| Friday, May 3, 2019 |
| National Guard chief addresses Mississippi State grads | |
 | The leader of Mississippi's National Guard is addressing graduates at Mississippi State University. Maj. Gen. Janson "Durr" Boyles, the National Guard's adjutant general since 2016, is speaking to Thursday and Friday at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville. The 1982 graduate is a former national president of Mississippi State's alumni association and leads an insurance agency in civilian life. Mississippi State is awarding honorary degrees to donors George H. Bishop and Kenneth D. Johnson. Bishop is a 1958 petroleum geology graduate who founded a large independent oil company. Johnson was an Air Force colonel and forestry graduate who donated the Col. K.D. Johnson Forest near Lena to Mississippi State. |
| Businesses in Starkville see increase in sales | |
 | Thousands of students will walk across the stage to get their degrees from Mississippi State University Thursday and Friday, and local businesses are reaping the benefits. Jency Montgomery, Bully Shop and Cafe employee, said their sales increased by 25 percent on Thursday compared to other days this week. Every year, they try to prepare for the increase in out of town visitors by stocking up on thank you notes, diploma frames and MSU merchandise. Montgomery's Jewelry manager, Michelle Sharp, said visitors wandering around in downtown Starkville will stop in the shop and end up walking out with jewelry from a place they've been before. She said during graduation weekend, families go in to the shop to get graduation gifts or get gift ideas for Mother's Day. |
| MSU-Meridian holds spring commencement | |
 | One hundred twenty students graduated from Mississippi State University Meridian campus Thursday morning. Graduating students, along with their families and faculty, gathered at the MSU Riley Center to celebrate their college accomplishments. "Honestly, it's so exciting," says Rachel Laird, the Division of Education's outstanding graduate student. "I'm actually the first person in my family, on both sides, to get a master's degree. So it's really exciting. It has really been with the support of my family and friends." Students told Newscenter 11 they have plans for the workforce and for furthering their education after graduating. |
| Riley scholar named outstanding education undergraduate at MSU-Meridian | |
 | After two mission trips to Haiti, Sarah Dover of Meridian knew she wanted a career working with children. That decision led her to Mississippi State University-Meridian, where she was recognized Thursday as the Division of Education's Outstanding Undergraduate Student during spring commencement ceremonies. Dover is the Riley Scholar and, also, is being named a Stephen D. Lee Scholar for maintaining an overall 4.0 grade-point average. She is receiving a bachelor's degree in elementary education. One of three children, Dover was in the 10th grade when her family moved from Hickory to Meridian. After graduating through Meridian Christian Home Educators, a homeschool association, she attended Meridian Community College. "Working with children, whether in Haiti or at my church, is what I love to do," Dover said. "I saw elementary education as a versatile degree that I can use in the public or private school setting, on the mission field or maybe even someday homeschooling any children I may have." |
| Mississippi State University-Meridian Class of 2019 | |
| Photo gallery: Mississippi State University-Meridian graduated 120 students at its 2019 commencement ceremony Thursday at the MSU-Riley Center. |
| Farm-to-table movement growing in popularity | |
 | The farm-to-table movement is becoming increasingly popular across the country as consumers lean toward wanting to support local growers who can provide tasty and fresh produce that doesn't have to be shipped across the country. Dr. Christine Coker, a specialist in urban horticulture vegetables and green roof food systems at the Mississippi State University Coastal Research & Extension Center, said there are new restaurants on the Coast that are locally sourcing ingredients. "The menus will list the farm where they got their ingredients, everything from where they got their vegetables to where they got their grass-fed beef," Coker said. "That is a hot, trendy business thing going on right now. It is really kind of brilliant. Not only is the farmer getting promoted, but the farmers are good promoters of the restaurant. This is especially good for farms that may not be selling direct to the public. They may not be at the farmers' market, but it is great you can find their product at a local restaurant." |
| Green industry in Mississippi grossed $175 million in 2017 | |
