| Friday, February 20, 2015 |
| Governor names new IHL board members | |
 | Gov. Phil Bryant on Thursday named four appointees to the 12-member Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning, according to a press release. They are Thomas Duff of Hattiesburg, Glenn McCullough Jr. of Tupelo, Alfred McNair Jr. of Gautier and Eddie "Chip" Morgan Jr. of Leland. "Mississippi's public universities serve a vital function in our state. They educate students, pioneer research, serve as catalysts for economic development and are anchors in their communities," Bryant said. McCullough is a former mayor of Tupelo and a former chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority. He holds a bachelor's degree in agricultural economics from Mississippi State University. |
| McCullough appointed by Bryant to College Board | |
 | Former Tupelo mayor and Tennessee Valley Authority chairman Glenn McCullough has been appointed to the Board of Trustees of state Institutions of Higher Learning by Gov. Phil Bryant. McCullough, 60, was one of four people announced Thursday by Bryant as new appointees to the 12-member board, which oversees the state's eight universities and is commonly referred to as the College Board. McCullough currently works as a consultant and lobbyist, primarily in the energy industry. |
| Tight margins on crops force hard choices for Mississippi farmers | |
 | Last year, Mississippi farmers had a bumper harvest, but that was not necessarily a cause for celebration. Production is one thing, price is another. Because of a pattern of high productivity in the past couple of years, the market has reacted with lower prices, according to John Michael Riley, an agricultural economist at Mississippi State University. Farmers are "on edge" as they weigh which crops to emphasize and which to back off on, Riley said in a telephone interview this week. |
| Partnership announces Starkville Restaurant Week charities | |
 | Three local charity organizations -- the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Clinic, Salvation Army and Starkville Habitat for Humanity -- will compete for a $5,000 donation during March's Starkville Restaurant Week. The three organizations were picked after a nomination process yielded almost 500 individual submissions, Greater Starkville Development Partnership CEO Jennifer Gregory said. This year's SRW is scheduled for March 13-22. Partnership organizers expanded its timeframe to 10 days in an attempt to cash in on March's college baseball series between Mississippi State University and the University of Alabama, a weekend that could draw large crowds to Starkville's various restaurants. |
| Wynn leads move to cut ties with insurance agent | |
| Ward 2 Alderman Lisa Wynn is leading the move for Starkville to sever ties with Tim Cox, the insurance agent who has served the city for almost two decades. On March 1, Cox, of the Columbus-based Cox Consulting Services Inc., will be replaced by the Integrity Group's Debbie Jaudon, even though he did a majority of the work developing the city's insurance policy for the year. Wynn previously targeted costly insurance fees passed on to workers as the reason driving the change, but Tuesday she accused Cox of hiding information regarding the city's former plus-one insurance option, which previously extended coverage to a number of adults dependent on workers, including employees' same-sex partners. |
| Magnolia Film Festival kicks off in Starkville | |
| The Magnolia Film Festival will feature films from seven Mississippi directors this year. These filmmakers include a Starkville High School student, two Mississippi State University students and veteran director Michael Williams, all of whom have films that will be shown at the festival, according to festival chair Angella Baker. MSU students Johnny Weichel and Hilda Queiroz directed "Current State" and "Acroamatic," respectively. Weichel is a senior studying broadcasting at MSU. In a phone interview with The Dispatch, he praised the Starkville Arts Council for its promotion of the arts and said he looked forward to meeting other filmmakers and making connections in Mississippi's small but growing film industry. |
| MEC delivers Mississippi Blueprint to Neshoba County | |
 | The Mississippi Economic Council visited Philadelphia Thursday to update and encourage Neshoba County business leaders about Blueprint Mississippi through its Regional Roundup. The hour-long program was one of 27 such meetings held statewide in which MEC President and CEO Blake Wilson presents economic development plans from Gov. Phil Bryant, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and other legislative leaders by video message. Attendees of the Philadelphia Regional Roundup, which was held at the Philadelphia Depot, were able to electronically vote on topic issues Wilson brought to the screen. The poll results will be studied and presented to Gov. Bryant and his staff on what priorities should be addressed in the future. |
| Slater running for governor, says Bryant has 'failed' | |
