Jackson Jambalaya

Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves and Speaker of the House Philip Loome issued these press releases on the agreement reached tonight:

The Mississippi Supreme Court reversed the conviction of Michelle Byrom and ordered a new trial:

No surprise here as Bennie held a fund-raiser for Melvin Priester, Jr. last year.  WLBT reported:

The Legislature, in a rare fit of sanity, passed the "marijuana oil" bill last week. It goes without saying that people suffering from seizures and other maladies who need this treatment are very grateful.  Senator Josh Harkins sponsored the original bill and had some really nice things to say on his Facebook page.  It is reprinted with his permission:

Standard & Poor downgraded the rating on the 2005 Parkway East bonds from BBB to CCC* last week and stated the outlook was "negative."  The Parkway East Public Improvement District sold $27,770,000 in bonds in 2005 to finance infrastructure improvements. S&P also warned it might downgrade the bonds ever more in the future.  S&P stated in a press release:

The Sun-Herald published a damn fine piece of reporting this morning on how Motorola underbid the nearest competitor by $90 million to win the contract to build the statewide radio system (MSWIN) for police and first responders.  MSWIN has been a sore spot to chiefs around the state as the prices of radios have increased while the threat of user fees floats in the air.  Then there is the little fact that Haley and his cohorts are now Motorola lobbyists.  Nice work if you can get it.   The Sun-Herald reports:

Here are the closing remarks by the candidates at the Mayoral debate that took place at Jackson State University Thursday night.  The complete video of the debate is included as well.

The Jackson Zoo just issued the following press release:

Looks like the Navy is cancelling the Tomahawk and Hellfire missile programs.  The Navy proposed a budget that spends no money on them in FY 2016.  There is no money to purchase replacement systems for several years as well.   Read page 12., One replacement program, LRASM, will probably not be ready for nearly a decade.  Thank you, Ray Mabus.

Instead of asking who you will support for Mayor, JJ decided to flip the typical poll question to something different: Who is least likely to get your vote for Mayor?  In other words, which candidate do you dislike the most. Time to shake things up and have some fun.

Here are the opening remarks in the Mayoral debate at JSU last night:

Ben Allen is back on WJNT on Tuesday's.  1180 AM and you can listen to it on the Tunein Radio app.  Here is the podcast of this week's show.

There is no doubt that Vladimir Putin has weighed Barack Obama and found him wanting.  The Wall Street Journal compared the two. One plays by 19th century rules, the other by those of the 21st century:

'You just don't in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext," declared John Kerry on March 2 as Russia began its conquest of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. Though he didn't intend it, the U.S. Secretary of State was summing up the difference between the current leaders of the West who inhabit a fantasy world of international rules and the hard men of the Kremlin who understand the language of power. The 19th-century men are winning.

The Jackson Zoo issued the following press release:

Pete Perry discussed the Mayor's race, legislature, and the Senate race on the show yesterday.

Use a Facebook page to reach your customers?  Facebook is changing... for the worse... your page's reach.  Valleywag reported on Gawker:

U.S. Magistrate Keith Ball set bond for Marshall Wolfe at $10,000 today.  He scheduled June 2 for the trial date for Mr. Wolfe.  A federal grand jury indicted Mr. Wolfe for bankruptcy fraud and conspiracy to conceal assets in bankruptcy.  He faces maximum penalties of five years imprisonment and $250,000 fines. 

Rumors have been circulating for quite some time about a possible closing of Harrah's in Tunica. Caesar's pulled the plug today. Caesar's reported on its website:

Fox13 (Memphis) reports: "Early Saturday morning John King's Clarksdale home was tagged, torched and set on fire. He's calling for the FBI to get involved in the investigation saying that his house was torched because of the color of his skin."

