Independent News Drop

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

HAST Courts first. Kevin Hunt, the Canyon teenager who pleaded guilty to weapons of mass destruction charges tied to a planned attack on Canyon's July Fourth celebration last year, will be sentenced December third. Federal prosecutors are asking the judge for life.

KELI That's the mechanism underneath the sentencing calendar — the government put that ask on the record now, weeks ahead. What you'll hear from other newsrooms is "sentencing date set." What's actually happening is the prosecution has already signaled maximum pressure to the judge. Hunt's counsel will argue mitigation, but the court file already has the ask in it. Watch whether the judge signals any daylight from that recommendation in pre-sentence filings. If he doesn't push back on life, that's your read on how seriously federal court is taking this case.

HAST Also in the courts: Selene Varela, a former City of Amarillo employee charged with embezzling from HUD funds — she was supposed to be sentenced yesterday. The sentencing was postponed because the Assistant U.S. Attorney wasn't present. Varela is the third city employee to plead guilty in this embezzlement matter. New date hasn't been set yet.

KELI On a different front, Amarillo police charged two additional suspects in an October murder case. No names or details released on those charges yet, but the arrest log shows the department is still moving on that investigation.

KELI Canyon's Public Safety Bond projects are hitting milestones this month. The Canyon Fire Department receives its new engine into service Saturday at two-thirty p.m. at three-oh-one sixteen street. That same bond funds the city's first animal shelter, which breaks ground November sixteenth at two-thirty p.m. Both events are open to the public.

HAST The City of Amarillo's Business Improvement Grant program opens Monday, November ninth. Online applications start then and run through December fourth at five p.m. BIG offers a matching grant up to fifty percent of project costs for business owners and tenants, capped at twenty thousand dollars for a forty-thousand-dollar project. That's exterior improvements on buildings.

KELI State race results are still being tallied from yesterday's midterm election. Democrats flipped several statewide positions in Texas. Full numbers are still coming in as county clerks report.

KELI One date marker: November fourth, two-thousand fifteen. A building collapsed in Lahore, Pakistan, killing at least forty-five people and injuring at least a hundred more.

KELI That's the Amarillo News Drop. Tip a local story anytime at inkwell.wiki/news/amarillo.

KELI Before we close, a word from Inkwell. If you've ever wondered what Gil's Intelligent Version actually is — a chronological retranslation of the Bible with its full scholarly workings left visible — there's now a plain overview.

HAST No author, only method. Start at inkwell dot wiki, slash giv, slash about.