| Tuesday, August 12, 2025 |
| Education: MSU, Luckyday leaders celebrate Azalea Hall ribbon cutting, prepare to welcome 412 students to largest campus residence hall | |
 | Mississippi State University's newest and largest student residence hall is officially open, and Azalea Hall is welcoming its first occupants this week to launch the 2025-26 academic year. MSU President Mark E. Keenum noted the occasion celebrating the completion of the nearly $100 million project at the corner of Barr Avenue and George Perry Street was "a truly special Maroon Friday." "This will be a wonderful new home to more than 400 students who will have an incredible environment to live, study and grow into successful young adults and future leaders," Keenum said. "Azalea Hall stands as a reminder of what we can accomplish by working together with the generous support of our friends, and I am so grateful to all of you here today who contributed to the effort to build this beautiful, practical and highly functional residence hall and dining facility." He emphasized the generosity of the Luckyday Foundation, which gave $4 million for the creation of Luckyday Tower, a living and learning community within Azalea Hall for the university's Luckyday Scholars Program. The state-of-the-art building, which comprises five stories and 159,000 square feet, offers the most up-to-date amenities, with fully furnished rooms finished with full-sized, extra large beds. The facility also contains a FEMA safe room. |
| Community Profile: Second-generation ACS alumna to lead school as its next principal | |
| Just two weeks before Casey Thomas was set to graduate from Mississippi State with a degree in marketing, she changed her mind. Her final project was the turning point. She walked into an elementary classroom to present her marketing plan for the school and walked out knowing she was meant to be in front of students rather than behind a desk. "I just knew that I was meant to be in elementary education," Thomas told The Dispatch. So Thomas stayed at MSU another three semesters to finish a bachelor's degree in elementary education. Fifteen years later, she's preparing to lead Annunciation Catholic School as its next principal beginning in October, stepping into a new role in the same place where her own education journey began. Thomas taught for two years at Sudduth Elementary in Starkville before she landed her "dream job" teaching at ACS. A very "structured" teacher, Thomas approached teaching with the philosophy that students would rise to the standards set for them with the right help. |
| 'Little Sturgis' brings thousands of bikers to Oktibbeha County | |
 | If you're traveling in Oktibbeha County this week, don't be surprised if more of the traffic is on two wheels. The Little Sturgis Motorcycle Rally kicks off on Thursday, August 14. "This is our biggest fundraiser for the year, right here," said Sturgis Mayor Jerry Bean. It may be a three-day event, but the preparations take months. "We got a great group of people on the rally board that's been working hard all year long to put this on, along with participation from our county supervisors and our county garage and lots of community volunteers," said Bean. The rally usually brings crowds of thousands to the town of 205. Those big crowds mean big sales for local businesses and that adds up to a needed sales tax boost for the town's budget. Bean expects close to 7,000 bikers to roll into the town this weekend. He said he is thankful for the surrounding towns and counties that have stepped in to help prepare for the event. |
| Vicksburg-based Army research center provides learning opportunities to teachers | |
 | More than a dozen teachers from across the nation spent a month of their summer learning from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, Mississippi. The training was offered as part of the Research Experiences for STEM Educators and Teachers (RESET) program under the Army Educational Outreach Program. During two four-week sessions, a total of18 teachers gained hands-on experience while working alongside scientists and engineers at the center. The outreach program was established 11 years ago to provide these training opportunities to middle and high school teachers in grades 5 to 12 who teach in the subject areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Getting the educators out of the classroom and into diverse settings helps prepare them for the coming school year, organizers said, while providing assistance to the center's scientists and engineers. "Having people in the labs that are enthusiastic about the work that we are doing is always very helpful -- it is good for me, good for the research and good for ERDC," said Luke Gurtowski, a research chemical engineer in ERDC's Environmental Lab. |
| Amtrak's long journey back to the Gulf Coast kicks off with community celebrations | |
 | Bands played and crowds cheered as the first Amtrak train in more than a decade rolled up to stations in South Mississippi. That was 2016 and U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker recalls, "It was a massive crowd at every stop." Kids and 80-year-old couples alike were there to cheer the inspection train and show their support for Amtrak. "I think it was the realization that this is the place where passenger rail can really work," he said. It seemed like the return of passenger trains was just a few years away. Now nine years later, the welcome finally will be replayed Saturday, Aug. 16, when The Mardi Gras Line makes its inaugural run with invited guests on board along with those who fought for this rail service for years. Celebrations complete with Mardi Gras beads and purple, green and gold apparel are planned as the train leaves New Orleans and makes short stops Saturday morning in Bay St. Louis (estimated arrival at 9:30 a.m.) , Gulfport (10:10), Biloxi (10:50) and Pascagoula (11:40) on the way to Mobile. The trains and the expected economic impact almost didn't happen. Many times over the years the challenges seemed insurmountable. "There were surely a lot of people who were determined not to get it done," said Wicker, R-MS, who served as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee that oversees Amtrak. "We absolutely had to climb some hills and hurdle a bunch of obstacles." |
| Highly anticipated Hen & Egg restaurant hosts private grand opening | |
| Located in the remaining portion of the historic Sun-and-Sand hotel in Downtown Jackson, Hen & Egg held a private grand opening ceremony. The former hotel that was once a gathering place for politicians, civil rights activists, and literary figures will now house the southern-style restaurant founded by Mississippi Chef Nick Wallace. Wallace wants to honor the building and what it meant to Mississippi while also giving it a new chapter. Wallace says he was happy to partner with the state to help make this happen in Downtown Jackson. "You have to bridge that gap of working with your community and doing things just strictly for your business, but I think we have found the happy medium. We're there for our community, and I have been working downtown Jackson for 26 years or so. So downtown Jackson is what I love, so I am really happy that we are putting the anchor down in Jackson, MS." The Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services has partnered with Wallace to provide employment for individuals with disabilities. Executive Director Billy Taylor says projects like this are what his agency hopes for. |
