| Thursday, June 5, 2025 |
| MSU receives donation for new feed mill | |
 | Pilgrim's Pride has donated $100,000 toward constructing a new poultry feed mill facility at Mississippi State University (MSU), the company announced earlier this week. "Feed and feed manufacturing accounts for roughly 60% to 70% of total operational costs for poultry producers," said Kelley Wamsley, associate professor of poultry science at MSU. "Proper nutrition is critical to overall health, growth and production. The pellet mill will enhance our research capacity while also providing hands-on experience for our students and complementing our other commercially relevant facilities, allowing students to truly learn about the industry from farm to fork." The feed mill also will help support the department's recent growth in faculty, along with a newly approved curriculum to provide further education in feed manufacturing, the university said. "By equipping students with practical knowledge and real-world experience in feed manufacturing, we're training the next generation of industry professionals -- many of whom will likely become valued members of the Pilgrim's Pride team," said Will Staggers, director of development for MSU's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. |
| Expert offers advice to stay safe from sharks while enjoying the ocean | |
| As many families are preparing to hit the road and head to the coast for summer vacation, they've probably seen videos of sharks in shallow waters on social media. Even though there are more videos popping up online, one expert says that doesn't mean sharks in shallow water is a new development. Dr. Marcus Drymon is a marine fisheries specialist and professor at Mississippi State University. He joined Mike Dubberly on Good Day Alabama Wednesday and said these animals have always been there. "We all have phones in our pockets now, even when we're at the beach," Drymon said. "So we have a lot more videos showing these sharks there in those nearshore waters." With bait fish swimming closer to shore, sharks will come into shallow water to take advantage of a group of fish and feed. In May, Governor Kay Ivey signed "Lula's Law" into effect, establishing a shark alert system in Mobile and Baldwin Counties. The law was named after Lula Gibbons, one of two shark bite victims from Mountain Brook in June 2024. Even with measures going into place to help protect swimmers, Drymon said there are other ways to stay safe when venturing into the ocean for a swim. "My best advice is, if you see a big school of fish -- all those little ripples on the surface of the water in these bait schools -- I'd stay away from that part of the water," Drymon said. "Move down to a different part of the beach or just get out of the water until that bad school passes, because oftentimes there are sharks chasing those bait schools." |
| Mary Means Business: Connie's Chicken is officially open | |
 | Connie's Chicken is officially open. Located at 602 Hwy. 12, Starkville's newest chicken joint is the latest expansion of The Tupelo-based staple. Four decades ago, Constantine Asters, along with his sons, opened Connie's in Tupelo. After a regional expansion, the company now operates locations in Tupelo, West Point, Oxford and now Starkville. I checked out the new spot last weekend and enjoyed a chicken and gravy biscuit while my nephew absolutely devoured one of their famous blueberry donuts then promptly requested four more. Check out the new spot 6 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Sundays. And in what I'm calling tangentially chicken-related breaking news: Zaxby's milkshakes are back. It's been nearly a decade (eight years, but who is counting), but folks can finally get strawberry, chocolate, vanilla and birthday cake shakes again. The fast food chicken chain with locations in Columbus, Starkville and West Point, made the announcement last week on social media. |
| City, county explore uniting ambulance services | |
| With OCH Regional Medical Center's sale on the horizon, the city, county and Mississippi State University are once again discussing the creation of a county-wide emergency services district, allowing all three to use the same ambulance service. During Monday's Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors meeting, County Administrator Wayne Carpenter updated the board on a meeting that took place between the three stakeholders May 28, discussing consolidating the service. "The consensus at the end of the meeting is that we all agreed that a consolidated ambulance service would be in the best interest of all three stakeholders," Carpenter said. "We discussed possibly setting up an emergency services district for the entire county." Carpenter said the plan, if all stakeholders agree to it, would create a council to govern the emergency services district including representatives from all three entities. Mayor Lynn Spruill said discussions are still "exploratory," and she is still looking into what the creation of the emergency services district would mean for the city. While she sees the advantage of creating the district as a potential way to mitigate confusion during an emergency, she said there are still other factors to consider in terms of the city's input, administration and quality of its ambulance services. |
| Supes approve match for CINCO water tank | |
