| Thursday, February 22, 2024 |
| Honeybee researcher at MSU works to understand disease threatening pollinators, specialty crops | |
 | Tiny but mighty, the humble honeybee carries the weight of the world's enormous agricultural system on its delicate wings. However, the bacterium Melissococcus plutonius -- commonly known as the causative agent for the European foulbrood disease, or EFB -- threatens the lives of these industrious insects and health of the crops they pollinate, especially blueberries. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, honeybees pollinate $15 billion worth of crops in the U.S. each year, including more than 130 types of fruits, nuts and vegetables. Priyadarshini "Priya" Chakrabarti Basu, assistant professor in Mississippi State University's Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology and Plant Pathology, is investigating the causes of and proposing solutions to mitigate EFB's spread and impacts. "Surveys reported that nearly half of commercial honeybee colonies in the U.S. died last year," said Basu, who is also a scientist in the university's Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. "Although EFB is just one of many factors that threaten our colonies, its impact on beekeepers and crop producers is keenly felt as pollination and production costs rise, and those increases are passed on to consumers. The health of our bees affects all of us." |
| Community cuts ribbon on Cater's at the Museum | |
 | Community members gathered across the street from the Mississippi Children's Museum-Meridian on Tuesday to celebrate the grand opening of Cater's at the Museum. Owned and operated by Jamie Cater, Cater's at the Museum is an expansion of the popular Cater's Market, located on Highway 493 in North Meridian. The new store is her third location, having also opened a Cater's Market in Starkville in 2020. Located in the former round bank building, the new location puts Cater's in the heart of downtown providing another choice for those working and living in the area, as well as acting as a convenient stop for field trips and families visiting MCM-Meridian. "I just want to thank Susan Gerard and Barbara Zeller of the children's museum for welcoming me with such open arms, and we're just thrilled to be a part of you all," Cater said. "We just are excited to be here." Gerard said MCM-Meridian and Cater's Market have been connected since the beginning, with the museum's planning and fundraising fueled by the deli's sandwiches and sweets. Tuesday's opening, she said, was the realization of a dream long in the making. "This is a very heartfelt day for us to see this dream realized, and we thank you for your savvy and your vision," she said. |
| New Coast music venue will be ready in April. So who will be the opening act? | |
 | There's a lot of speculation, but nobody seems to know yet who will be the opening act at the 7,000-seat Sound Amphitheater in Gautier. Country stars Alan Jackson, Hank Williams Jr. and Luke Combs have been offered as suggestions and requests on community Facebook posts. Samuel King, media coordinator for the City of Gautier, said he's just as eager as everyone else in the city to learn who will open. A billboard along I-10 advertising the new venue is driving interest and King, said he anticipates an announcement of the opening concerts in the next few weeks. The news will come from Nashville-based 46 Entertainment that partnered with the city to book shows, with the aim of bringing "a stellar lineup of A-level national artists to Sound Amphitheater." At least 10 of these national touring entertainers are expected to play at the amphitheater each year, with an anticipated economic impact of about $13 million. The two-year contract also guarantees the city at least $1.2 million in revenue from rental of the facility. While many people question building an amphitheater rather than an enclosed facility in South Mississippi, others point to the amphitheaters that do well in Brandon and in Orange Beach, Alabama. |
| BankPlus expands operations, makes move in Ridgeland | |
 | BankPlus has recently acquired the 14-acre office complex Paragon Centre' in Ridgeland. The Highland Colony Parkway location consists of three Class A office buildings encompassing approximately 150,000 square feet. The property will house bank and mortgage operations along with other support areas and will provide room for growth that is expected to support the bank's strategic expansion initiatives for years to come, according to a statement from BankPlus. "We enjoyed representing the seller in this transaction and look forward to seeing BankPlus transform this 150,000 square foot office project into their operations hub," B.B. Mitchell, vice president at Pinpoint Commercial Real Estate, told the Clarion Ledger. "This is more proof that Ridgeland's office market continues to flourish." BankPlus, which operates more than 80 financial centers throughout Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida, has also acquired an adjacent parcel of approximately three acres to provide for additional parking. The bank was founded and is based in Mississippi. Renovations are expected to be completed in stages with the first phase targeted for completion in early 2025. Paragon Centre' was developed by Mark S. Jordan and constructed by Fountain Construction Company, Inc. between 1998 and 2006. |
| House Republican leadership files school voucher bills | |
 | Even as the Mississippi Supreme Court considers whether it is constitutional for the state to provide public fund to private schools, the House leadership is filing legislation to provide vouchers for students to attend private schools. House Education Committee Chairman Rob Roberson, a Republican from Starkville, has filed legislation to allow vouchers -- public funds to private schools -- with no limitations. But Roberson stressed that he is not sure what if any voucher legislation will pass this session. He said he filed the legislation "to start a conversation." But during an interview earlier this week on the SuperTalk radio network, Republican House Speaker Jason White seemed more committed to a limited voucher program. White advocated for vouchers for students in low-performing D and F schools. "In D and F districts, we want that child to go anywhere they can find, whether public, private, charter, home school, whatever," White said, adding that state funds would follow the students wherever they went. "If they are in a D and F district, we want to open their choice all the way." He said in states that have "universal choice," like Arizona, a vast majority of students remain in the public school. It is questionable how much momentum there is this session for an expansive voucher program. In his budget plan, Gov. Tate Reeves only recommended expanding by $1.8 million a program that provides public funds for some special needs children to attend private schools. |
| Georgia has the nation's only Medicaid work requirement. Mississippi could be next | |
 | After years of refusing to expand Medicaid, some of Mississippi's Republican leaders now say they are open to the policy -- if they can require new enrollees to have a job. That approach could hinge on presidential politics and an ongoing legal battle in Georgia. In a statement to The Associated Press, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said Mississippi must consider all options to improve its labor force participation rate and poor health outcomes, both of which are among the worst in the country. Hosemann said Georgia, the only state that requires Medicaid recipients to meet a work requirement, could be a model for Mississippi. "We need healthy working Mississippians," Hosemann said. "Georgia's successful implementation of a work requirement cleared a path for this conversation in Mississippi." Georgia and Mississippi are among 10 states that haven't expanded Medicaid eligibility to include people earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level, or $20,120 annually for a single person. Mississippi House Speaker Jason White, also a Republican, said in an interview that the state has shown it will refuse to expand Medicaid without a work requirement. "I think we've proved to CMS and the folks in Washington that we will be stubborn and not do it," White told The AP. "So I think they would be more amicable to listen to the idea of, hey, we've got a maybe a little different model here." |
| Republican legislative leaders brush off governor's objections to Medicaid expansion | |
| Legislative leaders on Tuesday pushed back on Republican Gov. Tate Reeves' social media post that criticized state lawmakers for pressing ahead with legislation that would expand Medicaid coverage to the working poor --- a policy the governor has long opposed. "Some in the MS State Capitol still want Obamacare's Medicaid Expansion," Reeves wrote. "Most -- but not all -- are Democrats." As part of his post, Reeves attached a picture of a 2023 social media post from former Republican President Donald Trump, saying "Obamacare Sucks!!!" Republican leaders in the House and Senate on Tuesday were undeterred by Reeves' remarks and said they are still considering legislation to expand Medicaid coverage to improve some of the state's dire health outcomes and address the high percentage of Mississippians who remain uninsured. House Speaker Jason White, R-West, told Mississippi Today that the governor is entitled to his opinion on Medicaid policy, but he believes the GOP-controlled House will pass a bill this session that expands health insurance to more citizens. "My position's been pretty clear on the fact that we were going to explore and look at Medicaid as it affects hard-working, low-income Mississippians," White said. "My ideas and thoughts about that haven't changed. He's the duly elected governor and he's certainly entitled to his opinions on that matter. I don't hold any of those against him. We just maybe here in the House have a different view of it." |