| Democratic attorney and business owner Vicki Slater of Madison on Thursday announced she is running as a Democrat for governor against incumbent Republican Phil Bryant. Slater, 58, said her focus will be on education -- funding public education -- healthcare, jobs and fighting government corruption. After outlining each plank in a speech at the Capitol on Thursday, Slater repeated: "Phil Bryant has failed us." A campaign spokesman for Bryant, 60, who qualified for re-election Wednesday, said the incumbent first-term Republican "is ready for this campaign about Mississippi's future and about his record of accomplishments." |
| Slater launches governor bid, blasts Bryant | |
| Jackson attorney Vicki Slater on Thursday became the first female gubernatorial candidate in Mississippi in more than a generation. Slater, 58, the mother of six and grandmother of five, announced her candidacy as a Democrat first in Jackson and later in Tupelo. "I'm not running to make a point. I am running to win," said Slater. "We've got a great team and a great platform -- jobs, education and health care." She placed the bulk of the blame for the state's problems on "Mississippi's failed leadership" and in particular on Gov. Phil Bryant. |
| State to study separate district for troubled schools | |
| The State Board of Education is likely to study a new plan to create a separate statewide school district in Mississippi to take over troubled schools and school districts. The board discussed the study Thursday in a work session where frustration boiled over about the state's inability to turn around schools and what board members see as a lack of support from the Legislature and Gov. Phil Bryant. "We have the worst political environment for public education in this state since desegregation days," said board member Wayne Gann of Corinth, a former superintendent. Board members say they feel the political atmosphere is hostile to their efforts. Former Clinton Mayor Rosemary Aultman, for example, said she took offense at Bryant's recent statement that Mississippi's public education system is an "abysmal failure." |
| Right to Try law would help terminal patients | |
| Legislation is being pushed in Mississippi to give terminally ill patients access to possibly lifesaving medicine years before it is available to the general public. Known as "Right To Try," the legislation has been passed in the House and Senate. It allows terminally ill patients to try medicines that have passed Phase 1 of the Federal Drug Administration approval process but are not allowed yet on pharmacy shelves. For terminal patients who have exhausted their conventional treatment options, obtaining access to potentially lifesaving experimental medications is often extremely difficult, says Christina Sandefur, senior attorney with the Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute. |
| No word yet from governor on special election | |
| Gov. Phil Bryant has not given any indication of when he plans to call a special election to fill the District 1 U.S. House post left vacant by the death of incumbent Alan Nunnelee on Feb. 6. But one potential candidate for the post has taken himself out of contention. Former Tupelo mayor and TVA chairman Glenn McCullough said Thursday after being appointed to the Board of Trustees of state Institutions of Higher Learning by Bryant that he would not seek the post. Elected officials have served previously on the College Board. Scott Ross was mayor of West Point while serving on the Board. But McCullough said it would be difficult to be a member of Congress in Washington, D.C., while serving on the College Board. |
| Wally Carter resigns from Mississippi Gaming Commission | |
 | Wallace "Wally" Carter's announcement Thursday that he is resigning from the Mississippi Gaming Commission will leave two vacant seats on the 3-member board. The Ocean Springs businessman announced his resignation during Thursday's monthly meeting of the Gaming commission in Jackson. Hairston resigned effective Jan. 31, in part because his term and that of commissioner Nolen Cannon of Tunica were both set to expire Sept. 30. Hairston, who was named president and chief executive officer of Hancock Holding Company in November, said he felt it would be better if the terms were staggered. |
| Can a Southern hawk who likes Democrats win GOP nomination? | |
 | Is America ready for Lindsey Graham? Months after announcing that he'll test the waters for a 2016 presidential run, Sen. Graham, R-S.C., is finally wading into Iowa and New Hampshire to gauge the viability of a campaign and interest among voters and caucus attendees in those early contests. Vowing to be more than a "favorite son" candidate, Graham is embarking on a listening tour of sorts to assess whether there's support, money, infrastructure and room in the Republican field for a Southern military hawk who supports a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws and has no problem cutting deals with congressional Democrats. |
| Attack on meat has industry seeing red | |
