| Tuesday, August 2, 2022 |
| MSU partnership with Adobe elevates student experience, expands digital literacy | |
 | Mississippi State students have a distinct new advantage this year because of a new partnership between the university and Adobe to optimize the academic experience and elevate career preparedness. MSU is the Magnolia State's first university to become an Adobe Creative Campus, part of a select group of colleges and universities that are actively advancing digital literacy skills through curricula to give students an edge in the competitive modern workplace. In addition to making every industry-leading Adobe Creative Cloud app across desktop and mobile devices available to students at a reduced cost, MSU is collaborating with other Adobe Creative Campuses to share ideas and innovations that help ensure student success. Faculty and staff also will benefit from the partnership with expanded access to Adobe creative software applications at reduced cost, to further help students tell stories and explore their creativity. "MSU has listened to our student and employee communities who have asked for a campus-wide Creative Cloud solution. These apps are used in the classrooms throughout a variety of disciplines in the academic arena, and the university is committed to equipping our students and employees with the best tools for success," said MSU Chief Information Officer Steve Parrott. |
| Suspect in college bomb threats identified, homeland security official says | |
 | A suspect has been identified in the case of at least 12 bomb threats made Thursday at several Mississippi colleges and universities, a state official said Monday. "I can tell you, without getting too detailed into the investigation, we have identified a source of the bomb threat," said Keith Davis, deputy commissioner of operations at the Mississippi Department of Public Safety. The threats, made at both public and private universities as well as a number of community colleges, occurred a day after similar threats in Alabama and Tennessee, though officials did not say whether the cases in other states were connected to those in Mississippi. Davis, who oversees the state's office of homeland security, said in terms of last week's bomb threats Mississippi students should feel safe as fall semesters are set to begin. "This investigation was investigated very thoroughly, and there was no threat found in Mississippi, so as far as law enforcement is concerned, in Mississippi, there is no lingering threat to any students in our state," Davis said. Matthew Steffey, a criminal law professor at Mississippi College, said the act of making a bomb threat can carry with it a 10 year prison sentence for each count. "It's not required to prove the person intended to detonate a bomb, intended to murder anyone, intended to destroy property," Steffey said. "The threat itself is the crime." Mississippi homeland security worked closely with their federal counterparts and the FBI during the investigation. Katie Greenleaf, spokesperson for the FBI's Jackson Field Office, said in a statement that they are investigating threats made across the country, including those in Mississippi. |
| Mississippians warned to watch out for fall armyworms | |
 | Each year, Mississippi's pastures, hay fields and lawns are threatened by fall armyworms. Keith Whitehead, who works in Franklin County with the Mississippi State University (MSU) Extension Service, said no one knows each year how bad the fall armyworm problem will be or when the insects will show up. "They're going to show up eventually. They always do," Whitehead. "It may be as late as September, but they move north from South and Central America. In 2021, the caterpillars showed up in hay fields the first week of June, which was earlier than usual. Many of last year's armyworms were resistant to typical control methods, and growers had to spray with different chemical combinations to manage the pest in their fields. "There are other places for these insects to be, like roadsides and non-farmed areas," Whitehead said. "We're not treating the whole county, just our production fields. Fall armyworms mature, pupate and turn into months, then return to our fields." Blake Layton, an Extension entomologist, said it is noteworthy that significant numbers of fall armyworms have not appeared in the state by the end of July. "After last year's unusually heavy and widespread fall armyworm outbreak, hay producers and turf managers are understandably anxious about what this year may hold," Layton said. |
| Two new monkeypox cases confirmed in Mississippi | |
 | The Mississippi State Department of Health has confirmed two new monkeypox cases, bringing the state's total number of cases to three. This announcement comes just one week after the first case of monkeypox was discovered in a Mississippi resident. "While anyone can get monkeypox, many of the cases identified in the outbreak in the U.S. and globally have been among men who have sex with men," State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said, later adding, "No matter your gender, no matter your sexual orientation, anyone can get monkeypox." If you are exposed to monkeypox, the first step you should take is to contact your provider. The MSDH will then work with the provider to collect a sample and get the person vaccinated, if necessary. Symptoms of monkeypox include fever, swollen lymph nodes, headache, and muscle aches, followed by a rash that starts as flat before advancing to pimples, or blisters and ulcers on the face, body, and sexual organs. |
