A rose to the New Hope robotics program, which claimed state championships in both the high school and middle school division while all six of its teams finished in the top 10 in the state during the state tournament held March 8 at Mississippi College. The team of Thomas Oglesby, Noah Honeycutt and Joshua Wilcox won the state title in the high school competition while the team of Ashton Martin, Tullos Walker and Carter Moore won the middle school championship. In addition, the team of Cooper Shepherd, Andrew Bozeman and Logan Powell made it to the high school semifinals, and the team of Jackie Robinson and Kaiden Williams reached the high school quarterfinals. In the middle school division, the team of Andrew Wilcox, Connor Campbell and Fender Kidder reached the semifinals, and the team of Hank Winter, Willow Talley and Ella Bain made it to the quarterfinals. New Hope’s two state champion teams will now advance to the world championships, which will be held April 25-May 3 in Dallas.
A rose to Sen. Chad McMahan, R-Guntown, for performing due diligence of a bill he had previously supported and reversing course after gathering that information. The bill would have set up a study to specifically look at the viability of Mississippi University for Women and the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science that is housed on The W campus. This was an amendment to a bill that would have merged MUW with Mississippi State University. After initially failing to pass, McMahan moved to have the bill held on a motion to reconsider. Later, McMahan had discussions with both MSU President Mark Keenum and MUW President Nora Miller. Based on what he learned, he said he no longer believes the bill should be brought back to the floor for a vote. Although the bill could still be brought up on Monday, it’s likely the loss of McMahan’s support will kill the bill once and for all. We applaud McMahan for doing what we would hope all our legislators would do as a normal course of action — their homework. It’s not too much to ask.
A rose to Mississippi University for Women and Mt. Vernon Church for collaborating to stage Joy Prom, which will be held Saturday evening on the MUW campus. Joy Prom is a full-scale prom for special needs teens with developmental or physical impairments. The theme of this year’s prom is Mardi Gras. The W’s Campus Recreation Department facilitates the partnership for the event. The guests are matched with high school volunteers or W nursing students. Athletics and Student Life will be the “limo drivers,” door greeters and transfer assistants, which help guests in and out of cars, golf carts and such. Guests and their escorts will begin arriving at 4:30 p.m. where they will be paired and photographed. Golf carts will take them to Pohl Gym where the “red carpet” event begins at 5 p.m. The prom itself begins at 6 p.m. and will feature a DJ and refreshments. All of the food and water were donated for the event. We applaud everyone connected with this event, which for many children is one of their favorite experiences as teens.
A rose and a belly-rub to Boss, Igor and Diablo, the three most recent retirees from the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office. The three K-9 officers were officially retired Monday and will live out their remaining years as pets of their handlers. Boss, 11, was trained as a bomb detector while Igor, 12, and Diablo, 11, were trained to detect narcotics. Monday was also a changing of the guard as four new members of the K-9 squad began their careers. Rip, Scorpion and Rocky are 2 years old while Gero, at 5, is the veteran among the group. All four are trained to detect narcotics. A fifth canine trained to detect bombs, will join the department later. Good dogs, all!
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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