- Important state and national stories, market and business news, sports and entertainment, delivered in quick-hit fashion to start your day informed.
In Mississippi
1. Lacking reliable high-speed internet in MS? Here’s your chance to be heard
Mississippians can correct inaccuracies on the state broadband map from now until September 2, 2024, the Office of Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi (BEAM) said Wednesday. BEAM is overseeing this process before making final plans for $1.2 billion in federal funding to expand broadband service in the state.
Residents lacking reliable high-speed internet are asked to visit the state map at www.beam.ms.gov to see if service to their address is correctly listed. If not, the challenge process is the only opportunity to dispute that designation.
BEAM will use the updated State Broadband Map to award funding through a competitive grant process to internet service providers who will build high-speed internet to unserved and underserved locations.
2. AG Fitch joins effort to uphold TikTok ban
Mississippi Attorney General Fitch said Wednesday that she has joined a coalition of 21 attorneys general in asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to uphold the national TikTok divest-or-ban legislation passed by Congress earlier this year.
The federal law bans TikTok in the United States if Chinese-owned ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, does not sell their stake in the platform. ByteDance and TikTok sued the federal government following the ban.
According to AG Fitch, the attorneys general are asking the court in an amicus brief to deny TikTok’s petition as it is within Congress’s power to act on matters of national security and foreign affairs. They say TikTok is a threat to national security and consumer privacy as the company collects user data that could be shared with the Chinese Communist Party (a known enemy of the United States), infringes on Americans’ right to privacy, and promotes dangerous content to minors.
National News & Foreign Policy
1. Virginia Governor issues executive order to enhance ballot security
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has issued an executive order enhancing ballot security, establishing counting machine testing, and strengthening voter list maintenance, reported the Washington Examiner.
“In a statement on Wednesday, Youngkin vowed his Executive Order 35 would make sure the 2024 election in his state is safe and secure,” the Washington Examiner noted.
“This isn’t a Democrat or Republican issue, it’s an American and Virginian issue,” Youngkin said, as reported by the Examiner. “Every legal vote deserves to be counted without being watered down by illegal votes or inaccurate machines.
2. Hunter Biden tax trial could get messy
The New York Times reports that prosecutors signaled in a court filing on Wednesday that they intended to mount an aggressive strategy in Hunter Biden’s tax trial in California, “saying they would show how foreign interests paid him to influence the U.S. government while his father was vice president.”
“Prosecutors stopped short of accusing Mr. Biden of violating foreign lobbying laws, which are not among the charges for which he faces trial,” NYT reported. “While they intend to introduce evidence that Mr. Biden and his business partners contacted government officials, they said they did not plan to accuse him of having ‘improperly coordinated with the Obama administration.'”
NYT notes that prosecutors “plan to cite evidence related to his foreign business dealings to prove how he willfully engaged in a scheme to obtain vast amounts of cash without paying taxes.”
Sports & Entertainment
1. Ole Miss WR Harris named to Biletnikoff watch list
Ole Miss football senior wide receiver Tre Harris has been named to the Biletnikoff Award preseason watch list, as announced by the Tallahassee Quarterback Club Foundation on Wednesday.
The university’s athletics department notes that Harris is among 50 pass catchers nationally and one of eight from the SEC on the watch list for the Biletnikoff Award, which is given out annually to college football’s outstanding FBS receiver.
Any player, regardless of position (wide receiver, tight end, slot back, and running back) who catches a pass is eligible for the award. The Biletnikoff Award recognizes college football’s outstanding receiver, not merely college football’s outstanding wide receiver.
Last season, Harris had 54 catches for 985 yards and eight touchdowns.
2. 118 Delta State student-athletes earn D2 Academic honors
Delta State Athletics celebrated the Division 2 Athletics Directors Association’s announcement this week of the 2023-24 recipients of the D2 ADA Academic Achievement Awards.
Delta State University Athletics boasts 118 student-athlete honorees, the third most in the Gulf South Conference.
All 13 intercollegiate athletic teams at Delta State were recognized with multiple athletes from each team: baseball (9), men’s basketball (2), football (25), golf (4), men’s soccer (15), men’s swimming and diving (3), women’s swimming and diving (17), men’s tennis (3), women’s tennis (3), women’s basketball (5), cross country (6), softball (16), and women’s soccer (13).
Markets & Business
1. Markets struggle to stabilize
Stock market futures fell Thursday, according to CNBC, as Wall Street struggled to stabilize following several dramatic swings in recent days.
“Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 97 points, or 0.3%. S&P 500 futures slipped 0.1%, while Nasdaq-100 futures were marginally lower,” CNBC reported. “The move in futures comes after stocks were unable to hold an early rally on Wednesday, fueling concerns that the factors that caused Monday’s sell-off haven’t gone away. The S&P 500 fell 0.8% and the Nasdaq Composite sank 1.1%. The 30-stock Dow shed 0.6%.
As CNBC notes, all three averages have now declined in four of the past five sessions.
2. Very premature babies can now be saved but most hospitals don’t try
The Wall Street Journal reports that medical advances over the past several decades have given hospitals the ability to save younger and younger premature newborns.
“Yet most hospitals don’t try—and parents often aren’t aware of what’s possible or that other hospitals, even just a few miles away, might offer their newborns a fighting chance,” WSJ reported. “Doctors are now capable of saving the lives of babies born at 22 weeks and, in rare cases, a week earlier, with improved techniques to help tiny lungs develop and protect fragile skin and organs. Hospitals with extensive experience resuscitating extremely premature babies report survival rates as high as 67% for babies born at 22 weeks.”
WSJ goes on to report, “Some U.S. hospitals aren’t sufficiently equipped or capable of pulling off the new advances. Others have chosen not to offer the care, saying it is likely to fail, is expensive—typically more than $100,000 a child, and sometimes much more—and subjects tiny, fragile infants to needless pain and the risk of long-term disabilities.”
Magnolia Tribune
