| Monday, April 14, 2025 |
| MSU-Meridian professor 'defeats the giant' with book release on narcissistic personality disorder | |
 | It took 40 years and a Mississippi State doctorate in counselor education before Rosanne Nunnery saw the giant that had knocked her down her entire life as the child of a parent with narcissistic personality disorder. "After that, it became my passion to help people recognize narcissistic abuse and how to help themselves heal from that exposure," said Nunnery, who in March celebrated the release of her new book "Defeating the Giant: A Guide to Recognizing and Healing from Narcissistic Abuse." An MSU-Meridian associate clinical professor of counselor education, Nunnery signed book copies for readers earlier this month at the Riley Campus Bulldog Shop. Realizing her trauma was a gift to help others, Nunnery took the vulnerable step in sharing the pain of her upbringing. "It lowers the person's self-esteem, and they lose their identity," Nunnery said of the mental health condition indicated by inflated self-importance. "This book walks you through building that identity back up." Nunnery said she had a sudden moment of discovery after earning her Ph.D. in counselor education at MSU that helped her identify her parent's condition. |
| Preservation of Black cemetery defunded by feds | |
 | When Anna Pugh arrived in Starkville as an undergraduate anthropology student in 2023, she didn't know much about Brush Arbor cemetery. To her surprise, the people she met who had lived in Starkville their whole lives didn't know much either. As part of the inaugural cohort chosen to study and digitally preserve the cemetery and its residents' history, Pugh and other students helped identify 81 burials. Now the preservation effort for Brush Arbor, formerly known as the Starkville Colored Cemetery, has come to an abrupt end. A nearly $350,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities that was funding the field school program was terminated earlier this month in a wave of funding cuts made to comply with executive orders from the Trump Administration. Mississippi State University Vice President for Strategic Communications and Director of Public Affairs Sid Salter confirmed researchers were notified that grant funding for the Starkville Colored Cemetery Field School program was included in those cuts. "The field work this summer was scheduled to start next month, but with the news of the cancellation of funding, they will not be proceeding with that," Salter told The Dispatch on Thursday. "... The Brush Arbor project not only had academic value, but it was a project that we saw as providing community service as well. Some real regret that we're not able at this time to continue that work." |
| Nigerian author gives voice to living and dead of civil war | |
| When Chigozie Obioma told his mother he was writing a novel set during the Nigerian Civil War, she tried to discourage him from finishing it. Obioma's mother had lived through the war's horrors, and she never wanted to talk about it. But when Obioma said he was going to finish it whether she liked it or not, she gave him one piece of advice: to tell the story fully and truly -- including both the living and the dead. Her encouragement became the epigraph and structure of Obioma's latest novel "The Road to the Country," which was published in 2024. Obioma shared the story and portions of the novel on Thursday night during a reading in Old Main Academic Center on the Mississippi State University campus, as the writer-in-residence hosted by the College of Arts and Sciences' Institute for the Humanities. Obioma is from Nigeria, though he moved to the United States in 2010, earning his masters of fine arts from the University of Michigan, followed by a doctorate from the University of Nevada. He is currently a professor at the University of Georgia, and an acclaimed author with two novels published prior to "The Road to the Country." |
| Local business owners brace for impact of sweeping tariffs | |
| Helen Pridmore adjusts lamps and sets price tags in her lighting store. When she makes her way back to her laptop at the front desk, one email from a supplier stands out. "As of May 1, prices may increase by up to 50%." Emails like this one haven't stopped coming since April 4, when the beginning effects of federal tariffs started hitting Pridmore's business, Lighting Unlimited + Uncommon Living. Nearly every product Pridmore sells relies on overseas manufacturing, especially from China. And like many small business owners, Pridmore is bracing for impact as tariffs on imports keep changing. Tariffs aren't just affecting retailers. Manufacturers are feeling the strain too. Hagan Walker, CEO of Glo, a company that makes drink lights and light-up sensory toys, said nearly all of his production takes place in China. "Our least complex product ... consists of about 20 pieces, and of those pieces, only three of them have a facility in the U.S. that could make those," Walker said. "Everything else is made outside of this country. That's for a plastic light up ice cube." Walker said Glo's manufacturing costs have already climbed roughly 20%, some of which will be passed on to customers. |
| Emergency management faces staffing shortage, severe weather | |
| Oktibbeha county's emergency response agency is struggling to keep its staffing and volunteer numbers up, while it has also been facing a series of severe weather events this year. Oktibbeha County Emergency Management Agency Director Kristen Campanella gave Starkville's board of aldermen an update Friday during its work session on the status of those services. The city partners with the county for its 911 and emergency management services, even within city limits. "We always say it can never happen here, and thankfully we've been lucky enough in the past few years that we haven't had a major disaster," Campanella said. "But it's going to happen. It's all about when it is and what it is." Oktibbeha 911 has answered 26,000 calls for help just this year, according to Campanella's stats, coordinating emergency medical service to more than 30 incidents. It made roughly 375,000 communications for 911 calls, radio transmissions, incident reports and administrative coordination total since 2025 began. Emergency services have also added the ability to communicate with citizens via text, receive cellular video and pinpoint locations with 10-foot precision using the What3words geocode mapping system. But while the agency now has more communications capacity, it also faces a changing threat. Campanella told the board she couldn't say definitively that weather conditions are becoming more frequent or extreme, but she did present several statistics noting the recent prevalence of severe weather. |
| Longtime news anchor signs off on expansive career in broadcast journalism | |
 | Relaxed and easygoing while also commanding an air of authority, Craig Ford is quite comfortable in the newsroom of WTVA. After all, it was his home away from home for more than 25 years, a station where he developed deep and lasting friendships on and off the air. The longtime journalist surprised viewers when he announced his retirement April 1, capping a remarkable career. "It's been a good ride," he said. Sitting in what was his old office just steps from the news desk he anchored, Ford reflected on a remarkable career that saw him soar at every level, starting in radio and before moving to television. He racked up awards everywhere he went, but that was never his goal. He would rather be remembered for something else. "That I cared. I hope people know that I cared about the job I was doing," he said. "I believe in journalism. I think what we do matters, and whether it's my little corner of the world, or Washington or New York, wherever, I think what we all do is important. And I think most of us understand it's not just getting access or whatever. This stuff matters. People need to know what's going on." |
| Mississippi billionaires working to expand development across state | |
