| Thursday, March 13, 2025 |
| County waits for engineers on dam while grant funding remains uncertain | |
 | While the county once hoped to have a clear path for repairs of the Oktibbeha County Lake dam by December, supervisors are still awaiting approved engineering plans before making a decision about their options. But whether the project can move forward also hinges on federal grant funding -- which is in limbo and could send the county back to the drawing board if it doesn't come through. The county board acknowledged a finalized inspection of the Oktibbeha County Dam during its March 3 meeting, painting a grim picture of sinkholes, cracks, eroded sides and mudslides. But Marvell Howard, District 3 supervisor and president of the board, told The Dispatch he isn't sure when a decision would be made on how to move forward. "We're still working through the process," he told The Dispatch on Tuesday. Further muddying the waters is the state of federal funding, which under the Trump administration has seen grants for Columbus airport doors and windows canceled by executive orders against DEI. Mississippi Soil and Water Conservation Commission Executive Director Nick Ivy told The Dispatch in February that his organization would receive a cease and desist order if funding is cut. |
| Mary Means Business: Downtown Columbus eatery nearing its opening date | |
| Many years ago, La Campana announced its Main Street location in Columbus. I first announced the restaurant at 400 Main St. in January 2020, and now we're finally nearing its opening date. Building owner Chris Chain confirmed the restaurant is opening soon and we've seen some progress happening with the building. I could not reach a representative for La Campana by press time Wednesday. The restaurant will be in the former Old 82 Restaurant and Front Door, Back Door. ... Moving over to Starkville, I have very sad and solemn news. Salsarita's Fresh Mexican Grill, 87-1 Cotton Mill Drive, is officially closed. There's a sign in the window announcing its closure and the company updated its social media confirming the closure is permanent. ... Far Out Motel, 104 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive W., will have its grand opening at 1 p.m. March 28. If that address sounds familiar, it is because it's the former University Motel on MLK. I haven't heard back from the owners, but I drove by and there have been extensive renovations to the motel from the 1950s, famous for Johnny Cash's visit on May 11, 1965. |
| $500M Hope solar project being considered for Clay | |
| A new roughly $500 million solar development north of West Point is up for public review, giving residents a better idea of what the project would look like as well as a chance to tell the Tennessee Valley Authority whether they think it's a good investment. The Hope solar panel and battery storage proposal went public on Tuesday, with TVA announcing that it had begun seeking input from residents on its environmental review of the project. The study area covers 2,210 acres just north of West Point along U.S. Highway 45 Alternate. While labeled an environmental review, TVA documents say the process is a broad inquiry covering not just ecological impacts but also air quality, water tables, wildlife, existing uses, natural and cultural resources, waste products, impact on the public and on utilities. The area today is "mostly farmland with areas of woody wetlands, deciduous forest, and hay/pasture." Golden Triangle Development LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins said the organization is helping coordinate Hope's final preconstruction stages. He said Clay County has agreed to impose a fee in lieu of taxes on the project, which would be equal to one-third of the full tax amount for up to 10 years. |
| New Chicot Insights Consulting to be headed by Dr. Jason Krutz | |
 | Chicot Irrigation is pleased to announce the formation of Chicot Insights, a consulting entity focused on water management and environmental sustainability. Dr. Jason Krutz has been hired as vice president of Research and Sustainable Development to head this new endeavor. Krutz comes to Chicot Insights with outstanding experience. He has been the director of the Mississippi Water Resources Research Institute at Mississippi State University and a Research and Extension professor with the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at the university. He serves as the executive director of the Mississippi Soybean Promotion Board. "I've been working with Jason for the past ten years," shares Chicot Irrigation President Cory Rowe. "He and I share a concern that the aquifer in the Delta remain viable. It's vital to our region's economy. Jason's entire career has been focused on improving farming in the Delta through water management. I couldn't be happier to have him join the Chicot Irrigation team." Under the Chicot Insights brand, Krutz will consult with farmers on the best ways to be more effective in the use of water on their land. |
| Tim Stewart Named CRO At SuperTalk Mississippi Media. | |
| Veteran industry executive Tim Stewart has been tapped to be Chief Revenue Officer at SuperTalk Mississippi Media (STMM). The appointment of Stewart, who has more than three decades of experience in a variety of sales leadership roles, is effective immediately. "We are delighted to have Tim Stewart join the SuperTalk Mississippi Media family," STMM President and CEO Kim Dillon said in a release. "His experience and vision align perfectly with our mission, and we are confident that he will make a significant contribution to our ongoing success. Tim's passion for media and community engagement will undoubtedly enhance our efforts to better serve our audience and our clients." Stewart, a Mississippi native and graduate of Mississippi State University in Starkville, MS, says joining the team at STMM "feels like home." With four statewide radio networks, 12 talk radio stations, 16 music stations, SuperTalk TV, more than 45 news affiliates, and a digital marketing division in STMM Digital, the SuperTalk Mississippi Network delivers simulcast programming to a dozen stations that cover all 82 counties in the state. |
| Food inflation was 0% last month. But people who eat aren't feeling relief. | |
| Inflation eased a bit in February to 2.8% year over year, according to the latest consumer price index. That number was 3.1% in January. The category that's most responsible for keeping inflation stubborn and sticky is shelter, which rose enough to account for nearly half of the monthly CPI increase. Meanwhile, inflation for food at home, mostly what consumers buy at the grocery store, came in flat -- literally 0%. That's good news for consumers. So why does a trip to the supermarket still feel so bad? "There was no change in grocery prices, but there was a lot of movement within categories," said David Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University. So much movement within categories that a lot of the bad -- price hikes -- canceled out a lot of the good -- price drops. In February, beef was up nearly 2.5% from January. And of course, eggs were up nearly 10.5%. Meanwhile, lots of categories were down. Bacon fell more than 2%, fruits and vegetables 0.5%. But doing that kind of math does not make consumers feel good, said Charlotte Ambrozek, a food economist at the University of Minnesota. "Our preferences are what they are. They're really hard to move," she said. |
| Another bird flu case detected in Mississippi as egg prices skyrocket | |
| The Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce reported another case of avian influenza -- commonly known as bird flu -- on Wednesday, marking the third time the disease has been detected in local chicken flocks over the past four months. "The Mississippi Board of Animal Health has been notified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Veterinary Services Laboratory that poultry from a commercial broiler breeder flock in Noxubee County, Mississippi, has tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza," a portion of the release from MDAC reads. The case of bird flu in Noxubee County joins December cases confirmed in Greene and Copiah counties. Like in previous cases, the affected premises in Noxubee County have been quarantined, and birds on the property have been slaughtered to prevent the spread of the disease. Per MDAC, birds from the flock have not entered the food system. Egg prices again reached a record high last month, with the latest Consumer Price Index showing a dozen Grade A eggs cost an average of $5.90 in U.S. cities in February, up 10.4% from a year ago. "It's a crisis situation, and as you know, poultry and eggs make for our biggest industry in the state of Mississippi," Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson said. |
| Vaccinating poultry could help cut soaring egg prices but US remains hesitant | |
 | Vaccines could be a key means of suppressing bird flu and avoiding the slaughter of millions of chickens, which is blamed for egg prices averaging nearly $6 a dozen. But the move has been delayed in part because of concerns it could jeopardize chicken exports worth billions of dollars a year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced plans to spend $100 million to study bird flu vaccines to fight the disease in concert with meat chicken, egg and turkey groups. That's part of a larger $1 billion effort to invest in more protections to keep the virus off farms that President Donald Trump believes will help lower egg prices. Chicken meat producers remain the most resistant to vaccines because of concerns they could harm meat exports, which totaled nearly $4.7 billion last year. Egg and turkey producers sell most of their products in the U.S. and have been hit hardest by the virus. Poultry veterinarian Simon Shane, who runs www.Egg-News.com, said the government is hesitant to use vaccines and change its policy of killing birds largely because of the meat chicken industry's opposition. "Basically this is a political issue, and this only came to a head because eggs are at $8 to $9 a dozen, and it's embarrassing the government -- embarrassing the present administration," Shane said. |
| Mississippi House kills bill to allow students to more easily move between school districts | |
