| Wednesday, May 25, 2022 |
| MSU's EcoCar team engineers semi-autonomous Chevy Blazer | |
 | Driving involves doing a lot of stuff, all at once, that you probably don't think about. Drivers -- theoretically, anyway -- have to maintain a certain follow distance, brake in a way that doesn't cause road rage and stay in their lane. All of this, to be sure, takes a bit of practice. Now imagine teaching a machine to do all that. In a car that you didn't pick. And in a way that leaves the car street legal. That is the challenge faced by members of Mississippi State University's EcoCAR team, who not only have to struggle with those autonomy issues, but also with attempts to make vehicles more energy-efficient. Vance Hudson, Jagdeo Singh and their teammates just returned from Arizona, where they competed to make a semi-autonomous Chevy Blazer run through the desert. Tuesday they told the Rotary Club of Columbus about the program and some of their engineering challenges. Singh explained what, exactly, they perpetrated on the Blazer before heading to the desert. "We replaced the stock engine with a GM two-liter engine with an automatic transmission to drive the front wheels," he said. "In the back we added in a custom battery pack, as well as an electric motor and a team-designed gearbox to drive the rear wheels." The team also added a host of tech, including radar, cameras and a special antenna that could talk to traffic signals via Wi-Fi, he said. "The antenna is basically a large Wi-Fi router," Hudson said. "If you have smart traffic lights, they'll broadcast that they're turning red in 30 seconds, so you can plan what your vehicle's going to do accordingly." |
| Infrastructure closures planned for Cobb area | |
 | A portion of Hardy Street -- the northern section near its Lee Boulevard intersection -- and sidewalks surrounding the Cobb Institute of Archeology will temporarily close due to construction efforts from Monday [May 30] to October. Contact the Facilities Management Service Desk at (662) 325-2005 if you have any questions. |
| Construction continues to affect infrastructure around Humphrey Coliseum | |
| Portions of Lakeview Drive -- north, near Templeton Athletic Academic Center, and the southern end -- and other infrastructure adjacent to Humphrey Coliseum remain temporarily closed due to construction and renovation efforts in the area. Affected infrastructure include the Sanderson Center's parking lot and access drives and sidewalk areas around the coliseum and surrounding areas. Construction is anticipated to continue through October 2023. Contact the Facilities Management Service Desk at (662) 325-2005 if you have any questions. |
| Celebrating the life and legacy of Jack Wallace with local boulevard | |
 | During his lifetime, Jack Wallace was known as a champion for Starkville and Oktibbeha County. Tuesday, the County and City make sure that his legacy lives on for years to come. The Greater Starkville Development Partnership and the Oktibbeha County Economic Development Authority dedicated Jack Wallace Boulevard. The street runs through the heart of the Northstar Industrial Park. Wallace served as president of both the Starkville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Oktibbeha County Economic Development Authority, and on the Board of the Partnership. "Well, his handprints are all over this community. Everything Jack was involved in from an economic development standpoint, he truly cared about making Oktibbeha County a better place for all of us," said Jerry Toney. |
| Summer brings focus on fire safety | |
| With his classmates cheering, it was finally Daejon Johnson's turn to begin. The Starkville High School junior struck a tire 50 times with a sledge hammer, toted weights around a cone and pulled a weighted hose as he mocked climbing stairs. Finally, the exhausted Johnson finished the obstacle course Tuesday at Fire Station 2 on Airport Road -- one similar to the course men and women with the Starkville Fire Department complete. For Johnson and his 20 classmates in SHS' Law and Public Safety II class, the exercise was part of their final exam. "This (obstacle course) is very exciting and very tiring," Johnson said as he caught his breath. "It's a good opportunity to come out here because we learned all of this in class." Also as part of Tuesday's program, students completed a simulated search and rescue by following a hose in a dark, fog-filled room with a firefighter's face mask on. "As a teacher, I cannot instill these values," teacher Heather Fair said. "At the same time, parents and social groupings alone can not produce well-rounded individuals. It takes a community, and that's what Chief (Charles) Yarbrough and the Starkville Fire Department give us. When the school and the community work together it promotes student success." As school winds down across the Golden Triangle, students will begin staying home again, and the summer will kick into full gear. With the summer approaching, each fire department sees a different set of issues arise. |
| State House speaker speaks on human trafficking, teacher salaries | |
 | Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives Philip Gunn reviewed recent accomplishments at the Hernando Chamber of Commerce Quarterly Luncheon on Tuesday, including the state's work to curb human trafficking and raise teacher salaries. Gunn said he was once surprised at the prevalence of human trafficking in Mississippi. He recalled a story from four years ago, where he spoke with a representative from the Mississippi Federation of Republican Women who informed him of the problem. "When you're next to a major metropolitan like Memphis, Tennessee, it becomes even bigger (of an issue)," Gunn said. "It's not just poor people selling their kids for rent money. Anytime you have an event that brings a lot of people to town, human trafficking spikes. Like when we have the big golf tournament in Jackson." Gunn's presentation also focused heavily on income tax. He expressed his personal push to eliminate the state income tax, which he said would create $371 million in additional gross domestic product. While Gunn's efforts to eliminate the state income tax have been unsuccessful thus far, he touted the passing of the largest tax cut in state history that took place this year. With the passed plan, Mississippi has the fifth lowest income tax rate among states that have an income tax. "It's a four year phase-in. With the rough numbers, you get to keep $100 more dollars for every $10,000 you make," Gunn said. "That's an extra tank of gas, or at least an extra half tank of gas right now. It's another pair of shoes for your children every month. For some families, that's huge." |
| 30,000 state employees, teachers poised to lose name-brand prescription coverage under state plan | |
 | More than 30,000 state and public school employees received letters this week informing them their medications will no longer be covered under the state's prescription drug program as of July 1 -- the results of an effort by state leaders to save money. A little-known board comprised of 14 state government leaders voted in August 2021 to make the changes to the prescription plan, according to meeting minutes. A spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration said the change was made after COVID-19 caused an increase in costs. The change will save the state an estimated $15 to $18 million, according to DFA. Earlier this year, lawmakers appropriated $60 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to the plan to offset COVID-related losses. Almost 197,000 state employees, dependents, spouses and retirees receive state health insurance benefits. The health benefits are administered by Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi, and CVS Caremark is the pharmacy benefit manager for the prescription drug program. "This is a way to curb those costs and continue to provide excellent coverage to state employees," DFA spokesperson Marcy Scoggins said in an emailed statement. "An external advisory board of doctors and pharmacists recommends to CVS Caremark what (medication) substitutions are allowed. In the majority of cases, the substitute has the same efficacy at a lower cost." But some covered by the plan don't believe the substitute medicine CVS Caremark suggested for them will work and feel that the state is inserting itself between them and their doctor. |
