| Thursday, June 14, 2018 |
| Mississippi State fans Teed up about College World Series | |
 | Lisa Hensley was in Reed's department store early Wednesday to buy nine T-shirts. But they weren't just any T-shirts -- they were shirts commemorating Mississippi State's 10th College World Series trip, their first since 2013. "One for everybody in the family," she said with a laugh. "I didn't even watch them in the first of the year, but then they came along and here we are. We're excited." That excitement is also matched by Reed's and other area retailers who are not only selling T-shirts with the popular "Rally Banana" phrase, but also other T-shirt designs. Reed's began selling commemorative T-shirts more than 25 years ago to mark the Egg Bowl "championship" between the MSU and Ole Miss football teams. Hundreds of designs and thousands of shirts later, the T-shirts are as popular as ever, said company Chairman and President Jack Reed Jr. |
| Finding the next generation of female computer scientists at GenCyber camp | |
 | Studies show that only 18 percent of all computer scientists are females. East Central Community College professor Ken Ethridge is hoping to change that. The college, through Mississippi State University, is hosting a week-long camp for elementary girls in grades second through fifth to help recruit and educate them about computer science. "It's a program, facilitated through the National Security Agency, that is intended to increase the pipeline of citizens who want to do cyber security careers," said Sarah Lee, an MSU professor who heads the program in the state. "The interest here was overwhelming," Lee said. "We have started to take this camp out to the small, rural communities. This is the largest of the six GenCyber camps. I thought we would have 10 but we admitted 26 and had 40-something applications. We had way more applications. I finally had to close the applications. I was shocked that there was so much interest." |
| Delta Council recognizes economic, conservation, education successes | |
 | The 83rd annual meeting of the Delta Council will long be remembered for not only celebrating educational achievements of select high school seniors graduating across the Delta region and economic gains made through regional partnerships fostered through the Delta Council, but also for the overwhelming gratitude given by those in attendance to the man whose behind-the-scenes work galvanized the organization into the fabric comprising four decades of health, economic, and educational advancements in the Mississippi Delta -- Chip Morgan. |
| Air ambulance gouges stroke patient, then asks for non-disclosure | |
 | Jack Wayne had a stroke and couldn't talk when medical professionals loaded him onto a chopper at Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg. He was airlifted to University of Mississippi Medical Center, where he said he received great care, followed by a full recovery. That's until, Wayne said, he thought his $42,000 helicopter bill might give him another stroke. When he finally negotiated his bill down to nearly $17,000, the private air ambulance company Med-Trans asked Wayne to sign and return a letter agreeing to keep his "discount" secret. "I was pretty disgusted," he said. He didn't sign. "It shouldn't happen," said Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney. But it does -- especially in the case of air ambulances. |
| Long Beach could be getting its first casino | |
 | Developers plan to be at the July meeting of the Mississippi Gaming Commission asking for first approval to build the first casino in Long Beach. Coast developer James Parrish said his company owns the property for the casino development, which includes the former Kmart and Sav-A-Center grocery store on the north side of U.S. 90 to the water on the south side. According to a legal advertisement in the Sun Herald, the 40,000-square-foot casino will have 1,200 slot machines and 20 table games, along with the 300 hotel rooms required by Gaming Commission regulations. Those regulations also require a fine dining restaurant. Allen Godfrey, executive director of the Gaming Commission, said an application has been submitted for site approval, which is the first step in the permitting process. |
| Automotive supplier expands manufacturing in Mississippi | |
 | A German company that makes automotive parts is expanding in northern Mississippi. Gov. Phil Bryant says Wednesday that hago Automotive Corp. will add 60 jobs during the next four years. The Mississippi Development Authority says the state is providing a $500,000 grant for infrastructure and is giving Tishomingo County a $3 million loan for construction. |
| Former Mississippi governor discusses Katrina recovery at NSAA conference | |
 | A captive audience of state leaders from across the country got the chance to hear former Governor Haley Barbour tell the story of Mississippi's recovery from Hurricane Katrina. "Preparation," Barbour said. "You prepare. You plan. You practice. You work together." For NSAA president and Mississippi State Auditor Stacey Pickering, Barbour was the perfect person to give this address as the annual conference returned to Mississippi. "Mississippi's Hurricane Katrina story is a great success story," Pickering said. "It was a tough one that we all lived through, all the way from the Coast literally up to I-20, at one degree or another. Governor Barbour led this state through that experience. To have him share the lessons he learned and how that applies not just to disasters, but how do we manage our agencies, our businesses everyday." |