 | Tommy and James Duff are the only billionaires in the state, and they're looking to expand development, saying South Mississippi is a beacon for growth. They built up Southern Tire Mart -- the nation's largest truck tire dealer. Recently, Hugh Keeton had a chance to talk with Tommy Duff not only about his success, but the potential for expanding development across the state. "The state of Mississippi is poised for growth, but we've got to achieve it first," Tommy said. "And probably the best place in the state is the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It is the impetus of the opportunities that we have for this state. We have everything here." Along with the tire industry building in Mississippi, Duff says the Port of Gulfport and the Buc-ee's development are just a few things the Coast can build off of when looking to grow with more projects. |
| 'Mississippi Musk': State auditor's MOGE report finds $400M in government waste | |
 | On Monday, Mississippi state auditor Shad White will release a compilation of audits conducted by his office that tabulated a collective $400 million in waste over the course of his tenure. "In the last few weeks, we've jokingly started calling ourselves MOGE, the Mississippi Office of Government Efficiency, like Elon Musk's DOGE," White told Fox News Digital, referring to Musk's Department of Government Efficiency under the Trump administration. "We approach our work with the same attention to every penny as DOGE, and I'm happy to be Mississippi's Musk," White said. While the auditor's office cannot cut any of the wasteful spending, it alerts state lawmakers to what it discovers. "We've been working on this project really for the last couple of years. And what's encouraging right now is that President Trump and Elon Musk are doing DOGE, which has raised public awareness about the amount of fraud, waste and abuse in government," White said in his exclusive interview. "So, people are starting to look closely at what we've uncovered. In our time in the state auditor's office, my team and I have uncovered about $400 million worth of waste." That figure will be broken down in an 800-page report, which White will make public later Monday. |
| Peter Navarro denies tensions with Elon Musk after Musk calls him a 'moron' | |
 | Top White House trade adviser Peter Navarro denied Sunday that there are tensions between him and tech mogul Elon Musk, another senior Trump adviser, days after Musk called Navarro a "moron." "Everything's fine with Elon," Navarro said on NBC News' "Meet the Press," adding with a laugh, "I've been called worse." Navarro addressed his public spat with Musk in a wide-ranging interview about the state of the economy and stock market in the days after President Donald Trump imposed, and then temporarily reduced, sweeping tariffs on U.S. trading partners. CNBC asked Navarro in an interview last week about Musk's stated support for reducing barriers to trade, revealing apparent differences within the administration over Trump's tariff plan. "We all understand in the White House, and the American people understand, that Elon's a car manufacturer," Navarro said in the interview. "But he's not a car manufacturer; he's a car assembler in many cases." The CNBC interview Monday prompted Musk to criticize Navarro in a series of posts on X. He first called Navarro a "moron" and added that Tesla "has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks." He followed that with a sarcastic apology, saying the comparison was "so unfair to bricks." |
| Majority Leader John Thune's 'old-fashioned' approach to the Senate has kept Trump on board so far | |
 | The Senate, once again, was working into the early morning hours Friday with its new majority leader, Republican John Thune, setting the pace. It wasn't until just after 2 a.m. that the last of the senators had straggled into the chamber to cast their vote on the confirmation of retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan "Razin" Caine for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The vote capped a grinding start to the year for the Senate that included several all-night floor sessions and -- importantly for Thune -- the quickest top-level Cabinet confirmation process in the past 20 years. At the outset, however, such an outcome was far from assured. President Donald Trump was making demands that the new Senate leader be ready to put the chamber into recess so he could skip over the Senate confirmation process altogether. Faced with that prospect, Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said his message in conversations with the president was, "Let us do this the old-fashioned way and just use the clock and grind it out, and then we'll see where we go from there." That approach has been successful allowing Thune to show Trump the Senate's worth while also preserving its constitutional role in installing a president's Cabinet. But the decision to push forward on even Trump's most unconventional Cabinet nominees has also come at a cost. |
| Trump's 'Big, Beautiful' Bill Faces Tense Next Chapter in Congress | |
 | President Trump's "one big, beautiful bill" is headed for one big, ugly negotiation. Congressional Republicans last week approved the fiscal blueprint that lets them pack disparate items from Trump's wish list into a single bill that won't need Democratic votes. GOP lawmakers expect the giant legislation to extend expiring tax cuts, implement Trump's new tax-cut promises, increase the debt limit, cut spending and boost border security and national defense. The one-bill strategy bets that Republicans lock arms with Trump and plunge ahead, unwilling to defy the president on an up-or-down vote on his agenda. Packaging everything together could give each party faction victories to highlight, even if they must accept pieces they detest. The next few months will bring a blur of policies, numbers and congressional procedures that will make Republicans confront internal fractures over tax rates, incentives, Medicaid and budget deficits. The unity they have displayed so far will be tested, particularly in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) has guided a fractious majority through tight votes by reassuring lawmakers they can fight over details later. "This is like 65-dimensional chess," said Jonathan Traub, a former House Republican aide now at Deloitte. "There are so many moving pieces in so many different directions." |
| Republicans fear Trump's trade war could lead to political wipeout | |
 | Republican lawmakers say there's a good chance that President Trump's trade war will boomerang on Republicans politically in 2026, as rising prices and shrinking growth could offset other accomplishments by the GOP. Republican senators are pointing to the 1932 and 1982 elections as historical examples of when trade wars and resulting price inflation hurt their party at the ballot box, and they are worried that history could repeat itself. Many Republican lawmakers view tariffs as a tax hike on American consumers, and some note that the last two times Congress enacted tax hikes on the scale of Trump's recent tariffs, the president's party suffered a wipeout in the next election. "In the national elections, you can go back to 1982 when I think it was about 26 congressional seats that were lost [by Republicans]," said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who will be a top Democratic target in next year's midterm election. In 1982, then-President Reagan's first midterm election, the House GOP lost 26 seats amid high interest rates and voters' sour view of the economy. The Senate GOP lost one seat in that cycle. The other election that looms in lawmakers' memory is the 1994 contest when Republicans picked up 54 seats in the House and eight seats in the Senate after then-President Clinton raised taxes by signing the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993. |
| Trump goes with his gut and the world goes along for the ride | |
