| Friday, May 22, 2026 |
| MSU professor wins top national recognition for cancer detecting technology | |
 | Mississippi State University professor Dr. Colleen Scott, PhD, has won the Bayh-Dole Coalition's American Innovator Award. The prize recognizes federally-funded inventions that stand to greatly benefit the public. Past recipients have included the developers of the mRNA vaccine tech and daily HIV medication. Scott's work stands to dramatically change how accurately doctors and surgeons can differentiate between healthy cells and cancer cells. "I got an email saying that the office of Congresswoman Cindy Hyde-Smith had asked about several intellectual properties that came out of the state, and they had chosen my intellectual property work," said Scott, an MSU associate professor of chemistry. The chemist attributes her move to Mississippi to the major shift in her work. "When I moved to Mississippi State, that's when it opened up more opportunities for me," she said. |
| MSU's Famous Maroon Band announces 2026-27 drum majors | |
 | Mississippi State is ready to strike up the Famous Maroon Band with four drum majors from Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee leading the more than 400-member group in the upcoming academic year. Performing at all Bulldog football games and other university functions, the 124-year-old band has achieved national and international acclaim, including the 2026 national Sudler Trophy -- considered the highest honor a collegiate marching band can receive. Chosen from auditions, the 2026-27 drum majors include: Olivia Dickerson, senior biochemistry major, Gautier; Josh Ducey, sophomore aerospace engineering major, Arlington, Tennessee; Ava Hinyub, junior music education major, Gulf Shores, Alabama; and James Leon, junior electrical engineering major, Biloxi. Band members fine-tune and showcase their talents under the leadership of Director of Bands Elva Kaye Lance, with Craig Aarhus and Cliff Taylor, who serve as associate directors of bands and professors in MSU's Department of Music. |
| AICPA elects Jan Lewis as chair | |
| Jan Lewis, a tax partner at BMSS Advisors in Ridgeland, Mississippi, has been elected as the new chair of the American Institute of CPAs and the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, which combines the AICPA and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. She was elected Wednesday to the one-year AICPA volunteer post by the organization's governing Council, which concludes its Spring Council session tomorrow. Lindsay Stevenson, chief strategy officer at BPM, was voted in as the AICPA's vice chair. "We're part of a profession with a long legacy of integrity, adaptability, and innovation," Lewis said in her acceptance speech. "With that legacy comes responsibility to keep earning trust and to help shape what comes next. I'm incredibly grateful for the trust you've placed in me, and I'm excited about what the year ahead holds." Lewis earned her Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Mississippi State University. She is a member and past chair of the Adkerson School of Accountancy Advisory Board at MSU. She was also previously selected as the MSU College of Business's Alumni Fellow, as well as MSU Beta Alpha Psi Alumnus of the Year. |
| Why are buttons and zippers on different sides of men's and women's clothes? | |
| Mississippi State University's Caroline Kobia and JuYoung Lee write for The Conversation's Curious Kids series: Q: Why are zippers on different sides of male and female jackets? - Agrima, age 13, Delhi, India. A: Imagine you're at a clothing store that stocks items for the whole family. You pick up a white buttoned shirt to try on. The style is pretty plain. Was it designed to be worn by a woman or man? There may be a clue: Many women's shirts have buttons on the left side, while men's shirts usually button on the right. Even zippers in pants and jackets sometimes follow the same pattern. But why does clothing fasten differently depending on whether it's made for men or women? Fashion researchers and historians like us have wondered about this gender difference. The answer has a lot to do with tradition, history and the way clothes were made long ago. Even small details, like a zipper, can tell a story about the past. |
| Cattle industry continues to look for signs of herd expansion | |
| A livestock economist says he doesn't expect many surprises in Friday's Cattle on Feed report. Josh Maples with Mississippi State University Extension says he anticipates a significant drop in marketings. "You look at steer and heifer slaughter in April, it was down 9.8% from where we were last April, looking at the daily slaughter data," he says. "So big drop there. April 2026 was the third lowest April of the past three decades. He tells Brownfield he's looking for placements to also decline, "It's just a question of how much lower." Maples says slightly more than 5 million head were placed into feedlots during the first quarter, the lowest for Q1 since 1998. "We know we've got fewer cattle coming in and we know we've got fewer cattle going out of feedlots," he says. "The placements numbers to me is going to be the one that's kind of the biggest question mark, like it always is, as we try to get a picture of just how many feeder cattle are moving into feed lots and how long they're staying there." |
| 'Leading the way in American innovation': Mississippi establishes statewide AI framework | |
