| Wednesday, March 12, 2025 |
| MSU enters partnership with Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida | |
 | Mississippi State University's (MSU) Agricultural Autonomy Institute (AAI) is a new partner with the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida (SCGC). The kick-off meeting, held on campus this past week, marked the start of a research project to develop technology-based solutions for streamlining sugar cane harvesting procedures. SCGC is funding the project at $985,000. The cooperative includes 39 member-growers covering 80,000 acres in Florida's Everglades Agricultural Area, which produces more than 400,000 tons of raw sugar each year and supplies sugar to more than 9 million people. Under the agreement, a team of scientists from AAI and the university's Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station (MAFES) will produce a novel AI-based system to automate and synchronize conventional sugar cane harvesting machinery. SCGC already has delivered a harvester, tractor and loading wagons to campus for work to begin. |
| Officials break ground on Northern Gulf Aquatic Food Research Center in Jackson County | |
 | Video: Mississippi State University and Jackson County broke ground on Monday on their Northern Gulf Aquatic Food Research Center. This collaborative effort will create new jobs and set a new industry standard on the Gulf Coast. WXXV News 25's Jordyn Lassiter has more. |
| U. of Oklahoma Joins International UAS Consortium | |
| The University of Oklahoma is joining an elite group of universities working on the safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems, or drones, into the national airspace. OU is the newest member of the Mississippi State University-led Alliance for Systems Safety of UAS through Research Excellence, or ASSURE. The consortium, which now includes 32 of the world's leading research institutions, is the Federal Aviation Administration's Center of Excellence for UAS Research. As part of ASSURE, OU will contribute its expertise in aerospace engineering, atmospheric research, and advanced data analytics. ASSURE facilitates the research, testing and evaluation needed to safely integrate drones into the national airspace. This research helps grow economic opportunity as more use cases emerge for drones in commercial, emergency response, and security applications. "We are excited to expand ASSURE's capabilities and expertise by adding OU to the consortium," said Hannah Thach, ASSURE Executive Director. "Their expertise in aerospace research and innovative approach to solving complex challenges will enhance our collaborative efforts. We look forward to valuable contributions from the OU team." |
| Starkville policies shaped by MSU-induced seasonal influx of people | |
| Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill writes for Mississippi Today's ongoing Ideas series: Starkville was founded in 1835 and Mississippi State University was founded as a land grant college in 1878. We have virtually come of age together. Our goal is to be a place where people want to live, work, play and learn. Like our good friends to the north and south, as college towns we enjoy the cyclical fortune of having much of our community geared to the excitement of youth, learning, sports, and the rise and fall of population driven by the regular beat of each semester. I would venture to say that of the three, Starkville has the distinction of being even more impacted by Mississippi State's ebb and flow than our counterparts because of our somewhat less diverse business population. With that seasonal influx of students, comes the challenge of expanding our services to reflect that increased population without breaking the fiscal bank. This means being prepared for those events that bring not just the students but the alumni and visitors to our doorstep. Every city department rises to that challenge through their own respective techniques of excellent planning and execution. |
| Boys and Girls Club to open new robotics club in Starkville | |
 | Kids at the Starkville Boys and Girls Club have an exciting new program starting this month. The Robotics Club is a weekly program that will run for 12 months. It will give 20-25 kids a chance to explore engineering, programming, and electronics of all kinds. Christopher Thompson, the Starkville Boys and Girls Club Unit Director, said one of his goals is that every child in the community believes they can strive to be anything they want to be. He said this hands-on experience in STEM fits that mission by potentially inspiring kids to pursue careers in STEM. "It is super important for every child who walks through our doors, in the community as well. But just for them to know that they can strive to be anything that they want to be. I do believe we inspire them to go into STEM because it will give our kids a chance to be hands-on with something that they have never had before," said Thompson. Equipment for the Robotics Club was donated by the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation. |
| Officials asking public to weigh in on environmental review of major Clay County solar project | |
| The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is inviting the public to chime in on the environmental review process for a major solar project planned to be constructed in Clay County. Officials will work to evaluate the potential environmental effects of Origis Energy building, operating, and maintaining a proposed 200-megawatt solar facility and up to 200-megawatt battery energy storage system just north of West Point. TVA will also look into the prospects of purchasing power from the proposed facility, dubbed the Hope Solar Project. The project is expected to power up to 60,000 homes. TVA will accept comments from now through Thursday, April 10 on the scope of the environmental review and environmental issues that should be addressed in the document. Comments received, including names and addresses, will become part of the administrative record and will be available for public inspection, per a release. TVA, the nation's largest public power supplier, will not make a decision without public input and the completion of the environmental review process. |
| Potential buyer averts Bauhaus Furniture shutdown | |
 | A prospective buyer may have averted the shutdown of Bauhaus Furniture in Saltillo, which was set to close. Furniture Today reported Monday morning that the company told them an undisclosed buyer may have saved the manufacturer at the 11th hour. "Lawyers are finalizing the contract, so we cannot disclose the buyer yet," a representative of Bauhaus told Furniture Today. On Saturday, the upholstery manufacturer wrote a letter to employees notifying them that the company would close its closing doors on Monday. In the letter, Owner Daniel Lim blamed the closure on the uncertainty in the market created by tariffs, a soft business environment and a switch to new software. The company employs 75 workers. Bauhaus was founded in Saltillo in 1989 and purchased by La-Z-Boy in 1999. The company's 200,000-square-foot plant in Saltillo makes sofas, sectionals and occasional chairs in styles ranging from transitional, casual and contemporary. In March 2014, La-Z-Boy sold Bauhaus to an investment group headed by Lim. |
| Inflation Cooled to 2.8% in February, Lower Than Expected | |
 | Inflation cooled last month, but the latest data may offer less comfort to U.S. businesses, consumers, and Federal Reserve policymakers than it otherwise would because tariffs are threatening to raise some prices in the months ahead. Consumer prices were up 2.8% in February versus a year earlier, the Labor Department reported Wednesday, versus a January gain of 3%. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected a 2.9% gain. Prices excluding food and energy categories -- the so-called core measure economists watch in an effort to better capture inflation's underlying trend -- rose 3.1%. That was the lowest year-over-year reading since 2021. That was also lower than the 3.2% expected by economists. U.S. stocks jumped. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.5% in morning trading. Markets have taken a beating in recent weeks thanks in part to uncertainty over the White House's tariffs policies. Economists are struggling to keep up with the recent tariff news, but are pushing up their inflation estimates nonetheless. Wall Street is beginning to worry that the tariffs, in combination with actions by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, could push the U.S. into recession. |
