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Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Monday, December 24, 2012
NORAD: SANTA IS IN THE AIR!
You can track Santa's flight HERE!
Merry Christmas to all from of us at Best Publications!
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Duster forecast for tomorrow ...
Widespread blowing dust is forecast for tomorrow mainly after noon. Partly sunny, with a high near 57. Wind chill values between 29 and 36 early.
It will be very windy, with a south southwest wind 15 to 25 mph becoming west southwest 30 to 40 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 55 mph.
On Wednesday Night areas of blowing dust should whip up before midnight. Lows will be around 17. Wind chill values between 7 and 12 are very likely so bundle up.
It will be very windy Thursday morning with a northwest wind 30 to 40 mph decreasing to 10 to 20 mph. Winds could gust as high as 60 mph.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Traffic Alert: Icy conditions make for hazardous driving
Ambulances have transported three people to the hospital - all with non-life threatening injuries to area hospitals as of 10:30 PM Sunday night.
Since there are (and will be) too many wrecks to list here - as we go into the morning rush hour, drive carefully and listen to the Pro-News Live Scanner Feed for the latest driving and emergency information.
Amarillo Police: SCAM alert!
CONNECT AMARILLO: AMARILLO, TEXAS -- Amarillo Police have issued a warning about a nationally reported suspicious letter being mailed to residents.
The letter, according to police, is postmarked from Phoenix, Ariz., and appears to be from "US Airlines."
Police said the letter starts by saying it must be replied to by a certain date and that the recipient won two round trip airline tickets.
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) said the letter appears to be similar to a letter reported to it in July. The letter asks the recipient to call a 1-866 number.
In the Texas Panhandle, the BBB said it has received multiple phone calls about the letter and at least one person responded and was given a second number to call.
Police said if anyone receives this letter to simply trash it. Anyone who may have lost money because of the letter is asked to contact police at (806) 378-3038.
Friday, November 30, 2012
Center City Electric Light Parade is tonight!
The Center City Electric Light Parade welcomes the Christmas season with lighted floats. Theme for 2012 is "The Nutcracker." The parade starts at 11th and Polk and goes to Fourth and Buchanan where the city of Amarillo will light the city's Christmas Tree. Parade begins at 6PM!
Directions:
The Electric Light Parade is downtown starting at 11th and Polk Street and going to Fourth Avenue where it turns toward Buchanan.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Ken Burn's; The Dust Bowl featuring history of the Texas Panhandle - gets rave reviews
By Ned Martel, Published: November 16
This past April, there was no Pulitzer for fiction. Judges and prize administrators struggled to find the right work for right now, and then they gave up. One aftermath assessment: Novels have gotten twee.
In televised nonfiction, on the other hand, Ken Burns has no problem with the big picture. His documentaries for PBS are never not epic. He knows how to make chapters of America’s past seem urgent, whether he’s obsessing over a sport (baseball) or a musical genre (jazz). He’s unafraid of going wider, too, having assembled sagas on World War II and, most famously, the Civil War.
Like good novelists, Burns finds quiet awakenings amid everyday travails, no matter the time period. There’s no real problem with doing this, except the PBS impresario tends to exhaust interest in an epoch as if he’s conducting an honors seminar in the history department. Halfway through, while we’re all furrowing in airless archives, a question often arises: Can this be taken pass-fail?
With “The Dust Bowl,” Burns keeps himself to four concise hours and ably sifts the story out of the dirt. As the filmmaker chronicles farmers in the southern Plains during the Depression years, he looks more carefully at fewer people and distills deeper meaning.
Over 10 years, farmers tore up grasslands to plant more and more wheat, which soon was worth less and less. Next, winds blew away good soil and then more winds brought bad soil to the surface. In towns called Follett and Enid, the filmmaker has found important things to discuss about ecosystems and economies and how they collapse.
More important, Burns also presents novel-worthy characters against an apocalyptic backdrop.
One Job-like figure in the desertified Oklahoma Panhandle is a farm wife who describes endless chores in her elegant magazine dispatches.
Caroline Henderson, a homesteader with a Mount Holyoke degree, is perhaps Burns’s most apt protagonist. She sounds like Laura Ingalls Wilder with an adult awareness; imagine her as the first mommy blogger.
