| Friday, May 8, 2015 |
| Golden Triangle Early College High School selects first class | |
 | Sixty-two students from 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 is a partnership of the Mississippi Department of Education, East Mississippi Community College and Mississippi State University. The school will provide opportunities for students to earn college credit while earning a high school diploma at the same time, according to a MSU press release. Mississippi's college attainment rate lags the national average, but there are a number of efforts underway to close this gap, according to Julie Jordan, director of the Research and Curriculum Unit at MSU. |
| PHOTO: Spring Commencement at MSU-Meridian | |
 | Four outstanding students will be recognized along with the 115 candidates at MSU-Meridian's 2015 spring commencement today at 11 a.m. at the MSU Riley Center. Those to be recognized are, from left, Adrian Cross of Meridian, Outstanding graduate student in the division of Education; Haley McFarland of Philadelphia, Outstanding undergraduate student in the division of Education; Chance Barfoot of Philadelphia, Outstanding undergraduate student in the division of Business; and Selah Weems of Laurel, Outstanding undergraduate in the division of Arts and Sciences. |
| MSU alum Glenn McCullough 'trained' at TVA for his new job as MDA chief | |
 | Gov. Phil Bryant says he didn't need to look outside of the state to seek his next executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority. He selected Glenn L. McCullough Jr. of Tupelo, who did a lot of work for his home state when he was running the Tennessee Valley Authority. Blake A. Wilson, president of the Mississippi Economic Council, the state's chamber of commerce, called McCullough "an excellent choice to position Mississippi for the next generation of economic development success, building on the strong base that has already been established over the last three years." McCullough holds a bachelor's degree in agricultural economics from Mississippi State University. |
| MSU alum Jessica Merrill Lane joins Community Bank | |
| Jessica Merrill Lane has recently joined Community Bank as a Senior Vice President at the Flowood office in the Dogwood Shopping Center. Lane has over 12 years banking experience and most recently was employed with Trustmark Bank as a Vice President in their Commercial Lending department. In her new role with Community Bank, Lane will provide financial solutions to commercial customers as well as private banking clients. Lane, a Gulfport native, has two degrees from Mississippi State University, a BBA in marketing and a BA in Spanish. |
| MSU alum Tobie Gillean gets leadership post | |
| Tobie Gillean, LCSW, CCM, has been named director of North Mississippi Medical Center's Rehabilitation Institute and Skilled Nursing Facility in Tupelo. Gillean has been employed by NMMC for 20 years in a variety of roles, most recently serving as clinical coordinator for the Rehabilitation Institute and Skilled Nursing Facility. In her new position, she will provide operational oversight to clinical and support services for both facilities, as well as for North Mississippi Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. She earned her bachelor's degree from Mississippi State University. |
| Officials forecast spring issuance for Starkville Police Department renovation bonds | |
| A rarity occurred at Tuesday's Starkville Board of Aldermen meeting: All seven sitting aldermen unanimously approved a bond intent resolution. The board started the clock on the $3 million-maximum financing package that will fund improvements to City Hall, which will become Starkville Police Department's future home once officials and staff move to the new administrative home under construction at the end of Main Street. Unless 1,500 registered voters protest the intent notice, Starkville can issue the bonds as soon as June 2. Officials, however, are likely to move forward with the issuance next spring after they attempt to find grant funding to offset costs. |
| Starkville getting retirement home | |
| A new Starkville retirement community is scheduled to open by the end of 2015. The Claiborne at Adelaide will be located at 1980 S. Montgomery St. Dori Jenrette, executive director, told The Dispatch the community will cover a total of 81,460 square feet. Roughly 59,000 of that will be for assisted living areas. The remaining 21,000 square feet will consist of two- and three-bedroom cottages. It will be located on an old dairy farm. Land began being cleared in September. It will employ more than 30 people when it opens in early December. |
| Starkville group intends to apply for charter school | |
