| Tuesday, February 24, 2015 |
| Moe's Southwest Grill to replace State Fountain Bakery | |
 | Mississippi State University students should expect several changes to their dining options this upcoming school year, including the relocation of the State Fountain Bakery. In the fall of 2015, there will be several on-campus restaurants that will undergo renovations including Chick-fil-A, Starbucks, Einstein's Bros Bagels and the Marketplace at Perry. Students can also expect the grand unveiling of the Fresh Food Company on the south side of campus where the intramural tennis courts were formerly located. The renovation and relocation of the State Fountain Bakery will be due to the addition of Moe's Southwest Grill, which will take the bakery's place. Bill Broyles, interim vice president of the MSU division of student affairs, said he is eager to implement and show off the upcoming changes to the campus. |
| Houston Residents Encouraged To Dream Big For Tanglefoot Possibilities | |
 | It took more than 10 years of planning and partnerships between local, state and the federal government, but the Tanglefoot Trail is now open. Now, economic developers and community planners are looking at ways to bring more people to towns along the trail and also develop ideas for attractions and public spaces. The Houston Civic Center is home to a three day workshop is organized by the Citizens Institute on Rural Design and participants are looking at ways to develop the trail and trailhead. The workshop is funded from a grant through the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Carl Small Town Center at Mississippi State University is overseeing the initiative. |
| Surveyor, Mississippi State athletics broadcaster launch election bids | |
 | A pair of Gregorys announced election bids last week, driving up the total number of candidates seeking various Oktibbeha County seats this year to 39. Incumbent County Surveyor Tom L. Gregory, a Democrat, is seeking re-election, while Mississippi State University broadcaster Bart Gregory, a Republican, is the third candidate and second member of the GOP to run for District 4's supervisor seat. Both men submitted their qualification sheets last week to the circuit clerk's office. Tom Gregory ran unopposed in 2011. Bart Gregory will face Bricklee Miller, who serves as the Mississippi Horse Park's facility manager, in August's Republican primary. |
| Mississippi suspends more K-12 students than most states | |
 | A national report linking out-of-school suspensions to academic failure says Mississippi sends home more students per capita than most other states, and many of them are African-American and children with disabilities. The Magnolia State ranks No. 3 nationwide in its rate of elementary school suspensions and No. 4 in secondary school suspensions, according to figures released today by the UCLA's Center for Civil Rights Remedies. More than 47,200 students overall -- about one in 10 -- missed instruction time as a punishment in the 2011-12 academic year. The average suspension is 3.5 days. African-Americans and students with disabilities were more than twice as likely as their white, non-disabled peers to get sent home, the numbers show. |
| 2014 a good year for filmmaking in Mississippi | |
| In 2014, 19 feature films along with six reality shows and six documentaries were shot partially or entirely in Mississippi. "We had a rather remarkable year last year and we expect that to continue," Ward Emling, director of the Mississippi Film Office, said. "This week is ... the first time in seven months that we haven't ...had a film in production," Emling told The Dispatch last week. That's pretty good for a state which, in the minds of a lot of people, is about as far removed from Hollywood culture as you can get. |
| If You're Buying campaign hits second phase | |
| There's a follow-up to If You're Buying, We're Selling. Human Rights Campaign Mississippi launched Monday the Equality is Our Business Program, an initiative that asks business owners to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace and to advocate for the expansion of employment and housing protections, particularly for the LGBT community. That commitment will come in the form of a pledge and placement of a sticker in a business' front door or at the cash register. So far, more than 100 have signed on. If You're Buying started last year in the middle of tense skirmishes wrought by the Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act. |
| Mississippi Auto Parts Workers in Union Drive Plan Protest | |
 | Workers at an automotive seat factory in Mississippi are protesting what they say are low wages and poor working conditions as they attempt to unionize in what could become a new front for the United Auto Workers in the state. A group of workers and supporters at the Faurecia (FOR'-see-uh) SA seating plant in Cleveland plans a Tuesday march. "We work an auto job and we're getting paid like Wal-Mart wages," said Jamarqus Reed, a 32-year-old Pace resident who has worked at the plant for almost 10 years. "We're trying to better ourselves." Nationally, the UAW has staked its future on unionizing Southern auto factories, with limited success so far. |
| Four potential 1st District candidates bow out | |
