| Wednesday, July 3, 2024 |
| MSU project update | |
 | With the first day of summer in the rearview mirror, construction is ramping up at Mississippi State University. "Summer is always a busy season for campus construction with numerous projects scheduled or already underway to update and improve existing infrastructure and advance capital projects," said Saunders Ramsey, executive director of MSU's Campus Services. "Summer projects also allow us to limit the impact on our students and our campus community," said Ramsey. "Everything we're doing is focused on building a vibrant, welcoming environment that supports learning and enriches our students' experience." A new entrance to campus from College View Drive will welcome students when they return in August. The final phase of the Bost Drive extension project is nearing completion, connecting to College View at the intersection of Bailey Howell Drive next to the Mize Pavilion. "The Bost Drive extension is the first phase of a larger $50 million project to expand the College of Architecture, Art and Design and extend the arts and cultural corridor of campus toward the Cotton District," said Ramsey. Construction of the new road permanently closed a section of College View in front of Howell and Giles halls that will be reconfigured as a multi-use pedestrian plaza. Until the road construction is completed, a traffic detour route now runs through the Memorial Hall parking lot from Bailey Howell Drive and Barr Avenue. |
| Could historic Hurricane Beryl impact Mississippi? 'It's very difficult to tell' | |
 | Confidence seems relatively high that Hurricane Beryl's path will take it to the Yucatan Peninsula and make landfall Friday morning, but what happens after that is a bit of the unknown. Could states farther east including Mississippi feel impacts of the earliest hurricane on record to reach Category 5 status? That's the question on a lot of people's minds. "It's very difficult to tell," said Johna Rudzin, assistant professor of meteorology and physical oceanography at Mississippi State University. "I know nobody wants to hear it, but there's a lot of uncertainty past 72 hours. Right now, the range of possibilities is not predicting any interaction with Mississippi, but that's a 7-day forecast which is highly variable." Wind directions of nearby weather systems, surrounding pressure and other conditions all play roles in a hurricane's path. The speed of the storm does, too. If the storm slows that allows more time for surrounding conditions to change, which could alter its path. "There's just a multitude of factors," Rudzin said. One thing Rudzin noted is that cones depicting the projected path of hurricanes are often misinterpreted. She said many people think the effects of the storms are confined within the cones. "A lot of people think if they're not in the cone, they won't be affected," Rudzin said. "They think it's the extent of the wind field." Rudzin said that is not the case. |
| Mississippi Sound feels like a bathtub. What does that mean for hurricane season? | |
 | The heat has forecasters in awe. The Gulf of Mexico bakes each summer, and the sun always beats down on the shallow shores of the Mississippi Sound. But this year, scientists say the water is sweltering. That's bad news, they warned as Hurricane Beryl and its 160-mph winds stormed through the Caribbean this week, powered by a hot ocean that is red as a flame on most maps of its temperature. "It's very concerning," said Diana Bernstein, an assistant professor at the University of Southern Mississippi's School of Ocean Science and Engineering. The heat, she said, is "like bringing more fuel to a fire." Warm water is worrying forecasters across the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, where a path of warmth fueled Beryl's rise to becoming the earliest Atlantic Category 5 storm ever on Monday. The heat has also spread to South Mississippi. A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration temperature gauge at the Bay Waveland Yacht Club measured nearly 90-degree water on Tuesday afternoon. In Pascagoula, at the NOAA Lab, the water was 89 degrees. The numbers are higher than they normally are even in August. And they mirror the temperatures in Beryl's path. Warm water adds moisture and energy to hurricanes, said Megan Williams, a forecaster at the National Weather Service New Orleans. The Mississippi Sound is 1.5 degrees warmer than normal, Williams said. That means any hurricane approaching the Coast could gain a last-minute surge in power. |
| MHP's Independence Day travel period to begin on Thursday | |
 | The Mississippi Highway Patrol (MHP) is preparing to kick off its Independence Day travel period. From Thursday at 6:00 a.m. to midnight on Sunday, there will be a heightened presence of law enforcement officers on Mississippi roadways. "As we make the plans to celebrate this Independence Day weekend, let's also commit to making safety a top priority," Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell said. "Thank you to all of our law enforcement and first responders for continuing to work through this long weekend to ensure everyone enjoys a fun and safe holiday." MHP will utilize a high visibility patrolling plan over the travel period to promote safe travel and reduce fatal crashes. Troopers will monitor motorists to deter speeding, distracted driving, and use safety checkpoints to encourage seatbelt usage and remove impaired drivers from roads. During the 2023 Independence Day Holiday Travel Period, MHP investigated 76 crashes with four fatalities. There were also 49 DUI arrests on state and federal highway systems, along with 508 citations for occupant restraint violations during the holiday travel period. |
| Construction spending fell in May, weighed down by interest rates | |
| The years since the depths of the pandemic have been pretty good for construction spending in this economy. There is, after all, a housing shortage to make up for, and then there's all of that federal money from the CHIPS Act and infrastructure law pouring into new projects. Yet construction spending actually declined between April and May, according to new data from the Census Bureau. It didn't go down a lot -- just a tenth of a percent. But it was the first decline since October 2022. And it's more than a blip. That tenth of a percent doesn't tell the whole story, said Jay Bowman, a partner at engineering and construction consulting firm FMI. "The idea that there's this monolithic construction industry is unrealistic," he said. Bowman said parts of the industry are doing just fine, like public infrastructure funded by a flood of government support. The decline is in the residential sector. I would say that is the most economically sensitive part of the construction industry because you're talking about individuals and their pocketbooks." The factor that's hitting those pocketbooks hardest? Interest rates. |
| Lt. Gov. Hosemann eyeing plans to tackle chronic absenteeism next session | |