| DeSoto County senator again introduces bill to take over Jackson water | |
| For the second time in as many years, legislation has been introduced to take over Jackson's water system. On Wednesday, the Senate Accountability, Efficiency, and Transparency Committee advanced S.B. 2628, the Mississippi Capitol Region Utility Act. The bill would create the Mississippi Capitol Region Utility Authority, which would take control of Jackson's water system once the third-party manager leaves. The measure was introduced by DeSoto County Sen. David Parker, who authored similar legislation last year. "It will come into existence when we appoint the board members, but as far as its ability to actually run the system, that will only come up, come into existence, when the court and the receiver determine that their work is done," he said. The utility would be governed by a nine-member panel with five members appointed by the governor and four members appointed by the lieutenant governor. District 29 Sen. David Blount, who also serves on the Accountability Committee, said he was not consulted on the legislation. "I've had no conversations about this bill, with anybody in the legislature, anybody in legislative leadership, anybody who represents the area affected by the bill... And certainly, I don't question anyone's motives in doing what they think is right, but with any other community, with your community, if there was a bill about your district, you would want to be involved," he said. Parker says he had “every single right” to introduce the bill, telling Blount during the committee meeting that his daughter lives in Jackson and he stays in Jackson during the legislative session. |
| No Questions, Multiple Denials: This Mississippi Court Appoints Lawyers for Just 1 in 5 Defendants Before Indictment | |
| The right to an attorney is fundamental to the U.S. justice system. Yet, in a small Mississippi court off the interstate between Jackson and Memphis, that right is tenuous. The two judges in Yalobusha County Justice Court appointed lawyers for just 20% of the five dozen felony defendants who came before them in 2022, according to a review of court records; nationally, experts estimate that lawyers are appointed to at least 80% of felony defendants at some point in the legal process because they're deemed poor. In this court, the way these two judges decide who gets a court-appointed attorney appears to violate state rules meant to protect defendants' rights. A few defendants have even been forced to represent themselves in key hearings. Despite the Sixth Amendment's guarantee that everyone gets a lawyer even if they're too poor to pay for one, most felony defendants in this court went without any representation at all before their cases were forwarded to a grand jury, according to a review of one full year of court files by the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, The Marshall Project and ProPublica. (Read more about how we analyzed the court's appointment rate in our methodology.) "That is a huge problem," said André de Gruy, who leads a state office that handles death penalty cases and felony appeals but has no power over local public defense. "I believe almost every one of those people would like a lawyer and is unable to afford one." |
| Senate candidates Eubanks, Burton speak to Covington GOP women | |
 | The two candidates for the United States Senate who will face off against incumbent Roger Wicker in the March Republican primary spoke in Collins Wednesday. GOP challengers Ghannon Burton and Dan Eubanks addressed members of Covington County Republican Women. Eubanks is a state representative from District 25. Burton is a retired U.S. Marine Corps combat pilot. Both say they'd get tougher on border security and would fight against diversity, equity and inclusion programs they say are bad for the country. And both say it's time to replace Wicker in the Senate. "Right now, you can't separate Roger Wicker from most of the Democrats that serve in the Senate, the way he votes," Eubanks said. "Our other senator is on the opposite end of him on many key critical votes and that should tell every Mississippian something." "Senator Wicker is nowhere to be found on the national stage fighting for us," Burton said. "He's fighting for money for Ukraine, while our border remains open," Burton said. "And that money is getting funneled back into our political system and sustaining a corrupt political class." The Republican Primary is scheduled for Tuesday, March 12. |
| The US is known for designing chips, not making them. Can the CHIPS Act funding change that? | |
| Nvidia, one of the country's most valuable companies by market capitalization, reported stronger than expected quarterly results this afternoon. The semiconductor company is known for designing GPUs, the chips that support artificial intelligence. Nvidia is headquartered in California, but its largest manufacturing partner is TSMC in Taiwan. The majority of all chips are manufactured in Asia, but the federal government would love for the U.S. to get a bigger piece of that chipmaking pie. This week, as part of the CHIPS and Science Act, the Biden administration announced it's awarding $1.5 billion to chipmaker GlobalFoundries to expand its manufacturing stateside. Even if they're made elsewhere, the U.S. is far and away the global leader in designing advanced chips, said Harvard Business School professor Willy Shih. Still, he said the private sector is going to have to invest a lot of its own money to build each new chip factory, called a foundry, and then fill it with diamond saws and advanced lithography tools. "And then of course, once you do that, you also need the people to run it," Shih said. Speed matters here, because the U.S. is competing with other countries who are offering their own incentives to chipmakers, said Emily Kilcrease, director of the energy, economics and security program at the Center for a New American Security. |
| Conservative governors Kemp, Lee express support for IVF following Alabama ruling | |
 | Days after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said they're supportive of in vitro fertilization procedures. Speaking at the POLITICO Governors Summit on Thursday, Kemp said he hasn't had a chance to look over the Alabama rulings and "wouldn't even want to try to pretend to understand what the issue is there." When pressed on whether he's comfortable with IVF in general, Kemp said, "I am. ... You have a lot of people out there in this country that they wouldn't have children if it weren't for that." It's a notable admission from the conservative governor, who signed legislation banning abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, colloquially called a heartbeat bill. Fetal heartbeats can occur as early as six weeks --- before many people know they're pregnant. The law was challenged in 2022, but Georgia's Supreme Court reinstated the six-week ban shortly afterward. It's crucial for people who disagree on issues like IVF procedures to be able to come together and have a discussion about it, Kemp said. "Those are discussions where we got to get back in this country, where we're working together on things to find solutions versus just blaming the other side," the Georgia governor said. |
| Tall order for lawmakers to finish spending bills next week | |
 | Twenty percent of annual appropriations for the current fiscal year are due a week from Friday or portions of the government will shut down. Critical final decisions about those spending bills' contents or the process for getting them across the finish line haven't yet been made, however, and lawmakers are still on recess until next week. The Senate returns Monday, only to face impeachment articles the House adopted seeking removal of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas from office. The chamber could quickly dismiss the charges or hold a longer trial as some conservatives are demanding; either way, it's a constitutional prerogative that must be dealt with first. The House, meanwhile, isn't back until Wednesday. That means the latest congressional leaders could theoretically release the text and still adhere to House rules requiring the legislation to be publicly available in advance is Monday. But even assuming the House can pass the spending package as soon as Wednesday -- possibly under suspension of the rules -- that leaves little time for the Senate to process it by the end of the day Friday. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and other Senate hard-liners have shown a willingness to delay must-pass bills on several occasions, even if it's clear they don't have the votes to block them. All of these factors have led to speculation that lawmakers may be forced to punt final action for a week with a short-term stopgap measure, lining up the first package of bills currently expiring March 1 with the remaining eight bills that lapse March 8. Sources familiar with the talks said many of the outstanding issues with the four bills in the first tranche -- Military Construction-VA, Agriculture, Energy-Water and Transportation-HUD -- have been closed out, with the remaining open items kicked up to leadership to make decisions on. |
| President Biden considering executive action on the border, powers once used by Trump | |
