| Wednesday, July 29, 2026 |
| Taking Flight: Agricultural Drones | |
 | Not long ago, agricultural drones were little more than flying cameras. Farmers flew them to inspect irrigation systems, scout for insect damage or survey fields after severe weather. The unmanned aircraft provided a bird's-eye view that saved time, reduced labor and gave farmers information they couldn't easily gather from their truck or tractor. Today, those same drones are being asked to do more than observe. They're applying herbicides and fungicides, spreading fertilizer, planting cover crops and creating new business opportunities for custom applicators across Mississippi. While the technology is still in its early stages with plenty of problems to overcome, researchers at Mississippi State University believe agricultural drones are poised to become another essential tool in modern farming. "We've moved from drones simply collecting information to drones actually doing work," said Madison Dixon, Associate Director of the Mississippi State University (MSU) Agricultural Autonomy Institute (AAI). "That's really where the industry is changing." |
| The science behind the slice | |
 | Last Wednesday, farmers and hobby gardeners stood together in a dusty, dry field in Starkville. At their feet were watermelon vines, planted by the dozens across a few acres. Some vines ended in withered stems, with no fruit in sight. Some had managed to grow melons that were small and unsuitable for sale -- labeled as "unmarketable" by the brochure everyone was holding. Other vines had green, vigorous growth with large melons waiting to be picked and more fruit clearly forming. As the group gazed at the field and their brochures, a scientist with Mississippi State University explained that they were looking at a "Watermelon Variety Trial." All of the melons were grown with the exact same fertilizer, but zero pesticides or herbicides – left to fend off the many diseases and numerous pests of Mississippi using their own genetic defenses. According to Taylor Blaise, a graduate student at MSU, this was by design. Blaise pointed at a group of vines clearly struggling. The fruit was tiny, misshapen and already rotting. The vine had fizzled out at the end, seemingly having given up on making any more melons. The group was partaking in MSU's first Watermelon Field Day, held at the R.R. Foil Plant Science Research Center, commonly known as North Farm. The science-based workshop brought together growers, gardeners and plant science enthusiasts as graduate students and faculty presented their latest watermelon research. |
| Reused rice tailwater shows water savings | |
 | According to an MSU press release, rice production requires a significant amount of water, and while Mississippi still has plentiful supplies of this resource, careful managers are finding ways to cut use of this diminishing resource. One method that shows tremendous promise is recirculating tailwater in rice production. Tailwater describes water from precipitation or irrigation that runs off the field. In a recirculating system, that runoff water is reused by being sent back on the field. Even though rice is a small crop across the Southeast, growing it accounts for almost half of the groundwater extracted from the Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer. For the last three years, Mississippi State University researchers have been recirculating tailwater in furrow-irrigated rice and finding significant water savings. Dave Spencer, irrigation and water quality specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said traditional rice production uses a constant freshwater flood. MSU has been leading a multi-state research project that has been recirculating tailwater in rice production and investigating the effects on yield and water use. |
| USDA announces plan to reopen ports along U.S.-Mexico border for livestock trade | |
 | With closures lingering for over a year now, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it plans on reopening ports in the southwest U.S. for livestock trade. Those ports were closed in May of 2025 to prevent screwworm infections in the U.S., as cases were ramping up in South and Central America. The screwworm was detected domestically earlier this year, though, after they'd been fully eradicated in the U.S. since the late 1960s. Reopening will start in Douglas, Arizona on August 24, with a plan to reopen other ports in New Mexico in phases based on the success of operations in Arizona. Douglas is roughly 325 miles from the nearest active case. Josh Maples, an agricultural economist specializing in livestock marketing and policy at Mississippi State University, said that opening select ports, along with full NWS inspections, should help mitigate risks. "They're not coming in in the South Texas area in the initial ports they're come in; it's not gonna be very many cattle," said Maples. "We're just trying to see if we can get this going again to support the feed lots in those areas." Those feed lots are a key point to current livestock trade across the U.S.-Mexico border. Many of cattle coming across Mexico, said Maples, go to feed lots to specifically be processed into beef. While Mississippi has been at low risk for screwworm infections because of distance, the economics of reopening ports could affect livestock industry in the state. "If you're a producer here in Mississippi and you're selling feeder cattle, cattle to go into feedlots eventually, this is potentially some more cattle coming in that your cattle are then competing with," said Maples. |
| Economist says recent cattle price declines don't necessarily signal a long-term downturn | |