| As part of his agenda to improve education outcomes in Mississippi, Republican Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann is planning to propose several policy measures to reduce the state's chronic absenteeism rates next legislative session. Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing more than 18 days of the school year, or 10%, for any reason including excused absences, unexcused absences, and suspensions. According to the Mississippi Department of Education, the state's chronic absenteeism rate for the 2022-23 school year was 23.9%, down from 28% in 2021-22. However, while the rate has trended downward since the COVID-19 pandemic, it is still more than 10% higher than the state's 13% rate during the 2018-19 school year. "If students are not in the classroom, they are not learning," Hosemann said. "We need to drill down into this data and see where our biggest opportunities for driving up the rate are, particularly regarding unexcused absences." In the early fall when the school year resumes, Hosemann plans to visit education facilities in different regions of the state which have lower and higher chronic absenteeism rates to hear about on-the-ground challenges and other possible solutions to the problem. |
| Mississippi erases some restrictions on absentee voting help for people with disabilities | |
 | Mississippi is revising the restrictions it put in place last year on who can provide absentee voting assistance to people who have disabilities or cannot read or write -- restrictions that were blocked by a federal judge before ultimately being altered by lawmakers. An updated state law took effect Monday, changing one that the GOP-controlled Legislature passed and Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed in 2023. "This legislative change is a monumental step forward for voting rights in Mississippi, ensuring that every citizen's voice is heard and respected," Greta Kemp Martin, litigation director for Disability Rights Mississippi, said in a statement Monday. Disability Rights Mississippi, the League of Women Voters of Mississippi and three voters sued the state in 2023, challenging the short list of people who could "collect and transmit" an absentee ballot. The list included employees of the U.S. Postal Service or other mail carriers such as FedEx or UPS, and any "family member, household member or caregiver of the person to whom the ballot was mailed." A violation would have been punishable by up to a year in jail, a $3,000 fine or both. |
| A new law to improve pregnancy outcomes took effect Monday. But how someone can receive timely prenatal care is still unclear | |
| Despite presumptive Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women going into effect Monday, it's still not clear how low-income pregnant women can get the timely prenatal care the law is supposed to make possible. House Bill 539, which was signed into law by the governor on March 12, allows eligible, low-income pregnant women to receive immediate care covered by Medicaid while they wait for their application to be officially approved by the Division of Medicaid. Applications are supposed to take no longer than 45 days to process, though recent data shows nearly a third of applications in Mississippi took longer than that, bringing pregnant women well into their first trimester -- when about 80% of miscarriages occur. The policy, which Mississippi lawmakers hope will help mitigate the state's poor maternal and infant health metrics -- some of the worst in the country -- exists in 29 other states and Washington D.C. Mississippi Today reached out to the Division of Medicaid in late May to request an interview over the next month with an agency official to discuss what the process of presumptive eligibility and timely care for pregnant women would look like once the law went into effect July 1. The reporter continued each week to reach out to spokesperson Matt Westerfield, who on June 10 said the agency was "exploring some options" for the interview. On June 28, Westerfield said implementation is "complex" and that the agency would only communicate through "written exchanges." |
| She took on a small Mississippi town's police. Then they arrested her. | |
 | Handcuffed in the cramped lobby of the Lexington Police Department, standing eye-to-eye with the chief, Jill Collen Jefferson was given a choice. She had been arrested while filming a nighttime traffic stop in this county seat of roughly 1,500 people and four traffic signals. Pay a $35 processing fee, the chief said, and we'll release you. Days before, Jefferson had met with Justice Department investigators from Washington. She had hoped to turn their attention to this small-town police force, whose new, Black police chief, Charles Henderson, was accused of continuing the racist and discriminatory practices of the White commander he replaced. Jefferson, 37, a Harvard-educated lawyer and former Obama administration speechwriter, declined Henderson's offer to let her go if she paid the fee. Instead she stepped into the back of a police cruiser and traced the journey made by dozens of her clients -- some beaten, some accused of infractions as minor as driving without insurance -- past the town's Confederate monument, to the county jail. "I'm going to tell the world what you're doing here," she vowed to Henderson that day in June 2023. Almost five months later, the head of the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division stood in the banquet hall of a Lexington church to make an improbable announcement: The agency would aim its mighty investigative resources at Lexington's police force, which at the time had dwindled to about 10 officers and would soon shrink further. Lexington, seat of Holmes County, drew the Biden administration's attention mostly because of Jefferson. Twice she went to Washington to lobby officials and lay out her case. She had collected claims of rampant abuses allegedly committed by the small department's chiefs and officers. |
| She won a Pulitzer for exposing how the country's poorest state spent federal welfare money. Now she might go to jail. | |
 | When Anna Wolfe won the Pulitzer Prize for her dogged reporting on Mississippi's welfare fraud scandal, she had no inkling she was soon going to have to contend with the possibility of going to jail. But just over a year after she secured journalism's top award for exposing how $77 million in federal welfare funds went to athletes, cronies and pet projects, she and her editor, Adam Ganucheau, are contemplating what to pack for an extended stay behind bars. Sued for defamation by the state's former governor -- a top subject of their reporting -- they have been hit with a court order requiring them to turn over internal files including the names of confidential sources. They say the order is a threat to journalism that they will resist. The plaintiff in the defamation case is Phil Bryant, who was governor when the scandal erupted, first with a report by the state's auditor, then with a blizzard of coverage by Mississippi Today. Bryant -- who has not been charged with a crime and says he did nothing illegal -- claims the online news organization wrongly accused him of criminal conduct. He declined to be interviewed, but his lawyer, Billy Quin, said the lawsuit is not about punishing good reporting. "I didn't sue them because they exposed $77 million worth of misspending. He applauds them for doing that," he said. "The suit is about defamation." |