 | House leadership on Wednesday allowed a bill to die that would have given parent's the ability to more easily transfer their child from one public school district to another. The legislation, a "portability" initiative that was embedded into a Senate education bill, would have allowed students to transfer between public school districts without the approval of their district of origin, and it allowed that child's portion of state K-12 education funding to follow them to the new district. When explaining why the bill died on the House calendar by Wednesday's deadline, House Education Chairman Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, and portability advocate Rep. Jansen Owen, R-Poplarville, both said the bill would have been challenged and killed with a point of order, which seeks to challenge whether a bill's language is germane to its original intent. "Anytime you have a bill, whether it's something that changes a minor thing or a major thing in education, you're going to have people for and against," Roberson said. "Unfortunately, portability is dead. We will come back next year, and we'll be talking about it again." Owen told reporters on the House floor that pressures both inside and outside of the Legislature caused the bill's death. |
| 'A good start': Senate passes pharmacy benefit manager reform bill | |
| The Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would increase the regulation and transparency of pharmacy benefit managers, which advocates argue will protect patients and independent pharmacists. The legislation, authored by Sen. Rita Parks, R-Corinth, beefs up a House of Representatives bill focusing on the transparency of pharmacy benefit managers by adding language to tighten appeal procedures, bar the companies from steering patients to affiliate pharmacies and prohibit spread pricing -- the practice of paying insurers more for drugs than pharmacists in order to inflate pharmacy benefit managers' profits. Parks said the bill, which passed 46-4, has the support of the House, which can now send it to the governor's desk to sign or go to conference with the Senate to negotiate changes. "This is the furthest we've been in two years," said Parks. "We're bringing fairness to the patient and to independent pharmacists." The bill's passage came after a strong showing of support for reform from independent pharmacists, who have warned that if legislators do not pass a law this year to regulate pharmacy benefit managers, which serve as middlemen in the pharmaceutical industry, some pharmacies may be forced to close. They say that the companies' low payments and unfair business practices have left them struggling to break even. |
| Auditor White appeals to Mississippi Supreme Court, seeks dismissal of Favre's defamation lawsuit | |
| State Auditor Shad White has asked the Mississippi Supreme Court to dismiss a personal defamation lawsuit filed against him by NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre. In his appeal of Hinds County Circuit Judge Debra Gibbs' order denying his motion to dismiss Favre's claims, White says the case presents important questions of First Amendment law about which there exist clear differences of opinion. "The continued litigation of this case not only threatens important First Amendment rights. Equally if not more worrisomely, it discourages public servants from doing their jobs," White's legal counsel Alysson Mills writes in the appeal. "Favre uses this case to relitigate a state audit of the misuse of welfare funds, five years and seven criminal convictions later. He uses discovery to demean the very public employees whose hard work helped uncover the fraud. The injury is not merely to White but to a state office and to the integrity of the public fisc." Judge Gibbs has denied two motions to dismiss by White, the most recent in February. Gibbs has determined that the suit is being brought against White personally and not in his official capacity. White disagrees, as the statements in question in the case arose while conducting his official duties. |
| MDHS challenges federal penalty over misused TANF funds | |
| The Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS) is challenging the sufficiency of the information used by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to arrive at a penalty of $101 million resulting from the state's misuse of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF funds. HHS issued a penalty notice to Mississippi in December 2024 resulting from misuse of TANF funds in fiscal years 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. Director Ann Flagg with the Office of Family Assistance wrote that the federal agency learned of the "apparent multimillion-dollar embezzlement scheme" in Mississippi's DHS in February 2020. Flagg noted the State Auditor's announcement of the arrest of at least six individuals involved in fraud and embezzlement. As previously reported, these arrests included former Executive Director of DHS John Davis, Mississippi Community Education Center founder Nancy New, and her son Zach New. They have since pled guilty to charges in federal and state court. MDHS Executive Director Bob Anderson issued a response to the HHS letter on February 18, 2025. He said the state does not believe they nor HHS have all of the information needed to arrive at a final penalty amount quite yet. |
| Legislature: Federal demand letter not expected to change current state budgeting process | |
| The budget is always one of the last things approved during a legislative session. So, we asked how the demand letter from the federal government asking the state to repay $101 million in misspent welfare funds will affect those plans. "Our budget is only $7 billion, so $101 million...we don't have that kind of latitude," said House Minority Leader Rep. Robert Johnson. "I know that there's litigation involved in this, and so we're waiting to see how that pans out," noted Senate Appropriations chairman Sen. Briggs Hopson. House Speaker Jason White's office is telling us they do not expect the demand to impact current budgeting plans. And that's what House Minority Leader Robert Johnson was also told when he inquired about it. "I did talk to some of the people in the budget office, and I talked to the people on appropriations," said Johnson. "They are not fixing the budget. They are not preparing the spending based on that letter." Johnson says other unknowns out of Washington could impact the state's bottom line. "Kind of surprising that we talked about tax cuts and the federal government is cutting out federal funding and we're actually spending more money and appropriating more money than than we did last. This year, so that wouldn't be my decision, but I think that there should be some caution on behalf of the leadership here about how we do that." |
| Sen. Deb Fischer: US farmers are 'easy target' for tariff retaliation | |
 | Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) said U.S. farmers and ranchers are the "easy target" for retaliatory tariffs, but that her constituents are willing to give President Donald Trump time to negotiate new trade deals. "When you talk about tariffs, people in ag get a little nervous, because we know we are the easy target for other countries if they are going to retaliate," Fischer said at POLITICO Playbook's First 100 Days breakfast series Thursday. Trump himself has acknowledged that there will be a "little bit of an adjustment period" as he carries out his sweeping tariff agenda. Republicans on Capitol Hill, while nervous for their constituents, have been mostly willing to let the president work through his trade negotiations. "There's a feeling out there that we're going to give the president time, so that he can negotiate good deals," Fischer said at the event. During his first administration, Trump tapped a USDA fund to bail out farmers from the trade war he initiated at the time -- to the tune of $28 billion. But now that fund has dwindled to about $4 billion, and Congress will need to replenish the fund. When asked about a possible resolution and injecting more money into the fund, Fischer responded: "We'll have wait and see." |
| 'Chaos' in federal government could stall farm bill, Klobuchar says | |
| Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said Thursday that lawmakers will face "headwinds" negotiating a new farm bill due to the Trump administration's overhaul of the Agriculture Department and other policy fights. Still, she remained optimistic it could be done this year. "Hopefully we'll have some good news on a farm bill, but with all of the chaos -- chaos up, corruption up, costs up -- I think it does create headwinds that make it very hard to work on a farm bill," said Klobuchar, the ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, at POLITICO Playbook's First 100 Days breakfast series. Lawmakers are under intense pressure from constituents and agriculture groups to hammer out a new farm bill deal before the midterm elections. The massive $1.5 trillion legislative package, which is supposed to be revamped every five years, has not been updated since 2018. A GOP-led bill passed out of the House Agriculture Committee in May 2024 but never received a floor vote. Now, Republicans hold majorities in both chambers of Congress; that could boost their ability to drive a new farm bill through, though it'll need some Democratic support to get across the finish line. Lawmakers are hoping that Klobuchar and Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman (R-Ark.) will be able to bridge that divide to find a new deal. |
| Senate Democrats play hardball, won't advance House stopgap | |
