| Wednesday, April 3, 2019 |
| The Phi Beta Kappa Society installs 287th chapter at Mississippi State University | |
 | The Phi Beta Kappa Society installed a new chapter at Mississippi State University Tuesday at a ceremony at The Mill at MSU Conference Center in Starkville. Following the installation, the new Gamma of Mississippi chapter inducted 77 students selected for their extraordinary academic achievement in the arts and sciences. Frederick M. Lawrence, Phi Beta Kappa Secretary/CEO, Lynn Pasquerella, Phi Beta Kappa Society President and Association of American Colleges and Universities President, and Robert West, Professor of English and President of the Gamma of Mississippi chapter, presided over the installation and induction. A celebratory dinner followed the ceremonies, attended by university leaders, including MSU President Mark E. Keenum, 45 Phi Beta Kappa faculty and staff members, and newly inducted students, many with family members attending. |
| Starkville leaders move forward with Highway 12 sidewalk project | |
 | The Starkville Board of Aldermen approved to prioritize the Highway 12 sidewalk project at Tuesday's regular meeting. The project will build 8,200 feet of sidewalk along Highway 12, stretching from West Starkville to Mississippi State University's campus. City engineer, Edward Kemp, said the prioritized list of construction for the project is estimated to cost $390,000. The board also approved to advertise for construction bids. |
| Gubernatorial candidates debate on Mississippi State campus | |
 | Republican candidates for Mississippi's next governor squared off Tuesday night. College Republicans at Mississippi State University hosted the debate where Retired Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court Bill Waller and Representative Robert Foster of Hernando debated. Both of them criticized Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves, who did not attend. Reeves is also running for governor. Waller and Foster debated issues like education, infrastructure and healthcare issues. Party primaries are set for August 6, and the general election is November 5. |
| MSU College Republicans host first Republican gubernatorial debate | |
 | The College Republicans at Mississippi State University hosted the first Republican Gubernatorial Debate Tuesday night. Two of the three candidates for governor were there. Robert Foster and Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. discussed topics like Economic Development, Education, and Infrastructure. Perceived front runner Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, however, declined his invitation to the debate. Over the course of the debate, the candidates covered issues like the recent teacher pay raise. Both had similar stances on the matter. Foster went on to say that the state needs to focus more on workforce development instead of the traditional 4-year college. |
| Governor debate: Foster and Waller talk roads, Medicaid expansion and teacher pay | |
 | Two leading Republican candidates for Mississippi governor committed to drastically raising teacher pay, backing a version of Medicaid expansion, and spending more to fix the state's crumbling infrastructure during a Tuesday debate at Mississippi State University. State Rep. Robert Foster, R-Hernando, and former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. faced off in the event hosted by the university's College Republicans, the first debate of this campaign season. "The (state) commander-in-chief needs to be experienced, and needs to understand what the issues are," said Waller, 67, underscoring his background with the Army National Guard, as a private practice lawyer, and more than two decades on the state Supreme Court. Foster, 35, a first-term legislator, said he'd bring a fresh perspective, that he hasn't yet been corrupted by working for decades in politics. That's why he wants to run for governor at such a young age, he added, and not gradually work his way up. |
| AG candidate Andy Taggart tours the Pine Belt | |
 | Attorney General candidate Andy Taggart was in the Pine Belt today as he continued his state-wide bus tour. Over the past three decades, Taggart has served as a practicing attorney and counsel to many of the state's top leaders. For the past seven years, spurred by a tragic, personal loss, Taggart has served as a passionate crusader among young people and families battling illicit drugs. He believes the fight against drugs, and the predators who profit from others' destruction, should be top priority for law enforcement, led by the state's next Attorney General. Taggart has been at the forefront of the Mississippi Republican Party throughout his adult life. Taggart also says it's time to retire the Mississippi state flag into the Museum of Mississippi History, stating that the state needs a leader as passionate about Mississippi's future as some are about our past. |
| Kent McCarty wins in House District 101 runoff | |
| Kent McCarty won a Tuesday runoff to become the next representative for Mississippi House District 101. McCarty received 68% of the vote to defeat Steven Utroska, according to Lamar County Circuit Clerk Martin Hankins. McCarty finished with a total of 1,760 votes, while Utroska finished with 825 total votes. McCarty will fill the seat vacated by Brad Touchstone, who was elected to serve as Lamar County Judge. Voting precincts in District 101 include Sumrall, Breland, Rocky Branch, Oloh, Midway, Lake Serene, Westover and Kingsmill. Parts of Oak Grove and Mill Creek are also part of the district. |
