| Wednesday, September 7, 2022 |
| MSU institute supports water systems throughout Mississippi | |
 | Whether the water comes from one of the largest municipal water supplies in Mississippi, a rural water association serving a few dozen customers or a private well, Magnolia State citizens rely on a range of systems to access the water they need for individual, business and agricultural use. Mississippi State's Water Resources Research Institute provides technical, financial and management support for water systems of every size across the state. "We're here to provide assistance. We're here to be objective," said Jason Barrett, an associate extension professor at the university's Water Resources Research Institute. "We're here to use our resources and partnerships to assist the people of the state." As the state's capital city navigates an ongoing water crisis, Barrett said some of the issues facing Jackson often play out on a smaller scale in rural municipalities or in rural water systems, which often have limited resources for addressing problems. "From an outsider's perspective, a lot of the issues that we're seeing are not conceptually uncommon to other public supplies in the state that we've seen," Barrett said. "Jackson just happens to be the largest public utility in the state. A lot of times we see issues with very small systems, which have less than 500 connections. Those are the ones where you start to see financial constraints, which lead to management constraints and not being able to maintain assets, which can lead to poor water quality. You just start to see a downhill trend." |
| Aldermen shoot down proposed tax increase | |
 | Split votes on Tuesday shot down a proposed tax increase and approved the city's Fiscal Year 2023 budget. Aldermen decided both matters after a third public hearing at City Hall, which settled what Ward 2 Alderwoman and budget chair Sandra Sistrunk called "fairly lively discussion" over the past month. Sistrunk, who has a professional accounting background, prepared and supported a budget proposal that would raise the city's ad valorem tax rate by 1 mill to 31.13. A mill is used to measure real and personal property taxes, and the increase would have added $10 to $15 to a citizen's tax bill per every $100,000 of assessed property value not covered by Homestead exemption. It would have also protected the $2.75 million cash balance the city will carry over from this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. Instead, the majority of the board -- composed of Ward 1's Ben Carver, Ward 3's Jeffrey Rupp, Ward 4's Mike Brooks and Ward 5's Hamp Beatty -- opted to leave the tax rate at 30.13 mills and approve a budget that would draw the ending cash balance down to $2.4 million by the end of Fiscal Year 2023. "Nobody really relishes the idea of a tax increase, and it's easy to be anti-tax when you're on the sidelines of these issues," said Sistrunk, who has expressed concerns during the budget process that failing to raise taxes by 1 mill this year could force the city to raise it by 2 mills next year. "I do think the more responsible path forward is a tax increase." |
| Health Brief: Family Clinic of Starkville joins North Mississippi Health Services | |
| The Family Clinic of Starkville is joining North Mississippi Health Services. Doctors Steven Brandon and Emily Brandon Landrum and the clinic team will officially become part of North Mississippi Medical Clinics on Oct. 3, 2022. The clinic will stay in its current location at 501 Hospital Road. Brandon and Landrum will continue a full-service primary care practice, providing care and service for patients in the clinic, hospital and nursing home settings. The father-daughter physician team believes that joining NMMC will allow them to provide a more streamlined and forward-thinking experience for their patients and team. Brandon and Landrum earned their undergraduate degrees from Millsaps College in Jackson. They received their medical degrees from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine. Brandon is a member of the Mississippi State Medical Association and the American and Mississippi academies of family physicians. Landrum is an active member of the Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians and the Mississippi State Medical Association, where she serves as chair of the council on Medical Service. |
| Area lawmaker advocates for public drug prevention education | |
 | A Northeast Mississippi lawmaker is pushing to pass drug prevention legislation next year, with a major focus on the synthetic opioid known as fentanyl. Rep. Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, told the Daily Journal that he's laying the groundwork to introduce a bill in the next legislative session that would authorize the Mississippi State Department of Health to create a comprehensive drug prevention curriculum that would be shared in public schools. "Every day that we don't do something about this, more people are dying," Creekmore told the Daily Journal. Creekmore is proposing the state use some of the millions of dollars it receives every year from 1997's $4 billion tobacco lawsuit settlement to fund the new material, in addition to the tobacco prevention curriculum currently in place. Creekmore and Rep. Nick Bain, R-Corinth, introduced a drug education bill during the legislative session earlier this year. But that legislation was coupled with another provision that would have changed some aspects of the state's drug court laws, and it failed to gain approval from a majority of both legislative chambers. The Union County lawmaker believes the drug court provisions are ultimately what killed the overall bill. "Fentanyl is a weapon of mass destruction, and it's killing us," Creekmore said. |
| Sojourner reflects on last legislative session | |
 | As the keynote speaker of Thursday's Kiwanis meeting at the Natchez Grand Hotel, Melanie Sojourner, District 37 senator and a Natchez native, reflected on what she fears will be her last legislative session following the state's redistricting plan. Sojourner said she publicly "butted heads" with the Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann over the new legislative districts, which combine most of the district now represented by Sojourner, a Republican, with that of Sen. Albert Butler of Port Gibson, a Democrat, to create a single majority-Black district. Sojourner, who for two years has been awarded by the American Conservative Union for upholding conservative promises to voters, said the new Mississippi legislative lines seem to help Butler. "I just saw it as a real slap in the face to the voters of Southwest Mississippi," she said. "... We were the first Republican elected to get elected in Southwest Mississippi since the mid-1800s, and it's very likely we'll be the last." Many items passed this session that Sojourner said she is personally proud of, including a historic pay raise for teachers, a ban on teaching critical race theory in Mississippi's public schools and record-level funding of statewide repair for road, water and sewer infrastructure. Sojourner said she is also proud to have been able to codify a voter referendum that helps protect private property owners' rights in matters of public interest, such as building projects. |
| Jackson newspaper publisher largely blames mayor for water crisis | |
 | A Jackson newspaper publisher is claiming that Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba is largely to blame for the capital city's current water crisis. Wyatt Emmerich, the publisher of The Northside Sun, faulted Lumumba in a recent interview on The Gallo Show for neglecting to hire qualified personnel to manage Jackson's water system. "If you took Mayor Lumumba and stuck him in a commercial airliner and asked him to land it, he would crash the thing into the ground," Emmerich said. "Now if he said, 'Let me go hire a good pilot to go up with me,' everything would be fine. All he had to do was hire the pilot and acknowledge that he couldn't fly the airplane. He had no experience whatsoever in running a city, or running anything, and all he had to do was hire a competent city manager, which he didn't do." While Emmerich believes the city of Jackson's leaders deserve a bulk of the blame regarding the decades long crisis that has appeared to reach a climax, he notes that the state bears responsibility for failing to overturn a significant piece of legislation that has enabled corruption in hiring subcontractors. "This all started with the minority set aside legislation that came from the state, so there's plenty of blame on the state too," Emmerich said. "That minority set aside legislation laid the groundwork for an absolute plethora of corrupt subcontractors, which incompetently installed the water meters, which didn't work, which created a billing disaster, which led people to quit paying their bills, and which led the city to declare a moratorium." |
| Water levels in Jackson tanks are dropping, leaving water pressure vulnerable | |
 | During his weekly news conference, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said water pressure remains near its goal, but water levels in some tanks have dropped. That could leave the system vulnerable to a loss in pressure if a setback were to occur at the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant, Lumumba said. "We are happy to report that all Jackson residents should have experienced normal pressure at this point. I leave that with the caveat that there could be some individual homes or businesses that have an issue that needs to be resolved at that point or at that location," Lumumba said. One place that remains without pressure is Forest Hill High School, which is experiencing issues with a valve, the mayor said. Water pressure going into the system is at 86 pounds per square inch, only one PSI short of the goal of 87. "O.B. Curtis remained at a steady pressure of the last 24 hours," Lumumba said. "The margin of storage that was built over the last weekend has decreased some over the last 24 hours." Lumumba emphasized the need for the state and local governments to work together, despite conflict between the two in recent days. He also painted a picture of the potentially fraught road ahead. "For the residents of Jackson that have been enduring this challenge I want to speak honestly to you instead of providing some false hope that we are in the clear and that there are no more problems to continue," Lumumba said. "We believe that if everyone stays together ... then the likelihood that we can overcome these challenges is probably greater than its ever been before, but the challenges still exist nonetheless, and so we need to communicate that." |
