reeves' office, which includes the full text of his speech:

MISSISSIPPI WORKS TO STRENGTHEN BUSINESS CLIMATE, LT. GOV. REEVES TELLS LEGISLATORS, BUSINESS OWNERS

CHICAGO – Mississippi is open for business and seeing success in attracting more jobs, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves told a crowd of legislators from around the country at the 40th Annual Meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Lt. Gov. Reeves recounted legislative successes to grow businesses and reform education at the closing lunch with economist Dr. Arthur Laffer, who was member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board. Because Lt. Gov. Reeves was a featured speaker, ALEC funded his trip, and no taxpayer dollars were spent. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad also spoke at the meeting.

“With every bill that crosses my desk … I ask ‘Does this help the private sector grow and create jobs for Mississippians?’” Lt. Gov. Reeves told the audience. “That’s the approach we’ve tried in Mississippi. It’s working.”

In ALEC’s Rich States, Poor States report, Mississippi earned the 10th best economic outlook of all the states. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis ranked the state’s GDP growth rate 17th in the nation after the economy grew 2.4 percent in 2012.

Lt. Gov. Reeves cited the 2012 updates to the workers compensation law, the $150 million tax break on inventory costs for small business and the Attorney General Sunshine Act as ways Mississippi is improving the business climate. He also spoke of education reform efforts in 2013 to provide students with a better opportunity for success.

“We can’t have a strong business climate without a strong workforce,” Lt. Gov. Reeves said. “And we can’t have a strong workforce without better education. It’s a simple formula, and one Mississippi has to master.”

Text of Lt. Gov. Reeves’ speech:

ALEC 2013 – Closing Lunch

I appreciate the privilege of speaking to you today. Appearing on the same …

Hello readers. You might remember me from my time at the JFP as the writer of the bi-monthly column “The Key of G,” where I covered local and national music, as well as just musing about different topics related to music in general.

One of the things I liked to do was to make top 10 release lists at the end of the given year. While I did enjoy that, I always felt a little disingenuous, because I don’t listen to that much new music; I spend most of my time digging for and listening to old records. Hence, my top 10 lists would barely be made, as I squeezed in a few listens right at the end of the year to go with the few albums from artists that I always check for. Further, I never kept a running list, so my top 10 would have omissions, on top of my already poor sample size. (For instance, I somehow left Robert Glasper’s “Black Radio” off of last year’s list).

But this year has been different. I made it my mission to listen to as many new releases as possible, and to document them. What I have now is a list of 60 new albums that I have listened to and ranked in order. Mind you, this list is not meant to be definitive; there is a lot that I didn’t listen to for several reasons, mainly just because there isn’t enough time in the day to hear everything. I did listen to almost everything from artists that I am a fan of, which is something I have done a poor job of over the years. I also branched out to some artists I never was a fan of before, even though I knew who they were and ignored them on purpose. The results are fairly predictable. I also discovered some new artists I had never heard of at all, which was quite nice in most instances.

So, over the next several weeks, I am going to present you all with a ranked list of the 60 albums I listened to this year. Again, this list is not intended to be definitive at all; it is just a list of what I listened to, ranked solely by my opinions. I am sure there will be some disagreement and head scratching, but some of you might also see some new things that interest you that you go check out. And that’s what it’s all about anyway. Thanks for reading and indulging my opinions.

Click Here for 60-51

50) Arcade Fire “Reflektor” OK, I know I have this album placed way too low. I know that it is probably the greatest album of the year. I get that. While nowhere near as groundbreaking as the fanboys would like us to believe, it is sonically adventurous, taking the listener through many places and genres sometimes within a couple of jarring seconds. As corny as it sounds, they do a …

Hello readers. You might remember me from my time at the JFP as the writer of the bi-monthly column “The Key of G,” where I covered local and national music, as well as just musing about different topics related to music in general.

