| Tuesday, March 26, 2024 |
| MSU solar facility opens door to future phases | |
 | A solar facility at Mississippi State University will save the university money while laying the groundwork for potential solar expansion projects in the future, Ryan Burrage, state director of Mississippi for Entegrity Energy Partners, told the Starkville Rotary Club Monday. Entegrity Energy Partners is the engineering company the university chose in 2019 to facilitate its renewable energy efficiency project. "When people are thinking about solar, there's a lot of healthy skepticism," he said. "What we want to do as a company is to prove that it works financially. By having some historical data in a year or two to show the university, this is what the system has done, then it really gives us a foothold to go and talk about other expansion ideas." The facility, which includes more than 3,400 solar panels, is the largest on-campus solar array of any university in the Southeastern Conference. After coming online in June, it will produce an estimated 2.4 million kilowatt hours per year. The second part of the project includes updating the lighting in 4 million square feet of buildings with more than 110,000 LED lights. The update, Burrage said, is an immediate way for the university to save money on energy. Saunders Ramsey, executive director of MSU campus services, said the LED project is an important aspect to the university's energy efficiency efforts. "That's the one that really cash flows immediately," Ramsey said. "It's the one that makes the project doable." |
| Entegrity Energy Partners brings more solar capability to MSU | |
 | Mississippi State University is number one in the SEC in power ranking. Solar Power, that is. The university has entered into an agreement with Entegrity Energy Partners to add more solar capability to campus. The $2.5 million project will provide some of the campus's needs while also taking some of the power load off of Starkville Utilities. Ryan Burrage with Entegrity said having solar in the fuel mix is good for resiliency on campus and can give the university power when it needs it most. "So, the university does have a turbine system where they can fire up these turbines and basically go off the grid when it's needed, when energy demand is high, like August through September timeline when we're all running our air conditioners," said Burrage. The solar development is projected to save the university around $24 million in energy costs over the lifetime of the project. |
| Education: MSU Research Week returns in April to celebrate 'Research that Matters' | |
| Mississippi State will celebrate the university's impactful research during an extended Research Week April 2-12. With a theme of "Research that Matters," this year's Research Week includes several events to highlight the innovations that are driving solutions to current issues and shaping the future of scientific fields. The festivities include showcases, panels, a solar eclipse viewing event, research center tours and more, all culminating with the spring 2024 Undergraduate Research Symposium April 11-12. In addition to university-wide events, several academic colleges and departments are hosting events to highlight research in their fields. For a complete schedule of Research Week events, visit research.msstate.edu/initiatives/research-week. With research and development expenditures totaling more than $303 million in Fiscal Year 2022, MSU is among the top 100 research universities nationally. MSU researchers are working with students on worldwide challenges such as food security, solutions to diseases, social and economic disparity and cybersecurity. The university is home to centers and institutes that are leaders in areas such as aerospace engineering, advanced manufacturing, automotive engineering, autonomous systems, agriculture, data analytics and social sciences, among other areas. |
| 2024 is the year for periodical cicadas in Mississippi | |
 | The South's natural background music of the summer will start as soon as cicadas, known for their loud songs, emerge across parts of the state. Blake Layton, entomologist with the Mississippi State University (MSU) Extension Service, said Mississippi is home to at least 24 types of cicadas. These are classified as either annual or periodical cicadas. "There are about 20 species of annual cicadas in Mississippi, and they vary considerably in size, appearance and especially sound," Layton said. "Although annual cicadas occur every year, it takes them 2 to 5 years to complete a generation. Generations overlap, so some adults emerge every year." Although annual cicadas can be found throughout the state every year, periodical cicadas emerge every 13 years and only in certain areas. 2024 is one of those years that Brood XIX periodical cicadas, also known as the Great Southern Brood, will appear. These cicadas look dramatically different, with red eyes, black bodies and orange-veined wings. "Brood XIX is the largest of all broods, with cicadas emerging in parts of 15 states, including Mississippi, but they will only be found in about 17 counties on the northeast side of Mississippi," Layton said. |
| 2024 is a year for periodical cicadas | |
 | The South's natural background music of the summer will start as soon as cicadas, known for their loud songs, emerge across parts of the state. Blake Layton, entomologist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said Mississippi is home to at least 24 types of cicadas. These are classified as either annual or periodical cicadas. "Periodical cicadas are an amazing natural phenomenon that only occurs in the eastern United States," Layton said. "Although they are largely harmless, periodical cicadas can cause an unusual type of damage to fruit and ornamental trees." Layton said female periodical cicadas lay their eggs in pencil-sized twigs of hardwood trees, and the twigs can break at these scars. This can leave 8- to 12-inch sections of broken twigs hanging in trees. "Although this twig-flagging can be extensive, it causes little lasting harm to forest trees, but it can potentially have short-term effects on growth and yield of small fruit and nut trees," Layton said. "Fortunately, this problem occurs at 13-year intervals." The only prevention on a small scale is to cover susceptible backyard trees with insect proof netting before cicadas begin laying eggs. |
| Entergy Mississippi says over 4,000 customers without power following severe weather | |
 | Thousands of central Mississippians are without power Tuesday morning after showers, storms and at least one possible tornado hit the area overnight. Shortly before 8 a.m., over 4,000 Entergy Mississippi customers were without power following a series of showers and storms that occurred Monday night. According to Entergy's outage map at 7:57 a.m. Tuesday, 4,200 people were without electricity in the state. Most customers were located in the following counties: Hinds (1,731), Madison (716) and Grenada (612). Clinton, which is a city in Hinds County, was one area reported to have had a possible tornado. Mike Edmonson, senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Jackson office, said a survey team will be dispatched to the area Tuesday to assess any damage. The Clinton area is the only planned survey at this time, Edmonson said. "The only thing that was recorded was damage to a roof and some trees in Clinton," Edmonson said. "There were also trees down in Rankin County and Madison County that fell due to strong, gusty winds that were even before any type of a severe thunderstorm or tornado warning was issued." No additional severe weather is expected for the next six days, according to the weather service. |
| Officials break ground on massive agricultural market complex in Rankin County | |
