Daily Briefing: Sunday, November 1, 2026

Officers from the Texas Attorney General’s Office arrested people accused of casting ballots in Harris County while ineligible, after arrest warrants were issued October 30 in Montgomery County, the office said Saturday. The office said the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has confirmed that multiple people were on parole when they voted. The release gave no number of arrests, no names and no charges.

The federal Maritime Administration approved a deepwater port license for ST LNG, an $8.2 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project about 10.4 miles offshore Matagorda, the U.S. Transportation Department announced at a Houston event Wednesday. The department expects construction to start in 2027 and the port to come online in 2029.

El Paso Matters sued Thursday to open investigative records from the 2019 Walmart mass shooting, the Associated Press reported. The Attorney General’s Office ruled the records confidential as a child abuse investigation under the Texas Family Code. The petition, assigned to Judge Selena Solis of the 243rd District Court, calls that a misreading of the law.

The Fifth Circuit Judicial Council temporarily reassigned the cases of U.S. District Judge Ada Brown of Dallas and stopped new assignments for three months or until further notice, The Dallas Express reported from records the council released. A special committee ordered a psychiatric examination on September 21 and reported 78 undecided motions on her docket. Brown remains a federal judge and disputes parts of the proceeding.

The United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) has ceased operations after 35 years, and a liquidation period began today, the Secretary-General’s spokesman said. The statement says the departure “does not abrogate these inalienable rights” of the people of the territory to self-determination, and it calls for “maximum restraint.” The Security Council failed Friday to adopt either a United States draft or a Russian draft.

Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon refused to attend Thursday’s Canada-European Union summit in Montreal after Ottawa denied his request to speak publicly there, The Globe and Mail reported. He said the seat offered at the head table asked Quebec “to get back in line.” Prime Minister Mark Carney said the premier was invited and refused.

The chiefs of the three Stoney Nakoda First Nations told Premier Danielle Smith in an October 21 letter that the October 19 referendum process “caused real and lasting division,” the Rocky Mountain Outlook reported. The Treaty 7 First Nation Chiefs’ Association letter says treaty rights “were never open to re-negotiation through a provincial referendum.”

Two county teams from the Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM) have events on the calendar this week. Volunteers in Llano County set up an information table Saturday, November 7, on the Llano Courthouse Square, the TNM calendar shows, and Caldwell County volunteers gather Friday, November 6, at Lockhart City Hall for a clipboarding event.