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Louie Miller
Mississippi Sierra Club Director Louie Miller, 50, is nothing if not a pit fighter. He might smile for his pictures, but don't be fooled. Miller can be foul-mouthed and irascible, a product of conference-room shouting matches and broken-bottle, barroom-style fights in the hallways of the Mississippi State Capitol.
Daniel Johnston
Daniel "Danny" Johnston, a senior music composition student at Belhaven College, mixes some of the most brilliant concoctions the city's coffee-drinkers can handle.
Cindy Griffin
Cindy Griffin, executive director of Habitat for Humanity, has been a Jackson resident for more than 27 years. She came to the city looking for work after earning a marketing degree from Louisiana State University.
Q&A: Curtis Wilkie on the Wrong Crowd
Author and University of Mississippi professor Curtis Wilkie speaks with a degree of sadness when he references the life of disgraced Mississippi attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs.
Beyond Repair: Council Responds to Maple Street ‘Sweep'
City Council members moved to distance themselves from Jackson Mayor Frank Melton's eviction of tenants living at the Maple Street Apartments at the City Council meeting on Jan. 3. "The council has not been a part of this process. We should be a part of this process, and we don't condone the process thus far," Council President Marshand Crisler said.
Civil Rights Museum to Tougaloo?
Jackson hip-hop artist Kamikaze is organizing community feedback regarding a consulting group's recent recommendation to place the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum north of County Line Road in Ridgeland. Museum consulting firm LaPaglia & Associates recommended Tougaloo College as the site of the museum on Feb. 11, even though it received a No. 10 ranking on a site list (PDF, 177 KB) as recently as November when the top spot under consideration was the site of Smith Wills Stadium on Lakeland Drive.
Taxpayers Covering Recio and Wright Attorney's Fees?
Jackson Mayor Frank Melton's assurance that he would be covering court costs in his April 2007 felony trial did not apply to his co-defendants, judging by a Nov. 30 letter submitted to the Hinds County Circuit Clerk's office. Former Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters submitted a motion for allocation of attorney's fees to the clerk's office and city attorneys, demanding payments of $15,000 apiece for attorneys Robert Shuler Smith and Winston Thompson for their representation of Melton's bodyguards Michael Recio and Marcus Wright.
Environmental, Evangelical, And No Place To Go
Even though the Bible speaks extensively about looking after the world the creator made, Sunday morning sermons rarely address issues such as shrinking ice caps, vanishing glaciers or how much mercury the nearby coal plant billows up into the sky. In fact, many pastors have moved away from the idea of protecting the world that God made, even going so far as to vehemently oppose any calls to preserve it.
Will It Stay, or Will It Go?
Mayor Frank Melton began the year 2006 with a resolution to remain a dogged pest to development he views as going too slow. On. Dec. 30, Melton announced that he intends to keep the heat on development of the King Edward Hotel and the Entertainment District on Farish Street for the first two months of 2006, going so far as to set a schedule for demolition of the King Edward.
Bloodwater
Capt. Louis Skrmetta didn't know what hit him in late August 2005. That weekend, as he was running a boatload of about 600 people out to Ship Island, The Weather Channel showed footage of a Category 2 hurricane called Katrina hitting the Florida peninsula.
JPD Officer Resigns
J.R. Walker, the cop whose smoking, ranting face filled the news as he blasted Mayor Melton and the city administration for causing low morale in the ranks of the JPD, has resigned.
Council Delays Budget Band-Aid
The Jackson City Council voted to hold items in the Monday Budget Committee meeting, including a vote to refinance the city's debt. The refinancing would give the city enough to cover its $3.9 million budget deficit, but cost the city about $110,000 in fees and dump higher interest rates upon the city over the next 10 years. Council members say they want to see the administration's alternatives to the debt refinancing before moving ahead with approving the move.
Back to the Battlefield
For years, the Battlefield Park neighborhood, cupped between Gallatin Street, U.S. 80 and Terry Road, has been a high-traffic territory for illicit drug activity and prostitution. Many local residents look upon the frenetic crime with embarrassment. "I've been living here all my life. We own too much property around here, so I couldn't just sell it, but I've watched this place go down," said one resident, who asked that his name be withheld for fear of retribution. "My family's been here for more than 100 years, and it's been getting worse. I've shot at people breaking into my house while I'm in it."
BREAKING: House Speaker on GOP Hit List
The House Republican Conference officially declared war on House Speaker Billy McCoy today. The conference agreed this afternoon that GOP members will vote together as a group to elect a new House speaker to replace McCoy, D-Rienzi, at the next legislative session in 2008. "We're going to have a new speaker next January, and it's not going to be Billy McCoy," said Assistant Republican Leader Greg Snowden, R-Meridian, in a Republican Party press release. "… He cannot be re-elected Speaker without Republican votes, and it is clear he will have none."
BREAKING: Smith's Response ‘Blatant Lie,' Father Says
District attorney candidate Robert Smith held a press conference today—not inviting the Jackson Free Press—to respond to Freddie Patton, a father he features in a campaign ad blaming D.A. Faye Peterson for not prosecuting the drunk driver who killed his baby daughter. Patton said yesterday that the Smith campaign brought him to Jackson from his home in Chicago and immediately put him on a TV set to do the ad. However, he said he soon learned that the Smith campaign lied to him about the role Peterson could have played—when, in fact, she was never given a case file to prosecute. Thus, he publicly retracted his endorsement, as the JFP reported yesterday.
FEMA Trailers 12 Times Formaldehyde Limit
Recent Environmental Protection Agency testing of FEMA trailers reveals higher average levels of formaldehyde than was originally found by Sierra Club testing last year. EPA testing showed unventilated trailers were 12 times the EPA limit of the dangerous preservative, and that even if the trailers were fully ventilated toxic levels in the trailers would still be three times the limit of EPA-approved levels.
Fighting Crime: What's The Plan?
Also: Darren Schwindaman's editorial cartoon
BREAKING: City Budget $13 Million in the Hole
The city administration updated an earlier estimation of a $3.9 million budget deficit today at the 3 p.m. budget meeting. "The city is currently out of budget about $13.1 million," said city Director of Administration Rick Hill, who then recommended the city make drastic cuts to the Department of Parks and Recreation and JATRAN, as well as engage in a debt restructuring plan that would get the city about $4 million in up-front money, but cost the city about $5 million over the course of 15 years. The $113,000-salaried City Attorney Sarah O'Reilly-Evans said she will get an extra $35,000 in attorney fees by being involved in the debt restructuring plan, thanks to a stipulation in her employment contract.
Jackson Developer Nervous over Council Vote
Update July 16, 2007: The zoning committee of the Jackson City Council today voted to delay a $75 million development by the Jackson Medical Mall. People over the project fear the 30-day delay could essentially kill the project. Councilmen Leslie McLemore, Kenneth Stokes, Frank Bluntson and Charles Tillman voted to hold the project. Councilwoman Margaret Barrett-Simon disagreed.
The City Hall Shuffle
Some council members learned for the first time Tuesday that rejected Parks and Recreation Director Charles Melvin is still making almost as much as he was as interim head of the department.