| Amtrak breaks ground for new Gulf Coast platform, though route still uncertain | |
| A U.S. Department of Transportation official said the Biden administration is confident passenger rail will return to the Mississippi coast during a ground-breaking ceremony for a train depot platform Monday. Deputy Secretary of Transportation Polly Trottenberg spoke after local leaders stuck shovels into a mound of dirt outside Bay St. Louis's historic train depot, marking the start of construction for a new Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant platform. But the Amtrak-funded platform construction is symbolic for now -- the future of the passenger route that would use it is still in limbo. Amtrak is waiting for a federal board to mediate a long-time dispute over the Gulf Coast's capacity to host both freight and passenger rail on shared tracks. Amtrak hasn't run a Gulf Coast route since Hurricane Katrina. Trottenberg, who was visiting from Washington, D.C., echoed Amtrak's assertions that there's room for passenger rail to run between Mobile and New Orleans with four stops in Mississippi. "I think you can see by Amtrak's commitment to get these platforms ready, they're confident they will be running the train," Knox Ross, with the Southern Rail Commission, said at Monday's ceremony. Railroad experts have been watching the Gulf Coast case with the Surface Transportation Board closely because it could set a precedent for Amtrak's ability to expand its routes nationwide. |
| US House Speaker Pelosi arrives in Taiwan, defying Beijing | |
 | U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday night despite threats from Beijing of serious consequences, becoming the highest-ranking American official to visit the self-ruled island claimed by China in 25 years. Pelosi's visit has triggered increased tension between China and the United States. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory, to be annexed by force if necessary, and views visits by foreign government officials as recognition of the island's sovereignty. China had warned of "resolute and strong measures" if Pelosi went ahead with the trip, but has given no details on what they might be. Speculation has centered on threatening military exercises and possible incursions by Chinese planes and ships into areas under Taiwanese control. The Biden administration did not explicitly urge Pelosi to call off the visit, while seeking to assure Beijing it would not signal any change in U.S. policy on Taiwan. The plane carrying Pelosi and her delegation left Malaysia earlier Tuesday after a brief stop that included a working lunch with Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob. Taiwan's Foreign Ministry had declined to comment on whether Pelosi would visit. The trip was not officially announced ahead of time. China's military threats have driven concerns of a new crisis in the 100-mile (140-kilometer) -wide Taiwan Strait that could roil global markets and supply chains. The White House on Monday decried Beijing's rhetoric, saying the U.S. has no interest in deepening tensions with China and "will not take the bait or engage in saber rattling." |
| White House Retrofits Infrastructure Bill to Better Help Poor Communities | |
 | The Biden administration is starting a new initiative this week to ensure that the poorest communities in the United States have access to billions in funding from the infrastructure bill to replace their crumbling wastewater, drinking water and storm water systems. It represents a midcourse adjustment on the signature achievement of President Biden's administration, with a goal of speeding up assistance to local governments that lack the staffing and know-how to apply for $55 billion in funding for water projects tucked into the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which passed in November. On Tuesday, top officials with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Agriculture Department will announce a plan to provide technical assistance to 11 impoverished communities in the South, Appalachia and tribal areas. The announcement will take place in Lowndes County, Ala., a 1960s civil rights battleground where more than half of residents lack access to functional septic or municipal wastewater systems. Hundreds of people, almost all of them Black, resort to using homemade "straight pipes," which pump raw sewage into their yards, nearby creeks and the streets. The administration will target its assistance to communities in seven states: Lowndes and Greene Counties in Alabama; Bolivar County, Mississippi; Doña Ana County and Santo Domingo Pueblo in New Mexico; Duplin and Halifax Counties in North Carolina; Harlan County, Kentucky; McDowell and Raleigh Counties in West Virginia; and the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona. |
| Killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri elicits global praise | |