| Progress continues in developing the Golden Triangle's fifth Megasite. Lowndes County supervisors during the board's Monday meeting approved a match to help fund the construction of a million-gallon water tank and a 16-inch water connection line for the CINCO Megasite. Together, the water tank and water line are expected to cost approximately $11,428,000, said Elizabeth Templeton, a project manager with the Golden Triangle Development LINK. The LINK has submitted an application for a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission to fund the cost of the project, she said. "The exact cost of the improvements will not be known until the project bids, which we anticipate late spring or early summer of next year," Templeton wrote in a text to The Dispatch. During an unveiling ceremony for the Megasite last month, Gov. Tate Reeves announced a $5.5 million site development grant from the Mississippi Development Authority to support the construction of the tank. Templeton said that money will go toward meeting the 50% required match for the ARC grant. "Based on the preliminary costs that were calculated for certification, we anticipate the state's site development funds, provided by the governor's office, will serve as the majority (of) the match in addition to a portion of the county's bond proceeds that will be used to make up the balance," Templeton said. |
| Mall at Barnes Crossing facing foreclosure as owner defaults on loan | |
 | A deal brokered more than a decade ago for a majority stake in The Mall at Barnes Crossing is now leading to its foreclosure. But a foreclosure doesn't mean the property will close; it will be business as usual as the process allows a financial reset and another owner can be in better position to operate the mall, a pathway for them to step in and do things a large company in Chicago or New York may not care to do in a smaller market Brookfield Properties, which has more than 130 malls in the United States, is apparently walking away from the Tupelo mall, which it added to its portfolio in 2016 when it acquired Rouse Properties for $2.6 billion. The mall opened in March 1990 via a joint venture between David Hocker and Associates of Owensboro, Kentucky, and R.F. Coffin Enterprises of Cleveland, Ohio. It is one of the five largest malls in Mississippi. In 2014, Rouse became majority owner of the 833,000-square-foot mall with a 51% stake after purchasing Coffin's ownership share for $99 million, which included a $67 million non-recourse loan. David Rumbarger, president and CEO of the Community Development Foundation, said the mall is an appealing property that will be owned and managed well into the future. "I am confident in our retail market, and the mall, which is an asset to our community, will continue to be valuable in the future," he said. |
| Ribbon-cutting ceremony held for $50 million Jones Capital headquarters in Hattiesburg | |
| A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held in Hattiesburg on Tuesday to highlight the new Jones Capital headquarters. Jones, a private investment firm, announced plans to construct its headquarters in Midtown Hattiesburg back in 2021. The $50 million, 80,000-square-foot facility has now come to fruition in the Hub City and is anticipated to welcome around 200 new employees. "Proud to help cut the ribbon on Jones' new headquarters in Hattiesburg," Gov. Tate Reeves wrote on X. Jones began over 70 years ago as Jones Lumber Company in southwest Mississippi. Currently, the business's portfolio of companies includes Big Black River, Codaray Construction, FV Recycling, Jones Logistics, Jones Lumber, Jones Power, Parade, PortaBull Fuel, PortaBull Storage, Rockport Terminals, Spot, and Tax Advisors Group. These companies will be managed in the new facility housed just across from the University of Southern Mississippi. |
| 'Sinners' Goes Beyond Horror and the Blues for Clarksdale, Miss. | |
 | Almost as soon as the supernatural horror movie "Sinners" opened in April, word began to spread among the residents of Clarksdale, Miss. It wasn't just an ode to blues music, a showcase of Black Hollywood talent or a gory Southern vampire story. It was about them. It was about Clarksdale. The film and its worldwide success have brought a burst of attention to the small city in the Mississippi Delta, known as the birthplace of the blues. Set there in the 1930s, it follows twin brothers -- both played by Michael B. Jordan -- and vampires who are lured by the music performed in their juke joint. Clarksdale's unexpected moment in the spotlight has galvanized a number of young Black residents, some of whom successfully lobbied the director, Ryan Coogler, to visit last week and screen "Sinners" at an auditorium. It has also gotten people there talking -- not for the first time -- about how to transform Clarksdale's rich musical history into economic growth that will benefit those who live and work there. |
| Mississippi oystermen feel 'betrayed' by privatization push | |
 | On a warm May afternoon at the Pass Christian Harbor, most describe the Mississippi Sound's oyster fishery as suffering a slow death by three cuts: 2005's Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 BP Oil Spill and the 2019 double opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway. The reefs of the western Mississippi Sound, especially those just off the shores of Pass Christian, were once among the largest in the world, and attracted immigrant groups from across Europe, the United States and later southeast Asia. But just as the Mississippi Sound's historic oyster reefs have begun recovering -- and fishermen look to recoup years of lost landings and income -- a state Senate-led plan to privatize up to 80% of those reefs has fishermen fearing their livelihoods, and generations of cultural heritage, may be on the brink. "There's so many multi-generational families that have ties to the seafood industry in one way or another. They've got family members that are involved in the industry, and it would be devastating to lose these reefs, because our oyster fishermen have weathered so much over the years throughout these disasters," said Ryan Bradley, executive director of the non-profit Mississippi Coastal Fisheries United and an offshore charter captain. |
| Democratic candidates make gains in Mississippi city elections, but GOP keeps Gulfport red | |
