Independent News Drop

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

HAST Texas Panhandle Pet Savers is running short on foster homes. The rescue group is holding dozens of dogs and cats right now and says the need keeps climbing — more animals coming in, fewer volunteers stepping up to take them into their homes. They're asking for donations and new foster families, especially as we move into fall intake season.

KELI That's the soft read on this one, but there's structure underneath worth flagging. Shelters and rescue groups across the region have been reporting fuller cages and tighter budgets for three straight years. When foster networks shrink, intake has to shrink with it — which means harder decisions about which animals get space and which don't. Watch whether Texas Panhandle Pet Savers can staff up before September. If they can't, you'll see capacity caps by mid-month.

HAST Heat's back. Southwest winds 15 to 25 miles per hour, and Amarillo's topping out near 100 today. Upper 90s and lower 100s through the weekend. Clear sky and dry air — the kind of weekend that bakes the Panhandle hard.

KELI On the state front, the Texas Railroad Commission just cut public comment periods at its meetings. A lawmaker who helped write the state's open-meetings law is asking the agency why. The RRC oversees oil and gas drilling across the High Plains — every permit, every noise complaint, every water-rights question in the Permian and the Panhandle oil patch goes through that commission. Closing comment is a procedural tightening that hits local landowners and environmental groups who've been showing up to push back on permits.

HAST Texas Minute reporting that Speaker Johnson told South Texas crowds Trump is on the ballot and Don Huffines is making state spending a central argument. Congressman Chip Roy also pushing for investigation into Islamic community organizations in Texas. Those are the Capitol moves this week.

KELI Before we close, a history note.

HAST In 1998, Cubana de Aviación Flight 389 crashed during a rejected takeoff in Quito, Ecuador, killing eighty people.

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

KELI Before we close, a word from Inkwell. The same workshop behind this drop just published the Magnificat — the song Mary sings in Luke, where the powerful are pulled down from their thrones and the hungry are filled.

HAST It reads less like a carol than a manifesto. Find it at inkwell dot wiki, slash giv.