| Wednesday, June 23, 2021 |
| Mississippi musicians shine in upcoming season at MSU Riley Center | |
 | The Mississippi State University Riley Center for Education and Performing Arts announces a 2021-2022 Fall/Winter Performing Arts Series full of celebration, opening with a concert on Aug. 21 by hometown favorites Todd Tilghman and Track45. The series features two inspiring holiday-themed shows, plus lots of great country and blues music. There's even a bonus performance, in addition to the series itself, by an American musical master. The MSU Riley Center also celebrates the easing of pandemic-related restrictions and the continuing renaissance of historic downtown Meridian. Just steps from the center, a new Marriott hotel in the landmark Threefoot Building and a brewpub from Threefoot Brewing are expected to be open by the time the series begins. "We take inspiration from our beautiful theater itself," said Dr. Terry Dale Cruse, associate vice president and head of Mississippi State University-Meridian Campus. Tilghman, an amiable pastor with a singing style he calls "soul country," won the national TV competition "The Voice." Three Nashville-based, Meridian-born siblings, Jenna, Ben and KK Johnson, collectively known as Track45, will also take the stage for a double dose of entertainment from Meridian's own in one special evening. Next, on Sept. 30, comes richly expressive vocalist (and Mississippi native) LeAnn Rimes with an intimate acoustic show perfect for the Riley Center's exquisite ambience. The made-in-Mississippi theme continues on Oct. 1 with Shake & Holla, featuring the North Mississippi Allstars and Rebirth Brass Band, and featuring Cedric Burnside. |
| MSU Riley Center announces 2021-22 Fall/Winter Series | |
 | The Mississippi State University Riley Center for Education and Performing Arts announces a 2021-2022 Fall/Winter Performing Arts Series full of celebration, opening with a concert on Aug. 21 by hometown favorites Todd Tilghman and Track45. The series features two inspiring holiday-themed shows, plus lots of great country and blues music. There's even a bonus performance, in addition to the series itself, by an American musical master. The MSU Riley Center also celebrates the easing of pandemic-related restrictions and the continuing renaissance of historic downtown Meridian. Just steps from the center, a new Marriott hotel in the landmark Threefoot Building and a brewpub from Threefoot Brewing are expected to be open by the time the series begins. "We take inspiration from our beautiful theater itself," said Dr. Terry Dale Cruse, associate vice president and head of Mississippi State University-Meridian Campus. "It has survived so much, and now it's an elegantly restored gem that serves as a point of pride for all of Meridian and our region. We had to deal with the greatest public health crisis of our lifetimes over the past year-plus. We've come through it stronger and better than ever, and ready to welcome everyone back for some entertainment that is sure to delight. We're also pleased to showcase so many award-winning and critically acclaimed artists from Mississippi." The 2021-2022 Fall/Winter Performing Arts Series offers a range of season-ticket options. The MSU Riley Center thanks The Riley Foundation, The Phil Hardin Foundation, Structural Steel and Meridian Coca-Cola, and Mississippi State University. Their continuing support makes these shows possible. |
| Mississippi State now part of Bee Campus USA | |
 | Mississippi State University is now part of the Bee Campus USA, a designation of the Xerces Society. The university is joining 122 campus affiliates across 44 states recognized for benefiting pollinators. The MSU Bee Campus committee, consisting of faculty and staff in the College of Forest Resources and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, led the effort. "We are proud to receive this designation. It is the result of dedication by our faculty, staff and students to protect and enhance pollinators and habitat across our campus and research farms. Pollinators are vital to our environment, benefiting 35 percent of global food production or one in every three bites of food we consume, and pollinating approximately 90 percent of flowering plants," said Wes Burger, interim dean of the College of Forest Resources. Future plans for the MSU Bee Campus include the development of an integrated pest management plan for future pollinator plantings, educational events, and student service-learning projects. |
| Parental monitoring and consistency in adolescence can reduce young Black men's likelihood of criminal behavior | |
 | New research examined the effect of different parenting styles during adolescence on crime among African American men. The study found that parenting styles characterized by little behavioral control placed youth at significant risk for adult crime, even though some of those styles included high levels of nurturance. In contrast, youth whose parents monitored them, were consistent in their parenting, and had high levels of behavioral control were at lowest risk for adult crime. The study, by researchers at the University of Georgia and Mississippi State University, is forthcoming in Criminology, a publication of the American Society of Criminology. "We examined parenting styles rather than parenting behaviors, which allowed us to look at various combinations of parenting behaviors -- things like warmth, monitoring, and consistent discipline -- as they naturally co-occur rather than treating them as though each occurs in a vacuum," explains Leslie Gordon Simons, professor of sociology at the University of Georgia, who led the study. The study found that found that parenting styles that involved high levels of behavioral control (e.g., authoritative, authoritarian, no-nonsense) reduced the risk of crime in adulthood. In contrast, the study found that parenting styles with low levels of behavioral control (e.g., abusive, permissive, and lax) significantly increased the risk for crime in adulthood. "This suggests that parenting with a lot of responsiveness is not, on its own, sufficient to reduce risk for criminal involvement," notes Tara Sutton, assistant professor of sociology at Mississippi State University, who coauthored the study. |
| Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill vetoes Bird scooter ban | |
 | Bird scooters might not be leaving Starkville just yet. Mayor Lynn Spruill vetoed Tuesday the June 15 board of aldermen ban on Bird scooters in the city limits. Spruill spoke out against the ban at the board meeting, noting the company has been extremely responsive to the city's concerns and was already making adjustments to fix the problems the scooters were causing. She said the ban was premature, and she believed they should not be outlawed just yet. "I am working on an ordinance and some sort of memorandum of understanding with the company and the city attorney in order to see if we can bring that forward in a way that will allow them to operate enough to where it is as safe of an operation as it can possibly be," Spruill told The Dispatch after issuing her veto in writing on Tuesday. Bird, an electric scooter ride-sharing service, delivered its scooters to Starkville in March after communicating with Spruill and obtaining a privilege license to conduct business in the city. However, aldermen voted June 15 to ban the scooters after fielding multiple complaints from citizens about the scooters, such as riders taking them down highways and sidewalks and users operating them under the influence. The board will meet in a special-call session at 1 p.m. Friday at City Hall to discuss the veto. |
| Manufacturer, educational group vie for control over 16th Section land | |
| A group representing a nonprofit educational group came before Oktibbeha County supervisors in force Monday in an effort to block a transaction involving the former East Oktibbeha High School property. The Education Association of East Oktibbeha County Schools wants to maintain control over the campus, where it has hosted a handful of alumni events since it closed in 2015 with the consolidation of county and city schools. In citizen comments Monday, which at times veered into issues of race, group members sought to compel supervisors to stop a land swap that would give control of the old school property to Wildlife Dominion Management LLC, an electronics manufacturer from Lowndes County. Supervisors ultimately tabled the matter until July 6, citing a need for further investigation. "It's just a big loss that in addition to the memories and investments made out there, that we were never acknowledged," EAEOCS President Jackie Ellis said. "We want to preserve a 55-year legacy of the school. If it's not equal and fair, it's not acceptable." District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard said he understands both sides of the conflict and wants to be fair to all parties involved. Because SOCSD had no representation at Monday's meeting, he said he wants to verify with the school board that all legal steps were followed by Wildlife Dominion. |
| Rescued sea turtles: some to be released, some still sick | |
 | The Mississippi Aquarium plans to release seven endangered sea turtles this week, but other institutions in New Orleans and Mississippi are still treating turtles rescued in the fall from frigid New England waters They're among 75 turtles brought to New Orleans and Gulfport, Mississippi, after washing up in New England, injured and sick from the cold. All are Kemp’s ridley turtles, the smallest and most endangered of the six species found in U.S. waters, but the species most common in the northern Gulf of Mexico. All six species inhabiting U.S. waters are listed as endangered or threatened. Thirty went to the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans, 25 to the aquarium and 20 to the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, both in Gulfport. The aquarium plans to release its final group of seven on Thursday, Mississippi news outlets reported. Moby Solangi, director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Study, said Tuesday that a few of the turtles brought there didn't survive. He said that five or six have been released and 10 or 12 are still being treated for pneumonia. Most of those brought to Audubon have been released, but two died and three are still being treated for other serious injuries, spokeswoman Annie Kinler Matherne said Tuesday. |
| Mississippi incorrectly paid out $118 million in unemployment benefits during pandemic | |
 | The Mississippi Department of Employment Security incorrectly paid out nearly $118 million in unemployment claims during the early days of the pandemic, according to a report from the State Auditor's Office. Of the incorrect payments, some were cases of stolen identity, some were part of international unemployment fraud schemes, some went to people who never lost their jobs and others went to people who were in jail, the report says. "It's more important than ever to understand the mistakes that were made when money was flowing so freely during COVID," Mississippi State Auditor Shad White said in a statement. The Department of Employment Security cannot yet determine how much unemployment money was given to fraudsters and how much was incorrectly paid to people who made mistakes filing for benefits, according to Stephanie Palmertree, director of finance and compliance for the Mississippi State Auditor's Office. In its report, the auditor's office suggests many of the wrong payments went undetected by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, or MDES, because its staff were overwhelmed by the sheer number of unemploymentclaims filed at the pandemic's start. |