 | President Joe Biden is considering new executive actions to crack down on record migration at the southern border after congressional Republicans this month blocked border legislation backed by the White House. A Biden administration official, who spoke to USA TODAY on the condition of anonymity, stressed no final decisions have been made regarding what additional executive actions, if any, could be taken. The Biden administration is looking at provisions of federal immigration law routinely tapped by former President Donald Trump, the Associated Press reported, in a move that could invite a backlash from progressives and immigration advocates. Biden, according to the AP, is considering potential action under Section 212(f) of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the president to deny immigration for anyone deemed "detrimental to the interests of the United States." Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, cited the same provision when he banned the entry of individuals from majority-Muslim nations. Biden took action to overturn Trump's ban on his first day in office. The New York Times reported that Biden's executive order would restrict migrants' ability to claim asylum in the U.S. if they crossed the border illegally -- a similar goal as the bipartisan border that congressional Republicans blocked. |
| Biden Calls Republicans in Congress 'Worse' Than Strom Thurmond | |
 | President Biden on Wednesday compared the current generation of Republicans in Congress to racist lawmakers of the past, arguing that today's crop was "worse" because it had sought to undermine the legitimacy of elections. "I've served with real racists," he said at an evening fund-raiser in California. "I've served with Strom Thurmond. I've served with all these guys that have set terrible records on race. But guess what? These guys are worse. These guys do not believe in basic democratic principles." Mr. Biden, who gave a warm eulogy at Mr. Thurmond's funeral in 2003 and apologized during the 2020 campaign for having fondly reminisced about working with Southern segregationists, offered a degree of praise for Mr. Thurmond, the long-serving senator from South Carolina and fierce opponent of integration. "By the time Strom left, he did terrible things," Mr. Biden said, according to a pool report. But he added that Mr. Thurmond ended up having more African Americans "in his staff than any other member in Congress. He voted to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act." Mr. Biden went on: "I'm not making him more than he was. But my point is, at least you could work with some of these guys." During his 2020 presidential bid, Mr. Biden faced fierce criticism from Democratic opponents for invoking two Southern segregationist senators, James O. Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia, both Democrats, as he spoke of the Senate's "civility" in decades past. |
| Nikki Haley says Biden is 'more dangerous' than Trump but neither is fit for the job | |
 | Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley told NPR that President Biden presents a bigger threat to the country if reelected than his predecessor, former President Donald Trump. Biden is expected to easily clinch the Democratic nomination for a second term while Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. But Haley doesn't believe either of them should have the job. "I have a lot of concerns about Trump regaining the presidency. I have even more concerns about Joe Biden being president. I mean, you look at both of these men and all they have done is given us chaos, all they have given us is division," Haley said. Her solution? "We need to starting bringing normalcy back to America and that's why I think we need to have a new generational leader that focuses on the solutions of the future instead of all the issues of the past," Haley told NPR's Steve Inskeep on Wednesday during in an interview for Morning Edition. She sees herself as that new generation of leader ready to jump into what she has called the toughest job in the world. Still, she has yet to win a primary contest and the next one has the highest stakes yet. It's in her home state of South Carolina. "I think what's really important is to know that the majority of Americans dislike Donald Trump and Joe Biden," she said. "So we think that there needs to be an alternative." |
| Nikki Haley doesn't know how to surrender. So she wins upsets. Or gets humbled. | |
 | Hundreds of conservative Tea Party activists and legislators erupted into applause as Gov. Nikki Haley signed the bill that had launched her improbable rise to the state's highest office into law. For several years starting when she was a relatively new member of the state House of Representatives, Haley had waged war against the powerful House leadership to force the body to take more recorded roll-call votes. And, against the odds, she won. On the presidential campaign trail, she's told the story of that upset victory over and over again to illustrate that she sticks to her guns and wins seemingly unwinnable fights against more powerful foes. It's a story around which she's built the narrative of her political career. But there's another story, which Haley never recounts, in which the governor picked a seemingly unwinnable fight and didn't win. One in which she lost badly, in fact. It's the story, in many ways, of how her political career in South Carolina ended. On that April 2011 day in the Statehouse as she signed the roll-call vote bill, over her right shoulder stood state Sen. Hugh Leatherman, a Florence Republican regarded as the most powerful politician in South Carolina during Haley's tenure in the governor's office. Over the next few years, Haley's relationship with Leatherman would slowly sour to the point that in May 2016, Haley took the surprise step of publicly campaigning to oust him. As the results came in at his election-night party in Florence showing he had beaten back the primary challenger Haley had supported, Leatherman declared Haley was "not just a lame duck -- she's a dead duck." Five months later, President Donald Trump nominated Haley to serve as his ambassador to the United Nations, and she was gone. |
| Lara Trump says she thinks GOP voters would like to see RNC pay Donald Trump's legal fees | |
| Donald Trump's daughter-in-law and handpicked choice to help lead the Republican National Committee said she thinks Republican voters would support having the political organization pay the former president's ballooning legal fees. Lara Trump said Wednesday while campaigning for her father-in-law ahead of the South Carolina primary that she was not familiar with the RNC's rules about paying Donald Trump's legal fees in a multitude of criminal and civil cases. But she said she thought the idea would get broad support among GOP voters who see his legal cases as political persecution. "That's why people are furious right now. And they see the attacks against him. They feel like it's an attack not just on Donald Trump but on this country," she said. "So yeah I think that is a big interest to people, absolutely." In addition to the millions he is spending on lawyers, Trump's legal debts now top half a billion dollars. Trump, though the front-runner in the GOP presidential primary, has not yet become the Republican nominee. That did not stop him last week from publicly calling to remove the RNC's current leaders and suggest Lara Trump should serve as co-chair. He proposed Michael Whatley, the current chair of the North Carolina GOP, to serve as chair. She told reporters on Wednesday that GOP voters will feel more trust in the RNC by having a Trump family member installed in leadership. |
| Leaked files from Chinese firm show vast international hacking effort | |
 | A trove of leaked documents from a Chinese state-linked hacking group shows that Beijing's intelligence and military groups are attempting large-scale, systematic cyber intrusions against foreign governments, companies and infrastructure -- with hackers of one company claiming to be able to target users of Microsoft, Apple and Google. The cache -- containing more than 570 files, images and chat logs -- offers an unprecedented look inside the operations of one of the firms that Chinese government agencies hire for on-demand, mass data-collecting operations. The files -- posted to GitHub last week and deemed credible by cybersecurity experts, although the source remains unknown -- detail contracts to extract foreign data over eight years and describe targets within at least 20 foreign governments and territories, including India, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Taiwan and Malaysia. Indian publication BNN earlier reported on the documents. "We rarely get such unfettered access to the inner workings of any intelligence operation," said John Hultquist, chief analyst of Mandiant Intelligence, a cybersecurity firm owned by Google Cloud. "We have every reason to believe this is the authentic data of a contractor supporting global and domestic cyberespionage operations out of China," he said. U.S. intelligence officials see China as the greatest long-term threat to American security and have raised alarm about its targeted hacking campaigns. Experts are poring over the documents, which offer an unusual glimpse inside the intense competition of China's national security data-gathering industry. |
| MUW name change: Wynbridge loses legislative support, name change pauses | |
