| Wednesday, October 4, 2017 |
| Giving back at MSU-Meridian | |
 | Photo: MSU-Meridian Psychology Club members Nicole Stewart, Alana Knowles, Sara Thorne and Samuel McGee set up an account for monetary donations for hurricane relief fund through Americares, a health-focused relief and development organization that provides life-changing medicine, medical supplies and health programs for disasters around the world. A crowd rise account has been set up and club members are asking anyone interested in donating can assess the link by going to www.meridian.msstate.edu or to MSU-Meridian's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/msstatemeridian. The students have set a goal of $1,100. The deadline to donate is Oct. 18. |
| Hospital town hall set for Thursday | |
 | Oktibbeha County Supervisor Marvell Howard is hosting a town hall Thursday he hopes will give the public some general information about OCH Regional Medical Center ahead of a Nov. 7 election when voters will decide whether to sell it. The town hall will begin at 6 p.m. in the Oktibbeha County Courthouse. Howard, who represents District 3, said he's been inundated with requests for information since the board received bids for the county-owned hospital last week. Supervisors, citing confidentiality agreements, have not released the number of bids, the names of the bidders or a general range for the bids since reviewing them in executive session on Sept. 26. The Dispatch is calling into question whether supervisors could legally enter such confidentiality agreements and has submitted a public records request for more information, including contracts with the bidders. |
| City OKs annexation study, smoking ordinance | |
 | The Starkville Board of Aldermen approved the consideration for an annexation study and the proposed changes to the current smoking ordinance during its meeting Tuesday at City Hall. The board approved the consideration for an annexation study with Slaughter and Associates with a 4-2 vote. Vice Mayor and Ward 6 Alderman Roy A'. Perkins and Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver voted against the consideration. Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn was absent from Tuesday's meeting. "I think it's an important thing for us to do," Mayor Lynn Spruill said. "We haven't looked at annexation in 20 years." During discussion, Spruill said she would like to look at opportunities moving both south and east. She particularly pointed out areas in the east such as Helix Starkville Apartments, Twenty One Apartments, The Retreat at Starkville and Aspen Heights Starkville. |
| Third-annual 'Imagine the Possibilities' career expo begins | |
 | From a police motorcycle demonstration to United States Air Force training exercises, there was plenty new to see on the first day of this year's "Imagine the Possibilities" career expo. The event, which is in its third year, is sponsored largely by the Toyota Wellspring Education Fund, administered by the CREATE Foundation. On Tuesday, eighth-grade students from all over Northeast Mississippi attended the expo. The event continues through Thursday. Area businesses participating this year include Toyota Mississippi, APMM, Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi State University, the University of Mississippi, the Natchez Trace Parkway Visitors Center, NASA, local law enforcement agencies, North Mississippi Medical Center, Baptist Memorial Hospital, the Wyland Foundation and Walmart, to name a few. |
| Las Vegas shootings heighten security at Mississippi State Fair | |
 | Of the thousands of people attending Sunday's Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas, it's likely none ever imagined what would unfold. Almost 60 were killed by gunman Stephen Paddock and an additional 500 were injured. Large gatherings have become targets for violence in the US and abroad. Churches, schools and night clubs have all been victims. In the wake of the Las Vegas tragedy, Hinds County Sheriff Victor Mason said all measures are being taken to ensure those in attendance of the Mississippi State Fair are safe. "The reason we're here today, the Hinds County Sheriff's Office, is that we want to assure the public, the fair starts tomorrow, we want to assure them they will be safe," Mason said Tuesday. "We're going out by all measures and means possible, in light of everything that went on in Las Vegas and other situations, we're going to use every tool available to ensure their safety. |
| AG Jim Hood: State doing a better job dealing with domestic violence | |
| In the past five years, the state of Mississippi has drastically improved the way it handles domestic violence, according to Attorney General Jim Hood. Hood helped kick off Domestic Violence Awareness month in Tupelo at the Family Resource Center. "This issue is something we have made progress on," Hood said. "About six years ago, Mississippi was the fifth worse state in the nation in the number of domestic violence incidents. Last year, we were down to 23rd. "And of all the reported incidents last year, there were arrests in about half of them, which has not always been the case." The Attorney General's Office has worked over the years to strengthen laws to protect victims and make it easier for law enforcement to deal with offenders. |
