| Friday, March 8, 2024 |
| Traffic delays expected March 11-15 with Hardy Road project | |
 | Hardy Road commuters can expect temporary delays March 11-15 as workers tend to a steel inlet construction project alongside the roadway. Drivers and pedestrians are advised to use caution while traveling through the area. Contact the Facilities Management Service Desk at 662-325-2005 with questions. |
| Starkville gives tax break to business landowners | |
 | You might remember the parking lot that used to belong to Vowell's Grocery store. It looks a whole lot different from what it looked like a year ago. WCBI spoke with Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill about how the city of Starkville is giving tax incentives to land owners and what that means for incoming businesses. The board approved an ordinance on Tuesday to provide businesses an incentive to improve their property, better serving the city and its residents. The owner of the former Vowell's Market has done just that. "Mr. [Roy] Oswalt has gone in under his 44 Properties business and has improved the parking. He's created a new landscape. He's improved the façade. He's improved the interior and all of that is part of why we would give a tax abatement," said Spruill. A tax abatement is a reduction in how much property tax is owed. Why would cities offer this specific type of incentive? "The answer is to pull in those kinds of new environments that are being created off of Highway 12 for example, because we do have some areas that are somewhat dilapidated or well used, we'll put it that way and could use that updated. Anyone who wants to do that is certainly welcome to do it and then apply for the tax abatement," said Spruill. |
| Supes eye borrowing money to buy road equipment | |
 | Supervisors are pondering a bond issue to pay for a wishlist of road department equipment. Based on projections compiled by Government Consultants Inc., the county could borrow up to $7.5 million as soon as this year. That would more than cover Road Manager Victor Collins' equipment needs. Two weeks ago, Collins informed the board his department needs to replace aging equipment to keep up with growing demand. His list includes motor graders, street sweepers, a chip machine and new trucks. He estimates a cost of $3 million if all his needs are met. Supervisors on Monday discussed the county's bond capacity, but took no action. Another work session is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Tuesday and will specify what supervisors want to buy and how they will pay for it. "It's just that we've got so much we want to do, and of course, we're limited on what we can do," District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer told The Dispatch this week. District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard, who serves as the board's president, said his focus is not just on road equipment but any project that supervisors want to consider. "I want to look all around the county and see what the needs are," he said. "... At this particular point, I'm open to all the options out there. I just want us to make sure we lay everything on the table and explore our options before we make decisions." |
| Hay and horse scams sweeping the Internet; Mississippi Ag Theft Bureau says be cautious | |
 | Scammers lurk around every corner of the internet, and now they're targeting those of you looking to purchase hay or horses in Mississippi. Dean Barnard, Director of the Mississippi Agriculture and Livestock Theft Bureau says his department is seeing more and more cases of these scams this year. "This is happening out of state, and you know, it's taking advantage of our local Mississippians," he said. This scam is extremely prominent to those of you living in Mississippi, due to the drought conditions that impacted most of the state last year. Hay is in short supply, and Barnard says if you see one of these advertisements, you're most likely falling into a trap. "They're advertising hay for sale that they don't have, and they use pictures off of other social media," he said. "It's a fake online site, and they demand money upfront. Usually, they want you to wire the money, or just send a prepaid card, and you never receive the horse, or never receive the hay." Barnard says the scammers typically use offshore bank accounts and burner phones. So, by the time law enforcement tries to step in, the money is transferred, and the scammer is gone without a trace. In other cases, Barnard says the scammer will send an address for you to go pick up the hay or horse you think you purchased. |
| Mississippi legislators are moving toward a showdown on how to pay for public schools | |
 | A conflict is building among Mississippi legislative leaders over whether to tweak an education funding formula or ditch it and set a new one. The state Senate voted Thursday, without opposition, to make a few changes to the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, which has been in law since 1997. The action came a day after the House voted to abandon MAEP and replace it with a new formula. MAEP is designed to give school districts enough money to meet midlevel academic standards. It is based on several factors, including costs of instruction, administration, operation and maintenance of schools, and other support services. "It also allows superintendents of districts to know roughly what they are getting every year because we have an objective formula," Senate Education Committee Chairman Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, said Thursday. The Senate proposal could require local communities to pay a slightly larger percentage of overall school funding. It also specifies that if a student transfers from a charter school to another public school, the charter school would not keep all of the public money that it received for that student. During a news conference Thursday, House Speaker Jason White said the House Republican majority is not prepared to relent on its view that lawmakers should eliminate MAEP. "It is time to once and for all acknowledge that the MAEP formula is a thing of the past," White said. "Very few understand it, and it certainly has not been followed." |
| Fight over how to fund public schools intensifies in Legislature | |
| The divide between the Senate and the House over how to fund public education -- specifically local school districts -- intensified dramatically on Thursday, setting the stage for a potentially contentious remainder of the 2024 legislative session. On Thursday, the Senate passed its public school funding plan with no senator voting no and two voting present. The Senate plan would update the long-standing Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) that features an objective formula to determine the amount of money schools needs for their basic operation. The House leadership, conversely, passed its plan on Wednesday. While it is still supported by a strong majority of the House, it lost support after its initial approval on Wednesday, when just 13 members voted against it. But on Thursday, during a vote on a procedural motion to send the bill to the Senate, 36 members voted against it. Before the vote on the procedural motion, Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, the chamber's minority leader, blasted the House Republican leadership in a fiery speech for providing members with what he said was incorrect information on the bill when it was debated Wednesday in the chamber. He said the Legislative Budget Office told him that the numbers used to determine the cost of the program and how much money each school district received were not developed by the staff of the Legislative Budget Committee as House leaders had told the chamber on Wednesday. He said as far as he knew, the numbers in the House plan were "pie in the sky." |
| House holds firm on INSPIRE Act as Senate passes MAEP changes | |
| On Thursday, education funding bills remained a hot topic in the Magnolia State's Capitol. Accusations were levied in the House concerning the passage of the INSPIRE Act the day before while the Senate passed its own version of an education funding bill that tweak the current Mississippi Adequate Education Program, or MAEP funding formula. House members overwhelming passed HB 1453 on Wednesday by a vote of 95-13. It proposes to replace MAEP with the Investing in the Needs of Students to Prioritize, Impact and Reform Education Act, INSPIRE Act of 2024. Just after the House gaveled in on Thursday, House Democratic Minority Leader State Rep. Robert Johnson called for a motion to reconsider the legislation. House Education Chairman and the bill's author, State Rep. Rob Roberson (R), made a motion to table Johnson's motion. Before a vote was held in the chamber, Rep. Johnson said his contention was that contrary to what he was told on Wednesday, the Legislative Budget Office (LBO) informed him that the numbers provided the day prior did not come from that office. He said the Mississippi Department of Education also told him they don't know where the numbers came from. While at the podium, Rep. Johnson suggested the rest of the House ask the same questions. "You're a legislator just like I am. Go down to LBO and ask them for the same thing that I asked for and let them tell you the same thing they told me. 'We don't know where it came from,'" Johnson exclaimed. |