| Former Governor Barbour talks tariffs, tax cuts and a casino in Jackson | |
| After sharing a brief history of how the Republican Party became the majority political party in Mississippi at Monday's Stennis Capitol Press Forum, former Governor Haley Barbour was asked his opinion on the current state of political affairs. Some of the topics Barbour opined on included President Donald Trump's tariffs, proposed tax cuts by Mississippi lawmakers, and the possibility of a casino in Jackson. While President Trump has announced tariffs on several countries since taking office, including neighboring Canada and Mexico, Barbour said he has always been a strong supporter of free trade. He recalled witnessing the formation of trade agreements between those countries during his time as an aide in Reagan Administration. "However, I think there's a bit of logic to Trump's policy," Barbour said. The former Governor described how, in his view, tariffs are meant to be reciprocal, meaning the percentages are to be the same from both importing and exporting countries. Yet, in previous years, Barbour said the United States took concessions when establishing trade agreements with other countries in hopes of forming strong alliances during the aftermath of World War II and continuing during the Cold War. "We bent over backwards for our allies, particularly in Europe and in the Pacific," Barbour said. Giving those countries the advantage in trade deals was a way to ensure they would be strong allies during troubling times, he added. However, tariffs do have a downside. "But there is no doubt in my mind that a tariff is a form of taxation that gets put on the cost of living," Barbour described. |
| USDA cuts program that pays local farmers millions to help Mississippi food banks | |
 | The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced more than $1 billion in cuts to programs that help food banks and schools buy fresh foods from local, underserved farmers and ranchers across the nation. School Nutrition Association, a nonprofit that works to get kids low-cost meals that are high in quality, issued a news release recently. It said states were warned of $660 million in cuts to 2025 funding for the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program. Mississippi does not appear to participate, based on award information. But $7.5 million was listed as "estimated funding" for fiscal year 2025. According to reporting from Politico, the USDA also plans to discontinue the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, which helps food banks and other community organizations that feed communities get access to local produce, seafood and meat from farmers and ranchers. Current contracts reportedly will be honored but no new funding rounds are planned this year. The LFPA helps Mississippi food banks get millions of dollars in fresh food from local farmers, many of whom are classified as historically underserved. That means they're beginning farmers and ranchers, people of color or veterans that meet specific requirements. The Magnolia State has "the worst hunger problem in America," according to the Mississippi Food Network. About one in six people don't have enough to eat, and about one child in five goes to bed hungry nightly. |
| Food insecurity in early adulthood raises the risk of heart disease, long-term study shows | |
| Start with a snapshot: Adults without reliable access to nutritious food are more likely to have heart disease than adults who don't struggle to eat well. But which comes first, the food insecurity or the illness? Heart attacks or heart failure don't develop overnight, so figuring out the chain of events means panning out for the long view. A new analysis did just that, following people who had no heart disease in their late 30s or early 40s to see how their access to food might relate to their heart health 20 years later. The cohort study's results, published Wednesday in JAMA Cardiology, show people with food insecurity had a 41% higher risk of developing heart disease in middle age compared to people with a secure source of food. That association held up after accounting for other influences, such as race or education. Khurram Nasir, a preventive cardiologist and researcher affiliated with both Weill Cornell Medical College and the Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center, wasn't surprised by the connection, but he did find the magnitude of risk concerning. He was not involved in the study. "Food insecurity isn't just about hunger, it's a major cardiovascular risk factor," he told STAT in an email interview. |
| China's retaliatory tariffs on agricultural goods will squeeze farmers | |
| As expected, China has launched its counteroffensive in the trade war. It has retaliated against U.S. tariffs, with additional levies on U.S. agricultural exports. For instance, Chinese buyers will pay a levy of 15% on U.S. chicken, wheat and corn, and 10% on soybeans, pork and fruit. For agricultural products that are already on their way from the U.S. to China, nothing changes. "Our understanding is that the product that's already en route ... that the additional duty would not be in effect for that product. That it would clear under the duties that were already in place," said Joe Schuele with the U.S. Meat Export Federation. But he said there is an immediate impact on the psychology of the market. "Any time you inject additional costs or additional uncertainty, certainly suppliers have to look at ... how much China will remain part of their sales, their export portfolio," he said. In the longer term, tariffs are likely to mean fewer exports, said Jaya Wen, a professor of business and international economy at the Harvard Business School. And for some products, that will mean more supply on the domestic market. |
| EU retaliates against Trump's trade moves and slaps tariffs on produce from Republican states | |
 | The European Union on Wednesday announced retaliatory trade action with new duties on U.S. industrial and farm products, responding within hours to the Trump administration's increase in tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to 25%. The world's biggest trading bloc was expecting the U.S. tariffs and prepared in advance, but the measures still place great strain on already tense transatlantic relations. The EU measures will cover goods from the United States worth some 26 billion euros ($28 billion), and not just steel and aluminum products, but also textiles, home appliances and agricultural goods. Motorcycles, bourbon, peanut butter and jeans will be hit, as they were during President Donald Trump's first term. The EU duties aim for pressure points in the U.S. while minimizing additional damage to Europe. The tariffs -- taxes on imports -- primarily target Republican-held states, hitting soybeans in House speaker Mike Johnson's Louisiana, but also beef and poultry in Kansas and Nebraska. Produce in Alabama, Georgia and Virginia is also on the list. |
| 'How can we stand by?': Moms worry Medicaid cuts will hurt their children | |
