Category Archives: local news

local news, media news

Thank you, readers, for joining this adventure

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Blog concept in word tag cloud

I entered the blogosphere on Feb. 13, 2009, with this post:

“My name is John Kanelis and I am joining the world of bloggers.

 “What will this blog feature? That will depend on my mood and what I see as I go through my day, and travel through Amarillo and the Panhandle.
 
“My discussion topics will be mostly local, I predict, but not exclusively so. They’ll focus mostly on politics and policy. They’ll have an edge. They will invite comment and community discussion.
 
“I’ve been in daily journalism for 32 years. I’ve watched the media change during that entire time, but never at the pace it is changing now. Thus, this entry into the Age of Blogging is an exciting venture for me.
 
“With that, well, let’s talk.”
I was working full time as a print journalist for the Amarillo Globe-News, and the blog was written exclusively for that publication. My association with the newspaper ended abruptly in August 2012, but the blog has continued.
I want to thank those of you who’ve stuck with me over the years and hope you’ll stick around for as long as I continue to vent, rant, cajole, coax, praise, pound and offer a word or two of my brand of wisdom on this and/or that subject.
We’re heading toward the end of an eventual year and the next one is shaping up to make this one look like a walk in the park.
I intend to be there to watch it unfold.
As always, I hope you’ll feel free to share these musings with your own social media friends, acquaintances and assorted contacts as you see fit.
Thanks so much.
Stay tuned. There’s much more to come.

 

local news, Sports news

Who’s on first in the Texas League?

baseball-pic

Left hand, meet the right hand. Right, say “hey” to left.

Someone — and it’s difficult to discern who — isn’t talking entirely straight regarding a possible baseball franchise move from one city to another in Texas.

A consultant who works with the San Antonio Missions of the Texas League apparently has told downtown Amarillo officials that the Missions might like to consider moving to Amarillo once the city build its downtown ball park.

Oh, but wait! Tom Kayser, president of the Texas League, said the Missions aren’t moving anywhere. Kayser said Rich Neumann, the consultant working with Brailsford & Dunlavey, isn’t speaking for the team or the league or anyone else he can think of.

The third principal here is Melissa Dailey, head of Downtown Amarillo Inc., who told the Amarillo Local Government Corporation of the Missions’ possible move. I don’t recall her saying anything was set in stone, or that any other pledges had been made.

Yes, it’s a bit confusing.

Something is amiss. Someone might have spoken out of turn down yonder in San Antonio without telling the league president of the intention.

It’s been reported that San Antonio wants to upgrade to a AAA farm club; the Missions are a AA team affiliated with the San Diego Padres of the National League. Amarillo’s baseball fortunes currently are tied to an independent organization that in the next season will play half of its own homes in Grand Prairie. So, with that, Amarillo is looking to upgrade as well, to a AA team with a Major League Baseball affiliation.

So, let’s get all this straight. OK?

Many of us in Amarillo want to see some movement in the right direction as it involves the city’s baseball future.

First things first. How about we determine with absolute certainty whether the discussions we’ve been told have occurred with the San Antonio Missions are the real thing — or are they just a diversion?

 

 

local news

Ah, the chaos of construction in downtown Amarillo

amarillo

I have just returned from an appointment in downtown Amarillo.

It was in a building at Eighth Avenue and Buchanan Street. I couldn’t spot the building from the street, so I drove an extra  block to City Hall to ask for directions to the place (that’s right, I’m one of those few American males who actually asks for directions when I cannot find my destination).

They told me where it is located. I found the site. Good thing, too, because the construction all around it had me worried I’d miss my meeting time, as I was on a tight schedule.

So, what’s all the commotion about?

That Xcel Energy office complex is rising up out of the dirt across the street from where I was meeting my interview.

And … next to that construction site another one is taking shape. That’s going to be where the Embassy Suites convention hotel is going up.

