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. Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, supported the "Mississippi Anti-Gang Act," and his Judiciary B Committee passed it on to the full House Friday morning.
2. The sound of blues music and sneakers hitting the pavement filled the streets of Jackson on Saturday, Jan. 27, during the Mississippi Blues Marathon.
3. Rep. Joel Bomgar, R-Madison, introduced legislation to implement more re-entry reforms for men and women coming out of prison. The House Corrections Committee, led by Chairman Bill Kinkade, R-Byhalia, all but killed the measure on Wednesday, Jan. 24.
4. A Neshoba County grand jury indicted a 13-year-old boy on armed-robbery charges for allegedly stealing a cell phone. He is now out on $100,000 bond, although police did not recover the alleged BB gun.
5. Jackson's water-meter issues stem back to the 2012 contract with Siemens that came about when the council during Mayor Harvey Johnson's era gave Siemens the authorization to audit the city's water system and evaluate the need for a new electronic water-meter system.
6. Rep. Bryant Clark, D-Pickens, argued that House Speaker Philip Gunn’s new education funding formula proposal is not equitable during debate on Jan. 17.
7. IHL Commissioner Glenn Boyce told lawmakers on Monday that it is getting difficult for Mississippi's public universities to keep faculty members when colleges and universities in other states can pay them more.
8. In what seemed like old news, Jackson's water issues persisted into last week. Except this time students returned to schools with little to no water pressure, and the Jackson Public School District seemed prepared to keep students in class by any means necessary.
9. Sen. Gray Tollison's voucher-expansion bill would vastly expand the use of vouchers—a way to use taxpayer money in private schools—beyond the limited special-education role they currently play.
10. Now, the loosely defined "resistance movement"—a network of groups around the nation, with men and women raising money and knocking on doors and supporting hundreds of progressive candidates—is setting its sights on the 2018 midterm elections, hoping to deal the White House and the all-GOP government in Washington a permanent setback.

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