| Tuesday, April 8, 2025 |
| Research Showcase on the YMCA Plaza today | |
 | This year's Mississippi State University Research Showcase is on the YMCA Plaza from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Tuesday [April 8]. Some of the best research and inventions in the state will be on display from the colleges of Education, Arts and Sciences, and research centers. Faculty from the Department of Music plan to perform. The showcase is one of many events during the 2025 Spring Research Celebration, now through May 14th. For a list of research-related events, please visit www.ored.msstate.edu/initiatives/research-celebration. |
| MSU students hosts soccer festival for class project | |
 | Mississippi State University brought in the festivities for the Starkville community with a soccer Jamboree. The MSU department of Kinesiology partnered with the ACCESS program to host its 6th annual Stark Vegas Futbol Jamboree. The jamboree included 3 vs. 3 soccer tournaments for the youth and adults. Those involved constructed the event from graduate classes and brought it to the MSU campus. There were also vendors and other activities for the kids. People from all over the Golden Triangle came out to show support. "We started planning this back in January so that is what this class is all about so we spent the last three months planning this so just coming here the day of seeing it all get together is a surreal feeling and a full circle moment to see everybody come out, come together and just realize all of our hard-work we put into it has been put into action and what a blessed, beautiful day to host this event," Tommy O'Brien said. |
| Oktibbeha compiles list of 245 uninspected bridges, culverts | |
 | Oktibbeha County has finally completed an inventory of all its minor bridges and drainage infrastructure, allowing engineers to begin the daunting task of actually inspecting them to see whether residents have been driving cars and school buses over sections at risk of collapse. County Engineer Clyde Pritchard delivered his completed map Monday to the Oktibbeha Board of Supervisors, a product of his firm spending months physically driving through the county's roads and counting installations. "These are structures not currently being looked at under (state law)," he said. "Smaller box (culverts), larger pikes, culverts that we're literally riding over every day but nobody is inspecting until you get the call that it fell in." The county has been paying closer attention to the state of its bridges since November, when an initial survey of the largest bridges in response to road workers reports found at least six in need of emergency repairs. Pritchard, who has been contracted with the county for more than a decade, suggested then that many of these issues might have been missed since the bridges in question were too small for the state to mandate inspections. In total Pritchard found 245 small structures in the county. That includes everything from open pipes to culverts to full bridges too small to meet the state's regular inspection threshold, which is having multiple spans or length greater than 20 feet. |
| General Atomics partners with Israeli defense company to produce missile in Tupelo | |
| General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, a diversified technologies company, has partnered with an Israeli defense company to produce a missile in Tupelo. On Monday, officials with General Atomics signed a memorandum of understanding with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to be its partner and the United States's prime contractor to manufacture a long-range, precision-guided strike missile. The "Bullseye" missile, which will be made in the Magnolia State, is anticipated to provide multi-platform launch capabilities from air, ground, and sea for strike mass at an economic-friendly cost. "We are excited to work with Rafael to introduce Bullseye, a highly effective deep-strike missile. Bullseye will be built in the U.S. for delivery to U.S. military customers to support a variety of critical Department of Defense and coalition partners' precision-fires missions," Scott Forney, president of General Atomics, said. According to a release, the "Bullseye" missile will showcase the weapon system's effectiveness in identifying and engaging a range of targets for long-range precision strikes. |
| Save the date: Here's when Buc-ee's in South Mississippi is scheduled to open | |
 | Thousands of people are expected to pour into the new Buc-ee's in Harrison County when the travel center opens -- in just two months. "We are currently set to open in Harrison County, MS on June 9," the Buc-ee's media department told the Sun Herald. More details will be announced. The $50 million travel center, known for its Beaver nuggets, hot brisket and the cleanest restrooms on the road, is along I-10 at Menge Avenue, exit 24. This is the first Buc-ee's in Mississippi. Groundbreaking for the 74,000 square foot gas station and convenience and gift store -- one of the biggest in the country -- was in September 2023. The goal was to open in Spring 2025. Crowds of people also lined up on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for a job fair to fill more than 200 positions at the new Buc-ee's. Mississippi had more applicants for jobs than any of the job fairs the company has held over the past several years, said Josh Smith, Buc-ee's director of operations for the Southeast. Full-time jobs typically pay $18-$24 an hour plus full benefits. |
| Gulf Coast Shrimpers See Hope in Trump's Tariffs | |
 | In December, Frank Parker upgraded to a bigger shrimp boat. For the Mississippi shrimper, it was a good trade with an older fisherman who was looking to scale back. But the driving force behind acquiring a boat that would allow Mr. Parker to stay in deeper waters for two weeks at a time was President Trump's return to the White House, and his promise to tax nearly all imports. When Mr. Trump followed through on that promise and levied tariffs across the world this week, Mr. Parker, 52, said it felt "like the sun coming out of the tunnel." It had been years since he had felt even a sliver of optimism about the shrimping industry, which his family has been in since his ancestors moved to Biloxi, Miss., in 1842. Gulf Coast shrimpers have been pummeled in recent years by natural and man-made disasters, as well as rising fuel costs. But Mr. Trump's tariffs, Mr. Parker and several other shrimpers said last week, could go a long way toward quashing perhaps their biggest financial threat: the cheap, farm-raised imported shrimp flooding the American market. Now, the biggest exporters of shrimp, like Vietnam, Indonesia and India, face some of the largest tariffs. |
| NASA may consolidate major facilities due to Trump cuts | |
 | NASA may consolidate work in some regional offices, shifting thousands of jobs, but has no plans for massive layoffs or the elimination of major departments, acting administrator Janet Petro said Monday. The changes in the structure of the space agency's work force reflect both an effort to cut costs and improve collaboration as the Trump administration pushes ambitious space goals, Petro told POLITICO. "In the past that was never even allowed to be talked about," she said in an interview, referring to the consolidation of some work. Her comments on the sidelines at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs come as Elon Musk's DOGE has slashed thousands of government jobs and the billionaire pursues his own space ambitions, both independently and as a NASA partner. But Petro said there are good reasons to consider consolidating some of NASA's operations. While NASA maintains a headquarters in Washington, most of NASA's work is done in multiple offices across the United States. |