| A Starkville group submitted a letter of intent to the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board on Tuesday, indicating that it hopes to open a charter school. S.O.A.R. (Successfully Overcoming Academic Restraints) Institute Charter School would serve students ages Pre-K through sixth grade, if its application is successful. The school was applied for by the Peter's Rock Temple Church of God in Christ, which would house the proposed school at 223 Martin Luther King Blvd. in Starkville. The school would be open to students in Starkville and Oktibbeha County. Charter schools are publicly funded and do not charge tuition. They are run by private groups that agree to meet certain state standards in exchange for less regulation. |
| Mississippi export summit extols virtues of international trade | |
| "Had we not gone international, I don't think we'd be here today," said Wayne Wade, president of Bio Soil Enhancers Inc. of Hattiesburg. His testimony and Gov. Phil Bryant's extolling of the virtues of exporting were the highlights of the Governor's 2015 Export Summit on Thursday at the Jackson Convention Center. Bio Soil nearly went out of business after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the company's plant in 2005, Wade said. After the company turned the corner on the business model, the Mississippi Development Authority opened doors to the international market for it, he said. The first trip was to Canada, which opened the little company's eyes, Wade said. |
| Video-to-data technology will be 'transformative' | |
 | Gleaning searchable and indexable data from video has traditionally been an exercise in tedious manual documentation, but a C Spire subsidiary says that will soon change. Ridgeland-based Vu Digital has launched its proprietary video-to-data product that converts video elements -- the people, places and things that appear -- into metadata. Ideally, the results will be used by marketers, content creators, distributors, publishers and curators, all in an effort to raise their brand visibility or optimize video searches. The technology will make video content as easily searchable as text. Vu Digital's vice president of operations and development Wade Smith anticipates demand growing, because 90 percent of digital data will be in video form by 2017, he said. |
| Mississippi board sets test score that fails 15 percent of third-graders | |
 | Almost 6,000 Mississippi third-graders may not advance to fourth grade, after the Mississippi Board of Education set a passing score on the state's third-grade reading test. The board voted unanimously Thursday to adopt a score that means about 15 percent of the state's 38,000 third-graders didn't pass the 50-question computerized test they took in April. Students who failed will get two more chances to take the test: one later this month and one during the summer. They must show basic reading skills but don't have to reach national standards of proficiency. |
| Court to expedite education initiative battle | |
 | The Mississippi Supreme Court has agreed to hear in an expedited manner the arguments from legislative leaders that a Hinds County judge did not have the authority to change the language on the ballot for their alternative to a citizen-sponsored education funding initiative. The state's highest court issued an order Thursday saying it would hear the case where Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn, on behalf of the Legislature, are challenging the ballot title Circuit Judge Winston Kidd ordered used for their alternative to the citizen-sponsored initiative. The court agreed that the matter should be heard in an expedited fashion, as Gunn and Reeves argued, because the issue must be resolved before Sept. 9, which is the deadline for the Secretary of State to provide sample ballots to the 82 counties for the November election. |
| House candidates pumping money into their campaigns | |
| Less than a week before the special election to fill the seat of the late Rep. Alan Nunnelee, four candidates have raised more than $400,000 each, much of it from their own wallets. The nonpartisan race for the 1st District seat in northern Mississippi has drawn 13 candidates, including 11 Republicans, one Democrat and one independent. Political experts say that's unusual, as is the number of candidates financing their own campaigns. "There may be a price of entry for this race because it is so crowded and it takes a lot of money to get known and break out of the pack," said David Wasserman, who tracks House races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. "What's even more unusual is that they all seem to be contributing about the same amount to their campaign." |
| Moak's math: state House is in play for Democrats | |
| State House Democratic Leader Bobby Moak, in a letter seeking donations for his Leadership PAC, says "the polls and data we are looking at show us that NOW there is opportunity for Democrats to regain the House" in 2015. Republicans hold a 66-56 majority in the House, after the GOP took control of the chamber in 2011 for the first time since Reconstruction. With Republicans looking strong to keep the seven of eight statewide elected positions it holds in this year's elections, the battleground is likely to be for the state House. However, lack of top-of-ticket battle and excitement for Democrats in the statewide races could hurt turnout downstream in the legislative races. That and lack of campaign cash are the Democratic Party's major obstacles in a state that has been turning brighter red. |
