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Dealing With The Bad Guys
Precinct 4 COPS meetings have proved a reliable format for city figures to meet with concerned residents and discuss problems facing the community, particularly infrastructure and crime issues. The Aug. 4 meeting was no different. Visiting the audience that day, along with Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes and Public Works Director Thelman Boyd, was Jackson Mayor Frank Melton, who leaned into the crowd with informal aplomb and pronounced his top three priorities as mayor.
Score (Another) One for Big Business
The only bill to survive the Labor Committee, chaired by Rep. Harvey Moss, D-Alcorn, is one that benefits big business rather than workers. The lone bill, SB 2480, would lower unemployment contributions and tap into the $740 million Unemployment Benefit Trust Fund to increase funds for work-force training—while decreasing funds for the unemployed.
House, Senate Switch Roles
The Mississippi Legislature ended the $330,000 special session this week around 10 p.m. Friday night with a final package of bills intended to help rebuild the Coast. Lawmakers managed to agree on several difficult issues, including moving casinos to land, but along the way many of them made surreal departures from the political norm, especially over whether to increase fees and taxes.
Mayor Rebuked; Club Re-Opens
On June 26, around 3 a.m, 21-year-old LaKita Williams was shot to death while leaving the Upper Level Sports Bar at 4125 Northside Drive. Gunmen sprayed bullets so randomly that five others were also injured as they were leaving the club. Jackson police investigations reveal that Williams and the other five were not the intended targets, with no statement yet on who exactly was.
Barbour: Fund ‘Pet Projects' Now
Last week Gov. Haley Barbour called the House and Senate back for a special session, to begin May 18, to continue slogging away at the state's almost $4 billion budget. Thanks to surprise revenue jackpots such as a recent $100 billion settlement for tax evasion by WorldCom (now MCI) and the addition of $60 million in tax collections across the state, lawmakers should have a much easier time of addressing budget issues this time around.
How to Beat the House
On July 15, the Mississippi Legislature finished up a 90-minute special session in record time and with plenty of smiles. Both the Senate and the House passed similar bills providing $14 million for Baxter Healthcare in Cleveland, allowing Baxter to expand its product line and settling fears that the company's almost 800 employees might lose their jobs.
Momentum Gaining Momentum?
Tempers flared for the first real time on the floor of the Mississippi House of Representatives May 26 as lawmakers argued over an amendment by Rep. Bennett Malone, D-Carthage, to strike all bond measures from Gov. Haley Barbour's Momentum Mississippi incentives package for businesses and keep only Momentum Mississippi—the part that the governor wants. Fueled by the tempers of representatives like Steve Holland, D-Plantersville, and others, the House voted to block the amendment and sent the bill on its way, lugging an additional $98 million in other projects, from $56 million for Northrop Grumman shipyard in Pascagoula to a $900,000 lake in Alcorn County. The bill and its additions total $123 million in bond projects.
North Toward Home
As House and Senate members met May 18 to hammer out the details of Gov. Haley Barbour's call for a special session, Barbour himself was nowhere to be found in either the Capitol or his headquarters in the nearby Sillers Building. Instead, Barbour spent that morning in Washington raising money for a personal PAC (political action committee).
What Would God Think?
George County Justice Court Judge Connie Wilkerson kicked over a fire ant mound when he wrote in a letter to the George County Times, published March 28, that "in my opinion, gays and lesbians should be put in some type of mental institution instead of having a law like this passed for them." He was writing the letter in response to a recent California law that gave gay partners the same rights to file wrongful death suits as spouses or other family members have. The letter prompted statewide gay rights group Equality Mississippi and Lambda Legal, a nationwide gay rights organization, to file an ethics violation complaint against Wilkerson, arguing that the letter is evidence that the judge cannot be impartial.
Clarion-Ledger: A ‘Moral Contract' With Melton?
Rarely mentioned in the ongoing lawsuit between Mayor Frank Melton and former Lt. Col. Robert Pierce is the role of The Clarion-Ledger.
Felons Are (Back) In
Jackson Mayor Frank Melton, who refused to sit next to a "convicted felon" at a campaign forum back in April, is now a fan of granting second chances. Melton did a philosophical about-face last week when he hired former City Councilman Robert Williams as a mayoral assistant.
Guilty By Default?
When Mayor Frank Melton held the post as head of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, he leaked a memo containing accusations against MBN employees that were later disproved by the state auditor's office. Melton faxed the memo to Clarion-Ledger reporter Ana Radelat the day it was handed to him, kicking off a lawsuit against him and the Gannett Corp., the newspaper's corporate owner, for defamation.
Evacuees Face Confusion, Long Lines
Stories are still trickling in from major damage zones across the south. Disturbing tales of personal failures and the greater breakdown of government in the face of unconscionable disaster roll in with the grim faces of the haggard, the beaten—and the progressively more faithless.
Wake-Up Call For Repubs?
On April 20 House Speaker Billy McCoy swore in Rep.-elect J. Shaun Walley, 28, of Leakesville. Walley represents District 105, consisting of parts of Greene, Perry, Wayne, George and Forrest Counties. Walley ran against Republican Paul D. Walley, of Richton (no relation) after Gov. Haley Barbour appointed Rep. Randy "Bubba" Pierce Feb. 25 to fill the unexpired term of Chancery Judge Glenn Barlow, who retired. Some Democrats complained that Pierce was chosen because Barbour sought to cut Democratic influence in the only state legislative body dominated by the party.
Threats From The ‘Bully' Pulpit?
Children's Defense Fund Executive Director Oleta Fitzgerald spoke at a May 18 rally calling for the adequate funding of the school's education system, which has been more or less relegated to the status of side item in the 2005 special session agenda. As Fitzgerald addressed the crowd on the basement floor of the State Capitol, she demanded that Gov. Haley Barbour, who had not initially put education or the 2006 budget on the agenda, give proper priority to education. She then referred to him as a "dictator," raising more than one eyebrow in the audience.
State Behaving Badly
More than 30 years after Mississippi's incarceration system was declared unconstitutional in the landmark case Gates v Collier, the Mississippi Department of Corrections is again being accused of subjecting its prison inmates to unauthorized mistreatment, prompting the ACLU to announce the formation of its first Prison and Jail Accountability Project.
The Clean, Green Power Machine?
A pro-nuclear rally was held on the south steps of the State Capitol June 28 to gather support and attention for The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's public meeting later that evening at the Port Gibson City Hall, in Claiborne County.
Melton To UMC: No Thanks
The University Medical Center is a state-of-the-art facility that has undergone more than $335 million in new construction and renovations over the last 10 years. Now the university can throw $200,000 back on the pile.
The Incredible, Shrinking SS Check
Mississippi, like many so-called "red" states, gets big returns for its tax dollar. The report "Federal Tax Burdens and Expenditures by State," explains that the state gets back $1.84 out of every $1 it pays to the federal government, ranking it as No. 4 on the report's big "winners" list. These benefits include Social Security money, which according to the National Women's Law Center, 22 percent of Mississippians enjoy. This compares to California's 16 percent and Alaska's 12 percent. The idea of tampering with Social Security, consequently, has a heady impact among Mississippi voters.
Rape: The Forgotten Crime?
When The Clarion-Ledger recently published Jackson crime figures for 2004, numbers showed drops in most categories, including burglary, assault, robbery and larceny. The years 2002, 2003 and 2004 also saw reports of rape slide from 182, to 179, to 165, respectively. A more recent report, however, showed that both arson and rape saw a rise during the first few months of 2005, compared to last year.