| In blockbuster term, Supreme Court boosts its own sway | |
 | The Supreme Court closed out a term Monday full of blockbuster decisions on gun control, abortion and criminal charges against former presidents, but legal experts say the most impactful rulings may be those where the conservative majority flexed its influence over federal government actions and policies. The justices extended their own power over other branches of government and the lower courts, even as they declined to go as far as some Republican-backed litigants and conservative lower courts, those experts say. Aziz Huq a law professor at the University of Chicago, said the Supreme Court decided most issues in a way that gives them more sway over policies. "What is distinctive here is that the consequence, the aftereffect, of these decisions is to dramatically increase the discretionary authority of courts, and in particular, the Supreme Court, at the cost of other constitutional actors' authority," Huq said. In four decisions, the justices gave judges more power to review administrative agency decisions, forced certain Securities and Exchange Commission actions to be filed in federal court, allowed challenges to agency rules years after they are finalized and stepped in to pause a nationwide plan to reduce cross-state air pollution. Clare Pastore, a law professor at the USC Gould School of Law, said the changes from those decisions will reverberate for years to come, encouraging constant lawsuits over both new and existing federal rules, with litigants shopping around for the friendliest judges. |
| Trump revels in legal and political wins while Biden's campaign reels from their debate | |
| Donald Trump likes to be the one in the spotlight. But in the days since President Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance, the presumptive Republican nominee has kept a low profile, leaving the focus on the drama engulfing the Democratic Party as he and his campaign revel in a series of legal and political victories heading into the Republican National Convention this month. Trump's run began last week during the first debate, when Biden delivered a performance so dismal that he has spent the days since fending off calls from alarmed Democrats to step aside to save the party from losses up and down the ballot. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution, limiting the indictment against Trump for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden. It's all but certain he won't face trial before Election Day. And on Tuesday, the judge in Trump's New York criminal hush money trial postponed his sentencing to weigh the impact of the Supreme Court decision. The flood of good news -- along with a major fundraising haul that has eliminated what had been Biden's substantial cash advantage -- has given Trump and his team cause for celebration as they head into the convention this month. And it has frustrated Biden supporters who would prefer to focus on Trump's sweeping second-term agenda and comments he made during the debate minimizing the Capitol riot and suggesting he might not accept the results of this election, either. |
| Biden's latest excuse: Blame it on the travel | |
 | President Joe Biden is now chalking up his fumbling debate performance to a heavy travel schedule ahead of the face-off with Donald Trump -- the latest in a series of explanations for an episode that has caused some Democrats to call for him to drop his reelection bid. The president told donors Tuesday that he was offering "not an excuse but an explanation" for his struggles during the debate. "I wasn't very smart. I decided to travel around the world a couple of times ... shortly before the debate," Biden said at a fundraiser in McLean, Virginia. "I didn't listen to my staff and I came back and then I almost fell asleep on stage." His remarks Tuesday marked the latest attempt to explain the poor debate performance and stave off a cascade of Democrats threatening to withdraw support or calling for him to drop out amid questions about his mental acuity at 81, nearly three years older than Trump. The effort to downplay the disastrous debate performance is a departure for Biden aides, who for his entire presidency have pushed back on stories about his age and suggestions that he has declined. Instead, they portrayed him as razor sharp in meetings and called accommodations in plain sight -- including a transition to black dress sneakers, the use of lower stairs to access Air Force One and a truncated daily schedule -- mere figments of the media's imagination. The president has dismissed concerns with self-deprecating jokes. |
| Big Donors Turn on Biden. Quietly. | |
 | Wealthy Democratic donors who believe a different nominee would be the party's best chance to hold the White House are increasingly gritting their teeth in silence about President Biden, fearful that any move against him could backfire. As of late Tuesday, the party's moneyed class was carefully monitoring post-debate poll results and the positioning of elected Democrats for signs that support for Mr. Biden was cracking. Earlier moves by donors to mount their own campaigns to pressure Mr. Biden to step down as the party's presidential candidate have either fizzled out or prompted pushback from fellow contributors and operatives. The deadlock reflects a broader paralysis within the party about how to handle a fraught situation that could inflame intraparty rifts, alienate key constituencies, damage personal relationships and benefit a Republican candidate most of the donors believe poses a threat to democracy. The dynamic started taking shape mere hours after the debate. The deliberations among wealthy Democrats, detailed in more than two dozen interviews as well as in written communications reviewed by The New York Times, only intensified as the Biden campaign and the party establishment formed a protective wall around him in the days after the debate. On Wall Street, where executives tend to be unsentimental about cutting their losses, a half-dozen prominent Democratic donors said Mr. Biden's chances had plummeted after the debate, at times using expletives to describe the situation. |
| Beshear for VP? Governor is 'flattered' by discussions of Harris-Beshear ticket | |
