About 2,000 teachers, students, parents and school administrators rallied at the state Capitol on Saturday, demanding that the Legislature reverse $5.4 billion in cuts to public education amid new data that Texas now spends less per-pupil than almost anywhere else in America.

Led by thunderous high school marching bands whose drumbeats echoed off surrounding buildings, protesters marched briefly through downtown Austin and then gathered for the annual demonstration organized by Save Texas Schools and other advocacy groups.

The Justice Department stayed silent when Indiana and Washington state strengthened their voter identification rules. But when Georgia and Texas lawmakers wanted to do the same, they needed federal approval.

Now, this different treatment for different states will face a make-or-break test at the Supreme Court. In a potentially landmark case, justices on Wednesday will consider whether it’s time to dismantle a key plank of the historic 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Tony Stewart was horrified as he looked in the mirror while taking the checkered flag in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Saturday. The scene that played out behind him was unlike anything he had seen in his decades-long career in motorsports.

At least 28 fans were injured by flying debris from rookie Kyle Larson’s Chevrolet, which went hurtling airborne into the wall and broke into pieces on the front stretch of Daytona International Speedway.

The No. 23 Baylor Bears defeated the No. 2 UCLA Bruins 5-0 in the second game of their weekend series on Saturday at Baylor Ballpark.

Junior right-handed pitcher Dillon Newman pitched five scoreless innings for the Bears. Then senior right-handed pitcher Kolt Browder started the top of the sixth and got two outs before getting into a bases-loaded jam. Sophomore right-handed pitcher Ryan Smith came to the rescue and struck out UCLA’s second basemen Trent Chatterton to end the Bruins’ threat. Smith went the remaining three and one-third innings on the mound to lead the Bears to a 5-0 shutout victory over the Bears.

The No. 1 Baylor Lady Bears’ uniforms shined gold, as did Baylor as they routing Texas 67-47. Among the crowd were full of former Lady Bears back for alumni weekend. Baylor also celebrated its third consecutive Big 12 Regular Season Championship, becoming the first team in Big 12 history to do so.

“It’s enjoyable, it’s for me again,” head coach Kim Mulkey said. “I enjoy people who experience this for the first time, and there were many fans out there today that were here for the first time. They came and said this is my first to be here and watch a game. I enjoy it for all the players, but I especially enjoy it for the freshman when it’s their first time to be in that environment.”

You know those tall, leggy beauties that normally carry the Oscar trophies so the stars can present them?

They’ve been replaced this year by aspiring filmmakers. Six college students from across the country won a contest to help present the Oscar statuettes this year.

“This tradition of the buxom babe that comes out and brings the trophy to the presenter to give to the winner seemed to be very antiquated and kind of sexist, too,” said Neil Meron, co-producer of this year’s Academy Awards. “They’re just there to be objectified. Why can’t we have people who actually care about film and are the future of film be the trophy presenters?”

Texas prisoners who complete an intense business entrepreneurship program while behind bars will earn a green and gold stamp of approval for their studies.

Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business now will award certificates of entrepreneurship to state inmates who successfully finish six months of business courses through the Prison Entrepreneurship Program, a nonprofit initiative based at the Cleveland Correctional Center state jail, located northwest of Houston.

The entrepreneurship program, which started in 2004, teaches inmates to prepare business plans as a means of readying them for careers after they are released from prison.

The No. 25 Baylor softball team defeated North Texas 8-3 on Saturday after Baylor responded with runs after being down 1-3. After leaving 18 runners stranded in the double-headers on Friday, Baylor started slow again leaving four stranded before showing up with their power offense.

Senior infielder Kelsi Kettler had a big day with three doubles on her first three at-bats of the season. She also had some key defensive plays in critical moments, making the most of her start. Junior catcher Clare Hosack also hit a three-run, go-ahead homer to give Baylor the lead. Center fielder Kathy Shelton hit a triple in the fifth inning to put Baylor in position to win.

The Baylor Bears lost 4-3 in the first game of a three-game weekend series to UCLA on Friday night.