| The Democratic Party flipped several seats and made significant gains during Tuesday's municipal elections across Mississippi. The day-to-day functions of municipal government often don't involve partisan policy decisions. But local elections can gauge voters' moods before congressional midterms next year and the 2027 statewide election for governor. The election results as of Wednesday afternoon are not official because local election workers will still process mail-in absentee votes for five business days after the election and process affidavit ballots. In one of the most hotly contested municipal elections this year, Republican Hugh Keating defeated Democrat Sonya Williams Barnes. Keating, an attorney, led Barnes, a former state representative, by roughly 1,110 votes in a race that saw relatively high turnout, according to the Sun Herald. The election drew several prominent national figures to the coastal town, such as U.S. Sen. Tim Scott and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. Despite Barnes' loss, Cheikh Taylor, chairman of the state Democratic Party, praised the former legislator for proving Democrats can be competitive in south Mississippi. |
| Vought grilled over DOGE, spending cuts in House hearing | |
 | Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought was grilled by both sides of the aisle over the administration's sweeping cost-cutting plans as he testified before House appropriators Wednesday afternoon. Vought faced a wide-ranging list of questions during a budget hearing, as lawmakers pressed him over President Trump's latest spending cut requests, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), along with a major tax package of the president's priorities making its way through Congress. One area of bipartisan interest was leadership at DOGE, an effort Trump previously tapped tech billionaire Elon Musk for. Vought said the administration was "in the midst of, with the last week or so, of establishing the leadership on an ongoing basis" following the exit of Musk. Other top officials at the department have also departed in recent days, including Steve Davids, whom Vought noted previously led the effort. The OMB chief also faced questions over the president's budget request for fiscal 2026, which lawmakers have noted is incomplete. "Where's the budget?" Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), a spending cardinal asked him. He also faced heat from Democrats over other components of that plan, including reforms to Medicaid that Republicans have attached to the proposed tax cuts as an effort to save hundreds of billions of federal dollars over the next decade. |
| Trump Wants His Presidential Library Set in Florida, Enticed by Free Land | |
 | Donald Trump is considering the campus of Florida Atlantic University for a presidential library, on a site where he has been offered free land, as planning begins for the MAGA mecca he eschewed during his first term. Trump and his advisers are planning a campaign to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for a library fund. One of the president's sons, Eric Trump, and one of his sons-in-law, Michael Boulos, recently established a nonprofit to support the library. More than $37 million from lawsuits involving ABC News and Meta Platforms, as well as tens of millions of leftover inauguration funds, are expected to fund construction of the complex, along with donors. Trump envisions turning a $400 million Boeing 747 jet -- a gift from Qatar -- into a tourist attraction at the library. After leaving office in 2020, Trump refused to give serious consideration to a library and focused instead on his political comeback. Aides said there was an unspoken rule not to talk about a presidential library because it would signal Trump's political career was over. Having achieved his return to the White House, he now wants a Trump-size presidential center to commemorate his time at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. "He redefined the presidency, so there is no question in my mind he will redefine the post-presidency, including what a modern presidential library looks like," said Mark Updegrove, the chief executive of the LBJ Foundation and author of "Make Your Mark: Lessons in Character from Seven Presidents." |
| Trump launches investigation into whether Biden aides concealed alleged decline | |
 | President Donald Trump has ordered an investigation into whether aides to former President Joe Biden concealed alleged declines in his mental acuity, including by the use of an automatic pen to sign Biden's name on official documents. Trump said in a statement Wednesday that the investigation will look into whether Biden's aides attempted to "deceive the public" by hiding "serious cognitive decline" from the American people. Presidents have long used an autopen to sign documents, but Trump has repeatedly raised the issue in recent weeks amid media alleging that Biden's mental acuity declined toward the end of his term in the White House, which he has denied. There is no evidence that Biden aides used the autopen to take actions without their boss' knowledge or that Biden's purported decline led aides to take actions on his behalf. The Justice Department has long found that use of an autopen is valid, so long as the president is the one making the decisions. In response to the Trump order, Biden sent a statement to POLITICO late Wednesday. "Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency," he said. "I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn't is ridiculous and false. This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans who are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families, all to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations." |
| Biden alums could boost their House ranks in midterm elections | |
