V15n15 'Not a Dungeon': Evolving the Approach to Juvenile Justice

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vol. 15 no. 15

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December 14 - 20, 2016 | subscribe free for news and invitations at JFPDaily.com Finalist Ballot is here! final week to vote online bestofjackson.com

‘Not a Dungeon’ Evolving the Approach to Juvenile Detention Team Coverage, pp 16 - 20

Feds and ‘One Lake’ Summers Jr., pp 7 - 8

Holiday Trinkets Helsel, p 22

Head to Steepwater Pigott, p 28

Your Metro Events Calendar is at

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JACKSONIAN Tyler Johnson Imani Khayyam

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yler Johnson, a local artist and teacher at Forest Hill High School, tries to capture the aesthetic depths of marine life in much of his artwork, which he says is loosely impressionistic and abstract. “I really have a need to make things, (and) what I make almost always puts emphasis back on one of God’s creatures,” Johnson says. “I have an affinity for marine life. I love nature. I love fishing.” Johnson says he paints what he sees when interacting with animals and nature. “A lot of the stuff that I do are things I see when I go fishing, or creatures that live in the ocean, from salt to swamp,” he says. Johnson, 36, was born and raised in Jackson and attended Forest Hill High School. He was heavily involved with soccer at Hinds Community College. It was at Hinds that Johnson also discovered his interests in drawing and arts. The artist says that one of his biggest inspirations was a professor at the college, Gary Walters. “He was really good for me because he is a very loose artist, and I am as well,” Johnson says. Johnson transferred to the University of Mississippi, where he majored in art with an emphasis in graphic design. He graduated in 2003 with a bachelor’s

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degree in art. While studying at UM, he also developed a love for working with his hands, creating ceramics, painting and even making signs. “I love building stuff with my hands, and I love painting, as well,” he says. “Those are really my two loves: pottery and painting.” Although he has been successful in digital graphic design, Johnson says he enjoys crafting physical artwork more. “Honestly, I’m more of an old soul; I kind of hate sitting in front of the computer,” Johnson says. “That’s why I do like (creating) signs. ... I quickly get to get away from the computer and get saws and build stuff.” Johnson recently had several paintings on display at Tougaloo College for the Mississippi Art Educators Conference. He displayed two of his newest paintings, in which he combines pixelated images with natural art. “As a graphic designer, I hate seeing pixels, but I started thinking, ‘I wonder if there is a way I can somehow factor in pixels into something being in high resolution, as well in my paintings,’” he says. When not working, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Amanda Johnson, and his two kids, Cami, 7, and Jonah, 3. —Christopher Peace

cover photo of Leonard Dixon (left) and Johnnie McDaniels (right) by Imani Khayyam

6 ............................ Talks 12 ................... editorial 13 ...................... opinion 16 ............ Cover Story 22 ................. Gift Guide 24 ........... food & Drink 26 ......................... 8 Days

6 Offering Refuge

Catholic Charities’ Unaccompanied Refugee Minor program helps young people without a nation.

22 Trinkets and Baubles

Check out this year’s local holiday gift guide for ways to shop for unique gifts and help your city at the same time.

27 ........................ Events 27 ....................... sports 28 .......................... music 28 ........ music listings 32 ...................... Puzzles 33 ......................... astro 33 ............... Classifieds

28 Lead Me to Steepwater

“Our sound is real, and it shows in our music. I realize that ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ is an outdated and vague term, but our music has swagger and honesty. It’s all about the groove and the vibe.” —Jeff Massey, “Lead Me to Steepwater”

December 14 - 20, 2016 • jfp.ms

4 ............ Editor’s Note

courtesy Steepwater; Amber Helsel; Courtesy Akech Garkouth

December 14 - 20, 2016 | Vol. 15 No. 15

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editor’s note

by Donna Ladd, Editor-in-Chief

Take Responsibility for Preventing Crime

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ne of my favorite moments during last summer’s Youth Media Project was when student Ryan Perry started talking about the Washington Addition and the challenges facing the people who lived there. Ryan, who grew up in a conservative family in Rankin County, told me he had driven through the neighborhood I had featured in our “Preventing Violence” series (read the series at jfp.ms/ preventingviolence). He later wrote about it for YMP’s journalism site, jxnpulse.com. “You know how as you grow up there are places where parents tell you not go? ‘[Insert place] is dangerous,’ they’d say. You know little else about them,” he wrote. Unbeknownst to me, Ryan had taken his own tour of the neighborhood that was devastated during the crack era. “So one Saturday in Jackson, under false pretenses, I looked up the Washington Addition on Google Maps, sat my Bible in my passenger seat and drove to my ‘[Insert Place].’ It wasn’t the den of danger it had been profiled as, or the city of crime it might have historically been. It was mostly just sad,” Ryan wrote. I’ve grown so accustomed to hearing many white people immediately blame residents of poor neighborhoods for all their problems, and especially crime by young people that I girded myself for what Ryan might say about his tour. “It’s about responsibility,” Ryan told me. I immediately wondered if he was going to follow it up by saying that it was all up to residents there to solve the problems. Alas, I was selling Ryan short. “We all need to take responsibility,” he said, or something very close to that. In his later column, he explained: “So when you learn that there’s more to that place than

brimstone and bullets, you’re surprised, and when you learn that maybe things are dangerous because people have human problems and need help, maybe you’re a little shocked.” He wrote that he has heard many people say that those who live in poverty should “take responsibility,” concluding that they are using it as “a vehicle of blame.” Ryan is a smart young man and showed immediate interest in the systemic issues that keep people in cycles of poverty, and in figuring out solutions. His response

Stop casting stones and ask how you can help. is what I want others to do when it comes to helping our most vulnerable young people have opportunities and to reject crime: Stop casting stones and ask how you can help. After spending the last two years deep into exploring causes of and solutions for crime in Jackson and beyond, I can say one thing without blinking: The biggest thing blocking violence prevention in our city and country is the will to make it happen. Many love to blame young people of color, not to mention their parents. The reason we are delving into the systemic causes of crime and violence so deeply is really twofold—to figure out solutions that actually address the factors that drive crime, and to help others understand that today’s problems are rooted in cyclical problems from the past, passed down generationally.

A primary purpose for understanding the historic roots? It can help us all put aside the blame and roll up our sleeves. This ain’t about guilt, folks. It is about helping young people reach their potential and, at the same time, making our communities safer for everyone. And about believing that we can change it. A decade ago in Jackson, much of the media blew up in outrage because the then-police chief dared to say out loud that the media-fed “perception” that crime is out of control in Jackson actually hurts our efforts to stop it. There was outrage from the front page of The Clarion-Ledger to nightly newscasts, and the comment was used to help belittle the chief out of town and, ultimately, get a very bad mayor, Frank Melton, elected. (Alas, crime went up.) But here’s the thing: Chief Robert Moore was right. Much research shows that hopelessness prolongs problems, including crime, because people don’t do what each of them could to alleviate the conditions that lead to misbehavior. When people conceive that a situation—like crime among young people in Jackson—is too onerous to solve, they take few actions to fix it. In the United States, neighborhoods like the Washington Addition struggle under false assumptions about crime prevention. Many fingers wag at people in poor communities because they, supposedly, do too little to keep their kids out of trouble, even as many parents work two or three jobs to provide. In these communities, there are few if any jobs for teenagers who don’t have good transportation to get to work in other parts of town that might not hire them anyway. The drug trade, and increasingly credit-card fraud, becomes a surrogate for legal jobs. Many kids go hungry.

Meantime, many young people get weapons in order to protect themselves from others with guns, and when the police show up if one of them is attacked, too often both the assailant and victim are arrested because it is assumed that all young people in poor neighborhoods are trouble-makers and had it coming. Young men of color are the most victimized and over-policed group in America, which prolongs the cycle. Our team will continue to tell the stories, analyze the data, and unpack the real causes and potential solutions for juvenile crime. It’s complicated, and inevitably requires the village getting organized and doing many things at once to interrupt crime and prevent it in the future, from good education funding to alternatives to juvenile detention (see page 16). But start here: We must reject the perception that the answer to crime is more cops or tougher policing. It’s just not. The Legislature-funded BOTEC report on Jackson crime made it clear that any connection with the criminal-justice system is a major indicator that a young person will commit a worse crime later; the other major indicator is dropping out of school. In our cover story this issue, Adams County juvenile-detention administrator Henry Upshaw put it simply: “Just by putting a kid into the back of a police car, that drops his likelihood of graduating high school by 50 percent, so we try to avoid at all if we can.” Changing a culture that is pushing more young people to re-offend takes people from all communities working together. It is simply cheaper to provide smart alternatives to detention, and they will make us all safer. And that includes the young victims in our city. Let’s change this. Read more at jfp.ms/preventingviolence.

December 14 - 20, 2016 • jfp.ms

contributors

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Tim Summers Jr.

Sierra Mannie

Arielle Dreher

Christopher Peace

Amber Helsel

Greg Pigott

Mary Osborne

Myron Cathey

City Reporter Tim Summers Jr. enjoys loud live music, teaching his cat to fetch, long city council meetings and FOIA requests. Send him story ideas at tim@jacksonfreepress.com. He co-wrote the cover story on juvenile detention.

Education Reporting Fellow Sierra Mannie’s opinions of the Ancient Greeks can’t be trusted nearly as much as her opinions of Beyoncé. She wrote part of the cover story.

News Reporter Arielle Dreher is working on finding some new hobbies and adopting an otter from the Jackson Zoo. Email her story ideas at arielle@jacksonfreepress. com. She co-wrote the cover story on juvenile detention.

Freelance writer Christopher Peace has a bachelor’s degree from Mississippi College and a master’s degree from Jackson State University. He wrote about Jacksonian Tyler Johnson.

Assistant Editor Amber Helsel’s likes to cook, eat, make art and pet cats. Some call her the Demon Lady of Food (not really, but she wouldn’t object to it). Email story ideas to amber@ jacksonfreepress.com. She organized the gift guide.

Freelance writer Greg Pigott teaches business and technology at Velma Jackson High School. He wrote the book on being an all-around hustler. He is the guy who takes karaoke seriously. He wrote about The Steepwater Band.

Sales Assistant Mary Osborne is a Lanier Bulldog by birthright and a JSU Tiger by choice. She is the mother of Lindon “Joc” Dixon. Her hobbies include hosting and producing “The Freeda Love Show,” which airs on PEG 18.

Sales and Marketing Consultant Myron Cathey is from Senatobia. He is a graduate of Jackson State University and enjoys traveling, music and spending time with family and friends.


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“The community has to say that we are going to treat our kids as people, that we don’t see them as little adults.”

Policies to help working mothers and their families p8

— Leonard Dixon, the court monitor of Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center, discussing the role of the community in keeping kids out of detention.

Thursday, December 8 Jackson mayoral candidate Chokwe Antar Lumumba says during a press conference at his campaign headquarters that his campaign had no part in two fake websites that pushed visitors to his campaign’s website. … Former Mississippi lawmaker Cecil McCrory asks to withdraw his guilty plea in a longrunning prison corruption case, saying he is innocent, requesting a jury trial. Friday, December 9 Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn, who chairs the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, says state agencies should be prepared to operate “efficiently and with potentially (fewer) dollars” in the coming fiscal year. Saturday, December 10 Donald Trump calls a recent CIA assessment of Russian hacking “ridiculous” and says he is “smart” and does not need daily intelligence briefings.

December 14 - 20, 2016 • jfp.ms

Sunday, December 11 More than 200 Mississippians stage a “Rally Against Hate” at the state capitol, demonstrating against Gov. Phil Bryant’s determination to appeal the anti-LGBT House Bill 1523 to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

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Monday, December 12 Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell announces that Congress will investigate a CIA assessment that Russia interfered in the November election on behalf of Donald Trump. Tuesday, December 13 Syrian and Russian governments agreed to a ceasefire with rebels in Aleppo after a vicious night of bombing and killings of civilians, including children. Get free daily news at jfpdaily.com.

Protecting Refugee Children by Arielle Dreher

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kech Garkouth could not read, write or speak English when she arrived in the United States. She had been on the move for years, moving from refugee camp to the next with her mother. Originally from South Sudan, Garkouth applied for refugee status in the U.S. and was lucky to be selected, and after a long application process, she left Kenya where she was staying at that time and came here in February 2009. Garkouth was 16 years old when she finally left her war-torn country, made unsafe by the constant conflict between Sudanese and South Sudanese fighting over natural resources and religious differences. South Sudan gained its independence in 2011, but the fighting continued even after Garkouth left, and she said there are still refugee camps in and around her home country. Garkouth was sent to Jackson for resettlement in the Unaccompanied Refugee Minor Program that Catholic Charities runs in the state. The Mississippi program was one of several programs established in the 1980s to address the needs of thousands of children in southeast Asia, primarily Vietnam at the time. It is one of 19 programs nationally that resettle refugee minors in the U.S. The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement funnels funds to states with unaccompanied minor refugee programs. Children at the program in Jackson

Courtesy Akech Garkouth

Wednesday, December 7 U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael T. Parker orders that two lawsuits over Mississippi’s mental-health system be combined. … Donald Trump nominates Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a reliable booster of the fossil-fuel industry and an outspoken critic of what he describes as the EPA’s “activist agenda,” to lead the EPA.

Nina Ghaffari (left) and Akech Garkouth (right) pose at the Emancipation Celebration on Wednesday, Dec. 7; both of them work for the Catholic Charities Unaccompanied Refugee Minor Program in Jackson, and Garkouth is a former refugee minor who went through the program.

are technically in the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services legal custody, but Catholic Charities maintains physical guardianship of the youth. The program helps refugee minors adapt to life in the U.S. with intensive tutoring and counseling services as well as providing the young people with living arrangements, either in group homes or therapeutic foster homes—both specifically for refugee youth. Students in the program receive English as a Second Language

courses as needed and are encouraged to enroll in educational programs, whether that be public school or other high-school equivalency degree programs. Garkouth went from arriving with a sign hanging around her neck that said “I can’t speak English,” an experience she said was humiliating, to mastering English and graduating from Callaway High School in 2013. She didn’t stop there, however, and worked her way through community college. She received her associate’s de-

More Headlines That Don’t Exist—But Should by Micah Smith

This year may be in its final weeks, but the hits just keep coming. It’s certainly still important to read and know what’s going on in our city and elsewhere in the world. But seeing as it’s almost Christmas, why not add a little wishful thinking to your news headlines?

Trump on S e c r e ta r y C h o i c e s : ‘ Ps y c h

M ayo r M c C h e e s e f o r M ayo r . c o m

to

Fill

Revealed as Fake New Cat Island

’ Russian Hackers

‘Let’s Be Nice

Mississippi

Uncover Plan for ‘Rogue One 2’

to Everyone’ Bill Boeing Donates Extra Replaces HB 1523 Planes to Needy Pilots

Acreage with Cats

H i ll a r y Clinton and Madonna

Announce Duet Album


“So there’s a statistic that kind of hit me in the face when I heard it: just by putting a kid into the back of a police car, that drops his likelihood of graduating high school by 50 percent, so we try to avoid at all if we can.” — Henry Upshaw, the Adams County Juvenile Detention Center administrator, on why detention alternatives are important

“I’ve always had issues or concerns rather with the environmental impact. I think at this point I am fairly satisfied with our ability to move forward without there being any real detriment to the environment.” — Mayor Tony Yarber on “One Lake” project

‘One Lake’ Supporters Banking on Federal Bill by Tim Summers Jr.

