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. Children's Defense Fund founder and director Marian Wright, along with other Jackson-area youth advocates, unveiled a set of recommendations to end zero-tolerance school-discipline policies that feed what CDF and others have termed a "cradle-to-prison pipeline."
2. Rodney Bennett, vice president of student affairs at the University of Georgia, was named the first black president of a predominantly white university in Mississippi. The College Board unanimously named him the 10th president of the University of Southern Mississippi.
3. Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney said he feels the Obama administration has betrayed him for denying the state's application to set up a health-insurance exchange under the Affordable Care Act. Chaney indicated that his office has been working on setting up an exchange for the past three and a half years.
4. Jackson is facing about $300 million in needed improvements to the city's water system over the next 20 years, a new study shows. That is in addition to the $400 million in necessary repairs and upgrades to its sewage system in the same time frame.
5. The Coast Guard on Wednesday completed cleanup of the oil spill near Vicksburg, Miss., that closed the major shipping channel for days in both directions. Read the full story here.
6. The Senate Education Committee approved Senate Bill 2633, sponsored by Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Elllisville, which is meant to make it legal for students to pray before public school groups.
7. Diane Hardy Thompson, one of three African-American women who integrated then-Mississippi College for Women in 1966, died Wednesday at an Augusta, Ga., burn center at age 64. Officials with Lee-Sykes Funeral Home in Columbus say a funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday.
8. Rep. Kimberly Buck, D-Jackson, introduced HB 673, the Mississippi Human Trafficking Act, to the House Judiciary B Committee Tuesday morning. Sandy Middleton, executive director of the Pearl-based Center for Violence Protection, was on hand to watch the proceedings.
9. Two bills affecting reproductive health died in the Mississippi House Tuesday when House Judiciary B Committee Chairman Andy Gipson didn't bring them up for debate. Read the full story here.
10. Mark Young, director of the Hinds County Office of Emergency Management, said the county's E-911 fund, which pays for the equipment and personnel related to 911, is going broke. In a presentation to the Hinds County Board of Supervisors, Young said that after the agency pays a yearly $723,000 maintenance fee, only about $377,000 will be left in the fund.

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