Daily Ledger
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Saturday, September 26, 2026
The lead · Sep 26
Citibus rebuilds four routes Monday in the first phase of its five-year plan
Citibus begins the first phase of its five-year service plan Monday, September 28, adding one route and redesigning three others across Lubbock. The new Route 205 runs from North Indiana Avenue through Texas Tech and the hospital district to South Quaker Avenue and 122nd Street.
Route 025 now links Parkway Drive, Dunbar, 50th Street and the South Plains Mall; Route 211 connects Cherry Point to West End along Fourth Street; and Route 214 serves Sunrise Canyon along 19th Street. General Manager Chris Mandrell said, "Our community continues to grow, and Citibus is committed to growing with it." Updated maps are on the GoPass app.
Sources KCBD
More Local
Lubbock ISD trustees approve a P-TECH early college program at Coronado High School
The Lubbock ISD Board of Trustees approved a Pathways in Technology Early College High School program at Coronado High School at its meeting Thursday night, September 24, signing five memorandums of understanding that create the partnership.
P-TECH pairs the district with South Plains College, Texas Tech University and three employers — CoNetrix, City Bank and Tyler Technologies. Students can earn a diploma alongside industry certifications, a Level 1 or Level 2 certificate or an associate degree, with work-based learning at every grade level, in fields including STEM, computer science and health care. The district will explain the partnerships at a 1 p.m. press conference Thursday, October 1, at Coronado High School.
Sources EverythingLubbock
Amarillo's police chief asks the council for sex-offender residency limits after 15 years of inaction
Amarillo Police Chief Thomas Hover asked the Amarillo City Council on Tuesday, September 22, to adopt an ordinance barring registered sex offenders with child victims from living within 1,000 feet of parks, libraries, elementary and middle schools, youth centers and day cares. A violation would be a Class C misdemeanor carrying a fine up to $500.
The rule would not apply retroactively and would not cover juveniles. Hover said offenders with child victims are 10 to 12 percent of the roughly 700 registered inside the city. Council members backed the proposal, and Mayor Cole Stanley said it will be "fast-tracked as fast as the charter allows it to go forward." A similar measure stalled in 2011.
Sources Amarillo Tribune
TxDOT closes lanes and ramps at US 84 and FM 179 in Shallowater for 11 days starting Tuesday
The Texas Department of Transportation will mill and resurface the US 84 and FM 179 intersection at Shallowater beginning Tuesday, September 29, and running through Friday, October 9. The work covers the US 84 main lanes, the on- and off-ramps and part of FM 179.
Drivers should expect delays and rolling closures of FM 179 lanes and of US 84 main lanes and ramps while the paving is under way. Traffic will be routed onto Loop 388 when the US 84 ramps are shut. No nighttime closures are planned, message boards are posted ahead of the work zone, and the schedule depends on the weather.
Sources KCBD · EverythingLubbock
D. Williams & Co., Inc.A federal judge in San Angelo hands down a life sentence for the Ozona smuggling crash that killed four
A federal judge sentenced Rassian Nateray Comer, 21, of Louisiana to life in prison Friday, September 25, in San Angelo for a human-smuggling run that killed four people on Interstate 10 at Ozona on March 13, 2023. U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix imposed life terms on twelve counts and 120 months on a thirteenth, to run concurrently.
Comer was carrying eleven people when he fled a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper at more than 100 mph, drove the wrong way and ran a red light, striking a pickup and killing Maria "Coke" Tambunga and her 7-year-old granddaughter, Emilia Brooke Tambunga. Two passengers also died.
Sources KCBD
No. 11 Texas Tech leads Sam Houston 21-7 midway through the second quarter as Romaine returns two interceptions for scores in seven seconds
Linebacker Austin Romaine returned two interceptions for touchdowns in seven seconds early in the second quarter Saturday, and No. 11 Texas Tech led Sam Houston 21-7 at Galaxy Stadium in the nonconference finale. Romaine's first pick return covered 15 yards; seven seconds later he returned a second for 32 yards, pushing Tech to a 21-0 lead.
Sam Houston cut the deficit when quarterback Locke connected with receiver Tim Burns for a 52-yard score. Texas Tech scored first in the opening quarter on a goal-line run by running back Cameron Dickey, set up by a 36-yard connection from quarterback Will Hammond to Kenny Johnson. Tech entered 3-0 after its 28-26 win over No. 22 Houston on September 18.
Sources KCBD
Texas Tech and the National Ranching Heritage Center publish a succession toolkit for ranch families
Texas Tech's Rawls College of Business, its Davis College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources and the National Ranching Heritage Center released a ranching succession toolkit and announced an online course at an event Friday, September 25. The work came out of the Alderson & Griffin Center for Family Business and Entrepreneurship.
The toolkit's motto is "keeping the ranch in the family, and the family in the ranch." The new class, called First, is built for ranching families and can be taken from anywhere. Organizers said they began by asking ranching families what they needed. Both are available through Texas Tech Press.
Sources KCBD
Friday night football: Lubbock-Cooper Liberty blanks Plainview, Monterey shuts out Caprock
Friday night's high school football across the South Plains on September 25 produced a run of lopsided scores. In 5A, Amarillo High beat Frenship Memorial 59-21, Abilene handled Lubbock High 31-7 and Monterey shut out Caprock 24-0.
In 4A, Lubbock-Cooper Liberty blanked Plainview 63-0, Estacado beat Pecos 36-23, Levelland topped Littlefield 64-36, Sweetwater ran past Snyder 83-20 and El Paso Riverside edged Seminole 51-48. In 3A, Idalou beat Shallowater 46-35, Slaton rolled Trinity Christian 63-6 and Dimmitt stayed unbeaten with a 48-30 win over Denver City. In 2A, Ropes won 63-7, Post beat Hawley 56-21 and New Home held off Roosevelt 27-19.
