| Wednesday, June 17, 2015 |
| Bug Camp Returns to Mississippi State | |
 | Bug camp is back again at Mississippi State. The camp is designed to teach students 10 and up, how to use microscopes, electronic scanners, and other equipment. Students also learn about all types of insects "I would tell other people to come because it's a really good camp," said camper Kyla Wright. "You learn stuff you didn't know about bugs and plants in the best way." |
| MDOT goes through hurricane 'contraflow' paces | |
 | Southern District Transportation Commissioner Tom King would just as soon see any emergency protocols dealing with violent weather sit gathering dust with nothing but sunny days and blue skies. But with hurricane season officially underway, King, Mississippi Department of Transportation and Mississippi Highway Patrol personnel gathered Tuesday to oversee a drill that would speed traffic evacuating from the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. About 200 people took part in a "contraflow" drill, stationed at the "war room" at MDOT's District 6 headquarters off U.S. 49 or out along Interstate 59 stretching south to the state line from Laurel. |
| Clinton to allow Sunday alcohol sales | |
 | Starting next month, Clinton residents can buy their favorite beer or light wine on Sunday. Clinton aldermen voted 5-2 Tuesday night to change a 2002 law that allowed alcohol sales Monday through Saturday only. Sunday sales will begin in 30 days and will go from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. Restaurants will also be allowed to serve liquor by the glass, though the state Department of Revenue will have to approve that portion of the new law. The vote came after a public hearing that was short on public comment but long on speeches from aldermen and Mayor Phil Fisher. Alderman-at-large Jehu Brabham, who works at Parkway Baptist Church, voted against changing the law. "All the people in my Grove group (at Ole Miss football games) go to church with me," Brabham said. "We don't put bandannas over our eyes because we might see alcohol. We don't criticize anybody. I try not to be judgmental." |
| Bryant appoints Wilson to Court of Appeals | |
| Gov. Phil Bryant has appointed Jack Wilson of Madison to the Mississippi Court of Appeals to replace Judge Larry Roberts, who is leaving in June. Wilson will hold the court seat for District 3, which includes Clarke, Clay, Jasper, Kemper, Lauderdale, Lowndes, Neshoba, Newton, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Rankin, Scott, Smith and Winston counties as well as portions of Attala, Jones, Leake, Madison and Wayne counties. Roberts has served on the Court of Appeals since 2006 and was previously a circuit judge for 19 years. |
| Pentagon's YouTube war with Russia | |
 | The West's simmering standoff with Russia has prompted the Pentagon to reach for a new weapon: YouTube. Defense officials have concluded it's no longer enough to lodge formal complaints when Russian bombers probe U.S. air defenses off Alaska, fighters barrel-roll around American reconnaissance aircraft over Eastern Europe, or attack jets buzz American warships at sea -- especially since Russia's state-funded media commonly claims the moves are justified. So in recent weeks the U.S. military, which tends to be judicious about releasing video of military operations in the air or at sea, has taken to social media in an effort to shape international public opinion. |
| New NASA data show how the world is running out of water | |
 | Drought-stricken California is not the only place draining underground aquifers in the hunt for fresh water. It's happening across the world, according to two new studies by U.S. researchers released Tuesday. Twenty-one of the world's 37 largest aquifers have passed their sustainability tipping points, meaning more water is being removed than replaced from these vital underground reservoirs. Also running a negative balance was the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains Aquifer, which stretches across the Gulf Coast and Florida. "The situation is quite critical," said Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of California Irvine-led studies' principal investigator. And it's difficult to see it getting better soon. |
| Birth rate among U.S. women rises for first time in seven years | |
 | Here's another sign that the economy is rebounding: More people are having babies. The rate of births among women ages 15 to 44 ticked up 1% from 2013 to 2014. That's the first increase since 2007, the beginning of the recession, according to a study released Wednesday by the National Center for Health Statistics. The 3.98 million total births in 2014 was most since 2010. Carl Haub, a senior demographer for the Population Reference Bureau, said he wasn't surprised by the federal findings. Though the increase in fertility rate is small, he said, it could be indicative of a shifting trend. Haub said this demographic change aligns with an improving economy. |
| Southern Baptists pass resolution opposing gay marriage | |
 | The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution Tuesday opposing gay marriage, reaffirming a long-standing position of the denomination. "The Southern Baptist Convention calls on Southern Baptists and all Christians of like-mindedness to stand firm on the Bible's witness on the private purpose of marriage, which is to unite man and woman as one flesh; and the public purpose of marriage, which is to secure the basis for the flourishing of human civilization," the resolution said. The Southern Baptist Convention, with membership of about 16 million, is the largest Protestant denomination in the country. |
| U. of Mississippi to Add New Doctorate in Education Leadership | |
| The University of Mississippi is accepting applications for a new doctoral program specially designed for senior-level K-12 administrators. In August, the UM School of Education launches a doctor of education degree in K-12 leadership in a hybrid format, combining online coursework and traditional seminars on weekends to support the needs of working principals, superintendents and district-level administrators. "You can think of the hybrid Ed.D. as a terminal degree with a built-in consulting group," said Doug Davis, associate professor of educational leadership and director of the program. |
| East Mississippi Community College barber grad lined up for success | |
 | The first time Chris Clark cut someone's hair other than his own, it did not go well. "It was my first cousin when we were kids," he said. "I kinda cut a plug out of his hair. He reminds me of it to this day." Clark, 22, of Starkville, can laugh with his cousin now because he doesn't make many mistakes these days. And he estimates he has more than 40 regular customers at Kustom Kutz and Stylz in Starkville who will vouch for him. Clark could have gone the route of many neighborhood barbers -- cutting hair from home with no credentials. But as East Mississippi Community College cosmetology instructor Coretta Johnson put it, barbers who want to make a career out of the trade owe it to themselves to get certified and licensed. |