 | As a senior attorney in the Commerce Department, Eric Chung helped implement the 2022 law known as the CHIPS and Science Act, a bipartisan effort championed by President Joe Biden to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing and scientific research. But Chung left his civil service job in April, shortly after President Donald Trump called the law a "horrible, horrible thing" in a joint address to Congress and urged lawmakers to scrap the CHIPS program. (On Wednesday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Senate appropriators that Trump is renegotiating some of Biden's semiconductor grants.) "With elections, there are consequences and you expect some changes,'' Chung said. "But the idea of just going after a program that's so bipartisan ... for no apparent reason, just railing against it, certainly disappointed me, and I just couldn't watch it unfold." Now Chung is running for Congress -- he's one of at least four Democrats hoping to flip Michigan's 10th District -- and he's highlighting his experience working on one of the Biden administration's signature legislative achievements. He isn't the only one. As Trump tries to unwind much of his Democratic predecessor's agenda, a handful of federal employees who helped carry out the Biden administration's policy priorities are seeking House seats in 2026. They are mostly competing in battleground districts and are expected to face competitive primaries. |
| Supreme Court sides with woman claiming anti-straight job discrimination | |
 | The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with a straight woman who claimed she faced bias in the workplace after she was passed over for positions that went to gay colleagues. The decision will make it easier for members of majority groups to prove job discrimination claims. The justices unanimously struck down a standard used in nearly half the nation's federal circuits that required people who are White, male or not gay to meet a higher bar to prove workplace bias in certain cases than do individuals whose minority communities have traditionally faced discrimination. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who wrote the opinion for the court, agreed with Marlean Ames, who argued that it was unconstitutional to have different standards for different groups of people. "Congress left no room for courts to impose special requirements on majority-group plaintiffs alone," Jackson wrote. The Supreme Court decision revived Ames's discrimination claim against the agency overseeing youth corrections facilities in Ohio, sending it back to the lower courts that had ruled she hadn't met the higher bar of proof. Ames's case does not directly implicate DEI initiatives, but employment lawyers have said a ruling for her and the backlash against DEI could add pressure on companies to rethink programs aimed at protecting and elevating members of minority groups. |
| UMMC looks to raise $125 million for NIC designated cancer center | |
 | Mississippi leads the nation in cancer mortality, with more than 178 deaths per 100,000 people, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics. In Jackson, the University of Mississippi Medical Center is working to change that. The teaching hospital recently launched a new "It's About Time" capital campaign aimed at building the state's first National Cancer Institute designated cancer center and research institute to expand treatment and research accessibility throughout the state. Speaking to Meridian Rotary Club at its weekly meeting Wednesday, Suzanne Thigpen, assistant director of special projects for UMMC's Office of Development, said patients at NIC designated centers see survival rates go up by 25% to 35%. The problem, she said, is one of access. The closest NIC designated centers are at the University of Alabama Birmingham and the Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Many Mississippians don't have resources needed to travel to NIC centers in other states, Thigpen said, and there are no NIC designated centers in Mississippi, Arkansas or Louisiana. Access to care also varies within the state, Thigpen said, and the Mississippi Delta, which shows some of the highest cancer mortality rates in the world, has very few oncologists. That can lead to illnesses going unchecked for a long time and an avoidance of doctors by patients, she said. "We're losing people we shouldn't have to, and that's why this project is so important to us," she said. |
| Hattiesburg approves agreement with USM for West 4th Street project | |
 | The Hattiesburg City Council voted to approve an agreement with the University of Southern Mississippi that will help move along the West Fourth Street sidewalk project. Some of the land belonged to the university, and this agreement will allow the city to build the sidewalk on that property. City leaders said the project will improve the "walkability" in the area. City Council President Jeffrey George said having the city and USM in agreement is a big plus. "It's just it's always important for the city to partner with Southern Miss because I think they can't be mutually exclusive," George said. "Both entities work off of each other. "We work together on multiple projects throughout the year, and this is just another example of USM coming together with the city to help improve quality of life here in our city for the residents and for the students that may be traveling in this area on Fourth Street." Once the project is completed, leaders said the city will take over the maintenance around the sidewalk. |
| Nissan makes donations to Mississippi HBCUs for STEM support | |
| Nissan is donating $250,000 to Mississippi's seven Historically Black Colleges and Universities, according to an announcement made by the automaker Wednesday. For the 11th consecutive year, Nissan is donating to the following HBCUs: Alcorn State University, Coahoma Community College, Hinds Community College-Utica Campus, Jackson State University, Mississippi Valley State University, Rust College, and Tougaloo College. "I'm particularly proud as an alumnus of Alcorn State University for Nissan to contribute to the future of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics at Mississippi HBCUs, creating the next generation of workforce leaders," said Victor Taylor, vice president of manufacturing at Nissan Canton Vehicle Assembly Plant. "Nissan's Canton facility counts dozens of Mississippi HBCU graduates among its leadership and staff," he added. "In continuing this investment, we are helping to prepare students for their future careers in industries like automotive, creating a growing talent pool for this community." |
