| Monday, April 19, 2021 |
| MSU fans flock to Starkville for first Super Bulldog Weekend since before pandemic | |
 | It's hard to say who missed Super Bulldog Weekend the most after COVID-19 wiped it out completely in 2020: businesses or the fans. Golden Triangle businesses certainly longed for the yearly three-day April revenue generator after a year of economic hardship. "People are so looking forward to the longstanding traditions and finally being able to celebrate this weekend," said Paige Watson, the Starkville Greater Development Partnership Special Events and Projects Coordinator. "I think our restaurants and shops are all really excited to have the additional foot traffic and tourists this weekend." With vaccinations on the rise in Mississippi, businesses weren't going to miss out. Josh Herrington, the owner of Starkville business Dunkington Art and Jewelry, said he spent his Thursday re-stocking his inventory and making more wine glasses, one of the store's more popular items. "I look at (Super Bulldog Weekend) as more of a mini Black Friday to an extent," Herrington said. "It's not as crazy as Black Friday, but there's a lot of people in town, all the alumni come back and visitors from all over. It's not drawing from Arkansas, Louisiana or Texas for a ballgame; it's Mississippi. This is all Mississippi people that want to shop Mississippi and shop local and support everybody. Our sales are always really good when there's a lot of people in town." |
| Buzz about honeybees: prof says they're just fine | |
 | If you wonder why you've seen only bumblebees buzzing around your azaleas, you may wonder: where are the honeybees? The answer is: honeybees don't care for azalea blossoms. They like other flowering plants. Such easy conclusions that honeybees are on the wane is misleading, according to Dr. Jeff Harris at Mississippi State University. "The plight of honey bees has been somewhat hyped," Harris said in a recent interview. "There are about 15-20 million more managed colonies of honeybees worldwide than there were a dozen years ago. Honeybees are not in danger of extinction as some fear." Bees are outstanding pollinators, so they are invaluable to row crops. Among the plants that honeybees like in Mississippi are cotton and soybeans. And the honey's good, said Harris. |
| Aldermen considering negotiations for sportsplex | |
| Starkville aldermen are considering a memorandum of understanding to negotiate a contract with a development company for the new sports facility at Cornerstone Park. Representatives from facilities management agency Sports Facilities Management delivered a presentation Friday at the aldermen's work session on their company's goals and vision for a sportsplex in Starkville. Founding partner and CEO Jason Clement said if contracted, the company will partner with the city to create the facility's plans. "The city will define for us what the definition of success is, what the vision and the standards look like," Clement said. "We will then go put that strategic plan together in the form of a budget." The city has been discussing the creation of a new sports facility for several years and formed a master plan for the complex in 2019. Cornerstone Park, which the city will build southwest of the intersection of Highways 12 and 25 in West Starkville, will be a baseball and softball-focused recreation facility with an emphasis on hosting tournaments. |
| Q&A: Starkville mayor believes city is a sports tourism destination | |
| Columnist Phil Hardwick writes for the Mississippi Business Journal: Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill is running unopposed for her second term. In this Q & A interview, we asked about the future of Starkville, advice for anyone considering running for mayor of their community, and more. ... Q: What's your vision for Starkville's economy in the future? A: Starkville will always be the home of Mississippi State University, but I would like us to be slightly more well-rounded. I would like us to have more industry and commerce that will sustain us when the enrollment might be down or the athletic events might be fewer. While I believe in the town and gown partnership and want it to grow, I also believe in building assets and using them. I see us as a sports tourism destination and a high tech and research city. I see us as a destination for history and art and culture and nature. I would like the abandoned rail line that cuts through Starkville to become an amenity as a rail-to-trail asset. There is so much we have to take advantage of to attract industry and tourism that to leave any of it on the table and not maximize its value would be a sin. |
| Electric company: Automakers are pinning futures on electric vehicles | |
| If General Motors' plans come to fruition, by 2035, its entire fleet of vehicles, which include the Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC brands, will be all electric. "General Motors believes in an all-electric future," said GM Executive Vice President Mark Reuss in January. "Although that future won't happen overnight, GM is committed to driving increased usage and acceptance of electric vehicles through no-compromise solutions that meet our customers' needs." However, demand has to meet those expectations. Last year sales of all electric vehicles sales -- from hybrids to battery electric vehicles -- made up only 3% of sales in the U.S. Rudy Dossett, of Dossett Big 4 in Tupelo, said GM's plan is aggressive, and he's gotten some interest from potential buyers of the upcoming Hummer EV coming in 2023. But other than that, interest in other potential electric or hybrid vehicles is minimal. Like much of the U.S., Mississippi is still truck and SUV country. These large vehicles for more than 70% of new-vehicles sales annually. While electric and hybrid trucks and SUVs are on the horizon, there's no guarantee they'll be as popular. "I'm not sure everybody is ready to swallow that electric pill quite yet," Dossett said. |
| State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs: No link between politics, vaccine hesitancy | |
