With no Baylor football game to attend this weekend, students can spend their Saturday night at Common Grounds sipping coffee, listening to music and helping fight cancer.
Common Grounds will feature six local artists, including three Baylor students, at 8 p.m. to help Braden James Guess, a University of Texas at Austin sophomore.
The city of Waco is counting on area non-profits to help tally up the number of the people they assist.
The Heart of Texas Homelessness Management Information System is a database that local nonprofit assistance providers are using to keep their services data-informed.
Dichotomy Coffee & Spirits is kicking it up a notch, as preparations are being made to move the shop to a newly renovated location just down the street on Austin Avenue.
Dichotomy is currently located at 712 Austin Ave. inside the Croft Art Gallery. In October it will move to 508 Austin Ave., where it will expand its services to being both a coffee bar and a bar that serves adult beverages.
Look out, grackles! Planes, helicopters and skydivers will fill the Waco sky this Saturday as Texas State Technical College hosts the first air show its had in seven years.
The Heart of Texas Airshow will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday at the Texas State Technical College campus airport on Campus Drive. Ticket prices range from around $6 to $50 and can be purchased via heartoftexasairshow.com
The State of Texas pulled the trigger on new regulations for the Concealed Handgun License class that cut eight hours from the mandatory classroom time, shot the written test in half and kept the same caliber of instruction.
The new regulations changed the mandatory CHL classroom time from the previous 15 hours maximum and 10 hours minimum to six hours maximum and four hours minimum.
For the 25th year, World Mandate comes to Waco today as a conference centered on faith, worship and action.
Carl Gulley, executive producer of World Mandate and college pastor at Antioch Community Church, explained that the event is designed to change lives and the world. “It’s an opportunity for people to really meet with God in a personal and powerful way,” Gulley said. “Our theme is ‘everybody do something.’”
Baylor’s athletics department has invited the entire West community to the Big 12 opening game Oct. 5 free of charge. The Bears will take on West Virginia University’s Mountaineers.
“Baylor has been a great friend to the West community and we want them to know we won’t forget about them,” said Nick Joos, executive associate athletics director for external affairs.
The Texas state government is using the Rainy Day Fund instead of general revenue to cover expenses such as water and transportation, said State Sen. Brian Birdwell on Tuesday.
Birdwell spoke during a Central Texas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce luncheon on LaSalle Avenue. He said he is concerned with the way the state is handling its budget.
Four years of planning for the Baylor Bound program culminated Monday as Baylor President Ken Starr and Dr. Johnette McKown, McLennan Community College President, signed the program into existence.
“Baylor’s partnership is critical to McLennan and to the people in McLennan County,” McKown said. “Our Board of Trustees and I really value our longstanding relationship and we look forward to even a closer and better relationship as we go forward. We also know that the future and quality of our community and state are dependent on just these kind of allowances and we know that our students will be successful because of that.”
The Lake Waco area is home to southern bald eagles, and the community is working to construct a 50-foot nesting tower to ensure that the eagles always have a place to inhabit in the area.
Janet Wallace, president of the Central Texas Audubon Society, said 20 years ago bald eagles were discovered nesting near the shores of Lake Waco. The Audubon Society is concerned, Wallace said, because the eagles have been selecting dead cottonwood trees to build their nests in.
The Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative draws researchers and employees to a site that has been largely vacant for 27 years.
“The research that has been going on here and will go on here in the future has the potential to affect humankind,” Lori Fogleman, assistant vice president for media communications, said. “I hope that is not much of an exaggeration and I really don’t think it is. The future is just limitless here at the BRIC.”
The American Red Cross has allocated $295,000 to long-term relief in West, five months after a fertilizer plant explosion killed 15 people. The Red Cross announced this gift on its website on Friday.
Those who work closely with recovery in West say the city is still in need, though opinions differ as to which areas of need are most pressing.
The money the Red Cross is giving comes from donors all over the country, said Bristel Bowen, regional director of communications for the Central Texas region of the American Red Cross.
Baylor’s Air Force and Army ROTC detachments and Veterans of Baylor will host the first Waco Wounded Veterans 5K Run at 8 a.m. on Saturday at the Lake Waco Dam.
The cost to register is $30 for civilians and $25 for students, veterans and active military. Online registration is open until midnight on Thursday. Day-of Registration will be available as well.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Nicole Powers, who began planning the race last April, said she had two goals in mind: to raise as much money to the Wounded Warrior Project as possible, and to start a tradition that will last years after she leaves Baylor.
It will be easier for pedestrians to get around Waco as Waco city officials begin plans to extend the Brazos Riverwalk.
The city of Waco has recently received money from the federally funded program called the Transportation Enhancement Program, said a staff member of the Texas Department of Transportation who did not wish to be identified. Money is given under the Transportation Enhancement Program to support local projects that have a strong link to transportation.
“It was created to provide funds for projects that do a little above and beyond what the department’s used to doing,” the staff member said.
The National Zoo might have a baby panda, but Cameron Park Zoo has Aztec, the miracle baby ocelot.
Aztec was born on May 31 at Cameron Park Zoo, and is considered a miracle baby because of the extraordinary circumstances surrounding his birth.
Cameron Park zookeeper John Abernathy said part of the reason Aztec was a miracle was because his mother Maya was so old when she had her first child.
In response to the city of Waco’s new ordinance that requires all pets to be microchipped, the Animal Birth Control Clinic will be offering a free microchip clinic from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at their location on 3238 Clay Ave.
The new Waco city ordinance requires all cats and dogs of Waco residents to be spayed or neutered and microchipped.
