| Wednesday, October 25, 2017 |
| Johnnie Harris promotes Mississippi State women's basketball at Rotary meeting | |
 | College football may be at the midway point of the schedule for most teams around the country, but Mississippi State women's associate head coach Johnnie Harris had a very important message for those who attended Monday's meeting of the Starkville Rotary Club. It's time for Bulldog basketball. "It's here," Harris said with excitement in her voice. "It's basketball season. We still have some fun football times ahead, but we tell our kids all of the time that it's getting closer and closer. It's a week or two weeks away from our opener. We're preparing for that." The MSU women will hold their Maroon-White Scrimmage on Wednesday at 6 p.m., then the one and only exhibition game will take place on November against Arkansas-Fort Smith at Humphrey Coliseum, which is also a 6 p.m. tip. Harris make sure the Rotarians were aware about the season-opener on November 10, which is the second half of a home basketball doubleheader with the men's team. The women take on Virginia at 8 p.m. and Harris said head coach Vic Schaefer is working hard to get a sellout. |
| Starkville hospital suitors offer presentations Wednesday, Thursday | |
 | The Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors will host meetings today and Thursday at the Greensboro Center in Starkville to allow citizens to hear from the two health systems that have made proposals to purchase OCH Regional Medical Center. Tupelo-based North Mississippi Health Services will make its presentation at 5:30 p.m. today. Memphis-based Baptist Memorial Health Care will make its presentations at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Oktibbeha County voters will go to the polls Nov. 7 for a referendum on whether the board of supervisors should consider selling the county-owned hospital. The OCH Regional Board of Trustees has opposed the sale. |
| Oktibbeha supervisors enact speed bump policy | |
 | Oktibbeha County Supervisors have recently approved a new traffic calming policy officials hope will reduce speeding in some communities. County Road Manager Fred Hal Baggett said he based the policy on Madison County's. It creates an avenue for community members to petition the county to install or remove speed bumps along certain public roads. The policy applies to roads that are "minor" and residential, with a traffic flow of 2,000 vehicles or fewer per day. Such roads must be paved, with a speed limit of 35 miles per hour or less. Baggett said he pursued making a policy in order to slow down traffic in residential areas. He didn't name any specific communities, but noted areas near Mississippi State University can be particularly prone to speeding. "In lots of communities near the university that students travel through, the rate they go at is unbelievable," Baggett said. |
| Mississippi officials meet with Japan officials | |
| Tupelo Mayor Jason Shelton is among the Mississippi officials participating this week in the 40th annual Southeast US-Japan Conference in Greenville, South Carolina. The annual conference is viewed as important to protect and grow economic development activities between Southeastern states and Japan. "The goal of Mississippi's participation is to strengthen economic and cultural ties between our state and Japan to encourage more investment from Japan," said Glenn McCullough Jr., the executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority and the former mayor of Tupelo. Other Northeast Mississippians in the 17-member delegation included David Rumbarger, president of the Tupelo-based Community Development Foundation; William Scaggs, president of the Clay County-based North Mississippi Industrial Development Association; and Keiichi Motoyama, research professor at Mississippi State University. |
| State politicians to gather for annual Hobnob event | |
 | The 16th Annual Hobnob Mississippi is Wednesday morning in Jackson. The Mississippi Economic Council event is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. at the Mississippi Coliseum. Several political leaders are scheduled to speak, including Governor Phil Bryant, Lt. Governor Tate Reeves, House Speaker Philip Gunn, Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann and Attorney General Jim Hood among others. Bryant and Reeves are expected to deliver a special message. The event will also feature a special Mississippi History and Politics Panel in celebration of the state's 200th anniversary. |
| No-call app launches to report violations | |
| Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, whose agency regulates telemarketers, was relaxing on his porch in Nettleton one Saturday afternoon about a year ago when he got an unwanted phone call from a telemarketer. Presley's first instinct was to go online to report the violation of the state's no-call law, but he really did not want to fool with that process on a Saturday afternoon. But he knew if he waited he would probably forget about reporting the violation. It would be nice, Presley said he thought at the time, to be able to click a few keys on his cell phone or other device to report the information without having to take the steps of going to the Mississippi Public Service Commission website and completing several steps. From that episode, the Mississippi no call application was developed. |
| Talk of a Wicker versus McDaniel Senate primary ramps up | |
| Next year's U-S Senate race in Mississippi is already the subject of national political conversations. While the match-up isn't official, the war of words has started. President Trump called Roger Wicker last week to offer his support for a re-election bid. The Tea Party closely aligned with McDaniel during his 2014 bid for Senate. One of McDaniel's recent Facebook posts stated, "Preparing for a big fight takes time. But our training is almost complete." Republican analyst Andy Taggart commented that a McDaniel versus Wicker race would be different than McDaniel's bid against Thad Cochran. "I don't think there's any relationship between what happened in 2014 and what might happen in 2018," added Taggart. Taggart believes Wicker will be successful in his primary bid, no matter his opponent. |
| Flake, Corker push Trump criticism to new level | |
 | Two Senate Republicans on Tuesday called on their party to take on President Trump in separate scathing assessments of his public conduct and leadership. The unprecedented criticism from Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) overshadowed what the White House and GOP leadership hoped would be a day of unity on the party's biggest agenda item: tax reform. It also demonstrated the deep fissures Trump and his GOP antagonists are creating within their party, which threaten his agenda and complicate Republican efforts to retain control of the House and Senate in next year's elections. Most GOP senators have avoided taking on Trump --- and some fear repercussions from the president's political machine. Former White House strategist Stephen Bannon has promised to field primary challengers against nearly every GOP Senate incumbent. |
| Analysis: Can the GOP survive the Trump presidency? | |
 | Can the traditional Republican Party survive the presidency of Donald Trump? That existential question, which has nagged at Republicans since Trump's stunning election one year ago, flared up anew Tuesday with Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake's announcement that he is retiring from Congress. Privately, many more Republican officials have raised deep concerns about the direction Trump is pulling the party, both on policy and tone. Trent Lott, the former Republican Senate majority leader from Mississippi, blamed much of the GOP discontent on the fact that even with a Republican in the White House, the party has been unable to make good on its promises to voters. Efforts to repeal "Obamacare" have failed in embarrassing fashion. Many see the current debate over a tax overhaul package as their last best chance for a legislative breakthrough before the midterms and predict sweeping losses for the GOP if a bill doesn't pass. But Lott, too, said the solution for conservatives is to stay in Trump's Republican Party, not walk away. |
| Clinton camp helped fund Trump dossier research, source says | |
| Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped fund political research into President Trump that ultimately produced a dossier of allegations about his ties to Russia, a person familiar with the matter said Tuesday night. The revelation is likely to fuel complaints by Trump that the dossier, which the president has derided as "phony stuff," is a politically motivated collection of salacious claims. Yet the FBI has worked to corroborate the document, and in a sign of its ongoing relevance to investigators, special counsel Robert Mueller's team -- which is probing potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign -- weeks ago questioned the former British spy, Christopher Steele, who helped compile the claims in the dossier. |
| AG Jim Hood visits Ole Miss, shares his mission of statewide development | |
 | Jim Hood is a busy man. After 13 years as Mississippi's attorney general, the Chickasaw County native is well-acquainted with his home state's strengths and weaknesses and has yet to let his passion for public service die. Just yesterday, Hood announced Mississippi would receive $1.47 million of a multi-state settlement with General Motors Co. over its failure to acknowledge the installation of faulty ignition switches in 2.1 million autos across the nation, and Tuesday, he spoke on campus with a class of Ole Miss students studying governance. "A lot of hot issues, hot potatoes, are thrown at the attorney general," Hood said. Hood said he worries about Mississippi in particular when it comes to maintaining infrastructure in the face of issues like rampant poverty and the ongoing "brain drain" of young scholars leaving the state for better opportunities. |