 | Senate Democrats are digging in for a fight on a House-passed stopgap funding measure that is needed by Friday night to avoid a partial government shutdown. After a closed-door caucus lunch, Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., announced that Democrats would fight for a one-month continuing resolution that would allow time for Congress to finish full-year appropriations bills. "Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort, but Republicans chose a partisan path drafting their continuing resolution without any input ... from congressional Democrats," Schumer said on the floor, "Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR." The House GOP's continuing resolution, which passed on a mostly party-line vote Tuesday, would extend current funding through the end of this fiscal year, which is Sept. 30. Schumer suggested his caucus won't provide the votes to get to the needed 60 to allow the measure to come to a final vote, raising the odds of a shutdown when current stopgap funding runs out Friday at midnight. "Our caucus is unified on a clean, April 11 CR that will keep the government open and give Congress time to negotiate bipartisan legislation that can pass," Schumer said on the Senate floor. "We should vote on that." That demand erects a roadblock to swift Senate passage of the House bill. But it doesn't necessarily mean the House bill is dead. |
| Democrats look to save face in shutdown battle | |
 | Senate Democrats say privately that they will not allow the government to shut down Saturday, despite growing pressure from activists and liberal lawmakers who want them to kill a GOP-crafted six-month stopgap spending bill. Senate Democratic sources say Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) is giving plenty of room to centrists in his caucus to vote for the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) if doing so is the only way to avoid a government shutdown at week's end. And one Democratic senator familiar with the internal deliberations said Senate Democrats will ultimately vote to keep the government open, despite the rumblings of liberals within their caucus who are heaping scorn on the House-passed funding bill. Still, the private assurances don't rule out the possibility that something unexpected could happen to change the political calculus. Schumer on Wednesday said Democrats would insist on voting on a monthlong CR to give congressional negotiators more time to reach a deal on an omnibus spending package. And he threatened that there are not enough votes to pass the House-approved funding bill. But Democrats familiar with internal deliberations say that maneuver is designed to save face. |
| Klobuchar: Farmers would be hit hard by shutdown | |
| Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said a government shutdown would hurt the nation's farmers and ranchers at a time when they're already facing economic headwinds from the Trump administration's policies. "The last thing that I want to see is a shutdown," Klobuchar said Thursday during POLITICO Playbook's First 100 Days breakfast series. During the first weeks of the Trump administration, she added, farmers and ranchers have been hit hard by an "unbelievably grouping of policies" like President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs. "All of this is coming at them at once," Klobuchar said. Senate Democrats are in a tricky spot ahead of the shutdown, which could take effect early Saturday morning. They're publicly indicating that they won't provide the votes to pass the House GOP's funding bill. But they're also eyeing a potential offramp -- a 30-day stopgap bill in exchange for helping the House bill. Democrats are "united" behind the 30-day bill, Klobuchar said Thursday. |
| Trump says Ireland cheats the US as its leader joins him to celebrate St. Patrick's Day | |
| President Donald Trump welcomed Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin on Wednesday for the annual St. Patrick's Day celebration at the White House, where he added Ireland to the list of countries he says are taking advantage of the United States. Martin countered by noting Ireland's contributions to the U.S. It was Trump's first Oval Office meeting with a foreign leader since his recent sit-down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which morphed into a shouting match as they jousted over ending Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The session ended with Zelenskyy being asked to leave the White House. Martin, who offered only gentle pushback to some of Trump's comments, returned to the White House in the evening and presented Trump with a bowl of shamrocks at an early St. Patrick's Day celebration. The duo also attended an annual luncheon at the Capitol. The president's banter during the Oval Office meeting also touched on Vice President JD Vance's shamrock-themed socks and Trump nemesis Rosie O'Donnell 's recent move to Ireland. |
| Judge Halts Trump Order Targeting Law Firm Perkins Coie | |
 | A federal judge blocked most of a White House executive order punishing Perkins Coie, saying the administration had put itself at odds with the First Amendment by targeting the law firm based on President Trump's dislike of its work for his political opponents. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., issued her decision in lengthy remarks at the end of a Wednesday hearing, excoriating the administration for an order that she said likely violated the Constitution on multiple fronts and threatened to undermine bedrock principles of the U.S. legal system, namely that even the unpopular or politically disfavored are entitled to protection and representation under the law. Howell, who was nominated by President Barack Obama, issued a restraining order that prevents Trump from blocking the firm's access to federal buildings and stripping its clients' government contracts. She said Trump's order had the potential to ripple through the legal industry, sending the message that law firms represent the president's enemies "at their own peril." "I'm sure many in the legal industry are watching in horror what Perkins Coie is going through here," Howell said. |
| Tuberville says Americans will have to suffer with tariffs: 'No pain, no gain' | |
 | The American people are going to have to cope with hardship as President Donald Trump slaps tariffs on imports, Alabama's senior senator said Wednesday. Tommy Tuberville, the former Auburn University football coach-turned-Republican U.S. senator from Alabama, likened the suffering to the "pain" experienced by his players while they developed under his tutelage. "No pain, no gain -- that's what we used to tell our football players," Tuberville said during a Wednesday appearance on Fox Business. "There's going to be some pain with tariffs," Tuberville conceded, "but tariffs got us back as the strongest economy in the world when President Trump was in [office] the first time. He knows what he's doing." Continuing with the sports metaphors, Tuberville said Republicans "have a gameplan, Trump has a gameplan along with [Commerce Secretary] Howard Lutnick ... we can turn this thing around..." Trump's use of tariffs to extract concessions from other nations points toward a possibly destructive trade war and a stark change in America's approach to global leadership. It also has destabilized the stock market and stoked anxiety about an economic downturn. |
| Trump yanks CDC nominee minutes before Senate hearing | |
 | President Donald Trump abruptly yanked his nominee to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday morning shortly before a scheduled Senate confirmation hearing. A source familiar with the discussions said Trump pulled David Weldon's nomination because he did not have the votes to be confirmed. Weldon had been scheduled to appear before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee at 10 am. The committee announced a little before 9:30 am that Weldon's hearing was being canceled because his nomination had been withdrawn. Trump announced his intent to nominate Weldon to head the CDC in November. Weldon has a history of vaccine skepticism. The physician and former congressman has pushed a debunked link between the measles vaccine and autism. He was expected to say in testimony to the Senate that children should receive the measles vaccine, Bloomberg reported. |
| NIH cuts off more research funding, including for vaccine hesitancy. mRNA may be next | |
 | The Trump administration is slashing long-standing areas of research funded by the National Institutes of Health, claiming they no longer align with the agency's priorities. The latest target? Millions of dollars in NIH grants for studying vaccine hesitancy and how to improve immunization levels. It's work that's particularly relevant as a measles outbreak grips the Southwest amidst diminishing vaccination rates. In recent weeks, scientists around the country have begun receiving letters stating their existing grants -- money already awarded to them in a competitive process -- were being cut. Now, more than 40 grants related to vaccine hesitancy have been cancelled, and there are mounting concerns that research on mRNA vaccines could be on the chopping block next. "I want to underscore just how unprecedented -- how abnormal all of this is," one longtime NIH official told NPR. "This is not how we operate." In what some at the agency view as an ominous sign, the NIH's acting director Dr. Matthew Memoli also requested information last week about the funding that supports mRNA vaccine research, technology that underpins the COVID-19 shots from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, according to an email reviewed by NPR. A similar call for data preceded the termination of the other vaccine grants. |
| Trump aid freeze decimates UN food agency: 'It's catastrophic.' | |
| Aid projects in crisis-hit countries from Afghanistan to the Horn of Africa have been suspended and staffing cut after President Donald Trump froze hundreds of millions in annual U.S. funding to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, according to internal FAO documents and employees who spoke to POLITICO. The cuts are expected to deepen food insecurity in multiple regions already suffering from climate shocks, conflict and economic instability, aid experts warn. Halting the FAO's agricultural support could have long-term consequences, making vulnerable communities even more dependent on emergency food aid. "All project activities should be suspended with immediate effect," reads a Jan. 31 internal FAO memo seen by POLITICO. The cuts -- part of a broader freeze on aid administered through the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department -- mirror moves already hitting other U.N. agencies like the World Food Programme, which has seen office closures and drastic ration reductions worldwide. While the FAO's financial crisis stems from the U.S. funding freeze, insiders say Director General Qu Dongyu's tight leadership style has made it harder for staff to navigate the crisis. FAO employees say job losses could be in the hundreds, and potentially exceed 1,000, depending on how long the freeze lasts. |
