Latest news with #TexasTechUniversity
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
As lawmakers tried to name an official steak, Texas students learned how to find the best beef
LUBBOCK — Steaks are serious business in Texas. If you need proof of that, just count the meat judging trophies at Texas Tech University. 'Texans love to compete, it doesn't matter what it is,' said Mark Miller, a professor of meat science at Texas Tech. 'It's no different when you get into the agricultural world and meat judging.' It's right up there with football, Miller said. Nearly 400 miles from Lubbock, there was a different sort of meat competition at the Texas Capitol this year. State Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, sought to designate the tomahawk ribeye as the official steak of Texas. He did this after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called on the Senate to rename the New York strip steak to the Texas strip and designate it as the state's official steak. The success of the beef industry has energized meat judging in the state over the decades. Along with Texas Tech, Texas A&M, West Texas A&M, and Clarendon College are just a few Texas schools with accomplished meat judging teams and full trophy cases. While lawmakers didn't designate an official steak, teams around Texas are preparing for the next season of competition. And in Texas, where beef is considered king, meat judging has become just as big of a point of pride. Lawmakers had fun with the debate. Speaker Dustin Burrows, a Lubbock Republican, had a cookout at the Capitol. Patrick posted a photo of the 'first ever' Texas Strip with 'Gulf of America' shrimp, inspired by President Donald Trump's executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. On the House floor, King ribbed his colleagues in the upper chamber, saying they were trying to do 'Senate things' with an inferior cut of meat. Neither Mexico nor other international organizations recognize the Gulf name change. Similarly, New Yorkers did not take the rebrand attempt lightly. One 'power publicist' threatened to file a $1 million lawsuit. Some Texans left public comments voicing their annoyance with the legislation, but King contended there was a bigger meaning — to honor the generations of Texans who built up the cattle industry that adds $15.5 billion to the economy. Beef production has always been central to Texas life, he said. Part of the beef industry is the need for quality control, which has evolved into the highly competitive sport of college meat judging. Students who are trained to evaluate the best cuts of meat — lamb, pork, and of course, beef. The students rank the meat by several factors, including the fat thickness and how lean it is. They examine the marbling of the cut, its size and weight. 'The competition level between Texas universities is at the highest level,' Miller said. 'There's a lot of priority put on being highly successful in meat judging.' Since Texas Tech University won its first national championship for meat judging in 1989, teams from the school have won 15 national championships. The school's meat laboratory has several rooms dedicated to different purposes. This includes cooler rooms to store the meat, and one to hang meat while it ages. Students can use an X-ray machine in another room to examine the composition of muscles and other details. The meat doesn't go to waste. Raider Red Meats, which began in 2008, is a student-run store that sells all the meat that is prepared, cut, and packaged in-house. It sells a variety of products, including steaks, green chile and cheese sausage, thick-cut bacon, and chunks of fat for beef tallow. Blake Foraker, a coach for the meat judging team, said the storefront is used to provide scholarships to students involved in the Meat Science program. 'This helps to offset some of those costs so that students can be afforded these opportunities,' said Foraker, an assistant professor at Texas Tech. 'Whether it's on the judging team, working in the meat lab, or pursuing meat science education in general.' Raider Red Meats provided the steaks for Burrows' function in March, where members from both chambers were invited to taste the differences between the strip and the tomahawk ribeye. Zach Buckley, production manager at Raider Red Meats, said they cut the steaks fresh that day and sent them to the Capitol. According to Buckley, Raider Red Meats is one of the few stores in the area that cuts a full tomahawk. Buckley likes strips, but said he prefers the tomahawk. He admits it's partially because of the presentation. 'Part of it is pride: you have a full rib and then a thick steak,' Buckley said. 'Then, if you do it right, you can get that bone and go caveman-style, eat right off the bone.' The team is starting their slow season since classes are out, but is expecting steady business this summer. 'We went from having a little shop to a business that ships to all 50 states,' said Abigail Sleep, one of the students working at the shop. 'We're the only college that's inspected by the USDA. We want to do this to the best of our ability.' While Texas lawmakers did not settle their debate, meat judging at Texas Tech and other state universities is helping settle arguments about which cuts of steak are the best Texas has to offer. Texas Tech's team will host their annual BBQ and Ribeye Championship on Aug. 15 and 16. Disclosure: Texas Tech University has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Chronic Absenteeism's Post-COVID ‘New Normal': Data Shows It Is More Extreme