 | While potential candidates await an announcement from Gov. Phil Bryant on the date of a special 1st District U.S. House election, some are removing themselves from the list. State Sen. Gray Tollison, R-Oxford, Mississippi Court of Appeals Judge Jimmy Maxwell of Oxford, state Sen. David Parker, R-Olive Branch and Tupelo banker John Oxford all have now said they will not run for the post left vacant by the death of incumbent Alan Nunnelee, R-Tupelo, on Feb. 6. They join Glenn McCullough, former Tupelo mayor and TVA chairman, who said last week he wouldn't run after being appointed by Bryant to the state College Board. The governor has up to 60 days from the date of the vacancy to set an election date, but there is speculation he will announce the date this week, possibly as early as today. |
| Gunn to seek phaseout of personal income tax | |
| In a game of escalating tax-cut proposals, House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, will propose the biggest so far: a $1.7 billion phaseout of Mississippi's state personal income tax over more than a decade, a top legislator said late Monday. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jeff Smith, R-Columbus, confirmed Monday that he plans to bring forward the proposal in his committee Tuesday. Smith said Gunn will have a news conference following the committee meeting to advocate for the plan. Gunn declined comment Monday night through his chief of staff, Nathan Wells. |
| Hosemann announces run for third term as Mississippi secretary of state | |
| Republican Delbert Hosemann filed papers Monday to run for a third term as Mississippi secretary of state. He said he has unfinished business in the job, including pushing legislators to make Mississippi join other Deep South states in holding a March 1 presidential primary, starting in 2016. Supporters of the "SEC primary," named after the sports conference, say it would force candidates to spend time and money in states that are sometimes ignored as candidates concentrate on early primary or caucus states such as New Hampshire and Iowa. "I think the next president of the United States ought to stand in the doorsteps of Mississippi, here, answer our questions," Hosemann said Monday at the state GOP headquarters, where he filed papers to run for re-election. |
| Hosemann opts to run for re-election as secretary of state | |
| Delbert Hosemann took a little of the suspense out of this year's elections when he announced Monday he would seek a third term as secretary of state. There had been speculation Hosemann might seek another office this year, such as challenging incumbent Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves in the Republican Party primary or Attorney General Jim Hood -- Mississippi's only statewide elected Democrat. But during a news conference Monday at the state Republican Party headquarters, the incumbent said there were things he still wanted to accomplish as secretary of state. With Hosemann's announcement Monday, all eight statewide officeholders have filed for re-election. Hood ended any speculation for him when he qualified for re-election Monday. |
| Hood wants some of $46 million of suit settlements earmarked for mentally ill | |
 | Call it a sharing of the spoils of war at an opportune time. Just as he qualifies for a reelection bid, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood is handing over around $46 million to Gov. Phil Bryant and the Legislature from legal settlements obtained from the likes of Standard & Poor's, Merck & Co., HSBC Bank and Bank of America. He deposited $20 million on Feb. 5 and expects to get $26 million in settlement money from S&P by March 5. In his notification to Bryant and legislative leaders, Hood gave a list of suggested expenditures he said were in line with his statutory obligation "for improvement of the public service." |
| Former Hinds County Sheriff Malcolm McMillin may try to reclaim job | |
| Former Hinds County Sheriff Malcolm McMillin sounded like a candidate again Monday, saying he has unfinished business to do. "I am considering running," McMillin said of trying to reclaim the job he lost four years ago to current Sheriff Tyrone Lewis, who is the first African-American sheriff of Hinds County. But McMillin, who was sheriff for 20 years before losing the 2011 election to Lewis, said he hasn't made a final decision about entering the race. "If I decide to run, I will run on my record," McMillin said. "I would like to see quality return to the (sheriff) department." |
| K Street jockeys for cyber supremacy | |
 | The race for cybersecurity business is on. Washington's law and lobby firms are rushing to establish their positions in the lucrative market for cybersecurity counsel, as businesses wake up to the threat posed by hackers worldwide. "Data privacy" -- the preferred K Street term for cybersecurity -- has become the topic du jour in D.C.'s legal community, and firms are jockeying for any possible edge in hiring, client outreach and events. Evidence of the race litters legal tabloids, lobbying disclosure forms and job boards, confirming that cyber threats are not only fodder for headlines -- they present a major opportunity for D.C.'s lawyers and influencers. |
| Anti-GMO Activist Seeks to Expose Scientists' Emails With Big Ag | |