| Wicker, Hyde-Smith support Finland and Sweden NATO applications | |
 | On Tuesday, U.S. Senators Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) joined 80 colleagues in a letter to President Biden urging him to expedite Sweden and Finland's applications for NATO membership. The Senators pledged to work with the Administration to ensure swift ratification of the Washington Treaty. In the letter, the Senators noted that expanding NATO will send a clear message to Russian President Vladimir Putin and authoritarian leaders across the globe that the free world stands ready to bolster the alliance. "As Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has proven, NATO, along with our democratic partners around the world, is more united than ever in opposition to the illegal acts of war waged by President Putin. Expanding NATO to include Finland and Sweden will send a clear message to Vladimir Putin, and any leader that attempts to follow in his path, that the free world stands ready to defend its values and sovereignty. We will also continue to support NATO's open-door policy, which affirms that new members are welcome to the alliance," the Senators wrote. The Senators stated that members of the U.S. Senate take seriously our role in advising and consenting to NATO enlargement, a process that must be approved by all NATO member states. "We affirm our support for Sweden and Finland's applications for membership. In addition, we pledge to work closely with you and with our Senate colleagues to ensure that their applications are swiftly considered and approved by the Senate," the Senators concluded. "The transatlantic alliance has never been more crucial to global security and stability. The addition of these two important allies to NATO will ensure the alliance's resilience and readiness, and we look forward to welcoming Sweden and Finland to NATO." |
| Congressman Michael Guest makes a trip to Philadelphia ahead on primary elections | |
 | Congressman Michael Guest hosted a meet and greet in Philadelphia earlier this evening. Guest is currently serving his second term in the House and is looking to keep his support going as the Primary Election draws closer. He spoke about current political issues including increased gas prices and Roe v Wade. He also spoke about how frequently people forget about Primary Elections because of the time of year they take place. Guest stressed the importance of people getting out and getting to the polls or even voting absentee. "We're just encouraging people to make sure that they exercise their right to vote. Many of our Veterans, who we will be honoring on Memorial Day, fought and in some cases died for us to have the opportunity to elect our officials. It's important that we're out making sure we're educating individuals that there is an election, encouraging people to vote and then talking about the things that we've been able to do in Congress over the last three and a half years," Guest said. Guest is running against Michael Cassidy and Thomas Griffin in the June 7th Republican Primary. |
| Murphy pleads with GOP for a gun deal as 'another Sandy Hook' grips America | |
 | In the first minutes following a Texas gunman's slaughter of at least 19 children and at least one teacher, many Democrats said they were resigned to continued inaction on guns. Not Chris Murphy. The Connecticut senator, whose gun safety advocacy was kindled by an elementary school shooting in his state 10 years ago, asked his colleagues pointedly in an impassioned floor speech just after the killings: "We have another Sandy Hook on our hands. What are we doing?" As he left the floor, Murphy said he wasn't there to needle his GOP colleagues or force them to reject legislation to make a political point. Instead, he was begging them to come to the table for a deal: "I know I have Republican partners. I know there's 10 Republicans that will vote for something under the right circumstances, with the right leadership." "I don't understand why people here think we are powerless," Murphy said. "I am so willing to bend over backwards to find compromise." Murphy reached out to Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) to extend his condolences on Tuesday afternoon; the duo has worked in the past on gun legislation. And Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said he wants to reopen talks about gun safety legislation. Yet Murphy stands out in his caucus with his enduring interest in finding a path to a new gun bill, however small-scale it may seem. Since the Sandy Hook shootings, Murphy said he's forgotten how many times he's gone to the Senate floor to talk about gun violence. He called it a horrifying version of "Groundhog Day," the film that depicts a man forced to live through the same day over and over. |
| Texas School Shooting Victims Were Killed in One Classroom | |
 | All the victims killed in the mass shooting at a Texas elementary school Tuesday were in the same classroom, a law-enforcement official said, as details about both the victims and how the massacre unfolded continued to emerge. According to law-enforcement officials familiar with the investigation, the gunman barricaded himself in a two-room classroom and fired on law enforcement continually through the windows of the classroom. The details of the attack were continuing to unfold a day after 19 children and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in the deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. this year. All of the victims have been identified, Lt. Christopher Olivarez, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety told CNN Wednesday. Police have identified the gunman as Salvador Ramos, a resident of Uvalde, where the school is located. Uvalde, pronounced you-VAL-dee, is a city of around 16,000 located about 80 miles west of San Antonio. The school teaches second- to fourth-grade students. Members of an elite Border Patrol tactical team known as Bortac responded to the shooting but couldn't get into the classroom because of a steel door and cinder block construction, according to the officials familiar with the investigation. Meanwhile, the gunman shot at them through the door and walls. Bortac members were able to enter the room after getting a master key from the principal, according to the officials. One Bortac agent took rounds to their shield upon entering, a second was wounded by shrapnel. A third killed the suspect. Inside, authorities found dead children in multiple piles, according to the officials. |
| Key results from Tuesday's primaries and runoffs | |
 | Georgia voters chose nominees Tuesday for one of the most competitive Senate races in the country, while Alabama held primaries for an open Senate seat and the House seat of one of the Senate contenders. In Arkansas, an incumbent Republican senator faced a well-funded challenger, while House runoffs were taking place in Texas and a special primary for a deceased House member's seat was happening in Minnesota. Here's how the notable Senate and House races turned out, based on race calls by The Associated Press. Former NFL player Herschel Walker, who ran with former President Donald Trump's encouragement and support, won the GOP nomination in Georgia to challenge Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in November. Warnock is running for a complete term after winning a 2021 special election runoff. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a lightning rod who has attracted criticism -- and contributions of nearly $9.3 million -- for her norm-defying behavior in Washington, easily defeated five challengers in a primary that tested the limits of what GOP voters would accept. Katie Britt, a former top aide to retiring Sen. Richard C. Shelby, won the most votes in the GOP primary Tuesday to replace her former boss in the Senate. But she did not get a majority, so she and Rep. Mo Brooks will face off on June 21 for the nomination, which is essentially the ticket to victory in Alabama. |