| Audit: 5.5% of Mississippi's unemployment payouts in 2020 were improper | |
| Mississippi sent out $117 million in improper jobless benefits in fiscal year 2020, during the state's unprecedented unemployment hike brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, an audit released Tuesday revealed. The faulty payments, which were only examined up to June 30, represent about 5.5% of the more than $2.1 billion unemployment benefits issued in Mississippi during the year. The prior year, when conditions were more stable and the labor office issued just $59.6 million, 3% of payments were improper. The uptick in overpayments follows a national trend as states struggled to process and effectively vet the sharp influx in applications, though some other states fell prey to likely much larger schemes. California estimates fraud could represent as much as 27% of payments it issued. "Nearly every state I've talked to around the country lost millions of dollars to fraud out of their unemployment funds. Mississippi was no exception," State Auditor Shad White said in a press release Tuesday. White's office was not able to say how much of the faulty payments could be attributed to sheer fraud schemes, such as identify theft, as opposed to individuals fudging the truth on their own applications -- two very different scenarios. The auditor said the state's unemployment office could not distinguish between those types of overpayments. |
| Mississippi auditor Shad White finds $118M in improper and fraudulent unemployment claims | |
 | Mississippi paid out $118 million worth of improper unemployment checks as the pandemic forced business closures and mass layoffs around the state last year, according to a report released Tuesday by State Auditor Shad White. Auditors found the Mississippi Department of Employments Security paid people who never lost a job and people in prison. In other cases payments were wrongly made due to stolen identities and an "international unemployment fraud" scheme that targeted multiple states. The auditor's report covered the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2020. "This is really only covering a few months of the COVID pandemic," White told reporters Tuesday. "So in next year's (state agency audit), you'll probably see a much bigger number lost to fraud." Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, last year's unemployment benefit claims in the Magnolia State soared from about $60 million to $2.1 billion. The improper payments identified by auditors made up more than 5% of that total -- up from roughly 3% of improper claims made in fiscal year 2019, before the pandemic began. Nationwide, the U.S. Department of Labor estimates at least a 10% historic improper payment rate for unemployment claims. |
| Atheists, humanists sue over Mississippi's 'In God We Trust' license plates | |
 | Another Mississippi symbol is becoming a point of contention for some residents. On Tuesday, American Atheists, the Mississippi Humanist Association and three nonreligious Mississippi residents filed a federal lawsuit against Mississippi over the state's "In God We Trust" license plate. The complaint accuses the Mississippi Commissioner of Revenue of violating the people's freedom of speech and religion by forcing them to display this religious message on their personal vehicles. The Mississippi license plate has included "In God We Trust" since 2019. The lawsuit claims that car owners are forced to promote this religious statement or pay an additional fee for a specialty plate without it. The lawsuit also claims that there are no alternatives to the "In God We Trust" plate for trailers, motorcycles, recreational vehicles, drivers with disabilities and custom plates. In 2020, the motto was also chosen to be printed on the new Mississippi state flag, replacing the older design, which featured a Confederate battle symbol. |
| Auditor says DHS concealed alleged fraud even after welfare scandal broke | |
| Shortly after last year's arrests in the largest reported public embezzlement scheme in state history, a whistleblower disclosed several previously unreported fraud allegations to the welfare department regarding one of its federal grant recipients. Federal authorities and internal investigators at Mississippi Department of Human Services eventually began investigating the subgrantee, 100 Black Men of Jackson, an agency spokesperson told Mississippi Today on Tuesday. But when the State Auditor's Office later asked state agency officials at two separate meetings in 2020 if they knew of any other potential fraud, they did not relay the report, the audit released Tuesday said. The February 2020 internal report claimed that an employee of 100 Black Men falsified timesheets to pay people who were not working at the nonprofit and that they were using federal money to buy personal items for staff and their family, according to the audit, which did not name the organization. Ricky Jones, who has served as president of 100 Black Men of Jackson since March, said his organization just learned about the investigation last week when DHS notified them they would not be receiving a welfare grant this year. Jones said he had no knowledge of any alleged fraud and that the nonprofit had cooperated with audits from the department as well as the auditor's office. "We're taken aback by this," Jones said. |
| Farmers say it's time to reform the meatpacking industry | |
| The Senate Agriculture Committee plans a hearing Wednesday on how meatpackers buy cattle and whether those practices raise the cost of some favorite barbecue meats. Many in Washington are pushing for an overhaul of the $213 billion sector, and the Department of Agriculture has already announced changes to the rules governing how big meat processors pay farmers. Retail meat prices have remained high since the pandemic started because of limited processing capacity and high demand. That's great news for the companies that dominate the meat-processing space, like JBS, Smithfield and Tyson. For farmers? Not so much. "Farmers don't usually complain about this kind of thing unless the numbers are on their side," said Stephanie Mercier, with the Farm Journal Foundation. Agriculture workers are starting to raise concerns about a consolidated meatpacking industry having too much leverage, Mercier said. Options for producers are limited, according to Kitt Tovar Jensen, an agricultural lawyer at Iowa State University. And farmers have accused meatpacking companies of monopolistic practices for years. The North American Meat Institute, which represents meatpackers, said in a statement that any new regulation would "limit producers' ability to market their livestock the way they see fit and will lead to costly, specious lawsuits." But the USDA says it's time to update the 100-year-old Packers and Stockyards Act, a law that Jeffrey Peterson, an agribusiness attorney in Minnesota, said has always been pretty vague. |
| Earmark requests grow as House Appropriations panel begins work | |
 | House lawmakers' appropriations earmark requests have grown by $1.2 billion as the committee prepares to start releasing fiscal 2022 spending bills this week. The new total, over $7.1 billion, represents an increase of roughly 20 percent over initial "community project funding" requests made in late April. The House Appropriations Committee updated its earmarks database earlier this week. More than half of that increase, or $752.4 million, is courtesy of Florida Republican Brian Mast, who now holds the title of House member requesting the most dollars, eclipsing two Texas lawmakers who jointly requested $234 million for two Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport projects, among other individual requests. Mast's ask is mostly due to an Everglades restoration project in the works for the past two decades, which he and other Florida lawmakers on both sides of the aisle charge the federal government hasn't lived up to its end of the bargain on. Garret Graves, R-La., submitted earmark requests in April but he nearly doubled the amount of money he'd like the panel to infuse into his district from $47.4 million to $88.8 million when he increased his requests from seven to the max of 10. New project funding requests include $25 million for the Army Corps to complete a comprehensive management study of the lower Mississippi River and to "holistically manage" and "modernize" the river's multistate management. |
| 'Staggering': President Biden breaks from agenda to grapple with bloodshed plaguing big cities | |
 | It was 6 a.m. last week when news broke of a mass shooting in Chicago. Eight people were shot, five of whom died. By 7:30 a.m. a White House official was on the phone with Mayor Lori Lightfoot's office. What could they do to help? The slaughter was the third mass shooting in just over a week in Chicago, alone. A day earlier, another mass shooting injured 14 people and killed one in Austin, Texas. On Father's Day in Sumter County, Florida, nine people were shot, one fatally, after a burst of gunfire at an annual event. The list goes on. Just about every major U.S. city has seen mass shootings in recent weeks. But with the typical upswing in violent crime over the summer months just beginning, President Joe Biden also finds himself in the midst of a killing spree on pace to surpass the U.S. spiraling of gun violence from last year. For a White House that has been intensely focused on stamping out Covid-19 and shepherding trillions of dollars in spending on infrastructure and social-welfare programs through Congress, the violence presents a host of challenges that administration officials have so far struggled to get their arms around. First and foremost: determining how to stanch the bloodshed without exacerbating existing tensions on policing or hampering criminal justice reform efforts -- a top Democratic priority. For now, the White House's main response is to focus on the weapons doing most of the killing. |
| Attorney General Merrick Garland: More 'depth' needed to protect against cyberattacks | |
| Attorney General Merrick Garland said Tuesday that private industry needs better safeguards to avoid calamitous consequences in the event of cyberattacks like the ones that have targeted American infrastructure and corporations. "You have to have a secondary method if your first method is shut down. You have to have depth, and we need to work with them on that," Garland said, one week after a meeting between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin that included discussion of a spate of Russia-linked ransomware attacks in recent months. Such hacks, including a ransomware attack last month on Colonial Pipeline, are "extremely dangerous," Garland said. The Justice Department has responded with a task force focused on ransomware. In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with reporters, his first since being confirmed in March as the country's chief law enforcement officer, Garland also reiterated his concerns about the death penalty, defended the Justice Department's position in a defamation case against former President Donald Trump and insisted that the government would work to protect both journalists' personal safety and their ability to conceal their confidential sources. |
