Dear Texas Panhandle,

In conjunction with the release of his sixth studio album (the second from the independent record label Mexican Summer), Hayden Pedigo will perform in his native Amarillo. The 28-year-old performance artist, politician, model and fingerstyling maestro whose talent is as irrepressible as it is undeniable, will take the stage at the Amarillo College Concert Hall Theater, adjacent to the Amarillo Museum of Art, followed by a cocktail reception at AMoA.

CISD administrators are shuffling the deck this summer as they address a number of staff changes. School board trustees have already approved the hiring of eight new teachers—several of them familiar to this community—and shifted six staff members to fill vacancies. They have also absorbed three positions without hiring new personnel.

This past evening, June 20, friends and relatives of Trae Francis gathered on Main Street behind Stitch where they staged a benefit for the 4-year-old’s medical expenses. Trae is the son of Travis and Tessa Francis of rural Lipscomb County and Canadian. He has been fighting the effects of a serious Shiga E. coli infection for several weeks in the Dallas-area Cook Children’s Medical Center. Last week, he finally made it back home. After volunteers served up about 200 burgers in the heat, folks settled into their lawn chairs and on the ledge.