| Donald Trump recalibrates his standing in GOP after primary setbacks | |
 | Donald Trump has long been the dominant force in Republican politics, but as he has faced a spate of setbacks in recent weeks -- punctuated Tuesday night by the defeat of his favored gubernatorial candidate here in Georgia -- the former president has been privately fretting about who might challenge him. Trump has been quizzing advisers and visitors at his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida about his budding rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, including his former vice president, Mike Pence, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). Among his questions, according to several advisers, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations: Who will actually run against him? What do the polls show? Who are his potential foes meeting with? He also had revived conversations about announcing a presidential exploratory committee to try to dissuade challengers, they say, even as some party officials and advisers continue to urge him to wait until after the midterm elections to announce that he's running. Trump's deliberations follow prominent defeats this month for chosen candidates in Idaho, Nebraska, North Carolina and now Georgia, where former senator David Perdue was defeated Tuesday by Trump's arch-nemesis, Gov. Brian Kemp, who refused his entreaties to overturn the election he lost in the state in 2020. The defeats were driven by rival Republican power centers amid a growing sense that Trump may not hold the dominant sway he once had over the party. "I voted for him twice. Would I do it again? No!" said Vijah Bahl, a 65-year-old developer who attended Kemp's election night party Tuesday at the College Football Hall of Fame. "Trump's divisiveness hurt Perdue here and his endorsement backfired. It wasn't really his content but his delivery. And Trump can be a very vindictive person." |
| Supreme Court marshal digs in on Roe opinion leak | |
| The Supreme Court marshal's probe into the disclosure of a draft opinion on Roe v. Wade is fully in progress, multiple people familiar with the proceedings told POLITICO, carrying out Chief Justice John Roberts' order to investigate the leak. But questions about the investigation's scope and process -- some emanating from inside the court, these people said -- reveal internal frustrations that in recent days have burst out into the open. Roberts ordered the internal investigation three weeks ago, launching a probe into how Justice Samuel Alito's initial opinion was disclosed in an exclusive POLITICO report. The investigation is likely to confront a host of sensitive issues, including whether to ask or require law clerks, staff and even justices to make formal statements that could be used to bring charges if anyone lies. It's unclear if justices will allow their staff to be questioned by the team assembled by Marshal Gail Curley, or even be questioned themselves. Furthermore, the exact process or deadline for a completed review is still unknown. In recent weeks, conservative-leaning justices have not only publicly deplored the leak, but also signaled an unusual degree of tension behind the scenes at the high court. "I do think that what happened at the court is tremendously bad," Justice Clarence Thomas, who gave Alito the pen on the draft opinion, declared during a discussion at a conference for Black conservatives in Dallas earlier this month. "I wonder how long we're going to have these institutions at the rate we're undermining them. And then I wonder when they're gone or destabilized, what we will have as a country? And I don't think the prospects are good if we continue to lose them." |
| World Food Program chief presses billionaires 'to step up' | |
 | The head of the U.N.'s World Food Program is telling billionaires it's "time to step up" as the global threat of food insecurity rises with Russia's war in Ukraine, saying he's seen encouraging signs from some of the world's richest people, like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Agency Executive Director David Beasley built upon a social media back-and-forth he had with Musk last year, when the Tesla CEO challenged policy advocates to show how a $6 billion donation sought by the U.N. agency could solve world hunger. Since then, "Musk put $6 billion into a foundation. But everybody thought it came to us, but we ain't gotten any of it yet. So I'm hopeful," Beasley told The Associated Press at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where some of the world's biggest elites and billionaires have gathered. "I don't know what it's going to take," he said of Musk. "We're trying every angle, you know: Elon, we need your help, brother." Beasley's challenge came as a new study projected that nearly 1.9 billion people could face food insecurity by November. Eurasia Group and DevryBV Sustainable Strategies presented the report at the Global Citizen NOW Summit in New York Monday, saying that as many as 243 million people could fall into food insecurity due to what U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called "hurricane of hunger" heightened by the war in Ukraine. Beasley told AP on Monday that his message wasn't just to those two high-profile tech mavens, but other billionaires, too. "The world is in real serious trouble. This is not rhetoric and B.S. Step up now, because the world needs you," he said. |
| Export Curbs Spread Globally, Adding to Food-Inflation Pressures | |
| Countries around the world have enacted a wave of export curbs on food since the start of the Ukraine war, a trend that economists say risks aggravating shortages and global food-price inflation. On nearly every continent, nations have put new restrictions and bans on products ranging from wheat, corn and edible oils to beans, lentils and sugar. Lebanon has even banned the export of ice cream and beer. The cascade of restrictions marks another setback for unfettered global trade, which has been dented in recent years by tariff and regulatory spats between the U.S. and China and moves by countries to safeguard supplies of medical equipment and vaccines during the coronavirus pandemic. For governments, limiting food exports is a way to soothe public anger over rising prices and beef up domestic supplies. Economists, though, say experience has shown that restrictions on food exports inevitably push global prices up further as importers buy what they can from reduced supplies. While governments may get a brief respite from surging prices, they are rarely significant or long lasting. "It's one of these classic things where there's really a short-term sugar high for the government," said Simon Evenett, professor of international trade and economic development at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. "And then you end up with the same scarcity problem you had before." |
| Stormy repeat: NOAA predicts busy Atlantic hurricane season | |
