| Wednesday, May 15, 2024 |
| Amid veterinarian shortage in rural areas, Mississippi State to offer new scholarship | |
 | Mississippi State University will soon be offering a program intended to bring workers into an underserved area of the agricultural industry. With the unanimous passage and subsequent enactment of House Bill 1210 this year, the Starkville university is slated to offer the Dr. Elton Mac Huddleston Rural Veterinarians Scholarship program to incentivize more people to provide medical care to farm animals. "We have a critical shortage of veterinarians in rural Mississippi that are willing to work on large animals," Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation President Mike McCormick said on The Gallo Show. The scholarship will be given to qualifying students pursuing a degree in veteran medicine on the condition that they agree to work in a rural area of Mississippi with at least 30 percent of their practice devoted to food supply animals such as cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and horses. According to McCormick, the scholarship will also be used to help repay the loans of veterinarians who decide to go back to school to be further trained for large animal work in rural portions of the Magnolia State as part of their primary practice. To aid in launching the incoming scholarship, $18 million has been allocated to Mississippi State to upgrade the Wise Center to bring a new diagnostic program and cattle facilities to better equip students for rural jobs. |
| Mississippi State experts address CWD potential risk in humans | |
 | Mississippi State University (MSU) scientists and leading experts in deer and prion research are weighing in on recent news about deer diseases and potential risk to human health. A recent brief, published in the journal Neurology, stated that in 2022, two hunters from the same hunting lodge were afflicted with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Both the human CJD disease and Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), affecting deer, elk and moose, are caused by a misfolded protein called a prion. Steve Demarais, co-director of the MSU Deer Lab and scientist in the university's Forest and Wildlife Research Center, has studied the ecology of white-tailed deer for more than 40 years. Much of his recent research focuses on CWD. "It's important for people to think critically when considering this news. This was a synopsis presented at a meeting and Neurology published it. Since CJD is so rare, there is cause for concern but there are still so many unknowns regarding this case. We know the two subjects had a history of consuming venison, but we don't know if they ingested meat that tested positive for CWD. The scientists who published the brief themselves noted that more research is needed. At this point, research has not demonstrably proven that CJD was caused by CWD," Demarais explained. |
| MSU Extension hosts planting tech field day | |
| Mississippi State University (MSU) will host a field day at one of its research stations on June 5 for row crop growers interested in learning more about high-speed planting and advanced planting technologies. The MSU Extension Service and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station will present the Advanced Planting Technologies field day and training at the MAFES Black Belt Experiment Station in Brooksville. According to organizers, producers will have a firsthand view of advanced planting equipment and fields planted with various configurations of advanced planters. Strip plots for high-speed planted corn, soybean and cotton will be shown, as well as a look at residue management systems with high-speed planting into cover crops. Additional topics include modification of speed planters for high-residue systems, dynamic downforce components, planter maintenance and calibration, and pros and cons of advanced planting technologies. MSU Extension specialists and industry leaders will be on hand to speak with growers. |
| Noxubee murder suspect busted with drugs in Starkville | |
 | A man who was out on bond for a Macon murder charge was arrested again Sunday in Starkville. Maxi Chandler, 30, of Macon, was arrested at the gas station on the corner of Louisville Street and Lynn Lane at around noon Sunday, Starkville Police Department Public Information Officer Brandon Lovelady told The Dispatch in a text message. Officers were responding to a domestic disturbance when they arrested Chandler on charges of possession of a weapon by a felon, trafficking of a controlled substance and two counts of possession of a controlled substance, a Monday SPD press release said. Drugs included cocaine, crack cocaine and methamphetamine, Lovelady said. Chandler was booked in Oktibbeha County Jail following his arrest, and bond has been set for Sunday's charges at $80,000, Lovelady said. At the time of Sunday's arrest, Chandler was out on bond for a prior murder charge and an aggravated assault charge, the press release said. |
| Inflation Eases as Core Index Hits Lowest Level Since 2021 | |
 | U.S. inflation eased slightly in April, with a key measure of price pressures slowing to its lowest level since spring 2021. The consumer-price index, a gauge for goods and service costs across the U.S. economy, rose 3.4% in April from a year ago, the Labor Department said Wednesday. So-called core prices that exclude volatile food and energy items climbed 3.6% annually, the lowest increase since April 2021. Both figures were in line with economists' expectations. Investors saw positive signs in the report that the Federal Reserve's inflation fight is gradually slowing down the U.S. economy. The yields on 10-year Treasurys, which fall as prices rise, ticked lower. Stocks advanced, continuing their march higher in May. On its own, Wednesday's reading won't be enough to change Fed officials' calculus for if and when to begin cutting rates, which affect borrowing costs across the economy. But analysts say there is little in the report to reignite fears of rate hikes, allowing central bankers to stay on hold more comfortably at their meeting next month. Because it will likely take another two reports to shore up officials' confidence that inflation can return to the lower levels that prevailed before the pandemic, the Fed might not be ready to cut interest rates before September. |
| Lawmakers approve construction of new alcohol warehouse in Mississippi | |
| On Monday, Governor Tate Reeves (R) signed into law a bill to fund the construction of a new Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) warehouse with $95 million in state bonds. To pay the bonds, fees on liquor distillers are being raised. Mississippi is one of 17 states that exerts direct control over the sale and distribution of alcohol, a remnant of Prohibition-era policy. The state maintains a monopoly on the importation and distribution of any distilled spirit or a wine product that contains more than 5% alcohol by weight. Every bottle legally sold is routed through a single state-owned warehouse, currently located in Gluckstadt. Licensed package retailers must purchase the liquor and wine they sell directly from the state. The ABC warehouse has been a point of contention for a number of years, as lawmakers have repeatedly been told by the Department of Revenue that to increase efficiency and improve distribution, a modern, larger warehouse is needed to accommodate demand. State Rep. Trey Lamar, author of HB 1354, told Magnolia Tribune state-of-the-art equipment simply will not fit in the current warehouse. "You'd have to take the top off, raise it, and add on to the back. By the time you do all of that, you might as sell that one and find another location to build on," Lamar said. |
| Gov. Reeves vetoes four felony voting restoration bills, yet signs two into law for first time | |
