News Brief
* Winter weather returned to the area on Monday, bringing with it high winds with wind gust 65 to 70 mph, snow flurries, and ice pellets. Sanford-Fritch ISD and Plemons-Stinnett-Phillips CISD delayed school to 10 a.m. on Tuesday. Xcel Energy’s Outtage map reported at least 160 customers without power at 4:45 p.m on Monday.
* FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Aerial footage in Fort Worth, Texas, showed debris from a hotel scattered across downtown streets Monday as authorities said they were responding to a “major incident” and urged people to avoid the area. Fort Worth City Councilman Carlos Flores posted on Facebook that there had been a gas leak and an explosion. Video showed what appeared to be large sections of a building in the middle of the street. The city’s emergency medical service has sent nine ambulances to the scene and found “multiple” people injured, although a spokesperson could not immediately say how many. Desiree Partain of MedStar says there are not any fatalities reported so far but stressed that they were still assessing the situa tion.
* CANYON, Texas — A trio of West Texas A&M University music students placed second in a national opera competition.
Ranking highly in the National Opera Association’s Robert Hansen Collegiate Opera Scenes Competition on Jan. 4 in Phoenix were Brooklynn King, a junior music major from Pearland; Erin Hinds, a senior music major from Amarillo; and Sarah Estes, a sophomore music major from Turpin, Oklahoma.
They performed “Hatbox Trio” from the opera “Postcard from Morocco,” staged in November 2022 by WT Opera.
“I am so proud of my students,” said Sarah Beckham-Turner, assistant professor of voice and WT Opera director. “Their competition was absolutely spectacular, and it’s an amazing honor that our WT singers placed so highly.”
The contest, which was founded in 2009, was named for Hansen in honor of his 25 years of service as NOA’s executive director.
Hansen, WT’s Regents Professor of Music, stepped down as director of WT’s School of Music this summer and officially will retire from the University following the 2023-24 academic year.