| Blue ribbon trip to Washington pays dividends for DeSoto County | |
 | Lobbying for support of flood control measures and wastewater projects has paid off for the DeSoto County Board of Supervisors and constituents they represent. Supervisors who traveled to Washington in the spring were rewarded for their efforts, staff spokespersons for U.S. lawmakers disclosed in a series of press releases issued on Tuesday. The Senate offices of U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker and U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith issued press releases Tuesday to announce that an additional $55.9 million has been allocated to support wastewater infrastructure, flood control and other projects. The delegation consisted of the Board of Supervisors, city mayors, Alderman, DCRUA, and members of the DeSoto County Economic Development Council. |
| Grateful Steve Scalise Gets Back in the Game | |
 | He's a force in the Republican Party as the powerful House majority whip. His name is in the conversation as the next speaker. But as Steve Scalise recently reflected in his ornate leadership office in the Capitol, he talked about friendships. The Louisiana lawmaker's friends thought he was dead exactly a year ago, knocked down by a bullet and bleeding out on the infield where the Republican team was practicing a day before the Congressional Baseball Game. He's made it all the way back to taking the field Thursday night when his team plays the Democrats in the annual charity faceoff at 7:05 p.m. at Nationals Park. "I went through a lot of different emotions and different levels of recovery over the last year. But those first few months especially, when you're fighting for your life and you're not sure, was I even going to be able to come back to Congress and do my job that I love so much? Was I going to be able to walk again?" he recalled. |
| VP Mike Pence's Speech Riles Some As Southern Baptists' Moderates Gain Strength | |
 | The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the country, wrapped up its annual meeting Wednesday on a partisan tone. The featured speaker was Vice President Pence, who spoke of the day he accepted Jesus Christ as his savior and of the importance of prayer, but mostly delivered a speech fit for a campaign rally. Evangelical Christians have been dogged in their support for the administration, polls have shown, and the Southern Baptist Convention reaction was generally enthusiastic. Pence got his biggest standing ovation when he highlighted Trump moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. But for some meeting attendees, Pence's speech was a little too political. J.D. Greear, the group's newly elected president, tweeted minutes later that it "sent a terribly mixed signal ... commissioned missionaries, not political platforms, are what we do." |
| Pearl River Community College employees getting a pay raise | |
 | Employees at Pearl River Community College will be getting a pay raise. The PRCC Board of Trustees approved a $38.7 million budget Tuesday for the upcoming academic year that includes a 4 percent, across-the-board salary increase for employees. Last month, the board voted to freeze student tuition at last year's level. "Through consolidation, becoming more efficient, asking our faculty to do a whole lot more with less, and they did all those things, and their response was overwhelming. So, I'm just so grateful to our board of trustees for supporting the recommendation," said Adam Breerwood, president of PRCC. |
| U. of Alabama to offer new Apple software | |
 | Apple CEO Tim Cook may be an alumnus of Auburn University, but the tech giant's latest innovation will debut on the campus of the Capstone this fall, not across the state on the Plains. During a special presentation last week, Apple previewed watchOS 5, a significant, cost-free software update to their newer model Apple Watches. The new features they showed off included perks for fitness fanatics and tech enthusiasts alike, but Apple also previewed plans to allow college students to use their smartwatches around campus in lieu of their student ID cards. UA President Stewart Bell discussed the pilot program at a board meeting last week. "We have actually been working on this project for some time a little bit under the cloak of secrecy," Bell said. "It is a next-generation technology program that will allow our students to have access to security issues and things they pay for." |
| Protesters at UGA Arch support undocumented immigrants | |
 | More than 75 people gathered at the University of Georgia Arch on Broad Street Tuesday evening in support of undocumented immigrants. The demonstration and vigil, organized by Athens' Dignidad Inmigrante en Athens and the Interfaith Sanctuary Coalition, was the latest in a series of Tuesday evening demonstrations. But attendance Tuesday may have been heightened by last week's shooting of a 19-year-old Guatemalan woman by a U.S. border patrol officer near Laredo, Texas. No particular local policy or practice prompted the event, unlike protests earlier this year of a now-ended Clarke County Sheriff's Office policy of holding undocumented inmates longer than legally required to give federal immigration authorities more time to take the inmates into federal custody for deportation proceedings. |