| Mississippi has unveiled a statewide plan to navigate the ever-evolving roadmap of artificial intelligence with the overarching goal of boosting its workforce. Gov. Tate Reeves announced the Mississippi Statewide AI Framework on Thursday, articulating priorities and providing a structured, stage-by-stage map of the AI skills learners need from K-12 through career leadership. The governor added that the framework is rooted in the idea that AI will not replace human input, but rather strengthen it. Reeves noted that the Mississippi Statewide AI Framework establishes a shared statewide foundation for how artificial intelligence is understood, taught, and applied across education and the workforce. Organized around 11 core AI skill domains, the framework defines competencies ranging from oundational AI understanding, ethical reasoning, cybersecurity awareness and real-world application across Mississippi industries, including precision agriculture, coastal resilience, advanced manufacturing, and healthcare. Notably, the framework is not a curriculum or mandate. Instead, it serves as a flexible guide that enables schools, colleges, and workforce partners to design programs that align with statewide priorities while meeting local needs. |
| The Memorial Day Barbecue Is Starting to Cost a Small Fortune | |
 | Caitlin Green pictured 30 people in her backyard for Memorial Day weekend: smashburgers on her new outdoor griddle, a soda bar, a fruit bowl piled with mango and raspberries. Then she priced the ground beef. A pound of it runs close to $8 where she shops, two times what she remembers paying a couple of years ago and more than she could stomach for feeding a crowd. She estimated that the all-in cost of putting on the event would be at least $300. "I just feel awkward inviting so many people to my home and being like, 'I'm gonna host you, but also can you pay me so that I can afford to have you over?' " said Green, a 25-year-old real-estate agent in Logan, Utah. Inflation is back, and it is coming for Memorial Day gatherings and the summer activities beyond. Gas prices are up and cookout grocery lists are getting squeezed. Rising costs are prompting Americans to rethink holiday-weekend decisions like how far to drive, how many people to invite and how much of the tab a host should absorb. |
| IHL Board of Trustees presented with proposed new university funding model | |
| Consultants with the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems presented Mississippi's Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees with a proposed new funding model for the state's eight public universities on Thursday. Proposed allocations under the new funding model for each of the eight universities based on total funding would be $442.6 million for the upcoming fiscal year if the model was in place. NCHEMS representatives told the IHL Board that they had identified gaps in foundational funding for three public universities: $4.2 million at Alcorn State University, $20.5 million at Mississippi State University, and $29.5 million at Ole Miss. Additionally, a recommendation to the IHL Board was made for members to consider performance funding for research and other components such as graduation rates, the number of adult learners, and efforts to meet the workforce needs of the state. |
SPORTS
| Softball: No. 20 Bulldogs Start Super Regional At No. 2 Oklahoma Friday | |
| A familiar foe is all that stands between No. 20 Mississippi State and its first trip to the Women's College World Series. The Bulldogs are set to play at No. 2 Oklahoma in the Super Regionals beginning Friday, May 22 at noon CT. State and the Sooners have met every year since 2021, the Bulldogs' longest active uninterrupted series. The teams did not meet in the regular season, but the postseason matchup will extend the annual series. The two programs have never met in the postseason. This year, the Bulldogs completed a dominant run through the Eugene Regional, winning three straight games and allowing just two runs. In fact, the only runs MSU allowed came in the first inning of the first game. MSU has not allowed a run in 21.2 consecutive innings. Samantha Ricketts was an All-American under Patty Gasso at Oklahoma. With a win, Ricketts would become the first former Gasso player-turned-head-coach to beat a Gasso-led Sooners team as a head coach. Despite not playing in the regular season this year, the postseason matchup extends MSU's longest active uninterrupted series. The Bulldogs and Sooners have met every year since 2021. |
| Georgia president Jere Morehead: 'A 24-team Playoff is a mistake' | |
 | As all eyes turn to the SEC meetings next week and whether the conference will sign on for a 24-team College Football Playoff, an important voice in the conference says he is against expansion. Georgia president Jere Morehead told The Athletic on Thursday that "a 24-team Playoff is a mistake," and that the Big Ten has not thought through the long-term implications. "It's going to devalue big games during the regular season. I think it's going to devalue Georgia-Alabama or Georgia-Oklahoma next year. So I don't think that's a good idea," said Morehead, who took office in 2013 and is the SEC's third-longest tenured president. "I was OK with going to 16. I thought that was a good number. But 24 scares me, particularly jumping from 12 to 24. If we went to 16 and tried that for a few years, see how it goes, and then we can evaluate whether we should go to 24. And from my standpoint, I would just stay at 12 then, if we can't get an agreement on 16. But again, there's one person in the room I'm always going to be listening to, and that's Commissioner (Greg) Sankey. And so if he were to give me arguments to the contrary, then I would listen to him." |
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