| Thursday, February 8, 2024 |
| Solar project expected to save MSU $200K annually | |
 | Mississippi State University will soon reap the benefits of sunlight thanks to solar power The university is putting the finishing touches on an installation of more than 3,400 solar panels on a plot of land in between Robert Louis Jones Circle and Blackjack Road. The facility will produce an estimated 2.4 million kilowatts of energy per year. It is expected to come online this summer. "We're a public institution who always needs to be on the cutting edge of not just technology but best use of our resources," Saunders Ramsey, executive director of MSU campus services, told The Dispatch Wednesday. "This allows us, yes, to save dollars. It also adds another source of energy. We use natural gas. We use electricity. Now we're using the sun. (We're) just being a good steward of our dollars." He said the solar panels cost about $2.5 million, and is part of a $7.6 million project that includes an LED lighting retrofit project. When fully operational, the facility will contribute to about 2% of MSU's total power usage, totaling about $200,000 a year in electricity savings. Ramsey said 2% sounds small, but it results in the annual savings being "a pretty hefty number." Ramsey said the panels will allow MSU to purchase less electricity from the city of Starkville. "We're working hand-in-hand with the city of Starkville to make sure that it doesn't negatively affect their grid," he said. |
| Absentee ballots for Ward 1 special election available until Saturday | |
| Starkville Ward 1 voters who can't make it to Tuesday's special election have until Saturday to vote absentee. The two-candidate race for alderman pits Kim Moreland against Timothy Bush. The winner of the nonpartisan election will fill the seat vacated by Ben Carver, who was first elected alderman in 2009 before being elected to represent District 1 on the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors. On Tuesday, ballots will be cast at the Starkville Sportsplex annex building, next to the Travis Outlaw Center, on 405 Lynn Lane. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Absentee ballots are available at City Hall from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday and Friday. The Saturday window for casting absentee ballots will be from 8 a.m. to noon. |
| The MAX announces Hall of Fame inductees at state capitol | |
 | Five artists known for their contributions to arts and culture were announced as inductees to The Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience's Hall of Fame on Tuesday at the state capitol building in Jackson. The MAX inducts five artists with ties to the Magnolia State across cultural, performing and visual arts, music and literature every two years. A nominating committee selects 25 names from a pool of approximately 900 artists, which are then placed on a ballot and voted on by committee members, arts and culture experts and the general public. The five artists with the most votes are then inducted into The MAX Hall of Fame. Selected to join the Hall of Fame are William Ferris, Shelby Foote, Bobbie Gentry, Mac McAnally and Natasha Trethewey. Penny Kemp, president and CEO of The MAX, said the five artists will be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame with a reception at the MSU Riley Center on January 23, 2025, and all Mississippians are invited to join in the festivities. "Let me tell you, if you have not been to Meridian lately, you have not been," she said. "It will make for a fabulous evening." Kemp said The MAX will hold events and programs over the next year leading up to the induction ceremony introducing the inductees to the community and highlighting their contributions to Mississippi, the arts and the world. |
| Amy Tate to head new TVA southwest region headquartered in Tupelo | |
 | Ninety years ago Wednesday, Tupelo became the first customer for the burgeoning Tennessee Valley Authority, an organization created by the U.S. Government through legislative action. While celebrating the nine decades of partnership with between TVA and the city of Tupelo, the company announced a major reorganization that will see the creation of a Mississippi-dedicated southwest region seated in the All-America City. Amy Tate, formerly the government relations manager, will be the executive leader of the region. TVA board member Bill Renick addressed the Tupelo City Council Tuesday night, discussing the expansion and Tate's new position. "I'm also very proud to tell you that the regional executive is a Tupelo citizen," Renick said to the board Tuesday night. "The home base will be right here in Tupelo, Mississippi, in the TVA building." Renick said Mississippi was just part of the western region but now will have its dedicated region. Renick noted that Mississippi is the second largest geographical location the cooperative serves. "Tupelo, Mississippi, was the first partner that TVA had, the first city to receive TVA power. Electricity has changed many things in those 90 years," he said. "It is a tremendous honor for TVA to continue this partnership.... TVA has woken up to the fact that Mississippi deserved its own region." |
| State revenues come in below estimate for January but remain $98M above expectations for the year | |
 | Mississippi revenue collections came in below estimate in January 2024 by just under $6 million. However, the state remains in a solid budgetary position as total revenue collections for seven months into the fiscal year have exceeded estimates by over $98 million. The January 2024 revenue report from the Legislative Budget Office released on Wednesday shows collections were $5,982,193, or 1.05% below the sine die revenue estimate, bringing the current year-to-date revenues to $98,307,865, or 2.37% above the sine die revenue estimate. A year-over-year comparison shows January 2024 collections were $23,127,222, or 3.93% below January FY 2023 actual collections. As previously noted in prior months, this is largely attributable to the reduction in income taxes as passed by lawmakers and signed into law by Governor Reeves during the 2022 session. In fact, individual income tax collections for the month of January were below the prior year by $19.4 million. Year-to-date, individual income tax collections are down $123 million over the prior year. As for other revenue lines, sales tax collections continue to climb, up for the month of January over the prior year by $5.7 million. Sales tax revenues are now up over $78 million year-to-date above estimates. Corporate income taxes are above estimate by nearly $42 million year-to-date while use and gaming taxes are nearly on par with estimates at $400,000 above estimate and $2.6 million below estimate, respectively. The total state budget is for the fiscal year is set at $7,523,800,000. |
| Mississippi lawmakers discuss future of PERS | |
 | Mississippi Senate lawmakers heard from the Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi (PERS) on Tuesday. The Legislature is weighing their options to address the system. Alarm bells have been ringing about the financial sustainability of PERS since Summer 2023. According to PERS, there are roughly $25 billion in unfunded liabilities in Mississippi. During Tuesday's hearing, PERS Executive Director Ray Higgins spoke to lawmakers about a direct appropriation into the retirement system and the possibility of a "fifth tier" of PERS. The new benefit system would impact future state employees. "We think the, the proposed board-approved Tier Five request would help better sustain PERS long term. Now, it is important to realize that the Tier Five is, is not a quick fix. It's a long term, for the next generation. It does not eliminate the current unfunded or eliminate the consideration of raising the contribution rate. It is more of a longer term solution, but we do think it would better sustain PERS long term," said Higgins. The Tier Five benefit plan would include a reduced employer contribution rate and no guarantee to a cost-of-living adjustment that exists in the current PERS benefit plan. |
