| Monday, July 14, 2025 |
| Rainy weather impacts Mississippi's watermelon crop | |
 | Mississippi's watermelon producers are facing a tough year thanks to the summer rains. "The crop looked really good until all the rain started," said Heath Steede, Mississippi State University (MSU) Extension Service agent in George County. According to officials, watermelons require the right balance of rain, sun and warm temperatures to reach peak size and sweetness. Rains early in the growing season help melons grow to the proper size, but excess rain later in the season can introduce diseases. Steede said there are ruined melons in the fields in the southeast corner of the state. "This year has been a lot like 2017 with excessive rain, which not only hurts the melons but also makes it more difficult to get them out of the field. Overall, I'd say this has not been a very good year for our local growers," he stated. While north Mississippi has fewer watermelon producers than the southeastern portion of the state, those producers are experiencing the same issues with the wet weather. |
| New tax makes drivers pay 3 cents extra at gas pump, even if it doesn't seem like it | |
 | Locals going to fill up their cars since July 1 may have noticed that their gas cost a bit more than normal -- at least an extra 3 cents a gallon. And with recent state legislation prices are only going to continue to get higher. House Bill 1, which went into effect July 1, raised the state's tax on all gasoline from 18 cents to 21 cents. Over the next two years, the tax will see two more 3-cent increases. Revenue generated by the gas tax covers infrastructure improvements across the state. For the Mississippi Department of Transportation, the gas tax is the primary source of state-level funding, Executive Director Brad White told The Dispatch. "We spend our state funds first on maintenance and construction projects," White said. In Fiscal Year 2024, the state gas tax generated $315 million for MDOT to go along with about $800 million from federal taxes, White said. With the gas tax increase, the agency is projected to receive an additional $50 million by July 1, 2026, another $105 million in the next year and another $158 million in its third year when the tax reaches its intended 9-cent increase, White said. But with $450 million worth of additional repairs and maintenance on state highways identified by MDOT and Federal Highway Administration last year in a study, the extra revenue still may not be enough. |
| Fair documentary to premiere July 27 at Ellis Theater | |
 | A new documentary titled "Last American House Party," which explores the Neshoba County Fair, will premiere on Sunday, July 27, at 4 p.m. at the Ellis Theater. Doors will open at 3:30 p.m., followed by a brief introduction from the filmmakers at 4 p.m. The screening is scheduled to begin at 4:15 p.m. A short Q&A session with the film's producers will follow the credits, concluding around 6:30 p.m. Director Bryan W. Carpenter summarized the documentary, saying, "13 South Productions follows The Neshoba County Fair. A one-of-a-kind event full of smoky, bluesy, charming, family roots, Americana in the wild, dirty, and beautiful South. Eight days of more than a hundred years of tradition." He added, "A special place, one like no other. Many would say it is a summer rite of passage... a place where people come every year to reconnect, where kin means something and the meals are all homemade." 13 South Productions is a Mississippi-based film company and a partner of the Mississippi Film Office, with offices located in Gluckstadt and Lena. "Our entire production team is Mississippi natives," Mills said. "While we produce both feature-films and documentaries in the state, our true passion is making documentaries about Mississippi." |
| Vicksburg National Military Park to get multi-million-dollar facelift via private donation | |
| The 126-year-old Vicksburg National Military Park is getting some much-needed improvements through a $2.8 million private donation for critical battlefield restoration efforts. The gift, which was given to the park by John Nau III, chairman and CEO of Silver Eagle Beverages, will be matched by $2.5 million in federal funding through the National Park Services' Centennial Challenge program, totaling a $5.3 million incoming investment. According to a statement from Friends of Vicksburg National Military Park & Campaign, the center of the project will be a full restoration of the Illinois Memorial, the most popular landmark and one the most significant monuments in the park. "This gift from John Nau III is nothing short of visionary," Brigadier General Robert Crear said. "It will not only preserve a national treasure -- the Illinois Memorial -- but also reclaim the battlefield from post-war development and restore its integrity for all Americans." "Vicksburg is a prime example of how private-public partnerships can protect our nation's most significant battlefields and ensure that future generations can understand and honor the events that shaped our country," reads a portion of the announcement. |
| Jackson revitalization: Mississippi House task force hears from new mayor, police in August meeting | |
 | A House task force committee will meet on Aug. 13 to discuss improvements to Jackson, the state's capital city, with local leaders. Capitol Revitalization Committee Chairwoman Shanda Yates, I-Jackson, told the Clarion Ledger her task force will hear from Mayor John Horhn and law enforcement to learn how laws the committee pushed through the Legislature are going and what areas lawmakers can help. "We want to see where the state can help," Yates said. Yates said the committee will schedule future hearing based on what Horhn and other local leaders say Yates' team should focus on. Last summer and fall, the committee held several hearings to discuss the city's water system, now in the hands of third-party receiver Ted Henifin and his JXN Water, the idea of a casino project, homelessness and blight across the city. Those conversations translated into five pieces of legislation that became law on July 1, including a public property camping ban, new panhandling laws, a squatting ban, a bill allowing the secretary of state to clean up state-forfeited properties and a tax credit program to incentivize redevelopment of blight. |
| Ezell: No concerns over NOAA budget cuts, reaffirms position on NPR, PBS cuts | |