| Delivery drones are coming to more US neighborhoods after getting off to a slow start | |
 | Delivery drones are so fast they can zip a pint of ice cream to a customer's driveway before it melts. Yet the long-promised technology has been slow to take off in the United States. More than six years after the Federal Aviation Administration approved commercial home deliveries with drones, the service mostly has been confined to a few suburbs and rural areas. That could soon change. The FAA proposed a new rule last week that would make it easier for companies to fly drones outside of an operator's line of sight and therefore over longer distances. A handful of companies do that now, but they had to obtain waivers and certification as an air carrier to deliver packages. While the rule is intended to streamline the process, authorized retailers and drone companies that have tested fulfilling orders from the sky say they plan to make drone-based deliveries available to millions more U.S. households. The concept of drone delivery has been around for well over a decade. Drone maker Zipline, which works with Walmart in Arkansas and the Dallas-Fort Worth area, began making deliveries to hospitals in Rwanda in 2016. Israel-based Flytrex, one of the drone companies DoorDash works with to carry out orders, launched drone delivery to households in Iceland in 2017. But Wing CEO Adam Woodworth said drone delivery has been in "treading water mode" in the U.S. for years, with service providers afraid to scale up because the regulatory framework wasn't in place. |
| Risks now to both inflation and jobs goals, Federal Reserve's Musalem said in Mississippi | |
 | The Federal Reserve now faces risks to both its inflation and jobs goals, with policymakers needing to balance which seems the more serious threat in deciding whether it is appropriate to reduce interest rates, St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem said on Friday in Mississippi. Musalem made the remarks while participating in the event, "Financial Well-being in the Delta: A Conversation on Banking, Credit and Small Business," which took place in Itta Bena, Miss. Between tariffs pushing up prices and job growth slowing, "there are risks on both sides of our mandate, and when that happens, when you have risks on both sides, you have to take a balanced approach, which means you have to think about the likelihood of missing on each side of the mandate, the size of the potential miss, and how long that miss will be in place," Musalem said to an economic group. "That's the balancing act that we're doing right now." Musalem said he still felt there was a risk the Trump administration's new import tariffs could lead to persistent inflation, but that the Fed now had to guard against an employment slowdown as well - a difficult situation for central bankers whose efforts to loosen or constrain the flow of credit in the economy can influence inflation and employment in opposing ways. |
| CPI report reveals inflation held steady in July as tariffs threatened wider impact | |
 | Inflation held steady in July as President Donald Trump's sweeping import tariffs took a widening toll on U.S. consumer prices. An underlying inflation measure accelerated more than expected. Prices overall increased 2.7% from a year earlier, similar to June, according to the Labor Department's consumer price index, a measure of average changes in goods and services costs. On a monthly basis, costs increased 0.2% after rising 0.3% the previous month. But core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy items and is watched closely by the Federal Reserve because it better reflects longer-term trends, increased 0.3% after rising 0.2% in June. That nudged the annual increase from 2.9% to 3.1%. Inflation has been pulled by conflicting forces this year. On the one hand, services prices that soared following the COVID-19 pandemic have climbed more modestly or drifted lower. Absent the tariffs, yearly inflation likely would already be at the Fed's 2% goal, economists have said. But the tariffs, which had minimal effects on consumer prices through the first five months of 2025, began delivering a bigger blow in June and forecasters expect a growing impact on the cost of goods over the next few months. |
| US and China extend trade truce another 90 days, easing tension between world's largest economies | |
| President Donald Trump extended a trade truce with China for another 90 days Monday, at least delaying once again a dangerous showdown between the world's two biggest economies. Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he signed the executive order for the extension, and that "all other elements of the Agreement will remain the same." Beijing at the same time also announced the extension of the tariff pause, according to the Ministry of Commerce. The previous deadline was set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. Had that happened the U.S. could have ratcheted up taxes on Chinese imports from an already high 30%, and Beijing could have responded by raising retaliatory levies on U.S. exports to China. The pause buys time for the two countries to work out some of their differences, perhaps clearing the way for a summit later this year between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, and it has been welcomed by the U.S. companies doing business with China. Sean Stein, president of the U.S.-China Business Council, said the extension is "critical" to give the two governments time to negotiate a trade agreement that U.S. businesses hope would improve their market access in China and provide the certainty needed for companies to make medium- and long-term plans. |
| China Creates World's No. 1 Shipbuilder, Driven by Rivalry With U.S. | |
 | A $16 billion merger of two state-controlled shipbuilders in China is set for completion this week, creating the world's biggest shipbuilder while the U.S. searches for a path back into the business. American shipbuilders are playing catch-up after decades of maritime-industry decline, though President Trump's ambitious plans to revive American shipbuilding have hit snags recently. In the shorter term, Trump's threat to impose higher fees on ships made in China is giving South Korean and Japanese rivals an opening to win back market share. The Chinese champion is called China State Shipbuilding, or CSSC. This week it is scheduled to absorb its merger partner, China Shipbuilding Industry, and take the sole listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange after regulators recently approved the deal. The merged company hopes to use its bulk to cut costs and help it ride out industry turmoil brought on by Trump's moves. The two companies were originally one and split up in 1999, when the government wanted to promote competition. These days, Beijing is looking to consolidate state-led companies in sensitive industries, particularly those connected with the military. |
| Duff keynotes Rankin County GOP dinner, talks of bringing new perspective | |
