Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith walked into the courtroom on March 3, 2016, with a clear goal—to help get Christopher Butler, then 38, out of the Raymond jail.

Smith showed up in Hinds County Judge Melvin Priester Sr.'s courtroom, even though he was not one of the prosecutors of record in State of Mississippi vs. Christopher Butler, in which the state attorney general had arrested Butler in January for embezzlement and wire fraud that he allegedly committed while working as a sales manager at Mega Mattress in west Jackson. The State contends that Butler falsified invoices for more than $500 to a Florida finance company. He was in the Hinds County Detention Center with a $500,000 bond and is considered a habitual offender due to past convictions.

In a separate county case, Butler is also facing drug charges for possessing more than an ounce of marijuana from earlier arrests. The Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics had arrested him for the most recent drug charges in 2012, which fell to Smith's office to prosecute. With Butler out on bail for those charges, the old case has yet to go to trial; Smith attempted to delay the trial and then tried to drop the charges because, the DA claims, he has evidence that can clear Butler.

But the case this March day before Priester was for a white-collar crime not connected with the drug arrests. 
 Still, the DA jumped in as soon as Judge Priester told Butler's attorney, Sanford Knott, to move ahead with his motions to bar the attorney general from trying a case in Smith's jurisdiction.

"I'm sorry. Let me interrupt for one second," Smith said before Knott could answer Priester. The DA then added, "Your Honor, I think the AG's office is here to present the case against Mr. Butler. And I personally would like to know what that is. I mean, I'm not trying to interfere with the proceedings. I'm just wanting to see what this is about."

The judge seemed taken aback. "Personally, you would like to know what?"

"What the evidence is. I think they are here to present evidence in this case," Smith answered.

"And you obviously have a problem with this?"

"Well, we'll get to—yes, sir."

Smith, elected as district attorney last fall for the third time, actually has two problems with Butler's situation: He doesn't want the attorney general to try him in his jurisdiction for the white-collar crime, and he doesn't believe Butler is guilty of the earlier drug crime, arguing that the State of Mississippi, working with some local judges, is setting him up.

Priester then threw the mic back to defense attorney Knott, who shared the same concern as prosecutor Smith, arguing that Hood's office could not intervene, or go around the DA, as he and Smith believe the attorney general is trying to "overrule the district attorney's office."

And, in effect, they are. The State, working with the FBI, wants Butler prosecuted—and perhaps his testimony implicating the district attorney—and Smith wants him to go free.

Rather desperately, it seems.

'Cloak and Dagger Issues'

Throughout the exchange in Priester's courtroom in March, Smith was "irrational, manic and virtually out of control," as the judge told the Mississippi Bar later. The 45-year-old prosecutor could not stand still and kept moving back and forth from the seat to the podium, and then would stand up and down in his seat as other attorneys talked to the judge, all activity considered inappropriate and disruptive in courtroom settings.

When Smith got a chance to speak, he insisted that Shaun Yurtkuran and Patrick Beasley of the AG's office, who had worked for him as assistant district attorneys in his first two years as DA starting in 2008, knew that Butler had been framed for the drug charges. With the two men listening, Smith promised that the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics had a videotape that could clear Butler. "And that videotape was seized by that agency and obstructed justice so that no one would see what was on that videotape, which would show that Mr. Butler was framed twice," Smith told Priester.

"They know that."

The judge wasn't buying it, though. "Well, I personally take issue with that in that I sat through watching that video for approximately 12 to 16 hours, and there was nothing to show," Priester answered.

"Well, we have an expert who corroborates the fact that it was tampered with," Smith returned.

"Well, that's a little different from what you said," Priester answered, referring to Smith's previous statement that the contents of the tape would clear Butler.

From there, the hearing transcript shows that Smith kept promising that he could clear Butler, presumably of the drug charges, and continued to make allegations against the AG's attorneys in the courtroom. "I can prove every last one of them. Yes, sir," Smith promised at one point about his accusations, after interrupting the judge.

"Fine," Priester answered. "But you know what? I don't care. ... I don't care what you feel you can prove. What I care about is that there's an initial appearance scheduled for today on this defendant for specific charges.

"And I'm not going to inject myself into the cloak and dagger issues ... . That's way over my pay grade. OK."

Eleven days later, on March 14, Priester filed a report with the Mississippi Bar Association describing Smith's frantic behavior. The judge said he was attaching the transcript, although it could not fully show the "emotional flavor" of Smith's actions. He regretted having to file the report, he said, adding that "Mr. Smith's behavior was so bizarre, I am required to do so."

'Straight from New Orleans'

Within three months, on June 22, the attorney general's office indicted Smith as well, with several men in business suits, including AG investigator Leland McDivitt, showing up at the DA's office on the top floor of the Hinds County Courthouse to arrest him. The charges, which came through affidavit rather than grand-jury indictment, charged that the DA "did willfully and unlawfully consult, advise and counsel" two men under indictment, Butler and long-time Smith associate Darnell Turner—often called "ex parte" communication in the legal world.

Five of the six counts charge Smith with trying to help Butler beat both his drug and wire-fraud/embezzlement charges and get out of jail, with much of the alleged "ex parte" activity happening since that "erratic" March day in Priester's courtroom.

In Butler's case, the affidavit accused Smith of visiting Butler on May 9 and again on May 26 in jail, supported by copies of the jail's visitation logs, and of sending Sanford Knott a May 21, 2016, letter advising the defense attorney "of various ways to attack the State's pending case against Mr. Butler." The attorney general contended that Smith met with Butler's family between Jan. 14 and June 20 of this year, referred to Butler as "his client" and worked with defense counsel to get him released.

It also accused him of trying to retain additional defense counsel for Butler.

On Aug. 12, 2016, the attorney general alleged in court filings that his office and the FBI have Smith on tape telling a confidential informant that he was lining up high-powered Tupelo attorney Jim Waide to help Butler. "So we got Jim Waide," Smith allegedly told the informant.

The filing said Smith added to the informant that "(Waide) came down here straight from New Orleans when I called him." Smith also allegedly told the informant: "Oh, we going to get (Butler) free now between me and Waide and all that, and then Dennis is doing his thing on the other one."

That likely means Dennis Sweet III, who is representing Darnell Turner, 39, a former campaign worker for Smith who is charged in several cases, indictments show: with aggravated assault for allegedly hitting Anthony Steel in the head with a gun; shooting at Anthony Young; and domestic violence against former girlfriend Kimberly Anderson. The AG also charged Smith with giving emails between the State, DA and the county judge to Sweet to help with his defense of Turner, who the Hinds County Sheriff's Department said is also known as "Darnell Dixon."

Because Waide is now defending Smith against the June 22 charges that he is trying to help Butler, Hood's Aug. 12 motions sought to remove the Tupelo attorney from the DA's case due to a conflict of interest.

Waide responded to Hood's revelation that a confidential informant had taped the DA by filing a motion revealing the informant's name—Ivon Johnson—and demanded that the State produce both Johnson and the secret tapes at an Aug. 18 hearing, which has since been postponed until the matter of the sealed documents can be resolved. Johnson is the former assistant district attorney under Smith who took a plea deal for federal charges for allegedly taking a bribe from Rev. Robert "Two Sweet" Henderson, 44, on behalf of unnamed defendants, who was then arrested on July 29.

As the Jackson Free Press reported recently, Henderson has long been connected to high-powered men in Jackson, including former Mayor Frank Melton and former Councilman Frank Bluntson. Gov. Haley Barbour pardoned him of his previous crimes in 2011, based in part on recommendations by now-former Hinds County Sheriff Tyrone Lewis and DA Smith.

Johnson had apparently recorded Smith's comments about Butler and Waide—which the prosecution argues disqualifies Waide from representing Smith, as Waide might be called as a witness. Waide said in an Aug. 17 motion that the same information that would be obtained from him could be found in testimony by Johnson or Butler but stated that both men seemed to be missing and that the State was holding them both in undisclosed locations.

However, Special Judge James D. Bell delayed the hearing, saying that a grand jury was likely to convene related to the cases, and that nothing "urgent" needed to happen that warranted a hearing before then.

Recent filings also announced that all Hinds County judges have now recused themselves from handling the case against the man who tries cases in their courtroom; the special judge, of Brandon, is handling the case against Smith.

Bell, incidentally, published a novel, "Vampire Diaries," published by Sartoris Literary Group in Jackson. His protagonist, a trial attorney, takes on the "Butcher of Belhaven" in the novel.

Letters from the Raymond Jail

Through all the legal "cloak and dagger," to use Judge Priester's phrase, Christopher Dale Butler has sat in the less-than-inviting Raymond jail writing letters to try to get himself out of it. He wrote a handwritten letter to a "Mr. Wallace" last February, stating, "We're come a long way from 833, huh? But let me get to the point" (Lanier High School is at 833 Maple St.; many graduates thus call it "833.")

Hinds County Circuit Clerk Zack Wallace told the Jackson Free Press on Aug. 29 that he receives lots of mail from inmates and does not know Butler personally.

Butler said he was caught up because the store he worked for—Mega Mattress—allowed people to finance purchases without a credit check or any money down.

"So you know how that goes," he wrote, then continued, "But anyway, they are trying to charge me for those peoples wrongs of not paying for their bill every month (sic)," Butler wrote. "Like I influence them not to pay. I know that there isn't much you can do personally but I need help getting back on the court docket for a bond reduction. This half of a million is stupid. It's people that's down here with murder charges with cheaper bonds."

"[T]he condition that they have us under here in Raymond is unhuman," Butler wrote to Wallace. "No mats, no towels, medical slow, it's cold, and they give us one blanket sleeping on metal. If there is anything you can do, Mr. Wallace, anything that's within your power, please help me. This treatment isn't for any man especially a good guy. These charges are nonsense!!!"

It doesn't help Butler's case for a lower bond that he is considered a habitual offender. Starting in 1996, he was arrested for a series of drug possession and sales crimes, and then motor-vehicle theft from J.D. Quality Cars on West Northside Drive in 1999, then cocaine possession again in 2002, a case that was dropped after he paid a $5,000 bond, records show.

It wasn't until 2012 that Butler was arrested again for possession of more than an ounce of marijuana after the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics investigation; his then-girlfriend Kwanza Hilliard was listed as a co-defendant. He put up a $10,000 bond and went home. That is the case that Smith promised Judge Priester he can prove was an MBN set-up of Butler, but until Aug. 15, that evidence was pretty much hidden from public view.

Finding the Marijuana

Josh Ledford asked the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics officer several times if he could check on his 14-month-old daughter, who sat crying in the backseat of his truck, as he stood handcuffed in front of Christopher Butler's house in on April 19, 2011.

"They were questioning me about do I know who Mr. Butler is, or do I know the name of the individual that lives at the house," Ledford said in an interview transcript that was sent to the Mississippi Bar on Aug. 15. It was attached to Waide's response to counter Judge Melvin Priester Sr.'s complaint that Smith had acted "erratically" in his courtroom during a March 3, 2016, hearing with the AG's office about Butler's 2016 white-collar charges.

The transcripts were among documents that for the first time publicly details Smith's promised evidence that the State had framed Butler during drug busts in 2011 and 2012, which Smith had alluded to in Priester's courtroom. Waide's office had transcribed the recording Smith provided, he told the Jackson Free Press.

Ledford is a white male from Pearl who happened to visit Butler's house in south Jackson, back when the accused lived with Hilliard, on the same day MBN raided it after a tip from a confidential informant that Butler was selling drugs out of his girlfriend's home. Ledford had a pocketful of cash when he arrived because he had just cashed his check, he told the interviewer.

"So as I parked, I proceeded to get out of the vehicle, going to the back—it's a four-door truck. I went to the back door on the driver's side to get my daughter out, and I heard an individual kind of, you know, running, stepping, talking about freeze, freeze, pistol drawn," Ledford said.

Ledford said he had visited the house, which he said he had previously helped do work on, that morning to pick up a birthday present for his little girl. His then-wife and Hilliard both gave birth in the same hospital and had become friends during their time together, he said.

The agents detained him, searching him, finding an undisclosed amount of cash, and running his identification, he claims. The cash raised the officers' suspicion that he was there to buy drugs, and he asked the unnamed agent to let him get his daughter from the back, where she sat crying. Eventually, the officer let him go over next to the car, then finally let him get her out of the car. The officer led the father and daughter into the house.

In the house, Ledford said the police berated him, asking if he knew of any secret compartments in the house. As he was being questioned, Ledford said he could see police "scurrying" about the house.

Ledford states that although drug dogs went through the house, they never hit on anything. He said that while he was there during the search, he never saw any marijuana or drugs, although the police questioned him often about whether Butler had any hiding spots.

Butler's friend also accused the agents, only one of whom Ledford said was black, of throwing around the n-word liberally, including about Butler, who is black.

What the 10 MBN agents didn't know, Ledford said, is that Butler and Hilliard had 15 cameras installed in the house. Those 105 hours of videotapes, Smith maintains, prove that Butler was set up. The attached timeline of the tape states that the forced entry of the house took place at 12:32. Shortly thereafter, at 12:41, "an officer goes straight to the (ottoman) in the foyer, lifts the cover and finds the marijuana."

The officers then removed the marijuana, and throughout this time, Ledford and his daughter remained in the kitchen, where he was questioned for the next 30 minutes, or so he told the unnamed interviewer. Ledford states that the officers continued looking through the house, finding what he said appeared to be wrapped up money.

MBN spokeswoman Delores Lewis told the Jackson Free Press that, at the moment, the Hinds County District Attorney's office still has the recordings from Butler's house. And she strongly disputed the allegations that MBN agents framed Butler.

"The allegations made by Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith regarding wrongdoing on the part of MBN agents are blatantly and patently false," MBN said in a written statement to the Jackson Free Press about the allegations. "Mr. Smith began making these allegations as early as January of 2015. Yet, strangely enough, he has continued to allow cases to be presented and indicted in his judicial district by the same agents that he accuses of criminal acts."

"The District Attorney has never produced the video that would support his allegations, not even after being ordered to do so by a judge in May of 2015," the statement continues.

"MBN agents are professionals, highly trained in acquiring search warrants that lead to seizures of illegal narcotics and narcotics paraphernalia. Because the agency has not received any credible evidence of wrongdoing on the part of its agents, the MBN stands by them. And we are confident that the investigation of the charges against Robert Shuler Smith will absolve them of any wrongdoing."

Waide's Bar response also revealed more handwritten jailhouse letters from Butler, trying to gain his freedom.

"I don't claim to be some innocent guy that has never done anything wrong but I do believe in justice and that justice should be fair," Butler wrote in a letter to an unnamed recipient. "If I'm being prosecuted for some thing it should be for that and that only. Not for what you and anyone else feel that I wasn't prosecuted in my past."

Stokes, Please Help

On May 6, 2016, Butler wrote one of his letters to Ward 3 City Councilman Kenneth Stokes, asking for his help. In that letter, Butler indicated to the man who represents Georgetown, where Butler grew up and still lives, that he is a pawn stuck in the middle of a battle between the State of Mississippi and Hinds County and that his constitutional and civil rights are being violated. "I was set up and framed by the MBN back about 5 years (in the 2012 arrests), and Robert Smith, Hinds County DA, found evidence of that. With that information he decided to file a motion to dismiss and my lawyer did also," Butler wrote to Stokes.

Hinds County Circuit Judge Jeff Weill did not dismiss the case, however, denying Smith's motions on May 8, 2015.

Butler said that 10 days after he appeared in Weill's courtroom, he was picked up for alleged fraud and false pretense from his job at Mega Mattress. The first thing the AG investigators asked him about, he said: "What is your relationship with the Hinds County DA?"

"They said if I tell them then all charges would be dropped, but if I don't then they would set a bond so high that I couldn't make bond and they would come with new charges," Butler wrote to Stokes. (County records show that he was indicted for two counts for the alleged Mega Mattress activity in April 2016 and another four counts a month later.)

In his letter to Stokes, as well as others, Butler maintained that he is in no way close to DA Smith. "I've only mete (sic) him in court," he said. "I'm stuck in jail with a ridiculous bond and some ridiculous charges only because the A.G. office and the D.A. office has an issue with each other." He said he was enclosing a letter from Smith proving his rights are being violated.

Butler ended by pleading for help. "I'm losing everything I earn in my life," he wrote. "I have custody of my kids, and my 73-year-old mom is with me. I don't want to lose my home. That's all we got. Please help me."

On July 27, not long after Smith's arrest, Stokes' wife, Hinds County Court Judge Larita Cooper-Stokes, went behind closed doors with the DA, his attorney Waide, three attorneys from the AG's office, a county staff attorney and a bailiff, and gave them copies of the letter.

"[W]e think under Canon 3 of the Code of Judicial Conduct that the Court should recuse herself from the case," AG attorney Bob Anderson said.

The transcript of the meeting indicates that the DA's attorney wanted Cooper-Stokes to stay on the case. "It is inconceivable that any judge in Mississippi would not have some knowledge about the substance of what is going on here," Waide said. Because the records were being sealed "for some reason," he said, "it has never been clear exactly what is going on, but the heart of it is this ... they are claiming Mr. Smith is inappropriately advising—illegally advising Mr. Butler."

