| Tuesday, June 16, 2015 |
| Millea named interim dean at MSU-Meridian | |
 | Meghan Millea, a finance and economics professor at Mississippi State University's campus in Meridian, has taken over as interim administrative dean. Millea will manage a student body of 584 and a staff of 73 at two locations, the College Park Campus on Mississippi Highway 19 North and the Riley Campus in downtown Meridian. Millea joined the faculty at Mississippi State in 1998. |
| MDE seeks input on academic standards | |
 | The Mississippi Department of Education is seeking public input as it revises its English language arts and mathematics academic standards. The department has launched a website for stakeholders either to submit comments in support of its Mississippi College- and Career-Ready Standards or to offer specific feedback on areas of concern. A committee of educators will evaluate those comments and make recommendations on possible changes to the state Board of Education in December. The process is not a referendum on the standards as a whole. Instead, it is an opportunity for individuals to propose specific revisions, additions or subtractions that may be needed, said state Superintendent of Education Carey Wright. |
| First case of chikungunya virus reported in Mississippi | |
| State health officials are confirming its first case of chikungunya virus in a Mississippi resident who recently returned from Honduras. Last year there were eight cases of chikungunya reported in Mississippi. All were in international travelers -- five to the Dominican Republic, one to Haiti, and one to Puerto Rico. Chikungunya is a risk to all travelers to the Caribbean and Central and South America. |
| Kelly gets 2 1/2 years in Cochran photo case | |
 | "We need you to have no more contact with the campaign," John Mary, a.k.a. John Bert, messaged Clayton Kelly one day last February. "What we are going to do will be EXPLOSIVE. The other side will be hunting for ANY connection to you." Kelly on Monday was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for his role in the conspiracy to photograph the late wife of Sen. Thad Cochran as she lay in her nursing home bed suffering dementia. John Mary and Richard Sager had previously pleaded guilty and got no jail time in exchange for their cooperation. Another defendant, Ridgeland attorney Mark Mayfield, committed suicide in June 2014, about a month after his arrest. Records released Monday show online correspondence between Kelly, other defendants and others about the scheme. |
| 'Great work, Ace Ventura': Cochran photo case messages | |
| Records of online correspondence show the genesis, and aftermath of a scheme by supporters of state Sen. Chris McDaniel to photograph U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran's late wife, Rose, as she lay in her nursing home bed at St. Catherine's Village last year. The records include communication between John Bert, Clayton Kelly, Richard Sager, Mark Mayfield and Elaine Vechorik. |
| Blogger gets 2 1/2 years over senator's wife photo conspiracy | |
| A blogger who pleaded guilty in a conspiracy to break into a nursing home and shoot unauthorized video of the ailing wife of a U.S. senator was sentenced Monday to serve more than two years in prison. Clayton Kelly, 29, of Pearl, shot the video of Sen. Thad Cochran's then-wife in 2014 during a tough Republican primary. The Cochrans' adult son, Clayton Cochran, spoke briefly Monday during Kelly's sentencing. "I'm here as much to mourn my mother as to condemn anybody who perpetrated the crimes that have been discussed," Clayton Cochran told the court. "She was a lovely woman, and we miss her, and she lives in our hearts." |
| Supreme Court to rule on tribal court power over non-Indians | |
| The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from Mississippi about the authority of tribal courts to try civil lawsuits involving non-Indians. The justices on Monday stepped into a lawsuit over allegations of sexual abuse of a teenager at a Dollar General store on the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians reservation. The issue for the Supreme Court is whether the non-Indian owners of the store can be sued in tribal courts. Dollar General operates a store on trust land on the central Mississippi reservation. The tribe issued a license to the business. The company, as a non-Indian entity, refused to submit to the tribal court's jurisdiction. Generally, tribes have no authority over nonmembers. |
| Former CIA Chief Says Government Data Breach Could Help China Recruit Spies | |
 | Retired Gen. Michael Hayden, who once led the National Security Agency and later the Central Intelligence Agency, said the theft of millions of U.S. government personnel records could allow China to recruit U.S. officials as spies. "This is a tremendously big deal," he said at The Wall Street Journal's CFO Network meeting in Washington. "My deepest emotion is embarrassment." China has denied involvement in the breach of data from the Office of Personnel Management, which was first announced June 4. But several senior U.S. lawmakers and several people familiar with an investigation into the breach have said the computer intrusion that seized the records appeared to have ties to Chinese hackers. Gen. Hayden took it a step further Monday evening. |
| US Naval Engineer Pleads Guilty To Spying Bid | |
 | A US Navy engineer pleaded guilty Monday to attempted espionage for Egypt after offering details on the layout of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier the USS Gerald R. Ford while it was under construction. Mostafa Ahmed Awwad, 36, a civilian who worked at the Norfolk, Virginia shipyard where the highly sophisticated ship is being built, offered the information to an undercover FBI agent posing as Egyptian intelligence in September. Awwad, who entered his plea before US District Judge Raymond Jackson, had offered a USB drive with some of the details on the cutting-edge supercarrier's layout. |
