Jackson Free Press

The Blues Foundation has released the list of winners for this year's Blues Music Awards following its 37th annual award ceremony, which took place at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis, Tenn., on May 5.

Even casual blues fans will recognize many of the musicians honored that night. The list includes Grammy Award nominee Cedric Burnside, who won both Best Traditional Blues Album and Best Instrumentalist-Drummer; Buddy Guy, who won Best Album and Best Contemporary Blues Album for "Born to Play Guitar," the release that also won him a Grammy this year; and Allen Toussaint, who earned the highly coveted title of the Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year.

At the same time, there are plenty of blues musicians that listeners may not be as familiar with among the winners, emphasizing just how much diverse talent exists within the genre, let alone the entire field of music.

Here is the full list of winners. Be sure to check out any you don't know!

Acoustic Album - "The Acoustic Blues & Roots of Duke Robillard" by Duke Robillard

Acoustic Artist - Doug MacLeod

Album - "Born to Play Guitar" by Buddy Guy

B.B. King Entertainer - Victor Wainwright

Band - Victor Wainwright & the Wild Roots

Best New Artist Album - "The Mississippi Blues Child" by Mr. Sipp

Contemporary Blues Album - "Born to Play Guitar" by Buddy Guy

Contemporary Blues Female Artist - Shemekia Copeland

Contemporary Blues Male Artist - Joe Louis Walker

Historical - "Soul & Swagger: Buzzin' the Blues" by Slim Harpo (Bear Family Records)

Instrumentalist-Bass - Lisa Mann

Instrumentalist-Drums - Cedric Burnside

Instrumentalist-Guitar - Sonny Landreth

Instrumentalist-Harmonica - Kim Wilson

Instrumentalist-Horn - Terry Hanck

Koko Taylor Award - Ruthie Foster

Pinetop Perkins Piano Player - Allen Toussaint

Rock Blues Album - "Battle Scars" by Walter Trout

Song - "Gonna Live Again" written and performed by Walter Trout

Soul Blues Album - "This Time for Real" by Billy Price & Otis Clay

Soul Blues Female Artist - Bettye LaVette

Soul Blues Male Artist - Otis Clay

Traditional Blues Album - "Descendants of Hill Country" by Cedric Burnside Project

Traditional Blues Male Artist - John Primer

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From a press release from the Mississippi Democratic Party:

Jackson, MS – Following the court's order to desegregate schools in Cleveland, Mississippi, Mississippi Democratic Party spokesperson, Ouida Meruvia, issued the following statement:

"It is fitting that on the eve of the 62nd anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the court has ordered Mississippi to make a significant stride forward in achieving the ideal set forth in Brown - equality in our public school system.

"However, with the court's ruling, we're reminded that equality in our state's public education system has not been pursued 'with all deliberate speed,' but instead has been a long, hard struggle that many Mississippians have fought for, and continue to fight for, to this day.

"Democrats in Mississippi will continue our work to ensure that all students, regardless of race or zip code, will have equal access to a quality, fully-funded public education system."

Sierra Mannie is an education reporting fellow for the Jackson Free Press and The Hechinger Report. Email her at [email protected].

Mississippi State University has dominated on the baseball diamond this season and is now dominating the list of finalists for the 2016 C Spire Ferris Trophy. The Bulldogs placed three players in the final five for the award.

The University of Mississippi and Delta State University each placed on player in the final five. The group includes three juniors, a senior and a freshman. Three of the final five are also products of Mississippi, with Florida and Tennessee providing home states for the other two.

Here are the five finalists listed by university.

Mississippi State

Dakota Hutson, junior, has been one of the best starting pitchers on a strong MSU staff. He has an 8-3 record while posting a low 2.52 ERA. The Dunlap, Tenn native has struck out 91 batters faced and walked just 27 in 89.1 innings of work and is allowing opposing teams to hit a .240 batting average.

Reid Humphreys has done just about every thing for the Bulldogs this season. He has played in the outfield, infield and pitched as well. The junior, who is from Brandon, Miss., is batting .333 with 15 doubles, five home runs and a triple. He is slugging .547 with an on-base percentage of .419. Coming out of the bullpen, Humphreys is 0-1 with a 6.05 ERA in 15 appearances. He has struck out 25 batters and walked just six in 19.1 innings of work.

Jake Mangum has had a sensational freshman season as he is hitting .405 for second best in the SEC and has nine doubles, three triples and one home run. The Pearl, Miss., native has an on-base percentage of .419 and a .547 slugging percentage.

