Independent News Drop

KELI From Inkwell, this is the Amarillo News Drop. It's Saturday, July twenty-fifth. The time is seven a.m. central. I'm Keli, with Hast.

HAST Morning. Lead story out of the Panhandle this morning.

KELI Thursday morning around five, a magnitude five earthquake centered in northwestern Roberts County. People across the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles felt it. U.S. Geological Survey is flagging a real possibility of at least one aftershock in the next week. Seismic activity in that part of the Panhandle isn't common, so this one's gotten attention from residents and geologists alike. Now, here's the thing you'll hear some folks say: earthquakes this size just happen, it's geology, nothing to worry about. And that's technically true. But what matters for the High Plains is the aftershock window. USGS data shows that when a five-point hits in a low-activity zone like Roberts County, secondary activity can cluster in the days right after. So if you felt Thursday's shake and you're in the Panhandle, pay attention to the next seven days. If there's another one, it'll likely be smaller, but you'll want to know it's coming. We'll track what the geological surveys report as the week moves forward.

HAST On the roads this morning, Amarillo drivers heading west on I-40 should know the exit ramp to Airport Boulevard—that's Exit 76—is closed today for milling and fill operations.

KELI Amarillo College is looking at a significant budget hit from the state. The college stands to lose over two point three million dollars in state funding compared to last year. Change in how Texas calculates incentives for serving high-need students is the reason. That recalibration ripples through every community college in the state, but Amarillo's loss is substantial. The college will likely have to reshape priorities in the coming budget cycle.

HAST Different front. The Randall County Sheriff's Office is holding a property auction Tuesday, August fourth, starting at eleven a.m. at the Randall County Annex on Western Street.

KELI Amarillo VA is running a drive-through mobile food pantry for veterans today from ten a.m. to noon. That's at the Thomas E. Creek VA Medical Center, sixty-ten West Amarillo Boulevard. You'll need to show a VA ID card. Distribution is first-come, first-served.

HAST Crime Stoppers has a fugitive of the week. Joshua Lozoya II, nineteen years old, wanted by Randall County Sheriff's Office for assault of a pregnant person. Five-seven, brown eyes, black hair. If you have information, call Amarillo Crime Stoppers at eight-zero-six, three-seven-four, four-four-hundred, or submit a tip at amapolice.org or through the P3 Tips app. A three-hundred-dollar reward for information leading to arrest.

KELI Heat this weekend. Expect highs near one hundred degrees today, partly sunny, humid southeast winds. Saturday into Sunday stays hot and in the low hundreds across the Panhandle.

HAST One date marker before we close.

KELI On this day in nineteen seventy-one, the Sohagpur massacre was perpetrated by the Pakistan Army.

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

KELI Before we close, something lighter from Inkwell. There's a piece asking what the Beatles songbook keeps reaching for — a world set right, meaning that holds — without pretending the band were secret prophets.

HAST An honest look, and an open door. At inkwell dot wiki, slash beatles.