| Mississippi Ag chief: IVF bill will lead to 'back door abortion, cloning' | |
| Lawmakers in Mississippi are moving to protect in vitro fertilization, but state Agriculture Commissioner, Baptist preacher and outspoken anti-abortion advocate Andy Gipson is calling it "the greatest assault on the cause of life that we've seen in Mississippi in a long time." Gipson, also an attorney and former longtime lawmaker, posted a video statement on social media Thursday morning, saying "Don't let anybody tell you it's IVF. IVF is already legal in Mississippi, perfectly legal." But IVF was "perfectly legal" in Alabama until an Alabama Supreme Court decision called it into question mid-February. House Bill 1688, authored by Medicaid Chairwoman Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, outlines reimbursement for community health workers. But after a Feb. 16 Alabama Supreme Court decision declaring frozen embryos are children threatened IVF and other procedures there, McGee was successful in adding an amendment to the bill that would protect the right to assisted reproductive technology in Mississippi. Gipson said in his statement the bill was modeled after a federal Democrats' bill which, he said, created a precedent for "back door abortion and possible cloning and selling of 'genetic materials of humans.'" But the bill does not mention either. "The direction things have been going in the nation, especially with all that's happening in Alabama has been a big concern to a lot of folks," McGee said. "... there is really nothing more pro-life than a family trying to conceive a child that's having difficulty in doing so and we want to protect those rights for our Mississippians who are going through that process." |
| With bipartisan majority, House passes bill to restore voting rights to people convicted of nonviolent crimes | |
| A large majority of House members voted on Thursday to approve a plan that creates a process for people previously convicted of some nonviolent felony offenses to have their voting rights restored --- the first of such a vote in Mississippi in more than a decade. The House voted 96-11 to pass House Bill 1609, a bipartisan proposal to automatically restore suffrage to people convicted of nonviolent disenfranchising felonies after they've completed the terms of their sentence. "It lets folks, five years after they've finished their sentence and satisfied all conditions, restore their rights ... for folks that have cleaned their life up and gone straight," House Speaker Jason White, R-West, told Mississippi Today. "It's not about rewarding that, but it's about recognizing it and placing them on that better path." Under the Mississippi Constitution, people convicted of any of 10 types of felonies lose their voting rights for life. Various opinions from the Mississippi Attorney General's Office expanded the list of disenfranchising felonies to 23. White, the first-term speaker, tasked House Constitution Committee Chairman Price Wallace, R-Mendenhall, and House Judiciary B Chairman Kevin Horan, R-Grenada, with coming up with a feasible plan to restore suffrage to some people convicted of nonviolent felons. |
| 'Totally excluded from the process': Jackson Senators sound off on water takeover bill | |
| A bill that would take over Jackson's water system once the third-party manager leaves is being condemned by some Jackson lawmakers, in part, because they were not consulted in drawing it up. The bill is S.B. 2628, the Mississippi Capitol Region Utility Act. Under the measure, an independent authority would be set up to purchase Jackson's water and sewer systems and take control of them once the federal takeover ends. The legislation was authored by DeSoto County Sen. David Parker, who local lawmakers say filed the bill without talking to them first. "It's very unusual for someone outside an area to propose legislation without consulting those officials that represent the area," District 27 Sen. Hillman Frazier said. "We were totally excluded from the process." Frazier, who has served in the legislature since 1980, says the water system should revert to the city once the receivership ends, and that the state should help provide resources to fund it. "I don't think this is a good idea at all at this point," he said, referring to the legislation. Jackson's Democratic Senators have raised several concerns about the measure, including the makeup of the authority's governing structure. Not all members of Jackson's legislative delegation are opposed. Sen. Walter Michel, the delegation's lone Republican, backs the proposal. "I hear a lot of my constituents who suffered from water disruptions, and they weren't happy with the way the city was taking care of business," he said. "We've gotten federal funds and we're going to get it righted." |
| Economy added robust 275,000 jobs in February, report shows. But a slowdown looms | |
 | U.S. employers added a robust 275,000 jobs in February as hiring stayed strong despite high interest rates, persistent inflation and uncertainty about the economic outlook in a presidential election year. But payroll gains for December and January were revised down by an outsized 167,000, portraying a much weaker picture of the recent labor market. December's booming 353,000 employment gains were downgraded significantly to 229,000, though that's still a sturdy total. And the unemployment rate rose from 3.7% to 3.9%, the highest since January 2022, the Labor Department said Friday. Economists had estimated that 200,000 jobs were added in February, according to a Bloomberg survey. For some forecasters, steady downward revisions to the payroll totals since early last year add to evidence that 2024 will bring a sharp slowdown in job growth. "The current trend in payrolls is steady, but a clear downturn is coming," says Ian Shepherdson, chief economist of Pantheon Macroeconomics. Economists said the report doesn't change expectations that the Fed will probably start cutting interest rates in June, with the booming February job gains offset by the downgrades for previous months. |
| House panel votes for TikTok divestiture, curtailed data brokering | |
 | The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday unanimously advanced a measure that would require Chinese-owned ByteDance Ltd. to divest its U.S. subsidiary that operates the popular TikTok app within six months or face a nationwide ban. The measure was introduced about 48 hours before the 50-0 vote, an extremely compressed timeline following lawmakers' classified briefing last week with U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials that led the committee to fast track the measure. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Thursday TikTok and its CEO, Shou Zi Chew, had lied to Congress about the U.S. company's ties to its Chinese parent ByteDance and "the level of access CCP has to our data," referring to the Chinese Communist Party. Beijing is using its access to Americans' data "for nefarious purposes," Rodgers said in remarks before the bill's markup. The panel adjourned for another classified briefing ahead of the vote. If the TikTok bill becomes law, it would mark the culmination of more than four years of efforts that began in the Trump administration targeting Chinese ownership of TikTok. |
| Internal Senate GOP earmark war renews shutdown threat | |
