| Monday, August 19, 2024 |
| IHL approves 'first of its kind' degree programs for Mississippi universities | |
 | During Thursday's regular meeting, the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning approved six new degree programs within Mississippi universities. All but one of the new programs are the first of their kind in the state. The programs passed with unanimous approval. Associate Commissioner for Academic and Student Affairs Casey Prestwood presented the new programs to the IHL board Thursday morning. Mississippi State University will add four new degree programs: Bachelor of Arts in Integrated Design and the Built Environment, Bachelor of Science in Applied Behavior Analysis, Master of Science in PK-12 Student Support and Educational Specialist in Professional School Counseling. All of these degree paths are the first of their kind in Mississippi, Prestwood said. The Bachelor of Arts in Integrated Design and the Built Environment will be a 120-hour degree program housed under the College of Architecture, Art and Design. The program combines classes from multiple disciplines including architecture, art, interior design and building construction science. The Bachelor of Science in Applied Behavior Analysis will be a 120-hour degree programmed under the College of Education. The program comes after the success of the applied behavior analysis minor added two years ago, which has already yielded 27 graduates. "The demand for professionals in this field of behavioral analysis has experienced one of the highest increases across all fields of employment over the last decade," Prestwood said. |
| John Paul White, MSU-Starkville Symphony Orchestra to fill Hump for rare music experience | |
 | An experience like no other is coming to Mississippi State this October as Grammy winner John Paul White brings his fusion of Southern rock, Americana and country music to the Hump alongside the Starkville-MSU Symphony Orchestra. The Oct. 18 event is a reimagination of a single voice and guitar joined by orchestral music that is winning White even more indie, folk, country and adult alternative superfans. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with the performance at 7:30 p.m. Daniel Stevens, head of the MSU Department of Music, is the special night's cover conductor and friend of White's. "We all know how enjoyable one of John Paul's concerts can be, and with the complements of the orchestra his music is magnified," Stevens said. "I hope people of all ages will travel from the farthest corners for this rare crossover performance." His most recent solo music venture is the 2019 release "The Hurting Kind," a slight departure from his rock and Americana beginnings, which resonates with a 1960s Nashville sound, according to a news release. He teams up with infamous "Whispering" Bill Anderson to co-write the track "I Wish I Could Write You a Song." Other critically acclaimed White albums include 2016's "Beulah" and 2008's "The Long Goodbye." The Tennessee native lives in Florence, Alabama, near Muscle Shoals, known as "The Hit Recording Capital of the World" where music greats such as Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Little Richard and others boosted their careers. |
| Field day spotlights MSU row crop research | |
| Producers got a behind-the-scenes look at the wide scope of agricultural research taking place at Mississippi State University in an Aug. 6 event. Faculty and specialists with the MSU Extension Service and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station presented on-farm research projects designed to help growers meet the challenges of row crop production. Producers toured the MAFES R. R. Foil Plant Science Research Center, also known as North Farm, and learned about ongoing research ranging from microbial studies in cotton and peanut disease management to insecticide seed treatments and aerial herbicide applications. MSU Extension entomologist Whitney Crow leads the MSU row crop entomology research programs both at North Farm and on farms in the Mississippi Delta. She provided updates on insect pressure studies taking place at each location. "We try to replicate everything we do here, also in the Delta, just because pest pressure tends to be different," she explained to growers. The tour also featured a demonstration of a remotely piloted aerial application system, or a spray drone, led by Madison Dixon, associate director of research for the MSU Agricultural Autonomy Institute. The drone, manufactured by Leading Edge Aerial Technologies, was flown over one of the soybean variety trial fields to show how it could apply herbicides to plants overhead. |
| BugFest 2024 to offer hands-on learning | |
| School groups, nature enthusiasts and the public can enjoy two fun-filled days of celebrating the environment, ecosystems, wildlife and insects at the Mississippi State University Crosby Arboretum in Picayune. BugFest is set for Sept. 20 and 21. The event offers insect-related displays, interactive exhibits, games and crafts. Biologists, naturalists, entomologists and other experts from Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama will host booths and give presentations on butterflies, bats, caterpillars, pollinators, spiders, crayfish, native plants, native and exotic arthropods and more. New activities this year include racing Madagascar hissing cockroaches, Saturday's high fashion Bug Brigade and the bat trail -- a nature trail celebrating the importance of bats. The event is open only to school groups on Sept. 20 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for an educational field day. All school groups can preregister by calling the arboretum at (601) 799-2311, ext. 0. Admission is $2 for students and free for teachers. Chaperones and families attending with students pay public admission prices. The public is invited to attend the afternoon of Sept. 20 from 12:30 to 4 p.m. The event again opens to the public Sept. 21 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. On Saturday, multiple vendors will be on hand, including Backhouse Garden with native plants for sale, the Gum Drop Shop with special BugFest candies and Blue Boy Herbs with their products as well as food trucks. |
| Soybean harvest begins in Mississippi | |
 | Harvest has begun for soybeans, Mississippi's largest row crop that is overall in good shape heading into the last weeks of its growing season. Prices, however, are poor, with supply and demand working to push prices even lower. Soybeans benefitted from a slightly earlier start than usual, and disease and insect pressures have been fairly typical for the Mississippi summer. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated 19% of the crop was in excellent condition, 52% in good condition and 24% fair. The remaining 4% was poor and 1% looked very poor as of Aug. 4, 2024. Trent Irby, an associate director with the Mississippi State University Extension Service and the former state soybean specialist, said depending on the area, the crop is mostly in good shape. "We are fortunate to have a lot of acres with irrigation capabilities, so those acres, up to this point, look to have a lot of potential," Irby said. "Other areas of the state where irrigation is limited have experienced varying weather conditions, so it is still too early to tell on some of those." Will Maples, Extension agricultural economist, said while the growing season has been good for soybeans, markets have not. "Since May 1, the November 2024 soybean futures contract has declined by nearly $2 per bushel to settle around $10.22 per bushel as of July 31," Maples said. "A perfect combination of supply and demand is driving the market lower." |
| Police cameras back on budget, other cuts looming | |
