| Friday, January 21, 2022 |
| Two hospitalized after shooting at Chadwick Apartments | |
 | A shooting at Chadwick Apartments Thursday night sent two injured victims to the hospital and sparked a manhunt that briefly involved the Mississippi State University campus. Oktibbeha County Sheriff's Office responded to a shots-fired call at the complex on Lee Boulevard, just east of the university. MSU issued a Maroon Alert moments later indicating the suspect was seen fleeing on foot toward campus. MSU Chief Communications Officer Sid Salter said university police assisted other local law enforcement by providing K-9 units for the search. At 8:10 p.m. the university issued another Maroon Alert indicating the search was concluded and the suspect had "left the area." The campus returned to normal operations at that time, Salter said. OCSO Capt. Brett Watson would not confirm to The Dispatch by press time whether the suspect had been identified or arrested, though he said in a text message, "as far as we know there is no present danger to the community or campus." He said the two victims were taken to OCH Regional Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries. The victims were not MSU students, Salter told The Dispatch. |
| Watson touts need for updated voter rolls, takes aim at Facebook | |
| Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson wants the public to know that elections are safe and secure, but "there is never a perfect election." Watson, who served 12 years in the state Senate representing District 51, was elected secretary of state in 2020. He told the Columbus Exchange Club on Thursday afternoon that, while Mississippi had "a great election in 2020" and it was "very smooth and well-run," he feels that the state's election system "can always get better." There are more registered voters than ever before, and there was better turnout than ever before in the 2020 election, he said. That makes election security vital, and that starts with proper maintenance of the voter rolls, including conducting proper purges. When a question arises about someone's residency -- such as a summons for jury duty being bounced back through the mail -- the local circuit clerk's office sends a confirmation card to that voter. If they don't respond, the purge process kicks in, he explained. "If you don't vote in two federal elections, if you don't update your voter information, you can be purged," he said. "It's a three- to four-year process. It's hard to be purged." |
| Black lawmakers walk out as Mississippi Senate passes 'critical race theory' bill | |
 | The Mississippi Senate on Friday passed what was advertised as an anti-critical race theory bill but, which in practice, would change very little if anything about what is taught in public schools. Senate Bill 2113 passed the body 32-2 after all of the Black lawmakers walked out of the chamber while the vote was being recorded. Sens. David Blount and Hob Bryan were the only two Democratic lawmakers who voted against the bill. The bill forbids public schools from forcing students to agree "that any sex, race, ethnicity, religion or nationality is inherently superior or inferior," which is not what proponents of critical race theory describe is the aim of the theory. The legislation does not define what critical race theory is, does not list any penalties for teachers who violate the law and does not actually ban educators from teaching anything. Democratic senators criticized the legislation as unnecessary and said it would create problems for public school teachers who want to teach Mississippi's true history, which has been marred by racial injustice. "My question is why is this bill necessary?" Democratic Sen. David Jordan of Greenwood asked. The author of the bill, Republican Sen. Michael McLendon of Hernando, declined a request from the Daily Journal on Thursday to define critical race theory. When asked by Senate colleagues during floor debate, he would not offer a definition. |
| Black lawmakers walk off Senate floor in protest of critical race theory bill | |
 | Mississippi's Black senators walked off the Senate floor in protest Friday morning before a vote on a bill designed to prohibit the teaching of critical race theory in the state's public schools. The bill still passed the Senate 32-3, with the only two white Democratic senators, David Blount and Hob Bryan, voting against it. Debate on the bill lasted more than an hour, with Black lawmakers repeatedly asking Republicans why the state needed such a bill. "We cannot afford to spend our time taking up issues in Mississippi that do not exist," said Senate Minority Leader Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, after walking off the floor Sen. Michael McLendon, R-Hernando, authored and introduced the bill titled "Critical Race Theory; prohibit." He said on the Senate floor he is not aware of any public K-12 school teaching the theory in the state. In August, the Mississippi Department of Education told the Clarion Ledger the theory wasn't being taught in any school. "This bill has no intent of changing history, whatsoever," McLendon said. "All it does is say we're not telling any child that they're inferior or superior to another." Symbolic in nature, the bill does not prevent schools from teaching about race, history or civil rights. It doesn't even explicitly outlaw teaching critical race theory. Instead, it says no school can teach a course that suggests "any sex, race, ethnicity, religion or national origin is inherently superior or inferior." |
| Anti-CRT bill passed out of Senate committee likely unconstitutional, opponents say | |
 | The Senate Education Committee passed legislation Thursday banning the teaching of critical race theory in K-12 public schools and in the state's public universities and community colleges. If made into law, opponents say the bill is likely unconstitutional. The bill states no public school or public college or university "shall make a distinction or classification of students based on account of race" and cites specifically that critical race theory is something the legislation would "prohibit." At the K-12 level, the Mississippi state Department of Education has maintained for months that critical race theory is not taught. Rather, it's a concept primarily discussed at the university-level -- and that is where legal experts say the bill potentially violates the state and U.S. constitutions. It is unusual for the Legislature to specify the curriculum of public schools, especially public universities. Section 213 of the state Constitution mandates that the public universities "shall be under the management and control" of the Board of Trustees for the State Institutions of Higher Learning. "Universities are set up with promises of academic freedom as part of their accreditation process," Steffey said. "It's extremely problematic for state law to try to infringe on the existing contractual rights and commitment at the individual professor level and at the university level." The bill likely infringes on the contractual right that faculty, especially those with tenure, have no academic freedom, said Matthew Steffey, who teaches constitutional law at Mississippi College. |
| Mississippi House OKs bill on equal pay for women and men | |