| Gov. Mike Parson backs higher ed funding needs in U. of Missouri visit | |
 | University of Missouri leaders got what they wanted Wednesday from a visit by Gov. Mike Parson -- a clear signal that they shouldn't be worried he will impose large budget cuts when he acts on appropriation bills. Parson, too, got what he wanted -- a chance to make another contrast with his predecessor, spending 90 minutes on campus talking to administrators and academics and showing his support for higher education as a path to prosperity. Former Gov. Eric Greitens began the year by proposing a 10 percent cut in funding to state colleges and universities. Lawmakers rejected those cuts in the budget for the year beginning July 1 and Parson praised them for doing so. The Board of Curators will meet next week to finalize a system budget for the coming year. It will be the third year of belt-tightening on the Columbia campus, with $45.4 million in cuts and the elimination of 185 jobs, including 30 layoffs. |
| College Students Suing Over Free Speech Get a Powerful Ally: The Trump Administration | |
 | The Trump administration is using its legal muscle to aid college students who say their free-speech rights have been violated on campus, diving into a politically charged battle over whether school discipline and safety policies are hindering expression. Under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has decried colleges for becoming an "echo chamber of political correctness," the Justice Department has been inserting itself into lawsuits on behalf of students who say their views are silenced when administrators restrict where they can protest or who can speak on campus. The Justice Department is entering the polarizing issue of free speech after a number of planned university appearances by conservative figures were derailed by protests and threats of violence, sparking a national debate on the issue. |
| In Name of Free Speech, States Crack Down on Campus Protests | |
 | When the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin wanted to address the issue of free speech on campus last fall, it adopted a three-strikes policy that is the strictest of its kind: Any student found to have disrupted the free expression of others is expelled after a third infraction. Wisconsin is not alone. Republican-led state legislatures in Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina have imposed similar policies on public colleges and universities, and bills to establish campus speech guidelines are under consideration in at least seven other legislatures. The spate of new policies shows how conservatives are successfully advancing one of their longstanding goals: to turn the tables in the debate over the First Amendment by casting the left as an enemy of open and free political expression on campuses. |
| No movement on PROSPER Act after GOP vote count | |
 | House leaders were mum on plans for the PROSPER Act after reportedly taking the temperature on members' support for the bill earlier this week. College groups, student organizations and veterans' representatives meanwhile renewed pressure on lawmakers to withhold support for the GOP plan to overhaul the Higher Education Act. No observers were ready to officially declare the bill dead without details from Republican leaders on support within the caucus. But as Congress enters the summer months without any sign of a floor vote, the chances of the legislation moving forward this year appear increasingly unlikely. Politico reported this week that the office of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, would conduct a whip check to determine if the bill had the support to move forward. There hasn't been any movement on PROSPER since December, when the education committee advanced the bill on a party-line vote. |
| Many States Get Mediocre Grades in 2 Studies of Degree Attainment by Race and Ethnicity | |
 | It's not news that there is a disparity in degree-attainment levels between white adults and black and Latino adults. Two new reports released on Thursday by the Education Trust go beyond the better-known national averages to highlight which states have the biggest gaps and which ones are doing better -- and worse -- at closing them. Each report -- one on black adults, the other on Latino adults -- grades states on an A-to-F scale on both their current degree-attainment levels and on how that level has changed since 2000. Ed Trust, a nonprofit advocacy group, also rates states -- as average, above average, or below average -- on how they've closed the gap between white and black or Latino attainment since 2000. Altogether, it's not a report card to brag about. |
| Science Says: What happens when researchers make mistakes | |
| Everyone makes mistakes, but when scientists do, the remedy goes far beyond saying you're sorry. Two fresh examples show how some journals and universities react when the need arises to set the record straight. On Wednesday, the New England Journal of Medicine retracted and republished a landmark study on the Mediterranean diet, and issued an unprecedented five other corrections after an obscure report last year scrutinized thousands of articles in eight journals over more than a decade and questioned some methods. Separately, Cornell University said it was investigating "a wide range of allegations of research misconduct" raised against a prominent food marketing faculty member. |
