Monday, July 11, 2022   
 
Bowman named Rice Specialist for MSU Extension
Hunter Bowman has been named rice specialist for the Mississippi State University Extension Service. The Arkansas native joined MSU Extension in January 2022 as an instructor and was promoted to assistant professor before beginning his new role July 1. Bowman holds two degrees from the University of Arkansas and recently completed his doctorate from MSU in its Department of Plant and Soil Science. While completing his doctoral work, Bowman was a graduate research assistant at MSU, conducting field, greenhouse and laboratory research. He maintained research plots to gather data for studies involving rice, corn, soybeans and weed control. He also has experience in crop consulting, field management, seed testing and sales for agricultural vendors such as Corteva Agriscience and Pinnacle Agriculture. Bowman will be based at the MSU Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville. "The rice industry is very important to the Delta region of Mississippi. Having a young, energetic Extension specialist such as Dr. Bowman will be an asset to that industry and to Extension efforts in the region," said Jeff Gore, interim head of the R&E Center.
 
Mississippi adds mill capacity, timber moving
Mississippi has gained new timber mills over the last 18 months, and producers have seen timber prices rise since last year. In 2021, the timber industry, which is one of the state's top five most valuable agricultural commodities, ranked third with an estimated production value of nearly $1.29 billion. "Other than pine pulpwood, prices for all major stumpage products are up from the first quarter of 2021," said Shaun Tanger, forestry economics specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. Tanger said new sawmill construction and expansions by existing mills seems to be fostering optimism despite the caution around prices. Enviva Biomass recently announced new mill construction in Bond, while Claw Forestry announced plans to build a new sawmill operation in Gloster. "Anecdotally, several consultants have told me interest is up for timber properties in their respective regions," he said. "Several of the new mills and expansions announced in 2020 are either going full speed or are close to being at full production. We expect to see all of them running at full production by the end of the year. So, from an added capacity standpoint things look very good for the long term." Tanger said more mills and conservative price increases indicate that the next five to seven years could bring more positive changes for landowners. "The silver lining for landowners is that wood is moving and should continue to move with all the added mill capacity," he said. "Prices are up from last year. They are also up for loggers, but so too are costs. The logging workforce is really being pinched right now due in part to high fuel costs."
 
Library's autism center serves as example for state
As children gather around the plush chairs on the second story of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library, Tori Hopper sits down to read "The Wide-Mouthed Frog" for their monthly sensory story time. With sharp attention and focus from the kids who watch as the frog leaps off the page in front of their eyes, Hopper actively curates a world that is a soothing place for children on the autistic spectrum. "Our sensory storytime brings the kids into the story and engages them more than a normal story hour does," she said. "When we do our sensory storytimes, the kids are very engaged. Obviously the responses are going to be varied, but even if they are not making eye contact or doing all of the social convention things that society expects, they really love it." Hopper has been the children's and teen services coordinator at the library since June of 2019. She dedicates a large amount of her time to the Autism Resource Center. The center was started in 2012 through a library services and technology act grant by a professor at Mississippi State University. "Mississippi State had a large hand in curating the collection, providing insight and information about what to purchase about future development and things like that," Hopper said.
 
Larger terminal could mean more business for Golden Triangle Regional Airport
The Golden Triangle Regional Airport will use an $11.3 million grant from the Federal Aviation Administration to renovate and expand its terminal. GTRA and the FAA both announced the grant award on Thursday as part of the newly established Airport Terminals Program funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, according to a GTRA press release. "This terminal renovation project will add a second floor with a jet bridge to provide access and capability for larger regional jets, ensuring the airport can continue to meet near and long-term requirements for modern regional and mainline aircraft," the press release reads. Airport Executive Director Matt Dowell believes with the added space, the airport will have the capacity for additional flights and destinations and possibly more jobs. Now Delta is the only commercial airline flying through GTRA, offering four round-trip flights per-day to and from Atlanta. "If Delta Airlines wanted to offer a new market, or a new airline wanted to come in, we would have the space capacity to do so," Dowell told The Dispatch. "So, it allows us to grow and allows us to bring in potentially more jobs and more air service." Dowell and his team project the construction to begin in May 2023 once the designs have been finished and bidding for a construction contractor is completed.
 
Spann takes Starkville High School principal role
With the new modified school year approaching, the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District has made two essential hires prior to its July 26 start date. On Thursday, the SOCSD Board of Trustees officially hired Darein Spann as the new principal of Starkville High School. Spann previously served in the district as the principal of the technology, engineering and construction academic house at SHS, and he has been with SOCSD since 2018. Spann assumes the position immediately, after former SHS principal Howard Savage resigned to take an assistant superintendent position in Pascagoula-Gautier School District. Superintendent Tony McGee expressed his confidence in the educational veteran taking over the helm at SHS. The district also filled in the brand new role of the certified academic language therapist (CALT), which is a role specifically designed to help students with written language impairments such as dyslexia. Kimberly Pugh joins SOCSD as the district's first CALT, and she is bringing more than 30 years of experience in education with her. The board also approved three new assistant principals on Thursday: Gregory Washington at SHS, Ashley Parvin at Armstrong Junior High School and Gregory Brackett at Partnership Middle School.
 
Ties died? Despite more casual trend, neckties still have their place
The necktie -- the once-ubiquitous menswear accessory seen in every boardroom, bank, hospital and other "professional" setting -- has been around hundreds of years. As trends come and go, ties have been through their ups and downs as well: not so popular in the 1960s, a resurgence in the go-go 80s, a dip in the early 2000s. Enter the pandemic and working remotely. Those Casual Fridays turned into Casual Every Day, and when gatherings began anew, it seemed fewer ties were being worn. And men's clothing stores have noticed. "We've come in contact with a lot of guys who used to wear them but aren't wearing them now," said Joe Yarber, owner of MLM Clothiers in downtown Tupelo. "The banks are pretty much not wearing them anymore, but they are still wearing coats." Jack Reed Jr., CEO of Reed's department store in Tupelo, said any drop in tie sales have been more than made up by wedding parties and by men who are buying suits and then ties and having them to own after the ceremony, "instead of renting tuxedos with nothing to have after." "We just reordered seven dozen ties last week," he added. And Yarber said tie sales have stayed strong at MLM, even though he's noticed fewer ties being worn. Yarber also has seen an increase in sales of suits and sport coats as customers have returned to attending meetings, weddings and other more formal occasions.
 
$150 million is being invested into Ackerman, MS by Southeastern Timber Products LLC, An STP-Tolko Partnership
This week, the Board of Directors of Southeastern Timber Products LLC, an STP-Tolko Partnership (STP) announced a $150 million capital investment in the STP lumber mill in Ackerman, Mississippi. The partnership is a joint venture between Tolko Industries (U.S.) Ltd. and STP Holdings, LLC. This investment is the next step in an expansion project that will upgrade the mill from 120MMFBM to 250MMFBM annual capacity. The project will conclude in the first quarter of 2024. The lumber mill in Ackerman, Mississippi is a family-owned and operated manufacturer of southern yellow pine lumber, timber, and decking products since 1972. In November of 2018, Tolko entered into a 50-50 joint-venture partnership with Southeastern Timber Products to form Southeastern Timber Products LLC, An STP-Tolko Partnership. The Ackerman mill employs 150 people and currently produces 100 million board feet of southern yellow pine products. "Together, we look forward to working with the local economic community and the State of Mississippi to support a capital investment plan that will expand Southeastern's capacity to 300 million board feet," the website states. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves said that this is tremendous economic news and further solidifies Mississippi as a timber resource for the world.
 