 | Mississippi employers would be required to pay women and men the same amount of money for the same work, under a bill that passed the state House on Thursday. But an advocate who has been pushing for years for an equal-pay mandate said the bill is weak. Cassandra Welchlin, leader of the Mississippi Black Women's Roundtable, said it would do too little to help Black and brown women who are more likely to be hired at low wages than white women or men. "We'll keep working to try to make it stronger," Welchlin said after the vote. House Bill 770 passed 111-5 with bipartisan support. It will move to the Senate for more work. A 1963 federal law requires equal pay for equal work, but Mississippi is the only state without its own equal pay law. House Bill 770 would apply to people who work at least 40 hours a week. It requires equal pay for jobs that require "equal skill, education, effort and responsibility, and which is performed under similar working conditions." Higher pay is allowed for seniority, merit, quantity or quality of production. |
| House passes equal pay with bipartisan vote | |
| The Mississippi House with an overwhelming, bipartisan vote and little debate on Thursday passed an equal pay bill, which would provide state legal recourse for employees paid less for the same work based on sex. House Bill 770 passed 111-5 and now heads to the Senate, where a similar measure, Senate Bill 2451, is also pending. Both bills would create a state "actionable right" for any employee paid less for equal work based on sex. Federal law already provides such a right, but taking an employer to task in federal court is a more difficult, and often more costly task for aggrieved employees. Mississippi is the last state in the nation without an equal pay provision in state law. Bipartisan support has been growing for such a law, but past efforts failed. Opponents' stated rationale has been that there are already federal equal pay laws, and that they don't want to put undue regulations on businesses or cause unwarranted lawsuits. During brief floor debate on Thursday, Rep. Dana Criswell, R-Olive Branch, asked Judiciary A Chairwoman Angela Cockerham, author of the bill, "Do you know how many women have had to use the federal law in the last year?" Cockerham, an Independent from Magnolia, responded: "If it's one woman, gentleman, it's one too many." She asked male lawmakers to think about their daughters, if they came home from their first job and told them they were making less money than a coworker with the same experience doing the same work. "Sometimes we pass laws just for the sake of passing laws," Criswell said. "We are passing a law now and we don't even know if it's going to help." |
| Senate teacher pay plan passes committees; next stop before full chamber | |
| A proposal that would provide teachers an average salary increase of $4,700 over two years passed both the Senate Education and Appropriations committees Thursday and could be considered by the full Senate as early as Friday morning. The House already has passed its teacher pay proposal and sent it to the Senate. The leadership of both chambers have said providing a substantial pay raise for teachers is one of their top priorities during the 2022 session. Either plan, if passed, would represent one of the largest pay raises for teachers in history. More than likely, a combination of the two plans will ultimately pass during the 2022 session and be sent to Gov. Tate Reeves, who has said he supports a teacher pay raise, though his plan is for a smaller increase than what is being proposed by legislators. The plan passed out of the Education Committee Thursday was first proposed by the chamber's presiding officer, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, and Sen. Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, chair of the Education Committee. The plan is estimated to cost $210 million over two years. The money spent in the first year – $166 million -- would adjust the salary ladder to provide a "significant" raise for teachers, DeBar said. The money in the second year would be to provide a $1,000 across-the-board raise for teachers. |
| Medical marijuana bill has huge loophole that will allow lawmakers and their families to own dispensaries | |
| A Senate bill that would create a medical marijuana program in the state and passed the House on Wednesday has an 18-wheeler sized loophole. Scrolling down the text of Senate Bill 2095 known as the Mississippi Medical Marijuana Act, a reader arrives at line 1,361. This provision covers the eligibility of state lawmakers and their family members to become dispensary owners. The bill bans them from taking part in the business until December 31, 2022. This means the restriction expires at year's end, allowing lawmakers (who'll have the power to write laws governing the medical marijuana industry) and their families to be participants in what will be a heavily regulated industry. State Rep. Dan Eubanks (R-Walls) told the Northside Sun since the program would take at least 180 days to start, there essentially would be no ban on lawmakers or their families participating. Eubanks tried to plug the loophole with an amendment that was defeated on a 68-41 roll call vote. His amendment would've stretched that deadline out to 2025. The bill requires that the owner of a dispensary have established residence in the state for three years. Eubanks said that out-of-state growers from Oklahoma and Arkansas will partner with local residents to open dispensaries, giving them an advantage over local industry participants. |
| Gipson responds after House amends medical marijuana bill | |
| One of the changes made by the House on Wednesday to the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act of 2022 was the removal of any role by the state's Department of Agriculture and Commerce (MDAC). The decision comes after months of Commissioner Andy Gipson vocalizing his opposition to the legislature's program. Relieving MDAC of any responsibilities leaves the entirety of the program on the shoulders of the Mississippi State Department of Health. Here's the statement released by Gipson on Thursday morning. "I want to thank House Speaker Philip Gunn, Chairman Lee Yancey, and the Mississippi House of Representatives for removing the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce from the medical marijuana program. The best place for a truly medical program is under the Department of Health, which reflects the will of the voters in Initiative 65. This change is good policy for Mississippi agriculture and allows us to focus on our core mission. It is also good policy for the taxpayers of Mississippi because it achieves greater efficiency in the use of funds by reducing the number of agencies involved in the program. The Department of Agriculture remains committed to assisting the Department of Health on any technical issues that may arise in this program, just as we are committed to all of state government when we can be of help." |
| Several criminal justice measures making way through legislative process | |