| New MUW pathways allow LCSD students to explore careers, earn credit before starting college | |
| Lowndes County students have a new chance to earn college credit while exploring potential career paths without the burden of tuition or worries about changing their major. Mississippi University for Women President Nora Miller and Lowndes County School District Superintendent Sam Allison signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday creating new career pathway programs designed to expose students to potential careers while also earning college credit. Miller said the partnership gives the university an opportunity to support local students, especially when so many MUW students come from within a one-hour radius of Columbus. "I think it's important to be a partner in the community, to offer local students a chance to earn college credit and to realize that they can get a wonderful college experience here at home," she said. With the agreement, The W created six pathways, including business, education, nursing and leadership as well as career technical programs in culinary arts in health care. While other dual enrollment and dual credit courses available to LCSD students are charged a partner school rate, tuition for courses within the new pathways are covered by the university. |
| Ole Miss study explores how prison environments shape misconduct well into old age | |
 | Research shows that many inmates serving long-term or life sentences continue to cause trouble even behind bars. A University of Mississippi graduate student is looking into what drives those behaviors. Zachary Buckner, the first doctoral candidate in the Department of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies, is examining how prison environments shape misconduct, even as offenders grow into an advanced age. "My research focuses on how the prison environment and the prison experience shapes and predicts misconduct for an individual spending their life incarcerated," Buckner said. "Characteristics such as job assignments, having visitation from family and friends, and prison programming are all factors." His findings, which will be published in his doctoral dissertation, reveal that a small portion of individuals account for most offenses, while the majority of incarcerated people follow prison rules. But for that small portion, the findings suggest that the rate of violating rules or committing crimes remains consistent 10 to 15 years into their sentence, and well into their 50s and 60s. This project started as an analysis of organizational issues and correctional officers' job satisfaction in prison systems. But it has since evolved into challenging assumptions about aging and crime behind bars. |
| DaBaby to play at Ole Miss as part of college tour | |
| Chart-topping artist DaBaby announced Tuesday he will be making a "quick college run," with a mini tour making stops at eight universities this spring. Of the campuses the North Carolina-bred rapper will visit, the University of Mississippi is one. Ole Miss will host DaBaby on Friday, March 28, although it's unclear at this time where the "BOP" singer will take the stage. For his stops at the University of Kentucky and the University of Tennessee, it was announced he will perform inside Rupp Arena and the Food City Center, leading one to believe he might set up inside Oxford's Pavilion. Other stops announced by DaBaby are the University of Arizona, University of Texas, University of Georgia, University of Arkansas, and Louisiana State University. Springing onto the hip hop scene with his debut studio album Baby on Baby in 2019, DaBaby has held his own on charts since. He's best known for songs like "Suge," "Intro," "BOP," and "ROCKSTAR." He's also made guest appearances on songs by Post Malone, Dua Lipa, and Megan Thee Stallion. |
| Thacker Mountain Radio Hour in Taylor this Thursday | |
| The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour will perform its show in Taylor this week. The show will kick off at 6 p.m. Thursday at Wonderbird Spirits Distillery, located at 618 County Road 303 (Old Taylor Road). Admission is free and the public is invited. Doors will open at 5:30 and refreshments will be sold. Performers for the Taylor show will include bestselling author, Sanjena Sathian ("Goddess Complex"), blues dynamos Heartbreak Hill and Memphis guitarist/songwriter Lina Beach. Hosts of the show are Jim Dees with house band, Paul Tate and the Yalobushwhackers. Due to spring break, there will be no live broadcast. Square Books will be on hand with a table of Sanjena's books for sale and signing. Next Thursday (3-20) at 6 pm, the show returns to the Powerhouse Arts Center in Oxford. Guests will include songwriter, Claire Holley, cigar-box guitar musician Bear Ryan and author Jeff Barry ("Go to Hell Ole Miss"). |
| ECCC to launch Marketing Management Technology program in Fall 2025 | |
 | East Central Community College will launch an all-new Marketing Management Technology program in August, offering students hands-on training for careers in sales, advertising, digital marketing, public relations and management. With limited seats available, college officials are encouraging interested students to enroll as soon as possible. The two-year program leads to an Associate of Applied Science degree, with opportunities to earn stackable career and technical certificates along the way. Courses include Principles of Marketing, Personal Selling, Advertising, E-Commerce, Digital Media Applications and Consumer Behavior, providing students with a foundation in business and marketing strategies. "The marketing industry is rapidly evolving, especially with the growth of digital platforms," said Cody Spence, director of Career and Technical Education. "This program is designed to prepare students for in-demand careers, whether they are entering the workforce or advancing in their current jobs." |
| Students in Pearl River Community College's new graphic design program winning ADDY awards | |
 | Pearl River Community College has created a new, online track for graphic design. The Graphic Design Technology program began in August 2024. While deemed a fully-online program, instructor Corey Guerra is available to meet with students. "The idea, just like with any (Career and Technical Education) program, is to make people employable, so they will graduate in the program with a portfolio, with work to demonstrate their skill, so they can take that out and seek and land jobs," Guerra said. Two students enrolled in the program just took home awards from American Advertising, known in the circles as ADDY Awards, Ariona Anderson earned a silver student ADDY for an integrated advertising campaign from a recent competition on the Gulf Coast. And student Delanie Dublin won a Gold student ADDY and Judge's Choice Award for another integrated advertising campaign. The program currently has 11 students. |
| MGCCC event inspires change in destigmatizing conversations on mental health | |
 | Hope and healing was the message at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College's Mental Health Awareness Event as speaker Emma Benoit shared what she's learned from her attempted suicide. Emma Benoit stands as an example of healing and recovery after her attempt to end her life in 2017. For the audience of MGCCC's iMPAC, she speaks to destigmatize conversations surrounding mental health. Benoit says, "I feel as though suicide is such a taboo issue because of the fact that we're so afraid to talk about it. So, by MGCCC and Singing River Health System hosting an event like this, it really just enhances the conversation and normalizes it." A panel of MGCCC counselors and Benoit gave the audience the opportunity to submit anonymous questions for advice. MGCCC counselor Eve Self says conversations around mental health have improved but there's still a way to go. Self says, "I've had students come talk to me and they're like, 'Well, I'm feeling better. I've only thought about hurting myself once in the last month,' and we're like, 'We don't want you to think about it at all.' So, we still have some ways to go just to kind of get a perspective about where it is we want them to be at." |
| How an anti-evolution law a century ago set up an infamous showdown over religion in public schools | |
| They called it the "monkey trial." It was supposed to be a publicity stunt. A hundred years later, it is remembered as far more. In March 1925, Tennessee became the first state in the country to ban the teaching of evolution in public school classrooms. Strong reactions rippled across the United States. The eventual upshot: a legal battle that became one of the most renowned in the nation's history. Historians say the trial started as a tourism gambit on behalf of the small town of Dayton, Tennessee -- where the landmark case unfolded. The town's leaders were eager for an economic boost and encouraged a local teacher to challenge the law. They wanted the debate over the controversial anti-evolution mandate to take place in their own backyard while the rest of the country eagerly followed along. But amid the spectacle, the arguments and tensions raised during the eight-day trial persist. The rift over evolution and creationism -- particularly in classrooms -- has never fully been put to rest, and questions over how students should be taught about life's origins still spark debate among educators, lawmakers, and the public. |
| Auburn University Facilities: The people behind the Loveliest Village | |
