Potter County | featured news

■ On Sept. 8, 1966, the sci-fi series “Star Trek” premiered on NBC; the sitcom “That Girl,” starring Marlo Thomas, debuted on ABC.
■ In 1565, a Spanish expedition established the first permanent European settlement in North America at present-day St. Augustine, Fla.
■ In 1892, an early version of “The Pledge of Allegiance” appeared in “The Youth’s Companion.”
■ In 1900, Galveston was struck by a hurricane that killed an estimated 8,000 people.

The federal government is accusing Texas of circulating “inaccurate or misleading information” to poll workers and would-be voters about relaxed identification requirements for the November elections.

Victor Ortega sat, bored and quiet, on the couch Tuesday morning, his fingers tracing the upside-down, L-shaped scar interrupting the hair on the side of his head. The hair surrounding the scar has grown back quite a bit.
It’s been just more than three weeks since the 11-year-old was ejected from his grandfather’s truck in an crash involving alleged street racing.

Despite nationwide advances in mental health care and counseling services, Texas is ranked 42nd for suicide prevention, according to The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and is 49th for funding mental illness education and treatment.
In 2014, the latest year for which data is available, 42,773 people committed suicide nationally while in Texas, 3,254 people took their own lives, according to AFSP statistics. That’s a rate of 12.18 suicides per 100,000 Texas residents.

Some of the moisture from Hurricane Newton could impact parts of the Texas Panhandle in the coming day or so, according to the National Weather Service in Amarillo.
Newton made landfall at the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California peninsula in the morning as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 90 mph (150 kph), pelting the area with torrential rain as residents hunkered down in their homes and tourists huddled in hotels.

An Amarillo police officer has been arrested on misdemeanor charges for allegedly vandalizing a vehicle in 2014.
Amarillo Police Department Officer Robert Vennell was booked into Potter County jail Thursday and charged with criminal mischief, jail records show. Vennell, 33, was released the same day after posting $1,000 bond.

Officials with the Rick Amarillo Husband International Airport confirmed Tuesday they are in talks with American Airlines to add a non-stop flight to Phoenix.
While plans are still in the preliminary stage, the airport’s aviation director, Sara Freese, said the idea is to add a daily flight to and from Phoenix Sky International Airport, which according to its website is one of the ten busiest in the nation for passenger traffic.
Freese said the addition would increase airline capacity and possibly reverse the trend of higher air fares from the region.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Is the death penalty in America gradually dying?
There have been just two executions since May 1 and the total for 2016 probably will hit a 25-year low.

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An Amarillo woman is dead and a man is in jail after a two-vehicle collision early Sunday morning near 45th Avenue and South Georgia Street, police said.
Aisling Christine Martinez, 32, was driving a motorcycle southbound on Georgia Street when she was struck by a white truck that fled the scene, a news release from Amarillo police said.
Martinez was taken to a local hospital where she later died of injuries sustained in the collision.
Officers located the suspect and the white truck in the 6200 block of Colton Street a short time after the crash.

The 2014 motion picture “The Monuments Men” told the World War II story of a band of Allies who were out to save items of cultural importance the Nazis were out to steal or destroy.
Now, a 2016 version of that story is being written, and believe it or not, Amarillo is playing a key role. So do many people who buy works of art without checking where the pieces came from, or who owns them.