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. Harvey Hill, 36, died in custody at the Madison County Detention Center. His family is charging that jailers used excessive force on him, and no one offered him medical assistance.
2. On Valentine's Day, a voucher program that subsidizes private schools for special- needs children got the gift of four more years from the Mississippi Senate—even though many private schools in the state do not offer services for those students.
3. Red states, emboldened by the Trump regime, are passing hardline anti-abortion laws aimed at triggering a reconsideration of Roe v. Wade at the nation's highest court—laws like the fetal heartbeat bills the Mississippi House and Senate passed on Feb. 13.
4. On Feb. 7, Mississippi senators passed a bill to cut down on lawsuits against property owners, but strong opposition remains among law enforcement, advocates for victims of domestic violence and lawyers.
5. Despite multiple roadblocks and open questions, the controversial plan to create a large lake along the Pearl River for flood control and potential development in the Jackson area continues to move ahead as project sponsors respond to thousands of comments that poured in last fall.
6. Mississippi teachers would get a $1,000 pay raise over the next two years if a bill the state Senate passed becomes law. The stated goal of the legislation is to address the teacher shortage Mississippi faces, but many educators and legislators say it falls short of that goal.
7. Mississippi House Rep. Jay Hughes, D-Oxford, told angry voters that he and other white Democrats in the House voted for a six-week ban on abortion to save their seats.
8. Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves spoke at the Sons of Confederate Veterans' national reunion in Vicksburg in 2013, where speakers defended the Confederate "cause," recast notoriously racist slaveholders as heroes and one compared "the Yankees" to "the Nazis."
9. Mark Baker, a Brandon Republican, recently introduced the Law Enforcement Identity Protection Act, which can negate Jackson's new policy of identifying officers involved in shootings within 72 hours of the incident unless a compelling reason exists to wait longer.
10. The City of Jackson started making good on recent warnings with water shut-offs for approximately 20,000 customers who are late paying their water bills, many resulting from problems with the Siemens contract to improve billing for customers.

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