| Thursday, May 2, 2019 |
| Accounting student named outstanding business undergraduate at MSU-Meridian | |
 | Shawna Marceleno was 17 years old when she set her sights on earning an undergraduate degree in accounting. She took a nontraditional path, but nearly two decades later, she is receiving a bachelor of accountancy degree from Mississippi State and being named Outstanding Undergraduate Student in the Division of Business. She will be recognized at MSU-Meridian's commencement on Thursday, May 2. A Meridian native, Marceleno moved to Florida after high school. She studied accounting, taking community college classes when she could as she moved several times before returning to Meridian in 2012. "A few years after I moved back, I got married and had a little girl, and life got in the way," Marceleno said. "Five years later while working as an insurance agent, I saw an opportunity to go back to school, and I took it." Marceleno finished her last prerequisite class at Meridian Community College in 2017 and enrolled at MSU-Meridian that fall. |
| Senate Commerce Committee Hearing On New Entrants In The National Airspace System May 8 | |
 | The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee will hold a hearing on May 8, 2019 at 10:00 am ET in 216 Hart Senate Office Building on "New Entrants in National Airspace: Policy, Technology, and Security Issues for Congress." The "new entrants" include space launches and reentries. The committee webcasts its hearings on its website. Scheduled witnesses are: Mr. Jay Merkle, Executive Director, Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Office, Federal Aviation Administration; Mr. Wayne Montieth, Associate Administrator, Office of Commercial Space Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration; Mr. Dallas Brooks, Director, Raspet Flight Research Laboratory, Mississippi State University; Mr. Zach Lovering, Vice President, Urban Air Mobility Systems, Airbus; and Mr. Eric Stallmer, President, Commercial Spaceflight Federation. |
| Gnats swarm in Louisiana 'with a vengeance' and they're suffocating chickens on some farms | |
 | Gnats have been particularly nasty this season, so much so that the flying pests have killed chickens on farms across the Felicianas this spring. "The gnats always hit quickly and when they do, they hit with a vengeance," LSU AgCenter county agent for horticulture Jessie Hoover said. Though buffalo gnats bite humans and other animals -- and all livestock is potentially at risk -- poultry have turned out to be particularly susceptible this year. North of the state line, researchers at Mississippi State University's Extension Service caution farmers annually about buffalo gnats. In addition to suffocation, animals could stampede and trample smaller animals, and some gnats can transmit viruses among turkeys, geese, ducks and occasionally chickens. Professor Jerome Goddard, who wrote the Mississippi extension service's information sheet on the insect, said this year's swarm almost certainly has to do with flooding and the high level of the Mississippi River, but researchers haven't pinpointed exactly how that occurs. |
| Maintaining order and public safety on two wheels | |
 | Anyone wanting to speed, run red lights or not wear their seat belt in Starkville should be forewarned, two officers are looking for you and they have brand new, fast motorcycles. Officers Dylan Bowers and Will Simon make up the Starkville Police Department traffic unit. They spend their days riding the streets of Starkville looking for traffic offenders and making sure the people remain safe. The department used motorcycles in the 1930s and 1940s but they were eventually phased out. The traffic unit was re-established in 2012. Since getting new Harley-Davidson Police Electra Glides in January, they have logged more than 3,000 miles, the vast majority in the city. "Our primary function is to work traffic infractions," said Simon. "If the patrol units get backed up, we will help out." Each day, the officers patrol the city and set up in areas where there have been complaints. If speeding has been a problem, the officers will set up a radar trailer in the area to alert motorists to how fast they are going. The officer will return a few days later and start writing tickets. |
| Yokohama blames local workforce, facility for anemic production | |
 | West Point's Yokohama Tire Company plant met only about half of its expected tire production goal in 2018, with company officials pushing the blame primarily to employee turnover and facility issues. The Golden Triangle Development LINK, however -- which helped recruit the plant to the region -- is pointing the finger back at the company. Yokohama released its third-quarter results for 2018, which stated the manufacturer's plan to produce 973,000 tires at West Point in 2018 was well short, producing only 500,000. The report cites insufficient education and training for employees due to its "high turnover rate," as well as production inefficiencies at its $300 million, 1 million square-foot facility. According to the LINK statement, companies such as Steel Dynamics, PACCAR, Stark Aerospace, Airbus Helicopters and International Paper have continued to expand both their facilities and production, all while maintaining a less than 2-percent employee turnover rate. |
| Grant funds to help save threatened battlefield site | |
