| Wednesday, March 15, 2017 |
| Mississippi ranks high in national study for college affordability | |
 | The cost of college remains a concern for current and incoming students. Here's good news for many as Mississippi ranks near the top in the nation for college affordability. A new report looks at data and ranks states based off average cost of a credit at public colleges. Mississippi placed 6th on this list, placing above states like Texas and Georgia. "The Meridian Campus plays a very specific role to make sure that education remains affordable for students in the state of Mississippi, and that's largely because of our partnership with community colleges, we depend on the four local community colleges in terms of students attending Mississippi State," Dr. Terry Dale Cruse says. Cruse says these avenues such as their Partnership Pathways Program give students an opportunity to seek the education they desire at a cost-effective rate. "So when you look at that, it really makes it more affordable for our students to attend an outstanding community college locally and then come into programs at Mississippi State-Meridian," Cruse says. |
| Starkville Parks sees steady increases in youth sports participation | |
 | For Starkville Parks and Recreation Department Sports Coordinator William Pochop, success in his job is measured by creating youth sports leagues that promote a culture of fun, activity and positive experiences. Pochop said he feels SPRD is doing its best job ever of creating community buy-in and involvement, and data the department released reinforces his claim: SPRD's big four seasonal youth leagues -- basketball, kickball, flag football and girls' softball -- have grown in terms of participation each year since he took on the sports coordinator role in 2013. "It's not the money or the numbers, really. For us, it's the overall desire to get children active. It's about having fun and creating a culture of recreation, activity and inclusion," he said. |
| Starkville sixth grader wins 2017 Mississippi Spelling Bee | |
 | Twelve-year-old Soyeon Park, a sixth-grade student from Armstrong Middle School in the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District, is Mississippi's 2017 Spelling Bee Champion. Park spelled the championship word "spiracle" in the 39th round and will advance to the 90th Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., where she will compete against champions from every state in America. Students from across Mississippi competed for the Mississippi Championship Spelling Bee title. The Mississippi Association of Educators has sponsored this event for the past eight years and was honored to have Ezra Wall, managing editor of news for MPB, as the official pronouncer for the competition. |
| Mississippi Aquarium will support itself; $93M a 'comfortable' budget | |
 | Consultant David Kimmel is confident the Mississippi Aquarium can be built and stocked with animals for $93 million. Further, Kimmel said, he expects the aquarium to be self-supporting because it should be debt-free, or close to it, when it opens in early 2019. "I'm very comfortable with the budget," he said. "The $93 million is all we will need to open a beautiful aquarium for the citizens of Gulfport and the state." The aquarium is counting on substantial state funding, corporate sponsorships and individual contributions. The state has agreed to issue $24.5 million in bonds, and contribute $17.5 million more in BP oil-catastrophe money. PGAV Destinations of St. Louis, lead designer for the aquarium, is working with Eley Guild Hardy Architects of Biloxi. |
| Lawmakers: Slow economy and tax cuts hurt Mississippi budget | |
 | Mississippi faces a budget crisis because the economy is lagging and large tax cuts are depleting revenue, Democratic lawmakers said Tuesday. The two Democratic Caucus chairmen --- David Baria of Bay St. Louis in the House and Bill Stone of Holly Springs in the Senate --- said the problem is "the elephant in the room" as legislators approach the final weeks of budget writing. "They seem to be ignoring this enormous problem," Baria said of Republicans who control both chambers. "We're still passing tax breaks on the House side." The Senate is advancing tax breaks as well. |
| Democrats sound alarm on Mississippi's 'financial crisis' | |
 | Democratic lawmakers made the case Tuesday that there are two causes for Mississippi's budget woes: the first a "struggling" economy, the other, tax cuts --- and lots of them. In recent years, the Legislature has doled out some 43 tax cuts or breaks, nearly half of which were for sales taxes. During a news conference at the Capitol, leaders of Mississippi's Black and Democratic Caucuses sharing figures from the state Department of Revenue. The agency estimated that corporate tax cuts had resulted in the loss of $350 million for the current fiscal year. The figure could be higher, however, as the department was not able to determine the impact for several tax credit programs. Citing the state's burdened infrastructure and underfunding of schools, Sen. Bill Stone of Holly Springs, who chairs the Senate Democratic Caucus, postured, "we don't have enough money to fund the core and basic functions of government." |
| Democrats speak out against tax cuts | |