| Why Americans Are So Down on a Strong Economy | |
 | Clayton Wiles, a truck driver in North Carolina, earns about 20% more than three years ago. Kristine Funck, a nurse in Ohio, has won steady pay raises, built retirement savings and owns her home. Alfredo Arguello, who opened a restaurant outside Nashville when the pandemic hit, now owns a second one and employs close to 50 people. But ask any of them about the state of the American economy, and the same gloominess surfaces. "Unstable" is how Arguello describes it. Said Funck: "Even though I'm OK right now, there's a sense it could all go away in a second." There's a striking disconnect between the widely shared pessimism among Americans and measures that show the economy is actually robust. Consumers are spending briskly---behavior that suggests optimism, not retrenchment. Inflation has tempered. Unemployment has been below 4% for 24 straight months, the longest such stretch since the 1960s. The disconnect has puzzled economists, investors and business owners. But press Americans harder, and the immediate economy emerges as only one factor in the gloomy outlook. Americans feel sour about the economy, many say, because their long-term financial security feels fragile and vulnerable to wide-ranging social and political threats. Reliable steps up the economic ladder, such as a college degree, no longer look like a good investment. War overseas, and an emboldened set of hostile nations, have made the world feel dangerous. Uninspiring leaders at home, running a government widely seen as dysfunctional, have left people without hope that America is up to the challenge of fixing its problems. |
| Gov. Reeves declares Feb. 11-17 as Spring Severe Weather Preparedness Week | |
 | Gov. Tate Reeves announced Wednesday that Feb. 11-17 will be "Spring Severe Weather Preparedness Week" for Mississippi, according to a Mississippi Emergency Management Agency press release. According to the news release and the order, the state had 61 confirmed tornadoes last year. Eighteen of those, including a March 24 storm, occurred between March and May of 2023. On March 24, 2023, deadly tornadoes tore through the state overnight, killing at least 25 and injuring dozens. The fatalities were reported in the following counties: Sharkey, Humphreys, Carroll and Monroe. Multiple state agencies and non-profit organizations assisted in the response and recovery efforts of impacted communities. "We have seen just how important it is to prepare for severe weather and how having a plan before a disaster can be lifesaving," Reeves said in the news release. "I encourage all Mississippians to review their severe weather preparedness plan, especially as we approach Spring." "So many lives were lost last year due to severe weather," said Stephen McCraney, executive director of MEMA. "All families should have a plan of action when severe weather warnings are issued. It's important for everyone to have multiple ways to receive alerts and have a pre-identified safe place to go. I encourage all Mississippians to use this week to prepare for the upcoming spring severe weather season." |
| 'False spring' is here, again: Warm weather in much of US isn't here to stay | |
 | With open golf courses in New York State, canceled sled dog races in Minnesota and reports of snowdrop flowers blooming in Virginia, portions of the central and eastern U.S. are seeing an unusually mild stretch of weather, which is being referred to as a "fake" or "false" spring. The epicenter of the recent warmth has been the Upper Midwest, where long-standing temperature records have been broken recently. This included a balmy 57-degree reading in Minneapolis Tuesday, the National Weather Service said, beating the previous record of 51 degrees. The average high there in early February is a frigid 25 degrees. AccuWeather meteorologist Alyssa Glenny said, "the calendar says February, but it will feel more like April in parts of the central and eastern parts of the country this week." While much of the U.S. will enjoy above-average temperatures in the coming days, it's not expected to last, as cold and snow could return next week. The nice stretch of weather is also a reminder that springs keep happening earlier as the climate warms. The weird warmth is due to the position of the jet stream, which is helping to funnel mild air north into the central and eventually eastern U.S., AccuWeather senior meteorologist Bob Larson told USA TODAY. He said the jet stream is also quite strong and is acting to keep the colder air bottled up in Canada and prevent it from moving into the U.S. Larson said temperatures next week will drop to levels more typical of February as the jet stream will change its position, allowing colder air to infiltrate in from Canada across much of the central and eastern U.S. |
| Speaker White asks GOP leaders to explore restoration of voting rights to some people convicted of felonies | |
| Top leaders in the Mississippi House are in the early stages of crafting a pathway for some people convicted of disenfranchising felonies to have their voting rights restored -- the first such effort at the Capitol in more than a decade. Speaker Jason White, a Republican from West, told Mississippi Today that he has tasked Constitution Committee Chairman Price Wallace and Judiciary B Committee Chairman Kevin Horan with proposing legislation that would restore suffrage for Mississippians convicted of certain felonies. "I've talked to some members in the House, and I haven't gotten any negative response," said Wallace, a Republican from Mendenhall. The two committee leaders at this stage have different ideas about which types of disqualifying felonies shouldn't be subject to the lifetime voting ban. But both agree that suffrage should be restored only after someone has completed the terms of their sentence. Wallace said he was open to restoring suffrage for people convicted of nearly all nonviolent crimes. Horan, a Republican from Grenada, said he also wants to explore restoring suffrage to people convicted of some lower-level violent crimes, with the exception of people convicted of embezzling public money. "I don't see why we wouldn't at least look into it," Horan said. "But I haven't really thought that much about it at this stage." |
| Legislation introduced creating 'Purple Alert' for missing people with cognitive disabilities | |
| A bill has been introduced in the Mississippi House of Representatives that would create a special alert notification to raise public awareness about missing individuals with cognitive disabilities. House Bill 873, authored by Rep. Clay Mansell, R-Clinton, would establish the Purple Alert as an additional means to aid the search for missing persons with special needs, such as autism and Down syndrome. The intention is to better prepare citizens and law enforcement who might approach the missing individual with cognitive disabilities. Similar to an Amber Alert or a Silver Alert, the Purple Alert would allow local law enforcement officers to report the missing person to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation which would then send out the alert notification to police, the media, and the public to raise elevated attention to the matter. "We're not reinventing the wheel. We're just adding a color to an already existing wheel. It would go out that exact same way," Purple Alert advocate Mika Hartman said on Good Things with Rebecca Turner. "What I would like to see us do is be able to make that as a singular alert or in combination with [other alerts], so that you could get an Amber Purple Alert or a Silver Purple Alert." HB 873 has been referred to the House Judiciary B committee where it will be considered. |