| Federal meteorologists are forecasting a record-shattering seventh straight unusually busy Atlantic hurricane season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted Tuesday that the summer in the Atlantic will produce 14 to 21 named storms, six to 10 becoming hurricanes and three to six turbo-charging into major hurricanes with winds greater than 110 mph. Even with normals shifting upwards to reflect more active storm seasons in recent decades, these predictions are above the 30-year average of 14 named storms, seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes. This hurricane season "is going to be similar to last year and given that you need only one bad storm to dramatically affect your life, if you fail to plan around this outlook, you're planning to fail," NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad told The Associated Press Tuesday. "It's really a strange thing that we've had six consecutive seasons be so active," said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy. NOAA's predictions mesh with 10 other meteorological teams -- government, university and private -- that have made their hurricane season predictions. The average of their predictions is 20 named storms, eight becoming hurricanes and four becoming major hurricanes. |
| Cyclists deaths are on the rise and advocates say U.S. roads are the problem | |
 | One good thing that happened during the pandemic is that people got out their old bikes or bought new ones and started riding them. And across the country, cities are trying to accommodate this boom in cycling by developing more bike lanes and trails. But amid a sharp increase in fatalities and serious injuries among cyclists hit by cars and trucks, some cycling advocates say there's often a disconnect between efforts to encourage more biking and ensuring the safety of bicyclists who are using streets that are primarily designed to move cars and trucks through city neighborhoods and urban centers quickly. Our roads have not always been built to prioritize cars, because the first vehicles to use the nation's streets weren't automobiles; they were carriages and bikes. In fact, the League of American Bicyclists has been around since 1880, long before cars. "We lobbied Congress at the end of that century to get the first paved roads in the United States," says Bill Nesper, the League's executive director, who adds that it wasn't until after World War II that our streets became so car centric. "And it continues to this day, a prioritization of moving vehicles as quickly as possible through places," Nesper says. "And it's absolutely true that people moving and getting around by foot and by bike is an afterthought, you know, if thought about at all." |
| County Planning Commission approves expansion of International Guest House | |
| The Lafayette County Planning Commission voted to grant a conditional use permit to the International Guest House to build a new, modernized housing facility that will include 12 new bedrooms for students. The facility, which serves as a Christian ministry for international students at the University of Mississippi, currently has five bedrooms in the existing building with some students housed in other buildings on the property. Bill MacKenzie, who runs the International Guest House, said the current building does not fully meet the basic living standards he wishes to provide for students. "The intent here is to replace our existing facility, which is outdated and was never fully up to the standards that we like to provide for our students, and replace it with a modernized structure," said Bill MacKenzie, who runs the International Guest House. Local residents raised concerns about outdoor events at the facility such as weddings and parties that include loud music and hundreds of guests, but MacKenzie assured them that the International Guest House is not a performance venue and will restrict the playing of loud music. The Commission approved the creation of the facility so long as MacKenzie keeps noise levels down, prevents livestock from escaping the facility and wandering onto adjoining properties and ensures an adequate water supply. |
| 'Love Language of Food': student film project spotlights cuisine as common denominator across cultures, continents | |
| Differences in language, culture, political and religious beliefs may present barriers to establishing relationships between, say, a Hattiesburg resident and a citizen of Bangkok, Thailand. But a short documentary produced by students in The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) School of Communications' Media and Entertainment Arts (MEA) program, in collaboration with counterparts at a university in Thailand, intends to show its audiences that despite the differences among people around the world, coming together over a delicious meal can bridge those chasms. The "Breaking Bread Film Project," a collaboration between Breakthrough Now Media and The Innovation Station at the U.S. Department of State, brings film and media creators from international and U.S. Gulf Coast locations to work on new short-form content inspired by their shared experiences and ideas. Through this collaborative, creators from five U.S. states and five countries are paired and tasked with conceptualizing and creating a short film or other project addressing the intersection between food insecurity, traditions, and innovation. The program culminates in a showcase of the collaborative projects. |
| Retired USM research vessel becomes an artificial fishing reef | |
 | Anglers have a new artificial reef in the Gulf of Mexico thanks to the University of Southern Mississippi. The research vessel R/V Hermes is living its new life as Fishing Haven 2, a designated fishing spot approximately 15 miles south of Horn Island. Crews sank the longtime USM marine trawler on May 18 in a special ceremony at sea. Officials said the sinking was a dignified, memorialized end for a beloved vessel. |
| Rust College awarded $500K grant to restore historic Carnegie Hall | |
 | For the second time this spring, a large grant will aid in the restoration of one of Mississippi's closed HBCUs. Earlier this month, Rust College President Dr. Ivy R. Taylor announced the college had been awarded a $500,000 grant through the National Park Service for the restoration of the historic Carnegie Hall, which sits on the campus of the Mississippi Industrial College (MIC), an HBCU which closed in the 1980s. Since the school's shuttering, the buildings of MIC, which is located adjacent to the campus of Rust College, have stood empty and have been deteriorating. In 1979, a short time before the doors to MIC closed, four of the buildings -- including Carnegie Hall -- were entered into the National Register of Historic Places. In 2008, Rust College assumed control of the buildings in an attempt to save them from further deterioration. Since Taylor's arrival in 2020, it has been her vision to restore the MIC campus back to life and make it part of the Rust College campus community. Carnegie Hall has major architectural and social significance in the state of Mississippi. Originally funded by a donation from Andrew Carnegie, Carnegie Hall was built in 1923 and contained the largest auditorium and performance venue in Mississippi that was open to Blacks and it was known as the Carnegie Auditorium. Even in its current condition, Carnegie Auditorium remains one of the best examples of Colonial Revival architecture in Holly Springs. An earlier stabilization project at Carnegie Hall was funded in part by a Mississippi Department of Archives and Heritage Community Heritage Grant. |
| Cooke Scholar Hanna Lambert Aspires to Open Vet Practice in Richton | |
| Playing outside near her Richton, Miss., home during summer break, a young Hanna Lambert noticed one of the eight puppies recently born from a neighborhood dog walking with a pronounced limp it had not shown the previous day. Lambert had been feeding the puppies and suspected something might be wrong when this particular one displayed a recent lack of appetite, but observing the puppy hobbling around among its brothers and sisters further spiked her concern. Rushing to its aid, Lambert inspected the animal more closely and soon discovered the cause: a quarter-sized tick attached to the puppy's neck, hidden under its fur. She managed to remove the tick with her mother's help, and to her relief the puppy quickly recovered and began walking correctly again within a matter of days. Seeing that puppy's suffering and finding a way to relieve it, Lambert says, was the spark that ignited her interest in veterinary medicine and animal care. Recently, the Pearl River Community College graduate received the chance to further pursue her childhood dream when she became a recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship. Lambert is the eighth recipient of the scholarship from PRCC in the past eight years. Through her Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship, Lambert plans to enroll at Mississippi State University and study veterinary medicine |
