| Wednesday, May 15, 2019 |
| Classic-rock band America comes to MSU Riley Center May 23 | |
 | Celebrating 49 years together, the band America will bring its easygoing folk-rock sound to the MSU Riley Center on Thursday, May 23, at 7:30 p.m. Since Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell founded the group in 1970 (along with the late Dan Peek), their music has worked its way into pop music's universal soundtrack. Starting with "A Horse with No Name" in 1972, America has produced a long list of classic-rock mainstays, including "I Need You," "Ventura Highway," "Don't Cross the River," "Tin Man," "Lonely People" and "Sister Golden Hair." Tickets are $64 and $58 at the MSU Riley Center Box Office, which is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets can be purchased online at www.msurileycenter.com or by phone at 601-696-2200. |
| Students back at Armstrong Middle School after Tuesday gas leak | |
 | Armstrong Middle School students are back at school today after a Tuesday gas leak forced officials to evacuate the campus. Atmos Energy workers identified a "small gas leak" outside the band hall Tuesday morning, and the evacuation of roughly 1,200 students, grades 6-8, began about 11:30 a.m., with buses taking them to the high school football field by a little after noon. There, a crowd of parents waited to check out and pick up their children, a process which lasted until about 3 p.m. As the 1,200 students were bussed to the SHS stadium, parents were urged to check out students at the ticket office. Public Information Officer Nicole Thomas said most students were picked up, and bus students that were not picked up were taken home on their normal bus routes. |
| Dane Peagler honored as SOCSD teacher of the year | |
| For Starkville High School physics teacher Dane Peagler, building relationships with his students is his favorite part of any given day. Peagler's rapport with students in his classroom was recognized Tuesday at Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District Employee Awards of Excellence ceremony, as he was named the district's Teacher of the Year for 2018-19. He was one of 16 teachers nominated in the district for the award. Peagler has taught physics for the past six years, including four years with SHS. His fellow faculty at SHS nominated him for Teacher of the Year. "I was really surprised," Peagler said. "It was such a great group of teachers up there and I felt honored to win among them." |
| Troop 45 dedicates renovated hut, pavilion | |
| Martha Barnes wanted to cry when she walked into the newly renovated Boy Scout Troop 45 hut on Monday evening. Barnes, who's served with the troop committee since 1972, said the troop has gone through several homes through the years, and even toyed at one point with the idea of building its own hut. But to see the hut Troop 45 has called home since the mid-1990s renovated and brought to modern standards, she said, was a sight to behold. Jason Tiffin, who concluded his stint as the troop's scoutmaster on Monday, said the "Save the Hut" campaign has been a three-year effort. It started when leaders made a list of all the repair work that needed in order to bring the hut up to standard. "I remember walking through in 2016 and making (that) list," he said. "After several years of seeing things that needed to be done, we felt that we needed to make a real, serious effort." Allison Tiffin, Jason's wife, led the fundraising efforts for the campaign. She said the Troop needed to raise $50,000 for the hut. Half of the money came from First United Methodist Church, which sponsors the troop. The scouts raised the rest. |
| State's GDP hit 10-year high in 2018 | |
 | Most years, Mississippi's state economist Darrin Webb sees a lot of sameness in analyzing the state's Gross Domestic Product, personal income and other economic indicators. But a break in the sameness has occurred. Calculations show last year brought something Mississippi has not seen in 11 years: Real GDP growth of 1 percent or more. Mississippi's initial real GDP growth estimate came in at 1.4 percent. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis whittled that to 1 percent in its May 2 release of revised calculations for the market value of goods and services nationally and in the states. Still, 1 percent Mississippi growth marks the largest annual increase in the state's real GDP since 2008, the last year the state's economy grew by at least 1 percent, state economists said in the Mississippi Economic Outlook issued in late April by the University Research Center of the Mississippi Institutes of Higher Learning. The spring Outlook report also forecast 1.4 percent real GDP growth for 2019. |
| 'Expanding our Workforce' is theme of State of the Region meeting | |
