Potter County | featured news

Before the gate is released, even before a rider lowers himself atop an animal, dozens of young bull riders and sheep riders mingle in a maze of chutes behind the main gates and platforms, waiting to be paired with their animal for a much-anticipated ride.
At the Amarillo National Center this week, this area behind the gates is where 5-year-olds lug their bull ropes and protective hockey masks over their shoulders as they walk to the chutes. Their chaps, much too long, drag in the dirt.

It’s been a busy and productive week for Texas Panhandle police on the drug front since Oct. 21, as local law enforcement agencies have made eight drug busts in three counties that uncovered more than 500 pounds combined of methamphetamine and marijuana, with a street value that police estimate to be nearly $7 million.
Texas Department of Public Safety deputies were responsible for seven of the busts, with five of them in Carson County and two in Donley County, while Potter County deputies made one arrest and seizure.

Potter County saw its biggest turnout for early voters Friday with more than 1,800 ballots cast, bringing the total number of voters for the opening week near 8,500.
On Friday, 1,858 early ballots were cast, a bounce-back from Thursday, the lowest day of the week, which saw 1,517.
For the week Potter County is averaging 1,691 per day and has totaled 8,457 in-person early ballots. There have also been 1,250 mail ballots received, bringing the first week total to 9,707, nearly 18 percent of eligible voters in Potter County.

State Rep. Four Price, R-Amarillo, has been awarded the Charley H. Shannon Advocate of Justice Award from the Texas chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Past winners of the award include former State Rep. John Davis (R-Houston), Judge Polly Jackson Spencer and the Dallas Police Department.
Price is chair of the Texas House of Representatives’ select Mental Health Committee, which examines mental services being offered around the state.
He is also cochair of the house’s Health and Human Services committee.

Two men died and another person was airlifted to a local hospital following a head-on crash Thursday morning on US highway 87 near the Canadian River.
At approximately 6:30 a.m. a 2004 Dodge pick-up truck driven by Barry Proffitt, 61, of Amarillo, collided with a southbound 2001 Ford pick-up truck driven by Jack Jaeger, 49, of Garden City, Kan., when it crossed over the center median and into the northbound lane, Texas Department of Public Safety reported.
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Members representing the colorful, doctrinal and political facets of the Amarillo and Canyon faith community will gather on the lawn of the Potter County Courthouse Saturday morning for the Community for Country prayer gathering.
Vanessa Chavez organized the event with the intent of remaining unaffiliated with any specific churches, denominations or political affiliations.
Without these walls, Chavez said, the gathering will pray specifically — and simply — for God’s will in the United States, “whatever that may be.”

The Texas Department of Public Safety seized roughly 130 pounds of marijuana valued at almost $800,000 on Wednesday morning after searching a pair of vehicles.
The first discovery came just after 9 a.m. when a DPS special agent encountered a person in a 2016 Toyota Avalon in the parking lot of a convenience store in Conway.
A DPS K-9 unit was called to the scene and the dog alerted officers on the car. The special agent then discovered several packages of marijuana totaling 63 pounds, valued at approximately $382,000.

The Amarillo Police Department and Oklahoma Department of Corrections teamed up to capture an escaped inmate that had been on the run since 1997 thanks to a recently passed bill in Oklahoma.
Tina Stone, 54, was located the 10000 block of Interstate 40’s service road by the APD’s Proactive Criminal Enforcement unit (PACE) according to APD officials.
Stone walked away from a halfway house in Tulsa late in 1997 while she was serving a seven-year sentence for a second-degree forgery charge as well as possession of stolen property.

If a chicken crosses Bell Street in the southwest part of town, its reason for doing so won’t matter. It’ll still end up in the fryer.
Bush’s Chicken, a Texas chain headquartered in Waco, received a permit last week to restore what used to be an Arby’s restaurant at 4406 Southwest Bell St.
The new Bush’s will join a crowded chicken corridor: A Kentucky Fried Chicken is at the corner of 34th Avenue and Southwest Bell Street, while the shopping center at 45th and Southwest Bell Street contains a Wingstop.

Randall County continued its surge in early voters Thursday with its busiest day of the week, while by a wide margin Potter County saw its slowest day of early voting.
Randall County reported 3,672 early ballots were cast Thursday, topping the previous high for the week, 3,663 on Tuesday.
The number of ballots cast had increased at four of Randall County’s five polling locations.
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