From Trauma to Success On Dec. 7, four refugee minors stood to receive plaques for their participation in the URM program. Their peers from around the world, foster parents and community advocates filled a Jackson meeting hall, decorated in rich winter blue with crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The crowd celebrated the four young adults who will be

The ‘One Lake’ plan to widen the Pearl River for development and flood control in the Jackson metro is part of the U.S. Congressional Water Resources Development Act of 2016.

with our ability to move forward without there being any real detriment to the environment,” Levee Board member and Mayor Tony Yarber said during a Dec. 9 interview. “The other side of that, though, is what it means to Jackson, and quite frankly at the end of the day if I do my job appropriately and (also) folks on (the Levee Board)

emancipated in the coming year. Mississippi’s refugee foster-care laws allows refugee minors to stay in the State’s custody until they turn 21 years old. Refugee youth face an array of different challenges when they come to this nation. Depending on their country of origin, unaccompanied minors often are not allowed to go back to live in their country of origin and receive their green cards through the program. Young people can eventually gain American citizenship if they desire, after they have had legal permanent residency in the U.S. for five years, which requires revoking citizenship of their home countries. Garkouth did this recently, and she is now an American citizen. Many of the refugee children are not orphans and leave family behind in their home countries. Garkouth started work-

whether we represent Jackson directly or Hinds County, it could really give Jackson the kind of a boost and shift that we need both economically and in making Jackson a destination place, so its got its opportunities.” Fed Approval Next Step Wealthy oil magnate John McGowan has pushed a lake development project for the Pearl for years. Now with its “One Lake” proposal, the Pearl River Vision Foundation, which McGowan started and steers, expects the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Vicksburg to return the feasibility and environmental impact study for the current project soon. The foundation will bring that study before the public for review in the next few months. Greg Raimondo, public affairs representative for the Vicksburg office of the Corps of Engineers, said the PRVF study to the next review stage—by the national office—at the same time that the PRVF has an independent engineering firm review the plan. After the Corps of Engineers approves the project, the public can review the plans during public meetings here in Jackson and downstream. Raimondo expects the process to take months at least. The project’s biggest hurdle is financial. The estimated costs for the project exceed $300 million, and for any federal funds to reach the project, the deputy secretary of the Army in charge of civil projects must approve the plan. U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, who sits on the Senate Committee on Environmental and Public Works, sent out a press release in September praising efforts to bring

ing as soon as she mastered English—and today she works at one of the URM group homes as a program specialist, helping the young people at home with homework, feeding them meals and offering support when needed. Garkouth sends some of her earnings back to her mother, who is living in a refugee camp in Uganda. Debra West, the URM Jackson program director, said the goal of the program is to get the minors to the point of self-sufficiency. One of the best rewards of the program is seeing former students come back to the program as foster parents or work at the group homes like Garkouth, she said. “I don’t really consider this a job, I consider it more of a calling,” West told the Jackson Free Press. West said her program is one of the smaller refugee minor programs in the

more ONE LAKE, see page 8

country, and they can take up to 40 young people at a time. Currently, 35 students are in the program from three different continents. The program, while rewarding work, does not come without challenges. Many refugee minors coming to the U.S. have high maturity levels, after exposure to traumatic events at young ages and coming into a more structured environment can be difficult, West said. Some of those young people leave the program at the age of 18. Garkouth says the kids she went through the URM program with and the children she works with now are some of the hardest-working people she knows. “I think we should value humanity in general,” Garkouth says. “Most people that come to America (as refugees) to have a better life and find a job.”

December 14 - 20, 2016 • jfp.ms

gree this summer from Hinds Community College and is now working on her bachelor’s degree in business administration at Mississippi College. “I was constantly struggling because I couldn’t read or write well,” Garkouth said. “It’s a matter of wanting something because it was something I wanted so that’s what really pushed me.”

marshlands where the Pearl meets the Gulf of Mexico. “I’ve always had issues, or concerns rather ,with the environmental impact. I think at this point I am fairly satisfied File Photo

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he “One Lake” flood-control/development project will move forward under a new U.S. president and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, members of the Rankin-Hinds Pearl River Flood and Drainage Control District say. The group of elected and appointed representatives from Pearl, Flowood and Jackson, known as the Levee Board, meets monthly in the Flowood City Hall. At the last meeting, members expressed confidence that federal legislation, known as the Water Resources Development Act of 2016, or WRDA, will pass in the next session. The legislation gives Congressional approval to the projects contained in it, including the One Lake project, but does not guarantee funding for it in the bill. Proponents of long-time plans to build a flood-control development along the Pearl River in the Jackson metro have long thought a Republican administration would be more likely to allow it to happen than a more green-focused president, such as Barack Obama. The lake plans, past and present, have been environmentally controversial both locally and down-stream as far as Louisiana. Level Board members consider the scaled-back “One Lake” plan to be smarter for the environment than earlier versions, however. The project proponents argue that the best plan for flood control is to move a weir (low dam) on the Pearl River south of Interstate 20 slightly to the southeast of the end of McDowell Road. This would allow the river, in times of high precipitation to widen and deepen to become a lake. Downstream interests worry about slowing the river’s flow, affecting the salinity of the water in the

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TALK | state Fighting for Women:

Workplace Rights, Paid Leave and Pay Gap by Arielle Dreher

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for legislation guaranteeing paid sick leave. At the summit, Gedmark said Mississippi does not have great protections for working parents or soon-to-be parents. For instance, women can be laid off for being pregnant or for potential pregnancy in workplaces with fewer than 15 people on the payroll, according to the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act. A lot of states have legally brought that threshold down for both the public and the

Elizabeth Gedmark (left), Charmaine Davis (middle) and Cassandra Welchlin (right) discussed women’s workplace rights, the pay gap and what is ahead for 2017 at the Women’s Economic Security Summit on Dec. 2.

private sectors Gedmark told the audience during a summit panel. “But Mississippi doesn’t have that,” she said. Advocating for Paid Leave Paid personal or sick leave time is also dependent on state laws and how federal regulations interact with those laws. Small businesses in Mississippi are subject to federal paid personal and major

December 14 - 20, 2016 • jfp.ms

ONE LAKE from page 7

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medical leave according to federal law. A new 2016 directive applies to certain government contractors to give their employees paid sick leave after President Barack Obama signed an executive order back in 2015. A 2016 study from the National Federation of Independent Business found that 73 percent of the small businesses they surveyed already offered paid sick leave in some form for their employees. The Family and Medical Leave Act Arielle Dreher

hild care, wages, domestic violence, pay equity and paid family and sick leave are at the top of the Mississippi Women’s Economic Security Initiative’s agenda for the upcoming legislative session. The group of community organizers, groups and nonprofits around the state will present one omnibus bill as well as a series of smaller legislative reform efforts in its second year of bringing women’s concerns to lawmakers. Cassandra Welchlin, the director of the Women’s Economic Security Initiative, said the Mississippi initiative is the first of its kind in the South. The policy-reform efforts are focused on improving life for the more than half of women and girls in Mississippi who live in poverty and need targeted policies to support them, she said. The 2016 Kids Count data from the Annie E. Casey Foundation show that 48 percent of children in Mississippi live in single-parent households; 36 percent of the state’s children live in households with parents who lack secure employment, the same data show. Census data show that 56 percent of all people in poverty in the state are women and girls. Welchlin said that Mississippi has one of the highest rates of single-mother headed households in the country. The Mississippi Women’s Economic Security Initiative hosted a policy summit on Dec. 2 at the King Edward Hotel to discuss national and state-level policy that could affect the lives of women living in poverty and single mothers in the state. Elizabeth Gedmark is an attorney at Nashville’s A Better Balance office, a New York-based nonprofit with offices around the country that represents families fighting

more projects to Mississippi. “This bipartisan legislation attempts to achieve all of these goals by clearing a backlog of critical projects,” Wicker said in the release. The Downstream Question Wrapped into the bill are other water projects that affect the Pearl River further downstream. Gulf Restoration Network’s Water Program Director Andrew Whitehurst pointed out that while the Corps could approve the One Lake project, slowing the Pearl River could undermine other projects included in the WRDA, including removing navigational locks from the lower Pearl River.

entitles certain employees in the public and private sector in the U.S. to take unpaid medical or family leave for pregnancy, a new child in the family or a serious health condition. FMLA applies to private employers with 50 or more employees who have worked in 20 or more work weeks as well as all public agencies in local, state of federal government. Eligible employees must have worked a year for an eligible employer and

“This project would allow Louisiana to remove structures that no longer work, making the river less fragmented to improve fish migration and make things easier for recreational boaters,” Whitehurst wrote. “The Pearl River’s threatened Gulf sturgeon population and other migratory fish species should benefit.” Whitehurst said the flow of sediment downriver is crucial to the ecological systems downstream, which the Ross Barnett Reservoir already hampers. “The wetland destruction, habitat loss, alterations to flow, evaporation and other downstream effects from a new lake are consistently downplayed when the lake promoters pitch this project,” Whitehurst wrote. The Pearl River brings more freshwater to estuaries at its lower end than all of the Pontchartrain basin rivers com-

at a location where the employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles. A recent Pew analysis shows that the United States is the only nation that does not require paid maternity leave on a list of 41 countries including mainly European and Western countries. President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for child-care reform would include six weeks of paid leave for new mothers, but he plans to fund that $2.5 billion additional annual expense by “reducing the $5.6 billion per year in improper payments (of unemployment insurance) or implementing the proposals included in the administration’s FY 2017 budget regarding program integrity.” Trump’s child-care reforms include making child-care costs tax-deductible, creating “child care savings accounts,” incentivizing employers to provide child care and provide six weeks of paid maternity leave for new mothers. Pushing paid sick leave has worked at a state level elsewhere, with bi-partisan support. In November, Washington state and Arizona both passed ballot initiatives raising the minimum wage and mandating paid sick leave for both the public and the private sector. Arizona’s initiative will entitle employees to one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked, with limits based on “the size of the employer.” The Mississippi Women’s Economic Security Initiative will ask state lawmakers to raise the minimum wage and consider similar paid sick-leave regulations for all Mississippi employers. Currently, state employees are entitled to a generous personalleave package. Mississippi law allots paid personal more WOMEN, see page 10

bined, Whitehurst said, including “Lake Borgne, the Rigolets, the Biloxi Marshes of St. Bernard Parish, the Hancock County marshes in Mississippi and the western Mississippi Sound,” which “all need the Pearl’s freshwater flow to help keep salinities moderate.” That moderation stabilizes the quickly-retreating marshland in Louisiana that depend on the moderating effects of the freshwater Pearl on the salt water of Heron Bar and Bayou Caddy. “Also having Mississippi spend $50 million to rebuild and protect the marshes at the Pearl River’s lowest end, while aiding an upriver project that would work to starve the same restoration of needed fresh water, reveals some confusion at the state level,” Whitehurst wrote on the organization’s website in October. See jfp.ms/pearlriver for past coverage of lake proposals.


December 14 -20, 2016 • jfp.ms

YOUR FUTURE IS BRIGHTER AT MC.

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TALK | city

Jackson Asks State to Pitch In for Capital City by Tim Summers, Jr.

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WOMEN from page 8 December 14 - 20, 2016 • jfp.ms

and major medical leave to Mississippians employed by the state, depending on how many hours they have worked or accumulated over time. Those rules do not apply to the private sector in the state; however, some federal regulations might apply to private employers in the state. Paid sick leave would especially help single mothers who could have to make the choice between sending their sick children to school or staying home and losing pay— or at some extremes, potentially losing their jobs, Gedmark said. Charmaine Davis, the southeast administrator of the Women’s Bureau in the 10

State to fund improvements to the crum- and vote on all the items, with the caveat discussion over proposals to increase gas bling infrastructure that supports State- that it could return to re-approve any items taxes in the state. At issue for the council is whether increased state gas taxes in Jackson owned buildings. In essence, the City wants later on before 2017 legislative deadlines. would benefit Jacksonians. the State to pay some form of compensa “I am of the position … that tion for the property that will forever we should not support the raising of be off the tax rolls due to the exempthe gasoline tax without having an tion of state property from taxes. adequate diversion rate for munici The request comes a year after palities and counties where the gas the Legislature let a bill die in conwas pumped,” Ward 4 Councilman ference that was to create a special De’Keither Stamps said. “And if (the “capitol complex district,” allotting a state legislators) are going to ask us portion of the City’s tax revenue to to tote the water for this endeavor, a special board that would oversee then we push back and say we want the funds. (Last-minute additions adequate diversion rate, because I to the bill included a special judicial don’t want them to raise the gasoline district, necessitating an appointed tax, and then we have to go beg for judge for downtown Jackson.) The it. We want some of that money to proposed commission would have come back to the capital city. The operated in a similar way to the One way it is presently written, the maPercent Sales Tax Commission that jority of the tax leaves the city.” currently administers certain infra The Mississippi Department structure projects in Jackson, which of Revenue’s website lists the curthe Legislature also created. rent gas tax for the state at 18 cents It was during the recent ina gallon for all motor fuel and an frastructure discussion that Ward additional 4 cents for “environmen2 Councilman Melvin Priester Jr. tal protection.” The tax is then abasked if the council had to have all sorbed into the State tax system, and its members present to vote on it. a derivative amount of those funds “Yes, if the Senate rules remain eventually make it back to the City. the same for next year, we need sev Stamps wanted the City to en votes,” Synarus Green, the City’s Mayor Tony Yarber and the Jackson City Council demand a larger share of the money director of policy and intergovern- sent a message to the State of Mississippi that it brought into the state for the gas tax, mental affairs, told the council. He needs to bear some of the burden for increasing diverting the funds before they hit explained that issues like public-pri- infrastructure costs in the capital city. the state coffers. He said that approvate partnerships need unanimous priate diversion rates for municipaliapproval from all council members, ties should be the priority for the City. and that it depended on whether the rules Increased Gas Tax Share? After the infrastructure payment “I think that there is enough statewide remained the same for the next year. The city council decided to go ahead discussion, the council dovetailed into a support, looking at everybody’s budImani Khayyam

he City of Jackson has dual identities: as the state capital and as the largest city in Mississippi. When the Jackson City Council passed its legislative agenda at the last regular meeting on Nov. 29, the members sent a message to the state Legislature that emphasized the need for the State’s investment in its capital city. Gov. Phil Bryant appeared to set the tone for increased investment in Jackson in his executive budget proposal, presented to the Legislature in November. Jackson occupies one paragraph in the 25-page document. “Jackson’s struggles are not a competitive advantage for neighboring jurisdictions; they are a cause for concern for the entire metro area,” Gov. Phil Bryant states. “But nor are Jackson’s problems merely the byproduct of misperceptions. The challenges Jackson has with infrastructure and cost containment are real. Tax-exempt properties owned by state government, hospitals, colleges and churches keep increasing their footprint in Jackson. Even a well-managed city would struggle under infrastructure and service demands. City leaders and state leaders must work on a nonpartisan solution.” Council members applauded the sentiment they interpreted from the governor’s budget proposal as they discussed the requests they’ll make in 2017. Here are the key items. Improving Infrastructure The council passed an initiative requesting an annual contribution from the

U.S. Department of Labor, said the country’s labor laws were designed to accommodate the largely male work force of the 1950s. Today’s work force, however, is almost 50 percent female, Davis said. Closing the Pay Gap Women earn up to 83 cents per one dollar a man makes in the United States, but that varies vastly depending on the field, U.S. Bureau of Labor data show. In the legal field, for instance, women make 55 percent of what their male counterparts earn nationally. The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 made it easier to legally challenge unequal pay under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 but did not mandate equal pay. Advocates at the summit said work is

needed at state and local levels to ensure that women have fair pay and sick leave. Davis worked on the “ban the box” campaign in Atlanta, Ga., which sought to eliminate the question on employment applications asking a person’s previous experience with the penal system, thus making it harder to get hired. In Atlanta, the campaign to ban the box on City of Atlanta employment applications succeeded, and those reforms made their way to the governor’s desk back in 2014. After Georgia’s governor signed an executive order banning the box on state-agency job applications, Davis said, President Obama signed a similar executive order in 2015, banning the box on federal government employment applications.