| Supreme Court backs cheerleader in First Amendment case | |
 | The Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with a former cheerleader who excoriated her school in a profanity-laced post on social media, holding that the punishment of her off-campus speech violated the First Amendment. But the 8-1 ruling left largely unresolved the broader question of when schools may regulate off-campus speech, and when such regulation is off limits. "It might be tempting to dismiss [the student's] words as unworthy of the robust First Amendment protections discussed herein," Associate Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the court. "But sometimes it is necessary to protect the superfluous in order to preserve the necessary." Associate Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a dissent. The justices openly struggled with the questions involved at oral arguments in April and several signaled a desire to craft as narrow a ruling as possible. Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who has two school-age children, repeatedly questioned whether the school district hadn't just overreacted to Levy's post. During nearly two hours of oral arguments, several justices said they were concerned about drawing bright lines in the case. Breyer, whose father worked for decades as a lawyer for the school board in San Francisco, Calif., said he was "frightened to death" of trying to write a legal standard for when schools may regulate off-campus speech, particularly when students are increasingly communicating with each other -- and with their teachers -- online from home. |
| GOP governors embrace culture wars with White House in mind | |
 | Several high-profile Republican governors are leaning into the culture wars as they eye presidential bids in 2024. Florida's Ron DeSantis, South Dakota's Kristi Noem and Texas's Greg Abbott have used their platforms to advance hot-button conservative priorities touching on everything from immigration to critical race theory to gun rights as they seek to cement their status as prospective future leaders of their party. The slew of bill signings, lawsuits and executive orders they have overseen are almost guaranteed to help them in a 2024 Republican primary -- especially if former President Trump declines to run. "It's about showing that you have an actual record on the issues that the base cares about," one Florida Republican said. "People like DeSantis can show that they're taking big actions in their states, even though they're being ignored in D.C." In the past 10 days alone, DeSantis has taken a series of actions tailor-made for his conservative base. Noem, meanwhile, has engaged in a high-profile legal battle with the Biden administration over its decision to cancel an Independence Day fireworks celebration at Mount Rushmore. And in Texas, Abbott has signed bills allowing Texans to carry handguns without a permit and restricting the teaching of critical race theory in Texas schools. |
| Jill Biden touts vaccine in poorly inoculated Mississippi | |
| First lady Jill Biden visited one of the states least vaccinated against COVID-19 on Tuesday, encouraging residents of Mississippi to get their shots and telling them, "The White House, our administration -- we care about you." "I'm here today to ask all of the people who can hear my voice, who can see my face, to get their shot," Biden said after visiting a clinic at Jackson State University, one of the largest historically Black universities in the country. Biden later encouraged people who were getting vaccinated in Nashville, Tennessee, with the help of country singer Brad Paisley later Tuesday evening. Mississippi and Tennessee have consistently ranked among the U.S. states with the fewest number of residents vaccinated against COVID-19, along with Alabama. Approximately 30% of Mississippi's total population is fully vaccinated, according to the state Department of Health. Mississippi's U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, who was present at Tuesday's event in the state capital, said it's important for Biden to be in Mississippi "given the demographics of the population that is most vulnerable." Mississippi is among the states in the U.S. with the highest number of chronic health conditions that can make people more vulnerable to COVID-19, such as diabetes and heart disease. |
| First Lady Jill Biden talks COVID-19 vaccine safety, effectiveness during Jackson visit | |
| First Lady Jill Biden visited Mississippi -- the least vaccinated state -- on Tuesday to talk vaccine safety and effectiveness and to promote the shot she called "a miracle." Biden's visit to Jackson was one leg of the Biden administration's nationwide tour to encourage the millions of Americans who still aren't vaccinated against COVID-19 to do so. Mississippi's vaccination rate of 30% is the lowest among the states and 15% below the national average. Joined by Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, Biden toured a vaccination site at Jackson State University after a 2 p.m. arrival at Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport. Jackson State University -- one of the largest HBCUs in the country -- has hosted multiple vaccination events specifically aimed at increasing inoculation rates among Black Mississippians. "Thank you everybody for coming and doing this. We're really working hard to get people vaccinated," Biden told a handful of Mississippians waiting to receive a dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine inside the school's engineering building. Biden held the hand of 13-year-old Christian Lyles of Byram, who said he was afraid of needles. "I am too," Biden told him. |
| Jill Biden visits Jackson State vaccination site, encourages Mississippians to 'get your shot' | |
| First lady Jill Biden visited a pop up COVID-19 vaccination site at Jackson State University Tuesday as part of the Biden administration's nationwide tour to reach Americans who haven't been vaccinated and promote vaccine education. "We care about the people of Mississippi," Biden said. "We want them to be safe. We want them to be healthy. So I'm here today to ask all the people who can hear my voice who can see my face, to get your shot." During her remarks after touring the site, Biden emphasized that the COVID-19 vaccines available in the U.S. are safe, effective and free. "The vaccines might feel like a miracle, but there's no faith required," Biden said. "They're a result of decades of rigorous scientific research and discoveries, and they've been held to the very same safety standard as every single vaccine that we've had here in America." The first lady also recalled the worst of the pandemic, and said Americans can't forget the uncertainty and loneliness that they felt. She then contrasted those horrors with the path forward offered by widespread vaccination. "From barbecues to baseball games to boardwalks full of laughing children, summer is here and it has never felt more full of promise," Biden said. "The fresh air smells sweeter without our masks... Choose to get your shot. And we'll be able to celebrate this summer the way it should be: safe and together." |
| Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians face challenges with vaccine hesitancy | |
 | This time last year, health officials in Mississippi reported that Native Americans in the state were almost 8 times more likely to become infected with coronavirus and were dying at a disproportionately higher rate than anyone else in the state. Since then, Dr. Kerry Scott Interim Chief Medical Officer at the Choctaw Health Center in Philadelphia says they've made major improvements. As of yesterday, Choctaw health officials reported 0 new cases of COVID-19 since May 13th and no deaths since March. But, Dr. Scott says the threat of new COVID-19 variants is cause for concern. "The Delta variant is considered to be a little bit more transmissible," said Scott. "So, you have to be very cautious especially with that younger aged population who's not eligible to be vaccinated at this time. That opens the door for at least those individuals to be carriers for the variant." There are just over 11,000 members of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. According to the health center, less than 30% of the population is fully inoculated since vaccines became available in January. "There is hesitancy and fear with the vaccine," said Denise John, director of Public Health at the Choctaw Health Center. "We want to build up the confidence, build up their knowledge about the vaccine and for our tribal members to make an informed choice." |
| All-South Drum Major & Color Guard camp underway at USM | |
 | The All-South Drum Major & Color Guard camp has kicked off at the University of Southern Mississippi, a camp they have been hosting since the 1990s. Kids from all southern states meet in Hattiesburg to brush up on their skills, while also learning new things, such as conducting. "The students are working on some fundamentals so when they do leave this camp, they can go back to their high schools or their middle schools and lead their sections or be future leaders," said Travis Higa, director of The Pride of Mississippi marching band. "Hopefully, they will be a part of the USM family in a few years." The students come from a variety of backgrounds. In some of the programs, they could have copious amounts of kids, while others only have three in the program. All students have a common denominator: passion. "The kids when they show up to this camp are super excited and one of the things I love is how willing they are to take risks and how much they are willing to just jump in and go," said USM's color guard director Zachary Hassell. "That's really what makes them have a great experience. You can ask them to try something in dance or to try a flag toss and they go for it." |
| USM senior afforded prestigious festival opportunity | |
| University of Southern Mississippi senior Justin E. Bell has been selected as an "artistic associate" to the Glimmerglass Festival, an international opera and musical theater festival in Cooperstown, N.Y. Glimmerglass is a professional non-profit summer opera company dedicated to producing new productions each season. The company continues its tradition of producing new, little-known and familiar operas and musical theater in innovative productions while providing professional training and performance opportunities for emerging artists and interns. Bell will work closely with the "Young Artists Program" to communicate with artists, assist with the planning and execution of the program applications and auditions, and assist with the creation of the daily rehearsal schedule. Bell will work closely with the "Young Artists Program" to communicate with artists, assist with the planning and execution of the program applications and auditions, and assist with the creation of the daily rehearsal schedule. |
| Miss Mississippi leads the nation in scholarship awards for candidates | |