| The police department may be getting its 20 requested cameras and two new employees to monitor them in the next fiscal year after all, with no tax increase required. But to balance the proposed budget, other new services -- including funding toward the reopening of Fire Station 5 and the city's signalization project for traffic light timing -- made it to the chopping block during the board of aldermen's Friday work session at City Hall. Also on the table is the timing for the next round of raises for the mayor and board of aldermen. Mayor Lynn Spruill asked to revisit the cameras based on her misunderstanding of a budget cut during the board's Aug. 6 meeting, which removed $140,000 from that line item. The cut left the police department getting only 10 cameras and one person to monitor them next fiscal year. "I really would like to revisit getting 20 cameras next year, which means we are still shy 10 cameras and a person," Spruill said. "If there's no appetite to do that, y'all tell me. But I want to make sure we're clear, because we did talk about that." The police department requested 41 cameras and eight license plate readers to be purchased over the next two fiscal years -- hoping to get half the cameras and two additional personnel next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. |
| Heart disease is rampant in parts of the rural South. Researchers are hitting the road to learn why | |
 | Darrell Dixon's father was just 25 when he had a major heart attack in the rural Mississippi Delta. By his early 40s, a series of additional attacks had left his heart muscle too weak to pump enough blood to his body. He died in 2013 at the age of 49. "It was a big jolt for our family," Dixon, 36, recalled. "For myself, personally, it also got me thinking about heredity. I just wondered whether I was next." The death spurred Dixon to get involved in an unusual and ambitious new health study. Public health experts from some of the nation's leading research institutions have deployed a massive medical trailer to rural parts of the South to test and survey thousands of local residents. The goal: to understand why the rates of heart and lung disease are dramatically higher there than in other parts of the U.S. "This rural health disadvantage, it doesn't matter whether you're white or Black, it hurts you," said Dr. Vasan Ramachandran, a leader of the project who used to oversee the Framingham Heart Study -- the nation's longest-running study of heart disease. The researchers aim to test the heart and lung function of roughly 4,600 residents of 10 counties and parishes in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi while collecting information about their environments, health history and lifestyles. They are also giving participants a fitness tracker and plan to survey them repeatedly for years to check for any major medical events. "They're reaching out and going out into the community in ways that I have not seen before," said Lynn Spruill, the mayor of Starkville, Mississippi, in Oktibbeha County, where the trailer arrived in 2022 and medical staff tested more than 700 people. Oktibbeha County, home to Mississippi State University, is the low-risk location. The researchers are contrasting it with Panola County. |
| Kitchen fire put out by sprinkler system at Starkville apartment complex | |
 | A kitchen fire took place at a Starkville apartment complex on Saturday. The fire took place at the Vista Apartments on University Drive near Mississippi State University's campus in the Cotton District. Starkville Fire said the fire was on the second floor and was put out by the sprinkler system before it could spread to other units. There were no injuries reported. |
| Trial ends in federal lawsuit that seeks more Black justices on Mississippi Supreme Court | |
| A federal judge will decide in the coming months whether Black Mississippians have a fair chance to elect candidates to the Mississippi Supreme Court and whether the Legislature should redraw districts give those Black voters more power. Attorneys representing citizens and politicians from the Jackson Metro Area and the Delta capped off a nearly two-week long trial bench trial in Oxford on Thursday before U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock. Aycock will eventually make a determination whether the current district lines used to elect justices to the state's highest court violate the federal Voting Rights Act. Mississippi law establishes three Supreme Court districts, commonly referred to as the Northern, Central and Southern districts. Voters elect three justices from each to make up the nine-member court. These districts have not been redrawn since 1987. About 38% of Mississippi residents are Black. Yet eight of the current justices are white, only one is Black. Four Black justices have served on the Mississippi Supreme Court in the state's history, and never more than one at a time. The plaintiffs in the case, which include Democratic state Sen. Derrick Simmons of Greenville and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Ty Pinkins, argue this underrepresentation exists because the current lines fragment Black votes in the state. |
| Still waiting: Farm bill shows no end | |
| With the days dwindling in the countdown to the election, the Senate is in a time crunch to wrap up the farm bill. That's why it likely will not happen before the election or the end of the year, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns said. He shared why he believes that during the Indiana Ag Policy Summit, hosted by the Indiana Soybean Alliance and the Indiana Corn Growers Association. "If you look at the number of days available, assuming they come back on Sept. 9, you've got about 15 days on the schedule," Johanns said. "If I were to guess, because the White House is up, the entire House is up, a third of the Senate is up, and it's a coin toss for who's going to be in control -- you won't see 15 days." He shared that it's likely they will not use those 15 days they have available. Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., echoed that sentiment, adding, "I can't tell you that the farm bill will be out at the end of the fiscal year." Rather, Johanns predicted a second extension on the farm bill after the election. He sees multiple areas of concern that must be remedied before any sort of solution is reached. However, the most pressing is the allocation of dollars to nutrition. Dollars for the Thrifty Food Plan in the Democrats' proposed farm bill have jumped from $766 billion to $1.223 trillion, making this the first trillion-dollar farm bill. |
| Congressman Sorenson: "My farmers need a farm bill" | |
| A member of the U.S. House Ag Committee says his constituents need a modernized farm bill. Illinois Democrat Eric Sorenson says it was the top topic of conversation during his visit to the Illinois State Fair. "The reference price problem that we have, that was one thing that was hot on people's minds." He says, "Then also the big question, 'Are we going to get a farm bill, who's pushing for it? What is the holdup?'" Sorenson, who voted in favor of the Republican crafted House bill, tells Brownfield the legislation needs to be brought to the floor to further negotiations. "It isn't perfect, the way that it is." He says, "The CBO score came out. There's a healthy price tag to it. We need to make sure that as we look forward, you know, we're not making cuts to things like SNAP benefits." He says he's still optimistic despite a lack of the bill's movement in the Senate, and the shortening legislative calendar. "We need to make sure that both sides can come together and pass the farm bill." He says, "You know whether that is here in a couple of days that we have to talk with one another in committee in September, or that we get it done in lame duck." |
| Departing GOP leader dominates Senate earmark rankings | |
