Friday, May 1, 2015   
 
McCullough named Mississippi Development Authority chief
Glenn McCullough Jr. is the new executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority. The announcement from Gov. Phil Bryant came during the Mississippi Economic Council's PowerPlay annual meeting in Jackson. "Glenn McCullough is an outstanding and accomplished leader, and I am very pleased to appoint him to lead the Mississippi Development Authority," Bryant said in a press release his office issued. McCullough succeeds Brent Christensen. McCullough has a degree in agricultural economics from Mississippi State University, where he graduated in 1977.
 
McCullough tapped to lead MDA
Former Tupelo Mayor Glenn McCullough Jr. was introduced Thursday during a meeting of many of the state's business leaders as the next executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority. Gov. Phil Bryant named McCullough as the state's top economic developer during the annual meeting of the Mississippi Economic Council at the Jackson Convention Center. McCullough, 60, had been rumored for more than a week as the leading candidate to replace Brent Christensen. The governor appointed McCullough earlier this year to a nine-year term on the Board of Trustees of state Institutions of Higher Learning. His term was slated to begin in May but will not remain on the board.
 
Mississippian Glenn McCullough Jr. gets nod as new MDA chief
An executive search that never left Mississippi has led to the appointment of Glenn L. McCullough Jr., former mayor of Tupelo and chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority board, as executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority. Speaking to luncheon guests at the Mississippi Economic Council's annual meeting Thursday, Gov. Phil Bryant said he kept the search within the state to prevent the top MDA job from becoming a revolving door. Bryant wanted a Mississippian and after considering a half-dozen in-state candidates, he selected McCullough, an economic development pro Bryant believes will stay put. The Tupelo resident and Mississippi State alum won election as mayor of the northeast Mississippi city in 1997 and served in that capacity until he joined the TVA board two years later.
 
Gov. Bryant Expects to Name New College Board Member Soon
Mississippi Gov. Bryant says he will act quickly to choose a new state College Board member after he moved one of his own recently confirmed board nominees into a different job. Glenn McCullough of Tupelo was confirmed to the 12-person College Board during the legislative session that ended in early April, but Bryant announced Thursday that he has chosen McCullough to become director of the state's job creation agency, the Mississippi Development Authority. McCullough had been scheduled to start a nine-year term on the College Board on May 9, but he said Thursday that he will give up that position before it starts. Bryant said he would interview potential College Board nominees Thursday and could name his choice Friday. "No slowing down," Bryant said.
 
Excellence in Education Banquet Recognizes MSU-Meridian Students
Outstanding students at Mississippi State University's Meridian campus were recognized for their hard work Thursday evening with a banquet. This is the seventh annual Excellence in Education Banquet. One student is recognized from each program. Faculty chooses those students based on GPAs and involvement. Dr. Julia Porter, the division head for the Department of Education, says these students will go on to be some of the best and the brightest. "We are excited about the opportunity to continue to recognize the students that we have at MSU-Meridian, and we are excited about the quality of these students and the fact that that quality makes them very desirable as far as being hired into school districts," Porter says.
 
Mississippi State Holds Sweet Potato Innovation Challenge
Mississippi State University undergraduate students having come up with alternatives for good sweet potatoes that are not grade A are engaged in stiff competition. "There are a number of sweet potatoes that don't meet those standards that we are trying to find value out of products for," said MSU Extension Specialist Stephen Meyers. "We have an entrepreneurship center here at Mississippi State University that'll work with the students to help develop their business if they want to pursue their business idea, they can do that. If they'd like to license their product to a company, we are going to help them with that as well," he said.
 
Taj Mahal concert at MSU Riley Center canceled
The Taj Mahal concert scheduled for Tuesday at the MSU Riley Center has been canceled: "Unfortunately, Taj Mahal has a severe flu and will not be able to perform on Tuesday, May 5th at the MSU Riley Center in Meridian. Taj is under ordered bed rest from his doctor and is extremely disappointed not to be able to make the show and hopes to return to Meridian in the near future to make it up to the fans. The Box Office will automatically issue you a credit that can be used up to one year for a MSU Riley Center event."
 
