| Wednesday, June 13, 2018 |
| Summertime and ticks: The parasites can cause problems | |
 | Summer is prime time for ticks. In recent days a five-year-old in Mississippi was in the national spotlight after getting bitten by one, and left temporarily paralyzed. Although they are small, local officials say if not treated, tick bites can cause big problems. So, where can you find a tick? It turns out that it's in places where it can get on grass or bushes and wait on an animal to pass by to catch a ride. "They put out their little hooks, and when something comes by which is usually a deer, they 'hook on,' and they get carried off," says Shani Hay, who is the MSU Extension Service Agent for Lauderdale County. She says ticks can find their way onto a person's body. That's why she says it's always important to thoroughly check yourself when you go home. According to the MSU Extension Service, there are at least 19 different species of ticks in Mississippi. |
| 'GenCyber' camp held at East Central Community College | |
| East Central Community College through Mississippi State University is hosting a GenCyber Camp where many girls in second through fifth grade are leaning about cyber security and computer programming. With women under-represented in the computer science field, it's important to get girls interested in the field at a young age. "This is a camp funded by the National Security Agency and the National Science Foundation, we have 25 participants in this camp and they're all girls, and the reason they're all girls is because computer science is only 18% females, so this camp is targeting girls to get them interested in computer science," says Ken Ethridge, a computer science instructor at ECCC. Those at the camp are enjoying the experience, especially getting to play with robots. |
| State leaders not concerned with Trump's trade tiff with Canada | |
 | Mississippi officials apparently have few concerns about a potential trade war between the United States and Canada, which is the largest trading partner for not only the U.S., but also the state. "The economy is booming and unemployment has reached record lows nationwide and here in Mississippi," said Gov. Phil Bryant. "President Trump puts American workers and businesses first, and his policies continue to bear that out." Last year, Mississippi businesses exported some $11 billion in goods to 180 countries. About a fifth of those exports -- more than $2.2 billion -- was with Canada. U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker believes Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will eventually work through their issues. "I do not think there will be a trade war," Wicker said. And for now, state officials don't believe Mississippi's exporters will be adversely affected by Trump's trade tiff with Trudeau and Canada. |
| Amid key race, GOP chairman urges unity | |
| State Republican chairman Lucien Smith is urging party unity in an effort to ensure that a divisive special election doesn't cost the GOP a key senate seat in a deeply red state. Speaking before the Lee County Republican Club Monday night, Smith predicted that a November special election to fill Thad Cochran's unfinished term will likely be decided by a runoff between a Republican and a Democrat. With that in mind, and without mentioning either candidate directly by name, Smith asked that supporters of Cindy Hyde-Smith and Chris McDaniel prepare to vote for the other candidate. Staying home or casting a write-in ballot during a special election runoff won't be good enough, in Smith's view. |
| Democrats Aim to Mobilize African-American Base, Win Back White Moderates | |
 | Walking through his law office in Jackson, Mississippi, Mike Espy shows off a framed award from the National Rifle Association recognizing his pro-gun votes in Congress. Now running for U.S. Senate, Espy calls himself a free-trader, a budget-cutter, a job-creator, a Christian, a friend of the military and an admirer of retired Republican Senator Thad Cochran, whose seat he seeks. One big difference between him and Cochran: Espy is a Democrat. The centrist rhetoric reflects Espy's challenge in trying to win this conservative stronghold and become the state's first African-American senator since the late 1800s and its first Democratic senator since 1989. With little chance of converting hard-core Republicans, Espy needs to capture moderate and independent white voters in a state that voted heavily for Donald Trump in 2016 -- while at the same time energizing Mississippi's large and typically liberal African-American vote. |
| David Baria a consistent Democratic vote despite Republican tilt of his district | |
 | In the 2016 presidential election, Republican Donald Trump won 74 percent of the vote in House District 122. That strong showing by Trump would indicate that the Hancock County district on the Gulf Coast is one of the state's most reliably Republican House districts. Yet, it is occupied by David Baria of Bay St. Louis, the House's Democratic leader. That strong showing by Trump has not prevented Baria from taking strong Democratic stances. He has been an advocate for expanding Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to cover primarily the working poor. Baria also voted against a controversial 2016 proposal that received national attention because it expands the rights of governmental employees and private businesses to not provide services for same sex couples. |