 | Mississippi's top health official said he does not think political party affiliation has an impact on people's willingness to get the COVID-19 vaccine. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said he talks with equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans who are unsure about getting vaccinated. What he does see making a difference: socio-economic status and education. "It seems to be that folks who are more educated and have higher incomes are way more likely to want to get it," Dobbs said Friday during an online conversation hosted by the Mississippi State Medical Association. "... If you're in the top income bracket, and you're in the top education bracket, you're like 95% going to get vaccinated." There are many factors that could impact whether a person has vaccine access: lack of transportation, a prohibitive work schedule, no available childcare. All of those issues are more likely to impact poorer Mississippians. Dobbs said recently that the state Health Department is beginning "an aggressive push" in the 18 most under-vaccinated counties, all of which have high poverty levels. |
| Analysis: Initiatives seek to bypass Mississippi lawmakers | |
| Mississippi voters circumvented the Legislature in 2020 by approving a medical marijuana ballot initiative. People are now looking to bypass the House and Senate by proposing initiatives to expand Medicaid, authorize early voting and reconsider the state flag design. Getting an initiative on the statewide ballot is not easy, and most organizers never manage to gather enough signatures within a one-year deadline. Two of the three new proposals, early voting and Medicaid expansion, deal with issues the Republican-controlled Legislature has chosen not to handle. The flag initiative could undo the Legislature's historic decision last summer to retire a 126-year-old Mississippi banner that was the last state flag in the U.S. to include the Confederate battle emblem. The secretary of state's office last week published the ballot title and ballot summary for Initiative 76, the Medicaid expansion proposal. That means organizers can begin gathering signatures on petitions. The ballot title and ballot summary have not yet been published for the early-voting initiative. |
| Website documents state's progress returning tribal remains | |
| The Mississippi Department of Archives and History now has a new website documenting its progress returning Native American remains in its collection to tribes. Since 1990, federal law has required that institutions like museums and schools that receive federal funding return human remains, funerary objects and other sacred items to their Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian descendants. The law outlining these requirements is the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA. Many remains in Mississippi were discovered by Delta farmers developing land in the 1950s to 1970s. In some instances, shell beads, stone tools, celts and vessels found in burial sites in the U.S. have been put on exhibit. Around 83,000 remains in the U.S. have been returned to descendants as of this fall, according to data provided to The Associated Press by the National Park Service. But at least another 116,000 ancestors are still waiting to be returned. |
| National report ranks Mississippi low in voter access | |
 | Unlike many other state legislatures, the Mississippi Legislature did not pass bills during the 2021 session that would make it more difficult to vote. But the Mississippi Legislature also did not pass any bills that would make it easier to vote despite Mississippi being one of only seven states that do not allow no excuse early voting or no excuse voting by mail. The Mississippi Legislature essentially maintained the status quo in terms of voter access. "I remain hopeful that states toward the bottom of this list like Mississippi will realize the integrity benefits of spreading out the voting over a series of days to determine any problems in the system before the polls close," said David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research. The nonpartisan group recently released a report detailing access to early voting in each state. The report highlights states allowing no excuse early voting in person and by mail as those providing more access for voters. The report places Mississippi in the bottom six states in the nation for voting access. Becker, a former senior attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice's Voting Section in the administrations of both George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, said that there are other ways to measure voter access, but early voting is an integral factor in ensuring access. |
| There's a Booming Business in America's Forests. Some Aren't Happy About It. | |
 | In 2013, Kathy Claiborne got a noisy new neighbor. That's when a huge factory that dries and presses wood into roughly cigarette-filter-sized pellets roared to life near her tidy home in one of the state's poorest counties. On a recent afternoon in her front yard, near the end of a cul-de-sac, the mill rumbled like an uncomfortably close jet engine. The slumberless factory's output is trucked to a port in Chesapeake, Va., and loaded on ships bound for Europe, where it will be burned to produce electricity and heat for millions of people. It's part of a fast-growing industry that, depending on whom you ask, is an unwelcome source of pollution or a much-needed creator of rural jobs; a forest protector, or a destroyer. In barely a decade, the Southeast's wood pellet industry has grown from almost nothing to 23 mills with capacity to produce more than 10 million metric tons annually for export. It employs more than 1,000 people directly, and has boosted local logging and trucking businesses. The industry is not done growing. It is courting new markets in Asia -- Japan, which retreated from nuclear power after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, has become a major buyer of pellets -- and is lobbying for greater prominence in the United States. It has backers at the Agriculture Department, which recently asked for suggestions on increasing wood bioenergy use. |
