Potter County | featured news

An empty downtown lot will soon become the placeholder for a proposed $45 million multipurpose event center Amarillo city officials hope to build one day.
Demolition of the former Coca-Cola plant is expected to begin in the coming weeks even though city officials have not pinned down plans on what exactly will occupy the three and a half blocks of downtown real estate.
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Northwest Texas Healthcare System and Med-Trans Corporation are adding a state-of-the-art, twin-engine medical airplane to their collaborative LIFESTAR fleet.
The LIFESTAR King Air E-90 airplane, which will fly out of Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport, will be able to transport critical care nurses and paramedics to parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico.
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Both sides of the lawsuit surrounding the death of Wendell Carl Simmons, a mentally ill man whose family alleges in a Federal lawsuit that Randall County jailers allowed his mental and physical condition to deteriorate so much so that he died, have agreed to an extension in the resulting arbitration until 2017.
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It’s not often one meets a celebrity from their home country — let alone face-to-face and someone who’s from more than 8,000 miles away — right here, in Amarillo.
But for Min Aung, a Burmese refugee, that actually happened a few days ago.
Aung remembers seeing Kyaw Thu, a Burmese actor and director, in films while he still lived in Burma.
“When I was a college student, he was already a big actor,” Aung said.
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The Amarillo Professional Firefighters Association is teaming up with the National Child ID Program to protect local children.
Firefighters will deliver more than 17,500 identification kits to area school districts this week for children in kindergarten through 2nd grade.
This will be the first time the project has come to Amarillo, said First Vice President of the Amarillo Professional Firefighters Local 542 chapter Jacob Oehlert.

“It would be a shame to let your mind wander off and not be here,” says Erica Richardson, resident teacher for the Bodhichitta Kadampa Buddhist Center in Lubbock.
Her voice is soft and monotone so as to gently nudge a group of Amarilloans at The Yoga Mat to settle their minds and focus on their breathing, breathing out the negative in their lives and breathing in the positive.
“Well, that’s better,” Richardson said when the group reopened their eyes.

Members of Amarillo’s recovery community joined with at least a thousand other marchers Sunday crossing the Continental Bridge in downtown Dallas to show their support for recovery from alcohol and other drug additions at the Big Texas Rally for Recovery.
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■ In 1780, British spy John Andre was hanged in Tappan, N.Y., during the Revolutionary War.
■ In 1835, the first battle of the Texas Revolution took place as American settlers fought Mexican soldiers near the Guadalupe River; the Mexicans ended up withdrawing.
■ In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson suffered a serious stroke at the White House that left him paralyzed on his left side.
■ In 1959, Rod Serling’s “The Twilight Zone” made its debut on CBS-TV.

Academic Spotlight
Jesus Estrada, 13

Grade: seventh, Austin Middle School
Nominated by: Amber Carlisle,
school counselor
■ Why are you nominating this student? “Jesus is a focused and meticulous student.”
■ Why does this student stand out? “He always goes above what is asked and is a fabulous example of what an outstanding student should be.”

41 COMPETE IN LARGEST CANYON COOK-OFF
CANYON — Mild-mannered schoolteacher by day, “professional” barbecue pirate by night, Steven Thrasher of Pit Pirate Barbecue said he is serious about his cooking, but realistic enough to understand he is outgunned when it comes to the expensive recreational vehicles and their color-coordinated cooking trailers.
But he doesn’t care.