Mississippi Today
Remember the sports section? This dinosaur does, ever so fondly
Monday came the news that the New York Times will disband its 35-person sports department. Over the weekend we learned the Los Angeles Times sports section will no longer contain what traditionally have been sports page essentials: box scores, standings and traditional game stories.
Both newspapers, two of the nation's top five in circulation, will continue to cover sports, just not in the traditional newspaper format. The New York Times will integrate sports coverage from The Athletic website into the daily newspaper. The Times last year bought theathletic.com website, which employs many of the nation's most reputable sports writers, at a price tag of $550 million. The LA Times says it will still cover sports with a more magazine-like approach. It just won't include what were once considered the nuts and bolts of a daily sports section (i.e. box scores, standings, etc.) Let's face it, what are good are box scores if you have a 3 p.m. copy deadline?
I can't say either piece of news comes as a shock. Newspapers have been moving in this direction for decades, lately at increasing speed. I will say the erosion of the traditional newspaper sports page is something I could have done without.
As a child in Hattiesburg, I grew up in a family that at times subscribed to six newspapers, all delivered to our doorstep daily: the Hattiesburg American, two Jackson newspapers, two New Orleans newspapers and the Daily Herald on the Gulf Coast. My sweet mama often complained of drowning in newsprint. I learned to read by reading the sports pages. I learned to do arithmetic using the baseball box scores to compute batting averages and earned run averages. And yet that wasn't enough sports coverage for me. As a kid, I would ride my bike to the public library to read the nation's best sports columnists, Jim Murray in the Los Angeles Times and Red Smith in New York newspapers, including the Times.
My father was the sports editor of the Hattiesburg American when I was born. I later held the same position. Dad later worked at the Jackson Daily News, where I was later the sports editor as well. My brother worked for the Hattiesburg American and the Clarion Ledger. So has my son.
It is from a press box seat, 50-yard-line, I have watched the erosion of the sports pages until there is almost nothing left.
When I left the Hattiesburg American in 1978, we had a staff of five full-time sports writers and several correspondents. When I became sports editor over the Jackson morning and afternoon newspapers in 1987, we had a combined sports staff of 27 sports writers, and our sections and writers were often cited among the best in the country.
Compare then to now: The Hattiesburg American, operating in a college town and in a hotbed of high school sports, has no sports staff. Zero. None. Nada. The Clarion Ledger lists four sports writers and an intern in its directory. And they are trying to cover an entire state.
In the late 1990s, after the Jackson Daily News ceased to exist and corporate bean counters shrunk our Clarion Ledger staff down to 16, I asked to be relieved of my sports editor duties to concentrate on writing. Why? As I told my boss, I could move into my newspaper office and work 23 hours a day and not be able to produce with a staff of 16 anywhere near what we had with a staff of 27.
I cannot even begin to imagine how you would try to do it with four. You cannot.
Now then, all the news is not that awful. I can go to various websites on the Internet, often for free, and read every box score, published almost instantly after the final out (and during the games as well). The batting averages and earned run averages — not to mention OBP and WHIP are computed for me. There is still terrific beat writing available for professional sports teams and most major college teams on The Athletic website. I am a subscriber at a nominal fee. It is well worth the price. ESPN.com provides nuts and bolts sports coverage as well.
No, it is not the same, and I miss the feel of newsprint in my hands with my morning coffee. But the sports news is still available and I can read it on my cellphone.
Best news of all for this dinosaur, I still type — and some of you still read — my missives on this vital Mississippi website. For that, I am most grateful.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Renada Stovall, chemist and entrepreneur
Renada Stovall sat on the back deck of her rural Arkansas home one evening, contemplating life when she had a life-altering epiphany…
“I gotta get out of these woods.”
She heard it as clear as lips to her ear and as deep as the trees surrounding her property. Stovall's job as a chemist had taken her all over the country. In addition to Arkansas, there were stints in Atlanta, Dallas and Reno. But she was missing home, her parents and friends. She also knew, she needed something else to do.
“I thought, what kind of business can I start for myself,” said Stovall, as she watered herbs growing in a garden behind her south Jackson home. Some of those herbs are used in her all-natural products. “I know when I lived in Reno, Nevada, where it's very hot and very dry, there really weren't products available that worked for me, my hair, and my skin suffered. I've got a chemistry degree from Spelman College. I took the plunge and decided to create products for myself.”
In 2018, Stovall's venture led to the creation of shea butter moisturizers and natural soaps. But she didn't stop there, and in December 2022, she moved home to Mississippi and got to work, expanding her product line to include body balms and butters, and shampoos infused with avocado and palm, mango butter, coconut and olive oils.
Nadabutter, which incorporates Renada's name, came to fruition.
Stovall sells her balms and moisturizers at what she calls, “pop-up markets,” across the state during the summer. She's available via social media and also creates products depending on what of her ingredients a customer chooses. “My turmeric and honey is really popular,” Stovall added.
“The all-natural ingredients I use are great for conditioning the skin and hair. All of my products make you feel soft and luscious. The shea butter I use comes from West Africa. It's my way of networking and supporting other women. And it's my wish that other women can be inspired to be self-sufficient in starting their own businesses.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1954
MAY 17, 1954
In Brown v. Board of Education and Bolling v. Sharpe, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the “separate but equal” doctrine in Plessy v. Ferguson was unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment, which guaranteed equal treatment under the law.
The historic decision brought an end to federal tolerance of racial segregation, ruling in the case of student Linda Brown, who was denied admission to her local elementary school in Topeka, Kansas, because of the color of her skin.
In Mississippi, segregationist leaders called the day “Black Monday” and took up the charge of the just-created white Citizens' Council to preserve racial segregation at all costs.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Every university but Delta State to increase tuition this year
Every university in Mississippi is increasing tuition in the fall except for Delta State University.
The new rates were approved by the governing board of the eight universities, the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees, at its regular meeting Thursday.
The average cost of tuition in Mississippi is now $8,833 a year, a roughly 3% increase from last year. Students can expect to pay tuition ranging from $7,942 a year at Mississippi Valley State University to $10,052 a year at Mississippi State University.
In recent years, universities have cited inflation and rising insurance costs as reasons for the tuition increases. At Thursday's meeting, the board heard a presentation on how property insurance is becoming more expensive for the eight universities as Mississippi sees more tornadoes and storms with severe wind and hail.
READ MORE: Tuition increases yet again at most public universities
But it's an ongoing trend. Mississippi's public universities have steadily increased tuition since 2000, putting the cost of college increasingly out of reach for the average Mississippi family. More than half of Mississippi college students graduated with an average of $29,714 in student debt in 2020, according to the Institution for College Access and Success.
At Delta State University, the president, Daniel Ennis, announced that he will attempt to avoid tuition increases as the regional college in the Mississippi Delta undergoes drastic budget cuts in an effort to become more financially sustainable.
“We will resist tuition increases so that our most economically vulnerable students can continue to have access to the opportunities that a college degree can provide,” he wrote in a memo to faculty and staff on Monday. “We will move beyond basic survival and into a place where we have the capacity to take better advantage of our undeniable strengths.”
Delta State didn't increase tuition last year, either. Officials have been concerned the university is becoming too pricey for the students it serves.
Tuition for the 2024-25 academic year, by school:
- Alcorn State University: $8,105
- Delta State University: $8,435
- Jackson State University: $8,690
- Mississippi State University: $10,052
- Mississippi University for Women: $8,392
- Mississippi Valley State University: $7,492
- University of Mississippi: $9,612
- University of Southern Mississippi: $9,888
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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