 | The meat industry is sharpening its knives over a small federal committee that issued sweeping nutrition advice that essentially told Americans to drop the burger and grab a handful of kale. The beef and pork associations spent months sweating as the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee worked on developing a large book of nutrition advice that would not only encourage Americans to eat less red meat but single out the livestock industry for contributing to environmental problems. So, now that the committee has spoken, delivering its 571-page report Thursday, the defenders of meat -- among the most powerful lobbyists -- are planning to attack the panel's suggestions on multiple fronts. |
| McDonald's menu change has chicken industry aflutter | |
| McDonald's Corp. is bringing chicken tenders back to its menu next month in a move that's rippling through the poultry industry. The item, called Chicken Selects, will begin appearing at U.S. restaurants for at least a limited time in early March, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company said this week, confirming speculation in the industry. For the poultry business, the move is easing concerns about an oversupply of chicken in the United States. It also underscores how much clout McDonald's has with suppliers: Though the company is mired in a sales slump and shaking up its leadership, it can still sway the meat industry with a single menu item. |
| Three Months Later, State Department Hasn't Rooted Out Hackers | |
 | Three months after the State Department confirmed hackers breached its unclassified email system, the government still hasn't been able to evict them from the department's network, according to three people familiar with the investigation. Government officials, assisted by outside contractors and the National Security Agency, have repeatedly scanned the network and taken some systems offline. But investigators still see signs of the hackers on State Department computers, the people familiar with the matter said. Each time investigators find a hacker tool and block it, these people said, the intruders tweak it slightly to attempt to sneak past defenses. |
| When it comes to evolution, bigger really is better | |
 | We've seen the future of marine life, and it's big. After conducting an extensive study on size, a Stanford research team found that, over time, marine animal lineages generally evolve to be larger. The team, which included research scientists, undergraduates, and high school interns, amassed mountains of data under Stanford paleobiologist Jonathan Payne. The hulking dataset they compiled spans 542 million years, and includes five of the major phyla and over 17,000 genera -- about 75 percent of all marine genera in the fossil record, and nearly 60 percent of all animal genera to have ever lived. They described their findings Thursday in Science. |
| MUW hosting College Music Society conference through Saturday | |
| The music department at Mississippi University for Women will host the 2015 Southern Regional Conference of the College Music Society through Saturday. All activities take place in Poindexter Hall. More than 100 scholars, composers and performers are taking part in this three-day event featuring a combination of lectures, performances, workshops and recitals. Conference attendees are exposed to presentations on a variety of topics, such as famous composers and their works, the latest trends in music education and the state of the music industry in the 21st century. The presenters include music professors, graduate students and music professionals from around the United States. |
| UM's 'Most Beautiful Campus' hindered by littering problem | |
 | The University of Mississippi has won numerous awards over the years for its beautiful campus, but some worry that increasing problems with litter could cost the university its prestige. John Polk Stewart, an Oxford resident and 1971 Ole Miss graduate, is concerned over the large amounts of litter he has been seeing recently across the university's campus while walking to the Turner Center. He was shocked after seeing broken beer bottles, cigarette packages, red cups and even pizza boxes dispersed along Rebel Drive and in the Martin and Stockard parking lot. "Maybe it's the mentality. I would think if you walk outside and see four or five red cups on the curb for a week, maybe someone would pick them up," Polk said. Stewart wants to raise awareness to this issue and hopes that students will begin to realize that this sort of behavior does not reflect well on the university. |
| USM hosts economic outlook conference | |
 | A crowd of about 250 gathered Thursday at the University of Southern Mississippi's Thad Cochran Center for the Economic Outlook 2015 Forum. The forum, which was sponsored by The First, A National Banking Association, is an annual event designed to bring together public and private sector leaders to discuss economic trends occurring in local communities, Mississippi and the nation. "It's very exciting to partner with the Trent Lott Center, the College of Business and The First (A National Banking Association) to provide the economic outlook for our region," said Faye Gilbert, dean of the College of Business at Southern Miss. |