 | Unfettered by potential challenges to his position after deciding to step aside, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has returned to the earmarking game with gusto, taking over the top slot in his chamber with almost a half-billion dollars set aside for Kentuckians in the fiscal 2025 spending bills. McConnell joins three first-time earmarkers on the Republican side -- Indiana's Todd Young, Kansas' Roger Marshall and North Carolina's Ted Budd -- to push the number of GOP senators seeking home-state projects to 21, the highest since earmarks' return three years ago. They join all Democrats -- except for Montana's in-cycle Jon Tester and New Hampshire's Maggie Hassan -- plus the four independents who get committee assignments from, or caucus with, the majority. So far, across the eight earmarked bills Senate appropriators have voted out of committee -- the Homeland Security measure hasn't yet been released -- there are 3,686 projects worth $7.74 billion. While Democrats and affiliated independents dominate the number of projects, the majority has been charitable with the money, allowing Republicans to claim 46 percent of the earmarked dollars. That generosity has allowed the smaller group of GOP earmarkers to dominate the rankings for dollars secured -- including eight out of the top 10, as well as the top seven -- in CQ Roll Call's analysis, which includes proportional credit for projects secured jointly by more than one member. |
| Trump and Harris Duke It Out on Social Media | |
 | Donald Trump had lots of momentum on social media a month ago. Now, he is facing a candidate who is drumming up momentum of her own. Both Vice President Kamala Harris's and Trump's camps are competing fiercely for young and online voters by courting social-media influencers, trading jabs online and trying out digital-first strategies. Trump is a veteran social-media combatant. He has cultivated a large following after years of using online platforms to promote his message and attack opponents, and is trying to capitalize on his ability to reach people directly and unscripted. The 78-year-old has courted internet personalities including the 23-year-old livestreamer Adin Ross, whom Trump danced next to in a recent TikTok post that got nearly 50 million views. Trump posed in another post in a fighting stance with the YouTuber and boxer Jake Paul, netting more than 13 million views, and joined brother Logan Paul's podcast called "Impaulsive," which has more than 4.7 million subscribers on YouTube. The Harris camp's strategy entails quickly spinning up new accounts and rebranding others, latching on to memes and presenting the 59-year-old as a fresher face. One advantage for Harris is the shift of social-media platforms in recent years toward relying more on algorithmic recommendations and viral content, said Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. "Followers are less important than they used to be," Calkins said. "Now if you've got super engaging content, you can get broad viewership on that." |
| Favorable views of Kamala Harris have risen this summer heading into the DNC, AP-NORC poll shows | |
| Vice President Kamala Harris is entering the Democratic National Convention with increased excitement from Democrats and a steady rise in her favorability ratings among Americans as a whole. About half of U.S. adults -- 48% -- have a very or somewhat favorable view of Harris, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That is up from 39% at the beginning of the summer, before President Joe Biden's poor performance in his debate against former President Donald Trump ultimately led him to drop out of the presidential race. That's not just an improvement for Harris but also from where President Joe Biden stood before he dropped out, when 38% said they had a favorable opinion of him. It's also somewhat better than the 41% of adults who say they have a favorable opinion of Trump. The rise in favorability for Harris comes as more Americans overall have formed an opinion about her while the Harris and Trump campaigns rush to define her nascent candidacy. The share saying they don't know enough about her to have an opinion has halved, from 12% in June to 6% now. The latest measurement is in line with how Americans viewed Harris in early 2021, when she and Biden first took office. It suggests renewed positivity toward Harris -- the share of Americans who have a "very favorable" opinion of her has also increased over the same period -- but she risks hitting a ceiling as she approaches her previous highest rating. |
| With false 'coup' claims, Trump primes supporters to challenge a Harris win | |
 | From the moment Vice President Kamala Harris emerged as the surprise Democratic presidential nominee, former president Donald Trump began arguing that she was anointed through a "coup" rather than chosen by primary voters. After barely mentioning election integrity at the Republican convention in July, Trump is now casting the upcoming election as "rigged" against him and baselessly labeling any hurdle in his path as election interference. "This was an overthrow of a president. This was an overthrow," Trump said at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on Saturday, referring to Harris replacing Biden on the ticket. He later added: "They deposed a president. It was a coup of a president. This was a coup." Trump's efforts to undermine confidence in this year's election are reminiscent of the tactics he used in the 2020 campaign and indicate how he could again seek to delegitimize the results if he loses, setting the stage for another combustible fight over the presidency, election and national security experts said. "This is Donald Trump's playbook: 'There's a deep state, they're all out to get me,'" said Elizabeth Neumann, who served as a senior Department of Homeland Security official during the Trump administration and is now among his conservative critics. "Even here -- as he's going to have to face a stronger, harder candidate to defeat -- his default is, 'Well, this couldn't possibly be legal. This is a coup. This is wrong,' even though there are no facts to back that up." |
| Encrypted app used in campus protest planning deployed for DNC demonstrations | |
 | Pro-Palestinian demonstrators who plan to "shut down" the Democratic National Convention this week are taking cues from New York City, where protests on college campuses were orchestrated with the help of an encrypted messaging network. Over the spring, student groups and pro-Palestinian organizations used the app Telegram to distribute how-to manuals on occupying buildings and other rally tactics, provide real-time updates on police movements and, in some cases, share explicitly pro-Hamas content. And there are signs protesters are using the same tactics to plan massive demonstrations at the convention, where organizers hope to pressure Vice President Kamala Harris to take a harder stance against the Israeli government and its military campaign in Gaza. "Make it great like '68," one group posted to Telegram, referencing large Vietnam War protests at the DNC that year. "Shut down the DNC for Gaza!" The post, which encouraged demonstrators to show up outside the Israeli consulate in Chicago at 7 p.m. on Aug. 20, was circulated on Resistance News Network, an organization on the radar of experts on extremism. The channel describes itself as "in the service of our martyrs, prisoners, farmers, resistance, and refugees," while the Anti Defamation League calls it "a radical antisemitic, anti-Zionist English-language Telegram channel that promotes violence against Israel." The news network is not alone in using Telegram to orchestrate the run-of-show in Chicago. |
| 'Hillbilly Elegy' is back in the spotlight. These Appalachians write a different tale | |
 | Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, the 2016 memoir from Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, once again began flying off the shelves after former President Donald Trump named Vance as his running mate. Many have turned to the memoir to find out the story of Vance's upbringing, a core part of why he's on the Republican ticket to begin with. But the book also brings along a host of assumptions that many authors still find not to be true. Pulitzer-winning author Barbara Kingsolver said she felt that it was her duty to tell a different story of Appalachian life than the one that Vance presented in the book. "It used the same old victim-blaming trope. It was like a hero story: 'I got out of here, I went to Yale,'" Kingsolver said of Vance. "'But those lazy people, you know, just don't have ambitions. They don't have brains. That's why they're stuck where they are.' I disagree. And that's my job, to tell a different story." Vance's has been mired in controversy since its 2016 publication, especially by authors who cover the region. Vance, who writes that Appalachian culture "encourages social decay instead of counteracting it," says this upbringing is central to his political ideology and thinking. Many Appalachian authors, like Kingsolver, have worked tirelessly to combat what they feel is a misleading and even harmful depiction of the region. |