| Advocates, Medicaid recipients and their family members gathered outside the Capitol Tuesday to urge both state and federal lawmakers to "protect and expand Medicaid now." Speakers, who held signs with slogans such as "pro-life span," included representatives from the Mississippi Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities, members of Care4Mississippi, parents of children on Medicaid and one 9-year-old girl. Their presence was in response to recent federal action that threatens Medicaid funding nationwide. In February, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a budget resolution that calls for the committee that oversees Medicaid and Medicare to cut $880 billion over 10 years. "This budget may not explicitly mention Medicaid, but the math is clear," said Pam Dollar, executive director of the disability coalition. "Lawmakers cannot meet their aggressive cuts without slashing Medicaid or Medicare. Even if they cut everything unrelated to health care, they would still be $600 billion short. In a state that prides itself on being pro-life, how can we stand by and allow this to happen?" Since Mississippi has not expanded Medicaid, advocates fear that any cuts to the federal program will affect the poorest of the poor, pregnant women, children, seniors and those with disabilities in Mississippi. |
| House Republicans pass bill to avert government shutdown | |
 | The House on Tuesday passed a funding bill to avert an end-of-the-week government shutdown, teeing up the measure for consideration in the Senate. The chamber cleared the continuing resolution (CR) in a largely party-line 217-213 vote, with just one Democrat -- Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) -- bucking his party's leaders to back the measure. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) was the lone GOP "no" vote. The legislation would fund the government through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, while boosting funds for defense programs and imposing cuts to nondefense funding. Current funding expires at 11:59 p.m. Friday. "This was a big vote on the House floor, the Republicans stood together and we had one Democrat vote with us to do the right thing, and that is to fund the government," Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said after the vote. The bill now heads to the Senate, where its future hangs in the balance. The successful vote marks a massive victory for Johnson, who unveiled the bill over the weekend, convinced nearly a dozen GOP holdouts to support the legislation, and ultimately muscled the CR through his razor-thin majority. |
| GOP gets the upper hand on spending, with improbable help from the hard right | |
 | One principle has long underpinned funding negotiations on Capitol Hill: House Republicans can't pass a spending bill without Democratic votes. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson finally quashed that assumption. It took an all-out lobbying blitz that involved promises of future spending cuts, a scattering of presidential threats and 11th-hour policy concessions involving tariffs and visas for Afghan refugees. But in a 217-213 vote, the House passed a seven-month funding patch without needing a single Democrat. Republicans planned to immediately leave Washington and hand Senate Democrats a stark dilemma with the threat of a government shutdown looming early Saturday morning. Besides jamming the Senate with a bill that cuts non-defense funding by about $13 billion and gives Trump more leeway to shift cash, the vote erodes Democrats' leverage in spending negotiations for at least the remainder of the 119th Congress. "The Democrats always got a pound of flesh," Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a House Freedom Caucus member, said in an interview. "It's just a new day." |
| Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen announces she won't seek reelection | |
 | Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire) said Wednesday she will not seek reelection next year, handing Democrats another open seat to defend as they try to reclaim the Senate majority. "Today, after careful consideration, I'm announcing that I have made the difficult decision not to seek reelection to the Senate in 2026," Shaheen said in a video posted on social media. "It's just time." Shaheen is the third Senate Democrat in competitive territory to announce their retirement ahead of next year's election. The others are Sens. Gary Peters (Michigan) and Tina Smith (Minnesota). Republicans control 53 seats in the Senate, and New Hampshire is a state Democrats cannot afford to lose as they try to chip away at the GOP majority. Shaheen has served in the Senate since 2009 and was the first woman elected governor of New Hampshire. She is the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. |
| Judges warn against impeachments for rulings against Trump | |
 | Two members of the advisory body for the federal judiciary warned Tuesday about Congress turning to impeachment of judges if lawmakers are unhappy with decisions. Four impeachment resolutions have been filed against three judges this year, after rulings that temporarily paused or slowed President Donald Trump's efforts to reshape the federal government. Since 1803, only 15 judges have faced impeachment, the last in 2010 on charges of accepting bribes and making false statements under penalty of perjury, according to the Federal Judicial Center. Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit responded to a question about the resolutions in a press call with reporters Tuesday after a meeting of the U.S. Judicial Conference. "One thing worth keeping in mind is if we dilute the standards for impeachment, that's not just a problem for judges, that's a problem for all three branches of government," Sutton, the head of the conference's executive committee, said. And Judge Richard Sullivan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit described the articles of impeachment as a concern, saying people can appeal to a higher court. "Impeachment is not, shouldn't be, a short-circuiting of that process, and so it is concerning if impeachment is used in a way that is designed to do just that," Sullivan said. |
| China's shipbuilding dominance poses economic and national security risks for the US, a report says | |
| In only two decades, China has grown to be the dominant player in shipbuilding, claiming more than half of the world's commercial shipbuilding market, while the U.S. share has fallen to just 0.1%, posing serious economic and national security challenges for the U.S. and its allies, according to a report released Tuesday by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In 2024 alone, one Chinese shipbuilder constructed more commercial vessels by tonnage than the entire U.S. shipbuilding industry has built since the end of World War II. China already has the world's largest naval fleet, the Washington-based bipartisan think tank said in its 75-page report. "The erosion of U.S. and allied shipbuilding capabilities poses an urgent threat to military readiness, reduces economic opportunities, and contributes to China's global power-projection ambitions," the report said. Concerns about the poor state of U.S. shipbuilding have been growing in recent years, as the country faces rising challenges from China, which has the world's second largest economy and has ambitions to reshape the world order. At a congressional hearing in December, senior officials and lawmakers urged action. |
| Gulf forecaster warned for years about NWS cuts. 'This would have killed him,' widow says | |
 | Experienced meteorologist and hurricane forecaster Rocco Calaci warned for years that the National Weather Service was understaffed and underfunded. He even predicted what he feared would happen, a possibility now being championed in Project 2025. "As budget cuts continue, the push will be for privatization of weather services, resulting in everyone paying for weather data," he said in a December 2020 email to the Sun Herald. "By limiting access to weather data, there will be less need for personnel and the domino effect will take place." Calaci died unexpectedly at age 73 in June 2024, the day after he wrote his last tropical newsletter. The Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, resident wanted to keep people safe during hurricane season, which runs June 1 to Nov. 30. In recent weeks, NOAA has lost 1,300 staff members through layoffs or resignations, with the New York Times first to report over the weekend that the Trump administration wants another 1,000 employees cut from the agency's workforce of about 12,000. 'Honest to God, I'm so glad he was not alive for this," said Leanne Slay-Calaci, Rocco Calaci's widow. "This would have killed him. The stress of this would have done him in." |