| Boeing Whistle-Blower Claims to Be Investigated by Senate Committee | |
 | The Senate Commerce Committee is investigating whistle-blower claims that Federal Aviation Administration safety inspectors who evaluated Boeing's 737 Max airplane were not appropriately trained or certified. On Tuesday, the committee chairman, Senator Roger Wicker, Republican of Mississippi, sent a letter to the F.A.A. demanding information about whether the agency had investigated those allegations or taken any action to remedy the problem. After the fatal crashes of two 737 Max jets in less than five months, there is new scrutiny on the regulator's close relationship with Boeing. The F.A.A. relies on Boeing employees to help certify the airworthiness of its aircraft, a system that critics say creates conflicts of interest. The committee believes that the F.A.A. may have been informed of the whistle-blower allegations in August and recently completed an investigation of the claims. Mr. Wicker gave the F.A.A. two weeks to respond to the request for information. |
| MUW pushes women into politics | |
 | There are 174 elected members of the Mississippi Legislature. Only 26 of those seats are held by women. Locally, both the Columbus City Council and Lowndes County Board of Supervisors have no women serving, while Starkville Board of Aldermen and Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors each have one woman seated. Mississippi University for Women political science professor Chanley Rainey said those numbers show the under-representation of women serving in office, which led to the National Education for Women's (NEW) Leadership program held each summer at the university. Rainey, who serves as a program coordinator, said NEW accepts any woman enrolled in public, private or community college, to the six-day residential program geared toward building young women's confidence in politics. |
| Want a master's degree in teaching? Online-only classes now offered through USM | |
 | Anyone who's interested in earning a master's degree in teaching in Mississippi can now take online-only classes through the University of Southern Mississippi. The state has long been looking for solutions to its teacher shortage, but the Legislature adjourned last week without passing any new bills to address it. USM's new program is designed to help fill the shortage, and it's part of an initiative to reach students who can't come to campus. "We know that today's students have complicated and busy lives," Dr. Tom Hutchinson, director of the Office of Online Learning, said in a press release. "By offering this program fully online we are able to create more certified teachers and help to improve the pool of qualified teachers in Mississippi." The program also offers in-classroom experience with supervision and support from faculty at the Gulf Park and Hattiesburg campuses. |
| U. of Kentucky protesters end hunger strike, occupation after president agrees to changes | |
 | A controversial mural at the University of Kentucky's Memorial Hall will be covered for a second time in several years after a two-hour meeting between President Eli Capilouto and a coalition of student protesters who occupied the Main Building Monday night. The protesters laid out a series of demands to make life at UK better for low-income and minority students, and in many cases, he met them. As of Tuesday evening, the protesters had left the Main Building, and a portion of the students had agreed to end their six-day hunger strike. "I heard their brutally heartfelt and painfully honest stories about the challenges of being a student of color or need at our University," Capilouto said in a statement after the Tuesday meeting. "It was, as I told them, the toughest day I have had as a member of our community. My mind was further opened to their challenges and, frankly, to some of the shortcomings we have as an institution that aspires to be a community of belonging for everyone." |
| Vanderbilt's Chancellor Will Step Down | |
 | Nicholas S. Zeppos, chancellor of Vanderbilt University for more than a decade, will step down in August because of health problems, the university announced on Tuesday. He will take a yearlong sabbatical before returning as a professor of law. "I truly love Vanderbilt, and serving you has been a privilege. Yet my health is presenting challenges that demand my focus, with the love and support of my family," Zeppos wrote in a statement. Neither the university nor Zeppos, who is 64, described the nature of his health problems. In 2016, Zeppos ended a decades-long controversy about a dormitory named Confederate Memorial Hall by returning a $500,000 donation from 83 years earlier and removing "Confederate" from the name. Zeppos said at the time that the decision was consistent for his goal to create an "inclusive, diverse" campus. The board voted to appoint Susan R. Wente, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, as interim chancellor, as of August 15. |
| Vanderbilt's Susan Wente to lead as interim chancellor after Nicholas Zeppos | |
