| Monday, July 9, 2018 |
| Mississippi State investment workshop offers boost for rural businesses | |
 | More than a dozen regional small business owners convened recently with investors from around the country at Mississippi State University. The Rural Opportunity Initiative-Mississippi State University Rural Investment workshop spotlighted regional business owners and gave them the chance to pitch about why their business models are investment ready. "One of the goals of the workshop and the initiative is to help put rural businesses on the radar of investors who might be unfamiliar with the business landscape in rural states," said Steve Turner, director of the Southern Rural Development Center and MSU professor of agricultural economics. |
| Mississippi State's John Rodgers appointed head of geosciences department | |
 | A professor with more than 15 years of experience at Mississippi State is the new head of the university's Department of Geosciences. John Rodgers, a professor with research interests in physical geography and geographic information systems, has spent the past year as interim department head and began his new role officially on July 1. With plans to support faculty and students through financial awards for research and travel, Rodgers also hopes to develop innovative strategies to enrich research productivity and enhance teaching and outreach. "I would like to build upon our existing strengths to promote a better understanding of our planet and all the people who live here so that we can continue to foster environmental stewardship," Rodgers said. |
| Early Move-in Day for Some Mississippi State Freshmen | |
 | For most parents, it's not time to send the kids "back to class" just yet, but some students are getting a head start. It's move-in day for a group of freshmen at Mississippi State, participating in "College Ready." It's a program that lets students move in and start before the official start of the fall semester. A coordinator said most students take two classes at a discounted rate, live in the residence hall, and participate in extracurricular activities. While it's hard for parents to let go, he has some advice for would be "helicopter parents," he said to be a "drone parent" instead. |
| Gondolier Italian Restaurant and Pizza set to open next weekend | |
 | Starkville's newest Italian Eatery, Gondolier Italian Restaurant and Pizza, is set to open next weekend in the 550 Russell development. Mark Castleberry, building owner of Castle Properties, said Gondolier was expected to open on July 15. Gondolier, a family-owned chain, was established in 1974 in Cleveland, Tennessee, and has more than 30 locations across the Southeast, including Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee. The 550 Russell development is located next to The Mill on Russell Street, adjacent to Mississippi State University and the Cotton District. |
| Neshoba County gets ready for annual fairs | |
 | Neshoba County residents are preparing for the annual Choctaw Indian Fair and the Neshoba County Fair. The Choctaw Indian Fair kicks off this week with carnival rides, food vendors, stickball and entertainment. Fairgoers will have the opportunity to learn more about the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians throughout this fair. "This fair, you have the chance to see an actual Indian basket being made from start to finish. There is beadwork, traditional social dancing and just kind of a little bit of the culture that the Choctaw Indian nation keeps going," says Executive Director of the Philadelphia-Neshoba Chamber of Commerce, Tim Moore. Events from the Neshoba County Fair, also known as 'Mississippi's Giant House Party,' include horse racing, concerts, chair racing and other amusements. This fair plays a unique part in the history of Neshoba County. |
| BWI ready to grow with 90,000 square feet, 60-employee facility in Marion | |
 | A seed was planted 60 years ago when Bob and Betty Bunch opened a farm supply store in the city of Texarkana, Texas. By 1972, the business, BWI Companies, Inc., had started wholesale operations, eventually expanding to 18 locations across the Southeast and Midwest and employing more than 600 people. In the early 1980s, the company came to Mississippi, opening a facility in Jackson to distribute farm and garden supplies across the region. But, over time, the Nash, Texas-based company needed more space and a better location. So the company, now led by a second generation of Bunches, decided to move east, and in May 2017, broke ground on a facility in Marion. There, a wide variety of lawn, garden and horticulture products is now being distributed throughout the South. Getting the company to relocate to Marion took some teamwork. In addition to the EMBDC, the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors, the Mississippi Development Authority and the Town of Marion joined together to attract the company. |
| Governor predicts mid-August special session for transportation will include lottery | |