| Mississippi bans production, sale of lab-grown meat | |
| Mississippi is among a growing number of states prohibiting the production and sale of lab-grown meat. It comes at a time when the food and agriculture industries in the U.S. are seeking to balance traditional means of production with innovation in the marketplace. Those supporting the product bans point to the need to back ranchers and farmers while advocates for the developing industry say they are providing an option for consumers. Still others, including some voices that support farmers, are reluctant to ban the lab-grown products, choosing instead to call for transparency in labeling. Florida led the nation in passing legislation regulating the products last year, followed by Alabama. Other states, such as Michigan and Nebraska, have been debating the issue. Now, Mississippi is following the trend. HB 1006 went into law without the signature of Governor Tate Reeves (R) at the end of March after the Mississippi House and Senate unanimously agreed to prohibit the cultured products. State Rep. Bill Pigott (R), the author of the legislation and Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, told lawmakers manufacturers are "taking stem cells from animals and growing it in labs and coming out with cuts of meat." |
| Judge dismisses former Mississippi governor's defamation lawsuit against news outlet | |
 | A judge has dismissed a lawsuit by former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant that claimed a local news outlet defamed him in public comments about its Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting on the misspending of $77 million in federal welfare funds. The one-page ruling Friday by Madison County Circuit Court Judge Bradley Mills sided with lawyers for Mississippi Today, who had argued that the news outlet engaged in constitutionally protected speech. Bryant filed suit in 2023, weeks after Mississippi Today and one of its reporters, Anna Wolfe, won a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of how welfare funds intended for poor Mississippians -- some of the most impoverished people in the U.S. -- were diverted to the rich and powerful. Bryant's lawsuit didn't challenge the accuracy of Wolfe's series, "The Backchannel," that shed light on the welfare scandal. Instead, Bryant's lawyers argued that the news outlet, its CEO and other employees made slanderous comments about Bryant when discussing the series in public settings, including a radio interview and a speech at a journalism conference. Bryant's attorney, William Quin II, said Monday he will appeal the judge's dismissal to the Mississippi Supreme Court. "This matter is far from over," Quin said in an emailed statement. "Governor Bryant remains confident in the legal basis of this case, and the righteousness of this cause." |
| Farm-state Republicans rocked by tariffs fear Trump lacks exit strategy | |
 | Republicans in Congress feel rattled about what they say is the lack of a clear outcome or exit strategy for President Trump's trade war, which they fear will close lucrative markets for wheat, corn, soybeans, pork and other products for their farmers at home. GOP senators from states such as Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota are bracing for the next phase in Trump's escalating trade war, which they fear will be a wave of retaliatory tariffs that will hit Americans hard. Republican lawmakers are warning that senior Trump officials need to have a plan in place to respond to the growing economic turmoil, and the possibility that countries could respond by slapping steep tariffs on American exporters before agreeing to any concessions with the United States. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a top political target of Democrats in 2026, said farmers in his state are "very concerned" about how Trump's trade war may play out, and for how long. "We're already hearing threats about curbing imports," he said of threats from trading partners to source agricultural products from other countries. |
| 'The opposite of what Americans voted for': Market turmoil causes Trump backlash | |
| During the first two turbulent months of President Donald Trump's term, the White House has shrugged off scrutiny of its most controversial policies with a simple assertion: The American people voted for this. Now, Trump allies and GOP voters spooked by the tariff-induced market crash are beginning to respond en masse: No, we didn't. Trump won in November because many voters saw him as an antidote to their economic malaise; as a candidate, he frequently promised to lower Americans' everyday prices. But as president, he has chosen instead to plunge the country into fresh financial chaos, while insisting the market losses as a result of his tariffs are "medicine" Americans need to take. "Trump was elected in part to lower inflation and juice the economy," said GOP pollster Whit Ayres. "Higher prices and slower growth are exactly the opposite of what Americans voted for." Wall Street executives who cheered on Trump's election in hopes he would boost the economy are starting to fret, publicly urging the White House to rein in its trade war. Republican lawmakers watching the daily stock market volatility are bracing for the political fallout, as constituents' retirement funds dry up and employers slow their hiring. And in some parts of Trump's orbit, there is growing fear that if the president refuses to abandon his tariff policies soon, a chunk of his voter base will abandon him. |
| Trump Turns Screws on China, Leaves Door Open to Deals With Other Countries | |
 | President Trump hit back hard against China but left the door open for talks to lower tariffs on other countries, trade-war moves that left much of the world confused as countries raced to avoid damaging new duties on their goods. "They can both be true," Trump said Monday when asked whether the tariffs are permanent or up for negotiation. Trump's comments leave countries and industries to fend for themselves ahead of his self-imposed deadline Wednesday for imposing steep duties on nations such as China, Japan and Vietnam. More than 50 countries have reached out to the White House in recent days to try to cut a deal with Trump, officials said, putting the president in the middle of a global rush to placate him. White House trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro penned an op-ed in the Financial Times on Monday declaring "this is not a negotiation" with respect to tariffs. Earlier, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tweeted that the administration would "open negotiations" with Japan. U.S. senators urged administration officials to be consistent in the messaging. "They went on television this weekend and all offered different scenarios," Sen. John Kennedy (R., La.,) said Monday. Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) echoed those concerns saying that "very few" people know if this is for revenue or negotiations. |