| The Senate Corrections Committee approved several criminal justice bills Wednesday as the session nears the end of its third week of work. All of the bills approved by the committee were authored by its chairman, state Sen. Juan Barnett, D-Heidelberg, who has authored some criminal justice reform bills in the past few years. One of the biggest bills that can go for a floor vote is Senate Bill 2273, which would authorize an offender on probation or parole to have their employer to submit regular information using video chat to probation officers instead of direct meetings between the offender and supervisory official. There were also bills authored by Barnett that renewed the state's pilot work release program until 2024, the state Parole Board to 2026 and extended the Prison Overcrowding Emergency Powers Act (first passed in 2018) to 2026. Lawmakers attach sunset provisions known as repealers to bills to force them to re-evaluate the law and possibly make changes after three or four years. State Sen. Joey Fillingane (R-Sumrall) authored SB 2584, which would create a pilot program for so-called re-entry courts in some of the state's circuit court districts. These courts are designed to supervise the return of a convict to the community and use the authority of the court to apply sanctions and positive reinforcement to support them and prevent recidivism. |
| States Are Swimming in Cash Thanks to Booming Tax Revenue and Federal Aid | |
 | Numerous states are proposing tax rebates and bonuses for public workers as the fiscal doldrums of early 2021 give way to fat times fueled by booming markets, growing incomes and federal aid. State revenues between April and November increased 24% from 2020 to 2021, according to a survey conducted by the Urban Institute think tank. Thirty-two states said revenue collections for fiscal years ending in 2022 were ahead of projections, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers, including South Carolina, Minnesota and Washington. While spending is going up in some areas, including K-12 and higher education, states are in many cases putting budget surpluses to one-time uses rather than programs with long-term commitments or permanent tax cuts. Officials say that is because pandemic-related federal aid is ending and revenue growth could halt if the economy slows. Along with the tax rebates and bonuses, states are paying down debts and pension obligations and investing in short-term infrastructure projects. In addition, states' reserve funds have reached a record level of nearly $113 billion for the 2021 fiscal year, the budget officers' association said. "Lawmakers, including Democrats and Republicans alike, are acknowledging that while the situation looks really good right now, these surpluses are likely temporary," said Josh Goodman, who researches state fiscal health for the Pew Charitable Trusts. |
| Americans are divided on abortion. The Supreme Court may not wait for minds to change | |
 | When he was running for president in 1999, George W. Bush, then governor of Texas, famously fended off the strong anti-abortion wing of his party by suggesting the country ought not consider banning abortion until public opinion shifted further in that direction. "Laws are changed as minds are persuaded," he said. Bush was no moderate on the abortion issue. As president he signed several pieces of anti-abortion legislation, including the first federal ban on a specific abortion procedure, and used his authority to severely limit federally funded research on embryonic stem cells. But he was clear in urging anti-abortion allies to concentrate on persuading more Americans to take their side before pushing for broader restrictions. "I know as you return to your communities you will redouble your efforts to change hearts and minds, one person at a time," he told anti-abortion demonstrators at the annual March for Life rally in 2004. "This is the way we will build a lasting culture of life, a compassionate society in which every child is born into a loving family and protected by law." For many years after that, anti-abortion forces concentrated on more incremental steps, such as putting burdensome health and safety requirements on abortion clinics and requiring waiting periods before abortions. It seems that strategy is about to be tested. Although public opinion on abortion has budged little in the ensuing two decades and the nation is still bitterly divided, the Supreme Court appears poised to overturn or at least significantly weaken its landmark abortion ruling, Roe v. Wade, decided 49 years ago this week. |
| Aiming to make CDC nimble, agency director has rankled many | |
| From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the top U.S. public health agency has been criticized as too slow to collect and act on new information. Now, increasingly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also being criticized for moving too fast. One year into Dr. Rochelle Walensky's tenure as director, her bid to make the CDC more agile is being challenged by political pressures, vocal scientists and the changing virus itself. In its haste, some experts say, the agency has repeatedly stumbled -- moving too quickly, before the science was clear, and then failing to communicate clearly with local health officials and the public. "I think they are absolutely trying to be more nimble -- and that's a good thing. I don't criticize that," said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. "I criticize the fact that when you're doing this quickly, in an evolving environment, you can't just put it out there and think that people understand it." Walensky has said that she came to the CDC thinking about ways to speed data collection and reporting. She once told The Associated Press that she didn't want the agency to spend months gathering data that gets published after it's useful. "Like, no one will care," she said. The CDC has long been considered the crown jewel of U.S. public health, with great minds working to investigate illness and coordinate national efforts to prevent it. But it also has been repeatedly criticized as timid and slow in a crisis. Compounding the problem is pressure on the CDC from both Republican and Democratic administrations to speak in harmony with the White House. That’s not new, but there is now more second-guessing by other scientists and public health experts on social media. |
| Booster shots in U.S. have strongly protected against severe disease from omicron variant, CDC studies show | |
 | Vaccine boosters provide robust protection against severe disease from the omicron variant in the United States, according to three reports released Friday that offer the first real-world data in this country showing the utility of the additional shots in keeping vaccinated people out of the hospital. But the reports by scientists the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are arriving late to the winter surge in coronavirus cases that have choked the corridors of hospitals across much of the country. When omicron was first identified in late November and began spreading rapidly in the United States, millions of vaccinated people lined up for the extra shots. But that has slowed. To date, 39 percent of fully vaccinated people have gotten the additional doses, according to the CDC. Surveys by private polling firms suggest the uptake could be somewhat higher, and the CDC has acknowledged that its data may be an underestimate. Still, despite laboratory studies that show an extra dose jacks up antibodies, repeated urgings from Biden administration officials and more recently, a succession of reports from multiple countries affirming that protection, the boosters have not been embraced by Americans to the extent the initial shots were. Despite this protection against dire outcomes, boosters are not a guarantee against mild breakthrough infections. Most omicron infections are asymptomatic or "mild" -- meaning the person can recover at home. |
