Independent News Drop

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

HAST Potter County voters need to check their mail. The county election administration is flagging unsolicited mail-in ballot applications being sent to some people in the area. These aren't coming from the Texas Secretary of State's Office—they're third-party forms that don't have enough space for a complete driver's license or ID number. If you've already requested a ballot and filled out the annual form, you're good. Don't apply again. Anyone looking to request a ballot for the November election should call Potter County Elections directly at 806-379-2299. The counter here is simple: unsolicited ballot applications create confusion by design—whether intentional or sloppy. Voters who get these will either ignore them, fill them out twice by accident, or call in. That's friction. What to watch: Potter County should name where these forms came from and whether they were mailed from inside or outside the state. If it's an organized mailing, that's a story. If it's scattered, the real question is why the county didn't catch it sooner.

KELI Staying with elections—we're now eleven weeks from the November ballot, and the high heat gripping the Panhandle isn't breaking yet. The latest from meteorologists shows the heat wave staying locked in through Sunday morning, with only a slim chance of an isolated shower drifting in from Colorado and Kansas. Low humidity means any storm that does form could move fast. Relief might be coming, but not this week.

HAST Different scale, but Texas lawmakers are catching heat over flood rules again. A Tribune-ProPublica investigation found state lawmakers repeatedly failed to act on development rules that could have protected residents in flood-prone areas after a deadly 2025 Hill Country flood. Then it flooded again. The pattern: disaster happens, investigation happens, legislature does nothing. That's worth watching as we head into the 2027 session.

KELI One more piece on the Texas side—the USDA is expanding border surveillance to combat the New World Screwworm. That's a livestock threat hitting Texas agriculture directly. The agency is tightening oversight along the southern border to catch any crossover early.

HAST Before we close, a history note.

KELI In 2016, the European Southern Observatory discovered Proxima Centauri b, the closest exoplanet to Earth.

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.