| After President Donald Trump reversed course on his tariffs and announced he would pursue trade negotiations, he had a simple explanation for how he would make decisions in the coming weeks. "Instinctively, more than anything else," he told reporters this past week. "You almost can't take a pencil to paper, it's really more of an instinct than anything else." It was the latest example of how Trump loves to keep everyone on edge for his next move. Trump has not only expansively flexed the powers of the presidency by declaring emergencies and shredding political norms, he has eschewed traditional deliberative procedures for making decisions. The result is that more of life around the country and the world is subject to the president's desires, moods and grievances than ever before. The White House rejects criticism that Trump is overstepping his authority or improperly consolidating power. Administration officials frequently emphasize that the Republican president won a clear election victory and is now pursuing the agenda that he campaigned on. In this view, resisting his will, such as when courts block his executive orders, is the real threat to democracy. The presidency has been accumulating power for years, long before Trump ran for office, and it is not unusual for administrations to veer in various directions based on political and policy priorities. But Trump's new term has been different in the early months, and he seems to recognize it. |
| What President Trump's team wants from the rest of the world | |
 | More natural gas purchases from American firms. Fewer tariffs on U.S. exports. Lower taxes on Silicon Valley tech giants. Pledges to stop China from using other nations to ship its products to the United States. These are just some of the demands the Trump administration is expected to make in negotiations with dozens of countries that are trying to avoid steep levies that were briefly put in place last week before being abruptly delayed. While substantial confusion remains about what precisely the White House will want, a clearer picture of what these bilateral deals could look like is beginning to emerge, according to interviews with more than a dozen people involved in or briefed on the talks, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect private deliberations. The deals are likely to be specific to the problems identified by U.S. officials in each country. Chief among the expected demands is for countries such as Vietnam and Mexico to no longer serve as intermediate stops for Chinese firms and products seeking to evade U.S. tariffs -- a practice that has alarmed officials in both parties. Deals could be easier if Trump is content to replicate the pattern he established during his first term. In 2019, China agreed to buy more U.S. goods as part of a deal to lift tariffs -- although Trump later complained that Beijing never followed through. |
| Trump in good health, doc says, citing 'frequent victories' at golf | |
 | Donald Trump, the second-oldest president ever to serve, "remains in excellent health," thanks to an "active lifestyle" including "frequent victories in golf events," the White House physician wrote in a memo released Sunday after Trump's annual physical exam. According to the results of the exam, which took several hours on Friday, Trump is in good physical and mental health. "His active lifestyle continues to contribute significantly to his well-being," Sean Barbabella, the physician to the president, wrote. Those activities include daily meetings, press appearances, and golf victories, Barbabella wrote. Barbabella, a former Navy doctor, was named Trump's official physician last month. At 6 feet 3 inches and 224 pounds, Trump is overweight, according to the Body Mass Index. Trump golfs frequently, but famously eats a fast food-heavy diet. During his first term in office, the White House physician recommended he try to eat fewer carbohydrates and fat -- and exercise more. Trump scored 30 out of 30 on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a test used to detect signs of dementia and cognitive impairment. Trump told reporters on Friday after taking the test, "I got every answer right." Trump will turn 79 in June. |
| Is the Supreme Court Trump 2.0's friend or foe? A week that offered clues | |
 | Will the Supreme Court be the Trump administration's friend or foe as it faces a flurry of legal challenges to the president's earliest policies? Several conservative Supreme Court justices appear to agree with Trump officials on at least one thing: That some lower court judges have gone too far in their rulings. In a string of recent decisions from April 4 through Thursday, the Supreme Court either overturned or trimmed lower court rulings against the Trump administration. On April 4, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow the Trump administration to halt millions of dollars in teacher training grants. On Monday, the high court freed the Trump administration to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members under the authority of an 18th-century law, the Alien Enemies Act. On Tuesday, the court sided with Trump officials by blocking 16,000 fired federal workers from being reinstated to their jobs. In a closely watched saga, the high court last week week pushed back against Trump officials, ordering them to facilitate the return of a wrongly-deported Maryland father. But even then, the court ordered the trial judge in the case to clarify her initial ruling to make sure she recognized the administration's authority over foreign affairs. "It will be interesting to see whether the district courts get the message that they need to be careful," Michael McConnell, a Stanford law professor and former George W. Bush-appointed federal appeals court judge, told USA TODAY. "Just because they're outraged by what the administration may have done doesn't mean that they can do whatever they want to do." |
| At packed L.A. rally, Bernie Sanders says U.S. facing 'extraordinary danger' | |
 | Channeling the rage and frustration of progressive Californians, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders told tens of thousands of people in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday that the country is in a moment of "extraordinary danger." Clad in a blue button-down shirt and a Dodgers baseball cap, Sanders, 83, said President Trump is moving the country "rapidly toward an authoritarian form of society," firing up a crowd that stretched out of Grand Park, onto the steps of City Hall and into the surrounding streets. "Mr. Trump," Sanders said, "we ain't going there." The hours-long event featured Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and a long lineup of progressive elected officials, labor leaders and musicians, including Neil Young, Joan Baez and singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers. Sanders' team said the Los Angeles rally drew 36,000 people, his largest ever. "I don't have to tell anyone here that this is a difficult moment in the modern history of our country," Sanders said. "We've never gone through anything like this, but ... despair is not an option. Giving up and hiding under the covers is not acceptable. The stakes are just too high." Sanders hasn't changed his talking points much since his campaigns for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. But his classic refrains about the power of "the millionaires and the billionaires" and the wealth of the 1% have found new resonance with Democrats angered by the second Trump administration. |
| Inside U.S. health agencies, workers confront chaos and questions as operations come unglued | |
 | Beyond the thousands of workers laid off and programs shuttered, the Trump administration's remaking of the Department of Health and Human Services -- in a matter of weeks -- is now sparking basic questions about how parts of the agency and those it oversees can continue to function. With bare-bones procurement departments to rely on and administrative staff axed, lab leaders at the National Institutes of Health are scrambling to buy food for the animals kept in their facilities. Some scientists have been hoarding and rationing the reagents that they have stockpiled. Because of imposed restrictions, for months they haven't been able to purchase supplies like culture media to nourish cells or dyes to track experiments. For a brief period, one investigator reported not even being able to get anything that comes on dry ice; in the case of at least one institute, the entire warehouse department was laid off, briefly shutting down all shipments of various supplies. The chaos that NIH investigators are facing -- which echoes reports seeping out of other HHS agencies under health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. -- suggests a major reckoning playing out inside the heart of the federal government's health infrastructure. Collectively, when compounded across the $1.8 trillion enterprise, it points to a fundamental reshaping of how the department operates, and of what science and public health will look like in this country going forward. |