The percentage of students with good attendance fell sharply between 2019 and 2023, while the share of chronically absent students more than doubled, offering further evidence of the pandemic's shattering effect on the nation's classrooms. A new analysis of data from three states — North Carolina, Texas and Virginia — shows that prior to COVID, 17% of students were chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 10% of the school year. By 2023, long after schools had to cope with new variants and hybrid schedules, that figure hit 37%. 'Absences are both more common for everybody, but they are also more extreme,' said Jacob Kirksey, an associate professor of education policy at Texas Tech University. Additional new research shows that while post-pandemic chronic absenteeism lingers across the board, rates were substantially higher for low-income students. In North Carolina, for example, the chronic absenteeism rate for students in poverty before the pandemic was 9.2 percentage points higher than for non-poor students. By 2023, the gap increased to 14.6 percentage points. 'The income gap really was the main driver that showed up over and over again,' said Morgan Polikoff, an education researcher at the University of Southern California. But it's hard for schools to make a dent in the problem, he said, if they aren't investigating the reasons for chronic absenteeism. 'There's a big difference between the kid [who] has an illness and is chronically sick versus the kid [who] is super disengaged.' Kirksey and Polikoff were among several researchers who shared their findings Friday at an American Enterprise Institute event focused on facing what Kirksey called the 'under-the-hood dynamics' of chronic absenteeism in the post-COVID era. Since 2022, when the national average peaked at 28%, the rate has dropped to 23% — still much higher than the pre-COVID level of about 15%, according to the conservative think tank's tracker. 'I have a question that keeps me up at night. That question is 'What's the new normal going to be?' ' said Nat Malkus, the deputy director of education policy at AEI. 'We see this rising tide, but I think that it's incumbent on us to say that chronic absenteeism still affects disadvantaged students more.' The research project began in September with the goal of offering guidance to districts in time for students' return to school this fall. The researchers stressed that those most likely to be chronically absent this school year — low-income, highly mobile and homeless students — are the same ones who will frequently miss school next year. 'Absenteeism should seldom come as a surprise,' said Sam Hollon, an education data analyst at AEI. 'It's hard to justify delaying interventions until absences have accumulated.' One new finding revealed Friday contradicts a theory that gained traction following the pandemic — that students were more likely to be absent if their teachers were also out. As with students, teacher absenteeism increased during the pandemic and hasn't returned to pre-COVID levels. The relationship between teacher absences and student absences, however, is 'pretty negligible,' said Arya Ansari, an associate professor of human development and family science at The Ohio State University. 'These absences among teachers don't actually contribute to the post-COVID bump that we've seen in student absences,' he said. 'Targeting teacher absences isn't going to move the needle.' Related The researchers discussed how even some well-intentioned responses to the COVID emergency have allowed chronic absenteeism to persist. States, Malkus said, made it easier to graduate despite frequent absences and missing school doesn't necessarily prevent students from turning in their work. 'In my day, you had to get a packet and do the work at home' if you were absent, Polikoff said. In interviews with 40 families after the pandemic, 39 said it was easy to make up work because of Google Classroom and other online platforms. 