| Wednesday, April 17, 2024 |
| Leadership Mississippi announces Class of 2024 | |
 | Forty Mississippians have been selected for the Leadership Mississippi Class of 2024. Leadership Mississippi is an annual program of the Mississippi Economic Council conducted by the M.B. Swayze Foundation. Participants work together in a training program that combines individual study and group sessions. The 2024 class started its work on April 16, and they will graduate in December. Participants include Amanda Tullos, Mississippi State University. Each class is selected by a committee of Leadership Mississippi alumni. The program is endowed through a generous contribution by J.C. and Annie Redd. J.C. Redd was MEC chair in 1974 when the program started. Leadership Mississippi is the second-oldest statewide leadership program in the nation. The program has graduated more than 1,400 alumni active in Mississippi business and politics. |
| 800 acres in Oktibbeha could become solar farm | |
 | A solar farm may be coming to Oktibbeha County. Monday evening the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve a notice of intent for a potential fee in lieu agreement for an as-yet-unnamed solar farm that is eying about 800 acres off of Old West Point Road. Golden Triangle Development LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins told the board an "aggregator" for solar projects is trying to drum up interest in the site. The site is bounded on the north by Old West Point Road, and stretches as far west as Hickory Grove Road and as far east as Camps Airport Road. "Emeren is an aggregator," Higgins explained. "They put solar parcels together and then try to attract solar companies to come in and do (the project). We think this is a new trend we're going to see." Emeren will do the tax work, get connection studies done, get relevant permits and then sell their work to a solar farm to come in and develop, Higgins said. "This is the first one we've seen like this," Higgins said. Higgins said the solar plants are part of an effort to build capacity by the Tennessee Valley Authority. "TVA is kind of in a bind," Higgins said. "We're starting to see an uptick. Counting this one, we've got three (solar farms) we're working right now." |
| City paves way for businessman to turn bus depot into home | |
| Starkville Board of Aldermen on Tuesday night approved rezoning an old bus depot so the property can be sold and turned into a residence. The property, located at 220 W. Gillespie St., was the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District bus depot for many years. It is currently zoned S-E, or special education, which means it may only be used for educational purposes. Hagan Walker, CEO of Glo, is interested in buying the property and restoring an old building there for a residence, he told the board. "I currently live in an old grocery store on Louisville Street," Walker said. "I'm very partial to old buildings and trying to save them. We renovated the old Rex Theater in 2021, and this is one that I walk by often and I thought it might make a cool house." Walker said the property was "pretty much abandoned" by the district. There are still 29 buses parked there, though. "It's in pretty rough shape," Walker said. "If it's going to be sold to me or to any other buyer that isn't an educational institution, the rezoning has to occur." |
| Starkville PD targets crime with help of tech company | |
 | In Starkville, a partnership between the police department and technology company Fūsus is transforming public safety. Starkville Police Chief Mark Ballard said the collaboration allows businesses and residents to register their cameras with the police department, creating a network of digital eyes throughout the community. Those home and business security cameras, combined with the department's own blinking blue and red cameras on corners, street signs, and traffic lights can bring crimes and criminals into better focus. "Cameras are, when I say critical in reconstructing events, we're not talking normal events. We're talking about families that have lost loved ones who want answers, and rightfully deserve answers. And that's what these cameras are able to provide," said Ballard. The camera registry allows law enforcement to quickly pinpoint the closest cameras when emergencies strike. This system replaces the old method of relying on eyewitnesses, significantly speeding up the investigation process. Cameras in homes, businesses, and schools are being used to stop crimes before they even happen. "Many times you see crimes take place, it's not the apprehension that's the hard part. It is the identification. If you can identify the vehicle involved, you're gonna get the individual involved," said Ballard. |
| LINK increases contract rates by $150K per county | |
| Times are tight for everyone, and that includes the Golden Triangle Development LINK. LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins is making the rounds to local boards of supervisors -- Lowndes, Oktibbeha and Clay -- to ask for an increase in the organization's yearly contract rate from $350,000 to $500,000. That would increase the LINK's total revenue by $450,000. On Monday morning, Higgins presented the increase to the Lowndes supervisors. That evening, he presented the increase to the Oktibbeha supervisors. Both boards approved their parts. "What's happened over the past 10 years is that our costs have gone up," Higgins said during the Lowndes County meeting. "Gone up exponentially in some areas. And we've kept our contracts with the county the same for 10 years." Higgins said the LINK's contract with all three counties for industrial recruitment was developed as a "stop gap" until the now-abandoned plan to create a Golden Triangle Regional Development Authority could be implemented. The contract was designed to be temporary and intended to be in effect for only two years, Higgins said. Over time, the constituent entities decided to keep the contracts in place, and the status quo has existed for the past decade. |
| Southern governors tell autoworkers that voting for a union will put their jobs in jeopardy | |
 | On the eve of a vote on union representation at Volkswagen's Tennessee factory, Gov. Bill Lee and five other southern governors are telling workers that voting for a union will put jobs in jeopardy. About 4,300 workers at VW's plant in Chattanooga will start voting Wednesday on representation by the United Auto Workers union. Vote totals are expected to be tabulated Friday night by the National Labor Relations Board. The union election is the first test of the UAW's efforts to organize nonunion auto factories nationwide following its success winning big raises last fall after going on strike against Detroit automakers Ford, General Motors and Jeep maker Stellantis. The governors said in a statement Tuesday that they have worked to bring good-paying jobs to their states. "We are seeing in the fallout of the Detroit Three strike with those automakers rethinking investments and cutting jobs," the statement said. "Putting businesses in our states in that position is the last thing we want to do." Lee said in a statement that Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott have signed on to the statement. The offices of Abbott, Ivey, Kemp and Reeves confirmed their involvement, and McMaster posted the statement on his website. |
| Business leaders urge legislators mulling Medicaid expansion to improve access to health care | |