| Republican Gov. Tate Reeves on Monday night vetoed a handful of bills that would have restored voting rights to four people who had completed the terms of their prison sentences for grand larceny and burglary convictions. But Reeves, who has never approved of a suffrage restoration bill since taking office in 2020, signed two measures into law that restored suffrage for two people. He also allowed 12 other suffrage restoration bills to become law without his signature, which is his usual practice. It's unclear why the second-term governor made the unusual decision to approve suffrage bills for the first time, let others become law without his signature, and vetoed others. His office did not respond to a request for comment about his actions on the bills. He also did not attach a message to his four vetoes, despite the state constitution's requirement that the governor return any vetoed bills to the Legislature "with his objections." About 55,000 names are on the Secretary of State's voter disenfranchisement list as of March 19. The list, provided to Mississippi Today through a public records request, goes back to 1992 for felony convictions in state court. |
| Governor signs bill funding projects in Jackson area | |
 | Of the 14 local projects in an appropriations bill meant to improve areas of the City of Jackson and Hinds County, all were signed into law by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves on Monday. This is vastly different than last year's legislative session, where Reeves vetoed more than $18 million for projects in Jackson. Reeves signed into law Senate Bill 2468, an annual appropriations bill with a total of $820,375,000 in expenditures this year. The bill includes a total of $227,375,000 million to fund local projects throughout the state. All in all, more than $9.4 million in state funds is headed to Jackson and Hinds County. The local projects Reeves approved to be funded in Jackson and Hinds County, include more than $2.5 million for the Capitol Complex Improvement District, $2 million for Jackson's downtown Union Station and over $3 million for Hinds County. Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson, told the Clarion Ledger he was happy to see projects and other needs within the Jackson area receive funding like repairs and updates to Union Station. "I'm happy that (Reeves) saw fit not to veto those projects for the City of Jackson," Bell said. "I am just looking forward to having more projects being requested from the delegation (in the future)." |
| Smith-Wills ownership in question after governor signs off a new legislation | |
| Smith-Wills Stadium is City of Jackson property right now, but that may soon change. Commissioner of the Legacy League and CEO of Hank Aaron Sports Academy, which operates out of Smith Wills, Tim Bennett said he wasn't given a heads-up about the legislation. "No pun intended, but it kind of hit me out of left field. I was in here working last night," said Bennett. "One of the parents stuck her head in the door and said, Were you aware that the stadium was being repossessed?" House Bill 1983 is this year's bond bill. It includes money for projects all around the state. However, near the end of the bill, it directs the Attorney General to take all legal action necessary to revert ownership of this parcel of land back to the state. The legislation indicates the land was deeded to the City from the state in 1944 under the condition that it be used for park purposes only. "I've always been aware that the dirt does belong to the state, and that the city did construct the facility in 1975," noted Bennett. "That there were some reverter clauses built in, and so we've been very careful to make sure that we stay compliant." That's where some lawmakers are pointing to the issue. Churchill Smoke Shoppe also operates on the parcel of land, which they say is obviously not a park purpose. "All of it falls under one contract," added Bennett. "So, when we signed the contract, they were already in that contract." Rep. Chris Bell thinks the section of the bill about the ownership of the parcel of land is a targeted move against the City. |
| Jackson has a gang problem and it's growing | |
| For years in Jackson, it seemed common practice for city officials to deny that there was a gang problem. That changed with what has been an apparent explosion of violent crime, not only in Jackson but nationwide. John Knight is an intervention specialist who took 16 WAPT News inside the Henley-Young-Patton Juvenile Justice Center, where teenagers are housed for various crimes. He admits there are gang-affiliated members inside. "This is why most older guys know how to fight because you had to fight all your life," Knight said. "We don't try to fight now, because they have got them guns." Images spray-painted around Jackson are calling cards for Vice Lords, Gangster Disciples, Latin Kings, Simon City Royals and Black P. Stone. Jackson Police Department sources said the metro area has one of the largest concentrations of Vice Lord members in the nation. "But now these things have changed for the worse because these kids don't follow rules," Knight said. "Now you have these cliques, and that is where we have a serious problem with these cliques. It is not Vice Lords and gangsters." "We have to lean into that issue. We have a gang problem," JPD Chief Joseph Wade said. "We have a gang issue." Federal authorities say they are keenly aware of gang activity in Jackson and in Mississippi. They have several task forces within the FBI looking specifically at violent crime and gang activity. |
| Big lobbying groups spend $400M on farm bill: Report | |
 | Pharmaceutical, manufacturing and big agriculture interests have spent more than $400 million lobbying Congress on a new farm bill, a new report has found. That's more than four times the amount of money spent by the public sector and civil society, according to public data compiled by the Union for Concerned Scientists (UCS). The group found that nonprofits, labor unions, state and local governments and tribal nations spent a total of $95 million over the same period. "The food and farm bill has the power to transform our food and farm system, and agribusiness and industry groups know this," report co-author Karen Perry Stillerman said. These groups "started lobbying from almost the moment the last farm bill was enacted, showing that these groups are always working to influence this legislation in their favor." The last farm bill was enacted in 2018 and was set to expire in 2023, before it was extended by one year. Congress's budget for the total package is estimated at approximately $1.5 trillion, to be spent over 4 years. Spending sped up last year as the farm bill's expiration after five years neared, the report said. Earlier this month, America got a picture of dueling Republican and Democratic priorities for the farm bill. Both proposals included language to increase crop insurance for the biggest agricultural operations growing commodities like corn, soy, wheat, dairy, lumber and sugar. |
| Stabenow: farmers, rural communities need certainty, and a farm bill does that | |
| The Chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Ag Committee says finalizing a bipartisan farm bill provides certainty for rural America. Debbie Stabenow told attendees of the Rural Communities in Action Event if farmers are successful, their communities are, too. "We're strengthening the farm safety net, which is so important, by making meaningful investments that frankly focus our tax dollars on American farmers that have dirt under their fingernails," she says. "Not Wall Street bankers and foreign investors." She says it's important that a five-year farm bill also brings support to areas outside of farming, and she's optimistic Congress can still get it passed yet this year. "Let's bring the whole coalition together and talk about how we're going to lift up communities and families, and our farmers," she says. "Farmers have the riskiest business in the world. Nobody has to watch the weather like they do and nobody's been slammed more on the climate crisis." Stabenow released details of her farm bill earlier this month, and while the progress was welcomed, it has faced some criticism. Ranking Member John Boozman says the release of the majority's framework is a positive step. However, he's continuing to work with stakeholders on the Republican framework, which he says will be released after the U.S. House considers its bill. |
