Baylor News
Author and criminal justice reform advocate Bryan Stevenson will speak at the Academy Lecture Series at 6 p.m. today in Waco Hall. The series is hosted by The Academy for Leader Development and aims to attract speakers who can attest to the needs a leader must meet in today’s society.
Returning guest Tammy Kernodle sang and discussed the role of black women activists who used music as a nonviolent strategy Thursday evening in Castellaw Communication Center. “I ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around, gonna keep on walkin’, keep on talkin’, marchin’ on freedom’s way,” Kernodle sang, leading the audience as the female activists did 50 years ago.
Though one would struggle to find evidence of persecution of Christians on Baylor’s campus, students and researchers can visit the archives of the Keston Center for Religion, Politics and Society to learn what living in a society without religious freedom is like. The center holds thousands of books, journals, documents and testimonies on the persecution of churches and religious expression in former communist countries, mostly in the former USSR.
This police and fire incident information for the week of February 21 to February 27 was collected from reports at www.baylor.edu/dps and is provided freely as public information under the Clery Act.
Waco News
State News
Texas voters turned out in historic numbers Tuesday, delivering victories for State Rep. James Talarico and forcing a runoff between Attorney General Ken Paxton and incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the state’s U.S. Senate contest that claimed national attention. The total early-voting turnout of more than 2.5 million marks the highest ever for a midterm primary election. The results also kicked off the 2026 midterm cycle.
National
Politics
INTERNATIONAL
The Iran war is now in its 46th day. Iran responded by restricting access to Hormuz, which carries about a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil, and moving to toll vessels transiting the strait. Waco drivers are already feeling it. The local average hit $3.38 a gallon last week, up 21 cents in seven days and 75 cents year-over-year, according to AAA data.
Gas prices in Texas have surged more than 70 cents per gallon since the U.S. went to war with Iran three weeks ago. The near-total shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz has driven oil prices up more than 40%, pushing the national average to its highest point since 2023 and sending diesel past $5 for the first time in three years.
The largest U.S. military operation in the Middle East in decades unfolded as American and Israeli forces struck Iran Saturday, killing its supreme leader and triggering retaliatory strikes from the Gulf to Israel. The White House said the campaign is aimed at dismantling Iran’s military and toppling its government.
Dr. Joshua Alley, assistant professor of political science, said part of the Trump administration’s interest in Greenland has to do with America’s national security strategy.
