| Tuesday, January 29, 2019 |
| Mississippi State competes for Camp Kesem chapter | |
 | A dedicated band of Mississippi State Bulldogs is hoping to ring up support to create a camp for children who have been impacted by a parent's cancer. Mississippi State is competing with 11 other schools, including Auburn University and University of South Carolina for a Camp Kesem chapter. Through Friday, supporters can vote every day at vote.campkesem.org. If Mississippi State finishes in the top four in online voting this week, the state will have its first Camp Kesem chapter. Right now, the closest chapter is at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. MSU student Madeyn Slater of Savannah, Tenn., began advocating for Mississippi State to seek a chapter this fall. She attended the Camp Kesem at Vanderbilt University for four years after her mother's breast cancer diagnosis. "I saw how it changed these kids and it changed me," Slaten said. The Mississippi State faculty, staff and students have been very supportive. |
| Ballet Hispanico dance company uses movement to teach, promote diversity | |
 | As a special education teacher for Northeast Lauderdale High School, Jennifer Moore knows the value of exposing her students to new experiences. "It's always great to have the opportunity for students to learn about something they've never done -- whether it's a new culture or a new dance," Moore said. "It's educational to experience something new and different." New York City-based dance company, Ballet Hispanico, delivered that exposure on Monday with a small assembly for students in the special education programs at Lauderdale County schools. This company focus on sharing a love for the arts not just through performances on big stages but also through intimate showcases inspired Dennis Sankovich, the executive director for the Mississippi State University Riley Center, to invite the dance company to Meridian. The company specifically curates programs designed to teach and share new cultural experiences, which Sankovich said complemented the mission of the Riley Center. On Tuesday, the company will have a public performance at the Riley Center at 7:30, with tickets at $33 or $39. |
| ERDC drones will be launched from municipal airport | |
 | When employees from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center fly drones in the Warren County area, they'll be launching from the Vicksburg Municipal Airport. The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Friday authorized Mayor George Flaggs Jr. to sign a four-year agreement with ERDC to operate its drones at the airport. The agreement expires Aug. 31, 2023. "There's tons of money in the budget for the Department of Defense budget and the Homeland Security budget for this," Flaggs said. "This is going to be a game changer. Having a drone program, Alderman Alex Monsour said, would be a boost for the area. He pointed to Mississippi State University, which he said has had a longtime drone program, calling it "the flagship university for drones (in Mississippi)." |
| In bid for secretary of state, PSC's Sam Britton sets up competitive GOP primary | |
| Sam Britton, who serves as the state's southern district public service commissioner, announced his candidacy for secretary of state Monday. Britton, 62, is serving in his first term as public service commissioner and aims to replace current Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, who is running for lieutenant governor this year. Britton will face Sen. Michael Watson in the Republican primary. For months, Watson had campaigned across the state as the sole candidate of either party to announce for the secretary of state's office. "Delbert has set the bar high for anyone who follows behind him, and everybody will be judged on the performance of Delbert Hosemann as you move into the future," Britton told reporters at the Capitol on Monday afternoon. "Yet more things are to be done in this state." |
| Sam Britton joins GOP primary for Mississippi secretary of state | |
 | A first-term utility regulator said Wednesday that he is running for secretary of state in Mississippi, creating what could be a tough Republican primary for an open seat. Sam Britton of Laurel was elected southern district public service commissioner in 2015. He is the second Republican to join the secretary of state's race. Sen. Michael Watson of Pascagoula announced his intentions months ago, and Republican Gov. Phil Bryant has already endorsed him. Britton is part of a power couple. He was joined at his announcement by his wife, Robin Robinson, a Sanderson Farms executive who has served on the state College Board and was the 2016-17 chairwoman of Mississippi Economic Council, the state chamber of commerce. March 1 is candidates' qualifying deadline for statewide, regional, legislative and county offices in Mississippi. Party primaries are in August, and the general election is in November. |
| PSC's Sam Britton running for secretary of state, setting up fierce GOP primary | |
 | Republican Southern District Public Service Commissioner Sam Britton announced Monday that he will run this year for secretary of state. Britton's announcement sets up what is likely to be a fierce GOP primary for the office, with longtime state Sen. Michael Watson, who has received Gov. Phil Bryant's endorsement, running. Britton praised out-going Republican Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, who is running for lieutenant governor this year, saying, "Delbert has set the bar high for anyone who follows behind. "Yet more things are to be done," Britton said. "In this state, personal income is the lowest in this country. As secretary of state, I will put a focus on economic growth in this state." Britton, 62, a certified public accountant from Laurel, was elected to the utility-regulating Public Service Commission in 2015. |