 | An internal Senate Republican war over earmarks in the government funding package is creating a new threat of a government shutdown Saturday, and it threatens to spill over into the race to replace outgoing Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.). Conservatives began waging their offensive against the bill Sunday, and on Thursday they pushed a resolution to condemn earmarks and reaffirm the earmark ban that reigned in Congress for 10 years. They also demanded a vote on an amendment sponsored by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to strip all of the earmarks from the bill, which total more than 6,000 and cost more than $12 billion. But the effort divides the conference, pitting conservatives such as Sens. Scott, Mike Lee (Utah) and Rick Braun (Ind.) against their own leadership and other Republican senators. Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.), for example, has requested $116 million worth of earmarks in the six-bill appropriations package pending in the Senate. Sixteen other Republican senators have also requested earmarks in the spending bills. Scott's effort to reaffirm the ban is ruffling the feathers of fellow GOP senators. "He's full of bull," fumed one GOP senator, who requested funding for home-state projects. The senator requested anonymity to vent frustration over the effort by Senate conservatives to portray GOP colleagues who request earmarks as not serious about fiscal discipline. |
| Biden Draws Sharp Contrast With Trump in State of the Union | |
 | Confronting congressional Republicans, President Biden on Thursday sought to convince Americans that his policies have bolstered the economy and warned that their freedoms are at risk in a feisty election-year State of the Union address that drew repeated contrasts with former President Donald Trump. Biden's speech before a joint session of Congress focused heavily on his case for a second term. It came two days after Trump cemented his position as the presumptive Republican nominee with victories in nearly all of the Super Tuesday states, setting the stage for an unusual rematch between two candidates who have both sat behind the Resolute Desk. Biden never uttered Trump's name but referred to his "predecessor" more than a dozen times, repeatedly comparing his record with Trump's. He appeared to relish a give-and-take with congressional Republicans who largely oppose his agenda. At one point, he referred to the bipartisan border agreement in the Senate that would have allowed the government to expel migrants if crossings surpassed a daily threshold of 4,000, prompting jeers from Republicans. "Oh, you don't like that bill, huh?" he asked. Trump opposed the plan and urged congressional Republicans to reject it. "I'll be darned," he said, adding later that he was ready to fix the border if Republicans pass the Senate agreement. The televised address offered Biden what will likely be his largest audience of viewers until he addresses the Democratic National Convention in August. |
| Biden calls Laken Riley accused killer an 'illegal' during exchange with Marjorie Taylor Greene | |
 | President Joe Biden mentioned the death of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley during his State of the Union address on Thursday and referred to the Venezuelan man accused of killing her as an "illegal." Biden's unscripted remarks, prompted by an exchange with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., provided one of the night's most tense moments. By calling the suspect an "illegal," Biden was using outdated language often preferred by Republicans -- but long abandoned by Democrats and social justice advocates -- when referring to people who have entered the country illegally. The exchange came during a portion of Biden's remarks when he was urging Congress to pass a bipartisan border security bill that House Republicans killed at the urging of former President Donald Trump. Greene, who was wearing a T-shirt that read "Say Her Name," shouted out Riley's name, prompting Biden to go off script. He stopped briefly and then held up a button bearing the victim's name. "Lincoln Riley," Biden said, appearing to mispronounce the victim's first name, "an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal -- that's right. But how many thousands of people being killed by illegals?" Biden then directed his remarks to the victim's parents, saying, "My heart goes out to you, having lost children myself. I understand." Federal authorities say Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was killed on Feb. 22 in Athens, Georgia, by a man who entered the country without authorization. In invoking Riley's death, Biden called on Republicans to pass the border security bill. |
| Biden uses State of the Union speech to tout his economic track record | |
| President Joe Biden used his State of the Union speech on Thursday night to try to convince Americans that his economic policies had improved their lives. Biden said he "inherited an economy that was on the brink" and claimed that his administration had helped U.S. businesses and consumers bounce back from the pandemic. He also talked about plans for further recovery. In the address, President Biden defended his record on the economy. He said legislation passed in his first term, like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and CHIPS Act, helped create a healthy labor market. The president pointed out that the Inflation Reduction Act will cap out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for seniors on Medicare at $2,000 a year starting in 2025. The Act also allows Medicare to haggle over the prices it pays for some drugs. "This year, Medicare is negotiating lower prices for some of the costliest drugs on the market that treat everything from heart disease to arthritis," Biden said. "It's now time to go further and give Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for 500 different drugs over the next decade." But President Biden can't just do that. He needs Congress to change the law. And even if the president wins a second term, he could face obstacles on Capitol Hill, according to Larry Levitt, head of health policy at KFF. "So if Congress is divided, many of these plans from President Biden won't be worth the paper they're printed on," he said. |
| 'Bless his heart': Katie Britt says 'dithering and diminished' Biden 'just doesn't get it' | |
 | Sen. Katie Britt characterized Joe Biden as a "dithering and diminished" president who "just doesn't get it" while delivering her rebuttal to Biden's State of the Union Address from her home in Montgomery. Britt, 42, who is the first Alabamian to deliver the response to the State of the Union, said she and her husband, Wesley, were in their living room while watching Biden's speech. "What we saw was the performance of a permanent politician who has actually been in office for longer than I've even been alive," Britt said, contrasting her youth with Biden, 81. "One thing was clear: President Biden just doesn't get it. He's out of touch," she said. "Under his Administration, families are worse off. Our communities are less safe, and our country is less secure. "I wish he understood what real families are facing around kitchen tables just like this," Britt said. Alabama's junior senator gave an impassioned rebuke of the president's policies, saying her family worries about the country's future. "The country we know and love seems to be slipping away. It feels like the next generation will have fewer opportunities -- and less freedom -- than we did," she said. "I worry my own children may not even get a shot at living their American Dreams." |
| Speaker Mike Johnson has a starkly different vision for nation than President Joe Biden | |
 | U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, the first Louisiana resident to sit on the dais for a State of the Union address, said after Thursday's speech that he disagreed strongly with President Joe Biden's vision for America. "While I appreciate his optimism tonight, no amount of flowery prose or aspirational promises can mask the failures of his time in office," Johnson said. "Despite his rose-colored depiction of our economy, prices are up, purchasing power is down, and home ownership has become increasingly out of reach for most Americans." Though Biden and the Republicans differ on policies, Johnson warned members of the GOP House majority to be civil and not interrupt the president, as happened last year. Biden, who is seeking reelection, gave a feisty speech to a sharply partisan and combative Congress. He catalogued a number of policies he says will help the middle class that would be paid for through higher taxes on corporations and billionaires. Johnson sees Biden's policies differently. "Our debt is soaring past $34 trillion. Under President Biden, we have spent nearly $8 trillion, while raising taxes and making life more expensive for hardworking Americans," Johnson said. "And this administration continues to double down on policies -- like the national LNG (liquified natural gas) export pause -- negatively impacting hardworking Louisiana families and our state's critical industries." Republicans would lead the country better, Johnson said. |
