Jackson Free Press

There's never a slow news week in Jackson, Miss., and last week was no exception. Here are the local stories JFP reporters brought you in case you missed them:

1. The Mississippi Development Authority named Malcolm White the agency's new Director of Tourism. Read more here.
2. Jackie Anderson, daughter of Hinds County Supervisor Doug Anderson, announced that her father will retire Jan. 1, after some fellow supervisors questioned if he was too ill to continue serving.
3. A report released by the Sierra Club Dec. 10 revealed that former Gov. Haley Barbour has failed to disclose his financial ties to Southern Company and to the Kemper County coal factory project.
4. The NCAA chose JSU as one of six universities nationwide to receive grants from the Limited-Resource Institutions Grant Program Pilot. The pilot will provide between $330,000 and $900,000 to the six institutions over the next three years. The NCAA awarded JSU the maximum $900,000.
5. The Mississippi Department of Corrections opened a unit for youthful offenders at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County Wednesday. It is separate from the other inmates at the central Mississippi facility and has its own staff.
6. Mississippi authorities investigated bomb threats that were called into numerous county courthouses around the state. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said threats were called in Wednesday to 29 of the state's 82 counties.
7. The House and Senate education committees met together Wednesday at the Capitol to discuss elementary-school reading skills, teacher evaluations and charter schools. Read the full story here.
8. Police conducted a manhunt for three inmates released by mistake from the Hinds County Detention Center as a result of human error where a jailer did not fully read a court order demanding the release of a number of inmates who hadn't been indicted by Dec. 1.
9. The 14-member Joint Legislative Budget Committee proposes spending $5.5 billion in state money during fiscal 2014, which begins July 1 next year. That's slightly less state money, overall, than is being spent in the current year.
10. A small plane crashed in a Rankin County neighborhood, moderately injuring the pilot, but a passenger escaped unharmed. Read more here.

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