'How many said, 'Let's make it harder'? Zero.' In another presentation, Ethan Hutt, an associate education professor at the University of North Carolina, estimated that chronic absenteeism accounts for about 7.5% of overall pandemic learning loss and about 9.2% for Black and low-income students — a 'nontrivial, but modest' impact. He stressed that missing school also affects student engagement and relationships with teachers. While technology has made it easier for students to keep up, 'there may be other harms that we want to think about and grapple with,' he said. Related The new research comes as states are mounting new efforts to more closely track chronic absenteeism data and share it with the public. In 2010, only one state — Maryland — published absenteeism data on its state education agency website. Now, 49 states — all but New Hampshire — report rates on an annual, monthly or even daily basis, according to a new report released Tuesday by Attendance Works, an advocacy and research organization. The systems allow educators and the public to more quickly identify which students are most affected and when spikes occur. Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Washington D.C. post rates even before the end of the school year. Rhode Island offers real-time data, while Connecticut publishes monthly reports. The New Hampshire Department of Education doesn't monitor chronic absenteeism, but has a statewide 92.7% attendance rate, a spokesperson said. The report highlights states that have taken action to reduce chronic absenteeism. In Virginia, bus drivers ensure their routes include students who might be more likely to struggle with transportation. With state funds, Fauquier County, west of Washington, D.C., opened a center for students on short-term suspension to minimize the absences that tend to pile up when a student is removed from the classroom. Overall chronic absenteeism in the state declined from 19.3% in 2022-23 to 15.7% in 2023-24. To Hedy Chang, executive director of Attendance Works, such improvement proves 'we can still get things done in our country and in education, despite all of the culture wars and binary thinking.' Some district and school leaders have looked to their peers for ideas on how to get kids back in school. After participating in a six-month program with 16 other districts across the country organized by the nonprofit Digital Promise, Mark Brenneman, an elementary principal in New York's Hudson City Schools, started interviewing families about their challenges. He learned that Hispanic parents often keep their children home when it rains because they're worried they're going to catch a cold. Several had transportation challenges. His school, Smith Elementary, even contributed to the problem, he said, by holding concerts, award ceremonies or other family events in the morning. Parents would come to celebrate their children's accomplishments, then take them out for lunch and not return. Related Hudson, about 40 miles south of Albany, has undergone significant change since the pandemic, added Superintendent Juliette Pennyman. Some families leaving New York City have settled in Hudson, driving up the cost of housing. 'Our families are being priced out of the community,' she said. 'Housing insecurity was … affecting families' and students' ability to focus on school.' As a result of the intense focus on the issue, Smith, which had a 29% chronic absenteeism rate last year, has seen an about a 15% increase in the number of students with good attendance. 'It's not like we're down to like 10% chronically absent,' Brenneman said. 'But we've hammered away.'
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Chicago's first dust storm in over 90 years was likely toxic and full of farm chemicals
A massive wall of dust enshrouded the city of Chicago recently, forcing a ground stop at the Midwestern hub's airports and stunning the city's more than 2.6 million residents. But, while sudden dust storms can be dangerous, the lesser known harms lie in the windswept particles themselves — with the Chicago dust storm likely to contain lead, farm chemicals and particles that aggravate respiratory conditions such as asthma. 'I'm sure people will have some health issues after it,' said Karin Ardon-Dryer, an assistant professor at Texas Tech University, said of Saturday's event. Carried by strong winds and an approaching thunderstorm, the ominous Illinois cloud brought near-zero visibility to highways in just a matter of minutes. People received emergency warnings on their phones from the local National Weather Service office. Local forecasters had anticipated the blowing dust days earlier. 'We definitely had awareness that there was a possibility of some blowing dust. But, the fact that it got into downtown Chicago is what really surprised us,' Eric Lenning, the meteorologist-in-charge at the National Weather Service's Chicago office, told The Independent. 