| Opioid prescription rules get overhaul in Mississippi amid epidemic | |
| Pain management in Mississippi is seeing a significant overhaul amid a national opioid crisis. In conjunction with Gov. Phil Bryant's opioid task force recommendations, the Mississippi Board of Medical Licensure has passed a number of proposed changes to the guidelines that regulate how doctors prescribe painkillers. Common opioid prescriptions include: codeine, hydrocodone, methadone, morphine, and oxycodone. The changes will require any medical licensee who has authority to write prescriptions to use the state's prescription monitoring program, which shows what medications a patient is receiving or has received in the past. |
| Missy Warren McGee wins Mississippi House District 102 seat in runoff | |
 | On Tuesday voters in a runoff election decided on Missy Warren McGee to be their next representative for Mississippi House District 102. McGee, 51, will be serving her first term as an elected official. "I am honored," she said. "I am humbled and overwhelmed by the support the folks of District 102 have shown me." McGee said she wants to spend the time before the next legislative session begins by getting to know some of the other legislators and learning the ropes from them as much as she can so she will be well prepared when January rolls around. McGee said she wants to focus on improving the things that make District 102 shine, such as the universities, the medical community and businesses. But she also wants to work to make improvements in areas such as education and infrastructure. A total of 3,052 of 15,174 registered Forrest County voters cast their ballots Tuesday, along with 59 of 579 eligible voters in Lamar County. |
| Missy McGee win in Hattiesburg helps House GOP hold supermajority | |
 | Republicans retained a supermajority in the state House of Representatives Tuesday as Missy McGee won a special election Tuesday to fill a vacant Hattiesburg seat. With absentee votes, unofficial totals show that McGee earned 2,093 votes, or about 68 percent, while candidate Kathryn Rehner received 986 votes. Had McGee not won the seat, vacated with the election of Hattiesburg Mayor Toby Barker, Republicans would have lost a three-fifths supermajority in the House. House Republicans have enjoyed a supermajority since the 2016 legislative session (and for the first time since Reconstruction), meaning that Republicans can pass revenue or tax bills without needing Democratic votes. In the House, a three-fifths vote (74 of the 122 seats) is necessary to pass those bills. |
| Senate confirms Mississippi's next U.S. Attorney | |
 | Mississippi's next U.S. Attorney will be Mike Hurst. The Senate unanimously confirmed Hurst's nomination to become the next U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi. That means Hurst will prosecute federal cases that involve crimes committed in South Mississippi. A statement from Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran says, "The Senate has confirmed a talented attorney for this critical law-enforcement role. I am confident Mike Hurst will serve our nation and state well." Hurst received similar accolades from Sen. Roger Wicker. "Mike Hurst will serve the Southern District of Mississippi with honor and distinction," Wicker said. "President Trump made an excellent choice for this demanding role." |
| Is Mississippi losing a seat on 5th Circuit Court of Appeals? | |
| President Donald Trump's recent judicial nominees have Mississippi jurists and politicos worried Mississippi might lose a seat on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. There are four vacancies on the 17-member appellate court. Two seats are open from Texas-based judges retiring, one from a Louisiana judge and one for the seat held by Judge Grady Jolly of Mississippi. Jolly's retirement, announced last March, was effective on Tuesday, his 80th birthday. Mississippi leaders had expected a Mississippi jurist -- recommended to Trump by Mississippi's U.S. Sens. Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker -- to be named to replace Jolly. That's typically how it would work. But of Trump's nominees announced last week, two are from Louisiana and two are from Texas. |
| Tillerson's Fury at Trump Required an Intervention From Pence | |
 | Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was on the verge of resigning this past summer amid mounting policy disputes and clashes with the White House, according to multiple senior administration officials who were aware of the situation at the time. The tensions came to a head around the time President Donald Trump delivered a politicized speech in late July to the Boy Scouts of America, an organization Tillerson once led, the officials said. Just days earlier, Tillerson had openly disparaged the president, referring to him as a "moron," after a July 20 meeting at the Pentagon with members of Trump's national security team and Cabinet officials, according to three officials familiar with the incident. NBC News spoke with a dozen current and former senior administration officials for this article, as well as others who are close to the president. |