“There’s an important role that we as women in the South play; we set the bar on the federal level—they can look and say (hypothetically) in Mississippi they are actually passing an Equal Pay Act,” Davis said. “We in the South can shame the federal government into doing something.” Welchlin said that because half of Mississippi’s work force consists of women, the state needs to help those workers so they can continue to stay employed and provide for their families. “We want to be able to provide supports to those women in regards to their family so they can get out of poverty,” Welchlin told the Jackson Free Press. Email state reporter Arielle Dreher at arielle@jacksonfreepress.com.


TALK | city

State Offices to Downtown? The city council will also ask the Legislature to reconsider the way that the growth of the state government itself is being encouraged in farflung parts of the Jackson metro area, and how the decisions the Legislature and state departments make seem to push people away from the center of the capital out toward the outlying communities. “The growth of the state, the way the master plan dictates the growth, has set us back,” Stamps said, pointing out that people have to go to Clinton to pay their taxes and to Madison for a birth certificate. “You should be able to handle all of your federal and state business in the capital in a reasonable walking distance. It really needs to be rethought for what is best,” he said. The council passed the resolution unanimously, painting Jackson’s economic perspective on infrastructure. “Annually, there is a need to service more than 720 lane miles of paved road that encompasses and/or connects the 40 or more state-owned properties within Central Mississippi’s metropolitan area at a cost of roughly $150,000 per lane mile,” the resolution states, which means that if each lane-mile were redone each year, it could cost the city $180 million. The City also estimated that 240 lane miles connect those same State buildings that cost $500 a foot, or $2.64 million per mile, for a total of $62.4 million. Together so far, the City calculates that the state owes it $243.04 million per year for maintenance. The State does not pay that, of course, but the City proposed with

another, separate resolution that the State dish out annually for the City directly in lieu of the taxes that those 40-plus buildings would incur if they were not exempt. Finally, the City estimates that the 10 arterial bridges cost $23 million a year, based on Mississippi Department of Transportation numbers provided in the resolution. That brings the total bill for the State to $263.04 million annually to the City of Jackson if it was to repair all the roads and bridges that connect the state buildings in the City. All these numbers were in the council’s agenda packet from Nov. 29, and available online. “Routine maintenance programs are crippled by diminishing funds which then severely hampers the ability to adequately address infrastructure degradation issues associated with properties owned by the State of Mississippi,” the resolution states. Barrett-Simon said Jackson is essential to the outlying communities, something that the Legislature should keep in mind. “As we have said before, Jackson is the goose that lays the golden egg,” Barrett-Simon said. “And without all the amenities that we provide, I don’t think that all of these bedroom communities would be as successful as they are...So I think this is timely,” Barrett-Simon said.

‘Jackson is the goose that lays the golden egg.’

Maintaining MAEP The City of Jackson and its property owners need help funding the Jackson Public Schools district, and the city council wants the state to pick up some of the slack. In light of discussion about a change to the formula on the state level, Ward 4 Councilman De’Keither Stamps said that the council should push back against efforts to hold back Jackson’s students. “The MAEP formula has not been funded for some time, slighting the students of Jackson by a little over 100 million (dollars) every year,” Stamps said. The council passed the measure unanimously. Email city reporter Tim Summers Jr. at tim@jacksonfreepress.com and follow him on Twitter at @tims_alive for breaking news. Read more local news at jfp.ms/localnews. Comment on this story at jfp.ms.

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December 14 - 20, 2016 • jfp.ms

get,” Stamps told the council and mayor. “I agree with you, 150 percent,” Mayor Tony Yarber said. “We will see (the gas tax) go up, and MDOT will be driving the ship, and the city won’t see a bit of it.” Ward 7 Councilwoman Margaret Barrett-Simon said that this and a larger cut of the sales tax revenue were integral to the Mississippi Municipal League’s legislative agenda for this year. The MML is a nonprofit group of city leaders from around the state who meet to discuss and lobby for issues they have in common. She said she believed the initiative from the City would show their collective support. Green said during the meeting that he thought the resolutions send a clear message.

11


‘What Are Your Plans for Me, Mr. Trump?’

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ig Roscoe: “Little Mama Roscoe and I have big plans to celebrate the remaining days of 2016 at Clubb Chicken Wing. Despite the numerous and unfortunate executions of poor people, law enforcement, former NFL football players, etc., the hard-working Clubb Chicken Wing staff will continue to serve its loyal customers with a special holiday event called ‘The Eight Days of Christmas Hot Wing Happy Hour for World Peace and Sanity.’ “On day one, Congressman Smokey ‘Robinson’ McBride will host a ‘Unity in the Community’ gathering, Christmas Hot Wing Happy Hour and disco. “On day two, members from the Greater Ghetto Science Kwanzaa Committee will host a ‘Community Self Determination, Collective Work and Responsibility, and Cooperative Economics’ Hot Wing Happy Hour. The Kwanzaa Committee invites all President-elect Trump supporters to attend. “On day three, Inspector ‘Beat Down’ Lipscomb, neighborhood security specialist, will host a ‘New Era in Self Defense: Staying Safe in Desperate and Uncertain Times’ Hot Wing Happy Hour and seminar. “On day four, The Ghetto Science Repertory Theatre Group will perform during the Hot Wing Happy Hour a new play titled ‘What Are Your Plans for Me, Mr. Trump?’ Chief Crazy Brother of Jojo’s Discount Dollar Store will portray Dr. Ben Carson as ‘The Butler.’ “On days five through seven, Little Momma Roscoe will host an International Hot Wing Happy Hour. “On day eight, The Underemployed Dee-Jays and mixologist Brother Hustle will host the ‘Sippin’ on Gin and Juicy Juice New Years Party 2017.’ “Happy holidays, everyone.”

‘Ridiculous’

December 14 - 20, 2016 • jfp.ms

“I think it’s ridiculous. I think it’s just another excuse. I don’t believe it.” —Donald Trump’s reaction to allegations that Russia interfered with the presidential election in order to help him win the presidency.

Why it Stinks: In the midst of reports that the CIA confirmed Russian hackers interfered with the U.S. presidential election, Presidentelect Donald Trump called the assertion “ridiculous” despite the fact that a bipartisan coalition of U.S. senators said on Dec. 12 that they will investigate the CIA assessment that shows Russia interfered with the election. Trump’s refusal to be concerned about the potential of a 12 foreign power trying to influence U.S. elections is stunning.

Data Needed to Change Young People’s Lives

I

n order to solve a problem, you have to understand it fully. Just ask the state of Georgia, which used data to discover that detention wasn’t working for its young people. More than half who went to a juvenile-detention center in the state offended again, and either found themselves back in juvy or in prison if they had turned 18 years old. In short, juvenile detention was not only pricey in Georgia—close to $90,000 per child per year—but the data show it didn’t work to deter youth from continuing to commit crimes. While advocates knew this, it took lawmakers a while to take notice, but once they did, they overhauled the state’s juvenile-justice laws, leading to fewer kids behind bars and instead getting needed therapy or counseling, as well as cost savings for the state. Juvenile detention in Mississippi is also much more costly than alternatives, and counties that have figured this out, like Adams, invest in other programs to save money. The majority of counties in this state, however, do not have alternatives or their own detention centers, so they waste a lot of their dollars transporting kids to and from the detention center they contract with, as well as paying that county to take care of them. If counties around the state looked at investing in alternatives to detention, they would save money in the long run. But like Georgia, saving money takes investment—and reinvestment—at the front of reform movements. Georgia’s General Assembly allocated additional money to implement reforms in 2013 as well as reinvested the money they would save

from one of their reforms: not locking up kids for status offenses like being truant or running away. The investment and reinvestment of state dollars ultimately mean less kids in Georgia are locked up, and those kids who need counseling or therapy— not detention—have the opportunity to get it. Georgia is a success story due to data collection. They had the information right in front of them, and while that data did not look good, it provided a road map and a way to make conditions better for kids across the state. Data and dollar signs are the keys to reform, and we’re missing both in Mississippi. Juveniledetention facilities in the state are run by counties, not the State, which means that data are sparse and in some cases not there (see any Division of Youth Services annual report). With the kids locked up in each county’s care, the state relinquishes responsibility for its own children. The licensing act passed last legislative session was a necessary first step, but if that is all the state is willing to do to keep kids from entering the justice system, it is simply not enough. We cannot afford to lose another generation of Mississippians, primarily African Americans referred to youth courts around the state, to the incarceration system. Reform is going to take time, more money and data. The tools are there; the exemplary models are there. Look to Georgia; look to Seattle, Wash.; look around. Even if comprehensive reform is years down the road, collecting data is vital to making the right policy choices. Kids’ lives depend on it.

Email letters and opinion to letters@jacksonfreepress.com, fax to 601-510-9019 or mail to 125 South Congress St., Suite 1324, Jackson, Mississippi 39201. Include daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, as well as factchecked.


Leslie McLemore II

EDITORIAL Assistant Editor Amber Helsel Reporters Arielle Dreher,Tim Summers Jr. Education Reporting Fellow Sierra Mannie JFP Daily Editor Dustin Cardon Music Editor Micah Smith Events Listings Editor Tyler Edwards Writers Richard Coupe, Bryan Flynn, Shelby Scott Harris, Mike McDonald, Greg Pigott, Julie Skipper Consulting Editor JoAnne Prichard Morris ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY Art Director Kristin Brenemen Advertising Designer Zilpha Young Staff Photographer Imani Khayyam ADVERTISING SALES Advertising Director Kimberly Griffin Sales and Marketing Consultants Myron Cathey, Roberta Wilkerson Sales Assistant Mary Osborne BUSINESS AND OPERATIONS Distribution Manager Richard Laswell Distribution Raymond Carmeans, Clint Dear, Michael McDonald, Ruby Parks Assistant to the CEO Inga-Lill Sjostrom Operations Consultant David Joseph ONLINE Web Editor Dustin Cardon Web Designer Montroe Headd CONTACT US: Letters letters@jacksonfreepress.com Editorial editor@jacksonfreepress.com Queries submissions@jacksonfreepress.com Listings events@jacksonfreepress.com Advertising ads@jacksonfreepress.com Publisher todd@jacksonfreepress.com News tips news@jacksonfreepress.com Fashion style@jacksonfreepress.com Jackson Free Press 125 South Congress Street, Suite 1324 Jackson, Mississippi 39201 Editorial (601) 362-6121 Sales (601) 362-6121 Fax (601) 510-9019 Daily updates at jacksonfreepress.com

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T

he presidential election, which featured “The Corrupt Woman” v. “The Orange Racist,” dominated our TV airways. Because of social media and the 24-hour news cycle, a person would’ve had to reside in a “Silence of Lambs” basement while applying an endless supply of lotion to their skin to ignore the 2016 presidential race, a race mired by name calling, baseless accusations and hyper partisanship. By the time Election Day rolled around, everyone was Fannie Lou sick and tired, ready to see what four years under a madame president would be like. Then America, in unity for the first time during the election cycle, uttered “I’ll be damned” after Donald Trump became the president elect. The next day, every “expert,” both liberal and conservative, who predicted a Clinton blowout proceeded to Monday morning quarterback, citing multiple factors as to why Trump emerged victorious over Clinton. A new theory as to why she lost has now emerged: Russian cyber attacks were meant to alter the results of the election. This theory will serve as a shiny new penny for our 24-hour news cycle up until the day of Trump’s inauguration. The notion that Russia, which a man who chooses to ride horseback while shirtless leads, suppressed the American vote is both embarrassing and frightening. Set aside the trendy Russian hacker theory for a moment and quickly contemplate other less trendy or sexy factors as to why Clinton lost the election. Take the numbers 28,574 vs. 224. The large number represents the number of laws state legislatures passed in 2014 versus the number of laws federal lawmakers passed in 2014. In 2009, Republicans controlled both chambers in just 14 state legislatures. Six years later, they had total control in more than double that number. Compare that to the Democrats, who in 2009, had full control in 27 state legislatures; by 2015 that number was down to just 11. Who is to blame for this GOP revolution? President Obama, of course. His emergence created both fear and complacency. Complacency spawned extremely low voter turnout among Democrats, especially when Obama wasn’t on the ballot. Seemingly, Democratic turnout relies on conjuring up an ebullient mindset every time the voting booth is open. This mindset is asinine and only works when a once-

a-generation politician runs for president. The fear factor, on the other hand, seemingly originated from actual fear mongering. For some, opposing Obama was motivated not by politics, but by prejudice. Those who sought limelight and upward political mobility based on their opposition of him seemingly embraced certain prejudices surrounding our first black president. President Obama has been painted as a tyrannical terrorist sympathizer who wants to take away our guns, freedom, heterosexuality and Christmas. Unfortunately, enough Americans believed in this fact-less, unsubstantial propaganda machine that those in the “Obama opposition” business created. This fear, along with Democratic complacency, led to Republicans kicking ass Chuck Norrisstyle, which, in turn, led to laws that would make the prejudiced ghost of Ronald Reagan proud. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Yoda once stated, “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” In the case of the GOP revolution, “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to victory.” Ever since President Obama’s rise to power, a tsunami of state voter laws have passed, implementing voter-identification laws, and shortening or even wiping away early voting and same-day registration. The timing of these draconian laws, which became suspiciously “imperative” right after Obama’s election, suggest sinister efforts to deny access to voting booths by pushing a so-called war against voter fraud. But data overwhelmingly show that voter disenfranchisement severely outweighs any potential voter fraud. Unfortunately, facts, along with Prince, Muhammad Ali and Arnold Palmer, passed away in 2016. Fake news and Internet comment sections have now replaced them. To take a page from my 45th President, Frank Underwood: Russian hackers are the McMansion in Sarasota that starts falling apart after 10 years. State-sanctioned voter suppression is the old stone building that stands for centuries. Scary as this may sound, foreign Russian influence doesn’t hold a candle to home-cooked voter suppression. Leslie McLemore II, a Jackson native, is now in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of Jackson State University, North Carolina Central University School of Law and American University Washington College of Law.

