His focus remains on building a community movement to save five schools from closure by the state.
The state’s behind-the-scenes role in fueling local property values; why more and more educators believe state leaders are hostile to public education; and the “yellowbelly politicians” reducing state funding of schools, “forcing higher taxes on local homeowners to make up the difference.”
McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna, 45, declined to respond to requests that he sit down with the Trib editorial board to answer questions about his tenure.
Barry Johnson, 61, an attorney who grew up in Waco and returned to his hometown from Dallas in March to care for his mother, is a Republican candidate for McLennan County district attorney, a position occupied for two terms by Abel Reyna. Whoever wins the March 6 GOP primary election will fa…
Marianne Arnold, 68, a retired accountant and plant-tissue researcher at Texas A&M University living in Kurten, is a Democratic candidate for state representative in Texas House District 12. The seat is occupied by Republican Kyle Kacal of College Station. Early voting in the Democratic …
Chris Miller, 25, of Waco, investigator for the local Daniel/Stark law firm and a Baylor University graduate, is a Democratic candidate for state representative in Texas House District 12. The seat is occupied by Republican Kyle Kacal of College Station who is running for re-election. Early …
Dale Mantey, 28, of Rockdale, a doctoral student in epidemiology at the University of Texas School of Public Health, is a Democratic candidate running for Congress in Congressional District 17. The seat is currently occupied by Republican Congressman Bill Flores. Early voting in the Democrat…
Rick Kennedy, 55, of Austin, a software engineer who has lived in Central Texas a decade and grew up in Massachusetts, is a Democratic candidate running for Congress in Congressional District 17. The seat is currently occupied by Republican Congressman Bill Flores. Early voting in the Democr…
Mel Priest, 53, of Speegleville, an accountant with Darden Building Materials, a Republican and a lifelong resident, seeks to unseat McLennan County Precinct 4 Commissioner Ben Perry in the Republican primary election. Early voting in the Republican primary election begins on Feb. 20 with El…
McLennan County Precinct 4 Commissioner Ben Perry, 55, of Woodway, an insurance agent, a former police officer and a Republican, seeks re-election to what would be his third four-year term. Early voting in the Republican primary election begins on Feb. 20 with Election Day on March 6.
Pat Chisolm-Miller, 59, of Waco, administrative assistant to McLennan County Precinct 2 Commissioner Lester Gibson, is a Democratic candidate vying to succeed Gibson upon his retirement in January 2019. Early voting for the Democratic primary election begins on Feb. 20 with Election Day on March 6.
Norman Manning, 68, of Waco, a Waco Independent School District trustee and Army veteran who served in military intelligence, is a Democratic candidate for McLennan County Precinct 2 commissioner. Early voting for the Democratic primary election begins on Feb. 20 with Election Day on March 6.
Gina Ford, 44, of Axtell, project manager for Waco’s Animal Birth Control Clinic and former businesswoman, is a Republican candidate for McLennan County Precinct 2 commissioner. Early voting for the Republican primary election begins on Feb. 20 with Election Day on March 6.
Donis “D.L.” Wilson, 53, of Mart, newly retired after a long career in law enforcement including serving with the Texas Department of Public Safety, is a Republican candidate for McLennan County Precinct 2 commissioner. Early voting in the Republican primary election begins on Feb. 20 with E…
Vernon Davis, 59, a real-estate investor, globe-trotting insurance adjuster and rancher living in Waco, is a Republican candidate for McLennan County Precinct 2 commissioner. Early voting for the Republican primary election begins on Feb. 20 with Election Day on March 6.
Few city landfills are planned, opened and operated without at least some public resistance, generally in the area where a new landfill is envisioned. So it was in the early 1990s when citizens fought the Waco landfill now operating along U.S. Highway 84. So it is today with the site next door.
Cut through all the fighting and rancor over sanctuary cities, school vouchers and transgender people in public bathrooms and one finds at least some consensus in state leadership regarding growing mental-health needs.
McLennan Community College last week hosted Peter Lake, a national expert in higher education compliance, to conduct training sessions on a variety of issues — including Title IX.