| When Tommy Duff started out in business with a single tire shop, his dream was simple. "My American Dream was to be able to make payroll on Friday," he told a packed crowd at the Rankin County Republican Lincoln-Reagan-Trump Dinner in Flowood Monday night. Decades later, Duff is reportedly the wealthiest man in Mississippi, employing 15,000 people nationwide. He has also played a behind-the-scenes role in GOP politics, even more so after launching a political action committee amid rumors of a gubernatorial run in 2027. His being the keynote speaker at Monday's packed house of Republican powerbrokers added fuel to that growing fire. Yet, instead of using his time to announce a run for office, Duff focused on bringing a different perspective to the problems facing the state in a similar way that he finds appealing about President Donald Trump on the national level. "I think the thing that appeals to me the most about him and watching his policies is the fact that he's an outsider," Duff said of Trump. "He looks at things from a different perspective." During his half-hour address to the estimated 300 people in attendance, Duff said that at times, there is a need for outsiders in business, organizations, and politics. |
| A new perspective: Mississippi billionaire Tommy Duff outlines vision for future of Magnolia State | |
| He may have stopped just shy of announcing a bid for governor, but Mississippi billionaire Tommy Duff was not bashful about his vision for the future of the Magnolia State during a GOP gathering on Monday night. It was a who's who at the Sheraton Refuge in Flowood as the Rankin County Republican Executive Committee held its "Lincoln-Reagan-Trump" dinner in a ballroom packed with many of the state's movers and shakers. Just about every aspect of society was represented. From elected officials to business tycoons to community leaders, a bulk of the powerful voices of Mississippi were all in one room. Some of those influential figures even had time at the podium. The audience was greeted with an invocation from Agriculture Commissioner and 2027 gubernatorial hopeful Andy Gipson, along with prepared remarks from Mississippi GOP Chairman Mike Hurst and Secretary of State Michael Watson. But none of those speakers caught the attention of the crowd like Duff. The businessman, known to intentionally do his best work behind the scenes, was out in the open giving what appeared to be his first, true political speech. In just under 30 minutes, the seasoned dealmaker delivered a speech articulating his vision for Mississippi's future. |
| Circuit Judge Michael Reed investiture held before standing-room-only crowd in Hattiesburg | |
| Circuit Judge T. Michael Reed took the ceremonial oath of office before a packed courtroom in Hattiesburg on Monday. Gov. Tate Reeves, who appointed Reed, told the standing-room-only crowd, "I'm convinced and I know that some of you are as well, that he is an excellent choice for this position." The Governor said that he was impressed with Reed's legal experience, which included service as a municipal prosecutor and municipal judge. He also praised the new judge's commitment to his family and his community. Reeves said, "Whether in state court or in federal court, Judge Reed has consistently demonstrated an unwavering commitment to upholding the rule of law and to delivering justice to victims. I know that he is going to bring that same tenacity to this position and I know that the 12th Circuit and our state are lucky to have him in this new role." Reed thanked Reeves for the appointment. He said, "I pledge to you to do my best every single day to see that justice is done fairly, but firmly." He reflected on Mississippi's gains in education, accomplished with community support. He spoke about gun violence among youth, and challenged everyone to mentor young people. "Everyone in this room can be a mentor to a young boy or girl. It costs basically nothing. My prayer and my hope today is that each of you will invest your time and energy in our youth....Now is the time for each of you to pay society back. Volunteer at church. Volunteer at a boys or girls club. Volunteer at your local school." |
| Pentagon plan would create military 'reaction force' for civil unrest | |
 | The Trump administration is evaluating plans that would establish a "Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force" composed of hundreds of National Guard troops tasked with rapidly deploying into American cities facing protests or other unrest, according to internal Pentagon documents reviewed by The Washington Post. The plan calls for 600 troops to be on standby at all times so they can deploy in as little as one hour, the documents say. They would be split into two groups of 300 and stationed at military bases in Alabama and Arizona, with purview of regions east and west of the Mississippi River, respectively. Cost projections outlined in the documents indicate that such a mission, if the proposal is adopted, could stretch into the hundreds of millions of dollars should military aircraft and aircrews also be required to be ready around-the-clock. Troop transport via commercial airlines would be less expensive, the documents say. The proposal, which has not been previously reported, represents another potential expansion of President Donald Trump's willingness to employ the armed forces on American soil. It relies on a section of U.S. Code that allows the commander in chief to circumvent limitations on the military's use within the United States. The documents, marked predecisional, are comprehensive and contain extensive discussion about the potential societal implications of establishing such a program. |
| How Trump Is Expanding the Role of the American Military on U.S. Soil | |
| President Trump's decision to deploy National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., is his boldest move to date to expand the use of military power on U.S. soil. The deployment of 800 National Guard troops to Washington, which the president alleges has been "overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals," amplifies the law-and-order themes that play well with his political base. He buttressed this announcement Monday by effectively federalizing the Washington police department, putting it under the control of the Trump administration. In making these moves, he alleged the actions were warranted for a number of reasons that ranged from crime to homelessness. The announcement was the latest in a series of moves by Trump to push the boundaries of how U.S. troops can be deployed in American territory, triggering a fierce legal debate over the U.S. military's expanding footprint at home. Trump is also using U.S. military bases for migrant detention centers and has deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles and on the Southern U.S. border. "The most benign interpretation is that this is an attempt to gain a public-relations victory by claiming credit for the already historically low crime rates in D.C.," said Carrie Lee, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund and a former professor at the U.S. Army War College. "The worst-case interpretation is that it is a test run for more legally dubious uses of military forces in other American cities." |
| Trump taps Heritage economist to lead BLS | |
