| Tuesday, February 3, 2026 |
| Mississippi State professor's hated bugs videos go viral | |
 | Medical entomologist isn't a title people hear about every day, but a Mississippi State University professor may change that. Jerome Goddard, who owns that rare title, has been making videos about bugs and his adventures in the field, and huge numbers of people are watching them on social media platforms such as Facebook. "Some of mine are in the millions," Goddard said of his "Bug World" videos. "Some of them have thousands of comments and most of them are positive. It's been surprising and baffling to me, but people seem to like them." Entomology is the study of insects. Goddard is an entomologist, but he, like others with expertise in insects, is specialized. His field of expertise is in insects that carry diseases and can affect public health. So, most of his videos focus on bugs that people really don't care for such as mosquitoes, ticks, lice and chiggers, just to name a few. Those aren't exactly topics that would cause videos to go viral on social media, but Goddard makes it happen. Goddard said he often gets comments from people that say they don't like bugs or don't know anything about them but they like his videos. The delivery of his words, animation and the excitement he has when telling stories are a lot like the bugs he talks about are -- infectious. And he's a natural at explaining things and telling stories. |
| Education: MSU's College of Education receives Science of Reading designation | |
 | Mississippi State University's College of Education on Friday celebrated its designation as a Mississippi Emerging Science of Reading Educator Preparation Program by the Mississippi Department of Education. The recognition is for colleges and universities that have trained professors and teacher candidates in the science of reading, exemplified a change of instructional practices and are ensuring graduates enter a classroom ready to instruct students in structured literacy practices. MSU is among four institutions of higher learning to receive science of reading designations for the 2025-2026 academic year. To be considered for the prestigious designation, university faculty must demonstrate their science of reading expertise and engagement, including research, presentations, professional development, preservice teacher professional development and community partnerships. Teresa Jayroe, dean of the College of Education, added, "This honor reflects the exceptional work of our faculty and reinforces our commitment to preparing teachers who are ready on day one to deliver strong, science-based reading instruction." |
| Community Profile: A decade after his first race, BJ Cougle keeps running Frostbite | |
| Inspect BJ Cougle's vehicles all you want. You will not find one of the 26.2 or 13.1 stickers ubiquitous among marathoners and half-marathoners. But look in the "man shed" behind his house, and you'll see a decade's worth of medals and racing bibs hanging on the wall. Saturday's bib and medal from the Frostbite half-marathon in Starkville might well take a special place in the man shed, not because of a top finish or personal best time. In any case, it will be a hard race to forget. Despite a starting time temperature of 21 degrees with a single-digit wind chill, Cougle finished the 13.1-mile race – and in a respectable time of 1 hour, 54 minutes. "It was such a tough experience," Cougle said, noting that as of Saturday afternoon, he hadn't even looked to see what place he finished. "... Today's definitely one of those you just gut out. You get through." On top of running the Frostbite each year, BJ has helped sponsor the race for most of the last decade. The race this year raised funds for the T.K. Martin Center at Mississippi State University, which provides programs for those with special needs. Beyond the philanthropy aspect, BJ said, his sponsorship also promotes the local running community that has been so welcoming to him. |
| Aundrea Self spreads the word about growing community groups in Starkville | |
 | Small things can make a big impact. That was part of the message delivered by a familiar face Monday in Starkville. Aundrea Self was spreading the word about a growing number of community groups helping to fund the work of other organizations. What started with 100 Women Who Care has now begun to branch out into related groups, 100 Men Who Care and 100 Kids Who Care. They are all looking for new members. 100 Women Who Care is a group of Women in Starkville who each pledge to give 100 dollars each to help organizations fund special projects. The women meet once a year and vote on which projects receive the money. They and groups like the Starkville Community Foundation, which is now affiliated with the CREATE Foundation, are working to make sure that those doing good in Oktibbeha County can continue their work. |
| Huntington Bancshares closes on merger with Cadence Bank | |
 | After 150 years as a Mississippi-based bank, Cadence Bank has a new name and a new corporate parent. On Monday, Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington Bancshares Inc. closed on its $7.4 billion merger with Cadence Bank. Shareholders of both banks approved the merger last month. Huntington said the strategic partnership "accelerates Huntington's growth initiatives across Texas and the South and brings immediate scale in Texas and Mississippi, where Huntington is now the eighth-largest bank in Texas and the number one bank in Mississippi by deposit market share." Cadence customers will continue to bank as normal at their existing branches, and their accounts are expected to be converted to Huntington's systems in mid-2026. Cadence customers will receive detailed information about the pending account conversions in the coming weeks. The combined company has approximately $279 billion in assets, $221 billion in deposits and $187 billion in loans based on Dec. 31, 2025 balances. Cadence's 390 branches across Texas and the South will boost Huntington's branch network to nearly 1,400 locations across 21 states from the Midwest to the South to Texas. Huntington said it intends to maintain Cadence's branch network, with no branch closures, and invest to grow it over time. |
| Turner, Haug vie for Oktibbeha County court judge seat | |
| Two candidates are vying for the Oktibbeha County Court judge seat, while Lowndes County incumbent Allison Kizer is running unopposed. Oktibbeha County Court Judge Lee Ann Turner is seeking a second term and will face Marty Haug in the November election. Haug, who currently serves as a justice court judge, submitted his qualifying paperwork Monday before the 5 p.m. deadline. The general election will be held Nov. 3. County court judges can hear civil cases that exceed a jurisdiction of $3,500, the maximum for justice court, but do not exceed $200,000. County court judges also preside over youth courts and hear appeals from municipal and justice courts. Turner, a graduate of the University of Alabama School of Law, has practiced law since 1996, working in both private practice and as a staff attorney for chancery court judges in the district. Turner also served as a youth court referee from 2009 until taking office as a full-time county court judge in 2023. Haug has served as a justice court judge since 2015 and has practiced law in Starkville since 2009, opening his law office in 2010. Prior to that, he spent six years as an attorney with Florida's first judicial circuit. |
| School closures in the Southeast stretch into 2nd week after latest winter storm | |
