KELI From Inkwell, this is the Amarillo News Drop. I'm Keli, with Hast.
HAST A man is dead after a motorcycle and pickup collision in Hutchinson County. The Texas Department of Public Safety says a 61-year-old from Fritch was killed Saturday afternoon around 2:46 p.m. on State Highway 136 near Milner Road. DPS is still investigating the cause. No word yet on whether the driver of the pickup truck faced charges or citations.
KELI Staying with state politics now. The Railroad Commission race is tightening around candidate Bo French after Texas Tribune reporting found that top Republicans in the state knew about his history of racist social media posts and supported him anyway. French posted a photo of college students celebrating a football victory with the caption that the image showed how many Americans have been displaced by foreigners. That post is three years old. The Tribune's reporting suggests party leadership made a calculation to back him despite the record.
HAST Counter on that: the simple read is Bo French made bad posts and got endorsed anyway. What's underneath is that the Railroad Commission oversees oil and gas permitting in Texas — a trillion-dollar industry — and party gatekeepers weighed a candidate's public statements against control of that office. It's a structural choice, not a slip-up. Watch whether other Republicans distance from French in the coming days or hold the line. That'll tell you how much the permitting power matters versus how much the optics do.
KELI Different front now. Democrat Gene Talarico, who's been raising money in New York over the last week, is continuing a financial swing through the city. Texas Minute reports he's been meeting with donors outside the state — part of a broader push to build a campaign war chest ahead of what's shaping up to be a competitive race. Talarico's been relatively quiet on the state level for weeks.
HAST One date marker. Norman Rockwell's Willie Gillis character first appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post in 1941 — a character that would define American illustration for decades.
KELI That's the Amarillo News Drop. Full script and sources at inkwell.wiki/news/amarillo.
KELI Before we close, a word from Inkwell. Gil's Intelligent Version has a close reading of the opening of John's Gospel — in the beginning was the Word — and the single article-less phrase the Trinity debate still turns on.
HAST Grammar, not slogan. At inkwell dot wiki, slash giv.
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