FOCUS: H.B. 1020 • 2023 Elections • Voting • Fact Checks • #MSWelfare/TANF Scandal • Jackson Water • Abortion • Race & Racism
Controversial legislation to establish a new court system in Hinds County with unelected judges and prosecutors in an expanded Capitol Complex Improvement District has now morphed into an effort to expand the jurisdiction of the State-run Capitol Police over the entire capital city.
For the second day in a roll, the breakdown in operations at the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Center in Jackson, Miss., has caused water pressure reduction throughout the capital city, disrupting activities as the city and state declared a state of emergency.
State senators from Jackson are asking the Mississippi Legislature for millions of dollars to help fund additional police and misdemeanor jail beds to keep those charged with low-level crimes who cannot afford bail locked up as a strategy to prevent violence as it rises in the capital city, they say. They are not asking for funds to support earlier interventions that a BOTEC Analysis study of Jackson crime recommended in 2016—which the Legislature authorized for $500,000 in taxpayer dollars. Kayode Crown reports.
In June 2020, attorney Crystal Welch set out to stop an effort to replace the 1894 Mississippi state flag with the Stennis flag. Though the Stennis design did not include the Confederate Battle Flag, it featured an ode to the Bonnie Blue Flag, which once served as a symbol of Mississippi’s secession.
For 126 years, a banner based upon the Confederacy’s first national flag and the Confederate battle flag waved atop poles and government buildings, reminding residents of the Blackest state in the nation that white supremacy still ruled in Mississippi.
Tragedy marred the first attempt to have a long-delayed 1970 Jackson State graduation, and the pandemic ruined the second attempt scheduled for the 50th anniversary in 2020. Graduates finally got to march in 2021, honoring might have been for Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green, killed by police.
In a historic vote today, large majorities in both houses of the Mississippi Legislature voted to move forward on an effort to retire and replace the Confederate-themed Mississippi State Flag.
Mississippi Journalism and Education Group is a a 501(c)(3) nonprofit media organization (EIN 85-1403937) for the state, devoted to going beyond partisanship and publishing solutions journalism for the Magnolia State and all of its people.
125 S. Congress Street #1324
Jackson, MSÂ 39201
info@mississippifreepress.org
tips@mississippifreepress.org
events@mississippifreepress.org
601-362-6121
The Mississippi Free Press is a project of the Mississippi Journalism and Education Group, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit journalism organization (EIN 85-1403937).