 | The CREATE Foundation's Commission on the Future of Northeast Mississippi will host its 23rd annual State of the Region meeting from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday at the BancorpSouth Conference Center in Tupelo. The meeting is free and open to the public, and advance reservations are not required. Registration and coffee hour will begin at 8:30 a.m., with the program to follow. The theme of this year's meeting will be "Expanding Our Workforce." The featured speakers will be Jay Moon, President and CEO of the Mississippi Manufacturers Association; Dr. Kristy Luse, vice president of CREATE's Toyota Wellspring Education Fund; and Dickie Scruggs, the founder of 2nd Chance MS. "Our economy is growing but will never reach its full potential until we can assure employers that our region has a qualified, available workforce," said CREATE President Mike Clayborne. "There are two basic ways that we can expand our workforce. The first way is to prevent youngsters from dropping out of school and help connect them to meaningful career paths. Second, our region must encourage those without a high school diploma to earn a GED type of high school completion followed by obtaining a work credential or pursuit of a college or university education." |
| New $500M Flowood development touted as 'town within a town' | |
 | Construction is underway on another major development in Flowood, one that dwarfs the city's $50 million conference center/hotel/resort that is scheduled to open to the public next summer. The city will soon be home to an estimated $500 million mixed residential and commercial development called Waterpointe. Known as a "traditional neighborhood development," or TND, the "town within a town" would stretch 800,000 square feet in commercial space alone, and boast a total 560 family homes. It will be 10 years or more before the development is fully completed. Waterpointe will sit on 240 acres located just east of the East Metro Parkway, south of Lakeland Drive. We've broken ground and started digging dirt in March. We should have lots turned over in January," said Amanda Acy with Southern Lifestyle Development, one of 11 builders tasked with coordinating the project. Community Bank will be the center of the town square, and residential lots will expand outward. Acy said there will be a variety of residence sizes and prices. |
| Outsourcing firm expands in Mississippi Delta, hiring 175 | |
 | A business outsourcing firm is expanding in the Mississippi Delta, with plans to invest $500,000 and hire 175 people over two years. PeopleShores of San Jose, California, announced Tuesday that it will expand from its current 25 employees in Clarksdale. Employees perform tasks for technology, insurance, retail, financial and travel firms. Mississippi Development Authority spokeswoman Tammy Craft says workers will initially make $20,000 a year. Mississippi is providing $256,000 for worker training. Craft says Coahoma County is leasing PeopleShores a building at favorable rates and spending $100,000 to repave a parking lot. The Delta Regional Authority is providing $70,000 for renovations. |
| Who's giving them money? A look at political donations in Mississippi gubernatorial race | |
| Unprecedented amounts of cash are flowing into the Mississippi governor's race. Just check out the leading Republican contender, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves. In the first four months of the year, Reeves raked in more than $1 million in donations, bringing his campaign stash to $6.7 million. He's used some of the money on a recent blitz of television ads. Eight years ago, as then-Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant was making his winning bid for higher office, he reported $2 million in campaign funds at the same juncture. Go back another eight years, and winning Republican candidate Haley Barbour had about $1.3 million at the same deadline. Reeves' prolific fundraising is thanks in part to donors' awareness that he faces a formidable Democratic opponent in Attorney General Jim Hood, said Nathan Shrader, assistant professor of political science at Millsaps College. Shrader said there's likely concerns among Republicans that a strong Hood run could generate "coattails" -- pushing more Democrats to victory in legislative races and other down ticket contests. |
| The story behind the dirt-colored, off-center, Canadian-made car tag that could land Mississippi back in federal court | |