| The Pentagon Is Planning a Drone 'Hellscape' to Defend Taiwan | |
 | It has become conventional wisdom among the halls of the United States government that China will launch a full-scale invasion of Taiwan within the next few years. And when that happens, the US military has a relatively straightforward response in mind: Unleash hell. Speaking to The Washington Post on the sidelines of the International Institute for Strategic Studies' annual Shangri-La Dialogue in June, US Indo-Pacific Command chief Navy Admiral Samuel Paparo colorfully described the US military's contingency plan for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan as flooding the narrow Taiwan Strait between the two countries with swarms of thousands upon thousands of drones, by land, sea, and air, to delay a Chinese attack enough for the US and its allies to muster additional military assets in the region. "I want to turn the Taiwan Strait into an unmanned hellscape using a number of classified capabilities," Paparo said, "so that I can make their lives utterly miserable for a month, which buys me the time for the rest of everything." Cheap, easily weaponizable drones have transformed battlefields from Ukraine to the Middle East in recent years, and the US military is rapidly adapting to this new uncrewed future. While Paparo isn't the first to invoke the image of a robotic "hellscape" with regards to Taiwan (his predecessor, Admiral John Aquilino had previously used the term in August 2023), his comments offer the most vivid description of the Defense Department's plan for dealing with Chinese aggression toward the US ally. |
| Students move in on MUW's campus for the start of the semester | |
 | The Mississippi University for Women's campus was filled with hundreds of students moving into their new homes for the next nine months. Director of Housing and Residence Life at the 'W,' Andrew Moneymaker, says he along with volunteers, were working to make sure move-in day is as smooth as possible. "I think it starts with just the community we have here on campus, the volunteers that are here, the RA staff has gone through training the last two weeks to get prepared to welcome the students back, but it just starts with our volunteers," said Moneymaker. "They are just welcoming people and trying to make sure that they feel comfortable." As students pulled into the parking lot with boxes and huge bags, volunteers like Ethan Wilkins were there to lend a helping hand. Wilkins said he knows adjusting to college life can be difficult, which is why he volunteered his time on move-in day. "When I was a freshman, it was kind of daunting to have to move in, you are moving away from your family and things like that," Wilkins. "So we are just here lending a helping hand. We are also just trying to help make the transition as smooth as possible." Classes will officially start for the 'W' students on Wednesday. |
| Ole Miss announces changes to DEI program | |
 | In response to a national trend of reworking Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies, the University of Mississippi announced Friday it will create a Division of Access, Opportunity and Community Engagement and close its DEI program, pending approval by the state Institutions of Higher Learning board of trustees. DEI is a concept and practice used by organizations to recognize and value differences among people, ensure fair opportunities for everyone and foster a work environment where all feel welcomed and respected. According to a statement from the University of Mississippi, the core mission of the university is to provide access to post-secondary degree programs, leading to greater opportunities and improved quality of life for the people of Mississippi and beyond. This move, the university said, is designed in part to address a growing problem for Mississippi: a steady decline in the number of the state's high school graduates enrolling in higher education. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the state is already feeling the effects of the "enrollment cliff" expected to reduce the number of high school graduates nationally over the next several years. "By integrating and aligning our efforts across new departments and functional areas, we are poised to strengthen our engagement, compliance, efficiency and support systems," said Shawnboda Mead, who will serve as vice chancellor over the new division. |
| Ole Miss to close diversity division | |
| The University of Mississippi plans to shutter its Division of Diversity and Community Engagement following a yearlong internal review, the chancellor announced in a campus-wide email Friday. "We are steadfast in our commitment to the transformative power of higher education, and now is the time to prioritize our efforts to broaden access to higher education," Chancellor Glenn Boyce wrote in the campus-wide email. "However, access alone is not enough. We must be committed to providing opportunities that cultivate academic attainment which leads to meaningful lives and careers." Most universities across Mississippi have already implemented changes to their diversity offices, Mississippi Today reported earlier this month. But unlike its counterparts, Ole Miss says it will submit its proposal to the governing board of all eight universities in Mississippi, the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees. Neither the University of Southern Mississippi nor Mississippi State University submitted the changes made to their diversity offices to IHL. Mississippi State University did not request approval from IHL for its internal reorganization of the Division of Access, Opportunity and Success because it typically only submits name changes for academic units or the naming of colleges in honor of major donors, according to an email from the university's vice president for strategic communications. "That said, our leadership maintains a robust dialogue with IHL's leadership on almost all matters," Sid Salter wrote in an email. |
| Armed Forces Benefit Association provides $200K for USM National Guard Center | |
 | A national non-profit that provides life insurance for military families is helping the University of Southern Mississippi document the history of the National Guard. The Armed Forces Benefit Association donated $200,000 as a founding partner for the Center for the Study of the National Guard. Friday's donation, made at USM's Center for Military Veterans, Service Members and Families, will help the development of the archive at the center. "Among the 54 states and territories, there's a lot of documentation that is not even within any archives, and, so, there's a lot of work to be done to build that," said Michael Moser, Armed Forces Benefit Association chief distribution/legal officer. "And then, (USM is) going to take that archive and facilitate the good academic work that they do here at Southern Miss." The center, established earlier this year by Southern Miss and the National Guard Bureau, will serve as a repository of documents, oral histories and other records related to the National Guard. "This investment will just be a catalyst for all the things we're going to do to curate and tell the stories of, not just the Mississippi National Guard, but all National Guards across our great nation," University of Southern Mississippi President Joe Paul said. |
| New adjutant general reflects on role as head of Mississippi National Guard | |
