| Thursday, January 11, 2018 |
| Mississippi State research: Rotation with corn improves cotton yields, most years | |
 | Cotton following corn in rotation resulted in an average 8.9 percent to 17.1 percent yield increase compared to continuous cotton in a 12-year study at Mississippi State University. Wayne Ebelhar, MSU research professor and agronomist, discussed the long-term research project at the recent Beltwide Cotton Conferences in San Antonio. The study was conducted on two sites, the Centennial Farm at Stoneville, Miss., where cotton has been grown continuously "for at least 100 years," Ebelhar says, and the Tribbett farm, which is not as productive as the Stoneville location. Ebelhar says the yield advantage comes from "the rotation effect. All other factors were the same." Ebelhar says the trial design is somewhat unique in that data are available much sooner than typical rotation studies, which "take a long time to see the results. We plant every crop, every year, replicated," instead of planting one crop one year and following with a rotation crop the next year. |
| Architectural review recommended for Starkville developments | |
 | The Starkville Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously voted to support a recommendation for creating an architectural review process for the city. The commission's decision will go before the board of aldermen as a joint recommendation in partnership with the Starkville Historic Preservation Commission, which made the same request. A letter co-authored by Michael Fazio, of the SHPC, and P&Z Chair Michael Brooks notes the need for a review process as Starkville continues to grow. The letter says Starkville is an attractive place for development but that projects often come from outside sources. It further adds that developmental pressures, good and bad, will only grow in the future. |
| Starkville manufacturer lays off 100 with production shift | |
 | The parent company of a Starkville-based metal building manufacturer announced on Wednesday it will be shifting production operations to another state, putting roughly 100 employees out of work. Kirby Building Systems -- a Nucor Corporation subsidiary that operates at the former Gulf States property off Airport Road -- has been under the Nucor brand since 2007. Nucor spokesperson Katherine Miller told the Starkville Daily News in an email the company announced production changes in its Nucor Buildings Group, which manufactures custom-engineered and standard metal buildings and components throughout North America. "As part of the announced changes, we will be transferring all production from our Kirby Building Systems plant in Starkville, Mississippi, to our Kirby facility in Portland, Tennessee," Miller said. "We will continue to maintain a significant commercial and technical presence at the Starkville facility." |
| Flu outbreak: Hospitals facing ICU bed shortages, visitor restrictions | |
 | Hospitals in Mississippi and surrounding states are coping with rising numbers of flu patients in the wake of a recent outbreak. The University of Mississippi Medical Center's Dr. Alan Jones said there are more flu cases this year than in previous years, though most of the cases are not in need of hospitalization. There has been an uptick in neighboring states who are looking for resources for patients, Jones said. It's normal to have requests to take patients from Louisiana or Alabama, but Jones said there have been requests from New Orleans, Birmingham and Memphis this year as well. The CDC strongly advises people to avoid close contact with people who are sick, to stay home when they are sick, to avoid touching their eyes, nose and mouth, and to use an alcohol-based hand rub if soap and warm water aren't available for frequent hand-washing. The agency also advises people to clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces at home, work or school, especially when someone is ill. |
| It's official: Toyota-Mazda announce Alabama factory | |
 | Project New World. That's the name for Alabama's newest automotive resident: Toyota-Mazda. It also promises a new world for Alabama's growing auto industry. In a news conference in Montgomery this afternoon, state officials announced the coming of a $1.6 billion joint venture between the two auto companies. "It is my honor to announce that Toyota and Mazda have chosen Alabama as home of their new production plant," said Gov. Kay Ivey, to a standing ovation. Alabama Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield said that "in a single generation, Alabama has become a powerhouse in the auto industry." The new plant is expected to eventually produce 300,000 vehicles a year and employ 4,000. Average salary will be $50,000 for workers. |
| Mississippi hopes to benefit from Toyota-Mazda plant in Alabama | |
 | About 150 miles separate the Toyota Mississippi plant here and Huntsville, Alabama. And economic developers in the Magnolia State think opportunity awaits in the wake of Toyota and Mazda announcing their plan on Wednesday to build a $1.6 billion plant near Huntsville. But they aren't alone. Leaders in Alabama and Tennessee also are hoping to benefit from the jointly operated plant that is scheduled to start production in 2021. David Rumbarger, president and CEO of the Community Development Foundation in Tupelo, said having the new plant in the Huntsville area could potentially be a boon to Northeast Mississippi. "It consolidates Corolla production within a few hundred miles of each other, and it will draw additional suppliers that we weren't able to draw before," he said. "But we have to be super competitive." |
| Plan would help cities and counties pay for roads, bridges | |
 | The Mississippi House has a new proposal to help pay for roads and bridges. The Ways and Means Committee passed a bill Wednesday to set aside a portion of what the state collects each year from the "use tax ." The tax is paid on goods that will be shipped from out of state for use, storage or consumption in Mississippi. The state currently collects more than $300 million a year in use tax. House Bill 722 says 35 percent of collections would go to roads and bridges --- 15 percent each to cities and counties, 5 percent to a state fund to help local governments. As collections increase, so would transportation money. |