 | As a part-time Uber driver, D'Kerio McGhee spends more hours on the road than the average Mississippian, meaning he has had more time to develop opinions about Mississippi's new car tag, introduced in January. "It's ugly. Ugly, ugly, very ugly," McGhee said. "They'd just rather put anything on their car but that." In recent years, Mississippi's elected officials have championed several polarizing issues, from a 2016 so-called religious freedom bill that critics called anti-LGBTQ to a litany of anti-abortion efforts. But one of the most surprising controversies erupted on social media last May, when Gov. Phil Bryant unveiled the new design for Mississippi's default license tag -- the only tag available to Mississippi drivers without an extra fee. |
| Trump team explores farm bailout options amid trade war with China | |
 | Senate Republicans expressed growing concern Tuesday that President Trump's escalating trade war with China is hurting their constituents in rural America, ratcheting up tension between the White House and Congress on a signature issue. Some Republican lawmakers, increasingly frustrated with Trump, took the unusual step of openly criticizing a president from their own party. "I'm not sure if you talk to him face to face, he hears everything you say," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who has emerged as one of Trump's chief critics on trade and who said he planned to write to the president to explain farmers' concerns. But faced with the prospect that Trump will continue with his adversarial approach, Republican lawmakers are also looking for ways to provide a taxpayer bailout to farmers, perhaps adding billions of dollars to a disaster bill that has languished in Congress for weeks. |
| Alabama Senate approves nation's strictest abortion ban | |
 | The Alabama Senate on Tuesday approved the nation's toughest anti-abortion ban, hoping the legislation will spark a legal challenge leading to the demise of Roe v. Wade. The legislation is even stricter than the wave of so-called heartbeat bills that have recently been passed by Republicans in Georgia and other conservative states, who believe the Supreme Court's new conservative majority is poised to chip away at, or perhaps obliterate, abortion rights. The Alabama bill would outlaw virtually all abortions in the state, and doctors could face up to 99 years in prison -- basically a life sentence -- for performing an abortion. Abortion rights groups said they will immediately mount a legal challenge to the measure, contending it violates the landmark 1973 Roe ruling guaranteeing a woman's right to an abortion until a fetus is viable. |
| Oxford Airbnb hosts earn $353K during graduation weekend | |
| Airbnb hosts in Oxford earned a record-breaking $353,000 in total income during Ole Miss graduation weekend. Oxford has more than 175 Airbnb locations, which welcomed in an additional 1,600 guests, reaching a peak on May 11. According to a news release from the community-driven hospitality company, this represented the largest one-day surge of guests to Oxford in the history of Airbnb's platform. It's beneficial to residents as well -- something to which Oxonian and Airbnb host Kaytlin True can attest. True and her husband, Ben, rent out their home periodically throughout the year, typically for Ole Miss football weekends and any other time they're planning on being out of town. "This is our second year with AirBnb. We rent it for graduation and for a few football games," True said. "We're Mississippi State fans. It works out well for us, because we're going to be gone to Starkville anyway and people need a place to stay." |
| MGCCC grad on his way to becoming a physician thanks to scholarship | |
 | For as long as he could remember, Biloxi resident Nader Pahlevan has wanted to be a doctor. Now, he is on his way to doing so with the help of a scholarship program that will allow him to give back to the state he has called home since moving here at the age of three from Romania. "Since I was five years old, since I could talk, I've just always had this passion," said Nader. The 19-year-old graduated from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College this week with honors, earning his associate's degree in computer science and pre-medicine. For the Romanian native, it's the first step to a career in medicine like he's always dreamed. Nader has been named a recipient of the Mississippi Rural Physicians Scholarship Program, a program that could give him as much as $120,000 to cover his graduate studies and medical school at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Nader said he has already seen firsthand the challenges that are faced by rural communities that have limited access to healthcare. |
| Pearl River Community College board picks contractor for dorms, revises plans for Forrest commons | |
