| Thursday, April 25, 2024 |
| White Family Foundation to benefit three local colleges | |
 | A foundation created by a family with long ties to the Meridian healthcare field will benefit three east Mississippi colleges and their continued efforts to attract and educate healthcare professionals for the area. The White Family Foundation Trust will provide funding for healthcare-related programs at Meridian Community College and East Central Community College, as well as Mississippi State University-Meridian's new Master of Science in Nursing program. With the need to attract more nurses and other health care-related professionals, the foundation's funding comes at a crucial time for the three colleges. David Shaw, provost and executive vice president at Mississippi State University, expressed gratitude for the foundation's generosity. "We are very thankful for the generous gift from the White Family Trust. This invaluable support is fundamental to advancing the nursing program at MSU Meridian," he said. "With their support, we can enhance the educational resources and empower future nurses to thrive in their profession. This gift will make a difference in the lives of our students and the quality of healthcare they will provide." |
| Mississippi No. 1 for tornadoes? There's more to it than you may think | |
 | The frequency of confirmed tornadoes in Mississippi has been increasing for some time to the point that Mississippi and others around it are now referred to as Dixie Alley. In Mississippi, the increase has been so pronounced that it has averaged more tornadoes per year over the past five years than any other state, including Texas. While that may seem concerning for some and for others downright frightening, the reality is it's probably always been this way -- we just didn't know it. "With the advances of radar, we can see more of what we believe are tornadoes and the (National) Weather Service can go out and investigate," said Mike Brown, Mississippi State University professor of meteorology and state climatologist. "So, I believe Mississippi has always had a large number of tornadoes, we just didn't have the ability to see them. Before, we couldn't, unless someone was there to see a tornado." So, if there's an overall increase in confirmed tornadoes due to more people and better technology, why is Mississippi experiencing more of an increase than some other states such as Texas or Kansas; states that have long been considered tornado hotspots? The simple answer is trees and landscape. Mississippi is covered in trees and has rolling hills in much of the state. Many tornadoes went unseen until new technology revealed them. |
| Huge genetic study redraws the tree of life for flowering plants | |
 | Botanists have mapped the evolutionary relationships between flowering plants using genomic data from more than 9500 species. The newly compiled tree of life will help scientists piece together the origins of flowering plants and inform future conservation efforts. Around 90 per cent of land-dwelling plants are ones that flower and bear fruit, called angiosperms. These flowering plants are essential in maintaining Earth's ecosystems, such as by storing carbon and producing oxygen, and make up the bulk of our diets. "Our very existences are dependent on them," says William Baker at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the UK. "That's why we really need to understand them." For the past eight years, Baker and his colleagues have been working on completing trees of life that describe the evolutionary relationships between all genera of plants and fungi. The tree of life also sheds light on another surge in diversity that occurred around 40 million years ago, which was probably triggered by a drop in global temperatures at the time. "This is the latest and greatest evolutionary framework from which to conduct new studies, getting closer to the mechanisms that allowed flowering plants to take over the globe," says Ryan Folk at Mississippi State University. |
| Mary Means Business: Bath and Body works to reopen at new location in May | |
 | Bath and Body Works has officially closed shop at Columbus Place. No worries though, the smell-good chain will reopen May 3 at its new location just down the road at 1496 Old Aberdeen Way. For those looking for candles, lotions and fragrances, get excited. The new signage is up and opening day is right around the corner. ... Moving over to Starkville, a local favorite gift shop is closing. Occasions, 115 E. Main St., is closing shop. Pat Johnson and her daughter Mandee Lewis purchased Occasions in 2004, but it first opened in 1986. Now, Johnson said it's time to retire and officially close down for good. "I will miss all our sweet, loyal customers, going to markets looking for new finds, and most especially being a part of the excitement of (Mississippi State University) gameday weekend shopping, no matter which sport was going on," Johnson said. Johnson said she expects to close by the end of May. She added she owns the building and will be listed for sale. Check out Occasions sales on inventory, furniture and fixtures before they close. |
| Economy grew a disappointing 1.6% in Q1. What does it mean for interest rates? | |
 | The economy slowed more than expected early this year as weaker business stockpiling and exports offset solid consumer spending and a flurry of housing construction. The nation's gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced in the U.S., expanded at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.6% in the January-March period, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That's down from robust growth of 4.1% in the second half of last year and the lowest reading since spring 2022. It's also below the 2.5% gain projected by economists in a Bloomberg survey. But the pullback was caused chiefly by businesses that replenished their inventories more slowly and feeble growth in exports -- two volatile categories that don't reflect the economy's fundamental health. Final sales to private domestic purchasers -- which excludes those elements as well as government spending -- grew a robust 6.1%. That "illustrates there is still a lot of positive underlying momentum," economist Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics wrote in a note to clients. The disappointing showing last quarter could soften the views of Fed officials who say they're in no rush to cut rates following an acceleration in consumer prices the first three months of the year. Yet any concerns about flagging growth could be blunted by the strength of the economy's pillars -- consumer and business spending. |
| These Playing Cards Have an Extra Motive. Flushing Out Suspects. | |
 | People incarcerated in southern Mississippi have been receiving new sets of playing cards that they can use to pass the time, but the images on those cards are not of the typical jacks, queens and kings of other game sets. Instead, they feature people whose murders or disappearances have been unsolved for years. The authorities hope that people awaiting trial or serving sentences will recognize someone while playing with the cards and offer information to help solve some of those crimes. The Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers, a nonprofit that helps law enforcement generate tips in unsolved cases, are distributing 2,500 decks. The card sets cost about $6,000 to make and were made possible by a grant from Season of Justice, a nonprofit that provides funding for investigative agencies and families looking to solve cold cases. "We have nothing to lose," said Lori Massey, the chief executive director of Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers. "These cases are sitting on investigators' desks. "We feel like one lead is better than no leads at all." Although Ms. Massey thinks that the cards are a good idea, she doesn't expect that they will yield a high volume of solved cases. For one victim's family, however, they could make all the difference, she said. "If one case is solved, it would be worth it," she said. |
| Mississippi legislation seeks to protect children, teens from online predators | |