| Trump administration slashes division in charge of 26,000 U.S. artworks | |
| The future of a vast collection of public artwork is in doubt as the Trump administration plans to fire workers who preserve and maintain more than 26,000 pieces owned by the U.S. government, including paintings and sculptures by renowned artists, some dating to the 1850s. Fine arts and historic preservation workers at the General Services Administration told The Washington Post that at least five regional offices were shuttered last week and that more than half of the division's approximately three dozen staff members were abruptly put on leave pending their terminations. Workers expressed fear that the cuts will threaten a collection of precious art housed in federal buildings across the country, including Alexander Calder's 1974 "Flamingo" at the John C. Kluczynski Federal Building in Chicago and Michael Lantz's 1942 "Man Controlling Trade" outside the Federal Trade Commission. The federal government's art collection works like a distributed museum, with paintings and sculptures spread across courthouses and office buildings around the country. A day after staffers were placed on indefinite leave, the director for the GSA Center for Fine Arts instructed employees to quickly upload their documents into a shared folder or risk losing the preservation history for these works, according to a copy of her email obtained by The Post. That director addressed her email to "for everyone left" and ended it by writing "this needs to be a priority." |
| Anti-DEI bill would impact K-12 schools, put university 'efficiency' taskforce on hold | |
| Mississippi lawmakers are poised to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs from K-12 schools in addition to universities, while the creation of a taskforce to study "efficiency" in the state's higher education system would likely be delayed. The Senate has passed an amended version of a House bill to shutter or ban DEI programs in all of the state's public schools, a policy Mississippi's Republican-controlled Legislature has advanced as President Donald Trump targets DEI across the federal government. The bill's authors have argued the measure will elevate merit in education. The Senate tweaked House Bill 1193 before passing the legislation with a party-line vote Tuesday, offering two key concessions to the House. The Senate agreed to expand the ban on DEI to K-12 schools. The Senate's original bill only focused on universities. The upper chamber also agreed to drop a provision that would have created a taskforce to study how the state's higher education system can become more efficient. On Tuesday, Republican House Universities Chairman Rep. Donnie Scoggin, who would likely be a House negotiator, said he believed the lower chamber could agree to the Senate-approved legislation. But Scoggin cautioned that he wanted to read the amended version of the bill in depth first. |
| Lawmakers move forward with prohibiting DEI in Mississippi public schools and colleges | |
| Legislation to ban discriminatory practices in Mississippi's public schools, community colleges and universities as promoted through Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts is one step closer to becoming law. State Senator Tyler McCaughn (R) amended HB 1193 on Monday to insert similar language outlined in SB 2515, adding the state's public K-12 schools to the DEI prohibitions as was in the original House version of the bill. The amendment also removed the Senate's call for a task force to further study the changes. The purpose of the legislation is to prohibit state institutions of higher learning, community colleges and K-12 public schools from engaging in DEI practices while ensuring that employment, academic opportunities, and academic engagement are provided solely on individual merit and qualifications and not based on an individual's race, color, class, sexual orientation, or gender. Community colleges, universities, and public schools would be tasked with forming a complaint process should the bill become law. Any complaints filed under that process would be handled within 120 days. If the complainant is unsatisfied with the result, they can appeal to the Attorney General's office. Beginning in 2026, each institution, college or public school would be required to submit to their respective boards an annual report summarizing all reported incidents and the dispositions of those investigations and violations. |
| MUW signs college credit opportunities for high school students | |
| An agreement between Mississippi University for Women and the Lowndes County School District will allow high school students a chance to explore career opportunities and gain college credit. At a ceremony on the MUW campus, W President Nora Miller and Lowndes County Superintendent Sam Allison signed a memorandum of understanding creating six career pathway programs. Lowndes County high school students can explore business, education, nursing and leadership, or career tech programs in culinary arts and healthcare. Each pathway includes three courses to give students a good preview of the programs while also getting a head start on meeting degree requirements. Tuition for the courses in the W's Dual Enrollment Pathways will be covered by a university scholarship. |
| Two air ambulance crash victims from northeast Mississippi | |
| Two of the three crew members of the University of Mississippi Medical Center helicopter that crashed Monday near the Natchez Trace north of Jackson were from Northeast Mississippi. UMMC released the names of the AirCare flight crew Tuesday morning. The Med-Trans pilot was Cal Wesolowski, 62, of Starkville. Jakob Kindt, 37, of Tupelo, was a critical care paramedic. Dustin Pope, 35, of Philadelphia, was the base supervisor for AirCare in Columbus and a flight nurse. Kindt and Pope have worked for UMMC since August 2017. According to reporting from the Associated Press, federal authorities said the helicopter reported "a flight control problem" shortly before crashing in a wooded area, killing all three people on board. The pilot was going to attempt to land the helicopter in a field, according to radio traffic from the chopper to its company's communications base. It crashed shortly after that and caught fire, authorities said. Investigators found marks in trees consistent with the aircraft's rotor striking them, National Transportation Safety Board member J. Todd Inman said at a Tuesday briefing near the crash site. |
| Starkville pilot among 3 fatalities in helicopter crash | |
 | University of Mississippi Medical Center have identified the three crew members who died in a helicopter crash Monday near Natchez Trace Parkway in northern Madison County. Calvin Wesolowski, 62, of Starkville, was the Med-Trans pilot onboard, according to a Tuesday UMMC press release. Dustin Pope, 35, of Philadelphia, and Jakob Kindt, 37, of Tupelo, were also killed in the crash. Pope was a flight nurse and base supervisor for AirCare in Columbus and Kindt was a critical care paramedic. NTSB began its on-site investigation Tuesday by collecting perishable evidence. The wreckage, Inman said, was found in a "muddy, murky" area surrounded by six to eight inches of standing water in a heavily wooded area. National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman said during the site visit, investigators observed tree scratch marks consistent with a rotor strike. "The reason why we're here is not just to find out what happened, but why it happened, and to recommend changes to help prevent things like that from happening in the future," Inman said. "... We will take as long as it takes to get the right evidence, to find the right information, to come up with the probable cause." |