| Union's defeat at Amazon is shaking up the labor movement and exposing a rift between organizers | |
 | J.C. Thompson works the night shift at Amazon's warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., a job he started after his work as a hospice chaplain dried up at the beginning of the pandemic. He says he's not anti-union but was never a supporter of the effort at the facility. He appreciated the stability of the job and felt the pay and benefits that the company provided were as good as anything a union could negotiate. His experiences with organizers gave him no reason to change his mind, Thompson said. He received some text messages and phone calls, including one where he says a union supporter suggested workers could make $20 an hour, about $5 more than the starting wage at the facility. But Thompson questioned how that would be possible, and the caller did not answer with specifics, he said. Organizers never tried to make the case for the union away from work, at his home in person. "The people who were calling, they were weak," he said. The loss of the union drive at the United States' second-largest private employer -- the first large-scale attempt at Amazon domestically -- has sent reverberations through the world of labor, serving as a reminder of the steep obstacles that activist workers face even in what is shaping up to be the most pro-labor political climate in decades. |
| Two Ole Miss Graduations Good News for Hotels, Home Rentals | |
| Oxford hotels and Airbnb options are mostly filled up for have outrageous pricing in connection with two Ole Miss graduation weekends. This season of celebration is going to rough on visitors' wallets but good business for some. Jennifer McCracken is the parent of a graduating senior who knows firsthand how tough it has been to get a place to stay. "We looked at hotel options first and all of those were either booked or asking for a crazy amount like a thousand dollars a night," McCracken said. Her family settled on renting a private home, and she suggests that the families of next year's graduates start booking a place to stay as soon as the university announces the 2022 graduation date. Dana Lucenti rents out properties throughout the Oxford area. She says, "For graduation, the weekends go very quickly. We post them and they are gone within a day or two." Lucenti always plans ahead for graduation weekend and expects her places to be taken very quickly when the dates are released. Lucenti and other rental property owners are happy to see the influx of visitors after a dry spell during the pandemic. |
| Jessica Kastler named new Director of USM's Marine Education Center | |
| Longtime marine scientist and educator Dr. Jessica Kastler has been named director of The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) Marine Education Center (MEC), located at the University's Cedar Point site in Ocean Springs, Miss. Kastler has been serving as the center's interim director since last spring. The MEC works across USM's Coastal Operations to engage members of the public in ocean sciences, promoting careers and fostering community involvement through formal and informal education programs that provide participants with a better understanding of the Gulf. Kastler, who came to USM in 2007, notes that she is excited to see the MEC gradually return to regular programming as the effects from the COVID-19 pandemic continue to recede. A New Orleans native, Kastler earned her PhD in Oceanography and Coastal Sciences (1999) and BS in Geology (1987) from Louisiana State University, and her MS in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia (1993). |
| East Mississippi Community College's Communiversity to host heavy equipment operator 'roadeo' | |
 | The public is invited to attend a heavy equipment operator "Roadeo" at The Communiversity April 21 from 8 a.m. to noon as students enrolled in East Mississippi Community College's Heavy Civil Construction program compete against the college's maintenance staff in timed events that will test their skills on a bulldozer, an excavator and a tractor. Some heavy equipment operators employed at area businesses may take part in the competition as well. The event will take place in the parking lot behind The Communiversity, which is located at 7003 South Frontage Road between EMCC's Golden Triangle campus and PACCAR Engine Company. "This is a chance for the public, our industry partners and our county supervisors to come out and see the kind of skills our students are learning and how they are applying them," said EMCC Vice President of Workforce & Economic Development Dr. Courtney Taylor, who is also the executive director of The Communiversity. "It should be a fun morning." The event is patterned after the Mississippi Department of Transportation "roadeos" during which MDOT heavy equipment operators compete for bragging rights. |
| Pearl River Community College to welcome potential students at 'Wildcat experience' | |
 | Hundreds of potential students at Pearl River Community College will gather Tuesday, April 20, on the Poplarville campus to "experience" college life, for a couple of hours. They'll take part in an event called, "Get Onboard: The Wildcat Experience." It will take place at the Centennial Courtyard. Nearly two dozen college departments, from financial aid to athletics, will be represented. "Our recruiting process, we've really had to double down with all of our efforts, and so this is going to be our first big event since COVID last year and we're really hoping to welcome any potential students on campus and give them the full college experience during that day," said Kari Eve Valance, a marketing and communications specialist with PRCC. "(The attendees) can ask any questions they have from our faculty, staff and students that will be here." "They're gonna have free tickets to the baseball game that's happening that afternoon, our soccer game that's happening that evening and our PRCC choir event." |
| U. of Alabama to offer students COVID vaccine, but no plans to require shots for fall | |