| Ground has been broken on a first-of-its-kind agricultural complex in Rankin County. Last week, state and local officials joined on 153 acres of undeveloped land off Highway 18 in Brandon to put shovels in the dirt of what will eventually become the Genuine Mississippi Agricultural Market Complex. The project will be centered around a retail component based on a town square while including supply, storage, and distribution options. With these components allowing the Market Complex to safely store and process food for distribution to other retail locations such as grocery stores, restaurants, and farmers' markets, Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson told attendees that the Market Complex is the first step in attaining long-term and widespread food security. "Today is a day we will always remember as a state and as a country when we had the vision to plan ahead for our local food supply. Food security is national security," Gipson said. "This vision is about growing markets for our local farmers, making new opportunities for our local farmers at the same time as we bring new opportunities for local consumers who want fresh local food." Plans for the Market Complex feature workforce development opportunities and training for youth interested in pursuing a career in agriculture and commerce. On top of the job opportunities, leaders will look for a tourism boost out of the project set to include the full farm-to-table experience. While a tentative completion date for the Market Complex in Brandon is scheduled for 2027 or 2028, Gipson is already envisioning a positive effect and plans to build similar projects in other parts of the state. |
| Dairy cattle in Texas, Kansas test positive for bird flu | |
 | Milk from dairy cows in Texas and Kansas has tested positive for bird flu, U.S. officials said Monday. Officials with the Texas Animal Health Commission confirmed the flu virus is the Type A H5N1 strain, known for decades to cause outbreaks in birds and to occasionally infect people. The virus is affecting older dairy cows in those states and in New Mexico, causing decreased lactation and low appetite. It comes a week after officials in Minnesota announced that goats on a farm where there had been an outbreak of bird flu among poultry were diagnosed with the virus. It's believed to be the first time bird flu -- also known as highly pathogenic avian influenza -- was found in U.S. livestock. The commercial milk supply is safe and risk to people is low, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Dairies are required to only allow milk from healthy animals to enter the food supply, and milk from the sick animals is being diverted or destroyed. Pasteurization also kills viruses and other bacteria, and the process is required for milk sold through interstate commerce, the agency said. "At this stage, there is no concern about the safety of the commercial milk supply or that this circumstance poses a risk to consumer health," the USDA said in a statement. The federal government said its tests in the cattle did not detect any changes to the virus that would make it spread more easily to people. |
| Skydweller Aero makes home in South Mississippi with new drone testing facility in Hancock County | |
 | The sky's the limit in Hancock County as Stennis International Airport is now home to a new testing facility for an unmanned solar-powered drone here in Mississippi, led by Skydweller Aero. "We chose Stennis for the leadership represented here in Mississippi for both the state and federal levels," Skydweller Aero CEO Robert Miller said. Elected officials in Mississippi like Governor Tate Reeves, Congressman Mike Ezell, and both Senator Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith had the chance to not only tour the facility but also get an up close and personal look at the drone Skydweller made. The unmanned solar-powered drone will be responsible for boosting the country's defense by making sure no illegal drugs are crossing the border into the country. A common theme was talked about among the elected officials for Mississippi. "We do things here in Mississippi that no one else is doing anywhere else in the south or in the United States or in the world. And it's because we can do things here in Mississippi that they can't do anywhere else because we have smart, good, and hardworking people and focused on jobs for the next 50 years," Governor Reeves said. "It shows how far technology has gone. But it also shows that we can do this here in Mississippi with Mississippi people on the ground helping this to be successful and it's ok for me to say the sky's the limit," Senator Roger Wicker said. |
| Lawmakers aim to gift casinos a market monopoly, threaten property rights, critics say | |
 | Some property owners could lose their land and planned casinos would be jettisoned under legislation that has gained broad support among lawmakers and gives the state more control over the Coast's waterfront, several Coast attorneys say. "This bill may be the most radical change in property law of any kind since Mississippi became a state in 1817," said Gulfport attorney Virgil Gillespie, one of Mississippi's foremost experts on Coast tidelands laws. The laws govern property subject to the ebb and flow of the tides on the Mississippi Sound and coastal bays. "It's just too overreaching and troublesome," Gillespie added. "This bill will keep hundreds of lawyers busy for at least 10 years." Several Coast attorneys who represent local governments included Gillespie's remarks in a memo they drafted on the new bill and recently sent to key legislators. The bill makes sweeping changes to current law and upends state Supreme Court decisions, says the memo drafted by city of Biloxi attorney Peter Abide, Harrison County Board of Supervisors attorney Tim Holleman and Jim Simpson, an attorney who has represented the city of Long Beach and served for 14 years in the state Legislature. Sen. Mike Thompson of Pass Christian, a co-sponsor of the Senate's legislation, said the bill is intended to bring stability to the casino market and create a uniform framework for local governments to operate their harbors and build waterfront amenities such as piers. Sen. David Blount, the Gaming Commission chairman who introduced the bill, also says it is intended to create "a stable business environment" for the casino market. |
| State Rep. Jackson indicted for possession of stolen property | |
| State Representative Keith Jackson (D), who represents House District 45, was indicted by a Kemper County Grand Jury in a case involving stolen property. Jackson, a first-term lawmaker elected last year, and two other individuals in the indictment were accused of having possession of stolen property -- a stolen log trailer -- that was being used for Jackson's business. The two other individuals accused in the case are William Tate and Frederick Young. According to the Kemper County Sheriff's Department, Jackson turned himself in around 8:30 a.m. on Monday, March 25. He is charged with a felony crime of receiving stolen property valued more than $1,000 but less than $5,000. Reports citing Sheriff James Moore said Jackson told law enforcement he was working for Young when Young indicated he wanted to sell the trailer. Jackson then arranged for Young to meet with Tate to purchase the trailer. Rep. Jackson was elected to the Mississippi Legislature in 2023. The Democratic freshman represents parts of Kemper, Lauderdale, Winston, and Neshoba counties. He serves on the Agriculture, Constitution, Corrections, Forestry and Judiciary B committees in the House of Representatives. According to his legislative profile, Jackson works in law enforcement and attended the Law Enforcement Training Academy. |
| Officials investigating after Madison County defrauded out of $2.7 million | |
| A national and international investigation has been launched after officials say Madison County was defrauded out more than $2.7 million. The announcement was made at Monday's special called board meeting. Much of the meeting was conducted in executive session. No action was taken behind closed doors. Board President Gerald Steen said in a written statement that supervisors were informed of the fraudulent activity on March 19. The funds were wired to a fraudulent vendor that was presenting themselves as one of the county's current vendors. He said the county immediately contacted the Madison County Sheriff's Department, the U.S. Secret Service, the Mississippi Attorney General, the Mississippi State Auditor and Federal Bureau of Investigation. "The investigation is in it's infancy. An update will be held once investigators have more information," he said. Additional safety measures are being put in place to prevent future incidents like this from occurring. County Administrator Greg Higginbotham is expected to provide more details on those at the next board meeting. No county employees have been fired. |
| Still no word from fifth circuit on future of airport | |
