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. Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, spoke against proposed changes to the Mississippi Charter Schools Act multiple times this week, but the bill moved forward Friday.
2. The Jackson airport “takeover” bill passed the Senate by a vote of 29-18 Thursday, leading critics to slam it as a "hostile eminent-domain taskeover."
3. Medicaid recipients seeking birth control, STI testing or cancer screenings at the state's only Planned Parenthood clinic might get cut off if a Senate bill, which passed Wednesday and then was held on a motion to reconsider, becomes law.
4. Council President Melvin Priester Jr., of Ward 2, is proposing an ordinance outlining regulation for taxi companies like Uber, which may not pass before similar bills by both sides of the state Legislature.
5. Human trafficking, domestic-abuse and breastfeeding bills easily passed through the Mississippi Senate last week. The House of Representatives, however, focused on legislation that caused uproars and stalls, including re-districting and superintendent salary bills, leading to heightened race tension.
6. The National Center for Health Housing in conjunction with the state Department of Health reported that approximately 208 Mississippi children are newly diagnosed with lead poisoning each year, with lead exposure attributed to the presence of lead-based paint in older homes and drinking lead-tainted water.
7. A black Mississippi lawyer suing Gov. Phil Bryant for flying the state flag could be successful if he can prove that the state's original intent for putting the Confederate battle emblem on the flag's canton was racist and discriminatory back in 1894.
8. Only 24 Senate education bills survived of the original 109 this legislative session; in the House, only 40 were still alive as of Wednesday last week.
9. The "Mississippi Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act" passed the Mississippi House of Representatives last week, meaning that legislators are back in the business of pushing anti-abortion legislation.
10. Edwin Robinson, superintendent of Durant Public School District, says his school district firmly opposes consolidation with Holmes County School District. But he wasn’t allowed to speak about it.

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