| Friday, August 30, 2019 |
| MSU Extension program looks to help farmers deal with stress | |
 | Tariffs, market uncertainty, and weather are just a few of the challenges farmers face, and this year's flooding has left many farmers feeling even more pressure. "The weather patterns this year have been especially trying for those in the Delta, but also for folks around here. It's been late planting and uncertainty even early on if they would even be able to plant. So, it's going to delay them getting crops out of the field which perpetuating that cycle of stress," said Dr. David Buys. But farmers also face other occupational hazards that can lead to more problems. To help spot the signs of possible stress, Buys said Mississippi State Extension agents are being trained in mental health first aid. |
| New Mississippi State students to read Grant Library book | |
 | This semester, all new Mississippi State University undergraduates will read a new biography produced by the Ulysses S. Grant Library at MSU. The book titled "Hold on with a Bulldog Grip: A Short Study of Ulysses S. Grant," is a short biography and study of the former president and Civil War hero. The book summarizes several commonly discussed aspects of Grant. The book resulted from discussions between MSU President Mark Keenum and Giles Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History John Marszalek. The book was authored by Marszalek along with Grant Library historians Louie Gallo and David Nolen and former Rhode Island Chief Justice Frank Williams. Keenum also wrote an afterword for the book. "The Maroon Edition has been going on for about the past 10 years," Marszalek said. "The university gives every incoming freshman and transfer student a copy of the Maroon Edition book for the year. Last year it was one of John Grisham's." |
| Mississippi State's 'Unframed Images' Exhibit Heading to Charleston | |
 | Mississippi State University Libraries is partnering with Tuskegee University in Alabama and the Southern Literary Trail to present a lecture and exhibition this week celebrating the work of African American photographer P.H. Polk. The presentation is part of MSU's "Unframed Images" art exhibit, which was previously on display in MSU's Old Main Academic Center in March. The exhibit features 14 images that have been digitally enlarged and reproduced from Polk's original works and depict early- to mid-20th-century African Americans such as Martin Luther King, Jr., George Washington Carver and farm workers in rural Alabama. On Friday, Aug. 30 at 6 p.m., Tuskegee University Archivist Dana Chandler will hold a discussion on Polk's photographs at the Charleston Arts and Revitalization Effort building (1 N. Market St., Charleston) in Charleston, Miss. MSU will host a reception after the presentation to celebrate the opening, which will remain on display there through Sept. 6. |
| Be prepared when cleaning up after a flood | |
| Every approach to cleaning a house after a flood has its pitfalls. Homeowners who opt for the "do-it-yourself" route face the risk of serious illness if they are not wearing the right gear when they clean. If they use the wrong products, they can damage their homes beyond repair. Employing a contractor can be costly, and anyone who does not vet the credentials of renovators before hiring them can easily get scammed. Residents of the southern Delta region of Mississippi may do some of both now that the floodwaters that forced them out of their homes for several months have finally receded. "There are types of flooded materials that you will not be able to salvage," said Theresa Hand, Hinds County coordinator for the Mississippi State University Extension Service. "Items that must be discarded include carpet, the pad under your carpet, insulation, linoleum flooring, drywall, upholstery, mattresses and couches." Susan Cosgrove, Extension family resource management associate, said the interior of any flood-damaged building must be cleaned first and then disinfected. |
| OUR OPINION: College football good for schools, fans | |
 | The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal editorializes: College football season begins in earnest this weekend, but the truth is that college football season never really ends. We have regular-season games from August through November, bowl games in December and early January, then spring practice followed by SEC Media Days in mid-July before the cycle begins again. And just about every day of the year there's talk about the recruiting of new stars to keep fans engaged. Fans spend all winter chewing over a close loss or that great comeback win and wondering about what will happen next season. And now, next season is here. Both Mississippi State and Ole Miss will open their seasons Saturday with 11 a.m. games away from campus -- with the Bulldogs playing in New Orleans and the Rebels in Memphis. ... But you don't even have to be a football fan to appreciate the impact of college football on Northeast Mississippi and the state as a whole. Televised games -- and these days, just about every major-college game is televised -- provide positive national exposure not only to athletics but to the academic missions at MSU and Ole Miss and even to the cities of Oxford and Starkville. |
