By:<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/kevinhardy/">Kevin Hardy</a>

Outrage erupted last month when Oklahoma City residents learned of plans to convert a vacant warehouse into an immigration processing facility.

Making&nbsp;<a href="https://oklahomavoice.com/2026/01/27/oklahomans-denounce-potential-ice-processing-center-at-okc-city-council-meeting/" target="_blank">matters worse</a>&nbsp;was the secrecy of the federal government: City leaders received no communication from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement aside from a mandated&nbsp;<a href="https://www.okc.gov/files/assets/city/v/1/city-manager/ltr-from-dhs-to-okc-about-okc-detention-center.pdf" target="_blank">disclosure</a>&nbsp;related to historic preservation.

Planning a major development without city input is antithetical to the in-depth, sometimes arcane permitting, planning and zoning process in Oklahoma City. Mayor David Holt, a former Republican state senator, said those land use decisions are among the most crucial of any municipal government.

“For any entity to be able to open a detention center in our communities, potentially next to neighborhoods or schools, regardless of your views on immigration policy or enforcement, is very challenging, because that’s a very high-impact use, and that’s the kind of thing that we would expect to talk about,” he told Stateline.

Communities across the country are facing similar prospects as ICE undertakes a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/01/21/nx-s1-5674887/ice-budget-funding-congress-trump" target="_blank">massive expansion</a>&nbsp;fueled in large part by the record $45 billion approved for increased immigration detention by Congress last summer.

During President Donald Trump’s second term, ICE is holding a record number of detainees —&nbsp;<a href="https://stateline.org/2026/02/05/immigration-detention-passed-70000-in-january/" target="_blank">more than 70,000</a>&nbsp;as of January — across its own facilities as well as in contracted local jails and private prisons. ICE<a href="https://www.governor.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt971/files/inline-documents/merrimack-detention-reengineering-initiative.pdf" target="_blank">&nbsp;documents</a>&nbsp;from last week show plans for acquiring and renovating 16 processing sites that hold up to 1,500 people each and eight detention centers that hold up to 10,000 each, for a total capacity of 92,600 beds. The agency also has plans for some 150 new leases and office expansions across the country,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/ice-expansion-across-us-at-heres-where-its-going-next/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us" target="_blank">Wired reported</a>.

But ICE’s plans to convert industrial buildings — often warehouses — into new detention facilities have recently faced fierce opposition over humanitarian and economic concerns. From Utah to Texas to Georgia, local governments have sought to block these massive facilities. But with limited legal authority, city and state officials have turned to the court of public opinion to deter private developers and the federal government.

Holt, who is the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a nonpartisan organization representing the more than 1,400 leaders of cities with populations of 30,000 or more, said cities have little legal recourse over the ICE facilities.

“We all have a clear, unified position that really crosses party lines,” he said, “and then we also have a clear understanding of how limited our options are.”

Local leaders often cite the U.S. Constitution’s&nbsp;<a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artVI-C2-1/ALDE_00013395/" target="_blank">supremacy clause</a>, which says federal laws supersede conflicting state laws. That leaves cities with limited influence over projects that could take industrial space off tax rolls, cause new strains on city services and raise serious humanitarian concerns given the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement, including the high-profile killings of two Americans in Minnesota.

Facing bipartisan opposition, the out-of-state owner of the Oklahoma City warehouse ultimately decided to&nbsp;<a href="https://oklahomavoice.com/briefs/proposed-oklahoma-city-ice-facility-is-off-the-table/" target="_blank">end talks</a>&nbsp;of selling or leasing its warehouse to the federal government.

Similar public pressure has proved effective in reversing plans in several other cities: In late January, a Canadian firm said it would not proceed with a planned sale of a Virginia warehouse after it faced&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/us/politics/ice-warehouse-detention-canada.html" target="_blank">calls for a boycott</a>&nbsp;from Canadian politicians and businesses. In Mississippi, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker announced the federal government would&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/SenatorWicker/status/2019820750900002820" target="_blank">“look elsewhere”</a>&nbsp;after he spoke with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees ICE. Wicker, a Republican who said he supports immigration enforcement, echoed local&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wicker.senate.gov/2026/2/wicker-proposed-ice-facility-threatens-byhalia-mississippi-economy-and-infrastructure" target="_blank">economic concerns</a>&nbsp;of a project planned in Byhalia.

Some officials have welcomed the new facilities: Missouri Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Alford has&nbsp;<a href="https://alford.house.gov/uploadedfiles/1.16.2026_ice_facility_letter.pdf" target="_blank">lobbied</a>&nbsp;to land a detention and processing center in his district. And last week, a Maryland county approved a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wbaltv.com/article/washington-county-dhs-ice-resolution-hagerstown-detention-center/70300009" target="_blank">resolution</a>&nbsp;expressing its “full support” for ICE, which is considering purchasing a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washco-md.net/news/washington-county-statement-on-u-s-department-of-homeland-security-notice-concerning-proposed-ice-facility/" target="_blank">warehouse</a>&nbsp;there, despite local protests. But most communities have fought them.

Neither DHS nor ICE responded to Stateline’s questions.

Holt said the discussion resembles other local development concerns where NIMBY — short for Not in My Backyard — is a common description of opponents.

“There are plenty of people who are very law-and-order and supporters of law enforcement who don’t want a jail next to their house,” he said. “That’s why it’s got such broad opposition: NIMBYism is the most powerful force sometimes in American politics and nobody wants a detention center next to their home, their business or their school.”

After learning that ICE planned to take over a vacant warehouse within its city limits, the Kansas City Council in January swiftly approved a five-year ban on nonmunicipal detention facilities.

Kansas City Council member Andrea Bough, who is also a private development attorney, said the move was both political and legal: The city wanted to send a clear signal opposing ICE facilities, but it also wants to exert its local authority over planning and zoning.

She acknowledged the legal hurdle posed by the supremacy clause, but said there was enough ambiguity over the city’s ability to regulate land use that it may take the issue to the courts.

“Some would say local building codes and zoning regulations do not apply to the federal government,” she said. “That’s something I think we would probably in this situation be willing to fight until we had clear guidance on that.”

Following weeks of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/david-hudnall/article314486671.html" target="_blank">pressure</a>, the Kansas City firm that owns the 920,000-square-foot warehouse announced Thursday it was no longer “actively engaged with the U.S. Government or any other prospective purchaser,” the Kansas City Star&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article314676617.html#storylink=cpy" target="_blank">reported</a>.

Jackson County, which includes portions of Kansas City and the potential detention facility, is considering a similar ban. And across the state line, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, is considering a similar&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/wyandotte-county/article314647328.html" target="_blank">two-year moratorium</a>.

But there are clear limitations on cities’ ability to stop federal projects, said Nestor Davidson, a professor who teaches land use and local government law at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

“The federal government can assert immunity from certain state and local laws, including zoning, but it’s complicated, and there are nuances,” he said.

Still, Davidson said some case law has shown cities may have stronger legal footing for zoning rules that are broad and not directly targeted at specific federal government projects.

“I expect to see litigation,” he said. “I think you’re going to see these conversations play out as land use fights often do: both in a legal venue and in a political venue.”

Kansas City’s moratorium has sparked interest among local activists who have pressured elected officials in other cities across the country to act. But many local officials are adamant that federal law ties their hands.

In a legal opinion provided to the Orlando City Council in Florida, City Attorney Mayanne Downs rejected “suggestions of actions we can supposedly take,” including moratoriums or using zoning ordinances to block ICE detention centers.

“However well motivated these suggestions are, the law is very clear: ICE, as an agency of our federal government, ICE is immune from any local regulation that interferes in any way with its federal mandate,” Downs wrote to the mayor and city commissioners.

ICE is reportedly&nbsp;<a href="https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/02/06/u-s-reps-maxwell-frost-darren-soto-tell-kristi-noem-not-to-open-ice-facility-in-central-florida/" target="_blank">considering</a>&nbsp;a new $100 million processing center in southeast Orlando.

The county commission in Orange County, which includes Orlando, discussed the issue last week after receiving similar legal advice. County Commissioner Nicole Wilson said the board is even more constrained because of a recent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2025/180" target="_blank">Florida law&nbsp;</a>limiting certain local governments’ ability to regulate development through 2027.

After being advised against passing a moratorium, the board agreed with Wilson’s follow-up suggestion to draft a resolution expressing its opposition. That will be considered at a future meeting.

“It doesn’t sound like it has the teeth that a moratorium would have, but it essentially gives an awareness that we’ve established a position in opposition to this type of facility in Orange County,” Wilson told Stateline.

An attorney by trade, Wilson said the case law regarding federal projects largely centers on disputes about post offices, which she said is not an appropriate comparison to the massive detention centers currently contemplated.

“A post office has the same water consumption and sewage as probably a lot of other uses,” she said. “If you take a warehouse that was designed for 25,000 widgets and put 15,000 humans in it, you’ve got a very different set of local needs and services that are being used and being taxed and being burdened.”

Communities have often opposed various other federal projects, such as federal courthouses. But the federal government generally takes the time to listen to local concerns and communicate building plans with communities, said Jason Klumb, a former regional administrator with the U.S. General Services Administration, which manages the federal government’s real estate.

“Generally, GSA has had kind of a good neighbor approach, understanding that they have requirements for federal facilities, and some of those facilities may not always be popular,” said Klumb, an Obama appointee.

But the federal government has not been shy about exerting its constitutional authority.

For example, late last month,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2026/jan/31/federal-government-reconfirms-vine-street/" target="_blank">GSA announced</a>&nbsp;it would build a new $239 million federal courthouse in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, despite&nbsp;<a href="https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2026/jan/31/federal-government-reconfirms-vine-street/" target="_blank">bipartisan lobbying</a>&nbsp;from city and federal officials for a different site.

“The feds get what the feds want, ultimately,” Klumb said.

In a statement, a GSA spokesperson declined to clarify the agency’s current role in acquiring ICE detention facilities. The statement said the agency was “following all lease procurement procedures in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.”

Communities have largely been left out of the administration’s immigration decision-making process.