| House proposal would divert $108 million from cash-strapped state to locals | |
| Legislation is pending before the full House to divert from cash-strapped state coffers to local governments approximately $108 million. The bill, which passed the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday afternoon with limited debate, would divert 35 percent of the use tax collected by the state to the cities and counties to deal with road and bridge needs. "This legislation is the most important I have seen in my time for local governments," said Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia. The use tax is the 7 percent tax collected on out-of-state retail purchases made by Mississippians, such as on internet sales. Municipal governments receive 18.5 percent of the 7 percent tax on retail items sold in stores within their borders. But the state does not return to the local governments any of the use tax collected on out-of-state sales. |
| Lawmakers push to divert state use taxes to cities, counties | |
| The House Republican leadership moved Wednesday to divert tens of millions of dollars in state use tax collections to cities and counties hurting for road and bridge funds. The move appears to have bipartisan support in the House, but Democrats put the breaks on Speaker Philip Gunn's effort to have the full House suspend its rules and pass the measure shortly after the bill was finalized, printed and zipped through committee. Part of the reason for the rush was that dozens of city and county leaders were in Jackson on Wednesday for conferences and were bending lawmakers' ears about local governments' need for infrastructure help from the state. "This bill is the most significant piece of legislation I've seen in my time for local governments," Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, said. |
| Harrison County Democrats, Republicans unite to fight for BP dollars | |
 | Harrison County Democrats and Republicans, in a rare show of unity on Wednesday, said they'd work together for a common goal: To bring the BP economic damages settlement money to the Coast. "The pressing issue that has united our two committees in a completely nonpartisan way relates to the appropriation of all BP settlement funds received by the state of Mississippi due to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster of 2010," the Democratic Executive Committee said in a press release. "Today, the Chairpersons of the two Harrison County, Mississippi, major political party governing committees hereby wish to announce that they, and their memberships, have come together in order to work together on behalf of the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast." Executive committee members said they'll join the Mississippi Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce in its efforts to sway lawmakers Wednesday night at the Coast Legislative Reception and Thursday in the halls of the Capitol. |
| EdBuild has issues with school formula pushed by Speaker Philip Gunn | |
 | A meeting with school finance group EdBuild and the House Democratic Caucus on Wednesday shed light on what new school funding formula lawmakers will consider this year, but some questioned the data used in the calculations. In particular, Rep. Jarvis Dortch, D-Raymond, questioned figures that showed Clinton Public School District had more students in poverty than Hinds County. EdBuild CEO Rebecca Sibilia explained the group used numbers from the U.S. Census and correlated them with the number of students who qualify for free and reduced price lunch. While Dortch said Census figures don't account for the students in the district who attend private school, Sibilia said the group accounted for that discrepancy. She did, however, suggest lawmakers verify all of the numbers, including enrollment, with their local superintendents to ensure the data the Mississippi Department of Education provided was accurate. |
| Public hears first details of MAEP rewrite effort | |
| During a Wednesday hearing on the proposed rewrite of the school funding formula, members of the House Democratic Caucus asked what guarantee the new formula would provide of a specific funding amount for local school districts. Rebecca Sibilia, who leads the New Jersey-based organization that created the formula, said the Legislature would have to fund it because it would be the law. An exasperated Rep. Michael Evans, D-Preston, responded, "We have been in violation of the (current) law for years." Evans' comments captured some of the skepticism of the House Democratic Caucus late Wednesday during what was the first public hearing in about a year in the effort to rewrite the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, which is the formula that determines the amount of money local school districts are supposed to receive from the state for their basic operation. |
| Mississippi school funding rewrite could bring $107M more for schools | |
| Top lawmakers pursuing a rewrite of Mississippi's school funding formula could bring forward a proposal to send an additional $107 million to the state's public schools, according to figures presented by an educational consulting group Wednesday. There's a question, however, of whether proponents of the state's current funding formula will approve the new measure -- which still falls more than $100 million short of what the current formula calls for. EdBuild is a New Jersey-based nonprofit that was hired by the Legislature last year to make recommendations to the state's current school budget formula, called the Mississippi Adequate Education Program. The group favors setting a base cost for each student and then allocating additional dollars to students who need special services, such as those from low-income households and those who are learning to speak English. |
| Dept. of Mental Health makes positive steps to solve budget woes | |
 | Wednesday the Senate Appropriations Sub Committee heard from the Department of Mental Health on their budget request for the FY2019. Executive Director Diana Mikula called for a consolidated budget with level funding from the General Fund of $207,763,132 and healthcare funds in the amount of $18,951,886. In front of committee members, she outlined moves that the department had made to "live within their means," making hard but necessary cuts to utilize the funding they already had access to. Mikula sited that operational costs are down $10 million due to major streamlining of services. Direct Care Services have been restructured which allowed for a $15,000 starting salary increase in an attempt to lower the current 48% turnover rate. Behavior programs went from 5 to 2 during that restructure. |
