Police arrested Adrian Smith Jr. and charged him with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Smith made his initial appearance in court Tuesday and his bond was set at $50,000.
Author: Imported Author 1852163
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Those other SEC teams scrambling for bowl eligibility
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — While LSU, Alabama and Georgia are working on their playoff credentials, much of the Southeastern Conference has more humble goals.
Teams like South Carolina, Tennessee and Mississippi State are battling for bowl eligibility with 4-5 records. Ditto for Kentucky at 4-4. Missouri’s fighting for that status on two fronts: The Tigers’ record (5-3) and, more importantly, their appeal of an NCAA postseason ban for academic misconduct involving a former tutor.
Vanderbilt, Arkansas and Mississippi have little or no margin for error — but could get a boost from their Academic Progress Rate scores to get into the postseason if they make it to five wins.
The SEC has six teams who are already bowl eligible and four more spots to fill, not counting the College Football Playoffs.
Potential playoff berths and titles are at stake when No. 1 LSU (No. 2 College Football Playoff rankings) visits No. 2 Alabama (No. 3, CFP) on Saturday. If two SEC teams were to get into the playoffs, it would make it even more of an uphill climb for the league to fill those bowl slots — which include a New Year’s Six game, with teams that have at least .500 records.
Of course, the SEC would gladly embrace that particular predicament. Georgia is No. 6 in both the CFP and Associated Press rankings.
Other SEC games might not be worthy of a presidential visit — President Donald Trump is expected to attend the game at Alabama. But they’re meaningful games for the teams and their fans, including the Kentucky-Tennessee matchup Saturday night.
The stretch run could make a break a team’s season.
South Carolina linebacker Ernest Jones said the Gamecocks don’t have “the feeling of a team that’s going to lay down because there’s no hope of winning the (SEC) East. Now, we’re playing for our seniors, playing for a bowl game. We’re going to go down fighting.”
If the SEC can’t fill all its bowl slots with teams that are 6-6 or better, it can turn to a 5-7 team based on their APR scores. Vanderbilt is only 2-6 but leads the league in that category, ranking fifth nationally. Arkansas (2-7 and a huge longshot), is second in that group, followed by Ole Miss (3-6), Mississippi State, Missouri and Tennessee.
So schools could get rewarded for their off-the-field work even if their on-field record is subpar, like Mississippi State did in 2016.
Here’s a look at the teams still trying to become bowl eligible:
— South Carolina still has work to do even with an upset of Georgia. The Gamecocks face once-ranked teams Appalachian State and Texas A&M and No. 4 Clemson.
“We have to go out right for the seniors,” redshirt freshman quarterback Dakereon Joyner said. “I think that’s the biggest thing the underclassmen are focusing on.”
— Tennessee has shown signs of life after a horrid start , winning three of the last four games, with the only loss coming at Alabama in a game that was competitive well into the second half. The Volunteers are at Kentucky and Missouri before closing at home against Vanderbilt. All seem like winnable games, but coach Jeremy Pruitt says the Vols aren’t looking ahead to their postseason chances.
“I don’t have time to worry about that other stuff,” Pruitt said. “I think it’s kind of common sense, if we could get fifteen extra practices, that’s got to help you, right?”
— Kentucky has dealt with quarterback issues since Terry Wilson went down with a season-ending knee injury in Game 2. The Wildcats host Tennessee, UT Martin and Louisville while visiting Vanderbilt — hardly the most daunting schedule.
— Mississippi State does have a huge challenge in hosting the Crimson Tide next weekend and also faces Abilene Christian and Ole Miss.
— The Egg Bowl could be about bowl eligibility for the Bulldogs and Rebels, especially if the SEC has room for a 5-7 Ole Miss team. Ole Miss hosts New Mexico State before facing LSU ahead of the in-state rivalry game.
— Vanderbilt and Arkansas, which is 0-6 in SEC games, face long odds even with the strong APR. The Razorbacks’ closing stretch includes a visit to LSU. The Commodores, battling quarterback injuries, visit No. 10 Florida Saturday and would need to win out to reach .500.
Florida coach Dan Mullen was Mississippi State’s coach for the 2016 team that went 5-7 before winning the St. Petersburg Bowl over Miami (Ohio).
“There was an opportunity and they earned that opportunity because of what our team had done in the classroom as student-athletes,” Mullen said. “I thought that’s a pretty good way to figure it out.”
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Acclaimed novelist Ernest Gaines dies at 86
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Novelist Ernest J. Gaines, whose poor childhood on a small Louisiana plantation germinated stories of black struggles that grew into universal tales of grace and beauty, has died. He was 86.