| Presley named executive of solar development company | |
| Former Mississippi Public Service Northern District Commissioner Brandon Presley has joined solar development firm Edelen Renewables as Vice President of Strategic Initiatives. In this role, Presley will use his expertise and national reputation as an elected official and utility regulator in advancing the firm's mission to "bring the promise of renewable energy to the forgotten places of America," according to a press release from the Kentucky-based company. Edelen Renewables will open an office in Mississippi, from which Presley will manage operations. "Getting this country to energy independence, while creating good jobs for good people in hard luck communities has been my focus as a Public Service Commissioner in Mississippi," Presley said. "The opportunity to build upon my service as President of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and take that mission across America is too good to pass up. I believe in the mission and people of Edelen Renewables and am excited to join them in their important work." Presley was a member of the Mississippi Public Service Commission from 2008-2024, serving as its chairman for from 2016-2020. He served as President of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners from 2019-2020. From 2001-2007, Presley served as the mayor of his hometown, Nettleton. A second cousin to Elvis, Presley unsuccessfully ran for governor of the state last fall. |
| News 11 speaks with Congressman Guest about problems at the southern border | |
 | The United States Senate failed to pass a border security and foreign aid bill on Wednesday, meaning still no resolution for problems at the southern border. Congressman Michael Guest says the people who live on the border are in need of help. "And I'll tell you that everybody we've had the chance to meet with has told me, particularly those who are lifelong residents of the border. They told me two things. One is they feel like they've been abandoned by the federal government, and they've also said that the situation on the border is worse than they've ever seen it in their lifetime," said Representative for Mississippi's 3rd Congressional District Michael Guest. Guest says that it's not the legislative bodies that are to blame but rather President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas. Tuesday, the House even went as far as attempting to impeach Mayorkas but was one vote shy. "Leadership is trying to determine when Leader Scalise will be back in DC, but we are led to believe by Speaker Johnson and his team that there will be another vote on this vote, at which times Leader Scalise will be present and his vote last night would have made the difference," said Guest. |
| Broken Congress: It can't fix the border, fund allies or impeach Mayorkas as GOP revolts. | |
 | Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas was not, in fact, impeached by the House. A border security package instantly collapsed in the Senate. And foreign aid for Ukraine as its fights Russia is stubbornly stalled. The broken US. Congress failed in stunning fashion this week as Republicans in both the House and the Senate revolted in new and unimaginable ways against their own agenda. Lawmakers will try to do it all over again -- as soon as next week. "This is the mob rule right now in Congress -- and I'm ready for mob rule. ... But it's not a way to govern," said Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana. Just 48 hours put on display a spectacular level of dysfunction even for a Congress that has already set new standards for infighting, disruption and chaos after last year's historic election, then ouster, of the Republican House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy. It shows how deeply the Republican Party, under Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, is by choice or by force, turning away from its traditional role as a working partner in the U.S.'s two-party system to a new one that is rooted in Donald Trump's vision of the GOP. In dramatic back-to-back scenes this week -- a closed-door shouting match of Senate Republicans testing McConnell's slipping hold on power late Monday and Speaker Johnson presiding glumly over failures in the chamber he could not control Tuesday -- provided new entries for the history books. "Politics used to be the art of the possible. Now it's the art of the impossible," said Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, the party's 2012 presidential nominee. "Let's put forward proposals that can't possibly pass -- so we can say to our respective bases, Look how I'm fighting for you," said Romney, explaining the current mindset. "We've gone from the sublime to the ridiculous." |
| Biden mistakes dead European leader for living one -- for second time in a week | |
| Joe Biden has twice made gaffes this week in which he told anecdotes wrongly identifying dead European leaders as having talked to him about the events of the attack on the Capitol on 6 January 2021. On Wednesday at a campagin fundraiser in New York, Biden reportedly referred to the former German chancellor Helmut Kohl as talking to him about European concerns about the attempt to stop the certification of his 2020 election win, when he apparently meant Angela Merkel. Kohl died in 2017. Previously on Sunday, Biden in Nevada apparently confused François Mitterrand, the former French president who died in 1996, for France's current president, Emmanuel Macron, while recounting a similar anecdote about the events of 6 January and European fears over them. Biden, 81, is the oldest president to seek re-election in US history. Biden's likely opponent in the 2024 race, former US president Donald Trump, is also known for making mistakes on the campaign trail. Trump, who at 77 is similar in age to Biden, appeared recently to mix up his sole remaining serious opponent in the Republican nomination race, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, with ex-Democratic speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. At a campaign rally in January, Trump said that Haley was in charge of security at the Capitol on 6 January 2021 as it was attacked. |
| Supreme Court Takes Up Donald Trump's Ballot Eligibility | |
| A cross-section of Supreme Court justices Thursday voiced skepticism about a Colorado ruling that barred Donald Trump from the ballot, as the court for the first time heard arguments over disqualifying a presidential candidate for allegedly engaging in insurrection. The Colorado decision "is wrong and should be reversed for numerous independent reasons," Jonathan Mitchell, a lawyer for the former president, told the court at the outset of the hearing. A Supreme Court decision affirming that ruling would "take away the votes of potentially tens of millions of Americans," Mitchell said. Signaling sympathy for that argument, Justice Samuel Alito said the Colorado ruling could have severe consequences if upheld. He also said there was little if any history of a state attempting to disqualify someone from a federal office in this way. Chief Justice John Roberts quickly pressed a lawyer for the Colorado voters challenging Trump's eligibility, saying the whole point of the 14th Amendment was to restrict the power of the states. Justice Elena Kagan jumped in and questioned why a single state should get to decide a candidate's eligibility for the White House. Added Justice Amy Coney Barrett: "It just doesn't seem like a state call." On appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Trump's lawyers have raised several arguments against his disqualification. The presidency, they say, isn't covered by the disqualification clause, and, regardless, Trump's actions related to the Jan. 6 attack fall short of insurrection. |
| Make way for freshmen: UM leases additional apartments in Oxford | |
