The Ledger is Lubbock Lights’ daily digest of the news that matters to Lubbock and the South Plains — our reporting first, then short summaries of stories reported by other newsrooms, each linked to its source. How we build it →
Daily Ledger
Daily digest straight from the source
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Today’s lead
Lubbock County DA Sunshine Stanek recuses herself from the 'double salary' investigation
Criminal District Attorney Sunshine Stanek has recused herself from the investigation into the roughly $70,000 Lubbock County paid Mark Meurer while elected Precinct 2 Commissioner Jason Corley held the same job, Lubbock Lights reported Tuesday, September 29.
County Judge Curtis Parrish appointed Meurer after finding Corley had automatically resigned by running for Congress. Visiting District Judge Patrick Pirtle ordered Corley restored in December 2025, but the payments ran on for months. Stanek told commissioners September 21 her office was pursuing an outside investigation "be it the Rangers or otherwise." Her recusal leaves open which prosecutor oversees the Rangers referral.
Sources Lubbock Lights
More Local
'Save Lubbock' founder Stephen Sanders says he will seek 90 more days on the data center moratorium
Stephen Sanders, who founded Save Lubbock, said Tuesday, September 29 that he intends to use a provision of Texas law to seek a second 90 days on top of the city's proposed three-month moratorium on large-scale data centers, which the City Council started on a 5-2 vote September 22.
Sanders told Benji Snead on 92.3 The Hub the fight could reach court, saying it would "probably end up being about 270 days." He also conceded data centers will likely come anyway and that the tax money would help. His group needs 2,410 verified signatures by October 30 on a separate petition to ban Flock cameras..
Sources Lubbock Lights
Storms and heavy rain moved across the South Plains overnight with a flash flood watch still up Wednesday
Strong thunderstorms and heavy rain crossed the region west to east overnight into Wednesday morning, September 30, with a flash flood watch in effect for northwestern and southern counties through Wednesday morning and more storms possible late in the day over eastern areas.
Forecasters called for a widespread one to three inches, with four to six inches possible near Clovis, and warned of winds over 60 mph, isolated tornadoes and dangerous roads on already saturated ground. The moisture is the remnant of Hurricane Polo, which came ashore in Baja California on Monday night. Drier, cooler air follows Thursday, with a sharper cool-down Friday and Saturday.
Sources KCBD · EverythingLubbock
SB Energy will hold a Snyder open house Thursday on a proposed Scurry County data center
SB Energy is holding a come-and-go community open house Thursday, October 1 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Scurry County Museum, 6200 College Ave. in Snyder, on a proposed data center and the county development agreement that would go with it, KCBD reported Tuesday, September 29.
The session includes dinner, a short presentation, a question-and-answer period with project representatives and one-on-one time, with the development agreement laid out for residents. The Development Corporation of Snyder urged people to attend and review the plans firsthand. Residents can register and submit questions in advance online.
Sources KCBD
Duffy Law Firm, PCTexas Tech regents chairman Cody Campbell says the college sports bill solves 80% of the problem
Cody Campbell, chairman of the Texas Tech System Board of Regents, who Trump appointed to the committee that drafted the bill, said Tuesday, September 29 that the Protect College Sports Act is not perfect but "does solve about 80% of the problems that are out there right now."
The Senate passed the measure 77-22 the night before. It sets rules on eligibility, the transfer portal, name-image-likeness pay, revenue sharing and media rights. Campbell credited Sens. Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell and said President Trump called him afterward. The bill still needs the House, which Speaker Mike Johnson sent home to campaign and is unlikely to reconvene before November 3.
Sources EverythingLubbock
Wayland Baptist's Plainview undergraduate enrollment is up 12.1% this fall
Wayland Baptist University enrolled 711 undergraduates on its Plainview campus this fall, a 12.1% increase over fall 2025, the university reported Tuesday, September 29. The incoming class of 392 freshmen and transfers is the largest since 2016 and up 28.9% from 304 a year ago.