 | The University of Alabama will begin offering COVID-19 vaccines at no cost to all students 16 and older Monday through the student health center. So far, the UA System has not announced any plans to make vaccinations mandatory. Its campuses plan to return to traditional in-person instruction in the fall. "At this time, there is not a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for the fall 2021 semester, but the (UA System Health and Safety Task Force) strongly encourages students, faculty and staff to vaccinate," the system said in a previous statement, before the vaccine expansion. Asked again after the university's announcement, UA System spokesperson Lynn Lowe said the system's vaccination position remained unchanged. Some colleges and universities -- mainly private institutions -- have begun stating plans to require students provide proof of a COVID vaccine before returning to campus in the fall, unless a student states a religious or medical exemption. Many universities, including Alabama, already require proof of some immunizations, typically the shots against measles, mumps and rubella and tetanus. For now, the university encourages all students to be vaccinated, whether through the campus service or another provider. |
| Auburn University Board of Trustees increases housing rate, student fees | |
| During their April 16 meeting, the Auburn University Board of Trustees approved an increase in the campus housing rate and a $30 increase in the student services fee per year. Tuition costs will remain the same. In 2019, trustees approved a 2% increase in the campus housing rate per semester. In this meeting, they approved another 2% increase to fund future construction and meet rising operational costs due to inflation. $20 of the $30 increase in student services fees will be used to help fund a new transit fleet, consisting of 10 hybrid buses, 56 fuel-efficient diesel buses and four smaller buses. The smaller buses will be paid for using existing funds, while the rest will cost $28.1 million. Prior to the pandemic, the University tested several hybrid and electric buses after students requested Transportation Services consider environmentally sustainable options. The transit fleet will be funded by up to $30 million in revenue bonds, per Kelli Shomaker, chief financial officer for Auburn University. "The students have asked for this sustainability, and we are delivering with these new buses," Shomaker said. The remaining $10 to be added to the student services fee will fund mental health services at the University. |
| Auburn University dorm renamed to honor first African-American Board of Trustee member Bessie Mae Holloway | |
 | The late Dr. Bessie Mae Holloway was celebrated by Auburn University Friday afternoon for her human touch. Auburn University formally dedicated the former Tiger Hall first-year dormitory in the Village residence hall community, honoring the first African-American member appointed to serve as a Board of Trustees member, a 15-year position Holloway held representing the first Congressional District until 2000. Holloway passed at the age of 87 on Sept. 11, 2019. University President Jay Gogue and Board of Trustee members called Holloway a trailblazer and "student's trustee" -- a lifelong education advocate who successfully gained a seat at the school's top table in 1985 and taught in the Mobile County Public School System for more than 25 years. During her 15-year tenure as a trustee, she worked to advance diversity and inclusion efforts on campus, receiving the Auburn University Black Caucus Board of Trustees Award in 2000. Board of Trustee member Liz Huntley spoke of her appreciation for Holloway, who not only was the first Black trustee member, but the second female member. |
| Key figures in LSU's sexual misconduct report get reassigned; here's what they're doing now | |
 | More than a month after LSU released the report by the law firm Husch Blackwell on the university's past failures in handling complaints of sexual misconduct and dating violence on campus, LSU's Title IX coordinator has been reassigned, and a few other employees have seen their job duties change. The changes come as the turmoil surrounding LSU has spread to the Capitol, where some lawmakers have chided university administrators for not doing more -- especially firing people -- over the problems Husch Blackwell highlighted. The Senate Select Committee on Women and Children has repeatedly expressed frustration to Tom Galligan, the university's interim president, over how LSU has handled the report, and House Appropriations Chairman Jerome "Zee" Zeringue told Galligan this week to relay a message that lawmakers are disappointed in LSU's Board of Supervisors over its "lack of action." Galligan has maintained it would be unfair to fire LSU employees who were unsure how to report or to whom they should report instances of sexual misconduct. He said LSU is drilling down with training to make reporting rules clearer, including that all LSU employees -- with the exception of a few counselors and advisers bound by confidentiality -- are required to report allegations of sexual misconduct on campus to Title IX. He also said LSU is drafting a policy to make it clear that employees can be fired if they fail to do so. |
| UGA, Chess & Community launch partnership to boost STEM education | |
 | The University of Georgia and Athens nonprofit Chess & Community have launched a new partnership that uses robotics to enhance STEM education for promising Clarke County students. Over the next three years, the university will provide financial assistance and on-campus space to support Pawn Accelerator -- a community-centered robotics and chess program that educates students about the foundations of technology and innovation, nurturing skills that they will need for future careers in STEM fields, including literacy in robotics and engineering. "The Pawn Accelerator program helps Clarke County students develop a wide range of essential skills," said UGA President Jere W. Morehead. "This new partnership will further strengthen our relationship with our community partners across Athens-Clarke County and expand the impact of STEM education in our local community." As part of the partnership, the university will make space available for students in locations dedicated to sparking innovation, such as the new Innovation Hub and Studio 225, the home of the UGA Entrepreneurship Program. |
