WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department special counsel investigating&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-812ef44a5333f6d93423a67a683fa024">President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents</a>&nbsp;has completed his inquiry and a report is expected to be made public soon to Congress and the public, Attorney General Merrick Garland told lawmakers in a letter Wednesday.

Garland did not detail the conclusions of the report from special counsel Robert Hur, but said he was committed to disclosing as much of the document as possible once the White House completes a review for potential executive privilege concerns. That process is expected to be completed by the end of the week, said Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House counsel's office.

The yearlong investigation centered on the improper retention of classified documents by Biden from his time as a U.S. senator and as vice president. Sensitive records were found at his Delaware home and at a private office that he used in between his service in the Obama administration and becoming president.

The resolution of the investigation arrives in a pivotal year for the president&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-election-2024-president-democrats-trump-9c72115656855da89a41cac3f79aa65b">as he pursues reelection in a deeply polarized political time</a>. Though the probe's outcome is expected to lift a legal cloud over Biden, criticism of his handling of classified records could blunt his ability to attack Donald Trump — his presumptive opponent in November — over a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-documents-maralago-politics-florida-charges-bee867f48da593d351c5a91e87c356a9">pending indictment charging the former president with hoarding top-secret files at his Mar-a-Lago estate</a>&nbsp;and obstructing FBI efforts to get them back.

Trump and other Republicans are likely to challenge the legitimacy of the investigation by noting that it was launched by the Biden Justice Department.

But Garland&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/classified-documents-biden-home-wilmington-33479d12c7cf0a822adb2f44c32b88fd">sought to insulate the department from claims of bias and conflicts of interest by last year appointing Hur</a>, a former U.S. attorney for Maryland during the Trump administration, to handle the Biden investigation and by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jack-smith-special-counsel-prosecutor-donald-trump-garland-e1fdb71cfc258bc2be48a8b890a9269b">naming a different special counsel, Jack Smith, to oversee investigations into Trump</a>.

While the Trump investigation resulted in dozens of felony charges against the ex-president last year, the outcome of the Biden probe is expected to be different. Justice Department policy prohibits the indictment of a sitting president and, unlike in the Trump investigation, no evidence has emerged to suggest that Biden engaged in comparable conduct or willfully held onto records he wasn’t supposed to have.

Even so, the White House's response to the discovery of classified documents early last year was delayed and incomplete.

The White House did not disclose the Justice Department’s investigation until January 2023,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-812ef44a5333f6d93423a67a683fa024">when it acknowledged the discovery two months earlier</a>&nbsp;of a “small number” of classified documents by Biden lawyers as they closed an office at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank affiliated with the Ivy League school. Biden&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-district-of-columbia-us-department-justice-a45855907a73acb256bb7c4dd5a91610">has said he was surprised</a>&nbsp;by the initial trove discovered by his lawyers.

The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-delaware-0827b59ee141b33af95023377713e075">FBI subsequently conducted a 13-hour, top-to-bottom check of his Wilmington, Delaware, home</a>, where agents located documents with classified markings from his time as a vice president and senator and took possession of some of his handwritten notes. Biden’s personal lawyers have also revealed that they had found a document bearing classified markings&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-united-states-government-district-of-columbia-0574fd762159e8cb5f31c85205df3dc0">while searching the Wilmington property</a>&nbsp;but said they had not found others during a separate inspection of his Rehoboth Beach home.

The looming conclusion of the investigation had been foreshadowed last fall when&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-classified-documents-justice-4c657c8d19e3b1f232952a266eccc9b6">Biden sat for a voluntary interview</a>&nbsp;at the White House with Hur's team. Interviews of key subjects in an investigation are often done near the end.

Justice Department regulations require Congress to be notified of any investigative steps or proposed actions by a special counsel that were rejected by department leadership. There were no such actions, Garland wrote.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/1/1673546739694.png" alt="Biden backing his Corvette into the garage next to stacks of boxes where classified documents were found-image from a 2020 Biden for President campaign ad&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>Biden backing his Corvette into the garage next to stacks of boxes where classified documents were found-image from a 2020 Biden for President campaign ad&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department special counsel investigating&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-812ef44a5333f6d93423a67a683fa024">President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents</a>&nbsp;has completed his inquiry and a report is expected to be made public soon to Congress and the public, Attorney General Merrick Garland told lawmakers in a letter Wednesday.Garland did not detail the conclusions of the report from special counsel Robert Hur, but said he was committed to disclosing as much of the document as possible once the White House completes a review for potential executive privilege concerns. That process is expected to be completed by the end of the week, said Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House counsel's office.The yearlong investigation centered on the improper retention of classified documents by Biden from his time as a U.S. senator and as vice president. Sensitive records were found at his Delaware home and at a private office that he used in between his service in the Obama administration and becoming president.The resolution of the investigation arrives in a pivotal year for the president&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-election-2024-president-democrats-trump-9c72115656855da89a41cac3f79aa65b">as he pursues reelection in a deeply polarized political time</a>. Though the probe's outcome is expected to lift a legal cloud over Biden, criticism of his handling of classified records could blunt his ability to attack Donald Trump — his presumptive opponent in November — over a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-documents-maralago-politics-florida-charges-bee867f48da593d351c5a91e87c356a9">pending indictment charging the former president with hoarding top-secret files at his Mar-a-Lago estate</a>&nbsp;and obstructing FBI efforts to get them back.Trump and other Republicans are likely to challenge the legitimacy of the investigation by noting that it was launched by the Biden Justice Department.But Garland&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/classified-documents-biden-home-wilmington-33479d12c7cf0a822adb2f44c32b88fd">sought to insulate the department from claims of bias and conflicts of interest by last year appointing Hur</a>, a former U.S. attorney for Maryland during the Trump administration, to handle the Biden investigation and by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jack-smith-special-counsel-prosecutor-donald-trump-garland-e1fdb71cfc258bc2be48a8b890a9269b">naming a different special counsel, Jack Smith, to oversee investigations into Trump</a>.While the Trump investigation resulted in dozens of felony charges against the ex-president last year, the outcome of the Biden probe is expected to be different. Justice Department policy prohibits the indictment of a sitting president and, unlike in the Trump investigation, no evidence has emerged to suggest that Biden engaged in comparable conduct or willfully held onto records he wasn’t supposed to have.Even so, the White House's response to the discovery of classified documents early last year was delayed and incomplete.The White House did not disclose the Justice Department’s investigation until January 2023,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-812ef44a5333f6d93423a67a683fa024">when it acknowledged the discovery two months earlier</a>&nbsp;of a “small number” of classified documents by Biden lawyers as they closed an office at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank affiliated with the Ivy League school. Biden&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-district-of-columbia-us-department-justice-a45855907a73acb256bb7c4dd5a91610">has said he was surprised</a>&nbsp;by the initial trove discovered by his lawyers.The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-delaware-0827b59ee141b33af95023377713e075">FBI subsequently conducted a 13-hour, top-to-bottom check of his Wilmington, Delaware, home</a>, where agents located documents with classified markings from his time as a vice president and senator and took possession of some of his handwritten notes. Biden’s personal lawyers have also revealed that they had found a document bearing classified markings&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-united-states-government-district-of-columbia-0574fd762159e8cb5f31c85205df3dc0">while searching the Wilmington property</a>&nbsp;but said they had not found others during a separate inspection of his Rehoboth Beach home.The looming conclusion of the investigation had been foreshadowed last fall when&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-classified-documents-justice-4c657c8d19e3b1f232952a266eccc9b6">Biden sat for a voluntary interview</a>&nbsp;at the White House with Hur's team. Interviews of key subjects in an investigation are often done near the end.Justice Department regulations require Congress to be notified of any investigative steps or proposed actions by a special counsel that were rejected by department leadership. There were no such actions, Garland wrote.