Hinds County Circuit Judge Jeff Weill ordered St. Andrews to provide to Precious and Crystal Martin information about bullying and similar discipline problems at the school.  The Martins sued the school in October.  They claimed breach of contract after they withdrew their child from the school in response to alleged bullying.  The Martins sought the information in discovery while St. Andrews objected on the ground such information was not relevant.   Judge Weill also issued a protective order to keep the names of any minor children from becoming public.

Looks like Chokwe Lumumba, Jr.  picked up an endorsement from the Central Mississippi Building & Construction Trades Council:

The Mississippi Way: If it's fixed, let's break it.  Such is the idea behind the bill to split the Rankin-Madison district for District Attorney and Circuit Court.  The current arrangement ensures justice is swift and strict.  The criminal justice system in Madison County is somewhat insulated from the county shenanigans that have taken place under several regimes in Canton.  However, Representative Mark Baker introduced a bill to split the counties. The bill passed the house.

Collection of all posts on Steadivest case

 A federal grand jury indicted former Steadivest President/CEO/Grand Poobah Marshall Wolfe for bankruptcy fraud and concealment of assets last week.  Mr. Wolfe operated a ponzi scheme under an umbrella of Steadivest companies*from 2007 to 2009.

Check out this short clip from the Mayoral debate last week:

The New York Times published a thoughtful but disconcerting story on the future of journalism yesterday.

If I were being paid by the click for this column, I might have begun it this way: Will an oppressive emphasis on “click bait” mean that the news ends up imprisoned by transgendered models posing in disgraceful listicles accompanied by kidnapped nude kittens?

Clinton PD needs your help catching a thief.  Clinton PD release these two videos of the alleged thief in action:

Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Baily issued the following press release:

Developer David Watkins just fired off this press release:

Secretary of State Eggbert Hosemann issued the following press release:

The Jackson Public School District spent* more money per student, yet had the worst rating and graduation rate, out of all public school districts in the tri-county area for 2011-2012. JJ reviewed report cards for all districts in Hinds, Madison, and Rankin counties for the 2011-2012 school year.  The other districts were not even close to JPS in terms of spending money.   JPS spent nearly $1,000 more per student than the nearest district, Canton. What is really interesting is the districts that spent the most had the worst grades and graduation rates. The mantra that the suburban districts are wealthier and can spend more money is simply not true. Clinton spent nearly $2,000 less per student yet achieved an "A" rating. Rankin spent $1,813 less per student and achieved an "A" as well.

Looks like someone tried to sneak some contraband into the Hinds County Detention Center. Sheriff Tyrone Lewis just issued the following press release:

Baltimore went all in for crony capitalism.... and lost its _____ on special projects.  Steve Hanke and Stephen Walters posit that for every government-chosen winner exists a loser in the Wall Street Journal:

Gambling operators in Arkansas have been running these ads on Memphis tv stations for over a year. Needless to say, they are not too flattering about Mississippi.  First question: Why the hell isn't Phil Bryant standing up for Mississippi and calling out these ads?

Move over Five Guys.  It looks like gourmet burger chain Red Robin is advertising for help in Jackson:

 Here is the complete video of the Jackson Mayoral Debate held last Thursday night at the Johnnie Champion Community Center. 

Here is a nice little comment about Kior from two years ago:

Here are the closing arguments from the Mayoral debate last night.

Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann issued his report on the absentee voting in the 2013 Hattiesburg municipal special election. Its posted below for the political junkies.

The candidates appeared last night at a forum at the Johnnie Champion Community Center in West Jackson.  Here are the opening remarks.  The closing remarks will be posted later today and the entire debate will be posted tomorrow. Enjoy.

You read that correctly.  Representative Earl Banks introduced the Melvin Priester Reparation Act in the 1998 session of the legislature.  The bill died in committee but would have paid for part of Young Priester's Harvard education if passed.  The short bill is posted below.

The Regina Quinn for Mayor Campaign issued the following press release:

Bloomberg reports the senate race is quickly shaping up to be a war between the Tea Party and the Cochran/Barbour team :

The Wall Street Journal editorial page presented a scary view of the public pension problems facing many state and local governments. Chicago, California, New Jersey, Stockton, Vallejo, the list keeps getting longer and longer. 

