By Luis Benavides and Joshua Goodman | Associated Press MEDELLIN, Colombia — A chartered plane with a Brazilian first division soccer team crashed near Medellin while on its way to the finals of a regional tournament, killing 75 people, Colombian officials said. Six people survived. The British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane, operated by a charter airline named LaMia, declared an emergency and lost radar contact just before 10 p.m. Monday (0300 GMT) because of an electrical failure, aviation authorities said. The aircraft, which had departed from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was transporting the Chapecoense soccer team from southern Brazil for the…
Author: Baylor Lariat
You’ve been diagnosed with terminal cancer. It has metastasized in your lungs, your bones, your lymph nodes; you have only weeks, months, years, and the best of modern medicine is doing little to abate your suffering. You’re exhausted. You’re dying. Given the chance, would you take the opportunity to use an unapproved drug smuggled in from another country? Because of the extensive, multi-tiered drug approval process implemented by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), many people with terminal diagnoses are doing just this, a movement that serves to highlight the immediate need for the FDA to create a streamlined…
By Megan Rule | Staff Writer There’s another name on the ballot when voting for president, and that is the name of the vice presidential candidate, a role that sometimes gets overlooked. “There are two principle reasons why the role of the vice president is important,” said Congressman William Flores, United States Representative for Texas’ District 17. “The first is that the vice president is a heartbeat away from being president, and the second reason is because of the constitution, the vice president is the president of the Senate. So, if you have a situation where the senate is tied,…
By Andrew Welsh-Huggins and Julie Carr Smyth | Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio — A man plowed his car into a group of pedestrians at Ohio State University and then got out and began stabbing people with a butcher knife Monday morning before he was shot to death by a police officer, authorities said. Nine people were hurt, one critically, and police said they were investigating the possibility it was a terrorist attack. The FBI and other agencies joined the investigation. The details emerged after a morning of confusion and conflicting reports that began with the university issuing a series of…
By Christina Soto | Broadcast Reporter On Nov. 17, Baylor Veteran Education and Transition Services (VETS) hosted a ceremony to recognize individuals who have gone above and beyond to help a veteran. Every semester, Baylor Veterans gives a Challenger Coin to an individual or individuals who has made a difference in their life. There were several guest speakers at the ceremony, and Interim President Dr. David E. Garland, a U.S. Navy Veteran, shared opening remarks. He stated that he was honored to be one of the only presidents of a university who is a veteran. Garland expressed how different it…
By Deidre Martinez | Lariat Washington Bureau The results of the presidential election have raised more questions than answers. But as the campaign dust settles, it has become increasingly evident that the country has yet to understand the complexity of the Latino vote. From the moment then-Republican candidate Donald Trump unveiled an immigration platform based on building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and associated Mexican immigrants with “crime,” “drugs” and “rapists,” a narrative emerged in which a newly-united group of Latinos would come flocking to the polls to vote against him. They were, as many people put it, a,…
Video and story by Morgan Kilgo | Broadcast Reporter Baylor’s annual Thanksgiving and Fall Festival hosted by the student government and student foundation was held on Wednesday night. Baylor students, faculty and staff came out to Fountain Mall to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner which included turkey, ham, mash potatoes, stuffing and pumpkin pie at the annual Thanksgiving and Fall Festival. The event was held by the student government and student foundation and offered a chance for students to mingle on campus before Thanksgiving break. Similar to many Baylor students, Lufkin junior Reed Glass and Houston senior Burke Millard have made…
Our environment is changing, and we’re witnessing it every year. The summers are getting longer and hotter and the winters shorter and warmer. Policies on immigration, tax rates and health care aren’t the only ones affecting our lives, but it seems these issues are the only ones that matter in comparison to environmental policies. One day, controversies over whether ObamaCare was effective or not will become trivial when our world becomes irreversibly polluted.President Barack Obama, along with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, proposed the Clean Power Plan on Aug. 3, 2015. According to the EPA, this plan is vital for…
By Katie Mahaffey | Broadcast Reporter Ejay Mallard may not be on the radar yet, but he plans to change that by breaking in to the music industry. He describes his music style as a mix between Frank Ocean and Kanye West. Mallard is a junior computer science major from Paramount, Calif., who is passionate about making music. He hopes to make a positive impact on people and connect with them through his songs. “It all started with me being in church choir as usual just basically growing a love for God and seeing that I can use my vocal…