Waide then waded back into what Smith had tried to talk about in Priester's courtroom back in February. "The other side of this, which has never been disclosed, is Mr. Smith's evidence that he has gathered and his assistants have gathered that drugs were possibly planted on Mr. Butler, a very serious matter, on two different occasions, once at his home and again in an Avalanche truck."

The truck incident had occurred a year later in April 2012, Waide's Bar exhibits showed. He included affidavits from brothers Stanley and James Earl Smith, who both put drugs in a black backpack that they dropped into the bed of Butler's Chevrolet Avalanche when they saw police coming down the road. Butler, they both testify, drove off before they could remove the drug-laden bag.

"I later learned that Christopher Butler was stopped, and the police found the bag in the back of the truck," Stanley Smith said in his April 13, 2012, statement. "I am very sorry that this has happened but I must be responsible for my property."

Waide then implied that Smith was arrested to try to stop him from blowing up the State conspiracy. "Mr. Smith was arrested the day before he was about to make a presentation to the grand jury essentially concerning the Butler matter," Waide said. He also said that the AG did not indict Smith but arrested him by affidavit—a choice Smith is challenging in court filings.

Former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz Jr. said during an Aug. 23 interview that if the AG is trying to cut Smith off at the pass, they might be overstepping their authority.

"Yeah, it is something that doesn't come up very often or ever has come up before," Diaz said. "It seemed like if that were the case, the proper procedure would have been, if Smith had already done something wrong, to go ahead and get the indictment."

"I think that they are trying to act peremptorily, and they don't have that authority is the problem," Diaz said.

Still, Cooper-Stokes recused herself, as have the other Hinds County court judges, leaving the case in the hands of Judge Bell, the novelist in Brandon.

Call My Mom, Please

The day after Judge Cooper-Stokes recused over Butler's letter, the Mississippi Bar Association filed a complaint against the district attorney, revealing another handwritten note—this one written by Smith and slipped under the door of a different judge back in February, asking her to call his mother.

The Feb. 9, 2016, note to Hinds Senior Circuit Judge Tomie Green was short and sweet: "Judge Green, I am trying to set an appointment for my mother, Alice Smith. She would like to speak to you about some matters. Thanks. Robert S. Smith."

Smith's maternal context is important to explain the setting for the note. Alice Thomas Smith is a well-connected, strong-willed woman, who helped Smith run his defense law firm in the Washington Addition, and then was a primary driver of his initial campaign for district attorney, often taking calls on behalf of the campaign. 
 She helped raise Robert Smith's son after his mother returned to her native country outside the U.S., and it is her and his father's Jackson home that the DA lists as his primary address on campaign reports.

The note came under the door after Smith had fired back at the attorney general's investigation of Butler, and presumably his role in that case, by filing subpoenas for some of Hood's staff to appear before a grand jury. Green told the Mississippi Bar in a Feb. 24, 2016 (misdated 2015), that the attorney general, as well as the Mississippi Department of Corrections head Marshall Fisher, formerly of MBN, were challenging the subpoenas.

Green had appointed Amy Whitten as a special master over the case, and "[t]he DA attempt(ed) to contact and harass her."

Thus, Green "issued a clarification order prohibiting ex parte contact by him or any other party. He never ceased," Green told the Mississippi Bar.

Then, the afternoon of Feb. 9, 2016, Smith apparently slipped the note about his mom under her office door. "I know of his mother but have no personal relationship with Alice Smith," she wrote. "I emailed him to let him know the note and request was odd and improper." That evening, she emailed Smith about the note. "... I am puzzled about why you would want me to meet with your mother. Such a request is quite odd, to say the least." And, she added, it is "improper" for to meet with his mom "about specific or unspecified matters."

The next day, the DA's mother left a voicemail for Green. "She was a bit irate and demanded respect, and said she knew 'what to do.'" Green did not call her back, opting instead to alert the Mississippi Bar and the Mississippi Supreme Court.

In his response to the Bar on Smith's behalf, Waide dismissed the communication. "Smith's note to Judge Green was not related to any pending case," he wrote.

"It was written because Smith's mother had requested to meet with Judge Green, since she wanted Smith and Judge Green to 'get along.'" Waide did not address the phone call directly.

The Butler Matter

Two days later, Smith held a press conference accusing Green of improper communications with former Hinds County District Attorney Faye Peterson, who is now a defense attorney.

Peterson, who was not available for comment, and Smith have a rocky history; he defeated her in 2007 in his campaign supported by former District Attorney Ed Peters and then-Mayor Frank Melton; Peterson had indicted and tried Melton for carrying firearms illegally and for leading his bodyguards and teenagers to destroy a duplex in the Virden Addition with sledgehammers. Smith successfully defended one of Melton's bodyguards in the trial.

Ironically, it was Melton who held press conferences lambasting Peterson while she was investigating him, including having a young felon he was supporting, Christopher Walker, spread rumors about her sex life in 2006.

Green was furious about Smith's press conference. "Your conduct was intentional, retaliatory and improperly coercive at a time when I had under advisement an issue dealing with the impropriety of subpoenas you issued. ... I demand that you publicly retract your allegations...," the judge wrote to the district attorney in a hand-delivered letter on Feb. 17, 2016.

The judge added, "Further, I demand that you retract accusations that I dismissed criminal cases 'behind your back.'" She named several professional and ethical rules that he had violated, in her opinion.

"I charge that your actions were also unethical as district attorney. You were deceptive and dishonest."

Smith has made no public retraction of his accusations of Green or Peterson and has not returned messages left for comment for this story. Waide, however, told the Bar that Smith's press conference was legitimate. 
 "Smith admits that he did have a press conference because the public has a legitimate interest in knowing about unlawful conduct," Waide wrote to the Bar.

On July 26, the Mississippi Bar filed a formal complaint about Smith through the Mississippi Supreme Court. The Bar's general counsel, Adam B. Kilgore, cited Smith's behavior in Priester's courtroom in March as part of "the Butler matter" as the first count.

The second was Smith's actions with Judge Green. Both instances, the Bar said, involved disrupting a tribunal and ex parte communication; in Green's case, Smith acted in ways that could materially prejudice a court proceeding and made statements about Green "that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of a judge," Kilgore stated in the Bar complaint.

But how far can a DA go to pursue justice? Diaz said that the system gives the DA "a great deal of discretion," especially whether or not to prosecute, but that in this case, the test for whether Smith's actions are warranted does not exist.

"There's not a lot of tests of that. Most people don't even walk up to that line," Diaz said. "So it is very rare and unusual that this allegation is even being made."

In the meantime, Christopher Butler's location is unknown as the cloak-and-dagger drama unfolds around him, leaving the open question of whether he will be the next witness the attorney general tries to bring forward against Smith. His latest charge came on Aug. 18 for possessing a black Tracfone cell phone while incarcerated there. The indictment cited his two earlier felony convictions for selling and possessing cocaine.

Butler says, through his letters, that he just wants to go home.

"Does not justice work both ways?" Butler wrote. "Is a person not innocent until proven guilty? I ask these questions because for some reason in Mississippi just because you are arrested for a crime that some how you must be guilty. As if the police couldn't have gotten it wrong. Or as if there isn't a thing called corruption."

CORRECTION: This story originally referred to "Sheriff Tyrone Hendrix," not Sheriff Tyrone Lewis. It has been corrected above. We apologize for the error.

Follow the ongoing DA saga at jfp.ms/DAFiles. Email tim@jacksonfreepress.com and donna@jacksonfreepress.com with info.

See more at:

What Is Case No. 16-120?

The Legacy of Williams v. State

What the Heck is ‘Ex Parte’?

This Hinds County Circuit Court case, 16-120, serves as the central mystery to the ongoing legal morass surrounding District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith. Now sealed, the file is hidden behind the authority of Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Jeff Weill, who sequestered the file soon after Smith's June 22 arrest and as of press time has not released his grip even as both sides say they have no opposition to opening the file.

First mentioned in the affidavit used to arrest Smith, very little is mentioned in the filings for Smith's case, 16-624, about this other case. In the attached emails between Smith, Weill's clerk and representatives from the DA's office, Weill's clerk emailed Circuit Clerk Zach Wallace to ask him to place the request from the AG's office for an appearance before the grand jury, despite protests from Smith, into this sealed file.

"Judge Weill executed a sealed Order yesterday, which permits the Attorney General's Office to present a matter to the Hinds County Grand Jury on April 7, 2016, at 9 a.m.," Weill's clerk wrote in the email to Wallace.

"I will bring the Order down later for you to file in sealed cause number 251-16-120."

Soon afterward, the fight for the records began, including requests from both Smith's attorney and even the AG's office to unseal the file. They have, as of yet, gone unanswered from the court, prompting The Clarion-Ledger to use its deep legal pockets to file a series of motions to open 16-120, in addition to others related to Smith.

There are clues to what resides within the sealed file in other proceedings. Smith's attorney filed a motion in the Mississippi Supreme Court asking the court to toss out an administrative order from Weill temporarily barring Smith from participating in the work of his office. As a response, Weill filed a response, stating that 16-120 and other sealed documents "involve issues concerning the Hinds County Grand Jury, and are not subject to public disclosure absent some specific, compelling reason for the same."

Listed among other documents are two that specifically reside within 16-120: a transcript of the testimony of FBI Special Agent Robert Culpepper from a March 22, 2016, sealed hearing for 16-120; and a letter from Culpepper to the AG's office, which was included as an exhibit to a sealed motion filed by the AG on February 19, 2016, in 16-120.

Until the court rules on the CL's motions, which they have not by press time, it will be hard to tell.

Follow the ongoing DA saga at jfp.ms/DAFiles.

During his objections to Attorney General Jim Hood's prosecution of Christopher Butler at a hearing in Hinds County Judge Melvin Priester Sr.'s courtroom on March 3, 2016, Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith referenced the Supreme Court decision of Williams v. State.

The Hinds County Grand Jury indicted Harvey Williams in 2003 the murder of Calvin Johnson in a Jackson nightclub. After a trial in 2007, under the direction of then-District Attorney Faye Peterson, a jury convicted Williams, sending him away with life in prison, and in 2010 the Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed the lower decision.

Then, in 2011, the Mississippi Supreme Court granted a new trial for the Williams case after the court "found that Williams's defense was prejudiced by the exclusion of testimony from a witness" that would have shown that Johnson had a weapon in his possession earlier in the evening. Following the remand, Smith as the DA filed a "nolle prosequi," a formal notice of abandonment by the prosecutor, which included evidence that he believed proved Williams acted in self-defense. The presiding Hinds County Circuit Judge Breland Hilburn signed the order, effectively ending the case, but two days later the same judge signed an order rescinding his previous decision. Hilburn claims that his order approving Smith's nolle prosequi was "erroneously entered."

Nine months later, on March 13 and 14, 2012, Hilburn signed two orders effectively moving the case to the AG's office, stating that because the original prosecuting attorneys were now with the AG that they should be the ones to prosecute Williams.

The defense responded that Smith's nolle prosequi, when approved, intitially brought the case to an end. The case was then reassigned, eventually falling in 2012 in the lap of Circuit Judge Jeff Weill, the same judge who has recently sealed numerous documents related to the charges Smith now faces.

Weill ruled on Feb. 14, 2013, that although Hilburn ended the case against Williams when the nolle prosequi was signed, the AG's office was free to do so because the DA's office would not prosecute.

The Supreme Court disagreed, concluding that "Mississippi law does not permit a trial court to disqualify a duly elected and serving district attorney and replace him with the attorney general where the district attorney has decided, in the lawful exercise of his discretion, not to prosecute a criminal case."

Whether that case is applicable in the current case will be seen as the legal drama unfolds.

Read more on the DA cases at jfp.ms/DAFiles.

A common denominator in the myriad of charges Attorney General Jim Hood has leveled against Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith is his alleged use of "ex parte communications."

Black's Law Dictionary says the Latin roots of "ex parte" mean "from one party." Blacks defines it in today's world as "a legal term that most often refers to instances where a judge makes a legal decision without all parties to the case being present."

It often translates into communication between parties on a different side of a case outside the purview of the judge.

Hood is accusing Smith, the county's top prosecutor, of various inappropriate communications with defendants Christopher Butler and Darnell Dixon/Turner, seemingly to try to help them beat their charges, including meeting with each of them himself in their jail cells with no one else present.

The Mississippi Rules of Professional Conduct, which the Mississippi Bar follows for lawyers, states that "a lawyer shall not seek to influence a judge, juror, prospective juror or other official by means prohibited by law; communicate ex parte with such a person during the proceeding unless authorized to do so by law or court order."

Judges are also prevented by certain communications with attorneys outside of the courtroom as well. Former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz Jr. said that there were few, emergency-centered exceptions to the rule barring ex parte between attorneys and a judge.

"There really should be no ex parte communication with a judge that's presiding over a case that you are currently involved with," Diaz said, adding that any communication that involved scheduling or other administrative issues should be done with a member of their staff.

Diaz added that communication between any parties to a case—such as a prosecutor meeting directly with a defendant—is generally not allowed unless for specific emergencies, such as illness.

Read more on the DA cases at jfp.ms/DAFiles. Email city reporter Tim Summers Jr. at tim@jacksonfreepress.com and follow him on Twitter for breaking news at @tims_alive.

For many people, part of eating healthy means doing a lot of planning, which can seem daunting. Luckily, many apps on the market can help. Here are a few.

Pepperplate

Free: iOS, Android

For meal planning, Pepperplate gives you a kind of freedom. While the app doesn't have any recipes already in it, you can import them from the web and cookbooks or index cards. So along with helping you out with life, it also helps you organize your favorite recipes. You can even share the recipes, meal plans and shopping lists with other people.

Mealime

Free: iOS, Android

This app lets you pick from built-in recipes. You personalize the plan based on how many people it's for (or how far you want to stretch it if you're a single person). You can even customize the menu based on your preferences, such as taking out nuts if you have allergies or doing a low-carb menu if that's what you want. Then you just cook and go. It doesn't allow you to add your own recipes, but for people who don't want to scour through cookbooks or the Internet, it might be a blessing. And it might make some people be less afraid of the kitchen.

Paprika

$4.99: iOS, Android

The cool part of Paprika is it's both an app and a website, which means it works on multiple platforms. You can get recipes from anywhere and add them to your list. The app also has grocery list capability, meal planning in advance, and you can also adjust the recipes.

MealBoard

$3.99, iOS

MealBoard combines managing recipes, meal planning and grocery management. People can import and manage recipes, ingredients, food categories, meal types, grocery items and more. You can create meal plans based on the day and type of meal, create meal-plan templates, make sure you buy the grocery quantities you need, and you can even specify things such as expiration dates and add items with barcodes, and so much more.

Avocado

Free-$2.99 for premium, iOS

Avocados are healthy, so why not try an app named after the superfood? The Avocado meal planner helps users save time and money when planning meals. It's a space where you can collect your recipes in the same place and make a meal plan for up to a month in advance, and like most of these apps, it sorts the recipes into a tangible grocery list. Avocado even has a couple of recipes already on the app, and the developers are working to add more. Keep in mind that the free version only allows you to upload a few recipes, but premium is only $2.99.

"I'm good, coach!"

As I repeated this for the second time, I could hear my voice echoing. It was like an out-of-body experience where I could hear the crowd yelling, the bands playing and all the other sounds of the last three minutes of a tied Friday night high-school football game. Every bone in my body hurt, but I steadied myself to not appear injured. I knew that the coach would not send me back on the field if he knew my current state, so like any other high-school athlete with dreams of making it big, I repeatedly replied that I was good. I, like many of my teammates, believed that it was selfish to consider the health of my body before the success of the whole team. I also believed that the second-string replacement would seize the opportunity to take my place, leaving me with no position. The first play back on the field, the opposing team fumbled, and I went back to the sideline unharmed during this vulnerable state.

Underreporting sports injuries can lead to athletes' injuries worsening. In a worst-case scenario, a player can develop a syndrome termed Post Concussion Syndrome, which results from the brain sustaining additional concussions before an initial concussion has the opportunity to properly heal. This has too often been something that results from a player not properly reporting symptoms in an attempt to evade medical and coaching personnel so the player can remain on the field. The syndrome can result in permanent brain damage.

Underreporting also results in less serious injuries, including overuse injuries. In many cases, these injuries are not caused by a single, sudden twist, fall or collision. Overuse injuries occur gradually over time, when athletic activity is repeated so often that parts of the body do not have enough time to heal between playing. The athlete experiences pain but chooses not to report it and "tough it out." By not resting the injury, the athlete is vulnerable to overuse injury, including injuries that affect the ligaments, tendons, bones and growth plates.

An example would be a pitcher in baseball with an elbow strain, a swimmer with shoulder strain, or a gymnast or cheerleader with similar injuries to the wrist or elbow. My recommendation is allowing a health-care professional to evaluate the injury, and in most cases, activity should be suspended to allow time to heal with analgesics, including non-steroidal anti-inflammatories such as Advil. In some cases, a doctor will order physical therapy after x-rays or other diagnostic imaging has ruled out fractures.