SPORTS
| Bulldogs going bananas for bananas | |
| It all started innocently enough, because Mississippi State designated hitter Jordan Westburg needed a snack between at-bats. Westburg gobbled down a banana in the dugout during a Sunday doubleheader at the Tallahassee Regional on June 3. He went back for another but this time, Westburg decided to have a little fun with the fruit before having seconds. Westburg began to use the banana as a pretend radar gun and captured the attention of ESPNU cameras. Before long, he was being interviewed live during the game about his new creation. The Bulldogs and their fan base have gone bananas over the fruit ever since and will be bringing it with them to the College World Series later this week. "I think it's special," said MSU pitcher Cole Gordon. "Every year has its thing -- a quirk -- something to get you going. What Jordan did and how he's handled this is nothing but fun. It keeps us loose, gets us excited and gives us a reason to laugh in the dugout in times when it gets tense." |
| An oral history about belief, rally bananas and Mississippi State baseball | |
| A potassium-filled phenomenon has swept through Mississippi State baseball in recent weeks, the fuel of a run to the College World Series and the symbol of a rescued season. Since the evening of June 3, when Mississippi State played Oklahoma in the regional round of college baseball's postseason, bananas -- yes, bananas -- have been as synonymous with Mississippi State baseball as a bulldog. Fans have raided Starkville grocery stores for the popular fruit, and a local bar held a banana split party during the super regional. Companies have rushed to supply banana-themed merchandise. The Mississippi State marketing department passed out 500 stress-ball like bananas emblazoned with a school logo. Now, as the Bulldogs travel to Omaha, Nebraska, to play in their first College World Series since 2013, the banana has become much more than a snack. So how did this all start? |
| 'The Mayor' delivers for Mississippi State, on the field and in the locker room | |
| When Gary Henderson took over for Andy Cannizaro following the latter's forced resignation in February, the former knew there was at least one Mississippi State Bulldog he could depend on for leadership. Henderson told junior center fielder Jake Mangum, already a leader in the clubhouse, exactly what he needed the junior to do if the Bulldogs were going to turn things around in 2018. He needed him to continue to play hard and set an example, but he also needed his influence and communication. Ultimately, Henderson needed Mangum and the other upperclassmen to help him establish a new identity for this Mississippi State baseball team. It's the kind of talk any coach would have with a key player, but Mangum, Henderson said, really took it to heart. "He got it," Henderson said. |
| Zach Neff finds calling out of bullpen for Bulldogs | |
 | There is no reason to sugarcoat things now, so Zach Neff won't: his numbers at Austin Peay were not good. He appeared 48 times over his final two seasons as a Governor, starting 10 times, with a 6.46 earned run average and a 2-10 record, allowing a batting average of .317 as a sophomore and .305 as a junior. Still, he was convinced his pitching was better than his numbers indicated and he wanted to prove it. A spot on a Southeastern Conference roster was exactly that opportunity. "When the opportunity to come here arose, I jumped on it and never looked back," Neff said. "I had a great summer coming in here and I think it was a really great fit here." |
| Jake Mangum awarded ABCA South All-Region | |
| Mississippi State's Jake Mangum was selected second team South All-Region by the American Baseball Coaches Association and Rawlings on Wednesday. The junior has started all 64 games for the Bulldogs in center field and currently tops the Southeastern Conference with 97 hits and 21 doubles to go along with a team-leading .353 batting average, 61 runs and 14 stolen bases. Mangum has also added three triples, three home runs and 33 RBIs to his totals. |
| Gary Henderson named national Coach of the Year | |
| Mississippi State's Gary Henderson has been named the national Coach of the Year by Perfect Game/ Rawlings. Henderson assumed the head coaching role three games into the season and has guided the Bulldogs to their 10th appearance at the College World Series. Henderson has gone 37-24 since he took the reins of the team and went 10-1 against teams ranked in the top five. |
| Destination Omaha: Bulldogs depart for CWS | |
 | Mississippi State fans waved goodbye as the Bulldogs set off for the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. The team departed campus Wednesday afternoon. Fans were able to provide extra potassium with bananas as part of the #RallyBanana sensation. "I'm really excited for the young men," said Ron Caulfield of Starkville. "They put in all the hard time. They earned it. They deserve it. They are just a great group of young guys." The Bulldogs will play Washington on Saturday at 7 p.m. on ESPN. |
| Strikeouts on Upswing Entering College World Series | |
