| Tuesday, July 23, 2024 |
| Dry June may limit Mississippi's corn crop potential | |
 | Yield quality for Mississippi's corn crop this year will largely hinge on which fields were irrigated and which ones were dry land, according to researchers at the Mississippi State University (MSU) Extension Service. "Corn crop condition varies considerably depending on whether it is grown in fields with supplemental irrigation or not," said Erick Larson, grain crops specialist with the MSU Extension Service. "Mississippi corn dependent on rain has gone since early June without much appreciable rainfall, so the crop outlook has diminished considerably in that time." Producers planted about 580,000 acres of corn in the state this year, which is down 27% from 2023, when 790,000 acres were planted. "Growers increased soybean and cotton acreages, so corn acreage is off the pace this year because of that and some other issues associated with high input prices and fertilizer lingering from a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, heat and drought stress during late June and July may further reduce crop expectations. Most of the Mississippi corn crop will not mature until the end of July to mid-August, so the next couple of weeks will influence what kind of crop potential we have," Larson stated. The scaled back acreage also comes down to prices, which MSU Extension agricultural economist Will Maples said are down from the recent highs of the last few years. |
| Starkville teen arrested after allegedly breaking into multiple cars | |
 | A Starkville teen was arrested Thursday after allegedly breaking into multiple cars earlier this month, according to a Starkville Police Department press release. Anthony Buchanan, 18, of Starkville, was charged with one count of grand larceny (auto), five counts of auto burglary and one count of possession of a stolen firearm. SPD Public Information Officer Brandon Lovelady told The Dispatch the auto burglaries happened on July 10 and 13, all in Starkville. No specific area of the city was targeted, he said. As is typical with most auto burglaries, according to the press release, Buchanan was allegedly active in the early morning hours between midnight and 4:30 a.m. Lovelady said a search warrant was served Thursday at the Brookville Garden apartments on Everglade Avenue, which resulted in the arrest. At the time of his arrest, Buchanan was out on felony bond for two counts of auto burglary, one count of possession of a stolen firearm and one count of conspiracy to commit a crime from 2023. |
| Caledonians to weigh in on gas-powered turbine energy plant | |
| Tennessee Valley Authority is calling for a second round of public comments on a project to build a gas-powered turbine energy plant near Caledonia, this time, with a draft environmental impact statement available for the public to review. The proposed project would be located on a TVA-owned 63-acre property on Caldwell Road, south of Caledonia, which is known as the New Caledonia Site. Lowndes County Board of Supervisors President Trip Hairston told The Dispatch Monday that the "peaker plant" will supplement the renewable energy sources TVA is already drawing from, like solar farms, when renewable energy is not available or during peak times. "You have to have the availability of power usage for your customers, no matter what time of day it is, no matter if the sun is shining or not in this area," Hairston said. "Power has to be continually placed on the grid because it's being perpetually drawn off the grid." The plant, Hairston said, would help to prevent rolling blackouts and power shortages by making sure there is always enough power on the grid to meet demand. "That's especially important around here because we have large industrial use of power, and they have guaranteed that these industrial areas would have power and uninterrupted power," Hairston said. "The building of a 500-megawatt peaker plant is integral and crucial to renewable power sources. We think it's the right thing. We think it's a good thing." |
| Suzy Bowman named CREATE Foundation's Director of Regional Impact | |
 | Suzy Bowman was appointed Director of Regional Impact for the CREATE Foundation, the foundation announced Tuesday. Her appointment to the position, which aims to strengthen regional unity and expand the foundation's initiatives across the region, is effective Sept. 16. Bowman, a lifelong Mississippian, will lead the Commission on the Future of Northeast Mississippi and CREATE's Community of Excellence program. She has dedicated her career to community development and education. As a member of the initial Career Coach program cohort in Mississippi, Bowman proved instrumental in leading efforts to improve workforce development. Her experience includes roles like Ecosystem Workforce Coordinator for North Mississippi with Accelerate MS and Director of Mississippi Operations for Junior Achievement of Memphis and the Mid-South. "We are thrilled to welcome Suzy Bowman to our team," Mike Clayborne, President of CREATE Foundation, said in a statement. "Her extensive background in education and workforce development, coupled with her passion for community service, makes her the perfect fit for this role. We look forward to the positive impact she will bring to our region." |
| Iconic Jackson restaurant Hal and Mal's added to Mississippi Blues Trail | |
 | The latest addition to the Mississippi Blues Trail has been unveiled with Jackson restaurant, bar, and music venue Hal and Mal's being recognized for nearly four decades of dedicated promotion of blues music. Located at 200 Commerce Street in the heart of Downtown Jackson, Hal & Mal's is a gathering place for locals and visitors alike, blending authentic Mississippi blues music and cuisine. The marker joins over 200 others in the statewide trail, highlighting pivotal sites linked to the genre and encouraging visitors to explore Mississippi's rich musical heritage. Established in 1985 by brothers Hal and Malcolm White, Hal & Mal's quickly became a cultural hub in the capital city, providing guests with live music, including the blues, and a Gulf Coast-inspired menu. Over the years, the iconic venue has welcomed countless renowned musicians, alongside local and regional talents, fostering a vibrant continuation of the blues legacy within central Mississippi and beyond. "Hal & Mal's and the White family are proud to join the trial for this remarkable, American music initiative. Telling the Mississippi Story and promoting Mississippi's creative economy has always been our mission and our business plan," Malcolm White said. "We are grateful to add our story and our roots to the deep tradition of the blues, the taproot of all American music." |
