Texas, Amarillo | featured news

As search crews on horseback and foot continued to look for missing Canadian teenager Thomas Brown for the fifth consecutive day, family members are holding on to hope that he will turn up and they are seeking prayers, not just from the Canadian community but from everyone in the region.
“We just ask for lots and lots of prayer,” Toby Brown, Thomas’ oldest brother, told the Amarillo Globe-News on Monday afternoon.
“We’ve being getting all over on my Facebook, my dad’s Facebook, and Thomas’ mom’s Facebook,” he said.

For someone who has run seven marathons in seven continents, Mindy Montano is obviously not limited by her imagination. So when the United States and Cuba reopened relations in 2015, a little light bulb went off in her head.
“This was just a unique opportunity,” she said. “Honestly, I just hopped on this so quickly because I wanted to see the real Cuba.
“I was worried that I had waited too long to get there and there would be a Starbucks and a McDonald’s on every corner. I wanted to see the real Havana, Cuba, the one that had been hidden from us for 50 years.”

Amarillo Police Department is investigating a robbery that took place Monday morning, leaving two elderly victims injured — the only “major” incident to happen over the Thanksviging weekend, according to APD officials.
According to APD reports, at 6:11 a.m. officers were called to a robbery at a home in the 4100 block of Terrace Avenue.
The residents of the home, described as a female and male, ages 88 and 89, said their doorbell rang at around 6 a.m. and the suspect, only identified as a male, told the woman he had her newspaper.

Nick Burns grew up in a Portland, Ore., neighborhood where drugs, gangs and negative experiences with police officers were common.
Now 28 years old, he is an Amarillo Police Department patrol officer on the overnight shift, and Burns said that he’s working for a police department where he knows that he and his fellow officers will “do everything it takes to make Amarillo better.”

The Amarillo Police Department along with at least three departments at West Texas A&M are teaming up to learn about and provide teaching for APD officers on a subject that is part of our everyday lives, even if we don’t realize it is.
That subject is implicit bias, and the team of APD and WT came about because of new standards from the Texas Police Chief’s Association Best Practices Recognition Program, and APD wanting to work with a local college rather than outsource the future classes to another institution, according to APD Chief Ed Drain.

Pamla Albarez needed chemotherapy treatments, but the rural hospital in Denver City didn’t have the resources to provide them.
The Yoakum County Hospital in Denver City provides 24 beds with limited services — mostly delivery and orthopedic — in the town of 4,600.
Albarez had no choice but to commute 160 miles round trip to Lubbock earlier this year for breast cancer treatments.
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It’s pure delight to wake up at Hansford Manor on Christmas morning. The Spearman nursing facility, home to 61 elderly residents, is abustle as gifts are opened with glee in each room.
“We try to bring every joy to every one of our residents on Christmas morning,” said Janie Kunselman, activity assistant at Hansford Manor. “We want to make their eyes sparkle.”
Hansford Manor is one of several area organizations that partner with the Amarillo Globe-News’ Empty Stocking Fund.

Academic Spotlight
Sloane Precure,
18
Class: 12th grade,
Canyon High School
Nominated by: Ray Baca, teacher and coach
■ Why are you nominating this student? “Sloan is a highly motivated student-athlete who is in the top 10 in her senior class.”
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West Texas and Plains District Youth Ministry made Amarillo the destination for its sixth annual Takeover Youth Convention over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Youth Director Diego Mendoza said about 1,000 young adults and families spent their Thanksgiving night hearing from motivational Christian speakers and dancing to live music all in the name of praising the Lord.
“We’ve had speakers from all over Texas, California, New York, even Spain,” he said. “We look at speakers that are going to connect and relate with our students.”

HALE CENTER — The gym of a rural elementary school was fully engulfed in flames before anyone could do anything about it.
With only unpaid volunteer firefighters in the small town of about 2,200 people, Hale Center Volunteer Fire Department Chief Mike Watson said at least once or twice a year the department responds to fires that completely overwhelm their resources.
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