| Lawmakers 'blown away' by $40 million Child Protection Services budget shortfall | |
| Mississippi's Child Protection Services is short nearly $40 million, an unprecedented amount that could have severe repercussions for how the state manages the fledgling agency. Jess Dickinson, the newly appointed head of the agency, announced the shortfall Tuesday before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee. The reason, he said, is that Child Protection Services, which the state formed as a separate agency in 2016, is no longer eligible for the same federal matching dollars as it was when it was part of the Department of Human Services. The shortfall, which represents one-fifth of the agency's $207 million budget, shocked legislators, many of whom said they never had seen a miscalculation like this. "It's just kind of blown us away," said Senate Appropriations Chair Buck Clarke, R-Hollandale, who learned about the shortfall last week. "I've never seen something like that happen." |
| Crises in the Capitol: Infrastructure, Crime Lab, Not Enough Money to Cover Needs | |
| It's hard to prosecute someone for a violent crime if you do not know how the victim died. The Mississippi Legislature is grappling over that question in the new session; the Mississippi crime lab is in crisis. Crime Lab Director Sam Howell told senators last week that he will be down to just one medical examiner in a few months. The state would need seven to meet national standards. In the most recent fiscal year, the medical examiner's office performed just over 1,400 autopsies with just three doctors. In 2018, the lead medical examiner might face that caseload alone. Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, invited Howell to speak with senators about the lab at a Judiciary B Committee meeting last week. Medical examiners are leaving the crime lab, Howell said, because of the workload. "They all could make more money and do less work somewhere else," Howell told senators. The result is delayed trials, prosecutions and closure in cases across the state. |
| Rep. Scott Bounds: Funding roads top priority | |
| Funding for road and bridge maintenance, K-12 and reauthorizing Medicaid will be the top priorities of the Republican leadership during the 2018 legislative session, Republican Rep. Scott Bounds told Philadelphia Rotarians on Monday. Bounds said each of the three priorities ranked equally in importance. The Mississippi Department of Transportation operated on a $1.1 billion budget last year, Bounds said, noting that legislators have simply asked officials there to break down how the money is being spent. With a lack of funding for the proposed $130 million bypass in Neshoba County as well as the need for the completion of the Mississippi 19 south four-laning project, Bounds said it was important that all areas on the state "are on a level playing field" with the DeSoto County, Jackson Metro and the Coast when it comes to transportation projects. "The money is being heavily distributed to these areas," Bounds said. |
| Convenience store clerks react to lottery possibility | |
| With a Mississippi state lottery looking more like a possibility than ever, several Oxford convenience store clerks are weighing in on a change that will directly affect their businesses. The lottery is expected to generate around $80 million a year in revenue. The bill to introduce a state lottery, filed by Sen. Philip Moran of Kiln, will be discussed in the current legislative session. For Lynora Jackson, a cashier at Marathon on South Lamar Boulevard, a state lottery is something that will benefit all Mississippians. "I think it's a good idea, because it'll bring money to the state, for schools and things like that, and it could help with taxes too," Jackson said. "We could definitely end up selling tickets here if it gets passed." "If you'd asked me five years ago, I wouldn't think the lottery would have passed," said Sen. Gray Tollison, who represents Lafayette County. "But this year is different, it's got traction." |
| Gov. Phil Bryant to chair Tenn-Tom Waterway Development Authority | |
 | Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has been appointed as the 2018 chairman of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Development Authority. This marks his second time to chair the waterway group. The authority is a four-state interstate compact including the states of Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. Members include the four state governors and five appointees by each governor. The chairmanship rotates annually among the four governors. |
| State Sen. Sally Doty 'seriously considering' bid for seat in Congress | |
 | A Brookhaven woman is "seriously considering" a bid for a congressional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Sen. Sally Doty, a Republican who has served District 39 -- Lincoln, Lawrence, Copiah and Walthall counties -- since her election in 2011, said she hasn't ruled out a run for Congress to replace U.S Rep. Gregg Harper. Doty chairs the Senate Elections Committee and was a leading proponent of the divorce reform bill that passed during the last session. She played a key role in passing campaign finance reform last year, too, but killed House efforts to include early voting and online voter registration. Since the qualifying deadline for Harper's seat isn't until March, Doty's giving the opportunity a lot of thought. "I'm talking to different people, but have not made a final decision," she said. "It's wise to be slow and deliberate." |
| Wicker, Cochran Confident In Mississippians Selected For Farm Service Agency State Committee | |