| Texas A&M's Wine to Water group delivers namesake staple to areas in need | |
 | When February's winter storms left people without safe drinking water, Texas A&M's Wine to Water organization responded with hundreds of ZeroWater systems and canned water. Students and sponsors traveled from Corpus Christi to Longview delivering filters and cans of water in the weeks following the storms and are now supplying communities with resources in preparation for the next disaster. Within two and a half days, the students had delivered 255 ZeroWater systems and pallets of canned water throughout the state. Due to COVID-19, the ZeroWater pitchers and filters and canned water crates were handed off to first responders and school district officials, who then distributed the resources to community members in need. Wine to Water has had a chapter at Texas A&M since 2015, along with a first-year seminar class in the College of Geosciences that began simultaneously, said Judy Nunez, adviser to the local chapter. It is an international nongovernmental organization founded by Doc Hendley with a focus on providing people with access to clean drinking water. The Texas A&M chapter is the only official Wine to Water implementation team within the United States, earning the distinction after its first major response following Hurricane Harvey, Nunez said. She also serves as director of recruitment for the College of Geosciences and is responsible for bringing the Wine to Water curriculum to Texas A&M. |
| COVID-19 vaccine not required at U. of Missouri, other Columbia colleges -- for now | |
 | Colleges and universities nationwide are debating whether to require students to provide proof of vaccination before attending classes next school year. That requirement is not the situation in Columbia -- at least as of now. The University of Missouri, Columbia College and Stephens College appear to be leaving the option open if things change, according to responses from one official and two spokesmen representing the schools. They were asked about vaccine requirements for students as well as faculty and staff. Universities including Rutgers, Brown, Cornell and Northeastern recently told students they must get vaccinated before returning to campus next fall. They hope to achieve herd immunity on campus, which they say would allow them to loosen spacing restrictions in classrooms and dorms. But some colleges are leaving the decision to students, and others believe they can't legally require vaccinations. At Virginia Tech, officials determined that they can't because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has only allowed the emergency use of the vaccines and hasn't given them its full approval. "Currently, we are not requiring the vaccination for the fall semester," said MU spokesman Christian Basi. "We have discussed it, and while we are highly encouraging our entire campus community to get vaccinated, we will not be requiring it." |
| Ex-dean at Temple indicted on charges of manipulating rankings | |
 | What began in January 2018 as a small scandal involving false data submitted to U.S. News & World Report for rankings escalated Friday: the former dean of Temple University's business school "conspired and schemed to deceive the school's applicants, students, and donors into believing that the school offered top-ranked business degree programs, so they would pay tuition and make donations to Temple," according to the Justice Department. Moshe Porat, the former dean, remains on the Temple faculty. He faces federal charges of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud. If convicted he faces up to 25 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. Porat was once a powerful figure at Temple. From 1996 until 2018, he was dean of the Fox Business School. He also was the dean of Temple's School of Sports, Tourism and Hospitality Management from 1998 until 2018. When he was a dean, Porat earned "nearly $600,000," according to the indictment. His current salary is $316,000, although the Justice Department says "he has not taught a class or published any scholarly research since 2018." |
| Liberty U. Sues Disgraced Former President Jerry Falwell Jr. for $10 Million | |
 | Liberty University, a fundamentalist Christian college, has filed a $10-million lawsuit against Jerry Falwell Jr., the son of its founder and the former president of the institution. The suit is the latest action by the university to distance itself from some members of the Falwell family, who have led the institution from its opening in 1971 until August 2020. Falwell, the firstborn child of the famed evangelist Jerry Falwell Sr., helped build the institution into one of the nation's best-known Christian colleges and a major player in online education. But he stepped down from his role as president last summer after a series of revelations about his personal life and embarrassing photos that tainted his reputation and that of the university. The civil suit, filed in a Virginia circuit court on Thursday, charges that Falwell breached his contract with the university and his fiduciary duty to the institution and deliberately withheld information about the scandals that were enveloping his family, even as he was negotiating a new contract and a higher salary. Liberty is also overhauling the mission of its Falkirk Center, formed by Falwell and the conservative activist Charlie Kirk to promote evangelical Christian values in politics. According to news accounts, the university recently declined to renew its contract with Kirk, who is also the leader of Turning Point USA, a conservative advocacy group for high-school and college students. |
| Zoom addresses academic freedom and censorship concerns | |