| The National Park Service announced Monday $28,466 in grants from the American Battlefield Protection Program to help protect 10 acres of America's battlefields in Mississippi threatened with damage or destruction by urban and suburban development. These grants will be used to acquire a portion of the Champion Hill Battlefield, a significant Civil War Battlefield. Following the Union capture of Jackson, Mississippi, Union forces under Major Gen. Ulysses S. Grant met Confederate forces under Major General John C. Pemberton at a vital crossroads known as Champion Hill, halfway between Vicksburg and Jackson. Confederate forces were unable to hold Champion Hill, were outflanked and eventually driven off Champion Hill. The decisive Battle of Champion Hill forced Confederates into the fortifications of Vicksburg and the eventually the surrender of the vital southern city. |
| State education chief blames teacher pay snafu on computer system 'held together by band aids' | |
| The exact number of teachers accidentally left out of funding for a $1,500 pay raise and how much it will cost to cover the budget shortfall will be determined later this month, the Mississippi Department of Education said Wednesday. In a release, the department detailed how the mistake came to be and blamed the error on an information system officials have warned lawmakers is old and unreliable. When the Legislature asked the department for a count of teachers to be included in the raise and how much that would cost, MDE officials used a code in the Mississippi Student Information System referencing state-funded teaching positions. Some teachers are paid with federal funds instead of state funds, and the department used that code in "an overabundance of caution to ensure that federally funded teachers were not captured in the estimate." The problem is that code missed some state-funded teachers, meaning the count omitted some special education, career technical education, gifted classes and teacher assistants, resulting in an incorrect estimate to the Legislature. |
| Madison mayor released from lawsuit over suicide in Cochran nursing home break-in scandal | |
 | A federal judge has dismissed Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins-Butler and a Madison police officer from a lawsuit filed on behalf of the family of an attorney who killed himself. U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves ruled Tuesday that Hawkins-Butler has immunity from the lawsuit. The judge also dismissed Madison Police Officer Chuck Harrison from the lawsuit, saying that he only used an erroneous legal citation to charge attorney Mark Mayfield. However, Reeves allowed the lawsuit to continue against the city of Madison and police officer Vickie Currie. Last year, Reeves ruled Mayfield's widow and sons couldn't sue Butler Snow law firm and its chairman, or Madison Police Chief Gene Waldrop, over claims they were part of a political network illegally retaliating against Mayfield's political activity by pushing him to suicide after he was charged with conspiracy to exploit a vulnerable adult. |
| Hyde-Smith, Wicker praise final antidumping determination on imported Vietnamese catfish fillets | |
 | U.S. Senators Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) on Wednesday praised a final determination on antidumping duties to be imposed on Vietnamese catfish exporters, a move that will help ensure U.S. catfish producers can compete on a more level playing field. The International Trade Administration (ITA) this week issued its final determination on antidumping rates to impose on Vietnamese catfish exporters. The ITA action follows concerns raised by Hyde-Smith, Wicker and six other Senators last fall. In the end, the ITA found that Vietnam firms continue to violate U.S. antidumping laws and the agency imposed higher penalties on offending export companies---some penalties as high as $3.87 per kilogram on imported frozen catfish fillets. "This is a welcome decision for American consumers and our domestic catfish producers who raise high-quality fish for America's dinner tables," Wicker said. "I will continue working to ensure our nation's trade laws are enforced and that Mississippi's catfish farmers are not undercut by inferior and potentially dangerous foreign imports." |
| Alabama Lawmakers Move To Outlaw Abortion In Challenge To Roe V. Wade | |
 | In what would likely become the most restrictive abortion ban in the country, the Alabama House Tuesday passed a bill that would make it a crime for doctors to perform abortions at any stage of a pregnancy, unless a woman's life is threatened. The legislation is part of a broader anti-abortion strategy to prompt the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider the right to abortion. Republican state Rep. Terri Collins of Decatur, Ala. defended her "Human Life Protection Act" during, at times, contentious debate on the House floor. "This bill is focused on that baby that's in the womb that is a person," Collins said. "That baby, I believe, would choose life." Democratic lawmakers walked out in protest before the final 74 to 3 vote. Other states, including neighboring Georgia and Mississippi, have passed laws that prohibit abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected. But Alabama's ban would apply even earlier. |
| Where the statue stands: justification, presentation and approval still needed | |