| National forests face the hatchet as Trump administration boosts logging | |
 | The United States has announced sweeping changes to encourage more logging in the country's national forests. A new emergency order requires rolling back environmental protections on almost 60% of the national forests, more than 112 million acres of land mostly in the west. The Secretarial Memo issued by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins established an "Emergency Situation Determination" and will allow the Forest Service to bypass many existing environmental rules. Protections against wildfires and the need to boost the U.S. timber industry were cited as reasons. "I am proud to follow the bold leadership of President Trump by empowering forest managers to reduce constraints and minimize the risks of fire, insects, and disease so that we can strengthen American timber industry and further enrich our forests with the resources they need to thrive," Rollins said in a statement. A follow-up letter from the U.S. Forest Service called for an increase of 25% in the volume of timber being offered for logging. The order follows two earlier executive orders in March by President Donald Trump to expand U.S. timber production and address wood product imports. |
| Supreme Court allows Trump immigration move under wartime law | |
 | The Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to use a centuries-old national security law to remove migrants alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, in a decision Monday that also allows those detained to first have a chance to have a federal judge review their situation. In a 5-4 decision, the justices lifted a lower court order that temporarily stopped the U.S. from using the 1798 law known as the Alien Enemies Act to remove members of Tren de Aragua without giving the migrants a chance to challenge the move. The Supreme Court ruled that individuals facing removal under the presidential proclamation can file claims in court that give them a form of due process to give them a chance to contest the allegations -- and must be given a chance to do so. "The only question is which court will resolve that challenge," the unsigned decision states. The majority said the claims must be filed where the detainees are being held in Texas, and that the government must notify the detainees of their removal in a way that will allow them "to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs." |
| The US ends lifesaving food aid for millions. The World Food Program calls it a 'death sentence' | |
| The Trump administration has ended funding to U.N. World Food Program emergency programs helping keep millions alive in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and 11 other impoverished countries, many of them struggling with conflict, according to the organization and officials who spoke to The Associated Press. The World Food Program, the largest provider of food aid, appealed to the U.S. to roll back the new cuts in a social media post Monday. The unexpected round of contract cancellations has targeted some of the last remaining humanitarian programs run by the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to two U.S. officials, a United Nations official and documents obtained by the AP. "This could amount to a death sentence for millions of people facing extreme hunger and starvation," WFP said on X. The agency said it was in contact with the Trump administration "to urge for continued support" for lifesaving programs and thanked the United States and other donors for past contributions. The projects were being canceled "for the convenience of the U.S. Government" at the direction of Jeremy Lewin, a top lieutenant at Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency who was appointed to oversee the elimination of USAID programs, according to termination notices sent to partners and viewed by the AP. WFP chief Cindy McCain said in a posting on social media that the cuts "undermine global stability." |
| In the rain-soaked South, a warning to prepare for 'generational' floods still to come | |
 | Whenever he walks along the Wolf River Greenway trail here in Memphis, Ethan Poteet knows the trees and marshes are more than just scenery. They were put in to keep the river from overflowing its banks, like it did during a historic flood in 2011. Fears of such a disaster returned in recent days, as meteorologists warned of potential "generational flooding" that could sweep through the city and region during a multiday storm that inundated the Mid-South with heavy rain and swarms of tornadoes. After a four-day bombardment of storms, many areas along this stretch of the lower Mississippi Valley absorbed as much as 15 inches of rain. At least 10 people died across Tennessee, most of them tornado victims. In Memphis, the surging Wolf River inundated the Greenway, in some spots coming inches shy of overflowing onto the road and toward neighborhoods. Still, the area avoided a worse scenario. But the latest deluge spurred concerns about growing risks of extreme rainfall in Tennessee and across the South. Some preparations put in place after past storms may have helped curb the most recent disaster, but experts know more will be needed. Tennessee is part of a wider swath of the South experiencing wetter storms fueled by rising temperatures and moisture from warming water in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. |
| It's National Library Week. The Mississippi Library Association isn't celebrating | |
 | It's National Library Week but in Mississippi, many library systems are still reeling from last month's cuts. The Mississippi Library Association has no mention of this year's Library Week on its website. Instead, there is a statement saying the group opposes a March 14 executive order issued by President Donald J. Trump, which has all but eliminated a number of federal agencies, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services. "This decision threatens a critical program that provides essential funding for library services and programs across our state," the statement says. "Libraries receive just 0.003% of the federal budget, yet they provide essential services that benefit all Mississippians." For now, many of the cuts are to the libraries' digital services, such as Hoopla, an online book-lending app that allows libraries to offer online reading to their patrons. According to the Mississippi Library Association, there were more than 4.3 million in-person visits to Mississippi libraries in 2024. There are approximately 3 million residents in the state. |
| 'We should all be worried': Trump order threatens funding for Mississippi's colleges cultural centers and programming | |