 | Powerful business groups are urging legislative leaders "to work together" to improve health care access as they negotiate whether to expand Medicaid coverage for Mississippians and by how much. "Access to healthcare is not just about individual health, but about the well being of our entire community," the Mississippi Economic Council, Mississippi Manufacturers Association and the Business and Industry Political Education Committee said in a letter to House Speaker Jason White. "It means a healthier population, a healthier work force and an improved quality of life, all of which contribute to stronger Mississippi communities." White released the letter on social media and said, "We appreciate the business community's support to provide healthcare access to low-income Mississippians. A healthy economy is dependent on a healthy workforce." The House, where White presides, has passed legislation to expand Medicaid as is allowed under federal law to cover people earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level or about $20,000 per year for an individual. The Senate's proposal would expand Medicaid to those working and earning less than 100% of the federal poverty level or about $15,000 annually. While the business groups did not explicitly endorse either plan, they did say they routinely expected state leaders to "responsibly" use federal dollars for education, infrastructure and for other services. "Let's give our hospitals and healthcare experts the same opportunity so hard-working Mississippians will benefit," the letter leaders said. |
| Advocates push for full Medicaid expansion as Mississippi legislators enter negotiations | |
| A coalition of advocates rallied for full Medicaid expansion Tuesday at the Mississippi Capitol as lawmakers prepare to negotiate a final plan that could extend health care coverage to tens of thousands of residents in one of the poorest states in the U.S. Members of Working Together Mississippi -- a coalition of religious and nonprofit groups -- said lawmakers face an economic and moral imperative to ensure more citizens gain access to health care coverage. In recent weeks, they and other advocacy groups have accelerated public campaigns as top lawmakers aim to reach a consensus on what would be a landmark shift in the state's health care policy. Against a backdrop of signs emblazoned with "Full Expansion," speakers on the Capitol steps called for lawmakers to pass a bill that covers people earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level, as the House did, rather than a competing Senate proposal that would only cover people earning up to 100% of that threshold. On Tuesday, Leaders from Christian, Jewish and Muslim institutions argued that full expansion makes economic sense and is the correct moral stance, regardless of one's party affiliation. "I was warned as a Southern Baptist Republican that this issue, expanding Medicaid, might possibly brand me as a liberal," said Pastor Jeff Parker of Southside Baptist Church in Jackson. "My response was simple: You Christians ... cannot have it both ways. You hold to conservative fiscal policies in government (while) you tighten the grip of our government on humanitarian expenditures." |
| 'A matter of life and death:' Hundreds rally at Capitol for full Medicaid expansion | |
| Charles and Cheryl Penson shuffled up the steps of a bus in Tupelo at 4 a.m. on Tuesday to begin a long day's trek to the state Capitol. The reason the Pensons, both of whom are ministers, traveled over three hours to the seat of Mississippi's government is they know several people in rural northeast Mississippi, including one of their own daughters, who could benefit from expanded Medicaid coverage. Their daughter is a businesswoman and a single mother, they said, who works hard at her job, but she could use assistance with health care costs, especially to help her young child who has experienced health issues recently. "I am here because I want to see what is morally right done for the people of Mississippi," Cheryl Penson said as her husband nodded in agreement. "If you have a heart, you have to have a heart for all people." The husband and wife weren't alone. The two joined hundreds of doctors, clergy and other Mississippians from over 35 communities across the Magnolia State who shared stories of their own at a "Full Expansion Day" rally at the Capitol. They urged legislators to expand Medicaid coverage under the federal Affordable Care Act. The Rev. Dr. Jeff Parker, senior pastor at Southside Baptist Church in Jackson, is a self-described "Southern Baptist Republican," who believes in the Gospel of Matthew, where it says "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me" should move Christians to support expansion. |
| Religious leaders in Mississippi urge Legislature to expand Medicaid | |
 | There was but one demand made by religious leaders and hundreds of people who gathered Tuesday on the southern steps of the Mississippi State Capitol Building regarding Medicaid expansion efforts in the Mississippi Legislature: "Full expansion now!" That message came booming from the voices of more than 120 people sitting on the capitol steps as religious leaders from several faiths urged lawmakers to expand the state's Medicaid program and declare April 16 as Medicaid Expansion Day. "We come together this afternoon as people of faith, believing that God wants all of his children to have a whole life, an abundant life, a healthy life," said Rev. Reginal Buckley, of the Baptist General Convention of Mississippi. "A life that is whole spiritually and a life that is whole physically. As a state that is proud of its pro-life stance, it is only fitting that this legislature now leans into the opportunity to make it possible for all Mississippians across this state to have full access to healthcare." The call to action for lawmakers came just days after Lt. Gov Delbert Hosemann and House Speaker Jason White, R-West, made conference committee appointments to iron out a compromise between the House and Senate Medicaid expansion plan. Some of those conferees told the Clarion Ledger they hope to meet before Friday to start that process. |
| Palazzo honored in Hattiesburg by Quilts of Valor Foundation | |
 | A non-profit group that provides hand-made quilts to military veterans and service personnel honored former 4th District Congressman Steven Palazzo Tuesday. The Quilts of Valor Foundation presented Palazzo with his very own quilt, during a meeting of the Forrest-Lamar Republican Women. "It's just an honor to present Steven with this quilt after all he's done for us, serving his country in the Congress as well as in the military," said Anne Kelley, Mississippi State coordinator for Quilts of Valor. Palazzo served six consecutive terms in Congress but lost re-election in 2022 to Mike Ezell. "(The quilt is) just always going to serve as a remembrance of why we're the greatest country on earth, why we're the freest country, it's because of our men and women who answer our nation's call to serve," Palazzo said. "This is going to become a family heirloom and I'm going to hang it in my house with pride." Palazzo says he's happy, for now, running a small business and says he has no immediate plans to run for any future public office. |
| President Biden moves to triple tariff rates on Chinese steel and aluminum | |
