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. Hinds County Board of Supervisors President Robert Graham had good news Friday morning: the county has sold the Valley Title Building, located at 315 Tombigbee St., in downtown Jackson, and a new business is moving in.
2. Yates construction, Spectrum Capital and the state of Mississippi officially broke ground on one of the state's most aggressive commercial developments to date: the Outlets of Mississippi Thursday morning in Pearl.
3. Mississippi Products Inc., the company Jackson mayoral hopeful Jonathan Lee's family owns, has now responded to one of several pending lawsuits against MPI.
4. Tuesday's municipal primary elections began by dealing with the county's new voting machines. Early Tuesday morning, the Jackson Free Press received a tip about problems at Ward 7's Precinct 97 in south Jackson, located at the Wahabi Shriners, 4123 Interstate 55 S.
5. A lawsuit the American Humanist Association filed in federal court accuses Northwest Rankin High School and its principal Charles Frazier of forcing students to attend on-campus religious programs where students urged their peers to adopt the Christian religion.
6. During the campaign battles leading up to the primaries Tuesday, mayoral candidate Jonathan Lee, whose family business, Mississippi Products, is embroiled in numerous lawsuits, struck out at incumbent Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. Last week, Lee claimed in an interview that Johnson's administration has been the target of a large number of legal challenges, too.
7. Starting in July, the Mississippi Department of Corrections will have four fewer community work centers, which provide inmate labor to local governments. The centers affected include those in Bolivar County, Yazoo County, Jefferson County and George County.
8. Four hours before the Mississippi Department of Corrections was to carry out Willie Jerome Manning's death sentence for the 1992 murders of two people in Oktibbeha County, the state Supreme Court granted a stay of execution.
9. Oxford-based Chartre Consulting Ltd., which builds and manages market-rate homes for low-income in families in Jackson and around Mississippi, is negotiating to acquire land from Mt. Helm Baptist Church to build an 88-unit development in the historic Farish Street District downtown.
10. Hal and Mal's owner Malcolm White says he wants to keep the restaurant open, but a disagreement over his lease is making it difficult.

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