| Operation Orange and Blue: The impact of Veterans Affairs and ROTC at Auburn and beyond | |
| Auburn University celebrates active and non-active military officers throughout the year, from Veterans Day ceremonies to Bald Eagle and aircraft flyovers in Jordan-Hare. Yet, the most poignant reminder of Auburn's military appreciation are the Tigers who wear and serve the Stars and Stripes on- and off-campus. Veterans Affairs and Reserve Officers' Training Corps provide resources and training to Auburn students, whether returning from active duty, training for service or living as a military dependent. In partnership with Veterans Affairs, the Veterans Resource Center (VRC) serves over 1,800 military-affiliated Auburn students across all colleges. Located in Foy Hall, the VRC helps veterans transition from military service to campus life through extensive programs and services. "When you walk in the door, whether you've had a two-year stint in the military, whether you've served for twenty years or whether your parents serve in the military and you're here as a dependent, it's a very welcoming environment," said Mike Smith, a VRC program coordinator. |
| Kentucky's Legislature Is Rushing Through a Bill to Ban DEI | |
 | The Republican-dominated Kentucky General Assembly is racing to pass an anti–diversity, equity and inclusion bill that has additional academic freedom implications. House Bill 4 would ban what it defines as DEI offices, employees and training in public colleges and universities, as well as the use of affirmative action in hiring and deciding scholarships and vendor selection. It also seeks to limit curricula. While HB 4 says it doesn't impact instruction, course content or academic freedom, it does prohibit higher education institutions from requiring courses whose "primary purpose is to indoctrinate participants with a discriminatory concept." The bill generally defines a "discriminatory concept" as one that "justifies or promotes differential treatment or benefits" for people based on "religion, race, sex, color or national origin." It broadly characterizes DEI as promoting a discriminatory concept. And it defines "indoctrinate" as imbuing or attempting to "imbue another individual with an opinion, point of view or principle without consideration of any alternative." HB 4 is evidence of Republican-controlled state legislatures pushing anti-DEI bills even as the Trump administration targets DEI in higher education nationally. And it's another example of an anti-DEI bill that -- beyond targeting the administrative offices and positions often associated with that term -- could impact classroom teaching itself. |
| Fulbright participants face funding delays at home and abroad | |
 | Fulbright participants, including at least one University of Missouri graduate, are facing delayed payments to allotted funds after the State Department's freeze on current and future grant payments. The funding pause is a part of the Trump administration's efforts to cut federal spending and was supposed to be lifted by Feb. 27, according to a news release from NAFSA, a nonprofit that works to advance international education and exchange. As of March 11, though, it appears the freeze is still partially in place. The freeze is causing panic among grant recipients across the world, now left without assurances of their program's future or funding. MU spokesperson Travis Zimpfer said some MU students, faculty and staff who participate in Fulbright received full funding this month, while others have only received partial payments. He said the exact number of students who received full and partial payments is unknown. He also said the university will provide support to those impacted, but could not specify how. "Mizzou's International Student and Scholar Services has been in touch with our Fulbright students and scholars, some of whom received partial payment of their monthly stipend as a result of the funding freeze," Zimpfer said in an emailed statement. |
| Bill threatens U. of Missouri's exclusive authority to grant doctoral degrees | |
| A bill that would allow public universities other than the University of Missouri to confer certain graduate degrees passed out of the Senate education committee Tuesday despite misgivings of the committee chair. Current law deems the University of Missouri System, which has four campuses, the state's only "public research university." Among public universities, UM System schools alone can grant doctor of philosophy degrees or professional degrees, such as those in dentistry, law or medicine. Missouri's other public universities can partner with the University of Missouri to offer degree programs. "Missouri has the most restrictive statute in the nation when it comes to the issuance of engineering degrees or research doctorates," John Hutchinson, a higher education consultant, said at the hearing. The bill's supporters, including Missouri State University President Richard Williams, argue stripping MU's special privilege will allow other public universities to expand graduate programs without authorization from MU. "I think as it's written, it's a terrible bill because it would be a massive cost," Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, education committee chair, said in an interview. |
| Trump Administration Pauses $100 Million in Funding to U. of Maine System | |
 | The U.S. Department of Agriculture has temporarily paused the more than $100 million it provides to the University of Maine system, amid an investigation into the system's compliance with the federal gender-equity law Title IX. In a news release Tuesday, Maine system leaders said they were forwarded an email Monday that appeared to have been sent by the office of the chief financial officer at USDA. The message told agencies within the USDA to stop dispensing funds to Columbia University and to the Maine system while the agency considered taking action on potential Title VI and Title IX violations. USDA funding, the Maine system said in its news release, supports research into impacts of synthetic chemicals known as PFAS; potato and salmon breeding efforts; 4-H programs for kids and teens, and more. Maine's flagship in Orono received almost $30 million from USDA during the 2024 fiscal year. The University of Southern Maine also has several active grants, according to the system. A university spokesperson declined to comment further. Scott Schneider, a higher-education lawyer, told The Chronicle in a recent interview that the Trump administration's decision to choose the USDA as the investigator, as opposed to the Education Department, points to a strategy of using all available venues to compel higher-education institutions to get in line with Trump's directives. |
| Faculty-on-Faculty War Erupts at Columbia as Trump Targets Elite School | |
| Columbia University is fighting two wars at once. One rages publicly against President Trump, whose administration in recent days ordered the arrest of a student protester and canceled federal funds to the Ivy League school over allegations of antisemitism. The second conflict simmers behind the scenes: a faculty civil war that pits medical doctors and engineers against political scientists and humanities scholars over how to handle pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have disrupted campus life. In February, well before Trump made Columbia exhibit A in his effort to reshape elite colleges, seven Jewish faculty from the engineering, medical, and business schools, along with prominent deans and a representative for Jewish alumni, met with Columbia interim President Katrina Armstrong. They asked her to get ahead of Trump's moves by implementing a series of restrictions on protesters, including banning masks on campus, according to people in attendance. Faculty who attended the meeting said Armstrong's response was to kick the can down the road. Divisions often exist between disciplines at colleges, but the fissures cut particularly deep at Columbia because of the high number of both Jewish faculty who support Israel and faculty who believe Israel is committing a genocide against the Palestinians. |