 | President Joe Biden wants to triple the rates of tariffs on steel and aluminum from China amid pressure from labor unions concerned about the survival of the U.S. steel industry because of Chinese competition. Biden, during an address Wednesday to the United Steelworkers union in Pittsburgh, will call on his United States Trade Representative, Katherine Tai, to consider tripling the existing 7.5% average tariff rate on Chinese steel and aluminum under Section 301 of the Trade Expansion Act, according to the White House. With the move, Biden is borrowing from the trade playbook of former President Donald Trump, the Republican presumptive nominee, who routinely raised tariffs on Chinese goods during his four years in office. Lael Brainard, the White House director of the National Economic Council, said China -- which produces more than half the world's steel -- is making more steel than the world can absorb, "flooding global markets at artificially low prices" and "undercutting American steel that is clean." Production of Chinese steel isn't subject to the same level of environmental regulation as the U.S. requires domestically. Biden's move on tariffs comes one week after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with Chinese leaders in Beijing. Yellen said she relayed the U.S. is worried China's "weak household consumption and business overinvestment" pose "significant risk to workers and businesses in the United States and the rest of the world." |
| South Korea Has a Warning About Donald Trump's Trial | |
 | The criminal trial of former President Donald Trump is an unprecedented moment for the U.S. --- but across the globe, South Korea has already convicted its fair share of former presidents. Three of the last four presidents were investigated by prosecutors over the span of a decade. Roh Moo-hyun, from the liberal party, died of suicide while he and his close circle were investigated for bribery. Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye were convicted and sentenced to prison over bribery and abuse of power. Yoon Suk Yeol, the current president of South Korea, played a key role in the indictment of Park Geun-hye as prosecutor general at the time, and his achievement catapulted him to the stardom he needed to run for the presidency. With the U.S. now facing its first criminal trial of a former president, I called up Nathan Park, a fellow at the foreign-policy focused Quincy Institute and a left-leaning Korea watcher, to ask how the U.S. can learn from Korea's long history of locking up past leaders. Park, who is critical of the current Yoon administration, discussed the consequences of prosecuting leaders, how to prevent it from becoming a political weapon and why a future president should consider pardoning Trump if he does get convicted. Once lauded as victories for democracy over corruption, the prosecutions have now thrust Korea into a new and paranoid era, with government officials riddled with fears of lawsuits and criminal charges. Even worse, it makes lawmakers afraid to admit fault for fear of their apologies being used against them in court. "On a very ground level ... you can sense it from government officials that they're freaking terrified to do anything outside of the manual," Park says. "Everything they do is extremely defensive." |
| Secret Russian foreign policy document urges action to weaken the U.S. | |
 | Russia's Foreign Ministry has been drawing up plans to try to weaken its Western adversaries, including the United States, and leverage the Ukraine war to forge a global order free from what it sees as American dominance, according to a secret Foreign Ministry document. In a classified addendum to Russia's official -- and public -- "Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation," the ministry calls for an "offensive information campaign" and other measures spanning "the military-political, economic and trade and informational psychological spheres" against a "coalition of unfriendly countries" led by the United States. "We need to continue adjusting our approach to relations with unfriendly states," states the 2023 document, which was provided to The Washington Post by a European intelligence service. "It's important to create a mechanism for finding the vulnerable points of their external and internal policies with the aim of developing practical steps to weaken Russia's opponents." The document for the first time provides official confirmation and codification of what many in the Moscow elite say has become a hybrid war against the West. Russia is seeking to subvert Western support for Ukraine and disrupt the domestic politics of the United States and European countries, through propaganda campaigns supporting isolationist and extremist policies, according to Kremlin documents previously reported on by The Post. It is also seeking to refashion geopolitics, drawing closer to China, Iran and North Korea in an attempt to shift the current balance of power. Western officials have warned that Russia has been escalating its propaganda and influence campaigns over the past two years as it seeks to undermine support for Ukraine. As part of that, it has sought to create a new global divide, with Russian propaganda efforts against the West resonating in many countries in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia. |
| Hackers Linked to Russia's Military Claim Credit for Sabotaging US Water Utilities | |
 | Russia's military intelligence unit known as Sandworm has, for the past decade, served as the Kremlin's most aggressive cyberattack force, triggering blackouts in Ukraine and releasing self-spreading, destructive code in incidents that remain some of the most disruptive hacking events in history. In recent months, however, one group of hackers linked to Sandworm has attempted a kind of digital mayhem that, in some respects, goes beyond even its predecessor: They've claimed responsibility for directly targeting the digital systems of a hydroelectric dam in France and water utilities in the United States and Poland, flipping switches and changing software settings in an apparent effort to sabotage those countries' critical infrastructure. Since the beginning of this year, a hacktivist group known as the Cyber Army of Russia, or sometimes Cyber Army of Russia Reborn, has taken credit on at least three occasions for hacking operations that targeted US and European water and hydroelectric utilities. In each case, the hackers have posted videos to the social media platform Telegram that show screen recordings of their chaotic manipulation of so-called human-machine interfaces, software that controls physical equipment inside those target networks. The apparent victims of that hacking include multiple US water utilities in Texas, one Polish wastewater treatment plant, and a French hydroelectric plant -- though it's not clear exactly how much disruption or damage the hackers may have managed against any of those facilities. A new report published today by cybersecurity firm Mandiant draws a link between that hacker group and Sandworm. |
| Lee County educator takes lead at UM Tupelo, Booneville campuses | |
| Leigh Anne Newton, a Tupelo native and faculty member at the University of Mississippi at Tupelo, is helping the university continue its commitment to workforce development in the area as the new director of its Booneville and Tupelo regional campuses. Newton took over the leadership of these important regional campuses on April 15, bringing a renewed vision and commitment to serving their communities. A lifelong resident of north Mississippi, Newton has served 26 years as a teacher and administrator for the Lee County School District. "North Mississippi is my home, and I want to see this area continue to grow through businesses, industries and educational opportunities," she said. "We are fortunate to have strong K-12 school systems, community colleges and universities right here. I want to work to ensure everyone knows about and can take advantage of these opportunities our students have right here close to home." Newton says one of her goals will be to establish more business, industry and community partnerships that can benefit students and the area workforce. |