 | The legal attack hit Kevin Folta in early February. After receiving a FOIA request from US Right to Know---a nonprofit dedicated to exposing "the failures of the corporate food system"---the University of Florida notified Folta, a food and agricultural science professor at the university, that he would have to turn over all of his e-mails relating to correspondence with 14 different firms involved in agribusiness. His options: Submit all of his emails and allow lawyers to sift through them independently, or spend hours doing it himself alongside legal counsel. The request is a response to public arguments by Folta that genetically modified foods are safe. "Open records requests are increasingly being used to harass and intimidate scientists and other academic researchers, or to disrupt and delay their work," reads a 2015 report from the Union of Concerned Scientists. |
| Students react to U. of Mississippi's weather decisions | |
 | As icy weather continues to affect driving conditions in Oxford, students have begun to criticize University of Mississippi officials' decision to remain open. Ben House, junior political science major, said he was very surprised Friday when he woke up to find classes were not cancelled and still had to drive to campus. "I encountered a lot of black ice on the roads Friday morning," House said. "I even slid off the road onto the shoulder on Anderson because my tires lost traction on the asphalt." Noel Wilkin, associate provost and member of the Crisis Action Team, said because safety is the most important factor, the team has a close relationship with both the county and city Emergency Management Administrators. |
| USM's Griffis earns library and information science research grant | |
 | Dr. Matthew Griffis, an assistant professor in the University of Southern Mississippi School of Library and Information Science, was recently awarded a 2015 OCLC/ALISE Library and Information Science Research Grant. Griffis' project, entitled "The Place of the Librarian in the Deskless Library: Do Roaming Reference Models Create a More User-Centered Library?" will investigate the spatial relationships between library users and roaming -- also known as "roving" -- reference librarians in public and academic libraries. |
| Protective Life insurance firm to give $2 million to U. of Alabama | |
 | The University of Alabama's Culverhouse College of Commerce received a $2 million corporate gift Monday that will be used to endow a professorship in actuarial sciences and risk management and support the college's Insurance Hall of Fame. The gift will be given over three years by Protective Life, a Birmingham-based insurance company, and its parent company, Dai-ichi Life of Japan. Dai-ichi completed its acquisition of Protective Life earlier this month. The gift includes $1.5 million for an endowed professorship at Culverhouse that will be called the "Dai-ichi Life Teaching Chair in Actuarial Sciences and Risk Management." It will honor Tsuneta Yano, the founder of Dai-ichi Life. |
| Auburn University art students paint local mural for international audience | |
 | A concept that started in the minds of a group of Auburn University painting students has been translated to canvas and will soon leave Auburn to be viewable to eyes worldwide. As part of the Small World Big Picture Project, students in Auburn University Professor Wendy DesChene's Painting I and II classes created a 16-foot-by-5-foot painted mural that depicts their collaborative idea of Auburn as a place and town. "It's a celebration of Auburn," DesChene said. "It's a celebration of all the things that make us unique and special." The mural shows scenes of downtown, students walking on campus and a flying Golden Eagle, all set among the foliage of the Toomer's Oaks. |
| Louisiana higher education leaders discuss funding threat | |
 | State legislative leaders offered no firm solutions or big ideas Monday for higher education officials who are bracing for deep budget cuts in the coming year. "We have a structural problem in the budget and the state education system," said Conrad Appel, R-Metairie, Senate Education Committee chairman. "It exists from pre-K through postsecondary and up through graduate programs." The leaders of Louisiana's college and university systems held a daylong conference in Baton Rouge on Monday, with the budget serving as a key topic throughout. Higher ed funding could be slashed up to $500 million in the coming year because of the state's anticipated $1.6 billion budget shortfall. Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration will release his spending recommendations Friday. |
| Louisiana lawmakers don't offer detailed solutions on higher education cuts | |
| With formal budget negotiations slated to begin this week, Louisiana legislative leaders gave higher education officials no assurances Monday that lawmakers have a short-term plan to stave off deep budget cuts to college campuses. House Speaker Chuck Kleckley, R-Lake Charles, told the audience at a higher education conference that the Legislature can't allow slashing anywhere from $400 million to $500 million across colleges next year. Gov. Bobby Jindal unveils his budget recommendations Friday. "When Humpty Dumpty falls off the wall on Friday, we're going to need everybody in this room to help piece Humpty Dumpty back together again because it's going to be a tough situation. It's going to be tough to manage morale," LSU System President F. King Alexander told higher education leaders during a separate panel discussion. |