| USM recruiters visit Congressman Steven Palazzo's Youth Leadership Summit | |
 | Southern Miss recruiters took part in Congressman Steven Palazzo's sixth annual Youth Leadership Summit on Oct. 17 at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. Palazzo began the Youth Leadership Summit to encourage success and motivation in high school juniors and seniors after graduation. At the event, multiple Mississippi universities and colleges set up tables showing the students what their school has to offer. The event featured three speakers: MDA Executive Director Glenn McCullough Jr.; Leslie Henderson, founder of Lazy Magnolia Brewery; and Becky Denham, assistant district attorney for the 12th District of Mississippi. After listening to the speakers, the students attended a college fair where the Southern Miss admissions counselors answered questions about the university. |
| Construction on schedule for William Carey's School of Pharmacy | |
 | The pharmacy school at William Carey University's Tradition Campus will be the first of its kind for South Mississippi. The 33,000 square foot facility is coming out the ground and construction is on schedule. This is despite weather impacts both on the coast and the university's Hattiesburg campus. "I think the secret is the vast amount of community support we receive from the Hattiesburg campus, but also from the coast," said Dr. Michael Malloy, dean of the new pharmacy school. The school is interviewing potential students with a plan to accept just over 60. The opening date is still set for July 2018, pending approval by a national accreditation board. |
| Meridian Community College offers holiday term | |
 | Meridian Community College is offering a three-week online Holiday Term. The term is scheduled to start Monday, Dec. 18, and continue through Friday, Jan. 5, and offers students a chance to gain additional college credit in a short amount of time. The classes are fast-paced and they offer a condensed course content but students will get the same quality education as a full-term online course, according to an MCC news release. Classes being offered include: nutrition, survey of chemistry with lab, English composition I, human growth and development, world civilization I, athletic training terminology, First Aid/CPR, college algebra, trigonometry, statistics, music appreciation, general psychology and public speaking. |
| U. of Alabama event includes campus ghost tour | |
 | Kids of all ages are invited to participate in a Halloween tradition Thursday on the University of Alabama campus. The "Haunting at the Museum" will be held from 5:30-8 p.m., beginning at the Alabama Museum of Natural History, 427 Sixth Ave. The event will include guided candlelit ghost walks around the Quad, ghost stories at the Gorgas House Museum, 810 Capstone Drive, and spooky crafts for kids in Smith Hall at the Alabama Museum of Natural History. Admission is free. |
| Audit questions Iowa State's purchase of plane for ex-leader now at Auburn | |
| Iowa State University had no clear need to spend $498,000 in donations to buy an airplane that former President Steven Leath used largely to improve his piloting skills, state auditors reported Tuesday. Iowa State should also consider seeking reimbursement from Leath, now president of Auburn University, for a 2016 spring break trip in which a university pilot dropped him off at his North Carolina home, the report from State Auditor Mary Mosiman said. Mosiman's report comes one year after The Associated Press revealed that Leath used two university planes for trips that mixed personal and official business and damaged one in a hard landing. It came one day after the Board of Regents voted to hire longtime Iowa State dean Wendy Wintersteen to replace Leath, who accepted the Auburn job last spring. |
| UGA Provost Pamela Whitten not going to Iowa State | |
 | University of Georgia Provost Pamela Whitten won't be leaving for Iowa State University. Whitten was one of three finalists for the Iowa State presidency, but the Iowa Board of Regents picked an inside candidate to become the school's first female president. The board deliberated for nearly two hours after interviewing Whitten and the other two finalists Monday morning, the Des Moines Register reported. Wendy Wintersteen, 61, was their choice for the job, at a first-year salary of $525,000 plus $125,000 in deferred compensation. Wintersteen has worked at Iowa State for nearly 40 years, and since 2006 has been dean of its College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The third finalist was Sonny Ramaswamy, director of the federal National Institute of Food and Agriculture. All three had previously visited the campus to meet with faculty, administrators, students and alumni. |