 | Vanderbilt University's soon-to-be interim leader has a background in biomedical science and, since 2014, has overseen the school's academic programs. Vanderbilt University Provost Susan Wente will begin the job in August on an interim basis until a permanent chancellor is hired. She will become the first woman to lead the university. Wente will take over for longtime Vanderbilt University Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos, who announced on Tuesday he is stepping down Aug. 15 for health-related reasons and plans to take a one-year leave before returning to the Vanderbilt faculty as a law professor. Wente was recruited to Vanderbilt in 2002 as a professor and to chair the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology in the School of Medicine. Wente became Vanderbilt University's provost and vice chancellor of academic affairs in 2014, according to her university biography. She is Vanderbilt's first female provost and is an advocate for women in science and the importance of equity and inclusive excellence at the campus, the university says. |
| U. of Arkansas System's eVersity Goes to Workplaces | |
 | Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale sees its partnership with the University of Arkansas System eVersity, the state's first online-only university, as a way to help its 121,000 workers. "It gives team members an opportunity to work in a convenient manner ... to finish their degree or start additional education," said Derek Burleson, a Tyson spokesman. EVersity offers a 5 percent tuition discount to employers who agree to promote the online college to their workers. The arrangement doesn't cost the employer, said Michael Moore, chief operating and academic officer of eVersity. Moore said the discount helps promote eVersity, which started enrolling students in the fall of 2015. "We knew as a new university we needed avenues to ... help get the word out about us," Moore said. Moore said the partnership benefits both the employer and the school. |
| UGA freshman starts business selling unique African products | |
 | Most students spend the first semester of their freshman year adjusting to campus and studying for exams. But after Ramatulai Jagne finished her homework, she worked on launching her business, Ramla Apparel. The online business sells protective hair bonnets from Gambia; shea butter and oil perfumes from Dubai; as well as wax print dresses, jewelry and accessories from a variety of places in West Africa like Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana. It's a blend of Gambian culture, African American culture and American culture, and many of the products are imported from Gambia. "The idea is finding things that remind you of Africa in a way that's accessible," she said. "That's our slogan: Bringing the motherland to your doorstep." Jagne, a first-generation college student from metro Atlanta, runs the business with her mom, Lala Jobe, who emigrated from Gambia in the 1990s. |
| U. of Tennessee says woman reported sexual assault at residence hall | |
 | The University of Tennessee issued a notice on Tuesday that a sexual assault was reported at a campus residence hall this weekend. The incident was reported to the UT Police Department on Monday and is said to have occurred between 2 a.m. and 2:37 a.m. Sunday morning in Reese Hall at the Presidential Court Complex, according to UTPD's crime log. A woman, who is not a student at UT, reported that she met a person off-campus and was sexually assaulted after they returned to friend's room at the residence hall, according to a notice issued by the university. UTPD is investigating the incident. Sunday's incident brings the total number of rapes or sexual assaults at residence halls to 10 for the current academic year. |
| Uber responds to killing of U. of South Carolina student Samantha Josephson | |
 | Uber has responded to the killing of a University of South Carolina student, who was abducted from the Five Points area after getting into a car she thought was the ride she ordered on the ride-sharing app. "Since 2017, we've been working with local law enforcement and college campuses across the country to educate the public about how to avoid fake rideshare drivers," an Uber spokesperson said in an email to The State. "Everyone at Uber is devastated to hear about this unspeakable crime, and our hearts are with Samantha Josephson's family and loved ones. We remain focused on raising public awareness about this incredibly important issue." Josephson's father, Seymour Josephson, said at a vigil for his daughter Sunday night that he wants to put pressure on ride-share companies like Uber and Lyft to enhance their safety measures. |
| Aggie engineering group's design for flying vehicle taking off | |
 | Over the past year, Texas A&M aerospace engineering graduate students and their professor have created a design and a small-scale prototype of a personal flying vehicle. Now, the only step left is to make the full-scale model. The design is part of the GoFly challenge, sponsored by Boeing, with the idea to create a personal flying vehicle that can be stored in a garage like a car, take off vertically from a small area -- like a backyard -- and fly about 20 miles on one battery pack charge. The team, named Texas A&M Harmony, entered the GoFly competition in early 2018 with their paper design. After being selected as one of the top 10 designs out of about 600 teams, they decided to keep going and create a one-third scale prototype of their Aria device. After testing it and proving the concept, Aria finished in the top five of Phase 2 of the GoFly competition, out of about 31 teams. |