| It takes a village to keep the Village the Loveliest on the Plains. Employing over 450 workers in 11 departments, Auburn University Facilities plans and maintains on-campus construction, maintenance and infrastructure. However, AU Facilities is more than burnt orange brick, strategically placed waste bins and Toomer's towering oaks. The heart of AU Facilities is its employees who call Auburn home. Hosting countless services and projects, AU Facilities has kept pace with Auburn's exponential growth and given its employees a front row seat to campus expansion. In the 2023-24 football season alone, AU Facilities employees worked over 13,000 hours, collecting approximately 9,520 pounds of recycling and placing 1,500 traffic barricades per game. Their mission is no small feat, but employee collaboration makes it possible. "They say it takes a village to raise kids, but essentially, we have a lot of young adults on this campus, so to keep it in pristine condition it takes multiple groups with multiple skills and experience levels to keep it the way it is, to keep it the Loveliest Village," said Brittany Foster, greenhouse coordinator. |
| Trump Is Cracking Down on Universities. Florida Had a Head Start. | |
| Three years ago, as a University of Florida freshman, Bia Castanho kept her head down and her mouth shut when classroom conversations veered toward politics. Virtually every time students with her conservative orientation entered a debate it ended badly for them, she said. Her time on campus has paralleled a concerted effort by Republican lawmakers to dismantle what they consider entrenched liberal orthodoxy within Florida's institutions of higher learning. In a class this past fall about the economics of farming, she felt emboldened enough to take a stand: Donald Trump was right, illegal immigration was wrong and farmworkers without proper documentation should not be allowed to work, she said. "Things are changing," said Castanho, now a senior. "When I got here, if you were a conservative, people thought you were a hater, a racist or homophobic. Now at least some people will at least listen to your ideas." During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump vowed "to reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical Left." Recent edicts from him and his new administration ordering colleges to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs or anything they deem as discriminatory -- or risk losing federal funding -- aim to begin the process. Florida, under Gov. Ron DeSantis, has a three-year head start. |
| U. of Tennessee student complaint that attracted Trump administration's attention lacked detail | |
 | The University of Tennessee at Knoxville moved swiftly to address the issues raised by in a student complaint that sparked an unusual warning from the Trump administration and a spokesperson told Knox News the school is cooperating as the U.S. Department of Education investigates UT and 59 other universities across the country. "The university reviewed the issues brought forth by the student, found no incidents of illegal discrimination or harassment, and provided the student with resources and support," UT spokesperson Kerry Gardner said in an email. "The university has fully responded to (the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights) and is waiting to hear back on next steps. We remain fully cooperative." The complaint was filed by a student on Nov. 6, 2023, almost a month after the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The document, obtained by Knox News, lacks details and levels complaints against instances of free expression. Personally identifiable information is redacted. There is no overt claim of the antisemitism the Trump administration says it is seeking to stop on college campuses. |
| Former U. of Kentucky student charged in racist attack denied probation, early release from jail | |
 | Sophia Rosing, the former University of Kentucky student who pleaded guilty to several charges after a racist attack on a Black student, was denied probation and early release from jail, according to court documents. In November 2022, Rosing assaulted and used racial slurs toward a student desk clerk, Kylah Spring. Spring, who is Black, was working at the front desk of a UK residence hall at the time. Video of the attack and arrest -- including of Rosing attacking a police officer who was called to the dorm -- went viral. Rosing pleaded guilty last year to four counts of fourth-degree assault, one count of disorderly conduct, and one count of public intoxication. She was sentenced to 12 months in jail, 100 hours of community service and a $25 fine, her attorney Fred Peters told the Herald-Leader at the time. In February, Rosing asked for probation after being in jail since October 2024. The filing states that Rosing's "actions led to consequences she never anticipated." Fayette Circuit Court Judge Lucy VanMeter denied Rosing's request, saying the court received letters from Spring and her mother opposing Rosing's shock probation. The university banned Rosing from campus, and she withdrew from UK shortly after being arrested. Rosing was terminated from her job at Dillard's, according to the company, and lost a social media partnership. |
| USDA reverses decision to pause funding to UMaine System | |
| The United States Department of Agriculture will reinstate funding to the University of Maine System, Sen. Susan Collins' Office announced Wednesday night. Funding has resumed following the pause announced Monday, Collins' office said. More than $56 million in active grants were affected, including more than $32 million slated for payment in the coming months and years. "This USDA funding is critically important not only to the University of Maine, but to our farmers and loggers, as well as to the many people who work in Maine's agriculture, aquaculture and forestry industries. Now that funding has been restored, the work that the university does in partnership with the many people and communities who depend on these programs can continue," Collins said in a written statement. The federal department pays for programs across the university system via the University of Maine Cooperative Extension -- from sustainable agricultural research, to education and outreach, to work with 4-H. Funding from the USDA has been a key support since the flagship campus' founding 160 years ago, Chancellor Dannel Malloy and University of Maine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy said Wednesday night. |
| She advanced DEI at her university. Her son-in-law, Vice President JD Vance, wants to end it nationwide. | |
 | As universities around the country race to assess new federal policies geared toward ending programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion, known as DEI, one college administrator is in a potentially tricky position. Lakshmi Chilukuri is the provost of the University of California San Diego's Sixth College. She is also Vice President JD Vance's mother-in-law. Chilukuri helped create a pilot course on race, ethnicity and gender in biology and medicine, served on the university's biological sciences diversity committee, and has written proudly of her school's commitment to diversity. A crackdown on what President Trump and Vance call "wokeness" has been a hallmark of their administration's first weeks. Widespread scalebacks of DEI programs in academia , government and across corporations have marked some of the administration's earliest marquee victories. Vance said in a statement, "I don't like DEI, and I'm proud of what our administration has done on that front." But I love my mother-in-law. If she doesn't share my views on DEI I suppose I'll have to do what 99 percent of Americans do when confronted with a family member who doesn't always agree with them: get over it," Vance said. "I'll choose instead to focus on her kindness and the fact that she's an incredible mother and loving grandmother to the most important people in my life." Vance added, "This story exists because CBS has decided that harassing my mother in law is a reasonable price in order to attack President Trump." Chilukuri did not reply to emailed questions. A spokesperson for the university declined to comment. |
| Universities across the U.S. freeze hiring as federal funding hangs in the balance | |
| Harvard University, the University of Washington and the University of Pittsburgh are among the latest institutions of higher education to announce hiring freezes, citing the uncertainty around federal funding. Leaders at a growing number of universities across the country say they are looking for ways to cut costs and buy time, as questions swirl around President Trump's efforts to slash financial support for some schools. Education experts say the pullback of resources will not only hurt current and prospective students, staff and faculty, but could also harm the local economies of university towns and ultimately make the U.S. less competitive globally. The strong network of research activities at higher education institutions -- with investment from the federal government -- is part of what makes the U.S. so economically and scientifically competitive, said Derrick Anderson, senior vice president of the Education Futures initiative at the American Council on Education. He thinks one thing universities can do in this moment is make sure they are communicating that effectively. "We do higher ed well -- not just well, we are the best," he adds. "Countries around the world are trying to mimic the way that we do higher ed. And I just think that we as an industry need to do better at explaining that." |
| Johns Hopkins Plans Staff Layoffs After $800 Million Grant Cuts | |
| The Trump administration has terminated $800 million in grants to Johns Hopkins University, spurring the nation's top spender on research and development to plan layoffs and cancel health projects, from breast-feeding support efforts in Baltimore to mosquito-net programs in Mozambique. The cuts, which are in addition to threatened trims to National Institutes of Health grants, are related to the university's work with the U.S. Agency for International Development. The school is preparing to shrink its Baltimore-based affiliated nonprofit, JHPIEGO, that since the 1970s has worked closely with the USAID and has already stopped work on a number of international health projects. The economy in Baltimore city, where the university anchors the innovation sector and is the area's largest private employer, is likely to see more ripple effects as a result, according to local groups. It is a preview of what university administrators across the country expect at their campuses if the Trump administration prevails in court challenges and continues to target institutions of higher education through cuts to federal grants. "Johns Hopkins has bet very heavily on a century and a quarter of partnership with the federal government," said Dr. Theodore Iwashyna, a critical-care physician at Johns Hopkins who is currently overseeing an NIH grant to study how best to send pneumonia patients home so they don't end up re-hospitalized. "If the federal government decides it doesn't want to know things anymore, that would be bad for Johns Hopkins and devastating for Maryland." |
