| Thursday, October 3, 2019 |
| Mississippi State art exhibit explores refugee experiences | |
 | They came from Syria, the Congo, Afghanistan, Sudan and Iraq. They ended up in New Haven, Connecticut. Their stories are all on display on the Mississippi State University campus. "Unpacked: Refugee Baggage" is a multimedia art exhibit created in 2017 by Syrian-born, New Haven-based artist and architect Mohamad Hafez and Iraqi-born writer and speaker Ahmed Badr. The project opened Monday in the Cullis Wade Depot Art Gallery. The Department of Art in MSU's College of Architecture, Art and Design and the Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures in the College of Arts and Sciences helped organize the presentation of the exhibit and its accompanying events. The MSU chapter of No Lost Generation, a student organization that works to educate people about the Syrian refugee crisis, also helped bring the exhibit to campus. |
| Aldermen debate proposed short-term rental restrictions | |
| A public hearing regarding the city's development code and comprehensive plan turned into a debate about proposed restrictions on short-term rental properties at Tuesday's board of aldermen meeting. David Buchanan, who owns several rental properties in Starkville, approached the board with a list of his concerns both aloud and on paper. The city has scheduled four public hearings for the unified development code, but Tuesday's hearing was about how the land within the city limits can be used, and Buchanan said he wanted to discuss how the code seeks to restrict the use of residential land. The city's final draft of the unified development code includes a $300 yearly license to host a "short-term residential rental" in a single-family home. Later in the meeting, the board voted unanimously to take the first step in converting the railroad that bisects the city from southwest to northeast into a biking and walking path. The city will ask for permission from the federal Surface Transportation Board to work with Kansas City Southern, the company that owns the railroad, to remove the rails and turn the route into a trail. |
| Project to add 1,800 feet of sidewalk along Highway 12 | |
 | The Starkville Board of Aldermen approved a $272,600 bid Tuesday night for sidewalks to be added along sections of Highway 12. Just over 1,800 feet of sidewalk will be added thanks to the project, and construction is expected to begin within thirty days. Simmons Erosion Control, Inc. was the low bidder for the project, two other bids were considered, but each cited the cost of the project as at least $100,000 more expensive, the higher of the two bids being $597,747. City Engineer Edward Kemp said the bids were higher than initially estimated but blamed market conditions for the inflated prices as well as the extensive labor costs associated with rerouting traffic for construction along Highway 12. Sections of sidewalk will be added to the Spring Street intersection with Highway 12, Avenue of Patriots to Taylor Street and near Lindbergh Boulevard. The stretch from Patriot's Avenue to Taylor Street will be the longest by far, totaling 1,669 feet in length. |
| Entire state now under burn ban | |
 | Citing extremely dry conditions, Gov. Phil Bryant declared the entire state under a burn ban. Bryant said he made the proclamation at the request of the Mississippi Forestry Commission. The ban prohibits any outdoor burning in the state until conditions improve and the dangers of wildfires abate. The governor's proclamation did not list a specific date for the ban to expire. Beginning in mid-September, numerous cities and counties began issuing their own bans on outdoor burning. Lee County issued one last week that was set to expire Oct. 24. The statewide ban should supersede any county or city bans. The ban includes all outside burning, anything with an open flame where embers could possibly spread the fire. The only exception is gas and charcoal grills. |
| 22 soldiers injured in training accident at Camp Shelby | |
 | Multiple injuries were reported Wednesday during a training operation that went wrong at Camp Shelby around 8 p.m. Director of Public Affairs LTC Deidre Smith said Thursday morning 22 soldiers were injured Wednesday night after jumping out of a C-130 aircraft. Of the injured, seven were transported to a local hospital. The rest were treated on scene, Smith said. None of the soldiers' injuries were considered life-threatening, she said. Some were blown off course from their intended landing zone and into a stand of pine trees. Several became entangled in the branches and had to be rescued, the Associated Press reported. Smith said the soldiers were caught by a "gust of wind." Around 650 soldiers with the 4th Brigade Combat Team 25th Infantry Division out of Anchorage, Alaska, were participating in the training exercise. |
| Thousands of military troops traveling through Coast ports to train at Camp Shelby | |
