| Wednesday, January 14, 2015 |
| New Website Gives Clearinghouse for Mississippi State Undergraduate Research | |
 | A new web portal that is part of Mississippi State University's website is showcasing undergraduate research opportunities and encouraging students to delve into the endless possibilities of academic research and creative discovery. The new website for MSU Undergraduate Research and Creative Discovery is designed to highlight all types of undergraduate research opportunities and symposiums. Jerry Gilbert, provost and executive vice president, said the university has a rich culture of undergraduate research achievements. "I want to encourage our students to familiarize themselves with opportunities that will continually be expanded," he said, adding that research projects enhance the university learning experience and often help students identify areas of interest in which they would like to focus further research or even graduate studies and long-term careers. |
| Mississippi State Physics, Astronomy Department Hosts Lovejoy Viewing Friday at Howell Observatory | |
| Comet Lovejoy should be glowing at fourth magnitude when Mississippi State's E.I. Howell Observatory opens Jan. 16 for public viewing. The free experience will be available 6-8 p.m. In addition to Lovejoy -- a giant, greenish ice ball some 50 million miles from Earth now visible in the southern sky. Other heavenly bodies on display will include the Orion nebula and planet Jupiter. Part of the university's physics and astronomy department, Howell Observatory is located on the grounds of MSU's South Farm, also known as the Leveck Animal Research Center. Assistant professor Angelle Tanner will be on hand to answer questions and provide insights about what viewers are seeing. |
| Students Take Journey through the Body Walk | |
 | The human body, it has many different parts and functions, and students at Northeast Elementary School in Lauderdale County spent their day learning about the different functions of the body as they did the Body Walk. "The Body Walk is a 40 foot by 60 foot walk through exhibit, the children are basically going through a pretend body, there is ten different stations and each station represents a different organ, and so we are teaching them how to keep those organs healthy," Body Walk coordinator with the Mississippi State University Extension Service Katie Bouchillon said. |
| 'Paw-Paparazzi' Take Note: World Dog Awards Honor Star Pets | |
 | Awards season is underway in Hollywood, but one show will roll out green turf instead of red carpet and celebrate achievements like best mutt instead of best actor. At the inaugural World Dog Awards hosted by comedian George Lopez, dogs will walk in on artificial grass and wag out with golden fire hydrant statuettes honoring the best in entertainment and social media. In one of the most heated contests at the show airing Thursday on the CW Network, colleges' competed for best team mascot. The contenders are Smokey the bluetick coonhound from the University of Tennessee; Jonathan the husky from the University of Connecticut; Hairy Dawg the bulldog from the University of Georgia; T-Bone the Irish setter from Pace University; and Bully the bulldog from Mississippi State. |
| Search on Gulf Coast for missing Starkville man | |
 | Authorities are looking for a Mississippi man who hasn't been seen since he went kayaking in the Gulf of Mexico on the Alabama coast. Gulf Shores police say 24-year-old John Switzer of Starkville, Mississippi, hasn't been heard from since he told relatives he was fishing on his kayak about 12:30 p.m. Saturday. A police statement says Switzer was vacationing in Gulf Shores at the time, and his family is concerned for his safety. |
| Frostbite Half-Marathon Celebrating 30th Year in Starkville | |
| Gerald Dunwoody's goal at this year's 30th Annual Frostbite Half Marathon won't be to beat his best time or win a trophy. This year, completing the race will be a victory all its own after he suffered a stroke last May. "This is my race. When I started running in May 1998, the first race I ever competed in was the Frostbite the following January, so this has become a tradition for me," said Dunwoody. While this year is Dunwoody's 16th year to compete in the race, the Frostbite Half-Marathon turns 30-years-old this year. The three-decade-old tradition began with a group known as the Boardtown Runners and was later taken over by the OCH Wellness Connection. This year's event is scheduled for Jan. 24. |
| Corinth to host Mississippi Hills regional meeting | |
 | Representatives from the 30 North Mississippi counties that are part of the Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area will meet in Corinth on Thursday to discuss strategies to attract a bigger share of the tourism market. Representatives from the Mississippi Development Authority's tourism division and the National Park Service, which oversees the National Heritage Area program, will outline what new tourism opportunities are available to the counties now that the federal management plan has been approved. This meeting will also explain how public organizations can set up city or county groups to insure local participation in the program and help define long-term goals for the National Heritage Area. |