| President's choice of Nike for pro-trade speech stirs controversy on eve of 'fast-track' vote | |
 | When President Barack Obama visits Nike's headquarters in Oregon to tout trade on Friday, he'll be striding into a feud between the giant sneaker maker and its smaller East Coast rival New Balance and a long-standing argument over the value of trade deals that pits many in the nation's Northwestern and Northeastern congressional delegations against each other. "I think it's great that the president is getting out and talking about his agenda," New Balance Vice President Matt LeBretton told POLITICO. But "it would be great to have him come to a footwear company that actually still makes shoes in the United States and be talking about this agreement. We'd welcome that opportunity." |
| State Legislatures Put Up Flurry of Roadblocks to Abortion | |
 | Oklahoma's governor this week approved a law extending to 72 hours the mandatory waiting period before a woman can have an abortion. Here in Florida, lawmakers enacted a 24-hour waiting period that requires two separate appointments -- one for an ultrasound and information about fetal development and another for the actual procedure. These are just two laws in a surge of bills passed by Republican-controlled state legislatures this year that make it harder for women to have abortions. The 37 new rules in 11 states are part of a strategy accelerated by abortion opponents in 2011, when provisions restricting abortion access began sweeping state legislatures. More than 200 such laws have passed in the last four years, with Louisiana, Mississippi, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas leading the charge. |
| U.S. economy adds 223,000 jobs in April; jobless rate dips to 5.4 percent | |
 | The labor market bounced back in April with the economy adding a solid 223,000 net new jobs and the unemployment rate ticking down to 5.4%, the lowest level in nearly seven years, the Labor Department said Friday. The job growth was a major improvement from a disappointing March that revisions showed was even weaker than initially thought. The economy added just 85,000 net new jobs in March, even fewer than the first estimate of 126,000, making the month the weakest for job creation since 2012. Wage growth, however, slowed in April. Average hourly earnings rose three cents to $24.87 after rising six cents in March. |
| NSA program on phone records is illegal, court rules | |
 | A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the National Security Agency's collection of millions of Americans' phone records violates the USA Patriot Act, marking the first time an appellate panel has weighed in on a controversial surveillance program that has divided Congress and ignited a national debate over the proper scope of the government's spy powers. In a blistering 97-page opinion, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit overturned a lower court and determined that the government had stretched the meaning of the statute to enable "sweeping surveillance" of Americans' data in "staggering" volumes. The ruling comes as Congress begins a contentious debate over whether to reauthorize the statute that underpins the NSA program or let it lapse. |
| USM's Dana Berry named to leadership class | |
| Dana Berry, assistant to the dean for Advisement and Records at The University of Southern Mississippi College of Science and Technology, has been named to the 2015 Leadership Pinebelt Class. Leadership Pinebelt has trained emerging and existing leaders since 1989 in greater Hattiesburg. Designed to broaden the base from which emerging leadership is derived, Leadership Pinebelt serves as a catalyst for increasing diversity among future leaders. Berry, who has been at Southern Miss for 10 years, advises students assisting them in preparing for graduation. |
| Bryant to speak as Pearl River Community College graduation returns to Poplarville | |
 | For the first time in a decade, Pearl River Community College will hold graduation on the main campus in Poplarville. The ceremony will be 10 a.m. May 14, in the new Marvin R. White Coliseum. Gov. Phil Bryant will be the commencement speaker. PRCC last held graduation in the old White Coliseum in May 2005, three months before Hurricane Katrina tore through South Mississippi. Damage to the coliseum was so extensive that it was demolished and a new $8.9 million facility built in the same location. "Pearl River Community College is excited that the graduation ceremony this year is returning to the Marvin R. White Coliseum," said Dr. Jennifer Seal, vice president for planning and institutional research and chair of the graduation committee. |
| Portions of Samford Park at Auburn University to close during summer | |
