| Wednesday, September 4, 2019 |
| New species is a growing problem for Mississippi residents | |
 | Residents all across the Magnolia State are at war. Their kitchens, front lawns, pools, and sometimes even their vehicles are the battlegrounds. The enemy can sometimes be too small to see. We're talking, of course, about ants. We're all familiar with fire ants, sugar ants, or even velvet ants maybe. But there's a new species in our area that could end up costing you thousands of dollars in damage. Joe MacGown, a researcher at Mississippi State University, said the main culprits are exotic ants, and they're a growing problem. "When I first started working on ants about 15 years ago, we only knew of seven exotic ant species in the state. We've added twenty-three species" said MacGowan. "Exotic ants don't have natural predators in general when they come into a new region. So, if they become established, they can go unchecked and cause huge problems." |
| Love for the underdog: Starkville teacher makes room in life to care for those in need | |
 | Slabs of wood meant for a wheelchair ramp leaned against the walls Monday just outside Karen Sisk's house, where 22 people and four dogs just celebrated Labor Day weekend. Joshua, an 11-year-old boy she homeschools, had surgery on Aug. 23 and is temporarily in a wheelchair, she said. He was "probably the brightest child" in Sisk's first-grade class at Starkville Academy four years ago. A car accident took the lives of his father and one of his siblings and left Joshua with a traumatic brain injury. His teacher left the Academy at the end of the 2015-16 year to homeschool him, and now she sees him every day. "I walked away from the classroom because I felt like God led me to help Joshua," Sisk said. She has 39 years of teaching experience and a degree in elementary education from Mississippi State University. There were no degrees in special education when she graduated in 1973, but there were special education courses, and she took as many as she could. |
| Analysis: Campaign ads bring cute kids and scary politicos | |
 | Mississippians could get a reprieve from political advertising now that the rush of the party primaries is over. Starting in about mid-October, though, people who are easily annoyed by political ads will have to keep their TV remotes handy. Voters on Nov. 5 will choose a governor, other statewide and regional officials, state lawmakers and county officials, including sheriffs. Commercial breaks during newscasts and football games will be filled with 30-second vignettes of candidates with their loyal spouses, cute kids, and favorite hunting dogs. The cats, with scant political skills themselves, can rarely be bothered to turn to the camera on cue. Political action committees and other interest groups will spend money to pick apart candidates' records. Some commercials will be accurate, and some will include a grain of truth and a shovelful of manure. |
| Bill Waller says he will not endorse Tate Reeves: 'I am staying out of the general election' | |
 | Bill Waller Jr., who garnered 46 percent of the Republican primary vote in the party's runoff for governor last week, said on Tuesday he will not endorse Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, the Republican Party nominee. Top Republican Party officials worked the phones the past week, several people close to those officials and Waller told Mississippi Today, calling Waller and his allies in efforts to lock up Waller's endorsement of Reeves and unify the GOP electorate ahead of an anticipated tough general election bout with Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood. "No endorsement," Waller said in a text message to Mississippi Today on Tuesday afternoon. "I am staying out of the general election." Reeves' chief challenge ahead of the November general election is unifying the party after the bitter primary. Several prominent leaders of the Republican Party sided with Waller over Reeves in the primary, tossing around personal insults of Reeves and criticizing his leadership style. |
| Tate Reeves says general election campaign will be 'hard-fought' | |
| Tate Reeves had his first campaign event since the runoff open to the press Tuesday. He was joined by Congressman Michael Guest for a tour of Stribling Equipment as an example of a Mississippi-owned business that's creating jobs. Guest expressed his support of Reeves' bid for Governor and noted the decreased regulations and lowering of taxes that were among the accomplishments under the leadership of Governor Phil Bryant and Lt. Governor Reeves. Just as on election night, Reeves also maintains he's heard the Bill Waller supporters and this is what he says he heard. "There are issues in this race that we need to focus on, that we need to address," explained Reeves. "We need to continue to improve teacher pay in our state. We need to continue to work to improve upon the ways of investing the 1.1 billion dollars in additional monies in infrastructure across our state. We need to continue to look for ways to improve healthcare in rural areas of our state." |
| 'This is much worse than BP:' AG Jim Hood meets with Coast oyster providers about impacts of freshwater intrusion | |
