Browsing: Waco Updates

Music, contests, dancing, and prize handouts are a few of the many activities that will be happening at 9 a.m. on May 10 at Waco’s BSR Cable Park.

Runners of all ages will gather, decked out in all white, for the crazy and colorful Color Me Rad 5K run.

Richland Mall is getting the first makeover it’s had in 18 years. By November, the mall’s owners will have made millions of dollars of renovations in an attempt to enhance customers’ shopping experience.

Putting pencils in the hands of underprivileged children around the world, giving them the chance to write their way to a better future — that’s the motivation behind one student organization in Waco, Upward Bound.

A Texas Army post has razed the building where a former psychiatrist carried out one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history, with plans to put up trees and a memorial in its place.

A Baylor freshman was in stable condition Monday after falling from Texas State Highway Loop 340 bridge onto the highway median of Interstate 35.

Lt. Tracy O’Connor, the Robinson Police Department spokesman, said a passing motorist called Robinson police at 7:22 a.m., alerting them of a stalled vehicle with emergency lights flashing on Loop 340 near Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center. Police arrived at 7:25 a.m. and a man’s body was found below the bridge near where the vehicle was stalled.

Those driving down Bosque Boulevard might notice a large sign at the intersection of 25th Street that reads “Waco Baha’i Center” standing over what was, years ago, a pharmacy. Baha’is have been a part of Waco for more than 50 years, and to this day, people of the Baha’i faith are still active in the Waco community.

Rhonda Milem didn’t know that families who don’t have a place to live sometimes stay in the Sandman Motel on Franklin Avenue until she took a job at the Dollar General just down the street.

“I see a lot of kids come here after school,” she said.

Children and their families, living in the area, frequent the store where Milem works.

Midway Independent School District is changing the way its students learn by issuing an Apple iPad to each child in kindergarten through 12th grade. The introduction of these devices into students’ hands is a point of contention for some people, and the district is attempting to address the issues.

The sun set behind the Washington Street bridge Monday evening, while Waco citizens gathered to remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at a candlelight vigil on the east side of the Brazos River.

Bryce Ashley Reed, the West paramedic who turned from town hero to arrestee after the explosion April 17, has begun his 21-month prison sentence for illegal firearm possession and obstruction of justice.

Reed pleaded guilty in October to both charges after his attorney, Jonathan Sibley, filed for an extension in the plea bargaining deadline with federal prosecutors. Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Walter Smith said Reed must serve 21 months for each charge concurrently. He will also have 3 years of supervised release when his sentence is complete.

When someone becomes the victim of a sexual assault, they are faced with some hard choices that are not easy to make. However, those decisions can have long-lasting impact. One of the major choices they have to make it whether to go to the hospital after the sexual assault.

When a victim of sexual assault goes to the hospital within 72-96 hours after the sexual assault has occurred, the collection of a rape kit by a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) can occur with the victims consent.

In the middle of a nation adjusting to a new set of social laws, church is meant to be a place where believers can come together to worship.

“Race is still a very powerful factor,” Dr. James SoRelle professor of African-American history said. “I don’t think we live in a post-racial world.”

Lecturer of sociology Dr. Christopher Pieper said deficits in diversity of churches, especially in the south, can be seen today.

Hesitant to be pegged as a theologian, Dr. Jimmy Dorrell, a part-time lecturer at George W. Truett Theological Seminary, said his ideology stems from an urgency to maintain a practical Christian faith and not from a desire to engage in theological discussion.

“I’ve always hated intelligent, fluffy theology,” he said. “If it’s true, I have to learn how to live out of it.”

Waco weather to some people seems erratic and spastic since it can oscillate from warm to cold temperatures throughout a given week.

According to local Waco specialists, is because of Waco’s location on the globe.

“There’s this constant battle of cold fronts that want to push down, and at the same time we get this maritime tropical air flowing off the Gulf of Mexico,” geology professor Dr. Donald Greene said. “You know the saying: ‘If you don’t like the weather, just wait a few days and it’ll change.’”