Many injuries can be prevented through proper conditioning, training and equipment. They often occur when athletes suddenly increase the duration, intensity or frequency of their activity. Athletes that are not in the best shape at the beginning of the season should participate in all possible practice sessions to better endure the stress of the sport during the season. The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons has partnered with the Sports Overuse and Trauma Prevention campaign to help educate players. Specific suggestions for preventing overuse injuries include limiting the number of teams an athlete plays on in one season.

The recommendations also discourage allowing athletes to play one sport year-round due to the higher likelihood of overuse injuries resulting from specific muscles not being allowed to rest. Lastly, proper hydration is very important during the training sessions to help avoid dehydration and other heat injuries.

This article is to educate, and by no means discourage anyone. A few days ago, a parent asked me to explain to her son why sports was too dangerous and a waste of time. She asked me to help her son understand why he should focus exclusively on his schoolwork to ensure success. She was actually surprised when, in front of her son, I told her that many of the most successful people I've met participated in organized sports while in grade school, including myself.

Research has repeatedly shown that organized sports result in benefits for participants, including higher self-esteem, improved health, increased strength, better endurance and more flexibility. I can comfortably say that sports helped my academic achievements because of aspects such as the possibility of ineligibility for failing academically.

Need to Know: Sports Injuries

My memories from my glorious high school football days have slightly shifted over the years. I remember watching the popular television show "Married with Children," which included my favorite character, Al Bundy. He would sit on his sofa and reminisce of his many imaginary touchdowns. This particular memory of mine did not involve a touchdown or a glorious occasion. It involved a concerned coach taking me out of the game. A major mistake repeatedly made in high-school athletics is when a player stays in the game after exhibiting signs that he or she has an overuse injury. The continued stress on the already-injured player can, in many cases, potentially lead to long-term damage to the affected body part. Here's some information about sports injuries.

A pulled muscle is when an athlete is overuses or overstretches a muscle, with tears in the muscles or tendons causing pain. Ways to help avoid this include proper warming up with stretching. It is also helpful to stop activity when a person is tired or feels discomfort. The body's natural mechanisms to protect muscles are compromised when the muscles are fatigued.

"Cramped muscles," or muscle cramps, are very common. They involve a sudden and involuntary contraction of one or more of a person's muscles. A "Charley horse," which is an involuntary spasm or cramp in the leg muscles, is a common injury that can stop you in your tracks. If you don't stop, you'll attempt to run with a great deal of undeniable pain. Some of the common causes of muscle cramps include dehydration, strenuous exercise and a previous lack of muscle use due to insufficient conditioning. Some sufferers of this condition may also have a magnesium deficiency. Many sports drinks have supplemental nutrients, including magnesium, to help with muscle cramps. For pulled muscles, follow the RICE protocol once medical personnel rule out a more serious injury:

Rest. Take a break from the activity that caused the injury. In severe cases, the medical provider may recommend crutches to avoid putting weight on the injured leg.

Ice. Use cold packs for 20 minutes at a time several times a day. Make sure you don't apply ice directly to the skin.

Compression can prevent additional swelling and blood loss. The best method is to use an elastic compression bandage such as an ACE bandage.

Elevation will reduce the swelling. Elevate the limb to a level higher than the your heart while resting.

Pulled muscles and muscle cramps are treatable injuries. It is very important for athletes to avoid the "Super Man Syndrome." (This was a made-up definition we used when I was in high school to describe an athlete that muscled through the pain.) To help avoid this, coaches and athletics staff should ensure that an athlete has proper conditioning, equipment, rest, hydration and understanding to listen to his or her body. Also, have proper pre- and post-workout stretching exercises. Alert medical personnel if an injury happens, and do not ignore it.

Just a little ways from the entrance to the Cancer Center at Merit Health Central in Jackson is the Magnolia Garden, a boutique that gives cancer patients a chance to find peace and feel better about themselves.

Danielle Boone, a radiation therapist in the Cancer Center, says that the director of radiation therapy, Tara Howington had wanted to start a boutique.

"We had wigs and hats, but we had them in a cabinet, and we didn't have a formal setting to let the patients come in and sit," Boone says in an interview.

The boutique is spread across two rooms. In one room, knitted hats of all different colors sit on small pink stands decorated with pearls, light pink flowers and knitted maroon embellishments. Some are on display on a light brown shelving unit, some are on a display table, and some hang on a hat rack with colorful knitted scarves. On the opposite walls, mannequin heads with decoupaged paper lace—added to them look friendlier—that are covered with wigs of all different hair colors, from sandy blonde to black to brown sit on top of weathered, ornate shelves. The other room houses the clothing closet, a large light brown armoire. The room also has knitted hats, and a metallic-colored chair sits in the corner of the room. Both areas are accented with gentle colors such dusty and pastel pinks, gold and pastel brown, and have artwork that feature scriptures from the Bible.

"We all wanted a cozy, peaceful atmosphere where patients could come and try on wigs and hats if they were in need," she says, "to make them feel special."

But it's more than just hats, wigs and clothes.

"A lot of times, the patients, they come and see us for, like six to eight weeks, so we get to know them really well," Boone says. "They become like part of our family, and you know when they're having a bad day, or when they're depressed. These rooms are more than just, 'Oh we have wigs and hats up here.'

"If they need a room to come and just kind of get their composure, just a peaceful atmosphere, just to kind of regain focus, that's why they're up here, too."

Boone, a Louisiana native, attended the University of Louisiana at Monroe, receiving her bachelor's degree in radiology in 2003, and specialized in radiation therapy at Washburn University in Topeka, Kan.

She got married and moved to Vicksburg in May 2003. She did her clinicals at Merit Health from 2004 to 2005, and after graduation, she began working at the hospital.

"It was a great opportunity," she says.

Howington had the idea to start the boutique around the middle of the year last year. After she mentioned it to Boone, she began to get ideas for the spaces.

"It's like, 'Oh, I can do this, and I can do that,' and 'If you make this, then I can make it look like this,'" Boone says.

" ... I just had a vision, and I took it and ran with it. In my mind, I had the colors picked, whatever was very soothing and peaceful, something was traditional, timeless; it wouldn't go out of style, just something that could carry on later on and touch future patient's lives."

Boone, Howington and other Cancer Center staff members donated money, time and help to making the boutique come to fruition.

"Everything in here is made with love," Boone says.

She says that the center received the wigs by chance. An employee who works in the pharmacy who wants to remain anonymous donated more than 100 wigs. Most of the hats come from Knots of Love in California, though some locals have also knitted hats for patients. Currently, the center has between 250 and 275 hats and close to 100 wigs, though not all of the wigs and hats can be on display. The hats, wigs and scarves are free for patients.

"We make time for them," Boone says. "When they come for their treatment, we'll scoot up here and let them take their time and do whatever they need to do."

For the staff at the Cancer Center, Magnolia Garden is also a way to boost cancer patients' self esteem.

"They feel like their body is out of control, so they feel like they're losing control of everything, and a lot of times, they do lose their hair, depending on what type of treatment they receive, so it's important for them to have wigs and hats to feel better about themselves because they're going through so much," Boone says.

"This helps them get through the process."

For more information about Magnolia Garden or the Cancer Center at Merit Health Central (1850 Chadwick Drive), call 601-376-2074 or visit merithealthcentral.com.

Over the years, neuroscientist and brain-imaging expert Dr. Daniel Amen has refined nine rules of brain-healthy eating.

Think "high-quality calories" and not too many of them.
Drink plenty of water and not your calories.
Eat high-quality lean protein throughout the day.
Eat smart carbohydrates (low glycemic, high fiber).
Choose healthy fats.
Eat from the rainbow.
Cook with brain-healthy herbs and spices.
Make sure your food is as clean as possible.
If you're having trouble with your mood, energy, memory, weight, blood sugar, blood pressure or skin, make sure to eliminate any foods that might be causing trouble, especially wheat and any other gluten-containing grain or food, as well as dairy, soy and corn.

Daniel Amen, M.D. heads Amen Clinics, which are located in Orange County, Calif., Atlanta, San Francisco, New York City, Washington, D.C., and the Seattle area. He has written numerous books, including "Healing ADD" and "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life."

Katie Alexander's one-story home in the little Mississippi town of Rolling Fork sits at the corner of Magnolia and Sidney Alexander streets. It is not a coincidence that her street shares her name.

It used to be called Poplar Street, but it was renamed in 1989 to honor Katie's father, a civil-rights organizer who had been registering African Americans to vote at the time of his murder in September 1970. He was a casualty in Mississippi's notoriously bloody civil-rights struggle, shot to death in his home, just around the corner from where his daughter lives now.

Alexander had seven brothers and sisters, most of whom eventually left Mississippi. But Katie never really considered leaving. She says she needed to take care of her mother, and was too involved in her church to pull up stakes. So she stayed on in Rolling Fork, having a daughter, whom she raised as a single mom after her partner's death from a heart attack. She took an office job with the municipal government and rented an apartment from a cousin.

Now 59, Alexander says she has dreamed of buying a home for years. But, with an income of only $28,000 a year, her credit was a problem. She thought she would be rejected if she applied for a home loan, so she never tried.

A couple of years ago, Alexander heard about financial literacy classes at the Bank of Anguilla. She'd dealt in the past with this particular bank, and it didn't go well. About 30 years earlier, she had applied for a small loan there and was told she needed a co-signer, despite her savings. She withdrew all her money in anger.

"I saw it as a farmers' bank at that time," she says—and not one particularly welcoming to African Americans.

But the bank "changed its demeanor" over the years, Alexander says, and became a stronger ally to the black community. So she signed up for the five-week class.

At first, the students gathered at a building owned by the county, then at a library, and finally at a church. Most of the students were black women in their 40s and 50s. They told the instructors horror stories about payday loans and debt collectors.

Alexander's problems were never that bad. But she felt she was spending too much money and needed to establish credit. She says the class changed her habits, and she now saves $100 each month.

The class also gave Alexander new relationships with bankers, some of whom attended each of the five class sessions. They decided that she qualified for a loan after getting to know her, despite her limited credit history. She had her eye on a house in town, so she sat down with Elise Cook, a loan officer, and worked out the details.

In July 2015, her $39,000 loan was approved. Forty-five years after her father's death, she owned a piece of the street named after him.

A History of Unfairness

In the Mississippi Delta, one of the poorest regions in the United States, buying a home is often out of reach. And lenders have a history of unfairness to African Americans. As a result, it's been difficult for Delta residents to build any assets.

But stories like Alexander's are standing that history on its head.

In a region where foundations are scarce and nonprofits lack resources, local banks and credit unions are increasingly helping poor residents escape poverty by providing credit, teaching the dangers of payday lending, and encouraging development of worker-owned cooperatives.

Unless you live in the Delta, you probably won't recognize the names of the financial institutions doing this work. That's because America's largest—banks like Citibank, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase—tend to avoid low-income customers, and rarely provide service in rural areas. These banks exist to maximize profit for shareholders, and the small loans that Delta residents want are not particularly profitable.

To understand why, it helps to think like a banker.

All loans have overhead costs, including the salaries of the employees who process the loan. These costs are about the same whether the loan is for $5 million or $50,000. Because the bank makes money on the interest, the larger loan makes the bank much more money. It doesn't help that loans to low-income people need customization and planning to make sure they don't end up in default—the automated systems that large banks rely on won't cut it.

So bankers tend to turn down loan applications from low-income people. While they argue they're just making good business decisions, the result is that it's difficult for the poor to accumulate wealth.

"In order to get from poverty to the middle class, you need a home and an education," says Mehrsa Baradaran, a law professor at the University of Georgia and author of a book on the history of banking. "To get those, you need credit."

The banks and credit unions profiled here still need to make a profit, but it's not their only reason for existence. Like a nonprofit organization, they're driven by a mission—to promote economic opportunity in their region and among the poor. Technically, they're known as Community Development Financial Institutions, or CDFIs, certified members in a program the U.S. Treasury Department operates.

These organizations have to prove to the government that they're mission-driven, and that at least 50 percent of their assets are invested in low-income areas.

Once they're certified, they're eligible for various types of monetary awards that encourage local investment and help to offset the fact that banking for the poor isn't always profitable.

Though tiny by Washington, D.C., standards, the program has grown dramatically in the more than 20 years since it was passed into law as the Riegle Community Development and Regulatory Improvement Act. Congress allocated $50 million to the program in 1997.

By 2015, that figure had increased to about $234 million.

Today, there are more than 1,000 certified CDFIs around the United States. Researcher Steve Dubb of the Democracy Collaborative estimates that they control about 0.4 percent of all U.S. banking assets—again a miniscule amount, but a vital resource in a place like the Delta.

Mississippi has more CDFIs per capita than any other state. Its financial ecosystem is a unique place, where bankers and residents are coming to see one another as allies despite a difficult history.

It's a window into what the United States might look like if the government actively recruited banks and credit unions as allies in the fight against poverty.

Unlikely Allies

If we don't help our community, the community's going to die," says Huey Townsend, the president and CEO of Guaranty Bank & Trust. His bank, established in 1943 to serve the credit needs of local planters, is located in Belzoni. The poverty rate in surrounding Humphreys County is more than 40 percent, almost three times the national average.

Inequality here is stark. Belzoni has neighborhoods of stately red-brick buildings with meticulously maintained lawns, while others resemble developing world slums. Rickety wooden shacks are collapsing around their owners, with roofs caving in and siding peeling off. It's a level of poverty some would be surprised to see in the United States. Many choose to flee, and the county lost more than 16 percent of its population between 2000 and 2010.

Bank CEO Townsend doesn't exactly look like a fighter for the dispossessed. His appearance is about what you would expect from a former chairman of the Mississippi Bankers' Association. He is a silver-haired white man in his mid-60s, with a wide face and a skeptical gaze.

But, powered by nearly $2.5 million in awards from the CDFI Fund, his institution has emerged as a leader in providing financial services to the poor, along with a handful of others in the region. The financial literacy class that led to Katie Alexander's home loan, for example, was the result of a partnership between Guaranty Bank & Trust and the Bank of Anguilla.

Back in 2012, Guaranty hired Clifton Williams, a savvy Delta native who had worked for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as a bank regulator for 34 years, to handle community outreach. Williams spent six months researching the local situation and learned that about half of Delta households had either spotty access to banking services or none at all. That's about double the national rate.

Low-income residents often needed money they didn't have, and ended up going to a payday lender. That started a cycle of debt that damaged thousands of lives.

Williams thought local people would do better if someone warned them about the dangers of payday loans and told them about alternatives. Guaranty Bank & Trust, which needed a local customer base with decent credit, would benefit, too.

So Williams built a financial literacy class modeled on an FDIC program called Money Smart, but adapted for the Delta. Once the classes were rolling, he was perfectly positioned to bring other banks in as partners, since their employees all knew him from his time as a bank examiner.

By the end of 2015, Williams had 16 banks teaching the courses, and 1,585 certified graduates.

Latasha Coleman is one of them. She's a bright-eyed single mom who lives in Rolling Fork with her parents and four kids. Her house looks out on a little public playground; across the street is a vast cornfield. She works full-time as a nurse's assistant in the nearby town of Vicksburg, but makes only about $18,000 a year.

"I was in the red zone all the way," Coleman says of the months just before she signed up for Williams' class. She tells of taking out a loan to pay a medical bill, then taking a second one to pay off the first one. She estimates that she was spending about $2,000 a year on interest.

After she finished the class, Coleman pledged to stay away from payday loans. But she fell off the wagon. She decided to take the class over again. Now, she says she hasn't taken a payday loan in two years.

This education program isn't the only thing Guaranty has done to address its neighbors' financial problems. A YES! Magazine analysis of 2014 data reported under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act reveals that Guaranty was among the top providers of home loans in the 13 Delta counties where poverty is a persistent problem. Local CDFIs together made fully a third of housing loans here, while the large national banks that dominate home lending in most areas made only a handful.

`What's remarkable about the loans community banks are making here isn't necessarily low interest rates—the rates are mostly standard. Instead, it's that the loans were approved at all, and that they don't tend to go into default.

For example, Guaranty Bank & Trust approved about 50 percent of loan applications it received from Delta residents making less than $30,000 a year. That's substantially better than the 30 percent of applications from similar residents approved by Regions Bank, which has nearly 200 times greater assets, but is not a CDFI.

Oases in the Desert

Commercial banks are crucial to antipoverty finance in Mississippi, but they're not the whole story. One of the most creative voices in the sector belongs to Bill Bynum, who in 1994 helped found a group that later became Hope Enterprise Development Corporation.

Hope is a loan fund—a nonprofit organization that specializes in lending and investing money. Like Guaranty Bank & Trust, Hope is a CDFI, and has received nearly $90 million in awards.

Free from the pressures of bank regulation, Bynum is able to put money into projects not even the best-intentioned bank would touch. For example, after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, Hope built its own think tank to craft a socially inclusive policy response. The result was a federally funded program that provided financial counseling to more than 10,000 homeowners. On its website, Hope says the program brought in more than $600 million in repair funds.