The land changes under Henderson’s feet. Amber waves become arid dunes. Morning in America leads to darkness by noon. She keeps somber vigil as Manifest Destiny comes to a screeching halt.
Not every viewer will be in the mood for a glimpse of the moment when thousands of poor Americans confronted what looked like end times. It’s unsettling, in the season of the “fiscal cliff,” to delve into four hours recounting some previous battered economy, when recovery stretched from wait-till-next-year to wait-till-next-decade.
Somehow, Burns takes care of viewer and character alike. For sure, the pain of infanticidal winds addles the brains of both farm marms and PBS viewers. Hack coughs lead to “dust pneumonia,” which claimed one family’s youngest girl and eldest matriarch in the same week. On the day of their double funeral, a massive storm engulfed mourners, compounding the pain.
That Palm Sunday devastation, in 1935, blew Plains dust all the way to Franklin Roosevelt’s desktop in the Oval Office, and the viewer can practically feel some film of inescapable particles settling, even after the documentary’s gusts have waned. As narrator Peter Coyote pulls back to a wider world, the discussion takes a needed break, turning to Washington players such as Henry Wallace and Harold Ickes, New Deal Cabinet members who debated whether to plow anew or abandon for good, respectively.
As ever, the screen scans historic images — strong, clear, artful ones. Photographer Dorothea Lange trains her lens on wind-whipped faces. Burns knows by now how to pull emotion out of first-person documents and underscores the testimony with piano chords and violin whines. Woody Guthrie finds his voice. And one of many older survivors recalls her mama’s hymn that hoped for “higher ground.”
Obviously, there are American themes of endurance and pluck, but also hype and hubris. In on-camera testimonies, unsparing eco-historians such as Timothy Egan make sense of the sadness, with ample narrative skill. A viewer will understand arcana about soil conservation and grassland water retention, plus how the government came to pay farmers not to farm, a policy that endures.
Wheat prices soar and sink, and fields of dreams become nightmare landscapes. When survivors finally overcome starvation and disease, many pack up and head to California. There, real-life Tom Joads look as hearty and humble as Henry Ford but get mocked as unwashed and defeated Okies.
“The Dust Bowl” is worthwhile not merely as it documents past perseverance but also as it informs future struggles. Leave it to Burns, our mop-topped maestro of American fact, to find the heroine, Caroline Henderson, who can speak for herself and also bring it all home: “Behind the characteristic American nonchalance, one detects a growing anxiety, especially about the coming winter.”
The Dust Bowl
(two hours each night) Sunday and Monday
at 8 p.m. on PBS
One Job-like figure in the desertified Oklahoma Panhandle is a farm wife who describes endless chores in her elegant magazine dispatches.
Caroline Henderson, a homesteader with a Mount Holyoke degree, is perhaps Burns’s most apt protagonist. She sounds like Laura Ingalls Wilder with an adult awareness; imagine her as the first mommy blogger.
The land changes under Henderson’s feet. Amber waves become arid dunes. Morning in America leads to darkness by noon. She keeps somber vigil as Manifest Destiny comes to a screeching halt.
Not every viewer will be in the mood for a glimpse of the moment when thousands of poor Americans confronted what looked like end times. It’s unsettling, in the season of the “fiscal cliff,” to delve into four hours recounting some previous battered economy, when recovery stretched from wait-till-next-year to wait-till-next-decade.
Somehow, Burns takes care of viewer and character alike. For sure, the pain of infanticidal winds addles the brains of both farm marms and PBS viewers. Hack coughs lead to “dust pneumonia,” which claimed one family’s youngest girl and eldest matriarch in the same week. On the day of their double funeral, a massive storm engulfed mourners, compounding the pain.
That Palm Sunday devastation, in 1935, blew Plains dust all the way to Franklin Roosevelt’s desktop in the Oval Office, and the viewer can practically feel some film of inescapable particles settling, even after the documentary’s gusts have waned. As narrator Peter Coyote pulls back to a wider world, the discussion takes a needed break, turning to Washington players such as Henry Wallace and Harold Ickes, New Deal Cabinet members who debated whether to plow anew or abandon for good, respectively.
As ever, the screen scans historic images — strong, clear, artful ones. Photographer Dorothea Lange trains her lens on wind-whipped faces. Burns knows by now how to pull emotion out of first-person documents and underscores the testimony with piano chords and violin whines. Woody Guthrie finds his voice. And one of many older survivors recalls her mama’s hymn that hoped for “higher ground.”
