| Tuesday, July 12, 2022 |
| NASA Astro Camp underway at MSU-Meridian | |
 | The NASA Astro Camp at MSU-Meridian began Monday. Students are blasting off into the world of STEM, better known as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Students engage in hands-on activities, virtual reality, and interactive seminars. Program coordinator Dr. Rosalind Operton says the students are eager to learn more about STEM and hopes this program will help foster a bright future for these kids. "Well my favorite thing is seeing the children," said Operton. "To see them excited about coming, several of them didn't know each other so they were pretty quiet but three hours later they're best friends. They're making friends, they're making things, they're learning more about topics they didn't know about so it's just getting the kids involved and seeing the adults as well." "Every day for the rest of the week we get to have fun. We get to build stuff. We get to talk about space and planets and how some of the teachers and principals get to see us from our old schools," said Jeremy Hampton, a student in the program. Astro Camp will continue through July 15th for kids in grades 3-8. |
| Mississippi: Seed and Ag Technology Short Course, Starkville, Aug. 15-16 | |
 | Seed industry representatives, agricultural professionals, producers, crop consultants and research scientists are encouraged to attend the Seed and Agricultural Technology Short Course at Mississippi State University Aug. 15-16. Hosted by the MSU Extension Service and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, the short course will be held at the Bost Extension Conference Center at MSU. Participants will learn about carbon credit market economics, agricultural autonomous technologies, management and implementation of precision agricultural information and data, and prescriptive and high-speed planting technologies for seed and crop production. MSU faculty, seed industry professionals and representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will also discuss postharvest pest management, industrial electrical safety, seed-borne diseases, state and federal seed laws, and principles of seed and grain storage and drying. The second day of the short course will feature a hands-on demonstration and training in seed processing, cleaning and conditioning equipment. |
| Mississippi Rice: MSU Names New Crop Specialist | |
| 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. |
| Final FY2022 revenue numbers up $1,456.7 million over estimates | |
 | Total revenue collections for the month of June FY 2022 are $163,200,678 or 26.98% above the sine die revenue estimate. Fiscal YTD revenue collections through June 2022 are $1,456,712,202 or 24.58% above the sine die estimate. Fiscal YTD total revenue collections through June 2022 are $643,269,904 or 9.54% above the prior year's collections. The FY 2022 Sine Die Revenue Estimate is $5,927,000,000. On March 25, 2022, the Joint Legislative Budget Committee revised the FY 2022 revenue estimate from $5,927,000,000 to $6,875,200,000 upward by $948.2M. FY 2022 year-to-date actual DOR collections above the line are $502.0M above the year-to-date FY 2022 revised revenue estimate. The report also pointed out that this is a 10-year historical total revenue high as well as a comparison of collections by tax type. June FY 2022 General Fund collections were $28,280,316 or 3.82% over June FY 2021 actual collections. Sales tax collections for the month of June were above the prior year by $17.9M. Individual income tax collections for the month of June were below the prior year by $3.3M. Corporate income tax collections for the month of June were above the prior year by $8.3M. |
| Mississippi sales tax holiday 2022: What you need to know | |
 | Mississippi's sales-tax-free weekend is coming up between 12:01 a.m. Friday, July 29 and midnight Saturday, July 30. According to the Mississippi Sales Tax Holiday passed by the Legislature in 2009 and amended in 2019, sales tax will not be due on articles of clothing, footwear or school supplies if the sales price of a single item is less than $100. The Mississippi Department of Revenue laid out some guidelines for eligible and ineligible items -- here's what you need to know. There are a few exceptions to the sales tax holiday, especially for clothing. Rental clothing and shoes are still subject to the 7% tax rate and do not qualify during the holiday. Accessories such as belt buckles, hair clips, jewelry, handkerchiefs and watches do not qualify as clothing items. Sports clothing, such as football pads, helmets, baseball pants and cleats are also not eligible. Additionally, how an item is purchased may disqualify the item for the tax holiday. The Department of Revenue website states that layaway items do not qualify for the tax break. When shopping with a coupon, manufacturers' coupons and rebates do not lower the original cost of the item, therefore, sales tax may still be collected if purchasing an item more than $100. The tax holiday also qualifies for online purchases. The Department of Revenue's website states that mail, internet and telephone sales are eligible for the discount as long as they were purchased during the holiday and do not exceed $100. |
| Work continues on I-20 safety project | |
 | A $24.4 million design-build project on I-20 is moving forward with crews working on several bridges throughout Lauderdale County. The project, which was officially launched in January, will widen bridges at 65th Avenue by the airport and Highway 19 to improve safety and traffic flow for drivers traveling through Meridian. The project also calls for upgraded LED lighting to be installed along the interstate and the removal of bridges over Knight Parker Road. In a statement, Central District Transportation Commissioner Willie Simmons said the project is much needed for Meridian and Lauderdale County, as well as for the safety of motorists traveling through the area. "We understand how critical these improvements are to Meridian and Lauderdale County," Simmons said. "The design-build aspect of the project expedites the ability to get the design done as quickly as possible. The project will further increase safety and efficiency for motorists and commercial traffic throughout Meridian." The project remains on schedule with an anticipated finish date in Summer 2023. |