 | The national media cycle continues to churn through reaction to Democratic President Joe Biden's poor debate performance last week. And on Tuesday night, in a high-profile interview on CNN, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear waded into the discussion. Appearing opposite Pamela Brown, a Kentucky native and daughter of late governor John Y. Brown, Jr., Beshear was honest in his negative evaluation of Biden's debate night and did not recoil from talks of Beshear becoming the vice presidential nominee alongside current Vice President Kamala Harris if she were to replace Biden on the ticket this year. "I think we've all got to be upfront and honest that what we saw in the debate, it was rough. It's a rough night. and regardless of polls that you see, it's going to hurt the campaign," Beshear said. Beshear couched his comments in praise of the president's administration, in particular his involvement in getting funding for the Brent Spence Bridge, a key commercial and traffic vein connecting Kentucky and Ohio. But in the lead-up to a planned meeting of Democratic governors with the president on Wednesday, Beshear was frank in his concern following a debate performance that saw Biden, 82, sometimes trail off and struggle to speak coherently. The governor's live interview came as a building chorus of media figures as well as a handful of Democrats are discussing the possibility of, or even calling for, Biden to withdraw from the race. If that were to happen, it would seem that Vice President Kamala Harris would be first among the many Democrats looking to step up. During the interview, Brown said that Harris' allies are floating Beshear as a vice presidential candidate with whom she'd pair well. |
| Katie Britt is the long shot Trump VP pick showing there's no such thing as bad publicity | |
 | As the internet mocked Kate Britt for her dramatic performance during the Republican response to the State of the Union earlier this year, the Alabama senator said she was soaking it all in, excited that Saturday Night Live had chosen Scarlett Johansson to play her just three days later in its opening sketch. "I actually was pretty pumped about that," the 42-year-old freshman lawmaker told her colleague, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on his podcast 'Verdict.' "I mean, my crime was like putting too much passion, too much heart and soul behind the issues that I genuinely care about. And they slaughtered me across the airways." During her response, delivered from her kitchen in Montgomery, Alabama, Britt criticized President Joe Biden's border policies by telling a harrowing story about a child who was sex trafficked. But the anecdote actually took place in Mexico while President George W. Bush was in the White House. There was plenty more to get people talking from Britt's 17-minute speech, all of which combined to help get her name trending on Google and where her social media engagement skyrocketed as people fact-checked and reacted to the televised address that some saw as an audition to join Donald Trump as his running mate on the 2024 Republican presidential ticket. Britt's ultimate chances of getting picked, by all measure, appear to be diminishing. |
| What was the 'first American novel'? On this Independence Day, a look at what it started | |
| In the winter of 1789, around the time George Washington was elected the country's first president, a Boston-based printer quietly launched another American institution. William Hill Brown's "The Power of Sympathy," published anonymously by Isaiah Thomas & Company, is widely cited as something momentous: the first American novel. Around 100 pages long, Brown's narrative tells of two young New Englanders whose love affair abruptly and tragically ends when they learn a shocking secret that makes their relationship unbearable. The dedication page, addressed to the "Young Ladies of United Columbia" (the United States), promised an exposé of "the Fatal consequences of Seduction" and a prescription for the "Economy of Human Life." Outside of Boston society, though, few would have known or cared whether "The Power of Sympathy" marked any kind of literary milestone. "If you picked 10 random citizens, I doubt it would have mattered to any of them," says David Lawrimore, an associate professor of English at the University of Idaho who has written often about early U.S. literature. "Most people weren't thinking about the first American novel." Subtitled "The Triumph of Nature. Founded in Truth," Brown's book is in many ways characteristic of the era, whether its epistolary format, its Anglicized prose, its unidentified author, or its pious message. But "The Power of Sympathy" also includes themes that reflected the aspirations and anxieties of a young country and still resonate now. |
| Mississippi Arts: 'Lanterns on the Levee original manuscript donated to MDAH | |
| William Alexander Percy, born in 1885 in Greenville, Mississippi, was a Harvard Law School graduate, poet, and owner of Trail Lake Planting Company. His estate has donated the original handwritten manuscript of Percy's 1941 autobiography and bestseller, Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son, to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH). In Lanterns on the Levee, Percy reflects on pivotal events such as the devastating Mississippi River flood of 1927, as well as the profound societal transformations that occurred in the South during the Progressive Era, World War I, and the Great Depression. "MDAH is grateful to the Percy family for this generous donation to the archives," said MDAH director Katie Blount. "Lanterns on the Levee is a fascinating and important book, and we are thrilled to be able to offer researchers access to the author's original handwritten manuscript. This addition complements the Percy Family Papers at MDAH, which also includes the correspondence and papers of William Alexander Percy and his father, Sen. LeRoy Percy, providing unique insight into Delta culture and society of the day." While the collection is being processed, researchers who want to view the manuscript may request access by contacting the archival curator at the William F. Winter Archives and History Building; however, the Percy Family Papers are currently available for research in the archival reading room. |
| Researchers work to identify 82 million-year-old dinosaur found in Mississippi | |
 | It's the most complete dinosaur ever found in Mississippi, but exactly what it was remains a mystery. It's been identified as a hadrosaur; a member of a family of similar dinosaurs, and it roamed what is now Northeast Mississippi about 82 million years ago. It was an herbivore measuring 25-26 feet long and when standing on its back legs was about 16 feet tall. Its fossilized remains have been stored for years, but now a University of Southern Mississippi graduate student is working to solve the mystery. "This thing sat for a while because we didn't have anybody to work on it," said James Starnes of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality's Office of Geology. "They're called duck-billed dinosaurs. "They have a very goose-like or duck-like bill. These are huge animals." Some of the pieces are held privately, but some are held at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science. What hasn't been found is the skull, which is a key to identification of different species of hadrosaurs. Different species had different crowns on their heads. What purpose they served is unknown, but each was unique and there were a lot of them. "There's hundreds," said USM geology graduate student Derek Hoffman. "They're the most well-represented dinosaurs in the fossil record, without a doubt. The research I'm doing is the identification of this hadrosaur." |
