10 Local Stories of the Week - Jackson Free Press

Lindsey Horton, a 30-year veteran of law enforcement, stressed professionalism in his one year on the job and expressed his gratitude to the Yarber administration. Photo by Trip Burns.

There's never a slow news week in Jackson, Miss., and last week was no exception. Here are the local stories JFP reporters brought you in case you missed them:

1. Lindsey Horton, one of Mayor Chokwe Lumumba's first and most popular appointments last year, stepped down from his post as Jackson's police chief Monday.


2. After stating at a public meeting that he lacked the ability to remove a judge from the municipal bench, Mayor Yarber moved to fire Judge June Hardwick last weekend.


3. Hospitals & Health Networks Magazine recently named University of Mississippi Medical Center one of its 2014 "Most Wired" health-care facilities. This is the second time UMMC has received the honor.


4. Civil-liberties advocates and community members met with the Mississippi Department of Human Services to discuss concerns about a controversial law that would require Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients to complete a questionnaire and possibly face a drug test if their answers suggested they use illegal drugs.


5. After years of southern Republicans gerrymandering electoral districts, pressing for voter ID and developing other policies to dilute black voting strength, black Mississippians may have discovered a new way to assert strength.


6. Bishop Ronnie Crudup says federal law does not require his political action committee to reveal more donor and expenditure information until Oct. 15, 2014. So, he's not going to.


7. Last week, Mike Peters, the owner of Fondren Corner, told fellow building tenants that he would "be the bad guy" and move anti-abortion signs with graphic images of fetuses on the sidewalk outside the building.


8. In his first state of the city address since becoming Jackson mayor, Tony Yarber painted a hopeful picture of the capital city's future.


9. Laurin Stennis, a Jackson native, has no formal artistic training. Her bachelor's degree is in religion from Millsaps College and her master's is in social work from Tulane University in New Orleans. Now 41, she makes art full-time.


10. So, is it bbq, bar-b-q, barbeque or barbecue? Jim Hatten, founder of the Mississippi BBQ Trail, says that it doesn't matter as long as you're there.

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