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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.

Last week Mayor Tony Yarber tweeted that prayer would help fix the potholes in Jackson. Here’s a list of what the JFP staff is praying for:

Pray for Rankin County to understand the First Amendment.

Pray for a new flag

Pray for a Destiny’s Child reunion

Pray for the Titanic to retroactively not sink

Pray for North Korea to chill

Pray for personal robots

Pray for Michael Jordan’s acting career

Pray for Tony Yarber’s bow-tie collection

Pray for the return of Jubilee Jam

Pray for Clarion-Ledger’s headlines

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.