| Friday, February 6, 2026 |
| Theatre MSU brings the heat, razor-sharp wit to 2026 season | |
 | Mississippi State University's Theatre MSU continues its 2025-2026 season this month with adaptations of "Fahrenheit 451" and "Sweeney Todd." Spring shows begin Feb. 18-22 with the production of Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451." Set in a future where books are outlawed and critical thinking is suppressed, the story follows fireman Guy Montag as he begins to question the society he has sworn to protect. "Fahrenheit 451" was selected by MSU students, and its performance is a collaborative partnership with Department of Computer Science and Engineering students designing and executing projections for the production. Tickets are available at www.events.msstate.edu. All performances take place on McComas Hall theater's main stage. "The spring season offers audiences two very different theatrical experiences. From the urgency of 'Fahrenheit 451' to the dark humor and musical complexity of 'Sweeney Todd,' these productions highlight the range and ambition of Theatre MSU and showcase the depth of talent and dedication of our students, from performance to design and technical execution," said Tonya Hays, Theatre MSU director and assistant professor in the Department of Communication, Media and Theatre. |
| New LINK CEO touts 30 years experience, billion-dollar wins | |
 | Iain Vasey's familiarity with the Golden Triangle Development LINK dates back to 2011, when he went head-to-head with the organization while working to land a Hawker Beechcraft site selection deal as executive director of economic development for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber in Louisiana. Hawker Beechcraft declared bankruptcy and didn't locate either place. Fifteen years later, Vasey is set to compete for the Golden Triangle as the LINK's chief executive officer. "It's a big move," Vasey told The Dispatch on Thursday. "It's a very successful organization. I hope I can help bring value to the organization and the team, and I'm looking forward to meeting all of the stakeholders, the board members and the staff members as well." The LINK announced through a press release Thursday that Vasey will assume the role March 15. The organization has been without a CEO for six months since Joe Max Higgins was fired in August for alleged inappropriate workplace conduct and speech. Bain Nickels, chairman for the 13-member LINK Board of Directors, said Vasey was selected from a pool of roughly 120 candidates following a national search led by Jorgenson Pace, a Greensboro, North Carolina-based search firm specializing in nonprofit, economic development and community development sectors. |
| CREATE Foundation establishes Northeast Mississippi ice storm recovery fund | |
| CREATE Foundation has established the Northeast Mississippi Ice Storm Recovery Fund to support communities impacted by the recent ice storm across the region. All gifts to the fund will be 100% available for grants with no fees charged. CREATE will work closely with its local affiliates to identify priority needs, distribute funds to service providers, and secure resources necessary for both immediate relief and long-term recovery. Several regional partners have already stepped forward to support recovery efforts. North Mississippi Primary Health Care has committed support for the eight counties it serves, and Toyota Mississippi has pledged assistance for the three counties within its service area. CREATE encourages additional industries, businesses, and individuals to join these efforts and help meet the growing needs across the region. Donors may designate gifts to support a specific county, specific recovery efforts, or contribute to the fund to support the region as a whole. "The ice storm is one of the most significant and widespread disasters in our region's history," said Mike Clayborne, President of CREATE Foundation. "While immediate needs are being addressed, we are only beginning to understand the long-term recovery challenges ahead. CREATE is committed to working with donors and local partners to ensure our communities have the resources needed for a full recovery." |
| Bird flu confirmed in Mississippi chicken flock. Officials address food safety | |
 | A commercial broiler chicken flock in Amite County has tested positive for highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza, according to the Mississippi Board of Animal Health. The discovery has raised concerns among poultry producers and triggered a response from both state and federal agencies. The Mississippi Veterinary Research and Diagnostic Laboratory initially detected the virus, which was later confirmed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa. Authorities have quarantined the affected flock and are working with industry partners to contain the outbreak and prevent further spread. The Mississippi Board of Animal Health is monitoring nearby poultry farms and advising producers to strengthen biosecurity protocols. State officials emphasized that avian influenza does not pose a food safety risk. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that poultry and eggs are safe to eat when handled and cooked properly. According to the CDC, the public health risk from avian influenza in birds remains low. |
| Giant snails and tiny insects threaten the South's rice and crawfish farms | |
 | Josh Courville has harvested crawfish his whole life, but these days, he's finding a less welcome catch in some of the fields he manages in southern Louisiana. Snails. Big ones. For every crawfish Courville dumps out of a trap, three or four snails clang onto the boat's metal sorting table. About the size of a baseball when fully grown, apple snails stubbornly survive all kinds of weather in fields, pipes and drainage ditches and can lay thousands of bubblegum-colored eggs every month. "It's very disheartening," Courville said. "The most discouraging part, actually, is not having much control over it." Apple snails are just one example of how invasive species can quickly become a nightmare for farmers. In Louisiana, where rice and crawfish are often grown together in the same fields, there's now a second threat: tiny insects called delphacids that can deal catastrophic damage to rice plants. Much about these snails and insects is still a mystery, and researchers are trying to learn more about what's fueling their spread, from farming methods and pesticides to global shipping and extreme weather. It's an urgent problem because in a tough market for rice, farmers who rotate the rice and crawfish crops together need successful harvests of both to make ends meet. Delphacids have been identified in four of the six rice-producing states -- Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi -- but it's not clear yet whether they've made a permanent winter home in the U.S. |
| Mississippi Marketplace: Are state leaders rethinking data center deals? | |
