Baylor News
The White House has announced several changes to today’s memorial service that will honor the 10 firefighters killed April 17 in the West fertilizer explosion.
Doors will now open at 11 a.m. and close at 1:45 p.m. or whenever the Ferrell Center reaches capacity, which is 10,284 people. In a statement released Wednesday night, the university said it expects more than 4,000 uniformed first responders to attend and are planning for a capacity crowd.
Delta Delta Delta hosted a race of 1,440 ducks — rubber ducks, that is — who swam to the finish line Wednesday at the Baylor Marina to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Sorority members sold $5 tickets for a rubber duck so that on the day of the race ticket-holders could match their ticket to the winning ducks.
Applications for a teaching in Thailand program will be available to May graduates until this Saturday, less than a month before they are selected to leave for Bangkok.
The Chitralada Palace School teaching program will allow Baylor graduates the opportunity to teach English as a second language to Thai children from May 20, 2013 to March 31, 2014.
After 35 years of paper evaluations, students can grade their professors and classes online from home.
Course evaluations began Monday and will end May 8. Students can access their online evaluations through Blackboard and will be directed to a third-party vendor that compiles the data.
For security reasons, these evaluations will not be available for professors or department chairs to see until after final grades are posted, and there will be no identifying features on how students rate their professors in the evaluation, unless they identify themselves in the open comment sections.
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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.
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.