 | News that Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda, was killed in Kabul in a CIA drone operation over the weekend drew celebration from Democrats and Republicans in the United States as well as from some foreign governments. President Biden announced the death of one of the world's most-wanted terrorists in a televised address Monday from a White House balcony, reminiscent of the speech given by President Barack Obama in 2011 when U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in a raid of the al-Qaeda founder's compound in Pakistan. The killing of Zawahiri in Afghanistan is seen as a political win for the Biden administration almost a year after a heavily criticized U.S. withdrawal from the country, which left it under Taliban control and sparked fears that al-Qaeda could reassert itself there. Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), in a statement posted on Twitter on Monday evening, similarly credited Biden for approving the drone operation, saying "the world is a better, safer place" without Zawahiri. But McConnell urged the administration to come up with a comprehensive security plan in Afghanistan in light of the fact that Zawahiri appeared to have been living in central Kabul. But Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who has promoted conspiracy theories including one suggesting 9/11 was a hoax, slammed Biden for trying to "act tough on TV." Greene tweeted that while Zawahiri plotted 9/11 and the bombing of the Navy destroyer Cole in 2000, "no one in America has been sweating an attack from Al Qaeda lately or even heard a thing about them." |
| Food price increases show signs of moderating | |
| A ship full of corn is on the move. About 26,000 tons of the grain left Ukraine's largest port Monday, bound for Lebanon. Ukraine is an important producer of grain for world markets, and this is the first load it's been able to export since the Russian invasion in late February. The war and Russian blockades have reduced global grain supplies, causing worry about food shortages, and higher commodity prices are another consequence. In the U.S., the cost of food at home -- basically, groceries -- has jumped by more than 12% over the past year. There are many reasons for that. A couple of years ago, there was a swine fever outbreak in China, so a lot of pigs died and pork prices went up. As the pig population recovered, it affected costs of other food items. "All of those pigs need to eat," said Chris Barrett, an economist at Cornell. "And that increased demand for corn and soy and other things." So those became more expensive. Climate change is also playing a role, according to David Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State. "We've seen droughts in parts of the U.S., you know, the heat wave that set records in Europe, but also in other important agricultural-producing regions -- South America and Canada," he said. "And so that's led to less product being available, which adds upward pressure on prices." |
| Frustrating recovery could be hurricane harbinger for South | |
| There's not much in Greene County, a place that stands out even in impoverished west Alabama for its neediness. So the tornado that settled down upon one of its most densely populated areas, a housing community full of seniors and low-income families, felt like a particularly cruel blow. Swirling winds ripped roofs off apartments, toppled walls and shattered windows. Eula Dell Lanier, 64, cried out to God as her home came apart. "I was calling Jesus as the walls were coming down," she said. Yet the tornado wasn't one of the memorable monsters that devastates so many in places the South or Midwest; no one was killed or even badly injured. While about 40 homes in the 200-unit development were damaged, only a handful were as bad as Lanier's house. Still, the recovery seems tough to some residents nearly four months later because of what housing officials say are shortages of workers and supplies, geographic isolation and lethargy caused by generational poverty. And with what is typically the worst part of hurricane season ahead for the U.S. Gulf Coast, the experience at William McKinley Branch Heights -- named for an area civil rights leader -- shows just how hard it can be to move on from even a small disaster when life was a struggle beforehand. But Branch Heights is hardly the only place to struggle after a natural disaster. Poorer communities often have a harder time recovering from natural disasters than richer places because they get less aid, have less insurance, less credit and lack the resources to seek aid, according to the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at the University of Pennsylvania. More aid, better preparation and simpler application processes are needed, it found. |
| William Carey University welcomes 200 incoming medical school students | |