Senior right-handed pitcher Max Garner started on the mound for the Bears. In the top of the first inning, Garner got off to a quick start by getting UCLA’s leadoff hitter Eric Filia to groundout to second and by striking out Kevin Kramer. UCLA utilized clutch two-out hitting to start generating offense. Shortstop Pat Valaika roped a double down the left field line. Designated hitter Cody Regis singled to center to score Valaika from second to give UCLA a 1-0 lead.

Credit ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Britain’s government bond rating one notch from the top AAA to AA1 Friday, saying sluggish growth and rising debt were weakening the country’s medium-term outlook.

Treasury chief George Osborne said the blow only redoubled his resolve “to deliver our economic recovery plan,” based on deep spending cuts.

Unlike the last couple of games, the No. 25 Baylor softball team had trouble generating offense after their dominant night on Thursday. Baylor continued the Texas Shootout in a double-header beginning with Sam Houston State and finished with UT Arlington. Baylor’s defense did their job forcing back-to-back shutouts, as the pitching stayed consistent to avoid losses. Baylor started slow in both games, but managed to have key hits, allowing them to score.

State transportation officials are rolling out several changes to Interstate 35 construction zones in Central Texas in response to a string of major wrecks and deaths.

Lower speeds, rumble strips and more warning signs will mark work zones along I-35 in the Waco area and parts of Hill, Bell and Falls counties.

Some new 60-mph speed limit signs are up in Hill County, but most of the new safety features will go live in the spring, Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman Jodi Wheatley said.

Federal officials say air traffic control centers at 25 smaller Texas airports could close or see hours reduced if automatic federal spending cuts take effect next week.

Officials on Friday said travelers should expect delays when the cutbacks begin in April.

The bridge between art and science grew smaller for the medical humanities program on Thursday.

The DeBakey Medical Foundation gave $500,000 to Baylor to increase the Michael E. DeBakey, Selma DeBakey, and Lois DeBakey Endowed Scholarship Fund for Medical Humanities majors. The gift brings the total amount that has been donated to the fund to one million dollard. The ceremony was held on the second floor atrium in the Baylor Sciences Building. It featured speakers from the DeBakey Medical Foundation, Baylor faculty and five scholarship recipients.

Rattlesnakes can be found in many areas of Texas and are a part of southern folklore.

Oglesby, a town southwest of Waco, hosts a yearly festival to catch these serpents in the hopes of controlling the rattlesnake population.

The 44th Annual Rattlesnake Roundup, hosted by the Oglesby Lions Club, will start at 7 a.m. Saturday and will continue until Sunday afternoon.

The No 1. Lady Bears won the Big 12 title after losses by Oklahoma and Iowa State on Sunday, but they still need to work to secure a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Under head coach Kim Mulkey, the Lady Bears are now 150-10 in regular season, non-conference games.

Baylor will face off against Texas at noon on Saturday in the Ferrell Center.

Baylor’s about to experience an influx of youth.

Starting at 6 p.m. today, Baylor will host many youth choir members for the Baylor YouthCUE Festival hosted by the Center for Christian Music Studies.

This event is expected to have nearly 400 registered singers and is sponsored by YouthCUE, the nation’s leading church youth choir organization. This will be the eight annual festival that Baylor has hosted.

Ever since he was 9 years old, Lorena High School senior Brett Hendrix has loved playing the guitar. By the time he was 13, Hendrix had already started his own band, the Brett Hendrix Band. Today, Hendrix’s band performs weekly at many different locations around Waco.

“I started playing in different places when I was 13 and drew a quick interest in having a full band rather than just me playing alone,” he said. “My brother was going to MCC and happened to have these two guys that wanted to start playing. I found a drummer and sure enough we kicked it off that summer.”

A man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend by dousing her with gasoline and setting her on fire was executed in Texas on Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court refused his final appeal.

Carl Blue, 48, was condemned to die for attacking Carmen Richards-Sanders at her apartment in Bryan, about 100 miles northwest of Houston, in September 1994. He also tossed gasoline on a man in the apartment, but the man survived and testified against Blue.

Blue claimed it was a prank gone wrong, but prosecutors said it was an intentional attack sparked by jealously.