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Russia Hackers Pale Beside Domestic Voter Suppression

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Trip BUrns / File Photo

The Hinds County Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center has been the subject of lawsuits, reforms and face-lifts in its struggle to address the roots of juvenile deliquency and crime.

‘Not a Dungeon’

The Evolving Approach to Juvenile Detention by Tim Summers Jr., Sierra Mannie and Arielle Dreher

A

December 14 - 20, 2016 • jfp.ms

cross the pod, from inside the darkness of a cell, two shining circles stared out: the still and steady eyes of a black boy, locked up before he is even a man. His cell is on the lower floor of the pod, one of four in Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center. Each pod holds 32 kids in individual cells. Johnnie McDaniels, the executive director of the Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center, pointed to the chainlink fence of the top floor, sections of which he ordered covered in Plexiglas. The children leapt from the stairs to the outside of the barrier, McDaniels said, hanging on and climbing around the threesided room to the frustration of the detention-center staff. After all, they are kids, not adults, and Henley-Young is not a jail. Holding cells built 20 years ago now sit unused, with yellow and green covering the drab gray paint of yesteryear. The visitation room, a movie-set telephone-throughthe-glass set-up, is vacant. Now children meet with their parents in an activity room, under a mural that the kids painted. It feels like a daycare run in an old jail. 16 Thanks to a federal court order, the

building reflects steps by leaders like McDaniels to ensure the facility is not merely a waiting room for adult prison or jail. Toward the end of the tour, McDaniels put his hands up and, with a smile, summed up how far Henley-Young has come. “Not. A. Dungeon,” McDaniels said, laughing in the lobby, his voice echoing in the empty lobby. If it isn’t one now, it certainly used to be. Just as the facility has changed in appearance, so has the approach of some state detention directors to juvenile justice. Research shows that traditional detention is simply not working as a deterrent to youth crime—and can actually increase it. In 2015, 10,187 young people from age 7 to 18 were referred to a youth court for a delinquent act. The agencies and people capable of referring these kids include law enforcement, family, schools, socials services, medical or mental professionals and Department of Youth Services or court representative. The total number of referrals to youth court for the entire state was 18,674. Some of the children referred to the youth court returned more than once, re-

sulting in 13,388 cases that passed before a youth court or similar set-up in Mississippi during 2015, annual reports from the Division of Youth Services in the Department of Human Services show. The state’s numbers have dropped significantly since 2008, the annual reports show. In 2008, more than 18,500 youth were referred to youth court—today that number is closer to 10,000. The data are not absolute, however, and in reports from 2013-2015, hundreds of youth are “miscoded,” meaning they weren’t properly recorded and so were not counted. The racial disparities in Mississippi’s juvenile-detention system are vast and have not changed much in almost a decade. Since 2008, more than 60 percent of children referred to youth court for delinquent acts are African American. That percentage remains the same today. Administrators, county and specialinterest groups have chipped away at antiquated practices to make room for rehabilitation and therapy. These efforts attempt to address the core issues that culminate in youth crime, delinquency and recidivism, in Hinds County and across Mississippi.

‘Prison-like Environment’

Several interest groups filed a lawsuit in 2012 on behalf of unnamed juvenile offenders who spent time in Henley-Young, citing poor conditions in the facility. Disability Mississippi and the Southern Poverty Law Center settled with the county in an agreement known as a federal consent decree, which included 71 points of improvement that the administration had to meet within four years. “That’s one of the things that I emphasize as a director here, that Southern Poverty (Law Center) and others did a good thing by pointing out some issues, but I think it’s the responsibility of directors in places that are going to have the facilities to provide those resources,” McDaniels said. The court recently approved extending the agreement because the county still needs to improve its practices in mentalhealth care, nutrition, and family support and interaction. The federal judge assigned monitor Leonard Dixon, who is based in Missouri, to review and report on the facility’s progress. Dixon submits regular reports to the court, ranking Henley-Young on a four-


gram is actually certified, so I actually get money back,” McDaniels said, adding that providing higher-quality meals has made the facility $26,000 so far since he took over. “We are trying to get to an A.” “This was a big thing, to make sure that the kitchen was cleaned,” he said. Room to Improve

McDaniels readily admits the facility and its operations both still need improvement. For instance, although Jackson Public Schools runs the Henley-Young school, providing a comparable education to what the children left when detained poses a constant problem. Detaining children contributes to their inevitable inability to keep up with their peers when they are released. This delay increases chances the child will continue to cycle in and out of the facility. “Your education has to maintain itself,” McDaniels said. “You can’t come from a regular school setting and come into a detention-school setting and somehow miraculously you are going to keep up to the degree that you can leave here after 90 days and keep going. You are probably going to be behind, and then you are going to end up quitting, and that is the last thing you want a kid to do.” Coming soon are three full-time case managers, set to occupy offices directly adjacent to the pods. McDaniels said the case managers will follow the children through the juvenile-justice system, assisting with mental-health or substance-abuse therapy, satisfying the consent decree. The county recently approved an influx of money, a budget shift of $190,000, to set up a full-time mental-health staff, moving the funds from the youth court, for one year. McDaniels said the new case managers will help the two workers they have on staff now, as well as move the center closer to consent-decree compliance. While the county did shift funds, the move from another department—in this case the youth court—during tightening government budgets makes asking for more financial resources difficult. This year McDaniels had the consent decree and a federal order behind him, but a new U.S. president means uncertainty over whether the center can count on federal support, whether legal or through grants. “In this age of austerity that not only engulfs Mississippi but across the county, the commitment to providing social services just has not been on the radar,” McDaniels said. “The answer to that is no, the funding is not always there.” Facing tighter budgets every year, Henley-Young may need to look to other programs in the state for solutions, starting with the country next door.

December 14 - 20, 2016 • jfp.ms

Imani Khayyam

step scale from non-compliance to substan- dren housed in Henley-Young and for how a booking area not unlike those found in long. Dixon’s report stated that the facility county jails. A wide, deep desk sits facing a tial compliance. “The facility is not pleasing in ap- did not provide enough staff to care for ring of holding cells, which McDaniels and pearance and has a dungeon-like feeling,” the population of children, much less the Burnside said are now never used. Dixon wrote in 2012. “Henley-Young’s maximum capacity of 84, when the federal When admitting the children, Henprison-like environment works against its court first approved the consent decree. To- ley-Young staffers ask if they require health programming, treatment, and rehabilita- day, the facility has a limit of 32 children, care, administer them mental-health evalutive objectives due to its hard, sterile and matched to the level of funding available. ations and lead them back to begin the oridepressing atmosphere.” Before, according to Dixon’s reports, the entation process. The children sit down at In an Oct. 3 interview, Dixon said the detention officers would be stretched thin, little cubicles next to the booking desk, filldetention center’s purpose is widely misun- leaving some children locked up in their ing out the survey in an officer’s presence. derstood. “I think one of the problems is cells for hours because the staff could not If any of the children score high that, not just in Henley-Young, is we have control them in such large numbers. enough on the mental assessment—itself tried in this country to ‘adultify’ the juve- Now, McDaniels said, the numbers an improvement since early monitor’s nile-justice system,” Dixon said. “Our job barely reach the 30s on a daily basis. reports—to need services, Henley-Young in juvenile justice is more complicated than Henley-Young also upgraded its tech- staffers separate them from the group for adult detention.” nology, installing a full-facility surveillance constant observation until they can get “This is a juvenile-justice system, not a system. Eddie Burnside, director of opera- mental-health attention. In general, kids baby adult system,” Dixon said. take the 15-minute test seri He said kids tend to be angriously, Burnside said, because er than adults, and more impulsive. they know a high score means Their decision-making, muddied more staff attention, and possiby immaturity and growth-related bly a longer stay, which most in issues, lacks the understanding of his experience want to avoid. consequences most adults have. “Slowly but surely, “That’s why you spend a lot we are moving away from a of time with them, because they punishment-type system here, are not mature enough to underbut that is another battle for stand the consequences of their another day,” McDaniels said, behavior,” Dixon said. adding that the consent de “That doesn’t mean that there cree allows him and his staff are not consequences for their beto apply national standards to havior. There’s a difference.” Henley-Young. Altering the approach to chil For instance, the county dren in jail involves change from built Henley-Young with a decision-makers who prefer detenjail-style visitation room, but tion. “The community has to say now the children meet with that we are going to treat our kids their parents in the main acas people, that we don’t see them as tivity room, where the child little adults,” Dixon said. and parent can touch and talk. Problems outside the reach of Such important and soothing the justice system, such as family aspects contribute to healthy issues, Dixon said, can lead parrehabilitation, he said. ents, teachers and others to sup Some physical facility port detention over rehabilitation aspects are unavoidable. Each as a quick, punitive fix to a long The cells in Henley-Young are similar to the ones in the tiny cell has bare cinder-block adult county jail in Raymond. and complicated problem. It isn’t. walls with a miniscule window “The first thing that happens and a matching mini-bed. is, we say let’s lock them up, that’s going to tions at Henley-Young, explained that the Twin concrete blocks jut out from the wall addition of digital surveillance adds another and together form a rudimentary desk. An resolve the issue,” Dixon said. “But if that’s going to resolve the issue, layer of safety. Now, the nerve center of the adult male’s body fills the cell, similar to the facility includes 54 cameras in a large flat- adult county jail in Raymond. shouldn’t we have less kids in detention?” screens showing every room. McDaniels’ solution to keep the chil‘Trying to Get to an A’ “This is like the brains of the facility,” dren out of the cells is a long day full of Now, four years and several directors Burnside said. “Wherever we have kids activities. On the day of the tour, a deluge later, McDaniels walks through the deten- present, (the worker) can pull it up and see of rain interrupts the play outside on the tion center pointing to improvements, like them.” basketball court. McDaniels said he asked the paint. In his Jan. 27, 2016, report, Dix- The facility’s administrators use the the Hinds County Board of Supervisors on listed the facility as in non-compliance intercoms to speak directly to the area they for a cover for the court at a recent update with 26 out of the 71 points, an improve- wish, and the radios to communicate with meeting. He is hopeful he can secure more ment over previous years. detention officers throughout the facility. funding for the facility in upcoming years. The 71 points cover every aspect of On this day, the cameras showed children Poor nutrition is a common problem Henley-Young, from aesthetics to when to outside doing pushups on the basketball the children bring to detention. McDaniels handcuff the children. court, some in an activity room in the cen- touts the “B” rating the kitchen received, One of the most important changes ter of the facility and several empty rooms. adding that the children receive free meals since McDaniels took over is the court- The cameras follow the children ev- and snacks while there. ordered reduction in the number of chil- erywhere, starting from their admittance in “Our breakfast, lunch and dinner pro-

more DETENTION, see page 18 17


DETENTION from page 17 Rankin ‘Wraparound’

December 14 - 20, 2016 • jfp.ms

On a single day in July, only two of the 13 kids inside were from Adams County, a testament to the county’s work to keep kids out of detention and in their communities instead. The work comes from what the juvenile-detention center’s administrator Henry Upshaw calls “synergy” among his staff, the youth court led by Judge Walt Brown and local law enforcement officials. The youth court there uses alternatives to detention from electronic monitoring to drug courts to community service to keep kids out of detention as much as possible, an effort both Brown and Upshaw support in the southwest Mississippi county. Arielle Dreher

If it weren’t for the tall fences, you could mistake the Rankin County Youth Detention Center for one of the newer schools in Madison County, like Ridgeland High School and its architectural copy-cat, the high school in Gluckstadt. Inside, the center’s administrative offices are modern and polished, but the stone floors leading to where it detains kids are an unfriendly gray. Laminated posters on the blue walls remind the children of the center’s expectations for behavior. Rankin County has been using this building since September 2011; the original center in Pearl suffered from structural issues. Before it constructed its first detention center, the county shipped children to Lauderdale County. “The county was growing rapidly at the time, and the county thought it best to have a facility where its children could be housed locally, and the kids could be near their parents and their school systems, and also have the ability where they could have their probation officers and counselors and court staff nearby,” Youth Court Judge Thomas Broome said at the center. In this Pelahatchie building, Broome works out of the youth court attached to the actual detention center. A Mississippi State alumnus, Broome keeps a Bully the Bulldog mask beneath his bench and tries to keep kids out of youth detention as much as possible by helping provide them with mental-health services. Still, for those kids in need of detention, he said, it’s beneficial to have the facilities near their homes. “It’s important that the family stays involved with the child and visits on a regular basis, and being close in the community helps that because transportation is often an issue for some of these folks,” Broome said. The local facility also fosters community engagement. “It allows for the community to serve as a wraparound by being involved with the children,” he said, adding that community members can praise the children for positive behavior they observe. “If you have a kid who’s connected with the place they’re from, then it gives them better grounding so they don’t want to do anything to cause harm to themselves or cause harm to the community,” he said. The facility gets no money from the State, save from the Department of Education. The Rankin County Board of Supervisors provides the primary funding stream— meaning the county’s taxpayers foot the bill. But Rankin County has the second highest 18 per-capita income in Mississippi, 2010

census data show, and the investment in the youth detention center pays off. It partners with REACH Mississippi, which also funds facility-wide PBIS program—a “positive behavior interventions and supports” systems that focus on rewarding successes over punishing over mistakes. That alliance contributes to Rankin County’s status as a model detention center in the state, with a low rate of recidivism, or re-offending. For Henley-Young, setting up such a program faces the same obstacle as other parts of the facility: a lack of consistent leadership. Three detention-school principals served at Henley-Young in the last four

Henry Upshaw, the Adams County Juvenile Detention Center administrator, said that implementing the risk assesment in his county helped change the culture for law enforcement and probation officers as well as the court itself.

years, a January report states. Dixon retained Carol Cramer, an expert in education in youth detention, to study the center. She said in a report that Jackson Public Schools should install a permanent administrator. “The constant change in leadership in the school program has had a negative impact on the ability of the school program to make progress on the recommendations in the compliance reports or toward best in general,” Cramer wrote. “Constantly changing leadership means the administration and staff is always having to adjust to a new leadership style and philosophy and never getting to address the issues at hand, i.e. the compliance requirements or the issues that are keeping the school program from excelling.” Avoiding Police Cars

The crepe myrtles surrounding the Adams County juvenile-justice building were in full bloom last summer, a lasting remnant of community-service work that the youth court judge there assigned to kids instead of locking them up inside it.

