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. In the waning days of the April 22 special-election runoff for Jackson mayor, third parties, surrogates and political-action committees took control of the political discourse and broadcast airwaves to become the strongest forces in the election, more than the two candidates in some ways.
2. Gerald Gibson wants to change the stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS. He is the coordinator of community-based outreach and testing for My Brother's Keeper, a nonprofit designed to further the health and wellbeing of minority communities.
3. Until Whole Foods Market opened earlier this year, Rainbow Co-op was Jackson's only food store focused solely on organic and natural products.
4. Despite SB 2681's vagueness and uncertainty, or perhaps because of it, the Human Rights Campaign and others who opposed the bill are using the momentum and fears caused by 2681 to amp up the movement for LGBTQ rights in Mississippi.
5. Native Mississippian Lance Bass came out to the entertainment world after finding success with ‘N Sync.
6. On Friday, April 25, the Mississippi Brain Drain Commission announced the official launch of its Fast Forward Mississippi outreach initiative at the annual conference of the Public Relations Association of Mississippi.
7. With Tony Yarber becoming Jackson's fourth mayor in a year's time, a special election will be required to fill his old Ward 6 seat.
8. This account was taken during the storm event that swept across Mississippi, Alabama and the southern U.S. on April 28.
9. At issue before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans is a 2012 Mississippi law requiring any physician who does abortions at a clinic to have admitting privileges at a local hospital. Jackson Women's Health Organization has been unable to obtain them.
10. A keystone of late Mayor Chokwe Lumumba's economic agenda, the Jackson Rising: New Economies Conference, which started Friday, was almost derailed this week when the city of Jackson pulled its support for key elements of the event, said one of the conference's organizers.

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