EMBDC names Hannah as new president and CEO
Bill Hannah of Tupelo has been named the new president and CEO of the East Mississippi Business Development Corporation. He begins work today. EMBDC Chairman Bob Luke and Board of Directors member Wayne Henson confirmed Thursday that Hannah had been hired. Hannah comes to the position after resigning his post as vice president of business development for McCarty Architects/McCarty King Construction of Tupelo and Jackson. As president and CEO of the EMBDC, Hannah said he will take a regional approach to economic development, working with officials from all levels of government from the city of Meridian, Lauderdale County and surrounding counties, including Newton, Neshoba, Clarke, Kemper and Winston in Mississippi and Sumter and Choctaw counties in Alabama.
 
Area leaders learn valuable lessons during Huntsville trip
It didn't take long for area leaders to see the similarities between the city of Huntsville, Alabama, and Tupelo, Mississippi. The two cities, though in different states and nearly 150 miles apart, have a history of diversification and growth, while still wanting to keep an eye on the future. But the most valuable part of a two-day case study trip sponsored by the Community Development Foundation and the Council of Governments was that the projects a city of nearly 500,000 has put in place can be replicated in Tupelo. Tupelo, Lee County and other community leaders left Tupelo on Thursday morning to tour Huntsville and get an insight on a variety of projects, such as mixed-use development areas and downtown revitalization.
 
Mississippi sixth-graders build robot, win award
Makayla Stewart still can't believe that her sixth-grade class from Picayune, Miss., built a robot to help her hometown clean its public drains. And that they won a national scholastic technology award for their efforts, the only elementary school to do so. "We've worked on it for a really long time," said Makayla, who, with her teacher, attended the awards ceremony Wednesday in the nation's capital to represent her class. "I don't know if you know where Picayune, Mississippi, is," Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said at the awards ceremony. "But I think this is a credit to the community, to the teachers and to the students who excellently put the project together and won the award." The sixth-graders from Nicholson Elementary School in Picayune beat competitors from 3,100 schools to became one of the five national winners of the 2015 Samsung Solve For Tomorrow contest.
 
Increasing gas tax makes for tough politics, adviser says
Mississippi will need strong bipartisan leadership for the "tricky political question" of increasing the gasoline tax to pay for highways, bridges and other transportation needs. That's what Joe McAndrew, policy director of a national group called Transportation for America, told state business leaders Thursday. McAndrew spoke during the annual meeting of the Mississippi Economic Council, the state chamber of commerce.
 
Mississippian David Abney leads UPS into the future
Mississippi helped itself a little over a decade ago when tort reform passed, UPS CEO David Abney said. "There was a point where the state had a black eye from a business perspective. Tort reform changed that," Abney said during an interview Thursday with The Clarion-Ledger before his keynote speech at the Mississippi Economic Council's PowerPlay annual meeting. Abney was appointed UPS' CEO last summer by the company's board. He served as chief operations officer before that. All told, Abney has spent 41 years with the company. He started loading trucks at the UPS facility in Greenwood -- his hometown -- when he was a student at Delta State University.
 
Elon Musk's Grand Plan to Power the World with Batteries
Elon Musk wants to sell you a battery. And he doesn't care whether you drive an electric car. Musk, ever the showman, unveiled his grand "Tesla Energy" scheme to electrify the world on Thursday night, and it actually makes a lot of sense. Tesla, which is in the middle of building a vast "Gigafactory" battery production plant in the Nevada desert, plans to offer new versions of the batteries is puts in its Model S car to residential, commercial, and utility customers. Just as he's done with the auto industry, Musk is hoping to shake up the energy business.
 
A Stylish and Storm-Resistant Post-Katrina Home in Mississippi
Ten years ago this August, Mitchell Turnbough's childhood home in Long Beach, Miss., was leveled by Hurricane Katrina. The single-story brick house, built two years after 1969's devastating Hurricane Camille, had weathered almost 35 years of storms with only minor bumps and bruises. The loss of the home in 2005 was a shock to Mr. Turnbough and his mother, Jocelyn, the home's full-time resident. When talk turned to rebuilding, Mr. Turnbough was determined to design something strong enough to weather the next Katrina without sacrificing style. Stilts were out of the question.
 
