| Thursday, July 23, 2015 |
| Energy saving project a success at Mississippi State | |
 | An energy saving project at Mississippi State University is already benefiting the college greatly. In January, the college underwent a two-phase, multi-million dollar effort to replace T12 fluorescent lighting with more efficient light-emitting diode (LED) technology in 22 campus buildings. Just six months after completing the project, MSU is realizing the savings. J.D. Hardy, associate director of engineering services, says the switch improved lighting quality and reduced overall energy consumption. It's also expected to last more than 15 years. |
| Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves warns against ballot initiative on education | |
 | Mississippi Lt. Governor Tate Reeves discouraged voters from supporting Educational Initiative 42 at the weekly meeting of the Columbus Rotary Club at Lion Hills at noon on Tuesday. "When you look at what ultimately will occur if this ballot issue passes and becomes law," he said, "I think you should be very concerned about the ultimate implications of it passing." Reeves claimed that if Initiative 42 becomes part of the state's constitution, the decision-making for both educational funding and educational policy would be in the hands of the judicial branch of government, rather than the legislative branch. Specifically, he claimed, the decisions would be made by one judge in Hinds County. |
| School building-use squabble continues | |
| Oktibbeha County supervisors thought they had reached a mutually beneficial arrangement by splitting the usage of its Main Street education building between emergency management and the new Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District until they read newspaper quotes from Superintendent Lewis Holloway saying he would fight for additional space. The fate of the building -- the board previously cleared Oktibbeha County Emergency Management Agency to move in and occupy the top floor -- has not changed, but supervisors Tuesday said they want to hear from Holloway directly about the school district's needs so they can determine what exactly the county is on the hook to provide. |
| Mississippi plans for BP settlement money, coming from many 'pots' | |
 | Mississippi can expect $1.5 billion from settlement of BP claims, but state Department of Environmental Quality Director Gary Rikard said the money is coming over time and will be divvied up out of separate "pots" with various agencies and rules governing each. Rikard, in a meeting Wednesday with the Sun Herald, said the 2010 BP oil catastrophe in the Gulf has been settled in principle, but the settlement will not be signed for at least six months, after a public notice process is completed. Local governments in the Gulf states also must sign off to receive an additional total of $1 billion in settlement money. He promised to make it easy for people to find out where the money goes. |
| Kemper wants credits as first refund option | |
 | Mississippi Power Co. is telling regulators that the company wants bill credits to be the default option when refunding the $350 million the company collected from customers for its Kemper County power plant. The unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co., in a Tuesday filing with the Mississippi Public Service Commission, said it only wants to issue checks when customers ask, although it acknowledged the three-member commission could order the company to issue checks to all customers who are due a refund. "A default option is necessary to prevent a requirement that all 188,000 of MPC's customers contact the company prior to receiving a refund in any form," the company wrote in the filing. |
| A political fight over watermelons in House District 66 primary race | |
 | It may be known as a political fight over watermelons. Challenger Jarvis Dortch, who is black, is criticizing opponent state Rep. Brad Oberhousen for passing out watermelons to black voters in rural Hinds County in the District 66 legislative Democratic primary race. "Over the last week there has been an uproar on social media and I have spoken with voters who felt insulted by my opponent's, Brad Oberhousen, campaign tactics," Dortch said in a release. "Voters reported that Oberhousen, accompanied with a paid political hand, drove from house to house in rural Hinds County passing out watermelons to black voters." Oberhousen countered that for years, even before he was elected to the state Legislature, that he and family members provided fresh produce from their personal farms and gardens to both black and white members of the community. |
| Sons of Confederate Veterans asks DOJ to step in on Hervey death investigation | |
| The Sons of Confederate Veterans are asking the Department of Justice to look into the car accident that led to the death of Anthony Hervey, an outspoken African-American defender of the Confederate flag on Sunday night. Hervey, 49, author of "Why I Wave the Confederate Flag: Written by a Black Man," was killed when the Ford Explorer he was driving outside of Oxford ran off the road. Arlene Barnum told authorities that she and Hervey were returning from a Confederate Flag rally in Alabama when a silver car with several black males chased their Explorer and forced it off the road, causing it to flip several times. In a Wednesday release, SCV Commander in Chief Kelly Barrow called on Attorney General Loretta Lynch to direct the DOJ's Civil Rights Division to investigate the suspicious accident. |