| Josh Maples with Mississippi State University Extension tells Brownfield the five area price is currently about $230 per hundredweight. "This is down about 11% from a month ago," he says. "And it's down about 12% from the high that we saw back in mid-May when we were up over $260 per hundredweight." He says the futures market and boxed beef sector have also been under pressure and it's possible that this is a mid-year correction. "We could easily see these prices pick back up steam again as we head into the fall," he says. "We've had some pretty tough packer margins, quite frankly, for a while now. So some of this could just kind of be some correction to address some of that." "But, I don't really see this as a clear signal of, hey, the good times are over," he says. "I see this as something that's been going on for the last couple of months and not that we've embarked on this new long run downward trajectory." |
| Dry Pastures Continue Limiting U.S. Cattle Herd Expansion | |
| Pasture conditions have improved in several regions, but forage stress remains worse than last year and continues limiting cattle herd expansion. Mississippi State University livestock economist Dr. Josh Maples says moisture shortages remain a major constraint. In the Southeast, pasture rated poor or very poor improved from about 36 percent in early May to 26 percent in early July. That remains far above last year's 6 percent and the five-year average near 15 percent. Texas and Oklahoma improved from roughly 38 percent poor or very poor to 29 percent. Conditions remain worse than last year but are close to the regional five-year average of 26 percent. The Great Plains remain the most stressed region, with about 40 percent rated poor or very poor. Western conditions are comparatively better, running below both last year and the five-year average. Limited forage reduces carrying capacity, slows heifer retention, and raises supplemental feed costs. Southern producers are also dealing with pasture mealybugs damaging bermudagrass and other forage. |
| Soil pH critical for forage production in Southeastern states | |
| Mississippi is a significant player in the nation's beef cattle production, and to do that efficiently requires a lot of land managed as pastures and for hay production. Brandi Karisch, Extension beef specialist, said the amount of hay and forage needed for a beef herd depends on the nutritive value of the forage and the size of the livestock eating it. "A general rule of thumb is that a cow will eat around 2.5% of her body weight in dry matter per day," Karisch said. "For example, a 1,200-pound cow will eat approximately 30 to 33 pounds of hay each day. Growing pasture contains a lot more moisture than dry hay, so that same size cow may eat 40 pounds of growing forage in a day." In the Southeast, one of the biggest limiting factors in forage production is soil pH, said Rocky Lemus, forage specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. "Liming becomes a critical management practice to neutralize soil acidity, enhance nutrient availability and boost forage productivity," Lemus said. "Liming must be the first target of any fertility program before any other nutrients are added to the system." |
| Twin brothers, MSU grads, power through non-verbal autism, find home and voice | |
| Twenty years before Kirklyn Johnson stood in front of thousands of onlookers at his 2026 Mississippi State commencement ceremony to sing the National Anthem, his parents were told he might never speak a word. When twin brothers Kirk and Kirklyn were diagnosed with non-verbal autism at three years old, they were already missing the typical milestones of early childhood. Their parents, Shae and Stan Johnson, refused to let a medical diagnosis define the limits of their boys' lives. So, they started early interventions to give their sons the support they needed. They held onto faith and looked for clues. They found them in the pews of their local church in Houston, where the twins' eyes would light up the moment the choir began to sing. Kirklyn graduated from Houston High School and completed two years at Northeast Mississippi Community College before setting his sights on MSU. Meanwhile, Kirk earned a completion certificate from Houston High and looked for his next steps to grow. Both found their answers at Mississippi State. |
| Jacksonville native Brett Thornburg wins Southeast Emmy | |
| From filming stop-motion Hot Wheels movies on a Flip HD camera as a child, to directing complex university narratives, Jacksonville native Brett Thornburg has maintained a single focus: storytelling. That focus recently earned the Jacksonville State University alumnus his first Southeast Emmy Award. The Regional Southeast Emmy Chapter, one of 19 chapters under the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, celebrates local and regional television excellence across Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Asheville, North Carolina. Thornburg, a video producer at the Mississippi State Television Center, took home top honors in the Historical/Cultural Long Form Content category for his work on "Ring Your Bell and Tell Your Tale." The nearly 30-minute documentary explores the integration era of Mississippi State University through the eyes of the "Black Pioneers," the first major cohort of Black students to attend the institution. "My supervisor David Garraway was another main producer on it. He was the one who helped organize a lot of things behind the scenes and interact with a lot of these individuals. One of my fellow producers here at the TV center, Don Warren, did a lot of the interviewing with David before I got here," explained Thornburg. Thornburg says that major supporters for the project included MSU vice president of strategic communications Sid Salter, MSU vice president of access, opportunity and success Ra’Sheda Forbes and MSU President Dr. Mark Keenum. |
| SOCSD asks for $4.7M more next year from taxpayers | |
| Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District plans to ask for roughly $4.7 million more from county taxpayers next fiscal year. The majority of the increase will service debt on a new high school under construction at Mississippi State University that could carry a price tag of up to $127 million -- the most expensive public school build in the state's history. But with property values expected to rise an estimated 21.5% next year, primarily from a reassessment from the Mississippi Department of Revenue that raised home and commercial values, the school district's tax rate can drop and still generate a higher total. What that means for taxpayers: the owner of a house valued now valued at $100,000 house will see that value rise to $121,500 and can expect to pay $91.12 more in school taxes next year with a homestead exemption and $136.70 more without homestead. That does not count any potential increases coming from Starkville or Oktibbeha County taxes. In total, SOCSD plans to request $38.4 million next fiscal year, compared to the roughly $33.7 million collected this year. |
| Baptist plans to add 100 physicians to region over next 5 years | |
| Baptist Memorial Health Care is aiming to hire 100 new physicians over the next five years to meet the demands of the Golden Triangle. Those new hires are just one of several ways Baptist is planning to improve its practices in Lowndes and Oktibbeha counties, Justin Rhodes, CEO of Baptist Medical Group, told the Rotary Club of Columbus on Tuesday at Lion Hills Center. "The health care system that we have today is not necessarily the health care system that we need to have for the growth of tomorrow," Rhodes said. "And so, a lot of our time is spent on determining what is needed, what do we need to invest in? (And) how do we grow access?" Rhodes said since Baptist purchased OCH Regional Medical Center in Starkville in October, there have been significant improvements to modernize its facilities. Since its purchase the facility, now renamed Baptist Memorial Hospital-Oktibbeha County, has regained its Level 3 Trauma and Care status and kickstarted Baptist Onecare MyChart, its online health care record-keeping system. Rhodes said beyond that systemic improvement to hospital care in the area, Baptist is also exploring expanding its outreach in both counties by potentially adding new clinics. |
| SPD says no officers fired shots during fatal encounter | |
| Moments before dying Monday of what police say was a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a Starkville man -- 31-year-old Quontavious Wilborn -- livestreamed himself fleeing police, telling those watching "I'm done with this." At the same, a Starkville Police Department officer armed with a rifle searching for Wilborn hears a single gunshot and ducks beside a nearby vehicle seconds before radioing in a self-inflicted gunshot wound. "We know that that rifle did not discharge," Police Chief Mark Ballard said during a Tuesday morning press conference at SPD headquarters. "When you hear gunfire (on the bodycam footage), you hear the officer startled, and he's going to run behind the vehicle. He thinks he's being shot at." The Monday night scene played out on portions of bodycam footage, radio communication and a screen recording of Wilborn's Facebook Live video, during which he says, "I'm finna kill myself on live." Ballard showed media members the footage during the press conference. "Because we recognize the situation here, we feel that the best way of coming forward with an event like this is being fully transparent and giving as much information as we can," Ballard told The Dispatch after the press conference. |
| First half of Gordo bypass opens | |
| If you're driving to Tuscaloosa from Columbus, be prepared to take a different -- and quicker -- route. The Alabama Department of Transportation opened the first part of the new Gordo bypass Tuesday afternoon, July 28. "I think for the town of Gordo, we're excited about it, a little bit hesitant about it. But you know, it's just going to take us getting used to it. But it's going to be great once it's fully open," said Gordo Mayor Robin Edgeworth. With the new bypass, also come name changes for the highways. The road you would originally use to travel to or through Gordo will be called Highway 482. And the bypass will be the new Highway 82. "It's kind of been a work in progress. It's a brand new road, it's not that they've widened an existing road or anything like that. It's a completely new road," said Edgeworth. To help with traffic from Pickens to Tuscaloosa County, the full bypass will eventually have four lanes. The full bypass is expected to be complete by early summer 2027. |
| Meridian Regional Airport sees booming summertime travel after small spring travel delays | |
 | The dog days of summer are here, and summertime travel is still in full-swing. Although earlier this year, TSA funding was disrupted by a government shutdown, Key Field remained mostly unfazed. Tom Williams with the Meridian Regional Airport Authority says Meridian saw very little drop because their TSA agents were dependable and kept coming, even while the government remained closed. "Meridian agents continued to come to work, continued to do their job, and there would have normally been absolutely no impact on passenger travel out of Meridian. They were here to screen passengers, did their job, unlike some larger airports where they just did not come to work because they needed to do something to earn a paycheck." Williams added that while there may have been a brief throttling of air travel back in the spring, there is certainly no slowdown for the summer. Williams attributes the increase to people flying locally, using smaller airports for cheaper travel across the county. "More and more people are coming to understand the convenience and really the cost effectiveness of a small airport. You park right by the front door, you pay two dollars a night for parking, you're not in long lines, there's every reason in the world to fly out of a small airport." |
