‘Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ seems to be the idea of the Passport to Waco program, but simplicity does not always mean big benefits for some vendors.

Passport to Waco is a simple concept: Students visit the seven businesses listed in the Passport and get it stamped from each place. In order to get it stamped, the student must make a purchase from the business. The booklet is then turned into the student government office by April 13 in exchange for a prize that has yet to be determined.

Ninety-five percent of state prisoners will re-enter society at some point, according to the National Reentry Resource Center.

The Waco Reintegration Roundtable is working to help ease the transition of those ex-convicts.

A gas explosion that sparked a massive, block-engulfing blaze in an upscale Kansas City shopping district injured 14 people, a city official said Tuesday evening, adding it is believed that an accident by a utility contractor may have caused the blast.

A Senate education panel spent hours Tuesday maligning the state’s standardized testing system, even questioning whether it’s appropriate to ask youngsters across sun-kissed South Texas math problems about the possibility of frost forming on their sidewalks.

By the end of the meeting, it seemed the exam stood only a snowball’s chance in Brownville of surviving the legislative session without a major overhaul.