 | A week after proposing a name to the legislature, Mississippi University for Women has announced a "strategic pause" in the name changing process. A letter from President Nora Miller emailed to university affiliates and posted on social media Wednesday said the university will pause the process "to regroup and consider all perspectives." "While we remain committed to a future name change, we will regroup and re-examine our processes, ways of engaging our alumni base and the many needs surrounding finding a name that captures the unique history as well as the contemporary qualities of our university," Miller wrote in the letter. The letter also acknowledges "the challenges, the missteps, the frustrations and the uncertainties" generated by the process. Miller told The Dispatch the name process has paused before, and the effort is worth taking another pause to ensure it's done correctly. She hopes to continue efforts to change the name in the 2025 legislative session. "In order to get the legislative action, we need the alumni support," she said. "We're just not there, and it's worth taking the time to get there." |
| MUW Name Change Stalls Again | |
| A week after announcing its second attempt to rename the school, Mississippi University for Women President Nora Miller has released a statement saying they are taking a "strategic pause" in the effort. "In order give our entire community time to regroup and consider all perspectives, we will take a strategic pause at this time as we continue to work toward a future name change," Miller said. The legislation supporting the name change to Wynbridge State University of Mississippi -- HB 1155 -- appears to have stalled in the House Universities and Colleges Committee. An earlier proposal to rename the school as Mississippi Brightwell University also fell through in January. Miller said the school administration remains committed to a future name change. The university, founded in 1884, has said a new name is being considered since its current name -- Mississippi University for Women -- does not effectively reflect the best marketing strategy to incorporate male students. |
| Déjà vu? No, Mississippi University for Women putting name change on hold again | |
| It's not déjà vu. For the second time in two months, the Mississippi University for Women has released a new name only to go back on it and pause the rebranding process. Just hours after MUW President Dr. Nora Miller finished up with an appearance on The Gallo Show -- one in which she sounded confident and ready to move forward with renaming MUW to Wynbridge State University of Mississippi -- the school leader wrote a letter to students, faculty, and alumni on Wednesday revealing that the process has been put on hold. "While we remain committed to a future name change, we will regroup and re-examine our processes, ways of engaging our alumni base, and the many needs surrounding finding a name that captures the unique history as well as the contemporary qualities of our university," a portion of the letter reads. While the reason for the sudden change has not been confirmed, especially considering a bill recently dropped to officially rebrand the coeducational university in Columbus, WCBI reported that House Bill 1155 was unlikely to be approved by the Universities and Colleges Committee. This is the latest revelation in what's becoming a repetitive story. |
| Murder conviction appeal heard at MUW | |
| The lobby of Cochran Hall at the Mississippi University for Women became a courtroom Wednesday. The Mississippi Court of Appeals visited campus in its "Courts on the Road" program to hear oral arguments for and against an appeal by Tupelo native Roderick Johnson, who is asking the court to overturn his 2022 murder conviction. The court rules on cases assigned to it by the state Supreme Court. Generally, the decisions it renders stand unless the Supreme Court chooses to hear the case. A three-judge panel featuring appeals judges Jack Wilson, Latrice Westbrooks and David McCarty heard the case before an audience of about 20 people. Johnson was represented by his attorney Michael Chapman, while Special Assistant Attorney General Parker Proctor represented the Attorney General's office. For MUW student Tierrah Easley, Wednesday was her first time seeing a court proceeding in person. "I rushed over here as soon as I got out of my other class," she said after the session was over. The Courts on the Road program started in 2005, Beverly Kraft, public information officer for the Administrative Office of Courts, told The Dispatch. A panel last heard a case at The W in 2019. |
| UM research aims to improve clean energy production | |
| To create clean energy sources that are affordable and easy to replicate, researchers must first figure out how to efficiently create hydrogen. That is the process University of Mississippi professor Vignesh Sundaresan hopes to improve in his upcoming research. The National Science Foundation has awarded Sundaresan, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, $244,000 in an Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research grant for a partnership with Lane Baker, a Texas A&M electrochemist who specializes in scanning probe techniques. The collaboration's aim is to study electrocatalyst testing methods in hopes of creating more reliable hydrogen production for use in fuel cell-based vehicles and other clean energy-powered devices. "To make clean hydrogen, we need the tools to determine what works best," Sundaresan said. "We must be able to measure the efficiency and stability of hydrogen-producing catalysts. That's the goal of this project." Sundaresan and Shukla will live in College Station for roughly six months over two summers as they work with Baker, and the grant will also fund a summer research program for K-12 students, where Sundaresan said he hopes to encourage students' interest in STEM. |
| Why the university doesn't 'just accept fewer students' | |
 | Since 2021, the University of Mississippi's freshman class sizes have increased by 46% -- from 3,584 to 5,240 freshmen in the 2023-2024 school year. Since the beginning of the fall semester, The Daily Mississippian has reported extensively about how this boom in enrollment is affecting the university community, from insufficient campus housing and longer lines for student union services to difficulty enrolling in already-full classes. This unprecedented growth is a point of pride for the university, as it works each year to find new ways to accommodate more students. A university record 24,710 students enrolled across the school's seven campuses in the fall. Still, many in the university community are asking the question: Why not just limit the number of students accepted? Such a move would not be unprecedented. In early 2023, the University of Tennessee's Office of Undergraduate Admissions revealed that the number of first-year applicants had increased by a staggering 40.7%. This situation -- a boom in first-year interest -- should sound familiar. UT answered by reducing the number of students it admitted. UT's acceptance rate fell to 59.4% for in-state applicants and 33.3% for out-of-state applicants. Currently, UM's overall acceptance rate stands at 97%. So, why hasn't the University of Mississippi done the same? |
| Pulling grads to Mississippi or investments down the drain? | |
| On Jan. 9, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves was sworn in for his second and final term after the state's closest gubernatorial election since 1999. In his inaugural address, Reeves spoke of the various challenges Mississippi has faced over the course of his first term and touted his accomplishments over the past four years. Among other priorities, Reeves talked at length about the economic accomplishments of his administration. Most notably, he emphasized a deal with Steel Dynamics, Inc. that was signed last fall, culminating in a $2.5 billion investment in Mississippi -- the largest in state history. He also laid out his priorities for Mississippi's economic future, stating his desire to create an environment where students can stay in the state for their careers, promising economic projects that would, "fundamentally change lives and transform our state for the better." Students are divided on whether these plans encourage them to stay in Mississippi. At the University of Mississippi, 53.1% of students attending the university's Oxford and regional campuses are not residents of the state, according to institutional enrollment data. For many, Mississippi is a place to get their degree, not a final destination. |
| New scholarship program looks to increase, retain social workers in Mississippi | |
| The Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services (MDCPS) announced a new federal scholarship program to aid the next generation of social workers with financial resources, experience, and placement where needs are the greatest. On Tuesday, MDCPS announced the Mississippi Academic Pathways (MAP) scholarship program. The program utilizes federal IV-E funding to benefit current social work college students. It also provides the department with internship opportunities at no additional cost to the taxpayer. MAP has been made possible by a collaboration of organizations working together for the last two years. Professors from eight universities across Mississippi have worked to promote the program among their students, who were present for the announcement. The first scholarships were awarded in the summer of 2023. Since then, $1.5 million has been awarded. There have been 112 intern scholarships to date spanning across multiple universities in Mississippi. MAP is an innovative program that provides specific and appropriate education for current and prospective MDCPS employees. It allows students to intern in their own communities, serving beyond the classroom and commit to future employment with MDCPS," said Dr. Jerome Kolbo, Director of Social Work at the University of Southern Mississippi, and Principal Investigator for MAP. |