 | Beginning August 2024, the University of Mississippi will lease 130 furnished bed spaces at the Lark Oxford complex and 65 bed spaces at Gather Oxford Apartments. This plan is the latest in a series of efforts by the university to accommodate increases in enrollment and greater demand for student housing. The lease with Gather Oxford Apartments will cost $1,038,360 for the first year. The Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees board book also outlines a potential plan to lease the space for the next four years. The number of beds would increase to 104, with the annual cost of the lease increasing 4.5% annually. The agreement between the university and Lark Oxford will cost the university $1,403,084 for a one-year lease with no current plans to renew in the coming years, according to the IHL Board of Trustees board book. For both of these projects, funding will come from the revenue generated by student housing. Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Director of Student Housing John Yaun elaborated on the room availability and rates at the Lark. "We will offer two, three and four-bedroom apartments to upperclassmen at the Lark," Yaun said. "Rates will vary depending on apartment style. We will not know the specific rates until later this semester." |
| 3 Questions for Liz Norell on Failure and Academic Careers | |
 | Liz Norell, associate director of instructional support at the University of Mississippi, reached out after reading my piece "Failure, Academic Careers and 'Right Kind of Wrong.'" In that post, I invited Inside Higher Ed readers to reach out with stories of their academic failures and what these setbacks have taught them. Liz bravely stepped forward. First, let's get to know you a bit. Tell us about your role at Ole Miss and the academic background that brought you to your current position. "I'm an associate director of instructional support at the University of Mississippi, a team I joined in July 2023 after spending more than two decades teaching writing and political science. In this role, I work with three other teaching center colleagues to support excellent teaching and meaningful learning at Ole Miss. I was hired because I have a social science background, so I am well equipped to take the lead on evaluating our center's activities and to consult with faculty who want to engage in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL)." |
| Exhibit featuring former U.S. Rep Gene Taylor on display at USM | |
 | An exhibition made up of documents of former United States Representative Gene Taylor are now on display at the University of Southern Mississippi. The exhibit can be found on the first floor of the McCain Library on USM's Hattiesburg campus and will be open for viewing through March 22. Taylor served in the United States House of Representatives from 1989-2011. A Tulane graduate, Taylor served 10 years in the U.S. Coast Guard. He got his political start as a councilman for Bay St. Louis in 1981. He served in the Mississippi State Senate from 1984-1989 and in 1989 was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served for more than 21 years. USM Head of Special Collections Lorraine Stuart said she enjoyed putting the exhibit together. "I always enjoy just feeling that you really get to experience what someone else has gone through and get a sense of their personality when you're dealing with the records," Stuart said. |
| U. of Alabama website shares historical stories of enslaved people on campus | |
 | If the Moses who helped build and maintain the early University of Alabama campus was working today, he'd probably advertise himself as a master of all trades. He plastered walls, mended chimneys, fixed outbuildings, planted trees and hedges, repaired fences, cleared pathways. Moses built a dredging machine to raise shells from the Black Warrior River bottom, constructed platforms and fixtures at the Maxwell Hall observatory, set up blackboards, installed fire grates in dormitories, and built a wall in Professor S.R. Stafford's potato cellar. He hauled sand and water, worked on telegraph fixtures, laid roofing shingles, and was beaten so badly by students he sometimes couldn't work. Then-UA President Basil Manly, who led UA from 1837 to 1855, was outraged by how students harmed Moses. They were disrespecting the president; disrespecting his property. Moses had been bought for $700 on Jan. 3, 1845, at about 28 years old, becoming one of a small number of men directly enslaved by the university. As is so much about the history of enslaved people, on the UA campus and elsewhere, records can be "frustratingly vague," as Jenny Shaw wrote in the narrative about Moses for website "The History of Enslaved People at UA, 1828-1865." Shaw, an associate professor of history at UA since 2009, led a faculty work group assembled to compile and publish the scholarship. The site remains a work in progress, though it is up and available for all to see. More may be added as the studies continue. |
| Auburn University sets new record with over 55,000 fall 2024 applicants | |
 | Just months removed from breaking its enrollment record, Auburn University is showing no signs of slowing down as it sets a new record for applicants for the fall semester. Auburn University announced on Monday that it received over 55,000 first-year student applications for fall 2024, setting a new all-time high for the university that was established in 1856. That number of applications is a 14% increase from the 48,000 that applied for fall 2023, which was also the record at the time. "It is exciting to once again see so many students demonstrating a strong interest in joining the Auburn Family," AU's Vice President for Enrollment Joffery Gaymon said. "As we focus on efforts of greater access to underserved areas, we are working hard to build connections and further grow our applicant numbers." Just over two years ago, Auburn announced that it eclipsed 40,000 applicants for the first time in the university's history. That number of applicants for fall 2022 marked a 68.5% increase from 2021 applicants a 155% increase from those in fall 2020. The growth for Auburn continued in October with Auburn setting another enrollment record for fall 2023. The fall 2024 applicant pool included more than 12,000 Alabama residents, with applicants from every county in the state and all states in the nation. In total, 39% of applicants secured admissions for fall 2024, with 34% from Alabama. In a news release, AU said that 25% of admitted students were from an underrepresented background. |
| Kay Ivey proposes Alabama to have highest starting teacher salary in South, pay raises | |
 | Alabama's starting teacher pay could be going up to $47,600 -- the highest among neighboring states, if Gov. Kay Ivey gets her way. That's a 7.6% increase over this year's $44,226, topping previous raises teachers have received. Teachers with three or more years experience will get a 2% raise. The raise impacts all K-12 and community college education employees. Ivey addressed the proposal In her State of the State address Tuesday evening. "We must fulfill our promise to have the highest starting salary for our teachers among our neighboring states," she said. "Let's get that done this Session." Recommendations come alongside Ivey's push to add education savings accounts and expand school choice, increase funding for math and reading instruction and update school security. If lawmakers say yes, this would be the fourth consecutive year teachers will have gotten raises and the seventh out of nine of the years Ivey has been governor. Alabama Education Association Executive Director Amy Marlowe told AL.com she is "cautiously optimistic" about lawmakers enacting Ivey's proposal. "It's a moving target," Marlowe said, because while Florida's is $47,500 currently, they and other states are continuing to raise salaries, too. "So if we're gonna put our money where our mouth is, Florida currently has legislation to increase the base salary to $65,500." |
