Independent News Drop

KELI From Inkwell, this is the Amarillo News Drop. I'm Keli, with Hast.

HAST SNAP enrollment in the Amarillo area has dropped 18 percent since last fall, when the federal government tightened eligibility rules for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The Tribune is tracking how those changes are hitting families already living paycheck to paycheck in Potter and Randall counties. The real number here: the federal government rewrote income caps and asset limits, and thousands of people who qualified before now don't. Local nonprofits and food banks are reporting upticks in demand, but they don't have the federal dollars SNAP was covering. This is the first story in a three-part series the Tribune's running on food insecurity in the Panhandle.

KELI The counter-read on this one matters. National news will frame SNAP cuts as a policy debate in Washington. The structural fact: income thresholds dropped, and the burden shifted to local charities that operate on donation dollars. Prediction you can check — food-bank wait times in Amarillo are going to climb or facilities will cut hours in the next 30 to 60 days unless the county or city moves money their way. Watch for council or commissioners court votes on that.

HAST Staying local — Randall County man sentenced to 12 years in prison after his probation was revoked. This is an update on a case we've been following. The conviction and the probation violation both stick, and he's heading to the state prison system now.

KELI On a different front, two Amarillo teachers have been appointed to Governor Abbott's new Texas Classroom Commission. The state just stood up this commission to, quote, oversee classroom policies and teacher standards. These are working teachers from here, so they're bringing Panhandle perspective to Austin rulemaking.

HAST Heavy next. Senators are questioning Texas's tax exemption for data centers — looking at whether the state is giving away revenue it needs. Data center companies have been using the exemption to avoid property and sales taxes on equipment and operations. The question now is whether that exemption still makes sense for the state budget, especially if facilities aren't generating the jobs they promised.

KELI Texas is also threatening to revoke certification use for a national education group — another Capitol story with classroom weight. The state says the group isn't meeting standards anymore and is warning districts they can't use its certifications for teachers. That one's going to move through the agency system over the next few weeks.

HAST One more. West Texas A&M University named Neil Terry as interim president after Walter Wendler retired. Terry's been at WT for 30 years — started as an assistant professor, moved through executive roles, and now he's in the top seat while the system conducts a national search. They're hoping to fill it permanently by January.

KELI On this day in 1987, Margaret Thatcher and François Mitterrand signed the agreement to build the Channel Tunnel under the English Channel.

HAST That's the Amarillo News Drop. Full script and sources at inkwell.wiki/news/amarillo.

KELI Before we close, a word from Inkwell. This drop comes from the same workshop as Gil's Intelligent Version — the Bible, re-ordered into the sequence events actually happened, and retranslated from the original languages.

HAST Its rule is simple: no author, only method. The full archive is at inkwell dot wiki, slash giv.