Free Republic

For those of you in the Baylor University area, tonight is your chance to ask Juan Hernandez about his radical, open-borders agenda and his role in the McCain campaign. The event is free and open to the public. Bring your video camera: Dr. Juan Hernandez, author of The New American Pioneers, will speak at 6 p.m. Thursday in Kayser Auditorium on Mexican immigration. His lecture will be based on his notes, “Why are We Afraid of Mexican Immigrants?”Hernandez, a member of former Mexican President Vicente Fox’s cabinet, will be the final speaker for The Academy for Leader Development and Civic...

As the state's population continues to grow in its urban centers, expansion plans for the highway system continue to be the focus for transportation improvements. The Trans Texas Corridor proposal is aimed to alleviate traffic congestion, improve air quality and provide safer traveling for drivers, among other goals. In 2002, Texas Governor Rick Perry released the plan to create the passageway, which spans northeast from Laredo to Oklahoma and is set to total 4,000 miles in the next 50 years. The $140 billion project calls for the incorporation of new toll roads, commuter railways, power lines and gas pipelines, while...

It was unclear Monday what, if any, discipline Baylor University officials will hand down to an assistant football coach cited early Sunday for allegedly urinating on the bar at a watering hole frequented by Baylor students. The citation was a Class C misdemeanor, carrying a $258 fine, according to a Waco Municipal Court spokeswoman. The alleged incident happened around closing time, as employees were getting patrons out of the bar, said bartender Danny Severe, who was working at the time. Severe said an employee witnessed Schnupp urinating on the bar, and a manager told police, who were already at the...

John Hugh Gilmore, guest column: Mob rule, not academic freedom, at Baylor http://www.wacotrib.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2007/10/07/10072007wacgilmore.htmlSunday, October 07, 2007 To its proponents, intelligent design is nothing more than a sophisticated, comprehensive critique of the theoretical and scientific foundations of Darwinism and its progeny. In other words, the theory of evolution should be put to the test. Like Marx. Like Freud. To the opponents, intelligent design — ID — is an intellectual crime. Or so we must assume by the actions of Baylor University. As counsel for Baylor Distinguished Professor Robert J. Marks II, I was amazed and discouraged by the controversy surrounding his...

Two Baylor female athletes turned themselves in to Waco police Tuesday and face Class A misdemeanor assault charges after they allegedly beat a woman in Cameron Park. Latara Darrett, a sophomore on the basketball team, and Ashlee Cooper, a sophomore on the volleyball team, confronted Chayla Cooper during an argument at 11 p.m. on Aug. 7, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. Waco police spokesman Steve Anderson said an investigation revealed that Ashlee Cooper punched Chayla Cooper (no relation) in the face. Chayla Cooper allegedly pulled out a knife but then placed it on the ground. Darrett jumped on Chayla...

WACO, Texas (BP)--Baylor University officials ordered the shutdown of a personal website of one of a handful of the school's distinguished professors because of anonymous concerns that the site, hosted on the university’s server, supported Intelligent Design. Robert Marks, distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at Baylor, launched a website called the Evolutionary Informatics Lab in June to examine whether Darwinian processes like random mutation and natural selection can generate new information. Marks' conclusions, as explained on the website, placed limits on the scope of Darwinism and offered scientific support for Intelligent Design. In July, a podcast interview with...

Robert J. Marks fully endorses the vision of Baylor University. The distinguished professor of engineering left his longtime position at a secular school four years ago to help Baylor realize its ambitious aim—namely, to achieve the status of a top-tier research institution without compromising its distinctly Christian worldview. To that end, Marks recently created a lab dedicated to evolutionary informatics, the study of whether Darwinian processes like random mutation and natural selection can generate new information. He published his findings on a university-hosted website, believing the research to be both top tier and consistent with Baylor's Baptist heritage. But some...

"Grilling is a low-fat method of cooking," says Elizabeth Schaub, registered and licensed dietitian on the medical staff at Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano. "But we have to be aware that it can increase our risk of cancer if we eat grilled meats too often." It's true those juicy burgers, especially the charred ones, can contain cancer-causing carcinogens. "When you grill meat some of the fat does drip down on to the charcoal and when fat meets that really high temperature it develops a carcinogen and the smoke carries the carcinogen back up to the meat which can be...

