All results / Stories / Adam Lynch
Wrong Inmate Released
Sheriff Malcolm McMillin said Monday that county officials released the wrong person last Thursday when Willie McGregory got out of the Hinds County Detention Center, possibly due to an indictment snafu.
Johnson to Fill City Boards
Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. told the Jackson Free Press that he is putting a priority on filling city boards or re-committing board members whose terms expired under the last administration.
Firefighters Reinstated, Controversy Remains
A battle between Mayor Frank Melton and five members of the Jackson Fire Department ended in a handshake last Friday. Local 87 union President Brandon Falcon announced that he, along with Capts. Sidney Johnson, Patrick Armon, Reuben Ray and Lt. Vernon Gee could go back to work Sunday after being put on paid suspension for speaking to the media regarding staff shortages in the fire department.
Council Approves Tax, Fee Hikes
Last Friday, the City Council voted to raise taxes for city residents, even as the budget of the mayor's office jumped 41 percent over last year. In the last year, the city has moved to cut costs, including sharp cuts in overtime pay, a promotion freeze in some departments and a drastic call by Mayor Frank Melton for every city department—except the police—to cut its budget by 5 percent.
AG Can Sue BP without OK
British Petroleum announced that Mississippi will receive a total of $65 million to fight oil coming onto the beaches and for tourist advertising, but Attorney General Jim Hood says he requires none of those funds to pursue a suit against the oil giant, should one become necessary.
Council Guarded on Care Homes
Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes was clearly guarded about imposing new regulation for personal-care homes at the Monday Jackson City Council Planning Committee meeting.
Melton Sues Over Own Leak
Jackson Mayor Frank Melton is suing The Clarion-Ledger for breach of contract, a story the Jackson Free Press broke on its Web site on April 18. Melton was head of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics for less than four months when he leaked a memo composed by then-MBN agent Roy Sandifer (now JPD assistant police chief) to The Clarion-Ledger's Washington correspondent Ana Radelat in 2003. Now, Melton is suing the paper because it ran his leaked memo without corroborating the accusations in it. The memo alleged that MBN agents were illegally transferring MBN-seized weapons and an airplane.
Re-opening The Evers Case?
Jackson Mayor Frank Melton launched into a tirade last week over his desire to give the Jackson international airport the full name of former NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Evers, who was assassinated in his driveway in 1963.
New Law Targets Neglectful Owners
The city will put more energy into Capitol Street's dilapidated properties and will have a new state law to help out, Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. said this week.
Pay Now, or Pay Later
Jackson Public School Superintendent Earl Watkins and JPS School Board President H. Ann Jones held an editorial board meeting with the Jackson Free Press last week, arguing for a $150 million bond proposal, which will be put to a vote by Jackson voters this November. Both Jones and Watkins believe it's necessary in a district facing overcrowding. Over the last two decades, the district has built low-quality aluminum portables to house a surge of students, constituting about 300 potential tornado-hazards throughout Jackson.
Willis Fires Back
Former Parchman inmate Cedric Willis is suing the city of Jackson, the police department, and officers Gerald Jones, Ned Garner, Jim Jones and Joe Wade for $36 million for wrongful arrest and prosecution in a conviction that locked him away from friends and family for more than a decade.
EXCLUSIVE: City Attorney In the Money?
City Attorney Sarah O'Reilly-Evans could collect up to $650,000 on the $65 million convention Center bond proposal, according to a clause in her city contract, first revealed publicly on Nov. 1 on jacksonfreepress.com. O'Reilly-Evans, who heads the city's legal department, makes $113,000 a year in annual salary—almost $25,000 more than the last city attorney, Terry Wallace—but a clause in her contract allows her to take home extra pay from every city bond proposal she helps devise.
DOJ Investigation Hits Close to Cochran
A U.S. Department of Justice investigation is creeping closer to Republican Sen. Thad Cochran. The DOJ indicted Ann Copland, Cochran's 29-year legislative aide, for accepting more than $25,000 worth of meals and event tickets from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, in exchange for aiding Abramoff's clients.
Judge Malcolm Harrison: A New Man
Newly appointed Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Malcolm Harrison is a careful man when it comes to talking politics about Mississippi's judicial system.
JRA on the Chopping Block
The mayor's recent proposal to dissolve the Jackson Redevelopment Authority and use the savings to reduce the city's $4.3 million budget deficit may do little to address the city's budget woes.
The Game of Monopoly
Mississippi attorney general Jim Hood filed a lawsuit against Entergy Mississippi Inc. last Tuesday, accusing the company of "dishonest practices worthy of ENRON."
Racist Names, Beware
Ward 2 Councilman Chokwe Lumumba said he voted with a majority of the council to remove a controversial petition requirement for the renaming of city streets or facilities because he felt city residents deserved a "more fair system" for changing street and place names.
Not So Fast, Suburbs
Former Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. says he doesn't believe the city should have to lose ownership of its wastewater treatment plant in order to fix it.
Supremes' Decision Could Affect Minor
The U.S. Supreme Court's June 29 decision to vacate the 2006 fraud conviction of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman and remand that case back to the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals could mean good news for convicted Mississippi attorney Paul Minor.
Politics of Tobacco
The House sent a veto-proof cigarette tax bill to the Senate Thursday, along with the message that one side of the Mississippi Legislature is standing behind the tax, even if former tobacco lobbyist Gov. Haley Barbour and his Senate allies have no intention of letting the bill come up for a vote.