business news, local news

AEDC turns 25

The year 1989 proved to be a time of tumult and triumph for Amarillo.

Voters rebelled against the City Commission (as it was called then) and tossed most of its members out. Times were tough then. The economy was in the tank, the city was fighting with prominent businessman Boone Pickens, who had gotten angry at the local newspaper over its coverage of certain issues.

City voters, though, did have the good sense to approve the formation of the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation, a body tasked with spending a portion of sales tax revenue on job-creation projects for the city and the surrounding region.

Voters said “yes” to AEDC and it came into being.

It’s been collecting a half-cent of sales tax every year since, building a handsome investment fund for the past quarter century.

It has had some notable successes and some stinging defeats over the years.

The big daddy of the successes, of course, was the return of Bell Helicopter to Amarillo. Bell/Textron set up huge aircraft assembly operation next to Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport after AEDC dangled about #45 million in inducements to the company to relocate its assembly operations from Fort Worth to Amarillo. Suffice to say the good folks of Cowtown were none too pleased with what they thought amounted to corporate bribery of a company using public money.

Bell came here, began assembling the V-22 Osprey for the Marine Corps. The site has grown in the years since then, adding hundreds of jobs.

AEDC also lured Hilmar Cheese to Dalhart, another venture that drew criticism from local folks who couldn’t grasp why AEDC was spending sales tax money on something built way up yonder in Dallam County. Well, that project has been a boon to the region as well.

Not all the projects have panned out. But all in all, the AEDC has provided an innovative inducement to companies looking to expand their payrolls or to relocate from other locations to the High Plains of Texas.

Billboards are cropping up around town saluting AEDC. TV spots are airing that do the same.

All in all, the AEDC has helped the city stay afloat while other communities have struggled during tough times.

That’s reason enough to offer a good word.

local news

Giving thanks for autumn

Dear God,

You probably don’t hear this enough about this particular topic, but I want to take a moment to thank you for autumn.

Yep, it’s pretty nice in this part of the country. You didn’t bless the Texas Panhandle with a lot of scenic splendor (although Palo Duro Canyon is pretty good on the eyes), but you did give us that great big sky and those resplendent sunrises and sunsets.

You also gave us seasons, all four of ’em.

Autumn arrived a few days ago, according to the calendar, but I awoke this morning, went outside, took a whiff and thought I could smell the actual season in the air.

It’s hard to define the smell. But it’s out there.

The breeze is a bit cool and it borders on bracing.

Usually, autumn arrives with a bit of relief. Not so much this year. The summer you gave us this year didn’t produce too many “dog days,” if you know what I mean — and I know you do. We had two, maybe three days where the temperature topped 100. All in all? It was pretty nice. Our rainfall was a bit more than we’ve had in recent years and as I write this thank-you note, the High Plains are quite green considering the time of year.

Still, the season is changing and for that I am grateful. Spring remains my favorite time of the year. It brings a relief of its own. The Farmers Almanac predicts a harsher-than-normal winter here. We’re getting ready for it. Spring 2015, therefore, promises to be even more joyful than usual.

For now, though, I’ll just take in the change from summer to autumn.

Thank you for all of it.

local news, political news, State news

A new Holocaust … in Texas?

West Texas’s newest state senator might be forgiven for being quite excited about his new elected office.

Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, however, did put a disgraceful twist on what he called the spiritual struggle he says is occurring today in these United States.

He sought to compare it to — get ready for it — the Holocaust.

http://www.texasobserver.org/new-senator-charles-perry-living-holocaust-ii/

Yeah, that Holocaust. The one that killed 6 million Jews in Europe. The on-going event that destroyed families and was perpetrated by the 20th century’s most monstrous tyrant in an effort to exterminate an entire religious community.

I’m not at all sure what the new senator is trying to suggest, but drawing any comparison to what’s happening today to what occurred during Europe’s darkest time in the previous century is, shall we say, more than a stretch.

Perry won a special election after Bob Duncan left the Senate to become chancellor of the Texas Tech University System. Duncan, also a Republican, routinely was rated by observers as being among the Legislature’s most effective members. Texas Monthly routinely honored Duncan by placing him on its “Best Legislators” list.