| Trump is set to finalize his RNC takeover, installing a key ally and his daughter-in-law as leaders | |
| Donald Trump is set to complete his takeover of the Republican National Committee on Friday when GOP officials vote to install the former president's hand-picked leadership team -- including his daughter-in-law Lara Trump. Michael Whatley, a North Carolina Republican who has echoed Trump's false theories of voter fraud, is set to be elected the party's new national chairman in a vote Friday morning in Houston. Lara Trump will become the co-chair. Trump's team is promising not to use the RNC to pay his mounting personal legal bills. But once the leadership changes are finalized, Trump and his lieutenants will have firm control of the party's political and fundraising machinery with limited, if any, internal pushback. Whatley will carry the top title, replacing longtime chair Ronna McDaniel after she fell out of favor with key figures in the former president's "Make America Great Again" movement. But he will be surrounded by people closer to Trump. Lara Trump is expected to focus largely on fundraising and media appearances. The functional head of the RNC will be Chris LaCivita, who will assume the committee's chief of staff role while maintaining his job as one of the Trump campaign's top two advisers. With Trump's blessing, LaCivita is promising to enact sweeping changes and staffing moves at every level of the RNC to ensure it runs seamlessly as an extension of the Trump campaign. People speculating about the RNC paying for legal bills, LaCivita said, do so "purely on the basis of trying to hurt donors." Trump's legal bills are instead being covered largely by Save America, a separate political entity. |
| Intel agencies eye brief for Trump, amid fears he could spill secrets | |
 | U.S. intelligence officials are planning to brief Donald Trump on national security matters if he secures the GOP nomination this summer -- despite concerns about his handling of classified information. The decision would be in keeping with a tradition that dates back to 1952, but it would mark the first time an administration has volunteered to share classified information with a candidate who is facing criminal charges related to the mishandling of classified documents. The Biden administration intends to share intelligence with the former president no matter the outcome of his trial in Florida, according to a senior intelligence official and a second person with knowledge of internal conversations. They, like some others interviewed, were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations. The sit-down is not legally required, but for the last 72 years, incumbent administrations have tapped the spy agencies to read in the candidates of both major political parties on some of the most pressing threats to the country. While often this is just one meeting, sometimes candidates receive several briefings. The briefings, which are managed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and approved by the White House, normally take place after the national conventions in late summer. Several current and former intelligence and national security officials who spoke with POLITICO said the normally humdrum decision was fraught with unusual risk this year due to the pending court case and Trump's historically cavalier attitude toward national security information. |
| Pentagon report finds no evidence of alien visits, hidden spacecraft | |
 | A lengthy Defense Department review of U.S. government activities related to "unidentified anomalous phenomena," more commonly known as UFOs, has found no evidence that extraterrestrial intelligence has visited Earth or that authorities have recovered crashed alien spacecraft and are hiding them from the public. The review, publicly released on Friday, covered all official U.S. investigatory efforts from 1945 to the present and examined classified and unclassified government archives. It was unequivocal in its conclusions, finding "no evidence that any [U.S. government] investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel has confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology." Reports of flying objects or suspected alien craft usually turned out to have quotidian explanations: They were "ordinary objects and phenomena and the result of misidentification," sometimes by well-meaning witnesses who thought they had spotted something otherworldly. The report is likely to be scrutinized and rejected by independent investigators, former U.S. personnel and conspiracy theorists who appear convinced the government is hiding evidence of alien life and has constructed an elaborate set of classified programs devoted to reverse-engineering their technology. Last summer, a former intelligence officer who had served on a Pentagon UAP task force sparked headlines and speculation when he told Congress that the government has a secret repository of downed alien spacecraft and corpses. The new report, compiled by the Defense Department's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), directly addressed those allegations. |
| MUW President Nora Miller: 'Shocked... I'm hoping we can kill it.' | |
| Most of the Mississippi University for Women administration, its supporters, and alumni are still in shock over Senate Bill 2715. President Nora Miller has one goal: to kill the bill and save the 140-year-old institution. She sat down with WCBI to talk about how she learned about the measure, what's happening on the legislation, and future plans. Miller was giving blood and live streaming the state Senate Education Committee hearing when she first learned lawmakers wanted to put her school under Mississippi State University's control. After the shock wore off, the emotions set in. "It is frustrating that this was dropped up without any consultation with the parties involved. It's concerning and maybe a little bit of anger that we have 400 employees here on this campus who are invested in The W and who looked to me for what the heck is going on. And I don't know. And then a sense of loss for future students," said Miller. Miller is under no illusion the eight-page piece of legislation was created overnight. After two attempts to change the university's name, which ended with a clash with alumni that exposed the school's weaknesses, with lawmakers stuck in the middle, it created an easy target at the state Capitol. "It may have. I think there's kind of a perfect storm of PERS and trying to find ways to find that possible Medicaid expansion or increased health care and the cost of that. I think the attention on the upcoming enrollment cliff that is going to be impacting all universities across the country. I think that also Senator Polk's bill, which was to direct the closing of three institutions. There's just a lot going on and we were vulnerable," said Miller. |
| Trump versus Biden: the sequel | |
 | Students and staff at the University of Mississippi are gearing up to vote in the 2024 presidential primary elections. The Democratic and Republican primaries will be held in Mississippi on Tuesday, March 12. Both primaries will award 40 delegates to the winning candidate in their respective contests, a stepping stone on the path to accruing enough delegates to secure their party's nomination. After Super Tuesday's primary elections, incumbent Joe Biden has accumulated 1,497 of the 1,968 required delegates for the Democratic nomination. To sophomore public policy leadership major and Louisiana native Wes Templet, Biden's record is one of achievement. "Biden touches on issues that affect the majority of Americans, regardless of age, gender or race," Templet said. "Whether it's student loans, rebuilding infrastructure or employment levels, Biden has shown he can deliver for the American people, for all of the American people." Sophomore finance major and Mississippian Musa Thomas is a member of Ole Miss College Republicans. "I'm supporting Donald Trump for the primary, and I believe he will win it based on trends, polls and projections," Thomas said. Austin Smith, a freshman journalism and art history major from Hattiesburg, Miss., was hoping to vote for Haley in the primary and was disappointed when she dropped out. "I supported Nikki because I am a very traditional person with my views and politics," Smith said. "She was more liberal about the fact that she wanted social changes but she still had that conservative view on economics, which I really do value." |
| Spring break safety on the minds of some Ole Miss students | |
