| Friday, September 6, 2024 |
| Ludacris headlines Bulldog Bash in Starkville | |
 | Hip-hop artist Ludacris will be back in Mississippi this October to perform at Mississippi State University's Bulldog Bash. Bulldog Bash will take place at the intersection of Jackson and Main streets in downtown Starkville. The free concert will begin at 7 p.m. Oct. 4, with Ludacris taking the stage around 9:15 p.m. Opening for Ludacris will be the winner of this year's Battle of the Bands sponsored by MSU's Music Makers Productions, which takes place at 6 p.m. Saturday in Lee Hall's Bettersworth Auditorium. Bulldog Bash begins earlier in the day on Oct. 4, with the Maroon Market opening at 3:30 p.m. The market will feature music by local artists, artwork to purchase, food vendors and a kids' zone. The event is sponsored by MSU's Student Association. Ludacris has been a chart-topping artist and actor who has sold more than 24 million albums, according to a news release from MSU. Although he originally lived in Illinois, he moved to Atlanta with his family as a teen. It was in Atlanta that he perfected his craft, producing five No. 1 hits and 18 Billboard Top 10 songs, according to Billboard. Ludacris has won three Grammy Awards out of 20 nominations. |
| HARDY to perform first stadium concert at Dudy Noble Field next Thursday | |
 | Country music star and Mississippi native HARDY will be making a stop in Starkville in one week to perform his first stadium show. HARDY and the QUIT!! tour will set up shop at Dudy Noble Field for a Thursday, September 12 performance ahead of the Mississippi State football team's game against Toledo the following Saturday. Joining the Philadelphia singer-songwriter on the tour will be Lake native Randy Houser and Travis Denning. HARDY, a five-time ACM award winner and two-time CMA award winner, has also won three CMA Triple Play awards, was named the 2022 BMI Country Songwriter of the Year, and is a three-time AIMP Songwriter of the Year. The country music sensation has written over a dozen No. 1 singles including two-time platinum chart-topper "ONE BEER" featuring Lauren Alaina and Devin Dawson. He's previously toured with some of the biggest names in country music such as Thomas Rhett, Morgan Wallen, Florida Georgia Line, Jason Aldean, and Cole Swindell. |
| Anna Barker: Glo Pal Co-Founder the First Mississippian to Make Female Founders 250 List | |
| The phone call came out of the blue. Anna Barker, newly graduated from Mississippi State University and MSU Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach, shared the reins of the Starkville-based Glo with fellow grad Hagan Walker. They were on the ground floor of the startup based on a cool, glowing technology that appeared to have real potential. At that point in 2017, "It was the two of us, with no employees, in a 700-square-foot office, just making right above the poverty line," Barker recalled. The technology was first created in a classroom project at MSU, and Barker stepped up when their college friend decided not to pursue it post-graduation. "Hagan was kind of seeing it used in drinks and in the entertainment, event and hospitality space," Barker said, calling to mind lively cocktail parties and receptions where dressed-up guests clinked glasses that twinkled with glowing cubes. Then the call came, from a mom determined to share her story. The mother sussed out their tiny, embossed business name on the Glo Cube she had taken home from an event and tracked them down. "Hey, I need you guys to know," the caller began, sharing a story of her 4-year-old with autism who, with the Glo Cube, got into the bath for the first time without crying. "That may not sound like much to you two, making this for drinks, but you need to know that's a part of our everyday routine, and that has meant a lot to us," the caller said. ... Barker, Go Pals co-founder and chief creative officer, was named on Inc.'s 2024 Female Founders 250 list of most intriguing women entrepreneurs this past April. |
| County to cough up $2.3M from reserves to fund budget | |
 | Supervisors want to add $2.66 million to the county's general fund budget for next fiscal year, but they are not planning to increase taxes to pay for it. Natural growth from the mill value will only cover about $303,035 of those increases. The rest, roughly $2.3 million, supervisors will have to cover with the county's cash reserves, if other funds do not appear. During a Tuesday afternoon budget workshop, supervisors discussed changes to a preliminary budget with Golden Triangle Planning and Development District Government Specialist Tony Green and former County Administrator Emily Garrard. GTPDD is assisting the county with its budget process after supervisors terminated County Administrator Delois Farmer in August. Among the changes were creating 11 new positions -- five sheriff's deputies, a human resources manager, an information technology director, a part-time engineer and expanding the road department by three laborers. The board also wants to include new vehicles and road equipment in the budget. "Those are needed positions that we're requesting," Board President Marvell Howard told The Dispatch on Wednesday. "We're a growing county and we require more and more services, and that means more and more employees to handle the demand." |
| Judge refuses to reduce sentence of Columbus man who stole $6M in COVID relief funds | |
 | A federal judge denied the request of a Columbus man who used stolen COVID relief funds to buy a million-dollar house in Starkville, complete with an air-conditioned tree house for kids, to reduce his sentence by one-third. Christopher Paul Lick, 48, pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud in 2022, admitting he defrauded the government of more than $6 million in pandemic relief funds. Senior U.S. District Court Judge Glen Davidson sentenced Lick to serve six-and-a-half years (78 months) in federal prison and to repay $6 million. Lick filed a motion in December 2023, arguing that under new sentencing guidelines, his sentence could have been more than two years shorter, and he asked Davidson to reduce his sentence. The new sentencing became retroactive in February 2024. In the motion, he argued that the new sentencing guideline for wire fraud by someone with no criminal history is a range of 51-63 months, compared to the old guideline of 63-78 months. Federal prosecutors agreed that Lick had no criminal history but pointed to the 16-count federal indictment and the fact that Lick stole more than $6 million in government pandemic relief funds. U.S. Attorney Clay Joyner also pointed out that Lick did not appeal the 78-month sentence. In fact, during August 2022 sentencing, Lick apologized for his actions and told the judge, "I accept whatever sentence you deem appropriate." |
| Faith, friends and community: A&B Electric celebrates 50 years of business | |