This zealous supporter of the Free the Land movement voiced his concern over the death of our Mayor in rather colorful fashion.  Words such as "assassination" and "United Snakes of America" are used. No disrespect is meant to the Lumumba family in this time of mourning.  You can't make this up.

It's been thirty years since Gary Plauche shot and killed the man who repeatedly molested his son.  Baton Rouge residents know the story.  Jeff Doucet was the son's karate instructor.  He molested him for over a year.  He kidnapped the son and took him to New York.   Police caught him in New York and returned young Plauche to his dad.  Police were walking through Ryan airport with Doucet in custody.  Plauche was wearing a baseball cap and talking on the payphone as they passed by him. No one recognized him.  He turned, pulled out a handgun, and shot Doucet in the head.  The entire event was captured on camera.  He received a sentence of probation for five years.  ESPN broadcast this story about how sports helped Jody Plauche overcome what was done to him.

Discussed the Mayor's race today.  Sorry but the traffic numbers show its what you guys want to talk about and the phones lit up for the second half of the show.

A Republic Group poll states Chokwe A. Lumumba, Jr. and Tony Yarber lead the mayor's race while Margaret Barrett-Simon placed third. The most important number is 33%.  That is the percentage of responses that were stated as "undecided".  The 2013 race had an undecided percentage of 25% in most campaign polls one week before the election.  Hence most broke for Mayor Lumumba on election day.  The poll results are posted below. 

There was a little delay but here is the video of Councilwoman Margaret Barrett-Simon announcing she will run for Mayor of Jackson.  There will also be a Mayoral debate/town hall forum tomorrow at night at 6:00 PM at the Johnnie Champion Community Center on Hattiesburg Drive.

This amusing little screed against Whole Foods appeared on the Huffington Post:

I was rather late uploading the recording but here is the radio show from two weeks ago.  The Kingfish hosted Rachel Canter of Mississippi First and Erika Berry of the Mississippi Charter School Association to discuss.....drum roll......... Common Core. 

Kior continued to disclose more bad news in its 10-K filing yesterday.  The company reported a loss of $347.5 million loss for 2013. The company operates a plant in Columbus and planned to open a larger one in Natchez.  The legislature approved $75 million in interest-free loans to Kior in a 2010 special session.   The plants are supposed to convert woodchips into crude oil and gasoline.  The project was supposed to create 1000 direct and indirect jobs in Mississippi as well as constructing up to five plants.   Copy of filing.  However, those plans may be pipe dreams. The filing says it all:

Jackson City Councilwoman Margaret Barrett-Simon just issued the following press release:

The Tony Yarber for Mayor campaign will host a "Mix & Mingle" event and celebrate his birthday at campaign headquarters tonight.  The building is between CVS and Wing Stop on State Street.  Further details are published in the announcement below.

Here are the crime reports for Jackson, The Rez, Rankin County, Byram, Madison, Ridgeland, and Clinton. Precinct 4 saw huge drops in many areas of crime but surges as well in armed robberies and aggravated assaults.

Several Sheriffs, judges, politicians, and Rankin-Madison District Attorney Michael Guest issued the following press release on the criminal justice reform bill. Rankin Sheriff Bryan Bailey also suggested some revisions on the bill as well.

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday the UAW is having a tough time organizing at the Nissan plant in Canton:

Here is the latest radio commercial from the John Horhn for Mayor campaign.

Howard Ballou just tweeted that Jackson City Councilwoman Margaret Barrett-Simon is running for Mayor. 

Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey just issued the following press release:

State Auditor Stacey Pickering issued the following press release:

Yup. He said it.  Watch for yourself.

Taking a break from the politics. Here is an interesting little interview with Neil Young yesterday on CNBC.  It seems Mr. Young is touting a new high-end digital player that will appeal to audiophiles.  It is his opinion music has sounded like crap for the last ten years and he aims to do something about it.