 | On Saturday, WLOX News caught up with Congressman Mike Ezell (R) and asked about budget cuts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We also asked whether the forecast data it provides for hurricane season is at risk. "We have the Hurricane Hunters, we have so much technology out there right now -- NOAA's not being done away with," he said. "We are going to continue to have their services, but you know, again, it's like everything else in the country right now, we need to look at the money that we're spending, we need to look at the money we can save for the taxpayer," he said. President Trump's proposed 2026 budget would cut $2.2 billion in NOAA research funding. According to usa.oceana.org, the proposal would decrease funding for the National Marine Fisheries Service by more than one-third and reduce funding for the conservation of marine mammals and endangered species. We also asked him if he's going to continue to support the Trump-endorsed cuts to NPR and PBS. "I voted for that, and that's something else we need to take a look at. We will continue to monitor all these things because, bottom line, it's on the taxpayer," he said. |
| Senate NDAA would hike defense spending by $32 billion | |
 | The Senate version of the fiscal 2026 defense policy bill would authorize an extra $32.1 billion for national security spending above what the Pentagon sought, putting the chamber on a collision course with the House and the Trump administration. Provisions in the legislation also differ with policies espoused by President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth -- particularly related to potential U.S. troop changes in Europe and support of Ukraine. The bill, the text of which has not yet been released, was approved behind closed doors on Wednesday night. The legislation would provide a total of $924.7 billion for national defense, according to an executive summary released by the Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday. That includes $878.7 billion for the Defense Department plus $35.2 billion for nuclear programs within the Department of Energy and $10.8 billion for defense-related activities outside the committee's jurisdiction. By contrast, a draft version of the House Armed Services Committee's fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act recommends $882.6 billion in national defense spending, of which $848.3 billion is for the Pentagon -- totals that are in line with what the White House requested. The bill also pulls from elements of Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker's so-called FORGED Act, a sweeping proposal that would overhaul the Defense Department's approach to acquisition. |
| Trump's megabill is creating a budget nightmare for states | |
 | President Donald Trump's landmark legislation is driving a giant hole in governors' budgets in a midterm year. By slashing health care and food assistance for low-income Americans, Republicans in Washington are passing tremendous costs onto the states, leaving local leaders from both parties grasping for ways to make up for billions in lost federal dollars. The cuts are already threatening to endanger governors' education, public safety and disaster relief funds. And this is all happening as up to 20 state leaders face reelection in 2026, forcing them to figure out how to message the fallout as their parties battle for control over the House next year. "We don't put these budgets together that have a lot of fluff and rainy day funds that are easily accessible," said Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, who chairs the Democratic Governors Association. "All of us are trying to figure out how to mitigate the damage that will be done to our constituents." Kelly, whose term ends next year, said governors across the country are now in "a world of hurt and concern." The Republican governors who publicly supported the bill now have an especially difficult situation. GOP-led states with large populations of low-income Americans rely the most on federal assistance and lack the tax base or political willpower to support any revenue increases. |
| GOP leader faces showdown with Republicans on Trump-backed funding cuts | |
 | Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is headed for a showdown this week with a group of Republican senators over a House-passed package that claws back $9.4 trillion in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and global public health programs. Members of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, including Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine), are not keen on cutting programs they have already funded through bipartisan appropriations bills. A handful of senior Republican senators are worried about ceding even more power to the Trump administration, as Congress has already done by allowing President Trump to shutter or overhaul agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development or impose steep tariffs on many of the nation's trading partners without much pushback. "I definitely want the PEPFAR cuts and the child and maternal health and other global health cuts removed, but I don't know how Sen. Thune's going to structure the process. He's not shared that with me," Collins told The Hill, referring to global program former President George W. Bush launched in 2003 to combat AIDS called the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The last time Trump tried to push a rescissions package through Congress was in 2018. It failed after Republicans senators balked. |
| The W's 2025-26 Community Read underway | |
| Mississippi University for Women is continuing its partnership with the Columbus community for the annual Community Read Program, which recently kicked off its newest installment. This year, the Community Read Committee has selected "The Barn" by Wright Thompson. "Each selection is an attempt to connect themes within our community and university through a text that allows for wide discussion and intellectual curiosity," said Hillary Richardson, dean of Library Services at The W. "Based on our programming for our 2023 community read, 'How the Word is Passed,' the Mississippi Humanities Council offered to partner with us on this book, and we agreed that it was a great selection." The book examines the location of the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955, using Wright's deep understanding of the story and factors that led to the murder, having lived near where the crime took place. Thompson addresses the facts and myths of the circumstances of this murder, but this book is mostly about the agricultural, economic and social histories of the Mississippi Delta that created this moment and the ripple effects that this moment had on the communities that both left and continued to stay there. Wright also addresses this "barn" -- a place that still physically exists -- as an artifact of forgetfulness. |