For those who find their party without government representation following the presidential election: do not take this as a sign of failure, or a beginning to the end. The current president-elect will be in office for a guaranteed four years, but the rest all depends on how you apply yourself in future elections.The election has been over for a week now, and the data concerning the votes behind the votes is telling as to the future of the country. According to the New York Times, voters aged 18 to 29 were not represented by their states. A majority, 55 percent…
By Dr. Karalyn Humphrey | Guest ColumnistDear President-elect Trump,Let me begin by expressing my sincerest hopes that your time as our president will be successful. While I did not vote for you, I believe that we all want a prosperous country. And because I believe that we all want this, I stand ready to lend my full support to those policies that will bring jobs back to this country, raise people out of poverty and reinvigorate our middle class. What we are witnessing in the aftermath of this election, however, goes far beyond economics.Many people are frightened right now, Mr.…
By Elisabeth Tharp | Broadcast Intern Minorities all around the United States are in shock over the new President-elect, Donald J. Trump. During the 2016 election Trump spoke harshly towards several groups of minorities across the United States, and they aren’t enthusiastic about the new leader of their country. “Coming out of the election right now I definitely feel like there is a huge sense of tension…an aura of unrest in our country,” Dallas junior Pablo Gonzales said. “There is definitely a huge divide.” His coarse words have created riots and protests across the nation. “Personally I was really offended…
On Nov. 8, the results of one of the most polarizing elections in recent history were finalized, and approximately half the country was left shell shocked.For those glued to the polls on election night, the results became apparent state by state, and as the night wore on, it became evident that the United States would not be celebrating the inauguration of its first female president this January. Disappointed in the democratic process and fearful of the rhetoric that characterized Donald Trump’s campaign, people across the nation, and even a few from around the globe, used the internet as a sounding…
By Morgan Kilgo | Broadcast Reporter With all the political hubbub, the Lariat wanted to find out what Baylor students knew about the roles of the president. The results? See for yourself!
By Haley Morrison | Contributor Tuesday Nov. 8’s, results brought a presidential win for Donald Trump as well as a Republican victory for the Senate and the House of Representatives. This is the first time in eight years that the same party has controlled both the Executive and Legislative branches. The Republican party hasn’t held the majority in both the House, Senate and presidency since 2005. David Schleicher, Waco lawyer and former Democratic party chair of McLennan County, said he is interested in seeing what Donald Trump does to protect the working class, as he promised in the first presidential…
By Jacquelyn Kellar | Broadcast Managing Editor After almost a century since the 19th amendment was passed and women won the right to vote, the gender gap in the 2016 election was especially polarized. When women first voted as a large demographic in the election of 1920, politicians were surprised to see that women voted just like men, split along party lines. After the 1924 election, they stopped catering directly to women. This was one of the first elections in almost 100 years to see the majority of women vote for one candidate and men to vote for another.
By Riley Choquette | Guest Columnist Blame for the mishandling of Baylor sexual assault cases has surpassed the outrage that should exist over the occurrence of actual rapes. Now some faculty and students, along Baylor alumni — powerful, valued alumni whom I believe actually care for the university — have set themselves in opposition to the Board of Regents. This effort centers itself on assigning blame (a thin, yet distinct line between that and accountability) for the mishandling of assault cases. People in authority at Baylor did not live up to the requirements of their authority. Perhaps this was intentional,…
Donald Trump is the president-elect. As it stands, a majority of the citizens did not vote for our future president, and many people are upset about that. On the other hand, through our election process, Trump won the presidency fairly, and many people are OK with that.No matter who you voted for, what color your skin is, what gender you are or who you choose to love, hate is not the answer. Hate will only function to further the partisan divide that continues to plague our politics. Last Wednesday, Natasha Nkhama, a fellow Baylor student, posted a video on Facebook.…
At 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, several students staged a sit-in on Fountain Mall to draw awareness to hurtful rhetoric in our community and across the country. That evening, the Lariat ran a story about myself and those standing around me that was too easy.The intention of the sit-in participants was not to protest President-elect Donald Trump. The sit-in asked the Lariat to address an issue that is complex and difficult. The issue is not anger or politics, but one of hurtful rhetoric and reflection. The column and broadcast interpreted the sit in as an “Anti-Trump Protest.” In the report,…
By Jessica Babb | Lariat Washington Bureau
