McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara on Tuesday asked county leaders to approve the purchase of 19 AR-15-style rifles to better arm sheriff’s deputies, saying they face a “very grave” threat from heavily armed criminals.

Gov. Rick Perry is arranging for state funds to temporarily pay for air traffic controllers at 13 Texas airports, including TSTC Waco, which are set to lose funding related to federal automatic spending cuts.

The Federal Aviation Administration recently announced plans to close 149 airport towers at small and mid-sized airports around the country beginning April 7 as part of automatic budget cuts related to the sequester, a set of across-the-board government spending cuts enacted after lawmakers in Washington, D.C., couldn’t agree to a compromise solution.

Big business and labor have struck a deal on a new low-skilled worker program, removing the biggest hurdle to completion of sweeping immigration legislation allowing 11 million illegal immigrants eventual U.S. citizenship, a person with knowledge of the talks said Saturday.

A Baylor fraternity reached out to students and the Waco community to help raise money for one of its own. Delta Sigma Pi hosted a fundraiser Tuesday and Wednesday to help Baylor graduate, Kelsey Warren. Warren was involved in a bad car accident on March 14. The fundraiser was hosted for Warren and her family to help out with travel and accommodation expenses. Warren’s parents live and work in Hanford, Calif.