| Jackson's water emergency exposes a dilemma for Biden | |
 | The drinking water disaster in Jackson, Miss., injects new urgency into a looming challenge for President Joe Biden: delivering federal money to communities that need it most. The problem is most acute for impoverished communities with large minority populations -- those that Biden's administration hopes to help with promises to steer money to places reeling from decades of pollution and inequity. Mississippians and advocates in communities facing disproportionate pollution burdens said Democratic-controlled Jackson is merely the latest majority-Black city struggling to secure its fair share of spending in states that are dominated by Republicans. The state's Republican leaders have accused the city of mismanaging the facility, while Jackson officials have said few cities could afford the kinds of costly upgrades it requires using utility revenue and municipal funds alone. Still, some elected Democratic officials, such as Rep. Bennie Thompson, have also expressed some frustration with the city. For Biden, who has made helping those types of disadvantaged communities a priority, steering money through state governments reluctant to cede control to the federal government presents a major hurdle, according to advocates and Mississippi officials. Jackson officials have complained that the state legislature was too slow in distributing federal money from pandemic stimulus to the cities that needed it, taking until this April to pass spending measures from that March 2021 stimulus. Republican leaders have pitched plans to create regional rather than municipal water systems as a way to pool revenues from across the state. Supporters contend doing so would generate money to repair Jackson's system since its current tax base cannot raise the funding. |
| Biloxi icon Victor Mavar Sr. remembered as the 'George Washington' of the Mississippi GOP | |
 | One of Biloxi's most respected and accomplished men, Victor Mavar Sr. has died and will be remembered during funeral services Wednesday. Mavar died in his sleep at his Biloxi home Saturday. He was 96. Visitation is from 10 a.m. to noon Wednesday, Sept. 7, at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Cathedral on Howard Ave. in Biloxi. A Mass of Christian Burial will be at noon. He is remembered as a kind man, a Biloxi businessman, a devout Catholic and a founder of the Mississippi Republican Party on the Coast. "His life experience is what I value," said Biloxi Mayor Andrew "FoFo" Gilich, who grew up with Mavar's children, nieces and nephews. "He had a tremendous intellect and each conversation was a treasure," said Gilich, who called Mavar "The George Washington of the Republican party of Mississippi." Mavar was born in Biloxi in 1926 and was the youngest of six children of John Mavar Sr. and Olivia Skrmetta Mavar, who were immigrants from an area of Austria/Hungary now known as Croatia. As immigrants, Victor's parents stressed the importance of education, and that was something he passed on to his children. He also was politically active. "He was a conservative in his beliefs," said his son Geoffrey, but would tell people, "If you don't like something, don't just sit and complain. Get involved and go change it." In 2010, Gov. Haley Barbour presented Mavar and six others with the Mississippi Medal of Service for "significant contributions to the state through their personal and professional lives." |
| Postpartum women never lost Medicaid coverage during the pandemic. But the state told them they did. | |
| Thanks to misleading letters sent by the Mississippi Division of Medicaid in recent years, tens of thousands of new moms may have chosen to forgo health care after giving birth – even as the federal government was sending Mississippi extra money to help pay for their care during the pandemic. Mississippians whose pregnancies were covered by Medicaid retained full benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic under federal law, instead of getting kicked off 60 days after giving birth as they ordinarily would under state policy. That should have allowed them to keep seeing their doctors and get treatment for conditions like postpartum depression, high blood pressure and anything else they needed to stay healthy after their baby's birth. But many women thought they didn't have coverage because of letters sent to every recipient of pregnancy Medicaid telling them they were no longer eligible. While healthy adults under 65 generally don't qualify for Medicaid, pregnant women are covered as long as they meet income requirements, and about 60% of births in Mississippi are covered by Medicaid. An untold number of pregnancy Medicaid recipients may have stopped going to the doctor after receiving the letters, believing they would be charged as if they had no health insurance. The new moms' confusion and reluctance to seek care almost certainly saved the Division of Medicaid money -- and one expert believes the confusing communication may have been intentional. In a statement to Mississippi Today last week, the Division of Medicaid acknowledged the letters were a mistake. |
| Farmers are eager for Senate to vote on migrant worker bill | |
 | Tensions are growing between the agriculture industry's top Washington lobby group and some producers over an immigration bill that could make it easier to employ migrants in the food production industry. The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) has expressed opposition to the House-passed Farm Workforce Modernization Act (FWMA), but many growers are eager for the Senate to take up the bill, which they say would help tackle food inflation. "Throughout the development of the FWMA in the House, AFBF has pointed to several key areas in which the legislation conflicts with AFBF policy. Provisions concerning the [Adverse Effect Wage Rate Rule (AEWR)], the expansion of [the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA)] to H-2A [temporary agricultural visas], caps on year-round visas, and the inclusion of e-verify only for agriculture without adequately reforming H-2A first are the main issues of concern," an AFBF spokesperson told The Hill. AFBF director of government affairs Allison Crittenden told Politico in July that the bill's expansion of MSPA protections to temporary migrant workers would expose ranchers and farmers to "frivolous litigation." The MSPA protections, which would essentially allow migrant workers to sue over labor violations, are a major sticking point for Senate negotiations. |
| From farm to fork, thanks to ... AI and robots? | |
| Much of the western United States dealt with scorching temperatures over the past week, with some parts of California reaching more than 110 degrees Fahrenheit. That state is suffering a multiyear drought, and some residents are allowed to water their gardens and lawns only one day per week. Texas, Nevada and New Mexico are also experiencing severe droughts, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. So, farmers have to be especially careful about how they use precious resources like water. Marketplace's Kimberly Adams spoke with Jill McCluskey, a professor of sustainability at Washington State University's School of Economic Sciences, about how smart tech in agriculture can help. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation. |
| How Drought and War Are Really Affecting the Global Food Supply | |
 | The images are apocalyptic. Pleasure boats marooned in dried-up European rivers. Norwegian reservoirs too low to drive hydropower. China's largest inland lake turned to a prairie as its water evaporates away. And so are the warnings. The National Drought Group of the UK predicts that yields of some vegetable crops -- carrots, onion, and potatoes -- could be cut in half. The European Drought Observatory says that almost half of the bloc is drier than it has been since the Renaissance. China's agricultural ministry has urged farmers to undertake emergency switches to different crops following a historic heatwave. With fall harvests coming, it's natural to be concerned about global food supplies. But people who track the production and trade of major crops say the world is not in an emergency -- yet. Pick any location, and you may find signs of strain. But overall, the system still shows resilience. "It's easy to lose track of the scale of global agriculture," says Scott Irwin, a widely followed economist and chair of agricultural marketing at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. "It's just massive, and it's extremely distributed geographically. If you have a problem in one area, at least historically, that will tend to get offset by better than average growing conditions someplace else." "The fact is," he adds, "as of today, the world has adequate supplies of grain." That might seem counterintuitive, given soaring food prices and the lingering disruption of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where cargo ships that were trapped since February have finally been allowed to depart. But it captures the disconnect between how people experience food supplies locally, as irrigation water is directed away from perishable vegetables and favorite condiments disappear from shelves, and how economists judge the health of a system founded on staple crops such as wheat, corn, and soybeans that can be shipped and stored. |
| Putin Threatens to Abandon Grain Deal, Further Squeeze Energy Supplies | |
 | Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to curtail the export of grain from Ukraine and said Moscow was ready to extend its rationing of natural-gas exports and cut off oil and refined products if the West went ahead with a price-cap plan for Russian crude. The comments, made at an economic conference, represented some of the Russian leader's starkest and broadest threats over his country's prodigious commodities exports. He also characterized those threats more directly than in the past as an economic weapon he is willing to wield in response to Western sanctions levied after his invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Putin suggested Russia could pull out of a United Nations-brokered deal that has allowed for the large-scale export of Ukrainian grain, sending global wheat prices up 4% in early Wednesday trading. The deal had helped ease soaring food prices by allowing Ukrainian farmers an outlet for their harvests. At the economic forum, in the Russian Far East city of Vladivostok, Mr. Putin accused the West of taking advantage of the deal at the expense of developing-world countries. The expanded threats by Mr. Putin in his economic standoff with the West come as Moscow suffers recent setbacks on the battlefield in Ukraine. |
| 'They're getting killed among women': Skeptical female voters stand in way of GOP Senate | |
| Republicans this election cycle thought they had finally achieved a breakthrough with suburban women after years of losing support. Now, as the primary season has all but ended, the GOP is back where it once was: Appealing directly to skeptical female voters, the women whose support will make or break the party's drive to retake the Senate majority. A sure sign: One after the other, Republican nominees in top Senate battlegrounds have softened, backpedaled and sought to clarify their abortion positions after the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Another is that male candidates have begun putting their wives in front of the camera to speak directly to voters in new television ads. Those ads, along with public and internal polling data, suggest that the GOP's struggle to attract women voters may turn out to be the biggest obstacle standing between the party and a potential Senate majority in 2023. A Wall Street Journal poll released Thursday showed that abortion was the single issue most likely to drive respondents to vote this fall, above inflation. And 52 percent of white suburban women say they would support a Democratic candidate in the election, the poll found, while only 40 percent said they would vote for the Republican. "I'm convinced that, based on numbers we have, Republicans have to make some kind of leap on the abortion issue," said Chuck Coughlin, an Arizona-based GOP strategist. "Because they're getting killed among women." |
| Florida judge faces criticism following order in Trump case | |
 | U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon is facing sharp criticism following her decision this week to grant a request by former President Donald Trump's legal team for an independent arbiter to review documents obtained during an FBI search of his Florida property last month. Cannon on Monday authorized an outside legal expert to review the records taken during the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago as part of a probe into Trump's inappropriate retention of sensitive material from the White House. The expert would have power to weed out any material that might be protected by claims of attorney-client privilege or executive privilege. The order came over the strenuous objections of the Justice Department, which said a so-called special master was not necessary in part because officials had already completed their review of potentially privileged documents. The move was cheered by Trump supporters seeking a check on the government's probe. But others say Cannon gave undue deference to the former president and unnecessarily put on hold certain investigative work by the Justice Department. They say she has slowed the momentum of the federal investigation into possible Espionage Act violations. |
| Bill Barr calls judge's special master ruling 'deeply flawed' and urges Department of Justice to appeal | |
 | Former Attorney General William Barr denounced a Florida federal judge's order authorizing the appointment of a special master to review the documents seized at former President Donald Trump's Florida residence, calling the ruling "wrong" and "deeply flawed." "The opinion, I think, was wrong, and I think the government should appeal it," former president Trump's one-time attorney general said in an interview on Fox News on Tuesday, "It's deeply flawed in a number of ways. I don't think the appointment of a special master is going to hold up." Judge Aileen Cannon, appointed to the court by Trump in 2020, wrote Monday that she agreed with Trump's legal team that a special master -- a court-appointed independent third party -- should review the records seized last month by the FBI as part of the Justice Department's probe into whether the former president mishandled documents marked classified. But Barr -- who Trump called "one of the most respected jurists in the country" when he nominated him in 2018 to be attorney general amid then-special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into any links between Russian election meddling and Trump associates -- slammed the ruling as "premature" and said Cannon "dodge[d]" the question at issue: whether the former president's potential claims of executive privilege can ever overcome the sitting president's decision to waive such a privilege. |
| Material on foreign nation's nuclear capabilities seized at Trump's Mar-a-Lago | |
 | A document describing a foreign government's military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, was found by FBI agents who searched former president Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence and private club last month, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about classified material stashed in the Florida property. Some of the seized documents detail top-secret U.S. operations so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them. Only the president, some members of his Cabinet or a near-Cabinet-level official could authorize other government officials to know details of these special-access programs, according to people familiar with the search, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive details of an ongoing investigation. Documents about such highly classified operations require special clearances on a need-to-know basis, not just top-secret clearance. Some special-access programs can have as few as a couple dozen government personnel authorized to know of an operation's existence. Records that deal with such programs are kept under lock and key, almost always in a secure compartmented information facility, with a designated control officer to keep careful tabs on their location. But such documents were stored at Mar-a-Lago, with uncertain security, more than 18 months after Trump left the White House. |
| Fed on Path for Another 0.75-Point Interest-Rate Lift After Powell's Inflation Pledge | |
| The Federal Reserve appears to be on a path to raise interest rates by another 0.75 percentage point this month in the wake of Chairman Jerome Powell's public pledge to reduce inflation even if it increases unemployment. Fed officials have done little to push back against market expectations of a third consecutive 0.75-point rate rise in recent public statements and interviews ahead of their Sept. 20-21 policy meeting. In a speech Aug. 26 in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Mr. Powell underscored the central bank's commitment to boosting interest rates enough to lower inflation from 40-year highs. "We will keep at it until we are confident the job is done," he said. His remarks and tone placed him among the Fed officials who favor a more aggressive pace of rate increases than others, said Tim Duy, chief U.S. economist at research firm SGH Macro Advisors. Raising rates by 0.75 percentage point would fit that approach, he said. Mr. Powell's speech showed he "very much did not want to leave the impression that the Fed would fall short on fighting inflation," Mr. Duy said. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said in an Aug. 18 interview he was leaning in favor of a 0.75-point rate increase at the coming Fed meeting. "We should continue to move expeditiously to a level of the policy rate that will put significant downward pressure on inflation," he said. Mr. Powell is set to speak Thursday in a moderated discussion at the Cato Institute, his last scheduled public remarks before the coming Fed meeting. |
| After Eliza Fletcher's death, women share their own stories of running alone | |
| Eliza Fletcher's remains were found on Monday just four days after she went missing on a morning run. The 34-year-old teacher was abducted as she exercised on the University of Memphis campus around 4:20 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 2. As news of the story spread across the nation, women and fellow runners took to Twitter to defend Fletcher after criticism for her choice of the time she went running surfaced. Fletcher appears to have been a dedicated runner for years. In 2019, she finished the St. Jude marathon with a time of 3:26:09, a fast enough time to qualify for the Boston Marathon, one of the most elite marathons in the world. Out of all the women running the St. Jude marathon that year, she finished 22nd. Many expressed their frustration with people "blaming" Fletcher for running early in the morning and shared their own experiences as women who exercise outside at different times of the day. Some users on Twitter described why some do early morning runs. Cleotha Abston, 38, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of charges related to Fletcher's abduction. He was arraigned on Tuesday. A group of runners plan to complete Fletcher's run on Friday. |
| Ole Miss Dining/Aramark Workers Post Scathing Instagram Message | |
| On Labor Day, the holiday designated to honor America's workers, unnamed employees at Ole Miss Dining, owned by Aramark, posted an eight-page post on Instagram citing unfair wages and mistreatment. As of Tuesday afternoon, the post on Instagram had garnered 3,634 likes and has been shared across several social media sites with readers tagging people, the University and local and national news outlets. The post went up on Labor Day under the Instagram account "umdiningworkers" and began with, "To the students of the University of Mississippi." "For years, we, the Aramark workers of 'Ole Miss Dining' have suffered extreme understaffing, grossly insufficient pay and incompetent or uncaring management that prioritized Aramark's profit over the wellbeing of their employees and the students," states the post. However, the University of Mississippi issued a statement Tuesday afternoon claiming that most of what the post alleged was false. "Since we became aware of the statement posted to social media, we have worked with our partners at Aramark to investigate the validity of each claim. We have found no evidence to back them up and know some to be false, including those about using outdated products, locally sourced produce and pay ranges. |
