Independent News Drop

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

HAST West Texas A&M University opened a new police department headquarters today at 2 Monty Platt Drive. The university cut the ribbon on the facility this morning — it will house the University Police Department and public safety officers. The old headquarters in the Student Union Building will be demolished later. Hard to square that with the soft language around it, though. A new police building is infrastructure, fine, but the real question is what prompted the move and what staffing or enforcement changes come with the new location. We'll keep an eye on whether WTAMU is signaling capacity expansion or just consolidation.

KELI Potter County Sheriff's Office is looking for Christopher Domingo Carrillo. He's forty years old and wanted on charges related to sex offender registration requirements. Crime Stoppers is asking the community for help locating him. Anyone with information can contact them.

HAST Staying local — Amarillo and the Panhandle marked the start of Domestic Violence Awareness Month today. The Amarillo-Potter-Randall Domestic Violence Coalition hosted a walk that began at Legal Aid of Northwest Texas and ended at the Potter County Courthouse Lawn. Nearly a hundred people turned out, most wearing purple, the official color for the awareness campaign. Family Support Services, Legal Aid, Amarillo Police, and the 47th District Attorney's office were present. Family Support Services runs a twenty-four-hour bilingual crisis line at eight-zero-six, three-seven-four, five-four-three-three. If you're in immediate danger, call nine-one-one.

KELI On a different front, there's movement at the Texas Capitol on voting rules. A federal judge paused Republicans' effort to close primary elections to party members only. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued the ruling but signaled he expects the GOP to succeed in the next legislative session. What's happening here is a party trying to limit who can vote in its own nominating contests — that changes the incentive structure for candidates statewide and in the Panhandle. The judge's language suggests he's likely to clear it eventually, so expect this to be law by the time twenty twenty-eight voting starts.

HAST Starting tomorrow, the TSA is running a new program at Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport. People who aren't flying can now go to the gate area to meet arriving passengers without buying a ticket. It's a small quality-of-life change but worth noting if you're picking someone up.

KELI Before we close, a history note. On this day in nineteen seventy-nine, Pope John Paul II began his first pastoral visit to the United States.

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

KELI Before we close, a word from Inkwell. There's an essay at Gil's Intelligent Version on what actually happened in 1914 — and how a real historical instinct curdled into false certainty the moment someone tried to measure it to the inch.

HAST It's called The Witness and the Ruler. At inkwell dot wiki, slash giv.