| Northeast Mississippi Community College instructor set for Library of Congress workshop | |
 | The Internet has made research readily available for students with a couple of keystrokes. That convenience is not always beneficial. A Northeast Mississippi Community College history instructor will attend a national workshop next week that will help her incorporate more primary source documents into the classroom. Morgan Ricks will begin her first year teaching U.S. history and world civilization at Northeast this fall. She has taught world history at Tupelo High for the previous four years. She was chosen from a pool of more than 300 applicants to participate next week in the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Summer Teacher Institute in Washington, D.C. |
| Criminal charges against former U. of Alabama student Zachary Burrell dropped | |
 | Criminal charges against a former University of Alabama student who sent what law enforcement described as "erratic" emails to university officials in 2012 have been dismissed. Zachary Burrell, 30, was charged with stalking, two counts of making terrorist threats and five counts of harassing communications after sending emails to UA President Judy Bonner, Dean of Students Tim Hebson, an associate director for academic affairs, an assistant director for judicial affairs and an astronomy professor. The emails were sent after Burrell was dismissed from the school "for various behavioral issues." Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court Judge Chuck Malone dismissed the charges on Friday and ordered Burrell to participate in a diversionary program. |
| House spending bill would block higher ed rules and ratings, hold spending flat | |
 | Take your higher education regulations and shove them, Obama administration. Republicans in the House of Representatives didn't use exactly those words in the 2016 spending bill for the Department of Education they released Tuesday, but the message they delivered couldn't have been much clearer. The bill drafted by Republican leaders of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees spending for education, health and labor programs would bar the Education Department from using any of its appropriated funds to carry out existing regulations related to "gainful employment" for graduates of vocational programs, state authorization, teacher preparation, and the credit hour, and to implement President Obama's envisioned system to rate colleges and universities. |
| Rachel Dolezal Case Leaves a Campus Bewildered and Some Scholars Disgusted | |
 | As of last Friday, Rachel A. Dolezal was no longer an employee of Eastern Washington University. But the former adjunct instructor of Africana education, who has become the focus of a fierce debate about race and identity, may have a higher profile on campus than ever before. Her case has captivated a national audience and stoked conversations among professors in her field, especially at Eastern Washington. Faculty members there who know her are shocked and bewildered, said Scott Finnie, director of the university's Africana-education program. |
| Teacher-Training Initiative Aims to Reinvigorate Profession | |
 | A group of academics plans to launch a teacher-training program aimed at bolstering the nation's teaching corps at a time of pressure to improve educators' performance and falling enrollment in teacher-preparation programs. The Woodrow Wilson Academy for Teaching and Learning, a joint effort of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will provide master's degrees in teaching and school leadership, starting in June 2017, with math and science programs. Students will advance at their own pace with open-source curriculum and research that will then be shared freely with teacher-preparation schools around the country. |
| Deaths of Irish Students in Berkeley Balcony Collapse Cast Pall on Program | |
 | They come by the thousands --- Irish students on work visas, many flocking to the West Coast to work in summer jobs by day and to enjoy the often raucous life in a college town at night. It was, for many, a rite of passage, one last summer to enjoy travel abroad before beginning a career. But the work-visa program that allowed for the exchanges has in recent years become not just a source of aspiration, but also a source of embarrassment for Ireland, marked by a series of high-profile episodes involving drunken partying and the wrecking of apartments in places like San Francisco and Santa Barbara. Early Tuesday, 13 people, most of them young Irish students here on the visa program, were crowded onto a fourth-floor balcony off Unit 405 for what neighbors described as a loud party when the balcony collapsed, sending people tumbling onto the street below. |
| BRIAN PERRY (OPINION): White like me | |
 | Jackson-based consultant and columnist Brian Perry writes: "Last week I was checking my Twitter feed when I saw something odd: the name 'Rachel Dolezal' was a hashtag. Rachel and I were contemporaries at Belhaven University. By now you likely have heard her story: the Washington State NAACP black leader who was outed as white by her own white parents. The NAACP stood behind her noting that race is not a qualifying or disqualifying characteristic for leadership in the organization. She has since resigned. I didn't know Dolezal well at Belhaven. She was an exceptional artist who was committed to racial reconciliation and social justice. I recall her being a member of the Black Student Union, but I don't recall any deception about her motives or her identity. ...I don't know about Rachel Dolezal's life, what she has done wrong, what she has done right, what -- if anything -- she regrets or would do differently. But she has got a lot of people talking about race. Intentional on her part or not, that is a good first step." |
| CHARLIE MITCHELL (OPINION): White House rolls out the hard sell for Obamacare | |
| Longtime Mississippi journalist Charlie Mitchell writes: "The White House Council of Economic Advisers says Mississippi is leaving $1.38 billion cash money on the table. How so? By continued resistance to Obamacare. A couple of points at the outset. First, let's divorce ourselves, at least for a minute, from thinking about doctors as humanitarians. ...Second point: How reliable is the White House number? ...Now that we've established (1) health services are big business and (2) that 'partisan math' is alive and well, let's press on. The starting place for any conversation about universal health care should be the will of the American people." |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State track and field receives 21 All-American honors | |
| Mississippi State continued to pile up the accolades even after the end of the track and field season. MSU had 16 athletes receive U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Associations All-American honors in 21 categories, the association announced Monday. Rhianwedd Price headlined MSU's All-Americans. Price earned first-team All-American status after winning a national championship in the 1500m run last weekend at the NCAA Track and Field Championships. |
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