AG: Special counsel has finished Biden classified documents probe

SHAWNEE COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating three suspects on multiple allegations after a hit-and-run crash.

Just after 7 p.m. Monday, police responded to the 2400 block of SW 10th Street where it was alleged that an individual had hit someone with their vehicle and fled the scene, according to Police Lt. Edward Stanley.

 The victim was transported to a local hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries. 

As the investigation continued, two individuals arrived at a local area hospital with non-life threatening gunshot wounds. These individuals were believed to be associated with the hit-and-run in 2400 block of SW 10th Street.

Police located three individuals and took them law enforcement center to speak with detectives.

As a result of the investigation 26-year-old Christopher A. Kuone, 25-year-old Treyvion C. Coplin and 27-year-old&nbsp; Coryon J. Green all of Topeka were transported to the Shawnee County Department of Corrections.

Kuone and Coplin are being held on requested charges of Aggravated Robbery; inflicts bodily harm and Possession of stolen property

Green was jailed on requested charges of Possession of Marijuana, Interference with a Law Enforcement Officer, Failure to stop at accident; injury/damage and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/2/1707260854317.png" alt="Kuone-photo Shawnee Co." />
 <figcaption>Kuone-photo Shawnee Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>SHAWNEE COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating three suspects on multiple allegations after a hit-and-run crash.Just after 7 p.m. Monday, police responded to the 2400 block of SW 10th Street where it was alleged that an individual had hit someone with their vehicle and fled the scene, according to Police Lt. Edward Stanley. The victim was transported to a local hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries. As the investigation continued, two individuals arrived at a local area hospital with non-life threatening gunshot wounds. These individuals were believed to be associated with the hit-and-run in 2400 block of SW 10th Street.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/2/1707260919627.png" alt="Coplin-photo Shawnee Co." />
 <figcaption>Coplin-photo Shawnee Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>Police located three individuals and took them law enforcement center to speak with detectives.As a result of the investigation 26-year-old Christopher A. Kuone, 25-year-old Treyvion C. Coplin and 27-year-old&nbsp; Coryon J. Green all of Topeka were transported to the Shawnee County Department of Corrections.Kuone and Coplin are being held on requested charges of Aggravated Robbery; inflicts bodily harm and Possession of stolen property<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/2/1707261344010.png" alt="Green-photo Shawnee Co." />
 <figcaption>Green-photo Shawnee Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>Green was jailed on requested charges of Possession of Marijuana, Interference with a Law Enforcement Officer, Failure to stop at accident; injury/damage and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.

Police arrest suspects in Kansas hit-and-run shooting 

DOUGLAS COUNTY—A Kansas man has admitted his role in a drug sale death.

On February 2, Randell Mark Smith, 32, of Lawrence, pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter and unlawful distribution of a controlled substance in the fentanyl-related death of a 33-year-old Lawrence man, according to&nbsp;Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez.

The charges stemmed from an incident that occurred in the 1500 block of Pin Oak Drive during the early morning hours on October 8, 2021. Lawrence Police were called to the home where a 33-year-old male resident was found deceased on the living room floor. 

An autopsy later determined fentanyl intoxication as the cause of death. The police investigation then led police to Smith as the distributor of the fentanyl-laced pill taken by the deceased.

Smith also pleaded no contest Friday to driving under the influence, his second offense, in a separate incident that occurred on October 6, 2021, when a Douglas County Sheriff’s Deputy observed Smith driving erratically on E 1900 Road, north of K-10 highway.

“Joining forces with law enforcement, my office is committed to aggressively prosecuting these traffickers to bring them to justice and to save lives,” District Attorney Valdez said. “However, stemming this epidemic requires every person in our community recognize the dangers of fentanyl and understand that one pill can kill.”

DOUGLAS COUNTY—A Kansas man has admitted his role in a drug sale death.On February 2, Randell Mark Smith, 32, of Lawrence, pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter and unlawful distribution of a controlled substance in the fentanyl-related death of a 33-year-old Lawrence man, according to&nbsp;Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez.The charges stemmed from an incident that occurred in the 1500 block of Pin Oak Drive during the early morning hours on October 8, 2021. Lawrence Police were called to the home where a 33-year-old male resident was found deceased on the living room floor. An autopsy later determined fentanyl intoxication as the cause of death. The police investigation then led police to Smith as the distributor of the fentanyl-laced pill taken by the deceased.Smith also pleaded no contest Friday to driving under the influence, his second offense, in a separate incident that occurred on October 6, 2021, when a Douglas County Sheriff’s Deputy observed Smith driving erratically on E 1900 Road, north of K-10 highway.“Joining forces with law enforcement, my office is committed to aggressively prosecuting these traffickers to bring them to justice and to save lives,” District Attorney Valdez said. “However, stemming this epidemic requires every person in our community recognize the dangers of fentanyl and understand that one pill can kill.”