| Senate Votes to Take up Highway Funding Bill | |
 | The Senate on Wednesday narrowly agreed to take up a highway-funding bill, clearing the first hurdle in what is expected to be a contentious debate over the next week. In a 62-36 vote, the Senate came up with enough votes to meet a 60-vote threshold to prevent a filibuster. The outcome was a relief for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), who a day earlier ran into a roadblock when he failed to win an initial attempt at clearing the procedural hurdle. Congress needs to extend the program that funds roads, bridges and mass transit by an expiration date of July 31. Lawmakers also need to replenish the Highway Trust Fund, whose income is rapidly dwindling because its primary source of funding is an 18.4-cent a gallon federal gas tax that isn't enough to meet spending needs. |
| Exclusive: Trump threatens third-party run | |
 | Donald Trump says the chances that he will launch a third-party White House run will "absolutely" increase if the Republican National Committee is unfair to him during the 2016 primary season. "The RNC has not been supportive. They were always supportive when I was a contributor. I was their fair-haired boy," the business mogul told The Hill in a 40-minute interview from his Manhattan office at Trump Tower on Wednesday. "The RNC has been, I think, very foolish." Pressed on whether he would run as a third-party candidate if he fails to clinch the GOP nomination, Trump said that "so many people want me to, if I don't win." "I'll have to see how I'm being treated by the Republicans," Trump said. "Absolutely, if they're not fair, that would be a factor." |
| FBI Director Sees Increasing Terrorist Interest in Cyberattacks Against U.S. | |
| Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said Wednesday that terrorist groups had begun discussing ways to hit Americans with a cyberattack, though he said plotting appeared to be in early stages. "We are picking up signs of increasing interest," he said in evening remarks at the Aspen Security Forum. "It's a small but potentially growing problem." Mr. Comey didn't divulge what sort of cyberattack terrorist groups could be trying to design. Mr. Comey's comments came as part of a wide-ranging discussion at the Aspen conference, a yearly gathering of government and industry officials and academics. He said a cyberattack against Americans had become a popular strategy for some terrorist groups that had found it difficult to infiltrate or recruit followers in the U.S. |
| Rice revolution? New rice could help feed world, fight climate change | |
 | Researchers have developed a new strain of rice with the potential to feed a burgeoning global population while reducing the greenhouse-gas emissions rice paddies generate. They have coaxed the rice into growing more and larger grains. At the same time, the genetic change cut methane emissions from paddies growing the rice by more than 90 percent compared with paddies growing unaltered plants. "The new rice sounds like a win-win for good yields and reduced climate impact," writes Paul West, lead scientist for the Global Landscapes Initiative at the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment, in an e-mail. But the nature of the new rice could trigger push-back from groups opposed to genetically modified organisms, suggests Dr. West, who did not take part in the study. |
| Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant builds 500,000th Passat | |
| Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant has completed its 500,000th Passat. Volkswagen Chattanooga, which began production in April 2011, is currently undertaking a $900 million expansion to add a second model to the Chattanooga line. The expansion is expected to add 2,000 jobs. |
| Stocks reflects on first month as interim chancellor at UM | |
 | After only a month as acting interim chancellor at the University of Mississippi, Morris Stocks has had the opportunity to experience many of the aspects of his new position. "What's great about this job is, it's busy and your days are filled, but it's always interacting with people who are positive about the university and are looking for ways to help," Stocks said. "I really enjoy that." Stocks said, since taking the position, he has been busy but productive. For the duration his time as chancellor, Stocks named Noel Wilkin, current associate provost, as his interim provost. |
| New Directors Named at Southern Miss Institute for Disability Studies | |
 | The Institute for Disability Studies (IDS) at the University of Southern Mississippi has fortified its leadership team with the naming of two new directorships. Dr. Rebekah Young has been named associate director, while Dr. Jerry R. Alliston has been named community education director. "I am immensely excited to add these talented and motivated professionals to our management team," said Dr. Beth Bryant-Claxton, IDS executive director. IDS has been located at Southern Miss for almost 40 years and has satellite offices on the Southern Miss Gulf Park campus in Long Beach and in Jackson. IDS provides pre-service training, community services and technical assistance programs for individuals with disabilities of all ages and their families. |
