| Friday, June 26, 2015 |
| Farmers and Agriculture Experts Catch up on Latest Science and Trends | |
 | Area farmers had a chance to catch up on some of the latest trends today in Brooksville. Experts and producers met at Mississippi State University's Black Belt Experiment Station for a Field Day and Tour. Of particular interest as we hit the driest part of summer were irrigation management and water storage systems. The field day included a tour of a local farm in Noxubee County and the Bogue Chitto Cotton Gin. |
| New school district, Oktibbeha County EMA to share facility | |
 | The short-term future of Oktibbeha County School District's administrative home was decided Wednesday as supervisors voted 3-2 to temporarily split the Main Street facility between the upcoming Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District and Oktibbeha County Emergency Management Agency. The move solves two problems immediately: What to do with the facility once the county school system merges with Starkville School District and how to solve overcrowding issues at OCEMA's current home inside the Oktibbeha County Jail. SOCSD is expected to take over control of its portion July 1, but reconfiguring the building's top floor for E-911 operations could take at least six months, incoming OCEMA Director Shank Phelps said. |
| Area unemployment rate jumps as summer arrives | |
| One glance at the latest unemployment numbers tells us one thing: School is out for summer. The Mississippi Department of Employment Security released its labor statistics Wednesday for the month of May, which showed a significant spike in unemployment compared to a month ago. Unemployment increased by 1.4 percent in Lowndes County, 1.5 percent in Oktibbeha County, 1.8 percent in Clay County and 2.2 percent in Noxubee County. All totaled, there were 1,080 more unemployed people in the four counties than a month ago. Not to worry, says Mary Willoughby of the MDES. "We see this every year," she said. "The main thing the increase reflects is the end of the school year, mainly for colleges and universities. When those students are out of school and are looking for work, but haven't found jobs they are counted in the unemployment figures." |
| B.B. King's business manager made executor of estate | |
 | B.B. King's longtime business manager was named sole executor of his estate Thursday, despite objections from a lawyer for four of the late blues icon's daughters. Clark County District Judge Gloria Sturman first refused to let prominent national attorneys Benjamin Crump and Jose Baez contest King's will on behalf of daughters Karen Williams, Patty King, Rita Washington and Barbara Winfree. The will, filed in January 2007, puts LaVerne Toney alone in charge of administering King's assets, his property and his trust. The trust documents have not been filed publicly. The judge then rejected efforts by Las Vegas attorney Larissa Drohobyczer to cast Toney as having misused her power of attorney while B.B. King was alive. The family members have provided no evidence that a competing will exists, a lawyer for the estate said. |
| Stennis rocket test goes off without a hitch | |
 | The John C. Stennis Space Center is helping to move NASA closer to a new era of deep space exploration. Thursday, engineers fired up a Space Launch System RS-25 rocket engine for its fourth test of the year. The nearly 11-minute test firing was the longest successful test run for the rocket yet. Stennis officials said the RS-25 rocket is designed to carry humans deeper into space than ever before. The core stage of the Space Launch System rocket will be powered by four RS-25 engines. The main purpose of the test series is to test the rocket's performance under a variety of variables and conditions. The series is also testing a new "brain" for the engine. |
| Supreme Court rules gay couples nationwide have a right to marry | |
 | The Supreme Court on Friday delivered an historic victory for gay rights, ruling 5-4 that the Constitution requires that same-sex couples be allowed to marry no matter where they live and that states may no longer reserve the right only for heterosexual couples. The court's action marks the culmination of an unprecedented upheaval in public opinion and the nation's jurisprudence. Advocates called it the most pressing civil rights issue of modern times, while critics said the courts had sent the country into uncharted territory by changing the traditional definition of marriage. |
| Governor: No special session on Mississippi flag design | |
| Republican Gov. Phil Bryant said Thursday that he will not call Mississippi lawmakers back to the Capitol for an election-year special session to consider removing a Confederate battle emblem from the state flag. "As has been my longstanding practice, I will not call a special legislative session for something other than a natural disaster or a major economic development project," the governor said. Mississippi has the only state flag in the nation that still includes the Confederate symbol -- a blue X with 13 stars, over a red field. The emblem has divided Mississippi's elected leaders. As a current alternative to the state flag, some businesses in Mississippi have already started to fly a banner that the state used briefly in 1861. Commonly called the magnolia flag, its center has a magnolia tree. |