 | William Carey University in Hattiesburg held an orientation for incoming medical students today, Aug. 1. The university welcomed over 200 students into the program, making William Carey's College of Osteopathic Medicine (COM School) the largest medical school in the state. Dean of the COM School, Dr. Italo Subbarao, said he is excited to see the university grow. "We're excited about growth and about Carey," said Subbarao. "A number of our students we've taken in this class are from our Carey undergraduate and from our masters in biomedical sciences program, so we're all about growing from within." According to Subbarao, the university decided to expand its class size because Mississippi needs more doctors. Incoming medical school student Kassidy Anderson said she's excited for the school year but also nervous. "It's going to be very difficult, but I'm very, very excited to get to know all these people and to one day become a great physician," said Anderson. "I'm going to be able to be not only a physician to my patients but to be a friend and take care of their mental health along with their physical health." |
| U. of Alabama rolls out crimson carpet for returning students | |
 | They're back. Some University of Alabama students will be returning to the Tuscaloosa campus this week for early move-in ahead of the Aug. 17 beginning of classes for the fall semester. Early move-in begins Wednesday for members of the Million Dollar Band, some honors students and students who are involved in sorority recruitment. Regular move-in will begin Aug. 12. Other students will be on campus this weekend for a biology boot camp, August orientation and Camp 1831, which is a get-acquainted program for first-year students. Also this weekend, UA will hold summer commencement exercises with a ceremony scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday at Coleman Coliseum. Nearly 1,500 students will receive diplomas at the graduation ceremony. This weekend begins UA's Weeks of Welcome (WOW), a series of more than 30 events throughout August designed to "roll out the crimson carpet" for new and returning students. The goal of WOW is to help students find resources, build a sense of community at UA and have fun. WOW's first events will be Saturday with the Kickoff on the Quad featuring games, activities and refreshments from Rita's Italian Ice and Frozen Custard, followed by Self-Care Sunday: Fitness on the Quad, which will feature free yoga and Zumba classes. On Aug. 14, first-year students will gather at Bryant-Denny Stadium for a convocation that will end with the students forming UA's logo on the field for a class of 2026 photo. |
| Alabama program to pay college tuitions back on track | |
| The state's nearly collapsed college tuition program is back on track for the first time in over a decade. Alabama's Prepaid Affordable College Tuition program, or PACT, is expected to pay full tuition at state universities for participants during the upcoming fall semester, all thanks to $177 million allocated by the state Legislature. "The program is liquidating. As we have liquidated, the number of students are less and less," said state Treasurer Young Boozer. Boozer says there are around 9,00 students left. PACT stopped accepting new students in 2008 as the cost of college skyrocketed. "We had to shut down the program," said Boozer. "And we restructured it." Melissa Clark had the chance to invest before the shutdown. "I am glad that I did not have a lot of that money tied up in PACT," said Clark. She says her dad's advice stopped her from doing so. He questioned the stability of the financial investment. "Obviously, from what's happened in the last few years, that kind of, it proved that he was right," said Clark. Her daughter, Caroline McKaliegh, currently studies communications at a community college in Gulf Shores, but paying for school is still a challenge. "Between the two of us, we managed to get it all paid. It's a wonderful thing to be able to help her, but it's a struggle, also, but it's a good struggle," said Clark. |
| A President's Response to Attacks on an Abortion Provider Widens a Rift With Faculty | |
 | The rollback of abortion rights promises to bring more conflict to campuses as administrators who pledge to support students and staff collide with local laws that restrict access to reproductive health care. One such scenario is playing out at Indiana University. This episode started with horrific news. A doctor in Indiana had performed an abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim. The child had traveled from Ohio, where state law prohibited her from obtaining an abortion. Soon the story was everywhere. President Biden cited it in a speech. Right-wing pundits and The Wall Street Journal editorial board said it was "too good to confirm," until The Columbus Dispatch confirmed it by reporting an arrest had been made. Indiana's attorney general, Todd Rokita, began an investigation of the doctor, claiming without evidence that she did not report the abortion to the state, though multiple newspapers have reported that she did. Very little was publicly known about the doctor until last week when an article about her was published in The New York Times. She is Caitlin Bernard, an assistant professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, a doctor trained in complex reproductive care, and an outspoken advocate for abortion access in Indiana. Those roles have put her in direct conflict with the state's Republican lawmakers. |
| Longtime University President's Legacy: A Diverse New Generation in STEM | |
