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Texas governor issues disaster declaration From CNN’s Joe Sutton Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday issued a disaster declaration for 60 counties in response to wildfire activity, saying more counties could be added. “The State of Texas stands ready to provide support to our local partners and deploy all resources needed to protect our fellow Texans and their property. Hot and dry conditions caused by high temperatures and windy conditions are expected to continue in the region in the coming days," the governor said in a statement. Those conditions could mean the wildfires continue to grow larger and more dangerous,...

President Joe Biden has postponed his scheduled trip to Florida due to Tropical Storm Ian looming over the Caribbean Sea. He was scheduled to visit Orlando to headline a rally for the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on September 27th, but the major storm is expected to strengthen to a Category 3 or 4 before making landfall on the mainland U.S.

After receiving about 500 tips from viewers, John Walsh, host of “In Pursuit With John Walsh” on the Investigation Discovery network, believes he has narrowed down the list of possible locations Brian Laundrie could be. “We had at least three times more phone calls than we’ve had on any fugitive.” Walsh said. In just three seasons of his show, Walsh has helped authorities capture 26 fugitives and locate eight missing children. He covered the Gabby Petito investigation on his show this week. “We haven’t had this much attention since Elizabeth Smart,” Walsh said. Walsh said the tips he has received...

After a brief pause in tropical activity, another system formed Wednesday in the Caribbean and will likely become Tropical Storm Nate, according to the National Hurricane Center. Tropical Depression 16 is located about 210 miles south-southeast of Cabo Gracias a Dios on the border of Nicaragua and Honduras, the weather service said in its 11 a.m. ET advisory. The system has sustained winds of about 35 mph, moving northwest at 7 mph, and "is expected to become a tropical storm later today or tonight." Meteorologist Adam Klotz has more Video NOAA predicts most active hurricane season since 2010 "On the...

Three separate wildfires are burning thousands of acres in the Texas panhandle killing several people and injuring firefighters. KFDA-TV in Amarillo reports that a wildfire killed three people in Gray County, Texas while they were trying to save cattle. The cause of the fire that started on Monday is being investigated as the optional evacuation has been lifted. The Perryton, Texas fire is only 5 percent contained and has ignited 100,000 acres... the city of Glazier is under a mandatory evacuation. Another fire near Amarillo, known as the Dumas Complex Fire, is now 75 percent contained as residents are allowed...

My readers may or may not have heard of squeegee people. Those of you who haven't need to hear about them. This is especially true if you spend much time traveling by car, particularly in big cities. Squeegee people will approach your car in traffic in some major cities holding a squeegee in one hand and a cup in the other hand. They will start cleaning your windshield without securing your permission. When they are done, they hold out their cup expecting to be compensated for their "work." But paying them isn't optional. It's required. Anyone who refuses gets the...

Politico's Jonathan Martin provides expert analysis of the Florida primary for MSNBC this morning and hurls an offensive epithet to describe counties in the panhandle of the state.

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) - First lady Michelle Obama has arrived in the Florida Panhandle to meet with business and tourism leaders to discuss how the Gulf oil spill has harmed them. Obama's plane landed Monday at the new Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport in Panama City.

CorridorWatch, a Fayette County-based group that has been active in opposing the Trans-Texas Corridor plan, wants to go beyond the Sunset Advisory Commission’s recommended shakeup of state transportation leadership. The group, led by David and Linda Stall, recommends that TxDOT answer to an elected six-member board led by a chairman appointed by the governor. CorridorWatch makes it recommendation, along with various other reactions to the Sunset commission staff’s recent report on TxDOT, in written comments submitted as part of the sunset process. TxDOT, like all state agencies, “sunsets” after 12 years unless the Legislature acts to keep it alive. As...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry wants to build a big highway through the Lone Star State. No, make that a really big highway, as in a monstrously big highway. The exact route hasn't been determined. The mega-highway would run roughly from Laredo on the Rio Grande River through the Hill Country and the Piney Woods and then through Texarkana in that tiny portion of the state that borders Arkansas. Imagine for a moment if that thoroughfare would be pointed in the other direction - from the Valley, through the South Plains and then through the heart of the Panhandle, right past...

State Rep. Jim McReynolds has sent a letter to the Texas Department of Transportation saying he thinks TxDOT should drop the idea of tying the Trans-Texas Corridor in with plans for routing Interstate 69 through East Texas. McReynolds says tremendous negative outcry from his constituents and other East Texas residents has made it clear to him no one wants infrastructure that massive and disruptive to the quality of life to be built, taking big swaths out of the Pineywoods countryside. "Within the past several weeks, I have personally attended every TxDOT hearing held in my district regarding this proposed corridor,"...