Mississippi Gulf Coast shipyard set to hire 2,000 workers
Huntington Ingalls Industries plans to bring 2,000 new jobs to its shipbuilding division on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The shipyard is hosting a hiring event from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Ingalls Maritime Training Academy in Pascagoula. Ingalls is looking for pipe fitters, pipe welders, structural welders and ship fitters. In a news release announcing the jobs, Ingalls said workers would receive "competitive starting wages, day-one benefits, 12 paid holidays annually and opportunities for advancement." The company also said employees at the 800-acre facility would have covered workspaces to protect them from the elements. According to company figures, Ingalls shipbuilding employs about 11,300 workers in Mississippi, making it the state's largest employer in the manufacturing sector. Some workers commute from other states. "Shipbuilding is hard work, but we strive to make sure our shipbuilders have the tools and conveniences they need to do the hard work well," Susan Jacobs, vice president of human resources and administration, said in the news release.
 
Lack of affordable child care is keeping women out of the workforce
Keshondra Bain worked long hours as a teacher assistant at a day care facility in Brooklyn. But there were moments of joy, like when a little girl who didn't speak suddenly started talking. "She just started opening up. It was so nice," Bain said. "That's what made me love coming to work. Or when a child wouldn't want to leave, and they want to stay with you and not go with their parents. That made me feel like they actually liked coming to school." But Bain said after three years, she was only making $17 an hour. And in New York City, with a Bachelor of Arts in children and youth studies, she felt she was worth more. So last fall, she left to work at a nonprofit, even though she misses being a teacher assistant. "We're the ones that are shaping and molding the kids," Bain said. "So it just sucks that we're underpaid." Lots of providers like Bain left the caregiving profession during the pandemic. And that's meant more women are taking care of their kids and not able to pursue their own professions. "There are a lot of women who are still at home when they would like to be working because they don't have child care," said Robert Frick, a corporate economist with the Navy Federal Credit Union. The Labor Department said Friday that the labor force participation rate in June was 56.8%, down more than 1 percentage point from where it was before the pandemic in February 2020. "COVID was the bomb that really broke down the child care system," Frick said.
 
'I don't think we should be talking ourselves into a recession,' Commerce secretary says
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Sunday said the U.S. can stave off a recession, despite concerns that the Federal Reserve's tightening of interest rates to combat inflation could spur an economic downturn. In an interview on ABC's "This Week," Raimondo cast doubt on the possibility of "a serious recession," though she predicted high economic growth from the depths of the pandemic would likely cool to "a more steady growth." Asked if the U.S. can avoid a recession if interest rates continue to grow, Raimondo responded, "I think we can." "I do think at some point, you know, we will see a less rapid growth in the economy, but I don't see any reason to think that we will have a serious recession," Raimondo said. "We recovered all the jobs since the pandemic. People's household balance sheets are strong. Companies are doing well. Companies are hiring. Companies are growing." "Inflation is our problem, and it is our top priority," she added. "And so I think perhaps a transition to a more traditional growth level, but I don't think we should be talking ourselves into a recession." Even as fear of a recession looms, robust job growth continues. The U.S. posted a hot jobs report on Friday, with the Labor Department saying employers added 372,000 jobs last month, outpacing economists' expectations.
 
Dire US labor shortage provides opportunity for ex-prisoners
When Antonio McGowan left the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman after serving 17 years, he was free for the first time since he was 15. But as an adult finally out from behind bars, he immediately found himself confined to menial labor. McGowan needed stable work, for a paycheck and to keep busy, but temporary gigs were all he could find. Just as those around him counseled the importance of maintaining a routine, he became trapped in a cycle of odd jobs and irregular hours. He trimmed grass one week and painted a house the next. But he couldn't land anything full time, and the unpredictability of his income proved challenging. Disconnection notices and unpaid bills piled up. "Things weren't in place," McGowan said. "They weren't where I wanted them to be as far as being an individual back in society. It was a struggle." After several years adrift, McGowan was finally able to regain his footing with the help of the Hinds County Reentry Program, a workforce training program for former inmates created in October. Reentry programs are one way employers are trying to fill some of the 11.3 million open jobs in the U.S. amid a dire national labor shortage. The practice of employing people with a criminal record is known as "second-chance hiring." In rosier economic times, many former prisoners faced steep obstacles to finding work. The labor shortage sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic now presents them with opportunities, said Eric Beamon, a recruiter for MagCor, a company that provides job training to people in Mississippi correctional facilities.
 
Two qualify for Lynn Wright's House seat
Two people have qualified so far for the special election to fill the late Lynn Wright's seat in the Legislature as of Friday. David Chism and Andy Boyd have both qualified for the race, according to the Mississippi Secretary of State's office. Gov. Tate Reeves has set a special election for Nov. 8 to fill the seat. The deadline to qualify is Sept. 19. District 37 includes parts of Lowndes, Clay and Oktibbeha counties. Wright, 69, passed away last month. He had held the seat since 2020, when he ran to fill the remainder of Gary Chism's term after Chism retired. David Chism is a native of Lowndes County. Since 2008 he has owned Greenaway Pool. He is also the education coordinator for the local chapter of Business Network International. Chism ran against Wright two years ago, and said he had put his political aspirations "on the back burner" after Wright was elected. "I'm a fan of conservative leadership and I thought that Lynn Wright would do a good job up there," he said. "I believed that he would probably hold that seat for at least six years." Boyd is also from Lowndes County. He is 65 years old, and "spent 64 of them here in Columbus." He and his wife live in New Hope, and have three adult sons. He worked at Swoope Insurance for 29 years before becoming executive director of the Frank P. Phillips YMCA, a post from which he retired in 2019.
 
As Mississippi physicians prepare for medical cannabis, many are keeping quiet
As the medical cannabis industry in Mississippi steadily moves toward the day physicians can start prescribing marijuana, health care providers are walking a tightrope when discussing the impact on medicine in the state and whether they will actually prescribe it. While the Legislature passed a law this year to make medical marijuana legal, the program will not actually go into full effect until later this year at the earliest. Between now and then, growers and suppliers are getting licensed and setting up their operations, while the Mississippi State Department of Health continues to outline the rules and regulations governing the program. Doctors are spending this time educating themselves further on the use of medical marijuana and specifically how the program will work in Mississippi. Many are also trying to decide whether they will prescribe it. The Daily Journal reached out to almost two dozen specialists, physicians and clinics in Northeast Mississippi to gauge thoughts on the process. Many did not respond to multiple attempts to reach them. Others indicated they would not comment. Here is what we learned.
 
