v18n21 - Guys We Love 2020

JAC K S O N

VOL 18 NO. 21 // JUNE 10 - 23, 2020 // SUBSCRIBE FREE FOR BREAKING NEWS AT JFPDAILY.COM

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GUYS WE LOVE 2020 pp 14-18

Mitigating Trauma of Domestic Violence Judin, pp 9-10

The Cat’s Meow of Jackson Coupe, p 21

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contents

Travis Ryder

June 10 - 23, 2020 Vol. 18 No. 20

ON THE COVER Justin Lofton Photo courtesy Justin Lofton

4 Editor’s Note 7 Talks

courtesy Travis Ryder

7 ‘No Justice, No Peace’ Approximately 4,000 peaceful protestors gathered to support the Black Lives Matter movement over the weekend.

JACKSONIAN

12 Op/Ed 14 Guys we Love 19 Music 19 Events

That same year, Ryder brought Van’s alongside Charles Breunig Jr., Charles “Chaz” Breunig Sr. and Joe Arms from the store’s original owner, Van Peoples, who had run the store in the area for 20 years before turning over the keys.

As a longtime comic-book fan, Ryder knew he wanted to shift Van’s from being a simple retail store into a place where nerds can indulge their hobbies while meeting and interacting with others who share the same passions.

“We wanted to make (Van’s) more of a community hub or hangout. So if you wanted to play Dungeons & Dragons, read a comic, browse old comics, paint models and miniatures, play Magic or learn how to play Pokémon, you could come up here and meet your friends,” he says. “We wanted to make the area a source for nerd and geek culture. And that’s currently what it is—a giant hub for everyone to hang out and do everything nerdy.”

In response to COVID-19, Van’s CCG has established heightened cleaning procedures since reopening after the month-long government shutdown on retail stores, such as sanitizing tables and door handles every hour or so, among other measures.

For info on Van’s Comics, Cards & Games (731 S. Pear Orchard Road, Ridgeland), call 601-898-9950 or find it on Facebook.

—Nate Schumann

20 Kaz-Magic Arts Local artist Frederick Roseman prepares for his new comic about finding an accepting surrogate family.

20 Start Your Engines Ger ready, get set and go learn about the JFP’s lead driver, Ken Steere.

21 food 22 Puzzle 22 Sorensen 23 astro 23 Classifieds

June 10 - 23, 2020 • jfp.ms

F

or Travis Ryder of Van’s Comics, Cards & Games, building the local nerd community remains one of his foremost goals in running the store.

Van’s sells comic books, card and board games, and other geek paraphernalia. What makes Van’s different from many other local comic shops across the state—besides that it sells beer and other refreshments—is its tables that patrons are free to use to play the games or read the comics that they bring or buy within its walls.

During normal operations, the store hosts regular game nights and other events to bring fans of various franchises together to indulge in their hobbies and make new connections. As an owner and manager of the store, Ryder makes it his mission to help integrate fellow nerds into the Van’s community.

“If you have ever walked into Van’s before, sometimes it can be a little daunting to see 50 to 100 people, and you don’t necessarily want to go, ‘Hey! How do I play Warhammer?’” he says. “So my job is to take you over and show you how to play and introduce you to everybody. I kind of break the barrier for people who are learning how to get into this stuff.”

Originally from Toronto in Canada, Ryder moved to Ridgeland five years ago to live with his girlfriend, Bridget, whom he married in 2016. The two have a 2-year-old daughter, Ellie.

3

publisher’s note

by Todd Stauffer, Publisher

R

onnie Henley Sr. messaged me on April 10, asking a question about the Mississippi Department of Employment Security and unemployment. I had written a story headlined “When is the $600 Coming?” based on a Q&A webinar featuring Timothy Rush, the director of the Office of Employment Security at MDES. That got me a lot of notes from readers.

“MDES denied me unemployment benefits, and I’m confused! I don’t know what to do. I’ve got a son in Atlanta who really (needs) my financial support, and I’m stuck without a work option due to being furloughed from Gold Strike. Can you please help me?” Henley wrote.

Henley had called his local WINS job center to apply for unemployment after he was laid off from Gold Strike Casino on March 27. They told him to

June 10 - 23, 2020 • jfp.ms

I don’t know what to do.

4

download the “2 File UI” smartphone app to make his weekly certifications, which he had done. His online record with MDES, which he sent to me as a screenshot, showed a claim period of 4/5/2020 to 6/30/20 with a $0 maximum weekly benefit.

For many years, Henley lived in Georgia before moving back this way, spending time in Memphis (working for the same pizza chain he’d worked at in Atlanta) and then settling in Clarksdale.

He’s getting divorced, and his son lives with his mother. Last year, Henley made most of his money as a gig worker, delivering for Postmates until his car was stolen in November. He landed the Gold Strike Casino job at the very end of December and started after the new year.

From January to late March, when the casino laid him off for COVID-19, he made decent money working the fulltime, hourly job. When he discovered that MDES had denied him unemployment due to an Insufficient Wage Claim, he tried to file an appeal online. The screen told him there was “no appealable decision” found. That was April 10.

We chatted about the possibility that he might need to wait until Gold Strike filed their Q1 unemployment numbers with MDES, which could take until April 30. He vowed to keep hit-

ting the phones at MDES to try to get through and get advice on securing the federal benefit.

I heard from Henley again about a month later in mid-May. He’d gone five weeks filing his weekly check-in with MDES with no progress on the claim or the appeal. He’d been looking for a twoweek “closure” check from Gold Strike that hadn’t come. He was in a rent-toown house, worried about his utilities, light bill and money to send his son. He wrote to me about an hour after I got off the phone with Rush from MDES, with whom I recorded a podcast you can hear at LetsTalkJackson.com.

“My son RJ is in Georgia without any assistance from me because I haven’t worked since March 28th due to the virus,” he texted.

Henley had worked as a contractor in 2019, making decent money. He’d gotten a full-time job to help him settle into Clarksdale. The CARES Act had laid out $600 a week specifically for people like him, even building in a caveat for contract workers who aren’t generally covered by most state’s unemployment systems. But to get the $600 weekly federal benefit, he had to get a state to validate the unemployment claim.

But what if you live in a state where the safety net is designed to fail?

An analysis by Bloomberg showed that nearly one-third of Americans unemployed by COVID-19 still hadn’t received a payment as of last week.

In a Twitter thread, Pamela Herd, a public policy professor at Georgetown University, said in many states the unemployment system “is designed to fail.”

“A system that can hold up benefit

courtesy Ronnie Henley, Sr.

Safety Net ‘Designed to Fail’ in Good Times Failing Big Now

R.J. Henley and Ronnie Henley Sr. (right) talk during COVID-19 shutdown. The father struggled for weeks to get unemployment to support his son.

receipt for weeks or months because of a small error is designed to fail,” she tweeted. “A system that is more focused on limiting spending than ensuring access to eligible people is designed to fail.”

It’s telling that, as part of his executive orders during this crisis, Gov. Tate Reeves suspended several rules regarding application for and receipt of unemployment benefits. Why did they exist?

Prior to COVID-19, Mississippi had the lowest average unemployment payment nationwide ($215 a week), and Reeves’ signature 2016 tax bill significantly lowered the unemployment taxes Mississippi employers pay. MDES pays a paltry benefit and makes people wait first and then jump through hoops.

After my podcast interview with Rush, I told him about Henley’s specific case and how he seemed caught in an administrative loop, unable to get good ad-

contributors

Nick Judin

Torsheta Jackson

Taylor McKay Hathorn

State reporter Nick Judin grew up in Jackson and graduated from the University of Mississippi. He is covering this year’s legislative session. Try not to run him over when you see him crossing State Street. He wrote protests and a policing solution for domestic-abuse responses.

Freelance writer Torsheta Jackson is originally from Shuqualak, Miss. A wife and mother of four, she freelances and is a certified lactation counselor. She wrote the music story on Kimble Funchess for the issue.

Taylor McKay Hathorn is an alumna of Mississippi College’s English program and a student at Asbury Theological Seminary. She enjoys binging TV shows, watching the sun set over the Mississippi River and tweeting her opinions @_youaremore_. She wrote Guys We Love blurbs for the issue.

vice on the phone. Rush replied on May 21 that he’d have a manager call Henley.

That didn’t happen until I reminded Rush on June 1, when someone did finally reach out to Henley, with the suggestion that he apply for unemployment in Georgia, where he had an existing unemployment claim from April 2019. He made that application—on the same day that Gov. Reeves allowed evictions again in Mississippi—but since that claim had run out in April 2020, he didn’t know if he’d see any money from that, either.

On June 3, I got this message from Henley: “My job called and I return to work on Friday. I’ve been off for two months without any assistance besides the stimulus and after everything I went through, I’m in a worst position than before but I’m thankful.” He returned to work on Friday, June 5.

Henley wrote today, June 9, and told me that the Georgia Department of Labor’s website shows him eligible under the PUA program for $149 per week, with an effective date of 3/22/20.

He says he’s about $2,000 in debt from the COVID-19 shutdown. He’s hopeful that between Georgia unemployment— if he gets the back payments—and assistance from MGM Employee Relief, he’ll get caught up on bills, stay in his home and support his son.

“You’re welcome to share my story to whomever you choose because it’s real. I just wish the system was (better) designed to help people who really need and deserve UI assistance in times like these,” he wrote June 3. Let’s change this for good, Mississippi.

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hindscc.edu/register2020 In compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX, Education Amendments of 1972 of the Higher Education Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and other applicable Federal and State Acts, Hinds Community College offers equal education and employment opportunities and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability or veteran status in its educational programs and activities. The following have been designated to handle inquiries regarding these policies: EEOC Compliance: Sherry Franklin, Vice President for Utica Campus and Administrative Services, Box 1003, Utica, MS 39175; Phone: 601.885.7002 or Email: EEOC@hindscc.edu. Title IX: Randall Harris, Vice President for Advancement and Student Services, Title IX Coordinator, Box 1100 Raymond MS 39154; Phone: 601.857.3889 or Email: TitleIX@hindscc.edu.

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news,

cu l

storytelling & re, ir tu

“What people have to understand is we say Black Lives Matter because it’s been evident that they don’t.”