One of the things I liked to do was to make top 10 release lists at the end of the given year. While I did enjoy that, I always felt a little disingenuous, because I don’t listen to that much new music; I spend most of my time digging for and listening to old records. Hence, my top 10 lists would barely be made, as I squeezed in a few listens right at the end of the year to go with the few albums from artists that I always check for. Further, I never kept a running list, so my top 10 would have omissions, on top of my already poor sample size. (For instance, I somehow left Robert Glasper’s “Black Radio” off of last year’s list).

But this year has been different. I made it my mission to listen to as many new releases as possible, and to document them. What I have now is a list of 60 new albums that I have listened to and ranked in order. Mind you, this list is not meant to be definitive; there is a lot that I didn’t listen to for several reasons, mainly just because there isn’t enough time in the day to hear everything. I did listen to almost everything from artists that I am a fan of, which is something I have done a poor job of over the years. I also branched out to some artists I never was a fan of before, even though I knew who they were and ignored them on purpose. The results are fairly predictable. I also discovered some new artists I had never heard of at all, which was quite nice in most instances.

So, over the next several weeks, I am going to present you all with a ranked list of the 60 albums I listened to this year. Again, this list is not intended to be definitive at all; it is just a list of what I listened to, ranked solely by my opinions. I am sure there will be some disagreement and head scratching, but some of you might also see some new things that interest you that you go check out. And that’s what it’s all about anyway. Thanks for reading and indulging my opinions.

Click HERE for 60-51 Click HERE for 50-41 Click HERE for 40-31 Click HERE for 30-21

20) Chance the Rapper “Acid Rap” You want to know something that makes me feel old? Having a rapper in the top 20 who was born during the golden age of hip hop. I mean, I already had my favorite artists established by ’93. It is so weird. And we are going to remember these days. …

Finally it is that time of year, the return of of college football. O.k. to be honest there was college football on Saturday when FCS teams Eastern Washington and Sam Houston State played and on Wednesday night Georgia State faced Abilene Christian.

Nearly the rest of the college football world begins play this Thursday through Monday. This weekend offers a plethora of intriguing games with some big matchups sprinkled in the mix as well.

Now that my daughter is sleeping through the night (fingers crossed), I hope I will have time to do weekly picks once more. The upside is having a daughter now, if my picks go badly I can let her make them.

Here are this week's picks (starting with Mississippi teams) with the winners in bold:

Mississippi versus Boise State (Thursday/7 pm/ESPN)

This game is going to be played in the Georgia Dome as Boise State makes the long distance trip. The Broncos are one of the last mid-majors not to have moved to a bigger conference. The Rebels get a national audience to announce to the rest of the country all those recruits have arrived.

Boise State finally lost head coach Chris Petersen and replaced him with Bryan Harsin former BSU quarterback and offensive coordinator. The Broncos have slipped a bit recently from the height of their mid-major power.

Mississippi is one of the trendy choices for dark horse in the SEC this season. The Rebels will have more talent on the field and should blow this game open in the second half.

Boise State will keep this game close but they don't have the talent to win as Mississippi is a better team.

Southern Miss at Mississippi State (Saturday/6:30 pm/SEC Network)

Southern Miss might be on the right track under Todd Monken and on road back to where neither state SEC wanted to play them. Mississippi State has slowly built an impressive squad under Dan Mullen.

The Bulldogs have more talent but expect the Golden Eagles to put up a fight for a half. Brighter days are ahead for Southern Miss but not this Saturday. Bulldogs will roll.

Florida A&M at Jackson State (Saturday/6 pm)

These two teams haven't met in a decade. Florida A&M is coming off a losing season and Jackson State is breaking in a new head coach and quarterback.

This game will be close but the Tigers are at home. The Rattlers are going to be a tough out but I trust in JSU.

Virginia University at Lynchburg at Alcorn State (Saturday/4 pm)

Alcorn State wins. In fact, the Braves win big...very big.