| Navigating mental health at Ole Miss | |
 | Discussions about mental health and anxiety are becoming more common among University of Mississippi students. "University students in today's world as a whole seem to have a significant amount of anxiety," Kris Brasher, instructor of therapeutic recreation for the Department of Health, Exercise and Recreation Management, said. "We discuss topics like anxiety in class relatively frequently, and many of the students are quite open about feelings of anxiety, panic attacks and the sort." Since 2007, the Healthy Minds Study has annually examined mental health issues among undergraduate and graduate students, utilizing data from more than 530 colleges and universities, including UM. The most recent report found that 46% of students have received a lifetime diagnosis of a mental health disorder. Anxiety and stress-related disorders originating from various causes have always been present in the university setting, according to Brasher. He attributes the uptick in conversations about mental health to destigmatization. "Today's world is far more accepting and open to anxiety being a 'normal' response that is now being addressed, discussed and no longer hidden from others as often as in the past," Brasher said. |
| Black Spring Break in Biloxi sees 31 gun incidents, claims of racial discrimination | |
 | The police report on last weekend's Black Spring Break shows guns and narcotics were brought to the beach, Biloxi Police Chief John Miller reported Tuesday. Miller said there were "31 separate incidents with guns in that area." One person was armed with a switch, he said, which allows a handgun to fire like a machine gun. In addition, Miller reported 61 seizures of narcotics in the area of spring break. Biloxi Police made about 60 arrests in that area of the beach over the three-day event, he said. Of the 2,538 calls for service during the week, 740 were in the event area over the weekend, he said, including a call about a person on the beach with a gun. "Some of this is spring breakers calling us," he said. Miller said problems with spring break aren't just in Biloxi, where events are called by various names indicating it is a "Black" spring break. "It's not just us -- it's all across the country," Miller said, and especially in the South, where cities like Miami Beach and Panama City Beach have instituted curfews and taken other steps to control the crowds and violence by spring breakers of all races. The organizer of Black Spring Break hasn't commented directly on the events of the weekend, while the organizers of Black Beach Weekend said in a press release they are addressing "the blatant discrimination, misinformation, and unethical mistreatment of spring breakers from the Biloxi Police Department, City of Biloxi, Gulfport Police Department, news media and the Harrison County Sheriff's Office." |
| Georgia regents increase tuition for the 2024-25 school year | |
| Rising costs will catch up with Georgia residents who attend a state college or university, with in-state tuition set to rise 2.5% in the fall. Students from outside Georgia will pay even more after the state Board of Regents broke a half-decade trend Tuesday, voting to raise tuition at all 26 campuses, and fees for online students. They also concurred with Chancellor Sonny Perdue's request to continue the waiver on admissions testing, with only the three most selective campuses continuing to require an ACT or SAT score. Perdue suggested that could change after next year, though. Tuition had not risen since a 2.5% increase in fall 2019, except at Middle Georgia State University. Students there will see another increase this fall, along with the other 25 state campuses. In addition to the 2.5% rise for in-state tuition, students from outside Georgia will pay 5% more. The regents also established a new tuition tier for foreign students, setting it 2% above what out-of-state students pay. For students at the University of Georgia, the state's flagship campus, it will be $5,017 in-state, $15,136 out-of-state and $15,424 out-of-country. Tracey Cook, the University System of Georgia's chief fiscal officer, said rising costs for food, technology, utilities, insurance and salaries necessitated these increases. "We must at times increase tuition to maintain a consistent standard of quality," she said. Perdue said after the regents approved the increases that anyone who goes to a grocery store, a gas station or a restaurant knows that prices have been rising. The University System is committed to doing more with less, he said, "but at some point, you do less with less." |
| The Pride of the Southland makes difficult decision to hold re-auditions as they tackle record numbers | |
| For the first time since the early 2000s, the Pride of the Southland Marching Band held re-auditions for all of its band members, and not everyone made it back. The Pride is a microcosm of the University of Tennessee, as nearly every major is represented among its band members. As the university has grown over the last few years, so has the band. Two years ago, the Pride had about 340 members, but now, if the Pride were to accept all returning members and new auditionees, the band would be over 550 people, according to Michael Stewart, the band's director since 2022. "And with that comes a situation where logistically, financially, we can't do that big of a band," Stewart said. "And, you know, there's only so many seats at Neyland. There's only so many buses we can afford on trips, hotel rooms and meal money when we travel. ... There has to be a line somewhere. So, we drew a line last year with the help of the university and athletics of having a band of 415 -- which is the biggest band we've ever had." Christian Carroll, the Pride's newest drum major and sophomore music education major, said that Stewart's community-building efforts are also contributing to the band's growth, and he supports all his decisions to improve the band's overall quality. Members who did not make it into the Pride's 2024 marching season will have the ability to re-audition for the 2025 marching season next spring. |
| Producers share thoughts, concerns, optimism on AI being integrated in agriculture | |
 | Travis Senter is a third-generation farmer in northeast Arkansas. His father, who is 20 years older, can't turn on a computer, but has lots of questions when it comes to the family business and usually asks his son for answers. It might take Senter up to an hour to compile the data needed to get his dad an answer. That's where Senter believes artificial intelligence could bridge a gap for his father and other producers. If his father could use an interface, like ChatGPT, to insert data and ask a question, answers could come in a more efficient manner. This is a similar problem Senter said he believes producers like himself face: they have an excess of data without an effective way to use it to sort, manage and utilize it for the benefit of their operation. Senter shared these thoughts as part of a five-person panel of producers during the AI in Agriculture and Natural Resources Conference at Texas A&M University on Tuesday. Panel members posed their opinions to AI industry members and students on the challenges and opportunities producers like themselves face in adapting to digital agriculture technology. Robert Strong, an associate professor in A&M's Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education & Communications, said AI can be the great equalizer for land-grant institutions such as A&M to compete with food systems institutions. He added he's hopeful about the future because of the number of students interested in AI-related fields and issues. |