| Videoconferencing platform Zoom published a new policy giving higher education institutions greater control over their online events and the speakers to whom they chose to give platforms. For academics and groups supporting free speech and academic freedom who reviewed the policy last week, the changes are a welcome step in the right direction. But some critics worry the policy doesn't go far enough and the company could still exercise its power to censor certain academic discussions and debates. Zoom came under fire last year for canceling several university-organized events featuring Leila Khaled, a Palestinian woman who is associated with a U.S.-designated terrorist group and was involved in two attempted plane hijackings in the late 1960s and early '70s. In its new policy, titled "On Academic Freedom for our Higher Education Users," Zoom outlined the steps it will now take in response to complaints that an event hosted by a higher education institution is breaking company rules. For a meeting or event hosted by a college or university, Zoom said its trust and safety team will only act on reports of content-related violations that come from the meeting's hosts or account administrators. |
| NIH reverses Trump-era restrictions on fetal-tissue research | |
| The United States is reversing restrictions on fetal-tissue research set by former president Donald Trump's administration, allowing government scientists to resume studies using the biological material, and cancelling an extra ethics review of grant proposals submitted by academic researchers. The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced the changes on 16 April. "That's good news," says Lawrence Goldstein, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Diego, who was a member of the Trump-era board that carried out the additional ethics reviews. Researchers use fetal tissue, obtained from elective abortions, to study a range of conditions from infectious disease to human development, and say it is vital to studying some illnesses. Some restrictions on fetal-tissue research still in place could continue to pose hurdles. For one, in 2019 the NIH began requiring that a literature review be added to grant proposals, which Goldstein says threatened to overtake the page limit on applications. Irving Weissman, director of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, at the Stanford School of Medicine in California, agrees. "You don't have enough space in any grant to do both the comprehensive review and anything you planned to do," he says. |
| Mississippi needs quantum leap in STEM knowledge | |
| Syndicated columnist Bill Crawford writes: "If you understand the behavior of electrons and the behavior of photons (light) then you understand everything that matters in the everyday world, except gravity and nuclear power stations." Huh? "Apart from gravity, everything that is important in the home can be described in terms of the way electrons interact with one another, which determines the way that atoms interact with one another, and the way they interact with electromagnetic radiation, including light." The quotations come from the introduction to John Gribbin's "Q is for Quantum: An Encyclopedia of Particle Physics." Whether we understand it or not, quantum physics, what Gribbin called "the subatomic world of particle physics," dominates our lives today and tomorrow's future. ... What does any of this have to do with Mississippi? We need a quantum leap (pun intended) in our understanding of science and technology to ease fears and help us take advantage of the economic opportunities they offer. That begins with much more robust science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in our public schools with amped up resources to provide up to date textbooks, equipment, and instructors. (The computer science bill passed this year was a step in the right direction.) |
| Supreme Court must decide if wants to take ballot initiative away from people -- again | |
| Bobby Harrison writes for Mississippi Today: A former legislative leader who was not enamored with the state's initiative process used to call it "government by Barabbas," referring to the prisoner from the Bible the crowd voted to pardon rather than Jesus when given a choice by Pontius Pilate. Unfortunately, the story has been twisted in a disturbing manner through the years to promote antisemitism. That was not the intent of the legislator. He was arguing that sometimes there is a thin line between pure democracy and mob rule, and that the initiative process has the danger of bumping up against that line. He said he would trust decisions made by the people if they had the time and ability to gather the information he was privy to as a legislator. But without that time and ability, he feared what the initiative could lead to a type of mob rule -- government by Barabbas, he called it in off the record comments. That argument might be buoyed by recent events regarding the state's initiative process. |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State baseball wins fifth straight series over Ole Miss | |
 | Mississippi State coach Chris Lemonis said Friday that when the moments are the biggest, senior right fielder Tanner Allen is at his best. That couldn't have been more apparent than the sixth inning at Dudy Noble Field on Sunday. No. 4 Mississippi State had just tied No. 6 Ole Miss at four runs apiece in Game 3 of a heated rivalry series. Allen stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs. Eager to swing away with a 2-0 count, Allen roped a triple into gap in right-center. Mississippi State had a two-run deficit when the inning began. When it ended, the Bulldogs led by three. MSU held on to win 7-5 and earn its fifth straight series victory over Ole Miss. "I just turned to one of our coaches and said, 'Man, this is the guy you'd want at the plate in this moment,'" MSU coach Chris Lemonis said. "If anybody's going to do it, it's going to be him." Mississippi State (27-8, 10-5 SEC) had three hits off Ole Miss sophomore right-hander Drew McDaniel through five innings. McDaniel recorded the first out in the sixth, but then Rebels coach Mike Bianco went to the bullpen. It went downhill from there for Ole Miss (26-10, 9-6). |