| Gay club prompts change in Rankin County school policy | |
 | Rankin County school board members approved a change in the district's school club policy on Wednesday after a group reportedly tried to form a gay club. Superintendent Lynn Weathersby brought up the issue at Wednesday's school board meeting. "There has been a group wanting to form a gay club. I talked to (board attorney) Freddie and several administrators about what we could legally do to limit organizations like that on campus that we don't want to endorse and don't want," Weathersby said. It is not clear at this time where or at what school the club attempted to form. |
| South Mississippi man admits travel-voucher fraud at Stennis Space Center | |
 | A South Mississippi man pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal charge of making false statements on travel vouchers five years ago to obtain more than $23,000 while working at Stennis Space Center, records show. John Mack Brown, 59, was a civilian worker under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Navy when he submitted fraudulent travel receipts to the Department of Defense. He was indicted on four counts of making false statements. In exchange for his plea, three of the charges were dismissed. Scheduled for sentencing April 9 he faces a prison term of up to five years and up to a $250,000 fine. |
| Mississippi tax collections running $91M ahead of expectations | |
| Mississippi tax collections are running $91 million ahead of expectations just over halfway into the fiscal year, a top budget writer said Tuesday. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Herb Frierson, R-Poplarville, said that's a small portion of the $6 billion budget, but the uptick shows economic conditions are improving. He also said legislators will consider a long list of funding requests from state agencies the next couple of months. Some programs, including Medicaid, are seeking more money to get through the year that ends June 30. Others want increases for the year that begins July 1. |
| House votes for school funding amendment alternative | |
| House Republicans pushed through a proposal for alternate wording for a state constitutional referendum on school funding Tuesday, as supporters of the original language howled that the effort aimed to sabotage the November vote. House members voted 64-57 to approve an amendment that would require that the Legislature provide an "effective system of free public schools." All but two Republicans voted for it, while all Democrats who were present voted against it. House Speaker Pro Tem Greg Snowden, R-Meridian, said he helped draft the language to focus on results, not just money. |
| Citizen initiative on public education funding gets pushback | |
| The Mississippi House on Tuesday approved 64-57 a competing alternative proposal to the citizen-sponsored education funding initiative on the November ballot. The provision passed after about two hours of intense debate. This is the first time the Legislature has ever attempted to place on the ballot an alternative to compete with a citizen-sponsored initiative. The vote was nearly along party lines with all the House Democrats, joined by two Republicans -- including Rep. Margaret Rogers, R-New Albany -- voting against the proposal. "Why can't we let the people vote it up or down and be done with it instead of playing games?" asked Rep. Tyrone Ellis, R-Starkville. |
| Ballot alternative passes amid allegations of coercion | |
| Lawmakers approved a hotly debated measure Tuesday on the House floor that give voters two choices on the November ballot, instead of one, about how Mississippi funds public schools. House Committee Resolution 9 passed 64-57 and largely along party lines. Some lawmakers "nearly had their arms twisted off at the shoulders" to vote for the measure, said state Rep. Steve Holland, D-Plantersville, before Gunn slammed his gavel and ordered him to report information about misconduct instead of spread rumors. State Rep. Tyrone Ellis, D-Starkville, said local governments are "sick and tired" of raising the tax millage to pay for something the state government should be funding. |
| State's top educator won't stop pushing Common Core, pre-K education | |