| U. of Tennessee reimagines two popular student gathering spaces | |
 | The University of Tennessee at Knoxville plans to enhance student spaces on campus by reimagining the Presidential Court Building and enhancing the Frieson Black Cultural Center. The project in the heart of campus, which is in its early stages with administrators selecting the designers, will create another gathering space akin to a smaller student union with a Center for Basic Needs storefront, a retail center for students, and new meeting and support spaces at 1017 Frances St. Frank Cuevas, the vice chancellor for student life, said at a Feb. 1 campus advisory meeting that after the main Student Union opened in 2019, it quickly became a hot spot for meetings. "We quickly realized that after we opened the Student Union, we were out of meeting space. We were out of gathering spaces for students," Cuevas said. "So we took the opportunity to say, 'Why not repurpose this building, in the heart of where we will have almost 4,000 students living, and create more meeting rooms, create gathering spaces, some retail centers, but more importantly also then opening a full storefront for meeting student basic needs.'" The Presidential Court Building is a part of the Presidential Court Complex for housing and dining on campus, which opened in 1966. The building had a cafeteria, but it hasn't been in use since the Rocky Top Dining Hall was completed in 2021. The building is being used for office space right now. |
| How does Trader Joe's choose new locations? Here's what analysts say. | |
 | The saying goes that beggars can't be choosers, and Trader Joe's certainly doesn't need to beg for business (if you've ever fought for a parking spot on a Sunday afternoon, you know). The California-based grocery chain has a reputation for being highly selective about where it opens new stores -- even if that means choosing a second location a few miles from an existing one. Jeff Campbell, the University of South Carolina's department of retailing chair, said grocery stores, particularly Trader Joe's, are extremely strategic in opening new locations. You won't see a Trader Joe's on every corner, and they take their time scouting areas before settling on a city. "Typically, they would use a variety of metrics in site selection, and while location is still an important consideration, they'll look at things like projected foot traffic, the demographics of the area, where the current transportation routes are, where competitors are located," Campbell said. The company doesn't share much about how it chooses the perfect site for a new Trader Joe's. But Schwerd has a hunch. He pointed to the region's median income, age and education level -- factors the grocer is thought to consider when choosing sites for a new store. "They have their undisclosed lists of what they're looking for in demographics," Schwerd said. "Even though Trader Joe's does not list any specific criteria in their evaluation, that's what they're looking for. They have an upscale, educated clientele." An interview with Joe Coulombe, the store's founder and namesake, published in the LA Times in 2011 demonstrates this ideology that seems to have stuck with the company: "Unless you have enough well-educated people, Trader Joe's will not work." |
| 'Defeat Donald Trump': Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney on the future of the Republican Party | |
 | Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney called on Tennessee Republicans to reject former President Donald Trump as they head to the polls this year, denouncing his flouting of the U.S. Constitution as antithetical to the sustenance of the American republic. "There's a really clear choice," Cheney said. "You cannot be both for Donald Trump and for the Constitution." Cheney represented Wyoming in the U.S. House of Representatives for six years, and served as chair of the U.S. House Republican Conference. She was vice chair of the House Jan. 6 Committee to investigate the attack on the U.S. Capitol. On Tuesday, she spoke in conversation with Pulitzer Prize winning historian Jon Meacham as a guest of The Rogers Center and the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy. Her memoir of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, "Oath and Honor," was released in December. Speaking to a standing-room-only crowd at Vanderbilt University's Langford Auditorium, Cheney roundly criticized the Republican frontrunner as anti-Constitutional and unconservative, citing a long list of misdeeds against the American system of government that she says disqualifies him from holding the office. "The president is not above the law. The president cannot deploy the military to seize voting machines and rerun the election in swing states as Mike Flynn suggested Donald Trump do," Cheney said. "If a president refuses to abide by and enforce the rulings of our courts, that immediately unravels the system -- immediately -- and we know Donald Trump will do that." |
| Stabbing of Palestinian American near the U. of Texas meets hate crime standard, police say | |
| The stabbing of a 23-year-old Palestinian American who advocates say was attacked near the University of Texas campus while riding in a truck displaying support for Palestine merits the label of a hate crime, Austin police announced Wednesday. Bert James Baker, 36, was arrested following the Sunday evening attack on Zacharia Doar, who was hospitalized. Baker was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Police said Wednesday that their Hate Crimes Review Committee had determined that the stabbing met the definition of a hate crime. They have provided that information to prosecutors, who will make the final decision on whether to enhance the offense. The Travis County District Attorney's Office said Wednesday that they are in the process of receiving the evidence from police and "look forward to working with them." Doar was one of four Muslim Americans who were in the truck, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which said Baker allegedly tried to rip a flagpole with a keffiyeh scarf reading "Free Palestine" off of their vehicle. CAIR said the four had previously attended a pro-Palestinian protest. When Baker was interviewed by police, he said he was an alcoholic and had more to drink that day than he normally did, the affidavit said. Baker was being held in jail on Thursday on $100,000 bond. |
| Colleges Were Already Bracing for an 'Enrollment Cliff.' Now There Might Be a Second One. | |
 | By now, you no doubt know what awaits most of higher education: a significant multiyear decline in the number of traditional-age college students. It's a trend that's become so well known it's been given its own shorthand -- the enrollment or demographic cliff. The consensus view is that America will hit a peak of around 3.5 million high-school graduates sometime near 2025. After that, the college-going population is expected to shrink across the next five to 10 years by as many as 15 percentage points. For many colleges, like those in regions of the country that have experienced decades of declining birth rates, the fallout has been painfully self-evident for years. But what might come next? Well, back in 2017, the U.S. Census Bureau figured that, after cresting at 4.3 million in 2025, America's population of 18-year-olds would shrink, then hover around 4.2 million each year until 2034. Following this period of stagnation, the Bureau predicted that the nation's 18-year-old cohort would expand, growing to 4.45 million people by 2045 (on par with that age group's size in 2010 and 2011). In recent months, however, the Census has updated its forecasts -- instead of rebounding at some point in the mid-2030s, the number of 18-year-olds is now projected to contract after cresting at around 4.2 million people in 2033, shrinking to around 3.8 million by 2039. After that, the Bureau doesn't anticipate the population of 18-year-olds will exceed 4 million people in any year this century. |