 | If you've noticed more military equipment and vehicles than usual on Coast highways, it's because nearly 4,000 troops from Alaska have been arriving to train at Camp Shelby this month. Called Operation Arctic Anvil, it's the first large-scale, no-notice military deployment exercise to be conducted on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The operation tests the strengths and capabilities of the 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) and the 25th Infantry Division from Anchorage, Alaska, the newest airborne brigade combat team and one of only six in the Army. Troops arrived at the Port of Gulfport and the Port of Pascagoula, then traveled to Camp Shelby near Hattiesburg. Since being designated a strategic military port in 2015, the Port of Gulfport has supported multiple military missions. That designation means it can support military forces during deployments for national defense operations. |
| Scratch-off lottery tickets expected in Mississippi by December | |
 | Customers ages 21 and older will be able to buy scratch-off lottery tickets in Mississippi by Dec. 1, if not sooner, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi Lottery Corporation said Wednesday. Meg Annison, director of communications, outlined plans at a meeting of the Meridian Rotary Club. Initially, customers will be able to try their luck at four games, priced at $1, $2, $5 and possibly $10, Annison said. By February, the MLC will introduce Powerball and Mega Millions games, she said. Businesses interested in selling lottery tickets will have to go through a background and credit check and be in good standing with the Mississippi Department of Revenue, Annison said. "There is no maximum to the number of retailers we can accept. Right now we have more than 900 on board," Annison said. She said the MLC is anticipating about $125 million in total sales over the first seven months. |
| President Trump tweets his endorsement of Tate Reeves for Mississippi governor | |
| President Donald Trump tweeted an endorsement of Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves Wednesday night, asking Mississippi voters to support Reeves in the "VERY important" November election for governor. "Tate is strong on Crime, tough on Illegal Immigration, and will protect your Second Amendment...." Trump tweeted. "He loves our Military and supports our Vets!" Trump also mentioned Attorney General Jim Hood, the Democratic nominee for governor. Reeves retweeted Trump's endorsement and thanked him, tweeting: "The Democrats are out-of-control and Jim Hood is completely with them. We have to stand together for the future of our great state." Trump won Mississippi with nearly 58 percent of the vote in the 2016 presidential election. It's unclear if Trump will come to Mississippi to rally support for Reeves before the Nov. 5 statewide elections. |
| President Donald Trump endorses Tate Reeves ahead of November governor's race | |
 | President Donald Trump endorsed Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves on Twitter Wednesday evening ahead of what is expected to be a close governor's race with Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood. The president's endorsement comes ahead of the Nov. 5 general election race for governor between Reeves and Hood -- one of three gubernatorial races in the nation this fall, along with Louisiana and Kentucky. All three will draw national attention as observers believe Democratic candidates have the chance to win in all three Southern states. Political observers expect the president to visit Mississippi to stump for Reeves sometime before the November election as Trump's rallies for Republican candidates across the country have become a hallmark of his presidency. Trump, who has not yet announced a Mississippi or Louisiana stump, visited Kentucky in August to campaign for Matt Bevin, the state's Republican governor who is running for reelection. |
| Jim Hood prioritizes pocketbook issues | |
| Ahead of a general election that's now about one month away, Democratic candidate for governor Jim Hood is offering a populist, pragmatic array of policies that foreground middle-class earners and rural residents. Hood is a Northeast Mississippi native who was an elected district attorney in the region before he won the post of state attorney general, a job he's held nearly 16 years now. In an interview with the Daily Journal's editorial board on Tuesday, Hood said state voters face "one of those cornerstone elections" and pitched his candidacy as a reversal of course from what he described as the failed record of current leaders. "That's what the election is about, it's about the issues and the economy," Hood said. Infrastructure, education, healthcare, elimination of the grocery tax and ethics reform in the Legislature top his list of priorities, according to Hood. |
| Vicksburg takes center stage at opportunity zones discussion | |
| Business executives and government officials from across the country met in Jackson earlier in the week to discuss opportunity zones and hear the story of Vicksburg lumber. "We talked about how it originated, how we put it together, and we were able to save the jobs," said Mayor George Flaggs Jr., who was a member of a Tuesday panel discussing opportunity zone development. Gov. Phil Bryant, Vicksburg Forest Products manager William Van Devender Jr. and a representative of the law firm of Butler Snow, also participated in the panel. "The reason I was on there was because I was a part of the first one (opportunity zone development) in the United States," Flaggs said. "They asked me to speak about Vicksburg; its progress and why the opportunity zone worked for us and how it can be a model for the country." He said another opportunity zone includes the Mississippi Hardware building, which is being converted into the Mississippi Center for Innovation & Technology, an innovation and tech transfer center to serve the Vicksburg area and the entire central Mississippi region. |
