| Monday, April 29, 2024 |
| Anna Barker: Glo co-founder named to Female Founders 250 | |
 | Anna Barker was named to Inc. Magazine's Female Founders 250 list, the only woman from Mississippi included on what the business magazine calls 2024's "Most Intriguing Women Entrepreneurs." Barker is Vice President of Glo, which sells products under two brands: Glo Cubes drink cubes and Glo Pals, which are liquid-activated, light-up sensory toys for children ages 3 and up and. She founded the company with Glo CEO Hagan Walker in 2015. "It all started out of a classroom project at Mississippi State," said Barker. "The original lighting technology was from a graphic design classroom, which led us to the Entrepreneurship Center." Their first product was Glo Cubes, a liquid-activated light-up drink accessory. Selling these to bars and restaurants across the U.S., it became a big hit. Today, more than 2 million have been sold in 36 countries. "I was in still in school, Kaley Mitchell, who was an early co-founder of the patented technology, was still in school, Hagan was graduating, and we were trying to decide if we wanted to pursue this long-term," Barker said. Then came a call that would change the trajectory of the company. |
| Mississippi sees first documented cicada of 2024 | |
 | Cicadas are now emerging in Mississippi! According to the Mississippi State University (MSU) Extension Service, Choctaw County saw its first documented cicada for 2024 this week. In the South, Mississippi has three broods of 13-year cicadas, each of which occurs in its own geographic area and emerges on its own schedule. This spring, thirteen-year cicada Brood XIX, also known as the Great Southern brood, will emerge in parts of 15 states, including at least 17 counties in Mississippi. According to the MSU Extension Service, Mississippi is the only state that has all three broods of 13-year periodic cicadas. By tradition, periodic cicada broods are numbered using Roman numerals. Brood XIX will emerge this year, Brood XXII will emerge next in 2027, and Brood XXIII in 2028. There are 12 broods of 17-year cicadas, but these occur farther north. Seventeen-year cicada Brood XIII will also emerge this year, in northern Illinois and a few surrounding states, but not in Mississippi. Officials said periodic cicadas are attention-getting insects, not only because of their appearance, black and orange with red eyes, and their loud singing, but also because of their numbers. Suitable habitats, such as upland hardwoods, can have hundreds of thousands of cicadas per acre, with the male half of the population singing loudly in the trees to attract females. |
| Lawmakers negotiate Medicaid expansion behind closed doors, hit impasse on state budget | |
 | House and Senate Republicans continued to haggle over Medicaid expansion proposals Sunday, and the state budget process hit a snag after leaders couldn't reach final agreements by a Saturday night deadline on how to spend $7 billion. House Speaker Jason White on Sunday told his chamber that Medicaid expansion negotiators from the House and Senate had been meeting and he expected a compromise "will be filed by Monday or Tuesday at the latest." House Medicaid Chairwoman Missy McGee said the Senate had delivered another counter proposal on expansion Sunday evening but declined to provide details. Her Senate counterpart, Medicaid Chairman Kevin Blackwell, declined comment on Sunday. The two leaders met in McGee's office on Sunday evening following a Saturday afternoon meeting. Lawmakers hit an impasse on setting a $7 billion state budget and missed Saturday night's deadline for filing appropriations bills. This will force the legislature into extra innings, and require lawmakers to vote to push back deadlines. Lawmakers had expected to end this year's session and leave Jackson by early this week. But House Speaker Jason White told his chamber on Sunday they should expect to continue working through Friday, "and possibly through Saturday or Sunday. White later said of the budget impasse, "When you get to haggling over spending $7 billion, folks are going to have disagreements." |
| Legislature passes changes to public retirement system | |
 | The Mississippi Legislature is sending a bill to the governor's desk that will revise public employer contribution increases into the Public Employment Retirement System of Mississippi starting in July. On Saturday, the Mississippi House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 3231, which was passed by the Senate on Friday. According to several municipal leaders that spoke to the Clarion Ledger earlier this year, the move could save them from having to cut positions and raise taxes to keep and hire more public employees. If signed by Gov. Tate Reeves or passed through his office, the bill will remove a 2% public employer contribution rate increase that the PERS board voted to implement to keep the state retirement system stable. The bill will also require the board to recommend any employer rate changes to the Legislature, accompanied by two actuary reports that are independent of each other and the PERS board. The legislation also provides a new tier of retirement benefits for new public employees, but the new set of benefits will have to be outlined by the PERS board and submitted back to the Legislature for review. The bill is now in the hands of Gov. Tate Reeves, who can sign it, let it pass without his signature or veto the legislation. There are seven days left in the 2024 session. |
| Lawmakers agree to phase in PERS employer rate increase, send bill to Governor | |
| In the final days of the 2024 legislative session, the Mississippi House and Senate have both agreed on a bill that would redirect the looming Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) employer rate increase expected in July, and any potential increases after that. SB 3231 was brought forward through a suspension resolution since the deadline to file new bills has long since passed. "At the beginning of session, we had a lot of comment on PERS. There was concern by the Board, concern by the Legislature about the solvency of the system going forward," said State Senator David Parker (R), the bill's author. "We found a way with a suspension resolution to bring back some of the key elements that I think needed to be addressed." The Senate moved quickly on the bill, passing it out of committee and bringing it to the floor for debate on Thursday. The bill, passed the next day by a vote of 34-14 in the Senate, ultimately halts the expected 2% rate increase this summer and replaces it with a 0.5% increase that will be required each year through 2028. The legislation also changed how future increases would be considered, providing for the input from two additional outside actuaries while making a rate increase dependent on the approval of the Legislature. The structure of the PERS Board as currently comprised is being left as is. |