| Anonymous donor to match gifts to Karnes endowment at USM | |
| Frances A. Karnes can be considered the "Mother of Gifted Education" in Mississippi. Thanks to her tenacity and lobbying efforts in the 1970s, all Mississippi public high schools now offer advanced placement courses and second- through sixth-graders and some seventh- and eighth-graders have access to gifted studies classes. In 1972, no such classes existed until after Karnes joined the faculty at the University of Southern Mississippi and began her campaign for gifted education. And though she retired in 2014, she ensured exceptional educational opportunities would continue with the Frances A. Karnes Endowed Chair in Gifted Education. Established in 2002 with a $1 million goal, the endowment had a balance of $500,000 -- until Thursday. |
| State treasurer supports USM nursing after successful bond sale | |
 | Mississippi's state treasurer closed a successful bond sale last week that saved the state $36 million and contributed $20 million to the University of Southern Mississippi's Nursing School construction project. "Health care is vitally important," said state Treasurer Lynn Fitch Thursday on a tour of the site. "Health care is an economy driver right now. That's long range, and it's going to continue to be an important part of where we move forward in the state of Mississippi." Fitch stressed the importance of managing long-term state debt in a conservative manner and said the product of those practices is things like the new nursing building, named Asbury Hall. |
| Jackson State students receive free passports | |
| In an effort to increase the number of students who travel to other countries, Jackson State University, along with a nonprofit organization, provided up to 200 JSU students with free passports Thursday. The program, which officials said was the first of its kind in America, was facilitated by the Council on International Educational Exchange, an organization that works with 340 universities across the country and 62 international sites. "In a matter of months, we have created this historic program," said James Pellow, president and CEO of CIEE. |
| Delta Music Institute students discuss L.A. trip during Grammy week | |
 | Delta Music Institute student Katie Locke, Jessica Wishard, Lindsey Anna Pardue and Brennan Barham recently talked about their trip to Los Angeles to perform at Mississippi Night leading up to the Grammy awards. Mississippi Night is held in recognition of the fact that the most Grammy winners have come from this state. The group discussed their experiences with the Exchange Club of Cleveland. DMI student Jarrick Finkley mentioned that the student organization Grammy U allows students who want to be in the music industry to network. |
| Itawamba Community College Hosts Women in Higher Education Mississippi Network Conference | |
 | They represent virtually every institution of higher learning in the state and they are gathered in Tupelo. And all conference participants are female. It's the annual meeting of the Women In Higher Education Mississippi Network, or WHEMN. They gathered at ICC's Belden Campus for a conference that celebrates, inspires and empowers women in higher education. Former Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck, who now serves as vice president for campus services at Mississippi State University talked about the importance of strong, decisive and compassionate leadership. Organizers say the conference provides great opportunities for growth. |
| Higher education group supports women, leaders | |
| Ketra Armstrong's career trajectory has taken her from Tupelo to a leadership post at the University of Michigan. She was back in her hometown on Thursday, hoping to inspire more than 150 women who work in Mississippi's higher education systems to follow their own paths to leadership. "I hope they see in me their possibilities and potential," Armstrong said after speaking at this year's Women in Higher Education Mississippi Network conference. "I'm a product of Mississippi higher education and someone who believes in and celebrates and has great pride in Mississippi." A 1981 graduate of Tupelo High, Armstrong is associate dean for graduate programs and faculty affairs in Michigan's School of Kinesiology. The ICC and Mississippi State alum also has held leadership positions at Ohio State University and at California State University, Long Beach. |
| State community/junior colleges choral fest continues today at MSU Riley Center | |
| More than 2,000 choral students, directors and musicians are in attendance at the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges State Choral Festival, which began Thursday at the MSU Riley Center in downtown Meridian. This is the fifth year the two-day conference has taken place in Meridian. Fourteen of the state's 15 community colleges are in Meridian for the event. "They are filling up hotels and restaurants, thus bringing in revenue for the city," said Tammy Miles, Meridian Community College's director of choral activities. |
