Texas A&M's collie mascot Reveille X has eye removed after glaucoma diagnosis
The collie — also known as the 'First Lady of Aggieland' — was diagnosed with glaucoma after experiencing discomfort and cloudiness in her right eye, President Mark A Welsh III said in a message on the school's website. The veterinary team removed the eye out of an abundance of caution after discovering signs of abnormal tissue, he said.
'I'm grateful to report that Miss Rev has come through the surgery successfully, has been discharged and is resting comfortably,' Welsh said.
Texas A&M's Reveille mascot dates back to 1931, when a group of cadets found an injured dog and sneaked her on to campus. The dog barked when buglers played morning reveille, earning her the Reveille name.
Reveille X took over as the latest iteration of the mascot in 2021. A souped-up golf cart known as 'Rev Force One' helps transport the collie across campus.
Welsh said Reveille will take a brief hiatus from engagements as she recovers.
'According to her veterinary team, we can expect Miss Rev to be back to enjoying all her favorite activities — cruising on Rev Force One, attending classes, cheering on the Aggies and keeping our campus squirrels in line — this fall,' he said.
Solve the daily Crossword

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


CBS News
3 minutes ago
- CBS News
North Shore reporter digs into story of Lutsen Lodge fire in new podcast
It's been almost a year and a half since the Lutsen Lodge burned to the ground, and there are still more questions than answers in what remains an active investigation. A North Shore reporter is digging into the twists and turns of the story for a forthcoming project: "The Fire: A Lutsen Podcast." "I've been here for 13 years, and in my opinion, it's the biggest story that's happened up here," said Joe Friedrichs, an independent North Shore journalist. He was the first reporter on scene the morning of Feb. 6, 2024, as the Lutsen Lodge burned. By the time WCCO arrived hours later, only two chimneys were left standing. The next day, WCCO learned Lutsen Lodge's most recent fire safety inspection found seven violations, three of which were unresolved. "That's when the speculation really started," explained Friedrichs. Speculation around the resort's owner, Bryce Campbell. Multiple lawsuits from contractors, former employees, and rental property owners accused Campbell of owing them thousands of dollars. Except for a strongly worded email sent to the Minnesota Star Tribune, Campbell refused interviews for a year until he sat down with Friedrichs. "I ask him point blank if he started the fire," said Friedrichs. "Pretty straight forward question. I can also answer no, of course not," explained Campbell in a clip from "The Fire: A Lutsen Podcast." Campbell has not been charged, and the fire investigation is still active. Friedrichs and podcast editor Julie Censullo plan to tell the complete story of what happened before, during and after the fire. "This is really sad. What had happened there under his ownership, too. A lot of people felt pushed out," said Friedrichs. While the unanswered questions are an important piece to "The Fire: A Lutsen Podcast," Friedrichs says at its heart it focuses on the toll it took on many in the community. "Ours is about the history of this cherished place, and this mournful, sad, tragic feeling that the state of Minnesota now has around that place," said Friedrichs. "Very, very personal experiences with the place, and then to see it go down in the way that it did with the fire and these changes that I think the easiest way to sum it up . . . is that it people are really sad about what happened there." A Kickstarter campaign is underway to raise $5,000 by Sept. 1 to fund the production and distribution of the podcast.

