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Daily Ledger
Daily digest straight from the source
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Today’s lead
Tuesday evening's storms dropped hail up to 2.75 inches near Matador and an 81-mph gust near Turkey; more rain and a strong cold front follow
Severe storms east of Lubbock on Tuesday evening, Oct. 13, produced hail estimated at 2.75 inches near Matador and golf-ball-size hail in Matador itself, according to National Weather Service storm reports. A Texas Tech Mesonet station 2 miles west-southwest of Turkey measured an 81-mph gust, and stations near Flomot and McAdoo recorded gusts of 75 and 63 mph.
KCBD forecasts more showers Wednesday, with the heaviest rain off the Caprock, where a flood watch remains in effect for Hall, Childress, Motley and Cottle counties. A strong cold front arrives Thursday with north winds near 30 mph, lows in the 40s Thursday night and highs only in the upper 50s in Lubbock on Friday.
Sources National Weather Service Lubbock · KCBD
More Local
Lubbock ISD is weighing school changes under an optimization plan, with decisions expected in December
Lubbock ISD is reviewing how it runs its campuses as declining enrollment, rising costs and limited funding squeeze its budget, EverythingLubbock reported Tuesday, Oct. 13. The district's school optimization plan rates each campus on enrollment, building use and the cost of educating its students.
The district says the number of children born east of University Avenue within its boundaries has fallen by half over the last decade, and it has previously identified about 3,500 empty elementary seats. Families can compare schools on an optimization dashboard on the district's website. Discussions continue over the next two months, with decisions expected in December; no campus-specific changes have been announced.
Sources EverythingLubbock
Wolfforth is asking residents to help plan a new downtown district, with an online survey open until Oct. 31
Wolfforth is collecting residents' ideas for a planned downtown district through an online survey that closes Saturday, Oct. 31, KCBD reported Tuesday. The Wolfforth Economic Development Corporation bought 46 acres in July for the project.
The city's master plan calls for turning that land, the existing Patterson Park and adjacent undeveloped property into a community destination with a new city hall, parks and open space, housing, new businesses and restaurants. City leaders are working with a team of nationally recognized design firms and local experts on urban and landscape design, architecture, engineering and community engagement. A link to the survey is posted with KCBD's story.
Sources KCBD
A woman was killed in a domestic dispute in Big Spring, and the man accused was caught after a chase that ended in Lamesa
Elizabeth Cervantes, 38, died of her injuries before Howard County deputies arrived at a home near Debra Lane and Wasson Road in Big Spring, where they had been called to a domestic dispute, KCBD reported Tuesday, Oct. 13. A 49-year-old man accused in her death was being held in the Howard County Detention Center on a $2 million bond.
Officers spotted the suspect's vehicle heading north on Highway 87, and Lamesa police, Dawson County deputies and the Texas Department of Public Safety joined the pursuit. It ended in Lamesa when a DPS trooper stopped the vehicle with a PIT maneuver; authorities said the man tried to run and was quickly caught.
Sources KCBD · EverythingLubbock
Action PrintingAmarillo briefs: WT police step up patrols after scooter thefts, and TxDOT wants input on a district bike plan
West Texas A&M University police have increased patrols in high-risk areas after continuing reports of stolen electric scooters this year, the Amarillo Tribune reported Wednesday, Oct. 14. Anyone with information can call University Police at 806-651-2300.
The Texas Department of Transportation is taking public feedback through Nov. 6 on an interactive map for the Amarillo District Bicycle Plan. Amarillo Parks & Recreation is accepting applications for its annual mural grant program through Dec. 31. The city also recognized Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport officers and staff who cared for an 11-year-old boy in August after his grandmother suffered a heart attack on a flight diverted to Amarillo.
Sources Amarillo Tribune
United Way volunteers will read to every Lubbock ISD second-grade class, starting with Thursday's United We Read event
Lubbock Area United Way and Lubbock ISD hold their annual United We Read literacy event Thursday, Oct. 15, beginning at 9:30 a.m. at Anita Carmona-Harrison Elementary, KCBD reported. Superintendent Rollo and board President Nancy Sharp are scheduled to take part with United Way representatives and students.