| Trump hails 'incredible' response in 'lovely' trip to storm-torn Puerto Rico | |
 | President Trump arrived in Puerto Rico on Tuesday as the territory struggled to recover from Hurricane Maria, which has left nearly all the island without power and most residents without water nearly two weeks later. But Trump's focus was on the "unbelievable" and "incredible" job that his administration has done so far. He repeatedly played down the destruction to the island, telling local officials they should feel "very proud" they haven't lost hundreds of lives like in "a real catastrophe" like Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast in 2005. But he also complained that the small territory's disaster threw the nation's budget "a little out of whack." Trump was upbeat and, at times, playful during the visit, often sounding more like an athletic coach congratulating his team after a winning season than a president addressing American citizens at a moment of crisis. |
| Thompson urges federal officials to step up disaster response in Puerto Rico | |
| Federal emergency officials should step up their assessment of the damage in Puerto Rico so Congress can move quickly to provide disaster aid to the island, Rep. Bennie Thompson said Tuesday. "From comments I hear, that process is not as robust as it should be," said Thompson, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee. "We've got to make sure that the funds continue to flow so that recovery does occur." Despite President Trump's visit to Puerto Rico on Tuesday, Thompson continued to slam the administration's slow response to the disaster. Thompson said he got a call Tuesday from officials at a hospital in Vieques concerned about conditions, including running short on fuel for the generator. There's no real direction coming from anyone," he said. "The president goes there and does what he does. But you've got to talk about going forward." |
| Amid outcry over Confederate memorials, new ones are going up | |
 | While Confederate statues and monuments around the nation get removed, defaced, covered up or toppled, some new memorials are being erected by people who insist their only purpose is to honor the soldiers who died for the South. Supporters of these new Civil War monuments describe a determination to hold onto their understanding of history. Others say race has nothing to do with these new monuments, unlike those erected in the early 20th century. "The problem was with some of the other statues that were put up, that were basically intended to intimidate people," said Danny Francis, commander of a Sons of Confederate Veterans unit in South Carolina. "We're not trying to oppress anyone -- we're just historians. We welcome everybody." The NAACP said such claims deliberately ignore what the Civil War was about. |
| U. of Mississippi Alumna Wins Chronicle's Miller Award for Young Journalists | |
 | Clara Turnage, who graduated from the University of Mississippi in May, has won The Chronicle's 2017 David W. Miller Award for Young Journalists, which is presented annually to the top intern who worked at The Chronicle during the previous year. The $3,000 award, now in its 15th year, recognizes Ms. Turnage for articles she wrote during her internship this past summer. She is now a reporter at The Natchez Democrat, in Natchez, Miss., where she covers education and crime. Members of the committee that chose Ms. Turnage for the award cited her for the diversity of the three articles she had submitted for consideration, showing her talent for breaking-news, enterprise, and investigative journalism. Committee members also noted her writing style, marked by vivid language, a strong sense of structure and tempo, and, in one case, a willingness to simply let documents speak for themselves. |
| Hattiesburg-area colleges focus on increasing retention rates | |
| Brandon Rue might not have made it to his sophomore year at the University of Southern Mississippi without a little help with retention. A school's retention rate is the percentage of freshmen who continue at the school to their sophomore year. A first-generation college student, Rue didn't know how he was going to pay for his second year after his grandmother decided not to foot the bill. "She missed me. She didn't like the major I was in," he said. "She thought I needed to take a semester off to think about what I was doing in life. I don't know what the real reason was, but that's what she told me." Rue went for help to Shea Houze, director of new student and retention programs, and Kate Howard, dean of admissions. They arranged a $4,000 loan for him so he was able to enroll in classes. |
| Valley's search for a new president continues in October | |
| The search for a new president of Mississippi Valley State University is in motion. Members of the Institutions of Higher Learning Board Search Committee will hear from students, alumni, administrators and faculty members in a series of Campus Listening Sessions on Thursday, Oct 12. "We are committed to finding the right person to lead Mississippi Valley State University, so it is very important that we hear from all members of the campus community," said Trustee Shane Hooper, Chair of the MVSU Board Search Committee. The discussions will center on the qualities and qualifications stakeholders believe the next institutional executive officer should possess. The sessions will be held on its campus in Itta Bena. |