| In 2019 the Miss Mississippi Corporation awarded over $121,000 in scholarships to the young women who participate in the program. We talked with some of the candidates about scholarships and what it means for their careers. Competition week for the 39 Miss Mississippi candidates is packed with rehearsals, judges' interviews, the parade, and preparation for preliminary competition. Macy Mitchell, Miss Pinebelt, talked with us about her plans to become an attorney and how scholarships from Miss Mississippi have helped. Mitchell said, "I mean because of the Miss America Organization, I've obtained over $30,000 in scholarship money throughout the years and will be able to have a very successful law career because of it." Miss Mississippi State University Leah Ann Boyd made the Top 10 in 2019 her first year to compete at Miss Mississippi. She is a music teacher from Starkville. Boyd said, 'I hope to do music ministry as well as music education when I graduate from graduate school cause I'll have my teaching certificate, and I'm also getting a Masters of Divinity and Seminary." Rachel Shumaker, Miss Pearl of the South, says the Miss America organization has come a long way since 1921 and the first scholarship. Shumaker said, "any young woman in this program is a testament to the scholarship dollars. Mississippi gives one of the largest amounts out of all of the states in Miss America. You know the first Miss America scholarship was $5,000, and we're now up to five million dollars every year, and I think the power of that is undeniable." |
| U. of Alabama faculty, students create Denny Chimes mural in Tuscaloosa hotel | |
 | Hand-chiseled from plaster and layered onto brick, an image of Denny Chimes has found a home inside the lobby of the new Homewood Suites by Hilton in downtown Tuscaloosa. The mural, although reaching a fraction of the height of the original structure, still encapsulates the grandness of Denny Chimes as the prominent art fixture inside the hotel's lobby. Andrea Gillespie of Tennessee-based AK Design Group, who is the principal designer of the new hotel location, said that Homewood Suites hotels typically have a fireplace or some sort of dynamic installation in its lobby as part of its design profile. With the design of the Tuscaloosa location, the owners were seeking the hotel to have a boutique feel that also paid tribute to the nearby University of Alabama. Stuart Cohen, a partner in Cohen Investments Group, which owns the property, is an UA alumnus. He said when deciding on art installation for the lobby, he chose Denny Chimes for the inspiration because the tower is something he often thinks of when reflecting on the university. "Denny Chimes is an iconic landmark to not only the university, but also to Tuscaloosa. It is the place where people meet up with friends and family on football games, it is a place where people celebrate and make memories, it is the center of Tuscaloosa," Cohen said. "We want our guests to have that same feeling when they stay at our hotel. The Denny Chimes mural brings people together and one of those places is the Homewood Suites." UA Department of Art and Art History chair Jason Guynes was the artist who won the bid for the mural project. |
| Three Auburn University students competed on NBC's 'College Bowl' Tuesday night | |
 | Three Auburn University students will compete Tuesday night on NBC's reboot of the quiz show "College Bowl," hosted by a man familiar with a different kind of college bowls: Peyton Manning. Hosted by Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning and older brother Cooper as a sidekick, the trivia competition between 12 schools across the U.S. premiered on NBC stations Tuesday at 9 p.m. Central Time. Played out over 10 shows in a four-round bracketed tournament, teams of three will compete to win scholarship funds from schools including Peyton's alma mater, University of Tennessee, and Cooper's, Ole Miss. Eleanor Covington, Ada Ruth Huntley and Aahil Makhami are representing Auburn. Other participating universities include the University of Alabama, Columbia University, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Morehouse College, University of Southern California, University of California Los Angeles, University of Virginia and Xavier University of Louisiana. The top two schools will compete for the championship title and a larger amount of the $1 million provided by the financial services company. All competitors are receiving tuition assistance for competing, according to NBC. |
| Governor signs legislation toughening Title IX regulations for Louisiana colleges | |
| After LSU's sexual misconduct scandal, Gov. John Bel Edwards signed new legislation tightening Title IX rules and regulations for college campuses. The bill assures that employees who willingly withhold information about sexual misconduct will be fired. The law also closes loopholes found in previous college campus safety laws passed in recent years. The bill was sent over to the governor after unanimously passing through the House and Senate. LSU has faced months of fallout after the Husch Blackwell report found mishandling of complaints, especially ones involving LSU student-athletes. Louisiana's female lawmakers held hours of hearings to go through the report and hear from students and others who said their abuse went unaddressed by university officials. |
| Florida to survey 'intellectual diversity' of university students, staff | |
 | In his continued push against the "indoctrination" of students, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed legislation that will require public universities and colleges to survey students, faculty and staff about their beliefs and viewpoints to support "intellectual diversity." The survey will discern "the extent to which competing ideas and perspectives are presented" in public universities and colleges, and seeks to find whether students, faculty and staff "feel free to express beliefs and viewpoints on campus and in the classroom," according to the bill. The measure, which goes into effect July 1, does not specify what will be done with the survey results. But DeSantis and state Sen. Ray Rodrigues, the sponsor of the bill, suggested Tuesday that budget cuts could be looming if universities and colleges are found to be "indoctrinating" students. "That's not worth tax dollars and that's not something that we're going to be supporting moving forward," DeSantis said at a news conference at a middle school in Fort Myers. University faculty members have worried the new measure could create a chilling effect on their freedom of speech. DeSantis, however, said the intent of the measure is to prevent public universities and colleges from becoming "hotbeds for stale ideology." The University of Florida issued a statement that upheld the Gainesville-based school as a “marketplace of ideas where a wide variety of opinions are expressed and independent inquiry and vigorous academic deliberation are valued.” |
| New mobile app from U. of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences can help you find the best plants on the go | |
 | From azaleas to hickory trees and about 450 other plants in between, the Florida-Friendly Landscaping "FFL Plant Guide" mobile app is a new resource to help Florida residents choose the most hardy and helpful species for their yards and planters. The app has been available for download for a little over a month from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences FFL program, according to Tom Wichman, FFL program coordinator and radio host of a daily one-minute gardening show on WUFT-FM. And it's free, thanks to support from UF's project partner, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. While the app's information has been available online as well as in hard copy as a book, people really needed a user-friendly, searchable version to bring with them while shopping, he said. So the mobile guide was born. "People, oftentimes when they go shopping for plants, they're very confused. They get to the garden center, and they don't know what to pick. So, they end up picking what's pretty, what's on sale, instead of what's best for their landscape," Wichman said. "This allows them to kind of go through and pick the plants that are best suited for the environment so that their landscape will thrive." |
| Bush Library and Museum to reopen July 1 | |
 | The George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum will reopen July 1 with limited hours and capacity, officials announced Tuesday. The museum will be open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to Warren Finch, library and museum director. Finch said 43 visitors will be allowed in the building at a time under the initial capacity limits. Tickets will be made available "in the coming days" at Bush41.org, according to a press release. Groups will be initially limited to six people. Finch said in a phone interview Tuesday morning that he expects capacity limits to increase over time, and that there is no timetable to bring back in-person events inside the library and museum, a pre-pandemic staple. "For me and for our staff, we're so happy to be reopening," Finch said. "We see this as our mission, both our education mission and the museum, to allow people to come in and experience American history. President Bush was involved in almost every aspect of American history, from before World War II until his death a couple years ago. We believe it's a great museum, a great story and a great legacy, and we want to let people see it -- and we want to see people." |
| Indiana University students suing over COVID-19 vaccine requirement | |
| A group of Indiana University students are suing over the school's COVID-19 vaccination requirement. In a federal lawsuit filed Monday, eight students allege that the requirement that students, staff and faculty be vaccinated against the virus before returning to campus in the fall violates the Fourteenth Amendment, which includes rights of personal autonomy and bodily integrity and the right to reject medical treatment, and Indiana's recently passed "vaccine passport" law. The students say IU's mandate is more than that. In the complaint, the students say they feel they're being coerced into vaccination under "the threat of virtual expulsion from school." IU's vaccine requirement came from recommendations put forth by the university's "restart committee," charged by IU President Michael McRobbie with getting campuses back to pre-pandemic operations. But the mandate has been embroiled in controversy since it was announced last month. State officials have called on the university to rescind the mandate; others have asked Gov. Eric Holcomb to block it. Attorney General Todd Rokita issued a public opinion that it violated state law. While several of the students have applied for, and been granted, exemptions based on their religious beliefs, the complaint says they also object to extra requirements put on students who receive exemptions, such as required mask wearing in public spaces and twice-weekly COVID-19 mitigation testing. |
| Stress from coronavirus changed the plans of high school students | |
