Jackson Crime Rate Down Again
Read the report. 05022011-05082011.pdf
Recreating the Rides
Forty college students got on the bus earlier this month and began tweeting and blogging about retracing the 1961 Freedom Rides from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans.
Planning an Ideal Neighborhood for Kids
An ideal neighborhood for children begins with including children in the planning process. This doesn't mean families, developers or planners put in an amusement park with ice cream stands on every block. It means professionals and adults take children's ideas seriously and pay attention to common concerns that both children and adults have.
MPB: Public Servant?
Max Breazeale checked his transmitters at station WMAH in McHenry Sunday night before Hurricane Katrina ripped the Gulf Coast asunder. From frequency control to power supply, he made sure everything worked and was dry, safe and secure.
Judy Barnes
Judy Barnes is planning a church rummage sale tomorrow where everything is free, no strings attached.
New Law Fights Cyber Crime
[Verbatim from the Mississippi Attorney General's Office]
A bill to help fund the Attorney General's fight against Cyber Crime and Vulnerable Person Abuse has been signed into law by the governor.
Mozart to Motown
Jackson State University music students take a journey "From Mozart 2 Motown" April 28. Featuring the JSU Opera Workshop and the Vocal Jazz Ensemble, the show begins with classical pieces and works up to musical theater numbers and jazz tunes from the 20th century.
Josh Evans
Josh Evans just got a kick start for his film project, "Young Bros," a short film about a couple of 10-year-old boys pulling pranks during the summer in Jackson.
Happy Easter and Earth Day!
Today, celebrate the planet and Good Friday. If you're lucky enough to have the day off, grab the kids and head to the Jackson Zoo for the annual Party for the Planet. The fun started at 10 a.m., but it should be a great day. Admission is $8, $5 children 2-12, $7.20 seniors, members and babies free; call 601-352-2580. Later, stop by Farish Street Park for the free Farish Flourish starting at 5 p.m. and includes poetry, music and healthy food in honor of Earth Day. Call 601-291-7381. In the mood for some indoor entertainment? The Russell C. Davis Planetarium (201 E. Pascagoula St.) is screening indie films "Another Harvest Moon" and "Peep World" tonight and tomorrow at 7 p.m. $7 per film. Begin your search for the best in Jackson events on the JFP Best Bets page.
Loving America, and Americans
The continuing national debate over taxation and federal budget policy in this country is good--as is the boldness with which both liberal and conservative elements are stating their positions.
Fresh and Local, Every Day
One night a few weeks ago, Todd and I left the office at our too-usual time of 8 or 9 p.m. We ran through McDade's to pick up dinner supplies.
Don't Go Around Breaking Young Girls' Hearts
Giselle's heart is so broken, after she dies from the pain of it, she haunts her lover with a vengeance. Stephen Wynne, founder and artistic director of TALK Dance Company, presents the classic ballet, "Giselle," Friday.
Council Agrees to $1.8 million Contract, Rehires Lobbyist
The Jackson City Council reversed its opposition to a $1.8 million contract with international corporation Johnson Controls Inc. yesterday after hearing evidence that the company had no role in bad air-conditioning at Thalia Mara Hall.
[Balko] A History of Paternalism
Government-sponsored public health campaigns have given us many memorably mockable moments, from talking crash-test dummies to "I learned it by watching you!" Now, courtesy of the federal government's National Institutes of Health, you can relive those campaigns (or at least the print versions of them) via a searchable, browsable online archive.
Comfort From The Rain
One of the easiest comfort foods to serve is steaming hot, baked spaghetti squash.
[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.
The Go-To Guy
Every town has that guy, the one you go to who gets things done. He's the man everyone turns to when they have problems. In Seville, he happens to be the barber.
No Easy Answers
When a black sergeant dies at Fort Neal, La., near the end of World War II, a complicated murder mystery begins. Was it a lynching or something more? The segregated Army of 1944 is the backdrop for Charles Fuller's 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "A Soldier's Play."
It's the Weekend
With three days of Crossroads Film Festival action, you'll have plenty of chances to view independent films. One we highly recommend you see is "Dante," a short film by Anita Modak-Truran of Jackson. Think teenage hell. Read style editor Natalie Collier's review before you see the screening during the Mississippi Showcase starting at 11:20 a.m. Saturday at Malco Grandview Theatre in Madison.
Legislature Agrees on Budget
Mississippi House of Representatives and Senate budget negotiators came to an agreement yesterday on the 2011 budget that pays the state's education department $14 million less than it did in 2010. House Democrats demanded K-12 education and the state's educational district distribution formula receive the same funding it received this year, but Gov. Haley Barbour sought to cut schools' maintenance and education materials budget by nearly $30 million.
April Fool's Day, Y'all
Enjoy the day!
Community Events and Meetings
Free Tax Counseling and Filing. IRS/AIM or AARP volunteers will do electronic filing. Bring all necessary documents. Joint filers must come together. Free.
Tiara of the Day: Bluebird Crown
This year, the Sweet Potato Queens, in shiny new over-the-top outfits, sashay through Fondren in the first annual Zippity Doo Dah Parade. Boss Queen Jill Conner Browne says she has yet another first: a Larry Vrba bluebird crown.
New Outfits for Sweet Potato Queens
The Sweet Potato Queens will stuff themselves into new costumes for the Zippity Doo Dah Parade next week.
MPB Moves Toward Self-Sufficiency
Big underwriters with deep pockets could save Mississippi Public Broadcasting. To find those generous companies, MPB employees preoccupied with periodic membership drives need time to make convincing sales pitches. To free up that time, MPB says an independent consultant might handle its next fundraising drive.