“So there’s a statistic that kind of hit me in the face when I heard it: just by putting a kid into the back of a police car, that drops his likelihood of graduating high school by 50 percent, so we try to avoid at all if we can,” Upshaw said. Electronic monitoring, which means using thick ankle bracelets to track and monitor a kid’s whereabouts, is largely to thank for the county’s major drop in detaining kids in the past few years. On July 12, Upshaw listed eight kids from Adams County who wore ankle bracelets, monitored electronically. Upshaw can open the monitoring phone app and can scroll through the list of names of kids with bracelets. Once he clicks on a name, he can see their current location and every morning when he gets in to work, he can print out their path from the day before. Both Brown and Upshaw admitted that the kids do not like the ankle bracelets. The court can use bracelets on a scale, what Upshaw calls “graduated sanctions.” The lowest level, Upshaw said, is when he puts the bracelet on the kid but does not activate it, so it is not actually doing anything. The

next levels range from tracking to house arrest. Judge Brown will use electronic monitoring as both an alternative to detention before and after a kid is picked up. Brown also assigns community service regularly as a punishment, if a child is found guilty. The Adams County Juvenile Detention Center remains open because, Judge Brown said, his predecessor Judge John Hudson showed the county how much money it would save keeping the juveniledetention center open. It is costly to send kids across the state to another county like many counties around the state do. Not all counties in the state have a juvenile-detention facility, and consequently must send their kids sentenced to secure detention to one of the state’s other juvenile detention centers. For example, Lee County Juvenile Detention Center serves 21 counties in the state, besides housing their children, their administrator Lt. Ronnie Partlow said during a phone interview. Adams County charges other counties around $110 per day to hold a child in secure detention, not including costs for counties to send their kids to Adams County, back for their court hearing, and then back again (if found guilty of something that warrants detention). “Alternatives to detention save money whether you’re housing them in your county or whether you’re transporting them to another county,” Upshaw said. “The pressure was on to close down the center, but when we went through and crunched some numbers, and we showed them how much it was going to cost to transport a child three times, (that changed).” Part of what Upshaw believes is different about his staff and the system in Adams County is that everyone cares. “If the state has to make me care about the kids, I’m in the wrong business,” Upshaw said. “Nobody from the state should have to make me come and care about these kids; I care about these kids, whether their rights are being violated or not.” Similarly, Judge Brown found himself down at the courthouse on a Saturday during his first week on the bench, checking on a young man who had shown suicidal tendencies. “That’s my biggest fear,” he said. In juvenile detention, vigilance is vital. Upshaw told stories of getting notifications from his phone app that “Joe” was out of his zone. Often, Upshaw either calls Joe through his ankle bracelet and speaks to him that way or drives over to tell him to go home himself—without ever involving law enforcement. Even before a child is sent to youth more DETENTION, see page 20


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RICE

19


DETENTION from page 18 court in Adams County, the law enforcement officer or the probation counselor completes a risk assessment, a one-sheet paper checklist that scores the offending child. Based on that score, the child receives a different juvenile-justice experience. Upshaw said the risk assessment helped change the strategy for law enforcement and probation officers alike. “What we have found is that changing the culture in the building, they already know that we aren’t going to bring certain kids into detention,” Upshaw said. “They are learning that things have changed. Judge Hudson started that, and … once the culture changed, now it’s pretty much a matter of maintaining that atmosphere.”

around the state. The state allocated additional funding plus the money the state saved by releasing nonviolent child offenders and gave those funds to youth courts to spend on alternatives to detention. Carter said it had cost the state close to $90,000 annually for the state to keep one child in secure detention. “The governor directed that money to a juvenile-justice incentive grant that goes back out to communities to allow them to create evidence-based programs and community-based alternatives to detention, like family therapy,” Carter said. Those alternatives serve kids who are considered medium- to high-risk offenders. Tseke’s court had been a Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative site, like Adams and

Georgia officials were able to collect the detention-center data easily due to state control and oversight of their detention centers, something Mississippi lacks. Mississippi law directs counties to not only pay for but also administer the state’s juvenile-justice system, with the exception of the Oakley Training School, the state’s psycho-educational program where youth court judges send their most serious offenders, which is run by the state Department of Human Services. Mississippi lawmakers passed the Juvenile Detention Facilities Licensing Act in the 2016 session to ensure that detention facilities around the state are licensed. The bill mandates that the Juvenile Facilities Monitoring Unit, housed in the state’s Department of Public Safety,

Reform, Reinvest, Repeat

eher

December 14 - 20, 2016 • jfp.ms

GPS monitoring devices like the leg bracelet shown here are used on juveniles in Adams County.

Arielle Dr

Comprehensive reform is admittedly easier when state law and dollars dictate how juvenile-detention centers work instead of counties. In Georgia, advocates for juvenile-justice reform, eventually followed by the governor and lawmakers, discovered this to be true when they overhauled the state’s juvenile-justice laws in 2013, shifting funds to alternative programming. The 2013 Georgia legislation reinvested funds used to hold non-violent offenders to youth courts to develop alternative programming and clarified separate classes of felonies to ensure that kids are not locked up for most non-violent offenses. Georgia’s juvenile-justice system badly needed reform, with a recidivism of over 60 percent before 2013, Melissa Carter, director at the Baron Child Law and Policy Center at Emory Law School in Atlanta, said. Carter says her team worked on reforms for a decade before Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal added criminal-justice reform to his agenda—which tied easily to juvenile-justice reform. Georgia’s 2013 law created a “Child in Need of Services” category, designating children who commit status offenses, which are offenses unique to children like truancy or running away, as ineligible for secure detention for over 24 hours before and after their hearing. Instead, the law requires these children, called CHINS, to receive services like family or individual counseling or therapy in the least restrictive environment possible, ideally allowing the child to receive services and continue to live at home. Carter says this shift put the burden back on the community to help the courts provide some of the services these children needed. Judge Steven Tseke in Clayton County, Ga., said the reinvestment part of the new law, which went into effect in 2014, 20 worked like grants for county youth courts

Rankin Counties in Mississippi, since 2003 and had already reduced its detention numbers by 43 percent. The new money meant Tseke and his staff would need to take another look at their data to determine how they could reduce their numbers again. Tseke got his IT team to survey the data and found out that 54 percent of the kids his court was committing were primarily due to family dysfunction, so he directed the state money to family therapy. Since then, Clayton County’s commitments to state juvenile-detention centers are down 76 percent compared to before Tseke started reforming the county’s system. Open data is the integral part of Georgia’s reforms. The state’s judicial council is almost done constructing the Juvenile Data Exchange portal, which will make data from the state’s juvenile detention centers and youth courts open to judges and lawyers, and to some extent, the public as well.

conduct assessments of juvenile-detention centers, and license them accordingly. The Mississippi Department of Public Safety division of Public Safety Planning cannot require the county facilities to collect data, however, the new executive director Ray Sims said in an emailed statement, because they do not use state funds to operate. The central data collection system in Mississippi, called MYCIDS, is a mess, various lawyers and juvenile court administrators told the Jackson Free Press throughout the last year. Tseke said that even though counties hold the juvenile-justice power in Mississippi, the State could force the local court’s hand—but that will take leadership, like Georgia had in their governor. Gov. Phil Bryant has continued to sign juvenile-detention facility reform legislation, from passing the bill that created the task force back in 2014 to the licensing act

this year. However, no legislative or executive leaders have introduced legislation to shift funds or promote alternatives. A statewide task force, composed of stakeholders like judges and detention-center administrators from around the state, continues to meet and chip away at reforms outside the legislative realm. ‘Intense and Sustained’

As Georgia and other Mississippi counties show, changes in juvenile justice continue to happen, at the moment mostly in the hands of the administrators who are wielding federal orders or walking hand-inhand with their youth courts. Now, four years and four directors later, Henley-Young is making some progress, but without all the elements that make other facilities in the state as successful. Dixon said he has monitored some facilities under consent decrees for decades, others for four years. “It has a lot to do with how the system moves, the funding, the politics, all of those things play into this,” Dixon said. “So it’s not simple. Do people have a clear direction of where you are going, do they have a clear idea? Some people don’t think they need help.” Even when facilities, administrators and county leaders know they need help, as they seem to in Hinds County, they can reach a ceiling at the state level for funding without judicial support, McDaniels said. Hinds County Youth Court Judge William “Bill” Skinner filed a lawsuit this fall, attempting to prevent the Hinds County Board of Supervisors from moving funding for the case managers from his youth-court allocation to Henley-Young instead. The court ruled against him. Skinner has not returned several phone calls over recent months for comment. “The mental-health services and the substance-abuse services, I think that’s the responsibility of the Legislature and the responsibility of the courts to push for that, especially the judges that deal with this stuff on a daily basis,” McDaniels said. “And that’s just something they have to push the Legislature on. We have to have alternative programs for juveniles.” Other places, McDaniels added, put their resources into services rather than detention. “That’s not where we are here. We are still on a put-them-in-detention-first mentality,” he said. A Solutions Journalism Network grant supported this work. Read the full and ongoing series at jfp.ms/preventingviolence. Email comments to tim@jacksonfreepress.com.


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Early Bird Special

21


{ Holiday Gift Guide }

Give Local by Amber Helsel

’T

is the season for giving gifts, so why not shop local during this holiday season? Here are some fun ideas from local businesses.

1. Journal $48, Thimblepress 2. “Incidentals” photography book by Gretchen Haien $35, Mississippi Museum of Art 3. T-shirt by Filthy Figures $20, Offbeat 4. Framed magnolia print (small) $43.50, Thimblepress 5. Hoodie, $40, Offbeat 6. Olive oil bottle by Glo Sanders $15, Fair Trade Green 7. Pillow $42, Thimblepress 8. T-shirt $20, Swell-o-Phonic 9. Mug $10, Swell-o-Phonic 10. Wyatt Waters calendar, $20 Mississippi Museum of Art 11. Vase by Glo Sanders $45, Fair Trade Green 12. Prints by Kai Bellina $3-$15, Offbeat

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Fair Trade Green (2807 Old Canton Road, 601-987-0002) Swell-o-Phonic (2906 N. State St., 601-981-3547) Thimblepress (113 N. State St.; 4500 Interstate 55 N., Suite 144; thimblepress.com) Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. Lamar St., 601-960-1515) Offbeat (151 Wesley Ave., 601-376-9404, offbeatjxn.com)

22

For the Foodies by Amber Helsel

M

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Muscadine grape juice Cooper Farms & Vineyard, $8

Honey Giles Shire, $25

Blackberry syrup Cooper Farms & Vineyard, $6

Coffee Northshore Specialty Coffees, $8

Coffee Northshore Specialty Coffee, $12

Muscadine kombucha Sweet & Sauer, $4

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Delicious authentic dishes including lamb dishes, hummus, falafel, kababs, shwarma.

Shop, Support, Eat by Dustin Cardon and Amber Helsel

Taste Bistro, Bonfire Grill Opens a.m. to 2 p.m. Beginning in January 2017, Flowood has a little more local flair, the restaurant will also open Sundays from as of Nov. 30. Candice Gammill, who 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. For more informapreviously owned Lit’l Gourmet restau- tion, visit tastebistroanddesserts.com. rant in Jackson and Candy’s Confections Bonfire Grill (118 Service Drive, Suite in Brandon, held a grand opening and 17, 601-591-7211) is open Sunday through ribbon cutting for her new restaurant, Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9.m. and Friday Taste Bistro and Desserts, on Nov. 30. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. For The restaurant has sandwiches, soups, more information, find the restaurant on entrees, desserts and more, and it empha- Facebook. sizes using locally sourced products. Taste also has weekly specials such as a Cuban sandwich on homemade Cuban bread, shrimp and grits, slowbrazed roast beef and Cajun seafood pasta. The restaurant has to-go meals such as chicken spaghetti, pork Local restaurants such as Stamps Super Burgers will soon tenderloin and open in the food court at Metrocenter Mall. chicken enchiladas, and Taste can also do catering for private or corpo- Metrocenter Food Court Grows rate events. It is also the exclusive carrier Scott Overby, Tyler Oliver, Tom for Buttercream Bakery products, owned Boyd and Mike Boyd of Jackson Comby Gammill’s sister, Kim Niskala, with mons LLC, which owns Metrocenter confections such as lemon icebox, custard Mall, are bringing more local options to and buttermilk pies, and coconut and car- the mall’s food court. rot cakes. Big Apple Inn, Stamps Super Burger, Also in the metro area, Timothy Kingfish Grill, Griffin’s Fish House and Zetterholm opened Bonfire Grill in Jefferson’s Grill are expected to open in Brandon on Nov. 25 with Tony Lu, the food court by early 2017. who owns Fusion Japanese & Thai Overby told the Jackson Free Press Cuisine in Flowood. that the project is part of the “Support Bonfire’s dishes include burgers, Jackson. Shop Jackson. Metrocenter.� sandwiches, seafood baskets and other campaign that Jackson Commons is items that use recipes Zetterholm has launching next year. been developing for the past seven years. The campaign focuses on taking “I’ve got things like po’boys made the mall from a once-a-month shopping with roast beef I’ve seasoned and roasted destination to a provider of goods and sermyself, starting with a whole 17-pound vices that neighborhoods need regularly. roast slow-cooked in the oven,� Zetter- “We looked around and saw the need holm said. “I hand-form my burger to turn Metrocenter into a more frequent patties and season them with my own destination with a local focus,� Overby seasoning recipe, and I even use my own said. “A lot of local food options have been special seafood breading.� lost lately, and we want to focus on and Bonfire’s menu also includes dishes promote the best of the best locally owned such as shrimp, crawfish, catfish po’boys, and operated places like Stamps and Big tilapia, salads and more. Apple Inn that the local neighborhoods Taste Bistro and Desserts (5419 High- want to see, and will get people coming way 25, Suite L, Flowood, 769-235-6232) back to the mall once or twice a week.� is open Tuesday through Friday from 10:30 Send food and restaurant news to a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10:30 dustin@jacksonfreepress.com.

file photo

Martin’s Restaurant and Lounge 4PVUI 4UBUF 4U +BDLTPO t

LIFE&STYLE | food&drink


Best of Jackson ™ celebrates the local businesses, organizations and people who are making a difference in the entire metro Jackson area.

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December 14 -20, 2016 • jfp.ms

VOTING ENDS WEDNESDAY DEC 21

25


THURSDAY 12/15

SATURDAY 12/17

SUNDAY 12/18

Whiskey Myers performs at Duling Hall.

The Christmas Jam is at Cathead Distillery

“Light Has Come—The Angels’ Story” is at Thalia Mara Hall.

BEST BETS Dec. 14 - 21, 2016 courtesy Innovation Arts & Entertainment

WEDNESDAY 12/14

“Jingle Bells, Batman Smells!” is at 9:30 a.m. at the Belhaven University Center for the Arts (835 Riverside Drive). The Mississippi Puppetry Guild presents the show based on the Junie B. Jones story. Additional dates: Dec. 15-16, 9:30 a.m. $10; call 601-977-9840; email peter@ mspuppetry.com; mspuppetry.com.

THURSDAY 12/15

courtesy Antwone Perkins

Museum After Hours: Vault After Dark is at 5:30 p.m. at the Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. Lamar St.). This installment of the monthly event features a onenight exhibition of rarely seen artwork from the museum’s vault. Includes live music, a performance from the Mississippi Improv Alliance, a ’sipp-Sourced pop-up menu from chef Nick Wallace and more. Free; call 601-960-1515; msmuseumart.org.

Broadway Christmas Wonderland is Tuesday, Dec. 20, at Thalia Mara Hall.