| East Central Community College's Ferguson named Moody Institute Fellow | |
 | Christy Ferguson, business and office technology instructor at East Central Community College in Decatur, has been named a 2022 Moody Institute Fellow. She is one of four community college instructors in Mississippi to receive the honor. The Moody Institute Trust Fund was established in 1990 in honor of Dr. George V. Moody, the first executive director of the Mississippi State Board for Community and Junior Colleges. The purpose of the Moody Institute is to provide funds for enrichment experiences for full-time faculty members employed in the state's public community colleges. Each year, applications are reviewed by the Moody Institute Trust Fund Board and evaluated based on how the enrichment activity will enhance the faculty member's professional knowledge/ability, how it will help the faculty member grow in his/her content area, and the originality of the activity. Ferguson of Philadelphia has been on the ECCC faculty since 1999. In addition to her teaching duties, she serves as an advisor for the college's Theta Chi chapter of Phi Beta Lambda and received the Phi Beta Lambda Outstanding Local Advisor Award in 2014 and 2021. PBL is a national business education association for students interested in careers in business and business-related fields. |
| Kirby Smith Hall is coming down; here's how you can get a piece of old LSU dormitory. | |
 | After 57 years on LSU's Baton Rouge campus, the infamous Kirby Smith Hall is coming down floor-by-floor and almost brick-by-brick. Using "high-reach" demolition equipment, Lemoine Co. and Lloyd D. Nabers Demolition began disassembling the longtime dorm last week. For those who hold special memories of the building, which housed more than 20,000 students since 1967 according to LSU, commemorative bricks from Kirby Smith Hall are now being sold by LSU Residential Life. Proceeds from the $100-per-brick sale will go to the LSU Student Emergency Fund, which provides help to students following emergency situations such as hurricanes, fires and other disasters. LSU has set up the LSU Residential Life Kirby Smith page for people to buy a brick, donate to the emergency fund directly or share a favorite Kirby Smith memory. Built in 1965, Kirby Smith Hall opened as an all-male residence hall in 1967 and housed students for decades until it was closed in 2006. While plans to close the building for good were in the works, Kirby Smith Hall served as transition headquarters for Gov. Bobby Jindal in 2007. However, as demand for student housing grew while Kirby Smith Hall remained closed, university officials reopened the building to students in 2011 after a $1.7 million renovation. With the renovations, Kirby Smith Hall had an extended lifespan and the transition headquarters for Gov. John Bel Edwards in 2016. With conditions at Kirby Smith Hall worsening in recent years, even after the renovation, the emergence of two new residence quarters in Azalea Hall and Camellia Hall by last fall created enough housing capacity to make the demolition possible this summer. |
| Louisiana lawmakers approve study of university tenure policy | |
| The House gave final passage Monday to a resolution to study tenure policies at universities in Louisiana. Senate Concurrent Resolution 6, sponsored by Sen. Stewart Cathey, R-Monroe, creates the Task Force on Tenure in Postsecondary Education. The task force would report back to lawmakers with suggestions on changing tenure policies in the state. The resolution passed the House on a 60-30 vote. The language suggests that Cathey, acting in line with Republican lawmakers in other states, is concerned about possible political indoctrination of college students. "Postsecondary students should be confident that they are being exposed to a variety of viewpoints, including those that are dissenting," the resolution reads. The resolution seeks to ensure that "faculty members are not using their courses for the purpose of political, ideological, religious or anti-religious indoctrination." Rep. Polly Thomas, R-Metairie, who has a Ph.D. in educational psychology, spoke against the resolution. Thomas asked legislators to consider the implications of creating the task force. She argued that the committee could only come to two conclusions: to keep tenure or dispense with it. "If we remove tenure, what will that do for our competitiveness for researchers and for professors?" Thomas asked. Despite Thomas' objections, 52 Republicans, six Democrats and two independents in the House voted for the resolution. Voting against it were 20 Democrats and 10 Republicans. LSU President William Tate IV and University of Louisiana System President James Henderson have both said that they do not think the task force is necessary, but neither opposed the creation of it. |
| Mizzou researchers look at using artificial intelligence to develop new materials faster | |
 | Reducing the time it takes to develop new materials using artificial intelligence is an over-arching goal of a new $5 million grant project approved for University of Missouri researchers. The idea is to teach high-powered computers how to develop materials. What material? Any material, the researchers said. Be it metal, concrete, biological material or any other type of material one can think of -- or even those that haven't been considered -- AI can be assigned to the task. "That's what's interesting," said Matt Maschmann, MU associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. "It's not geared at one specific material." Artificial intelligence is hard to define, but it has been around a long time, said Derek Anderson, MU associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science. Smart washing machines and self-driving cars are some examples, he said. The researchers are developing a "theoretical AI framework" for the grant project. "This framework can bring materials to market shorter than the 20 years it usually takes to come up with new materials," Anderson said. The framework will make smarter artificial intelligence, he said. The two-year, nearly $5 million grant is from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center. |
| MU medical and law students come together to help Missouri veterans | |
 | Law and medical students are teaming up at the Veterans Clinic in the University of Missouri School of Law to help veterans get their disability benefits. MU medical students will collaborate with law students and clinic staff to review medical records and offer guidance on medical issues, according to an MU news release. "The medical and law students sit together and physically go through the medical records," Angela Drake, the clinic's director, said in an interview. "Medical students are far more familiar with medical terms and medications than the law students, which enriches our ability to provide valuable services to veterans." Drake said she is excited about the collaboration -- "to watch these two groups of professional students do great work together." The program is aimed at fourth-year medical students. Law students will participate through a class using an application process. Richard Barohn, executive vice chancellor for Health Affairs and incoming dean of the MU School of Medicine, said in the news release the partnership will "capitalize on the knowledge and skills of both medical and law students to secure invaluable benefits to veterans free of charge." |
