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
Sunday, November 1, 2026
Today’s lead
Dense fog covers counties north of Lubbock until 9 a.m. Sunday; a cold front brings gusts over 30 mph Monday
The National Weather Service in Lubbock issued a Dense Fog Advisory early Sunday, Nov. 1, for Bailey, Lamb, Castro, Parmer, Floyd, Hale and Swisher counties until 9 a.m., warning of visibility of a quarter mile or less and hazardous driving. Lubbock County is not included in the advisory.
KCBD's forecast calls for a pleasant, mostly cloudy Sunday with highs near 70 and calm conditions. Winds ramp up ahead of a cold front arriving Monday, with gusts over 30 mph at times, before highs fall back into the mid 60s Tuesday and settle around 70 for much of the week as rain chances dry up.
Sources National Weather Service · National Weather Service · KCBD
More Local
Lubbock County holds a memorial service Sunday afternoon for about two dozen residents who died with no next of kin
Lubbock County leaders will host a community memorial service at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, at St. John Baptist Church, near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and East 31st Street, KCBD reported Saturday night. It honors approximately two dozen residents who died this year with no identified next of kin.
The service recognizes unclaimed individuals whose remains were entrusted to the county after family could not be located. County officials said it aims to honor their lives and affirm the dignity and worth of every community member. The ceremony will include prayers, personal reflections, words of remembrance and a formal reading of the names.
Sources KCBD
Lubbock held its first Halloween parade, 'Haunted Hollow on Broadway,' with more than 60 groups taking part
Crowds turned out along Broadway on Saturday, Oct. 31, for the inaugural Haunted Hollow on Broadway, Lubbock's first-ever Halloween parade, KCBD reported. More than 60 local groups, organizations and businesses lined the street with festive floats, creative costumes and plenty of candy for spectators.
Following the strong community turnout, organizers said they hope to make the parade an annual Lubbock tradition for years to come.
Sources KCBD
Resthaven Funeral Home hosted a Día de los Muertos celebration with mariachi music and a community ofrenda
Lubbock families gathered Saturday, Oct. 31, at Resthaven Funeral Home to celebrate Día de los Muertos and honor the memory of loved ones who have died, KCBD reported. The traditional Mexican holiday brings family and friends together to pray for and remember deceased relatives and friends.
The celebration featured live mariachi music and traditional Mexican dance performances by Ballet Folklórico. Attendees were invited to place photos and mementos of loved ones on a shared community shrine, known as an ofrenda, set up to honor their memory.
Sources KCBD
State
A record 7.4 million Texans voted early, putting midterm turnout near 40% and matching the 2018 high-water mark
About 7.4 million Texans voted early in the 2026 midterm election, according to preliminary secretary of state records posted Saturday, Oct. 31, after in-person early voting ended Friday, The Texas Tribune reported. That puts turnout at about 40% of more than 19 million registered voters, matching the modern midterm high set in 2018.
Rice University political scientist Mark Jones called it high turnout though below presidential levels. Harris, Dallas and Tarrant counties are running above previous midterms, and Democratic strategist Matt Angle said the late surge suggests a more diverse electorate. Data is not final, and mail ballots are still arriving ahead of Tuesday's Election Day, Nov. 3.
Sources The Texas Tribune
Ken Paxton appears to have scrapped his final Senate rally at the Alamo, adding Monday stops in Conroe and Allen
Republican U.S. Senate nominee Ken Paxton appeared Saturday, Oct. 31, to drop plans to end his "Come and Take It" bus tour at the Alamo on the eve of Election Day, adding Monday events in Conroe at 11 a.m. and Allen at 5:30 p.m. instead, The Texas Tribune reported. His campaign did not respond to questions about the change.
The Alamo Trust told Texas Public Radio it knew of no planned event, and the landmark generally bars political events. Paxton's final push has seen other cancellations, including El Paso, Tyler, Texarkana and Mission. Democrat James Talarico, locked in a neck-and-neck race with Paxton, said Texas deserves a senator who shows up.
Sources The Texas Tribune
U.S. & World
A federal judge threw out Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over the Epstein birthday letter
U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles in Miami on Saturday, Oct. 31, dismissed with prejudice President Donald Trump's $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch, ruling Trump failed to show actual malice, the Associated Press reported. The judge said the president was "grasping at straws."