| His plan would make Mississippi government more transparent. He knows it won't pass | |
| A Mississippi representative has a plan to make the statehouse more transparent and more efficient. So he knows it's not going to pass. Rep. Jeramey Anderson, D-Moss Point, is tired of walking into committee hearings and being asked to vote on a bill he's never read. "(Lawmakers) are constantly caught off guard by legislation they've never seen before but are asked to vote on in minutes," Anderson said. Every week during the legislative sessions, committees hold standing meetings to discuss bills and resolutions, but there's no public agenda posted ahead of time. That leaves the public -- and often lawmakers -- in the dark, Anderson said. "The whole system is inefficient and antiquated," he said. Anderson has a simple plan to fix this: Post agendas online 24 hours in advance that say what bills will be discussed. |
| Legislators shed light on a wide range of topics | |
 | A state representative said he does not believe legislation creating an elected Natchez-Adams School Board will pass this year. The comments from District 94 State Rep. Robert Johnson III, D-Natchez came during Monday's annual legislative breakfast sponsored by the Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce and held at the Natchez Grand Hotel. "I think we're all for having elected school boards," Johnson said in answering a question submitted from the audience, "but the timing is a problem. We've all introduced legislation for that in the past." While Johnson said he believes passing legislation creating elected positions for the Natchez-Adams School Board is not likely this year, he believes school boards across the state will inevitably be elected as the issue will pass statewide in the near future. Other legislators in attendance Monday were District 37 Sen. Bob M. Dearing, D-Natchez; District 96 Rep. Angela Cockerham, D-Magnolia; and District 97 Rep. Sam C. Mims V, R-McComb. |
| Clay Deweese enters Representatives District 12 race against Tiffany Kilpatrick | |
| Oxford businessman Clay Deweese announced he has entered the Mississippi House of Representatives race in District 12 Thursday. Deweese, who is the owner and operator of Nix-Tann & Associates in Oxford, will run as a Republican, according to a release. The announcement also comes over a week after Tiffany Kilpatrick's declaration that she would also run for the District 12 seat. She will run against Deweese as the Democrat candidate. Deweese is a 2004 graduate from the University of Mississippi, where he met his wife Katie. Deweese originally grew up in Clarksdale in the Mississippi Delta, and the two have been living in Oxford since 2000, and have two children: Rhett and Tison. In the release announcing his candidacy, Deweese is going to focus his campaign on improving education in order to improve business in Oxford. |
| Mississippi demands accountability from parents on public assistance... so why is the state so secretive about how it manages welfare funds? | |
| A push is underway to remove the requirement that parents receiving certain kinds of public assistance cooperate with child support enforcement officials or risk losing those benefits. Currently, Mississippi requires custodial parents to go after the non-custodial parent for money in order to qualify for the federal Child Care and Development Fund, which provides child care vouchers to low-income parents so they can work. Advocates say the child support enforcement requirement pits single parents, usually women, against the family's non-custodial parent in order to receive an important work support. In many cases, women may be receiving informal payments and fear that involving the state will harm the relationship with the children's father. Grassroots advocates add that the child support requirement is just one of several hurdles low-income Mississippians face in accessing child care and other public assistance programs, many of which serve a fraction of the people in need, as well as perpetuate stigma and the idea that low-income people are less responsible with their finances. |
| Justice Dept. charges Huawei with fraud, ratcheting up U.S.-China tensions | |
 | The Justice Department announced criminal charges Monday against Huawei Technologies, the world's largest communications equipment manufacturer, and one of its top executives --- a move likely to intensify trade tensions between the United States and China. A 13-count indictment filed in New York City against Huawei, two affiliates and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, details allegations of bank and wire fraud. The company also is charged with violating U.S. sanctions on Iran and conspiring to obstruct justice related to the investigation. The indictment threatened to further strain relations between Washington and Beijing as officials from both countries prepare for talks this week aimed at ending a months-long economic impasse that has contributed to huge swings in the stock market. Although President Trump had suggested he was willing to help secure Meng's release if China met his demands for a trade deal, Justice and Commerce department officials insisted Meng's criminal case was a separate matter. |