| Both the Walker Montgomery Protecting Children Online Act and Walker's Law were adopted in the Mississippi House and Senate on Wednesday. The bills now head to the Governor for his final stamp of approval. The Walker Montgomery Protecting Children Online Act requires social media platforms to make reasonable efforts to prevent or mitigate children's exposure to potentially harmful content while using the platforms. "The truth is that even the most diligent of parents can use help protecting their children online, and it's time that these platforms start prioritizing our children's safety," said State Representative Jill Ford (R), the bill's author. The final conference report removed the original reverse repealer and provided that digital service providers who offer career development opportunities are not subject to the provisions. Rep. Ford said the language was modified to mirror Texas law and the Kids Online Safety Act. When presenting the bill on Wednesday, Ford told House members it was time to hold social media companies accountable. "It's time we show the social media companies we are tired of sitting on the sidelines of the wild wild west of platforms we have today," said Rep. Ford. A few days prior, Walker's Law (HB 1196), authored by State Representative Rob Roberson (R), was also sent to the Governor. The bill would create the offense of sexual extortion and aggravated sexual extortion, often termed "sextortion." |
| Senator speaks on law allowing sign language classes to count toward high school graduation | |
| Mississippi now has a new law that allows sign language to count as a foreign language credit within the state's public school system. Governor Tate Reeves signed Senate Bill 2339, authored by Republican Senator Angela Burks-Hill, which requires the State Board of Education to develop a curriculum in which sign language can count as a foreign language credit to go toward high school graduation. "It's something that's practical that kids may actually retain -- more than they would retain in one year of a foreign language," Hill said on The Gallo Show. Statistically, Mississippi is behind in the realm of sign language with its number of certified American sign language interpreters standing at 22. That's in comparison to neighboring states such as Arkansas (55), Louisiana (70), Alabama (113), and Tennessee (22). Ronda Bryan, an ASL instructor at Ole Miss, said in a recent interview that sign language is an incredible skill to have and could result in more jobs in Mississippi. "I think the very basic human level just being able to have more acceptable environments connect deaf people to their communities," Bryan said. "We need interpreters so that those people have access to education and healthcare and employment and legal proceedings and on and on." |
| Senate confirms Gov. Tate Reeves' economic development chief despite report of toxic workplace, claims of harassment | |
| The Mississippi Senate on Wednesday unanimously confirmed Bill Cork as Gov. Tate Reeves' pick for a permanent chief economic development officer, despite a background report provided to senators that he "created a toxic workplace" and had faced complaints including sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment. In a hearing before his Senate confirmation, Cork said he did nothing wrong, has a winning economic development record, has overhauled MDA. "... If that takes a little hostility to get that done, that's what's going to happen," Cork said in the hearing on Tuesday. A background report provided to the Senate Finance Committee before members voted to confirm him said that Cork, who has worked at MDA since September of 2020, was investigated by the Mississippi Personnel Board in 2021. The investigation followed a claim against Cork of sexual harassment, age discrimination and creating a hostile work environment while he was serving as chief economic development officer at MDA. The personnel board said it conducted the investigation at Gov. Reeves' request. It submitted a report to Reeves after the investigation that said Cork had been uncooperative with the investigation, and that while no legal violations were found, "Cork's management style has created a toxic workplace." Personnel recommended Cork receive a written reprimand and that he complete at least 12 hours of training on workforce harassment, which he completed. Both the Senate Finance Committee and full Senate voted unanimously for Cork's confirmation. |
| Supreme Court appears skeptical that state abortion bans conflict with federal health care law | |
 | Conservative Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical Wednesday that state abortion bans enacted after the overturning of Roe v. Wade violate federal health care law, though some also questioned the effects on emergency care for pregnant patients. The case marks the first time the Supreme Court has considered the implications of a state ban since overturning the nationwide right to abortion. It comes from Idaho, which is among 14 states that now ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy with very limited exceptions. The high court has already allowed the state ban to go into effect, even in medical emergencies, and it was unclear whether members of the conservative majority were swayed by the Biden administration's argument that federal law overrides the state in rare emergency cases where a pregnant patient's health is at serious risk. The closely watched case tests how open the court is to carving out limited exceptions to state abortion bans. Their ruling, expected by late June, will also affect a similar case in Texas and could have wide implications amid a spike in complaints that pregnant women have been turned away from emergency rooms care since Roe was overturned. |
| Rolling coal: Biden's newest climate rule takes an aggressive swing at power plants | |
 | President Joe Biden's administration issued rules Thursday ordering power companies to cut pollution from coal plants -- a major plank in his efforts to fight climate change, amid complaints from progressive green voters who say he's done too little to curb fossil fuels. The rules from the Environmental Protection Agency build on the administration's long list of climate-fighting policies and are certain to draw opposition from the coal industry and Republicans. But the bigger challenge for Biden will hinge on whether they will appease progressive voters worried about climate change without losing centrist Democrats wary of the costs of his transition to clean energy. Biden is likely to need a strong turnout among young, climate-focused voters to beat former President Donald Trump in the November election, but many of the progressives who helped send him to the White House in 2020 have expressed frustration at his approval of several high-profile oil and gas projects. Many of those young activists have also voiced anger at the president's handling of the war in Gaza, an issue boiling over this week with escalating protests on some college campuses. EPA Administrator Michael Regan is expected to formally announce the rules at Howard University on Thursday morning. West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, lambasted the rule as "the illegal Clean Power Plan 2.0," referring to a major Obama-era regulation that the Supreme Court struck down two years ago. |
| Coal and new gas power plants will have to meet climate pollution targets | |
 | The Environmental Protection Agency finalized rules on Thursday to limit the pollution from power plants that drives climate change. Power plants are the second biggest source of planet-heating greenhouse gasses behind transportation, according to the EPA. Under the regulations, existing coal and new natural gas-fired power plants that run more than 40% of the time would have to eliminate 90% of their carbon dioxide emissions, the main driver of global warming. Existing coal power plants would have to meet that standard by 2032 if they plan to operate after 2039. The EPA is delaying a similar rule for existing natural gas-fired power plants, likely until after the November election, say environmentalists. Environmental groups generally welcomed the final rules. But within that utility industry, there's less optimism and more warnings about the reliability of the U.S. power grid. "The path outlined by the EPA today is unlawful, unrealistic and unachievable," wrote Jim Matheson, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association in a statement. The group's members get 63% of their electricity from burning fossil fuels. Matheson argues the rules overstep EPA's authority, rely on technologies that are not ready to deploy and don't give existing coal and new gas power plants enough time to comply. |