| Which fast-growing Alabama college city still has a 'small-town feel?' | |
 | Alabama's two college towns, Auburn and Tuscaloosa, are both growing. And, like the colleges themselves, they're growing fast. Tuscaloosa is the 24th fastest growing city in Alabama with 114,288 residents, a 13% increase from 2020 to 2024, AL.com found, using U.S. Census data. Auburn ranks at No. 42, with 83,757 residents, a 9% increase from 2020. Opelika is the 26th fastest growing city in Alabama with a 12.9% increase. "People want to be part of those type of communities," Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox said. Auburn University enrollment has increased 12.1% since 2019, according to college data. The University of Alabama grew 7.2% in the same time period, and enrolled more than 40,000 students for the first time in 2024. Maddox told AL.com Tuscaloosa's recent growth can be attributed to research and development at the University of Alabama, including the engineering college's Cyber Security lab and the addition of NOAA's National Water Center at the Alabama Water Institute on campus. Auburn enjoys having a "small town feel," according to David Dorton, the city's communications director. He also cited local and regional surveys that praised the city's safety. "Our focus, given the reality of growth, is to maintain infrastructure and city services at a high level which in turn generates the quality of life our citizens expect," Dorton said. |
| Trump administration's budget cuts could close down Louisiana LIGO observatory | |
 | The observatory in Livingston Parish that made a historic scientific breakthrough by detecting gravitational waves is now at risk of shutting down under the Trump administration's proposed federal budget cuts. On Friday, the Trump administration announced a proposed federal budget request for 2026 that cut $5.2 billion, or 57%, of the National Science Foundation's $9 billion annual budget. NSF supports facilities across the country including the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. Two LIGO observatories are funded in the country: LIGO Livingston and LIGO Hanford in Washington state. NSF would operate only one U.S. LIGO observatory with a reduced level of spending for LIGO technology development in the 2026 fiscal year, according to the budget proposal. The LIGO observatory in Livingston Parish made international headlines in 2015 when it detected gravitation waves from black holes more than a billion light years away. Joseph Giaime, head of the LIGO Livingston observatory, said LIGO leadership is working with NSF on its next steps in response to the proposed budget. But Giaime said it is not efficient to run one LIGO observatory without the other. The gravitation waves discovery confirmed a key prediction of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity and kick-started a new era of astronomy. |
| 4-H'ers get lesson in entrepreneurship | |
 | Growing up in Georgetown, Jackie Doss was a typical teenage girl interested in clothes, jewelry and horses. As a graduate of Texas A&M University, she has parlayed those interests into her own business and on Wednesday she imparted the secrets to her success to classes of 4-H'ers attending the Texas 4-H Roundup this week in College Station. She said her store is a success because she ignored the conventional wisdom of the naysayers and stuck to her own personal brand. When she was graduating from Texas A&M with her master's degree in financial management, one of her professors asked her what her plans were. When she said she wanted to open a boutique, he tried to dissuade her. When her family and friends found out she wanted to open her store in a mall, they cringed. When she quit her banking job last year to work on her business, many people told her she was crazy and making a bad choice. She told the 4-H'ers that she has always loved to sell and knew that one day she would be an entrepreneur. During her classes, Doss told her audiences that entrepreneurship isn't for everyone. "If you're a risk taker; if you've always been risk tolerant, then you're probably an entrepreneur," she said. |
| Texas' undocumented college students no longer qualify for in-state tuition | |
| Undocumented students in Texas are no longer eligible for in-state tuition after Texas agreed Wednesday with the federal government's demand to stop the practice. The abrupt end to Texas' 24-year-old law came hours after the U.S. Department of Justice announced it was suing Texas over its policy of letting undocumented students qualify for lower tuition rates at public universities. Texas quickly asked the court to side with the feds and find that the law was unconstitutional and should be blocked, which U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor did. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claimed credit for the outcome, saying in a statement Wednesday evening that "ending this discriminatory and un-American provision is a major victory for Texas," echoing the argument made by Trump administration officials. "Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens," U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement Wednesday. "The Justice Department will relentlessly fight to vindicate federal law and ensure that U.S. citizens are not treated like second-class citizens anywhere in the country." Texas began granting in-state tuition to undocumented students in 2001, becoming the first state to extend eligibility. |