 | Business leaders, contractors and members of the community gathered at the MSU Riley Center on Thursday to celebrate and offer congratulations as A&B Electric Co. marks 50 years in business. Founded in 1974 by Jimmy and Ann Alexander, A&B Electric has grown from a two-person startup company into an industry titan with offices in multiple states and a long list of industrial and commercial clients. Among the many projects the company has worked on are Casino Magic in Bay St. Louis, the Mercedes-Benz automotive plant in Vance, Alabama, the East Mississippi Correctional Facility, ThyssenKrupp Steel in Calvert, Alabama, and Two Rivers Sawmill in Demopolis, Alabama. Randy Sharman, son-in-law to Jimmy and Ann Alexander, who now serves as president of A&B Electric, said the company's success is built on good relationships with suppliers, contractors, vendors, clients and the community. Because of those relationships, he said, the company has been able to grow and succeed for half a century. Most of A&B Electric's work is not in Meridian, Sharman said, but the company was founded in Meridian, is based in Meridian and is proud to call Meridian home. Throughout the years, he said, the company has worked to give back to the community by supporting the arts, economic development, education initiatives and more, and it will continue to do so while being ambassadors for the Queen City wherever it goes. |
| Work force continues to increase on Amazon's data centers | |
| The number of construction workers bringing to life the largest economic development project in the history of Mississippi continues to increase. About 125 workers are on site at the Ridgeland location and another 300 to 400 workers are on the job at the mega site, said Joey Deason, executive director of the Madison County Economic Development Authority. Earlier this year, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced a $10 billion investment in Madison County that includes constructing multiple data center complexes in two of the county's industrial parks and committing to 1,000 jobs with salaries averaging $70,000 annually. One data center complex will be located in Ridgeland on 750 acres at Highland Colony Parkway and West County Line Road and the other on 1,000 acres that are part of the county's mega site at 1978 Highway 22. The first building at the mega site is expected to be operational in 2025. Deason expects the number of construction workers at the mega site to greatly grow in the next two months. "By the end of September, there will be 2,000 workers at the mega site," he said. Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee agrees that the construction project will be positive for the local economy. "I believe that not only do you see an impact on restaurants and the purchase of fuel, but I believe it has a positive impact on retail shops," he said. |
| Standby home generators made at Hattiesburg assembly plant | |
 | Standby generators are a common way to make sure your home stays ahead of the storm, and some of those household and small business generators are built right here in the Pine Belt. Kohler's Hattiesburg assembly plant produces both air and water-cooled generators. These units are designed to run on either propane or natural gas. There are other types of generators that run on gasoline or diesel, but those are not manufactured in the Pine Belt. As Kohler representative Melanie Tydrich tells us, the clean-burning propane and natural gas fuels each bring their own sets of considerations. "Most people make the decision of natural gas versus propane based on whether you have natural gas lines coming into your home. If you do, you can set up with natural gas. If you don't, then you use propane with an existing source or a tank to put outside your home or to bury," Tydrich said. Bret Shattles is a quality manager who monitors the assembly facilities both in Hattiesburg and Kohler's plant in Wisconsin. He says that roughly two-thirds of what the Hattiesburg plant manufactures is 14 to 26-kilowatt output units, with larger options as high as 60 kilowatts. "We make 10-kilowatt generators all the way up to 60-kilowatt generators. There's three total assembly lines that produce right at 250 units a day. Usually, we run about 5 days a week, sometimes six days a week," Shattles said. |
| South Mississippi the first U.S. destination for legendary filmmaker's 'Hidden Gems' travel show | |
 | Peter Greenberg travels the world, reporting on 'Hidden Gems' in places like Ireland, Saudi Arabia and now South Mississippi. "America's Hidden Coast: Mississippi" is the first time Greenberg, an Emmy Award-winning journalist and producer, has this produced this travel show in the United States. A sneak peek was presented Wednesday at the Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, where the audience got to see the stunning photography and hear the captivating stories from Coast natives. "It can intrigue people," said Greg Haney, chairman of the Mississippi House Tourism Committee, after watching the hour-long show that takes viewers out on the water, to the barrier islands, to a ghost town, a sunken island and a turtle rescue. The show will broadcast at 8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 9 on Mississippi PBS television. It then will roll out -- to a potential audience of close to 103 million viewers -- on other Public Broadcasting stations, Amazon Prime and Apple TV, he said. What he was looking in the show filmed on the Mississippi Gulf Coast was to find a place where history still lives in resilient communities, he said. |
| Weakening job market fuels pressure on Fed's Powell to cut rates | |
 | The U.S. labor market is deteriorating, but Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell might still have time to save it, with plans to begin cutting interest rates later this month. The government reported on Friday that hiring is slowing, with 142,000 jobs added in August, fewer than economists expected. It also sharply revised down the gains from the two previous months. But after a worrying jump in the unemployment rate last month, joblessness actually ticked back down to 4.2 percent in August and wage growth accelerated. "The big question is, did the Fed snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? Did the Fed keep rates too high too long?" said Aaron Sojourner, a labor economist at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. "Nobody knows that yet." The delicate work of taming inflation without choking off growth is coming to a head just weeks away from a presidential election where polling is neck and neck and the economy is a top priority for voters. Inflation, among the biggest concerns for voters, is falling back to the central bank's 2 percent target alongside a slow but noticeable increase in unemployment over the past year, prompting Powell and his fellow officials to say they're ready to ease off the economy. Fed policymakers will meet on Sept. 17-18, where they are widely expected to cut rates for the first time in more than four years. |
| Democratic US Senate candidate Ty Pinkins is upset with the Democratic Party | |
 | Ty Pinkins, the Democratic challenger to Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, is unhappy with he said is a lack of support from the National Democratic Party. Pinkins' team in an email to the Clarion Ledger on Tuesday said Pinkins is unsatisfied with the party's lack of effort in supporting his candidacy and said Mississippi Democrats are now missing out on millions of dollars flowing from the Vice President Kamala Harris Presidential Campaign to down-ballot candidates throughout the nation. "We have learned that the Harris campaign is allocating an unprecedented $25 million for down-ballot spending, but none of that funding is being directed to Mississippi to support local candidates," the email states. Pinkins' email also expressed a lack of support from U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Dist. 2, who declined to comment on the email. Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman and State Rep. Cheikh Taylor, D-Starkville, told the Clarion Ledger Thursday that while he understands Pinkins position, Mississippi is not a battleground state and funds the DNC gives to candidates are needed elsewhere. In comparison, Wicker has raised $6.1 million in contributions and transfers from other committees and spent more than $5 million. Wicker has $3.6 million in cash on hand, which includes funds he raised prior to 2023. |