| Legislation to strip key power of PERS Board passes both chambers | |
| Legislation that strips significant power from the board that governs the state's public employee pension program has passed both chambers of the Legislature. Under the legislation set to go to Gov. Tate Reeves during the final days of the 2024 session, the Public Employees Retirement System Board would no longer have the authority to increase the contribution rate levied on governments (both on the state and local level) to help pay for the massive retirement system. The legislation, which passed both chambers in recent days, was a reaction to the decision by the board to increase by 5% over a three-year period the amount local governments contribute to each employee's paycheck for their retirement. Under the PERS Board plan, the employer contribution rate would have been increased to 22.4% over three years, starting with a 2% increase on July 1. Under the bill passed by the Legislature there still would be a 2.5% increase over five years -- a .5% increase in the employer contribution rate each year for five years. In addition, legislative leaders said they plan to put another $100 million or more in state tax dollars into the retirement system in the coming days during the appropriations process. The system has about 360,000 members including current public employees and former employees and retirees. |
| Mississippi Senate agrees to a new school funding formula, sending plan to the governor | |
 | Mississippi would ditch a complex school funding formula that legislators have largely ignored since it became law a generation ago and replace it with a new plan that some lawmakers say is simpler to understand, under a bill headed to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves. A bill with the new formula passed the 52-member state Senate on Saturday with three votes in opposition, a day after it passed the House 113-0. Republicans control both chambers. The new plan, called the Mississippi Student Funding Formula, would replace the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) -- a formula that legislators have fully funded only two years since it became law in 1997. House and Senate leaders said the new plan would give school districts a boost in funding for students who can be more expensive to educate. For example, extra money would be calculated for students who live in poverty, those with special needs or dyslexia, those learning English as a second language, or those enrolled in gifted programs or career and technical education programs. "It's clear. It's concise. It gets money to our districts to help our students," Senate Education Committee Chairman Dennis DeBar said. Reeves has not taken a public stance on the new formula, which legislators first released Friday. |
| Senate inspired to replace MAEP, new education funding formula heads to Governor | |
| On Saturday, the Mississippi House and Senate finally came to an agreement on how to fund the state's K-12 education system. The Senate passed HB 4130 -- the Mississippi Student Funding Formula -- by a vote of 49-3 a day after the legislation unanimously passed the House. The agreement means the current Mississippi Adequate Education Program, or MAEP, established in 1997, will be repealed and replaced. State Senator Dennis DeBar (R) said the new formula is expected to increase education funding over last year's total by about $230 million, taking into account increased PERS and insurance expenses. It was noted that the concept for the bill came through consulting with the Mississippi Department of Education, local superintendents, and legislative staff, but did not include third parties. However, the new funding formula is similar to the House's INSPIRE Act presented earlier in the session. Like INSPIRE, the approved bill includes a weighted system for determining additional funding over the base student cost, which was determined to be $6,695. Grant Callen, founder and CEO of Empower Mississippi, is pleased a weighted system was included in the legislation. His organization has long advocated for lawmakers to ensure dollars reach the students they are intended to serve. "HB 4130 is a transformational step forward in ensuring that Mississippi funds students, not systems," Callen said. |
| Affluent Americans are driving US economy and likely delaying need for Fed rate cuts | |
| Since retiring two years ago, Joan Harris has upped her travel game. Once or twice a year, she visits her two adult children in different states. She's planning multiple other trips, including to a science fiction convention in Scotland and a Disney cruise soon after that, along with a trip next year to neolithic sites in Great Britain. "I really have more money to spend now than when I was working," said Harris, 64, an engineer who worked 29 years for the federal government and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Back then, she and her now-ex-husband were paying for their children's college educations and piling money into savings accounts. Now, she's splurging a bit and, for the first time, is willing to pay for first-class plane tickets. She plans to fly business class to Scotland and has arranged for a higher-level suite on the cruise. Older Americans like Harris are fueling a sustained boost to the U.S. economy. Benefiting from outsize gains in the stock and housing markets over the past several years, they are accounting for a larger share of consumer spending -- the principal driver of economic growth -- than ever before. And much of their spending is going toward higher-priced services like travel, health care and entertainment, putting further upward pressure on those prices -- and on inflation. Such spending is relatively immune to the Federal Reserve's push to slow growth and tame inflation through higher borrowing rates, because it rarely requires borrowing. The so-called "wealth effect," whereby rising home and stock values give people confidence to increase their spending, is a big reason why the economy has defied expectations of a sharp slowdown. Its |
| Congressman Thompson presents Community Project Funding checks | |