“Most of the information we have received on this facility has been through news leaks and the government has not reached out to us yet,” said Paul Micali, the town manager of Merrimack, New Hampshire.

Through an open records request, the ACLU of New Hampshire&nbsp;<a href="https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2026/02/03/new-documents-confirm-federal-government-plans-to-put-an-ice-facility-in-merrimack/" target="_blank">confirmed</a>&nbsp;that ICE was planning to convert a 43-acre warehouse property in the town of about 28,200.

The federal plans were obtained from the state’s historic preservation office, which came under fire for not informing Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte of ICE’s proposal. That agency’s top official&nbsp;<a href="https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2026/02/09/embattled-cultural-resources-commissioner-resigns-amid-merrimack-ice-facility-fallout/" target="_blank">resigned last week</a>&nbsp;after pressure from Ayotte.

Ayotte’s office did not respond to a request for comment. On Thursday, her office released documents detailing how the federal government’s&nbsp;<a href="https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2026/02/13/ayotte-releases-dhs-documents-about-planned-ice-detention-center-in-merrimack/" target="_blank">$158 million plan</a>&nbsp;to retrofit the property would create hundreds of long-term jobs for the region.

<a href="https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2026/02/12/ice-director-dhs-has-worked-with-gov-ayotte-on-merrimack-immigrant-detention-center/" target="_blank">Testifying before Congress</a>&nbsp;Thursday, an ICE official said the feds will not cancel the project over local concerns.

Micali said the vacant warehouse currently provides about $529,000 in annual property taxes — a substantial sum given the town’s property tax base of about $20 million.

In a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.merrimacknh.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif3456/f/news/260123_town_council_letter_to_dhs_re_ice_processing_center_-_signed.pdf" target="_blank">letter to Noem</a>, the Town Council said converting the property to a tax-free federal facility would result in higher local taxes for residents. Merrimack is also concerned about potential demands for water, fire and other city services, Micali said, but can’t even begin to assess needs without more details from the feds.

He’s speaking with lawyers about what options, if any, the town may have to assert local zoning power.

“We’re looking at every possibility,” he said.

Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:khardy@stateline.org">khardy@stateline.org</a>.&nbsp;

This story was originally produced by&nbsp;<a href="https://stateline.org/2026/02/17/communities-fight-ice-detention-centers-but-have-few-tools-to-stop-them/" target="_blank">Stateline</a>, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Kansas Reflector, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2026/2/1771730316728.png" alt=" A vacant warehouse in Kansas City, Mo., was among a growing number of properties across the country planned for conversion into a federal immigration detention center. After weeks of public pressure, the private developer that owns the property announced last week it would not transfer the property to the federal government. (Photo by Kevin Hardy/Stateline)" />
 <figcaption> A vacant warehouse in Kansas City, Mo., was among a growing number of properties across the country planned for conversion into a federal immigration detention center. After weeks of public pressure, the private developer that owns the property announced last week it would not transfer the property to the federal government. (Photo by Kevin Hardy/Stateline)</figcaption>
 </figure>By:<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/kevinhardy/">Kevin Hardy</a>Outrage erupted last month when Oklahoma City residents learned of plans to convert a vacant warehouse into an immigration processing facility.Making&nbsp;<a href="https://oklahomavoice.com/2026/01/27/oklahomans-denounce-potential-ice-processing-center-at-okc-city-council-meeting/" target="_blank">matters worse</a>&nbsp;was the secrecy of the federal government: City leaders received no communication from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement aside from a mandated&nbsp;<a href="https://www.okc.gov/files/assets/city/v/1/city-manager/ltr-from-dhs-to-okc-about-okc-detention-center.pdf" target="_blank">disclosure</a>&nbsp;related to historic preservation.Planning a major development without city input is antithetical to the in-depth, sometimes arcane permitting, planning and zoning process in Oklahoma City. Mayor David Holt, a former Republican state senator, said those land use decisions are among the most crucial of any municipal government.“For any entity to be able to open a detention center in our communities, potentially next to neighborhoods or schools, regardless of your views on immigration policy or enforcement, is very challenging, because that’s a very high-impact use, and that’s the kind of thing that we would expect to talk about,” he told Stateline.Communities across the country are facing similar prospects as ICE undertakes a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/01/21/nx-s1-5674887/ice-budget-funding-congress-trump" target="_blank">massive expansion</a>&nbsp;fueled in large part by the record $45 billion approved for increased immigration detention by Congress last summer.During President Donald Trump’s second term, ICE is holding a record number of detainees —&nbsp;<a href="https://stateline.org/2026/02/05/immigration-detention-passed-70000-in-january/" target="_blank">more than 70,000</a>&nbsp;as of January — across its own facilities as well as in contracted local jails and private prisons. ICE<a href="https://www.governor.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt971/files/inline-documents/merrimack-detention-reengineering-initiative.pdf" target="_blank">&nbsp;documents</a>&nbsp;from last week show plans for acquiring and renovating 16 processing sites that hold up to 1,500 people each and eight detention centers that hold up to 10,000 each, for a total capacity of 92,600 beds. The agency also has plans for some 150 new leases and office expansions across the country,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/ice-expansion-across-us-at-heres-where-its-going-next/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us" target="_blank">Wired reported</a>.But ICE’s plans to convert industrial buildings — often warehouses — into new detention facilities have recently faced fierce opposition over humanitarian and economic concerns. From Utah to Texas to Georgia, local governments have sought to block these massive facilities. But with limited legal authority, city and state officials have turned to the court of public opinion to deter private developers and the federal government.Holt, who is the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a nonpartisan organization representing the more than 1,400 leaders of cities with populations of 30,000 or more, said cities have little legal recourse over the ICE facilities.“We all have a clear, unified position that really crosses party lines,” he said, “and then we also have a clear understanding of how limited our options are.”Local leaders often cite the U.S. Constitution’s&nbsp;<a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artVI-C2-1/ALDE_00013395/" target="_blank">supremacy clause</a>, which says federal laws supersede conflicting state laws. That leaves cities with limited influence over projects that could take industrial space off tax rolls, cause new strains on city services and raise serious humanitarian concerns given the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement, including the high-profile killings of two Americans in Minnesota.Facing bipartisan opposition, the out-of-state owner of the Oklahoma City warehouse ultimately decided to&nbsp;<a href="https://oklahomavoice.com/briefs/proposed-oklahoma-city-ice-facility-is-off-the-table/" target="_blank">end talks</a>&nbsp;of selling or leasing its warehouse to the federal government.Similar public pressure has proved effective in reversing plans in several other cities: In late January, a Canadian firm said it would not proceed with a planned sale of a Virginia warehouse after it faced&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/us/politics/ice-warehouse-detention-canada.html" target="_blank">calls for a boycott</a>&nbsp;from Canadian politicians and businesses. In Mississippi, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker announced the federal government would&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/SenatorWicker/status/2019820750900002820" target="_blank">“look elsewhere”</a>&nbsp;after he spoke with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees ICE. Wicker, a Republican who said he supports immigration enforcement, echoed local&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wicker.senate.gov/2026/2/wicker-proposed-ice-facility-threatens-byhalia-mississippi-economy-and-infrastructure" target="_blank">economic concerns</a>&nbsp;of a project planned in Byhalia.Some officials have welcomed the new facilities: Missouri Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Alford has&nbsp;<a href="https://alford.house.gov/uploadedfiles/1.16.2026_ice_facility_letter.pdf" target="_blank">lobbied</a>&nbsp;to land a detention and processing center in his district. And last week, a Maryland county approved a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wbaltv.com/article/washington-county-dhs-ice-resolution-hagerstown-detention-center/70300009" target="_blank">resolution</a>&nbsp;expressing its “full support” for ICE, which is considering purchasing a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washco-md.net/news/washington-county-statement-on-u-s-department-of-homeland-security-notice-concerning-proposed-ice-facility/" target="_blank">warehouse</a>&nbsp;there, despite local protests. But most communities have fought them.Neither DHS nor ICE responded to Stateline’s questions.Holt said the discussion resembles other local development concerns where NIMBY — short for Not in My Backyard — is a common description of opponents.“There are plenty of people who are very law-and-order and supporters of law enforcement who don’t want a jail next to their house,” he said. “That’s why it’s got such broad opposition: NIMBYism is the most powerful force sometimes in American politics and nobody wants a detention center next to their home, their business or their school.”<h2>A political and legal fight</h2>After learning that ICE planned to take over a vacant warehouse within its city limits, the Kansas City Council in January swiftly approved a five-year ban on nonmunicipal detention facilities.Kansas City Council member Andrea Bough, who is also a private development attorney, said the move was both political and legal: The city wanted to send a clear signal opposing ICE facilities, but it also wants to exert its local authority over planning and zoning.She acknowledged the legal hurdle posed by the supremacy clause, but said there was enough ambiguity over the city’s ability to regulate land use that it may take the issue to the courts.“Some would say local building codes and zoning regulations do not apply to the federal government,” she said. “That’s something I think we would probably in this situation be willing to fight until we had clear guidance on that.”Following weeks of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/david-hudnall/article314486671.html" target="_blank">pressure</a>, the Kansas City firm that owns the 920,000-square-foot warehouse announced Thursday it was no longer “actively engaged with the U.S. Government or any other prospective purchaser,” the Kansas City Star&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article314676617.html#storylink=cpy" target="_blank">reported</a>.Jackson County, which includes portions of Kansas City and the potential detention facility, is considering a similar ban. And across the state line, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, is considering a similar&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/wyandotte-county/article314647328.html" target="_blank">two-year moratorium</a>.But there are clear limitations on cities’ ability to stop federal projects, said Nestor Davidson, a professor who teaches land use and local government law at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.“The federal government can assert immunity from certain state and local laws, including zoning, but it’s complicated, and there are nuances,” he said.Still, Davidson said some case law has shown cities may have stronger legal footing for zoning rules that are broad and not directly targeted at specific federal government projects.“I expect to see litigation,” he said. “I think you’re going to see these conversations play out as land use fights often do: both in a legal venue and in a political venue.”<h2>Governments pressured to act</h2>Kansas City’s moratorium has sparked interest among local activists who have pressured elected officials in other cities across the country to act. But many local officials are adamant that federal law ties their hands.In a legal opinion provided to the Orlando City Council in Florida, City Attorney Mayanne Downs rejected “suggestions of actions we can supposedly take,” including moratoriums or using zoning ordinances to block ICE detention centers.“However well motivated these suggestions are, the law is very clear: ICE, as an agency of our federal government, ICE is immune from any local regulation that interferes in any way with its federal mandate,” Downs wrote to the mayor and city commissioners.ICE is reportedly&nbsp;<a href="https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/02/06/u-s-reps-maxwell-frost-darren-soto-tell-kristi-noem-not-to-open-ice-facility-in-central-florida/" target="_blank">considering</a>&nbsp;a new $100 million processing center in southeast Orlando.The county commission in Orange County, which includes Orlando, discussed the issue last week after receiving similar legal advice. County Commissioner Nicole Wilson said the board is even more constrained because of a recent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2025/180" target="_blank">Florida law&nbsp;</a>limiting certain local governments’ ability to regulate development through 2027.After being advised against passing a moratorium, the board agreed with Wilson’s follow-up suggestion to draft a resolution expressing its opposition. That will be considered at a future meeting.“It doesn’t sound like it has the teeth that a moratorium would have, but it essentially gives an awareness that we’ve established a position in opposition to this type of facility in Orange County,” Wilson told Stateline.An attorney by trade, Wilson said the case law regarding federal projects largely centers on disputes about post offices, which she said is not an appropriate comparison to the massive detention centers currently contemplated.“A post office has the same water consumption and sewage as probably a lot of other uses,” she said. “If you take a warehouse that was designed for 25,000 widgets and put 15,000 humans in it, you’ve got a very different set of local needs and services that are being used and being taxed and being burdened.”<h2>Working with the feds</h2>Communities have often opposed various other federal projects, such as federal courthouses. But the federal government generally takes the time to listen to local concerns and communicate building plans with communities, said Jason Klumb, a former regional administrator with the U.S. General Services Administration, which manages the federal government’s real estate.“Generally, GSA has had kind of a good neighbor approach, understanding that they have requirements for federal facilities, and some of those facilities may not always be popular,” said Klumb, an Obama appointee.But the federal government has not been shy about exerting its constitutional authority.For example, late last month,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2026/jan/31/federal-government-reconfirms-vine-street/" target="_blank">GSA announced</a>&nbsp;it would build a new $239 million federal courthouse in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, despite&nbsp;<a href="https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2026/jan/31/federal-government-reconfirms-vine-street/" target="_blank">bipartisan lobbying</a>&nbsp;from city and federal officials for a different site.“The feds get what the feds want, ultimately,” Klumb said.In a statement, a GSA spokesperson declined to clarify the agency’s current role in acquiring ICE detention facilities. The statement said the agency was “following all lease procurement procedures in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.”Communities have largely been left out of the administration’s immigration decision-making process.“Most of the information we have received on this facility has been through news leaks and the government has not reached out to us yet,” said Paul Micali, the town manager of Merrimack, New Hampshire.Through an open records request, the ACLU of New Hampshire&nbsp;<a href="https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2026/02/03/new-documents-confirm-federal-government-plans-to-put-an-ice-facility-in-merrimack/" target="_blank">confirmed</a>&nbsp;that ICE was planning to convert a 43-acre warehouse property in the town of about 28,200.The federal plans were obtained from the state’s historic preservation office, which came under fire for not informing Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte of ICE’s proposal. That agency’s top official&nbsp;<a href="https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2026/02/09/embattled-cultural-resources-commissioner-resigns-amid-merrimack-ice-facility-fallout/" target="_blank">resigned last week</a>&nbsp;after pressure from Ayotte.Ayotte’s office did not respond to a request for comment. On Thursday, her office released documents detailing how the federal government’s&nbsp;<a href="https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2026/02/13/ayotte-releases-dhs-documents-about-planned-ice-detention-center-in-merrimack/" target="_blank">$158 million plan</a>&nbsp;to retrofit the property would create hundreds of long-term jobs for the region.<a href="https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2026/02/12/ice-director-dhs-has-worked-with-gov-ayotte-on-merrimack-immigrant-detention-center/" target="_blank">Testifying before Congress</a>&nbsp;Thursday, an ICE official said the feds will not cancel the project over local concerns.Micali said the vacant warehouse currently provides about $529,000 in annual property taxes — a substantial sum given the town’s property tax base of about $20 million.In a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.merrimacknh.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif3456/f/news/260123_town_council_letter_to_dhs_re_ice_processing_center_-_signed.pdf" target="_blank">letter to Noem</a>, the Town Council said converting the property to a tax-free federal facility would result in higher local taxes for residents. Merrimack is also concerned about potential demands for water, fire and other city services, Micali said, but can’t even begin to assess needs without more details from the feds.He’s speaking with lawyers about what options, if any, the town may have to assert local zoning power.“We’re looking at every possibility,” he said.Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:khardy@stateline.org">khardy@stateline.org</a>.&nbsp;This story was originally produced by&nbsp;<a href="https://stateline.org/2026/02/17/communities-fight-ice-detention-centers-but-have-few-tools-to-stop-them/" target="_blank">Stateline</a>, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Kansas Reflector, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