 | Democrats in the Mississippi Legislature on Tuesday blamed the Republican leadership's focus on tax cuts for the budget troubles the state is facing. During an informal meeting with reporters, members of the Mississippi Legislative Democratic Caucus discussed what they called "the elephant in the room" -- the state's looming budget shortfall. "We don't want to just be critical of the leadership, we want to offer solutions and we would like to be a part of the process," said Rep. David Baria, D-Bay St. Louis. Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, in a statement to Mississippi Today, pushed back forcefully: "Democrats in Mississippi are trying to impress their liberal counterparts in D.C. by fighting for higher taxes and bigger government, while my Republican colleagues and I work to lower taxpayers' burden and reduce the overall size of government." |
| Flag amendment voted down again | |
 | Rep. William Shirley, R-Quitman, is running out of options to amend legislation to force the state's eight public universities to fly the state flag, replete with the controversial Confederate battle emblem as part of its design. On Tuesday, the House defeated via voice vote a Shirley amendment to a bond bill that would have required the universities to fly the banner in order to get bond proceeds to finance long-term construction projects. Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, said that not enough members stood to demand a recorded vote on the amendment. House rules require 10 percent, or 13 members, to stand to require a recorded vote on an amendment. It did not appear they did. Shirley has now offered the amendment to various bills providing money to the institutions of higher learning five times. |
| Law allows beer vote in smaller cities | |
| Gov. Phil Bryant signed into law Monday a bill to allow smaller municipalities like Nettleton and Farmington a chance to vote whether they want to legalize beer sales. The new law allows cities with a population of 1,500 to have a local option vote on beer if they are within three miles of a "wet" city or county. Without the exemption, cities must have 2,500 residents before they can vote on beer or liquor. The bill was introduced last year in both the state house and senate by Tate County legislators as a way to give the town of Coldwater an economic incentive to help attract and maintain a grocery store. The new exemptions only affect six Mississippi towns: Ackerman, Coldwater, Decatur, Farmington, Nettleton and Purvis. |
| Senate slashes $10 million from Medicaid's 2018 budget | |
| The Senate approved a $10.1 million cut to Medicaid for the upcoming fiscal year on Tuesday in an ongoing effort to reduce costs at one of the state's largest agencies. Medicaid Committee Chairman Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, stressed that the new $909.3 million budget represents only a 1.1 percent reduction from the agency's 2017 budget, which ends June 30. Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, noted that Medicaid already has weathered three rounds of cuts and was initially funded less than the $1 billion that Medicaid requested. Taking these factors into account, Blount said later that the new budget for 2018 actually represents $99 million less than what Medicaid said it will spend next year. |
| Mississippi to begin tracking assets seized by police groups | |
| Mississippi will begin tracking money and assets seized by police agencies and require more oversight of such forfeitures after Gov. Phil Bryant signed House Bill 812. Bryant signed the measure Monday requiring the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics to maintain a public website that lists all such forfeitures taken through civil court proceedings. The measure also calls for a judge to approve a seizure warrant within 72 hours of a police agency taking property, and for either the local district attorney of the Bureau of Narcotics to handle the forfeiture case in court. Any law enforcement agency that doesn't get a seizure warrant within 72 hours would have to give the property back. |
| New law lets Mississippi regulate fantasy sports contests | |
| Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has signed legislation to regulate and tax operators of daily fantasy sports contests. House Bill 967 will set an 8 percent tax and authorize the Mississippi Gaming Commission to regulate fantasy sports contests online or in casinos. Bryant signed the bill Monday, and it becomes law July 1. |
| Republican governors skeptical of House GOP health care bill | |
 | At least 15 Republican governors have raised concerns about the House GOP's health care bill amid the fiery debate surrounding the long-promised repeal of Obamacare. And no governors have publicly expressed strong support for the American Health Care Act. Although the GOP governors generally support repealing and replacing Obamacare, coverage losses predicted by the Congressional Budget Office have some withholding support from the bill. Skepticism from these influential Republicans -- whose states face real consequences if the bill is enacted -- leaves GOP leaders and the White House without the support they desperately need to keep the embattled legislation on track. Others governors, such as Matt Bevin of Kentucky, Paul LePage of Maine and Phil Bryant of Mississippi, are echoing sentiments from conservative members of Congress and conservative organizations that do not believe the bill is conservative enough. "Republican voters who gave majorities to both chambers and delivered the White House do not want Obamacare Lite," Bryant wrote on Facebook on March 8. |