| For the few with access, climb to top of LSU's Memorial Tower a special treat | |
| LSU electronic technician Dusty Magby's routine didn't change much when he left his job at a processing company to work for the university two years ago. He was still dealing with electronic systems and removing the hiccups. The LSU job, though, offered an unusual perk. At least four times a year, he gets the best view on campus from the top of the Memorial Tower, a remembrance to Louisianans who died in World War I. "You get a pretty good visual of the campus," Magby said. "I don't go up there every day, but we have people go up there and we adjust the speakers on special occasions. It's pretty amazing to see the entire campus." Memorial Tower is one of the most iconic structures at LSU, but only a select few like Magby have access to go to the very top of the 175-foot bell tower. |
| Walmart Foundation's McLaughlin to Deliver 'Food for Thought' at U. of Arkansas | |
 | Kathleen McLaughlin, president of the Walmart Foundation and senior vice president for Walmart Global Sustainability, will provide a "Food for Thought" lecture at the University of Arkansas on March 3, the university announced Monday. The Food for Thought lecture series is sponsored by the Honors Student Board of the UA's Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. McLaughlin will speak at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3, in Hembree Auditorium in the Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences Building, the UA said. Her lecture is titled, "Business and Society in the Next Decade: Using Scale and Capabilities to Address the Complex Problems Facing the World." |
| U. of Florida dedicates new communications agency | |
 | The University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications will dedicate The Agency at 11 a.m. Tuesday in Weimer Hall Atrium. The first-of-its-kind undergraduate program is billed as "an integrated communication agency" to give advertising and public relations majors "hands-on experience working for real clients," according to a news release. Since the fall, students have been working with clients -- including the Florida Department of Citrus, Mexican theme park "Experiencias Xcaret" and several university centers and departments. |
| Vanderbilt students' cellphone pics help shooting investigation | |
 | Vanderbilt University students who witnessed the aftermath of a deadly shooting Saturday gave police information that could help them as they work to identify the suspect. Police said Joeuan Booker, 31, was fatally shot around 11:30 Saturday night in a Vanderbilt parking garage on Scarritt Place. Investigators believe Booker exchanged shots with the gunman who killed him. Metro police spokesman Don Aaron said the suspect, who has not been identified, arrived in the parking garage in a pickup truck Saturday night before going to a nearby hookah lounge. Booker arrived later in a car with other people and waited for the suspect to return to the parking garage. |
| Vote count questioned in Texas A&M yell leader election | |
 | Friday's senior yell leader election that resulted in a Texas A&M student who is not a member of the Corps of Cadets being selected over an incumbent cadet yell leader may be subject to a recount. An appeal filed through Texas A&M University's Student Government Association Judicial Court claims more than 22,000 votes were not taken into account in the election that resulted in Steven Lanz, Kyle Cook and Zachary Lawrence being named 2015 senior yell leaders. Ben Ritchie, an incumbent yell leader and cadet, came in fourth in total votes. Rusty Thompson, director of student activities at Texas A&M, said the possibility of a technological error in the tabulation system is "being looked at right now." |
| U. of Missouri System employees take million-step challenge | |
 | The University of Missouri System started a pedometer program about six years ago, but with the proliferation of updated wearable technology, that program has changed. Now, the Million Steps Pedometer Program reimburses employee purchases of Fitbit fitness trackers, and is one of a slew of wellness options that entice employees with a $450 incentive. Jenny Workman, manager of the UM System's wellness program, said the pedometer program started because employees asked for it. Around 2012, the system transitioned from older clip-on pedometers to the Fitbit, Workman said. |
| U. of Missouri considers significant renovations to Memorial Union | |
 | All four walls of the Jane Froman meeting room on the second floor of the University of Missouri's Memorial Union North are scuffed. Paint has chipped off the doors, and visitors probably wouldn't be surprised to learn that the floor hasn't been renovated since 1952 -- 28 years before the actress's death. Those scuffs and chips make up a minor part of the $11 million in deferred maintenance MU estimates Memorial Union North needs. A recent MU-commissioned report by PKF Consulting referred to the second floor as being in "extremely poor condition," in part because of the building's five-decade-old heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system. |