| Exactly when the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will issue a ruling on the lawsuit that would do away with the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority and replace it with a regional board remains to be seen. Matt Steffey, professor of law at Mississippi College School of Law, expects a ruling by summer at the latest, although a court can take all the time it needs. "There are internal guidelines or standards for appellate cases, but they can be extended as necessary," he said. The lawsuit dates to 2016 when former Gov. Phil Bryant, signed Senate Bill 2162. The law amended the Mississippi Code to abolish the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority (JMAA), which operates the Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport, and replace it with a regional board known as the Jackson Metropolitan Area Airport Authority. Josh Harkins, a Republican senator who represents District 20 who was among authors of Senate Bill 2162, said he thought the bill was a good idea in 2016 and he still thinks it's a good idea. "I felt like the makeup of the board (JMAA) wasn't indicative of what it needed to be," said Harkins, who wrote the bill along with Dean Kirby (R-District 30), Philip Moran (R-District 46), Chris Caughman (R-District 35) and former Sen. Nickey Browning (R-District 3). Harkins believes the airport authority has not done enough in "making the airport what it could be" and in attracting new airlines. |
| Why the tables turned, leaving conservatives as loser in spending fight | |
 | The tables have turned for House conservatives. Six months ago, emboldened by a new GOP majority and armed with new rules designed to rein in government spending, Republican deficit hawks stormed into the 2024 appropriations debate hoping to secure steep cuts and threatening to take on anyone who stood in their way. When their Speaker, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), cut one too many spending deals with President Biden, they booted him from power. But Congress last week wrapped up the 2024 spending battle with bipartisan votes to approve a massive, $1.2 trillion government funding package -- and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) survived the biggest fight of his short, five-month tenure. Indeed, for all the dramatic flourishes and public outrage, the conservatives failed to change the trajectory of the spending debate -- save delaying it a few months and splitting the sprawling package into two pieces -- while Johnson was able to cut deal after deal with Biden and the Democrats without suffering McCarthy's fate. It was hardly the outcome the conservatives envisioned as they pressed party leaders to leverage their House majority for the sake of drastic spending cuts, even if it meant shutting down the government. But as frustrated hard-liners left Washington last week following passage of the $1.2 trillion package -- which followed closely on the heels of a separate $460 billion spending "minibus" -- many acknowledged their defeat and suggested Johnson's fate was out of their hands. |
| Biden administration invests $6 billion in low-carbon industrial production | |
| The Joe Biden administration is using public policy to boost the supply of and demand for clean energy. On Monday, the Department of Energy announced $6 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fund several dozen projects meant to help decarbonize the industrial sector and reduce the cost of environmentally friendly manufacturing. That includes the production of iron, steel and cement; food and beverages; and glass, paper and chemicals. The DOE emphasized that these industries generate a lot of emissions and are hard to decarbonize. Making cement, steel and glass requires a ton of energy. Normally, much of that energy comes from fossil fuels. Some of the projects the Department of Energy is funding are focused on making cement with something other than limestone. And new ways to make steel, too, without coal. "It really is redesigning an industrial process," said Steven Nadel at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. That's challenging, he said, but critical for the environment and the economy. Realistically, said Barbara Kates-Garnick of the Fletcher School at Tufts University, private industries aren't going to invest enough in decarbonizing on their own. "They see huge risks, they see huge investment," Kates-Garnick said. "You need to have government funding in all of this." |
| Mississippi selected as one of two first of their kind 'green steel' facilities | |
| Mississippi is getting one of the first two of their kind hydrogen-ready iron-making facilities, the Department of Energy's Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations has announced. The $1 billion investment is being made in to two facilities -- one in Perry County, Mississippi, and the other in Middletown, Ohio. The federal cost share for the Mississippi project is up to $500 million. Swedish green steel leader SSAB will build the first commercial-scale facility in the world using the HYBRIT®, fossil-free Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) technology with 100% hydrogen in Perry County. The company says this initiative will enable SSAB to expand its sustainable domestic supply chain for steel products and also to advance the U.S. renewable energy transition objectives in response to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. The Department of Energy says this project aims to generate an estimated 6,000 construction jobs and 540 permanent jobs. SSAB plans to engage the Perry County Small Business Development Center to solicit and support vendors, contractors, and sub-contractors for the project and subsequent facility operations. Additionally, SSAB plans to partner with CERM Legacy Foundation to provide STEM-focused summer camp scholarships for qualifying high school students in underrepresented communities, assist curriculum development, and interact with students including offering field trips to the Perry County facility. |
| Truth Social Stock Price Surges on First Day of Trading, Increasing Trump's Fortune | |
 | Shares of Donald Trump's social-media company surged 40% on their first day of trading, boosting the presidential candidate's fortune. The question is, how soon can he tap his roughly $5.5 billion stake in Truth Social? That is up to the board of Truth Social's parent company. The group includes his son, three former members of his administration and the former congressman who took a leading role in defending the former president in his first impeachment trial. Truth Social's parent company began trading Tuesday under the ticker DJT, Trump's initials. Its shares soared after the opening bell, giving it a market value of roughly $9.5 billion. The gobsmacking stock price makes Trump's approximately 60% stake worth approximately $5.5 billion. Those values will continue swinging with the stock price. Trading was so intense that Nasdaq temporarily halted trading. The timing couldn't be better for Trump. On Monday, a judge ruled that Trump can pay $175 million to put his $454 million civil-fraud judgment on hold during his appeal. Trump hadn't been able to get a bond to cover the whole judgment. The $175 million is a fraction of Trump's newfound wealth, but his shares are just out of reach. Typically, people involved in the type of deals that brought Truth Social to the stock market aren't allowed to sell or borrow against their shares for six months. The seven-member board would need to grant Trump a waiver if he wished to make such moves before then. |
| Apple lawsuit pits US free-market goal against app security | |