| Cannabis Research and Education center opens at UM | |
 | The National Center for Cannabis Research and Education is officially open at the University of Mississippi. As Mississippi moves closer to legalizing the use of medical marijuana statewide, the center will focus on understanding the effects of cannabis and cannabis related drugs from a health perspective. The creation of the NCCRE was approved by the board of trustees of the Institutions of Higher Learning Thursday morning, giving the center the green light to move forward with implementation and development. The six-year cost of implementation is $14.4 million. The center aims to advance medical cannabis related research and contribute to cannabis-related drug development. Interim Director of the NCCRE, Larry Walker, sees UM as an ideal location for a center of this kind. UM has long been home to extensive and, in some ways, exclusive, research on cannabis. The first legal marijuana, grown for research, was grown at the university. The NCCRE continues that trend, putting the university in a position to be ahead of the curve as efforts in the state to establish medical cannabis programs move forward. "The research will be aimed at understanding the potential benefits and risks/adverse effects of cannabis and cannabis-derived drugs from a health perspective. These may include basic laboratory research on chemistry or pharmacology, and development of new drugs or delivery systems based on cannabinoids," Walker said. "We envision that eventually these may include clinical studies, conducted here or at the University of Mississippi Medical Center." |
| OPD and Ole Miss ASB release statement in support of rideshare ordinance | |
| The Oxford Police Department and the Ole Miss Associated Student Body released a statement voicing their support for the ride share ordinance and offer information about the Board of Aldermen's adopted ordinance. Discussions started for the Square Transportation Hubs in September of 2019. In March of 2021, city officials met with the Senior Operations and Logistics Manager of Uber and Marketing Operations Associate, and the Senior Manager of Government and Transit Partnership of Lyft. Conversations continued in the fall to include the ASB. City officials then met with local taxi owners, ASB members and executives from Uber and Lyft. Both Uber and Lyft reviewed the city's proposed locations and pickup times, discussed several possible solutions to increase safety and relieving congestion, and ultimately supported the city's proposal. A lighting consultant reviewed the existing infrastructure to confirm safe levels of light at each location. In October of 2021, the ASB passed a senate resolution on supporting the creation of the Square Transportation on Hubs. In the fall of 2021, the city of Oxford Board of Alderman held three separate public hearings to discuss the proposed ordinance and gather the public feedback which resulted in the adoption of the ordinance. "The City of Oxford and Oxford Police Department's ultimate goal with the creation of the Square Transportation Hubs is to ensure the safety and enjoyment of downtown patrons, not create more arrests," said the statement. |
| USM to host Mississippi Cybersecurity Faculty Retreat | |
 | The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) will host the first Mississippi Cybersecurity Faculty Retreat February 24 and February 25. USM leaders said the focal points of the retreat will be cybersecurity education, resources, and prevention. The event is being coordinated by USM's School of Computing Sciences and Computer Engineering (CSCE) and will be held at the University's Gulf Park Campus in Long Beach. The university will host the retreat as part of the Mississippi Cyber Initiative (MCI), created to meet the challenges of cybersecurity reality in the state and around the nation which positions Mississippi as a leader in the field for years ahead to come. "Dr. Lee and I have been discussing ways to bring cybersecurity educators in the state together, and I am happy that we are doing this. This retreat will help us increase collaboration in cybersecurity education across the state," said Dr. Shahram Rahimi, Department Head, Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Mississippi State University. |
| USM professor fits bill as 'Forbes 30 under 30′ science list selection | |
 | Zhe Qiang, assistant professor at The University of Southern Mississippi's School of Polymer Science and Engineering, has been named to Forbes magazine's 30 Under 30 in Science list for 2022. Among innovators who are making waves in their respective fields, Qiang is developing sustainable solutions for plastic waste and trying to find ways to improve chemical circularity through addressing several urgent environmental challenges, such as plastic waste management, water pollution and climate change. Qiang celebrates this prestigious honor by praising his students for their hard work and impactful contributions, as his research lab aims to scale-up and commercialize relevant technologies. "This recognition reflects all the hard work my students put in over the past two years, even though we had to establish a new lab during the pandemic," Qiang said "It also motivates our current efforts to scale-up and commercialize relevant technologies, so that hopefully we can solve some practical needs in the very near future." "This milestone wouldn't be possible without the support I receive from my colleagues at the university. Let me just put in this way, I feel very fortunate and grateful for having a research career at USM." |
| USM Nursing School partners with hospital to address nursing shortage | |
| The University of Southern Mississippi's (USM) College of Nursing and Health Professions (CNHP) will partner with Merit Health Wesley in Hattiesburg for the Spring 2022 semester. They will add two of the hospital's nurses to the university's clinical teaching faculty. The goal of this partnership is to reduce the nursing shortage by increasing the number of USM nursing graduates who start working in a Mississippi healthcare setting while assisting the university in increasing its clinical faculty to expand enrollment capacity. "The Delta variant exacerbated the already existing nursing shortage, and then the Omicron variant made the situation even more dire," said Dr. Lachel Story, Professor and Dean of the College of Nursing and Health Professions. "The nursing shortage requires all of us working together in new ways to begin addressing the immediate crisis, as well as the long-term impact that will no doubt be felt for years to come." |
| Students meet Auburn president finalist Chris Roberts through open-mic forum | |