 | President Donald Trump said Monday that he will nominate Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni as the next commissioner of the embattled Bureau of Labor Statistics. The announcement comes a little more than a week after Trump fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after claiming without evidence that she had rigged labor market data to boost Democrats. Antoni, a conservative economist and longtime Trump booster, has been highly critical of the agency's work going back to the presidential campaign -- amplifying its missteps and portraying its reports as out-of-step with Americans' perceptions about the state of the economy. In an appearance on Steve Bannon's podcast earlier this month, Antoni said the absence of a MAGA Republican atop BLS is "part of the reason why we continue to have all of these different data problems." The dismissal of McEntarfer -- which stunned market participants and top economists -- created a political firestorm around an agency that's typically been insulated from outside influence. BLS is responsible for closely watched reports on inflation and the labor market and its autonomy has long been considered vital to its credibility. But the agency has also faced serious challenges in recent years that have affected the quality of its data. Response to its surveys has fallen since the pandemic. Longstanding budget constraints have hampered modernization efforts, and Trump's reelection introduced a hiring freeze that forced BLS to curtail data collection efforts and eliminate non-essential economic gauges. |
| Alaska was once a full-fledged Russian colony. Now it's hosting a U.S.-Russia summit | |
 | Russia lost a war in Crimea in the 1850s, leaving the country deep in debt. To ease that burden, Russia cut a real estate deal with the U.S. government, selling its colony of Alaska to the Americans. Now, Presidents Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin will hold a summit Friday in Alaska to discuss another difficult and costly Russian war involving Crimea, one of the territories Russia has captured in its fight with Ukraine. The decision to meet in Alaska appears mostly practical -- it's where the U.S. and Russia almost touch, separated by just 55 miles of the Bering Strait. Yet beyond geography, there's also symbolism and a fascinating shared history. Alaska was a full-fledged Russian colony from 1799 to 1867. Some Russians, including Kremlin envoy Kirill Dimitriev, are pointing to that period on social media, posting photos of Russian Orthodox Churches, with their onion domes, that were built in Alaska in the 19th-century and still stand. "Some Americans might know that we bought Alaska from Russia, but they don't know necessarily that it was a real colony there," said Lee Farrow, a history professor at Auburn University at Montgomery and author of Seward's Folly: A New Look at the Alaska Purchase. |
| Education: MUW launches automatic admission to master's program in speech-language pathology | |
| Undergraduate students at Mississippi University for Women pursuing a degree in speech-language pathology will soon have a streamlined path to graduate school, with automatic admission to The W's master's program beginning fall 2025. The recently approved automatic admission program offered through The W's speech-language pathology program will allow students who meet specific academic criteria and character standards while completing their undergraduate degree at The W to be automatically accepted into The W's Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology program when they apply. "To my knowledge, no other undergraduate speech-language pathology program in the state or surrounding region offers this type of advantage," said Brandy Larmon, dean of the Vandergriff College of Nursing and Health Sciences. "It allows students to fully concentrate on their studies with the assurance of a secured place in our graduate program, saving them the stress and cost of the traditional application process." The most recent graduates of The W's Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology program achieved a 100% licensure exam pass rate and 100% job placement rate, with 60% choosing to remain in Mississippi. |
| Couple donates $1M to UMMC for cancer research, care | |
 | Amanda and Payton Lockey made a $1 million donation to the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) to help transform cancer outcomes. Amanda was diagnosed with a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor in 2014, a condition that occurs in just 5% of all pancreatic cancer cases. With such a rare diagnosis, the Lockeys understand the acute need for advanced cancer care and life-saving research in Mississippi and made a $1 million donation to support the work. According to UMMC officials, their gift supports the construction of a state-of-the-art five-story, 250,000 square-foot facility to promote research and enhance patient access to life-saving care while educating the next generation of scientists and health care professionals. UMMC has initiated a $125 million capital campaign to fund the new building. |
| Hattiesburg firefighters helps cool down USM's 'Pride of Mississippi' marching band | |
 | The University of Southern Mississippi's marching band, The Pride of Mississippi, got a refreshing surprise at practice Tuesday morning courtesy of the Hattiesburg Fire Department. HFD Firefighters from Station #6 rolled up to Pride Field, where the band practices, to help the musicians beat the summer heat, spraying them with water from a firetruck and giving them a much-needed break from the soaring temperatures. "It's fantastic. One thing we talk about with The Pride of Mississippi is our sense of community in the university, but also within the Hattiesburg community," said band director Travis Higa. "And even how we represent us internationally and nationally, so this is a big deal for us to see this type of support from not just university friends here but even across the town." "When we are able to relate to one another, especially in the community as well as the city, we're able to come together as one force and accomplish many great things, like USM," added Hattiesburg Fire Department's Kerry Hardges. The Pride of Mississippi will make its first game day appearance on August 30, when USM hosts Mississippi State for the football season opener. |
| ECCC, EMCC students get new online degree options in new transfer agreement | |
 | Students at five Mississippi community colleges have new options to learn their degrees online after leaders from Community Colleges of Appalachia and Western Governors University signed a transfer institution agreement that will create opportunities for residents of Appalachia to further their education through WGU's accredited online degree and certificate programs while remaining in their home communities. With 85 member institutions stretching from Mississippi to New York, CCA is a voluntary association of public community colleges serving the common interests of member colleges and their communities. According to the Appalachian Regional Commission, the region is growing in population but at 4.3% lower than the national average. The region also faces several challenges related to education and income. 27.3% of Appalachians have a bachelor's degree or higher, behind the national average of 35%. The agreement will also formalize the transfer of applicable credits between CCA members and WGU, so graduates of member schools will likely not need to repeat coursework as they pursue bachelor's degrees through WGU. |
