Jackson Free Press

Johnson Attending Obama Visit

City of Jackson Spokesman Chris Mims confirmed today that Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr., was invited to attend first lady Michelle Obama's personal visit to the city on Wednesday. Obama …

No More Autopsies for Steven Hayne

Radley Balko at Reason Magazine and WLBT are reporting that Mississippi's long-time de facto medical examiner, Steven Hayne, will no longer be doing autopsies in the state. Balko writes:

Ledger Suddenly Questioning ‘Expert' Testimony

After many years of extolling the virtues of the death penalty and cheering on the state with gleeful editorials about prisoners about to "ride the needle," The Clarion-Ledger is suddenly …

Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?

A new book, by Susan Jacoby, asks this question, especially about why so many Americans are so little interested in actual facts before forming (and spewing) opinions. Read more, as …

C-L = Fox News…paper?

Wow. Check out the lede on this article in today's Metro section.

Community Meetings

Screen on the Green is Thursday, Nov. 14 at 5:30 p.m. at the Mississippi Museum of Art.

PHM Bill heads to Governor

The Most Intriguing of 2016

The last year was a crazy one, to say the least, but crazy often means that intriguing people came out of the woodwork. Here are some of the local people …

Kitchen-Table Politics: The JFP Interview with Vicki Slater

Vicki Slater spoke with the Jackson Free Press in early July about why she believes she would make a better governor than the incumbent Phil Bryant.

Clarion-Ledger: Don't Fund Children's Justice Center

A Clarion-Ledger editorial today says that the MCI settlement should only fund telecommunications-related causes:

Wooten Apparent Winner Over Reeves ... Again

As the Jackson Free Press went to the printer Tuesday night, Democrat Adrienne Wooten was poised to win the re-vote election demanded by District 71 incumbent Rep. John Reeves. If …

Reading the Tea Leaves: The Tea Party in Mississippi

Tea Party member Donald Wiggans was different. A small, wiry man, he stood quietly during an August 2009 town-hall meeting on health-care reform featuring U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson.

McCoy Urges Barbour Against Cold Feet on Stimulus

Mississippi House Speaker Billy McCoy offered a public plea Thursday to Gov. Haley Barbour to accept federal money offered through a proposed congressional stimulus package worth more than $800 billion. …

The JFP Interview with Steve Holland

In a matter of 24 hours, Steve Holland went from seemingly being the director of "Punk'd: Mississippi Edition" to directing funerals.

Council: No to Payroll ... and Bodyguard Raises

The Jackson City Council failed to approve the city payroll by a 3-to-3 vote at a special meeting this afternoon. Council President Leslie McLemore, Ward 7 Councilwoman Margaret Barrett-Simon and …

Jackson Less ‘Dangerous' In 2004

Ironically, a murder binge in the city—nine fatal shootings in 10 days—comes just as a national crime-rating outfit released good news for the city of Jackson, at least about its …

Hills And Gullies On State Street

I've got two different things I need to say this week, and they're almost impossible to segue between, so let me just get the first one out of the way.

Family Values

Our history as a state and a nation is filled with atrocious efforts to destroy the self-esteem of black men. During the entire arc of slavery and then Jim Crow …

The Death of Conservatism (As We Know It)?

Conservative columnist David Brooks rethinks today's Republican Party in the cover story of this week's New York Times Magazine: "Democrats may imagine that the G.O.P. is an amalgam of fat …

Fighting the Power in Kemper County

Barbara Correro's house sits just off an unpaved road of sandy, bright-red clay and under a canopy of shortleaf and southern yellow pine, sweetgum, oak, flowering dogwood, elm and hickory …