| MUW to launch state's first master's program focused on hospitality, culinary workforce | |
| Mississippi University for Women is set to launch a new graduate program this fall, blending culinary arts, workforce development and hospitality. The Master of Science in Culinary and Hospitality Education will be offered through MUW's Culinary Arts Institute, housed within the College of Business and Professional Studies. The interdisciplinary program is designed for aspiring educators in culinary and hospitality industries. Kelly Woodford, dean of the College of Business and Professional Studies, said the program is the only one of its kind in the state. "We have looked, and we have found very few programs that look like this at the masters level, that are designed for industry professionals, K-12 teachers and community college teachers to give them that master's level education and master's level credentialing to teach the next generation of culinary arts and hospitality professionals," Woodford said. The program is "low residency," Woodford said, meaning students will do a majority of their work online, making it ideal for students with full-time jobs. |
| Board of Governors approves new accreditor for Florida universities in win for DeSantis | |
| The state of Florida's university system just approved a new accreditor, and it's another victory for Gov. Ron DeSantis' push to overhaul academia. The Florida Board of Governors on July 11 unanimously approved the creation of the Commission for Public Higher Education (CPHE), an alternative to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOG). Five other states have signed on, including Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Tennessee. It could take years before the CHPE becomes fully effective, but the state is already allocating $4 million for start-up money. The other five states are expected to appropriate funds as well, according to the CHPE's business plan. But for now, Florida is the only state committing money to the project, although South Carolina and North Carolina are dedicating staff members to it. The CPHE was referred to frequently as a "startup" business during the BOG meeting. Despite the vote, several board members approached the new accrediting body with trepidation, relating concerns surrounding information technology security, the liability they face and the logistical problems of starting the new entity. |
| Despite Reservations, Florida Approves New Accreditor | |
 | The Florida Board of Governors voted Friday afternoon to create a controversial new accrediting agency, in coordination with five other state university systems. The decision came after about an hour of heated discussion between board members and the State University System of Florida's chancellor regarding details of the plan. Chancellor Raymond Rodriguez argued that the new accreditor, called the Commission for Public Higher Education, would eliminate the bureaucracy that comes with existing accrediting agencies and focus specifically on the needs of public universities. "The Commission for Public Higher Education will offer an accreditation model that prioritizes academic excellence and student success while removing ideological bias and unnecessary financial burdens," he said. But before voting in favor of the motion, board members repeatedly pushed back, arguing that the plans for starting an accreditor from scratch were half-baked. They raised a litany of questions about how the CPHE would work in practice. Despite all the pushback, the BOG ultimately voted unanimously to approve the measure. |
| Trump wields his 'secret weapon': College accreditation | |
 | President Donald Trump and his allies are using a little-known but powerful corner of higher education -- college accreditation -- to exert pressure on colleges and universities, an effort that threatens the independence of accreditors and the stability of the institutions they approve. Accrediting agencies, which have existed for more than a century, determine whether colleges meet standards of quality by evaluating every aspect of their finances, operations and student achievement. If a college lacks an accreditor's seal of approval, its students cannot obtain the federal education loans and grants that are the lifeblood of many schools. Trump has seized on the critical role of accreditation in his escalating fight with elite institutions. This week, the Education and Health and Human Services departments encouraged Harvard University's accreditor to take action against the Ivy League school for allegedly violating the civil rights of Jewish students. The New England Commission of Higher Education, which accredits Harvard, said it has given the university until Aug. 15 to respond and will take up the matter at a previously scheduled meeting in September. The administration took a similar step in early June over Columbia University's alleged civil rights violations. By the end of June, Columbia's accreditor, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, issued the school a noncompliance warning. Middle States did not immediately respond to requests for comment. |
| OU College of Arts and Sciences dean shares goals college | |
| After nearly 14 years working at the University of Oklahoma, Michael Markham is preparing to step into his new role as dean of the university's largest college, Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences, on July 14. Markham began his tenure at OU in 2011 as an assistant professor in biology before becoming associate dean of the college in 2020. Markham succeeds former Dean David Wrobel, who left OU in July 2024 after spending six years in the position. Markham will replace interim dean Randall Hewes. Markham previously served as the interim dean of OU Honors College for one year before its current dean, Paul Gilmore, was selected in April. As a long-tenured OU faculty member, Markham said there are higher expectations for him given his extensive knowledge and involvement at OU and the College of Arts and Sciences. In his first 100 days, Markham said his main priority is to communicate his goals to students, faculty, staff and alumni, outlining where he wants to take the college during his tenure. Markham said his main goals surround areas such as research outputs that lead to higher federal grant funding, increasing the number of doctoral graduates, increasing publication of books by faculty and supporting faculty in endeavors to win prestigious awards. |
| Cole: National Weather Center will be fully funded, protected | |