| 'It's working.' Trump education secretary Linda McMahon visits Louisiana, praises reading gains | |
 | U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon visited a Baton Rouge elementary school on Monday morning to praise Louisiana's improved reading scores, her first stop on a cross-country tour as the Trump administration pushes to dismantle the Department of Education and grant more educational authority to the states. McMahon said during a stop at the Jefferson Terrace Academy that she embarked on the "Returning Education to the States" tour to collect best practices that have shown educational success. With Louisiana's unprecedented improvement in national rankings, the state seemed a natural starting point, she said. During a discussion with state education officials following the classroom visits, McMahon praised Louisiana's recent literacy gains, which Brumley attributes to the state's implementation of Science of Reading training for teachers and rigorous tutoring programs. "It's working," McMahon said. "It's incredibly important to get out and see what is happening in our states ... Across the board, let's take best practices. Let's put together tool kits so that we can distribute that information to our states." |
| College students in limbo as nonprofits urge judge to reinstate Texas Dream Act | |
| With college tuition payment deadlines only days away for the fall semester, lawyers seeking to restore enforcement of the Texas Dream Act are again asking a district judge to let them contest the ruling that overturned the law. On June 4, the United States sued the state of Texas, arguing the 2001 Dream Act -- which for 24 years has allowed eligible Texas residents who do not have U.S. citizenship to access in-state tuition -- provided unfair benefits to non-U.S. citizens. Texas declined to fight the suit, and District Judge Reed O'Connor of Fort Worth stopped the law from being enforced, specifically saying in-state tuition should no longer be offered for those who are not "lawfully present." Those moves happened within six hours, two days after state lawmakers ended their legislative session without passing a bill to repeal the Dream Act. Weeks later, multiple parties -- including Austin Community College's Board of Trustees -- petitioned to fight the suit in Texas' place. The University of Texas does not track the number of students who do not have legal status or legal residence. But according to documents obtained through an open records request, 760 UT students submitted an affidavit to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board asserting their intent to pursue citizenship to qualify for in-state tuition from fall 2024 to summer 2025. It is not known how many of those students will be reclassified as out-of-state in accordance with the ruling, as legal residency is a different classification than legal status, a spokesperson with the coordinating board said. |
| How Virginia colleges became the epicenter of Trump's efforts to end DEI | |
| First were the Ivy League schools: Columbia, Harvard and Brown universities. Then came the commonwealth: the University of Virginia, George Mason University and Virginia Military Institute. In an effort to eradicate DEI from college campuses across the country, the Trump administration made Virginia's colleges an early focal point. President Donald Trump says colleges are engaging in illegal racial discrimination under the guise of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and his administration has opened investigations, put pressure on college presidents and levied fines from schools. Political experts say the role of Gov. Glenn Youngkin, personal links between the colleges and the Trump administration and the state's recent history voting Democratic all factored into why Virginia's colleges came under the microscope before others. Now, what happened in Virginia is playing out in other parts of the country. Last Wednesday, the president of the University of California said the state's system of universities was negotiating with the Trump administration in regard to allegations that the University of California, Los Angeles, fostered an environment of antisemitism. The Justice Department is also investigating whether any campuses in the California system violated civil rights laws. "The Trump administration chose to use us as a test tube for what they're planning in California," said Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax. In Virginia, Republicans started putting their attention on colleges months ago. |
| The Harvard-Trained Lawyer Behind Trump's Fight Against Top Universities | |
 | When President Trump wants to rattle academia, he turns to his deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller. And then Mr. Miller turns to May Mailman. Ms. Mailman, a 37-year-old Harvard-trained lawyer, is the most important, least-known person behind the administration's relentless pursuit of the nation's premier universities. The extraordinary effort has found seemingly endless ways to pressure schools into submission, including federal funding, student visas and civil rights investigations. Her hand in deploying these levers of power was evident from the beginning of Mr. Trump's second term. As his ambitions around reshaping higher education expanded, so did her remit. She is credited as an animating force behind a strategy that has intimidated independent institutions and undercut years of medical and scientific research. The policies Ms. Mailman helped devise -- and is now leveraging as she leads the White House's negotiations with colleges -- have sent shock waves through higher education, dividing faculty and alarming some students who see an effort to silence dissent. Born in the South, raised in the Midwest, and educated on the East Coast, Ms. Mailman has spent much of her life collecting ideas from disparate places and weaving them together. |
| The Growing Problem of Scientific Research Fraud | |
 | When a group of researchers at Northwestern University uncovered evidence of widespread -- and growing -- research fraud in scientific publishing, editors at some academic journals weren’t exactly rushing to publish the findings. “Some journals did not even want to send it for review because they didn’t want to call attention to these issues in science, especially in the U.S. right now with the Trump administration’s attacks on science,” said Luís A. Nunes Amaral, an engineering professor at Northwestern and one of the researchers on the project. “But if we don’t, we’ll end up with a corrupt system.” Last week Amaral and his colleagues published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. They estimate that they were able to detect anywhere between 1 and 10 percent of fraudulent papers circulating in the literature and that the actual rate of fraud may be 10 to 100 times more. Some subfields, such as those related to the study of messenger ribonucleic acid in cancer, have particularly high rates of fraud. While dishonest scientists may be driven by pressure to publish, their actions have broad implications for the scientific research enterprise. |
| Free AI training comes to California colleges -- but at what cost? | |