| New DSU president prioritizes Rolling Fork ahead of inauguration | |
| Dan Ennis was just learning about the Mississippi Delta in general and Delta State University, specifically, last March. On March 28, 2023, the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning named Ennis the ninth president of the Delta State University in Cleveland Just four days earlier, however, about an hour's drive south of Cleveland, an EF-4 wedge tornado ripped a nearly mile-wide scar through the small town of Rolling Fork and obliterated virtually everything along historic U.S. 61. Rolling Fork, a small community, is populated with Delta State alumni, including lawyers, farmers, the newspaper editor and bank presidents. In many ways the rebuilding of the town of approximately 1,800 residents has been on the backs of green-and-white-wearing DSU alums. Ennis, who officially assumed office on June 1, 2023, will be formally installed as Delta State University's ninth president on Saturday. Celebrations have been planned for all week leading up to the big day on Saturday, However, Ennis wants to make sure a nod is given to Rolling Fork and its residents to make sure people understand the week is not all pomp and circumstance. So, Ennis has organized a work day Friday for students and alumni in Rolling Fork, some 11 months since the tragedy in Sharkey County. "This was really something important to me," Ennis said. "It was right around the time I was still interviewing for the job, that the tornado hit. I was paying attention to Mississippi news. I was trying to learn about Mississippi when this happened." |
| Alabama closer to banning college DEI programs, implementing university bathroom rules | |
 | A bill that would ban diversity and inclusion efforts in Alabama schools and colleges is moving quickly through the state legislature. SB129 would prohibit government institutions, including state agencies, public schools and colleges, from funding a diversity, equity and inclusion office and from sponsoring DEI programs or any program that "advocates for a divisive concept." At least eight of the state's 14 public four-year universities have a specific office devoted to diversity and inclusion efforts. Sen. Will Barfoot, R–Pike Road, filed the bill Tuesday afternoon and a committee voted 7-3 Wednesday to move it to the Senate floor with an amendment. The bill has more than 20 Republican co-sponsors. "The reason that this bill is so difficult is because what others see as problems or potential problems, I don't see that," Barfoot said on the stand Wednesday, after a lengthy public comment and impassioned speeches from Senate Democrats. "It's certainly not the intent." Barfoot's bill is the first to specifically ban DEI programs, and also includes a "bathroom bill" element that would prohibit higher education institutions from allowing individuals to use a restroom that is different from their biological sex. |
| Fearing prosecution, UAB pauses in vitro fertilization after Alabama embryo court ruling | |
| The University of Alabama at Birmingham health system has paused in vitro fertilization procedures following an Alabama Supreme Court decision due to fear of criminal prosecution and lawsuits, a spokeswoman said. A statement emailed by UAB spokeswoman Hannah Echols said they are "saddened" for patients who want to have babies through IVF. She said patients can continue the process up through egg retrieval, but fertilization and embryo development is paused for now. The process, which involves fertilizing eggs outside the body and then transferring embryos to the womb, accounts for about 2 percent of births in the United States, according to RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association. The UAB Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility made the move after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos had the same status as children in wrongful death lawsuits. A majority of justices on the Alabama Supreme Court, in a decision released Friday, ruled that fertilized eggs and embryos have the same status as children. The opinion referred to embryos, which are often stored in cryogenic freezers, as "extrauterine children." Medical experts warned the decision could limit access to IVF in Alabama. UAB is the first clinic to announce that it is pausing the procedure while officials evaluate potential legal consequences. |
| No classes in Miller Hall for the remainder of the semester, AU says | |
 | More than a week after Auburn University reopened Miller Hall, more mold has been found and professors who teach there have decided to relocate their classes. Jennifer Adams, the executive director of Public Affairs, said Room 230 was sealed off after air samples taken on Feb. 7 detected low levels of Stachybotrys -- commonly known as black mold. Classes scheduled in that room were moved to another building, but the classrooms and other areas of Miller Hall will remain open. "All of the instructors opted to teach in other classrooms to minimize any further disruptions. We do not expect any further disruptions, but the instructors wanted to minimize any possibility of further classroom interruptions," Adams said. Adams said that on Feb. 9, the associated deans of each college alerted instructors who taught in Miller Hall about new places out of the building where they can hold classes. They were then asked to inform their students. Later that morning, an email was sent to students alerting them of the changes. Chris O'Gwynn, the executive director of Auburn Risk Management and Safety, said many types of mold appear black. Mold spores are always found in the air we breathe and its mere presence doesn't lead to symptoms. He said that some people may be affected more than others and indoor mold exposure does not always cause health problems as people respond in different ways to mold exposure. He said no federal health agency has established any "objective exposure guidelines." |
| U. of Tennessee enrollment breaks spring semester record | |
 | The University of Tennessee at Knoxville is continuing its record-breaking enrollment streak into the spring semester. Spring 2024 enrollment is 34,779, up 7.3% from the previous spring. The spring student body has 27,515 undergraduates and about 6,520 returning first-year freshmen. That's a record for spring, UT Knoxville Chancellor Donde Plowman said at UT's advisory board meeting earlier this month. The university has attributed its growth to record retention rates, an increase in graduate and professional students, and student success initiatives. This fall, UT welcomed a record-breaking 36,304 students, including 28,883 undergraduates. Enrollment typically drops during the spring semester. Looking toward next fall, UT projects another record-breaking year with 38,203 students expected. The expected number of first-year students for fall 2024 is 6,900, along with 1,600 transfer students. UT is reshaping its campus to meet the needs of the growing student population with 14 construction projects in the pipeline, including residences halls, academic buildings and student life amenities. The total cost will be at least $1.47 billion for the buildings and upgrades. Academic honors are flowing in, too. The university was named a top producer of Fulbright students for the sixth year in a row after 13 students were given the prestigious award. It ranked second among SEC schools. |
| AI Tennessee Initiative strives to innovate across Tennessee | |
| Lynne Parker, associate vice chancellor at the University of Tennessee and director of the AI Tennessee Initiative, has had an extensive career in artificial intelligence. At a national level, she led AI policy efforts in Washington D.C. in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and served as deputy chief technology officer of the United States. In September of 2022, Parker returned to Knoxville and UT, where she has been a member of the faculty since 2002. The project that she began to spearhead was the AI Tennessee Initiative. "In talking with the leadership here at UT, we decided it would be great for me to come back and lead this new initiative, to really think very holistically about how the state of Tennessee can become more of a leader in the data and AI-driven economy going forward," Parker said. The AI Tennessee Initiative is research and education-focused and aims to engage with communities and industries across Tennessee to utilize the benefits of AI. It aims to help make Tennessee a leader in AI and its future. The AI Tennessee Initiative works closely with colleges across the university to help facilitate research opportunities and to better utilize AI. "We also work very closely with other people who are working here at the university, like the new College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies," Parker said. "We work very closely with them on their new AI 101 class that was taught last fall." |
| What would you do in an emergency? U. of Missouri offers training on what to do until help arrives | |
 | The University of Missouri System Office of Emergency Managment is offering training over five dates this semester to students, employees and the public on what to do until help arrives in an emergency. The training is free and open to everyone, but registration is required. "You Are the Help Until Help Arrives" is the title of the training. Individuals can choose one of five dates and times to attend: 9 a.m. Feb. 28; 9 a.m. March 5; 9 a.m. April 9; 2:30 p.m. April 10; or 1 p.m. May 2. The program educates attendees about five simple steps that can be taken immediately following an emergency to provide first-aid care and help save someone's life until first responders arrive. The two-hour interactive course will educate attendees on how to act in emergencies. The course provides instruction on how to make safe care decisions, stop the bleeding of an injured person, position the injured and provide general comfort. |