| State Superintendent Carey Wright is pushing ahead. With Common Core standards, with expanding and improving early-childhood education, and with increasing opportunities for advanced placement classes. Wright met Tuesday with the Sun Herald to discuss issues in Mississippi education and some of the politics that goes along with those issues. "We've been pushing the research," she said. "It's a spreading of information, which is important so people know the research behind (our methods). So it's not just Carey Wright speaking off the top of her head -- it's backed up by data." Early-childhood education is a major priority, but Wright said she is also contending with the same issues as last year. "Let me be up front with you: I have no idea why (Common Core) is a lightning rod," she said. "I mean, I have no idea. I'm not getting that part of it." |
| Gunn introduces bill to kill Common Core | |
| Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn introduced a bill this week to repeal the Common Core State Standards and replace it with a Mississippi-specific set of standards for K-12 students. House Bill 156 would "delete the requirement that the state Department of Education form a single accountability system by combing the state system with the federal system." It also would rename the state's standards "Mississippi College and Career-Ready Standards." Gunn also introduced a bill, HB 385, to replace the end-of-year assessment developed by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, with the ACT test. |
| Mississippi smartphones: 'kill switch' bill | |
| Mississippi could join some other states that require a kill switch on smartphones that could render the device inoperable if stolen. State Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, has filed a bill in the Legislature that would require such a kill switch on smartphones manufactured and sold after July 1, 2016. "I am aware of similar legislation that passed in Minnesota and California," Simmons said. "Microsoft and Apple do not oppose kill switch legislation. In a world where our phones have become our lives, the proposed legislation declares an uniform policy to deter thefts of smartphones and to protect the privacy of smartphone users if their smartphones are acquired by others." |
| For G.O.P., Precedent to Cooperate and Shed Its 'Party of No' Label | |
 | Senator Shelley Moore Capito's optimism about winning a seat in the Senate is tempered by another reality. In November, voters in West Virginia gave Ms. Capito a promotion from her House seat to one in the Senate that brings more staff members, more influence within her state and more power to help it in Washington. Yet Ms. Capito recognizes something else about this moment, for herself and fellow Republicans. "It carries responsibility," she said. The question is how much that responsibility changes the instincts, habits and calculations of a party that, when it comes to governing, has grown so deeply accustomed to saying no. Trent Lott, the former Senate Republican leader from Mississippi, goes so far as to say Republican control of Congress "changes everything" in Washington. Some still nurture dreams of the elusive grand bargain in which Republicans accept higher taxes if Mr. Obama and Democrats agree to curb Medicare and Social Security spending. |
| Republican Party will test Christian voters' clout | |
 | The Christian right launched a host of Republican stars, from Pat Robertson's surprising bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988 to Mike Huckabee's in 2008 and Rick Santorum's in 2012. None ever managed to win the nomination, let alone the presidency. Now heading into the 2016 race, evangelical Christian voters face a crucial test to maintain even their limited influence. To be sure, the religious right still has some influence. But even if an evangelical wins Iowa, as Huckabee did in 2008 and Santorum did in 2012, the appeal is limited. The next stop is the New Hampshire primary, where Christian-right favorites are a "foreign species," said Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. Ditto in other states that matter in the nominating process, from Nevada to Florida and beyond. |
| Islamic State won't give up on Kobani despite pounding | |
 | The Islamic State continues to send waves of attackers at the key city of Kobani on the Syrian-Turkish border despite hundreds of coalition airstrikes that have killed more than 1,000 militants and destroyed scores of weapons. The town's location on the border makes it important for the Islamic State because abandoning it would give the Kurds a foothold in Syria and an opportunity to unite disparate Kurdish militias against the militants. "The advantage ISIL has is Syrian Kurds are isolated from Kurds in southern Turkey and northern Iraq," said James Poss, a retired Air Force major general now at Mississippi State University. |
| Obama administration plan will aim to slash methane emissions | |
 | The Obama administration on Wednesday will announce an aggressive new plan to combat global warming by targeting the methane emissions released through oil and gas production, according to a summary of the initiative obtained by the Los Angeles Times. The proposal seeks to cut those emissions – a major driver of climate change -- by as much as 45% by 2025. A White House briefing paper describes methane as "a potent greenhouse gas, with 25 times the heat-trapping potential of carbon dioxide over a 100-year period." Officials at the American Petroleum Institute have warned Obama against imposing such rules. They say energy companies are already making progress in lowering methane emissions without government intervention. |