| As artificial intelligence replaces entry-level jobs, California's universities and community colleges are offering a glimmer of hope for students: free AI training that will teach them to master the new technology. "You're seeing in certain coding spaces significant declines in hiring for obvious reasons," Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday during a press conference from the seventh floor of Google's San Francisco office. Flanked by leadership from California's higher education systems, he called attention to the recent layoffs at Microsoft, at Google's parent company, Alphabet, and at Salesforce Tower, just a few blocks away, home to the tech company that is still the city's largest private employer. Now, some of those companies -- including Google and Microsoft -- will offer a suite of AI resources for free to California schools and universities. In return, the companies could gain access to millions of new users. The new deals are the latest developments in a frenzy that began in November 2022, when OpenAI publicly released the free artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT, forcing schools to adapt. Experts say it's too early to tell how effective AI training will actually be. Justin Reich, an associate professor at MIT, said a similar frenzy took place 20 years ago when teachers tried to teach computer literacy. "We do not know what AI literacy is, how to use it, and how to teach with it. And we probably won't for many years," Reich said. |
| Goodbye, $165,000 Tech Jobs. Student Coders Seek Work at Chipotle. | |
| Growing up near Silicon Valley, Manasi Mishra remembers seeing tech executives on social media urging students to study computer programming. "The rhetoric was, if you just learned to code, work hard and get a computer science degree, you can get six figures for your starting salary," Ms. Mishra, now 21, recalls hearing as she grew up in San Ramon, Calif. Those golden industry promises helped spur Ms. Mishra to code her first website in elementary school, take advanced computing in high school and major in computer science in college. But after a year of hunting for tech jobs and internships, Ms. Mishra graduated from Purdue University in May without an offer. "I just graduated with a computer science degree, and the only company that has called me for an interview is Chipotle," Ms. Mishra said in a get-ready-with-me TikTok video this summer that has since racked up more than 147,000 views. Since the early 2010s, a parade of billionaires, tech executives and even U.S. presidents has urged young people to learn coding. But now, the spread of A.I. programming tools, which can quickly generate thousands of lines of computer code -- combined with layoffs at companies like Amazon, Intel, Meta and Microsoft -- is dimming prospects in a field that tech leaders promoted for years as a golden career ticket. |
| As higher ed ramps up modular construction, easier maintenance could follow | |
| Facility managers at higher education campuses can expect better quality and lower maintenance needs if new dormitories and other student housing use modular construction, a general contractor experienced in that method says. Modular construction is used mostly for affordable housing as a way to bring new units to market at a lower cost, but universities and colleges are looking at it more, according to Jim Stanley, executive vice president and Los Angeles division manager of Suffolk Construction, a builder that operates across the U.S. A good example is California Polytechnic State University, which plans to bring online some 3,000 beds over 10 years to house the school's growing student base at a lower cost than stick-built housing while keeping the design aligned to the school's historical structures, he said. "Especially with a renowned university like Cal Poly, they want it to be an experience for the student, and they have some historical buildings, so you're competing with older student housing and you want it to still be a positive experience," he said. Modular construction has evolved to include units that can have relatively sophisticated designs without sacrificing the value proposition it offers by simplifying and standardizing the base component, he said. |
| Amid Volatility and Uncertainty, Should Colleges Spend Down Their Surpluses? | |
 | The University of Connecticut has no shortage of unknowns to manage as it heads into the fall. Like much of higher ed these past seven months, the university was caught off-guard and buffeted by an onslaught of funding cuts and policy changes at the federal level, partially contributing to an anticipated $134-million budget deficit at the end of the 2025-26 fiscal year -- or around 5 percent of the combined annual operating expenses for UConn and its health system. And the recent expiration of UConn's collective-bargaining contracts with represented faculty and staff, as reported by the Hartford Business Journal last month, has only contributed to the stress levels of the university's employees and students. In response, UConn moved to freeze spending and is considering job cuts for "non-permanent and temporary employees," President Radenka Maric wrote to employees in late June. Right around the same time, Connecticut's legislature and Democratic governor adopted a 2026-27 budget that no longer maintained Covid-era appropriations to UConn and the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) system. To provide a "glide path" to this new fiscal reality, Gov. Ned Lamont and his staff urged UConn and CSCU to tap their multimillion-dollar cash reserves in order to help finance operations. "It's been clear for several years now that our higher-ed units in this state have some structural issues," Jeffrey Beckham, Lamont's budget director, told reporters in May. Cash reserves, much like the endowments of private colleges, have been the subject of perennial controversy for America's colleges --- particularly those funded with state appropriations. |
| How College Financial Troubles Could Reshape the Student Experience | |
| American higher education is lurching into an era of austerity. The nation's colleges and universities are confronting a series of financial crises -- fueled only in part by the White House -- that are prompting layoffs, pushing costs higher and leaving the academic experience in flux. Colleges are eliminating or consolidating programs, sometimes dozens of them on a single campus. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is planning to more than halve its financial aid budget for out-of-state students. From coast to coast, graduate schools are admitting fewer applicants. The financial squeeze comes just as demographic trends point toward plunging enrollments in the coming years that could force further belt-tightening. Although months may pass before some of the most drastic shifts take effect, students and administrators alike are facing uncertainty over how much a school could potentially change over the course of a semester, much less an entire degree program. Some of the turmoil traces directly to the Trump administration, which has been seeking to punish a clutch of elite schools. It is also, more broadly, trying to transform the financial ties between Washington and the nation's colleges. But budgets are falling at schools across the spectrum, whether they are state flagships, wealthy private institutions, liberal arts schools, regional public universities or community colleges. For many, the reasons have nothing to do with the federal government. |
