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Why I Like the Senate Health Care Bill
This past week I learned something surprising and encouraging about the health-care reform bill in the SenateĀ -- something that you may not know if you've only listened to mainstream media coverage. (If you're listening to right-wing talk radio or FOX News about health-care reform then, well, bless your heart.)
[Stiggers] Spook The Spooks
Lil' Momma Roscoe: "Since the Y2K scare, corporations, media and government have waged scare campaigns on the poor and helpless. These entities use buzz words and/or phrases like terrorism, global warming, mad cow disease, West Nile Virus, sexual enhancement medicine, contaminated spinach, etc., to spook folk into frenzied spending habits.
[Manogin] Being a Better Person
"There's no such thing as global warming!"
For The Girls
While reading the first draft of Natalie Collier's cover story this issue about domestic abuse, I was overtaken by emotion and memories.
Grow Old With Me
The longest day of my life started on a tropical island. It was oh-dark-thirty, so early in the morning that it was still night. I had only taken a short nap following a goodbye party on the beach. The palm trees stirred in the warm sea breeze as I left Guam on my flight. I spent the night in Tokyo, crossed the international date line and landed first in Seattle, then later in Spokane, Wash., all on the same day: Jan. 9, 1986.
[Stiggers] To Tiger, With Love
Dear Mr. Woods, You might remember me from a press conference after your first victory in the Masters Golf Tournament. I remember when you said, "I'll take a question from the gentleman wearing the chef's hat."
Two Steps Forward
"Leave." That one-word tweet came from a conservative dude in Louisiana, not Mississippi. But he wasn't pleased that I was talking about crazy legislation that the right wing has wrought upon Mississippi once again. I have a way of raising the hair on the necks of folks who prefer empty rhetoric over research-based criticism, especially when I'm talking about issues like women's health and reproductive services; sex ed; voter ID; or, yes, race.
Peppy Biddy
When actors auditioned for a role in New Stage Theatre's "39 Steps," director Peppy Biddy warned them that the play would be like running on a treadmill at its highest speed for two hours.
Life Goes On
Two nights before Halloween, on Oct. 29, 1995, Robert Estes' life changed forever. As a boy, Canton native Estes loved to travel to see his family in St. Paul, Minn., and when he graduated from high school he moved there.
School Board Grows
The Jackson City Council voted Friday to confirm Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr.'s two additional nominees to the Jackson Public Schools Board of Trustees.
Jamie Scott Hospitalized
Less than three weeks after her release from prison, Jamie Scott has been hospitalized. Activist Nancy Lockhart, who worked for more than five years to free Jamie and her sister, Gladys, said in an e-mail press release that Jamie was admitted to the hospital in Pensacola, Fla., today for an "excessively high potassium level." Jamie Scott suffers from diabetes and has been diagnosed with renal failure. Her medical conditions, and the cost of caring for her, was one of Gov. Haley Barbour's justifications for ordering the suspension of her and Gladys' life sentences for a 1993 armed robbery.
School Funding Takes Hopeful Turn
An upcoming revised revenue estimate for Mississippi could give public-education advocates and supporters some breathing room. The state Legislature's Revenue Estimating Committee met this week, and Mississippi Parents' Campaign Executive Director Nancy Loome says that an estimated increase in state revenue could help make the case for level education funding during upcoming budget negotiations at the state Capitol.
Political Ad Stirs Controversy
Many residents of both Hinds and Madison counties spoke out this week against a controversial political ad that played on fears of Jackson's "violent crime" showing prior to feature movies in Malco Grandview Theater in Madison. Malco pulled the ad from its theaters May 11.
Edwards: School Board Micromanaged
As Jackson Public Schools Superintendent Lonnie Edwards fights for an extension to his contract, he has tried to make the case that the district's Board of Trustees micromanagement hampered his ability to lead. Today, in the third day of a hearing on Edwards' contract, Edwards' attorney, former Jackson Mayor Dale Danks, suggested that the board's consideration of a residency requirement for district employees kept Edwards from assembling his administrative team.
Johnson Slams Commission
Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. opposes part of a new state law allowing the city to levy a 1-percent sales tax increase on some businesses' sales. The tax, which would fund infrastructure repair, does not apply to retail sales of food at grocery stores and restaurants, or hotels or motels.
The Best in Sports in 7 Days
Doctor S sez: College basketball is winding down to clear the way for MLB's Boys of Summer.
Voter ID, Abortion, Eminent Domain, Oh My
Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann will deliver three voter-referendum initiatives to the state Legislature this morning that could require voters to bring photo identification to polls, restrict the state's use of eminent domain and amend state law to define when life begins.
Mark LeVaughn
Mississippi Medical Examiner Dr. Mark LeVaughn was ice-cool at his introduction ceremony yesterday. Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Albert Santa Cruz officially announced LeVaughn as the state's new chief medical examiner, and pointed out that the state has not had a real chief medical examiner since 1995.
Hinds County: Sirens Update; Emergency Funding
Hinds County Director of Emergency Operations Jimmie Lewis told county supervisors today that 100 percent of the county's sirens activated during a test on June 1.
Keeping Faith
In 1969, P.W. Underwood, then head football coach at the University of Southern Mississippi, convinced a 6-foot-3-inch lanky kid from Swainsboro, Ga., to come to the University of Southern Mississippi as a free safety and punter. That kid is Ray Guy.