| Trump paid $38 million in taxes in 2005, the White House says | |
 | President Trump paid $38 million in federal taxes in 2005 on income of $153 million and reported a $105 million write-down in business losses, according to a copy of his tax return first revealed Tuesday night. Trump paid an effective tax rate of 24 percent and saved millions of dollars in additional taxes by claiming the losses, according to the document, the first two pages of which were obtained by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston and first reported by DC Report, a nonprofit news site he runs, and on MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show." The newly revealed pages from his 2005 return do not detail his financial ties, but they do seem to disprove the theory that some Democrats advanced in last year's campaign that Trump avoided paying any federal income taxes during that period. |
| Left or Right? Two Congressmen Take Debate to the Highway | |
 | Marriages and longtime friendships have been killed off by long road trips, so it was no certainty that the American political process could survive 24-plus hours in a Chevy Impala. But Representative Beto O'Rourke, Democrat of El Paso, suggested to his colleague and congressional district neighbor, Representative Will Hurd, a Republican, that they give it a try. The two men had been visiting veterans' service centers in San Antonio over the weekend when Mr. Hurd learned that his flight back to Washington had been canceled because of the winter storm. Mr. O'Rourke was not sure his flight would make it either. So he proposed something of a political stunt: Why not rent a car together -- two politicians from opposite parties, from politically pugnacious Texas, of all places -- and broadcast their trip to Washington as a live bipartisan town hall? |
| Animal groups battle USDA | |
 | Animal rights groups are up in arms over the thousands of animal welfare documents missing from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's website. The agency is facing two separate lawsuits from activist groups demanding that it restore the records in full -- documents that include animal welfare violations at zoos, by breeders and in research labs. The USDA said it removed the records on Feb. 3 because it is involved in litigation, saying "in an abundance of caution" it was "taking additional measures to protect individual privacy." While animal rights groups are demanding the records be restored, a trade group for commercial breeders is praising the USDA for being cautious about personal privacy. |
| Officials: Bird flu infects Alabama poultry, likely low pathogenic | |
| Bird flu has infected poultry at three sites in northern Alabama shortly after being found at two farms in neighboring Tennessee, and more chickens have been culled to contain the virus, state and industry officials in Alabama said on Tuesday. The cases in Alabama are suspected to be the less dangerous form of the disease, known as low pathogenic, because the infected flocks did not have high levels of mortality, said Ray Hilburn, associate director of the Alabama Poultry and Egg Association, an industry group. The flocks were near the spot in southern Tennessee where the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed on March 5 the nation's first case of highly pathogenic flu in commercial poultry in more than a year. Days later, Tennessee said it had detected low-pathogenic flu at another chicken farm nearby. |
| Mercedes in Alabama seeking payments from local governments as part of incentive program | |
 | Mercedes-Benz U.S. International is seeking $10 million from local governments over the next 10 years as part of an incentive program that was intended to begin in 2013 but was never implemented. The money is tied to the 2009 "Project Crimson Agreement" between Mercedes, then-Gov. Bob Riley and the Tuscaloosa County Industrial Development Authority that offered the automaker a $100 million incentive package to bring production of its C-Class sedan to its plant in Vance. The effort was a success, and production on the sedans began here in the summer of 2014. The agreement stipulated that if Mercedes met certain employment goals, the local governments would pay the manufacturer $1 million each year, beginning in November 2013 and carrying on until 2022. Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox said the city has set aside its share of the incentive money in every budget since 2013. He said they stand ready to honor the agreement, even though it's beginning four years later than originally intended. |
| U. of South Carolina international business program keeps No. 1 ranking | |
 | The University of South Carolina's international master of business administration program can call itself the best in the country for another year. The program, housed in USC's Darla Moore School of Business, was ranked No. 1 in the latest U.S. News & World Report's "Best Graduate Schools" publication, released Tuesday. The program has been ranked among the country's top three for 28 consecutive years. The Moore School's professional master's of business administration program was ranked No. 16 in the country. |
| U. of Florida employee charged with fraud | |