 | Attorney General Jim Hood paid a visit to Crystal Seas Oysters in Pass Christian Tuesday, speaking with workers there about the ongoing struggles related to the freshwater intrusion plaguing the Mississippi Sound. Crystal Seas Oysters controls private oyster beds, runs oyster boats, and operates buying docks along the Mississippi and Louisiana coasts, supplying their processing facility with fresh Gulf oysters. The Jenkins family, who owns Crystal Seas and has been in the oyster business for several generations, said they are struggling to keep their employees on the payroll since the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway last spring. Hood visited the facility, listening to the concerns of the employees and owners at Crystal Seas Oysters. Hood said while the devastation in the Mississippi Sound is comparable to the BP oil spill, the economic impact is proving to be much worse. "This is much worse than BP because with BP we saw the oil and knew they had the money to put a fund together," said Hood. "There was a light at the end of the tunnel. But for folks here, there are two issues: is someone going to pay for the damage that's been caused, and if so, will they keep releasing it, will it happen every year or will we just be out of business?" |
| Joey Grist announces plan to improve state's infrastructure | |
 | Joe "Joey" Grist, the Democratic candidate for transportation commissioner in the northern district, announced his plan to improve the state's crumbling infrastructure at a press conference Monday by saying the Mississippi Department of Transportation should primarily focus on awarding projects to in-state companies instead of awarding them to out-of-state companies. Grist, a former state representative, hosted the press conference at Gateway Park. He is currently the purchasing director for the North Mississippi State Hospital and said he plans to use his expertise in purchasing to help Mississippi businesses navigate the bidding process. "I am sick and tired of sending our money out of the state of Mississippi. Sixty-five million goes to trash," Grist said while pointing to a patch of overgrown grass at the park. "Mowing our grass, picking up our trash. Thirty million of that goes to out of state corporations. I am sick and tired of that. I think we can hire Mississippi workers to do Mississippi work in Mississippi." |
| Increasing Corrections Officers' Pay Top Priority | |
 | Mississippi's Department of Corrections Commissioner is struggling with staffing shortages. Raises that took effect in July bring the starting pay to $25,650. Pelicia Hall says it's the lowest salary in the nation. After speaking with lawmakers about the problem earlier this year, she talked about putting a prison on lockdown. "We don't have room necessarily to move those inmates right now but nor do we have the appropriate level of staff to supervise them, so we had to put the facility on lockdown as a safety and security measure for our staff, for the individuals housed there and also for the public," said Hall. Why should people care? Attorney Cliff Johnson is with the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law. "They don't get regular access to yard time. They're stuck in solitary confinement. They're stuck in cells for hours and days and months on end. That increases the likelihood of violence. It increases the likelihood of mental health problems, other medical problems," said Johnson. He says 97 percent of those incarcerated will return to society. |
| Mississippi Sex Traffickers Target Children, Homeless LGBT Kids | |
| While poverty, under-education, drug addiction, and lack of family structure place children and young adults at risk for sex trafficking, "any kid who has a phone in their hand is a target," Lindsey Simmons told Jackson community members last week. Young people in Mississippi are among the most vulnerable targets and least visible victims of trafficking, the executive director of Mississippians Against Human Trafficking said. She blamed false assumptions about the illicit industry, stigma toward LGBT youth, and the lack of robust state and local services to prevent trafficking. The majority of trafficking cases, 90% percent, begin on the internet, she said. "We're failing these kids because we don't have services for them," she told the crowd at Jackson's Friday Forum at the Mississippi Museum of Art on Aug. 30, where she delivered her "Human Trafficking 101" presentation. One driver of sex trafficking in Mississippi is its unique geographical positioning, with Interstates 55 and 20 cutting through the state and connecting it to Louisiana and the greater southeast region. This, combined with inadequate services to fight the trafficking and rehabilitate victims, have contributed to the state's status as a hub for the underground industry. |
| U.S. Senator Roger Wicker's committee to look at media and impact on gun violence | |
 | U.S. Senator Roger Wicker has asked the CEOs of social media giants to testify in Washington later this month as part of the effort by the Commerce Committee that he chairs to look at ways to stop mass shootings. The Mississippi Republican is one of three committee chairmen recently approached by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to examine proposals aimed at reducing gun violence. Wicker said McConnell wants the committee "to look at whether our media platforms ... might be airing some content that contributes to the mass violence." The senator from Tupelo mentioned television when talking about the types of media, but it was clear during an interview Tuesday the main focus is on online heavyweights like Facebook, Twitter and Google. He added the committee would also ask those companies to share what they are already doing "to make sure that they're not communicating some content from some troubled person that might lead to somebody taking this violent action." |
| Advocates doubt Trump DEA will ease rules on marijuana research | |