| Congress Wants a Say in the Title IX Debate. What Might That Look Like? | |
| Campus sexual assault should be addressed in the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, U.S. senators emphasized during an education-committee hearing on Tuesday. The question is how legislation might complement the Title IX regulations that Betsy DeVos, the secretary of education, has proposed -- and, given how controversial the draft rules are, whether lawmakers can agree on what that legislation should look like. Most of the hearing was spent discussing three of the most hotly debated components of the proposed rules: the requirement for cross-examination in live hearings, the fact that colleges would no longer have to investigate many off-campus assaults, and the narrower definition of sexual harassment. DeVos's new regulations, as well as Education Department guidance documents, will continue to do much of the work of interpreting Title IX on campus, said Sen. Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, who is the committee's chair. |
| New PEN America report disputes notion of free speech on college campuses in crisis | |
 | A spike in campus activism -- some of it directed against speakers whose views offend -- has complicated free speech, says a new report. But the landscape is far from disastrous, as politicians, particularly in the Trump administration, depict it. The 100-page compendium "Chasm in the Classroom: Campus Free Speech in a Divided America" from PEN America, a group of literary writers and editors, largely offers an encyclopedic look at the battles of free expression that have been waged on college campuses since the 2016 election. Coinciding with President Trump taking office, many students have called for administrators to punish speech that they believe targets minorities in harmful ways. In some cases, most recently at Beloit College, students have blocked some speakers whose views they find objectionable. |
| Full-time faculty members saw an overall median salary increase of about 1.7 percent within the past year | |
| Full-time faculty members saw an overall median salary increase of about 1.7 percent over the past year, according to the "2019 CUPA-HR Faculty in Higher Education Report." Pay for full-timers off the tenure track increased by 1.8 percent. Tenured and tenure-track professors saw a 1.6 percent pay bump. The American Association of University Professors will release its annual faculty salary survey data later this month. (Inside Higher Ed is the exclusive publisher of AAUP's full salary database.) Early AAUP data indicate that the average year-over-year increase for full-time faculty salaries is slightly higher than what CUPA-HR found. AAUP's data pertain to 952 colleges and universities, including community colleges. Unlike CUPA-HR's data, which is anonymized, AAUP's report includes professor pay by institution. The "hottest" field for new faculty hires over the past year, by CUPA-HR's accounting, is health professions. |
| Top USC officials stepping down as university tries to set new course | |
 | In yet another sign of upheaval at USC, two top administrators announced Tuesday that they were leaving their posts. Provost Michael Quick and General Counsel Carol Mauch Amir are to depart before the arrival of incoming President Carol L. Folt, who has been tasked with cleaning up USC's culture and reputation. Interim President Wanda Austin told the faculty in a letter Tuesday that both Quick and Amir would step down in June and described their exits as retirements. Quick and Amir were top deputies to former President C.L. Max Nikias and were closely involved in USC's most high-profile crises in recent years. Ariela Gross, a law professor who leads a group of 350 professors dedicated to reforming USC, said she saw the announcement of the provost and general counsel's departure as a "healthy sign" that Folt, the university's new president, had a clear path to carrying out changes. |
| Memoirs of Florence Mars, James Meredith offer insights into a troubled era in South | |
 | Syndicated columnist Sid Salter writes: I have distinct memories of two memorable, inimitable figures from the civil rights era in Mississippi whose lives and experiences are featured in two books published by the University Press of Mississippi, the state's academic book publishing press, that are now in bookstores or available at upress.state.ms.us. The first book is "Mississippi Witness: The Photographs of Florence Mars" by James T. Campbell and Elaine Owens (176 pages). It features a collection of Mars' remarkable photographs that she began taking in the 1950s and continued through the 1964 Ku Klux Klan murders of civil rights activists James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman in Neshoba County. The second is a new edition of the classic 1966 James Meredith memoir "Three Years in Mississippi" with an introduction to the new edition by Aram Goudsouzian, the noted civil rights scholar who chairs the Department of History at the University of Memphis. The book chronicles Meredith's 1962 integration of Ole Miss and his later 1966 March Against Fear that resulted in him being shot and wounded by a sniper on the second day of the march south of Hernando. |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State welcomes Warhawks in midweek | |
