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. The Neighbors First Lot program will not only reassign 150 abandoned or vacant city-owned lots to the tax base, generating revenue for the city, but also have the side effect of educating the citizens of Jackson about who owns the overgrown, dilapidated lots that dot the poorer sections of town.
2. At the Second Precinct's late-afternoon roll call at the Metrocenter on Friday, April 15, the Jackson Police Department and the Sheriff's Department joined together to create Operation Side by Side, one of the newest strategies to combat crime in the city.
3. Mississippi Center for Public Policy President Forest Thigpen insists that charter schools not only play fair in the state of Mississippi, but have the ability to change the game of Mississippi education by encouraging competition amongst public schools.
4. Several members of the “Undivided” crew told their story recently in Sheppards Brother Park in the Washington Addition.
5. Ballot initiatives to both change and keep the state flag the same are on file at the secretary of state's office. Bills on both sides of the Legislature died in committee this session. And now judicial involvement to change the state flag lies in the hands of U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves.
6. The City now has more “teeth” for requiring disclosure of subcontractors, as well as oversight for switching subcontractors, for all contracts above $50,000, thanks to an ordinance passed at the April 20 Jackson City Council Meeting.
7. Former NSYNC member, author and philanthropist Lance Bass says he and his husband, artist Michael Turchin, come back to visit Mississippi at least five times a year.
8. An abused Mississippi spouse still can't use domestic violence as grounds for divorce, and lawmakers can continue to spend campaign donations on mortgages, automobiles, clothing, tuition payments or non-documented loans after state lawmakers closed up shop early and skipped town this week.
9. The Jackson Public Works Department sent out half a million dollars' worth of water bills Thursday, the first time it has used the automated billing systems included in the Siemens contract.
10. The state’s one Planned Parenthood clinic will lose Medicaid reimbursements if Gov. Phil Bryant signs a bill headed to his desk, after the Senate voted to confirm the conference report on Wednesday before adjourning for the session.

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