| As states drop degree requirements, does a 4-year diploma's value change? | |
| In March 2022, then-Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan unveiled a "first-in-the-nation" program rolling back degree requirements for thousands of government jobs. The move was part of an effort to fill a large number of position vacancies. Since then, at least 19 other states have followed suit, either by approving policies to evaluate whether degree requirements should be removed or by nixing them altogether. Policymakers expect for these moves to help fill state government vacancies by providing new job opportunities for workers who didn't attend four years of college. They could also act as signals to private sector employers, encouraging them to not only rely on four-year degrees, but also look at other measures of skills, Tameshia Bridges Mansfield, vice president of workforce and regional economies at the Jobs for the Future, said in an email. That opens the door for jobs and advancement to more people, Bridges Mansfield said. However, even though these policies prop up workers without degrees, some experts say the changes won't lessen the importance of a college diploma, which will continue to factor into hiring decisions and pay rates. Employers will likely continue to strongly value degrees when they're hiring, regardless of what state or private employers list in job descriptions, Ben Wildavsky, a higher education expert and visiting scholar at the University of Virginia, said in an email. "Higher education certainly isn't perfect, but we have a lot of reason to believe that degrees command a wage premium because graduates develop a range of broad and targeted skills that are really useful for developing strong careers," he said. |
| Even In Blue-Collar Careers, A College Degree Can Mean More Money | |
| When we think of ways to make college more affordable and make degrees more valuable in the workplace, we don't think about Chris Jones. I mention Jones, an Indiana electrician, but there are many people like him: individuals with degrees in the humanities making a good living in fields far from the subjects they studied in school. Their stories matter because the bachelor's degree, to put it starkly, is under attack. Many parents are skeptical, students are unsure and some employers question the job-readiness of graduates. The value of a bachelor's degree is being questioned like never before. From a May 2023 Deloitte Insights report: "Attitudes about higher education are souring at a time when some states, including Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Utah, have stopped requiring a four-year degree for most jobs in state government." But there are other voices who rightly praise the value of the durable skills---communication and problem-solving among them -- that many college graduates possess. Employers say this is what they prize most in degree holders, notably those with the broad learning fostered in the humanities. Indeed, there is growing evidence that employers see value in a college graduate. A recent survey by the American Association of Colleges and Universities found that eight out of 10 hiring managers said a college degree is worth the cost, and that college prepares students for a life after graduation. |
| FAFSA problems pile up, leaving students and parents scrambling | |
 | The new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms, which were marketed as a simpler and easier process for parents and students, have turned into a nightmare, giving families anxiety and stress over whether their students will have what they need for scholarships and college acceptance deadlines. The forms already got a late start -- launching in late December rather than October. When they were finally released online, there were complications that led to the forms getting taken down multiple times and families unable to fix any mistakes they put in them. Now, officials say information from the FAFSA forms won't actually be given to schools until March, leading families to tell The Hill their minds are spinning with concerns over missing scholarship deadlines and if they will get a final offers from schools before their student has to decide if they want to attend. "Our daughter has already been accepted to college, and we are now in the process of starting the financial assistance forms required by many schools to complete the application process -- albeit we have not even gotten past the first step of signing in," said Kristy from Texas, who requested that her last name be withheld and said she is still struggling to access the forms. The hiccups and delays are compounding what is already a stressful time for families trying to make major decisions about higher education. |
| Foxx calls Cardona reply to antisemitism question 'cowardly evasion' | |
 | The Republican leader of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce is calling on Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to resign after he declined to explicitly denounce a phrase frequently chanted by pro-Palestinian protesters. "Three months after October 7 and the disgusting antisemitic demonstrations that followed, there is no excusing Secretary Cardona's cowardly evasion of the antisemitic character of the phrase 'from the river, to the sea,''' Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said in a statement Wednesday. In a call Tuesday with reporters from Jewish media outlets, Cardona was asked about protests on college campuses in the wake of the Hamas attack into Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel's massive and ongoing military response. Specifically, Cardona was asked whether university administrators should consider chanting the phrase "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" was a form of antisemitism. In addition to Cardona's response to questions about campus antisemitism, Foxx blasted the Joe Biden appointee's handling of an update to the form used to apply for financial aid known as FAFSA that resulted in lengthy delays for parents and students. "This nation deserves much better than bungling and deliberate misuse of taxpayer dollars," Foxx said. "And Jewish students deserve to know that their Education Secretary understands the hate they face and has the necessary courage and clarity to confront it. It is time for the Secretary to resign." |
SPORTS
| Tolu Smith scores 19 points, grabs 12 boards to lead Mississippi State over Georgia 75-62 | |
| Tolu Smith scored 19 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and Mississippi State cruised to a 75-62 victory over Georgia on Wednesday night. Josh Hubbard added 14 points for Mississippi State (15-8, 4-6 SEC). Shakeel Moore chipped in with 11 points and KeShawn Murphy had 10. Cameron Matthews scored nine points to go with 11 rebounds, four assists and four blocks. Hubbard, Moore and Murphy combined for seven of Mississippi State's nine 3-pointers. Georgia trailed since the opening minutes and by eight points at halftime, but RJ Melendez's 3-pointer cut the deficit to 66-60 with 2:54 to play. Smith converted a three-point play and added a dunk to help Mississippi State pull away. A 3-pointer by Moore and a dunk by Smith gave Mississippi State its largest lead of the second half, 56-43, with 9:29 to play. Georgia answered with a 10-0 surge to pull to 56-53 with 6:21 to play but didn't get closer. Moore and Smith combined for 14 points and Hubbard added 11 as Mississippi State built a 36-28 lead at the break. Thomasson scored all 12 of his first-half points from behind the arc for Georgia. Each team has road games on Saturday. Georgia faces Arkansas while Mississippi State plays at Missouri. |