| Baby Formula Shortage Putting Even More Stress on Student Parents | |
| It's a text group or social media page filled with recommendations on the latest store with stocked shelves. It's driving hour after hour, putting miles on the car and refilling the gas tank, going into store after store and coming out empty-handed. It's sometimes going hungry. For the parents of infants in America, this is the new reality. The nation's baby formula shortage has left families desperate for ways to feed their children, and student parents are no exception. As the federal, state and local governments look for ways to help, experts say institutions should support their parenting students through this crisis by listening to their needs and finding creative ways to share resources, particularly over the coming summer months. "Student parents are more likely to be low income, struggling with basic needs like housing or food insecurity, and they are experiencing extreme time-poverty between working, school, and care-giving," said Nicole Lynn Lewis, founder and CEO of Generation Hope, an organization that provides direct support for parenting students and drives systemic change. "If you're a parent and you have to decide between food on the table, formula or other, and education, you'll always pick food on the table," said Lewis. "The whole picture isn't just that [students] can't afford [formula], it's that they can't find it. It will have huge repercussions on families and getting their education." |
| How One University Is Trying to Help Its Employees Protect Their Personal Time | |
 | Friday afternoons off. Sending emails only during work hours. Safeguarding vacation time. These are among the burnout-prevention and retention efforts Cornell University is testing on faculty and staff members this summer. The policies will be in place for six weeks in June and July for benefits-eligible Cornell employees, and are intended to thank the university's work force for its efforts during "a time of continued stress and strain," as administrators put it in an email announcing the program. It's also, one expert said, part of a larger rethinking of work norms in academe, which have generally lagged behind workplace reforms in the broader economy. "This has been a pretty remarkable couple of years, and we really wanted to acknowledge that," said Mary George Opperman, vice president and chief human-resources officer at Cornell, noting that many Cornell employees have had to contend with Covid-related health and care-giving barriers, in addition to the changing nature of their work on a campus that has been operating through a pandemic. Some, she said, have also had to shoulder the workloads of departing colleagues, as Cornell faces faculty and staff turnover. Along with decreeing that Friday afternoons are off -- or allowing those whose work doesn't allow them to be offline to take equivalent time off -- Cornell is hoping to foster a greater commitment to work-life balance. |
| Young Americans and those with debt see less value in college | |
 | The Federal Reserve Bank does more than set the nation's monetary policy; it also keeps close tabs on Americans' views of the economy and their own financial well-being. And the latest iteration of its closely watched household survey reaffirms the people's belief in higher education but offers some significant warning signs for college leaders. Some of the findings of "Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2021" buttress those who believe higher education remains essential for individual economic success and satisfaction in the U.S. Americans with at least a bachelor's degree remain far likelier than their peers to describe themselves as "at least doing okay" financially, with those who have an associate or technical degree or who attended "some college" well behind and only a bit above those with just a high school degree. Consistent with previous iterations of the survey, a majority of Americans who went to college (52 percent) said that the lifetime benefits of a higher education outweighed the financial costs. Nineteen percent said the benefits did not exceed the costs, and the rest were ambivalent. The differences in perceived value were sharp based on various traits. Fewer than a third (31 percent) of those with some college but no degree said the benefits exceeded the costs, as did 46 percent of those with an associate degree and 67 percent of Americans with a bachelor's degree or more. |
| Summer books for first-year students tackle social issues | |
| While incoming first-year college students enjoy the summer break, many will also be cracking open books that their institutions have asked them to read before classes start. The summer reading assignments, known as common books, differ at each institution but are all meant to stimulate discussion about current events when students arrive on campus. This year, as in the past few years, many institutions are choosing books that touch on issues of social justice -- particularly racial inequities. At Siena College in New York, first-year students are required to read Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys, a novel based on the true story of abuse at the Dozier School for Boys in Jim Crow–era Florida. At Goucher College in Maryland, students are required to read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Lacks was an African American woman whose cancer cells became, without her knowledge or permission, the source of the first human cell line to be reproduced indefinitely for use in medical research. At Seton Hall University in New Jersey, first-year students will be required to read Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson. The book recounts the founding of Stevenson's Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit law office in Montgomery, Ala., and the case of one of his first clients: Walter McMillian, a young Black man who was wrongly sentenced to death for the murder of a young white woman he did not kill. Other institutions, including the University of California, Berkeley; Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania; Spelman College in Georgia; and Binghamton University in New York, don't require students to read a book over the summer, but they recommend a book or a selection of books for incoming students. |
| How Biden's efforts to protect trans students are primed to stumble | |
| Three words in the Constitution are crushing Miguel Cardona's efforts to protect transgender students in the classroom: freedom of speech. The Education secretary believes students have the right to be called "he," "she," "they" and other pronouns in school that match their gender identity. The courts see it differently. Shawnee State University in Ohio paid out $400,000 in April to Nick Meriwether, a professor who sued the institution for violating his rights and levying an unfair punishment when he refused to refer to a transgender student by her pronouns. Similar cases have occurred at public schools across the K-12 level, including in Virginia and Kansas, with educators suing on the grounds that using pronouns they don't agree with violates their First Amendment rights to free speech and the exercise of their religion. Cardona's new proposed rule for Title IX, the federal education law that prohibits sex-based discrimination, is expected to go public in June and include protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity for the first time. Enforcing the policy may prove difficult for Title IX administrators. And the pending rule will tee up more legal battles over competing philosophies on gender ideology, forcing institutions to tiptoe between potentially costly settlements in courts and protecting transgender students on campus. Political tension has escalated in the past two years over transgender students' access to bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity and which sports teams they play on. It's unclear how the courts will ultimately resolve those cases, but pronouns appear to face a more difficult legal landscape. |