| For nearly three decades, a little-known federal agency has provided millions of dollars in support and funding to Mississippi's colleges and universities museums, to libraries and to cultural institutions, including the Margaret Walker and COFO Civil Rights Center at Jackson State University. In 2011, the state's largest historically Black university's cultural center and museum, received a $48,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Libraries Services. The grant paid for staff to travel and learn about the historical preservation work from larger museums and institutions across the country. "That grant was my professional development," Robert Luckett, director of the cultural center said. "It was so important and has been foundational for all of the work we've done at Jackson State for the last fifteen, sixteen years." But, Jackson State isn't the only Mississippi college that has benefited from funds from IMLS, and the federal agency has flowed millions of dollars in grants to the state. While it's easy to ignore the federal agency being closed, the outside impact that such a small agency has on the country is remarkable, Luckett added. "These are public servants doing these jobs, who are committed and who aren't willing to get rich," Luckett said. "This assault on IMLS is something we should all be worried about." |
| Marshall Ramsey Hired to Launch New Ole Miss News Operation | |
| The University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media has hired award-winning journalist Marshall Ramsey as the inaugural director of the Mississippi Media Lab. Ramsey, who serves as Mississippi Today editor-at-large, will lead the new lab that promises to connect student-produced news content with media outlets around the nation. He will also work as civic coordinator of the Jordan Center for Journalism Advocacy and Innovation at UM. "I've had a nearly 30-year career in Mississippi and have been given so many professional opportunities," said Ramsey, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. "I'm excited about the opportunity to be able to come to Ole Miss and pay those blessings forward." Ramsey will play a pivotal role in developing the Mississippi Media Lab, which will gather news content from students such as editorials, long form special projects, podcasts and government reports. The content can be produced in courses, through independent studies or internships. The lab aims to strengthen student portfolios and add more coverage to areas of the state that lack regularly available news coverage. "Democracy depends on good journalism. The Mississippi Media Lab will help make that happen," he said. |
| U. of Alabama student killed in camping accident | |
 | The University of Alabama community is grieving after a UA senior died April 5 in an out-of-state camping accident. The Bama Catholic Campus Ministry said in a Facebook post Monday that Malachi Crain, a computer science and math major at UA from South Carolina, had died. According to his webpage, Crain was scheduled to graduate in 2026 with a master's degree. The post read: "Our community has experienced a great loss this weekend. It is with great sorrow that we share the death of Malachi Crain. On Saturday April 5th, Malachi died in a camping accident. Malachi was a senior at the University of Alabama and a beloved member of the Bama Catholic Community." A prayer for Crain and his family will be held Thursday in Tuscaloosa after the 12:30 p.m. Mass at St. Francis University Parish, 811 Fifth Ave. Guests will pray at the statue of Mary in front of St. Francis parish. |
| Office of Information Technology announces Wi-Fi revamp | |
| The Office of Information Technology at Auburn University recently announced their plans to replace the Wi-Fi network AU_Wi-Fi with eduroam to provide students with improved internet speed and the ability to access Auburn data beyond campus. The new Wi-Fi, along with other improvements, will ensure students and faculty have uninterrupted and improved access to the internet, something that has not always been the case. Brad Garnett, network manager for OIT, explained the decision to replace AU_Wi-Fi. "Last fall we saw an increase in users during the first classes, and at the start of the second classes around 10 a.m. we started to get alerts that our wireless infrastructure was having issues," Garnett said. "Students were calling in saying they couldn't get connected in classes." While troubleshooting with Auburn's wireless vendor, Aruba Networks, Garnett shared the issue his team discovered. "We had overrun the capacity of the entire wireless system," Garnett said. |
| Private AI center on ORNL land? The Department of Energy is looking for partners -- fast | |
 | The U.S. Department of Energy is asking tech companies to propose artificial intelligence data centers that could be located at 16 of its federal sites, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The department said input from AI developers would inform public-private partnerships with a goal to begin building data centers at federal sites this year that would start functioning by the end of 2027, according to a request for information issued April 3. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, in a visit to ORNL in February, called the race to develop AI technology "Manhattan Project 2." He visited just over a month before his agency included Oak Ridge, home of its largest multiprogram science lab, as a possible data center location. Sites like ORNL are "uniquely positioned for rapid data center construction, including in-place energy infrastructure with the ability to fast-track permitting for new energy generation such as nuclear," the agency said. Locating data centers that train powerful AI models at some of the Department of Energy's 17 laboratories, such as Idaho National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory, could lower energy costs for a process that requires lots of electricity, according to the request. Large-scale data centers rely on computers that use more than 100 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power around 60,000 homes. U.S. data center power demand could triple by 2028, using up to 12% of the nation's electricity, according to a Department of Energy report published in December. |
| AgriLife forum addresses food nutrition | |
 | The Texas A&M AgriLife Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture (IHA) hosted a Responsive Agriculture Forum on Monday, bringing together industry experts to discuss ways of improving food nutrition, production and consumer behavior. The forum, held at the Shirley & Joe Swinbank '74 AgriLife Center, was led by Marco Palma, professor of agricultural economics, director of the human behavior laboratory and IHA interim associate director. He is an expert in economics, human behavior and agriculture. The forum was divided into three parts to address horticulture advancements, row crop innovations, and the evolution of animal protein, aquaculture and alternative proteins. Although the media was prohibited from reporting on the panel discussions due to proprietary information concerns, Palma and Rebecca A. Seguin-Fowler, associate director of the IHA, discussed the intents and outcomes of the forum with The Eagle. Palma said the IHA has two focus areas -- precision nutrition and healthy living. He said precision nutrition is essentially a customized diet. Healthy living includes exercise and choices of what people consume or ingest. |
| Choi visits Mar-a-Lago to discuss federal grant funding | |