The suit targeted the Journal's report on a sexually suggestive letter bearing Trump's name in a 2003 album compiled for Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday. A dismissal with prejudice cannot be refiled. The White House did not immediately respond. Trump is also in legal fights with the BBC, the AP, and CNN, MS NOW and Politico over White House access.
Sources EverythingLubbock (AP) · PBS NewsHour (AP)
Alaska urged a judge to toss the Trump-directed suit to block certification of its Senate race, calling a ballot-separation demand 'impossible'
Alaska's Republican-run state government asked U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason on Saturday, Oct. 31, to dismiss a Justice Department lawsuit, filed at President Trump's direction, seeking to halt certification of a possible win by Democrat Mary Peltola over Sen. Dan Sullivan, the Associated Press reported.
The DOJ on Friday asked that all ballots ranking a second candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan be set aside to investigate voter confusion, The Hill reported. The state called that "both disturbing and impossible" without violating voter privacy, and noted the two Sullivans are distinguished on the ballot, the senator listed as the Republican incumbent.
Sources EverythingLubbock (AP) · EverythingLubbock · PBS NewsHour (AP)
An analysis filed in court found 42% of names on the DOJ's California noncitizen-voter list are not on the state's rolls
More than 4 in 10 names the Justice Department flagged as possible noncitizen voters in California cannot be found on the state's voter rolls, according to an analysis filed Saturday, Oct. 31, by two UCLA Voting Rights Project analysts, the Associated Press reported. They found 8,880 of the 20,930 names match no one in the current voter file.
The analysis also found at least 22 people on the list are U.S. citizens. The filing, in a lawsuit with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, comes as the department demands those ballots be separated on Election Day. Multiple judges have rejected that demand as unconstitutional.
Sources EverythingLubbock (AP) · PBS NewsHour (AP)
The FBI blamed North Korean hackers for the $6.3 billion Binance theft, the biggest crypto heist on record
The FBI said Saturday, Oct. 31, that North Korean hackers known as TraderTraitor, the group behind last year's $1.5 billion Bybit hack, orchestrated Thursday's theft of $6.3 billion in bitcoin and other digital currency from Binance, the Associated Press reported. The bureau asked exchanges and analytics firms to block linked addresses.
The FBI said the stolen assets were being converted mainly into ethereum. Asked at his Mar-a-Lago Halloween party, President Trump said, "We don't know if it's North Korea." Ari Redbord of TRM Labs expects the hackers to launder the funds through smaller exchanges over months.
Sources EverythingLubbock (AP) · PBS NewsHour (AP)
The U.S. plans to deport detained Afghans to their homeland through Pakistan, starting as early as Monday
The Trump administration plans to deport detained Afghans to Afghanistan by way of Pakistan, with charter flights from Louisiana possibly starting Monday, Nov. 2, according to court documents obtained by the Associated Press and reported Saturday. A senior ICE official acknowledged one such flight from Alexandria, Louisiana, in a Virginia federal filing.
Advocates warn deportees could face Taliban retaliation, since many fled after helping the U.S. military. Shawn VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac, called the plan "absolutely unconscionable." The Department of Homeland Security said ICE does not comment on future removals, citing operational security.
Sources EverythingLubbock (AP)
One person was killed and eight wounded in a shooting outside Legion Field after the Magic City Classic in Birmingham
One person was killed and eight others were wounded in a shooting outside Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama, shortly before 7:50 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31, after the Magic City Classic between Alabama A&M and Alabama State, police said, Fox News and KCBD reported. One victim was critical and seven were stable.
Police have not identified a suspect and announced no arrests, though multiple firearms were recovered at the scene. Remaining tailgating was canceled. The annual game between the two historically Black universities typically draws more than 100,000 fans to Birmingham.
Up to 4 inches of rain threatens flash flooding across a saturated Southwest through Monday
Heavy rain beginning Saturday evening, Oct. 31, threatens flash flooding across already saturated parts of the Southwest through Monday, with as much as 4 inches possible, the National Weather Service said, the Associated Press reported. Flood watches cover nearly all of Arizona and parts of Utah, Colorado, western New Mexico and southern Nevada.
Phoenix firefighters rescued people from four vehicles on flooded streets Friday night, and Henderson, Nevada, crews made three swift-water rescues. Allison Santorelli of the Weather Prediction Center said it will not take much rain to be impactful in the soaked Four Corners region.