| Palm Sunday: Convalescing Pope Francis opens Holy Week with in-person greeting in St. Peter's Square | |
| A convalescing Pope Francis greeted the crowd in St. Peter's Square on Palm Sunday, wishing more than 20,000 faithful a "Happy Palm Sunday, Happy Holy Week," in yet another reassuring public sign of his recovery from a life-threatening battle with double pneumonia. Many in the crowd reached out to touch Francis' hand or garments as he was brought in a wheelchair down a ramp to the main altar, where he issued his brief greeting into a microphone. The 88-year-old pope was not wearing nasal tubes for supplemental oxygen, as he had during a similar appearance last Sunday. On his way back to St. Peter's Basilica from where he had emerged, Francis stopped to bless a rosary, and offered candy to a boy who greeted him. The 88-year-old Francis is entering his fourth week of convalescence during which doctors have advised him to avoid crowds. Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, vice dean of the College of Cardinals, led the celebrations, leading a procession of cardinals around the piazza's central obelisk carrying an ornately braided palm that recalls Jesus' triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, when crowds waved palm branches to honor him. The initial welcome contrasts with the suffering that follows, leading up to his crucifixion, which Christians observe on Good Friday, followed by his resurrection, celebrated on Easter Sunday. |
| MUW president urging lawmakers to keep MSMS in Columbus | |
| Mississippi University for Women's president is speaking out following a recommendation by state education officials to relocate the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science. Back in late March, after reviewing proposals from the Mississippi University for Women (MUW), where the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science (MSMS) currently resides, and Mississippi State University (MSU) over the expansion of the educational center for gifted students, the State Board of Education encouraged lawmakers to consider moving the magnet school to Starkville. The endorsement came as education officials contended that MSU's submission presented a higher ceiling for future growth possibilities and academic opportunities for MSMS students. Nora Miller, MUW's president, is appealing to lawmakers to consider how the Columbus-based university has successfully accommodated academically adept high school juniors and seniors since 1987 when weighing the pros and cons of possible relocation. "We are hoping that the legislature will take a look at the founding mission and purpose of MSMS and how keeping it as a separate high school for those gifted students where they can be challenged and nurtured and eased into a residential experience," Miller said on MidDays with Gerard Gibert. "[The students] like the small environment where they are nurtured, valued, and safe." |
| Supernova recruits League of Legends players from Ole Miss Esports | |
| A leading amateur esports organization has signed six University of Mississippi players, giving the students an opportunity to compete at the professional level. Supernova recruited the players to compete in the National American Challengers League, a developmental league for the game League of Legends. "This is a great step forward for our program," said John McDermott, director of the UM esports program. "Supernova made the most sense for us because they're a well-recognized esports company that's going to treat our students well and bring attention to their talent." The Ole Miss Esports team finished last semester ranked No. 2 in the nation for League of Legends, an online multiplayer game. Similar to going pro in traditional sports, signing with Supernova means the students will be paid to play. Also, playing for a national team will increase the likelihood of them being recruited to play professionally. |
| 'It's dead this year.' Black Spring Break sees lighter crowds, traffic in Biloxi | |
 | The stretch of sandy beach from the Mississippi Coast Coliseum to Edgewater Mall has historically been the focal point of Black Spring Break, a weekend-long event that has drawn large crowds to Biloxi. That could be changing, though. On Saturday, a small crowd of visitors still enjoyed the mid-70s weather and sunshine, dancing, chatting, taking photos and relaxing at the beach. But among Black Spring Break regulars there was a recurring comment: the crowd at that stretch of beach seemed lighter than previous years. "It's dead this year," said Antoine Taylor who travels down to Biloxi from Brandon for the event annually. Taylor says his family's construction company owns a lot in the area behind Surf Style, which is across from the beach where spring breakers normally gather. In past years, Taylor says they've allowed spring breakers to park on the lot for a donation. This year, though, he says, no one is parked on the land. Law enforcement, dozens of whom could be seen patrolling among the beachgoers on Saturday afternoon, have noticed the change. "So far, this is one of the lightest crowds that we've seen for this weekend," said Sgt. Candace Young, a public information officer with the Biloxi Police Department, as she stood outside Edgewater Mall on Saturday afternoon. |
| Tuscaloosa police shut down the Strip after report of gunshots fired | |
 | The Tuscaloosa Police Department shut down the Strip on Saturday night after a group of people reported hearing what they thought were gunshots. Stephanie Taylor, a TPD spokeswoman, said that around 9 p.m., Police Chief Brent Blankley ordered the closure of three-block area just west of the University of Alabama campus that includes bars, restaurants and other retail businesses, "out of an abundance of caution." She said officers who were already stationed in the area just before 9 p.m. when people began running because they believed they heard gunshots. "After a thorough check, officers found no evidence that any shots had been fired and confirmed that no one had been injured," Taylor said in an email. "The University of Alabama's SpotShotter system, which detects gunfire in the area, did not register any gunfire during that time." she added. Taylor said that Blankley's declaration meant that anyone who was not inside a business or actively leaving the area was required to clear the Strip. The Strip was likely more crowded than usual because of a full schedule of athletic events on Saturday, which included the A-Day football practice and UA baseball and softball home games. |
| Auburn United Campus Workers hold rally and petition for better wages | |
| On Wednesday, April 9, the United Campus Workers of Alabama at Auburn University held a rally and petition signing at Toomer's Corner. The rally highlighted their demand for the university to conduct cost of living adjustments, raise the university's minimum wage to $17.50, eliminate graduate student fees, increase graduate student stipends to $25k, provide subsidies for childcare and family and demand fairer promotion for employees. From 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., Auburn's United Campus Workers of Alabama chapter, Local 3821, gathered at the entrance of Toomer's Corner between West Magnolia and South College Street. They peacefully protested by offering additional information to those wanting to know more and holding up signs directing onlookers to sign their petition online or in person with a physical petition. After the rally, the Auburn UCW chapter planned to march to Samford Hall to deliver the petition and their demands to Auburn University President Christopher Roberts and Chief Executive Officer Kelli Shomaker. However, neither of them were in office at the time of delivery. According to Roman Vasquez, a graduate student studying theoretical mathematics and one of Auburn UCW's organizers, the Auburn chapter has roughly 65 members, with more than 300 members statewide in the UCWAL and almost 5,000 members throughout the Southeast in the national UCW. |
