Independent News Drop

KELI From Inkwell, this is the Amarillo News Drop. It's Thursday, July twenty-third. The time is seven a.m. central. I'm Keli, with Hast.

HAST Good morning. We're tracking the AI data center push at the state level, university funding reform, and a few lighter notes before the weekend. Let's go.

KELI President Trump announced this morning that twenty-three Republican governors, including Texas Governor Greg Abbott, have signed what he's calling the Ratepayer Protection Pledge. The pledge is designed to shield consumers from higher electricity bills as artificial intelligence data centers expand across the country and demand for power grows. Now, here's what you're likely to hear elsewhere: this is a straight win for consumers concerned about rising utility costs. But the structural reality underneath is more conditional. These pledges commit governors to work toward rate protections, but they don't mandate specific rate caps or enforcement mechanisms. The governors are essentially promising effort, not outcome. What to watch in the coming weeks: whether Texas utilities actually modify their rate proposals to state regulators in line with this pledge, or whether the commitment stays rhetorical. That'll be the real test.

HAST On the university front, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is recommending that lawmakers shift how they fund public universities. Right now, most state money goes to schools based on enrollment. The board wants Texas to reward schools that actually move students through to graduation and into the workforce. This would mean more money for schools with stronger student success metrics and, by extension, less for institutions that aren't moving those numbers. Schools across the Panhandle, including West Texas A&M in Canyon, are watching how that proposal gains traction in the legislature.

KELI Different scale, but the state's also hearing fresh calls for guardrails around artificial intelligence after a security incident at OpenAI. Texas politicians from both parties are pushing for new rules that would govern how data centers operate and how they handle sensitive information. The security breach has widened the debate beyond just utility costs to questions of data protection and state oversight.

HAST On a lighter note, Amarillo High School's Alec Purdy signed to swim at the Division One level for TCU. Purdy's a four-time state qualifier with the Sandies and holds school records in three different events. He'll join the Horned Frogs next season.

KELI And if you're looking for something to do this weekend, Thompson Park's hosting its annual Cardboard Boat Races on Saturday. Boats have to be built from duct tape and cardboard, large enough for the crew to fit inside. The decoration part is where competitors tend to get creative.

HAST One date marker: on this day in 2014, TransAsia Airways Flight 222 crashed during approach to Penghu Airport in Taiwan, killing forty-eight of fifty-eight people on board.

KELI That's the Amarillo News Drop. We'll be back this evening. From Inkwell.

KELI Before we close, a word from Inkwell. There's an essay at Gil's Intelligent Version on what actually happened in 1914 — and how a real historical instinct curdled into false certainty the moment someone tried to measure it to the inch.

HAST It's called The Witness and the Ruler. At inkwell dot wiki, slash giv.