Baylor News
In July, residents began moving into the newly renovated, nearly 80-year-old Kokernot Hall, which houses about 160 freshman women per year. From new bathrooms and common spaces to sidewalks and landscaping, the entire lot on the southwest corner of campus has been refreshed.
Pati Milligan spent 37 years in Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business, where colleagues remembered her as a dedicated teacher and mentor who helped shape the university’s information systems program.
Baylor Baptist Student Ministry’s newly built, 12,000-square-foot facility opened Wednesday. The building sits on the corner of 4th Street and Daughtrey Avenue, on a plot Baylor donated before construction began last fall. Inside is a congregation hall, multiple meeting spaces, a prayer room, a seminar room, a hall of offices for BSM’s employees and a new location of For Keeps Coffee.
The Baylor Board of Regents approved a $982.2 million operating budget for 2026-27 and a new master’s degree in artificial intelligence during its regular May meeting Thursday, as university leaders celebrated what is expected to be the second-best fundraising year in Baylor history.
Waco News
From 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, zookeepers at the Cameron Park Zoo rarely get a moment off their feet, spending the vast majority of their time training and caring for the more than 1,700 animals across over 300 species currently housed within the zoo’s boundaries.
In partnership with Waco Habitat for Humanity, Amy’s Attic will host its first “Cars for a Cause” event from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday at 1821 South New Road. The event will include a car show along with local food trucks and vendors, raising funds for the humanitarian efforts of Habitat for Humanity.
Lane Murphy, director of marketing and communications for the School of Engineering and Computer Science, and Amy Murphy, lecturer in the School of Social Work, bought the church building to try to preserve it as a historic landmark of the Black community.
Most are aware that giving a friend or family the ceremony they deserve requires the forking over of a sizable check — one that could easily cover a car or a year of rent. But it takes more than cash to make it happen, and among these other things is a form of capital people often take for granted: relationships. And for those who lack both, the days after death are not a story often told.
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.