Supreme Court denies abortion clinic's motion for expedited review
Jackson Women's Health Organization's desire to reopen the week of July 11 likely are not going to come to fruition, barring a decision from a federal court. Friday, the Mississippi Supreme Court denied a petition from the Fondren-based abortion clinic asking for an expedited review of its appeal of the state's Trigger Law, which went into effect July 7. The clinic closed on Wednesday, the day before the law went into effect. Attorneys for JWHO filed two motions with the state high court in hopes of reopening the clinic while their legal challenge to the law makes it through the court system. A panel of three justices -- Jim Kitchens, Dawn Beam, and Kenny Griffis -- denied the requests late Friday afternoon. The order was issued shortly after Kitchens issued another order on Friday giving Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch until July 25 to respond to JWHO's petition. JHWO had urged the court to expedite the appeals process, saying that being closed until July 25 would prevent women from having access to abortion care for two at least two weeks. "The deprivation of constitutional rights and the harms of forced pregnancy and childbirth are substantial and irreversible," attorneys for the clinic argued. "Absent relief from this court, the harm will continue." Friday's filings represent another round in the legal battle over access to abortion in the Magnolia State.
 
Doctors Struggle With State Abortion Restrictions at Odds With Federal Law
Doctors and hospitals are rushing to reconcile laws in their states barring abortion with a federal law that may require the procedure as part of emergency treatment. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, laws have taken effect, or soon will, in several states that prohibit abortions except when necessary to save a pregnant women's life. Yet under federal law, doctors and hospitals may need to perform the procedure in other medical emergencies, such as for women at risk of kidney failure from an infection. The federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, doesn't require abortions. Rather, it directs hospital emergency departments to provide care necessary to stabilize certain critical patients regardless of ability to pay. That treatment can sometimes involve abortions barred by some state laws, according to lawyers and doctors. To resolve the conflicts, some hospitals have directed teams to review the laws and develop guidelines, while doctors sound out lawyers about what they can do and when. "It's really creating a lot of chaos and confusion," said Jen Villavicencio, an official with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a professional association that is trying to help doctors sort through the laws. Dr. Villavicencio practices as an obstetrician-gynecologist in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. The mismatch leaves hospitals to decide how much legal risk they are willing to face by choosing to follow one law over another, doctors and lawyers said. Physicians, meantime, could be left to make difficult decisions about whether to delay emergency treatment until a woman's condition worsens enough to satisfy state or federal law requirements for performing an abortion, the doctors and lawyers said.
 
Biden issues executive order responding to abortion ruling
The White House on Friday announced a wide-ranging executive order aimed at protecting abortion rights -- its most significant response to a recent Supreme Court decision overturning long-standing precedent guaranteeing the right to an abortion nationwide since the high court made the ruling two weeks ago. The White House said the move, a response to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, is intended to protect access to a range of reproductive health services, protect patient privacy, advance patient and provider safety, and coordinate the implementation of efforts among federal agencies. The Supreme Court ruling gave states the ability to regulate abortion before viability, and left Democrats scrambling for avenues to protect abortion access, especially in states that have implemented near-total abortion bans since the decision was announced. Still, the announcement has spurred mixed feedback even among abortion rights supporters. The groups called for more tangible actions, like declaring a separate public health emergency related to abortion. President Joe Biden, speaking at an event Friday alongside Vice President Kamala Harris, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, said voting remains the essential way to protect abortion access and called the Supreme Court ruling a political decision.
 
House GOP marches into deeper blue terrain as Dem prospects fade
Rep. Kim Schrier called it an "honor" to welcome President Joe Biden to suburban Seattle for a health care speech in April. Then, nearly three months later, the Washington Democrat used a TV ad to boast about "taking on" the Biden administration over gas prices. This kind of pivot in a House battleground -- which Biden won by 7 points just two years ago -- isn't an anomaly. Recent GOP polling in roughly a dozen swing districts offers a bleak portrait of how President Joe Biden's anemic approval ratings are threatening to doom battle-tested swing-seat incumbents -- and nudge once-safe districts into the middle of the danger zone. "I literally laughed out loud," Army veteran Jesse Jensen, one of Schrier's GOP opponents, said of the first time he saw the ad. "She is claiming --- because she finally looked at some polling and realized that he's unpopular -- that she's this independent-minded free spirit that is fighting the administration. And she's been a rubber stamp for him every single step of the way." With just four months until the midterms, Democrats were already on the defensive in at least 30 highly competitive districts. But Biden's toxicity has given the GOP optimism about seriously contesting a fresh crop of about a dozen seats that the president won in 2020 by 9 points or more -- from western Rhode Island to California's Central Valley to the suburbs of Arizona's capital. The result is a House map that has expanded to an uncomfortable place for Democrats. Survey data obtained by POLITICO shows the president underwater by double-digit margins in 11 districts he carried.
 
Why outrage politics has such a grip on American life
Moral outrage can be a healthy part of the American democratic process, motivating people to advocate for their beliefs and hold leaders accountable. The founding of the country, after all, is rooted in rebellion and a list of grievances outlined in the Declaration of Independence. But top leaders are expressing worries about the dark side of outrage politics and how it is incentivized through structural factors in the media and in the political system. Jeffrey Berry, a professor of political science at Tufts University and co-author of "The Outrage Industry: Political Opinion Media and the New Incivility," said that technological and market changes have increased political outrage in the media. "Outrage is a business and it's feeding a product. It's supplying a product to people who want to be angry, and want to be even more angry about politics," Berry said. The advancement of social media since his book's 2014 publication has further increased political outrage, Berry said. It can be difficult to strike the right balance on outrage, Berry said. "We want to live in a society where there's protest, and we want to live in a society where people have the right to use outrage. What we would like to do, though, is live in a society where there are some boundaries and some norms of civility. So even if you're animated and passionate and angry, you still don't do things that are disruptive to the whole system, in politics in general," Berry said.
 
The Fight Over Truth Also Has a Red State-Blue State Divide
To fight disinformation, California lawmakers are advancing a bill that would force social media companies to divulge their process for removing false, hateful or extremist material from their platforms. Texas lawmakers, by contrast, want to ban the largest of the companies -- Facebook, Twitter and YouTube -- from removing posts because of political points of view. In Washington, the state attorney general persuaded a court to fine a nonprofit and its lawyer $28,000 for filing a baseless legal challenge to the 2020 governor's race. In Alabama, lawmakers want to allow people to seek financial damages from social media platforms that shut down their accounts for having posted false content. In the absence of significant action on disinformation at the federal level, officials in state after state are taking aim at the sources of disinformation and the platforms that propagate them -- only they are doing so from starkly divergent ideological positions. In this deeply polarized era, even the fight for truth breaks along partisan lines. The result has been a cacophony of state bills and legal maneuvers that could reinforce information bubbles in a nation increasingly divided over a variety of issues -- including abortion, guns, the environment -- and along geographic lines. "Any election cycle brings intense new content challenges for platforms, but the November midterms seem likely to be particularly explosive," said Matt Perault, a director of the Center on Technology Policy at the University of North Carolina. "With abortion, guns, democratic participation at the forefront of voters' minds, platforms will face intense challenges in moderating speech. It's likely that neither side will be satisfied by the decisions platforms make."
 