| Biden proposes June and September faceoffs with Trump, who accepts dates | |
 | President Biden said Wednesday that he will not participate in the decades-old tradition of three fall meetings organized by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, instead calling on his Republican rival Donald Trump to join him for two televised presidential debates in June and September. Trump responded minutes later saying he accepted Biden's offer. "I am Ready and Willing to Debate Crooked Joe at the two proposed times in June and September," he wrote on Truth Social. "I would strongly recommend more than two debates and, for excitement purposes, a very large venue, although Biden is supposedly afraid of crowds." "Just tell me when, I'll be there," he continued, before referencing a tag line from professional boxing. "'Let's get ready to Rumble!!!" The public announcement follows private back-channel discussions about possible meetings. The officials with the Biden and Trump campaigns have privately had informal conversations on debates in recent weeks, focused on meetings that would not involve the commission, according to two people familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private events. The Commission on Presidential Debates, an independent nonprofit with a bipartisan board, did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment. The organization began sponsoring presidential debates after the two major-party presidential campaigns in 1984 struggled to agree on terms. |
| Nikki Haley gathers her donors and ignores Trump | |
 | Donald Trump may be the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, but Nikki Haley isn't offering him her support or donor network yet. During a private, two-day donor retreat in Charleston, South Carolina, the former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador thanked a group of around 100 donors and her team gave a presentation on her campaign's fundraising and strategy. But Trump was barely mentioned even as Haley continues to rack up votes in primaries despite dropping out of the race in early March. As expected, Haley did not endorse the former president during the retreat, nor did she encourage her supporters to back his campaign, according to attendees at the event. The Charleston retreat showed the former GOP candidate continues to have the backing of an extremely loyal group of donors and supporters who plan to keep following her, even though she has yet to announce her next move beyond joining the Hudson Institute, a conservative Washington, D.C.-based think tank. "I take solace in the fact that Nikki's 52," said Bill Strong, a Florida-based investment banker and Haley donor who attended the retreat. "She's highly engaged in the issues that are affecting the nation and I very much hope this is not the last we hear of Nikki Haley. And I fully expect that it will not be the last year of Nikki Haley." |
| Pressure Builds for Supreme Court to Address Transgender Cases | |
| he national legal battle over transgender rights is escalating, making it difficult for the Supreme Court to avoid the hot-button social issue much longer. A growing number of courts have weighed in on several contested issues, including transgender healthcare, medical procedures for minors, participation on school sports teams and limits on drag shows. Some courts have enshrined new rights for transgender individuals, while others have rejected claims for legal protections. The roster of notable lower-court rulings increased last month when a liberal-leaning U.S. appeals court in Richmond, Va., issued a pair of decisions in favor of transgender litigants. In one, the full court ruled 8-to-6 that state health plans in North Carolina and West Virginia violated the constitutional guarantee of equal protection by excluding coverage for surgical treatments for transgender patients. In the other, a three-judge panel ruled 2-to-1 that West Virginia can't exclude a 13-year-old transgender girl from participating on her school's cross-country and track teams. "One can only hope that the Supreme Court will take the opportunity with all deliberate speed to resolve these questions of national importance," Judge G. Steven Agee wrote in dissenting from the sports-team ruling. |
| At an uneasy town hall, Delta State's president unveils 'dramatic, upsetting' restructuring | |
| Last summer, record-sized hail caused millions of dollars in roof damage across Delta State University's aging campus. Had school been in session, the regional college in the Mississippi Delta would not have had enough cash to recover and stay open, Daniel Ennis, the president, told a packed room of students, faculty, staff and community members on Monday. "That's frightening," he said. "That's like running a family and having no money if you blow out a tire, no money if your car breaks down." The stark anecdote underscored the reason for the gathering: 49 vacant positions will be left unfilled, 17 staff have been laid off and an unknown number of faculty will be next as Delta State has proposed cutting 21 of its 61 programs -- majors like history, English, chemistry and accountancy -- as part of a drastic restructuring. The program closures will be presented to the university's governing board, the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees. "It's dramatic, upsetting, and I get this is shocking to many," said Ennis, who added that there are only 238 students in those 21 programs. "So you can do the math." |
| Highlighting History: Students do their part in researching local history | |
 | College students in the Golden Triangle have been working to research, spotlight, and digitize local history. At the Mississippi University for Women (the W), Frederica Hargrove was first tasked with finding a piece of local history that they believed deserved to be a historic landmark, a news release says. The W says this led Hargrove to talk with family and community, with the Concord School being brought up repeatedly. The W says the Concord School was an equalization school, an African-American school during segregation, which was shut down in the 1969-1970 school year as it became New Hope School. This became Hargrove's capstone project. At Mississippi State University in Starkville, students have been researching a civil rights advocate named Dr. Douglas L. Conner. Conner was also one of the first Black physicians to practice in Starkville, according to the news release from MSU. MSU says this project was student-led. They created a digital exhibit of Conner's life complete with essays, his archival papers, and scholarly sources to explore school desegregation, economic boycotts and protests, anti-discrimination lawsuits, political activism, and other civil rights topics. |
| Economic developments aim to keep Mississippi's workers in state | |