 | Gov. Phil Bryant said Friday he is working with legislative leaders to finalize a plan to provide additional funds for infrastructure to be taken up during a special session -- most likely in mid-August. The second-term Republican governor said that plan would include a proposal to legalize a lottery. "I feel confident we will have it in the call," said Bryant. He said he respects the fact Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, is opposed to the lottery as he was at one time, but said he believes the speaker will allow the full House to vote on the issue. Studies by the University Research Center have estimated the lottery would generate about $90 million annually in revenue for the state. |
| Gov. Phil Bryant names new state auditor to replace Stacey Pickering | |
 | Gov. Phil Bryant on Friday appointed Shad White as state auditor -- a surprise to most state political observers --- to replace Stacey Pickering, who is leaving around July 15. Bryant, who announced White's appointment standing in the same spot in the Governor's Mansion as when former Gov. Kirk Fordice appointed Bryant auditor in 1996, said he sought to appoint someone who wants to serve long-term as state auditor, not someone who wants to use the office as a political stepping stone to higher offices. He said he also wanted someone with "independence" who does not have numerous political relationships with the government officials and institutions he'll be auditing. Most politicos' short lists of Bryant's likely picks included ambitious legislators and other elected veterans likely interested in moving up in statewide and federal offices. |
| Gov. Phil Bryant appoints ex-staffer and 'millennial' Shad White as state auditor | |
| Shad White, 32, a former Rhodes Scholar and Harvard law school graduate, was appointed Friday by Gov. Phil Bryant to replace outgoing state Auditor Stacey Pickering. "He is a millennial who came back from Oxford England" where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar and earned a master's degree in economics history, the governor said. Bryant added that he was influenced by the fact that White turned down the potential "of earning a lot of money in New York" to return to his native Mississippi and engage in public service. White had previously worked for the governor, including managing his 2015 re-election campaign, and was currently serving as the director of the conservative-leaning Mississippi Justice Institute and lead attorney for the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. |
| Analysis: Governor's appointments could shape Mississippi future | |
 | Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant readily acknowledges he's in office today partly because he got a hand up from his mentor, Republican former Gov. Kirk Fordice. Bryant was elected as a Republican state representative from Rankin County in 1991, when Democrats held a wide majority in the 122-member Mississippi House. That year was also the beginning of a Republican wave in Mississippi as Fordice, a blunt-spoken Vicksburg contractor, defeated Democratic Gov. Ray Mabus to become the state's first GOP governor since Reconstruction. Now, Bryant could be shaping the state's political future by reaching down and helping other politicians advance their careers. In the past few months, Bryant has appointed three people into statewide offices when fellow Republicans stepped down. All three will attempt to hold onto their jobs. |
| 'Mental carnage' awaits those who fall through safety net cracks | |
| Despite the bright Mississippi May afternoon, little sunlight penetrates the small room where Marty Jean Pettit is living temporarily. A blue blanket drapes the doorway, and inside, her son's girlfriend is sleeping on a twin mattress on the floor with the curtains drawn. On either side of the door, boxes, laundry baskets and luggage are stacked to the ceiling. Pettit, a 47-year-old Mantachie native, sits at a kitchen table covered in ash trays, dirty dishes, medicines, coffee creamer and sweetener, a box of plastic straws, a cup with a toothbrush in it. The smell of cigarette butts wafts through the air while a toddler plays with his young uncle in the living room, under a ceiling that's caving in. The chaotic surroundings, Pettit said, are an extension of her state of mind. "It's this mental carnage that is so unnecessary," Pettit said. |
| President Trump weighs top picks for Supreme Court amid last-minute maneuvering | |
 | President Trump said he was "close" to choosing a Supreme Court nominee Sunday after a weekend at his New Jersey golf club evaluating four leading candidates and mulling the likely response of key senators and his core supporters to each prospect, according to White House officials and Trump advisers involved in the discussions. Over rounds of golf with friends, meals with family, and a flurry of phone calls and meetings with aides, Trump remained coy about his final decision, which is expected to be announced Monday evening from among the four federal judges atop his shortlist: Brett M. Kavanaugh, Thomas Hardiman, Raymond Kethledge and Amy Coney Barrett. "I'm very close to making a decision," Trump told reporters Sunday afternoon. "Have not made it official yet. Have not made it final." |