Ian McCaw’s “dream” is finally a reality. Although Notre Dame has not issued a formal release, Baylor will play Notre Dame in an Oct. 6, 2012 football game that is expected to be held at the Dallas Cowboys’ new $1 billion stadium in Arlington. “I’ve been working on scheduling a football game with Notre Dame for nearly four years,” said McCaw, who became Baylor’s athletic director in 2003. “So I’m really excited and relieved to see that it’s finally coming to fruition. “Baylor-Notre Dame represents a dream matchup for our students and fans. Playing a team with such a high...

Scientists makes good use of its surprising similarity to humans BAR HARBOR, MAINE -- Nov. 9, 2006 Who would have guessed that the lowly sea urchin, that brain-less, limb-less porcupine of the sea, would be the star of a multi-million dollar, worldwide effort to map out every letter of its genetic code? Or that the information gathered in that effort may eventually lead to new treatments for cancer, infertility, blindness, and diseases like muscular dystrophy and Huntington's Disease?James Coffman, Ph.D., of the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor was one of the scientists who helped decode the 814...

Baylor University in Waco, Texas, which bills itself as the world's largest Baptist college, has threatened to discipline female students if they pose for Playboy magazine, which is trying to recruit models from the college. Playboy photographers came to Baylor's hometown seeking models for a photo spread on women of the Big 12 college athletic conference, of which the college is a member. Baylor Vice President for Student Life Samuel W. Oliver sent an e-mail to women students this week warning that any who "associate" with Playboy would be subject to the university's disciplinary processes. "Playboy is clearly antithetical to...

The tenure system gives university professors lifetime job security. It is also a way to get rid of professors. Typically, new faculty members are hired for a several-year probationary period. Then they marshal their publications, teaching evaluations, and other accomplishments, and apply for tenure. If they do not get it, they have to leave. So it came as a surprise that Baylor denied tenure to Francis Beckwith, one of its best-known Christian scholars—despite his 11 books, 28 scholarly articles, a raft of teaching awards, and election as president of the Evangelical Theological Society. Baylor's previous president Robert Sloan had put...

Baylor University is prepared to fight a subpoena from Dallas attorney Gary Vodicka requesting details about the school's presidential library proposal, according to a university official. “We are going to challenge that (subpoena) in McLennan County court,” said Baylor spokesman Larry Brumley on Thursday morning. On Thursday afternoon, Baylor filed a motion in a McLennan County District Court to quash the subpoena, claiming that the school “believes the documents sought by the subpoena are irrelevant to the lawsuit.” Vodicka, who owns a condominium at a site he believes Southern Methodist University has tagged for the presidential library, has filed a...

BREAKING NEWS: Baylor swept into suit involving SMU, Dallas condo owner By Mike Anderson Tribune-Herald staff writer Monday, February 20, 2006 Baylor University's efforts to keep details of its bid for the George W. Bush Presidential Library from going public just got a little more complicated. The university has received a subpoena from Dallas attorney Gary Vodicka for documents related to its library proposal, Baylor officials confirmed Monday. The subpoena is part of a lawsuit Vodicka has filed against Baylor's top rival in the library selection process, Southern Methodist University. The suit claims SMU violated its legal obligation to residents...

The conventional view, embraced by most of his fellow cultural determinists, is that during the Renaissance and Reformation, Europeans shook off the authority of the Catholic Church. When a secular world was created alongside the sacred one, when intellectual freedom replaced obedience to authority, capitalism and scientific advances were the result. That theory, Stark says, doesn't fit the facts. In reality, capitalism developed in the Middle Ages, and the important innovations were made by people in the belly of the faith. Religion didn't stifle economic and scientific ideas -- it nurtured them. Stark is building upon the recent research that...

The George W. Bush Presidential Library contenders have made their final pitches, and the word is that a decision will be made by the end of the year. Any last-minute thoughts?