 | The Trump administration gave new hope to marijuana researchers when the Drug Enforcement Administration appeared to open the door for new applications for federally approved marijuana growers. While 33 states have legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes, federal research is extremely restricted. The administration's announcement last week that it would expand the number of marijuana growers signaled a positive change after years of agency inaction and delay. Still, some cannabis advocates and industry experts said they remain skeptical of the administration's motives and have accused officials of imposing different bureaucratic delays without any intention to act. Industry advocates say changes are long overdue. A facility at the University of Mississippi has been the sole grower of federally approved marijuana since 1968. Researchers and lawmakers from both parties have said the single source is too limiting. There have also been concerns raised that the marijuana grown at the Mississippi facility is poor quality and is chemically closer to hemp than to the marijuana available in commercial markets in states that have legalized it. |
| Shootings add to pressure on gun violence research funding push | |
 | Lawmakers under pressure to address mass shootings could provide millions for research on gun violence, which would help fill a knowledge gap about policies that are most effective at reducing injuries and death, as Congress attempts to fund the government by Oct. 1. House Democrats have proposed $50 million to study gun violence, and academics say the government funding could ensure that the data collection infrastructure is adequate to support a broad research enterprise. One factor that complicates gun control efforts is that there isn't a lot of existing research about which policies are effective, although researchers say solid evidence exists in a few areas: Policies meant to keep a parent's gun out of children's hands can reduce self-harm, and background checks have proved to be effective in some contexts. But the impacts of other policies are less clear. |
| Schools close, campuses evacuate as Hurricane Dorian churns toward the Southeast | |
 | Just days into the new school year, hundreds of schools and universities across four states shut their doors as communities braced for Hurricane Dorian, which was expected to bring high winds and heavy rain to the U.S. mainland. The storm delivered unprecedented damage to the Bahamas, where aerial footage showed widespread flooding and destruction. As it turned toward the U.S. mainland, officials in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas responded with mandatory evacuations and widespread school closures in coastal communities. Hundreds of thousands of students have been affected by the closures, an interruption that comes at the start of the school year. And many schools are still recovering from damage from earlier storms, including from Hurricane Florence, which devastated the beachside community of Wilmington, N.C., and parts of South Carolina almost exactly a year ago. For faculty, staff and students at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where a mandatory evacuation was underway, memories of Florence remained fresh. |
| Auburn police continue search for missing AU student | |
 | Auburn police are continuing to search for a missing Auburn University student from Taiwan. Chih-Kai Lai, 21, was reported missing Aug. 19 by the Auburn Taiwanese Student Association after he did not attend class on Auburn's campus, police said. Lai is a Taiwanese graduate student at Auburn University and lives in the 300 block of East Magnolia Avenue. Lai arrived in the United State on July 24 to attend graduate school at Auburn. Auburn police detectives discovered video surveillance of Lai at a restaurant in the 300 block of West Magnolia Avenue on Aug. 18. A family member last communicated with him Aug. 17, police previously said. "It is believed that Lai left on his own accord," an August news release reads. "There is no indication of foul play at this point in the investigation." |
| Louisiana colleges receive forms to report hazing allegations, what action they'll take | |
| Louisiana's public colleges are receiving standardized forms to report hazing allegations, as the state's top higher education board works to comply with toughened anti-hazing laws. The Board of Regents developed specific forms for both colleges and organizations to provide hazing allegations to law enforcement. The forms include sections to explain actions taken to respond to the claims. The board adopted the forms at its meeting last week, along with a policy requiring any school or organization that receives "sufficiently credible" hazing allegations to publish that information on its website. Some redactions are allowed. The standardized forms and toughened disclosure come in response to new anti-hazing requirements enacted by lawmakers this year. The latest provisions seek to force colleges to report those claims quickly or face a fine up to $10,000. |
| UGA faculty becoming more female, less black | |
 | The University of Georgia's faculty is becoming more gender-diverse, but statistics show that the percentage of UGA faculty members who are black is actually smaller now than 15 years ago. In 2003, 90 of the University of Georgia's 1,684 faculty members were black, 5.3 percent, according to statistics maintained by the University System of Georgia. That increased to 5.7 percent in 2014, but fell to 4.9 percent by 2018 -- 96 African American faculty members out of 1,960. That's half the percentage for the University System of Georgia as a whole -- 9.8 percent, or 1,171 out of 11,974 faculty members, up slightly from 9.1 percent in 2003. About 10.4 percent of UGA faculty members are classified as Asian, according to the University System tabulations. UGA's decline in black faculty is in line with national trends, according to a recent report from the Hechinger Report, a national nonprofit newsroom that reports on education. |
