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. Sally Doty, R-Brookhaven, is not giving up on making domestic abuse grounds for divorce in Mississippi. Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, killed Doby's bill on Feb. 28, in committee, not even letting members vote on it.
2. Sen. Willie Simmons, D-Cleveland, told reporters that federal officials were closing over 100 bridges in Mississippi that were previously posted as unsafe.
3. Business owners, pastors and lawyers gathered outside Jackson City Hall Wednesday to voice concerns for the hostility shown toward immigrants in the wake of President Donald Trump's executive orders and recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Jackson.
4. Minutes after leaving a press conference, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained Daniela Vargas, a 22-year-old undocumented immigrant in the process of applying for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status for the third time.
5. Ronnie Agnew, the executive director of Mississippi Public Broadcasting, said the agency has reduced episodes and costs, but also found efficiencies long before budgets were tight.
6. Mississippi's new education funding formula is in the hands of a few lawmakers and the statehouse leadership—and what it will look like or how much money will go into the formula are still a mystery to the public and the press.
7. Mayor Tony Yarber, JPD District Commander Duane Odom and Commander Tyree Jones were three of nine men on the City Hall dais during a violence-reduction forum on Feb. 23. The discussion didn't go off exactly as announced, however.
8. Replacing jail with mental-health courts in some instances is still possible statewide, after the House Judiciary B and Appropriations Committees passed their version of legislation to the House for a full vote Tuesday.
9. Mississippi as the worst state for women based on several factors from life expectancy to unemployment figures, a new WalletHub study found.
10. The lawsuit to change the Mississippi state flag because it is "racially discriminatory" is still alive. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear Grenada-based attorney Carlos Moore's appeal on March 7.

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