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In 2-1 Vote, PSC Lets Kemper Move Forward

Voting 2-1 this morning, the Mississippi Public Service Commission agreed to let Mississippi Power Co. continue building a lignite coal plant in Kemper County -- at least for the time being. In 2011, the commission allowed Mississippi Power, a subsidiary of Atlanta,Ga.-based Southern Co., revise its price tag for the 582-megawatt internal gasification combined cycle plant from $2.44 billion to $2.8 billion without public input.

Praying To God, Cher And Oprah

I've been making a concerted effort to get healthy, as of late. In the past few weeks, I've taken up running, yoga and strength training. Sure, there is an aspect is vanity at play here, but there's also a dose of prevention.

City Issues Boil Water Notice

The city has issued a boil water notice to about 175 people served by the Maddox Road well system. The statement is below, verbatim.

Arrest Made in JSU Student's Murder

Statement from Jackson City Hall on the arrest made in the shooting death of Jackson State University student Nolan Ryan Henderson at an off-campus party over the weekend:

Reeves: ‘Very Close to Ending Abortion in Miss.'

Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves has just released a statement expressing support for any bills designed to end abortion in Mississippi. We've been hearing speculation that the Senate, and Reeves in particular, planned to kill anti-abortion legislation from the House, especially since several Senate anti-abortion bills died in committee.

Immigration Bill's Fate Rests with Senate Dem

Here's Reeves' statement:

Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves' office just sent out a statement on the controversial anti-undocumented immigrant HB 488. In the release, Reeves states that he's heard the concerns about the bill's potential costs to law enforcement agencies and the state economy. To that end, Reeves assigned HB 488 to the Senate Judiciary B, chaired by Hob Bryan, a Democrat from Amory for further study.

What's New in the JFP Photo Galleries

See photos from this week's events and newsmakers:

Family and friends

Tyler Edmonds Says He's ‘Dusting Off' After 5th Circuit Loss

Tyler Edmonds, who was tried as an adult for allegedly helping his sister kill her husband when he was only 13, was rebuffed yesterday by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He and his mother, Sharon Clay, sued Oktibbeha County officials for coercing a confession out of him while one of the police officer's kept his mother out of the room with his foot against the door. Using that confession, Edmonds was accused of helping his sister Kristi Fulgham pull the trigger to kill her husband, Joey Fulgham, but later acquitted after getting a new trial.

Cousin of Shooting Victim Says JSU Football Players to Blame

A cousin of Jackson State University student Ryan Henderson, gunned down last weekend at a pool party, is blaming JSU football players for the shooting. On her Tumblr page this morning, Shelby Davonna wrote: "My cousin Ryan was brutally murdered by members of the Jackson State University football team after he accidentally bumped into a player during a pool party. The problem could have been resolved when Ryan apologized, but instead he was jumped 3 times, chased around an apartment complex, and eventually was shot in the face."

Bad Crime News Week for Rankin County

Rankin County suffered a one-two punch this week on the crime news front. Yesterday, the U.S. Attorney's office announced that three Rankin County men, Dylan Wade Butler, 20, John Aaron Rice, 19, and Deryl Paul Dedmon, 19, would be the first sentenced under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act for committing a hate crime that resulted in murder. The three men, and up to four accomplices, worked together to kill James Craig Anderson last summer.

Candidate for Second District Releases Campaign Jingle

Cobby Williams, a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, recently released a campaign video, or "jingle."

Butler, Dedmon, Rice plead guilty to federal hate crime

Three Brandon men plead guilty to two felony hate crime charges today in the case that resulted in the death of James Craig Anderson, of Jackson.

Weekly COMstat Report

The Jackson Police Department's weekly major crimes report was just released. The report covers citywide crime for the week of March 12 through March 18.

Prosecutor Recounts James Anderson's Murder

The following is Hinds County Assistant District Attorney Scott Rogillio's verbatim account of the events that transpired when Deryl Dedmon and his friends encountered James Craig Anderson in June 2011. The narrative would have provided the basis for the prosecution's case against Dedmon, who pleaded guilty to Anderson's murder this afternoon. Because racial hatred inspired the crime, Dedmon, who is white, received the maximum penalty of two life sentences for his part in a plot to target blacks in Jackson. A word of caution, some of the language in the account is explicit.

Dedmon Pleads Guilty

Deryl Dedmon pleaded guilty today to the murder of James Craig Anderson. The judge sentenced Dedmon to life for murder and another life sentence for hate crime, to run concurrently.

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