| U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Thad Cochran, R-Miss., today applauded the Trump administration's choice of five Mississippians to serve on the Farm Service Agency State Committee. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has named Ted Kendall IV of Bolton as committee chairman, and selected Scott Flowers of Clarksdale, Bobby Moody of Louisville, Henry Reed of Belzoni, and Rita Seward of Jackson County to serve as members. Cochran and Wicker made recommendations to Secretary Perdue for this panel, which is responsible for carrying out FSA farm programs. The Mississippi FSA State Committee will help administer agricultural conservation, production adjustment, price support, and livestock programs in the state. |
| To Grease Wheels of Congress, Trump Suggests Bringing Back Pork | |
 | Remember the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere"? The Montana Sheep Institute or the now-shuttered North Carolina teapot hall of fame? Congress years ago eliminated funding for these types of pet projects, known as earmarks, after they became derided as government boondoggles, largess and a pathway to corruption. President Trump now wants to bring them back. In a freewheeling meeting about immigration with congressional Republicans and Democrats this week, Mr. Trump lamented the gridlock that has gripped the capital in recent years and suggested that earmarks, the practice of stealthily stuffing funding for pet projects into legislation, be exhumed from the legislative graveyard. |
| Congress prepares to knock down barriers to broadband expansion in rural America | |
 | On the heels of President Donald Trump's orders to expand broadband access, Congress is preparing to follow suit with an aggressive push to make high-speed internet service more readily available in rural America. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Brentwood Republican who leads a key House subcommittee, said she expects to introduce several pieces of legislation in the next three months to remove the barriers to broadband expansion into rural areas. "We are going to put this emphasis on getting broadband into these unserved rural areas because you're not going to have economic development or 21st-century health care or expanded education opportunities or workforce and jobs retraining without it," said Blackburn, chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. State and local officials see broadband access as essential for economic development and giving consumers in remote areas access to educational opportunities such as online college courses. |
| Trump officials move to allow Medicaid work requirements | |
 | The Trump administration on Thursday unveiled guidance allowing states for the first time to impose work requirements in Medicaid, a major shift in the health insurance program for the poor. The move opens the door for states to apply for waivers to allow them to require Medicaid enrollees to work in order to receive coverage, something that has never before happened in the 50-year history of the program. Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, says the move will help people attain "self-sufficiency." Ten states are currently applying to impose work requirements in Medicaid. Many experts expect Kentucky will be the first state approved. |
| House Sexual Harassment Legislation Still Being Developed | |
 | House Administration Committee Chairman Gregg Harper said Wednesday that a measure updating sexual harassment procedures he had planned to introduce this week is still being fine-tuned but that he's hopeful it will be ready for release early next week. If he can meet that new due date, a markup on the measure could be held later that week, the Mississippi Republican said. "The goal is to get it passed out of the House before the end of January," he added. Harper said the bill authors are continuing to meet with various stakeholders and members as they finalize the legislation. "We want to make sure that we don't have any unintended consequences," he said. |
| California GOP retirements may lay groundwork for Democratic wave in November | |
 | The announced retirement this week of two endangered Southern California congressmen, Republicans Darrell Issa and Ed Royce, could signal something larger. If a Democratic wave is building, the swell may be gathering along the Pacific Coast. California always stood at the center of this year's fight for control of the House. Democrats, in the minority for most of the decade, need 24 seats to seize control in November. More than half a dozen of their top targets are in California, including the seats held by Issa and Royce. Significantly, their districts -- filled with well-educated suburbanites, social moderates, aspiring immigrants and their millennial offspring -- are the very embodiment of the year's election battleground; not just in California, but in Arizona, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington state. |
| Inside the House Republican Brain Drain | |
| This has already become a wave election year, because a record wave of departures by House chairmen already guarantees a sea change in the Republican power structure next January. Even if the GOP manages to hold on to its majority this fall, its policymaking muscle for the second half of President Donald Trump's term will need some prolonged rehabilitation. And if the party gets swept back into the minority, its aptitude for stopping or co-opting the newly ascendant Democrats' agenda will require some serious retraining. That's because more than a third of the Republicans who began this Congress with standing committee gavels in their hands, eight of the 21, will not be members of the House a year from now. One of the many reasons why Congress has slid into a dysfunctional decline, and grown so institutionally weak when compared to the executive branch, has been an erosion of expertise that's attributable in large measure to the shrinking average tenures of lawmakers and their aides. |
| Interior plans to move thousands of workers in the biggest reorganization in its history | |
 | Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke launched an unprecedented effort Wednesday to undertake the largest reorganization in the department's 168-year history, moving to shift tens of thousands of workers to new locations and change the way the federal government manages more than 500 million acres of land and water across the country. The proposal would divide the United States into 13 regions and centralize authority for different parts of Interior within those boundaries. The regions would be defined by watersheds and geographic basins, rather than individual states and the current boundaries that now guide Interior's operations. This new structure would be accompanied by a dramatic shift in location of the headquarters of major bureaus within Interior, such as the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Reclamation. Any attempt to undertake a broad overhaul of Interior is likely to encounter some level of congressional opposition, and several Democratic senators expressed initial skepticism about the plan. |
| Mexico travel warning: U.S. urges citizens to avoid 5 Mexican states | |
 | The State Department has issued a new, strict "do not travel" advisory for U.S. citizens regarding five Mexican states because of violent crime and gang activity. While the State Department has long recommended travelers exercise "increased caution" in Mexico in general because of widespread homicide, kidnapping, carjacking and robbery, the new warning elevates the five states to level 4, the highest level of potential danger. The advisory, issued Thursday, puts the states of Tamaulipas on the U.S. border and Sinaloa, Colima, Michoacan and Guerrero on the Pacific coast on the same level as war-torn countries like Syria, Yemen and Somalia. The states have long been plagued with drug cartel activity like trafficking routes or the cultivation of drug-related crops. |
| Meridian Community College President Scott Elliott to retire this summer | |
 | Meridian Community College President Scott Elliott will retire in the summer after leading the school for 20 years. The college announced the retirement in a news release late Wednesday afternoon. However, Elliott hinted to faculty and staff at the college during the opening faculty meeting a week ago that he would soon leave. Terry Dale Cruse, administrative director and head of campus at Mississippi State University-Meridian, said Elliott has been a strong academic partner and advocate for students at MCC and the partnership with the local MSU campus. On a personal note, Cruse said the MCC president has always remained positive and supported him. |
| Northeast Mississippi Community College announces iPads for students at cost of a textbook in fall | |
| Students in Carlena Benjamin's Anatomy and Physiology II course at Northeast Mississippi Community College are skirting traditional learning with the help of new technology and a new school initiative that is providing reduced-price iPads to students. Benjamin's class is using Play-Doh to create eyeball models for a stop-motion video that will be made outside of class by interacting with each other and their devices, as opposed to attending a traditional lecture. Many of the students benefited from a newly implemented program at Northeast that will expand to the entire student body by the beginning of the fall semester. NEMCC announced an iPad launch initiative at a press conference Wednesday morning to provide low cost iPads to its approximately 4,000 students. |
| U. of Alabama cuts ribbon on facility for adapted athletics | |
 | University of Alabama Adapted Athletic program founders Margaret Stran and Brent Hardin cut the ribbon on a long-held dream on Wednesday. The couple stood with student athletes, alumni, university officials and donors in front of the new $10 million, purpose-built arena that will house the program they started after arriving in 2003. "I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for making the dream of this building a reality," said Stran, the associate director of the Adapted Athletics program. The 27,036-square-foot Stran-Hardin Arena includes competition space for the men's and women's wheelchair basketball teams and locker, training, storage and office space for all the program's coaches and students. The center was named for Hardin and Stran in September by Mike and Kathy Mouron. The Mountain Brook couple was given the naming rights after donating $4 million of the $5 million in gifts necessary to make the arena a reality. |
| LSU police report second armed robbery on campus in two days | |
 | LSU police reported an armed robbery overnight on campus -- the second armed robbery in the past two days. The incident occurred at Blake Hall, police said in an emergency alert. Students were urged to avoid the area. WBRZ reported that the alert was sent to students at 2:05 a.m. Thursday. Early Wednesday, three men robbed a student of an iPhone on the north side of Kirby Smith Hall. The suspects fled the area. No injuries were reported in that incident, LSU spokesman Ernie Ballard III said. |
| County sends U. of Florida bill for Richard Spencer event | |
 | Alachua County on Wednesday sent the University of Florida a $300,000 bill asking for reimbursement for costs it incurred during the Richard Spencer event held on campus Oct. 19. A letter and invoice of $302,184 was sent from County Commissioner Lee Pinkoson to UF President Kent Fuchs. The county previously voted to send the university the bill at its Dec. 12 meeting. "In the aftermath of the Richard Spencer private event, we are seeking reimbursement for the public safety resources requested by the University and provided by Alachua County," Pinkoson wrote. On Oct. 19, Spencer, a white nationalist and leader in the alt-right movement, attended UF to give a speech with members of his National Policy Institute, an organization dedicated to preserving white or European heritage. UF initially canceled the event, but later rescheduled it after being threatened with a lawsuit. UF officials previously said the university estimated it would spend at least $600,000 on the event, but hasn't supplied records to support its claim. |
| UGA names 2018 Writers Hall of Fame class | |
 | The University of Georgia Libraries have named the 2018 inductees into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. Michael Bishop, Tayari Jones and Cynthia Shearer will be admitted at the November ceremony, and Furman Bisher and Frances Newman will be honored posthumously. Cynthia Shearer grew up in Alapaha, Georgia, and has written two novels, "The Wonder Book of the Air" and "The Celestial Jukebox." Her work has appeared in such publications as the Oxford American, TriQuarterly, The Missouri Review, and Virginia Quarterly Review. Her first novel was awarded the 1996 prize for fiction from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. Formerly a curator of William Faulkner's home, Rowan Oak, in Oxford, Mississippi, she now lives in Fort Worth, Texas, and teaches at Texas Christian University. |
