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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.

JACKSON — Once again, Jackson found itself in the thick of national debates on immigration, women’s issues and voting rights. In case you missed them, here are 10 stories that had locals buzzing this week:

  1. The Hinds County Board of supervisors voted 3-2 to drop Kenneth Stokes’ proposed ordinance that would impose $5 and $10 fines for the first and second offenses for anyone wearing their pants at an objectionable level of sgginess.
  2. City reporter Jacob Fuller stayed on top of goings-on at City Hall, reporting on the city’s distancing of itself from developer David Watkin’s legal troubles and a likely showdown over a city redistricting plan.
  3. Managing editor Ronni Mott takes a closer look at the meaning behind Republican U.S. Rep. Todd Akin’s controversial remarks on rape.
  4. In the JFP’s 2012 college football preview issue, Bryan Flynn sizes up area squads, many of which are grappling with uncertainty over the QB position.
  5. An independent monitor reports that Hinds County is not complying with its part of a federal settlement agreement to end systematic mistreatment of children at the county’s Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center.
  6. Genevieve Legacy advances the semi-annual Spiritual Pilgrimage to the Mississippi Delta, which took place Aug. 25 and included stops dedicated to remembering Emmett Till.
  7. The debate over immigration in Mississippi revved up as Gov. Phil Bryant issued an executive order barring certain immigrants from receiving state benefits and a legislative committee conducted a fact-finding hearing on bringing immigration reforms to the state.
  8. State NAACP president Derrick Johnson predicts that Mississippi’s voter ID law is unlikely to go into effect for the Nov. 2012 election, Jacob Fuller reports.

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The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.