New faces begin to surface as possible Trump 2024 key players
Key players in former President Trump's last campaign have quietly distanced themselves from the president, raising real questions about who would staff his campaign as he edges closer to a bid for reelection in 2024. Some key players from the 2020 campaign have even taken part in the House Jan. 6 select committee's investigation into last year's attack on the Capitol, underscoring the turmoil in Trump world over the last year. The hearings have raised fresh questions within Republican circles about whether Trump is the best candidate for Republicans in a 2024 race for the White House, while reportedly propelling the ex-president toward a new bid. Questions about who would run a new Trump campaign may miss the obvious. The reality, multiple sources with ties to Trump's orbit told The Hill, is the former president ultimately calls the shots and runs his own campaign. But those sources say there will likely be a mix of old and new faces if Trump formally launches a third presidential campaign. "It's one of those things I suspect we won't know for sure until we know," said one GOP operative. Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son and a frequent presence on the campaign trail for Republicans, would also likely play an advisory role, sources said, but would be unlikely to take on an operational role like Jared Kushner did in previous campaigns. Kushner, the president's son-in-law and a former White House senior adviser, played a major role in shaping campaign strategy in 2020. But he has also kept some distance from Trump in the two years since leaving Washington.
 
Bannon, Facing Jail and Fines, Agrees to Testify to Jan. 6 Panel
With his criminal trial for contempt of Congress approaching, Stephen K. Bannon, an ally of former President Donald J. Trump's who was involved in his plans to overturn the 2020 election, has informed the House committee investigating the Capitol attack that he is now willing to testify, according to two letters obtained by The New York Times. His decision is a remarkable about-face for Mr. Bannon, who until Saturday had been among the most obstinate and defiant of the committee's potential witnesses. He had promised to turn the criminal case against him into the "misdemeanor from hell" for the Justice Department. But with the possibility of two years in jail and large fines looming on the horizon, Mr. Bannon has been authorized to testify by Mr. Trump, his lawyer told the committee late on Saturday in a letter, which was reported earlier by The Guardian. The former president had previously instructed Mr. Bannon and other associates not to cooperate with the panel, claiming that executive privilege -- a president's power to withhold certain internal executive branch information, especially confidential communications involving him or his top aides -- compelled them to stay silent. But in recent days, as several witnesses have come forward to offer the House panel damning testimony about his conduct, Mr. Trump has grown frustrated that one of his fiercest defenders has not yet appeared before the committee, people close to him said.
 
Anxiety grows for Ukraine's grain farmers as harvest begins
Oleksandr Chubuk's warehouse should be empty, awaiting the new harvest, with his supply of winter wheat already shipped abroad. Instead, his storage bins in central Ukraine are piled high with grain he cannot ship out because of the war with Russia. The green spikes of wheat are already ripening. Soon, the horizon will look like the Ukrainian flag, a sea of gold beneath a blue sky. Chubuk expects to reap 500 tons, but for the first time in his 30 years as a farmer, he's uncertain about what to do with it. "Hope is the only thing I have now," he said. The war has trapped about 22 million tons of grain inside Ukraine, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a growing crisis for the country known as the "breadbasket of Europe" for its exports of wheat, corn and sunflower oil. Before Russia's invasion, Ukraine could export 6 million to 7 million tons of grain per month, but in June it shipped only 2.2 million tons, according to the Ukrainian Grain Association. Normally, it sends about 30% of its grain to Europe, 30% to North Africa and 40% to Asia, said Mykola Horbachov, head of the association. With Russia's blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports, the fate of the upcoming harvest in Ukraine is in doubt. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says the war is endangering food supplies for many developing nations and could worsen hunger for up to 181 million people.
 
Ukraine War Pushes Millions of the World's Poorest Toward Starvation
The young victims of an intensifying global food crisis are being buried in unmarked graves. In crowded malnutrition wards, families are waiting for one ailing child to be discharged before bringing in the next. Mothers return home empty-handed from dwindling food markets, where prices for some staples have doubled in recent months. The worst hunger emergency in a half-century is afflicting Somalia and some of the world's other poorest countries, where the effects of drawn-out conflicts and increasingly extreme weather are being exacerbated by the economic disruptions from Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the coronavirus pandemic. The World Food Program says that increases in the cost of food and fuel since March have pushed an additional 47 million people into acute food insecurity, when a person is no longer able to consume enough calories to sustain her life and livelihood, taking the total to 345 million people world-wide. Of those, some 50 million are living on the edge of famine. "The combination of factors that we have now, which we see most severely manifesting in countries like Somalia, could be the harbinger for what is coming on a bigger scale," said Alex de Waal, the executive director of Tufts University's World Peace Foundation. "And it is foreseeable and preventable." For his 2018 book, "Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine," he researched deaths from famines since the late 1870s. The cost of food the WFP provides for its aid programs has jumped 46% compared with 2019, driven by sharp increases in prices for vegetable oils, special nutritional pastes needed to treat malnourished children and transportation.
 
Wild species relied on by billions at risk, report warns
Every day billions of people depend on wild flora and fauna to obtain food, medicine and energy. But a new United Nations-backed report says that overexploitation, climate change, pollution and deforestation are pushing one million species towards extinction. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services -- or IPBES -- report said Friday that unless humankind improves the sustainable use of nature, the Earth is on its way to losing 12% of its wild tree species, over a thousand wild mammal species and almost 450 species of sharks and rays, among other irreparable harm. Humans use about 50,000 wild species routinely and 1 out of 5 people of the world's 7.9 billion population depend on those species for food and income, the report said. 1 in 3 people rely on fuel wood for cooking, the number even higher in Africa. "It's essential that those uses be sustainable because you need them to be there for your children and grandchildren. So when uses of wild species become unsustainable, it's bad for the species, it's bad for the ecosystem and it's bad for the people," report co-chair Marla R. Emery of the United States told The Associated Press.
 
'The Fonz' Henry Winkler to headline Welty Gala
Emmy award-winning actor Henry Winkler will be the featured speaker for Mississippi University for Women's 2022 Welty Gala at 7 p.m. Oct. 28 in the Trotter Convention Center in Columbus. Winkler has enjoyed more than four decades of success in Hollywood and continues to work as an actor, producer and director. He currently co-stars as Gene Cousineau in the hit HBO dark comedy "Barry." Winkler has appeared in many television series and on the big screen. He has lent his voice to several shows and has appeared on Broadway. His work as an actor has received accolades, including an Emmy Award, two Daytime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and one Critics Choice Award. A 1973 audition forever changed the life of the Yale School of Drama graduate when he was cast in the iconic role of Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli in "Happy Days." For that role, he won two Golden Globe Awards, was nominated three times for an Emmy Award and was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. "I look forward to hearing about Henry Winkler's writing and the work that he has done for children," said Nora Miller, W president. "The Welty Gala is always a special event." The Welty Gala is part of the Welty Series held annually in October to honor the university's world-renowned alumna Eudora Welty. The W also hosts the Eudora Welty Writers' Symposium set for Oct. 27-29. "The Welty Gala raises funds to support scholarships for deserving W students and is an opportunity for our alumni and friends in the region to hear Mr. Winkler," said Andrea Stevens, executive director of development and alumni. "It's an elegant evening with a three-course meal, and proceeds help our students pursue their dreams."
 