| Texas A&M researchers: Cancer fight may be all about timing | |
 | Some brain cancer patients could have a new option for treatment tied to their circadian rhythms if a study by Texas A&M University researchers continue to provide positive results as it moves into a new phase of testing. Researchers Deborah Bell-Pederson and David Earnest and their teams are studying how human health -- specifically a common and deadly form of brain cancer -- might benefit from using biological clocks in concert with therapeutic treatments. With current treatments methods, Earnest said glioblastoma patients on average receive a prognosis of an additional 14 to 18 months of life with treatment. If successful, Earnest said the research could eventually lead to a longer life expectancy and improved quality of life for the patients. |
| Choi, Cartwright pitch plans for U. of Missouri to state lawmakers | |
 | The University of Missouri is trying to repair its image by cutting the cost of education, changing rules to address legislative concerns and engaging with the public, UM System President Mun Choi said Wednesday. Choi and Columbia campus Chancellor Alexander Cartwright spent about 30 minutes testifying to the Joint Committee on Education, a hearing that was far tamer than a meeting of the same committee held just a few months after the November 2015 campus protests that helped force out their predecessors. "The problems the University of Missouri faces and the problems the university faced in November 2015 are problems we now own," Choi said. The university is working to fix enrollment issues by cutting costs and increasing scholarships, Choi said. At the same time, it is moving ahead with construction of research and teaching facilities without depending on state support to finance them. |
| U. of Missouri to close campus early Thursday, citing weather | |
 | The University of Missouri campus will close at noon Thursday because of a pending winter storm.vIn a tweet sent at 6:30 a.m., officials said the campus would close at noon. Only employees whose jobs are critical will need to report for work, an email sent to faculty and staff stated. A decision to resume normal operations will be made by 5 a.m., Friday. "Due to a winter weather advisory for our area and out of concern for the safety of our campus community, we have decided to close the campus at noon on Thursday," said Gary Ward, MU vice chancellor for operations, via email. "We have been working closely with local and state officials and, given the current information, believe this is the best course of action at this time. Depending on road conditions a decision will be made early Friday morning as to whether to resume normal operations." |
| Why Is a College-Admissions Code of Ethics Such a Big Deal? | |
 | The news seemed to stun an entire profession. On Tuesday, admissions officials and college counselors learned that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether the organization that represents them has violated federal antitrust law. At issue: the National Association for College Admission Counseling's new 15-page ethics code. This week the department requested information from several members of a committee that recently helped revamp the association's "Code of Ethics and Professional Practices," an extensive list of rules and standards that govern the admissions process. After receiving a "civil investigative demand" for documents from the department, one committee member told The Chronicle she was so shaken she had to sit down right away. Why, in a nation full of problems, is law-enforcement's top dog sniffing around an admissions association's long-winded ethics code? No immediate answer came from the Justice Department, which declined a request for comment. |
| Experts: Value in collecting statistics on suicide | |
 | Most mental health experts agree that keeping tabs on student suicides could help colleges and universities plan their responses and prevent future deaths. But, as an Associated Press investigation recently found, most of the country's largest institutions don't track the data. And universities that do, experts said in interviews with Inside Higher Ed, gather it unevenly and need to address the topic carefully with their students and the public to avoid glorifying suicide. Counseling offices likely record attempted and completed suicides in some form, but loosely, said Lisa Adams, director of counseling at the University of West Georgia and the president of the American College Counseling Association, one of two professional higher education counseling associations. Representatives from the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors did not make themselves available for comment. |
| Our challenging state of affairs | |
| Mississippi newspaper publisher and columnist Wyatt Emmerich writes: "A lot of Mississippians are happy with our existing state of affairs. Indeed, we are the most religious and generous state in the nation. We have great hunting and fishing, little pollution, great weather and plenty of room. Mississippi is one of the least materialistic states in the country. Many Mississippians are more concerned with fearing God, helping others and being friendly than getting rich. Money isn't everything. But money helps. Good jobs are a good thing. Progress allows better health care, education, transportation and a host of other nice things. So count me among the many Mississippians who would like to see economic progress in our state. As it stands now, Mississippi is losing population for the first time in 50 years. ...Mississippi needs to be seen throughout the nation as a progressive state, not a backward state. How do we do that?" |
| Passage of lottery could be to Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves' political benefit | |