The Baton Rouge Area Foundation, which sponsors a literary award in Gaines’ honor, confirmed he died Tuesday in his sleep of cardiac arrest at his home in Oscar, Louisiana.
“Ernest Gaines was a Louisiana treasure,” foundation president and CEO John Davies said in a statement. “He will be remembered for his powerful prose that placed the reader directly into the story of the old South, as only he could describe it. We have lost a giant and a friend.”
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a statement that Gaines “used his immense vision and literary talents to tell the stories of African Americans in the South. We are all blessed that Ernest left words and stories that will continue to inspire many generations to come.”
“A Lesson Before Dying,” published in 1993, was an acclaimed classic. Gaines was awarded a “genius grant” that year by the MacArthur Foundation, receiving $335,000.
Both “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” (1971) and “A Gathering of Old Men” (1984) became honored television movies.
The author of eight books, Gaines was born on a plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish. His first writing experience was writing letters for illiterate workers who asked him to embellish their news to far-off relatives. Bayonne, the setting for Gaines’ fiction, was actually New Roads, Louisiana, which Gaines left for California when he was 15.
Although books were denied him throughout his childhood because of Louisiana’s strict segregation, which extended even to libraries, he found the life surrounding him rich enough to recollect in story after story through exact and vivid detail.
In “A Lesson Before Dying,” for example, the central figure is the teacher at the plantation school outside town. Through the teacher, whose profession Gaines elevates to a calling, the novelist explores the consistent themes of his work: sacrifice and duty, the obligation to others, the qualities of loving, the nature of courage.
Gaines found that using his storytelling gifts meant more than militant civil rights action. “When Bull Connor would sic the dogs, I thought, ‘Hell, write a better paragraph.’
“In 1968, when I was writing ‘The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,’ my friends said, ‘Why write about a 110-year-old lady when all of this is going on now?’ And I said, ‘I think she’s going to have something to say about it.’”
What Gaines’ characters said about it achieved a power and timelessness that made him a distinctive voice in American literature. Much of the appeal of his books is their seeming simplicity and straightforward story line. “I can never write big novels,” he always maintained. But the questions he explored were the eternal ones great writers confront: what it means to be human, what a human lives and dies for.
A large, gentlemanly man with a certain bohemian air — braces and berets were favorite attire — and a stately manner, Gaines was devoted to friends and family. When he married in 1993 at age 60, he celebrated in Lafayette, New Orleans, Miami, and San Francisco, so the gatherings could include his intimates. Dianne Saulney Gaines is an assistant district attorney for Dade County, Florida. The couple divided their time among various abodes but spent the MacArthur money on a year in France and other travels.
Gaines spent the fall teaching creative writing at the then-University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette (now University of Louisiana at Lafayette) since 1983. It’s only about an hour’s drive from his childhood home.
He could not write and teach at the same time. He needed five or six hours each day devoted to writing and “I can’t write a couple of days and skip two or three days.”
“A Lesson Before Dying” took seven years.
“I work five days a week, just like a regular job. I get up in the morning, do a little exercise, eat a little breakfast. I’m at my desk by nine in the morning, work until three with a little break for lunch,” he said.
His literary influences were eclectic. Since he got a late start as a reader, he read with a vengeance.
“I discovered John Steinbeck … then Willa Cather … then the great 19th Century Russian and French writers, writers like DeMaupassant and Flaubert. Then I discovered Ivan Turgenyev, the great Russian classicist. He wrote small novels where everyone wrote big novels. … (Turgenyev’s) ‘Fathers and Sons’ was one of my favorite books when I was a young man. It was my Bible when I was writing my first novel, ‘Catherine Carmier’ (1964),” he said.
Other books include “Of Love and Dust” (1967), “Bloodline” (1968), “A Long Day in November” (1971), and “In My Father’s House” (1978).
Among his numerous awards, Gaines received prestigious grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller and Guggenheim Foundations. He held honorary doctorates from five colleges and universities.
The Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence will continue as his legacy. It will be presented Jan. 30 to a rising African American author.
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2nd white man sentenced in 2017 Mississippi cross burning
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A second white man has been sentenced to federal prison for his part in burning a cross in 2017 in the yard of an African American family in south Mississippi.
During a hearing Tuesday in Hattiesburg, U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett sentenced Graham Williamson, 38, to three years in prison.
Williamson pleaded guilty Aug. 5 to intimidating and interfering with fair housing and conspiring to use fire or explosives to commit a felony. The housing charge is a federal civil rights violation.