TALK JXN

@jxnfreepress

@jacksonfreepress

— Youth and College NAACP President Taylor Turnage at the June 6, 2020, Black Lives Matter march in Jackson

@jxnfreepress

ce eren rev

Historic Protests For Black Lives Sweep Mississippi Over Weekend

by Nick Judin

ling, Sandra Bland and many more—served as a constant backdrop to the protests.

“We’ve been fighting the same battle for centuries,” one protester told the Jackson Free Press. “We’re tired, exhausted, and we’re not going to be passive.”

“(People) need to understand that this is just the beginning. No justice, no peace,” another demonstrator said.

His shirt displayed the words, “I can’t breathe,” the cry for help that has become symbolic of the oppression and violence in the black experience in America, especially since Eric Garner’s death by a police chokehold in New York City in 2014.

The march passed the State Capitol, the Mississippi flag fluttering limply in the breeze beneath the Legislature’s dome.

Furled against its pole, the Confederate stars and bars were its most visible aspect.

“Change the flag!” the crowd chanted as they rounded the street.

No violence or provocations interrupted Saturday’s protests. Nor did a heavy police presence box the demonstrators in. The event unfolded as its organizers intended: peacefully, though on a much larger scale than they could have anticipated.

As the march drew to a close, a hush fell over Capitol Street. Attendees observed eight minutes and 46 seconds of silence, the exact length of time a police officer’s knee pinned George Floyd’s neck to the pavement in Minneapolis.

For many of the protesters, their demands were far-reaching but succinct: an

end to police brutality, through reform, defunding or outright abolition. A new social contract that prioritizes black lives. An end to 400 years of racism at the root level of the United States and Mississippi.

Protest organizers had their own list of specific demands they shared at the end of the event. Organizers called for the removal of all Confederate symbols and memorabilia, including the state flag; the reopening of the case against Columbus police officer Canyon Boykin for the shooting of Ricky Ball; the resignation of Petal Mayor Hal Marx, who defended the actions of the police officer who knelt on George Floyd’s neck; a reduction in the state’s prison population and equitable health care for those more Jackson protest, p 8

June 10 - 23, 2020 • jfp.ms

‘This Is Just The Beginning’

Downtown Jackson roadways were covered in thick crowds of protesters, a multiracial coalition unified against systemic racism and the killing of black men and women. The names of those people— George Floyd, Mario Clark (of Jackson), Marc Davis, Ricky Ball, Ahmaud Arbery, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor, Akai Gurley, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Oscar Grant, Philando Castile, Alton Ster-

A protester at the June 6, 2020, Black Lives Matter rally in downtown Jackson holds a sign emblazoned with the names of some of the many police-violence victims in America in recent years.

Nick Judin

T

housands of protesters took to the streets across the state of Mississippi on Saturday, June 6, calling for freedom from racial injustice and an end to police brutality. From Gulfport to Oxford to Natchez, city squares and the halls of power echoed with cries of “black lives matter” and “no justice, no peace.”

In Jackson, a Black Lives Matter protest at the Governor’s Mansion was expected to draw roughly 400 attendees, but swelled to possibly 4,000 or more. The action, a march in Mississippi’s capital city in honor of George Floyd and countless other victims of police brutality, is likely to be the largest protest in Jackson since Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964.

The protest began at 3 p.m. with a series of speeches from the organizers as well as progressive Mississippi leaders and politicians. A crowd that filled out Capitol Street quickly surrounded a stage erected in front of the Governor’s Mansion. Behind the stage, the face of Emmett Till emblazoned on cloth watched over the proceedings.

Calvert White, vice president of the Alcorn State University NAACP, took the stage to share his own experience growing up as a black man in the South. “This existence, each of ours, has nuances, twists and turns,” White said. But not all of those experiences include the privileges whiteness affords, White explained, pausing to fight back tears as he noticed his mother, Candice, in the crowd in front of him.

“America is only as free as the people of Mississippi are free!” White cried out.

7

TALK JXN

JACKSON PROTEST, from page 7

June 10 - 23, 2020 • jfp.ms

8

No Free Kills In Jackson, Beyond

The first day of a weekend of protest began at the Walter Sillers Building across the street from the Capitol, as representatives from Mississippi’s Poor People’s Campaign attempted to deliver a letter to Attorney General Lynn Fitch.

The letter demanded the evidence that led to her office dismissing the charges against former Columbus police officer Canyon Boykin, who in 2015 shot and killed Ricky Ball, 25, with his body camera turned off. He said Ball threatened him with a gun, with no witnesses present.

In 2016, a Lowndes County grand jury indicted Boykin for murder, asserting that Boykin “did willfully, lawfully, feloniously and unnecessarily kill Ricky Ball.”

Fitch dismissed the charges with prejudice, precluding the opportunity for a jury to try Boykin on the charges in the future.

Representatives from a number of activist groups, including Mississippi’s Poor People’s Campaign, led chants as the crowd gathered outside the building housing the attorney general’s office: “No free

Four of the Jackson Black Lives Matter protest’s organizers—from left: Calvert White, Taylor Turnage, Maisie Brown and Timothy Young—speaking to media after the historic event’s end on June 6, 2020.

Mayor Lumumba Tests Negative for COVID-19

by Kayode Crown

M

ayor Chokwe A. Lumumba tested negative for COVID-19, Communications Director Candace Cole told the Jackson Free Press yesterday.

Lumumba had a mouth swab on May 26 at a mobile testing site at Wood Village Apartments. His wife, Ebony Lumumba, also tested nega- Mayor Lumumba addressed the press before tive to COVID-19. being tested for COVID The Jackson-Hinds 19 on May 26, First Lady Community Health Center Ebony watches. set up the site and collected the samples of many of the residents, even those without symptoms, to increase the testing rate and better mitigate the virus’

Dad Jokes

E

veryone has heard a “dad joke” or two. Some of them are so corny that we cringe. Others make us smile and nod our heads in approval. Here are some one-liners that really put us in the Father’s Day mood.

Q: Why did the teddy bear decline to have dessert?

A: Because it was already stuffed.

Q: What did one plate say to the other plate?

A: Dinner is on me.

Kayode Crown

No Debate Necessary

After the protest, some of the event’s organizers took questions from the press.

Taylor Turnage, president of the Youth and College NAACP, explained the significance of the phrase “Black Lives Matter.”

“What people have to understand is we say Black Lives Matter because it’s been evident that they don’t,” Turnage said. “There honestly should be no debate about human lives.”

Maisie Brown, youth program director at the Institute for Democratic Education in America, held up a placard with the face of Mario Clark.

In 2019, Jackson Police Department officers beat Clark, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, to death after being called to escort him to the hospital.

“Me and Timothy’s decision to hold that picture up of Mario Clark, you can see the look on people’s faces change. You saw his mom crying,” Brown said, comparing it to the photograph of Emmett Till after his murder published in Jet Magazine in 1955. Brown is also an occasional columnist for the Jackson Free Press.

“It’s a put-it-in-your-face moment. I think we want for them to see it head on, right there, right now,” organizer Timothy Young said.

kills”; “no justice, no peace”; “get your knee off my neck.”

Capitol police barred entry to both the Walter Sillers Building and the State Capitol, leading to the gathered demonstrators shouting at the walls of the new Capitol so any legislators and leaders inside the building could hear those who elected them. Eventually, Rep. Zakiya Summers, a Jackson Democrat, came outside to hear the protesters out.

Elsewhere in Mississippi, large crowds gathered in Gulfport, Starkville, Oxford and numerous other Mississippi cities, congregating in public parks and on street corners to make their voices heard.

State intern Julian Mills contributed to this report. Email state reporter Nick Judin at nick@jacksonfreepress.com and follow him @ nickjudin on Twitter

Nick Judin

incarcerated there; and the centering of public health in the state’s upcoming decisions on university and school openings.

threat by identifying more people who may have COVID-19 but do not know it..”

The mayor said the plan is not just for testing to be done at the premises of the health center, but at different places.

“That is what is taking place today. We have this mobile unit set up here outside this apartment complex, and we look forward to having more locations across the city,” he said before his test. “We want to make certain that we make it apparent to the residents that this is a resource that is available to them for free.”

JHCHC Director of Nursing Glendora Singleton said that people could call the main clinic number at 601-362-5321, use the extension for the telemedicine department to schedule a testing appointment with or without symptoms.

Email story tips to city/county reporter Kayode Crown at kayode@jacksonfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @kayodecrown.

Q: Why did the student eat his homework?

A: Because the teacher told him it was a piece of cake.

Q: What do you call a sassy duck?

A: A wise-quacker.

Q: What did one ocean say to the other?

A: Nothing. They just waved.

Q: Why did the kid bring a ladder to class?

A: She wanted to go to high school.

Q: What do you call a vegetable posing as a noddle?

A: An impasta.

Q: Why do bees have sticky hair?

A: Because they use a honeycomb.

Q: Why did the coach go to the bank?

A: To get his quarter back.

Q: In Star Wars, what do you call a droid that takes the long way around?

A: R2 detour.

Q: What did the slower tomato say to the other fruits in the race?

A: “Don’t worry; I’ll ketchup.”

Q: Why do melons have weddings?

A: Because they cantaloupe.

Q: What do you call an old snowman?

A: A puddle.

Q: What do you call a sleeping bull?

A: A bulldozer.

Q: When does a joke become a “dad” joke?

A: When the punchline is a parent.

TALK JXN

solutions

Byram Police: A Model for Domestic-Abuse Response?

by Nick Judin

ask her. “You can’t go home to your family with these kids.”

It was nonsense, gaslighting, a deception piled up on all the other cruelties he inflicted in their years of living together.

But a lie, repeated enough, can come to resemble the truth.

“Even though I knew it was wrong, they’ll say it so many times that (you start) to believe what they’re saying,” she said.

‘We’ve Just Arrested Everybody’ Chief Thompson realized at an April 2017 conference on interpersonal violence in Seattle that his force was handling domestic-violence disputes with the same heavy hand as they did other crimes. The conference introduced him to the “lethality assessment,” a tool academic nurse Dr. Jacquelyn Campbell developed to direct responders to assess the imminent danger to victims at the scene of domestic disputes.

Thompson acknowledges that the typical method of responding to a domestic call fails both the victims and the community at large. Before the new approach, the difficulty of communicating with victims and aggressors in a domestic dispute—as well as the dangers of entering a home in a volatile situation—frequently led officers to treat everyone involved as a potential threat, whether aggressor or victim.