OK, I get that few of us welcome the chaos associated with all this construction. However, as I’ve noted before, the end product — which I hope includes that ballpark on the east side of Buchanan — will contributed to a downtown district that will make all of us proud of our city.

I have griped as much as the next guy about construction delays. I try, though, to take the long view.

Patience will be required of us to await the finish.

It should be a thing of beauty.

local news, Sports news

MPEV action gets a stunning jump-start

Baseball

Well, now. It appears that Amarillo is in the hunt for a serious tenant for a proposed multipurpose event venue — with a ballpark — to be built in the city’s downtown district.

The city has been home to independent baseball teams for quite some time. As it has been noted, they come and go. Next year, the Amarillo Thunderheads are going to merge with the Grand Prairie AirHogs and will split their “home” games between the two locales.

Now comes word that the Local Government Corporation is going after an affiliated Class AA team, possibly the San Antonio Missions, a farm club linked with the National League San Diego Padres.

This team might want to come to Amarillo and play its home games in the MPEV.

Here’s what City Councilman Randy Burkett, a member of the LGC said to NewsChannel 10: “A AA team takes most of the risk out of it. An independent league and an independent team is very risky. They are here today and gone tomorrow in some cases. Not all cases, but with AA baseball, you’re a league affiliate with Major League Baseball. They’ll come in here and sign a 30-year agreement with us and then we’ll know we will have an affiliated team here for 30 years.”

Interesting, yes?

There will be hurdles to clear. The LGC has to get a design done by April, under the timeline it and the City Council have set. Will the MPEV’s planned 4,500 permanent seats be enough for a AA baseball team? Will the MPEV’s estimated $32 million price tag hold up?

The city has changed its mind on whether to pursue an independent team. It has decided to pursue an affiliated minor-league franchise.

With a new ballpark officially on the table, the inducement has become decidedly more attractive.

 

local news

Will this ‘movement’ keep its momentum?

MPEV

Amarillo gave birth earlier this year to something called a “movement.”

It comprised a group of young residents who became inspired by the city’s effort to revive its downtown district.

It called itself the Amarillo Millennial Movement, as its members were mostly of the millennial generation. Young folks. Engaged. Energetic. Articulate. Ready to rumble.

They took up the cudgel for the multipurpose event venue that had been placed on the ballot in a non-binding referendum. The MPEV issue won the voters’ endorsement. The City Council then ratified those results and handed the project off to the Local Government Corporation. Make it happen, council members told the LGC.

Meanwhile, it’s to ask: Will the Amarillo Millennial Movement stay engaged in the process as it moves forward?

I became acquainted during the year with a couple leaders of this movement, the AMM. Their enthusiasm impressed me greatly and I share their happiness with the results of the citywide referendum.

It doesn’t end there. Movements by definition need to grow. They need to build on their success and strive for more successes.

I trust that AMM will keep its eyes on the LGC, the council, Downtown Amarillo Inc., City Hall’s senior administrative staff. Keep poking, prodding, needling if you must.

Do not be afraid to speak your mind. I, for one, am tired of hearing the same, tired old voices. A group of younger voices has spoken out on an important project for their city. Keep it up!

business news, local news, State news

Welcome back, Blue Bell … I guess

BB

Blue Bell Ice Cream is returning to freezer shelves in Amarillo.

With that, our collective souls will be healed. We’ll be returned to some sort of Promised Land of delectability.

It’s all a puzzle to me.

Blue Bell Creamery yanked the ice cream from the store freezers when the listeria virus was discovered. Understandably, the folks at Blue Bell didn’t want to sicken millions of us.

It was here. Then it was gone. If memory serves, the feeling all over Texas was one of disbelief over the apparent demise of this Lone Star State favorite concoction.

I now will stipulate — as if you didn’t know it already — I ain’t of Texas. My family and I have lived here for nearly 32 years. We call Texas home and we have forged a great life in this wonderful state.