Prosecutors said Williamson and another man, Louie Bernard Revette, built a wooden cross and burned it near the home of an African American teenager on Oct. 24, 2017, “with the intention of intimidating and frightening” black residents of Seminary, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Jackson.
“The defendant invoked a terrifying symbol of racial violence to threaten and intimidate the victims for no other reason than their race and where they lived,” Eric Dreiband, assistant U.S. attorney general of the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement after Williamson was sentenced. “Hate crimes like this contravene our society’s well-established principles of equality and freedom from race-based intimidation.”
Revette received an 11-year sentence in September, months after pleading guilty to interfering with housing rights and using fire during commission of a federal felony.
Cross burnings have historically been used by racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan to rally supporters and terrorize black people in the South and elsewhere.
In 2017, a man pleaded guilty to federal charges after prosecutors said he and three other men burned a cross more than 6 feet (1.8 meters) high in the front yard of an interracial couple’s home in Port Richey, Florida, in 2012.
Other cross burnings in the past decade have occurred in Richmond Hill, Georgia; Minor Hill, Tennessee; Woodland, Pennsylvania; Salado, Arkansas; and Bennington Township, Ohio, among other places, according to Justice Department records.
Michelle A. Sutphin, special agent in charge of the Jackson Division of the FBI, said in a statement Tuesday that prosecuting civil rights violations remains a priority for the bureau in Mississippi.
“When people violate the civil rights of others for the sole purpose of intimidation, specifically burning a cross as in this case, it terrorizes an entire community,” Sutphin said. “Mississippians shouldn’t have to fear for their safety within their own neighborhoods, and this case should send a strong message to those who threaten others based on race or color.”
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Trump Expected To Attend LSU-Alabama Football Game
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is expected to attend Saturday’s college football matchup between the two highest-ranked teams in the nation, Louisiana State University and the University of Alabama.
The Federal Aviation Administration is advising that Trump will travel to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for the game.
It will be the third Trump visit to a high-profile sporting event in as many weeks. Last month Trump attended Game 5 of the World Series in Washington, and Trump traveled to New York on Saturday to watch Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 244 at Madison Square Garden.
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Officer who caused murder case mistrial may return to post
GREENWOOD, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi police officer who caused a mistrial by texting prosecutors from the witness stand may soon have her detective status restored.
The Greenwood Commonwealth reports Jeri Bankston’s possible promotion has angered the mother of the victim whose case was trashed. Trevia Foreman, now of Memphis, Tennessee, tells the newspaper that “no justice is being done.”
Her daughter, 29-year-old Lakeyla Broom, was fatally stabbed in 2014. Her husband was charged with murder and eventually freed after a judge ruled he couldn’t be tried again without violating double jeopardy.
Bankston was the chief investigator and the prosecution’s lead witness during the 2017 trial. The indictment was tossed and a mistrial declared days into the trial when the judge learned Bankston had been texting prosecutors. Bankston was demoted to a patrol officer.
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New Orleans debuts new $1.3B airport terminal with amenities
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The old Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Louisiana will soon be a thing of the past.
State and city officials cut the ribbon Tuesday on the city’s new $1.3 billion airport terminal, which is scheduled to open to the public Wednesday. The airport is located in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner.
The 927,000-square-foot (86,100-square-meter) facility features music venues, three rooms for mothers to bring small children, and other amenities such as charging locations for electronic devices at 50 percent of the seats at the gates. There are also 8,000 available parking spaces.
“It is a modern airline experience here. It’s going to be night and day from the old terminal. It’s light. It’s bright. It’s got all the amenities,” said Cindy Perrino, the New Orleans representative for Southwest Airlines.
The terminal had been scheduled to open in May 2018, but the opening was pushed back after various delays.
A number of New Orleans restaurants are featured at the new terminal, and the city’s mayor, LaToya Cantrell, said local musicians will perform daily at the airport.
“You can come early and enjoy New Orleans right here in our terminal,” the mayor said at Tuesday’s ceremony.
All flights scheduled to arrive at the old terminal after 8 p.m. Tuesday will be moved to the new terminal, save for a few Southwest Airlines flights.
The old airport was built in 1959. Construction on the new terminal began in January 2016.
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Ohio State, LSU, Alabama, Penn State Top 1st CFP Rankings
NEW YORK (AP) — Two from the Big Ten. Two from the Southeastern Conference. And the undefeated defending national champions on the outside looking in — for now.
Ohio State, LSU, Alabama and Penn State were the top four teams Tuesday night in the College Football Playoff selection committee’s first rankings of the season.