| Ole Miss student union opening is delayed, again | |
 | The opening date for the renovated Ole Miss Student Union has been delayed again after it was initially projected to be completed earlier this year. The union is now set to open later this semester. "The design and construction teams, made up of architects, engineers and construction experts, have worked together to minimize delays and keep the quality of the work up to university standards," said Bradley Baker, director of the Ole Miss Student Union. The construction was originally set to be complete in early 2019 at the cost of around $60 million. "It's going to cost just over $60 million," said Ian Banner, director of Facilities Planning and university architect. "There's nothing to hide at all." After nearly four years, many students are growing annoyed with the prolonged construction. |
| UM ASB president says there's 'no way' for students to create campus policy | |
| The Daily Mississippian recently sat down with the heads of the three branches of student government --- the Associated Student Body president, vice president and judicial chair --- to discuss their goals and plans for the upcoming semester. Associated Student Body President Elam Miller wants to ensure students are involved in the entire process of selecting the new chancellor instead of only being involved with portions of the search. "We don't want it (to be) just like a rubber stamp that just the student body president, or someone like that, met with the new candidate," Miller said. Miller said he's reached out to several officials at the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning concerning student representation in the search for chancellor, but he hasn't received specific details about when and how students could be involved. He also said he is advocating for increased transparency in university administration, especially by making changes that would enable more students to attend the meetings of the Chancellor's Standing Committees. |
| 'Heavy' author Kiese Laymon, once suspended from Millsaps College, wins Carnegie medal | |
| Author Kiese Laymon, suspended from Millsaps College for taking out a library book without permission, can assume he's been forgiven by the library community. The Jackson, Mississippi, native, whose memoir "Heavy" was one of last year's most acclaimed works, has won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence. The award, announced Sunday, comes with a cash prize of $5,000. It is presented by the American Library Association. "I can laugh about it now, but it took me two decades to be able to talk about it," said Laymon, who in "Heavy" writes bluntly of his troubled childhood in Mississippi. "It was the most shameful time of my life, especially if you're a black boy in Mississippi and you're always taught that education is the way out." The Carnegie winners were announced during the library association's annual winter meeting, being held in Seattle. |
| Delta State's DMI students ready for LA with Cleveland warm up | |
| Students from Delta State University's Delta Music Institute will be in Los Angeles next week to perform at the 10th annual Grammy Week Mississippi Night. "When the Grammy Museum L.A. Live opened, they hosted Mississippi Night and partnered with key Mississippians to develop this event," said DMI Director Tricia Walker. "After Cleveland was selected as the site for the second Grammy Museum, Lucy Janoush, chair of Cleveland Music Foundation, had the idea of sending DMI students to LA for Mississippi Night at the Grammys," said Charley Abraham, a DMI professor and music director for the group. For the fifth year a select group of DMI Students, known as the DMI All-Stars, will perform at the event, along with established artists from the region. |
| Retired physician gives Delta State $4M for financial aid | |
| A Mississippi university says a $4 million donation is the largest it has ever received. Delta State University says it will use the money from Dr. Fred Pittman to pay for financial aid for students who can't afford college. The university says Pittman and his wife have given Delta State a total of $4.7 million. The Cleveland native attended a demonstration elementary school on the Delta State campus. Pittman is now a retired physician who lives on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina. In 2015, Pittman and his wife gave the school $700,000 to endow scholarships for art, language and literature students. |
| EMCC hopes to have Communiversity open for classes in fall | |
 | East Mississippi Community College officials are hoping the Communiversity will be ready for an estimated 350 students this fall. Jim Huerkamp, EMCC workforce project manager, visited the Columbus Exchange Club's weekly luncheon Thursday to update club members on the university's workforce training curriculum -- including the Communiversity, the college's 150,000-square-foot education center for workforce training and development. He said officials hope to begin moving equipment into the building by mid-March. The building is located on Highway 82, just west of PACCAR and a short drive from the college's Golden Triangle campus in Mayhew. The $42.6 million facility is being funded with local, state and federal dollars. "The intent of this building is to teach from 7:30 in the morning to right about 9, 10 o'clock at night," Huerkamp said. |
| Comments from UGA philosophy student incite social media uproar | |