| When talking about "green" industries, it doesn't get greener than operations like Salad Days in Flora, a hydroponic farm that is used to grow pesticide-free produce including lettuce and several varieties of tomatoes. The farm operated by Jamie Redmond and Leigh Bailey has a number of environmental benefits. While farms like Salad Days don't have any trouble finding customers, the number of greenhouse growers in Mississippi is in decline, said Dr. Rick Snyder, vegetable specialist, Mississippi State University Extension Service. "There is not a problem finding a market for greenhouse grown tomatoes in Mississippi," Snyder said. "In greenhouse tomato production, the industry peaked in the 1990s and early 2000s. We had about 160 growers in Mississippi. Since the early 2000s, it has gradually declined and very few new operators are going into it. People are exiting the business almost always from age because the market is excellent." Greenhouse production is just one part of the green industry picture in Mississippi. Horticultural crops range from fruits and vegetables to tree nuts, nursery crops, and floriculture, said Dr. Alba J. Collart, assistant professor and Extension economist for the MSU Department of Ag Economics. |
| Showing a 'hole' lot of promise: Pipe Planner key to cutting Delta irrigation levels | |
| Name buzz for no-cost irrigation software Pipe Planner is likely be zero outside of Mississippi and neighboring Delta states, but it figures prominently in plans for sustaining imperiled agricultural water supplies in Delta regions. With the web-based program, growers save water and energy through more-precise irrigation, says the H20 Initiative, a 4-year-old coalition of public and private entities focused on reducing irrigation water use across the Mississippi Delta by 20 percent by 2020. Delta Plastics has offered its free irrigation software since 2015 and counts nearly half of the Mississippi Delta's growers. Adoption should be higher, though its user-growth has outpaced other regions, said Dr. Jason Krutz, director of the Mississippi Water Resources Institute at Mississippi State University and former executive director of the H20 Initiative. Krutz, a former irrigation specialist at the Delta Research and Extension Center at Stoneville, said the aquifer is losing more than it is gaining from recharging. The imbalance is not unexpected in heavily agricultural regions such as the Delta, he said. |
| AUVSI announces new board of directors | |
 | The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) has announced new members of its board of directors. The new board members and officers will start their terms on May 2 at the conclusion of XPONENTIAL 2019, AUVSI's annual tradeshow and conference, which was held this week at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois. Mark Gordon, Stratom, Inc., was elected as chairman of the board. Other executive committee members elected to new terms are Suzy Young, University of Alabama, Huntsville, as executive vice chairman, and Bill Irby, L3 Technologies, as treasurer. Outgoing chairman Dallas Brooks, Mississippi State University and ASSURE UAS Center of Excellence, continues to serve on the executive committee as immediate past chairman. |
| Superintendent: 'Disrespectful and disruptive behaviors' have become commonplace at AMS | |
 | "Blatant disrespect" by students toward staff at Armstrong Middle School has prompted Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District Superintendent Eddie Peasant to email parents that if the behavior continues, law enforcement will be called to remove students and even parents from campus. Peasant sent the email Tuesday night after what he described as "disrespectful and disruptive behaviors" had become so commonplace at the middle school that it was interfering with the learning environment. In the email, Peasant also urges parents to address their children's school behavior at home. SOCSD School Board President John Brown and Vice President Debra Prince both said they were unaware of specific incidents or what prompted Peasant to address parents, but both agreed student behavior tends to worsen closer to the end of the year. The last day of school for students is May 23. |
| Lexington-based coffee company invests $2M to expand, expects to add 55 jobs | |
| Lexington-based Southern Coffee Services is expanding its operations in a $2 million corporate investment that is expected to create 55 jobs over three years. Southern Coffee aims to develop "sustainable businesses focused on restoring and strengthening the local communities. for generation," Chuck Lovorn, chief executive, said in a news release. Lovorn said in an interview that the "intent is to hire in Holmes County," The Holmes Career Center will screen potential employees, he said. Lovorn is owner of the Calhoun City-based Creative Group, which helps launch start-ups and is a third-party logistics company, handling distribution for businesses, even in foreign countries. His business produces cowbells for Mississippi State University, his alma mater, he said. The opportunity to grow a Holmes-based business presented itself in February 2018 when Chenoa Coffee Co., a nonprofit that was operating the Lexington Coffee Co., converted to a for-profit company doing business as Southern Coffee Services. |
| Senator Roger Wicker questions Navy and Marine Corps on shipbuilding programs | |