| MDOT says portions of interstates will remain dark, copper wire thieves are to blame | |
| Certain areas of Mississippi's interstates will continue to be without street lights for the time being. The Mississippi Department of Transportation said it's because of copper wire theft. It's an issue the agency describes as a Catch-22. On one hand, continuously replacing the same lights wastes taxpayer dollars. But on the other hand, not replacing the lights leaves many Mississippi drivers in the dark. "The last time they were repaired and replaced, they didn't last but about a month or so before they were stolen again," MDOT spokesperson Michael Flood said. Copper wire thieves have presented challenges for MDOT since at least 2019. "I don't have an exact figure on how much it has cost, but I know, in years past, it's in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix and repair and replace these lights that get stolen as well as the copper wiring and the components to go with it," Flood said. The crooks are also causing dangerous road conditions for those traveling along parts of I-20, I-220, and I-55. WLBT has been on the scene of several crashes with few or no working street lights in the area, including I-55 North near Fortification Street as well as near Lakeland Drive. Flood said copper wire theft is an issue all over the country, but in Mississippi, it primarily happens in the Jackson metro area. |
| FBI considering relocating Oxford office, local officials say | |
 | The FBI is looking to relocate the bureau's Oxford office to a city in the Delta, according to state lawmakers and city officials who are pushing back on the plan. Oxford's mayor and state lawmakers who represent the city at the Capitol told the Daily Journal that they have been informed that federal leaders are looking to move the Oxford office to either Greenville or Greenwood. Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill, an independent, said she's concerned that if the office is relocated to another town, it could disrupt the routine coordination of many federal law enforcement agencies that are located in Lafayette County. "This is an economic development issue, but more importantly, this is a law enforcement issue," Tannehill said. "I am 100% committed to keeping this office in Oxford." Katie Greenleaf, a spokesperson for the bureau's Jackson office, did not directly confirm or deny if the office is planning to relocate -- or why such a move might be considered -- but she did say they are "actively engaged with all of our state and local partners, including those in Greenville." |
| White House urges caution on COVID variants, pushes boosters | |
 | The Biden administration is calling on people to exercise renewed caution about COVID-19, emphasizing the importance of getting booster shots for those who are eligible and wearing masks indoors as two new highly transmissible variants are spreading rapidly across the country. The new variants, labeled BA.4 and BA.5, are offshoots of the omicron strain that has been responsible for nearly all of the virus spread in the U.S. and are even more contagious than their predecessors. White House doctors stressed the importance of getting booster doses, even if you have recently been infected. "Currently, many Americans are under vaccinated, meaning they are not up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines," said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Staying up to date on your COVID-19 vaccines provides the best protection against severe outcomes." Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said while the new variants are concerning, with boosters, indoor masking and treatments the country has the tools to keep them from being disruptive. "We should not let it disrupt our lives," he said, "but we cannot deny that it is a reality that we need to deal with." He added that even if someone recently had COVID-19, they should get a booster. "Immunity wanes, so it is critical to stay up to date with COVID 19 vaccines," he said. |
| Biden heads to Saudi Arabia amid discomfort and criticism | |
 | Shortly after taking office, President Biden ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to declassify their assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an outspoken critic of the Saudi government. Biden was eager to distinguish himself from former president Donald Trump, who had been criticized for his closeness with the Saudis and had cast doubt on the conclusion that the crown price had ordered the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist. Biden pointedly took a step Trump would not, imposing sanctions and travel bans on Saudis connected to the killing. But Biden did not actually sanction the crown prince, the de facto ruler of the oil-rich kingdom. That obvious omission signaled an early decision by Biden that, despite his campaign pledge to make Saudi Arabia a "pariah" and notwithstanding the country's brutal human rights violations, he would end up engaging with the country, according to White House officials. Now Biden finds himself in an uncomfortable position as he visits Saudi Arabia later this week, trying to signal simultaneously that he values the country as an ally and that he harbors significant reservations about visiting. That discomfort has created uncertainty around what, exactly, will be the outcome of the president's four-day swing through Israel and Saudi Arabia. "The Biden team, and President Biden himself, are fumbling their articulation of why they're even going," said Brian Katulis, the vice president for policy at the Washington-based Middle East Institute. "There seems to be almost a sense of chagrin about going. That's unfortunate, because that sends messages over to the region and makes the likelihood of success in their trip lower." |
| Most Democrats Don't Want Biden in 2024, New Poll Shows | |