 | University of Missouri President Mun Choi visited President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort March 6 during an event for Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo. The event covered Trump's tax policies, including eliminating taxes on tips, extending the 2017 tax cuts and providing tax relief for seniors. "Mun Choi met with Congressman Jason Smith, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, to discuss the importance of the MU Nuclear Research Reactor and NIH Research," university spokesperson Christopher Ave said. On Friday, a federal judge permanently barred the Trump administration from cutting funding for National Institutes of Health medical research. Before the ruling, MU was projected to lose approximately $11 million in federal grant funding from the NIH before June 30. Also, in attendance was local Columbia defense attorney Jennifer Bukowsky, who posted a photo on X in which Choi appears in the background. |
| Head of U. of Michigan's Embattled DEI Program Will Lead American Educational Research Association | |
 | Tabbye M. Chavous, who has spent the past two and a half years at the helm of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor's embattled Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, will be leaving the flagship campus this summer to head the American Educational Research Association, the group announced Monday. Chavous, one of the nation's most outspoken and well-known advocates for campus diversity efforts, will take on the new role on August 11. Word of that change came less than two weeks after Michigan's president, Santa J. Ono, and other top university officials announced that the office she oversees would be eliminated and the university's strategic plan, DEI 2.0, would be discontinued. Founded in 1916, AERA encourages and helps promote research related to education and has sharply criticized the dismantling of the National Center for Education Statistics. Chavous is also a professor of education and psychology at Michigan, where her leadership roles have included vice president for research and director of the National Center for Institutional Diversity. |
| Judge permanently blocks NIH's plan to cap funding, setting up appeals battle | |
| Research universities won an extended reprieve Friday when a federal judge permanently barred the National Institutes of Health from capping funding for indirect research costs at a 15% rate, a move that would cost institutions billions a year. U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley ruled NIH had violated federal statute, was "arbitrary and capricious" in creating the cap, failed to follow rulemaking procedures when doing so and violated constitutional prohibitions on applying new rules retroactively. The permanent injunction came in response to NIH's request earlier on Friday for a final judgment in the case so as to expedite the appeals process -- meaning the litigation is very likely to continue. "We are grateful for the federal district court's permanent injunction and judgment halting the implementation, application, or enforcement" of the NIH cap, the Association of American Universities, which is a plaintiff in the case, said Saturday in an update on the NIH saga. "The court's injunction, previously temporary, will continue to apply to all institutions nationwide," AAU added. Despite Kelley's orders barring NIH from carrying out its cap, the agency has already created widespread disruption in the research university world. Universities have warned about dire impacts from the funding cuts. |
| Biotech start-ups struggle as Trump throttles NIH funding | |
| The Trump administration's deep rollbacks on medical research funding are eroding a key pillar of the American biotechnology industry, weakening a financial bridge that helps scientists translate laboratory discoveries into therapies that benefit patients. The National Institutes of Health, an engine of American innovation in medical devices and biotechnology, has effectively frozen issuing new grants and has reduced funding so far this year by about $3 billion compared with the same period in 2024. The abrupt change has cast a cloud of uncertainty not just over research institutions but also over companies that tackle the financially risky job of winning approvals and commercializing next-generation treatments. Start-ups spun out of university labs have furloughed employees or are scaling back key features of their work after not getting funds they had counted on. Publicly traded companies that make advanced lab equipment are bracing for a drop in sales to research institutions. Doctors and patients are agonizing over promising lab discoveries that might never make it to the market. Postdoctoral students, who are the workhorses of early research and who rely on grant funding, don't know if they'll be able to find a job. |
| China's Biotech Advances Threaten U.S. Dominance, Warns Congressional Report | |
| China is moving fast to dominate biotechnology, and the U.S. risks falling behind permanently unless it takes action over the next three years, a congressional commission said. Congress should invest at least $15 billion to support biotech research over the next five years and take other steps to bolster manufacturing in the U.S., while barring companies from working with Chinese biotech suppliers, the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology said in a report Tuesday. To achieve its goals, the federal government and U.S.-based researchers will also need to work with allies and partners around the world. The findings convey the depth of worry in Washington that China's rapid biotechnology advances jeopardize U.S. national security. Yet translating the concern into tangible actions could prove challenging. Sen. Todd Young (R., Ind.), the chairman of the commission, expressed confidence Congress will act on the recommendations, though it will involve persuading lawmakers to move resources to American biotech as a matter of protecting national security. The commission expressed concerns about China "weaponizing biology" if it gained an advantage by restricting access to cutting-edge technologies, as it has done with certain rare-earth minerals. |
| With Universities Threatened, Can Boston Still Be Boston? | |
| For generations, students and researchers from around the world have flocked to Boston, drawn not just to a college or university but to a region where high-minded intellectual life was part of its brand. The Boston area has thrived from their presence, its many schools and top-ranked research hospitals keeping its economy strong and its living standard largely unmatched in the United States. "It's the densest concentration of academic talent in the world," said Lawrence S. Bacow, who served as president of Harvard University from 2018 to 2023 and as president of Tufts University from 2001 to 2011. "Universities and teaching hospitals are to Boston what cars are to Detroit, what energy is to Houston or finance is to New York." Now, though, the city is seized with anxiety. The Trump administration's assault on funding for higher education poses a bigger threat to Boston and the surrounding region than perhaps anywhere else in the country. Boston is confronting a once-implausible question: Will its core identity survive? Enormous investments in research by the federal government, going back to its collaboration with university scientists who helped develop weapons during World War II, fueled decades of technological and biomedical advances, and steady growth in Boston's educational and medical sectors, where federal research funding built a bedrock foundation. |
| Why is Trump sending immigrant university scholars to Louisiana and Texas? | |
