Jackson Jambalaya

If one wants to know why Jackson is falling apart, look no farther than Ward 5 Jackson City Councilman Charles Tillman and his properties.  Mr. Tillman owns 65 properties in Jackson.  The pictures posted below show the deplorable state of some of his houses.

These pictures are a perfect example of what is wrong with Jackson leadership.  Mr. Tillman has served several terms on the Jackson City Council. However, he vies with the Ward 7 Councilwoman to see who can miss the most meetings.  These pictures alone show he is unfit to serve, much less lead, Jackson.  Mr. Tillman would not be allowed to get away with this crap in Madison, Ridgeland, Pearl, Brandon, Clinton, or Flowood.  He is neither fit to serve nor fit to lead and that, my friends, is the bottom line.  Jackson can no longer afford to suffer such leadership. 

Update: The young boy died. 

Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey issued the following statement.

Quite a few people probably didn't make it to church this morning thanks to the weather.  JJ presents this 1989 sermon from the late Dr. Frank Pollard. 

Collection of all posts on the Gold Coast.  

It is Saturday night and that means JJ is publishing another post on the Gold Coast of Rankin County.  This week's edition covers the battle for the soul of Jackson that took place between the bootleggers and "the law".  Troops raided the Gold Coast, court dockets filled up, politicians screeched, and yet somehow, the whiskey flowed.

The Jackson Mayoral candidates had one last debate before Tuesday's Democratic primary.  The Clarion-Ledger and League of Women Voters hosted them at the Mississippi College Schools of Law last night.  The newspaper's video is posted below.  However, headphones might be needed as the audio was not of the highest quality. 

The home of a Canton mayoral candidate is in foreclosure right now.  This notice was published in the Clarion-Ledger on April 20:

Millsaps College and Chism Strategies issued the following press release and poll.

The city of Jackson issued the following press release.

This video is a good lesson in how not to be a cop even though the cop is from Brusly, La.  Watch for yourself and judge. The news broadcast video runs for a minute.  The "good stuff" starts at 1:00.

Mississippi Today reported that Mississippi Baptist Health Systems is merging with its cousin in Memphis:

Chokwe Lumumba, Jr. filed his campaign finance report last night.  Read it and weep.

Update (4/28/2017):  Eric Johnson turned himself in this afternoon and after being processed, he was released on a $1000 cash bond until his court date of May 9^th at 1:30 pm.

The Ridgeland Police Department issued the following statement:

Burglars and violent criminals constitute most of the inmates in the Hinds County detention centers.  JJ reviewed a roster of the inmates.  Less than twenty percent of the Hinds County inmates were arrested for drug crimes and most of those offenses were trafficking.  The statistics remain little changed from three years ago when this website conducted a similar review. 

Crimestoppers issued the following bulletin.

More than 90% of all Mississippi kids attend public schools. That means that 90% of the state’s workforce, voters, parents, and leaders come from public schools. More than 60,000 teachers and support staff work in Mississippi’s public schools, and Mississippi state government spends more than $2 billion a year on public education. In addition, local taxpayers spend untold millions more. Is it any wonder that the subject of public education is always at the forefront for most Mississippians?

Hinds County resident Kenny Bryant sued recording artist R. Kelly for alienation of affection in Hinds County Circuit Court on April 21.  The case is assigned to Circuit Judge Jeff Weill.   Mr. Kelly sang hits such as I Believe I Can Fly and If I Can Turn Back Time.  He has sold over 40 million records in his career.  The complaint is rather salacious in nature as it accuses Mr. Kelly of giving his wife chlymedia and having a sexual relationship with his wife that began a few months after they were married and continued for several years.

Collection of all posts on PERS.  

Well, well, well. It seems the local media finally deemed PERS worthy of its notice.  Of course, the AP's Jeff Amy didn't do any real reporting but instead regurgitated a report spoonfed to him by a think tank but progress is progress.

The Taxman, otherwise known as the Mississippi Department of Revenue, wants to tax the short-term renting of homes and apartments.  DOR filed a notice of a proposed amendment to an existing rule with the Secretary of State on March 24.  A hearing will be held today at the department's Clinton office at 3:30.   The proposed amendment redefines a hotel or motel to include single-family dwellings:

The 2017 NFL Draft begins Thursday, and there is really only one sure thing. That is, mistakes will be made.