We have posted memes featuring Donald Trump’s and Hillary Clinton’s faces. We have shared politically poignant articles. We have commented on our friends’ hot-button statuses — Liked, tweeted, repeated.But the election season that has caused politically uninterested people to become engaged is now over. What does that mean for our political involvement? Just because Trump won the presidency doesn’t mean it’s time to become apathetic again. For those who were active in politics due to the presidential election – don’t let your news consumption dwindle. Sure, the election was entertaining, and maybe that entertainment is what caused a spike in…
You probably won’t read this entire piece. You might skim a paragraph or two — you’ll read the headline and smirk at the comic, but will you read this word for word, from start to finish? Probably not. There’s an old newsroom adage that says, “If it bleeds, it leads.” And quite frankly, this doesn’t bleed. It won’t catch and hold your attention like a photo depicting destruction or a story outlining the chaos of tragedy, so your eyes will only spare it a moment’s glance. We live in an era of immediate information. We learn about events across the…
The 2016 election has come and gone and Donald Trump has been elected. However, when members who voted went to the polls, they were met with more decisions to make than who they would like to elect as president. In addition to presidential candidates, there is the option to vote for U.S. House and Senate representatives, state house representatives and senators, governor, mayor, sheriff and possibly judges in states that elect those officials.At the beginning of the computerized voting process, there is an option to vote straight-party, or straight-ticket voting, for those who live in Alabama, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Oklahoma,…
Story by Brooke Bentley | Reporter After over a year of preparation and anticipation, the Baylor Democrats and the McLennan County Democratic Party came together at Poppa Rollo’s Pizza Tuesday evening to watch the presidential election finally unfold. However it did not go as they had expected. Leaving their Trump piñatas intact, their celebratory cake barely touched and conversations gone silent, the two groups watched in disbelief as their campaign-long optimism faded. Despite most polls and predictions showing a clear path to victory for Hillary Clinton, she was defeated by Donald Trump. “I’m extremely disappointed,” said Mary Mann, the Texas…
Video by Katie Mahaffey | Broadcast Reporter and story by Associated Press WASHINGTON — Donald Trump was elected America’s 45th president Tuesday, an astonishing victory for a celebrity businessman and political novice who capitalized on voters’ economic anxieties, took advantage of racial tensions and overcame a string of sexual assault allegations on his way to the White House. His triumph over Hillary Clinton will end eight years of Democratic dominance of the White House and threatens to undo major achievements of President Barack Obama. He’s pledged to act quickly to repeal Obama’s landmark health care law, revoke the nuclear agreement…
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The movement to legalize marijuana faced its biggest test yet Tuesday as voters in nine states, including the nation’s most populous, considered proposals to expand legal access to the drug, which is still forbidden by the federal government. California, the first state to approve medical marijuana two decades ago, was among five states weighing whether to permit pot for adults for recreational purposes. The other states were Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada. Florida, one of three states deciding whether to permit marijuana for medical purposes, approved the idea. Montana voted on whether to ease restrictions on…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans seemed on track to secure two more years of House control as the first votes in Tuesday’s elections were counted. But the GOP faced an erosion of its historic majority that could leave hard-line conservatives with added clout to vex party leaders. With Donald Trump rousing opposition in many suburban and ethnically diverse districts, Democrats were hoping to gain a dozen seats or more. Chief targets included GOP incumbents in New Jersey, Virginia, Illinois, Florida, Nevada and California. But both sides anticipated that Democrats would fall short of the 30-seat pickup they’d need to take command…
Video and story by Morgan Kilgo | Broadcast Reporter It’s no secret that Baylor university has been under the spotlight in recent months for the mishandling of sexual assault cases. Those who have spoken out following the uncovering of the mishandled cases include former President Ken Starr, former Title IX Coordinator Patty Crawford and the Baylor Board of Regents. Until now, the university’s students have not been given a voice. Upon asking students how the national attention on Baylor has affected them, the majority said they had not been drastically affected. “I don’t really think it has affected me,” Sugarland…
Dear women of the 21st century,Americans live in a beautiful time of freedom and growth. Women today are able to become virtually anything they want to be — doctors, authors, even journalists. They are able to marry who they want, when they want, if they want to and the same applies to choosing to have (or not to have) children. Fourty years ago, many of these options would not have been available, and women have centuries of fighting and defiance of authority to thank for that. Brave women built this country, and many brave women still do not have these…