 | The University of Georgia has asked the state Attorney General's office to investigate a UGA philosophy graduate student as his controversial comments about white people stirred a social media uproar. The backlash against graduate student Irami Osei-Frimpong began after UGA graduate and conservative writer Andrew Lawrence's public call for a donations ban to UGA led to extensive media coverage and outrage from people offended by Osei-Frimpong's statements. Some Athens leaders have come to the graduate student's defense, and now an advocacy group is warning the university not to hinder Osei-Frimpong's First Amendment rights Osei-Frimpong is prolific on Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms. He has been a frequent poster in the Clarke County School District Town Hall Facebook page, where he made such provocative statements as white women are one of the big problems of public schools. He's used phrases such as "crappy white people" and callied for the dismantling of white institutions. In one post last year, he said "some white people may have to die for black communities to be whole in this struggle to advance freedom." |
| U. of Missouri ordered to hand over biojoint records | |
 | The University of Missouri must comply with discovery requests in the cases of several people suing over Mizzou Biojoint surgeries, a circuit judge ruled Monday. Judge Brouck Jacobs also denied a motion for a protective order to prevent some discovery filed by attorneys for the curators and will also now allow the plaintiffs to file an amended complaint. Six people are now suing over the relatively new procedure. All allege medical malpractice, negligence and other claims against Missouri Orthopaedic Institute physician James Stannard and director James Cook. All also allege violations of the state Merchandising Practices Act by university curators in marketing the procedure. |
| In good news for historians, field's faculty jobs outlook was constant last year | |
 | The faculty job market in history stabilized in 2017-18 after several years of steep declines, according to new data from the American Historical Association. The AHA bases its annual jobs report on advertising figures for its career center and H-Net's Job Guide. While it's not the entire jobs outlook for historians -- about a quarter of whom work outside academe -- the report is still good news for them, for now. (The report also doesn't include all academic jobs, but is generally considered representative of trends in the field.) Listings for full-time positions in the AHA's career center jumped 8 percent year over year, and unique positions advertised in either venue grew by nearly 2 percent. More than 50 percent of jobs, including those off the tenure track, were at research universities -- where many Ph.D.s say they want to work. Postdoctoral fellowships also continued to grow, making up 21 percent of the jobs listed on each board. |
| When Online Trolls Show Up in Class, Should Professors Be Able to Ban Them? | |
 | Public scholars are well acquainted with online hatred. But professors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are debating what to do when the vitriol ceases to be just virtual and takes a seat in the front row of the classroom. Jay Rosenstein, a professor of media and cinema studies, has fielded longtime animosity for criticizing the university's former mascot, Chief Illiniwek. Though the mascot was retired more than a decade ago, fierce allegiance lives on. Last year Rosenstein made headlines after he followed an Illiniwek supporter into a public bathroom and filmed him, calling it an act of journalism. The professor was detained by the campus police, but no charges were filed. One person, in particular, has harassed him repeatedly, he said. For the past year, this person has posted "really disparaging comments" about him on social media, calling him a sexual predator, saying he should be in jail, and telling him that he's a danger to his students, Rosenstein said. The person also showed up at faculty senate meetings to criticize him in person, according to the professor. Last semester, Rosenstein said, this virtual hater enrolled in one of his classes. |
| With Unfilled Jobs, Businesses Push Rural Residents Toward College | |
 | Educators and policymakers started raising alarms about low levels of college-going among people in places like this after frustration from rural Americans spilled over into national politics in 2016. Now, growing demand for college-trained workers has brought a powerful new voice to the chorus: businesses desperate to fill increasingly complex jobs at a time of almost nonexistent unemployment. With worker shortages hitting industries nationwide, their companies -- and many states' economies -- depend on it. "No employer wants to locate where it has to bring in outside labor or train its staff from the ground up," editorialized one newspaper in Tennessee's rural Washington County. That area was short-listed for a new factory planned by a South Korean auto parts manufacturer that would have provided 1,000 jobs, but the company pulled out because of the low proportion of skilled workers available. As this gap becomes more critical, Tennessee is trying to prod working adults to go back to school. |
| Liberty University stands by CIO, despite questionable business activities | |