| US soybean farmers warn Trump trade war with China will cause 'serious damage' | |
 | American soybean farmers are warning that President Trump's trade dispute with China will result in "serious damage" to their industry. The American Soybean Association said in a statement that soybean farmers "rely heavily" on exports to China, and said that they lobbied Trump to reconsider the tariffs. John Heisdorffer, an Iowa soybean farmer and president of the ASA, warned of the impact of the tariffs on farmers. "Soybeans are the top agriculture export for the United States, and China is the top market for purchasing those exports," Heisdorffer said in the statement. "The math is simple. You tax soybean exports at 25-percent, and you have serious damage to U.S. farmers." Soybeans are among the U.S. products, along with orange juice, whiskey, electric cars and others, that are threatened by retaliatory tariffs from China. |
| Travel ban decision has implications for outreach and exchange students | |
 | Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to uphold the third version of President Donald Trump's travel ban, which suspends the issuing of immigrant and non-immigrant visas to citizens of Libya, Iran, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, North Korea and Venezuela. Student visas weren't included in the ban, but a university official said the ban will affect American universities' international outreach and exchange students. The Court affirmed the legality of the executive order in a 5-4 decision. In the executive order, each country will be held to different restrictions. "For all of them, except North Korea, student visas weren't part of the ban, but for several of them, it does specifically say 'but scrutiny should be given to visas that are not outright excluded," said Jean Robinson, director of International Programs at the University of Mississippi. |
| UMMC employee donates stem cells to perhaps save a life | |
| For nine years Jessica Dobbins waited for the call. This year, she got it. Dobbins was so determined to help someone who needed a stem cell or bone marrow transplant that she signed up on two registries. Both called, but for the same patient. By the end of May, Dobbins, an administrative assistant in the University of Mississippi Medical Center's Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, had completed tissue typing and donated stem cells. "I signed up because there are not a lot of African-Americans and people of color in the system," said Dobbins. "I used to work in administration at the hospital and admitted some BMT patients. Now everything is coming full circle. I'm donating and the stem cells are being removed on the BMT unit to which I once helped admit patients." When she donated, she worked in the UMMC Cancer Institute's Children's Cancer Center, whose patients sometimes receive stem cell or bone marrow transplants. In June she moves to another pediatric unit, leaving a bit of her heart with CCC. |
| Southern Miss researcher to study mosquitoes on a large scale in Puerto Rico | |
 | A University of Southern Mississippi assistant professor is heading to Puerto Rico with two of his graduate assistants to conduct large-scale research on mosquitoes. Donald Yee, assistant professor of biological sciences, will travel to the country in early August to embark upon research that could yield benefits to the U.S. territory and its 3.3 million inhabitants. Yee and his students will collect samples of local mosquitoes and mosquito larva in more than 20 locations across the island over a period of about three weeks. "Once we are done, we'll have a better idea of what species are on the island and where they can be found," Yee said. "This sort of survey has not been conducted in a systematic way since the 1930s. We know there may be some important disease-carrying mosquito species on the island, but we have insufficient knowledge about their location or distribution." |
| Teacher turnover numbers increase for CMSD; improve in Starkville, Lowndes | |
| Roughly one-fourth of teachers who worked in the Columbus Municipal School District in 2017-18 will not return this August. While a statewide teacher shortage is reportedly hitting Mississippi's public schools hard, CMSD faced some unique obstacles during the 2017-18 school year. Three of its campuses -- CMS, Cook Elementary and Franklin Academy -- received accountability ratings of F from the Mississippi Department of Education in October, ratings based predominantly on students' performance on state benchmark exams the year before. Then in February, the school board fired fourth-year Superintendent Philip Hickman a few months before his contract was set to expire. Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District has lost 136 teachers over the last two school years, though turnover numbers are trending in the right direction. Documents SOCSD provided The Dispatch show 57 of the district's 373 certified teachers who worked there in 2017-18 will not return in August. That represents a turnover rate of just more than 15 percent. |
| Early College Coming to Jackson Public Schools | |
