| Tuesday, July 21, 2026 |
| EPA Announces New Members to the Farm, Ranch and Rural Communities Advisory Committee | |
 | Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the appointment of 21 new members to the Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Federal Advisory Committee (FRRCC). The FRRCC provides independent policy advice and recommendations to the Administrator on crucial environmental issues affecting agriculture and rural communities. The committee will focus on several key priorities, including improvements to the technical assistance EPA provides to rural communities, outreach and education on advancing artificial intelligence for precision pesticide application and reduced chemical use in U.S. agriculture, and the critical balance between agricultural conservation, nutrient pollution reduction, and long-term farm viability. The members of the Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Committee include Dr. Whitney Crow, Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi. |
| Former Ole Miss employee contends in appeal of dismissed lawsuit that Chancellor Glenn Boyce caved to hecklers | |
| A former University of Mississippi employee is arguing in a federal appeal that a judge's dismissal of her lawsuit against Chancellor Glenn Boyce would allow a government employer to punish a worker for protected political speech because of backlash from outside critics. Lauren Stokes, the former Ole Miss employee, is asking the appeals court to reverse the dismissal and allow the lawsuit to proceed. The brief, filed Thursday in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, contends that firing a public employee over protected political speech violates the First Amendment. Stokes' appeal also contends that if the ruling dismissing her lawsuit stands, it would have important and risky implications for free speech. "If the district judge is correct, a government employer may terminate an employee for no better reason than external hecklers disagree with her political point of view. No other facts matter," the appeal states. "The First Amendment itself has nothing at all to say about it. That is not the law, but the district judge's orders set a dangerous precedent that affects everyone, whatever their politics." |
| Shrinking student populations cause spike in public school closures across U.S. | |
 | School closures have spiked 35 percent across the country over the past four years, propelled by a shrinking youth population and the end of covid-19 relief funds that had propped up education funding in some places. For the fourth year in a row, the number of school closures rose nationally last year, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics released last week. Districts closed more than 1,000 schools in 2025-26, compared with 755 in 2021-22. And more closures are planned, including districts in Houston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Broward County in Florida. "We call it the big shrink," said Marguerite Roza, who tracks school funding as director of Georgetown University's Edunomics Lab. "Enrollment at public schools is declining, partly because there are fewer kids in the U.S." Public school closures temporarily slowed during the pandemic as administrators focused on dealing with the fallout from covid and tapped relief funds to balance their budgets. But now that the funds have run out, experts say administrators often must close schools to deal with reduced enrollment, which in turn reduces the amount of money they receive from states. |
SPORTS
| Sankey: SEC breakaway talk over college bill 'honest conversations' | |
| SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said Monday that he continues to have conversations with congressional leaders about the Protect College Sports Act but stopped short of saying whether all the conference's suggested changes need to be implemented for it to support the bill. During wide-ranging comments to open SEC media days, Sankey spent a large portion of his remarks discussing the bill, spearheaded by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), which aims to reshape college sports. The SEC does not support the bill in its current form, and Sankey confirmed there have been "real" conversations about whether the league should break away -- as Georgia president Jere Morehead suggested earlier this year. "People have talked about that," Sankey said. "The frustrations that bring them to the point of saying we should look at something significantly different. I do not believe that is a leverage point. I think that's honest communication." |
| SEC commissioner says talks about breaking away are 'real' but that's not what the league wants | |
 | Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey said Monday that leaders of the powerhouse league -- some of them frustrated over the changes upending their industry -- are having "real" conversations about breaking away from the rest of college sports, though that is not the preferred solution. "They're real," Greg Sankey said Monday of talks with school presidents involving the SEC separating itself from the rest of the NCAA. "They've opined about the frustrations that bring them to the point of saying we should look at something significantly different." Sankey's 45-minute meeting with reporters to kick off SEC football media days detailed the several issues that college sports is trying to find solutions for: Congressional legislation, litigation stemming from the new five-year eligibility rule, the future of the College Football Playoff and an overall lack of transparency regarding name, image and likeness payments to players. Sankey acknowledged the conference's unhappiness with the handling of all those issues, but also touted the league's 13 national championships won last season across a variety of sports as a key reason it's in no rush to move away from the current framework. |
| Commissioner Greg Sankey insists SEC breakaway threat is real as rules frustrations linger | |
 | SEC commissioner Greg Sankey reiterated Monday that talk of the conference breaking away is "real," and not a leverage play. The idea of an SEC breakaway from the NCAA -- ranging from making its own rules to staging its own playoff --- has been simmering within the conference for a while, then became a talking point at SEC spring meetings in late May. Sankey did not directly address the possibility during his opening comments Monday, at the start of SEC football media days, but the first question was about how real the breakaway talk was. Notably, Sankey did not downplay it. Sankey also said federal legislation remains a "needed path" for college sports as a whole and that the conference is committed to getting a bill to the finish line. But he also cited "ongoing dialogue" and four broad changes the SEC is promoting to the Protect College Sports Act: legal protections, clear national standards, transparency and accountability with name, image and likeness rules and "fair and consistent standards" for conferences that also preserve institutional choice. On Playoff expansion, Sankey's stance has not changed much, if at all. He continued to stress the need for leaders to understand the interest fans and broadcasters have in a 24-team bracket along with the impact it would have on the regular season. |
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