Kansas man admits selling fentanyl that left man dead

BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/rmipro/">RACHEL MIPRO</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/">Kansas Reflector</a>

TOPEKA —&nbsp;Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach returned to the Statehouse to once again urge the Kansas Legislature to ban foreign land purchases in the state under the assumption countries such as China are attempting to spy on and influence the U.S.&nbsp;

The newest attempt to do so,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/measures/sb446/">Senate Bill 446</a>,&nbsp;would ban foreign individual and corporate purchases of three or more acres of land. Foreign land leases would be capped at less than two years.&nbsp;

“We are the only state in the breadbasket that has no prohibition whatsoever, no restriction whatsoever, on foreign nationals and foreign corporations purchasing our land, which means it’s open season,” Kobach said during a Tuesday news conference.

&nbsp;Kobach said the change would also prevent drug cartels from sweeping into the state.&nbsp;

“It’s not just China, it’s also Mexican drug cartels,” Kobach said. “Mexican drug cartels have purchased a huge amount of land in Texas, Oklahoma and California.”

When asked if he could provide any evidence of cartel activity or of foreign entities operating in the state, Kobach said these activities were hard to track and under-reported.&nbsp;

“The Chinese have sought to acquire control for a variety of purposes,” Kobach said.&nbsp; “Some say it’s leverage over the United States, some say it’s just securing their own food supply. And others say it has a secondary purpose of surveillance depending on the location.”&nbsp;

Kobach&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/09/26/kansas-attorney-general-proposes-statewide-limits-on-foreign-ownership-leasing-of-land/">has pushed</a>&nbsp;similar legislation before, though none of the bills gained much traction.&nbsp;

This iteration of the foreign land ban would set up a five-member state land council to review&nbsp; requests for exemptions. The council would have the authority to grant case exceptions. Council members would include the attorney general, the adjutant general, the governor, the secretary of state and the director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, or such members’ designees.&nbsp;

Kansas State Sen. Mike Thompson, who accompanied Kobach to endorse the bill, said the legislation was a “clear-cut way” to protect Kansans while allowing “good” people from other countries to still invest in state land.&nbsp;

Thompson is the chair of the Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs, where the bill is scheduled to be heard Wednesday. With older farmers retiring and young people leaving rural areas, Thompson said these areas are open to outside threats.&nbsp;

“They’re leaving vast areas of the state vulnerable to acquisition by opportunistic bad actors from countries that wish Americans harm,” Thompson said.&nbsp;

While Republicans at a state and federal level have increasingly focused on China as a global threat, with multiple states debating and passing legislation limiting foreign farmland purchases. The actual extent of foreign land ownership remains murky.&nbsp;

One&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.fsa.usda.gov/Assets/USDA-FSA-Public/usdafiles/EPAS/PDF/2022_afida_annual_report_12_20_23.pdf">2022 USDA report</a>&nbsp;puts foreign holdings of U.S. agricultural land at over 43.4 million acres, or 3.4% of all privately held U.S. agricultural land and nearly 2% of all U.S. land. Of this foreign ownership, China held an estimated 346,915 acres, less than 1%, though the report notes that China’s interest could be under-represented due to filing classifications.&nbsp;

Thompson and Kobach both pointed to Cnano&nbsp;Technology USA&nbsp;as an example of local outcomes they hope to prevent.&nbsp;The China-based company plans to locate a $94.7 million manufacturing plant in Johnson County to make liquid conductive paste used in products such as cell phones and vehicle batteries.&nbsp;

Though the county approved the move, others have claimed the company&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2024/01/09/laturner-raises-security-concerns-about-china-based-manufacturer-locating-in-johnson-county/">has subversive ties</a>. U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner, a Republican serving the 2nd District of eastern Kansas, called for a federal investigation into Cnano earlier this month.&nbsp;

During Tuesday’s news conference, Thompson warned against similar moves.&nbsp;

“An insatiable desire for economic development without any vetting process whatsoever for nano at the county level, has led now to Kansas taxpayers supporting a Chinese-owned entity that’s inserted themselves into the industrial supply chain,” Thompson said. “It takes very little imagination to comprehend the dangers of that type of arrangement.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/2/1707343988873.png" alt=" Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach announced a new attempt to ban foreign ownership of Kansas farmland during a Feb. 6, 2024 news conference. (Rachel Mipro/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption> Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach announced a new attempt to ban foreign ownership of Kansas farmland during a Feb. 6, 2024 news conference. (Rachel Mipro/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/rmipro/">RACHEL MIPRO</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/">Kansas Reflector</a>TOPEKA —&nbsp;Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach returned to the Statehouse to once again urge the Kansas Legislature to ban foreign land purchases in the state under the assumption countries such as China are attempting to spy on and influence the U.S.&nbsp;The newest attempt to do so,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/measures/sb446/">Senate Bill 446</a>,&nbsp;would ban foreign individual and corporate purchases of three or more acres of land. Foreign land leases would be capped at less than two years.&nbsp;“We are the only state in the breadbasket that has no prohibition whatsoever, no restriction whatsoever, on foreign nationals and foreign corporations purchasing our land, which means it’s open season,” Kobach said during a Tuesday news conference.&nbsp;Kobach said the change would also prevent drug cartels from sweeping into the state.&nbsp;“It’s not just China, it’s also Mexican drug cartels,” Kobach said. “Mexican drug cartels have purchased a huge amount of land in Texas, Oklahoma and California.”When asked if he could provide any evidence of cartel activity or of foreign entities operating in the state, Kobach said these activities were hard to track and under-reported.&nbsp;“The Chinese have sought to acquire control for a variety of purposes,” Kobach said.&nbsp; “Some say it’s leverage over the United States, some say it’s just securing their own food supply. And others say it has a secondary purpose of surveillance depending on the location.”&nbsp;Kobach&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/09/26/kansas-attorney-general-proposes-statewide-limits-on-foreign-ownership-leasing-of-land/">has pushed</a>&nbsp;similar legislation before, though none of the bills gained much traction.&nbsp;This iteration of the foreign land ban would set up a five-member state land council to review&nbsp; requests for exemptions. The council would have the authority to grant case exceptions. Council members would include the attorney general, the adjutant general, the governor, the secretary of state and the director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, or such members’ designees.&nbsp;Kansas State Sen. Mike Thompson, who accompanied Kobach to endorse the bill, said the legislation was a “clear-cut way” to protect Kansans while allowing “good” people from other countries to still invest in state land.&nbsp;Thompson is the chair of the Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs, where the bill is scheduled to be heard Wednesday. With older farmers retiring and young people leaving rural areas, Thompson said these areas are open to outside threats.&nbsp;“They’re leaving vast areas of the state vulnerable to acquisition by opportunistic bad actors from countries that wish Americans harm,” Thompson said.&nbsp;While Republicans at a state and federal level have increasingly focused on China as a global threat, with multiple states debating and passing legislation limiting foreign farmland purchases. The actual extent of foreign land ownership remains murky.&nbsp;One&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.fsa.usda.gov/Assets/USDA-FSA-Public/usdafiles/EPAS/PDF/2022_afida_annual_report_12_20_23.pdf">2022 USDA report</a>&nbsp;puts foreign holdings of U.S. agricultural land at over 43.4 million acres, or 3.4% of all privately held U.S. agricultural land and nearly 2% of all U.S. land. Of this foreign ownership, China held an estimated 346,915 acres, less than 1%, though the report notes that China’s interest could be under-represented due to filing classifications.&nbsp;Thompson and Kobach both pointed to Cnano&nbsp;Technology USA&nbsp;as an example of local outcomes they hope to prevent.&nbsp;The China-based company plans to locate a $94.7 million manufacturing plant in Johnson County to make liquid conductive paste used in products such as cell phones and vehicle batteries.&nbsp;Though the county approved the move, others have claimed the company&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2024/01/09/laturner-raises-security-concerns-about-china-based-manufacturer-locating-in-johnson-county/">has subversive ties</a>. U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner, a Republican serving the 2nd District of eastern Kansas, called for a federal investigation into Cnano earlier this month.&nbsp;During Tuesday’s news conference, Thompson warned against similar moves.&nbsp;“An insatiable desire for economic development without any vetting process whatsoever for nano at the county level, has led now to Kansas taxpayers supporting a Chinese-owned entity that’s inserted themselves into the industrial supply chain,” Thompson said. “It takes very little imagination to comprehend the dangers of that type of arrangement.”