| OU names new Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences dean | |
| Michael Markham, associate dean for academic programs in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences, will become the next dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, according to a Thursday email from OU Senior Vice President and Provost André-Denis Wright. According to the email, Markham will begin his role on July 14, pending OU Board of Regents approval. Markham is a Case-Hooper professor of biology and has served as the OU Honors College interim dean since June. Markham studied psychology at the University of New Mexico where he earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. Markham's research focuses on neurobiology, specifically the biophysics of excitable membranes and the plasticity of excitable cells. He has also conducted research on behavioral conditioning in humans and animals. Markham beat out three other candidates, including Lisa Pawloski, senior associate dean for international programming, finance and administration and a professor of anthropology at the University of Alabama College of Arts and Sciences; Mitchell McKinney, dean of the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Akron; and Michael Blum, associate dean of the research and creative activity office at the University of Tennessee |
| MU Remembers ceremony honors late student, faculty and staff | |
 | The flags atop Jesse Hall were lowered to half-mast, and the bells of Switzler Hall rang out across Francis Quadrangle one time for each of the 23 University of Missouri students, faculty and staff memorialized at this year's MU Remembers ceremony on Friday afternoon. Members of the MU community and friends and family of the deceased gathered in front of Jesse Hall for the ceremony. "Today we come together to honor those that we've lost, whether a student, faculty or staff member, each made a lasting impact to all of us," MU Chancellor Mun Choi said. "We knew them as colleagues and classmates, friends and family and MU remembers. We pay our respects today, we also recognize their profound and lasting legacy. They remain deeply loved and missed by those on campus and beyond." Yellow roses provided by the Mizzou Botanic Garden sat atop 23 seats left empty for each of the deceased. As names were read by campus leaders Clay Van Eaton, Jessica Osaze, Lindsay Hing and Carolyn Orbann, the friends and family members in attendance rose to honor their loved ones. |
| Department of Energy Caps Universities' Indirect Research Costs at 15% | |
 | Two months after the National Institutes of Health unilaterally capped indirect research cost reimbursement rates at 15 percent -- which a federal judge has permanently blocked -- the Department of Energy announced a similar plan Friday that explicitly applies to higher education institutions. The DOE sends more than $2.5 billion a year to more than 300 colleges and universities, a portion of which covers indirect costs, such as laboratory space, waste disposal and utilities. Some of those DOE-funded projects include developing next-generation materials critical to commercializing fusion power at the University of Kentucky, a critical mineral production workforce readiness program at Tennessee State University and a comprehensive road map for repurposing offshore infrastructure for clean energy projects in the Gulf of Mexico at the University of Houston. "The purpose of Department of Energy funding to colleges and universities is to support scientific research -- not foot the bill for administrative costs and facility upgrades," U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in the memo. "With President Trump's leadership, we are ensuring every dollar of taxpayer funding is being used efficiently to support research and innovation---saving millions for the American people." |
| The Feds Want to Cement Change at Columbia With a Consent Decree. How Would That Work? | |
 | The Trump administration has already won major concessions from Columbia University as the institution fights to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding. Now it's contemplating the use of an aggressive legal approach to preserve those victories, according to reporting published Thursday by The Wall Street Journal. The government is considering the use of a consent decree -- a legal and regulatory measure that would put a federal judge in charge of ensuring the university's compliance with its pledges to President Donald Trump, likely beyond the end of his second term. It's not wholly uncommon for the government to use consent decrees to affirm and secure negotiated policy changes on college campuses, said Peter F. Lake, director of the Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy at Stetson University's College of Law. But deploying such a decree in the context of federal pauses and cuts to research funding represents an unprecedented shift from how the government has previously regulated the sector. "What happens with Columbia is going to portend what will happen in the future with any number of other institutions," Lake said. "They're all going to be watching this very carefully to see what happens. This is a test of a weapon system in a new way, and the world is watching." |
| Is Admissions Trump's Next Higher Ed Target? | |
| Last month the government cut $400 million in federal funding for Columbia University and sent a list of demands the university would have to meet to get it back. Among them: "deliver a plan for comprehensive admission reform." The administration sent a similar letter earlier this month to Harvard University after freezing $9 billion in funding, demanding that the university "adopt and implement merit-based admissions policies" and "cease all preferences based on race, color, ethnicity or national origin in admissions." And in March the Department of Justice launched investigations into admissions practices at Stanford University and three University of California campuses, accusing them of defying the Supreme Court's decision banning affirmative action in June 2023's Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. Exactly what the Trump administration believes is going on behind closed doors in highly selective college admissions offices remains unclear. The University of California system has been prohibited from considering race in admissions since the state outlawed the practice in 1996, and both Harvard and Columbia have publicly documented changes to their admissions policies post-SFFA, including barring admissions officers from accessing the applicant pool's demographic data. Regardless, given the DOJ investigations and demands of Columbia and Harvard -- not to mention potential demands at newly targeted institutions like Princeton, Northwestern and Brown -- the federal government appears set to launch a crusade against admissions offices. |
| PERS reform cuts benefits but fails to address funding issue | |
| Columnist Bill Crawford writes: At long last PERS reform is upon us. But will it work? When the House abruptly jumped on the chance to pass the Senate's typo-ridden income tax cut bill, it incidentally adopted the Senate's PERS reform package which was included. House leadership was not in favor of the Senate position but could not alter the bill and still take advantage of the typos. Thus, beginning March 1, 2026, new government hires will be placed in a new PERS tier that provides substantially reduced benefits. ... Will these changes save PERS? They will reduce future costs, but ... "PERS remains very much at risk in the face of a volatile and unpredictable future," according to the Pension Integrity Project at the Reason Foundation, which provided technical assistance for the new plan. "The main culprit threatening the state's pension funding will continue to be its rigid contribution policy with rates set in statute rather than adjusting each year to achieve a payoff goal." |