 | School systems across the Southeast are dealing with weather-related school closures for the second week in a row, leading some to try remote learning while many prepare to add more school days to make up for lost instructional time. A series of winter storms has left tens of thousands of people without electricity and made some roads too icy for travel, complicating efforts to reopen schools from Mississippi to Maryland. Some cities, including Nashville, Tennessee, still had unresolved outages from a storm a week earlier when another hit this weekend, accompanied by frigid temperatures. Nearly 75,000 customers were without power in Mississippi and Tennessee as of Monday afternoon, according to the outage tracking website poweroutage.us. In Belzoni, Mississippi, Chiquitta Fields has stayed in a hotel with her four children and 1-year-old grandchild the past week because their home lost power during the previous storm. She's shelled out about $700 just to stay at the hotel -- a necessity because her granddaughter needs to be on oxygen. The financial burden has been especially stressful because Fields, 41, has been unable to work the past week in her job as an assistant elementary teacher. Her kids haven't been exempt from that pressure either, Fields said. "It's been stressful for them, with the moving back and forth from one place and to another," she said. "Children don't adjust well when you do all that." |
| Lawmakers move quickly to appropriate millions in disaster funds for winter storm response | |
 | The Senate Appropriations Committee has passed a measure to transfer $20 million into the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency's disaster assistance fund after an ice storm swept through parts of Mississippi. The funds would come out of the state's Capital Expense fund. MEMA has already requested $8 million, said State Senator Josh Harkins (R), noting he's met with Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann (R) and the MEMA officials about the additional funding. "We're trying to make sure they've got plenty of money," he said of SB 2998. Harkins said he believes the ice storm will be declared a federal disaster, meaning the federal government would then be responsible for 75 percent of the associated costs and the state would be responsible for the remaining 25 percent of funding. "We already know we are going to have significant state expenses," he said. "The idea here is to put $20 million in the disaster assistance trust fund, so [MEMA] knows they aren't going to have any problems getting the cash to take care of the problems." Another bill the committee passed was SB 2924, which greenlights the Mississippi Treasury Department to appropriate the funds. State Senator Nicole Boyd (R), who represents a hard-hit area in North Mississippi, said some cities are without electricity, but rural areas are suffering the most. |
| Senate wants to earmark $20 million for Mississippi's initial storm response. House is noncommittal | |
| The Senate Appropriations Committee on Monday voted to provide $20 million to fund the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency's initial Winter Storm Fern response and recovery efforts. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Senate leaders want to provide the money post-haste as communities still reel from the ice storm that hammered Mississippi the weekend of Jan. 24-25. These expenses, including millions already incurred, include deploying the National Guard and MEMA's initial operations. But House leaders do not appear to be onboard with the legislation, which Hosemann said the Senate plans to pass on to them as early as Tuesday. House Speaker Jason White on Monday said he has not had any communication with Hosemann, and House leaders are still trying to determine the best way to help local communities with state resources. Scott Simmons, MEMA's director of external affairs, told Mississippi Today that if the Legislature allocates more money to the state agency to help with weather recovery efforts, it would be a "substantial improvement in our ability to respond to natural disasters." Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Briggs Hopson, a Republican from Vicksburg, and Hosemann told reporters that the bill would prevent state agencies from running into a cash crunch while responding to the storm and signal to them that the Legislature is supporting their efforts. |
| South Mississippi plays key role as NASA's Artemis II mission nears launch | |
 | The launch window for NASA's Artemis II mission opens Feb. 8, marking the next step in the agency's plan to return humans to the moon with significant contributions from South Mississippi workers. The RS-25 engines that will power the rocket into orbit were tested at Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, where many South Mississippi natives work in roles ranging from quality control to safety to launch logistics. The engine testing continues a tradition that dates back to the Apollo program. The RS-25 engines, which previously powered the Space Shuttle Program, now serve on the Space Launch System. Engine testing for the Space Launch System has been happening for about eight years at Stennis. Randall Pigott from Picayune works in safety and quality control as a mechanical engineer for safety and mission assurance. "There's a big team with a lot of knowledge on it, and I dive down in the middle of them and try to portray that information with the context that I have from Stennis," Pigott said. "I used to hear engines going off at night when I was a kid. It was great. I had posters up on the wall. My dad walked out here, bringing home swag all the time, stickers and patches. And now I get to go work on these things. It's a really great feeling." |
| Madison County advances plans for new conference center | |
 | Madison County has begun the approval process to develop a new 50,000-square-foot Madison County Conference Center within the Prado Vista at Ridgeland development. As part of the Prado Vista vision, Gabriel Prado, the developer who brought Topgolf to Mississippi, will also develop a 250-room luxury hotel adjacent to the Madison County Conference Center. He said the hotel will include four restaurants and will be the first hotel of its kind in Mississippi. "The vision of the residents of Madison County to fulfill the dream of having a conference center is going to become a reality thanks to the economic development momentum that the State of Mississippi, Madison County, and the City of Ridgeland have created," said Prado. Madison County began the multi-step approval process on February 2, 2026. The project will require several approvals throughout the process, including from the City of Ridgeland and the state. Their goal is to finalize all approvals in order to begin construction in the summer of 2026. |
| Local leaders push back on bill they say would 'de-incentivize' multibillion-dollar projects | |
| Local leaders are pushing back against a bill they say could disincentivize cities and counties from seeking multibillion-dollar economic development projects for their communities. Rep. Trey Lamar recently introduced H.B. 1635, a bill that would scale back the amount of money counties and cities receive in fees-in-lieu-of-payment agreements from multibillion-dollar projects, such as the AWS data centers in Madison County. Under the bill, counties would still receive 100% of revenues off the first billion, but 80% of anything above that would go to the state for use on other economic and infrastructure projects. "What will effectively happen is you de-incentivize developers from attracting anything over a billion dollars. Why? Because it all goes to the state," Madison County Economic Development Authority Executive Director Joey Deason said. "It's a re-distribution of wealth." Construction on two data centers are currently under way in Madison County. Lamar says the bill is designed, in part, to reduce disparities between counties in the state, saying that, in some cases, the fee-in-lieu of taxes counties are slated to receive would be more than their annual budgets. |