| UGA professor: Today's students will live to see food shortages | |
| University of Georgia students will see food shortages in their lifetimes, UGA professor David Berle predicts. It's impossible to tell how a future of food scarcity might play out, or how deep that scarcity could be, Berle said in a recent talk in the auditorium of UGA's Odum School of Ecology. A 2011 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimated world food production would have to increase by as much as 70 percent to feed the expected world population of about 9 billion in 2050, Berle said. Scientific and demographic studies have also predicted water shortages. A revision of the report suggests agricultural production may not have to increase that much, but it's clear change is coming, Berle explained. |
| Customized truck will help Texas A&M vets better provide aid during disasters | |
 | The Texas A&M University Veterinary Emergency Team unveiled its newest resource Tuesday -- a custom 25-foot truck equipped with a veterinary medical unit that will give the team full medical capabilities in the event of a disaster. The Banfield Foundation provided the truck through its disaster relief grant program. Wesley Bissett, founder and director of the Veterinary Emergency Team, said the truck is a "tremendous step forward" for the seven-year-old team. "It has basically been developed and designed based on everything we've learned across the different types of deployments we've had," Bissett said. "... The commitment to service is one of the things that sets Texas A&M apart, if you just look at our history, and this is honoring it. This [new truck] gives us the platform to do that." |
| Animal rights group files complaint against U. of Missouri over beagle research | |
 | An animal advocacy group has filed a complaint against the University of Missouri with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The group, Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research, alleges that MU violated the Animal Welfare Act in research involving beagles. In a 2016 study, researchers injured each dog's left eye to test the effectiveness of hyaluronic acid at healing the wounds. The seven beagles used were euthanized after the study. MU Spokesman Christian Basi said the university is reviewing the complaint. He also said that all studies were approved by the University of Missouri Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. "Animal research is only done when scientists believe there is no other way to study the problem," Basi said. |
| Sessions' Justice Dept. Is Wading Into Another Campus Free-Speech Case | |
 | The U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement of interest on Tuesday in a lawsuit filed against Pierce College, a California community college, on the side of a student who says administrators there violated his free-speech rights. The move, which Mr. Sessions himself forecast in a fiery speech he gave last month at Georgetown University, provides further evidence that the Trump administration will make fighting what it views as campus censorship a priority of the Justice Department. In the statement, the department throws its weight behind Kevin Shaw, a student at Pierce who says administrators stopped him from passing out copies of the U.S. Constitution because he was not in the campus's "free speech zone." He also claimed he was told he needed a permit to use the free-speech zone. |
| Tuition and fees still rising faster than aid, College Board report shows | |
 | In what has become a familiar pattern in the last several years, published tuition and fee prices increased at a relatively low, steady rate this year -- but financial aid again failed to keep up, resulting in students paying more to attend college. Tuition and fees increased by less than 2 percent between 2016-17 and 2017-18 after adjusting for inflation, according to new College Board reports released Wednesday. The reports, "Trends in Student Aid" and "Trends in College Pricing," are released annually, showing both short-term changes and trends over longer periods of time. Private nonprofit four-year institutions' average published tuition and fees increased by 1.9 percent, to $34,740, in 2017-18, after adjusting for inflation. Public four-year institutions' tuition and fees rose by 1.3 percent, to $9,970. Public two-year colleges' tuition and fees increased by 1.1 percent year over year, to $3,570. |
| Amazon Is Hiring Ph.D.s -- Hundreds This Year | |