Police: Ole Miss student missing
Officials are searching for an Ole Miss college student last seen Friday night. The University of Mississippi Police Department issued a missing person alert for 20-year-old Jimmie Lee, also known as Jay Lee. Lee is a black male who was last seen at approximately 5:58 a.m. on Friday, July 8 leaving Campus Walk Apartments in Oxford. He is described as being 5-foot, 7-inches tall, weighing 120 lbs., with black and blonde hair and brown eyes. Lee is a University of Mississippi student and was seen driving a 2014 black Ford Fusion with a Mississippi license plate number "JAYLEE1" and has not been heard from since. Lee was last seen wearing a silver robe or housecoat, gold sleeping cap and gray slippers. The car has a gold racing stripe down the middle of the hood and front bumper. If you have any information on the whereabouts of this missing person, please contact the University of Mississippi Police Department at (662) 915-7234 or (662) 915-4911.
 
USM Veterans Center erects monument to remember military members who died by suicide
Each day, active-duty U.S. military service members and retired veterans lose a battle to suicide. Statistics show that suicide rates among active-duty military members are currently at an all-time high since record-keeping began after 9/11and have been increasing over the past five years at an alarmingly steady pace. At the University of Southern Mississippi's Center for Military Veterans, Service Members and Families, a new monument stands to remember those who succumbed to suicide. Center Director Jeff Hammond, a retired U.S. Army major general, conceived the idea of a memorial after speaking with a family who lost a soldier to suicide. "All I could feel was sadness and a need for others to appreciate the pain," said Hammond. "Soon thereafter, following the grand opening of our new Veterans Center (Quinlan-Hammond Hall of Honor), we were compelled to create an appropriate honor to veterans and military members who lost their lives to suicide. Our goal was to establish a small, yet significant memorial for visitors to pause and reflect on the heartfelt loss that sadly often comes with service to our nation." Hammond notes that through the local VFW the center contacted an organization led by Kevin Hertell, who created the Suicide Awareness and Remembrance (SAR) flag that flies as part of the monument. An engraved plaque on the stone memorial describes the SAR flag in detail.
 
USM earns reaccreditation for dyslexia therapy degree
The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) School of Education, in partnership with the DuBard School for Language Disorders, has earned reaccreditation for the Master of Education in dyslexia therapy degree. USM is one of only 24 institutions in the nation to possess the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) accreditation. More than 70 students have graduated from the program since its establishment in 2014. Dr. Missy Schraeder, director of the DuBard School for Language Disorders, explained why some children need teachers with the right training. "We can pretty much see when a student has an oral language problem. Those written language problems, which is what we look at when we talk about dyslexia, not every teacher knows how to deal with that type of student. The students learn in a different fashion. There's a lot of research about their brain neurology. Our students, they're not going to learn in a typical fashion," said Schraeder. Nationally, one in five children have problems with reading and dyslexia. That makes it even more necessary for teachers to have the right training to help those children succeed.
 
Auburn University Doing Its Part to Ease U.S. Pilot Shortage
The U.S. aviation industry is facing a pilot shortage, which has led to flight cancellations and travel frustrations. But hundreds of aviation students at Auburn University hope to take to the skies to ease this problem. As of February, global airlines were only flying about 47% of pre-COVID-19 capacity, based on the analyst data from OAG and the International Air Transport Association. But by 2025, after global travel demands expand beyond 2019 levels, experts predict a worldwide shortfall of at least 34,000 commercial pilots. That's where Auburn University's aviation program comes in. By fall, it expects to have 700 undergraduate students enrolled in the program. Just 10 years ago, there were only about 100 students enrolled. "These are not people who come to college looking to find themselves, they're not coming here without a focus on where they want to go, they are coming here to become aviators," James Witte, the director of Auburn University's School of Aviation, told Alabama News Network. Its program produces pilots, mechanics and aviation hangar flight service workers. Auburn has an affiliate program with Delta Air Lines and United Airlines. It is in the process of expanding to include Southwest. These airlines will interview Auburn aviation students during their senior year, with the possibility of actually handing them a contract at that time.
 
Posts mischaracterize Florida law on college campus surveys
CLAIM: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a bill requiring college students and professors to register their political views with the state. AP'S ASSESSMENT: False. The bill, which DeSantis signed into law a year ago, requires public universities to conduct annual surveys assessing the extent to which competing viewpoints are presented and students and employees "feel free to express their beliefs" on campuses. The legislation does not mandate respondents register their political views with the government, according to the bill's text and analyses by legal experts. Notices about the survey sent to students and faculty this year made clear it was anonymous and voluntary, according to communications reviewed by The Associated Press. THE FACTS: Criticism of the year-old Florida bill has reemerged online this week, with some social media users making misleading statements about the scope of the legislation. Author Stephen King tweeted about the bill on Tuesday, stating, "DeSantis signs bill requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with state." The post received more than 25,000 shares and 135,000 likes. The initial headline, and King's tweet, are inaccurate because the survey is voluntary, according to multiple legal experts who reviewed the bill, including a University of Florida law professor.
 
UF student under investigation for death threat against guest speaker
University police lodged a felony complaint against a UF student Friday afternoon after a death threat forced a guest speaker to cancel his appearance on campus, police say. Ryan Marin, an 18-year-old UF microbiology sophomore, shared an edited photo to Instagram June 15 depicting "a UF guest speaker" with bullet wounds and portraying himself as an anime character, Kaworu Nagisa, standing behind the speaker with a gun, according to a UFPD sworn complaint. The image could be viewed as a threat to kill, police said. The threat caused the speaker to suffer "a major financial loss" and "was one of the deciding factors for cancelling his event at UF," according to the complaint. The criminal investigation comes about two weeks after TikTok star Josh Richards pulled out of his June 29 event two days before it was scheduled, citing an unforeseen family obligation. Marin's alleged post was reported to police June 28. Richards, a 20-year-old Ontario native with 25.6 million TikTok followers, was the first guest Student Government's Accent Speakers Bureau recruited since Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn spoke March 21. The bureau announced Richards' $60,000 visit was postponed indefinitely in a June 27 Instagram post. Marin said he was not made aware of the investigation and denied the allegations he made an Instagram post about Richards.
 
'Uninformed, Misguided, Irresponsible': Hillsdale President's Remarks Roil Tennessee Educators
Fallout continued in Tennessee this week after the president of a small, conservative college in Michigan last month criticized the intelligence and credibility of teachers and the programs that train them. "The teachers are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country," said Larry P. Arnn, president of Hillsdale College, in a conversation with Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee at a private reception. NewsChannel 5, a television station in Nashville, published hidden-camera footage of the event on June 30, sparking a backlash against Arnn -- and against Lee, who did not dispute the comments at the time and this week declined to reject or criticize them. Earlier this year Tennessee and Hillsdale announced a formal partnership involving plans for dozens of new charter schools that would use Hillsdale-approved curricula. College presidents, teacher-education programs, and education organizations in Tennessee have released statements criticizing Arnn's remarks. The Tennessee Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, which represents all teacher-education providers in the state, urged the governor in a public letter to "speak out now in defense of teachers and professional educators." Critics were quick to defend the reputation of teacher-education programs in Tennessee. Ellen McIntyre, dean of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville's College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, said in an interview that the standards for educators who train teachers in Tennessee are "the highest I've ever seen." McIntyre has previously taught at three other universities.
 
