Amarillo | featured news

There will be a family-friendly charity benefit today at 2 p.m. to celebrate the lives of Ricky Stone, 8; Audrianna Stone, 5; and Keagan Stone, 4; and to raise money for their funeral expenses.
At the fundraiser, children can compete in events such as a stick horse race, dummy roping and goat ribbon pulling. Prizes will be awarded for first through third place.
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Thanks to a 44 percent increase in monetary donations in the United States this year over last season, #GivingTuesday 2016 raised $168 million online in 98 countries.
In a statement released by 92nd Street Y in New York City, the founding organization of the #GivingTuesday movement, this year’s campaign represented “common values of generosity and community” throughout the world.With that, the #GivingTuesday site rolled back their countdown: 359 days until 2017’s campaign.

The Panhandle Victim’s Assistance Coalition is hosting the annual Tree of Angels ceremony at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 5 in the 11th floor ballroom of the Santa Fe Building, 900 S. Polk St.
Jan Kile, director of victim assistance for the 47th Potter County District Attorney’s Office said the ceremony, which honors victims of homicide, is open to the public.
The Tree of Angels event is a time of gathering for surviving family and friends and a way to memorialize loved ones who have been lost to crime.

The City of Amarillo has a laundry list of capital improvements projects and not enough money to pay for them.
With voters recently rejecting more than $200 million of bond propositions, wrapped in a hefty property tax increase, city leaders are now looking at alternative methods to fund the “needed” projects. While pushing back some projects for more immediate needs and looking to grants for superfluous plans — such as more green space downtown — one possible long-term solution might be to change the city’s economic development sales tax from Type A to Type B.

Imagine my excitement and relief when Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller on a trip to the region this week wrote, “Won’t be back.” Imagine my disappointment when he didn’t mean Amarillo, but only OHMS Cafe. Oh, well.
Miller, who looks and often acts like he stepped off the set of the old “Dukes of Hazzard” TV show, tends to leave a controversial trail. The latest was at the downtown Amarillo restaurant on Wednesday.
Miller was upset with his steak, according to a report on NBC affiliate KAMR. He said it tasted more like prime rib, which he does not like.

After a Tennessee school bus crash killed six elementary school students last week, a national debate over the role of seat belts in buses has been revived.
Texas is one of just six U.S. states that has a law requiring safety restraints — but only if the Legislature allocates funding, which it has not done since 2009.
Only a handful of school districts received the funds when they were available, and none were in Amarillo.
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It’s a good thing Santa’s Lifestar helicopter arrived early Friday before the weather turned sour and grounded his favorite bird. But as it was, Santa was able to land on the Northwest Texas Healthcare System Children’s Hospital front lawn where hundreds of anxious children awaited his arrival.
After greeting the kids Santa set up shop in the south lobby to hand out gifts before visiting with children up on the wards.
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Eighteen area churches are joining together to celebrate the holiday season in an upcoming concert titled “Christmas in the Hood.”
Donnell Hill, Christmas in the Hood musical director, said the concert was started 23 years ago by a community organization called Ministers’ Wives as a way to bring people together during Christmas.
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The older I get the less things seem so “black and white.” People and issues have nuances, shades and subtlety.
No person is perfect, neither is another without merit. We are all flawed and good ideas come from many directions.
This isn’t the current mood in our country. We currently see the world through a bifurcated lens, devoid of nuance. You are either for me or you are against me.
During the World Series, I had the audacity to suggest the Cleveland Indians were having a great season.
That’s all I said.

The Amarillo Globe-News is compiling a list of religious holiday services through the end of the year. To include your place of worship, please email service times, location and a brief description to lauren.koski@amarillo.com.