| Thursday, July 5, 2018 |
| Teens write, produce three-act musical as part of decades-old Summer Scholars program at MSU | |
 | After her first day of camp for Summer Scholars, Randie Cobb, 18, immediately felt she could finally be herself among her peers without judgment. "(The camp) helps you express yourself," said Cobb, a senior at New Albany High School. "I love singing and dancing, but the problem is, I don't like being in front of people. But I can just sing and dance here." Summer Scholars is a residential theater camp through the Mississippi State University College of Education, sponsored by the Mississippi Arts Commission, which allows students who just finished seventh through 12th grades to collaboratively write and perform a three-act play in just three weeks. After the script's completion during the one-week writer's camp, the production camp begins. The production camp started Saturday and added 40 scholars to help perform and assist with the play's production. |
| What is it about yawning? | |
 | Christine Calder, an assistant clinical professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Mississippi State, writes for The Conversation: You know the feeling. It's impossible resist. You just need to yawn. A yawn consists of an extended gaping of the mouth followed by a more rapid closure. In mammals and birds, a long intake of breath and shorter exhale follows the gaping of the mouth, but in other species such as fish, amphibians and snakes there is no intake of breath. But what's behind a yawn, why does it occur? In the past, people have had many hypotheses. Despite all these theories, the truth is that scientists do not know the true biological function of a yawn. What we do know is that yawning occurs in just about every species. |
| Mississippi State adds safety measure to benefit first responders | |
 | New technology at Mississippi State is helping first responders get to on-campus emergencies faster. The university has been testing the new system with law enforcement and ambulance crews. Gates are installed around campus to help with traffic and parking, but this new system will open those gates for emergency personnel when necessary. "Making sure that not only that our gates operate properly, but that the emergency responders know the best way to approach the gates and what they need to do as they enter campus, to make sure they're not slowed down anymore than is necessary, as they make their way to the scene," says MSU Emergency Management Director Brent Crocker. |
| Judge to rule in Starkville mayoral race challenge July 20 | |
| A ruling in Johnny Moore's challenge of last year's mayoral election is only about three weeks away. Judge Barry Ford announced his intention to rule on the case, which is now more than a year old, on July 20 during a hearing in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court on Monday. Moore is challenging his six-vote election loss to Mayor Lynn Spruill in last May's Democratic Primary runoff. "It is apparent to the court that there were two really good candidates running for mayor because the community is almost equally divided as to who should be mayor," Ford said. "Ms. Spruill, you're mayor, and you may well be mayor after this. You may not. I'm just gonna call it like I see it and I'll call it on the 20th." |
| Mayor Lynn Spruill reflects on first year in office | |
 | An old cliche says that "it's lonely at the top." But the view of buzzing storefronts in downtown Starkville from the top-floor mayor's office in City Hall is one of the best vantage points to see a town in the midst of change and growth. Mayor Lynn Spruill's office is decorated with several festive Mississippi State cowbells and her desk is overflowing with the city's business. Resting against the wall on the floor is a portrait of the massive crowd at the 2018 Bulldog Bash, which was held in the city's downtown for the first time ever during Spruill's first year in office. Spruill sat down with the Starkville Daily News on Tuesday, which marked a full year since she was sworn in as the city's first female mayor - a milestone she does not take lightly. The first year in office went by quickly for Spruill and was not without its bumps in the road as she and the Board of Aldermen addressed several major and contentious issues in a short span. |
| Mayors: Fix roads and bridges with online sales tax dollars | |
| With the possibility of a special session looming, some Mississippi mayors support using a specific type of sales tax to fund repairs to the state's ailing roads and bridges. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 1992 ruling that prevented states from collecting use tax from online retailers with no physical presence in the state. Gov. Phil Bryant hinted in May he might call a special session to address the matter if this ruling was overturned. Leaders of Mississippi's municipalities say those funds are much needed. Mississippi Today recently spoke with several mayors during the Mississippi Municipal League's annual conference in Biloxi. Many expressed frustration with the Legislature's failure to come out of the last two sessions with a plan to fix roads and bridges, and said they would welcome any extra funds allotted to them if the Legislature diverted additional use tax funds. |
