Potter County | featured news

Enrollment in agricultural programs at colleges and universities across the state has been growing, according to a report in Texas Agriculture, a Texas Farm Bureau news publication.
The report suggests an attractive employment outlook is drawing students to study for ag-based careers despite a depressed farm economy.
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It’s official: Raising Cane’s is coming to Amarillo.
The popular fried chicken fast-food chain said in June that it hoped to come to Amarillo, but was waiting on city permission to build its restaurant at 4700 S. Coulter St.
Cane’s was granted a building permit Friday for a 3,500-square-foot property valued at $1.5 million. The restaurant will be directly south of a Chick-Fil-A and in front of the Walmart at Southwest 45th Avenue and Coulter.
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Season tickets, baseball jerseys, caps, T-shirts and a wealth of memorabilia emblazoned with the logo of Amarillo’s proposed minor league baseball team are all on sale months before the 2017 season is scheduled to begin.
But there might be a few slight problems.
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Amarillo Police Department’s SWAT unit and members of the Proactive Criminal Enforcement Unit arrested a man Tuesday on a charge stemming from a homicide on Oak Drive in north Amarillo.
Daviar Terrell Johnson, 18, was booked into Potter County jail on a charge of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence with the intent to impair, in relation to the shooting death of Kharyi Terrell Nichols, 25, on Monday afternoon in the 3100 block of Oak Drive.
Johnson’s bond is set at $100,000.
Police found Johnson on Tuesday in the 5500 block of Southwest 34th Avenue.

As the use of body cameras by police and sheriff’s departments across the country continues to grow, law enforcement in Amarillo is just getting started, with body cameras hitting the streets soon for the three departments in and around the city.
Amarillo Police Department has been reviewing different kinds of body cameras dating back to May, and hopes to start implementing the technology before the start of the new year.

Some Amarillo ISD high schoolers are getting their district-issued laptops back after a fire concern prompted nearly 4,100 of them to be recalled, the district said Tuesday.
After passing out Acer Chromebooks to students at the start of this school year, three of the devices caught fire or overheated.
Students were asked to return the computers to their schools on Oct. 7.
The majority of the Chromebooks were distributed to students at Palo Duro High School, which instituted a 1:1 computing program.

Amarillo ISD has been spending millions on security-improvement projects in an effort to improve campus safety.
Amarillo ISD is close to finalizing the installation of nearly 2,100 cameras across all campuses.
Last May, the district finished installing controlled visitor entry at 13 elementary schools. The projects had a combined cost of $11.5 million and were the product of a $99 million bond passed in 2013.
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Affordable Care Act registration opened Tuesday, meaning Amarilloans can sign up online for government health care if they want it.
More than 20 percent of Amarillo adults have no health care coverage, which is double the national average, according to the 2015 census, and a dominant Texas provider has now substantially increased their rates.
Many, though, are eligible for cut-rate coverage through the ACA, said Dr. Paul Hain, the North Market President and Chief Medical Officer for Blue Cross Blue Shield Texas.

“I will get the NRA shut down for good if I become president. If we can ban handguns, we will do it.” — Hillary Clinton, Des Moines Register, Aug. 8, 2015

That appeared on a Tumblr page, with a very authentic-looking photo, and boasted it was 100 percent sourced. No doubt, it spread like a spring grass fire through Facebook and social media once upon a time.
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Amarillo City Council members gave the go ahead for city staff to write a contract to hire consultants to identify gaps in economic development. The cost: About $170,000.
The city is in the process of also hiring a downtown planner and economic development manager to help oversee the project. Deputy City Manager Bob Cowell said while the roles of the two pending positions are to develop the strategic economic development plan, hiring consultants is necessary because they provide the institutional expertise necessary to make the plan successful.