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. East Mississippi Electric Association is raising rates for some customers because of higher wholesale power rates charged by Mississippi Power Co. to cover the costs of its Kemper County power plant.
2. A Mississippi man accused of mailing letters to national leaders with suspected poisonous ricin believed he had uncovered a conspiracy to sell human body parts on the black market and sometimes performed as an Elvis Presley impersonator.
3. Mississippi University for Women, the University of Mississippi and Alcorn State University will get financial boosts under a new formula to distribute state money among Mississippi's eight public universities.
4. TIME named HIV specialist Dr. Hannah Gay, UMMC associate professor of pediatrics, to the 2013 TIME 100, the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
5. Gov. Bryant signed four bills into law Wednesday at Northwest Rankin High School, where he pledged last fall to seek many changes to education measures.
6. Gov. Phil Bryant vetoed Senate Bill 2526, which would have allowed Mississippians to transport a limited amount of unopened alcohol through dry counties.
7. Gov. Phil Bryant signed into a law a bill that prosecutors say bridges the gap between legal and medical definitions of child abuse and takes a stair-step approach to penalizing violators.
8. U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III ruled on Monday that Mississippi cannot close the Jackson Women's Health Organization while it still has a federal lawsuit pending challenging a 2012 law requiring abortion doctors to obtain local hospital admitting priveleges.
9. In the Governor's Mansion Art Restoration Project, Fletcher Cox is revitalizing works by himself and fellow Mississippi artists that once adorned the mansion's private office and living spaces, with the goal of getting them back in the public eye.
10. The Hinds County Board of Supervisors dedicated Monday morning's meeting to the memory of District 2 Supervisor Doug Anderson, who passed away April 13.

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