| Trump Plans to Shutter USAID. Here's What That Could Mean For Higher Ed. | |
| Less than a week after President Trump's second inauguration, David Hughes learned the news: A stop-work order had arrived from the U.S. Agency for International Development, bringing to a halt the federally funded research underway at his USAID Innovation Lab on Current and Emerging Threats to Crops, operating out of Pennsylvania State University. Hughes's lab is one of 17 USAID-supported, university-housed "Feed the Future" operations focused on global food security and agricultural research. The Trump administration has also said it intends to terminate more than 90 percent of USAID's foreign contracts and $60 billion in overall assistance. But the government hasn't specified which contracts and assistance awards might be discontinued under its proposal. All told, between 2018 and 2024, more than $3.6 billion in USAID funding was allocated to American higher-education organizations -- whether directly, in the form of contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements, or through intermediaries to down-stream partner organizations, via subcontracts and subassistance. "Pests and crop diseases don't recognize borders," he said. "The threats we found across Africa and Asia --- they can wipe out our crops as easily as they can wipe out crops abroad." |
| USAID workers told to shred, burn documents, unnerving Congress | |
| The U.S. Agency for International Development ordered employees to destroy internal documents Tuesday, according to an agency directive, raising new questions about how sensitive records are being handled in the Trump administration's drive to curtail America's assistance activities overseas. According to an email obtained by The Washington Post, a senior USAID official ordered employees to shred or burn documents at the organization's Washington headquarters, including those related to agency personnel and those stored in safes used for classified material. The efforts triggered immediate alarm on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers took steps to remind the administration of its obligation to comply with laws prohibiting the destruction of government information. The campaign against USAID, championed by Trump adviser Elon Musk, has set off an outcry among supporters of America's decades-old tradition of funding nutrition, medical, democracy and other assistance programs overseas, who argue it extends U.S. global influence and supports stability worldwide. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who supported U.S. assistance during his years as a U.S. senator, this week touted the cancellation of programs he said failed to advance or contradicted American interests. |
| Education Department Lays Off Nearly Half of Staff | |
| The Education Department laid off "nearly 50 percent" of its more than 4,100 employees Tuesday evening, according to four sources inside the agency who were told about the plans and an agency news release. Congressional Democrats quickly condemned the massive personnel cuts -- the largest in the department's history -- while Republicans and conservative groups said they were long overdue. The union representing department staffers pledged to fight the reductions. It's not yet clear what specific departments or positions were affected. The department previously offered employees buyouts to cut down the workforce. (The goal to reduce staff by 50 percent includes prior reductions.) Those affected will receive at least 90 days' severance and will have 10 days to transfer their job duties to another staffer or political appointee, according to a longtime staffer with inside knowledge of the reduction-in-force details. The department said in its announcement that the employees will be placed on administrative leave, starting March 21, and that core programs such as distributing student loans and Pell Grants will continue. Dr. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the top Republican on the Senate education committee, posted on the social media that "this action is aimed at fulfilling the admin's goal of addressing redundancy and inefficiency in the federal government." |
| Republicans have hated universities for years. Anti-war protests gave them a reason to punish them. | |
| In 2021, JD Vance proclaimed "the universities are the enemy." This week, the White House declared war against them. President Donald Trump and his administration are escalating their attacks on higher education, intensifying a yearslong effort to hobble the campuses they say breed progressive ideology by casting them not as spaces of innovation, but as hotbeds of hate. Republicans have long blamed college campuses for being ground-zero for a number of "woke" culture war issues to which they're now taking an axe, including diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and academic frameworks like critical race theory. The protests that roiled college campuses last spring in the midst of the Israel-Hamas war gave Republicans fuel to go after the schools over concerns about antisemitism, and since taking office, Trump has swiftly taken actions designed to punish higher education. It's a shrewd political tactic from the GOP to frame elite colleges as the factories of extremism as the diploma divide reaches an all-time high. Fifty-six percent of voters without a college degree supported Trump in the 2024 election, up from 51 percent in 2020, according to exit polls. "At a lot of these schools, they're not pursuing what is good, true and beautiful. It's become the oppression Olympics and a weaponized complaint seminar of people sitting in a circle and finding out who's been offended the most that day," Charlie Kirk, a conservative youth whisperer and political firebrand, told Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom last week. Those conditions, he added, "creates a very weak political movement, which I think plays into one of the reasons we were able to steamroll you guys back in November." |
| A Bipartisan Blueprint For Enhancing Higher Education's Value | |
| In an era where the value of higher education faces increasing scrutiny, one major education foundation has significantly shifted its approach to measuring success. Moving beyond credential attainment only, the ambitious new initiative from the Lumina Foundation, known as Goal 2040, aims for 75% of adults in the U.S. labor force to have a college degree or other credentials that demonstrably lead to economic prosperity by 2040. This new goal is aggressive, but could be further bolstered by recommendations made by a group of bipartisan state policymakers who are seeking to address plummeting public confidence in higher education. A report from the National Conference of State Legislatures' Task Force on Higher Education offers concrete recommendations for state legislators, college and university leaders, and federal policymakers to enhance the value of college degrees and restore confidence in higher education as an engine of opportunity. The task force's emphasis on value-driven reform comes at a pivotal moment. With nearly 37 million working-age adults holding some college credit but no degree, and many graduates struggling with debt, incremental changes won't suffice. The comprehensive approach outlined in the report -- focusing on career outcomes, completion, and reasonable costs -- offers a framework for transformative change. |
| From Capitol Hill, Medicaid is tracking to be under scrutiny for significant cuts | |