| Mizzou New Music Initiative hires new managing director | |
 | A new face will aim to further Columbia's reputation as a haven for new music. Tiffany Skidmore has been hired as managing director of the Mizzou New Music Initiative, the University of Missouri announced June 2. Skidmore replaces Andrea Luque Káram, who recently became executive director of Ragtag Film Society. The Mizzou New Music Initiative is an essential component of MU's music education and programming, enfolding the year-round Mizzou New Music Ensemble, the Mizzou International Composers Festival -- among other annual occurrences -- as well as the Sinquefield Composition Prize and various composition and performance opportunities. Skidmore holds experience teaching across North America, including at University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Virginia Tech University, the University at Buffalo and, most recently, McGill University in Montreal. Mizzou New Music Initiative recently received a $4.6 million gift from Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield, its most prominent patrons. The donation will facilitate scholarships and awards and also support key personnel and infrastructure. |
| Republicans Trying to Control Indiana University Meet Little Resistance | |
| The sweeping changes to Indiana's public universities came suddenly this spring, with little time for debate. Republicans passed a new law that would require university boards to measure the productivity of tenured faculty. Faculty were downgraded to "advisory only" roles in university decision-making. Degree programs that graduated too few students would be closed. And at Indiana University, whose flagship campus in Bloomington is ranked among the nation's top 100 schools, the state's governor was given new power over the school's governing board. Democrats, civil liberty groups and many university presidents have responded with outrage as the Trump administration has tried to force private institutions like Harvard and Columbia to give the federal government similar powers. Harvard's leadership sued. At Indiana University, the president, Pamela Whitten, has stayed silent on the state's recent moves. Many faculty members see the Indiana bill as an attack on their university's independence and part of an effort to restrict their own freedom to teach and speak. They read Dr. Whitten's silence as support for the changes. Dr. Whitten's supporters argue that she has been a savvy leader maintaining a good relationship with Republican state leaders. |
| Some College, No Degree Population Grows by 2.1M | |
 | Even as more states and colleges invest in efforts to improve postsecondary persistence, the total number of adults in the U.S. who have completed some college credits but not earned a credential (SCNC) grew 2.2 percent, or by nearly 800,000 people, between 2022–23 and 2023–24, according to new data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The report, published today, highlights the disparity between the thousands of students who leave college each year before earning a certificate or degree and those who eventually return to attain a postsecondary credential. "It's clear that higher education regularly produces more students leaving without a credential than students returning and earning one," said Matthew Holsapple, senior director of research at the NSCRC, during a press briefing. "This is a persistent challenge and an opportunity." Between January 2022 and July 2023, approximately 2.1 million students left college without a credential, which was a decrease of 156,000 students compared to the same period starting one year prior. Across the country, 37.5 million people under age 65 now fall into the "some college, no credential" (SCNC) population, and an additional 5.5 million adults older than 65 fit in this group as well. Over the past three years, more college and state leaders have turned their attention to re-enrolling students who left higher education. |
| More teens lean toward alternative postsecondary options | |
| Teens' postsecondary plans are shifting, with just 45% of students in grades 7-12 seeing a two- or four-year college as their most likely next step in 2024, according to a new survey from national nonprofit American Student Assistance. That's down from 73% in 2018. Over the same period, interest in nondegree education pathways like vocational schools, apprenticeships and technical boot camp programs more than tripled, from 12% in 2018 to 38% in 2024, the ASA survey found. Regardless of their goals after high school, the results show that students mainly view postsecondary education as the path to a good job, the report's authors wrote. School counselors are aware of the increasing variety of postsecondary options, which comes with an increased responsibility to be knowledgeable about how these pathways work. Diana Virgil is a high school counselor at Daleville High School in Alabama, where she works alongside a career coach to prepare students to start thinking about their post-secondary options. She emphasized the importance of starting before students are in 12th grade to make sure that they are working toward these goals throughout their high school career. |
| Trump promised to welcome more foreign students. Now, they feel targeted on all fronts | |