| Late one night in the fall of 2020, when Kizzmekia Corbett learned the vaccine she had helped design was highly effective against the coronavirus, there was only one person she wanted to call: Freeman A. Hrabowski III, the longtime president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. At 34, Dr. Corbett was the first Black woman to achieve such a feat, a groundbreaking development in the fight against the deadliest pandemic in recent U.S. history. But all she could think about was the man she had met as an 18-year-old freshman at the university, who immediately recognized her thick Southern accent and her potential to make history. "I had to call someone who understood all that I had been through -- what it meant to even get a Ph.D., what it meant to traverse this space," said Dr. Corbett, now an assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "So I called Freeman." Dr. Hrabowski, who retired last week after leading U.M.B.C. for 30 years, is renowned in academic circles for transforming what was once a regional commuter school into the country's strongest pipeline of Black graduates in science, technology, engineering and related fields. As the nation's top producer of Black undergraduates who go on to complete a Ph.D. in the natural sciences or engineering, U.M.B.C. has cracked one of the most vexing conundrums in higher education -- the lack of Black students excelling in the sciences. |
| Colleges' Vaccine Mandates Significantly Decreased Covid Deaths, Study Finds | |
| Colleges' vaccine mandates appeared to have a substantial effect on county-level Covid-19 infection and death rates, likely reducing total U.S. deaths from the virus by about 5 percent -- or roughly 7,300 lives -- in fall 2021. That's according to a new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Rather than looking just at how a college's vaccine mandate affected the student body, the study examined how the policy could influence the surrounding community's health outcomes as a "spillover" effect. Riley K. Acton, an assistant professor of economics at Miami University, in Ohio, and co-author of the paper, said she sees that as a key potential benefit of vaccinating students. "One of the arguments for vaccinating a younger, generally healthier population would be this idea of protecting the rest of the community by limiting transmission from the college students to other members of the community," Acton said. "That's really what we were testing in this paper." Counties where students were under vaccine mandates saw dramatically different outcomes. The study indicates that the mandates lowered new Covid-19 cases by 339 cases per 100,000 residents in the surrounding county and decreased new deaths by over 5 out of 100,000 residents. These numbers are particularly noteworthy because many college vaccine mandates were put in place to manage outbreaks mainly among students and keep classes in person, said Scott A. Imberman, a professor of economics at Michigan State University and another co-author. |
| Groups file briefs with Supreme Court to defend affirmative action | |
 | It seems like everyone in higher education has something to say about affirmative action. To judge by the dozens of briefs submitted to the Supreme Court Monday, they strongly support it. Of course, there are also those who oppose affirmative action and hope the Supreme Court uses cases involving Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to end it. They had an earlier deadline, in May. To learn why, see this article on those 34 briefs. Far more briefs were submitted Monday (although the Supreme Court does not normally consider the volume of briefs in its decisions). But they represented individual colleges, individual scholars and associations arguing for Harvard and UNC. The American Council on Education, along with 39 other college associations, weighed in with an argument more focused on the Constitution, and the First Amendment specifically, than on diversity (although there was plenty of talk about diversity). Several groups filed briefs arguing that Asian Americans benefit from affirmative action. This runs counter to the suits filed against Harvard and UNC, which claim the opposite to be true. And there was a brief filed by the Association of American Medical Colleges (together with numerous other associations that work in health education). "As an overwhelming body of scientific research compiled over decades confirms, diversity literally saves lives by ensuring that the nation's increasingly diverse population will be served by healthcare professionals competent to meet its needs," said the brief. |
| Biden's proposed Title IX rule almost certain to find itself in legal crosshairs | |
| Legal experts weren't surprised last month when a federal judge in Tennessee temporarily blocked the U.S. Department of Education from enforcing, in some parts of the country, directives designed to protect LGBTQ students in colleges and K-12 schools. After all, the ruling came from a conservative circuit court. It favored 20 predominantly Republican states that sued last year. They alleged the Ed Department's guidance on a federal law banning sex-based discrimination, Title IX, infringed on their ability to govern. The department had determined Title IX shields students based on their gender identity and sexual orientation. Under that interpretation, transgender students would be permitted to use restrooms and school locker rooms of their choice. This clashed explicitly with some of the states' laws. However, the decision also portends trouble for the Biden administration's broader agenda to use Title IX to combat LGBTQ discrimination. The Ed Department last month introduced a proposal that would cement into regulation protections for gay and transgender students under Title IX. Almost certainly, that draft rule will face lawsuits, too. Conservative attorneys general threatened to sue even before it was released this year, writing to the Ed Department they would "take legal action to uphold Title IX's plain meaning and safeguard the integrity of women's sports." The new draft rule largely dodged that particular issue for the time being. |