| Why Mississippi is the deadliest place to drive a car | |
| The reasons that Mississippi remains such a dangerous place to drive are complex. Ken Kolosh, a statistics manager at the National Safety Council, a nonprofit advocacy group, said Mississippi's problems fall into two buckets. "One bucket is the things you can control, and that's the laws you pass and how well you enforce them," Kolosh said. "And the other bucket is what Mississippi is as a state. It's generally a more rural state, and (nationally) you have the vast majority of fatalities on rural roads." Hospitals in rural areas tend to be smaller and farther from crash sites. And rural roads usually have higher speed limits than city streets, which makes crashes more severe. The impact of this loss of life on Mississippi's families is hard to quantify. But the economic costs are easier to measure. Traffic fatalities cost the state $861 million every year, according to the CDC. |
| Brad Dye did not view office of lieutenant governor as stepping stone | |
| Brad Dye, who died this week, might have been Mississippi's last lieutenant governor who was not eying the Governor's Mansion while serving as the presiding officer of the Senate. Dye, whose funeral is set for Thursday, died Sunday morning at age 84 while in hospice care in Ridgeland. "He was satisfied where he was" as lieutenant governor, said Central District Transportation Commissioner Dick Hall, who served in the state Senate when Dye was the presiding officer. "I don't remember a conversation where he talked about running for governor." State Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, who served two terms in the Senate while Dye was lieutenant governor, said he could not say with certainty that Dye never envisioned being governor, but "he certainly did not spend his time running for governor." |
| Trump's trade war with China is finally here, and it won't be pretty, analysts say | |
 | Some said the day would never come, that it was all a bluff. But as the Independence Day fireworks cool in Washington, the eve of the trade war has arrived in China's capital, where government leaders keep reminding people: We did not start this, but we will fight back. President Trump's first tariffs are scheduled to hit $34 billion of Chinese imports on Friday, and Beijing plans to swiftly respond with levies on an equal amount of goods. Border officers here could receive the order as early as midnight to slap new taxes on hundreds of U.S. products, including pork, poultry, soybeans and corn. And so would begin an unprecedented commerce battle between the world's two largest economies -- a conflict analysts fear could rattle markets, cripple trade, and undermine ties between the United States and China at a time when the administration seeks Beijing's cooperation on North Korea. |
| Reduced Tuition to Strayer University Available for City Employees | |
| Reduced tuition to Strayer University is now available for City of Jackson employees and immediate family members with a new partnership. Through the new program, City employees and immediate family members will pay $750 per course. Strayer University's website says that the average undergraduate course is $1,455, while graduate programs start at $1,655 per course. "If you see a city that provides this rich opportunity to you, that encourages individuals that may be seeking gainful employment to join the city's ranks, and know that they not only have an opportunity to earn a wage -- a living wage at that, and that's what we're moving to, is giving a living wage in the city -- but also an opportunity to improve their standing in whatever capacity they choose to do so," Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba said at a July 2 press conference. |
| UGA researchers create method to measure human rights | |
 | As the rest of the nation celebrates Independence Day, a team of researchers at the University of Georgia recently used a new approach to measure how countries around the world address civil and political rights issues. K. Chad Clay, an assistant professor in UGA's School of Public and International Affairs, is co-founder of the Human Rights Measurement Initiative, a collaborative program among academics, human rights practitioners and nongovernmental organizations to advance human rights. Clay and a team of other researchers developed several human rights metrics by conducting pilot surveys in October and November 2017 among human rights experts from 13 countries. The team hopes that this scale will assist human rights workers, policymakers and others as they try to halt abuses in countries throughout the world. |