 | President Biden is facing an alarming level of doubt from inside his own party, with 64 percent of Democratic voters saying they would prefer a new standard-bearer in the 2024 presidential campaign, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll, as voters nationwide have soured on his leadership, giving him a meager 33 percent job-approval rating. Widespread concerns about the economy and inflation have helped turn the national mood decidedly dark, both on Mr. Biden and the trajectory of the nation. More than three-quarters of registered voters see the United States moving in the wrong direction, a pervasive sense of pessimism that spans every corner of the country, every age range and racial group, cities, suburbs and rural areas, as well as both political parties. Mr. Biden has said repeatedly that he intends to run for re-election in 2024. At 79, he is already the oldest president in American history, and concerns about his age ranked at the top of the list for Democratic voters who want the party to find an alternative. "I'm just going to come out and say it: I want younger blood," said Nicole Farrier, a 38-year-old preschool teacher in East Tawas, a small town in northern Michigan. Ms. Farrier, a Democrat who voted for Mr. Biden in 2020, said she had hoped he might have been able to do more to heal the nation's divisions, but now, as a single mother, she is preoccupied with what she described as crippling increases in her cost of living. "I went from living a comfortable lifestyle to I can't afford anything anymore," she said. |
| Texas Republicans tee off on Jill Biden's breakfast taco remark during San Antonio visit | |
| At a Latino advocacy conference in San Antonio on Monday, First Lady Jill Biden remarked that the group is "as distinct as the bodegas of the Bronx, as beautiful as the blossoms of Miami, and as unique as the breakfast tacos here in San Antonio." Almost immediately, Texas Republicans pounced "Jill Biden just said Hispanics are as 'unique' as tacos," wrote Steve Guest on Twitter, an adviser to Sen. Ted Cruz. "This isn't Veep. Which White House speechwriter just won a bet for getting the First Lady to say something like this?" Said U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Houston: "Jill Biden's speech writer hates her so much." Biden was in San Antonio to attend a Democratic fundraiser, where she called for more unity in her party. She spoke afterword at UnidosUS, which calls itself a Latino civil rights and advocacy group. Republicans also mocked the term 'Latinx' title of the event -- a term that is supposed to be inclusive of non-binary Latinos, and one which research has shown many Latinos either haven't heard or don't like. "If Jill Biden is going to compare Hispanic Americans to breakfast tacos, then she could at least use more inclusive language: It's 'TacX,' Jill," Crenshaw said on Twitter. It's been a packed few weeks of speech gaffes for the Biden Administration. President Joe Biden read aloud teleprompter instructions that said "end of quote. Repeat the line," garnering widespread mockery, while Vice President Kamala Harris has also drawn widespread references to the HBO series "Veep" on social media after two meandering interview responses went viral. |
| Jan. 6 panel zeroes in on Trump's 'clarion call' to extremists | |
 | The Jan. 6 select committee plans to make its most complex case yet at its public hearing Tuesday: that Donald Trump's words and actions influenced extremists and brought them to the steps of the Capitol. "Be there. Will be wild," Trump tweeted on Dec. 19, 2020, barely two weeks before a mob seeded with members of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers besieged the Capitol and threatened the transfer of power to Joe Biden. That tweet will be the focal point of the Jan. 6 panel's seventh public hearing, as House investigators aim to show that the former president's most extreme supporters were intently listening -- and quickly began preparing for potential violence in support of Trump's goal to stay in power. The tweet was a "clarion call" to the groups, said Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), who is leading Tuesday's hearing along with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.). "We'll show you how they began to organize around that date," she said in an interview. "And you know that they were [not] organizing ... for a peaceful protest, because you don't bring explosives and weapons to peaceful protests." Tuesday's hearing will require investigators to delve into the sordid world of internet extremism and specifically lay out how Trump's words rippled through its corners. The panel intends to highlight how adherents to the antisemitic, fringe conspiracy theories of QAnon latched onto Trump's stolen-election claims, as well as how the extremist Proud Boys and Oath Keepers used Trump's crusade to fundraise for a violent effort to keep Biden from office. The role of social media platforms in extremists' mobilization will also play a role in Tuesday's hearing, Murphy said. |
| Roe reversal spurs worries about miscarriage care | |
 | The state laws enacted since the Supreme Court's June 24 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization have come in rapid succession. In all, 18 states have enacted laws that would punish doctors who perform abortions with jail time in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling overturning the federal right to an abortion -- and doctors worry that helping to medically treat a miscarriage, too, will put them at risk of prosecution. "Just being accused is a huge risk. Even if you're completely in the right and you're being very careful to follow laws," said Karen Meckstroth, an OB-GYN and professor at University of California, San Francisco. Alina Salganicoff, director for Women's Health Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, cautioned that these laws will make it more difficult for doctors to decide the course of care when a woman begins miscarrying, and the risk to the woman's health is still unknown. "And just the decision is going to be in many cases shaped by whether the doctors have concerns about their liability, either civil or criminal, depending on the state," Salganicoff said. One way physicians can protect themselves against litigation when assisting in routine miscarriage management is to take copious records of their patients, said Carmel Shachar, executive director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. But because state laws are changing so rapidly, what's legal now may not be legal in a few weeks. |