 | A University of Florida employee was arrested Monday after police say she created and cashed fraudulent checks. Tiffany Nichole Robinson, 34, who works at UF's Transportation and Parking Services department, issued 25 checks from April 21, 2016 to March 6, 2017, according to a UF Police Department arrest report. The checks totaled $8,401.75. The checks were refunded by the Transportation and Parking Services department, and Robinson's supervisor said Robinson's job is to issue refunds for returned parking decals and disputed fines. Robinson used a name, driver's license number and birthday slightly different to her own on the returned checks. |
| Texas A&M uses SXSW festival to showcase unseen stories, research | |
 | Texas A&M drew in Aggies and non-Aggies alike to the "Texas A&M House" in Austin on Tuesday as the university and its partners hosted a variety of events and activities inside the Hotel Van Zandt. Located just off the trendy Rainey Street Historic District and only a few blocks away from the main convention hall for South by Southwest in Austin, A&M Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Amy Smith said the university's five days in Austin "surpassed my expectations." "It was so amazing to see in its fulfillment," Smith said. While much effort went into planning for A&M's presence at SXSW, Smith said the festival is more the beginning of a new phase than the culmination of a project. "We invested in things that are going to have life back on our campus," Smith said. "It doesn't stop with SXSW. We're going to continue this trajectory for Texas A&M." |
| Presidents need wide range of skills, panelists at ACE conference say | |
 | College and university presidents need an ever-widening skill set to succeed amid quickly mounting pressures and fast-changing demands, experts said Tuesday, the final day of the American Council on Education's annual meeting. Presidents have to find ways to prepare students for the fast-changing world of work. They need to please or placate a broad range of constituencies, from students to donors to legislators. They must practice financial discipline in often-tight fiscal environments, and presidents face the ever-looming threat of unexpected issues spinning out of control on social media -- sometimes before they even know those issues exist. Those changes come as presidents are spending fewer years leading colleges or universities before moving on to other jobs or presidencies at different institutions. In short, the role is a crucible, one that is very different from 100 or even 10 years ago. |
| Diversity Officers Under Trump: Rattled but Voicing Resolve | |
 | The task of making college students feel welcome on campus has been greatly complicated by both the election of President Trump and the political currents that helped put him in office, said campus diversity officers who gathered in Washington on Tuesday. As the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education convened its annual conference, participants and guest speakers described themselves as shell-shocked by his victory and alarmed by the impact that the nation's growing political polarization has had on their institutions. "Divisiveness seems, increasingly, to be the worry of the day," Kim E. Schatzel, president of Towson University, said in moderating a panel focused on maintaining healthy campus climates. |
| Study shows widespread food and housing insecurity for students | |
| Community colleges that want students to graduate increasingly focus not just on academic needs, but on transportation, housing and food issues. A report released today by the Wisconsin HOPE Lab and the Association of Community College Trustees reveals that many community college students are dealing with a lack of basic needs. The report -- "Hungry and Homeless in College" -- surveyed more than 33,000 students at 70 two-year institutions in 24 states and found that two-thirds struggle with food insecurity, half are housing insecure, one-third are regularly hungry and 14 percent are homeless. The report defines food insecurity as the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, and homelessness as a person without a place to live or residing in a shelter, automobile or abandoned building. |
SPORTS
| Dancing at home: Bulldogs, fans celebrate as Mississippi State learns NCAA Tournament details | |
| It was 4:15 Monday afternoon and a group of 40 people huddled under the alcove at Humphrey Coliseum to escape the cold rain as they waited for the doors to open at 4:30. After a one-hour autograph session, about 300 fans settled into three sections of the Coliseum to watch the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament Selection Show on the big screen, with the Bulldog players and coaches occupying the first two rows. As expected, seventh-ranked Mississippi State will be among the 16 teams to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Women's Tournament. The Bulldogs will play Troy in the opening round at 1:30 p.m. Friday. Yet for all their achievements, nothing says more about the state of the MSU women's basketball team than those 40 folks shivering outside to get into the Hump. Like virtually every coach in the country, MSU coach Vic Schaefer is quick to acknowledge his fans, to call them "special" and emphasize the importance of the relationship between the players and their fans. |
| Anticipation builds for Mississippi State women's basketball regional play | |
