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(AP) — The manager of the long-troubled water system in Mississippi's capital city proposed a slight rate increase for most residents Friday alongside what he said is a first-in-the-nation proposal to reduce water rates for low-income people who get government help with grocery bills. If enacted, it would be the latest in a series of changes after infrastructure breakdowns in 2022 caused many Jackson residents to go days and weeks without safe running water. “We think this is a great opportunity to really change the dialogue around water and sewer in the city of Jackson,” Henifin said at a news conference. The proposal also marks the first rate increase since a federal judge appointed Henifin to manage Jackson's water system last November. JXN Water will start shutting off water for people who don't pay their bills sometime after Jan. 1st, Henifin said.

Persons: JACKSON, Ted Henifin, ” Henifin, Henifin, Delbert Hosemann, Jan ., Chokwe Antar Lumumba, ___ Michael Goldberg Organizations: Nutrition Assistance, SNAP, Mississippi Legislature, Gov, Jackson, Associated Press, America Statehouse News Initiative, America Locations: Miss, Jackson, Mississippi, @mikergoldberg

☆ Calls mount for federal investigation of Mississippi police in Dexter Wade's death
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Al Sharpton are asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Wade's death and the Jackson police's handling of it, saying the police failed to notify the family. The last time Wade's mother saw her son was on March 5, when he left her home in the evening, NBC News reported last week. NBC cited interviews with Wade's family members and documents obtained via public records requests, including a crash report, incident reports and coroner’s office records. The investigator said he called Wade's mother and could not get through, and then passed the information to the Jackson Police Department so it could notify Wade's next of kin of his death, NBC reported. Wade's mother filed a missing person report on March 14 and said she nagged the department and begged for help finding her son on Facebook for months, NBC reported.

Persons: Ben Crump, Eduardo Munoz, Dexter Wade, Benjamin Crump, Al Sharpton, Jackson, Wade's, Wade, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Rev, Gabriella Borter, Aurora Ellis Organizations: REUTERS, U.S . Department of Justice, NBC News, NBC, Jackson Police Department, The Jackson Police Department, Jackson Mayor, Department, National Action Network, Thomson Locations: New York, U.S, Mississippi, Jackson, Hinds County, Hinds, Wade

☆ Mississippi House OKs new court system — to be appointed by white state officials — for second-Blackest U.S. city, stoking racial tension
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The Mississippi state flag (bottom) waves in front of the city skyline in Jackson, Mississippi on June 28, 2020. The change would break with the rest of the state, where judges and prosecutors are elected by voters. If approved by the state Senate and governor, the system and its judges would preside over a so-called improvement district spanning Jackson's downtown and shopping and entertainment areas. If the new Jackson system is approved by the Senate and governor, its judges and clerk would be appointed by the state Supreme Court's chief justice, who is white. And prosecutors would be named by the state attorney general, who also is white.

☆ DOJ appointee releases new plan for ‘tenuous’ Jackson water
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

The plan would relieve the water system of its debt and introduce a new billing model that would become effective in the budget year that begins on Oct. 1. Jackson is struggling with access to safe drinking water after a disruption at the water processing facility. The plan would change the way Jackson issues fees for water use. The new rate structure would reduce the system’s dependence on city water meters, which have been mired in problems, Henifin said. The metering bill isn’t the only legislation advancing in the state legislature that would impact Jackson’s water system.

☆ Running water scarce in Jackson, Mississippi, after frigid weather
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Jonathan Allen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Other Southern cities unaccustomed to freezing weather were grappling with similar water issues, including Atlanta; Shreveport, Louisiana; and Selma, Alabama. Homes in some parts of the city had no water at all, and officials have set up distribution points for bottled drinking water each day. The U.S. Justice Department in November reached an agreement with Mississippi and the city of Jackson to appoint an interim third-party manager to stabilize the city's drinking water supply. The mayor says fixing the water system will take billions of dollars. The U.S. Congress included $600 million to repair Jackson's water system in a spending bill signed into law last week.

[1/5] An aerial view of buildings during a blizzard in Buffalo, New York, U.S. December 26, 2022, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. "It's still snowing" in Western New York, said NWS meteorologist Bob Oravec, predicting two more inches. "This is probably the last of the snow," added Oravec, who is with the NWS Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. Buffalo, New York state's second largest city, was ground zero for the blizzard that took shape on Friday. Poloncarz, speaking at a press briefing Tuesday, urged residents to stay home and the curious to stay away.

☆ Arson suspect arrested after 7 fires set across Mississippi's capital city
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

— Authorities have arrested a suspect in connection with seven fires set across Mississippi’s capital city early Tuesday. At least two of the buildings set ablaze in Jackson were churches; one was burned to the ground. Another fire broke out on fences surrounding the baseball practice field at Jackson State University, a historically Black public university. We have about a third of our department on sites.”A fireman observes the remains of a burned Epiphany Lutheran Church in Jackson, Mississippi, on Nov. 8, 2022. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba addressed the fires at a Tuesday city council meeting.

☆ Lawmaker complaint forces Tennessee pride festival indoors
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-07 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

The drag show at a Tennessee pride festival will go on Saturday — but not in the way organizers had planned it. Darin Hollingsworth, a Jackson Pride Committee member, said organizers were “horribly disappointed,” because they know local LGBTQ youths would have felt supported at the drag performance. “But we will be in contempt if we even allow parents to bring in their child, so we won’t.”Hollingsworth said the pride event had been in the works for a year, and Jackson Pride had advertised it repeatedly. The event began to face backlash after a Sept. 17 Facebook post from Republican state Rep. Chris Todd. As a result, the Jackson Pride Committee decided to move the festival, including the drag show, into the Civic Center and to increase security measures by, among other things, having a metal detector.

☆ Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves says it's 'a great day to not be in Jackson,' where residents went without clean running water for weeks
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-17 | by ( Sarah Jackson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

More than 150,000 people in Jackson — Mississippi's largest city and capital — went without clean running water for weeks. Tate Reeves said it was "a great day to not be in Jackson." Tate Reeves called it "a great day to not be in Jackson" on Friday, referring to the state's capital, which has been deprived of clean running water for weeks. It's also, as always, a great day to not be in Jackson," he said, according to local television station 16 WAPT News. The city lost access to clean running water after severe flooding in late August damaged its main water treatment facility.

One of two state agencies responsible for pushing out millions of dollars in federal infrastructure funds said it could be at least mid-to-late 2023 before any allocations roll out. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, a Democrat, has said the price tag to overhaul the city’s water infrastructure could balloon into the billions. This year, the Mississippi Legislature created a $450 million water infrastructure funding program with money the state received through the Congressional Covid relief package that passed in 2021. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality is administering the Clean Water State Revolving Fund program. Sam Mozee, director of the Mississippi Urban Research Center at Jackson State University, says his team is tracking what happens with funding going forward.

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