 | A bill proposing to divert a portion of local taxes from large developments to the state generated a stir at the Capitol this week. Rep. Trey Lamar, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and the bill's author, did not bring up the bill in committee before Tuesday's deadline, letting it die without a vote. But it could signal some leaders are reevaluating the incentives given to the massive data centers sprouting up in Mississippi and across the South and whether the state is getting a good deal. When asked about why he didn't bring his bill up, Lamar responded, "stay tuned." It's unclear whether he would try to revive the measure this session. If the proposal in House Bill 1635 were enacted, for projects over $1 billion in investment, 80% of local ad-valorem taxes collected over $1 billion would go into a new state fund, with 20% going to the local government and school district. Money in the new fund would be earmarked for infrastructure and economic development projects across the state. Local leaders have pushed back against this proposal. Data centers remain attractive projects for local leaders and developers. The centers bring in billions of dollars in investment, new tax revenue and create more jobs. But there has been pushback from residents who are concerned about environmental impacts and the lack of transparency. Data centers create relatively few jobs compared to the scale of investment and demand large amounts of power and water. |
| The big split driving the tricky politics of AI data centers | |
 | The tech industry is facing fierce local backlash to data center projects around the country. But a new poll suggests national opinion is still up for grabs. Cities from Madison, Wisconsin, to Chandler, Arizona, are rejecting new data centers -- the hulking, server-packed complexes that make up the backbone of the booming artificial intelligence industry -- citing everything from rising electricity costs to depleted water tables and air pollution. Nationally, however, the tech giants behind the rapid rollout of data centers have a window to shape public opinion despite opposition they're seeing on the local level, according to new results from The POLITICO Poll. The survey, conducted by London-based independent polling company Public First, found that most voters are blasé -- even mildly positive -- about the possibility of having a data center in their area, associating them with new jobs and other economic benefits. But the industry's standing is also precarious, and the poll suggests a partisan split is emerging: People increasingly see the tech companies as aligned with Republicans, the survey shows. And Democratic Govs. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey won races in November in part by campaigning to force data center operators to help upgrade the electric grid and keep utility rates down. |
| The Week Anthropic Tanked the Market and Pulled Ahead of Its Rivals | |
 | Anthropic once appeared as an also-ran in the chaotic race for AI supremacy. This week, the sophistication of the startup's products upended the stock market. A simple set of industry-specific add-ons to its Claude product, including one that performed legal services, triggered a dayslong global stock selloff, from software to legal services, financial data and real estate. Then, Anthropic unveiled Super Bowl ads that taunt rival OpenAI. On Thursday, Anthropic unleashed its most advanced model yet, capable of synthesizing data and analysis, running teams of coding assistants, and functions akin to product management. Shares of software companies including Salesforce, Intuit and others fell again Thursday, although less precipitously than earlier in the week. The viral moment for Anthropic's models "is the most important thing that's happened in AI since ChatGPT's launch," said Dean Ball, a senior fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation who writes an artificial-intelligence newsletter. "It's infinitely interesting." Anthropic's tools, which include so-called agents that can act autonomously to carry out increasingly complex user requests for hours, have offered a preview of the threat sophisticated AI models pose to entire companies. The startup has fought its way to the forefront of the AI conversation with a novel strategy focused on safety, software engineering, and business customers. |
| House looks to infuse PERS with $600 million plus revenues from mobile sports betting | |
| The Mississippi House of Representatives passed legislation Wednesday to legalize mobile sports betting with the goal being to shore up the state's Public Employees Retirement System. HB 1581, passed by a vote of 85 to 31 after 20 minutes of debate, was authored by House Gaming Committee Chairman State Rep. Casey Eure (R). He said the legislation is similar to ones that have failed to pass for the last two years, with only a couple of changes. Both prior attempts died in the Senate. The biggest change, said Eure, is that gaming revenue collected by Mississippi would be earmarked for PERS. Within a few years, the chairman "safely" estimated between $40 million and $80 million in taxes and fees could be generated for PERS, with upwards of $100 million annually seen as possible as the industry grows. To gain support for the House bill, Rep. Eure told members that neighboring states are seeing healthier coffers as a result of online gambling. Louisiana collected approximately $100 million in revenue since September 2025, he said. Eure noted that more than 81,000 Mississippians traveled to Louisiana and Tennessee to participate in online gambling, with approximately 62.5 percent going to the Volunteer State and 37 percent to the Bayou State. |
| Governor signs bill for hospital improvements as lawmakers work to boost rural facilities | |
| A new law takes effect immediately that will make it easier for health facilities to make costly improvements and limit where the University of Mississippi Medical Center can open new locations without state approval after Gov. Tate Reeves signed the legislation into law Wednesday. Lawmakers passed nearly identical changes to the state's certificate of need law last session, but this year, they removed a provision that led Republican Gov. Tate Reeves to veto the legislation in April. Certificate of need law requires providers to receive state approval before opening new services or paying for expensive upgrades by proving that people need the services in their area. The regulations are meant to lower costs and enhance the quality and accessibility of health care by preventing duplication of services, but stakeholders are divided on whether the law accomplishes its goals. Critics argue that certificate of need stifles competition and fails to decrease costs. Advocates say it ensures that communities have access to a range of health services, not only those that are profitable. In Mississippi, where over half of rural hospitals are at risk of closing, some argue that the laws prevent struggling hospitals from opening profitable service lines that could shore up their bottom lines. |
| Lawmakers considering Alzheimer's biomarker testing insurance coverage | |
| Mississippi is a hot spot in the nation for Alzheimer's disease. Now lawmakers are being urged to support early diagnosis methods. Medical professionals, advocates, and those impacted by Alzheimer's disease gathered at the State Capitol Thursday to ask legislators to support Jill's Law. House Bill 565 calls for insurance coverage of Alzheimer's Biomarker Testing. An FDA approved blood test is currently available that can indicate chances for the development of the neurological disease. "Those biomarkers allow me to let a whole entire family know that their family is at risk for a disease that we can do something about, especially before we even have any symptoms at all," said Dr. Kimberly Tarver, MD, with The MIND Center at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. "We're either one or two in the nation for per capita deaths associated with Alzheimer's," said Dr. Ruth Fredericks, a neurologist at St. Dominic Hospital. "So, we're a hot bed, and so we're really lucky there are several centers throughout the state now that are more aggressive with treating this type of dementia." According to medical experts, 13% of people over 65 in the state have an Alzheimer's disease diagnosis. |
| Choctaw tribal chief addresses ICE concerns in Mississippi | |
 | Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians Tribal Chief Cyrus Ben has written to tribal members addressing concerns about possible Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity near tribal lands. Ben said the tribe has not heard of any incidents involving ICE and tribal members, and officials are not aware of ICE entering tribal lands. He asked members to notify his office if they become aware of any incidents involving ICE and tribal citizens. "I want to assure you that the Tribe has not heard of any incidents involving ICE and MBCI members, and we are not aware of ICE entering Tribal lands," Ben wrote in the letter dated this week. The chief referenced reports from other areas of the country where tribal members have been approached, questioned and possibly detained by ICE based on what appears to be racial profiling techniques. Ben said some reports have been determined factual and others false. Ben encouraged tribal members to carry tribal identification or valid ID at all times to help avoid unnecessary complications. He said members should be informed and prepared while knowing their rights, but should not panic or feel unnecessary worry. |
| New SNAP work requirements begin rolling out across U.S. | |
| More states are moving to ban SNAP recipients from buying certain foods. It's a move that comes amid a flurry of changes coming to food assistance, including expanded work requirements. Now, even more recipients -- including people aged 55 to 64 and those experiencing homelessness -- will have to prove they meet them. "People need to find the time to sit down to a computer, which they may or may not have access to. They need to log into the system, they need to provide the correct paperwork," said Karen Ehrens, U.S. policy manager at the Alliance to End Hunger. Eligibility criteria for SNAP have fluctuated over the years, according to Christopher Bosso, a professor of public policy and political science at Northeastern University. But this time it doesn't stop there, he said. "There are changes in the program that, if fully implemented, will result probably in the biggest percentage-wise cut in SNAP benefits." States will have to shoulder even more of the costs of running the program. And, over the next few years, the more errors a state makes in administering SNAP, the more money they'll be on the hook for. For the USDA's part, a spokesperson said it is "committed to preserving the integrity of our programs and respecting the generosity of American taxpayers." |
| Farmers squeezed by Trump tariffs press lawmakers for action | |
 | Bipartisan farming advocates are concerned the industry could "collapse" in the near future, with the combination of a downturn cycle and the policies of the Trump administration putting the sector in a precarious position. Former leaders in the industry warned House and Senate lawmakers, in a letter this week, that Congress needs to step up "if we are to avoid a widespread collapse of American agriculture and our rural communities." While some experts are skeptical about such dire predictions, they say the policies of the administration, particularly tariffs, are not helping the rising costs of production and weak crop prices farmers have experienced in the past few years. While the letter acknowledges the problems in the agriculture industry are complex, its authors say, "[I]t is clear that the current administration's actions, along with congressional inaction, have increased costs for farm inputs, disrupted overseas and domestic markets, denied agriculture its reliable labor pool, and defunded critical ag research and staffing." The letter was signed by a bipartisan group of leaders including staffers under former Republican administrations, past heads of agriculture organizations, experts in the field and farmers. |
| In Nashville speech, RFK Jr. promotes beef, pleases CattleCon crowd | |
 | Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at a conference in Nashville Feb. 5, touting his daily intake of beef and its top tier ranking on the newly overhauled federal dietary guidelines, known as the food pyramid. He spoke to thousands crowded into a conference room at Music City Center about the flipped food pyramid and the need for increased beef production during the National Cattlemen's Beef Association annual conference, known as CattleCon 2026. The conference drew more than 9,400 women and men from the cattle industry from all over the country. Kennedy only fielded questions during a fireside chat from association president Buck Wehrbein, who donned a tan cowboy hat. Kennedy promoted more "real food," including fruits and vegetables, and less grains and processed foods, aligned with the Trump's administration's "Make America Healthy Again" campaign. Nancy Jackson, a Mississippi veterinarian and cattle rancher, is one of thousands who crowded into a conference room to listen to Kennedy's remarks on the failing health of America and new nutritional guidelines, announced Jan. 7. Beef can be an important first food for infants as young as age 1, said Jackson, chair of the Federation of State Beef Councils with the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. |
| Members split on plan to use reconciliation again to boost defense | |
 | As some defense hawks eye a massive influx of defense dollars in a possible forthcoming reconciliation measure, initial reactions from defense appropriators and authorizers have been mixed, foreshadowing what could be a rocky road to achieving President Donald Trump's stated goal of a $1.5 trillion defense budget in 2027. In comments to Breaking Defense this week, House Armed Services Chairman Mike D. Rogers, R-Ala., said he and his Senate counterpart, Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., would like to see Congress enact a second reconciliation package that includes $450 billion for national security to supplement the fiscal 2027 defense budget. "[Rogers and I] are of the same mind that we need substantial plus ups, some of it may occur in reconciliation, and a good bit of it in the traditional means," Wicker said Thursday, and indicated that he would support a second reconciliation effort. But some reluctance, even among top Senate Republicans, materialized almost immediately. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., a Defense appropriator, said reconciliation would be "a heavy lift," but declined to make any predictions. |
| What to know about TrumpRx, the Trump administration's prescription drug platform | |
| President Trump on Thursday night announced the launch of TrumpRx, the website that he and his aides have touted for months as a platform aimed at lowering prescription drug prices. The website, which uses technology from health care company GoodRx, displays the cash prices -- that is, the prices available when paying without insurance -- for certain drugs and directs patients to other sites where they can buy the therapies. It's part of Trump's plan to lower drug prices in the U.S., but some experts are skeptical the platform will meaningfully affect affordability. Though the direct prices are lower than list prices, they still amount to several hundred dollars per month for many drugs, largely more than the cost for patients using insurance. And typically when patients buy their drugs directly from pharma companies, none of their spending counts toward their deductibles or out-of-pocket maximums, which are meant to limit costs over time. The website displays the discounts that the cash prices represent for each drug, but it compares the cash prices to list prices of drugs, which can be misleading. Still, even before the launch of TrumpRx, the movement in the pharma industry toward direct-pay models was gaining traction, particularly in the case of Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk and their GLP-1 obesity drugs. |
| Dr. Oz Is Fighting an Uphill Battle to Sell Congress on Trump's Healthcare Plan | |
| Mehmet Oz arrived on Capitol Hill last week to pitch Republicans on an idea to codify into law President Trump's drug-pricing model, which ties U.S. pharmaceutical costs to lower prices typically paid abroad. Oz, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, could sense the skepticism from GOP senators -- members of the Finance Committee -- as they raised concerns about industry backlash and a potential chilling effect on innovation. "You read the room," Oz said in an interview. "When's the right time to tell them they need to do something different?" The move marked the opening effort of the administration's push to advance the president's plan ahead of the midterm elections, as healthcare costs have become a top voter concern. While Trump has proposed sending money directly to Americans through Health Savings Accounts to ease those costs, that discussion was absent from Oz's talks with Republicans, he said. "That's not the most important issue for us," said Oz, the former television host and celebrity surgeon widely known as Dr. Oz. He emphasized making sure that pricing deals reached under Trump with more than a dozen pharmaceutical companies endure beyond his time in office. "We didn't demand that they do it. We said, 'This is something that is very popular and highly achievable.' " The closed-door meeting highlighted Oz's rise as a power broker in Trump's second term, despite being an unconventional choice to lead one of the nation's top health agencies. |
| Census Bureau plans to use survey with a citizenship question in its test for 2030, alarming experts | |
| The U.S. Census Bureau plans to use a survey form with a citizenship question as part of its practice test of the 2030 census, raising questions about whether the Trump administration might try to make a significant change to the once-a-decade headcount that failed during the president's first term. The field test being conducted in Huntsville, Alabama, and Spartanburg, South Carolina, is using questions from the American Community Survey, the comprehensive survey of American life, rather than questions from recent census forms. Among the questions on the ACS is one that asks, "Is this person a citizen of the United States?" Questions for the census aren't supposed to ask about citizenship, and they haven't for 75 years. Last August, Trump instructed the Commerce Department to have the Census Bureau start work on a new census that would exclude immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally from the head count. The Constitution's 14th Amendment says "the whole number of persons in each state" should be counted for the numbers used for apportionment, the process of divvying up congressional seats, and Electoral College votes among the states. The Census Bureau has interpreted that to mean anybody living in the U.S., regardless of legal status. |
| Kamala Harris relaunches KamalaHQ as Gen Z political organizing hub | |
| Former Vice President Kamala Harris announced on Tuesday the revival and rebrand of the "KamalaHQ" social media accounts which she used during her 2024 campaign for the presidency. KamalaHQ gained over 1 million followers on X and more than 5 million on TikTok throughout the campaign. Now Harris, alongside progressive advocacy group People For the American Way, are rebranding the accounts to a permanent youth-oriented project simply called Headquarters. Organizers framed Headquarters as a response to a long-standing asymmetry in U.S. politics: conservatives' investment in organizing infrastructure versus progressives' tendency to dismantle campaign operations after Election Day. Headquarters, they said, is designed to end that cycle by channeling young people into sustained online and offline action around pro-democracy, pro-fairness and pro-justice causes. Early posts on the rebranded account lean heavily into the sharp, meme-driven style that defined KamalaHQ during the 2024 campaign, immediately re-engaging in rapid-response sparring with conservative influencers and Trump-aligned accounts. The account has reposted and mocked content from Donald Trump's political operation and senior aides, pairing short captions with screenshots and video clips designed to bait engagement and undercut opponents' messaging. |
| Trump shares video depicting Obamas as apes | |
 | Shortly before midnight on Thursday, President Donald Trump shared a video on his Truth Social account that included a short clip depicting former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes. The clip shared on the president's account, which has more than 11 million online followers, was included at the end of a minute-long video promoting conspiracy theories about the tabulation of the 2020 presidential election results. The segment at the end showed the Obamas' faces superimposed onto the bodies of apes as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" played in the background. Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina), the sole Black Republican member of the Senate, wrote on X that he was "praying" the video "was fake because it's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House." "The President should remove it," Scott, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, added. The clip depicting the Obamas as apes appeared to be part of a longer animation, dating back at least to October, depicting Trump as a lion and several high-profile Democrats as jungle animals. The video concludes with the animals bowing to Trump as a lion. Scott is not the only Republican in Congress to swiftly denounce the video. |
| California couple adds $3M to Ole Miss scholarship fund | |
| Bill and Melanie Roper, of La Jolla, California, are deepening their commitment to University of Mississippi students by adding $3 million to the Bill and Melanie Roper Scholarship Endowment, which began with a $2 million gift in 2022. What makes this experience especially meaningful for the Ropers is their personal involvement with the students who benefit from their generosity. The scholarship supports business, science, technology, engineering or math majors in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. "It's been really rewarding," said Bill Roper, an Ole Miss alumnus and Jackson native. "We've given money to other philanthropic channels but often haven't seen much connection between the gift and the results. "We wanted to make a difference by investing in young people, helping them to reach their full potential and then be able to give back to society." The Roper Scholars program will be expanding to support 16 students as a result of this additional gift. The Ropers are assisting eight scholars, five of whom are pursuing pre-med tracks, this academic year. |
| USM Gulf Park shuts down over a dozen undergrad programs amid enrollment declines | |
 | More than a dozen undergraduate programs at the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Park campus have shut down or will be phased out in the next few years as school leaders confront challenges of declining enrollment. The university said the move will shift Gulf Park's focus from traditional academic majors to targeted programs intended to place graduates in growing job fields across the Mississippi Coast. The decision is ending programs including math, English, history and political science. University leaders said Gulf Park is adapting to the reality that most coastal students attend local community colleges for their first two years of undergraduate school. Southern Miss President Joseph Paul said Gulf Park's enrollment has "declined dramatically" over the last decade, and some impacted programs had classes with fewer than 10 students. "The primary reason for closing those programs on the Coast," he said, "is they were just chronically under-enrolled." The decision to end the programs is the latest shift at Gulf Park, which has faced criticism in recent years over enrollment challenges in one of the state's fastest-growing regions. Southern Miss also said it is adding and growing some programs at Gulf Park, including an accelerated bachelor of science in nursing degree and a physician assistant program set to launch in 2027. |
| Lawmakers propose allowing Mississippi schools more days off without makeup after storm | |
| As school closures continue into a second week after Winter Storm Fern, the Mississippi House has voted to extend the amount of time districts can close without making days up. The storm ravaged the state in late January, leaving downed power lines, icy roads and fallen trees in its wake. Schools across the Southeast are still dealing with closures, including Oxford School District and Holly Springs School District in Mississippi. House Education Committee Chairman Rob Roberson, a Republican from Starkville, was successful in amending an unrelated bill on the floor in its entirety on Thursday, replacing it with language that gives districts in north Mississippi impacted by the ice storm up to 15 canceled school days due to emergencies. State law currently only allows 10 missed days for weather emergencies and natural disasters. Any more, and schools have to add extra time to their academic year. "I don't think we have much of a choice," he said. "Some of these school districts still don't have electricity ... frankly, a lot of these teachers don't want to have to come back in and make these days up in the summer." The bill now heads to the Senate. |
| LSU VP of marketing and communications to depart: 'We've decided to bring fresh perspectives' | |
 | SU Vice President of Marketing and Communications Todd Woodward is departing the university, officials said Thursday. "As part of our transition to a new administration, we've decided to bring fresh perspectives and new leadership to our communications function," Chief of Staff and Senior Vice President of External Relations Jason French said in the statement. "We're grateful for Todd's dedicated service and contributions to LSU over the past two years and wish him continued success." Woodward was hired in October 2023 under former LSU President William Tate IV. The announcement follows a wave of executive changes in recent weeks led by new LSU System President Wade Rousse and Chancellor Jim Dalton, who were selected in November. It also comes after a series of high-level departures at the university last year, including Tate, former LSU Chief Administrative Officer Kimberly Lewis and former LSU Provost Roy Haggerty. |
| U. of Florida alerts campus after confirmed measles cases | |
 | The University of Florida on Feb. 5 reported two measles cases on campus. The Department of Health in Alachua County is conducting contact tracing for two UF classes where individuals may have been exposed to the virus, according to a statement from the university. UF says the Department of Health is currently reaching out to those who might have been exposed. "If you are not contacted, there is no reason to believe you were exposed," the statement read. The vast majority of UF students, faculty and staff are immune to measles either through vaccination or prior contraction of the virus before widespread availability of the vaccine, the statement continued. But those who are concerned they might have measles should isolate themselves and contact a health care provider. These are the first recorded measles cases in Alachua County since 2011. The cases come amid a record-breaking outbreak of measles in South Carolina, where there have been 876 confirmed cases as of Feb. 3, surpassing an outbreak in West Texas last year that saw 762 cases and three deaths, including two children. |
| Tenure Will Be Eliminated at Most of Oklahoma's Public Colleges, Governor Says | |
 | Effective Thursday, most colleges in Oklahoma can no longer grant faculty members tenure. Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, signed an executive order directing its two-dozen regional universities and community colleges to "phase out tenure" and instead employ faculty members on renewable contracts "tied to teaching effectiveness, student completion, job placement, and economic alignment." The move represents an unprecedented step for a governor and draws a striking distinction between most of the state's public colleges and its research institutions, which can continue offering tenure but with new conditions. Professors who already have tenure at the state's regional and community colleges will retain it, but will be subject to post-tenure review. Tenured faculty members at Oklahoma's two R1 institutions -- the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University -- will be subject to post-tenure review every five years. Stitt's executive order also carves out authority for institutions to discipline, reassign, or terminate professors who demonstrate a "sustained failure to meet established performance standards." Stitt also signed a second executive order paving the way for a 90-credit-hour bachelor's degree and instituting a performance-based funding model for higher ed. |
| State regents predict increased enrollment, costs for Oklahoma's Promise | |
| Oklahoma higher education officials are projecting an increase in enrollment to a state scholarship program and an estimated 21.6% related jump in costs in the coming years amid shifting eligibility and application requirements. Lawmakers, meanwhile, are eyeing nearly 20 bills that could dramatically expand eligibility for the Oklahoma's Promise scholarship program and balloon the program's price tag to as much as $500 million a year, higher education officials said. The program, which provides qualifying children from lower-income families with free tuition, had over 15,000 participants during the 2024-25 school year, according to a report from the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. Over 4,400 degrees were conferred to scholarship recipients during the same school year. Chancellor Sean Burrage said Oklahoma's Promise is continuing to deliver strong results, with students enrolling in college and persisting in their education at higher rates than peers who are not involved in the program. |
| Prominent Texas A&M donor argues system regents are 'failing in their sworn duty' | |
| Days after a critical Texas Monthly article made headlines for excoriating the culture wars that have embroiled Texas A&M for the past several years, one of Texas A&M's most notable donors penned a Dallas Morning News editorial criticizing the University's shift away from academic freedom under political pressures. Jon Hagler is a formidable Texas A&M alumnus by any measure. A member of the Distinguished Alumni class of 1999, he served as a Ross Volunteer and the Cadet Colonel of the Corps of Cadets before graduating with an Agricultural Economics degree in 1958. Hagler has since served as co-chair of Texas A&M's Vision 2020 strategic planning, a trustee and eventual Trustee Emeritus of the Texas A&M Foundation, and as a commencement speaker. His name is highly visible on campus, too, as the lead donor to the Jon L. Hagler Center, the Texas A&M Foundation's headquarters in College Station, as well as the underwriter for Texas A&M's Hagler Institute for Advanced Study, which brings world-class scholars and leaders to College Station for a yearlong research fellowship. In the Morning News, Hagler begins by saying he feels remaining silent while witnessing undue political influence felt like betraying his commitment to "one of America's genuinely great public universities." |
| U. of Missouri Faculty Council discusses changes in language in the faculty handbook | |
 | On Thursday, the University of Missouri Faculty Council met to discuss several topics, including changes in language contained in the faculty handbook. Discourse rose among council members as changes to the faculty handbook regarding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives spurred confusion and backlash during the meeting. Changes came after federal lawmakers cracked down on specific wording in the faculty handbook. With changes in the law regarding DEI, the committee was notified any wording that may value one student above another based on race, ethnicity, sex or age is to be altered or removed. One of the phrases set to be removed is, "The university seeks a heterogeneous student body reflecting diversity of race, ethnicity, age, geography (including international students) and physical disability." The initial changes to the handbook were delivered by Academic Affairs committee member James Crozier, who assured staff that despite the ensuing changes being brought up in summer of 2025, the overall consensus of the committee was that these changes do not represent the true beliefs of the university. "I'm not advertising this. I mean, I am not advocating it. I don't like it," he said. Members of the council were quick to offer alternative wording and phrasing to maintain the core values they hold. |
| College admissions offices take on a new role: Coaxing accepted students to show up | |
| Kathy Cabrera Guaman not only survived the nail-biting process of applying to college; she got into three. But the celebrations were short-lived. Now she was sitting somberly and absorbing how much work comes after that triumphant moment of acceptance and before she sets foot in a classroom in the fall. For incoming students at most colleges and universities, this has long meant slogging through endless and complex steps they're left mostly on their own to figure out -- financial aid, loans, majors, placement tests, class registration, housing, roommates, textbooks, a meal plan, health insurance, public transportation, immunizations. That's what brought Guaman to a conference room in the admissions offices of Augsburg University, where she's decided to enroll and where admissions director Stacy Severson was walking her through those logistics. The support Severson was offering is part of a surprisingly novel approach now being rolled out nationwide to try not only to make the process of admission simpler, but to enlist admissions officers as guides for students navigating the equally complex process that confronts them after that. As generations of applicants to college have experienced, this is not the traditional role of admissions counselors, who have historically been sealed off behind closed doors and not available to help with any of these things -- gatekeepers in a process seemingly meant to emphasize the exclusive nature of their institutions. |
| Education Dept. Tells Universities Not to Use Student Voting Data | |
 | The Education Department sent a message to colleges and universities nationwide Thursday: Any that use data released this year by a massive student voting study risk being labeled violators of a federal law protecting student privacy, and suffering financial consequences for it. The move -- and the department's new investigations into the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement -- could impact college student participation in this year's midterm elections. In a statement, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said that "American colleges and universities should be focused on teaching, learning, and research -- not influencing elections." In a letter to institutions Thursday, Frank E. Miller Jr., director of ED's Student Privacy Policy Office, wrote that "there are a number of enforcement options available to the Department when" a higher ed institution "is not in voluntary compliance with FERPA," the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Miller said those include "withholding further payments, issuing a cease-and-desist order, and recovering funds." On the same day, ED announced investigations into Tufts University, which houses the study, and the National Student Clearinghouse, a partner in the study. Miller's letter told colleges and universities that any of them that intend to use any "report or data" from the study "this year are advised to wait to do so until the Department has completed its investigations." It's unclear when those investigations will be done. |
| How Higher Ed Staved Off a Research-Funding Bloodbath -- For Now | |
| Tucked into a slew of bills signed by President Trump this week was a rare win for research universities -- one that aims to keep billions in taxpayer dollars flowing. The bills bar the Trump administration from enacting a policy that sparked a panic across the sector when it was proposed almost exactly a year ago. The nightmare, for now, has been averted: For the next fiscal year, federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health cannot lawfully change their system for determining what portion of research grants should go to "indirect costs." Under this decades-old process, grants help pay for a research project's "direct" costs, like lab supplies for an experiment, as well as the "indirect" costs of doing that research -- and all other research on campus -- like the electricity that keeps labs running. So when the NIH said on February 7, 2025, that it would impose a flat 15-percent rate, universities filed a blizzard of lawsuits. Losses were projected to total $5.2 billion, not counting those incurred by the slew of similar reimbursement caps soon unveiled by other federal agencies. But even as the fight went to court, Kelvin K. Droegemeier, a science-policy adviser at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who'd served in the first Trump administration, believed that what universities really needed to do was propose an alternative. He pulled together a few dozen representatives from colleges, hospitals, and other institutions that do federally funded research. Over late-night Zoom calls and in-person meetings, this ragtag group hashed out a potential new plan for indirect-cost funding in six months. Their pitch seems to be resonating. |
SPORTS
| Softball: Goold Blanks Bears As Bulldog Bats Start Hot | |
| Peja Goold was just one out away from a no-hitter in her debut for No. 22 Mississippi State on Thursday night. The Bulldogs defeated Baylor, 10-0, in five innings on Opening Day behind four home runs. State (1-0) opened the scoring quickly and didn't let up. The first five batters of the game reached safely, and the Bulldogs jumped out to a 2-0 lead on Nadia Barbary's home run in the first. Abby Grace Richardson, making her first career start, launched a solo shot to lead off the second before State exploded for seven runs in the third. "I'm really proud of the way they came out," head coach Samantha Ricketts said. "I thought they were focused. They were excited. They were ready to play, and they just set in the tone in the beginning. One through nine and everyone in between -- in the dugout -- they were embracing their role and just being all in together for each other, and it was a lot of fun. A great start for the season for us." Goold, meanwhile, quietly kept dealing. She struck out five on the night and did not allow a hit through 4.2 innings. Goold allowed just four baserunners all night, and Baylor saw only two runners reach second. The Bulldogs continue play at the Getterman Classic on Friday morning. State meets Northwestern State at 10 a.m. CT before playing Wichita State at 12:30 p.m. Both games will air on ESPN+. |
| Reese and Sullivan more interested in Omaha than individual accolades | |
| Mississippi State baseball has undergone a number of changes over the last seven months, but two familiar faces are still stealing headlines for the team ahead of the 2026 season. Ace Reese and Noah Sullivan, two All-American returning talents from the 2025 Diamond Dawgs, were recognized on the preseason All-SEC First Team on Thursday. They were the only two Bulldogs featured in the lineups. Despite the personal accolades, the pair haven't been too bothered by raking in honors for themselves. "These awards don't really mean a whole lot for us," Sullivan said bluntly when asked about his All-American status on Monday. "As a team it's cool to see it, but we have to win a lot of games and keep moving forward." The pair were among the eight players representing the team in front of local media on Monday for the team's first media day of the new season, and the new energy was apparent throughout the group. They're not in it for personal accomplishments, but for a chance to return to the biggest stage in the sport in June. "I kind of agree," Reese added. "I mean, it's nice to see it, but at the end of the day, we all have a goal to get to Omaha as a team. That's what our focus is on." |
| Bulldogs look to shake slump against No. 21 Razorbacks | |
| Mississippi State men's basketball begins the final stretch of the 2025-26 season this weekend, and they'll need to start picking up wins if they want to extend their campaign any further into March. The Bulldogs (11-11, 3-6 SEC) have lost six of their last seven games after starting the new year with back-to-back wins, and currently sit in 13th in the conference standings. A shaky start to the season with five nonconference losses is beginning to take a toll on the team's postseason chances. Current bracketology projections have MSU as a "Last Four In" team for the NIT. With nine regular-season games remaining, the team is running low on opportunities to turn its fortunes around and will have to start their run against ranked opposition. MSU's next opponent is No. 21 Arkansas. Fresh off their own bye week, the Razorbacks (16-6, 6-3 SEC) are in a similar boat as the Bulldogs. After a loss to forget last weekend, the team had a couple of days off to move on and get ready for the trip to Starkville. "I'm not very deep into them. It's our bye week, but Coach Cal will always have an uber-talented team," Jans said on Monday. |
| Men's Tennis: No. 6 Mississippi State Hosts South Alabama, Alabama State in Saturday Doubleheader | |
| No. 6 Mississippi State men's tennis returns to action Saturday with a home doubleheader, welcoming South Alabama and Alabama State to the Rula Tennis Pavilion. Mississippi State has enjoyed success against both opponents. The Bulldogs hold a 17-7 all-time advantage over South Alabama, including a 13-4 mark at home. State currently rides a six-match winning streak against the Jaguars. Against Alabama State, Mississippi State is a perfect 7-0 all-time, winning each meeting by shutout. South Alabama has opened the season at .500, earning wins over Southern University and Jackson State while falling to LSU and Florida Atlantic. Alabama State enters the weekend with a 2-3 record, collecting victories over The Citadel and Auburn University at Montgomery while suffering losses to Florida State, Samford and Alabama. The Bulldogs will look to open the season 8-0 for the first time during Roberts' tenure and for the first time since the 2014 season. |
| Starkville head coach John Carr leaving for NFL job with Cleveland Browns | |
| Starkville High School is back in the market for a head football coach. John Carr, who took over the Yellow Jackets' program ahead of the 2025 season, has accepted a role in the National Football League as the Cleveland Browns' chief of staff under new head coach Todd Monken, according to multiple reports. Carr came to Starkville from Clinton after previous coaching stops at the collegiate level, including stints as the offensive coordinator at East Mississippi Community College and Jones Community College along with roles at the University of Louisiana at Monroe and Troy University. Carr also served as the director of football operations at Southern Miss for three years during Monken's tenure as the Golden Eagles' head coach from 2013-2015. In his one season with the Yellow Jackets, Carr led the team to a 6-5 record that ended with a 28-10 loss to Tupelo in the first round of the Class 7A playoffs. |
| Lawmakers cast a net to protect trophy catfish | |
| A bill designed to add catfish to the state's game fish list hooked early support during the Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks subcommittee meeting Monday. The bill, SB 2660, would reclassify catfish taken from the Mississippi River as game fish and place their harvest under regulation by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks (MDWFP). The bill will also require MDWFP to set reasonable daily and size limits, and would prohibit harvesting more than one catfish longer than 34 inches per day from the river. The intention behind the bill is to ultimately curb the large-scale harvesting of tournament-size catfish out of their natural habitat to other states, where they are then fished for sport in pay lakes. Pay lakes are privately owned stocked fishing ponds where anglers pay a fee, either per day or per fish, to catch species like catfish, carp, or trout. "I've grown up here all my life and I've never heard of someone in Mississippi to charge a nickel, or dollar or whatever they're charging," Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Andy Gipson said in a follow-up interview with The Vicksburg Post. "It's a Yankee invention." Gipson said the issue was brought to his attention by former Vicksburg Alderman Alex Monsour. The commissioner added that his department has discussed the issue with that state's catfish farmers, who Gipson said have no issue with the bill. |
| 'Big time': Burrows believes new MUW athletic center is a step forward for university sports | |
| Dozens of MUW student athletes gathered Wednesday on the second floor of the Hogarth Student Center and excitedly waited to get a glimpse of what all the chatter has been about. Soon after, members of faculty and administration began pouring in close behind and the excited murmurs from the floor picked up a notch when they were finally let through and into the grand opening of the university's new Holland Hollow Student-Athlete Center. Covering 3,200 square feet, the new facility, which is named after former athletes and donors Rebecca "Becky" Smith and Sandy Holland, is designed to elevate the student-athlete experience and comes equipped with a new chair-back theatre style seating area with a projector for watching film and a larger area full of conference-style tables, desks and comfortably padded chairs and couches that can be used by the student-athletes in a variety of ways. "It's truly like the big time," head men's basketball coach and assistant director of athletics Dean Burrows said of the new center. "A lot of Division I schools have something similar, and we're right there. One of the best parts about the new center is having a comfortable space just to watch film, Burrows said. Instead of cramming all of his players into his office or finding an empty classroom to use, all of the Owls' athletic teams have a comfortable designated space they can all use. |
| SEC distributes record $1.03 billion to schools in 2024-25 fiscal year | |
 | The SEC is college sports' first billion-dollar conference. Or at least the first to announce it. The SEC made enough revenue in the most recent fiscal year to distribute $1.03 billion to its 16 schools, the conference announced Thursday. That's an increase from $808.4 million during the 2023-24 fiscal year. That means SEC schools received an average payout of $72.4 million, up from $53.8 million in the previous fiscal year. That payout also came in the last year before schools were required to share revenue with athletes, $20.6 million beginning this past fall. So if the current fiscal year payout ends up just a tick higher, the year-over-year increase would match what SEC teams are paying their athletes. "As college athletics continues to undergo significant change, SEC universities are well-positioned to deliver new financial benefits for student-athletes while continuing to offer a transformative, life-changing college experience," SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement. The vast majority of conference revenue comes from television contracts; ESPN is paying the SEC more than $900 million (the exact figure has not been revealed). That number is expected increase by around $5 million more per school next year with the SEC agreeing to add a ninth conference game in football. |
| Why the SEC's commissioner opposes Charles Bediako's NCAA lawsuit | |
 | Alabama basketball has seen plenty of college sports entities oppose Charles Bediako's attempt to get eligible for the rest of the 2025-26 season by suing the NCAA. Now, the Crimson Tide can count its own conference commissioner as one of those against the move. The NCAA filed its official response to Bediako's suit on Thursday in Tuscaloosa Circuit Court. Among the exhibits the organization included was a signed affidavit from SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, asking the court to rule against Bediako. "I respectfully ask the Court to uphold the NCAA eligibility rules challenged in this case," Sankey's affidavit reads. "Which are essential to the integrity of college sports, to the educational mission they serve, and to the opportunities they provide for current and future student-athletes." "Permitting former professional athletes to return to competition creates a competitive disadvantage and fundamental unfairness for current student-athletes who have not pursed a professional sports career, but have instead maintained their commitment to the collegiate athletics model," Sankey wrote. "Fulfilling the academic standards and participating actively in an educational community while also participating in college sports. It is also unfair to college sports programs that have operated within the existing framework for college athletics and thus have not sought to add former professional athletes to their rosters." |
| 'Irresistible stage': Olympic authorities on high alert for cyberattacks as winter games kick off | |
| As the Winter Olympic Games officially open in Milan Friday, security officials have been scrambling to block cyber threats aimed at disrupting the world's largest sporting event. This week, Italian authorities have already stopped hacking attempts at several embassies and Olympic venues. Security groups tracking these threats are also warning that hackers might be gearing up to spread disinformation online to discredit the games, or may launch further cyberattacks on Olympics sites ahead of the Opening Ceremony on Friday evening local time. "With billions of viewers expected and more than a million spectators onsite, the Olympics represent an irresistible stage for hacktivists and, potentially, more sophisticated actors looking for maximum visibility," said Geradina Corona, spokesperson for the Italian National Cybersecurity Agency, or ACN. "Disrupting TV streaming services, ticketing platforms or other core digital services would guarantee immediate global attention." This global cybersecurity choreography for the Olympics is necessary, as criminal hackers and nation-state actors have frequently targeted the games in recent years. Russian hackers may be feeling particularly emboldened to strike this time around. The country has dramatically increased its hybrid attacks against the U.S. and NATO allies in recent months, and Russia's athletes were again made to compete under the neutral Olympic flag due to its ongoing invasion of Ukraine. |
| Trump signs law that withholds United States' dues to World Anti-Doping Agency | |
| Tucked within the appropriations bill signed by President Donald Trump this week was a provision that withholds the United States' annual dues to the World Anti-Doping Agency until the organization takes steps to address U.S. accusations that WADA is beholden to Chinese influence. The new law, signed by Trump on Tuesday to end a partial government shutdown, states that any U.S. plan to fund WADA must include the results of an audit "to be conducted by external anti-doping experts and experienced independent auditors" that shows the agency and its executives are "operating consistent with their duties." For months, the U.S. government has threatened to withhold its annual $3.6 million in WADA dues. The conflict stems from the revelation that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for a banned substance in 2021 but had not been punished after WADA accepted Chinese officials' explanation that the swimmers had eaten tainted food. WADA, the world's top anti-doping authority, did not report the incident publicly or to its own executive board. The push for greater WADA transparency and accountability started during the Biden administration, has bipartisan support and has no evident opposition in Congress. The White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) withheld its 2024 dues during President Joe Biden's last year in office, and President Trump's ONDCP withheld dues in 2025. The law Trump signed this week means the U.S. is bound to maintain that policy. |
The Office of Public Affairs provides the Daily News Digest as a general information resource for Mississippi State University stakeholders.
Web links are subject to change. Submit news, questions or comments to Jim Laird.