The Mississippi Conservatives PAC issued the following statement on State Senator Chris McDaniel and Common Core.

Broke down the Mayor's race on WJNT yesterday.  

Rankin-Madison District Attorney Michael Guest issued the following press release:

Looks like Speaker Philip Loome and The Tater engaged in dueling press releases yesterday:

This robocall attacking Margaret Barrett-Simon went out last night:

State Senator John Horhn announced his candidacy for Mayor of Jackson at this press conference today:

The Lieutenant Governor issued the following press release:

Looks like Chokwe Junior decided to pass off a quote from Frantz Fanon's "The Wretched of the Earth" as his own in in the first sentence of his speech yesterday. See for yourself.

This video was simply too good to pass up.

The Mayor's passing. One candidate after another announcing he is running for the office. Fraziers going to jail.  St. Andrews smack. The Legislature.  We need a break. Introducing Margaret Wood. This post is not safe for work, kids, Y'all Politics, or Cottonchicken.

Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Jr.  announced he is a candidate at a press conference this evening in front of City Hall and a crowd of enthusiastic supporters.  Mr. Lumumba's sister and wife introduced him to the crowd.  Ridgeland resident Safiya Omari opened the press conference by leading the crowd in a chant of "One City,  One destiny". 

Jackson City Councilman Melvin Priester, Jr. told a packed room at his law office he is running for Mayor of Jackson. The video is posted below.

Madison County Chancery Clerk candidate issued the following press release:

Update: Website is up and running. Yarberformayor.com.

Jackson City Councilman Tony Yarber announced he is running for Mayor of Jackson in front of the steps of City Hall this morning.  Here is the video.

The Tony Yarber for Mayor campaign just issued the following press release:

Former Mayor Harvey Johnson announced his candidacy today in front of Smith Robertson Museum.  He touted his experience and a list of accomplishments during his three terms.  There were a few lighthearted moments as he responded to questions from the media.

And Tom Head speaks about the special election on Facebook. Too good not to point out. 

Jackson City Councilwoman Margaret Barrett-Simon posted this message on Facebook a few hours ago:

The Mayor's race is moving along.  Councilman Tony Yarber is jumping into the race.  If you have never heard him before, here are recordings of  two appearances he made on my radio show.  Listen and form your own opinions. They are embedded in Flash so if you don't see them on an Apple product, use a Flash app.

Warren Buffett threw out a few gems of wisdom in his latest annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders.  There is quite a bit of advice politicians and others would be wise to adopt. 

 Update: Priester holding press conference Tuesday at 2:00 PM. JJ was left off the media email list. Looks like we are persona non grata to the Priester crowd. 

The contendah's are jumping in now.  Harvey is in. Horhn is in.  Melvin Priester, Jr. told his congregation this morning he is running for Mayor.  Yarber is in. No word out of the other Junior, Regina Quinn, or heavy favorite Possum James. Nothing out of Lee but he is chomping at the bit. Here are some images sent to me already today of push cards and other campaign paraphenalia. The results of the online poll are posted below as well.

Some of the best college basketball you will ever see. Chris Jackson v. Gerald Glass. 1989. Chris scored 55 points. Glass scored 53. Game went to several overtimes.

Madame DeLadd is at it again on her blog: 

No, this is not a new Dr. Seuss story. The administration at Saint Andrew's school sent out the following email to students concerning the Yik Yak threat.  JJ has learned administrations at other local schools have taken similar actions.  Going too far or not far enough? Read for yourself and decide.

A new robocall that went out tonight in Madison County attacks supervisor Gerald Steen as standing against economic development.  It even asks if he is going to be the Kenneth Stokes of Madison County.  Listen for yourself below .

C.E. Frazier, Jr. gets 31 months in prison and a three-year term of probation once released.  Judge Keith Starrett will sentence Austin and Claiborne Frazier at 9:00 AM tomorrow morning. 

