Focus on Mississippi's Immigrants
Fellowship and good food trumped the torrential downpour last night for about 100 Jackson area residents who came out to show their support for a good cause.
Getting Ready for the 1-Percent Sales Tax
Businesses across the state have emails in their inboxes from the Mississippi Department of Revenue about accounting for the capital city's 1-percent sales tax beginning March 1.
Colleges Recruited to Offer Teen-Pregnancy Solutions
SB 2563 specifies that colleges provide information on how to avoid pregnancy in "success courses and orientations," and incorporate facts about unplanned pregnancy in other academic classes.
Starving the Public-Education 'Beast'
The statute that SB 2091 proposes to change contains the rules for MAEP, including how the Legislature should calculate funding for school districts.
Love, Laughter and Zippity Doo Dah
If laughter and love are balms for the soul—and surely they are—spending Valentine's Day morning with Jill Conner Browne provided plenty of both.
Health-Care Navigators Fight Misinformation
Jarvis Dortch, program manager for the Mississippi Health Advocacy Group and a marketplace navigator for the Affordable Care Act, says many people don’t know that the ACA is the same as “Obamacare.”
Jackson Still Upbeat on Capitol Agenda
Part of Walter Zinn's job, as director of governmental affairs for Jackson, is lobbying for the interests of the capital city in the state Legislature, which can be frustrating.
Chamber May Unveil Sales-Tax Commission Members This Week
Now that Jacksonians overwhelmingly approved an additional 1 percent sales tax in January, the question of who will oversee the spending of those funds is coming into focus.
Alignment Jackson: Creating the Village
A powerful concept that promises to stem the growing tide of Jackson's high-school dropouts was on the agenda Feb. 4 at the Parents for Public Schools Lunch Bunch meeting at the Jackson Medical Mall.
Eudora Welty: Reading a Murderer’s Mind
Eudora Welty only wrote one story in anger. She drafted it the day she learned of Medgar Evers' assassination.
Who Loves Ya, Baby?
Before we can give love freely, we first have to love ourselves. It doesn't begin "out there."
BCBS Change Sparks Concerns, Legislation
Dr. Elizabeth Perry and other health professionals are concerned about a new "benefit" that Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi has added to its plans this year to end prescription coverage for medications prescribed by out-of-network doctors.
Women’s Rights, Safety Again at Issue
Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, knows his anti-abortion "heartbeat" bill likely will not survive the current session of the Mississippi Legislature, but he introduced it anyway.
Jackson Rising Emphasizes Cooperatives
The topic was forming cooperatives when community leaders met with Jackson citizens Thursday night at the Jackson Roadmap to Health Equity center on Livingston Road.
New BCBS Policy Raises Alarm
Physicians are alarmed about a new Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi policy that could take effect as early as Feb. 1. The insurance giant proposes to end prescription coverage for medications prescribed by out-of-network doctors.
Council Hears Zoning Issues; Certifies Election
Jackson City Council members heard opposing views on zoning issues on Tuesday, Jan. 21, and some briefly called into question the results of Jan. 14 vote to approve a 1-percent sales tax to pay for work on the city's crumbling infrastructure.
Dems Push for Fair Pay
Democrats in the state Legislature are advocating a number of bills that put equal pay for women in the forefront.
Pro-Immigrant Agenda Unveiled at Capitol
During MIRA's Civic Engagement Day, attendees walked from the MIRA office on North State Street to the state capitol.
Clay Hardwick Turns Up the Arts
Clay Hardwick doesn't name his canvas creations. Instead, each piece carries the year, a season and a sequential number: "2012-fall-08," for example.
Experts Stress Online Safety for Teens
Parents must be aware of how their children are interacting in an era of instant communication, and they must exercise control over spaces where nothing ever disappears—even when it's not true.
Start Where You Are
Every journey has a beginning. Trying to start in the middle—or at the end—is unrealistic and can leave us frustrated and defeated, even with a healthy dose of positive thinking.
State Buckles Under Steep College Costs
New information from account-management service Manilla.com, a subsidiary of media conglomerate Hearst Corp., shows that Jackson is among the cities with the highest average student-loan debt.
Fighting Violence With Yoga
The therapeutic benefits of practicing yoga are well documented, but this coming weekend, the power of yoga will be on display in a different way.
Joyce Helmick: ‘Prove It’
Joyce Helmick has taught school for more than 37 years. In July, she took the leadership reins at the Mississippi Association of Educators, an organization that provides professional development for teachers, and represents their interests in the state Legislature and throughout the public- school system.