 | Chris Roberts, the sole finalist to come out of Auburn University's search for its 21st president, weathered his first series of questions from students during a open-mic forum Thursday, with Roberts saying it "energized" him as he welcomed his chance to introduce himself. About 100 Auburn students and some university staff congregated in the Melton Student Center Ballroom to get a gist of how Roberts, currently dean of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, might approach student affairs and further modernize Auburn's campus if named the successor to school president Jay Gogue. Over a dozen approached the mic to ask what had kept Roberts at Auburn for nearly 30 years and how he would use his experience to improve Auburn University. Some asked how the university will maintain its credible position amid competition with other schools, as well as questions about how Roberts plans to integrate the university into the community. "I don't think it's any secret (that) ... I love Auburn," Roberts told students when the forum began. "I came here 28 years ago, and I fell in love with what Auburn represented at that time. Auburn has amazing potential for greatness ... (and) I've seen the impact Auburn has on you as students represent part of that greatness and part of that opportunity." Auburn held two forums open to the public Thursday, with another scheduled for Friday, as the board of trustees urged members of the Auburn community to meet and greet Roberts as the hiring process reaches the closing stages. |
| These LSU students, professors are building a camera to put on the moon | |
 | LSU students and professors are part of a team that is building a powerful, first-of-its-kind camera to put on the moon. The goal is to get better images and data for studying planets and other interstellar bodies. Taking pictures and gathering data from the moon has several major benefits over doing so from Earth, the researchers say. First, the moon does not have an atmosphere that interferes with the observations, the way Earth does. And second, a lunar day lasts the equivalent of about 14 Earth days. "The lack of atmosphere on the lunar surface, compared to ground-based telescopes for deep space science, will provide a higher level of precision," said Jonas Kluter, a postdoctoral researcher science team member. "There will be longer continuous observation windows due to the two-week long lunar day and we will be able to observe areas closer to the sun than we can from Earth." The project is spearheadedby AstronetX Public Benefit Corporation, and it includes faculty and students from LSU and Mississippi State University, as well as researchers from the non-profit SETI -- Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence -- Institute. The images the camera, gathers could be used for research on astrophysics, planetary science and planetary defense. At LSU, the research is led by Tabetha Boyajian and Matthew Penny, assistant professors in the Department of Physics & Astronomy. They've recruited several students to the project. |
| Texas A&M professor says Texas power grid should be able to handle another extreme winter storm | |
 | Winter Storm Uri brought temperatures below freezing for more than 100 consecutive hours and several inches of snow in many parts of Texas, including the Brazos Valley, during February 2021. The extreme winter weather caused major power grid issues across the state, which resulted in statewide blackouts for several days showing Texas' power grid was not prepared for such cold temperatures. As the first anniversary of the notorious storm approaches, one Texas A&M professor says the state's power grid should be able to weather a similar winter storm since Texas officials and leaders have made an invested effort to ensure the power grid is better winterized. "The message to people on the electric grid in Texas is I do think we have a strong electric grid in Texas, but we can always get better and I think what has occurred over the last year has gotten us better," said Thomas Overbye, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at A&M who also directs the Smart Grid Center. "The grid here is growing because our economy is growing and our population is growing and that's a good thing. We're also adding a lot of new renewable generation, primarily wind and solar, and that's a good thing. It's also a challenge, but it's a challenge us engineers like to deal with." |
| U. of Missouri faculty to have their say on salary cuts, shared governance | |
 | University of Missouri faculty members will soon receive in their inboxes a petition objecting to cutting salaries of tenured faculty to potentially sign and a resolution on shared governance on which they can vote. The MU Faculty Council on Thursday voted to share both with all faculty. "Now it's just a matter of giving our colleagues even more of a voice in the mix," said faculty council member Chuck Munter. The petition begins: "If you are a University of Missouri System faculty member and object to the new, secretive, system-wide policy that could reduce tenured faculty salaries by 25%, please read and sign the petition." It calls for UM System President Mun Choi to rescind the section of the system's "Collected Rules and Regulations" that he added on May 4, 2020, related to "criteria based salary reductions for tenured faculty." The petition argues the measure undermined faculty authority and shared governance, violated faculty rights, and ignored existing policy for post-tenure review. Choi has defended the salary cuts at previous meetings, saying job performance was the reason why some faculty salaries were cut. "Each faculty member must contribute to the university," Choi said at a December faculty meeting. "The salary reductions are only temporary, and there are opportunities to change the status moving forward." |
| History-making new Wake Forest University president is in the right place at the right time | |
| These aren't easy times to be a university president. COVID-19 mitigation on campus, coordinating online learning, staffing issues, the uncertain economy: they've joined forces with other issues to create a stressful stew that's keeping a lot of higher education administrators up at night. But Dr. Susan Wente is handling it in stride. In fact, you get the feeling she's in the right place at the right time. She's uniquely qualified to lead Wake Forest University during the pandemic. Not only has she made history by becoming the first female president in the institution's 187-year history, she's also a respected biomedical scientist with a Ph.D. in biochemistry. "From my perspective as a biomedical scientist, I think the most important thing in terms of us continuing to navigate this pandemic is teamwork," she told me recently after I asked her where she thought we were, as a society, in battling COVID-19. "We really need to work together and make decisions based upon evidence and data," she said. "COVID-19 is here to stay. It's an infectious disease that is probably going to be continually circulating like the flu and the common cold. But certainly, the hope is it'll become more predictable and won't bring the same levels of severe disease with it because of the tools we have to deploy." Tools like vaccines. |
| Students, faculty and workers demand U. of Louisville leaders 'immediately' enact new COVID-19 rules | |
| Demanding stricter safety precautions against COVID-19 and flexibility for remote work, over three dozen students, campus workers and faculty entered a University of Louisville Board of Trustees meeting Thursday to deliver a petition to school leaders. The roughly 50-member group delivered printed copies of the signed petition to board chair Mary Nixon, with one student allowed to speak near the beginning of the regularly-scheduled board meeting about their collective concerns over COVID-19 safety. The group then left Grawemeyer Hall as the Board of Trustees meeting continued Thursday afternoon, with security on hand but no arrests or dust-ups occurring, attendees said. Members held signs with messages such as, "Jobs Remote = Lives Saved" and "Is my degree worth my life? I don't want to be put on a ventilator again." Nearly 1,800 students, workers, faculty, alumni and parents had signed the "Keep All Cardinals Safe" petition, which calls on interim President Lori Gonzalez to "immediately" take several safety-related steps. |