| No. 8 Mississippi State returns to the diamond at 6:30 tonight to take on Louisiana-Monroe. The Bulldogs (24-5) are coming off their first series loss of the season to LSU over the weekend and will try to stay perfect in midweek play. Keegan James will get his first midweek start of the season. James had been MSU's Sunday starter but had struggled in that role of late. The junior right-hander is 2-1 with a 4.03 ERA, 24 strikeouts and 11 walks over 22 1/3 innings this year. The Warhawks will send junior southpaw Cole Martin (0-2, 6.43 ERA) to the mound for his sixth start. |
| Mississippi State's Rowdey Jordan: new glasses, new deal | |
| Mississippi State sophomore utility man Rowdey Jordan is seeing clearer. In a literal sense, Jordan's sight is improved. The Alabama native has switched over to a new pair of sports glasses after losing another set and playing the early part of the season with his contacts and sunglasses. Jordan is also swinging the bat better of late. Having gone hitless 12 times in the first 22 games of the season, he totaled six hits in 13 at-bats -- including three doubles, six RBIs and four runs against Auburn in a March weekend series. Jordan's success as the plate has persisted since then. |
| 'Embarrassed' Mississippi State baseball team has problems to solve in SEC play | |
| Yes, Mississippi State lost a series for the first time this season. No, the sky isn't falling over Dudy Noble Field. The No. 8 Bulldogs, previously ranked No. 2 before their series loss to then-No. 17 LSU, are still 24-5 overall and 5-4 in SEC play. Mississippi State has plenty of problems to solve, but that's baseball. The season is long and it's often full of ups and downs. Lately, State has experienced more of the latter than it had earlier in the season. Head coach Chris Lemonis knows that's fine. "In our league, you're not going to win them all, so you've got to be able to bounce back and play good baseball," Lemonis said. These are the three things Mississippi State needs to improve upon to stay in the thick of the conference championship race. |
| Spring football: Hill, Gibson ready to lead Mississippi State backfield in 2019 | |
| Just like in the 2018 regular season, running back Kylin Hill's first touch during Mississippi State's inaugural spring scrimmage was a touchdown. Last week, the score came on a carry. Last year, it came on a short reception. Hill, a rising junior, has a vast skill set. He thinks his knowledge and maturity, though, will set him apart in 2019. "I feel like a complete different player," Hill said. "I know more of the playbook now and blocking schemes. It feels like high school all over again." Hill ran for 3777 yards on 9.1 yards per carry at Columbus High School. He had 1750 yards and 24 rushing touchdowns during his senior season. Running backs coach Terry Richardson thinks Hill can reaching a similar figure in terms of total yards if his mental game is strong. |
| Mississippi State's seniors brought Bulldogs so close to yet another Final Four | |
| Mississippi State women's basketball head coach Vic Schaefer sat stoically. Addressing the media following MSU's 88-84 Elite Eight loss Sunday to No. 2 seed Oregon, Schaefer was flanked by his four-person senior class. To his left was graduate student Anriel Howard and Jazzmun Holmes -- an instant-impact transfer along with a point guard Schaefer has called the best in the nation this season. On his right sat seniors Jordan Danberry and Teaira McCowan -- a selfless guard whose five-star pedigree never amounted to an ego and a 6-foot-7 center who was selected as Southeastern Conference Player of the Year. Combined, the four players combined for 55.9 points, 27.7 rebounds and 11.5 assists per game in 2018-19. They leave MSU as the winningest senior class in program history with 132 victories. |
| Bulldogs won't rebuild, they'll just reload | |
| Mississippi sports columnist Rick Cleveland writes: Chloe Bibby was in Oregon over the weekend, supporting her Mississippi State teammates, while continuing the rehab process on her injured knee. Yes, she said, the knee is coming along fine and will be stronger than ever by next season. Yes, she said, she can't wait to play again. And, yes, she said, Mississippi State will be really good again even though they lose four starters from the team that finished 33-3, losing to Oregon 88-84 and falling one step short of a third straight Final Four. "We'll be different for sure," Bibby said. "But we're different every year. Remember, we lost four starters after last season, too." |
| The difference between a good basketball team and a great one | |
| The Dispatch editorializes: For the Mississippi State women's basketball team, there was no third straight trip to the Final Four and, therefore, no "third time's the charm" appearance in the national championship game. With a four-point loss to Oregon in the Elite Eight round of the tournament on Sunday afternoon, the only place the Bulldogs were going was back to Starkville. As Bulldog fans sort through their disappointment in the aftermath of those dreams denied, perspective must surely emerge. ... It's hard to imagine how the Bulldogs will maintain their current level of success, given those losses. But, then, we are reminded that we've said the same thing for the past three seasons. Somehow, a new group is assembled and the beat goes on. That's what separates good programs from great programs. By that test, MSU is counted among the latter. |