| Ole Miss Dining Workers Deride Labor Conditions, Pay | |
 | Dining hall employees at the University of Mississippi are the latest staff members to speak up about their working conditions, The Oxford Eagle reported. In an anonymous letter to students released on Labor Day via social media, a group of employees calling themselves "a few of the folks who cook, serve, and clean in y'alls dining halls and food courts" detailed how increasing enrollment, understaffing and stagnant wages have affected them. They also listed concerns about the quality of food served to students. The university contracts with Aramark, a publicly traded food services company, to run its dining services. The letter didn't detail how many employees were involved with the letter, but the post said the authors wanted to remain anonymous in order to avoid retaliation by the company. "During Welcome Week this year, one of us had to serve burgers from meat almost a year old," the letter says. "A rich school like this could be feeding y'all all kinds of high-quality local food, but chooses to ship in the cheapest, dirtiest stuff they can find." University of Mississippi administrators disputed that claim and others in a statement Tuesday. |
| OPD and Associated Student Body partner to promote bar safety | |
| The Oxford Police Department would like to remind the L-O-U community about our bar safety partnership with the Associated Student Body. One concern people have when drinking in public is somebody tampering with their drinks. The Oxford Police Department and ASB looked into different safety precautions being taken around the country and found one we determined to be particularly effective. OPD and ASB will provide drink coasters having two tests designed to detect Gamma Hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and Ketamine, two of the most common chemicals found in spiked drinks. The test provides instructions on how to conduct the test and what to do if the test comes back positive. The coasters also provide the telephone numbers of the Oxford Police Department and the Victim Coordinator. These tests will be distributed in multiple ways throughout Oxford and on the University of Mississippi Oxford campus. The Oxford Police Department will distribute them to businesses in the downtown district, have the coasters available at the OPD Safe Site tent located across the street from the 11th Street Alley and Funky's, and any business that serves alcoholic drinks. "This partnership with ASB is something we look forward to continuing moving forward," said Chief Jeff McCutchen. "Safety for our downtown district patrons, and Oxford as a whole, has always been our number one priority at the Oxford Police Department." |
| Dorm-Room Design Inspired by TikTok Goes Into Overdrive | |
| Dorm rooms are designed to be utilitarian: 12-by-19 feet of standard-issue furniture and cinder-block walls. Don't tell that to today's college freshmen. At schools across the country, students are locked in unofficial competitions for who can make their dorms the least dormlike. Some wealthier families are spending hundreds of dollars or more on dormitory décor, even hiring designers. Other students are doing time-intensive DIY projects on the cheap. Some of those efforts culminate in dorm-room-transformation videos that rack up millions of views on TikTok. University of Mississippi freshmen Ansley Spinks and Taylor Robinson live in one of the most viral examples. The barren "before" and tricked-out "after" TikTok video of their violet-accented room has 3.8 million views and thousands of comments to the tune of, "OMG that looks like a room in a normal house." The two women and their moms, who didn't meet until move-in day, had been sending each other messages since late May. They ordered light-up signs spelling out their names off Etsy, picked out matching bedding and built a virtual 3-D model of the room to workshop layouts, landing on one with a dedicated lounge space for watching TV. Amber Park, Ansley's mother, says the eight-hour assembly and roughly $2,000 they spent (that the girls largely funded themselves) is nothing compared with what she's heard some other moms say they pay. "It's a crazy thing, especially in the South," says Ms. Park, a 48-year-old human-resources consultant who lives in Marietta, Ga. |
| 'Truly Humbling': Phyllis Bishop awarded Parker Chair of Pediatric Gastroenterology at UMMC | |
| Dr. Phyllis Bishop is chief of the division Dr. Paul Parker started at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Now she holds the chair named for him. The Paul Parker Chair of Pediatric Gastroenterology was presented to Bishop recently at the Fairview Inn, where Parker and current and former colleagues gathered. "I first met Phyllis when she was a third-year med student," Parker said. "I was immediately impressed by her intelligence and eagerness to learn." This was especially true about pediatric gastroenterology, a specialty Parker calls "the greatest in the world." Calling Bishop "maybe the best resident we ever produced," and later "the best fellow Vanderbilt ever had," Parker said one of the greatest days of his career was in 1998 when Bishop and her husband, Dr. Michael Nowicki, joined him in the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology that he started in 1981. He was the only pediatric gastroenterologist in the state and one of few in the region. "Being alone on-call every night for 17 and a half years ain't for sissies," Parker quipped. "After Phyllis and Michael joined us, it felt like I was working part-time." Bishop, a longtime resident of Madison, said the gathering of colleagues for the Parker Chair presentation was "truly humbling" and responded to Parker that he was the "best clinician Vandy ever produced." "Those were big shoes to fill," she said of following Parker. "I'm following a legend." |
| 'A spirit of unity:' LSU, Southern sign A&M agenda to expand academic relationship | |
 | Although their football teams will compete this weekend for the first time in history, LSU and Southern University announced Tuesday a series of programs that will see them cooperating on high-level agricultural and mechanical programs. Under their so-called A&M agenda, the schools hope to work within their curricula to pursue new agreements in agriculture, chemistry, cybersecurity and defense, performing arts and other fields. A joint LSU-Southern University Research Advisory Group will define common research areas, develop research opportunities and oversee the implementation of joint proposals to the National Science Foundation or other groups. Then over the next five years, Baton Rouge's two universities plan to establish at least one additional accelerated degree pathway program in the colleges of agriculture, engineering and education, as well as one terminal degree pathway between institutions in the colleges of engineering, science and humanities/law over the next two years. The president-chancellors of the two schools, William F. Tate IV at LSU and Dennis Shields at Southern, signed the agreement Tuesday hoping to benefit students at both schools, the city, the state and the region. Gov. John Bel Edwards and parish Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome attended the signing. |
| LSU ordered to pay $73,000 to PETA in attorney fees over sparrow experiment lawsuit | |
| LSU has been ordered to pay the legal expenses of an animal rights group that sued and won after the school declined to share its public records. The 19th Judicial District Court ruled that LSU owes the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals $73,501.27. PETA had sued the school after it failed to release all pertinent veterinary care records and videos recorded by LSU researcher Christine Lattin. PETA has targeted Lattin's work since she was at Yale. The scientist studies stress hormones, or glucocorticoids, in house sparrows.Glucocorticoids are found in all vertebrates, so studying the hormone and how it is used to combat stress can provide a better understanding of how animals and humans react to stress, Lattin told The Advocate in January 2021. Studying the hormone in an animal can sometimes require euthanization, so Lattin said she chose to work with sparrows because they're an invasive species not native to North America, minimizing the negative impact of their removal on the environment. After PETA filed a lawsuit in 2020, LSU released only some of the documents requested, court records show. District Judge Wilson Fields ruled last January that the school must provide all of the records. PETA's victory in the lawsuit put LSU on the hook for its legal expenses. The court affirmed the award Aug. 24 and PETA announced it Tuesday. |
| Inside the Academic-Freedom Crisis That Roiled Florida's Flagship | |
 | Last September, a professor at the University of Florida wanted to sign a scientific consensus letter about kratom, a tropical tree with pain-relieving properties. The faculty member's proposal was forwarded to Gary Wimsett Jr., the university's assistant vice president for conflicts of interest, who had a question: What did Ron DeSantis, the state's Republican governor, think about kratom? Kratom has been the subject of controversy, as scientists and policy makers weigh its potential benefits against the possibility of addiction and abuse. Oliver Grundmann, the UF professor, had concluded that kratom, at least for the time being, should not be reviewed for global classification as a controlled substance; he sought approval to sign a letter in his role as a faculty member stating as much. But Wimsett wasn't sure it was a good idea. "I do note the DEA has listed kratom as a drug of concern," Wimsett wrote to administrators, describing the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, "and it would be important to know where the governor and the state legislature stood on this. If taking this position were adverse to UF's interests (i.e., adverse to the interests of the State of Florida) it would not be something we'd want them doing." Grundmann got the green light to sign the letter. But the discussion about kratom, which has not been previously reported, laid out a rationale with far-reaching implications: A professor opposing the state could be a problem for UF. |