| University chief information officers are seldom in the media spotlight, but that's where Liberty University's CIO landed recently when reports about his outside work for Donald Trump made national headlines. Despite reports that John Gauger, the CIO, accepted cash to rig online polls for Trump before he became president, university administrators are standing by Gauger and ignoring questions about the appropriateness of an employee promoting the political interests of a presidential candidate for profit. Gauger, who runs a small IT consultancy firm unaffiliated with Liberty, was reportedly paid thousands of dollars in 2015 to manipulate two online opinion polls in favor of Trump, who announced his candidacy later that year, according to The Wall Street Journal. Michael Cohen, Trump's personal attorney at the time, offered Gauger $50,000 to influence the poll results to help Trump look good ahead of the launch of his campaign, the Journal article said. Cohen allegedly also promised Gauger more work as the campaign took off. |
| Controversial Emails to International Students at Duke Suggest a Greater Struggle: Assimilation | |
| Ten years ago the response to the email would have been different. This time international students spoke up. And they rallied against displays of discrimination, said Ruby Yuan, a junior studying journalism at the University of Southern California. But they shouldn't have to, he said. Last week a Duke University administrator sent an email advising international graduate students to speak English among themselves while in a student lounge on the campus -- not just in class. They were advised to speak English "100% of the time" in any "professional setting." The emails, however, highlight a greater issue that international students face everywhere in the United States: the constant pressure to assimilate in order to succeed on their new American campus, and many campuses' struggles to mitigate that harsh reality. |
SPORTS
| Bulldogs, Tide meet in game between two 3-3 SEC teams | |
 | Three days have passed since No. 22 Mississippi State topped then-No. 16 Auburn to get back to .500 in Southeastern Conference play. The Bulldogs will get the chance Tuesday night to push past the .500 mark in league action as MSU travels to battle Alabama in a 7:30 p.m. game. "Obviously it's a tough game against a really, really tough team," Mississippi State head coach Ben Howland said. Mississippi State (15-4, 3-3) heads to Tuscaloosa playing well. Since the Bulldogs dropped the first two games of their SEC slate, MSU has won three of its last four. On the flip side, Alabama (12-7, 3-3) has lost four of its last six outings. However those results don't necessarily bear out how dangerous the Crimson Tide can be. Three of those four losses came by five points or less. Two of the losses came to ranked opponents -- one against now-No. 19 LSU and one against top-ranked Tennessee. So Howland and his team goes eastward on Highway 82 today knowing a great challenge awaits. |
| Bulldogs meet Bama for the 200th time | |
| Tonight will mark the 200th meeting between No. 22 Mississippi State and Alabama in men's basketball. Although the Crimson Tide has taken 10 of the last 12 games in the series, the average margin of victory over the last eight contests has only been 7.6 points. The series was split last year with Alabama winning 68-62 in Tuscaloosa before the Bulldogs answered serve in Starkville with a 67-63 victory. Tonight's game will be televised by SEC Network and tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 from Coleman Coliseum where Alabama is 7-2 this season and the Bulldogs have only won once in the last decade. "They're going to be hyped for us because it's a huge game for both teams," said MSU coach Ben Howland. "We're a ranked team and the NET rankings and all that stuff really helps you ... You're going to get the other team's best shot, especially when you're on their home floor." |
| Aric Holman is a player to watch for Mississippi State against Alabama | |
| Mississippi State just had one of its best offensive games of the season with a 92-84 win over then-No. 15 Auburn on Saturday. The Bulldogs shot over 50 percent from the field, over 40 percent from three and had assists on 20 of their 28 field goals. But head coach Ben Howland still wants more. And, recently, when Howland has said he wants something to happen, it has. He wanted senior guard Quinndary Weatherspoon to shoot more 3-pointers. Weatherspoon went 4-of-5 from behind the arc against Auburn. Most of those makes were game-changers. He wanted his players to play more as a team and less as individuals. That starts with junior point guard Lamar Peters, who responded with a career-high 10 assists against the Tigers. Now Howland wants senior forward Aric Holman to be more of a focal point offensively. For that to happen, Howland thinks Holman must first fine-tune his game on the other end of the court. |
| Alabama basketball working on execution against Mississippi State | |
 | The University of Alabama men's basketball team doesn't have to worry about the plane on Tuesday night, just the plan. A delay on Alabama's charter flight from Tuscaloosa to Waco last Friday kept the Crimson Tide from arriving for an 11 a.m. game against Baylor until a mere 10 hours before tipoff. However, Crimson Tide players said on Monday that it was execution, not aviation, that cost UA in its 73-68 loss -- and that must be corrected against No. 22 Mississippi State. "We track our energy using the Catapult system and our energy was the lowest it has been in three years (against Baylor)," said Crimson Tide head coach Avery Johnson. "Hopefully, we will be rested and ready because we are playing a very good opponent in Mississippi State. Rarely do we see a team that has all five starters back. We know those guys pretty well. They know what they are doing." |