| Authorities: As LSU fraternity death investigation progresses, hazing, other charges on table | |
 | The investigation into 18-year-old LSU fraternity pledge Maxwell Gruver's death found that he may have been forced to consume alcohol "in excess" during a drinking game, according to search warrants filed Monday. Gruver and other Phi Delta Theta pledges received a group text message Sept. 13 that "Bible Study" would take place that night at 10 p.m. at the chapter house, an exercise where pledges were asked questions about the fraternity and forced to drink if they answered incorrectly, according to LSU police, who are conducting the investigation. LSU police said that several other interviews of witnesses "indicated that the pledges were forced to drink in excess." Gruver's Sept. 14 death elicited a quick response from university officials. |
| How Tuesday's Nobel Prize victory is also a win for Louisiana | |
 | Physicists from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, dubbed LIGO, in Livingston Parish on Tuesday were awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics, eliciting congratulatory messages from state officials. Rainer Weiss of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is one of three scientists selected by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to receive this year's Nobel Prize in physics. Weiss is also an adjunct professor at LSU, which owns the land where LIGO operates in Livingston. LSU officials also celebrated for the Nobel Prize win, as a university press release stated that faculty, students and research staff were "major contributors" to the international LIGO Science Collaboration. |
| Florida universities could reap rewards for fast-tracking students | |
 | Florida universities may win additional state funding if more of their undergraduates can earn their degrees in four years. That was the proposal discussed Tuesday by the Board of Governors' Budget and Finance Committee, which held a workshop on performance standards at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers. Nothing is settled but a majority of the committee members expressed interest in changing the current six-year graduation rate measure to a four-year metric. "There's no question that doing four years is better for the students," said Ned Lautenbach, chairman of the BOG's budget and finance panel. "If we can get more of these kids out of here in four years, it's going to be less expensive and they get jobs faster. It all works in the right direction." Only four schools -- the University of South Florida, New College, University of Florida and Florida State -- now exceed the BOG's long-range goal of having at least a 50 percent four-year graduation rate. |
| Veterans Agency Seeks to Scrap Ethics Law on For-Profit Colleges | |
 | The Department of Veterans Affairs is pushing to suspend a 50-year-old ethics law that prevents employees from receiving money or owning a stake in for-profit colleges that pocket hundreds of millions of dollars in tuition paid through the G.I. Bill of Rights. The agency says the conflict-of-interest law -- enacted after scandals enveloped the for-profit education industry -- is now redundant and outdated, with "illogical and unintended consequences" affecting employees who have no real conflict of interest, such as a V.A. doctor teaching a course at a school attended by veterans with educational benefits. But veterans' groups and ethics experts reject those arguments and say the department is abandoning protections for veterans and taxpayers. They worry that the effort is part of a larger rollback of federal safeguards that were instituted before President Trump took office to combat abuses and fraud by for-profit colleges. |
| Virginia Tech faces accusations of employing white supremacist | |
 | Virginia Tech is facing demands that it fire a graduate student teaching assistant who is accused of being a white supremacist, although officials are keeping mum while some students start to lose patience. At his State of the University address Friday, President Tim Sands was interrupted by protesters demanding the firing of the alleged white supremacist -- and pushing the accusations into the public eye. An anonymous blog posted screenshots said to belong to a Tech graduate student in late September. Local publications, including The Roanoke Times and the student newspaper, have covered the dispute but have not named the accused white supremacist for lack of official confirmation that he is linked to an anonymous blog post with screenshots of racist social media and forum posts purportedly made in his name. Inside Higher Ed is also not naming the person in question, for the same lack of confirmation. |
| On Chris McDaniel, Hillary Clinton and Las Vegas shooting | |