Something tells me that Perry isn’t likely to join that list any time soon, if at all.

Here’s a taste of what he said after taking his oath:

“There were 10,000 people that were paraded into a medical office under the guise of a physical. As they stood with their back against the wall, they were executed with a bullet through the throat. Before they left, 10,000 people met their fate that way.”

Here’s more:

“Is it not the same than when our government continues to perpetuate laws that lead citizens away from God? The only difference is that the fraud of the Germans was more immediate and whereas the fraud of today’s government will not be exposed until the final days and will have eternal-lasting effects.”

This is like the Holocaust? Nope.

national news, political news

Even worse than White House fence-jumper

Good grief! The more I hear about this one, the worse it gets for the Secret Service.

And this case is far worse than some guy jumping the White House fence and bursting into the president’s residence.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/30/politics/obama-cdc-security-breach/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

It turns out that a convicted felon, carrying a firearm, rode an elevator with President Obama while the president as in Atlanta to speak to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

How on God’s Earth does someone with a criminal record, packing heat, walk aboard an elevator with the Leader of the Free World without the Secret Service knowing it?

What’s more, the Secret Service didn’t even tell the president about it until several days later.

I’m more glad than ever that Julia Pierson quit today as head of the security agency.

More heads ought to roll before this matter shakes out.

national news, political news

It's still the People's House

Julia Pierson is gone from her job as head of the Secret Service.

She’d come in to change the culture of an agency beset by scandals involving agents consorting with hookers. Now, though, she’s resigned, the person responsible for a new scandal involving the protection of the White House, where the president and his family live.

A man jumped the fence and got into the mansion, running past and/or through several perimeters. What’s more, now we have learned that an armed man masquerading as a security guard at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rode an elevator with President Obama.

OK, so now we’re searching for a new permanent director of the agency charged with protecting the president.

What’s next for security at the White House?

Here’s my suggestion for what should not happen at the People’s House: Do not lock the place down and make it next to impossible for tourists to walk through it and enjoy the majesty of the place.

The knee-jerk reaction is predictable. Some might want to essentially shut down the White House to the public. They’ll suggest searching tourists as they enter the place. One thing that can be done easily is to boost the height of the fences surrounding the White House. That’ll get done; no problem there.

Let us remember, as Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson noted this afternoon, the White House is a symbol of First Amendment guarantees, where people can assemble and perhaps ask questions of their head of state — the president — on questions that concern them.

Shutting the White House off from the people to whom the house belongs would be the wrong course as this necessary review of security takes hold.

national news

Pierson quits; good deal

Bragging is so unbecoming, so I won’t go there.

About an hour ago, I posted a blog that said Secret Service director Julia Pierson needed to quit her job in the wake of the abject failure of her agency’s White House security detail to protect the place that houses the president of the United States and his family. An obviously disturbed Iraq War veteran stormed onto the White House lawn, ran into the front door of the building and then got deep into the structure before being restrained.

Just a few minutes ago, CNN reported that Pierson has resigned.

She’d been grilled intensely by House Democrats and Republicans. Her answers were insufficient.

Now it’s time to fix the problems that created this mess in the first place.

See the earlier blog post:

https://highplainsblogger.com/2014/10/01/piersons-days-at-secret-service-appear-to-be-over/

national news, political news

Pierson's days at Secret Service appear to be over

1 Comment

Given the mile-wide partisan rift between Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, it’s really saying something when politicians on both sides of the aisle sound as one in their outrage at a leading public official.

Secret Service director Julia Pierson got the grilling of her life Tuesday from the U.S. House Government Oversight and Reform Committee.

She had it coming.

http://time.com/3452979/secret-service-white-house-fence-jumper-nancy-pelosi/

Now we hear from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the chief Democrat in the House, saying Pierson should quit.

Why? It’s on her watch that some serious security glitches have occurred at the White House, the most notable of which is the one involving Omar Gonzalez, who raced across the White House lawn, broke into the building and then got deep inside the mansion after rushing through five levels of security. He finally was subdued.

Pierson got the treatment from committee Democrats and Republicans, all of whom spoke with equal outrage over the security detail’s failure to prevent the intruder from entering the White House.

That the first family was not in the house doesn’t matter. The intruder got past security in broad daylight.