| Pope's Missive On Environment, Poverty Could Affect Habits Of Millions | |
 | In April this year, on Earth Day, Pope Francis urged everyone to see the world through the eyes of God, as a garden to cultivate. On Thursday, the Vatican will release the pontiff's hotly anticipated encyclical on the environment and poverty. The rollout of the teaching document has been timed to have maximum impact ahead of the U.N. climate change conference in December aimed at slowing global warming -- and has angered climate change skeptics. Francis has made it clear that he believes climate change is mostly man-made. "It's man," he said earlier this year, "who has slapped nature in the face." Statements like these are generating controversy in some quarters. |
| Visa Glitch Stalls Workers, Straining U.S. Farms | |
| A computer failure has prevented the U.S. from issuing thousands of temporary and immigrant visas since June 9, leaving agricultural workers stranded at the border just as the summer harvest gets under way. "It's a crisis," said Jason Resnick, general counsel for the Western Growers Association, which represents farmers in California, Arizona and Colorado. He said that more than 1,000 workers who expected H-2A agricultural visas are stuck on the Mexican side of the border, where motels are overflowing. The workers are overdue to start harvesting berries and other crops on U.S. farms. Mr. Resnick estimated that California agriculture, already stressed by drought, is losing $500,000 to $1 million for each day of delay. |
| Grant aims to train more South Mississippi math and science teachers | |
 | A new program at William Carey University could help reduce the shortage of math and science teachers in Mississippi, officials said. In the past 30 days, there have been 36 openings for science teachers and 33 math teacher vacancies on the state job board, according to the Mississippi Department of Education. The $296,000 grant from the Robert M. Hearin Foundation to create a Science and Mathematics Alternate Route Teacher -- or SMART -- program will fund 60 scholarships over three years for new math and science teachers. William Carey already has an alternate route program that trains non-education majors in teaching, but this is the first grant aimed specifically at science and math education. |
| Auburn University boasts record number of National Science Foundation fellowship winners | |
 | Each year, thousands of graduate students apply for the National Science Foundation's sought-after Graduate Research Fellowships. Of those thousands, only about 10 percent of students are awarded the prestigious fellowships, which provide three years of support at $30,000 annually and an additional $10,500 cost of education allowance. This year, Auburn University boasts a record number of current students and alumni who received the fellowships -- eight in total, four students and four alumni. The purpose of the fellowship program is to help bolster diversity and vitality in the country's scientific and engineering workforce, and three of Auburn's graduate student recipients say it's an academic game-changer. |
| At UGA, elsewhere, the future of textbooks increasingly looks digital | |
 | Students and teachers in some University of Georgia introductory biology courses experimented with using a free digital textbook instead of expensive paper texts in fall 2013 courses, and liked it. About 86 percent of nearly 700 students surveyed after the courses said their online textbook was as good as or better than a traditional paper textbook. But that experiment was just a fraction of what's coming, according to Houston Davis, executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer of the University System of Georgia. People in the university system and at many of its colleges have developed free online texts and other "open educational resources" for years, but the University System last year launched a more systematic initiative administrators dubbed "Affordable Learning Georgia." |
| U. of Florida student seriously injured when scooter hits pickup | |
 | A University of Florida student was seriously injured Monday morning when her scooter crashed into a pickup truck near campus. About 6 a.m. 22-year-old Gabriella Leona Molden was headed south on Southwest 13th Street on a motorized scooter when a UF pickup made a left turn on a flashing yellow arrow light onto Museum Road. Molden's scooter struck the front right quarter panel of the pickup and she hit the windshield, Gainesville police Officer John O'Ferrell said. Molden, who was not wearing a helmet, was taken to UF Health Shands Hospital and was listed in serious but stable condition as of Monday afternoon. The driver of the pickup, 27-year-old Maria Isabel Zamora Re, also is a UF student, and is a doctoral student in biological and agricultural engineering, UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes said. |
| After 50 years at UK, prof who wrote much of Kentucky, investigated athletics retiring | |
 | Robert Gene Lawson, who is retiring July 1, wrote much of Kentucky law and taught thousands of the people who practice it. Lawson spent 50 years as a professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law, and he was dean twice. Among his students were U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Gov. Steve Beshear, U.S. Reps. Andy Barr and Ed Whitfield, and most of the Kentucky Supreme Court. "It's been really interesting watching my students go on in life," Lawson, 76, said Friday, sitting in a cluttered campus office that showed no sign of getting packed up any time soon. "They've done important things and mostly have done them well." Lawson built an equally large reputation for himself outside the classroom. |