| USDA relocation has delayed key studies and millions in funding, employees say | |
 | The relocation of two Agriculture Department agencies out of the District of Columbia has delayed the publication of dozens of research reports, squelched early-stage studies and halted the release of millions of dollars in funding, USDA employees say. At the direction of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, two scientific agencies -- the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Economic Research Service -- moved to Kansas City this summer. Employees at NIFA manage a $1.7 billion portfolio of science funding. ERS is a federal statistical agency whose experts study agricultural trade, farming and rural America. Staff numbers at both agencies have plummeted by about 75 percent since the relocation. At NIFA, the employees who approve the grant paperwork and release funds are gone. The publishing staff at ERS did not accept the reassignment to Kansas City. The flow of research and grants from these agencies has slowed, employees said, piled up behind the logjam of empty desks. |
| Donald Trump vents fury over impeachment, Ukraine at news conference | |
 | President Donald Trump threatened to file a "major" lawsuit against his opponents, repeatedly blasted the media as "corrupt" and reached for a barnyard epithet to describe the ongoing impeachment inquiry over his interactions with Ukraine. He did all of it within a few dizzying hours at the White House. After using Twitter to vent most of his fury at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to launch an impeachment inquiry, Trump burst into combat mode Wednesday -- plucking from a chest of scandal-fighting tactics he has used since his early days as a Manhattan real estate developer. "Just another day in paradise," Trump told reporters at one point. "Go write some phony stories." Angry and defensive, Trump came out swinging at an East Room news conference with the president of Finland, telling a reporter who pressed him for an answer to stop being "rude," and airing a litany of grievances against Democrats, reporters and an unnamed whistleblower whose Aug. 12 complaint has left his White House reeling. |
| Once an obscure diplomat, Kurt Volker at center of Trump inquiry | |
 | Kurt Volker was little known outside of foreign policy circles as the special U.S. envoy to Ukraine until last week, when the whistleblower complaint against President Donald Trump recast the once obscure diplomat as a central figure in the unfolding impeachment inquiry. Volker arrived at Capitol Hill on Thursday to testify in private to congressional investigators who want to ask about any role he may have played in Trump's efforts to press Ukrainian officials for damaging information about the son of former Vice President Joe Biden. Though his name may not have been known before last week to most Americans, Volker had a long diplomatic career, often working behind the scenes. "I think he was doing the best he could," said retired senior U.S. diplomat Daniel Fried, who described the actions of his former colleague as trying to guide Ukrainians on "how to deal with President Trump under difficult circumstances." |
| Ole Miss Chancellor Candidate Series: Sharon Gaber | |
| Editor's Note: Following a Sept. 19 board meeting of the Institutions of Higher Learning, the pool for the next University of Mississippi Chancellor has been narrowed down to eight candidates, according to a report from Mississippi Today. This week, the EAGLE will print biographies of each of the eight candidates, going in alphabetical order. The third candidate featured will be Sharon Gaber. Dr. Sharon L. Gaber began her tenure as president of The University of Toledo in July 2015. Prior to her appointment in Toledo, she spent six years as provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Arkansas. She also previously served as interim provost at Auburn University and as a faculty member and administrator at the University of Nebraska. While at Toledo, Education Dive named her one of five higher education leaders to watch in 2018 and beyond. |
| 'Bridging the gap': Ole Miss' first homecoming king pushes diversity, inclusion | |
 | After a long day of campaigning in a runoff election on Sept. 19, Carl Tart -- surrounded by hundreds of students at the University of Mississippi -- waited patiently to see if his name would be called as the first homecoming king at Ole Miss. When news of his victory came, the 6-foot, 5-inch Tart was hoisted into the air. "It was completely unexpected because you don't usually hear the results in favor of African Americans," said Tart, who heads the Student Activities Association. Tart, a Yazoo City native and a senior allied health studies student, said he wants to "bridge the gap and bring people together who normally would not even sit in the same room at the same table. "When I came on this campus and saw the dynamics of student life, I told myself that the university was too divided by race, Greeks and non-Greeks and involved versus non-involved students," Tart said. |
| LSU grad student hit by car dies in hospital; 4th LSU student death in September | |