 | Two surveys of high school students are being released today -- and both suggest that the impact of the coronavirus pandemic will be with colleges for some time. A significant portion of students report that their college plans have changed and that they want to study close to home and inexpensively. One survey was done by America's Promise Alliance, a national coalition of education and other groups focused on "the barriers that stand in the way of young people's success." The other was by Strada Education Network, which is focused on findings ways to improve lives "by forging pathways between education and employment." The America's Promise survey was planned before the pandemic but was restructured after the pandemic was underway. The survey was conducted in March and April 2021 among a nationally representative sample of 2,439 high school students. (It is not clear if the results would have been changed because of the more optimistic view of the pandemic that has taken hold in the last month or two.) Strada surveyed 1,212 high school seniors (half from last year's senior class) whose plans had been disrupted by the pandemic. Most disrupted high school graduates have revised their postsecondary education plans in some way, with 35 percent of students saying they will choose a less expensive program, 31 percent looking for options closer to home, 21 percent a different major and 18 percent a shorter program. |
| Papers urge institutions to think about adjuncts, including in terms of retirement | |
| Two new sets of papers form the TIAA Institute emphasize the "volatility" of adjuncts' employment, benefits and financial security, and how institutions need to think deliberately and creatively about how to better accommodate them. The first study, led by Manuel S. González Canché, an associate professor of higher education at the University of Pennsylvania, finds that 60 percent of adjuncts employed at multiple institutions have participated in a retirement plan, even if they're not currently contributing to it, compared to 46 percent of those employed at one institution. Forty-five percent of adjuncts employed at multiple institutions have employer-provided health insurance, compared to 27 percent of those employed at one institution. And 45 percent of adjuncts working at multiple institutions are concerned about their ability to retire, compared to 36 percent of those employed at one institution. In a network analysis, the availability of faculty unions was consistently linked to "bringing more security to these volatile academic appointments," the papers say. Participants in the study expressed interest in the possibility of having matching benefits plans across all employing institutions. The papers compare this idea to "having or enacting a centralized savings system," so that adjuncts don't have to worry about changing plans when they move from an institution or work at more than one. |
| APLU Panel Explores LGBTQ+ Issues on Campus | |
| The Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) hosted a panel on Tuesday that included LGBTQ+ leaders in faculty and student life. Four panelists gathered to speak about their queer experiences, some shared and some unique, in higher education. "While the journey for equal rights and representation for LGBTQ+ is far from complete, I'm very thankful for the role that public universities play by being places where young people can show up as their authentic selves," said Matt Renn, a data analyst with APLU and the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities. The panelists called for greater diversity in queer visibility and representation; for allies to become advocates and to create wholly safe campuses for LGBTQ+ students, faculty, and staff. "Universities are often the most diverse places people have ever been in, because we grow up in such segregated areas," said Dr. Ana Mari Cauce, president of the University of Washington. "I was the first woman, first Latina, and first LGBTQ+ person to hold the office. I'm looking forward to the day when none of that is noteworthy." All four panelists emphasized that coming out was a journey -- the bias of institutions, they said, is assuming that students come to their undergraduate programs knowing who they are. They suggest partnering with K-12 educators and with the community at large to expand visibility. |
| Former House Speaker Billy McCoy's commitment to highways, education honored | |
| Syndicated columnist Sid Salter writes: In the pristine sanctuary of the lovely Gaston Baptist Church -- a rural church in northwest Prentiss County roughly triangulated between Booneville, Rienzi, Thrasher and Jumpertown -- family, friends, and political associates of the late-Mississippi House Speaker William J. "Billy" McCoy gathered on June 14 to remember one of the architects of modern highways and modern public schools in this state. The occasion was the official dedication of the "Speaker William J. 'Billy' McCoy Memorial Highway" by Mississippi Department of Transportation officials. led by Republican Northern District Transportation Commissioner John Caldwell and Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn of Clinton. McCoy died in 2019 at the age of 77. Gunn authored the legislation necessary to honor his Democratic predecessor with the naming of the highway in cooperation with the McCoy family. The memorial highway begins one mile north of the Highway 45 and State Route 356 intersection and ends two miles south of the intersection. Although perhaps fewer in number today, there are still "yellow dog" Democrats like McCoy in his old House District 3. McCoy, a Christian educator and farmer who served his constituents for 32 years as their voice in the state government. Here in the foothills of the Appalachians, McCoy was known less as "Mr. Speaker" and more as just plain Bill. |
SPORTS
| 'It don't matter': Tanner Allen's home run sparks comeback as Mississippi State beats Virginia, stays undefeated in College World Series | |
| As he stepped to the plate, Tanner Allen thought of the three words written on his outfielder's glove: "It don't matter." It didn't matter that Mississippi State didn't have a single hit going into the eighth inning. Or the Bulldogs trailed Virginia 4-0 with six outs separating them from the losers' bracket. That Allen, the SEC player of the year, was 0 for Omaha. "As I was struggling throughout the game, I tried my best to just stay positive and keep the energy in the dugout and keep playing good defense, because I knew eventually I'd get a chance to help us win the game," Allen said. The Bulldogs started to rally. Allen knew they would. He was the go-ahead run. He knew he would be. And when he came up with runners on second and third and Mississippi State down 4-2, the MSU right fielder delivered a moment that buried all those meaningless moments far beneath the Nebraska dirt. He hammered a misplaced breaking ball into the right-field bullpen and rounded the bases slowly, keeping a straight face. No one else did. Bulldogs fans around TD Ameritrade Park cheered and screamed and hugged. Reliever Preston Johnson embraced teammate Brandon Smith in the right-field bullpen where Allen's missile had just landed, relief evident on his face. Virginia pitcher Stephen Schoch -- once Allen's teammate, now just a vanquished foe -- wore a scowl as he disembarked from the mound. Only at the end, as he greeted Josh Hatcher and Rowdey Jordan behind home plate, did Allen let out a smile. His three-run home run put No. 7 Mississippi State ahead for good as the Bulldogs (47-16) rallied for six runs in an unbelievable eighth inning, held on for a 6-5 win over the Cavaliers (36-26) and remained undefeated in the College World Series. |
| Kellum Clark, Mississippi State rally for 6-5 CWS win over Virginia | |
| Once Kellum Clark got that first hit, Mississippi State was on its way to another College World Series win. Clark's eighth-inning homer ended Griff McGarry's bid for a no-hitter, and Logan Tanner went deep three batters later to lead the Bulldogs past Virginia 6-5 on Tuesday night. The sudden turnaround gave the Bulldogs (47-16) control of their bracket and left them one win away from reaching the best-of-three finals next week. "We talked to the team about how it's hard to get the last outs in Omaha, and just to keep fighting, keep fighting, get something going, and we were able to do that," coach Chris Lemonis said. McGarry, who was trying for the first CWS no-hitter since 1960, walked Scotty Dubrule leading off the eighth before Clark drove a 93-mph fastball into the right-field bullpen. Clark's fourth homer of the season ended a 22-inning shutout streak for Virginia (36-26) along with McGarry's night -- and marked the start of the Bulldogs' offensive push. Mississippi State plays Friday against Virginia or Texas in the Bracket 2 final. |
| Mississippi State finishes remarkable comeback, beats Virginia 6-5 in College World Series | |
| At the start of the eighth inning, Mississippi State baseball was facing the prospect of being the third team ever to be no-hit in the College World Series. By the end of that inning, the Bulldogs had a lead and a few unforgettable highlight reel moments. Mississippi State rallied from a four-run deficit to beat Virginia 6-5 Tuesday night, putting the Bulldogs within one win of the College World Series final. SEC Player of the Year Tanner Allen provided the big swing, launching a go-ahead three-run home run in the top of the eighth inning. The Bulldogs (47-16) will play a rematch against either Virginia (36-26) or Texas on Friday. The Bulldogs will then get two chances to win one game for a chance to play in the College World Series championship. Virginia pitcher Griff McGarry entered the eighth inning with a no-hitter intact. He'd allowed only two base runners on one walk and one hit-by-pitch. But Mississippi State drew a walk to lead off the eighth, and then designated hitter Kellum Clark blasted a two-run home run to tag McGarry with his first hit and a pair of runs. Now facing the Virginia bullpen, Mississippi State pounced. Josh Hatcher singled. Rowdey Jordan doubled. Then Allen hit the go-ahead shot against Virginia closer Stephen Schoch. Schoch allowed another single and a walk before leaving the game having recorded only one out. Against Schoch's replacement Nate Savino, Mississippi State extended its lead to 6-4 with a Scotty Dubrule single. |
| Virginia loses its no-hitter and its lead, then falls to Mississippi State at College World Series | |
 | Virginia's Griff McGarry was five outs away from becoming the first pitcher since 1960 to throw a no-hitter at the College World Series. But in a span of four batters Tuesday night, the no-hitter was gone and so was Virginia's four-run lead. With one out in the eighth inning, Mississippi State's Kellum Clark broke up the no-hitter with a two-run homer into the bullpen in right field. Three batters later, Tanner Allen drilled a three-run shot into the same bullpen off reliever Stephen Schoch to give the Bulldogs the lead. Mississippi State ended up scoring six times in the inning and went on to a 6-5 win at TD Ameritrade Park. "We didn't do enough to finish," Virginia Coach Brian O'Connor said. "They had key players rise up." The loss dropped Virginia (36-26) into an elimination game against Texas at 7 p.m. Thursday. Virginia is 6-0 in elimination games in this year's NCAA tournament, but it will have to find a way to bounce back after letting a late lead slip away. "For six or seven innings, he was the best pitcher we've faced the last couple years. He was electric," Mississippi State Coach Chris Lemonis said of McGarry. "We talked to the team about [how] it's so hard to get the last outs in Omaha. 'Keep fighting, keep fighting, get something going.' " |
| Kirk Herbstreit praises Mississippi State baseball on comeback win vs. Virginia at CWS | |