| Sports betting to come to Choctaw casinos | |
 | The Pearl River Resort and Bok Homa Casino, both owned and operated by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, will soon offer sports betting. The Tribe's decision follows a ruling in May by the U.S. Supreme Court, which lifted a federal ban on sports betting and allows states to make their own laws regulating the activity. Mississippi lawmakers passed their own bill to regulate and tax fantasy sports during the 2017 regular session, handing control over to the Mississippi Gaming Commission. "The gaming commission can regulate (sports betting)," Speaker Pro Tem Greg Snowden said Monday. "I suspect they will initially limit it to casinos." Snowden, who said he voted for the bill, said he and other legislators knew that the federal sports ban could be lifted, bringing that form of gambling to Mississippi. "I trust the gaming commission. They have a pretty good record in Mississippi," Snowden said. |
| US engineers plan millions in Mississippi water projects | |
 | The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has released a work plan that includes nearly $56 million of water projects during this budget year in Mississippi, including some for flood control. The state's two Republican U.S. senators, Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, say Tuesday that the projects will improve the quality of life. Also included is more than $28 million for projects intended to reduce flooding and erosion the Delta. Chris Gallegos, a spokesman for Hyde-Smith, said the list does not include money for a massive pump project that has long been debated in the Yazoo Basin. |
| Supervisors learn more about new legislation, grants at annual convention | |
 | Supervisors from Mississippi's 82 counties are on the Coast for the annual Mississippi Association of Supervisors convention. A wide range of topics are covered during the convention to help supervisors better serve their counties. Many people at the convention represent citizens from all over our state. They are county supervisors and other county employees and the convention is a time for all of them to learn how to make their county run more efficiently. "They are going to be able to take back home additional education information about laws that were passed in the recent legislative session about information about federal legislation, state legislation," said Derrick Surrette, executive director of the Mississippi Association of Supervisors. Another topic supervisors will discuss during the convention is funding for bridges. |
| Trump says North Korea 'no longer' a nuclear threat as he returns to Washington | |
 | President Trump declared Wednesday that there is "no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea" as he returned to Washington, offering a rosy assessment of a summit with the leader of a nation that still possesses nuclear weapons. "Just landed -- a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea," the president said on Twitter. In a separate tweet, he said that North Korea is no longer the United States' most dangerous problem, as President Barack Obama had characterized it upon leaving office. Trump's assessment comes as lawmakers, analysts and allies have hailed the effort but questioned the substance of what was achieved. |
| Sen. Mitch McConnell pushes hemp legalization in farm bill | |
| Declaring he has "won the argument" on hemp, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that the Senate is on track for a vote to legalize the crop that comes from the same plant that produces marijuana. The Senate Agriculture Committee is scheduled to consider the farm bill Wednesday. It will include a provision to remove hemp from a list of Schedule I controlled substances, making it legal for farmers to grow and sell the crop. Although far from becoming law, the step is noted progress for an idea that has faced staunch opposition among conservative lawmakers. "We've won the argument that this is not about marijuana," McConnell said about hemp. "Now we just need to pass the law. And I'm in a uniquely well-situated position to make that happen." |
| South Carolina's Mark Sanford Falls in GOP Primary | |
 | South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford on Tuesday became the second incumbent of the year to fall in a Republican primary, losing to a challenger who questioned his loyalty to President Donald Trump. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, state Rep. Katie Arrington was leading Sanford 51 percent to 47 percent when The Associated Press called the race. Even before the race had been officially called, Sanford had conceded the race, and Arrington had declared victory. For the incumbent, it was his first electoral loss over a career that began with his first election to the House in 1994. Trump took aim at Sanford on Twitter just hours before the polls closed Tuesday in South Carolina. |
| U. of Missouri provost to discontinue faculty leaves, awards amid budget cuts | |