| Confidence in government's ability to ensure food safety at record low: Gallup | |
 | The American public's confidence in the federal government's ability to ensure the safety of the nation's food supply is at a record low, according to a new Gallup poll. The survey found that approximately 57 percent of respondents now have a "fair amount" or a "great deal" of confidence in the federal government's ability to keep the food supply safe, representing an 11-point downturn from 2019. Less than one in three Americans questioned for the new poll -- 28 percent -- said they did not have much confidence in the government's ability to guarantee food safety, while 14 percent said they had "none at all." When examined by party, Republicans' trust in the federal government's ability dropped the most since 2019. Independents lost confidence too, however, while it jumped among Democrats. Additionally, Americans' confidence regarding food safety in grocery store foods are safe to eat has also dipped since 2019. Gallup found 72 percent of respondents said in the new survey that they were somewhat or very confident, a near double-digit downturn from 81 percent in 2019. The downward levels of trust related to food safety in grocery stores were present among all political factions. |
| The Putin Propaganda Chief Who the U.S. Says Is Now After American Minds | |
 | Since arriving at the Kremlin, Sergei Kiriyenko's job has been to make sure the Russian people see only what Vladimir Putin wants them to see. Now U.S. prosecutors say he is trying to do the same for Americans. On Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department named Kiriyenko as the curator of some 30 internet domains that were being used by the Russian government to spread false information. The domains appeared to be U.S. news sites but were, in fact, filled with Russian propaganda intended to erode international support for Ukraine and manipulate American voters ahead of the November presidential election, U.S. officials said. Russia denied any wrongdoing. Kiriyenko, a veteran technocrat and one of President Putin's most trusted lieutenants, has seen his portfolio expand in recent years, tasked with everything from organizing disputed elections to leading the Kremlin's propaganda efforts on the war in Ukraine and overseeing Russia's occupied territories there. "He is the perfect technocrat in the worst sense," said Alexander Gabuev, director of Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, who added that the U.S. allegations serve as a further indication his star is on the rise. "If there are marching orders to kill freedom of expression, he will do that in the most efficient way possible," he said. |
| Ole Miss researchers study how deepfake detection tools influence journalists | |
| The scenario-based role playing inspired by the popular Dungeons & Dragons game has given University of Mississippi researchers a novel approach to study how journalists use artificial intelligence tools to verify audiovisual media. The goal is to help journalists identify deepfakes: manipulated video, audio or images that can make it appear that a person said or did something that they did not. As more deepfakes emerge, misrepresenting political leaders, celebrities and even high school students, detecting them is becoming more crucial. One study found a 303% increase in deepfakes detected in the U.S. between 2023 and 2024. "If journalists are sending out information that's incorrect, they're really amplifying misinformation or disinformation at a much larger scale," said Andrea Hickerson, dean of the School of Journalism and New Media and one of the lead researchers. Hickerson worked with Saniat "John" Javid Sohrawardi, Matthew Wright and Y. Kelly Wu, of the Global Cybersecurity Institute at Rochester Institute of Technology, to complete the "Dungeons & Deepfakes" study. The Association for Computing Machinery published the research as a part of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. |
| Campus food trucks struggle to adapt to new Grubhub system | |
 | Among other changes by Ole Miss Dining intended to make meals more accessible, students can now use the Grubhub app to order at campus food trucks -- a change that has mixed reviews so far. Students can order ahead of pick-up at various vendors across campus, however, there is not a check-in system available through the app for these food trucks. When ordering food at locations in the student union, customers can place their Grubhub orders on the app. Once they arrive at the union, customers signal the app they are there, notifying the food service workers to start making the order. This is not the case at food trucks. Customers have to physically check in at the front window in order for their food to be made. Chip Burr, the resident district manager of Ole Miss Dining, shared that they are aware of some issues with the Grubhub app but said that the problems would be resolved soon. "Now that our students have returned, the system is experiencing extremely high volumes," Burr said. "Anytime a customer reports an issue, our team works closely with Grubhub to promptly resolve the issue, and we're always looking for ways to improve the process. As class schedules settle and students begin setting their routines, we anticipate volumes will level off, and the process will become more intuitive." |
| National Change Lab training emerging civic leaders to solve community problems | |
| Emerging civic leaders from across the country are in the Capitol City learning what it takes to solve issues in their communities. The National Change Lab is a networking and training opportunity for the next generation of leaders. Changemakers from Chicago, Detroit, Jackson, Memphis, and San Antonio are attending the National Change Lab to learn what it takes to solve problems in their community from educational inequity to harm reduction. The 100 participants are learning from civic leaders of the Change Collective. "Everything I read in the news or saw about the library system was negative," said Dr. Jared Davis. The University of Mississippi Medical Center plastic surgeon graduated from the program last year and is on the panel discussing "Investing in the South." He grew up in the Capitol City and is working to improve the Jackson-Hinds Library System. "Libraries need to be more of a celebrated public space. Obviously, it's not just about books and libraries anymore but safe spaces for programming, for community events, and the like," said Davis. Thursday's panel offered advice on securing funding for projects, researching donor organizations, and the ultimate purpose of their projects. |
| How safe are Alabama college campuses? List ranks safety, crime rates | |