 | Binod Nepal, a civil engineering graduate student at LSU who was struck by a car while walking in the 3800 block of Burbank Drive, has died, according to a member of the LSU Nepalese Student Association. Nepal was critically injured in the Sept. 23 incident in front of Walk-On's, near the Nicholson Drive intersection. Nepal was transported to a local hospital in critical condition. He died on Sept. 27, according to the association and his obituary with the Wilson-Wooddale Funeral Home. According to a Facebook post by Nepal Aama, Binod Nepal, 26, had been serving as public relations chair of the Nepalese Student Association at LSU. He had been walking home from class at the time of the incident, the post says. The report of Binod Nepal's death is the fourth involving an LSU student this semester. |
| VolShop '(pleasantly) overwhelmed' by 109,000 UT bullying shirt orders | |
 | When a young boy in Florida was bullied for his hand-drawn University of Tennessee shirt, Vol Nation rallied behind him. The biggest show of support has been from fans who purchased a T-shirt with a recreation of his design, with proceeds going to the nonprofit STOMP Out Bullying. The VolShop, which is selling the shirt on its website, announced that more than 109,000 shirts have been ordered by fans. That's quite a jump from the store's original order of just 72 shirts to get the process rolling back in early September. The VolShop sent an email saying, "We have been (pleasantly) overwhelmed with the support to this story." The store doesn't know when the 109,000 orders will be shipped out, and asked for patience from fans. |
| FBI: Crime at UT-Knoxville, Vanderbilt, MTSU down, reports show | |
 | Crime on three major Tennessee university campuses went down last year, according to separate data from both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Data published in the FBI's annual Crime in the United States Report tracks trends on all types of crime across the nation. The agency releases annual reports on raw numbers and rates of both violent and property crime as reported by law enforcement agencies down to local levels. On college campuses in Tennessee, the FBI tracked 1,427 crime reports over the course of 2018, spread among a reported student enrollment figure of 267,353 statewide. The report details 5.7 crimes for every 1,000 students enrolled at 24 Tennessee colleges or universities. High-profile rape trials involving football players at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and Vanderbilt University, two of Tennessee's most prominent universities, resulted in an outcry that contributed to the reshaping of how those campuses approach sexual assault. |
| Texas A&M unveils $65 million research agreement with US Army Futures Command | |
 | Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and personnel from the U.S. Army Futures Command gathered in Austin on Wednesday morning to announce a five-year, $65 million agreement for A&M System-based tech research that will support the Army's efforts to modernize its fighting forces and capabilities. The announcement comes on the heels of the late summer news that the RELLIS Campus in Bryan will host a $130 million combat development complex and research innovation center. In May, the Futures Command hosted, at RELLIS, a series of demonstrations of existing technology and equipment, including autonomous combat vehicles and other devices. According to an A&M System press release, the agreement between Army Futures Command and the Texas A&M System tasks researchers to focus on several key areas. |
| Texas A&M bans vaping across system | |
 | Texas A&M University system's new ban on e-cigarettes and vaping continues a trend of higher ed institutions responding to the spate of recent illnesses and deaths related to e-cigarette use and warnings from state and federal health agencies about the dangers of vaping. John Sharp, the system's chancellor, cited the recent vaping-related deaths when he announced the ban Tuesday. A system spokesperson said Sharp was motivated by recent studies and statements from the Centers for Disease Control, which warned about the known and unknown risks of continued vaping. The vast public university system educates more than 153,000 students and has a presence in 250 of the 254 counties in Texas. It also has a comprehensive health science center in addition to the eight state agencies, all of which will be included in the ban. A&M is not the only Texas institution restricting smokers. The University of Texas at Austin also bans e-cigarettes as part of its prohibition on smoking on campus. |
| U. of Missouri receives $4 million grant to turn biomedical research into products | |
 | The University of Missouri has received a $4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to lead 16 Midwestern universities to commercialize products from biomedical research. The Midwest Biomedical Accelerator Consortium (MBArC), based at MU, will support investigators across six contiguous states to commercialize their research innovations. The collaborations will initiate a link between MU and the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City and will include collaboration with MU campuses in Columbia, Kansas City, Rolla and St. Louis. The consortium will be led by William Fay, MU School of Medicine senior associate dean for research; Sheila Grant, MU associate vice chancellor of research and strategic initiatives and MU College of Engineering associate dean of research; and Bill Turpin, MU interim associate vice chancellor for economic development, according to a UM System press release announcing the grant. |