| State approves U. of Kentucky hospital expansion plan | |
 | With the approval of state health officials, the University of Kentucky can begin a 120-bed expansion, the next step in a $1 billion construction project. The expansion project was approved Wednesday under the state's certificate of need process, which requires the state to review the expansion plans of hospitals to make sure they fall in line with the overall state health plan. The state tracks health resources to ensure access to care without glutting the market. The cost of the expansion has risen to roughly $1 billion, and there is no longer a completion date, said Dr. Michael Karpf, executive vice president for health affairs at UK. |
| Former, current Texas A&M cadets to honor 40 years of having women in the Corps | |
 | A weekend celebration to honor four decades of women in the Corps of Cadets will spotlight a crowning achievement for Texas A&M: Former students who blazed the trail will hear from the first-ever female commander. Sgt. Major Alyssa Marie Michalke, a junior, learned earlier this week that she was named to oversee the 2,400 or so cadets serving in the Corps. She already was on the agenda to emcee a weekend lunch for former and current cadets, making her participation all that more special, organizers said. Amanda Miller Fleming, event coordinator for the Texas Aggie Corps of Cadets Association, said at least 65 former cadets -- including 11 from the '70s -- plan to attend the weekend celebration. |
| Connections between U. of Missouri medical students, mentors help promote understanding of aging | |
 | In 15 years, the United States will have an estimated 72 million residents over the age of 65. Learning how to care for them is especially important for medical students, who will likely be in the prime of their careers by then. Regardless of specialty, every future doctor will most likely have some interaction with older adults. Older adults often have chronic health conditions that require different types of care than acute illnesses. That difference makes programs such as the Heyssel Senior Teacher Educator Partnership at the University of Missouri an important learning tool for medical students. STEP was created in 2001 to help first- and second-year MU medical students understand senior citizens and their health needs. |
| New Delphi Project report outlines evolving faculty models and growing support for reform | |
 | A common refrain from adjunct professors who get relatively low pay and little institutional support is that their working conditions are students' learning conditions. But many colleges and universities continue to ignore that message and rely on part-time faculty to deliver the majority of instruction. A new paper is calling out those institutions for their lack of attention to faculty career designs and is demanding meaningful, collaborative discussions to address what it calls an existential threat to American higher education. Beyond suggesting that adjunct employment not only disadvantages adjuncts and the students they teach, due to the instructors' lack of institutional support, the paper asserts that the trend hurts tenure-line faculty members, too -- and institutions overall. |
| Ideology Seen as Factor in Closings in University of North Carolina System | |
 | An advisory panel of the University of North Carolina's Board of Governors has recommended closing three academic centers, including a poverty center and one dedicated to social change, inciting outrage among liberals who believe that conservatives in control of state government are targeting ideological opponents in academia. Conservatives are cheering the move, seeing it as a corrective to a higher education system they believe has lent its imprimatur to groups that engage in partisan activism. But critics say the moves by a panel whose members were appointed by a Republican-dominated Legislature reflect the rightward tilt of state government. The impassioned response is the latest manifestation of a deep ideological rift in North Carolina. |
| Clash Looms Over Obama's Education-Budget Priorities | |
 | President Barack Obama's fiscal year 2016 budget request marks the opening bid in what will likely be a messy spending battle over how to fund the government, including the U.S. Department of Education and federal education programs, when its purse empties Oct. 1. Notably, the president's pitch to Congress includes an overall 7 percent hike in discretionary spending, ignoring sequester-level caps, the funding limits set by lawmakers in 2011. Under the request, the Education Department would be funded to the tune of $70.7 billion, a 5.4 percent, $3.6 billion hike over current appropriation levels. The budget proposal is a shot across the bow of the newly minted Republican Congress, which has promised to both fund the government through the regular appropriations process and be aggressive in trimming back federal spending. |
| Bernie Sanders calls for two tuition-free years of all public colleges and universities | |
