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. Child well-being in Mississippi is improving, but largely due to poverty, the state finished 50th in the Annie E. Casey Foundation's 2016 Kids Count data. Just because the state finished last, however, doesn't mean Mississippi isn't seeing progress.
2. The City of Jackson and the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority announced Thursday afternoon that they would be filing a joint motion to intervene in the ongoing lawsuit filed by former JMAA Commissioner Jeffrey Stallworth in the latest stage of the fight over Jackson's airport.
3. The Justice Department on Thursday reached a landmark settlement agreement to reform the criminal justice system in Hinds County, Mississippi.
4. Pamela Junior, the museum manager for the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center, and Cynthia Goodloe Palmer, the executive director for Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, organized a special series of events over the weekend to commemorate the 50th anniversary of James Meredith's March Against Fear.
5. Deputies swarmed the bottom floor of the Hinds County Courthouse and ushered everyone out of the building on Thursday after a caller into the Jackson television station WLBT-TV3 claimed to have placed bombs outside the offices of Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith and Special Magistrate Judge Faye Peterson.
6. An arrest warrant was served and executed on Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith Wednesday morning for six counts of what court documents state was assisting criminal defendants during his term.
7. From laws that allow tax breaks for out-of-state businesses to the state's special-education voucher program, the Mississippi state Legislature has picked up and written into law model policy language from a national and controversial conservative organization, the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC for short.
8. Dr. Scott Crawford advocates for equal access for Jacksonians, from buses to sidewalks. He calls ignoring ADA laws a civil-rights violation.
9. Mayor Tony Yarber sat down to discuss crime with Jackson Free Press Editor-in-chief Donna Ladd on June 20 at Millsaps, followed by answering audience questions, sharing stories that showed that for him that the consequences of crime were present from an early age.
10. Roberta Kaplan went before U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves Monday to present her arguments for re-opening the Campaign for Southern Equality v. Bryant I case in lieu of House Bill 1523, which is set to become law July 1.

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