Each fall, volunteers join district staff in every second-grade classroom to read a book, lead a related arts-and-crafts activity and give each student a copy to take home. This year's book is Say Something by Peter H. Reynolds. The partners have run the event for nine years to push grade-level reading before students reach third grade and to encourage a lifelong love of reading.
Sources KCBD
Big Spring's Pathway Academy canceled the rest of its first varsity football season for lack of players
Pathway Academy in Big Spring announced it will not play the remaining four games of its first varsity football season because it no longer has enough committed athletes to field a full roster, KOSA reported in a story carried by KCBD on Tuesday, Oct. 13.
The Warriors had already canceled games earlier this fall because of injuries and went 0-4 in the games they did play. In its statement on social media, the school said it looks forward to returning to competition next season.
Sources KCBD
State
Voting rights groups sued Texas over more than 500,000 voter registrations submitted through DPS that were never processed
The League of Women Voters of Texas and MOVE Texas Civic Fund have sued the state over more than 500,000 voter registration applications submitted through the Department of Public Safety's online driver's license portal since October 2025 that were never processed, the Texas Tribune reported Wednesday, Oct. 14. The suit, filed last week in Bexar County's 224th District Court, says Texas broke a 2021 settlement requiring a working online registration option.
It asks a judge to order DPS and the Secretary of State's Office to keep a functioning process, produce records of the failures and prove compliance within a month. The groups say some voters still face problems ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
Sources The Texas Tribune
Despite Abbott and Paxton's crackdown talk, data centers that skip state water-use surveys face at most a $500 fine
Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton have promised to crack down on hundreds of data centers that failed to report their water use, but the state law they are invoking carries a maximum $500 fine, the Texas Tribune reported Wednesday, Oct. 14. Of 329 data centers the Texas Water Development Board surveyed last year, only about 30% responded.
Abbott spokesman Andrew Mahaleris said no other state agency will approve data centers until the Public Utility Commission, ERCOT and the water board have the information they need. Raising the Class C misdemeanor penalty in the Water Code would take legislation, and lawmakers do not convene until January.
Sources The Texas Tribune
Seminole voters will decide Nov. 3 whether to make the West Texas city a sanctuary city for the unborn
Voters in Seminole, a West Texas city of about 8,000 near the New Mexico line, will decide in a Nov. 3 special election whether to adopt a Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinance, The Texan reported Tuesday, Oct. 13. It would ban abortion at all stages within the city except to save the mother's life and outlaw distributing abortion drugs and abortion trafficking.
Like the Texas Heartbeat Act, it would be enforced through private civil suits, though the woman could not be sued. A petition with 1,500 signatures brought the measure to the City Council in August; the council rejected it unanimously, which triggered the election. Snyder adopted a similar ordinance Oct. 5.
Sources The Texan
Duffy Law Firm, PCA Texas woman is suing anti-abortion activists under the state's new abortion-pill transport ban
A Texas woman filed suit Tuesday, Oct. 13, in a Harris County district court against four members of Students for Life of America, turning the state's new ban on transporting abortion pills against the anti-abortion group, the Texas Tribune reported. The plaintiff, a 26-year-old mother of two using the pseudonym Maria Puerto, alleges the activists ordered abortion medication on their phones outside Space Center Houston in March.
House Bill 7, the Woman and Child Protection Act, took effect in December. It bars providing an abortion-inducing drug to or from anyone in Texas and lets almost any person sue a provider, seeking an injunction and at least $100,000.
Sources The Texas Tribune
San Antonio sued to stop DHS from converting a warehouse into a 1,500-bed immigration detention center
The city of San Antonio sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday, Oct. 13, to stop a planned immigration detention center, arguing the agency skipped the environmental review federal law requires, the Texas Tribune reported. DHS paid $66.1 million for a 640,000-square-foot warehouse earlier this year and in August awarded GardaWorld Federal Services a $17.3 million contract to convert it to hold 1,500 people a day.
