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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

There’s never a slow news week in Jackson, Miss., and last week was no exception. Here are the local stories JFP reporters brought you in case you missed them:

  1. A total of 44 dancers from this year’s USA International Ballet Competition are moving on to round two. A jury narrowed the field from 92 dancers Thursday night, after the eight sessions from round one at Thalia Mara Hall.
  2. Michelle L. Thomas, the woman who helped lead a budget turnaround in Newark, N.J., under then-Mayor Cory Booker, will manage the City of Jackson’s budget overhaul.
  3. The Hinds County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council is working to see how the system can move people through quicker and decrease the number of incarcerated individuals in the county and city.
  4. The City of Jackson changed how it responds to calls regarding road issues after the fatal crash on May 17—by adding more phone numbers to call to report issues.
  5. Kyle Taylor believes Eldon Insurance and Big Data Dolphins Ltd. might be using U.K. citizens’ data in their new artificial-intelligence project they have planned to start in Oxford, Miss.
  6. Since the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations took over officer-involved shooting cases in Jackson in May 2018, there has been seemingly less information given out to the public because the state agency does not have to provide updates to those outside of law enforcement.
  7. The Jackson Public School District is moving forward with a $65-million bond referendum on Aug. 7 for Jacksonians to approve or strike down.
  8. The Jackson City Council approved eight new ADA-approved vehicles for JATRAN between May and June 2018, but because they are not full-size, they will not fix the bus shortage.
  9. The draft proposal of the “One Lake” plan to dredge out parts of the Pearl River adjacent to the Jackson-metro area should go public this month.
  10. The Green Eyeshade Awards from the southeastern division of the Society of Professional Journalists, announced Friday, June 8, that the Jackson Free Press won “Best in Division,” one of the contest’s top awards, for juvenile-justice reporting and commentary in 2017.

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Digital Editor Dustin Cardon is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi where he studied journalism. He started his journalism career years ago at the Jackson Free Press in Mississippi’s capital city as an intern and worked his way up to web editor, a role he now holds within the Mississippi Free Press. Dustin enjoys reading fantasy novels and wants to write them himself one day. Email him at dustin@mississippifreepress.org.