Next up was Clemson, winner of two of the last three playoffs, followed by Georgia and Oregon. The 13-member committee will produce four more weekly top 25s before the only ones that really count come out on selection Sunday, Dec. 8.
The semifinals will be held this season at the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, and the Peach Bowl in Atlanta on Dec. 28. The national championship game is Jan. 13 in New Orleans.
The top four in the selection committee’s initial rankings have never all reached the semifinals in the playoff’s five-year history. Eleven of the 20 teams that started in the top four of the CFP rankings have reached the playoff, but, oddly, never the team ranked third.
Utah was eighth and Oklahoma, the highest-ranked team from the Big 12, was ninth. Florida gave the SEC four of the top 10 teams.
Another SEC team, Auburn, was 11th, followed by Baylor, one of the country’s surprising unbeaten teams.
The highest-ranked team among Group of Five conference schools was Cincinnati out of the American Athletic Conference at No. 20. The top team from outside the Power Five conferences gets a New Year’s Six bowl bid.
It was hard to call anything a surprise — or all that important — in the first rankings, but Clemson being out of the top four was notable.
The good news for the Tigers is the teams in front of them have to play one another. LSU is at Alabama on Saturday. The teams are No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the AP Top 25 but are second and third in the CFP rankings.
Ohio State and Penn State face off on Nov. 23. The Nittany Lions also face a challenge this week when they visit unbeaten Minnesota, which was ranked 17th by the committee.
As long as Clemson keeps winning, the Tigers should be OK.
What could really turn the race inside out are upsets. With four weeks left before championship weekend when the playoff and bowl game berths are set, unranked teams have opportunities to provide potential twists and turns:
WEEK 11
Iowa State at No. 9 Oklahoma. The Cyclones came into the season ranked and were considered maybe the third-best team in the Big 12. They have lost three times, but by a combined 10 points. If the Sooners were to take a second loss, suddenly Baylor becomes not just the best playoff hope for the Big 12, but maybe the only one.
WEEK 12
UCLA at No. 8 Utah. The Bruins have won three straight games after a terrible start and are still in control of their Pac-12 South championship hopes. The Utes have been dominant, but coach Chip Kelly could turn this into his first signature win at UCLA and ruin the Pac-12’s hope of a Utah-Oregon title game matching 11-1 teams.
Penn State at Indiana. The Hoosiers are on their way to their best season in 15 years and they will face the Nittany Lions after Minnesota and before Ohio State.
WEEK 13
Texas A&M at Georgia. The Aggies have already faced Alabama and Clemson. The Bulldogs might be more at their level. Another loss would all but eliminate the Bulldogs and could complicate the SEC’s hopes of landing two teams in the final four.
WEEK 14
Texas A&M at LSU. If LSU is No. 1, this would be the third top-ranked team the Aggies have faced this season. Another chance to derail the SEC’s master plan.
Clemson at South Carolina. Clemson has won five straight in the rivalry and most have not been close. It’s hard to find even a hint of upset potential on the Tigers’ schedule, but a rivalry game on the road? Maybe? And one loss could be one too many for Clemson considering the state of the rest of the ACC.
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Coroner: Skeletal remains may be man missing for decade
DIAMONDHEAD, Miss. (AP) — A coroner says remains found in Mississippi are likely those of a man who disappeared more than a decade ago.
Hancock County Coroner Jim Faulk tells WLOX that Ward Buel’s family members have been notified of the discovery.
A property owner on Oct. 25 found skeletal remains and a wallet with two pieces of identification in Diamondhead. One of the IDs had a photo of Buel on it.
The 86-year-old Buel was suffering from dementia when he disappeared in 2008.
Faulk told the television station that he’s sent the remains to a forensic anthropologist in Jackson for identification.
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Prison cadet accused of trying to smuggle contraband
ANGOLA, La. (AP) — Authorities say they found drugs, cellphones and other contraband inside the vehicle of a corrections cadet at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.
In a news release, the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections said 49-year-old Diodelda Anderson of Natchez, Mississippi, was arrested Thursday when investigators intercepted an attempt to smuggle contraband at the prison.
Authorities say a search of Anderson’s vehicle yielded marijuana, synthetic cannabinoid, three cellphones, two cellphone batteries, tobacco, rolling papers and cigarette lighters,
Officials say Anderson began working at the prison in Angola in May and resigned during the investigation.
Anderson is charged with introduction of contraband into a penal institution and malfeasance in office.
It is unclear whether she has an attorney who could comment on the charges.