This must be done by Jan. 1, 2014, said Carrie Kuehl, executive director of the Animal Birth Control Clinic. The city of Waco is sponsoring Sunday’s free microchipping clinic, Kuehl said, to meet the needs of citizens.
A drug ring distributing $30,000 to $40,000 of high-grade marijuana monthly near Baylor campus HAS resulted in four arrests and an investigation of more than 50 Baylor students.
McGregor, Lorena and Baylor Police departments, in cooperation with the Drug Enforcement Administration, served two warrants less than one mile from campus on Aug. 28. Marijuana, prescription pills, packaging materials, weapons and more than $12,000 were found in the two residences, according to the McGregor Police Department. The customer base of the suspected distributors is the Baylor student body, said McGregor Police Department’s Criminal Investigator Lt. Joe Coy.
Local police arrested four men Wednesday near Baylor campus after searching two homes in connection to an extensive marijuana drug ring.
After three months of following leads and working with Drug Enforcement Administration officers, McGregor Police and Lorena Police served two warrants with the cooperation of the Baylor Police Department. While McGregor and DEA officers handled the the first search warrant Wednesday morning, Baylor police officers handled the second search warrant later that day, said Baylor Police Chief Jim Doak.
More than 40 Waco first responders who aided the city of West during the April 17 explosion were honored by the Waco Police Department. West Mayor Tommy Muska and Waco Police Department Chief Brent Stroman handed out the awards, which included several Medals of Valor, during the second quarterly ceremony Thursday.
Baylor students, faculty and staff who have returned to Waco this fall with pet cats or dogs will face new regulations concerning spaying and neutering.
On Aug. 20, the Waco City Council unanimously approved the second reading of a new ordinance making it official that all Waco pet owners will be required to spay or neuter dogs and cats older than four months. All Waco pet owners are also now required to implant their animals with microchips, a radio frequency identification device placed under the skin. Animals with certain health problems, used by government agencies and animals owned by breeders are exempt from certain measures of the new ordinance.
Kolaches, music, Polka dancing and more are lined up for three days to honor West’s Czech heritage through the annual Westfest.
Almost five months ago, an explosion from a fertilizer plant rocked West, causing injuries, devastation to nearby homes and casualties. In spite of the tragedy that took place, president of Westfest John Hurtick said the hosts of Westfest still want to focus on the celebration aspect of the event.
During the months following the April 17 fertilizer plant explosion in West that destroyed 100 homes and killed 15 people, the Baylor community has continued to offer support through a physical presence and large monetary donations.
The university created a West Relief Fund the week the explosion happened and by July 10, the fund had raised more than $290,000, the entirety of which was donated to the First Baptist Church of West.
Cameron Park will be sectioned off with roadblocks for the next nine months and visitors will have to follow posted detour routes to reach their destinations.
Since the first week of August, Cameron Park Drive has undergone a $1 million reclamation project to repair the uneven road.
The entire project, which will be broken into three phases, will continue through May 2014.
Beginning at Redwood Shelter, 2300 Cameron Park Drive, and concluding two miles down at Lover’s Leap, the city of Waco’s engineering department will implement an eco-friendly, three-phase project to repair the road.
All traffic trying to enter the inner parameter of the park is being rerouted.
Waco locals Chip and Joanna Gaines will be lighting up television screens across the nation this coming March 2014 with their new HGTV show, “Fixer Upper,” as they renovate homes in the Waco/Dallas area needing tender loving care.
“The first rule of real estate is location, location, location, but what happens when a buyer’s only option in the right location is a house with dreadful design and a clunky layout?” HGTV asks in its description of the new show on its website, www.hgtv.com.
The wheels are in motion to develop a part of Waco that Baylor students and Waco citizens alike will be able to enjoy.
The Brazos Riverfront project has been proposed by the city of Waco and taken up by developers Rick Sheldon and Joe Beard. The project would bring in business to the Brazos riverfront area and the Waco economy.
The H-E-B grocery store on 1102 Speight Ave., along with the H-E-B location on Valley Mills Drive and Dutton Avenue, closed its doors for good Thursday. It left customers from Baylor and the surrounding community to adjust their shopping plans in accordance with H-E-B’s newest installment in Waco: an H-E-B Plus The store off of I-35 and Valley Mills opened Friday. H-E-B Plus is located at 1821 South Valley Mills Dr in Waco.
College tuition inflation rates historically increase two times faster than the inflation rate of the dollar, according to Simple Tuition Services 2013. With rates such as these, students may struggle to pay for college.
Baylor’s tuition was $18,430 a year with fees in 2003, and in 2008, the tuition was, with fees, $26,234. Baylor University’s current tuition is roughly $36,137 per semester, with estimated fees attached. Some simply cannot afford to pay.
Investigators working to figure out what caused a massive, deadly fertilizer plant explosion in Texas have talked to more than 370 people and received more than 200 tips as they continue to search for a breakthrough.
Two weeks after the April 17 blast that killed at least 14 people, agents compare their work to solving a puzzle or completing an archaeological dig.
On the night of July 19, 2012, when Baylor’s regents approved construction for the $250 million Baylor Stadium, all the stars were aligned.
On May 11, 2012, Baylor approved a new strategic vision “Pro Futuris,” a vision that, in broad strokes, called for growth. The 2011-2012 sports season, what ESPN.com called “one of the greatest combined athletic seasons in NCAA history,” brought Baylor into the national spotlight.
One local organization seeks to tackle the problem of modern day slavery one race at a time.
The27project will hold its first-ever Waco Jog for Justice at 7 a.m. Saturday starting in Heritage Square. Proceeds from the Waco race will go to Educate Nica, an organization that provides education and care to children in Nicaragua vulnerable to the slave trade.