International undergraduates rose to 100 from 92, an 8.7% gain, and now make up 14.1% of the Plainview undergraduate body, drawn from more than 40 countries. President Dr. Donna Hedgepath said the school is "grateful for this growth." The figures cover Plainview undergraduates only; graduate, external-campus and online numbers come after the Fall 2 census.
Sources KCBD
A Lubbock grand jury indicted a 62-year-old man over an August incident at a city park
A Lubbock County grand jury on Tuesday, September 29 indicted a 62-year-old Lubbock man on a charge of indecency with a child stemming from an August 8 incident at a park near the 1600 block of 10th Street, EverythingLubbock reported.
According to court documents, officers were sent to a disturbance call and spoke with a woman who said she and a juvenile were playing at the park when the man watched them from a bench and then exposed himself. The two ran home, and a relative photographed him nearby. Lubbock police arrested him the same day in the 1600 block of 27th Street and also charged him with drug possession.
Sources EverythingLubbock
Amarillo's Dia de Muertos festival may be its last, so organizers are going big on October 24
The Amarillo Council for the Latino Arts said Tuesday, September 29 that this year's Festival Dia de Muertos will be a full-scale event rather than the scaled-back one announced last month, and that 3,500 attendees would fund a 2027 festival. Last year drew more than 2,000.
Director Salvador Gutierrez said the committee is hoping to rescue the festival. It runs October 24 from 4 to 9 p.m. at the Starlight Ranch Event Center, 1415 Sunrise Dr., with doors at 3 p.m. Plans include an interactive ofrenda, Smithsonian and West Texas A&M speakers, a classic car showcase and a Catrinas contest with a $1,000 adult prize.
Sources Amarillo Tribune
State
A federal jury strikes down Bexar County's license plate reader surveillance program
A federal jury in San Antonio found Tuesday, September 29 that the Bexar County Sheriff's Office ran an unconstitutional automatic license plate reader program, awarding a motorist named Schott $76 - one dollar for each minute he was detained - in a Fourth Amendment case tried before U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia.
The 2022 stop on Interstate 35 followed an ALPR flag and a law enforcement group chat labeling the truck suspicious; dashcam video showed it never left its lane. Institute for Justice attorney Christie Hebert called it "a huge win" and said the team will seek a permanent injunction. Lubbock voters face their own Flock petition October 30.
Sources The Texan
Paxton talks immigration, data centers and a four-part tax plan at a Fort Worth business event
Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, answered attack ads and laid out his positions at a U.S. Hispanic Business Council event in Fort Worth on Monday, September 28, in an appearance The Texan reported Tuesday.
On immigration he said policy has to "benefit the Americans that are here" and allow workers in for jobs going unfilled. On data centers he said flatly, "It can't be a no, because we won't survive that." His economic plan includes a $50,000 deduction for first-time homebuyers, a $25,000 medical-expense deduction, a $5,000 healthy-living deduction and a doubled child tax credit. He faces Democrat James Talarico.
Sources The Texan
Advanced GraphixFederal prosecutors charge the Venezuelan man shot by an ICE officer in Austin
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday, September 29 charged the 28-year-old Venezuelan man who was shot by an ICE officer in Austin on September 20 with one count of assaulting, resisting and impeding a federal officer, a charge carrying up to 20 years.
The complaint says officers spotted him leaving a restaurant, identified a final removal order, and that his driver's side mirror struck an officer as he pulled away. His account is that a law enforcement vehicle hit his car first. He was taken to Dell Seton Medical Center, then moved to ICE custody about three hours later with the bullet still in his back, and is held at Pearsall.
Sources The Texas Tribune · PBS NewsHour
Elon Musk says the Boring Company is working on a San Antonio to Austin hyperloop
Elon Musk said Tuesday, September 29 that the Boring Company is working on a hyperloop tunnel between San Antonio and Austin that he says would cut a trip of "2.5 hours in traffic to 30 minutes" at roughly 200 mph. The company said it would be "excited and honored" to build it.