| 'Complete nightmare': Student veterans, advisers say VA cuts are derailing their educations | |
| As the spring semester got under way in January at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, a dozen military veterans waited for their GI Bill student benefit checks to show up. Then they waited, and waited some more, until the money finally arrived -- in April. By that time, three had left. Getting GI Bill benefits from the Veterans Administration, which student veterans use to pay for their tuition, textbooks and housing, already took weeks. Since federal government staffing cuts since President Donald Trump took office, it's been taking at least three times longer, said Jeff Deickman, assistant director for veteran and military affairs at the student veteran center on that campus. Deickman's counterparts at other colleges say the VA's paperwork often has errors, causing further delays. They say some student veterans are dropping out. Nearly 600,000 veterans received a total of about $10 billion worth of GI Bill benefits last year, according to the VA. The start of the new administration brought big personnel cuts to both the VA and the U.S. Department of Education, which manages some student aid for veterans. Now, advocacy groups and universities and colleges that enroll large numbers of veterans are bracing for the planned layoffs and departures of nearly 30,000 VA employees and additional cuts at the Department of Education. Many are also concerned about the potential for reduced scrutiny of the for-profit college sector, which critics contend has taken advantage of veterans' tuition payments without providing the promised educational benefits. |
| After Months of Lawsuits, Courts Stymie Some of Trump's Higher Ed Agenda | |
| In the nearly seven months since President Trump took office again, academic associations, faculty unions, researchers and other groups have used the legal system to push back on the administration's efforts to reshape higher education and the federal government. So far, district and appeals courts have largely suggested that the executive branch's actions are unconstitutional and ruled in favor of university advocates, handing down preliminary injunctions, restraining orders and a few final judgments that have blocked the Trump administration's goals. But based on the few cases that have reached the Supreme Court, some higher education experts worry the tide may be turning, and the high court's conservative majority will ultimately side with the president. The lawsuits challenged bans on diversity, equity and inclusion programs; the administration's crackdown on international students; the termination of thousands of grants; and the dismantling of the Department of Education. An Inside Higher Ed analysis of more than 40 lawsuits against the administration that are related to higher ed found that district judges have ruled against the executive branch in nearly two-thirds of the cases. Almost a quarter have yet to be decided. Of those in which a judge has ruled, 18 have been appealed, and only two were overturned. |
| Trump's chief science adviser faces a storm of criticism: what's next? | |
| The election of US President Donald Trump last year triggered widespread concern in the US scientific community, but some researchers saw a glimmer of hope in the form of Michael Kratsios --- the president's chief science adviser. Scientists who had worked with Kratsios during Trump's first presidency, from 2017 to 2021, had mostly good things to say when Trump nominated him in December: although Kratsios is not a scientist, he had previously shown support for science and a willingness to listen to and work with the scientific community. Researchers also took it as a positive sign that Kratsios' nomination to lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) came early, and that he was given the official title 'assistant to the president', which theoretically grants him easier access to Trump. Kratsios' predecessor from the first Trump administration, meteorologist Kelvin Droegemeier, arrived two years into the president's term and without such a title. Now, four months after his Senate confirmation, Kratsios is beginning to make his mark as he pushes the president's science agenda. Although some scientists and scholars are withholding judgement for now, many feel dismayed. In particular, Kratsios' first major initiative -- a directive calling on federal agencies to promote 'gold standard science' -- has attracted widespread criticism for undermining and politicizing science. |
| Why the ivory tower wants a deal with Trump | |
| First Columbia, Brown and UPenn folded. Harvard is reportedly looking for a way out after President Donald Trump cut its health and science research funding by billions. Now academia writ large is trying to persuade him to back off his plan to slash universities' budgets. At Trump's urging, the National Institutes of Health in February said it was cutting by more than $4 billion the amount it pays to universities to help them cover administrative and facilities costs tied to research grants. The overture from university lobbyists comes even as the universities have succeeded in blocking Trump's plan in court -- and have won the backing of key Republican lawmakers. The universities' eagerness to cut a deal shows that they don't think they can hold off Trump indefinitely. A cut of the magnitude the NIH sought would put a major dent in their budgets, slow the search for breakthroughs in health and science, and enable foreign rivals to catch up, they say. The federal government has long provided funding for university administration and facilities. These indirect-cost reimbursements are an add-on to scientific and health research grants. Trump allies accuse the schools of using the payments as slush funds to pursue progressive causes like diversity, equity and inclusion. The universities deny that they are using the money that way, but they are hoping to placate Trump by proposing to standardize how the government pays for their indirect costs. |
| Federal funding for these ag research labs ended. Now the search is on for new support | |
| The Feed the Future Initiative helped connect agricultural research at 17 labs -‒ based at land grant universities throughout the U.S. -‒ with foreign partners in an Obama-era effort to address global hunger. Now only one of the innovation labs is receiving federal funding. The Trump administration paused funding to the U.S. Agency for International Development in January, followed by a near-complete dismantling of the agency this spring, including the Feed the Future program. That left the program's agricultural researchers to depend on funding from their own universities or private donations, while some hope that congressional members will step in. Work at the University of Illinois' Soybean Innovation Lab has resumed, although on a reduced scale. Lab director Peter Goldsmith said that's thanks to a $1 million anonymous private donation. "They reached out back at the end of February, and they liked our story," said Goldsmith. "They liked what we were proposing to do and they put things in position." The donation allowed the lab to hire back about eight of its approximately 30 employees. Goldsmith said he is now focused on finding more funding to keep the Soybean Innovation Lab going in future years. |