| Education Department layoffs gut its civil rights office, leaving discrimination cases in limbo | |
| The Education Department's civil rights branch is losing nearly half its staff in the Trump administration's layoffs, effectively gutting an office that already faced a backlog of thousands of complaints from students and families across the nation. Among a total of more than 1,300 layoffs announced Tuesday were roughly 240 in the department's Office for Civil Rights, according to a list obtained and verified by The Associated Press. Seven of the civil rights agency's 12 regional offices were entirely laid off, including busy hubs in New York, Chicago and Dallas. Despite assurances that the department's work will continue unaffected, huge numbers of cases appear to be in limbo. The Trump administration has not said how it will proceed with thousands of cases being handled by staff it's eliminating. The cases involve families trying to get school services for students with disabilities, allegations of bias related to race and religion, and complaints over sexual violence at schools and college campuses. Some staffers who remain said there's no way to pick up all of their fired colleagues' cases. Many were already struggling to keep pace with their own caseloads. With fewer than 300 workers, families likely will be waiting on resolution for years, they said. |
| What the Education Department's Job Cuts Could Mean for Financial Aid | |
 | When the U.S. Department of Education announced on Tuesday that it was eliminating nearly half of its staff, it said that it would "continue to deliver on all statutory programs that fall under the agency's purview," including Pell Grants and student loans. As news of the job cuts circulated on Tuesday night and Wednesday, experts wondered how to square that assurance with their knowledge of the work it takes to get federal financial aid into students' accounts. "Claiming that eliminating half the Department won't affect its services -- without any clear plan to redistribute the workload -- is, at best, naive and, at worst, deliberately misleading," said Beth Maglione, interim president and chief executive of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, in a public statement on Wednesday. "It also raises serious concerns about how billions of dollars in federal student aid will continue to be disbursed to students without interruption." Kim Cook, chief executive of the National College Attainment Network, worries that students and families might be hearing something even more dire: that the department is being shut down, "which is the message outside the Beltway." As a result, "we think it's very important to tell students who are receiving or applying for federal student aid that things like FAFSA [the Free Application for Federal Student Aid] remain open and running, that Pell Grants are still being disbursed." |
| Assessing the Damage After the Education Department's Mass Layoffs | |
 | On Tuesday, the Trump administration fired nearly half of the Education Department's roughly 4,100 employees, leaving the agency with a skeletal staff of about 2,183. Now, a day later, the scope and impact of those layoffs are beginning to take shape. The nation's largest education research agency went from roughly 100 employees to about five, according to a laid-off employee, crippling the government's capacity to inform education policy. The Office of Federal Student Aid lost hundreds of career staffers, undermining oversight of student loan practices, the maintenance of the federal financial aid system and the authorization of new programs. And the Office for Civil Rights, which fields thousands of student and educator complaints about discrimination and harassment each year, is now down to just five regional offices. James Kvaal, under secretary of education during the Biden administration, said the cuts will undermine the department's ability to carry out congressionally mandated responsibilities, leaving students and colleges in the dark. "These are the people who make sure federal dollars are spent according to the rules and as effectively as possible," he said. "Eliminating that capacity is not going to reduce government waste; it's going to create more confusion." |
| Bioscience Funding Confusion Threatens U.S. Innovation | |
| Uncertainty over federal funding for bioscience programs is endangering U.S. leadership in the field, which could affect drug development and the nation's competitiveness more widely. The Trump administration has suffered several adverse court rulings since issuing a memo in January that told federal agencies to pause funding, including a judge's order this month indefinitely blocking the freeze. But the situation is still making it difficult for universities to admit graduate students in bioscience, a field that is broadly funded by federal grants through the National Institutes of Health, because of fears that future rulings could go the other way. "The current uncertainty is having an unanticipatedly disruptive impact on grad students and postdocs at all levels," said David Baker, a University of Washington biochemist who won the Nobel Prize last year for his work on designing proteins not found in nature. In other words, as Baker told me, "It's chaos." On the global front, China is already the leading country for research output in chemistry, physical sciences, and earth and environmental sciences, and is second for biological sciences and health sciences, according to the most recent Nature Index, a database of articles in science journals. "With the current turmoil, China could surpass the U.S. in the near future, and we may be buying advanced medicines and other scientific-research-intensive products from Chinese companies in the not too distant future," Baker said. |
| A College President Gets Real About Trump's Attack on Universities | |
| One fact makes the detention of a former Columbia University student especially relevant to Michael Roth: The day before his arrest by ICE agents, Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil reportedly wrote to his university's interim president asking for help. Roth is also a university president, leading Wesleyan University, so he understands some of the issues that may have confronted Columbia's leader. Perhaps even more important, Roth is known as both an ardent defender of Israel and of freedom of speech. College presidents are on difficult terrain amid President Donald Trump's broader attack on various institutions of higher education, particularly as the administration threatens to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars from universities. But in an interview with POLITICO Magazine, Roth said he worries that a growing number of colleges have adopted positions of institutional neutrality in a misguided effort to avoid controversy. Roth said he has no desire to fight the Trump administration just for the sake of it, but that universities need to remain fierce advocates of students' right to protest and universities' independence. "The infatuation with institutional neutrality," he said, "is just making cowardice into a policy." |
| The Painting That Explains Trump's Foreign Policy | |
| President Trump called Speaker Mike Johnson with a proposed deal last month: I'll give you one of the White House's portraits of Thomas Jefferson if you give me the one of James Polk hanging in the U.S. Capitol. Johnson agreed, and a painting of the 11th president, who oversaw the largest expansion of U.S. territory in history, was moved across Washington and now hangs in the Oval Office, people familiar with the matter said. Trump told others in the White House that he admired Polk, a champion of "manifest destiny" who through annexation and war acquired the Oregon Territory, Texas, California and much of the American Southwest. "He got a lot of land," Trump said to White House visitors soon after the painting -- featuring a steely-eyed Polk against a dark red background -- was hung in late February. One of the most striking features of Trump's second term has been his thirst for expanding American territory. Since taking office, he has said that Canada is fleecing Americans on trade and should be made the 51st state; that the U.S. should retake control of the Panama Canal to ward off Chinese influence; and that the war in Gaza should be ended by the U.S. taking over the territory and rebuilding it. Trump has also talked about acquiring Greenland from Denmark. The actual inhabitants of all these places have loudly rejected Trump's claims, but he has persisted in making them, even as they threaten to derail other American priorities on trade and security. Expanding U.S. territory is part of the vision of a new "Golden Age" Trump has promised for his second term, which he says will restore American dominance abroad and usher in a new period of prosperity at home. |
SPORTS
| Men's Basketball: The Final Horn: State 91, LSU 62 | |
| Mississippi State used an absolutely dominant first half to lay the foundation for a 91-62 victory over LSU in the first round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament on Wednesday night at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. The Bulldogs built themselves a 20-point lead over the first 20 minutes of action and despite an early second-half surge from LSU, State led by double figures the rest of the evening to advance to a Thursday night matchup against Missouri. MSU rode a 23-5 run into the halftime break to hold a 44-24 edge at the intermission. LSU trimmed State's advantage down to 11 over the first five minutes of the second half, but that's when the Dawgs put together yet another big run -- this one a 17-0 one -- to take complete control. Mississippi State continues play in the SEC Tournament. The Bulldogs will face Missouri on Thursday, March 13. Tip time is set for 6 p.m. CT. The contest will be televised by SEC Network. |
