| Wednesday, May 6, 2015 |
| Bryant appoints Starr to College Board | |
 | Gov. Phil Bryant has appointed a North Mississippi periodontist to the state College Board. Dr. John Starr will fill the seat Bryant originally had appointed Glenn McCullough Jr. to occupy. McCullough was named the new executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority last week. Starr is owner of Golden Triangle Periodontal Center, which has offices in Starkville and Columbus. Starr, who is Bryant's fifth College Board appointment this year, holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Mississippi State University. |
| Bryant nominates Columbus periodontist for College Board | |
 | Gov. Phil Bryant on Tuesday nominated a periodontist from north Mississippi to serve on the 12-member state College Board. Dr. John W. Starr Jr., 57, lives in Columbus and has offices there and in Starkville. He is a graduate of Mississippi State University and the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Bryant chose Starr for a nine-year term that begins later this week. The governor had earlier nominated former Tupelo Mayor Glenn McCullough Jr. for the seat, but Bryant last week named McCullough as the state's new economic development director. |
| Early College High School Picks First Class | |
 | Sixty-two students from around Clay, Lowndes, Noxubee and Oktibbeha counties have been selected to be part of a new regional high school's inaugural class. The Golden Triangle Early College High School (GTECHS) -- a partnership of the Mississippi Department of Education, East Mississippi Community College and Mississippi State University -- will provide opportunities for students to earn college credit while earning a high school diploma at the same time. "We believe the Golden Triangle Early College High School is going to be another tool to help more Mississippi students move successfully from high school to college and into the workforce," said Julie Jordan, director of the Research and Curriculum Unit at MSU. |
| Students selected for early college high school | |
 | The Mississippi Department of Education says 62 students have been chosen to attend a new regional school that allows students to earn college credit while working toward a high school diploma. The Golden Triangle Early College High School accepted 8th graders from Clay, Lowndes, Noxubee and Oktibbeha counties. The new school is a partnership between the Mississippi Department of Education, East Mississippi Community College and Mississippi State University. |
| Students Learn about Disaster Preparedness | |
 | Disasters can strike anywhere and sometimes at any time and having a plan of action can help save lives in the event that the worst does occur and local high school students took a class to be prepared to help in the event of a disaster. "What we are doing is preparing youth to respond in a disaster, and to just talk about preparedness, the main thing is preparedness and readiness and response," explained Malikah Jones with MSU Extension Services of Kemper County. The 10-week program is called MYPI or Mississippi Youth Preparedness Initiative, and it is a state wide program to promote emergency preparedness and recovery among proactive youth outreach. |
| Blackjack Road improvements remain stalled | |
 | Oktibbeha County officials have plans to improve a portion of Blackjack Road and lessen traffic issues near the area's roundabout, but supervisors cannot move forward just yet because of a lack of funding. Supervisors authorized County Engineer Clyde Pritchard to begin studying a possible cut-thru road behind the gas station at the Blackjack-Oktoc roads roundabout, one that could lessen congestion at the interchange, but they must still acquire property in the area if they wish to follow through with the plan. As Mississippi State University's enrollment continues growing, investors are quickly purchasing property and building large-scale student housing in Blackjack community. Traffic congestion has followed the developments, and the area's infrastructure is showing signs of stress from heavy equipment loads it wasn't designed to handle. |
| Interstate 22 designation moving nearer | |
 | The Mississippi Transportation Commission has authorized the Mississippi Department of Transportation to change signage along U.S. Highway 78 to Interstate 22 as soon as federal application procedures are completed, MDOT announced Tuesday afternoon. The highway, which connects Memphis to Birmingham via New Albany, Tupelo and Fulton, requires an approval process in federal law but it already meets all interstate standards and will connect with an interstate within 25 years. U.S. 78 was congressionally designated as a future interstate corridor under leadership of U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., beginning when he was a member of the U.S. House. |
| Southern Gaming Summit brings expertise, slots and great taste to Biloxi | |
 | Casino revenue in South Mississippi is $15 million higher for the first three months of 2015 than the same time a year ago, bringing a sense of optimism to the Southern Gaming Summit this week in Biloxi. "I think investors will be looking favorably to the Mississippi Gulf Coast because of it," Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach, Mississippi House Gaming Committee chairman, said Tuesday as he picked up his credentials for the summit at the Coast Convention Center. This year's summit promises food for the mind, with experts from across the country sharing their knowledge of hot issues such as Internet gambling, sports betting and non-casino amenities. Adding Coast flavor, regional chefs will discuss their craft before attendees are treated to a cooking demonstration and tasting. |