 | Campus safety is an important consideration for anyone making decisions about college. Each fall, schools release information about safety incidents and crime. Ranking site Niche has used those reports, in part, for its 2025 annual rankings for Safest College Campuses in America. Out of ranked schools, the University of Mobile is listed as the safest in the state and the No. 77 safest school in America. Auburn University was ranked as the No. 7 safest school in the state. The University of Alabama and UAB did not make the list. Each major university reported more incidents of crime than smaller schools in the state. Niche grades colleges by taking into account student reviews, campus crime rates, local crime, reports of residence hall date violence rates, residence hall rape rates, alcohol related arrests and drug related arrests. Crime statistics don't tell the whole story about safety, of course. A high number of reported crime incidents or violations does not always mean that a campus is more dangerous. It could mean that students and faculty feel more comfortable coming forward when they are the victim of a crime or witness a violation. |
| Two Louisiana universities score below average in free speech rankings | |
| Both Louisiana State University and Tulane graded near the bottom in the latest college free speech rankings. LSU finished 199th out of 251 colleges and universities with an overall uninhibited expression score of just over 39 out of 100. Tulane ranked 217th with an overall score of around 36. Of the categories considered in the , LSU scored worst at 232nd in the openness ranking, which is a measure of students' ability to have difficult conversations on campus. Tulane's was tolerance for controversial speakers was ranked 219th. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, releases the rankings every year based on student polls, which had over 58,000 responses this year and administration reaction to open dialogue and protests on campus. An anonymous quote from an LSU student in the class of 2026 said, "Sometimes I feel that in order to receive a good grade on writing assignments I must agree with my professor's point of view." Some of the highest rated liberal colleges ranked the lowest on this poll. In contrast, many Southeastern colleges and universities scored in the top 10 for free speech such as the University of Virginia, which finished first, Florida State, the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and Mississippi State University. |
| University faculty in the South increasingly worried about political climate, survey shows | |
| A survey of higher education faculty in the South found that professors are increasingly worried about political interference in higher education, with 80% of respondents ranking the political atmosphere surrounding colleges and universities as poor or very poor. The survey of approximately 3000 faculty members was conducted in August by the chapters of the American Association of University Professors in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas. They found that professors are deeply dissatisfied with the state of higher education in the South and are looking for employment in non-southern states. The political climate around higher education was a top reason for faculty to consider leaving. "An overall climate of fear of retaliation and mistrust is the worst I've seen in over 20 years in academia," an assistant professor at a public university in Texas reported. Faculty identities were not disclosed in the AAUP survey results. About 65% of faculty surveyed across the South said they would not recommend their state as a desirable place to work, while about a third are considering interviewing for jobs outside of their state in the coming year. In addition to higher education-specific concerns, such as attacks on tenure and removal of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, some faculty cited anti-LGBTQ+ laws and abortion bans among their reasons for wanting to leave the South. |
| A&M Chancellor Sharp, former Texas Gov. Perry nostalgic about Texas politics | |
 | John Sharp believes the biggest mistake of his political career came during his first weekend as a student at Texas A&M University back in the fall of 1968. There was no home football game and Sharp, now A&M's chancellor, got a group of five of his Corps of Cadets buddies together for a fun weekend in Waco. When they got there, though, there was a problem: The house they were staying at was the home of a Baptist minister, which meant there was no alcohol to be found. So, the crew piled in the car and went to a Shell station in West to buy beer. There were two people in their group who had fake IDs -- Sharp and a fellow cadet named Rick Perry, who would go on to become Texas' governor in 2000. The plan was simple: Sharp and Perry would go inside to buy two cases of Schlitz malt liquor and come back across the interstate for the other three to pick them up. After an hour, Sharp and Perry still hadn't been picked up, so Perry cracked open a drink. Soon, a group of bikers with Banditos jackets drove by. Sharp knew not to mess with them, but Perry waved. The bikers turned around and approached them with chains and knives. Perry hid behind Sharp scared. Then, Sharp made a move. He grabbed two fists full of crickets off the ground and shoved them in his mouth. The ringleader of the bikers made a motion to his group, and they left. "So, you ask yourself, why is that my biggest political mistake?" Sharp said Thursday. "Because if I hadn't eaten those crickets, they would've killed Perry, and I would've been governor of Texas." The two old friends had years of stories to tell from their time together in Squadron 6 at A&M, to being political opponents and now friends again Thursday afternoon at the Texas Tribune Festival in front of a packed ballroom of over 350 people inside the Omni Hotel in downtown Austin. |
| Oklahoma higher education officials post rules on controversial gender, race law | |
| Oklahoma's higher education officials posted rules that prevent public colleges and universities in the state from requiring student participation in mandatory gender or sexual diversity training or counseling. The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education passed the proposed rules on Thursday in compliance with House Bill 1775, which became law in May 2021. The bill forbids the teaching of some gender and race concepts. The rules will apply to requirements of the institution itself, and not the content of individual classroom instruction, lectures, or discussions offered by the institution. Training or counseling will still be allowed when it pertains to sexual harassment or assault prevention and as part of any disciplinary measures or process. It can also be provided when needed to establish eligibility for federal grants or programs and when required to obtain or retain accreditations. Before going into effect, the rules will be subject to a public comment period and must be reviewed and approved by Gov. Kevin Stitt and the Oklahoma Legislature, according to the State Regents' agenda. |
| U. of Missouri Tomato Festival returns for its second year post-pandemic | |