| The Clarion-Ledger's Sam R. Hall writes: "One of the dumbest responses to any argument is the 'What About' Retort. There was a time when mostly children utilized the inane argument, to which parents and adults would replay, 'This isn't about them. This is about you.' The 'What About' Retort allows people to skip over the actual argument so they can focus on someone else's behavior. And it's become so second nature that people use it where it make no sense, which brings me to state Sen. Chris McDaniel, Hillary Clinton, the Las Vegas shootings and the 'What About' Retorts to my tweets. McDaniel, who is widely expected to challenge U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker in the Republican primary next year, waded into the gun control debate on Twitter Monday night. ...Clearly, McDaniel hasn't learned much in three years. But, I suppose his diehard supporters simply would ask, 'What about it?'" |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State needs to find explosive plays for spark | |
| Football coaches are known to harp on the little things, even when they don't define them. That was the case for Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen Saturday night after MSU's 49-10 loss to Auburn. He spoke more than once on MSU failing to do, "the little things you need to win on the road," but didn't name any of those things other than penalties. Quarterback Nick Fitzgerald didn't stop there. He provided the list. "Too many penalties, too many blown coverages, too many missed throws, too many dropped passes, too many missed blocks, bad runs," he said. "Every facet of the game, just playing terrible." Even in a bye week, MSU (3-2, 1-2 Southeastern Conference) has no time for the theoretical. The idle week is MSU's precursor to a critical stretch of home games against BYU and Kentucky before a shot to right the conference ship at Texas A&M. |
| MSU Notebook: Bulldogs taking time off during bye week | |
| Mississippi State's football team will get to experience some normalcy this week. The Bulldogs will get to enjoy some time off just like the rest of MSU's student body as the bye week coincided with the university's fall break. The team practiced Monday and Tuesday and will conduct their final practice this afternoon before taking the next four days off. "Our players get some opportunity to go home and see their families and get a couple of days off," said MSU coach Dan Mullen. Mullen and his coaching staff have already started game prep for their Oct. 14 game with BYU but will save most of that planning for the players when they return to work on Monday. |
| How Jace Christmann became a dependable kicker for Mississippi State | |
| At long last, Mississippi State has a place-kicker it can depend on -- and the Bulldogs have a former NFL player, an engineering program and a wide receivers coach to thank. That's an unlikely supporting cast, but it's also fitting for the story of Jace Christmann and his remarkable rise to Mississippi State field-goal folklore through five games this season. So who is this guy? And how has he been able to thrive in a position few recently have while wearing the Bulldogs' uniform? His real name is John Joseph Christmann V, but everyone calls him Jace. The walk-on redshirt freshman is a fourth-generation college football player. He is the family's first kicker, though. Christmann, a Houston native, grew up playing soccer and started kicking extra points in the seventh grade when he moved to West Texas. He returned to Houston in the middle of his sophomore year and earned the starting kicker job at Memorial High as a junior. |
| NCAA referee who received death threats after UK loss sues Kentucky Sports Radio | |
 | A referee who received death threats after Kentucky's loss in the NCAA tournament has filed a federal lawsuit against Kentucky Sports Radio; its founder, Matt Jones; and the company's managing editor, Drew Franklin. John Higgins, of Nebraska, along with his wife, Carol Higgins, and their roofing and siding company, Weatherguard, filed the suit Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska. The lawsuit alleges that after Kentucky lost to North Carolina 75-73 during the Elite Eight on March 26, Jones, Franklin and Kentucky Sports Radio published Higgins' contact information and enticed fans to use it. The defendants are accused of intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy, civil conspiracy and tortious interference with a business relationship or expectancy. |
| Cost of Contact in Sports Is Estimated at Over 600,000 Injuries a Year | |
| It seems obvious that there would be more injuries, and more serious ones, among high school and college athletes in football or soccer or lacrosse than, say, in running or tennis. But, how many more, and at what economic cost? Those figures turned out to be hard to come by, researchers at Yale discovered, but, using the best data available, they calculated that if contact sports could be made noncontact -- like flag football, for example -- there would be 49,600 fewer injuries among male college athletes per year and 601,900 fewer among male high school athletes. The savings -- which include estimates of medical costs and time lost -- could be as much as $1.5 billion per year for colleges and $19.2 billion per year for high schools. |
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