| Bill would remove U. of Missouri's exclusivity in offering doctoral degrees | |
 | A proposal to repeal the University of Missouri's exclusive privilege as the only higher education institution in the state to confer doctoral degrees, including in medicine and engineering, got a hearing before a Senate committee on Wednesday. "Essentially what this bill does," said the bill's sponsor, Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, "is restore the ability for the Coordinating Board for Higher Education ... to allow needed degrees to be conferred by any institution in the state of higher education." The language of SB 749 specifically reads that it would remove provisions making the University of Missouri the state's only university to grant research-doctorates and first-professional degrees, such as medicine and law. Thomas Strong, a retired lawyer who spoke in favor of the bill during witness testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Empowering Missouri Parents and Children, said it would benefit students all over Missouri, mainly those who don't want to or can't afford to attend Mizzou. "We're losing those students who go to other states, get their education there and remain there to practice their trade or profession," Strong said. "We need to have a system of higher education in Missouri that benefits all students in all parts of the state." |
| Yale Reinstates Standardized Test Scores for Admissions | |
 | Yale University will once again require prospective students to submit standardized test scores after making tests optional for the past four years. The reinstated requirement, which affects students applying this fall for the class of 2029, makes Yale the second Ivy League school after Dartmouth College to bring standardized tests back after a pandemic-related hiatus. In a departure from past practice, however, Yale said Thursday it will be "test-flexible" by accepting not only the SAT and ACT exams, but scores from the International Baccalaureate as well as Advanced Placement exams. The New Haven, Conn., school made the decision after it found that standardized test scores from all four of the exams were more predictive of academic success than high school grades. The school cited its internal data as well as a study that found that students with the same high school GPA earned significantly higher grades during their freshman year in college if they scored 1600 on the SAT as compared with 1200. The study, by faculty from Dartmouth and Brown University and published in January by Harvard University's Opportunity Insights research center, also found that students who didn't submit an SAT or ACT score earned lower college grades at elite schools. Dartmouth cited the same research in its decision earlier this month to reinstate standardized tests. |
| More women than ever are becoming doctors. Here's why there are still so few. | |
 | More women than ever are studying and practicing medicine across the United States -- but a considerable majority of the country's working doctors are still men. In recent years, female medical students have begun outnumbering their male peers. As of the 2023-2024 school year, they make up more than 55 percent of students in the country's M.D.-granting programs, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The ranks of female doctors have also been steadily increasing. In 2007, just over 28 percent of practicing physicians in the country were women. By 2021, the most recent year for which the American Medical Association (AMA) has data, more than 37 percent were. That figure remains far short of gender parity, however. Medical experts point to two main reasons why female doctors are still a minority: The physician workforce has not caught up with the shifting makeup of medical school student bodies, and female physicians have higher attrition rates than male ones. A 2020 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that female doctors spend more time with their patients than their male colleagues -- clocking in 2.4 additional minutes per visit on average in 2017. However, female doctors generally make less money, earning an estimated $2 million less during a 40-year career than their male colleagues. In academic medicine, studies show that women are less likely to be promoted to associate or full professor positions than men even though they are more likely to pursue careers in the field. |
| Half of College Grads Are Working Jobs That Don't Use Their Degrees | |
| Roughly half of college graduates end up in jobs where their degrees aren't needed, and that underemployment has lasting implications for workers' earnings and career paths. That is the key finding of a new study tracking the career paths of more than 10 million people who entered the job market over the past decade. It suggests that the number of graduates in jobs that don't make use of their skills or credentials -- 52% -- is greater than previously thought, and underscores the lasting importance of that first job after graduation. Of the graduates in non-college-level jobs a year after leaving college, the vast majority remained underemployed a decade later, according to researchers at labor analytics firm Burning Glass Institute and nonprofit Strada Education Foundation, which analyzed the résumés of workers who graduated between 2012 and 2021. More than any other factor analyzed -- including race, gender and choice of university -- what a person studies determines their odds of getting on a college-level career track. Internships are also critical. The findings add fuel to the debate over the value of a college education as its cost has soared -- and whether universities are producing the kind of knowledge workers that employers say they need. Newer college graduates face other challenges landing a first job as the market for white-collar work cools. Artificial intelligence promises to revamp some of the entry-level work grads do, such as basic coding and content creation, business leaders and researchers say. And many recent graduates say the pandemic wreaked lasting havoc on their transition into the workforce. |
| Why a Temporary FAFSA Fix for Students With Undocumented Parents Isn't a Full-Fledged Solution | |
 | The U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday announced a temporary workaround for students who've been unable to submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, because one or more of their parents lack a Social Security number. But the nine-step process will stoke more confusion and frustration, some college-access experts predict. And mixed-status families must keep waiting until early March, at the soonest, for a permanent solution to the problem that has launched 1,000 headaches. Nearly two months after the revamped FAFSA became available, parents without a Social Security number still can't contribute to or submit their portion of the online form. The problem has left many students who are U.S. citizens -- and entitled to federal aid -- incapable of completing the application just because they come from a mixed-status family. That barrier is demoralizing, as The Chronicle reported in a recent article: "It just kind of seems unfair," Diana Almaraz, a high-school senior in Forth Worth, Tex., whose mother is undocumented, said of her family's inability to submit the FAFSA at the time. "Like the government doesn't care about us, like their priorities are somewhere else." The Education Department said this week that it will resolve the technical issues preventing parents with a Social Security number from completing the FAFSA "in the first half of March," after which students will be able to submit a completed form. Until then, the new workaround is meant to help applicants who need to record a FAFSA submission date in order to meet early financial-aid deadlines set by colleges, state-aid programs, and private-scholarship providers. But that workaround is an elaborate chore. |
| Waiting for a 'Last Word' on Affirmative Action | |
 | The U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene Tuesday in a closely watched case concerning admissions policies meant to increase racial diversity at an elite Virginia magnet high school, potentially green-lighting a set of "race-neutral" admission practices for higher ed institutions seeking to counteract the court's affirmative action ban handed down last summer. The case was brought by Asian American families against Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a highly competitive public magnet school in Alexandria, Va. The plaintiffs argued that policies the school implemented to increase the number of Black and Latino students following the 2020 murder of George Floyd amounted to discrimination against their children. A Fourth Circuit appeals court decided in a split ruling last May that the practices did not constitute discrimination against white and Asian students; the Supreme Court's denial lets that decision stand. The majority gave no written explanation of their decision to decline, as is customary. Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, issued a scathing 10-page dissent calling the Fourth Circuit's ruling "indefensible," and saying the court's decision to let it stand was "hard to understand." Glenn Roper, a senior attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation, which represented the plaintiffs, said his clients were "devastated" by the court's decision but that the foundation -- a conservative legal nonprofit that has several similar cases pending in the high court's docket -- is undeterred. "If anything, this multiplies our efforts," he told Inside Higher Ed. "There are multiple unanswered questions from the Students for Fair Admissions ruling that the court is going to have to address eventually." |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State basketball beats Ole Miss to split series, hurt Rebels' March Madness hopes | |