“Domestic violence is the only time in state law that I, as a police officer, am absolutely mandated to make an arrest if I determine a domestic-violence incident has occurred, and if I can determine a principal aggressor,” Thompson said.

But that mandate is easily misunderstood, he warns. “So unfortunately what happens is officers go on the scene … and this is the statement that gets made: If I come back out here, I’m going to take everybody to jail.”

Joyce Sartin, founder and director of Daughters of Baca, survived years of domestic abuse before finding freedom from the isolation and control. Now, she works to provide resources to women struggling with the same issues.

“And that’s the way we’ve done business for a really long time. And unfortunately in the Byram Police Department, we did business that way for a few years.”

Reviewing the numbers from Byram’s 2017 domestic-violence responses, Thompson called in a patrolman to discuss the numbers. “What does this number say to you?” the chief asked. “In 2017, we took 26 reports, and arrested 40 people.”

“It means we’ve just arrested everybody,” the patrolman responded.

‘A Criminal Offender Approach’ Back in Mississippi, Sartin had the support of her family again. But freedom from her abuser was short-lived. “He was dishonorably discharged from the military.

I’m at my mom’s house one day, and I turn around … and he’s at the door,” she said.

They never lived together again. But the abuse continued to escalate. Sartin’s exhusband became a truck driver, sweeping in

and out of town without her awareness.

“We never knew when he was in town,” Sartin said. “So he would do things like come to the house and leave the door halfway open, to make us think someone had broken in. I’d have to call the sheriff for a walk-through to make sure it was OK for me and the kids to go in.”

As the abuse Sartin suffered grew, she eventually involved the police. Brookhaven is a small city, and she considers herself unusually fortunate that she knew the police, and that they understood her situation.

Both times Sartin called law enforcement, they arrested her abuser.

Sartin’s experience is an outlier, and Chief Thompson has statistics to show that not all victims are so fortunate. Of domestic-violence homicides nationwide, “a third of the victims have had some sort of contact with law enforcement in the year prior to their killing, yet only 4% of more ABUSE RESPONSE, p 10

June 10 - 23, 2020 • jfp.ms

courtesy Sandy Middleton

Sandy Middleton, executive director of the The Center for Violence Prevention, says a lack of social services makes it harder for police to help victims of domestic violence.

Sartin was utterly lost, afraid to call the police and without confidants to share her fears with. “Well, where can I go?” she asked herself at the time. “Nobody wants to try to help me, and I’ve got these kids.

Nobody wants to get involved.”

Her abuse took place in the early 1990s, coming to a head when her ex ordered her out of their shared apartment with her son Marcus, locking them out.

Sartin can’t remember what angered him that day. “You don’t know what you’re going to say that’s going to set him off,” she said. She contacted his superior officer and begged him for assistance.

Soon Sartin was on a bus with her son, headed back to Mississippi. There, in her hometown of Brookhaven, she encountered law enforcement from her own community who knew her, and helped protect her, even when her abuser followed her across the country.

But Sartin’s experience is an outlier, and few understand this better than Byram Police Chief Luke Thompson.

courtesy Joyce Sartin

F

or Joyce Sartin, it started with a shove. An argument in the car ended with her then-boyfriend pushing her roughly against a door. It was the first warning sign of many, but Sartin put it out of her mind. “When you’re 20 years old, you don’t know that maybe a push can turn into full-blown domestic violence,” she told the Jackson Free Press.

The violence escalated the moment they left the orbit of her family, moving to Fort Bragg, N.C. Her abuser took full advantage of the separation the move provided. “Isolation is key,” Sartin says, adding that it is one of the strongest control methods that lies at the heart of partner violence.

Her ex decided what Sartin was allowed to do. She couldn’t drive—he would drop her off at work. When he saw her laughing with a male coworker, he forced her to quit. He would interrogate her friends about their conversations. Sartin found a journal he kept about what she said to him. The paranoia stopped her from reaching out to others.

Sartin needed a support network to break out of the abuse cycle, but it was back in Mississippi. “Where you gonna go?” he’d

9

TALK JXN

ABUSE RESPONSE, FROM PAGE 9

June 10 - 23, 2020 • jfp.ms

Trauma-Informed Options Even more important to Thompson’s reforms is the trauma-informed approach his officers now take with domestic calls. In addition to frequently arresting victims of

Byram Police Chief Luke Thompson realized that the way his police department approached domestic violence was re-victimizing the survivors. He argues that a traumainformed approach is necessary to address the crisis.

domestic violence, Byram’s police department previously treated domestic disturbances as “annoyances,” hostile encounters often fruitless to pursue and dangerous to the officers involved.

Now, equipped with the lethality assessment, which asks pointed questions

transportation not in the back of a caged-in patrol car, but a supervisor’s car without the trappings of incarceration.

“I don’t want them to feel like they’re being revictimized,” Thompson said.

Thompson is passionate about the results of the new protocols. In the years since 2017 his department has seen its domesticviolence reports double, but its related arrests nearly cut in half.

In 2018 there were 48 reports and 24 arrests—in 2019 that number was 59 reports and 28 arrests, a totally different proportion than the 26 reports and 40 arrests in 2017. That means the Byram Police Department is now arresting at roughly one-fourth of the rate it had in previous years. Calls for service have dropped with the numbers. “We’re not going to the same locations multiple times, dealing with the same offenders multiple times.”

Thompson credits swift intervention and trauma-informed practices for the change. “Whereas before it was, if I come back, everybody goes to jail. Now we have a scientifically proven instrument to know … that there is an imminent risk of serious bodily injury or death. So we know to take the next step … We put the victim on the phone with a counselor right there on the spot,” he said.

Sandy Middleton, executive director of the The Center for Violence Prevention, which partners with Byram for victim services, holds Thompson and his department up as a model for successful domestic-violence intervention.

So does Mahoney—Thompson sits on MCADV’s board of directors.

COURTESY WENDY MAHONE

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Technological Reform Over the last several years, Thompson has attempted a drastic reform of how his officers respond to domestic violence. A technological change is that Byram has advanced from a “universal crime reporting,” or UCR, system to a “national incidentbased reporting system,” called NIBRS. The original UCR system includes the most significant crime reported in an incident, nesting lesser crimes within it. For example, Thompson explained, the system would log a burglary turned into a murder as a murder alone. The NIBRS system creates a much more complex map of crimes, including individual summaries of all the crimes committed, and most critically, maps out the relationships between all the individuals in all the crimes.

The NIBRS model expands the ability to highlight, search and understand a domestic-violence incident on an infinitely wider scale than before. Starting in 2021, a NIBRS system will be mandatory for all law-enforcement agencies in the country. Mississippi’s attorney general’s office put out a request for proposal for a new uniform domestic-violence reporting system in 2019 that must be fully NIBRS compliant.

That project was put on hold with the election of Lynn Fitch as attorney general last November, but Jeannie Williford at the Mississippi Department of Information

Technology Services told the Jackson Free Press that a contract award is expected in a matter of weeks.

NICK JUDIN

victims get some sort of help,” Thompson said.

That means that 29% of domesticviolence homicide victims had an interaction with law enforcement within 12 months of their deaths without being connected to the services or resources that might have saved their lives, a missed opportunity that Thompson considers an unacceptable failing.

The criminal-offender approach, as Thompson describes it, is indicative of a larger approach to solving social ills through policing. “We have not made that connection between victim services and criminal services,” he explains. But the police baton is no tool for assisting a victim of domestic abuse. Thompson warns that the hard approach makes victims less likely to seek and receive help at all.

Wendy Mahoney, executive director for the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, told the Jackson Free Press that law enforcement cannot assist with domestic violence without understanding it first. “There has not been a clear understanding of the dynamics of domestic violence, what it is and what it is not—the cycle of it,” she said.

MOST VIRAL STORIES AT JFP.MS:

Wendy Mahoney, executive director for the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, says law enforcement cannot assist with domestic and interpersonal violence without understanding it first.

about the degree of abusive behavior the aggressor has previously displayed, officers know how to detect imminent danger to a spouse or partner’s life.

When these factors are detected, the victim is immediately connected to a domestic-violence shelter, and provided with

‘What If We Quit This Bullsh*t?’

But Thompson’s comparative success raises the question of why such distinct personal vision is necessary for a police department to avoid the revictimization of survivors of domestic violence. The Jackson Free Press asked Thompson if the practice of

1. “After Video Emerges, JPD Investigating Officer Over Rough Treatment, Threats” by Kayode Crown 2. “Mississippi Fully Reopens Today After Biggest Week of COVID-19 Cases, Yet” by Julian Mills, Nick Judin 3. “Real Violence: 50 Years Ago at Woolworth” by Trip Burns 4. “With 418 Cases, Mississippi Sees Highest Day of COVID-19 Right Before ‘Safe Return’” by Todd Stauffer 5. “Jackson Protest to Honor George Floyd, Call for End to Systemic Racism”

by Nick Judin

armed police filing the role of social services was worth questioning.

“I think so,” Thomas said. “Go back and look at the last several years in our own state Legislature and where the budgets have been cut. We’ve cut mental-health spending tremendously. (We’ve cut) human services … Add the corruption that’s been in the Department of Human Services. I don’t think we’ll see the full effects of that for years.”

“You look at social services, police services, what behaviors are criminalized, what systems are in place. I thought about this—what would it look like if we quit this bullsh*t? What if the war on drugs became a public-health problem instead of a criminal problem?”

Thompson argues that the responsibilities of his police force—and those of police in general, are determined at the legislative level. Both the boundaries of his job and the funding that provides alternative avenues for addressing issues like domestic violence are generated at the State Capitol.

Middleton agrees, suggesting that, rather than an issue of over-policing, the challenge is that “in the areas where victim services aren’t available, I think that it is difficult for law enforcement to do their jobs, as well as meet the needs of the victim.”

Comprehensive victim services, Middleton says, are the only way to meet the gaps that are otherwise filled in by law enforcement.

Cross-training, Middleton says, is key.

Sartin believes victim services and law enforcement best work hand in hand.

“If police officers could connect with a domestic violence advocate … there may be some barriers that the advocate is trained to handle,” Sartin says.

“It’s not a model that we made up.

This is not anything new. We hope that by getting more agencies to do it, they’d probably see similar results.” Thompson said.

Read the JFP’s full coverage of COVID19 at jacksonfreepress.com/COVID19. Email tips to nick@jacksonfreepress.com.