| Jim Hood Criticizes 'Legal Corruption,' Pushes for Medicaid, Mental-Health Reform | |
| On the heels of Tate Reeves' victory in the Republican runoff for Mississippi governor, Democratic nominee Jim Hood emphasized the urgency of health-care reform for Mississippians at the Jackson Medical Mall on Wednesday, saying it would remain a top issue in his campaign. Hood shared his ideas on reforming the state's mental-health system and vowed to draw on his years as a prosecutor to expose what he called the "legal corruption" of the Legislature and its stalling of progress. "Health care is a major issue in this election. It's a major issue for people all over the state, being in the Delta, in the hills, on the coast, in south and west Mississippi and here," he told a group of reporters before touring the facility. Hood reiterated his support for expanding Medicaid in the state, which would bring health-care options to about 300,000 Mississippians in working households that make too much for traditional Medicaid but not enough for aid in obtaining private insurance through federal subsidies. |
| Mysterious iOS Attack Changes Everything We Know About iPhone Hacking | |
 | Hacking the iPhone has long been considered a rarified endeavor, undertaken by sophisticated nation states against only their most high-value targets. But a discovery by a group of Google researchers has turned that notion on its head: For two years, someone has been using a rich collection of iPhone vulnerabilities with anything but restraint or careful targeting. Instead, they've indiscriminately hacked thousands of iPhones just by getting them to visit a website. On Thursday evening, Google's Project Zero security research team revealed a broad campaign of iPhone hacking. A handful of websites in the wild had assembled five so-called exploit chains, tools that link together security vulnerabilities, allowing a hacker to penetrate each layer of iOS's digital protections. The rare and intricate chains of code exploited a total of 14 security flaws, targeting everything from the browser's "sandbox" isolation mechanism to the core of the operating system known as the kernel, ultimately gaining complete control over the phone. |
| Meridian Community College is recruiting students on wheels | |
 | A local community college is getting creative when it comes to adding new students. Meridian Community College held a ribbon cutting Thursday to announce its first mobile recruiting trailer. It's a new tool MCC will use to recruit and educate people about the college. The trailer will be on display at high school football tailgating events across Lauderdale County. Interested students can grab all kinds of important information about MCC when they visit the recruiting trailer. "It's packed with information about the community college, what you need to do from a financial standpoint, how to make your way through the admission process, who you need to call if you have a question about prior community college classes. It's going to be great," says MCC's director of recruiting Brandon Dewease. |
| Alabama governor apologizes for wearing blackface in college | |
 | Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey apologized Thursday for wearing blackface decades ago, becoming the latest politician to face scrutiny over racially insensitive photos and actions from their university days. Ivey, 74, issued the apology after a 1967 radio interview surfaced in which her now-ex-husband describes her actions at Auburn University, where she was vice president of the student government association. "I offer my heartfelt apologies for the pain and embarrassment this causes, and I will do all I can -- going forward -- to help show the nation that the Alabama of today is a far cry from the Alabama of the 1960s," Ivey said. Ivey's press secretary, Gina Maiola, said Auburn University brought the recording to the attention of the governor's office, which decided to release it publicly. University officials discovered the interview while working on a project to digitize and archive old university records, Maiola said. |
| Too soon to tell: U. of Florida and SF College prep for Hurricane Dorian | |
 | In Aisle Two at the Publix, across the street from the University of Florida campus, freshman public health student Kelly Folsom, 18, stared at a group of canned soups with uncertainty. Folsom, who grew up in Clermont, just outside Orlando, said her family never prepared much for hurricanes when she was growing up. "It's just normal," said Folsom, who now lives in the Rawlings dorm with another roommate on campus. Hurricane Dorian, which is expected to make landfall on Florida's east coast Monday morning, will be Folsom's first hurricane away from home. She, along with other UF and Santa Fe College students, are preparing to hunker down in case the power goes out or roads become flooded. UF spokesman Steve Orlando said it is too soon for the university to decide if it will cancel either Friday or Tuesday classes. Students are already off Monday for the Labor Day holiday. Some of the factors that might affect that decision, he said, include sustained tropical storm force winds because emergency vehicles and buses would not be able to run, as well as flooding. |