 | After a dinner with his wife and friends, Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by immigration agents at his New York apartment on March 8. The next night, the Columbia University graduate student went to bed in a remote Louisiana detention center almost three hours from the nearest city. Mask-wearing agents picked Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk up off the street near Boston, and less than a day later checked her into a private prison in rural, southern Louisiana. Georgetown scholar Badar Khan Suri was arrested near Washington, DC, and shipped first to Louisiana before being sent to a detention center in Texas. Students and scholars that the Trump administration has arrested as part of the president's promise to deport pro-Palestinian activists have been whisked in some case more than a thousand miles away – despite their lawyers' attempts to stop it – to detention centers in the remote South that advocates have described as "black holes" where people are kept in deplorable conditions. Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi are home to 14 of the 20 largest immigration detention centers in the country. Democratic and Republican administrations have long used them as a hub for immigrant detention. |
| International PhD students make emergency plans in fear of US immigration raids | |
| A wave of shock and fear has spread among university researchers as US immigration officials have moved to detain and deport international students and scholars. The officials allege, in many instances, that the detainees' involvement in protests against Israel's war in Gaza constitutes a threat to national security. Multiple organizations representing university faculty members filed a lawsuit on 25 March challenging the actions, which include high-profile cases that have landed several student researchers in jail and sent others into hiding. Professors and students who spoke to Nature say they have already begun brushing up on their legal rights and taking precautions. "People are living in fear, if not for their lives, then certainly for their liberty and safety," says Michael Thaddeus, a mathematician at Columbia University in New York City. He stresses that the detentions are just one part of a broader attack by the government of US President Donald Trump on scientists and academics that includes the cancellation of hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants at Columbia and other universities. One graduate student who studies public health tells Nature that they are crafting contingency plans on how to reunite with their children and spouse if they are detained returning from a pending research trip abroad. "These are insane things to be thinking about in the United States," says the scientist, who recently had their primary research grant terminated by the Trump team and who asked for anonymity out of fear that they would be targeted by the administration. |
| GOP senators back crackdown on foreign students | |
| Republican senators are brushing off concerns that high-profile arrests and deportations of foreign students may ostracize a group that is a major contributor to the U.S. economy. International students injected $43.8 billion into the U.S. last year, a key economic influx that has rebounded from a major downturn during the pandemic. California, New York and Texas are the states with the highest rate of foreign students. But some Republican senators say Secretary of State Marco Rubio's student visa cancellations, high-profile arrests and push for deportations of student protesters are about protecting American national security, though many of the exact charges are unknown and sealed in the courts. "They can be" an asset to the U.S. economy, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said of the students. But he put his full support behind the Trump administration's rooting out individuals it says are supporting or sympathizing with terrorist organizations, though lawyers and advocates say they are only exercising free speech. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), former head football coach at Auburn University, said foreign students can be an asset to the U.S. economy, but falsely claimed that they are taking university slots from Americans. |
| Student Visa Dragnet Reaches Small Colleges | |
 | Over the last month, the Trump administration has rapidly ramped up efforts to revoke students' visas and residency status, and it shows no sign of slowing down. In the past five days, hundreds of international students discovered that their visas had been revoked. An Inside Higher Ed analysis puts the total at roughly 147 and counting across 48 institutions. That number is almost certainly a fraction of the total. It's not even half the number Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration had revoked as of two weeks ago, for one. But it's also likely that a large number of student visa revocations are going unreported. Inside Higher Ed uncovered dozens of visa terminations that have not been reported elsewhere, many of them at regional public universities and small private colleges. Nine students at Texas A&M had their Student Exchange and Visitor Information System records terminated as of Monday, according to a university spokesperson. Two students at the University of Akron, a public regional institution in Ohio, had their SEVIS status terminated last week and are now working with immigration attorneys, a university spokesperson told Inside Higher Ed. Two students at Park University, a small private college in Parkville, Mo., also had their visas revoked. |
| Columbia's Former President Undergoes Heated Government Questioning in Closed-Door Session | |
| Closed-door government questioning of Columbia University's recently departed interim president indicates the Trump administration's relationship with the school remains strained as they negotiate over federal funding, according to a transcript reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Katrina Armstrong, who stepped down as Columbia's interim president March 28, was questioned by a government attorney in Washington, D.C., this past Tuesday for about three hours as part of the Trump administration's investigation of antisemitism on campus. The deposition offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the relationship between elite universities and an administration taking extraordinary measures to reset their campus cultures. Armstrong told officials during questioning that she wasn't aware of allegations that classmates had spit on Jewish students nor did she know the names of faculty alleged to have distributed materials justifying the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. She said she didn't recall learning that students were calling for the destruction of the state of Israel. "I'm just trying to understand how you have such a terrible memory of specific incidents of antisemitism when you're clearly an intelligent doctor?" Sean Keveney, acting general counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services, said about halfway through the deposition. |
| 'New sheriff in town': DOJ to enforce anti-trans Trump orders | |