| Second-quarter run shows how dominating No. 7 Mississippi State can be | |
| The Dispatch's Adam Minichino writes: For 4 minutes, 57 seconds in the second quarter, the Mississippi State women's basketball team displayed all of its dominance. With Jordan Danberry and Jazzmun Holmes harassing the Ole Miss guards and Anriel Howard and Teaira McCowan providing a one-two scoring punch, the Bulldogs used a 14-0 run to turn a double-digit lead into a comfortable cushion. The remaining 35-plus minutes included a lot of the signs MSU has exhibited in solidifying a spot in the top 10, but they didn't pack the urgency or the intensity No. 7 MSU delivered in the run that pushed it to an 80-49 victory against Ole Miss in a Southeastern Conference game before a crowd of 10,337 at Humphrey Coliseum. ... The win was MSU's 23rd-straight SEC regular-season victory and 31st in a row at home. It came in front of the fourth-largest crowd in program history. |
| In Growing 'Wild West' of Campus Esports, Programs Rush to Lure the Best Players | |
| In high school, Ryan Nget was already a professional gamer. He spent hours training for his next League of Legends tournament, climbing the rankings, and winning thousands of dollars in prize money. When he started applying to colleges, Nget wanted to keep up his competitive gaming profile while also enjoying college as a normal student. Harrisburg University of Science and Technology gave him that option. A growing number of colleges like Harrisburg are buying into esports, starting programs and building million-dollar facilities where gamers take on their counterparts on other campuses. And while some observers roll their eyes at the trend -- still in its infancy -- high-profile esports programs are looking to gain prestige by recruiting gamers like Nget. The world of collegiate esports currently comprises more than 120 programs in universities nationwide, and interest is soaring. The National Association of Collegiate Esports formed only around two years ago with seven member colleges. |
| NFL's Super Bowl week marred by controversy | |
 | NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is expected to break his silence this week on the controversial non-call that ended the New Orleans Saints' season and captured the ire of Louisiana fans and politicians alike. Saints players, supporters and lawmakers have channeled their resentment of the missed call -- a blunder from the Jan. 20 NFC Championship game that likely cost the team a trip to Super Bowl LIII -- into a barrage of demands for accountability from the league. The backlash, which made its way to the floor of the U.S. Senate, has cast a pall on the NFL's marquee event, which will take place on Sunday in Atlanta. "Saints fans know we're not going to play the game over," Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said Monday on WWL radio. "But we sure would like to know why it happened, and we sure would like to know it's not going to happen again. And so far, the NFL has been kind of see no, hear no, speak no evil." Cassidy took to the Senate floor last week with visual aids in tow to reconstruct what he deemed "the most blatant and consequential blown call in NFL history." |
| Bet on the Hogs? Soon, Sports Gambling Will Be Legal in Arkansas | |
 | Sports wagering is coming to Arkansas although its final form and true impact remain unknown. Arkansas voters approved Issue 4 by a margin of 54 percent to 46 percent in November. The centerpiece of what is now Amendment 100 to the state constitution was allowing casinos in four counties, but the vote also legalized on-site sports wagering. Oaklawn Jockey Club Inc. in Hot Springs and Southland Racing Corp. in West Memphis will be able to offer sports wagering to customers as soon as the state's Racing Commission approves final rules and regulations. Shortly after the November vote, Oaklawn announced plans for a $100 million expansion that included a 200-room hotel and 28,000 SF of gaming space, which track executives said were all planned regardless of the Issue 4 vote. On Thursday, Delaware North of Buffalo, which owns Southland, announced its own $250 million expansion plans for the greyhound track that includes a 300-room hotel and 96,000 SF of casino space. In its release, Southland mentioned, in passing, that "sports betting areas are also planned." |
| Will Sports Betting Transform How Games Are Watched, and Even Played? | |
 | Gambling on sports became explicitly legal in Nevada in 1949. Until recently, the prospect of it spreading beyond that state's borders was treated as potentially ruinous by the franchise owners and commissioners who ruled over sports. They feared that it would alter the relationship between fans and their favorite teams, and that gambling would expose athletes to underworld characters trying to manipulate games. Eventually, the cautionary tale went, the competition in even the biggest leagues would be indistinguishable from the manufactured plotlines of pro wrestling or old-time roller derby. Gambling on sports was already happening, of course -- at Las Vegas casinos, on illegal internet sites, at the corner bar -- yet somehow that hadn't made it more palatable. Since then, attitudes seem to have changed abruptly. It's now difficult to find anyone inside sports who opposes gambling. In part that's because the leagues and their investors have come to see how much they stand to gain. |
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