'It's kind of unprecedented. At least, in our generation, if not earlier,' he said, noting that the Midway Airport had dropped to a quarter mile of visibility with a wind gust of 60 miles per hour. Haboobs, another term for intense dust storms, can occur anywhere in the U.S., but are most common in the Southwest. Dusty El Paso, Texas, has seen 10 just this year, according to Inside Climate News. So far 2025 is only trailing the Dust Bowl years of 1935 and 1936. Last Saturday's storm started near Bloomington, Illinois, before traveling northeastward. It was the first such storm of this magnitude to hit the Windy City since the Dust Bowl, in the early-to-mid-1930's – the first in 91 years. With dust storms come particulate matter, known as PM.10 and PM2.5. PM2.5 are the same polluting particles in wildfire smoke, that have been tied to increased emergency department visits. In addition to the expected impacts on the respiratory system and for people with conditions like asthma, there are cardiovascular and pulmonary effects. Like other blowing dust, the composition of the Illinois dust could include heavy metals. Lead exposure is another concern, according to U.C. Merced researcher Estrella Herrera. Exposure can result in reproductive issues, high blood pressure, hypertension, nerve disorders, muscle and joint pain, and memory and concentration problems in adults. In children, it can lead to hearing problems, slowed growth, headaches, learning and behavioral difficulties, lowered IQ, and damage to the brain and nervous system. 'There's lead. It looks like it's everywhere in Chicago. So, that can be picked up and we can breathe it. It not only goes to the lungs but also goes to the … veins. It can travel the whole body,' she said. Pesticides used in agricultural practices are also concerning. In 2019, there was a high complaint of the misuse of pesticides in Illinois, she noted. It decreased last year, but is still there. Those pesticides, carried in the dust, could cause skin irritation, neurological and respiratory problems, and increase the risk of cancer and other chronic conditions. The solution to reducing exposure lies at Illinois farms. 'In a place like Illinois where the source of the dust is agricultural … trends in dust can be very strongly controlled by changing farming practices,' Stuart Evans, an assistant professor at the University of Buffalo said. 'If you change how you till the soil or when you till the soil or whether you have a windbreak or whether you use a land cover to hold the soil down. There are lots of human choices that go into affecting how much dust there is in the eastern part of the U.S.' There's lead. It looks like it's everywhere in Chicago. So, that can be picked up and we can breathe it. Estrella Herrera, a researcher at U.C. Merced But, farms aren't the only way communities may be threatened. Kevin Perry, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Utah affectionately known as 'Dr. Dust,' knows that well. He's experienced 10 dust storms on the western state's Great Salt Lake, that he said felt 'like you're getting sandblasted.' Perry's studied the toxic dust coming from Utah's lakebed. It's full of cancer-causing arsenic, mercury, and a dozen other metals. Exposure can lead to a severe medical response, and people should stay inside if they can, he pointed out. 'If those metals make it to the surrounding communities frequently and at high enough concentrations, then it could lead to a rise in the rate of certain types of cancer. Skin cancer, lung cancer, and bladder cancer are the most commonly associated with arsenic,' Perry said. As the lake continues to dry up due to climate change, certain parts are getting even dustier. The frequency of local dust storms is expected to increase. The most recent storm was at the end of last month, according to ABC 4. 'Most of the time, people will notice a dust storm, but I'd say a lot of the time that they're completely unaware that dust events are happening,' he added. Climate change is making the droughts that can contribute to the formation of dust storms longer and more severe. Ardon-Dryer said modeling work shows there's a 'very strong link' between dust storms and climate change, and this year is expected to be a particularly dry summer for the West. Climate exchange has contributed to a process known as 'desertification,' according to David Lerach, an associate professor at the University of Northern Colorado. Earth's major drylands have 'been trending toward becoming even dryer.' 'As a result, these regions are more prone to future dust storms,' he noted. 'However, individual dust storms occur on relatively small scales and only when multiple ingredients line up, including strong wind events.' The future of dust in the U.S. remains unclear. What is certain, Merced assistant professor Yemi Adebiyi told The Independent, is that it can be everywhere. Dust travels across oceans and continents, reaching from China to the Pacific Northwest and from the Sahara Desert to Texas. 'What is happening in one place has connections to what is happening everywhere else – even if you can't see it,' he said.