| Trevor Noah tells U. of Kentucky students: Keep challenging the status quo on race, privilege | |
 | It's the proper role of young people to hold society accountable and challenge older generations who accept the status quo, the brainy stand-up comedian and author Trevor Noah told an audience at the University of Kentucky on Friday morning. "But the older generation is going to resist," the host of "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah" on Comedy Central said during an assembly at Memorial Coliseum. "That's what older generations do. At some point an older person is like, 'Nah, I don't want to change anymore. That's what death is for.'" It was a rare laugh line in a mostly sober conversation conducted on a stage with Julian Vasquez Heilig, the new dean of UK's College of Education, about race, cultural diversity and the importance of equal access to education at every level. The event, which kicked off a yearlong series of programs celebrating 70 years of racial integration on campus, included a tribute to Lyman T. Johnson, who became the university's first African-American student in 1949. |
| U. of Missouri School of Medicine awarded largest grant for rural healthcare in school's history | |
 | The University of Missouri School of Medicine was awarded nearly $5 million in grant money to enhance existing medical programs in rural Missouri, the school announced Tuesday. The school received two grants from the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration, which will fund programs designed to address the doctor shortages in rural parts of the state. A Missouri Hospital Association study released in 2018 predicted there will be a shortage of up to 49,000 primary care doctors in Missouri by 2030 because of an increase in the demand for doctors as a result of an aging population that will be more than the incoming supply. The report also stated there are only 56 primary care doctors for every 100,000 rural Missouri residents, compared to 139 doctors for every 100,000 urban residents. The larger of the two grants, a $4.2 million award over four years, is the largest award for rural medicine in MU's history. That money will be used to fund an expansion of the Rural Track Pipeline Program. |
| Colleges continuing to monitor threats with threat-assessment teams | |
 | When an armed Virginia Tech student shot and killed 32 classmates and professors 12 years ago, the episode led to significant policy shifts at colleges and universities around the country. Before the shootings, most higher ed institutions lacked a formal body, other than campus police forces, that actively monitored potential threats to their campuses. But after what became one of the bloodiest school shootings in U.S. history, colleges and universities began examining how they should plan for and handle such violence in the future. Over time they formed threat-assessment teams to track possible risks to campuses, whether it be the next mass shooting or an impending natural disaster. These teams are ubiquitous on college campuses today, although they often work behind the scenes, often kept below the radar of antsy students and nervous parents now all too familiar with college shootings. |
| New laws aim to boost Title IX reporting at Texas universities | |
| As college students across the state return to classes, Texas universities are getting ready to deal with significant changes to how they are required to track, report and punish violations of Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed two bills into law this year that describe in detail who on college campuses is responsible for reporting incidents of sexual assault, sexual harassment, dating violence and stalking, and lay out uniform policies and procedures for universities to follow. Most of the laws' provisions went into effect Sunday; the reporting requirements and sanctions go into effect on Jan. 1. Many universities will spend the upcoming fall semester training employees on the changes. The new laws aim to provide clear guidelines and protections for universities while Title IX rules are in flux, said Chris Kaiser, director of public policy at the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault. The U.S. Department of Education is considering adopting a rule that would narrow what universities can investigate and remove protections against retaliation for people who report violations. |
| Illinois colleges ramp up pursuit of rural students: 'Colleges need to understand more about rural areas -- they are kind of in a bubble' | |
| Until recently, high school senior Anna Girten had considered only the schools typically sought out by students in her town of about 6,600 near the Iowa border, such as University of Iowa and Iowa State University. The big city about three hours in the opposite direction was not on her radar until she visited University of Chicago for a summer program designed for rural students. "I'm just not exposed to different schools and opportunities," said Girten, 17, who attends Geneseo High School in northwest Illinois. "I didn't really know much about University of Chicago. But going there and having that experience showed me that there's a lot more possibilities than the few schools that a lot of the kids go to at my high school." That lack of familiarity -- and the impact of mere exposure -- is driving new and expanded efforts from Illinois schools to attract students from rural areas. Diversity on college campuses long has meant differences among races, ethnicity and religions. In recent years, college leaders are ramping up efforts to recruit a mix of students from urban, suburban and rural areas. But they've learned rural students face unique challenges in the college-going process, many revolving around a common theme: Access. |