 | To attract the brightest minds to America, President Donald Trump proposed a novel idea while campaigning: If elected, he would grant green cards to all foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges. "It's so sad when we lose people from Harvard, MIT, from the greatest schools," Trump said during a podcast interview last June. "That is going to end on Day One." That promise never came to pass. Trump's stance on welcoming foreign students has shifted dramatically. International students have found themselves at the center of an escalating campaign to kick them out or keep them from coming as his administration merges a crackdown on immigration with an effort to reshape higher education. Foreign students say they feel targeted on multiple fronts. Late Wednesday, Trump himself took the latest action against international students, signing an executive order barring nearly all foreigners from entering the country to attend Harvard. In interviews, students from around the world described how it feels to be an international student today in America. Their accounts highlight pervasive feelings of fear, anxiety and insecurity that have made them more cautious in their daily lives, distracted them from schoolwork and prompted many to cancel trips home because they fear not being allowed to return. For many, the last few months have forced them to rethink their dreams of building a life in America. |
| Why This Is the Most Damaging Time to Restrict Student Visas | |
 | The U.S. Department of State's decision to halt the scheduling of all new student-visa interviews has sent shock waves across college campuses and among students worldwide. The singling out of international students and the lack of clarity about the duration of the suspension -- which the State Department said is needed to put in place a plan to screen all students' social-media accounts -- has fed the anxiety. But a big part of the heartburn is the timing of the freeze. Here's why: Students can't apply for a visa until they are sent a document, called an I-20, issued by their college. Colleges send out I-20s after they have admitted students and confirmed they meet certain requirements like having sufficient funding to pay for their degree. It takes about two weeks for students to receive their I-20s, although the wait time could be longer or shorter depending on staffing and student volume. Although some colleges have rolling admissions deadlines and students can apply early decision, the majority of students make their college choices just before or on May 1, traditionally deadline day for college decisions. That sets up a ticking clock for students to apply for a visa at their local U.S. embassy or consulate. |
| International students look to the U.K. instead of the U.S. amid Trump's visa plans | |
 | The Trump administration's proposals to tighten entry visa restrictions for international students could significantly reduce their numbers at U.S. universities in the years ahead. But several education experts say the consequences may also be felt by some students and schools in Britain, as elite U.K. institutions prepare for a potential influx of international applicants redirected from the U.S. More than a million international students --- including thousands from the United Kingdom --- are currently enrolled in American colleges, according to the State Department, contributing around $50 billion to the country's economy each year. However, higher education application portals show the number of prospective students searching for U.S. universities has declined sharply since January, with one provider predicting demand among foreign students could fall significantly within a year. "There's been a dramatic shift in relation to interest in studying in the United States," says professor Simon Marginson of Oxford University, who specializes in international higher education. "The internet data we have on search by prospective students and their families shows that there's been a drop of about 50% in the volume of search for study in the U.S. between Jan. 5 and April 30 this year." |
| Trump's Crackdown on Foreign Students Threatens to Disrupt Pipeline of Inventors | |
| Ajay Bhatt had never been on a plane when he left India for City University of New York to pursue a graduate degree in 1981. More than four decades and 130 patents later, billions of people are still using Bhatt's most-recognizable invention, the Universal Serial Bus, or USB. "My dad really didn't want me to go," Bhatt recalls. But, he said, "This was the country where you could get the very best education, and everybody was welcoming." High-skilled immigration has long been part of the secret sauce that gave the U.S. the world's most dynamic economy. Studies show newcomers punch well above their weight in innovative output and entrepreneurship. They authored 23% of U.S. patents from 1990 to 2016, according to a 2022 study by Shai Bernstein of Harvard Business School and four co-authors. They founded or co-founded more than half of America's billion-dollar startups, according to another study. Immigrants co-founded or played a major early role in Nvidia, Alphabet and Tesla. From Elon Musk to lesser-known figures such as Bhatt, many of these inventors and founders originally came to the U.S. on student visas. President Trump's policies could disrupt that pipeline. |
| RFK Jr. to tell medical schools to teach nutrition or lose federal funding | |
| Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he plans to tell American medical schools they must offer nutrition courses to students or risk losing federal funding from the Department of Health and Human Services. Speaking at an event in North Carolina in April, Kennedy lamented, "There's almost no medical schools that have nutrition courses, and so [aspiring physicians] are taught how to treat illnesses with drugs but not how to treat them with food or to keep people healthy so they don't need the drugs." He added, "One of the things that we'll do over the next year is to announce that medical schools that don't have those programs are not going to be eligible for our funding, and that we will withhold funds from those who don't implement those kinds of courses." The idea, which Kennedy mentioned in passing at an event focused on plastics in the environment, lacks details but has drawn optimism from some nutrition experts who have for years sought ways for medical schools to teach more nutrition content. "I think there's a great sense of urgency that we have to do something about this," said Dr. David Eisenberg, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who told ABC News that requiring nutrition education at all medical schools is "long overdue." Withholding or withdrawing federal funding from medical schools, if HHS were to do so, would follow similar moves from departments across the new Trump administration. |
