Independent News Drop

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

HAST Amarillo Crime Stoppers is asking for help locating Christopher Carrillo, forty years old, wanted on multiple counts of child sexual abuse and failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements. If you have information, call Crime Stoppers at eight-oh-six, three-seventy-four, forty-four hundred, or submit a tip through the P3 Tips App.

KELI The counter-read here: when a face goes on the board for sex-offense charges and registration failure, the usual media move is to run the mugshot and the bulletin as civic service — good work, keeps the community alert. That's true. But the structural piece underneath is that Potter County has had persistent gaps in sex offender registry enforcement. Carrillo's on the board now because someone flagged the violation. The question the listener should track in the coming weeks: how many other registered offenders in Potter County are currently out of compliance, and what's the sheriff's office staffing and process to catch them before a tip comes in.

HAST Moving to the state level. State Comptroller Glenn Hegar's office imposed a property tax valuation system tied to education-funding rules — the so-called Robin Hood mechanism. Now state Senator Brandon Huffines is introducing legislation to kill it. Huffines told reporters the system is inequitable and burdens rural and suburban homeowners. The bill hasn't been filed yet, but Huffines said he expects it on the docket in the next legislative session.

KELI That's a big structural fight. The Robin Hood rule has been in place since 1993 to balance school funding across rich and poor districts. Hegar's office calculates valuations that feed that mechanism. If Huffines's bill moves, you're looking at a rewrite of how the state funds schools — money flows, property tax rates, and which districts carry the load. Watch how rural Panhandle school boards respond. This hits them directly.

HAST On a different front, the Barrio neighborhood in Amarillo has been home to generations of Hispanic families and businesses for more than a century. Community leaders there are working to preserve that history as the area continues to change. The effort includes documentation of long-standing traditions and businesses that have shaped the neighborhood's identity.

KELI One date marker. Fifty-eight years ago today, in nineteen-ninety-six, Aeroperú Flight six-oh-three crashed into the ocean near Peru, killing all seventy people aboard.

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

KELI Before we close, a word from Inkwell. A principle from Gil's Intelligent Version worth borrowing: where a source genuinely leaves a question open, an honest translation preserves the ambiguity instead of quietly deciding for you.

HAST They call it The Refused Verdict. At inkwell dot wiki, slash giv.