| Ole Miss' spring break begins this weekend and hundreds, if not thousands, of students will travel to beaches for a week of fun in the sun. This year, however, those headed to Mexico may need to take some additional precautions. The U.S. has issued a travel advisory for much of the country, urging people not to go to places such as Chihuahua and Mazatlán at all. Criminal activity and kidnapping are the biggest concerns. Ole Miss senior Vaughn Beyer is traveling to Los Cabos, Mexico with a group of friends from Ole Miss. Though the embassy identified Los Cabo as a location where increased caution is encouraged, Beyer said he's not worried. "Yeah, I have been going for like, the past 20 years with my family, so we have always felt pretty comfortable. I mean there is some parts of downtown that you wouldn't really go to after a certain time, but I have always felt pretty safe there," Beyer said. Beyer, who is majoring in business, said he's aware that students do sometimes put themselves at risk during Spring Break. "I do not think it is a big issue, I think everyone is just there looking to have fun," he said. The university's William McGee Center is promoting a safe and fun Spring Break for students, no matter where they travel this year. The center, which focuses on promoting wellness and preventing alcohol and substance abuse, is also trying to arm students with information. The center's website also offers advice to parents who may want to help their children stay safe while on break. |
| Seniors at MSMS can now attend Southern Miss for free through new partnership | |
| Seniors at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science (MSMS) now have an opportunity to pursue tuition-free college education courtesy of a new partnership with the University of Southern Mississippi. Officials from both schools announced the scholarship agreement during a ceremony held Wednesday at MSMS which resides on the campus of the Mississippi University for Women in Columbus. The announcement included the presentation of tuition scholarship certificates to all 106 seniors at MSMS. Students who graduate in May will receive an eight-semester award for full tuition to Southern Miss, with the requirement that they enroll for the fall 2024 semester. "Having this new partnership with The University of Southern Mississippi is incredibly significant for us," MSMS Interim Director Ginger Tedder said. "We deeply appreciate USM's full-tuition scholarship offer for the Class of 2024. This will not only provide valuable financial support for our students but also help to address the brain drain in Mississippi by encouraging our talented students to stay in the state for higher education." |
| All 106 MSMS seniors receive full tuition scholarships to Southern Miss | |
| Students who graduate from the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science (MSMS) in May will receive an eight-semester award for full tuition to the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) with the requirement that they enroll for the fall 2024 semester. MSMS is Mississippi's only public, residential high school specifically designed to meet the needs of the state's most academically gifted and talented 11th and 12th grade students with an emphasis in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education. The partnership between USM and MSMS was announced on Wednesday at the Columbus campus where tuition scholarship certificates were presented to all 106 seniors at MSMS. Dr. Joe Paul, President of USM, called it "a strategic investment in Mississippi's best and brightest." USM Provost Dr. Lance Nail said the new partnership is a win-win situation for both schools with notable benefits tied to burgeoning STEM-related career paths. "I am very excited about our partnership with The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science. This agreement furthers a symbiotic relationship that brings together students who excel in STEM-related studies and the University that leads the state in STEM education," said Nail. |
| USDA grants Alcorn State over $1 million for agricultural research projects | |
| Alcorn State University has been granted over $1 million for agricultural capacity-building efforts related to research and programming needs. The funding came from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), through its National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Grant money was divided among the following projects: $589,993 -- Chair and Professor of Breeding Dr. Victor Njiti -- To execute the study titled "Crop Genetic Enhancement Through Genome Editing Technology and Future Agricultural Leadership Cultivation" in collaboration with Ohio State University. $249,976 -- Associate director for extension Dr. Franklin Chukwuma -- To execute the "Introducing and Integrating Stevia into Rural Mississippi Farm Operations to Improve Community Health and Income" study. $149,860 -- Assistant Professor of Agricultural Education Dr. Avis Joseph -- To execute the study "Enhancing Agricultural Education for the 21st Century Global Economy" study. USDA awarded $33 million total to support efforts at 19 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The investment will support research, extension, and education projects across the United States designated as part of NIFA's 1890 Capacity Building Grants Program for America's 1890 Land-grant Universities. |
| ICC announces upcoming building project, to include on-campus Chick-fil-A | |
 | The Itawamba Community College board will soon review contractor bids for a new building called the Connection Center, ICC announced this week. Planned to open in spring 2026 on the Fulton campus, the Connection Center will include a 3,000-square-foot Chick-fil-A and a 3,200-square-foot multi-use meeting space, ICC chief of staff Tyler Camp wrote in an email. The "Chick-fil-A will look, feel and operate as a traditional CFA," Camp wrote. "It will have seating for approximately 80 inside and additional covered seating outside. Due to contractual agreements, this type of CFA will not have a drive-thru." The meeting space -- based on current designs -- will be able to function as one large room or two smaller ones. "It will include all presentation AV, modular tables and chairs and have a catering prep kitchen that services the space," Camp wrote. The project will be funded by ICC's unexpended plant funds and by Sodexo, ICC's food service provider, which will operate the Chick-fil-A. ICC has been in discussions with Chick-fil-A and Sodexo about this project for the past three years, Camp wrote. Other ICC construction projects in the works include the softball/tennis complex project, the Student Activities Center renovation, and the remodeling of Monroe Hall from small double-occupancy rooms to single-occupancy rooms. |
| Jackson Airport prepares for Spring Break travelers | |
 | The Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport (JAN) is gearing up for Spring Break 2024. Airlines serving Jackson anticipate a significant surge in passenger traffic. Starting Thursday, March 7 until Monday, March 18, the number of fliers is expected to rise considerably during this post-winter break for students, families, and individuals. "As we prepare for this surge in travel, our team stands ready to provide a seamless and efficient travel experience," stated Rosa Beckett, Chief Executive Officer. "We take pride in our role as a vital transportation hub for Mississippi, connecting travelers to destinations on six continents. At JAN, our commitment is to ensure the safety, comfort, and satisfaction of every passenger." To ensure a stress-free travel experience, travelers should arrive at least two hours before their flight departure. Anyone with questions about TSA checkpoint rules and regulations, visit www.TSA.gov. |
| Will there be seaweed, red tide on Florida beaches for spring break? | |
 | A near record amount of seaweed is sprouting in the Atlantic Ocean on a westward track that could bring the prickly pelagic flora to Florida later this spring. Thankfully, no red tide has been detected at any Florida beaches. Red tide is an algae that produces a toxin that, when inhaled, can cause respiratory symptoms in people. But University of South Florida scientists said in January that nearly 5 million metric tons of sargassum was measured in December, far above the roughly 1 million metric tons recorded at the same time the previous year. The amount has since multiplied to about 9 million metric as tons as of last month. While the mat of sargassum, which stretches from the Lesser Antilles to near the African coast, is moving west into the Caribbean Sea, it's unlikely to reach Florida this month. The March sargassum outlook from USF's Optical Oceanography Lab says the southeast coast of Florida, including the Florida Keys, will remain largely free of sargassum until at least late April or May. That will keep the beaches clear for the annual college student pilgrimages to sites from Miami Beach to Daytona Beach to Panama City Beach. Very little sargassum was growing in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea early this year. No red tide has been detected as of March 1 at any Florida beaches, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's weekly report. |