| Trump Wants Grant Makers to Become Political Appointees | |
| Hundreds of scientists are pushing back against a federal policy proposal that would make it easier to fire grant makers, among many other government employees, who don't adhere to the Trump administration's political whims. In April, the Office of Personnel Management posted to the Federal Register a proposed rule "to increase career employee accountability" by allowing agencies to quickly remove from critical positions employees "who engage in misconduct, perform poorly, or undermine the democratic process by intentionally subverting Presidential directives." That could include any employee with "substantive participation and discretionary authority in agency grantmaking," such as those involved in drafting funding opportunity announcements, evaluating grant applications and recommending or selecting grant recipients. But researchers, former government employees and public policy experts believe the rule would further politicize scientific research in the United States, which has been supported for decades by grants to faculty from federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy. |
SPORTS
| What to Know Before Coach O'Connor's Thursday Night Debut At The Dude | |
| Mississippi State Athletics will host a public welcome event for new head baseball coach Brian O'Connor on Thursday evening at Dudy Noble Field. Gates will open at 5:30 p.m. CT, with the celebration beginning at 7 p.m. CT. The event is free and open to all fans. Seating throughout the grandstands will be general admission on a first-come, first-served basis. Chairbacks will not be reserved. The Left Field Lounge will be open to rig owners, with grilling permitted in accordance with normal stadium policies. Rig-specific details will be shared directly with owners via the Bulldog Club. Regular baseball game-day policies, including cooler and prohibited item guidelines, will be in effect and can be reviewed here. Concession stands will be open and will feature several gameday-style deals. The State Style team store located on the first base concourse will be open during the event, featuring an exclusive Brian O'Connor T-shirt available for early access purchase on Thursday night. The shirt will also be available through additional retail outlets beginning Friday. Fans unable to attend in person can stream the welcome event live on SEC Network+. |
| Bulldog track and field heading to NCAA championships | |
| The Mississippi State track and field team is preparing for a trip to the NCAA outdoor national championships next week in Eugene, Ore., after qualifying through a regional meet in Jacksonville, Fla., last weekend. The first to book their ticket to Eugene was freshman Marie Rougetet, an international athlete from France, who also became the first Bulldog to compete in the hammer event. It was her first event at any NCAA meet, and she recorded a throw of 65.23 meters in the second round of the competition to secure a place at the national championships, finishing seventh overall in Jacksonville. The following day, Sam Navarro and Abdullahi Hassan both competed in the 800-meter event. Navarro beat his previous best by a full second, finishing fourth with a time of 1:46.47. Hassan recorded a 1:45.64 time in the same event, finishing second in his section to earn an automatic qualifying spot, joining his teammate Navarro in the national championships next week. On the men's side, Peyton Bair also earned an automatic qualifying spot with his 8,111-point performance in the decathlon. He'll return to the national competition after finishing as the runner-up at the 2024 NCAA decathlon championships. Tuomas Narhi and Remi Rougetet will round out the men's squad of five athletes heading to Eugene next week. The women's track and field team completed its qualification process on Saturday, with runners Nelly Jemeli and Jessicka Woods both earning spots in the NCAA championships. Bair is already a national champion this year after winning the heptathlon at the NCAA indoor championships in March. |
| What's holding up House v. NCAA? College athletics hinges on decision from judge with a meticulous reputation | |
| On April 7, lawyers stood before Judge Claudia Wilken for the final settlement hearing in the historic House v. NCAA case. Many arrived expecting Wilken to accept the settlement's final approval and officially kick off the revenue-sharing era of college athletics. Wilken ultimately expressed a few qualms, most notably a transition period for roster limits. If those were resolved, she seemed optimistic that she could rubber stamp the settlement. "Basically, I think it's a good settlement," Wilken said at the hearing. "Don't quote me. I think it's worth pursuing and I think some of these things can be fixed if people tried to fix them." Two months later, college athletics still waits. Even those intimately involved in the proceedings are at a loss. For instance, a Big Ten Conference official told CBS Sports they expected a resolution on May 20. An ACC administrator thought Friday, May 30. An NCAA executive checked his watch during a conversation with CBS Sports because Wilken has released multiple decisions on Friday evenings. A few lawyers involved in the case have a betting pool guessing when it will finally drop. All are losers so far. "There's a lot of angst, man, and you guys can probably feel it," Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts said. "It's at the commissioner level, the president's level, the coaches' level." |
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