Communities fight ICE detention centers, but have few tools to stop them

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Transportation Security Administration said Sunday that its PreCheck program would remain operational despite an earlier announcement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that the airport security service was being suspended during the partial government shutdown.

“&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/dhs-shutdown-tsa-travel-airports-delays-ff8b225c6ff8d57172fd301a550057b3">As staffing constraints arise,</a>&nbsp;TSA will evaluate on a case by case basis and adjust operations accordingly,” the agency said.

It was not immediately clear whether Global Entry, another airport service, would be affected. PreCheck and Global Entry are designed to help speed registered travelers through security lines, and suspensions would likely cause headaches and delays.

The turmoil is tied to a partial government shutdown that began Feb. 14 after Democrats and the White House were unable to reach a deal on legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats have been demanding changes to immigration operations that are core to President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign.

Homeland Security previously said it was taking “emergency measures to preserve limited funds.” Among the steps listed were “ending Transportation Security Administration (TSA) PreCheck lanes and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Global Entry service, to refocus Department personnel on the majority of travelers.”

Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement on Saturday night that “shutdowns have serious real world consequences."

One group of fliers will definitely be affected, according to TSA.

“Courtesy escorts, such as those for Members of Congress, have been suspended to allow officers to focus on the mission of securing America’s skies,” the agency said.

Airlines for America, a trade group representing major carriers, said Saturday night that “it’s past time for Congress to get to the table and get a deal done.” It also criticized the announcement by saying it was “issued with extremely short notice to travelers, giving them little time to plan accordingly.”

Democrats on the House Committee on Homeland Security criticized Homeland Security handling of airport security after the initial announcement on Saturday night. They accused the administration of “kneecapping the programs that make travel smoother and secure."

Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, said Noem’s actions are part of an administration strategy to distract from other issues and shift responsibility.

“This administration is trying to weaponize our government, trying to make things intentionally more difficult for the American people as a political leverage," he told CNN on Sunday. "And the American people see that.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is suspending the TSA PreCheck and Global Entry airport security programs as a partial government shutdown continues.

The programs are designed to help speed registered travelers through security lines. Suspending them could cause headaches for fliers.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement that “shutdowns have serious real world consequences.” She also said that “TSA and CBP are prioritizing the general traveling population at our airports and ports of entry and suspending courtesy and special privilege escorts.”

The partial government shutdown began Feb. 14 after Democrats and the White House were unable to reach a deal on legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats have been demanding changes to immigration operations that are core to President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign.

Democrats on the House Committee on Homeland Security criticized the decision about airport security.

They said on social media that the administration was “kneecapping the programs that make travel smoother and secure” and accused them of “ruining your travel on purpose.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2026/1/1769268628445.png" alt="Photo DHS" />
 <figcaption>Photo DHS</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Transportation Security Administration said Sunday that its PreCheck program would remain operational despite an earlier announcement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that the airport security service was being suspended during the partial government shutdown.“&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/dhs-shutdown-tsa-travel-airports-delays-ff8b225c6ff8d57172fd301a550057b3">As staffing constraints arise,</a>&nbsp;TSA will evaluate on a case by case basis and adjust operations accordingly,” the agency said.It was not immediately clear whether Global Entry, another airport service, would be affected. PreCheck and Global Entry are designed to help speed registered travelers through security lines, and suspensions would likely cause headaches and delays.The turmoil is tied to a partial government shutdown that began Feb. 14 after Democrats and the White House were unable to reach a deal on legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats have been demanding changes to immigration operations that are core to President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign.Homeland Security previously said it was taking “emergency measures to preserve limited funds.” Among the steps listed were “ending Transportation Security Administration (TSA) PreCheck lanes and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Global Entry service, to refocus Department personnel on the majority of travelers.”Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement on Saturday night that “shutdowns have serious real world consequences."One group of fliers will definitely be affected, according to TSA.“Courtesy escorts, such as those for Members of Congress, have been suspended to allow officers to focus on the mission of securing America’s skies,” the agency said.Airlines for America, a trade group representing major carriers, said Saturday night that “it’s past time for Congress to get to the table and get a deal done.” It also criticized the announcement by saying it was “issued with extremely short notice to travelers, giving them little time to plan accordingly.”Democrats on the House Committee on Homeland Security criticized Homeland Security handling of airport security after the initial announcement on Saturday night. They accused the administration of “kneecapping the programs that make travel smoother and secure."Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, said Noem’s actions are part of an administration strategy to distract from other issues and shift responsibility.“This administration is trying to weaponize our government, trying to make things intentionally more difficult for the American people as a political leverage," he told CNN on Sunday. "And the American people see that.”-------------------WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is suspending the TSA PreCheck and Global Entry airport security programs as a partial government shutdown continues.The programs are designed to help speed registered travelers through security lines. Suspending them could cause headaches for fliers.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement that “shutdowns have serious real world consequences.” She also said that “TSA and CBP are prioritizing the general traveling population at our airports and ports of entry and suspending courtesy and special privilege escorts.”The partial government shutdown began Feb. 14 after Democrats and the White House were unable to reach a deal on legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats have been demanding changes to immigration operations that are core to President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign.Democrats on the House Committee on Homeland Security criticized the decision about airport security.They said on social media that the administration was “kneecapping the programs that make travel smoother and secure” and accused them of “ruining your travel on purpose.”