| Gas price nightmare exacerbated by stagnant gas taxes impact on future maintenance | |
| Syndicated columnist Sid Salter writes: American taxpayers, who are also gasoline customers, are in an economic vise on questions of the cost of gasoline and the tax revenue gasoline purchases generate for future high construction and maintenance. The Associated Press reported in recent days that the average U.S. price of regular-grade gasoline spiked 33 cents over the past two weeks to $4.71 per gallon and based their numbers on the Lundberg Survey, an oil and gas industry analyst. The report put the average price of unleaded gasoline at the pump as $1.61 higher than it was one year ago. The highest average price for regular-grade gas is reported in the San Francisco Bay Area at $6.20 per gallon. The lowest average price was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at $3.92 per gallon. Those prices broke prior records set during the Great Recession in 2008 as reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) at $4.11 per gallon. Because of Mississippi's status as a producer in the Gulf Coast energy market and the proximity to Gulf Coast oil refineries, Mississippi gas prices have traditionally trailed the national average price per gallon. That's still true, but state gas prices averaged $4.185 last week according to the AAA Gas Prices index. But despite the historic increases in the price of gasoline in the U.S. and Mississippi -- and the fact that every aspect of road construction and maintenance costs more now than a year ago -- the tax revenue produced at the federal and state levels remains unchanged. No matter the price of gas, the tax revenue is the same. |
SPORTS
| Comparing Mississippi State, Arizona softball ahead of Super Regional in Starkville | |
| Despite a losing record in conference play, a former college softball standout coached an unseeded team to a regional win on the road last weekend thanks to two upsets over a national seed. That sentence could apply to Mississippi State or to Arizona. Opponents in this weekend's NCAA Super Regional at Nusz Park, the Bulldogs and Wildcats bear some striking similarities. But only one team will make it to the Women's College World Series next week in Oklahoma City. It will either be MSU, playing in its first-ever Super Regional, or Arizona --- one of college softball's blue bloods, even in the midst of a relative down season. The Wildcats come to Starkville with a 36-20 record and an 8-16 mark in the Pac-12; the Bulldogs enter with a 37-25 record and a 10-14 Southeastern Conference mark. Arizona emerged from the Columbia Regional, hosted by No. 15 overall seed Missouri, while Mississippi State pulled a historic upset of No. 2 Florida State. The Bulldogs won four consecutive elimination games on Saturday and Sunday to win a regional for the first time in program history. Arizona, the No. 3 seed in its regional, beat Illinois before taking down the host Tigers twice. The Wildcats are coached by Caitlin Lowe, in her first season after taking over for longtime coach Mike Candrea; Lowe played for the Wildcats from 2004 to 2007. Both Lowe and Mississippi State coach Samantha Ricketts, who starred for Oklahoma from 2006 to 2009, were finalists for the USA Softball Player of the Year Award in 2007. |
| How Mississippi State softball went from underdogs to first-time NCAA super regional hosts | |
| Tyler Bratton stepped off the maroon and white bus and as his eyes looked up from the steps, his face lit up. A sea of fans, ringing cowbells and sporting posters outside Nusz Park, stood ahead of him. This was a moment he long dreamed of, a moment for his team to celebrate - and also send a message long in the making. The agony of failing to get to this moment was gone. Mississippi State softball finally won an NCAA regional. "We've been so close," Bratton said. "We've been right there." Bratton is in his ninth season as an assistant at Mississippi State, but earned a pair of degrees from State and played outfield for Ron Polk's baseball team in 2006. He knows the level of success MSU can reach on the diamond, and he wanted softball to be in that category. He joined the staff in December 2013 and has seen the struggle of getting over the hump. MSU made 16 regionals in 21 years yet couldn't manage to win or host one. Finally, with four wins while facing elimination in the Tallahassee Regional, the Bulldogs (37-25) did both. They advanced to a super regional and will host Arizona (36-20) in a best-of-three series starting Friday (11 a.m., ESPNU). "It's special when our kids know that the 6 a.m. workouts are paying off," Bratton says. "Long days studying in the Templeton (Athletic Academic) Center after practice, they're all paying off." Mississippi State had been in three consecutive regional finals, but never a decisive winner-take-all game. Finally, with two wins at No. 2 Florida State on Sunday, Mississippi State reached a new height. |
| Mississippi State Now Accepting Men's and Women's Basketball New Season Ticket Deposits | |
| Mississippi State men's and women's basketball is now accepting new season ticket deposits for the 2022-23 season. Be a part of the journey and join us inside Humphrey Coliseum this season as we embark on the next chapter of Bulldog basketball. New season ticket deposits are just $50 and will provide purchasers with the opportunity to secure their spot inside The Hump for an exciting 2022-23 season immediately following season ticket renewals. Please note that deposits are for those who do not currently have season tickets. Current season ticket holder renewals will begin in June and run through July. Visit www.HailState.com for the latest news and information on the men's and women's basketball program. Fans also can follow the program on its social media outlets by searching HailStateMBK and HailStateWBK on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. |
| Scott Berry previews Conference USA tournament | |
 | Southern Miss will face UAB in the first round of the Conference USA baseball tournament on Wednesday with the first pitch scheduled for 4 pm. This tournament has been the Golden Eagles' area of expertise over the years, with five tournament crowns and a chance to make it six in their final season in Conference USA. To do that, though, they'd like to start by taking care of UAB, the team that ended their huge winning streak back in April, and a team that's hungry to ruin plans again a month later. "We're coming in as an eight seed, but we're coming in with expectations of being successful," Blazers head coach Casey Dunn said. "The reality is 5-6,000 people aren't going to be cheering for us. There's a lot more pressure for the guys across the field than for us, playing at home in front of their fans. For our guys, the expectation is just to play good baseball." "They took the series back at their place, they played better than we did," USM head coach Scott Berry said. "There are eight quality clubs at this tournament, and anyone can win it in all honesty. I feel good about where we are, I think our players do, too." |
| Did Ole Miss baseball do enough to make NCAA Tournament after early SEC Tournament exit? | |