| EX-UT Chancellor Beverly Davenport's Knoxville home listed for sale for $1.2M | |
 | Former University of Tennessee, Knoxville Chancellor Beverly Davenport's Kingston Pike house was listed for sale on Saturday at a pricetag of $1.2 million. Davenport -- who was fired from her role as chancellor on May 2 and officially parted ways with the university with a $1.3 million settlement on June 5 -- purchased the home on Feb. 23, 2017, for $600,000 according to records with KGIS, the Knoxville/Knox County Utilities Board Geographic Information System. The 3,396-square-foot house, located at 2733 Kingston Pike, was built in 1920 with a value, at the time Davenport purchased it, of $462,100. The home is nationally registered as a historic "Boxhall" and underwent a massive renovation spearheaded by Davenport while she resided there. |
| Summer camp at Texas A&M gives students a head start with STEM | |
 | Students from across the state have learned what it takes to create Formula 1 race cars and how their models hold up to a 25-meter track. Students in the AutoSTEM summer camp, held at Texas A&M University in the last week of June, discussed the multiple racing organizations and the aerodynamic principles and physics that make those autosports possible, including lift, drag and down force. AutoSTEM is one of 13 camps hosted by A&M's College of Education and Human Development department over five weeks this summer. In total, 345 students visited A&M for these camps. For the camp participants, some as young as eighth grade, many of these principles and lessons have not been covered in their classes. |
| Texas A&M's newest wind tunnel is a blast | |
| Faculty and students from multiple departments at Texas A&M University have teamed up to build the university's fastest wind tunnel yet. The Texas A&M National Aerothermochemistry and Hypersonics Laboratory are in the last stages of building the Hypervelocity Expansion Tunnel, "a large-scale shock tunnel type facility" that generates high temperatures and high pressure. The tunnel is about 0.9 meters in diameter and can solicit speeds up to Mach 15 -- about 11,500 mph. The tunnel was developed with support from the Office of Naval Research and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Rodney Bowersox, head of A&M's aerospace engineering department, said the research will help study the aerodynamics and chemistry of systems such as hypersonic aircrafts. |
| Trump Administration Just Rescinded Obama-Era Guidance on Race-Conscious Admissions Policies. So What? | |
 | Maybe the ground shook a little, but the legal pillars supporting affirmative action didn't sway. The Trump administration on Tuesday rescinded Obama-era guidance on race-conscious admissions policies. Some education wonks and legal experts said the move was inevitable --- and hardly shocking. After all, the administration has previously signaled its opposition to race-conscious programs, which are used at many top-tier institutions. Still, college leaders have reason to consider what just changed. So, let's review a bit. The Obama administration's guidance gave colleges leeway in determining whether considering an applicant's race was necessary. Now that's out the window. But what does that change? Certainly not the bottom line known as the law of the land. The Supreme Court two years ago upheld race-conscious admissions policies in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, affirming previous rulings that colleges can consider race as one of many factors in their evaluations of applicants. Legally speaking, court rulings and congressional statutes are the heavy hitters; administrative guidance, not so much. |
| Trump administration rescinds Obama guidance on race and admissions | |
 | The Trump administration on Tuesday rescinded guidance issued by the Obama administration on how colleges can legally consider race and ethnicity in admissions decisions. The move is the latest sign that the Trump administration is skeptical of the way some colleges consider race in admissions. But the immediate impact may be minimal. Court rulings already are more powerful than guidance from any administration. The move may indicate how the administration would respond to complaints it receives, but those complaints could well end up in courts and not be decided by federal agency officials. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos issued a statement Tuesday that urged colleges and schools to focus on what the Supreme Court has said. "The Supreme Court has determined what affirmative action policies are constitutional, and the court's written decisions are the best guide for navigating this complex issue," she said. |
| Chris McDaniel, Cindy Hyde-Smith each face challenges | |
