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. The 38 percent of Mississippians who are black voters have been "begging for government scraps" for 100 years, Mississippi State Sen. Chris McDaniel, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate, said Friday morning in a special Mississippi edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe broadcast live from Oxford, Miss.
2. Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith walked free again on Sept. 12, 2018, after a Rankin County jury acquitted him for a robbery charge. The jury could not reach a decision for the second charge of aggravated stalking his former girlfriend.
3. Testimony in Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith's Rankin County trial for aggravated stalking and robbery began on Sept. 11. Smith waived his Fifth Amendment rights and took the witness stand on Sept. 12.
4. Mississippi's two U.S. Senate races will appear at the top of the November ballot. The last time Mississippi had two Senate races in 2008, the special race was initially put at the bottom of the ballot but was moved to near the top after a court fight.
5. In his first general election campaign ad, Mississippi Democratic House Minority Leader David Baria positioned himself as an unapologetic liberal in his bid for the U.S. Senate seat that Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker currently holds.
6. Mississippi lawmakers will hold a single day of public hearings this week to start the monthslong process of writing a state budget.
7. Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and members of the Jackson Police Department unveiled 46 new bright, vibrant police vehicles on Sept. 10.
8. Democrat Mike Espy could be the next U.S. senator from Mississippi, renowned conservative columnist George Will wrote in a Sept. 5 piece in the Washington Post.
9. U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh appears to have been more involved in President George W. Bush's 2003 nomination of then-U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals than he admitted in sworn testimony before Congress in 2006.
10. Jury selection began today in Rankin County for Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith's latest trial for two felony counts of aggravated stalking and robbery for allegedly attacking ex-girlfriend Christie Edwards.

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