| Biden just signed a bill that could ban TikTok. His campaign plans to stay on the app anyway | |
| When President Joe Biden showed off his putting during a campaign stop at a public golf course in Michigan last month, the moment was captured on TikTok. Forced inside by a rainstorm, he competed with 13-year-old Hurley "HJ" Coleman IV to make putts on a practice mat. The Coleman family posted video of the proceedings on the app -- complete with Biden holing out a putt and the teen knocking his own shot home in response, over the caption, "I had to sink the rebuttal." The network television cameras that normally follow the president were stuck outside. Biden signed legislation Wednesday that could ban TikTok in the U.S. while his campaign has embraced the platform and tried to work with influencers. Already struggling to maintain his previous support from younger voters, the president is now facing criticism from some avid users of the app, which researchers have found is a primary news source for a third of Americans under the age of 30. "There's a core hypocrisy to the Biden administration supporting the TikTok ban while at the same time using TikTok for his campaign purposes," said Kahlil Greene, who has more than 650,000 followers and is known on TikTok as the "Gen Z Historian." "I think it illustrates that he and his people know the power and necessity of TikTok." The Biden campaign defends its approach and rejects the idea that White House policy is contradicting its political efforts. |
| U.S. Secretly Shipped New Long-Range Missiles to Ukraine | |
| The United States last week secretly shipped a new long-range missile system to Ukraine, and Ukrainian forces immediately used the weapons to attack a Russian military airfield in Crimea last Wednesday and Russian troops in the country's southeast overnight on Tuesday, according to a senior U.S. official. The United States previously supplied Ukraine with a version of the Army Tactical Missile Systems -- known as ATACMS -- armed with wide-spreading cluster munitions that can travel 100 miles. But Ukraine has long coveted the system's longer-range version, with a range of about 190 miles. That can reach deeper into occupied Ukraine, including Crimea, a hub of Russian air and ground forces, and supply nodes for Moscow's forces in the country's southeast. Overnight Tuesday, Ukraine used the longer-range missiles to strike Russian troops in the port city of Berdiansk on the Sea of Azov, the senior U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters. As the strikes by the longer-range weapons became public on Wednesday, proponents of sending advanced weaponry to Ukraine praised their performance. "These strikes proved -- once again -- that Ukraine can notch battlefield victories when given the right tools," Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the senior Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. "Ukraine can put a target on every Russian asset in Crimea, including critical ammunition and fuel depots. Imagine if they had these missiles two years ago." |
| No jail, no community service for Oxford fountain vandals | |
 | Two out-of-state women accused of destroying a new fountain beside Oxford City Hall last October will face no jail time and no community service as part of an agreement with the District Attorney's Office. Madison Brown, 18, of Davidson, North Carolina; and Abigail Fuqua, 19, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, were indicted in early February on the charge of felony malicious mischief. Instead of going to trial, the University of Mississippi students agreed to enter the Pretrial Intervention Program of the Third Circuit Court District, which is overseen by District Attorney Ben Creekmore. As part of the agreement, Brown and Fuqua agreed to pay nearly $5,500 in costs, fines and restitution. They will not be required to perform any community service. If the women stay out of trouble and abide by the stipulations of the program for one year, the felony charges will be expunged from their records. The women have been accused of vandalizing the pocket park next to Oxford City Hall in the early morning hours of Oct. 24, 2023. The park, which was dedicated less than a week earlier, featured a fountain where water bubbled through a large marble globe. A security camera about 25 feet away captured video of two women shoving the large marble ball off the fountain around 1 a.m. that Tuesday. Oxford police posted the video on social media and within hours, police had the names of both Fuqua and Brown. |
| Denim Day Walk raising sexual assault awareness at USM | |
 | Sexual Assault Prevention Ambassadors marched across the University of Southern Mississippi campus through Eagle Walk Wednesday, dressed in denim and carrying signs in honor of Denim Day. Wednesday's march helped mark the 25th year of the international effort advocating for sexual violence awareness. The movement was adopted across the globe in 1999 after a judge overturned a rape conviction in Italy, saying the victim must've helped the attacker remove her jeans. The statement implied consent. SAPA at USM said although Wednesday's march was one of their most important events in Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the group works year-round to break down the stigma surrounding sexual violence. March ambassador/organizer Tara Dunleavy said the group had organized several events this month. "We had a sexual health forum," Dunleavy said. "We also had a POC forum surrounding sexual assault. We had an exhibit up of 'Why I didn't report.' different people's stories of why they didn't report sexual assault." The 'Why I Didn't Report' exhibit remains on display in Cook Library on USM's campus. A 'What Were You Wearing?' exhibit, detailing victims' clothing at the time of assault, also was displayed earlier this month. |
| Federal judge dismisses Black chef's racial discrimination lawsuit against LSU sorority | |
 | A Black woman's employment discrimination lawsuit against an LSU sorority has been tossed out of federal court after a judge ruled the sorority was not the plaintiff's employer when she worked as the house's head chef. Bernadine Williams lodged a civil complaint last April against Delta Zeta's national chapter and its housing corporation. She claimed her White supervisor created a hostile work environment and ultimately got her removed from the sorority house on LSU's campus after Williams reported inappropriate racial comments. In her lawsuit, Williams alleged Suzette Say began questioning her recipes almost immediately after she took over as food coordinator in October 2021. During a chapter meeting about a month later, Say told hundreds of sorority members she would "prefer if we had a White chef," the suit alleged. Say and Delta Zeta denied the allegations of discrimination, harassment and retaliation in court filings. Williams was suing for damages because she indicated Say drastically increased her workload, and she was later demoted to a lower-paying position after she told Delta Zeta's chapter president about Say's actions. In a ruling last month, U.S. District Judge John deGravelles determined neither Say nor Delta Zeta were the plaintiff's employer, either directly or jointly through a third party. |
| U. of Tennessee chancellor: Land-grant universities can rebuild Americans' faith in higher education | |