| If the College World Series is like the rest of the season, there will be lots of strikeouts when the final eight teams play for the national championship at TD Ameritrade Park. Strikeout numbers are the highest on record in college baseball, and pitching staffs averaging nine or more Ks per nine innings have tripled the last two years. What's happening in the college game mirrors the major leagues, where strikeouts are on track to set a record for the 11th straight year. Pitching staffs from forty-one teams -- including CWS participants North Carolina, Mississippi State and Arkansas -- average at least nine strikeouts per nine innings. That's up from 16 teams in 2016 and from just one in 2012. |
| Joe Moorhead believes he'll turn Mississippi State into a contender | |
 | Joe Moorhead has done most of this stuff before. He hasn't done it on this particular line of latitude, and he hasn't done it with as many zeroes in his team's annual budget, but the basics of his job as Mississippi State's head coach aren't all that different from what he did two jobs ago as Fordham's head coach. Find good players. Convince them to play for you. Outscheme opponents. Win. Those requirements are the same from Division III to the top of the FBS. Of course, it is nice to have a gleaming, nearly new football building tucked away on the corner of Mississippi State's campus instead of sharing a wall with a squash court that was used every weekday by elementary schoolers. But the basics haven't changed, and the two years Moorhead spent as Penn State's offensive coordinator have allowed him to acclimate to the size and scope of a Power Five program. |
| Texas A&M's Mike Caruso retiring in August | |
 | It been a little over three decades since Mike Caruso arrived at Texas A&M, but that's not so long ago he can't recall those days. "I can remember jogging from G. Rollie White [Coliseum] across the railroad tracks, and as soon as I got across the railroad tracks it was a gravel road, and there was barbed wire with horses on the right and cows on the left." Caruso announced his retirement as A&M's associate athletic director for game management on Wednesday. He started in September 1987 and has served as associate athletics director since 2000. He will step down in August, leaving behind a very different department from the one he joined over 30 years ago. "The original athletic department had four administrators, and Jackie Sherrill was not only football coach but the AD," said Caruso. |
| LSU's Alex Box Stadium, Tiger Park to get new video boards for 2019 seasons | |
 | Now that the final pitches in the 2018 LSU baseball and softball seasons have been thrown, work has begun on offseason upgrades. Both stadiums will receive new video boards for the 2019 seasons, LSU announced Wednesday. Information shared on the teams' official Twitter accounts showed the video board panels removed. The Pete Maravich Assembly Center debuted a new $3 million videoboard system last season, billed as the largest center-hung setup in college basketball. The project was fully funded by the Tiger Athletic Foundation. |
| Kentucky student ticket lottery is dead; what is replacing it? | |
 | The student ticket lottery is dead, and its replacement might be found in your pocket. Kentucky announced Wednesday that it is doing away with the long-standing -- literally -- tradition of students waiting for tickets to games and replacing it with a new mobile ticketing system for both men's basketball and football. The goal is to "modernize our student ticketing process and use technology to make it as easy as possible for our students to purchase tickets and attend games," UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart said in a news release explaining the new process. Regular feedback from students, data from the Southeastern Conference fan experience surveys as well as meetings with UK student government and the office of the dean of students among others helped the department move to the new strategy. |
| Braden Thornberry, Olive Branch and Ole Miss golfer, ready for U.S. Open | |
| Dustin Johnson walked into the fitness trailer at TPC Southwind last week and Braden Thornberry admitted to being a little star struck. Although his performance on the golf course at the FedEx St. Jude Classic the past two years belied his relative inexperience, the Olive Branch native still has only four PGA Tour appearances under his belt. His next foray into golf's professional ranks will be the biggest test yet. Thornberry is one of 20 amateurs scheduled to tee off in the U.S. Open on Thursday at Shinnecock Hills in New York, and how he got there is helping him feel like he belongs around the best golfers in the world. Thornberry qualified for the U.S. Open last week via a 36-hole sectional that took place at Ridgeway and Colonial County Clubs in Memphis. |
| NCAA eases rules on athlete transfers | |
| College athletes will no longer need permission from their coach or school to transfer and receive financial aid from another school. The NCAA Division I Council approved the change effective Oct. 15 on Wednesday. The council also decided that Division I football players will be allowed to play in up to four games in a season without losing a year of eligibility if they can no longer play because of injuries "or other factors." The long-awaited transfer reform ended up being a narrow change, but should provide more freedom for athletes to transfer when and where they want. |
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