Kobach asks for ban on foreign land ownership in Kansas, citing dangers from China

WICHITA, KAN. – A federal jury convicted a Kansas man Wednesday on child exploitation charges, according to the United State's Attorney.

The jury found Daniel Kroeker, 49, of Dighton, guilty of receiving child pornography via his social media account in July 2019. 

The jury also found he possessed a laptop and cell phone containing pornographic images of a child under the age of 12 when agents conducted a search in December 2020.

Kroeker is scheduled to be sentenced on April 24, 2024 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison of each count.&nbsp; A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/4/1650402271599.png" alt="Kroeker is being held in Butler Co." />
 <figcaption>Kroeker is being held in Butler Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>WICHITA, KAN. – A federal jury convicted a Kansas man Wednesday on child exploitation charges, according to the United State's Attorney.The jury found Daniel Kroeker, 49, of Dighton, guilty of receiving child pornography via his social media account in July 2019. The jury also found he possessed a laptop and cell phone containing pornographic images of a child under the age of 12 when agents conducted a search in December 2020.Kroeker is scheduled to be sentenced on April 24, 2024 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison of each count.&nbsp; A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors

Western Kan. man faces 20 years in prison for trading child porn

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan border package Wednesday, scuttling months of negotiations with Democrats on legislation intended to cut back record numbers of illegal border crossings.

Many Republicans said the election-year compromise&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-security-bill-ukraine-b386eae0c4947497da931870dbcb28a0">wasn't enough</a>, even as supporters of the bill insisted it was the best possible in divided government.

The 49-50 vote, far short of the 60 ayes needed to take up the bill, came after most Republicans said they&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-security-ukraine-a39e188fa2c6a563203d2c69eaabdc6d">would vote against the legislation,</a>&nbsp;which also includes $60 billion in wartime aid to Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel and was backed by President Joe Biden. GOP lawmakers had insisted that the money for conflicts abroad be paired with help for the U.S. border. Kansas U.S. Senators Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall voted with the majority. Senator Susan Collins of Maine, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Mitt Romney of Utah were the only Republicans who voted to advance.

Forcing the showdown with Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said earlier that he would try to salvage the wartime funding, and would next push ahead on a crucial test vote for tens of billions of dollars for Kyiv, Israel and other U.S. allies — a modified package with the border portion stripped out.

The bipartisan group of senators who negotiated the compromise for the last four months said it was a missed opportunity to try and make some progress toward one of the most intractable issues in American politics.

In a speech on the Senate floor just before the vote, Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma said that it was a chance for the Senate to decide “if we’re going to do nothing, or something.”

“It’s an issue that’s bedevilled, quite frankly, this body for decades,” Lankford said. “It’s been three decades since we’ve passed anything into law to be able to change border security.”

Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona blamed Republicans for not giving the bill a chance.

“Finally, it seemed, we had the opportunity to solve the nightmare my state has lived for over 40 years,” she said.

Four Republicans voted to move forward with the legislation and six Democrats voted against it, some of whom said the border compromise went too far.

It is unclear if enough Republicans will vote to move ahead with the standalone legislation for the wartime aid, which also would need 60 votes in the 51-49 Senate. If it did pass, it would still take days for the Senate to reach a final vote.

As some Republicans have grown skeptical of sending money to Ukraine in its war with Russia, Schumer said that “history will cast a permanent and shameful shadow” on those who attempt to block it.

“Will the Senate stand up to brutish thugs like Vladimir Putin and reassure our friends abroad that America will never abandon them in the hour of need?” Schumer asked as he opened the Senate.

The roughly $60 billion in Ukraine aid has been stalled in Congress for months because of growing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-congress-border-immigration-china-31075fce7dfcb3aaa6d3eb595e62ed09">opposition from hardline conservatives</a>&nbsp;in the House and Senate who criticize it as wasteful and demand an exit strategy for the war.

“We still need to secure America’s borders before sending another dime overseas,” Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah wrote in a post on X.

The impasse means that the U.S. has halted arms shipments to Kyiv at a crucial point in the nearly two-year-old conflict, leaving Ukrainian soldiers without ample ammunition and missiles as Russian President Putin has mounted relentless attacks.

Ukraine's cause still enjoys support from many Senate Republicans, including GOP leader Mitch McConnell, but the question vexing lawmakers has always been how to craft a package that could clear the Republican-controlled House.

A pairing of border policies and aid for allies — first proposed by Republicans — was intended to help squeeze the package through the House where archconservatives hold control. But GOP senators —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-security-ukraine-15e2e3fac2b29b5b4bbe1eae8eb1c924">some within minutes of the bill's release Sunday</a>&nbsp;— rejected the compromise as&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-security-trump-biden-2d2f804057a77bfaa41e64ab601f9b0e">election-year politics</a>.