| Freshmen at Jackson Public Schools now have the opportunity to graduate from high school with an associate's degree at no cost to them. JPS partnered with Tougaloo College to offer Early College High School to 49 freshmen. Students will attend a high school on Tougaloo's campus, north of Jackson. There is no cost to attend the early college program because JPS is a public institution. Students must complete an application and participate in an interview process. An external agency selects the 49 students. Applications for the fall are closed and interviews begin July 9. Each year the program will add new students in grades ninth to 12th. There are four other early-college programs in the state: Mayhew at East Mississippi Community College, Vicksburg at Hinds Community College, Clarksdale at Coahoma Community College and Natchez at Copiah-Lincoln Community College. |
| U. of Alabama signs 10-year deal with Coca-Cola | |
 | Coca-Cola Bottling Co. United-Central and the University of Alabama have entered into a 10-year agreement for the exclusive rights to fountain drinks and beverage and snack vending on campus. The 10-year contract began July 1 and is independent of an agreement for UA's athletic facilities. As part of the deal, the company will pay the university around $2 million annually for the exclusive rights and other contributions including scholarships, in-kind support, promotions, and funds for capital improvements in dining facilities. The contract was awarded after a request for proposal by the university, Associate Vice President of Communications Monica Watts said. The contract was previously held by Buffalo Rock Co. but Coca-Cola's bid offered higher revenue, Watts said. |
| U. of Alabama consolidates efforts to help state's gifted students | |
| The University of Alabama has launched a program aimed at strengthening the state's efforts to educate gifted students. The Gifted Education and Talent Development Office will consolidate all of the UA College of Education's research, teaching, service and programming in gifted education. The office will also offer more professional development for educators and outreach to parents. Jennifer Jolly, associate professor of gifted education at UA, will serve as the office's director. She says she wants to begin by identifying research partners in schools throughout Alabama. "We'll also begin learning more about schools' early childhood programs to understand how this fits into our research agenda," Jolly said in a news release. "Identifying children for gifted education at an early age is extremely important, especially for low-income kids." |
| Auburn, Tuskegee vet schools sign historic agreement | |
 | The colleges of veterinary medicine at Tuskegee and Auburn universities recently signed a memorandum of understanding that has created a specific partnership between the two. Under the agreement, Tuskegee will pay for one of its students to train at Auburn as a resident in an area of need, then return to Tuskegee as a veterinary medicine faculty member and board-certified specialist. It was signed June 27 at Tuskegee by the deans of the two colleges, Ruby Perry of Tuskegee and Calvin Johnson of Auburn. The student involved, whose name has not yet been announced by Tuskegee, is scheduled to begin her residency in radiology later this month. The idea for this arrangement grew out of a discussion the two deans had about increasing diversity in the veterinary profession by training under-represented groups -- preferably African-Americans -- as board-certified specialists, Perry explained. |
| UGA summer program empowers foster care youth to pursue higher education | |
 | Nyeelah Inniss had a clear goal to attend college after graduating from high school, but as a teenager in foster care, she did not understand the full extent of the college application process. "I knew I wanted to attend college, but in foster care, almost everything is done or decided for you, so I assumed that my case worker would tell me what to do and when I needed to do it, which was not the case," Innis said. That all changed in 2012 when she attended College Bound, a summer program at the University of Georgia's J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development, designed to expose high school students in foster care to the college experience. The program is one of four in Georgia and three more in other states that are funded by the Educational Foundation, which helps provide post-secondary education to youth in foster care. |
| In major turnaround, Louisiana requests for college aid tops in nation | |
 | Just a few years ago, Louisiana trailed much of the nation in the number of high school seniors seeking college aid. Now the state ranks No. 1 in student applications for federal dollars, ending a long-standing complaint that students were leaving $50 million or more of potential college aid on the table every year. More than three out of four public and private high school seniors -- 76.5 percent -- have completed the form, called the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. "Parents are now realizing how important it is for them to do it, for their kids to do it," said Michael Faulk, executive director of the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents. This year's application rate marks a sharp turnaround from the past. |