| If you live in the 2nd Congressional District, you will benefit from $13,823,903 in Community Project Funding after the House passed the appropriations funding package. Rep. Bennie Thompson said, "Hopefully this will expand the opportunity to do more in their respective areas than they are doing. But also it serves as an incentive to let them know that Congress is important and they are looking at communities and that they are not left out." Congressman Bennie Thompson, at two press conferences in Bolton today, presented checks to the fourteen community projects, in his district that will directly benefit. Representatives of Alcorn State University, Mississippi's Toughest Kids Foundation, GOGIC Charities, Inc., Community Students Learning Center, Kosciusko Foundation for Excellence in Education, Hope Enterprise Corporation, City of Natchez and Southwest Mississippi Planning and Development District. |
| Planning for potential presidential transition underway as Biden administration kicks it off | |
| President Joe Biden's administration on Friday formally began planning for a potential presidential transition, aiming to ensure continuity of government no matter the outcome of November's general election. Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, sent memos to all executive departments and agencies, directing them to name a point person for transition planning by May 3. It's the routine first step in congressionally mandated preparedness for presidential transitions. Next week, White House chief of staff Jeff Zients -- who also chaired Biden's 2020 transition effort -- will lead the first meeting of the White House Transition Coordinating Council, which consists of senior White House policy, national security and management officials, as required by the Presidential Transition Act. The act provides federal support for major party candidates to prepare to govern so that they can have personnel in place to take policy actions on their first day in office. Making sure presidential candidates are ready to take charge of the federal government became a heightened priority after the Sept. 11 attacks, and the act has been updated several times since to provide additional resources to candidates and to require incumbents to plan for a handoff with even greater intensity. Young's letter is nearly identical to the one sent four years ago by Trump administration acting director Russell Vought, for a transition process that started out orderly, but derailed when then-President Donald Trump refused to concede his defeat to Biden. It took until Nov. 23, two weeks after the election was called, for Trump's General Services Administration to name Biden as the "apparent winner" of the 2020 race -- a required step for the transition to begin. |
| Why China Is So Bad at Disinformation | |
 | The headlines sounded dire: "China Will Use AI to Disrupt Elections in the US, South Korea and India, Microsoft Warns." Another claimed, "China Is Using AI to Sow Disinformation and Stoke Discord Across Asia and the US." They were based on a report published earlier this month by Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center which outlined how a Chinese disinformation campaign was now utilizing artificial technology to inflame divisions and disrupt elections in the US and around the world. The campaign, which has already targeted Taiwan's elections, uses AI-generated audio and memes designed to grab user attention and boost engagement. But what these headlines and Microsoft itself failed to adequately convey is that the Chinese-government-linked disinformation campaign, known as Spamouflage Dragon or Dragonbridge, has so far been virtually ineffective. "I would describe China's disinformation campaigns as Russia 2014. As in, they're 10 years behind," says Clint Watts, the general manager of Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center. "They're trying lots of different things but their sophistication is still very weak." Over the past 24 months, the campaign has switched from pushing predominately pro-China content to more aggressively targeting US politics. While these efforts have been large-scale and across dozens of platforms, they have largely failed to have any real world impact. Still, experts warn that it can take just a single post being amplified by an influential account to change all of that. Since at least 2017, Spamouflage has been ceaselessly spewing out content designed to disrupt major global events, including topics as diverse as the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, the US presidential elections, and Israel and Gaza |
| Showcase for Antebellum Homes Displays Their Finery. But What About the History? | |
 | Women in hoop dresses ushered visitors one April morning into the grand old house known as Riverview, showing off the hand-carved wooden chairs, oil paintings, tapestries and gilded mirrors brought from around the world to the estate in Mississippi. The house stood as a testament to the prosperity that had flowed before the Civil War in Southern cities like Columbus, just over the border from Alabama, as fertile soil and the labor of enslaved workers built fortunes. It was also a highlight of the longstanding tradition known as Pilgrimage. Every spring, the city's finest antebellum homes are opened to the public for a few weeks, inviting people in to marvel at the craftsmanship and the opulence. But these days, some in Columbus are finding it difficult to justify a trip to a gauzy version of the city's past without accounting for the suffering, injustice and violence associated with the slave labor that built and ran these homes. That has led to competing ideas about the scope of Pilgrimage and the story it is supposed to tell. The diverging ideas about Pilgrimage are just another variation of a familiar tension in the Deep South, where the past so rarely stays in the past. For some, the enduring consequences of systemic oppression are what keep them in history's grip. For others, it is an abiding desire to hold onto what they consider a glorious legacy. "The problem is that it is also a celebration and endorsement of slaveholding," said Chuck Yarborough, a history teacher at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, a public boarding school in Columbus that draws high-achieving students from across the state. The answer, in his mind, is not selectively ignoring parts of the past. Instead, Mr. Yarborough said, Pilgrimage is an opportunity to lay it all out, recognizing "the completeness and the complexity." |
| Growing green: MUW unveils edible plant trail | |
