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. One of the water fountains in Lee Elementary tested for lead above "regulatory levels" during the first round of tests that Jackson Public Schools conducted.
2. The Mississippi Alliance of State Workers, city workers and community organizers held a rally in front of City Hall Friday to protest the city-mandated furloughs implemented last October.
3. Sen. Sean Tindell, R-Gulfport, amended the House's "Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination" bill, making it more difficult for those seeking recusal to get monetary damages.
4. Sixth-grade Northwest Jackson IB Middle School students hosted a lively parade celebrating the historical and cultural significance of Mardi Gras in the front hallway of the school to an enthusiastic audience of their peers.
5. Warning that the airport “takeover” is about money and control of contracts, members of the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority and its supporters gathered in the Mississippi Capitol to voice their opposition to the still-pending Senate Bill 2162.
6. When Ward 4 Jackson City Councilman De'Keither Stamps stepped up to the microphone on March 25 at the corner of West Capitol Street and Galvez in west Jackson, he wanted to express the magnitude of the police-pursuit problem in the Jackson metro.
7. The Mississippi House targeted Medicaid funding for the state’s only abortion clinic in addition to the state’s sole Planned Parenthood clinic with a bill that would prohibit the Mississippi Division of Medicaid from paying any entity that performs non-therapeutic abortions even for non-abortion services.
8. The momentum to bring campaign-finance reform to Mississippi slowed last week, turning into a study to consider whether the reform is needed after the House of Representatives amended a bill to require candidates to itemize credit-card details.
9. It is more expensive to drive in Jackson than anywhere else in the state, a study released from a national transportation research group found.
10. Death by firing squad could become an option for administering the death penalty if Senate Bill 2237, which passed the Mississippi House of Representatives and was held on a motion to reconsider, becomes law.

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