| Senate looks to create new state Department of Cybersecurity, Chief Information Officer | |
| The Senate Government Structure Committee advanced two bills last week aimed at increasing the state's cybersecurity against hackers. The committee passed amended versions of SB 2625 and SB 2636, after unanimously voting to add reverse repealers to the measures to allow further work on the bills. Bill 2625 mandates that the governor, with advice and consent from the Senate, appoint a Chief Information Officer at the cabinet level. The CIO will serve at the governor's pleasure. Among the CIO responsibilities would be assisting in the protection of the state's information assets and citizens' data, as well as advising the Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services on matters of information security, cybersecurity strategies and implementation. The bill states that the CIO will be the chief policy advisor to the governor on statewide information technology and cyber issues. The second bill, referred to as the Mississippi Department of Cybersecurity Act, would create a cybersecurity department in state government. During committee debate, State Senator Scott Delano (R) said the bills would help streamline and define agencies' roles in this arena. |
| Senate advances bill to address Mississippi workforce shortage through community colleges | |
| Legislation aimed at using Mississippi's community colleges to address a growing workforce shortage has cleared one hurdle in the state capitol. Senate Bill 2522, which establishes the Upskill Mississippi Grant Program, awaits a floor vote after passing the Senate Universities and Colleges Committee. The legislation was drafted by the committee's chair, Oxford Republican Sen. Nicole Akins Boyd, and would allow Mississippians to learn a new trade or build upon existing labor expertise through a free, "workforce-aligned" program at a local community college. A report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that Mississippi had 71,000 job openings last November and the state's job openings rate was 1.3% higher than the national average. To fill these gaps, the bill seeks to expand career and technical education and to align what is taught in community colleges with the training in "high-value" career pathways, particularly in rural regions of Mississippi. Eligible participants in the program would have to meet specific criteria, including being at least 24 years old, having lived in Mississippi for at least two years prior to applying, being a U.S. citizen, possessing a high school diploma or GED, meeting certain financial aid requirements, and maintaining a certain academic rate of success before being accepted. |
| Attorney General urges support for legislation to address gang violence | |
| Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch on Monday urged state lawmakers to pass two bills that would expand circuit court jurisdiction over certain firearm offenses by minors, stiffen penalties for transfers of stolen guns and create a new crime for firing a weapon into a group, renewing a long‑running legislative focus on youth violence and gang involvement. Fitch said HB 1165 and SB 2710, which are backed by the Mississippi Prosecutors Association, Mississippi Sheriffs' Association and Mississippi Association of Chiefs of Police, are intended to discourage gang recruitment of minors and give law enforcement "tools to confront gun violence," particularly in schools, churches and public places. "There are more than 200 gangs in Mississippi, and they recruit minors to do a lot of their dirty work," Fitch said in a news release. "We are taking on this problem by making the penalty fit the crime... getting criminals off the streets." HB 1165, sponsored by Rep. Jansen Owen, is pending in the House Judiciary B Committee; SB 2710, from Sen. Joey Fillingane, has cleared the Senate Judiciary B Committee. |
| Senate Education Committee sends limited student transfer program, student felony arrest bills to floor | |
| The Mississippi Senate Education Committee passed two bills on Monday that could have far reaching implications. One measure would create a small student transfer program for students in the lowest ranking school districts while a separate bill would mandate school districts receive notification within 24 hours of a student's felony arrest. SB 2244 offers a potential path for students to transfer to any school they desire if they attend a public school in a district that has been rated an F two years in a row. An amendment to add a reverse repealer was approved early in the discussion of the bill due to several outstanding issues, one of those entails the total cost to implement the program. As a result, the potential need for the entire program to be scaled back prior to implementation could be warranted, lawmakers said. Another bill that passed out of the committee with a reverse repealer included was SB 2235. The bill would require law enforcement agencies in the state to notify school districts within 24 hours when one of their students is arrested for a felony offense. State Senator Brian Rhodes (R) said he authored SB 2235 after discussions with some school district personnel, who expressed a need for knowledge of such offenses for student safety. |
| 'Mississippi isn't doing all that we can:' State receives all F's in annual tobacco control report | |
 | Mississippi received "F's" in all five assessment categories of the American Lung Association's annual "State of Tobacco Control" report: tobacco prevention and cessation funding, smokefree air laws, access to cessation services, state tobacco taxes and flavored tobacco products. "Tobacco still remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease for Mississippians, claiming over 5,000 lives every year," said Calandra Davis, Mississippi advocacy director for the American Lung Association. More Mississippians die from heart disease and cancer than any other disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Both diseases can be caused by or exacerbated through tobacco use. "Mississippi isn't doing all that we can to prevent these deaths," Davis said, expressing concern about the level of tobacco taxes in the state as well as how funds are spent. "Mississippi received over $200 million from tobacco settlement payments and tobacco taxes," she said. "Yet only a small percentage of those funds are going towards actual tobacco control programs." |
| U.S. Senate race: Colom tops Q4 fundraising, Hyde-Smith still ahead overall | |
| Scott Colom, a Democrat seeking the U.S. Senate seat held by Mississippi Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith, continues to break intraparty records on the fundraising front. Hyde-Smith, on the other hand, still has more money in the bank and has criticized her potential general election opponent as being "funded by George Soros." Colom's campaign announced Friday that it brought in more than $1 million since his campaign launch on Sept. 3. A news release said it was the "most raised by a Democratic statewide candidate in Mississippi history" in that time frame, and that his fourth-quarter contributions outpaced Hyde-Smith's. Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, Colom raised $427,000 while Hyde-Smith raised $425,000. The latest fundraising update from Colom comes after his campaign announced that over $600,000 had been raised by the end of September, the most any Democratic Senate candidate in Mississippi had raised in their first quarter. The previous was Mike Espy's $414,000 in his unsuccessful bid against Hyde-Smith in 2020. Colom, a former judge and prosecutor, is currently the district attorney for Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Clay, and Noxubee counties. |
