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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. Author Piper Kerman sat on a prison education panel on Aug. 23, 2018, saying America needs to rethink its historic obsession with harsh punishment.
  2. At a special session of the Legislature at the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson on Aug. 23, 2018, state senators debated and passed a bill to create a state lottery.
  3. Republican Mississippi State Sen. Chris McDaniel raged at his own party on Thursday after President Donald Trump endorsed his opponent, incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, in the special election for her U.S. Senate seat.
  4. Democratic Sen. Hob Bryan of Amory criticized Republicans at a press conference at the Capitol on Aug. 23 for prior tax cuts as the legislature considered an infrastructure bill that would be funded by sports betting, the Internet sales tax and a state lottery.
  5. The Campaign for Southern Equality launched a survey on Wednesday, Aug. 22, that aims to help improve health-care access for LGBT southerners.
  6. U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker benefitted from a “Saturday in the Park” fundraising dinner at the home of William Mounger in north Jackson. GOP strategist Karl Rove was the featured guest.
  7. The Jackson Public School Board of Trustees announced the appointment of Dr. Errick Greene to the position of Superintendent of Schools on Tuesday, August 21.
  8. The “One Lake” plan on the Pearl River could be a good idea, but the way forward cannot be through shrouding it in secrecy and avoiding public comment, questions or open debate of such a large public-works project.
  9. Johnnie McDaniels, executive director of Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center, stuck 1,400 bumper stickers on his pick-up truck for the Hinds County judge race.
  10. State Sen. Chris McDaniel’s embrace of Confederate revisionism appeals to his far-right voting base, such as many who turned out to support him at the Neshoba County Fair and catcall his GOP opponent.

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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.