| U. of Arkansas researchers on trail of terrorism patterns | |
| The search is on for patterns in U.S. terrorism as part of federally funded research at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. "Across the cases we have information on, the incidents that we have information on, are there specific patterns? And then from there, can we take that information into, well, what's leading to this?" said Grant Drawve, an assistant professor in UA's sociology and criminology department. Ultimately, Drawve said, there's another question he and fellow researchers hope to answer by developing a data-based model that will map and find commonalities of planned terrorist attacks: "Can we predict some of these?" Brent Smith, director of UA's Terrorism Research Center, is the lead investigator for the three-year project funded with a $716,000 grant from the National Institute of Justice. |
| U. of Florida hosts crash course in African languages | |
 | Amy Smerdel, a University of Southern California student from San Francisco, didn't know any Wolof before she started her summer courses at the University of Florida. But for hours a day, she develops her French skills and starts picking up Wolof, the most widely spoken language in Senegal. Smerdel is one of 52 students participating in the African Flagship Languages Initiative at UF, which offers students from across the country eight weeks of intensive language and culture courses. She'll be attending the West African Research Center in Dakar, Senegal, this fall. "It just seems like such a vibrant, rich cultural experience," She said. UF has been hosting the African Flagship Languages Institute since 2011. Tunde Akinyemi, UF professor of Yoruba language and literature, is director of the program. |
| After rebuke from Congress, Education Department suspends reshuffling of defaulted student loans | |
 | The Department of Education planned this month to begin reshaping the role of private debt collection firms in handling student loans by pulling defaulted borrower accounts from a handful of large private contractors. Lawmakers who control the department's budget had other ideas. After a recent Senate spending package warned the department against dropping the debt collectors, the plan is on hold. And it's not clear how those companies will figure into the Trump administration's proposed overhaul of student loan servicing. Private loan servicers handle payments from borrowers on their student loans and provide information on payment plan options. When borrowers go more than 270 days without making a payment on their loans, they are considered to be in default. Those companies are tasked with collecting on more than $84 billion in defaulted student loan debt. |
| George Mason's Foundation Does Not Need to Release Records of Koch Foundation Agreements, Judge Finds | |
 | The Charles Koch Foundation's campaign to make inroads in academe has weathered a difficult past few months. The conservative foundation's efforts have generated well-publicized controversy at public and private institutions around the country, including Chapman University, Montana State University, and George Mason University. Activists stoking that pushback have exulted in their successes. But a group of those activists suffered a setback on Thursday, when a Virginia judge rejected their attempt to lift the curtain of secrecy shielding gifts to a foundation that raises money for George Mason. The ruling does little to clarify an already-cloudy legal picture. As The Chronicle has reported, little consensus exists on the reporting obligations of university foundations. |
| Wisconsin Supreme Court says Marquette must reinstate professor it wanted to fire | |
| Marquette University must immediately reinstate and pay damages to John McAdams, the political science professor who criticized a graduate student by name on his personal blog over how she handled a classroom discussion that turned to gay marriage. So ruled the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday, overturning a lower court's determination that Marquette was within its rights to suspend McAdams over the incident in 2014. Wisconsin's high court split along conservative and liberal lines in the case, voting 4-2 in favor of McAdams. While the professor's case was about an alleged breach of contract, the decision touched on the current campus speech climate, especially for political conservatives, such as McAdams. It also broke with a long judicial tradition of deferring to colleges and universities on tenured personnel matters. Marquette said it will comply with the ruling but maintained that McAdams's case isn't, and never was, about academic freedom. |
| PERS financial soundness not so hunky-dory after all | |