| Hospitals Must Provide Abortions in Emergency Situations, Biden Administration Says | |
 | Federal health officials said doctors and hospitals must provide an abortion under federal law when a pregnant woman in emergency medical condition needs the procedure to be stabilized. The Health and Human Services Department said Monday a federal law protecting access to emergency treatment mandates performing an abortion if a doctor deems it necessary in a medical emergency even if the procedure isn't legal under state law. Under such circumstances, a doctor "must provide that treatment," and the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act pre-empts state law restricting abortion, the department said in new guidance to hospitals and doctors. The department issued the guidance for performing abortions under the EMTALA law in a bid to clarify for doctors and hospitals struggling to reconcile state laws restricting abortion with EMTALA, which can require the procedure to stabilize certain patients. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, several doctors and hospitals said they are struggling to reconcile state laws that restrict abortion to saving a woman's life with EMTALA's mandate to stabilize emergency patients, including performing an abortion to protect a woman's bodily functions or organs. The announcement is the latest by the Biden administration in response to the Supreme Court's decision leaving it up to states to decide if and when abortion is legal. A spokeswoman for the Mississippi attorney general's office said the state's law makes an exception for life-threatening emergencies and dismissed the new guidance as a bid by the Biden administration to appease his base. |
| States With Abortion Bans Risk Losing Their Economic Edge | |
| As a group of conservative states enacted severe abortion restrictions last year, Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois sent letters to a handful of corporate executives with close ties to Texas. Mr. Pritzker, a Democrat, urged executives to rethink basing their companies in "a state that strips its residents of their dignity." Most workers, he wrote, did not want to live under a rigid abortion ban. There was no immediate response to his overture. Companies thriving in Texas' freewheeling business environment were not about to flee because of legally contested abortion regulations that were not certain to be enforced. Ten months later, the political and legal landscape is radically different. And a Supreme Court decision that abolished the right to an abortion is now threatening to reshape the lines of economic competition between conservative and liberal states. For companies anchored in economically vibrant conservative states like Texas, Tennessee and Georgia, the rollback of women's rights is no longer a hypothetical scenario but an immediate challenge. It represents a potential disruption to the calculus that has made Republican-led Sun Belt states a draw for big companies. Scott Reed, a Republican strategist who served as a top official at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, questioned whether the abortion laws would do much to undermine the economic appeal of conservative states. "These red states with low taxes, low regulation, investments in education and roads -- that's the real contrast with these older blue states that are kind of falling apart," Mr. Reed said. |
| NASA's James Webb telescope captures groundbreaking images of distant galaxies | |
 | The universe's splendor and breadth are on display like never before, thanks to a new batch of images that NASA released from the James Webb Space Telescope on Tuesday. The images from the new telescope are "really gorgeous," said NASA's Jane Rigby, the operations project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope. "That's something that has been true for every image we've gotten with Webb," she added. "We can't take blank sky [images]. Everywhere we look, there's galaxies everywhere." The images reflect five areas of space that researchers agreed to target: the exoplanet WASP-96 b; the Southern Ring Nebula; the Carina Nebula; Stephan's Quintet (five galaxies in the constellation Pegasus); and the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. One of the most eye-popping images released on Tuesday depicts what looks to be cosmic cliffs, valleys and mountains -- albeit with mountains that stretch to seven light-years in height. The image captures part of a "stellar nursery called NGC 3324 at the northwest corner of the Carina Nebula," NASA said. It's roughly 7,600 light-years from Earth. The tight galaxy group called Stephan's Quintet is a "laboratory" for scientists to study the powerful effects galaxies can exert on each other, thanks to new data from the Webb telescope. Researchers hope to learn more about how galaxies merge and interact, including triggering each other to form new stars, and how those processes might be impacted by supermassive black holes. The image casts the quintet in a new light, after they represented angels in Frank Capra's class film It's a Wonderful Life. |
| Monday Profile: Pen collector, W security dispatcher came to Friendly City for love | |