| The common adage we heard from Gov. Tate Reeves' (R-Miss.) throughout last year's gubernatorial race was, "Mississippi has momentum." At the start of his second term, Reeves has doubled down on his promises of economic growth, and he has dipped into the state's coffers to bring record-breaking developments to the state. With only 53% of the state's population working, Mississippi still ranks as the poorest state in the country. With a declining population, is there momentum, and will Mississippians stick around long enough to benefit from it? This past Legislative Session, Reeves called two special sessions to allocate state funds into the biggest economic development projects in state history: an electric battery plant located on the Mississippi-Tennessee border and an Amazon data center in Madison County. Dr. Joshua Hendrickson, chair of the Department of Economics at the University of Mississippi, said the goal of these massive investments is to reap the benefits of what he calls network effects. "The feeling is, is that if you can get enough people doing manufacturing in a particular area, yeah, you might have to give like tax incentives and things like that to get them there. But once you get maybe a critical mass of this kind of production going on, then what happens is you get more companies who decide to show up there without, you know, as generous a tax benefit or even eventually without tax benefits at all just because they want to be close to those other areas. From there, you know, you start to get bigger populations in the area. You get bigger populations in the area. There's like more retail, going from economic development to economic growth is really contingent upon whether you can create those network effects," Hendrickson stated. |
| New partnership at Southern Miss brings teacher apprenticeship opportunities to students | |
| The University of Southern Mississippi's Registered Teacher Apprenticeship (RTA) program is the first in the state to be recognized by the Mississippi Office of the U.S. Department of Labor. Students with USM's RTA program will now have the opportunity to have on-the-job training with educators and other professionals in the industry to help them learn the ropes of what the occupation entails on a daily basis. The Department of Labor works with community colleges and industry partners across the state to strengthen the workforce and provide expanded opportunities for Mississippians to participate in apprenticeship programs. Programs predominantly represent fields such as manufacturing, transportation and logistics, energy and utilities, banking, and finance to enable the state's residents to earn a living wage while learning a new skill that could lead to a meaningful career. Recently, the federal government added teaching to the list of apprenticeship occupation programs to address the significant challenges the K-12 system faces in attracting and retaining teachers. |
| Northern Lights: When will we see them in Mississippi again? | |
 | Millions were wowed last week when the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, made a rare appearance as far south as the Gulf Coast. Photos circulated on social media and elsewhere of the pink and green night sky in an event that hasn't happened in decades. But what causes such a spectacular sight, and when could it happen again? "Northern Lights happen when explosions on the surface of the sun create strong solar winds that in turn reach the earth," said Chris Sirola, associate professor of astronomy and physics at the University of Southern Mississippi. "But we are not at a place where we can predict when these explosions will happen." The study of the stars and planets and all the other things we see in the sky is an incredible thing. Scientists can predict certain events, such as the next total eclipse of the sun over Mississippi in 2045, with great reliability. However, the Aurora Borealis is a different animal. There are a lot of factors that go into it and they must fit together like pieces of a puzzle. So, when the Northern Lights will appear in the South again is anyone's guess. "Most solar explosions go off into space away from us and never affect us in any way," Sirola said. "Solar astronomers can predict general trends, but not individual flares. The most they can do is observe a flare and see if it's headed our way." |
| Researchers look into community health impact of wood pellet production in rural Mississippi | |
 | About two hours southwest of Jackson sits Gloster, Mississippi, a rural town that's home to the Drax wood pellet plant -- one of several in the Gulf South. Often used overseas, burning wood pellets for fuel can help power energy and heating systems, and proponents of the practice say it's cheaper than other fuel sources and low in moisture and ash content, meaning the wood pellets should burn cleanly. But researchers from Brown University in Rhode Island and Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi, are examining if these wood pellet plants are harming the health of residents in the surrounding communities. Students from both schools spent the Spring 2024 semester measuring the lung health of 112 Gloster residents. The study was done in partnership with the Greater Greener Gloster Project, a community-based environmental justice group partially led by Krystal Martin. The study also compared the plant's effects on the Gloster residents to the health of residents living in Mendenhall, Mississippi, a town with similar median incomes for residents and a similar poverty rate to Gloster's, but does not have wood pellet manufacturing nearby. They found that Mendenhall had less air pollution and less noise pollution than Gloster did. Erica Walker, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Brown University School of Public Health, said the early findings are limited, and the universities plan to study Gloster long term. They still have to analyze lung capacity and blood data, for example. |
| Can Millsaps turn tide on declining enrollment? | |
| This could be one of the most important summers in the history of Millsaps College. The private liberal arts school in midtown Jackson has struggled in recent years with enrollment. So, as the May 1 student deposit deadline has passed, officials at the school are hopeful there will be an uptick in enrollment by the fall. Millsaps has seen enrollment numbers drop from a high of around 1,200 students in the 1900s to 850 in 2019. In the fall of 2023, there were around 160 freshmen that enrolled, and according to U.S. News data, Millsaps had 637 undergraduate students as of 2022. In the wake of the much-publicized financial crises faced by Birmingham-Southern College, which will be shutting its doors at the end of this semester, enrollment at small, liberal arts schools has come under more scrutiny. Millsaps, however, has not released its May 1 numbers. "The May 1 deadline doesn't mean what it has in recent years, mostly because of the difficulties with the FASFA process this year," said Joey Lee, director of communications and community engagement at Millsaps. "Nearly all colleges have extended their response deadlines, including Millsaps. It's too early to get a good read on enrollment projections for the fall as students have just now started receiving their full financial aid packages." Despite not having specific numbers, Lee said Millsaps officials are optimistic. |
| UGA President Jere Morehead praises state funds for facilities, academics, pay raises | |
 | The University of Georgia and its employees will benefit from the state's amended 2024 budget and the fiscal 2025 state budget that Gov. Brian Kemp signed recently, according to a report released this week in UGA Today. Money has been allocated to a new medical school building, facility upgrades, and salary increases for full-time employees, according to the report. "These investments will advance our teaching, research and service missions and produce substantial, long-term benefits for the entire state," UGA President Jere Morehead told UGA Today. Money has been earmarked for $52 million for a $1,000 one-time salary supplement and a 4% cost-of-living increase up to $3,000 a year for all full-time employees. |
| Nashville safety concerns lead female runners at Vanderbilt to unite with Chicks With Kicks | |