 | In its second year of reemergence since the pandemic, the MU Tomato Festival continues to bring mid-Missouri residents together over a shared interest: local produce. The event featured 160 tomato varieties and 60 types of peppers, alongside salsas and other specialties from local vendors. The festival was hosted at the MU Jefferson Farm and Garden, the same location as last year when the festival first reemerged from the coronavirus pandemic. MU's Bradford Research Farm was the festival's home for 14 years, before a lack of funding availability and the pandemic caused a temporary hiatus from 2019 to 2022. Members of MU Extension's Farm to School program participated in a cooking demonstration at the festival with ingredients grown at Jefferson Farm and Garden. Members fixed watermelon, cucumber and tomato salad, and cheesy corn chowder made with potatoes from the farm. The program provides schools with food grown at community gardens around Missouri, including the Farm and Garden's greenhouse. |
| U. of Memphis gets more than $100M in grants for the first time | |
| For the first time, the University of Memphis has been awarded more than $100 million in annual research awards, the school announced in early September. U of M said it more than doubled its research awards in the last two fiscal years, from $48 million in fiscal year 2022 to $101 million in fiscal year 2024, the current academic year. "We are proud of our faculty researchers who continue working hard to win nationally competitive research awards with their cutting-edge ideas especially from the federal research agencies," said U of M President Bill Hardgrave. In a release, U of M said more than 75% of the $101 million was from federal agencies. The university also said other areas "show record growth." "A record 14 unique federal agencies contributed more than $1 million to the research efforts across campus, showcasing the breadth of the work done by UofM faculty," the university said. In the release, the school said university researchers and faculty were doing work to help bolster the pipeline for healthcare workers, working in the artificial intelligence space and focusing on solutions for local communities in their areas of research. |
| The Science of Public Communication | |
 | When Kate Biberdorf, a professor known to her 287,300 TikTok followers as Kate the Chemist, gave a guest lecture at the University of Notre Dame last December, she deployed one of her signature science influencer moves: breathing fire to demonstrate a combustion reaction. Her performance led to another dramatic outcome: Notre Dame offered Biberdorf, then an associate professor of instruction in chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin, a job as its inaugural professor for the public understanding of science. Biberdorf's new position, which she started this fall, is among the first professorships of its kind in the United States. It's part of a broader plan by Notre Dame's College of Science to engage scientific experts with a general public that's both increasingly distrustful of scientists and bombarded with misinformation. Biberdorf isn't required to teach classes; instead, she has her own makerspace to develop ideas for publicly promoting scientific research through demonstrations and other projects. "We have been treating science outreach as a side gig. It's not a side gig," said Santiago Schnell, dean of Notre Dame's College of Science, who modeled the new professorship on one the University of Oxford first created in the mid-1990s. "It's time that we get very serious about this, because the more advanced the science becomes, the more distance there will be between the general public and politicians and academia." |
| U. of Virginia ranks first for free speech | |
| The University of Virginia tops the 2025 free speech ranking on college campuses, a first for the school founded by Thomas Jefferson. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression surveyed over 250 colleges and universities in its rankings. The foundation survey, administered by College Pulse, surveyed nearly 60,000 undergraduates enrolled full-time in four-year degree programs. UVA scored an average of 73.41, which is described as "good" for its free speech climate. The survey reported that 78% of students reported that "shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus is at least rarely acceptable." In addition, 34% of students say "using violence to stop someone from speaking on campus is at least rarely acceptable." Regarding self-censorship, 47% of students say they have self-censored "at least once or twice a month." The report also noted liberal students outnumber conservative students 3-to-1. FIRE CEO Greg Lukianoff underscored the rankings' importance at a time when freedom of speech is under scrutiny. "These rankings highlight a pivotal moment in higher education, where the tension between maintaining a free speech environment and navigating deeply polarizing issues is more pronounced than ever," Lukianoff explained. |
| College Campuses Are Rife With Political Tensions. Could Random-Roommate Policies Help? | |
 | In 2018, Duke University stopped honoring roommate requests from incoming freshmen, an attempted corrective to the fact that first-year students increasingly picked their bunkmates online before even stepping foot on campus. Officials said at the time that the change would give freshmen more opportunities to meet people from different backgrounds and worldviews. While pairings would take some lifestyle preferences into consideration, they would mostly be random. An uproar soon followed: What if this put marginalized students in the position of having to teach their peers about their culture? Shouldn't the dorm, above all, be a safe space? In the end, the rollout went off largely without a hitch. Now, new research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that Duke's random-roommate policy could be a strategy for colleges to encourage interactions between students from different racial backgrounds. The finding is timely: Getting students to talk to peers with varied perspectives is a high priority for college administrators at a time of inflamed tensions over the election and the war in Gaza. The Duke study found that the chances of having a roommate from a different racial group increased with the random-assignment policy, and that having a roommate of another race was linked to a more diverse set of friends and more positive behavior in interactions with people from different racial backgrounds. |
| Freshman classes provide glimpse of affirmative action ruling's impact on colleges | |
 | Some selective colleges are reporting drops in the number of Black students in their incoming classes, the first admitted since a Supreme Court ruling struck down affirmative action in higher education. At other colleges, including Princeton University and Yale University, the share of Black students changed little. Several schools also have seen swings in their numbers of Asian, Hispanic and Native American students, but trends are still murky. Experts and colleges say it will take years to measure the full impact of last year's ruling that barred consideration of race in admissions. The end of affirmative action isn't the only factor affecting the makeup of freshman classes. Some colleges are changing standardized test requirements, heightening their importance. And the federal government's botched rollout of a new financial aid form complicated decisions of students nationwide on where and whether to attend college. "It's really hard to pull out what one policy shift is affecting all of these enrollment shifts," said Katharine Meyer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank. "The unsatisfying answer is that it's hard to know which one is having the bigger impact." |
