Jackson Free Press

Last week, Forbes Magazine ran an interesting Q&A with HOPE Enterprise Corp.'s chief-executive officer Bill Bynum.

Bynum told interviewer Willy Foote that the population HOPE serves through its credit union is similar to a developing nation and talked about why HOPE is successful, saying:

"It’s certainly not easy but it doesn’t require rocket science. The tools are by and large the same ones that the banks use. Our difference is that we add a commitment to serving these markets. It’s a matter of will. We are very committed to making sure people have access to capital regardless of who their parents were, or where they live or what they look like. "

Read the rest of the interview here.

While working on a story on Tony Yarber's Jackson Crime Alignment, I got the pleasure of speaking with pastor Matt McGue of one of Jackson's newest churches, One Church.

I am admittedly not very religious, but there's something about McGue's message of inclusion that struck me as incredibly genuine.

There aren't too many pastors you can interview who will quote Billy Graham and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but McGue isn't like many pastors. His One Church is intent on becoming a multicultural, multiracial and multi ethnical house of worship, which is rare in this part of the country.

Our churches, much like the rest of our everyday lives, are still segregated – not by law, but by cultural barriers that have needed to be knocked down for years.

That'll change if McGue has his way. He moved here from North Carolina, after helping to start a similar church in Charlotte called Lifepoint. He brought his wife ("I'm glad she decided to come"), his son and his son's wife, who is a recent addition to the family.

They are meeting in the Ridgeland Recreational Center near Northpark Mall, and he says he's found a location he hopes will be the future home of a permanent church. It's too early to say where it is, but he's hoping to be able to make an announcement soon.

He said two things in the course of a 15-minute conversation that have stuck with me the last two days, but probably won't make a story about fighting crime: "The churches have been preaching a message of inclusion and racial harmony from segregated pulpits," and "I want to build a church in Jackson that looks like Heaven, with people from every tribe and nation."

What a message – and a breath of fresh air – for a city as ethnically and racially divided as Jackson.

From the you can't make this ish up file, the Mississippi American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint this afternoon alleging the Mississippi Highway Patrol engaged in racial profiling and violated the First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights of Raymond Montgomery and Cathryn Stout, who are African American.

The stop happened Aug. 8 just north of Jackson on I-55 South, the ACLU said. A doctoral student at Saint Louis University, Stout "was traveling to Jackson to conduct interviews for a paper on Mississippians’ efforts to combat negative stereotypes of their state," the ACLU said.

According to the ACLU's press release, troopers pulled the couple over for Stout's Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. — a historically African American sorority — license plate holder. The release goes on to say:

"When (the couple) exercised their constitutional right to refuse to consent to a search, the trooper called his supervisor, Staff Sergeant Brad Vincent. The plaintiffs watched helplessly as troopers riffled through their suitcase and invaded their privacy. The troopers even dismantled the panels of their interior doors and looked under the hood of their car. In an effort to document the troopers’ actions, Stout tried to record the events on her phone camera. She was told to stop, and fearing arrest, she did. Their hour-long humiliation finally ended when the troopers could not find any contraband. They were sent on their way without any ticket, or an apology."

Stout noted the irony that the whole purpose of her trip was to show how far Mississippi has come in combating the image that the state is racially hostile.

"Unfortunately, my experience with the Highway Patrol revealed a much different picture,” Stout said.

Interestingly, at an Aug. 2012 legislative hearing on immigration reform, Vincent testified that Mexico-based cartels frequently transport narcotics through Mississippi and that the telltale signs of foreign drug mules, include old vehicles with new registrations filled with personal belongings. So it's possible that MHP thought Stout and Raymond (pictured below) were drug runners from south of the border.

The lawsuit, in which Department of Public Safety Commissioner Albert Santa Cruz is named as the main defendant, was filed in federal court in Jackson.

http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2013/dec/13/14981/

Civic group OurFondren plans to feed the officers of Jackson Police Precinct 4 this Thursday at 1 p.m. to show their appreciation.

The group is in its second year sponsoring the program, but it needs help. According to a Tuesday press release, McDade's Grovery, Fondren Renaissance and the Fondren Association of Businesses have all donated some of the main dishes, but neighborhood residents are still signing up to bring side dishes and desserts. To see what others are bringing, visit PerfectPotLuck.com and search for the event. They also need help setting up and serving on Thursday at the precinct located at 4436 North State Street.

For more information, contact OurFondren at [email protected].

Verbatim press release:

Attorney General Issues Opinion to Clarify Gun Carry December 5, 2013

Contact: Jan Schaefer Public Information Officer 601-359-2002 [email protected]

Jackson, MS- An opinion released by Attorney General Jim Hood outlines where concealed stun guns, revolvers and pistols can be carried by enhanced permit holders on public property even where the state or local governmental entity has posted signage prohibiting the carrying of weapons. While the Office of the Attorney General seldom does press releases on opinions released from the Opinions Division, Attorney General Jim Hood hopes the opinion will provide the public with a more definitive list of where they can and cannot carry with the enhanced permit.

“Our office has been asked to issue a series of opinions regarding the open carry, concealed carry and enhanced carry of firearms,” said Attorney General Hood. “I think this most recent opinion was a good effort to summarize our convoluted gun laws, and particularly our enhanced carry statutes. It contains a concise list of places a person with an enhanced carry permit may carry. I hope it will serve as a guide to advanced permitees, public officials and law enforcement."

The opinion, written to the City of Corinth, outlines the following places where the Mississippi statutes authorize a person with an enhanced permit to carry regardless of signage posted by a state governmental entity:

1. Any polling place. – (Other than the Section 45-9-101(13) prohibiting regular permit holders from carrying in polling places, Mississippi Code Sections 23-15-895 (relating to armed candidates) and 97-13-29 (military officer keeping armed troops within one mile of an election) are the only other state law restrictions regarding firearms in polling places.)

2. Any meeting place of the governing body of any governmental entity. – (It is the opinion of this office that the phrase meeting place means the room in which a meeting transpires as opposed to the entire building. Thus, although an enhanced permit holder would be entitled to carry a concealed pistol or revolver into a meeting place, that individual would not have unfettered gun carrying access to places within the building that are not generally open to the general public. See MS AG Op. Cantrell (Oct. 1, 2013)).

3. Any meeting of the Legislature or a committee thereof. – (Notwithstanding this language, it is the understanding of this office that the House and the Senate have each passed rules or regulations restricting the right of individuals to carry weapons at meetings of the Legislature or its committees.)

4. Any school, college or professional athletic event not related to firearms. – (This provision authorizes an enhanced permit holder to carry a stun gun, concealed pistol or revolver into non-firearm related events even if signage is posted pursuant to Section 45-9-101(13). However, if signage were posted relating to a firearm related school, college or professional event, enhanced permit holders would not be authorized to carry their weapons.)

5. Any portion of an establishment, licensed to dispense …