 | As people drive onto the Mississippi University for Women campus, they are often met by Art Reyes' friendly demeanor and smiling face as he waves them through. Some will often stop to talk to Reyes at the security booth on College Street before they drive through and recount to him stories of their weekend or tell him about a project they are working on. Reyes is a father of four college-aged and older children, and he has been a dispatcher at the W since September 2016. He says he has loved every second of it. He likes to meet new people, help the college students and greet all of the dogs that pass through. "My favorite part about working here is the friendships," Reyes said. "I get to be a mentor to the kids who come in and might be far from home. If they need help, I can be that friend or fatherly figure to them. I also really love the dogs that come by. When people are walking their dogs through the neighborhood, they'll stop by, and I'll give them a treat." When he began at the W, he mentioned to one of his coworkers that he always wanted to go to college, but he never took the ACT, so it was out of the question. However, when the pandemic hit, the W waived the ACT requirement for new students, and Reyes was given a chance. "I get two free classes a semester, so I'm slowly working towards my bachelor of arts with a major in communication and a minor in film," Reyes said. "I always wanted to be able to say I've gone to college, and I can say that now. I'm in psychology right now and have a 4.0. The class I'm most worried about is math. It's been 35 years since I graduated high school and took a math class." |
| Missing Ole Miss student's car found at towing company | |
| Oxford Police continue the search for missing Ole Miss student Jimmie "Jay" Lee. Lee was last seen early Friday morning and his car was recovered Monday at an Oxford towing company. Lakiowa Milan, Lee's neighbor said Lee's disappearance has put others on high alert. "They should be alert now if it is a kidnapping because it is unlike him," said Lakiowa Milan Lee's neighbor. She said his disappearance hits too close for comfort. "Something like this is unusual to happen on campus. I've never heard anything like this happening around here," said Milan. Monday, Oxford Police recovered the 20-year-old's 2014 Ford Fusion with the license plate "JayLee1." It was towed from the Molly Barr Trails apartment complex where police believe Lee was visiting someone Friday. Milan said Lee is very well known on campus. She said the search efforts have ramped and the situation has been shared thousands of times on social media. Milan hopes it will help law enforcement find her friend. If you have any information on the whereabouts of this missing person you're asked to call the University of Mississippi Police Department at (662) 915-7234. |
| USM professor leads research team to study how climate affects ant colonies | |
| The more queens, the better -- such is the conclusion reached by University of Southern Mississippi (USM) scientist Dr. Kaitlin Baudier and her team after conducting intensive research on specific ant colonies in the desert Southwest. Baudier and collaborators at Arizona State University spent the better part of a year studying California harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex californicus) from the Pine Valley, Calif., region to test how multi-queen versus single-queen colonies perform in extreme climates. Their work has been accepted for publication in Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. Baudier, Assistant Professor in USM's School of Biological, Environmental and Earth Sciences, points out that typically an ant queen founds a colony by herself. Yet sometimes queens work together in groups of two or more to accomplish this complicated task. "This cooperative strategy allows the colony to grow bigger faster and reduces the likelihood that any one queen will die but comes at the cost of lower numbers of offspring per queen," said Baudier. "Because of this, cooperative founding has evolved multiple times in ants that live in very climatically harsh (hot or cold) and very seasonal environments like those found at high latitudes, high elevations, or deserts." |
| Five charter schools move to final stage of application process | |
| Five new charter schools could open across the state as early as next year if the state approves their applications later this fall. On Monday, the Charter School Authorizer Board voted to advance the proposed schools, and voted against the remaining five that did not meet a majority of the required application criteria. This round of the process allowed all applications to be reviewed by an outside evaluator, which recommended only four of the ten proposed schools advance to the next round. Those schools are: Columbus Leadership Academy, grades K-8 in the Columbus Municipal School District; Instant Impact Global Prep, grades K-8 in the Natchez Adams School District; Resilience Academy of Teaching Excellence, grades K-5 in the East Tallahatchie School District; and Resilience Academy of Teaching Excellence, grades K-5 in the North Bolivar School District. The board also approved Clarksdale Collegiate Prep, which would serve grades 7-12 in the Clarksdale Municipal School District, despite the independent evaluator recommending against it due to issues with the plan that was submitted and concerns regarding test scores. The test scores referenced were from Clarksdale Collegiate Public Charter School, a currently operating charter school serving students K-5. Final decisions on each school will be announced in September. |
| Want to be happy? Plan a vacation, U. of Alabama researchers say | |
 | Endless summer surfers, Elvis in the movies, the Go-Gos, Jack Johnson and Jimmy Buffett would probably agree with this premise: Beach people live the sunniest lives. But it turns out to be the road ahead that brings the most joy, according to a study by a pair of University of Alabama researchers. Yes, beaches were named most often as desired destinations, in the study of 1,040 travelers from around the United States, but it's travel itself, the escape from routine, that creates joy. The traveler can climb mountains, sail cruise ships, or hike parks, said Jay Waters, a UA instructor in advertising and public relations, who created the study with Jameson Hayes, an associate professor and director of UA's Public Opinion Lab. "The commonality among all those destinations is 'I'm going some place I love; I'm getting away from work,' " Waters said. Movement is crucial, because the so-called "staycation," time off where a respondent remains at or near home, didn't yield the same positive reaction results. "It's the act of vacating your life" that leads to joy, Hayes said. According to their work, people mentally time-travel forward to upcoming getaways. "But it wasn't until they actually booked the next trip that it affected their happiness." The study focused on people between 25 and 55, because the researchers didn't want the more free nature of retirement, or the differing expectations of college kids, to skew results. |