| The Trump administration on Friday announced a major change in Title IX enforcement at schools and colleges, tapping the U.S. Department of Justice to help investigate and ultimately enforce the separation of transgender students from girls' and women's athletics teams and spaces in schools and colleges. The Title IX Special Investigations Team shifts some civil rights investigations and enforcement from the U.S. Department of Education to the Department of Justice -- both of which are a part of the newly minted unit. The move is part of a Trump administration effort to push through a backlog of complaints at the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights. These investigations usually take months -- sometimes years -- to complete. The process typically includes interviews and other tools and ultimately ends in resolution agreements to bring schools into compliance. Instead, the department will rely on a rapid resolution process to address sex discrimination complaints, framing the move as a way to protect cisgender girls and women, according to a Friday announcement. Rapid resolution is "an expedited case processing approach," according to the Trump administration's case processing manual, which was updated in January. |
| How are college presidents handling funding threats? Preparing for the worst | |
| In even a typical year, running a college or university is a complex job. There are worries of enrollment declines, cuts in state funding, disagreements among faculty and boards and, in recent years, a global pandemic. But in the last few weeks, the people who run colleges and universities say it's been like a typical year -- on steroids. "It's been a challenging time to lead," says Suzanne Rivera, the president of Macalester College, a private liberal arts institution in Minnesota. "Higher education institutions have become targets for political conflict. It can feel like a lot of abuse is being hurled at college and university presidents. Taking care of our campus communities has become more challenging." They're facing enormous pressure to comply with federal executive orders and policy changes or risk losing federal funding (which has always been within the power of the federal government, but has rarely been used). Vice President JD Vance has said universities are the enemy. One president described the current climate as like a gladiator match, where colleges are being sent into the pit for entertainment. "It feels like you have to be the calm in the center of a storm," says Mary Dana Hinton, the president of Hollins University in Roanoke, Va., one of the oldest private colleges for women in the U.S. "I don't think anyone should be a target for wanting to help others get an education. But if that's the moment in which we live, so be it." |
SPORTS
| Baseball: Bulldogs Begin Alabama Road Swing At UAB | |
| Mississippi State will spend most of the week playing baseball across the state line. The Diamond Dawgs will venture to Young Memorial Field on Tuesday at 6 p.m. to take on UAB ahead of their weekend series at 12th-ranked Alabama. Tuesday's contest with the Blazers will be streamed on ESPN+. MSU is 19-13 overall and coming off its first SEC series win of the season after taking the final two games at home from South Carolina. The Bulldogs clinched the series with a 6-0 two-hit shutout on Sunday, which was the team's first shutout of the season and second two-hitter. State is searching for its seventh-consecutive midweek win and will send junior right-hander Noah Sullivan to the mound. Sullivan is making his fifth-straight midweek start and sports a flawless ERA through 10 innings of work with eight strikeouts but has not factored into a decision. State leads the all-time series 37-10 against the Blazers and has won the past five meetings. The Bulldogs beat UAB 7-3 in Birmingham the last time the two teams met on April 11, 2023. AB comes into Tuesday's affair at 18-14 and salvaged the final game of its series against UTSA at home on Saturday 13-6. The Blazers beat then 16th-ranked and SEC foe Auburn 4-2 on the road last Tuesday. |
| Mangum enjoying 'whirlwind' week with Rays | |
 | What a first week in the big leagues it's been for Jake Mangum. The former Mississippi State star debuted with the Tampa Bay Rays on March 30 against Colorado, and in six games he's hitting .435 with four RBIs, four stolen bases, a .980 OPS and 12 total bases. "It was a whirlwind, four days of something new," Mangum, 29, said during a three-game road trip to Texas from April 4-6. "This clubhouse has been great. They've been very welcoming, very kind. Just thankful to be in this room with these guys, it's been so much fun." Mangum's name is of course one which State baseball fans remember well. Between 2016 and 2019, he put together one of the most successful careers by a Bulldog in recent history. The Magnolia State native became the second player in program history to earn All-America recognition three times, joining Rafael Palmeiro, and the first two-time recipient of the C Spire Ferriss Trophy as the top college player in the state. And if that wasn't enough, he also left Starkville as the SEC's all-time hits leader. And understandably, he's proud to be the latest Bulldog to reach the show. "(I'm the) seventy-first," he said. "It's cool, love my college. Mississippi State's the best. The fanbase supports you wherever you go. It's just a cool experience." |
| Senior Deonte Anderson updates progress of Mississippi State's defensive line | |
| This offseason has brought about a lot of roster changes for Mississippi State. Moreso than any other position on the field, the Bulldogs' defensive line depth chart features many new transfers and new faces. However, there's still a few veterans remaining in that group, including senior defensive end Deonte Anderson, who had 18 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and one sack last season. These days. Anderson is getting accustomed to the changes on the defensive line with those new transfers and even new defensive coaches. Last week Anderson met with the media to share his thoughts on spring practice and the progress of the defensive front. |
| NCAA's House settlement ruling not over finish line yet; here are the judge's remaining sticking points | |
| Around 8:07 a.m. PT on Monday, an older bespectacled woman with curly graying hair, wearing a leather jacket and carrying a beige tote bag and black purse, crossed Jefferson Street in downtown Oakland on a cold, rainy day. The woman walked up two flights of marble steps, entered the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse and then slipped quietly into an employee entrance within the building's main lobby. That woman, California judge Claudia Wilken, holds decision-making power that stands to alter the future of college athletics. Two hours after she entered the building, within a small third-floor courtroom and in front of about 75 people and hundreds more watching online, Wilken presided over a near seven-hour court proceeding that marked the final hearing in the NCAA's House settlement agreement. In the end, the 75-year-old retiring judge indicated that she would, indeed, approve the settlement if changes are made specifically to two concepts: (1) provide a phase-in period for implementing new roster limits or "grandfather in" current athletes on rosters; and (2) adjust language related to binding future athletes to the 10-year settlement. In the final five minutes of the hearing, Wilken more than tipped her hand: She wants to approve the settlement. "Basically, I think it is a good settlement," Wilken said. "I think it's worth pursuing. I think some of these things can be fixed." |