 | Mississippi University for Women is known for many things, but you probably don't know about the food that grows on its campus. MUW had a grand opening for its edible plant trail. The school currently has 25 edible plants on campus and they hope to add more in the future. The school hoped to teach those who took the tour a little something about the uses of the plants that grow on their campus. But they also hoped that their students would learn a little something too, with a few non-biology major students giving presentations about different plants that the school grows. Participants also could try a few different plants such as violet leaves, spiderwart, green briar, and pecans. |
| Flipping the switch: Outreach bolsters Communiversity enrollment but more is needed | |
 | Anyone who still thinks the parking lot at East Mississippi Community College's Communiversity is "empty" isn't looking in the right place, Executive Director Michael Busby said. "We hear a lot about the building not being full," he said. "I know this is kind of a cop out to say this, but the back is where the kids park. It's pretty full back there." Built in 2019 with $42.6 million from federal, state and local sources, the Communiversity serves as the region's educational and workforce development hub, though it's had challenges with low enrollment and frequent leadership changes. EMCC students at the Communiversity enroll in career technical programs like mechatronics or industrial maintenance where they earn credits for hands-on career training and experience. Local industries, like PACCAR and Terberg Taylor, collaborate with the facility to provide non-credit training specific to their needs. The Communiversity has 21 training bays. Enrollment has grown to a consistent 200 students per semester in for-credit classes, up 20% from three years ago. Non-credit workforce programs have trained 2,000 participants since July 2023, Busby said. |
| Cliffe Knechtle sparks religious dialogue at UM | |
 | The University of Mississippi's Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship invited Cliffe Knechtle, a famous TikTok preacher from New Canaan, Conn., to hold discussions and answer questions surrounding Christianity from April 22-25. Knechtle and his son Stuart set up in front of the Ole Miss Student Union plaza on April 22 and the Circle April 23-25, culminating in a larger indoor forum Thursday night in the David H. Nutt Auditorium. With over 550,000 YouTube subscribers and 220,000 TikTok followers, Knechtle has garnered a large social media presence while visiting college campuses to answer difficult questions regarding Christianity. Although he is Christian, Knechtle has garnered popularity for welcoming open discussions with people of different faiths. Knechtle's work has garnered pushback on some college campuses in the past. In one instance, Knechtle got in a back-and-forth discussion with someone arguing that Christians are only Christians because that is how they were raised. In another instance, Knechtle had an exchange with a former Christian who left the faith. After seeing Knechtle attend Mississippi State University a month ago, UM's Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship reached out to the pastor to set up a week-long event on campus, allowing students to talk to him and ask questions. |
| U. of Alabama's Shelby Institute to focus on building leaders | |
 | University of Alabama officials say the Shelby Institute for Policy and Leadership will provide a unique educational experience for students interested in public policy. UA faculty, students and alumni gathered April 25 to cut the ribbon on the new Shelby Institute, which is housed iat the Tuscaloosa campus in the newly renovated Tuomey Hall. "The Shelby Institute holds incredible potential for shaping the future at the University of Alabama, " said UA President Stuart Bell during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. In a news release, UA said the nonpartisan institute will provide "a premier, immersive learning community for students committed to shaping public policy and focus on nurturing and equipping the next generation of leaders through the Shelby Scholars program." The Shelby Institute is named for former U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby and his wife, Annette Shelby, who served as a UA professor for three decades. The institute will also house Richard Shelby's official Senate papers, records and materials. Richard Shelby, the longest-serving U.S. senator from Alabama at 36 years, donated his papers after leaving the U.S. Senate in 2023. Finis E "Fess" St. John IV, the UA System's chancellor emeritus, is the inaugural executive director of the Shelby Institute. |
| U. of South Carolina professor became an anti-vax star. He says he didn't mean to. | |
 | During a marathon Statehouse hearing about South Carolina's pandemic response last September, a man with long, sandy hair and wearing a lab coat came to the podium. "For those of you that don't know me, my name is Phillip Buckhaults," he told the assembled lawmakers. "I have a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology," he went on. "I'm a cancer gene jock." Buckhaults, who researches colon and breast cancer at the University of South Carolina's College of Pharmacy, went on to say he'd found something potentially dangerous while testing used vials of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, something worth telling regulators about. His revelation? DNA fragments he claimed could theoretically cause cancer. Buckhaults' testimony came during a hearing filled with Statehouse conservatives skeptical that the pandemic was really that bad. Also there were a collection of those from the anti-vax movement -- folks who had readily absorbed the myriad theories and wild claims about the pandemic and the vaccines that brought it under control. To many of them, Buckhaults' warning was more strong proof vaccines were dangerous or part of a cover-up. But despite Buckhaults' graphs, sophisticated tests and lab coat, the claims are scientifically inaccurate, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Pfizer and four independent experts consulted by The Post and Courier. Yet in no time, the USC researcher became a celebrated voice of the anti-vax online world, and he is regularly cited by Statehouse lawmakers to justify legislation to rein in public health authorities or take shots at vaccine safety. |
| U. of Missouri's Thompson Center's new building to serve students with autism will open in 2026 | |