Meanwhile, the development corporation runs a credit union that pays attention to quieter catastrophes.

Take the little town of Moorhead, Miss. George Holland has been its mayor since 2009. He grew up just a few miles east, helping his parents farm a White landowner's property for a share of the crop.

When Holland was a teenager, live blues poured from the doorways of two downtown clubs. These days, one is closed down and the other plays only recorded music. Holland is a minister now, and says he no longer listens to the blues. But his sorrow at the loss of his town's culture comes through in his voice.

It's not just blues that went away. Holland remembers a thriving downtown strip with three groceries, two shops selling clothing, two drugstores and a pool hall.

Today, every downtown storefront is boarded up, except for a thrift store run by the mayor's older brother, James.

Then, in the summer of 2015, residents learned that they were also going to lose their only bank. It was a branch of Regions, housed in a proud old building with the words "Bank of Moorhead" carved into the transom over the door.

The company decided to close the branch after weighing factors including profitability, a spokesperson said.

Luckily for the residents of Moorhead, Regions didn't just board it up and leave, though. They donated it, along with some of the equipment inside, to Hope Federal Credit Union.

On Oct. 13, 2015, the bank reopened under new management. Hope rehired the branch's two employees, but at higher salaries and with expanded responsibilities.

Pamela Anderson, 46, is one of them. She says she likes her job better now because she can open new accounts and make loans. Previously, she could only cash checks and take deposits. As of December, her branch had opened 458 accounts and made 47 small loans totaling about $165,000.

"It's inspiring to me because a lot of the people that I have made the loans to ... would not have qualified for a loan with Regions at all," Anderson says, shaking her head. "They just would not have."

Moorhead is not the only place in the Delta where Regions has closed a branch and donated the building to Hope Federal. The same thing happened in three other nearby towns: Itta Bena, Drew and Shaw. All are high-poverty rural communities with little to offer a profit-oriented bank. If not for Hope Federal's new branches, the area could have become a "banking desert" served mostly by payday lenders.

"Traditional banks don't see the communities we work with as a viable market," Hope founder Bynum says.

"But those people certainly don't deserve to be preyed upon. There's a market there. There's a need."

Meanwhile, Moorhead Mayor Holland says he couldn't have been happier about the change. Regions had long refused to install an ATM in its Moorhead branch, saying it was too expensive to do so. That left residents with no way to withdraw money after banking hours without paying a fee.

Hope Credit Union addressed the problem immediately, and Holland believes it will be a stronger ally in the economic development he has in mind for the town.

The Power of Listening

Helen Godfrey-Smith is the CEO of Shreveport Federal Credit Union, which has assets of about $110 million and is based in northern Louisiana.

But on the morning of Nov. 19, she was stooped over a plot of collard greens on a Mississippi farm with her senior vice president, picking the broad, green leaves with one hand while clutching her smartphone and sunglasses in the other.

The land belongs to Frank Wilbourn, a farmer in his seventies who was raised on this property when it belonged to his parents. They sold the place, but Wilbourn bought it back when he returned to the Mississippi Delta to farm.

Wilbourn had been in Milwaukee, Wis., where he worked in the steel mills for more than 30 years. Clad in a jean jacket, sunglasses, and a driving cap, Wilbourn is obviously proud of what he's built here. He gestured to the tall pecan trees growing nearby.

"Everything out here you see I set out," Wilbourn says, with a deep accent. "All these trees."

"He planted all of it," says Godfrey-Smith.

Shreveport Federal doesn't make as many home loans as Guaranty Bank & Trust does, and Hope Federal has more branches in the Delta.

But Shreveport stands out in another way: Godfrey-Smith, who is African American, is committed to understanding the needs of local Black farmers, and her credit union's work is guided by the things they've told her they want.

The results are unlike anything else in Mississippi's banking world, and Godfrey-Smith says that they wouldn't have happened without the CDFI Fund, which has assisted the credit union with $4.5 million. "It was the CDFI awards that allowed us to cross the state line into Mississippi," she says.

The centerpiece is the Delta Regional Mule Train Farmers Market, a 30,000-square-foot converted textile factory at the south end of Marks, Miss. This cavernous, concrete-floored space still belongs to the county, which rents it to a worker-owned cooperative of local farmers and community leaders for a dollar a year.

The building houses a farmers market during the growing season, a rare place to pick up fruits and vegetables. But the market has also changed the lives of local farmers, many of whom used to sell their vegetables from the backs of pickup trucks.

Larry Russell, 58, is a fourth-generation farmer who works the same 80 acres his great-grandfather did. While most of that land is in cotton and soybeans, the Delta's most prominent row crops, 10 acres are in vegetables. Russell says having a consistent market that customers know how to find has increased his farm's annual revenue from about $16,000 to $20,000.

He has put some of that new income into buying a second crop sprayer, so he doesn't have to wash out the tank every time he switches from pesticide to herbicide. "It saves me time," he says.

The creation of the Delta Mule Train Farmers Market took plenty of work. After local farmers told Godfrey-Smith they needed a place to sell vegetables, she helped Frank Wilbourn build a tiny wooden store right in front of his farm, which opened in June 2013.

That meant Wilbourn didn't have to sell out of the back of his truck anymore. But Godfrey-Smith wanted to see the same thing happen on a bigger scale. She recalls coming out of a meeting in Marks and noticing a huge, empty building across the street.

"I asked what it was, and it took a moment for them to even know what I was pointing to," Godfrey-Smith says. "But with my fresh eyes I saw it. I said, 'What are y'all gonna do with it?'"

No one had any plans for the building, which had been abandoned for more than 20 years. Godfrey-Smith told the farmers about it, and they started to get excited.

In February 2015, the farmers officially incorporated as a cooperative business called the Delta Regional Market Cooperative. Shreveport's board voted to donate about $100,000 to renovate the building, pulling out the old industrial infrastructure and installing an air-conditioning system. Meanwhile, the National Cooperative Business Association put in about a quarter of a million dollars—half of it through a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture—to provide the co-op with training and other services.

In October 2015, the farmers market opened for business. About a month later, the place was already a hub of activity. At least a hundred local people—nearly all of them African American—stopped by to buy produce and participate in a food giveaway organized by Shreveport Federal Credit Union.

"We see this as a community empowerment project," Godfrey-Smith told the crowd, standing in front of cardboard boxes full of food. "We don't look at it as a project to help the needy or anything like that. It's to help our friends, and the people who've helped us be who we are."

A Piece of the Puzzle

The longstanding poverty that afflicted the rural South after the Civil War has evaporated in many places over the last 50 years. But in the Mississippi Delta, it remains.

Yet, in some Delta counties, poverty has started to decline. In 1990, an astounding 45 percent of Coahoma County residents lived below the poverty line. Twenty years later, that number was down to 36 percent. About half of the Delta's poor counties saw similar reductions over the same period.

Chris Masingill is the federal co-chairman of the Delta Regional Authority, a federal-state partnership that focuses on economic development. He says that CDFIs have been an important part of those reductions in poverty.

"Residents don't have access to the resources they need to build their community," he says. "Getting them a checking account so they can buy their first home and build their assets, that's a critical part of how we continue to tackle poverty in rural America and in the Delta region."

Bill Bynum adds that the CDFI program is especially important in the Delta because the region lacks large foundations and businesses. "The CDFI fund has been one of the few resources available in this part of the country," he says.

"Mississippi would be in really bad shape were it not for the CDFI fund."

That's not to say the program is a silver bullet. The unemployed, the homeless, and the formerly incarcerated, for example, may not be in a position to benefit from a loan.

It is a limitation that Mark Pinsky knows well. He is the former president and CEO of the Opportunity Finance Network, an association of CDFIs that advocates for the sector's interests. He is currently writing a book about the CDFI movement, which he was involved with since the early 1990s.

The way Pinsky thinks about it, traditional banks serve a relatively privileged sector of society. By specializing in risk management, practicing relational banking, and looking beyond credit scores, CDFIs have extended service to include low-income people with steady jobs. But they are not a solution for the many Delta residents who primarily need employment or a wage increase.

Most people familiar with the problem favor one of two solutions. The first is to strengthen the sector by creating new kinds of lenders that can go further than CDFIs in serving low-wealth people. The University of Georgia's Mehrsa Baradaran, for example, wants to see every post office in the nation offer basic banking services. And Jessica Gordon Nembhard, an economist who has for decades studied how African Americans build wealth, wants to see the program expanded so that it can do more for the people she calls "the truly dispossessed."

"The way that these institutions work is they lend money but charge interest and handling costs," she points out. "So if they were going to help the poor, ideally they shouldn't be charging interest."

Nembhard says she would like to see a tier of CDFI-like organizations that specializes in making no-interest loans. She would also like to see more programs that directly fund the creation of worker-owned cooperatives, which she says are among the most effective ways to build wealth in low-income communities of color.

A second solution is to better fund the existing CDFI program. Many of the bank and credit union leaders interviewed for this article said they would like to lend and invest more widely and affordably—to do what it takes to meet their community's needs. But with the level of support they currently receive from the Treasury Department, they say it's simply not possible.

Since its inception, the CDFI program has made $2.3 billion in awards. To put that in perspective, Bank of America alone received $45 billion from the federal government during the bailouts of 2008 to 2009. That money was paid back, but the disparity in support is one reason why, even after 20 years of growth, CDFIs still hold a tiny fraction of banking assets.

"The CDFI program is small," Bill Bynum says. "There's a lot more demand than we have the capacity to address."

Eric Hangen, a researcher at the University of New Hampshire who studies the impact of community development finance, would like to see that capacity grow. "You couldn't ask for a better investment opportunity for the government than helping to capitalize CDFIs," he says, pointing out that every $1 awarded to banks and credit unions in the program generates $8 to $9 in local lending.

"Without a doubt," he says, "greater government funding means more financing available to businesses, homeowners, affordable housing, and community facilities that wouldn't get financing from mainstream banks."

Helen Godfrey-Smith can remember a time when that claim would have left her cold. When she first heard about the CDFI program, years ago, she says she wasn't interested. Her father, a logger who struggled to get loans from White bankers, had raised her to value self-sufficiency and avoid government aid.

Decades later, she didn't want her credit union to be dependent on anyone.

"For many years, I would not consider handouts," she says.

Today, she is glad she changed her mind. Without the CDFI awards her credit union has received, she says, there would be no farmers market in Marks. Frank Wilbourn would still be selling vegetables out of the back of his truck. Local farmers would have no worker-owned cooperative. And Shreveport Federal would not be in the Mississippi Delta at all.

So Godfrey-Smith agrees that the program needs more money—despite what her father would think. "We need more resources allocated," she says. "We've developed a model that really works, and I think it could work anywhere in the country. But it costs money to do what we do."

James Trimarco wrote this article originally for YES! Magazine where he is a senior editor. He is on Twitter @jamestrimarco.

Additional reporting by Marcus Green.

The Jackson Free Press has officially been in business for 14 years this week. Yay, us! A lot has changed for the JFP since the early days in a one-bedroom apartment on Fortification Street, and much has changed in Jackson since our first issue celebrating the "Rise of the Creative Class" here. Here are 14 of the best things that have happened in Jackson. We can't include everything we've seen spring up over the years; add yours at jfp.ms/14thbirthday.

Co-working and Business Incubator Spaces

Creativity is abundant in Jackson, and we aren't just talking about the art scene. Some Jacksonians have stepped up to provide spaces for artists and business people alike. Midtown has business incubators The Hatch (126 Keener Ave.), which is home to Mississippi Cold Drip Coffee & Tea Co., and The Hangar (140 Wesley Ave.), which is home to businesses such as the Reclaimed Miles (formerly known as Storied Salvage) and creatives such as fashion designer Kamilah Grim. The Mill (3002 N. Mill St.) in Fondren is home to creatives such as Darrell Trouth, who owns Hard Knocks Revolution, and sports-media production company The Bash Brothers. North Midtown Arts Center is home to creatives such as photographer Charles Washington and claymation artist Azod Abedikichi. The Wonder Lab in Fondren is home to Justin Ransburg, Michaela Fisk and other artists who like to share resources and have a place to work outside the home.

In downtown Jackson, Coalesce (109 N. State St.) is home to business such as The Podastery and Sadie Allen's Apps, and it also hosts 1 Million Cups and other community events. Technology and business co-working space Mantle Co.working (422 Duling Ave.), which is above Duling Hall, is the newest space. If you haven't seen the inside yet, you probably should soon. It's old-school-house cool.

—Amber Helsel

An Arts District, Downtown

Years ago, the downtown arts scene wasn't what it is today. But like downtown itself, the art scene is growing. For one thing, the Mississippi Museum of Art, which was in the Arts Center of Mississippi building back then, Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.), Jackson Convention Complex (105 E. Pascagoula St.) and the Arts Center of Mississippi (201 E. Pascagoula St.) are now clustered together in one big artistic explosion. Almost every street in downtown Jackson has some type of public art, from statues to sculpture to painted traffic boxes, which keep multiplying. And even though the arts center is experiencing city-budget shortfalls, like many programs in the city, it is still a great place to host an event.

Thalia Mara was renovated a couple of years ago, adding more seating and pulling in performances from musicians such as Band of Horses, Broadway acts and more, between the every-four-year USA International Ballet Competition (the next one is in 2018) that Jackson is lucky to host. Downtown even just got financing for the Capitol Art Lofts, which will have 31 affordable apartments for artists and creatives in the 200 block of Capitol Street, across from the King Edward Hotel.

—Amber Helsel

Fondren on Steroids

A lot has changed in Fondren over the years, and the JFP had a front-row seat for much of it during the near-decade in our former location, the Fondren Point building (2727 Old Canton Road) building. Wier Boerner Allin Architecture purchased the building in November 2015 and held a groundbreaking ceremony Feb. 18 for the firm's future location. With a fancy new BancorpSouth building going up next door, and needed parking improvements, that part of Fondren is catching up fast to the snazzy developments on the other end of it.

Fondren Corner (2906 N. State St.), a building on the corner of North State Street and Fondren Place that housed the old Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks building back when we were writing our business plan, has served as a combination retail and living space since 2003. The building houses Rooster's and Basil's, in addition to businesses such as La Brioche and Swell-O-Phonic. Nearby, two hotels are going in; we're especially excited to see architect-turned-developer Roy Decker's The Fondren, which is being built behind and preserving the retro look of the old Kolb's Cleaners. And over near UMMC, The Meridian apartments are in the process of opening their doors, providing more cool places to live right here in Jackson.

—Dustin Cardon

The District at Eastover

Construction on the complex of shops, lofts and office space continues at The District at Eastover (1250 Eastover Drive) development project this fall; the most recent addition to developer Ted Duckworth's vision is the Residence Inn by Marriot, a 95-suite hotel. It joins the One Eastover Center, new home to the Baker Donelson law firm, Ross and Yerger insurance, and Cosmich Simmons & Brown law firm, a five-floor, 115,000 square-feet office space and accompanying 400-space parking garage, a press release on its website states. In the next several months, developers will add residential loft space, commercial retail areas and even a promised new movie theater to the District, located off Interstate 55 near the Meadowbrook Exit.

We applaud new development and office space so close to downtown and in the open space along the interstate. This is a smart way to keep tax base in the city, and encouraging to see firms relocate within the city limits.

—Tim Summers Jr.

Foodies Unite!

Jackson's food scene is getting more stellar by the year. Of course, that's no secret to those who live in the Jackson metro area and benefit from the wide range of cuisines offered in so many different local spots, including Vietnamese, Indian, Thai, Mexican, Italian, Greek, barbecue, seafood and yes, soul food by the barrel.

From biscuits and fried chicken at Two Sisters' Kitchen (707 N. Congress St.) or rib-tips and oxtails at Bully's famous restaurant (3118 Livingston Road), Jackson has as much soul as the next southern city. If you're into a restaurant's aesthetic, Fondren has got you covered with the animated Babalu Tacos & Tapas (622 Duling Ave.) dining room or the hip interior of the CAET Wine Bar (3100 N. State St., Suite 102).

For authentic Vietnamese hot pots or pho, head to Saigon off of Lakeland Drive, and if you're looking for good Thai, Thai Tasty (5050 Parkway Drive, Suite 7) off Old Canton Road deserves your attention. If you want to try something a little different, go to raw-food restaurant Liquid Light Cafe (224 E. Capitol St.).

But these are just a few favorites: go to jfp.ms/menus and jfp.ms/food for much more foodie news.

—Arielle Dreher

Midtown Rising

After a spike in the arts scene there in the late 1980s, Midtown went into decline, but these days, it's rising again as a small-but-vibrant art mecca. Organizations in the area are also focusing on advancing the quality of education through avenues such as locally run Midtown Public (301 Adelle St.) and neighborhood redevelopment through low-income housing. The neighborhood even has a master plan for its future, which includes reducing the number of through streets (we all know there's a bunch). Find the master plan at midtownpartners.org.