Obviously, there are American themes of endurance and pluck, but also hype and hubris. In on-camera testimonies, unsparing eco-historians such as Timothy Egan make sense of the sadness, with ample narrative skill. A viewer will understand arcana about soil conservation and grassland water retention, plus how the government came to pay farmers not to farm, a policy that endures.
Wheat prices soar and sink, and fields of dreams become nightmare landscapes. When survivors finally overcome starvation and disease, many pack up and head to California. There, real-life Tom Joads look as hearty and humble as Henry Ford but get mocked as unwashed and defeated Okies.
“The Dust Bowl” is worthwhile not merely as it documents past perseverance but also as it informs future struggles. Leave it to Burns, our mop-topped maestro of American fact, to find the heroine, Caroline Henderson, who can speak for herself and also bring it all home: “Behind the characteristic American nonchalance, one detects a growing anxiety, especially about the coming winter.”
The Dust Bowl
(two hours each night) Sunday and Monday
at 8 p.m. on PBS
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
Amarillo Police seek bank robber: video released
On 11-5-12, at 12:30 PM, officers responded to a robbery alarm at First Bank Southwest at 5701 SW 34th . Officers found that a male suspect entered the bank’s front door and approached a female teller.
He had a dark colored handgun in his hand. He also was carrying what appears to be a red gym bag. The suspect pointed the gun at the employee and demanded money.
The bank teller placed money in the bag. The robber then left through the front door. A witness saw him run from the bank to an alley east of the bank and south of 34th. He got into a white, single-cab older model pickup parked in the alley and left eastbound.
The robber was a male about 5ft. 9 inches tall. He was wearing a blue hooded windbreaker type jacket with the hood up over his head, a white mask, gloves, and blue jeans.
No arrests have been made and there were no injuries. If you have any information on this robbery or believe you may have seen the suspect or vehicle, call the Amarillo Police Department at 378-3038 or Amarillo Crime Stoppers 374-4400.
Amarillo man arrested for possession of controlled substance after Sunday morning search.
On Sunday November 4th at approximately 6:37am, officers were dispatched to the 7000 block of Imperial on a 911 hang up.
Upon arrival officers began speaking with a female occupant of the residence who stated she felt someone had broken into the house during the night.
The female then invited officers inside the house. Once inside officers identified all the occupants of the house and tried to assess what the nature of the call was.
Officers were given consent to search the residence, where they located numerous pieces of narcotic paraphernalia and a small amount of meth.
A shop located in the back yard of the residence was also searched. Inside the shop, officers located a stolen I-pad and a stolen digital camera. Both of these items were stolen in auto burglaries that occurred in residential neighborhoods in the past few months. Further searching in the shop area reveled a small plastic baggie with what appears to be methamphetamines.
The baggie weighed approximately 8 grams. The male occupant of the house was arrested and transported to Randall County where he was booked for Possession of a Controlled Substance over 4 grams – under 200 and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. He is identified as Kristopher Donald Mixon W/M 42 DOB 11-5-69. A second male occupant was arrested for outstanding traffic warrants.
A shop located in the back yard of the residence was also searched. Inside the shop, officers located a stolen I-pad and a stolen digital camera. Both of these items were stolen in auto burglaries that occurred in residential neighborhoods in the past few months. Further searching in the shop area reveled a small plastic baggie with what appears to be methamphetamines.
The baggie weighed approximately 8 grams. The male occupant of the house was arrested and transported to Randall County where he was booked for Possession of a Controlled Substance over 4 grams – under 200 and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. He is identified as Kristopher Donald Mixon W/M 42 DOB 11-5-69. A second male occupant was arrested for outstanding traffic warrants.
BREAKING: Bank Robbed in SW Amarillo
Early suspect description is unknown race male wearing blue hooded jacket, gloves, some type of white mask. Anyone in the area that saw a pickup parked or prowling near the bank is asked to notify the APD at 378-3038. More detail will follow as it is available.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Union Pacific 844 rolls into Amarillo
Click to enlarge
(C) Steve Douglass
Union Pacific’s last steam engine train, No. 844, rolled through Amarillo Saturday, as part of its 150th birthday celebration tour.