| Ole Miss baseball could've cemented its status as an NCAA Tournament team Tuesday. Instead, the Rebels return home with one big question and no concrete answer. The No. 9 seeded Rebels (32-22) were eliminated in the first round of the SEC Tournament with a 3-1 loss against No. 8 seed Vanderbilt (37-19) late Tuesday night. A win could've given Ole Miss a 15th SEC win and its sixth victory over an RPI top-25 opponent in the last three weeks. Instead, the Rebels are 19-19 since the start of SEC play and dropped three spots to No. 39 in the RPI. Ole Miss entered the SEC Tournament knowing a win could've landed it safely in the postseason. Now, Rebels will have to endure five days of waiting to hear if their names are called in the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on Monday (11 a.m., ESPN2). Rebels coach Mike Bianco isn't asking his players to shy away from that uncertainty. "It is what it is," Bianco said. "What are you going to do, take their iPhone away from them? Or ask (D1Baseball) to not put any more predictions out? It's the world that they live in. You can't hide from it. Just handle it maturely and understand that we had some control of it tonight. Now we don't have any control of it." It's hard to make much of a prediction about Ole Miss' future. The Rebels entered the day as a projected No. 3 seed by both D1 Baseball and Baseball America. Neither site listed the Rebels as one of the "last four in," making their bid feel safe. But now Ole Miss is out of chances to improve its resume. |
| David Cutcliffe on working for Bear Bryant, coaching the Mannings & his new job with the SEC | |
 | David Cutcliffe's lifetime in coaching started earlier than most. Though he played football as a young man, including at Birmingham's Banks High School, Cutcliffe knew from an early age his future was wearing a whistle and headset rather than a helmet. And like many of his generation who grew up in Alabama in the 1960s and 70s, he idolized legendary Crimson Tide coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. "Coach Cut" will be in Mobile Thursday as part of the 28th Annual DEX Imaging L'Arche Football Preview, which returns this year as an in-person event after two years as a virtual event due to COVID. Cutcliffe recently retired after nearly five decades on the sideline, first rising to prominence during his 19 seasons as an assistant at Tennessee, and also serving as head coach at Banks and at Ole Miss and Duke. He was hired by the SEC earlier this year as a special assistant for football relations under commissioner Greg Sankey. "It's been kind of a learning curve," Cutcliffe said. "After 46 years of coaching, getting on the administrative side is a little bit of a shock. It's been fun and I'm always up for learning something new. It's been really exciting working with a great staff at the Southeastern Conference." |
| Analytics help Texas A&M baseball team perfect art of the shift | |
 | Texas A&M first baseman Jack Moss says he can't help but smirk when an opposing third baseman scurries over to the right side of the infield on a shift against the left-handed hitter. "OK, well, thanks for the free hit," Moss said. For Moss, who has proven he can hit to all corners of the ballpark, playing a shift against him seems silly. But as video scouting and data analytics software has become more readily accessible to college coaching staffs, playing the odds on a hitter can be stacked more in favor of the defense. It's a strategy that A&M head coach Jim Schlossnagle has used in recent years. "You're playing percentages," Schlossnagle said. "If somebody told you you could walk into a casino in Vegas and you had a 92% chance of having it go the way you want it to go, you would play the 92%. The 8%, if it doesn't work out, it kind of looks foolish ... but that's the risk you take." Beyond the strange look the shift can create on the infield, it can put players in situations they weren't expecting. In the first game of A&M's series with Mississippi State, Werner was forced to take a throwdown to second base on a stolen base attempt. Luckily, Werner and catcher Troy Claunch were on the same page, ending in an out. "That might be the first one ever," Werner said on taking the throwdown at second. "We hadn't even practiced that. It was just kind of a split-second decision. You're like, 'Oh, shoot, I'm supposed to cover right here.' I did, and it worked out." |
| 'You want that opportunity' -- Current men's college basketball coaches on why they transferred as players | |
| Ten years ago, nearly 400 men's college basketball players transferred following the 2011-12 season. With an average of one player per team deciding to transfer, critics within the game began to call the exodus of talent an "epidemic." This year, that number is over 1,700 -- an average of nearly five players per Division I men's basketball team. The numbers have certainly been influenced by name, image and likeness (NIL) rules and immediate eligibility for every first-time transfer. Although many coaches have cited the transfer wave as a significant challenge for the game, at least a few can relate to the experiences of these players, because they once made the same decisions. ESPN recently reached out to some of the sport's top coaches to ask them why they made the decision to transfer when they were players. |
| HBCU Med Schools, NFL Create Training Program | |
| The four historically Black medical colleges in the U.S. will supply eight NFL teams with students for monthlong clinical rotations during the 2022 season as part of an initiative to increase the number of Black team physicians and medical professionals in the league. The NFL Diversity in Sports Medicine Pipeline Initiative, announced Tuesday by the league, the NFL Physicians Society and the Professional Football Athletic Trainer Society, will start with two students per team. One student will be assigned to primary care medicine, the other to orthopedic surgery. All the students in the program's first year will come from Howard University College of Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine, Meharry Medical College and Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science. The NFL plans to expand the initiative next year to Black students from all medical colleges and to include all 32 teams, the league's chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, said on a media conference call Tuesday. Dr. Sills cited a study published in October 2021 in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine that said 86 percent of physicians and 65 percent of athletic trainers on NFL teams identify as white. "As organizations, we've come together to say this is an issue we want to address, that we want to be thought leaders in and that we want to put together programs that can constructively address the pipeline for making a change in the climate that we see today," he said. |
| Steve Kerr Makes Emotional Plea for Gun Reform After Texas School Shooting | |
| Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr made an emotional plea for gun reform before his team's NBA playoff game against the Dallas Mavericks. Speaking at a pregame press conference in Dallas on Tuesday, Mr. Kerr refused to discuss basketball, instead offering his thoughts on the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that left at least 19 students and two adults dead. "When are we going to do something," he said, banging his hands on the table. "I'm tired. I am so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there. I am so tired of the, excuse me, I am sorry, I am tired of the moments of silence. Enough!" Mr. Kerr has previously backed a bill requiring tougher checks on people buying firearms, which passed the House of Representatives in 2021, but failed to get through the Senate. During the conference, Mr. Kerr directly addressed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), and accused lawmakers of inaction. "I ask you, Mitch McConnell, I ask all of you senators who refuse to do anything about the violence and school shootings and supermarket shootings. I ask you: Are you going to put your own desire for power ahead of the lives of our children and our elderly and our churchgoers? Because that's what it looks like. It's what we do every week," he said. |
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