| White House, GOP leaders sway votes for rule on spending bill | |
 | Top House Republicans are plowing forward with plans to vote Tuesday on a roughly $1.2 trillion spending package that punts on full-year funding for the Homeland Security Department after securing support from their right flank on a key procedural vote. After a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said she was satisfied that her key demand -- passage of legislation requiring proof of citizenship and photo ID to vote, known as the "SAVE America Act" or SAVE Act for short -- would be met in the Senate. The idea is that Senate GOP leaders will force Democrats into a "standing filibuster," also known as a talking filibuster, if they want to indefinitely block the measure from coming to the floor. That means Democrats would have to hold the floor continuously rather than under the typical practice of a "silent filibuster," where the minority can block a bill simply by telegraphing that 60 votes do not exist to advance the measure. "We personally talked with the president about that, and he's all for it and he wants the SAVE America Act," Luna said Monday night, with Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., in agreement. "The standing filibuster is an old-school parliamentary procedure, but it's a way to break through what we consider traditional norms to get voter ID passed." |
| Clintons reverse course, agree to testify in House Epstein inquiry | |
 | Former President Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as part of the panel's investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The news marks a stunning about-face that came after months of negotiations and as the House Rules Committee was preparing to tee up floor votes on potentially holding the two in contempt of Congress. The House Oversight Committee voted last month to advance the contempt resolutions. "They negotiated in good faith. You did not. They told you under oath what they know, but you don't care," Clinton spokesperson Angel Ureña wrote on the social platform X in response to a post from Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.). "But the former President and former Secretary of State will be there. They look forward to setting a precedent that applies to everyone." Comer appeared to learn the news in real time during the Rules Committee meeting on Monday. The moment got heated, with Democrats demanding to know whether the panel would move forward with the contempt resolution and Comer responding that he hadn't yet seen the letter from the Clintons' lawyers and would need to review it. |
| U.S. Manufacturing Is in Retreat and Trump's Tariffs Aren't Helping | |
 | The manufacturing boom President Trump promised would usher in a golden age for America is going in reverse. After years of economic interventions by the Trump and Biden administrations, fewer Americans work in manufacturing than any point since the pandemic ended. Manufacturers shed workers in each of the eight months after Trump unveiled "Liberation Day" tariffs, according to federal figures, extending a contraction that has seen more than 200,000 roles disappear since 2023. An index of factory activity tracked by the Institute for Supply Management shrunk in 26 straight months through December, but showed a January uptick in new orders and production that surprised analysts. The Census Bureau estimates that manufacturing construction spending, which surged with Biden-era funding for chips and renewable energy, fell in each of Trump's first nine months in office. The gradual slowdown is in some ways a continuation of decadeslong trends that pulled factory jobs overseas and helped empty out Midwestern cities. In an industry where capital plans and construction timelines extend years into the future, turnarounds also don't happen overnight. |
| Trump says Republicans should 'nationalize' elections | |
 | President Donald Trump said Monday that Republicans should nationalize elections, continuing to double down on false conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The suggestion -- which runs contrary to the Constitution's delegation of election administration to state governments -- comes less than a week after the FBI raided an elections office outside Atlanta, seizing ballots and other voting records from the 2020 election. "The Republicans should say, 'We want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least 15 places.' The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting," he said during an appearance on former Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino's podcast, which he relaunched Monday. The president repeatedly insisted that he won the 2020 election "in a landslide," alleging without evidence that people "voted illegally" in the election. He also nodded to the FBI's raid in Fulton County, Georgia, teasing that "you're going to see some interesting things come out" in Georgia. Dozens of challenges to the results of that election yielded no credible evidence of widespread voter fraud, and both a statewide audit and a recount requested by the Trump campaign verified that former President Joe Biden won the state. Trump's latest threat to nationalize voting harkens back to a promise he made last summer to sign an executive order bringing "honesty" to the 2026 midterm elections. |
| Homeland Security is targeting Americans with this secretive legal weapon | |
 | He had decided that the America he believed in would not make it if people like him didn't speak up, so on a cool, rainy morning in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Jon, 67 and recently retired, marched up to his study and began to type. He had just read about the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's case against an Afghan it was trying to deport. The immigrant, identified in The Washington Post's Oct. 30 investigation as H, had begged federal officials to reconsider, telling them the Taliban would kill him if he was returned to Afghanistan. "Unconscionable," Jon thought as he found an email address online for the lead prosecutor, Joseph Dernbach, who was named in the story. Peering through metal-rimmed glasses, Jon opened Gmail on his computer monitor. "Mr. Dernbach, don't play Russian roulette with H's life," he wrote. "Err on the side of caution. There's a reason the US government along with many other governments don't recognise the Taliban. Apply principles of common sense and decency." That was it. In five minutes, Jon said, he finished the note, signed his first and last name, pressed send and hoped his plea would make a difference. Five hours and one minute later, Jon was watching TV with his wife when an email popped up in his inbox. He noticed it on his phone. "Google," the message read, "has received legal process from a Law Enforcement authority compelling the release of information related to your Google Account." Listed below was the type of legal process: "subpoena." And below that, the authority: "Department of Homeland Security." That's how it began. Soon would come a knock at the door by men with badges and, for Jon, the relentless feeling of being surveilled in a country where he never imagined he would be. |
| Classified Whistleblower Complaint About Tulsi Gabbard Stalls Within Her Agency | |