I tweeted something earlier today about Blue Bell coming back and my admitted lack of understanding of why this is such a big deal. A friend — a native Texan — reminded me that Texans hold some traditions near to their hearts and “Blue Bell is one of them.”

OK, I get it.

It must be that the creamery where it’s made is in Brenham, where every spring the bluebonnets bloom, filling Texans with pride in the beauty of state’s official flower.

Is the confection, though, that good? Is it the kind of treat that one recognize over all others? Diehard Texans, I suppose, would say it is. And I actually did proclaim my love for the stuff in an Aug. 5 blog post. But since then I have come to realize something during the months it was gone from our Amarillo stores: I didn’t miss it as much as I thought I might.

Don’t get me wrong. It does taste good. But I don’t think it rises to the level of, say, a certain barbecue sauce I discovered in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Dreamland Drive-In sauce is, indeed, the best BBQ sauce ever created. But … I digress.

This fascination with Blue Bell reminds me vaguely of a certain love affair some of us in high school back in Oregon had with Coors beer. We couldn’t purchase it in Oregon; but you could get it way over yonder in neighboring Idaho.

So-o-o-o … when one of our friends went to visit his aunt and uncle in Payette or Nampa, we’d fork over a few bucks and he’d bring back some Coors for us to swill — illegally, of course.

Looking back on it now? The brew was overrated.

Blue Bell Ice Cream is about to make a triumphant return. I’m glad, not so much for myself, but for my fellow Texans who’ve been yearning for it. You are whole again.

 

 

local news

12 a.m.? 12 p.m.?

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clock

I was watching a sporting event this afternoon on TV.

One of the local meteorologists then began running a crawl across the bottom of the screen advising us of some changes in our weather conditions.

The crawl referred to “12 a.m.” OK, I guess it meant midnight. Or did it? Does 12 p.m., therefore, refer to noon? But … when is it ever a.m. or p.m. at the precise 12 o’clock hour?

I know, this is a minor gripe with all the other stuff going on in the world today.

But back when I was a full-time journalist writing news copy for newspapers, I was instructed — as I am sure reporters and copy editors are today — that you refer to the noon as “noon” and midnight as “midnight.”

Thus, you have no confusion, or even the hint of confusion you might get when you refer to one of those moments on the clock as 12 a.m. or 12 p.m.

Can’t we be clear about noon and midnight?

Maybe I’m missing something. Fill me in if there’s something I don’t quite understand.

local news

Code of conduct? Go for it!

right_way

Amarillo’s City Council might be heading for perhaps its most productive round of change yet.

Council members are considering the adoption of a code of conduct for the governing body.

The five-member body met in a work session and decided to consider such a code that governs now council members interact with the public, city staff and each other — and how the council should operate in executive, or closed, session. As Councilman Brian Eades — the council’s senior member — noted of the proposed code of conduct, “It’s something we’ve never had to have before.”

Perhaps it’s time.

Yes, council members have behaved badly at times since the new crew took office this past spring. There’s been a good bit of public sniping, some snarkiness among council members and allegedly some hard feelings among council members and certain city staff members.

The code ought to include how the council should conduct itself when it’s meeting officially in public session. It also ought to stipulate — and I do not know if city guidelines do so already — that council members should not interfere with staffers’ performance of their duties as instructed by their administrative supervisors.

I had heard through some back channels that there had been a bit of administrative meddling from council members in that regard; if so, that has to stop.

The three newest council members ran on a platform of “change.” Some of it has been good; some of it has been, well, weird.

If the change agents who were elected are ready to adopt a comprehensive code of conduct that ensures professionalism and collegiality — even in the face of disagreement — then the city will be making some serious progress.

Go for it, gentlemen.

 

local news, medical news, political news, State news

May the right university system win

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reg_vet-img

My pal Jon Mark Beilue — a columnist for the Amarillo Globe-News — as usual, has laid out a fascinating critique of a growing dispute between two highly regarded Texas university systems.

