Independent News Drop

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

HAST Morning. We're tracking a couple of serious incidents in the region this morning, plus some college signings out of town.

KELI The Randall County Sheriff's Office has arrested a man on charges of credit card abuse targeting an elderly person. Investigators say unauthorized charges were made on the victim's debit or credit card. The case remains under investigation, and the sheriff's office hasn't released specifics on the dollar amounts involved or how long the fraud may have gone on. This is one we've seen cycle through Panhandle law enforcement fairly regularly — financial exploitation of seniors — so here's the structural reality underneath: elder fraud often goes unreported for months because victims may not notice smaller charges, or they're embarrassed to come forward. That means when one case surfaces publicly, there are usually several others still in motion. What to watch: whether the sheriff's office releases a public advisory about protecting account information, or if this prompts other victims in the county to come forward over the next few days.

HAST On a different front, authorities recovered the body of an Amarillo man at Lake Meredith early this morning after he went missing during a late-night swim. According to reports, the man entered the water around one a.m. yesterday. Search teams found his body on the opposite side of the lake from where he entered. Authorities are treating the incident as a drowning. Lake Meredith is about forty miles northeast of Amarillo, and the National Park Service manages water safety there.

KELI Four Holy Cross Catholic Academy basketball players signed scholarship offers this week, coming off the school's state championship run last season. Willy Atak will head to Otero College in Colorado. Kon Deng Kot signed with Peninsula College in Washington. Akoon Atak and Mou Tong will continue as teammates at a school they'll announce soon. The Holy Cross program has become a pipeline for college rosters across the region and beyond.

HAST Texas politicians are calling for new guardrails on artificial intelligence and data center expansion. The Public Utilities Commission is preparing regulatory frameworks for the influx of data centers coming to the state, and the Texas Medical Association is urging lawmakers to act on prediction market apps that they say are being marketed as gambling alternatives. All three items hit the state legislature's agenda for next session.

KELI One date marker: on this day in 1946, Aloha Airlines began service from Honolulu International Airport.

HAST 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.