After pause, this Texas city is set to reconsider banning travel to access an abortion
A handful of local governments have already put the legally dubious bans in place. The news that Amarillo will take the issue up again comes shortly after a Dallas woman left the state for an abortion after losing a legal battle to obtain one here.
In Texasโ Panhandle, a long-awaited oasis for mental health care is springing up
The region that includes Amarillo, a Panhandle city of more than 200,000 people, and surrounding towns has long been a mental health care desert. Officials hope a new $159 million hospital can help reduce a massive spike in suicide attempts.
Coronavirus pandemic still raging in Texas
HOUSTON โ Texas is once again, being called a coronavirus hot spot. โItโs constantly surprising us this is a virus thatโs defined expectations,โ Dr. Bell King, an epidemiologist at The University of Houston College of Medicine said. Houston is growing when you look at new cases, hospitalizations are growing, but theyโre growing slowly,โ said Dr. James McDeavitt with the Baylor College of Medicine. NBC News and the Associated Press say Texas is the first state to have more than 1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and the death toll is close to 20,0000. Itโs upsetting,โ said Dr. Bell King, an Epidemiologist at the University of Houston College of Medicine.
โOverwhelmedโ: Texas county halts non-essential activities
EL PASO, Texas โ El Paso County officials ordered a two-week shutdown of non-essential activities Thursday after the area's medical resources were overwhelmed by the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. Grocery and drug stores, funeral homes, health care services and government activities were among the activities deemed essential. Yet each day for the past week, more than 1,000 new cases were confirmed in the westernmost Texas county. Americaโs largest state prison system reported more 332 active COVID-19 cases and 8 units in precautionary lockdown across Texas, including one in El Paso as of Wednesday. The 119 newly reported COVID-19 fatalities raised the Texas death toll to 17,819 since the pandemic first struck at the start of March.
Plodding and powerful, Sally moves in on Gulf Coast
Hurricane Sally is expected to make landfall along the Gulf Coast sometime through the night and morning. โ Hurricane Sally, a plodding but powerful storm with winds of 100 mph, crept toward the northern Gulf Coast early Tuesday, with forecasters warning of potentially deadly storm surges, flash floods spurred by up to 2 feet (.61 meters) of rain and the possibility of tornadoes. Claunch marveled at how the Gulf waters had already crept over swaths of sandy shore and infiltrated bike paths and parking lots. Sally achieved hurricane strength Monday and quickly intensified to a Category 2 storm with 100 mph (161 kph) winds. Forecasters expect winds to increase to up to 110 mph (177 kph) over the warm Gulf waters before the storm blows ashore.