 | Emily Bertram and two friends recently went for a run that was supposed to be a scenic trip along the Shelby Bottoms Greenway to enjoy the beauty of Nashville. As the trio was running down a path, a man blocked their way, forcing them to avoid him. The three laughed and brushed it off as they passed the man. Then things took a turn, said Bertram, an Illinois native and junior special education major at Vanderbilt. "As we ran past, he had started verbally yelling very horrible things at us, which is obviously extremely scary," Bertram said. It was 7 a.m., and few people were out in the park. Bertram said her friends called police, who told them it wasn't the first call they had received about the man. One caller alleged the man had a weapon, Bertram said. When Bertram first stepped on campus three years ago, she never thought about safety when running in her new city. Carrying an attack whistle and pepper spray never crossed her mind. That's changed now. "I never thought about it until all of these news stories kept coming out, and I also felt like they just kept coming out one after another of these female runners getting assaulted, and it also seemed like what was happening to them was getting worse and worse," Bertram said. The student government has urged the university to add more lighting on campus, but progress has been slow. A university spokeswoman said via email last week that she didn't have any updated information on the initiative. |
| AI for nuclear plants? ORNL supercomputer's new task is no sci-fi -- it's a clean energy win | |
 | A nuclear artificial intelligence company will use the world's fastest supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to train its AI tool, which could save the heavily regulated nuclear power sector millions of dollars and untold hours of work time. Atomic Canyon, a California-based startup introducing AI to nuclear power plants, will use the Frontier supercomputer in partnership with ORNL. The company says its tool will help nuclear power plant engineers and operators search through their own data and millions of documents from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, widely considered the world's most rigorous nuclear oversight agency. Its long-term goal is to create a generative tool like ChatGPT that could help nuclear companies apply for expensive construction and operating licenses, co-founder and CEO Trey Lauderdale said. "How lucky are we? We get to use the world's fastest supercomputer to solve one of the biggest problems that society has ever faced, which is helping to enable nuclear power as a clean source of energy," Lauderdale told Knox News. "This is a dream come true." Several AI developers have used Frontier, which is the fastest computer ever made, capable of more than a quintillion calculations per second. Frontier has topped the list of the world's fastest computers five times in a row and made Time's list of the 200 best innovations of 2023. |
| Texas university leaders say hundreds of positions, programs cut to comply with DEI ban | |
 | Texas universities eliminated or changed hundreds of jobs in recent months in response to one of the nation's most sweeping bans on diversity programs on college campuses, school officials told lawmakers Tuesday. In the fullest public accounting of the new Texas law to date, the head of the University of Texas system announced that its nine academic and five health campuses alone had cut 300 full- and part-time positions. Those campuses combined also did away with more than 600 programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion training. "You may not like the law, but it is the law," University of Texas Systems Chancellor James Milliken said. Milliken was one of several chancellors who GOP state senators called to the Texas Capitol to testify on how campuses are complying with the law signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott last year. Texas is among about one-third of states across the nation that have taken steps to limit or prohibit DEI initiatives and practices. Last month, the flagship University of Texas campus in Austin -- one of the largest campuses in the U.S. -- announced the closure of the school's Division of Campus and Community Engagement and the elimination of jobs in order to comply with the ban. Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp told lawmakers the legislation "makes it crystal clear" that "if you tread back into the bad waters, something bad is going to happen to you." |
| Sharp: A&M not enforcing new Title IX rules until adjudication of lawsuit | |
 | Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp reiterated Tuesday the A&M System won't implement the Biden administration's new Title IX regulations until a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton receives a ruling. Sharp's comments came during a state Senate's higher education subcommittee hearing in Austin. Houston radio station KTRH 740 AM posted an article Monday with the headline "Woke Texas A&M Plans To Implement Biden's Controversial Title IX Rewrite." The article referred to a May 6 story from Texas Scorecard with the headline "Texas A&M to Implement Biden's Controversial Title IX Rewrite." On May 7, A&M's Office of General Counsel sent a memo that the A&M System won't implement the new Title IX regulations until Paxton's lawsuit receives a ruling. "Can I have a little point of privilege correcting a tweet that was forwarded by KTRH today without bothering to check with us?" Sharp told the state Senate's subcommittee members Tuesday. "And that was that the student newspaper [The Battalion] asked our Title IX director at Texas A&M, interviewed him [and] the Title IX director said, 'We're working really hard to implement the new Title IX regulations.' And immediately thereafter, I sent a memo to all of the presidents saying, 'We're not doing that. We anticipate that the governor will say otherwise.' And he did the next day. So, the problem is our good friends at [Texas] Scorecard wouldn't print that part of it and only printed the first part of it." |
| Under scrutiny from legislators, Texas university leaders attest to how they're complying with the state's DEI ban | |
| Public university leaders tried to demonstrate their schools can still build diverse student bodies in a post-DEI reality and acknowledged a rise in reports of antisemitism on campuses at a wide-ranging hearing Tuesday that covered some of the most explosive issues rattling higher education in the state. In their first public testimony since the ban on diversity, equity and inclusion offices went into effect, university system administrators explained to the Texas Senate subcommittee on higher education how they were complying with the state law. They said they have redirected millions of dollars away from their now-defunct DEI offices toward redoubling recruiting efforts and developing alternative student support programs. "Every dollar spent on bloated university bureaucracy should be redeployed to ensure that all Texas students regardless of race, are college ready and heavily recruited for those that want to apply to a college," said State Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, who shepherded the DEI ban through the Legislature last year. Lawmakers put an end to DEI offices when they passed Senate Bill 17 during the 2023 legislative session. The law went into effect in January. Opponents of DEI programs and training said those programs indoctrinated students with left-wing ideology and forced universities to make hires based on their support of diversity efforts rather than on merit and achievement. |
| The War in the Mideast Fuels a Crisis in the Midwest | |