Georgia reps demand university take action on website identifying pregnancy centers
Reps. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) and Jody Hice (R-Ga.) on Friday sent a letter to the head of the University of Georgia, urging him to ensure that the university's resources will not be used to "target crisis pregnancy centers." The letter comes after Fox News published a story saying that "far-left radicals" had been using a map created by the UGA professors in 2018 containing the addresses of crisis pregnancy centers across the country. Following the article being published, university students were told to be "more aware of [their] surroundings," according to the university's student-run newspaper. Some UGA staff members received "threatening calls and emails" due to the article, Dean Marsha Davis of the University of Georgia's College of Public Health said in an email, according to the student newspaper. While this academic project may seem to be rooted in innocence, providing the collated address data of these crisis pregnancy centers makes it unquestionably ripe for abuse. It is disappointing that the state's flagship university is allowing taxpayer-funded resources to provide this sensitive information to extremist organizations that are actively targeting crisis pregnancy center," Clyde said in a statement.
 
Why does an AI faculty shortage exist? It's complicated
When the ride-hailing company Uber sought to establish a new facility in Pittsburgh in 2015 focused on self-driving cars, it looked to the researchers and scientists at the nearby Carnegie Mellon University robotics center. Soon after, the company lured away 40 of the center's employees, including the director, with doubled salaries and bonuses in the hundreds of thousands. High-profile stories like these have contributed to a prevailing narrative that artificial intelligence experts leave academe for industry in droves. But the dearth of AI professors at U.S. universities is not the result of a distorted job market, according to a report issued this month from the Center for Security and Emerging Technology. Rather, AI experts remain interested in academic careers, but university hiring of AI faculty has not kept pace with student demand. Though big tech has stepped in to fill some of the gap, some experts urge caution given that the industry's incentive structure differs from that of academe. Historically, academe has delivered a steady stream of developers, engineers and entrepreneurs that has fueled an AI innovation ecosystem. This stream has been directly correlated with AI faculty teaching capacity. But while student enrollment in computer science programs has skyrocketed in the past decade, universities have not hired enough computer science faculty to meet that demand.
 
People from elite backgrounds increasingly dominate academia in U.S.
To understand critical issues facing the U.S. economy -- soaring inflation, worker shortages and perhaps a looming recession -- researchers must understand human behavior. They need to know how everyday Americans will react when pump prices double or shelves go bare. That's why it's somewhat alarming to learn that academia in general -- and economics in particular -- has quietly become the province of an insular elite, a group likely to have had little exposure to the travails of America's vast middle class. In 1970, just 1 in 5 U.S.-born PhD graduates in economics had a parent with a graduate degree. Now? Two-thirds of them do, according to a new analysis from the Peterson Institute for International Economics. The trends are similar for other fields (and for foreign-born students), but economics is off the charts. This partly reflects population trends: Over that same period, the share of parents with graduate degrees and college-age children rose 10 percentage points, to 14 percent, our analysis of Census Bureau data shows. But compared with the typical American, a typical new economist is about five times more likely to have a parent with a graduate degree. The new analysis comes from Anna Stansbury of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Michigan graduate student Robert Schultz, who got their hands on detailed data on U.S. PhD recipients going back more than 50 years. The data includes extensive information about almost half a million recipients in the 2010-to-2018 period alone. It shows that the elite dominate even more among the top schools that produce about half of all future economics professors.
 
Justice Department backs key points in antitrust lawsuit
The U.S. Justice Department has backed key arguments made in an antitrust suit against 16 private colleges and universities. In a brief filed Thursday, the department did not seek to join the suit but said it was stating "the interest of the United States." Specifically, the brief is an answer to a motion by the colleges to dismiss the case. The colleges accused of violating antitrust law defend their action by citing the "568 Exemption" for colleges that admit all their students in a need-blind way. But the Justice Department says that "an agreement between schools that admit all students on a need-blind basis and schools that do not is beyond the scope of the 568 Exemption. Thus, to the extent that at least some of the defendants do not admit all students on a need-blind basis, the 568 Exemption would not apply here." The targets of the suit are Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Emory, Georgetown, Northwestern, Rice, Vanderbilt and Yale Universities; the California Institute of Technology; Dartmouth College; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and the Universities of Chicago, Notre Dame and Pennsylvania. All these colleges say they are need blind. But the suit says, "At least nine defendants for many years have favored wealthy applicants in the admissions process. These nine defendants have thus made admissions decisions with regard to the financial circumstances of students and their families, thereby disfavoring students who need financial aid."
 
Biden administration to limit interest capitalization on student loans
Ever wonder how someone could borrow $20,000 for college but end up owing more? Enter interest capitalization. This is when unpaid interest is added to a loan's principal. It can happen when someone changes repayment plans, or after periods of postponing payment through deferment or forbearance. This increases the total amount owed and requires borrowers to pay interest on the higher balance, driving up the overall cost of the loan. The Biden administration wants to spare some borrowers from this pricey feature of federal student loans. This week, it unveiled a proposed regulation to no longer capitalize interest in certain situations, including when borrowers enter repayment or default on their loans. "We want to ensure that student loans are more affordable," Undersecretary of Education James Kvaal said on a call with reporters Wednesday. "Ending [interest capitalization] wherever possible will ensure that borrowers don't see their balances balloon for reasons that seem arbitrary and illogical." The revision, which is expected to be implemented next July, could benefit millions of people with federal student loans. But policy experts are divided on whether it will save them much money. "It's not a game changer for borrowers," said Jason D. Delisle, a senior policy fellow in the Center on Education Data and Policy at the Urban Institute. "It's sort of like can we make this program ever so slightly fairer and give people a better chance of feeling like they're making progress on their debts."
 
For-profit accountability and borrower defense
The Education Department has big plans to make it easier for borrowers who attended predatory colleges to apply for relief of their student debt, and to hold the institutions accountable for their wrongdoing -- and possibly make them repay the costs, too. A set of newly proposed regulations released July 6 would create a new, separated process to review borrower-defense claims, the process to adjudicate wrongdoing by a college in order to get debt relief, and to determine whether the department will recoup the costs of the debt relief from a college, which were once both considered at the same time. According to the department, this change would shorten the length of time for borrower-defense claims to be approved and would give the department the chance to "recover the costs to taxpayers" for loan discharges. "The CEOs and the executives of these large education for-profit education companies walk away with tens of millions of dollars in their pockets for having run what ultimately becomes a scam school," said Cody Hounanian, executive director of the Student Debt Crisis Center. "Individuals walk away from these companies incredibly wealthy themselves, and they face almost no responsibility for the harm caused under their watch."
 