| Hosemann appoints Senators to joint redistricting committee | |
| The redistricting conversation continues in Mississippi, and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has appointed senators from all four of the state's congressional districts to assess the prospect of drawing new lines. Hosemann announced Monday his members of the Mississippi Joint Committee on Reapportionment and Redistricting following U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which determined that states cannot lean on race when drawing voting maps. Chairing the committee is Sen. Jeremy England (R-Vancleave) with fellow Sen. Lane Taylor (R-Philadelphia) serving as co-chair. The committee members include two representatives from each of the four congressional districts, including: Congressional District 1: Sen. Daniel Sparks (R-Belmont) and Sen. Angela Turner-Ford (D-West Point) and Congressional District 3: Sen. Josh Harkins (R-Flowood) and Sen. Dean Kirby (R-Pearl). |
| Senator Wicker backs Russia, Iran sanctions bill named for the late Graham as Zelensky stumps on Capitol Hill | |
| Mississippi U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R) rose Tuesday to speak on the floor of the Senate in support of the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, named in memory of the recently deceased Senator from South Carolina. On the same day, a funeral service for Graham was held in Washington D.C. which drew attendees from across the globe, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While in D.C., Zelensky also met with congressional leaders in both parties on Capitol Hill as well as President Donald Trump (R). As Senate Armed Services Committee chairman and a friend of Graham, Wicker was in attendance at the meeting with Zelensky and the funeral for his former colleague. Senator Wicker's floor speech Tuesday urged members to support the sanctions against Russia and Iran, saying the measure "could turn out to be Lindsey Graham's greatest policy achievement." Following Wicker's remarks, the Senate moved the legislation forward in an 86 to 12 procedural vote. |
| Coast leaders push Congress to protect Mississippi Sound from Bonnet Carré Spillway openings | |
 | Members of the Mississippi Sound Coalition met Tuesday at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College with U.S. Reps. Mike Ezell and Trent Kelly, urging them to support the proposed Northern Gulf Estuary Protection Act. The legislation would require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take a longer-term approach to managing Mississippi River flooding rather than relying on emergency spillway openings. Adam Telle, assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works, attended the meeting and heard testimony on the impact of repeated Bonnet Carré Spillway openings, which send freshwater, sediment and pollution into the Mississippi Sound. "The fundamentals are really good for this organization," Telle said. "We work every day to try to make a difference." Rep. Ezell said he supports any solution that could reduce the impact of future spillway openings on the Mississippi Sound. |
| Trump threatens to hit Iran 'hard' following missile attack on U.S. assets | |
 | President Donald Trump threatened Wednesday to hit Iran "hard," after U.S. officials said Iran had launched a ballistic missile attack, which was intercepted, on U.S. military assets in the region. The comments followed U.S. and Saudi joint strikes targeting Iranian-backed forces in Iraq overnight, in what appeared to be Riyadh's entry into the conflict between Washington and Tehran. Iran is "going to get a beating," Trump told a Fox News correspondent in a phone interview. The president said U.S. forces had only minutes to thwart the missile attack, Fox News reported. Earlier Wednesday, Iran said it had targeted a U.S. base in Jordan in response to "aggressive actions by the U.S. military," and Jordan said its air defenses intercepted five Iranian missiles. The Saudis' role represents a "major step" in the conflict for Riyadh, one that may signal deeper involvement to come, said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. "They've lost patience and taken a step that they've been reluctant to take in the past, directly attacking other Arab organizations," Cancian said. "It's also important because it might signal that the Saudis would be willing to allow the United States to use bases in Saudi Arabia, whether for attacks directly on Iran or for operations" in the Strait of Hormuz. |
| Fauci Invokes the Fifth Amendment, Refusing to Answer Senate Committee Questions | |
 | Dr. Anthony S. Fauci refused on Wednesday to answer questions from a Senate committee investigating the origins of Covid-19, accusing the panel's chairman of having an "unhinged obsession with me" before invoking his constitutional right under the Fifth Amendment not to incriminate himself. "On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution," Dr. Fauci said repeatedly, as Republican members of the Senate Homeland Security Committee questioned him. Senator Rand Paul, the panel's chairman, pointedly warned the scientist that there would "be repercussions" for his refusal to answer questions. When a lawyer for Dr. Fauci, David Schertler, piped up to defend him, Mr. Paul ordered security to escort Mr. Schertler from the room. "He was not invited to testify," the senator later said. The decision not to testify marked the latest turn in the long-running battle between Dr. Fauci, who spent nearly four decades as the government's top infectious disease expert, and Senator Paul, who accuses Dr. Fauci of funding research in China that sparked the pandemic, and then lying about it to Congress -- accusations Dr. Fauci vehemently denies. |