| Alabama House passes bill that would impact diversity programs, college bathrooms | |
| A controversial bill that would ban diversity efforts in state institutions and schools has passed the Alabama House of Representatives and is now just two steps away from becoming law. SB129, authored by Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, would prohibit government institutions, including state agencies, public schools and colleges, from funding a diversity, equity and inclusion office and from sponsoring DEI programs or any program that "advocates for a divisive concept." t also would prohibit higher education institutions from allowing individuals to use a restroom that is different from their sex as assigned at birth. After nearly four hours of debate Thursday, the Alabama House passed an amended version of the bill on a 75-28 vote along party lines. The Senate will have to concur on the amendment before it goes to Gov. Kay Ivey's desk to sign into law. Co-sponsor Rep. Ed Oliver, R-Dadeville, on Thursday called diversity and inclusion programs "radical and divisive offshoots of critical race theory" that force students to accept a "far-left ideology." Several Democrats challenged Oliver's characterization of DEI programs, crediting those offices for improving diversity and student success on campus. |
| Auburn's teaching restaurant named as one of the South's best new restaurants in 2024 | |
 | The lifestyle magazine Southern Living published an article on Tuesday naming Auburn's 1856-Culinary Residence as one of the South's best new restaurants in 2024. Located in Auburn University's Tony & Libba Rane Culinary Science Center, the upscale teaching restaurant was the only spot in Alabama that made the list. This year, the teaching restaurant featured Chef Ford Fry, an Atlanta-based cook with over 20 restaurants across the Southeast. "It is a great honor and a testament to our overall vision, which is to help guide and lead the future of the hospitality industry," said Jacob Hoop, the general manager. "From the academic standpoint, along with what we have to offer, we have a Chef in Residence program. Every August, a new national-recognized chef comes in and puts their take on the A la Carte and the tasting menu." The 1856-Culinary Residence was created to support the Horst Schulze School of Hospitality Management. The name represents the year the university was founded. In November 2023, the restaurant was awarded the Five Diamond designation from AAA Travels with The Laurel Hotel & Spa, and their next big goal is to make it on the Forbes five-star restaurant list. |
| Bush Foundation announces plans for 41@100 celebration | |
 | George & Barbara Bush Foundation officials announced a three-day itinerary June 11-13 to celebrate what would've been former President George H.W. Bush's 100th birthday on June 12. The series of events, called 41@100: A Celebration of George H.W. Bush, will be held at the Bush Presidential Center at Texas A&M University. "Dad was committed to serving his country and making our communities better," Neil Bush, the former president's son and Bush Foundation board member, said in a statement. "I'm proud that his enduring legacy continues to inspire people to help others, and we hope to see many of his friends and supporters -- of all ages -- celebrating with us in College Station this June." Events begin Tuesday, June 11 with a 41 Alumni Reunion Panel featuring former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and a 41 Alumni Reunion Dinner featuring a concert by The Gatlin Brothers, who were friends of the Bushes. These events are for anyone who served George H.W. or Barbara Bush during their time in politics and public service. Funds from the event will support the Bush Foundation's Centennial Campaign, which will fund the construction of the Marine One/4141 Locomotive Pavilion, expand the endowed scholarship and program offerings at A&M's Bush School of Government & Public Service and more. "President Bush strived to live a life of selfless service and treat everyone with respect," Andrew H. Card, Jr., CEO of the Bush Foundation, said in a statement. "We're thrilled to invite George H.W. Bush's former colleagues, key Bush Foundation supporters and fellow citizens to join us over a historic three-day celebration that will honor all that he stood for during what would have been his 100th birthday." |
| House bill would protect 911 callers in hazing incidents | |
 | Pausing to take a breath, Sarah Love, a University of Missouri senior, held back tears as she recounted the story of Danny Santulli, a former MU student. Santulli, who was starting his freshman year of college in fall 2021, was a pledge for the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, commonly referred to as Fiji. As part of the initiation process, he and several other freshmen were allegedly forced to drink copious amounts of alcohol, which led to Santulli losing his ability to walk, talk and see. "If this law existed on Oct. 19, 2021, Danny could have very well been here, enjoying his last two years of college today," Love said. Love's testimony was offered in support of House Bill 1443, which would guarantee immunity from prosecution to anyone who is the first to call 911 or campus security when someone is in need of medical assistance due to a hazing incident. HB 1443 emerged out of a desire to ensure that anyone who is injured because of hazing while joining a fraternity gets medical help without fear of prosecution, said Rep. Travis Smith, R-Douglas County, the bill's sponsor. University officials shut down Fiji in the aftermath of the hazing incident. Eleven people were charged, ranging from alcohol-related misdemeanors to felony hazing. Several accepted plea deals, pleading guilty to lesser charges and serving short shock detention periods in jail. |
| Meet the woman who helped libraries across the U.S. 'surf the internet' | |
 | When former librarian and author Jean Armour Polly first introduced the idea of having computers in libraries in the early 1980s, she was met with pushback. "People scoffed and said, 'Why would you go to a library to use a computer?'" she said. Even when the internet rolled around, many librarians felt they were supposed to be the sole gatekeepers of knowledge and information. "But I just knew it would be a wonderful thing. You know, school kids could use [computers] in schools, but what about the lifelong learners? And adults and seniors?" Polly said. She got interested in the potentials of technology early on. Years earlier, in the mid-1970s, Polly had taken free computer classes while a graduate student in library sciences so. In 1981, Polly managed to secure an Apple II Plus into the small library she was working at the time in Liverpool, N.Y. At the time, there was only one other library in the nation that she knew offered public computing. Within six months, her library would add a second computer and a printer. "And we had to have these validation sessions because nobody knew how to use a floppy disk or a disk drive," Polly said. "It was the Wild West back then." She would go on to help the Liverpool Public Library create its own bulletin board system, an old-school computerized system that allowed users to exchange public messages or files. By 1992, they were offering free internet for the public, a year after the first website was introduced to the public. |
| Colleges Contend With a Tidal Wave of New Undergrad Unions | |