Skeptics were quick. University of Manitoba professor emeritus Vaclav Smil called hyperloop an overhyped venture recycling 200-year-old dreams, and researcher Jonas Kristiansen Noland said holding a vacuum over hundreds of kilometers is difficult and energy-hungry. The existing Vegas Loop runs 35 to 40 mph. A Texas high-speed rail study put that alternative at $13.5 billion.
Sources The Texan
U.S. & World
The Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act 77-22 on Monday night
The Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act 77-22 late Monday, September 28,. The bill sets national name-image-likeness standards, a uniform five-year eligibility window, transfer-portal and recruiting limits, a revenue-sharing cap and antitrust protection for college sports' governing body.
Sens. Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell led it; Majority Leader John Thune said the current landscape "is a mess." Sens. Rick Scott and Chris Murphy voted no. Critics say it favors broadcasters, big conferences and coaches over athletes' earnings. President Trump has said he will sign it. Its House prospects are unclear - Republican leaders do not plan to recall members before the November 3 midterms.
The Supreme Court lets third-country deportations continue while it weighs the policy
The Supreme Court on Tuesday, September 29 granted an emergency request allowing the administration to keep deporting people to countries they have no ties to, pausing Boston-based U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy's ruling that migrants get a meaningful chance to raise safety concerns first. Arguments are set for December.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson noted dissents from the unsigned order. Government lawyers said the lower-court ruling forced the cancellation of a flight carrying about 70 people. More than 25,000 people have been sent to more than two dozen countries under agreements whose terms are not public, most of them to Mexico.
Sources Al Jazeera · PBS NewsHour
Trump announces an accord under which the largest AI companies agree to police themselves
President Trump announced Tuesday, September 29 that Anthropic, OpenAI, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Google, Nvidia and X had signed a voluntary accord committing to internal and external reviews of their AI development. He said the companies are showing "tremendous self-policing" and called self-regulation very important.
The announcement followed a White House meeting on AI safety, data center expansion and competition with China, attended by Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Sundar Pichai, Mark Zuckerberg and Satya Nadella alongside Vice President JD Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. No binding guardrails were agreed.
Sources KCBD · PBS NewsHour
Jack Smith tells the Senate Judiciary Committee he would bring the same charges again
Former special counsel Jack Smith testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, September 29, defending his two prosecutions of President Trump over classified documents and the 2020 election and saying he would make the same decision today regardless of party.
Smith said anyone who has worked with him "knows that I would not let politics play a role," and described the removal of career prosecutors as something he had never seen in his career. Chairman Chuck Grassley and Sens. John Kennedy and Eric Schmitt accused him of partisan overreach. Sen. Dick Durbin called the accusations baseless conspiracy theories meant to distract.
Sources KCBD · PBS NewsHour
Mullin Hoard & Brown, LLPConsumer confidence falls to its lowest level since 2014 on prices and fuel costs
The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index fell 6.7 points in September to 81.9, its lowest reading since April 2014, the group reported Tuesday, September 29. The present-situation measure dropped 7.9 points to 109.3 and the short-term outlook fell 5.9 points to 63.6.
Chief economist Dana M. Peterson said confidence "deteriorated notably in September, following two prior months of softening," and pointed to September's surge in fuel costs. Gasoline averaged about $4.45 a gallon Tuesday, up 37 cents in a month. Views of current business conditions turned negative for the first time since September 2024, five weeks before the midterms.
Sources Al Jazeera · PBS NewsHour
Hurricane Polo comes ashore in Baja California and sends its moisture into the Southwest
Hurricane Polo made landfall near Las Barrancas on Mexico's Baja California peninsula about 11 p.m. Monday, September 28, as a Category 2 storm with sustained winds near 110 mph, then weakened to Category 1 and headed for a second landfall in Sonora on Tuesday. No deaths or serious damage were reported immediately, and about 700 people stayed in shelters.
The storm dropped six to 12 inches of rain in places. Its remnants merged with a U.S. system, putting more than 30 million people across a dozen states under flood watches, with flash flood warnings in Utah and Arizona, near-record Virgin River flooding at Zion and water rescues in Bullhead City.
Sources ABC News · PBS NewsHour
