C-L: Registration Time Running Out for Vote
The Clarion-Ledger reports:
WLBT: Crime on Hwy. 80 Gets Political
WLBT responded to Frank Melton's press conference on Highway 80 with this story:
Salter Takes on Taxation Myths; Barbour Responds
Update: Pasted below (in the comments) is a statement from Barbour, in minutes ago, about his take on the state's "budget myths." Enjoy.
[Just In] JPS Superintendent's Remarks on Full Funding
These are the remarks of Jackson Public Schools Superintendent Earl Watkins today at a press conference at the Department of Education calling for the governor and the hold-out members of the Senate to adequately fund public education.
[Crossroads] JFP Picks & Reviews
Whether you've already bought into the anti-corporate, "Think Global, Shop Local" mantra, or you're just trying to figure out what all the Wal-Mart bashing is really about, Lori Cheatle and Daisy Wright's "This Land Is Your Land" is the perfect primer to what corporations are doing, or trying to do, to America.
[Breaking] Education Funding Talks Break Down
[Just in from a "plumber" (our new word for unnamed source)]: "Budget negotiations, especially funding for education have completely broken down. The House has held firm for (close to) full funding of the MAEP. The Senate began showing movement towards a tobacco tax last night until Barbour started making calls (read "threats"). Legislators will be on MS Pub Broadcasting's "Quorum" tonight at 7:00pm. Watch and call in with questions! Click for how to help get education fully funded ...
URGENT: How to Help Get Education Funded NOW
Please call the House members and encourage them to hold their position in
The conference committee on HB 1646 (MAEP funding) is still negotiating. The House, under the leadership of Rep. Cecil Brown, is holding out for full funding. The Senate, under the leadership of Sen. Mike Chaney, is not there yet.
C-L: Auditor's MBN probe supports few charges
The Clarion-Ledger reports:
Bush Approval Slipping With Men, Conservatives
AP is reporting:
President Bush's job approval slipped into the mid 40s in national polls released this week as he lost some support among men and other groups of core supporters. Public approval for Bush slipped from 52 percent in a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll over the weekend to 45 percent in that same poll released Thursday. A CBS News poll released earlier in the week found Bush's approval slipping six points to 43 percent.
Auditor's MBN Probe Supports Few Charges
The Clarion-Ledger reports:
MPB to Broadcast JFP Editorial Friday A.M.
[Editorial] Mr. Barbour: It's Time to Start Governing
Listen to Mississippi Public Broadcasting Friday morning at 5:35 and 7:35 to hear an excerpt from the JFP's most recent editorial read as part of "Opinion Round-up." Following is the excerpt you will hear:
[Alert] Support Public Education Today
Here's what you can do right now to demand full funding of Adequate Education. An alert just in from Parents for Public Schools; the Jackson Free Press stands with PPS on this issue. Please pick up the telephone now. Keep reading to see who to call.
Thou Shalt Honor The F-Word
Read my lips. The Ten Commandments are not a toy. And the U.S. Constitution isn't an instrument to be manipulated as the political winds shift.But here we go again. On March 8, the Mississippi House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill to allow the Ten Commandments and "In God We Trust" to be placed on public buildings.
Melton Vows Lawsuit Over Public Ed
Read report here.
Melton to North Jackson: ‘It's Over!'
Read full story here.
Harvey Johnson Jr. (D) - Mayor/Incumbent
"I love this city and the people who live here – all of the people – and I love this job. Love is about making a long-term, lifelong commitment to work tirelessly for the wellbeing of those you love – to work through the tough times and celebrate the victories together. And believe me, there have been plenty of both of those over the past seven and a half years."
Dish It Out, Ladies
Here is an excerpt from the Maureen Dowd column causing a lot of the women-media chatter:
Women Without a Clue
Lakshmi Chaudhry writes for Alternet about women in the media:
Online Exclusive: SPQ Quiz
1. Which of the following is NOT a man you need in your life at all times?
B. A man you can dance withC. A man you can shop withD. A man you can talk to
Don't Call Me Ma'am
"Yes, ma'am." "No, ma'am." "Ma'am this, ma'am that." If there is anything I absolutely despise, it is the tendency of people in my home state to call me "ma'am." I spend much of my early interactions with my new interns—and even sometimes with writers who are older than I am, or at least look and act older—trying to get them to stop using the M-word around me.
Crisis: Medicaid Games Come to a Head Today
Haley Barbour's phone numbers: 359-3150, 359-3150, 720-8733, 359-3150. Call now.
In an editorial today, The Clarion-Ledger writes: "The solution to the current Medicaid funding crisis is to take $200 million from the tobacco trust fund and approve a cigarette tax increase to replenish it. It's up to the Senate and Gov. Haley Barbour. While state representatives, senators and Gov. Haley Barbour continue to stare one another down on the state Medicaid funding, hoping the other will blink, there are a lot of scared Mississippians wondering what they will do without health care. The program is set to run out of money today."