| Man's body found on roof at U. of Kentucky residential complex; foul play not suspected | |
| A body was found Monday afternoon on the roof of a residential housing complex on the University of Kentucky campus. Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn said the cause of the young man's death was not known, but foul play was not suspected. UK police Chief Joe Monroe said the man, whose name was not released, was from Central Kentucky but was not a UK student or affiliated with UK in any way. Monroe said the man had subleased an apartment in the complex from a student. The body was noticed by a passerby. The building houses UK graduate student apartments. |
| Texas A&M and SpaceX team up on engineering competition | |
 | Safely traveling the California coast at 800 miles per hour sounds like an idea ripped from the pages of a science fiction novel, but Texas A&M next year will host the minds who hope to make it a reality. Entrepreneur and billionaire Elon Musk's private space exploration company SpaceX announced Monday it will hold a "Hyperloop Pod" competition in 2016 that will challenge primarily students to show off their designs for a pod that could carry passengers through a tube. The weekend event will be hosted by the Dwight Look College of Engineering and a possible pod race near the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Although the full details of the competition and A&M's involvement won't be formalized until August, officials said they're starting to prepare now. |
| 5 dead, 8 injured in Berkeley balcony collapse, police say | |
 | Authorities were trying to determine the cause of a balcony collapse that killed five people and injured eight early Tuesday at an apartment complex not far from UC Berkeley, police said. Witnesses told local TV stations that a party was in progress in the fourth-floor unit when the collapse occurred. Authorities were still trying to determine how many people were on the balcony when it gave way. Four people were pronounced dead at the scene and a fifth died at a hospital, Officer Jennifer Coats of the Berkeley Police Department told reporters. Some others have life-threatening injuries, she said. Photos on social media show debris on the sidewalk where the balcony fell. The apartment complex, built less than a decade ago, was popular with UC students and visitors. |
SPORTS
| Examining Mississippi State's new financial planning program | |
| Scott Stricklin and his wife weren't getting crushed by debt when they began to divide their money into envelopes a few years ago, but they weren't handling their money as well as they could have been. Stricklin was an associate athletic director at Kentucky when he signed up for a course through the family's church that taught him financial concepts he wished he had learned in college. The course was called Financial Peace, and it was developed by radio host Dave Ramsey. With Mississippi State -- and most of its fellow FBS athletic programs -- about to start giving a few thousand dollars to athletes in addition to tuition, room and board ($5,126 a year in Mississippi State's case), Stricklin wanted to find a way to help Bulldogs athletes manage that money better. |
| Youth and experience creates formidable Mississippi State backcourt | |
| I.J. Ready answered questions with little to no emotions as he sat in a locker at Bridgestone Arena in the beginning of March. The Mississippi State point guard had played one of his best games as a Bulldog: 18 points, three rebounds and two assists against Auburn. Yet, his season ended in the first round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament. MSU finished in the bottom third of the league for the third straight season. Two weeks ago, Ready answered questions differently. The junior smiled when referring to Mississippi State's backcourt this fall. "Malik (Newman), he's an outstanding talent. The No. 1 point guard in his class," Ready said. "We basically bonded as soon as we saw each other. Every day we compete against each other to make each other better and make the team better." |
| Vandy rape trial juror pressed about being rape victim | |
 | Defense attorneys for two former Vanderbilt University football players convicted of rape say a juror heard 104 questions during jury selection that should have prompted him to disclose he was a victim of statutory rape as a teen. But the juror did not say anything. The attorneys say the man's silence shows he tried to get onto the jury that found Brandon Vandenburg, who turned 22 on Monday, and Cory Batey, 21, guilty of raping an unconscious student in a dorm. They say he was biased, and the jury's verdict in January after a 12-day trial should be thrown out. Nashville Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins heard more than four hours of testimony and arguments related to mistrial motions on Monday. |
| U. of Texas announces independent review of basketball academics | |
| The University of Texas has hired an outside investigator for an independent probe into allegations of academic fraud within the men's basketball program. School spokesman Gary Susswein said late Monday that the investigation will be overseen by Gene Marsh, a former chairman of the NCAA infractions committee, who has already begun his work. The review was ordered by new school President Greg Fenves, who assumed the post June 3. Last week, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported on three cases of alleged academic misconduct by men's basketball players. |
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