DHS reverses course on TSA PreCheck suspension

KANSAS CITY—One person died in an accident just after 8:30a.m. Saturday in Kansas City.

Preliminary investigation indicates a black Hyundai with a flat tire was stopped in lane one without hazard lights activated&nbsp;on Interstate 70 westbound near the Walnut exit, according to KCPD Officer Alyana Gonzalez. A tractor-trailer traveling in lane two merged into lane one to pass another tractor-trailer and subsequently struck the rear of the stopped Hyundai, causing significant rear-end damage. 

The driver of the Hyundai was transported to a local hospital, where she was pronounced deceased. The accident remains under investigation, according to Gonzalez. This is fatality #10 in KCMO for 2026.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2026/2/1771729261623.png" alt="KC Scout camera view near the crash scene on Saturday" />
 <figcaption>KC Scout camera view near the crash scene on Saturday</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY—One person died in an accident just after 8:30a.m. Saturday in Kansas City.Preliminary investigation indicates a black Hyundai with a flat tire was stopped in lane one without hazard lights activated&nbsp;on Interstate 70 westbound near the Walnut exit, according to KCPD Officer Alyana Gonzalez. A tractor-trailer traveling in lane two merged into lane one to pass another tractor-trailer and subsequently struck the rear of the stopped Hyundai, causing significant rear-end damage. The driver of the Hyundai was transported to a local hospital, where she was pronounced deceased. The accident remains under investigation, according to Gonzalez. This is fatality #10 in KCMO for 2026.

Woman killed after semi strikes car with flat tire on I-70

SEDGWICK COUNTY—A man who admitted his role in a violent home invasion robbery is going to prison.

On Thursday, Judge Quinton Pittman sentenced 33-year-old Andrew Denning&nbsp;to 11.25 years in the custody of the Kansas Department of Corrections with 36 months of post release supervision, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office.

In November he pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, kidnapping, criminal possession of a weapon by a felon, ID theft, theft of property or services, probation violation and numerous drug crimes.

In January of 2024, two victims reported that suspects entered their home in the 1000 block of Ellis Street in Wichita armed with shotguns and handguns, forcing them into a bedroom at gunpoint, according to Wichita Police Department spokesperson Andrew Ford.

The victims were then restrained with zip ties while the suspects stole several electronic devices and three handguns. The victims, who were familiar with the suspects, began searching for their stolen property after the incident. One victim discovered that his phone and vehicle keys were missing and tracked their location to the 13600 block of West Nantucket in Wichita, a residence believed to be associated with one of the suspects.

Wichita Police responded to the Nantucket address, established a perimeter, and attempted to communicate with the occupants. Officers engaged with individuals inside the residence through a Ring doorbell camera, during which an occupant inadvertently activated the speaker. This revealed a conversation indicating the occupants were aware of law enforcement’s presence.

Despite repeated attempts to negotiate, the individuals refused to exit, prompting the activation of the SWAT Team and Crisis Negotiations Team.

While waiting for the search warrant, one suspect exited the residence and was taken into custody without incident. During the subsequent search of the home, two additional suspects were found hiding in the attic and were also taken into custody. Police later arrested a fourth suspect identified as 51-year-old Robert D. Cook.

Andrew Denning, 33; Trinity Cook, 19; George Bos, 62 and Robert D. Cook all of Wichita were charged with aggravated robbery, kidnapping and aggravated burglary, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2026/2/1771696235289.png" alt="Photo Wichita Police" />
 <figcaption>Photo Wichita Police</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTY—A man who admitted his role in a violent home invasion robbery is going to prison.On Thursday, Judge Quinton Pittman sentenced 33-year-old Andrew Denning&nbsp;to 11.25 years in the custody of the Kansas Department of Corrections with 36 months of post release supervision, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/1/1736767770109.png" alt="Denning photo Sedgwick County" />
 <figcaption>Denning photo Sedgwick County</figcaption>
 </figure>In November he pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, kidnapping, criminal possession of a weapon by a felon, ID theft, theft of property or services, probation violation and numerous drug crimes.In January of 2024, two victims reported that suspects entered their home in the 1000 block of Ellis Street in Wichita armed with shotguns and handguns, forcing them into a bedroom at gunpoint, according to Wichita Police Department spokesperson Andrew Ford.The victims were then restrained with zip ties while the suspects stole several electronic devices and three handguns. The victims, who were familiar with the suspects, began searching for their stolen property after the incident. One victim discovered that his phone and vehicle keys were missing and tracked their location to the 13600 block of West Nantucket in Wichita, a residence believed to be associated with one of the suspects.Wichita Police responded to the Nantucket address, established a perimeter, and attempted to communicate with the occupants. Officers engaged with individuals inside the residence through a Ring doorbell camera, during which an occupant inadvertently activated the speaker. This revealed a conversation indicating the occupants were aware of law enforcement’s presence.Despite repeated attempts to negotiate, the individuals refused to exit, prompting the activation of the SWAT Team and Crisis Negotiations Team.While waiting for the search warrant, one suspect exited the residence and was taken into custody without incident. During the subsequent search of the home, two additional suspects were found hiding in the attic and were also taken into custody. Police later arrested a fourth suspect identified as 51-year-old Robert D. Cook.Andrew Denning, 33; Trinity Cook, 19; George Bos, 62 and Robert D. Cook all of Wichita were charged with aggravated robbery, kidnapping and aggravated burglary, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office.

Suspect in violent Kan. home invasion robbery is going to prison

HRVEY COUNTY —A grain bin accident left one person dead in southern Harvey County Saturday afternoon.

Emergency personnel were called to the 2100 block of South Spencer Road at 2:30 p.m., according to a media release the county.

Three men were working to level and empty soybeans inside a large grain bin. The contents suddenly shifted, trapping one of the men.

The trapped man was pronounced dead at the scene. The other two men escaped without injury.

The identification of the man is being withheld pending notification of family. The death has been ruled accidental.

Traffic was initially rerouted off of Spencer during the response, but the road has since reopened.

Newton Fire/EMS, Halstead Fire/EMS and Sedgwick County emergency personnel assisted in the response. 

HRVEY COUNTY —A grain bin accident left one person dead in southern Harvey County Saturday afternoon.Emergency personnel were called to the 2100 block of South Spencer Road at 2:30 p.m., according to a media release the county.Three men were working to level and empty soybeans inside a large grain bin. The contents suddenly shifted, trapping one of the men.The trapped man was pronounced dead at the scene. The other two men escaped without injury.The identification of the man is being withheld pending notification of family. The death has been ruled accidental.Traffic was initially rerouted off of Spencer during the response, but the road has since reopened.Newton Fire/EMS, Halstead Fire/EMS and Sedgwick County emergency personnel assisted in the response.

Man dead in Kansas grain bin accident

RENO COUNTY —Law enforcement are investigating a woman's death and the death of a Kansas registered offender accused of her death.

On February 20th, 2026, at approximately 8:19 P.M., officers with the Hutchinson Police Department were dispatched to the 800 block of West 4th Avenue in reference to a reported shooting, according to a media release from Hutchinson Police.

When they arrived, officers located a woman later identified as 37-year-old Lacy D Nelson of Hutchinson, with multiple gunshot wounds. Officers immediately began rendering first aid until Reno County EMS arrived on scene. She was transported by ambulance to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center, where she later succumbed to her injuries.

During the investigation, Curtis E Richardson, age 49 of Hutchinson, was identified as a person of interest. Just before 9:30p.m., a statewide BOLO was issued for Richardson.

Just after 7a.m. Saturday, Pratt County Kansas Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to Preston, Kansas, in reference to a reported robbery. The victim reported that a man forced entry into her residence and took her vehicle without permission

While en route, a Pratt County Sheriff’s Office deputy located the reported stolen vehicle traveling southbound on K61 Highway in Pratt County. The deputy attempted to initiate a traffic stop; however, the driver, later identified as Richardson, refused to stop, and a vehicle pursuit ensued. During the pursuit, the stolen vehicle left the roadway and drove into a field near NE 30th Avenue and NE 20th Street in Pratt County, where it became stuck. The Pratt County Sheriff’s Office deputy maintained scene security until additional units arrived.

The Pratt County Sheriff’s Office Special Response Team (SRT) responded to the scene. Richardson refused to exit his vehicle despite multiple clear commands from the Pratt County Sheriff’s Office and continued efforts by the SRT negotiator. While he remained inside the vehicle, less-lethal tactics were deployed in an effort to gain compliance. 

Richardson was later located inside the vehicle with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Pratt County EMS initiated lifesaving measures. Mr. Richardson was transported by ambulance to Pratt Regional Medical Center, where he later succumbed to his injuries.