| New East Mississippi Community College President Has Big Plans For The Future | |
 | Dr. Thomas Huebner has big shoes to fill. He succeeds Dr. Rick Young, who led East Mississippi Community College for 11 years. Even though Dr. Huebner took on the role as president of EMCC just three weeks ago, he has all hands on deck. He says coming to EMCC is a lot like coming home and he's excited to be apart of a growing and thriving community college. Dr. Huebner has family ties in the Magnolia State and he describes taking his new position at EMCC as a "dream job." |
| Former Pearl River Community College student now head of Forrest County campus | |
| A former student at Pearl River Community College who served for the last two years as assistant Vice President for Forrest County operations is now the head of that campus in Hattiesburg. Jana Causey took over July 1. She replaced Cecil Burt, who retired June 30 after 43 years at PRCC. Causey, a Petal native and 1999 graduate of the college, had worked at PRCC's Forrest County Center for 10 years as a biology instructor and science coordinator before taking on the job as assistant vice president. |
| Tuition to rise at Alabama's two-year colleges | |
 | The board of trustees for Alabama's two-year college system approved a tuition increase for the fall during its meeting Wednesday. Base tuition rates will increase by $2 to $115 per credit hour in the fall as part of an automatic annual increase for the Alabama Community College System's community and technical campuses, system Chancellor Mark Heinrich said. The tuition rate for nonresident students would be $230 per credit hour. The board also approved salary schedules for the upcoming fiscal year. There will be no major changes in the pay rates for the system's employees, Heinrich said. |
| USDA official in Athens to promote federal food assistance at farmers markets | |
 | Athens and the University of Georgia showed off for a high-ranking federal agricultural official Wednesday, and at least some of what he saw left an impression. Kevin Concannon, U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, spent the day in Athens, visiting spots such as the University of Georgia's UGArden, the West Broad Street Farmers Market, the Athens Farmers Market and Talmage Terrace, where students in UGA's Campus Kitchen program prepare meals they deliver to the homes of area grandparents raising grandchildren. Much of the food comes from the UGArden, the student-founded garden on UGA land on South Milledge Avenue. Concannon is on a Southern swing promoting the use of Supplemental Nutritional Assistance benefits -- what used to be called food stamps -- at farmers markets, he said. |
| New Texas A&M music complex sees $4M in early contributions | |
 | A fundraising effort for the future home of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band is off to a strong start thanks to some former members. The Texas A&M Foundation announced Wednesday that three couples have made $4 million worth of donations toward the $40 million Music Activities Center project planned for the current Duncan Drill Field plot. The proposed center, which will replace the E.V. Adams Band Hall, will have areas named after the initial donors. Texas A&M University Director of Bands Timothy Rhea said the 1,300 student-musicians who are a part of the Aggie Band and 13 other campus musical groups have outgrown the current facility attached to Duncan Dining Hall and deserve an upgrade. |
| Grant Dispute Throws an Unwritten Rule of Academic Poaching Out the Window | |
 | A less-than-collegial battle between two major research universities in laid-back Southern California says much about the severity of the financial pressures mounting on American higher education. Among research universities a longstanding gentlemen's agreement has held that a scientist who moves from one institution to another is allowed to carry any grant support along to his or her new home. Now, with universities counting every dollar, that bit of protocol may become a quaint courtesy of days gone by. The dispute broke out last month, when Paul S. Aisen, a professor of neurosciences at the University of California at San Diego and director of its Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study, resigned to join the University of Southern California. |
| Senate hearing features familiar tensions between innovation and quality assurance | |
 | In recent years the U.S. Senate has done plenty of hand-wringing over "bad actors" in higher education, many of them for-profit and online. And that tension goes back to policy debates on distance education in the 1990s. "We don't want to repeat debacles," said Senator Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, during a Senate education committee hearing on Wednesday. "That actually is the theme of our committee." Franken was kidding, mostly. The hearing was one of several in the run-up to the eventual reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, the law that governs federal student financial aid. The title of Wednesday's event was "exploring barriers and opportunities within innovation." The U.S. Department of Education is working on an "experimental sites" project that would allow some of those providers to offer federal financial aid to students by partnering with traditional colleges. |