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11

K. Jason CoKer

T

his message is for white people. I am a white, heterosexual, 43-year-old man from Mississippi. There is a crisis of belief among what has felt like the vast majority of our white sisters and brothers throughout the U.S. Historically, we don’t believe people who are not white.

We also don’t believe the white people who believe nonwhite people. We don’t believe in statistics that say nonwhite people are disproportionately policed and incarcerated. And when I say nonwhite, I’m mostly talking about African Americans, as well as the Latinx community, along with so many other nonwhite communities.

When we do believe the statistics about policing and incarceration (and health, economic and educational disparities and and and), we blame nonwhite people. There must be something wrong with them to invite so much policing or for them to be sentenced to such long prison terms.

Their culture is broken, we say. They must be more criminal, less committed to living a healthy lifestyle, less intelligent, less capable of upward economic mobility.

They must be the problem.

If they are more criminal or less intelligent by nature, the flawed logic goes, then “we” must police and incarcerate them more and make sure they never move up in our society because they are so deficient.

“We” must suppress their capacity to vote in “open” elections, not spend too

June 10 - 23, 2020 • jfp.ms

There is a devastating lie somehwere.

12

much money to educate them, not pay them too much for their labor, not worry too much about them being shot and strangled to death by the police.

Many white people believe this. There are probably more white people who do not, yet are still more bothered by the “looting” and “senseless” destruction of property than the killing of George Floyd. They are white people who say, “We don’t know the backstory.” The backstory must so horrible that it somehow can justify the killing.

Floyd must have done something terrible for a police officer to hold him down like that with his knee on his neck, right?

Because we can’t believe that a cop would do

Photo by John Cameron on UnsPlash

What Is Wrong with America Is Us White People

Editor-in-Chief and CEO Donna Ladd Publisher & President Todd Stauffer Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin Creative Director Kristin Brenemen REPORTERS AND WRITERS City Reporter Kayode Crown State Reporter Nick Judin State Intern Julian Mills Contributing Writers Dustin Cardon, Bryan Flynn, Alex Forbes, Jenna Gibson, Tunga Otis Torsheta Jackson, Mike McDonald, Anne B. Mckee, EDITORS AND OPERATIONS Deputy Editor Nate Schumann JFPDaily.com Editor Dustin Cardon Executive Assistant Azia Wiggins Consulting Editor JoAnne Prichard Morris ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY Senior Designer Zilpha Young Contributing Photographers Seyma Bayram, Acacia Clark, Nick Judin, Imani Khayyam, Ashton Pittman, Brandon Smith

K. Jason Coker writes that many white people cannot believe America is great and also believe nonwhite people when they describe their lived experience in the same country. This must change, he says.

something like that without good reason— because we don’t believe nonwhite people when they tell us over and over again that this is exactly what happens.

White people believe that police are here to protect us. They are there when we need them most. And in our lived experience this has been true. When we call 911, help is on the way! That’s exactly how the system works for us.

Our experiences with law enforcement, banking, real estate, education, health care, etc., are generally good. These institutions are put in place for us to live at peace and even get ahead—that’s been our lived experience. We live in one of the greatest countries in the world where you can do better by working harder. Where we are rewarded by doing the right thing.

Our experience in the U.S. has been pretty good. If someone is not having such a good experience, it must mean that there is something wrong with them. We can’t believe that America is great and also believe nonwhite people when they describe their lived experience here. We can’t believe in our country and their experience at once—they are truly incongruent. There is a devastating lie somewhere.

Will we white people believe in America, or will we believe nonwhite people?

The majority of white people choose to believe in America. That is the white choice, and it is also the wrong choice. It is wrong because America cannot be great until there is real equity in lived experience across all our different identities. America cannot be great just for white people. If

that’s the case, then it is not a great nation.

Here is what absolutely amazes me. So many African Americans and other nonwhite people believe in this country, too!

Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream was of an America that lived into its professed values of liberty and freedom for all. The Mississippi civil-rights icon Medgar Evers fought for this country in World War II but could not vote for the governor of Mississippi or the U.S. president when he returned.

Even now, when there is concerted effort to suppress black voters through voter registrations, gerrymandering and the closing of DMVs in predominantly African American towns where one has to show their ID cards to vote, many black Americans still participate in the systems and seek to change the inequities that have been historically piled on their backs.

Their belief in America is so astonishing that white people should be inspired by African Americans’ belief in this country and work to move toward its best ideals.

What is wrong with America is us white people. The crisis in our belief puts too many people at risk. If we truly believed that George Floyd was as good as any good white person we knew, we would be devastated. If we believed George Floyd was as good or as human as our white sons, we’d want to blow something up or set something on fire. If we believed, we could change what’s wrong.

K. Jason Coker is coordinator of the The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Mississippi.

This column does not necessarily reflect the views of the JFP.

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13

Guys We Love J

une is the month we all show appreciation to the fathers in our lives who have shown us support and love over the years. In celebration of Father’s Day, the Jackson Free Press honors men, many of whom are dads themselves, in the metro area who have done noteworthy things or who are active within their communities.

In 1997, Craig Gill returned to the South to become the senior editor of the University Press of Mississippi. Originally from Arkansas, Gill previously worked at the Northwestern University Press, University of Chicago Press and University Press of Kentucky. The ideas of being closer to family here, his children going to Jackson Public Schools and working for a press he admired excited him.

“I knew Mississippi was an up-and-coming place,” Gill tells the Jackson Free Press.

For 50 years, the University Press has published scholarly work and books that represent Mississippi and the southern region to the world, primarily focusing on African American studies and popular culture. As the only nonprofit book publisher in Mississippi, the press represents all Mississippi public universities and publishes approximately 85 books each year.

After serving as senior editor, Gill was promoted to editor-in-chief, assistant director and eventually director in 2016. As director, Gill has aimed to bring stability and technological improvements to the University Press. He also implemented a new business program,

courtesy Craig Gill

Craig Gill

database and website for the press.

“A lot of the things that had my immediate attention were sort of the least sexy things because it was all about making sure that we had the infrastructure in place so that we could continue to grow in the future,”

Gill explains in an interview.

Part of that growth he attributes to his full-time staff members, many of whom started as interns or assistants.

“These are folks from Mississippi, and for the most part, people who have been able to grow into truly excellent publishing professionals,” he says. “I’m very proud of the fact that we’re able to maintain a press that’s got a national and international reputation while really developing our local talents.”

Gill and his team were looking forward to celebrating the press’ 50th anniversary with multiple events, but because of the coronavirus, those events have been postponed or canceled.

UPM’s current focus is on organizing virtual events with authors and promoting book sales on social media. Still, Gill hopes to celebrate the 50th anniversary through social media and through events organized alongside their local partners throughout the year.

Meanwhile, Gill says he’ll continue to be a workaholic and attempt to enjoy his free time with his wife.

—Alyssa Bass

Jarrod Scott

June 10 - 23, 2020 • jfp.ms

Anthony | Capture Studio, LLC

Jarrod Scott remembers going to work with his dad when he was 5 years old. His father, who died in 2015, worked for an audiovisual company before starting his own business, Tech Plus AV Services.

As Scott continued to work alongside his father, he also interned at a local news station in high school.

One day during Scott’s junior year, his father asked him what he would need to be able to pursue a career in videography and photography and then subsequently supplied him with a new computer and a camcorder.

“You live a moment once, but I’ll let you watch it forever,” Scott says, reciting his motto.

Today, Scott runs his father’s business as well as his own business, Jay Scott Visuals. Scott has captured weddings and graduations, done maternity shoots, and shot promotional videos for businesses like the Metro Jackson Chamber of Commerce and Opera Mississippi. He has also worked out of state in Louisiana, Iowa, Ohio and Florida.

He says some people don’t realize how much effort goes into turning interviews

14

into the 30-second or one-minute videos that customers occasionally request.

“I’ve literally been in situations where we shot 10 hours worth of stuff, and it’s going to be narrowed down into like five minutes or three minutes,” he says. “A lot of times people don’t know the other side needed to get that finished product.”

Scott thanks his father for more than just being present, crediting him for instilling the importance of professionalism, communication and looking the part.

These lessons are why he continues to book new clients and work with old ones, Scott explains.

“My dad never made anything about race,” Scott says. “He always said, ‘You have to recognize where you live and the time in which you live.’ Being black and being young, a lot of times people would easily doubt you like I don’t know what I’m doing or what I’m talking about,” he says.

“They’ll look at me and say, ‘Oh this young, black bull. What does he know?’ And once they see the work, they get past that.”

—Alyssa Bass

courtesy Steve Price

Steve Price

they are to create content and programs that are relevant, sustainable and effective.”

The Brandon resident says he’s proud of Teen Health’s latest project, the Emergency Relief Fund Program. The program has given more than $15,000 to more than 150 teens who have demonstrated immediate financial need because of COVID-19.

Lofton currently takes online courses through George Washington University in pursuit of a master’s degree in political management. He enjoys using strategies like human-centered design to craft plans for state politicians through his consulting business, Benchmark Election Strategies. His first client was Mississippi Rep. Daryl Porter Jr., for whom he helped organize campaign events, engagement strategies and a 43page campaign plan. He strives to one day work in Washington, D.C., with a U.S. senator or president.

For now, Lofton is working on separating his work and home lives. In his free time, he writes for TheBody, which is an HIV/AIDS online resource, reads self-help books, and watches Netflix and chills with his partner.

“That doesn’t always include sex,” he says, laughing.

—Alyssa Bass

For Micah Everson, Jackson is a big city. Raised in a small town near Helena, Mont., Everson decided as a high-school freshman that he wanted to major in Latin, which certainly narrowed down his college options. “I only applied to three schools,” Everson said. “I ended up at the University of Montana, majoring in history and the classics.”

Everson discovered that the traditional pathway to the classroom via his college’s education program would prolong his undergraduate degree by a year and a half. He decided to take an alternate route instead and enlist with Teach for America in 2010.

“That year, there was a big push for teachers to go to Mississippi or to Arkansas. I really wanted to teach Latin, but I didn’t think it would be possible my first year,” Everson said of his crosscountry move.

Luckily, Murrah High School was looking for a Latin teacher, and the recent college graduate accepted the post. He has been at Murrah ever since, coaching the school’s debate team in addition to teaching two to three levels of Latin coursework.

When he’s not teaching college students as a professor and the director of the writing center at Mississippi College, Steve Price volunteers at the RideABILITY Therapeutic Riding Center, which uses horseback riding as therapy for children with special needs, and serves on the organization’s board of directors.