The New York Times published a very entertaining story on three yewts who found their way to playing basketball for Jones Junior College after growing up in Brooklyn. Going from Brooklyn to Catfish Friday's in Jones County.  Read on.

Collection of all posts on Frazier case

Sentencing is scheduled for today in U.S. District Court for Austin, Clairborne, and C.E. Frazier, Jr.  C.E., Jr. is the father of Austin and Claiborne.  Austin and C.E. pleaded guilty to one count of "conspiracy to commit  bank fraud, mail fraud and/or wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. 371". The crime carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, $250,000 fine, and supervised release of not more than three years. Claiborne pleaded guilty to one count of "conspiracy to commit bank, mail and/or wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1349." The charge carries a maximum sentence of thirty years in prison, $250,000 fine, and supervised release for a term of five years. Earlier post with copy of indictment.   However, Claiborne filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea last week.  He is represented by Cynthia Stewart.

The Lieutenant Governor issued the following press release:

The Street Committee gave the Kingfish an update on the Mayoral race yesterday:

Check out this award for Republican congressional candidate Gene Taylor:

SB #2629 passed House Judiciary "B" Committee this morning. The bill makes it easier for law enforcement to pursue felony convictions of domestic violence. The bill allows police to charge someone with aggravated domestic violence without an affidavit from the victim. Senator Will Longwitz sponsored the bill.  JJ reported last month:

Some blasts from the past on Ukraine:

Looks like we have a food fight over in the animal rescue community.  A woman who operates the Madison Ark filed a petition for a restraining order against several individuals.  She accused them of hacking into her email, sending phony information to law enforcement to encourage prosecutions against her, and other dastardly deeds.  One defendant had none of it and filed a counterclaim against her that alleged stalking and defamation.  She also asked for a restraining order against the plaintiffs. Hmmm.... they ask for restraining orders against each other?  The claims are posted below and well, are interesting to read.

UPDATE: Special election will be held April 8. Runoff two weeks later if needed.  Qualifying deadline is March 19.   JJ can confirm Councilman Tony Yarber is looking at jumping into the race. 


Here is the law for setting a special election in Jackson:

A Pearl resident claims a McDonald's restaurant in Brandon placed a mouse in a milkshake consumed by her daughter and cousin.  24-year old Christene James told JJ her 17 year-old cousin bought a caramel frappe at McDonald's Sunday night.  She said her cousin and one year-old daughter took turns drinking the frappe.  She said they consumed two-thirds of it before discovering the mouse.   A message seeking comment was left at  the McJoy (franchise owner)  office in Ridgeland with a secretary.

Mississippi Secretary of State Jilbert Hosemann issued the following press release concerning his legislative agenda:

Leftenant Governor Tate Reeves issued the following press release:

Well, at least they did wait until the body was cold before the politiking started.  Guess we should be thankful for such good manners.  JJ received several  reports of  polls that were conducted yesterday concerning the upcoming special election.

The UAW failed to capture the workforce of a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga recently.  Hard to believe: workers were paid at the plant more than new hires under union contracts at the Big 3 so they voted against the union.  John Schnapp writes in the Wall Street Journal about Nissan's experience with unions when it opened its first American plant in Smyrna:

Everyone could use an outbreak of humor after the past week. Came across these Private Snafu videos on Youtube.  Mel Blanc, Chuck Jones, Frank Capra, and Dr. Suess created these cartoons during WWII for the military as they had to deal with a large number of troops who um, did not possess strong reading skills.  Enjoy.

Here are some more columns of the original Epicurious, Bettye Jolly.  She appeared in the Clarion-Ledger in 1983 and recently passed away.  Her pen lies idle and her typewriter is now silent but for a few moments they will return to life as you read these gems.  Enjoy.

Such is the question asked by Kenneth Stokes. This is one of the more disgusting things JJ has covered in Jackson but it deserves to be covered for obvious reasons. Watch on WAPT for yourself.