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Passions Fulfill

College is a blast, and then you graduate. At that point, what path should you take? Obtaining more education is the safe path and the one that I chose. In retrospect, however, I find that following your passion is the only route to fulfillment.

JPD To Buy License Plate Readers

The Jackson Police Department is purchasing an automatic license plate reader for the four major police precincts this year. The Jackson City Council approved the $76,978 purchase Tuesday, after learning that a Department of Justice COPS Technology Grant is supplying the one-time money for the purchase.

The Good Guys

Men who care about children, who stand fast to protect them, who work hard to make this world better and safer and even a little bit more fun are absolutely men we love. So many men fit that description here in Mississippi.

Freedom's Main Line

When Robert Parker Adams was a teenager, he spent muggy Mississippi afternoons playing pinball at Jackson's Greyhound station at 219 N. Lamar St. It was just across the street from his school, Central High School.

[Stiggers] Dreams Deferred

The temporary summer employees reported to work with their heads hanging low. They are depressed because of the struggling economy and the lack of employment in their field of study. The $40-thousand-dollar-a-year job is just a dream deferred. Today our scholars must settle for a minimum-wage job at a dollar store in the ghetto.

Jeanne Luckett

Jeanne Luckett has a contagious enthusiasm for studying and preserving Mississippi's civil-rights legacy. She put her passion and energy to use helping to plan the 50th anniversary Freedom Riders reunion in Jackson from May 22 through May 26.

Eat Your Garden

Want to have a little garden—grow a few herbs and vegetables, and maybe some fruit to get off the grid just a tad— but don't know how to get started? Or worse, tried it already and it didn't work out, so you gave up? Slow gardening to the rescue! The relaxed, all-senses, all-seasons approach to gardening was inspired by the slow food movement, which encourages us to savor locally and sustainably produced foods.

JSU Gets $30,000 Grant for Computer Recycling

A computer recycling program will continue for another year at Jackson State University with a $30,000 grant.

Beth Hamilton

Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr.'s vision for the capital city is what keeps Beth Hamilton in Jackson. "I am 100 percent in love with this city, even though I have only been a Jacksonian for about two years," she says.

Marie Owens

Marie Owen wants to create a greater sense of community between her neighbors and the rest of the city through the concept of co-housing. Owen and her sister Hilda Owen attended the Cohousing Conference 2010 in Boulder, Colo., last June, and started laying the groundwork to form a co-housing community in Jackson. "(A co-housing neighborhood) is a neighborhood that's turned inside out. Our neighborhoods now are built for cars, not people," Owen says.

Restraint and Love

Ordering "bangers and mash" is cooler than asking a waiter for sausage and mashed potatoes. Way cooler. Kind of like it's cooler to get fish and chips instead of fried fish and French fries, but that's another story, and we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings over at Cock of the Walk.

Healthy International Eats

Two relatively new restaurants—Babalu Tacos and Tapas (622 Duling Ave., 601-366-5757) and Mezza (1896 Main St., Madison, 601-853-0876) are breaking through the grease-encased surface of southern cuisine with international offerings.

Football Cocktails

No matter which side you cheer, these recipes will score the winning touchdown with your crew.

[Balko] Failing Upward in Criminal Justice

When the SWAT team came for Richard Paey in 1997, officers battered down the front door of the Florida home he shared with his wife and their two children. Paey is a paraplegic who uses a wheelchair after a car accident and a botched back surgery. He also suffers from multiple sclerosis. Paey was accused of distributing the medication he used to treat his chronic pain, even though there was no evidence he had sold or given away a single pill. Thanks to Florida's draconian drug laws, he was eventually convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

A Mind/Body Bookshelf

Wellness is more than just the absence of illness. It incorporates the whole being, body, mind and spirit. Physicians and psychiatrists have studied and written about wellness for decades (at least), so we know their interest in wellness is far from being some new-fangled, new-age fad.

The Secession Bandwagon

It seems Mississippi Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, is out to prove an election-year point by appealing to the most extreme fringe of the far right.

The Seas' Bounty

As a child, one of my fondest memories was at the Audubon Aquarium in New Orleans when I was about 8. After I complained that all the creatures were behind glass, the penguin keeper surprised me with a wobbling baby penguin to touch and marvel over. Studying the bug-eyed rainbow trout and the menacing tiger shark made me squeal with delight.

The Student-Loan Maze

I distinctly remember when the first wave of payments for my student loans arrived. I cringed at the amount, immediately wishing I hadn't been so shortsighted as a student. Did I really need to borrow that much money?

To Die or Not To Die (for Love)

I have a problem with Bruno Mars. More specifically, I have a problem with the music producers and executives who heard his lyrics and instantly thought, "hit record," and with the listening public for so eagerly agreeing with them. The cynical side of me hears him sing, "her hair, her hair, falls perfectly without her trying," and wants to scream: "Are you blind? Don't you see the hair products on your bathroom counter?"

Timothy and Cheryl Coker

Music is a powerful thing. It allows people to express their creativity, convey emotions, and it can foster community between like-minded fans. Music can also cause people to fall in love. Just ask Timothy and Cheryl Coker, who have shared a life working with music.