| This week, Senator Roger Wicker, who is a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, attended a hearing to consider Admiral William F. Moran, the nominee for Chief of Naval Operations, and Lieutenant General David H. Berger, who was nominated to be Commandant of the Marine Corps. Wicker asked the presumptive service leaders about their support for important shipbuilding programs, including the LPD and LHA class amphibious ships that are built in Mississippi. LHA 9 and LPD 31 secured significant funding from Congress in last year's defense appropriations bill, but the Office of Management and Budget removed the ships from this year's budget proposal. "I think we have the flexibility and capability and smarts to find a way to move money around and go ahead and stick with the plan that we enacted last year," Wicker told the panel. Amphibious ships enable the Navy and Marine Corps to launch close range attacks in contested environments like the ones found in the Pacific Ocean near China. |
| Wicker lobbies president on shipping rules | |
 | Both Mississippi United States senators sat in on a closed door meeting with President Donald Trump over shipping regulations. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, both Republicans, were among lawmakers lobbying the president to maintain Jones Act regulations requiring that U.S. flagged vessels must be used to transport goods between U.S. ports. Other lawmakers present at Wednesday's meeting included the senators from the states of Louisiana and Alaska, and a House of Representatives member from Louisiana. Wicker chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Following Thursday's meeting, Wicker praised Trump's reported decision to leave Jones Act regulations untouched. "I organized this meeting today with President @realDonaldTrump and am very pleased with the result," Wicker said on Twitter. "The President's decision to maintain the #JonesAct is a victory for American jobs and national security." Shipbuilding is a significant industry on Mississippi's Gulf Coast. |
| Poll: Support for free college among young people | |
 | More than half of young adults, many of them in the traditional college age range, support plans to make public universities free, even if it costs billions of dollars, according to new data from Harvard University. The Institute of Politics at Harvard's Kennedy School has released an annual poll -- notable in that it's created by undergraduates -- for two decades. The poll asks about many of the issues du jour, and the students with the institute this year included questions about free college plans, which have come under new scrutiny as candidates for the 2020 presidential election ramp up their campaigns. The students polled more than 3,000 people ages 18 to 29. About 51 percent of those who answered the poll said they to some degree supported free college. Proposals for tuition-free college can vary. |
| 'Do They Kick Out Pregnant People?' Navigating College With Kids | |
 | When Akiya Parks first got to campus at the University of Florida, everything was new and exciting. Her mom and brother had driven her to campus and moved her into the dorms, she'd agreed to try a long-distance relationship with her high school boyfriend, she was ready to start a new chapter in Gainesville. This was a dream come true: No one in Parks' family had ever gone to college before, and her good grades, volunteer work and commitment to her community had earned her a full-ride scholarship -- nearly everything was paid for. She got a new laptop, she bonded with her roommate and she crafted her schedule. But a few weeks into classes, she started feeling sick. At first, she thought college food just wasn't sitting well, but it wasn't the food. She was pregnant. "I went back to my dorm, crying. Devastated," Parks recalls. "I didn't know how college worked. Do they kick out pregnant people? I just didn't know any of the answers to my questions." Of course, what Parks didn't know, is that nearly 4 million college students are doing this right now -- that's about a fifth of all undergraduates. |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State baseball series opener at Texas A&M postponed | |
| A downpour of rain and steady lighting strikes throughout the evening forced the postponement of the Mississippi State baseball program's series opener at Texas A&M on Thursday evening. The two teams will now look to start a doubleheader at 4 p.m. on Friday at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park, with both games available via SEC Network+ and the Mississippi State Radio Network. The series between the Diamond Dawgs (36-9, 13-8 SEC) and the Aggies (31-15-1, 11-9-1 SEC) will wrap up on Saturday at 2 p.m. on the SEC Network. |
| Rain alters schedule for Texas A&M's baseball series against Mississippi State | |
 | Texas A&M's Southeastern Conference baseball series opener against Mississippi State on Thursday night at Blue Bell Park was postponed because of rain. The teams will play a doubleheader Friday. Game 1 will begin at 4 p.m. with the second game to follow. Both games will be nine innings. The final game of the series remains at 2 p.m. Saturday. Per SEC rules, series that start Thursday must be completed by Saturday. Seventh-ranked Mississippi State (36-9, 13-8) is second in the SEC West behind sixth-ranked Arkansas (35-11, 5-6). The 17th-ranked Aggies (31-15-1, 11-9-1) are in fifth place. Thursday's postponement is the fourth time rain has altered the Aggies' SEC schedule this season. |
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