Pierson didn’t help herself any with her non-answers to some quite specific questions about the breach in security.

If I were a betting man, I’d put some money on Pierson leaving this job in fairly short order.

Then we can get some needed changes installed at the Secret Service.

local news, political news, Sports news

Patrick is sounding scary

I’ll say this up front: Texas voters very well might be on the verge of electing a seriously frightening politician as their next lieutenant governor.

His name is Dan Patrick, a Republican state senator from Houston.

He’s glib. He is articulate. He is quick on his feet. He’s also unapologetically ultra-conservative — in a scary sort of way.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/patrick-v-van-de-putte

One of my favorite pundits, Paul Burka, hit it squarely in a blog post for Texas Monthly. Commenting on his debate with Democratic opponent state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, Burka writes: “The most interesting thing about the debate was Patrick’s persona. He felt no need to soften his message or appeal to more mainstream voters. This is exactly who he is, and who he wants to be: a true conservative radical.”

Those of us who’ve watched Texas politics transition from a conservative Democratic state to an ultra-conservative Republican one are well aware of the strength of what passes today for the Republican Party. Patrick fits that profile to the letter.

It’s scary to think that Texans very well could elect someone who, as Burka notes, wants to boost the sales tax beyond all reason and who actually talked the other night in his debate with debate with Van de Putte about immigrants tracking unknown diseases into the state.

He makes no apologies for the massive budget cuts that have affected public education. He wants the Senate — which the lieutenant governor runs as its presiding officer — to become more partisan, not less.

Patrick sounds like someone who believes that all Texans believe as he does and that he intends to run the Legislature’s upper chamber in such a manner.

Such arrogance, of course, is utter nonsense. That won’t stop millions of Texans on Nov. 4 from voting for this guy.

He’s favored to win the lieutenant governorship. It makes me sad that Texas is going to demonstrate to the rest of the country just how wacky we’ve become.

I will predict right here and now that a Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is going to drive the few reasonable and moderate Republicans left in the Senate out of office.

national news, political news

No 'terror link' in beheading

This finding from the FBI is going to get the chatterers going great guns.

The FBI says it has found “no terror link” to Alton Nolen, who beheaded a female co-worker in an apparent act of rage in Moore, Okla.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/219342-no-terrorist-link-to-oklahoma-suspect-authorities-say

OK, I’ve heard some discussion on conservative talk TV — Fox News, to be specific — that debunk this notion. The talking heads and the experts say the act by itself constitutes a terrorist act. The FBI says otherwise, that it is a “workplace incident.”

Of course, let’s introduce the Muslim element here. Nolen had converted to Islam, so that makes him a terrorist — yes?

Of course not.

The FBI reportedly has gone through several electronic devices in Nolen’s possession and can find no apparent link to known terrorist groups. That’s why it is declining to define the hideous murder as a terrorist act.

According to The Hill newspaper: “Officials have said the Oklahoma attack at Vaughan Foods was likely triggered after Nolen was suspended from the job for making a remark disparaging white people. After learning that he was suspended, officials said, he went to his home to pick up a kitchen knife and returned to the plant.”

Does that sequence sound like an act of terrorism, or is it the action of someone with a serious mental disorder?

I’m open to some discussion on this one.

national news, political news

No 'standing down' at the White House

Leave it to one of the talking heads on a morning TV show to put the Secret Service mess-up in perspective.

It comes from Nicole Wallace, one of the regular hosts of “The View,” the morning gabfest that occasionally takes on matters of substance to discuss, debate and argue.

Wallace, a former Republican “strategist” — someone will have to tell me what that job really entails — took note of the Secret Service detail’s blunder when Omar Gonzalez stormed into the People’s House and apparently got deeply into the mansion before he was subdued, handcuffed and hauled away.

She said that even though the first family was not in the building when Gonzalez stormed the place, it fell to the Secret Service to ensure he didn’t get in. “The Secret Service doesn’t ‘stand down’ when the first family isn’t there,” she said.

Indeed, the presidential security detail has to be on full alert at all times to protect this house/office complex where critical decisions are made almost every hour.

Someone didn’t do his or her job that day. That someone needs to answer for that failure.

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