 | Donde Plowman, the chancellor of the University of Tennessee, writes in the Knoxville News Sentinel: A few years ago, I was at a ribbon-cutting for a two-lane bridge in Morgan County that looked like thousands of other bridges that dot Tennessee and the rest of the country. But this bridge is different. It's made of a composite material and inside are sensors that will allow the University of Tennessee research team that designed it to study stress to the bridge and its durability over time. That day at the ribbon-cutting, I watched as engineering professor Dayakar Penumadu, a world-renowned expert in advanced materials, spoke to the residents of Morgan County. Do you know what he said? "Thank you." He thanked them for trusting his team with a bridge that residents and their families will drive across countless times in the years to come. This is what a land-grant university does. Yet, if you ask members of the public what they think of higher education, I guarantee you they aren't picturing bridges built by professors in small towns. Earlier this month, during a visit to Ohio State University, where they invited me to give a lecture on the challenges facing modern land-grant universities, I told them about this bridge. It is the perfect example of how land-grant universities are different -- and why we will be the ones to change the narrative on higher education. |
| U. of Florida professor to conduct research on Blue Origin space flight | |
 | A University of Florida professor will fly as part of a commercial space crew on an upcoming suborbital mission to conduct research, using a rocket by space flight company Blue Origin. Rob Ferl, distinguished professor and assistant vice president for research in horticultural sciences, will be the first NASA-funded academic researcher to conduct an experiment as part of a commercial space crew, a news release said. He will fly on the New Shepard rocket by Blue Origin, a company created by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, which has a mission of increasing access to space through reusable rockets. Ferl is also director of UF's new Space Institute and, throughout his career, has studied how biology responds to spaceflight. A news release said Ferl's work progressed from experiments in his Gainesville lab, to parabolic flight tests, to projects on the space shuttle and the International Space Station. A grant from NASA's Flight Opportunities program is giving Ferl the chance to continue his work and "personally conduct experiments on how the transition to and from microgravity impacts gene expression in cells and, more broadly, to develop protocols for future 'researcher-tended' suborbital flights," a news release said. He said the program aims to leverage the commercial spacecraft community by having scientists and technologists fly experiments, payloads and a new advancement: people on vehicles to accomplish more in space. NASA has collected a group of flight providers that offer multiple avenues of access to space, such as Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, the first commercial spaceline, among others, Ferl said. |
| Police arrest pro-Palestine protesters on UT-Austin campus | |
| Law enforcement officers on Wednesday handcuffed and removed at least 10 people participating in a student protest on the University of Texas at Austin campus in support of Palestine amid the Israel-Hamas war. UT-Austin students demanding that the university divest from manufacturers supplying Israel weapons in its strikes on Gaza gathered outside the university's Gregory Gym with plans to march to the South Lawn, where they said they would sit down throughout the day. More than 200 students had gathered as of noon. Authorities detained the protesters after telling students they could face criminal trespass charges if they didn't disperse. One of the protesters was helping organize the event. An officer singled him out and told other officers he would be the first to be arrested. After they were taken away, officers told the shrinking crowd that more arrests could happen if the students didn't disperse. Dozens of Texas Department of Public Safety officers in horses and riot gear were also present at the scene. Some could be seen pushing protesters with their batons. The arrests at UT-Austin come a day after pro-Palestine students staged a sit-in at the University of Texas at Dallas with similar demands, The Dallas Morning News reported. |
| More arrested in pro-Palestinian campus protests ahead of college graduation ceremonies | |
| With graduations looming, student protesters doubled down early Thursday on their discontent of the Israel-Hamas war on campuses across the country, with multiple arrests made at campuses in Massachusetts and California as universities have become quick to call in the police to end the demonstrations and make arrests. At Emerson College in Boston, 108 people were arrested and four police officers suffered injuries that were not life-threatening at an encampment, Boston police said Thursday. Those arrested were expected to appear in Boston Municipal Court. Another 93 people were arrested Wednesday night during a protest at the University of Southern California, the Los Angeles Police Department said. There were no reports of injuries. While grappling with growing protests from coast to coast, schools have the added pressure of May commencement ceremonies. At Columbia University in New York, students defiantly erected an encampment where many are set to graduate in front of families in just a few weeks. In Texas, hundreds of local and state police -- including some on horseback and holding batons -- bulldozed into protesters, at one point sending some tumbling into the street. Officers pushed their way into the crowd and made 34 arrests at the behest of the university and Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott, according to the state Department of Public Safety. In a statement Wednesday night, the university's president, Jay Hartzell, said: "Our rules matter, and they will be enforced. Our University will not be occupied." |
| 'This Is Incredibly Scary': Students Arrested at UT-Austin Protests | |
 | David Dawson, a senior here at the University of Texas at Austin, said it all happened so fast. He and other students involved with the Palestinian Solidarity Committee had planned to walk from the campus gym to the lawn in front of the campus's Main Building, and occupy that lawn, inspired by the protests at Columbia University. The plan had been to hear speakers and hold a teach-in. But when the students arrived at the gym, they found that officers with the Texas Highway Patrol and the Austin Police Department were there waiting for them, and ordered them to leave. "The organizers were actively trying to get people to peacefully disperse," said Dawson, an exercise-science major and one of the few students who gave interviews to the press. Suddenly, he said, one of the organizers was tackled to the ground by several officers and taken into a police car. The charge, he said one officer told him, was trespassing. "We are all liable to be arrested," said Dawson. "Right now, they just seem to be grabbing whoever they can." The scene Wednesday afternoon looked like that on many other campuses across the country: Hundreds of students thronged on and around the lawn, as dozens of police officers in riot gear and mounted on horses organized themselves into lines to push the students off the grass and back to the sidewalk. The students chanted slogans like "Ceasefire! Now!" -- and, at the police, "Off our campus!" Now and then, screaming would erupt as the police grabbed a few more protesters and marched them away. Late Wednesday, Jay Hartzell, UT's president, explained his response to the protest in an email to the campus. "Today, our university held firm, enforcing our rules while protecting the constitutional right to free speech," Hartzell said. |
| Texas A&M set to play vital role in America's nuclear future | |
