Baylor News
Founded 12 years ago to combat human trafficking in Waco, Unbound Now has become a global nonprofit organization. Unbound executive director Kristi Hayes said it started with a small local church group that refused to let the issue go unnoticed in the community.
President Linda Livingstone doesn’t know if she ever would have found Baylor if it had not been for her doctoral dissertation adviser at Oklahoma State University, who, knowing how deeply she prioritized her Christian faith, recommended she apply for a faculty position at Baylor.
Although it was first established in an effort to celebrate the academic success of transfer students who had a 3.5 GPA or higher after their first semester, Baylor’s chapter of the Tau Sigma National Honor Society now serves as a place of connection and community.
Texas was one of 15 states to hold its Super Tuesday primary election for local, state and federal offices on March 5 — and it saw incumbents cruise to victory.
Waco News
One of Baylor’s own will soon take on the role of campaign chair for United Way of Waco-McLennan County.
Student government is collecting box tops to benefit J.H. Hines Elementary School for the second year, this time to raise money for the school’s library.
Theologian Frederich Buechner said that vocation “is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” For two Baylor alumni, this has proven to be all too true.
The Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce is involved in a development effort to revitalize economic activity in Waco. The plans for economic development include a five-year plan and a 20- to 40-year redevelopment plan.
State News
President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, the former Army major convicted of killing 13 people in the 2009 Fort Hood mass shooting, with the execution scheduled for 1 p.m. Dec. 3 at the Central Texas military installation, roughly an hour from Baylor’s campus.
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.