“The idea is that children mostly learn how to ride horses, and through that action they develop core strength, physical strength, emotional strength. They learn how to communicate,” he says. “We just try to make connections with kids who are in need for that sort of work.”

The professor learned about RideABILITY in 2009 while searching for a place where his students could volunteer, and his involvement has continued over the last decade. With the center, Price walks alongside the horses while supporting riders, sometimes helping the children steer their mounts, and assists in other developmental exercises as well.

Growing up in Wisconsin, Price earned his undergraduate degree in English writing and English secondary education from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 1989. After teaching at a high school in Wisconsin for a few years, he moved to Arizona to pursue his master’s degree in English literature from Arizona State, which he received in

“In other parts of the country, a debate team is just as expected as a football or basketball team,” he noted, citing the importance of the debate world.

Even amid the current COVID-19 crisis, Everson’s team has spent many hours on Zoom preparing for their national tournament, which will be held virtually this year, by scrimmaging with schools representing other states. His team specializes in the debate event known as world schools debate.

Everson praised his team’s dedication and achievements. “I’m really proud of the effort these students have put in, especially my seniors. Maybe it’s because it’s my 10th year, but this really has been a special group to work with.”

He lauded Murrah debate alumni for aiding with practices, saying that it was particularly satisfying for him to watch students’ progress through time.

“If my students remember one thing I taught them, it would be that words matter,” Everson said.

“Whether it’s what we read or what we hear, the words we use and the words we take in matter.”

—Taylor McKay Hathorn

1993. That fall, Price decided to move to Louisiana to get his doctorate in English literature with Louisiana State University.

A job opening with Mississippi College for a position as a professor brought Price to the Jackson area in 1999 to teach English literature. In 2004, he moved back north by way of Illinois, but he missed Mississippi and Jackson. So when a new opportunity arose to rejoin MC as the director of its writing center and as a professor of English writing and English secondary education, he jumped at the chance and returned in 2008.

“When I first started teaching, I thought teaching was more or less just delivering information. Over the years, I’ve come to realize that teaching is about forging relationships and making connections,” he says. “I realize that when I work with students, that’s where the learning takes place, because of those connections and those relationships.”

In his free time, Price likes to bike and run, read and write, and dabble in photography. He lives in the Broadmeadow area in Jackson with his wife, Deirdre Danahar, and their dog Ethel, whom the couple describes as a stray dog that never left, showing up in their yard and choosing them as her family.

—Jenna Gibson

June 10 - 23, 2020 • jfp.ms

courtesy Justin Lofton

In high-school biology class, Justin Lofton and his classmates watched a video of a woman giving birth. To him, that event felt more like a scare tactic than sex education. He says he feels lucky to have been educated by his mother, a nurse, who supported him when he came out as queer.

“People are misinformed about what sex education is,” Lofton says. “It’s really just teaching them how to have safe sex if they’re going to have it, but also encouraging them to abstain if they can.”

The 28-year-old serves as the director of youth engagement at Teen Health Mississippi. There, he works with 10 young activists on the Mississippi Youth Council who advocate for comprehensive sex education.

The council participates in advocacy training, writing bills and lobbying at the Capitol.

“Teen Health Mississippi is truly a servant organization that wants young people to lead in a collaborative partnership,” he says. “Instead of telling young people what to do, they actually sit and take the time to allow young people to vocalize their perspectives and opinions and utilize those perspectives and opinions to meet them where

Micah Everson

courtesy Micah Everson

Justin Lofton

more GUYS WE LOVE, see page 16 15

courtesy Hunter Jones

Hunter Jones had planned to use the bachelor’s degree in kinesiology he earned from Mississippi College in 2017 to become a physical therapist. Instead, the 25year-old discovered a different way to help people with their physical needs: creating custom wheelchairs for people with disabilities.

Specifically, Jones crafts the chairs for people who either have spinal-cord injuries or who have suffered strokes, which he does through the company for whom he works, NuMotion. Since entering this career path, Jones has helped children, teenagers and grown adults alike regain a greater sense of mobility.

“They’re still people, but now that they have some sort of disability, they kind of feel like they lose their humanity and lose hope,” he says. “I really like being able to sit down with them and figure out what their (physical) goals are, and make a plan for them to complete those goals.”

Part of his job is ascertaining what areas need improvement in each wheelchair to balance with the capabilities of its user, as

well as to accommodate for physical areas that users may need assistance with.

“A lot of times they lose a lot of function with their arms or legs, and it’s my job to figure out what they can use and how to maximize what they’ve got through a lot of different resources,” he says. “We try to give them the most function and try to make it to where the insurance can cover most of it. … It’s really rewarding.”

The Pontotoc, Miss., native believes that maintaining a positive attitude is crucial for being able to move forward, even when faced with circumstances we feel set us back.

“There’s a plan for your life. Even if something doesn’t work out or if something happens that you don’t think is supposed to happen, just stay hopeful and keep moving forward. I see that in a lot of my patients’ lives and in my life as well,” he says. “As long as you keep a positive outlook and keep looking forward, I think God will always be able to use you in whatever situation you’re in.”

Jones lives in Jackson with his wife, Bethany, and their 20-month-old son, Charlie.

—Jenna Gibson

June 10 - 23, 2020 • jfp.ms

David Byrd

16

David Byrd says he sees no difference between himself and the formerly incarcerated men he works with at New Way Ministries. This was not always the case, however. “Many decades ago, I did not care to help prisoners. I thought they deserved what they got,” Byrd said.

The reason for his dramatic change of heart was twofold: his salvation and his youngest son’s diagnosis of brain cancer. “Before his diagnosis, we were too busy, but he was instrumental in getting us involved,” Byrd recalled.

Armed with this newfound sense of purpose, Byrd works to help participants achieve the two main goals of the program: attending Bible study and working.

Byrd believes that the role of the ministry in helping returning men, many of whom came from impoverished backgrounds, reorient back into Jackson society is pivotal for the community.

“I’m hopeful. We’ve seen a lot of progress. We help make them into productive citizens and put them back into

One night in 2015, head coach Cecil Hinds was expected to make a choice. The Madison Central girls and boys’ soccer teams had games on the same night in Tupelo and Northwest Rankin.

Hinds decided to travel to Tupelo and watch the girls secure a win.

He surprised everyone when he arrived at Northwest Rankin during the second half of the boys’ game.

He had taken a small plane from Tupelo to Madison, where police escorted him to Northwest Rankin. He then coached the boys to victory.

Since coming to Madison Central in 2011, he has led the boys’ team to four consecutive 6A championship titles— starting from his first year at the school— and he has led the girls’ team to three.

Although Hinds is proud of that record, he says he is always focused on preparing his students for life after soccer. Part of his responsibility as their mentor is to encourage them to be better people.

“It’s easy to do the corporate route of winning at all costs,” Hinds says.

“That for me is a lot more than results.

It’s about developing character and work

Courtesy David Byrd

Hunter Jones

Cecil Hinds

courtesy Cecil Hinds

Guys We Love, from page 15

a community where they thrive,” he says.

Byrd’s son Blythe, the impetus of his father’s participation at New Way Ministries, is involved in helping the men at New Way Ministries find jobs after they complete a sixmonth stint in the program. Byrd was particularly proud that one of the men who found work through the program

ethic, and I believe that everything else will fall into place.”

Hinds’ coaching style is inspired by his journey as an immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago.

He arrived in the U.S. to attend Belhaven University on a soccer scholarship. After realizing he had taken some things for granted in his home country and witnessing American children do the same, he began to appreciate his support system more.

Nevertheless, Hinds knows that when people look at him, they see his accomplishments. His desire to not disappoint others motivates him to work hard.

“I think a lot of people just see me on the outside as hard,” he says. “I want to please more than anything else. Your hurt is my hurt, and your disappointment is my disappointment. I’ll go back to the drawing board to make it right.”

The coach says he generally shies away from publicity because he doesn’t want to inflate what he has done. He’d rather continue to do good work for others whether or not anyone is watching.

—Alyssa Bass

now owns a home and a car and is expecting his daughter, who now lives out of state, to come live with him.

The Jackson-area resident cautioned against seeing the accumulation of possessions as an end goal of the program, though. “There’s one thing I tell them: I’ve never seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul trailer. There’s more to this life than gathering assets,” he says.

When speaking of the parts of his life that he views as most important, Byrd cited his wife, his three children and his 10-year-old granddaughter, with whom he is especially close.

“We do everything together,” he says. “We go fishing.

She’s caught fish, turtles and a duck, but basically we do anything she wants to do.”

The antics of the child he affectionately termed as “Papa’s girl” led Byrd to quip that his now-grown children claim in good humor that he treats his granddaughter differently than he treated them as children, a statement that he admitted was true.

“I’m a family man,” Byrd concluded. “At the end of the day, (family is) all we’ve got.”

—Taylor McKay Hathorn

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6/9/20

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COURTESY CÉSAR VÁZQUEZ

César Vázquez

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,and family areas including court hearing, depositions, jail visitations, client interviews and medical appointments. He has provided interpretation at federal, circuit, chancery, county, justice, municipal and youth courts.

Additionally, Vázquez has his own business called SRVC Vázquez Partners in which he works with other interpreters to provide interpretation/translation services in more than 26 languages.

Most of his clients ask for interpretation services either at the office of immigration in Pearl, New Orleans or Memphis.

“There are also immigrants who are detained for criminal matters,” Vázquez says.

“The way I help them is by assisting attorneys or prosecutors with jail visitations, communicating with their relatives, and letting them know about the case and about the process that is going to follow.”

Due to social distancing, Vázquez is having more over-the-phone court hearings. “I have seen an increase in the video calls that I need to prepare for. At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a huge reduction of business. Now it is steadily picking up again,” he says.

Vázquez gained his citizenship after marrying an American woman, and earned a master’s degree in Law Mississippi College. His plans for the future are to continue doing what he has been doing for years, and keep growing in his legal career.

“My dream is to get licensed here in the U.S. and be able to personally keep helping the people that are in need of legal representation,” he says.