Tea Party Express Makes First 2014 Endorsement: McDaniel Over Cochran
The California-based Tea Party Express came to the Mississippi Capitol this morning to announce that it is endorsing state Sen. Chris McDaniel, a Republican from Jones County, to replace Republican Sen. Thad Cochran in the U.S. Senate.
‘Standing Close By’ The JFP Interview with Dr. Hannah Gay
Dr. Hannah Gay received international acclaim after the news of an apparent “cure” of an HIV-infected child in her care became public in March.
Pearl Targets Low-Income Rentals
The city of Pearl is turning into a case study in ever-changing and ever-more-restrictive rental ordinances, which have some folks mad as hell.
My Opening Farewell
After my many years with the JFP in numerous roles, the names and faces of all the dedicated souls who passed through the doors are too many to count or name here. My grateful thanks and warm wishes go to each of you for peace, happiness and success. Be kind to each other.
Exchanges are Here, Like it or Not
Today, Oct. 1, 2013, marks day one of the health-insurance exchanges as outlined in the 2010 Affordable Care Act, aka "Obamacare," President Barack Obama's landmark health-insurance reform act.
Johnny DuPree
It's been a long slog for Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree, but now, after two elections drawn out by a contentious court battle, DuPree takes his place again as the hub city's leader for a fourth term.
Stop the Food Fight
Hunger, and its corollary, poverty, are not intractable problems, despite their historical prevalence.
Everyone Needs a Roof
You've heard it before: For many Americans, homelessness is just a couple of paychecks away.
Jerry and Helen Young
Pastor Jerry Young laughs heartily about his upcoming appearance at Friday's Mississippi Sickle Cell Foundation Annual "Evening with the Sickle Cell Stars Gala," where he and his wife of 39 years, Helen Akins Young, will receive honors in the form of a celebrity roast.
M. Trost Friedler
Sobriety and running a center to assist others to deal with addiction issues came back-to-back for M. Trost Friedler, whose substance abuse issues first brought him to Jackson in the mid-1990s.
CJ Rhodes
Ever since CJ Rhodes swept into Jackson just a few short years ago, he has been a big, important part of the community.
A Passion for Serving
Tara Blumenthal began practicing yoga for exercise. Weight training wasn't working for her, and she was "tripping off the treadmill," trying to get a cardio workout.
Woods: Sacred Trust
District 4 Hinds County supervisor candidate Alvin Woods believes supervisors should treat their constituents' money as a sacred trust.
Aspire Helps Single Parents Finish College
Barbara Pitts Riley, of Arkansas-based nonprofit Aspire, says her organization is making college degrees a reality for single-parent heads of households.
Smoking in Jackson? Not in Public Places
The city of Jackson enacted its first non-smoking ordinance in 2008, banning smoking from most public places. It clarified some confusing language two years later.
God-Given Economic Development
Mississippi is making a concerted push to capture some of the enormous money in the health-care industry. That push, however, doesn't include what experts deem two of the most vital aspects of creating a health-care economy: healthy, well-educated citizens.
Melody Moody
Melody Moody works to expand access and improve safety for bike riders and pedestrians in Mississippi.
Mississippi's Push for Health-Care Dollars
More than 700 people gathered at the Jackson Convention Center yesterday, eager to understand how health care can be a driver for creating jobs and boosting revenues in Mississippi.
Common Core: Is Raising the Bar Enough?
Young Jackson Public Schools scholars returned to classrooms last week. And whether Aug. 8 marked the first time riding a big, yellow bus or the final year of locker assignments, the students will all share one thing this year with every other public-school student in Mississippi: Common Core State Standards.
Women Build
Lakeshia White, the new owner of a house on Smith Robinson Street, has other women to thank for her new digs—specifically, the volunteering women of Women Build 2013, a collaboration of Habitat for Humanity and Lowe's.
Team JPS: Public Schools Need Community
On a drizzly early April evening, a group of students, parents and educators gathered at Provine High School's auditorium for a town hall meeting. The subject was dropout prevention.
Ask the Questions
The Centers for Disease Control estimates that the number of Americans—men, women and children—dead due to gun violence in the past seven months is closer to 20,000.
Just Average Girls
Becoming a victim of sex trafficking can happen to those from "good" homes just as easily as it does to those from "bad" or poor circumstances. The crime cuts across all facets of society, excluding no one regardless of gender, age, race or economic status, said Heather Wagner, director of the domestic-violence office in the Mississippi attorney general's office.
A New Reality
Pornography—the vehicle by which many boys learn how to be men—has turned women into objects of loathing, abuse and violence.