University of Faith at Mississippi Valley State (Saturday/4 pm)

The Delta Devils start the Rick Comegy era off with a big win.

Belhaven at Texas College

Just a gut feeling, I'm picking the Blazers.

The rest

Texas A&M at South Carolina (Thursday/5 pm/SEC Network)

The Gamecocks are replacing the number one pick in …

OK, Snark King, it's your turn.

I've had it in the back of my head to blog about a really offensive post by The Clarion-Ledger's city reporter Brian Eason for weeks now, but it had fallen to the side in the need to report actual news. But while cleaning up my desk today, I started noticing a pattern—first from a clipping of another snarky thing he wrote calling a whole city office stupid, and then I saw a blog post belittling an enterprise story by our staff this week, but without actually saying what was in it or linking to it. So here's my Friday afternoon round-up of what I've been noticing about Mr. Eason's snark, which I assume is meant to be humor, except none of it is funny.

No. 1. Don't dare compare crime to terrorism, dumb little council candidate. After 20-year-old minister Corinthian Sanders decided to get involved enough to run for City Council, he made the mistake of saying that the "terrorism" of crime was one of his top priorities (as if he's the first to ever say that here). Sanders told the Jackson Free Press: "Let’s talk about getting our lawbreakers, criminals—I call them terrorists….(If) you can’t go anywhere without killing someone or robbing someone or terrorizing someone, that’s terror, (and) you’re a terrorist; you’re a domestic terrorist.” The mention of the word terrorism tickled Eason's funny bone. He snarked:

"To my knowledge, no major terrorist attacks have occurred or been planned on our streets, and the Jackson Police Department reported no terrorist incidents in 2012, according to its published crime stats. But maybe that’s what the terrorists want us to think.

"Lest anyone think Sanders is trying to politicize the Boston Marathon bombing, rest assured, his commitment to fighting terrorism on the streets of Jackson predated the explosions at the marathon.

"But while Sanders listed counter-terrorism as his No. 2 priority, right behind “protect, improve and increase affordable housing,” none of his competitors — or, indeed, any other candidates in the entire metro area — mentioned local terrorism as a problem worthy of their consideration.

Eason's blog post shows he later clarified what Sanders meant, and quoted Sanders' above words from the JFP in an addendum to the snark-post, but that nasty horse was out of Eason's barn by then. That's what you get for running for office in Jackson, Corinthian. The ire of a native Dallasonian. And I really don't know what all his references to monkey videos on your Facebook page were about, and don't care.

No. 2. In a post called "Common sense? Not at clerk's office," Eason showed the entire staff of the Jackson city clerk's office not to mess with him, no sir. He was irked that he couldn't get election results from the clerk's office at 11 a.m. the day after the primary. They didn't have certified results available, yet, and gave him a bit of a runaround. OK, it's fair to …

Today, University of Mississippi Chancellor Dan Jones released the following recommendations regarding diversity and inclusion:

Action Plan on Consultant Reports and Update on the Work of the Sensitivity and

Respect Committee

To: All Who Love The University of Mississippi

From: Dan Jones, Chancellor

Aug. 1, 2014

In the summer of 2013, an expanded Sensitivity and Respect (S&R) Committee

completed its review of the university’s environment on race and related issues.

Following the committee’s report, two consultants with relevant experience at major

universities were assigned separate but complementary tasks. One was charged with

evaluating the University of Mississippi’s organizational structure related to diversity and

inclusion, and the other explored issues the committee raised concerning building names

and symbols. (Both consultant reports are attached.)

We are grateful for the good work of the S&R Committee and our independent advisors.

Consultants Ed Ayers and Christy Coleman have been leaders in Richmond, VA, in

establishing a more balanced view of history for that community, where symbolism has

been a prominent topic. Their recommendations encourage us to broaden the visible

symbols of our history to be more intentionally inclusive. Greg Vincent offers insight

about our organizational structure out of his own experience reorganizing the approach at

the University of Texas, where they adopted several time-tested practices implemented at

other flagship universities, including creation of a new senior level leadership position

with a focus on diversity.