A contingent of Baylor University officials will leave today for Washington, D.C., to make their case for why the school should host the George W. Bush Presidential Library. The seven-member Baylor delegation is scheduled to make its oral presentation beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the capital's historic Mayflower Hotel, said Tommye Lou Davis, director of Baylor's presidential library planning committee. Baylor officials continue to keep quiet about the details of their proposal, out of concern of tipping their hand to the other contenders. Last month, the president's library selection committee, headed by former U.S. commerce secretary Don Evans, announced...

New president, a graduate of the school, is grateful for chance to lead troubled campus John M. Lilley, president of the University of Nevada-Reno, was unanimously named the 13th president of Baylor University on Friday — ending a period of great uncertainty at the world's largest Baptist university. Lilley, who earned two bachelor's degrees and a master's degree at Baylor University in the 1960s, is a Baptist, vocalist, conductor and long-time educator. Leaders said they hope Lilley, 66, can help reunite the Waco campus — a school divided in recent years by the death of a basketball player, NCAA violations...

We owe a great debt to Air Force Academy head football coach Fisher DeBerry. To be sure, the initial knee-jerk reaction to his recent comments about black football players being generally faster than white ones caused him to be treated like a "politically incorrect" piñata (my God, I hope I haven't offended Latinos). Upon reflection, however, his statements were so obviously true that something of an anti-PC backlash has materialized in his defense. To their credit, Sam Adams and Thierry Smith, two African-American Denver sportswriters, both agreed on their KKFN radio talk show that DeBerry's remarks weren't racist and that...

The public will get a chance tomorrow to weigh in on a proposal to add the Waco Mammoth Site to the national park system. A team of National Park Service officials is kicking off its study of the mammoth park idea with a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Baylor University's Mayborn Museum. Officials with Baylor and the city of Waco are trying to rally community support for the project. “It's important for us to have a good turnout,” said Mayborn director Ellie Caston. “We need to be able to show the team that the community is concerned about...

If you're heading to OU's home game against Baylor Saturday, get ready for something new. The University will give an evacuation plan to fans heading through the gates. OU President David Boren mailed season ticket holders a letter that tells them to get to the game early, because searches will be going on at all stadium gates. This comes after 21-year-old Joel Hinrichs III killed himself with a home-made bomb outside the stadium on October 1. Investigators say the blast was an isolated incident.

WACO, Texas – Coffee cups with a gay author's quote about growing up homosexual have been pulled from Baylor University's Starbucks coffee shop. Dining contractor Aramark pulled the cups earlier this month from the campus store following an e-mail sent to Baylor's dining service, saying the quote was inappropriate at a Baptist University. Aramark, which oversees the coffee outlet, consulted with Starbucks' district office and removed the cups to avoid offending others, Baylor officials said Monday. "My understanding is it was a decision made by Baylor dining services staff, and I've not yet been able to trace it back to...

The Starbucks location on the Baylor University campus is stirring up more than just coffee -- they're stirring up some controversy. Baylor University officials told Starbucks to remove a cup in the store they felt promoted homosexuality. The cup in question has a quote from gay novelist Armistead Maupin and reads: “My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long. I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don't make that mistake yourself. Life's too damn short.” Baylor University refused to comment on the issue....

The Princeton Review's annual list of best colleges included lists of colleges most accepting of LGBT students and those least accepting. The Princeton Review's annual "The Best 361 Colleges" was released Tuesday, and authors included lists of the colleges that are most accepting of LGBT students and those that are not. According to a survey taken by 110,000 students at 361 top colleges, the 10 schools that ranked the best in being accepting toward gay students are: New College of Florida, Sarasota; Macalester College, St. Paul, Minn.; Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.; Eugene Lang College, New York City; Mount Holyoke College,...

A former Baylor University seminary student who lost his scholarship because of his homosexual lifestyle is paying the price for sending more than 1,000 lewd e-mail messages to school officials and their family members. A judge recently ordered 25-year-old James Bass to pay $77,000 for sending pornographic images and messages to officials at Baylor, a Baptist university in Waco, Texas. The former student, who withdrew from the school after losing his scholarship as a result of his homosexual conduct, was also ordered to stop sending e-mail to the university personnel and their families. Baylor attorney Andy McSwain says the school...