| A U.S. intelligence official has alleged wrongdoing by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in a whistleblower complaint that is so highly classified it has sparked months of wrangling over how to share it with Congress, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the matter. The filing of the complaint has prompted a continuing, behind-the-scenes struggle about how to assess and handle it, with the whistleblower's lawyer accusing Gabbard of stonewalling the complaint. Gabbard's office rejects that characterization, contending it is navigating a unique set of circumstances and working to resolve the issue. A cloak-and-dagger mystery reminiscent of a John le Carré novel is swirling around the complaint, which is said to be locked in a safe. Disclosure of its contents could cause "grave damage to national security," one official said. It also implicates another federal agency beyond Gabbard's, and raises potential claims of executive privilege that may involve the White House, officials said. The complaint was filed last May with the intelligence community's inspector general, according to a November letter that the whistleblower's lawyer addressed to Gabbard. The letter, which was viewed by The Wall Street Journal, accused Gabbard's office of hindering the dissemination of the complaint to lawmakers by failing to provide necessary security guidance on how to do so. Gabbard has been an enigmatic figure in the Trump administration, sidelined from major national-security matters and tasked with investigating the results of the 2020 election that President Trump lost. |
| Elon Musk joins his rocket and AI businesses into a single company | |
| Elon Musk is joining his space exploration and artificial intelligence ventures into a single company before what's expected to be a massive initial public offering for the business later this year. His rocket venture, SpaceX, announced on Monday that it had bought xAI in an effort to help the world's richest man dominate the rocket and artificial intelligence businesses. The deal will combine several of his offerings, including his AI chatbot Grok, his satellite communications company Starlink, and his social media company X. Musk has talked repeatedly about the need to speed development of technology that will allow data centers to operate in space. He believes that will help overcome the problem of huge costs in electricity and other resources in building and running AI systems on Earth. It's a goal that Musk suggested in his announcement of the deal could become easier to reach with a combined company. "In the long term, space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale," Musk wrote on SpaceX's website Monday, then added in reference to solar power, "It's always sunny in space!" |
| Siemens Energy Bets $1 Billion That A.I. Power Demand Will Last | |
 | Siemens Energy, the German company, plans to invest $1 billion to make more electrical equipment in the United States, a welcome development for utilities and data center developers. The manufacturing expansion announced Tuesday amounts to a bet that the artificial intelligence boom, which is propelling plans for new energy-hungry data centers, will drive U.S. electricity demand higher well into the future. "The models" -- the A.I. computer programs -- "need to be trained," Christian Bruch, the chief executive of Siemens Energy, said in an interview in New York. "The electricity need is going to be there." Siemens Energy's spending will be distributed across several states, including Florida and North Carolina. Much of it will go toward expanding existing plants, though Siemens Energy also plans to build a factory in Mississippi to make electrical switchgear, equipment that manages power flows. From the power transformers used to increase or decrease voltage, to the giant turbines that help turn natural gas into electricity, many of the components needed to generate electricity and move it have been in such high demand that prices have soared and waits have stretched to many years. That has been good for companies like Siemens Energy, whose shares are up more than 160 percent in the past year, surpassing the gains of many businesses more commonly associated with the A.I. boom, such as Nvidia, the chip maker. |
| AI chatbots are not your friends, experts warn | |
| Millions of people are forming emotional bonds with artificial intelligence chatbots -- a problem that politicians need to take seriously, according to top scientists. The warning of a rise in AI bots designed to develop a relationship with users comes in an assessment released Tuesday on the progress and risks of artificial intelligence. "AI companions have grown rapidly in popularity, with some applications reaching tens of millions of users," according to the assessment from dozens of experts, mostly academics -- completed for the second time under a global effort launched by world leaders in 2023. Specialized companion services such as Replika and Character.ai have user numbers in the tens of millions -- with users citing a variety of reasons including fun and curiosity, as well as to alleviate loneliness, the report says. But people can also seek companionship from general-purpose tools such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini or Anthropic's Claude. "Even the ordinary chatbots can become companions," said Yoshua Bengio, a professor at the University of Montreal and lead author of the International AI Safety report. Bengio is considered one of the world's leading voices on AI. "In the right context and with enough interactions between the user and the AI, a relationship can develop," he said. |
| Education: The W to host health care career fair | |
| Employers and graduate school representatives from across the region will gather at Mississippi University for Women Feb. 12 for the Health Care Career Fair, scheduled from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Pohl Gymnasium. The event offers students the opportunity to speak directly with employers and graduate school representatives, explore career pathways, learn about internships and graduate programs and make professional connections that can shape their future. The fair is open to all majors. "We are excited to host our clinical partners on campus for this event. We look forward each year to the new employment opportunities that are shared with our students," Brandy Larmon, dean of the Vandergriff College of Nursing and Health Sciences. Employers and graduate school programs will set up booths to show students what opportunities are available in the health care field, as well as recruiting the next generation of professionals. The fair is open to all majors. |
| UMMC Cancer Center receives $250K donation | |
| Dr. Paul Parker and his wife, Kerry, donated $250,000 to the UMMC Cancer Center and Research Institute (CCRI). Parker spent his career caring for young gastroenterology patients at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC). "Mississippi deserves a first-class facility to care for our patients with cancer," he said. "We have a wonderful Medical Center. It is unfortunate that so many adults in Mississippi leave the state to receive certain cancer treatments." The gift toward It's About Time: The Campaign for the UMMC Cancer Center and Research Institute will help fund the construction of a new five-story home for CCRI. The campaign has raised more than $88 million toward its $125 million goal. During the Campaign for Children's of Mississippi, the Parkers donated $250,000 to help fund construction of the Kathy and Joe Sanderson Tower at Children's of Mississippi. |
| Man wanted in Texas for murder arrested at Jones College | |
 | Local authorities arrested a Jones College student who is wanted out of Fort Worth, Texas, on a charge of capital murder. The Jones County Sheriff's Department, with help from Jones College campus Police, tracked down and arrested Jaden Grays, 18, on the Jones College campus Monday morning. Grays was able to be located after a tip from an area resident, as well as from the Covington County Sheriff's Department getting a "hit" on a tag reader that matched the tag of Grays' vehicles. He was arrested without incident at Jones College, and he is currently incarcerated at the Jones County Adult Detention Center. He will be extradited to Texas. There is no active threat to the Jones College campus. |