| Louisiana's Common Core Debacle | |
 | John White may be the silver-tongued boy wonder of the school reform movement, lauded for his political acumen and often mentioned as a future U.S. secretary of education. But last fall, Louisiana's whip-smart and occasionally cantankerous education superintendent found himself on a lonely mission: driving his state-issued Prius along the Bayou State's two-lane highways, stopping at churches, schools and Chamber of Commerce meeting halls, promoting the embattled Common Core learning standards to a state whose governor no longer wants them. All this could easily be chalked up as an only-in-Louisiana tussle to be expected in a state whose education system is near rock bottom and whose political brawls have a tradition of being both colorful and callous. But this battle is bigger than Louisiana. Across the country, the Common Core standards, a set of rigorous K-12 English and math benchmarks designed to improve the state of the nation's schools, have become increasingly divisive. |
| How to Look Smarter: Tactics People Use to Look Intelligent Often Backfire | |
 | While trying to look intelligent, a lot of people do things that make them look dumb. For instance, people use big words or put on a poker face -- tactics that can backfire for some, studies show. A growing amount of research is teasing out how people form first impressions of others' intelligence -- and how well it works when you try to manage those impressions. The cues people look for in assessing each other's intelligence are simple. But they aren't always easy to pull off under pressure. They include showing self-confidence, speaking clearly and smoothly, and responding thoughtfully to what others are saying, research shows. The workplace, of course, is full of people trying too hard to look smart. |
| U. of Southern Mississippi to hold MLK prayer breakfast | |
 | The annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Interracial and Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast will be held Monday at 7:30 a.m. in the Thad Cochran Center Ballroom on the University of Southern Mississippi's Hattiesburg campus. The event is presented by the Mu Gamma Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. The event's guest speaker will be Dr. Dolphus Weary, author of "I Ain't Coming Back" and Founder of The Rural Education and Leadership Christian Foundation and Mission Mississippi. Mu Gamma Lambda will present awards to distinguished residents of the Hattiesburg community, while also paying tribute to one of its deceased members, Douglass T. Baker, who was instrumental in establishing the event. |
| Southern Miss ranked 6th nationally in schools producing new certified teachers | |
| In keeping with its founding mission, the University of Southern Mississippi continues to distinguish itself in training teachers for the state, nation and world. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards recently ranked Southern Miss sixth in the country in producing new National Board Certified Teachers in 2014. USM was established in 1910 as Mississippi Normal College, with the mission to elevate the preparation of teachers for service in state elementary and secondary schools. Dr. Ann P. Blackwell, dean of the university's College of Education and Psychology, said that the university has expanded its mission in the last century but continues to take pride in honoring its roots as a teacher's college by producing quality educators. |
| William Carey University gets $50,000 donation for pharmacy school | |
| William Carey University received a $125,000 pledge toward establishing a pharmacy school on their Biloxi campus, university officials announced. The money from the Leo W. Seal Family Foundation will be distributed over a five-year period with $50,000 given up-front for startup costs. William Carey University officials weren't ready to say how much money they've raised overall for the school, which will be located on the Tradition campus and anchor the Health Care Industry Zone there. But they said they are getting close to the $4 million goal. "This helps us tremendously," said Monica Marlowe, the chief advancement officer for the Tradition campus. |
| U. of Alabama names new dean of continuing studies | |
 | A Penn State University administrator has been named dean of the University of Alabama's College of Continuing Studies. Craig S. Edelbrock, who previously served as Penn State's chancellor of the School of Graduate Professional Studies, will start Wednesday, according to UA. Edelbrock received a doctorate from Oregon State University and a bachelor's degree from Western Washington State College. The College of Continuing Studies offers a wide variety of degree and non-degree programs through flexible learning formats with distance and on-campus instruction. |
