Baylor News
A Florida man’s bid to become the first illegal immigrant to obtain a law license in the United States met skepticism Tuesday from most of the state’s Supreme Court justices.
Jose Godinez-Samperio came to the U.S. with his parents on visitors’ visas when he was 9 years old, but the family never returned to Mexico. He graduated from New College in Florida, earned a law degree from Florida State University and passed the state bar exam last year.
“He’s somebody who has done everything he’s supposed to do. He complied with every rule,” Godinez-Samperio’s attorney and former American Bar Association president Talbot “Sandy” D’Alemberte, said after the hearing.
A North Texas man was looking for a car to steal “like a predator seeking prey” when he came upon a church, where he killed the pastor and beat the secretary before stealing her car, a prosecutor told jurors as the man’s capital murder trial began Monday.
Steven Lawayne Nelson, 25, faces the death penalty if convicted in last year’s death of the Rev. Clint Dobson, a 2008 graduate of Truett Seminary.
Former Baylor student and Waco resident Richard Kharmir Hurd, age 26, will be sentenced on Nov. 21 by U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith for attempted extortion of Washington Redskins quarterback and Baylor alum, Robert Griffin III.
Hurd pleaded guilty to federal charges of attempting to extort money from Griffin III. Hurd faces up to two years and three years in a federal prison for “interstate communication of a threat, and receipt of extortion proceeds” respectively.
For President Barack Obama, it is a situation that he has been in before. For GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, it is the first time that he has shared a national stage with his Democratic counterpart.
For both the incumbent and the challenger, it is a night that could define the next five weeks in the 2012 race for the White House.
Waco News
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.