| Republicans shunned the nation's cyber agency. They're now trying to save it. | |
 | The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has been castigated by the Trump administration over its past efforts to call out election-related disinformation. But new fears about artificial intelligence-powered hacking and the security of the upcoming midterm elections have lifted the agency from exile. A growing number of Republicans are advocating for rehiring staff and restoring funding to the nation's cyber agency, following a torrent of punitive measures against CISA over the past 18 months. The agency fell out of favor with President Donald Trump in 2020 after former CISA Director Christopher Krebs said the presidential elections were the "most secure in American history" -- an assertion that Trump has repeatedly refuted -- and it has drawn his ire ever since. Among those leading the effort to rehabilitate CISA's image are Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who head key House panels with oversight of federal cyber policy. Bacon and Garbarino's advocacy appears to have spread goodwill toward CISA among previously unsupportive members of the GOP. |
| Jay Clayton confirmed as director of national intelligence | |
 | The Senate on Tuesday evening confirmed Walter "Jay" Clayton to be President Donald Trump's new director of national intelligence. It was a party-line vote of 51-47, with no Democrats joining Republicans. Clayton will replace Bill Pulte, whose temporary appointment last month riled many Democrats after the resignation of former DNI Tulsi Gabbard. Calling him a "proven leader," Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., pointed to Clayton's high-profile work as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, like prosecuting terrorists and helping to indict Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro. "Jay Clayton's record inspires confidence in the type of DNI that he will be," Thune said this week on the floor. But even as Democrats were eager to replace Pulte, they soured on Clayton, saying his performance in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this month raised concerns. They pressed him on subpoenas of New York Times reporters and complained he dodged questions about who won the 2020 election. |
| To win over working-class voters, Democrats need to stop talking about democracy | |
 | There's an active debate in Democratic politics between progressives and moderates about how to build a winning coalition. A new report from a pair of California researchers, shared exclusively with NPR, argues that debate misses the point. The answer isn't centrism, they write, it's respect for where working-class voters are coming from. "It's about understanding that people need a sense of personal and economic security before they will support the changes progressives are calling for," the authors write. The report's authors are, to put a label on it, college-educated coastal elites. Joan C. Williams is a law professor from San Francisco who is known for her work in diversity, equity and inclusion. Jared Abbott leads the Center for Working Class Politics and has a Ph.D. from Harvard. Their intended audience is people who share their progressive politics. Their message is that the Democratic Party would be making a huge mistake if it keeps catering to social justice warriors and fails to understand, respect and appeal to working-class voters. "The path heavily favors the party that wins working-class voters," the report explains. "If progressives want to build working-class support, they need to connect with people whose top priorities are paychecks, prices and personal safety," the report states. |
| A Small Band of Socialists Is Sowing Panic in the Democratic Party | |
 | Megan Romer likes to spend her free time sewing costumes for school plays, picking blackberries in her backyard in rural Cayuga County, N.Y., and watching her partner play the fiddle in folk bands. In her day job, she is seeking to overthrow capitalism. Romer, 42 years old, is the national co-chairwoman of the Democratic Socialists of America, the far-left organization whose candidates have swept to victory in several recent high-profile races by preying on Democratic incumbents. Already, the DSA's advances are stirring consternation---and sometimes panic--among mainstream Democrats dreading their own Tea Party moment in which a radical fringe hijacks the party and taints their brand just as they are trying to appeal to swing voters to win control of Congress in November's midterms. Already, the DSA's advances are stirring consternation -- and sometimes panic -- among mainstream Democrats dreading their own Tea Party moment in which a radical fringe hijacks the party and taints their brand just as they are trying to appeal to swing voters to win control of Congress in November's midterms. Once a baby boomer relic, the DSA now counts more than 120,000 members, about half of whom joined since late 2024, after Israel's war in Gaza ignited campus protests nationwide and energized young recruits. |
| Education and Research building will be closed for renovations | |