 | In a nondescript warehouse on the outskirts of College Station, Ph.D. candidates are working away on what could become the future of nuclear power in the United States. The Texas A&M University Center for Advanced Small Modular and Micro Nuclear Reactors (CASMR) opened in late 2021 after the "Great Texas Freeze" that occurred in February of the same year. During the storm, millions lost power and Texans began to question the integrity of their power grid. The main goal of CASMR is to help create a more energy-secure future for Texas by developing safe, reliable and sustainable energy through the research of small and micro nuclear reactors. The CASMR is also home to one of the nation's few NuScale small modular reactor (SMR) simulators designed to provide researchers with the experience of running a real reactor through various worst-case scenarios. The simulation is comprised of a wall covered in computer monitors, each displaying different data for one of the simulation's 12 SMRs. Noah Sutton, a mechanical engineering Ph.D. candidate is one of several dozen students currently conducting research at the facility. He said the simulator not only teaches students but also helps display how safe an SMR is compared to a traditional nuclear reactor. "If you think of an old standard nuclear room, you think old Russian-style knobs, triggers, dials, buttons [and] gauges," Sutton said recently. "They've gone pretty much all digital now and the advantage that this gives us is now we have automation that we can build in. They want their operators who'd be sitting at these desks to not have to do anything. They want the automations to take control." That doesn't mean, however, that operators would not be able to manually override any automated operation in the event of an emergency, Sutton said. |
| Free community college programs increase enrollment -- and strain staff | |
| Friday afternoons at the Mount Wachusett Community College in north-central Massachusetts are known affectionately as FAFSA Friday. This weekly drop-in event is a time when prospective students can get help applying for federal financial aid. In years past, these sessions were relatively quiet, but ever since the state's new free community college initiative launched last fall, there's been a steady stream of traffic. The program, known as MassReconnect, requires students to apply for federal financial aid first. "Things have been getting busier and busier as the semester goes on," said Cassie Peltola, a community outreach counselor at Mount Wachusett Community College. MassReconnect covers community college tuition for residents 25 and older who don't already have a degree. This program has been incredibly popular. Enrollment at Mount Wachusett last semester was up by about 12% from 2022. Statewide, it's up 8%, according to the Massachusetts Department of Higher education. But the influx of students has been a double-edged sword. For students it can be life changing, but the faculty and staff at several of the state's community colleges are feeling strained with so many new financial aid and enrollment applications to process. |
| Students Increasingly Uncomfortable Sharing Political Opinions | |
 | In the latest iteration of the Harvard Youth Poll, conducted by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School, one-third of students between 18 and 29 said they feel uncomfortable sharing their political views on campus for fear of negative repercussions---a share that has climbed since 2015, when 13 percent responded that way. Students who are Democrats were least likely to say they feel uncomfortable and more likely to say they had engaged in political activities, such as attending a rally or donating to a political campaign. Approximately half of all young adults, including nonstudents, said they will "definitely be voting" in the 2024 general election for president, on par with 2020. More respondents said they would vote for current U.S. President Joe Biden (45 percent) over former President Donald Trump (37 percent), a difference of eight percentage points. Among college students, Biden's lead over Trump is even higher -- 23 percentage points -- and among college graduates, it's 47 percentage points. Still, at this stage in the 2020 election, Biden's lead over Trump among all young adults was 23 points. However, young adults voting for Trump tend to be significantly more excited about him as a candidate than Biden's voters are for him; while 76 percent of those who say they are voting for Trump reported that they are enthusiastically supporting him, only 44 percent of those voting for Biden said the same about him. The poll also examined young people's perceptions of Israel's war in Gaza. Fifty-one percent of respondents said they support a ceasefire, compared to only 10 percent who oppose. However, only 38 percent of those surveyed said they keep up with news about the war. |
| Kyle Rittenhouse, deadly shooter, college speaker? A campus gun-rights tour sparks outrage | |
| Kyle Rittenhouse is not a typical college campus speaker. In 2020, at the age of 17, he took an AR-15-style rifle to a Black Lives Matter demonstration and fired it, killing two people and injuring a third. Rittenhouse said he pulled the trigger in self-defense and was acquitted of wrongdoing. He has since penned a book, "Acquitted," and has set out on a series of college speaking events dubbed the "Rittenhouse Recap." He is slated to appear Thursday at Clemson University in South Carolina. Rittenhouse is selling books, and ostensibly promoting the right to bear arms on campus, but he's also trying to persuade young people to join the conservative movement. The key group behind the appearances, Turning Point USA, is led by the self-described "youth director" of President Donald Trump's first campaign and a key ally rallying votes for Trump this year. The group told USA TODAY that it isn't a nationally organized tour -- that its chapters independently requested Rittenhouse. Student chapter leaders told USA TODAY that Rittenhouse is an important conversation starter. "I think sometimes you have to be kind of polarizing to pull a crowd," said Brady Seymour, president of Turning Point USA's chapter at Kent State University in Ohio. But it has stirred up devastating pain and disdain in a man he almost killed. "He has used every moment to gloat and to make light of taking life," Paul Prediger said, speaking publicly for the first time about what happened in protest of a Rittenhouse speech last week at Kent State. |
| Why Conservatives Want New Title IX Rule Blocked | |
| Outraged over the Biden administration's decision to expand sex discrimination protections under Title IX to LGBTQ+ students, a slew of conservative groups and Republican officials plan to sue to block the new regulations from taking effect this summer. Critics of the rule argue that the administration is essentially redefining the decades-old law that prohibits discrimination based on sex and was aimed at ensuring women and girls had equitable access to education. They also take issue with changes in the new Title IX regulations that change how colleges respond to and investigate reports of sexual misconduct and harassment, including measures that some experts say could infringe on the rights of accused students. Still, most of the criticism has been directed at the provisions protecting LGBTQ+ students. "The Department of Education can't flip the statute on its head by administrative fiat," Jennifer C. Braceras, vice president for legal affairs at Independent Women's Forum, said in a statement. "And we are confident the courts will remind the department of this basic principle and strike down this rule as unlawful." Andrew T. Miltenberg, a lawyer at Nesenoff & Miltenberg who specializes in Title IX cases and represents primarily students accused of misconduct, said he doesn't see the initial legal challenges as "the true attack." Instead, the more potentially powerful lawsuits will be those filed after colleges and K-12 schools begin to carry out the new rule. |
| Colleges brace for more protests as graduation season approaches | |