The city's federal petition cites the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. It says DHS and ICE did not upgrade the site's sewer and water systems to keep harmful contaminants out of surface waters.
Sources The Texas Tribune
U.S. & World
A federal appeals court ruled the felon gun ban can't be applied to a man whose record was drunk-driving convictions
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled Tuesday, Oct. 13, that the federal ban on gun possession by convicted felons can be applied only when a prior offense involved violence or threats showing a risk of misusing firearms, Fox News reported. In two decisions, the court upheld the ban against a Pennsylvania man whose record stems from a 2002 carjacking but barred applying it to a second man whose prior convictions were for drunk driving.
The court includes several judges appointed by President Donald Trump. The Pennsylvania man had sought dismissal of federal firearms charges, arguing the ban violated his Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
Sources Fox News
Trump said massive oil, gas and mineral exploration is about to begin in Greenland
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday, Oct. 14, on Truth Social that massive oil, gas and mineral exploration is getting ready to begin in Greenland, citing experts who say its easily available oil exceeds almost any land in the world, Fox News reported. He also stressed the island's value for defending the United States and Europe against drones and missiles.
Trump gave no details on when or how exploration would start. Greenland's government stopped issuing new oil and gas exploration licenses in 2021, citing environmental and climate concerns, though some earlier licenses remain valid. The announcement follows a security agreement with Denmark granting the U.S. permanent military access in Greenland.
Sources Fox News
A new rule gives refugees 10 days instead of 30 to contest the termination of their legal status
The Trump administration adopted a rule taking effect Wednesday, Oct. 14, that cuts the time refugees have to answer a notice of intent to terminate their status from 30 days to 10, Fox News reported. It skipped the usual advance notice-and-comment process.
The Department of Homeland Security says the change will reduce risks from people admitted as refugees who were not eligible, pointing to what it describes as a breakdown in the program's integrity under the Biden administration. Refugee advocates dispute that claim. The rule is the latest restriction on legal immigration pathways during the administration's enforcement push.
Sources Fox News
The Energy Department ordered emergency measures to prevent blackouts in 13 PJM states during unusual October heat
The Department of Energy issued an emergency order Monday, Oct. 12, letting grid operator PJM Interconnection run additional power plants beyond normal limits to head off blackouts as unseasonably warm weather strains a system serving more than 60 million people, Fox News reported. The order took effect Tuesday and runs through Friday, Oct. 16.
PJM covers all or parts of 13 states from New Jersey to Illinois, plus Washington, D.C. PJM spokesman Jeff Shields said everyday customers should not be affected, but demand is growing faster than new generation can come online, leaving fewer windows for the plant and transmission maintenance usually done in the fall.
Sources Fox News
Advanced GraphixMore than 112,000 bottles of Amazon-brand extra strength acetaminophen have been recalled
More than 112,000 bottles of Extra Strength Acetaminophen 500-milligram caplets sold on Amazon under its private label have been recalled, CNN reported in a story carried by KCBD on Tuesday, Oct. 13. The caplets are made by Aurobindo Pharma.
The recall stems from consumer complaints that some caplets are discolored, and it is not clear whether anything is actually wrong with them. The Food and Drug Administration has not assigned a health-risk classification to the recall. Customers who have the medication are asked to contact Amazon customer service for a remedy.
Sources KCBD (CNN Newsource)
The Rays beat Cleveland 3-1 to even the ALCS at a game apiece
Freddy Peralta threw six shutout innings and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 3-1 on Tuesday, Oct. 13, in St. Petersburg, Florida, to even the American League Championship Series at one game each, Fox News reported. Tampa Bay scored three in the fourth after a grounder skipped past Cleveland third baseman José Ramírez, with Liam Hicks adding a two-run single.
Chase DeLauter's RBI double in the seventh cut the lead to two before Ian Seymour struck out Jo Adell with the tying run on second, and closer Bryan Baker finished with a 1-2-3 ninth. The series moves to Cleveland for Game 3.
Sources Fox News