 | The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal's Caleb Bedillion writes: "The primaries are over, the sweat of summertime stump speeches will soon rise to a bead and Cindy Hyde-Smith's Twitter feed is full of guns, tough border talk and President Donald Trump. Ahead of a special election to the U.S. Senate in November, name recognition shouldn't be a problem for Hyde-Smith. She has twice won a statewide post in Mississippi and, with Gov. Phil Bryant's appointment, she'll have about seven months of incumbency in the senate by Nov. 6. But, the agriculture commissioner, her former job, doesn't garner many headlines and her major opponents in the race to replace Thad Cochran, Republican Chris McDaniel and Democrat Mike Espy, each come into the race with fairly high visibility and long political histories. Expect Hyde-Smith, then, to work overtime in the months ahead to introduce herself anew, all the while projecting an image of tough, unyielding support for conservative ideology." |
| Brad Dye, Paul Ott Carruth cast large shadows in Mississippi, left indelible legacies | |
 | Syndicated columnist Sid Salter writes: "Driving back from a weekend in Lower Alabama, my friend Lee Weiskopf sent a text just as we were leaving Orange Beach telling me that former Lt. Gov. Brad Dye had died. Before we made it past the Mobile Bay Bridge, Lee texted again: 'Now, we've lost Paul Ott, too.' Both of the sad notices of the deaths of two old friends gave me lots to think about on a long drive back to Mississippi. ...As a young reporter, I learned so much about the legislative process from Dye. My associations with veteran newspapermen Gale Denley and W.C. 'Dub' Shoemaker helped me gain access to Dye that I would not have otherwise enjoyed. Brad Dye was a master of the politics of legislative negotiation and compromise. ...My experiences with Paul Ott Carruth, the talented musician, songwriter, radio and television personality and all-around good old boy, were more personal. We came to know each other through a common friendship with Nashville entertainer Jerry Clower of Liberty." |
SPORTS
| Here are the top 10 SEC football games in 2018 | |
| This is how you know the 2017 SEC football season did not meet expectations: nearly half the league ended up changing coaches. We have new head coaches at major programs like Florida, Tennessee and Texas A&M, including Florida pulling off the first swipe from a rival SEC school in two decades. So yes, while we still had an all-SEC national championship game, and Alabama made sure the national championship trophy is back within the league's footprint, it was not a happy season for everyone. This season could bring more of the same --- Alabama is good, as always, as is Georgia. Auburn will look to win the West again. But it's telling that the USA Today Sports post-spring had only those three in the top 20, with Mississippi State and South Carolina sliding into the top 25. The days of the entire West being ranked are gone, for now, but with six new coaches there's at least change. You can sell wins or you can sell hope; for some teams in the league, it's going to be the latter. |
| TPSD hires Gregg Ellis to direct communications | |
| Tupelo Public School District named Gregg Ellis its new Director of Communications on Tuesday afternoon. Ellis spent the past 10 years as the Associate Director of Athletic Media Relations at Mississippi State and has close ties to the district. "Both of my kids are products of the Tupelo Public School District. My wife has taught here for 14-plus years," Ellis said. "I know personally what a phenomenal district Tupelo has." At MSU, Ellis was responsible for the media operations of men's basketball and track and field. He also helped coordinate the marketing campaigns surrounding Dak Prescott and other Mississippi State stars. He hopes to use the same skills he learned promoting college athletes to bring attention to the school district. While he enjoyed his role in Starkville, new superintendent Dr. Rob Picou's hire was a deciding factor in Ellis' decision to move to a new job. |
| Mississippi club selects Nathan Crace for a master plan | |
| Located in the northeast region of the Magnolia State, the City of Starkville is not only the home of Mississippi State University, but it has also been recently named the "Best Place to Live in Mississippi" by Mississippi Magazine. While this honor is no surprise to either Starkville residents or students and alumni of the university, the city's economic growth over the past decade has also created a welcome increase in the membership base at Starkville Country Club. As a result, the club has hired Nathan Crace, ASGCA, of Watermark Golf/Nathan Crace Design to develop a long-range master plan for improvements to the club's 18-hole golf course. "We've been talking with Nathan for years about steps to take to make improvements to the course," said golf renovation committee co-chairman Sterling Dahl. "It's nice to be able to work with a golf course architect who not only has a long list of successful projects, but also graduated from MSU and still has connections to the community." |