LSU students rally against potentially devastating cuts to higher ed
Hundreds of LSU students and supporters crowded the steps of the State Capitol on Thursday, shouting at legislators who were meeting inside over the threat of potentially devastating cuts to higher education funding in the coming year. "We will not go silently," said Justin DiCharia, a junior mass communications major and one of the organizers of the rally. "Silence is surrender; today they will hear our voices." Louisiana is facing a $1.6 billion shortfall in the budget that begins July 1. Lawmakers wrapped up their third week of the session Thursday without a clear plan for sparing higher education and health care from taking the bulk of the hit. Several proposals, including eliminating the state's inventory tax, raising the cigarette tax and reining in other programs, have been sought out, but Gov. Bobby Jindal has threatened to veto the entire budget if it contains any piece he identifies as a "tax increase."
 
For graduating Gators, one last Swamp memory
For the first time since the 1970s, the University of Florida is holding most of its spring commencement ceremonies at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. It will be the first time graduation was held in Florida's football stadium since the 1980 opening of the O'Connell Center, which has been closed until the end of May while workers remove toxic mercury from the arena floor. About 8,350 students will be graduating and receiving diplomas. "The biggest challenge was taking weather into consideration," said Steve Orlando, senior director of UF Media Relations. Fortunately, the weekend forecast looks good.
 
Mair leaving post, legacy at U. of Florida for Howard U.
Bernard Mair was there at the birth of the Innovation Academy and the Office of Academic Support. He's seen improvements in the four-year and six-year graduation rates. And he helped secure $1 million for the McNair Scholars Program. Now, 26 years after he first came to the University of Florida as a math professor, Mair is moving on. Today is his last day as associate provost for undergraduate education at UF. Ten days from now he will begin his new job as dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Howard University, a private, historically black institution in Washington, D.C.
 
Donald Judges Named Interim Associate Vice Provost for Distance Education at U. of Arkansas
Donald P. Judges has been named the interim associate vice provost for distance education at the University of Arkansas, taking on the role of second-in-command at the Global Campus beginning May 1, the university announced. Judges, now associate dean of graduate programs and experiential learning at the School of Law, will spend half of his time working with the Global Campus leadership team and the other half teaching courses as the law school's E.J. Ball Professor of Law. Judges joined the UA faculty in 1989.
 
Longtime Texas A&M history professor receives surprise send-off during final lecture
A Texas A&M University professor received an unexpected send-off Thursday morning after 41 years at the school. History professor Arnold Krammer was midway through lecturing a class of more than 300 students at the Chemistry Building when his entire department barged in through the back doors, kicking off the celebration of teaching his last class and the start of his retirement. Krammer, 73, began teaching German and American history at A&M in 1974 in the Academic Building and taught thousands of students along the way, but never stopped learning. "All I've done all my life is learn," Krammer said. "It's been wonderful."
 
Take Back the Night returns to U. of Missouri to raise awareness of sexual assault
"Mizzou, unite! Take back the night!" University of Missouri students chanted as they marched down Tiger Avenue on Thursday night. Attendees of MU's Take Back the Night event chanted and waved signs in opposition to rape culture as they traveled across campus to Traditions Plaza. The student-led event was held to support survivors of sexual assault and violence. "Hey hey, ho ho, rape culture has got to go!" attendees shouted. "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!" Take Back the Night is an international event and nonprofit organization that raises sexual violence awareness through events, rallies, vigils and marches, according to its official website. Ten other colleges across the nation held a Take Back the Night event on Thursday.
 
Republicans Agree on Spending Plan That Could Cut Student-Aid Money
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate have reached agreement on a spending blueprint for the 2016 fiscal year that could lead to deep cuts in education spending and a reduction in benefits for student-loan borrowers. The plan, which will guide appropriators as they draft spending bills for the fiscal year that begins in October, assumes that lawmakers will eliminate mandatory Pell Grant money, subjecting the program's entire budget to the annual appropriations process. That's how the program was financed until recently, but some advocates worry that a shift back to 100-percent discretionary funding would make Pell Grants vulnerable to budget cuts.
 
