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. City Council President Melvin Priester Jr. and several candidates running for mayor of Jackson are lambasting the administration of former Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. over the mishandling of federal block grants.
2. Now that we're in the throes of another city election, it should come as no surprise that Jackson crime has been a major subject of conversation in debates and forums.
3. De'Keither Stamps said staying on the Jackson City Council to work out problems facing the Jackson Zoo was the reason he declined to enter the fray to become the next Jackson mayor.
4. In a surprising decision, the nine justices of the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled to reverse Michelle Byrom's death sentence. The court also ordered a new trial with a new judge.
5. Metro dailies like The Clarion-Ledger often neglect to place important stories in context, which is a grave disservice to its readers.
6. State Rep. Rita Martinson, R-Madison, sponsored House Bill 1358, which expands tourism projects that can participate in a state sales tax incentive program to include hotels "located within a historic district where the district is listed in the National Register of Historic Places," as well as the building of hotels with a $10 million or higher price tag.
7. Does Senate Bill 2681, which the Mississippi Legislature approved, protect religious freedoms or open the door to legal discrimination?
8. Norma Ruth's chef Brian Myrick (left) and owner John "Stax" Tierre (right) offer up rib-eye steaks, wings, burgers, seafood such as shrimp and crab claws, and more.
9. Walter Zinn, the city's lobbyist, said that the city secured legislative approval that would give the city an additional two years worth of bonding authority for the 1-percent sales tax, which if projections are accurate, could draw another $30 million into the city's coffers.
10. The Jackson Free Press asked several of the candidates who are now seeking the mayor's seat whether they would support an LGBT rights resolution in the mold of those passed in Starkville, Hattiesburg and Oxford.

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