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. Flooding remained a risk in the Jackson metro area three days after Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba declared an emergency, due to pending rainfall and high water levels in the Pearl River.
2. A number of state Mississippi physicians are pushing back after the State Board of Health decried a push to legalize medical marijuana. On Jan. 8, the governor-appointed board passed a resolution opposing Ballot Initiative 65, which voters will decide on in November.
3. Republican Tate Reeves is now the governor of Mississippi, presiding over a deeply red government and a legion of interests looking for pieces of the state government's full coffers after taking the oath of office in downtown Jackson on Tuesday, Jan. 14.
4. Antonia Eliason, a University of Mississippi law professor and self-described "Democratic socialist" is challenging her district's U.S. House representative, Republican Trent Kelly, in this year's election.
5. The board that governs Mississippi's eight public universities recently delayed a vote on a proposal to move a Confederate monument in a prominent spot on the University of Mississippi campus, nearly a year after student leaders requested that it be moved to a Civil War cemetery.
6. The Jackson Public Schools' board of trustees recently voted to close and consolidate several schools as part of the district's ongoing efforts to address decreasing student enrollment, teacher shortages and funding woes.
7. ‪In 2017, Mississippi House Rep. Karl Oliver wrote that Louisiana leaders ought to be "LYNCHED" for removing Confederate monuments. On Jan. 8, House Speaker Philip Gunn made him vice chair of the powerful appropriations committee.
8. Law-enforcement efforts to combat violent crime in Jackson in recent years have increasingly focused on the creation of multi-agency task forces, which identify high-crime regions or criminal activity, gather intelligence, and serve subpoenas, warrants and indictments related to those crimes.
9. The future of Mississippi's United Methodist churches and institutions is in question after a group of influential United Methodist Church leaders announced a preliminary agreement to split the church in two on Jan. 3, due to irreconcilable disagreements over LGBTQ rights.
10. Mississippi's two U.S. senators, Republicans Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider overturning its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion nationwide.

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