An increasing number of local businesses are located in the area, like Mississippi Cold Drip Coffee & Tea Co., Pearl River Glass Studio (142 Millsaps Ave.) and Offbeat (151 Wesley Ave.). 
 The last Friday of each month, businesses and people in Jackson gather for Final Friday, adding another fun night to monthly festivals such as Fondren's First Thursday and Third Thursday at the Mississippi Museum of Art.

—Amber Helsel

The Music Scene

Quite a few things are inextricably linked to Jackson, for better or for worse, but few are as pronounced as the culture of music the city has long cultivated since Farish Street's heyday as a center of the blues- and soul-music industry in the state.

The current music scene has something for everyone, whether you want rock 'n' roll, folk, country, hip-hop, alt-anything or, of course, the blues and soul that rivals any city in the country.

Local musicians have an array of venues more than willing to host their talents, from venues such as Duling Hall (622 Duling Ave.), Hal & Mal's (200 S. Commerce St.), Fenian's Pub (901 E. Fortification St.), Martin's (214 S. State St.), Offbeat, The Hideaway (5100 Interstate 55 N.) and Big Sleepy's (208 W. Capitol St.) to restaurants such as The Iron Horse Grill (320 W. Pearl St.).

And speaking of Farish, the street has yet to see the full renaissance we've all long dreamed about, but F. Jones Corner (303 N. Farish St.) and Johnny T's (538 N. Farish St.) are important venues that have found a footing there, bringing more life back to the street that was once the center of Jackson's music world.

We look forward to see what Farish becomes in the next 14 years.

—Tyler Edwards

Back to Life Downtown

Upon squeezing through the King Edward Hotel's boarded-up entrance around 14 years ago, I found a dilapidated realm ready for my cautious exploration. Homeless people scurried into hiding as we curious ascended the darkened main stairwell, stopping on every floor, each of which had its own unique color and character, rooms drenched in sunlight through broken windows. It was the perfect place to take photos.

But this was long before iPhones, and analog cameras seemed appropriate for capturing such compelling squalor—and the ghosts of a distant past, the heavily rusted King Edward sign looking out over the city. Other landmarks such as the Standard Life and The Iron Horse Grill weren't much better.

The Standard Life—the best building in our skyline—was coming apart at the seams, and after two fires, the Iron Horse was a burnt-out shell of itself.

In the past 14 years, all those buildings have come back to glorious life after important renovations that have singlehandedly helped downtown Jackson turn a corner. The past is new again.

—Stephen Roach

Art of the Streets

Fourteen years ago, Jackson wasn't as colorful as it was today. William Goodman's mural at the Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. Lamar St.) wasn't there. The art garden wasn't there; it was a parking lot. Many of the murals in Fondren weren't there. Some of the traffic boxes in downtown and south Jackson hadn't yet become street art in their own right. The mural on the back of The Hatch in Midtown hadn't been 
painted yet.

Fast forward into the late 2010s, and art is everywhere on our streets and in our parks. Fondren has murals such as the one at Walker's Drive-In (3016 N. State St.) and the astronaut and cat mural on top of Montgomery Ace Hardware (2801 Old Canton Road).

The parking garage at City Centre (220 S. Lamar St.) has a mural inside of it, and some artists were recently commissioned to paint more traffic boxes downtown.

Art grows more contagious everyday in Jackson. We like that. A lot.

—Amber Helsel

Loving Our HBCUs

It's a bit hard to believe now, but when the Jackson Free Press launched 14 years ago, Jackson State University didn't feel like the beautiful, open campus it is today.

That has changed dramatically in the years since. The historically black university—and one with a rich history in Mississippi—has built itself into an impressive campus. Start with the multi-level student center (complete with its own Apple store) to impressive co-working spaces in the library outfitted by Barefield Workplace Solutions (251 W. South St.), an actual locally owned place to get cool office furniture and order your supplies.

Across from the student center is One University Place (1100 J.R. Lynch St.), which houses businesses such as The Penguin (closed for renovations right now), Gallery1 and Royal Bleau Boutique, and also has 78 apartments.

It took a bit to come to fruition, but we like what Jackson State has helped do with the Mississippi e-Center (1230 Raymond Road) in south Jackson. The mass communications department moved there, as did Edward St. Pe and WLEZ studios, setting up a collaborative media learning lab with JSU students. The building also has one of the best meeting rooms in the city in its executive conference center. The room is set up for two-way video and data conferencing and presentations and is perfectly set up for panel discussions.

We also like what we see at the private and equally historic Tougaloo College (500 W. County Line Road) on the north edge of the city. In addition to its lovely grounds and historic Woodworth Chapel—the site of so many activities and community building since 1901—we also are impressed with the newer and sleeker Bennie G. Thompson Academic & Civil Rights Center, designed by Duvall Decker Architects and honoring one of the college's more noteworthy graduates.

—Donna Ladd

Maywood Mart/Highland Village

When the JFP started in 2002, many businesses and people were headed for the city's exits. A huge part of that flight was economic—with too many residents of the metro spending their money in big-box stores and proliferating shopping centers surrounding the city, costing the capital city in vital tax dollars.

That's still happening, of course, but now Jackson is pushing back. Hard. The area in north Jackson around Maywood Mart (1220 E. Northside Drive) and Highland Village (4500 Interstate 55 N.), the city's first and historic upscale outdoor-shopping complex, is exploding with businesses. Yes, there are chains, but they're the kind that can bring people into the interesting local businesses near them, rather than allowing customers to buy office supplies, underwear and cereal all in the same store to hurt locally owned businesses.

Whole Foods, of course, was a boon for Jackson in many ways (even though its presence means doubling down on support of local grocers like Rainbow Co-op (2807 Old Canton Road) in Fondren and McDade's locations (including across the street in Maywood Mart and other spots). Whole Foods draws locals back into Highland Village, who will then sample wonderful restaurants like BRAVO!, Char and Beagle Bagel, rather than driving to the suburbs to find a gourmet grocer and then sticking around to eat dinner.

And across Northside Drive, Maywood is more active than ever with McDade's flagship store and its fine liquor/wine store next door, the best local drugstore in town in Beemon's, and lots of other local shops. A Petco is coming in—yes, a chain but better than driving to one in the burbs—and everyone's favorite burrito chain, Moe's Southwest Grill, is ready to open any time.

This commerce inside Jackson is good for the city, and we're thrilled to see it. Don't forget to take care of your locally owned businesses first, though. They're the heart and soul of what makes Jackson authentic, and they invest more locally.

—Donna Ladd

Look Westward

West Jackson celebrated its culinary culture on Sept. 10 with a "Taste of West Jackson" competition, gathering together a host of restaurants that dot the area.

But one business was missing. Koinonia Coffee House (136 S. Adams St,), a local spot known for its popular "Friday Forum" that spotlights local politicians, officials and other speakers, closed in August, but in its place, owner Lee Harper said during her announcement, will be a business that keeps the same community-centered feel. And the weekly must-visit forums where big ideas are shared and hatched. 
 In July, the city also celebrated the completion of one of its rehabbed houses as a part of the Gateway Housing Initiative, an effort that will see more homes renovated in the area of Claiborne Street, Ellis Avenue, and Holland, Houston, Jayne, Macy and Moss streets.

These days, the Jackson Zoo, which is also facing budget issues, is working on fundraising and executing its master plan, just like west Jackson.

For more information, visit westjxn.com.

—Tim Summers Jr.

Spengler's Strip

Speaking of Coalesce, the business is also part of a recent influx of business in the historic Spengler's Corner, which is the oldest commercial building in Jackson. In 1840, Joseph Spengler opened the Spengler Hotel on the corner of Capitol and State streets.

The property stayed in his family for most of the next 100 years. These days, the hotel is gone, but in its place is a growth of local businesses. Eaves Law Firm (101 N. State St.) is located on the corner of Capitol and State. Other businesses in the growing block include Thimblepress (113 N. State St.) and Seabold Architectural Studio (111 N. State St.)—and watch for an exciting new announcement this week.

Considering that you look out across State Street at the Old Capitol Museum (100 S. State Street)—yes, the building where Mississippi seceded to join the Civil War—it's hard to find a more historic strip in the state. It's a nice face-off of the old and the new.

—Amber Helsel

TEDxJackson

If you're ever lacking in ideas or just want to discover new ones, TED Talks are a great way to find one. TED came to be in the '80s as a platform to discuss topics ranging from relationships to art to mindfulness to smart design.

Two years ago, Mississippi got its own version in the form of TEDxJackson, an independently organized event in the spirit of TED. The first year focused on the state's creative economy, and last year's focused on ideas that can help launch Mississippi into the future. Both featured great topics for Jackson and Mississippi, though only time will tell if some of those ideas will come to fruition.

This year's event is different: It's TEDxJacksonWomen, and the theme is "It's About Time." The conference will focus on the demand for women's time and attention, time-sensitive issues that interest women and the urgency needed to bring about positive change. For more information, visit tedxjackson.com.

—Amber Helsel

Coming Soon: The Good, The Bad and the Shameful

Mississippi's history has often been somewhat elusive to residents of the state, often not faced or discussed, shameful as much of it was. Now, though, the state is finally owning its past enough to put it into two museums and open the doors to the good, the bad and the extremely ugly—the state's history.

The Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum will open in December 2017 next door to each other in the block between Jefferson and North streets, near the Old Capitol Museum and the civil war monument and the state archives. These museums, which curators promise will not pull any punches, are a major step for Mississippians and visitors alike to better understand the state and, thus, the nation. We can't wait.

Add your own to jfp.ms/14thbirthday.

David Raines says rain and heat make for great mushrooms.

"In fact, there's a lot of local things in Jackson that a lot of people probably aren't aware of, like pigs, farm-fresh eggs, pottery, artisan sauces and plenty more," he says.

He wants to use all of those elements in his business, The Flora Butcher.

Raines, a professional chef in Madison with more than 14 years of experience in restaurants around the United States and the world, decided to go into business as a butcher with the opening of The Flora Butcher on Aug. 1.

The Flora Butcher is dedicated to locally sourced meat, a variety of hot dishes and a special type of beef called Wagyu that Raines sources from Raines Farm in Monroe, La., which his father, David Raines Sr., has operated for 14 years. Wagyu is a type of beef known for its intense marbling and fat content.

Since opening, Raines says The Flora Butcher has had tremendous success. He says that the shop's blue-plate lunch specials, which feature a different selection of two hot dishes available to-go every day, are especially popular, along with items such as sausage-stuffed chicken, handmade sausage, the Wagyu beef, and the eatery's selection of local ingredients and other items.

"Everybody in town has been appreciative to have us in their backyard, and people from all over Jackson, Brandon and surrounding neighborhoods have been coming in every weekend," Raines says. "We've been doing more take-home food lately than we were at the start, and people have been really drawn to things like our locally foraged chanterelle mushrooms."

Raines' earliest cooking experiences came from feeding friends on hunting and fishing trips, and it eventually became something he fell into doing naturally, he says. While he initially only intended to learn about cooking as a hobby, Raines eventually found that no other profession appealed to him as much as cooking did. He decided to study the art professionally, getting his start at Johnson & Wales University in Denver in 2004. He received an associate's degree in culinary arts in 2006 and went on to ItalCook, a culinary school in Jesi, Italy, that is dedicated to that country's slow-food movement.

Raines says a group of Romans were upset about a McDonald's being built near the Spanish Steps in Rome and the potential loss of old cooking traditions to fast food. "So they started a movement to slow food down instead, and set up ItalCook as a school that would focus on traditional dishes, ingredients and methods, and the idea of knowing exactly where your food comes from," he explains.

Raines then took an international bread-making course at the French Culinary Institute in New York City in 2008, followed by an introductory sommelier course with the Guild of Master Sommeliers in New Orleans in 2010. He also took a butchery and advanced sausage-making course with 4505 Meats, a San Francisco-based company. That course was taught by Ryan Farr, a professional chef, self-taught butcher, author of the book "Whole Beast Butchery: The Complete Guide to Beef, Lamb and Pork" and owner of 4505 Burgers & BBQ restaurant in San Francisco.

"Chef Ryan learned everything he knows through hands-on experience, and he was a great mentor to me," Raines says about the class that changed his approach.

"I had spent time in Australia in 2009 and got the chance to see whole Wagyu cattle brought in to work with, which was one of my first experiences with it. I took Chef Ryan's course later because I wanted to know more, and what I learned from him played a big part in my decision to open The Flora Butcher this year.

"I told my dad about Wagyu beef and suggested he make the switch from regular cattle because I thought Wagyu would be the future of prime beef and something special to bring to the U.S."

Raines has worked at 17 different restaurants in the United States and abroad over the course of his career. It was at a restaurant in Sydney, Australia, called Tetsuya's, owned by Japanese native Tetsuya Wakuda, where Raines first experienced Wagyu beef. He also worked at the three-star Michelin chef Alphonso Iaccarino's Don Alphonso 1890 in Sant'Agata sui Due Golfi, Italy, and celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse's NOLA restaurant in New Orleans. He was the chef de cuisine at R'evolution in New Orleans for two years and at Seafood R'evolution in Ridgeland for a year.

"I'd say the biggest thing I picked up from the really big chefs I worked for over the years, the famous and most successful ones, is just how different they all are from each other, and how each one of them does things their own way and gives it a personal touch," Raines says. "They all personally manage every aspect of their business—the layout of their restaurants, the refrigerators they use, the product they use and how it's delivered, the farmers or hunters they source from—down to the smallest detail, and that makes a big difference.

"It's much harder working for the big guys, but it's worth it because of how much you can learn from them. I've learned to appreciate the ingredients you use and their quality, and to appreciate the sacrifice someone made to get them to you. I learned to appreciate things like molecular gastronomy techniques and traditional cooking methods, and I'm putting it all to use at The Flora Butcher."

The Flora Butcher (4845 Main St., Flora) is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. For more information, call 601-509-2498 or find The Flora Butcher's Facebook page.

Krispy Kreme burger (Dean O Foods, Tampa, Fla.)

It's a burger between two glazed donuts, and it tastes better than it sounds. The donuts are, of course, sweet, but the burger's heaviness cuts through that, making for a really good salty and sweet combination. You can get with toppings such as cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato and pickles.

WonderStick Ice Cream Cones (WonderStick, Shreveport, La.)

One of the worst parts of ice-cream cones is the dripping, right? WonderStick in Shreveport, La., has fixed that problem with their product of the same name. A WonderStick is a gluten-free J-shaped ice-cream cone that's filled with soft-serve ice cream, so you can hold it, eat the ice cream (and the cone, of course), and not worry about getting sticky or messy. The cone comes in original or cinnamon.

Porkychos and Deep-Fried Beer-Battered Burgers (Smokey Gals Catering, Byram)

Porkychos are nachos with ingredients such as barbecue pork and jalapenos, but these come with a surprise. Instead of tortilla or corn chips, Smokey Gals make these nachos with pork rinds. And they also do a deep-fried beer-batter burger that looks sort of like a Monte Cristo sandwich (you know, the fried sandwich with fruit preserves and powdered sugar).

Alligator on a Stick (The Whistle Stop Cafe, Byram)

If you've never had alligator, the Mississippi State Fair might be the perfect time to try it. The Whistle Stop's is fried and put on a stick with onions. Hence, alligator on a stick. Some say it tastes like chicken.

Mississippi Vendors

Fairs tend to attract people from all over the nation, and many of them have interesting foods to try. But sometimes, there's nothing better than eating local or at least at vendors from Mississippi, so here are some of the local options.

Malone's Candy Company (Byram)

Thing to get: taffy

Patton Farms (Hermanville)

Thing to get: roasted corn

Penn's Fish House (multiple locations)

Thing to get: funnel-cake fries and chicken on a stick

Takum Outum (Pearl):

Thing to get: shish-k-bobs

Ed's Lemonade (Raymond)

Thing to get: lemonade

RWD Concessions

Thing to get: non-alcoholic daiquiris

Other Mississippi Vendors

A&W Concessions

Back Yard Burger

Costa's Place

Colonial Enterprises

Mississippi Cattlemen's Association

Pig Out BBQ

This is It ( Live entertainment, food, beer party atmosphere)

For more information, visit mdac.ms.gov.

Like most state fairs, the Mississippi State Fair isn't exactly the place where you can always find the healthiest food. But why would you want to? Most people go for a day or two, and they want to have fun and not worry about their waistbands or health.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't. IHC Best Health has some tips on how to eat healthy-ish at a fair. Or at least not go crazy.

Here are some of the highlights of how to do the fair right.

Share, Share, Share

You'll find amazing feats of food at the fair such as deep-fried candy bars and a donut burger. There's no reason you shouldn't at least try them, but when you do, make sure you have someone with you so you can share.

Walk Around the Vendors Lane Once, or Twice

There's a lot to see at the fair, so you shouldn't necessarily go and buy the first thing you see. Walk around for a bit and see what you really want to try. That way you don't break the bank or make yourself sick.

Watch Your Beverages

If you want to put most of your focus on the food at the fair, don't drink all of the sodas and alcohol and other sugary drinks. Pace yourself, and grab a water.