| The closing of the National Severe Storms Lab along with other weather research centers across the nation won't happen, according to Norman Rep. Tom Cole. Cole was a guest at a recent Norman Chamber of Commerce event featuring three of Oklahoma's former governors discussing their careers and the development of political decisionmaking. Cole spoke with The Transcript about the recent issues surrounding the NSSL and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency. The news that the new budget from NOAA would close the NSSL in Norman, along with all the other weather laboratories in the country, sent a shock through the weather science community when it was announced last week. However, Cole is the chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, which decides how the budget will really work. He said the proposed NSSL closing is off the table. "You're going to be fine in our bill. We're going to protect it, and we'll be coming out in the next few weeks," Cole said. "The basic funding structure, the basic employment stuff, is going to be okay. The National Weather Center is in Norman. It's not going anywhere, and it's going to be fully staffed and maintained." Cole said, however, that Trump does control grants, and many of those grants work in other parts of the National Weather Center, such as The Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations, which remain in some jeopardy. |
| As U-Va. president leaves, faculty say board failed to protect university | |
| University of Virginia faculty passed a vote of no confidence Friday in the school's governing body, saying it failed to protect against "outside interference" by the Trump administration that led to the eventual resignation of President James E. Ryan. The vote by the U-Va. faculty senate -- which came on Ryan's last day in office -- called on the board to provide faculty with an "immediate and complete accounting" of its response to inquiries by the Justice Department in recent months. "I hope the board of visitors feels the real energy and angst there is right now about how things unfolded around President Ryan's resignation, and the anxiety about how things are going to be handled in the future," Faculty Senate Chair Jeri K. Seidman said in an interview after the vote. The move follows a tumultuous few weeks at the flagship university in Charlottesville. Hours before the faculty senate vote, Ryan published a nearly four-minute video thanking the campus community for its support and making U-Va. a special place. |
| Inside the Conservative Campaign That Took Down a University President | |
 | The Jefferson Council, a band of conservative-leaning University of Virginia alumni, was impatient and fed up. For years, the group had railed against the university's president, James E. Ryan, for his robust promotion of campus diversity initiatives. They had counted on Glenn Youngkin, the state's Republican governor who vocally opposed D.E.I., to force a new direction at one of the country's most prestigious public universities. But as 2025, the final year of Mr. Youngkin's term, began, the university's diversity, equity and inclusion apparatus was still in place. And time was running out, with polls showing that the governor's race would be an uphill battle for a Republican candidate. But the Jefferson Council had a new ally in its campaign: President Trump. In his first week in office, Mr. Trump signed executive orders banning federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which threatened any public and private universities receiving federal funds. The Justice Department then hired a lawyer to help enforce those orders at its Civil Rights Division: Gregory W. Brown, a University of Virginia alumnus and donor. The Jefferson Council was well acquainted with Mr. Brown. As a lawyer in private practice, he had sued his alma mater on behalf of students claiming free speech violations or antisemitic harassment -- cases referred to him by the council. The Jefferson Council and the Civil Rights Division separately denied in interviews that they had worked in concert. But the council had at least set the table for what came next. And in his new position, Mr. Brown helped engineer an unusual and concerted pressure campaign that would lead to Mr. Ryan's resignation. |
| Most teens -- and girls especially -- see college as key to jobs and life skills, AP-NORC poll says | |
 | Most American teenagers say it is important to them to graduate from college, with girls especially describing it as a key step for accomplishing their life goals, according to a new poll. Teenagers also generally are more upbeat than adults on college despite concerns about tuition costs, soaring student loan debt and the politicization of many issues in higher education. Overall, about 6 in 10 teens say it's "extremely" or "very" important to them to graduate from college, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which was conducted this spring among teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17. That compares with about 4 in 10 adults who said the same in a UChicago Harris/AP-NORC poll from 2022. The survey also found that many teens think it will be harder for them to achieve major life milestones -- like owning a home, raising a family or reaching a good standard of living -- than it was for their parents. Seven in 10 teenage girls in the survey said it was at least "very" important to them to graduate from college, compared with 54% of teenage boys. The disparity reflects a growing gender gap in college degree completion. In 1995, young men and women were equally likely to hold a bachelor's degree. Since then, a gap has emerged, with 47% of U.S. women ages 25-34 completing a bachelor's degree compared with 37% of men, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of census data. |
| 'Panicking': Recent college grads struggle to find jobs | |
 | Azraiel Raines dreamed of working for the State Department, when she graduated from Idaho State University with a degree in global studies. But the State Department is not hiring. In fact it cut more than 1,300 jobs this past week as part of a broader government downsizing. As graduation approached, she interviewed at law firms, but never got a call back. Applications for school district jobs also came up empty. "I was panicking," Raines says. "What am I going to do if I don't have a job after graduation?" Eventually, she landed a position in the counseling department at her alma mater in Pocatello, Idaho, where she oversees community outreach. "Which is not something I envisioned myself doing," Raines says. "But it's using my skills in ways I didn't think I'd be able to, and the people there have been really great, so it's helped a lot." Economists say Raines is not alone among recent college graduates in struggling to find work. Although the overall unemployment rate is just 4.1%, few people are quitting jobs today, and employers are skittish about hiring. That means there are fewer opportunities for newly-minted graduates to get a foot in the door. "The labor market for recent college grads in 2025, so far, is among the most challenging in the last decade, apart from the pandemic period" says Jaison Abel, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. |