| Biden wants an industrial renaissance. He can't do it without immigration reform. | |
 | Just 15 minutes outside of downtown Columbus, Ohio, the suburbs abruptly evaporate. Past a bizarre mix of soybean fields, sprawling office parks and lonely clapboard churches is a field where the Biden administration -- with help from one of the world's largest tech companies -- hopes to turn the U.S. into a hub of microchip manufacturing. In his State of the Union address in March, President Joe Biden called this 1,000-acre spread of corn stalks and farmhouses a "field of dreams." Within three years, it will house two Intel-operated chip facilities together worth $20 billion -- and Intel is promising to invest $80 billion more now that Washington has sweetened the deal with subsidies. It's all part of a nationwide effort to head off another microchip shortage, shore up the free world's advanced industrial base in the face of a rising China and claw back thousands of high-end manufacturing jobs from Asia. But even as Biden signs into law more than $52 billion in "incentives" designed to lure chipmakers to the U.S., an unusual alliance of industry lobbyists, hard-core China hawks and science advocates says the president's dream lacks a key ingredient -- a small yet critical core of high-skilled workers. It's a politically troubling irony: To achieve the long-sought goal of returning high-end manufacturing to the United States, the country must, paradoxically, attract more foreign workers. From electrical engineering to computer science, the U.S. currently does not produce enough doctorates and master's degrees in the science, technology, engineering and math fields who can go on to work in U.S.-based microchip plants. Decades of declining investments in STEM education means the U.S. now produces fewer native-born recipients of advanced STEM degrees than most of its international rivals. |
| Jill Biden on teaching as first lady: 'Knew I could do both' | |
| Jill Biden says she didn't doubt that she could keep teaching as first lady and overcame the skepticism that she could handle both jobs by instructing her staff to "figure it out." In a new interview in the September issue of Real Simple magazine, the first lady describes how she uses Post-it notes to manage her large family, and offers marriage advice to newlyweds hoping to celebrate 45 years of marriage as she and President Joe Biden did on June 17. Biden is the first first lady to continue her career outside the White House. "I think people were a little skeptical. Could I truly do it, since I was the first one to try it?," she said. "But I knew I wanted to teach." She said she told her staff, "This is what I want to do. We have to figure it out.' Biden continues to teach English and writing at Northern Virginia Community College, which is where she taught during the eight years her husband was vice president. Her staff back then also doubted that she could teach and serve as second lady, but she managed. "I saw it work then, and I knew we could figure out how to do it now," she said. |
| NSF director: Funding boost can steer research money to more states | |
 | When President Joe Biden signs legislation this week boosting U.S. science and technology funding, it would pave the way for the National Science Foundation to expand research grants to states and educational institutions that have traditionally not benefited from such programs. Legislation passed the House last week with a bipartisan vote after winning similar backing in the Senate a day earlier, and Biden has said he would sign it. The legislation would set aside 20 percent of NSF's authorized funds for 25 states and three territories that typically lack the population and financial resources to compete with bigger states for research dollars. The new funding and measures would help NSF provide research grants in a variety of high-tech areas to educational institutions in states like Mississippi and Wyoming, Director Sethuraman Panchanathan said in an interview Friday. "These are states that have good leadership, good institutions emerging, and they are ready to play," Panchanathan said. "They are playing already, but it's just that they need more successes, more wind beneath their wings." To diversify grant recipients, NSF plans to launch a new program in fiscal 2023 aimed at breaking down barriers to competitiveness for underserved research institutions that may not have expert staff dedicated to writing complex grant proposals, he said. |
| CHIPS Act would boost research funding for rural states | |