| City of Canton selected as location for new ABC warehouse | |
| The city of Canton was selected as the location for the new Alcoholic Beverage and Control warehouse. According to Joey Deason with the Madison County Economic Development Authority, the Department of Finance and Administration purchased the land for around $980,000. The property is just over 32 acres and located off Soldiers Colony Road. According to 'The Canton News' Facebook page, this new warehouse and distribution facility will be outfitted with the most advanced technical and highly automated distribution systems. |
| Certificate of Need laws stifling Mississippi's healthcare system? | |
| Within Mississippi, discussions to significantly reform Certificate of Need (CONs) laws have not yet been successful, but talks are continuing and reform advocates hope changes are on the way. Certificate of Need laws were established under President Gerald Ford's Administration nearly 50 years ago. CONs require new medical facilities to obtain government permission before opening. Cade Yates, Deputy State Director for Americans for Prosperity, said the federal mandate began with the goal of encouraging medical industry investments and reducing healthcare costs. Yates contends the idea to restrict the number of healthcare facilities in America did not work as planned. "Unfortunately, over the next ten years it was so disastrous that the feds repealed it under (President Ronald) Reagan and left it up to the states," Yates said. To Yates, instead of making healthcare cheaper and improving the quality of care, CON laws did the opposite. "Because you know that any time the government tries to have a heavy hand top-down approach it generally leads to worse outcomes," Yates added. Edney, State Health Officer for the Mississippi Department of Health, said CON laws were put in place to ensure that when a medical service is proposed there are enough patients to support it. He said CON laws also ensure the applicant seeking to deliver the service has the funding to support what they propose. |
| The UAW's union dreams seemed unstoppable. Then came the realities of the South | |
 | It started last November when the UAW ended decades of concessions to carmakers by ratifying record contracts at Ford, GM and Stellantis. The success inspired southern auto plant workers to launch their own campaigns, starting at Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Volkswagen employees kept the momentum going when they voted overwhelmingly in April to join the UAW -- a victory a decade in the making. Suddenly, the dream of unionizing auto workers across the South seemed possible. Then, along came Alabama. A Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama, and a Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Alabama, soon joined the movement. But just one month after the historic win in Chattanooga, Mercedes workers voted against unionizing. Before that vote, one organizer predicted the Hyundai plant would have a union election by the end of the summer. But since then, none have been scheduled. Adding to the UAW's woes is a federal investigation into its leader, Shawn Fain, that threatens to tarnish the rehab work he's done on the organization's reputation -- forcing the UAW's southern campaign efforts to shift from the fast lane to a slow one. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey likes to say there is no "Sweet Home Alabama" for the UAW. That's certainly true in Montgomery. In fact, the UAW could not find a landlord in the capital city willing to rent the union space for a headquarters. A lease was drawn up for one rental before it was taken back when the business discovered who the lease was for. Now, the building sits boarded up. |
| What the bond market's telling us, and not telling us, about President Biden's withdrawal | |
| When the news gets intense or weird, bonds often point to how the economy is processing the developments and provide hints to where it may be going. With President Joe Biden withdrawing from the November election and making way for Vice President Kamala Harris to take on Republican Donald Trump, the bond market hasn't noticeably changed its bets. But as more information comes in, it might. The bond market is not that interested in who wins the presidential contest, according to Dirk Willer, global head of macrostrategy and asset allocation at Citi Research. "The market cares more about whether you have a divided government or not, rather than about which party runs the government," Willer said. If the parties have to share power, not as much gets done, Willer said. But the more government either party controls, the more they can spend and the more debt they can create. "Investors have realized something about the U.S. political system, which is that there's no party in favor of controlling the deficit," said David Kelly, chief strategist for J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Kelly added that controlling debt is not in the Republican platform this year, and Democrats haven't mentioned it much either. According to Marvin Loh, senior global macro strategist at State Street Global Markets, the more debt the government takes on, the more bonds it has to issue and the more investors it has to persuade to buy them. |
| Kamala Harris gains delegates from Mississippi for DNC nomination | |
 | The Mississippi Democratic Party formally announced its support for presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris just one day after President Joe Biden bowed out of the race. Monday evening during a closed virtual meeting of the party's Democratic National Convention delegation, the 49 delegates unanimously voted to approve Harris as their chosen nominee, according to a Mississippi Democratic Party press release issued after the vote Monday night. "As chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party, it gives me great pleasure to endorse Kamala Harris who is a fellow alumni of Howard University," Party Chairman Cheikh Taylor said in the release. "We will work diligently to ensure that she is the next president of the United States. The first woman and woman of color to serve us in the highest office in the land." The vote, which was held Monday during the party's regular delegation meeting, was first motioned by Congressman Bennie Thompson. Thompson announced his support for Harris Sunday afternoon after Biden announced he was no longer seeking the national convention's nomination in August. Once the vote was over, the party also thanked Biden for his years of service and attentions paid to infrastructure funds going across the nation to improve roads, bridges and transportation. They also applauded his policies on climate change. |