Associated Press
3 minutes ago
- Associated Press
FACT FOCUS: No, Oprah Winfrey didn't block access to a private road amid tsunami warning evacuations
Even as the threat of a tsunami swamping Hawaii had passed on Wednesday, social media posts were still circulating claims that Oprah Winfrey had refused immediate access to a private road that would allow residents a shorter evacuation route. The warnings followed one of the century's most powerful earthquakes, an 8.8 magnitude quake that struck off a Russian peninsula and generated tsunami warnings and advisories for a wide swath of the Pacific. Posts on X and TikTok contended Winfrey refused to open her private road, or was slow to do so during the evacuation. But the roadway does not actually belong to Winfrey, and efforts to open the road to the public started soon after the tsunami warning was issued. Here's a closer look at the facts. CLAIM: Winfrey owns the private road and refused to allow public access for residents trying to reach higher ground, only relenting following public pressure. FACT: This is false. Despite being commonly known as 'Oprah's road,' the portion of Kealakapu Road is privately owned — but not by Winfrey. It belongs to Haleakala Ranch, which also owns the land surrounding the road, its president Scott Meidell told The Associated Press. Winfrey has an easement agreement with the ranch, which allows her to use and make certain improvements to the road, her representative told the AP in a statement. Winfrey has paved the road as part of the agreement, Meidell said. The decision to open the road to the public is principally up to the landowner, Winfrey's representative noted. Meidell said Haleakala Ranch 'had conversations with Ms. Winfrey's land management staff during this process. So, they're consulted to be sure.' Haleakala Ranch contacted the local fire department and the Maui Emergency Management Agency just after 3 p.m. local time, shortly after the tsunami warning went into effect, Meidell said. The road was made accessible shortly after 5 p.m., he said, and ranch personnel assisted in the evacuation of around 150 to 200 vehicles until the final group of cars were escorted up the road at 7 p.m. Maui County officials said in a press release shortly after 7 p.m. Tuesday that 'Oprah's road' was accessible to the public, an advisory repeated in a 9:30 p.m. update. But Meidell said further evacuations weren't necessary after 7 p.m. because police had confirmed 'at that point the highway was completely empty of traffic.' Maui police and the Maui Emergency Management Agency did not immediately return the AP's requests for comment. 'As soon as we heard the tsunami warnings, we contacted local law enforcement and FEMA to ensure the road was opened. Any reports otherwise are false,' a representative for Winfrey wrote in a statement first disseminated to news outlets Tuesday night. The decision to open the road was made quickly 'when the warning was issued to evacuate, working with local officials and Oprah's Ranch,' the representative added in a statement Wednesday. Cars were escorted in separate caravans that each 'had a lead vehicle and a sweep vehicle to make sure that there weren't any incidents on the mountain road,' Meidell said. Haleakala Ranch encompasses nearly 30,000 acres of open space from the southern shoreline to Upcountry Maui, according to its website, and has been family-owned and operated since the late 1800s. The private road connects a public roadway with a highway on the island's oceanside. Some Hawaii residents have long expressed frustration with the large swaths of land that wealthy public figures like Winfrey own on Maui and have advocated against short-term rentals that dot the region and worsen the already low housing supply. The islands have faced a chronic housing shortage only exacerbated in 2023 when a deadly wildfire destroyed most of Lahaina, a town on Maui and the historic former capital of the Hawaiian kingdom. The wildfire was the deadliest in U.S. history in a century that left more than 100 people dead. Users claimed with no evidence then that Winfrey had hired private firefighters to protect her land before the fires started, and hired security to keep others of her land during the evacuations. Some X users also spread false claims linking Winfrey to the cause of the blaze. Winfrey teamed up with Dwayne Johnson to launch the People's Fund for Maui and committed $10 million to help residents who lost their homes in the wildfires. The fund raised almost $60 million as of April 2024. In 2019, Winfrey confirmed on X, then Twitter, that county officials were given permission to use the private road immediately after a brush fire started on Maui's southern area. The road ultimately was not used, Maui County spokesperson Chris Sugidono told the AP at the time. ___ Associated Press National Writer Hillel Italie contributed reporting. ___ Find AP Fact Checks here:


New York Times
33 minutes ago
- New York Times
Transcripts Reveal Confusion and Frustration in Black Hawk Cockpit Before Deadly Crash
Pilots flying an Army Black Hawk above the Potomac River on Jan. 29 expressed confusion and frustration in the last minutes before the helicopter collided with a commercial passenger jet, according to a transcript of its cockpit voice recording. Communications with the air traffic controller who was monitoring the helicopter from Ronald Reagan National Airport were flawed throughout the flight's final phase, according to the transcript, which was released Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board, the agency investigating the accident. 'Is he pretty muffled?' the Black Hawk pilot, Captain Rebecca M. Lobach, asked at one point, in reference to an instruction from the controller. 'Yeah. I definitely didn't catch what he said,' replied Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, who was instructing Ms. Lobach that evening. 'I'm glad you did.' The investigative agency released the documents as part of a three-day hearing on the factors that contributed to the accident. Investigators on Wednesday discussed a number of troubling discoveries, including the likely possibility that the altimeter that indicates the helicopter's flying height gave incorrect readings, leading the pilots to believe they were flying lower than they actually were. The garbled communication made it difficult for the pilot flying the Black Hawk and her instructor to hear important information from the control tower during the fatal flight. In the final moments of the flight, based on what he thought they were being asked, Mr. Eaves told Capt. Lobach to turn east. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.