 | Syndicated columnist Bill Crawford of Meridian writes: "Here we go again. PERS is bumping employer contribution rates, again, to try and keep the retirement system actuarially sound. The Associated Press reported it will cost taxpayers an extra $100 million annually to do so. In 2011, Gov. Haley Barbour established his PERS Study Commission to look for ways to stabilize PERS and keep it solvent. At the time Barbour noted, 'In 2001, PERS was financially strong with a funded status of 88 percent; a decade later, the funded status has declined to 64.2 percent, despite large contribution increases by both employees and taxpayers (public employers) in recent years.' Despite annual comments from PERS leadership, particularly outgoing Executive Director Pat Robertson, that everything was hunky-dory, this new bump in employer contributions reveals either the naivety or the deception of those comments." |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State's Austin Rose outduels Ole Miss' Cecil Wegener at Magnolia State Amateur | |
| The Mississippi showdown did not disappoint during the last day of competition in the Magnolia State Amateur at Hattiesburg Country Club. In the end, Mississippi State senior Austin Rose held off Ole Miss sophomore Cecil Wegener with a birdie at 18 to win by two strokes. Rose entered the final round Sunday with a one-stroke lead over Wegener, the defending champion. Both knew the last day would be a test. Wegener embraced trailing Rose, but MSU's the fifth-year Bulldog felt he had the harder end of the bargain approaching day three. "It's a lot different sleeping on the lead than it is trying to hunt someone down," Rose said. Both golfers played even throughout the final round. Entering the 18th hole, this friendly in-state rivalry brought even more to the table. |
| Mississippi State's Austin Rose takes 2018 Magnolia Amateur | |
 | As the wind and rain began to pick up, so did the pressure on the shoulders of Austin Rose and Cecil Wegener. The two golfers were tied for the lead at six-under par for much of the back nine in the seventh annual Magnolia Amateur's final round. Austin Rose's birdie putt on the last hole of the tournament proved to be the difference-maker. Both golfers birdied the 17th hole of the Hattiesburg Country Club course to enter the 18th tied for the lead at 7-under par. Rose sunk a sloping birdie to move to 8-under, while Wegener's birdie attempt from the opposite ridge of the green pushed past the right side of the hole. Wegener's defense of his 2017 Magnolia Amateur title came up two strokes short -- the Ole Miss sophomore carded a 6-under par 207 for the tournament -- while Rose's 8-under par 205 resulted in the second amateur win of his career. Beyond the battle between Wegener (Ole Miss) and Rose (Mississippi State), the two rival schools were neck-and-neck in the team competition as well -- the Rebels and Bulldogs shared the team title at nine-under par. |
| Big professional debut for Mississippi State's Hunter Stovall | |
| Mississippi State's Hunter Stovall had a memorable debut in minor league baseball on Saturday, hitting home runs in his first two at-bats for the Grand Junction Rockies. Stovall, a 21st-round pick, signed with the Colorado Rockies on Monday and reported to their Rookie League team in time for weekend games. Batting second, he hit the fourth pitch he saw for a two-run homer, then hit another two-run shot in the third. Both homers scored a former rival, leadoff hitter Will Golsan of Ole Miss -- a 26th-round pick by the Rockies. |
| Former Tennessee assistant thinks FirstDown PlayBook can be 'Google of football plays' | |
 | Charlie Coiner says he "always enjoyed the X-and-O part" of coaching, and although the former Derek Dooley assistant hasn't coached since Tennessee's 2012 finale, he hasn't left football. The 30-year-coaching veteran is the founder of FirstDown PlayBook, a digital playbook program that will launch a second, more user-friendly version on Jan. 6 as part of the annual American Football Coaches Association in San Antonio, Texas. Coiner, 58, envisions his company as a revolutionary approach for playbooks that will make PDF play diagrams and drawing plays from scratch a thing of the past. "We want to be kind of like the Google of football plays," Coiner said, "to where instead of going online, you're like, 'Let's go check FirstDown PlayBook and see what they've got.'" |
| Inside Nike's purge: More than a #MeToo moment | |
| The threats, she remembers, came via text, email, telephone and face to face. Paige Azavedo's job in the digital marketing department at Nike put her in daily contact with Danny Tawiah, a demanding and mercurial boss who she said routinely browbeat employees, sometimes to tears. Azavedo finally quit in 2015 after getting a job offer with a Seattle technology company. She didn't want to leave Portland and uproot her family. "But he'd given me no choice," she said. She moved on, and Tawiah moved up. Within two years, he was promoted to vice president. But then came 2018, a year like no other in Nike's history. The company cut ties with Tawiah and 10 other senior managers amid complaints about a "boys' club" culture. Behind one of the world's biggest brands, behind the beautiful campus and the glamorous athletes, an ugliness was sapping morale and driving talented employees, particularly women, out the door. |
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