 | A construction contractor has been selected to complete a $13 million residence hall project on the Poplarville campus of Pearl River Community College. Colony Construction of Hattiesburg was awarded the contract Tuesday during a meeting of the PRCC Board of Trustees at the Forrest County Campus in Hattiesburg. Those two residence halls, consisting of 260 beds, will be built on the football practice field next to the football stadium. New turf is being added to the stadium, so that practices can be held there. PRCC president Adam Breerwood said the project should be complete by spring of 2021. Meanwhile, during that Tuesday meeting, the Board of Trustees decided to revamp plans for a pedestrian commons on its Forrest County Campus. It voted to reject current bids on the project and instead revise plans and rebid it. |
| New Tutwiler Hall coming to U. of Alabama | |
 | First year female students at the University of Alabama will soon have a new place to call home. UA's Board of Trustees recently approved the designs for a new Tutwiler Hall. The new building will be located adjacent to the current Tutwiler Hall, which will be demolished once construction of its replacement is complete. Construction of the new Tutwiler Hall is scheduled to start late fall, with a completion date in 2020. The new residence hall will feature double-occupancy units with private bathrooms. Each level will have small gathering spaces and the building will be served by six elevators. According to the university, the first floor will include a 16,600-square foot storm shelter capable of holding some 1,413 people. The multi-purpose room will provide meeting space and a central courtyard is being designed to accommodate recreation and social gatherings. |
| Finalists named for 2019 Harper Lee prize given by U. of Alabama law school | |
 | The University of Alabama Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr. School of Law and the American Bar Association Journal have announced the three finalists for the 2019 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. The finalists are "The Boat People" by Sharon Bala, "Class Action" by Steven B. Frank and "The Widows of Malabar Hill" by Sujata Massey. The three were chosen from among 25 entries. The prize is named in honor of the Alabama native and author of "To Kill a Mockingbird," and is given annually to the author of a book-length work of fiction that best illuminates the role of lawyers in society and their power to effect change. The panel for the 2019 prize includes Robert Barnes, a journalist with the Washington Post; Steven Hobbs, Tom Bevill chairholder of Law at UA; Claire Matturro, a UA law school alumna; Utz McKnight, chair of the UA department of gender and race studies and professor of political science; and author Gin Phillips. |
| Japanese maples with special history planted at Auburn University President's Home | |
 | Two Japanese maples planted this week at the Auburn University President's Home have a special history. The university's First Lady Janet Leath has been raising them since they were seedlings. She created her own botanical garden, what she called a "beautiful oasis" at their home outside of Raleigh, when the Leaths lived in central North Carolina. In 27 years, Janet had cultivated more than 60 varieties of Japanese maples. When Steven Leath became president at Iowa State University, Janet took some of her plants with them, carrying the seedlings in pots. The Leaths spent five years in Ames, Iowa, where some of the trees were planted. The rest accompanied them to Auburn in 2017. Janet Leath said the two trees planted could have continued to receive her care while in pots, but instead they chose to plant them on the grounds of the President's Home. "We wanted to do this at Auburn," she said. "We thought they would add to the legacy that Coach (Pat) Dye and others have contributed to this property." |
| Coca-Cola had 'substantial say' on obesity research it sponsored at U. of South Carolina, report finds | |
 | The Coca-Cola Company had a "significant say" in research it sponsored at the University of South Carolina, according to a new report in the Journal of Public Health Policy. The agreements USC signed with Coca-Cola provided $1.2 million in obesity research funding in 2013 and 2014, but allowed the company to abruptly cancel research, provide comments before publication and keep research data, according to documents released by the report's authors. "This quote-unquote science isn't science, it's public relations," said study co-author Gary Ruskin. "That's a problem with research ethics." USC points out that the contract with Coca-Cola did not allow the company to edit the report (save for certain confidential information) and did not allow Coca-Cola to suppress reports once they were finished, spokesman Jeff Stensland said in an email. |
| Texas A&M Scowcroft Institute researchers offer findings of pandemics study | |