| 'Phony and fake': Beshear doubles down on Vance criticisms as VP talk heats up | |
| Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear called out JD Vance for misrepresenting Eastern Kentucky in an interview with Kaitlan Collins on CNN late Monday -- doubling down on his criticisms of the Republican vice presidential nominee as his name continues to circulate as an opposing Democratic candidate. "He calls us lazy, and this makes me angry, but it especially makes me angry about our people in Eastern Kentucky," Beshear said of Vance. "These are the hard working coal miners that powered the Industrial Revolution, that helped build the strongest middle class the world has ever seen, that helped us win two world wars and he called them lazy, acting like he understands our culture." The Monday night interview marked the second time Beshear appeared on national television since President Joe Biden announced he would drop out of the presidential race, with the Kentucky governor first criticizing Trump's running mate on MSNBC's Morning Joe earlier in the day. Vance responded to Beshear's initial remarks during a campaign stop in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, saying "it's weird to have a guy whose first job was at his dad's law firm and who inherited the governorship from his father criticize my origin story," according to a Politico reporter at the event. |
| Conservatives use shooting at Trump rally to attack DEI efforts at Secret Service | |
 | As Congressional members on both sides of the aisle grilled U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle Monday on how a gunman was able to fire shots at former President Donald Trump in an assassination attempt, several Republican lawmakers seized on gender and the agency's diversity, equity and inclusion efforts as among the reasons for the security failure. "Ma'am, you are a DEI horror story," Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee told Cheatle during the hours-long hearing in front of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. Wisconsin Rep. Glenn Grothman asked the director if she was "not hiring men because of your desire to hit certain targets." And Texas Rep. Michael Cloud questioned Cheatle's strategic plan for the Secret Service, in which she has championed diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, including her support for the 30x30 Initiative, which seeks to increase the representation of women recruits to 30% by 2030. Conservative backlash against DEI has been on the rise since last June, when the Supreme Court ruled to end affirmative action in college admissions. Several companies have come under attack because of their DEI policies, among them John Deere, Tractor Supply, Target and Bud Light. The latest DEI attack materialized in full view Monday against the Secret Service and Cheatle, but the issue had been brewing ever since the July 13 assassination attempt at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, where several female agents were among those protecting the former president and several conservatives questioned their fitness to serve. |
| Secret Service Director Cheatle resigns in connection with Trump rally shooting | |
 | U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned Tuesday in connection with the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, according to a copy of a letter sent to agency staff obtained by The Washington Post. "As your Director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse," Cheatle wrote. "In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that, I have made the difficult decision to step down as your Director." The attack was the first against a U.S. leader on the elite protective agency's watch in more than 40 years. Cheatle, a veteran Secret Service agent, had called the security failure involving a gunman shooting from an apparently unsecured roof at a Trump presidential campaign rally July 13 unacceptable and acknowledged that "the buck stops with me." She initially had said she would not resign and would cooperate with investigations into the shooting. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last week that he had "100 percent confidence" in her abilities as Secret Service director, and a spokeswoman for President Biden said he supported her as well. When Biden named Cheatle as his Secret Service director in 2022, some inside the agency opposed her appointment, according to a half-dozen written complaints Secret Service agents sent to The Post around that time and in the two years since. In the complaints, her critics pointed to Cheatle's lack of experience working in a senior post on a presidential protection detail -- considered by many to be the pinnacle of agency service -- and saying later in her tenure that she was excessively focused on hiring and promoting more women agents. |
| Why scientists fear censorship if Trump wins | |
 | Joel Clement is a forest ecologist by training. But like many civically minded science types, he wanted to use his scientific expertise to affect people's everyday lives. So Clement joined the government. Over the course of seven years at the Interior Department, he worked on policies meant to help communities in Alaska that are threatened by thawing permafrost and rising sea levels from climate change. The work was both scientifically and politically complicated -- entire towns need to be moved. Part of Clement's job was to draw attention to their work and to the serious climate-related problems facing people in Alaska, where temperatures are rising much more quickly than the national average. The work was moving forward, albeit slowly, under the Obama administration. But shortly after President Donald Trump took office in 2017, Clement and others were reassigned. His new job was in the office that collected royalty checks from oil and gas companies drilling on public lands. The Trump administration moved to gut the effort to protect Alaskan communities as part of a government-wide effort to stop working on climate change. Ultimately, Clement was one of dozens of scientists who resigned or blew the whistle over what they saw as political interference and censorship of science by the Trump administration. Now, many scientists are concerned that such interference could be even more severe in a second Trump term, with serious implications for everything from the safety of the air that Americans breathe to the accuracy of weather forecasts that millions of people rely on each day. |
| China Is Getting Secretive About Its Supercomputers | |