Make Substitutions

If you want that one fried thing, don't also get the fries or another fried or unhealthy side. Get a light salad or another light side. Like learning how to eat healthier in general, it's all about making substitutions and compromises. Exercise

If you want to enjoy fair food, exercising afterward is a good idea. CBS Minnesota estimated that for a fair-food combination, corn on the cob with butter, a chocolate shake and a Pronto Pup (a meal that averages about 1,277 calories and 56 grams of fat), it takes about 2 1/2 of running or five hours of walking to burn it all off. So enjoy the food, but don't make yourself regret it later.

See more at jfp.ms/ihceatingtips.

Fair Schedule

Oct. 5:

5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Oct. 6:

11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Oct. 7:

11 a.m. to 1 a.m.

Oct. 8:

9 a.m. to midnight

Oct. 9-13:

11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Oct. 14:

11 a.m. to 1 a.m.

Oct. 15:

9 a.m. to midnight

Oct. 16:

11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Tickets

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In February, while visiting her sick mother at a local hospital, Kenna Kast decided to check in with her grandson's therapists.

Jacob, 9, is autistic and severely developmentally disabled. Kast used to accompany him by bus to his weekly therapy sessions at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Lexington, 10 miles from their home in Durant. But she was relieved of the duty when Jacob graduated from his Head Start preschool program and enrolled in a Durant Public School District elementary school.

As part of his exceptional-education program at the new school, Jacob was still entitled to continue his weekly therapy sessions. His school was supposed to provide transportation.

So Kast decided on that February day that it would be nice to say hello to Jacob's caseworker and see how he was doing.

But the nurse she met was evasive, Kast said, encouraging her to direct her questions about her grandson to a nurse higher up in the department.

Kast said when she finally asked the nurse in charge how Jacob had been doing, the nurse told her she would have a better idea— if his school would actually bring him.

"I beg your pardon?" Kast asked.

The nurse pulled out her grandson's hospital attendance log. Out of 14 scheduled visits, dating from October 2014 to June 2015, the hospital counted Jacob as a "no show" for nine of them.

Public-school Failures

Kast has a long history of distrust with the district, alleging physical and verbal abuse and racial discrimination against her grandchildren by teachers there—her grandchildren are all half-black, and Kast is white. Legal representation for the school district told the Jackson Free Press they have investigated her charges and do not believe they are valid, or that the school districts or employees are discriminating against Kast or her grandchildren.

Jacob's older sister and cousin now attend Old Dominion Christian School, a private Christian school 20 miles away in Kosciusko, where the girls say they are happy. Kast says she, her two daughters and her own mother pool resources to cover the tuition at the school.

But her grandson presents a more difficult challenge. Kast says she would love to enroll him at Old Dominion, but the school does not have a exceptional-education program.

Most private schools in the state don't. Neither are they required to.

Private School Review, a website that vets private schools, says that the state has 250 private schools. Out of these, the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools, or MAIS, reports that it lists just over 80 schools in its directory. In addition, the Mississippi Department of Education accredits 68 non-public school programs. Twenty-two of the MDE-accredited schools are programs focused solely on serving children with exceptional needs, or have exceptional-education programs in addition to their general curricula. Some MAIS schools may have teachers or therapists trained to work with students with exceptional needs, but there is no way of knowing how many because the State doesn't track it.

This did not stop Mississippi legislators from passing the Equal Opportunity for Students with Special Needs Act in 2015, creating "educational savings accounts," commonly known as vouchers, available to students with exceptional needs who have Individual Education Programs (often called IEPs), to help families afford the cost of attending a private school that may or may not be able to serve them.

With $6,500 at their disposal, students who qualify may use the funds for a variety of education-related needs, including tuition, a tutor or textbooks. Before, the state already had two voucher programs: the 2012 Dyslexia Therapy Scholarship for Students with Dyslexia Program, and in 2013, the Speech-Language Therapy Scholarship for Students with Speech-Language Impairments.

Backers of the legislation wanted to prevent students like Jacob from falling through the cracks in the state's public-school system, where many districts are struggling with funding shortfalls. But the law's impact may be small if families who turn to private schools find themselves facing the same problems in the independent and parochial school system: few choices and limited resources.

The new Special Needs Act has set aside more than $3 million in state-funded vouchers for about 430 of Mississippi's roughly 60,000 students with disabilities. By January, the Mississippi Department of Education had approved vouchers for 286 students, yet had only reimbursed 131 of those because parents could not find schools that would accept their children.

Gretchen Cagle, director of special education at MDE, says this is common for applicants who try to use vouchers at private schools that do not exclusively serve exceptional-needs students. And unlike the dyslexia and speech scholarships, which stipulate that private schools must have licensed dyslexia and speech-language therapists before they can accept those funds, the special-needs legislation does not require private schools to have exceptional-education specialists or services.

"That's definitely been one of the challenges for the families using the education scholarship account, is finding a school that will admit their child," Cagle told the Jackson Free Press. "Some with milder disabilities have an easier time, but even once you get into those private settings, they have a limited number of spots."

"Because we're independent, there's not a special-education requirement," MAIS Executive Director Shane Blanton told the Jackson Free Press. "At most independent schools around the nation, there's not per se special education—that's a public mandate, and we're independent schools."

A 'Blessed' Coast School

Sister Mary Jo Mike, who leads Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Elementary School in Biloxi, has a certified exceptional-education teacher on staff. It is the only school out of 14 in the Catholic Diocese of Biloxi with a exceptional-education teacher that offers a program serving a range of student disabilities.

"Some of the other schools have some services available, but of the Catholic schools in our diocese, we have the most complete program available," she told the Jackson Free Press.

Sister Mike says a generous family set up a trust fund more than 30 years ago to provide for exceptional-ed services in the school. "The donors, as they put it, were financially available to provide for their child, and not all families are that fortunate. Between the money from the fund and our own financial resources, and plus a little bit of state money, we are able to provide for children with exceptional needs," she said.

It is not free to go to Nativity BVM Elementary School, however. Mike said some students at the school may receive funds from the education savings account to cover tuition—more than $5,000 for non-Catholic kindergarten through sixth graders, $6,386 for pre-kindergarten students. The trust fund pays for a exceptionally trained teacher, Mike added.

Parents who look to the 22 MDE-accredited exceptional private schools may not find an option that works for their children. Two are penitentiaries. Four are hospitals. Three Mississippi Children's Home Service programs called CARES Schools primarily serve students who have IEPs for behavioral issues, and families do not pay tuition. The rest are dotted across the state and do not always provide a complete range of services for students with disabilities.

In many cases, the $6,500 stipend covers most of the cost of tuition at these MDE-accredited schools, but not all. At the New Summit Schools in Jackson and Greenwood, for instance, parents can expect to pay $7,500 and $5,100 in tuition, respectively. The Magnolia Speech School, which helps kids with communicative disorders, reports that the family portion of the school tuition is $550 to $850 a month.

The Willowood Developmental Center charges families less than $100 a week—but only serves newborns through 5-year-olds. And parents can choose to pay tuition at the states' Millcreek Schools, which serve a wide spectrum of services, at a rate of roughly $180 a day—but usually, public-school-district referrals put the onus of payment onto the school districts.

Deaf and blind students may attend the public Mississippi Schools for the Deaf and the Blind.

Private schools that aren't accredited by the Mississippi Department of Education charge a range of tuitions; high-school tuition this year at the prestigious St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Ridgeland, for instance, is $17,130—more than double this year's undergraduate student tuition at the University of Mississippi.

Grant Callen, president of Empower Mississippi, a nonprofit dedicated to "school choice" options, including vouchers and charter schools, says an experience like Kast's illustrates a range of failures on the part of public schools.

"We had heard for years just from talking to parents that simply because you have an IEP, which supposedly guarantees your child's rights to have their educational needs met, regardless of their disability, doesn't actually in practice mean you're going to have those needs met," Callen said.

Public-school districts draft IEPs in order to help identify the unique services most exceptional-needs students require in order to be successful in school. If districts cannot meet the needs of those students, the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires them to pay to have those needs met elsewhere.

Callen says some public-school districts will refuse to take diagnoses seriously in order to avoid creating an IEP for a student who will require the district to spend extra money on resources. This refusal will keep exceptional-needs students in schools and districts that cannot adequately provide for them, Callen argues.

Kast blames the Durant Public School District for not taking Jacob to his appointments. Now, the 50-year-old grandmother of three has started chaperoning him again.

"We've completely bypassed the school," she said. "I take him and bring him back myself. I don't trust them to do the right thing."

The Money Problem

Nancy Loome, executive director of the Parents' Campaign, a public-school advocacy group based in Jackson, told the Jackson Free Press in January that the schools cannot be wholly blamed for inadequate care of exceptional-needs students. She blames the Legislature.

"Schools have limited budgets. They can only spend what money they have, and when Legislatures aren't giving them the money they're due, they can't spend more than they have," Loome said. The State, she said, underfunded exceptional education in public schools in Mississippi by more than $12 million just this year. "Certainly, if the Legislature would follow the law and fund exceptional education in public schools as the law requires, schools would be able to provide more services."Mississippi has only twice fully bankrolled the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, or MAEP, the state's school-funding formula, in its near 20-year existence under state law.

Rep. John Moore, R-Brandon, the House Education Committee chairman, encouraged Republicans to pass the exceptional-education voucher legislation last year. He said the provision of the law requiring students to have recently obtained an IEP from a public-school district kept many potential applicants away. Legislators this year amended the bill to expand participation to students who have had an IEP within the last five years.

But education and disability-rights advocacy groups have a different opinion of exceptional-needs voucher programs than the state's education leadership. The National Education Association, a labor union that advocates for public education and teachers, wrote a policy brief that describes vouchers as a "scheme."

In the brief, the NEA writes that "proactive early intervention, professional development, and full funding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) are the best ways to improve the quality of education for students with disabilities, reduce the number of children inappropriately referred for exceptional education services, and provide great public schools for all children, including those with exceptional needs. We should focus on these proven strategies rather than voucher schemes that offer parents empty promises while asking them to give up federally protected civil rights."

Rep. Moore, however, sees no problem with its funding mechanism.

"It's no different than Medicaid. You take public money, and you give it to private providers; it's no difference," he said.

'Lana Will Graduate'

Pelahatchie mother Martha Beard is convinced the state law allowing public tax dollars to pay for private-school instruction may be saving her daughter Lana.

"Because of that law, we are able to send Lana to a school where she gets to receive the best resources and education available to her," Beard said, speaking before dozens of children, educators and lawmakers at the National School Choice Week Rally at the Capitol in January.

Beard said she and her husband adopted Lana at a very young age and that she was diagnosed with visual perception disorder, fetal alcohol syndrome and severe attention deficit disorder.

The disorders skewed Lana's ability to process and retain information, and made school hard for her. Homework assignments took hours, and Lana's defensiveness and frustration at the apparent ease in which her classmates navigated the classroom made it even worse.

Lana would cry and beg not to go to school in the morning.

Now at New Summit School, a private school in Jackson that offers a range of exceptional-education services, Lana is a new person, Beard says.

"She has more self-confidence," Beard said during the rally. "She's more readily able to express herself. Now she communicates outside her comfort zone. When she comes home at night, she now has the desire to do her homework for herself. She's proud of herself when she gets an A or B. She's not intimidated to ask and answer questions.""

However, little data exist to prove the effectiveness of voucher programs to improve outcomes for disabled children once they leave public schools, a June 2016 study from child disability-rights advocate group Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates Inc. found.

Such studies mean little to Beard, though, when she sees her daughter's improvement. She acknowledges that her family still has struggles, but that she is hopeful for the future. "At New Summit, Lana will graduate," she said.

A Question of Fairness

There is no guarantee that a private school can adequately serve a child's needs simply because it is private. "When you get into the private schools, it's really their interpretation of what they consider exceptional education," Cagle of the Mississippi Department of Education told the Jackson Free Press. "With public schools, exceptional education is not a place, it's not a classroom—it's a set of services."

Cagle says that, for some people, "special education" has a specific connotation of always being able to provide for the severely disabled.

"When you say you do special ed, they might think they take the full gamut, like public schools do. Private schools have the option to pick who they allow for admission into their places, who they feel like they can serve appropriately," Cagle said.

If parents have a complaint about how a private school serves their children, they may have no recourse. Public-school students forfeit their rights to a free and appropriate public education under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act if they attend certain private schools, including private religious academies, which are not usually subject to federal oversight.

Parents like having the choice to send their children to new schools anyway, regardless of their ability to serve their children, the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates study found.

Kast's family has ruled out a private-school education because Old Dominion, where Jacob's relatives attend school, lacks a trained exceptional-education teacher. Kast would like to enroll Jacob in another nearby school district with a reputation for a stronger exceptional-education program. But Mississippi law does not allow public-school students to attend districts in which they don't live—unless they fall under specific charter-school guidelines, have special affidavits or qualify for the Dyslexia Therapy Scholarship.

Kast still hopes the school board in Durant might release her grandson so he can attend elementary school in the Kosciusko School District. Meanwhile, Jacob is slowly making progress now that he's attending therapy again.

"I'm not giving up on Jacob," Kast said. "He's going to be somebody one day.

Sierra Mannie is an education reporting fellow for the Jackson Free Press and The Hechinger Report. Email her at sierra@jacksonfreepress.com.

The tricky part of putting together the JFP Music Issue's annual "Artists to Watch" section is choosing from the multitude of acts that are worth watching.

These are by no means the only up-and-coming musicians from Mississippi, but hopefully, they'll provide a few new names for you to follow in fandom.

Burnham Road

For Brandon, Miss., natives T.J. and Laura-Leigh Burnham, making a name in original music was always the goal.

The brother-sister duo fronts country band Burnham Road, which has built a fan base in the Jackson metro area over the past five years by covering contemporary hit-makers. In the last year and a half, however, the group has also expanded its profile as an original act, opening for artists such as Little Big Town, The Lacs and Josh Turner, and completing work on its debut EP, "Cheers to Goodbye," scheduled for release in late October.

"It's just been a learning experience, kind of getting into the circuit better and getting to know a lot of people," T.J. says. "You know, we got our originals recorded, and I finally got a group of guys that are all good musicians and have good attitudes. We really clung together and decided, 'If we want to make this work, it's not just one person pulling all the weight.'"

It's a stark contrast from where Burnham Road began. While T.J. and Laura-Leigh have always sung together, the band first started as a solo project for T.J., who wanted to perform but wasn't connected in the local music community at the time. Over time, he befriended other musicians and formed Burnham Road, which also consists of lead guitarist Rodney Canoy, drummer Brian Schilling and bassist Shane Collier.

Walking the line between original act and cover band can be difficult, as some crowds respond well to original material, and others can't go long without a familiar tune, T.J. says.

"You may sing 'She's Country,' and everybody and their mama is out in the front," he says. "You can turn around and play an original song, and half of them leave to get a beer. Sometimes, that can be a slap in the face, but then ... I'll look out into the crowd, and there's people in the crowd that know my songs and are singing along like it's a cover song. That's really cool."

The secret is searching for a happy medium, he says, and finding a way to write about the familiar in a clever way that inspires the listener to say, "Why didn't I think of that?" It's a question he asks himself often while listening to country artists that inspire him, including Brantley Gilbert and Eric Church, and it's a question that he hopes to inspire in others with the songs that he and Laura-Leigh write.

Visit artistecard.com/burnhamroad.

Savvy

Hip-hop was a constant source of inspiration for Savanta Hunter when he was growing up in west Jackson's Queens neighborhood. Hunter, whom music fans may know better as Savvy, lived two houses down from rapper David Banner and grew up watching him perform. 
 In the sixth grade, Hunter began rapping himself with a small group of friends.

"We used to wake up in the morning and rap in the den on a microcassette. Then it (evolved) to recording on a microphone hanging out the attic," he says.

While the group members are still friends, most grew apart as they got older, except for Hunter and best friend, Charles Palmer, who continued to pursue music as Jackson hip-hop duo Savvy & Gutta Boy in the late 2000s.

The pair still collaborates regularly, but those collaborations have taken on a different form in recent years. Palmer has shifted his focus toward production, working on tracks such as Atlanta rapper Rocko's latest single, "99 Ways," as well as many of the tracks for Savvy's solo recording projects, "Book of Savvy," released in March 2015, and "Book of Savvy—Chapter 2," released in June 2016.

Hunter says both "chapters" act as a prelude to his eventual full-length album, "The Bottom Line. The first single from the album, "End of Every Tunnel," came out July 7.

"I just wanted to give people the preface to the greatest album to ever come out of the state of Mississippi, in my eyes," he says. "I listen to a lot of music, I've got a lot of favorites—Big K.R.I.T., Banner—but I really do think this is going to put us in the spotlight."

That's not to say that his most recent project is short on big talent. Hunter says he recorded "Chapter 2" during a wave of media attention on Mississippi hip-hop. To capitalize on that, he emphasized featured artists, such as Banner, Coke Bumaye, Hollywood Luck and Dolla Black. However, his purpose was the same, he says: to portray his artistry to the best of his abilities and to be real with his audience.