The train made a service stop in Amarillo just after 12:30 PM.
The 454-ton train left Houston on Oct. 27 and is scheduled to arrive back to its home in Cheyenne, Wyo., on Nov. 8.
Steam locomotive to visit Amarillo
AMARILLO — Union Pacific’s last steam engine train, No. 844, will
roll through the Texas Panhandle this weekend during its 150th birthday
celebration tour, said Raquel Espinoza, the company’s director of
corporate and media relations.
The train’s team will make a service stop in Amarillo at 11:45 a.m. Saturday at 83 S. Pierce St. People cannot board the train, Espinoza said.
The 454-ton train left from Houston on Oct. 27 and is scheduled to arrive back to its home in Cheyenne, Wyo., on Nov. 8.
“It’s a rolling piece of history,” Espinoza said.
The locomotive was delivered in 1944 and has hauled freight and passengers. More recently, the train has served as the railroad company’s “goodwill ambassador,” making appearances at museums and heritage celebrations, according to a news release.
Union Pacific connects 23 states, mainly in the western part of the country, by rail and gives freight solutions and expertise, the news release said.
It’s neat to see generations of families come together to visit No. 844, Espinoza said.
“It’s a firsthand look of how passengers used to travel before cars and modern locomotives,” she said. “It’s important to do what we can to preserve as much history as possible.”
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Sam Teague, president of the nonprofit Railroad Artifact Preservation Society, said the group will hold tours of the Amarillo engine — Santa Fe No. 5000 — at Southeast Second Avenue and Lincoln Street from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The train’s team will make a service stop in Amarillo at 11:45 a.m. Saturday at 83 S. Pierce St. People cannot board the train, Espinoza said.
The 454-ton train left from Houston on Oct. 27 and is scheduled to arrive back to its home in Cheyenne, Wyo., on Nov. 8.
“It’s a rolling piece of history,” Espinoza said.
The locomotive was delivered in 1944 and has hauled freight and passengers. More recently, the train has served as the railroad company’s “goodwill ambassador,” making appearances at museums and heritage celebrations, according to a news release.
Union Pacific connects 23 states, mainly in the western part of the country, by rail and gives freight solutions and expertise, the news release said.
It’s neat to see generations of families come together to visit No. 844, Espinoza said.
“It’s a firsthand look of how passengers used to travel before cars and modern locomotives,” she said. “It’s important to do what we can to preserve as much history as possible.”
Sam Teague, president of the nonprofit Railroad Artifact Preservation Society, said the group will hold tours of the Amarillo engine — Santa Fe No. 5000 — at Southeast Second Avenue and Lincoln Street from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
APD seeks robbery suspect
The victim, a black male age 43 of Amarillo, told officers that he was pulling into a convenience store parking lot when a white male standing at the edge of the parking lot waved to him as though he wanted him to stop the vehicle.
He stopped to see what the man wanted. The man asked the victim if he could ask him a question, then opened the driver’s side door and tried to sit down in the car with the victim. When the victim told the suspect to get out of the car, the suspect produced a black pistol. He then reached over and tried to take the victim’s keys out of the car’s ignition.
The victim started struggling with the suspect. He also drove toward the front of the store to try to attract attention and get help. The suspect grabbed the man’s wallet and cellular phone that was in the car seat beside the driver and ran north on Woodland from the scene. The victim was not injured and there have been no arrests.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Stanley Marsh named in 2nd sex lawsuit
A Houston law firm filed a second civil lawsuit Monday against Stanley Marsh 3, alleging Marsh 3 paid a 16-year-old to engage in sex acts with him at his Amarillo office and gave the teen Viagra so he could perform sexually for the Amarillo millionaire.
The suit, filed in 108th District Court on behalf of John Doe 2 by Houston attorney Anthony Buzbee, names Stanley Marsh 3, SM3 LLC, a limited liability company; Barb Wire LP, a Marsh-owned business; Marsh 3’s wife and guardian Gwendolyn “Wendy” O’Brien Marsh; David Weir, a Marsh associate; his son, Stanley Marsh IV; Amarillo Protective Services LLC, which provides security for the Chase Tower; and McCartt & Associates, which manages the Chase Tower, as defendants.