| U. of Kentucky measuring support for a possible $1.5 billion capital campaign | |
 | University of Kentucky officials are pondering a capital campaign to raise as much as $1.5 billion as the state's flagship university begins its 150th year. But first they're asking 15,000 of their closest friends and donors whether it's a good idea. UK President Eli Capilouto recently emailed an online survey to gauge levels and areas of support. For example, the survey asks whether potential donors would like to help finish the decade-long construction of the new UK Medical Center, or would they prefer to support a new cancer research facility? Do they think there should be more scholarships for undergraduates or more endowed chairs for research? n order to move ahead, "the overwhelming response has to be positive," said Mike Richey, UK's vice president for development. |
| UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences gets new agricultural program leader | |
 | University of Florida snagged a Texas Aggie to run Florida's statewide agricultural program. Saqib Mukhtar has been named associate dean and agriculture program leader for the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at UF, officials announced Tuesday. Mukhtar, currently the associate department head and extension program leader at Texas A&M University, will start at UF in April, according to a news release. "We look forward to having him as part of our UF/IFAS Extension team and leading our broad and diverse agricultural extension program," UF/IFAS Extension Dean Nick Place said. |
| UGA won't say if demonstrators will face discipline | |
 | University of Georgia officials won't say whether any of the nine people arrested Friday night for refusing to leave a UGA building are university students, nor will they say whether, if any of them are UGA students, they will face discipline under the school's conduct code in connection with an immigrant rights demonstration. University officials can't identify the students or say whether they'll face UGA discipline because of federal laws protecting student privacy, said Stan Jackson, a spokesman for the office of UGA's vice president for student affairs, which is responsible for enforcing the conduct code. Organizers of Friday's protest said four of the nine people arrested by UGA police Friday are UGA students, and two of the names match listings of current students in UGA records. |
| 'Baggage On The Road' to feature LSU students | |
 | GSN's new series "Baggage On The Road" hits the LSU campus in Wednesday's episode at 8:30 p.m. (cable Channel 221 in Baton Rouge and Lafayette). Host Jerry Springer introduces viewers to the show and the campus, before the episode moves inside for the dating game featuring four LSU students. More campus and downtown Baton Rouge sites are featured after each commercial break. In the episode, Kourtney Outlaw, an LSU senior and communications major, will choose one of three fellow students to be a potential partner based upon their "baggage" or quirky, annoying and sometimes shocking secrets. The "baggage" theme is taken even further as the men vying for dates reveal secrets about themselves by opening up various sizes of baggage to reveal the secrets written within them. |
| U. of Arkansas Startup Receives Grant to Develop Nano Coating for Glass | |
 | University of Arkansas startup WattGlass of Fayetteville has received a $150,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to further develop its nano-particle coating for glass. WattGlass' coating is designed to make glass anti-reflective, self-cleaning and highly transparent. Corey Thompson, founder and CTO of WattGlass, said the coating has many applications, but the company's primary focus is providing a coating for solar panels. WattGlass, based at the UA's Arkansas Research & Technology Park, was founded in 2014 and received seed capital from the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority's Technology Development Program and local angel investors. |
| More States Tie Money to Colleges' Performance, but That May Not Work | |
 | A report being released on Wednesday throws more cold water on a trend that's been sweeping the nation for the past several years, most recently with the White House proposal that seeks to make two years of community college free for everyone. It's called performance-based funding, and it boils down to rewarding or penalizing colleges based in part on the numbers of students they graduate or retain from year to year. The problem, according to the report, published by the American Educational Research Association, is that the strategy doesn't work---at least not in Washington State, where the study was conducted. Similar studies have reached the same conclusion in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and other states, the authors say. |