Richardson had been listed as a registered offender following a drug distribution conviction in Crawford County in 2015, according to the KBI Offender Registry. He has previous convictions for theft, violation of the offender registration act and for various illegal drug violations, according to the Kansas Dept. of Corrections.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2026/2/1771707087358.png" alt="Richardson photo KBI Offender Registry" />
 <figcaption>Richardson photo KBI Offender Registry</figcaption>
 </figure>RENO COUNTY —Law enforcement are investigating a woman's death and the death of a Kansas registered offender accused of her death.On February 20th, 2026, at approximately 8:19 P.M., officers with the Hutchinson Police Department were dispatched to the 800 block of West 4th Avenue in reference to a reported shooting, according to a media release from Hutchinson Police.When they arrived, officers located a woman later identified as 37-year-old Lacy D Nelson of Hutchinson, with multiple gunshot wounds. Officers immediately began rendering first aid until Reno County EMS arrived on scene. She was transported by ambulance to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center, where she later succumbed to her injuries.During the investigation, Curtis E Richardson, age 49 of Hutchinson, was identified as a person of interest. Just before 9:30p.m., a statewide BOLO was issued for Richardson.Just after 7a.m. Saturday, Pratt County Kansas Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to Preston, Kansas, in reference to a reported robbery. The victim reported that a man forced entry into her residence and took her vehicle without permissionWhile en route, a Pratt County Sheriff’s Office deputy located the reported stolen vehicle traveling southbound on K61 Highway in Pratt County. The deputy attempted to initiate a traffic stop; however, the driver, later identified as Richardson, refused to stop, and a vehicle pursuit ensued. During the pursuit, the stolen vehicle left the roadway and drove into a field near NE 30th Avenue and NE 20th Street in Pratt County, where it became stuck. The Pratt County Sheriff’s Office deputy maintained scene security until additional units arrived.The Pratt County Sheriff’s Office Special Response Team (SRT) responded to the scene. Richardson refused to exit his vehicle despite multiple clear commands from the Pratt County Sheriff’s Office and continued efforts by the SRT negotiator. While he remained inside the vehicle, less-lethal tactics were deployed in an effort to gain compliance. Richardson was later located inside the vehicle with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Pratt County EMS initiated lifesaving measures. Mr. Richardson was transported by ambulance to Pratt Regional Medical Center, where he later succumbed to his injuries.Richardson had been listed as a registered offender following a drug distribution conviction in Crawford County in 2015, according to the KBI Offender Registry. He has previous convictions for theft, violation of the offender registration act and for various illegal drug violations, according to the Kansas Dept. of Corrections.

Kan. woman and registered offender dead after shooting, police chase

By&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/author/josh-funk">JOSH FUNK</a>

More than 550 commercial driving schools in the U.S. that train truckers and bus drivers must close after investigators found they employed unqualified instructors, failed to adequately test students and had other safety issues, the federal Transportation Department announced this week.

The move marks the Trump administration’s latest effort to improve safety in the trucking industry. And unlike its actions last fall to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/commercial-drivers-license-trucking-california-pennsylvania-96fee86df4f9bfb0ef65af20da878a57">decertify up to 7,500 schools</a>&nbsp;that included&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trucking-duffy-cdl-immigrant-commercial-license-schools-ef4ade6ada39cbbab0c56d14dc9d9d1f">many defunct operations</a>, this latest step is focused on&nbsp;<a href="https://tpr.fmcsa.dot.gov/Provider/InReview" target="_blank">active schools</a>&nbsp;inspectors identified as having significant shortcomings in 1,426 site visits completed in December.

The department has been aggressively going after states that handed out commercial driver’s licenses to immigrants who shouldn’t have qualified for them ever since a fatal crash in August. A truck driver who Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says wasn’t authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fatal-uturn-florida-california-immigration-b2db54aef36c178e2d0bb299f907603d">that killed three people</a>. Other fatal crashes since then, including one in Indiana that killed four earlier this month, have only heightened concerns.

Duffy said 448 schools failed to meet basic safety standards. Inspectors found such deficiencies as employing unqualified instructors, failing to test students’ skills or teach them how to handle hazardous materials and using the wrong equipment to teach drivers. Another 109 schools removed themselves from the registry of schools when they learned inspections were planned.

“American families should have confidence that our school bus and truck drivers are following every letter of the law and that starts with receiving proper training before getting behind the wheel,” Duffy said.

The list of schools officials want to decertify now are generally smaller ones, including a number of programs run by school districts. Five of the bigger, more reputable schools represented by the national Commercial Vehicle Training Association were audited but those all passed.

Jeffery Burkhardt, chair of the national trucking schools group, said established schools welcome the enforcement effort to eliminate bad schools that aren’t meeting the standards. He said these audits mark the first time regulators have enforced the standards for driving schools that were passed in 2022.

“You know, the good players have no problem with it. Absolutely none,” said Burkhardt, who is also is senior director of operations at Ancora, which provides CDL training at colleges, community colleges and companies.

Another 97 schools are currently under investigation for compliance issues.

There has been limited oversight in the past

Part of the industry problem is that schools and trucking companies can essentially self certify themselves when they apply to begin operating, observers note, and questionable operations might not be caught until much later when the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration gets a chance to audit them.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many students were enrolled at these schools that are being decertified or how many graduated with questionable qualifications. A Transportation Department spokeswoman said officials may follow up on those graduates later. Burkhardt said that hopefully most of the unqualified drivers were weeded out before they got on the highway by the skills tests states administer before handing out commercial licenses.

There is steady demand for truck drivers because there is high turnover in the industry, and it has been difficult to attract enough drivers willing to spend days away from home delivering heavy loads. But there is some cushion in the industry right now because there are currently more drivers than needed in the midst of a 10% drop in shipments since 2022 owing to economic uncertainty. Nonetheless, many trucking companies still struggle to find enough well-qualified drivers with clean records.

Trucking industry groups praise the effort

Both the American Trucking Association and the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association praised the decisive action to shut down “sham schools” that aren’t meeting basic safety standards. Todd Spencer, President of the independent owners group, said the reliance of some companies on these questionable schools “fueled a destructive churn” in the industry.

“Rather than fix retention problems and working conditions, some in the industry chose to cut corners and push undertrained drivers onto the road. That approach has undermined safety and devalued the entire trucking profession,” Spencer said.

Besides threatening to withhold federal funding from states that don’t clean up their commercial driver’s license programs, the administration has demanded truck drivers&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/truck-drivers-english-language-required-92c733048e85c34b1822cc4403eaf262">meet English proficiency standards</a>. California is the only state to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/california-commercial-drivers-license-immigrants-funding-a8904a07754ba2a5c8ec9781e6262ec1">lose funding</a>&nbsp;so far with the federal government planning to withhold $160 million.

The Transportation Department is threatening to withhold $128 million from Illinois after the latest state audit announced earlier this week found problems with nearly 20% of the 150 licenses they reviewed. The most common problems uncovered in state audits across the country have been licenses that remained valid long after an immigrant’s authorization to be in the U.S. expired and instances when the states couldn’t show that they checked a driver’s immigration status before giving them a license.

Problems&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/commercial-drivers-license-immigrants-trucking-crash-duffy-c4023a6beac854a5af31d5a8c98040f2">have been found</a>&nbsp;in 10 states so far, including North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, Minnesota, South Dakota and Texas.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/8/1565041802198.jpeg" alt="Image Pixabay" />
 <figcaption>Image Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure>By&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/author/josh-funk">JOSH FUNK</a>More than 550 commercial driving schools in the U.S. that train truckers and bus drivers must close after investigators found they employed unqualified instructors, failed to adequately test students and had other safety issues, the federal Transportation Department announced this week.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">We’re putting the brakes on CDL mills 🛑 Unqualified drivers DO NOT BELONG on our roads, and we’re holding the industry to a higher standard! The buck stops HERE 🇺🇸🚚<a href="https://t.co/wKOnOaLehb">https://t.co/wKOnOaLehb</a>&mdash; Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecDuffy/status/2024227686978076783?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2026</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>The move marks the Trump administration’s latest effort to improve safety in the trucking industry. And unlike its actions last fall to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/commercial-drivers-license-trucking-california-pennsylvania-96fee86df4f9bfb0ef65af20da878a57">decertify up to 7,500 schools</a>&nbsp;that included&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trucking-duffy-cdl-immigrant-commercial-license-schools-ef4ade6ada39cbbab0c56d14dc9d9d1f">many defunct operations</a>, this latest step is focused on&nbsp;<a href="https://tpr.fmcsa.dot.gov/Provider/InReview" target="_blank">active schools</a>&nbsp;inspectors identified as having significant shortcomings in 1,426 site visits completed in December.The department has been aggressively going after states that handed out commercial driver’s licenses to immigrants who shouldn’t have qualified for them ever since a fatal crash in August. A truck driver who Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says wasn’t authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fatal-uturn-florida-california-immigration-b2db54aef36c178e2d0bb299f907603d">that killed three people</a>. Other fatal crashes since then, including one in Indiana that killed four earlier this month, have only heightened concerns.Duffy said 448 schools failed to meet basic safety standards. Inspectors found such deficiencies as employing unqualified instructors, failing to test students’ skills or teach them how to handle hazardous materials and using the wrong equipment to teach drivers. Another 109 schools removed themselves from the registry of schools when they learned inspections were planned.“American families should have confidence that our school bus and truck drivers are following every letter of the law and that starts with receiving proper training before getting behind the wheel,” Duffy said.<h2>Established schools welcome the effort</h2>The list of schools officials want to decertify now are generally smaller ones, including a number of programs run by school districts. Five of the bigger, more reputable schools represented by the national Commercial Vehicle Training Association were audited but those all passed.Jeffery Burkhardt, chair of the national trucking schools group, said established schools welcome the enforcement effort to eliminate bad schools that aren’t meeting the standards. He said these audits mark the first time regulators have enforced the standards for driving schools that were passed in 2022.“You know, the good players have no problem with it. Absolutely none,” said Burkhardt, who is also is senior director of operations at Ancora, which provides CDL training at colleges, community colleges and companies.Another 97 schools are currently under investigation for compliance issues.<h2>There has been limited oversight in the past</h2>Part of the industry problem is that schools and trucking companies can essentially self certify themselves when they apply to begin operating, observers note, and questionable operations might not be caught until much later when the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration gets a chance to audit them.It wasn’t immediately clear how many students were enrolled at these schools that are being decertified or how many graduated with questionable qualifications. A Transportation Department spokeswoman said officials may follow up on those graduates later. Burkhardt said that hopefully most of the unqualified drivers were weeded out before they got on the highway by the skills tests states administer before handing out commercial licenses.There is steady demand for truck drivers because there is high turnover in the industry, and it has been difficult to attract enough drivers willing to spend days away from home delivering heavy loads. But there is some cushion in the industry right now because there are currently more drivers than needed in the midst of a 10% drop in shipments since 2022 owing to economic uncertainty. Nonetheless, many trucking companies still struggle to find enough well-qualified drivers with clean records.<h2>Trucking industry groups praise the effort</h2>Both the American Trucking Association and the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association praised the decisive action to shut down “sham schools” that aren’t meeting basic safety standards. Todd Spencer, President of the independent owners group, said the reliance of some companies on these questionable schools “fueled a destructive churn” in the industry.“Rather than fix retention problems and working conditions, some in the industry chose to cut corners and push undertrained drivers onto the road. That approach has undermined safety and devalued the entire trucking profession,” Spencer said.Besides threatening to withhold federal funding from states that don’t clean up their commercial driver’s license programs, the administration has demanded truck drivers&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/truck-drivers-english-language-required-92c733048e85c34b1822cc4403eaf262">meet English proficiency standards</a>. California is the only state to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/california-commercial-drivers-license-immigrants-funding-a8904a07754ba2a5c8ec9781e6262ec1">lose funding</a>&nbsp;so far with the federal government planning to withhold $160 million.The Transportation Department is threatening to withhold $128 million from Illinois after the latest state audit announced earlier this week found problems with nearly 20% of the 150 licenses they reviewed. The most common problems uncovered in state audits across the country have been licenses that remained valid long after an immigrant’s authorization to be in the U.S. expired and instances when the states couldn’t show that they checked a driver’s immigration status before giving them a license.Problems&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/commercial-drivers-license-immigrants-trucking-crash-duffy-c4023a6beac854a5af31d5a8c98040f2">have been found</a>&nbsp;in 10 states so far, including North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, Minnesota, South Dakota and Texas.