| Third-graders wait as Mississippi to set reading test score | |
| On a rain-drenched day in April, students at Pascagoula's Cherokee Elementary sweated out a computerized 50-question multiple choice test. Third-grader Lacey Peeler admitted she was a little nervous about the high stakes attached to the test. "Kind of, because that's the only test they give," Peeler said. Across Mississippi, 38,000 third-graders, their parents and teachers are waiting to find out whether they passed the test and will be moving on to fourth grade. Thousands are likely to fail, but how many won't be known until the state Board of Education meets Thursday to set the passing score. |
| Mississippi gets $2.4 million to improve reading teachers | |
| Mississippi will get $2.4 million to subsidize summer programs for struggling readers and improve teachers' reading instruction methods. The three-year grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, announced Tuesday, would be channeled through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, relying on board-certified teachers to mentor other teachers and become literacy coaches. The most immediate effort will be to aid districts running summer schools this year. Under a law taking effect this spring, Mississippi's 38,000 third-graders must reach basic reading proficiency to be promoted to fourth grade. When the state Board of Education sets the passing score on the reading test Thursday. |
| Wicker Pledges GOP Will Adhere to Strict Spending Limits | |
 | As the Senate was preparing to finalize the fiscal 2016 budget resolution, both sides seem to want the spending blueprint to be an election issue next year. National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., for instance, is touting the new GOP majority approach as returning the Senate to normal operations. "The new Republican majority came in, opened up the process, exhibited a determination to return to regular order, and so we have a major achievement today," Wicker told reporters Tuesday. Wicker said the budget "aspires" to balance over a decade, putting the onus on voters to decide if that's the course on which the country goes forward once President Barack Obama is no longer in the White House. |
| US gives farmers approval to spray crops from drones | |
| A drone large enough to carry tanks of fertilizers and pesticides has won rare approval from federal authorities to spray crops in the United States, officials said Tuesday. The drone, called the RMAX, is a remotely piloted helicopter that weighs 207 pounds (94 kilograms), said Steve Markofski, a spokesman for Yamaha Corp. U.S.A., which developed the aircraft. The drone is best suited for precision spraying on California's rolling vineyards and places that are hard to reach from the ground or with larger, piloted planes, said Ken Giles, professor of biological and agricultural engineering at the University of California, Davis. Giles tested the drone in California to see if it could be used here. |
| East Mississippi Community College names new president | |
 | When the call came, Dr. Thomas Huebner was standing on the pitcher's mound at a ball field in Tuscaloosa, Ala. His son's team had just won in extra innings. He looked down at the phone in his hand, and answered as he scanned the bleachers for his wife's face. It was Kathy Dyess, chairman of East Mississippi Community College's board of trustees, and the news was good. The EMCC Board named Huebner as president of the college Monday night during a regular meeting. Currently serving as dean of student services at Shelton State Community College in Tuscaloosa, Huebner will succeed Dr. Rick Young, who retires June 30 after 11 years leading the college. Huebner received his doctorate in communication from the University of Southern Mississippi. |
| New appointed board will govern Alabama's two-year colleges | |
 | A bill to create a new appointed board to govern Alabama's two-year colleges won final passage in the Legislature today. It takes control of two-year and technical colleges from the elected state Board of Education, which also oversees K through 12. The BOE had passed a resolution opposing the bill. Sen. Trip Pittman, R-Montrose, sponsor of the bill, said having a separate board would result in better coordination and management of the college system. The governor will serve as president of the board and appoint the other nine members. |
| U. of Florida profs want raise, cost of living increase | |
 | University of Florida's faculty union is seeking a 4 percent cost-of-living increase along with a 2.5-percent raise for its 1,700 members as this year's round of collective bargaining opens. "We continue to support merit raises. However, for over 5 years, faculty have seen no cost-of-living increases," Susan Hegeman, president of the UF chapter of the United Faculty of Florida, said. Faculty got their first raise in years two years ago after the Legislature approved $1,400 raises for all employees earning $40,000 a year or less, and $1,000 for those earning more than $40,000 a year. But that amount did nothing "to help faculty cope with a 7.6% cumulative inflation," Hegeman noted. Making matters worse is a 3 percent reduction in the state's retirement contribution, she said. |
| UGA students test the limits of virtual reality | |
 | Visitors could wreck a car and walk away unscathed, fly through the solar system at incredible speeds, or play with a human brain during a showcase on Tuesday at the University of Georgia. In a classroom of Driftmier Hall, home to the UGA College of Engineering, students in Kyle Johnsen's virtual reality course put their final projects on display in cyberspace, of course. For the most part, Johnsen liked what he saw as he and other visitors donned 3-D goggles and headphones to visit the worlds his students created. |