 | The Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against Apple aimed at getting the tech giant to reduce entry barriers to its app store is likely to clash with the U.S. goal of preventing apps like TikTok from getting on Americans' smartphones. In the lawsuit, the Justice Department and attorneys general of 15 states and the District of Columbia allege that Apple Inc. violated antitrust laws by using its dominant iPhone platform to freeze out competitors and used its app store clout to keep some apps out and raise prices for consumers. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said that Apple "selectively restricts access to the points of connection between third-party apps and the iPhone's operating system, degrading the functionality of non-Apple apps and accessories." The goal of the lawsuit, Garland said, is not to stop Apple from vetting apps but to ensure that Apple does not engage in "exclusionary" actions that affect competitors. Just a week earlier, the House overwhelmingly passed legislation that would require Apple and Google to stop allowing TikTok on their app stores unless ByteDance, the Chinese owner of the app, divests it to a company not owned by a foreign adversary. Lawmakers are concerned that TikTok is sending Americans' data to Chinese authorities. The Senate has yet to take up the measure. President Joe Biden has said he would sign the bill if it clears Congress. The two actions appear to contradict each other in terms of the role that the U.S. government expects app store owners to play, said Daniel Castro, vice president at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a think tank that focuses on innovation policies. Congress wants "these platforms to be gatekeepers only sometimes, when they want them to potentially block TikTok. But they don't want them to be gatekeepers when they are doing things to ensure the privacy, security and integrity of their platforms," Castro said. "You can't have it both ways," he said. |
| Supreme Court hears its biggest abortion case since the fall of Roe | |
 | The fate of abortion access is back in the hands of the Supreme Court, where justices will hear oral arguments Tuesday on a case that could roll back availability of abortion pills nationwide. This is the first major reproductive-rights case to come before the court since the 2022 Dobbs ruling, which ended the federal right to abortion. Since then, more than a dozen states have enacted restrictions or near-complete bans on the procedure. That's coincided with and fueled a surge in use of mifepristone, one of two pills used together to terminate a pregnancy up to 10 weeks of gestation. Anti-abortion groups and conservative lawmakers, who are working to restrict access to the pills in a number of ways, have asked the Supreme Court to roll back rules the FDA issued in 2016 and 2021 that made it much easier to obtain the pills, including allowing telemedicine prescription and mail delivery. A decision in favor of the challengers would restrict access to the pills for millions -- even those in blue states that protect abortion rights -- and put more pressure on the dwindling number of clinics that provide surgical abortions at a time they're struggling to serve a wave of people traveling from red states. The case could turn on how much deference the justices show to the FDA's decisions increasing access to mifepristone. Another issue that could derail the challenge is whether the four anti-abortion medical groups objecting to the FDA's actions have legal standing to pursue the case. |
| Key Bridge collapses into Patapsco River in Baltimore after vessel hits support column; state of emergency declared | |
| Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed early Tuesday after a container ship struck a support column, sending at least seven cars into the Patapsco River, launching a search-and-rescue operation and prompting Gov. Wes Moore to declare a state of emergency. In a news conference just a few hours after the 1:20 a.m. collision, Baltimore Fire Department Chief James Wallace said authorities are "still very much in an active search and rescue posture," noting they are searching for "upwards of seven individuals" and that sonar has detected the presence of vehicles in the water. There was no indication that the event was intentional, Wallace said. Authorities have not determined the cause, but U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin told The Baltimore Sun in a phone interview that indications point to the vessel losing power, causing it to lose steering. "What's been indicated is the vessel lost power, and when you lose power you lose steering," Cardin said. "But they're doing a full investigation." All vehicle traffic has been rerouted from the 1.6-mile steel bridge, which is part of Interstate 695, a major thoroughfare and one of Baltimore's three toll crossings. The bridge carried more than 12.4 million commercial and passenger vehicles in 2023 -- roughly 34,000 a day -- according to a November report. The Key Bridge, which opened in March 1977 after five years of construction and cost an estimated $110 million, is named for the Marylander who wrote the lyrics for "The Star-Spangled Banner." |
| 'Duty to warn' guided US advance warning of the Moscow attack. Adversaries don't always listen | |
| The U.S. warning to Russia couldn't have been plainer: Two weeks before the deadliest attack in Russia in years, Americans had publicly and privately advised President Vladimir Putin's government that "extremists" had "imminent plans" for just such slaughter. The United States shared those advance intelligence indications under a tenet of the U.S. intelligence community called the "duty to warn," which obliges U.S. intelligence officials to lean toward sharing knowledge of a dire threat if conditions allow. That holds whether the targets are allies, adversaries or somewhere in between. There's little sign Russia acted to try to head off Friday's attack at a concert hall on Moscow's edge, which killed more than 130 people. The Islamic State's affiliate in Afghanistan claimed responsibility, and the U.S. said it has information backing up the extremist group's claim. John Kirby, the Biden administration's national security spokesman, made clear that the warning shouldn't be seen as a breakthrough in U.S.-Russian relations or intelligence-sharing. "Yeah, look, there's not going to be security assistance with Russia and the United States," Kirby told reporters Monday. "We had a duty to warn them of information that we had, clearly that they didn't have. We did that," Kirby said. Such warnings aren't always heeded -- the United States has dropped the ball in the past on at least one Russian warning of extremist threats in the United States. |
| Larry Fink Says World Leaders Must Address Growing Retirement Crisis | |
| Larry Fink sees a global retirement crisis brewing. The 71-year-old chief executive of BlackRock says an aging population is stressing retirement safety nets such as Social Security, an issue that is set to worsen as medical breakthroughs like weight-loss drugs extend people's lives. "As a society, we focus a tremendous amount of energy on helping people live longer lives. But not even a fraction of that effort is spent helping people afford those extra years," Fink wrote in his annual letter to shareholders. BlackRock, the world's largest money manager with $10 trillion in assets, says more than half of the assets it manages are for retirement. Getting more people investing more of their assets in capital markets is key to securing comfortable retirements, Fink says. "No other force can lift more people from poverty or improve quality of life quite like capitalism," he wrote. Fink offered thoughts on improving retirement systems, addressing the national debt and investing in the global energy transition in a wide-ranging letter that avoided many of the subjects that have generated controversy for BlackRock in the past. Two of the biggest economic challenges in the mid-21st century will be providing secure retirements and building the massive amount of infrastructure the world needs for digitization and energy, Fink wrote, adding that capital markets will be key to addressing both. "In my 50 years in finance, I've never seen more demand for energy infrastructure," he wrote. |
| Could UAW victory at VW in Chattanooga spread unions across the South? | |