| New $47 million golf facility nearing finish line at U. of Alabama | |
 | Construction at the University of Alabama is a year-round endeavor, but residents are accustomed to major projects popping up while students are away. This summer, UA is upgrading major street intersections and opening a brand new golf facility. Major projects set for this year include renovations, upgrades, and new construction at several fraternity houses. Kappa Sigma is getting a new 29,000 square foot, $16.9 million building by November. The university also recently finished a $121 million renovation and transformation of the old Bryce Hospital complex. The 176-acre golf training facility is scheduled for completion this month. The off-campus facility is located along Kicker Road, south of Jack Warner Parkway and west of 25th Avenue NE. The facility consists of five buildings including a car barn, golf house and nine-hole course. "The exteriors of the main structure will be in a Georgian Revival style that will include brick veneer, limestone, metal guardrails, and shingle roof," the Building Bama website states. |
| Before the Civil War, William T. Sherman ran LSU. Did he ever return to Louisiana? | |
 | He wasn't popular in the South at the Civil War's end, and in many ways, he still isn't. But that didn't keep Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman from returning to Louisiana after scorching a path through the South. He believed in leaving nothing in his wake, yet he still wanted to return to something in at least one Southern state. That state was Louisiana, where he served as the first president of LSU when it opened as the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy in Pineville. "He loved it here," said Gaines Foster, retired professor of history at LSU. "And he returned not once, but twice." Which answers the question posed by Sharon Coldiron, who knew Sherman's history with LSU. "I know he left the school to lead the Union Army at the outbreak of the Civil War, and I know there are no buildings named for him at LSU in Baton Rouge," the Deville resident said. "But did he ever come back to Louisiana?" Well, Coldiron is in luck, because Foster has been researching this very subject in his retirement. Though he's in the early stages of this quest, he has confirmed two Sherman visits in 1869 and 1879. And here's an added extra -- one of those visits involved the King of Carnival. |
| Tennessee sees boost in college-going rates for class of 2023 | |
 | The percentage of Tennessee public high school graduates heading directly to college just marked its largest year-over-year increase in nearly a decade, according to the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. The class of 2023 has a 56.7% college-going rate, which is a 2.4 percentage point bump from the previous year. That gain is the largest since the state implemented its tuition-free Tennessee Promise scholarship in 2015, the commission announced in a report released Tuesday. The state has steadily recovered from lows driven by disruptions during the coronavirus pandemic. The college-going rate dipped to a low of 52.8% in 2021. While that falls short of the state's goal to increase the college-going rate to 60% for the class of 2023, it's still something to celebrate, according to commission director Steven Gentile. He hailed it as a "momentum year" and said it reflects a statewide partnership to coordinate education and workforce training. Gentile also praised the work of the Tennessee Reconnect program, which provides scholarships for adults who want to pursue an associate degree, technical degree or technical diploma at a Tennessee community college or technical college. "It is gratifying to see those efforts pay off in helping even more Tennessee students and adult learners pursue their dreams and careers with college degrees and workforce credentials beyond high school," Gentile said in the release. |
| Texas A&M to end gender-affirming care for students | |
 | On Monday, less than 24 hours after Pride month had ended, Matthia Klatt was one of several Texas A&M University students who received a message that the university health center would soon stop offering gender-affirming care. "It was completely out of the blue," Klatt said. "I was heading into work Monday morning and I saw in the group chat I'm in someone was like, 'Hey, what is this?' ... I checked my patient portal and there was the message. I was completely shocked. It threw my whole day off. I hadn't heard anything [about it]. I'm still honestly confused about where this came from." In the message sent out by Texas A&M University Health Services --- and posted online by several students -- Senior Director Dr. Tiffany A. Skaggs said that the Beutel Student Health Center would stop providing gender-affirming care beginning Aug. 1. According to the message, the decision was made "after thorough assessment of [health services] resources, capabilities, and patient needs." Currently, the health center offers hormone replacement therapy [HRT] and 44 students in total have sought the treatment, according to a university representative. In January, Texas A&M closed its LGBTQ Pride Center and its Diversity Equity and Inclusion [DEI] Office in order to comply with Senate Bill 17 which prohibits all state public institutions of higher education from establishing or maintaining a DEI office, considering DEI during the hiring process for faculty, staff and contracted workers or requiring faculty and staff to attend DEI training. The law, and subsequent decisions by the university, resulted in backlash from some students in the form of a protest. This newest removal of resources for LGBTQ students has added to an already devastating impact on the community, Klatt said. |
| College of Southern Nevada announces new acting president William Kibler | |
| The College of Southern Nevada announced Monday that William Kibler will take over as the school's acting president for one year as Federico Zaragoza, CSN president since 2018, retired as of Sunday. The Nevada System of Higher Education will use Kibler's yearlong stint, which is expected to end June 30, 2025, to search for a president, according to NSHE. Kibler won't be eligible for the permanent position as he is the acting president, not an interim president. His salary for the year is $330,000 plus a monthly $1,000 housing allowance. Kibler's experience in higher education spans 43 years. Most recently, he served as president emeritus of Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas, but he's also served as vice president for student affairs at Mississippi State University and Texas A&M University. Interim Chancellor Patricia Charlton recommended Kibler for the role, in partnership with The Registry, a placement firm that specializes in higher education interim leadership positions. "Their deep understanding of the higher education landscape and meticulous approach to candidate selection allowed us to make an informed decision in appointing Dr. Kibler as Acting President, ensuring continuity and stability for the institution," Charlton wrote in a statement. |