| Palestinian student denied entry to U.S. gains admission to Harvard | |
| A Palestinian student bound for Harvard University who was denied entry to the U.S. last month was able to enter the country on his second attempt Monday, shortly before the start of the university's academic year. A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed the student, Ismail Ajjawi, "overcame all grounds of inadmissibility and was admitted into the United States as a student on a F1 visa." he turnabout came 10 days after the agency denied entry to Ajjawi and put him on a plane back to Lebanon, having said they found him inadmissible to the U.S. based on information discovered during a CBP inspection. Ajjawi told The Harvard Crimson, a student newspaper, that immigration officers questioned him about his religious beliefs and -- after searching his phone and laptop -- interrogated him about social media posts from Facebook friends that expressed political opposition to the U.S. Ajjawi said he had no posts on his own timeline that were of a political nature. In another case that has raised concerns, Arizona State University reported last week that nine returning undergraduate students from China were denied permission to re-enter the U.S. at Los Angeles International Airport. |
| Records: USC officials discussed how much wealthy parents could donate when children applied | |
 | Messages sent between USC's athletic and admissions offices underscore a truism in college admissions: money talks. The emails, which were made public Tuesday when an attorney for a father facing charges in the college admissions scandal filed them in court, turn an unsparing light on how the university flags children of possible donors and other influential families for special consideration in the application process. The emails, for example, include the wish list of "special interest" applicants a top official from the athletic department sent each spring to the head of the school's admissions office. In the emails, as well as internal spreadsheets included in the filings, the students were often identified by how much money their parents had donated or were expected to give to the school. Influential figures at USC who were pushing for a student to be admitted were also noted and, in some cases, a parent's profession was listed. The emails clearly show USC officials discussed potential donations from the parents of applicants. But it's unclear exactly what role that played in decisions. |
| APLU Opposes Cengage-McGraw Hill Merger | |
| The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities yesterday published a letter to the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, urging that it block the proposed merger of publishers Cengage and McGraw-Hill Education. "The textbook market is already highly concentrated, which has helped fuel cost increases far exceeding the overall rate of inflation for several decades. Increased consolidation will further reduce competition, disincentivize innovation, and raise prices for students," wrote Peter McPherson, president of the APLU, in the letter. Earlier this summer, consumer group US PIRG voiced its opposition to the merger, citing concerns about potential price increases. Open education advocacy group SPARC has also publicly opposed the merger. |
| Framing of issues will be different as Reeves-Hood showdown looms in November | |
| Syndicated columnist Sid Salter writes: Mississippi's 2019 gubernatorial ballot is now solidified and while the issues remain basically unchanged since the primaries, the framing for the Nov. 5 will be different. That election will pit Republican nominee Tate Reeves of Rankin County against Democratic nominee Jim Hood of Chickasaw County. They will face the Constitution Party's Bob Hickingbottom and independent David Singletary, but those candidates have not by any realistic measure mounted credible campaigns. Reeves, the incumbent Republican lieutenant governor, and Hood, the incumbent Democratic attorney general, have each been elected in the past four consecutive elections with substantial majorities of the vote. Reeves as a Republican and Hood as a Democrat each won solid majorities in four consecutive elections in 2003, 2007, 2011, and 2015 that had both in contested races for different offices on the same ballot. To put a finer point on it, the same votes that chose twice Republicans Haley Barbour and Phil Bryant as governor also chose Democrat Hood as their attorney general. |
SPORTS
| Fond memories of Mississippi State-Southern Miss series | |
| Mississippi sports columnist Rick Cleveland writes: Mississippi State College and Mississippi Southern College first played one another in football in 1935. Southern, as it was called then, hosted. State, coached by ex-Army coach Ralph Sasse, defeated Southern, coached by ex-Alabama football captain Pooley Hubert, 27-0. The two in-state rivals, who face off Saturday in Starkville, have played 29 times since. State has won 14. Southern Miss has won 14. There has been one tie -- 10-10 in 1973 -- when Bob Tyler coached at State and P.W. Underwood at USM. It has been a streaky series. State won the first five. At one point, Southern Miss won seven straight and 10 of 12. And now State has won the last five, most recently 34-16 at Hattiesburg in 2015. State is heavily favored for Saturday's 2:30 p.m. kickoff, but to say favorites haven't always won in this series would be an understatement. |