| At the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Isaac Meadows works on the line outside the paint shop. The gleaming car bodies, traveling along a path as long as a football field, stop in front of Meadows at a steady clip, and he attaches parts before the car-in-the-making moves down the line to the next worker. "The work is very entertaining. I enjoy building stuff," said Meadows, 40, who moved to Tennessee from Reno, Nevada, for a change of pace and found work at VW. "I don't have any complaints about the actual job itself." Meadows, who has worked at the VW plant for a year, does have other complaints. He wants to be paid more. He wants more control over his schedule, when he can take breaks or when he has to work a Saturday shift. He wants more of a voice at the company. That's why he supports the United Auto Workers' current campaign to form a union at the Chattanooga VW plant. He's not alone. A supermajority of workers at the Chattanooga plant signed cards showing their support for a union, according to the UAW. Last week, they filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a union election at the plant. In response, President Joe Biden issued a press release congratulating the VW workers. It's no surprise to scholars and industry experts that this occurred months after a 6-week national UAW strike ended last October with a favorable, new contract for 145,000 employees at Ford, Stellantis and General Motors, including the GM plant in Spring Hill -- outside Nashville. The UAW, a union founded in the 1930s, has now turned its sights to non-unionized, often foreign-owned car plants, many of which are located in Southern states such as Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina. |
| Auburn University-owned plane crashes in Opelika, pilot injured | |
 | A single-engine plane owned by Auburn University crashed Sunday in Opelika, injuring the pilot, according to authorities and flight records. The Textron Aviation 172S crashed at the dead end of Watson Street; the aircraft was flipped over and had substantial damage, according to records and a photo of the crash posted by Opelika police on social media. The mostly white plane, which had blue and orange streaks with an Auburn logo at the tail of the aircraft, was registered to Auburn University, records showed. The pilot, who was the only occupant, suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said. The pilot was identified by WTVM as a female student pilot but Auburn could not immediately be reached by AL.com to confirm the report. |
| AU earns $850K grant to research disparities that impact rural Black people living with MS | |
 | Auburn University's College of Education has received an $850,000 grant to support its efforts to research health disparities in rural communities. Funds from the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation will go toward a pioneering study that examines the impact discrimination has had on Black people living with multiple sclerosis in rural communities. This is the first grant Auburn has received from the foundation. As a part of AU's study, researchers will work together to develop a patient-centered psychological intervention, which has potential to significantly advance science. The expected outcomes include a roadmap for an evidence-based psychological treatment plan that will provide a strong foundation for specialists to move toward clinical trials. According to AU, findings from the study will help researchers develop customized support for patients, improving the disproportionate health outcomes in this population. Black people experience "a more aggressive progression and greater incidence of disability from multiple sclerosis than other groups," said Evelyn Hunter, an associate professor of counseling psychology with Auburn's College of Education. Hunter will lead the study. He is collaborating with Dr. William Meador, a neurologist at University of Alabama at Birmingham; Marilyn Cornish, an associate professor of counseling psychology at AU; and Candice Hargons, an associate professor of counseling psychology at the University of Kentucky. |
| U. of Tennessee women's organizations help women build confidence as they enter male-dominated fields | |
| In the United States and across the globe, despite modern societal advances, some career fields still struggle with accepting women into their workforce. Male-dominated industries like construction, engineering, business, athletics and others see disproportionate gender gaps because of work/life balance issues, wage and gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and lack of support and opportunities. However, in recent years, progress has been made to close these gaps, and female organizations here at UT are helping to contribute to this progress. Organizations like Women in Accounting, Women in Construction, Women of Haslam, Women in Sports Collective, Leading Women of Tomorrow, Women's Organization of MBAs and Alpha Sigma Kappa (women and gender minorities in STEM sorority) are all making a powerful difference by offering spaces of inclusion and empowerment to help launch one another into their chosen career paths despite adversities they may face because of their gender. Lillia Hendrickson, a first-year MBA student concentrating in business analytics is the president of WOMBA, an organization dedicated to supporting women at UT who are pursuing master's or doctoral degrees in not just business, but any male-dominated field. "The main challenge that I see is imposter syndrome and feeling like your voice won't be heard in a man-dominated industry," Hendrickson said. |
| Texas A&M students protest the end of DEI in Texas | |
 | Several dozen students assembled on Texas A&M University's campus Monday afternoon to protest in favor of the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that were outlawed at the beginning of this year. On Jan. 1, Senate Bill 17 went into effect, banning all DEI initiatives at publicly funded institutions of higher education in Texas -- including those "designed or implemented in reference to race, color, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation," according to the law. At Texas A&M, this resulted in the closure of the university's office of diversity and the LGBTQ Pride Center. The protest was hosted by Rosies -- an intersectional feminist student organization that supports inclusivity. The protest began in Rudder Plaza as participants marched to the Sterling C. Evans Library holding handmade signs and chanting phrases such as "DEI till we die" or "Black, white, gay, straight, love does not discriminate." Autumn Borowski, the philanthropy executive for Rosies said DEI is fundamental to their organization. "We deal with issues that aren't specific to women," she said. "We believe that women are impacted by different things in different ways. Included in that are things like diversity, equity and inclusion. When SB 17 went into effect this past January, it precisely affected everyone in our organization and we want people to know that just because this bill is now a law, it doesn't mean we can't do anything about it." After the closure of the Pride Center in January, Borowski said the university felt less inviting to many students on campus. |
| Higher education in Texas: What lawmakers hope to tackle in the 89th legislative session | |
| In the legislative session last year, Texas lawmakers revamped the state's community college financing model, boosted research funding at several universities and invested billions in higher education. Lawmakers also passed controversial measures dealing with higher education such as Senate Bill 17, which bars public colleges and universities from having diversity, equity and inclusion offices or performing those functions, and SB 18, a law to further regulate how a tenured professor can be fired. With the 89th legislative session set to begin in January, Texas' higher education is again in the crosshairs, with Republican and Democratic lawmakers having disparate views on postsecondary education, officials told the American-Statesman. At a policy summit hosted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank, in downtown Austin last week, conservative panelists, including state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, called Texas a leader in the fight against "woke" ideologies -- also referred to as identity politics -- on college campuses. They also said Texas is far from done. In response to a question about further limiting tenure protections, Bettencourt told the crowd that "everything's on the table" for the next session. "We filed bills about tenure last session; I expect we'll file bills about tenure again this session," he said. Bettencourt also spoke against faculty senates. At the panel, he accused faculty senates of convening to circumvent SB 17 and censoring presidents such as a fellow panelist, West Texas A&M President Walter Wendler, who was presented with a lawsuit from student leaders and a vote of no confidence from faculty after he canceled a drag show on the small campus on the outskirts of Amarillo. |
