Cincinnati Fox-affiliate WXIX is launching weekend morning newscasts beginning August 18.

The newscasts will air from 8 to 10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. WXIX has hired Jessica Brown (pictured) to co-anchor the morning newscast. Previously, she was a weekend anchor and reporter at KSNF in Joplin, MO.

Brown will co-anchor with Dan Wells, who has worked at WXIX as a reporter since 2008. Katy Morgan will be the meteorologist. Read more

Longtime KSNF anchor Jim Jackson bid farewell to viewers on Wednesday after 32 years anchoring the NBC-affiliate’s 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts.  Jackson is leaving TV to run for public office.

“I’m going to march down to the Newton County courthouse,” Jackson told viewers, discussing his plans for the rest of this week and the rest of the year.  “And I am filing for Newton County commission in the second district, on the Republican ticket” (video here).

Predicting a “good, clean campaign,” Jackson highlighted that the election is in August.

A graduate of Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, Jackson joined KSNF, which covers Joplin, MO and Pittsburg, KS, after serving six years in the U.S. Navy.  [h/t The Turner Report]

Jim Jackson, who has been an anchor at KSNF in Joplin for 32 years, will announce his candidacy for Newton County commissioner next week.

Jackson anchors the 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts for NBC-affiliated KNSF. He has no immediate plans to leave the station, but will step down from the anchor desk if elected, according to a statement on the station’s website.

“I am proud of what I’ve accomplished as a news broadcaster, and I’m looking forward to this new challenge that will allow me to make an even bigger contribution to the community,” Jackson said.