| Colleges amend their isolation policies amid Omicron surge | |
 | Gone are the days when students who test positive for COVID-19 moved to designated isolation housing on college campuses. As colleges prepare for projected surges in cases fueled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, many are adjusting their isolation procedures to allow students to isolate in their dorm rooms, even if they have roommates. Harvard University, for example, transitioned last week to such an "isolate-in-place" policy for undergraduates. Roommates of infected students can apply to temporarily move to alternative housing to wait out their roommate's illness, but the university stressed in a message to students that such alternative housing is "very limited" and "will only be available as space allows." Sandra Nelson, an infectious disease physician at Massachusetts General Hospital who sits on Harvard's COVID monitoring committee, said isolation capacity is a challenge with Omicron. "I wasn't part of the group that was making the decisions, but I do know if you look at just the numbers of individuals who tested positive and the availability of isolation space, there wasn't going to be isolation space available for everyone who tested positive," she said. Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist, health economist and senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, said it could make sense to allow students to isolate in their rooms if there are certain air-disinfecting and ventilation measures in place, including HEPA filters and fans in shared bathrooms. |
| Biden admin unveils changes to attract foreign STEM students | |
| The Biden administration on Friday announced policy changes to attract international students specializing in science, technology, engineering and math -- part of the broader effort to make the U.S. economy more competitive. The State Department will let eligible visiting students in those fields, known as STEM, complete up to 36 months of academic training, according to senior administration officials. There will also be a new initiative to connect these students with U.S. businesses. The officials insisted on anonymity to discuss the changes before their official announcement. Homeland Security will add 22 new fields of study -- including cloud computing, data visualization and data science -- to a program that allows international graduates from U.S. universities to spend up to three additional years training with domestic employers. The program generated about 58,000 applications in fiscal 2020. The programs are designed to ensure that the U.S. is a magnet for talent from around the world, attracting scientists and researchers whose breakthroughs will enable the economy to grow. Government data shows that international students are increasingly the lifeblood of academic research. |
| Biden 'not sure' enhanced child tax credit, free community college will stay in Build Back Better | |
| Important pieces of President Joe Biden's Build Back Better agenda may have to come out of the bill. Children and college students will pay the price. "There's two really big components that I feel strongly about that I'm not sure I can get in the package," Biden told reporters Wednesday. "One is the childcare tax credit, and the other is help for cost of community colleges." The original proposal for Build Back Better included making community college tuition-free for two years, something that Biden has advocated for since his time on the campaign trail. It also proposed a five-year extension of the enhanced child tax credit, which was initially passed through the American Rescue Plan. Biden said that he will try to pass the legislation in parts. "They are massive things that I've run on, I care a great deal about," said Biden, adding that he hopes that much of the bill can be passed in chunks. "I think we can break the package up, get as much as we can now and come back and fight for the rest of it," he said. |
| Strapped community colleges to receive additional $198 million in aid from Biden administration | |
| The federal government announced Thursday it's providing an additional $198 million for community colleges and other institutions from the American Rescue Plan, along with additional guidance for how schools can spend it. This is on top of more than $10 billion community colleges received from the stimulus last spring. The money comes as community colleges face steep declines in enrollment. At the Community College of Baltimore County in Maryland, it's down about 5% this year. That's less than the national average of 13% from before the pandemic, but it's still significant considering that tuition dollars account for more than 40% of the school's revenue. Sandra Kurtinitis, the school's president, said she doesn't know what she would have done without federal funds. "With every one of the stimulus grants, the initial amount of money was designed to be shared immediately with the students," said Kurtinitis. "That would go directly to domestic needs: rent, shoes, food, whatever a student needed it for." Michelle Asha Cooper, a leader in higher ed at the U.S. Department of Education, says community colleges can put the money from the American Rescue Plan towards things to help keep students enrolled, as well as support new ones. "They can cover emergency aid, they can help subsidize housing and health care needs," said Cooper. "Colleges have forgiven institutional debt." |
SPORTS
| Cutting The Ribbon On The Rula Tennis Pavilion | |
| Program growth. Player development. Excitement. Those are just a few of the reasons the new Rula Tennis Pavilion at Mississippi State is such a gamechanger for the Bulldog tennis teams. On Friday afternoon, MSU's $8 million indoor facility is set for a private ribbon cutting. Though competition has already previously happened on the new courts, Friday provides another chance to celebrate what a difference this venue makes for Mississippi State. "It's part of the process of growing our program in many areas," men's head coach Matt Roberts said. "With having our Bulldog Tennis Club now rocking and rolling, we have the indoor to do events like 'Hit and Giggle' and open tennis nights for our tennis club members. So that just creates a lot of momentum. It grows our fanbase by using that facility and also allows us to schedule really strong opponents because we can guarantee them an indoor match. It helps our development. When we do a video call with recruits and show them the indoors, it helps as well. There are so many things the indoor facility helps with." The Rula Tennis Pavilion was funded by The Bulldog Club. Several major contributors to the project will be on hand for Friday's ribbon cutting. Attendees will include the building's namesakes -- Richard and Sherry Rula -- who are proud to play such a large role in the development of the facility. "It's incredibly exciting for us to be part of this project that supports men's and women's tennis at Mississippi State," Richard Rula said. "We already have one of the country's best tennis programs and with this addition, Mississippi State has taken another step forward." Fans will have multiple opportunities to watch Bulldog tennis inside the Rula Tennis Pavilion this weekend courtesy of a pair of doubleheaders. The Mississippi State women play on Saturday with an 11 a.m. match against Memphis followed by a 3 p.m. contest against Louisiana. Then, on Sunday, the No. 21 MSU men's group opens its season by facing Middle Tennessee at noon and UAB at 4 p.m. |