| Nathaniel Watson starting to settle in at linebacker for Bulldogs | |
| Nathaniel Watson did a little bit of everything during his high school career. Watson played wide receiver, running back, returned kicks and was all over the field on defense all the while helping lead Maplesville claim three state championships in Alabama. These days though, the redshirt freshman has settled in at linebacker for Mississippi State. "I miss those days of playing wide receiver or running back," Watson said. "Those were nice days but now I'm at linebacker and I can still touch the ball, you've just got to work a little harder to get it." Watson got the ball plenty during his senior season at Maplesville with 45 carries for 508 yards and two touchdowns, 21 catches for 505 yards and eight scores, four kickoff returns for 213 yards and two TDs to go along with 39 tackles, one tackle for loss, one sack and three interceptions -- two of which were pick-6's. But last year Watson stepped foot in the big, bad Southeastern Conference. It was quite a jump for someone who was used to competing at a small high school. |
| Southern Miss ready for heavy dose of Mississippi State RB Kylin Hill | |
| From one in-state rivalry game to another, Southern Miss is following up its week one win against Alcorn State with its first return trip to Starkville since 2014. While a lot of fans from both USM and Mississippi State will be focused on bragging rights, the Golden Eagles have an eagle eye in the backfield. Last week, MSU running back Kylin Hill torched the Louisiana defense for 197 yards and a touchdown on a whopping 27 carries. Perhaps most impressively, not a single one of those carries went for negative yardage. Now it shouldn't be that much of a track meet for the Bulldogs on Saturday against a unit that led the entire nation in total defense in 2018, but it's certainly worth reading the scouting report. Southern Miss Head Football Coach Jay Hopson said, "Kylin, I've known back when he was at Columbus, back in high school and we all thought he was a heck of a running back there. And he, again, he didn't disappoint on Saturday against Lafayette. He's a total package running back." |
| Mississippi State Announces Student-Athlete Development Program | |
| Mississippi State Athletics announced Tuesday the rebranding of its Life Skills department, now known as Student-Athlete Development. "As a former student-athlete at Mississippi State, this is a program I am incredibly excited about," MSU Director of Athletics John Cohen said. "Preparing our student-athletes for life beyond their collegiate careers is our ultimate mission as educators. Our Student-Athlete Development program is a comprehensive plan focused on the personal, professional and leadership development of our student-athletes from the moment they arrive on campus. Through community service, relationship building and interpersonal skill enhancement, our goal is to ensure our student-athletes have the characteristics it takes to successfully take on the real world when they leave Mississippi State with a meaningful degree in hand." |
| Alabama's family-friendly tailgate area moving back to the Quad for home games | |
 | The University of Alabama is moving its family-friendly tailgate area back to the Quad during home football games this season. "We've seen, over time, that fans really want to be closer to the stadium, they want to be closer to the Quad," said Nick Frenz, UA's associate director for event management and transportation services. "For people with small children, to have to get on a bus or walk over to the family-friendly area, which was further away, was kind of cumbersome for them." Alabama is scheduled to play New Mexico State at 3 p.m. Saturday in Bryant-Denny Stadium for its first home game of the season. The alcohol-free tailgate area will be located in the area but scaled back from the collection of attractions the university placed on the Bryce Lawn beginning in 2016. The area will feature the inflatables and a nursing station for mothers with infants, Frenz said. Navigating construction zones in town and on the interstate remains a challenge fans should keep in mind when making their plans, Frenz said. |
| UGA fans enjoyed beer sales at Vanderbilt Stadium | |
| They sold beer at Vanderbilt Stadium on Saturday, and the world did not end. Brennan Wood of Atlanta, a Georgia fan who was attending Saturday's game with his wife, Ashley, was standing in a long line in the Vanderbilt Stadium concourse to buy beer at halftime. Despite being $8 apiece, he was getting ready to buy three. "And I'm willing to pay it," said Wood, who said it was his first time doing so. "I think it's great. I think the price needs to come down, but I think they need to offer this at every SEC stadium." After the SEC presidents approved alcohol sales in its stadiums this past spring, the University of Georgia and most of the rest of the league opted to provide beer only in certain areas of the stadium and to certain segments of their donor bases or not at all. Previously, alcohol was not permitted in SEC stadiums except in suites and boxes that were held under private leases. In its first home game of the season this coming Saturday, UGA will offer beer and wine sales only on the 200 level of Sanford Stadium and only to donors who have given the university at least $100,000 cumulatively over the years. Count Wood among the Georgia football season-ticket holders who believe that's silly. |
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