One of them, Texas Tech, just announced plans to build and develop a college of veterinary medicine in Amarillo.

The other one, Texas A&M, has fired a shot across Tech’s bow, implying it will resist the effort to build an animal doctor school in the Texas Panhandle.

Beilue, himself a Tech alumnus, has taken up for his alma mater. But he’s right on the merits of his argument to argue that A&M is better than to exhibit a petulant streak in seeking to block Tech’s entry into the world of veterinary medicine academia. A&M’s credentials as a premier veterinary medicine institution are impeccable.

But let’s boil this possible tempest down to a more personal level.

Two men are leading their schools’ efforts. They both have at least one political thing in common: They both served in the Texas Senate.

Bob Duncan is chancellor of the Tech System. He’s a Republican who left the Senate this past year to take over the Tech job after Kent Hance retired to become something called “chancellor emeritus.”

Duncan’s Senate reputation is sparkling. He was named routinely by Texas Monthly magazine every two years as one of the top legislators in the state. His job now as chancellor is to raise money for the Tech System and he gets to lobby his friends in the Senate for help in that regard.

John Sharp served in the Senate quite a while ago, from 1982 to 1987; prior to that he served in the Texas House of Representatives. He’s a Democrat, who left the Senate to serve on the Texas Railroad Commission and then as Comptroller of Public Accounts. He, too, developed a reputation as a solid legislator, although he has fewer individuals with whom he served in the Legislature than his rival chancellor, Duncan.

This face-off will be fun to watch, particularly if it develops into something more than it appears at the moment.

I hope it doesn’t grow into anything more serious. Texas Tech is entitled to develop school of veterinary medicine anywhere it so chooses. That the system brass decided to bring it to Amarillo is a huge plus for the Texas Panhandle.

My hope would be that if Sharp stiffens his resistance that Duncan could call on his fellow Republican buddies in the Panhandle legislative delegation to use their own considerable muscle to make the veterinary school a reality.

As Beilue pointed out in his essay, the value of a veterinary school to any region of this state should rise far above petty politics.

 

 

 

local news, national news, political news

Obama fails to channel LBJ

claire

Claire McCaskill calls herself a “friend and supporter” of Barack Obama.

But the Democratic U.S. senator from Missouri has issued a candid assessment of the job her fellow Democrat has done as president of the United States.

The president’s major failing, according to McCaskill? He did not learn how to work with Congress.

The Hill reports on McCaskill’s remarks about Obama: “But one of the president’s shortcomings is that sometimes he sees the world through his eyes and doesn’t do, I think, enough work on being empathetic about how other people view things.”

McCaskill blisters president

In truth, McCaskill might be a bit behind the curve when critiquing the job the president has done.

I don’t think he’d mind my saying this, but a now-retired college administrator told me much the same thing during the president’s first term in office.

Former Amarillo College President Paul Matney and I were having lunch one day when Matney lamented the president’s testy relationship with congressional leaders. Matney wished that the president would employ the skill that the late President Lyndon Johnson used to great effect.

Johnson, of course, rose from the Senate to the executive branch of government, as Obama has done. LBJ served as vice president from 1961 until Nov. 22, 1963. Then he became president in the wake of tragedy.

When LBJ moved into the Oval Office, he harnessed all his legislative skill to shepherd landmark legislation through Congress. He was a master of working not just with fellow Democrats, but with Republicans.

Matney bemoaned that President Obama had not developed that kind of bipartisan rapport and it cost him dearly.

McCaskill now — near the end of Barack Obama’s presidency — echoes much of what Paul Matney said years ago. LBJ’s legacy, which was tainted for many years after he left office in 1969 by the Vietnam War, is beginning to look better all the time.

He understood that he needed the legislative branch to make government work, that he couldn’t do it all alone.

As Sen. McCaskill has noted, Barack Obama hasn’t seemed to have learned that lesson.