 | A new building scheduled to open in 2026 will allow the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment to more than double its annual visits of the individuals with autism it serves. It's part of the University of Missouri. Official on Thursday held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new building at its location in the South Providence Medical Park. The new building will feature an intensive day-treatment program for children with behavioral problems. Richard Barohn, executive vice chancellor for health affairs, said he learned of the Thompson Center when he first came to the University of Missouri. "I realized what a jewel the Thompson Center is here at the University of Missouri," Barohn said. "The new center will be that on steroids." It will advance research into autism, he said "The research at the Thompson Center has really been extraordinary. Chris Moss said his son, Asa, was diagnosed with autism in 2018, when Asa was 6. "We found hope at the Thompson Center," Moss said. His once nonverbal son now cracks nonstop one-liners, Moss said. "The progress he has made has been nothing short of remarkable," Moss said. The families who come to the Thompson Center receive care from world-class clinicians," said Mun Choi, MU chancellor and system president. "Families come from other parts of the country to be here, near the Thompson Center," Choi said. |
| 'Riley's Act' petition seeking downtown Nashville bars to call cabs for intoxicated individuals reaches 30K signatures | |
 | A petition named in honor of University of Missouri student, Riley Strain, has garnered over 30,000 signatures. Strain's body was found in the Cumberland River on March 22, two weeks after he was last seen being kicked out of Luke's 32 Bridge, a Broadway bar. The petition, posted March 24 on change.org, is titled, "Riley's Act." Riley's Act petitions the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission, the Tennessee State Senate and the Nashville City Council. Riley's Act would require bar staff to call cabs and Ubers for "intoxicated and disoriented individuals." "We were all young once and made choices such as over drinking," reads the petition. "It is a business owner's responsibility for safety not only at their establishment...but also for their customers' to leave safely." While many support the petition others disagree, stating that the amount of alcohol a person consumes is not a businesses' responsibility. As of March 26, the petition has 30,607 signatures and a goal of 35,000 signatures total. Strain, a 22-year-old student from Missouri, was visiting Nashville with his Delta Chi fraternity brothers. He was last seen leaving Luke's 32 Bridge on March 8 after being kicked out. Strain was reported missing the following day. |
| New Orleans Likes to Drink. They Spotted a Huge Recycling Opportunity | |
| It started with a lament over the fate of empty beer and wine bottles. In early 2020, Franziska Trautmann and Max Steitz, then seniors at Tulane University, were spitballing ways to keep their glass out of the trash. For all of its imbibing, New Orleans didn't offer curbside glass recycling. Pretty much all of the many bottles drained in the Crescent City ended up in landfills. For Ms. Trautmann and Mr. Steitz, this wasn't just galling, but a missed opportunity. The city's wetlands were fast eroding, and glass could be ground up into sand. What if they collected glass around town, crushed it into sand and put it to good use? Buoyed by the optimism of youth and enthusiastic crowdfunding, they bought a small glass pulverizer and put it in the backyard of an accommodating local fraternity, Zeta Psi. Almost immediately, their drop-off barrels overflowed. "We underestimated how much demand there was," Mr. Steitz, 27, said. Now, four years later, their company, Glass Half Full, is the only glass recycling facility in New Orleans. It has become the founders' full time work, employs a staff of 15 and has expanded far beyond what they imagined. To date, their operation has crushed seven millions of pounds of glass that's been used in disaster-relief sandbags, terrazzo flooring, landscaping, wetland restoration and research. They offer curbside pickups in New Orleans and Baton Rouge and recently opened a small facility in Birmingham, Ala. The company is poised to move to a new three-acre site in St. Bernard Parish after raising $4.5 million to build out and equip the new location, which they will rent. |
| Fear is widespread on American campuses, researcher says | |
 | A University of Chicago professor said Sunday that research shows that students on college campuses are more fearful than ever before. Speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," Professor Robert Pape told host Margaret Brennan: "The big thing we learned is that the feelings of fear on college campuses are more widespread and more intense than we have known." The research at the University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats involved 5,000 students at hundreds of colleges. "Overall, 56% of Jewish students report feeling in personal danger," Pape told Brennan. "Close behind, 52% of Muslim students report feeling in personal danger. And 16% of all students who are not Jewish and not Muslim." Pape said the students were simply reacting to what they're seeing on their campuses. "What they are reporting is," he said. "observing acts of physical violence and intimidation right in front of them. Jewish students are seeing Jewish buildings attacked. Muslim students are seeing people ... counterattack against Muslims. The students that are not Jewish and not Muslim, they're just seeing everybody getting, you know, attacked." He also cited "protest chants." When pressed by Brennan, Pape said that what was needed was an even-handed approach to reducing the ugliness, rather than one-sided political grandstanding by lawmakers. He said the Israel-Hamas war clearly caught people in the United States by surprise, so there was no plan really in place to deal with fallout in America. |
| Student protests over the Israel-Hamas war roil US campuses ahead of graduations | |