| 'I'm proof you can': Black 13-year-old college student says she's headed to UAB medical school | |
 | She's been called the Black Bill Gates. Now, Alena Analeigh Wicker has become a real-life, Black Doogie Howser. The 13-year-old college junior has been accepted to UAB's Heersink School of Medicine under its Burroughs Wellcome Scholars Early Assurance Program in May, the teen posted on social media. "I graduated High school LAST YEAR at 12 years old and here I am one year later I've been accepted into Med School at 13," Alena posted on her Instagram page, where she has more than 16,000 followers under the moniker thebrownstemgirl. "I'm a junior in college. Statistics would have said I never would have made it. A little black girl adopted from Fontana, California. I've worked so hard to reach my goals and live my dreams. Mama, I made it." Alena, who enjoys building robots and Legos, is enrolled at Arizona State University, where she is pursuing an engineering degree. The teen previously dreamed of building robots for NASA but later turned her focus to medical school. "It actually took one class in engineering, for me to say this is kind of not where I wanted to go," she told 12 News. "I think viral immunology really came from my passion for volunteering and going out there engaging with the world." |
| ASU hires U. of Arkansas dean Todd Shields as chancellor | |
| Todd Shields, named Arkansas State University chancellor on Monday, will bring to the job a stated desire to make the state's second-largest university a leader for northeast Arkansas. He will also bring nearly a decade of experience as a college dean at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where he emerged as a campus administrator with major responsibilities during a period of enrollment growth that other colleges -- including Arkansas State -- have not seen in recent years. "We must connect with our community. ASU is primed to be able to do that," Shields, 53, said during a presentation on the Jonesboro campus last month in which he spoke about the importance of the university's role in the surrounding region. "The community is almost begging you to reach out and to say, 'Help us all become better' -- much more so than any other place I've been in," Shields said. "The community here is saying, 'Let's work with ASU.'" Shields, a political science professor, became dean of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences in 2014 after starting a year earlier as interim dean. Shields will earn $450,000 yearly as part of an initial three-year agreement, and will be eligible to earn $50,000 annually in incentive-based deferred compensation, according to his offer letter. Each year, a satisfactory evaluation of Shields by the president of the ASU System will result in a one-year contract extension, according to the letter. |
| Presidential searches around the nation reflect UF's own | |
| UF's ongoing secretive presidential search follows similar private searches at other institutions, a reflection of shifting national dynamics as search firms encourage confidentiality. In the past two years, institutions such as Harvard University, State University of New York at Oswego, Pennsylvania State University and Temple University have undergone or are undergoing their own presidential searches. While prioritized qualifications vary based on the community's needs, the searches' similarities, and secrecy, can be seen across the nation. Little is known about UF's search as it enters its fourth month. Public record bills passed in March permit the names of Florida schools' presidential candidates to remain private; the list of presidential candidates is released only 21 days prior to the official selection of the new university president. UF's search began in March, three months after UF President Kent Fuchs announced he would resign from his position to become a professor of electrical and computer engineering. As more students return to campus for Summer and Fall classes, information on UF's search remains hidden, but its rival schools may offer an expected timeline. FSU released a list of 22 applicants May 10, 2021; Richard McCullough, the former vice provost of research at Harvard University, was named president two weeks later. |
| The Explosive Ambitions of Kate the Chemist | |
| The dream is Vegas. "Don't make fun of me," said Kate Biberdorf, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, "but it would be a live show in Vegas where it's a science show." That is not a typical aspiration of someone who teaches chemistry to undergraduates. For Dr. Biberdorf -- better known as Kate the Chemist -- that dream is part of her goal to capture the fun of scientific exploration and to entice children, especially girls, to consider science as their life's calling. "When I'm happiest is when I'm onstage sharing what I love," she said. She's thinking of a big spectacle, like the long-running magic shows of David Copperfield at MGM Grand or Penn & Teller at Rio Las Vegas. "If we can convince people to go to science shows when on vacation," she added, not entirely convinced herself. For now, her efforts have focused on television and publishing, not Vegas. Perhaps you've seen her. Dr. Biberdorf, 36, has appeared on NBC's "Today," "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" and other programs with demonstrations of color-changing chemicals, magnetic slime and, very often, chemical reactions accompanied by bright, loud bangs. As a graduate student at the University of Texas, she studied catalysts for potentially speeding up Suzuki-Miyaura coupling, a reaction commonly used in the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals. There, she found that she did not like laboratory work. In addition, pure academia was a difficult place for her. "I didn't want to be in that environment," she said. "I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could." Her current job at the university is as a professor of instruction -- all teaching and no lab research. |