The suit said Marsh 3 paid Doe 2, a black teen, for various sex acts at Marsh 3’s Chase Tower office and in one instance at Marsh 3’s Toad Hall home at 801 N. Western St.
The lawsuit alleges Marsh 3 paid the teen a sum of money to [filtered word] in front of the Amarillo millionaire and watch pornographic movies.
Marsh 3, the suit said, knew the teen was 16 at the time and alleges that Marsh 3 made Doe 2 take Viagra so that he “could sexually perform at Marsh 3’s whim.”
The suit further claims that at least one sexual session with John Doe 2 occurred at the Marsh 3 family home, the suit said, and Marsh 3’s wife showed the teen into a bedroom where Marsh 3 was waiting for him.
Last week, an Amarillo woman sued Marsh 3 in Potter County, alleging the Amarillo millionaire gave her teenage son cash, vehicles and drugs to engage in sexual acts with Marsh 3 at his downtown Amarillo office.
Kelly Utsinger, an Amarillo attorney representing the Marshes and Weir, said Monday his clients plan to contest the suit in court. Attempts to reach Amarillo Protective Services and McCartt & Associates for comment were unsuccessful Monday.
“After many years of trial experience, I’ve found that it’s best not to form conclusions based on allegations contained in pleadings, but instead to reserve judgment until the evidence is fully developed in the courtroom,” Utsinger said. “As before, my typical practice is not to discuss pending litigation, but we will be filing responsive pleadings to deny the allegations.”
The suit said another of Marsh 3’s alleged victims reported the abuse to Amarillo police in the summer of 2012. Police, the suit said, contacted John Doe 2, who reported “Marsh 3’s abuse of him as well.”
The suit claims Marsh 3 targeted young men who abused drugs and alcohol and who were known to have had troubles with law enforcement.
Amarillo Police Cpl. Jerry Neufeld, said Monday the police department cannot confirm or deny anyone is a suspect until a criminal complaint is filed.
Breaking Forest Hills in lock down due to SWAT standoff.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Ballloon glow tonight at John Stiff Park
(C) Steve Douglass
Balloons will inflate after dark and use there fire burners to light up the night sky next to McDonald Lake nestled in John Stiff Park. Gates open at 5:00 PM and admission is free. Please come out and mingle with the Pilots and Crews as they set up to dazzle your eyes and cameras with a beautiful show. Dress warmly as the nights can get cold.
The event is part of the Pirates of the Canyon annual balloon festival that takes place this weekend.
For a full schedule of events click HERE
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Pirates Of The Canyon balloon rally debuts flying shoe
AMARILLO — This year’s Pirates of the Canyon balloon rally will see the official Amarillo debut of the first special-shape balloon that will call the city home.
Pirates organizer Chris Jones purchased the Old Lady in the Shoe last year and got her flight-ready in the spring. He flew her at the recent Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta but, outside a brief test flight, he plans to have the Old Lady officially make her bow at this weekend’s seventh-annual Pirates rally.
Balloonists will be at John S. Stiff Memorial Park, 45th Avenue and Bell Street, for a variety of activities on Friday and Saturday before closing out the weekend with a mass sunrise ascension Sunday at Palo Duro Canyon State Park.
At 147 feet tall, the old gal and her big boot are about two times taller than most special-shape balloons, Jones said, and she weighs about 1,000 pounds, four times the weight of most of her peers.
“She’s got a lot of air in her,” Jones said. “One of our goals is to figure out what size bra she would wear.”
The balloon also features 12 children, including one on the roof of the boot who moons the crowd and one who’s hanging on for dear life from a shoelace.
“She’s definitely a conversation piece,” Jones said.
The Old Lady is a challenge to fly, he said.
“When she gets in different layers of wind, she’ll spin like a top,” Jones said. “It gets dizzying.”
The weekend’s activities kick off at 6 p.m. Friday with a balloon glow around McDonald Lake at Stiff Park. Balloonists are scheduled to take part in a mass sunrise ascension from the park at 6:30 a.m. Saturday.
Activities on Saturday continue through 4 p.m., including food vendors, demonstrations from Amarillo Radio Kontrol Society and Flying Dutchman Boat Club, and tethered balloon rides. Balloons will launch around 3:30 p.m. following trick-or-treating for children at 2 p.m.
The rally ends with the planned sunrise ascension at the canyon.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Thursday, October 11, 2012
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