| Colleges around the country implored pro-Palestinian student protesters to clear out tent encampments with rising levels of urgency Monday as classes wrap up for the semester and campuses prepare for graduation ceremonies. Students and others have been sparing over the Israel-Hamas war and its mounting death toll. Many students are demanding their universities cut financial ties with Israel. Protests were still active at a number of campuses. Near George Washington University, protesters at an encampment breached and dismantled the barriers Monday morning used to secure University Yard, the university said in a statement. The yard had been closed since last week. At Columbia University, the site of the first protests, dialogue since last week between academic leaders and student organizers to dismantle encampments has not progressed, the university president said Monday. Protesters on both sides of the rancorous debate shouted and shoved each other during dueling demonstrations Sunday at the University of California, Los Angeles. The university stepped up security after "some physical altercations broke out among demonstrators," Mary Osako, vice chancellor for UCLA Strategic Communications, said in a statement. There were no reports of arrests or injuries. The plight of students who have been arrested has become a central part of protests, with the students and a growing number of faculty demanding amnesty for protesters. At issue is whether the suspensions and legal records will follow students through their adult lives. |
| As Colleges Weigh Crackdowns on Protests, Questions About Outsiders Linger | |
| Amid a dizzying array of standoffs involving pro-Palestinian demonstrations and encampments at colleges, schools that cracked down on protesters over the weekend have given varying justifications for their actions, while others sent mixed signals with their inaction. Behind it all was a central question confronting university leaders across the country: When does a demonstration cross the line? Colleges have cited property damage, outside provocateurs, antisemitic expressions or just failures to heed warnings as reasons to clear encampments and arrest students. Student groups have strongly denied or questioned many of those claims. Northeastern University in Boston, Washington University in St. Louis, Indiana University Bloomington and Arizona State University had police forces move in on demonstrations on Saturday, leading to more than 200 arrests. At other schools -- including Columbia, Penn, Harvard and Cornell -- an icy tension lingered on Sunday as leaders warned about possible consequences for demonstrators but had yet to carry them out. Counter protests also arose on Sunday, including at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania and at the University of California, Los Angeles, where some physical altercations broke out among demonstrators but no major violence was reported. Many school leaders have insisted that people outside their colleges are stoking the confrontations, despite limited evidence backing their claims. |
| Divest? Call the Cops? Presidents Grapple With How to Respond | |
 | When Michigan State University students established an encampment to call for divestment from Israel over civilian casualties in Gaza, President Kevin Guskiewicz visited the site to speak with student activists about their concerns. In response to similar protests, presidents at Emory University, University of Texas at Austin, and elsewhere sent in the police, who arrested students and faculty. The contrast in responses illustrates a sharp divide in how presidents are navigating the spillover from a conflict thousands of miles away that only tangentially touches their campuses. It also highlights how the war between Israel and Hamas has inflamed campus relations in the U.S., putting institutional leaders in the impossible position of trying to balance the competing aims of assorted students, faculty, staff, alumni, trustees and donors. As protest encampments have popped up at dozens of universities in recent days, administrators have struggled to respond to demands that their institutions divest endowment funds from businesses profiting off the war and/or that they end any academic or business partnerships with Israel, given the tens of thousands of civilians its military has killed in response to Hamas's deadly Oct. 7 attack. For presidents suddenly stuck navigating an unforeseen and politically charged campus crisis, there is no easy answer. |
| 'Decisions Under Fire': Campuses Try a Mix of Tactics as Protests Grow | |
| On quads and lawns from coast to coast, colleges are grappling with a groundswell of student activism over Israel's ongoing military campaign in Gaza. Administrators are having to make controversial decisions over whether to call in the police, and are often criticized regardless of the route they take. Hundreds of protesters have been arrested across the country. Police and protesters have reported being injured at some college demonstrations, but in many cases, the arrests have been peaceful, and protesters have often willingly given themselves up when officers move in. Daniel W. Jones, a former chancellor of the University of Mississippi, said students, faculty members, elected officials, parents and donors all offer often starkly different advice on how the university should respond. "I think the biggest tension is around, am I going to act in the best interests of students on my campus, or the best interests of my board, the politically interested people and alumni broadly?" he said. |
| Growing campus unrest sparks Democratic fears over Chicago convention | |
 | Intense clashes between anti-war protesters and police on college campuses is spreading alarm among Senate Democrats who worry that anger over President Biden's handling of the war in Gaza could engulf their party's presidential nominating convention in late August. Images of police arresting more than 100 protesters on Columbia University's campus, including Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-Minn.) daughter, have Democratic lawmakers bracing for chaos in Chicago. It's just one of several campuses around the country where there have been arrests. "I think if the situation doesn't change dramatically in Gaza, yeah, I think it could be bad," warned one Democratic senator, who requested anonymity to comment on the growing concern within the party. "Are you going to the convention? Wear your body armor," the lawmaker said. A number of Democratic senators are old enough to remember the violent clashes between police and anti-Vietnam War protesters at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, where the nomination of Vice President Hubert Humphrey as the party's presidential candidate was marred by images of police tear-gassing protesters and beating them with clubs. Anti-war protesters have stepped up their efforts to pressure Democratic lawmakers at political dinners and town hall events and even at their homes. |
| Trump, GOP seize on campus protests to depict chaos under Biden | |