Both of these reports are candid in suggesting that more can be done here to improve our

environment for diversity and inclusion. Both also note the good work and positive spirit

for continued progress in our university. Our success in improving diversity within our

faculty and student body has been dramatic, but we can do more. And despite negative

publicity related to recent bias-related incidents, it is good news that the number of

minority applicants to the university continues to increase each year. In addition, the

improvement in diversity within our faculty has been extraordinary, placing us among the

top three flagship universities in the nation in percentage of African American faculty

members. Still, we can and will do more.

It is my hope that the action plan outlined here – reflecting the hard work of the S&R

Committee and our consultants – will prove valuable in making us a stronger and

healthier university, bringing us closer to our goal of being a warm and welcoming place

for every person every day, regardless of race, religious preference, country of origin,

ability, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or gender expression. We know that the

issues discussed here are associated with many evolving attitudes and opinions. There

were and will continue to be differences of opinion among us. But I am encouraged that

while our discussions over recent months were frank, even tough, they also were civil and 2

We're trying to find the context of the $294,000/grant accusation in the email the Lee campaign sent out, but wouldn't document. We found the 2008 Clarion-Ledger story that the Lee campaign cited, as well as stories in the JFP. First, the Ledger story.

It was about then-Mayor Melton's abysmal financial management. It mentions the administration's complaints about problems left over from Johnson--which I personally take with a grain of salt until I find out the context. Because if there was anybody who could blame anyone but themselves, it was the Melton administration. Here's the relevant part of the story, "City not responding to suggestions":

"An employee hired by Mayor Frank Melton to assess Jackson's fiscal situation says she is fed up with Melton and his department heads for not responding to her recommendations to fix the city's bookkeeping problems. Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Valerie Nevels, a former Internal Revenue Service criminal investigator, said the mayor has not reinforced her suggestions. ...Nevels outlined to the City Council Budget Committee and various department heads a recent audit of city finances. She said it indicated sloppy accounting has left the city at risk of losing millions in federal funds and blurred its financial condition. The audit examined records from Oct. 1, 2005, to Sept. 30, 2006. To improve financial management in the city, Nevels has tried training personnel in such areas as filing quarterly reviews, balancing accounts monthly and setting firm deadlines for purchases and transfers. But employees have ignored the procedures and guidelines she passed out Oct. 1, she said. Nevels said Melton's response was for her to "make it happen." ...

...Melton and Walker said the city's poor accounting practices are left over from previous administrations. Nevels concurred, saying that during former Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr.'s administration, the city had more people working on financial statements and grants but the same problems existed. Johnson, mayor from 1997-2005, said his administration "took great pains to make sure the financial system was adequate. Johnson said that in his last year as mayor the city's bond rating was increased twice. Despite his efforts, Johnson's administration left behind some mismanaged grants, which the current administration and council had to deal with last fall. The city had to repay more than $294,000 on a grant because the grant was not spent in the required time period. Another $29,412 had to be repaid for the same period. "Clearly (Johnson) didn't walk away from this enterprise with clean hands, nor is the Melton administration going to walk away with clean hands," council President Leslie Burl McLemore said.

I vaguely remembered this controversy because it surprised us that a Melton hire was whistle-blowing on him. So I searched our database and found these stories about the problems that Nevel revealed: No Oversight Costing City Nobody Minding the Store

Adam Lynch also reported on Johnson and grants in this story right after he returned to office.

Although all of those stories bring back painful Melton-era …

There has been plenty of talk this week about the state of TV ratings for NFL games. Currently, the league is experiencing a dip of 10 to 11 percent in the ratings from the previous season.

Everyone is speculating what is causing the ratings to drop, but there is no magical answer to the decline in viewership.

But here are my reasons, from smallest to biggest.