The wartime funding also would invest in domestic defense manufacturing, send funding to allies in Asia, and provide $10 billion for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, Israel, Gaza and other places.

Schumer said the revamped package would include legislation to authorize sanctions and anti-money laundering tools against criminal enterprises that traffic fentanyl into the U.S. A separate section of the compromise border legislation that would have provided a long-awaited&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/afghan-allies-kabul-congress-taliban-8ffcd4df9398194f1ed2b5369ba33f6a">pathway to residency for tens of thousands of Afghan refugees</a>&nbsp;was dropped in the slimmed-down bill.

It was not clear whether the new plan, even if it passed the Senate, would gain support from House Speaker Mike Johnson. House Republicans are still insisting on a border plan, even though they rejected the deal negotiated in the Senate as insufficient.

“We'll see what the Senate does,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday morning. “We're going to allow the process to play out.”

Some were skeptical that a standalone aid package would be viable in the House.

“I don’t see how that moves in this chamber. I don’t know how the speaker puts that on the floor,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., said, adding that he still wanted tougher border policies attached.

After Donald Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee, eviscerated the Senate's bipartisan border proposal, Johnson quickly rejected it. Trump has also led many Republicans to question supporting Ukraine, suggesting he could negotiate an end to the war and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/zelenskyy-russia-ukraine-trump-war-130e617cfebebeeba61044a0cb68a933">lavishing praise</a>&nbsp;on Russian President&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-vladimir-putin-donald-trump-dc89488c40360150afeeb25941bd44fc">Vladimir Putin</a>, including after Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Johnson said this week he wanted to handle wartime aid for Israel and Ukraine in separate packages, but a bill he advanced that only included funds for Israel failed on the House floor Tuesday night.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Wednesday that the “only path forward” is a comprehensive approach that includes funding for U.S. allies around the world, as well as humanitarian support for civilians caught in conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.

The White House said that Biden believes there should be new border policy but would also support moving the aid for Ukraine and Israel alone, as he has from the start.

“We support this bill which would protect America’s national security interests by stopping Putin’s onslaught in Ukraine before he turns to other countries, helping Israel defend itself against Hamas terrorists and delivering live-saving humanitarian aid to innocent Palestinian civilians," said White House spokesman Andrew Bates.

“Even if some congressional Republicans’ commitment to border security hinges on politics, President Biden’s does not.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/2/1707338543070.png" alt="Members of the U.S. Senate during the Wednesday afternoon vote count -image courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>Members of the U.S. Senate during the Wednesday afternoon vote count -image courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan border package Wednesday, scuttling months of negotiations with Democrats on legislation intended to cut back record numbers of illegal border crossings.Many Republicans said the election-year compromise&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-security-bill-ukraine-b386eae0c4947497da931870dbcb28a0">wasn't enough</a>, even as supporters of the bill insisted it was the best possible in divided government.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">The Ukraine-border bill sends $60B in new money to Ukraine and provides $0 in new money for infrastructure for our own border. If you wanted to know the Swamp&#39;s priorities, it has always been Ukraine first.&mdash; Dr. Roger Marshall (@RogerMarshallMD) <a href="https://twitter.com/RogerMarshallMD/status/1755344794291732664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>The 49-50 vote, far short of the 60 ayes needed to take up the bill, came after most Republicans said they&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-security-ukraine-a39e188fa2c6a563203d2c69eaabdc6d">would vote against the legislation,</a>&nbsp;which also includes $60 billion in wartime aid to Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel and was backed by President Joe Biden. GOP lawmakers had insisted that the money for conflicts abroad be paired with help for the U.S. border. Kansas U.S. Senators Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall voted with the majority. Senator Susan Collins of Maine, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Mitt Romney of Utah were the only Republicans who voted to advance.Forcing the showdown with Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said earlier that he would try to salvage the wartime funding, and would next push ahead on a crucial test vote for tens of billions of dollars for Kyiv, Israel and other U.S. allies — a modified package with the border portion stripped out.The bipartisan group of senators who negotiated the compromise for the last four months said it was a missed opportunity to try and make some progress toward one of the most intractable issues in American politics.In a speech on the Senate floor just before the vote, Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma said that it was a chance for the Senate to decide “if we’re going to do nothing, or something.”“It’s an issue that’s bedevilled, quite frankly, this body for decades,” Lankford said. “It’s been three decades since we’ve passed anything into law to be able to change border security.”Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona blamed Republicans for not giving the bill a chance.“Finally, it seemed, we had the opportunity to solve the nightmare my state has lived for over 40 years,” she said.Four Republicans voted to move forward with the legislation and six Democrats voted against it, some of whom said the border compromise went too far.It is unclear if enough Republicans will vote to move ahead with the standalone legislation for the wartime aid, which also would need 60 votes in the 51-49 Senate. If it did pass, it would still take days for the Senate to reach a final vote.As some Republicans have grown skeptical of sending money to Ukraine in its war with Russia, Schumer said that “history will cast a permanent and shameful shadow” on those who attempt to block it.“Will the Senate stand up to brutish thugs like Vladimir Putin and reassure our friends abroad that America will never abandon them in the hour of need?” Schumer asked as he opened the Senate.The roughly $60 billion in Ukraine aid has been stalled in Congress for months because of growing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-congress-border-immigration-china-31075fce7dfcb3aaa6d3eb595e62ed09">opposition from hardline conservatives</a>&nbsp;in the House and Senate who criticize it as wasteful and demand an exit strategy for the war.“We still need to secure America’s borders before sending another dime overseas,” Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah wrote in a post on X.The impasse means that the U.S. has halted arms shipments to Kyiv at a crucial point in the nearly two-year-old conflict, leaving Ukrainian soldiers without ample ammunition and missiles as Russian President Putin has mounted relentless attacks.Ukraine's cause still enjoys support from many Senate Republicans, including GOP leader Mitch McConnell, but the question vexing lawmakers has always been how to craft a package that could clear the Republican-controlled House.A pairing of border policies and aid for allies — first proposed by Republicans — was intended to help squeeze the package through the House where archconservatives hold control. But GOP senators —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-security-ukraine-15e2e3fac2b29b5b4bbe1eae8eb1c924">some within minutes of the bill's release Sunday</a>&nbsp;— rejected the compromise as&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-security-trump-biden-2d2f804057a77bfaa41e64ab601f9b0e">election-year politics</a>.The wartime funding also would invest in domestic defense manufacturing, send funding to allies in Asia, and provide $10 billion for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, Israel, Gaza and other places.Schumer said the revamped package would include legislation to authorize sanctions and anti-money laundering tools against criminal enterprises that traffic fentanyl into the U.S. A separate section of the compromise border legislation that would have provided a long-awaited&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/afghan-allies-kabul-congress-taliban-8ffcd4df9398194f1ed2b5369ba33f6a">pathway to residency for tens of thousands of Afghan refugees</a>&nbsp;was dropped in the slimmed-down bill.It was not clear whether the new plan, even if it passed the Senate, would gain support from House Speaker Mike Johnson. House Republicans are still insisting on a border plan, even though they rejected the deal negotiated in the Senate as insufficient.“We'll see what the Senate does,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday morning. “We're going to allow the process to play out.”Some were skeptical that a standalone aid package would be viable in the House.“I don’t see how that moves in this chamber. I don’t know how the speaker puts that on the floor,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., said, adding that he still wanted tougher border policies attached.After Donald Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee, eviscerated the Senate's bipartisan border proposal, Johnson quickly rejected it. Trump has also led many Republicans to question supporting Ukraine, suggesting he could negotiate an end to the war and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/zelenskyy-russia-ukraine-trump-war-130e617cfebebeeba61044a0cb68a933">lavishing praise</a>&nbsp;on Russian President&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-vladimir-putin-donald-trump-dc89488c40360150afeeb25941bd44fc">Vladimir Putin</a>, including after Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.Johnson said this week he wanted to handle wartime aid for Israel and Ukraine in separate packages, but a bill he advanced that only included funds for Israel failed on the House floor Tuesday night.House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Wednesday that the “only path forward” is a comprehensive approach that includes funding for U.S. allies around the world, as well as humanitarian support for civilians caught in conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.The White House said that Biden believes there should be new border policy but would also support moving the aid for Ukraine and Israel alone, as he has from the start.“We support this bill which would protect America’s national security interests by stopping Putin’s onslaught in Ukraine before he turns to other countries, helping Israel defend itself against Hamas terrorists and delivering live-saving humanitarian aid to innocent Palestinian civilians," said White House spokesman Andrew Bates.“Even if some congressional Republicans’ commitment to border security hinges on politics, President Biden’s does not.”__