Drew Peterson — the swaggering former suburban Chicago police officer who gained notoriety after his much-younger fourth wife vanished in 2007 — was sentenced to 38 years in prison on Thursday for murdering his third wife.

Illinois does not have the death penalty, and the 59-year-old Peterson had faced a maximum 60-year prison term. The judge gave him four years’ credit for time he has served since his arrest.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan is talking with school districts about how to free them from unworkable parts of the federal No Child Left Behind law, signaling he is open to an approach he long tried to avoid.

The Education Department has given 34 states and the District of Columbia permission to ignore parts of the Bush-era No Child Left Behind Law and eight others have waiver applications pending ahead of next week’s application deadline. But that still leaves eight states — giants California and Texas among them — operating under the law and set to fall short of its requirements, such as all students being proficient in math and reading by 2014.

Historians say the lesson of history is that there’s no such thing as a foreseeable future. Honest Oscar forecasters would have to agree.

When Emma Stone and Seth MacFarlane announced the Best Picture nominees Jan. 10, pundits immediately declared a front-runner. “The contest has come down to one film, and it’s ‘Lincoln,’ an excellent, very popular movie by a great director on a subject that inspires, uplifts, redeems. … It’s the perfect Academy movie,” wrote Wesley Morris, the Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic for the website Grantland.

From barbells to benches, a trio of Baylor students are out to help people reach their full potential.

Linden, Mich., junior Alex Barbaretta; Colorado Springs, Colo., senior Eric Press; and Linden, Mich., sophomore Shawna Tharp are a part of Barbell Fitness, a team dedicated to spreading awareness of health and fitness and bringing the tools to help people succeed.

Texas A&M University officials are investigating a bomb threat at Kyle Field that prompted officials to issue a “Code Maroon” safety advisory and close the stadium and nearby buildings, displacing about 700 people.

An A&M statement Wednesday says the football stadium and adjacent buildings that were evacuated will remain closed for the rest of the day.

The Dallas-based up-and-coming band Air Review is coming to Common Grounds on March 2 to play some songs from its new album “Low Wishes.”

The band currently has a single, “America’s Son,” playing on KXT, a Dallas radio station, and has been getting lots of media attention from organizations such as The Dallas Morning News, and the Denton-Record Chronicle.

The Baylor Bears lost to the Iowa State Cyclones 87-82 Wednesday at the Ferrell Center on a night where the Cyclones made 11 three-pointers to sink the Bears. Jackson led the Bears in scoring with 30.

“This is a tough loss for us,” Baylor head coach Scott Drew said. “Iowa State shot 54 percent from the field. That and our 55 percent from the free throw line was the difference in the game. 82 points is enough points to win, but the other team shoots 54 percent and scores 87. Defensively tonight, that was disappointing.”

The No. 25 Baylor softball team will look to improve its record on its first road test against Texas State at 7 p.m. today in San Marcos for the Texas Shootout.

Baylor started the season slowly, despite winning the Getterman Classic on Feb. 10. Their offense couldn’t get going, which put more pressure on the defense and pitching, but Baylor responded the following weekend with offensive speed and power as they got more aggressive and began hitting balls. This contributed to their 5-0 sweep of the Miken Classic, putting them at 10-2 for the season.

Police officers could be charged with a crime for enforcing new federal gun control laws in Texas under a proposal by a lawmaker who acknowledges the measure likely would end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Rep. Steve Toth, a newly elected Republican from The Woodlands, said his proposal would prevent officers from carrying out any future federal orders to confiscate assault rifles and ammunition magazines.

‘Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ seems to be the idea of the Passport to Waco program, but simplicity does not always mean big benefits for some vendors.

Passport to Waco is a simple concept: Students visit the seven businesses listed in the Passport and get it stamped from each place. In order to get it stamped, the student must make a purchase from the business. The booklet is then turned into the student government office by April 13 in exchange for a prize that has yet to be determined.

A gas explosion that sparked a massive, block-engulfing blaze in an upscale Kansas City shopping district injured 14 people, a city official said Tuesday evening, adding it is believed that an accident by a utility contractor may have caused the blast.