 | For decades, American and Chinese scientists collaborated on supercomputers, tennis-court-size machines essential to improving artificial intelligence, developing vaccines and predicting hurricanes. But Chinese scientists have become more secretive as the U.S. has tried to hinder China's technological progress, and they have stopped participating altogether in a prominent international supercomputing forum. The withdrawal marked the end of an era and created a divide that Western scientists say will slow the development of AI and other technologies as countries pursue separate projects. The new secrecy also makes it harder for the U.S. government to answer a question it deems essential to national security: Does the U.S. or China have faster supercomputers? Some academics have taken it upon themselves to hunt for clues about China's supercomputing progress, scrutinizing research papers and cornering Chinese peers at conferences. "If the other guy can use a supercomputer to simulate and develop a fighter jet or weapon 20% or even 1% better than yours in terms of range, speed and accuracy, it's going to target you first, and then it's checkmate," said Jimmy Goodrich, a senior adviser for technology analysis at Rand Corp., a think tank. The forum that China recently stopped participating in is called the Top500, which ranks the world's 500 fastest supercomputers. While the latest ranking, released in June, says the world's three fastest computers are in the U.S., the reality is probably different. |
| AI Is Already Taking Jobs in the Video Game Industry | |
 | When Noah saw the email, a wave of anxiety hit. It was spring 2023, and the Activision artist was reading a message from the company's then chief technology officer, Michael Vance, about how artificial intelligence was "top of mind" at the video game publisher. Systems were still being tested, Vance wrote, but "what we have seen thus far holds a ton of promise." There had been a couple emails like this sent to the employees of the studio, which produces the juggernaut Call of Duty series. A previous one had approved the internal use of generative AI tools Midjourney and Stable Diffusion for producing concept art. That spring, backchannel chats lit up with rumors, worry, and whisper networks of whose jobs AI might replace. Where executives saw reason for excitement, many game artists, writers, and designers saw a direct threat to their livelihoods. Noah was grief-stricken. (Noah is a pseudonym; the employee has been granted anonymity because he fears retribution.) "I felt that we were throwing away our humanity," he says. Then the jobs started disappearing. Video games---and the people who make them---are in trouble. An estimated 10,500 people in the industry were laid off in 2023 alone. This year, layoffs in the nearly $200 billion sector have only gotten worse, with studios axing what is believed to be 11,000 more, and counting. Microsoft, home of the Xbox and parent company to several studios, including Activision Blizzard, shuttered Tango Gameworks and Alpha Dog Games in May. All the while, generative AI systems built by OpenAI and its competitors have been seeping into nearly every industry, dismantling whole careers along the way. But gaming might be the biggest industry AI stands poised to conquer. Its economic might has long since eclipsed Hollywood's, while its workforce remains mostly nonunion. |
| New court date set for Herrington trial; Jurors will be brought in from outside county | |
| The man accused of killing Jimmy "Jay" Lee in 2022, Sheldon "Timothy" Herrington Jr., received a new trial date Monday and he will face jurors from outside of Lafayette County. Herrington was arrested on July 22, 2022, and charged with Lee's murder. He was indicted on a capital murder charge and has been out on a $250,000 bond since December 2022. Circuit Court Judge Kelly Luther ruled Monday on a previous motion filed in June by Herrington's attorney, Kevin Horan, to change the venue of his client's trial which was scheduled for October. Luther granted the motion; however, the trial will still be held in Lafayette County but the jury will be selected from another county. Which county has not yet been determined. Luther instructed the court to reach out to other court districts to arrange for jury selection from their jury pool. Luther also ruled Monday to change the trial date to Dec. 2. Jurors will be sequestered during the expected 10-day trial and will need hotel rooms. Most area hotels are already booked up for most of October due to Ole Miss home football games. Lee, who studied social work at Ole Miss, graduated with his bachelor's degree in May 2022 and was planning on attending graduate school at Ole Miss. |
| Marshall County to remove phones from classrooms; Lt. Gov. hopes other schools will follow | |
| The Marshall County School District is making waves with a new rule that will require students to lock away their phones during academic hours, and the move isn't going unnoticed by lawmakers. Following MCSD's announcement that the new policy -- requiring students fifth through twelfth grades to place phones in locked pouches during the school day -- will go into effect this fall. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said he hopes other school districts will follow suit. "I'd like for all of our other schools to take a look at that, not only as an interruption in your education system but also from the fact that people get harassed on their [phones]," Hosemann said. "Look at all the things that are coming out in every publication and every book about the mental health of our young people from being addicted to their iPhones, Samsungs, or whatever. That is materializing into a significant problem." Hosemann, a Republican going into the second year of his second term as leader of the Senate, added that he plans to push legislation in 2025 that would encourage all public-school districts across Mississippi to consider cell phone restrictions inside classrooms. |
| French chef to take the helm at acclaimed Alabama restaurant | |
 | French chef Joel Antunes of Le Logis in Cognac, France, will be the third chef in residence at Auburn University's 1856 - Culinary Residence, the teaching restaurant in AU's Tony & Libba Rane Culinary Science Center. Antunes begins his year-long residency at 1856 on Aug. 1. "I'm very excited to learn how 1856 – Culinary Residence and Auburn University combine an educational experience with horticulture, hospitality, and dining," Antunes said in a media release. "I can't wait to spend time in the classroom and in the kitchen, helping shape the next generation of culinary professionals." The restaurant -- which is named for the year Auburn University was founded and which opened in September 2022 as the centerpiece of the Rane Culinary Science Center -- allows students in Auburn's Horst Schulze School of Hospitality Management to get real-time restaurant experience while they work alongside and learn from seasoned professionals in the culinary industry. Earlier this year, Southern Living magazine readers selected 1856 as the best new restaurant in Alabama in an online survey for the magazine's annual South's Best Awards. |