On his first day as interim president at Baylor University, William Underwood fired the Texas Baptist school's highly visible symbol of Vision 2012: provost David Jeffrey. Jeffrey recruited many Christian faculty as part of Vision 2012, two goals of which are a deeper integration of Christian faith and scholarship, and that Baylor become a top-tier research university. After Jeffrey refused to resign, Underwood on June 1 ended his role as provost. The move further polarized the campus, already divided over Vision 2012 and the actions of Robert Sloan, the previous president who is now chancellor. The next day at an...

A Jewish Studies professor urges the destruction of the Jewish State. Baylor University’s Anti-Jewish Liberation "Theologian" By Steven PlautFrontPageMagazine.com | May 5, 2005Marc H. Ellis is university professor and director of the Center for American and Jewish Studies at Baylor University, a Baptist University in Waco, Texas, not ordinarily on anyone's radar map as a particularly notable institution when it comes to the field of Jewish scholarship.  Indeed, theologically Waco is best known for serving as home of the Branch Davidians and the abortive FBI raid on its headquarters.  Thus fringe "theologians" seem to feel right at home there.  Maybe...

In a finding that could help explain why a sucker never gets an even break, scientists are reporting today that they have succeeded in visualizing feelings of trust developing in a specific region of the brain. In the study, pairs of anonymous subjects were strapped into magnetic resonance imaging scanners 1,500 miles apart. The participants played 10 consecutive rounds of a risk-taking game that involved balancing monetary profit and trust. While they played, the scanners, synchronized through the Internet, measured how the subjects' brains reacted. With the development of trusting feelings, increased blood flow occurred in the caudate nucleus, an...

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: The first couple are at their ranch in Crawford today, and no public appearances are scheduled. THE WEEK AHEAD: President and Mrs. Bush will be based in Crawford this week and will return to Washington on Monday, March 28. Monday and Tuesday: The President will travel to Arizona, New Mexico and another state [probably Colorado] on his continuing tour of the nation to promote his Social Security reform proposals. Wednesday: The President will host the trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Martin and President Fox. There will be meetings in the morning at Baylor University, then...

"A lawsuit filed by the Baptist university charges Candler School of Theology student Matt Bass with sending more than 1,000 e-mails containing “highly offensive pornographic images and/or lewd descriptions of various sexual acts attributable to various Baylor employees or their family members.” Bass, 25, who studied theology at Baylor before transferring to Emory last fall, first grabbed national headlines when he told media outlets, including Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor,” that Baylor rescinded his scholarship last January and forced him to leave the school because he is gay."

WACO - A former Baylor University seminary student who lost his scholarship because he is gay is accused of sending lewd e-mails to employees and their families. Baylor filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that beginning last fall, James Matthew Bass sent more than 1,000 e-mails containing pornographic images and messages. Baylor officials also obtained a restraining order Wednesday against Bass, prohibiting him from sending e-mails to Baylor officials and their families. Bass could not be reached for comment. The action updates a petition Baylor filed in November against a defendant identified as John Doe. At the time, Baylor's attorney said...

Four years ago, Baylor University announced what it called “Baylor 2012.” Its goal is to “propel [Baylor] into the ranks of the nation’s top tier colleges and universities,” while retaining and even strengthening Baylor’s Christian identity. The most important factors in becoming a “top tier” college or university are the faculty and the students. To that end, Baylor has committed itself to recruiting faculty “capable of achieving the best of scholarship, both in teaching and research.” More important, new faculty members must “embrace the Christian faith” and be “knowledgeable of the Christian intellectual tradition.” The goal is “to exemplify the...

WACO, Tx. -- Most who see the name Baylor University in print think about the basketball program scandal in which one player murdered another and the coach scrambled to cover up improprieties as the media spotlight focused in on the school. Those who observe the intersection of worldview and higher education have been paying attention to what's happening at Baylor for a different reason. The university nestled in at the corner of I-35 and the Brazos River has embarked upon an ambitious quest to advance the Christian mind. Back in 1951, William Buckley began his career as a conservative superstar...

