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State’s Longest-Sitting Death Row Inmate Challenges Death Penalty Drug
The Mississippi Supreme Court has sentenced Richard Jordan to death four times, but with the help of his lawyers, he continues to challenge the state's death penalty method.
Mental Illness: Behind Bars and Beyond
Locking up people suffering from mental illnesses is an endless, fruitless cycle—unless a person can access the services and (in some cases) treatment needed to live their lives in the …
Confronting the Realities of Autism
For Angela Douglas, the realities of autism are all around her at work and at home. As an advocate at Disability Rights Mississippi in Gulfport, Douglas works with parents whose …
Creating a Hub for Early Learning and Creativity
For children not at regular daycare centers, options like "ABC, Come Play with Me" give parents a break from teaching their children at home and provide new ideas for preparing …
‘Hand-in-hand’: Poverty + Education Keep State in Last Place
The problem with Mississippi coming in last place in the Kids Count child well-being survey is largely that perception has a big impact on the children experiencing poverty or a …
Private Prison on Trial: Inmates at ‘Bleak’ Facility Tell Harrowing Stories
Merlin Hill was one of 19 inmates who testified during the five-week class-action trial against the Mississippi Department of Corrections for what they describe as appalling conditions at the privately …
Nowhere to Go: LGBT Youth on the Move, Without a Home
A 2015 Williams Institute survey of homeless-youth service providers found that the most widely selected reason for homelessness among LGBT youth (as reported to service providers) was "forced out of …
Cops Learn to Help Mentally Ill Mississippians
The celebration was small, but the impact is likely to be large. On Friday, Jan. 26, nine local law enforcement officers who work in Hinds County graduated from week-long mental-health …
Coalition Forms Against ‘One Lake’ Proposal
Several wildlife and environmental groups came together to form a coalition against the proposed "One Lake" flood-control/development project on the Pearl River a few weeks before the report detailing the …
JPS: In the Midst of an ‘Unprecedented’ Situation
When the Mississippi Board of Education recommended a takeover of Jackson Public Schools, the district was almost finished implementing a corrective action plan that the department of education approved in …
UPDATED: How Will the Jackson Property Tax Increase Affect You?
The Jackson City Council approved Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba's revenue increase proposal, raising the city's property tax rate by 2 mills, late on the Friday before Labor Day weekend.
How Trump’s Health Reform Could Affect Mississippi
Lower- and middle-class Mississippians could have the most to lose from Trump's proposed health-care reforms, including those who benefit from insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act marketplace as well …
When State Agencies Lose Their People
The Mississippi Department of Health can have a hard time keeping nurses because they can earn more if they go to work for other hospitals, an attrition problem that afflicts …
A Small, But Tangible, Impact on Teacher Shortages
Timothy Leake is a long way from home. He moved to Mississippi right after he graduated from Yale University in 2015. Leake studied math at Yale, but by the end …
Wrapping Around the Most Vulnerable
Terry Thigpen had been to four residential acute-treatment facilities before he was 10 years old, until his mother, Shavonne, discovered the Wraparound Initiative. It was an alternative to sending Terry …
UPDATED: Race Tension Roils Legislature, Majority Votes to End 'Privilege'
House members were previously allowed to ask questions about their rights, reputation and the conduct of House members—"personal privilege"—but the House voted in favor of striking those rights from the …
Lawsuit to Change Mississippi Flag An ‘Uphill Battle,’ But Could Work
A black Mississippi lawyer suing Gov. Phil Bryant for flying the state flag could be successful if he can prove that the state's original intent for putting the Confederate battle …
Trafficking, Anti-Terrorism Bills Still Alive; LGBT Rights Under Fire, Again
Mississippi has a human-trafficking problem that gets far too little law-enforcement and medical attention, but a bill is still alive in the Mississippi Legislature that would provide more resources to …
SCOTUS Ruled on Marriage—Not Discrimination
While the U.S. Supreme Court's same-sex marriage ruling was monumental in American legal history and a cause for celebration by LGBT citizens, the reality is that the court ruled on …
The Next Fight: LGBT Workplace Rights
Lavell Brown filed a discrimination lawsuit in federal court after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued him a right-to-sue notice in February.