| Students look to federal courts to challenge Title IX proceedings | |
| Universities and colleges are increasingly experiencing legal challenges to their institutions' Title IX enforcement processes, a trend that higher education law experts say is a natural reaction to proceedings that declare "winners" and "losers." The societal pressures from the Me Too movement and repercussions from the Obama administration's 2011 guidance for how colleges should adjudicate sex assault cases have led to more civil complaints from both alleged victims and accused perpetrators of sexual misconduct who feel they were treated unfairly during Title IX hearing processes. Legal challenges in federal courts exploded following the guidance, which called on universities and colleges to vigorously root out campus sexual assault and harassment with a preponderance of evidence standard, leaving officials to determine if "it is more likely than not that sexual harassment or violence occurred." |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State's Tyre Phillips has always been a protector | |
| Tyre Phillips has always been known as the big guy with an even bigger heart. Phillips was the guy that would befriend special needs students at Grenada High School and protect them from being picked on. These days though, the 6-foot-5, 345-pounder's job is protecting the blindside of Mississippi State's quarterbacks as the bookend left tackle. Although it's his first year starting for the Bulldogs, Phillips brings plenty of experience to the trenches. He played two seasons at East Mississippi Community College and split time with Greg Eiland at left tackle last year, appearing in all 13 games and playing 345 snaps. "I kind of eased into the fire a little bit and that helped out my development," Phillips said. "I have a lot of accountability being the backside of the quarterback but I'm just progressing every week. I'm just listening and taking in what coach (Marcus) Johnson is teaching me." |
| Nick Saban mum on new California law allowing college athletes to profit from endorsements | |
 | Nick Saban is not joining the biggest conversation around college athletics of late. That conversation surrounds SB 206, the piece of legislation recently signed Governor of California Gavin Newsom, which would prohibit the NCAA from keeping collegiate athletes from profiting off of their name, image and likeness. The law is not set to go into action until 2023; several states around the country, nearing a dozen, have similar bills in the works in their respective legislative bodies. Alabama is not one of them. Saban was not interested in addressing the subject. "I don't really have much of a reaction to it. I really don't know enough about the details," Saban said on the SEC teleconference. "I don't know the details of what the NCAA and the leadership will do in our conference, at the university and the SEC office. I trust that these people will navigate through this like other issues and things that we've had in the past. I'm kind of worried about our team and how we get our team ready to play and all that. I'm not really that concerned about it or know that much about it, actually." |
| Tennessee football: Jeremy Pruitt said he didn't seek preferential treatment for Jeremy Banks by police | |
| Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt said Wednesday he was not lobbying for preferential treatment when he spoke to university police after they detained Vols linebacker Jeremy Banks last month on an outstanding warrant. Banks was pulled over around 3:45 a.m. Sept. 15 on campus. He called his coach while handcuffed in the back of a police car as officers were holding him on a warrant for failing to appear in court on a citation for driving with a suspended license. Audio of the call, captured on police video, includes Pruitt telling an officer, "I've worked at four places, and I ain't ever had no crap like this except for here. Because the people usually say, 'Hey, something's not right here.'" Pruitt said during a regularly scheduled media session that the middle-of-the-night call caught him off-guard. |
| Former Auburn softball player files civil lawsuit against Clint and Corey Myers, university | |
 | Former Auburn softball player Alexa Nemeth has filed a civil lawsuit against her former school, coaches and university administrators stemming from the softball scandal that engulfed the team more than two years ago. Nemeth, a one-time walk-on at Auburn from 2016-17, filed the lawsuit on Sept. 25 with five counts alleging sexual discrimination and retaliation in violation of Title IX. Former head coach Clint Myers, his son and former assistant coach Corey Myers, former Auburn presidents Jay Gogue and Steven Leath, and Auburn University are all named as defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Montgomery. The lawsuit outlines many of the previously reported allegations against Corey and Clint Myers from their time at Auburn, which was described as cultivating a "culture of manipulation and exploitation (that) was toxic and lacked institutional control," according to the lawsuit. |
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