Experience is at 9:30 p.m. at the Metrocenter Mall (3645 Highway 80 W.). Jesse Robinson performs hits from the late blues icon B.B. King. Includes all-you-can-eat catfish, a special recognition ceremony for former Tougaloo College president Dr. Edger, and more. Free entry, $14 catfish; call 601-918-4350; find it on Facebook.

SATURDAY 12/17

The Mississippi Authors Showcase is from noon to 4 p.m. at Lemuria Books (Banner Hall, 4465 Interstate 55 N., Suite by TYLER EDWARDS 202). Richard Grant and John Currence sign copies at noon, and David Crews and Jim Dees sign jacksonfreepress.com copies at 2 p.m. Free admission; Fax: 601-510-9019 call 366-7619; lemuriabooks.com. Daily updates at … Saving Abel performs at 7:30 jfpevents.com p.m. at Pop’s Saloon (2636 Gallatin St.). The platinum-selling rock band has roots in Corinth, Miss. Framing the Red also performs. For ages 18 and up. $15; call 601-961-4747; email info@popssaloon.com; popssaloon.com.

events@

December 14 - 20, 2016 • jfp.ms

Antwone Perkins is one of the musical guests for Priced to Move, Vol. 7, which takes place Dec. 16-17 at Hops & Habanas.

FRIDAY 12/16

Priced to Move Vol. 7 is at 5 p.m. at Hops & Habanas (2771 Old Canton Road). Features the work of emerging Jackson artists, homemade gumbo and live music from Joe McCullough, Antwone Perkins, Skratchin Jackson, Sir Flywalker, Lisbon Deaths and Clouds & Crayons. Additional date: Dec. 17, 2 p.m. Free entry; call 769-572-4631; email 26 ian601@gmail.com; find it on Facebook. … The Blues

SUNDAY 12/18

The “Birth of a Nation” Watch Party is at 3 p.m. at Afrikan Art Gallery (800 N. Farish St.). The Nate Parker film is about an enslaved Baptist preacher who leads the rebellion in Southampton County. Free; find it on Facebook. … The Mississippi Community Symphony Christmas Concert is at 3 p.m. at Christ United Methodist Church

(6000 Old Canton Road). The holiday concert features soloist Noah Landress. Free; call 601-594-0066; email conductor@mcsb.us; christunitedjxn.com.

MONDAY 12/19

Author Susan Schadt signs copies of “Reel Masters” at 4 p.m. at Lemuria Books (Banner Hall, 4465 Interstate 55 N., Suite 202). $45 book; call 601-366-7619; lemuriabooks.com. … Jump for Hope is from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Pump It Up (1576 Old Fannin Road, Suite P, Brandon). The fundraiser includes jumping and other children’s activities, food, a silent auction and more. Proceeds benefit Restoration Hope. $15 admission; call 256-417-3825; email brandi@restorationhope.org; restorationhope.org.

TUESDAY 12/20

Broadway Christmas Wonderland is at 7:30 p.m. at Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.). Santa’s highkicking chorus performs tunes such as “White Christmas,” “Jingle Bells,” “Winter Wonderland,” “Deck the Halls,” “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree” and more. $30-$75; call 800-745-3000; jacksonbroadway.com.

WEDNESDAY 12/21

Art Soup: Christmas Edition is from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Hal & Mal’s (200 Commerce St.). Includes a silent auction, art vendors, music, food and drink specials and more. Proceeds go to the Harold T. and Hal White Scholarship for the Culinary Arts. Free admission; find it on Facebook.


FOOD & DRINK

CONCERTS & FESTIVALS

’sipp Sourced: “Wilderness” Dec. 15, 11 a.m., Dec. 15, 5:30 p.m., Dec. 16-17, 11 a.m., at Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. Lamar St.). Chef Nick Wallace presents a special pop-up menu featuring items found in the wilderness. Prices vary; call 601-960-1515; msmuseumart.org.

Events at Duling Hall (622 Duling Ave.) • Whiskey Myers Dec. 15, 7:30 p.m. The Texas-based country band performs. $10, $3 surcharge for under 21; ardenland.net. • Bricks in the Wall: The Sight and Sound of Pink Floyd Dec. 17, 9 p.m. Doors open at 8 p.m. $15 in advance, $20 at the door, $3 surcharge for under 21; ardenland.net.

Christmas in the Park Dec. 16, 6:30 p.m., at Pearl City Park (850 Center City Drive, Pearl). Features a movie screening, popcorn, hot chocolate, games, a petting zoo, pictures with Santa, and more. Free; call 932-3541; theexchange.cc.

SLATE

Christmas Jam Dec. 17, 2 p.m., at Cathead Distillery (422 S. Farish St.). Features food and cocktails, Yuengling craft brews, and music from Kenny Brown at 6 p.m.; find it on Facebook.

the best in sports over the next seven days by Bryan Flynn

Saturday kicks off the college-football bowl season with six games. That should be enough to watch or have in the background as you prepare for the holidays. Thursday, Dec. 15

College basketball (6-8 p.m., SECN+): The UM Rebels men’s basketball team hosts Murray State Racers as the nonconference slate winds down. Friday, Dec. 16

College football (6-9:30 p.m., ESPNU): Mary Hardin-Baylor battles Wisconsin-Oshkosh for the title of Division III Champion. Saturday, Dec. 17

College football (11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., ABC): The Celebration Bowl has Grambling State taking on North Carolina Central. … College football (8-11:30 p.m., ESPN): USM takes on Louisiana-Lafayette in the New Orleans Bowl. Sunday, Dec. 18

NFL (3-6:30 p.m., FOX): New Orleans takes on Arizona, as both teams pretty much just play out the season. … NFL (7:30-11 p.m., NBC): Two of the hottest teams in the NFL meet as Dallas hosts Tampa Bay.

Monday, Dec. 19

College basketball (8-10 p.m., ESPNU): The USM men’s team hosts MSU in a major in-state battle. … College basketball (8-10 p.m., SECN): The UM Rebels men’s team hosts Bradley in more nonconference action. Tuesday, Dec. 20

College basketball (6-8 p.m., SECN+): The UM Rebels women’s team hosts Austin Peay. … College basketball (7-9 p.m., SECN+): The top-five-ranked MSU women host Alabama State. Wednesday, Dec. 21

LITERARY & SIGNINGS Events at Lemuria Books (Banner Hall, 4465 Interstate 55 N., Suite 202) • “Rock & Fire” Dec. 15, 4 p.m. D. M. Howie signs copies. $34.95 book; lemuriabooks.com. • “A Time Remembered: Ole Miss 19451970” Dec. 16, 5 p.m. Al Povall signs copies. $34.95 book; lemuriabooks.com. • “Reel Masters” Dec. 19, 4 p.m. Susan Schadt signs copies. $45 book; lemuriabooks.com. • “Waters 2017 Calendar: Jackson Metro Edition” Dec. 20, 2 p.m. Wyatt Waters signs copies. $19.95 calendar; lemuriabooks.com. • “100 Things to Do in Jackson Before You Die” Dec. 21, 1 p.m. Natalie West signs copies. $16 book; lemuriabooks.com. • “The Scribe” Dec. 21, 4 p.m. Matthew Guinn signs copies. $25.95 book; lemuriabooks.com.

EXHIBIT OPENINGS

College football (8-11:30 p.m., ESPN): Wyoming makes its first bowl appearance since 2011 as the Cowboys battle the BYU Cougars. Keep yourself busy with bowl games this holiday season. Expect some memorable moments worth watching in nearly every game.

Second Annual Small Works Show Dec. 15, 5-7:30 p.m., at Fischer Galleries (Dickies Building, 736 S. President St.). Features pieces from artists such as Charlie Buckley, Dan Piersol, Rob Cooper and more. Free; fischergalleries.com.

Follow Bryan Flynn at jfpsports.com, @jfpsports and at facebook.com/jfpsports.

Priced to Move Vol. 7 Dec. 16, 5 p.m., Dec. 17, 2 p.m., at Hops & Habanas (2771 Old Canton Road). Features artwork for sale under $100, and music from Antwone Perkins, Clouds & Crayons and more. Free entry; find it on Facebook.

KIDS

STAGE & SCREEN

Snowflake Science Dec. 16, 10 a.m., at Mississippi Museum of Natural Science (2148 Riverside Drive ). Experiment with “hot” snow, make paper snowflakes and explore the properties of dry ice. Included with admission; mdwfp.com.

“A Christmas Story: The Musical” Dec. 15-17, 7:30 p.m., Dec. 18, 2 p.m., at New Stage Theatre (1100 Carlisle St.). The musical follows Ralphie Parker’s quest for a Red Ryder air rifle. $28; $22 seniors and students; newstagetheatre.com.

Holiday Spectacular 2016 Dec. 17, 9 a.m.7 p.m., at Mississippi Children’s Museum (2145 Highland Drive). The holiday event includes interactive story times, gingerbread house building, community performances, visits from Santa, and more. Included with admission ($10, free for under age 1); mschildrensmuseum.org.

Events at Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.) • “Light Has Come—The Angels’ Story” Dec. 17, 7 p.m., Dec. 18, 2 p.m. The ballet tells the Christmas story from the perspective of the angels who witnessed it. $20-$50; call 601977-1001; balletmagnificat.com. • Broadway Christmas Wonderland Dec. 20, 7:30 p.m. Santa’s high-kicking chorus girls and guys perform Christmas tunes such as “White Christmas,” “Jingle Bells” and more. $30-$75; call 601-960-1537; jacksonbroadway.com.

Teddy Bear Tea Dec. 18, 1-4 p.m., at King Edward Hotel (235 W. Capitol St.). Includes Christmas treats, games, story time and a visit from Santa Claus. Reservations required. $25; call 969-8544; kingedwardhoteljackson.com.

Handel’s “Messiah” Dec. 17, 3 p.m., 7:30 p.m., at St Andrew’s Episcopal Cathedral (305 E. Capitol St.). The Mississippi Chorus performs the classic oratorio. $20; mschorus.org.

Museum After Hours: Vault After Dark Dec. 15, 5:30 p.m., at Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. Lamar St.). Features artwork from the museum’s vault. Includes music, a ’sipp-Sourced pop-up and more. Free; msmuseumart.org.

Art Soup: Christmas Edition Dec. 21, 11 a.m.-9 p.m., at Hal & Mal’s (200 Commerce St.). Includes a silent auction, art vendors, music and more. Proceeds go to the Harold T. and Hal White Scholarship. Free; find it on Facebook.

BE THE CHANGE “Who’s Your Santa?” Christmas Ball Dec. 16, 7 p.m., at King Edward Hotel (235 W. Capitol St.). Includes food and beverages, and live music from Compozitionz. Proceeds go to 4everCaring. $25 admission; eventbrite.com. Check jfpevents.com for updates and more listings, or to add your own events online. You can also email event details to events@jacksonfreepress.com to be added to the calendar. The deadline is noon the Wednesday prior to the week of publication.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR NOMINATIONS

VOTING IS OPEN BEST LIVE MUSIC VENUE BEST BAR BEST PLACE TO DRINK CHEAP WWW.BESTOFJACKSON.COM WEDNESDAY

12/14

THE VEGABONDS / E G W

BENEZER 9 P.M.

OODMAN

OYSTERS

THURSDAY

12/15

ON THE HALF SHELL 5-9 P.M.

FRIDAY

THE

12/16

STEEPWATER BAND

SATURDAY

10 P.M.

CBDB

SUNDAY

10 P.M.

12/17

12/18

BEER BUCKET SPECIAL (5 Beers for $8.75)

ALL DAY LONG!

MONDAY

12/19

OPEN MIC NIGHT

$5 APPETIZERS (D O ) INE IN

NLY

SHRIMP BOIL 5 - 10 PM

TUESDAY

12/20

$1 PBR & HIGHLIFE $2 MARGARITAS 10pm - 12am

UPCOMING SHOWS 12/23 - The Weeks 12/31 - Martin’s Annual New Year’s Eve Blowout w/ Cedric Burnside Project 1/5 - Jaguardini w/ Ships in the Night 1/20 - A Live One (Exploring The Music of Phish) 1/22 - American Aquarium 1/28 - New Madrid 2/9 - Lucero w/ special guest Esmé Patterson 4/6 - Papadosio (Pattern Integrities Spring Tour)

See Our New Menu

WWW.MARTINSLOUNGE.NET

214 S. STATE ST. DOWNTOWN JACKSON

601.354.9712

December 14 - 20, 2016 • jfp.ms

COMMUNITY Jackson 2000 Holiday Social Dec. 16, 5:30 p.m., at Municipal Art Gallery (839 N. State St.). Visit with members and learn about Jackson 2000’s plans for the new year. Free; email todd@ jacksonfreepress.com; jackson2000.org.

27


Music listings are due noon Monday to be included in print and online listings: music@jacksonfreepress.com.

Dec. 14 - Wednesday

Dec. 15 - Thursday Big Sleepy’s - Empty Atlas Album Release w/ Standard Issues & Lisbon Deaths 7 p.m. $10 (includes CD) all ages Char - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m. Duling Hall - Whiskey Myers w/ Scooter Brown 7:30 p.m. $10 Fitzgerald’s - Doug Hurd & Larry Brewer 7:30 p.m. Georgia Blue, Flowood - Brandon Greer Georgia Blue, Madison - Acoustic Crossroads Hal & Mal’s - Brotherly Love free Iron Horse Grill - Joe Carroll 6 p.m. Kathryn’s - Travelin’ Jane 6:30 p.m. free Pelican Cove - Chris Gill 6 p.m. Shucker’s - Larry Brewer & Doug Hurd 7:30 p.m. free Soulshine, Flowood - Shaun Patterson 7-10 p.m. Sylvia’s - The Blues Man & Sunshine McGhee 9 p.m. free

December 14 - 20, 2016 • jfp.ms

DEC. 16 - Friday

28

Big Sleepy’s - The Cryptics, harbor, Surfwax & Die With Nature 8 p.m. $5 all ages Burgers & Blues - Larry Brewer & Doug Hurd 6-10 p.m. Cerami’s - Linda Blackwell & James Bailey 6:30 p.m. free F. Jones Corner - The Blues Man 10 p.m. $1; Kern Pratt midnight $10 Fitzgerald’s - Hunter Gibson & Ronnie McGee 7:30 p.m. Georgia Blue, Flowood - Jim Tomlinson Georgia Blue, Madison - Shaun Patterson Hal & Mal’s - The Hustlers free The Hideaway - Ugly Sweater Party feat. Mustache 9 p.m. $15 Hops & Habanas, Flowood - Priced to Move feat. Joe McCullough, Antwone Perkins & Skratchin Jackson 6-10 p.m. free Iron Horse Grill - Diedra & the Ruff Pro Band 9 p.m. Kathryn’s - Bill & Temperance 7 p.m. free Martin’s - The Steepwater Band 10 p.m.