| Bryant rejects call for special session about state flag | |
 | Gov. Phil Bryant has rejected a request from the head of the Legislative Black Caucus to call a special session of the Legislature "to bring true dialogue and full resolution regarding the removal of the confederate emblem from the Mississippi state flag." Sen. Kenny Wayne Jones, D-Canton, chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, made that request via letter to the Republican governor Thursday. Thursday afternoon, Bryant responded, "I thank Sen. Jones for his letter. As has been my long-standing practice, I will not call a special legislative session for something other than a natural disaster or a major economic development project." Without a special session called by the governor, the earliest the issue could be taken up would be the 2016 session, starting in January. |
| Lawmakers pontificate, prevaricate in flag poll | |
 | Republican state House Speaker Philip Gunn has thrown the gauntlet: Remove the divisive rebel battle emblem from the Mississippi flag, as other states across Dixie have done. The Clarion-Ledger since Tuesday has been attempting to poll all 173 state lawmakers (one seat is vacant from a death) on whether they support legislative action to remove the Confederate symbol from the state flag. So far, 67 have responded, with 36 calling for a flag change, 16 saying no, six saying they are undecided and nine refusing to give a clear answer. The responses have been mostly breaking along party lines -- Democrats calling for change, Republicans saying voters already spoke in a 2001 flag referendum -- with a few exceptions. Eight Republicans want a change, while five Democrats are either undecided or refused to give a clear answer. |
| Business leaders say Mississippi flag will stunt economic growth | |
 | Governor Phil Bryant announced Thursday he will not call a special session to address the state flag controversy. Some in the business community think Mississippi's pocketbook will suffer for keeping the flag flying. "It doesn't show us as progressive," said telecommunications pioneer and former U.S. Ambassador to Portugal John Palmer. "People want to go where it's progressive. It shows us as backward." Palmer is worried the flag is stunting the state's business growth. He recalled business partners from out of state arriving at a hotel with this flying out front. Palmer is concerned the high tech industry, in particular, won't have a reason to set up shop in Mississippi if things don't change. "If that flag stays on, we're going to take a huge step backwards," Palmer added. |
| Palazzo: Flag issue should be decided by Mississippians, not outsiders | |
 | U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo of Gulfport issued a statement Thursday on the continuing controversy over the Mississippi state flag. "The flag that flies over the State of Mississippi is an issue to be decided by the people of Mississippi," Palazzo said. "It is not an issue for Congress. Our state is more than capable of handling this issue with dignity and respect, and the people of Mississippi, not outsiders, should continue to be able to choose for themselves the state flag of Mississippi." Mississippi's two U.S. Senators, Roger Wicker and Thad Cochran, have already released statements in support of changing the state flag to remove the Confederate flag emblem in the upper left corner. |
| Hattiesburg mayor DuPree orders state flag down from city sites | |
 | The Mississippi state flag was no longer flying at the City of Hattiesburg's fire stations Thursday. Nor at the city's police headquarters. Nor at its ball fields at Tatum Park. Nor at its Parks and Recreation Department. In what he said was a tribute to nine people, all black, shot and slain during a church Bible study on June 17 in Charleston, South Carolina, Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree said he had ordered that the state flag be removed from city-owned properties. City Attorney Charles Lawrence said he was not aware of any state statute or city ordinance that required a municipality to fly the state flag or that would prevent its removal. |
| In wake of Charleston, Obama asked to launch attack on domestic extremists | |
 | The horrific mass shooting in Charleston, S.C., is raising questions about whether President Barack Obama is prepared to launch the kind of effort against extremist groups that the government launched against the Ku Klux Klan in an earlier era. Tracking homegrown extremist groups was an emphasis after the 1993 Waco siege and the Oklahoma City bombing two years later. But after Sept. 11, 2001, the FBI has shifted its focus to international terrorism. "The allocation of resources across different forms of terrorism has been skewed towards jihadi terrorism," said Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks right-wing extremist groups. "The government has allowed the threat of other forms of terrorism to take a back seat." The Department of Homeland Security issued a report in 2009 warning of a growing threat from right-wing extremism. But the report drew criticism from conservatives and veterans groups. |