 | The recently-appointed adjutant general of Mississippi reflected Saturday on his new role as head of the National Guard in the Magnolia State. Maj. Gen. Bobby Ginn was appointed adjutant general of Mississippi on Aug. 1. A University Southern Mississippi graduate and former commander of Camp Shelby, Ginn took over for former adjutant general Maj. Gen. Janson D. Boyles, who retired at the end of July. Ginn talked Friday about taking command of the Mississippi National Guard after attending a ceremony at USM announcing a new fundraising partnership for the university's Center for the Study of the National Guard. "I'm so honored, so humbled, to be part of this organization for the last 34 years and have an opportunity to lead the organization," Ginn said. "It's very humbling to me and my entire family." Ginn said he wants to focus on recruiting and retention for the National Guard and wants to continuing modernizing Mississippi's facilities. "It's all about modernization," Ginn said. "It's all about people, recruiting, retention, the benefits have gotten so much better for guardsmen over the last many, many years and General Boyles was a big part of that, General (Augustus) Collins was a big part of that. I just want to continue that legacy and continue to modernize and make things better for our guardsmen out there." |
| Early AM shooting on MVSU campus | |
| Administrators at Mississippi Valley State University say two people were hurt in a shooting incident early Sunday on the school's Itta Bena campus. A message to MVSU students says investigators from the Leflore County Sheriff's Department reported no one was killed in the shooting that took place in the student union parking lot at about 1:30 A.M. Administrators say campus police confirmed neither of the two people involved were students at the University. The message does not explain what the non-students were doing on the campus but says they got medical attention quickly and that authorities were investigating the incident. The message goes on to say "Our top priority is the safety and well-being of our students, faculty and staff. The university is fully cooperating with law enforcement and the campus police department as they investigate." University leaders have called for an "all student and staff" meeting Monday morning at 11AM. |
| MCC hosts space grant campus coordinators meeting | |
 | Meridian Community College recently hosted the annual summer meeting of the Mississippi Space Grant Campus Coordinators with 14 representatives attending. The gathering serves as one of the two yearly business meetings. This year's event held special significance as 2024-2025 marks the final year in the current funding cycle. During the session, coordinators introduced upcoming changes for the next funding cycle, which included revisions in the use of funds and expense reporting, the realignment of Space Grant activities to NASA's mission and an increased emphasis on partnerships within Mississippi. This year also marks MCC's 25th year of participation in the Mississippi Space Grant Consortium through which numerous students have benefited from various educational opportunities and resources, said Angie Carraway, MCC chemistry instructor and division chair of science and wellness. |
| Did Mississippi schools violate a federal act? | |
| Mississippi K-12 public school districts violated a federal act by administering state testing to more than the allotted 1% of students designated for "alternative" testing because of severe cognitive disability. The Mississippi State Board of Education announced the violation at their monthly meeting on Thursday, as they scramble to meet with the federal government, office of assessment and office of special education to fix their standardized testing policies for this school year. "If they wanted to really put a hammer down they could impact our federal funding," said Donna Boone, chief academic officer at the Mississippi Department of Education, in the meeting. "I don't know of a state they've done that too so far, but that's always the biggest handle they have." Under the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act, a state may not assess more than 1% of its students with an alternate assessment. For 2024 testing, Mississippi exceeded that cap, testing 1.9% of its students with an alternate assessment in English, 1.9% in math and 2% in science. Each school district is responsible for determining the number of students they administer alternative testing to every year. Collectively, Mississippi's school districts exceeded the 1% federal cap on testing. |
| Bama Rush 2024: U. of Alabama sororities hold Bid Day | |
 | Sorority rush is over in Tuscaloosa and now begins the rush to start the 2024 fall semester at the University of Alabama. On Sunday, around 2,500 UA freshmen students found out which sorority they would be joining during Bid Day, the culmination of sorority recruitment week. Bids were issued at Bryant-Denny Stadium and the pledges then ran to their new houses on Sorority Row. UA has one of the largest Greek systems in the country, with more than 12,000 members as of last spring, including 40 fraternities and 24 sororities. While Bid Day was taking place, thousands of students were also moving into UA's on-campus housing last weekend. Last fall, UA's Tuscaloosa campus had an enrollment of 39,623 students. The fall semester classes are scheduled to begin Wednesday at UA. |
| U. of Tennessee in 2024 once again welcomes a record-breaking number of students | |
 | School is in session for the University of Tennessee at Knoxville's largest class yet. The growing university once again broke its enrollment record. UT Knoxville boasts an approximate enrollment of over 37,000. The number will be finalized on the 14th day of classes, but this is already a new record for the university, smashing the record set last year. The record-breaking enrollment is due in part to the record-breaking retention rate expected to be over 91%. Coupled with a class of over 6,700 first-year students, UT Knoxville is poised to keep expanding. "We are so excited to welcome the Class of 2028 to Rocky Top and the start of their college journey," Senior Vice Chancellor and Provost John Zomchick said in a press release. "From day one of their arrival to the moment they cross the stage at graduation, UT is dedicated to providing them with the resources they need to succeed. We have designed extensive programming to equip all Volunteers with the tools that they need to excel both in and outside the classroom. We are committed to fostering a campus where all thrive." Enrollment growth comes with a looming "enrollment cliff" coming in the next few years when the total population of 18-year-olds begins to decline, which includes the population of college going individuals. But UT isn't worried, as the flagship Knoxville campus aims to grow enrollment to 41,000 by 2030. |
| In Demand: The Colleges Where Students Start Jobs Right Away | |
| Northeastern University is one of the hottest schools in America. With applications soaring, the Boston school's acceptance rate now rivals some Ivy League institutions. The draw: letting students alternate academics and up to 18 months of full-time paid work experience, boosting their chances of landing a job afterward. Viewed as a safety school a generation ago, Northeastern is one of a number of universities, including Drexel University in Philadelphia and Georgia Tech in Atlanta, whose career-oriented academic models are gaining attention from students and rival institutions as more Americans question the value of a college degree. For families and businesses alike, the debate isn't over just soaring tuition costs and student debt loads, but also whether U.S. universities are producing the kind of talent that companies say they need. Five years after graduation, nearly half of workers with bachelor's degrees are in jobs that don't make use of their college credentials or skills, according to a recent analysis of millions of graduates' career paths by the labor analytics firm Burning Glass Institute and the nonprofit Strada Education Foundation. Schools that help their students get at least one six-month professional job, or "co-op," during their studies, usually through the university's employer network, say they have better outcomes. |
| Why Colleges Need to Look Out for 'Hostile Environments' | |