| The Curious Rise of a Conservative -- or Civic-Minded? -- Center at the U. of Florida | |
 | In the summer of 2022, Florida newspapers reported on the strange appearance of $3 million in one-time funds from Florida's GOP-controlled state Legislature for something called the Hamilton Center for Classical and Civics Education at the University of Florida. The university said it hadn't asked for this new entity. Two years later, this center -- backed by Florida governor Ron DeSantis and now embraced by university officials -- is rapidly expanding to become a UF college. But the center has remained beset with controversy, from its murky origins to university investigations of its alleged faculty opponents to a summer Faculty Senate approval of its degrees that left some professors feeling "railroaded." DeSantis's 2023 conservative takeover of New College of Florida has alarmed faculty members across the country. But that's a relatively small liberal arts institution. What the governor and other Florida Republicans have now built at UF represents a different, and increasingly popular, approach: establishing a legislatively mandated entity on the campus of a top public research institution. In 2016, Arizona State University became the first public institution to receive an order and funding from a state Legislature to establish a department "of civic thought and leadership," said Paul Carrese, founding director of what became the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership. (Asked whether he accepts the "conservative" label, Carrese said, "It would now be called conservative in higher education, in humanities and social sciences, to have openly a positive disposition toward America.") |
| U. of Missouri's chief diversity officer is set to leave in August | |
 | After four years serving as the vice chancellor of the Division of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity, Dr. Maurice Gipson has announced his departure from the University of Missouri effective Aug. 15, according to a recent news release. In his new role, Gipson will serve as the interim president at Philander Smith University, located in Little Rock, Arkansas. In July 2020, Gipson was hired to improve the university's culture of inclusion. This included overseeing strategic recruiting efforts, improving student, faculty and staff retention, implementing training programs and bringing visibility to underrepresented groups who study or work in various disciplines. Prior to MU, Gipson served as the vice chancellor of Diversity and Community Engagement managing a 60-member staff at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. Gipson holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi, a juris doctorate from Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a master's degree in history from Missouri State University in Springfield and a bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary studies from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. |
| Undergraduate Research Experience Increases Retention, Engagement at WVU | |
| Undergraduate research opportunities can help students identify their passions and see themselves as academics and researchers while enrolled in their bachelor's degree programs. The experiences also help build students' confidence and make them feel they belong at the institution, resulting in higher persistence and completion rates. A recently published report from the Council on Undergraduate Research highlights West Virginia University's undergraduate research program and its impact on student retention, particularly for students from underrepresented minority backgrounds. The model removes barriers to participation through personalized outreach, compensation for students' work and staff support. Students who participate in undergraduate research often retain at a higher level, complete their degrees faster and are more likely to pursue graduate education. The Office of Undergraduate Research launched the Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) in 2017 to provide first- and second-year students the opportunity to explore faculty-mentored research and creative activities. The two-semester program is open to any WVU student, regardless of major. The research projects vary by faculty member and discipline, but all apprentices learn to carry out an investigation or creative inquiry, learn research methods and make scholarly or artistic contributions to knowledge. |
| 'U.S. News' Medical-School Rankings Are Out -- Except They're Not Really Rankings | |
 | U.S. News & World Report's annual "Best Medical Schools" lists were published on Tuesday, and, for the first time, the schools don't have ordinal ranks. Instead, they're organized into four tiers. Within each tier, the schools are listed in alphabetical order. Although some rankings critics have touted tiers as a better alternative to ordinal ranks, U.S. News analysts don't appear to agree, necessarily. Instead, it seems as if "Best Medical Schools: Research" and "Best Medical Schools: Primary Care" are tiered this year because too many schools didn't supply the magazine's analysts with the data they needed to create rankings. Twenty percent of last year's top-100 medical schools for research and primary care didn't return U.S. News's statistical survey this year. Schools that didn't fill out the survey are listed as unranked. Among them are some of the country's best-known doctor-training programs, such as Harvard University's, the Johns Hopkins University's, and the University of Pennsylvania's. Another notable change this year was that U.S. News analysts dropped reputational surveys from their assessment of medical schools. In November 2023, Robert Morse, U.S. News's chief of education rankings, announced that reputation measures wouldn't appear in the medical-school methodology because "recent data indicates that many residency-program directors do not consider medical-school reputation in residency matching and instead focus on individual metrics such as [test] scores, research, and letters of recommendation." |
| 3 policy developments that college business officers should keep tabs on | |