 | The University of Missouri Provost's Office no longer will fund the Chancellor's Distinguished Visitors Program and Lecture Series, faculty development leaves, project awards and research leaves starting July 1, Interim Provost Jim Spain said in an email Tuesday. The Distinguished Visitors Program brings "prominent scholars" into the university to participate in academics, research and campus engagement. Research leaves provide faculty the opportunity to take a leave of absence from the university to conduct research in their fields of study. These cuts paint a different picture than the one Chancellor Alexander Cartwright presented June 7. "The future is very bright for Mizzou," Cartwright said in a news release. Professors and members of the community alike responded to the program cuts with anger. |
| Harassment Derails Women's Careers, Says a Searing National Academies Report | |
 | Sexual harassment is derailing the careers of far too many women in science, engineering, and medicine. That's the central message of a searing new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on the prevalence of sexual misconduct in those fields. The report estimates that half of women in science experience some form of harassment. "What is especially discouraging about this situation is that at the same time that so much energy and money is being invested in efforts to attract and retain women in science, engineering, and medical fields, it appears women are often bullied or harassed out of career pathways in these fields," the report says. The document, the result of a two-year study, aims to send a clear signal that the three honorary societies are taking harassment seriously amid a growing conversation about how to combat such behavior in academe. But it comes as the academies themselves are being roiled by a debate about whether or how to kick out members who harass. |
| National Academies report: sexual harassment costly to science, compliance-based approaches don't work | |
 | Reports of sexual harassment in academe may be on the rise, but there's no evidence to suggest that harassment itself is declining. To effect real change, colleges, universities and research centers must move beyond treating harassment like a legal problem and treat it like a cultural one -- one with major implications for institutional and scientific excellence. So said a group of science leaders Tuesday during a news briefing on a highly anticipated report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. The report pertains to those fields in particular, but its conclusions resonate more broadly in the midst of the Me Too movement -- a fact of which the report's authors were keenly aware. Above all, institutions should try to promote cultures of respect so that harassment is less likely to occur in the first place, the study urges. |
| Candidates largely ignoring Social Security, Medicare challenges | |
| Syndicated columnist Sid Salter writes: "Both here in Mississippi and nationally, congressional candidates are making no mention of the serious challenges faced by the present iterations of the Social Security and Medicare programs. Baby Boomers poised to collect the entitlements are decidedly not ignoring the issues, but are nervously reading disturbing warnings that fiscal danger looms. The Social Security and Medicare Trustees released their annual report earlier this month and documented the fiscal realities of the two programs. The latest projections show that Medicare Hospital Trust Fund (Part A of Medicare) will be depleted in 2026, three years earlier than projected last year. At the point, trustees project that Medicare could continue to pay out 91 percent of current benefits in 2026, then see that decline to 78 percent in 2039, then rebound to 85 percent in 2092. Bottom line, less Medicare benefits to cover skyrocketing healthcare costs." |
SPORTS
| Gary Henderson not expecting West Coast trends to play out in Omaha | |
 | Gary Henderson doesn't project any regional bias to play out in the College World Series. For years, West Coast college baseball teams have come with the reputation of running, teams that go for stolen bases and use the sacrifice bunt more than many. Mississippi State may be up against two West Coast teams in its half of the bracket in Omaha, Nebraska, but Henderson doesn't anticipate their regional alignments impacting the games. MSU meets Washington 7 p.m. Saturday on ESPN. "I think 20, 25 years ago it was big ball here in the (Southeastern Conference) and small ball out West, but there's a tremendous amount of familiarity at this point, there's no secrets," MSU's interim coach said. "Everybody's on TV and you can get to know who you're playing pretty quick. I wouldn't characterize them as being any different from a really good team you would play from any other league." |
| Win it in a clutch situation? These Mississippi State Bulldogs can, and will | |
 | It seems like these Mississippi State Bulldogs are always one or two outs away from something. In the Tallahassee regional, the Bulldogs were one out away from elimination when Elijah MacNamee launched a three-run bomb to defeat Florida State 3-2 and save MSU's season. Last weekend, in the super regional round against Vanderbilt, the Bulldogs were less than six outs away from Omaha three times -- once in the second game (which Vanderbilt won on a walk-off homer) and twice more in the third game. The Bulldogs made the most of that final opportunity, which is why they'll open the College World Series against Washington Saturday at 7 p.m. The last couple of weeks, like most of the season, has been an emotional roller coaster. |