 | The university is currently working with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to receive a permit for the relocation of the Confederate monument on campus, which must happen before the proposed move can be submitted to the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning for final approval. Almost two months have passed since the student body demanded the relocation of the Confederate monument from the head of the Circle to the Confederate cemetery behind the Tad Smith Coliseum through a unanimously passed Associated Student Body Senate resolution. Yet, the statue remains unmoved. According to MDAH public information officer Michael Morris, the department has already received a notice of intent to move the monument signed by Ian Banner, the university director of facilities planning. President of the IHL Board of Trustees Shane Hooper said that while IHL is the governing body that must approve the relocation, they have not yet been in communication with the university about the proposed move. |
| Renovation of USM's Greene Hall nearing completion | |
 | A $13 million renovation of the University of Southern Mississippi's Joseph Greene Hall is nearly complete. USM administrators hope to have faculty and staff moved in by the end of May. The building once housed the College of Business, but it will now be the new home of the College of Education and Human Sciences. The renovation began in the fall of 2017. |
| East Mississippi Community College: Tuition assistance program will remain intact | |
| "An exchange of erroneous information" led to unnecessary panic over the future of East Mississippi Community College's tuition assistance program for area high school graduates, president Scott Alsobrooks said. EMCC offers tuition assistance for high school graduates from Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Clay, Noxubee, Kemper and Lauderdale counties enrolling at EMCC immediately after high school. The program covers funds not awarded by other grants or scholarships. The program is remaining intact, Alsobrooks said, with funding coming from private donors, as has been the case since the initiative began more than a decade ago. Each year, Alsobrooks said, EMCC awards approximately $200,000 in tuition assistance, which is tasked with completing the finances for students in those counties for the tuition costs of $1,600 a semester for full-time students. The single donor who established the fund passed away earlier this year, causing EMCC to retool its fundraising efforts to bring in multiple donors, Alsobrooks said. This is where he believes the miscommunication came into play. |
| White high school student named salutatorian over black student with better grades, federal lawsuit claims | |
 | An African American woman filed a federal lawsuit against a recently desegregated Mississippi school district last week, claiming a white student was named salutatorian of their graduating class despite having a lower grade-point average. The lawsuit comes weeks before a trial involving the same school district in which a black student alleges she was named "co-valedictorian" with a white student, even though the white student had a lower grade-point average. In 2017, Mississippi's Cleveland School District desegregated after a federal judge found it was operating an illegal dual system for black and white children. A new school, Cleveland Central High, opened after two other schools -- one on the historically white side of town, one on the historically black side of town -- combined. |
| U. of Alabama graduation ceremonies take place this weekend | |
 | More than 6,000 degrees will be awarded this weekend during the University of Alabama's spring commencement exercises. All colleges and schools, including the UA School of Law, will participate in five total ceremonies beginning Friday and ending Sunday afternoon. All ceremonies will be held at Coleman Coliseum. The College of Education, College of Engineering and Capstone College of Nursing will participate in the first ceremony at 4:30 p.m. Friday. At 9 a.m. Saturday, the College of Communication & Information Sciences, College of Human Environmental Sciences and School of Social Work will hold its ceremonies. The Culverhouse College of Business will hold its ceremony at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, followed by the College of Arts & Sciences at 6 p.m. The Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr. School of Law will hold its ceremony at 2 p.m. Sunday. The school will have 125 graduates. |
| Report: free speech on college campuses is not facing a crisis | |
 | As roughly 100 protesters descended on the University of South Carolina Alumni Center last Friday, no police nor university officials stood in their way. When students read a letter at presidential forums signed by faculty and student organizations calling for more gender diversity, nobody cut them off. When the founder of Turning Point USA, a group founded to promote conservative ideals on college campuses, spoke on USC's campus in March, the event was well-attended and supported by conservative students, according to USC's student newspaper, The Daily Gamecock. The day after, a columnist for The Daily Gamecock denounced Turning Point but didn't contest the group's right to speak on campus. A separate columnist, writing the same day, spoke out against censorship. Despite assertions that free speech is "under siege" -- words President Donald Trump used to back up an executive order that ties federal funding to free speech protections -- a recently released report finds that free speech on college campuses is not in a state of crisis. |
| UGA honors its student veterans at cording ceremony | |
