All results / Stories / Arielle Dreher
Elation, Vows for State’s Same-Sex Couples
The party room in Julep restaurant in northeast Jackson was filled with relief Monday night as a group of about 30 people, new and old friends, gathered to celebrate four …
‘Empower’ PAC Helps Oust Anti-Charter Republicans
Empower Mississippi, a nonprofit dedicated to school choice, used its political arm, the Empower PAC, to unseat four incumbent Republican candidates for the Mississippi House of Representatives in the DeSoto …
Green: Farming an Economic Future
Raised on a farm and the daughter of a sharecropper, Addie Lee Green remembers learning how to chop down trees for firewood as a child. Now she is running to …
Confederate Flag Divides Mississippi Politicians
In the wake of the Charleston massacre, the nation is questioning South Carolina's Confederate flag, and in turn, looking to Mississippi's state flag that features the symbol.
Plugging Kids into Mental Health
NFusion Metro is a community-based mental-health-care program primarily for ages 11 to 18 years old in the Jackson area. During the summer, counselors are doing themed weeks for their lesson …
State to Reauthorize, Monitor Visitors Bureau
Pending Gov. Phil Bryant's signature, the State of Mississippi is reauthorizing the Jackson Convention and Visitors Bureau for another year, but with added strings attached.
Roadblocks for Road Plans?
The Republican supermajority in the Mississippi Legislature has ignored the state chamber of commerce's calls to increase state funding for roads and bridges for three legislative sessions in a row.
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 …
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 …