| The Federal Government Is Retreating From Student Lending | |
 | The federal government is retreating from its central role in financing higher education. President Trump's big tax-and-spending law includes new restrictions on how much students can borrow and how they repay. The provisions begin to reverse the government's near takeover of the $1.7 trillion student lending market over the past six decades. As a result, families are reassessing the costs and risks of college. Many are likely to turn to private lenders, which typically charge higher interest rates and require creditworthy cosigners. Those lenders recently accounted for some 8% of outstanding loans, according to data from Enterval Analytics. In particular, as many as half of graduate-student borrowers may take private loans to cover funding gaps, according to Jordan Matsudaira, director of the Postsecondary Education & Economics Research Center at American University, and former chief economist at the Education Department. Higher education observers and borrowers worry the changes will price out middle-class families and reduce access to careers that require expensive graduate training. "Congress has never removed benefits from existing borrowers like this," said Betsy Mayotte, president of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors. "This is really unprecedented." |
| How US Universities Became So Vulnerable to Government Threats | |
| As Donald Trump's administration slashes and burns its way across the nation's top campuses, American higher education faces the most serious crisis in its existence. During earlier episodes of political repression such as McCarthyism, academia's main casualties tended to be the careers of individual professors whose political activities displeased the powers-that-be. The institutions that fired and blacklisted those faculty members emerged from the witch hunt largely intact. Now, the entire academic world is a target. Trump is even wielding the government's most powerful weapon by threatening to withdraw federal funding from the whole sector. No school is immune. From community colleges and for-profit institutions to the Ivy League and the Big Ten, the loss of Washington's dollars would decimate or seriously damage most colleges and universities. Without that money -- primarily for scientific research and student aid -- higher education would be unlikely to survive in its current form. Even the MAGA juggernaut's other weapons, like banning foreign students or withdrawing accreditation, have financial consequences. This is both a testament to the Trump administration's broader goal of eliminating all vestiges of liberal democracy from the US, and to the evolution of American universities themselves. Uncle Sam's footprint within higher education has expanded so enormously since the mid-20th century and the academic community has undergone so many transmogrifications, that it is now vulnerable to Trump's economic sanctions in ways it would not have been before. |
| Colleges Hire Title VI Coordinators Amid Federal Scrutiny | |
| Following the recent surge of complaints of antisemitism and Islamophobia on college campuses -- and increased scrutiny from the federal government -- more and more universities are creating new jobs to lead the institutions' response to these complaints. Turning to a coordinator to handle all things Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is just the latest sign that colleges and universities are working to update processes, policies and procedures related to civil rights after finding themselves unprepared to handle complaints -- a gap that the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights has called on institutions to address. The growth in positions also indicates that colleges don't expect the scrutiny on Title VI to end any time soon. Experts and college leaders hope that the new positions will help colleges provide a cohesive and thorough response to complaints of race and shared ancestry discrimination. It's an especially important goal after many colleges found themselves unprepared to handle the shared ancestry discrimination complaints that arose from the pro-Palestinian protests and encampments that overtook campuses in fall 2023 and spring 2024. |
| How Trump's crackdown on universities is affecting the world | |
| Universities are an easy target for right-wing populists. Polls show that a lot of Americans consider them too liberal, too expensive and too elitist, and not entirely without reason. But the fight between the Trump administration and Harvard is something more: It has become a test for the president's ability to impose his political agenda on all 2,600 universities in the United States. Students, professors and scientists are all feeling the pressure, and that could undermine the dominant position that American science has enjoyed for decades. What does that mean for the world? European countries are wooing U.S.-based scientists, offering them "scientific refuge" or, as one French minister put it, "a light in the darkness." Canada has attracted several prominent American academics, including three tenured Yale professors who study authoritarianism and fascism. The Australian Strategic Institute described this moment as "a once-in-a-century brain gain opportunity." In the mid-20th century, America was seen by many as a benign power, committed to scientific freedom and democracy. It attracted the best brains fleeing fascism and authoritarianism in Europe. Today, the biggest beneficiary could be China and Chinese universities, which have been trying to recruit world-class scientific talent for years. Now Mr. Trump is doing their work for them. |
| America's Brain Drain Could Become the World's Brain Gain | |