| Chris Beard finally reached his breaking point in Wednesday's matchup between Ole Miss and Mississippi State basketball. After a stretch of possessions where he was unhappy with the officiating, he had enough. So with 12:17 remaining in the game, the first-year Rebels' coach unleashed on the referee nearest him to earn a technical foul. Perhaps searching for a tactic to fire up his team, Beard instead sparked a Humphrey Coliseum crowd anxious to let him hear it. The Bulldogs (18-8, 7-6 SEC) used it to their advantage, using the momentum to fuel a crucial 10-2 run en route to a 83-71 win. For MSU coach Chris Jans, who earned his own technical foul shortly afterwards, the victory earned a series split against the Rebels (19-7, 6-7) and improved his record to 3-1 against them in two seasons. Wednesday served as a missed opportunity for Ole Miss that could prove costly in the Rebels' quest toward an at-large NCAA Tournament bid. Entering the contest, ESPN projected Ole Miss as the last team in the field of 68. However, with a loss, bracketologist Joe Lunardi said the Rebels would move to the wrong side of the bubble. Mississippi State returns to the road Saturday (7:30 p.m., SEC Network) for a matchup at LSU. Ole Miss returns to the SJB Pavilion on Saturday (2:30 p.m., SEC Network) to face South Carolina. |
| Men's Basketball: Mississippi State clamps down on Rebels in second half for rivalry win | |
| As pleased as Chris Jans has been with Shakeel Moore's offensive progress, Mississippi State's head coach needed more out of his senior guard defensively. After all, this was a player who was named to the watchlist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year award last season, and Moore's ability to limit opposing guards was central to the Bulldogs' defensive efforts in Jans' first year in Starkville. So Jans grabbed Moore before MSU's game last Saturday against Arkansas, reinforcing the need for Moore to guard the ball. If Moore didn't get the message against the Razorbacks, he certainly did Wednesday night with arch-rival Ole Miss in town. Moore's defense on Rebels guard Jaylen Murray, who scored 21 points in a win over the Bulldogs in Oxford last month, helped MSU hold the visitors to 27 second-half points and take control late in an 83-71 victory. "He was super aggressive tonight. He finished really well, even in some traffic with some trees around him," Jans said. "He was relentless for the most part on defense, and I thought he just had a different mindset. I've been a little disappointed with him. He just hasn't been as motored up as he had been in the past, and so I'm proud of him." |
| Cameron Matthews key to Mississippi State basketball's March Madness hopes | |
| Cameron Matthews had no business getting to the ball, at least Mississippi State basketball coach Chris Jans didn't think so. "People talk about 50-50 balls, but that was like a 20-80 ball," Jans said Wednesday after MSU's 83-71 win against Ole Miss. "He had about a 20% chance to get that ball and the other kid had about an 80. I didn't think he was going to get it." Matthews proved his coach wrong inside Humphrey Coliseum. After MSU freshman guard Josh Hubbard interrupted an Ole Miss pass, the ball was rolling toward mid-court. Matthews was defending at the 3-point line while Ole Miss' Jaemyn Brakefield was near the half-court logo. Yet it was Matthews who burst by Brakefield like a running back through a hole. He reached down, corralled the ball and drew a foul on his way to the basket – giving Mississippi State (18-8, 7-6 SEC) a lead one minute into the second period after trailing by four at halftime. "I really felt like it set the tone," Jans said. "He did an excellent job coming out of the break." Mississippi State went on to out-score Ole Miss (19-7, 6-7) by 16 in the second half, fueled by Matthews who scored 10 of his 11 points in the frame. Fittingly, he was the force who helped clinched a four-straight win for MSU -- a team playing its best basketball as March Madness approaches. |
| Nationally-Ranked Bulldogs Head To California For Next Challenge | |
| After winning four straight games against ranked opponents last week, No. 25/20 Mississippi State is headed to California for the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic, where State will again face a challenging slate. The five-game schedule for the Bulldogs begins with two teams that made the NCAA Tournament on Thursday. State opens the tournament against UCF before playing Notre Dame. On Friday, the Bulldogs face their stiffest test of the young season, meeting No. 1/1 Oklahoma at 7:30 p.m. CT. This will mark the fourth year in a row that MSU has played the Sooners. The tournament concludes with games against Cal State Fullerton and Fresno State on Sunday night. State (8-1) is led by NCAA Pitcher of the Week Aspen Wesley in the circle, but she is joined by Josey Marron and Matalasi Faapito to give MSU three arms with ERAs below 1.00 this year. Offensively, seven Bulldogs have already recorded double-digit total bases, and MSU leads the SEC with a .377 batting average that ranks 11th in the nation. Jessie Blaine has been a force at the plate, leading the team in batting average, RBIs, hits, slugging percentage and total bases. She has put forward an impressive 1.302 OPS this year. State is ranked as high as No. 18 this week in the Softball America poll. The Bulldogs are a consensus top-25 team, and are back in all four polls for the first time since reaching the Super Regional round in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. |
| Bulldogs become the hunters again: Mississippi State in must-win territory Thursday against Kentucky | |
| A five-game winning streak in the middle of Southeastern Conference play would put a target on any team's back. Especially when the second game of that streak was an upset victory over the defending national champions in front of a sold-out home crowd. Mississippi State had vaulted itself into a tie for second place in the conference with five consecutive wins and seemed to be playing simply for SEC and NCAA Tournament seeding down the stretch. But a blowout home loss to an inferior Florida team, followed by a heartbreaking overtime defeat against the Bulldogs' biggest rival, have brought MSU back into murkier waters. "It's as simple as this -- we've been chased," head coach Sam Purcell said. "We got up to second in the SEC at one point (and) we were being chased. Now we have to have a hunting mentality. We have to hunt the top. We can't be comfortable, not that we ever were, but you're getting everybody's best shot. It's reality." Putting together four complete quarters has remained an issue for the Bulldogs (20-7, 7-5 SEC). Early on in conference play, the third quarter was MSU's Achilles heel as the Bulldogs were outscored in that period in each of their first six SEC games, with particularly catastrophic showings at Arkansas and at home against Tennessee. The Bulldogs are back at Humphrey Coliseum on Thursday night to battle the Wildcats (10-16, 3-9), who are still by far the worst team in the SEC as far as the NET rankings are concerned -- checking in at No. 157, Kentucky is 61 spots below Georgia, the next-lowest team in the conference. |
| 'Soft' Bulldogs collapse in midweek series loss to Austin Peay | |
| "I'm still disappointed." Mississippi State head coach Chris Lemonis didn't mince words when talking about another poor offensive display from the Bulldogs. "We have too many opportunities to get big hits and we're just not aggressive or over-aggressive. In that game where they stay in the game and have momentum is because we keep leaving them on the field. You've got to take advantage of it." The Bulldogs fell to 2-3 after a second loss to Austin Peay in their midweek series. MSU held a 10-5 lead after the fifth inning thanks to some poor pitching from the visitors, but a failure to take command left the door open for the Governors to mount a comeback. "They're a good team," Lemonis said of Austin Peay. "They're playing a lot better than us right now offensively, being aggressive, and taking advantage of opportunities at the plate." With two disappointing seasons in the rearview mirror, many were hopeful that the Bulldogs could turn a corner this year. Lemonis and the team wore that disappointment through each of those seasons, but the frustration can only be remedied on the field. It'll take hard work and focus to get through the early struggle, but everyone in the clubhouse knows that it only gets harder from here. |
| With 12-team playoff set, CFP already discussing possibly more teams for 2026 and beyond | |