DOT: Hundreds of driving schools must close over safety failures

By:&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/tim-carpenter/">Tim Carpenter</a> <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2025/02/24/gov-laura-kelly-skeptical-kansas-houses-anti-tenure-legislation-will-reach-her-desk/">Kansas Reflector</a>

Complex legislation two years in the making addresses market dominance of PBMs

TOPEKA — A bipartisan majority in the Kansas Senate passed a complex bill increasing state oversight of prescription drug middlemen companies accused of manipulating lax regulations to promote anti-competitive practices, monopolize the market for maximum profit, undermine local pharmacies and raise costs for consumers.

Thirty-five states have taken legislative steps to intensify regulation of pharmacy benefit managers that were created to work with drug manufacturers to lower costs for health insurance plans, pharmacies and customers. Advocates of reform asserted PBMs — CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and OptumRx control 80% of the U.S. market — stepped away from this fiduciary role and took command of the prescription drug market by negotiating mostly on their own behalf.

Under&nbsp;<a href="https://kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/documents/supp_note_sb360_02_0000.pdf" target="_blank">Senate Bill 360</a>, which advocates spent two years writing, the state insurance commissioner would have more tools to regulate PBMs in Kansas.

The bill would require transparency from PBMs in terms of pharmacy reimbursement and drug pricing. It would deal with PBMs giving their own retailers better deals by requiring all Kansas pharmacies to be reimbursed at or above the National Average Drug Acquisition Cost. A pharmacy dispensing fee would be implemented to better cover costs incurred by local or independent pharmacies, especially in rural communities.

Sen. Brenda Dietrich, a Topeka Republican who carried the bill on the Senate floor, said the time had come for Kansas to answer persistent complaints about pharmacy benefit companies operating in Kansas.

“I feel like this is a bit of a David versus Goliath situation with hometown pharmacies versus billion-dollar PBMs,” Dietrich said. “We’ve just got to stop feeding the beast. The imbalance of power and wealth is inherently unfair and frightening. SB 360 is about saving local pharmacies, fairness and transparency.”

Dietrich highlighted the harm of “spread pricing” in which PBMs charged health plans or insurers more for prescription drugs than PBMs paid a dispensing pharmacy. The PBMs simply retained the difference as profit, she said. The senator referred to spread pricing as “a big black box used by the PBMs to siphon millions from plans and patients with no actual benefit to the plan or patients.”

The bill addressed another state regulatory failing — PBMs have gotten away with auditing pharmacies but refused to allow auditing of their operations, Dietrich said.

“The PBMs are watching out for their exorbitant profit margins,” she said. “They are overcharging our health plans with hidden fees and costs through price spreading, keeping rebates and not reimbursing your local hometown pharmacies as much as they reimburse their own brick-and-mortar pharmacies or their mail-order pharmacies.”

Dietrich said Kansas was so far behind the PBM reform movement that even the federal government approved changes to the industry that would take effect in 2028 and 2029.

Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa, said she welcomed the state Senate legislation because&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2026/02/10/kansas-pharmacists-fight-for-better-oversight-of-pharmacy-middleman-companies/">Kansas pharmacies are struggling</a>&nbsp;to keep their doors open and patients are unable to afford high prices for medications.

“Gigantic insurance monopolies are controlling every aspect of our health care system and they’re using their power to increase costs and eliminate competition,” she said.

The Senate bill was backed by pharmacies in Hoisington, Wichita, Downs, El Dorado, Galena, Winfield, Hesston, Hillsboro, Humboldt, Lawrence, Junction City, Coldwater, Mankato, Holton, Basehor, Phillipsburg, Mulvane, Oakley, Scott City and Baxter Springs. It was endorsed by Hy-Vee, Walgreens, the Independent Pharmacy Association of Kansas, the Kansas Hospital Association as well as individual pharmacists, pharmacy students and consumers.

The bill was derided by PBMs, including Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, as well as the Kansas Bankers Association and the Kansas Chamber because it could drive up the cost of health insurance.

“I fear this bill doesn’t consider the full potential cost shifting that will happen,” said Sen. Mike Thompson, R-Shawnee.

He echoed the message of BCBS of Kansas lobbyist Sarah Fertig, who said the bill incorrectly assumed business issues confronting Kansas pharmacies were the fault of PBMs. She said the bill would increase drug prices for Kansas consumers, but that assertion was criticized by the bill’s proponents.

“The reality is that making Kansans pay more for prescription drugs will not guarantee that all independent pharmacies can stay afloat,” she said. “Consumer choice, population shifts and other players in the drug distribution chain are more impactful to a pharmacy’s success.”

The legislation was approved Wednesday&nbsp;<a href="https://kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/vote_view/je_20260218181550_042722/" target="_blank">on a vote of 32-8</a>&nbsp;and sent to the Kansas House. The Senate rejected amendments beneficial to PBMs. The measure included an amendment from Sen. Kellie Warren, R-Leawood, to forbid sharing protected, personal health information with the state insurance commissioner.

Sen. Beverly Gossage, the Eudora Republican, said PBM reform was the responsibility of Congress rather than state legislatures. She offered an amendment to remove a requirement that pharmacies receive a $10.50 prescription processing fee. Currently, local pharmacies were paid a fraction of the actual cost of handling prescriptions through PBMs.

Dietrich, the Topeka Republican, said about 20 states had a comparable fee to balance those business transactions.

Gossage’s amendment was blocked by the bipartisan majority, but the concept was supported by Sen. Jeff Klemp, R-Lansing, and Sen. TJ Rose, R-Olathe. It was Rose who said he supported the idea of deleting the “pill tax” fee, while Klemp said the Legislature needed to err on the side of fiscal responsibility when regulating PBMs.

“The government has no role in ensuring one private industry profits over another,” Klemp said. “The key to this is no other Kansas statute requires a business to pay another a fixed fee. We’re moving into uncharted waters.”

Klemp and others seeking to weaken the PBM bill found themselves facing a tidal wave of opposition from their Republican and Democratic brethren.

“Personally, my own pharmacy was closed because of PBMs and I’m sick of it,” said Sen. Bill Clifford, a Garden City Republican with 138 small pharmacies in his Senate district.

GOP Sen. Michael Murphy of Sylvia said he considered attempts to diminish the bill nothing more than a “PBM enrichment amendment.”

“It’s time to stop out-of-state middlemen companies and corporations from starving our pharmacists, especially our Main Street pharmacists,” said Sen. Caryn Tyson, R-Parker.

Sen. Stephen Owens, R-Hesston, said the Senate bill should be placed in law despite the instinct to avoid government intrusion into the economy. He said PBMs operating in Kansas were “playing favorites” and placed local pharmacies at a heavy disadvantage.

“When the free market is no longer free, we as a government have got to step in,” Owens said.

He said Gossage was wrong to expect the federal government to promptly address the long list of shortcomings in the PBM-dominated drug market.

“If we’ve learned anything, it is we cannot have faith in our federal government to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done,” Owens said.

Sen. Scott Hill, R-Abilene, piled on. He said the rise of PBMs was destroying local pharmacies that were more to communities than places to pick up a prescription. He said anyone embracing the PBM model was naive.

“This is about price fixing,” he said. “This is about charging me, for my cancer drugs, $14,000 for a drug that costs $750. This is about gouging and increasing prices.”

He said more than 250 years ago colonists in America objected to a British company’s monopoly on tea.

“Pharmaceuticals have become the tea of our generation,” Hill said. “We have much to do on pharmacy reform as well as health care reform in general. This bill is a start, not an end.”

The bill was expected to receive a committee hearing in the House, but passage could be complicated given House Speaker Dan Hawkins of Wichita is a GOP candidate for state insurance commissioner.

Sen. Tim Shallenburger, a Baxter Springs Republican who worked for two years on drafting the bill, said the Legislature needed to push back against PBMs, including the PBM operated by BCBS of Kansas.

“This a terrible system we have,” Shallenburger said. “It’s not just transparency. We’re looking for equity. There is no reason a PBM should direct my benefit to an out-of-state pharmacy, pay them more money than they’re paying the Walker Pharmacy at home. It’s just not fair.”

He praised Senate President Ty Masterson and Senate Majority Leader Chase Blasi, both Republicans, for allowing the bill to come to the Senate floor for debate. Masterson and Blasi were among the eight GOP senators voting against the measure.