| The U.S.'s dramatic research and funding cuts and changes to skilled-worker immigration policies threaten one of its greatest economic advantages: people-powered innovation. The rest of the world stands to benefit. Since the end of World War II, federal funding has helped U.S. companies dominate the cutting edge of computing, space exploration and medicine, delivering an economic tailwind for the nation. It made the country a dream destination for aspiring researchers, engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world. Now that's changing -- quickly. A March 2025 survey by the journal Nature of more than 1,600 scientists in the U.S. found that three-quarters have considered leaving the country. Respondents specifically cited the Trump administration's hostility to scientific research and those who practice it. Historically, three-quarters of international students who earn a Ph.D. in the U.S. have stayed long-term. America's ability to retain these workers -- who are not just highly trained but expensive to educate -- has been one key to the country's pre-eminence in innovation. There is also a potential cost to the economy writ large. One recent analysis from economists at American University found that current and proposed cuts to federal research spending could whack the U.S. economy. |
| Higher-Ed Associations Pitch an Alternative to Trump's Cap on Research Funding | |
 | A coalition of 10 heavyweight higher-ed organizations is proposing to Congress an alternative to the research-spending cap the Trump administration has been seeking to impose. The new model would overhaul the federal system of reimbursing universities for indirect costs incurred for their research, which has been in place since World War II. The Joint Associations Group, or JAG, which includes the Association of American Universities (AAU), the American Council on Education (ACE), and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), announced its proposal on Friday. The coalition sees its plan as a middle ground, one that responds to long-held gripes about how indirect costs are administered while lessening the billions in lost revenue for universities under the 15-percent indirect-cost cap proposed by several federal agencies, among them the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Departments of Defense and Energy. JAG's "Financial Accountability in Research" (FAIR) model would offer institutions two options to be reimbursed for expenses tied to a particular project: a line-item accounting, or a less-time-intensive "base option" that would put a fixed percentage of a project's total budget toward certain costs. The plan represents a radical restructuring of the nation's research-funding ecosystem, but one that JAG leaders say is necessary given mounting political pressure. |
| University Leaders Propose New Research Funding Model | |
| After multiple government agencies moved to unilaterally cap indirect research costs -- claiming that the current structure allows universities to waste government funds -- a coalition of 10 research advocacy organizations unveiled an alternative plan Friday. The Joint Associations Group (JAG), which includes the Association of American Universities, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and the Association of American Medical Colleges, are calling the plan the Fiscal Accountability in Research, or FAIR, model. The goal is to "increase transparency, accountability, and clarity in how federal research funding is spent," according to a summary explaining how the new model would work. Although lawmakers rejected Trump's proposal to cap indirect costs in 2017 and wrote provisions to safeguard the old model, the current Congress -- which is also weighing Trump's proposals to make sweeping cuts to federal research budgets -- has called for changes to indirect costs calculations. "The key foundational issue we're dealing with isn't really an indirect cost model, it's to keep America in a global leadership role in science and engineering research, and to be accountable to and transparent with taxpayers," said Kelvin Droegemeier, the former White House Office of Science and Technology policy director who helped create the FAIR model, in an interview with Inside Higher Ed. "This is simply one mechanism to help make that happen." |
| Trump's big bill passage means lost opportunity for Mississippi, but Medicaid expansion is still doable | |
| Mississippi Today's Bobby Harrison writes: If they only knew then what they know now. In hindsight, Mississippians who supported Medicaid expansion would have been better off had they accepted a work requirement in the 2024 legislative session. Instead, many Democrats in the Mississippi House helped block a bill that would have enacted Medicaid expansion in the state to provide health insurance for primarily the working poor, but only if it included a work requirement. At the time, House Democrats rightfully pointed out the administration of former President Joe Biden would not have approved the work requirement, thus preventing the bill from becoming law. Additionally, Democrats argued that some states had tried to implement work requirements in their expansion plans but were shot down by federal courts under the first administration of President Donald Trump. But now, thanks to since-reelected Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill," as it is called, all Medicaid adults under the age of 65, except for certain groups such as parents of young children, students and the disabled, must work to receive Medicaid coverage. |
| Can state leaders rise above festering conflict? | |
 | Columnist Bill Crawford writes: Have the fuss and factionalism that plagued this year's legislative session gone away? No, they appear to be festering. Makes you wonder if those involved ever take the time to step away from advisors, lobbyists, colleagues and other influencers to gain a balcony perspective of relevant issues and behaviors. For example, could such a reflective perspective give Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Speaker Jason White enhanced insight? Pull them together? In his book "Leadership Without Easy Answers," author Ron Heifetz says yes, it would. That is about the only way authentic leaders can externalize conflict and see paths to resolution when dealing with difficult problems, he says. Hmmm. Our venerable state Capitol has balconies galore. Yet visitors to the balcony galleries in the House and Senate seldom walk away having seen resolution. Rather than the broad perspective Heifetz suggests, our leaders tend to lock themselves into narrow perspectives. |
SPORTS
| Soccer: Defending SEC Champions Set For Challenging Schedule In 2025 | |