| Men's Basketball: Murphy returns as Mississippi State grabs must-win game against Georgia | |
| As tough as Saturday night's 32-point loss at Alabama was for Mississippi State, the team meeting the following day might have been even tougher. Nobody raised their voices any more than normal, head coach Chris Jans said, but Jans and the Bulldogs' players were straightforward about what went wrong against the Crimson Tide and serious about what needed to change in the second half of Southeastern Conference play. After MSU's 75-62 victory Wednesday night over Georgia at Humphrey Coliseum, Jans was pleased with the early returns. "For the first time in a long time, we had players talking and some things that were said were serious," Jans said. "I loved how they did it. I loved how they talked about issues that are below the surface. Everyone handled it really well, and then our practice was one of the better practices we've had in a long time on Monday." It was a total team effort for State (15-8, 4-6 SEC) in its first game without defensive specialist D.J. Jeffries, who is nursing a knee injury sustained in the Alabama game. But MSU got another rotation player back as forward KeShawn Murphy saw his first action since Jan. 6 at South Carolina and provided an offensive spark almost immediately upon entering the game. |
| Mississippi State basketball beats Georgia, stays on right side of NCAA Tournament bubble | |
| Mississippi State basketball has been no stranger to playing must-win games at Humphrey Coliseum this season. On Jan. 20, coming off back-to-back losses, MSU couldn't afford a loss at home to a woeful Vanderbilt team. The Bulldogs prevailed. A week later, after losing at Florida, Mississippi State needed a résumé-boosting win against a top-10 Auburn team. MSU got it. So Wednesday's home matchup against Georgia (14-9, 4-6 SEC), after losing two straight games, was familiar territory for Mississippi State. Again, MSU prevailed in a 75-62 win. The victory came with Mississippi State among the last four teams cracking the NCAA Tournament field in ESPN's latest projection. Behind four players in double figures, coach Chris Jans' team avoided picking up a Quadrant 3 loss. Forward Tolu Smith led MSU with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Mississippi State is back on the road for a game at Missouri on Saturday (7:30 p.m., SEC Network). The Bulldogs are still searching for their first win in a true road game this season. After facing the Tigers, MSU is off until a Feb. 17 home game against Arkansas. |
| KeShawn Murphy, Shawn Jones show value for Mississippi State basketball beyond Georgia win | |
| As Kool & The Gang's "Celebration" echoed through Humphrey Coliseum on Wednesday signaling a 75-62 victory for Mississippi State basketball against Georgia, MSU forward KeShawn Murphy took a seat across the scorer's table for a postgame radio interview. While Murphy was preparing to decipher a successful must-win night for Mississippi State (15-8, 4-6 SEC), teammate Shawn Jones Jr. was running behind him to greet members of the student section. However, Jones stopped when he saw Murphy. Jones gave Murphy a quick hug -- a fitting embrace on a night when those two showed how vital they were against UGA (14-9, 4-6) and for MSU's chances at staying afloat in the NCAA Tournament race. "Our focus all week was just getting back right defensively --- getting back to our identity," senior forward Cameron Matthews said postgame. "With or without D.J. (Jeffries) playing this week, we were trying to get back to that. We've got guys like Shawn Jones and Murph to step up. It's never we worry about the guy that's down. It's always the next guy back up." Mississippi State was without Jeffries --- arguably the team's best defender at forward, according to coach Chris Jans --- for the first time this season. With him sidelined after a knee injury suffered in Saturday's loss at Alabama, Jones was put into a bigger role. |
| Mississippi State Hosts Georgia On Thursday | |
| Mississippi State women's basketball returns to Humphrey Coliseum for its first of two home contests this week when it hosts Georgia on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network+. Fans who are not in attendance can follow action on SEC Network+ or through their Mississippi State radio station with Jason Crowder. Mississippi State enters Thursday on a current win streak of four straight contests and stands at 19-5 overall, 6-3 in the SEC. The Bulldogs have also won six of their last seven contests. The United States Basketball Writers Association, NCAA.com and ESPN recognized Mississippi State in their weekly honors on Tuesday. USBWA and NCAA.com each tabbed Mississippi State with Team of the Week accolades, while ESPN voted Mississippi State's victory over No. 9/9 LSU its Win of the Week. With the 77-73 win over LSU in its last time inside Humphrey Coliseum on Jan. 29, head coach Sam Purcell earned his first top-25 and top-10 win as a head coach. It also marked the first top-10 win for Mississippi State since a road win at No. 10 Texas, 67-49, on Dec. 2, 2018. It was also the first sellout crowd under Purcell with 9,121 fans in attendance. Mississippi State remains home to face Florida on Sunday, Feb. 11 at 2:00 p.m. CT on SEC Network+. |
| What Mississippi State football coach Jeff Lebby said of national signing day additions | |
| Mississippi State football elected to go an offensive route when hiring former Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby as its coach in November to replace Zach Arnett. So it comes as no surprise that Lebby's first signing class finished with the addition of a wide receiver. MSU added two players during national signing day on Wednesday. The first was defensive lineman Josaiah Knight, a former Illinois signee, who is a three-star prospect, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. Second was wide receiver Sanfrisco Magee, a three-star prospect who MSU flipped from Ole Miss in December. Magee joins an impressive group signed by Lebby and receivers coach Chad Bumphis. Mississippi State added three four-star prospects -- JJ Harrell, Braylon Burnside and Mario Craver -- at the position during the early signing period before adding Magee. The Bulldogs have the No. 28-ranked class nationally and No. 14-ranked class of 16 SEC teams. Here's what Lebby had to say about his two final signees. |
| The Dispatch's complete Mississippi State softball 2024 season preview | |
| Last season, Mississippi State found out the hard way that success can be a double-edged sword. The Bulldogs were coming off their best postseason performance in program history in 2022, defeating No. 2 national seed Florida State to win their NCAA Regional and advance to their first-ever Super Regional, which they lost at home to Arizona. But their follow-up effort left a lot to be desired, as MSU finished 7-16 in Southeastern Conference play and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016. Watching all 12 of their SEC peers play in the postseason from their couches has given the Bulldogs all the motivation they need heading into the 2024 season, which begins this weekend at Nusz Park with two games each against IUPUI and Alabama-Birmingham. Also giving MSU fuel: Head coach Samantha Ricketts' team was picked to finish last in the conference this year by both D1Softball and the SEC's own head coaches. "It's been a very focused mentality. That's part of the danger you see behind success," Ricketts said. "After the Super Regional run, it doesn't come easy. It's not handed to you every year, and we have to work like we did to get to that point again. Maybe if we had made postseason last year, it wouldn't have been as focused as it was. But it really drove some tough conversations and just some really focused practices." |
| Nick Saban announces next step with ESPN, will appear on College GameDay | |