| UVa withholds degrees from students who participated in pro-Palestine protest | |
| Four former University of Virginia students have had their professional lives upended after the school announced it would be withholding their degrees due to their involvement in a student-led protest back in May. A total of 11 students are effectively in limbo as they await a trial before the University Judiciary Committee, a student-run body that adjudicates alleged violations of the university's standards of conduct, which could include withholding diplomas for those students who were meant to graduate this past spring and suspension or expulsion for those students still enrolled at UVa. The fate of the students -- who were part of the encampment protesting the Israel-Hamas war broken up by Virginia State Police on May 4 -- will not be known until sometime this fall. The committee has thus far declined requests to expedite their trials. For the four students who were set to graduate but now have no diploma, it has become difficult to find work in a job market in which employers often require a bachelor's degree. "It is an empty punishment, because I did everything to fulfill my degree," Cady de la Cruz, a first-generation college student who has had her degree withheld, told The Daily Progress via email. "The only reason UVA has stalled the process is to make an example out of me." Cases are only brought to the University Judiciary Committee after a complaint is submitted by someone in the UVa community. In this case, the complaints were brought by Donovan Golich and Elizabeth Ortiz, both employees of UVa's Division of Student Affairs. Students would not face trial, and degrees would not be withheld, if Ortiz and Golich withdrew their complaints. |
| 'There's No Secret Sauce': An Enrollment Leader Looks Back at 35 Years | |
 | Monica Inzer needed a summer job. So, for a few months before her senior year at Skidmore College, in New York, she worked as a tour guide for the admissions office. Inzer, then a soccer player majoring in English, hadn't ever given admissions work much thought. But she enjoyed chatting with prospective students and their parents. And as the first in her family to attend college, she found promoting higher education meaningful. Then, after graduating, in 1989, Inzer stuffed her belongings into a gray Volkswagen Quantum and drove to Allentown, Pa., excited to become a full-time admissions officer at Muhlenberg College. Still, she figured she would stay in the field for just a couple of years. But Inzer ended up sticking with the profession for three and a half decades. She spent the last 20 years at Hamilton College, in New York, where she helped guide the institution's decision to eliminate merit aid, in 2007, and to become need-blind in admissions, in 2010. Inzer also led a sustained and successful push to increase funding for financial aid at the college, and she helped create Hamilton's Student Emergency Aid Society. Inzer, who ultimately became vice president for enrollment management at Hamilton, has long been a respected member of her campus and her field, known widely for her clear-eyed perspective on admissions and financial-aid issues -- and for her skill in communicating the complexities of the job. Hamilton recently announced the creation of an endowed scholarship in honor of Inzer, who retired at the end of June. While packing up her office, she took a break to discuss college access, the challenges enrollment leaders face, and what sustained her for the last 35 years. |
| FAFSA issues force hard choices: 44% of students said college decisions came down to $5,000 in aid | |
| In an already difficult year for college applicants, when it came down to picking a school, there was one factor that outweighed all others: financial aid. Even in ordinary years, choosing a college largely hinges on the amount of financial aid offered and the breakdown among grants, scholarships, work-study opportunities and student loans. In 2024, however, ongoing issues with the new federal financial-aid application have heightened the role of aid in college choices. Because of problems with the new form, financial aid award letters were delayed and some high school seniors had trouble applying for any aid at all. More than three-quarters, 76%, of students said the financial aid amount awarded to them, and the overall financial aid process, were the top drivers in their choice about where to go to college, according to a survey by Ellucian and EMI Research Solutions conducted in March. That outpaces parental influence, location, campus culture and even the degree programs offered. Ellucian's study found that 44% of the 1,500 students surveyed said they'd switch their top choice school if offered just $5,000 more in aid. |
| Rules Banning Transcript Holds, Expanding Overtime Now in Effect | |
 | A host of new federal regulations took effect Monday, and Education Department officials say the new rules make up part of "the most effective system ever to oversee predatory and low-quality institutions of postsecondary education." Several of those regulations and other changes that became effective July 1 are facing legal challenges, and some have been blocked. Whether they remain in place may depend on how federal courts interpret Friday's Supreme Court ruling that limits the regulatory power of federal agencies---and on the outcome of the presidential election in November. The wide-ranging set of regulations boosts oversight of postsecondary programs, flags colleges at risk of closure and puts new requirements in place for colleges to access federal financial aid. The Education Department also is limiting when a university can withhold a student's transcript and requiring institutions to provide adequate career services and more information on financial aid offers to students, including details of the actual cost of the education being provided. Several new benefits for student loan borrowers enrolled in a new income-driven repayment plan also took effect Monday. Elsewhere in the federal government, the Biden administration's rule expanding overtime eligibility to lower-paid workers kicked in this week. The rule could mean a pay boost for thousands of employees on college campuses, though a federal judge has blocked the change for state workers in Texas. Taken together, this round of new rules and regulations involves significant changes in institutional accountability, consumer protections for students and employee pay. |
| Baby Boomers face an unavoidable healthcare crisis based on personnel shortages | |