Hush! Somebody's Calling Our Name
Never say things can't change. Sometimes remarkable change comes, and it seems so obvious that people barely notice. That was apparent recently when both the Mississippi House and the Senate voted to rename two stretches of highway after civil-rights martyrs: Highway 19-South out of Philadelphia after Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner and US-49 East would be renamed Emmett Till Memorial Highway, in honor of the black teenager beaten to death by white men in 1955 in Money, Miss.
GAO: Terror Suspects Bought Guns in U.S.
AP is reporting:
Poll: Bush 'Out of Step' with U.S. Needs
The latest New York Times/CBS News Poll finds that Americans are increasingly deciding that President Bush's policies are out of step with the needs of the country:
Dean and the Elephants in Dixie
Charles Evers and I hit it off immediately the first time we met. We, after all, both have Neshoba County roots. My Daddy, it seems, used to drive him around in a taxi back when he did radio there. We have a common hero—his brother, Medgar. We both opposed the Iraqi War, as he wrote about in the JFP the week the war started. We both spent a fun evening at Jubilee! Jam chasing down Bob Dylan so he could thank him for a song he wrote for Medgar back in the '60s.
The House That Time Forgot
ht>Featured Story: Read the story behind Bobbie Johnson's story—that of a woman Frank Melton put in the media spotlight two weeks ago. by Ayana Taylor
Fear And Loathing In The Dirty South
I'm an opinionated chick, but every now and then, an issue comes a long that, no matter how much I ponder it, I can't quite firmly take a side on it. Choosing one side would be denying the reality of the other, when both are very real.
Bobbie Johnson Needs a House
Read full story here.
David Bowen Admonishes Black Mississippians
In a bizarre column today in The Clarion-Ledger, former Congressman David Bowen, a Democrat, first says that blacks and whites in Mississippi need a "new" dialogue, then proceeds to tell black Mississippians what they should not say in this dialogue. No similar advice for whites was in evidence, however. Here are some excerpts ...
Kay Franz
There are surprises, and then there are surprises that mean that you're living life the way you're supposed to: full-on and engaged in the world around you.
Mayor Announces, Melton Pounces
Read full report here.
Ridgeland Democratic Committee Forming
[Statement] A meeting was held on Saturday to establish a Ridgeland Municipal Democratic Executive Committee so that anyone who wants to run as a Democrat for city office may do so. Temporary officers were elected to ensure this for the coming election. Ten Ridgeland Democrats attended, but we need more to be involved in order to establish a Democratic presence in Ridgeland.
The House That Racism Built
It's been another one of those weeks the media love in Jacktown: lots of screaming and finger-pointing and accusations of someone else, inevitably of a different race from the accuser, being "a racist."
HRC to Use Obadele Incident to Further Understanding
JACKSON – The firestorm that surrounded Richard Barrett's attempt to bring Edgar Ray Killen to the State Fair, and the one that has now swirled around Councilman Kenneth Stokes' Stokes' invitation to Imari Obadele to speak at a Black History Program at Jackson City Hall, highlight something very significant. Although race relations in Jackson, and in Mississippi as a whole, have improved, the fact is we still have a lot of work to do. The emotional outpourings generated by these events clearly demonstrate the depth of hurt, pain and division that still exists. Our hearts go out to the Skinner family, because you have had to endure this very painful episode.
Mississippi CofCC: Pearl Shouldn't Become ‘Little Jackson'
From the Mississippi CofCC Web site: "Some of our committee members met with several Mississippi House of Representative members to discuss upcoming issues that the legislature will face in 2005. One key issue of concern was the Mississippi flag.
Monthly Blog Traffic: Site Keeps Growing!
Average Sessions (Visits) Per Day 2,023
I haven't posted the blog traffic update in a while due to general busy-ness. However, the blog numbers keep growing with your help! Even in December, with the holidays thrown in, the site kept on keepin' on. And as of today (Feb. 6), we have 693 members registered who can post and participate in discussion. Jan. 1-31, 2005
Obadele Visit Ignites Old Fires
Councilman Kenneth Strokes is being lambasted by police organizations and other critics for inviting Dr. Imari Abubakari Obadele to speak to young people at City Hall on Tuesday, Feb. 1, in honor of Black History Month. Obadele—formerly Richard Henry, a contemporary of Malcolm X in the early 1960s (but not Nation of Islam) and a black separatist today—started the Republic of New Africa on March 31, 1968, "to free black people in the United States from oppression," and to promote self-sufficiency as well as self-defense.
Street Talk: What do you think about Councilman Kenneth Stokes?
Lakesha Nichols, 24, "I think that he is a pretty fair person. I stand behind him."
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