GUN VAULTS TO BE PLACED IN CANYON SCHOOLS

Guns in Panhandle schools became a reality on Tuesday when the Canyon School Board passed a resolution to allow a locked gun vault with firearms and ammo in Canyon Schools.

April McDaniel with the Canyon I.S.D. said,access to the weapons will be highly regulated, and does not include arming teachers.

"School Resource Officers will be the only ones that have access to that storage. No other Canyon I.S.D. employee will have access to any of the ammunition or handguns that will be on campus."

McDaniel said after a task force assessment the board agreed this was the best way to prepare for a possible intruder.  

"We want our Liaison Resource Officers in the best position if a situation should occur. This will reduce reaction time, to a  response, just in case of an intruder."

The resolution  passed with a unanimous vote from the school board.

DEFENSE BILL ALLOTS 4-BILLION FOR AMARILLO

The passing of the annual defense bill means over $4 billion will be heading to Amarillo.

Congress has approved the National Defense Authorization Act for 2014 with a budget of $552.1 billion for the Department of Defense and Department of Energy.

Congressman Mac Thornberry, Vice Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee told KGNC, Bell Helicopter will receive funding to build the Huey, Cobra, and Kiowa Helicopters and over $2 billion alone goes to building the V-22 Ospry.

Thornberry said, "The numbers that are being requested, by the administration and approved in this bill, are higher for the V-22. But you put it all together and it is more then $3-billion that goes to bell for all these programs."

The bill has also budgeted a 2.3% increase for B&W Pantex equaling $220-million.

Congressman  Thornberry said this is a small but significant hike for Pantex...stressing the importance of increasing the investment in our nuclear infrastructure.

"As nuclear weapons age, as we do dismantlement's but also some lifetime extension programs and have to take care of the infrastructure at Pantex, its really important to have this increase in funding."

Thornberry says, the defense bill passed by a very strong majority 315 to 108.