| Tanner Allen's clutch triple propels Mississippi State to fifth straight series win over Ole Miss | |
| Enduring the sting of a 9-0 loss to Ole Miss Saturday, Tanner Allen had a text message from former Mississippi State legend Jake Mangum waiting for him Sunday morning. "We don't lose to that team up there," Mangum told Allen. "I know," the senior outfielder replied. In the most pressure-filled situation of the weekend, Allen didn't let his former teammate down and contributed the biggest hit of No. 4 MSU's 7-5 rubber match victory over No. 6 Ole Miss. Stepping in to face Ole Miss shutdown reliever Tanner Broadway with the bases loaded in a tie game with two outs in the sixth inning, Allen intensified his focus. "This is who you want up (in that spot)," Mississippi State coach Chris Lemonis said. Not wanting to let Broadway set the tone of the at-bat with his overpowering fastball, Allen worked a 2-0 count, set dead red and lived out a moment he won't soon forget. Allen drilled a center cut heater from Broadway that split the gap, sending the 10,522 fans attending Dudy Noble Field into a frenzy as three MSU runners scampered home, giving the Bulldogs the lead for good. Allen, holding his breath rounding second trying for his second triple in the series, leapt up with an emphatic celebratory roar in the direction of his dugout after seeing the third base umpire raise his hands in a "safe" motion. |
| Tanner Allen's big hit leads No. 4 Bulldogs to series victory over No. 6 Rebels | |
| If anybody was going to give Mississippi State the lead on Sunday afternoon, head coach Chris Lemonis knew it was going to be Tanner Allen. Allen stepped up to the plate in a bases loaded, two out situation with the game tied in the bottom of the sixth inning. After taking two balls to start the at-bat, Allen ripped a bases-clearing triple to put Mississippi State up by three runs. No. 4 Mississippi State went on to beat No. 6 Ole Miss, 7-5, at Dudy Noble Field to clinch the series victory. Mississippi State (27-8, 10-5 SEC) has now won 16 of the last 19 games and five-straight series against Ole Miss. "I just turned to one of our coaches and I said 'This is the guy you'd want at the plate in this moment,'" Lemonis said of Allen. "If anybody is going to do it, it's going to be him. It was a great matchup for us at that point. When he fell behind 2-0, you had a feeling T.A. was going to get a swing off." Ole Miss (26-10, 9-6 SEC) took a 4-2 lead in the top of the sixth inning when Hayden Leatherwood hit a two-run home run to right field with two outs. MSU pitcher Houston Harding got himself out of the inning, and the bottom of Mississippi State's lineup woke up. |
| 'Dogs back in 'catbird's seat' with thrilling 7-5 Sunday win | |
| Mississippi sports columnist Rick Cleveland writes: Fewer than 24 hours after being drubbed 9-0 by arch-rival Ole Miss, Mississippi State Sunday climbed back into what Mississippi native and broadcasting legend Red Barber famously called "the catbird's seat." What that means is on top, which is where the Bulldogs are currently in their long-time rivalry with Ole Miss. The Bulldogs won a hard-fought 7-5 victory by virtue of a five-run sixth inning when State greeted three different Ole Miss relievers with six hits in seven at bats. And that was the story: The Ole Miss bullpen did not get the job done. State's did. And so it is that State won the three-game series two games to one, which is only part of the story. The Bulldogs have now won 16 of their last 19 games against the Rebels. That's dominance. That's way on up there in the catbird's seat. A Sunday crowd of 10,522 turned out on a picture-perfect day for baseball. After a Saturday when a much larger Dudy Noble Stadium crowd of 13,000-plus never got a chance to explode, the Bulldogs gave their fans plenty to cheer on The Sabbath. The crowd became so loud that when Landon Sims left the bullpen to enter the game in the top of the ninth inning, the standing ovation left him, he said, with goosebumps. That was before he even threw a pitch. "When I heard that crowd I literally got goosebumps on my arms," Sims said. |
| Mississippi State spring game: Mike Leach pans offensive performance; Jaden Walley helped off field | |
| Mike Leach knows you don't have to see a scrimmage to know if it's a good one. All you have to do is hear it. The Mississippi State football coach said he didn't hear the pads popping like he hoped in Saturday's 2021 spring game, which resulted in a 30-22 win for the White team over the Maroon squad. The Bulldogs ran 104 offensive plays, showcased five quarterbacks and suffered a loss of potential concern in their first spring game under Leach -- a contest that didn't live up to the coach's expectations. "It was less competitive than I hoped, and it was every bit as sloppy as I thought it might be," he said. Defense won the day for the Bulldogs in both jersey hues, but Leach said his team's poor offensive execution in the first half skewed things a bit. "Early on, I thought our defense sat there and waited for our offense to screw up, primarily," he said. Sophomore Will Rogers, who ended the 2020 season as the Bulldogs' starting quarterback, was outplayed by Southern Miss transfer Jack Abraham in the first half, but the incumbent stepped up his game after halftime. Rogers finished 25 of 41 for 255 yards, a touchdown and a pick, while Abraham was 23 of 34 for 161 yards, two scores and no interceptions. Leach said it's far too early to tell which passer will be the Bulldogs' starter come the Sept. 4 season opener against Louisiana Tech. |
| Spring Game Notebook: Jack Abraham shines in MSU debut | |
