Texas
Texas Adds New Transfer Running Back After CJ Baxter Injury
AUSTIN – The Texas Longhorns have been looking for answers at running back after the season-ending injuries to CJ Baxter and Christian Clark.
Now, it looks like they have found one.
According to an announcement on his personal Instagram account, former Kansas and SMU running back Velton Gardner has committed to the Longhorns, where he will join Jaydon Blue, Jerrick Gibson, and Tre Wisner in the backfield.
As a recruit, Gardner was a three-star prospect out of Skyline (Dallas, TX), and ranked as the No. 817 player in the country and No. 106 player in Texas per the 247 Composite Ranking.
He then committed to Kansas, where he was one of their highest-rated prospects.
A seasoned vet, Gardner has played in 37 games throughout his five-year career, rushing 229 times for 1,024 yards and six touchdowns, while catching 22 passes for 73 yards.
Gardner started his career with the Jayhawks, playing in 19 games from 2019-201, and rushing 127 times for 529 yards and four scores while averaging 4.1 yards per carry.
He then transferred to SMU where he played in 18 games, and rushed 102 times for 505 yards and two scores, averaging 5.0 yards per carry along the way. With the Mustangs, Gardner also played in two bowl games.
The Mustangs went 18-9 over the two seasons with Gardner in tow, winning the AAC title, and playing in the New Mexico Bowl and the Fenway Bowl.
AUSTIN, Texas (KBTX) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has notified the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) that two Texas residents were passengers on the MV Hondius, a ship that experienced an outbreak of hantavirus while traveling in the Atlantic Ocean. The passengers left the ship and returned to the United States before the outbreak was identified.
“Public health workers in Texas have reached the two individuals, and they report they are not experiencing any symptoms and did not have any contact with a sick person while aboard the ship. They have agreed to monitor themselves for symptoms with daily temperature checks and contact public health officials at any sign of a possible illness,” the agency said on Thursday in a statement.
DSHS will not release additional personal details about the passengers to protect their privacy.
“This is not the next COVID, but it is a serious infectious disease,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness at the World Health Organization. “Most people will never be exposed to this.”
More than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing nearly two weeks after the first passenger died on board.
Health authorities on at least four continents are now tracking down and in some cases monitoring the cruise passengers who disembarked on April 24, and trying to trace others who may have come into contact with them since then.
That includes two people in Georgia who are also being monitored, according to our affiliate WTOC.
Hantaviruses are usually spread through contact with wild rodent droppings or urine. The strain in the Hondius outbreak, Andes virus, can spread from person to person in limited circumstances. It typically requires close, prolonged contact with a person who is actively sick with the disease.
It is not known to spread through casual contact such as shaking hands or being in the same room for a few minutes. There have been no documented cases where a person without symptoms spread it to someone else.
Copyright 2026 KBTX. All rights reserved.
PORTLAND (WGME) – A Portland woman who has been held in a Texas ICE facility for more than six months is reportedly set to be released by Friday.
That’s according to Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, who traveled to the facility this week to demand that ICE release 19-year-old Olivia Andre.
Pingree says a federal district court judge ordered Andre to be released no later than Friday.
Andre and her family were arrested by ICE when they were seeking asylum in Canada.
DHS previously said Andre is in the United States illegally but didn’t explain why the rest of her family was released and she wasn’t.
Pingree called the conditions at the facility inhumane, and Andre’s lawyer says her physical and mental wellbeing deteriorated from not having access to clean drinking water, palatable food and appropriate medical care.
“Olivia and her family should never have been detained. The federal court ordered her release because the Trump administration had no lawful basis for detaining her,” Pingree said. “She suffered in detention for six months in violation of federal law and the U.S. Constitution’s protections.”
-
Mississippi5 minutes agoPowerful tornadoes ravage hundreds of homes across Mississippi
-
Montana17 minutes agoMontana Spring Can Still Feel Like Winter
-
Nebraska23 minutes agoNebraska driver hits 160 mph fleeing state troopers on Interstate 80
-
Nevada29 minutes ago‘Egregiously unsafe’: Nevada attorney general sues Discord
-
New Hampshire35 minutes agoNew Hampshire’s Cannabis Program Sees Record Growth – Valley News
-
New Jersey41 minutes agoBed Bath & Beyond returns to New Jersey stores
-
New Mexico47 minutes ago4.0 magnitude earthquake strikes near Colorado-New Mexico state line
-
North Carolina53 minutes agoKinston site preserves legacy of North Carolina’s first governor