| ESPN broadcaster Kirk Herbstreit tuned in for Tuesday night's College World Series showdown between Mississippi State and Virginia Cavaliers baseball teams. The Mississippi State comeback definitely impressed Herbstreit. Mississippi State scored six runs in the eighth inning to come from down 4-0 to win 6-5 vs. the UVA Cavaliers in Omaha, Nebraska. Herbstreit tweeted after the game, "Congrats @HailStateBB UNBELIEVABLE come back! Thank you Omaha and The CWS for hosting such an amazing event. Gotta love college baseball!" Herbstreit is a college football analyst for ESPN and host of "College GameDay." He played quarterback at Ohio State. With Tuesday's win, Mississippi State improved to 47-16 overall. The Virginia Cavaliers went to 36-26 overall. Virginia now faces Texas at 6 p.m. CT on Thursday. Mississippi State will face the UVA/Texas winner at 6 p.m. CT on Friday. |
| Mississippi State's Tanner Allen go-ahead home run catches Chipper Jones' attention | |
| Tanner Allen came through for the Mississippi State baseball team on Tuesday night. Allen hit a three-run home run in the eighth inning against Virginia at the College World Series that gave Mississippi State a 5-4 lead. Mississippi State went on to defeat Virginia 6-5. Allen finished the game 1-for-4, but his one hit caught the attention of Chipper Jones, a National Baseball Hall of Famer. "I see you @Tanner_Allen10," Jones tweeted on Tuesday night, and he quote tweeted a video of Allen's home run. Allen responded by quote tweeting Jones' tweet. Allen used the emoji of a hand making the sign language symbol for "I love you." Jones played for the Atlanta Braves from 1993-2012. He was selected for eight MLB all-start game, and Jones earned the 1999 National League MVP award. He was inducted into the hall of fame in 2019. Tuesday's home run was Allen's 11th homer of the 2021 season, and it increased Allen's team-leading RBI total to 65. |
| Boiled peanuts, flamingos and flyovers: MSU fans share two decades of CWS memories | |
| The tickets were bought, the rooms reserved, the tailgate planned. All the preparations had been made months in advance as Jim Keith and Johnny Loper planned to make their 19th consecutive trip to Omaha, Nebraska, for the College World Series. There was just one thing missing: the CWS itself. On March 12, 2020, the event was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving Keith and Loper -- and their best-laid plans -- in the lurch. "It was awful," said Loper, a Forest native who has spent the past three decades as an attorney in Raleigh, North Carolina. After attending every CWS since 2002, he and Keith, an attorney at Adams and Reese LLP in Ridgeland, planned to make their 19th straight appearance in Omaha last June. Instead, Loper was left working from home, walking his dog around the neighborhood and "sitting around wishing that they were playing baseball somewhere." But now, the two Mississippi State fans are back for more, continuing the tradition by taking in the first three days of the 2021 event -- including a 2-1 Bulldogs win over No. 2 Texas on Sunday night. And even if MSU has long since been out of contention, they'll be in their usual seats along the first-base line. "We come regardless of who's here," Keith said. |
| Natchez resident enjoying sixth trip to Omaha | |
 | Natchez resident Scott Kimbrell said he is enjoying his sixth trip to Omaha to cheer on Mississippi State University. He graduated from MSU with a degree in business. He owns Kimbrell Digital Solutions in Brookhaven and Natchez. Natchez residents Billy Gillon, Pat Burns and Covington resident Doug Place made the trip with Kimbrell. He said they have gone to Omaha a few times as a group. Kimbrell said he has been to Omaha to cheer for MSU for 1985, 2013, 2018, 2019 and 2021 World Series. He said he could not remember which year the sixth trip came in. "Every year I have been, it has been electric, and there has been a lot of Mississippi State fans here," Kimbrell said. "I would like to think this year will be different, but we sure need to win a few more games. Tonight's game will be very pivotal." Kimbrell was already at TD Ameritrade Park for the Tennessee vs. Texas game that began at 1 p.m. He said he likes seeing the crowds enjoying baseball at its purest form. "Everyone in Omaha and the Omaha area have been so friendly," Kimbrell said. "There is a lot of people here who do not have a team, but they enjoy college baseball. This is probably as pure as it gets in the sport, at least in my mind. It is just fun to be with people and different teams." |
| Never-say-never 'Dogs find a way, now three wins from national title | |
| Mississippi sports columnist Rick Cleveland writes: Down 4-0 and hitless for seven and two-thirds innings, Mississippi State Tuesday night somehow found a way to victory. SEC Player of the Year Tanner Allen surely helped. So did some splendid relief pitching. And a questionable decision by the opposing coach surely didn't hurt. The Bulldogs came off the mat with a six-run eighth inning to defeat Virginia 6-5 and climb snugly into the driver's seat of its bracket in the College World Series. The Bulldogs, who now have two days off, are one victory away from playing in the best-two-of-three national championship series that starts next Monday. "We just believe in each other," Allen said afterward. "We keep playing no matter what." Allen's three-run home run in the top of the eighth inning was the game's biggest blow and put the Bulldogs on top 5-4. The thing is, Virginia didn't have to pitch to him. |
| College Football Playoff presidents OK expansion evaluation | |
| The 11 university presidents and chancellors who oversee the College Football Playoff on Tuesday authorized a continued evaluation of a proposed 12-team playoff that, if adopted, could still be another five years away. The move by the CFP board of managers was a necessary step to determine the feasibility of tripling the size of the playoff field. "The four-team playoff has been a great success and I'm confident it will remain a success," said Mark Keenum, the Mississippi State president and CFP board chairman. "Nevertheless, it is our responsibility to explore options to make it even better by increasing the number of schools that participate in it." The 12-team proposal was presented to the presidents and chancellors after the 11-person panel that manages the postseason system -- 10 conference commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick -- last week had its first meeting with everyone together in person. Keenum said the next step is a summer review phase that will "engage other important voices," including athletes, campus leaders and coaches. Keenum said the meeting in a hotel at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport made him aware of numerous legal matters that have to be taken into consideration, along with getting extensive feedback. "We have bowl partnerships with our six playoff bowls, every conference has affiliations with its own set of bowls and there are contracts that are in place already," Keenum said. |
| 'Summer review phase' to test prospects, timing of 12-team College Football Playoff | |
| The proposal for a 12-team College Football Playoff cleared another hurdle Tuesday when the 11 presidents and chancellors who have the ultimate authority over the format authorized the 10 FBS commissioners to "begin a summer review phase" to determine the feasibility of an expanded field and work on the details of how and when it might be implemented. This was an important step in the process, as the playoff couldn't expand without the support of the presidents and chancellors who make up the CFP's board of managers. The group, which has "authority over all aspects of the company's operations," includes a representative from each of the 10 FBS conferences, along with the Notre Dame president, the Rev. John Jenkins. "I don't think anyone in the room had a serious problem with the concept of this 12-team proposal," said Mississippi State president and board of managers chair Mark Keenum. "But the devil's in the details. We've got to get into the details before we can make an informed decision. ... If we decide to make a change, when would we do that? When would it work for us? When would it be most feasible? We don't know the answer to that. We just don't know. I want to caution observers of this process to not rush to conclusions about what our board may decide," Keenum added, while also lauding the current four-team system. "We still have a lot more information, more facts to bring to the table for the board of managers to make any decisions going forward." |
| College Football Playoff board inches closer to possible 12-team plan | |
| The board that oversees the College Football Playoff took another step toward expanding the tournament Tuesday. A working group appointed to look into the possibility of expanding the playoffs to 12 teams conducted a presentation on Tuesday in front of the College Football Playoff board of managers. "It was an excellent presentation," said Mark Keenum, Mississippi State University President and Chairman of the College Football Playoff Board of Managers. "And on behalf of the board, I am grateful to the four members who spent two years discussing this important issue and arriving at its recommendation for a 12-team playoff." Keenum said the four-team playoff has been a success but that it is important to explore more options to make it better. The board has given approval to the management committee to start a summer review phase that will involve important voices in this matter. These will include prominent people on college campuses such as student-athletes, athletic directors, faculty athletic representatives, coaches, and university presidents and chancellors. "We have relationships with the bowls and a broadcast partner with whom we will want to consult to explore the feasibility of the 12-team proposal," Keenum said. Keenum said the working group looking into the expansion presented a "thorough and thoughtful proposal", but more information is needed before the board can come to a final decision. |
| College football's 12-team playoff comes closer to reality | |
| There are still knots to untangle before a 12-team playoff for major college football becomes reality. But the process toward an expanded field took another vital step Tuesday. In Dallas, the College Football Playoff board of managers, a panel of university presidents from the 10 FBS conferences plus Notre Dame, authorized a summer review phase of the proposed 12-team playoff model that will engage other important voices, including players, coaches, athletics directors and other campus leaders. "Their opinions are important," Mississippi State president Mark Keenum said in a statement issued after the meeting, "and we want to hear them." The 12-team playoff movement continues to have momentum, but Tuesday's meeting stopped well short of the goal line. "We have relationships with the bowls and a broadcast partner with whom we will want to consult to explore the feasibility of the 12-team proposal," Keenum added. The board of managers will gather feedback this summer, Keenum said, and decide if the 12-team model is feasible. Don't expect a hurry-up offense. "I caution observers of our process not to rush to conclusions about what this board may decide," Keenum said. |
| Timing is big question as College Football Playoff expansion moves forward | |
