Crime
EDITORIAL: Dear Mississippi Politicians, Criminal Justice Reform Is More Than Rhetoric
This week the Mississippi Department of Corrections will host a re-entry symposium in Jackson, a necessary step to re-engage stakeholders involved with the criminal justice system, from lawmakers and mental-health …
Food
OPINION: ‘Don’t Yuck My Yum’
As a food educator, I spent many hours in classrooms doing taste tests, interactive cooking demos and nutrition lessons. I've seen elementary schoolers, even the so-called picky eaters, taste everything …
Editor's Note
EDITOR'S NOTE: America, We Must Stop De-humanizing Our Children
As a child in the 1960s and 1970s, I was a bit of a freak of nature in my hometown of Philadelphia, Miss. You could call me sensitive or soft-hearted, …
City & County
EDITORIAL: Transparency in Officer Shootings Needs to Improve, Not Worsen
We now get even less information about officer-involved shootings. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigations does not have to disclose information concerning any open or closed investigations except to law enforcement.
OPINION: New Orleans, A Good Idea
A different kind of musician, Bob Dylan, says New Orleans is a city where the ghosts of the dead and the laughter of the living are never far apart.
Editor's Note
EDITOR'S NOTE: Lessons in Stepping up from ‘Friday Night Lights’
It may be the peak of the baseball season, but my clear eyes and full heart have been fully set on football, thanks to my latest TV nostalgic kick. For …
City & County
OPINION: Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba Is a Man
In the current political climate, where the American president and Mississippi governor are people who lie to cover their evil plans, it is rare when an elected official does the …
Editorial
EDITORIAL: Low Primary Turnout Should Force Voter Engagement
The sickest part of our elections is that people who run campaigns don't think voters here are very smart or that they have evolved at all as an electorate in …
City & County
OPINION: Finding the Good in Jackson, Miss.
Someone asked me recently what I think about the state of Jackson. After my immediate chuckle, I responded: "It's home. It's my hometown, where I have become who I am, …
Editor's Note
EDITOR'S NOTE: Move ... Because Your Life Depends On It
Running is an intense exercise, so while it may be amazing for some people, it may be tough for others. But find a thing you can do, and do it.
City & County
EDITORIAL: City Should Prioritize ‘Rainy Day’ Funds for Emergencies
Despite recent catastrophes, the Jackson City Council has been using its fund balance or "rainy-day" fund for city-clerk salaries and festivals—items that are fundamentally non-essential.
Health Care
OPINION: The Right Way to Respond to Drug Addiction
Today in Mississippi, taxpayers fund two contradictory approaches to people struggling with drug addiction. One results in an arrest and possibly jail time. The other offers people health-based treatment.
Editor's Note
EDITOR'S NOTE: Midterm Madness Comes to Mississippi
Editor-in-Chief Donna Ladd and Publisher Todd Stauffer started Best of Jackson almost 16 years ago to uplift the city because back then it was in a bad place, much worse …
City & County
EDITORIAL: City Must Become Proactive, Not Reactive to Problems
Now that a promising young woman has died because of a massive systems failure in the City, allow us to repeat ourselves: This administration cannot afford to be reactionary to …
Politics
OPINION: The Holy Land, Israeli or Palestinian?
"I've come to the conclusion that the Palestinians have been given a raw deal and are being treated unfairly by Israel, by the American media and particularly now by the …
City & County
EDITOR'S NOTE: Jackson, Get Your Community Together
Sure, if you come from a bigger city, there may be less to do here in Jackson, but you have many options, even if it's just going to the Mississippi …
City & County
EDITOR'S NOTE: Jackson, Lil Lonnie Must Not Die in Vain
When Lil Lonnie died in his car near the home where a white supremacist shot down Medgar Evers in 1963 in front of his children, in a neighborhood where kids …
Editorial
EDITORIAL: Feds Must Stop Cruel Deportations, Rethink ‘War on Drugs’
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are arresting more undocumented immigrants now than under the previous administration—nonviolent undocumented men and women as Donald Trump uses scare tactics about dangerous immigrant gangs …
Development
EDITORIAL: Citizens, Be Informed and Vigilant About ‘One Lake’ Project
If you haven't paid attention to the proposed flood-control/development project called "One Lake" along the Pearl River, now is the time to help vet the ambitious plan.
Civil Rights
OPINION: Immigration and the First Amendment
My late friend Marty Fishgold, a longtime labor writer in New York City, liked to say that "good journalism is a subversive activity" because it tells truth to power.
