Big 12 OKs football season, paving way for UT-Austin, Texas Tech, TCU and Baylor to play

This comes after the Pac-12 and the Big 10 said that they would postpone college football until at least the spring. Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey signaled Tuesday that the conference that includes Texas A&M will play this fall.

TCU Horned Frogs quarterback Max Duggan against the Texas Longhorns at the Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth on Oct. 26, 2019. Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Daily Texan

Continue reading →

What losing football to COVID-19 would mean for Texas college towns: “It’s like losing Christmas”

The Queen Theatre near downtown on June 15, 2020 in Bryan. Credit: Allie Goulding/The Texas Tribune

Economists said canceling football would be devastating to local businesses that rely on the huge influxes of cash from home games. Meanwhile, athletics officials weigh whether they can risk the health and welfare of student athletes.

Continue reading →

Anti-vaping campaign targets student health

Emergency department visits related to e-cigarette, or vaping, products continue to decline, after sharply increasing a year ago in August 2019 and peaking in September. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started investigating the national outbreak of e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury (EVALI) last year. As of mid February this year, 68 EVALI deaths were confirmed in 29 states and the District of Columbia, according to CDC. The drop is attributed to increased public awareness of the risk associated with THC-containing e-cigarette/vaping product use, removal of vitamin E acetate from some products, and law enforcement actions related to illicit products, CDC states.

By SARAH DOOLITTLE, Four Points News

Although in some schools, vaping seemed to be waning prior to COVID-19, the facts continue to speak loudly. Across Texas, tobacco related violations in public schools reached some 20,000 incidents in the 2018-19 school year, according to the Texas Education Agency. Most of those incidents are tied to students vaping nicotine, TEA reports.

Continue reading →