| Democracy is on trial in New York, not just Donald Trump, Mizzou professor says | |
 | It's not just Donald Trump on trial in New York, it's also democracy, said University of Missouri professor Jay Sexton. "We think of this trial as the former president being on trial, but it is democracy itself," said Sexton, the Rich and Nancy Kinder Chair in Constitutional Democracy in the Kinder Institute of Constitutional Democracy. All of our democratic institutions and the electorate watching it all are on trial, he said. Trump is the first former president and the first presidential candidate to be a defendant in a criminal trial, Sexton said is the obvious historic aspect of the New York state trial. It's often referred to as a hush money trial, referring to the money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels to remain quiet about a sexual encounter with Trump. It's about more than that, Sexton said. "There's the particulars of the case about the legitimacy of or our democratic institutions and falsifying documents," he said. The eventual verdict will make many happy and make many upset, Sexton said. "It's kind of a test of our institutions and courts and the jurors and us," he said. "Can we accept the result?" |
| Settlement Shuts Down Bias Response Team at Oklahoma State University | |
 | Oklahoma State University must disband its Bias Incidents Response Team and rewrite its harassment policy, according to a settlement the university reached Monday with Speech First, a conservative free expression advocacy group that sued OSU in January 2023. The suit was part of Speech First's ongoing campaign to challenge university bias reporting systems, which the organization's website claims "favors students who easily take offense," and therefore makes "political speech and satire" particularly vulnerable. "This is a major victory for OSU students, and we won't stop until ALL students across the nation are able to exercise their constitutionally protected right to free speech," Cherise Trump, executive director of Speech First, said in a press release Tuesday. "We have won a number of battles against colleges who knowingly violate students' speech rights and will continue to do so." This isn't the first time Speech First has challenged a university's harassment and bias response policies. It has filed -- and won -- lawsuits against the Universities of Texas, Michigan and Central Florida in recent years, and those universities also had to disband their bias response teams and rewrite harassment policies as a result. Although critics have characterized bias response teams as thought police squadrons eager to suppress free speech, advocates have said that's a misconception and that the teams are designed to inform students about bias and to keep track of such instances on campus. |
| A New Player Enters the Graduate-School Game | |
 | The graduate-school enterprise has not exactly been a magnet for philanthropy in recent years. During these times of unprecedented economic and political challenge to higher education, once-stalwart supporters seem to have paddled away from our storm-tossed ship. Among other losses, doctoral education has seen the withdrawal of former benefactors such as the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (now the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, and focused on K-12 education) and the Mellon Foundation (which has subordinated its support of scholarship to a wider social-justice mission). That's why it's noteworthy to see a new player enter this embattled sector. The Gardner Institute is a nonprofit organization supported by foundation grants. It has a deserved reputation for its longtime work curating the "First-Year Redesign," a suite of offerings designed to help colleges develop their own plans to orient and retain first-year undergraduates during a period of their education when they're at greatest risk of quitting. Now Gardner is expanding its reach. This spring it went public with a new educational initiative: "The Graduate Student Experience" --- unveiled at a March conference in Asheville, N.C., attended by representatives of more that 50 graduate schools from around the country. The Graduate School Experience has some of the same contours as Gardner's first-year project. Both aim to help institutions ease the difficult transition for students to a new educational experience. The mission, in the words of the institute's founder, John N. Gardner, is to "gather data on the curricular and cocurricular dynamics of the student experience, discuss the meaning of the data," and then use it "to help the institution decide on a plan and implement it." |
| Most student loan borrowers say they've delayed major life events due to debt: Gallup | |
 | Most student loan borrowers say they have delayed major life events due to their debt, according to a recent study. The Lumina Foundation-Gallup 2024 State of Higher Education study, released Wednesday, found 71 percent of borrowers said they needed to delay at least one major life event because of their student loans. Survey respondents were most likely to list buying a home, buying a car and moving out of their parents' home as life events that were placed on hold. Just under 30 percent said they were delayed in buying a home, 28 percent said they were delayed in buying a car and 22 percent said they were delayed in moving out, per the poll. Roughly 20 percent said they needed to put off starting their own business, 15 percent said they waited to have children and 13 percent delayed getting married. Gallup noted that delay rates of these major life events were similar across demographic groups. Men were more likely than women to say loans delayed them, with 76 percent of men saying so compared to 64 percent of women. The study also found that even those with smaller student loans were delayed in starting major life events. Around 63 percent of those with less than $10,000 in student loans said they have delayed major life events. |
| 'Catastrophic Success' Threatens Army Education Benefits | |
| Credential Assistance, one of the Army's premier education benefit programs, has become a "catastrophic success" since its initiation as a pilot program in 2020, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said at a budget hearing on Capitol Hill last week. Now it may cost too much to be sustainable. Wormuth was explaining why both Credential Assistance (CA) and its parent program, Tuition Assistance (TA), are up for review, after being questioned by Representative John Carter, whose Texas district includes Fort Cavazos. Although the process of review is not unheard of, in this case Carter said he is "deeply concerned" about it. Exactly what changes will result from the review remain unclear, but policy experts say the outcomes will likely be detrimental both to the approximately 117,000 soldiers that utilize the benefits each year and the colleges and universities they attend. Since news of the review broke last week, both Wormuth and Army public affairs officers have been hesitant to describe potential changes as "cuts," instead describing them as "restructuring." But higher education advocates expect that regardless of how the Army frames it, unless the review begets an increase in funding -- which is highly unlikely -- the results won't be positive. |
| The House Republican Going After Universities on Antisemitism | |