MPB Eyes Self Sufficiency
The Mississippi Public Broadcasting board voted this morning to start considering where to make budget cuts in response to threats to end its state funding.
Taking The Stage
Katrina Byrd makes it a point to get to the JATRAN bus stop early. The bus is supposed to come by at 3:30 p.m, so she gets there at 3:15 p.m. When the bus shows up late, at 3:40 p.m, it whizzes right by her without slowing down.
The Original Rolling Stone
Even before Mick Jagger and Keith Moon joined the British invasion of the 1960s, some Mississippi college kids in a band called the Rolling Stones awoke a generation. From 1955 to 1961, they pounded out a beat that grew louder through the night.
APAC's Impact: Shining Bright
As a boy in a school uniform gets off the bus on tree-lined Riverside Drive early one fall morning, faculty and staff inside the Power Academic and Performing Arts Complex School prepare for a busy day. The boy carries a large white cello case behind him on his way to the front door.
Losing Time in Pen and Ink
Doodling a detailed picture on a napkin, the architect with white hair and blue eyes concentrates while a waitress clears the plates around him.
J.J. Luther and Karson Williams
Karson Williams laughed at a joke on top of the Ironworks Building in downtown Jackson. She and J.J. Luther had come up to the roof to look at the stars and talk. The tall blonde girl and the red-headed boy looked down at the sidewalk at their tattooed friends from The Ink Spot.
Ray's Wife Tells Tales
A storyteller came to Mississippi to weave her tales, only she didn't know it at the time. Diane Williams, 57, moved here from New Jersey because of a Mississippi farm boy.
Royal Blues
Walking down the 300 block of Farish Street, Alex Thomas stops at a historic marker in front of a single-story boarded-up brick storefront.
Sticks & Stones
Kelsey Ann Jackson threw up. The thought of going to school that morning made her sick. She cried about the mean girls she would have to face in her sixth-grade class. After her mom dropped her off at her grade school in Brookhaven, Jackson walked as slow as she could to her class, dreading the coming ordeal more with each step.
Study Finds Unequal Punishment of Black Students
Black students are twice as likely to get out-of-school suspensions and in some school districts, middle schools are three times more likely to suspend black boys, a new Southern Poverty Law Center study found.
Mississippi Hosts Anti-Bullying Conference
Jervia Powell, 12, cried last year in history class. Some mean girls relentlessly bullied her. She still remembers their taunts.
‘Ain't Got Justice, Yet'
It was tragic when a man raped and killed Eva Gail Patterson in 1979 in Forrest County, says Emily Maw. It was horrific, Maw says, that the real perpetrator let three innocent men sit in jail for three decades for his crime.
Two Men Freed After 30 Years
Forrest County Circuit Judge Bob Helfich set two men free today who were convicted 30 years ago for a rape and murder they did not commit.
Peace in the MPB Valley?
After being absent from Mississippi Public Broadcasting offices for at least two weeks, Executive Director Judy Lewis resigned Sept. 8. A news release that afternoon announced her decision to leave her post after one hot summer controversy.
Cold Soup on a Hot Day
Cold gazpacho just might get us through this hot summer. It quenches that seasonal thirst for tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, and onions blended and marinated in vinegar and olive oil. It immediately satisfies, but you always want more so there is never enough.
Green Couch, No Covers
In an old brick warehouse in downtown Hattiesburg, Paul Burch strums roots music on his guitar. Warm light bounces off hardwood floors and his comfy brown jacket as the song picks up. He breaks a guitar string but keeps playing. The cameras of "The Green Couch Sessions" keep rolling.
My Shrimp Love Affair
A shrimp boat sprawls its arms out near the Beau Rivage. The usually brown water of the Mississippi Sound looks blue on the first Saturday of shrimp season. Life goes on in Biloxi, but a sense of dread rides the breeze.
Seeking Perfection
Six shirtless men bolt onto the stage with fierce precision and boyish grins. They dance to a Prince tune, one leaping as high as the top of a door, another spinning gracefully over and over again, and another kicking his legs apart and together like scissors. They do it all with swashbuckling charm. The crowd screams and begs for more. This is ballet.
Challenging Stereotypes
A cardboard cutout of President Barack Obama smiles down through a window at a pleasant-looking woman standing in her backyard. She smiles and waits patiently, standing outside her sunroom in her jacket. She looks like someone's grandmother, someone's friend. Dr. Helen Barnes looks like someone you want to know and who might invite you inside.
Lesbian Teen Fights for Prom
Constance McMillen unwraps a Super Sonic Burger from a bag full of tater tots at her kitchen table in Fulton. Her long, dark hair is curled, and her face is made up. She's wearing a new black T-shirt that reads "I (Heart) NY."
The Commons: Continuity of Love
Under the quiet gaze of an oversized bronze statue of Eudora Welty, a friendly but insistent workman keeps asking Jonathan Sims what to do about the dishwasher. Sims can't answer right away. He looks down at the brick-imprinted concrete covered with wet leaves and concentrates.
Art Meets Science
When Erin Hayne first brought her Portuguese husband home to Mississippi, the humidity immediately consumed him.
Unapologetic Feminism
Julia A. Fenton recalls a couple viewing one of her exhibits: They bent their heads together and discussed the image in front of them, she says.
Southern? Not So Much
Years ago, Oxford American magazine published an issue with a Southern Womanhood theme, featuring Ashley Judd in a University of Kentucky jersey. Men lusted after southern women in numerous articles.
A Blessed Man
Wyatt Waters unfolds the legs on his handmade wooden easel and sits down to paint a neighborhood scene in Belhaven. He is on one of those tree-lined streets with historic homes, neat lawns and attentive homeowners.