Ellington

There's never a slow news week in Jackson, Miss., and last week was no exception. Here are the local stories JFP reporters brought you in case you missed them:

1. When Mayor Tony Yarber submits the second draft of his budget proposal to the Jackson City Council next week, the plan will not include an 8-percent tax increase.
2. Police arrested a man Thursday who they say threatened to commit suicide and hurt others on the campus of Mississippi State University. However, authorities did not recover a gun nor were there any reports of shots fired.
3. As we approached the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I found myself wanting to experience neither. I don't need to be reminded of the misery and death that Katrina wrought on New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
4. Ten years after Hurricane Katrina, graduate student Ashley Norwood asked Gulf Coast natives at the University of Mississippi, "What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear Hurricane Katrina?"
5. After generating lots of buzz, the organizers of a statewide ballot initiative to legalize cannabis in Mississippi and commute the sentences of people incarcerated for marijuana-related crimes fear their dreams are going up in smoke due to disturbing efforts to kill it.
6. Jackson City Council President Melvin Priester Jr. presented the council's alternative to Mayor Tony Yarber's budget plan, a 10-point plan consisting mostly of freezing job vacancies that are budgeted for but currently unfilled in addition to making other staffing cuts.
7. The new system for grading Mississippi public schools is under fire in a recent PEER study that has called for changes.
8. Jackson State University's growth is taking place so rapidly that the school was caught off guard this year by the number of students wanting to study there.
9. Early next year, Mitchell Moore, who owns Campbell's Bakery in Fondren, will open a second location at 123 Jones St. in Madison.
10. Although it wasn't as a big of a surprise as the outcome of the race for governor, the Democratic primary for the Central District representative to the Mississippi Transportation Commission also raised a few eyebrows.

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