| Coroner identifies student who died on USC's Columbia campus | |
 | The Richland County Coroner's Office has released the name of a student who died last week on the campus of the University of South Carolina. Coroner Naida Rutherford's office said in a news release Tuesday the deceased was Stephen J. Black, 20, of Greenville. The coroner's office did not list a cause of death for Black. University of South Carolina confirmed on Friday, Sept. 2 that two people had died on campus, one a student and the other a faculty member. State law enforcement officials said that the deaths did not appear to be related. One of those that was deceased was Black, who university officials said was found at a residence hall. The other was faculty member Anna M. Gawlicka-Chruszcz, who was found near the Discovery parking garage on Park Street, according to the university. "It is with great sadness that I learned (Friday) morning of the death of one of our students in a residence hall and the death of a faculty member found near the Discovery parking garage on campus," USC President Michael Amiridis said in a statement Friday. "My condolences go out to the families impacted by these deaths." |
| Why Lexington universities won't have COVID data publicly available as classes resume | |
 | As classes resume this fall, two Lexington universities are changing how they publicly report COVID data. Both the University of Kentucky and Transylvania are moving away from a publicly-available COVID dashboard, and will look at CDC's community reporting levels. Last academic year, the UK dashboard was regularly updated with the number of COVID-19 infections, test results and vaccinations among the campus community. "We are no longer publishing a dashboard at the institutional level, which is similar to what a number of institutions and entities are doing, such as Fayette County," UK spokesperson Jay Blanton said. "We are moving from a status of responding to a pandemic to continual management of a transmissible virus, much like the flu and other public health issues that will require community support." Blanton said there were several reasons for this move at UK, including the availability of COVID data from the UK community. "We don't require either testing or vaccination as both can now be widely found in other places, so we don't have one rigorous source of information for vaccine rates in our community," Blanton said. |
| What 'Back to School' Looks Like This Fall | |
| The fall semester is underway at most colleges, with campuses seeking a return to normal as institutions operate with fewer pandemic restrictions in place. But what does "normal" look like this fall? On some campuses, in-person activities are the star of this year's welcome-to-college season, such as the University of Rhode Island's day trip to the beach or Marymount University's new-student outing to a professional soccer match. Even as many colleges try to recreate some version of a pre-pandemic environment on campus, they're also navigating issues that have arisen more recently. This fall they're grappling with student-housing shortages, facing questions about abortion rights, and struggling to support students who can't afford their basic needs. And it's not yet clear how many students will show up on the nation's campuses, and whether their numbers will make up for recent years' enrollment drops. Some colleges are already touting the increasing size of their freshman classes. The data below provide a snapshot of the promise and unexpected challenges of the new academic year, including $4.1 million -- the estimated cost for Millsaps College to build its own water system. The new academic year at Millsaps, as at most of the other colleges in Mississippi's capital city of Jackson, meant facing a water crisis that has resulted in boil-water notices and low water pressure in the city of roughly 150,000 residents. To stabilize its source of water, the liberal-arts college is planning to drill two wells and build a 150,000-gallon water tank on campus. |
| U.S. prepaid college savings plans shine as inflation soars | |
| When inflation is low, locking in prices now for something down the road is hardly worth considering. But now it can be a big deal. Just ask Dennis Nolte. The senior vice president for Seacoast Investment Services in Winter Park, Florida, had the foresight to invest a lump sum in Florida's prepaid college tuition plan in 2014 for his daughter Jessica, then aged 12. Jessica is now a sophomore studying finance at the University of Florida in Gainesville, with her tuition and fees all paid for. "It does feel pretty good to know that no matter what inflation doing, we have got this covered," Nolte said. Nolte's experience shines a light on an interesting corner of the U.S. college-savings market: 'Prepaid' plans which let you buy credits or years of education at a set rate. When the price of everything seems to be going up -- the annual U.S. inflation rate was 8.5% as of July -- the idea of fixing future expenses at current levels can be appealing. "Prepaid plans are somewhat of an inflation hedge and not subject to stock market risk," said Tom Balcom, founder of 1650 Wealth Management in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Florida. "Clients love prepaid plans when there is stock-market volatility, since it does not impact them or their savings." Prepaid accounts are a small part of the college-savings market. As of June 30, about 931,000 such accounts around the country had $24 billion in total assets, according to ISS Market Intelligence. Compare that to more typical 529 plans, a much larger market of 15 million accounts with $388 billion in assets. |
| Where is the Education Department's proposed religious liberty and free inquiry rule? | |
| The U.S. Department of Education has yet to issue its regulatory proposal that would govern religious liberties and free inquiry on college campuses, despite announcing more than a year ago it planned to do so. The proposal, expected to roll back elements of a Trump-era rule, has been pending for several months with the federal Office of Management and Budget, which reviews draft regulations before they're released for public feedback. Former President Donald Trump took an interest in protecting free speech and religious freedoms on college campuses. In 2019, Trump signed an executive order that tied federal research dollars to colleges protecting First Amendment rights or their own free inquiry policies, depending on whether they were public or private institutions, respectively. The free inquiry rule the administration issued in 2020 is a follow-up to that executive order. The regulation forbids public colleges from denying religious student groups the same rights -- such as funding -- as other clubs because of beliefs, practices or policies informed by their faith. It also outlines how religious institutions can claim exemptions to Title IX, the law banning sex-based discrimination at federally funded schools. Critics said many elements of Trump's free inquiry rule were redundant, as public institutions must already follow the First Amendment and higher education as an industry values principles of free expression. |
| Manchin calls Biden student loan decision 'excessive' | |
| Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Tuesday called President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan excessive, arguing there are other ways to help people burdened by student debt. "I just thought that it was excessive. I just respectfully disagree on that," Manchin told reporters. "I think there's other ways. When people were calling me from back in West Virginia, I would give them all the options they had that would reduce their loan by going to work in the federal government," he added. Biden's plan, unveiled last month, forgives up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 annually and $20,000 in loans for Pell Grant recipients under the same income threshold. When asked if that amount was too much, Manchin said forgiveness should be earned. "I just thought there was a better way to do it. You have to earn it. You have to earn it," he said. Moderate Democrats, including those in swing districts, have raised concerns Biden's plan will add to the inflation rate that is already at a 40-year high and have criticized it for costing taxpayers. |
| To beat China, new U.S. law offers billions for microchip research and training | |
| Most of the $280 billion in a new law to strengthen the U.S. semiconductor industry and keep the country ahead of China in technology is a 5-year promise, not a reality. But along with the aspirational spending, the recently passed CHIPS and Science Act commits some $13 billion right now for research and training in microelectronics. And U.S. universities are now forming large coalitions with companies and local governments in order to be ready to compete for the money as soon as a trio of federal agencies announces its plans. "No sane university with a strong interest in microelectronics is sitting this out," says Jesús del Alamo, professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which is involved with several such partnerships. The act, signed into law on 9 August, funnels $11 billion over 5 years to the U.S. Department of Commerce to create a National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC) and a national advanced packaging manufacturing program. Another $2 billion will go to the Department of Defense (DOD) for a microelectronics commons, a national network of university laboratories to develop prototypes for the next generation of semiconductor technologies. Both initiatives "are aimed at the dearth of lab-to-fab facilities," referring to university laboratories that develop new technologies to be incorporated into semiconductor fabrication plants, or fabs, says Philip Wong, an electrical engineer at Stanford University who heads its nanofabrication center. In addition, the National Science Foundation (NSF) is getting $200 million over 5 years for education and workforce training in microelectronics. |
