Immigration
Focus on Mississippi's Immigrants
Fellowship and good food trumped the torrential downpour last night for about 100 Jackson area residents who came out to show their support for a good cause.
Business
Getting Ready for the 1-Percent Sales Tax
Businesses across the state have emails in their inboxes from the Mississippi Department of Revenue about accounting for the capital city's 1-percent sales tax beginning March 1.
Politics
Colleges Recruited to Offer Teen-Pregnancy Solutions
SB 2563 specifies that colleges provide information on how to avoid pregnancy in "success courses and orientations," and incorporate facts about unplanned pregnancy in other academic classes.
Education
Starving the Public-Education 'Beast'
The statute that SB 2091 proposes to change contains the rules for MAEP, including how the Legislature should calculate funding for school districts.
City & County
Love, Laughter and Zippity Doo Dah
If laughter and love are balms for the soul—and surely they are—spending Valentine's Day morning with Jill Conner Browne provided plenty of both.
Health Care
Health-Care Navigators Fight Misinformation
Jarvis Dortch, program manager for the Mississippi Health Advocacy Group and a marketplace navigator for the Affordable Care Act, says many people don’t know that the ACA is the same …
City & County
Jackson Still Upbeat on Capitol Agenda
Part of Walter Zinn's job, as director of governmental affairs for Jackson, is lobbying for the interests of the capital city in the state Legislature, which can be frustrating.
City & County
Chamber May Unveil Sales-Tax Commission Members This Week
Now that Jacksonians overwhelmingly approved an additional 1 percent sales tax in January, the question of who will oversee the spending of those funds is coming into focus.
City & County
Alignment Jackson: Creating the Village
A powerful concept that promises to stem the growing tide of Jackson's high-school dropouts was on the agenda Feb. 4 at the Parents for Public Schools Lunch Bunch meeting at …
Art
Eudora Welty: Reading a Murderer’s Mind
Eudora Welty only wrote one story in anger. She drafted it the day she learned of Medgar Evers' assassination.
Cover
Who Loves Ya, Baby?
Before we can give love freely, we first have to love ourselves. It doesn't begin "out there."
Business
BCBS Change Sparks Concerns, Legislation
Dr. Elizabeth Perry and other health professionals are concerned about a new "benefit" that Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi has added to its plans this year to end …
Politics
Women’s Rights, Safety Again at Issue
Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, knows his anti-abortion "heartbeat" bill likely will not survive the current session of the Mississippi Legislature, but he introduced it anyway.
City & County
Jackson Rising Emphasizes Cooperatives
The topic was forming cooperatives when community leaders met with Jackson citizens Thursday night at the Jackson Roadmap to Health Equity center on Livingston Road.
Health Care
New BCBS Policy Raises Alarm
Physicians are alarmed about a new Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi policy that could take effect as early as Feb. 1. The insurance giant proposes to end prescription …
City & County
Council Hears Zoning Issues; Certifies Election
Jackson City Council members heard opposing views on zoning issues on Tuesday, Jan. 21, and some briefly called into question the results of Jan. 14 vote to approve a 1-percent …
Politics
Dems Push for Fair Pay
Democrats in the state Legislature are advocating a number of bills that put equal pay for women in the forefront.
Immigration
Pro-Immigrant Agenda Unveiled at Capitol
During MIRA's Civic Engagement Day, attendees walked from the MIRA office on North State Street to the state capitol.
Art
Clay Hardwick Turns Up the Arts
Clay Hardwick doesn't name his canvas creations. Instead, each piece carries the year, a season and a sequential number: "2012-fall-08," for example.
Media
Experts Stress Online Safety for Teens
Parents must be aware of how their children are interacting in an era of instant communication, and they must exercise control over spaces where nothing ever disappears—even when it's not …
Wellness
Start Where You Are
Every journey has a beginning. Trying to start in the middle—or at the end—is unrealistic and can leave us frustrated and defeated, even with a healthy dose of positive thinking.
Business
State Buckles Under Steep College Costs
New information from account-management service Manilla.com, a subsidiary of media conglomerate Hearst Corp., shows that Jackson is among the cities with the highest average student-loan debt.
City & County
Fighting Violence With Yoga
The therapeutic benefits of practicing yoga are well documented, but this coming weekend, the power of yoga will be on display in a different way.
