Voter registration in Texas and 12 other states ended on Tuesday for the 2018 midterm elections, and by Monday, Texas had already hit a new record of nearly 15.7 million registered voters, the Texas secretary of state's office says. Once the surge of last-minute applications is processed, the number of registered voters is expected to top 15.7 million. In the March primary elections, 15.2 million Texans were registered to vote, and a record number of Republicans and Democrats did so.

There was some confusion on Tuesday, though, as newly registered voters did not find their names in the Texas online voter database, and many students at Prairie View A&M University outside Houston were concerned — wrongly, county officials insist — that their voter registration applications had been rejected. Texas election officials say any valid, signed voter registration form postmarked by Oct. 9 will be accepted, though it may take some time to process all of them.

Texas is one of 12 states where you can't register to vote online, and it takes three to five minutes for county elections staffers to enter each registration in the computer manually, Denton County elections administrator Frank Phillips tells The Dallas Morning News. Early voting in Texas starts Oct. 22 and runs through Nov. 2. Peter Weber

At the end of their debate earlier this month, two candidates for a Vermont state House seat asked the moderator for a few extra minutes — not to make last-second appeals for votes, but rather to make a little music.

Lucy Rogers, the Democrat, grabbed her cello, while Zac Mayo, the Republican, picked up his guitar. They started performing "Society" by Eddie Vedder, much to the surprise of everyone in attendance at the debate inside the Varnum Memorial Library in Jefferson. "It strikes a chord," Mayo told CBS News. "To say to the world that this is a better way."

Rogers and Mayo agreed early on while campaigning in Lamoille County that they were going to be civil and treat each other with respect throughout the race. During a Fourth of July parade, the pair discussed their mutual love of music, and ahead of the debate, Rogers asked Mayo if he wanted to play a song with her. He thought it was a fantastic idea — and so did the voters who attended the debate. One told CBS News it "gave me a lot of hope," while another declared this was "what we needed all along." Catherine Garcia

Caroll Spinney is retiring as the voice and actor behind beloved Sesame Street characters Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. Since Spinney has given life to Big Bird since 1969, replacing him will be no small feat. The Late Show had some unconventional ideas for people who might be able to fill these oversize bird feet, and through the magic of television, you can watch these four prominent men try out for the role. The words that come out of Big Bird's mouth are actual audio clips from these very public figures, but they are probably not safe for Sesame Workshop.

Scott Meslow spoke with Spinney for The Week in 2015, and you can read that interview for more information about the man who breathed life into Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch for 50 years. Peter Weber

Four Americans and their Costa Rican tour guide were killed on Saturday when their rafts overturned on the Naranjo River in Quepos, Costa Rica.

Officials said Sunday that three rafts carrying 18 people overturned, and 13 passengers were able to hang onto the rafts but five were pulled downstream. The victims have been identified as American tourists Ernesto Sierra, Jorge Caso, Sergio Lorenzo, and Andres Dennis, all between the ages of 25 and 35, and their Costa Rican tour guide, Kevin Thompson Reid.

The river was high from rains, officials said, and the Red Cross had 12 workers in the area, who helped assist with the rescue. Catherine Garcia

WikiLeaks founder and longtime resident of Ecuador's London embassy Julian Assange now has to pay for his own medical bills and phone calls, clean up his bathroom and living area, and take care of his cat, including paying for its food and cleaning the litter. Assange is suing Ecuador and its foreign minister, Jose Valencia, arguing that the new protocols are unfair and were created without his input. The obligations to clean up after his cat are particularly "denigrating," his lawyer Baltasar Garzón said at a news conference in Quito on Friday.

Assange sought asylum in Ecuador's London embassy in 2012, evading a Swedish arrest warrant for suspected sexual assault. Sweden later dropped the investigation, but Britain says it will arrest him if he leaves the embassy for violating the terms of his bail. Assange, who gave a boost to President Trump during the 2016 election, has said he believes Britain would extradite him to the U.S. to face prosecution for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents. Ecuador granted Assange, an Australian national, citizenship in 2017, then briefly tried to name him to a diplomatic post in Russia, Reuters reports.

Assange "has been held in inhuman conditions for more than six years," Garzón said. "Even people who are imprisoned have phone calls paid for by the state." He also said Assange hasn't had internet access since March, contradicting a statement from WikiLeaks last week. Garzón did not say who has been cleaning up after Assange's cat for six years. Valencia, named in the lawsuit because he is the intermediary between Assange and Ecuador's government, said Ecuador "will respond in an appropriate manner," but "the protocol is in line with international standards and Ecuadorian law." Peter Weber

The official Saudi Press Association reported on Sunday that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called the eldest son of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi to offer his condolences to the family.

On Oct. 2, Khashoggi went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and was never seen again. Turkish officials said he was murdered by Saudi agents, and on Friday, Saudi Arabia admitted he was killed inside the consulate, claiming he died during a fistfight. On Fox News Sunday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said it was a "rogue operation," and "the individuals who did this did this outside the scope of their authority. There obviously was a tremendous mistake made, and what compounded the mistake was the attempt to try to cover up. That is unacceptable in any government."

The foreign minister said the crown prince and the kingdom's intelligence services did not know about the operation in advance, and that the Saudis do not know exactly how Khashoggi was killed or where his body is now. Saudi Arabia feels the Khashoggi family's "pain," al-Jubeir said, and "I assure them that those responsible will be held accountable for this." Catherine Garcia

The Miami Herald on Sunday endorsed Democrat Andrew Gillum for governor, saying he's the "best candidate to pull Florida back to center."

The editorial board has a lot of faith in Gillum, the mayor of the state capital, Tallahassee. Gillum will ensure that "the middle class and working class don't continue to bear the brunt of Tallahassee's misguided spending," the editorial said, and will also put public schools back "in the spotlight," will help those denied health insurance, and will "fight against sea-level rise and the degradation of the environment."

The Republican candidate, former Rep. Ron DeSantis, is "using worn-out fear tactics to win votes," and voters should "really be alarmed at DeSantis' close proximity to supporters and contributors who have made racist comments, especially at the candidate's campaign appearances." In contrast, Gillum has conducted an "all-embracing, optimistic, and engaging campaign throughout the state," the editorial board said, and that's "another quality that speaks well of the state leader he would be."

The board believes that "after eight years of misplaced priorities, it's time to swing the pendulum back, back to a Florida that works for more of us, that builds on its prosperity and that doesn't squander its more precious resources, be they fiscal, environmental, or human." Read more of the Herald's endorsement of Gillum here. Catherine Garcia