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. Photos from Millsaps College’s 1993 through 1996 yearbooks, when Lt. Gov. Tate was a student there, show members of his fraternity, Kappa Alpha, dressing in blackface and other racist costumes.
2. The Jackson Zoo likely will get a new operator, and one with no intentions to move the facility from its long-time home in west Jackson to eastern edge of Jackson.
3. Abortion-rights activists are warning that Mississippi's fetal-heartbeat bills, and others like them, are part of an effort to instigate a U.S. Supreme Court case that could overturn constitutional protections for reproductive rights.
4. Mississippi House Rep. Robert Foster is running for governor in the Republican primary, running against current Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican from Florence, Miss., among others.
5. Two of 12 Jackson police officers involved in nine officer-involved shootings since November 2017 shot more than one person.
6. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed the Mississippi Broadband Enabling Act into law on Jan. 30, 2019. Lawmakers hope the law will extend high-speed internet to rural areas with few options.
7. The "One Lake" proposal has hit another major hurdle. A report commissioned as part of the project's draft study has found the project poses serious public and environmental health risks.
8. Officer Anthony Veasey was involved in three separate shootings in Jackson in 14 months since November 2017, including an exchange of gunfire that hit an 18-year-old two times in the back and five times in the leg, the teenager's family tells the Jackson Free Press.
9. Rep. Mark Baker, R-Brandon, introduced the Mississippi School Safety Act, which would require school districts to devise and conduct active-shooter drills and provide access to mental-health services for students, as well as training for teachers.
10. Mississippi could become the latest state to begin offering incentives to recent college graduates who remain in or move to the state, as lawmakers seek to stem the state's falling population.

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