| U. of California System Set to Raise Minimum Wage to $15 an Hour | |
 | The University of California system will raise the minimum wage for its employees and contract workers to $15 an hour, university officials announced on Wednesday, the latest in a string of recent victories for labor leaders here who have fought to increase workers' pay. The move comes after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to raise the minimum wage in unincorporated areas of the county to $15 an hour; the City of Los Angeles approved the same increase in May. Janet Napolitano, the president of the University of California, said it would become the first public university system in the country to voluntarily raise the minimum wage as high as $15 an hour. "This is the right thing to do -- for our workers and their families, for our mission and values, and to enhance U.C.'s leadership," Ms. Napolitano, the former secretary of Homeland Security, said at a meeting of the school's regents. |
| BOBBY HARRISON (OPINION): Full funding as legislative intent seems clear | |
 | The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal's Bobby Harrison writes: "Effective with fiscal year 2007, the Legislature shall fully fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Program," reads Section 37-151-6 of the Mississippi Code. That's it. That is all it says. It is no doubt one of the shortest and most straightforward sections of Mississippi law. ...Those simple 15 words were the genesis for former Gov. Ronnie Musgove's lawsuit to try to force the Legislature to fully fund MAEP, which provides the state's share of the basics to operate local school districts, and to recoup some of the $1.7 million MAEP has been underfunded since 2006 when those 15 words became law." |
| BRIAN PERRY (OPINION): Judging MAEP | |
 | Jackson-based consultant and columnist Brian Perry writes: "Last week, Hinds County Chancery Judge William Singletary ruled against a lawsuit brought by former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove on behalf of 21 school districts for more than $240 million they contended they were owed by the state in underfunded Mississippi Adequate Education Program funds. ...Singletary's ruling relies on proper statutory construction, but also respects the separation of powers in our government. ...Initiative 42, if passed, would change Mississippi's Constitution. ...If Initiative 42 passes, a judge might order additional funding to education. But a judge can't order tax increases. A judge can't order economic growth. The legislature won't pass tax increases. The legislature also can't order the economy to grow. So in order to increase education funding, funding for other state priorities must be decreased. Initiative 42 proponents called this fear mongering. I call it math." |
| SID SALTER (OPINION): Neshoba County Fair kicks off 2015 campaign run | |
| Syndicated columnist Sid Salter writes: "As the Neshoba County Fair prepares this week to once again enjoy its status as the state's premier political stump, the political signs and placards are already nailed or stapled to virtually every flat surface. But while the venerable campground fair looks the part, the state's 2015 political races have yet to generate much in the way of drama or intrigue. To date, the eight incumbent statewide elected officials for the most part appear to be on cruise control against opponents who are struggling to get traction, name identification and campaign finances sufficient to mount credible challenges. ...One thing remains certain -- the temperatures at this year's fair may be warmer than many of the political races." |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State, Snaps launch first official custom emoji keyboard in college athletics | |
| Mississippi State Athletics has partnered with Snaps to become the first collegiate athletic department to launch an official, custom emoji keyboard available now for iOS and Android mobile devices. "We always make it a priority in looking for innovative ways to connect with Bulldog fans," said MSU Director of Athletics Scott Stricklin. "The Hail State Emojis are a fun, free and easy way for our fans to engage with each other on their mobile devices while sharing some of their favorite Bulldog traditions." The keyboard works anywhere image pasting is supported, including messaging apps such as iMessage, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, email and more. |
| Mississippi State women to face South Florida in SEC-AAC Challenge | |
| Florida will face UCF and Mississippi State will meet South Florida in the SEC/AAC Women's Basketball Challenge on Dec. 30 at Jacksonville, Florida. The Southeastern Conference and American Athletic Conference announced the one-year event Wednesday. The two games will take place in the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena, the site of the 2016 SEC women's basketball tournament. |
| Wood ready to be a leader for Mississippi State golf as a senior | |