“Many times in this building good ideas don’t have a chance of a hearing. If they do have a hearing, they don’t have a vote,” Shallenburger said. “I hope the body across the rotunda takes the opportunity to have a hearing and a vote on this bill.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2026/2/1771619907456.png" alt=" Sen. Brenda Dietrich, R-Topeka, is a leading advocate of a Kansas Senate bill that seeks to bring greater state regulation to pharmacy benefit managers operating in Kansas. She says the measure, passed 32-8 by the Senate, is crafted to deliver transparency to PBMs and address the "unfair and frightening" power of PBMs over local pharmacies in Kansas. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption> Sen. Brenda Dietrich, R-Topeka, is a leading advocate of a Kansas Senate bill that seeks to bring greater state regulation to pharmacy benefit managers operating in Kansas. She says the measure, passed 32-8 by the Senate, is crafted to deliver transparency to PBMs and address the "unfair and frightening" power of PBMs over local pharmacies in Kansas. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>By:&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/tim-carpenter/">Tim Carpenter</a> <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2025/02/24/gov-laura-kelly-skeptical-kansas-houses-anti-tenure-legislation-will-reach-her-desk/">Kansas Reflector</a><h2>Complex legislation two years in the making addresses market dominance of PBMs</h2>TOPEKA — A bipartisan majority in the Kansas Senate passed a complex bill increasing state oversight of prescription drug middlemen companies accused of manipulating lax regulations to promote anti-competitive practices, monopolize the market for maximum profit, undermine local pharmacies and raise costs for consumers.Thirty-five states have taken legislative steps to intensify regulation of pharmacy benefit managers that were created to work with drug manufacturers to lower costs for health insurance plans, pharmacies and customers. Advocates of reform asserted PBMs — CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and OptumRx control 80% of the U.S. market — stepped away from this fiduciary role and took command of the prescription drug market by negotiating mostly on their own behalf.Under&nbsp;<a href="https://kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/documents/supp_note_sb360_02_0000.pdf" target="_blank">Senate Bill 360</a>, which advocates spent two years writing, the state insurance commissioner would have more tools to regulate PBMs in Kansas.The bill would require transparency from PBMs in terms of pharmacy reimbursement and drug pricing. It would deal with PBMs giving their own retailers better deals by requiring all Kansas pharmacies to be reimbursed at or above the National Average Drug Acquisition Cost. A pharmacy dispensing fee would be implemented to better cover costs incurred by local or independent pharmacies, especially in rural communities.Sen. Brenda Dietrich, a Topeka Republican who carried the bill on the Senate floor, said the time had come for Kansas to answer persistent complaints about pharmacy benefit companies operating in Kansas.“I feel like this is a bit of a David versus Goliath situation with hometown pharmacies versus billion-dollar PBMs,” Dietrich said. “We’ve just got to stop feeding the beast. The imbalance of power and wealth is inherently unfair and frightening. SB 360 is about saving local pharmacies, fairness and transparency.”Dietrich highlighted the harm of “spread pricing” in which PBMs charged health plans or insurers more for prescription drugs than PBMs paid a dispensing pharmacy. The PBMs simply retained the difference as profit, she said. The senator referred to spread pricing as “a big black box used by the PBMs to siphon millions from plans and patients with no actual benefit to the plan or patients.”The bill addressed another state regulatory failing — PBMs have gotten away with auditing pharmacies but refused to allow auditing of their operations, Dietrich said.“The PBMs are watching out for their exorbitant profit margins,” she said. “They are overcharging our health plans with hidden fees and costs through price spreading, keeping rebates and not reimbursing your local hometown pharmacies as much as they reimburse their own brick-and-mortar pharmacies or their mail-order pharmacies.”Dietrich said Kansas was so far behind the PBM reform movement that even the federal government approved changes to the industry that would take effect in 2028 and 2029.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2026/2/1771619861473.png" alt="Hundreds of pharmacists from across Kansas descend on the Kansas Capitol on Feb. 4, 2026, to support a Kansas Senate bill that advocates are convinced will give state officials more tools to to regulate pharmacy benefit managers. The bill was approved Wednesday by the Senate and forwarded to the Kansas House. (Photo by Morgan Chilson/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Hundreds of pharmacists from across Kansas descend on the Kansas Capitol on Feb. 4, 2026, to support a Kansas Senate bill that advocates are convinced will give state officials more tools to to regulate pharmacy benefit managers. The bill was approved Wednesday by the Senate and forwarded to the Kansas House. (Photo by Morgan Chilson/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Grassroots uprising</h2>Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa, said she welcomed the state Senate legislation because&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2026/02/10/kansas-pharmacists-fight-for-better-oversight-of-pharmacy-middleman-companies/">Kansas pharmacies are struggling</a>&nbsp;to keep their doors open and patients are unable to afford high prices for medications.“Gigantic insurance monopolies are controlling every aspect of our health care system and they’re using their power to increase costs and eliminate competition,” she said.The Senate bill was backed by pharmacies in Hoisington, Wichita, Downs, El Dorado, Galena, Winfield, Hesston, Hillsboro, Humboldt, Lawrence, Junction City, Coldwater, Mankato, Holton, Basehor, Phillipsburg, Mulvane, Oakley, Scott City and Baxter Springs. It was endorsed by Hy-Vee, Walgreens, the Independent Pharmacy Association of Kansas, the Kansas Hospital Association as well as individual pharmacists, pharmacy students and consumers.The bill was derided by PBMs, including Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, as well as the Kansas Bankers Association and the Kansas Chamber because it could drive up the cost of health insurance.“I fear this bill doesn’t consider the full potential cost shifting that will happen,” said Sen. Mike Thompson, R-Shawnee.He echoed the message of BCBS of Kansas lobbyist Sarah Fertig, who said the bill incorrectly assumed business issues confronting Kansas pharmacies were the fault of PBMs. She said the bill would increase drug prices for Kansas consumers, but that assertion was criticized by the bill’s proponents.“The reality is that making Kansans pay more for prescription drugs will not guarantee that all independent pharmacies can stay afloat,” she said. “Consumer choice, population shifts and other players in the drug distribution chain are more impactful to a pharmacy’s success.”The legislation was approved Wednesday&nbsp;<a href="https://kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/vote_view/je_20260218181550_042722/" target="_blank">on a vote of 32-8</a>&nbsp;and sent to the Kansas House. The Senate rejected amendments beneficial to PBMs. The measure included an amendment from Sen. Kellie Warren, R-Leawood, to forbid sharing protected, personal health information with the state insurance commissioner.<h2>‘I’m sick of it’</h2>Sen. Beverly Gossage, the Eudora Republican, said PBM reform was the responsibility of Congress rather than state legislatures. She offered an amendment to remove a requirement that pharmacies receive a $10.50 prescription processing fee. Currently, local pharmacies were paid a fraction of the actual cost of handling prescriptions through PBMs.Dietrich, the Topeka Republican, said about 20 states had a comparable fee to balance those business transactions.Gossage’s amendment was blocked by the bipartisan majority, but the concept was supported by Sen. Jeff Klemp, R-Lansing, and Sen. TJ Rose, R-Olathe. It was Rose who said he supported the idea of deleting the “pill tax” fee, while Klemp said the Legislature needed to err on the side of fiscal responsibility when regulating PBMs.“The government has no role in ensuring one private industry profits over another,” Klemp said. “The key to this is no other Kansas statute requires a business to pay another a fixed fee. We’re moving into uncharted waters.”Klemp and others seeking to weaken the PBM bill found themselves facing a tidal wave of opposition from their Republican and Democratic brethren.“Personally, my own pharmacy was closed because of PBMs and I’m sick of it,” said Sen. Bill Clifford, a Garden City Republican with 138 small pharmacies in his Senate district.GOP Sen. Michael Murphy of Sylvia said he considered attempts to diminish the bill nothing more than a “PBM enrichment amendment.”“It’s time to stop out-of-state middlemen companies and corporations from starving our pharmacists, especially our Main Street pharmacists,” said Sen. Caryn Tyson, R-Parker.<h2>Free market collapse</h2>Sen. Stephen Owens, R-Hesston, said the Senate bill should be placed in law despite the instinct to avoid government intrusion into the economy. He said PBMs operating in Kansas were “playing favorites” and placed local pharmacies at a heavy disadvantage.“When the free market is no longer free, we as a government have got to step in,” Owens said.He said Gossage was wrong to expect the federal government to promptly address the long list of shortcomings in the PBM-dominated drug market.“If we’ve learned anything, it is we cannot have faith in our federal government to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done,” Owens said.Sen. Scott Hill, R-Abilene, piled on. He said the rise of PBMs was destroying local pharmacies that were more to communities than places to pick up a prescription. He said anyone embracing the PBM model was naive.“This is about price fixing,” he said. “This is about charging me, for my cancer drugs, $14,000 for a drug that costs $750. This is about gouging and increasing prices.”He said more than 250 years ago colonists in America objected to a British company’s monopoly on tea.“Pharmaceuticals have become the tea of our generation,” Hill said. “We have much to do on pharmacy reform as well as health care reform in general. This bill is a start, not an end.”<h2>‘Just not fair’</h2>The bill was expected to receive a committee hearing in the House, but passage could be complicated given House Speaker Dan Hawkins of Wichita is a GOP candidate for state insurance commissioner.Sen. Tim Shallenburger, a Baxter Springs Republican who worked for two years on drafting the bill, said the Legislature needed to push back against PBMs, including the PBM operated by BCBS of Kansas.“This a terrible system we have,” Shallenburger said. “It’s not just transparency. We’re looking for equity. There is no reason a PBM should direct my benefit to an out-of-state pharmacy, pay them more money than they’re paying the Walker Pharmacy at home. It’s just not fair.”He praised Senate President Ty Masterson and Senate Majority Leader Chase Blasi, both Republicans, for allowing the bill to come to the Senate floor for debate. Masterson and Blasi were among the eight GOP senators voting against the measure.“Many times in this building good ideas don’t have a chance of a hearing. If they do have a hearing, they don’t have a vote,” Shallenburger said. “I hope the body across the rotunda takes the opportunity to have a hearing and a vote on this bill.”