 | In October, the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights launched an investigation into possible antisemitism at Drexel University after the door of a suite where a Jewish student lived caught fire. Ultimately, federal civil-rights investigators concluded that the incident wasn't motivated by antisemitism, and the university was credited with handling it properly. Yet Drexel still landed in trouble with the Office for Civil Rights. The reason: Officials found that, more broadly, "the university generally failed to fulfill its obligations to assess whether incidents of shared-ancestry discrimination and harassment reported to it created a hostile environment, and where the university did conduct this assessment it misapplied the legal standard." The Office for Civil Rights laid out that standard in writing to Drexel, asserting that a hostile environment is formed by "unwelcome conduct that, based on the totality of the circumstances, is subjectively and objectively offensive and is so severe or pervasive that it limits or denies a person's ability to participate in or benefit from a recipient's education program or activity." Officials identified what they called "growing evidence of a hostile environment for over 18 months" at Drexel. Earlier this month, the university entered into a resolution agreement with the Office for Civil Rights. |
| Campus Protests Pushed Ivy League Presidents Out. How Leaders Are Holding On. | |
| Running a high-profile university during a war in the Middle East where students, faculty and alumni are at odds has turned into one of the toughest jobs in America to keep. The presidents at five Ivy League universities have stepped down since the Israel-Gaza war began last fall. Four of those schools have named interim presidents. Leaders elsewhere spent the summer enacting stricter rules to stave off a repeat of the spring, when colleges across the country were beset by protest, encampments and arrests. Intense pressures remain. Alumni want protesters to stop diminishing the brand of their alma maters. Faculty want an end to the disruption of classes. Parents want safety for their children. And there is always the potential for Congress to call more school leaders before a committee to ask why their campuses are so chaotic. Presidents who have held their jobs are quick to acknowledge they have benefited from variables beyond their control. But several presidents, former presidents and advisers point to strategies that have helped leaders navigate recent storms. Vanderbilt University Chancellor Daniel Diermeier described his North Star as an unwillingness to appease one side or the other through intense protests, arrests and student expulsions on his campus. |
| Supreme Court keeps block on Biden's new Title IX regulations in some states | |
| A divided Supreme Court refused to require some states to enforce new rules on how schools should handle complaints of sexual harassment and discrimination, leaving in place a ban on the provisions while lower-court battles continue. The Education Department had asked the court to lift the preliminary injunctions on enforcing the rules, arguing that the decisions by federal courts in Louisiana and Kentucky to block the entirety of Title IX regulations in a number of states were overly broad. States requested the injunctions based on objections to provisions within the regulations that deal with discrimination based on gender identity. Friday's decision leaves in place a messy status quo, where the regulations are in effect in about half of U.S. states. Justice Neil M. Gorsuch joined the court's three liberals in dissenting from the emergency order. The challengers argued that the Biden administration exceeded its authority in crafting the rules and said the regulations violate state laws that limit the rights of transgender students. In a separate action, the Supreme Court has agreed to review during the coming term a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for people younger than 18. It will be the first time the court has explored the issue. More than 20 states have passed similar bans since 2021. |
| Student Voting Declined in 2022. What Could That Mean for This Election? | |
 | College students voted at lower rates in the 2022 midterm elections than they did in 2018, according to a new report, raising the question of whether the massive youth voting turnout that contributed to President Joe Biden's victory in 2020 will be replicated in the upcoming presidential election. Only 31.3 percent of college students voted in 2022, down from 40 percent in the previous midterms, according to data released by the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement (NSLVE), which is based at Tufts University and measures election participation among college and university students. Even so, 2022's numbers were still higher than in the 2014 midterms, during which fewer than one in every five students cast a ballot. Midterms always draw fewer voters than presidential elections across all age groups and demographics, but the dip could indicate that the high rate of student voters in 2020 -- 66 percent -- was an anomaly rather than the beginning of a trend. "The rate of drop among college students was such that it brought into stark relief how remarkable 2018's participation rate was among students," the report's authors write. "Still, when compared with other populations in the U.S., it seemed a drop was inevitable for 2022." |
| Jody Owens should resign amid FBI investigation | |
| The Magnolia Tribune's Russ Latino writes: Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens should resign, or at a bare minimum, take a leave of absence. The most populous county in Mississippi deserves a top prosecutor doggedly committed to getting dangerous criminals off the streets. Embroiled in a budding bribery scandal, Owens cannot possibly hope to maintain the focus necessary to lead his office to help solve literal life and death problems. While homicides have fallen since peaking in 2021, the City of Jackson, which serves as both the county and state seat of government, leads the nation in murders. Jackson's 2023 homicide rate of 78.8 per 100,000 citizens gives it the dubious distinction of being 14 times higher than the national average of 5.5. The citizens of Hinds County also deserve to know the person entrusted with maintaining the law and punishing wrongdoers, operates above reproach -- that he is not just a law enforcer, but a law follower. Nothing undermines public trust more than leaders who ask more of those they serve than of themselves. Finally, the attorneys in his employ deserve a chance to do their jobs without a pall over the integrity of their work, or the risk that their association with Owens might follow them for the rest of their professional lives. Public perception of corruption has a way of splattering on those in proximity. |
| How might Kamala Harris compare to recent Democrats in non-swing state Mississippi? | |
| Mississippi Today's Bobby Harrison writes: Former U.S. Congressmen Mike Espy, a Democrat, and Gregg Harper, a Republican, were civil toward each other even though they did not agree on much at a recent meeting of the Mississippi State Stennis Institute of Government and the Capitol Press Corps. Espy, a former U.S. agriculture secretary and the first Black Mississippian elected to Congress since the 1800s, and Harper, a 10-year U.S. House member, were invited to give their thoughts and predictions about the upcoming presidential election. They offered no surprises. Harper echoed the Donald Trump talking points in touting the Republican nominee. He criticized Harris for the border, economy and on other issues often talked about by Trump. Harper added that he thought Trump would win "if he acts presidential." Espy spent less time on issues. He gave a personal testimonial of his friendship with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. They both are alumni of Howard University, and she came to Mississippi to campaign for him when he was running for the U.S. Senate against Republican incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. ... Harper and Espy did agree on at least one issue. They both agreed at the luncheon meeting that Trump would win Mississippi. |