| Too much protein can lead to artery blockage, U. of Missouri research cautions | |
 | Protein is good for you until it isn't, according to University of Missouri research. It stops being healthy when a person consumes too much of it. Bettina Mittendorfer led the research. She is senior associate dean for research at the University of Missouri School of Medicine and director of the NextGen Precision Health and Translational Science Unit. "Identification of a leucine-mediated threshold effect governing macrophage mTOr signaling and cardiovascular risk" was published in Nature Metabolism. The research focused on macrophage cells. When a person consumes protein, they're also consuming leucine. The amino acid triggers the development of macrophage cells in the blood. Leucine is in animal proteins including beef, eggs and milk. Normally, the macrophage cells keep blood vessels free of plaque buildup, which is desirable. When macrophage production increases, spent cells instead contribute to plaque buildup in arteries, leading to atherosclerosis, a leading risk factor for heart attack and stroke. "Consuming more than 22% of daily calories from protein causes this plaque buildup," Mittendorfer said. Finding the right balance of protein is important, she said. |
| Digital Media Literacy Becoming a Graduation Requirement | |
 | Universities spent the late 1990s and early 2000s ensuring students could attach documents to email, fill out spreadsheets and perform other basic computer skills. But the information age has led to a changing of the guard, with a new focus on digital or media literacy for incoming students. "As we looked toward the needs of students, we found there's a lot of information out there and students may not know how to discern what's accurate information, what sources are reliable and how to ethically engage with the information coming [their] way," said Lynn Hogan, Florida State University's associate provost and director of critical thinking initiatives. Since last year, Florida State has required incoming students to complete a digital-literacy course even as it phases out the familiar computer competency requirement. FSU joins a small but growing number of institutions adding the requirement. While most of the institutions call the requirement digital literacy, it is closer to what has often been termed media literacy with a focus on understanding and identifying accurate online news sources, misinformation, opinion and advertising. The ongoing influence of social media, concerns about deliberately false news stories and the rise of artificial intelligence has added urgency to the effort. |
| 1 in 3 companies are ditching college degree requirements for salaried jobs | |
| It's becoming easier to get a corporate job without a college degree: 1 in 3 companies say they no longer list educational requirements on their salaried job postings, according to Payscale's latest compensation best practices report. Still, it's most common for companies, 41%, to say college degree requirements depend on the job, while a minority, 22%, say all of their jobs have a degree as a requirement. Payscale's analysis surveyed more than 5,700 business leaders and HR pros in late 2023. As companies deprioritize college degree requirements, they're turning their attention to hiring candidates with the right skillsets, Ruth Thomas, a pay equity strategist with PayScale, said during a briefing with reporters. The move could benefit the roughly 62% of U.S. workers who don't have a degree, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. While no-degree hiring doesn't apply to jobs that never required a degree, or professions like doctors or lawyers, it could have a big impact on hiring for middle-tier jobs like construction managers, sales supervisors, web developers, cybersecurity and IT help desk specialists, CNBC reports. But removing education requirements doesn't automatically lead to more equitable hiring among people without degrees. Recent research from Burning Glass Institute and Harvard Business School shows candidates without degrees aren't getting as many good job offers as those with degrees. "Unfortunately, what we found is for the most part, employers are still hiring the same people they were before," Matt Sigelman, president of the Burning Glass Institute, told CNBC. |
| Higher Ed Workers Seek to Coordinate Nationally | |
| It's a boom time for higher education organizing. Last year alone, 26 new bargaining units representing over 40,000 graduate student workers, postdoctoral workers or researchers earned certification or voluntary recognition, according to the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions (National Center). Strikes also increased and came to large universities such as Rutgers, which had its first faculty strike in its over 250-year history. But there are major obstacles to further increasing solidarity: higher education workers are fragmented, and many lack collective bargaining rights. And this divided group is facing problems nationally, including funding challenges, a shift from tenure-track to contingent labor, and threats to academic freedom and other rights. Now a developing organization, Higher Ed Labor United, or HELU, is seeking to forge a national coalition of all types of higher education workers -- regardless of which union they're in or whether they're in any union, and regardless of their job title. Joe Berry, a labor historian and longtime contingent faculty member who was among the founders of the Chicago Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor, is on the group's interim steering committee. HELU isn't a union itself; Berry said it aims to be a political voice, lobbying and supporting and opposing candidates for office at a national level. He said it also intends to be a think tank for higher education labor and a vehicle for informing and supporting workers across unions and universities to help them organize, bargain and take other action. |
| FAFSA delays should put gainful employment on back burner, lawmakers say | |
| Senators from both sides of the aisle are pushing the U.S. Department of Education to delay implementation of its gainful employment rule amid a rocky release of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. In a Thursday letter, the four legislators urged U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to extend the July 1 deadline for colleges to submit student outcome and financial transparency data. They also asked the Education Department to further ease its verification requirements for colleges' financial aid offices. This year's updated FAFSA is intended to simplify the financial aid process, but the glitchy rollout has only made it more challenging, they wrote. The Education Department released the long-awaited final version of its gainful employment rule in September. The regulation requires career programs to prove their students earn more than they owe following graduation, and that at least half outearn state residents with only a high school diploma. Low-performing programs could lose access to federal funds, likely keeping students from enrolling and shutting them down. Colleges must report gainful employment data to the Education Department by July 1. Despite this, the agency has no intention of publishing data or taking regulatory action until July 2026, lawmakers said this week. The group -- Republican Sens. Roger Marshall (Kansas) and Tommy Tuberville (Alabama), and Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine (Virginia) and John Hickenlooper (Colorado) -- urged Cardona to extend the July deadline, without pushing back the planned 2026 timeline. |
| Trump-era tax cuts contributed to a decline in higher ed giving, with fewer Americans donating to colleges and universities | |