 | Virginia Foxx, the Republican congresswoman from North Carolina, has spent the last few months giving elite schools a hard time. As the chairwoman of the House committee on education, she oversaw a tense hearing in December that spurred the resignations of the presidents of University of Pennsylvania and Harvard. She has led an investigation of a half-dozen institutions for their handling of antisemitism claims. She has subpoenaed internal documents, and called Jewish students to testify. On Wednesday, she will preside over another hearing, this time with officials at Columbia University. The drubbing is part of a campaign by Republicans against what they view as double standards within elite education establishments -- practices that they say favor some groups over others, and equity over meritocracy. Others see it as partisan attack. Representative Foxx, 80, does not like the term "elite," and questions whether these schools even deserve the title "I call them the most expensive universities in the country," she said the other day, while traveling around her district, which winds through small working-class towns in the Blue Ridge Mountains. She is known for her conservative views and blunt manner. But her current work, she said, is rooted in personal experience. Over her years in office, she has repeatedly told her life story, of growing up in a sparsely populated rural area, in a house without running water or electricity. She went on to junior college, state college and graduate school, eventually earning a doctorate from the University of North Carolina, leveraging her way into intertwined careers in politics and education, becoming president of a community college. But it is her religious beliefs and identification with the underdog, she said, that inform how she is dealing with the bitter campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war. |
| In Congressional Testimony, Columbia University President Condemns Antisemitism on Campus | |
 | Columbia University President Nemat "Minouche" Shafik told members of Congress Wednesday the school is doing everything it can to confront antisemitism on her campus while trying to balance free-speech rights of students, as demonstrations against Israel and the war in Gaza have escalated at universities around the country. "Columbia strives to be a community free of discrimination and hate in all its forms and we condemn the antisemitism that is so pervasive today," Shafik told the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce, which is holding the hearing. "Antisemitism has no place on our campus and I am personally committed to doing everything I can to confront it directly." At the outset of the hearing, the chairwoman of that committee, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.), said that antisemitism has spread across universities around the country and that Columbia University is one of the worst hotbeds. "Columbia stands guilty of gross negligence, at best, and at worst has become a platform for those supporting terrorism and violence against the Jewish people." Jewish students at Columbia have alleged incidents of assault, antisemitic graffiti like swastikas, calls for the destruction of Israel at rallies and speaking invitations from student groups to members of foreign terrorist groups. A university task force set up to fight antisemitism on campus issued a report last month on the school's performance that concluded the administration hadn't always fully applied its own rules. |
| 'Arkansas model' pushed by Medicaid expansion advocates worst of both worlds | |
| The Magnolia Tribune's Russ Latino writes: A friend of mine sent me a text this week quipping that one Mississippi news outlet should change its name to "Medicaid Expansion Today." The recent frenetic activity on Medicaid, from advocacy media, to far-left rallies, to lobbyists with a financial interest, is not a sign of strength. It's Hail Mary desperation. With as little as one week remaining in session, proponents want a win on full Medicaid expansion badly. Only a wide chasm exists between the plans passed by the Mississippi House and Senate. Such chasms can kill a bill as effectively as a "no" vote. But not always. Sometimes, mixed with the pressure of a ticking time clock, wide chasms yield monstrously bad compromises. Enter the discussion of the 'Arkansas model' as a "middle ground" for Mississippi. In reality, heading that direction would combine the worst aspects of the House and Senate plans. |
| In Mississippi's Medicaid debate, look at rapidly increasing rural mortality rates | |
| Columnist Sid Salter writes: As Mississippi legislators head to conference on the state's first sincere consideration of some form of Medicaid expansion, we've heard alarms sounded by the right and the left on why the state alternately should or should not expand Medicaid coverage for the state's working poor. Proponents of Medicaid expansion celebrate the fact that Mississippi is finally taking steps toward reclaiming a portion of the federal tax dollars Mississippians have been paying to provide expanded Medicaid coverage for the working poor in 40 other states but not in our state where healthcare disparities loom large in the poorest state in the union. Opponents of the Mississippi House version of Medicaid expansion in Mississippi and the other 10 states across the country that have not expanded coverage make three primary arguments -- the state can't afford the state share of the costs, expanding Medicaid will discourage finding work, and states should not increase enrollment in a "broken program." The political wars and the messaging generated by both sides are contradictory and confusing. But a March 2024 U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service report suggests that for rural Mississippians, the state's Medicaid expansion debate actually might have life or death consequences. |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State Women's Golf wins SEC Championship | |
| For the first time in program history, the Mississippi State women's golf team can call itself SEC Champions. The Bulldogs earned their first conference trophy after defeating Texas A&M, 3-2. With the victory on Tuesday, Mississippi State became the 11th team since 2000 to win both the individual and team title following Julia Lopez Ramirez's second straight individual championship on Sunday. Avery Weed proved stellar again. In her matchup against Zoe Slaughter, Weed dropped the first hole. She immediately came back to tie her match on hole two. She secured the lead on the fourth hole of the matchup and would never trail again. Weed hit a pair of impressive shots to secure the victory. She used a "Texas Wedge" style shot to regain the lead on the 13th hole to regain a one-hole lead. On the 17th hole, Weed's approach shot landed mere inches from the pin, which allowed her to secure State's championship by a 2&1 victory. Julia Lopez Ramirez earned the first point for the Bulldogs in impressive fashion. Lopez Ramirez won the first hole of the day and never looked back. She secured her point in just 13 holes, as she dominated Park en route to the 5&4 victory. Izzy Pellot was once again reliable for the Bulldogs in the final round of the SEC Championship. After earning the lead on hole two, Pellot would never give it up. She secured her matchup with a birdie on the 16th hole, as she earned the point, 2&1. The Bulldogs will continue their postseason journey with the NCAA Regionals, which are set for May 3. State will learn their destination when the selections take place on April 24. |
| Mississippi State women's golf wins first SEC Championship | |