 | The University of Georgia honored its military veteran students Wednesday. The ceremony combined the awarding of honor cords to students who are graduating this year and scholarships and other awards that went both to graduating veterans and some whose graduate or undergraduate studies aren't yet finished. This was the sixth such cording ceremony for veteran students staged by UGA's Student Veterans Resource Center. Since it was founded in 2013, the center has helped UGA build a reputation as one of the state's most welcoming universities for veterans, said UGA Dean of Students William McDonald. The university has around 300 students who are veterans, said Ted Barco, the retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who is the center's director. Nearly 50 students were eligible to receive cords. UGA President Jere Morehead shook each student veteran's hand as he or she received a cord, then posed for a professional photographer to take shots of Morehead with the student. A few remain attached to a branch of the military, but most have completed their military service. |
| U. of Florida happy with state-budget share | |
 | As the Florida legislative session nears an end, University of Florida officials said they are happy with the lawmakers' budget appropriations. Mark Kaplan, UF vice president for government and community relations, said UF is on track to receive its sought-after funding for its data science building and music building, and additional funds to help achieve top-5-public-university status. "These funds go to a variety of programs," Kaplan said. "We're pretty pleased with state." Florida secured an additional $25 million to build its new Data Science and Information Technology Building, planned to be built off Museum Road, across from the Reitz Union. The 80,000-square-foot building will house research, lecture, meeting and office space. UF now has a $75 million budget for the project, Kaplan said. UF also will receive $15 million to be used toward its top-5 aspirations. Lawmakers also rebudgeted about $5.9 million previously appropriated for improvements to UF's existing UF School of Music. |
| Brazilian education firm sues U.of Missouri | |
 | Since 2015, the University of Missouri has enrolled thousands of Brazilian students in an online high school offered by the university. In fact, Brazilian students make up more than 4,000 of the 21,000 students enrolled worldwide in Mizzou K-12 Online, an online pre-college program offered to students in 163 countries. And from 2015 through 2018, High School Servicos Educacionais, a Brazilian education firm headquartered in Rio Branco, paid MU $4.89 million as part of a partnership begun in May 2015 to provide the curriculum that prepares students for college work in the United States. In May 2018, MU decided that wasn't enough and sent the company a bill for $4.1 million more. When the company balked at the extra expense, it asked MU to negotiate. After the negotiations, MU sent another bill, this time for $5.1 million, on Jan. 1. On Friday, HSE sued MU in federal court, alleging the university acted in bad faith and in breach of their agreement by seeking to enroll Brazilian students directly, instead of through HSE. |
| An unlikely force brought Missouri's law school together: the dean's cancer battle | |
 | The dean of the University of Missouri School of Law strode into her First Amendment class in Hulston Hall, wearing a black-and-gold scarf around her head. She exuded energy and passion for her topic that Tuesday: commercial speech. "As law students, do you love multifactored tests?" Lyrissa Lidsky asked, referring to a way to assess what qualifies as commercial speech. "No. No one loves multifactored tests." The 20 or so students laughed, and Lidsky launched into a thorough look at the subject. Several of the students wore black-and-gold rubber bracelets with the words "I Am Lidsky Strong." It's one of several gestures of support they and others around campus have shown for the dean as she undergoes treatment for breast cancer. Suzanne Brandon, who works part time in the dean's suite, spearheaded the bracelet project after Lidsky finished her first round of chemotherapy. She said she was inspired by Lidsky routinely coming back to work the Monday after Thursday or Friday treatments. |
| Colleges urged to shun Trump officials tied to family separation | |
 | Progressive groups and immigrant rights advocates are launching a new campaign to keep former Trump administration officials involved in its family separation policy from landing jobs on college campuses. The organizations, which previously urged corporate America to shun departed Trump officials such as former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, are now turning their attention to the academic world. The coalition is running advertisements in the student newspapers at Harvard, Stanford and the University of Virginia. In an open letter to university leaders, the coalition urges them to "make it clear that your college or university will not hire or bestow a fellowship or other honor to anyone involved in the development, implementation, or defense of the Trump administration's family separation immigration policy." Politicians and cabinet officials have long landed roles in the academic world after leaving government service. But that career path has become more polarizing during the Trump era. |
| Planned Merger of Cengage and McGraw-Hill Could Remake College-Textbook Market | |