| The ball is rolling toward expansion of the College Football Playoff, but administrators are asking for patience before the group makes a final decision. The CFP's Board of Mangers voted Tuesday to move forward with a feasibility study for a 12-team playoff, but administrators caution the playoff is not yet committed to breaking a 12-year contract agreement with its broadcast partner, ESPN, before the 2026 season. CFP executive director Bill Hancock previously said the earliest a 12-team format could replace the four-team field is 2023. "I want to caution observers ... to not rush to conclusions as to what our Board may decide," said Mississippi State president Mark Keenum, chairman of the CFP Board of Managers. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, who was part of a four-person group that developed the 12-team proposal, added Tuesday: "I would temper my expectations. You never say never, but we've got an opportunity to dig deeper as a group and those answers are going to come." The most powerful administrators in college athletics met Tuesday morning inside a hotel adjacent to the DFW International Airport to hear the 12-team proposal developed by a four-person working group. The decision to move forward with the plan and seek feedback from constituents was "unanimous" among the 11-person Board of Managers, said West Virginia University president Gordon Gee. A decision on whether to formally approve the 12-team proposal will likely be made Sept. 28, when the Board is scheduled to meet again and review the findings of the feasibility study. |
| College Football Playoff expansion: CFP board pushes 12-team field closer to approval with summer study | |
| The College Football Playoff Board of Managers on Tuesday approved a feasibility study of moving the CFP field to 12 teams, an expansion could may formally be approved at an unknown future date. Moving to 12 would triple the field from the current four teams that have competed for the national championship since the CFP started in 2014. The rubber stamp for further evaluation was expected after the model created by the CFP working group was presented last week to the CFP Management Committee (10 FBS commissioners plus Notre Dame's athletic director). "Having heard the presentation made today by the working group, along with the management committee that joined us for today's meeting, the board has authorized the management committee to begin a summer review phase that will engage other important voices in this matter," said CFP board chairman Mark Keenum, the president of Mississippi State, in a statement. This feasibility study by conference commissioners will include details and discussions on topics such as when and where games would be played. It's expected to be delivered later this summer. The September meeting will include both university presidents and conference commissioners. Media rights sources have valued a 12-team playoff at approximately $1 billion per year. The current contract between the CFP and ESPN averages $600 million annually over 12 years through 2025. |
| College Football Playoff expansion: Process enters next phase with feasibility study of 12-team event | |
| The university presidents who oversee the College Football Playoff have approved the next step in the expansion process: a feasibility study to determine the details for the proposed 12-team, four-round event that would transform college football. Formal approval is expected this fall, with expansion beginning in either the 2023 or 2026 seasons. Following a meeting Tuesday in Dallas, the presidents who make up the CFP's Board of Managers issued the following statement via the board's chair, Mark Keenum of Mississippi State: "Having heard the presentation made today by the working group, along with the management committee that joined us for today's meeting, the board has authorized the management committee to begin a summer review phase that will engage other important voices in this matter." Washington State president Kirk Schulz is the Pac-12's representative on the Board of Managers. George Kliavkoff, who takes over the Pac-12 on July 1, attended the meeting in Dallas along with outgoing commissioner Larry Scott. Last week, Scott issued a statement in which he said the Pac-12 favored automatic bids for the Power Five conference champions. However, the conference could be alone in that regard -- publicly, at least -- for there is strong support nationally to adopt the model currently under consideration. |
| Bob Bowlsby on CFP expansion: 12-team field could spark an 'extraordinarily good October and November' | WVNS | |
| A College Football Playoff expansion would open the door for more teams to compete for a national title each year. The hope is it'll foster a more competitive regular season, too. When the CFP announced its proposed 12-team expansion earlier this month, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby advocated for the change and defended his stance by pointing to some simple math: if more teams can make the tournament, more regular season games could make or break a team's chances. "The practical effect of this will be that with four or five weeks to go in the season, there will be 25 or 30 teams that have a legitimate claim and practical opportunity to participate," Bowlsby said during a recent teleconference. "That should make for an extraordinarily good October and November." In an added development, the College Football Playoff board of managers took another step toward the expansion by authorizing a summer review phase to further explore the possibility of expansion. Mark Keenum, the chairman of the CFP board of managers and the president of Mississippi State, said the review will "engage other important voices on the matter." |
| College Football Playoff Board Announces Its Next Step | |
| It is unclear when it may happen, but the College Football Playoff continues to progress towards a major expansion to 12 teams. After the working group proposal to add eight schools to the current CFP size, things continue to move forward. The working group presented its recommendation for a 12-team playoff to the College Football Playoff board of managers in Dallas this afternoon. Mississippi State president Mark Keenum, now the chairman of that board, addressed the situation today, and confirmed that the group is taking next steps. Most notably, the involves getting the bowls themselves, more of which will be absorbed into the new 12-team playoff format, and broadcast partners on board. Given that this will almost definitely mean more money for all of the above, it seems like more of a formality at the end of the day than anything else. "Having heard the presentation made today by the working group, along with the management committee that joined us for today's meeting, the board has authorized the management committee to begin a summer review phase that will engage other important voices in this matter," Keenum said. "These include many people on our campuses, such as student-athletes, athletics directors, faculty representatives, coaches, and university presidents and chancellors." |
| College Football Playoff: 12-team format proposal won't be decided before September | |
| The influential College Football Playoff management committee has reviewed the 12-team postseason format proposed last week and moved the recommendation into a feedback phase, playoff executive director Bill Hancock said. The committee meetings occurred Thursday and Friday in Chicago, near the Big Ten Conference offices, and marked the first time the group had convened in person since before the start of the coronavirus pandemic. From here, the management committee will meet next week with the board of managers to authorize the collection of feedback from several on-campus groups, including university administrators, athletics directors, coaches and student-athletes. "We just need time to review this with our folks here on campus," Hancock said. "That was the prevailing theme of the meeting. We just need more time." Approval of the expanded bracket would not occur before the start of the season. In terms of implementation, the soonest the 12-team field could go into effect is the 2023 season due to contracts currently in place, Hancock said. "Not to say it'll happen then, but that's the earliest that it could," he said. |
| Mississippi State, Ole Miss ADs call state's NIL law a good start | |
| An early 1990s Keith Carter might have attracted sponsorship opportunities for tube socks or a hair product, he says. The 20ish version of John Cohen might have avoided print or video advertising to try and create an opportunity through social media. For the athletics directors at Ole Miss and Mississippi State, it's guesswork looking behind as well as ahead. Mississippi's Name, Image and Likeness law (NIL) goes into effect on July 1, along with those in four other states. Five more states have laws that will take effect later in July. The decades-old NCAA model of no compensation for athletes beyond scholarship, room and board is crumbling in real time. On Monday, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling to say that the NCAA can no longer limit education-based benefits provided by schools for student-athletes. The ruling is considered a significant piece in the larger discussion of compensation for student-athletes. Carter, the Ole Miss athletics director, said he thinks Mississippi athletes could benefit right out of the gate. "We will see deals done the first week, for sure," he said. The greatest challenge faced by schools in the short term is educating their staff, fans – and, most importantly, their student-athletes, the ADs say. To that end, both have contracted with third-party companies which will serve guide athletes not only in compliance with NCAA regulations and state laws but also in how to market themselves to take advantage of new opportunities. "When I was 20 years old, if I had gone out and done something like this, I'd have had no idea that I would have been taxed and that I'd be responsible for paying my own taxes," said Cohen, MSU's athletics director. "If you don't pay taxes you're not just breaking state laws, you're breaking federal laws. That's a concern because there are 18- and 20-year-olds who might not be totally aware." |
| Starkville dealership ready to make most of Mississippi's new NIL law | |
| Kristi Snyder couldn't help but think of the possibilities. On April 16, Gov. Tate Reeves announced Mississippi would become one of the first states to allow college athletes to profit off the use of their own name, image and likeness. Snyder, the general manager of Parker Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Starkville, and her coworkers immediately processed the news. "Our minds just started racing," Snyder said. As a Mississippi State alumni-owned business just a mile and a half from the campus, the Parker dealership is ready to cash in just over a week from now when the bill becomes effective July 1. Snyder has forged a partnership with Icon Source, which offers a secure platform for brands and athletes to connect and strike endorsement deals. "We're just really excited about the opportunity to put some things out there for kids to be able to have an opportunity and promote us at the same time," Snyder said. Snyder said she hopes signing local athletes will help draw business to the dealership, which is fairly new -- it has been open less than five years. |
| Tennessee baseball exits College World Series winless after Texas loss | |