For gay Baylor University student, graduation day comes with a price WACO (AP) — A Baylor University student who organized an off-campus gay rights rally graduated Saturday, but he says he doubts he would have received his diploma if he had not admitted violating the Baptist school's conduct code. Darrin Adams, 22, found out last month that Baylor was charging him with misconduct for organizing the March rally in downtown Waco. A letter from an administrator said the event was "part of an advocacy group that promotes understandings of sexuality that are contrary" to biblical teachings, Baptist beliefs and Baylor's...

Supporters of a former Baylor University seminary student who lost his scholarship because he is gay rallied Saturday to protest the school's decision. Matt Bass and other gay students and alumni say they don't expect the world's largest Baptist university to shun the church tenet that homosexuality is a sin, but they want an anti-discrimination policy for gay students. "I believe I am gay and that God made me that way," Bass told about 200 people at the gay-rights rally. "I believe this is a civil rights movement. We're not looking for any special class or treatment but equal protection...

WACO -- Some 400 Texas mayors want the George W. Bush presidential library to be built at Baylor University, school officials said today. Baylor is one of several institutions seeking to be the site of the library, a decision Bush is expected to make after leaving office. Other contenders are the city of Arlington, where Bush was managing partner of the Texas Rangers baseball team before he was elected governor; the University of Texas at Austin; SMU in Dallas, the first lady's alma mater; Texas A&M and Texas Tech universities. In October, 100 mayors said they endorsed Baylor as the...

Baylor paper backs gay unionsStudent publication's editor said editorial was stance on legal issue12:02 AM CST on Saturday, February 28, 2004From Staff Reports The Baylor Lariat, the student newspaper at the world's largest Baptist university, where dancing was banned on campus until 1996, supported legal marriage for gay couples in an editorial Friday. "Taking into account legal protection under the law, gay couples should be granted the same equal rights to legal marriage as heterosexual couples," the editorial said. The Baylor Lariat Editorial: San Francisco should pursue gay marriage suit The Baylor LariatOfficial site: Baylor University Lariat editor Lacy Elwood...

<p>WACO, Texas (AP) -- Former Baylor basketball coach Dave Bliss made improper payments to students, including a player who was killed last summer, the school president said Thursday.</p> <p>Citing a report by a school-appointed committee, president Robert Sloan accused Bliss of allowing major NCAA infractions during his four-year stay.</p>

Judge Tosses Most of Baylor Death Lawsuit 1 hour, 15 minutes ago By ANGELA K. BROWN, Associated Press Writer WACO, Texas - A judge on Friday threw out most of the wrongful-death lawsuit filed against Baylor by the father of slain basketball player Patrick Dennehy Jr. Patrick Dennehy Sr. sought unspecified damages in his lawsuit, which claims that his son became the target of "violent threats" because he intended to expose wrongdoing in the basketball program. Judge Ralph Strother said the university could not have foreseen the slaying of the 21-year-old Dennehy, whose body was found in a field near...

WACO -- A former student at Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary says losing his scholarship because he is gay is unfair. Matt Bass told his friends he is gay last spring, and word began to spread. When Truett officials met with Bass last fall, he would not answer questions about his lifestyle but acknowledged that he supports gay rights and marriage. He was notified in December that he would lose his scholarship, money from Truett and the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Bass, 24, of Rowlett, was not expelled but left after the fall semester because he could...

WACO, Texas -- A former Baylor University basketball player has filed a lawsuit claiming former coach Dave Bliss broke a promise to help the athlete get into law school and to pay for it. Chad Elsey is seeking more than $100,000 in damages -- including the cost of tuition and books for another law school -- from Bliss and Baylor. Elsey, who is representing himself, filed the breach of contract suit Monday in Waco. Elsey, a law student at the University of Tulsa, graduated from Baylor with a finance degree in December 2001, according to the team's media guide. A...

Jury awards Sanger man $23.4 million DALLAS (AP) — A jury has awarded $31.1 million to a Sanger man who became paralyzed after being discharged from a Dallas hospital's emergency room with a broken neck. John Edward Millichamp III and his children sued Baylor University Medical Center, an emergency room doctor and a radiologist, saying Millichamp was a quadriplegic as a result of the hospital's negligence after a 1999 traffic accident. Jurors on Wednesday found that Millichamp's paralysis could have been prevented with proper testing. They awarded $23.4 for loss, pain and suffering, and added another $7.7 million in punitive...