| Trump says US colleges could lose accreditation over 'antisemitic propaganda' if he's elected | |
| Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told Jewish donors on Thursday that U.S. universities would lose accreditation and federal support over what he described as "antisemitic propaganda" if he is elected to the White House. "Colleges will and must end the antisemitic propaganda or they will lose their accreditation and federal support," Trump said, speaking remotely to a crowd of more than 1,000 Republican Jewish Coalition donors in Las Vegas. Protests roiled college campuses in spring, with students opposing Israel's military offensive in Gaza and demanding institutions stop doing business with companies backing Israel Republicans have said the protests show some Democrats are antisemites who support chaos. Protest groups say authorities have unfairly labeled their criticism of Israel's policies as antisemitic. In the United States, the federal government does not directly accredit universities but has a role in overseeing the mostly private organizations that give colleges accreditation. In his speech, Trump also said he would ban refugee resettlement from "terror infested" areas like Gaza and arrest "pro-Hamas thugs" who engage in vandalism, an apparent reference to the college student protesters. Under both Trump and Biden, similar numbers of Palestinians were admitted to the U.S. as refugees. |
| Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Another Pillar of Biden's Student Debt Plan | |
 | A federal judge placed a temporary hold on another component of President Biden's student debt relief plan on Thursday, siding with a coalition of seven Republican states that filed a lawsuit to halt the program on Tuesday. The ruling comes as yet another blow to the president's student debt relief agenda after the Supreme Court upheld a similar hold on the SAVE program, the centerpiece of his strategy to cancel tens of millions of dollars in student debt. The plan at issue in Thursday's ruling is meant to cancel debt for as many as 27 million borrowers who saw interest on their loans balloon over time, or who were still paying off loans after at least 20 years. Even though the policy was not scheduled to go into effect until the fall, the states bringing the lawsuit argued that they had obtained evidence that the Education Department had notified federal contractors to "immediately" begin canceling some balances. Judge J. Randal Hall, a federal judge for the Southern District of Georgia, said in granting the temporary restraining order that the states had established a likelihood that the Education Department had overstepped its authority, and could well prevail in the lawsuit. “This is especially true in light of the recent rulings across the country striking down similar federal student loan forgiveness plans,” Judge Hall wrote. |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State football vs ASU score prediction, scouting report in Week 2 | |
| Mississippi State football faces an early September nonconference test this week. The Bulldogs (1-0) travel to Arizona State (1-0) for a late Saturday (9:30 p.m., ESPN) kickoff. The Sun Devils, who are in their first season in the Big 12, smashed Wyoming 48-7 in their season opener. They are coached by Kenny Dillingham in his second season. "What I see is a group at Arizona State that played with a ton of confidence and a ton of energy," new Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby said. "There was great excitement inside their stadium, and we've got a great challenge on our hands." It's difficult to analyze Arizona State's emphatic win and come away with a glaring weakness. But Mississippi State's 56-7 win against Eastern Kentucky in the season opener does the same. If MSU wins, it would likely be from a strong offensive performance led by quarterback Blake Shapen, a former Arizona State commit in football and baseball before flipping to Baylor. Shapen impressed in his first game as a Bulldog, completing 15 of 20 passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns while adding 44 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown. |
| Five keys for Mississippi State's Week 2 game at Arizona State | |
| Following a commanding 56-7 win over Eastern Kentucky to open the season, Mississippi State hits the road for the first time in 2024, battling Arizona State for a late Saturday night kickoff (9:30 p.m. Central Time, 7:30 local) on ESPN. The Sun Devils also come in 1-0 after a 48-7 demolition of Wyoming last weekend. Much of Arizona State's success offensively in the Wyoming game came from outside zone runs, screen passes and quick hitters to the perimeter. The Sun Devils did an excellent job blocking downfield and turning several of those runs and short passes into chunk plays. MSU's defensive game plan depends on linebackers like Branden Jennings, Nic Mitchell and Zakari Tillman not allowing Arizona State's skill position players to find running room down the sideline. The Sun Devils have a deep running backs room, and Raleek Brown, arguably their best back, did not play in Week 1 but is expected to be ready to go Saturday night. This will easily be the Bulldogs' latest kickoff of the season as well as their longest road trip, and they're also traveling to a climate that could be even hotter than Mississippi. MSU handled itself well in a similar situation two years ago, defeating Arizona 39-17 in Tucson in a game that started even later than Saturday's will. |
| Bulldogs vs. Sun Devils: This is college football 2024 in a nutshell | |
| Mississippi sports columnist Rick Cleveland writes: If you want a good and telling look at the state of college football in 2024, take an in-depth gander at this Saturday night's game that pits the Mississippi State Bulldogs against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Tempe, Arizona. The effects of NIL, the transfer portal and conference movement will be fully on display. The Sun Devils, who have spent the last 45 years playing in the Pacific 12 Conference, now play in the Big 12, which actually has 16 teams, including such natural Arizona State rivals as West Virginia and Central Florida. The Big 12 now spans all four U.S. time zones, which makes as much sense as the new two-minute timeout in college football. (Side note: The NCAA prefers "two-minute timeout" to the NFL's "two-minute warning." That's interesting because two more timeouts of any kind are just what college football did not need. Teams already had three timeouts per half, plus 14 mandated "media timeouts." So now, we have 28 timeouts total, not counting the stoppages for video replays of close officiating calls. And you wonder why games sometimes last four hours and longer, which means that Saturday night's game in Tempe could end well after 1 a.m. central time.) |
| Volleyball Preview: StarkVegas Classic | |