| Enlisting Ukrainian Students to Promote Democracy in America | |
 | The founder of an energy bar company, a former chess champion, a retired U.S. Army colonel and a celebrity chef are teaming up to do something that is as unusual as the collection of people they have assembled. They're starting a $1 million pilot program for Ukrainian college students who are studying in the United States, underwriting their educations for a year so long as they are willing to become "ambassadors" for democracy -- with the surprising target audience for that message being American students. The program is being run by a pickup team that includes Daniel Lubetzky, the founder of Kind bars; Garry Kasparov, a Russian American democracy activist who was once the world's top chess grandmaster; Col. Alexander Vindman, the Ukrainian-born former National Security Council official who testified in Donald Trump's first impeachment proceedings; and José Andrés, the chef-turned-humanitarian who feeds the world's crisis spots. Their intention is to scale up the program rapidly as other sponsors and board members join the project, which will be partly administered by the Institute of International Education, a global nonprofit. The institute will help select the first batch of 20 students this month, with input from the above co-chairs of the new group. Ukraine and the United States are facing disparate threats to their democracies, and extremism, authoritarianism and disinformation are on the rise worldwide. With their relatively new democratic government, Ukrainians can provide a strong warning and a metaphorical call to arms to Americans, the new group argues. |
| The Water Woes of Jackson, Miss., Explained | |
| The Wall Street Journal editorializes: It's inevitable these days that any urban calamity immediately becomes a progressive parable of systemic racism and "anti-government ideology," as one columnist put it. That's been the media spin after last week's failure of a water treatment plant in Jackson, Miss., but the truth isn't that simple. This is another local government failure of the kind that is becoming all too common in America's cities. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Monday that "we have returned water pressure to the city," but Jackson residents suffered a week without a reliable water supply after flooding of the Pearl River overwhelmed the 30-year-old O.B. Curtis water treatment plant. Much of the blame belongs to chronic mismanagement by elected officials in the city of about 150,000, which is also the state capital. ... Jackson's competence problems read like those in Detroit and Flint, Mich. State receiverships helped fix their chronic fiscal and management problems, and this is an idea worth considering for Jackson. Gov. Reeves has promised to cover half the costs of the repairs for the current crisis, but Jackson needs more help than money alone can provide. |
| Decades in the making, Jackson's infrastructure woes won't be quickly or easily solved | |
| Syndicated columnist Sid Salter writes: Like seemingly every other facet of American society these days, when it comes to both the national media and the state's press, the assignment of blame for the city of Jackson's water and sewer system woes falls into two distinct camps. The first camp blames those woes almost entirely on what they perceive as pervasive, endemic poverty and racism in Mississippi, particularly in Jackson, Mississippi's capital city. The second camp blames those problems on the supposed ineptitude and fiscal sloth of Jackson's Black majority city government. Both camps can forcefully argue their contentions, and both arguments contain undeniable elements. But taken at face value, both arguments alone are erroneous and simplistic. Both camps also leave a lot of relevant information unpacked in those simple and often intensely partisan arguments -- not the least of which is aging water and wastewater infrastructure in which both the pipes and the treatment plants are seriously past their design limits. ... Of those Jackson city leaders in the Black-majority city government era, the most focused and productive was three-term Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. — the city’s first African American chief executive. Johnson, who led Jackson to expend or obligate almost $150 million in water and sewer projects in the period between 1997 and 2013 in efforts to forestall the current Jackson water crisis, is chronicled in the Online Journal of Rural & Urban Research at Jackson State University Spring 2022 special issue entitled “Implications of the 2021 Jackson Water Crisis: Past, Present, and Future.” |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State football's Mike Leach is happy to see CFP expansion | |
| Mississippi State football coach Mike Leach has mocked college football for its inability to find a postseason structure. While every level of the game from local city park leagues to the NFL have developed a playoff to determine a champion, Leach joked in 2017 that college football has spent years scratching its head and showing a befuddled face when it came to the subject. Once the NCAA figured it out, implementing a four-team playoff in 2014, Leach still felt it wasn't as inclusive. He wants a 64-team format similar to that of college basketball. Matters got one step closer to Leach's dream Friday night when the CFP board of managers unanimously voted to expand the field to 12 teams in 2026. "I'm thrilled," Leach said. "I think it's a huge step in the right direction." The four highest-rated conference champions by the committee earn byes in the first round under the new format, which could begin as soon as 2024. The quarterfinals and semifinals will continue to fill bowl game slots while the championship game will rotate sites. Mississippi State played a crucial role in the expansion as university president Mark Keenum, who Leach praised, serves as the chair of the CFP board of managers. "This is an historic and exciting day for college football," Keenum said in the CFP's release Friday. "More teams, more participation and more excitement are good for our fans, alumni, and student-athletes. I'm grateful to my colleagues on the board for their thoughtful approach to this issue and for their resolve to get expansion across the goal line and for the extensive work of the Management Committee that made this decision possible." |
| Bulldog stats breakdown: Will Rogers stands out in Mississippi State's win over Memphis | |
| Mississippi State coach Mike Leach isn't known for giving his players glowing compliments. So Leach's praise of quarterback Will Rogers after Saturday's win over Memphis speaks to the kind of game Rogers had for the Bulldogs. "I thought he really did a good job holding things together, and I thought he really did a good job seeing the field -- probably one of the best performances I think he's had as far as seeing the field," Leach said. Rogers went 38 of 49 for 450 yards, five touchdowns and one interception. Statistically, the first game of his junior season was indeed among Rogers' best -- and among the best in the country in Week 1. Rogers set a career-high mark in passing yards, topping his 440-yard performance from the 2020 Egg Bowl against Ole Miss. His 450 yards were good for the fifth most in a single game in Mississippi State football history. He connected Saturday with 12 different receivers in the Bulldogs' 49-23 win, including five touchdowns to five different targets. Rogers was one of four quarterbacks to throw five or more touchdown passes in their first game; Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young did the same. Rogers acknowledged his second-quarter interception was a result of miscommunication with receiver Jamire Calvin, although Leach indicated Calvin didn't "finish the route" he was running. The Brandon product again passed at a high volume, but he threw the most completions of any quarterback to play just one game this season. |
| Talking point for Arizona defense: Keep Mississippi State's YAC to a minimum | |
| Arizona defensive tackle Kyon Barrs dropped a "Desert Swarm" reference when he met with the media Tuesday. Barrs wasn't comparing the current Wildcats defense to that legendary unit. He was talking about the mentality the current Cats need to have in their matchup against Mississippi State on Saturday. The Bulldogs are coached by Mike Leach, master of the "Air Raid" offense. Like all Leach-led teams, MSU passes the ball a ton. And the Bulldogs rely heavily on their receivers to gain yards after the catch. In MSU's 49-23 season-opening victory over Memphis, 57.8% of the Bulldogs' 450 passing yards were gained after the catch, according to Pro Football Focus. Last season, 55% of MSU's passing yards came on YAC. In other words, tackling will be at a premium at Arizona Stadium -- for every UA defender. "Coach (Johnny) Nansen taught us, never just turn around and watch the ball. Always run to the ball. Because anything could happen," Barrs said. "The ball could come out. We've got to be around there. "We've got to gang-tackle. It's called 'Desert Swarm.' So that's what we got to do as all 11 on defense." Arizona tackled pretty well in its opener win over San Diego State -- especially compared to the Aztecs. The Wildcats had 12 missed tackles, according to PFF. SDSU had 31 (which jibes with Aztecs coach Brady Hoke calling their tackling "atrocious" after the game). |
| Lightning delay during Mississippi State football game sends fans flocking to Starkville restaurants | |
 | While the more than 2-hour lightning delay during Mississippi State's game against Memphis was not fun for fans, but it did provide a boost to local restaurants. "During the rain delay, people were leaving the game steadily and they were sitting here looking, walking around looking for somewhere to eat, probably last-minute before they go out to the bars," says Cole Herring, general manager at Uno Mas in the Cotton District. "We just happened to be that place." At kickoff, Mississippi State reported having the largest crowd for a home opener since 2016. But when the lightning delay hit, those people needed somewhere to go. "That second delay, that's when we started seeing folks come in," Walk-On's Bistreaux and Bar general manager Terry Long says. "We filled up, we had the game on, the sound on. It's cowbell friendly in here so we had some folks with cowbells." |
