[Editorial] We Like ‘Obamacare'
With the U.S. Supreme Court considering health-care reform, we thought we'd mention that (a) our health-insurance rates are down, (b) we appreciate the tax credits for our small business, and (c) we've already seen cases where pre-existing conditions or gaps in coverage—which used to keep employees from getting insurance—are no longer barriers to coverage.
We Like ‘Obamacare'
With the U.S. Supreme Court considering health-care reform, we thought we'd mention that (a) our health-insurance rates are down, (b) we appreciate the tax credits for our small business, and (c) we've already seen cases where pre-existing conditions or gaps in coverage—which used to keep employees from getting insurance—are no longer barriers to coverage.
Stop the Wedge-Issue Politics
Conservatives love to rail against the size of government and the prospect of more government intrusion into American citizens' lives. However, in looking at the bills the Mississippi Legislature is concentrating on, the trend toward hypocrisy and away from solutions should be apparent.
Stop the Wedge-Issue Politics
Conservatives love to rail against the size of government and the prospect of more government intrusion into American citizens' lives. However, in looking at the bills the Mississippi Legislature is concentrating on, the trend toward hypocrisy and away from solutions should be apparent.
Services Aren't Like Toasters
Politicians, especially the tight-fisted ones, love to compare the government to your home. When money is tight at home, they'll explain condescendingly, you may have to send your toaster to a repair shop, put off that Disney family vacation or drive that old clunker around for another year or two.
Services Aren't Like Toasters
Politicians, especially the tight-fisted ones, love to compare the government to your home. When money is tight at home, they'll explain condescendingly, you may have to send your toaster to a repair shop, put off that Disney family vacation or drive that old clunker around for another year or two.
Get out the Voter ID
At a recent event, Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said he hoped new voter-identification laws will be in place by September—in time for federal elections. He's waiting on the Legislature to decide how to apply the new amendment that will require photo ID at the polls, though, and depending on how strict our law is when the Legislature is through with it, Mississippi could be waiting much longer than that before voter ID becomes a reality.
Get out the Voter ID
At a recent event, Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said he hoped new voter-identification laws will be in place by September—in time for federal elections. He's waiting on the Legislature to decide how to apply the new amendment that will require photo ID at the polls, though, and depending on how strict our law is when the Legislature is through with it, Mississippi could be waiting much longer than that before voter ID becomes a reality.
Stop the City Council Game-Playing
Here we go again. When the Jackson Free Press started 10 years ago, the City Council members from Ward 1 (Ben Allen) and Ward 3 (Kenneth Stokes) were constantly at each other's throats. It wasn't an intellectual disagreement with occasional laughs; they made the city look like a laughing stock with their constant insults of each other.
[Editorial] Stop the City Council Game-Playing
Here we go again. When the Jackson Free Press started 10 years ago, the City Council members from Ward 1 (Ben Allen) and Ward 3 (Kenneth Stokes) were constantly at each other's throats. It wasn't an intellectual disagreement with occasional laughs; they made the city look like a laughing stock with their constant insults of each other.
[Editorial] Teach Kids About Safe Sex
Adecision by a Department of Education task force earlier this week confirmed what some of us have suspected for some time: Schools in Mississippi really don't have any legal way to teach comprehensive sex-education. A recent law gives school districts a choice between abstinence-only and "abstinence-plus" sex education in theory; in reality, they're just different names for the same policy.
Teach Kids About Safe Sex
Adecision by a Department of Education task force earlier this week confirmed what some of us have suspected for some time: Schools in Mississippi really don't have any legal way to teach comprehensive sex-education. A recent law gives school districts a choice between abstinence-only and "abstinence-plus" sex education in theory; in reality, they're just different names for the same policy.
Stop Obstructing and Get to Work
Republicans in the Mississippi Legislature seem to be dealing with a lot of pent-up demand. Every day, we hear of another piece of legislation that is a virtual rehash of a bill that could not be passed without a Republican majority in both houses of the Legislature.
Stop Obstructing and Get to Work
Republicans in the Mississippi Legislature seem to be dealing with a lot of pent-up demand. Every day, we hear of another piece of legislation that is a virtual rehash of a bill that could not be passed without a Republican majority in both houses of the Legislature.