| Political developments impacting colleges have come at a breakneck pace this year. And that was before President Joe Biden announced on Sunday he wouldn't run for reelection, upending the 2024 presidential contest. At a session of the National Association of College and University Business Officers' annual meeting this week, panelists described some of the twists and turns for colleges coming from Washington D.C. For one, college leaders are bracing for major regulatory changes, including those that govern overtime pay and how higher education institutions must investigate sexual misconduct. Then there's the U.S. Supreme Court's recent overturning of the Chevron doctrine -- a four-decade precedent that gave agencies the power to interpret ambiguous statutes. That decision could open many of the U.S. Department of Education's regulations to new legal challenges. Things haven't slowed down in Congress either -- House Republicans have vowed to ramp up oversight of colleges, arguing they have failed to protect their students from antisemitism in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. Despite the gridlock, Congress must pass several important pieces of legislation, including appropriations for the Education Department and the farm bill, which provides significant levels of funding for land-grant universities. |
| What Biden's Exit From the Presidential Race Could Mean for Higher Ed | |
| President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s announcement Sunday that he won't run for a second term leaves many of his signature higher-ed priorities hanging in the balance as Democrats rally around Kamala D. Harris, his vice president and the presumptive favorite to replace him in November's election. The sudden move also raises questions about what a Harris presidency could mean for the sector. Advocates have praised Biden for his work to enact widespread student-debt relief, a Title IX overhaul that enshrined legal protections for victims of sexual assault, and a set of cash infusions that propped up colleges during the Covid-19 pandemic. But in an era of policymaking via executive action, some of those achievements may be short-lived. And the botched rollout of the revamped Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which haunted students, families, and financial-aid officers throughout the winter and spring, will stand as a stain on Biden's higher-ed record. Several experts The Chronicle spoke to on Monday credited Biden with pushing billions of dollars to colleges during the Covid-19 pandemic via the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund and the American Rescue Plan, among them Amy Laitinen, senior director for higher education at the left-leaning think tank New America. |
| Harris Has Championed Loan Forgiveness, For-Profit Crackdowns and Free College | |
| President Biden's decision Sunday to drop his re-election bid cleared the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place at the top of the ticket. It's not yet clear how, or how much, a President Harris might differ from Biden on higher education policy. Like most vice presidents, she's generally been in lockstep with the president and championed their administration's policies. She's pushed its efforts to forgive student loans and make payments more affordable for borrowers. As a senator, she signed on to legislation to make community college free (also a Biden proposal) and help colleges pay for students' basic needs, such as food, housing and transportation. Prior to that, as attorney general for California, she uncovered predatory practices at some for-profit colleges and pushed for cancellation of loans taken out by students who were defrauded. Observers say that a potential Harris administration would likely build on the current administration's ambitious agenda for higher education, which aimed to better protect students' rights and their investments in their education. That's included overhauling student loan programs -- making it easier for millions of borrowers to access relief -- and stepping up scrutiny of programs that don't pay off for graduates. |
| Young Democrats embrace Harris, but need convincing on Gaza | |
 | Young liberals are bursting with enthusiasm for Vice President Harris's new White House campaign, pointing to a strong contrast between her and former President Trump, but some are concerned she is overlooking major concerns for students. Harris can piggyback off the accomplishments of the Biden administration on numerous issues college students care about, such as student loans, but, after weeks of protests over the Israel-Gaza war on campuses this year, others are worried that she, too, will fail to satisfy their demands over Palestine. "Kamala Harris is a superstar among Gen Z voters," said Antonio Arellano, vice president of communications at Next Gen America. Harris will be able to use her platform as vice president to point to accomplishments over the past four years such as creating a new income-driven repayment program for student loans and championing abortion rights across the country. One of the biggest advantages she has with young voters is her age: At 59, she is nearly 20 years younger than Trump. "We think that she champions the values of youth the most right now," said Sohali Vaddula, national director of communications for College Democrats of America. " |
| What young conservatives have to say about higher education | |
| As Republican lawmakers target college diversity efforts and Democrats bemoan high tuition costs and advocate for student loan forgiveness, higher education has become increasingly politicized. These issues matter to young voters, which makes their opinions about them important to both parties. I went to the Republican National Convention last week on a mission to talk to students and young voters about how their experiences in higher education have shaped their political beliefs, and vice versa. I asked student attendees about the political climate on their campuses, the role of diversity in their curriculum and where higher education is falling short. At the heart of it all, I especially wanted to know what they saw as the purpose of an American higher education. Conservative students told me free speech was a top campus issue for them. Some said they struggled to have productive conversations with peers who held different viewpoints, and that they became bolder in their political views because of that. Yet several offered ideas for increasing unity on campus and said they believe it's still possible. |
| DOJ asks Supreme Court to partially restore Biden Title IX rule in Republican-led states | |
