Independent News Drop

KELI From Inkwell, this is the Amarillo News Drop. It's Monday, July twenty-seventh. The time is five p.m. central. I'm Keli, with Hast.

HAST Concrete work tonight on the west side.

KELI Right. If you're heading west on I-40 service road—that's between Pullman and Airport Boulevard—expect lane closures this week. Texas Department of Transportation is doing edge repairs on the concrete. They're rotating closures, so it won't be a full shutdown, but check your route if you use that stretch for work or getting across town. The work started today and runs through the week.

HAST That's one of those details that saves you twenty minutes of frustration.

KELI Absolutely. On a different front, if you've been an Eyemart Express customer, there's a data alert. The optical chain had a cybersecurity breach back in February. Some customers' Social Security numbers and identifying information got compromised. Eyemart's asking affected customers to call them at 800-655-4635 if you want to find out whether your information was in the breach. The notification's coming now, months after the incident—which raises the straightforward question everyone's asking: why the long delay? What we're seeing in breach responses like this is a gap between when companies discover a problem and when they're legally required to notify customers. Thirty, sixty, ninety days can pass while companies and their lawyers assess what was actually stolen, whether it's connected to identifiable people, and what their notification obligations actually are. Watch this space over the next week—if Eyemart's timeline gets questioned in local reporting or if there's a regulatory response, that lag time becomes the story.

HAST People want to know if they're at risk now.

KELI Exactly. Potter County Commissioners' Court met today, and they've set a deadline for people affected by the Stinky fire. If you lost property in that fire and need the county to help dispose of debris, you've got until September first to get that material onto county right-of-way. The county and volunteer organizations are coordinating disposal. That's one month and five days from today if you're keeping track.

HAST Canyon's got university news.

KELI West Texas A&M University announced this afternoon that Neil Terry, the current executive vice president and provost, will serve as interim president. The A&M System Board of Regents made the selection. Terry's been at WT for a while in academic leadership, so this is an internal move while the university searches for a permanent president. No timeline on that search yet.

HAST State's still working through some education policy.

KELI A federal court upheld Texas's ban on in-state tuition for undocumented students—that case we've been tracking. The ruling stands, which means the state's tuition restrictions hold. It's been litigated more than once, so expect appeals and ongoing legal movement on this, but for now the federal court sided with Texas policy.

HAST One date marker before we close.

KELI On this day in 1997, about fifty people were killed in the Si Zerrouk massacre in Algeria. That's the Amarillo News Drop. Full script and sources 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.