| Columnist Sid Salter writes: On March 7, the Democratic Minority of the bipartisan and congressionally created Joint Economic Committee -- one of two economic advisory committees established in 1946 -- released a report detailing their concerns about where the Republican Majority has signaled they might go to accomplish their overall tax cut goals. The U.S. House passed a budget resolution in late February that would require between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion in federal spending cuts to lay the groundwork for the Trump Administration and the House Majority to extend the 2017 tax cuts with proposed additional tax breaks for affluent taxpayers. The report carefully notes that the budget resolution "does not include specific policies" and that it is too early to "know how the budget reconciliation legislation will be written," but makes the case that the Medicaid program is "on a menu of potential cuts" laid out by the House Budget Committee. ... The JEC report claims Mississippi covers more than 640,000 Mississippians or over 25% of the state's total population. A congressional cut of one-third of federal Medicaid funding across all segments could result in 120,000 rural residents and 110,000 children losing their health coverage as part of a total of over 200,000 people who would be left without Medicaid coverage. As many as 1-in-4 senior citizens could lose their nursing home care. |
SPORTS
| Diamond Dawgs Take Down Old Dominion, 9-4 | |
| Mississippi State grabbed Game 1 of the Hancock Whitney Classic with a 9-4 win over Old Dominion at Kessler Federal Park on Tuesday night. Eight different Diamond Dawgs collected a hit to total 10 hits in the midweek matchup. Ace Reese led the way for State (12-4) going 2-for-3 with a two-run double. Aaron Downs also stayed hot at the dish going 2-for-5 with a double and drove in one. Sawyer Reeves, Noah Sullivan, Hunter Hines and Gatlin Sanders also collected doubles with Reeves knocking in a pair and Sullivan and Hines each picking up an RBI. Evan Siary made his first start of the season and punched out a career-high five through three innings. Mikhai Grant (1-0) earned his first-career win with a career-high four strikeouts in 1 ⅓ innings of work. With the loss, Old Dominion fell to 4-10. Mississippi State will take on Nicholls in Biloxi on Wednesday with first pitch set for 5 p.m. The matchup will be broadcast on SEC Network+. Neither team has announced its pitching plans. |
| Mississippi State baseball returns to Biloxi for 2025 Hancock Whitney Classic | |
 | With the Battle at the Beach Tournament still underway, baseball continues to be a hot ticket at Keesler Federal Park this week. Monday afternoon, Mississippi State baseball arrived at Keesler Federal Park for the 2025 Hancock Whitney Classic. The team comes to town off of a four-game winning streak, with Old Dominion and Nicholls on deck. 2025 marks the seventh year the Bulldogs have played in Biloxi. "I remember coming down here when I was in high school," outfielder Aaron Downs said. "I played at Heritage. We'd come down for spring break. Came down here twice to watch the Bulldogs play Texas Tech. So, it's pretty cool to finally get to do it myself." "My mom is from Biloxi, my dad is from Gulfport, still have family here," head coach Chris Lemonis said. "I was just on the phone with my uncle setting up tickets. But it's our homefield advantage away from home. It's packed. It's just a fun couple of days. It's spring break. As a baseball player, you don't get much of it. At least we get to see the ocean for a couple of days and eat a couple of good meals and then play in a great environment." |
| Bulldogs down ODU in Biloxi | |
| Mississippi State baseball improved to 12-4 on the season after a win over Old Dominion at Keesler Federal Park in Biloxi on Tuesday. The Bulldogs won 9-4 thanks to a high-scoring run in the middle innings, highlighted by a five-run fourth inning. It's the first of two midweek games on the coast before the start of Southeastern Conference play this weekend, and Chris Lemonis saw his team pass the test despite some nervy innings. The Bulldogs blew the game open in the bottom of the fourth with a string of hits and good fortune on offense to take the lead with five runs. Aaron Downs got things going with an RBI single, followed by Reeves' RBI on a fielder's choice. The Bulldogs followed the strong start to the inning with a score on a wild pitch and Reese raked a 2 RBI double to the center field wall before Old Dominion went to the bullpen to stop the bleeding. Reliever Mikhai Gran was credited with the win for his work out of the bullpen. He was one of six pitchers to see action on the night with Evan Siary starting and getting most of the work done in three complete innings of work, allowing two hits and recording five punchouts. |
| State looking to find itself in Nashville as tournament run begins | |
| It's not to the point where the next loss will be the last for the Mississippi State Bulldogs, but the mindset has shifted as the SEC Tournament begins. The Bulldogs went through a similar dry spell as a team heading into this tournament last year and then ran off back-to-back wins to make it to the conference semifinals. It was a team that saw a switch flip after four-straight losses to end the regular season and the sense of urgency came out at the right time. This year, State enters Wednesday night's matchup with LSU having lost four of the last five games. Three of those losses came to teams that are on the bubble of the NCAA Tournament and the last two against those squads were games that went down to the wire. For Chris Jans, the idea is pretty simple as the Bulldogs are trying to get back on track before the NCAA Tournament. "Win games. That's the mantra, that's the goal and win as many games as we can. Does that mean we are playing on Sunday? Hope so. But we want to just focus on LSU and winning that basketball game," Jans said. "Then we will have plenty of time to prepare to win the next game against Missouri if we're successful in the first game. It's tried and true. We are going to focus on what we can control and right now that's our preparation for LSU." |
| Mississippi State hopes to get going in Nashville | |
| After two heartbreaking losses, Mississippi State is looking to right the ship before the home stretch. The Bulldogs ended the regular season with an overtime loss to Texas and a loss at the buzzer to Arkansas. A potential game-winning jumper by R.J. Melendez bounced off the rim as time expired in the latter. "Those are hard. You win those games, and the mood, the vibe and the feel is completely different," coach Chris Jans said in a media session on Monday. "That's just the way this game is." Mississippi State will need to shake off the losses quickly. The Bulldogs will head up to Nashville this week for the SEC Tournament at the Bridgestone Arena. Their first game will be Wednesday at 6 p.m. against LSU on the SEC Network. The winner faces Missouri on Thursday, with the winner of that game facing Florida on Friday. "We're going to focus on what we can control, and right now that's our preparation for LSU," Jans said. "Just to get that feeling back, we need that feeling back." State's last win came on March 1 against LSU. Jans feels that having seen the Tigers so recently will make game planning a bit easier. |
| Claudell Harris' sacrifices paying off for Mississippi State entering postseason | |
| Claudell Harris Jr. was willing to do whatever it took to play in the NCAA Tournament before exhausting his college eligibility. If that meant transferring twice in as many years, so be it. If that meant moving to the bench in mid-February after starting 14 straight games, so be it. Although the Bulldogs are limping into the postseason with four losses in their last five games, Harris broke out of a shooting slump in Saturday's regular-season finale at Arkansas, going 6-for-11 from the floor and 4-for-9 from behind the arc. He played 24 minutes off the bench, and his team-high 18 points were the most he scored in a Southeastern Conference game all year. "He made a conscious move to go to a little higher level than he's experienced in the past," MSU head coach Chris Jans said. "Playing in the NCAA Tournament was a big reason why he made the change that he did. He wanted to have that experience. He understood that because of moving up a level, maybe his numbers wouldn't be as glossy as they were in his previous three seasons." |