University of Mississippi

J.B. Woodham is one of the stars in a strong season for the Rebels. The Orlando, Fla., native is batting .325 with a team leading 12 home runs, 11 doubles and 47 runs batted in. He has shined in his junior season with a .466 slugging percentage and nine assists from the outfield.

Delta State University

Will Robertson is the lone senior to be nominated but closes his career at Delta State with a strong final season for the team. He is batting .426, leading the Gulf South Conference, 27 doubles, eight home runs and 71 runs batted in. The Falkner, Miss., native is posting a .676 slugging percentage and a .492 on base percentage.

The winner will be announced at a luncheon on Monday, May 23 at the Cleveland Country Club. Scouts who cover Mississippi and college coaches choose the final five.

Fans can vote for a player at www.cspoavoting.com. Fan voting is from Tuesday until Sunday and will count for 10 percent of the voting. The other 90 percent will be made up of scouts and coaches.

Also at the luncheon will be former Rebels player and coach Jake Gibbs. The former New York Yankee will be the featured speaker at the event.

The …

Rugby was a precursor to American football. Soccer is also attached to early football as well, and all three games can trace their roots back to Greek and Roman games.

The first football game in America is credited to Rutgers University and Princeton University on November 6, 1869. Rutgers won the game 6-4 over Princeton.

Football began to gain popularity in the U.S., especially on the east coast, and at universities such as Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University and others. While the game grew fans, it also grew detractors.

Early football was even more violent than today’s football. In fact, punching or drop-kicking an opposing player was not against the rules. Neither were shots to the head or other moves you might see in bar fight or pro-wrestling match.

Football tried to clean itself up with rule changes from the “Father of American Football” Walter Camp. Under Camp, the game added the line of scrimmage, cut players on the field down to 11, changed the size of the field, created the downs system used today and many other advances.

While these rules helped, the game was still dangerous to play. In the early 1900s, the game came under fire to be banned for how violent it was at the time.

There are reports that upwards of 20 people died playing football in 1905. That spurred change even as then-President Teddy Roosevelt got involved because of the public outcry.

Rules were changed again, this time adding the forward pass and the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association the forerunner to the NCAA. These rule changes helped make the game safer in the long run.

Fast Forward to 100 years later and there is a public outcry over the safety of football. This time about concussions.

Let’s be honest. Football, rugby, hockey and other impact sports are going to always have a risk of injury or even death. That doesn’t mean officials should stop working to make the game safer, but there will be a certain amount of risk involved in playing these sports.

While concussions are a part of rugby as well as football, there is something football could learn from rugby.

The Seattle Seahawks and other teams in both pro and college football are teaching shoulder tackling. The Seahawks have even produced two videos on how to shoulder tackle properly.

Both videos show drills that can be done with and without pads to learn to shoulder tackle. The idea is to take the head out of the game. Nothing is 100 percent effective, but it should be worth studying to see if players’ head injuries are reduced by using rugby tackling.

Seattle, like them or hate them, is one of the best tackling team in the league and one of the most physical teams as well. The changes in how they tackle haven’t affected their ability to be physical on …

It looks like it will be a long time before the Laremy Tunsil NFL Draft night saga will be over for the University of Mississippi. ESPN writers Mark Schlabach and Nicole Noren reported that the texts that showed up on Tunsil’s Instagram account did in fact happen last year.

The university is now trying to determine if someone altered the texts in any way before publishing them.

The texts in question are said to have occurred between February and April of last year and appear to show Tunsil asking UM Assistant Athletic Director John Miller for $305 for a utility bill and money for his mother’s rent.

Miller allegedly replied to Tunsil, “See Barney next week,” in what could be a reference to Barry Farrar, the Rebels’ assistant athletic director for high-school and junior-college relations.

The texts were just part of a horrible draft night for Tunsil. Minutes before the draft began, someone released a video on his Twitter account showing him smoking a bong attached to a gas mask.

That video caused Tunsil, thought to be a top-five pick, to tumble down the draft until the Miami Dolphins took him with the 13th overall selection. After being drafted, Tunsil admitted in a news conference that he did in fact ask for money, and the texts were real.

The NFL cut the draft-night news conference short after Tunsil admitted to the allegations. He has since declined to answer questions about the texts in two press conferences as a Dolphin.