| Wildlife department halts killing deer for CWD testing | |
| According to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, the active killing of deer to test for chronic wasting disease has ended. "For right now, yes, we have ceased active shooting operations," said Russ Walsh, MDWFP Wildlife Bureau executive director. "Response operation samples as of June 19 were 481." The 481 deer were taken within a 25-mile radius of where a dead deer was found in Issaquena County that tested positive for CWD. According to the department, the deer was a free-ranging buck. The 4½-year-old buck died of natural causes and was collected by MDWFP on Jan. 25. It is the first case of the disease in the state. Testing was performed to examine the deer's DNA. Results showed the DNA was consistent with the local population. A second CWD test was also performed and it confirmed the deer was CWD-positive. |
| Big coaches' salaries could now mean big tax payments for schools like Kentucky, Louisville | |
 | Earlier this summer, Mitch Barnhart balked at the rising cost of college athletics. "We're growing faster than we have in the past and a lot of that is things we can't control," the Kentucky athletics director said in an interview with the Herald-Leader. He rattled off a list of logical culprits: "Travel expenses have become difficult (and the) cost of higher education has become significantly more." And then Barnhart mentioned one new operating expense that isn't getting a lot of attention, but will cost the athletics department around $2.68 million this coming year. "The excise tax that was levied in the new tax bill is big," Barnhart said. "That will have an impact on every athletic department." For every dollar over the $1 million mark, UK must pay the 21 percent tax, which for UK Athletics includes the salaries of men's basketball coach John Calipari, football coach Mark Stoops and women's basketball coach Matthew Mitchell. |
| LSU's Joe Alleva says 'it would be a disaster' if this doesn't happen by time Tigers kick off | |
 | A ride down Nicholson Drive these days will show signs that a host of new things are coming for LSU athletics, but it should be cleared up by the time Tigers gamedays roll around. If not? "It would be a disaster," said LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva, talking about the university's many summer projects with Gordy Rush on ESPN 104.5's Hangin' With Hester program Tuesday. LSU football's first game in Tiger Stadium is scheduled for Sept. 8 vs. Southeastern Louisiana. "We certainly hope it will be [finished] ... They've promised us from the very beginning that it will be done," Alleva said. Many of the renovations are aimed at the Football Ops building. Alleva added that concession stands and bathrooms within Tiger Stadium are also getting an overhaul. |
| Longtime Tennessee cheer coach on leave amid probe of 'racially and ethnically insensitive remarks' | |
| The longtime cheerleading coach for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville was placed on paid administrative leave Friday, pending a university review of complaints of inappropriate conduct, including "instances of racially and ethnically insensitive remarks made to members of the spirit squad." This is the second time Joy M. Postell-Gee, 53, was placed on paid administrative leave. She had returned to her duties on June 8, according to her personnel file, which was released to the USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee following a public records request. Postell-Gee, whose current annual salary is $46,620, did not respond to a request for an interview. A June 7 letter to Postell-Gee from her direct supervisor, Janeen Lalik, senior associate athletics director for strategic initiatives, cites both student and parent complaints regarding the coach's management of UT spirit programs stemming back to incidents in 2016 and continuing through this spring. |
| GOP congressman Jim Jordan ignored sexual abuse at Ohio State, former athletes allege | |
| Republican U.S. Representative Jim Jordan has been drawn into Ohio State University's investigation of a former team doctor who allegedly molested college athletes decades ago, with some ex-wrestlers accusing the congressman, a leader of archconservatives, of failing to stop the ongoing abuse. Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State from 1986 to 1994, coinciding with the tenure of Richard Strauss, who worked at the university until the late 1990s. Strauss was a team physician for about 14 years and also did a two-year stint in the campus health center. He died in 2005. Ohio State announced the investigation into Strauss in April, and to date the institution has received reports of sexual misconduct from male former players in 14 different sports, among them baseball, cheerleading, cross country, fencing, football, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer and wrestling. |
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