| Wesleyan on alert after string of student hospitalizations related to party drug | |
 | Wesleyan University is urging students to come forward with information about who is selling the party drug known as Molly on campus after nearly a dozen students were hospitalized this weekend after using the drug. It's the second time Molly has led to a string of hospitalizations at Wesleyan in less than a year. "Please, please stay away from illegal substances, the use of which can put you in extreme danger," Michael Roth, president of Wesleyan, said in a campus-wide e-mail Monday. Ten Wesleyan students and two campus visitors received medical treatment Sunday after using the drug. Police said Monday that two of the victims, including a Wesleyan sophomore, were listed in critical condition, and two others were listed in serious condition. |
| Bias reported in survey of Jewish college students | |
| More than half of Jewish students at American colleges reported personally experiencing or witnessing anti-Semitism within the past six months, according to survey findings released Monday. The findings should be a wake-up call to college administrators that Jewish students face real problems of bias, said Kenneth Marcus, president of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. The report, based on the National Demographic Survey of American Jewish Students, was published jointly by Trinity College in Connecticut and the Brandeis Center. |
| JASON MORGAN WARD (OPINION): Southern Hanging Bridge: A monument to Judge Lynch | |
 | Jason Morgan Ward, an associate professor of history at Mississippi State, writes in the Los Angeles Times: "There is a dirt road just north of the small town of Shubuta, in Clarke County, Miss., that seems to lead to nowhere, or at least nowhere anyone might want to go. If you turn onto East Street and follow the northerly bend in the road, you encounter a padlocked gate emblazoned with bright orange 'No Trespassing' signs. A few hundred yards farther, at a densely wooded bend in the road, a rusty bridge spans the Chickasawhay River. Between World War I and World War II, white vigilantes lynched six black victims at this spot. There is no historical marker, no memorial; just a rickety span that locals call the Hanging Bridge. ...But lynching monuments, of a kind, do exist, like the bridge over the Chickasawhay." |
| GEOFF PENDER (OPINION): Education politics grow more absurd | |
| The Clarion-Ledger's Geoff Pender writes: "The politics around public education in Mississippi grow more and more absurd. Nowhere is this more evident than in the current debate over the Literacy-Based Promotion Act of 2013, or the third-grade reading gate.' The current fight, astoundingly, is whether to flunk third-graders who can't read well, per a 2013 law, or pass them on into fourth grade and wish them luck in their future endeavors. How is this even a debate? We shouldn't be socially promoting illiterate third-graders on to the fourth grade, laws and acts and partisan politics and the MAEP formula be hanged." |
| SAM R. HALL (OPINION): Tom Freeland, a unique voice lost | |
| The Clarion-Ledger's Sam R. Hall blogs: "Tom Freeland was a fantastic voice in Mississippi. An Oxford attorney who loved the law, politics, good food, better music and Mississippi, Freeland was the man behind NMissCommentor.com. ...Trite to say, but Tom was a Renaissance man who perfectly embodied Mississippi's culture and was the epitome of a small town, country lawyer who practiced in Oxford. He was a champion for his clients and for the causes in which he believed. He could write dispassionately when the issue called for it, but he was at his best when he sewed his passions into his words." |
SPORTS
| Bulldogs, Alcorn State renew rivalry today | |
| No. 22 Mississippi State returns to action today undefeated at 8-0 and fresh off a four-game weekend sweep of Marshall and Alabama A&M. The Diamond Dogs host instate opponent Alcorn State (3-4) at 4 p.m. sending true freshman right-hander Jesse McCord to the mound. McCord's initial start lasted just 1 1/3 innings giving up four runs on three hits with three walks and two strikeouts. MSU is 12-0 all-time against the Braves including a 7-6 outing a year ago in Starkville. |
| Eight-straight wins moves Mississippi State in polls | |
| At this point last year, Mississippi State owned a 4-4 record and fell from its top 10 ranking. This year the Bulldogs are a different team with a perfect record through eight games. The polls reflect the improvement. Baseball America ranked Mississippi State at No. 13, the highest in any poll. MSU climbed three spots to No. 18 according to Perfect Game. Division I baseball ranked the Bulldogs at No. 22, two spots higher than last week. Mississippi State received its biggest boost from Collegiate Baseball. The Bulldogs climbed four spots to No. 14. |
| Mississippi State's Gridley honored by SEC | |