Many states used surpluses to give taxpayers a rebate. Not Mississippi.
Bobby Harrison writes for Mississippi Today: Multiple states, ranging from true blue California to deep red South Carolina, are using their sizable growth in revenue collections to return money directly to the taxpayers this year. Like most other states, Mississippi is experiencing sizable, even unprecedented revenue growth. But the Mississippi Legislature and Gov. Tate Reeves opted to not return any of that revenue growth to the citizens this year. California is returning up to $1,050 on a sliding scale with high wage earners receiving less or nothing at all based on their income levels. But under the California program, a married couple earning $150,000 or less with at least one dependent will receive the full $1,050. California is also using the surplus funds to provide rental assistance. South Carolina is providing up to $800 and Maine is providing up to $1,700 for couples earning less than $200,000. In total 14 states have doled out some type of stimulus or rebate, and many others are pondering such a move. Many states are saying they are providing the funds to help with the high price of gasoline.


SPORTS
 
Hunter Hines Earns Additional All-America Accolades
Mississippi State's Hunter Hines continues to collect postseason accolades after the rookie slugger was named a Freshman All-American by both D1Baseball and Baseball America. In June, Hines also earned a spot on Collegiate Baseball's All-America list, marking the seventh straight season a Mississippi State freshman has garnered All-America accolades. The Madison, Mississippi, native picked up second team honors on both lists released by D1Baseball and Baseball America. In his first season in Starkville, Hines totaled the sixth-most home runs in the country by a freshman with 16 on the season, while ranking second among the Diamond Dawgs in that category. Overall, Hines posted a .300 average at the dish in 2022 with 13 doubles, 16 home runs and 52 RBIs while starting and playing in all 56 games for State primarily as the designated hitter. His performance this past season also earned him a spot on the SEC's All-Freshman Team. Hines tied for the team lead with 13 multi-RBI games this season, while also totaling 18 multi-hit games as a freshman for the Dawgs.
 
'It's bigger than football': Titans' Jeffery Simmons spends week giving back in Mississippi
Before he was an All-Pro and All-SEC defensive tackle, Tennessee Titans star Jeffery Simmons was a manager for his high school football team. Simmons was in middle school but served as a varsity football manager when he walked through the weight room at Noxubee County High School and saw the rusty weights and bent bars. It's a sight that stuck with him, particularly as he saw opponents such as West Point with better equipment to help build a "winning culture." So Simmons made a promise. He wasn't a 6-foot-4, 300-pound menace yet, but his potential had always been apparent as a five-star prospect. Once he made it to the NFL, Simmons said, he'd ensure future Noxubee County athletes had access to better equipment. The former Mississippi State standout fulfilled the promise Thursday as he stood outside newly named and renovated Jeffery B. Simmons Field House. The only thing more eye-popping than the shiny oversized scissors used in the ribbon cutting was his neon yellow shorts suit. "I cannot really show my appreciation for Noxubee County enough," Simmons said. The unveiling in Macon, Mississippi, was only the start of an eventful week back home for Simmons. He made the short trek Friday to Starkville, where he signed a $75,000 check for Starkville Parks and Recreation toward a new turf field at the Starkville Sportsplex. The field was also named in his honor and was used through the weekend for his third annual youth camp. "It's bigger than football," Simmons said Saturday.
 
Pioneering wild turkey research underway
The National Wild Turkey Federation is helping fund a new wild turkey research project conducted by Mississippi State University and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. The pioneering research project will utilize recent advances in genetic analysis to better understand wild turkey ecology and how certain factors -- such as hunting seasons, land type and management practices -- lead to more robust population densities. "The goal of this research project is to provide improved estimates of multiple turkey population parameters, which will allow state wildlife agencies and turkey managers to make informed decisions regarding their management actions and hunting season frameworks," said Mark McConnell, Ph.D., assistant professor at Mississippi State University. Dana Morin, Ph.D., assistant professor at MSU and McConnell are the principal investigators of this project and are working in conjunction with MDWFP. Accurately gauging the number of wild turkeys on a particular landscape is complicated. Population estimates are often made using rough approximations that rely on anecdotal accounts, volunteer surveys and catch-per-unit information. Researchers at MSU and MDWFP are going around the challenges typically associated with trapping and marking by efficiently collecting genetic material left behind in the field, such as feathers or fecal droppings.
 
Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo allows shark fishing for first time in years
The annual Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo gets underway in less than a week. For the first time in years, the competition will allow anglers to bring in sharks. In recent years, this was the extent of the shark competition in the rodeo–crews shoot video of a shark catch before tossing it back in the water. Fishermen wanted a change. "The anglers want to do it, we were excited about doing it. The patrons have been seeing them for years and years down here, we took precautions, did it the right way and this is the year to bring it back," said Coleman Moore with the Fishing Rodeo. This year, the rodeo allows competitors to bring in four shark species of certain sizes. This was after consulting with marine biologists to see what kinds of sharks were plentiful enough in the gulf and say the species of gulf shark selected are already being fished commercially and recreationally. "I love sharks more than most people, but I also understand sharks are a resource, there are commercial and recreational fishermen that harvest sharks the same way I love a red snapper, I understand it's fine to have a harvest," said Assistant Extension Professor at Mississippi State University Marcus Drymon. Organizers say if these shark populations weren't healthy enough they wouldn't be part of the competition in the first place. Sharks brought in next week will also be part of the scientific samples gathered by the hundreds to measure the health of gulf fish stocks..
 
DeRosa takes reins as Dispatch sports editor
The Dispatch has promoted Theo DeRosa to sports editor. His first day in the new role was Tuesday. He replaces Tom Rysinski, who passed away suddenly July 2. DeRosa joined The Dispatch staff in August 2019 as the high school sports beat reporter and has covered the Mississippi State University athletics beat since April 2021. In his new position, he will retain the MSU beat, while also planning and editing content for the daily sports section. "I'm honored to take over this position, but I wish it were under better circumstances," DeRosa said. "We will miss Tom, and there's no replacing him, but I will do my best. In nearly three years at The Dispatch, I've learned the value of community journalism. It's something I want to continue to emphasize as sports editor --- from college and high school sports to youth and local sports and everything in between." DeRosa is a Sacramento, California, native. Before joining The Dispatch, he completed a sports multi-platform editing internship with the Omaha (Nebraska) World-Herald through the Dow Jones News Fund program. He holds a bachelor's degree in sports journalism and statistics from the University of Missouri.
 
Would Notre Dame actually consider relinquishing its historic independent status?
When USC and UCLA announced their decision last week to join the Big Ten in 2024, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick was watching closely. After all, every time the sport realigns, his program gets dragged into the conversation. "Much like Texas and Oklahoma," he said, "I was surprised at the timing less than the actual move." It was almost a year ago that those Big 12 co-founders announced their intent to join the SEC -- a shocking move that eventually forced the Big 12 to piece itself together with BYU, Houston, Cincinnati and UCF. It seemed like a blueprint for what happened this summer, as many in the Pac-12 were caught by surprise heading into a holiday weekend when two of its flagship programs opted for a wealthier conference with more exposure. Now, all eyes are on Swarbrick, as the Irish are arguably the biggest X-factor in what happens next in realignment. While the Big Ten and SEC are flexing their financial muscles and poised to become the first 16-team superconferences by 2025, Notre Dame, the nation's most recognizable independent, remains free from the turmoil and instead in an enviable position -- in high demand. Would Notre Dame relinquish its historic independent status? "We don't feel any particular urgency," Swarbrick told ESPN this week. "We think there's ample time for us to let the landscape settle."
 