| Mission Mississippi still relevant and active | |
 | Columnist Bill Crawford writes: Sixty years ago on June 28, 1964, the New York Times front page declared, "MISSISSIPPI: A PROFILE OF THE NATION'S MOST SEGREGATED STATE." The change in Mississippi culture since has been night and day. For the most part, Black and white mix in peace without fear in workplaces, public venues, civic clubs, universities and colleges, many schools, and some churches. Yet, two vestiges persist. One is a hateful fear in some that the state's white population majority will be overtaken by non-whites. The other and more insidious vestige is what the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called, "the appalling silence and indifference" of good people with regard to racial injustice. Our lingering separateness is apparent. Most wealthy Mississippians, business owners, bank executives, physicians, and plant managers are white. Most poverty families live in Black households. Most private schools are majority white. Most poor, struggling schools are majority Black. And so on. The good news out of all this is the strong involvement of so many white and Black Mississippians in racial reconciliation initiatives. The bad news is the persistent need for such. One of the mainstays for racial reconciliation has been Mission Mississippi. |
SPORTS
| Where Mississippi State football coach Jeff Lebby saw improvement in preseason scrimmage | |
| Pre-snap penalties appear to be a point of emphasis for Mississippi State football and first-year coach Jeff Lebby. After the Bulldogs' first preseason scrimmage, Lebby voiced his displeasure with the team's abundance of them. He said that area was better following Saturday's second scrimmage. MSU is in the process of installing Lebby's new up-tempo offensive scheme with 11 new starters. "I think it's the non-playing penalty part of it," he said, "just being able to play clean before the snap, being able to play clean from a substitution standpoint, getting guys on and off the field as game-like as possible. So again, we've got to continue to trend that way." Both of Mississippi State's scrimmages have been closed to the media. "I like where we're at," Lebby said. "I'd also like that we got two weeks left to be able to clean stuff up and dial in on some of the detail and get ready for an opponent." |
| Shaud Williams, strength staff bring 'a great deal of trust' to Bulldogs' locker room | |
| College football players spend more time with the strength and conditioning coaches than anyone else inside their program, particularly in the offseason. So building relationships, especially with a new staff and a roster full of newcomers, is of the utmost importance. Just over a week after Jeff Lebby was named Mississippi State's new head coach in late November, the Bulldogs hired Shaud Williams as their new head of strength and conditioning. Williams spent the last five years as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Oregon and was in the same role at Wisconsin for one season before that. "I've known (Lebby) for a long time," Williams said. "Jeff and his family mean a great deal to me. They've played a big role in me being where I am today. So whenever Jeff called, it was a no-brainer." Williams was a multi-sport star growing up, and the Atlanta Braves selected him in the 13th round of the 1999 MLB Draft out of high school. But he chose to continue playing multiple sports in college, becoming the Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year in football at Texas Tech. After two years on the Red Raiders' football and baseball teams, Williams transferred to Alabama, where he continued to play both sports but had a much brighter future on the gridiron. In 2003, Williams led the Southeastern Conference with 1,367 rushing yards and scored 14 touchdowns, then signed with the Buffalo Bills as an undrafted free agent in 2004. He played in all 16 games in his second season with Buffalo but was out of the NFL not long after, playing in the United Football League and later the semi-professional Southwest American Football League before transitioning to coaching. |
| Lebby starting from scratch at Mississippi State | |
 | The adage you can't tell the players without a program certainly applies to the Mississippi State football team. The Bulldogs might have been the first team in the history of the Southeastern Conference Media Days not to bring a returning starter from last season's team. Junior linebacker John Lewis has played in 28 games for the Bulldogs, making only three starts. Junior offensive linemen Albert Reese IV also has played in 28 games for Mississippi State, but he's started only once. The third player the Bulldogs brought to be interviewed by the media last month in Dallas was senior quarterback Blake Shapen. He has 23 career starts, but all were at Baylor. His appearance was somewhat of an oddity as well. Coaches typically bring fourth- and fifth-year players who have been entrenched in the program to media days, not transfers. Mississippi State first-year head coach Jeff Lebby decided to bring three players who had stellar springs in helping him build the program. Lebby, who was Oklahoma's offensive coordinator the last two seasons, has stressed four things since he took over: have fun, be tough, be competitive and be accountable. "I think when you talk about fun and tough and competitive and accountable, then you immediately think about the three guys that I was able to bring with me, starting with two guys that have been at Mississippi State," Lebby said. "They've been through a lot over the last three years." |
| No. 18 State Soccer Secures 4-0 Victory Over Northwestern State | |
| Mississippi State Soccer (2-0-0) continued its strong start to the 2024 season with a commanding 4-0 win over Northwestern State (0-2-0) on Sunday afternoon at the MSU Soccer Field. The Dawgs set the tone early, with Alivia Buxton finding the back of the net just 4:58 into the match. Buxton's first goal since 2022 came off a well-executed play, with assists from Ally Perry and Hannah Johnson who both secured their second assists of the season. This early strike gave State a lead they would not relinquish. Despite a determined defensive effort from Northwestern State, which kept the scoreline close through much of the match, MSU broke the game wide open in the second half. The Bulldogs' relentless attack paid off when Aitana Martinez-Montoya converted a penalty kick in the 79th minute, doubling the lead. Just two minutes later, Buxton turned provider, assisting Naila Schoefberger for her first goal of her collegiate soccer career. The Bulldogs capped off their scoring spree with a team goal at 81:25, putting the game well out of reach. State's defense was equally impressive, holding Northwestern State to just one shot, which did not require a save Maddy Anderson. In contrast, the Dawgs peppered the opposing goal with 29 shots, 11 of which were on target. Northwestern State's Libe Banuelos made eight saves on the day. |
| MSU Soccer: Bulldogs batter Devils for second straight win | |
| Mississippi State soccer is 2-0 after another win at home on Sunday. The Bulldogs secured a 4-0 win and registered a record-equalling 30 shots on the day with 11 on target. The Bulldogs battled the heat as well as the Northwestern State Blue Devils with temperatures reaching 98 degrees, and they turned up the heat early on the opponents as well. Junior Alivia Buxton scored her first goal of the season in the fifth minute, making it the second game in a row where the Bulldogs struck in the opening stage of the match. It was Buxton's first goal back after missing the 2023 season with an injury, and she marked her return in style by crashing the box and firing past the keeper after good build up play from Ally Perry and Hannah Johnson on the left wing. "Losing Bux last year in the second exhibition was a real tough one for us," Armstrong said. "Maggie Wadsworth got a lot of the plaudits, and she should, she scored nine goals in her freshman year, but Buxton was on fire. I think she started every game and scored a number of big goals." Despite the high volume of chances they had to wait until the 79th minute before scoring again. That goal came from the spot after the Video Assistant Referee spotted a handball in the box. Aitana Martinez-Montoya placed the penalty kick past the keeper calmly, and that opened the floodgates as MSU struck two more times before the final whistle. |