| Never say never with this Mississippi State team | |
| The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal's Logan Lowery writes: "Truth be told, I've been dreading writing this column since the final out was made in Nashville early Monday morning. The reason for my apprehension stems from attempting to put into words what I have witnessed Mississippi State do on the baseball diamond this season. It's quite simply the most astonishing run by the most overachieving team I have covered since I started doing this 14 years ago. ...I don't know how the rest of this story will turn out for the Bulldogs. But if I've learned one thing this year it's to never say never with this bunch." |
| A lesson for losers | |
| The Dispatch's Slim Smith writes: " In the early morning hours Monday, Mississippi State scored four runs in the 11th inning to beat Vanderbilt in Nashville and join seven other elite teams in this year's College World Series, the Valhalla of college baseball. It will be the Bulldogs' 10th appearance in the CWS and, by far, the least likely, and therefore most satisfying, of them all. We are often quick to draw life lessons from the sports we consume as fans. Sports is really a morality play at its most satisfying moments. And so it is with this team. ... If you are among those who are today feeling defeated, humiliated and hopeless, the story of this team can be your story, too. If you feel it would almost take a miracle to put your life back in order, take a lesson from these Bulldogs: Go out and make your miracle, one day, one step, one striving effort at a time. The only certain way to lose is to quit." |
| Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco: Evaluating program 'starts with me' after another short postseason | |
| On the surface, Ole Miss just put together one of the best baseball seasons in school history. But that's not much consolation for the Rebels right now. More than a week after what Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco called "about as tough a night as I can remember" in nearly two decades years at the helm, Bianco was still trying to put in perspective a season that included an SEC Western Division championship, just the third SEC Tournament title in school history, a tie for the most wins ever (48) and the program's highest-ever NCAA Tournament seed but one that abruptly ended with another short postseason. "I think it takes some strength now to feel good about that because of what just happened so recently, but I think in time, I think it's going to be a lot easier for us and the fans as well to appreciate this year for what it was," Bianco said. |
| Tweet sparks outrage around allegations of sex assault at Texas A&M | |
 | A tweet accusing a member of the Texas A&M swim team of sexual assault has created a social media firestorm aimed at Texas A&M and its athletic department. The June 7 Twitter post expressed displeasure that the athlete was allowed to continue competing. As of Tuesday evening, the tweet had been retweeted 15,000 times and picked up 36,000 likes. On Sunday, sexual assault prevention advocate and sexual assault survivor Brenda Tracy drew national attention to the issue with a retweet. Tracy, after consulting with the woman who posted the tweet, said she expected more out of A&M. Gaines West, the attorney for the athlete, said in a statement that his client is being "unfairly maligned and defamed by a woman with whom he had a brief consensual encounter nearly three years ago." |
| Priority point level to buy new UGA football season tickets zooms to new record | |
 | To be a new Georgia football season ticket holder, a fan needed to contribute more money than ever for seats in Sanford Stadium. It takes 23,900 priority points on top of the $275 per seat price tag for renewable season tickets, according to cutoff scores the school posted to its athletic website Tuesday evening. Such is the desire for fans to see a Georgia team that nearly won the national championship last season in its first trip to the College Football Playoff. The Bulldogs are expected to be contenders again in coach Kirby Smart's third season. The previous top priority point cutoff was 10,651 cumulative priority points in 2008, a year after Georgia won the Sugar Bowl and was preseason No. 1. The number was 1,001 in 2014, 6,701 in 2015 and 1,201 in 2016. A donor gets a priority point for every dollar given to the Hartman Fund for football season tickets, or a contribution to any other specific sport. |
| U.S., Mexico and Canada win joint bid for 2026 World Cup, topping Morocco in FIFA vote | |
| The World Cup is returning to the United States, and this time, Mexico and Canada are along for the wild ride. A North American joint bid won the rights Wednesday to host the 2026 edition of the celebrated soccer tournament, defeating Morocco and bouncing back from an unfathomable U.S. defeat to Qatar in voting for the 2022 event eight years ago. The member associations in FIFA, the sport's governing body, favored the North American effort, known as the United Bid, in a landslide vote, 134-65. Thus, 32 years after setting World Cup attendance records in hosting the 1994 competition, the United States will join forces with its neighbors to organize a championship that, in 2026, will expand to 48 teams from 32. |
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