City & County
Joyce Helmick: ‘Prove It’
Joyce Helmick has taught school for more than 37 years. In July, she took the leadership reins at the Mississippi Association of Educators, an organization that provides professional development for …
National
Tea Party Express Makes First 2014 Endorsement: McDaniel Over Cochran
The California-based Tea Party Express came to the Mississippi Capitol this morning to announce that it is endorsing state Sen. Chris McDaniel, a Republican from Jones County, to replace Republican …
City & County
‘Standing Close By’ The JFP Interview with Dr. Hannah Gay
Dr. Hannah Gay received international acclaim after the news of an apparent “cure” of an HIV-infected child in her care became public in March.
Business
Pearl Targets Low-Income Rentals
The city of Pearl is turning into a case study in ever-changing and ever-more-restrictive rental ordinances, which have some folks mad as hell.
Editor's Note
My Opening Farewell
After my many years with the JFP in numerous roles, the names and faces of all the dedicated souls who passed through the doors are too many to count or …
Health Care
Exchanges are Here, Like it or Not
Today, Oct. 1, 2013, marks day one of the health-insurance exchanges as outlined in the 2010 Affordable Care Act, aka "Obamacare," President Barack Obama's landmark health-insurance reform act.
Person of the Day
Johnny DuPree
It's been a long slog for Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree, but now, after two elections drawn out by a contentious court battle, DuPree takes his place again as the hub …
Editor's Note
Stop the Food Fight
Hunger, and its corollary, poverty, are not intractable problems, despite their historical prevalence.
Feature
Everyone Needs a Roof
You've heard it before: For many Americans, homelessness is just a couple of paychecks away.
Person of the Day
Jerry and Helen Young
Pastor Jerry Young laughs heartily about his upcoming appearance at Friday's Mississippi Sickle Cell Foundation Annual "Evening with the Sickle Cell Stars Gala," where he and his wife of 39 …
Person of the Day
M. Trost Friedler
Sobriety and running a center to assist others to deal with addiction issues came back-to-back for M. Trost Friedler, whose substance abuse issues first brought him to Jackson in the …
Person of the Day
CJ Rhodes
Ever since CJ Rhodes swept into Jackson just a few short years ago, he has been a big, important part of the community.
Business
A Passion for Serving
Tara Blumenthal began practicing yoga for exercise. Weight training wasn't working for her, and she was "tripping off the treadmill," trying to get a cardio workout.
Candidate
Woods: Sacred Trust
District 4 Hinds County supervisor candidate Alvin Woods believes supervisors should treat their constituents' money as a sacred trust.
City & County
Aspire Helps Single Parents Finish College
Barbara Pitts Riley, of Arkansas-based nonprofit Aspire, says her organization is making college degrees a reality for single-parent heads of households.
Smoking in Jackson? Not in Public Places
The city of Jackson enacted its first non-smoking ordinance in 2008, banning smoking from most public places. It clarified some confusing language two years later.
Development
God-Given Economic Development
Mississippi is making a concerted push to capture some of the enormous money in the health-care industry. That push, however, doesn't include what experts deem two of the most vital …
Person of the Day
Melody Moody
Melody Moody works to expand access and improve safety for bike riders and pedestrians in Mississippi.
Business
Mississippi's Push for Health-Care Dollars
More than 700 people gathered at the Jackson Convention Center yesterday, eager to understand how health care can be a driver for creating jobs and boosting revenues in Mississippi.
Education
Common Core: Is Raising the Bar Enough?
Young Jackson Public Schools scholars returned to classrooms last week. And whether Aug. 8 marked the first time riding a big, yellow bus or the final year of locker assignments, …
Person of the Day
Women Build
Lakeshia White, the new owner of a house on Smith Robinson Street, has other women to thank for her new digs—specifically, the volunteering women of Women Build 2013, a collaboration …
City & County
Team JPS: Public Schools Need Community
On a drizzly early April evening, a group of students, parents and educators gathered at Provine High School's auditorium for a town hall meeting. The subject was dropout prevention.
Editor's Note
Ask the Questions
The Centers for Disease Control estimates that the number of Americans—men, women and children—dead due to gun violence in the past seven months is closer to 20,000.
Cover
Just Average Girls
Becoming a victim of sex trafficking can happen to those from "good" homes just as easily as it does to those from "bad" or poor circumstances. The crime cuts across …
Editor's Note
A New Reality
Pornography—the vehicle by which many boys learn how to be men—has turned women into objects of loathing, abuse and violence.