| The Department of Justice (DOJ) asked the Supreme Court to take emergency action Monday to restore parts of President Biden's Title IX rule in a handful of Republican-led states where the new regulations are blocked, arguing that lower court injunctions pausing the rule in its entirety are "more burdensome" than necessary. On Monday, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar asked the Supreme Court to narrow district court injunctions blocking the administration's Title IX rule in 10 states: Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, West Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana and Idaho. The injunctions, she argued, should only apply to the rule's prohibition on gender identity discrimination -- the provision at the center of the lawsuits challenging the new Title IX regulations, which also bolster protections for pregnant and parenting students and change how schools handle claims of sexual harassment and assault. States have not challenged "the vast majority" of changes made to Title IX, Prelogar wrote Monday. "Instead, they object to three discrete provisions of the Rule related to discrimination against transgender individuals," she wrote. Conservative states and leaders have long argued that the administration's Title IX rule misinterprets a 2020 Supreme Court decision protecting employees from discrimination based on gender identity. |
| Project 2025 envisions overtly partisan federal bureaucracy | |
| Columnist Bill Crawford writes: "Three months before the end of his presidency, Donald Trump quietly issued Executive Order 13957, allowing the conversion of some federal civil service jobs to excepted service under a new classification, Schedule F," reported a Spring 2024 Cato Institute publication. "If a position was reclassified, the president could fire its occupant at will and install a successor without going through the civil service hiring and placement process. "President Joe Biden, rescinded the order two days after taking the oath of office in early 2021." Since then, the Heritage Foundation has developed its Project 2025 agenda. Its aim is not simply to reduce the federal bureaucracy (a good idea). Rather, its goal, in part, is to remove "obstructing" civil service bureaucrats throughout government and replace them with accommodating political appointees. "If we are going to rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left, we need both a governing agenda and the right people in place, ready to carry this agenda out on Day One of the next conservative Administration," a Project 2025 release states. Even though many key Trump associates helped created Project 2025, Trump himself recently disavowed it. ... Manning government with political loyalists rather than competent people based on merit can yield incompetent and corrupt government. In Mississippi, we only need to look at our capital city to see how that reality can manifest. |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State rings in new EA College Football 25 video game with on-campus celebration | |
| After 11 years of anticipation, Mississippi State celebrated the revolutionary EA College Football 25 game in an extraordinary way. Former and current players gathered in Humphrey Coliseum to watch as competitors took to the stage in battle for the first time in the brand-new college football game. Before the kickoff of the 32-person tournament, the MSU football team had a play-in tournament of their own to determine who would make the cut to challenge Bulldog fans participating in the early access tournament in the Hump. "Yesterday, Josh Washington came out on top -- (Washington) and Mario Craver were in the finals so I think those two will give everybody a run for their money," sophomore safety Issac Smith said. "Me personally, I'm no good at the game. I'm still trying to work on getting better and learn everything, (but) I'm really looking forward to seeing how today goes." The evening's festivities kicked off with an introduction from the general manager of student-athlete brand services Terry Prentice and the assistant manager of NIL administration and partnerships Maya Bulger who explained the rules and regulations of the tournament, including the winner's spoils, which included signed memorabilia from members of MSU's football team. From the updated parts of Davis Wade Stadium to the cowbells ringing loud and proud before a third-down play, EA Sports incorporated almost everything the Maroon and White faithful would experience on game days in Starkville. |
| Former Bulldog star Nuno Borges takes already historic year into Olympic Games | |
| Matt Roberts is typically quite strict when it comes to his players losing their temper in practice. If a player gets upset to the point where he throws his racket, Mississippi State's head coach will make the entire team run laps. But when Nuno Borges lost a match in practice and threw his shoe over the fence in frustration one day, Roberts knew it was simply a sign of his competitiveness, no matter the situation. "I didn't make him run. I was just like, 'Go get your shoe,'" Roberts said. "It just showed us, he's so disgusted that he lost in practice that he threw his shoe over the fence. That's when we knew, if he can mature and harness that competitive nature to stay in control in these dual matches, he's going to beat a lot of people in college." Borges did indeed beat a lot of people in college, and he's beaten a lot of people as a professional, too. Later this week, he will play his first match at the Olympic Games in Paris, the Bulldogs' first-ever Olympian in tennis. And he's coming off his first ATP tournament title Sunday at the Swedish Open, defeating the legendary Rafael Nadal in straight sets in the final. "He always had a super competitive mindframe," Roberts said. "It didn't matter if he played cards or anything, he just wanted to beat you. He hated losing. Off the court, he was the nicest, most humble guy, but on the court he was the fiercest competitor. He could switch from being really nice (and) easygoing to someone you didn't want to play, because he was so fierce on the court. That competitive nature he had helped him improve a lot in college." |
| While FSU and Clemson try to bolt ACC, commish Jim Phillips offers stern rebuke and says league is 'inside that top three' | |