—Mauricio J. Quijano more GUYS WE LOVE, see page 18

www.easykale.com

To Our Staff Award Winners for may Falcon Award

(Staff ’s Choice) Kayode Crown City Reporter

Enterprising Reporter

Nick Judin & Julian Mills State Reporter / State Intern

Kick Ass

(Manager’s Choice) Azia Wiggins Executive Assistant Community Engagement

Nate Schumann Deputy Editor

June 10 - 23, 2020 • jfp.ms

Members of the Latino undocumented community in Jackson have been left in limbo since COVID-19 postponed their immigration hearings. Amid times like these, the role of César Vázquez, a court interpreter, has become more valuable than ever as he helps the community reschedule the trials and works to prevent them from being deported if they do not meet their legal processes.

Vázquez, 34, was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and graduated from the University of Nuevo Leon in Monterrey in 2009 where he specialized in labor law and international human rights.

The same year, Vázquez came to Jackson to work as a paralegal for the law firm Elmore & Associates where he became one of the most established interpreters for non-English speaking people in the Jackson metro.

“I help Latinos that do not have a current immigration legal status; a lot of them are waiting now for the offices of immigration to re-open so they can continue processing their cases for their legal stay,” Vázquez says.

Members of this community constantly ask Vázquez to check if the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is open so that they can do whatever they need to do in that entity to ensure they can continue to legally live in the area.

“I am certain that the number of interpretations I have done since I came to Mississippi are in the thousands by now.

There are times when I need to assist with five or six interpretations in one day. I try to be available even during holidays, over the phone or via teleconferences,” he says.

Vázquez has helped in criminal, civil

17

courtesy chris Gray

Guys We Love, from page 17

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June 10 - 23, 2020 â&#x20AC;˘ jfp.ms

Network Security Engineer-Senior

18

The University of Mississippi Medical Center located at 2500 N. State St., Jackson MS 39216 seeks a Network Security Engineer-Senior to design and implement network solutions that improve and maintain the security of UMMC networks, investigate and troubleshoot all phases of network security issues using security tools which include but are not limited to firewalls, IDS, proxies, content filters, logging, VPN, and routers to ensure the security of UMMC networks at 2500 N. State St., Jackson MS 39216 and 350 W. Woodrow Wilson Ave., Jackson MS 39213. Requires a Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Degree in Computer Science, Management Information Systems or related field plus 3 yearsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experience. Bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Degree in Computer Science, Management Information Systems or related field, plus 5 yearsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experience is acceptable.

Please send resume to Allen Williams, UMMC 2500 N. State St., Jackson, MS 39216.

Chris Gray Chris Gray and his wife, Andrea, spent weeks in Russia searching for a Bible written in the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary language as a gift for their soon-to-be adopted daughter, Hannah Claire. On their third and final trip to Russia as part of the adoption process, the couple found themselves with less than 24 hours in the country, and they still had not discovered a Russian copy.

Then, while unboarding a bus, Grayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eyes met with an older Russian man near the exit. As Gray approached, the man stood, reached into his coat pocket and pressed its contents into Grayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s chest. As soon as the Pearl native grasped the item, he knew what it wasâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a copy of the New Testament, in Russian.

Years later, after receiving an adoption grant to cover the costs of adopting his second daughter, Ava, from Poland, Gray says he knew God wanted him to use the testimonies of these experiences to promote adoption. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In that moment, something just stirred in me,â&#x20AC;? he says.

Thus, Gray founded Zacchaeusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Tree Adoption Ministry in November 2015.

Through his work with the ministry, Gray speaks at churches throughout Mississippi to encourage families to consider foster care and adoption, domestically or internationally, as well as offering a support system for families who have already gone through the process, he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My favorite part, outside of meeting

the families at each church, is hearing the stories from families who have adopted or have done foster care, and just getting to learn more about them and their experiences,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Each family has a storyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; my family, we have a story. I just want to try to do my part to be an advocate to help bring awareness to adoption.â&#x20AC;?

Gray also teaches classes on the first and third Wednesdays of each month, from August to May, at Crossgates Baptist Church in Brandon.

The classes cover the whole realm of adoption and foster care, ranging from how to become a foster parent to how to fundraise for your adoption. Families of any church affiliation are welcome. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Adoption has meant a lot to me and my family, and we have just enjoyed it and now want to help spread that joy to other families in the best way that we can,â&#x20AC;? says Gray.

Additionally, Gray is working on getting Senate Bill 2187 passed, a bill that will help Mississippi-based adoptive families from the past, present and future be able to get their adopted child a â&#x20AC;&#x153;Certificate of Foreign Birthâ&#x20AC;? without having to re-adopt their child through the chancery court in Mississippi.

To learn more about Zacchaeusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Tree Adoption Ministry, find the organization on Facebook. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Jenna Gibson, Nate Schumann

MUSIC

A Musical Inheritance, Trumpeter Builds Band Program

by Torsheta Jackson

Kimble Funchess often plays in the metro as a member of the Jackson Horns when he is not instructing young musicians at Yazoo City High.

as a student at Jackson State University.

The musician took a hiatus from JSU to tour with blues legend Johnny Taylor. Playing with the Taylormade Orchestra opened numerous professional doors for Funchess, including opportunities to perform on studio recordings for local music companies with artists like Willie Clayton and Denise LaSalle. Funchess was also often hired

to help complete the tour band when groups such as The Temptations performed in the area.

However, the dream of teaching music lingered, so he returned to Jackson State University and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education.

He served as band director at Yazoo City High, Peeples Middle School in Jackson and McComb High School before landing at Yazoo County High.

The 12-year educator, who also holds a master’s degree in school counseling, has created a program called “Mindfulness Through Music.” The program combines music and counseling techniques to improve classroom behaviors.

It offers professional development for teachers on how to use music to increase skills such as focus, relaxation and following directions for students.

Funchess, who continues to play professionally with the Jackson Horns in the metro area, hopes that his students will see the diverse possibilities that music offers.

“We want our students the opportunities to be in the education side of music in the classroom or to know that they can perform at churches (or) professionally,” Funchess says. “There are tons of jobs out there where people had their initial start in music.”

To learn more about Kimble Funchess, visit kimblefunchessmusic.wixsite.com/mysite-1 or follow him on Facebook or Instagram.

Looking for something great to do in Jackson? Visit JFPEVENTS.COM for more.

COMMUNITY Summer Legal Clinic Series June 12, noon, Online. The Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project hosts the series of workshops to explain and answer any questions from the general public regarding the following legal matters: irreconcilable differences (no fault) divorce, uncontested guardianships, simple wills, advance healthcare directive, power of attorney, and felony and misdemeanor expungement matters. Participants can join the workshops online or by phone at 872-240-3412 (access code: 214-158-133).

Free admission; call 601-882-5001; email rkennebrew@mvlp.org; mvlp.org.

KIDS 10th Annual I Got Bank National Youth Essay & Art Contest June 10-June 24, all day, Online.

OneUnited Bank sponsors the 10th-annual financial literacy contest for youth between the ages of 8-12 years old. Participants either write and submit a 250-word essay or create and submit an art project about what they learned from the book “I Got Bank!,” or from another financial literacy book available in their library or home, and how they can use what they learned in their lives or the lives of their families. Free admission; email suzan@circleofonemarketing. com; oneunited.com.

FOOD & DRINK Free Drive-Through Lunch June 18, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., at Hinds Behavioral Health Services

(3450 Hwy 80 West ). Hinds Behavioral Health Services offers free drive-through lunch with a goody bag and drug prevention resources. Free admission; call 601-321-2400; email outreach@ hbhs9.com; hbhs9.com.

SPORTS & WELLNESS Soul Synergy Virtual Yoga June 10-11, June 15-18, June 22-25, 10 a.m., Online. Soul Synergy offers a virtual yoga class. $7 individual class rate; call 601-992-7721; email soulsynergycenter@gmail.com; soulsynergycenter.com.

LITERARY Welty at Home | A Virtual Book ClubJune 10, noon-1 p.m., via Zoom. Eudora Welty House & Garden and Mississippi Department of Archives & History host Virtual Book Club to explore Eudora Welty’s novel- “Losing Battles” over a period of 10 weeks, an average of 45 pages per week with live book club discussion on Zoom led by Welty’s friend and biographer Dr. Suzanne Marrs. Those unable to make the Zoom video call can follow on Facebook and Instagram. For more information email info@eudoraweltyhouse. com. Free to the public. Free admission; call 601353-7762; email info@eudoraweltyhouse.com; find it on Facebook.

“The Hour of Fate” Reading June 12, noon, Online. Author Susan Berfield reads from her book. RSVP required at hillary@lemuriabooks. com. Link and password provided upon reservation. Free admission, reservation required; call 601-366-7619; lemuriabooks.com.

CREATIVE CLASSES Virtual smART Spaces Classes June 10, June 12, June 15, June 17, June 19, June 22, June 24, 9 a.m., via Facebook Live (Online ). Hattiesburg Parks & Recreation holds creative class covering various art styles and topics online. Free admission; call 601-545-6682; find it on Facebook.

PROFESSIONAL & BIZ The Board Assessment: Taking the Pulse of Governance in Action June 11, 2-3 p.m., Online. The Mississippi Alliance of Nonprofits and Philanthropy hosts the webinar on board assessments, processes and governance.

Registration required. . Admission TBA; call 601-968-0061; email connect@alliancems.org; thedatabank.com.

Fifty-Three Ways For Board Members To Raise $1,000 June 17, noon-1 p.m., Online. The Mississippi Alliance of Nonprofits and Philanthropy hosts the webinar on the ways that board members can strategically raise $1,000 for their nonprofit organization. Registration required.

Admission TBA; call 601-968-0061; email connect@alliancems.org; thedatabank.com.

CEO Space Virtual Gathering: Southeast June 17, 1-2:30 p.m., Online. CEO Space hosts a virtual gathering of business leaders so that they may network. Registration required. Free general admission; Eventbrite.

The Executive Director Performance Review: A Nonprofit’s Commitment June 18, 2-3 p.m., Online. The Mississippi Alliance of Nonprofits

and Philanthropy hosts the webinar on executive leadership performance planning and review to provide a framework for board members and executives’ decisions and processes. Registration required. $20 members, $40 non-members; call 601-968-0061; email connect@alliancems.org; thedatabank.com.

Your Board and Crisis: How to Handle Adversity June 23, 9 a.m.-noon, Online. The Mississippi Alliance of Nonprofits and Philanthropy hosts the webinar on identifying and thinking through components of successful crisis response strategies. Registration required. $69 members, $109 non-members; call 601-968-0061; email connect@alliancems.org; thedatabank.com.