| International Students Face Hurdles Under Trump Administration Policy | |
 | Cottey College, a women's college in Nevada, Mo., accepted six students from Ethiopia this year, and officials were disappointed when two of them were denied visas. They were puzzled by the reason: The students, the State Department said, did not have strong enough ties to their home country and might not return. "At the age of 17 or 18?" Megan Corrigan, international education coordinator for the college, said on Wednesday. Unexpected denials and long delays have become increasingly common for international students and scholars seeking visas, raising concerns among college officials who see a threat to the diversity and enrichment of their campuses, and causing anxiety for students who may have spent years preparing to study in the United States -- only to have their hopes dashed. The latest example to stun educators and students was on Friday, when a Palestinian student, Ismail Ajjawi, was denied entry to the United States. |
| Why Dorms Are So Nice Now | |
| Being a college student is a lot comfier than it used to be. This fall, many of the undergrads settling into their campus dwellings will find themselves in buildings far better appointed than the ones that now-graying alumni once called home. These students are the beneficiaries of a generation of construction that has spawned ritzy new dorms and other facilities at many colleges, as well as, more infamously, such amenities as rock-climbing walls and lazy rivers. At some schools, the building continues. "The vision is to develop the coolest, hippest, most compelling destination in downtown," the president of Emerson College, in Boston, told Architectural Digest last year when discussing a project that includes a new cafeteria and dorm. Meanwhile, at Arizona State University, a new residence hall for engineering students has 3-D printers, a fitness center, and Wi-Fi that can handle multiple devices per student. Campus living has entered a new era. |
| Earthquakes could kill people in many UCLA, UC Berkeley buildings, officials say | |
 | Dozens of buildings at UCLA and UC Berkeley pose a serious risk to life in a strong earthquake, with at least 68 seismically deficient structures at UC Berkeley and 18 at UCLA, according to new university studies. Although no campus buildings were deemed to be in the worst category, "dangerous," six at UC Berkeley and three at UCLA were found to have a "severe" risk to life. The remaining 62 at UC Berkeley and 15 at UCLA were said to have a "serious" risk to life, according to the first reports released this week in response to a UC Board of Regents 2017 directive calling on every campus to undertake a seismic risk assessment. UCLA, attended by 45,500 undergraduate and graduate students, is threatened by the Santa Monica fault, which runs along Santa Monica Boulevard, and the Newport-Inglewood fault, which runs from Orange County through Baldwin Hills and ends near campus. Each fault is capable of producing a quake of magnitude 7 or greater. UC Berkeley, which serves about 42,500 undergraduate and graduate students, must contend with the Hayward fault, which runs through the campus’ eastern section and has the potential to unleash an earthquake of greater than magnitude 7. |
| Back to the future | |
| Angela Farmer, an assistant clinical professor in the Shackouls Honors College at Mississippi State University, writes: Today's students were born digital natives. They have never known a world without the Internet, smart phones, digital media, or social networking. They have little understanding or use for printed materials, phone calls, face to face interaction, or tactile problem solving sans a digital facilitator. While these students have been so fortunate to learn to navigate this smart existence as toddlers, there are many structural underpinnings that allowed this new world to exist that they have not had the pleasure of recognizing. For example, the innate security that one often finds by reading printed material which can be resourced, re-read, and paced at the individual's leisure is many times replaced by summary, digital text, allowing one to synthesize the key points of the story or process without reading all subtext and associated narrative. While this may work wonderfully well for students who need to cover great quantities of material in a short period of time, it also robs the reader from developing a full appreciation for the text, the author's style, subtle inferences, and even craftily constructed plot lines. |
SPORTS
| Bulldogs set for season opener with Ragin' Cajuns | |