| Open records and academic freedom come to a head in Kansas | |
 | A tug of war is brewing at the University of Kansas. On one side the rope are privacy protections in the name of academic freedom. On the other, a pull for public's right to know. Somewhere in the center hovers the challenge of balancing competing interests of transparency and scholars' privacy. A Kansas student group says it wants to investigate the relationship between a university lecturer and Charles and David Koch, who fund the employee's work. The group suspects Art Hall, the director of the university's Center for Applied Economics, of being a "stealth lobbyist" for the billionaire Koch brothers, who are known for their conservative views. But Hall argues the students are using the state's open-records law to request a decade's worth of his emails. He calls it a fishing expedition that, if effective, could have a chilling effect on scholarly communication via email. |
| When Colleges Abandon Phys Ed, What Else Is Lost? | |
| colleges are cutting back on physical education just as a growing body of research indicates that regular physical activity is key to cognitive development and helps people focus, process information faster, and remember things more easily. Bradley J. Cardinal, a professor of public health and human sciences at Oregon State University, has researched the decline of physical education at colleges. "There is definitely a point of irony with schools saying we want to focus on academics, so we are going to cut back on physical activity or physical education," he says. "We do research showing the benefits of physical activity, and the federal government funds this stuff, and we don't use it." |
| OUR OPINION: Hank Bounds holds sway -- in Nebraska | |
| The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal editorializes: "Hank Bounds, formally educated completely within Mississippi, has accepted the presidency of the University of Nebraska, whose systemwide enrollment is more than 50,000, and whose flagship Lincoln campus is iconic. Bounds has been commissioner of higher education for eight universities in Mississippi since 2009. ...Bounds has in his resume' many positive benchmarks in learning improvement at the district and statewide level. ...Bounds is a strong collaborator, and often that is winning half the battle in higher education." |
| ADAM GANUCHEAU (OPINION): U. of Mississippi Medical Center officials set troubling precedent | |
| The Clarion-Ledger's Adam Ganucheau writes: "As a journalist, I love telling stories. I love creating the physical stories that you see in the paper. But what I love most about being a journalist is not when I make the story -- it's when the story makes me. In the few days I've known her, [four-year-old] Helena [White] has taught me more about life, perseverance and hope than anyone. She was unconscious underwater for ten minutes, and despite my lack of hope and the scientific odds pressed against her numerous times, she held on for her life. I knew I had to meet her. What I didn't know was that officials at University of Mississippi Medical Center, where Helena was being treated, would try to stop me." |
| BRIAN PERRY (OPINION): Alternative to court order on public school funding | |
 | Consultant and columnist Brian Perry writes: "The Mississippi House of Representatives on Tuesday voted 64 to 57 to place a legislative alternative to Initiative 42 on November's statewide ballot. The new measure, which would appear in addition to the original ballot language, was sponsored by House Speaker Pro Tem Greg Snowden of Meridian. Snowden warned the original ballot language removes the Legislature from explicit education policy making and could allow a chancery judge from one county to make decisions regarding any school district in the state. ...If passed by both chambers, then both the original and alternative options would be on the ballot with voters able to choose to vote for or against both options; and then to choose one or the other. ...In a year which may feature few competitive statewide campaigns in November, this ballot battle could bring a lot of political action." |
| SID SALTER (OPINION): Education in Mississippi comes to an unprecedented political crossroads this year | |
 | Syndicated columnist Sid Salter writes: "Public education funding in Mississippi has historically been accomplished as an intricate dance between the Legislature and the constituencies of the three major education branches - K-12 elementary and secondary education, the state's 15 community colleges, and the state's eight public universities. The process has been rather predictable. Annually, lawmakers struggled to cobble together a budget that took care of the two primary expenditures of state government -- public education and public health care. ...In 2015, it's election year in Mississippi. Lawmakers face the same old struggle to fund education at all levels and public health care -- then everything else -- with limited resources. But there are several factors compounding that struggle this year." |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State star Prescott to announce future plans Wednesday | |