 | U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., writes: One of the biggest changes to our economy in recent decades has been our dependence on microchips. These tiny electronic devices -- sometimes called semiconductors -- are essential to our phones, computers, cars, laundry machines, and a whole range of everyday appliances. Chips are also used in military assets, such as missiles, fighter jets, and Navy ships. In recent years, China and other countries have worked overtime to gain dominance over the chip industry. Unfortunately, they have succeeded. Today, 90% of all semiconductors are made outside the United States. This means we are now dependent on foreign chipmakers to sustain our modern way of life and supply our military. Members of both parties agree this is a threat to our economic and national security that must be addressed. ... As the lead Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, I helped negotiate legislation to energize our chip industry and boost technological research across America. Both the House and Senate passed this bill last week, sending it to the President's desk for his signature. ... The CHIPS Act also corrects a longstanding disparity in research funding, which had put Mississippi at a disadvantage. Each year, the federal government awards grants for cutting-edge research in science and technology. Unfortunately, this money has gone overwhelmingly to a select few universities located in five states and Washington, D.C. ... In recent days, I successfully fought to include a major boost in research funding to predominately rural states through the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). Based on these provisions, EPSCoR jurisdictions -- which include Mississippi -- will now receive 20% of all research and development dollars awarded by the National Science Foundation, up from 13%. These investments could be pivotal in facilitating new discoveries and inventions in the science labs at Mississippi State University and the University of Mississippi. |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State football's strategy for fighting dropping attendance | |
| Mississippi State is trying to get fans to football games. It seems obvious, but it's an issue many athletic departments have been battling in recent years. From their couch, favorite bar or tailgating spot, fans are watching games in increased comfort in real time -- sometimes with a better view than from their seat. Mississippi State football's attendance numbers back it up. State's average attendance for the 2015 season was 61,784. Since then, the number has decreased annually and dipped below 50,000 last season for the first time since 2008. The solution could be personalization. That's why Mississippi State recently announced its partnership with Affinaquest -- a data management and analytics company specializing in collegiate athletics. "The move to Affinaquest was a no-brainer for us because it allows us to take the data that we're getting from a variety of sources... and it consolidates everything and makes basically a golden record," Mississippi State chief financial officer Eric George said. Mississippi State has also partnered with Amplify, a third-party organization which develops skills and strategies for ticket office personnel. By combining Affinaquest and Amplify, Mississippi State can take data and turn it into targeted sales. If a fan tends to buy medium-sized polos, Mississippi State can provide a free one when pitching a ticket sales package. |
| Mississippi State's Mike Leach downplays revenge for Memphis, calls NIL model 'unsustainable' | |
| One couldn't blame Mike Leach if he had second thoughts about being in Memphis. The Mississippi State coach's last visits didn't go too well. Memphis defeated Leach's Bulldogs 31-29 last season after stopping a late two-point conversion. Mississippi State then lost the AutoZone Liberty Bowl to Texas Tech in a game where the Bulldogs were without close to 18 players. Leach, however, was in good spirits Monday visiting the Memphis Touchdown Club. He shooed away any revenge talk for when Memphis comes to Mississippi State for the season opener on Sept. 3. For him, it's about his team playing well and showing improvement rather than payback. "You're pretty keyed up for an opening game no matter what or who you play," Leach said at the Memphis Hilton. "After playing against yourself for over a month, you're ready to play anybody. We're looking forward to it." Leach also praised Memphis quarterback Seth Henigan for playing well last season as a true freshman. But he had more to say about name, image and likeness during a question-and-answer session with fans. During an 11-minute response, Leach called the current model unsustainable due to bidding wars and "unmitigated free agency." He cautioned against professionalizing the sport because of the responsibilities that come with it, including players being traded or cut. |
| Scouting the schedule, Game 11: Mississippi State tunes up for Egg Bowl with East Tennessee State | |