| Clinkscales steps down as Columbus judge, focuses on state House campaign | |
| Columbus Municipal Judge Nicole Clinkscales has resigned her position from the bench to run for a position in the state Legislature. Clinkscales confirmed the move to The Dispatch in an email this morning. "I have committed myself to being available as a write-in candidate for the District 41 seat," Clinkscales said. "After further examination and insight from the appropriate legal authorities, it was determined that in order to allow myself to serve in this capacity I would have to resign my position as a member of the judiciary. I have done so." Clinkscales had previously supported longtime District 41 representative Esther Harrison, who died earlier this month. Now, she will face Ward 5 city councilman Kabir Karriem, who is officially on the ballot, and Tiffany Sturdivant, a nurse and local political activist also running as a write-in candidate. |
| Supreme Court Upholds Obama's Health-Law Subsidies | |
 | The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a pillar of the Affordable Care Act, rescuing for the second time the most ambitious social program in nearly 50 years and ensuring that the law's ultimate fate will be in the hands of the political process. The 6-3 ruling, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, upheld a signature achievement of President Barack Obama's tenure. In buttressing the health law's legal foundation it raised the odds that it may become as entrenched as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The case turned on whether the law's wording allowed for federal subsidies to help lower-income Americans nationwide buy insurance. A contrary ruling could have stripped coverage from millions by making their plans too costly. And it would have thrown the insurance and medical industries into turmoil as the 2016 presidential race heats up. |
| Obamacare ruling again shows Chief Justice John Roberts' independent streak | |
 | Since becoming chief justice 10 years ago, John G. Roberts Jr. has been determined to show that the court he leads is made up of impartial jurists, not politicians in robes. In the phrase he used at his confirmation hearings, each justice is "like an umpire" at a baseball game -- not favoring one team over the other. On Thursday, Roberts showed again his willingness to brush aside partisan politics and forge a middle ground on some of nation's most divisive issues, writing a 6-3 decision that upheld the broad reach of President Obama's healthcare law. It was the second time in three years that Roberts had led the Supreme Court to uphold the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The decision surprised and disappointed some of the conservatives who had once hailed his appointment. |
| Bryant, Reeves blast health care ruling | |
| Both Gov. Phil Bryant and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves blasted Thursday's 6-3 ruling by the United States Supreme Court that ensures as many as 100,000 Mississippians can continue to receive federal subsidies to help with the cost of their health insurance. The Republican Bryant, who blocked the effort of Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney to establish a Mississippi-run exchange, blasted the Supreme Court ruling allowing the subsidies to continue for citizens who were forced to use the federal exchange. On Thursday, Reeves said, "The Supreme Court has gone out of its way twice now to justify upholding a flawed policy that is politically unpopular because of its costs to the American people and our economy. ... I am committed to do everything I can to elect a conservative president that will repeal and replace Obamacare with a sensible, workable health care plan." |
| Republicans plot strategy to repeal Obamacare | |
 | Republicans in Congress are moving toward a plan to use a special budgetary process to repeal ObamaCare, after the Supreme Court ruled for a second time to uphold the controversial law. Since last year's elections, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has proposed using budget reconciliation to repeal large chunks of the law. The procedure would allow Republicans to pass a repeal package through the upper chamber with a simple majority vote, bypassing the 60-vote threshold usually required for major bills. The gambit is less relevant in the House, where the GOP holds a sizable majority and the minority party has fewer rights. |
| Terrorist Attack in France Leaves One Decapitated at Factory | |