| Lawmakers used to fail passing a budget over policy disagreement. This year, they failed over childish bickering. | |
| Mississippi Today's Bobby Harrison writes: It is tough to determine the exact reason the Mississippi Legislature adjourned the 2025 session without a budget to fund state government, which will force lawmakers to return in special session to adopt a spending plan before the new fiscal year begins July 1. In a nutshell, the breakdown seemed to have occurred when members of the Senate got angry at their House counterparts because they were not being nice to them. Or maybe vice versa. Trying to suss this reasoning out is too difficult. The whole breakdown is confusing. It's adolescent. Perhaps there's no point in trying to determine a reason. After all, when preteen children get mad at each other on the playground and start bickering, does it serve any purpose to ascertain who is right? ... Those big fights of previous years are less likely today because of the Republican Party grip on state government. The governor, the speaker and the lieutenant governor agree philosophically on most issues. But in the democratic process, people who are like-minded can still have major disagreements that derail the legislative train -- even if those disagreements are over something as simple as whether members are going to work during a weekend. |
| Your trade deficit with Kroger is getting out of hand | |
| The Magnolia Tribune's Russ Latino writes: Standing in the Rose Garden last Wednesday, President Donald Trump held a poster purporting to show "tariffs charged to the U.S.A." by country. But the exorbitant rates reflected on the chart aren't actually the tariff rates charged by any country. Instead, the percentages were arrived at by dividing the trade deficit between the U.S. and each country, by imports from that country, times an elasticity multiplier (which happened to be wrong resulting in percentages four times higher than they should have been). Countries with whom we have a trade surplus were still smacked with a 10 percent baseline tariff. This 10 percent baseline remains after a pause on the higher rates earlier this week. It's convoluted and not remotely reciprocal. ... What becomes apparent from these machinations is the administration's focus was not on parity of rates, but on the elimination of trade deficits. ... When you shop at Kroger (or any other grocery store), the first impulse isn't "man, I'm getting ripped off." For most, it's "man, these avocados from Mexico will go great with some chips," "these bananas from Costa Rica will make for some nice pudding," or "this coffee from Colombia gives me some pep in the morning." That's because you see the value in having the thing you are using your money to buy. It's important to remember that money, itself, is not the end. It's an instrument that allows you to acquire the things you need or want. |
SPORTS
| Baseball: State Claims Series Win Over No. 12 Alabama | |
| Mississippi State topped No.12 Alabama 4-2 on Sunday at Sewell-Thomas Stadium to claim its second-consecutive SEC series victory. The Bulldog pitching staff came out strong, limiting Alabama to only two hits. Nate Williams recorded his first-career win in his longest outing of the season to improve his record 1-2. He put in 3 1/3 innings of work, punching out four batters and allowed only one walk and no hits. The long ball fueled State's offense as Sawyer Reeves, Ross Highfill and Ace Reese all hit home runs. Reeves' homer in the top of the first was a two-run blast that gave the Dawgs a 2-0 lead. Alabama fought back and tied things at 2-2 in the sixth. However, Highfill's pinch-hit bomb in the top of the seventh put State back in front and Reese provided some insurance with his homer in the eighth on his birthday. Mississippi State returns to Starkville to take on Southern University on Tuesday at Dudy Noble Field. The game is set to start at 6 p.m. and will be available for streaming on SEC Network+. |
| What we learned from Mississippi State baseball's series win at No. 12 Alabama | |
| Throughout its rough start to Southeastern Conference play, Mississippi State struggled to pull out close games that were decided by the bullpens in the late innings. That made Sunday's 4-2 victory at No. 12 Alabama, which clinched the Bulldogs' second straight series win, all the more important. The trio of Karson Ligon, Chase Hungate and Nate Williams held the Crimson Tide without an earned run, and MSU scored all of its runs on three homers. Sawyer Reeves hit a two-run shot in the first for his second home run of both the weekend and the season, Ross Highfill gave the Bulldogs the lead with a pinch-hit solo shot in the seventh, and Ace Reese hit his 12th of the year in the eighth. "How about that swing by Ross," MSU head coach Chris Lemonis said. "He didn't play a ton this weekend, he comes off the bench, and what a big swing. It just tells you his mind is in the right place and he's fighting and ready to go. And then Ace Reese gives us a little more in the eighth. So it was two big swings." The series win in Tuscaloosa --- against a Crimson Tide team that entered with a top-10 RPI --- was big for MSU's hopes of making it back to the NCAA Tournament. "Those kids are staying with a good mindset and working hard, and the game rewards that," Lemonis said. "It's huge. It gets us back. Everybody knows we had a rough start. The reality is we have a good ball club and we can still do damage, and we get to play three of the (last five) series at home." |
| Softball: State Secures Series Over Missouri In Run-Rule Fashion | |
| Mississippi State scored 10 unanswered runs on Sunday on its way to a 10-2 run-rule victory to clinch the series against Missouri. The win stands as MSU's 14th run-rule victory of the season, which is one shy of the program record set last year. The Bulldogs (33-11, 9-6 SEC) hit four home runs in the game, highlighted by Kiarra Sells' first career multi-homer game. Morgan Stiles and Ella Wesolowski also accounted for multiple RBIs in the game. Wesolowski finished 2-for-3, and Sierra Sacco reached in every plate appearance, finishing with three hits. "I thought we did a really good job of sticking to our plan, knowing that they had a couple arms that we might see and honestly [Cierra] Harrison was not the first one we expected," head coach Samantha Ricketts said. "So I thought we did a good job, especially in the first answering back after they took an early lead. I think it's really cool when it's happening up and down the lineup, and it's different players every game. That's our goal, just to be a deep offensive lineup and not just rely on one hitter." The Bulldogs will hit the road for the next two weeks, first traveling to No. 2 Oklahoma on April 18-20 before heading north to meet Kentucky on April 25-27. |
| What we learned from Mississippi State softball's series win over Missouri | |
| Raelin Chaffin was so dominant early in the season that fans may have been surprised to find out that her ERA in Southeastern Conference play entering last weekend was a shade over 5. Mississippi State's ace was coming off a few shaky outings against Texas and Tennessee, and the long ball was her biggest issue -- she allowed eight home runs in five outings against the Longhorns and Volunteers after giving up just one all year before that. But Chaffin looked like her old self again and earned two complete-game wins over the weekend to help the No. 16 Bulldogs take the series against Missouri at Nusz Park. Chaffin was stellar Friday evening, giving up just two hits and one walk while striking out five in a 7-0 victory. She had an early blip Sunday, allowing a two-run Taylor Ebbs homer in the first inning, but retired the last 11 batters she faced as the Bulldogs' offense shortened the game for her in a 10-2, five-inning win. "Last week (against Tennessee) was just a little hectic all around. But my bullpens were very normal. We didn't really talk a whole lot about last week besides just flush it and move on. That's why I could be successful," Chaffin said. "The whole thing in the SEC is just keeping hitters off balance, so if I can keep a good offense off balance, I win." |