 | Bulldogs, beware: Just last year, East Tennessee State took down a Southeastern Conference program. Yes, Vanderbilt counts in that category. Technically. The Buccaneers opened the 2021 campaign with a somewhat surprising 23-3 takedown of the Commodores in Nashville, and it wasn't really a fluke. ETSU went on to an 11-win season, going 7-1 in league play and reaching the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs. Of course, the Southern Conference and the Southeastern Conference are separated by a lot more than those four letters. And Mississippi State isn't Vanderbilt. The Bulldogs will be hard pressed not to at least think about the following week's rivalry game at Ole Miss, but they should handle the season's lone FCS foe. Mississippi State hosts East Tennessee State on Nov. 19. Mississippi State has never played East Tennessee State before. Nov. 19 will mark the first meeting between the two schools. MSU is 8-1-1 against SoCon schools, with the loss and tie coming respectively against Samford in 1909 and 1922, the last time the two teams met. Mississippi State is 3-0 against Chattanooga and 1-0 against Mercer. |
| Men's Tennis Releases Fall Schedule | |
| Mississippi State men's tennis team is gearing up in an attempt to make its 12th consecutive bid to the NCAA Championship later this season. But before the Bulldogs hit the courts for dual-match play in the spring, they have scheduled a challenging fall slate of five events in an effort to have several players qualify for ITA Fall Nationals in San Diego, California in November. Selected players from MSU will open the fall in Fayetteville, Arkansas for an ITF 15K tournament from Sept. 18-25. From there, the Bulldogs travel to Tulsa, Oklahoma to take part in the ITA All-Americans Oct. 1-9 and then head onto Tuscaloosa, Alabama for ITA Southern Regionals Oct. 13-18. Individual student-athletes will also participate in another ITF 15K event in Tallahassee, Florida from Oct. 23-30 and return to Tuscaloosa on Nov. 4-6 for the Big 12-SEC Challenge. "With most of our lineup having ATP points, we plan to offer them numerous ITF Futures this fall to allow them to increase their rankings," said Matt Roberts, who is entering his ninth season as head coach. "We'll combine the ITF Futures with three important college events. Our goal is for the guys to qualify for nationals by doing well in Tulsa at the All-American or our regionals." |
| Men's Golf Fall Schedule Revealed | |
| Next month, Mississippi State's men's golf program will begin its pursuit of a fifth NCAA Tournament appearance under head coach Dusty Smith. The Bulldogs revealed the fall portion of their schedule on Monday, with the first of four tournaments beginning on Sept. 7. "It's always our goal to play a challenging schedule against great competition and to test our game on courses that will prepare us for championship season," Smith said. "I feel this schedule allows us to do just that. We look forward to starting this journey." State opens the season at the Frederica Cup, hosted by Vanderbilt in Sea Island, Georgia. Sea Island is also the annual home of the SEC Men's Golf Tournament, though that event is played on a different course. The Bulldogs will play three rounds of stroke play at Frederica Golf Club over the two-day event. MSU then turns its focus to its conference foes. After the success of last year's SEC Match Play event, the league is holding the SEC Fall Preview on Sept. 25-27 at Old Overton Club in Birmingham, Alabama. This is the same course that annually holds the Jerry Pate Intercollegiate, which graduate student Ford Clegg won in 2020. State returns to Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Arkansas for the Blessings Collegiate Invitational on Oct. 3-5. The event will be broadcast live on the GOLF Channel from 3:30-6:30 p.m. CT each day. The Bulldog men and the Bulldog women will compete side-by-side on the same course. Both programs played in the inaugural event in 2020, with the men finishing ninth. To conclude the fall, MSU will travel to Charleston, South Carolina, for the Daniel Island Intercollegiate on the Ralston Creek Course at Daniel Island Golf Club. The final fall event was first hosted by Charleston Southern in 2021. |
| After spring tweaks to state law MSU, Ole Miss remain cautious in NIL approach | |
| Parrish Alford writes for the Daily Journal: Several changes to Mississippi's Name, Image and Likeness law in the spring have given state schools greater freedom to assist student-athletes. Campus leaders welcome the ability to communicate more with their athletes but say a cautious approach remains the best approach regarding NIL. Before Gov. Tate Reeves signed Senate Bill 2690 on April 20, Mississippi schools were prohibited from discussing NIL with third parties who sought to engage their athletes. Now schools can have those conversations, a change the schools have contended will help them better educate the athletes. "We will spend significant resources facilitating NIL deals for our student-athletes," Mississippi State athletics director John Cohen said. In fact, MSU has created an athletics staff position that will work closely with coaches, athletes, compliance, the general counsel's office and third parties interested in NIL relationships with Bulldogs athletes. This new position will help Cohen's staff "properly facilitate NIL opportunities for our student-athletes," he said. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has called on Congress to pass a single national NIL law. For now, in addition to state laws schools must also be mindful of NCAA policy. |
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