Sources EverythingLubbock (AP)
Administration social media posts using a sombrero pumpkin and a 'SNAP fraudster' costume drew criticism days before the midterms
Trump administration social media accounts drew criticism as inflammatory for Halloween-themed posts days before the midterms, the Associated Press reported Saturday, Oct. 31. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins posted on X a photo of a Black man under the headline SNAP FRAUDSTER against fake Spirit Halloween costume packaging.
A White House post Thursday showed a pumpkin carved with a sombrero and the words "Spooky szn is here." The posts coincide with the administration's push to showcase aggressive immigration enforcement and its crackdown on fraud as affordability weighs on voters.
Sources EverythingLubbock (AP)
France drew 320,000 protesters in a third straight weekend of youth-led demonstrations as rallies spread across Europe
Hundreds of thousands of people marched across France on Saturday, Oct. 31, in a third consecutive weekend of youth-led protests over living costs and education, the Associated Press reported. The government estimated 320,000 protesters, down from 550,000 on Oct. 17 and 410,000 on Oct. 24.
The marches were overwhelmingly peaceful, but some in Paris and other cities ended in tear gas and scattered fires, and authorities reported more than 560 arrests. About 70,000 police and gendarmes deployed after Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez warned of a very high risk of disorder. Youth-led protests also took place in Germany and Portugal.
Sources EverythingLubbock (AP) · PBS NewsHour (AP)
New York's mayor said Trump agreed to grant a visa to the mother of a Ghanaian teen shot dead in the Bronx
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Saturday, Oct. 31, that President Donald Trump agreed in a phone call to immediately grant a visa to the mother of Javits Frimpong, a 15-year-old from Ghana shot to death Thursday on his way to school in the Bronx, the Associated Press reported. The White House did not immediately confirm.
Police said the teen was shot in the abdomen shortly before 9:30 a.m. and died at a hospital. No arrests have been made. Frimpong came to the Bronx a year ago to join his father, according to U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres.
Sources EverythingLubbock (AP)
Federal agents are investigating an arson at a Mississippi police department under fire since an officer killed a 1-year-old
An arson early Saturday, Oct. 31, damaged the headquarters of the Senatobia Police Department in Mississippi, and the ATF and local agencies are investigating, the Associated Press reported. Firefighters responded to smoke at 4:58 a.m. and quickly knocked down the fire.
The department has drawn community outrage since June, when an officer fired into a vehicle at a Walmart during a shoplifting call and killed 1-year-old Kohen Wiley. His mother was unharmed and her friend seriously injured; neither woman has been charged. The police chief was fired in September.
Sources EverythingLubbock (AP)
Rubio said the U.S. did not facilitate defeated Brazilian candidate Flávio Bolsonaro's flight to Miami
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday, Oct. 31, that the Trump administration "didn't facilitate anything" in defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro's departure to the U.S., the Associated Press reported. Rubio, speaking in Atlanta at the G20 foreign ministers' meeting, said Bolsonaro previously held a visa and the president decided to allow him in.
Bolsonaro arrived in Miami on Wednesday after losing to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and has called the election fraudulent without evidence. Rubio said he met Brazil's foreign minister, Mauro Vieira, in Atlanta on Friday and Saturday.
Sources EverythingLubbock (AP)
Bulgarians vote Sunday in a presidential runoff between acting President Iliana Yotova and Andrey Gyurov
Bulgarians vote Sunday, Nov. 1, in a presidential runoff between acting President Iliana Yotova, who would become the country's first elected female president, and opposition candidate Andrey Gyurov, a former interim prime minister, the Associated Press reported. Exit polls are expected after 8 p.m., with official results Monday.
Yotova led the Oct. 25 first round by 2.8 points on record-low 23% turnout. The vote comes amid economic hardship and drone attacks on Black Sea shipping, and is the first major test for Prime Minister Rumen Radev's Moscow-friendly Progressive Bulgaria party.
Sources EverythingLubbock (AP)
London police arrested 139 people outside the U.S. Embassy for supporting the banned group Palestine Action
London's Metropolitan Police said they arrested 139 people at a protest outside the U.S. Embassy on Saturday, Oct. 31, most for expressing support for Palestine Action, which the U.K. government outlawed last year as a terrorist organization, the Associated Press reported. Police said more arrests were expected.
Many protesters were retirees holding signs reading "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action." Organizer Defend Our Juries said more than 4,000 people have been detained since July 2025 for defying the ban, which makes membership or support punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Sources EverythingLubbock (AP)




