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. No matter what anyone says, the campaign to replace the late Mayor Chokwe Lumumba is already in full swing.
2. After a week of ups and downs for a measure that civil-liberties groups say could lead to legalized discrimination of LGBTQ people, a modified version now goes to the House of Representatives for debate.
3. Both chambers have decided to make this session all about the state's woefully underpaid teachers, who represent a powerful political voice as well.
4. A number of Jackson restaurants have big plans in store for the near future.
5. The Henley Young Youth Justice Center has “substantially” complied with three out of 71 areas a federal settlement agreement indicates improvements are needed. Now, attorneys are arguing over whether that’s a little or a lot.
6. On Wednesday, the Mississippi House of Representatives advanced several bills that would restrict labor unionizing and picketing activities, which Chandler called an "attack on the democracy."
7. A graduate of the historically black Tuskegee University in Alabama and Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston, Chokwe Antar would likely have his father's grassroots political machine behind him, not to mention his name.
8. Sheila Jackson, executive director of the Jackson Housing Authority, says she is considering making the rental duplexes at its Midtown housing development available for purchase at some point in the future.
9. At a meeting of the Jackson City Council, after some debate among members, the council set the date of the special election for the late Mayor Chokwe Lumumba's seat: April 8, 2014.
10. Perhaps the most difficult decisions Lumumba had to make was to put at least some of the financial onus for fixing the city's crumbling infrastructure back on the citizens.

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