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Choctaws To Hold New Election
Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is having a new election after a tribal member appealed the June 14 election.
[Stiggers] Imus Be Dreaming
Readin' Rain-Bro: "Will bicycles become the transportation alternative for the financially challenged individual who cannot afford to pay $3 for a gallon of gas? I might not have the answer to this question, but I do know critical thoughts regarding certain events will become hot topics this summer."
[Balko] Is Texas About to Execute Another Innocent Man?
Henry Watkins "Hank" Skinner was supposed to be executed tomorrow, but last Tuesday a Gray County, Texas, district court judge pushed the date back one month, to March 24. Skinner has been on Death Row in Texas since 1993, awaiting execution for the murder of his girlfriend and her two sons. He has maintained his innocence since his arrest, and investigators from the Northwestern University Journalism School's Medill Innocence Project have shot numerous holes in the prosecution's case. But Texas officials refuse to conduct a simple DNA test that could point to the condemned man's innocence or cement his guilt.
Start Moving
It's hard to describe the freedom that comes with not relying on a car for transportation, because for many people this means just the opposite. Last week a group of about 25 progressive Jacksonians participated in an experiment called carLESS week.
[Stiggers] Broken, Busted, and Disgusted
Pookie Peterz: "Greetings members of the Ghetto Science Team Business and Economic Association! The lack of money has quenched the desires of broken, busted and disgusted individuals who sit and daydream on front porches. Fellow entrepreneurs, it's time to break the cycles of poverty and complacency.
[Stiggers] It's A Mad Crunchie World
Mr. Announcement: "Gasoline climbs to $3 per gallon. American soldiers remain in limbo and at war. Frustrated males go on shooting rampages. The chemical called melamine contaminates our food supply of pork, chicken and fish. Amidst all of this uncertainty, American consumers still make routine midday pilgrimages to fast-food restaurants.
Frank Melton is No Barack Obama
It's déjà vu all over again. Four years ago this week, I was writing a column calling for—no, begging—Jacksonians not to vote for Frank Melton as mayor in the Democratic primary.
[Stiggers] One Giant Leap For Ghettokind
Dr. Silas P. Rathbone III: "It's a defining moment in Ghetto Science history. Two of our finest will embark on a journey where very few in the ghetto have gone before.
[Stiggers] Work It, Miss Wanda
Bonqweesha Jones: "Welcome to 'Lookin' Good in the 'Hood Ghetto Make Over' television show, brought to you by the Hair Did University School of Cosmetology. Tonight my H.D.U. students will transform a plain Crunchie Burga World employee into a well-dressed individual.
Youth Curfew A Bad Idea
Mayor Melton's state of emergency is over, but a youth curfew ordinance still remains on the books in Jackson. If the City Council is serious about combating juvenile crime, it will get rid of the curfew and concentrate on creating crime-fighting programs proven to reduce crime in the capital city.
[Outlaw] The Act of Creativity
I found myself neck deep in a community serious about its art.
Signs of Hope
A coworker of time was standing at her window looking over the head of the stone Eudora Welty who looks just past the statues of William Faulkner and Richard Wright on the corner of Lamar and Capitol streets. It occurred to her that the traffic should not be stopped at a green light, so she studied the scene more carefully.
[Balko] The Anti-Cop Trend That Isn't
Between Jan. 20 and Jan. 25, 13 police officers were shot in the U.S., five of them fatally. Two officers in St. Petersburg, Fla., were killed while trying to arrest a suspect accused of aggravated battery. Two more were killed in Miami while trying to arrest a suspected murderer. An officer in Oregon was seriously wounded, and another in Indiana was killed after they were shot during routine traffic stops. The Indiana assailant had a long and violent criminal record. The suspect in Oregon is still at large. In another incident, four officers were injured in Detroit when a man about to be charged in a murder investigation walked into a police station and opened fire.
[Gregory] Lori Ponders Mamahood
I've never felt more prepared to write a "chick" column than now as I'm currently checking yet another "womanly" role off my list. Daughter? Check. Wife? Check. Mother? Check.
Ronni's Wild Ride
"Have you ever noticed? Anybody going slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac."
[Outlaw] Home on the Ranch
Feel free to judge, but I've lived in eight different places since 2004. Yes, I'm aware that makes me sound like a Gypsy, but I can defend myself. Justin and I talked about home ownership the way some heterosexual couples talk about having kids—one day, just not today.
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.
[Stiggers] A Mass Choir In Denial
Boneqweesha Jones: "It's time for the 'Qweesha Live Television Magazine Movie Preview for 2010'! My movie pick for the new decade of the new millennium is 'The Bottom Line is Money,' a documentary film by Kunta 'Rahsheed X' Toby, the Gordon Parks of the Ghetto.
[Rejebian] Moving Forward
Raymond carries a bucket. Anyone who spends any time in downtown Jackson has seen him. Tall and lanky, he walks the streets with a perpetual offer to clean your car windshield or shine your wheels.
[Stiggers] Dig Deep
Ernest "Monday Night Football Head" Walker: "It looks like U.S. troops will be overseas a little while longer. Meanwhile, questions that reflect uncertainty loom in the thoughts of wondering poor and middle-class families. How will you pay the rent when the government is slow with the check, especially after your loved one returns home? The price of gasoline is high, and you ask why, as the children cry, because you can't drive to the grocery store to buy milk and cereal. I know; it's a sad-case scenario. Nevertheless, Brotha Hustle and I have an idea to eliminate the people's depressed and despondent thoughts."