| Hoover lands extension of SEC Baseball Tournament til at least 2028 | |
| The Southeastern Conference has a proposed agreement with the city of Hoover that would extend the SEC Baseball Tournament at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium for at least four more years through 2028, Parks and Recreation Director Erin Colbaugh told the Hoover City Council on Thursday night. The proposed agreement also provides for two additional one-year options for the tournament to continue in Hoover in 2029 and 2030, Colbaugh said. Part of the agreement calls for Hoover to make certain improvements to the stadium in time for the next tournament in May 2025, she said. The actual agreement to be voted on by the Hoover City Council Monday was not made available Thursday. However, City Administrator Ken Grimes and Colbaugh in May indicated the city has $11 million worth of improvements slated to be made in the third phase of renovations at the Met. The third phase will include a redesign and repaving of a large portion of the parking lot that extends over to the Finley Center and a variety of improvements inside the stadium, Grimes said then. Those interior improvements will include a 4,250-square-foot club suite addition down the third base side on the concourse level, with glass doors that open up to a new chairback seating section, Colbaugh said. Another planned improvement is a new two-tier outfield patio on the first base side of the field between the scoreboard and bullpen, Grimes said. The 2024 tournament had a record attendance of 180,004 people over six days, SEC officials said. |
| 'The Blind Side' Made Him Famous. But He Has a Different Story to Tell. | |
 | "That's where Hurt Village was." Michael Oher was pointing to the site of a now-demolished housing project where he lived with his mother, who was addicted to drugs, and, at various times, as many as seven of his 11 siblings. It was an overcast Monday afternoon in late April, and Oher, the former football player whose high school years were dramatized in the movie "The Blind Side," was driving me on a tour through a forlorn-looking stretch of Memphis and past some of the landmarks of his childhood. "And right over there, that was a store called Chism Trail. It's one of the places I'd steal from. Real food, not candy. Pizza, hot dogs, bologna. One time I took a ham." Oher played eight seasons as a starting offensive tackle in the N.F.L. and won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens. He is now 38, and his neatly trimmed beard has a few flecks of gray. He is 6-foot-5 and says he is under his playing weight of 315 pounds. We were in his GMC Denali pickup, a big truck to accommodate his big frame. Our last stop was a stately yellow home, framed by two tall oaks. He pulled halfway up the driveway. "This is where I lived with my family," Oher said. He turned to me and, to make sure I got the joke, added: "You know what I mean, right? My family." This was where Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy lived with their two children -- and, for about a year, with Oher. |
| The Numbers That Show the Growing Divide in College Football | |
| When the concept of free agency came to baseball in the mid-1970s, the leader of the players' union took a surprising position. Marvin Miller, the most influential labor leader in the history of American sports, opposed an owner's proposal to have every player become a free agent every offseason. He believed it would lead to an oversaturated market and ultimately cause chaos. Half a century later, the structure Miller resisted has become the reality in college football. The NCAA used to require players to obtain permission from their coaches to transfer and then sit out for a season before playing for their new team. Now, relaxed rules have enabled players to switch schools every season without penalty, upending the landscape of the sport in unprecedented ways. Every December, rosters convulse as 30,000-some players across Division I football become free agents, to say nothing of the thousands more playing in lower rungs of the NCAA ladder or at junior colleges. Coaches are no longer just trying to entice high-schoolers to come play for their teams -- they have to convince their current players to stick around, too. "You don't just go to the portal and get everybody and nobody comes and gets your guys," Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said in July. "It's free agency." |
| NCAA Fires Back at Objectors, Defends House Settlement | |
| As U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken weighs whether to grant preliminary approval of a multibillion-dollar settlement that would resolve the House, Carter and Hubbard antitrust litigations -- and radically reconfigure "big time" college sports -- attorneys for the NCAA, power conferences and class action plaintiffs are fighting back against efforts to derail their deal. On Friday, attorneys Rakesh Kilaru (for the NCAA and conferences) and Steve Berman (for the plaintiffs) filed briefs urging Wilken to reject recent objections filed by crew athletes, Ivy League athletes and DI athletes who are waging antitrust litigations in Colorado. As detailed by Sportico, those objectors raise different arguments but in short contend the settlement would: 1) grossly under-pay athletes, perhaps by tens of billions of dollars, and at rates much lower than the minimum wage; 2) perpetuate sexism by paying male athletes much more than female athletes; and 3) destroy legal claims raised in other cases against the NCAA. In his brief, Kilaru depicts the objections as offering nonsensical and baseless theories. He asserts the settlement would provide "substantial compensation" to athletes in the form of $1.98 billion to resolve NIL claims and another $600 million to resolve additional compensation claims. Kilaru contends the objectors have made "opportunistic arguments" that "ignore the extreme amount of litigation risk" -- including the "substantial risk of the classes recovering nothing." |
| Lawyers for plaintiffs in NCAA compensation case unload on opposition to deal | |
 | Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the proposed multi-billion-dollar settlement of three athlete-compensation antitrust cases against the NCAA and the Power Five conferences on Friday unloaded a sharply worded response to multiple filings last week that asked a federal judge in California to refuse to provide preliminary approval of the deal. Taken together, last week's arguments sought to raise myriad issues about the deal, including whether it undervalues the claims, discriminates against female athletes, creates another illegal cap on compensation and involves inappropriate fee provisions for the plaintiffs' attorneys. The proposed settlement includes, among its main elements, nearly $2.8 billion in damages that would go to current and former athletes over 10 years. It also would allow Division I schools to start paying athletes directly for use of their name, image and likeness (NIL), subject to a per-school cap that would increase over time and be based on a percentage of certain athletics revenues. A hearing on the motion for preliminary approval is set to occur before U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken on Sept. 5. At the outset of their filing Friday, the plaintiffs' lawyers wrote: "Objectors' attempt to argue that this landmark settlement fails to satisfy the preliminary approval test is frivolous. The relief is comparable to what class members might achieve at trial, but only after more years of litigation facing an uncertain outcome." |
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