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Personhood

[Barbour] Danger Looming Large

We lost the possibility of children; we did not lose children.

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How It Works: The Journalism Awards Process

Every year, Jackson Free Press editor-in-chief Donna Ladd chooses a wide selection of the newspaper's best work to submit for awards in a variety of contests.

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Editor's Note

The Pursuit of Excellence

Every now and then, I have to lighten up in this space. Rather than taking on the troubles of the world or trying to pull at your heart strings with …

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Personhood

Preparing for Battle

Twenty years ago, when Cristen Hemmins was a student at Millsaps College, two teenagers pulled out a gun and abducted her in the campus parking lot. The young men raped …

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Beware the GOP's (Un)Scientific Sexism

The majority of Mississippians who voted last fall to block the passage of the "personhood" initiative should be very nervous about the Nov. 6 election.

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Domestic Violence

How We Must Respond to Haley Barbour's Pardons

It is heartening to see so many people in Mississippi and beyond respond with outrage over former Gov. Haley Barbour's pardons of so many men who killed wives and girlfriends, …

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‘Killing Unborn Children’ Point of Kavanaugh Accusations, McDaniel Claims

The women accusing U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault are part of a “charade” to keep abortion legal, U.S. Senate candidate Chris McDaniel of Mississippi claimed in …

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Politics

Ballot Initiatives Draw Reaction

While the proposed Personhood amendment garnered most of the attention locally as well as from national media, voters approved two other controversial statewide ballot measures on Tuesday.

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Campaign Shenanigans

Candidates are pulling out all the stops to attract votes, often, as many citizens are learning, with questionable if not unsavory tactics. One might expect it in the days leading …

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Editorial

You Can’t Have It Both Ways, Gov. Bryant

Gov. Phil Bryant stepped in it Monday. As part of a Washington Post Live event, he was asked how America had ended up so "mediocre" in educational outcomes. He answered: …

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Anti-Abortion Ballot Proposal Uncertain in Miss.

Organizers have little time left to push for a new Mississippi ballot initiative that would declare life begins at conception.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Learning to Roar in Mississippi from Anne, Hazel and Fannie Lou

Mississippi has long had women warriors who don't flinch at attempts to make them shut our little mouths, who stare back, who write scathing columns, who get the hell beaten …

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April 2, 2014

Group Wants Public-Education Funding on 2015 Ballot

By Donna Ladd

More over, Personhood supporters. Public-education backers are working to put funding the Mississippi Adequate Education Program on next year's ballot—being that the Legislature simply refuses to fully fund it.

The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal is reporting that Jackson attorney Luther Munford has filed the initiative language on behalf of a group called Better Schools, Better Jobs:

The Mississippi Adequate Education Program is the formula passed in 1997 that determines how much funding each school district should receive. It has been traditionally underfunded, however, including a shortfall of more than $1.3 billion during the last six years. This year’s appropriation is more than $250 million below what the formula requires.

The state’s constitution leaves little recourse if legislators don’t fund MAEP, Munford said. The initiative would change that.

It would require Mississippi to use money from economic growth to fill the void. Its language says at least 25 percent of new growth of general fund revenue would go into MAEP over a period of years until it was fully funded. It does not require a new tax.

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Personhood

Personhood Initiative Approved for 2011 Ballot

The Mississippi Secretary of State's office approved an initiative today for the 2011 ballot asking voters to decide whether the constitution should designate that life begins at fertilization.

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July 15, 2015

Clinton Takes Mississippi in 2016? Probably against Trump, at least ...

By Donna Ladd

A new polling analysis published by examiner.com indicates something about Mississippi that has been in the works for a while: Based on recent elections, our state is trending blue.

Based on polling data on a Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump showdown in 2016, Mississippi is one of the few Deep South states that would go for Clinton in that matchup.

This analysis might surprise many who think that Mississippi is the reddest state of the red (especially based on our statewide cavemen, er, elected officials). But several facts make it much more complicated than at first glance:

  1. State Democrats have provided very few even-marginally-progressive options historically, giving younger and less-conservative choices to vote for, creating voter lethargy among those who might turn out and vote "blue" otherwise. That fact is actually changing this year, with several openly progressive (and female) Democrats getting at least some party support, instead of the pseudo-Republicans the party has tended to put up in the last 20 years.

  2. More young people of all races are staying in Mississippi, and many of them are voting Democratic, and have since 2004.

  3. Demographics, demographics, demographics. The irony of Mississippi being the state with the highest percentage of enslaved people in 1860 is that our state still has the highest percentage of African Americans and is more likely than much of Dixie to go blue first. Put simply, African Americans tend to vote Democratic, ever since the Republican Party embrace of Dixiecrats back in the late 1960s after national Dems supported civil-rights laws, and we have the highest percentage of black residents in the country.

  4. And, let's be honest, even many Republicans don't want bat-shit-crazy Trump running this country.

  5. Finally, to be honest again, a lot of white people like Clinton better than Obama (even if I'm not one of them).

So, there are no surprises here: Mississippi has been steadily trending blue for a while now. The question, as always, is: Will the people who can flip the state into the blue column turn out both this November (to save public-education funding and turn out a governor who makes us look like the most stuck-in-the-past state) and next November?

Time, and voter registration, will tell. Progressive (which is easy to be here by rejecting the radical right) Mississippians must find the will to stop giving up our power to sellouts to bigotry and backward ideas (and ideologues) to lift our state up. I've watched this will grow since we started this paper in 2002—and saw serious evidence of it when we turned back Personhood, shocking the nation—and I believe in upcoming elections we may well surprise the world once again. I've believed this was coming for nearly 15 years now.

Stay tuned and register to vote.

UPDAT Aug. 24, 2016: The examiner.com link above is broken, but here is an article and another about …

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Capitol

Voter ID, Abortion, Eminent Domain, Oh My

Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann will deliver three voter-referendum initiatives to the state Legislature this morning that could require voters to bring photo identification to polls, restrict the state's use …

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Dem Lt. Gov. Hopeful Voted for Abortion Ban So White Dems Don't Go Extinct

Hit with a wave of anger from his own party after he voted for a bill that essentially bans abortions after six weeks, Mississippi House Rep. Jay Hughes offered a …

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Hobby Lobby Ruling Could Spell Corporate Trouble

One of the basic problems that we have in this country is the structure of the modern corporation—particularly large, multi-national corporations.

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Cover

Inside Yes on 26

Yes on 26 Campaign Director Brad Prewitt is an unassuming man. The 36-year-old with boyish features looked a bit uncomfortable wearing a suit and tie during the campaign's "Festival of …

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Politics

Hell No! is in the House

Michelle Colon, the activist who started the Hell No! on 26 and 27 just walked in the door loaded down with posters and banners. I asked her if it has …