| Policy changes brought on by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which former President Donald Trump signed into law at the end of 2017, appear to have led many small-dollar donors to give less money to colleges and universities -- or to stop giving altogether. Individual donations, whether from graduates or people who didn't attend those colleges and universities, declined by 4% from US$44.3 billion in the 2017-2018 academic year to $42.6 billion two years later. That's what my colleague, Sungsil Lee, and I found when we examined a decade of data regarding charitable contributions to 660 colleges and universities and adjusted the totals for inflation. We also found that the Trump-era tax reforms led to a 7% decline in the number of individual donors, after controlling for other factors such as enrollment size and tuition. To estimate the impact of the tax changes, we analyzed data that the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, a nonprofit, collected in its annual Voluntary Support of Education Survey. ... Many states have essentially frozen their spending on higher education since 2008, while the cost of running colleges and universities has increased. As a result, public institutions rely more heavily on the money they get from tuition and donors than they used to. The declines in both the amount donated by individuals and the number of donors, however, fell more sharply for private institutions than for public ones. |
| PERS Board hearing: What we learned | |
| Ashby Foote writes for Magnolia Tribune: Last week, the Senate Government Structure committee held a public hearing on House Bill 1590 which aligns Mississippi's retirement board structure with national models and prevents the rate hike approved by the current board to increase by hundreds of millions of dollars what taxpayers contribute to the plan known as PERS (Public Employees' Retirement System). There were no fights or heated exchanges -- just an open dialogue about PERS governance and how members view their roles, as well as opening comments from the current president of the Mississippi Municipal League, Hattiesburg Mayor Toby Barker. Representing 290 member cities, towns, and villages, Mayor Barker told the committee that his organization is significantly represented in PERS (at 30 percent of total employers) and feels a "responsibility to voice concern when we see an unsustainable trend of shifting the burden of paying for PERS to employers, particularly cities, towns, counties, and school districts." Mayor Barker said that it's "no secret the unfunded liability in PERS is a problem, and it's a storm that's been brewing for some time." ... One of the critiques of the current PERS Board member structure is the lack of taxpayer representation. The current board is made up of ten members, with just two members accountable to taxpayers. How does this impact the governing mindset of the board? |
| PERS board fears loss of control | |
| The Northside Sun editorializes: As anticipated, the beneficiary-ruled board that oversees Mississippi's retirement system doesn't want to lose control. It is opposing a House bill that would instead give the majority of the votes on that board to people who aren't in the Public Employees' Retirement System, thus reducing the conflict of interest that presently exists. Last week, a state Senate panel heard from a couple of current PERS board members. Both have voted to increase the already sky-high employer contribution in an effort to shore up the underfunded pension plan -- the same strategy that the PERS board has unsuccessfully tried several times before. They said they didn't like what the increase would do to the entities for which they work -- one is a school superintendent, the other a chief financial officer of a city -- but that their first responsibility was to PERS and its beneficiaries. Understood but not said is that they may personally benefit when they retire from how they voted. That is the problem. As long as PERS has a board in which the beneficiaries rule, it is unlikely to adopt or recommend changes that would be detrimental to the members, no matter how large the long-term liability becomes. |
| Hospitals, business leaders suffering FOT -- Fear of Tate -- on Medicaid expansion | |
| Mississippi Today's Geoff Pender writes: Mississippi's business leaders and hospitals each have formidable lobbies, and neither has been shy over the years about nudging a reluctant state Legislature in one direction or another if it dawdles on an important issue. But their relative silence (only recently) on the most profound issue before lawmakers in a generation -- expanding Medicaid coverage to the working poor -- has been deafening. It could be a life-or-death issue for tens of thousands of people in the poorest of states with many Third World health metrics. It's a monumental issue for the fiscal stability of foundering rural hospitals. It's a crucial workforce issue for businesses and economic development. It's a major financial issue for the state. So why are we mostly hearing crickets from two of the most powerful groups in the commonwealth, on an issue in which they've both got serious skin in the game? They appear to be suffering a condition known as Fear of Tate, or FOT. It's a condition peculiar to the Magnolia State, now into the second term of Gov. Tate Reeves. It usually presents any time there's a partisan politically charged issue before our leaders. It manifests itself in timidity or political rhetoric replacing thoughtful approach, and bad, sometimes unworkable or downright asinine policy proposals that poorly serve the average Mississippian. |
SPORTS
| Diamond Dawgs Head To Samford For A Midweek Tilt | |
| The Mississippi State baseball team heads to Birmingham, Ala., on Tuesday for a midweek tilt with Samford. This is the fourth road game of a seven-game road trip for the Diamond Dawgs. Tuesday first pitch is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday's midweek contest will be aired on ESPN+ and will also be carried on the Bulldog Sports Network powered by LEARFIELD, along with a live audio stream via HailState.com/OnDemand. For the second straight week, the Diamond Dawgs find themselves in the national rankings. The Diamond Dawgs came in at No. 21 by D1 Baseball, No. 17 by Baseball America, No. 23 by the USA Today Coaches Top 25 and No. 23 in the NCBWA poll. Samford enters the midweek game with a 16-7 overall record and 3-0 in the Southern Conference. Samford comes off a series sweep against VMI. The Bulldogs have won their last five games. Samford is 13-1 when playing at home this season. The only loss at home coming from a 12-7 loss versus Charleston Southern. Mississippi State leads the series 39-11. The Diamond Dawgs defeated Samford, 9-4, last season at The Dude. MSU has won nine of the last ten meetings between these two programs. The first meeting between these two programs came during the 1909 season. |
| Men's Track and Field Ranked A Program Record No. 3 In First Outdoor USTFCCCA TFRI | |
| Mississippi State men's track and field opened the outdoor season with a program record No. 3 ranking in first edition of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Ratings Index for the 2024 outdoor season, announced Monday. The men are ranked first in the South Region. This No. 3 ranking set a program record for Mississippi State track and field, besting the Bulldog men's previous No. 6 record set in Week One and Week Two of the 2011 season. This is State's 86th time breaking into the top 25 since the rankings began in 2008 and the ninth time under Head Coach Chris Woods. After competing in its first two meets of the 2024 outdoor season, State has one national leader, three national top-5 marks, and 10 national top-6 marks. Freshman Jordan Ware leads the nation in the 200m with his time of 20.18w set at the Hurricane Invitational. His 100m time from Bulldog Alumni Relays of 10.16w ranks fifth in the nation. The Bulldogs will return to the track on Friday, March 29th for the Battle On The Bayou hosted by LSU in Baton Rouge, La. |
| Commissioner addresses criticism with minutes of personal privilege | |
 | Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Commissioner Leonard Bentz used a moment of personal privilege to address past criticism Thursday morning. His comments were made at the end of a regularly scheduled commission meeting held at Percy Quin State Park and read from a stack of papers. Bentz plopped his Delta Waterfowl turtle box speaker on the table. He told the audience he wanted a chance to set the record straight by getting down on "Ricky's level," referring to SuperTalk Outdoors radio show host Ricky Mathews who has been critical of Bentz's actions as commissioner. The first point he addressed was the issues of high fencing. "I've always supported high fencing and deer breeding. I don't hunt high fences except on a few occasions but some people do it. In my 47 years, I've sat in a high fence four or five times and never pulled a trigger," Bentz said. "I've advocated for commercialization and I still do." Bentz said he voted against CWD zones for one reason, he claims biologists nor research shows feeding bans can stop CWD. "I do think it is irresponsible when not one case of CWD spreading to humans has been reported. I have heard our biologist, radio commentators, celebrity hunters, state institutions and PHDs put the thought into the average joe or janes head," Bentz said. "It may change tomorrow but as of today it is purely irresponsible. I am prepared to make a motion for a statewide feeding ban to conduct our own study to see if the cases slow. If it truly reduces the spread of CWD I'll support a statewide ban hands down." |
| Exiting Notre Dame AD addresses expansion, realignment and college sports' immensely uncertain future | |
| Jack Swarbrick wants a moment of Nick Saban's time. That was among the thoughts shared by Notre Dame's former athletic director, who left the Fighting Irish after 16 years Monday with former NBC Sports chairman Pete Bevacqua stepping in as his replacement. Swarbrick, 70, recently spoke with CBS Sports for an exit interview of sorts. After more than a decade and a half as a powerful figure leading one of college sports' most notable brands, Swarbrick departs having overseen the most national championships of any AD in program history. (Though none in football, of course.) Swarbrick was in the room as a voting member of the BCS and later the College Football Playoff, holding unique power as an AD standing alongside 10 FBS commissioners. Under his watch, the Irish played for a combined three championships -- one BCS Championship Game and two CFPs. That's more than 126 FBS schools. As for what's next? Swarbrick wants to pick Saban's brain about the future of the sport. Swarbrick suggested there could be further financial disparity in the near future as schools distribute enhanced CFP revenue once the new contract begins in 2026. For example, why is Vanderbilt -- simply because it is in the SEC -- receiving more than Clemson, a national power that chases championships in the ACC? |
| The NCAA Tournament wants to expand without losing its soul. It will be a delicate needle to thread | |
| Kevin Keatts and North Carolina State reached the NCAA Tournament the old-fashioned way. The way that existed before the bubble. Before bracketology. Before NET rankings, KenPom, the transfer portal, name, image and likeness and all the rest. Before the tournament field grew (and grew some more), when the only way to punch your ticket into March Madness was by winning your conference tournament. N.C. State earned the Atlantic Coast Conference's automatic bid by ripping off five victories in five days to capture the conference tournament title. The 11th-seeded Wolfpack pushed their postseason winning streak to seven and are now in the Sweet 16 for the first time in nearly a decade. It's been a thrilling if exhausting ride, the kind of run that saves jobs. It has also done little to alter Keatts' view about whether the tournament should expand beyond its current 68-team format: In an era where more than half the 133 Division I football programs qualify for a bowl game (while acknowledging this is not the purview of the NCAA), forcing 80% of the 350-plus Division I basketball schools to watch March Madness from their dorms seems outdated and unnecessarily punitive. "We talk about the student-athlete experience, and the only thing that really, in my opinion, that has not changed is expanding the tournament," Keatts said. "And I don't have a number. I don't know what that should be. But I do think we should give more schools opportunities to be able to get in the tournament." Keatts is hardly alone. The chorus for expansion is growing ever louder. |
| Utah women's basketball team experienced 'racial hate crimes' during NCAA Tournament | |
 | The Utah women's basketball team was forced to change hotels while playing in this year's NCAA Tournament because of what coach Lynne Roberts described as "racial hate crimes toward our program." Roberts made her comments following the Utes' 77-66 loss to Gonzaga in the tourney's second round. "We had several instances of some kind of racial hate crimes towards our program," Roberts said after Monday's loss, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. "Incredibly upsetting for all of us. You know, you think in our world in athletics and university settings it's shocking in a -- like there is so much diversity on a college campus and so you're just not exposed to that very often." Roberts did not provide any specifics, but said the incidents occurred Thursday night after the team checked into its hotel in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, roughly 30 minutes away from host Gonzaga's home court. She said the team checked out of the hotel on Friday, with the NCAA and Gonzaga assisting in finding a new hotel. Gonzaga's athletic department released a statement after the game condemning "hate speech in any form." |
| NFL owners approve massive revamp to kickoff play | |
| NFL owners approved a massive revamp of the kickoff play Tuesday, opting for a format that originated in the XFL after three days of discussions at the league's annual meeting. The new alignment rules represent the most significant on-field rule change for the NFL in years and is designed to reverse more than a decade of declining return rates while also lowering concussion rates. In essence, the format will move the majority of the kicking and return teams downfield to minimize high-speed collisions. It will go into effect for one year only in anticipation of possible tweaks over time. During the 2024 season, kickers would continue to kick from the 35-yard line, but the other 10 players on the kickoff team would line up at the receiving team's 40-yard line. At least nine members of the return team would line up in a "setup zone" between the 35- and 30-yard line. Up to two returners can line up in a "landing zone" between the goal line and the 20-yard line. No one other than the kicker and returner(s) can move until the ball hits the ground or a player inside the landing zone. Touchbacks would be marked at the 30-yard line, and no fair catches would be allowed. In the event a team wants to attempt an onside kick, it would have to inform officials of its intent and would then be allowed to use the NFL's traditional formation. No surprise onside kicks would be allowed. |
| The NFL Tightens Its Grip on Christmas | |
| The NFL is calling an audible and planning for even more Christmas football. After previously saying it wouldn't schedule games on the holiday this year because it falls on a Wednesday, the NFL is now planning to play on Dec. 25 after all. While the league has staked out an increased presence on the holiday in recent years, after historically trying to avoid it, the decision to play on one of the few days of the week that almost never features pro football is the starkest sign yet that the NFL sees Christmas games as a new tentpole for the sport. Hans Schroeder, the NFL's executive vice president of media distribution, said the league made the pivot after unexpectedly strong audiences for last season's three Christmas games. The league says those games averaged over 28 million viewers and each was among the top-10 rated regular-season matchups. Schroeder said there will be at least one, and likely two Christmas games this year. "The fans clearly spoke," Schroeder said. "There's a big demand." Now the NFL is choosing to revamp its calendar in order to play on a day it once proactively sought to avoid. When the league scheduled a couple of playoff games on Christmas in 1971, the backlash prompted the NFL to rewrite its schedule to avoid the holiday entirely until 1989. In recent decades, the day has been more associated with "Home Alone" re-runs and marquee NBA showdowns. But the league's Christmas blitz has picked up steam lately. This will be the fifth straight year that the NFL has scheduled a game on Dec. 25, and last season was the first time the league put three games on the holiday when it fell on a Monday. As part of a similar push to conquer more of the calendar, the league also played its first Black Friday game last season. |
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