| Bragging rights aside, Mississippi State can't afford bad loss Saturday against Ole Miss | |
| Mississippi State's loss to Ole Miss earlier this season will add flavor to the rivalry when the teams tipoff Saturday, but for MSU this game serves more as a resume scare than a chance at bragging rights. The Bulldogs, if their season is going to continue at its current rate, can't afford another bad loss. Losing at home against Ole Miss would be its third Quadrant 3 loss. For a MSU team living on the bubble, that would be detrimental. "We gotta really lock in for that game," guard Shakeel Moore said following Wednesday's loss at Florida. To avoid a loss that would certainly drop Mississippi State from most bracketology projections, MSU cannot afford another hot start from Ole Miss. The Rebels won 82-72 in Oxford when the teams met Jan. 8. The 82 points are the most MSU has allowed in a game this season. MSU allowed Ole Miss to shoot 51 percent from the field with 17 assists on 29 made shots. Ole Miss shot nearly 50 percent from deep in the game -- including 9-14 (64.3 percent) in the first half. The rebounds, turnovers and free throws were nearly identical. But Ole Miss was making its shots and Mississippi State -- a team toward the bottom nationally in 3-pointers attempted -- was not. Mississippi State has won two of three games since, with its heartbreaking loss at Florida being the lone blunder. Ole Miss has lost three straight. |
| Mississippi State falls short against No. 13 Georgia despite 27-point comeback | |
| Rickea Jackson was feeling it. She had 27 points. Mississippi State had overcome a deficit as large as 27 to bring Thursday's battle against No. 13 Georgia down to the buzzer. Jackson brought up the ball with less than 10 seconds to go. She stepped back with a chance to tie it, but her shot ran long. Georgia's Mikayla Coombs corralled the rebound and ran out the final two seconds. MSU's miraculous comeback -- which featured a one-point lead in the final minute -- fell short. Georgia's scare resulted in a 66-63 win. Georgia looked on par for a team in the top 15 the way it come out at Humphrey Coliseum. Mississippi State held an early 7-4 lead, but UGA got hot and MSU's offense disappeared -- missing its next 18 shots. Over the course of the final seven minutes in the first quarter and the first three minutes in the second, Georgia went on a 25-0 run. "I can't even explain what we were doing," interim head coach Doug Novak said postgame. "It was so out of character." MSU came out as the inspired team in the third quarter against Georgia. |
| Mississippi State women's basketball battles back from 27 down but can't complete upset of Georgia | |
| For the 10 minutes Mississippi State women's basketball spent in the locker room at halftime Thursday, things could've gone another way. On Sunday, a poor first half against Ole Miss led to a tense intermission and an argument between players that needed to be smoothed over. It wouldn't have been outlandish to consider the same outcome, considering the Bulldogs had trailed Georgia by as many as 27 points in the second quarter and entered halftime down 20. But interim coach Doug Novak spent the last few days imploring his players to avoid those self-destructive tendencies. Mississippi State still lost to No. 13 Georgia at the Humphrey Coliseum, 66-63. But the response out of the locker room left Novak pumping his fists, with players spilling off the bench in celebration at the sudden change in fortunes. "We fought," guard Myah Taylor said. "We ended up on the losing end, but the fight that we showed tonight I just think gives us that extra boost to keep going forward in the SEC." Mississippi State (11-6, 2-3 SEC) could've folded. The team could've folded at plenty of other points this season, for that matter -- with coach Nikki McCray-Penson stepping down and player transfers mixing with locker room drama. The Bulldogs didn't fold, though, no matter how easy it would've been. They opened the second half with 13 straight points, turning that 27-point deficit into seven before Georgia (15-3, 4-2) even had a chance to respond. And then that seven-point deficit fell to four, then to three, then to one. In that fashion -- bit by bit, basket by basket -- Mississippi State turned a blowout into a barnburner. |
| Bulldogs 2022: How the defense looks now | |
| Mississippi State defensive coordinator Zach Arnett was expected by many to be a name considered in the coaching carousel following the 2021 season, particularly after he garnered interest by schools such as LSU the year prior. But as the smoke settles on the coaching moves and spring football approaches, it appears as though Arnett will be back for a third season coaching under Mike Leach. MSU's defense made strides in 2021 with a better understanding of Arnett's system, but with some key losses to the NFL Draft and transfer portal, some questions linger. Here's a look at what the Bulldogs' defense could look like this fall. |
| Polk shares stories, lessons to Gator baseball team | |
| With the high school baseball season close to starting, the Lake Cormorant Gators and the families this week got a chance to get ready for the year by listening to and getting diamond and life lessons from a legend. Ron Polk, the longtime Mississippi State University baseball coach, appeared at the Lake Cormorant First Pitch banquet, held at Cypress Hall in Hernando Wednesday evening. Many consider Polk to be the "Father of Southeastern Conference Baseball" and he reminded those listening that he has the record as the winningest coach, male or female, ever in the SEC, "although that also means I've had the most losses," acknowledging that baseball plays more games than other sports in a season. It also helps that Polk was coach of the Bulldogs for a total of 29 seasons in two stints, from 1976-1997, and again from 2002-2008. His Mississippi State record was 1,139-590 overall, and 419-324 in SEC games at State, taking the Bulldogs to the College World Series six times. In fact, Polk is one of only three college baseball coaches to have brought three different schools to Omaha, in Mississippi State, Georgia Southern, and Georgia. Polk shared many stories about his career during his time with the Gator baseball team Wednesday night, but the most important message was a life lesson. "Avoid distractions, take care of business and be something special," Polk said. "Be THE player, not a player. Make a difference in people's lives. I hope I passed that on to them." |
| New NCAA constitution could mean Tennessee football avoids bowl ban | |