 | Portions of Samford Park will close this summer as Auburn University begins Phase II of the Samford Park redevelopment project and replaces the Samford Hall roof. Both projects will begin after spring graduation and are scheduled for completion prior to the first home football game this fall. "The goal of these two projects is to preserve and beautify this historic campus location that means so much to the Auburn family," said Dan King, Auburn University's associate vice president of Facilities Management. "We chose to undertake these projects during the summer months so that our students and visitors returning this fall will be able to enjoy unobstructed views of Samford Hall, as well as added green space and upgraded walkways throughout the park." |
| Louisiana House finds $664M that could help ease cuts to higher ed | |
 | Supporters of the state's colleges and universities came up as big winners Thursday when the House approved a series of changes in the state's tax laws that would raise $664 million next year. Thursday events also left clear losers, at least for now: the public health care system, including the state's hospitals that are now managed by private companies. In all, lawmakers approved 11 tax measures, and House leaders said afterward that they would direct all of the new money on Monday to the state's higher education institutions to keep them from having to suffer any of the budget cuts that have been feared for next year. But because the House failed as planned to raise another $273 million through changes to the state's tax law, someone will be shortchanged, and that someone will be the state's public health care system. |
SPORTS
| Bianco, Cohen have shared history | |
| Mississippi State's John Cohen and Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco have taken their respective programs further than any other coaches in school history. The Magnolia State schools renewed their rivalry Thursday night in the first of a three-game series. But it was far from the first time Cohen and Bianco have gone head-to-head. Their history dates back to their playing days when Cohen was an outfielder at MSU and Bianco was a catcher for LSU. The two have also matched wits 50 times as head coaches dating back to 1998 when both beginning their careers in Louisiana. |
| Texas A&M demands to see corporate sponsorship agreements | |
 | Texas universities are relying heavily on private marketing firms to raise tens of millions of dollars from corporate sponsors for their athletic programs. But in some cases, the sponsorship agreements aren't available to the public -- and not even school officials are privy to the details. Learfield Sports is a company based in Plano that handles every aspect of the sponsorship process for nearly 100 schools across the United States -- including Texas A&M University. When the Express-News asked major universities for copies of their sponsorship contracts, school officials replied that Learfield keeps the only copies and won't release them. A&M spokeswoman Terry McDevitt said Wednesday the school has reached an agreement with Learfield and the contracts could be released in a matter of weeks. But she said the impasse has prompted A&M to seek new bids for the sponsorship work that's being handled by Learfield. The move could mean Learfield will lose one of its biggest clients, the Aggies, in the booming business of college sports. |
| College athletes say they devote too much time to sports year-round | |
 | At a recent panel discussion organized by the Big 12 Conference, a moderator asked four college athletes what they thought of a number of proposals to reform college athletics. There was one issue that all four athletes agreed needed addressing: the amount of time they spend on sports during the off-season. t's not a new complaint, but it's one the athletes said continues to be largely overlooked by those hoping to reform college sports. Juggling athletics and course work during the season is expectedly difficult, they said, but athletes often feel just as overworked in the off-season. And for some college athletes, the off-season can be even more draining. |
| Insurance Doesn't Eliminate Risk for Top College Athletes Who Forgo Draft | |
| Loss-of-value insurance has been available to any college athlete who could afford it, but colleges have recently begun paying for premiums out of their student assistance funds, which is legal under N.C.A.A. bylaws. To the extent that loss-of-value insurance helps persuade elite athletes to return, it is a boon to their teams, which get to enjoy their talents for another season. However, critics say loss-of-value insurance is little more than window dressing. If a player's draft stock declines because of poor performance, a player is not protected. Also, the insurance does not account for the fact that staying in college moves players one year further from free agency, when they can negotiate larger contracts. "It transfers the risk; it does not eliminate it," Jill Wieber Lens and Joshua Lens wrote of the insurance last year in The Mississippi Law Journal. |
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