 | An attacker stormed an American-owned industrial chemical plant near Lyon, France, on Friday, decapitated one person and tried unsuccessfully to blow up the factory, in what the French authorities said was a terrorist attack. President François Hollande said the attacker had been arrested and identified. The interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said the suspect had been known to the intelligence services and had been under surveillance in 2006 as someone believed to have been radicalized. The attacker had entered the plant in a vehicle that may have been driven by an accomplice, Mr. Hollande said, and tried to use gas canisters to set off a bigger explosion. He did not say whether the accomplice had also been detained. "The attack was of a terrorist nature since a body was discovered, decapitated and with inscriptions," Mr. Hollande said. The assault was carried out at a plant in St.-Quentin-Fallavier, southeast of Lyon, operated by Air Products. |
| Auburn University recognized for its $5.1 billion impact on the state economy last year | |
 | Auburn University was recently recognized by one of the nation's top higher education associations for its leadership in fostering economic growth, prosperity and innovation. The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities named Auburn an Innovation and Economic Prosperity University, a designation that recognizes the university's strong commitment to economic engagement and its work with public and private sector partners in Alabama and the region. Auburn began the application process for the Innovation and Economic Prosperity University designation in September and engaged in an extensive self-study which included, among other things, surveys and focus groups with stakeholders from around the state of Alabama. |
| LSU professor to chair national psychiatry board | |
 | Ann Tilton, professor of neurology and pediatrics and section chairwoman of child neurology at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, has been elected chairwoman of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She will serve a one-year term. The board is a nonprofit corporation that provides procedures for certification in psychiatry and neurology. Board certification for physicians is a voluntary process. Unlike a license to practice medicine, which sets minimum competency requirements to diagnose and treat patients, certification demonstrates a physician's expertise in a particular specialty. As a member of the LSU Health New Orleans faculty, Tilton also serves as director of the Rehabilitation Center at Children's Hospital of New Orleans and director of the Comprehensive Spasticity Program. |
| Chevron donates $5M for programs to help attract engineers to Texas A&M | |
 | Texas A&M University's goal of attracting 25,000 students to the Dwight Look College of Engineering in the next 10 years received a $5 million boost from a longtime corporate partner. School officials traversed the state Thursday to announce the formation of the Texas A&M-Chevron Engineering Academies at four Texas community colleges. Engineering Dean Kathy Banks said the program, which will co-enroll students at Houston Community College in Houston, Texas Southmost College in Brownsville, Alamo Colleges in San Antonio and El Centro College in Dallas into A&M engineering classes, will help meet the state's growing demand for engineers. She expects the academies to be a boon for the college's 25 by 25 initiative by enrolling students who could not make it to College Station because of their location in the state or their financial situation. |
| Texas A&M University System awarded for outstanding security by US DoD agency | |
| The Texas A&M University System announced Thursday that it has been awarded the James S. Cogswell Award for Outstanding Industrial Security by a U.S. Department of Defense agency. Jon Mogford, vice chancellor for research, and Kevin Gamache, facility security officer, received the award on behalf of the system in Las Vegas on Wednesday night during the annual National Classification Management Society training seminar. Out of the 13,000 contractors that are subject to the annual inspection in the National Industrial Security Program, the A&M System was one of 41 honored with a Cogswell Award this year -- its first in the award's 49-year history. The Cogswell Award is given by the Defense Security Service, which supports national security by providing oversight and education on behalf of the Department of Defense and other U.S. agencies. |
| U. of Missouri System chooses new health care administrator | |
 | The University of Missouri System has chosen United Healthcare as its new medical plan administrator, effective Jan. 1. United Healthcare will replace Coventry/Aetna Health Care for all University of Missouri System employees except retirees. According to a notice sent to around 19,000 employees in the system, the change will not impact coverage, benefits, deductibles co-payments or co-insurance. "There will be minimal disruption for employees because it will not affect benefits, deductibles, co-payments or co-insurance," said John Fougere, chief communications officer for the UM System. |
| Faculty members criticize proposed changes to gen ed accreditation standards for engineers | |
