A rose to our readers, who have endured many changes over the past few months at The Dispatch. The changes we have made – discontinuing the Monday paper and shifting to Postal Service delivery – have been in an effort to ensure this paper is sustainable and can continue to serve the community. A sense of nostalgia is a personality trait among most of our readers (and our staff) so we don’t take these changes lightly. The overwhelming response we have received is “we understand and we support the paper.” Many have even said they prefer mail delivery of the paper! Today marks our first Weekend Edition. In it, you’ll find everything you’re used to seeing in the Sunday paper. From everyone at The Dispatch, thank you and enjoy your rose!
A rose to the Starkville High School Speech and Debate team, which earned a bevy of honors in a competition among teams from across the state at the Cowbell Classic Speech and Debate Tournament at Mississippi State University last month. SHS senior Ben Harvey earned the overall tournament top performer as well as first place awards in extemporaneous speaking and the Lincoln-Douglas debate. He also received second place in impromptu speaking. Freshman Addie Claire Stephens was a semifinalist in the Lincoln-Douglas debate. Olivia Harvey and Katie Chung, both eighth-graders, were quarterfinalists in the public forum event. The ability to articulate ideas persuasively and exchange points of view respectively are skills much needed in today’s society, where our dialogue often degenerates into hostile personal attacks and misinformation. Creating this culture of effective communication is important for our young people. That point is beyond debate. Congratulations!
A rose to Ole Miss and Mississippi State baseball, both of which opened their 2023 seasons this weekend. The Rebels and Bulldogs have found themselves in the epicenter of college baseball, having claimed the last two national championships between them. While Ole Miss enters the season as the defending national champion, the season is all about redemption for the Bulldogs, who sank to the bottom of the SEC last season just one year removed from its own national championship. Will success breed success for Ole Miss? Will failure be a powerful motivator for Mississippi State? We’ll find out those answers as the young season progresses. Let’s not forget the possibility of a Mississippi trifecta of national championships, either. Southern Miss has been an emerging program, and its current roster is loaded from a team that came within two wins of advancing to the College World Series last season. Just imagine a streak of MSU, Ole Miss and Southern Miss national champions. That would indeed be something we could all be proud of as Mississippians.
A rose to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle, which was recently recognized by the nursing advocacy group nurse.com as one of the safest places for nurses to work in the nation. The group uses data provided by The Leapfrog Group’s semiannual hospital ratings, which include 22 categories of service. The hospital was the only Mississippi hospital named to the list. The Leapfrog Group has consistently rated BMH-GT as an “A” hospital 22 years in a row, making the hospital one of only 22 in the nation that have earned that distinction. Nurses.org drills down on the Leapfrog Group data to focus on the nursing environment at medical facilities, so this honor reflects the conditions in which nurses work. In an era where nurses are in great demand, this distinction can make a difference in recruiting and retaining quality nurses at Baptist, which by extension allows the hospital to better serve patients. We congratulate our hospital on yet another honor.
A rose to a trio of Golden Triangle restaurants – STAGgerIN and WTF@ in Starkville and Zachary’s in Columbus – who were honored among the top 10 in the state for “Best Chicken Wings in Mississippi.” The competition was sponsored by the Mississippi Poultry Association to identify restaurants where chicken wings are elevated to something approaching a delicacy, quite a remarkable thing when you consider that as recently as 50 years ago, the wing was almost considered a throw-away chicken part along the lines of the neck or gizzard. The overall winner, announced this week at the Dixie National Rodeo in Jackson, went to NectarFarms in Pearl. The rest of the Top 10 were not ranked, so we have as much a claim to runner-up as anyone! Let’s eat!
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 47 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 47 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