| Men's Golf: Bulldogs Host Old Waverly Collegiate Championship | |
| Mississippi State men's golf returns to West Point to host the Old Waverly Collegiate Championship on April 14-15. The Bulldogs welcome 12 other schools to their home course this week: No. 3 Ole Miss, No. 15 Alabama, Cincinnati, Kansas State, Memphis, Missouri, Murray State, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Troy, ULM and UTEP. MSU's home event returns to Old Waverly after three years at Mossy Oak Golf Club across the street, which is currently undergoing renovations. In the eight previous Old Waverly Collegiate Championships, the Bulldogs have compiled six top-five finishes with two victories coming in 2013 and 2014. "First and foremost, I want to thank Old Waverly for allowing us to host this event," head coach Dusty Smith said. "We are very thankful to call Old Waverly and Mossy Oak home, and we do not take it for granted. We are excited to host this week. It's always special to have a home event, and we look forward to some great competition. "It's important for us to treat this week as the next step in our journey and nothing more. If we trust ourselves and each other this week, we will be successful." State's lineup includes Garrett Endicott (1), Dain Richie (2), Harrison Davis (3), Drew Wilson (4) and Ugo Malcor (5). Alejandro Fierro, Trip Duke and David Beard will also compete as individuals. |
| No. 20 Women's Golf Set To Defend SEC Championship | |
| The defending SEC Champion and 20th-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs return to Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida, for the 2025 SEC Championship. The tournament will kick off on Monday, April 14. The SEC Championship kicks off with three rounds of stroke play. The top individual after stroke play will be named the SEC Individual Champion. After Wednesday, the top eight teams will be seeded and advance to the match play portion of the championship, with the last team standing being named the 2025 SEC Champions on Friday, April 18. The Bulldogs look to continue their recent success in the tournament. State has won the individual title the past two seasons. As a team, the Bulldogs have advanced to the final match the past two years and brought home their first team title last season. State's lineup will feature three golfers with SEC Championship experience, while two Bulldogs will be competing in the conference's top event for the first time. Avery Weed will hold the top spot in the Bulldog lineup. The sophomore from Ocean Springs, Mississippi has led the Bulldogs with two individual victories on the 2024-25 season. She shoots a team-best 71.88 average and is only 6-over versus par on the entire season. |
| Men's Tennis: No. 11 MSU Finishes Second in SEC, Receives Double-Bye | |
| No. 11 Mississippi State finishes second in the SEC to receive a double-bye in the SEC Tournament. After back to back wins this past weekend over Ole Miss and Alabama, MSU secured the second seed in the SEC Tournament with an impressive 11-3 record. The 11 wins in the SEC is tied for the second-most in school history only behind the 1993 season with 12. State is tied with South Carolina at an 11-3 record, but MSU earned the second seed with the head-to-head victory over South Carolina. The other seeds that round out the top four include Texas (1), South Carolina (3) and Texas A&M (4). State will begin play on Friday, April 18th, at 6 p.m. at the Carolina Tennis Center against an opponent that is TBD. MSU could potentially play either Georgia (7), Oklahoma (10) or LSU (15) in the Quarterfinals. The full bracket and information about the SEC tournament is on the Championship landing page. |
| Can Jerkaila Jordan become Mississippi State's next WNBA Draft pick? | |
| From first overall pick LaToya Thomas in 2003 to Jessika Carter just last year, Mississippi State has had nine players selected in the WNBA Draft. Jerkaila Jordan is hoping to become the 10th when this year's draft takes place Monday night in New York. The odds may be against her -- the only full three-round mock draft The Dispatch could find, from Stephanie Kaloi of High Post Hoops, did not have Jordan getting drafted -- but the New Orleans product put together an impressive career in the Southeastern Conference over her four years with the Bulldogs. She started 131 games at MSU, averaging nearly 30 minutes on the court, and scored at least 16 points per game each of the last two seasons. Jordan is fifth in program history in scoring and second in steals, and she has the intangible leadership qualities that professional teams are often looking for. "She's a player who has been through a lot of different things," said Andraya Carter, a basketball analyst, host and reporter with ESPN, on a Zoom call with media members Thursday. "She can rebound, plays extremely hard, something she's always been known for, and she was a leader on that team." |
| Cowboys QB Dak Prescott talks hamstring injury recovery, says he could play a game today | |
| The NFL regular season might not kick off for another five months, but Dak Prescott says he would be ready to play today if he had to. Prescott is coming off a season-ending hamstring injury, one of many things that ultimately derailed the 2024 Dallas Cowboys season. "If I had to play a game today, I definitely could do that," Prescott said at the 35th annual Children's Cancer Fund gala on Friday, according to the Cowboys' website. "It's about moving forward healthy to make sure I can play 17 times, 20 [games], whatever we get to when the time's right." The 31-year-old suffered a partially torn hamstring in Week 9 against the Atlanta Falcons, which limited him to just eight games in 2024. Dallas went on to miss the playoffs, which kickstarted an offseason of change for the Cowboys. The team fired head coach Mike McCarthy, promoting offense coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to replace him. Given the changes, it would be beneficial for Prescott to take part in some offseason activities, which the quarterback plans to be involved in to some degree. "I'm getting close to where I want to be, I don't want to put a percentage on it," Prescott said. "I know we've got team activities coming up, imagine myself being involved in some sort if not all." |
| Vaught-Hemingway Stadium renovations are paused. Here's why Ole Miss will re-evaluate soon | |
 | Ole Miss football fans are making their voices heard. They are curious about potential renovations to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Athletic director Keith Carter took questions from fans during Meet the Rebels Day on Saturday at the Manning Center. Carter was asked what, if anything, Ole Miss is planning for improvements at its football stadium. "We don't have anything officially on the books right now," Carter said. "But we do realize that our stadium is something that we've got to start paying attention to. We love when it's packed in there and we've got 67,000 (fans) and the light show and all that. It's starting to get pretty dated in certain areas." Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, as it's now known, was initially constructed in three years from 1939-41. It has received several major upgrades over the decades, including LED lights, a natural grass surface and significant expansion in 2016. Carter said the changing landscape of college athletics has forced a pause on some major projects. Soon, that pause could lift. "We kind of put a lot of our facilities stuff, the bigger items, on hold while we figure out NIL and the revenue sharing and all that," Carter said. "Probably within the next 12 months we're going to have to really dive back in on the stadium." |