 | What have long set U.S.-trained engineers apart from their global peers -- at least in the minds of lots of employers -- are their softer skills. While universities in many other countries focus almost entirely on technical mastery, American engineering programs also stress the development of additional competencies, such as critical thinking, writing and the ability to work across disciplines and in diverse settings. And that hasn't been an accident. For years, the major undergraduate and master's-level engineering program accreditor, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, or ABET, has made these outcomes part of its standards. So proposed changes designed to streamline those standards are worrying some faculty members, who say they'll inevitably narrow American engineers' skills set -- and therefore take away their competitive edge. |
| What if students got free college tuition? Study examines Kalamazoo Promise | |
 | For 10 years, Kalamazoo, Mich., has been pioneering a remarkable experiment in public education: High school graduates get free or significantly reduced tuition to college. On Thursday, the city got its first major look at what benefits that brings. A new study suggests that the Kalamazoo Promise is boosting college enrollment and college success, with about one-third more students earning a post-secondary credential or degree within six years, many of them bachelor's degrees. The issue of college attendance and success rates is a priority not only for the Obama administration but also for struggling communities like Kalamazoo, which worry that they might be left behind as jobs of the future require higher levels of education. |
SPORTS
| Mel Kiper ranks Mississippi State's Dak Prescott fifth among senior QBs | |
| Dak Prescott returned to Mississippi State in part to improve his skills for the next level. The fifth-year senior is heralded as one of the top players in all of college football. ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. doesn't project the MSU quarterback as one of the top players in the 2016 NFL Draft. The draft prognosticator projects Prescott as the fifth best senior quarterback in the country. Kiper describes Prescott as, "A bruising runner who was quietly quite efficient as a passer last season, Prescott's challenge is to show enough growth as a passer to make the Tim Tebow comparisons go away. Because while Tebow was a first-round pick, the comparison won't do much for Prescott's stock." |
| Former Bulldog Jamont Gordon plans Nashville townhome project | |
 | Former Nashville high school basketball standout Jamont Gordon is behind plans for a $2.65 million six-townhome development that's the latest sign of growth in North Nashville's Historic Buena Vista area. The project dubbed Buenavela is planned for one of five properties Gordon's JDG Investments LLC is buying for $1.77 million from an entity that includes Nashville real estate investor Norma Crow. Gordon, who played abroad in the Turkish Basketball League for the past three years, started investing in Nashville rental properties last year. "It's great that he's come back to invest in his hometown," Crow said about the former Glencliff High School star who played at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia and at Mississippi State University before playing professionally for several teams across Europe. |
| Spurrier calls for removal of flag | |
| South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier called for the removal of the Confederate flag that flies on the State House grounds and other coaches and officials at the school soon followed suit. Debate about the flag, long a source of a controversy, intensified after nine parishioners at an African-American church in Charleston were killed last week. "The South Carolina football team, players and coaches strongly support Governor Haley's decision to remove the flag from the capitol," Spurrier said Tuesday on Twitter. Spurrier had first expressed his belief that the flag should be removed back in 2007. "It would make us a more progressive, better state, I think, if the flag was removed," Spurrier told The (Columbia) State newspaper in 2007. |
| Tennessee set to make move to a lone 'Lady Vols' team | |
| Tennessee's decision to eliminate the Lady Volunteers nickname in all sports but basketball is the latest move in a nationwide trend of schools moving away from separate team monikers for men and women. The difference this time is the level of protests. Tennessee announced in November that all women's teams -- other than its storied basketball squad -- would be nicknamed the Volunteers and would adopt the "Power T" logo used by the men's teams starting in 2015-16. Tennessee officials said it is an attempt at branding consistency. Opponents have been vocal. Tennessee's choice isn't unusual. An Associated Press survey of all 65 schools from the five major conferences found that at least 28 had separate nicknames for men's and women's teams at some point in their histories. Only seven continue that practice, and in most cases they only have separate nicknames for certain women's teams. |
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