| Inside a small second-floor board room of a Hilton hotel on Monday, Jim Phillips escapes, at least temporarily, from the bustle of the opening day of his league's media days. Seated at the head of the table, Phillips, the ACC commissioner, gestures toward the four loose pages before him that bear out his conference's superlatives. Seven different ACC schools, for instance, won team NCAA championships this year to go with the 16 won the previous two years. The three-year total of 23 titles leads all conferences. The ACC, too, leads all power conferences in several rankings, including the U.S. News & World Report, NCAA graduation rates and NCAA academic performance figures. The list goes on. The league brought in a record $700 million in total revenue last year and distributed $45 million each to its members -- the third-most in the country. And, finally, the ACC is home to two of the three active head football coaches to have won a national championship and has won the second-most CFP titles of any conference in the past decade. o Phillips, those questioning whether the ACC is the third-best conference in college athletics behind the SEC and Big Ten need look no further than the list before him. "We are not chasing third. By any metric of significance --- CFP appearances, national championships, having our own network, revenue generation, academic prowess -- I'm comfortable where the ACC is: inside that top three," he told Yahoo Sports in an interview Monday. |
| ACC's Phillips touts financial gains, intent to fight lawsuits in assertive stance for the future | |
| Commissioner Jim Phillips firmly believes in the future of the Atlantic Coast Conference amid the uncertainty of realignment and the wholesale changes to the model of college athletics itself. He was ready to tell everyone why, too, as the league opened its preseason football media days Monday. Trading his typically reserved comments for a more assertive message, Phillips touted the gains made from years of working to improve the ACC's financial standing. He promised the league will fight "as long as it takes" in legal cases against Florida State and Clemson as those member schools challenge the league's ability to charge hundreds of millions of dollars for leaving the conference. And he came bearing specifics, from dollar amounts to recent national-title counts. "This league is better than the narrative that it's getting right now because people want to talk about what may happen instead of about what is happening," Phillips said in an interview with The Associated Press. The league opened its four-day "ACC Kickoff" event Monday in an expanded format after the additions of California and Stanford from the Pac-12, and SMU from the American Athletic Conference. Phillips, preparing for his fourth full season leading the ACC, pulled back the curtain a bit on a league that he described as "aggressive" in battling a growing revenue gap behind its Big Ten and Southeastern Conference peers. |
| Bigger planes, revamped schedules and bloated budgets: Inside the changes Cal, Stanford and SMU made to prep for ACC | |
| Stanford coach Troy Taylor was at breakfast at the team hotel in Hawai'i, hours before the kickoff to the 2023 season, when he learned the ACC had officially voted to accept the Cardinal, Cal and SMU as new league members. Though Stanford had a game to play that night, Taylor's mind raced ahead to the new reality they suddenly had to confront. Chief among his thoughts: lengthy road trips to the East Coast. Taylor turned to senior associate athletic director Matt Doyle, their longtime football operations director, and said, "Well, I guess our trip to Australia is off." At that point, Stanford was deep in conversations to open the 2025 season in Australia. But given the extensive travel that would be required of them as ACC members, it no longer made sense to play games in other countries. New plans were crafted almost immediately at all three schools. They had roughly 11 months to prepare for a new world. For Cal and Stanford, that meant much more from a logistical perspective given their nearly 3,000-mile distance from league headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, where all three schools will be featured at ACC Kickoff this week. Think Google Maps to calculate the best route for equipment trucks to drive from Palo Alto, California, to Syracuse, New York. Think charter flight costs, consulting sleep experts, revisiting how and when to leave for trips, scouting new teams and trying to minimize missed classroom time. |
| Meet David Miller, SMU's billionaire alum who spearheaded the Mustangs' return to big-time college football | |
| The death penalty's grip on SMU has been cold and steely. David Miller knows. In 1987, the man who can be looked upon as the modern-day savior of SMU football was 15 years out of college, and the former Mustangs basketball star was overseeing an oil and gas company in Denver he had co-founded. That winter, the gushers were replaced with a (figurative) blow to the noggin. The NCAA shut down the SMU football program in what remains the most infamous infractions case in history. There were widespread illegal cash payments with players essentially being on payroll. Spare the clap back about the name, image and likeness irony of it all being allowed these days. It happened, and at that moment, it defined not only the school but its entire athletics department. SMU would cease to be seen as a major college football program. "There was some ugliness around the whole thing. I didn't disconnect [with the university] but ...," Miller paused, sipping coffee in his fifth-floor office that overlooks the city. "I'll share something with you." It is then Miller goes off the record. Today, Miller is the chairman of the SMU board of trustees, the driving force behind the school's entry into the ACC this season. |
| Wisconsin latest Big Ten school to sell alcohol at football games | |
| Wisconsin will begin selling alcohol in general seating areas at Camp Randall Stadium this season. The university's decision, announced on Monday, leaves Nebraska and Northwestern as the only two schools that aren't allowing general seating alcohol sales in the now 18-team Big Ten. Alcohol sales are also set to begin this season at Michigan Stadium. Wisconsin will also allow alcohol to be sold at UW Field House, home to the women's volleyball and men's wrestling teams. It was already available at Kohl Center for men's and women's basketball games and LaBahn Arena, home to women's hockey. "The option to purchase alcohol is common at collegiate athletic venues all over the country and we're glad that we can now offer it as part of the fan experience at Camp Randall," Wisconsin Chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin said in a statement. "I appreciate the work our athletic and administrative teams have done to put together a plan that balances this opportunity with public safety." Fans will be allowed to purchase only two drinks at a time per person. The university police department will have an increased presence at games, the school said. |
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