 | The scene in front of Columbia University's famous Low Memorial Library last week captured a snapshot of the growing tensions rippling across college campuses as schools prepare for spring commencements. Students posed for photos on the library's steps, their sky-blue graduation gowns fluttering in the wind. At the same time, pro-Palestinian student activists had set up encampments on the lawn in front of the building to protest Israel's war in Gaza. In three weeks, schools in New York -- including Columbia and New York University -- are set to welcome thousands of students, their families and faculty for graduation ceremonies. As they prepare, the specter of disruption looms as student-led protests on those campuses and others around the country have been met with police crackdowns, arrests and evictions of students from campus housing. Columbia President Minouche Shafik said in a statement on Tuesday that she hoped the disruptions from the protests would not interfere with the May 15 commencement. "I am deeply sensitive to the fact that graduating seniors spent their first year attending Columbia remotely," Shafik wrote, referencing the coronavirus pandemic shutdowns. "We all very much want these students to celebrate their well-deserved graduation with family and friends." Earlier this month, the Anti-Defamation League wrote an open letter to college and university presidents urging them "to take clear, decisive action now to ensure that graduation ceremonies, events, and functions run smoothly, and that all students and their families feel safe, welcomed and celebrated." |
| They Entered College in Isolation and Leave Among Protests: The Class That Missed Out on Fun | |
 | Columbia's class of 2024 missed high school graduations and university orientation. Their freshman year passed in a haze of masks, Zoom classes and isolation. Four years later, not much has changed. Thanks to the Gaza protests, crowds are again being dispersed, classes have gone remote and students are wearing masks -- this time to hide their identities at demonstrations. Graduation ceremonies might be canceled. "We've never had a calm time when we can just focus on being kids," said Tejasri Vijayakumar, a senior and student body president of Columbia College at Columbia University. "You talk to people in generations above us about college and they said you could just gather in spaces and do whatever you want and no one would stop you, that's not really true anymore." The political polarization on college campuses across the country this spring bookends a four-year span defined by anxiety. College students today are lonelier, less resilient and more disengaged than their predecessors, research shows. The university communities they populate are socially fragmented, diminished and less vibrant. The pandemic bruised the psyche of a generation. The politics seared it. In response, schools are beefing up their mental-health offerings and urging students to engage in clubs and activities. But administrators say they can coax them only so far, and are starting to wonder whether college life as previous generations knew it -- including packed classrooms, keg parties and evening meetups -- may be permanently changed. |
| Pro-Palestinian campus protests roil political debate in Washington | |
 | College students demonstrating their support for Palestinians on campuses across the country are shaking up the political debate on Capitol Hill, pitting Israel's closest allies in both parties against more liberal Democrats siding with the protesters in accusing the country of orchestrating a genocide in Gaza. The battle has emerged as a major election-year challenge for President Biden, who is attempting a tricky balancing act between demonstrating strong support for Washington's closest Middle Eastern ally, particularly in the wake of Hamas's October terrorist attacks, while simultaneously condemning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for doing too little to protect civilian lives in Gaza. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday visited Columbia University, the site of one of the country's most controversial pro-Palestinian sit-ins, to denounce the protesters and call on the school's president, Minouche Shafik, to resign "if she cannot immediately bring order to this chaos." "As Speaker of the House, I am committing today that the Congress will not be silent as Jewish students are expected to run for their lives and stay home from their classes hiding in fear," Johnson said. Johnson is not the first congressional lawmaker to make an appearance on the Manhattan campus amid the protests, trips that are creating a split-screen lawmaker response to the explosive demonstrations. |
| A President Battered but Not Broken | |
| The crisis at Columbia University continues: on Wednesday afternoon, Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson arrived on campus and spoke to a crowd of hundreds from the steps of Low Memorial Library, overlooking an encampment set up by pro-Palestinian protesters. "I'm here today, joining my colleagues, and calling on President Shafik to resign if she cannot immediately bring order to this chaos," he said. "The madness has to stop." He even raised the prospect of bringing in the National Guard, adding "We cannot allow this to happen around the country." Students heckled and booed Johnson in return. His presence further incited a campus already on edge. Ever since President Minouche Shafik testified before Congress a week ago, she has been assailed by students, faculty and political leaders for her handling of pro-Palestinian protests on campus. Faculty and free speech groups have likewise criticized Shafik, but for different reasons. "The arrests of students and faculty are a disproportionate and wrong-headed response to overwhelmingly peaceful campus events," Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors, said in a public statement Wednesday. |
| Protesters Are Demanding Colleges Divest From Israel. Here's Why That's Not Happening. | |
| The pro-Palestinian student protesters roiling college campuses across the country have a common demand: that their universities divest from companies doing business with Israel. Schools including Columbia University, New York University and Yale University have responded with a resounding "No," suggesting scant odds of a speedy resolution to demonstrations that have divided students and triggered mass arrests. Calls for divestment have been a feature of student protests for years, most notably during antiapartheid demonstrations in the 1970s and 1980s, when activists had success in forcing higher education institutions to cut their exposure to South Africa, then under all-white rule. More recently, many colleges have heeded demands to dump holdings in fossil-fuel companies. Those calling for divestment from Israel say they are motivated by what they see as a moral argument: that Israel is committing genocide and forcing Palestinians to live under a form of apartheid. No major schools have expressed support for that viewpoint to date, and several have indicated that they are moving away from taking positions on hot-button issues. Even if universities were to concur with activists' arguments, endowment chiefs said divesting would set a questionable precedent at institutions meant to encourage intellectual inquiry and debate, in addition to posing practical challenges and fiduciary risks. Even on issues that have widespread scientific consensus and student support, divestment poses risks. Schools that reduced their exposure to fossil-fuel companies have missed out on a rich source of returns recently as higher crude prices allowed executives to funnel huge returns to shareholders. |
| A New Rule Expands Who on Campus Is Eligible for Overtime Pay. Here Are the Details. | |