 | War-torn Syria and idyllic Bloomington, Ind., may not seem like a natural comparison. But in late April, events at the flagship campus of Indiana University resurfaced painful memories for Ahmad Jeddeeni, a native of Syria and the president of the university's graduate-student government. Photos and videos on his social-media feed showed police officers in riot gear raiding a pro-Palestinian encampment, hitting and shoving protesters, dragging them across the grass, and handcuffing them with zip ties. Those officers had been called in by the university. An hour or two later, Jeddeeni decided to check on the encampment. It was now empty of tents, though demonstrators would rebuild it the next day. He noticed a Jewish student crying on the sidewalk; the student told Jeddeeni his girlfriend felt threatened by the protesters' chants of "intifada." Jeddeeni believed that the university's actions would only widen the divisions. "I don't want to see anyone get killed on this campus," Jeddeeni said. "I do not trust the way that this is being approached." The conflict over the encampment is just the latest battle in a series of controversies over academic freedom, free speech, and faculty governance that have dogged Indiana and the presidency of Pamela Whitten. |
| The Next Carnegie Classification Update Will Be Its Biggest Yet | |
| The next Carnegie classifications of colleges, due in the spring of 2025, will label colleges by whether they're low or high access, and whether students earn low or high incomes after they leave. This will be the first time that the closely watched classifications will consider who goes to a college and the college's student outcomes. The change "will give folks that use these classifications a smarter way of thinking about which institutions are doing a good job of serving students," said Mushtaq Gunja, executive director of the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The classifications are revised every few years, but Gunja is billing the 2025 version as "the biggest update since the classifications were first released in 1973," for changes including the mobility measure and others. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the American Council on Education, which together sponsor the Carnegie Classification, had previously announced the basic outlines for its 2025 overhaul. The basic classification, which every U.S. college gets, is simplifying drastically. A college's research activity will no longer be part of the basic classification. Instead, a research label will only apply to those colleges that conduct a lot of research. And Carnegie Classification is adding the "social- and economic-mobility" label to every college. The classifications are a big deal for many colleges that explicitly say they plan to try to be labeled as "R1" institutions, denoting high research activity. |
| 'College for What?' High School Students Want Answers Before Heading to Campus | |
| What do you want to be when you grow up? That's a question long faced by high school students. But these days, students have access to far more information than in the past about what, specifically, they could do as a job after they graduate. And that is changing the way students are thinking about whether or not they want to go to college -- or when they want to go. These shifting attitudes were evident in March at Central High School in St. Paul, Minn., at a daylong event dubbed the "Opportunity Fair." More than 100 local businesses set up tables with company banners and flyers about what it means to work for them, with representatives on hand to answer questions. Some of the jobs represented require college degrees. Others don't. Some of the employers here said they have career paths for both, such as a medical-device company that looks for folks out of high school to work on their factory floor as well as college grads to join their design teams. And other companies look for talented students for entry-level jobs, with the promise to help them pay for college or more training later if needed. "I don't know if I'm going to go to college right after I get out of high school," said one junior. "But I think that at some point in my future when I want to get a professional job, I probably will go to college before I do that. I don't think I need to rush into it. I don't don't want to end up failing college or anything like that." |
| Students' Perception of Education Quality Tied to Feelings of Belonging | |
 | Three in four students enrolled in a postsecondary program -- including a certificate, certification, associate or bachelor's degree -- say the quality of their education is excellent (24 percent) or very good (50 percent), according to new data from Gallup and the Lumina Foundation. Students are more likely to rate their program higher if it is offered in-person and if they feel they belong at their institution. The Gallup State of Higher Education Report investigates the reasons adults in the U.S. enroll and retain in college. In the most recent report, published May 8, researchers found learners who considered their experience to be good quality also felt supported and cared for by faculty members. The study adds to a growing body of research around the importance of faculty member engagement in student success through respectful and caring practices. Overall, a majority of those enrolled in a postsecondary program rate their program as excellent or very good, but this number grows to 79 percent among students pursuing a certificate and 78 percent among those in a bachelor's degree program. Students learning completely in-person are most likely to rank their educational quality as high (81 percent), and those learning mostly in-person have similarly high regard (78 percent) for the program quality. |
| Education Dept. announces highest federal student loan interest rate in more than a decade | |
| The U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday the interest rates on federal student loans for the 2024-2025 academic year. The interest rate on federal direct undergraduate loans will be 6.53%. That's the highest rate in at least a decade, according to higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz. The undergraduate rate for the 2023-2024 year is 5.5%. For graduate students, loans will come with an 8.08% interest rate, compared with the current 7.05%. Plus loans for graduate students and parents will have a 9.08% interest rate, an increase from 8.05% now. Both of those rates haven't been as high in more than 20 years, Kantrowitz said. The rise in interest rates could complicate the Biden administration's efforts to get the student loan crisis under control and relieve borrowers of the pain of interest accrual, experts say. Even as millions of people have benefited from recent debt relief measures, new students will be saddled with more expensive loans for decades to come. The rate changes apply only to federal student loans. Private loans come with their own -- often higher -- interest rates. |
| Farm Bill deadline draws increased partisan attention to future SNAP payment policies | |
| Columnist Sid Salter writes: On Capitol Hill, the calendar is driving increased partisan attention on the new U.S. Farm Bill. The current 2018 Farm Bill will expire on Sept. 30. Congress and President Joe Biden extended the five-year original term of the bill on Nov. 16, 2023. The headlines are already gravitating to the most populist facet of the complex Farm Bill legislation, which is the future direction of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), more commonly known as food stamps. As the poorest state in the union and a food-producing state, utilizing and using SNAP is an extremely relevant economic discussion in Mississippi each year. House Agriculture Chair Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., unveiled his Farm Bill summary proposal earlier this month. Thompson's plan quickly drew criticism from the Biden administration and liberal think tanks like the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) because of a proposed freeze on the so-called "Thrifty Food Plan." The TFP is the cost mechanism for SNAP benefits and freezing those costs, Democrats say, will effectively result in a cut in the program for recipients. Critics say Thompson's summary of the next Farm Bill would result in $28 billion in cuts to the SNAP program. But conservatives fear that SNAP is plagued with systemic fraud and waste and see SNAP reforms as key to reining in overall federal spending. ... According to the U.S. Census Bureau, one in three (32.1%) of Mississippians are eligible for SNAP benefits. U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service listed Mississippi's average monthly SNAP benefits at $157.84 per person or $322.12 per household. |