"They look for authenticity," he says. "I could go trap if I want to; I grew up in the 'hood, but that don't mean I have to talk about the 'hood. I actually try to use my story as enlightenment. Even though I graduated and got a bachelor's degree, I still haven't made it in my field, and I'm still struggling. I talk about those struggles of being a college grad that's got to pay back loans. People like to hear that. ... I try to paint those real-life pictures as best as I can."

Visit savvylildaddy.bandcamp.com.

May Queen

When Grenada, Miss., natives Logan Owensby and Dustin Wright began alternative band May Queen, the goal was to combat that most ubiquitous of illnesses: boredom.

"I think for me and Logan, well, there was really nothing else to do in Grenada," Wright says. "We were always hanging out, and our connection was music, so we got bored and started playing."

While Owensby already sang and played guitar, Wright didn't play an instrument until the band's unofficial formation about two years ago, when he, Owensby and Owensby's brother, Noah, who played drums for May Queen at the time, began learning songs from acts such as Tame Impala, Coldplay, The Killers and Kings of Leon. From there, they worked on full-band arrangements of solo songs that Owensby had written, and before long, May Queen was performing around Mississippi.

Considering the acts that the band covered in its first jam sessions and even hearing its debut self-titled EP, released in January 2015, May Queen is a different experience now, Owensby says.

Since those first recordings, the band mates added two more members—guitarist Salar Almakky and drummer Hayden Boyd of Dream Cult—and they've written new material that leans into heavier and more dynamic elements. As far as where that puts them stylistically, Wright says they have no idea, but they're enjoying it.

"Whenever we get asked what style we are or whatever, we always get kind of iffy and go with the simplest term, like 'indie rock,' but that's super cliche," he says. "... The way we kind of see it is that we all grew up in punk and hardcore, but we also like other kinds of music, so we always wanted to not necessarily write punk music but try to incorporate it."

While the band has continued performing in Jackson, where Owensby, Almakky and Boyd live, and around the state, the members decided not to leap into recording or heading out on a large tour until they have a set of songs that they feel best represent May Queen.

"We've written so many songs that have so many different kinds of influences, so we're trying to narrow it down," Owensby says. "At the same time, we don't want to limit anything. We just want to do what feels good when we play because that's where the whole concept of May Queen started: just some friends, some brothers, playing music for fun."

Visit mayqueenms.bandcamp.com.

Briar Lunar

Like many of the music greats, Shuqualak, Miss., native Briar Jonnee Blakley's first performing experiences came from singing in church. At 5 years old, she began leading songs for the choir at Ivy Grove Missionary Baptist Church, where her mother, Shirley Blakley, served as choir director. About two years later, she began playing piano, first taking lessons and then learning to play by ear.

"That's really where I kind of found a love for music because I would try to mimic the songs on the radio," she says. "Whatever I would hear on the radio, I'd go back and try to play it, and I thought that was fun as a kid."

These days, Blakley, who performs as Hattiesburg-based electronic artist Briar Lunar, isn't so concerned with mimicking pop radio as she is with turning it on its head. Although relatively new to songwriting, she has already released several collections of recordings in the past two years, including 2015's "The Enlightenment" EP and 2016's "March Badness" EP, as well as a self-produced single, "Love Struck," which she released Aug. 16 on iTunes.

She says: "I try not to think about, 'Oh, well, I want radio play, so I need to make this more radio-friendly,' or 'I need to not make it a guessing game and make it a song that people know or understand the elements that go into it.' I'm trying to be more true to myself, and I'm working on some tracks right now where it's interesting because I'm kind of finding myself. I want to make it Briar."

Blakley's quest to find her own sound began shortly after she appeared on NBC's "The Voice" last year. After a successful blind audition with Rihanna's "Take a Bow," she joined Pharrell Williams' team before being eliminated in the battle rounds two weeks later. While she says her experience on the show was a positive one, it made her realize that she didn't want to make a career singing other people's songs.

Those who know Blakley from "The Voice" might also be surprised to know that she doesn't consider herself an R&B artist as the show presented. Elements of many genres work their way into Briar Lunar tracks, but Blakley describes her work as alternative-electronic music, first and foremost. With that broad category, she says she's free to experiment and follow her creative energy wherever it takes her.

"The most creative people that I know that are artists, they don't aim to ride all the waves of trends," she says. "It's just whatever they want to do. That's what people know them for. Whatever you do makes you the artist that you are. People go to you to get you. They don't go to someone else. Just being true to who I am is the biggest lesson I've learned."

Find Briar Lunar on Soundcloud or visit briarlunar.com.

The Mississippi Chambre Music Guild is kicking off its new season with a tour of French music, cuisine and other cultural accoutrements. And good news—you won't even need a passport.

On Saturday, Oct. 15, the Chambre Music Guild and the Alliance Francaise de Jackson will present "All Things French," a concert event featuring professional musicians based in the Jackson metro area performing works from famed French composers Claude Debussy and Gabriel Faure.

Violinist Marta Szlubowska of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra will play Debussy's "Violin Sonata" with Millsaps College professor Lynn Raley on piano. Several young musicians from the Millsaps Conservatory of Music will perform Debussy pieces, as well. Baritone James Martin will perform Faure's nine-part "La Bonne Chanson" with accompaniment from a piano and string quartet. Szlubowska will then join pianist Rachel Heard, viola player Tammy Luke and one of the MSO's newest addition, principal cellist Veronica Parrales, for a performance of Faure's "Piano Quartet, No. 1."

The event will also include an extended intermission, during which audience members can enjoy crepes, French wine and hors d'oeuvres, as well as a selfie photo booth and a raffle drawing with prizes such as French cookbooks and cooking supplies.

"All Things French" is at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 15, in the recital hall at Millsaps College (1701 N. State St.). General admission is $25, and student admission is $5. For more information, visit mscmg.net.

Over the years, I've done plenty of interviews with local Jackson acts and nationally known recording artists, and I've been surprised at how many of the same topics of conversation come up for both.

One of the most common is the concept of "home base," the location where bands or solo artists choose to record music, tour out of and advocate on behalf of. Naturally, some feel the need to relocate to the handful of "cities where music gets made," including Nashville, Los Angeles and New York City. However, as any of Mississippi's myriad entertainers will tell you, there's no shortage of great music getting made right here.

For proof, I submit this whopping list of new albums, EPs, mixtapes and singles that Mississippi-based artists have released in 2016 so far.

For updates, visit jfp.ms/msalbums.

Aaron Coker—"I'll Ride" EP

AJC & the Envelope Pushers—"Fallen Star"

Alex Fraser/Standard Issues—"After the Fact" Split-EP (Elegant Trainwreck)

Alexander Fre$co—"Flex"

Anna Livi—"Chasing Visions"

Ben Ford—"Breather" EP

Big K.R.I.T.—"12for12" Mixtape

Brian Jones—"New Days" Single

Briar Lunar—"Love Struck" Single

Carlos Danger—"Now That's What I Call Carlos Danger, Volume Two"

Chad Wesley Band—"The Liberation LP" (Karma Records)

Clouds & Crayons—"Love Soliloquy" (Homework Town Records/Elegant Trainwreck)

Codetta South—"Pocket Watch" Single

Coke Bumaye—"Keys to the Streetz" Single

Cue Cards—"~​~​~" EP

the CUT—"the DAEH EP"

D. Horton—"The Sessions 2"

Dead Gaze—"Easy Travels" (Ernest Jenning Record Co.)

Dream Cult—"Weekend" (Old Flame Records)

Festivals/Phargo.—"Festivals//Phargo" Split-EP

Fides—"Across the Yard"

Finding Peace in Gunshots—"3:00" Single

Grady Champion—"One of a Kind" (DeChamp Records/Malaco Records)

Hartle Road—"Maxx" (Arkam Records)

The Holy Ghost Electric Show—"Sinai" EP

Holy Vision—"King Cash"

HVY YETI—"E.P. 1"

if i die in mississippi—"keep everything"

J. Skyy—"Focus"

Jason Miller Band—"Dirt on Me" Single

Jimbo Mathus—"Band of Storms" EP (Big Legal Mess/Fat Possum Records)

jj Thames—"Raw Sugar" (DeChamp Records/Malaco Records)

John Paul Dove—"My Son, the Brawler" EP

Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster—"Laid Low" (Big Legal Mess/Fat Possum Records)

K. Gautier—"The Prevailing"

KB Killa—"Method to My Madness"

Kerry Thomas—"After the High"

Lil Lonnie—"T.K.W.G.O. 2"

Living Together—"Esperanza" EP

Lo Noom—"Pretty Woman" EP

Messages—"New Year" EP

Metaphive—"The Divergence" (S.P.V. Records)

Miles Flatt—"White Flag" and "Cowboy Dream" Singles

Mr. Fluid—"The Sowing"

Oh Jeremiah—"The Other End of Passing Time"

Patrick Stumped— "No Bukowski" Single

Prymo Linan—"The broly. EP"

PyInfamous—"10th Wonder" Mixtape

Ray Kincaid—"Artistic Depression"

Sam Mooney—"Find My Way" EP

Satellite Company—"Satellite Company" EP

Seth Power—"Show Me" EP

Silas—"The Day I Died"

Spirituals—"THEY"

Stace & Cassie—"The Ruins" (Old Trace/Malaco Records)

Stevie J Blues—"Cradle Robber" Single

Stonewalls—"Change the Subject" EP

Surfwax—"Surfwax EP"

Swear Tapes—"Cherish the Cabin" Cassette

Tanner Gray—"The Peddlers" EP

The Tallahatchies—"Still with Me"

Teneia—"Reference" Single

Tyler Keith & the Apostles—"Do It for Johnny"

Water Spaniel—"Live at the Hi-Tone" EP

Robert Graham traces his 35 years with the Jackson Police Department with a sense of resolve. Starting at JPD as a civilian who mopped the floors, he says it was persistence, or "showing up," that led him to where he is today—behind his desk in the Hinds County Chancery Court building.

Showing up, again and again, Graham explains, he worked his way up from janitor to 911 dispatch, then to supervisor of the department, then all the way to public information officer. Throughout his time as Hinds County District 1 supervisor, this philosophy of consistency and persistence has served him well, he says.

After retiring from JPD in 2006, Graham ran for his current position in 2007, becoming the first African American to represent District 1, which covers the most northeast corner of the county.

Now, in a climate of budgetary constraints and rising homicides compared to this time last year, Graham has turned his attention to Jackson and its mayoral race in the spring. He believes that his law-enforcement experience and managerial know-how differentiate him from the competition and the incumbent.

What really sets you apart?

My experience, my knowledge of the city. When you work for five different mayors and 23 different police chiefs, and you were the public information officer for the large majority, that means you are in on all of the delicate situations and the delicate conversations.

For a period of about 12 years, I went to every violent murder scene: triple homicides, double homicides, keeping the media informed. So I know what crime and violence look like up close and personal. Going to homes where people are laying on the floor dead. Listening to grieving mothers. Those types of things give me a unique perspective as to what has happened.

And while I'm here at the county, one of the things that supervisors have always been famous for, if we could do nothing else, we could pave a road. Everybody thinks that we are driving around with the asphalt in the back, but we could pave roads. We know how to pave roads. And my perfect example is Watkins Drive, which we just finished.

What is your solution to the City's current budget crunch?

I personally do not think that the City is in a budget crunch. I think the City is in a management crunch. And let me preface that by saying this: If you had the correct leadership, if you had the experience and the maturity at the top, your management crisis would not have ballooned into a budget crisis. Because you would have seen from the beginning, you would have anticipated, you would have forecasted the fact that we have budget problems way back here.

A good manager will say let's not wait until the day that we have this crisis before we start saying, "oh hell." The management crisis happened two or three years ago, because during the present administration there was an $18-million surplus. And it's kind of hard to spend $18 million, even if you are my wife. It's just kind of hard to do.

Even at that, you have to look at the captain of the ship. ... Whether he wants to be or not, is responsible for everything on that ship, he is vicariously liable. When the captain of the ship realizes you're taking on water, you shouldn't wait until you are at the water to say I think that we should do something.

I think that there still have to be hard decisions. I think that in this crisis of management that they are in, I think that you are going to have to prioritize, but in order to prioritize you need ... to stop the bleeding. And then you need to have some experience in some institutional or historical knowledge to know what's going on so you know how this stuff works.

Why are you qualified to know how it works?

I am intimately experienced, if that's the right word, of the interworking of the police department, the fire department and a lot of the City departments because of the years that I have worked there. There is no greater, I guess you would say, fundamental responsibility of any elected official than to protect the people they serve. You have to protect the people.

But as of right now, when I am out walking around and visiting people and visiting neighborhoods, we are in a crisis of management as it relates to infrastructure and paving the streets. That's the reason that the County has decided to step up. We've presented the City with over $5 million for paving the streets. The County has been paving streets for the last two or three years.

But to answer your question specifically, if you have the proper leadership skills and management skills, then you would know how to first of all recognize talent, develop that talent of the people that you need to help you run the City.

If you have the leadership skills, knowing that you have to get along with the city council, there's no ifs, ands or buts. The arguing, the bickering, the things of that nature that are going on, that can't happen.

You have to get along with the city council. That's politics 101. And you have to ask them to help you. One man cannot run the City by himself. You have to have a lot of individuals, and I mean the city council. If I'm mayor, then they have to be mini mayors to help you run the City.

What would you have done differently on the budget front?

I would not have cut the arts center's budget. There are three things that I think you have to do to be a successful mayor. Number one, you have to have the arts and amenities. If I'm your mayor ,I want to see not only the arts, but I want to see the arts expanded. I want amenities for people. I want people sitting outside. I want to see people eating outside. I want to see people walking.

One of the things I want to do is make downtown Jackson a showcase for the entire city. I want to see people living downtown. I think the only reason you don't have more people living downtown now is that there is no place to live. I'd like to take several of these abandoned buildings and make them into residential areas. I want people walking downtown, eating downtown, staying downtown. I want to see more concerts, more venues.

... [W]hen people don't have stuff to do, that's when your crime and everything else comes.

How would you balance not having enough resources with those plans?

Prioritizing is more than prioritizing in one way. Downtown has to be a priority. You have to make it a priority. Then from that, your gateway streets. These are the streets that are most traveled and most people see that are coming inside the city. People have to feel good about the city.

I would employ some of the smartest people that I could get my hands on or know, about finances. I would leverage some of the existing money against future money, because we need to do this now. The 1-percent sales tax is always going to generate money, so there are other things that I feel like we can do as far as leveraging the amount of funds in order to get additional funds in.

I would like to see four paving crews in the city of Jackson at one time, north, south, east and west. And we may not be able to sustain that for a very long time, but everyone needs to know that they are not being neglected.

As mayor, how would you address the apparent disconnect between the City and state leaders and lawmakers?

My fundamental belief is that from the cradle to the grave, it is about relationships. I think that a lot can be done with those relationships.

I know all of the state leaders. One of the things that I am going to do in the next week, and it has been something that has been in the works for a while, is to send a letter to all of them to let them know that if I am so lucky to be elected as your next mayor, you will have a friend in city hall. You will have someone that you can talk to.

I know for a fact that behind the scenes it's relationships, relationships, relationships. And I think there's a lot that we can do to help the state, and there is a lot that the state can do to help us.

But we are not going to do anything if we are arguing and fighting all the time. I want to build relationships because again that is a part of that diversity. We need to build on the fact that the Legislature is there for four months. They should be our friends.

We should make them know and feel at home and welcome from April to May. They are the biggest homeboys we got. And that's what we have to do.

How can you restore confidence in the water-billing system, the quality of the water, and the perception that people have about the City's ability to manage one of its most important resources?

Water is an enterprise for the City. It is one of the most important things the City of Jackson has. There again, is a management of crisis. When you don't have your hands, or the right individual has his hands, on the steering wheel, the vehicle goes out of control. That's what's happened, to use that analogy, at the water department.

It's complicated for the people that are working there. They don't understand the system. The proper training, the proper planning, the proper implementation, none of that has been done. It's what I call one of these political water systems where things are just dumped in your lap and go, "here take this, work it." Well you can't do that. Not with the enterprise, not with the area that's generating the most money.

It should be the one that you should say, "let's worry about the code enforcement office tomorrow, let's get down here and deal with the part that generates money." We are losing I don't know how much money as it relates to the water department.

You called it a "management of crisis." What would you do differently?

This is a crisis of management; this is a crisis of not knowing. This is a crisis of people not paying attention. When you have the Siemens contract and everything associated with Siemens, no one knowing what to do, no one knowing whether to go or come, we are in a mess. So it's going to take hard work and dedication to get it back.

Someone is going to have to come in, and I would hire a manager that knows how to get it fixed. I'm not looking for short-term fixes. ...

I'm going to place under my website, voterobertgraham.com, a citizen's bill of rights. ... [I]t's going to talk about a lot of different things, but it is going to say this: You can expect to get a water bill on time around the same date each month. You can expect for your bill to be right. You can expect that if a business says its going to open at 8 o'clock that means it's going to open at 8, that doesn't mean it's going to open at 8:15. If it says that it is going to close at 5 o'clock, it's going to close at 5, not 4:45.