| UNO needs $46 million in tech upgrades, other fixes as it joins LSU system, report says | |
 | The University of New Orleans needs some major improvements -- including nearly $50 million in technology upgrades -- as the struggling school seeks to rebuild ahead of its return to the LSU system, according to a new report. The report by university officials and business leaders includes a laundry list of upgrades and changes they say will help stabilize UNO's finances and grow its enrollment as it gets set to join the LSU system this year. Any upgrades most likely would happen after the governance change, which is scheduled for July 1. The recommendations -- which also cite nearly $60 million in deferred maintenance costs and float a number of other ideas, including an on-campus hotel -- would cost well over $100 million. It's unclear where the money would come from, or how much of the bill the Legislature would cover after allocating $23 million last year to help clear some of UNO's longstanding debt. University officials say the changes could help raise revenue by boosting enrollment. LSU System President Wade Rousse said in a statement that the system is evaluating the transition committee's recommendations. |
| U. of Tennessee experts caution students about sudden alcohol withdrawal | |
| Some college students chose to participate in Dry January, a health trend aimed at cleansing the body and mind by abstaining from alcohol for 31 days. But what happens to those who suddenly stop drinking? Evan Basting, a fifth-year clinical psychology doctoral student at the University of Tennessee, said that abruptly cutting out alcohol can be harmful for those who have heavy drinking patterns. "Alcohol is one of the only substances where severe withdrawal can be life-threatening," Basting said. While withdrawal symptoms vary per person and depend on their alcohol use, someone who cuts alcohol "cold turkey" may experience symptoms such as "anxiety, headaches, upset stomach and increased heart rate," according to Basting. "In severe cases, people might experience tremors, hallucinations, delirium or seizures," Basting said. "These symptoms occur over several days or weeks after quitting alcohol if they were using alcohol heavily and frequently, and may coincide with intense craving." Basting recommends anyone concerned about their drinking or wishing to reduce or stop, to do so under healthcare professionals. Giving up or decreasing alcohol intake can be challenging, especially on a college campus. |
| U. of Missouri astronomers discover rare 'platypus galaxies' with mismatched parts | |
 | A surprising new set of objects in space with mismatched parts has been discovered by University of Missouri astronomers, perhaps leading to a new understanding of the universe. Thy look like stars but behave like galaxies, so the researchers named them "platypus galaxies" after the duck-billed, beaver-tailed mammal native to Australia. Much like their namesake, their properties don't go together. Lead researcher and Mizzou professor Haojing Yan identified the new class of celestial objects that look like stars but behave like full-fledged galaxies. Their parts are familiar, but together they create something strange. "If you look at those features individually, they won't be surprising," he said. "It's just that putting them together makes them look so odd." He and fellow co-author, graduate student Bangzheng Sun, presented their findings before the American Astronomical Society in Phoenix in early January. |
| North Carolina college students sue over lack of campus early voting sites | |
| College Democrats of North Carolina and students from three universities are suing the North Carolina State Board of Elections over early voting sites for the 2026 primary. In the federal lawsuit, the plaintiffs -- students from N.C. A&T State University, UNC-Greensboro, and Western Carolina University -- allege the board is unconstitutionally restricting their right to vote based on age. Local elections board members in Guilford and Jackson counties are also named as defendants. N.C. A&T is the nation's largest HBCU. The lawsuit also says the Western Carolina polling site served more Black voters in 2024 than any other polling place in Jackson County. "State and county officials brushed aside urgent warnings that their decisions would disproportionately burden young and Black voters and denigrated students who advocated for their rights," the lawsuit says. "Our policy is not to comment on pending litigation," state board spokesman Pat Gannon said in an email. At a January 2025 meeting setting early voting plans, the state board's Republican majority voted to eliminate voting sites at Western Carolina University and Elon University, and refused to consider plans that would add polling places at N.C. A&T and UNC-G. A contingent of A&T students protested at the meeting, though they were not allowed to comment.. |
| Colleges See Major Racial Shifts in Student Enrollment | |
| The Supreme Court ruling in 2023 banning race-conscious college admissions led to declines in Black and Latino admissions at highly selective universities. At many other schools, the opposite occurred, according to a new analysis. Overall, freshmen enrollment of underrepresented minority groups increased by 8 percent at public flagship universities. The analysis, by a nonprofit organization, Class Action, concludes that those schools were among institutions that benefited as a result of higher rejection rates for Black and Hispanic students at the nation's 50 most selective schools. At those top 50 schools, Black freshmen enrollment was down by 27 percent and Latino enrollment down by 10 percent. The data from Class Action, which works to promote equity in education, was based on 2024 federal enrollment figures released in January covering more than 3,000 colleges and universities. While public flagship universities were the biggest beneficiaries of the shift, four-year public colleges overall also gained, with Latino freshman enrollment increasing 7 percent and Black freshman enrollment growing 4 percent. Many four-year private schools with less selective admission requirements than the Ivy League also saw big increases. |
| Here's What the Latest Epstein Files Say About His Ties to Higher Ed | |
 | The Department of Justice on Friday released more than three million additional pages of documents and thousands of photos and videos related to Jeffrey Epstein, drastically expanding the public record of the convicted sex offender's ties to elite universities and prominent faculty members. The records document years of sustained contact between Epstein and professors at Duke, Yale, and Harvard Universities, including extensive email correspondence, in-person meetings, and discussions of academic work, fund raising, and social life. Collectively, the files underscore how deeply Epstein remained embedded in academic and intellectual circles even after his criminal history became public. Previous news reporting and document releases have shown that Epstein kept a number of academics close, among them Lawrence H. Summers, a former president of Harvard who served as treasury secretary from 1999 to 2001, and Lawrence Krauss, the former Arizona State University professor who in 2017 sought Epstein's advice amid sexual-misconduct allegations. The latest files show that Krauss continued consulting Epstein on legal strategy and potential attorneys as he faced a campus investigation in March of 2018, five months before his retirement. At one point, Krauss asked if Epstein would help pay for his representation. "Let me be blunt: Can you help?" the professor wrote. "I have already lost over $100k in speaking engagements this year alone." |