| Alabama introduces new program to keep students in Bryant-Denny | |
 | An email sent Monday to every corner of the University of Alabama campus had Nick Saban's fingerprints all over it. The message from the school's athletic department alerted students about their options for buying tickets, informing them of their eligibility for both full and split packages that included a select number of home games. There was also a section outlining the prices -- $20 for an SEC matchup and $15 for one of those rent-a-win affairs. Then, at the very end, was a note describing a new initiative called "Tide Loyalty Points." The introduction of this new measure came a mere six months after Saban, the Crimson Tide's hard-charging coach, used his bully pulpit at the Mal Moore Athletic Center in October to decry the attendance of students at Alabama's 56-14 win over Louisiana-Lafayette, which kicked off at 11 a.m. and featured swaths of empty seats at Bryant-Denny Stadium in the sections populated by current undergrads and those seeking advanced degrees. |
| Texas A&M to introduce Buzz Williams as new men's basketball coach Thursday | |
| Virginia Tech's Buzz Williams will be introduced as Texas A&M's men's basketball coach on Thursday, according to Jon Rothstein, a college basketball insider for CBS Sports and Sports Illustrated. Williams is expected to be in College Station on Wednesday with a press conference Thursday and A&M's players have been notified of the change, a source confirmed to CBS Sports. Williams has been the leading candidate since A&M fired Billy Kennedy on March 15. A&M will pay Williams more than $3 million per year, CBS Sports reported. A&M fired Billy Kennedy after eight seasons. He was 151-116, going 14-18 this season. He made the NCAA tournament in 2016 and '18, reaching the Sweet 16 both times. That matched the program's previous number of Sweet 16 seasons. A&M was 6-12 in SEC play this season, finishing 11th. A&M beat Vanderbilt at the SEC tournament and lost to Mississippi State in the second round. |
| How Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos' resignation affects Vanderbilt athletics | |
| Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos will step down in August, and the university will conduct a national search for his successor. What does this mean for Vanderbilt athletics? The university has a reputation as one of the nation's elite academic institutions, and upholding that status will be a far greater responsibility of the new chancellor than the Commodores' standing in sports. Nevertheless, Vanderbilt is a member of the SEC, arguably the best and most profitable conference in college athletics. Here are three areas where the naming of a new chancellor could affect Vanderbilt athletics: new athletics director will have a new boss, football stadium project will have a new perspective, and admitting student-athletes could turn either way. |
| UConn's Geno Auriemm: Most coaches 'afraid' of their players | |
| On the eve of his 20th appearance at the Women's Final Four, UConn's Geno Auriemma said many coaches have become "afraid" of upsetting players because they might transfer and/or report the coach for verbal abuse. "The majority of coaches in America are afraid of their players," Auriemma said. "The NCAA, the athletic directors and society has made them afraid of their players. Every article you read: 'This guy's a bully. This woman's a bully. This guy went over the line. This woman was inappropriate.' Yet the players get off scot-free in everything. They can do whatever they want. They don't like something you say to them, they transfer. Coaches, they have to coach with one hand behind their back. Why? Because some people have abused the role of a coach." |
| AP: Most States' Sports Betting Revenue Misses Estimates | |
 | When the Patriots won the Super Bowl again -- and covered the spread, too -- all of New England was delirious, with the possible exception of Rhode Island's tax collectors. The state's sportsbooks lost $2.35 million because, come on, really, who's going to bet against Tom Brady in New England? That, in turn, cut into Rhode Island's tax revenue. For a variety of reasons, not just the Patriots' star quarterback, most of the states that moved quickly to legalize sports betting after the Supreme Court cleared the way are still waiting for the expected payoff. Tax revenue has fallen far short of projections in four of the six states where gambling on sporting events started last year, according to an Associated Press analysis. Mississippi is on track to bring in about half the $5 million that was informally expected for the first year of sports betting. State Sen. Hob Bryan, a Democrat who opposed legalization for fear it would promote point shaving and other corruption, said it is too early to say whether the revenue will improve or the original projections were way off. |
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