SPORTS
| Fluff Bothwell's mom came up Mississippi State RB's name but 'that's not a fluffy dude out there' | |
 | Leshanda Bothwell was pregnant with her third child, but she had grown so big that some people wondered if twins were on the way. It was just one baby -- 11-pound Da'Marion Bothwell. "By him being 11 pounds even, he was already looking like a three-month old," Leshanda Bothwell told The Clarion Ledger. "He was nowhere near a newborn." Da'Marion Bothwell, now grown up and more commonly known as Fluff Bothwell, transferred to Mississippi State football for the 2025 season. He only had four FBS offers from non-power conference teams out of high school, but the running back quickly captivated college football fans in 2024 because of his name and a breakout freshman season at South Alabama. Bothwell is expected to be a key contributor for the Bulldogs when the season kicks off at Southern Miss on Aug. 30 (11 a.m., ESPN). But the irony is, Fluff is anything but a fluffy running back. "I don't know what people see," Bothwell's mom said. "I bet they be cracking up on his name to tell you the truth. Probably they think from their point, 'Where does this name Fluff come from? That's not Fluff.' That's not a fluffy dude out there. That's like a bulldozer running through them folks out there or something." |
| Daniel McArthur Joins Track And Field Staff | |
| Daniel McArthur joined the track and field staff as an assistant coach, as announced by head coach Chris Woods on Friday. "We are thrilled to welcome a young, enthusiastic, and accomplished coach to our staff," said head coach Chris Woods. "Coach McArthur's expertise in recruiting, coupled with his experience competing at the highest levels of the NCAA and professional ranks, will undoubtedly bring excitement to our program. I am confident that Coach McArthur will enhance the overall well-being of our Hail State family, both on and off the training and competition grounds." Prior to his time at Mississippi State, McArthur served as a sports performance specialist at Champions Sports Performance in Cornelius, North Carolina. While there, McArthur developed athletes across various age ranges and sports, building an athletic foundation with the students he worked with. McArthur competed in the throws events North Carolina. McArthur graduated from North Carolina in 2021 with degrees in communications and exercise sports science. He still competes as a professional, most recently finishing seventh at the 2025 USATF National Championships in shot put. |
| 'America's Team:' Netflix series a fascinating look at Jerry Jones, Cowboys | |
| "I don't like it like that. I like the pain," Jerry Jones says when he is asked the question of why he doesn't hire a general manager for his football team, instead of him being in charge of player personnel. That answer certainly isn't going to fly with die-hard Dallas Cowboys fans, who for years have implored Jones to turn over those duties to a more seasoned football mind, but instead, the team is ridiculed when it reaches an early end during the NFL playoffs or misses the postseason altogether, like they did in 2024. Being relevant in the sports world in this day and age, with the saturation of social media, talk radio, and mindless, numbing, bloviating morning shows, is a golden ticket that you can't buy. Unless your team is the Cowboys, who haven't sniffed a Super Bowl appearance in three decades but are talked about ad nauseum as if their exploits on the field recently warrant a minute of anyone's time. There is one person largely responsible for that: Jerral Wayne Jones Sr., the 82-year-old Hall of Fame owner and general manager of the five-time Super Bowl champions. Netflix has hopped on the Jerry's World bandwagon with a fascinating sports series, titled "America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys," premiering Aug. 19 on the streaming service. |
| Fan Game-Day Spending Surge Looks Baked In, Bank of America Says | |
| American sports fans appear to have locked in higher spending on game day experiences, according to a new study by Bank of America Institute that used proprietary data of bank card users. Sports fan spending during the day of a game is now 25% higher compared to the start of 2019, outpacing other out-of-house spending including concerts and movie theaters, according to the bank's analysis. "As we came out of the pandemic it was, for a time, a story of revenge spending," after being cooped up during COVID-19, Bank of America Institute senior economist David Tinsley said on a phone call from London. "There are signs [spending today] is more than that. The rebound from the pandemic has run its course. It's hard to conceive it's still revenge spending." Tinsley's group used anonymized spending data of Bank of America's credit and debit card users to examine spending by zip code for stadiums and surrounding areas. Not surprisingly, the bank found a clear correlation between spending spikes and game days. The analysis primarily focused on years of data on MLB games and this year's FIFA Club World Cup. More interesting is that while game day spending roared higher with the end of pandemic attendance restrictions, along with spending on Taylor Swift concerts and Barbenheimer movie days, sports spending has continued to trend higher into the middle of this year. Meanwhile, spending on concerts and movies is about the same over the past 2.5 years, with live music around its pre-pandemic spending level and movies noticeably below 2019 levels. |
| 'I'm sitting behind the bench': Inside sports' escalating stalking problem | |
| On Valentine's Day 2023, Latyr Thiaw, a 19-year-old maintenance worker living in Washington, D.C., saw a picture of UCLA women's basketball player Kiki Rice on Instagram. He then watched interviews with her on YouTube and felt something "magnetic" between them. She reminded him of a character from "Avatar: The Last Airbender." In the months that followed, Thiaw sent Rice dozens of unanswered messages on social media, and he changed the background screen on his phone to a picture of her. Then, in mid-December 2023, Thiaw flew to Los Angeles, rented a U-Haul van, parking near the UCLA campus for days and sleeping in the back. On several occasions, Thiaw stood outside of UCLA's practice facility waiting for Rice. On Dec. 21, as Rice warmed up for the UCLA/Hawaii game in Pauley Pavilion, she felt eyes on her. It was Thiaw --- in the second row, standing up, wearing a suit, and staring intently at her. Soon after, UCLA banned Thiaw from all its facilities and events, and the athletic department posted a flyer with a photograph of Thiaw that read, "Please do not engage with this individual or allow entry into any athletic facility." There are currently no scientific studies around the stalking of athletes, and no law enforcement agency is publicly tracking such cases. The Athletic identified at least 52 stalking cases involving athletes, male and female, since 2020, but that list is incomplete. Many stalking cases go unreported in the media and even to police. But even a partial list indicates an alarming pattern. |
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