Browsing: News

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.

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.

Gay rights advocates are making plans to get other states to join California in banning psychotherapy aimed at making gay teenagers straight, even as opponents prepared Monday to sue to overturn the first law in the nation to take aim at the practice.

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.

I’m sure you’re all devastated about the news of the worldwide pork shortage.

Yes, this includes our favorite meat, bacon.

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.

A federal judge gave his final approval Thursday to a $42.6 million class-action settlement between companies that made and installed government-issued trailers after hurricanes in 2005 and Gulf Coast storm victims who claim they were exposed to hazardous fumes while living in the shelters.

U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt ruled from the bench after hearing from attorneys who brokered a deal resolving nearly all remaining court claims over elevated levels of formaldehyde in trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency following hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Baylor @ West Virginia: This is by far the most difficult test the Bears will have faced this season. No. 9 West Virginia has a wildly raucous crowd in Morgantown, and the Bears will be forced to play an early game at 11 a.m. which will be a different experience for them this year. WVU quarterback Geno Smith has already thrown for 1,072 yards this season, and he has accounted for 13 touchdowns. The Mountaineers top offensive playmakers are Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey, who have 10 total touchdowns and more than 600 yards receiving. Baylor counters with a high-octane offense of its own with Nick Florence spreading the ball to Tevin Reese and Terrance Williams. Ultimately, WVU will be an extreme test for the Bears. Prediction: West Virginia 55, Baylor 38

Let’s salsa.

Or merengue.

Or cha-cha.

The Baylor Latin Dance Society is a student club at Baylor whose mission is to encourage student and community involvement in the Latin culture and to demonstrate and teach the different styles of Latin-influenced dances such as salsa, merengue, cha-cha and more.

Chemist Annie Dookhan was “Superwoman,” a colleague at a Massachusetts state crime lab used to joke. She seemed unstoppable in her quest to please prosecutors, police and her bosses, testing two to three times more drug samples than anyone else, working through lunch and not bothering to put in for overtime.

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the man behind a crudely produced anti-Islamic video that inflamed parts of the Middle East to be detained because he is a flight risk.

U.S. Central District Chief Magistrate Judge Suzanne Segal ordered Nakoula Basseley Nakoula held after authorities said he violated terms of his probation.

Pinball: fun childhood game or model of grief?

Dr. Margaret Baier, assistant professor of Family and Consumer Sciences at Baylor, suggests pinball as a metaphor for the stages of grief is more appropriate than that the traditional, five-stage model of grief.

Baier recently co-authored a case study with Ruth Buechsel which used a pinball as a metaphor to help bereaved patients examine the grieving process.

The University of California has agreed to pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit filed by demonstrators who were pepper-sprayed during an Occupy protest at UC Davis last fall, according to a preliminary settlement filed Wednesday.

The hard work of the Waco Police Department Victim Services Unit paid off when they recently won a national award.

The Waco Police Department Victim Services Unit is the International Association of Chiefs of Police 2012 Medium Agency Winner for Police Departments in the country. An award for each agency size — small, medium and large, which is based on the number of sworn officers within the police department — is given out each year.

Nearly 20 years after the Vermont and Texas Legislatures first agreed to have Vermont ship low-level radioactive waste to the Lone Star State, the first shipments of waste have been made.

A 30-gallon drum containing wastes from the University of Vermont and Burlington’s Fletcher Allen Health Care hospital was received and placed in its permanent home in a West Texas disposal site earlier this month, officials said Wednesday at a Statehouse meeting of the Texas-Vermont Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission.

For Jarod Myers, the war wasn’t over when he returned home from Iraq — he had his own internal war to fight.

Myers was clinically diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as a direct result of his experiences in Iraq.

There could be progress in breaking the standoff between American Airlines and its pilots, which appears to have caused a spike in canceled and delayed flights.
American officials have been saying they wanted to resume negotiations on a new labor contract, and they put that in writing this week at the request of the pilots’ union.

Fans of the annual Heart O’ Texas Fair & Rodeo can expect yet another action-packed rodeo, big-name headliners, popular carnival rides and the notorious fried food this year’s.

The fair and rodeo will be held at the Extraco Events Center from next Thursday through Oct. 13 with performers for all ages and musical styles.

There are many different ways to mark your place in a book: torn-out sheets of paper, sticky notes and dog-earing pages. Some even us bacon.

Anne Fadiman says so.

What a difference four years can make.

In 2008, college campuses were filled with campaign posters and political rallies — and frenzy. Remember “Obamamania?” This year, it’s difficult to find a college student who’s truly excited about the presidential race.

Having trouble adjusting?

A new program called MAP-Works has been launched this semester to assist freshmen and transfer students as they adapt to Baylor life.

The Hankamer School of Business’ undergraduate entrepreneurship program has been ranked No. 2 in the nation, up one spot from last year, and No. 1 in Texas, amid more than 2,000 schools surveyed by The Princeton Review for Entrepreneur Magazine.