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 Jackson Police Department's weekly COMSTAT meeting on Thursday started with Chief Lee Vance presenting the Lifetime Achievement Award to former Mississippi Gov. William Winter, who has devoted his life to racial reconciliation in the state since leaving office in 1984.
2. The Jackson Police Department is cutting a little over $2 million from its proposed budget, but without eliminating any existing officer positions.
3. A state commission placed Jackson Public Schools, the state's largest urban school district, on probation last week for being out of compliance with 22 of 32 of the state's accreditation policies.
4. In a jailhouse letter, Christopher Butler alleges that the State Attorney General Jim Hood is trying to frame him and get him to testify against Robert Shuler Smith. For months, Smith has argued that Butler has been framed for various crimes, but has not produced the evidence publicly.
5. Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has revealed that his office his using secret tapes provided by a confidential informant against Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith.
6. Johnnie McDaniels, the executive director of the Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center, explained that a new agreement puts Youth Court Judge William Skinner, the county and the facility administrators on the same page about policies such as the maximum population and length of stay for children in the facility.
7. The futures of Latino families are on the line in the November election, and local immigration activities are registering people to vote to protect their rights.
8. Michael Thomas, the City of Jackson's financial consultant from Systems Consultants Associates, laid out the city's water billing problem for the city's leaders in a presentation to the City Council on Monday.
9. Christopher Butler, the Jackson man in the middle of Attorney General Jim Hood's investigation of HInds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith, was arraigned Tuesday for having an illegal, pre-paid cell phone in the Hinds County Detention Center at Raymond.
10. Attorney General Jim Hood said the federal lawsuit brought against the state for its mental health-care system is a challenge to the Legislature to find the resources necessary to expand the state's mental health services.

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