Potter County | featured news

Here we go.
It’s both unofficial and traditional to call Labor Day the beginning of the intense action in a general election year, and it still carries a shred of truth. The slates are set.
The debates are ahead, along with most of the ads and mailers and door-to-door visits from campaign workers and candidates. Summer vacations are over. This election is on.
The political calendar from here to there is stuffed. Nov. 8 is 64 days away. Early voting starts in Texas on Oct. 24.

Patrick Forkpa stood on the corner of 10th and Washington Monday afternoon shouting, his hands cupped around his mouth to carry his message to the homeless community in the area.
“Free hotdogs and water. No charge, no affiliated organization just free water and hotdogs,” he repeatedly shouted.
Forkpa said he came up with the idea on Sunday while watering his front lawn as he was considering ways he could perform a “random act of kindness.” So, he bought 300 hotdogs.

In the coffee shops around Amarillo, many baristas have developed a connection with their customers that goes beyond merely remembering a familiar face’s favorite drink.
Bryce Herbert has been pouring his way into his customers’ daily coffee routines for five years now.
Having a window into others’ lives is one reason he chooses to work as a barista at Roasters Coffee & Tea Company. And with his current job, he said that he is in a great position to experience the everyday lives of the customers he serves.

Children off from school for Labor Day filed into Temple of Praise Community Church on Monday with their families for the final sermon of the Back-2-School Revival.
Isaac Butler, an elder with TPCC, said he created the revival to begin uniting different churches and different races throughout Amarillo’s faith community.
After unified worship between TPCC’s own worship team and that of Victory Church in Amarillo, Butler preached a sermon focusing on what each individual can do to bring healing to the problems of the city and the nation.

As part of National Preparedness Month the Amarillo, Potter, and Randall Office of Emergency Management is hosting a Community Preparedness and Resilience event during two sessions on Wednesday, Sept. 7 in the North Exhibit Hall of Amarillo Civic Center Complex.
Agencies from across the community will be on hand to teach the public about hazards that are possible in the Panhandle area and to help promote public safety in the event of a disaster, including severe weather, fires, hazardous materials and preventable contagious diseases.

An Oklahoma City man has been arrested for felony possession of methamphetamine valued at approximately $1 million after a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper stopped his vehicle for a traffic violation on eastbound Interstate 40 near Conway on Saturday.
Ernesto Ayala, 20, was arrested after a trooper stopped the 2003 Nissan sedan at 2:44 p.m. in Carson County. The trooper discovered more than 12 pounds of plastic-wrapped packages of methamphetamine hidden in the auto’s rocker panels.

A Fritch man is dead after a one-vehicle motorcycle crash Sunday on Farm-to-Market Road 1319 in Hutchison County.
Benjamin Smith, 27, was driving a 2007 Yamaha motorcycle northbound around 1 a.m. About 2½ miles south of Sanford, he failed to negotiate a curve and lost control, Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Cindy Barkley reported.
Investigators said the motorcycle left the roadway and Smith was ejected.
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No matter which way you count, the number of Texas women dying after they have babies or unsuccessful pregnancies is on the rise.
Two new studies detailing the disturbing trend have prompted soul-searching from state policymakers and outcry from women’s health advocates, who argue that cuts by the state’s Republican-led Legislature to Planned Parenthood and other women’s health programs are at least partially responsible for the increase.
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While a quarter of a million people filled St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City on Sunday as Pope Francis elevated Mother Teresa to sainthood, one of the Catholic Church’s highest honors, local Catholics in Amarillo and the Panhandle watched and celebrated in spirit alongside approximately 1.2 billion Catholics around the world.
“I think it’s amazing that our children can be witnesses to something so spiritual and phenomenal and Catholic,” St. Mary’s Cathedral School Principal Linda Aranda said Sunday morning outside of Mass.

Labor Day in Amarillo was not much of a bustling day. The freeways were clear of a lot of the traffic that is seen during the week. A few bicyclists were spotted riding around town, despite some pretty hefty wind gusts. People in the parks were scarce at first, in the morning and afternoon, but later in the day, the dog park at John Stiff Park was one of the most populated.
“It’s a day off, and he [the dog] needed to go,” Haley Adams said, as she spent one of her last weekends in Amarillo before moving off to Dallas to be with her family.