| The line said it all. Five seasons ago, the Mississippi State women's basketball team struggled to draw more than 1,000 fans for its home games. On Monday, MSU senior guard Dominique Dillingham took special pride in looking up from signing autographs and seeing a line of 100-150 fans stretch from the lobby to Mize Pavilion out the door. It didn't matter that it was a rainy afternoon in Starkville. The assembled fans wanted to take advantage of what could possibly be their last chance to get autographs from all of their favorite Bulldogs. For Dillingham, the hour spent signing autographs prior to the NCAA tournament Selection Show was another sign of how far the MSU women have come in a short amount of time. "It has sunk in," Dillingham said. "It is still a crazy feeling to see everything come full circle." |
| Fans embracing rise of Mississippi State women's basketball | |
| The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal's Logan Lowery writes: "Monday evening, I sat in Humphrey Coliseum along with several hundred Mississippi State fans watching the NCAA Tournament selection show. As I looked around, I couldn't help but think that it wasn't that long ago that this many people wouldn't have turned out for a women's basketball game at Humphrey Coliseum -- let alone just sit around and watch a big screen that wasn't even showing a game. Those in attendance Monday hollered and shook the free pom poms that were handed out at the slightest mention of MSU or Bulldog highlight shown on ESPN. They smiled and were silent while Vic Schaefer did live interviews during the selection show then went wild when they were prompted. That's how far things have come in a short amount of time for this program." |
| Mississippi State baseball knocks off Arkansas-Pine Bluff | |
| Three hours before taking the mound for his first collegiate starting pitching appearance, Jake Mangum was in the dugout with a bat in his hand, practicing his swing piece by piece. Half an hour later, Mangum went through his usual rotation in batting practice. That's when things went haywire. "I had no routine. What do I do? No idea," Mangum said. "Just ran out there, got loose and threw the ball." Mangum made the unique circumstance work: Mississippi State's everyday center fielder and leadoff hitter, who prepared for sporadic relief work in the offseason, was called upon to start on the mound Tuesday and gave MSU three perfect innings. MSU (12-6) beat Arkansas-Pine Bluff 11-8 in its last outing before beginning Southeastern Conference play on Friday. |
| Bulldogs take five-game win streak into SEC play | |
| Mississippi State won its fifth straight game and passed its final test before beginning SEC play with an 11-8 victory over Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Tuesday night. The Diamond Dogs scored 10 runs in their first four at bats and also established a single-game school record with 10 stolen bases. "I feel like we're playing well right now, and I feel like we're on a roll," said first-year MSU skipper Andy Cannizaro. "Our confidence is pretty good, so let's go get into SEC play and see what this big, bad league is all about." The Diamond Dogs open SEC play this weekend at Arkansas with a three-game series starting Friday at 6:30 p.m. |
| Mississippi State notebook: Bullpen roles still unsettled heading into conference play | |
| Back in February, Mississippi State baseball coach Andy Cannizaro could look forward to Southeastern Conference play as a far away object, one which gave him plenty of time to decide bullpen roles. In two days, his self-imposed deadline will come. MSU (12-6) finished its non-conference schedule with an 11-8 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff. The next action is on the road against Arkansas, where MSU's struggling bullpen will need more to hold down the conference leader in home runs. "I feel really good about our back end right now when you look at a guy like Spencer Price, Riley Self, when you look at putting Graham Ashcraft back there, I really like those three guys a lot as our last three guys," Cannizaro said. "We have to find a way to be able to get the ball from our starters to those three guys." |
| Arkansas loses another infielder, but 2 on the mend | |
| Arkansas infielder Hunter Wilson was injured during an at-bat Tuesday and could miss considerable playing time. Wilson suffered a shin injury when he fouled a ball off his right leg during the fifth inning of the Razorbacks' 3-2 win at Baum Stadium. Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn called the injury a bone bruise, but said Wilson will undergo an X-ray as a precaution. Wilson is the third Arkansas infielder to go down to an injury this season, but the Razorbacks could be getting the other two back soon. Van Horn said second baseman Carson Shaddy is probable to return for the Razorbacks' SEC opener against Mississippi State this weekend. "We'll do everything we can to get him ready for Friday," Van Horn said. "I do believe he'll play this weekend... He's moving around a lot better and he says he's playing Friday." |
| USGA returning to Old Waverly in 2019 | |
