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. Attorney General Jim Hood said he will not add the State of Mississippi to the Texas lawsuit against the federal government over President Barack Obama's directive to public schools, telling them to allow transgender students to use bathrooms that match their gender identities.
2. In a step toward compliance with state law, and the latest in a series of steps to generate transparency in local government, the Jackson City Council posted its agenda packet for next week's meeting online: a first for the Jackson municipal government.
3. Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes met with members of the community at Cornerstone Baptist Church Wednesday night to discuss submitting a petition in response to the Department of Justice letter about high-speed chases for outside jurisdictions into Jackson.
4. JPD Chief Lee Vance is frustrated at the State for owning so much crumbling housing in Jackson but is glad that his department is helping to bring it down.
5. The Adolescent Opportunity Program run through the YMCA of Metropolitan Jackson, which serves 11 counties, will lose federal funding on July 1, along with all other similar programs in the state.
6. Title IX is usually associated with sex-based equity in athletics—having girls' basketball and track teams, for instance, in the male-dominated culture of sports. But advocates say it actually applies much more broadly.
7. Mississippi's Board of Education voted 9-0 on Tuesday to follow state political leaders' opposition to federal guidance on use of bathrooms and locker rooms by transgender students.
8. The membership of the American Association of Airport Executives elected Carl D. Newman, the executive director of the Jackson Medgar-Wiley Evers International Airport, to the top elected spot of their 5,000-member organization.
9. Municipal-court systems that practice "pay or stay" policies, jailing people who cannot afford fines such as Jackson has done, are facing legal objections across the South from groups like the American Civil Liberties Union. In addition to Jackson, this includes the Municipal Court of Biloxi.
10. Children with special needs in the Jackson metro area will have a new option for community-based care when Pediatric Health Choice opens a new prescribed pediatric extended care center, which will begin providing care to those 21-years-old and under this month.

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