6. Scandals

It seems like the scandals never end in the NFL—Bountygate, Conclusions, Deflategate, domestic violence by players, and so on and so forth.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see fans stop tuning in because they are tired of hearing about a different scandal each week. After a while, everyone gets fed up with the constant, never-ending negative news coming out of the league.

These fans will probably return around the playoffs as long as another giant scandal doesn’t grip the league for the rest of the season. If the scandals keep up, these fans could find something else to watch.

5. Anthem Protest

Just look on Facebook or other social media sites, and you will see articles on folks protesting the protesters in the NFL.

Since players started kneeling during the national anthem, fans have supported and criticized the players involved. Those who dislike the protest have decided not to watch.

Casual fans and those who don’t follow a team regularly are probably the ones more likely to not watch because of the anthem protests. Hardcore Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh Steelers and other national-team fans are going to tune in each week.

These fans will come back at some point, but they will probably not watch while they are mad at the players. Few people are that upset over the players to not watch at all, so in reality, this could make up a small number of viewer loss.

4. MLB Playoffs

The ratings for the MLB playoffs are up this year. Why? Because fans have strong interest in the teams still alive this postseason.

They want to see if the Chicago Cubs can break their curse and win their first World Series since 1908. They want to see if the Cleveland Indians can win their first World Series since 1948.

With the playoff games on TBS, MLB Network and FS1, fans are finding channels they don’t normally tune into and watching this postseason.

MLB’s postseason is going to steal more casual fans from NFL games. Everyone wants to see something they have never seen before, and a ton of people have never seen a Cubs or Indians team win the World Series.

These fans will return to football once the World Series is over in late October or early November, depending how long the series lasts. This is one of the few times in recent years that the MLB playoffs have been more compelling than the NFL regular season.

3. Too Much NFL

A dark storm is brewing in and near Natchez, Miss., after the publisher of MissLou Magazine, The Natchez Sun and Natchez Sun XPress made shocking statements about young black people on Jan. 11, 2017, apparently in jest.

Peter Rinaldi wrote in a MissLou Magazine column titled, "Bang, Bang, You're Dead": "Natchez has become increasingly dangerous in the last eight years. As the population becomes more demographically poor, uneducated, unskilled and dominantly African American, the number of shootings has gone through the roof."

Rinaldi then lists three shootings and two deaths since the year started. He then added: "This is not such a bad thing, as one cynic remarked. The more criminals who shoot each other and are 'taken out,' the safer it is for the rest of us, the logic goes. Three shootings, three bad guys eliminated. Fifty shootings, 50 bad guys eliminated."

Then, he turns to joking, it seems, saying that "we were glad to hear local officials have finally fashioned a new anti-violence plan, which will be advertised in print and on the airwaves shortly, with posters spread all over town." That plan, he wrote, is called the Natchez-Adams County Gangbangers' Rodeo, which will be held March 12 at 7 p.m. at Liberty Park (where Natchez's Klan rallies used to happen, but we'll get to that). It is open to those 13 and up.

Rinaldi then explains in detail how this "rodeo" will work: "Open to all gangbangers with a .45 or 9 mm handgun. Limited to 20 rounds per person. Entry fee $100. Must be paid in cash in advance. No checks." The participants will then get in a circle and start shooting each other when the referee fires the starter pistol. They all kill or maim each other, and the last one standing gets $10,000. Free hot dogs and beers will be served, as well as fireworks. DJ Mortem, he writes, will provide live rap music. (See images of his event description below.)

The Mississippi Rising Coalition on the Gulf Coast alerted me to the editorial. Lea Campbell of MRC sent me the following statement:

"This kind of blatantly racist and classist editorializing and commentary from the publisher of a magazine in the Natchez area is irresponsible and unacceptable. Widespread violence in a community is the symptom of underlying social problems like poverty, institutional and structural racism, underfunded and segregated educational systems, untreated mental illness among many, many others. Mr. Rinaldi fails to express an understanding of these factors and scapegoats the issue of increasing violence in a way that will only act to fuel further racial and class division in the community instead of bringing the various community members together to work on effective, sustainable solutions. Shame on him for using his power and platform in such a reckless, dehumanizing and negligent way."