| Dak Prescott has one year of eligibility remaining at Mississippi State. It appears the quarterback plans to use it. Multiple sources close to the program told the Clarion-Ledger they expect Prescott to return for his fifth season at MSU. Mississippi State scheduled a press conference Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. for the quarterback to announce his decision. Prescott's season earned him a spot as a legitimate Heisman trophy candidate. He finished eighth in the voting. Many analysts consider him a front-runner for the 2015 award. |
| Stricklin 'confident' with Mullen's extension negotiations | |
| Mississippi State athletic director Scott Stricklin and Dan Mullen continue to negotiate a new contract extension. Talks began in December but weren't serious due to the head coach recruiting and preparing for the Orange Bowl. After the bowl game, Mullen needed to find a defensive coordinator to replace Geoff Collins. He found one in Manny Diaz, but in the process wasn't able to work out an extension for himself. With the bowl and the coaching staff taken care of, travel plans then interfered. "Just conversations," Stricklin said. "Travel has kind of gotten in the way." |
| Mississippi State losing streak in SEC play now at 16 games | |
| Mississippi State returned from its trip to Texas A&M extending two streaks. The 74-70 loss to the Aggies pushed MSU's true road losing streak to 21 consecutive games. It also tied a program worst 16-straight Southeastern Conference losses. Fred Thomas buried a 3-pointer as time expired in the first half to give Mississippi State the lead heading into the locker room. It was the fifth 3-pointer of the first half. The Bulldogs (7-9, 0-3) shot 50 percent in the first half from beyond the arc. |
| Texas A&M men's basketball team gets first SEC win of season | |
 | Mississippi State put Texas A&M's free-throw shooting to the test Tuesday, and the Aggies passed, barely, making 13 of their final 18 to hold off Mississippi State 74-70 at Reed Arena. The win was the first in three Southeastern Conference games for A&M (10-5). I.J. Ready led the Bulldogs (7-9, 0-3) with 18 points, including two 3s in the final minute when MSU kept things interesting. Fred Thomas also hit a long range shot as MSU cut A&M's lead to 70-67 then 72-69. |
| U. of Tennessee football season-ticket prices to rise | |
 | Season ticket prices for Tennessee football will rise in 2015. A season ticket to all seven Vols home games this fall will cost $410 for a bleacher seat and $431 for non-bleacher seats. Most individual season ticket purchases come with a built-in donation of $500. The Knoxville News Sentinel reported that season ticket sales increased this past season for the first time since 2005. The price hike represents a 6.5 percent rise from last season, according to the newspaper. |
| DA: Victim in Vanderbilt rape case experienced 'worst nightmare' | |
| Deputy District Attorney Tom Thurman walked past a podium and told 14 near-strangers a story. A woman studying at Vanderbilt University was a member of the dance team and "in a good place" until June 23, 2013. "Little did she know that day that held such great promise for her would turn into her worst nightmare," Thurman said. In 19 minutes, Thurman gave a graphic and blunt account of what four former football players are accused of doing to the woman that day: raping and sexually assaulting her in a Vanderbilt dorm room while she was unconscious, and then trying to cover it up. Nashville attorney Jim Todd, who is analyzing the case for The Tennessean, said in an interview after court concluded Tuesday that the state's graphic opening statement focused jurors' attention on video evidence. |
| 'Power Five' members to flex new legislative muscles at NCAA convention | |
| The 65 members of the wealthiest National Collegiate Athletic Association conferences will finally test their increased legislative powers this week, as they use a new level of autonomy to vote on a number of proposals giving more support and benefits to college athletes when the association meets on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. The change in governance has been criticized by a number of Division I leaders. Heading into this year's convention, anxiety still exists. This is particularly true among those institutions outside of the Power Five conferences, but there is also potential for friction within the autonomous leagues. In October, Kirk Schulz, the president of Big 12 member Kansas State University, said that while he supports autonomy, he doesn’t think the voting process “is going to go as smooth as everyone thinks it is.” |
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