 | The NCAA ratified a new constitution Thursday that could provide a major boost to Tennessee's efforts to avoid a postseason ban in football for alleged NCAA recruiting infractions. UT has not received a notice of allegations from the NCAA, Chancellor Donde Plowman told Knox News last week, and there is no indication when it will come. So the football program does not know its penalties for violations the university says were committed under former coach Jeremy Pruitt, who was fired for cause in January 2021. However, the NCAA's new constitution pushes major college athletics toward a near future when individuals will be held more accountable than teams for infractions and postseason bans are rarely implemented as penalties. The constitution includes amended language to "ensure to the greatest extent possible that penalties imposed for infractions do not punish programs or student-athletes innocent of the infraction(s)." That means, when possible, the NCAA won't directly punish current coaches and players for violations committed by coaches and players no longer in the program. Narrowing the use of a postseason ban is a big part of that change. It could apply to UT because it cleaned house a year ago, firing Pruitt, two assistant coaches and seven additional staff members when it announced an internal investigation into alleged recruiting violations. Also, athletics director Phillip Fulmer retired. And several players transferred to other schools after the investigation began and Pruitt was fired. UT has not named players involved in alleged infractions. |
| COVID's Impact on College Sports Emerges From New Financial Data | |
| COVID-19 initially appeared to present an existential threat to college athletic department bottom lines, with schools anticipating tens of millions -- and in some cases over $100 million -- in revenue shortfalls during the early months of the pandemic. Throughout the brunt of the pandemic, salary reductions were shouldered primarily by support staffers and administrators, not high-priced coaches. With travel restrictions in place, recruiting expenses dipped substantially. One area did produce significant cost overruns: medical and healthcare expenses, with most schools seeing their bills double as COVID testing, treatment and prevention took center stage. At the vast majority of FBS institutions, football ticket sales dropped precipitously from the previous season, which went untouched by COVID. At Nebraska, for example, this revenue dropped 99% -- from $31.4 million for 2019-20 to a mere $302,000 in 2020-21. Universities responded by slashing athletic department budgets, as game cancellations and cost-cutting measures like furloughs, layoffs and reductions in travel expenditures helped athletic departments cover some shortfalls. These findings come from the most recent set of annual revenue and expense reports that schools are required to submit to the NCAA every January. The latest batch, for the 2021 fiscal year, is the first to capture a full academic year (and football season) disrupted by COVID. |
| NCAA ratifies new constitution, paving way to restructuring | |
| NCAA member schools voted to ratify a new, streamlined constitution Thursday, paving the way for a decentralized approach to governing college sports that will hand more power to schools and conferences. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor, 801-195, and was the main order of business at the NCAA's annual convention. NCAA President Mark Emmert, in his state of college sports address -- delivered via video conference to a convention ballroom because he is currently in COVID-19 protocols, called the new constitution more of a "declaration of independence." Now each of the association's three divisions will be empowered to govern itself. The new constitution is 18 1/2 pages, down from 43, and mostly lays out guiding principles and core values for the NCAA, the largest governing body for college sports in the United States with more than 1,200 member schools and nearly 500,000 athletes. The move is just part of a sea change for the NCAA and the first major shift in its governance model since 1996. It comes with the hope that it will reduce college sports' exposure to legal challenges after a resounding rebuke from the Supreme Court last spring. Co-chaired by Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey and Ohio University athletic director Julie Cromer, the Division I Transformation Committee begins its work in earnest next week. |
| The NCAA Has a New Constitution. What Will That Mean for Big-Time College Sports? No One Knows | |
 | In the wake of a major legal defeat, the members of the National Collegiate Athletics Association on Thursday approved a revision of its constitution that seeks to empower each of the group's three divisions, freeing the largest and wealthiest programs to enact measures that are better suited to their needs. The changes include a new call to support student health and safety, and could result in redefining the divisions' memberships. The vote on the new constitution was held during the NCAA's annual convention, near its headquarters here in Indianapolis. What all that will mean in a few months, when the new structures are supposed to be in place, is largely unknown, except that the centralized authority of the NCAA will be constrained to a few areas concerning the management of the association, which has more than 1,000 member colleges. The new constitution was proposed just a month after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the association's rules, barring colleges from providing extra academic benefits beyond the usual scholarship, violated federal antitrust laws. The NCAA had argued that it should be exempt from those laws in order to preserve its definition of amateurism for college athletes. Among the broader changes, the new constitution says that athletes "may receive educational and other benefits in accordance with guidelines established by their NCAA division." |
| NCAA adopts new constitution, policies for trans athletes | |
| A new NCAA constitution is now in place despite the objections of some members who voted against the proposal Thursday. They dissented for a variety of reasons, including that too much money and power are concentrated in the hands of Division I colleges, to the detriment of others. The vote to approve a new constitution passed with 801 votes in favor, 195 against and 20 abstentions, with members casting ballots both online and in person at the NCAA convention in Indianapolis. Ratification required approval by two-thirds of the NCAA membership, which it easily achieved. The new NCAA constitution makes a number of reforms as it shrinks the original document from 43 pages to 19. These changes come amid the fallout of the Alston opinion, a Supreme Court ruling that struck down NCAA restrictions on academic benefits for student athletes on antitrust grounds and paved the way for students to profit off their name, image and likeness. The Alston case, decided in the summer of 2021, prompted the NCAA to quickly reverse course on NIL. Now the new constitution reflects changes to NIL policy and a number of other updates. Pushback on the new NCAA constitution focused more on what was missing in the proposed document than what was included. A number of speakers, particularly from Division II and Division III colleges, objected to issues such as limited revenue sharing and a lack of representation. They also argued that the NCAA rushed the constitutional reform process due to political pressure. |
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