Valerie Wells | Stories | Jackson Free Press | Jackson, MS

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Valerie Wells

Stories by Valerie

Crime

Jackson Crime Rate Down Again

Read the report. 05022011-05082011.pdf

Culture

Recreating the Rides

Forty college students got on the bus earlier this month and began tweeting and blogging about retracing the 1961 Freedom Rides from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans.

Good

Planning an Ideal Neighborhood for Kids

An ideal neighborhood for children begins with including children in the planning process. This doesn't mean families, developers or planners put in an amusement park with ice cream stands on …

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MPB: Public Servant?

Max Breazeale checked his transmitters at station WMAH in McHenry Sunday night before Hurricane Katrina ripped the Gulf Coast asunder. From frequency control to power supply, he made sure everything …

Person of the Day

Judy Barnes

Judy Barnes is planning a church rummage sale tomorrow where everything is free, no strings attached.

Crime

New Law Fights Cyber Crime

[Verbatim from the Mississippi Attorney General's Office]

A bill to help fund the Attorney General's fight against Cyber Crime and Vulnerable Person Abuse has been signed into law by the governor.

Music

Mozart to Motown

Jackson State University music students take a journey "From Mozart 2 Motown" April 28. Featuring the JSU Opera Workshop and the Vocal Jazz Ensemble, the show begins with classical pieces …

Person of the Day

Josh Evans

Josh Evans just got a kick start for his film project, "Young Bros," a short film about a couple of 10-year-old boys pulling pranks during the summer in Jackson.

Happy Easter and Earth Day!

Today, celebrate the planet and Good Friday. If you're lucky enough to have the day off, grab the kids and head to the Jackson Zoo for the annual Party for …

Culture

Don't Go Around Breaking Young Girls' Hearts

Giselle's heart is so broken, after she dies from the pain of it, she haunts her lover with a vengeance. Stephen Wynne, founder and artistic director of TALK Dance Company, …

Business

Council Agrees to $1.8 million Contract, Rehires Lobbyist

The Jackson City Council reversed its opposition to a $1.8 million contract with international corporation Johnson Controls Inc. yesterday after hearing evidence that the company had no role in bad …

Eating Out

Comfort From The Rain

One of the easiest comfort foods to serve is steaming hot, baked spaghetti squash.

Feature

The Go-To Guy

Every town has that guy, the one you go to who gets things done. He's the man everyone turns to when they have problems. In Seville, he happens to be …

Theater

No Easy Answers

When a black sergeant dies at Fort Neal, La., near the end of World War II, a complicated murder mystery begins. Was it a lynching or something more? The segregated …

It's the Weekend

With three days of Crossroads Film Festival action, you'll have plenty of chances to view independent films. One we highly recommend you see is "Dante," a short film by Anita …

Legislature Agrees on Budget

Mississippi House of Representatives and Senate budget negotiators came to an agreement yesterday on the 2011 budget that pays the state's education department $14 million less than it did in …

April Fool's Day, Y'all

Enjoy the day!

Community Events and Meetings

Free Tax Counseling and Filing. IRS/AIM or AARP volunteers will do electronic filing. Bring all necessary documents. Joint filers must come together. Free.

Tiara of the Day: Bluebird Crown

This year, the Sweet Potato Queens, in shiny new over-the-top outfits, sashay through Fondren in the first annual Zippity Doo Dah Parade. Boss Queen Jill Conner Browne says she has …

New Outfits for Sweet Potato Queens

The Sweet Potato Queens will stuff themselves into new costumes for the Zippity Doo Dah Parade next week.

Media

MPB Moves Toward Self-Sufficiency

Big underwriters with deep pockets could save Mississippi Public Broadcasting. To find those generous companies, MPB employees preoccupied with periodic membership drives need time to make convincing sales pitches. To …

MPB Eyes Self Sufficiency

The Mississippi Public Broadcasting board voted this morning to start considering where to make budget cuts in response to threats to end its state funding.