DEC. 17 - Saturday Big Sleepy’s - Ivadell, The Woodland & Alex Fraser 8 p.m. $8 Burgers & Blues - Jessie Howell 6 p.m. Cathead Distillery - Christmas Jam feat. Kenny Brown 2-9 p.m. free Center Stage of MS - Terrell Moses & Matt Larry 9 p.m. $10

Angela Walls Duling Hall - Bricks in the Wall (Pink Floyd Tribute) 9 p.m. $15 advance $20 door F. Jones Corner - The Bailey Brothers 10 p.m. $1; Big Money Mel & Small Change Wayne midnight $10 Fenian’s - Jason Daniels Band 10 p.m. Georgia Blue, Flowood - Kevin Ace Robinson Georgia Blue, Madison - Skip & Mike Hal & Mal’s - Tacky Christmas Party feat. DJ Mario 8 p.m. The Hideaway - Miles Flatt 9 p.m. $10 Hops & Habanas - Priced to Move feat. Sir Flywalker & Lisbon Deaths w/ Clouds & Crayons 7:30-10 p.m. Iron Horse Grill - Chris Derrick & the Psychedelic Blues Experience 9 p.m. Kathryn’s - Todd Thompson & the Lucky Hand Blues Band 7 p.m. free Kemistry - Hookahz & Hornz feat. Southern Komfort Brass Band 10 p.m.-2 a.m. $10

Martin’s - CBDB 10 p.m. McB’s - Sid Thompson & DoubleShotz 8 p.m.-midnight One Block East - Ugly Christmas Sweater feat. DJ Trix, Rob Roy & more 9 p.m.-2 a.m. Pelican Cove - 3 Hour Tour 6 p.m. Pop’s Saloon - Saving Abel w/ Framing the Red 7:30 p.m. Reed Pierce’s, Byram - Faze 4 9 p.m. free Shucker’s - Sofa Kings 3:30 p.m. free; Snazz 8 p.m. $5; Josh Journeay 10 p.m. free Sneaky Beans - Coffee & Vibes feat. Calligraphy, Gerald W. & Empty Atlas 5 p.m. free Soul Wired Café - Eat, Drink & Love ‘90s Mixer feat. Angela Walls 9 p.m. $10 Soulshine, Flowood - Alanna Mosley 7-10 p.m. St. Andrew’s Episcopal Cathedral - Handel’s “Messiah” feat. MS Chorus 3 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. $20 WonderLust - Drag Performance & Dance Party feat. DJ Taboo 8 p.m.-3 a.m. free before 10 p.m.

DEC. 18 - Sunday Char - Big Easy Three 11 a.m.; Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m. Christ United Methodist Church - MS Community Symphonic Band Christmas Concert w/ MS Swing 3-6 p.m. free The Hideaway - Mike & Marty’s Jam Session Kathryn’s - Shadz of Grey 6 p.m. McB’s - Musicians’ Christmas Open Jam 3-9 p.m. free Pelican Cove - Andy Henderson 11 a.m.; Hunter Gibson & Ronnie McGee 4 p.m.

DEC. 19 - Monday Char - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m. Hal & Mal’s - Central MS Blues Society (rest) 7 p.m. Kathryn’s - Stevie Cain 6:30 p.m. free

DEC. 20 - Tuesday Fenian’s - Open Mic Kathryn’s - Brotherz w/ Guitar Daddy & the Hurricanes 6:30 p.m. free Thalia Mara - Broadway Christmas Wonderland 7:30 p.m.

DEC. 21 - Wednesday Fitzgerald’s - Sid Thompson 7:30 p.m. Hal & Mal’s - New Bourbon Street Jazz Band (brew pub) Kathryn’s - Larry Brewer & Doug Hurd 6:30 p.m. free Pelican Cove - Stevie Cain 6 p.m. Shucker’s - Silverado 7:30 p.m.

12/15 - Saliva - Vinyl Music Hall, Pensacola 12/16 - Wynonna Judd - IP Casino, Resort & Spa, Biloxi 12/17 - Boyz II Men - Horseshoe Tunica Casino & Hotel, Robinsville 12/17 - Jim James - The Civic Theatre, New Orleans

DIVERSIONS | music

Lead Me to Steepwater by Greg Pigott

Va Courtesy The Steepwater Band

Char - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m. Fitzgerald’s - Johnny Crocker 7:30 p.m. Hal & Mal’s - Michael Laskin free Kathryn’s - Gator Trio 6:30 p.m. Martin’s - The Vegabonds w/ Ebenezer Goodman 9 p.m. Offbeat - Morgan Orion, Betzenz0 & Alex Fraser 8 p.m. $5 Pelican Cove - Stevie Cain 6 p.m. Shucker’s - Lovin Ledbetter 7:30 p.m. free

McB’s - Ugly Sweater Party feat. Will & Linda 5-8 p.m.; Travelin’ Jane 8 p.m.-midnight free Metrocenter Mall - The Blues Experience feat. Jesse Robinson Ole Tavern - Todd Thompson & the Lucky Hand Blues Band 9 p.m. Pelican Cove - Sid Thompson & DoubleShotz 6-10 p.m. Reed Pierce’s, Byram - South of Memphis 9 p.m. free Shucker’s - Acoustic Crossroads 5:30 p.m. free; Snazz 8 p.m. $5; Brian Jones 10 p.m. free Soulshine, Flowood - Stace & Cassie 7-10 p.m. Soulshine, Ridgeland - Andy Tanas 8-10 p.m. free WonderLust - DJ Taboo 8 p.m.

courtesy Angela Walls

MUSIC | live

(Left to right) Joe Winters, Tod Bowers, Jeff Massey and Eric Saylors of The Steepwater Band perform Friday, Dec. 16, at Martin’s Restaurant & Bar.

“W

e’re different from everyone else.” That is what Jeff Massey, the lead singer and guitarist of The Steepwater Band, will tell you if you ask him to describe the Chicago-based rock-‘n’-roll act, but it’s not a bragging statement for him as much as it is a testament to the core that has kept the group together for more than 15 years. Formed in 1998, The Steepwater Band consists of Massey, bassist Tod Bowers, drummer Joe Winters and guitarist Eric Saylors. Save for adding Saylors as a fourth member in 2012, the band has kept the same lineup throughout its tenure, to which Massey attributes the sound that Steepwater fans have come to know. “I think if one person left, it would sound completely different,” he says. “At the end of the day, it’s not about perfection; it’s about feel and chemistry. We’re a true rock band, and we stay true to that.” That commitment to “true rock” derives from the musicians growing up in the music scene of Chicago, which has a healthy dose of both blues and rock, Massey says. They became fans of artists such as Muddy Waters, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. This fusion of styles gave The Steepwater Band a roots-rock and southern-rock feel that incorporates rock guitar riffs with blues chord progression. But mostly, Massey says, the best way to describe the band’s style is “honest.” “Our sound is real, and it shows in our music,” he says. “I realize that ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ is an outdated and vague term, but our music has swagger and honesty. It’s all about the groove and the vibe.” Those tenets are at the center of The Steepwater Band’s sixth studio album,

“Shake Your Faith.” Massey says this record presents the group’s signature sound with a new twist, due to producer Jim Wirt, who has worked with acts such as Incubus, Fiona Apple, Hoobastank, Something Corporate and Jack’s Mannequin. Wirt, a new partner for Steepwater, recorded the album at Crushtone Studios in Cleveland, Ohio, and Massey says working with an experienced producer helped the music evolve. “He has had a great career, and he really understood our sound,” he says. “At the same time, he really took us out of our bubble and led us to trying new things and new instruments just to give the songs some edge. We are really proud of it.” The title of the album comes from thinking of someone that stays positive despite all the negativity in the world, which Massey says is evident in the title track, one of the more serious songs they’ve written. “Some songs have a message, and some are just funny,” he says. I guess that’s just rock ‘n’ roll.” Massey says Jacksonians can expect a high-energy show when The Steepwater Band performs at Martin’s Restaurant & Bar (214 S. State St.) on Friday, Dec. 16, at 9 p.m. While the musicians have an everevolving set list, he says their main concern is delivering a raw and unforgettable rock show, not looking flashy. “We don’t do the lights and whistles,” Massey says. “We just play, and we enjoy playing. I really think people see that. We never give half an effort, and we always keep our show fresh. You will definitely remember it.” The Steepwater Band’s “Shake Your Faith” is available now. For more information, visit thesteepwaterband.com.


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COMING UP

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WEDNESDAY 12/14

MICHAEL LASKIN Restaurant - Free!

Thursday, December 15

WHISKEY MYERS

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THURSDAY 12/15

BROTHERLY LOVE

Restaurant - Free! _________________________

scooter brown band

“some call it rebel music, but it’s more like everyday soul”

Saturday, December 17

FRIDAY 12/16

HUSTLERS

% &ORTIl CATION 3T s www.fenianspub.com

Restaurant - Free! _________________________

SATURDAY 12/17

TACKY CHRISTMAS _________________________ MONDAY 12/19

CENTRAL MS BLUES SOCIETY PRESENTS:

BLUE MONDAY

Restaurant - 7 - 10pm $3 Members $5 Non-Members _________________________

TUESDAY 12/20

PUB QUIZ

w/ Jimmy Quinn Restaurant - 7:30pm - $2 to Play _________________________

WEDNESDAY 12/21

ART SOUP

CHRISTMAS EDITION!

15 Art Vendors and Silent Auction to benefit The Harold T and Hal White Scholarship Fund

NEW BOURBON STREET JAZZ BAND

Early Show in the Brew Pub 11am-9pm _________________________ OFFICIAL

HOUSE VODKA

Visit HalandMals.com for a full menu and concert schedule

601.948.0888 200 S. Commerce St. Downtown Jackson, MS

-ON &RI AM AM s 3AT PM AM 3UN PM AM

Thursday, December 22

THE VAMPS

jackson’s own premier soul-jazz group

NEW SHOW!

Wednesday, March 15

MARTIN SEXTON “outstanding taste in songwriting as well as a soul-marinated voice.” - rolling stone

NEW SHOW!

Thursday, March 16

ZOSO: The Ultimate

Led Zeppelin Experience formed in 1995 to perform the most accurate and captivating led zeppelin live show since the real thing

NEW SHOW!

Wednesday, April 5

DREW HOLCOMB & THE NEIGHBORS drawing influence from tom petty & bob dylan, they have found their place in today’s landscape of singer/songwriter americana

JX//RX COMPLETE SHOW LISTINGS & TICKETS

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December 14 -20, 2016 • jfp.ms

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Saturday, October 8 • 2:30pm MEET AT NATURAL SCIENCE MUSEUM PARKING LOT ŶũŽLJ ĂŶ ĂŌĞƌŶŽŽŶ ŽŶ ƚŚĞ ƌŝǀĞƌ ĂŶĚ ůĞĂƌŶ ĨƌŽŵ ŚĞƌƉĞƚŽůŽŐŝƐƚ͕ dŽŵ DĂŶŶ ŚŽǁ ƚŽ ƚĞůů ƚŚĞ ŚĞĂůƚŚ ŽĨ ŽƵƌ ǁĂƚĞƌǁĂLJƐ ƚŚƌŽƵŐŚ ůŽŽŬŝŶŐ Ăƚ ƚŚĞ ŵƵƐƐĞůƐ Ăƚ ƚŚĞ ƐĂŶĚ ďĂƌƐ͘

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December 14 -20, 2016 • jfp.ms

ĂŶĚ ĞŶũŽLJŝŶŐ ŽŶĞ ŽĨ ŽƵƌ ŵŽƐƚ ďĞĂƵƟĨƵů

30

MEET AT NATURAL SCIENCE MUSEUM PARKING LOT ƉůĂĐĞƐ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ :ĂĐŬƐŽŶ DĞƚƌŽ ĂƌĞĂ͘ ĂƐLJ ŚŝŬĞ͖ ĂƉƉƌŽdžŝŵĂƚĞůLJ ϭ Ъ ŵŝůĞƐ͘ FLearn ALL/W I N T E R 2 0 1 6 S C H E D U L E D A D V E N T U R E about solstice traditions and celebrate theS : this Fall! shortest day of the year with a hike to theComing perfect &Žƌ ŵŽƌĞ ŝŶĨŽƌŵĂƟŽŶ spot to see the sun go down. ĂŶĚ ƚŽ ƌĞŐŝƐƚĞƌ ŽŶůŝŶĞ͕ ǀŝƐŝƚ Mississippi.SierraClub.org &Žƌ ŵŽƌĞ ŝŶĨŽƌŵĂƟŽŶ SC LE HO AB LAR • 2:30pm outdoor adventures, visit S H I P S AVA I L September ToSaturday, find on out more and 10 register, visit

Mississippi.SierraClub.org Mississippi.SierraClub.org MEET AT NATURAL SCIENCE MUSEUM PARKING LOT ƌ͘ ƌĞŶƚ ,ĞŶĚƌŝdžƐŽŶ ŽĨ DŝůůƐĂƉƐ ŽůůĞŐĞ ǁŝůů ƚĞĂĐŚ ĂďŽƵƚ ĂƌĂĐŚŶŝĚƐ ǁŚŝůĞ ĞdžƉůŽƌŝŶŐ ƚŚĞŝƌ ŚĂďŝƚĂƚƐ ĂůŽŶŐ ƚŚĞ ƚƌĂŝů͘

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Love live music?

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BY MATT JONES

42 National who lives overseas, informally 43 Dye holders 44 Word said by Grover when close to the camera 45 Canning needs 46 Marker, e.g. 47 Hawk’s high hangout 48 Big baking potatoes 50 It may be printed upside-down 52 Nyan ___ 53 What the other three theme entries do? 57 Scarfed down 58 Accessed, with “into” 59 Pomade, e.g. 60 Primus frontman Claypool 61 Tony and Edgar, for two 62 Website specializing in the vintage and handmade

30 Cable channel launched in 1979 32 Arcade machine opening 33 “Vaya con ___” 35 Spiral-shaped 36 Get rusty 37 Some newsbreaks 38 Certain allergic reaction 39 Never existed 40 Coiffures 41 Rock worth unearthing 44 Windham Hill Records genre 46 “Rubbish!” 47 Pokemon protagonist Ketchum

Down

“Will Ya Look at the Time?” —it’s a little off. Across

December 14 - 20, 2016 • jfp.ms

1 Language in which many websites are written 5 Favreau’s “Swingers” costar 11 Internet connection problem 14 “Summertime” from “Porgy and Bess,” e.g. 15 Where tigers may be housed 16 Notre Dame coach Parseghian 17 Vessel even smaller than the one for shots? 19 Airline based in Stockholm 20 Marching band event 21 Capulet murdered by Romeo

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(spoiler alert!) 23 Prepare lettuce, perhaps 24 Community org. with merit badges 26 “Let It Go” singer 27 Gallagher of Oasis 28 Badtz-___ (penguin friend of Hello Kitty) 30 She voices Dory 31 Bow (out) 32 Component of a restaurant’s meateating challenge? 34 Reveal accidentally 35 “I like 5 p.m. better than 11 p.m. for news”? 39 “CSI” theme song band, with “The”

1 “Black Forest” meat 2 Portishead genre 3 Mosque adjunct 4 Winner’s wreath 5 Competed (for) 6 Heavenly creature, in Paris 7 Contract ender? 8 Wu-Tang member known as “The Genius” 9 Ground-cover plant 10 Inquisitive 11 French explorer who named Louisiana 12 Body of water between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan 13 It’s filled at the pump 18 Just a ___ (slightly) 22 Sing like Ethel Merman 23 Nestle ___-Caps 24 Bond, before Craig 25 Naturally bright 28 Sole syllable spoken by the geek on “American Horror Story: Freak Show” (and Beaker on “The Muppets”) 29 Working

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49 Bi- times four 50 Like Scotch 51 Flanders and his name-diddlyamesakes 54 Org. for analysts 55 Home of “Ask Me Another” 56 Double agent, e.g. ©2016 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@ jonesincrosswords.com)

Last Week’s Answers

For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per minute. Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800 655-6548. Reference puzzle #802

BY MATT JONES Last Week’s Answers

“TV Sudoku” Solve this as you would a regular sudoku, except using the nine given letters instead of numbers. When you’re done, each row, column and 3x3 box will contain each of the nine given letters exactly one time. In addition, one row or column will reveal, either backward or forward, the name of a TV show. psychosudoku@gmail.com


SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

Physicist Stephen Hawking is skeptical of the hypothesis that humans may someday be able to travel through time. To jokingly dramatize his belief, he threw a party for time travelers from the future. Sadly, not a single chrononaut showed up to enjoy the champagne and hors d’oeuvres Hawking had prepared. Despite this discouraging evidence, I guarantee that you will have the potential to meet with Future Versions of You on a regular basis during the next nine months. These encounters are likely to be metaphorical or dreamlike rather than literal, but they will provide valuable information as you make decisions that affect your destiny for years to come. The first of these heart-to-hearts should come very soon.