| Columnist Sid Salter writes: Last year and likely next year as well, the Mississippi Legislature was focused on the question of Medicaid expansion. The tenor of that debate focused on the perceived impact on the bottom line of beleaguered Mississippi hospitals under an expanded Medicaid program, particularly those in rural areas of Mississippi. Yet with or without the expansion of Medicaid, a quite different healthcare crisis exists for providers and patients alike. Baby Boomers, the generation born between 1946 to 1964, are approaching the season of their lives when their healthcare needs will increase and become more pervasive and persistent. ...So, with an aging (and growing!) population of people who will increasingly need healthcare, Mississippi and the rest of the country is facing a shortage of doctors and other key medical personnel. With two medical schools (University of Mississippi Medical School in Jackson and William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Hattiesburg) and a relatively small population, Mississippi is ahead of the curve in producing physicians compared to more urban states. But the numbers skew when considering the need for specialists including obstetricians, pediatricians and those who render psychiatric care. Nursing shortages exacerbate the shortage of physicians. ... Mississippi community colleges and universities are working to address those shortages. ... In the latest move to address healthcare personnel shortages, the College Board recently approved two new schools at MSU-Meridian's Riley campus in downtown Meridian -- the School of Health Professions and the School of Nursing. |
SPORTS
| Summer baseball update: Schuelke succeeding in closer role on the Cape | |
 | After pitching mostly in a setup and long relief role in his first season at Mississippi State, Cam Schuelke is excelling as the primary closer this summer for the Cotuit Kettleers of the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League. Schuelke is in his third season with Cotuit, the organization that taught him how to throw from a submarine arm slot in addition to his overhand and sidearm deliveries in 2022. He picked up his first save this summer on June 25 against the Falmouth Commodores, striking out both batters he faced with the tying run at the plate to preserve a 4-2 victory. On Saturday against the Wareham Gatemen, Schuelke entered the game in the top of the ninth with a 4-2 lead following a leadoff single, and although he walked the first batter he faced, he retired the next three on a flyout, a popout and a strikeout to earn another save. Schuelke is eligible for this month's MLB Draft but has one year of college eligibility remaining. He redshirted as a true freshman at Florida Gulf Coast and has also played for Northwood University and the College of Central Florida. |
| Three former Mississippi State track & field athletes bound for Olympics | |
| Marco Arop, Curtis Thompson and Navasky Anderson may be representing their respective home countries when they compete at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. But they all will be representing Mississippi State as well, becoming the latest in a long pipeline of track and field athletes from Starkville to the Olympics. Arop, the reigning world champion in the 800 meters, is making his second Olympic appearance after a disappointing 14th-place finish in the event in Tokyo three years ago. Born in Sudan, Arop emigrated to Canada as a child with his family and competes for Canada in international competitions. With the Bulldogs, he finished second in the 800 at the 2018 NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon. His personal best time in the event is 1:42.85, the Canadian national record, set last September. Thompson, who grew up in New Jersey and competes for the United States, won the NCAA javelin title for MSU in 2016 and has three national javelin championships in his career. Paris will be Thompson's second Olympic appearance, and he is coming off a gold medal at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile. Anderson, a Jamaican middle-distance runner, will compete with Arop in the 800. |
| Mississippi colleges look to adapt in new era of athlete compensation | |
 | Changes to transfer rules and NIL laws have shifted the way college football rosters will look for seasons to come. WLOX Sports Anchor Matt Degregorio spoke with Yahoo Sports Senior College Football Reporter Ross Dellenger about the financial effects for the NCAA member institutions and athletes moving forward. College sports fans have spent the past three seasons trying to understand the ins and outs of both the transfer portal and NIL along with the impact each one has on their favorite programs. During that time, major lawsuits including the House v. NCAA were taking place in court to determine if, when, and how college athletes will be compensated. Dellenger, a Mississippi Gulf Coast native and Mercy Cross High School graduate, has followed these changes in the NCAA at a national level for the past six years. With schools set to have the ability to pay athletes out of pocket, one question comes to mind: How will Power 5 schools like Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and LSU share revenue with their athletes? "We don't really know yet," said Dellenger. "Each school will have its own discretion, but as part of the settlement, they'll have to share 22% of their revenues at the power conference level. It's an average power conference revenue number that they generate and they'll have to share 22% of that. It ends up coming out to the low 20 millions. Bottom line is each school will share around $20-23 million a year with their athletes. They'll be permitted to that. They don't have to. They're not required to." Power 5 schools, especially in the Big 10 and SEC, are expected to spend to the limit allowed -- but what does the revenue-sharing change look like for Group of 5 schools such as Southern Miss? "A school like Southern Miss almost certainly will not," he claims. "In fact, I can't imagine Southern Miss being able to afford to share much revenue with athletes at all. I think they will, but it will be a small portion probably just like it is now. " |
| It's bigger, and it just means more: Texas' jump to the SEC shows how much college sports is about to change | |