The Texas Department of Transportation says it can't afford to build new roads without more funds, but a Panhandle lawmaker called the move an attempt to hold projects for ransom. TxDOT argues costs have skyrocketed and federal and state lawmakers have diverted millions to other priorities, Amarillo District Engineer Mark Tomlinson said. State legislators moved more than $1.5 billion from the 2008-09 state highway fund for other missions, he said. So TxDOT must cut $1.1 billion from its 2008-09 construction budget and focus on maintenance of the state's 79,000 miles of existing roadways, Tomlinson said. Next week, Tomlinson will list...

Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson brought his message of beefing up the military and securing the nation's borders to the conservative Florida Panhandle on Friday as he worked to bolster his poll numbers. Thompson, who trails the four top Republican presidential candidates in Florida, told about 100 supporters that the average 20-year-old soldier in Iraq has a better understanding of national security than the average 20-year-veteran of Capitol Hill. And the U.S. should not pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan with "our tail between our legs. We will regret it," said Thompson, who held a private meeting earlier with about...

DALLAS -- Royal Dutch Shell and Dallas-based TXU Corporation agreed to jointly develop a wind-powered electricity generation project in the Texas High Plains on Friday. The proposed 3,000-megawatt project would be situated in Briscoe County, southeast of Amarillo. One megawatt of electricity is enough to light 1,000 homes. The deal between Shell Wind Energy and TXU subsidiary Luminant also commits both sides to work together on other renewable energy projects in Texas. Both companies said they'll also research whether compressed air can be stored and used to drive the wind-driven turbines at times of low winds or peak demand.

PENSACOLA BEACH -- Souvenir shops that line this sugary white Panhandle beach display Confederate flag beach towels, window decals and T-shirts. Hooters and other bars fly POW-MIA, Marine and Navy flags and cater to the sailors and Marines from the nearby base. Vacationing Southern families usually fill the hotels and condominiums in this slice of paradise long nicknamed "The Redneck Riviera." But every Memorial Day they mostly stay away as this Florida Panhandle town becomes more like trendy Miami Beach -- 700 miles and a world away. Starting in the mid-1980s, gay men from New Orleans and other nearby cities...

I just don’t get it. Many city governments have had a chance to do something about serious panhandling problems but have been reluctant because of the First Amendment. For example, one of the local “leaders” in my hometown once refused to support an anti-panhandling ordinance because of free speech. Sadly, the aforementioned politician had previously refused to support a local school teacher who used the word “niggardly” simply because it sounded like a word he didn’t like. In other words, he isn’t a defender of free speech. He just a) assumes that all panhandlers are black, and b) always sides...

Details are sketchy, but this is what I'm hearing on Lubbock, Texas, TV weather reports. (Ron Roberts on KAMC says it might have gone down the main drag of Childress).

My son is a firefighter in Pampa, Texas, a town 50 miles East of Amarillo. He called this afternoon saying that there were bad grass fires all around their area. Since that time I have not heard from him again, but am getting reports from different people in that area. They are evacuating 7 towns, two complete counties (Wheeler and Roberts), one county, Hutchinson, is completely "lost". Cars are backed up on the highways trying to get out of the area. Wind has been blowing in excess of 60MPH.

EASTPOINT - Hurricane Dennis proved a bedeviling storm that left some of the worst damage nearly 200 miles from where it came ashore. While much of the recovery effort focused near the Pensacola area where Dennis made landfall, L.C. Catnei sat on his damaged houseboat and waited for help. He returned from his daughter's home inland on Monday to find the boat resting on the side of U.S. 98, with a huge gash in its side. ``I don't have any more money so I'm just going to sit here and wait for help,'' said Catnei, 72, a retired commercial fisherman....

Preserving the buffalos Fate of Texas herd rests with donated bulls By BETSY BLANEY Associated Press CAPROCK CANYONS STATE PARK, Texas The rumble from stampeding bison used to shake the earth as thousands of the majestic animals thundered across these parts centuries ago. That sound has faded almost entirely now, and the fate of one of the last pure herds in North America begun by famed cattleman Charles Goodnight rests with a trio of bulls donated by media tycoon Ted Turner. The herd, once 250 strong, has dwindled to 53, and more than a century of inbreeding threatens it survival....