 | Researchers with Texas A&M's Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs stood before more than 300 elected officials, scientists, nonprofit representatives and business leaders in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to present a 56-page study on pandemics that featured recommendations for the abatement of mass disease. The paper, compiled as a result of Scowcroft's Fourth Annual Pandemic Policy Summit hosted in College Station this past fall, provides numerous points for leaders and influencers across the world to consider. Tuesday marked the third annual Pandemic & Biosecurity Forum that Texas A&M and the Scowcroft Institute have hosted at the National Press Club in the nation's capitol. According to Gerald Parker, associate dean for Global One Health at A&M's College of Veterinary Medicine and director of Scowcroft's Pandemic & Biosecurity Program, the event was hosted amidst a critical public health climate. He pointed out the recent influx of Ebola diagnoses in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as the rise in measles cases across the United States. |
| U. of Missouri reworks budget model | |
 | The University of Missouri unveiled a new plan Tuesday for budgeting on the Columbia campus but the actual impact on any division or academic unit won't be known until a meeting set for Wednesday morning. Under the plan, academic units would receive 70 percent of tuition and fees paid by undergraduates and all the tuition and fees paid by graduate students. At the end of each year, however, 10 percent of any surplus would be returned to the campus general fund for use in other areas. The new model is the work of the 15-member Resource Allocation Model Committee established in 2017 after budget cuts forced the UM System to cut 474 positions because of falling state support and declining enrollment. Among several university budgeting models, the committee chose what is called Responsibility Center Management, which gives resources generated by academic units to those units but also makes them responsible for controlling expenses and paying a portion of the university's general expenses. |
| About 5,400 students to graduate from U. of Missouri this weekend | |
 | With finals week close to finishing, the University of Missouri's graduating class has one more step before crossing the finish line: graduation. MU's commencement weekend, Friday through Sunday, will award 5,982 degrees to 5,411 students. Students can earn multiple degrees while studying at MU. Honorary degrees will be awarded to Justice Albert "Albie" Sachs, an anti-apartheid activist, and Rev. Melvin West, an agriculture and theology humanitarian. Of the 5,982 degrees to be awarded, there will be 4,415 bachelor degrees, 948 master's degrees, 248 doctorate degrees, 86 law degrees, 109 veterinary medicine degrees, 95 medicine degrees, 58 professional degrees and 23 education specialist degrees. According to the news release, the outlook for 2019 graduates looks good. Last year's graduating class had a career outcome rate of 92 percent, according to a survey conducted by MU Undergraduate Studies. |
| Reports notes trends related to race, class and educational attainment | |
 | Race and class matter when it comes to who gets ahead educationally in American society, according to an analysis released today by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. The report, "Born to Win, Schooled to Lose: Why Equally Talented Students Don't Get Equal Chances to Be All They Can Be," analyzes various federal education databases to show that children who are black or Latinx or are from low-socioeconomic-status families perform worse over time academically that those who are white, Asian American or are from higher socioeconomic levels. The part of the report that may be particularly alarming is that these trends hold true even for disadvantaged students who are academically talented and for those who are privileged but less academically talented. |
| Tucker Carlson, South Africa's white rights activists aren't telling the whole truth | |
| Carolyn Holmes, an assistant professor of political science and public administration at Mississippi State University, writes for The Washington Post: Last month, South African white rights activists toured the United States on a media and lobbying campaign. Members of this group, which they call "AfriForum," aim at drawing attention to what they allege has been a campaign of violence against white farmers, ignored by the government for racial reasons. They met with staff and members of Congress. They were interviewed on conservative media outlets such as Fox News, BlazeTV, and the One America News Network. The tour was their second in less than a year. Other white South African groups, including the Suidlanders, have been undertaking such campaigns as well. No evidence exists that white South Africans are indeed targeted by excess violence. Rather, these groups use the fear of targeted racial violence to find sympathetic audiences to pressure their government into action. |
