Baylor News

Running the Line is one of the most celebrated Baylor traditions for freshmen and new transfer students. The 50-year-old tradition, though, faces new students with challenges like dehydration, heat exhaustion and dog-piling over their fellow classmates.

Waco News

The Heart O’ Texas Fair and Rodeo parade will be held at 6 p.m. today in downtown Waco. The parade will mark the beginning of the Heart O’ Texas Fair and Rodeo, which will be held from October 4 to 12 at the Extraco Events Center. The parade, one of Waco’s largest, will consist of more than 100 entries including the Baylor Riding Associations which will be riding five of their horses.

The Animal Birth Control Clinic, a nonprofit organization in Waco, is in need of funding after exhausting its biannual Trap-Neuter-Return grant of $56,000 this month. The grant was written by the Heart of Texas Feral Friends, a program that is part of the Humane Society of Central Texas.

The battle against breast cancer will enlist runners, activists, donors and multipurpose volunteers in a charity event.

The 2012 Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure will take place at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at Heritage Square in downtown Waco.

Registration will begin at 6:30 a.m., followed by a survivor breakfast and ceremony.

The hard work of the Waco Police Department Victim Services Unit paid off when they recently won a national award.

The Waco Police Department Victim Services Unit is the International Association of Chiefs of Police 2012 Medium Agency Winner for Police Departments in the country. An award for each agency size — small, medium and large, which is based on the number of sworn officers within the police department — is given out each year.

State News

Beyond the races for U.S. Senate and governor, Texas voters will decide who fills several statewide offices this November — positions that oversee everything from the state’s finances to its oil and gas industry.

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.