SPORTS
| Diamond Dawgs Top North Alabama, 8-4 | |
| The Mississippi State Bulldogs earned their 34th win of the season with an 8-4 victory over North Alabama on Tuesday night at Dudy Noble Field. The Dawgs were led by Joe Powell, who had three home runs and drove in six runs. The Dawgs picked up ten hits and eight RBIs to top the Lions. Powell had a monster night at the plate, knocking out three home runs, and is the first player since March 11, 2023, to hit three homers in a game. The last player to do this for MSU was Ross Highfill against Lipscomb. Powell ended the game with six RBIs and a perfect 4-for-4 day at the plate. David Mershon added two hits and an RBI for the Dawgs. Nate Dohm picked up the midweek start, went two innings, and punched out a pair of Lions. Colby Holcombe added three strikeouts for the Diamond Dawg pitching staff in his two innings pitched. Luke Dotson grabbed a 1 1/3 innings and surrendered a single run. Cam Schuelke led the pitching staff with six strikeouts in his 3 2/3 innings pitched on his way to his fourth win of the year. The Diamond Dawgs are back in action for the final series of the 2024 season against Missouri. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday with Saturday slated for 2 p.m. All three games will be aired on SECN+. |
| Second baseman (and punter) Ethan Pulliam is succeeding for Mississippi State baseball | |
| Chris Pulliam was scouring through the seats at Baum-Walker Stadium. In a sea of Arkansas fans taking in the final game of the series against Mississippi State baseball, the father of Bulldogs second baseman Ethan Pulliam was on a hunt. His son had just launched a three-run home run -- the first blast of Ethan's collegiate career. Chris, ready to negotiate a deal, wanted to find the fan who caught the ball. He succeeded, eventually finding a young boy in possession of the prize. A signature moment for the Pulliam family came at one of college baseball's cathedrals, and they returned home with a souvenir to remember it by. For Mississippi State, the ball represented a glimpse into the potential of a freshman. "(Ethan) is a super competitive kid," coach Chris Lemonis said Monday. "He's young but he's also a kid (who's) going to be a great player here in the future because he just keeps getting better." The talent is showing as Ethan is hitting .283 heading into a series between Mississippi State (34-18, 15-12 SEC) and Missouri (22-30, 8-19) at Dudy Noble Field. The three-game set, which starts Thursday (6 p.m., SEC Network+), will wrap the regular season. As MSU prepares for its first postseason appearance since 2021, Pulliam has emerged a key component. |
| Baseball: Powell blasts three homers to bail out Mississippi State against North Alabama | |
| Chris Lemonis isn't sure what's gotten into Joe Powell lately, but Mississippi State's head coach sure hopes his senior catcher keeps doing whatever he's been doing. "Maybe he met a cute girl. She's lucky," Lemonis said. "I don't know. I hope he keeps talking to her." Powell was out of baseball last season after three years at Cincinnati, and splitting opportunities with Johnny Long behind the plate, had not given the Bulldogs much in the power department. But after connecting on his first home run of the year Sunday at Arkansas, Powell hit three homers off three different pitchers Tuesday night, almost single-handedly saving MSU from a disastrous loss as the Bulldogs defeated North Alabama 8-4. On a night where Nate Dohm, who opened the season as MSU's Friday starting pitcher, returned to the mound for the first time in more than a month after battling an arm injury, his backstop stole the show with a solo shot in the third inning, a go-ahead three-run blast in the sixth and a two-run homer in the eighth. Powell also singled in the fourth for a perfect 4-for-4 night. "It's been a long time coming," Powell said. "I made an adjustment in my swing and (I've) been seeing the ball well and swinging at good pitches." |
| Nate Dohm is back for Mississippi State baseball. Can he factor into NCAA Tournament hopes? | |
| Nate Dohm's decision to have Eminem as the artist for his walk-up song was likely based more on the short, blonde hair the two share. But the lyrics to the rapper's hit "Without Me" provided a fitting soundtrack for Dohm's return to the mound as Mississippi State baseball faced North Alabama at Dudy Noble Field on Tuesday night. Guess who's back, back again? As those lyrics blared through the speakers, shortly after Dohm was the last player to emerge from the dugout and skip over the foul line, he stepped onto the mound for his first action since a 12-pitch outing against Georgia on April 7. In his return, Dohm delivered two perfect innings to open an 8-4 victory for Mississippi State (34-18, 15-12 SEC) against North Alabama (17-33-1, 9-17-1 ASUN). "It's really big to have him back" said catcher Joe Powell, who had three home runs in the game. "He's looked really good. He's had some ups and downs, but he's a tough kid." His return comes in timely fashion for the Bulldogs. Mississippi State opens a series with Missouri on Thursday (6 p.m., SEC Network+), marking the final three-game set of the regular season. After the series concludes, MSU has a quick turnaround relative to the usual week between conference games. Mississippi State will likely open SEC tournament play Tuesday in Hoover, Alabama -- possibly creating too short of rest for starters Khal Stephen or Jurrangelo Cijntje to pitch. |
| Men's Hoops Announces Home-And-Home Series With Memphis | |
| The Mississippi State men's basketball program unveiled the initial pieces of its 2024-25 non-conference slate as the Bulldogs will start a home-and-home series versus Memphis on Saturday, December 21st at FedEx Forum announced by both programs on Tuesday. The Bulldogs and Tigers will meet over the next two seasons with a return game at Humphrey Coliseum in 2025-26 on a date to be determined. Tip time and television network assignment for this season's matchup will be revealed at a later date. Memphis has appeared in two of the last three NCAA Tournaments under seventh-year coach Penny Hardaway. The two programs have met 25 times on the hardwood with the Tigers holding a 14-11 advantage. The last meeting came during the 2021 NIT Finals, a 77-64 decision in favor of Memphis. State will play host to Southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday, November 12th and Prairie View A&M on Sunday, December 8th at Humphrey Coliseum. The Bulldogs also will return to Cadence Bank Arena in Tupelo for a second straight season as State will take on McNeese, a 2024 NCAA Tournament participant who is coming off a 30-4 mark and a Southland Conference title. The Tupelo game is scheduled for Saturday, December 14th with ticket information being released at a later time. |
| Mississippi State women's basketball 2024-25 SEC schedule: Vic Schaefer returning with Texas | |