Santa Cruz is a large, semiarid, semirainy region in eastern Bolivia, bordering Brazil and Paraguay. The province is best known as the last stop on the revolutionary trail of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Argentine Marxist and medical doctor who caught a bullet there. But Santa Cruz is also the first stop on a different trail, taken by Kara Kemerling of Austin, a twentysomething product of the conservative religious proving ground at Baylor University. Almost two years ago, Kemerling left her comparatively comfortable existence in Texas, determined to become a missionary. To reach Santa Cruz, you take a big Pullman bus...

WACO, Texas - Baylor basketball players put the tumultuous summer behind them in their first practice of the season Saturday. "We're really focused on this year," senior guard Matt Sayman said. "We've gotten to bond with our teammates probably more than any other year. It's different, but it's exciting." The team never could have imagined just how different this season would be. Patrick Dennehy, who was expected to make big contributions this year after sitting out last season when he transferred to Baylor, was found shot to death in July after he had been missing for six weeks. Carlton Dotson,...

It's been an unusual week in the academy. The academic freedom that so incensed Bill Buckley as a student at Yale decades ago is now acting to protect a conservative scholar under fire. Baylor's J.M. Dawson Institute for Church-State Studies hired Francis Beckwith as its Associate Director last summer. Although previously known as a philosopher who had developed powerful critiques of abortion, Beckwith has used the past few years and a research fellowship at Princeton to transform himself into a legal scholar investigating the controversy over public schools and the teaching of human origins. His research culminated in publication of...

Cosby 'pep rally' aims to boost Baylor spirits09:45 AM CDT on Thursday, September 4, 2003Associated Press Less than a year ago, a sold-out crowd paid as much as $25 each to hear comedian Bill Cosby perform at Baylor University's Ferrell Center – an event that raised money for a new floor in the gold-domed basketball arena. On Thursday, the entertainer will return to the 14,000-student university in Waco. But following heartache and scandal at Baylor, Cosby's mission will be different – and admission will be free. Also Online Video: Melissa Tamplin reports Video: Web exclusive: Watch the full interview...

WACO, Texas - Former Baylor basketball player Carlton Dotson was indicted Wednesday for the murder of his teammate and roommate Patrick Dennehy. The McLennan County grand jury heard evidence for about 90 minutes before handing down an indictment against Dotson, who has been jailed in his home state of Maryland since his July 21 arrest. The indictment alleges that Dotson shot Dennehy on or about June 12. Dennehy's body was found in a field near a rock quarry southeast of town July 25. He had been shot twice in head according to an autopsy report. District Attorney John Segrest and...

Certainly, their grief cannot begin to compare with that of Patrick Dennehy's loved ones, but friends of disgraced former Baylor University basketball coach Dave Bliss are also coping with a sense of loss. There's the shock of watching his 34-year college coaching career vaporize – poof! – in a furnace of scandal in the weeks after Mr. Dennehy's slaying. There's the distress of seeing a man they've long known, or thought they knew, become a pariah, the new undisputed, nationally vilified example of all that is wrong with college athletics. Suddenly, the only Bliss portrait the public ever saw has...

Baylor University player Patrick Dennehy was slain after he decided to expose improprieties in the school's basketball program, says a lawsuit filed here Friday by his biological father. Athletic department officials and university officials not associated directly with the athletic program would not listen to his concerns, the suit said. "Patrick determined it would be up to him to expose the improprieties ... to stop what was going on," said the state district court suit filed by Patrick Dennehy Sr., 44, of Seattle. "Shortly after making that decision, Patrick became the target of violent threats against his person and soon...

Baylor faculty members split over Sloan no-confidence vote WACO (AP) — As embattled Baylor University President Robert Sloan prepared to welcome incoming freshmen to the world's largest Baptist university on Thursday, dueling groups of professors clashed over a faculty leader's call for a no-confidence vote on Sloan. Even before basketball player Patrick Dennehy's slaying put the Central Texas university under an intense spotlight, Sloan had clashed with many faculty members over a reform plan that the official alumni magazine characterized as a "struggle for the heart and soul of Baylor." In the wake of Dennehy's death, revelations of major NCAA...