For President Barack Obama, it is a situation that he has been in before. For GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, it is the first time that he has shared a national stage with his Democratic counterpart.

For both the incumbent and the challenger, it is a night that could define the next five weeks in the 2012 race for the White House.

Rick Perry on Monday proposed a four-year tuition freeze for incoming college freshmen and suggested that some of the money the state spends on schools should be tied to the number of students they graduate.

Perry, who announced his education priorities during a news conference at a Dallas high school, also called on schools to give families a better understanding of the amount of money they’ll spend on college, depending on how long it takes the student to graduate.

The Heart O’ Texas Fair and Rodeo parade will be held at 6 p.m. today in downtown Waco. The parade will mark the beginning of the Heart O’ Texas Fair and Rodeo, which will be held from October 4 to 12 at the Extraco Events Center. The parade, one of Waco’s largest, will consist of more than 100 entries including the Baylor Riding Associations which will be riding five of their horses.

Let me throw some numbers at you: 9.2 yards allowed per play, 14.6 yards allowed per completion , eight passing touchdowns allowed and zero forced turnovers.

If these stats are the result of your defense’s play, do you really trust them to make a stop late in the fourth quarter? No.

With time running out on the Washington Redskins, Robert Griffin III found a way to win.

Playing more like a veteran than a rookie in only his fourth pro game, the second overall pick in this year’s NFL draft made leading a late-minute comeback look easy Sunday by calmly moving his team down the field for a go-ahead field goal that toppled the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24-22.

Tonight’s Baylor Symphony Orchestra concert will be unconventional, to say the least.

Members of the Seinan Gakuin University Chamber Orchestra, from Fukuoka, Japan, will play alongside the Baylor Symphony Orchestra.

The concert commemorates the 40th anniversary of the sister relationship between the two schools.

Meet Luke Gibson, one of the chosen few who will be represented by Baylor’s student-run record label, Uproar Records, this school year.

Gibson, an Abilene freshman, is the only freshman artist selected, which he finds a huge honor.

When a drunken driver entered Interstate 35 exit ramp in October of last year, one Baylor student’s life was changed forever.

Saginaw junior Hollie Thomas was a psychology major when she left Waco on Oct. 9, 2011, but an event that night changed her life — and her plans.

It was 1 a.m. and Thomas and her brother were driving from Waco to their hometown outside of Fort Worth.

“When it’s completed in a few months, Solyndra expects to hire 1,000 workers to manufacture solar panels and sell them across America and around the world,” President Barack Obama declared at the Solyndra plant in Fremont, Calif. That was in May 2010, over a year after the Department of Energy guaranteed a $535 million loan to the company, promising a bright future and more jobs for Americans.

When prospective students and their teary-eyed parents walk on to this campus, there is a invariably a certain awe that comes with viewing the pristine lawns, the vibrant and strictly manicured gardens and the simple yet complimentary fountains. Baylor all but forces people to take note of its verdant and overly-watered campus as a point of pride in its appeal to incoming students. We at the Lariat are happy to acknowledge that most of the expense and trouble Baylor has gone to over maintaining its grounds has contributed toward making it as sustainable as possible.

After just one play from scrimmage, the West Virginia defense intercepted senior quarterback Nick Florence’s pass over the middle. The ball hit junior inside receiver Tevin Reese in the hands, but landed in the hands of the Mountaineer secondary.

The Baylor Bears moved to 10-1-2 on Friday night with a 1-0 victory over conference foe Kansas. Baylor is now 1-0-1 in conference play. Senior midfielder Lisa Sliwinski had the only goal of the game.

The Baylor Symphony will perform alongside the Seinan Gakuin University Chamber Orchestra from Fukuoka, Japan, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in…

Dr. Merold Westphal will present “The Nature of Biblical Faith in Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling” from 4 p.m. to 6:30…

Students of many religions, classifications and races joined together Thursday night at Brooks Flats Residence Hall to discuss the recent protests in the Islamic community.

The protests were ignited in the Middle East when an anti-Islamic film, “Innocence of Muslims”, was released in the U.S. Many in the Muslim world believe the video degrades the Prophet Mohammad. Muslims were even more outraged when they found that in the U.S, the video was protected by the First Amendment, because in his home country of Egypt, filmmaker Nakoula Bassely Nakoula would have faced swift punishment.

The Animal Birth Control Clinic, a nonprofit organization in Waco, is in need of funding after exhausting its biannual Trap-Neuter-Return grant of $56,000 this month. The grant was written by the Heart of Texas Feral Friends, a program that is part of the Humane Society of Central Texas.

Medicare routinely refilled pain pills and other restricted medications that are barred by federal law from renewal without a fresh prescription, government inspectors said in a report Thursday.

The report based on 2009 data found three-quarters of contractors who processed prescriptions for the Medicare Part D program wrongly refilled some medications classed as Schedule II controlled substances, which include strong pain killers and other drugs considered at high risk for abuse. Those refills were worth a total of $25 million.

Hog farmers are slaughtering animals at the fastest pace since 2009 as a surge in feed costs spurs the biggest losses in 14 years, signaling smaller herds next year and a rebound in pork prices.

The 73.3 million hogs processed in eight months through August were the most in three years, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. Pork supply will drop to the lowest per-capita since 1975 next year, the USDA estimates. Hog futures that fell more than any other commodity since June 30 may surge 39 per¬cent in 12 months to as high as $1.055 a pound, based on the median of 12 analyst forecasts compiled by Bloomberg.

The State Fair of Texas opens today in Dallas with food, festivities and football as part of the 126th annual expo.

Organizers have chosen “Big and Bright” as this year’s theme. A Chinese Lantern Festival is part of the activities through Oct. 21 at Fair Park.

The NASA rover Curiosity has beamed back pictures of bedrock that suggest a fast-moving stream, possibly waist-deep, once flowed on Mars — a find that the mission’s chief scientist called exciting.

There have been previous signs that water existed on the red planet long ago, but the images released Thursday showing pebbles rounded off, likely by water, offered the most convincing evidence so far of an ancient streambed.

Ropes can be left at the door as participants compete Saturday at Baylor’s annual ChalkUp event.

The event is a mixed-format bouldering competition that will be held at the rock wall, also known as the Rock at the McLane Student Life Center.

Bouldering is a type of rock climbing that does not require ropes and harnesses, as climbers do not ascend past 12 feet.

The battle against breast cancer will enlist runners, activists, donors and multipurpose volunteers in a charity event.

The 2012 Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure will take place at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at Heritage Square in downtown Waco.

Registration will begin at 6:30 a.m., followed by a survivor breakfast and ceremony.

What’s done in the dark will come to the light.

Or not, according to the policies of the Student Senate.

During their exclusive executive session, senators discussed a new policy which would change the current grading system to include minuses as well as pluses.
Student Body President Kelly Rapp vetoed the Building a Better Bowling Alley legislation that passed last week.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged China’s top diplomat on Thursday to peacefully resolve increasingly tense maritime disputes with Japan and its smaller neighbors in Southeast Asia.
A senior U.S. official said Clinton had pressed Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on the importance of settling its conflicting claim with Japan over the Japanese-held Senkaku islands, called Diaoyu by China, along with numerous competing claims in the South China Sea with members of the Association of South East Asian Nations.