| Hubbard scores 26, Bulldogs roll past Tigers in SEC Tournament | |
| LSU was once again just the remedy Mississippi State needed. The Bulldogs' rollercoaster season hit another upswing Wednesday night, as they mowed down LSU 91-62 in the first round of the SEC Tournament at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. MSU, the tourney's No. 10 seed, will next play No. 7 Missouri at 6 p.m. Thursday. The Bulldogs (21-11) lost their final two games of the regular season, both heartbreakers, against Texas and Arkansas. Their previous win had come March 1 against LSU, which also stopped a two-game skid. As he did last time, Josh Hubbard lit up the Tigers (14-18). The sophomore guard scored 26 points to go with three assists. Hubbard scored 30 points in the previous meeting. The first seven minutes were nip-and-tuck, but MSU closed the first half on a 29-10 run and led 44-24 at the break. By that point, Hubbard had 16 points -- his highest first-half total of the season. MSU had allowed 90.6 points per game over its last five contests. The 62 points by LSU was the least allowed by the Bulldogs since a 70-54 win against Texas A&M on Feb. 18. |
| Men's Basketball: Bulldogs ride 3-point barrage to SEC Tournament blowout of LSU | |
| For most of this season, Mississippi State would have been a much better team if the 3-point line did not exist. The Bulldogs entered the postseason 14th out of 16 Southeastern Conference teams in 3-point percentage, and had an even tougher time defending the perimeter, with only Vanderbilt allowing opponents to shoot 3-pointers at a higher rate. But in Wednesday night's SEC Tournament first-round game against LSU, the arc belonged to MSU on both sides of the floor. Offensively, the No. 10 seed Bulldogs had 15 made 3-pointers and were 8-for-13 from deep in the second half. Defensively, MSU held the 15th-seeded Tigers under 20 percent from 3-point range and without a field goal of any kind for the final 10 minutes of the first half. It added up to a 91-62 Bulldogs victory at Bridgestone Arena. "It's something that we needed to do to a couple teams down the stretch and we didn't do our job," said RJ Melendez, who dealt with foul trouble but still had seven points and six rebounds in 18 minutes. "Today we just came ready to play and did what we were supposed to do." |
| How a hard reset fueled Mississippi State basketball's 'best defense' of the season vs LSU | |
| Mississippi State basketball held a long talk as a team on Monday. Defense was the focus, to not much surprise. The Bulldogs had just lost 93-92 at Arkansas two days prior. They closed the regular season with losses in four of the last five games. The defense was feeble down the stretch, particularly when the Bulldogs played away from Humphrey Coliseum, averaging 99 points allowed in the final three road games. Coach Chris Jans, with just two days to spare before the SEC tournament, called for a hard reset. His MSU teams have been known for a hard-nosed defensive identity that led to two consecutive NCAA tournament appearances -- and likely a third next week -- but the defense hasn't been a strength this season. On Wednesday, there was a glimpse of that rugged defense when No. 10 seed Mississippi State (21-11) crushed No. 15 LSU 91-62 in the first round of the SEC tournament at Bridgestone Arena. The Bulldogs will play No. 7 Missouri (21-10) on Thursday (6 p.m., SEC Network). There were two large MSU runs in the game where the suffocating defense was the difference. "That was the mantra, that we were going to go back to the basics," Jans said. "We did a lot of defensive stuff and even some drills that we hadn't done for months to try to get everybody just mentally focused and understanding that if we're going to win games down here it's got to start on that end of the floor." |
| Hubbard continues to move up State record books after big night in Nashville | |
| It's only year two, but Mississippi State fans are witnessing something special with Josh Hubbard. As the sophomore continued to rise up and knock down shot after shot from long range on Wednesday, he knocked down another record. Hubbard finished with 26 points on 9-of-19 shooting with 6-of-12 makes from three-point range as he helped the Bulldogs to a 91-62 win over LSU. "It all started with our defensive intensity. Getting to the ball, getting deflections and getting steals," Hubbard said. "When we do things like that, that's Bulldog basketball. "Being more consistent on defense, that's when we're at our best. When we maximize our defense, our offense gets scary," Hubbard said. "Once we really lock in and have that defensive mindset, we're a scary team to play." The victory handed State a win in its first game of the tournament for the third year in a row, but it also hit another milestone for Hubbard. With the six threes, Hubbard hit the century mark from distance this season. The significance of that is historic, as he notched 108 makes a year ago. That makes him the first player in the storied tradition of the Bulldog program to make 100 shots from three in a season and he's done it twice. |
| Shawn Jones' impact goes beyond the box score for Mississippi State | |
| After his Ole Miss team lost 81-71 at home to Mississippi State on Feb. 15, Chris Beard was quick to point out who he felt made the biggest impact for the Bulldogs. It wasn't RJ Melendez, who led all scorers with 17 points. Nor was it Josh Hubbard, MSU's usual first offensive option, or Cameron Matthews, the Southeastern Conference's leader in steals. Beard pinpointed reserve guard Shawn Jones Jr., who scored just four points that evening in 21 minutes but had by far the team's best plus/minus, at +22. "I thought (Jones) was the difference in the game. You look at his plus/minus, (that's) winning basketball," Beard said. "I don't care what the stat line says. Just look at the final number. I felt it when (he) was out there. He's a winning player." Jones blocked a shot in his first shift against the Rebels, and while his only box score contribution was a defensive rebound in the final stretch of the first half, his on-court presence helped MSU turn a three-point deficit into a seven-point lead at the break. He was back on the floor for the Bulldogs' big run early in the second half, punctuated by a breakaway dunk that put the visitors ahead by 19 and sent some of the Ole Miss fans to the exits. |
| Missouri basketball vs Mississippi State: Scouting report, prediction for SEC Tournament game | |
 | The opponent is set. Missouri basketball will begin its postseason as the 7-seed in the second round of the SEC Tournament, and now knows its opening matchup at Bridgestone Arena in Music City -- 10-seed Mississippi State, which beat 15-seeded LSU 91-63 on Wednesday night. Mizzou (21-10) fared well in its regular-season matchup against Mississippi State, beating the Bulldogs by 27 points on Feb. 1 in Starkville, Mississippi. But coach Dennis Gates' Tigers will need to overcome a recent slump to make sure their stay in Nashville lasts longer than one night. Missouri lost three straight games to close the regular season and has only won once in its past five matchups. The Bulldogs (21-11) entered the postseason in extremely similar form, losing four of five before beating LSU in the first round of the conference tournament. Here are a couple of stats that will make for rough reading for MU fans: In the final five games to close the regular season, no team in the SEC scored more points off fastbreak opportunities than Mississippi State, and only Alabama and Florida totaled more points in the paint. In that same timespan, Mizzou ranks in the bottom 1% of the nation for points allowed in the paint per game with 41.6 and is dead last in points allowed from fastbreaks with 15.0 per game. |
| Mizzou ready for rematch with Mississippi State in SEC Tournament | |
 | No. 7 seed Missouri men's basketball enters the Southeastern Conference Tournament needing momentum. Although the Tigers bounced back from a 2023-24 season in which they finished 8-24 overall and 0-18 in SEC play, they tumbled to the finish line of the 2024-25 regular season. Mizzou (21-10) is riding a three-game losing streak, falling to Vanderbilt (97-93 in overtime March 1), Oklahoma (96-84 on March 5) and Kentucky (91-83 on Saturday). SEC Sixth Man of the Year Caleb Grill believes Mizzou needs to do the little things better to break the skid. "We had kind of that mentality (where) we wanted to prove everybody (wrong), and we were doing a lot of the little things and were doing them at a very effective level," Grill said Tuesday in a news conference. " If we get back to flying around and playing at the pace we want to play at. I think we can get back to where we were playing at before." The Tigers will play 10th-seeded Mississippi State at 6 p.m. Thursday. Mizzou will take on Mississippi State (21-11) for the second time this season. Mizzou has struggled when playing a team for a second time this season. The Tigers picked up home wins over Vanderbilt (75-66 on Jan. 11), Arkansas (83-65 on Jan. 18) and Oklahoma (82-58 on Feb. 12) the first time around but fell to all three on the road in the second meeting. |
| LSU falls to Mississippi State in SEC Tournament first round | |
 | In LSU men's basketball's last possession before halftime, Mississippi State played a zone defense. The Tigers recognized it and found Daimion Collins a couple of steps under the free-throw line. He looked to pass it under the hoop but chose not to. He then looked to the right and left corners to pass it. Again, he declined. The 6-foot-9 forward decided to shoot a jumper in the paint, but at that last moment tried to squeeze a pass to his first read under the hoop. That bailout pass was deflected and resulted in a turnover. This was the final play of a first half in which LSU didn't make a field goal in the final 10:04 and had only three points in that span. The cold spell played a significant role in why 15th-seeded LSU lost 91-62 to 10th-seeded Mississippi State in the first round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday. "Disappointing end to a challenging couple of months for us," LSU coach Matt McMahon said. "But really want to give a lot of credit to Mississippi State. I thought they were terrific." |