For the parking meters, you can expect that when you put your money in there that they are going to work. You can expect to be treated with courtesy and professionalism and respect when a City worker confronts you. I think we should let the people know what is expected of us when they call. You don't expect to call and get an attitude.

Where as mayor do you see the city's relationship with Jackson Public Schools moving?

The mayor appoints all of the City (school district board of trustees) members. Number one, I would make sure that those board members have my vision. I think you have to have a vision. And I think you need to lay out your vision, and then everyone needs to work for that particular vision.

I've visited 43 of the 50 states, when I went to Madison, Wis., and also I think it's in Lincoln, the University of Nebraska. I was amazed as to what I saw in both cities, from the time you got off the airplane until where you went, it looked like a college town. I would like for Jackson to be branded as the educational center of the state of Mississippi. We have Belhaven, Millsaps, Jackson state, Tougaloo, Hinds, the University of Mississippi. There is no reason why this should not be a college town.

It's in the relationship with the State, working with the State. It's just branding. I think that you are going to have to get ... parents involved. If they are not involved in their child's education, you are spinning your wheels. And it's been done before, to do a male corps, to where there are groups of men who would take ownership of a school.

Until that happens, then we are going to continue to have these problems.

JPS needs more help.

The police chief recently told officers that due to a desperate budget climate, they would have to do more with less. How do you plan to address crime when a show of force or a police officer on every corner isn't economically feasible?

Innovation, technology and social media. Social media is the 20th-century version of the cop on the beat. When you are looking for an individual, you have one or two officers working the beat, but you have 5,000 on Facebook. It only makes sense. A lot of police departments I have visited have incorporated Facebook into almost every area.

One piece of technology that I would like to bring and to expand Comstat—you need to know that your leader understands what Comstat is and what it needs to do—I would expand Comstat to predictive policing, to where it uses an algorithm the same as if you were predicting the weather. ... There are models that will actually tell you that a criminal almost always returns to the scene of the crime. And if you can have that police officer there before or shortly after, you can either prevent or apprehend a crime that is occurring.

How would your experience affect your perspective on crime?

I believe that you have to concentrate on hotspots and hot people. Because what is making this spot hot is this guy. You need to concentrate on this guy. I would create a community resource line, for lack of a better word, where they would identify this guy. Because if you identify enough, and we will park outside of his house if we have to, but you are not going to break in nothing tonight because the police are going everywhere you are going.

We would make it hot for him. You have to concentrate on the hot people, not just the hot spots.

Everyone in Jackson is not a criminal. Everyone is not committing crimes. The officers know who they are. Let's target them. I don't mean target them in a negative way. Let's target them in a positive negative.

That's experience, the experience that I had from the police department. I know where the precincts are, I know the officers by name, I know what the inside of the police car is. I've driven a police car. I rode in a police car. I know how to put handcuffs on. I know the law enforcement code of ethics. I know the police officers. I saw them from day one when they came into the academy and came out the other end a finished product. The stress level is unbelievable.

Visit the JFP's 2017 city elections archive at jfp.ms/cityelections17. Email city reporter Tim Summers Jr. at tim@jacksonfreepress.com and follow him on Twitter for breaking news at @tims_alive.

Robert Graham

Education: Lanier High School Graduate

Jackson State University, B.S. in Criminal Justice

Experience: 35 years with the Jackson Police Department

Owner of Professional Dispatch Management 911 in Jackson

Hinds County District 1 Supervisor since 2007

Family: Married to Shirley Wilson with four children: Fronchon, Shandra, Tim and Jeremy.

Elections for Mississippi Supreme Court justice seats only come up every eight years, so when they do, the money pours in, PACs line up and partisan lines are drawn in the supposedly non-partisan sands. District 1, which contains Hinds, Madison and Rankin counties, as well as a swath of counties in the central part of the state, will elect a justice in November, and their choices are sitting Justice Jim Kitchens and Court of Appeals Judge Kenny Griffis, who is looking to make the jump to the state's highest court. Both candidates agreed to one-on-one interviews to offer insight into their lives, careers and philosophies. (Read Justice Kitchens' interview here.)

Judge Kenny Griffis is no stranger to the bench; he has been on the Court of Appeals for almost 14 years and has six years left of his term. Griffis, a Meridian native, was a CPA before returning to law school at the University of Mississippi and graduating in 1987. He worked as a lawyer in Meridian, and then moved to Ridgeland, primarily in commercial and civil litigation, representing companies, businesses and entrepreneurs, before running for judge in 2002.

He lives in Ridgeland with his wife, Mary Helen and their five sons.

Tell me a little bit about your background in law and the kinds of clients you represented.

I moved to Jackson in September of 1989, and I went to work with the law firm called Ott & Purdy at that time. They were mainly a construction law firm. I wanted to do more advanced practice, and I wanted to deal with businesses and people that were in business, deal with more commercial litigation. I represented not only construction companies but banks, individuals who wanted to start businesses. In fact, I incorporated one of the first Internet corporations in Mississippi. It was called Internet Mississippi Inc., and it was a group of visionary entrepreneurs that saw what was coming. I wanted to help entrepreneurs get started, so I helped a lot of people open their businesses.

In April of 1995 they decided to split up, and I decided to go with a friend of mine and start a small firm called Lingle and Griffis, and I worked there for probably six years, then I got asked to be the legal director at BlueCross BlueShield of Mississippi, and I stayed there for 18 months, and realized that an in-house counsel job was not for me. I put up my solo practice at that point in Ridgeland, and then I ran for the Court of Appeals in 2002. I was elected in a contested race in 2002, and then I've been re-elected twice since then, unopposed.

What made you want to make the jump from Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court?

Well, the Supreme Court is the ultimate decider of cases in Mississippi, so I think there's a desire in all of us to serve at the highest level that we can in a field that we have passion for, and quite frankly, as a lawyer, I can't think of any higher office or opportunity to serve than to serve on the Supreme Court.

I love what I do. I love deciding cases, writing opinions. It's important for us in how we write opinions. Those opinions are applied by lawyers every day, and sometimes they're applied even so as to whether or not the lawyers can take a case or not take a case. I'm well over 8,000 cases I've decided; I think (in) my opinions, I am right at or over 900 majority opinions, (and) I think if you look at my dissenting opinions, I'm around 100.

That's one thing that distinguishes me from my opponent, but I will say that he writes a lot of dissenting opinions, and one thing that I've pushed is that I've learned as an appellate judge is part of what I need to do is listen to what others have to say. I have to be able to discuss and debate with my colleagues in a way that's courteous and respectful, but our job is not simply to write what we feel or what we think.

Our job is to get the law right and keep the law right and make sure it's been applied in the case. And (even) if we may not like what the law says ... our job is to make sure that if the lower court followed the law, we're to affirm it. If they did not follow the law, then we're to correct in what we did.

Why did you write the dissents you've written, were those all instances where you thought the law wasn't being followed by the majority?

That's the way I feel. There are a lot of times that we do have a disagreement as to what the law is. Now on the Court of Appeals, I will say this: There is one difference in the opinions that I write, and that I would write as a member of the Supreme Court. As a member of the Court of Appeals writing an opinion, I do have an audience, and the audience is not only the parties to the lawsuit and the other lawyers, but it's also the Supreme Court. Them being my audience, I am trying to help them get to the right result also.

Sitting on the Supreme Court, your audience, of course, are the parties that are involved, but it's also the members of the bar and trial judges, who watch the way we do things. One of the things we do is give advice, and we decide cases based on legal precedent, how cases before have been tried.

At the Neshoba County Fair, you mentioned there being too many sets of rules for courts. Could you elaborate on that?

I've advocated in this campaign that there are too many rules. When I started, there were seven sets of rules; today there's 21. And my bet is there will be another set of rules by the end of the year. And I think that's too many. I've gone through, and when you look at something with sheer volume, you try to remove the repetition and remove things that are not helpful.

I think all the separate rules also create an access to justice issue because it increases the cost of what lawyers have to do to go to court. When I started, I could be in several courts in one day, and I think today when I talk to lawyers, I get the frustration that we've piled rule upon rule upon rule. So what you have now is you have lawyers that do nothing but domestic relations or nothing but a chancery-court practice, and when a circuit-court matter comes in they say, "No, thank you."

The Supreme Court sets those rules, so what I advocate and what I've pushed for and what I've promised lawyers is that one of the things I'm going to try my best to do is to make sure we take a look at the rules, and if it's not a necessary rule, we get rid of it or we try to streamline the rules, and we make them easier. And I also tell the lawyers this: One of the problems they have is the Supreme Court right now could change the rules every Thursday afternoon. I believe we shouldn't do it—maybe not a good phrase—but willy-nilly like that; we should do it with a schedule. The federal rules change once every two years. I don't think it's asking too much for any lawyer, no matter how young or old, to re-read the rules once every two years.

Let's talk about campaign-finance reform; what reforms would you like to see specifically in the judicial realm?

Judicial or non-judicial, I think we've come of age where we need full disclosure of all campaign contributions. I've talked about real-time reporting, and it can be done a lot of different ways. I think voters want to know, and I think voters have a right to know, and I have no problem with that.

For judges, I think there are some other things that can cause problems. I think loans, you know, every time I've ever taken out a loan, I have an expectation of how I'm going to repay it. If I don't have that expectation, it's called stealing (probably not the best use of a word), but I think especially with judges, when we loan our campaigns money, we truly have the expectation that (a) no one is going to help me, and I'm going to have to pay it off myself or (b) if I win this election, some people are going to view me favorably, and they're going to give me campaign contributions, or even see some people have made promises that say, "I don't want my name disclosed before the election, but I want to give you money after the election." I think that's wrong, especially with judicial elections.

I think one of the things that we don't address is what happens with lawyer contributions. You have some lawyers that are all in—they give $5,000, their wife gives $5,000, their secretary gives $5,000, and their dog gives $5,000, and that's legal. I don't see anything wrong with that, but what we've never done is we've never tied the recusal rules to contributions, and I think that needs to be clarified.

I think that campaign finance for judges, at least, should end at or before the end of the election. People should know how much you get and where it's coming from before they elect because, quite frankly, the worst part of running as a judge is the thought of winning and having a fundraiser where people think that they can actually give money, and it will affect the impact of your decision.

I don't see the problem with reporting every month, especially in judicial campaigns. I mean, these races can be significant sums of money. I don't know how you spend money after the election. I don't want to spend money after the election, I don't want to raise money, but I think when you look at loans and being able to raise money and spend money after the election, there's a problem.

/Do you monitor your own campaign-finance records? And are you going to make sure that your contributions stop when the election is over?

I cannot accept or solicit, so I don't accept or solicit campaign funds. I have committee members to do that. That's one of the problems with this is who is the committee? It can be small, it can be large, so the rules are a little fuzzy there. I don't keep up with it day by day; I don't ponder who's giving; I know who's come to my fundraisers, and I know who's been there.

I know that when I ran in 2002, I was fortunate to be able to raise a substantial amount of money in that race, and I think I'm raising a substantial amount today. I'd love to not raise a dime. I might get some of my expenses reimbursed, but I don't have fancy cowboy boots, I don't have a piano or anything like that, what I have is that when people give my committee money, I instruct my committee that we want to use this in a way to get our message out to the voters to give us the best possible opportunity we have so that when people go to the polls, they can know that there's a difference between me and my opponent so when they pull that lever (to vote).

What are your thoughts on the criminal-justice system?

Three years ago, the Legislature came up with a commission (task force) on criminal justice, and the task of the Legislature was, how do we make reforms in our criminal-justice system? I think our country is going through that issue right now: Is our criminal-justice system fair? When you start with that proposition, I believe that we should constantly be looking at improvements in our law. That's what we pay the legislators to do, and I think there's nothing wrong with having a conversation between judges and legislators about problems in the law.

I believe if we're going to have a discussion about criminal-justice reform, I think the (Mississippi) Supreme Court should drive that discussion because, as a Supreme Court justice, I want the district attorney to believe that there's a fair process. I want the criminal defendant's attorney to believe there's a fair process, and I want the trial judge to believe that there is a fair process, and I want all of them to have input into whatever changes or reforms we're to make.

In Mississippi, once we go through that system, and we assume that the prosecutor has brought a valid case, has proven the case, the criminal defendant has got all of their constitutional rights protected, and all the evidence comes back, and the jury decides the person is guilty and should be punished, we send them to incarceration. The Mississippi Department of Corrections spends about $340 million a year trying to incarcerate and rehabilitate. There are some people that are not going to be rehabilitated; there are some that can be.

The Legislature's job is to figure out the programs that we have, to give us what the sentences are and should be, and we give our circuit judges discretion after someone has pled guilty or their guilt has been determined, we give them some discretion to sort it out. Who are we mad at? Who's made a mistake? And who are we scared of? If they've raped, robbed or killed somebody, we're scared of them. We don't want them back out on the streets.

If they've made a mistake, we need a criminal-justice system where, if they made a mistake on Friday night, what can we do to get them to work on Monday morning? Because to go to work, that's how I provide for my kids, that's how I put food on my table, and if we've got a criminal-justice system that works, we're able to sort through who that is, and we're able to get them to work on Monday morning.

I asked my sheriffs this: If I had the power to give you 10 free passes on who to put in jail, do you know the 10 people that need to be in jail? And every sheriff says absolutely, I know the 10 people who are causing the most problems in our society, but that's not how our criminal-justice system works. In order to arrest someone, we've got to have probable cause, we've got to go through the process and put forward evidence, so we go through this whole criminal-justice system.

We've instituted the Mississippi Electronic Courts system, where we're trying to use the federal system to help civil cases work through the system. We need that in criminal cases, and we need communications. We need information from the criminal-justice system that's helping law enforcement officers when they pull someone over and make a stop; they need information. Is this somebody wanted for a double-murder, or is this somebody who's just a normal citizen who's paying their taxes, and maybe they don't have a Hinds County tag because they're going to Jackson State?

I'm always asked, how does somebody get arrested 45 times and not be in jail? And a lot of times, it has to do with some failure along the way before they get to court, whether that be a problem with the arrest, whether that be a problem with the evidence. We want to make sure that people don't fall through the cracks. We've got to shorten the time period between the crime and the judgment day, and we can do that with computers. It takes work, it takes effort, and there again, that's where the Supreme Court comes into play.

What do you think about programs like drug courts, mental health courts and other alternatives that cost less and may lower recidivism rates?

I am a supporter of drug courts for one reason, and that's (that) they work. There are issues, it's not perfect, some people view it as a "get out of jail free" card, some victims don't like it, but drug courts have proven that there are some people involved in the criminal-justice system because they're an addict, and if we can remove the addiction, then we can remove the criminal behavior. That's the obligation that we owe to taxpayers, to make sure we incarcerate who we're supposed to incarcerate.

The best advocate for drug courts are circuit judges, and I've been around long enough to have heard circuit judges complain about drug courts, and now they believe that's the greatest thing that they do, and that's the mission of their life is being involved with drug courts.

I give Chief Justice William Waller credit. He has advocated re-entry courts; we have had some say in talking about people who are incarcerated, that when they get out of Parchman, they have no identification, they have no ability to get out and get a job.

Re-entry courts are an idea that the Chief Justice and District Judge Keith Starrett have advocated. Veterans courts are something that we're taking a look at. We've got the re-entry court commission. This is a great example of the Supreme Court working with the Legislature to come up with alternative programs that not only can rehabilitate the offender but can restore the victim, and through all this process, I want to make clear that I've not thought about the victim because the victim is very important in this, and we want the victim, at the end of the day also when court's over, to believe that justice has been done, and it's hard to balance sometimes because ... the victims are not happy with what has happened; sometimes victims drive it.

One of our big focuses has been on juvenile-justice courts and youth court. How could the system improve?

I know we've got a lot of dedicated professionals. I mean, (Rankin County) Youth Court Judge Tom Broome is a friend of mine; he's an outstanding jurist, and he's dedicated himself to youth court. I'm not sure how closing the Walnut Grove facility is, we understand, maybe I shouldn't say this, but I'll say it anyway, we're not real clear on the legacy of (former MDOC Commissioner) Chris Epps until that entire situation is resolved. (Epps is now under federal indictment and is accused of bribery and conspiracy.)

I believe that the Supreme Court can be the leader and make sure the conversation happens and make sure that we get everybody at the table that needs to get there and that the next generation of youth court laws is fair, works and gives alternative sentencing options to the youth-court judges and youth-court professionals so that we can rehabilitate the offender and restore the victims. (I understand) because with five boys (sons), I mean, everything is not perfect. I know that boys will be boys, and I do believe this, there are often times a youth court is what stands between a young man, and I'm sorry to use a male pronoun, but men commit nine times more crime, but what stands between a young man and a life of crime or a life of incarceration. If we can get to them at an early age and work with educators, and we can have programs that work, but we can't just stack them up and stack them high, and at one time, I think that was the perception of what we were doing. I think we're beyond that.

Interviews have been edited for clarity and length. Both judicial candidates will be on the ballot for the Nov. 8 election, if you live in Supreme Court District 1. For more political coverage visit jfp.ms/2016elections. Email state reporter Arielle Dreher at arielle@jacksonfreepress.com.