| Old Waverly Golf Club has been selected to host its third U.S. Golf Association championship event, the 2019 U.S. Women's Amateur Championship. The tournament, scheduled for Aug. 5-11, 2019, follows the 1999 U.S. Women's Open and 2006 U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur championships previously held at Old Waverly. Old Waverly has hosted numerous other events, including the men's and women's SEC Championships, Southern Golf Association women's and junior championships, and the 2014 ISPS Handa Cup, an international team competition on the LPGA Legends Tour. The club also serves as the home of the Mississippi State University men's and women's golf programs. "It is an honor to host the 119th U.S. Women's Amateur Championship at Old Waverly," said George Bryan, club founder. "We have a strong history of supporting competitive amateur golf, and we look forward to welcoming the best female amateurs in the game to our course and to the state of Mississippi in 2019." |
| As NCAA money trickles down, even tennis coaches are outearning professors at U. of Kentucky | |
 | In a city where investment bankers and coal magnates pay $10,000 or more for University of Kentucky men's basketball season tickets, head coach of the Wildcats has long been a high-pressure job with rich financial rewards. In 2016, John Calipari made $8.6 million, an amount Kentucky officials justify as fair market value for a coach whose team will generate tens of millions of dollars. But as more money has surged into Kentucky athletics, records show, Calipari isn't the only coach cashing in, even as the athletes remain amateurs. In athletic departments at Kentucky and other schools -- particularly in the five wealthiest collegiate conferences -- it's almost as if the recession didn't happen. Kentucky Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart, whose salary rose from $480,000 to $695,000 in a decade, said the raises he has paid out reflect the market for good coaches in each of those sports. |
| Kentucky's John Calipari Is a Media Machine, But Don't Ask Him to Use a Computer | |
| John Calipari, residue from that morning's Ash Wednesday service smudged on his forehead, unbound his iPad's leather case and showed a visiting reporter its gleaming sky-blue desktop. "It's never off," he said. "Because I don't know how to turn it off." Calipari, 58, Kentucky's successful and controversial basketball coach, does not have a computer in his office overlooking the Wildcats' practice gym. He does not know how to post Facebook updates or messages on Twitter. He does not, he said, even use email. Yet Calipari, whose resume at Kentucky includes four Final Fours, a national championship and a No. 2 seed in this year's N.C.A.A. men's basketball tournament, is the driving force behind several powerful media platforms -- including a Twitter account with more than a million followers, a website and a popular weekly podcast. Collectively, these serve as a permanent branding campaign, a public record of his thoughts and actions, and a rapid-response mechanism for one of the sports world's most in-demand and polarizing personalities. |
| Emails show 'Need for Speed' in U. of Tennessee AD search process | |
 | Beverly Davenport was working on hiring an athletic director for the University of Tennessee weeks before she officially took the helm as chancellor. "The Need for Speed" was a major objective in finding a new athletic director, according to a collection of emails regarding the search provided to the USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee on Tuesday by UT through a public records request. UT announced the hiring of athletic director John Currie on Feb. 28 -- 13 days after Davenport began working at UT. Currie replaced Dave Hart, who announced his retirement on Aug. 18. The emails about the search process largely consisted of meeting plans between Davenport and the UT search committee. No athletic director candidates were named in the emails. |
| Tiger Rags leaves downtown Auburn for new location after 34 years | |
 | Thirty-four years ago, three men partnered together to open what has become one of Auburn's most iconic stops for Tiger's game-day gear. But fans who stopped in at Tiger Rags on Gay Street on the walk to a tailgate or Jordan-Hare Stadium will have to plan their days differently come August. Tiger Rags moved last week from its birthplace on Gay Street to the corner of Glenn Avenue and East University Drive in the University Crossing Shopping Center. The retail store will operate out of the shopping center, and the production and art departments have moved to North Dean Road. After owning half of the original building for years, owner Jerry Rigby said he and the other two owners, Don Walton and Charlie Gross, decided to sell to Steven Fleming of Fleming Properties. The sale finished in December, and Tiger Rags opened the new location on Friday. |
| Two former Penn State administrators plead guilty in Jerry Sandusky abuse case | |
| Two former Penn State University administrators each pleaded guilty Monday to a misdemeanor child endangerment charge for their roles in the Jerry Sandusky child molestation case, more than five years after the scandal broke. Ex-Athletic Director Tim Curley and former university Vice President Gary Schultz originally were charged with felonies. The reduced charge is punishable by up to five years in prison. Penn State ex-President Graham Spanier was also charged in the case. He was not in the Harrisburg courtroom Monday morning, though his attorneys were. Penn State's costs related to the Sandusky scandal are approaching a quarter-billion dollars. The NCAA levied a $48-million penalty against the university, which is now funding anti-child-abuse efforts in Pennsylvania. |
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