| With the academic job market in full swing, people are applying to multiple positions, in hopes of landing a faculty job somewhere, anywhere. For those who don't make the shortlist -- or who may have decided that a professorship isn't for them after all -- a big market for people with Ph.D.s has emerged at Amazon, the retail behemoth. The retail behemoth has hired nearly 500 Ph.D.s, former professors among them, since the beginning of this year to work in its applied-science and research-science units, according to company figures. The pace and scale of that hiring are far greater than those of any college or university in the country. |
| Declining enrollment and real estate debt: Memphis College of Art announces impending closure | |
| Citing "declining enrollment" and "overwhelming real estate debt," the Memphis College of Art -- the storied Overton Park institution that traces its origins to at least the 1930s -- on Tuesday announced plans to close. The shocking and "heartbreaking" decision comes on the heels of the recent revelation that the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art hopes to move out of Overton Park and relocate downtown. The departure of both institutions would mark a radical shift in the city's artistic center and be a double blow for art lovers and artists who for decades have depended on the Midtown park as a locus of education and inspiration. Enrollment for the current school year was an unexpectedly low 307 (including 25 graduate students), a drop from about 380 in recent years and from a historic high of close to 450. Tuition is $32,000 a year, but most students receive extensive federal and state loans and grants, along with scholarships from MCA that eat up about 45 percent of the college's revenue. |
| Grambling State student, friend fatally shot on campus overnight, officials say | |
| A sheriff's spokesman says a student and his friend were fatally shot at Grambling State University after an altercation that began in a dorm room, and the shooter fled the scene. Lincoln Parish Sheriff's spokesman Stephen Williams says detectives joined campus police at the scene of the double homicide after getting 911 calls starting at 12:04 a.m. Wednesday. "It was an altercation that started inside one of the dorm rooms and spilled out into the courtyard," Williams said. "We're interviewing witnesses." Another shooting wounded a Grambling State student last month in a separate incident on the campus of the historically black university in northern Louisiana, which has an enrollment of nearly 5,000 students. |
SPORTS
| Rolling Mississippi State faces tough road game vs Texas A&M | |
| Mississippi State has looked like one of the better teams in the Southeastern Conference at times this season, and one of the worst. The disparity can be largely boiled down to one thing: Location. Mississippi State is undefeated at home, crushing all four opponents it has faced. But the Bulldogs are just 1-2 away from Davis Wade Stadium, including lopsided losses in both conference games against Auburn and Georgia. "Road games, we've kind of gotten out of character, gotten a lot of penalties and false starts," Mississippi State quarterback Nick Fitzgerald said. "We've not been handling the environment very well. I think a lot's changed since those two games." Mississippi State (5-2, 2-2 SEC) gets another chance to fix its road woes when it travels to face Texas A&M (5-2, 3-1) on Saturday. |
| Mississippi State's Erroll Thompson taking it all in as a freshman | |
| When Erroll Thompson ran out of the tunnel prior to Mississippi State's season opener, he felt as if he was moving in slow motion. From the pyro, the fans and the cowbells, Thompson was trying to take it all in as he ran onto the field at Davis Wade Stadium for his first college football game. "It was like a dream because you grow up wanting to play college ball," Thompson said. "When it finally becomes real, everything kind of slows down." Thompson had to wait around for a year before making his debut that day but believes redshirting was the right decision for him. "I feel like I needed it to prepare mentally," Thompson said. |
| Erroll Thompson an important piece for Mississippi State's future | |
 | Dez Harris is the unquestioned leader of Mississippi State's defense, and although the senior will be difficult to replace next season, there shouldn't be much concern over the future at inside linebacker for the Bulldogs. Yeah, there's Leo Lewis and Willie Gay Jr., two former big-name, in-state prospects. Lewis starts now alongside Harris while Gay receives significant reps as a true freshman. But there's also redshirt freshman Erroll Thompson. Don't forget about him. In fact, pay attention to him -- he is recently playing just as well as his more well-known counterparts have at the position. |
| Braxton Hoyett takes advantage of opening to shine for Mississippi State defense | |
