Independent News Drop

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

HAST The City of Amarillo is moving into Stage 1 of its Drought Contingency Plan as of this morning. That means a split watering schedule: odd-numbered addresses water only on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Even-numbered addresses, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. No watering on Saturday. The city council approved the plan, and it's voluntary for now, but the message is direct — water stress is real enough that Amarillo's infrastructure team is moving off the baseline.

KELI Here's the counter-read on this one. Local newsrooms will frame it as "the city asks residents to conserve." But the structural reality underneath is that the city has a contingency plan with stages because the underlying water supply model — what feeds Amarillo — has a stress horizon built into it. Stage 1 is the soft ask. Stages 2, 3, and 4 exist in that document for a reason. The checkable thing here is whether we see stage escalation in the next 60 days. If drought pressure stays where it is, Stage 1 holds. If it deepens, the city moves faster. That's how you read what's actually driving the ask.

HAST Staying with water and power in the state. More than 110 Texas cities are barred from raising property taxes because they failed state audits on financial controls. That's Attorney General Paxton's office blocking the tax increase authority until those cities fix their audit failures. It's a broad action, and it cuts across the state — not just one region.

KELI On the criminal side, Amarillo federal court sentenced a former teacher to 188 months in prison Friday. Robby Lynn Mason, 57, pleaded guilty to receipt and distribution of child pornography. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. Northern District Court of Texas, Amarillo Division, imposed the sentence, plus $15,000 in restitution. Mason was indicted in September 2025 on receipt and distribution charges, and a separate count of possession of child pornography involving a prepubescent minor. He entered his guilty plea in February.

HAST Governor Abbott is escalating a dispute over religious facilities at Dallas and Houston airports. He threatened to withhold grant funding unless the airports drop plans to install Islamic washing stations. DFW Airport said late Friday it had canceled the project. The move signals Abbott's willingness to leverage state funding as leverage on facility design at major transportation hubs.

KELI Before we close, a history note. In 2003, one-year-old Zachary Turner was killed in Newfoundland by his mother, who had been awarded custody despite facing trial for the murder of Zachary's father. The case prompted change to Canada's bail laws and was documented in the film Dear Zachary.

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

KELI Before we close, a word from Inkwell. This drop comes from the same workshop as Gil's Intelligent Version — the Bible, re-ordered into the sequence events actually happened, and retranslated from the original languages.

HAST Its rule is simple: no author, only method. The full archive is at inkwell dot wiki, slash giv.