| Baseball: State Downs Nicholls In Midweek Matchup | |
| Mississippi State finished 2-0 in the Hancock Whitney Classic after a 2-1 win over Nicholls Wednesday night. The MSU offense mounted just four total hits from four different Diamond Dawgs in the matchup, but it proved to be enough to support a strong State pitching effort. Bryce Chance, Aaron Downs, Michael O'Brien and Dylan Cupp all had hits for the Bulldogs. O'Brien had MSU's lone extra-base hit with a triple. State's first run came courtesy of a third-inning RBI ground out from Ace Reese that scored Gatlin Sanders. Aaron Downs made the score 2-0 an inning later when he scampered home on a wild pitch. State's hurlers made the most of the two runs. Noah Sullivan made his first career start on the mound as a Diamond Dawg and punched out a pair over three scoreless innings. Nolan Stevens grabbed 2 ⅓ innings of relief work and struck out two to earn his first win of the season in his first pitching appearance of the year. Kevin Mannell tossed 1 2/3 shutout frames for the Dawgs while Ryan McPherson picked up his first career save after four punchouts in two innings of work. Mississippi State hosts Texas for a three-game series to open SEC play. Friday's first pitch is set for 6 p.m. and Saturday is slated for 2 p.m., both games will be broadcast on SEC Network+. The series finale is set for a 1 p.m. start and will air on SEC Network. |
| CBSB: Mississippi State sweeps midweek pair in Biloxi | |
| The Mississippi State Bulldogs (13-4) won their sixth straight Wednesday in a 2-1 win over Nicholls at Keesler Park in Biloxi. After sweeping Queens University at Dudy Noble Field last weekend, the Diamond Dawgs brought their game to the Mississippi Gulf Coast for a pair of contests. MSU started the trip south with a 9-4 victory over Old Dominion on Tuesday. In that game, eight different Bulldogs combined for 10 hits in the 5-run win. Ace Reese led the way in a 2-for-3 performance that included a two-run double. Aaron Downs also stayed hot at the dish, complementing Reese's night with a 2-for-5 evening of his own. Four other Bulldogs bats -- Sawyer Reeves, Noah Sullivan, Hunter Hines, and Gatlin Sanders -- got in on the hit parade with a double each. Against a more local opponent in Nicholls a day later, MSU got the same result. It was a hard earned, 2-1 victory in what proved to be a pitchers duel until the bitter end. Both pitching staffs only allowed four hits each, with Bulldog true freshman Ryan McPherson shutting the door in a pair of scoreless frames to secure win No. 13 for the maroon and white. |
| Men's Golf: Endicott Named SEC Golfer of the Week | |
| Mississippi State's Garrett Endicott has been named SEC Golfer of the Week after finishing in a tie for second at the Desert Mountain Collegiate. Endicott shot a three-day total of 9-under 207, helping lead the Bulldogs to a team title. His runner-up finish matched the best result of his collegiate career. The junior from San Antonio, Texas, fired an opening round of 5-under 67 to place him atop the leaderboard alongside teammate Ugo Malcor. Endicott continued his excellent play with a 4-under 68 in round two before closing with an even-par 72. He now has 24 career rounds in the 60s, which ranks fourth in program history. He finished in a tie for second in the 96-person field with 17 birdies and ranked second on par-4s at 5-under. This is the first SEC Golfer of the Week honor for Endicott. He was named SEC Freshman of the Week twice during the 2022-23 season. This is also the ninth SEC Golfer of the Week honor in program history. |
| Turkey stamp legislation heads to Mississippi governor's desk | |
| Hunters may soon be required to purchase a turkey stamp before killing the wild birds in Mississippi. Lawmakers in both chambers of the state legislature have agreed to send Senate Bill 2280, authored by Republican Sen. Ben Suber, to Gov. Tate Reeves' desk. The bill establishes a wild turkey stamp program, mandating hunters 16 and older to purchase a specific permit to hunt turkeys in the state in addition to other necessary hunting licenses. The Mississippi Commission on Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks would be tasked with launching the wild turkey stamp and its electronic equivalent, allowing the Magnolia State to join 16 of its peers in instituting the program. For Mississippi residents, the turkey stamp would cost $10. The cost goes up to $100 for non-residents looking to hunt the feathered game in the Magnolia State. All revenue from the sale of stamps would be earmarked for conservation projects strictly seeking to restore, maintain, or preserve wild turkey habitats. These projects must first be approved by the state's wildlife commission. If the governor signs the bill into law, it will go into effect on July 1. |
| We asked the SEC commissioner about COVID, NIL and being labeled 'a villain.' Here's what he said | |
 | On March 12, 2015, Greg Sankey was named to replace retiring SEC Commissioner Mike Slive. Sankey had been at Slive's side for 12 years, a time of incredible growth for the SEC that saw it win seven straight BCS titles, create its own TV network and expand with Missouri and Texas A&M. And the momentum hasn't abated in the decade under Sankey's watch. Sankey, meanwhile, has become one of the most powerful and influential people in sports -- and also scrutinized, including when the SEC decided to play football in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic. His league performed extreme due diligence and powered through with a season even after the Big Ten and Pac-12 had quickly shut down the idea, although they eventually reversed course and emulated much of what the SEC was doing. Sankey sat down with The Post and Courier during the SEC Tournament in Greenville. He discussed a variety of topics, ranging from the impact of 2020 and the importance of scheduling on the College Football Playoff to being called a bad guy and how many SEC teams could make March Madness. |
| Building an ace: How college pitching labs are cranking out MLB-ready flamethrowers | |
 | Inside the renowned Aaron Nola Pitching Development Center at Louisiana State University, there is a brown turf mound atop a green turf floor. A white wall adorned with the LSU logo stands just to the left-hand side of the pitching rubber. The area is more spartan than the high-tech "pitching lab" designation implies. But the mound is made by NewtForce, equipped with force plates that measure how a pitcher impacts the ground. There is a Trackman radar that measures ball flight and Edgertronic cameras that show the way a baseball leaves the hand in precise detail. In 2023, an Air Force transfer named Paul Skenes opened the door to this lab for the first time. "I show up the first day, I see the pitching lab," Skenes said this spring. "It's like, 'Dang, this is cool.'" Small rooms like this are increasingly helping set elite college programs apart. And each year, the impact of college pitching labs becomes more apparent at the professional level. The LSU lab turned out to be more than "eyewash." It helped land a talent that led the Tigers to a College World Series title in 2023. A month after first visiting the lab, Skenes threw a bullpen session. Wes Johnson, then LSU's pitching coach, watched from the side. They gathered the feedback from each pitch. "The fact about Wes is that he knows how to use (the technology)," Skenes said. "So really, it was eye-opening. ... It's like, 'All right, I understand why we have it.'" Johnson was formerly the pitching coach for the Minnesota Twins. Before that, he rose up the college ranks, including stops at Central Arkansas, Dallas Baptist and Mississippi State. He was among a wave of college coaches who soon infiltrated the MLB level. |
| Conferences share new and significant progress toward implementation of House settlement | |
| Pending final court approval of the proposed settlement in the House v. NCAA, Hubbard v. NCAA and Carter v. NCAA cases (collectively, "the House case"), the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference, Pac-12 Conference, Southeastern Conference and NCAA are rapidly preparing to implement a new model for the future of college sports focused on stability and fairness. The proposed settlement would facilitate meaningful opportunities for student-athletes to further benefit from their participation in intercollegiate athletics, while establishing a robust system of oversight and controls to ensure fair competition and protect the integrity of collegiate athletics and the best interests of student-athletes, participating institutions and fans. Following the final hearing scheduled for April 7, and if the court gives final approval to the settlement, the responsibility for its implementation and enforcement will fall primarily to the five defendant conferences and the NCAA. To oversee this process, the conferences and NCAA have formed a Settlement Implementation Committee, made up of 10 athletics directors (two from each defendant conference) and the legal and compliance teams from the conferences and the NCAA. |
| March Madness Ads Nearly Sold Out as Rights Fee Nears $1B Mark | |
| CBS and TNT Sports have sold most of their available in-game March Madness inventory, as increased demand for live sports and the usual flurry of activity from the 18 NCAA corporate sponsors have conspired to make units in the three-week tournament hard to come by. Speaking to reporters during a Zoom call Wednesday, Ryan Briganti, exec VP, head of sports sales, Paramount Advertising, confirmed that the tourney is all but out-of-sale. "We are happy to say we're virtually sold out," Briganti said. "This marketplace picked up earlier than it has historically, as [it] drafted off the strong demand of the general sports marketplace. That's where we're currently at." Briganti declined to offer any information about dollar volume or pricing, saying only that such intel is "just not something I'm comfortable sharing." When pressed, the exec reiterated that the partners are "doing better than we did last year." The 2024 tournament generated more than $1 billion in sales over the course of 67 games, an estimate that does not factor in any make-good allotments that were deducted from the gross sales tally. |
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