It happens every year.

JPD issued the following statement:

The campaign finance reports for the Jackson Mayoral candidates was due at the close of business today.  All major candidates except Chokwe Lumumba, Jr. filed a campaign finance report.  However, a new PAC, Democracy for America, was formed for the express purpose of helping Mr. Lumumba.  It raised and donated all of $1,000 to his campaign.  Here are the reports.

 Vice magazine published a rather interesting version of the reign of Mayor Chokwe Lumumba, Sr. - from the viewpoint of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.  JJ posted some excerpts of the April 2016 article below along with some color commentary from yours truly. 

The widow of Mark Mayfield wants to ask a Madison County attorney some questions concerning his involvement in the Rose Cochran "nursing home scandal" that took place in the 2014 Senate race.  Robin Mayfield filed a complaint for discovery against Richard Wilbourn in Madison County Chancery Court on January 18, 2017. Mr. Mayfield committed suicide after he was arrested for allegedly participating in a plot to use pictures of a vegetative Rose Cochran in a campaign video attacking Senator Thad Cochran.  Earlier post on arrest.

Madison-Rankin District Attorney Michael Guest issued the following statement.

Campaign finance reports for the Jackson municipal elections are due tomorrow.  The last deadline for these reports was January 31, 2017.  Candidates Mayor Tony Yarber and Robert Graham submitted their January reports.  A PAC for Chokwe Lumumba, Jr. submitted one.  John Horhn submitted one to the Secretary of State for his State Senator campaign finance account.  The reports are posted below.  Enjoy.

The Mississippi Parole Board voted to grant parole to convicted embezzler and disbarred attorney Jason Zebert.  Zebert was released on February 19, 2016.  

It appears a fight broke out at the baseball park in Ridgeland Friday night.  The video below shows two men being separated by a crowd of bystanders by the concession stand.  

We are going into the home stretch of the Mayor's race.  We will be covering it from now until the final ballots are cast.  Consider this post to be an open thread for your to comment on the election. Fire away. 

Former Jackson State University Coach Harold Jackson sued his former employer in Hinds County Circuit Court Wednesday for employment discrimination.  Mr. Jackson claimed JSU discriminated against him and breached his contract when it fired him for having a losing record of 6-11 in 2015.  The school hired him in 2014 after firing Coach Rick Comegy. The school paid him a salary of $260,000 -a $60,000 increase over Coach Comegy's salary. 

If you can't make it to church this morning, enjoy this 1987 sermon given by the late Dr. Frank Pollard at First Baptist Church. 

HBO released several photos of the upcoming season of Game of Thrones:

 Collection of all posts covering the Gold Coast of Rankin County.

1940 was a typical year on the Gold Coast of Rankin County: Bootleggin', whiskey, shootings, and good ole fashioned hell-raisin'. Jackson City Limits and The Dock had nothing on this place.   Someone even thought it would be groovy to drop some acid on the Sheriff.  Posted below is a collection of 1940 articles from the Clarion-Ledger covering the Gold Coast.  Enjoy. 

Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn are touting their great success this year in holding down the cost of government.

An East Jackson man was mighty upset as he shot up an operating room at a local hospital.  28 year-old William Dewitt got drunk, went to the Owl's Nest in East Jackson,  and cut a man who worked at the infamous nightclub.  The slicing and dicing of the black man did not satisfy Dewitt's rage so  Dewitt commandeered a taxi and chased the victim to the hospital. He entered the operating room and shot at a nurse who attempted to warn the rest of the staff.  a  Dewitt is white.   Thankfully, only the walls suffered the fury of his bullets as the gunshot victim hurled himself at the hoodlum and caused a shot that was aimed at the nurse's abdomen to miss.  Dewitt was arrested.  The newspaper article is posted below.