| The life of Mississippi State defensive coordinator Todd Grantham surely would have been easier if defensive tackle Cory Thomas did not miss the last five games. That doesn't mean his absence was a bad thing. The absence of Thomas gave junior Braxton Hoyett an opening and he did not disappoint. Seven tackles, 1.5 for a loss, 0.5 sacks and an interception later, Hoyett's role is as big as its ever been as MSU (5-2, 2-2 Southeastern Conference) goes to Texas A&M (5-2, 3-1 SEC) at 6:15 p.m. Saturday at Kyle Field -- even with Thomas expected to return this week. "You might be afraid to play a guy because you have an older guy, but then all of a sudden a guy steps in and does a really good job," Grantham said. "Now when the starter comes back you have more depth than you had before." |
| Texas A&M OT Keaton Sutherland could return for Mississippi State | |
| Texas A&M junior right offensive tackle Keaton Sutherland who missed the Florida game after an emergency appendectomy could be available for Saturday's game against Mississippi State. "He was running well yesterday, which I was shocked," said A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin at his weekly Tuesday press conference. "There's a pretty good chance he's going to be available to play this weekend. We'll make that decision Friday. But if not this week, then he'll certainly be available next week which is amazing." Sutherland, who had made 10 straight starts, was replaced by true freshman Dan Moore Jr., in A&M's 19-17 victory over the Gators. |
| Bulldogs hosting open scrimmage tonight | |
| Mississippi State's women's basketball team returns to the floor for the first time since finishing as the national runner-up last season. The Bulldogs are hosting a free intrasquad scrimmage tonight at 6 p.m. at Humphrey Coliseum. Vic Schaefer's squad returns nine players from last year's team including its top three scorers -- Victoria Vivians (16.2 ppg), Morgan William (10.9 ppg) and Teaira McCowan (8.7 ppg). |
| Southern Miss AD: Football attendance disappointing, but revenue on the rise | |
 | Southern Miss football fans have expressed discontent on social media over the drop in attendance through the first four games of the 2017 season, but USM athletic director Jon Gilbert has plenty of positives to point to when it comes to the bottom line. The official figures do back up fans' concerns. USM (5-2, 3-1 in Conference USA) has averaged 22,744 fans a game to rank fifth in C-USA in average home attendance after leading the conference with an average of 28,588 a year ago at 36,000-seat M.M. Roberts Stadium. Gilbert acknowledges that attendance isn't where it should be, but the numbers that matter the most at the end of the day are those accompanied by a dollar sign. "I know that everybody is disappointed with the crowds we've had from a numbers standpoint," Gilbert said Tuesday. |
| Alleva's LSU vision: Stadium packed, watching 'great things' from Coach O's Tigers -- and sipping beer | |
 | Joe Alleva is urging fans to be "patient" with LSU coach Ed Orgeron to solve "recruiting gaps" left by the previous coaching staff, and he's hopeful that stadium-wide beer sales will soon be allowed by the Southeastern Conference. Alleva, LSU's athletic director and the man who hired Orgeron, spoke at the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation Quarterback Club on Tuesday. He opened his speech to a small crowd at Rock 'n' Bowl by cracking a joke. "This week it's a bye," he said. "We have our catch-our-breath time. I don't have to spend time watching video with Coach O this week. "That's a joke!" Alleva said. A report surfaced a few weeks ago alleging that Alleva watched film each Sunday with coaches. The talks quickly turned more serious. Alleva spoke about several other topics, including sales of alcohol throughout stadiums, which is prohibited by the Southeastern Conference, and the FBI investigation into college basketball. |
| Fired AD Tom Jurich accused of bullying by U. of Louisville in termination letter | |
 | The University of Louisville on Tuesday released the termination letter it sent to Athletics Director Tom Jurich accusing him of "deliberate dereliction of duties, unprofessional conduct, bullying and breach of your fiduciary obligations." The letter, dated Oct. 20, 2017, came two days after the Board of Trustees voted to fire Jurich with cause in the wake of the FBI college corruption investigation that also led to the firing of men's basketball coach Rick Pitino and one of his assistants. Among the many citations in the letter are a "willful lack of supervision of head coaches," "ineffective management, divisive leadership, unprofessional conduct, and a lack of collegiality best characterized as intimidation and bullying that extends from student government to the university's senior leadership." |
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