 | Mississippi State infielder Ryan Gridley was named Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week, the league announced Monday. The Milton, Ga., native is the sixth Bulldog to earn the weekly honor and the first since current New York Yankees prospect Jacob Lindgren did so in 2012. Gridley led the Maroon and White to a perfect 4-0 record this past weekend after recording a .455/.563/.909 statline. The true freshman tallied seven RBIs, six runs, four walks, three extra base hits and a pair of stolen bases. Fans can watch the SEC Freshman of the Week Tuesday at 4 p.m. against Alcorn State at Dudy Noble Field. |
| Mississippi State women beat Alabama to make history | |
| Around 1 a.m. Sunday, Vic Schaefer and his Mississippi State women's basketball team were three hours into powerless pitch darkness. The team hotel had lost power ahead of MSU's 2 p.m. tip at Alabama, a team that, on paper, didn't pose the heavyweight threat MSU encountered at Kentucky and what it likely will face Thursday at Southeastern Conference co-leader South Carolina. When daybreak came, Schaefer knew his No. 14 Bulldogs would be in for a fight. "I told our kids ...they just looked bad," Schaefer said. But clutch performances from freshmen Morgan William and Victoria Vivians, who scored 10 and 14, respectively, and a 48-24 rebounding edge were enough to help MSU escape with a 57-55 win. |
| Mississippi State's Vivians named SEC Freshman of the Week | |
| Another sensational road performance earned Victoria Vivians SEC Freshman of the Week laurels for the second-straight week and helped Mississippi State vault three places to No. 11 in this week's Associated Press Top 25 Poll. Vivians earned the honor, her fourth of the season, after scoring a team-high 14 points and grabbing eight rebounds in the Bulldogs' 57-55 road win at Alabama Sunday. The win improved MSU to 25-4 overall, a school record for wins in a season. It also gave the Bulldogs a 10-4 SEC mark, tying the 2002-03 squad for the most league victories. |
| Mississippi State focused on cutting down turnovers vs. Wildcats | |
| Most of the attention surrounding Kentucky is geared toward its No. 1 ranking and the Wildcats' flawless record. Mississippi State is focused on a different number, though, when it hosts the top-ranked team in the nation on Wednesday. Kentucky has turned opponents over 399 times this season. "We haven't looked at Kentucky at all," MSU coach Rick Ray said. "And probably won't much at all because in order for us to beat a quality team, we have to stop beating ourselves. We have to take care of the basketball." |
| LOGAN LOWERY (OPINION): Mississippi State men's coach makes progress in third year | |
| The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal's Logan Lowery writes: "Mississippi State will likely miss the postseason for the third consecutive year and is on the verge of its third straight season with a losing record. Rick Ray had better update his resume and Scott Stricklin should pull out the ol' Rolodex, right? As Lee Corso likes to say, 'Not so fast, my friend.' The circumstances that Ray inherited in Starkville were far less than ideal three years ago and it's almost unfair to even factor his first two seasons into the equation. Few coaches could have won with only six and seven scholarship players on the roster in a conference like the SEC against teams with a full allotment of 13." |
| Auburn releases statement regarding campus incident with female veteran | |
| After nearly a week of silence on the topic, Auburn's athletic department released a statement defending the actions of two Auburn football players who were involved in an alleged harassment of a female veteran with post traumatic stress disorder. In the statement released Monday night on the athletic department's official Facebook page, Auburn claimed the two players, freshmen defensive linemen Andrew Williams and Dontavius Russell, didn't act with "disrespectful intent" during a confrontation with Ashley Ozyurt, a 25-year-old Auburn student who claimed the two football players verbally accosted her and her service dog last Tuesday morning inside Auburn University's Haley Center. |
| Sentencing in Vanderbilt rape case delayed | |
| The sentencing date for two former Vanderbilt University football players convicted of raping a student in 2013 has been pushed back to 9 a.m. April 24. A jury found Brandon Vandenburg and Cory Batey, both 21, guilty of multiple counts of aggravated rape and aggravated sexual battery in late January. The men were scheduled to be sentenced on March 6, however the defense attorneys had scheduling conflicts and the date was reset for April. |
| Did Kansas State court storming cross the line? | |
 | Is this the tipping point? Is this the end of college basketball court storming as we know it? If so, we shouldn't be surprised. The images from Monday night's Kansas-Kansas State postgame at Bramlage Coliseum are jarring. Kansas coach Bill Self got smushed between the scorer's table and a mob of frenzied Wildcats fans flooding the court after their team had upset the No. 9 Jayhawks. Kansas forward Jamari Traylor was hipchecked by a fan who had zeroed in on him from across the floor. Videos of both incidents went viral. The debate surrounding court storming is not new, with plenty of fans thrilled that college kids have a chance to celebrate a big win by storming the floor and taking selfies in a giant mosh pit. |
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