| George County wood pellets plant creates new markets for state's plentiful timber | |
| Syndicated columnist Sid Salter writes: How big an impact does forestry make on Mississippi's economy? For the last six years, the Mississippi State University Extension Service says that forestry contributed more than a billion dollars annually with an estimated value of $1.2 billion in 2018 alone. Behind poultry, forestry remains the state's No. 2 agricultural commodity. What does Enviva have to do with Mississippi's strong timber industry? Plenty, it seems. Enviva has produced dueling op-ed columns on the subject of whether the construction of a $140-million wood pellet energy facility in George County with a $60 million ship-loading terminal in Jackson County that would initially produce about 100 new jobs and create new diverse markets for Mississippi timber producers is in fact sound public and environmental policy. |
SPORTS
| No. 5 Mississippi State goes unbeaten in midweek play | |
| No. 5 Mississippi State maintained its perfect midweek record throughout the entirety of the regular season. The Diamond Dogs improved to 15-0 in midweek play following its 7-3 victory over Louisiana Tech on Tuesday. It is the first time MSU has won all of its midweek games since doing so in 2013. "You come off an emotional high in the SEC where you're really grinding every game and every pitch and to come through a midweek takes a lot of focus," said MSU closer Cole Gordon. "You have to come in ready to play because if you're not that team could've beaten us tonight and any team we've played could've beaten us really bad." State closes out its regular season hosting South Carolina in a three-game series starting on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. |
| Diamond Dawgs go unblemished in midweek games with victory over Louisiana Tech | |
 | It's a rare occurrence that a college baseball team can navigate an entire midweek schedule unblemished, but the No. 5 Mississippi State baseball program did just that as they toppled Louisiana Tech, 7-3, on Tuesday (May 14) evening at Dudy Noble Field to post a perfect midweek record. Mississippi State (43-10) used two runs in the second inning and three in the third inning to build a 5-0 edge, before a solo home run opened the scoring for Louisiana Tech (32-21) in the fifth inning. State got a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth, before Tech capped the scoring with a pair of runs in the eighth. With the victory, head coach Chris Lemonis posted his 43rd win in his first season as head coach at Mississippi State, marking the most wins by a first-year head coach in the history of the program. His 43 wins are one more than Pat McMahon's 42 victories in 1998. The win made MSU 15-0 in midweek games for the 2019 campaign, which is the first undefeated midweek showing since the 2013 program posted an 11-0 mark in midweek tilts. |
| Three takeaways from Mississippi State baseball's win over Louisiana Tech | |
| Mississippi State played 15 midweek baseball games this season. The Bulldogs won them all. Louisiana Tech came to Dudy Noble Field on Tuesday night and left with a 7-3 loss courtesy of No. 5 Mississippi State (43-10, 18-9 SEC). Here's how the home Dogs bullied their Bulldog counterparts en route to victory. |
| 'A true southern Yankee': How Joe Moorhead embraces challenges at Mississippi State | |
| If you only saw him in passing, or only took a quick glance around the room like some might've Monday afternoon at the Leo Seal Jr. Football Complex, then you might not have recognized him. He's a tall, somewhat slender man with silver hair and a salt-and-pepper goatee. He wore khaki pants, a white, collared shirt and a black zip-up vest with a small SEC logo over his left pectoral. He watched and listened as Mississippi State's Director of Athletics, John Cohen, spoke to a room full of Bulldog fans about the university's wide range of athletic accomplishments across all sports during the most recent academic calendar year. Cohen kept going about almost every team on Mississippi State's campus: track and field, cross country, etc. Then he got to the one that brings the most revenue and excitement to the university. It's also the one everyone in the room wanted to talk about. Football. |
| Mississippi State's Clegg, Pichaikool play into Louisville Regional top 15 on Tuesday | |