 | Former president Donald Trump and other prominent Republicans are seizing on the eruption of campus protests across the country to depict the United States as out of control under President Biden, seeking to use the mostly peaceful demonstrations as a political cudgel against the Democrats. The pro-Palestinian protests at numerous colleges -- including Columbia, Yale, Emory, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas at Austin and others -- include encampments and barricades intended to highlight protesters' denunciation of Israel's military onslaught in Gaza, as well as to push universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel. Beyond the disruption to campus life, top Republicans have highlighted the antisemitic chants that have occurred at some of the protests. The issue is complicated by a debate over what constitutes antisemitism -- and when criticism of Israel crosses that line -- while some student organizers have denounced the chants or said they are coming from outside activists. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has cited the protests to accuse Biden and Democrats of being unable to maintain order or quash lawlessness, an accusation he has leveled at the president on other hot-button political issues. As the protests have mushroomed in recent days, numerous Republicans have sought ways to highlight them as an example of the country's slide into chaos. The Israel-Gaza war has deeply fractured the Democratic Party, posing significant political challenges to Biden months ahead of November's presidential contest. |
| McConnell: Leave handling of protests to college presidents | |
| Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell declined to call for the National Guard to intervene in the pro-Palestinian protests that have popped up on college campuses across the country, even as other Republican leaders called for more forceful action. "What needs to happen, at least at the beginning, is these university presidents need to get control of the situation, allow free speech and push back against antisemitism," McConnell said during a pre-taped interview that aired on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. Several Republicans have advocated for more forceful action to stamp out the mostly peaceful disruptions. But unlike some of the more hardline members of his party, McConnell did not call for more forceful action when asked if the situation on college campuses required interference from the National Guard. "Let's see if these university presidents can get control of the situation. They ought to be able to do that. Civil discussion is what college education is supposed to be about. I'd be interested in hearing the antisemitic people explain the justification for that kind of talk," he said. |
| Head of Federal-Aid Office to Step Down Amid Continuing FAFSA Crisis | |
 | Richard A. Cordray, chief operating officer of the Education Department's Federal Student Aid office, or FSA, will step down at the end of June amid a wave of criticism for the current financial-aid crisis. Cordray, who was appointed to his position in May 2021, has overseen the calamitous rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. A series of delays, glitches, and technical problems with the form has thrown this year's enrollment cycle into chaos, leaving many college applicants stuck in limbo while awaiting financial-aid offers from colleges. Just under 30 percent of students in the high-school Class of 2024 had completed a FAFSA as of mid-April, a 36-percent drop from this time last year, according to the most recent federal data. Cordray on Friday sent a letter to his staff stating that his three-year term would come to a close next week -- and that he would not continue for another one. But he had agreed to stay through June at the request of the U.S. secretary of education, Miguel A. Cardona, according to the department. In a written statement on Friday, Cardona thanked Cordray for his service and commitment to students, families, and colleges. Neither Cordray's nor Cardona's statement mentions the FAFSA debacle. |
| Russian propaganda takes hold in U.S. House | |
| Columnist Bill Crawford writes: Republicans have sounded alarms over Russian propaganda taking hold in the U.S. House of Representatives. "It is absolutely true we see, directly coming from Russia, attempts to mask communications that are anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia messages, some of which we even hear being uttered on the House floor," Republican Rep. Mike Turner, chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said on CNN's "State of the Union." Days earlier Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that Russian propaganda had "infected a good chunk of my party's base." Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, noted how powerful Russian propaganda can be in a NY times article. "Slovakia was 80% pro-Ukraine, he said. "Two years later, with massive amounts of Russian misinformation and disinformation, you have a pro-Russian government and 55% of Slovaks think America started the war in Ukraine." Some, like former Rep. Liz Cheney, see Russian influence causing a similar shift among Republican congressmen, an emerging "Putin wing." |
SPORTS
| Diamond Dawgs Claim Series Over No. 11 Vanderbilt | |
| Trailing 7-6 with two outs in the top of the ninth inning, Hunter Hines came up to the plate with a runner on and hit a two-run home run, leading the Mississippi State Diamond Dawgs to an 8-7 victory over the No. 11 Vanderbilt Commodores. Following Hines's homer, Tyson Hardin came in and recorded the final three outs of the game, earning his second save of the season. Mississippi State came out of the gate hot, scoring five in the third. Vanderbilt scored six runs in the sixth inning and a single run in the seventh to take the lead. Hines played hero for State with a two-run home run in the ninth to take the lead 8-7. Connor Hujsak went 3-for-4 in the Sunday finale with a pair of RBIs and a double. David Mershon went 3-for-4 on the day with an RBI and a home run. Logan Kohler picked up his first home run of the season. Jurrangelo Cijntje earned the start on the mound and punched out a career-high 11 batters in his 5 1/3 innings pitched. Nolan Stevens and Karson Ligon each picked up 1 1/3 innings of relief work. Ligon struck out a single Commodore and grabbed his first win. Tyson Hardin pitched one inning and earned his second save. Mississippi State is back for the Governor's Cup in Pearl, Miss. against Ole Miss. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU with first pitch set for Wednesday at 6 p.m. |
| Hunter Hines may have changed Mississippi State baseball's fate with series win at Vanderbilt | |