| Residential directors, academic-affairs advisers, student-life staff members, and IT professionals are among college employees who could soon become eligible for overtime or get a significant pay raise under a final rule adopted on Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Labor. Currently, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, eligible workers annually earning less than $35,568 must be paid overtime if they work more than 40 hours a week. Those who earn more are exempt from overtime. Under the new rule, that threshold would rise to $43,888 on July 1, 2024, and to $58,656 on January 1, 2025, for a total increase of 65 percent. The new rule would also update the salary threshold every three years based on wage growth, starting on July 1, 2027. College leaders will have just over two months to determine who on their staffs would be affected by the first new salary floor, and then to decide whether to have them track their hours so they can be paid overtime, or to bump up their pay so they are exempt. Colleges will then have a few more months to carry out the second increase in the overtime threshold. Professors are exempt from the overtime rule. The American Council on Education's president, Ted Mitchell, said in a written statement that his organization was disappointed that the new rule had failed to address the concerns of the higher-education sector, which employs close to four million people across the country. "Ultimately, students will be harmed if institutions are forced to cut services, reduce financial aid, reduce staffing, and raise tuition to address the rapid growth in costs this rule would produce," Mitchell said. |
SPORTS
| Baseball: Jordan's homer, Schuelke's relief outing push Bulldogs past Memphis | |
| Hardly anything has come easy for Mississippi State in midweek games this year, and Tuesday night was no exception. But behind a three-run home run by Dakota Jordan and four outstanding innings in relief from Cam Schuelke, the Bulldogs got past Memphis 6-4 on the road Tuesday evening for their fifth consecutive win. MSU (27-14) jumped on Tigers starter Logan Rushing in the first inning. Amani Larry walked to start the game and David Mershon and Jordan each singled to plate the game's first run. Connor Hujsak, coming off a walk-off hit to complete a sweep of Auburn on Sunday, drove in another run with a single of his own later in the inning. But after a clean first frame, Bulldogs starter Pico Kohn ran into trouble in the second, giving up three straight hits as Memphis (18-23) quickly tied the game. He escaped the inning with the game still even thanks to a strike-'em-out, throw-'em-out double play as catcher Joe Powell nabbed a runner trying to steal second. The top of the MSU batting order came through again in the third -- Larry drew his second walk of the game and Mershon followed with an infield hit. Jordan then launched his 16th home run of the season well over the wall in left to put the Bulldogs on top 5-2. The blast traveled 417 feet and left Jordan's bat at 110 miles per hour. "It's good to win," head coach Chris Lemonis said. "We had a lot of opportunities to spread that game open early. Give (Memphis) credit, they made the plays and made some pitches, but (this was) a very coachable game. There's a lot of game notes for me to go over with our team." |
| Unpacking Vanderbilt's pitching options for Mississippi State series after suspension, injuries | |
 | Vanderbilt baseball found itself in a sticky situation against Florida. JD Thompson, the starting pitcher for the third game of the series, was ejected for use of a foreign substance. By rule, that ejection comes with a four-game suspension that will take Thompson out of this weekend's series against Mississippi State. To replace Thompson, the Commodores (30-11, 10-8 SEC) originally turned to freshman left-hander Ethan McElvain, but McElvain injured his back while warming up and had to leave the game without throwing an official pitch. McElvain didn't throw Tuesday, according to coach Tim Corbin, and his status is in doubt for the weekend. If Vanderbilt has to go without those two pitchers for the three-game series beginning Friday at Hawkins Field, the pitching staff will take a significant hit. The Commodores would have just 12 arms available for the series, assuming that they do not turn to anyone who has not yet pitched this season. That will be a tough task against Mississippi State (27-14, 10-8), which has been one of the top run prevention teams in the SEC. A few other pitchers are also out with long-term injuries. Andrew Dutkanych IV is out for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery and Sawyer Hawks is set to resume throwing next week. Here's how things could shake out with Vanderbilt's pitching this weekend. |
| Where Mississippi State baseball stands in latest NCAA Tournament field predictions | |
| Mississippi State baseball was the last team standing in 2021. The Bulldogs piled onto each other as maroon and white confetti fell over the diamond in Omaha, Nebraska -- signaling a national championship for MSU against SEC foe Vanderbilt. Since then, times have been tough for Mississippi State and coach Chris Lemonis. That 2021 title marked the last postseason appearance for MSU. Across the previous two campaigns, Mississippi State (27-14, 10-8 SEC) hasn't even made the conference tournament. Could that drought end this year? It appears so. Mississippi State is featured in the latest field of 64 projections by Baseball America and D1Baseball. MSU is tied with Vanderbilt for fifth in the conference standings with the two programs set to battle in Nashville, Tennessee, this weekend. Here's a look at where the Bulldogs sit in the postseason projections ahead of the 2021 national championship rematch. Baseball America projects Mississippi State as a No. 2 seed. MSU would be part of the Chapel Hill Regional where North Carolina would be the host school. D1Baseball also has Mississippi State projected as a No. 2 seed. However, the Bulldogs would go to the Clemson Regional. Other teams in the regional include No. 3 seed Utah and No. 4 seed Army. |
| No. 22 Mississippi State Returns to the NCAA Tournament for the Fourth Straight Season | |
| For the 11th time in program history, and the fourth consecutive season, the Mississippi State Bulldogs return to the NCAA Tournament as they travel to North Carolina for the Bermuda Run Regional on May 6-8. The Bulldogs make their fourth appearance in the NCAA Tournament under head coach Charlie Ewing, who has guided the team to postseason play in all four years he has been at the helm. The four-year postseason streak is the longest in program history, surpassing the previous best mark set from 2013-2015. The Bermuda Run Regional is a loaded field that consists of six total conference champions, the most of any regional. The champions include No. 3 Wake Forest (ACC), No. 10 Texas (Big 12), Delaware (CAA), Charleson Southern (Big South), Navy (Patriot League) and the Bulldogs. Rounding out the field will be No. 15 Ole Miss, UCF, South Florida, Tennessee, Oregon State and North Texas. The field will tee off for 54 holes of golf with one round occurring a day. After three days, the top five teams in each region will advance to the NCAA Championship, which will take place in Carlsbad, California on May 17. The 30 teams will play 54 holes to cut the field down to 15. Those 15 will play one final round to cut the field to eight. Those eight will be placed in a match play tournament to crown the 2024 NCAA Champion. |
| Mississippi State football in 2024 NFL draft | |
| Thursday marks the start of the 2024 NFL Draft -- a three-day event in Detroit, Michigan, that'll elevate college football's top prospects to the highest level in the sport. Mississippi State is no exception, though its players likely won't hear their names called until the latter part of the draft. MSU had four players invited to the NFL Scouting Combine last month. Cornerback Decamerion Richardson is atop that group as the lone player projected across various mock drafts to go in the top four rounds. He was joined in Indianapolis for the combine by linebacker Nathaniel Watson, defensive lineman Jaden Crumedy and wide receiver Lideatrick Griffin. Last year, Mississippi State only had two players drafted. However, that included corner Emmanuel Forbes who was taken 16th overall by the Washington Commanders. |
| 2024 NFL Draft: Where Mississippi State prospects could be selected | |