| Major changes are coming to the Institutions of Higher Learning Building in Jackson that will close the facility for several weeks. Two major construction projects are scheduled for the campus of the Education and Research Center on Ridgewood Road in Jackson. The first will focus on roads and parking. It will also include foundation issues, resurfacing and tree removal. That project begins in late August or early September and run through February, 2027. The second project which will begin in late August will include renovations for plumbing, break rooms and bathrooms. The first six to eight weeks of the project will require the building to be completely closed off for the removal of asbestos. Some employees will work remotely. The project is expected to be finished by March of 2027. John Sewell, Director of Communications for IHL tells 3 On Your Side six agencies housed at the facility will be effected including, the State Institutions of Higher Learning, the Community College Board, University Press, the Commission on Volunteer Services, the Ethics Commission and Mississippi Humanities Council. |
| U. of Mississippi launches sleep research partnership with local cannabis company | |
| The University of Mississippi and a local cannabis company are partnering for research purposes. Representatives from the National Center for Cannabis Research Education at Ole Miss and Southern Sky Brands will work together to evaluate the effects of CBD on sleep quality among adult participants. The study will serve to conduct evidence-based research on CBD therapies and their potential role in supporting healthy sleep. Specifically, researchers will examine outcomes such as: sleep duration, sleep quality, and participant-reported wellness measures. Established in 2022, the National Center for Cannabis Research is dedicated to advancing scientific understanding of cannabis through research, education, and public outreach. The center builds upon the University of Mississippi's decades-long work in cannabis and CBD research. |
| Alcorn State professor catches AI on midterm exam | |
| An Alcorn State University professor exposed AI use on a college midterm exam by embedding a hidden word in the assignment, leading to dozens of students failing. Dr. Jason Gibson said he hid the word "Madagascar" in white text within an online midterm prompt. Students reading the assignment normally could not see the word, but AI chatbots could detect it if the prompt was copied and pasted. When Gibson graded the exams, he found bizarre AI-generated phrases in the students' answers, which led him to fail that portion of the exam. Gibson said his goal was not to embarrass students but to reinforce academic integrity. In a follow-up video, Gibson said he has no intention of using the same method again. |
| Walton Family Foundation donates $10 million for building at UA's Sam M. Walton College of Business | |
| A $10 million grant from the Walton Family Foundation will support the construction of a new academic building at the University of Arkansas' Sam M. Walton College of Business, the UA announced Tuesday. The business school received the grant to fund the construction of Mandy and Bill Dillard II Hall, a news release from the college says. The building will expand classroom capacity, strengthen student collaboration and support the college's continued growth, the release says. Dillard Hall will sit on the corner of North Harmon Avenue and West Fairview Street and will add around 100,000 feet of academic space including classrooms, study areas, collaboration spaces and the McMillon Innovation Studio, the release says. "This grant will help ensure that generations of University of Arkansas business students learn, collaborate and prepare for meaningful careers in spaces that match the world-class education and opportunities Walton College provides," UA Chancellor Charles Robinson said. |
| UGA School of Medicine welcomes inaugural class | |
| The University of Georgia School of Medicine officially welcomed 64 students into its inaugural class this week. These 64 students were chosen from more than 2,000 applications submitted during a two-week admissions cycle, according to a UGA press release. School of Medicine officials interviewed 235 students before extending offers of admission. This inaugural class reflects the School of Medicine's mission to strengthen the physician workforce in Georgia. 95% of students in the inaugural class are Georgia residents, and 80% of the inaugural class received their undergraduate degrees from in-state institutions. 37.5% of the class graduated from UGA. The class held an average MCAT score of 514 and an average GPA of 3.85. Additionally, the class includes seven first-generation students. Upcoming milestones for the Medical School include the White Coat Ceremony in August and the opening of the new medical education and research building in December. |
| Florida's Great Conservative Crack-Up | |
 | When Gov. Ron DeSantis began transforming Florida into the place "where woke goes to die," he turned to Christopher Rufo for help. As the Republican governor set out to remake the state's universities, Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, became one of his most effective outside allies -- supplying policy blueprints and social-media firepower for an ambitious conservative overhaul. In return, Florida became Rufo's proving ground, elevating the up-and-coming activist into one of the movement's most influential cheerleaders. Even after carrying his crusade against diversity, equity, and inclusion to President Trump's Washington, Rufo never lost interest in Florida. Last month, he reentered the state's higher-ed wars as the University of Florida prepared to install Stuart Bell, the University of Alabama's former leader, as its next president. From his perch on X, where he commands nearly 850,000 followers, Rufo amplified criticism from some of his Manhattan Institute compatriots over Bell's record on DEI while raising questions about the extraordinary influence of the university board's chairman, Morteza (Mori) Hosseini. The criticism struck a nerve in an unlikely place: DeSantisworld. |
| Community colleges brace for cuts as Texas refines performance-based funding | |