| High above the University of Texas campus, within the school's iconic clock tower, a party ensues. This is not any ol' party. While more than 18,000 orange-clad fans sprawl across the 40 acres below celebrating the school's entrance into the Southeastern Conference, a much more exclusive gathering unfolds above. Mere hours before the conference move is official, the people who made the historic decision to leave the Big 12 and join the SEC mill about sipping on beverages and munching on snacks from within the wood-paneled walls of a near-100-year-old library-turned-presidential office. Jay Hartzell, the university president, cleared out his digs for the soirée, his desk serving as a dessert table and his sun deck as an outdoor bar for those dignitaries receiving invitations. They include more than a dozen Texas head coaches; a handful of board of trustee members and boosters; SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, the person who opened the door when Texas knocked; and the man perhaps most responsible for the conference move: Hartzell's athletic director, Chris Del Conte. Soon, fireworks will shoot from the tower, the letters "S-E-C" will illuminate from its windows and, down below, Pitbull -- Mr. Worldwide -- will serenade the Texas faithful. "Tonight," Hartzell told the roaring crowd, "Pitbull is a Longhorn!" In a way, the party here on the Texas campus represents so much more than one school entering one conference. It is emblematic of a new era in college athletics, where the rich and powerful will hold more influence than ever. |
| Texas A&M's Trev Alberts tells his timeline on Jim Schlossnagle's departure | |
| Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts offered a timeline on former A&M baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle's stunning exit to rival Texas last week, and Alberts responded to Schlossnagle's assertion that the athletic director had told him he could leave if he wasn't happy at A&M. "We talked at length," Alberts told the Houston Chronicle on Tuesday of finally earning an audience with Schlossnagle prior to the super regional of the NCAA Tournament against Oregon. "I said, 'Are you frustrated? Is there anything I can do?' And at the end of the conversation I said, 'Jim, if you're not happy here and you want to leave, that's OK. But please don't hurt our program and don't hurt our kids.' That's what I said. "And he said, 'I will never do that, Trev.' I said, 'OK.'" Schlossnagle left A&M for Texas on June 25, the day the Aggies arrived back from the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., after finishing second to Tennessee, the highest finish in A&M program history. Alberts said that on the Tuesday (June 11) following the Aggies' two victories over Oregon in the super regional at Blue Bell Park, a meeting was called with the 12th Man Foundation, the athletics' fundraising arm, to discuss the already approved $80 million redevelopment of Blue Bell Park. "And he didn't come to the meeting," Alberts said of Schlossnagle. "Two days later, I called (a search) firm and said, 'Let's get ready to do a search.'" Schlossnagle told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram last week that Alberts had told him, "If you don't ever feel this is the place for you, that's OK, and it's OK to move on." |
| Basketball players sue NCAA over NIL use in March Madness promos | |
| Sixteen former men's college basketball players, including Kansas stars Mario Chalmers and Sherron Collins, UConn guard Ryan Boatright and Arizona guard Jason Terry, have sued the NCAA and multiple conferences for the unauthorized use of their name, image and likeness in March Madness highlights. Chalmers hit a 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left to tie Memphis and force overtime in the 2008 national championship game. After Chalmers made one of the most dramatic shots in NCAA men's basketball history, the Jayhawks dominated the Tigers in overtime to win 75-68 for their first national championship in 20 seasons. Defendants in the class-action lawsuit, which was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York, also includes the Big East, Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, ACC and Turner Sports Interactive. The lawsuit accused the defendants of "systematically and intentionally" misappropriating the plaintiffs' publicity rights while "reaping scores of millions of dollars from Plaintiffs and similarly situated class members' participation in competition." The lawsuit accused the NCAA and the other defendants of violating the federal Sherman Antitrust Act through unreasonable restraint of trade, group boycott and refusal to deal. |
| 'An invitation to judicial chaos': ACC, Clemson argue over jurisdiction in NC court | |
 | Judge Louis A. Bledsoe's hands gripped the top of his own head as he pondered a question for one of Clemson's lawyers, Alan Parry. Clemson and the Atlantic Coast Conference were going back and forth in a courtroom in Mecklenburg County on July 2, but Bledsoe was deeply weighing the fact that both parties will reappear in a courtroom in Pickens County on July 12 to argue over similar issues pertaining to a grant of rights contract and the league's deal with ESPN. Meanwhile, Florida State and the ACC are at odds over the same agreements. Also in two states. "Why isn't it preferable that a single judge, rather than three judges, decide issues concerning the terms and provisions of contracts between the parties?" Bledsoe asked Parry. The judge did not immediately rule on Clemson's motion to dismiss the ACC's lawsuit in North Carolina, which alleges the university breached its obligations to the conference when it sued the league in South Carolina. Nor did Bledsoe rule on a motion to stay the case in deference to the court in Pickens County. Bledsoe did say, however, he intends to hand down a written ruling prior to the hearing in South Carolina on July 12, sometime "mid-week" next week. And the judge was most definitely grappling with the ramifications of two cases proceeding between the ACC and Clemson, as well as the ACC and FSU. |
| ESPN 'did not have any intention' of sublicensing CFP until TNT's 'very attractive' offer | |
| In landing a sublicense deal for early-round College Football Playoff games over the next five years, TNT Sports apparently pulled a page out of "The Godfather" -- making ESPN an offer it couldn't refuse. The capability to sublicense such games was part of ESPN's six-year extension with the CFP -- a deal worth a reported $1.3 billion that runs through the 2031-2032 seasons. But ESPN Chair Jimmy Pitaro tells my colleague Mollie Cahillane that the company "did not have any intention" of sublicensing any games in the newly expanded playoff -- at least until the new deal kicks in two seasons from now -- but Warner Bros. Discovery made a "very attractive" financial offer. "We recognize that we're all operating in a challenging environment with cord-cutting and the competition for sports rights, so we decided to maintain some financial flexibility here," said Pitaro. That led to TNT Sports locking down two first-round games this year and next year, with two quarterfinal games added on once the new rights agreement kicks in. "We took a step back and asked ourselves, 'Was this better or worse for college football?' And we ultimately decided that [WBD] putting their networks behind these games would be a net positive," Pitaro said. ESPN will still produce the games broadcast on TNT, while ESPN talent will also staff those contests. "Not a bad thing from a morale perspective," said Pitaro. "Our folks were incredibly excited that we were able to maintain the rights to the College Football Playoffs, and now with the sublicense, this is a healthy, smart business move." |
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