| Public Opinion on Value of Higher Ed Remains Mixed | |
 | Most Americans agree: there is increasingly limited value to higher education. Over the last decade, the American public has increasingly lost confidence in the economic benefits of a college degree. Americans across the political spectrum are questioning whether a college degree is worth it in the face of an economy that they view as benefiting the rich at the expense of the lower and middle classes. A new study from Public Agenda, a nonpartisan research organization, released Monday reflects several public opinion surveys across the years that demonstrate increasingly pessimistic attitudes on the value of higher education. The study shows that most Americans are concerned with affordability, access and the overall payoff of a college degree. Among the most skeptical were young Americans without college degrees. The results of the survey highlight the connection between the perceptions of the state of the economy and higher education. Although Democrats and Republicans remain divided on how to address college access and affordability, most agree that access to college is limited due to rising costs. The study focused particularly on views of public colleges, including state colleges and universities and community colleges. Americans generally supported increasing state funding for public colleges, including community colleges, with 61 percent agreeing that it would be worthwhile for their state to invest more in these institutions. However, views on increased public funding were more enthusiastic when asked about specific programs. |
| The College-Affordability Conundrum | |
 | A recent survey of people's attitudes on student-loan forgiveness revealed overwhelming support for something that's often seen as an even deeper issue: making college more affordable. Eighty-two percent of the roughly 1,000 survey respondents said the government should make bringing down the cost of college a priority. Student-loan borrowers felt the same: Nearly 60 percent of that group said the government should focus on making college more affordable for future students. President Biden's push for a federal free-college program was ultimately stymied in Congress. Meanwhile some states have forged ahead with "College Promise" programs seeking to bring down the cost of tuition. Private nonprofit colleges are often the poster children for rising college costs, and they have worked especially hard to persuade families that the sticker price isn't necessarily what they will actually pay. Such colleges offer tuition discounts to entice students to enroll. In the 2020-21 academic year, the average tuition-discount rate for first-time undergraduates was 54.5 percent, a record high according to data from the National Association of College and University Business Officers. Yet, college costs still hit low-income families the hardest. The National College Attainment Network's latest analysis of college affordability showed that in 2018-19, in-state students at four-year public colleges who received average-size Pell Grants had unmet financial need that averaged roughly $2,500. |
SPORTS
| Lunchtime with Leach: Mississippi State players, interview schedule released for SEC media days | |
| Mike Leach will hold court shortly after lunchtime at 2022 Southeastern Conference Media Days on July 19 in Atlanta. The third-year Mississippi State head coach is set to hold his main media session at the College Football Hall of Fame/Omni Hotel from 1 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. during the event's second day. Alabama coach Nick Saban, Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea and South Carolina coach Shane Beamer are also slated to speak to media that day. Mississippi State will bring three players to speak from 1:55 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. Defensive lineman Jaden Crumedy and linebacker Nathaniel Watson will make their first appearances at media days; wide receiver Austin Williams will return for the second straight year. SEC media days is returning to Atlanta for the first time since 2018. |
| Bulldogs Tabbed In SEC Preseason Coaches' Poll | |
| The Mississippi State volleyball team was predicted to finish fifth in the Southeastern Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll, which was announced Monday morning. Mississippi State finished last season's campaign with a 25-6 record and finished second in the SEC. Bulldog senior Gabby Waden earned the honor of being selected to the league's Preseason All-SEC squad. Waden was also selected to the All-SEC Team during the 2021 season. MSU brings back a core group of returners, including six starters from last year's team. Four freshmen and two transfers join the 2022 squad and are sure to make a big impact on the season. Mississippi State's 2022 campaign will kick off on Aug. 26-27 with the Bulldogs heading to South Bend, Ind., to face Milwaukee and Notre Dame. |
| Men's Tennis Earns ITA Academic Awards | |
| Mississippi State men's tennis enjoyed a successful season on the court, advancing to the NCAA Championship for the 11th consecutive season. Matt Roberts' Bulldogs also excelled academically and was selected as one of the ITA Division I Men's All-Academic Teams on Monday. It marks the 14th straight year that State's men's tennis team has been tabbed as an ITA All-Academic Team and 21st time overall since the 1999-2000 season. The Bulldogs boasted a 3.68 team GPA for the year, earning a 3.73 in the fall semester and 3.62 in the spring. Men's tennis had the highest GPA of any sport at Mississippi State in the fall and scored as the top male sport academically for the spring. Additionally, six of the eight members of MSU's roster this past season were named ITA Scholar Athletes by maintaining a grade point average of 3.5 or better. Florian Broska and Gregor Ramskogler each attained a 4.0 GPA in both the fall and spring semesters. Nemanja Malesevic and Seth Richey also had perfect GPA's in the fall and followed up with 3.75 GPA's during the spring. Alberto Colas and Davide Tortora were also selected as scholar athletes. Broska, the ITA Southern Region Senior Player of the Year, was also named to the CoSIDA Academic All District team and earned his master's degree in information technology in May. It is the fifth time Broska has been awarded as an ITA Scholar Athlete in his career. |