| The Mississippi State Bulldogs are set to have their home opener this weekend in the Starkvegas Classic as they face Michigan on Friday and Notre Dame Sunday. The first match is set to begin at 6 p.m. Friday against the Michigan Wolverines. Then, the Bulldogs will face off against Notre Dame on Sunday at 1 p.m. Both matches will take place at The Griss. These matches will be streamed live on SEC Network+. Mississippi State has only competed against Michigan on one other occasion, last year at Michigan, and it ended in a loss. The Bulldogs faced Notre Dame twice in South Bend, Indiana, with State winning the last contest in 2022. Visit www.HailState.com for the latest news and information on volleyball. Fans can also follow the program on social media by searching 'HailStateVB' on X, Facebook and Instagram. |
| Sports Leagues Fear Gen-Z Disconnect. Horizon Suggests a Fix | |
| As much as younger Americans in recent years have troubled the sleep of league commissioners and their media partners -- given the hundreds of billions of dollars in play, Gen Z's aversion to the lean-back pleasures of traditional TV is the stuff of nightmares -- new research from Horizon Media's WHY Group suggests that digital natives are just as interested in sports as their elders, even if it seems that they're a lot harder to reach. In a 62-page study on the so-called "Sports-Curious" segment, Horizon's researchers have made a case for reimagining outreach to younger fans, revealing that the next wave of enthusiasts is more likely to be recruited into the monoculture through various on-ramps, including comedy, tech, fashion and entertainment. In understanding the myriad ways in which consumers are drawn to sports via such seemingly unlikely channels as golfcore -- think Tyler, the Creator's Golf Wang collection or Macklemore's Bogey Boys line -- and the absurdist comedy embodied by the feeding frenzy that followed last year's Pop-Tarts Bowl, marketers will have a better shot at engaging with a new generation of fans. As Courtney Mota explains it, younger consumers tend to find their way into the wider phenomenon of sports by what amounts to a sort of pop-cultural exchange program. |
| Everything you need to know about Georgia football beer sales | |
 | The gameday experience for Georgia football fans at Sanford Stadium starting Saturday will include a chance to enjoy a cold beer, and not just at your tailgate. Public alcohol sales are finally here inside the home of the Bulldogs. Georgia is certainly prepared for the roll-out, stocking 100,156 cans of beer and seltzer on site for the game against Tennessee Tech. Domestic beers are $10 for 16 ounces: Miller Lite, Coors Light and Michelob Ultra. Premium beers/malt beverage are $11 for 16 ounces: High Noon, Modelo, Twisted Tea. Speciality beers/seltzer are $12 for 19 ounces: Tropicalia, Classic City Lager, Sip'Em Seltzer. Those are all from Athens-based Creature Comforts Brewing Company, the official craft beer of Georgia athletics. Georgia will now sell Athletic non-alcoholic beer for $10. All of these alcohol choices are served in cans, according to assistant athletic director John Bateman who oversees concessions. "The operation will be crack and go," he said. "Instead of crack and pour, we will just do like you have at most of the venues that people attend, crack and go. Once the ID has been checked and approved, we will crack it and you can go." Georgia has served alcohol at Stegeman Coliseum for men's and women's basketball games and for baseball, softball and tennis for three seasons. Georgia and Auburn are the final SEC schools to offer public alcohol sales. |
| As LSU's Tiger Stadium turns 100, what does the future hold for the iconic venue? | |
 | On November 21, 1924, Tiger Stadium hosted its first football game. It had concrete stands on either sideline and bleachers in the end zones. An estimated 18,000-18,500 fans filled them to watch LSU play Tulane that afternoon, and though LSU lost, the day marked the beginning of one of college football's most iconic venues. Over the next century, the stadium turned into a horseshoe, then a bowl. An upper deck was built on those original stands, creating enough space to hold 102,321 people. The facility has hosted concerts, speeches and hundreds of games since then. Some of the most memorable moments in Louisiana sports history took place there. And now this season, Tiger Stadium will celebrate its 100th anniversary beginning Saturday night when No. 18 LSU hosts Nicholls State in the home opener. As part of his job, LSU athletic director Scott Woodward considers himself a steward of the facility. It has been part of his entire life, first as the place where he sold peanuts and now where he watches games on the sideline. People maintained it long before him. He wants to do the same for whoever one day replaces him. Woodward estimated it can last another 50 years in its current state with proper maintenance, citing advice from engineers and stadium experts. |
| Big Ten done expanding 'for now' amid interest from other schools, Iowa president says | |
| The Big Ten has received overtures from different schools but currently is not interested in further expansion, Iowa president Barbara Wilson said Thursday. "I would say for now that we're done," Wilson said at Iowa's monthly Presidential Committee on Athletics meeting. "If we're going to grow, it will be for the right reason. Right now, there's no compelling reason. But I'm one vote in the grand scheme of things. We've certainly been asked by other schools." The Big Ten has added seven schools since 2011 with four West Coast programs (USC, UCLA, Washington, Oregon) becoming members as of Aug. 2. With perpetual questions involving Florida State and Clemson suing the Atlantic Coast Conference related to its grant of rights agreements, expansion remains a front burner topic across the college sports landscape. Although not an official requirement, membership in the research consortium Association of American Universities is almost mandatory for any prospective candidates. Of the Big Ten's 18 universities, 17 are AAU members and the other (Nebraska) was a member when it was admitted. Neither Florida State nor Clemson are members. "We have implicit criteria for who we want to be part of this conference," Wilson said. "The academic excellence is really at the (forefront)." |
| House v. NCAA settlement on hold as judge urges revisions | |
| A federal judge ordered the attorneys negotiating a major settlement that could reshape the business model of college sports to "go back to the drawing board" to resolve concerns she has about how the deal would limit the ways in which boosters can provide money to athletes. Judge Claudia Wilken declined to grant preliminary approval to the House v. NCAA antitrust settlement Thursday. She said she was concerned with multiple parts of the terms of the deal. Chief among her worries was a clause that would require any money boosters provide to athletes to be for a "valid business purpose." During the past several years, booster collectives have evolved to provide payments to athletes that on paper are payments for the use of the player's name, image and likeness but in practice have served as de facto salaries. The settlement terms would make it easier for the NCAA to eliminate those payments. "What are we going to do with this?" Wilken asked. "I found that taking things away from people is usually not too popular." Wilken gave attorneys representing the NCAA and the plaintiff class of Division I athletes three weeks to confer and decide whether they could revise the language or need to scuttle the pending deal. |