 | Before 2022, only two colleges had a union representing undergraduate workers. Now undergraduate students at two large universities and at least seven other colleges have unionized since October -- accelerating a trend that began 18 months ago. Nonacademic undergraduate workers now represent more than one-third of all the student employees who have unionized since the start of 2022. That's a shift in just the past eight months: Between January 2022 and June 2023, the vast majority of newly unionized student workers were graduate students, according to a report released in September. The burgeoning movement among undergraduate workers is significant because they work in jobs across the college, not just in classrooms and labs, said John Logan, chair of the department of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University. These campaigns have the potential to spur on the wave of unionization in the United States across industries outside of academe, Logan said. While most of the new undergraduate unions have formed at small private institutions in the Northeast, continuing the trend that emerged in 2022 and 2023, the Cal State and Oregon unions demonstrate that these campaigns are gaining steam elsewhere. |
| Johns Hopkins Medicine chief diversity officer steps down after viral backlash over 'privilege' definition | |
| Johns Hopkins Medicine's chief diversity officer is no longer in the role two months after she wrote a newsletter identifying people with "privilege" and sparking backlash. In the January newsletter from the Baltimore hospital and research center's diversity office, Dr. Sherita Golden wrote that "privilege" was the "word of the month," defining it as "a set of unearned benefits given to people who are in a specific social group." Those social groups were categorized as white people, heterosexuals, cisgender people, men and Christians, among others. Republican politicians and conservative media outlets seized the email as an example that diversity, equity and inclusion work is discrimination paid for with tax dollars. U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, Maryland's only Republican congressman, described the diversity memo as racist and called for Golden's termination. Golden, a vice president and professor of medicine, issued an apology in January for defining "privilege" and retracted it. Supporters of Golden and her work criticized Hopkins Medicine's response to the pushback, particularly Hopkins' statement that the definition of privilege ran "counter to the values of our institution and mission." Dr. Theodore DeWeese, dean of Hopkins Medicine's medical faculty, and Kevin Sowers, the president of the Johns Hopkins Health System, announced Tuesday that Golden decided to step down from her role as vice president and chief diversity officer after "a great deal of reflection." She will continue to work as professor of endocrinology and metabolism and diabetes researcher. |
| Democrats Make Their Case for DEI in House Hearing | |
 | During a contentious House hearing Thursday, Democrats batted back attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives on college campuses, blasting Republican attempts to blame the programs for the rise in campus antisemitism. In his opening remarks at the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development's hearing, titled "Divisive, Excessive, Ineffective: The Real Impact of DEI on College Campuses," Utah Republican Burgess Owens called DEI initiatives "a cancer that resides in the hearts of American academic institutions." His Democratic colleagues offered a forceful renunciation of that characterization. Oregon representative Suzanne Bonamici argued that changing demographics and persistent prejudice on college campuses are important reasons to keep such offices in place. "DEI offices exist to address student needs, to give strategic support to faculty [and] institutional leaders, to identify hurdles and assist faculty and staff in serving, educating and meeting the needs of increasingly diverse populations, many of whom are first-generation college students," she said. Both Bonamici and Democratic witness James Murphy, director of career pathways and postsecondary policy at Education Reform Now, sought to dismantle the image of DEI offices that Republicans often project: monolithic units designed to pump antiwhite, anti-Christian, antistraight ideology into a university. |
SPORTS
| Diamond Dawgs Return to Dudy Noble Field To Host Evansville | |
| The Mississippi State baseball team returns to action on Friday, March 8 when they host Evansville at Dudy Noble Field. The three-game series is slated for a 6 p.m. first pitch on Friday, a 4 p.m. start Saturday and a 1 p.m. finale on Sunday. The three-game series will be broadcast on SECN+ and carried on the Mississippi State Sports Network powered by Learfield, along with a live audio stream via HailState.com/OnDemand. This will be the first meeting between these two programs on the diamond. Evansville comes into this weekend series with a 7-5 record, after defeating Purdue Fort Wayne in a four-game series this past weekend. The Aces have a .345 batting average, with Mark Shallenberger leading the team with .447. The .345 team batting average is the ninth best in the nation. The pitching staff for the Aces holds a 6.13 ERA with 110 strikeouts. The Aces have played seven away games this season against Oral Roberts, New Orleans, and Vanderbilt. They are 3-4 on the road. Evansville has the second-best record in the Missouri Valley Conference, and they also lead the conference with their batting average. |
| Bulldogs Open Conference Play Against In-State Rival | |
| The No. 24/23 Mississippi State softball team will open conference play against in-state rival Ole Miss this weekend in Oxford. The three-game series will begin at 6 p.m. CT on Friday night before 3 p.m. first pitches on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday's game is set to be televised nationally on the SEC Network. The Bulldogs (17-3) are coming off a 6-0 weekend at the Bulldog Invitational presented by C Spire that saw them claim five run-rule victories. State has now won 10 games via run-rule, which is tied for the fifth-most in a season in school history. Along the way, MSU picked up three more wins against in-state teams, improving to 25-4 against teams from Mississippi under head coach Samantha Ricketts. State enters the weekend among the top 15 teams nationally in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, runs, RBIs, sacrifice flies, ERA, FIP, strikeout-to-walk ratio, WHIP, walks -- both pitching and hitting -- and walk rate in the circle. State will be busy over spring break. The Bulldogs are set to host Memphis for a doubleheader on Tuesday, March 12, before hosting ULM the following day at 6 p.m. After a day off, the Bulldogs host No. 17/19 Texas A&M for a three-game series on March 15-17 at Nusz Park. |
| Where Mississippi State basketball sits in March Madness projections before South Carolina game | |
 | Mississippi State basketball sits on the NCAA Tournament bubble as it enters a crucial regular-season finale against South Carolina on Saturday at Humphrey Coliseum. MSU (19-11, 8-9 SEC) has dropped its last three contests, though each game was a Quadrant 1 opportunity. Saturday, with South Carolina (24-6, 12-5) sitting outside the top 30 of the NET, is a Quad 2 game. Mississippi State is in familiar territory after sitting on the bubble last season − coach Chris Jans' first at the helm. The Bulldogs were among the last four teams in the field of 68 and were sent to Dayton, Ohio, to take part in the First Four. Here's a look at Mississippi State's résumé and where the Bulldogs stand in the latest NCAA Tournament projections. ESPN's Joe Lunardi has Mississippi State among his last four teams in the field of 64. MSU would avoid a play-in game. Lunardi projects the Bulldogs as a No. 10-seed facing No. 7-seeded Nevada in Omaha, Nebraska. CBS' Jerry Palm agrees with Lunardi in regard to Mississippi State's seeding. However, Palm has MSU playing in Memphis, Tennessee, against No. 7-seeded Colorado State. |
| How Tolu Smith has overcome injury to build powerful legacy at Mississippi State | |
| It was a normal practice for Mississippi State basketball until Tolu Smith came crashing down. "One of those (falls) where the gym gets eerily quiet," coach Chris Jans described it. The awkward nature of the fall, which came Friday before MSU's game at Auburn, created concern. "It didn't look very good," Jans said. Smith has battled through a variety of injuries in his Mississippi State career. With only three regular-season games left in his final season of eligibility, there was fear his tenure would end without a final chance at taking part in the SEC tournament or March Madness. There was concern he wouldn't be able to take the court when MSU celebrates senior day Saturday and faces South Carolina (1:30 p.m., SEC Network). After seeing him fall and head back with the trainers, Jans admits it wasn't easy to resume practice. "Fortunately, he survived any major damage," he said. "We had X-rays immediately and had different people look at the X-rays just to give him some peace of mind with his history." It was unclear if Smith would be able to get a chance to play against Auburn, but as tip-off approached, he told Jans he was good to go. Despite losing the contest, Smith collected his 32nd career double-double. For a player who elected to return to Mississippi State with the ambition of creating a legacy, his performance on the Plains was another example of how Smith's time in Starkville will be remembered. |