| 'SEC on CBS' names replacement for Jamie Erdahl, who joins NFL Network's 'Good Morning Football' | |
| The "SEC on CBS" will have a bit of a different look this fall. On Monday, CBS Sports named Jenny Dell lead college football reporter, teaming her with Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson to call the network's top game each wee. Dell replaces Jamie Erdahl, who officially announced Monday she will join NFL Network's "Good Morning Football" as the new host for the morning talk show. Erdahl, who has been with CBS Sports for 8 years, worked as a sideline reporter for the "NFL on CBS" and the "SEC on CBS." Dell, who joined CBS Sports in 2014, most recently served as lead college football reporter for CBS Sports Network, a position she held since 2015. In addition to her role at CBS Sports HQ, she has also worked games as a sideline reporter for select "SEC on CBS" and "NFL on CBS" games. In addition, Sherree Burruss has been named lead college football reporter for CBS Sports Network. Burruss will work throughout the season with Rich Waltz and Aaron Taylor. |
| Upgrades to Auburn's Plainsman Park under consideration | |
| In 2019 the Auburn baseball Tigers made their first trip to Omaha and the College World Series in 22 years. This past season they earned a return trip to the "Greatest Show on Dirt" by winning the second super regional in program history when the Tigers defeated No. 3 Oregon State on the road in Corvallis, Oregon. Keeping the program performing at a high level and upgrading Plainsman Park, the home of the Tigers, look to be priorities for Auburn moving forward. "The Auburn family has leaned into our baseball program, giving our student-athletes that extra juice," Allen Greene, Auburn's director of athletics, told Auburn247. "The energy in Plainsman Park has been building for several years and we look forward to ratcheting it up a couple notches." With an opportunity to continue moving forward to bigger and better things, Greene said it starts with the vision and program building of Coach Butch Thompson. "The Southeastern Conference is the premier baseball conference in the country," Greene said. "Through Butch's vision, he and his staff have proven to be in the mix as one of the best programs in the country." That was taken to another level this past season when Auburn played host to a regional at Plainsman Park for the first time since 2010. Winning games over Southeastern Louisiana, Florida State and UCLA to advance to the super regional round, the Tigers played in front of capacity crowds inside the stadium with fans lined up outside the fences and on the parking deck. |
| Justice Department Is Investigating PGA Tour Over Potential Antitrust Violations in LIV Golf Battle | |
| The Department of Justice is investigating whether the PGA Tour engaged in anticompetitive behavior as it battles the upstart, Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit, the PGA Tour confirmed to The Wall Street Journal. Players' agents have received inquiries from the DOJ's antitrust division involving both the PGA Tour's bylaws governing players' participation in other golf events, and the PGA Tour's actions in recent months relating to LIV Golf, according to a person familiar with those inquiries. The questions send a clear signal that the Justice Department is watching the fight that has divided professional golf, which both sides expect to end up in U.S. courts at some point. Such an investigation would ordinarily include the subject being instructed to freeze all relevant communications, both internal and with third parties. A spokesman for the PGA Tour said it was aware of the investigation -- and was confident it would prevail. The Department of Justice declined to comment. Since the debut of LIV Golf, which is financed by Saudi Arabia's sovereign-wealth fund, the PGA Tour has suspended players who have chosen to participate -- a punishment that LIV has assailed as anticompetitive. Some of those players have opted to resign from the PGA Tour. The emergence of LIV Golf and the extraordinary money behind it has plunged the sport into tumult and financial upheaval. |
| Whatever happens when next dominoes fall, SEC and Big 10 will match one another | |
| The Daily Journal's Parrish Alford writes: For me, vacation didn't begin at exactly the point of filing the final column from Omaha. There was still the matter of getting home. I did, however, soon begin a week and a half away -- during which I worked hard at being sports ignorant. I tried to unplug and was largely successful but not 100 percent. The news of USC and UCLA joining the Big 10 creeped into my awareness. Once upon a time that might have been shocking. The reality is the Texas and Oklahoma moves to the SEC were in essence a challenge to the rest of college football. The Big 10 is the most likely conference to keep pace and has done that with these two massive additions. You can debate success and history for USC and UCLA with that of Texas and OU, but it's not about that. It's about TV markets, and the Big 10 now picks up Los Angeles, a giant in that category. The SEC and Big 10 were already paying their members more than other Power Five conferences. The gap widens. As the landscape continues to shift the question is whether it settles on two super conferences of 20 teams -- the SEC and Big 10 -- or four with 16 teams. The networks will have some say in that, and my guess is they'll find four 16-team conferences more attractive. If they don't the SEC will do whatever it takes to match Big 10 expansion and vice versa. ... College football has survived radical ideas like the forward pass, freshman eligibility and integration. It will survive again, but NIL, the transfer portal and realignment bombshells are giving the game a lot of change at one time. |
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