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Time to Build Levees
This week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg District, closed their four-year study of Pearl River flood solutions in the Jackson metro, issuing a press release that was unambiguously titled: "Study Finds Levee Plan Best Option For Jackson Metro."
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.
[Stiggers] Unemployed and Broke
"You took my dignity and gone. My children are depressed because I cannot provide for them. My wife is annoyed, and I am desperate and frustrated. And I don't have health insurance."
Home at Last?
When I was small, my parents seemed to think that moving to a new city to give my dad better job opportunities was a pretty cool thing to do.
A Libertarian Appeal
Recently, I was involved in a political conversation in which I made a comment about the Constitution, noting how rarely politicians cite it as a document limiting governmental power. My interlocutor dismissed the argument, saying, "Yes, but it isn't relevant today; it's so old."
Same Picture, Different Frame
Friday, the rain wouldn't stop as I drove down Highway 49 South. I wondered where the sunshine or a rainbow was. "Stories about hope and inspiration always have sunshine and rainbows," I said to myself, as I headed toward the Mississippi Gulf Coast. That's what I was looking for.
...To Make a Thing Go Right
I often give talks about journalism and my crazy journey that began when I left the state the day after graduating from Mississippi State, and vowing never, ever to return. I was headed off to go to law school in Washington, D.C., to learn how to change the world. Or stay out all night. Or something.
[Davis] Secret Holds And Open Government
Congress is on the verge of having a single member derail the most meaningful reform in years of the federal Freedom of Information Act.
[Grayson] Stand Up To Crime
Once again, crime has the Capitol City in disarray. Like so many others in Jackson, Councilwoman Margaret Barrett-Simon was robbed outside her home on June 9. The robbery occurred in broad daylight, a bold move by another dumb criminal, who authorities say they have arrested.
[Balko] Death of a Watchdog
In an age when journalism has been inflicted not only by ballyhooed budget woes and challenges from new media, but also a glut of dubious trend stories, horserace political coverage and endless navel-gazing about the state of the profession, Pete Shellem merely freed four wrongly convicted people from prison in a period of 10 years with his reporting.
[Stiggers] Y'all Mart Hookup
Brotha Hustle: "Aunt Tee Tee pitched a great idea for our Ghetto Science Tube viral video show: videotape men and women hooking up for a date while shopping at the local suburban Y'all Mart.
[Balko] The SWAT Team Would Like to See Your Permit
In August, a team of heavily armed Orange County, Fla., sheriff's deputies raided several black and Hispanic-owned barbershops in the Orlando area. More raids followed in September and October. The Orlando Sentinel reported that police held barbers and customers at gunpoint and put some in handcuffs, while they turned the shops upside down. Police raided a total of nine shops, and arrested 37 people.
[Stiggers] Your Mind, Not Your Behind
Old School Pete: "You're listening to 108.1, WGST (Ghetto Science Team) radio, the station where listening is worth your while at the end of the dial. This is your old school deejay stimulating your mind, and not your behind, with the 'Round Midnight Music and Message Moment.
A City With Soul
Here is the soul of Jackson breathed onto paper.
Thinking ‘Locals' First
It's hard to believe Mal's St. Paddy's Parade—and the attendant celebrations both downtown and elsewhere—are already upon us. It doesn't seem like it's been long enough since the Great Snowman Contest of February, even if daylight savings time is here.
[Stiggers] Stuck Like Chuck
Taaqweema Jenkins: "This is a Ghetto Science Team Television Network pre-Memorial Day news flash. In the wake of the gas price increase, The Sausage Sandwich Sisters (International Electric Slide Ambassadors for World Peace and Rent Money) will have a Memorial Day Electric Slide Protest Rally for World Peace and Gas Money. Here to speak on behalf of the Sausage Sandwich Sisters is Mo'tel Williams, super producer and board member of the Hair Did University Cold Wave, Pomade and Jheri Curl Council."
[Israel] No Check Required
This weekend, law-abiding citizens will attend the Mississippi Gun Show and undergo a background check to purchase a firearm from a federally licensed firearm dealer.
[Balko] Should Suing Bad Prosecutors Be Legal?
Should prosecutors who manufacture evidence be susceptible to lawsuits?
[Balko] Vanishingly Rare Misconduct Citations
In 2007, a court tried Sonya and Joseph Smith for felony murder in connection with the 2003 death of their 8-year-old son, Josef, who medical examiners said was beaten and deprived of food and water. The trial was highly publicized, partly due to the Smiths' membership in the Remnant Fellowship, a Christian sect that stresses corporal punishment and dietary restrictions.
[Wilkes] TSA: Terrorists Screw America
The Transportation Security Administration implemented new policies that, in essence, give strippers more rights in their places of employment than airline passengers in an airport.