| The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal's Bobby Harrison writes: "Generally speaking, if both of the Mississippi Legislature's presiding officers oppose a bill, that proposal is not going to see the light of day. Such may not be the case, though, in the 2018 legislative session with the lottery. Indeed, both House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, and Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who presides over the Senate, say they oppose the lottery. With the power the two presiding officers have in the legislative process, their combined opposition is usually enough to kill a bill. But there continues to be the thought during the 2018 session that this might be the year that a lottery is enacted. Only six states, including Mississippi, do not have a lottery. Read carefully what the two presiding officers said about a lottery when recently asked." |
SPORTS
| Importance of beating Ole Miss not lost on Mississippi State women | |
| There was a time when the Mississippi State and Ole Miss women's hoops rivalry wasn't much of a rivalry at all. The Rebels won 50 of the first 51 games in the series from 1975-1997 including 33-straight during that stretch. It's turned in a major way towards MSU since that time with the Bulldogs winning 29 of the last 42, Coach Vic Schaefer has put a dent in that series number himself with an 8-2 record and seven-consecutive wins. With the recent success against the Rebels as well as the Bulldogs currently sitting at No. 4 nationally with bigger goals in mind, the game still carries weight.The latest meeting takes place Thursday night inside Humphrey Coliseum with a tip time of 8 p.m. on the SEC Network. Victoria Vivians grew up inside Mississippi and she knows as much as anyone about what the game means. |
| Mississippi State seniors try to keep streak alive against Rebels | |
| Mississippi State's senior class has never lost a game to Ole Miss. Blair Schaefer, Victoria Vivians, Morgan William and Roshunda Johnson are 6-0 against the Rebels during their time with the Bulldogs and do not plan things changing when the two teams renew their rivalry tonight at 8 on the SEC Network. "My mentality since I've been at State is not to lose to another school in this state because they are my little sisters," Vivians said. "We are the big-sister school and we want to keep that tradition going." MSU has won seven straight in the series and 15 of the last 18 meetings. The Bulldogs have also claimed the last 10 matchups inside Humphrey Coliseum. "In this game it doesn't matter what the records are," said MSU coach Vic Schaefer. "You've got two teams and two fan bases that are very passionate about this game. We know what's coming through the doors and we'll be ready." |
| Bench key in grind for Bulldogs during women's season | |
| Mississippi State's women can put one of the best starting lineups on the basketball court every night. The guard heavy group of Victoria Vivians, Morgan William, Blair Schaefer, Roshunda Johnson and Teaira McCowan can stack up against any program in the country. Vivians and McCowan can produce inside and outside for the Bulldogs. When one of the starters gets in foul trouble, the depth can be tested. That's where the bench becomes very important. MSU found out on Sunday at LSU how key a reserve can be. Chloe Bibby stepped up in a big way when Vivians got in foul trouble and had to come out of the game. "She came in and played big minutes for us," Vivians said of Bibby. "She's adjusting really well." |
| Mississippi State Baseball Fan Day, Cowbell Yell set | |
| As the excitement builds leading up to Opening Day in Hattiesburg, Mississippi State baseball has announced the dates and additional information for Fan Day and Cowbell Yell. Fan Day is set for Sunday, Feb. 11 and will take place in the Palmeiro Center on campus, adjacent to Dudy Noble Field and Humphrey Coliseum. Doors will open at 3:30 p.m., with the event to run from 4-6 p.m. The event will follow women's basketball's 1 p.m. game against Kentucky, which will result in basketball parking restrictions remaining in place until the game concludes. Two days later on Tuesday, Feb. 13, Cowbell Yell will also take place on the MSU campus at 6 p.m. More information, including a specific location for the event will be announced closer to the event date. For Cowbell Yell, the first 1,000 students will get a free 2018 'Dudes' t-shirt, and is the event where they can come to join the 'Dudes' for the 2018 season, and hear from the team and Coach Cannizaro. |
| Joe Moorhead finalizes Mississippi State staff with Scott Fountain | |
| Joe Moorhead has hired his 10th and final assistant to complete his initial staff at Mississippi State. Moorhead has hired Scott Fountain to serve as his special teams coordinator in Starkville after working as a special teams analyst at Georgia this past season. Fountain certainly knows his way around the Southeastern Conference. Prior to his one season stint at UGA, the East Brewton, Alabama native was the special teams coordinator and tight ends coach at Auburn from 2013-16 as well as director of player personnel for the Tigers from 2009-12. |
| Jeremy Groves joins Tom Anagnost's Mississippi State soccer staff | |
| Honest, trustworthy, smart and loyal. These were some of the traits Mississippi State head soccer coach Tom Anagnost was looking for in his next Associate Head Coach. He found all of those things in Jeremy Groves, who was named to the position by Anagnost on Wednesday. Groves, a native of Leeds, England, comes to MSU after a spectacular four-year stint as head coach at Murray State, where he led the Racers to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances in 2015 and 2017. "As soon as I stepped on campus I was blown away with the unbelievable facilities -- the new locker room is fantastic and makes the facility one of the best in the SEC," Groves said. "Everything is in place at Mississippi State for student-athletes to compete for championships." |
| Gators roll past Mississippi State, improve to 4-0 in SEC | |
| Senior guard Egor Koulechov helped Florida get off to a strong start Wednesday night against Mississippi State. But it was a smothering defensive effort late that allowed the Gators to pull away for a 71-54 win over the Bulldogs before an announced crowd of 9,917 at the O'Connell Center. Koulechov led four UF scorers in double figures with 23 points, scoring UF's first 13 points and 17 points in the first half to help the Gators jump to a 33-28 halftime lead. The 6-foot-5 Rice graduate transfer made five of his first six shots in the field, including three in a row from 3-point range. "We struggled offensively, we struggled to score," Mississippi State coach Ben Howland said. "They turned up their defensive intensity even better in the second half and it was hard for us to find anything good to get good shots for our team." |