| With just over a month remaining before the 2025 season begins, Mississippi State soccer has released its schedule for the upcoming campaign. The regular season will begin with the home opener on Aug. 14 against UT Martin. Prior to the official start of the year, the Bulldogs will play a pair of exhibition matches against Mercer on Aug. 2 at home and at ULM on Aug. 9. State is set to play 17 total matches with nine being contested at the MSU Soccer Field, which saw the school's single-game attendance record broken four times last fall. The home slate includes premier matchups national runner-up Wake Forest, conference rival Auburn and in-state rival Ole Miss for the annual Magnolia Cup match. Eight teams on the schedule reached the NCAA Tournament last year, with five of those reaching the second round. Eight teams were ranked in the United Soccer Coaches' poll at least once last year with six spending at least one week among the top 15. Thirteen of the 17 squads are from Power Four programs and 41 percent of the schedule finished the 2024 season inside the top 50 of the final NCAA RPI. "We're beyond excited to announce a competitive schedule that will challenge us and prepare us for success in the SEC," head coach Nick Zimmerman said. "Every match is an opportunity to grow, and we're looking forward to seeing our fans packing the pitch and bringing that Starkville energy all season long." |
| Cijntje, Rooker Set For MLB All-Star Festivities | |
| Mississippi State Baseball will be well represented during MLB All-Star Week at Truist Park. Former Diamond Dawg standouts Brent Rooker and Jurrangelo Cijntje -- both first round draft picks -- are set to participate in several events during the Midsummer Classic. Rooker will compete in Home Run Derby as well as the All-Star Game itself while Cijntje will pitch in the MLB Futures Game. The MLB Futures Game will kick off the festivities on Saturday at 3 p.m. CT on MLB Network. The Home Run Derby is set for Monday at 7 p.m. on ESPN followed by the All-Star Game on Tuesday at 7 p.m. on FOX. Rooker is set to make his second All-Star appearance having also been tabbed to the 2023 American League All-Star team. It marks the 30th time an MSU player has been selected to the All-Star game and becomes the seventh Bulldog to become an All-Star multiple times. The Athletics' slugger will also be the second State player to participate in the Home Run Derby, coincidentally joining fellow SEC Triple Crown winner Rafael Palmeiro. Palmeiro competed in the 1998 and 2004 Home Run Derbys hitting 10 at Coors Field and 14 at Minute Maid Park, respectively. |
| How Jeffery Simmons, with surprise from Jelly Roll, is giving back to Mississippi community | |
| Jeffery Simmons made his annual trip to Mississippi to give back to his hometown community, and it came with a surprise. The former Mississippi State football star and current Tennessee Titans defensive lineman brought Jelly Roll, the musical artist, with him to the Jeffery Simmons Fun Day in Macon on July 5. What was supposed to be a carnival-like event at the Noxubee Titans Field with DJs, food trucks, games, autographs, giveaways and more turned into even more than what Simmons expected. Jelly Roll, without Simmons even requesting it, brought his guitar and performed seven songs for an estimated crowd of 3,000 people. "It was amazing," Simmons said on July 11 at Starkville Sportsplex after the first day of his annual youth football camp. "I was probably singing every song." Jelly Roll also announced on stage that he was going to sponsor a new $20,000 splash pad in Macon, plus donate another $20,000 to Simmons' Give Em A Reason foundation. Simmons presented Jelly Roll with an autographed jersey. Simmons, who's from Macon, played at Mississippi State from 2016-18 and is entering his seventh season with the Titans. |
| New shoes, new opportunities: Titans star sponsors youth shopping spree | |
| The hardest part of Thursday for 9-year-old Kaiden Smith was figuring out what to do with the $10 he had left to spend at Dick's Sporting Goods. Seeing Smith pause to think about what to do with the remaining money, the employee assigned to guide him around the store stopped pushing the shopping cart -- which was loaded down with new football equipment such as gloves, a mouth piece, a back plate, a reusable Gatorade bottle and even a new pair of Nike shoes -- to let him think. After all, Smith didn't have to worry about anyone telling him what he could get. Picking up the bill was Jeffrey Simmons, a Macon native and two-time All-Pro defensive lineman who signed a $94 million contract extension with the Tennessee Titans in 2023. Smith was one of 10 lucky youth players randomly selected out of the 650 enrollees of Simmons' football camp being held in Starkville on Friday and Saturday. All 10 were brought to the Dick's Sporting Goods in Columbus where each had $300 to spend on anything in the store. Thursday was the third time Simmons and his Give Em A Reason foundation partnered with a sporting goods store for the shopping spree. The idea comes from his turbulent upbringing where Simmons and his four other siblings were all raised by his mother as a single parent. |
| Mike Matheny to headline 'A Night of Champions' at Delta State | |
| Delta State University's second annual "A Night of Champions" has been scheduled for Friday, Aug. 8, with tickets now available. After bringing former NFL star Archie Manning and former DSU sports information director Langston Rogers together for the fireside chat event in 2024, the university in Cleveland is maintaining the star power with 2025 headliner Mike Matheny. Matheny, a former MLB player and manager, won four gold gloves and was considered one of the show's stoutest catchers from 1994 to 2006 with stops in Milwaukee, Toronto, St. Louis, and San Francisco. He played in the 2004 World Series with the Cardinals and later led the team to the 2013 World Series as skipper. Matheny then served as manager of the Kansas City Royals from 2020 to 2022. After compiling a 756-693 record from the dugout across his time in St. Louis and Kansas City, he released his second book called "The Dad Coach" earlier this year. His first, "The Matheny Manifesto," was a New York Times bestseller. In addition to the conversation with Matheny, "A Night of Champions" will feature dinner and a silent auction. |
| Greg Sankey on the SEC's role in College Football Playoff expansion: 'We have the best hand to play' | |