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Taking The Stage

Katrina Byrd makes it a point to get to the JATRAN bus stop early. The bus is supposed to come by at 3:30 p.m, so she gets there at 3:15 …

Music

The Original Rolling Stone

Even before Mick Jagger and Keith Moon joined the British invasion of the 1960s, some Mississippi college kids in a band called the Rolling Stones awoke a generation. From 1955 …

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APAC's Impact: Shining Bright

As a boy in a school uniform gets off the bus on tree-lined Riverside Drive early one fall morning, faculty and staff inside the Power Academic and Performing Arts Complex …

Art

Losing Time in Pen and Ink

Doodling a detailed picture on a napkin, the architect with white hair and blue eyes concentrates while a waitress clears the plates around him.

Hitched

J.J. Luther and Karson Williams

Karson Williams laughed at a joke on top of the Ironworks Building in downtown Jackson. She and J.J. Luther had come up to the roof to look at the stars …

Feature

Ray's Wife Tells Tales

A storyteller came to Mississippi to weave her tales, only she didn't know it at the time. Diane Williams, 57, moved here from New Jersey because of a Mississippi farm …

Feature

Royal Blues

Walking down the 300 block of Farish Street, Alex Thomas stops at a historic marker in front of a single-story boarded-up brick storefront.

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Sticks & Stones

Kelsey Ann Jackson threw up. The thought of going to school that morning made her sick. She cried about the mean girls she would have to face in her sixth-grade …

Justice

Study Finds Unequal Punishment of Black Students

Black students are twice as likely to get out-of-school suspensions and in some school districts, middle schools are three times more likely to suspend black boys, a new Southern Poverty …

Mississippi Hosts Anti-Bullying Conference

Jervia Powell, 12, cried last year in history class. Some mean girls relentlessly bullied her. She still remembers their taunts.

Justice

‘Ain't Got Justice, Yet'

It was tragic when a man raped and killed Eva Gail Patterson in 1979 in Forrest County, says Emily Maw. It was horrific, Maw says, that the real perpetrator let …

Justice

Two Men Freed After 30 Years

Forrest County Circuit Judge Bob Helfich set two men free today who were convicted 30 years ago for a rape and murder they did not commit.

Media

Peace in the MPB Valley?

After being absent from Mississippi Public Broadcasting offices for at least two weeks, Executive Director Judy Lewis resigned Sept. 8. A news release that afternoon announced her decision to leave …

Cooking

Cold Soup on a Hot Day

Cold gazpacho just might get us through this hot summer. It quenches that seasonal thirst for tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, and onions blended and marinated in vinegar and olive oil. …

Feature

Green Couch, No Covers

In an old brick warehouse in downtown Hattiesburg, Paul Burch strums roots music on his guitar. Warm light bounces off hardwood floors and his comfy brown jacket as the song …

Eating Out

My Shrimp Love Affair

A shrimp boat sprawls its arms out near the Beau Rivage. The usually brown water of the Mississippi Sound looks blue on the first Saturday of shrimp season. Life goes …

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Seeking Perfection

Six shirtless men bolt onto the stage with fierce precision and boyish grins. They dance to a Prince tune, one leaping as high as the top of a door, another …

Art

Challenging Stereotypes

A cardboard cutout of President Barack Obama smiles down through a window at a pleasant-looking woman standing in her backyard. She smiles and waits patiently, standing outside her sunroom in …

Justice

Lesbian Teen Fights for Prom

Constance McMillen unwraps a Super Sonic Burger from a bag full of tater tots at her kitchen table in Fulton. Her long, dark hair is curled, and her face is …

Tease photo Art

The Commons: Continuity of Love

Under the quiet gaze of an oversized bronze statue of Eudora Welty, a friendly but insistent workman keeps asking Jonathan Sims what to do about the dishwasher. Sims can't answer …

Art

Art Meets Science

When Erin Hayne first brought her Portuguese husband home to Mississippi, the humidity immediately consumed him.

Art

Unapologetic Feminism

Julia A. Fenton recalls a couple viewing one of her exhibits: They bent their heads together and discussed the image in front of them, she says.

Books

Southern? Not So Much

Years ago, Oxford American magazine published an issue with a Southern Womanhood theme, featuring Ashley Judd in a University of Kentucky jersey. Men lusted after southern women in numerous articles.

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A Blessed Man

Wyatt Waters unfolds the legs on his handmade wooden easel and sits down to paint a neighborhood scene in Belhaven. He is on one of those tree-lined streets with historic …