| New Heritage Guidance Shows Tension in Federal Oversight of Higher Ed | |
 | In its latest guidance on higher education reform, the conservative Heritage Foundation endorses the Trump administration's ongoing efforts to leverage executive power to overhaul the American higher education system by pushing colleges to comply with right-wing priorities and demanding accountability. At the same time, it urges the White House to minimize federal oversight and focus instead on dismantling the Education Department and shifting its duties to the states. Released Jan. 26, the Heritage Foundation's new report, "Themes of Higher Education Reform," builds upon the higher ed groundwork laid by Project 2025, the far more detailed governing blueprint that the Trump administration adopted when it cracked down on DEI practices, deported international students and gutted the department's staff. Key areas of the new brief focus on how to strengthen the administration's proposed "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education" and use an upcoming rulemaking session to reconstruct the accreditation system. In both instances, Heritage suggests state leaders could take over some of the responsibility. Overall, the guidance urges lawmakers and department officials -- including former Heritage staffer Lindsey Burke, who now serves as deputy chief of staff for policy -- to stay the course in reforming the liberal bastion of higher ed while also avoiding "expanding the federal government's role ... in pursuit of these vital goals." |
SPORTS
| Baseball: Running Towards The Expectations | |
| Brian O'Connor walked into the Omaha room at Dudy Noble Field on Monday like a kid on Christmas morning. Eleven days before the new leader of Mississippi State baseball coaches his first official game as a Bulldog, O'Connor led off the Bulldogs' preseason on-campus media day with the giddiness of a rookie rather than a hall of fame coach with more than 900 career victories under his belt. "I know there's a lot of excitement coming into this season like there is every season," O'Connor said. "But I can tell you, for me personally, this Opening Day is one that I'm very much looking forward to. I'm excited about what this team has in front of us." Coach Oak is far from the only one. Ever since last June when O'Connor was introduced as MSU's new skipper, anticipation has been building. It only grew with the talented additions to the State roster. It has perhaps boiled over in recent days with the season drawing ever closer and the preseason rankings being released. Hopes are high in Starkville. Of that there can be no doubt. Yet right now, it's all just that. It's hopes. It's dreams. It's possibilities. O'Connor isn't shying away from making sure his team understands they haven't won a thing yet. |
| Brian O'Connor, Mississippi State baseball won't have captains in 2026 | |
| Brian O'Connor gave every Mississippi State baseball player a piece of paper two weeks ago. The new coach told the players to write down how they define leadership. Then, they flipped over the piece of paper. The other side had the 2026 roster, where players were instructed to identify who they think the team's leaders are and why. "Certainly, there were some returning players that were listed quite a bit on that, but you'd be surprised that there's some new players that got a lot of votes and great words on why they're leaders," O'Connor said. After assessing the responses, O'Connor, the former Virginia coach for 22 seasons, declared there will be no team captains for the 2026 season that begins against Hofstra on Feb. 13 (4 p.m.). It's not because O'Connor thinks there's a lack of leadership. Rather, it's his preference. In fact, O'Connor said it's been "a number of years" since his teams last had designated captains. Some of his Virginia teams had captains, but in various forms. Sometimes, those teams had weekly captains. "I just really believe that I don't want the young men looking to one or two guys to say the words that need to be said," O'Connor said. "Everybody has a voice. I've just seen in teams over the years the leadership start to take place throughout the year and develop throughout the year. That's why I believe that's important to handle captains and leadership that way." |
| 'False and frivolous': Jackson Academy responds to lawsuit alleging illegal recruiting | |
| Jackson Academy has responded to a lawsuit accusing the private school of punishing a student when called out by parents for alleged football recruiting violations. The lawsuit, filed on Jan. 5 by Jason and Carolyn Voyles against Jackson Academy and Headmaster Edward Wettach, alleges school officials retaliated against the family and their son after the parents raised concerns about what they believed to be prohibited athletic recruiting practices. Jackson Academy officials, on the other hand, are calling the claims "false and frivolous," as the school looks to defend its reputation. According to the complaint, Jason Voyles identified 11 student-athletes who had transferred to Jackson Academy from a myriad of other schools, including five from Clinton High School, whom he believed were recruited in violation of the Mid-South Association of Independent Schools' rules. Voyles then shared that information with other parents, and it circulated within the school community. The Raiders, following the acquisition of these transfers, led a successful 2025 campaign -- one that resulted in the program's first state championship in 14 seasons, following a 50-14 victory over Hartfield Academy in the title matchup. In a response filed less than one month after the family's complaint, Jackson Academy acknowledged that it has "inherent discretion" in determining attendance and circumstances justifying enrollment. In the Voyles' case, the school maintained that it was especially justified in unenrolling the student after being subjected to an alleged smear campaign by the parents. |
| UNC-Chapel Hill's Bubba Cunningham relishes Olympic leadership role | |
| He won't carry a hockey stick, squeeze into a bobsled, ski down a hill or jump a triple axel, but there will be a Tar Heel at the Winter Olympics. Bubba Cunningham, Carolina's athletic director, is headed to Italy for the Games. Since 2023, Cunningham has served on the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee Board of Directors. "I've had the opportunity because I'm at the University of North Carolina, a place that has long believed in supporting broad-based sports programming, key to producing Olympians not only for Team USA but worldwide," said Cunningham, the only college AD on the board. Carolina supports 28 varsity sports and has had 115 Tar Heels (including student-athletes, alumni, coaches and medical staff) represent 18 different countries in the Olympic Games. "The USOPC is the only national governing body that doesn't get federal support. The U.S. has relied upon the collegiate model to support it. At the 2024 Summer Olympics, 75% of our athletes were current or former college athletes. It's a great asset for our country, but there's worry about the changes in college athletics. With revenue share, NIL, things like that, the USOPC is very concerned schools will start dropping Olympic sports. We're all advocates in Washington, D.C., to try to figure out a way for colleges to continue to offer broad-based programming, but financially it's becoming more difficult." |
| Case with LSU's unreported NIL deals has been resolved | |
| LSU and the College Sports Commission resolved a potential rules violation related to unreported name, image and likeness deals, the school said in a statement Monday night, ending an investigation two weeks and a half weeks after it began. "The CSC inquiry into non-reporting has been resolved with no disciplinary action, and any deals that require submission to NIL Go have been submitted," LSU deputy athletic director for external affairs Zach Greenwell said. "We appreciate the CSC's prompt review and resolution." While it was the first known example of a major athletic program being looked into by the CSC, several other schools recently received similar inquiry letters. The case at LSU was not related to the football program, a source said. Other details are unknown. LSU received notice Jan. 15 that the new enforcement arm in college sports was investigating if "a member of one of your institution's sports teams failed to report one or more third-party" NIL deals, the CSC's head of investigations, Katie Medearis, wrote in an email to LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry. The inquiry became known Friday through a public records request. |
| House Committee Asks Utah President for Briefing on Private Equity Deal | |
| The House Committee on Education and Workforce has asked the University of Utah to schedule a briefing to discuss the school's plans to take money from a New York-based private equity firm. The committee, which has jurisdiction over federal education policy, is examining the growing trend of schools seeking institutional partners to capitalize their athletic departments. The group is assessing whether legislative action might be needed to address concerns about the downstream impact of these deals. In a letter sent to Utah president Taylor Randall on Monday morning, a copy of which was viewed by Sportico, the committee requested that the school share information regarding the details and motives behind its potential partnership with Otro Capital, which its trustees greenlit in December. "While recognizing the escalating costs in collegiate athletics, including revenue share obligations under the House v. NCAA settlement, NIL-related expenses and coaching salaries, the committee seeks to better understand the university's rationale for entering into this arrangement," committee chair Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) and Burgess Owens (R-Utah), a former NFL and University of Miami player and chairman of the subcommittee on Higher Education Workforce Development, wrote in the letter. "The information and briefing requested will assist the committee in determining whether legislative action may be necessary to protect students, schools and the integrity of college athletics." |
| 'Cashing all day': The Instagram star accused of corrupting NCAA hoops | |
| Marves Fairley swears he can help you win money. Under his online moniker, "Vezino Locks," Fairley supplies gambling tips to customers who pay $60 a pop for his daily picks. His social media is a flood of diamonds, celebrities and winning betting slips. "We're cashing all day," he posted on Instagram one recent NFL Sunday, "and every hour you're not tapped in is money you're leaving on the table." With sports betting more popular and accessible than ever, it's an increasingly common hustle: self-proclaimed experts using social media to offer picks for a price. But Fairley really did have an edge, federal prosecutors say. Last month, prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging Fairley with bribery and wire fraud and accusing him of coordinating one of the biggest match-fixing networks in American history. And that was just one of the sports betting corruption sagas in which Fairley plays a central role. Fairley, 40, is accused of paying for inside information that NBA player Terry Rozier would intentionally underperform. But the most sweeping allegations focus on Fairley's college basketball bets. Prosecutors say he was at the center of an international match-fixing ring that rigged dozens of NCAA men's games, enlisting recruiters with deep ties to local basketball communities and targeting athletes who played on bad teams and didn't earn much name, image and likeness (NIL) money. |
| Don't tune into the Super Bowl hoping for a break from politics | |
| Don't tune into the Super Bowl hoping for a break from the tumultuous politics gripping the U.S. The NFL is facing pressure ahead of Sunday's game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots to take a more explicit stance against the Trump administration's aggressive immigration enforcement. More than 184,000 people have signed a petition calling on the league to denounce the potential presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Super Bowl, which is being held at Levi's Stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area. The liberal group MoveOn plans to deliver the petition to the NFL's New York City headquarters on Tuesday. Meanwhile, anticipation is building around how Bad Bunny, the halftime show's Spanish-speaking headliner, will address the moment. He has criticized President Donald Trump on everything from his hurricane response in his native Puerto Rico to his treatment of immigrants. On Sunday night, he blasted ICE while accepting an award at the Grammys. His latest tour skipped the continental U.S. because of fears that his fans could be targeted by immigration agents. |
| Turning Point USA unveils alternative Super Bowl halftime show lineup with Kid Rock | |
 | The lineup for Turning Point USA's "All-American Halftime Show" is finally here. The show, put on by the conservative organization to compete with Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime performance, will feature performances by Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert and Lee Brice. Gabby Barrett, 2021 winner of new female artist of the year at the Academy of Country Music Awards, will also perform. Kid Rock is a close ally of President Donald Trump, becoming more outspoken in his conservative beliefs in recent years. Both Gilbert and Brice are mid-level stars in the country music space; Gilbert is known for hits like "Dirt Road Anthem" and "Bottoms Up" while Brice is known for tracks like "One of Them Girls" and "Rumor." Barrett is the only female performer so far announced, breaking through with her hit single "I Hope." Bad Bunny, a Latin superstar who hails from Puerto Rico, sings primarily in Spanish and has been critical of Trump's deportation efforts in the past. When he was announced as the Super Bowl's lead performer, several conservative pundits, and Trump himself, criticized the choice, alleging he wasn't a popular enough artist and that he was a divisive pick. Bad Bunny was Spotify's most-streamed artist globally in 2025. |
| Goodell: College football needs 'clarity,' NFL will help if asked for input | |
| NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Monday the league would be willing to help solve some of the challenges facing the tumultuous world of college football, but only if its input is solicited and welcome. "There's obviously a lot of change going on and a lot of disruption, and they do need to bring some clarity to that," Goodell said during his annual Super Bowl week press conference at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. "And I think that's something that, if for some reason we could be helpful with the right people, we would obviously be willing to engage with anybody. But I think we try to stay in our lane unless we're invited in to be part of the solution." Goodell acknowledged the NFL is following the two cases in college basketball where players who had been drafted by the NBA are attempting to return to college careers. It's also tracking the larger conversation around possible legislation to address college sports governance issues. The original question asked Goodell if he felt the changes in college football were a threat to the NFL. He did not address that. |
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