| After a career of warning against 'rat poison', Nick Saban has decided to begin offering some himself. The former Alabama head coach will join ESPN as a media analyst. The network announced Saban will be a part of its NFL Draft coverage and make an appearance at this summer's Southeastern Conference Media Days in Dallas. Most notably, Saban will make his long-rumored transition to the "College GameDay" desk. "ESPN and 'College GameDay' have played such an important role in the growth of college football, and I'm honored to have the opportunity to join their team. I'll do my best to offer additional insights and perspectives to contribute to College GameDay, the ultimate Saturday tradition for college football fans," Saban said in a release issued Wednesday. Saban and ESPN expanded their partnership last season ahead of the network owning the SEC broadcast rights in 2024. Saban had a weekly appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show," which ESPN recently bought the rights to air. Saban reportedly earned seven figures for his 15-to-20-minute interviews. Saban will now join some of the sport's preeminent broadcasters, from Lee Corso to Kirk Herbstreit and more. Since Saban ended his on-field career one month ago, ESPN's Rece Davis has been the lone media member to interview the legendary coach. The pair joked at a potential future in television together. Front Office Sports then reported that ESPN viewed Saban as the "perfect" replacement for Corso, who will turn 89-years-old in August. |
| NCAA investigation into Tennessee NIL 'payback' for no bowl ban, AG says | |
| Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti suggested the NCAA may be seeking "payback" in its investigation into the University of Tennessee because it failed to levy a postseason ban against the Vols in the Jeremy Pruitt recruiting scandal. And Skrmetti criticized the NCAA for its "pick-and-choose" enforcement of "opaque" rules involving name, image and likeness benefits for UT athletes while other schools go unchecked. "I suspect given the aggression with which the NCAA appears to have treated the University (of Tennessee) that there may be a little bit of a payback situation," Skrmetti told Knox News on Wednesday. "Because UT pushed back and stood up for the rights of its students, it's in the crosshairs again. That's just not right." In July, the NCAA put UT football on probation for five years as part of the recruiting scandal under Pruitt, the fired coach. But the Vols avoided a postseason ban, beating the charge of lack of institutional control alleged by the NCAA enforcement staff. Around the same time, NCAA investigators began showing interest in allegations that UT broke rules involving NIL benefits for athletes, Knox News has learned. That investigation, which isn't related to the Pruitt case, is ongoing. On Jan. 30, the new probe was first reported by SI.com and acknowledged by UT. The university has not received a notice of inquiry or a notice of allegations. On Jan. 31, Skrmetti filed an antitrust lawsuit in federal court against the NCAA over its "NIL-recruiting ban." He said that timing was not a coincidence. |
| Greg Sankey: 5+7 CFP model not finalized yet, but 'we'll see if it's possible moving forward' | |
| The 2024 college season will see a long list of changes. Perhaps the most notable will be the expansion of the College Football Playoff with the four-team model now a things of the past. How the 12-team CFP format will look, though, is still a big question mark. Initially, the field would be the six highest-ranked conference champions and the next six highest-ranked teams. However, with the Pac-12 now dropping to just two teams after a groundbreaking round of conference realignment, a proposal is on the table to switch to a "5-and-7" format – the five highest-ranked conference champions and the next seven teams. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said that decision isn't yet final, but he hopes conversations will continue about the move. "I think I broke news way back, probably in August or September, when I suggested that that 6-and-6 model doesn't work, that we needed to attend in these next two years towards that 5-and-7 -- so five conference champions and the seven best remaining teams, based on the selection committee's evaluation, that are not conference champions," Sankey said Wednesday on The Paul Finebaum Show. "We've not been able to finalize that format. "We'll see if it's possible moving forward. So those are some of the things in front of us. But it's still a full participation, lively conversation. Was certainly a long day for us in meeting on Monday as we work through these really important issues around college football." |
| Biden Administration partners with US sports leagues, player unions to promote nutrition | |
| The White House announced it is partnering with the major U.S. sports leagues and its player associations to boost physical activity and nutrition across the country as part of the Biden Administration's ambitious goal of ending hunger in the country. The NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA and WNBA among other leagues will be part of the initiative, with each league focusing on its efforts in increasing their outreach, specifically on nutrition. The leagues' partnership with the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition will aim to "promote healthy lifestyles to the millions of people who engage in their programs every year." The White House believes this is a major step toward a goal President Joe Biden set in 2022 of ending hunger and reducing diet-related diseases by 2030. "This new partnership was cultivated as part of the White House's challenge to end hunger and build healthy communities, a nationwide call to action the Biden Harris administration launched last year to inspire stakeholders across all of society to make bold commitments," second gentleman Doug Emhoff told reporters. Fourteen leagues in the U.S. will be involved in the partnership, announcing new commitments to their outreach program. |
| Streaming Venture From ESPN, Fox and Warner Blindsides Sports Leagues | |
| Professional sports leagues including the National Football League and National Basketball Association were kept in the dark about the new sports-centric streaming service being launched by Walt Disney Co., Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery, people familiar with the matter said. The companies involved in the effort are media partners of both leagues. Pro basketball and football programming will be among the significant drivers of the new service. An effort to notify the leagues wasn't made until Tuesday before a planned announcement. Many learned of it when The Wall Street Journal broke the news. The reason for the cone of silence was to keep the plans from leaking prematurely during the months the companies were settling the details, people involved in the partnership said. "We're aware of yesterday's announcement and are still gathering details to understand this proposed new streaming service," said NFL spokesman Alex Reithmiller. The NBA is in negotiations on new rights deals with Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney's ESPN. "While we look forward to learning more about this new venture, we're encouraged by the opportunity to make premier sports content more accessible to fans who are not subscribers to the traditional cable or satellite bundle," an NBA spokeswoman said. Given the high financial stakes -- networks pay billions of dollars a year for the most valuable sports rights and rely on that programming heavily -- the relationships between the two sides are delicate. Some leagues, given the value of their content in today's fragmented media landscape, often want to be asked to give their blessing on any shift in business strategy. |
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