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. Both candidates for Mississippi Senate District 37, Republican Melanie Sojourner and Democrat Will Godfrey, come from Natchez-area backgrounds that include slave plantations and segregation-era private schools.
2. The Mississippi Republican Party is red-baiting about socialism, with photos of national figures unrelated to the state, in its push to elect Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves as governor. States like Kentucky are using the same old "socialism" playbook in their races against Democrats.
3. Brittney Morris, a Corvallis, Ore., native, visited Jackson on Sept. 24 as part of a book tour celebrating her first published book, "Slay," which released the same day.
4. Mississippi AG Jim Hood, the Democratic nominee for governor, claims wealthy corporate donors control his opponent, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, and much of the Legislature. Reeves accuses Hood of giving wealthy trial lawyers big cases in exchange for donations.
5. As new Chancellor Glenn Boyce settles into the Lyceum at the University of Mississippi, questions remain about his perspective on academic freedom.
6. For Michele Purvis Harris, who will retire from her role as Hinds County public defender on Dec. 31, changing the public's perception of indigent defense was paramount to restoring trust in her office when she first assumed it in 2012.
7. A Republican mailer makes several false claims about Democratic nominee Jim Hood and tries to tie him to national figures like former President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
8. Corporations and other bad actors will no longer take advantage of Jackson, Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba pledged to a crowd during his third State of the City Address.
9. Donald Trump held an evening rally in Tupelo on Friday to support Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood's opponent, Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, ahead of the state's toughest governor's race in nearly a generation.
10. U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III ruled Friday that he will not immediately block Mississippi's unique, multistep process for electing a governor and other statewide officials.

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