Iowa's Barta doubts Big Ten expands further 'in near future'
The Big Ten has no additional expansion plans even though schools interested in becoming members have reached out to the conference in the week since the additions of Southern California and UCLA were announced, Iowa athletic director Gary Barta said Friday. "I know the Big Ten has taken calls, and they inform us when they take calls just so we have a general idea," Barta said at a news conference. "But if I were predicting, I'm not predicting that we would be adding any more in the near future. We'll see." The Big Ten voted to bring in USC and UCLA in 2024, making it a 16-team conference and the first to stretch coast-to-coast. The move has fueled speculation about more realignment. In question are the long-term viability of the Pac-12 and Atlantic Coast Conference, how the Big 12 will proceed and where Notre Dame could land. Barta said Big Ten leaders discussed Notre Dame and other schools in a meeting last year after Texas and Oklahoma announced they would join the Southeastern Conference by 2025. Expansion was put on the back burner until USC and UCLA submitted applications for membership last month, Barta said. Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said last week he hoped Notre Dame would be interested in the Big Ten. Asked if he would support Notre Dame joining the Big Ten, Barta said he probably would.
 
Conference realignment: Ex-SEC, TCU AD Eric Hyman says movement starts and ends with 'money'
The next wave of conference realignment is in full swing after USC and UCLA announced June 30 the two will depart the Pac-12 for the Big Ten in time for the 2024-25 school year. The news comes nearly 12 months after Oklahoma and Texas announced they will depart the Big 12 for the SEC in Summer 2025, and is the latest indication that a major restructuring of the college football landscape is all but inevitable, and one former power broker says it begins and ends with money. That's what retired NCAA athletic director Eric Hyman, who had stints at TCU (1998-2005), South Carolina (2005-12) and Texas A&M (2012-16) among other programs, would like to remind fans, even if it comes as an unwelcome truth. Hyman wouldn't be surprised, either, if college football eventually goes to a model where two super-conferences -- likely the SEC and Big Ten, in that case -- ultimately run the show at the game's highest level. "It's (really) all about money," Hyman said during an interview with TCU radio announcer Brian Estridge on Frogs Today. "Money drives it. ... That's where it is. That's the reality of it. And rivalries -- you talk about the rivalries, but the rivalries are dissipating. And then you look at travel and academics (for the Big Ten additions). Let's say the women's tennis team from UCLA wants to play Rutgers. Think about all the academic time and think about the cost. Now they will be able support the financial cost because the slice of the pie is going to be increased dramatically for the Big Ten. ... I wouldn't be at all surprised to see eventually what happen is that you have maybe the AFC and the NFC. You have two different divisions and then you come together for the Super Bowl."
 
Three-fold challenge for imperiled ACC in wake of latest conference realignment
As panic ensues during the Faber homecoming parade in "Animal House," ROTC cadet Chip Diller, aka Kevin Bacon, attempts to quell the masses. "Remain calm," he says. "All is well." No one listens. Any similar counsel today would fall upon equally deaf ears for much of college football, including the ACC. Will the ACC, Big 12 and Pacific 12 be blocked from a future national championship playoff exclusive to the Big Ten, SEC and Notre Dame? Or are the latter two conferences, the sport's alpha dogs, content with their latest acquisitions, and, regardless of their composition, still amenable to an inclusive postseason? Those overarching questions, and a host of others, emerged June 30 when Pac-12 anchors Southern California and UCLA blindsided college athletics with news of their 2024 move to the Big Ten. Their announcement came 11-plus months after word leaked of Texas and Oklahoma bolting the Big 12 for the SEC. In the week-plus since the USC-UCLA thunderbolt, I've interacted with a dozen current or former senior ACC administrators, conversations that produced no consensus on how this plays out. But it's clear the ACC has never been more imperiled. "Everyone is uneasy," one administrator said. "Survival," said another. Those administrators outlined three challenges for second-year ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, who in the last week has huddled multiple times with conference athletic directors and presidents.
 
Conference realignment: Phil Knight resorts to cold calling for Oregon as Pac-12, Big 12, ACC seek lifelines
The true impact of this latest round of conference realignment is the image of one of the world's most powerful sports figures "working the phones." That's how one source this week described Phil Knight's level of desperation. A marketing genius, benefactor, philanthropist and multi-billionaire, the Shoe Dog himself is apparently using all his resources to find a home for Oregon, a program Knight has made one of the most recognizable college sports brands as a de facto offshoot of his Nike empire. Knight has been reduced to cold-calling telemarketer. And that's a sad situation. The migration of USC and UCLA to the Big Ten in 2024 has made it such. In the past week, we have again been reminded of the ruthlessness of this system. The Pac-12 may or may not survive, but after the loss of its two flagship programs, it is forever altered. All that with a reminder that the ACC is scrambling to keep its top teams, while the Big 12 may be on its fourth round of reorganization since 2010. What we're witnessing in real time is the consolidation of the best brands atop the sport. Everything else be damned. When Knight is being reduced to speed-dialing to save his Ducks, well, that takes potential exclusion to another level. You may have noticed: The SEC and Big Ten are a Notre Dame (or so) away from staging their own playoff. Maybe they don't even need the Fighting Irish, who are again deciding whether to join a conference after 130 years of independence.
 
Greg Sankey has the power to save college football. It's time to wield it
He can end this madness. Plant a flag and make a statement and use the power of his position for the good of all. It's time for SEC commissioner Greg Sankey to seize control of the sudden uncertainty in college football expansion with a definitive declaration. The SEC is sticking at 16 teams. Forget everything you've heard or read or seen. Forget about the ACC being raided, or a flirtation with Notre Dame or one last dip into the state of Texas. The SEC is sticking at 16 teams. Doesn't matter that Notre Dame, the prettiest girl at the dance, is still alone. Doesn't matter what moves the Pac-12 and Big 12 make in an effort to recover losing critical members in the past year. Doesn't matter if Clemson wants in the SEC, and North Carolina does, too. Doesn't matter what television deals are made by what conferences, or who is selling what to any streaming site. More than anything, it doesn't matter what Big Ten expansion moves are on the horizon. For the good of college football, the SEC is sticking at 16 teams. Because sticking at 16 puts the onus of a college football breakup in the lap of the Big Ten. ... So here's what Sankey should do: use the bully pulpit. Stand at the dais in Atlanta and open SEC Media Days -- annually a carnival of information and the absurd -- with a Churchillian moment. End all speculation and rumor, and point the big, bad SEC battleship to its true North. No more expansion, no more potential implosion of the second-most popular sport in the United States -- behind only the NFL.



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