Your Rx Kit
Nothing is worse than being sick, but being sick your first time away from home can be particularly rough. Grab a container with a lid and fill it with these must-have items. Keep it nearby in your dorm, and you'll be ready to hit the books (or the parties) again in no time.
Southernisms 101
When JFP managing editor Ronni Mott moved to the south from Washington, D.C., she quickly noticed some of the rules and sounds of the South. Social niceties such as asking complete strangers, "How you doin'?" were all of a sudden social requirements.
A Bit of Discord
Belly dancers dancing. An upright base playing. Computer sound effects clanging. A saxophone honking. What do these things have in common? You might experience all of them at once as part of a performance of the Mississippi Improv Alliance.
Living Green in Jackson
As manager of Rainbow Green Services in Fondren, Katherine West knows a thing or two about living green. Green Services offers a variety of ways to help you live more environmentally aware, from fun and useful green products to organic garden consulting and permaculture landscaping.
The Young & the Faithful
As diverse as Jackson is, you can also find a plethora of levels of spirituality. Here are a few of some of the well-known.
Healthy Addiction
I recently volunteered through Operation Shoestring at Brown Elementary School. After a teacher confused me with someone who was supposed to give a talk on alcohol and drugs, she took me to a third grade classroom where eight kids were working on compound words.
Planting Seeds
The kids squealed and jumped up and down with delight and fear, oblivious to the wet Mississippi heat. The shy kids poked the writhing mass of squirming red wigglers with sticks or blades of grass; the braver ones took the creatures in their cupped hands and admired them.
City Lowers Towing Fees
Members of local wrecker-service companies claim that the City Council's Tuesday decision to lower towing fees in Jackson will hurt their business.
Urban Oasis
I never knew that 305 acres of state park with trails and a lake are right in the middle of Jackson. I knew where LeFleur's Bluff was, but I just thought there was a playground and a small park near the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science. After a fellow Jackson Free Press intern told me there was an urban oasis behind the museum, I had to go see it for myself.
Kenneth Johnson
"I like having everything at my fingertips," Kenneth Johnson says about Jackson.As the director of leasing for the redevelopment of the Jackson Square Outlet Mall, the 26-year-old is dedicated to creating even more options for Jacksonians.
Mississippi Eligible for Education Funds From Feds
Mississippi is eligible for additional education and Medicaid funds after the U.S. House passed a $26 billion state aid bill yesterday.
City Anti-Immigration Profiling Ordinance Stalls
Ward 2 Councilman Chokwe Lumumba's proposed anti-immigration profiling ordinance stalled this morning, after Jackson City Council president Frank Bluntson placed the ordinance back into the planning committee for further debate during today's City Council meeting.
City to Consider Commuter Tax
Read the 2008 Census Report on commuter data.
Millsaps Honored, New Businesses Open
The Princeton Review has picked Millsaps College in for its annual guide "The Best 373 Colleges." The list focuses on schools' academic quality and singles out Millsaps for its encouragement of classroom discussion. In addition to listing the school in the top 20 for encouraging discussion, the book also ranks Millsaps as a top-20 college for the amount of student interaction across races and classes.
[Balko] Ignorance of the Law is No Excuse
"Ignorance of the law is no excuse." That's the standard line motorists hear when they say they weren't aware of the speed limit, or gun owners hear when they say didn't know about the gun laws in the jurisdiction they happened to get arrested in. Yet that ignorance is pretty understandable in an America where just about everything is criminalized. At the federal level alone, there are now more than 4,500 separate crimes, and that's not counting the massive regulatory code, violations of which also can sometimes be punished with criminal charges.
Samuel Bryant
Samuel Bryant may have left Mississippi for 52 years, but he is hoping his experiences as a community organizer and artist in Portland, Ore., will help his goal of facilitating interracial dialogues in Jackson.
Calling all galleries!
The art gallery listings page needs an overhaul, and I need your help.
DMR Director Stops Oil Spill Work
Read DMR Director Bill Walker's letter
Why I Still Drink Coffee
On pain of death (or, rather, pain of dirty looks from Ronni), I'm taking stock of my five wellness goals. I'm falling short on some: my afternoon coffee intake has risen, not dropped, and I'm meditating about half as often as I'd like. The coffee goal might be a bad one, though. While I don't love the headache and sluggishness that comes with a caffeine deficiency, I find something perversely romantic about the whole ritual, about sharing this weakness with so many people.
What I Learned From Being Carless
I successfully, but barely, made it a month without having a car in one of the hottest months of the year. Initially, I thought to myself " I don't need a car, I'll be the bike-advocacy poster child."