| Freshman Ford Clegg and junior Peng Pichaikool collected a combined five birdies on the first four holes of the University of Louisville Golf Club course on Tuesday. Now 1-under par for the week, the two players sit tied for 11th at the NCAA Louisville Regional. Clegg battled his way to a 2-under 69 in the second round, shooting as well as 4-under par through 15. Pichaikool started hot and carded four birdies through his first seven holes on his way to a 70. Pichaikool has yet to shoot over par at the par-71, 7,217-yard University of Louisville Golf Club through five rounds played there this season. "Peng and Ford did a great job of giving us some under par rounds that we really needed," MSU men's golf coach Dusty Smith said. Following Wednesday's final round, the best five teams and the best individual not on the five advancing teams will qualify for NCAA Championship play. |
| LSU's Ed Orgeron on new NCAA targeting, overtime rules; 'I just want them to call it fair' | |
 | Ed Orgeron said he wants officials to be "fair" and "consistent" when it comes to implementing the NCAA's new targeting and overtime rules. An NCAA panel approved the new rules on April 23 -- changes that almost certainly came in response to instances that occurred during LSU's 2018 football season. Starting in the 2019 season, there will be a higher standard for reviewing targeting penalties, and teams will run alternating two-point plays once a game reaches a fifth overtime, instead of starting another drive at the opponent's 25. Four LSU players were ejected for targeting in 2018, and a fan outrage that crossed the country followed the controversial ejection of All-American inside linebacker Devin White from the Mississippi State game, which meant he would miss the first half of the top three matchup against then-No. 1 Alabama. |
| Texas A&M's Asa Lacy to serve four-game suspension following ejection | |
| The Texas A&M baseball team will be without its leader in victories Asa Lacy for its final regular season series against Arkansas, while he serves a four-game suspension from an ejection he received in Saturday's 2-1 loss at Alabama. With one out in the fifth inning, SEC Network cameras caught Lacy appearing to shout, "That's terrible. You are terrible," to home plate umpire Ryan Broussard, who ejected Lacy for the outburst. There was no warning prior to the ejection. "We all had our doubts that he should have been tossed on that," Aggie closer Kasey Kalich said. "He didn't say anything disrespectful to the umpire and certain aspects ... didn't get a warning from it. We took it as he was fighting for us, and we all let them know and reassured him that we still have confidence in him." Lacy is the first Aggie to receive an ejection since February 2016, when outfielder J.B. Moss was tossed from a 7-5 loss at Pepperdine. It came as a surprise that the man to break the streak was the mild-mannered Lacy, head coach Rob Childress said. |
| Regents approve 'Dooley Field' at UGA | |
 | When football announcers tell us where the University of Georgia's football team is playing in its Sept. 7 home opener, they'll be saying "Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium." The state Board of Regents made it official Tuesday. In a vote with no suspense, the board gave its formal approval to naming the field in honor of former UGA football coach and athletic director Vince Dooley. "I'm pleased that the board approved it," said UGA President Jere Morehead, who attended the meeting with UGA Vice President for Government Relations Toby Carr. For years, various UGA alumni, Bulldog supporters and others have asked why the stadium or field couldn't be named for the university's winningest football coach and longtime athletic director. Now 86, Dooley was a young man of 31 when he was hired to coach UGA's floundering football team in 1964. Dooley immediately revived the program with SEC championships in 1966 and '68, the first of six he would win in 25 years as the UGA head coach, along with Georgia's only national championship in 1980. |
| NCAA Working Group to Consider Allowing Athletes to Profit From Names, Images and Likenesses | |
| The NCAA is looking at how its rules can be modified to allow college athletes to be compensated for their names, images and likenesses. NCAA President Mark Emmert and the Board of Governors announced Tuesday that Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman and Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith will head a new working group on the topic. "This group will bring together diverse opinions from the membership --- from presidents and commissioners to student-athletes -- that will examine the NCAA's position on name, image and likeness benefits and potentially propose rule modifications tethered to education," Ackerman said in a statement. "We believe the time is right for these discussions and look forward to a thorough assessment of the many complexities involved in this area." |
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