 | McGraw-Hill and Cengage, two of the country's three biggest textbook publishers, announced on Wednesday that they would merge. The deal, which some in the publishing industry called not surprising given the financial pressures facing the sector, would create a company with the potential for growing influence over the textbook market. Combined, the two companies would have revenues of more than $3.1 billion and 44,000 titles in a range of fields. But the all-stock transaction is also expected to draw scrutiny from federal antitrust regulators -- "justifiably," in the words of one publishing insider -- and might result in one or both companies' divesting assets as a condition of merger approval. Company executives said it was premature to comment on how that might play out. The textbook market is in a period of rapid change. |
| Study: When it comes to research output, where Ph.D.s get hired matters more than where they trained | |
 | A 2015 study found that "social inequality" across a range of disciplines was so bad that just 25 percent of Ph.D. institutions produced 71 to 86 percent of tenured and tenure-track professors, depending on field. The effect was more extreme the farther up the chain the researchers looked, based on their own program ranking system: the top 10 programs in each discipline produced 1.6 to three times more faculty than even the next 10 programs. The top 11 to 20 programs produced 2.3 to 5.6 times more professors than the next 10. In theory, this reflects the quality of those programs. But critics say in-group hiring is also about snobbery. Now computer scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder who led that earlier study say academic pedigree isn't destiny after all -- at least in terms of future productivity. "Our results show that the prestige of faculty's current work environment, not their training environment, drives their future scientific productivity," says the new paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. |
| 'Our family, our friends, our sons:' Honoring the UNC Charlotte students killed on campus | |
| UNC Charlotte students Riley Howell and Ellis Parlier grew up in different parts of North Carolina, each from small towns about 170 miles apart. They didn't have much in common. Howell loved sports and being outside; Parlier dreamed of developing video games one day. The fates of the two young men tragically intertwined this week, when a gunman opened fire on campus Tuesday evening, killing Howell and Parlier and injuring four others. Howell, 21, was from Waynesville, outside of Asheville, and majored in environmental science, according to a memo Wednesday from UNC Charlotte Chancellor Phil Dubois. Parlier, 19, was from Midland, about 20 miles east of Charlotte, and had intended to major in computer science. The UNC Charlotte faculty has approved degrees in memoriam for them, Dubois said in his memo addressed to students, faculty and staff. "Some of us knew these young men as our students, our classmates, our friends, our family, our sons," Dubois said. "For all of us, they were fellow members of Niner Nation, and we will learn and forever remember their names and their legacy." |
SPORTS
| Even-keeled Bulldogs travel to Texas A&M | |
| No. 6 Mississippi State has gone from one extreme to the other over the past two weeks. The Diamond Dogs went from being swept at Arkansas to sweeping Georgia last weekend. MSU will now try to keep trending in the right direction as it travels to No. 14 Texas A&M for a three-game series starting tonight at 6 on the SEC Network. "We've talked a lot lately about being on an even keel because you can get really down after an Arkansas or really up after Georgia," said MSU coach Chris Lemonis. "The reality is we're going to play another great team on the road in a great environment. They're confident but they also know we play in the best league in the country." Game 2 is set for Friday at 6:35 p.m. and Saturday's finale will start at 2 p.m. on the SEC Network. |
| Mississippi State's Jake Mangum refocuses with record hit behind him | |
| The fanfare refused to die. As senior center fielder Jake Mangum stood atop first base at Dudy Noble Field on Saturday afternoon, a grounds crew member arose from the visiting dugout and handed him the physical base. Mangum held it high above his head in victory. The crowd roared while an auto-tuned version of "Your Love" by The Outfield -- Mangum's walk-up song -- blasted around the park. Moments earlier, the Pearl native had broken Eddy Furniss' all-time Southeastern Conference hits record in perhaps the most on-brand way he could -- a bloop single to shallow right field. Mangum is not one for the dramatics. Rather, he's hard-nosed, intense, a leader by example. But Saturday was different. A calmness had come over the normally stone-faced outfielder. There was a sense of reprieve. He even flashed an ear-to-ear smile down the first base line. "It's been a long ride that's flown by," Mangum said. "It feels like just yesterday I was a freshman just trying to get into the lineup and it's crazy how quickly time goes by over these past four years." |
| Maroon makeover: How Texas A&M-bred Elijah MacNamee became a Mississippi State Bulldog | |