During these last few weeks, you may have sometimes felt like smashing holes in the wall with your head, or dragging precious keepsakes into the middle of the street and setting them on fire, or delivering boxes full of garbage to people who don’t appreciate you as much as they should. I hope you abstained from doing things like that. Now here are some prescriptions to help you graduate from unproductive impulses: Make or find a symbol of one of your mental blocks, and bash it to pieces with a hammer; clean and polish precious keepsakes, and perform rituals to reinvigorate your love for them; take as many trips to the dump as necessary to remove the congestion, dross and rot from your environment.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

Singer-songwriter Tom Waits has a distinctive voice. One fan described it this way: “Like how you’d sound if you drank a quart of bourbon, smoked a pack of cigarettes and swallowed a pack of razor blades. Late at night. After not sleeping for three days.” Luckily, Waits doesn’t have to actually do any of those self-destructive things to achieve his unique tone. In fact, he’s wealthy from selling his music, and has three kids with a woman to whom he’s been married for 36 years. I foresee a similar potential for you in the coming weeks and months. You may be able to capitalize on your harmless weirdness ... to earn rewards by expressing your charming eccentricities ... to be both strange and popular.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

Was punk rock born on June 4, 1976? A fledgling band known as the Sex Pistols played that night for a crowd of 40 people at a small venue in Manchester, England. Among the audience members was Morrissey, who got so inspired that he started his own band, The Smiths. Also in attendance was a rowdy guy who would soon launch the band Joy Division, despite the fact that he had never played an instrument. The men who would later form the Buzzcocks also saw the performance by Johnny Rotten and his crew. According to music critic David Nolan, these future pioneers came away from the June 4 show with the conclusion, “You don’t have to be a virtuoso or a musical genius to be in a band; anyone can do it.” I see parallels between this seminal event and your life in the coming weeks.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

“Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how,” said dancer Agnes De Mille. “We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.” As true as her words might be for most of us much of the time, I suspect they don’t apply to you right now. This is one of those rare moments when feeling total certainty is justified. Your vision is extra clear and farseeing. Your good humor and expansive spirit will ensure that you stay humble. As you take leap after leap, you’ll be surrounded by light.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

“We are torn between nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange,” wrote author Carson McCullers. Are you ready to give that adage a twist, Taurus? In the coming weeks, I think you should search for foreign and strange qualities in your familiar world. Such a quest may initially feel odd, but it will ultimately be healthy and interesting. It will also be good preparation for the next chapter of your life, when you will saunter out into unknown territory and find ways to feel at home there.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

“If you don’t use your own imagination, somebody else is going to use it for you,” said writer Ronald Sukenick.

That’s always true, but it will be especially important for you to keep in mind in 2017. You Geminis will have an unparalleled power to enlarge, refine and tap into your imagination. You’ll be blessed with the motivation and ingenuity to make it work for you in new ways, which could enable you to accomplish marvelous feats of creativity and self-transformation. Now here’s a warning: If you DON’T use your will power to take advantage of these potentials, your imagination will be subject to atrophy and colonization.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

Why are Australian sand wasps so skilled at finding their way back home after being out all day? Here’s their trick: When they first leave the nest each morning, they fly backwards, imprinting on their memory banks the sights they will look for when they return later. Furthermore, their exiting flight path is a slow and systematic zigzag pattern that orients them from multiple directions. I recommend that you draw inspiration from the sand wasps in 2017, Cancerian. One of your important tasks will be to keep finding your way back to your spiritual home, over and over again.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

Vault 21, a restaurant in Dunedin, New Zealand, serves sautéed locusts. For $5, patrons receive a plate of five. The menu refers to the dish not as “oily sizzling grasshoppers,” but rather as “sky prawns.” Satisfied customers know exactly what they’re eating, and some say the taste does indeed resemble prawns. I bring this to your attention, Leo, because it illustrates a talent you will have in abundance during 2017: re-branding. You’ll know how to maximize the attractiveness and desirability of things by presenting them in the best possible light.

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Help Wanted Digital Media Intern Jackson Free Press seeks a parttime digital media intern for content creation, SEO tasks, website editing and e-mail newsletter creation and support. This paid, hourly position is flexible and can be designed around classwork or other work for the right candidate. Write todd at jacksonfreepress dot com with your resume and your availability.

Part-Time Distribution Manager The Jackson Free Press seeks a part-time distribution manager to take ownership of the day-to-day distribution operations of the Jackson Free Press. Your role will be to work with the Lead Driver and contract drivers to ensure that the Jackson Free Press, BOOM Jackson and other contract publications are distributed on-time and efficiently. You’ll also interact with the public, business managers, and others to ensure that distribution locations are satisfied with our service and in order to secure new distribution locations and allocate resources effectively. Must be a good communicator and good presenter as the JFP’s main liaison to local distribution partners. Roughly 30 hours per week, about 2/3 is spent driving and distributing and 1/3 on route management and public interaction. Please send your resume and a cover letter or e-mail to todd@ jacksonfreepress.com. Sales Account Executive Seeking Sales Account Executives for Jackson area to sell digital billboard Ads. Work from home office. Insurance. Competitive Pay. Sales experience required. Email resumes careers@ busbycompanies.com 601-428-4014

TO PLACE A CLASSIFIED AD:

Post an ad, call 601-362-6121, ext. 11 or fax to 601-510-9019. Deadline: Mondays at Noon.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

The literal translation of the German word kummerspeck is “grief bacon.” It refers to the weight gained by people who, while wallowing in self-pity, eat an excess of comfort food. I know more than a few Virgos who have been flirting with this development lately, although the trigger seems to be self-doubt as much as self-pity. In any case, here’s the good news: The trend is about to flip. A flow of agreeable adventures is due to begin soon. You’ll be prodded by fun challenges and provocative stimuli that will boost your confidence and discourage kummerspeck.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

“Since you are like no other being ever created since the beginning of time, you are incomparable,” wrote journalist Brenda Ueland. Pause for a moment and fully take in that fact, Libra. It’s breathtaking and daunting. What a huge responsibility it is to be absolutely unique. In fact, it’s so monumental that you may still be shy about living up to it. But how about if you make 2017 the year you finally come into your own as the awesomely unprecedented creature that you are? I dare you to more fully acknowledge and express your singular destiny. Start today!

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

“To dream ... to dream has been the business of my life,” wrote author Edgar Allan Poe. I don’t expect you to match his devotion to dreams in 2017, Scorpio, but I do hope you will become more deeply engaged with your waking fantasies and the stories that unfold as you lie sleeping. Why? Because your usual approaches to gathering useful information won’t be sufficient. To be successful, both in the spiritual and worldly senses, you’ll need extra access to perspectives that come from beyond your rational mind. Here’s a good motto for you in 2017: “I am a lavish and practical dreamer.”

Homework: Talk about the pleasures you’d enjoy if you went a week without consuming any media. Write: Truthrooster@gmail.com.

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CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

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PAID ADVERTISING SECTION. CALL 601-362-6121 X11 TO LIST YOUR BUSINESS

------------- H E A LT H C A R E / W E L L N E S S ---------------The Headache Center

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291 US-51 E4, Ridgeland, MS 39157 (601)707-5596 Mississippi’s only full-service 3M Authorized window film dealer. Services include, residential, graffiti shield and automotive tinting.

Tri-county Tree Service

Jackson, (601)940-5499 Personalized and courteous services to valued customers in Madison, Hinds, Rankin or Jackson County. Contact us today for a FREE NO HASSLE ESTIMATE.

---------------------- AUTOMOTIVE ----------------------J & J Wholesale Service & Repair

3246 Hwy 80 W., Jackson, (601) 360-2444 Certified Technician, David Rucker, has 40+ years of experience. Mr. Rucker specializes in a/c, front end, part replacement, brakes, select services and repairs. Appointments only.

-------------------- BANKS/FINANCIAL ------------------Members Exchange

107 Marketridge Dr. Ridgeland, 5640 I-55 South Frontage Rd. Byram 101 MetroPlex Blvd. Pearl, (601)922-3250 Members Exchange takes the bank out of banking. You will know right away that you are not just a customer, you are a member.

Guaranty Trust

2 Professional Parkway, Ste A Ridgeland, (601)307-5008 Your friendly source for mortgage advice and service in FHA, USDA, VA, Jumbo and conventional mortgages.

------------------- FOOD/DRINK/GIFTS ------------------Beckham Jewelry

4800 N Hwy 55 #35, Jackson, (601)665-4642 With over 20 years experience Beckham Jewelry, manufactures, repairs and services all types of jewelry. Many repairs can be done the same day! They also offer full-service watch and clock repair.

Fondren Cellars

633 Duling Ave, Jackson, (769)216-2323 Quality wines and spirits in a relaxed environment. Voted Best Wine and Liquor store by Jackson Free Press readers.

Nandy’s Candy

Maywood Mart, 1220 E Northside Dr #380, Jackson, (601)362-9553 Small batch confections do more than satisfy a sweet tooth, they foster fond traditions and strong relationships. Plus, enjoy sno-balls, gifts for any occasion and more!

McDade’s Wine

Maywood Mart, 1220 E Northside Dr #320, Jackson, (601)366-5676 McDade’s Wine and Spirits offers Northeast Jackson’s largest showroom of fine wine and spirits. Visit to learn about the latest offerings and get professional tips from the friendly staff!

Playtime Entertainment

1009 Hampstead Blvd, Clinton, (601)926-1511 Clinton’s newest high energy video gaming and sports grille destination.

-------------------- TOURISM/ARTS ----------------------Mississippi Museum of Art

380 South Lamar St. Jackson, (601) 960-1515 MMA strives to be a fountainhead attracting people from all walks to discuss the issues and glories of the past and present, while continuing to inspire progress in the future.

Ardenland

December 14 -20, 2016 • jfp.ms

2906 North State St. Suite 207, Jackson, (601) 292-7121 Jackson’s premiere music promoter with concerts around the Metro including at Duling Hall in Fondren. www.ardenland.net

34

Natural Science Museum

2148 Riverside Dr, Jackson, (601) 576-6000 Stop by the museum and enjoy their 300-acre natural landscape, an open-air amphitheater, along with 2.5 miles of nature trails. Inside, meet over 200 living species in the 100,000 gallon aquarium network.

Mississippi Children's Museum

2145 Museum Boulevard, Jackson, (601) 981-5469 The Mississippi Children’s Museum provides unparalleled experiences that ignite a thirst for discovery, knowledge and learning in all children through hands-on and engaging exhibits and programs focusing on literacy, the arts, science, health and nutrition.

---------------- BEAUTY SHOP/SALON ------------------Barnette’s Highland Bluff

4400 Old Canton Rd, Jackson, (769) 230-4648 Barnette’s specializes in custom hair color as well as beautiful precision cuts.


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The Feathered Cow 4760 I-55 North (769) 233-8366 www.featheredcow.com

Rooster’s Fondren Corner 2906 N. State St. (601) 982-2001 www.roostersfondren.com

Basil’s 120 North Congress St L1 (601) 944-9888 Fondren Corner 2906 N. State St. (601) 982-2100 www.glennfoods.com

New Year’s Eve Special $34.99 SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31

ENJOY OTHER NEW YEAR’S EVE OFFERINGS THROUGHOUT THE DAY: Noon Year’s Eve Drawings: 12:00PM - 4:00PM New Year’s Eve Drawings: 7:00PM – 11:00PM

Lone Wolf: DJ Chris Burks playing all your favorite dance music. No cover! 12:00PM - 1:00AM PARTY FAVORS, BALLOON DROP & CHAMPAGNE TOAST AT MIDNIGHT. 1380 WARRENTON RD • VICKSBURG, MS 39182 © 2016 Isle of Capri Casinos, Inc. Lady Luck and Otis & Henry’s are registered trademarks of Isle of Capri Casinos, Inc. Gambling problem? Call 1.888.777.9696. www.ladyluckvicksburg.com

December 14 -20, 2016 • jfp.ms

10oz. Center–Cut Sirloin with Lobster Tail. Includes dessert. Add champagne for $5.00

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Thank You for Nominating Us

GIFT CARD SALE Saturday, Dec. 17 All Gift Cards 1/2 Price

Best Wine/Liquor Store www.bestofjackson.com Please join us for

Bourbon Bonanza 12/17 | 10:00am-1:30pm

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1030-A Hwy 51 • Madison Behind the McDonalds in Madison Station

Woodland Hills Shopping Center Ç‹Ç–Ç–Ç?(ÇœŸŸŊĆ…Ĺ˜Ç? ǨĸĆ…ÇœĸÇ?ÄšÇ?ÇŠÇ‹Ć‹ĆŁÇšĆ˜Ç‹ĆŁÇšÇ–ÇšÇ–Ç?ÄšÇ?Ĺ?ĆŽĆ…čƸĸĆ…Ä›ĸŸŸÞƸǀƣěƎƀ

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1002 Treetops Blvd • Flowood Behind the Applebee’s on Lakeland

601.664.7588

Great gifts for pipe and cigar smokers.

REAL PEOPLE REAL DESIRE REAL FUN.

Try FREE: 800-513-9842

Ahora espaĂąol/18+

When You Bring An Unwrapped Toy for

Come see us in The Quarter on Lakeland near Cups...

learn more about our historic shop at www.thecountrysquireonline.com

We’d Appreciate Your Vote Best Crawfish Best Gumbo

bestofjackson.com www.tbeauxs.com

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Terra Renewal - FT CDL A Tanker Driver Needed If you are qualified and interested, please contact us. We want to hear from you! Call Jeremy @ 479.462.2756 or Email bthomas@darlingii.com or fax resume to 479.229.3734 EOE/M/F/Vet/Disabled


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