 | Entering Week One, Mississippi State coach Joe Moorhead had a movie on his mind. Referencing the 1986 classic "Hoosiers," Moorhead alluded to the scene in which Gene Hackman's character , basketball coach Norman Dale, takes his team onto the floor at Hinkle Fieldhouse -- the site of the 1951 Indiana high school state title game. Grabbing a tape measure from his pocket, he quickly takes measurement of the distance from the free throw line to baseline and floor to rim. Checking the numbers, Dale assures his bunch the dimensions are exactly the same as those back home in their small-town home of Hickory, Indiana. Saturday, the Bulldogs will have a "Hoosiers" moment of their own as they take on Louisiana at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans. "We will do our normal walkthrough [on campus] but then get down there and let the kids walk around and get used to things," Moorhead said Monday. "...We want to have our 'Hoosiers' moment there and make sure they are getting used to the dome." |
| Ragin' Cajuns ready to showcase improvement | |
| Mississippi State defeated Louisiana 56-10 in the third game of the season last year while rolling up 607 yards of offense in the process. But the Ragin' Cajuns continued to build under first-year coach Billy Napier in 2018 and finished with a 7-7 record with appearances in both the Sun Belt Conference championship game and the Cure Bowl. On Saturday, the Bulldogs will play Louisiana once again and the Ragin' Cajuns are eager to showcase how much they've improved since their last meeting in Starkville. "That's in the past," Napier said. "All we're worried about is this year, this matchup, this team. Their personnel is going to be different and our personnel is going to be different. It's two new teams with new identities." Both teams will be breaking in a new starting quarterback. |
| Inside the mind of Mississippi State quarterback Tommy Stevens, the 'ultimate teammate' | |
 | Joe Moorhead remembers it like it was yesterday. It was more like 26 years ago. Franklin Field. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Fordham Rams versus the Penn Quakers. Moorhead, a sophomore quarterback, was making his first start for the Rams. "I was kind of juxtaposing the excitement of being the starter and having that opportunity but also not wanting to let the team down and make sure I was doing a good job in my preparation and execution," Moorhead said. He had quite the juxtaposition of statistics, too. He threw for 362 yards and three touchdowns. He also tossed four interceptions as the Rams lost, 34-31. Flash forward to 2019. Graduate transfer Tommy Stevens has yet to start a game for Mississippi State. That means he's yet to take a loss in maroon and white, but he's already been a winner. Twice. His first win came a week ago when Moorhead named him the starting quarterback over junior Keytaon Thompson. The second came this week when his teammates voted him a captain, even though they had spent only about three months with him since he transferred from Penn State. |
| Pennsylvania born, Mississippi made: How Joe Moorhead's upbringing is reminiscent of the state he now represents | |
| Perched on a barstool outside Cahaba Brewing Company in the Pepper Place/Lakeview district of Birmingham, Mississippi State football coach Joe Moorhead peered into his phone. "Sorry, checking Little League scores," Moorhead muttered as he quickly locked his iPhone and adjusted his seat. Back home his youngest son, Donovan, a member of the 12-and-under Starkville Little League team, was in the midst of a game. "(Baseball) is my second favorite sport," Moorhead said. "It's like 1B." Just inside the 8,000 square foot taproom, more than 100 Bulldog fans sat scattered throughout a side room, listening to remarks from MSU athletic director John Cohen. The night marked the second stop on the Road Dawgs Tour -- a five-state trek that sent Moorhead across Mississippi, up to Tennessee, over to Alabama, down to Louisiana and out to Texas to drum up support for the athletic department. Having already regaled a crowd in Starkville earlier that morning, Moorhead's remarks were set. |
| New season at Texas A&M brings wider alcohol availability at Kyle Field | |
 | Thousands of Aggie fans waved, cheered and twirled their white towels from the stands of Kyle Field on Thursday evening as Texas A&M kicked off the football season against Texas State. It's the kind of display of Texas A&M spirit that comes with home football games. What made Thursday night's game different, however, were the fans in the general seating areas sipping on cold beers as they watched the Aggies beat the Bobcats, 41-7. Texas A&M spokesman Mike Wright stressed before the game that the university will be observing fan behavior and evaluating the practicality and safety of the change. "Everything will be up for reassessment at the end of the season, or even on a game-by-game basis," he said. Texas A&M senior Kyle McCarver purchased a 25-ounce beer for $13 at a low-level deck Thursday. He and friend John Michael, a fellow senior who also purchased a beer, noted that the beer sales could have somewhat of a positive impact. "I think this is smart revenue-wise," McCarver said. |
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