| Find out which LSU player can be the X-factor in SEC Tournament game vs. Mississippi State | |
 | Fans inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center chose to beat the traffic. They gradually vacated the basketball arena before the five-game losing streak became official. The LSU men trailed by as many as 16 points with eight minutes left and only made six field goals in the second half of a 66-52 loss to Texas A&M on Saturday. The Tigers ended the regular season 15th in the Southeastern Conference with a 14-17 overall record and a 3-15 conference record. "Obviously, disappointed with where we're at in the standings and where we finished in league play," coach Matt McMahon said Saturday. Disappointment won't be the frame of mind it will enter the SEC Tournament with when it faces Mississippi State at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Nashville, Tennessee. The third-year coach described this time as a "reset." Regular-season records are meaningless in a single-elimination tournament. Winning the next game is all that matters. To survive the first round against the SEC's 10th seed, the Tigers will need to forget the past and improve on their shortcomings. |
| Welcome Texas and Oklahoma! The bigger SEC men's basketball tourney is ready for Music City show | |
| The Southeastern Conference brings its expanded men's tournament to Nashville, with Texas and Oklahoma visiting Music City for the first time as league member and even a neutral court can look like a cage match after the meat-grinder of a regular season. With six of the SEC's seven ranked teams inside the top 15, the league has never been stronger. An unprecedented 13 members are hoping to grab NCAA Tournament berths and two likely No. 1 seeds as well. The SEC's 16 teams will play 15 games over five days starting Wednesday with No. 9 seed Arkansas and coach John Calipari kicking it off against 16th-seeded South Carolina. Regular season champion and No. 3 Auburn is looking to repeat as the tournament champ, though No. 5 Alabama won the 2023 title and Tennessee took the trophy home in 2022. The SEC's newcomers get to see the party just steps from Nashville's honky-tonk district. Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington went from taking James Madison to the NCAA Tournament to the verge of ending the Commodores' NCAA drought for a program that last went dancing in 2017. Calipari has been here many times but faces far different expectations in his first season at Arkansas. He's trying to get the Razorbacks back to the NCAAs after missing out last year. Mark Pope, his replacement at No. 15 Kentucky (21-10), earned a first-round bye and the sixth seed though expectations of a 32nd tournament title likely are tempered this time around for Wildcats' fans. |
| How the SEC became college basketball's most dominant conference | |
| Bruce Pearl has never been hesitant to jump out on the proverbial ledge. He's a master marketer and an even better basketball coach. Consider what he has accomplished at Auburn in what has been a historic regular season for the No. 1 Tigers -- and for the entire SEC. With the SEC's men's basketball tournament set to begin Wednesday in Nashville, the league is projected to send 13 teams to the NCAA tournament, according to ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi, which would break the Big East's record of 11 bids set in 2011. The crème de la crème has come courtesy of Pearl, who has transformed the "Loveliest Village on the Plains" into a village as consumed with basketball as it is football, and Pearl has a unique perspective on what a monster the football-obsessed SEC has become in terms of hoops. "I really mean this. It's going to be interesting to see how many coaches want to stay in this league," Pearl said. "In other words, we've got some coaches that are doing great jobs, coaches who've really elevated their programs, and they're still in the middle or lower half of this league because of how tough it is. Some of those guys are going to say, 'You know what? You can have it,' and go elsewhere." |
| Yes, SEC hoops is deeper than ever, but don't forget the star power of 1980s and '90s | |
| Mississippi sports columnist Rick Cleveland writes: If I've heard it said once this basketball season, I've heard it a couple hundred times: "The Southeastern Conference is better than it's ever been." I agree with that statement in one regard. That is, SEC basketball, from top to bottom, is better than ever. The league has more teams, more really good teams, more balance and is more competitive than it has ever been. It is the best league in the country by far. ... You could make the case that in order to win this week's SEC Tournament at Nashville, the eventual champion will have to beat more top shelf teams than it would have to beat to win the NCAA Tournament. The league is that good. But don't tell me the quality of SEC basketball is better than it was during a period in the late 20th century when Wimp Sanderson was at Alabama, Sonny Smith at Auburn, Nolan Richardson at Arkansas, Dale Brown at LSU, Joe B. Hall and Rick Pitino at Kentucky and Richard Williams at Mississippi State. |
| Softball: No. 19 Bulldogs Close Homestand With Midafternoon Midweek Matchup | |
| Fresh off a series sweep to open conference play, No. 19 Mississippi State will close an 11-game homestand on Wednesday when the Bulldogs welcome Middle Tennessee. The game also marks the return of Bulldog alumnus Jackie McKenna who is in her first year on the Blue Raiders' coaching staff. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. CT with the Bulldogs out of classes for spring break. Offensive outbursts have been the story of the season for Mississippi State as the Bulldogs have scored five or more runs in 18 of their 22 wins this season and are undefeated when scoring at least five. On Monday night, the Bulldogs scored seven runs in one inning for their seventh come-from-behind victory of the season. The home run has been a big piece of the puzzle. Nadia Barbary hit a game-winning grand slam on Monday, and MSU has hit multiple homers in 11 games this year. Nearly 43 percent of all of State's runs this season have been scored via the long ball. The Bulldogs embark on the first of four consecutive road trips this weekend. MSU will head across the state line to meet No. 25 Alabama for a three-game series beginning Friday, March 14. State does not return to Nusz Park until March 28 and will play its next eight games in true road fashion. |
| Zac Selmon joins Norman Public School Foundation's Hall of Honor | |
| Norman High alumna Zac Selmon is now part of the Norman Public School Foundation's Hall of Honor. Selmon was inducted into the Hall of Honor Monday at the NPS Center for Arts and Learning. The Hall of Honor was created in 2015 to recognize individuals who have made a "significant contribution" to public education in Norman, according to Justin Yahola, current chairman of the NPSF Hall of Honor Events Committee. "Every time we come back (to Norman), we're just so grateful for the opportunity because it has nothing to do with what our family has done," Selmon said. "It has everything to do with (what) all the families and all the people have done for us. And for that, we're eternally grateful." Selmon graduated from Norman High School in 2003, finishing his high school career as class valedictorian and All-State football player. Following high school, Selmon was a tight end for Wake Forest University from 2003 to 2007. He joined the University of Oklahoma in 2009 as an assistant/associate director of athletics development from 2009 to 2014. He worked at the University of North Carolina before returning to OU in 2015. In 2023, Selmon accepted the job as athletic director for Mississippi State University. |
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