 | Redmond Walsh bounced a breaking ball in front of home plate at TD Ameritrade Park on Tuesday. Tennessee baseball catcher Connor Pavolony tried to block the errant pitch, but it deflected off his chest and rolled to the backstop. He raced to retrieve it as Texas' Eric Kennedy easily scored from third and Tennessee's historic season tumbled closer to its conclusion. Leadoff walks and two-out Texas runs doomed the Vols, who exited the College World Series winless after losing 8-4 to Texas in an elimination game. Tennessee has not won a CWS game since 2001. It also was winless in 2005, its most recent trip to Omaha before breaking through in Tony Vitello's fourth season in Knoxville. The Vols (50-18) lost back-to-back games for the second time this season. Tennessee took a 2-0 lead in the second inning -- its first runs in Omaha after being shut out in a 6-0 loss against Virginia on Sunday in its CWS opener. Kennedy slugged a three-run homer on a two-out, two-strike pitch from Blade Tidwell in the bottom of the second. The Vols tied Texas 4-4 in the fourth, but never led again. UT unraveled in the fourth after Sean Hunley entered to replace Tidwell. Hunley walked two of the first three batters he faced. Vols volunteer assistant coach Ross Kivett was ejected after the second walk. |
| All eyes on Tony Vitello after Tennessee baseball's season ends in College World Series | |
 | Danny White stood in a suite above section 211 at TD Ameritrade after Tennessee baseball's season ended Tuesday afternoon. The Tennessee athletics director hovered as coach Tony Vitello and the Vols wrapped up their season after an 8-4 loss to Texas, which turned all attention to what is next for Vitello and the future of Tennessee baseball. Tennessee is preparing to make a sizable financial commitment to its coaching staff and facilities to sustain the program's success, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the Tennessee baseball program told Knox News in early June. One of the sources indicated the investment could place Tennessee among the nation's biggest spenders on college baseball and make Vitello one of the highest-paid coaches in the nation. Vitello also is regarded as a candidate for LSU's coaching vacancy. The fourth-year Vols coach said Tuesday that he has not had contact with the Tigers, who are in the hunt for a coach after Paul Mainieri retired following 15 years in Baton Rouge. Vitello built Tennessee into a title-contending program in four seasons. He was hired in June 2017 after successful assistant coach tenures at Arkansas, TCU and Missouri. Vitello's pay and Tennessee's facilities lag behind the SEC standard. |
| How Vanderbilt baseball has fared without Kumar Rocker or Jack Leiter this season | |
| On Wednesday, No. 4 Vanderbilt (46-16) will have to face an uncomfortable reality: it will have to win an elimination game against Stanford (39-16) without Kumar Rocker or Jack Leiter on the mound. That means the Commodores will have to rely on an inconsistent offense and an unproven third starter, whether that's Patrick Reilly, Christian Little or someone else. But although the stakes have not been this high, Vanderbilt has played plenty of games without the two -- in all, 14 against power-conference teams. The Commodores won seven of those games. The trends are not all positive for Vanderbilt -- it will be a tough road ahead. However, throughout the season the Commodores have found ways to win those games. While Thomas Schultz started many of the Sunday SEC games earlier in the season, Reilly has consistently filled that role since mid-April. He's started six of the last nine games against power-conference teams not started by Rocker or Leiter. (The only exceptions were a game against Florida started by Chris McElvain, in which Reilly appeared in relief, a midweek tilt with Louisville started by Little and the opening game of the SEC Tournament, also Little.) Reilly has been the most successful starter of the bunch, though barely. |
| Razorbacks to open athletic venues to 100% capacity | |
| The University of Arkansas announced Tuesday it plans to open all athletic venues to 100% capacity for the 2021-22 academic calendar, a move that had been expected for some time. The Razorbacks employed staggered increases for crowd sizes at Baum-Walker Stadium for baseball and Bogle Park for softball, from about half-capacity to full capacity by season's end. Baum-Walker Stadium had sellouts as the Razorbacks clinched the SEC regular-season championship during the final weekend of the regular season, and both programs sold out for home super regionals. The UA athletic department suffered about $30 million in losses last year during the coronavirus pandemic, largely due to diminished gate revenue from football at Reynolds Razorback Stadium and basketball at Bud Walton Arena. Arkansas limited capacity to 16,500 at 76,412-seat Razorback Stadium last season, based on coronavirus distancing guidelines provided by the Arkansas Department of Health. Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek said earlier in the year the department would sell season tickets for 2021 as if Razorback Stadium would be at full capacity. "We're anticipating things returning to some sense of normalcy," Yurachek told WholeHogSports in January. "That's my crystal ball outlook of what I think right now." Several other SEC programs previously have announced plans to open all athletic venues to 100% capacity this fall, and most athletic directors have stated their intentions to do so. |
| Softball upgrades by '24, UGA football's Kirby Smart eyes track space | |
 | UGA athletic director Josh Brooks plans a "deep look," this summer into formulating a five-to-seven year plan for athletic facilities. He's mentioned that would include upgrades for baseball and softball, a program whose new coach was formally introduced in a zoom press conference on Tuesday. Tony Baldwin indicated a timeline for softball facility improvements could come by 2024 when Georgia is to host the SEC tournament at Jack Turner Stadium. "Josh and I have had great conversations, and we have a tremendous amount of support from our administration," said Baldwin, who was promoted from associate head coach to replace Lu Harris-Champer. "There are some really exciting things in the future that will take place." He said the 2024 SEC tournament "gives us kind of a target date to make some of the things. Those will come down the pike as they do. We're really fortunate, I think the Jack is one of the top facilities in the country." Brooks' other new head coach hire, Caryl Smith Gilbert, will take over a track and field program that will move into new offices and a locker room in space vacated by the football program in January as part of the second phase of the $80 million, 165,000 square foot Butts-Mehre expansion and renovation. Smith Gilbert, who won two national championships at Southern Cal, said in a radio interview Tuesday that a major track project could come in the future to open up more space for football coach Kirby Smart's program. |
| Trump fuels Herschel Walker Senate hype in Georgia | |
| Herschel Walker hasn't campaigned, attended local party events or started fundraising. He's a longtime Texas resident. Yet the prospect that the former college and pro football legend might jump into the GOP Senate race in Georgia has state Republicans anxiously looking for clues about his intentions, aware that his candidacy could suddenly rewrite the script in one of the nation's most important Senate contests of 2022. Signs that the former University of Georgia star might be nearing a decision has GOP supporters and detractors ablaze with speculation in a race that's essentially frozen until he announces his intentions. "He's got a genuine concern for the country, he loves Georgia. Certainly he has a longstanding relationship with President Trump," said Randy Evans, a former ambassador in the Trump administration and longtime Georgia Republican operative. Just a single tweet last week from Walker sparked a new round of discussions about Republican chances of defeating Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in his bid for a full Senate term. Walker's storied career as a professional athlete is only part of his appeal to many Georgia Republicans. He also has the enthusiastic support of former President Donald Trump, with whom he has a relationship that dates back four decades. Walker's three seasons as the marquee player with a USFL team owned by Trump in the 1980s kicked off a longstanding friendship that would later see Walker become a contestant on Trump's Celebrity Apprentice television show. In a speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention, the former football star defended the former president against accusations of racism; he remains a close friend of the Trump family. |
| Sports betting in Louisiana is coming after John Bel Edwards signs bill into law | |
 | Sports betting is on the way in Louisiana as Gov. John Bel Edwards signed the legislation Tuesday to create the protocols and regulation of wagering on sporting events and how the proceeds will be spent. With Edwards' signature on Senate Bill 247 and Senate Bill 142, all the elements are in place for Louisiana casinos to apply for the necessary licenses, build the sports book parlors for in-person betting and line up the contractors to handle wagering on smart phones and over the internet. The governor already had signed, on June 4, House Bill 697, which established the taxes and fees for the wagering game. The legislation goes into effect a week from Thursday on July 1 – in hopes that everything will be ready to go by football season this fall. "SB247 fulfills the wishes of the citizens in the 55 parishes that approved the referendum last fall to allow sports wagering and SB142 will help direct funding derived from this activity to early childhood education," Senate President Page Cortez said Tuesday. The legislative package also authorized the Louisiana Lottery Corp. to contract a provider to handle sports betting kiosks that would be placed in the bars and restaurants that serve alcohol. |
| R.C. Slocum diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma | |
| Former Texas A&M football coach R.C. Slocum has been diagnosed with a form of Hodgkin's lymphoma, A&M officials announced Tuesday. The diagnosis comes after Slocum, 76, underwent testing at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Slocum will undergo chemotherapy in College Station to treat his illness in consultation with M.D. Anderson. "I have been so encouraged by the outpouring of love, prayers and support from friends everywhere," Slocum said in a statement. "I have great medical support, and I will get started on this challenge as soon as possible. I have a strong faith and will trust for a positive outcome." Hodgkin's lymphoma is a cancer in which cells in the lymphatic system grow abnormally and spread, according to the Mayo Clinic. Slocum coached the A&M football team from 1989-2002, becoming the winningest coach in school history after compiling a 123-47-2 record in 14 seasons. He is tied with Homer Norton as the Aggies' longest tenured head coach, and adding 16 years as an assistant, Slocum holds the longest tenure of any coach in A&M history. Currently, Slocum serves as a special assistant to A&M President M. Katherine Banks. He also is a member of the College Football Playoff selection committee. |
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