Moran, Marshall help Senate Republicans block $118B border deal

BAGHDAD (AP) — A U.S. drone strike hit a car in the Iraqi capital Wednesday night, killing three members of the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia, including a high-ranking commander, officials said.

The strike came on a main thoroughfare in the Mashtal neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. A crowd gathered as emergency response teams picked through the wreckage. Security forces closed off the heavily guarded Green Zone, where a number of diplomatic compounds are located, amid calls for protesters to storm the U.S. embassy.

Two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said that a senior Kataib Hezbollah commander was targeted in a U.S. strike on Wednesday in Iraq. They were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Two officials with Iran-backed militias in Iraq said that one of the three killed was Wissam Mohammed “Abu Bakr” al-Saadi, the commander in charge of Kataib Hezbollah’s operations in Syria. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to journalists.

The strike came amid roiling tensions in the region and days after the U.S. military launched an air assault on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/hamas-hezbollah-houthis-iran-militant-groups-745bfc36e23997ee3f0bc499a9f5c16d">Iranian-backed militias</a>&nbsp;and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in retaliation for a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-american-service-members-killed-jordan-iran-5cb774fd835a558d840ae91263037489">drone strike that killed three U.S. troops</a>&nbsp;in Jordan in late January.

The U.S. has blamed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a broad coalition of Iran-backed militias, for the attack in Jordan, and officials have said they suspect Kataib Hezbollah in particular of leading it.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has regularly claimed strikes on bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria against the backdrop of the ongoing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war">Israel-Hamas war</a>, saying that they are in retaliation for Washington's support of Israel in its war in Gaza that has killed 27,707 Palestinians, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-gaza-health-ministry-health-death-toll-59470820308b31f1faf73c703400b033">the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory</a>.

Kataib Hezbollah had said in a statement that it was suspending attacks on American troops to avoid “embarrassing the Iraqi government” after the strike in Jordan, but others have vowed to continue fighting.

On Sunday, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/syria-iraq-sdf-islamic-resistance-us-c621972db21d6b3db7ca1bccd50ce6ef?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=share">claimed a drone attack</a>&nbsp;on a base housing U.S. troops in eastern Syria killed six fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led group allied with the United States.

The latest surge in the regional conflict came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-02-07-2024-6ceffca2970243cd039e90268c32c617">rejected terms proposed by Hamas</a>&nbsp;for a hostage-release agreement that would lead to a permanent cease-fire, vowing to continue the war until “absolute victory.”

Also on Wednesday, the media office of the Houthi rebels in Yemen reported two airstrikes in Ras Issa area in Salif district in Hodeida province.

BAGHDAD (AP) — A U.S. drone strike hit a car in the Iraqi capital Wednesday night, killing three members of the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia, including a high-ranking commander, officials said.The strike came on a main thoroughfare in the Mashtal neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. A crowd gathered as emergency response teams picked through the wreckage. Security forces closed off the heavily guarded Green Zone, where a number of diplomatic compounds are located, amid calls for protesters to storm the U.S. embassy.Two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said that a senior Kataib Hezbollah commander was targeted in a U.S. strike on Wednesday in Iraq. They were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.Two officials with Iran-backed militias in Iraq said that one of the three killed was Wissam Mohammed “Abu Bakr” al-Saadi, the commander in charge of Kataib Hezbollah’s operations in Syria. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to journalists.The strike came amid roiling tensions in the region and days after the U.S. military launched an air assault on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/hamas-hezbollah-houthis-iran-militant-groups-745bfc36e23997ee3f0bc499a9f5c16d">Iranian-backed militias</a>&nbsp;and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in retaliation for a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-american-service-members-killed-jordan-iran-5cb774fd835a558d840ae91263037489">drone strike that killed three U.S. troops</a>&nbsp;in Jordan in late January.The U.S. has blamed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a broad coalition of Iran-backed militias, for the attack in Jordan, and officials have said they suspect Kataib Hezbollah in particular of leading it.The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has regularly claimed strikes on bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria against the backdrop of the ongoing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war">Israel-Hamas war</a>, saying that they are in retaliation for Washington's support of Israel in its war in Gaza that has killed 27,707 Palestinians, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-gaza-health-ministry-health-death-toll-59470820308b31f1faf73c703400b033">the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory</a>.Kataib Hezbollah had said in a statement that it was suspending attacks on American troops to avoid “embarrassing the Iraqi government” after the strike in Jordan, but others have vowed to continue fighting.On Sunday, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/syria-iraq-sdf-islamic-resistance-us-c621972db21d6b3db7ca1bccd50ce6ef?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=share">claimed a drone attack</a>&nbsp;on a base housing U.S. troops in eastern Syria killed six fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led group allied with the United States.The latest surge in the regional conflict came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-02-07-2024-6ceffca2970243cd039e90268c32c617">rejected terms proposed by Hamas</a>&nbsp;for a hostage-release agreement that would lead to a permanent cease-fire, vowing to continue the war until “absolute victory.”Also on Wednesday, the media office of the Houthi rebels in Yemen reported two airstrikes in Ras Issa area in Salif district in Hodeida province.