| AD Ross Bjork: NCAA has wrong read on Ole Miss culture | |
| The NCAA's message to Ole Miss on Dec. 1 was very clear: "You have a booster problem. Fix it." As the school's NCAA case continues into the new year and the appeal phase vice chancellor for athletics Ross Bjork says the school is working to monitor all boosters but disagrees with the NCAA's assessment. The NCAA said in its report that Ole Miss "fostered an unconstrained booster culture." The report said Ole Miss "lacked control over its boosters and oversight of football recruiting activities." Bjork and Ole Miss chancellor Jeff Vitter say the NCAA's opinion fails to consider the school's overall compliance history for the last 25 years. Many donors are upset at being painted with a broad brush by the NCAA which in its comments went back to the 1980s in working to strengthen its case against Ole Miss. |
| Jeremy Pruitt: Mind on Vols 'most of the time' while with Alabama for College Football Playoff | |
 | Jeremy Pruitt wore a white half-zip pullover with an orange Power-T on the chest as he addressed reporters on Wednesday. He's all Tennessee's now. "I'm excited to finally be in Knoxville, to get started," Pruitt said. It's been a whirlwind past month for Pruitt, who was named Tennessee's coach on Dec. 7. He juggled that job and his role as Alabama's defensive coordinator through Monday, when the Crimson Tide won the national title. After the game, he shed the Alabama duties. "The whole reason I stayed and coached in that game was because I felt like I needed to do it for those kids, to help them get what they want," Pruitt said. "But most of the time, my mind was thinking in Knoxville, I can tell you that." |
| Auburn Arena crowd, led by record student attendance, makes a difference in win over Ole Miss | |
 | There were still more than 70 minutes remaining on the Auburn Arena countdown clock when the student section in the lower bowl reached capacity. By the time the Tigers' Tuesday night game against Ole Miss began a little after 8 p.m. Central, students lined the standing-room-only sections that surrounded both the second and third levels. Bruce Pearl said after the game that an estimated 3,400 students made their way through the gates on Tuesday. The school updated that number to an exact 3,392 on Wednesday. Either way, it's a program record for a men's basketball game. Those students were part of a sellout crowd of 9,121 at Auburn Arena, the school's first since a Jan. 21 win over Alabama last season and 16th in the eight-year history of the building. They were treated to a come-from-behind 85-70 win over Ole Miss, Auburn's 13th straight this season and first over the Rebels since 2012, and may have even played a role in it. |
| Dawn Staley says she called the SEC league office after South Carolina's chippy loss to Mizzou | |
 | South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley said her program contacted the SEC league office after the No. 9 Gamecocks' controversial loss to No. 12 Missouri this past Sunday, but she declined to comment on the specifics of her complaint or say how the conference responded. Speaking with local media for the first time since Sunday's road loss in Columbia, Missouri, Staley and star forward A'ja Wilson both tried to keep the focus on USC's next opponent, Auburn, but the physical, heated clash between the Gamecocks and the Tigers repeatedly came up. In the immediate aftermath of the game, Staley expressed outrage that Wilson, a national Player of the Year contender, spent half the game on the bench due to foul trouble and said Missouri's defensive strategy consisted of fouling Wilson. When asked Wednesday if she had spoken with the SEC or sent the conference video from Sunday's game as part of a complaint, Staley said she had and that the league had responded, but did not specify what the response had been. |
| Officials apologize for long security lines for National Championship | |
| Some fans who attended the College Football Playoff National Championship game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Monday night voiced their frustration over the security lines to get into the stadium. "It's just been a cluster," fan Everett Stubbs said. People said they waited in line for 90 minutes to get in to see the game they paid thousands of dollars to attend. College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock said it was a perfect storm of thousands of fans showing up at the same time as President Donald Trump. "I'm very sorry. When you have a president visit, security trumps everything, so to speak, and we're just very sorry that people were inconvenienced," Hancock said. Unlike other big games, the Secret Service ran the security show, cranking up the sensitivity on metal detectors, among other things. "The Secret Service people are very professional. They were good to work with, but there were some curveballs that we did not anticipate," Hancock said. |
| How Alabama AD Greg Byrne got his hands on game-winning championship football | |
| A day later, Greg Byrne couldn't walk far at Alabama's basketball game without a handshake. The smile on the Alabama athletics director's face said he didn't mind. Less than 24 hours earlier, Byrne found himself at the center of the Crimson Tide football locker room holding a football. And a year before that, he was quietly in conversation about replacing retiring AD Bill Battle. Early Tuesday morning in Atlanta, there he stood, game ball held over his head, presenting it to Nick Saban. "Usually when I'm in the locker room, I'll be along the side, slap five with some of the guys on the team and the coaches," Byrne told AL.com at halftime of the 76-62 basketball win over South Carolina. "But for a guy who grew up in college athletics and been in a lot of locker rooms my entire life, it was certainly one of the most special moments I've ever been a part of and I feel fortunate for it." How he got that ball was a matter of good timing. |
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