| Alone time helps Rogers perform when lights come on and crowd settles in | |
| The Daily Journal's Parrish Alford writes: When 60,000 fans show up at your office on Saturdays, and your movements on other days could find their way to social media or a message board, "alone" can be a hard status to achieve for college football players. Mike Leach is glad his quarterback found it. Alone time has been a key component in the development of Will Rogers, Leach says. Leach rattled off like machine gun fire a list of areas in which he'd like to see improvement in the Bulldogs from their season-opening 49-23 win over Memphis to this week's game against a Power Five conference foe in the Pac-12's Arizona. The Wildcats themselves are developing. They won just once a year ago, and many of their losses weren't close. The San Diego State team that Arizona defeated 38-20 on Saturday beat the Wildcats 38-14 in Tucson last year. The Bulldogs dominated all phases of play against Memphis for 2 1/2 quarters in opening up a 35-3 lead. Memphis outscored the Bulldogs 20-14 over the last 22 minutes, 37 seconds. Among the goals this week for Leach is to help his players be at their best deeper into the game. That's where alone time for Rogers, his junior quarterback, comes in. |
| Mississippi State men's basketball releases 2022-23 SEC schedule, nonconference home slate | |
| Mississippi State men's basketball team has nearly finalized its schedule for the 2022-23 season. The Southeastern Conference released its schedule for the upcoming year Monday morning, and the Bulldogs also released a list of nonconference home games. Times and TV information have yet to be released. MSU will open conference play at home against Alabama on Dec. 28 before a trip to Knoxville to face Tennessee on Jan. 3. The Bulldogs host the Volunteers on Jan. 17 and face the Crimson Tide again Jan. 25 in Tuscaloosa. The Bulldogs host Ole Miss on Jan. 7 and travel to face the Rebels on Feb. 18 in Oxford. MSU also plays two games with South Carolina (Jan. 31 on the road, Feb. 28 at home) and Missouri (Feb. 4 at home, Feb. 21 on the road). Mississippi State has SEC road trips to Auburn on Jan. 14 and Arkansas on Feb. 11. Kentucky visits Starkville on Feb. 15. In nonconference play, the Bulldogs open against Texas A&M–Corpus Christi on Nov. 7, a game already confirmed by new coach Chris Jans. MSU will take on Arkansas–Pine Bluff on Nov. 13 and, in the regional round of the Fort Myers Tipoff, face South Dakota on Nov. 17. The Bulldogs will continue play in the tournament against Marquette at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 21 in Fort Myers, Florida. They will face either Georgia Tech or Utah on Nov. 23. MSU will host Omaha on Nov. 28 and Mississippi Valley State on Dec. 3. MSU is also set to play at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson, but details have yet to be released for the contest. |
| Men's Golf Opens Season at Frederica Cup | |
| The Mississippi State men's golf team will begin its season at the inaugural Frederica Cup in Georgia on Sept. 7-8. The tournament will be played on the par-72, 7,309-yard course at the Frederica Golf Club. The competitive field consists of seven other schools, four of which enter ranked in the top 25. State will face top-ranked Oklahoma, No. 3 Vanderbilt, No. 8 Texas Tech, No. 14 Arkansas, No. 15 Georgia, Ohio State and TCU. The tournament will be played in a six-man, five-score format. The Bulldogs will tee off at 7:24 a.m. CT on Wednesday. "I am looking forward to beginning our journey this week," head coach Dusty Smith, who is entering his sixth season in Starkville, said. "This is our first step to a long season. Our goal this week is to compete at a high level and to play within ourselves and to play within the standard of Mississippi State golf. I am excited for these guys this week as we begin to climb." The first three of the Bulldogs' starting lineup features veteran experience in Ford Clegg, Hunter Logan and Ruan Pretorius followed by Garrett Endicott, Harrison Davis and William Wann. |
| 'This community has captured my heart:' Deion Sanders on Jackson water crisis | |
| The last week has shown Deion Sanders more about the City of Jackson than the Jackson State football program. The city has been battling a water crisis, leaving many residents without clean drinking water and low water pressure. The Tigers were valiant in their response, with a 59-3 victory over Florida A&M on Sunday, but Sanders was focused on the resiliency of the people living in Jackson during his press conference on Tuesday. "This community has captured my heart and I love it 100%," Sanders said. "I love the toughness that we displayed in Jackson, Mississippi and with the outpouring of support the community shown us has been incredible." The third-year head coach announced Amazon Prime Video and Lowe's each donated $100,000 of aid to help the city and JSU football program during the water crisis. Sanders along with several players will deliver water to community members on Tuesday, including nursing homes and neighborhoods throughout Jackson, according to Sanders. Sanders wasn't surprised by the response from his team or coaching staff last week. The program continued to stay locked in despite the surrounding noise, culminating in sophomore quarterback Shedeur Sanders' 29-of-33 for 323 yards and five TDs performance. The second-year starter completed his first 17 passes and hit 12 different receivers. "I've learned more from the people of Jackson than the staff and the players," Deion said. "The people of Jackson are resilient. They are doers. I love their heart and their focus." |
| Memphis football RB Rodrigues Clark, second-leading rusher last season, no longer on team | |
| Memphis senior running back Rodrigues Clark, the team's second-leading rusher last season, is no longer with the Tigers, the athletics department said in a statement Tuesday. Clark wasn't listed on the roster heading into Saturday's game at Navy (2:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network), and Memphis declined further comment on his departure. Clark later confirmed he was leaving in a tweet. "It's all love. I will most definitely miss Memphis and my bruddas who i'm locked in with (sic)," Clark said. "Minor setback for a MAJOR COMEBACK #4AI See you next season." Clark, who ran for 387 yards and four touchdowns last season, didn't travel to Mississippi State last week, a game that would've been a homecoming for the Starkville, Mississippi, native. ESPN's broadcast reported that he was unavailable to play without elaborating. The Tigers' depth chart before the game had just two running backs in Brandon Thomas and Jevyon Ducker. Coach Ryan Silverfield said since the spring that he wanted to have a smaller rotation of backs compared to what was used the last two seasons. Last year, three different running backs started at least one game for Memphis and four did so in 2020. |
| How SEC's Greg Sankey became college sports' most powerful person | |
| Greg Sankey has a big brain and a wonk's zeal for esoteric and complicated issues. Few people in college athletics are more at home amid the weeds of NCAA bylaws and policy, which is a big reason why he's been the co-chair of the association's massive undertaking to remake itself over the past year. When the work gets dense and administrators' eyes glaze over, Sankey's light up. The commissioner of the Southeastern Conference projects an Ivy League intellect and a patrician air. But Sankey's path to becoming the most powerful figure in college sports winds through neither a privileged upbringing nor an elite education. Quite the opposite, in fact. Yankee accent aside, he's got more in common with rank-and-file SEC fans than anyone might have guessed. The son of a welder spent some of his formative years living in a mobile home in upstate New York near Skaneateles Lake ("Long Lake" in one of the local Iroquois languages). One summer, the Sankey family lived in a garage that lacked air conditioning. The Finger Lakes region outside Syracuse is a resort area for many affluent New Yorkers, but the everyday reality of living there was nothing glamorous for Sankey. Greg Sankey, now 58, has driven himself a long way. A lifetime of decisions, some of them difficult, led him away from upstate New York and culminated in commissionership of the most successful athletic conference in the nation. Since then, he has evolved into the most powerful person in his line of work, at a moment of acute fragility within the enterprise. |
| Ed Orgeron's hilarious reaction to LSU's $17.1 million buyout: 'What time do you want me to leave?' | |
 | You know the story. At least the broad strokes. LSU in recent years win a national championship only to see it part ways -- for one reason or another -- with the coach. LSU has won national titles in 2007 under Les Miles, who took over after Nick Saban (who won a title in 2003) left for the NFL in 2005, and in 2019 under Ed Orgeron, who took over when Miles was fired in 2016. But just two seasons after overseeing arguably the greatest season in LSU's 128-year history, Orgeron, a Louisiana native of Cajun heritage, was forced out. LSU went 5-5 in 2020 in 6-7 in 2021. orced might be a tad bit inaccurate. On Tuesday, Orgeron relayed how he discovered he was no longer being retained in Baton Rouge and his hilarious reaction to it. "I was so grateful for my time with LSU, that was my opportunity," Orgeron told the Little Rock Touchdown Club. "Coaches have a shelf, some coaches have 50 years, some have 12, I had six. Good. I gotta tell ya, we had a meeting, they said 'Coach, things are not going well.' No (expletive), Ray Charles can see that, brother.' They were good, Scott Woodard is a friend of mine, really, a lot of respect for the way they handled me. 'They said 'Coach, you got $17.1 million dollars on your contract, we're gonna give it to ya.' I said, 'what time you want me to leave and what door you want me to go out of, brother?" |