| Hunter Hines slammed his helmet. Playing in a crucial rubber match at Vanderbilt, the Mississippi State first baseman thought he'd done enough to spark a rally. Leading off the seventh inning, with the Bulldogs down a run after holding a 6-0 edge, Hines sent a line shot into right field. It was directly at Braden Holcomb. Hines returned to the dugout at Hawkins Field and let out an expletive before taking his frustration out on his helmet. Then, he found his composure. "Just got to play the game," he told himself. Two innings later, he got a chance at redemption. Hines, who entered the week hitting sub-.200 against left-handed pitching, stepped up to bat. Mississippi State was still down one, but the tying run was at second in the form of David Mershon. Evening the score wasn't enough for Hines. Instead, he sent a blast to the construction beyond the right field seats giving Mississippi State (29-15, 12-9 SEC) an 8-7 lead it held up against the Commodores (31-13, 11-10). The home run was his third against left-handed pitching in two days and secured a series win after Vanderbilt won 4-0 on Friday. MSU won 7-4 on Saturday. "That was probably the best one of my career," Hines prefaced. "So far," he then added. |
| Multiple Bulldogs Selected in 2024 NFL Draft | |
| For the 15th consecutive year, the Mississippi State Bulldogs have had a player selected in the NFL Draft. Decamerion Richardson, Jaden Crumedy, and Nathaniel Watson heard their names called in the 2024 NFL Draft. State's three selections in the 2024 NFL Draft are the most for the Bulldogs in a single draft since 2020, when five State players were drafted. Richardson, a Mississippi State graduate from Cullen, La., was the first Bulldog taken in the 2024 NFL Draft. He is a 6-2 cornerback who ran a 4.34 40-yard dash, third fastest 40 time by a corner at the NFL Combine. He becomes the third Bulldog ever selected by the Las Vegas/Oakland Raiders, joining Johnathan Abram (2019) and Gabe Jackson (2014). Crumedy, a Mississippi State graduate from Hattiesburg, Miss., became the second Bulldog drafted in 2024 when the Carolina Panthers selected him in the sixth round. Watson, the 2023 SEC Defensive Player of the Year, became the eighth Bulldog drafted by Cleveland and the first since 2022 when the Browns selected Martin Emerson. |
| Bob Tyler, longtime football coach throughout Mississippi, dies at 91 | |
| Bob Tyler, who's coaching career spanned across 45 years and included stops at Mississippi State and Ole Miss, died Sunday, a Mississippi State spokesperson confirmed to The Clarion-Ledger. He was 91. Tyler's coaching career started in 1957 when he was hired by Water Valley High in his hometown. The first part of his high school coaching career featured stops at Okolona, Corinth, Senatobia and Meridian. He made the jump to the collegiate ranks when he was hired onto Johnny Vaught's staff at Ole Miss (1968-70). Tyler spent the 1971 season working under Bear Bryant at Alabama before arriving at Mississippi State the following year as an offensive coordinator under Charles Shira. In 1973, Tyler became the coach of the Bulldogs. Across six seasons, he had a 21–44–2 record. That's an adjusted record from his actual 39-25-3 mark. Mississippi State forfeited four wins and a tie in 1975 along with the 1976 and 1977 seasons due to alleged improper benefits to student-athletes -- though that decision has long been debated. The NCAA tried putting the Bulldogs on probation for the 1975 campaign, but MSU sought and won approval from the court -- which delivered an adverse opinion to the ruling -- to play. In 1974, Tyler led Mississippi State to only its second nine-win season ever. It's a feat that has only been reached 10 times in program history. The Bulldogs ended that campaign with a Sun Bowl victory. |
| How the NIL effect impacted the NFL Draft | |
| As countless talking heads offer reactions and overreactions from the NFL Draft, one of the biggest draft game-changers can't be assessed by height, weight or 40 times: NIL, which had its fingerprints all over the latter rounds. Now that we're fully entrenched in the NIL Era, it's a new day for day three of the event. Scores of underclassmen with latter-round draft grades are now returning to college for another year, their decision to delay a professional payday cushioned by six-figure NIL packages. That option provides them with an additional year to develop in hopes of an early-round selection next year. No longer are underclassmen faced with this dilemma: Get paid now or return to school to bolster draft stock. By extending their time on campus, they are increasingly doing both. "This will be a trend -- where [draft classes] won't be as deep as they used to be," said Brett Veach, the general manager of the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. "If you are a junior, and you have a third- or fourth-round grade, and you have the opportunity to stay in school and make money, you're going to go back. "The availability of young guys with potential that [would come] out early, those guys are staying now. So, I think the drop-off numbers are a little bit more extreme this year, and the players are a little bit older." |
| How NIL is affecting the NFL Draft | |
| Kirby Smart never minces words. Frankly, he hardly ever dances around points at all. So when asked about name, image and likeness and its relationship with player development, Smart cuts to the crux of a sentiment percolating throughout college football with his usual bluntness. "There's a lot of [recruits] that want to ask about NIL, but they don't want to ask about what your NFL players have done," the University of Georgia head coach said recently. "It's much more important how you develop players than how much NIL you get." Smart's words carry substance. Georgia has had more players drafted over the last two years than any program in America. But as NIL becomes an increasingly integral part of college football recruiting, it's also trickled into the NFL Draft ecosystem. In a world in which college football players can make money via NIL deals that are in the neighborhood of, or in some cases more than, those contracts given to NFL rookies, there's a real value proposition for players who may have entered the NFL Draft in previous eras. "With respect to the NFL Draft, [NIL has] definitely resulted in guys who maybe in the past would have entered the draft staying in school," said Kennyhertz Perry attorney Mit Winter, a leading voice in the NIL space. "Especially if you're talking about potentially late-round picks, mid-round picks where you're not guaranteed [a spot]." |
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