| The Mississippi State women's golf team won the SEC Championship on Tuesday, beating Texas A&M 3-2 in match play to bring home the first conference title in program history. Head coach Charlie Ewing's Bulldogs team won matchups against Kentucky in the quarterfinals and LSU in the semifinals before taking down Texas A&M in the championship match. Junior Julia Lopez Ramirez secured back-to-back individual SEC titles over the weekend and played her part along with sophomore Izzy Pellot and freshman Avery Weed in winning their championship matchups on Tuesday. Weed did so with an exceptional shot under pressure, hitting within a foot of the pin on the final hole after Texas A&M's Zoe Slaughter hit within three feet. Coming into the tournament, the Aggies were ranked 17th in the Top 25 of the Women's Golf Coaches Association Poll while the Bulldogs were unranked. MSU's semi-final opponents LSU were ranked at No. 5 in the same poll. |
| Mississippi State women's golf wins SEC championship for first time ever | |
| For the first time ever, the Mississippi State women's golf team has captured an SEC championship. After falling in last year's finals to Texas A&M, the Bulldogs wouldn't let the Aggies oust them two years in a row with a beautiful shot from freshman Avery Weed to seal the deal. Other contributors to the championship were back-to-back SEC individual champion Julia Lopez Ramirez and Izzy Pellot. Ramirez, coming off a 10-under performance this past weekend to win the individual tournament, assisted the Bulldogs by winning her match alongside Pellot to tie the Aggies 2-2. That's when the freshman from Ocean Springs sealed the deal with multiple long putts and clutch shots. |
| Mississippi State Cruises Past Alcorn State | |
| The Mississippi State baseball team opened up a four-game homestand with an 11-0 run-rule victory over Alcorn State on Tuesday night. The Diamond Dawg offense stayed patient in the batter's box, grabbing 12 walks. Dakota Jordan stayed hot at the plate, going 2-for-3 in the contest. Jordan grabbed a triple and three RBIs. Ethan Pulliam got the start at second base and made the most of it. Pulliam put up an RBI and two hits to end the night 2-for-3 at the plate. Pico Kohn got the start on the mound, went three innings, and punched out five on his way to his first win of the season. Karson Ligon and Gavin Black each grabbed an inning of work. Black struck out a pair, and Ligon grabbed a strikeout. Colby Holcombe and Logan Forsythe each struck out three in an inning of work each. Mississippi State is back for a three-game series against Auburn for Super Bulldog Weekend. Friday and Sunday's games will be aired on SECN+ with Saturday on SECN. First pitch for Friday is set for 6 p.m. |
| Baseball: Mississippi State handles business against Alcorn State | |
| Pico Kohn's first start back from Tommy John surgery wasn't bad, but head coach Chris Lemonis knew the left-hander was capable of much more. Mississippi State gave Kohn the midweek start at Samford on Mar. 26, and although he allowed only one run, he walked three batters in just two innings of work. Three weeks later, Kohn took the mound again to face an Alcorn State team with just two wins all season, a unit that entered Tuesday ranked 302nd out of 305 Division I teams in the RPI. And this time, he was excellent, holding the Braves to one hit and no walks with five strikeouts over three scoreless innings. The Bulldogs were patient at the plate against the nation's second-worst pitching staff by ERA, drawing 12 walks en route to an 11-0 run-rule victory. "I was very pleased. We got out to a good start, got a little lead, got to add on to it," Lemonis said. "That was the best we've ever seen Pico. Karson Ligon was really good, Gavin Black was probably as good as we've seen him." Freshman Ethan Pulliam, a Starkville High graduate, made the most of his first collegiate start with an RBI single in the fifth and another single in his next at-bat. "Ethan was really good in the fall, really good in spring training," Lemonis said. "It was his time to get an opportunity, and he had a really good game. He just works. He's just a worker. He just shows up and gets after it, hasn't pouted, hasn't acted like a baby, and the game respects that." |
| No. 17 Bulldogs Run Rule Memphis Tuesday Night | |
| No. 17/17 Mississippi State scored 16 runs on its way to its 15th run-rule victory of the season on Tuesday night. The Bulldogs scored 12 runs in the first before downing Memphis, 16-1, in five innings. State (30-12, 9-9 SEC) sent 17 batters to the plate in the opening frame, collecting nine hits including two doubles and two two-run homers. Paige Cook had four RBIs in the first inning alone, and Sierra Sacco had stolen two bases. Sacco was one of four Bulldogs to score twice in the inning. "I think I'm just proud of the way we came out and attacked," head coach Samantha Ricketts said. "Just trying to get back in line after Sunday's loss. We talked before the game, knowing that especially at this point of the season, every game is a big game. It doesn't matter if we're in conference or out of conference. When we're playing for postseason seeding, every game matters. Just take care of business, get back to playing our game, not worrying about what the score is or who the opponent is. I thought they especially showed that in the first inning." The Bulldogs play their second makeup game of the week on Wednesday, hosting South Alabama to close their current five-game homestand. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. CT on SEC Network+. |
| Fred Castro hired as assistant for Sam Purcell's Mississippi State women's basketball staff | |
| Mississippi State women's basketball has hired Fred Castro as associate head coach for coach Sam Purcell's staff, the program announced Tuesday. Castro spent the past eight seasons as the head coach at Eastern Michigan. "Fred Castro is a phenomenal addition to our staff and program," Purcell said in a school news release. "With Final Four experience, he is a proven winner with an established résumé of talent development and a reputation as one of the top offensive minds in our profession. His knowledge of how we want to run our offensive system and his ability to teach it will be unmatched. His work ethic is evident in how he advanced through the coaching ranks en route to becoming a head coach and his ability to connect and build relationships is like few I have been around. His nationwide connections will prove to be vital in our recruiting efforts and I have no doubt that he will continue to make our program better every day." |
| Bulldogs Wrap Regular Season At Mossy Oak Collegiate | |
| The No. 26 Mississippi State men's golf team finished the regular season by completing the final round of the Mossy Oak Collegiate on Tuesday. Over the two-day event, the Bulldogs shot a combined 6-under 858 and finished tied for fourth. State's fourth place finish allows them to continue their season long run of top-10 finishes and marks their sixth finish in the top half of the field this season. "I thought we did a really nice job of putting a good round together," head coach Dusty Smith said. "It was a big round for our team. I really challenged the guys last night to play for each other and the State logo on their chest rather than themselves. They really embraced that today and got a lot of momentum heading into post season play." MSU's third round was their best of the tournament, as they shot a combined 6-under 282. That round paced all other teams in the field other than eventual tournament winner Auburn. MSU will next turn their attention to the postseason. State will have just over a week off, before returning to action at the SEC tournament in St. Simons Island, Georgia. The tournament will consist of three days of stroke play, with the top eight teams then advancing to the match play bracket for a shot at the SEC Championship. |
| How many millions it cost to fix Stegeman Coliseum's ceiling in time for basketball season | |