| Hemp industry is growing in Kentucky, attracting processors, investment | |
 | Kentucky's hemp crop is growing and attracting new investors to the state, according to Agriculture Commissioner James Comer. At a news conference Tuesday in Lexington, Comer announced that 121 participants have been selected to grow hemp this year, including seven universities across the state. There are 36 groups and projects that will grow 1,742 acres this year, he said. An international group, ISA Scientific, will research other pharmaceutical applications for CBD oil and plans to work with medical researchers at the University of Kentucky, said Dr. Perry Fine, medical director for ISA, which plans to focus on ways to treat chronic pain and diabetes. |
| Borrowing plan for South Carolina colleges, tech schools on shaky ground | |
 | A proposal to borrow $237 million to pay for building needs at state colleges, tech schools and armories soon could die, state senators indicated Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, said Tuesday the borrowing proposal does not have enough support to get through the Senate. Instead, Peeler successfully called for the creation of a committee to study the issue. Peeler criticized the process by which Senate members proposed borrowing $237 million as well as a $500 million House borrowing plan that Republican Gov. Nikki Haley helped kill in March. "That's no way to address the needs," Peeler said of the borrowing proposals. "This is a better way." |
| U. of Missouri doctoral student in physics confronts visa policy, college loans | |
 | When Menzi Mchunu made an emergency trip to South Africa in December 2010 to visit his father in the hospital, he expected to return in January and resume work on his doctorate in physics at the University of Missouri. But Mchunu's visa was held up for almost four months, delaying his studies and teaching duties until the last week of the 2011 spring semester. When Jesse Kremenak heard that story, he was blown away. "I thought to myself, 'Wow, this is a crazy situation. It's probably just a one-time thing,'" he recalled. Then he heard about Yiyao Chen, another graduate student in physics who became caught up in a visa policy web when he went back to China. His return to Columbia was delayed for almost a month. These stories plus at least a dozen more helped steer Kremenak on the path of advocacy. In 2013, he began drafting federal legislation that would allow international students to renew their visas in the United States instead of in their home countries. |
| Study suggests most part-time faculty members want respect even more than full-time work | |
 | The idea that most adjunct instructors have day jobs and teach one or two courses per semester to make a little extra cash or fulfill a desire for service, or both, has been pretty thoroughly debunked. But a new study published in The Journal of Higher Education offers the most up-to-date data on just how many part-time instructors want a full-time teaching job and can't find one: some 73 percent. Perhaps even more noteworthy is the finding that underemployment isn't adjuncts' leading cause of job dissatisfaction. Rather, it's their perceived lack of respect from full-time faculty colleagues and administrators. And while making adjuncts feel like a genuine, essential part of the academic enterprise won't be easy, the study argues, it's also not that hard. |
| Bankruptcy Trustees Claw Back College Tuition Paid for Filers' Kids | |
 | Soaring college tuition payments are drawing attention from unexpected quarters: bankruptcy courts. In a growing number of personal bankruptcy cases, trustees responsible for collecting money for creditors have moved to claw back tuition payments that insolvent parents made for their children. The trustees argue the funds should be recovered to pay off the parents' debts instead. In many cases, they're succeeding. Under the U.S. bankruptcy code, trustees can sue to take back money that a bankrupt person spent several years before filing for protection if a trustee finds that the person didn't get "reasonably equivalent value" for that expense. But in the case of a child's tuition payment, the filer didn't get the value for the expenditure -- the child did. |
| BARBOUR and CRESPO (OPINION): Long-term investment ensures American infrastructure is 'Built For It' | |
 | Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and Caterpillar VP and Chief Procurement Officer Frank Crespo write for The Hill: "In a month's time, funding and authorization for surface transportation projects across the U.S. will expire. An extension is expected, but that is just a band-aid, and everyone knows the terms will not be sufficient to meet the infrastructure challenges our country currently faces. In order to maximize our nation's economic strength we need to address these challenges over the long term. This was the conclusion reached by a variety of experts who spoke during a recent panel discussion in Washington called America on the Move: Investing in U.S. Infrastructure, which was sponsored by The Alliance for American Competitiveness, of which Caterpillar is a member. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx discussed the Obama administration's infrastructure funding proposals. Separately, we joined Chris Leslie, president and chief executive officer of the Macquarie Infrastructure Partners Inc., to discuss why an upgraded infrastructure is essential for America's economic competitiveness in the global marketplace." |
| BRIAN PERRY (OPINION): Book tackles killing of self-proclaimed white nationalist leader | |