| Senator Bernie Sanders is calling for a massive boost in federal higher education spending that would cut college tuition at public colleges and universities in half. "We need a revolution in the way higher education is funded," Sanders, an independent from Vermont, was to say in a speech Thursday night at the University of Iowa, according to prepared remarks provided by his office. Sanders's plan calls for the federal government to give $18 billion a year in dollar-for-dollar matching grants to states, which he says would allow them to slash public college tuition by 55 percent. He said this would apply to students at all public universities and colleges, effectively offering two free years to everyone, not just those at community colleges. His proposal stands virtually no chance in Congress. |
SPORTS
| Bulldogs welcome two veteran squads to Dudy Noble | |
| Mississippi State's opening weekend was a success going 4-0 and outscoring Cincinnati and Miami (Ohio) 48-15 during the four-game round-robin series. The 24th-ranked Bulldogs are gearing up for another four-game set with Marshall and Alabama A&M starting against the Thundering Herd at 4 p.m. today. "I'm excited for our kids to get opportunities," said MSU skipper John Cohen. "When you play older (teams like Marshall and Alabama A&M) they're going to make better decisions and make better pitches. I think Marshall will be very competitive and Alabama A&M is just as old. The amount of seniors they have in their lineup is impressive." |
| Pitching plans unsettled as Mississippi State baseball plans for busy weekend | |
| Jesse McCord can't wait to get back out there. His coach seems to agree. McCord, Mississippi State's freshman right-handed pitcher from Spanish Fort, Alabama, struggled in his first career start for MSU last Saturday, failing to get out of the second inning while allowing four runs against Cincinnati. Now, as MSU heads into its second weekend of the season, MSU coach John Cohen says he will not hesitate to put McCord back out there again. "Absolutely we want to see him out there again soon," said Cohen, who has his team off to a 4-0 start. |
| Bulldogs face quick turnaround before calling Hogs | |
| There's no rest for the weary. And for Mississippi State's basketball team there's no time to sulk after watching Ole Miss guard Stefan Moody pour in a career-high 29 points to win in the Humphrey Coliseum for the fourth time in the last three decades Thursday night. There's no time for any of that, because approximately 42 hours after Ole Miss pulled out of Starkville with a 71-65 win, No. 18 Arkansas is pulling in to take on the Bulldogs at 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. "This is the first time we've had this quick turnaround," said MSU coach Rick Ray. |
| Mississippi State softball squeezes past Southeastern Louisiana | |
| In the sixth inning, Cassady Knudsen found herself in a tight spot. With Southeastern Louisiana threatening to steal the lead and perhaps the game, the Mississippi State freshman right-hander made the right pitch, got the key out and helped her team survive. Alexis Silkwood entered in relief an inning later to close out the Bulldogs' 4-3 win on a bitterly cold afternoon at the MSU Softball Field. MSU improved to 10-1, while Silkwood, a sophomore from Illinois, moved to 7-0 -- good enough to share the lead in the Southeastern Conference in victories. "It's exciting to be out there and be in a game like that," MSU sophomore third baseman Caroline Seitz said. |
| Mississippi State's Dan Mullen impresses coaches at 52nd annual Gulf Coast Coaching Clinic | |
 | For the second time in a span of 18 hours, a college head football coach whose team spent time ranked as the best team in the nation last season took the stage at the 52nd annual Gulf Coast Coaching Clinic. Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen was the featured speaker Thursday morning in the "third quarter" of the annual affair, on the heels of Alabama's Nick Saban who kicked off the event Wednesday night. This marked the second time in his six year tenure in Starkville that Mullen was a featured speaker at the event in Biloxi at the Beau Rivage, which annually features as many as 600 prep football coaches from across the South. |
| MSU's Mullen credits commitment to Mississippi for success | |
| When Mississippi State likes to describe the Magnolia State as "Our State," football coach Dan Mullen can point to the numbers to support the claim. On Thursday at the Gulf Coast Coaching Clinic, Mullen did just that with the figures projected on the large screen behind him at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino. A day after Alabama coach Nick Saban spoke at the event, Mullen was the next member of the A-list to address the large gathering of coaches from around the region. He spoke about his method as a head coach, but also used the platform to compare his school to the two other FBS programs in Mississippi when it comes to keeping talent in state. |
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