| Mississippi State fans got their first look at quarterback Jack Abraham on Saturday afternoon. They should like what they saw. Abraham, a former Oxford High School star and Southern Miss graduate transfer, started for the White team and was outstanding in Mississippi State's annual Maroon and White spring game. Abraham finished the day 23 of 34 passing for 162 yards and two touchdowns as the White team beat the Maroon team, 30-22. White led 24-10 at the end of regulation but head coach Mike Leach kept his team on the field for additional untimed plays. "I thought he came out and played tight initially, then I thought he got better as he began to relax a little bit," Leach said of Abraham. "He's progressed. I think the quarterback position is wide open. Whoever can move the ball down the field the best is in the end going to be the quarterback here." The offense, led by Abraham, was held without a touchdown on its first two drives, but he found some success early in the second quarter. |
| Mississippi State women's golf falls in the SEC Championship to Auburn | |
| After an improbable run to the SEC Championship, the Mississippi State women's golf team's best performance in the conference tournament in school history came up a bit short Sunday. The Bulldogs fell to No. 9 Auburn 3-0 in match play at Greystone Golf & Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama. "It was a really fun week," MSU head coach Charlie Ewing said in a news release. "We came into this week as the 12-seed. I learned how little that the seed we are in this conference coming into this tournament means to this team. It doesn't matter if you're the 1-seed or the 14-seed. This is a team that showed up this week and believed that we could get to the point that we are at today. We believe that we could have won this match today. Props to Auburn. They made the putts when it mattered and won the match, so congratulations to them." MSU, the 12th seed in the tournament, made it to the championship with wins over Ole Miss and LSU. On Sunday, Clara Moyano and Blair Stockett maintained leads throughout the front nine before going unfinished. Abbey Daniel also held an early lead, while Ashley Gilliam was tied throughout eight holes on the day, but both Bulldogs fell on Hole 18. Hannah Levi, who sank the birdie against LSU to send MSU to the finals, dropped her match 3-2, giving Auburn the victory. |
| 'COVID does not exist in Knoxville,' Vanderbilt baseball's Tim Corbin says of lively Tennessee crowd | |
 | Vanderbilt baseball coach Tim Corbin quipped that "COVID does not exist in Knoxville" while praising Tennessee's home-crowd atmosphere after Sunday's game. The two teams played amid lively crowds for all three games of the series. UT fans were loud and not socially distanced throughout Lindsey Nelson Stadium. After No. 2 Vanderbilt won 10-4 Sunday over the No. 3 Vols to take the series 2-to-1, Corbin praised both UT fans for the tough road atmosphere and his team for overcoming it. "This environment here, I don't know what we're doing in Nashville, but there aren't many empty seats (at UT) now," Corbin said. "Let me just tell you, COVID does not exist in Knoxville. There are a lot of people here having a good time, and sometimes at our expense." In a text message later Sunday, Corbin reiterated he was praising the orange-clad fans who filled more than half of Lindsey Nelson Stadium. "They showed up to support their team, pure and simple," Corbin said. "They were passionate, and you could feel them." Last weekend, Vanderbilt's home series against Georgia drew announced crowds of 646, 670 and 637 for the three games at Hawkins Field. But Lee said capacity will increase to about 40% for Vanderbilt home games this week in accordance with Metro guidelines. The Commodores will host Austin Peay at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and then No. 4 Mississippi State on April 23-25. |
| UGA senior athletic administrator leaving to lead LSU athletic fundraising | |
| Georgia is losing one of its top senior athletic administrators to another SEC school. Matt Borman, who has served as executive director of the Bulldog Club since February of 2017, accepted a job to be president/CEO executive director of LSU's Tiger Athletic Foundation, he told the Athens Banner-Herald Friday morning. "It's just an opportunity for me that I just couldn't pass up," said Borman, who is UGA's deputy athletic director of development. "My family and I have had the best four-plus years of our lives in Athens but this is an opportunity to further my career at an awesome institution and they just gave me an opportunity that I couldn't pass up." Borman will replace Rick Perry, who is retiring after holding the job since 2014 and has been with the TAF since its inception in 1987. TAF's has more than 30 staff members, according to its website. Since arriving at UGA in February of 2017 to oversee athletic fundraising, Borman and his staff have seen the Magill Society for high-end Bulldog donors grow from 475 members to nearly 1,400 and signed pledges from $36 million to more than $160 million. |
| John Grisham Leaves the Courtroom for Basketball, and Sudan | |
| There is a basketball term to describe the author John Grisham: volume shooter. Since releasing his first hit novel, "The Firm," in 1991, Grisham hasn't gone a year without publishing a book. This includes the dozens of easy-to-digest legal thrillers that have brought Grisham, a former lawyer, hundreds of millions of dollars in book sales, as well as film and television deals. There are seven children's books, a Christmas novel ("Skipping Christmas," which was turned into the 2004 film "Christmas With the Kranks") and three sports novels. For his 46th book, "Sooley," Grisham is bringing volume shooting to print, with his first basketball novel. It tracks a 17-year-old named SamÂuel Sooleymon, who leaves Sudan for the first time to play college basketball in the United States. While he is stateside, a civil war in Sudan rages on, leaving members of his family stranded in a refugee camp. He vows to rescue his family, especially as hopes grow that he will be drafted by an N.B.A. team. In an interview, Grisham, who played baseball and basketball at South Haven High School in Mississippi, said the idea for the story began three years ago. "I've been wanting to write a book about college basketball for a long time," said Grisham, 66. |
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