| Bell, Sheppard named to SEC basketball community service teams | |
| Graduate transfer post player Jimmy Bell Jr. and freshman guard Mjracle Sheppard were named as Mississippi State's honorees to the Southeastern Conference Community Service Teams for the 2023-24 season. Bell, who began his collegiate career at Saint Louis and later played at Moberly Area (Mo.) Community College and West Virginia, participated in a number of community service activities and events after he arrived in Starkville. He and the rest of the men's basketball team welcomed members of the MSU Access program, which supports students with developmental and intellectual disabilities, for a practice session before the Bulldogs' season. Sheppard, the lone freshman on the SEC women's community service team, volunteered with the local nonprofit Starkville Strong, which supports residents facing food insecurity, homelessness and housing insecurity. She also assisted elderly residents at Montgomery Gardens, an assisted living home, and worked with some of the local Boys and Girls Clubs. |
| Mississippi State Soccer Set to Embark on an International Journey to London | |
| Mississippi State soccer is thrilled to announce its upcoming foreign tour to London, England, from March 8th to March 17th. This exciting opportunity marks a significant milestone for the program, offering invaluable experiences both on and off the field. The Bulldogs will immerse themselves in a rich soccer culture, honing their skills and fostering team camaraderie against international competition. The tour promises to be a blend of training sessions, competitive matches, and immersive cultural exploration. Last fall, Mississippi State Soccer concluded its season with a historic run to the Sweet 16. After achieving a 12-6-5 record and an impressive 7-2-2 mark at home, the team earned a number 14 ranking from both the United Soccer Coaches Poll and TopDrawerSoccer. Head Coach James Armstrong emphasized, "The achievements of 2023 go far beyond the numbers on the scoreboard It represents a culmination of years of hard work, a commitment to improvement, and a belief in the power of teamwork." Additionally, the team continued to excel academically, garnering a remarkable 3.65 GPA last fall, the second-best GPA of any semester in program history. "We are extremely excited to continue to grow as a team this spring," Coach Armstrong added. "We have already played three matches at home, and we have three more following our trip to England." The itinerary includes friendly matches against local clubs, providing an excellent platform for the team to showcase their talent while embracing diverse playing styles. |
| Bulldogs Begin SEC Home Slate Against No. 13 Aggies | |
| Head coach Chris Hooshyar is set to host his first Southeastern Conference home match on Friday when he and Mississippi State welcomes 13th-ranked Texas A&M to the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre at 3 p.m. In the event of inclement weather, the match against the Aggies will move indoors to the adjacent Rula Tennis Pavilion. The 9-4 Bulldogs have been brilliant at home this season, sporting a remarkable 8-1 record between the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre and the Rula Tennis Pavilion. The team of Niroshan and Alessia Tagleinte leads the Bulldogs' doubles tandems in wins, having prevailed in 10 out of their last 13 matches together. Texas A&M is 10-5 the season and has started SEC play strong with back-to-back home wins over then No. 14 South Carolina and then No. 19 Florida. The Aggies defeated the Gamecocks 6-1 last Friday and followed up with a 4-3 victory against the Gators this past Sunday. Texas A&M's singles lineup is led by the top-ranked player in the country in Mary Stoiana. The junior has accumulated a 19-2 singles record this season, including a 10-1 mark during dual match play. |
| Top 20 Road Tests Await No. 22 State | |
| No. 22 Mississippi State has two huge opportunities ahead this weekend as the Bulldogs begin their SEC road slate at 10th-ranked Texas A&M and 19th-ranked LSU. MSU will start things off against the Aggies in College Station on Friday at 5 p.m. before closing out the weekend in Baton Rouge versus the Tigers at noon on Sunday. Matt Roberts' 9-3 Bulldogs began conference play on a strong note by downing then No. 43 Georgia 4-3 this past Sunday. Three of State's victories that day came against ranked opponents. Texas A&M is 10-3 this spring and split its first weekend of SEC play on the road last weekend. The Aggies were shutout 4-0 at Florida last Friday but bounced back with a 4-3 victory over then 16th-ranked South Carolina on Sunday. LSU enters the weekend 11-2 and holds a perfect 8-0 record at home this spring. The Tigers are also 1-1 in league play, defeating South Carolina 4-2 in Columbia in last Friday's opener before falling at Florida 4-1 on Sunday. LSU is set to host Ole Miss on Friday before welcoming the Bulldogs on Sunday. State has won seven of its last eight matches against LSU, including a 6-1 victory in Starkville last season. The Bulldogs dropped the doubles point but swept singles. |
| With National Signing Day move, coaches will be 'getting fired much sooner' | |
| Take a college football coach entering the final two weeks of the season with a 5-5 record. In past years, an athletic director would probably let the coach have a fair shot to finish the regular season 7-5. At the very least, a chance to go 6-6 and reach bowl eligibility. Reassess after the season finale where things stand and make a call in early December. If the coach was fired, the hiring process would get started and the next head coach would have at least a week or two to put together a recruiting class before early National Signing Day toward the end of December. With Wednesday's news of the December National Signing Day moving to the beginning of the month, the coaching carousel is expected to change. Texas A&M fired Jimbo Fisher last fall on Nov. 12 and hired Mike Elko on Nov. 26. That is the new coaching calendar in college football, multiple coaching agents have told On3. They were granted anonymity to speak freely and candidly about college football's new firing timeline. "I think that you're going to see coaches getting fired much sooner," one agent said. "Now, the cycle is going to start a lot sooner. If they stumble out of the gates, even if it's not their contract year, they could be one or two years in, a lot more moves are going to start being made. The pressure coaches are under is going to be tremendously amplified. It's going to cause a real issue with the coaching stability in the marketplace." |
| College Sports Stares Down Its Doomsday Scenario | |
| It was clear how a vote by Dartmouth's basketball team on unionizing would go from the moment players arrived to cast their ballots. Most of the 15-member roster walked over together, then stopped to pose with their arms wrapped around each other and a placard bearing the name of the Service Employees International Union. Their decision to join SEIU Local 560 was immediately challenged by the school, which has begun to appeal the interpretation from the National Labor Relations Board that the basketball team are workers who should be able to collectively bargain their conditions of employment. But the greatest obstacle to the Big Green claiming they ended amateurism as we know it isn't that their decision is rejected by the courts. It's that someone else beats them to it. The game is already over on the question of whether college athletes can be paid to play sports -- and the most obvious sign is that even the NCAA's leaders have stopped trying to turn back the tide. In the most significant concession in its existence, the NCAA is no longer fighting the notion that at least some athletes can and should get money from their schools, specifically for competing in sports. Instead, they're calling for it, while trying to stave off full-blown employee status. Coming less than five years since the NCAA threatened to kick out every school in California over a bill permitting endorsement deals for their athletes, it marks a stunning turn of events. |
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