Education Is Political: Can Teachers Afford Not to Be?
Congress is at work on the reauthorization of the nation's top education law. State governments are constantly weighing policies on testing, standards, and curriculum. Districts must enact rules in response to these policies, as well to address local concerns. Yet as political as education issues can be, teachers, charged with ultimate execution of new policies, often refrain from viewing themselves as political. Even as some members of the profession rage against tests, or certain teacher-evaluation proposals, or any number of other policies, many don't want the "political" label.
 
BOBBY HARRISON (OPINION): Legislature makes unusual constitutional argument
The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal's Bobby Harrison writes: "Granted, it is an arcane point, but the irony of the argument the legislative leadership -- Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and Speaker Philip Gunn -- presented last week to the Mississippi Supreme Court cannot go without notice. For most of this year, the legislative leadership has been arguing against the citizen-sponsored education funding initiative that will be on the ballot in November, primarily, they said, because it would give 'one chancery judge in Hinds County' the authority to decide the level to fund local school districts. Yet, before the Supreme Court last week, in arguing against a decision made by one Hinds County judge, the legislative leaders said, 'There is no statute in Mississippi jurisprudence providing that the first court to address a matter should also be the last court to address it.' That, of course, is what the people supporting the initiative, called 42 For Better Schools, have been saying all along about their citizen-sponsored proposal."


SPORTS
 
Cohen: 'Some forces out there that don't want us to win'
Mississippi State entered its series with LSU having lost 10 of the last 12. Its most recent defeat came by a 10-run margin to in-state rival Ole Miss. The season had reached a low, until Thursday. Mississippi State's 5-3 loss to No. 1 LSU in 14 innings added insult to injury. Yes, the Bulldogs battled the top-ranked team for nearly two complete games. But they also saw three opportunities to win vanish almost inexplicably. "There are some forces out there that don't want us to win a baseball game," MSU coach John Cohen said.
 
Bulldogs miss opportunities in 14-inning loss
Mississippi State had the game-winning run in scoring position in the bottom of the ninth, 10th, 11th and 13th innings but could not get it home against top-ranked LSU. The Bulldogs had the decisive run slip down rounding third in the bottom of the ninth and had another gunned down at the plate in the 11th. Instead, it was Conner Hale's two-run double into the right-center gap in the top of the 14th inning that proved to be the difference as the Tigers escaped with a 5-3 victory Thursday night. "There were a lot of moments where I thought we were going to win the game, but that's baseball," said MSU reliever Trevor Fitts. Game 2 is scheduled for 7 p.m. today on ESPNU.
 
'What a game': Tigers pull off 'unbelievable' extra-inning win at Mississippi State
Conner Hale landed at second base and smashed his right fist into the air. He was the latest -- and last -- hero in this marathon. Hale crushed a game-winning two-run double to right field, and LSU pulled off a trifecta of game-saving plays to beat Mississippi State 5-3 in a 14-inning affair at Dudy Noble Field on Thursday night. "What a game," said coach Paul Maineri, who picked up his 400th at LSU. "My goodness."
 
Mississippi State women to play in SEC/Big 12 Challenge
Vic Schaefer vowed to improve Mississippi State's strength of schedule after last year's non-conference slate held his team from hosting an NCAA Tournament game. A month into the offseason, MSU beefed up both the 2016 and 2017 schedules. The Bulldogs will participate in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge in both seasons the league offices announced Thursday. Mississippi State will travel to Iowa State in 2016 before hosting Oklahoma State in 2017. The 2016 contests will be played Dec. 1-4. Exact dates and television designations will be announced at a later date.
 
Thunder struck: Donovan leaves U. of Florida for NBA
Billy Donovan led Florida to tremendous heights in his 19 seasons as basketball coach. But an opportunity to coach one of the premier franchises in the NBA was too tempting to pass up. On Thursday, Donovan agreed in principle to terms on a five-year deal worth a reported $30 million to coach the Oklahoma City Thunder, a month shy of his 50th birthday. "I want to thank Jeremy Foley, the players, coaches and staff I've had the chance to work with during my time at Florida," Donovan said in a statement. "The administrative support and stability has been unbelievable here, and it is an incredibly difficult decision to leave that. I knew that it would take a unique opportunity to leave the University of Florida and that is clearly how I look at this situation."



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