RELIGIOUS Thursday Morning Live June 11, June 18, 7-8 p.m., via Facebook Live. The Highland Colony Men’s Roundtable hosts the Christian worship event on Facebook Live. Free admission; find it on Facebook.

Aldersgate Jxn Virtual Worship June 14, June 21, 11 a.m.-noon, Online. Aldersgate United Methodist Church holds worship services via Facebook Live. Free admission; call 601-3668071; email aldersgateumcoffice@gmail.com; find it on Facebook.

Country Woods Sunday Worship June 14, 10:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m., via Facebook Live.

Country Woods Baptist Church in Byram hosts online worship services every Sunday morning. Free admission; call 601-371-7955; find it on Facebook.

June 10 - 23, 2020 • jfp.ms

EVENTS

Valerie Crancer

K

imble Funchess lifts his arms and young musicians, seated side-by-side in arched rows, position their instruments. With the drop of his hands, the band begins playing. The Yazoo County High School’s band director smiles as the melodies reverberate through the room.

Funchess, a member of the Jackson Horns, began the school’s music program in 2014 with a group of sixth graders who had never before held an instrument. Within three years, he had established a competition-ready program, an accomplishment befitting a man who has spent much of his life engulfed in music.

Discovering music in elementary school, the fifth grader, inspired by Louis Armstrong, convinced his parents to allow him to join the band program.

“I remember seeing (him) on a television show, and he was playing his trumpet. After he played his last note, he opened his arms, threw his head back and (did) that laugh that everybody knows him for,” Funchess said.

“When I saw how they responded to him, I knew that was something that I wanted to do. Whatever he was sharing with the world and whatever he was getting back, I wanted that.”

The Crystal Springs native mastered the same horn as Armstrong, the trumpet. He played in his school band throughout middle and high school and continue to do so

19

Arts

Home is Where the Robot Is: Kaz-Magic Studios

by Nate Schumann furthered his education at the International Academy of Design and Technology in Tampa, Fla., before settling into Ridgeland and building Kaz-Magic Studios. Roseman now claims six separate families as his own, although he is currently building relationships within his immediate family.

“It doesn’t matter where you came from, what you are or what you have done in your past. You can have people who accept you as family,” he says.

These themes of family and finding acceptance in those who may not be one’s blood relations are found within one of Roseman’s current comic books, “Unit C7.” In this comic title, a robot designed as an instrument of war for the fictional world’s government crash-lands in front of two young girls, 16-year-old tech genius Collete and 6-year-old Sophie.

For some reason, this robot, Unit C7, rebels against his programming and decides to rescue the girls from an attack by another robot. As a result, he is forced to live as a fugitive while serving as the girls’ protector, and he begins to learn the values of humanity and the merits of human life.

courtesy Frederick Roseman

F

or Ridgeland resident Frederick Roseman, a freelance artist and local comic creator who uses the name Kaz-Magic Studios, the concept of family has been a driving force in both his personal life and in his artistic works.

Roseman says he felt like an outcast within his own family while growing up, only reconnecting with some family members once he had already come of age. Losing his mother to breast cancer when he was 13 years old amplified these emotions.

The Belzoni, Miss., native moved to the Jackson area in 2002 to attend Hinds Community College, where he studied graphic design. At Hinds, Roseman befriended Jesse Sweat, whose mother Robin Juve’ welcomed the budding artist into their family.

“She really became a mom to me. As time has gone on, I have had other people who have made me a part of their family (as well),” he says. To this day, Robin still calls Roseman “Son,” and he calls her “Mum.”

This trend of finding surrogate families with whom he could be himself and feel loved and accepted continued as he

Frederick Roseman of Kaz-Magic Studios sells his art and other items as a vendor at a local convention.

“When I was growing up, I wanted to be accepted for who I am. That was a big deal to me. That’s why the whole word of family comes to play in ‘Unit C7,’” he says. “Unit C7 may be a robot. He may be animatronic. He may not have human emotions. But they learn to accept him, and that’s why, to them, he is a beautiful

creature on the inside.”

Roseman, 35, formulated the concept of Unit C7 himself and published a prologue on Webtoons that focuses on one of the main characters, Colette, prior to the events of the first full-length issue. He now is working with a team to publish the comic title through 123 GO Publications, through which Roseman recently published his first comic for print, “Gunmetal Black Ops,” which stars two female assassins.

Webtoons also hosts the first webcomic that Roseman created, “Hybrid Children,” which features children who have had their genes spliced to give them extraordinary abilities. He hopes to publish the title as a three-book series with 123 in the future.

To learn more about Kaz-Magic Studios, visit kazmagicarts.wixsite.com/kazmarts or follow him on its multiple social media platforms. Copies of “Gunmetal Black Ops” can be found on indyplanet.com, while pages from “Unit C7” and “Hybrid Children” can be found on Webtoons. To learn more about 123 GO Publications, find the independent comic publisher on Facebook.

jfp SPOTLIGHT

5 Things to Know about Ken Steere Lead Driver

June 10 - 23, 2020 • jfp.ms

courtesy Ken Steere

20

1

I grew up in Fairfax County, Va., which is a suburb of Washington, D.C. I enlisted in the U.S. Army for four years. My unit— the 3rd U.S. Infantry, also known as The Old Guard—includes the sentinels that guard the Tomb of the Unknowns, the Caisson Platoon and the Salute Guns used for special ceremonies. We performed funerals in Arlington Cemetery and other military cemeteries in the D.C. area. I moved to Jackson for work in 1997.

2

I was part of the committee helping run 1 Million Cups in Jackson with Todd Stauffer. He was having trouble getting there on time due to having to do the paper’s distribution. This was also around the time that Donna Ladd was dealing with her cancer. I told him I could help him out as a driver, as it was more important for him to be the leader at 1MC and also spend more time supporting Donna.

3

For the JFP, I manage the lists of where we distribute the papers and the routes they are assigned to. There are 10 routes divided up among four drivers. The big-

gest challenge is figuring out how to optimize the distribution counts so that when we take out a new edition, there are very few if any of the previous editions left. It is always a social-science experiment as the cover art or pictures seem to drive the consumption based on the demographics of the locations.

4

In addition to competing in cornhole and trivia competitions, I have really enjoyed distance running since I started almost nine years ago. I am hoping races this fall will still happen, as I have signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon 50K and also the Chicago Marathon, both tentatively set for October. I also volunteer in a number of places, including The Pink House, the Good Samaritan Center and the AARP Foundation.

5

I have three great and successful children.

The youngest just graduated college. Because my work environment has been so flexible, I was able to be involved in everything my kids did. These days, most of my home interactions are with my two dogs. Maggie, a yellow labrador, and Curly, an Australian shepherd.

food&drink

The Catâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Out of the Bag by richard Coupe

S

Angeline Pinot Noir California 91 points - James Suckling | $14.79 This is very clean and bright with aromas and ďŹ&#x201A;avors of sliced plums and lemons. Hint of watermelon. Medium body, ďŹ ne tannins and a crisp and dry ďŹ nish. A vivid and easy pinot noir. Drink now.

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These Are a Few of Dadâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Favorite Things.

Fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Day is June 21 .PO 4BU B N UP Q N t t .BZXPPE .BSU t +BDLTPO .4 t OBOEZTDBOEZ DPN

June 10 - 23, 2020 â&#x20AC;˘ jfp.ms

Crazy Cat Eat Up

ometimes, passion for what you Lunch includes salad, sandwiches do can supersede a lack of experi- and quiche, along with some daily specials. ence. While Jon Lansdale never had Dinner features steak, seafood and more. formal culinary training, his appreâ&#x20AC;&#x153;A lot of people wax poetic over the ciation for cooking provided the drive he philosophy of their food, more or less to needed to make his restaurant, Crazy Cat hear themselves speak, but at the end of Eat Up, a staple in the Jackson area. Lans- the day, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s got to taste good. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s got to be dale credits his success to this mindset of the end result,â&#x20AC;? Lansdale says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are here being passionate about oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work. to serve the customer the best that we can â&#x20AC;&#x153;Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got to love what you do. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re just going through the motions, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just going to be average,â&#x20AC;? Lansdale says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There are no more secrets to good food than in anything that you do. You have to want to do well. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got to be driven to do well.â&#x20AC;?

Lansdaleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s introduction into the food industry began in 2005 when he had the opportunity to cater desserts for about 3,000 people at the annual Mistletoe Marketplace Preview Party. After an overwhelmingly positive response, Lansdale launched Crazy Cat Bakers in September 2006.

Originally from northern Mississippi, Lansdale came to Jackson in 1987 and earned a bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree in business administration from Crazy Cats Eat Up offers a number of dishes Millsaps College and later acquired for both lunch and dinner, including the a masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree in architecture Sesame Crusted Yellowfin Tuna. from Mississippi State University.

His culinary â&#x20AC;&#x153;schooling,â&#x20AC;? however, involved watching a lot of Paula Dean and because there is always somebody ready to working in restaurants on and off through serve the customer if you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to.â&#x20AC;? college, learning as he went.

Of the restaurantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s accomplishments, About four years ago, one of Crazy Lansdale is most proud of the relationship Catâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most loyal customers, Gary Hawkins, between Crazy Cat and its customers. who was working as a chef at the Fairview â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve never seen people as attached Bed and Breakfast at the time, was want- to a business the way some people have to ing to venture out on his own. Meanwhile, us. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a very emotional attachment to the Crazy Cat had a strong need for a larger business and their desire for it to succeed. space and better facilities.

We have an amazing group of customers,â&#x20AC;?

Upon realizing they shared a vision the restaurateur says. for the restaurantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s future, the two moved Looking forward, Lansdale is hoping the business to its current location on Can- to return to a place reminiscent of how the ton Mart Road, transforming the bakery restaurant had been performing prior to into Crazy Cat Eat Up, which Lansdale de- the outbreak of COVID-19. scribes as a full-service restaurant that serves Crazy Cat now is operating at 50% modern, southern-inspired food. capacity to follow social-distancing protoâ&#x20AC;&#x153;(Crazy Cat) is a prototypical neigh- cols, and offers curbside pickup. borhood restaurantâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;everybody knows Crazy Cat Eat Up (1491 Canton Mart everybodyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;we are southern-inspired but Road, Suite 12) is open for lunch from 11 not southern-limited. We take the local a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, and culture and add a few twists and turns here dinner is served from 5:30-9:30 p.m. Thursand there,â&#x20AC;? Lansdale says. day and Friday. Visit crazycateatup.com.