| Elijah MacNamee didn't always see himself wearing Mississippi State's shade of maroon. Neither did his father, Phillip Horton. For essentially his entire life before starting college, MacNamee wanted to wear Texas A&M's variety of maroon. It's almost miraculous MacNamee, State's senior right fielder, will trot to his perch in right field in the bottom half of the first inning instead of the top when the No. 7 Bulldogs travel to College Station this week for a three-game series against the No. 19 Aggies. "It was the dream growing up to play at A&M, to be an Aggie" MacNamee said. "But my dad always told me to keep my options open, and my junior college coach said the same thing." So he did. |
| Jake Mangum chose to blaze his own trail at Mississippi State. His legacy is cemented. | |
 | Mississippi sports columnist Rick Cleveland writes: The plan seemed a sound one to this wizened sports writer. Mississippi State's Jake Mangum had pulled to within four hits of the all-time Southeastern Conference hits record. The Bulldogs had a three-game weekend series coming up with Georgia. Previous commitments wouldn't allow me to make Friday or Saturday games. That's OK, I figured, Sunday was probably the day he would break it. He needed five. He'd get close on Friday and Saturday and probably break it on Sunday. He was averaging about 1.7 hits a game, just right. I planned to be there on the big day. You know what happened. Mangum rapped out three hits (and walked twice) in State's Friday night victory, bringing him within two of breaking Eddie Furniss' record. Saturday afternoon, he wasted no time. It took him two innings, two at bats, to get the needed hits. There is a lesson here: Never, ever underestimate Jake Mangum. |
| Golf Dawgs selected for NCAA regional | |
| Mississippi State's men's golf team is headed for the NCAA Championships for the second year in a row. The Bulldogs, led by junior golfer Garrett Johnson and freshman Ford Clegg, were selected as a No. 10 seed for the Louisville Regional, which will be played May 13-15 at the University of Louisville Golf Club in Simpsonville, Kentucky. "I am so proud of this team for getting into regionals for the second consecutive year," MSU men's golf coach Dusty Smith said. "They have bought in and have worked hard for this. We look forward to a great week of preparation." The tournament format calls for teams to play 18-hole rounds each day, beginning May 13. The top five teams and No. 1 individual advance to the NCAA Championships. State is scheduled to makes its 11th team regional appearance in program history. In just his second season as head coach, Smith is the fourth head man to lead the Golf Dawgs to multiple NCAA appearances. |
| Dak Prescott to once again host youth football camp at Mississippi State | |
 | Former Mississippi State and current Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott will hold a youth football camp at his alma mater for the third summer in a row. The Dak Prescott Football ProCamp will be held on Saturday, July 20 and Sunday, July 21 from 9:00 a.m. to noon each day. The camp is open to boys and girls in grades 1-8. Registration and more information is available at DakPrescottCamp.com. |
| Southern Miss, Mississippi State to hold fundraisers for Louisiana Tech athletics | |
 | A couple of Mississippi colleges are helping a neighbor in need. Southern Miss and Mississippi State's athletic departments both announced plans this week to benefit Louisiana Tech, whose campus was ravaged by a tornado on April 25. Mississippi State has added Louisiana Tech to its baseball schedule. The teams will play in Starkville on Tuesday, May 14 at 6:30 p.m. Admission to the game is free for fans, and seating will be general admission. The Salvation Army will be on site accepting monetary donations to support Ruston, La., and Louisiana Tech's campus to aid in recovery from the storm. Southern Miss, meanwhile, will donate the proceeds from its traditional 50/50 baseball raffle from its home game against Florida Atlantic on Friday night. |
| Southern Miss holds off Rebels comeback, defeats Ole Miss 5-3 | |
 | Every time Ole Miss came back, Southern Miss answered. Southern Miss baseball took down visiting Ole Miss on Wednesday, winning 5-3 to improve to 30-13 on the season.The win evened the season series at 1-1, after Ole Miss defeated the Golden Eagles last month in Pearl. With the loss, Ole Miss falls to 30-16 on the year. Senior right-hander J.C. Keys earned the win for Southern Miss, allowing no hits or walks across 2.2 shutout innings with six strikeouts. "Tonight and the past couple of weeks, I feel like our guys have consistently, and I say consistently because that's what's been missing the whole year, consistently we've played good baseball in all phases," Southern Miss coach Scott Berry said. The attendance at Pete Taylor Park Wednesday night was announced at 5,202 fans, the fifth-largest crowd in stadium history. |
| Former LSU player Booger McFarland heads into booth for 'Monday Night Football' broadcast | |
 | ESPN's "Monday Night Football" will go with a two-person booth for the upcoming season, with Booger McFarland joining Joe Tessitore. McFarland was a field-level analyst for most of last season before moving upstairs for the final two games. Jason Witten lasted only one season after deciding in February to end his retirement and rejoin the Dallas Cowboys. Network officials reached out to Peyton Manning, with whom ESPN Executive Vice President Stephanie Druley said they had informal discussions. The network also announced Wednesday that Lisa Salters signed a multiyear contract and will return for her eighth season as the sideline reporter. |
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