| Ben Wood was in the midst of his best season at Mississippi State in 2014-15. He won two tournaments in the fall and was preparing to carry that momentum to the spring and help the Bulldogs reach the postseason. Then his mother, Robin, lost her battle to bile duct cancer, which attacks the liver, in January. "It's been really tough. I still deal with it today," Wood said. "She was my biggest fan. She was very proud of me and my brother and sister. It was very different not seeing her at events and not having her call me after rounds and just tell me how proud she was of me." Wood saw his coaches and teammates rally behind him, which helped him to keep his game on track. The Bulldogs dedicated the rest of the season to her memory and wore liver cancer ribbons on their hats and placed them on their golf bags. The rising senior will continue to play for his mother this season. |
| SEC athletes getting grip on wearing bow ties | |
 | South Carolina linebacker Skai Moore was resplendent in a white jacket and pastel bow tie at SEC Media Days, but he deflected credit. "I am not even going to lie to y'all and say I tied it," he joked. He said his mother tied it for him. Moore is one of several athletes who have switched to the bow tie look -- whether or not they're actually doing the tying. Moore was one of several SEC star players wearing bow ties at Media Days last week, which also included LSU running back Leonard Fournette, Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott, Auburn quarterback Jeremy Johnson and Florida defensive back Vernon Hargreaves. Lucky Levinson, who has worked at Columbia's Brittons for 42 years, said former pro athletes who are now sportscasters on ESPN and other networks have helped spread the trend. "They have people on the show that are athletes and I think today a lot of athletes are concerned not only with their play but their appearance," Levinson said. |
| Stadium tour reveals new 'personality' for U. of Kentucky's Commonwealth | |
 | There are still cement mixers idling in the concourse, giant clouds of dust when entering the club level lounge, suites not designed to be open air waiting for windows. There are hundreds and hundreds of things still incomplete at the new Commonwealth Stadium with less than 50 days until Kentucky's opener on Sept. 5. But as he took about 50 media members in hard hats on a tour of the active construction site, Russ Pear promised again that work on the $120 million facility would be done in time. "The expectation is that all of the amenities for all of our fans, for the media, for everybody is better and is ready to go for the first game," Kentucky's senior associate athletics director for capital projects said Wednesday. |
| Kentucky sends cease-and-desist letter to rapper Drake after minor NCAA violation | |
| The University of Kentucky has sent rapper Drake a cease-and-desist letter, The Sporting News reported. The order came after UK self-reported impermissible communication between Drake and three basketball prospects at last year's Big Blue Madness. Charles Matthews, who had already committed to UK in February 2014, posed for a picture with Drake. The photo surfaced on Twitter after Madness. This was considered a Level III violation that does not carry a suspension component. In the self-reporting letter to the NCAA, UK said it had asked Drake to refrain from speaking or taking pictures with prospective players when "outside the parameters established by the NCAA," The Sporting News reported. |
| Mizzou AD Mack Rhoades makes $600K annual salary | |
 | Missouri Athletic Director Mack Rhoades makes an annual salary of $600,000, the university said in response to a public-records request. Rhoades has been working under a term sheet since March, when Missouri hired him from Houston, where he held the same position since 2009. His contract with Missouri is in the process of being finalized, according to the university's custodian of records, Paula Barrett. Mike Alden, who led Missouri's athletic department for 17 years before announcing in January that he was stepping down to take a job as an instructor in the university's College of Education, made an annual salary of $301,917 but with contractual bonuses that could push that figure as high as $777,976. |
| JIM GALLOWAY (OPINION): Vince Dooley and a search for the glue that holds the South together | |
 | Jim Galloway writes in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Given the Confederate-themed discourse that has afflicted us over the last few weeks, the question of precisely what holds the South together has become a legitimate field of inquiry -- if not a cause for concern. Three horsemen carved on Stone Mountain aren't the glue that binds us. They never have been. The scrap of fabric they fought under never held the answer, either. But Vince Dooley might. On Tuesday morning, the former UGA coach and athletic director was the featured attraction at a coastal gathering of state lawmakers from the South... ...for 40 years, as football coach and athletic director at the University of Georgia, he was in charge of one of the most powerful myth machines in the South -- a machine that's about to stir into another season. ...But there is a serious side to any myth machine. Dooley is a lifelong Southerner whose career arc coincided with decades of social upheaval, especially in the South." |
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