21

Last Week’s Answers 46 “Voulez-Vous” and “Waterloo,” for two 48 Smooth (the way) 49 Take ___ of faith 50 It’s about 907,000 grams 52 Celebratory outburst 55 People in the red 59 Common Daily Double gesture (and bet) from “Jeopardy!” whiz James Holzhauer 60 Lyric that follows “We’re poor little lambs who have lost our way” 62 Photographer Arbus 63 British-based relief organization 64 Exercise machine unit 65 Karaoke performances 66 Anthem competitor 67 “Of course”

BY MATT JONES

29 Ginkgo ___ 30 “Straight Outta Compton” costar ___ Jackson Jr. 31 Nautical hazards 32 Singer of 60-Across, slangily 37 Large mollusks 40 Starbucks size launched in 2011 43 Margarine, quaintly 44 One-named guitarist of infomercial fame 47 Expressing delight 51 “Dreams From My Father” author 52 Big rolls of money

53 Mishmash 54 “The Good Earth” heroine 55 Slightly off 56 Do as told 57 Very hard to find 58 Goes limp 60 Drag show accessory 61 Wood-chopping tool ©2019 Jonesin’ Crosswords (jonesincrosswords@gmail.com) 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 #934

Down

“Two From the Top” --same two, different order.

Across

1 One of Cher’s friends in “Clueless” 4 Thrown tomato sound 9 Went idle 14 Summertime coolers, casually 15 Contemporary of Shelley and Byron 16 Justice Kagan 17 Hit 2019 puzzle game 19 Huck Finn’s creator 20 Cheese slices from Kraft 21 Marcos with many shoes 22 Key near the space bar 23 Lies low

25 Mid-May honorees 28 Discovery/TLC reality show (19982007) following expecting couples 33 Horseshoe trajectories 34 “Sharp as a tack,” for example 35 Red or Dead, but not Redemption 36 MTV cartoon with the fictional show “Sick, Sad World” 38 Pot top 39 “Taking a Chance on Love” singer Waters 41 Singer of 60-Across, slangily 42 Tiny footwarmer 45 Altered mortgage, for short

1 Browser indicators 2 Berry from palms 3 Library catalog no.

4 Prowess 5 Madrid money, once 6 Poppables snackmaker 7 Get from ___ B 8 Nashville sch.

9 “I’ll need time to think about it” 10 Mariners’ div.

11 Ardor 12 Kids’ author Blyton 13 Fictional agent Scully 18 1992 Wimbledon winner 21 Pastoral verse 23 Overdo a scene 24 Footnote word that’s usually abbreviated 25 Tyler Perry title character 26 Toothbrush brand 27 “Limited time only” fast-food sandwich

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June 10 - 23, 2020 • jfp.ms

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GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

According to novelist Octavia E. Butler, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Positive obsession is about not being able to stop just because youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re afraid and full of doubts.â&#x20AC;? Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what I wish for you in the coming weeks, Gemini: positive obsession. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also what I expect! My analysis of the astrological omens suggests that you will have the pluck and craftiness necessary to veer away from murky, disturbing versions of obsession. Instead, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll embrace the exhilarating kind of obsession that buoys your spirit in moments of uncertainty. I foresee you making progress on your most important labor of love.

William Thomson, also known as Lord Kelvin (1824â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1907), was a Cancerian physicist and mathematician who contributed to the understanding of thermodynamics and other areas of scientific and engineering knowledge. Despite his considerable intelligence, however, he was myopic about the possibility that humans might one day fly through the air while seated inside of machines. In a 1902 interviewâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a year before the Wright Brothersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; breakthrough experimentâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;he declared, â&#x20AC;&#x153;No aeroplane will ever be successful.â&#x20AC;? I suspect you could be on the verge of passing through a Lord Kelvin phase, Cancerian. You may at times be highly insightful and at other times curiously mistaken. So I urge you to be humbly confident and confidently humble!

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

Author Marianne Williamson tells us, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Spiritual growth involves giving up the stories of your past so the universe can write a new one.â&#x20AC;? And what exactly does it mean to â&#x20AC;&#x153;give up the stories of your pastâ&#x20AC;?? Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what I think: 1. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t assume that experiences youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had before will be repeated in the future. 2. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t assume that your ideas about the nature of your destiny will always be true. 3. Even good things that have happened before may be small and limited compared to the good things that could happen for you in the years to come. 4. Fully embrace the truth that the inherent nature of existence is endless transformationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;which is why itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s right and natural for you to ceaselessly outgrow the old plot lines of your life story and embrace new ones.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

Philosopher and astrologer Marsilio Ficino wrote, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mortals ask God for good things every day, but they never pray that they may make good use of them.â&#x20AC;? I hope that in the coming weeks, you Virgos will disprove that cynical view of human beings. As I see it, you will be more likely than usual to actually receive the blessings you ask for. And I hopeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in fact, I predictâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that when you receive the blessings, you will then aggressively seek the help of God or Life or your deepest wisdom to make good use of them.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

I was hiking under a blue sky in a favorite natural location: the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, just north of San Francisco, where sublime vistas provide views of ocean and mountain. Although I was in a good mood, at one point I spied empty Budweiser cans amidst the wild jewelflowers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What kind of nature-hater was so careless as to despoil this wonderlandâ&#x20AC;?? I fumed. For a few moments I was consumed with rage and forgot where I was. By the time I recovered my bearings, the bobcat and red-tailed hawk Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d previously been observing had disappeared. That made me sad. My anger was justified but wasteful, irrelevant, and distracting. It caused me to lose touch with some glorious beauty. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be like me in the coming days, Libra. Keep your eyes on the prize.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have more memories than if I were a thousand years old,â&#x20AC;? wrote poet Charles Baudelaire. Was he bragging or complaining? Did the weight of his past feel like a burden or did it exhilarate him and dynamize his creative powers? Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m hoping that in the coming weeks your explorations of your past will feel far more like the latterâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a gift and blessing that helps you understand aspects of your history that have always been mysterious or murky.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

According to my analysis of the astrological omens, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re primed to navigate your way through a sweetly gritty, tenderly transformative, epically meaningful turning point in

the history of your relationship with your favorite collaborator or collaborators. If that sounds too intense, you could at least accomplish an interesting, stimulating, educational shift in the way you fit together with your best ally or allies. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s up to you, Sagittarius. How much love and intimacy and synergy can you handle? I wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t judge you harshly if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d prefer to seek the milder version of deepening right now. Besides, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll probably get a chance to go further later this year.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

Actor Emma Thompson tells us, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I wish I wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to say this, but I really like human beings who have suffered.

Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re kinder.â&#x20AC;? Adding to what she observes, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll say that for many people, their suffering has also made them smarter and more soulful and more compassionate. Not always, but often, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the pain theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve suffered that has helped turn them into thoughtful companions who know how to nourish others. I urge you to make a special point to converse with people like this in the near future. In my estimation, you will benefit from intense doses of empathetic nurturing.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

Lake Elsinore is a city in southwestern California. Last spring, torrential rains there caused a â&#x20AC;&#x153;superbloomâ&#x20AC;? of poppies. Millions of the golden-orange wildflowers covered many acres of Walker Canyon. They attracted another outbreak of beauty: thousands of painted lady butterflies, which came to visit.

The magnificent explosion was so vast, it was visible from a satellite high above the earth. I wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be surprised if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re experiencing a metaphorical superbloom of your own right now, Aquarius. I hope you will find constructive ways to channel that gorgeous fertility.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

Lucumi is an Afro-American religion with Yoruban roots.

Its practitioners worship their ancestors, and seek regular contact and communion with them. According to Lucumi priestess Luisah Teish, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sometimes the ancestors deem certain information so important that they send it to the subconscious mind without being consciously asked.â&#x20AC;? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s my belief that all of us, whether or not weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re members of the Lucumi religion, can be in touch with the spirits of our ancestors if we would like to beâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and receive useful guidance and insight from them. The coming weeks will be a time when you Pisceans are especially likely to enjoy this breakthrough. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more likely to happen if you have an intention to instigate it, but it may come to pass even if you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seek it.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

During her 90 years on the planet, actor and singer Marlene Dietrich reinvented herself numerous times. She had superb insight into the nature of shifting rhythms, and a knack for gauging the right moment to adapt and transform. Good timing, she said, came naturally to people like her, as well as for â&#x20AC;&#x153;aerialists, jugglers, diplomats, publicists, generals, prize-fighters, revolutionists, financiers, and lovers.â&#x20AC;? I would add one further category to her list: the Aries tribe. Make maximum use of your talent in the coming weeks.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

Author and theologian Frederick Buechner writes, â&#x20AC;&#x153;There is treasure buried in the field of every one of our days, even the bleakest or dullest, and it is our business to keep our eyes peeled for it.â&#x20AC;? In alignment with current astrological potentials, Taurus, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll name that as your key theme. More than usual, breakthroughs and revelations and catalysts are likely to be available to you in the midst of the daily slogâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; even when youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re feeling bored. Make it your business to be on high alert for them.

Homework: This devastating moment in history has the redemptive effect of calling forth our deepest longings to care for each other. Do you agree? RealAstrology.com

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June 10 - 23, 2020 â&#x20AC;˘ jfp.ms

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

Attn: Food Service Meal Companies Ambition Prep is requesting proposals for school food service meals for the 2020--21 school year.

Vendors may submit proposals to: DeArchie Scott, 5331 Clinton Blvd, Jackson, MS 39209.

Ambition Prep reserves the right to accept or reject any and/or all proposals or to accept the proposal that it ďŹ nds, in its sole discretion, to be in the best interest of the school. A non-mandatory pre-bid meeting is scheduled for Monday, June 15th at 12 PM CST. All interested FSMC will receive an invitation to an online Zoom Meeting, with a Q/A session to follow. In addition, the Zoom link will be posted at the web address below. Please address any questions to DeArchie Scott, Executive Director, (dscott@ambitionprep. org) or (601) 850-1798. All proposals must be submitted no later than 5:00 PM CST on June 22. All proposals should be secured and clearly labeled: Food Service Meal Proposal. Copies of the RFP and any addenda may be obtained at www.ambitionprep.org/rfp, or by emailing dscott@ambitionprep.org.

23

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