| NCAA's proposed $2.8 billion settlement with athletes runs into trouble with judge | |
 | A federal judge in California said Thursday she will not grant preliminary approval to the current version of a proposed multi-billion-dollar settlement of three athlete compensation antitrust cases against the NCAA and the Power Five conferences. Following a 2 1/2-hour remote hearing, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken and lawyers for the sides agreed that the parties would get back to her in three weeks with what she termed a "prognosis" for the proposed deal. While Wilken said "it seems likely enough there will be a settlement," she also raised the prospect that the lawyers may come back to her and "say ... give us a trial date." The NCAA's lead attorney during Thursday's hearing, Rakesh Kilaru, said during the session that given Wilken's concerns, he and the plaintiffs' lawyers "have to talk about whether we have a deal to talk about." The NCAA said in a statement Thursday night: "The settlement agreement the NCAA and autonomy conferences submitted to the court was the product of hard-fought negotiations that would bring stability and sustainability to college sports ... That continues to be our goal and the NCAA and autonomy conferences will carefully consider the court's questions, which are not uncommon in the context of class action settlements." However, Thursday's developments unsettled some in the major-college sports community -- especially Wilken's concern with the proposed regulatory process, which the NCAA considers to be critical to a settlement. |
| NCAA's landmark deal to pay college athletes on hold after hearing | |
 | On Thursday evening, a preliminary approval hearing to settle House v. NCAA -- the antitrust case that could bring revenue sharing to college athletics -- ended without anything resembling preliminary approval. Instead, Judge Claudia Wilken told the sides to "go back to the drawing board," particularly over language regarding third-party name, image and likeness (NIL) payments from booster-funded groups known as collectives. That could be a significant sticking point for the NCAA, one of six defendants in the case along with the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC and Pac-12 conferences. The first settlement draft calls for the NCAA and its members to pay $2.78 billion in damages to past and current athletes, who are suing over various restrictions on compensation. It also creates a landscape-altering model in which schools could directly share up to a certain amount of revenue with athletes starting in the fall of 2025. The cap would be somewhere between $20 million and $23 million that first year, then continue to rise. But a major reason the NCAA is settling is that the plaintiffs' lawyers agreed to try to limit --- or even eliminate -- the outsize influence of NIL collectives. When Wilken expressed doubt about that section of the draft Thursday, NCAA attorney Rakesh Kilaru curtly responded: "Without it, I'm not sure there will be a settlement to submit." |
| Judge questions restrictions on booster payments to athletes in $2.78B NCAA settlement | |
| A federal judge on Thursday probed the terms of a proposed $2.78 billion settlement of antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA and major conferences and revealed a potential snag in the deal, questioning whether payments to college athletes from booster-funded organizations should be restricted. "I'm quite concerned about those," U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken said during a preliminary approval hearing. The hearing was the first step of a lengthy court process that could lead to college athletes getting a cut of the billions in television revenue that flows to their schools. The NCAA and the power conferences (Big Ten, Big 12, Atlantic Coast Conference, Southeastern Conference and Pac-12) agreed in May to settle House v. NCAA and two similar case cases that challenged compensation rules for college athletes. The NCAA said in a statement that it and the conferences "will carefully consider the court's questions, which are not uncommon in the context of class-action settlements." The soonest Wilken could grant final approval is 150 days after notices go out to members of the damages class. But now it'll be at least another three weeks before preliminary approval happens. "It's seems to me likely enough that there will be a settlement, even if there's some changes to what's been agreed to so far," Wilken said. |
| 'Go back to the drawing board' -- House-NCAA settlement in danger after judge slams agreement | |
| The NCAA's landmark settlement in the House, Hubbard and Carter antitrust cases is on hold and in danger of not moving forward. In a two-hour virtual hearing on Thursday, a judge ordered the parties to "go back to the drawing board" regarding language in the settlement that limits third-party pay to athletes, most notably from boosters and booster-led collectives. U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken, of the Northern District of California, questioned a portion of the settlement that specifically prohibits school boosters from compensating athletes through endorsement deals -- a clause in the document that, the judge believes, would be difficult to enforce and may reduce current payments that athletes are receiving. The plaintiff attorneys in the case, Jeff Kessler and Steve Berman, and the defendants, the NCAA and power conferences, will now attempt to reach an agreement over amending the language -- something that the NCAA and power leagues seem resistant to do. They are expected to report back to her in three weeks. For some around college athletics, this was very much expected. For others, it was a stunning result that may doom the settlement. Said one power conference school president: "It's truly madness. There is no reason to settle under these circumstances. Go to trial and take our chances on appeal." |
| Judge Wilken Tells NCAA and Players House Settlement Needs Big Changes | |
| In a contentious hearing Thursday, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken expressed significant concerns about core aspects of a multibillion-dollar settlement to resolve the House, Carter and Hubbard antitrust litigations. By the hearing's conclusion, Wilken declined to grant preliminary approval for the time being, but said if the parties can address her concerns over the next few weeks, they might still reach a deal. Both sides, however, signaled concerns they'll be able to reach an agreement that satisfies their clients and the judge. Wilken urged attorneys for the parties to "go back to the drawing board" on how the settlement would -- Wilken believes -- take away potential NIL opportunities for college athletes and downgrade the NIL market. Remember, Wilken was the judge who sided with Ed O'Bannon in his historic NIL case against the NCAA. Wilken was especially troubled by the settlement's new system for NIL and how it handles boosters and collectives. The subject of unequal treatment of women athletes also surfaced during the hearing. Football players are expected to get about 75% of the settlement's proceeds, while around 20% would go to men's and women's basketball players and just 5% for other athletes. Whether the parties can reach a deal remains to be seen. |
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