| At least one Mississippi State player has been selected in every NFL Draft since 2010, and while there may not be a first-round talent coming out of Starkville this year, that streak is expected to continue. Cornerback Decamerion Richardson is viewed as the Bulldogs' top selection, with defensive tackle Jaden Crumedy, linebacker Nathaniel "Bookie" Watson and wide receiver/kick returner Lideatrick "Tulu" Griffin also on some draft boards. That quartet represented MSU at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis in February and March. The 2024 NFL Draft begins Thursday night in Detroit with Round 1; Rounds 2 and 3 are Friday and Rounds 4 through 7 will take place Saturday. The Dispatch examined five full seven-round mock drafts to see where the four Bulldogs prospects are expected to land. |
| Spring football is enough to justify optimism in Starkville, Oxford | |
| Parrish Alford writes for the Magnolia Tribune: With spring football in the rear-view mirror, what have we learned about Mississippi State and Ole Miss? The answer is not much. There are a couple of reasons for that. Spring football isn't designed for the release of information. Coaches will hide their product from their public regardless of season, and spring football includes no mandated public display unlike the 12 playing dates of the fall. They admittedly will show only a fraction of their offense or defense in these spring games. ... Mississippi State had a traditional spring game with traditionally bloated statistics, but for first-year coach Jeff Lebby this is important. Baylor transfer quarterback Blake Shapen was 18-for-22 passing for 312 yards and three touchdowns. An intrasquad scrimmage is never a true measure of what might happen on Game Day, but it's all you've got until games begin. Shapen is a big get for Lebby, and while Super Bulldog Weekend won't tell you exactly what he'll look like in SEC play, Shapen, a redshirt senior, has a body of work as a two-year starter at Baylor. The fact that he's at his second school, and not his third or fourth, says something about stability in this Transfer Portal Era. ... The most impressive thing about MSU quarterbacks in this new system is that no interceptions were thrown in the spring game. |
| SEC's Greg Sankey brushes off talk of college 'super league' | |
| SEC commissioner Greg Sankey on Wednesday dismissed any interest in engaging in conversations about a "super league" in college athletics, instead emphasizing his belief that "there's a lot going right" in the current landscape. "The fact that people have interest in throwing ideas out, that's up to them," Sankey told a small group of reporters following the conclusion of the annual College Football Playoff spring meetings. "I spend my time on what I have to do." In mid-February, the search firm TurnkeyZRG circulated a confidential proposal that included seven divisions with 10 schools each, according to a copy obtained by ESPN, but it has failed to gain serious support. Sankey pushed back on the narrative that college sports is in a crisis, pointing to recent interest in private equity as proof that the NCAA has a valuable product. "You can use the cliché, 'If I was buying stock, I'd buy stock in college sports,'" he said. "Well, apparently a lot of people believe that outside of college sports. Something's going right." Sankey's perspective on the so-called super league comes from a position of power, as his conference is poised to be one of the largest and wealthiest with the pending additions of Oklahoma and Texas this summer, along with the new lucrative CFP revenue distribution model. This week's CFP spring meetings marked the first in-person gathering of the FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua since the group ceded the bulk of the playoff power to the Big Ten and SEC. |
| New Missouri athletic director Laird Veatch has contract approved | |
 | That's that. The UM System Board of Curators officially approved the contract of new Missouri athletic director Laird Veatch during a special meeting on Wednesday afternoon, a university spokesperson confirmed to the Columbia Daily Tribune. The curators quickly went into an executive session in their 3 p.m. meeting, with four statutes cited to take the meeting behind closed doors. One of them -- 610.021(3) RSMo -- concerns "hiring, firing, disciplining or promoting of particular employees by a public governmental body." Guess who? Veatch is now officially Missouri's athletic director. Veatch will earn $1.3 million in annual guaranteed compensation at Missouri. His deal is due to end on April 30, 2029. His deal is broken down into three parts: Base salary ($900,000 per year); Non-Salary compensation ($200,000); and deferred compensation ($200,000). Both his base salary and non-salary compensation will be paid in equal monthly installments. His deferred compensation will be paid annually. Veatch's deal also includes several merit incentives. Veatch is a former Kansas State linebacker and team captain under Hall of Fame head coach Bill Snyder. The new Missouri AD has worked in athletic departments at Memphis, Florida, Iowa State, Texas and his alma mater K-State. |
| New NCAA transfer portal legislation brings updated rules for grad transfers | |
| Included in changes to NCAA transfer legislation a week ago, graduate transfers will now need to enter the portal before their respective sports' final transfer windows. The legislation, passed this past week, allows all undergraduate athletes to transfer and play immediately as long as they meet specific academic requirements. Previously, if an underclassman wished to transfer a second time, the athlete needed the NCAA to grant a waiver to compete immediately. Absent an approved waiver, the athlete had to sit out a year. The legislation does not limit the number of times an athlete can transfer. Portal windows still exist. The NCAA sent out memos to institutions twice this year stating that multi-time transfers could play immediately in 2024-25 without securing a waiver. Similar to the current bylaws, athletes would not be able to transfer mid-year and play for a new school in the same athletic season. This means when the college football portal window closes on April 30, it will be the last time grad transfers can enter before next December. The same goes for college basketball players when their portal window shuts on May 1. Changes have been made to grad transfer requirements and have been immediately installed. "Student-athletes who plan to enroll as graduate students at their next school can enter the portal at any time during the academic year but must enter the portal prior to the conclusion of their respective sports' final transfer windows," the NCAA wrote in a press release last week. |
| The NFL Draft Prospect Moonlighting as an Investor | |
| Braden Fiske was in his sixth year of college football when he suddenly found he had more money than he knew what to do with. The defensive tackle had gone from playing at a small-conference school, Western Michigan, to becoming one of the most coveted players in the sport when he transferred to Florida State last year. That move turned him into precisely the type of player who could capitalize on the new rules that allow college athletes to cash in on their name, image and likeness. Fiske's first instinct was to go shopping -- just like any other 20-something suddenly sitting on a pile of cash. But then he changed his mind and did something far less fun and way more responsible. Fiske poured six figures into his investment accounts. Fiske is about to have a whole lot more money to invest. After a stellar season on one of the best teams in the country and a jaw-dropping performance at this year's scouting combine, the 6-foot-4 and 292-pound lineman is projected to go in the first couple of rounds of this year's NFL draft, which begins Thursday. And when he does, Fiske has a pretty good idea what he'll do with his paychecks. Last time he received a life-changing windfall, he used the new frontier of college sports to learn everything he could about investing -- and then he put it to work. "I know I'm going to be exposed to money that I've never seen before," Fiske says, "and I just want to be able to set myself up for long-term success more so than short term." |
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