The investigation of drug distribution near Baylor’s campus continues as three more people sit in McLennan County Jail after a drug ring that targeted college students was raided Friday, said Lt. Joe Coy, the criminal investigator for the McGregor Police Department.

Le’Ann Keogh Koss, 60, Larry Phillip Koss, 58, and Connor Phillip Koss, 25, were arrested in the 5200 block of Chaparral near Lake Waco after McGregor officials obtained a search warrant, according to a press release by the McGregor Police Department.

Don’t talk to strangers.

This statement has echoed in classrooms and gymnasiums all across the country for years as children are taught about the dangers they have to watch out for. Children are warned of “stranger danger.” They are taught from a young age that strangers are out to harm them and that they should never talk to or go with someone that they do not know. Children are told there are strangers out there that will touch them in places they are not allowed to touch.

A Fort Hood soldier was fined after being convicted of a misdemeanor in a case where gun-rights advocates protested his arrest.

U.S. Army Master Sgt. Christopher Grisham did not get jail time after being convicted Tuesday by a Belton jury of interference with the duties of an officer, the Temple Daily Telegram reported. The jury gave him a $2,000 fine. Grisham has said he’ll appeal both the fine and the conviction.

When the McLennan County Commissioners Board began planning to change district lines, they hired two lawyers they have trusted time and again with this significant task.

These two lawyers also happen to be Baylor Law School professors.

As part of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, today the McLennan County Hunger Coalition and the Heart of Texas Homeless Coalition are asking people to donate to an all-day food drive that will take place at multiple locations, such as H-E-B, Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club locations.

The food will go to local food pantries.

With turkey on the mind, runners are lacing up for the eighth Annual Central Texas Turkey Trot, which will benefit West Independent School District libraries destroyed during the April 17 West Fertilizer Plant explosion that leveled hundreds of buildings.

Registration for the event will begin at 7:30 a.m. Saturday at Redwood Shelter in Cameron Park.

The race will start at 9 a.m. It will include a 5K and 1K, 3.1 and 0.62 miles, respectively.

Mission Waco is giving the less fortunate a chance to celebrate Thanksgiving Day with dinner and worship at their annual Thanksgiving Meal With the Homeless.

Starting at 11 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day at the Meyer Center in Waco, Mission Waco is inviting the homeless people of the community to come and partake in traditional festivities.

Woodway’s Chief of Police Yost Zakhary flew in from Washington, D.C., the night before, fulfilling his duties as the president and face of an international organization. He then switched into teacher mode as he wrote an email to one of his Baylor students around 4:15 a.m. Later at his office in Woodway, he was supposed to have a casual sitting with the mayor, but instead the two gazed over a 5-foot-long map of their town and discussed beautification and savings. His train of thought seems to only go in one direction – forward.

The gobbles of 100 fluffy, white turkeys ring out at World Hunger Relief Inc. as the nonprofit prepares for the flock to be sold this week for Thanksgiving feasts.

Each year in preparation for Thanksgiving, World Hunger Relief raises 100 turkeys in a manner unlike conventional meat company facilities, said Sarah Abdelmessih, livestock intern at the organization. The farm is almost sold out, Abdelmessih said, as customers place reservations on the birds in advance.

Turkeys will be butchered and processed Thursday and distributed Friday and Saturday.

A 12 year old girl once found her 6 month old baby sister Hannah dead in her crib. The girl was Rachel Craig, an alumna from 2001.

The loss of her sister, along with other losses of infants Craig had heard about from friends planted a seed for a ministry in Craig’s heart.

In 2011, this seed grew to fruition in the form of Cradled.

Food stamp benefits were cut more than 47 million Americans Friday as Congress failed to renew temporary funding under the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.

With the holiday season approaching, food banks across Waco are making plans to meet the growing needs of the community with a special emphasis on food insecurity, which refers to availability of food and one’s access to it.