Saturday’s county-wide election will decide whether local officials pursue a plan to significantly and strategically expand and improve Extraco Events Center facilities as well as city of Waco and Waco Independent School District facilities contiguous to them, all in the name of bolstering e…
Amir Hussain, a professor of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles who will deliver a lecture on the topic of Muslims in America Thursday at Baylor University, last week discussed with the Tribune-Herald his new book, “Muslims and the Making of America,” published…
Former Baylor University President Ken Starr recently sat down with the Tribune-Herald to discuss his time at Baylor, which he writes about in a new book, "Bear Country: The Baylor Story." Starr also discusses the school's ongoing sexual assault scandal, which saw him removed as president by…
U.S. Rep. Bill Flores was elected in 2010 as part of a mighty backlash against the Democratic establishment. Now that the tables have turned to the GOP’s favor, he finds himself trying to thread a needle in a polarized time.
In a spirited conversation, the Trib sat down with five Waco-area residents who voted for Trump who offered their insights into what they expect.
Discussing the group’s aims and goals, as well as the contempt and indifference with which they say they’ve been greeted by Baylor regents.
Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro was in Waco this week stumping for the national Democratic ticket.
“Collective impact” is a concept where many entities and individuals — all dedicated to some particular solution for helping those in need — work strategically in different capacities toward a common, agreed-upon goal.
Two days after announcing that he would leave his final Baylor post, the 70-year-old former federal judge and solicitor general sat down for an extensive interview with the Trib at his new home in southwest Waco.
Baylor University Title IX Coordinator Patty Crawford, who was hired by the school in 2014, sat down this week with Tribune-Herald staff writer Phillip Ericksen. Below is a full transcript of that interview.
Take a deep dive inside the Baylor tumult with our wide-ranging special Sunday interview.
Staff writer Phillip Ericksen sat down with Baylor interim President David Garland on Monday, his first sit-down interview with the Trib since taking the reins as interim president for the second time in less than a decade.
Inside: Watch the complete video of our Wednesday interview with Starr.
Last Tuesday, Malcolm Duncan Jr., 63, stepped down as Waco’s ubiquitous, industrious, ever-inquisitive mayor after a busy four-year tenure. Hailing from a family that longtime friend and fellow civic leader Wilton Lanning describes as existing in a “perpetual state of civic heat,” Duncan hel…
Mark Shaw, 55, a business manager for The Johnson Group who also rehabilitates houses, is challenging Waco City Council incumbent Wilbert Austin, 76, to re-election. Shaw is making his second bid to represent District 1, having come in third in a four-way race in 2004 that saw veteran educat…
Dustin Kyle Weins, an insurance agent who turns 34 on City Election Day, is challenging Waco City Council District 3 incumbent John Kinnaird. Weins says he was prompted to run by Kinnaird’s opposition to a city ordinance regulating predatory practices of local payday and auto-title lenders. …
John Kinnaird, 36, vice president and trust officer of Community Bank & Trust, has served on the Waco City Council representing District 3 for the past four years and faces his first competitive election on May 7. A Baylor University graduate, he served on the city of Waco’s Zoning Board…
In January, the Tribune-Herald published the U.S. Chemical Safety Board’s findings and recommendations regarding storage of fertilizer-grade ammonium nitrate after a 2½-year study of the fire at and explosion of the West Fertilizer Company. The blast left 15 people dead (12 of them first res…
Waco Police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton, 54, spokesman for the police department who gained national prominence in last spring’s Twin Peaks shootout, is running for sheriff in the March 1 Republican primary election. Swanton has the endorsement of the Waco Police Association. He says he was firs…
McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara, 69, a retired deputy U.S. marshal whose family has long been involved in area law enforcement, is running for re-election in the March 1 Republican primary election as he begins the final year of his first four-year term. He has received endorsements…
Willie Tompkins, 66, pastor of New Generation Church in Bellmead and a substitute teacher in the Waco Independent School District, is making his second bid for McLennan County sheriff, this time as a Republican in the March 1 GOP primary election. He cites as his experience 600 hours of poli…
Local businessman Ralph Patterson, 58, of Waco, is challenging Congressman Bill Flores in the March 1 Republican primary election to represent District 17, which includes Waco. The former McLennan County Republican Party chairman lists as issues border security, protection of the unborn, vet…
Groesbeck businessman Kaleb Sims, 38, who works in a metal fabrication and machining business founded by his father and uncle, is challenging Congressman Bill Flores in the March 1 Republican primary election to represent District 17, which includes Waco. Among the issues he cites are repeal…
Retired oil & gas executive Bill Flores, 61, of Bryan, is running for re-election to Congress representing District 17, which includes Waco. Victory in the March 1 GOP primary election and then in the fall would bring Flores his fourth term. His platform includes limited government, addr…
Waco Independent School District trustees plan to assemble three “community transformation committees” to bolster struggling neighborhoods around six Waco ISD campuses that have failed in statewide academic tests for at least three years in a row. Each committee would take two of the six tro…
State leaders eyeing the Nov. 3 election are vigorously pressing Proposition 7, which would amend the Texas Constitution to provide more stable and sufficient methods of funding transportation costs in a fast-growing state. Among those pushing this critical proposition are the Greater Waco C…
Our discussion focuses on a plan that would attempt to ensure all students are reading at grade level by third grade, a pivotal measure in long-term student success or failure.
