| Thursday, October 8, 2026 |
| MSU Extension holds second Magnolia Moves Activity Challenge | |
 | The Mississippi State University Extension will hold the second Magnolia Moves Activity Challenge to encourage people around Mississippi to be active. Extension Agent IV and County Coordinator for Washington County Mrs. Jennifer Russell explained how this activity challenge will work. Russell said people should know that anyone can participate, from youth to adult to mature people. This is for anyone who runs, walks, plays pickleball, or does housework. "This is about getting people healthy and moving," said Russell. "I personally understand the importance of health and moving, so I am actually using the Magnolia Moves as something to start me back up onto a healthier journey of walking and eating right." "Don't beat yourself up when you fall," said Russell. "Just get back up and do it again the next day." |
| Most Americans think artificial intelligence is developing too fast, a new AP-NORC poll finds | |
 | Worries around artificial intelligence cross party lines, with the vast majority of Americans saying the U.S. government should prioritize keeping AI under human control and protecting workers. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that most Americans, 64%, think AI is developing "too fast," while 27% say its development has been "about right" and only 8% say it's moving "too slow." The risk that powerful AI models could evade human control and hurt humanity, once the stuff of science fiction, has been emerging as a more pressing concern. About 8 in 10 U.S. adults say it's "extremely" or "very" important for the U.S. government to ensure that AI stays under human control, and they are about as likely to want the government to prioritize protecting the country's workforce. Most U.S. adults also think minimizing environmental harm and growing the U.S. economy are highly important. About half say this about promoting technological innovation, and slightly fewer say that about competing with China. |
| Alabama public universities reach different conclusions on faculty senate, tenure law | |
| A state law that weakens faculty senates at public universities formally took effect last week, but Alabama's public higher institutions have reacted in starkly different ways to it. HB 580, sponsored by Rep. Troy Stubbs, R-Wetumpka, and signed into law by Gov. Kay Ivey in April, limits the power of faculty senates and also requires staff to submit to post-tenure reviews. The law went into effect on Oct. 1. The law gives governing boards of colleges and universities more control over tenured professors and faculty representation on campuses, including dismissal of tenured professors, abolition of faculty senates and requiring the creation of a post-tenure review process for schools. But school administrations have reacted differently to the law. Some moved over the summer to abolish their faculty senates. Others have committed to maintaining them, either as they are or in a weakened form. In June, Auburn University Board of Trustees voted to dissolve its University Senate and take direct control of curricula, despite an exemption in the law for Auburn and the University of Alabama, which have standing in the state constitution. |
| AU Turning Point USA hosts James Fishback, former Florida GOP gubernatorial candidate | |
| James Fishback, former candidate for governor of Florida, spoke to a classroom full of students in Lowder Hall on Tuesday evening. Fishback was invited by Auburn University's Turning Point USA chapter, which hosted the event. The crowd, made up mostly of college males, cheered on Fishback's speech on the state of Republican politics and how Generation Z can take back the conservative movement. A former hedge fund analyst and investment firm founder, Fishback announced his candidacy for Florida governor on Nov. 24, 2025. During his race, he visited every county in Florida; however, he finished third with 10.5% of the vote. Currently, Fishback is on a self-assembled campus tour, accepting speaking invitations from TPUSA college chapters to appear before students. After visiting Ole Miss on Sept. 29, which drew national media attention, and Auburn on Oct. 6, his social media said he will visit Mississippi State, the University of South Alabama and the University of Alabama in the coming days. Former Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl took to X to call out Auburn's Turning Point USA chapter for hosting Fishback after the visit was announced on social media. "Turning Point Auburn's decision to invite James Fishback to campus is disappointing," Pearl said. "His racist comments about my friend Byron Donald's 'being a slave to his donors' or whether 'he was really black' are unacceptable. You will hear much more from me on this subject! TP is better than this." |
SPORTS
| The midterm elections won't keep Trump from college football on Saturday. A hurricane might | |
| The midterm elections are looming and the first hurricane of the Atlantic Season is menacing the Gulf Coast. But President Donald Trump is really, really hoping the weather doesn't stop him from going to another big college football game -- this one in Alabama on Saturday night. "Well, hurricane and football? I love Alabama. I gotta go to the game. It'd be awfully hard," Trump said Wednesday, when asked if Hurricane Isaias --- and a forecast track which has parts of Alabama, Mississippi and Florida bracing for significant impacts -- might alter his plans. Trump had been set to visit Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa when Alabama hosts Georgia in a Top 10 matchup, following an afternoon rally in Tennessee. Officials are still discussing how the storm might affect the game. But if it happens and Trump is there, it would be the 10th college football game he's attended as president since 2017 -- including the late September game in Knoxville when Texas topped Tennessee 20-17. Trump told reporters on Wednesday "if there's a hurricane, I don't want to do anything" to take the focus of first responders and law enforcement away from the storm, saying he wanted people to be safe. "We'll have to see," he said. |
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