Sources KCBD
State
Texas House Republicans tell TribFest the math does not add up for a Democratic takeover
Three Republican state representatives told a Texas Tribune Festival panel in Austin on Friday, September 25, that their party will keep control of the Texas House in November — a day after House Democratic Caucus chair Gene Wu of Houston said Democrats can flip the chamber. The party needs 14 more seats.
"If Republican voters turn out, we won't have to worry about anything like that happening," said Rep. Mitch Little, R-Lewisville, who appeared with Rep. Daniel Alders, R-Tyler, and Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano. Leach also called on Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton to debate Democratic challenger James Talarico. The three previewed property-tax relief and data-center rules for 2027.
Sources The Texas Tribune
Abbott proclaims September 25 Dolly Parton Day in Texas
Gov. Greg Abbott proclaimed Friday, September 25, Dolly Parton Day in Texas, choosing the date as a nod to her song "9 to 5." The proclamation rests on her philanthropy and literacy work rather than her music.
Parton's foundation, started in 1988, runs the Imagination Library, which mails a registered child a book every month and has distributed more than 332 million books to over 3 million children. The foundation also helped cut the dropout rate in her home county from 35 percent to 6 percent by paying incentives to seventh and eighth graders who finished school. Texas joins California and Ohio in marking the date.
Sources KFYO
Action PrintingA new voter's guide lays out where Abbott and Hinojosa split before early voting opens
The Texas Tribune published a guide to the November 3 governor's race on Friday, September 25, comparing Republican incumbent Greg Abbott, Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa of Austin and the Libertarian nominee. Early voting begins October 19.
Abbott reported $67.4 million cash on hand as of June 30 against Hinojosa's $3 million. The two split hardest on data centers — Abbott has paused state permitting pending audits, while Hinojosa wants a moratorium until community protections are in place — and on school vouchers, which Abbott funded at $1 billion and Hinojosa opposes. Hinojosa is proposing one-time $1,500 household payments from the state surplus and an end to standardized testing.
Sources The Texas Tribune
U.S. & World
The Supreme Court clears the Trump administration to run voter rolls through the SAVE immigration database
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Friday, September 25, that the Trump administration may use the expanded SAVE immigration database to check voter rolls for noncitizens, lifting a lower court's block weeks before the November 3 midterms. At least 67 million registrations have already been run through the system.
The majority found a 1996 law lets the Department of Homeland Security pull citizenship data from other federal agencies. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. In Travis County, officials found 10 to 21 percent of flagged voters were in fact citizens.
Sources CBS News · PBS NewsHour
The Supreme Court blocks Missouri's Trump-backed congressional map for a third time
The U.S. Supreme Court blocked Missouri's Trump-backed congressional map on Friday, September 25, the third time it has rejected the plan. The state must run November's election on the districts voters used in 2022 and 2024 rather than the new map used in August's primaries.
The court warned that changing maps now would cause "electoral chaos," noting officials had already begun mailing absentee ballots under the old lines. Missouri lawmakers drew the map last year in President Trump's national push for more Republican seats; opponents put it on the November ballot, and the state's highest court said voters must approve it first.
Sources Georgia Public Broadcasting · The Hill
A federal appeals court says states may regulate Kalshi's sports contracts as gambling
A three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday, September 25, that Kalshi's sports-event contracts are not federally regulated swaps, leaving them open to state gambling regulation in Ohio and Tennessee. The company had sought injunctions against enforcement by both states.
The panel wrote that while Kalshi's contracts do turn on events, those events are not "associated with a potential financial, economic, or commercial consequence" as federal law requires. The ruling deepens a circuit split: the Third Circuit held the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has jurisdiction, while the Eighth Circuit found sports contracts are not swaps.
White House television coverage resumes after a judge restores three outlets' access
Television pool coverage of the White House resumed Friday, September 25, a week after CNN, MS NOW and Politico were barred from the grounds and the other networks refused to work without them. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the three outlets' access restored on Thursday.
The pool rotation — ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC — shares video from presidential events, and the walkout had cut off audio and video from major executive branch appearances for a week. A pool report said the plan is "to return to covering the president in a normal capacity with a full crew." The feed was running again as the president visited the National Archives.
Sources UPI · PBS NewsHour
Trump posts 'Trump Strait' image as Iran pushes its seven-day deal and the White House calls talks 'positive'
President Trump posted an image of the Strait of Hormuz labeled "Trump Strait" early Saturday on Truth Social, the first public signal of his thinking after Iran proposed a seven-day plan to reopen the waterway. The White House said U.S. officials were having positive and constructive conversations with mediators.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian left New York for Tehran following the U.N. General Assembly, where Iran held hours of indirect talks with U.S. officials. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed Tehran's conditions: the U.S. must lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports, waive oil-sales sanctions and observe a ceasefire including Lebanon. Analysts said Iran sees the midterms as a window for a deal, while Washington may prefer to maintain pressure through November.
Sources Associated Press · The Hill
Duffy Law Firm, PCUtah Valley University's outside review of the Charlie Kirk shooting finds ten security failures
Utah Valley University released a 158-page independent review Friday, September 25, of the campus shooting that killed Charlie Kirk, listing ten major findings. The reviewers concluded that "no one at UVU acted in bad faith or in willful and wanton disregard for the safety of others."
The review found security policy applied inconsistently, inadequate measures for high-profile outdoor events, nobody assigned to watch the campus camera system and staffing that needs reevaluating. Coordination with the event's organizers began only a week beforehand. An attorney for Kirk's family said campus security was woefully understaffed and had not prepared for an event of that size.
Sources Fox News