[Alert] Public Education: What You Can Do Now
The Coalition for Children and Public Education writes: The Governor has called a special Legislative session to begin Wednesday, May 18 at 1:00 p.m. As part of the Coalition for Children and Public Education, we are gearing up to press for full funding of the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP).
In Memory: Phillip Gibbs and James Earl Green
Thirty-five years ago today, Jackson police opened fire on a crowd of students at Jackson State University, killing Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, 21, a junior pre-law major and father of an 18-month-old son. Two Double-0 buckshot pellets entered his head and a third just beneath his left eye and a fourth just under his left armpit. Also killed was James Earl Green, 17, a senior at Jim Hill High School in Jackson, who was walking home from work at local grocery store. A single buckshot pierced the right side of his chest. Twleve other students were injured by gunfire, and more than 460 rounds of gunfire punctured a women's dormitory. Ambulances were not called until after police officers picked up their shell casings. The police later claimed that they had taken fire from the direction of B. F. Roberts Hall, but that was never proved.
Clarion-Ledger: Don't Fund Children's Justice Center
A Clarion-Ledger editorial today says that the MCI settlement should only fund telecommunications-related causes:
Proclamation by the Governor
[verbatim/including the annoying all-caps]
WHEREAS, by the provisions of Section 121 of the Constitution of the State of Mississippi, the Governor is vested with the power to convene, by public Proclamation, the Legislature in Extraordinary Session whenever, in his judgment, the public interest requires it; and
Fear is a Four-Letter Word
Harvey Johnson is not the only one who lost the mayoral primary last week. So did fear. Yes: fear suffered a resounding loss in Jackson.
Abuse Children? No Way!
Decades of abuse—physical, mental, emotional and sexual—of young people sent to Mississippi's juvenile training schools may have ended last week when Mississippi reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, agreeing to stop doing unthinkable things the state never should have been doing in the first place.
JPS Helps Spur New ‘Urbanism'
A diverse group of community leaders gathered on a beautiful morning in "downtown Fondren" Friday to celebrate a new economic-development opportunity for the neighborhood, as well as a way for the Jackson Public Schools to raise a bit of dough.
Priest Victims Win Victory
The Mississippi Supreme Court last week struck down an argument by the Catholic Diocese of Jackson that the First Amendment protected it from being sued for the cover-up of sexual abuse by priests. The $48 million lawsuit filed by the Morrison brothers in 2002 may proceed under the decision.
C-L Editorials: Stokes–Ward 3 Lost in Tuesday's Election
Stokes won, but it is a loss for Ward 3 and the city as a whole.
The paper editorializes:
Poll: Clinton, Giuliani Top Party Pick
AP reports:
While Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Rudolph Giuliani are their party's top picks for the 2008 presidential nominations, both remain highly polarizing figures, according to a national poll released Friday. Forty percent of Democrats polled said they favored Clinton, the New York senator, for the party's nomination while 18 percent opted for Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the loser of the 2004 presidential race.
Emmett Till's Body to Be Exhumed
The Chicago Sun-Times reports today:
Happy Mother's Day
Arise, then, women of this day!
Here is the original, pre-Hallmark, Mother's Day Proclamation, penned in Boston by Julia Ward Howe in 1870:
Is The Clarion-Ledger the Worst Daily in the U.S.?
This thread contains analysis of the Clarion-Ledger's reporting on Melton, talk about Melton's record of drug arrests at MBN, and Ben Allen on the friendship between Kenneth Stokes and Frank Melton. Just call it a blog potpourri.
Clarion-Ledger on Mayoral Fashion
The Clarion-Ledger today gets in touch with the real issues of the mayoral face: fashion. Yes, friends, it's a whole piece about how they dress, and the Ledge uses the word "kick-butt" in print:
One Jail's Tale
In The Deep South rape charges unearth a system in disarray by Jim Mulvaney
Planet Weekly: Fear and Voting In Jackson
And he is alleging that Republicans are trying to "steal" the Democratic primary:
"Nick Bridger" writes a good column this week about the whole fearmongering phenomenon in Jackson, and how candidates are trying to play politics based on fear.
PROFILE: Harvey Johnson
ht>Incumbent Aims to Finish What He's Started by Adam Lynch
Campaign Finance Reports In for Primary
Thursday, 5:28 p.m.: We are posting full campaign-finance reports—of both contributions and disbursements—for both Frank Melton and Harvey Johnson. Here are Melton's reports; Johnson's take up a lot more pages, but we have them and are scanning right now. Keep an eye right here; all the reports will be up shortly. Melton's Contributions
PDFs Campaign Finance Reports for Melton, Johnson
See a list of campaign contributions and disbursements here.
The Sound and Fury of 'Perception'
Ponder these statements for a moment: "There is too much crime in Jackson." "The perception of crime is worse than the reality."
Barbour Signs Ten Commandments Bill
[verbatim statement] April 21, 2005—Governor Haley Barbour yesterday signed Senate Bill 2486, that authorizes the display of "In God We Trust," the Ten Commandments, and the Beatitudes at public buildings and property in Mississippi. "When I went to Yazoo High, we started each day with prayer and a Ten Commandments monument stood right outside the front door, on the grounds of our school," said Governor Barbour. "Those were good things back then, and they would be good things today."