| Texas A&M athletes made more than $4 million in NIL deals last year | |
 | Texas A&M athletes collected more than $4 million in name, image and likeness (NIL) compensation since it was made legal on July 1, 2021, with football leading the charge at more than $3.3 million in deals. According to university-tracked information obtained by The Eagle through the Texas Open Records Act, the combined total of all NIL deals secured by Aggie athletes was $4,173,656.82 during the first academic year these kinds of deals were legal per state laws and allowed by the NCAA. Football athletes earned $3,367,517.52 over that stretch. Men's basketball came in second with $472,735 followed by baseball's $198,078 total compensation. Aggie pitcher Nathan Dettmer signed an endorsement deal with Cooper's BBQ in College Station. He spoke to The Eagle about the deal and the new world of NIL at a signing event during the spring. "It's way different, especially as you think about I'm still a student and going to school," Dettmer said. "I really kind of entered the big-boy world a little bit in negotiating things and figuring out ways to make money. It's been awesome. It's way different, but I love it." Softball was A&M's highest-earning women's sport, totaling $35,337, followed by women's tennis's $25,605 and women's track and field and cross country at $16,405. Men's golf was wedged in between softball and women's tennis, earning $28,500. Women's basketball fell eighth among programs with $7,730 earned. By comparison, Texas' athletes earned more than $2,039,180 through the majority of the 2021-22 academic year, according to a report by the Austin American-Statesman. The Longhorn football team earned $879,447, with the largest single deal worth $60,000, according to the report. Texas softball athletes collected $295,790 and women's swimming totaled $259,402. |
| Alabama football's Million Dollar Band won't travel to Texas | |
 | You won't hear "Yea Alabama," "Tusk," "Basket Case" or any other popular songs from the Million Dollar Band at the Alabama football game vs. Texas. The band won't be traveling to Austin, UA confirmed in a statement shared with The Tuscaloosa News. No. 1 Alabama faces No. 22 Texas on Saturday (11 a.m., FOX). "Due to the seating location and configuration of the visiting institution's ticket allotment at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, the Million Dollar Band will not make the trip this weekend for the Alabama at Texas football game," the statement read. This is the first time the band won't be traveling with the football team since the 2020 season, when attendance was greatly limited because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This isn't the first time there has been discussion about marching band seating locations at Texas games. Attention was brought to LSU's band having to sit high up for a 2019 game. The contract language from the home-and-home deal signed in 2018 said the visiting institution's band seats must come from the visiting institution's ticket allotment. The visiting institution receives, per the contract, 500 complimentary tickets and may request up to 4,500 additional tickets on consignment. |
| Nick Saban Emphasizes the Importance of Mental Health | |
| Alabama football head coach Nick Saban has been tasked with leading over 100 collegiate athletes every year for nearly two decades at the University of Alabama. These athletes are among the most highly watched, criticized, scrutinized and sometimes down right disrespected people for a miscue they made playing a game. Saban is laser-focused on having the players improve each and every day physically, so they can win on the field. Eating right, conditioning and working out are all part of a daily routine to prepare for battle on Saturday. Of equal importance is the mental health and well-being of the individuals. In a recent interview with Stephanie Gosk of NBC, Saban shared his thoughts on mental health. "We're all going to have bad things that happen. But, our ability to overcome those negatives is going to go a long way in helping us be successful," Saban said. This past summer offensive lineman Javion Cohen opened up about his own personal mental health struggles. Cohen saw it as an opportunity to share the good things that came out of his hard time. Actively sharing mental health success stories is a great way to combat the stigma that surrounds the health of the mind. "It's always good to emphasize with people, take help when help is there to be given. It's not a bad thing," Saban said. |
| UF balances exclusivity, program competitiveness with new $85 million football complex | |
| Zero-gravity chairs, a cryotherapy chamber and a screen large enough for the football team to line up and strategize -- all features of UF's new high-tech football facility made exclusively for the Florida Gators. Many hope UF's investment of $85 million into Gators football pays off, as the team hasn't won a national or conference championship in 14 years. As Florida comes off the high from Saturday's win, players can use its new football complex to continue training between games. The new James W. "Bill" Heavener Football Training Center is part of an effort to match the dominance of Southeastern Conference rivals Alabama and Georgia, both on the field and, more importantly, on the recruiting trail. The Heavener Center is open only to student athletes. There are more than 500 UF student athletes as of Spring 2022, according to the UF Intercollegiate Athletics Committee. However, there were 61,112 students enrolled in Fall 2021, according to the UF Institutional Planning and Research office. Some students have voiced their concerns about UF prioritizing a small margin of the student body with the opening of the training facility. The new football complex also features amenities such as a dining hall and lounge space for all student athletes, not just the football program. The rest of the facility is reserved for football players and staff. Olivia Giovenco, a 19-year-old English sophomore, recalls hearing about the horrors of living in disheveled dorms like Rawlings Hall. In her view, it's unfair that the university prioritizes the well-being of a small percentage of students over the entire student body, she said. |
| Woman arrested outside Kentucky coach John Calipari's home | |
| University of Kentucky police arrested a woman Tuesday for trying to enter the property of men's basketball coach John Calipari. University spokeswoman Blair Conner said Lexington Police were called to assist university police outside of Calipari's residence Tuesday morning. The woman, who was arrested outside the gate, was charged with trespassing and six counts of theft of credit cards from around the country. Officials said the woman was looking for someone who wasn't at Calipari's house and that the theft charges are not related to the Hall of Fame coach. Conner said the call to police did not come from Calipari's home. Police did not provide the woman's name and said no further details would be released. |
| An HBCU's Football Woes Spotlight Lack of Resources | |
| Florida A&M University leadership is facing demands for accountability after 26 football players were declared ineligible for their season opener, which the players blamed on inadequate academic advising in a scathing letter to administrators. The letter, signed by nearly 90 players, caught the attention of national media and prompted an emergency Board of Trustees meeting in which members called on administrators to redress the many grievances listed by the football team and vowed to hold them more accountable. In addition to a lack of academic advising, the team complained about delays in financial aid disbursement, scholarship packages that don't cover summer classes, a lack of athlete representation on the search committee for a new athletic director and a decrease in tickets allotted to players. Players say the root cause of ineligibility comes down to insufficient academic advising resulting in NCAA compliance issues, with only two staff members serving the entire athletic department in those areas. The team's letter to the administration mentioned Isaiah Land, a highly decorated defensive player, who was reportedly told to take two summer classes to meet the league's academic progress goals when he actually needed three classes. (Land is one of several players who has since been reinstated.) Now Florida A&M faces mounting pressure from football players, trustees, alumni and outside observers as the university seeks to staff up amid scrutiny, broader hiring woes across higher ed and budget constraints that persist at many historically Black colleges and universities. |
| B.Y.U. Is Still Investigating Racial Slurs at Women's Volleyball Match | |
| Brigham Young University said Tuesday that it was still investigating who was responsible for the racist slurs and threats that a Black player for Duke University's women's volleyball team said were directed at her at a match on Aug. 26. After the match, B.Y.U. banned a person who had been sitting in its fan section from all university sporting events. But last week the school told The Salt Lake Tribune and other local media that it had not found evidence that the unidentified spectator was responsible for the shouted slurs. "The investigation is ongoing," the university's associate athletic director, Jon McBride, said Tuesday in an email. The Duke player's father, Marvin Richardson, told The New York Times after the game that a slur was repeatedly yelled from the stands as his daughter, Rachel Richardson, was serving and that she feared the "raucous" crowd. In a text message on Tuesday, he said the family was declining to comment on the investigation. Two days after the game, Richardson, a sophomore, said in a statement posted on Twitter that she and her African American teammates were "targeted and racially heckled throughout the entirety of the match." She said that the fan behavior did not reflect the conduct of her competitors, who she said showed "respect and good sportsmanship on and off the court." She said B.Y.U.'s athletic director, Tom Holmoe, was quick to act. |
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