| Naturally, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey faced numerous questions about College Football Playoff expansion on Monday at the 2025 SEC Kickoff. Sankey made it clear that he's confident in the SEC's position in expansion discussions. "Doubling down was one of phrases used (by Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark)," Sankey said, per On3's Brett McMurphy. "That's part of the gambling experience. You want to have a good hand to play. We (the SEC) have the best hand to play. We'll continue to debate whether expansion above 12 is appropriate." With the most revenue, and typically the best teams, the SEC and Big Ten are the two most powerful conferences in college football. During this ever-changing era of college football, they've often teamed up to ensure the sport trends in the direction they want. It appears that Sankey will be taking a similar approach to CFP expansion. The SEC commissioner further emphasized that there is no guarantee the CFP will expand if he doesn't find it beneficial to the conference. "We have a 12-team Playoff with five conference champions that can stay if we can't agree," Sankey said. "Ultimately if there isn't, there's a level of authority granted to the Big Ten and SEC together. It's not like you just show up and pound your fist and something happens -- I hope that type of narrative can be reduced. |
| SEC media days live updates, highlights from Day 1 of football kickoff | |
 | For years, the SEC marketed itself by with the tagline, "It just means more" -- that is, the league's football product, which has produced the majority of national champions over the past 20 years, is so extraordinarily excellent and carries such an outsized importance that no other conference in college athletics can match it. Just how much does football mean to the league, exactly? In the SEC, media days -- an event reserved for players and coaches to talk about how optimistic they are about the upcoming season and how everyone on the team is in the best shape of their life -- stretches across four days. The 2025 edition of SEC media days will take place this week, beginning on Monday, July 14 from the College Football Hall of Fame and Omni Atlanta Hotel at Centennial Park. There, coaches and player representatives from each of the conference's 16 teams will discuss the impending 2025 season, offering at least a glimpse at what fans can expect in what may yet again be college football's deepest and most talented conference. As is often the case, the SEC won't be lacking in storylines. |
| Plaintiffs' lawyers in House v. NCAA settlement to get roughly $750 million in fees | |
| The federal judge who presided over the recently approved House v. NCAA settlement awarded legal fees on Friday that will pay out roughly $750 million to the plaintiffs' lawyers over the 10-year life of the agreement. The landmark settlement, which resolved a trio of class-action antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA and its power conferences, will result in nearly $2.8 billion in backpay damages to former college athletes and a new financial model that allows schools to begin directly sharing revenue with college athletes over the next decade, capped at $20.5 million per school in 2025-26. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken granted legal fees and costs that will pay the plaintiffs' lawyers nearly $525 million, and will allow those lawyers to apply annually for additional fees related to the forward-facing revenue sharing model. Those future fee payments, which will be calculated as a percentage of the money schools spend in revenue sharing, are expected to total roughly $250 million over 10 years. Attorneys Steve Berman and Jeffrey Kessler served as co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs. "The Court finds that the fees just described are fair and reasonable," Wilken wrote in a motion. Wilken also granted service awards to class representatives in the lawsuit, including $125,000 each to former college swimmer Grant House and former college basketball player Sedona Prince, as well as $50,000 to former college running back Chuba Hubbard. |
| House attorneys slam NCAA and power conferences over denied NIL deals, issue legal warning about settlement | |
| In another twist in college athletics' new revenue-share era, attorneys for the plaintiffs in the House settlement believe the NCAA and power conferences are violating terms of the legal agreement and are threatening to report the wrongdoing to the court. In a terse, two-page letter sent to NCAA and power conference officials Friday, Jeffrey Kessler, a co-lead House plaintiff attorney along with Steve Berman, requested that the NCAA and conferences "retract" a statement of guidance released Thursday from the College Sports Commission and, presumably, reinstate name, image and likeness deals that the CSC has denied -- many of them from booster-backed NIL collectives. In his letter, Kessler describes the guidance as "not consistent" and "undermining" settlement terms, according to a copy of the document Yahoo Sports obtained. The CSC, the new revenue-share enforcement arm policing NIL deals, notified schools Thursday that it was denying dozens of NIL deals for not meeting what it terms a "valid business purpose." The guidance specifically targeted collectives, entities that for years now have paid millions to athletes through booster donations. In the letter, attorneys write that collectives should not be treated differently as other businesses. |
| March Madness Expansion Would Be Fueled by Booze | |
| In the chaotic world of college sports, where everything is in flux, the only inevitable thing is that March Madness will eventually expand. The NCAA needs more cash. The power conferences want to expand the men's basketball tournament to get more of their teams in. But what looks like a simple formula -- add more teams, get more money from broadcasters -- has turned into something much more complex. In fact, the question of whether the tournament expands to as many as 76 teams as soon as next spring could now hinge on one single factor that may seem tough to swallow. Booze. To make expansion pencil out, a person familiar with the situation says, the NCAA needs to wring significant amounts of money from selling official NCAA sponsorships in categories it has previously shunned: beer, wine and hard alcohol. The twist is that the NCAA can't sell those sponsorships itself. Instead, it has to persuade tournament broadcasters CBS and Turner to do so -- and then increase their own annual payment to the NCAA. The NCAA would use its portion to fund the travel expenses and tournament payouts for the additional teams. Anything left over would go toward the growing expenses of college sports---including the national office's portion of a massive antitrust settlement. |
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