| In afterglow of Florida's national title, Commissioner Greg Sankey finds SEC firmly entrenched atop men's basketball ecosystem | |
| Greg Sankey rummaged through his back pocket for a sheet of paper. Locating the notecard-sized slip of personalized stationery, the SEC commissioner flashed it toward a handful of reporters, revealing a game's worth of scores, stats and other scribbles, along with a pair of quotes pressed into the top of the sheet. "There's two mantras that I have if you walk in our back door," Sankey said, referencing those aforementioned quotes. "'Problems yield to effort' -- which is something I heard President Clinton say 20, 25 years ago at a forum -- and then 'Champions do extra.' You don't get here without doing extra." As to why he had this piece of paper in his pocket, Sankey largely elicits a vibe that's some amalgamation of stern, confident and stately. Nervous? Not really the word that comes to mind. But looking on from seats in the Alamodome this week in San Antonio as Houston stormed ahead of Florida in the men's basketball national title game, Sankey conceded he was, of all things, nervous. "I was leaning back on the chair," he said. "I was afraid I was going to fall over." Those early anxieties had transformed by night's end to unfettered joy as orange and blue confetti poured onto the hardwood and the Gators celebrated a 65-63 win and third national title in just less than 20 years. Sankey wasn't quite ready to take a victory lap. That's not generally his style. More so, he looked at the win as a validation of the work the schools and SEC league office have done to invest in men's basketball over the past decade. |
| Another First for College Football's NIL Era: A Contract Holdout | |
| Back in 2022 when a hotshot quarterback recruit from California named Nico Iamaleava committed to the University of Tennessee, he joined the first generation of athletes to command eye-popping money to play college football. Before throwing even a single pass for the Volunteers, he'd already inked an endorsement deal worth $8 million. Three years later, Iamaleava is back at the forefront of another college football revolution. Taking a page from the NFL this week, he became the first player to launch a full-scale holdout for more money. The unprecedented situation wound up sending Iamaleava out the door, leaving Tennessee without a quarterback and, most notably, ushering in yet another flashpoint in the new college football era that seems inevitable to play out over and over again across the country. "It's giving athletes the realization that they have leverage," said Jim Cavale, founder of athlete advocacy group Athletes.org. "He's not only putting to test the market... He's using his ability to transfer somewhere else to make more money." Iamaleava's four-year contract is technically with Tennessee's donor collective, known as Spyre Sports, since college athletes are paid by third parties for use of their name, image and likeness. Following discussions with Spyre representatives, Iamaleava, a redshirt sophomore, ran a favorite play of professionals locked in tense contract negotiations. He skipped practice on Friday and made sure everyone knew why. But rather than concede, Tennessee called his bluff. Hours before the Volunteers were set to kick off their spring game on Saturday, coach Josh Heupel called a team meeting to let them know that the quarterback who had led them to the College Football Playoff was no longer with the team. |
| College football transfer portal, House settlement and more: With NCAA sports on brink of massive change, here's how it all fits together | |
| A pillared goliath along Constitution Avenue, the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium stands as one of the capital city's most iconic buildings, roughly a half-mile from the Washington Monument and with a bird's-eye view of the U.S. Capitol. The 90-year-old auditorium has hosted some of the nation's most defining and historic events. This is where dignitaries established NATO in 1949, where President Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement and where the 9/11 Commission released its findings. On Wednesday evening, the Mellon Auditorium hosted something else: a gathering of university presidents, college athletic directors, coaches and congressional staff members as part of the latest lobbying effort from the power conferences for a federal college sports bill. Within this gaudy setting, around the fully stocked bar and among the distributed hors d'oeuvres, some of the most powerful people in college sports shared with one another an exasperated message. What the hell do we do now? |
| Rece Davis to stay with ESPN after being heavily pursued by Fox Sports: Sources | |
 | College football's pregame battle between ESPN's iconic "College GameDay" and Fox Sports' upstart "Big Noon Kickoff" preview has mirrored the intensity of the on-field rivalries over the last couple of years. This has led to recruiting battles between the two networks, with the latest surrounding "College GameDay" longtime host Rece Davis. Fox made an all-out effort to swipe Davis from "GameDay" to become the host of "Big Noon Kickoff" and one of the faces of its networks, sources briefed on the discussions told The Athletic. Davis, though, has decided to stay at ESPN. Davis has agreed to a new seven-year deal for tens of millions of dollars, according to sources briefed on the deal. The exact terms are unknown, but Davis accepted a slight hometown discount to remain at ESPN that will guarantee him lead hosting duties through the rest of the network's College Football Playoff deal that runs until 2031-32. Davis, 59, has been with ESPN for three decades. College TV's transfer portal is in full flux this offseason. CBS switched Charles Davis off the NFL to replace the retiring Gary Danielson on afternoon Big Ten games. Danielson will have a swan song season this year, while Davis will continue on the NFL this season before going to college in 2026. Before deciding on Davis, CBS tried to hire ESPN's Dan Orlovsky, sources briefed on the discussions said. Orlovsky turned down the opportunity, though he does not yet have a new deal with ESPN. Orlovsky said earlier this year that his contract is up soon. |
| Rory McIlroy Wins the Masters to Complete a Career Grand Slam | |
| During a decade-long major drought that defied both logic and expectation, golf fans had become all too familiar with the same recurring scenario: Rory McIlroy letting opportunity after opportunity slip through his fingers on the game's biggest stage. So as his final round of this Masters quickly turned to disaster, McIlroy seemed to be writing yet another chapter of his agonizing personal history at major tournaments. The heartbreak only deepened after he recovered to build a five-shot lead on the back nine, only to unravel again with a gut-wrenching double bogey while a surging Justin Rose mounted his charge. But each time, he kept recovering, and when the pair went to a playoff after McIlroy gave up the lead once more with a bogey on the 18th hole, there was no mistaking it: he was heading for his worst collapse yet or he would finally get over the hump in the most excruciating fashion imaginable. Tied at 11-under after Rose had earlier birdied this same hole, McIlroy redeemed himself on No. 18 with one of the most iconic shots in the tournament's 89-year history. After pummeling a drive in the sudden death playoff, the tournament's first since 2017 when Rose lost to Sergio Garcia, he spun his second to within a couple feet of the pin. Unlike moments earlier on the same hole, McIlroy didn't miss his short putt -- and he sent it to the bottom of the cup for a birdie after Rose had just finished up for par. Few players who have ever made their way around this course have earned their green jackets in more harrowing yet spectacular fashion. |
The Office of Public Affairs provides the Daily News Digest as a general information resource for Mississippi State University stakeholders.
Web links are subject to change. Submit news, questions or comments to Jim Laird.
