Amarillo, Potter County | featured news

Texas Tech has hit the brakes on its plans to build a veterinary school in Amarillo.
System spokesman Brett Ashworth said Wednesday that the veterinary school has been placed “on pause.”
Ashworth declined to elaborate, but said the decision was made by Chancellor Robert Duncan.

United Supermarkets’ Streetside home delivery service, which began last month at a Lubbock store, launched in Amarillo on Wednesday.
The service features home delivery for $12 and curbside pickup at United’s Soncy Road store for $7. The first three curbside pickups and first delivery are complimentary while United tries to draw in remote shoppers.
Streetside launched as a pilot project at a Market Street store in Lubbock on Oct. 12, and United family said at the time it would expand to other stores if all went well.

J.A. WHITTENBURG III, 83, PROMINENT AMARILLO RANCHER
GLOBE-NEWS STAFF
Amarillo native, prominent rancher and businessman James Andrew “Jimmie” Whittenburg III passed away at his home in Dallas on Tuesday.
Whittenburg, 83, was well-known across many local and national industries, including ranching, banking, cattle raising, oil and gas, aviation, and even law enforcement.
One of Whittenburg’s first loves was aviation, learning to fly airplanes by 17-years-old.

Come to them if you want to live.
Baptist St. Anthony Health System unveiled its new Da Vinci XI robotic surgical system on Wednesday, a metal jungle equipped with an HD camera and ultra-responsive manual controls. The Da Vinci allows for minimal invasion and scarring during procedures, and proponents say its anti-tremor technology allows more precise surgical hand control.
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West Texas A&M University has received reaffirmation of its accreditation through 2026 from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC).
The announcement was made Tuesday during the Commission’s annual meeting in Atlanta, Ga.
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A bench trial has been set to determine whether money set aside for a developer who previously worked on Amarillo’s downtown catalyst projects will be paid to the developer’s firm or to its creditor.
Amarillo Local Government Corp. board members had originally filed a lawsuit in state district court that ended up in federal court asking a judge to make the decision after cutting ties with Wallace Bajjali Development Partners soon after the business crumbled.

For a year, leaders of the Texas Tech University System have made clear that in 2017 they planned to ask the Texas Legislature to allow them build a veterinary school in Amarillo.
But now, about a month before the Legislature convenes, the system confirmed that those plans are on hold.
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The line is a short one of those who can match what Cecil Hawkins did in his 26-year U.S. Navy career: More than 1,000 carrier landings on 22 different carriers, flew 22 different aircraft, flew escort for Russian ships during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Add another one: Impersonating a Japanese pilot flying a Japanese Zero, its bomber plane, off the coast of San Diego.
“The whole thing was fun,” he said. “I’m glad I did it.”
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TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will not apologize for Japan’s attack when he visits the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor later this month, the government spokesman said Tuesday.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that “the purpose of the upcoming visit is to pay respects for the war dead and not to offer an apology.”
Abe announced late Monday that he would have a summit meeting with President Barack Obama in Hawaii and visit Pearl Harbor.

Since red light cameras were first introduced in Amarillo in 2008 and expanded in 2013, they have done everything the companies selling and installing them have said they would do.
Fatal crashes, drivers running red lights and speeding tickets have all dropped since the cameras were installed, all while raising money for the city.
So why do some remain skeptical about the intersection cameras and the data they provide, as well as the money they supposedly raise for the city?
City Councilman Mark Nair is one such skeptic.