In related news, attorneys for UM head coach Hugh Freeze have asked a judge not to have Freeze deposed for a civil suit that Tunsil’s stepfather filed against the young athlete. Lindsey Miller, the stepfather, is suing Tunsil for assault, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The lawsuit came just two days before the first round of the draft. Court records indicate that Tunsil’s mother Desiree Polingo filed for divorce six days after Miller filed his lawsuit.

On the night in question, Tunsil claims he was protecting his mother after his stepfather yelled obscenities and pushed her onto a table and chair. Miller says the attack was unprovoked as he was trying to protect Tunsil from meeting with agents. Neither men are currently facing criminal charges.

Miller’s attorneys want to depose Freeze about a statement that he released after the incident and for the names of two men who were with Tunsil that night—a man named Zo from South Carolina and another unnamed agent.

ESPN’s Outside the Lines was able to get documents from the Regulation and Enforcement Division of the Office of the Secretary of State of Mississippi that show an agent was penalized for direct contact with a student-athlete and family member from a Mississippi school in late June of 2015.

The agent met with the student-athlete and his family without giving written notice to the University of Mississippi as state law requires. Outside …

Ravi Gupta, the CEO of RePublic Schools, announced today that he will be stepping down as chief executive officer of the organization. Gupta opened ReImagine Prep in Jackson, which opened in fall of last year. Gupta plans to leave his position by December of this year. Read his letter below:

Dear Friends,

In 2011, RePublic Schools made a promise. We committed to a small group of founding families that we would reimagine the public school experience—not just for them, but for all the underserved children in the South.

Five years later, we are closer to realizing that dream: RePublic serves nearly 1,300 students in five schools across two states (and counting), and has leveraged the success of those schools to set in motion a movement for universal computer science education.

In our corner of the world, a child’s odds of rising from the bottom to the top are lower than anywhere else in the United States. These students must navigate the entrenched repercussions of systemic and historic inequity. Even in the face of these challenges, I’ve watched an inspiring collection of children, families, and educators dismantle one obstacle after another. Serving with them has been the greatest privilege of my life.

Leading RePublic has been a gift. And it’s now time to hand that gift to someone else.

After six years, I’ve decided to put an expiration date on my time as CEO of RePublic. I have informed our Board of Directors that I will be stepping down in December 2016.

Although the transition itself is more than seven months away, I wanted to inform you now as we prepare for a new phase here at RePublic and commence a search for the best job in public education. I will continue to serve in my position for the rest of the calendar year, while supporting our Board of Directors in identifying and onboarding our new CEO. (See here for some words from our Board about the search and RePublic generally.)

As for me, I intend to move back home to New York City to give back to the city where I was born and raised. Even from afar, I will always carry with me the tenacity of the families of Tennessee, the soul of the civic community in Mississippi, and the courage of the most swashbuckling group of educators ever assembled.

Onward,

Ravi

Sierra Mannie is an education reporting fellow for the Jackson Free Press and The Hechinger Report. Read more at jfp.ms/education.

Congressman Bennie G. Thompson wrote a letter to NCAA President Mark Emmert, asking him to review House Bill 1523 and advise Thompson on the sanctions that the state’s NCAA member institutions may face as a result of the law. On April 27, the NCAA board adopted a new requirement for sites hosting or bidding on NCAA events in all divisions. All sites must "demonstrate how they will provide an environment that is safe, healthy, and free of discrimination, plus safeguards the dignity of everyone involved in the event."

In a press release, Thompson announced:

“Today, I wrote to NCAA President Mark Emmert asking him to review Mississippi’s HB 1523 and advise me on all implications that our state’s institutions may face as a result of this bill. Currently, Mississippi is the only state still banned from hosting predetermined NCAA postseason events because of the confederate imagery on the state flag. I am deeply concerned that the governor’s insensitive and ill-advised signing of this discriminatory so-called “religious freedom” law will draw further sanctions from the NCAA so I have called on the organization to review the bill and advise me on just how much the state stands to lose as a result of this law.”

“It is possible that the state may lose the right to host predetermined and non-predetermined events and championships. For example, three of our state’s baseball teams are currently ranked in the Top 25 in the country. It may be possible, that despite their athletic achievements, they will be prevented from hosting postseason tournaments and championships on their home fields because the governor and the legislature felt it necessary to sanction discrimination.”

“Athletics is an important part of our state’s heritage and our sports teams and colleges have historically had a great deal of success. This law may cost our state vital tourism money, opportunities for economic development, and much-needed support for those NCAA member institutions. I would like to have this law reviewed and have the NCAA explain the potential repercussions so that we all know just how much we stand to lose in the name of discrimination and inequality.”