She also sent this statement from an MRC member whose parents reside in Natchez: "There are a million reasons that these shootings are occurring, and not a single one of them is …

The JFP got more great news Friday night when we learned that we are winning two first-place and one second-place award from the Society of Professional Journalists' southeastern division. Valerie Wells takes first place for feature writing, the Personhood team (this time, including R.L. Nave and Adam Lynch) takes second place for public service, and I won first place for serious commentary. Here is the full press release. Cheers to the team, congratulations to all the winners. We're honored to be in your company:

It’s Thursday, so you know what time it is for the JFP Sports blog. Every Thursday, we look back and look ahead at all the action for the college football programs in Mississippi. Each week we name our biggest winner of the week and there were several teams in the running. Mississippi State entered the AP & USA Today top 25 polls and Jackson State go win number one of the season.

Alright, I am about to leave the office and hop on I-55 to Memphis, where I'll join up with MTV, VH1 and the Flaming Lips as the band tries perform a world-record 8 concerts in 24 hours. All the while, they will be hosting the O Music Awards, which will be broadcast for the entire 24 hours on OMusicAwards.com. I'll be taking the entire trip, hopefully. I'm definitely going to be there from Memphis to Jackson, including shows in Clarksdale and Oxford. Whether I continue on to Hattiesburg, Biloxi, Baton Rouge and New Orleans is largely up to the glorious Donna Ladd. I will be updating the blog with words and photos whenever I get the chance from the road. So as you watch the live online stream, go to the shows or do whatever life has in store for you over the next 28 hours or so, check in here for all the Flaming Lips world-record tour info you can handle.

Also, if you attend any of the shows, see the caravan pass by or run the Flaming Lips at a gas station, tell us about your experience here!

Update 5:54 p.m.: I called my contact with MTV on my way to Memphis to ask where I need to meet the media caravan. He told me that the bus was full, and I was not on the list, as Gayle from Text100 told me I was June 19. He is still going to give me passes to all of the shows, but I don't have a ride.

Gayle was extremely apologetic, and said there was something lost between her and the folks at MTV. She thought I was on the list.

Since I would have been stuck in Memphis with no ride, I came to Oxford, where I have friends going to the show. I'll be going to the show here, starting at 9 p.m. and following the band to Jackson (if my ride doesn't fall through, again).

My plan is to follow them on to Hattiesburg, and probably call it quits after that, as I don't think I'll be awake enough to drive after that. I'm pretty bummed that I didn't get on the media bus, especially after I was told that I had a spot on it. Not going to let it ruin my night, though. I'll still give you all updates from the road. I think Virginia Schreiber will take the photos in Jackson. I'm sure she'll share those as well. Check back for more updates from road, from Oxford to Hattiesburg...

Update 7:49 p.m.: I'm sitting at Ajax in Oxford. Just got a call from MTV, they said there is room on the bus after all. I already have a ride from Oxford to Jackson, and we can get to Jackson faster than caravan. So I'll get on media bus after Jackson show and follow the rest of the tour. Great to know someone got on the list and didn't care …

This falls in the can't-make-it-up column.

Most of you know that Mitchell Moore of Campbell's Bakery, who is straight, and Eddie Outlaw of William Wallace Salon, who is gay, and others started the amazing "If You're Buying, We're Selling" campaign. They want Mississippi business owners to put stickers in their windows to indicate that they don't discriminate, in response to SB 2681, Mississippi's version of the "Religious Freedom Restoration Act." (See lots of business owners with the icon in their ads in this week's JFP, too.)