U.S. drone strike in Baghdad kills high-ranking militia commander

WASHINGTON (AP) — The fate of former President Donald Trump’s attempt to return to the White House is in the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-trump-insurrection-2024-election-0baac5ba0c1868e437e365af17eeab24">hands of the U.S. Supreme Court</a>.

On Thursday,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-trump-election-insurrection-719eac1b23ee7103c5d84914156e4236">the justices will hear arguments</a>&nbsp;in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-insurrection-trump-ballot-disqualification-5ba83d718b97150447acf15cee75c7a3">Trump’s appeal</a>&nbsp;of a Colorado Supreme Court&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-insurrection-14th-amendment-2024-colorado-d16dd8f354eeaf450558378c65fd79a2">ruling</a>&nbsp;that he is not eligible to run again for president because he violated a provision in the 14th Amendment preventing those who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office.

Many legal observers expect the nation’s highest court will reverse the Colorado ruling rather than remove the leading contender for the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/elections">Republican presidential nomination</a>&nbsp;from the ballot. But it’s always tricky to try to predict a Supreme Court ruling, and the case against Trump has already broken new legal ground.

Some of the main issues involved in the 14th Amendment case:

It’s called&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-14th-amendment-insurrection-2024-election-ballot-9c5f79203109ba221b35a48e708ad725">Section 3</a>&nbsp;and it’s pretty brief. It reads:

“No Person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two thirds of each House, remove such disability.”

Trump’s lawyers say this part of the Constitution wasn’t meant to apply to the president. Notice how it specifically mentions electors, senators and representatives, but not the presidency.

It also says those who take an oath to “support” the United States, but the presidential oath doesn’t use that word. Instead, the Constitution requires presidents to say they will “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution. And finally, Section 3 talks about any other “officer” of the United States, but Trump’s lawyers argue that language is meant to apply to presidential appointees, not the president.

That was enough to convince the Colorado district court judge who initially heard the case. She found that Trump had engaged in insurrection,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-insurrection-amendment-2024-ballot-colorado-5b6e40f069abc1b8604ec37c46621055">but also agreed</a>&nbsp;that it wasn’t clear that Section 3 applied to the president. That part of her decision was reversed by the Colorado Supreme Court.

The majority of the state’s highest court wrote: “President Trump asks us to hold that Section 3 disqualifies every oath-breaking insurrectionist except the most powerful one and that it bars oath-breakers from virtually every office, both state and federal, except the highest one in the land.”

Trump's lawyers contend that the question of who is covered by a rarely used, once obscure clause should be decided by Congress, not unelected judges. They contend that the Jan. 6, 2021,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-confirm-joe-biden-78104aea082995bbd7412a6e6cd13818">attack on the U.S. Capitol</a>&nbsp;wasn’t&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-insurrection-14th-amendment-2024-election-64ea3e076af335a3e1bce6d7620d58a3">an insurrection</a>. They say the attack wasn’t widespread, didn’t involve large amounts of firearms or include other markers of sedition. They say Trump&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-insurrection-ballot-14th-amendment-colorado-6a8528813e29c9f45a0bb4972369e97e">didn’t “engage”</a>&nbsp;in anything that day other than in exercising his&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-insurrection-14th-amendment-speech-colorado-9626b6ae8479e6a4ce34c3391f207426">protected free speech rights</a>.

Others who have been skeptical of applying Section 3 to Trump have made an argument that the dissenting Colorado Supreme Court justices also found persuasive: The way the court went about finding that Trump violated Section 3 violated the former president’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-2024-14th-amendment-insurrection-colorado-280bc28e57a965a8d6e4d3329dc6aa07">due process rights</a>. They contend he was entitled to a structured legal process rather than a court in Colorado trying to figure out if the Constitution applied to him.

That gets at the unprecedented nature of the cases. Section 3 has&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-trump-insurrection-14th-amendment-ballot-ca5a632f46066bc31349849fe60a781a">rarely been used</a>&nbsp;after an 1872 congressional amnesty excluded most former Confederates from it. The U.S. Supreme Court has never heard such a case.

Arguments about legal precedents go back to a lone 1869 opinion from Chief Justice Salmon Chase, who was hearing an appeal as a circuit judge rather than for the high court.

The Trump&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-14th-amendment-insurrection-supreme-court-colorado-2b9d5b628cb2779fc84212cdc651e4e7">case is historic</a>&nbsp;and is expected to create new law.

Not really. A lot of Democrats are rooting for Trump to get kicked off the ballot and a lot of Republicans are angry about the campaign against him. The case was filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a left-leaning group.

But some of the most vocal proponents of removing Trump from the ballot are conservative legal scholars who believe in following the strict words of the Constitution. There’s no way around the insurrection disqualification for Trump, they argue, adding it's there in the plain text and was intended by the authors. The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-insurrection-14th-amendment-2024-colorado-79373b5043976588b599fc00ede049e8">plaintiffs in Colorado</a>&nbsp;are all Republicans or unaffiliated voters.

All seven of the justices on Colorado’s Supreme Court were appointed by Democrats. But they split 4-3 on the decision, a stark demonstration that this case doesn’t divide neatly along partisan lines.

The majority quoted a ruling from Neil Gorsuch, one of Trump’s conservative Supreme Court nominees, from when he was a federal judge in Colorado. He ruled then that the state properly kept a naturalized citizen born in Guyana off the presidential ballot because the he didn’t meet the constitutional qualifications.

