Bush received $10,000 for her appearance

Texas Tech paid Jenna Bush Hager $10,000 for her appearance in Amarillo Friday at a fundraiser for the women’s health institute named after her mother, the school said this week.
The Laura W. Bush Institute for Women’s Health held the $75-per-plate luncheon last week to generate money for its InfantRisk Center, a nationwide call center for pregnant and nursing mothers who seek information on how medication may impact their children or nursing. The event raised more than $150,000 for the cause, organizers said.
For Hager’s $10,000 fee, Bush spoke for nearly 15 minutes mostly on the topic of education and left the Amarillo Civic Center Grand Plaza immediately after finishing her speech at the podium.
Dr. Marjorie Jenkins, executive director of the Bush institute, said the entire event was underwritten by sponsors and money from the more than 700 attendees.
“I think it’s good for the area to bring in national speakers,” Jenkins said Monday.
Bush’s fee wasn’t included in last week's story. Jenkins avoided answering the question of Hager’s payment (but answered others on the event) in an e-mail and voice mail late Friday.

Another note of updating info from a story:
Gray County ended up spending $885,000 to bring capital murder charges against Levi King to trial, according to County Auditor Elaine Morris.
King pleaded guilty last year to the shooting deaths of three Pampa residents in September 2005. Lynn Switzer, 31st District attorney, wanted to pursue the death penalty against King despite his already serving a life sentence in Missouri. A Lubbock jury sentenced King to life without parole.
I wrote a story a couple of weeks ago on the difficulty of pursuing the death penalty.
I was unable to get a final tally for the King trial because heavy snow closed county offices that Thursday and Friday. The county auditor was not in the office before my deadline passed.