Kansas Senate plunges ahead with bipartisan bill targeting prescription drug middlemen

By&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/author/michelle-l-price">MICHELLE L. PRICE</a>

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday that he was raising the global tariff he wants to impose to 15%, up from 10% he had announced a day earlier.

Trump said in a social media post that he was making the decision “Based on a thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued yesterday,” by the U.S. Supreme Court.

After the court ruled he didn’t have the emergency power to impost many sweeping tariffs, Trump signed an executive order on Friday night that enabled him to bypass Congress and impose a 10% tax on imports from around the world. The catch is that those tariffs would be limited to just 150 days, unless they are extended legislatively.

Trump’s post significantly ratcheting up a global tax on imports to the U.S. yet again was the latest sign that despite the court’s check, the Republican president was intent on continuing to wield in an unpredictable manner his favorite tool to for the economy and to apply global pressure. Trump’s shifting announcements over the last year that he was raising and sometimes lowering tariffs with little notice jolted markets and rattled nations.

Under the order Trump signed Friday night, the 10% tariff was scheduled to take effect starting Feb. 24. The White House did not immediately respond to a message inquiring when the president would sign an updated order.

In addition to the temporary tariffs that Trump wants to set at 15%, the president said Friday that he was also pursuing tariffs through other sections of federal law which require an investigation by the Commerce Department.

By&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/author/michelle-l-price">MICHELLE L. PRICE</a>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday that he was raising the global tariff he wants to impose to 15%, up from 10% he had announced a day earlier.Trump said in a social media post that he was making the decision “Based on a thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued yesterday,” by the U.S. Supreme Court.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><a href="https://t.co/PwhYmplV3z">pic.twitter.com/PwhYmplV3z</a>&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/2025243382612738548?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 21, 2026</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Keep calm. <a href="https://t.co/Mj5ptXqPxT">pic.twitter.com/Mj5ptXqPxT</a>&mdash; The White House (@WhiteHouse) <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/2024989115800764736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 20, 2026</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>After the court ruled he didn’t have the emergency power to impost many sweeping tariffs, Trump signed an executive order on Friday night that enabled him to bypass Congress and impose a 10% tax on imports from around the world. The catch is that those tariffs would be limited to just 150 days, unless they are extended legislatively.Trump’s post significantly ratcheting up a global tax on imports to the U.S. yet again was the latest sign that despite the court’s check, the Republican president was intent on continuing to wield in an unpredictable manner his favorite tool to for the economy and to apply global pressure. Trump’s shifting announcements over the last year that he was raising and sometimes lowering tariffs with little notice jolted markets and rattled nations.Under the order Trump signed Friday night, the 10% tariff was scheduled to take effect starting Feb. 24. The White House did not immediately respond to a message inquiring when the president would sign an updated order.In addition to the temporary tariffs that Trump wants to set at 15%, the president said Friday that he was also pursuing tariffs through other sections of federal law which require an investigation by the Commerce Department.

President Trump to impose 15% tariff, up from 10% he announced after Supreme Court decision

Authorities trying to solve the disappearance of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/savannah-guthrie">Nancy Guthrie</a>&nbsp;say they might tap DNA genealogy databases, the same step that police took to unravel a decades-old series of murders in California and the fatal stabbings of four college students in Idaho.

The strategy could be fruitful: If unidentified DNA evidence can be connected to someone — even a distant relative — in a common genealogy database, it would give investigators more information and possibly lead to a suspect in Guthrie’s kidnapping in Arizona.

“It’s a fantastic tool,” said Ruth Ballard, a geneticist in California who specializes in DNA and has testified in hundreds of court cases. “If it’s a good quality sample and they’re able to get a profile, they could find a hit on that fairly quickly.”

The sheriff's department in Pima County, Arizona, said&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nancy-guthrie-missing-savannah-guthrie-aadbb20a613491c10373f55ba33d1831">DNA collected so far</a>&nbsp;in the investigation has not turned up any matches in a national criminal justice database known as CODIS, which has DNA profiles from convicted criminals and, in some states, people arrested for certain crimes.

“Investigators are currently looking into additional investigative genetic genealogy options for DNA evidence to check for matches. CODIS is one option of many databases that are available,” the sheriff's department said Tuesday.

The department said Wednesday that biological evidence from Guthrie's Tucson-area home was being examined and that DNA profiles were at a lab for analysis.

Guthrie, the mother of NBC “Today” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, has been missing from her home since Feb. 1. The FBI said gloves found about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) away appeared to match those worn by a masked suspect who was recorded on a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nancy-guthrie-nest-camera-footage-kidnapper-bd5f1d886543e23f2d105535031c9445">porch camera</a>.

Genealogy sites Ancestry, 23andMe and MyHeritage say they can be asked to comply with court orders seeking information. Another site, GEDmatch, said its policy is to ask users if they want to opt in to allow police to look at their data. The Associated Press e-mailed the companies, asking if they have a role in the Guthrie investigation.

GEDmatch has been credited with helping solve the case of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-news-ca-state-wire-us-news-08a241b485d1d7be03f62293e2da3277">so-called Golden State Killer</a>. Police used DNA from crime scenes to find a distant relative and build a family tree that led to Joseph DeAngelo Jr. In 2020, he pleaded guilty to 13 killings and dozens of rapes in California in the 1970s and '80s. He is serving life in prison without possibility of parole.

Barbara Rae-Venter, an expert genealogist who worked on the DeAngelo case, said patience often is needed in high-tech sleuthing.

“I’ve solved cases in less than eight hours where people shared a lot of DNA with the suspect. Other cases, you’re still working on them two years later. This could take awhile,” Rae-Venter told CNN, referring to the Guthrie effort.

In Idaho, DNA from a knife sheath helped point to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/video/bryan-kohberger-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-without-parole-for-murdering-4-idaho-students-a5e895b16155474ea89d258bf450a84d">Bryan Kohberger</a>&nbsp;in the killings of four University of Idaho students in 2022. Investigators used genealogy sites to build a family tree and pulled trash from the Pennsylvania home of Kohberger's parents to make a connection. Kohberger pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.

Ballard said the source and quality of the DNA evidence held by police can be factors when trying to find matches on genealogy sites.

“It does require a much better sample than CODIS searching does,” she said.

“There are a lot of unknowns when you go into these databases,” Ballard said. “The databases are not equal in terms of ethnic distribution. It’s comparatively easier to find a Caucasian because more have uploaded their data and there are more family trees to mine.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2026/2/1770749564250.png" alt=" " />
 <figcaption> </figcaption>
 </figure>By ED WHITE &nbsp;Associated PressAuthorities trying to solve the disappearance of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/savannah-guthrie">Nancy Guthrie</a>&nbsp;say they might tap DNA genealogy databases, the same step that police took to unravel a decades-old series of murders in California and the fatal stabbings of four college students in Idaho.The strategy could be fruitful: If unidentified DNA evidence can be connected to someone — even a distant relative — in a common genealogy database, it would give investigators more information and possibly lead to a suspect in Guthrie’s kidnapping in Arizona.“It’s a fantastic tool,” said Ruth Ballard, a geneticist in California who specializes in DNA and has testified in hundreds of court cases. “If it’s a good quality sample and they’re able to get a profile, they could find a hit on that fairly quickly.”The sheriff's department in Pima County, Arizona, said&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nancy-guthrie-missing-savannah-guthrie-aadbb20a613491c10373f55ba33d1831">DNA collected so far</a>&nbsp;in the investigation has not turned up any matches in a national criminal justice database known as CODIS, which has DNA profiles from convicted criminals and, in some states, people arrested for certain crimes.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2026/2/1770737956751.png" alt="Billboard in Texas -photo courtesy KVUE" />
 <figcaption>Billboard in Texas -photo courtesy KVUE</figcaption>
 </figure>“Investigators are currently looking into additional investigative genetic genealogy options for DNA evidence to check for matches. CODIS is one option of many databases that are available,” the sheriff's department said Tuesday.The department said Wednesday that biological evidence from Guthrie's Tucson-area home was being examined and that DNA profiles were at a lab for analysis.Guthrie, the mother of NBC “Today” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, has been missing from her home since Feb. 1. The FBI said gloves found about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) away appeared to match those worn by a masked suspect who was recorded on a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nancy-guthrie-nest-camera-footage-kidnapper-bd5f1d886543e23f2d105535031c9445">porch camera</a>.Genealogy sites Ancestry, 23andMe and MyHeritage say they can be asked to comply with court orders seeking information. Another site, GEDmatch, said its policy is to ask users if they want to opt in to allow police to look at their data. The Associated Press e-mailed the companies, asking if they have a role in the Guthrie investigation.GEDmatch has been credited with helping solve the case of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-news-ca-state-wire-us-news-08a241b485d1d7be03f62293e2da3277">so-called Golden State Killer</a>. Police used DNA from crime scenes to find a distant relative and build a family tree that led to Joseph DeAngelo Jr. In 2020, he pleaded guilty to 13 killings and dozens of rapes in California in the 1970s and '80s. He is serving life in prison without possibility of parole.Barbara Rae-Venter, an expert genealogist who worked on the DeAngelo case, said patience often is needed in high-tech sleuthing.“I’ve solved cases in less than eight hours where people shared a lot of DNA with the suspect. Other cases, you’re still working on them two years later. This could take awhile,” Rae-Venter told CNN, referring to the Guthrie effort.In Idaho, DNA from a knife sheath helped point to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/video/bryan-kohberger-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-without-parole-for-murdering-4-idaho-students-a5e895b16155474ea89d258bf450a84d">Bryan Kohberger</a>&nbsp;in the killings of four University of Idaho students in 2022. Investigators used genealogy sites to build a family tree and pulled trash from the Pennsylvania home of Kohberger's parents to make a connection. Kohberger pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.Ballard said the source and quality of the DNA evidence held by police can be factors when trying to find matches on genealogy sites.“It does require a much better sample than CODIS searching does,” she said.And there can be other hurdles.“There are a lot of unknowns when you go into these databases,” Ballard said. “The databases are not equal in terms of ethnic distribution. It’s comparatively easier to find a Caucasian because more have uploaded their data and there are more family trees to mine.”