So, the religious right is apparently not happy with the international media coverage the campaign is getting -- and from Mississippi, which is supposed to be their wheelhouse, you know. They really didn't like it when Emily Pettus of the AP (the JFP's next-door neighbors) did a story about this that was picked up by many outlets.

In response, they went on a PR tear to take back the messaging. Greg Scott, who tweets at @adfmedia, led the way, tweeting this week in response to the AP story: "Sticker folks protest imaginary law .@AP bows false narrative, RFRA not "vaguely written," no threat to "=treatment" http://bit.ly/QEU2El

Curious, I did some research. Turns out, Scott is the VP for media communications for Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly Alliance Defense Fund), a nonprofit group founded in 1994 by extreme-right and vocally anti-gay leaders including James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association. (Interestingly, Mississippi's Judge Charles Pickering is also on the board.)

Not to be outdone, the American Family Association, an alliance co-founder, also blasted the sticker campaign on a Christian "news" site, which is part of the American Family News Network, which is part of the ... American Family Association. "It's not really a buying campaign, but it's a bully campaign," said Buddy Smith, executive vice president of Tupelo-based American Family Association, "and it's being carried out by radical homosexual activists who intend to trample the freedom of Christians to live according to the dictates of scripture."

The Southern Poverty Law Center includes the alliance (and AFA) on its list of a dozen groups that drive the "religious right's anti-gay crusade." On its website, it brags that its "attorneys have successfully defended marriage as the union between one man and one woman in over 40 cases nationwide."

SPLC indicates that the alliance was established in the early 1990s in response to gay-rights battles in the courts—which it clearly believes is the "principal" threat to religious freedom. ADF President Alan Sears and Vice President Craig Osten wrote " The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom," which ties homosexuality to pedophilia and other "disordered sexual behavior."

SPLC states: "The ADF has also mounted legal challenges to gay military service, marriage, adoption and foster-parenting, as well as to domestic partner benefits around the nation. It trains other attorneys 'to battle the radical homosexual …

Hello readers. You might remember me from my time at the JFP as the writer of the bi-monthly column “The Key of G,” where I covered local and national music, as well as just musing about different topics related to music in general.

One of the things I liked to do was to make top 10 release lists at the end of the given year. While I did enjoy that, I always felt a little disingenuous, because I don’t listen to that much new music; I spend most of my time digging for and listening to old records. Hence, my top 10 lists would barely be made, as I squeezed in a few listens right at the end of the year to go with the few albums from artists that I always check for. Further, I never kept a running list, so my top 10 would have omissions, on top of my already poor sample size. (For instance, I somehow left Robert Glasper’s “Black Radio” off of last year’s list).

But this year has been different. I made it my mission to listen to as many new releases as possible, and to document them. What I have now is a list of 60 new albums that I have listened to and ranked in order. Mind you, this list is not meant to be definitive; there is a lot that I didn’t listen to for several reasons, mainly just because there isn’t enough time in the day to hear everything. I did listen to almost everything from artists that I am a fan of, which is something I have done a poor job of over the years. I also branched out to some artists I never was a fan of before, even though I knew who they were and ignored them on purpose. The results are fairly predictable. I also discovered some new artists I had never heard of at all, which was quite nice in most instances.

So, over the next several weeks, I am going to present you all with a ranked list of the 60 albums I listened to this year. Again, this list is not intended to be definitive at all; it is just a list of what I listened to, ranked solely by my opinions. I am sure there will be some disagreement and head scratching, but some of you might also see some new things that interest you that you go check out. And that’s what it’s all about anyway. Thanks for reading and indulging my opinions.

Click HERE for 60-51 Click HERE for 50-41 Click HERE for 40-31

30) Toro y Moi “Anything in Return” I came across Toro y Moi, the stage name of 27 year-old South Carolinian Chazwick Bradley Bundick, at the end of last year while reading through some best of 2012 lists (which is one of my favorite Christmas break pastimes). This guy began his recording career kind of lumped in the chillwave classification, a …