| Texas community college leaders are bracing for cuts because they're missing out on millions that the schools earned but the state can't afford to pay. The administrators spoke publicly for the first time about the stress that the state funding shortfall puts on their budgets during a Texas Senate committee hearing Tuesday. They said it will be hard to sustain the investments that state officials asked the colleges to make to improve students' success . "When I put that [shortfall] into our budget, it turns into faculty salaries. ... It'll definitely affect advising," said Brenda Hellyer, president of San Jacinto College. "For us, it's going to be a hard budget year." Schools surpassed state projections on student outcomes, which is primarily how community colleges are funded. In response, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board officials prorated the dollars each college will get to stay within the budget. That contributes to a more than 15% drop in state funding for nearly a dozen colleges. Colleges don't have a lot of options to make up for the shortfall, especially since state schools have kept tuition and fees flat in recent years. |
| A.I. Companies Are Recruiting Electricians and Carpenters by the Thousands | |
| As an electrician in training in Detroit, Tyler Shelton spends most of his days popping down manholes to fix cables and other electrical gear. But lately, his company has sent many of its workers to a sprawling data center that just broke ground about an hour away. "Everybody wants that money," Mr. Shelton, 29, said during lunch break at his apprenticeship's twice-a-month classroom day. "We have work to do, but we're also losing a good chunk of manpower to these data centers." The data center boom is on everybody's mind at the Detroit Electrical Industry Training Center, where about 850 apprentices train between long days on the job. The megaprojects are pulling skilled trade workers into remote locations with some of the highest pay and bonuses than the industry had ever seen. The next generation of electricians is also top of mind for the artificial intelligence companies spending hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure they have enough people to build and run their data centers. There is no parallel in American history for the boom underway in the construction of data centers, fueled by companies with functionally unlimited cash that are racing to supply skyrocketing demand for their A.I. models. |
| College grads face a global squeeze on entry-level jobs | |
 | On a hot Sunday afternoon in London's Hyde Park, Jack Fearnley-Whittingstall, from Reading, said he has been job hunting for three months since being laid off from his retail post. The struggle is wearing and has given him a new appreciation for the tough job market for young people. "I feel like we're quite in a low," he says. The challenge he faces goes beyond one industry or nation. From Europe and Asia to Canada and the United States, young workers in many developed countries are struggling mightily to get hired. In the U.S., recent college graduates – aged 22 to 27 – have traditionally seen lower unemployment than the national average. By 2019, that began to change and, by this past March, joblessness for this group stood at 5.6%, compared with 4.2% for all workers, according to national data aggregated by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. |
| New Loan Limit Proration Rule Raises Concern Among Financial Aid Experts | |
 | In recent weeks, the term "loan limits" has been used mainly to refer to the new, highly contested caps on how much graduate students can borrow. But the cap on master's degree spending isn't the only loan limit taking effect this fall. Under the same set of regulations, the Education Department now requires colleges to base the amount of federal funding they give a student on the number of credit hours they're enrolled in -- no matter what degree the student pursues. So if a college says undergraduates pursuing a bachelor of science must enroll in 24 credit hours over the course of a year to be considered full-time, then an eligible freshman must meet that standard to receive the full $5,500 they are entitled to. And if that same student changes pace midway through the year -- say, by dropping one or more classes -- the value of the loan would decrease proportionally. After that, the retracted loan dollars would be sent back to the government and the student would be responsible for paying any remaining balance. While the policy may seem straightforward at first, financial aid administrators warn that it's riddled with case-by-case complexities, which the Education Department has not addressed in any sort of comprehensive guidance. |
| Mississippi’s senators again control major legislative 'gates' for defense contracting | |
| Columnist Sid Salter writes: It is difficult to overstate the role seniority and mastery of the congressional committee system has played in keeping federal spending flowing in Mississippi. It's never more visible than when it keeps Huntington Ingalls and other Mississippi shipbuilders and suppliers busy as some of the state's largest employers. Mississippi's U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker has been a champion of American shipbuilding for many years. Last week, the political stars conveniently aligned to give him an able and powerful partner in that effort – one in his own state's delegation. With Wicker as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and his Magnolia state colleague U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith as the new chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee's Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, how much control does Mississippi have over defense contracting and weapons program funding in Congress? |
SPORTS
| Big Ten, SEC are on the clock as new college athletics bill is circulated | |