Public utilities are supposed to be boring. VERY boring.  However, we are talking about Canton and there is nothing staid or quiet about Canton.  The Blackmons and Warnocks* are fighting over the control of Canton Municipal Utilities in a way that brings to mind the old feud between the Junkyard Dog and the Fabulous Freebirds.  The two sides are slugging it out in federal court right now after CMU fired Rudy Warnock as its engineer after the Blackmons took control of the board of CMU.

However, 69 pages of the text messages of Rudy Warnock were attached to the minutes of the December 22, 2016 meeting of the board of Canton Municipal Utilities before he was fired.  The text messages give one a view of what is going on behind the scenes as threats as all kinds of drama takes place, including threatening to have a reporter beat up. 

The city of Jackson issued the following statement. 

An old friend of JJ received a get out of jail free card although he is still a jailbird.  The Mississippi Parole Board granted parole to disgraced attorney Vann Leonard last year.  He embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from clients several years ago.  However, his crimes are considered to be "non-violent" and thus he qualifies for parole after serving 25% of his sentence.

JJ is very suspect of so-called bombshells that suddenly appear right before a big election.  It is no secret Kimberly Bracey is suing Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber for sexual harassment. JJ broke the original story about the lawsuit last year.  Speculation ran rampant during the last few weeks that something would be filed right before the election and guess what? Something was. JJ was not going to report this new development in the lawsuit until May 3.  However, the news media is covering it and the Mayor issued a statement so here is the coverage.

The city of Jackson proposed forming a regional treatment authority with the West Rankin Utility Authority for the operation of its wastewater treatment plant on March 13.  Unfortunately for Jackson, West Rankin rejected the proposal.  JJ obtained a copy of the proposal and posted it below.

Auburn finally did something right.  Some Antifa protestors showed up to go all Berkely at a Richard Spencer speech. Some of them apparently forget that the anti-Klan laws applied to them while they protested the Klan.  Irony.  Watch for yourself.  These cops didn't play- unlike those in Berkeley who played while protestors were beaten.

Governor Phil Bryant vetoed a so-called "criminal justice reform" bill. The do-gooders patted themselves on the back as they crowed about how they were going to bring some true justice to the criminal justice system in Mississippi. However, HB #1033 takes aim at communities that try to protect their families from crime in the name of a "disparate sentencing" study. 

The Pearl River Valley Water Supply District issued the following statement.

No, we are not talking about Kenneth Stokes but a member of the CMU board.  One Rudolphus Magnus Warnock is engaged in a court fight with Canton Municipal Utilities.  An affidavit was prepared on his behalf but it has not yet been submitted to the court.  The affidavit charges that one Cleveland Anderson offered to have Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler and Madison County Journal reporter Michael Simmons whacked for $10,000 each.  It is not known if the alderman planned to finance the whacking with CMU bonds.

Mississippi Secretary of State Ribbit Hosemann issued the following press release.

A lawsuit accuses a Jackson lawyer of embezzling $40,720 from his clients in a wrongful death lawsuit.  A Covington County family sued attorney Ramal Cotton in Hinds County Chancery Court on September 14, 2016.  Mr. Cotton sits on the boards of the Voice of Cavalry Ministries and the Downtown Jackson Neighborhood Association.  The plaintiffs are currently trying to throw him in jail. 

The NCAA announced last week that college football recruits will now have a chance to sign a scholarship in December rather than wait until the first Wednesday in February, the traditional national signing day.

It's been 75 years since America showed what it is really made of during one of it's darkest hours.   It was 1942.  The Japs kicked our ass at Pearl Harbor and then proceeded to run roughshod over the Pacific.  Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle came up with the idea to attack Japan with B-25's launched from the deck of an aircraft carrier.  A suicide mission that might actually be crazy enough to work.  The rest is history.  The Japs couldn't believe that we dared to bomb their homeland.  It boosted morale at home and showed the Japs there was going to be a fight after all.  It nudged them into attacking Midway and the rest is history, as they say.  What is often forgotten is the brutality suffered by the captured pilots and those who helped the others escape in China.

The Ridgeland Police Department issued the following video, pictures,  and statement.

Meet Battlefield Dubb and his boyz.  Dubb is having a good ole time at the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond jammin' to WJMI and starring in live Facebook videos.  Check out this pic: