| Friday, March 13, 2026 |
| Grammy winner Billy Ocean performs at MSU Riley Center March 26 | |
 | Grammy Award–winning British singer-songwriter Billy Ocean, known worldwide for his signature blend of R&B, pop and soul, performs later this month at Mississippi State's Riley Center. Ocean, born in Trinidad and raised in London, is Britain's most successful Black recording star, selling more than 30 million records globally. His career includes chart-topping hits like "Caribbean Queen," "Suddenly" and "Love Really Hurts Without You." Ocean brings his celebrated catalog to the Meridian stage March 26 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available for purchase at msurileycenter.com. Throughout his career, Ocean has dominated charts in the UK, U.S. and beyond. A powerhouse live performer, he has toured around the world and released albums including "Love Zone," "Here You Are" and "One World." After a brief break to be with family, he returned to performing and recording, solidifying his place as an enduring pop and R&B icon. |
| Landowners face tough decision after storm | |
 | In the aftermath of the recent winter storm that blanketed many areas of Mississippi in ice for days, timberland owners have tough decisions to make. The Jan. 23-27 storm left thousands of acres of timber damaged or destroyed and landowners wondering how to manage this financial loss. Curtis VanderSchaaf, forestry specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said damage due to ice storms has historically been considered a casualty loss by the Internal Revenue Service, and some landowners will be able to claim a casualty loss deduction on their federal income taxes. "Whether or not you should depends on many different factors," he said. "And for some people, it may not be worth it. It is a case-by-case basis." The IRS recognizes timberland as either a business, an investment or for hobby use. All the classifications qualify for a casualty loss. Because of the major disaster declaration by the president Feb. 6, hobby owners who use the property strictly for personal recreation can claim a casualty loss. |
| Egg prices have taken a beating. What's behind the drop? | |
 | Not so long ago, eggs were the poster child for runaway grocery bills. People were scrambling just to find a dozen. Some stores were rationing eggs, and prices went through the roof. Today, though, Americans are getting a break on eggs. In fact, the national frying pan runneth over with eggs, and the average retail price has fallen sharply to about $2.50 per dozen. "There's never been a better time to buy eggs," says Emily Metz, president and CEO of the American Egg Board. "Our message right now is, pick up another dozen. They're especially affordable right now." The turnaround is all about avian flu, which a year ago had wiped out tens of millions of laying hens. The virus that causes the flu hasn't gone away. But flu season has done far less damage to egg farms this winter than last. Whether that's thanks to farmers' increased safety precautions, changes in the flu virus or just plain luck, there are about 9 million more hens laying eggs in the U.S. now than there were this time last year. "We've had the time to expand the flock of egg-laying chickens," says livestock economist David Anderson of Texas A&M University. "And that's helped bring down prices." While falling prices are good for egg lovers, they're not so good for egg farmers. Although the supermarket price of eggs has dropped 42% in the last 12 months, the wholesale price that farmers receive has plummeted more than 90%, to around 70 cents a dozen. |
| Consumer Sentiment Declined This Month, Per Michigan Survey | |
 | Consumer sentiment declined to start March, according to the University of Michigan's monthly survey, one of the first readings on public opinion about the economy since the start of the Iran war. The survey's sentiment index was 55.5 in its preliminary March reading, versus 56.6 in February. Analysts polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected a reading of 55.3. Interviews took place between Feb. 17 and March 9, so the latter half of the interview period covered roughly the first 10 days of the Iran conflict. Joanne Hsu, the survey's director, said that as the war began, sentiment turned more negative. "Interviews completed prior to the military action in Iran showed an improvement in sentiment from last month, but lower readings seen during the nine days thereafter completely erased those initial gains," Hsu said. The Michigan survey's sentiment index bounced near historic lows last year, but before this month, it had been recovering since November. The March reading remains above 2025's lows, but it is the lowest figure recorded so far this year. |
| Lawmakers send bill to the governor to help rural hospitals open new services | |
| A bill cleared the Legislature on Wednesday that would temporarily ease state approval requirements for rural hospitals, allowing them to add new services or make costly upgrades as lawmakers aim to help struggling facilities provide needed care and boost revenue. The bill establishes a pilot program that will benefit about 55 rural hospitals across the state until June 2027. The legislation would loosen the state's certificate of need laws, which require providers who want to open new services or make costly expansions to first prove they are needed in their area to curb potentially wasteful spending. Hospitals require approval for changes over $20 million for nonclinical improvements, $10 million for clinical improvements and $3 million for major medical equipment. Hospitals in small communities will be granted approval to open one new facility within five miles of their main campuses or make an improvement above the threshold, and those located in the Mississippi Delta will be allowed two exemptions. The facilities will also be allowed to open geriatric psychiatric units without seeking approval first. |
| Problems with Parchman prison getting worse, Mississippi Black Caucus members say | |
 | Members of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus took turns questioning Department of Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain on the state of Mississippi's prisons in a March 11 caucus meeting. Cain told them that the prisons were in good shape and inmates were treated well. The legislators disagreed. The meeting came just over two weeks after a group of caucus members toured the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, the state's oldest prison. There, they told Cain, they saw what caucus chair Rep. Kabir Karriem, D-Columbus, described as "deplorable conditions." There was mold on the walls, Karriem described, and plastic sheets on the floor because the roof wasn't protecting inmates from the elements. Cain said the physical issues are inevitable. "I can't help that the facility is as old as it is. It was refurbished in 1996," he told legislators. "The house is what the house is. But the way we live in the house is different. It is not the same prison that I inherited." Almost every legislator who spoke pointed to issues with Unit 29, a long-troubled section of the prison that again received public scrutiny when it was left without power for at least 14 hours during Winter Storm Fern earlier this year. |
| Republican lawmakers shrug at more funding for Iran war | |
 | The war in Iran is tearing through the Pentagon's budget at nearly $1 billion a day, but lawmakers are in no rush to approve more money for the Trump administration's expanding Middle East conflict. Top Republicans say the White House hasn't made the case that it's facing any financial difficulties with the war, so don't feel pressure to boost the Pentagon's $1 trillion budget. And Democrats are unlikely to support the plan at all, which would make securing the votes to pass a supplemental package an uphill climb. That leaves the White House with a difficult task, particularly in a fraught midterm election year. Administration officials will have to spend significant time and political capital to push through a hugely expensive supplemental spending bill -- for a war that's largely unpopular with the American people -- even as the administration tries to burnish its affordability bona fides. And the sluggish timetable means any extra Iran war money likely runs into the president's plans to supersize the defense budget next year. Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said the supplemental package "is still coming together" and won't arrive on Capitol Hill until the end of the month at the earliest. But Congress won't act on it right away, he said. And key appropriators said it could take weeks -- or months -- to get the funding request passed. |
| Armed Services members in the dark on details of war costs | |
 | The House and Senate Armed Services panels have yet to be briefed on the costs of the Iran war, members and aides said Thursday. This week, Pentagon officials gave the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee an estimate of $11.3 billion for the war's first week, a figure first reported Wednesday by The New York Times. The Senate Armed Services Committee held a classified briefing on the overall war effort on Tuesday with Pentagon officials and top officers. But neither the House nor Senate Armed Services panels, which authorize nearly $1 trillion in annual defense spending and set national security policies in law, have yet received a briefing focused on the details of the war's costs. The war entered its 13th day on Thursday and how long it will continue remains unclear. Such a briefing on costs could give Armed Services members and staff an opportunity to probe what the Pentagon is including -- or perhaps not including -- in cost estimates that are fast becoming an outsize piece of the federal fiscal picture. The Senate Armed Services Committee, meanwhile, like its House counterpart, has also not received detailed cost information from the Pentagon. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the Armed Services Committee chairman, told reporters Thursday that the Senate committee's request for a cost estimate has been sent to the Pentagon. "The question is being asked," Wicker said. He promised the Senate Armed Services Committee would deliver "thorough oversight" of the war. |
| Residents Raise Alarms as Mississippi Approves Turbines for Musk's xAI | |
 | Demetri Carter is among the residents of Southaven, Miss., who moved there for a quieter life away from nearby Memphis, where the news seemed dominated by crime and political malfeasance. She had been vaguely aware when Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company began acquiring land in Memphis in 2024 for two data centers. But she was taken aback when the company, xAI, suddenly parked a fleet of temporary turbines about two-tenths of a mile from her home to help power them. "It's quiet, it is peaceful, and then all of a sudden, all of this," said Ms. Carter, 60, who has taken to hitting the road on weekends, rather than staying at home and enduring a sound that she and others liken to roaring jet engines. Ms. Carter, along with more than 250 people, came to a recent hearing and pleaded with state officials to reject the company's bid to permanently operate 41 gas turbines in Southaven. But this week, Mississippi regulators unanimously approved the permit. The power provided by the turbines will help the supercomputer that trains xAI's chatbot, Grok. The unhappiness in Southaven, a city of nearly 60,000 people in a politically conservative county, is the latest evidence of the growing international backlash against data centers powering artificial intelligence. |
| Mississippi: The State That Says Yes | |
| Not long ago, Mississippi was a byword for failure. It ranked at the bottom of national rankings for income, education, and health outcomes, a state that American elites reached for when they needed a cautionary tale. That image, Governor Tate Reeves would like you to know, is out of date. Since taking office in 2020, Mississippi's governor has announced more than $70 billion in new private-sector capital investment -- nearly two-thirds of the state's GDP at the time of his inauguration and nearly ten times as much as his predecessor attracted during the latter's eight years in office. In the first week of 2026, Reeves announced another $20 billion from Elon Musk's xAI artificial intelligence company. Reeves and others attribute this investment to the state's "insane execution speed" and a governing philosophy built around saying yes. At the same time, the state's public schools have produced what education reformers call the "Mississippi Miracle" -- some of the most dramatic early literacy gains in the country. The state's overall educational ranking has climbed from 48th to 16th. A black fourth-grader in Mississippi is now two and a half times more likely to read proficiently than a black fourth-grader in California. (Reeves has not been shy about pointing this fact out to California Governor Gavin Newsom.) None of this happened by accident. |
| Democratic doctors run for Congress to challenge Trump, RFK Jr. | |
 | Soon after Congress voted to cut Medicaid and food assistance for millions of people in the Republican tax and spending bill last summer, physician Thomas Fisher headed to the emergency room for his regular shift. The ER was already chaos. "There were people in every room, there were people in the hallway, there were people who had been waiting to be admitted. And that's not just my ER. That's every ER," he told USA TODAY. "It's one thing to accept, as I do, that there's a certain amount of suffering in life that's just the human condition. It's another thing to accept that people in government are making that worse intentionally." He felt like he had to do something in response to the vote. Run for public office. Fisher, 51, is now competing with more than a dozen Democrats in the March 17 primary for a chance to represent Chicago's downtown and westside. Congress is already home to doctors, nurses and scientists -- both Republicans and Democrats. But one year into the tenure of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and the rise of the Make America Healthy Again movement, scientists and doctors like Fisher are stepping into politics, motivated by concerns over changes to health policy, anti-science movements and cuts to social programs. |
| Higher education officials consider top picks for JSU's next president | |
| Officials tasked with selecting and naming the next Jackson State University president plan to choose three top candidates next week, March 19-20, and invite them to the campus for a second round of interviews in mid-April. On Thursday, members of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning's Board of Trustees, the Jackson State search advisory constituency and search firm consultants went into closed session to discuss semifinalists for first-round interviews. March 3 was the deadline to apply for the university's top role. Patrease Edwards, president of the Jackson State University National Alumni Association and a member of the advisory group, said members signed a confidentiality agreement and cannot discuss details of the meeting. Gee Ogletree, president of the IHL board and member of the search committee, said he could not comment on the meeting. Sen. Sollie Norwood, a Democrat from Jackson and a JSU alumnus, said he believes the search process has been transparent and understands why the board would want to keep names of candidates confidential. He said he is prepared to embrace the best candidate the group puts forward. |
| IHL aims to hire next JSU president by end of semester | |
 | The search for Jackson State University's (JSU) next president is still underway. The Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) enlisted the help of the JSU Board Search Committee and a search advisory constituency. John Sewell, the IHL's director of communication, said the group is working to select the first round of candidates and start the interview process as soon as next week. They're aiming to have someone in place by the end of the 2026 spring semester. Board members said the top priority is to find the right person who will enhance JSU's legacy. "This is a process that they are being very deliberate about and very thoughtful about. And I think that's going to result in a great candidate for Jackson State," said Sewell. |
| Jackson State University president search enters next phase | |
| The search for Jackson State University's top leader has reached its next phase. Members of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning board met and went into an executive session. The board then decided on a list of top candidates to narrow the pool of applicants. JSU has seen many different faces in the president's chair over the past decade, and the latest search continues for the school's next leader. State Representative and current JSU student Fabian Nelson has been outspoken about the process. "I'm very pleased that IHL is taking their time and not making a rushed decision because leadership is very important," Nelson shared. "When we look at the previous administrations and how we've had a massive overturn in presidents, and as a graduate of Jackson State University and a current student, I'm doubly vested to make sure that we have the right person in office." Since 2011, JSU has gone through four different presidents. The IHL board said it aims to announce JSU's next president sometime in April as the spring semester comes to a close. |
| Best-selling author James Patterson awards $75,000 scholarship for ten JSU students | |
| Ten Jackson State University students are recipients of a $75,000 scholarship from New York Times best-selling author James Patterson and the Patterson Family Foundation. The scholarship awards $7,500 each to five undergraduate and graduate students pursuing a career in writing. "This transformative gift from the Patterson Family Foundation is one of the most significant contributions to support writing education in Jackson State's history," said Sloan Cargill, vice president for institutional advancement and external affairs and executive director of the JSU Development Foundation. "Through this investment, we are building upon our strong tradition of literary creation and education in support of future writers and writing instructors." In addition to exemplifying academic excellence, students submitted samples of their literary work to a scholarship committee and are pursuing a degree or minor in creative writing. The creative writing program was established in 2021 in the College of Liberal Arts. |
| Mississippi Freedom Trail marker unveiled at site of Delta State student sit-in | |
| A Mississippi Freedom Trail marker has been unveiled where a historic student sit-in took place at Delta State University during the Civil Rights Movement. The marker was unveiled at the university in Cleveland on Tuesday, commemorating the 1969 student sit-in -- a pivotal moment in the university's history and in the broader Civil Rights Movement in the Mississippi Delta. The ceremony, held in front of Kethley Hall on the 57th anniversary of the demonstration, brought together students, alumni, community members, and several participants from the original sit-in. In February 1969, members of the Black Student Organization (BSO) presented university leadership with a list of 10 demands addressing concerns that included the need for faculty and counselors of color, fair grading practices, an end to racial slurs in the classroom, and greater academic and cultural representation on campus. When students believed their concerns were not being adequately addressed, they organized a peaceful sit-in at Kethley Hall, formerly the university's administration building. |
| State partners with Hinds CC to train students for high-demand healthcare jobs | |
| A partnership between Mississippi's workforce development arm and Hinds Community College will serve to educate and train more students for occupations in high-demand healthcare fields. AccelerateMS announced Thursday that it is supporting an expansion of health sciences training capacity at Hinds that will allow the school to welcome an additional 480 students over the next three years, including 232 seats in traditional degree programs and 248 in short-term workforce training programs. The goal of the expansion is to create additional pathways for Mississippians to enter critical healthcare careers. To support this growth, AccelerateMS is investing nearly $3 million as part of a broader $53 million project at the college's Rankin Campus in Pearl. The school's new 160,000-square-foot, four-story health sciences facility is scheduled to open in fall 2026, and is expected to modernize training environments while providing the space needed to scale healthcare workforce programs. "This expansion is about making sure training capacity exists where demand is greatest," AccelerateMS Executive Director Dr. Courtney Taylor said. "Investments like this allow us to expand access to high-quality training and strengthen the talent pipeline for healthcare providers across the region." |
| Tougaloo College names Corey Wiggins new president | |
| Tougaloo College has chosen its next president. The board of the private, historically Black college appointed Dr. Corey Wiggins its 15th president. Wiggins is a Mississippi native and a nationally recognized policy leader, according to the college. Wiggins will begin his role as president on July 1, according to a Friday news release. Wiggins succeeds current president, Dr. Donzell Lee, following a national search. Wiggins currently serves as co-chair of the Delta Regional Authority, an independent federal agency that supports economic development across 255 counties and parishes in eight states throughout the Mississippi Delta and "Alabama Black Belt." "Dr. Corey Wiggins is a visionary leader whose commitment to academic excellence, student success and institutional integrity aligns deeply with the historic mission of Tougaloo College," said Dr. Bondean Y. Davis, board chairperson. "After a rigorous national search, the board is confident that Dr. Wiggins possesses the leadership, experience and passion necessary to guide Tougaloo into its next chapter of growth and impact." |
| Performance Metrics For Alabama Higher Education Funding Moving Forward | |
| House Bill 565 has unanimously passed the Alabama House of Representatives. It and Senate Bill 344, which is still pending in the upper chamber, aim to link state funding with college performance metrics such as student progression, graduation rates, employment, and workforce demands. "We want to challenge our institutions to raise their bars and help them financially to get there." Limestone/Morgan/Madison counties Sen. Arthur Orr (R-3) told members of the Joint Legislative Study Committee on Higher Education Funding when they were considering the bill. Currently, most colleges and universities use headcount as an enrollment metric for funding, but both bills would establish a program to provide bonus funding to higher education institutions that meet identified student and institution performance goals and objectives. The CHEER Act (College and Higher Education Excellence and Results) legislation would create an outcomes-based higher education funding coordinating committee to oversee performance metrics and funding duties. A formula would be used to determine the annual amount of bonus funding available to each eligible institution. |
| Why One Campus Told the Government It Has Ties With 1,200 Groups That 'May' Discriminate | |
 | Last month, the Trump administration announced that 31 colleges had agreed to cancel their partnerships with the PhD Project, a nonprofit organization focused on increasing diversity among business-school faculty members. In those resolution agreements with the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights was an unusual provision: that each campus provide a list of partner or membership organizations that "may" be violating federal antidiscrimination law. Colleges are taking vastly different approaches to comply with that request. Half a dozen campuses told The Chronicle that they had come up with no such organizations, while one university gave the government a list of over 1,000 groups. That's the University of Kentucky, which in December submitted a list of more than 1,600 organizations --- 1,200 of which it "flagged for cancellation" or "deeper review." The list includes hundreds of identity-based organizations, such as the Latinx Studies Association, the National Black Law Students Association, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. It also includes dozens of local businesses, a handful of other universities, and hundreds of unassuming organizations that make no mention of identity in their titles: the American Society of Breast Surgeons, the learning game Kahoot!, the Kentucky Maple Syrup Association, and even the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. |
| Florida close to allowing college staff to carry guns on campus | |
 | The Florida Legislature voted to allow Florida college professors and staff to carry concealed weapons on campus, a move supporters say will boost safety but critics fear will "increase the chance of unintentional shootings." The House passed the bill (HB 757) 88–20 on March 12, the day before the scheduled end of this year's legislative session. The legislation extends what's called the "Guardian Program" to the state's public colleges and universities to allow trained staff and faculty to carry loaded firearms on campuses, basically acting as armed guards. Gov. Ron DeSantis, a longtime 2nd Amendment supporter, is almost certain to sign it. The Guardian Program is an already-existing Florida school safety initiative that was enacted after the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Broward County, to provide an immediate response to threats. It allows trained, armed school personnel or hired security guards to protect campuses. More than half of Florida school districts use the program, which is funded by the state and requires comprehensive training via local sheriff's offices. The bill's passage comes nearly a year after a mass shooting at Florida State University in Tallahassee, where a gunman killed two people and injured six others. |
| International students caught in crunch of campus change | |
| Her first night in America, Khazar Gorji spread her family's winter coats on the living room floor and curled up on them with her 5-year-old daughter in her arms. Gorji's husband, Reza Saeed Kandezy, was so exhausted he'd fallen asleep on the couch. Their new apartment was empty besides a couch, a table and two beds with bare mattresses. Gorji didn't trust that the beds were clean. "I was more sure of our coats," Gorji said. "I don't know, I felt more comfortable doing it like that." Gorji and her family moved to Norman from Karaj, Iran, a suburb of Tehran, in 2021. The family had landed in Dallas earlier that day, where Kandezy was taken to customs for questioning. The nearly two-hour process meant the family had to run through the airport to catch their flight to Oklahoma City. After arriving at their new home at the University of Oklahoma's Kraettli Apartments, many challenges remained for Gorji and her family. OU has over 1,700 undergraduate and graduate international students, and difficulties with housing, transportation, finances and life in a new country are common. |
| Oklahoma House passes bill to designate 'Credentials of Value' in higher education | |
| Legislation seeking to reform how higher education interacts with workforce demand has passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives. House Bill 2398 would establish a statewide framework allowing the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education and the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education to designate specific degrees, certificates, licenses and other credentials as "Credentials of Value." Programs seeking the designation would be required to annually demonstrate strong outcomes for students alongside state and regional workforce needs. "As our economy continues to evolve, Oklahoma must be intentional about connecting education with real workforce opportunities," said the bill's author Rep. Brian Hill, R-Mustang, "This bill will give students better guidance, strengthen our workforce pipeline and help ensure taxpayer-supported education programs deliver real value." |
| Funding for Missouri student association events runs out | |
 | When the Muslim Students' Organization began preparing for its 16th annual conference, Eshal Janjua and Ajla Mustafic quickly realized that planning would be different this year. In the past, the MSO received about $7,500 for the conference from the Missouri Students Association and a grant it offered called "Recognized Student Organizations." This year, they are no longer offering the grant. "We knew it was going to happen, and it was just a matter of time," president of the Missouri Students Association Logan Kuykendall said. "Overall, there is just higher need and just less money." For several years, the student association provided $40,000 to $50,000 a year in support of the Registered Student Organizations grant. All of that money came from a buildup of cash accumulated during the pandemic, when travel money wasn't necessary. "We accumulated a lot during 2021, and then we were spending it down since then, and we just ran out this year," Kuykendall said. No student organizations have been able to get money for their events as a result, he said. It is especially difficult because the cost of travel and events has increased. |
| Senate panels advance bill to restrict noncitizen hiring at Iowa universities | |
| Legislation to bar new employment contracts with H1-B visa holders from certain countries made its way through an Iowa Senate subcommittee and the chamber's workforce committee Wednesday with concerns from some about legal repercussions. House File 2513, passed out of the House with a 68-27 vote last week, would bar state universities from entering into employment contracts with "citizens of federally designated foreign adversaries and state sponsors of terrorism" holding an H-1B visa, the bill stated, including Syria, China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela. State universities and community colleges are registered undecided on the bill, lobbyists told subcommittee members Wednesday morning, but have concerns about its potential to cause lawsuits. Jillian Carlson, state relations officer for the Iowa Board of Regents, said a "very small percentage" of the nearly 30,000 people employed by universities hold H1-B visas -- between 120 and 130 people. "We do have concerns that this would open us up to lawsuits due to conflict with both state and federal laws on discrimination based on national origin," Carlson said. |
| ROTC students at Old Dominion University subdued and killed shooter who left 1 dead, 2 hurt | |
 | A former Army National Guard member who had spent eight years in prison for attempting to aid the Islamic State opened fire on a classroom at Virginia's Old Dominion University on Thursday before ROTC students subdued and killed him, authorities said. He had yelled "Allahu Akbar" before the shooting, which left one person dead and two wounded, according to the FBI. Dominique Evans, special agent in charge of the FBI's Norfolk field office, said at a news conference that the Reserve Officers' Training Corps students showed "extreme bravery and courage" and prevented further loss of life by stopping the gunman, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh. The students subdued him and "rendered him no longer alive," Evans said. "I don't know how else to say it." She confirmed Jalloh wasn't shot but didn't provide further details. The campus shooting is being investigated as an act of terrorism, FBI Director Kash Patel said on social media. Old Dominion University Police Chief Garrett Shelton said less than 10 minutes passed between when officers were called about a shooting in the university's business school building and when responders determined the shooter was dead. Jalloh is a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone. |
| How Libraries Shape AI Literacy on Campus | |
 | As institutions grapple with the rise of AI, librarians are helping to define what responsible AI use looks like, especially as faculty wrestle with ill-defined campus policies and uneven student access. Instead of pushing AI use into silos or relying on unmanaged tools, campus libraries are becoming neutral hubs where AI literacy, academic integrity and workforce readiness intersect. At Bryn Mawr College, for instance, the campus libraries are emerging as AI sandboxes -- shared spaces for experimentation and ethical use. Lauren Dodd, director of collection management, discovery and strategic communication at Bryn Mawr, said the librarian role is evolving from archive expert to leader in AI literacy. "[Librarians] have been actively collaborating and talking about it almost every day, whether it's creating tutorials and digital learning objectives or thinking about the conversations to have with instructors," Dodd said. "It can feel like cognitive dissonance to be actively working with AI on a regular basis and also saying we're constantly thinking about the harms and the biases," she added. "I am judicious about my own use of it, but it really has changed the instructional mission of academic librarians." |
| Black students are the fastest growing demographic for Common App | |
| First-year Common App applicants from underrepresented minority races or ethnicities grew by 5% compared to this time in the 2024-25 school year, continuing a trend that began over a decade ago, according to a mid-season report released Thursday by the nonprofit. However, the number of underrepresented student applicants still remains smaller than non-minority applicants. Black or African American applicants and applicants identifying as two or more races are growing at the fastest rates, increasing year over year by 8% and 7% respectively. Meanwhile, the share of U.S. applicants identifying as White at this point in the application season declined slightly to 45.1% from 45.7% in 2024-25, which the report says continues a trend beginning in 2013-14. The application season runs from Aug. 1 through July 31. |
| Hegseth announces task force to ensure US war colleges are 'effective' | |
 | Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday night announced the formation of a new task force that would conduct a review of U.S. war colleges to ensure they are "effective" and focused on core national security issues. Hegseth said the task force, which will be established by the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, Anthony Tata, will assess whether the senior service colleges -- such as the Army War College, National Defense University, the Naval War College, Marine Corps University and the Air War College -- are "actually effective." "They're going to identify any deficiencies and make sure they're focused on core national security issues," Hegseth said in a 3-minute video posted on social platform X. "We want military leaders who are critical thinkers that have studied the principles on which our founding fathers established this republic, and that are educated and prepared to win wars." The task force will have 90 days to produce a report on its findings. The formation of the task force comes after the Pentagon chief ordered last month the cancellation of members of the military attending some of the country's top-ranked colleges and universities. The move was part of Hegseth's cultural war against elite institutions, which he argued are biased against service members. |
SPORTS
| Baseball: No. 3 MSU Begins SEC Play With Top 5 Matchup | |
| A top five matchup awaits No. 3 Mississippi State to open Southeastern Conference play. The Bulldogs are bound for Baum-Walker Stadium to take on fifth-ranked Arkansas for a three-game series to start SEC action. Things get underway on Friday at 6 p.m. streaming on SEC Network+ with the final two contests airing on SEC Network on Saturday at 1 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. respectively. Mississippi State will stick with the same sophomore pitching rotation it has used for the past two weekends. Right-hander Ryan McPherson (3-0, 1.96 ERA, 28 K, 5 BB) will start on Friday against junior righty Gabe Gaeckle (2-1, 2.61 ERA, 27 K, 6 BB) of the Razorbacks. Dueling southpaws are slated to take the bump on Saturday between the Bulldogs' Tomas Valincius (3-0, 1.74 ERA, 26 K, 6 BB) and Arkansas redshirt sophomore Hunter Dietz (2-1, 2.84 ERA, 34 K, 5 BB). Right-hander Duke Stone (3-0, 3.06 ERA, 24 K, 2 BB) is scheduled to start Sunday's finale for State while the Hogs counter with junior lefty Colin Fisher (2-1, 1.17 ERA, 30 K, 3 BB). |
| Bulldogs open SEC play with Top-5 showdown at Arkansas | |
 | Mississippi State baseball begins SEC play today with one of the toughest scheduled tests of the regular season. The No. 3 Bulldogs are 15-2 through the first month of the 2026 season, the program's best start to a season since 2019, and hope to end their season in the same place that squad did -- Omaha. It starts with a trip to face No. 5 Arkansas, one of the other preseason conference favorites, as head coach Brian O'Connor puts a loaded Bulldog roster to the test in his SEC debut. The overwhelming factor in preseason hype about the Diamond Dawgs was the depth on offense. MSU came into season two or three players deep at every position. Even brief stints on the sideline due to injury only served to showcase the wealth of options throughout the batting order, and offensive production has come from more than just the usual suspects of Ace Reese and Noah Sullivan. The Bulldogs have scored at least six runs in every game this season, scoring 10 or more runs in seven games, and have a team-wide batting average of .354.Individually, six Bulldogs have a batting average of at least .400 and 12 have hit at least one home run. Fresh off of a 26-0 thrashing of Lipscomb last weekend and an 11-7 comeback win over Tulane, the offense is in gear going into SEC play. |
| Arkansas baseball series with Mississippi State will feature strength vs. strength | |
| Good pitching will meet good hitting Friday night at Baum-Walker Stadium. Sixth-ranked Arkansas (12-5) hosts third-ranked Mississippi State (15-2) in one of college baseball's premier matchups of the weekend. First pitch for Game 1 is scheduled for 6 p.m. The teams are scheduled to play Saturday at 1 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. on the opening weekend of SEC play. Arkansas' pitching and Mississippi State's hitting have been among the game's best in their respective areas to this point. Both groups are ranked in the top 10 of most statistical categories. "We've got some depth on our pitching staff, and I think that creates a lot of competition to get on the mound," Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said Thursday on the "Halftime" radio show on ESPN Arkansas. "So when those kids get on the mound, they are 100% locked in and they're working hard." As shutdown as the Razorbacks have been on the mound, Mississippi State has been as potent at the plate. "I would say Mississippi State is the best team in the league right now if you just look at the numbers," Van Horn said. "Texas is right there with them. There's a little separation after that." |
| Aidan Teel writing his own story after following Brian O'Connor to Starkville | |
| When then-Virginia head coach Brian O'Connor decided to leave to take the Mississippi State job, Aidan Teel knew what he had to do: He had to follow him. "Obviously, I was a little shocked, I wasn't sure what my next move was going to be," Teel said. "Once I saw that he left, I entered the transfer portal because I wanted to continue to play for coach O'Connor. I've said this in every interview last year, every time I talk about him: He's a really special coach, he's a Hall of Fame coach. To have the privilege of playing for him is really, really special, and I wouldn't want to play college baseball for anyone else." Teel wouldn't be the only Virginia player to move from Charlottesville to Starkville, as four of his teammates did the same thing. But for a Virginia lifer like him, it was a big deal. Teel is the younger brother of Kyle Teel, who was a consensus All-American his final year at Virginia. Kyle Teel ended up getting selected by the Boston Red Sox with the 14th pick of the 2023 MLB Draft and now plays for the Chicago White Sox as a catcher. Teel's ties with O'Connor date back years. |
| Softball: No. 12 Bulldogs Host No. 1 Tennessee To Open SEC Play | |
| An absolutely packed weekend is on tap at Nusz Park as No. 12/14 Mississippi State hosts No. 1/1 Tennessee for its SEC opener beginning March 13. Friday night's first pitch is set for 6 p.m. CT. Saturday is State's Salute to Service game, honoring members of the armed forces, which will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday's series finale at noon is MSU's First Responder Day with the fifth annual First Responder Home Run Derby following the game. This weekend marks the second year in a row that the nation's top-ranked team will play in Starkville. Last year, State took down then-No. 1 Texas in the first game of the series for its third win over the No. 1-ranked team in program history. Head coach Samantha Ricketts is no stranger to tough competition, having led State to more ranked wins than any other coach in program history (46), including five of the program's 17 top-five victories. Tennessee brings in one of the nation's top pitching staffs to go head-to-head against the Bulldog arms. |
| No. 12 Bulldogs host No. 1 Tennessee in SEC opener | |
| Mississippi State softball is off to its best-ever start to a season but faces its biggest test yet on opening weekend in the SEC. The No. 12 Bulldogs (26-2) host No. 1 Tennessee today, starting a three-game series against the undefeated Vols. MSU hasn't had as challenging a non-conference schedule on paper as previous years under head coach Samantha Ricketts, but there was intention in scheduling several road tests against mid-major and Power 4 programs. The only two losses so far came against Belmont and No. 25 Clemson, games which the Bulldogs responded to with wins against the same teams the following day. "I think we learned a lot about our team in games like those," Ricketts said. "Even this weekend, facing South Alabama for the second time on a Sunday, fifth game in a row after so many days on the road and getting down early, I think we learned a lot about ourselves." True road wins over Baylor, Georgia Tech, Clemson and South Alabama highlight a schedule in which the Bulldogs have recorded a .929 winning percentage, a program-best going into SEC play. The big thing I've seen is we just really don't panic," Ricketts continued. |
| What would the SEC making its own rules actually mean? | |
| SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is an institutionalist, essentially an NCAA lifer. So is Georgia president Jere Morehead. Both men were at that White House roundtable on "saving college sports" last week. So it was notable that both men, to varying degrees, have said the idea is on the table for the SEC to essentially pull away from the NCAA to make its own rules. "I think we're getting to the point that the Southeastern Conference is going to have to create its own set of rules, enforce them against our members, and hope that we can set an example that the other Power 4 conferences would then follow," Morehead said on Jan. 30. Sankey was more restrained when he spoke this past Monday, presenting it as a last resort, but not dismissing it -- which one of the most powerful people in college sports would do if such a radical idea wasn't possible. This is not about pulling away from everyone else for on-the-field competition. The SEC is not going to form its own football playoff -- though it has talked about that before -- nor does it plan to pull out of the NCAA basketball tournaments, or other NCAA events. It is about the rules for which players everyone can use in those events. Eligibility rules, transfer rules, tampering rules, third-party payment rules. In case you haven't noticed over the past five years, those rules are subject to the whims of court cases and state laws. |
| Big Ten writes in letter to NCAA that tampering rules 'cannot be credibly or equitably enforced' | |
| The Big Ten says it wants the NCAA to stop its investigations related to athlete tampering because the Power Four conference believes the rules "cannot be credibly or equitably enforced." The Big Ten sent a letter to the NCAA this week that called for a pause in tampering investigations and infractions proceedings, according to ESPN, which reported late Wednesday that it had obtained the letter. In it, the conference pledged its support for "a modern framework for contact rules that addresses the varied challenges and opportunities of the current collegiate landscape." "The Big Ten is committed to quickly engaging in a deliberative process drawing on athletics administrators, compliance professionals, coaches, legal counsel, and other stakeholders from across the membership and will work to produce a comprehensive proposal," the letter reads. "We believe this collaborative, membership-driven approach is the best path to a durable solution and need the NCAA's support in this effort." |
| ACC, Big 12 siding with NCAA after Big Ten's demand to pause tampering cases | |
| The NCAA plans to continue its enforcement of tampering, officials tell Yahoo Sports, despite a request from the Big Ten to suspend such investigations. Executives from the Big 12 and ACC told Yahoo Sports on Thursday that they are opposed to pausing any tampering cases. An SEC official declined comment on the matter for now, but the league's own commissioner, Greg Sankey, urged the NCAA to pursue tampering violations in an interview with Yahoo Sports just two months ago. In a letter to the NCAA this week, the Big Ten urged the association to pause cases related to tampering while the NCAA works to reform and modernize policies. Such a move -- the suspension of active investigations -- requires a vote from the Division I Board of Directors and is not an NCAA staff decision. An NCAA working group -- the infractions modernization task force -- is already undergoing a full reform of tampering and other policies. The process should not result in a pause in enforcement, conference leaders say. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark says he's "adamantly opposed" to pausing tampering, but is open to a discussion on rule reform. In a statement to Yahoo Sports, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips says he "does not agree" with suspending tampering investigations during the NCAA's review of rules and calls enforcement of rules "critically important" in the current environment. |
| Big 12 tournament court going back to hardwood after complaints about LED glass surface | |
| The Big 12 has made the decision to change out its controversial court ahead of the men's conference tournament semifinal games. The conference has decided to switch back to a hardwood court after experimenting with LED glass floors during the early-round action and throughout the women's tournament. The court change is expected to be done overnight. German company ASB GlassFloor developed the LED floor. But that court was said to be slippery, according to Kansas State player Taj Manning, who also claimed it caused one of his teammates to have a migraine. "After consultation with the coaches of our four semifinal teams, I have decided that in order to provide our student-athletes with the greatest level of comfort on a huge stage this weekend, we will transition to a hardwood court for the remainder of the tournament," Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark said in a statement to CBS Sports and other outlets. Iowa State will take on Arizona in the first of two semifinal games. Houston and Kansas will go head-to-head in the second game for a chance to play for the conference crown. |
| 'He saved my life.' High school basketball star Max Baria has filled a void for his family | |
| Mississippi sports columnist Rick Cleveland writes: Max Baria, a 17-year-old high school senior from Bay St. Louis, is a good-looking, soft-spoken, highly intelligent young man, who emerged this basketball season as one of the best high school players in Mississippi. Baria, who stands a slender 6 feet, 8 inches tall, last Saturday helped St. Stanislaus to the State Class 3A Championship. This Saturday, he will play for the Mississippi team in the annual Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Game (2 p.m.) at A.E. Wood Coliseum on the campus of Mississippi College. His story -- actually his and his family's story -- is one worthy of telling and perhaps re-telling. Where to begin? We probably should begin nearly three years before Max was born. That was in August of 2005 when Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, demolishing the dream home of David and Marcie Baria and their three children on Beach Road in Waveland. Something far, far worse happened a month later. |
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