| Coach Vic Schaefer will be returning to Humphrey Coliseum during the 2024-25 season. The SEC announced its home and road opponents Tuesday for the upcoming women's basketball season and for Mississippi State, it includes hosting Texas. MSU's other home-only opponents are Alabama, Arkansas, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Texas A&M and Oklahoma. The Bulldogs will travel to face Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Missouri, Tennessee and Vanderbilt. Mississippi State's home-and-away opponent is Auburn. It's the first time MSU will face the Tigers twice in a regular season since 2019-20. The release by the SEC came as the conference prepares to add Texas and Oklahoma this school year. The Bulldogs and Oklahoma have met only twice, with the most recent game in 2021. MSU and Texas have faced off five times, the latest being in 2018. Schaefer is entering his fifth season at the helm for the Longhorns. He previously spent eight seasons (2012-2020) at Mississippi State, which went to the national title game twice (2017 and 2018). He left MSU for Texas after the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 postseason. The Bulldogs were 27-6 overall and 13-3 in SEC play in his final season. Mississippi State was expected to be among the top seeds in the NCAA tournament. |
| Ozzie Pratt slams Oxford after Southern Miss baseball's win against Ole Miss | |
| A simple glance at the box score and Southern Miss baseball's roster connects the perfect fairytale. A Golden Eagle from Oxford -- the home of Ole Miss -- providing the go-ahead RBI and a stunning defensive play against the Rebels in a crucial victory in May. But Pratt, a shortstop who transferred to Southern Miss from BYU this season, wants to make it extremely clear: He is not from Oxford. "I'm from Senatobia," he said after Southern Miss' 7-4 win over Ole Miss Tuesday at Pete Taylor Park. "I don't claim that place. That place sucks. I hate that place." Pratt played at Magnolia Heights High School in Senatobia, about a 45-minute drive from Oxford. Pratt, a junior, was an integral part in Southern Miss' comeback win that snapped a five-game losing streak to the Rebels and extended its season-long win streak to eight games. He hit the go-ahead double in the sixth inning and then made a phenomenal running throw to first base for the final out of the eighth inning. |
| No deja vu this time: Southern Miss bullpen slams the door on Ole Miss | |
| Mississippi sports columnist Rick Cleveland writes: Ole Miss was hoping for some baseball deja vu Tuesday night. Southern Miss, still with nightmares from about this time two years ago, was trying to avoid the same. Remember? Ole Miss, getting white-hot at just the right time, came to Pete Taylor Park here in May of 2022, beat the highly ranked Golden Eagles, then returned to Hattiesburg a couple weeks later for an NCAA Super Regional and thrashed USM twice more en route to that amazing national championship run. Early on Tuesday night at the jam-packed "Pete," Mike Bianco's Rebels seemed to be re-writing that 2022 script. Andrew Fisher's two-run, 416-foot blast gave the Rebels a 2-0 lead two batters into the game. The Rebels scored two more in the second inning for a 4-0 lead. "It looked like it was going to be our night at the plate," Bianco would later say. The Southern Miss bullpen had other ideas. Four Golden Eagle relievers combined for seven innings of one-hit, shutout baseball, and, cheered by a sellout crowd of 5,706, the home team reeled off seven unanswered runs for an important 7-4 victory. The victory moved USM to 35-17 on the season and vaulted the Eagles to a No. 29 national RPI headed into the last weekend of the regular season. For Ole Miss, hopes of an at large NCAA Tournament bid took a hit, although just how much remains to be seen. |
| He Quit Wall Street to Coach Ivy League Tennis -- and Built a Columbia Powerhouse | |
| Howard Endelman was busy running his own private-equity firm when he got offered the job he couldn't refuse: assistant tennis coach at an Ivy League school. The gig wasn't glamorous. It involved traipsing back and forth between Columbia's campus in Morningside Heights and the university's courts at the northern tip of Manhattan. It also required him to spend his time selling high school tennis stars on a college better known for sending graduates to the Supreme Court than to Wimbledon's Centre Court. But Endelman couldn't say no to his alma mater. And more than a decade later, that decision has never looked better. Endelman, now the head coach of the men's team, has led Columbia to the NCAA tournament's Elite Eight for the first time in school history and a showdown with No. 1 seed Ohio State. In a tumultuous semester on the university's campus, roiled by tensions over Israel and Palestine, his tennis team has delivered an unexpected moment of levity. "Could we beat Michigan or Alabama in football? Impossible," Endelman says. "In tennis, it's possible." Since reaching the Elite Eight, Endelman says he has received hundreds of text messages. "With all the stuff on campus," his contacts tell him, "you guys have been a bright light for everybody." |
| In House settlement, what is the NCAA's line in the sand? | |
| As part of the settlement in the landmark House v. NCAA case, the association may be willing to pay billions in damages to thousands of athletes. It may be willing to introduce a financial model in which schools can pay as much as $22 million annually to athletes. Yet, the NCAA's firm line in the sand is something else entirely: an employment model that would for the first time enable athletes to collectively bargain compensation and benefits through a formal union. Athlete employment would provide the NCAA long-sought protection from further lawsuits alleging it is unlawfully capping athlete compensation. But the association is hell-bent on trying to secure that protection while also avoiding formal athlete collective bargaining. "Really twisting themselves into knots trying to avoid employment," said Mit Winter, a college sports attorney at Kennyhertz Perry and board member for the players' association Athletes.org. To that point, an important potential settlement concept, first reported by ESPN, entails an annual process giving new collegiate athletes a chance to opt-in or opt-out of revenue-sharing terms. The terms of the House settlement will only be binding on athletes who are members of the injunctive class in the case, which will not include anyone who becomes a Division I athlete after the date the settlement is approved. "If this [opt-in, opt-out] concept becomes part of the settlement, the NCAA will essentially have to hope that every year all Division I athletes decide to opt-in to the House settlement's revenue sharing terms," Winter told On3. |
| Docs: NCAA could face $20B in damages, bankruptcy if proposed settlement offer isn't agreed upon | |
| If they reject a proposed settlement offer, officials from the NCAA and power conferences stand to face a catastrophic $20 billion in back damages as well as risking a bankruptcy filing, according to documents obtained by Yahoo Sports. The two-page document was circulated among power conference presidents and administrators on Tuesday as ACC leaders met at their annual spring meetings in Florida. It details terms of a potential settlement in the House, Hubbard and Carter antitrust cases, a trio of legal challenges brought against the NCAA and its five power conferences seeking back pay for various athlete compensation elements. The settlement, believed to be in the final stages of adoption, consists of three main concepts: billions in back damages; a new compensation model permitting schools to share as much as $22 million annually with athletes in a capped system; and an overhaul of the NCAA scholarship and roster structure. The document outlines settlement concepts in detail as well as particulars around the new compensation model. It also provides university leaders with new information on hot-button topics such as how a settlement protects the NCAA from future legal challenges, Title IX's application and the enforcement of booster-led collectives in a "new infrastructure." Aside from the financial figures, and one week before a potential adoption of the settlement, the document answers some vexing questions and leaves other unresolved. |
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