New York Post
17-05-2025
- Health
- New York Post
This restaurant trick doesn't really help you cut calories — and it can actually backfire
When it comes to your dinner order, knowledge might not be power. A new study suggests that a popular strategy aimed at helping people make smarter decisions while dining out isn't just ineffective — it could actually be making things worse. 'In some cases, it might even lead people to make less healthy choices,' Dr. Deidre Popovich, associate professor of marketing at Texas Tech University and lead author of the study, recently warned in The Conversation. Advertisement 4 The federal government requires calorie labels on menus at chain restaurants with 20 or more locations. Brian Jackson – Americans love a night off from the kitchen. A 2024 survey from US Foods found that the average adult eats at a restaurant nearly five times a month and orders takeout or delivery three times monthly. But convenience comes with a catch: these foods tend to be loaded with more calories, sodium and saturated fat than home-cooked dishes. Just one extra meal out each week can tack on around two pounds per year, according to the FDA. Advertisement To fight the ballooning obesity and diabetes crisis, New York City led the charge in 2008, becoming the first in the nation to require certain food establishments to post calorie information on menus and price boards. Ten years later, the federal government followed suit, mandating that all restaurants and fast-food chains with 20 or more locations nationwide do the same. The idea was simple: give people the facts, and they'll make smarter, healthier choices. But Popovich and her team found that in practice, the well-meaning plan might be backfiring. 4 People who frequently dine out are more likely to be obese than those who tend to eat at home. kanpisut – Advertisement In the study, researchers conducted nine experiments involving more than 2,000 participants to see how calorie information impacts people's perception of different foods. In one test, people were shown items like salads and cheeseburgers and asked to rate how healthy they thought each one was. When no calorie information was shown, most had no trouble spotting the big difference between healthy and unhealthy options. But once those numbers entered the picture, things got blurry — their judgments became way less extreme. 4 The study suggests calorie labels may cause people to second-guess their instincts about what's healthy. littlepigpower – Advertisement In another experiment, participants were asked to guess the calorie counts of different foods. That simple task rattled their confidence in knowing what's healthy — and that drop led them to rate everything more moderately. 'This pattern repeated across our experiments,' Popovich wrote. 'When people are asked to judge how healthy a food item is based on calorie data, that confidence quickly unravels and their healthiness judgments become less accurate.' The researchers found that in many cases, this meant people gave unhealthy foods a health boost — and unfairly knocked healthier options down a notch. Other studies have found calorie labels don't tend move the needle on what people order. But advocates argue that providing nutritional information is still valuable for those who want it. 4 Adding context, like nutrition scores, could make calorie labels more effective, researchers suggest. baranq – Popovich emphasized that her team's findings don't suggest calorie counts should be removed from menus — but she said they do need more context to be truly helpful. Advertisement 'Just because information is available doesn't mean it's useful,' she wrote. One fix Popovich suggested: pair calorie counts with visual tools like traffic light labels or overall nutrition scores — both already used in parts of Europe to make healthy choices easier. She also proposed adding reference points to show how much of a person's daily calorie intake a meal takes up — though that's not as simple as it sounds. Advertisement Daily calorie needs vary widely from person to person depending on factors such as age, sex, physical activity levels and overall health, making it tough to slap a one-size-fits-all number on the menu. Current US Dietary Guidelines recommend between 1,600 to 2,400 calories a day for women and 2,000 to 3,000 for men.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Weather and agriculture data hub launched in San Angelo
SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) — The West Texas Mesonet marked the 25th anniversary on Monday, May 12, with the unveiling of the 168th station, which is located in San Angelo. Started by Texas Tech University, the West Texas Mesonet project provides free real-time weather and agriculture information. This information is transmitted every few minutes to a base near Lubbock. 'This collects everything you normally see from like your weather observation post at the airport, but it also collects the soil,' said John Schroeder, the director of the National Wind Institute at Texas Tech University. WATCH: San Angelo family speaks out after viral Mother's Day purse theft The West Texas Mesonet project is in cooperation with the National Weather Service and provides support and data. 'So, a whole bunch of different parameters that feed into all these different industries making decisions,' Schroeder said. 'So, think about when you're gonna hear about your crops, or when you're gonna plant them, or when you get to harvest them. Transportation services, if the roads are OK to travel on, these sorts of questions we contribute to all those answers.' This is San Angelo's second station, located off Knickerbocker Road near Angelo State University. The other is off Highway 87 near OC Fisher Reservoir. There are stations throughout West Texas, the Panhandle and New Mexico. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