 | Fixing the ceiling of Stegeman Coliseum in time for the Georgia basketball season didn't come cheap. The school shut down the venue in 2023 from March to October and cancelled scheduled events there to ensure the safety of those inside the now 60-year old arena after pieces of the ceiling fell in recent years. The Athens Banner-Herald received through an open records request from Georgia athletics how much it cost to repair the coliseum ceiling so it could be used this school year for men's and women's basketball games, volleyball matches, gymnastics meets and university events. Georgia produced seven invoices signed off by the University of Georgia's Facilities Management and UGA athletics for work performed through Aug. 21 totaling $6,151,851.56, but the final figures will be substantially higher. Georgia athletics said Tuesday that payments thus far for the project have been made totaling $8,907,146.95 to Structural Resources Inc., an Athens firm. Georgia is planning for future renovations for Stegeman instead of building a new arena that athletic director Josh Brooks has said would cost more than $200 million. A small piece from the ceiling fell on March 2, 2023, prompting the closure of Stegeman. That was the largest of three pieces to fall since spring 2018. |
| Curators to announce Memorial Stadium renderings Thursday | |
 | The announcement Missouri fans have been anticipating for months will take place Thursday, when the University of Missouri System Board of Curators will unveil renderings of Memorial Stadium's planned north concourse renovations. The big reveal will come in the middle of a busy week. The Mizzou Intercollegiate Athletics Special Committee, composed of four members, met Tuesday morning in executive session. The committee will meet again Friday for another executive session. It's a group that likes to meet out of the public eye. Since its establishment at the Feb. 8 curators meeting in Columbia, it has convened in executive session three times, with the fourth scheduled for Friday. After each meeting, the Missourian has asked for information about any votes taken, which must be disclosed unless a vote is about a contract which has not yet been executed. After each athletics special committee meeting, MU spokesperson Christian Basi has said that no votes were recorded. After Thursday's full board meeting, interim Athletic Director Marcy Girton, Missouri football coach Eli Drinkwitz and representatives from DLR Group, the construction firm overseeing the stadium renovation project, are expected to flank UM System President Mun Choi and MU Board of Curators Chair Robin Wenneker at a press conference for the announcement, according to an April 15 news release. Notably absent will be former athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois, who left MU in February for the same job at the University of Arizona. |
| Michigan's Jim Harbaugh was threatened with suspension by NCAA last fall for lawyer's social media criticism | |
| The NCAA threatened to suspend former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh last fall if his attorney did not halt his satirical social media comments of the association's ongoing investigation of the Wolverines football program. In a "letter of admonition" to attorney Thomas Mars obtained by CBS Sports, current NCAA Committee on Infractions chair Dave Roberts wrote in October 2023 that if Mars didn't halt his posts criticizing the NCAA's investigative process "the COI will consider appropriate penalties, including immediate suspension of your client." Roberts cited NCAA bylaw 19.4.6-(i) which gives the COI authority to " ... sanction parties and/or their representative(s) for behaviors that inhibit the committee's ability to effectively manage the docket, ensure a professional and civil decorum in all proceedings or otherwise efficiently solve infractions cases." The letter ends with seemingly a final warning from Roberts that read, "There will not be any further admonitions ..." Mars did not respond to the NCAA and continued his critical posts but it seems Roberts took no further action. The letter came during dual investigations of Michigan for NCAA recruiting violations during the COVID-19 dead period and sign stealing. In a Tuesday release, the NCAA said a negotiated resolution had been reached in the first case. "One former coach," -- supposedly Harbaugh -- "did not participate in the agreement, and that portion of the case will be considered separately by the Committee on Infractions ..." the statement said. |
| Virginia NIL law will benefit athletes, schools, donors | |
| The inevitability and wisdom of college athletic departments and their foundations coordinating name, image and likeness compensation for their enrolled athletes has long been clear. Overriding NCAA policy, state law soon will grant Virginia schools that option. Wednesday's reconvened session of the General Assembly will determine whether the bill, passed by the House and Senate and supported by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, becomes law July 1 or Nov. 15. The latter date comes into play if Wednesday's session requests a review of the bill by the General Assembly's Athletics Review Commission. "It will be law regardless," said the bill's sponsor, Del. Terry Austin, R-Botetourt. Austin said he worked closely on the measure with state Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, an All-ACC safety at Virginia Tech in 2005 and third-round NFL draft choice of the Green Bay Packers in 2007. Moreover, Austin said that the University of Virginia's deputy athletic director for legal and regulatory affairs, Jason Baum, drafted the bill. "We involved all the universities," Austin said. "Virginia Tech, UVa, JMU, Liberty, VMI, ODU, VCU. We contacted them and had input from them and advised them what we were doing. And they all agreed and got on board." Oklahoma and Mississippi are among the states considering legislation similar to Virginia's, according to On3.com. "I think it's great for Virginia as a whole and to be out front," said a source. "It's where the rest of the country will end up one way or the other in due time." |
| Charlie Baker's Project D-I proposal 'stuck in neutral' amid litigious quagmire | |
| When the NCAA Division I Council meets Wednesday and Thursday to weigh expanding how schools can operate in the NIL space, the proposals in play reflect changes on the margins. The biggest takeaway is what will not be discussed: Elements of NCAA President Charlie Baker's Project D-I reform proposal that was unveiled in large headlines in December. During January's NCAA Convention, the Division I Board of Directors charged the D-I Council with "developing recommendations for a framework" that would address the key elements included in Baker's forward-thinking plan. So, what happened? Three months later – amid unprecedented industry disruption and a growing mountain of legal threats -- elements of Project D-I have been assigned to various committees within the NCAA's multilayered structure. They have not yet come back to the Council, a source familiar with the meetings told On3. Two of the most significant aspects of Baker's proposal would empower schools to strike NIL deals with athletes and enable schools for the first time to pay athletes directly through a trust fund. "All legislative action is stuck in neutral with all the judicial and legal action, including the AGs," another prominent source told On3 on Tuesday. "Pass something in October, and if a school does not like the outcome or if it goes against them, they get the state AG involved. Brutal way to manage the NCAA and try to create positive change." |
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