| The bipartisan leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee are making changes to their big college sports overhaul in a bid to garner support from the nation's two most powerful athletic conferences as they look to build Republican support ahead of a potential vote on the Senate floor. Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the ranking member, made several concessions to the Big Ten and Southeastern Conferences in the latest draft of their Protect College Sports Act. They include protections against certain legal challenges and a new $20 million pool of funds that schools can use for retaining athletes, according to three people close to the negotiations. It's unclear whether the changes will be good enough to win over the two conferences. A senior Commerce Committee staffer asked the conferences to schedule a call with their general counsels and staff "ASAP" to discuss the text and gave them a 9 a.m. Wednesday deadline to decide whether they support the latest version of the bill, according to an email reviewed by POLITICO. |
| Ole Miss files suit against two players who followed Lane Kiffin to LSU over unpaid buyouts | |
| Ole Miss has filed suit for breach of contract against two former football players who transferred to LSU, adding yet another layer to the drama between the schools over Lane Kiffin's departure. The school signaled its intent to do so several weeks ago, and on Tuesday, it announced it had followed through, suing edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen and offensive lineman Devin Harper. "The University of Mississippi values its student-athletes and is committed to honoring all obligations made to them. In return, the university expects that same commitment from its student-athletes and their representatives in upholding their contracts," the university said in a statement. The Ole Miss lawsuits are not the first cases of teams suing players ... But the lawsuits against Umanmielen and Carter come against the backdrop of everything else between the two teams, who meet in Week 3 of this season in Oxford. |
| Exclusive: NCAA flags second Tennessee athletics student worker for sports gambling | |
 | For the second time in a year, a student worker in the University of Tennessee athletics department was flagged by the NCAA because he used a sports gambling app. Knox News through a public records request obtained an internal athletics department report detailing the minor violation. According to the NCAA report, a student worker in the UT sports information department placed a single trade on the Super Bowl using Kalshi, a popular but controversial app in college sports. But UT's compliance department found that the student worker was doing a favor for a friend. The student worker said he was with friends getting ready to watch the Super Bowl. One of his friends asked if the student worker would sign up with Kalshi so he would receive a $25 referral fee. The student worker created a Kalshi account. His friend gave him $40 to place a single trade on the Super Bowl to activate the account. Then the student worker deleted the Kalshi app and sent the remaining $22 from the account back to his friend. The student worker never used his own money. In February, UT was notified about the impermissible wager by ProhiBet, a sports wager monitoring service used by the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and most college conferences, including the SEC. |
| Dr Pepper signs city contract, may bring new 'Fansville' attraction to Norman | |
| A Dr Pepper representative has signed a contract to brand the Lindsey Street water tower, bringing the company's iconic "Fansville" theme to Norman, pending city council approval, according to city staff. If approved, the tower, about half a mile from Gaylord-Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, would be refurbished to create a fan-oriented experience for visitors. Jason Olsen, director of the city of Norman's Parks and Recreation Department, said the tower would be based on the Dr Pepper "Fansville" commercial campaign, which stars OU football legend Brian Bosworth as the "Fansville" sheriff. In texts to OU Daily on Thursday, Bosworth couldn't share much, but he did praise the city. "I'm handcuffed....no pun intended, ..." Bosworth wrote. "Norman is the perfect Fansville town...all passion ALL OF THE TIME...Boomer!!" According to Olsen, the goal is to complete the project by the OU vs. Kentucky football game Oct. 17, the first Southeastern Conference home game of the season -- two weeks before OU's homecoming game. He said the hope is that the revamped tower would create a tourist attraction, drawing in fans during the college football season. |
| Female college athletes see surge in NIL deals | |
 | College sports marketing company Learfield saw a 123% increase in female athlete participation in name, image and likeness compensation activities over the 2025-26 fiscal year, the company revealed in a report released Tuesday. Solly Fulp, Learfield's head of NIL, doesn't think the rapid surge is a coincidence. "What we're discovering with female student-athletes and their engagement with our brands is they're excellent content creators and storytellers, they're generally social media savvy and they have a genuine brand enthusiasm," Fulp said. Since the NCAA approved NIL compensation in July 2021, high revenue-generating sports such as football and basketball have topped the list of earners. Five years later, women's sports are beginning to close the gap, with women's basketball ranking third in all sports and softball creeping into the top five behind baseball. Female athlete engagement in NIL activities more than doubled in 2026, growing from 2,136 to 4,772. |
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