| Jackson-based consultant and columnist Brian Perry writes: "In April of 2010, self-proclaimed white nationalist leader Richard Barrett was killed in Rankin County by Vincent McGee who stabbed him 35 times and set fire to Barrett's house. Various theories and motives circulated from a botched robbery, to a racial conflict (McGee is black) to defense from sexual assault to a gay arrangement gone wrong. Australian documentary maker John Safran tackles the story in 'God'll Cut You Down: The Tangled Tale of a White Supremacist, a Black Hustler, a Murder, and How I Lost a Year in Mississippi.' Safran's true crime book isn't a narrative of the events before and after the killing. It is more a record of his journey to write the book. And in a unique twist, it includes his own personal experiences and conversations with Barrett a year before his death." |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State in final spot of SEC Tourney with two series left | |
| Mississippi State sat at the bottom of the Southeastern Conference after Friday night's defeat to LSU at Dudy Noble Field. At that point, seven games remained in MSU's season to try to make a fifth straight SEC Tournament under John Cohen. In each of the previous four seasons, the Bulldogs have won at least 14 games within the conference. The Bulldogs enter the final two series of the season with the possibilities of both streaks -- 14 conference wins and an SEC Tournament berth -- continuing. "We're going to take it one game at a time, but we know that's a place we've got to get," MSU senior Seth Heck said. Mississippi State begins a three-game series at Ole Miss on Thursday owning the final spot for the SEC Tournament. |
| Mississippi State baseball has little margin for error | |
| With six games remaining in the regular season, the goals have shifted for the Mississippi State baseball team. At 24-24 (8-16 Southeastern Conference), MSU is No. 100 in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), meaning an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament is a long shot. MSU's players have embraced a potential spot in the SEC tournament as a way to cling to postseason hopes. "It looks like if we want to make any noise, we have to do it with a run in the SEC tournament," MSU relief pitcher Trevor Fitts said Thursday. "That's fine. We just have to take care of business these last few weeks and make sure we get a spot in Hoover so we can make a run. I still believe in this team, and I think we are capable of that." |
| RICK CLEVELAND (OPINION): Mississippi's college baseball teams need to hit hot streaks | |
 | Mississippi syndicated sports columnist Rick Cleveland writes: "For a Mississippi team to go deep into college baseball's postseason, somebody is going to have to go on a tear starting soon -- like immediately. The good news: It has happened before. Many times. Recently, the C Spire Ferriss Trophy has seemingly served as a catalyst. Two years ago, Mississippi State's Hunter Renfroe won the Ferriss, and then State won 11 of its next 13 games, a regional, a super regional, and then made it to the championship series of the College World Series." |
| Mississippi State softball aims to end SEC tourney drought | |
| Mississippi State has enjoyed plenty of success under Vann Stuedeman, advancing to three straight NCAA Tournament appearances, and is on the verge of a fourth. But one thing the Bulldogs have not done under Stuedeman is earn an SEC Tournament win. In fact, it has been a decade since MSU last earned a victory in the league tourney. The No. 10 seeded Bulldogs hope that trend ends at 11 a.m. today taking on seventh-seed Missouri in Baton Rouge on the SEC Network. |
| Strong field gives SEC softball tournament 'regional feel' | |
 | The Southeastern Conference softball tournament can serve a variety of purposes for the 12 teams participating at Tiger Park. For anyone unable to land an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, it provides an opportunity to grab an automatic bid if they can manage an improbable four-day championship run beginning Wednesday in Baton Rouge. For anyone on the proverbial bubble for the NCAAs, it provides an opportunity to strengthen their resume for the selection committee when it chooses the field Sunday night, just as it does for teams bound for the postseason but seeking a higher seed and possible home-field advantage. And even for those confident of a national seed already, it provides an opportunity to sharpen itself for an NCAA run by competing against the strongest softball field this side of Oklahoma City, site of the Women's College World Series. |
| Mississippi State's draft picks adjusting to their new NFL teams | |
| No regular season brought Mississippi State more wins than 2014. The talent that built the 10-season began spreading to the NFL. Teams drafted five former Bulldogs in 2015 prior to the seventh round, which is a school record. Another seven players inked free agent contracts with NFL franchises. In total, 12 first-year MSU players are currently on NFL rosters. |
| Ole Miss gives Kennedy contract extension | |
| Ole Miss basketball coach Andy Kennedy has received a contract extension and a raise that leaves him just shy of $2 million a year in salary. Kennedy is now the second-longest tenured coach in the SEC after the recent departure of Billy Donovan from Florida. He has led the Rebels to the NCAA tournament in two of the last three seasons and has advanced to the next round each time. Kennedy's pay increases from $1.8 million to $1.925 million, and he also receives more money to share among his assistant coaches and support staff. Ole Miss expects to move into its new arena in January of 2016. |
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