| Now that the yearslong process to finalize how the 12 teams for the expanded College Football Playoff will be selected for the next two seasons is complete, there are already discussions about maybe adding more teams for 2026 and beyond. The CFP management committee discussed the potential of a 14-team bracket on Wednesday, along with governance of the playoff and the distribution of growing revenue after the next two seasons. But the 10 FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame's incoming athletic director did not reach any conclusions after meeting for nearly nine hours in a hotel at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. "Really productive, very collegial, very collaborative," ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said. "Not everybody loves everything all the time. It's just one of those things when you have 11 different entities. But I think really a positive meeting." The CFP and ESPN have agreed in principle to a six-year contract extension that runs through the 2031 football season that's worth about $1.3 billion annually. But that deal isn't done because issues related to revenue distribution and governance have to be worked out. Executive Director Bill Hancock said the CFP would like to be done with the format and new TV deal within about a month. "We need to be done with this," Hancock said. "Today left everyone with an encouraging feeling." Hancock said he wouldn't get into details about any of the discussions concerning revenue, format or governance of the CFP moving forward since everything is subject to discussion and change, but said there were "very positive vibes on everything that we had in front of us." |
| CFP officials discuss expanding to 14-team playoff in 2026 | |
| The idea of a 14-team College Football Playoff starting in the 2026 season was discussed at CFP meetings in Dallas on Wednesday, just months before the start of the first season with a 12-team playoff. CFP executive director Bill Hancock acknowledged the idea was discussed but declined to provide specific details, saying, "There's work still to be done." With CFP officials pushing to finalize a deal for a television contract for the next eight years, three lingering issues remain unresolved: access, distribution of money and governance. Hancock said the issues need to be resolved within the next month. According to sources, the most dominant discussion of a new model revolved around a 14-team playoff, and CFP leaders left Wednesday's meeting feeling there was momentum. The bump from 12 to 14 teams, as opposed to 16, would mostly address the issue of access rather than finances. Officials will still need to discuss how a 14-team playoff would split up automatic qualifiers -- for example, could the Big Ten and SEC get as many as four automatic bids? Those early discussions were had Wednesday, with no definitive conclusions. While officials didn't dive too deep into financial issues at Wednesday's meeting, Hancock said there was "more ground-level, detailed conversation than we've been able to have." "I think everybody rolled up their sleeves and just said, 'We need to get to work and share what's on our mind,' and they all did," he said. |
| College Football Playoff officials discuss further expansion for 2026 onward | |
| College football commissioners on Wednesday discussed the possibility of growing the College Football Playoff field to 14 or 16 teams when the next CFP contract goes into effect in 2026. They also broached the possibility of adding more automatic qualifier spots, all while acknowledging they've got about a month to get it done. The detailed conversations on changes were anticipated within the group as the CFP faces pressure and a time crunch to finalize its new television deal with ESPN. The CFP management committee is made up of the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame's athletic director. Members expected the Big Ten and SEC to place specific ideas on the table on Wednesday, and by all accounts they did. "It was the most productive meeting I've been in since I started as commissioner and been fortunate to be in these meetings," Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said. "We talked about some formatting and 14 came up. There was a good discussion about that. After that, no details other than we've got more work to do. I feel good about the way everyone came together." The 12-team model for 2024 and 2025 is set. The Board of Managers, which is made up of university presidents, approved a move from a 6+6 to a 5+7 model on Tuesday in light of the Pac-12's collapse. Five conference champions will get automatic bids for the next two years with four earning the first-round byes. Seven teams will take up at-large spots. Now the conversation has fully shifted to 2026 onward, where there is no contract in place and decisions don't need unanimity. The management committee met for more than eight hours at DFW Airport on Wednesday, including two hours with just the Power 5 conferences and Notre Dame incoming athletic director Pete Bevacqua. |
| 'Now is the time to explore it:' College Football Playoff broaches possibility of expanding to 14 | |
| The College Football Playoff's Management Committee convened for a nearly nine-hour meeting Wednesday, found no resolution on a handful of outstanding issues but did broach a headline-grabbing possibility sure to attract significant attention in the coming weeks: The newly expanded 12-team tournament may expand even further -- to 14 teams -- for the 2026 season and beyond. In a dizzying development for some, it bears repeating: College Football Playoff stakeholders are already discussing the possibility of further tournament expansion before anyone has even seen what a 12-team playoff actually looks like. That format takes hold this season. "Fourteen teams was discussed -- it is a possibility," American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco told On3 after the meetings. "You have some large conferences with a lot of members, and there are a lot of marquee teams." As Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark added, "Now it is time to explore it." Several commissioners characterized the meeting overall as "very productive," as the Management Committee -- consisting of 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame's athletic director -- began the heavy lifting of addressing issues that include voting rights, a revenue distribution model and a tournament format for 2026 and beyond. The clock is ticking -- and stakeholders know it. |
| Nick Saban wants to be voice for change in college football | |
| Nick Saban is retired from coaching, but he emphasized Wednesday that he isn't retired from doing his part to help bring some reform, uniformity and "common sense" to college football and the lingering chaos surrounding the sport. "If my voice can bring about some meaningful change, I want to help any way I can, because I love the players, and I love college football," Saban told ESPN. "What we have now is not college football -- not college football as we know it. You hear somebody use the word 'student-athlete.' That doesn't exist." Saban, 72, retired in January after winning six national championships in 17 seasons at Alabama and another at LSU in 2003. He now occupies an office adjacent to the south end zone of Bryant-Denny Stadium and works as an adviser to the university. He also will serve as a college football and NFL draft analyst for ESPN. While still coaching at Alabama, Saban said, he understood that any critique he made of the current NIL climate combined with the transfer portal -- in particular the lack of rules on agents shopping around players in the portal and schools bidding on high school players through donor-based collectives -- could come across as self-serving. But now that he is no longer coaching, Saban plans to take an even stronger stance. "I'm not really looking for a job, but I do know I'd like to impact college football the best way I can, whether it's being a spokesperson or anything else," Saban said. "Listen, I'm for the players. It's not that I'm not for the players. I want to see the players have a great quality of life and be able to create value for themselves. But we've gone to nobody talking about education, nobody talking about creating value for their future, to talking only about how much money can I make while I'm in college." |
| Legendary coach's wife fell on an escalator at U. of South Carolina's stadium. A lawsuit was settled for $1M | |
 | A lawsuit stemming from an accident at Williams-Brice Stadium that severely injured the wife of legendary football coach Art Baker has been settled for more than $1 million, according to court records. Edith Baker and her daughter, Kim, were injured while attending a USC football game against the University of Kentucky in 2019, according to a 2021 complaint. The pair were riding an escalator down from the stadium's "Founder's Zone" when it sped up and abruptly stopped, "propelling them" down metal steps. Edith Baker, who died in 2021 after the lawsuit was filed, was 88 years old at the time of the accident. She hit her heard on the sharp edge of one of the steps, fractured several bones and suffered "significant" wounds to her legs, among other injuries, according to the lawsuit. Both Edith and Kim required medical treatment and physical therapy. The injuries impaired Edith Baker's ability to care for herself, the lawsuit alleged. As a result, she and her husband had to move into an assisted living facility, where their living expenses increased and their quality of life decreased. The lawsuit claimed USC and Otis Elevator Co., which the university had contracted services from, were negligent. They failed to provide a safe environment and failed to inspect and maintain the escalator. An amended complaint accused Otis Elevator Co. of being financially motivated, attempting to reduce its own costs for labor and replacement parts. The case was settled for $1,125,000, with $500,000 going towards medical expenses, attorneys fees and reimbursement costs. Kim Baker received more than $12,000 for her injuries, Art Baker received more than $540,000 for loss of consortium, and Edith Baker's estate received more than $50,000. |
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