Russ Whitlock, 56, a 32-year veteran of the National Park Service who since August 2006 has served as superintendent of the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, has assumed the additional duties of overseeing federal responsibilities involving the newly named Waco Mammoth National Mon…
The group's “all-star” team of experts spent time in Waco discussing goals and concerns with health professionals, business leaders, educators and officials.
A discussion of BAA's long-running dispute with Baylor University.
Efforts by local nonprofit groups such as Prosper Waco and the McLennan County Reintegration Roundtable to address Waco’s chronic poverty problem; help employees better manage their finances; and allow more Wacoans to share in the prosperity they help produce mean nothing if local businesses don’t meaningfully invest in the workforce.
David Anthony, 62, CEO of the nonprofit Raise Your Hand Texas, the Austin-based foundation heavily involved in working with the Texas House and Senate on public education issues, was in Waco last week to discuss education during a legislative update for the Waco Leadership Forum, a discussio…
For those of us who pass by it in the months and years to come, the abandoned, 14-acre Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center campus in North Waco will stand as an enduring monument to cheap talk by state leaders when it comes to mental health. Every time a tragedy erupts involving someone who obviously has mental-health issues — mass shootings are common examples these days — a hue and cry goes up among lawmakers that government and society must aggressively expand access to improved mental-health treatment. And some of us take them seriously.
June is high season for weddings and Supreme Court opinions. The former are invariably memorable for a lifetime, whereas the latter may quickly be consigned to perpetual obscurity. This term’s blockbuster decision about wedding celebrations — vindicating the claim of Jack Phillips, the Colorado-based wedding cake artist — is now being dismissed in various quarters as a jurisprudential nothing-burger. All the Colorado Civil Rights Commission needed to do, it is said, was be nicer and more civil in rendering its “thou must serve all customers” mandate. By in effect vehemently condemning Phillips’ faith journey, the court concluded, the state agency had transgressed the bounds of tolerant discourse in a pluralistic society.
Republican leaders seem to be looking the other way as children are separated from their asylum-seeking parents at the U.S.-Mexico border — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Vice President Mike Pence and, till recently, House Speaker Paul Ryan, all of whom boldly declare their allegiance to President Donald Trump’s immigration reforms and to cracking down on those crossing our borders illegally.
Flashback
What were we talking about one year ago? Take a look back.
Saturday’s county-wide election will decide whether local officials pursue a plan to significantly and strategically expand and improve Extraco Events Center facilities as well as city of Waco and Waco Independent School District facilities contiguous to them, all in the name of bolstering economic impact. The proposed $34.4 million expansion focuses on repositioning Extraco Events Center to more aggressively pursue events and shows, including highly competitive, high-dollar equine events as well as new trends in athletics, including basketball and volleyball.
Amir Hussain, a professor of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles who will deliver a lecture on the topic of Muslims in America Thursday at Baylor University, last week discussed with the Tribune-Herald his new book, “Muslims and the Making of America,” published recently by Baylor Press.
Former Baylor University President Ken Starr recently sat down with the Tribune-Herald to discuss his time at Baylor, which he writes about in a new book, "Bear Country: The Baylor Story." Starr also discusses the school's ongoing sexual assault scandal, which saw him removed as president by the Baylor Board of Regents before he resigned from his other roles as chancellor and law professor.
U.S. Rep. Bill Flores was elected in 2010 as part of a mighty backlash against the Democratic establishment. Now that the tables have turned to the GOP’s favor, he finds himself trying to thread a needle in a polarized time.