| Judge wants range of issues addressed in $2.8 billion NCAA settlement before final approval | |
| The landmark $2.8 billion settlement that will reach into every corner of college athletics in the months ahead had its final hearing Monday, including athletes who criticized the sprawling plan as confusing and one that undervalued them, and attorneys who said they were concerned about the impacts on campuses across the country. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken gave no indication Monday the complaints have changed her mind, though she acknowledged the concerns and asked attorneys for fresh feedback on several topics. The plan is expected to move forward with her final decision coming in a few weeks. "Basically I think it is a good settlement, don't quote me, and I think it's worth pursuing," Wilken said. "I think some of these things could be fixed if people tried to fix them and that it would be worth their while to try to fix them." She asked both sides to come back in a week with how they might be able to address some of her concerns, saying, "Some of them are big-ticket items, some of them aren't." Then, there would need to be some re-drafting done, she said. Among concerns raised by objectors who testified at the hearing were the fairness of roster cuts and how they are accomplished, the process for how name, image and likeness (NIL valuations are established, and the management of athletes who will participate in the settlement in coming years. |
| House settlement nears finalization amid judge's last concerns | |
| A multibillion-dollar legal settlement with the potential to reshape the business of college sports inched closer to its fast-approaching finish line during a federal court hearing Monday. Judge Claudia Wilken declined to provide final approval of a deal between the NCAA and plaintiff attorneys representing past, present and future Division I athletes, but she directed lawyers to address a short list of her remaining concerns within one week. Wilken suggested Monday that any current athlete should get to keep their spot even if it puts a team over the new roster limit. "My idea there is to grandfather in a group of rostered people. There are not that many. It's not that expensive. It would generate a lot of goodwill," Wilken said. Judges are not allowed to mandate specific changes to a settlement, but Wilken can make suggestions for how the attorneys could resolve problems that might otherwise keep her from blessing the deal. "We are standing by our settlement. We think it's fair. If the NCAA wants to grandfather it in, that's up to them," said Steve Berman, one of two co-lead attorneys for the plaintiffs. Attorney Rakesh Kilaru, lead counsel for the NCAA, said he needed to speak to his clients about any potential change to the roster limit terms, but he remained optimistic the settlement would be approved. |
| House vs. NCAA settlement: Judge wants college sports' landmark proposal reworked | |
| U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken all but said Monday that she will not grant final approval to a proposed settlement of three athlete-compensation antitrust cases against the NCAA and the Power Five conferences unless the parties make changes to the agreement. In a rapid-fire conclusion to the hearing, Wilken told the parties: "See what you can do about all these issues. Basically, I think it's a good settlement -- don't quote me on that -- but it is worth pursuing (how) to fix" the issues she raised. This appears to create a situation similar to what occurred at the preliminary-hearing stage, when Wilken also sought changes. The parties made some slight revisions, and Wilken granted initial approval. The presumptive agreement's pillars are the payment of $2.8 billion in damages by the NCAA and the conferences that would go to current and former athletes -- and their lawyers --- over 10 years, and Division I schools would be able to start paying athletes directly for use of their name, image and likeness (NIL) starting July 1, subject to a per-school cap that would increase over time and be based on a percentage of certain athletics revenues. However, during a daylong hearing in Oakland, California, Wilken raised concerns about a variety of issues connected to those two deal points. |
| House v. NCAA settlement still on hold as judge expresses optimism for final approval | |
| A federal judge in California heard objections Monday during a final approval hearing on the $2.8 billion agreement that aims to settle three antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA and five major college conferences. If approved, the settlement would allow schools to begin directly paying athletes starting July 1, but a final decision on the settlement has not yet been made. U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken declined to make a final ruling from the bench Monday, with the hearing in Oakland, Calif., wrapping up just over an hour before the NCAA men's national championship game tipped off in San Antonio. Wilken raised several questions related to the objections, but she also expressed optimism for eventual approval if those questions can be addressed. "Basically, I think it is a good settlement -- don't quote me," said Wilken. "I think it is worth pursuing and I think some of these things could be fixed if people tried to fix them, and that it would be worth their while to try to fix them." The judge spent considerable time on the topic of new roster-size limits for each sport, which would replace existing scholarship limits under the proposed settlement. Each team could allocate full or partial scholarships for as many or as few athletes as it wants within the allotted number of roster spots, and no sport would see a reduction in possible scholarship spots. But these roster limits threaten or have already led to athletes in revenue and non-revenue sports losing roster spots. |
| LSU's Livvy Dunne objects to potential landmark settlement | |
 | LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne objected to a potential landmark settlement in college sports, raising her issues Monday during an approval hearing. Dunne -- who has become one of the most well-known athletes in the name, image and likeness era -- opposed the distribution of back-pay damages, which mostly would go to men. Reading a prepared speech over Zoom to Northern District of California judge Claudia Wilken, Dunne said female athletes, including herself, will not receive enough money in the House v. NCAA settlement to match their value. She cited her own back-pay projection, saying it was significantly lower than her actual NIL earnings. "This settlement uses old logic to calculate modern value," Dunne said. "It takes a narrow snapshot of a still maturing market and freezes it, ignoring the trajectory we were on." Dunne claimed she is "the highest-earning female athlete since the NIL rules changed," though she did not specify how much she has made. She has millions of followers across her social-media platforms and has signed numerous endorsement deals while competing for LSU since the 2021 season. Dunne said all of the NIL projections about her have "underestimated" her real earnings. |
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