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. Koinonia Coffee House closes at the end of the month, owner Lee Harper announced this morning during the weekly Friday Forum, promising that in its place a whole new stage of community development will take its place for west Jackson.
2. Empower Mississippi, an education "choice" nonprofit organization, named Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves the "Education Reformer of the Year" for his work on several education bills in the past legislative session.
3. WalletHub's "2016 State's with Best and Worst Economies" report ranks Mississippi last, largely due to the state's GDP decline in 2015 and high percentage of people living below the poverty level.
4. Rev. Susan Hrostowski, an episcopal priest and an associate professor at the University of Southern Mississippi, is a plaintiff in the third lawsuit and fourth legal challenge to House Bill 1523.
5. Ben Allen, president of Downtown Jackson Partners, said that the development of the Landmark Building was crucial to downtown, not just for residential space but for its financial independence from state and local assistance.
6. Citizens gathered at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Fondren with representatives of engineering firm Neel-Schaffer about the State Street section of the “Greening the Gateways” road project, to be completed in 2020.
7. The Mississippi Department of Health is working to bring domestic violence numbers down by implementing Green Dot training across the state to get communities to reconsider their role in preventing violence.
8. Jody Owens, an attorney for the organization that helped get juveniles out of the Walnut Grove prison is happy that it is closing, and wants the State of Mississippi to invest in smarter and more equitable responses to crime.
9. More than 100 people gathered outside JC's, a gay bar in Jackson, last Sunday evening to stand in solidarity with the victims in the Orlando mass shooting.
10. Actress and Mississippi native Aunjanue Ellis recently spoke to the Jackson Free Press by phone on heritage, hate and bringing down the flag.

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