Time to Swim, not Sink, Together
With evidence everywhere that good public education is key to our city and our state's economic future, not to mention public safety, it is time that to slay the dinosaurs of the past who don't want to fund or reform education in a way that makes sense for the most children.
Time to Swim, not Sink, Together
With evidence everywhere that good public education is key to our city and our state's economic future, not to mention public safety, it is time that to slay the dinosaurs of the past who don't want to fund or reform education in a way that makes sense for the most children.
Stop the Injustice of ‘Justice'
Nothing brings the inequality and foibles of our justice system into stark relief like an upcoming execution. As lawyers battle over last-minute efforts to save a human life, it's impossible not to weigh one man's sentence of death against others who receive lesser sentences—or even pardons—for equivalent crimes.
Stop the Injustice of ‘Justice'
Nothing brings the inequality and foibles of our justice system into stark relief like an upcoming execution. As lawyers battle over last-minute efforts to save a human life, it's impossible not to weigh one man's sentence of death against others who receive lesser sentences—or even pardons—for equivalent crimes.
[Editorial] Change Felony Voting Laws for All
Here's what continues to get us about former Gov. Haley Barbour's excuses for all those pardons. He keeps saying that he is a Christian and, thus, is concerned about the trustys and others whom he believes served enough time and now should be able to go vote and hunt and get professional licenses and the like. Our question to Barbour is: Where were you all these years?
Change Felony Voting Laws for All
Here's what continues to get us about former Gov. Haley Barbour's excuses for all those pardons. He keeps saying that he is a Christian and, thus, is concerned about the trustys and others whom he believes served enough time and now should be able to go vote and hunt and get professional licenses and the like. Our question to Barbour is: Where were you all these years?
Celebrate the Best, Fix the Rest
The JFP applauds every person, business and organization that is making the capital city into a very special place. The world is starting to take notice.
Keep Up the Reform Momentum
Former Gov. Haley Barbour's unprecedented spate of last-minute pardons brought numerous issues regarding some of Mississippi's antiquated customs into the glaring light of national media attention.
Keep Up the Reform Momentum
Former Gov. Haley Barbour's unprecedented spate of last-minute pardons brought numerous issues regarding some of Mississippi's antiquated customs into the glaring light of national media attention.
Barbour's Shameful Pardons
We first heard that then-Gov. Haley Barbour had pardoned another wife-killer Saturday night on WLBT after the Saints game. From there, the news snowballed, with another wife-killer added to the mix, culminating in a list of more than 200 pardons and grants of clemency that we were trying to sort through as the paper went to press.
New Year, New Start
Recently, the Jackson Redevelopment Authority decided to stop and breathe rather than be bulldozed into making a decision without having all the information they needed for the proposed convention-center hotel. This past week, the organization's board went a step farther.
New Year, New Start
Recently, the Jackson Redevelopment Authority decided to stop and breathe rather than be bulldozed into making a decision without having all the information they needed for the proposed convention-center hotel. This past week, the organization's board went a step farther.
Are ‘Workers' All We Want?
As we move into the fourth or fifth year of the Great Recession (depending on whose measurement you use), it's more and more difficult to divorce anything from its ability to make money and create jobs. Education isn't exempt.
Can We Learn from the Hotel Morass?
As the city administration and the Jackson Development Authority scramble to close a convention-center hotel deal filled with "complexities" (as JRA member John Reeves put it), the situation should make the rest of us wonder: How can we avoid being in this place again?
Follow Lead of Powell, Barksdale
There are people who complain, seeing insurmountable problems everywhere, and there are people who take action infused by hope and informed by facts and evidence. We were thrilled to see people in the latter category, working for the future of the city's children, and thus all of us, honored this week by Colin and Alma Powell's America's Promise Alliance. The alliance named Jackson one of the country's 100 Best Communities for Young People.
Council: Revisit Free Speech 101
The Jackson City Council voted Tuesday to extend a compromise to the Occupy Jackson protesters, allowing them a permit to stay in Smith Park until 11 p.m., rather than all night. That may or may not have been the right compromise between their right to assemble and the city's need to ensure nothing happens to them in the middle of the night.