Planet Weekly: Blogging the Mayor
Alan Lange's mayoral Web site is written up in the Planet Weekly this week. It's interesting that quite a bit of time is spent trying to show that Lange is not part of anyone's campaign staff:
Houston, We Have A Problem
As soon as the Best of Jackson 2005 issue was put to bed, the JFP turned our attention to the upcoming city elections. My personal mayoral bias was that Harvey Johnson Jr. had done a pretty good job as mayor, certainly in the last four years; our readers thought so, too. They had voted him Best Elected Official and Most Under-Appreciated Jacksonian in the Best of Jackson awards—largely, I suspect because his long-term visions had started coming to fruition in the last couple years, and because he has embraced the emerging diverse, determined creative class here. It didn't hurt any that crime was falling and private investment was returning to Jackson.
Lott to Chair Hearing on Amtrak's Future
[statement/verbatim] April 20, 2005–U.S. Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, chairman of the U.S. Senate Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Subcommittee, will conduct a hearing Thursday morning on the future of America's National Railroad Passenger Corporation–Amtrak.
Tyler Connection An Issue for Candidate
The Tyler (Texas) Morning Telegraph reports on Frank Melton's homestead issues.
Planet Weekly: [Melton Is] Rep in Dem's Clothing
A Planet Weekly columnist this week endorses Mayor Johnson and rips Frank Melton and some of his supporters:
Melton Walks Out of Mayoral Forum
Read full report here.
Eric Stringfellow: Why back candidate who does not vote?
Eric Stringfellow writes in the Clarion Ledger:
Sen. Thad Cochran Key to Democracy ‘Integrity'
A Moveon.org alert/verbatim: During the next few weeks, the integrity of our democracy might well lie in the hands of Mississippi voters. The radical Republican bid to seize absolute power to appoint extreme judges (using a parliamentary maneuver known as the "nuclear option") is nearing a final showdown in the Senate. Democrats are standing united, but to win we must secure at least 6 votes from moderate Republicans. In the end, it will all probably come down to one final swing vote—and that vote may well come from Senator Thad Cochran.
The Elephant In The Classroom
The governor and his loyal cabal of "Stepford senators" seem to believe that Mississippians are stupid. And they sure want to keep us that way.
‘Highway 80 Day' In Jackson
April 6, 2005 Democratic mayoral candidate Frank Melton announced at a March 31 catfish rally at Howard Wilson Kia on Highway 80 that, as mayor, he would be paying more attention to what he calls the "Forgotten Commercial Corridor." The highway, once a main artery connecting Jackson with Meridian and Vicksburg, began a slow decay in the 1970s and is now considered by Melton and many residents to be a blighted area.
"Frankly Speaking," April 6, 2005 (Melton's newsletter)
Melton's new campaign newsletter is out. Of particular interest:
Dems Challenge Melton's Residency
ht>This story will appear in the print edition of the Jackson Free Press on Wednesday. by Adam Lynch
Urgent: Last Call for Education Funding
[verbatim from Nancy Loome] According to a report in today's Clarion Ledger, Senate Appropriations Chair Jack Gordon implied to the full Senate that other state agencies, specifically colleges and universities, must be shortchanged in order to fully fund the MAEP. THIS IS NOT THE POSITION OF THE COALITION, nor is it the position of other education supporters. Here's what you can do right now....
Salter: Mississippi NOT Throwing Money at Education
Clarion-Ledger columnist Sid Salter again pulled no punches in his Sunday column about funding of public education. Importantly, he shot down the funding myths being spread by the governor and his agents in the Senate. Sid, again, gets the columnist's gold star for this column:
Clarion-Ledger's Metro-State Election Archive
Here's where the Ledge is collecting the multitudes of stories they've done to date on the Jackson City Elections. Note that the room is pretty empty so far. You'd think that being that Jackson deserves its own Crime Watch link on the Web site of a statewide newspaper (which seems to have moved off the front page at least), you'd think we'd get our own archive of city election coverage. There's some OK stuff there about the Council races, but I keep wondering when they're going to cover the mayoral election. WOW.
Monday Alert: Help Save Education Funding
[verbatim from Coalition for Children and Public Education]: Please try one more time to effect some positive outcome for education funding through phone calls. I know you've called already, but please call again today. WE DO NOT WANT TO GO TO SPECIAL SESSION. The outcome of a special session will almost surely be worse than that of a regular session. Please call 5 to 10 people and ask that they each call 4 or 5 people to spread the word that calls need to go out today. Be sure you, all those you call, and all those they call phone your Senator, the LT. Governor and Sen. Little. If your senator is among the 30 who voted against the Bryan Amendment, please make sure to call him or her. Those 30 senators and their phone numbers are listed below.
Melton Supporters Get Defensive
Read blog thread here.
Dems Challenge Melton's Qualifications
Read full report here.