In Maine, the Democratic secretary of state also&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/maine-trump-presidential-ballot-election-insurrection-081fd38ce1f20be9b8423cb2f8c66dee">removed Trump</a>&nbsp;from the ballot. But in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-14th-amendment-insurrection-ballot-illinois-8709a8dbf12f845ed30fce22c9bff469">Illinois</a>, a Republican retired judge serving as a hearing officer for the state Board of Election suggested keeping Trump on, but only because he thought courts should decide on eligibility. The retired judge found it was likely Trump was disqualified due to Section 3, making him a notable Republican to side with those trying to remove the former president.

The U.S. Supreme Court is comprised of six justices nominating by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.huffpost.com/news/topic/republican-party">Republican presidents</a>, including three by Trump. Partly because this is completely new legal ground, it’s hard to predict how individual justices will rule based on their ideology.

Several outcomes are possible but they generally fall into three areas.

The first is the court could uphold Colorado’s ruling. That would require wins for the plaintiffs on the whole array of Trump's defenses.

The second is the court could rule that Trump cannot be disqualified under Section 3, period. There are a lot of ways the court could do this, but the result would be to end the case against him, as well as dozens of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-insurrection-14th-amendment-ballot-michigan-b2a870f98a60dffbe4c9566cfe97457c">similar challenges</a>&nbsp;filed across the country.

The third possibility unnerves a lot of legal experts. The court could effectively punt and not make a final decision on whether Trump is qualified to serve as president. That could kick the question down the road to Jan. 6, 2025, if he wins the election and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-house-speaker-2024-election-certification-8cd7c5a9e6ae69635bbb4624cc78e5c5#:~:text=Mike%20Johnson%2C%20the%20Louisiana%20congressman,Biden's%202020%20presidential%20election%20win">Congress has to decide</a>&nbsp;whether to certify his victory.

It also would keep alive many of the challenges across the country. A number of them are on hold because state courts are waiting to see what the U.S. Supreme Court will do. Places where a Trump challenge could be rekindled if the high court doesn’t squelch it include&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-14th-amendment-insurrection-ballot-illinois-8709a8dbf12f845ed30fce22c9bff469">Illinois</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-insurrection-election-president-f6b72c94bb351c1b870d4884e54f6a75">Minnesota</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-oregon-14th-amendment-supreme-court-f9e80393633c3f232c2225b91928e75a">Oregon</a>. It could add further pressure to challenge Trump’s position on the ballot in other Democratic strongholds such as California and New York, where there have been pushes to invalidate his candidacy that have been comparatively muted.

While the Trump campaign says more than 60 Section 3 cases have been filed nationally, most are by low-profile figures and have generally been dismissed for procedural issues. Uncertainty from the nation's highest court could encourage a new wave of cases in those states, too.

The lack of a clear ruling also could create counter-challenges. Republicans have warned that Section 3 also can be applied to Democrats.

Some already have proposed filing against Biden under the theory that his inability to stem the flow of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border amounts to providing “aid and comfort” to the country’s enemies. Vice President Kamala Harris also could be targeted under the theory that her raising bail money for people arrested during the protests over George Floyd’s 2020 murder by Minneapolis police amounts to “engaging in insurrection.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1706097331546.png" alt="File -Trump celebrating his primary election victory i New Hampshire last month-photo courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>File -Trump celebrating his primary election victory i New Hampshire last month-photo courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — The fate of former President Donald Trump’s attempt to return to the White House is in the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-trump-insurrection-2024-election-0baac5ba0c1868e437e365af17eeab24">hands of the U.S. Supreme Court</a>.On Thursday,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-trump-election-insurrection-719eac1b23ee7103c5d84914156e4236">the justices will hear arguments</a>&nbsp;in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-insurrection-trump-ballot-disqualification-5ba83d718b97150447acf15cee75c7a3">Trump’s appeal</a>&nbsp;of a Colorado Supreme Court&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-insurrection-14th-amendment-2024-colorado-d16dd8f354eeaf450558378c65fd79a2">ruling</a>&nbsp;that he is not eligible to run again for president because he violated a provision in the 14th Amendment preventing those who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office.Many legal observers expect the nation’s highest court will reverse the Colorado ruling rather than remove the leading contender for the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/elections">Republican presidential nomination</a>&nbsp;from the ballot. But it’s always tricky to try to predict a Supreme Court ruling, and the case against Trump has already broken new legal ground.Some of the main issues involved in the 14th Amendment case:WHAT DID TRUMP POTENTIALLY VIOLATE?It’s called&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-14th-amendment-insurrection-2024-election-ballot-9c5f79203109ba221b35a48e708ad725">Section 3</a>&nbsp;and it’s pretty brief. It reads:“No Person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two thirds of each House, remove such disability.”Nice and simple, right?Not so fast, Trump’s lawyers say.TRUMP’S DEFENSETrump’s lawyers say this part of the Constitution wasn’t meant to apply to the president. Notice how it specifically mentions electors, senators and representatives, but not the presidency.It also says those who take an oath to “support” the United States, but the presidential oath doesn’t use that word. Instead, the Constitution requires presidents to say they will “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution. And finally, Section 3 talks about any other “officer” of the United States, but Trump’s lawyers argue that language is meant to apply to presidential appointees, not the president.That was enough to convince the Colorado district court judge who initially heard the case. She found that Trump had engaged in insurrection,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-insurrection-amendment-2024-ballot-colorado-5b6e40f069abc1b8604ec37c46621055">but also agreed</a>&nbsp;that it wasn’t clear that Section 3 applied to the president. That part of her decision was reversed by the Colorado Supreme Court.The majority of the state’s highest court wrote: “President Trump asks us to hold that Section 3 disqualifies every oath-breaking insurrectionist except the most powerful one and that it bars oath-breakers from virtually every office, both state and federal, except the highest one in the land.”OTHER TRUMP ARGUMENTSTrump's lawyers contend that the question of who is covered by a rarely used, once obscure clause should be decided by Congress, not unelected judges. They contend that the Jan. 6, 2021,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-confirm-joe-biden-78104aea082995bbd7412a6e6cd13818">attack on the U.S. Capitol</a>&nbsp;wasn’t&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-insurrection-14th-amendment-2024-election-64ea3e076af335a3e1bce6d7620d58a3">an insurrection</a>. They say the attack wasn’t widespread, didn’t involve large amounts of firearms or include other markers of sedition. They say Trump&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-insurrection-ballot-14th-amendment-colorado-6a8528813e29c9f45a0bb4972369e97e">didn’t “engage”</a>&nbsp;in anything that day other than in exercising his&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-insurrection-14th-amendment-speech-colorado-9626b6ae8479e6a4ce34c3391f207426">protected free speech rights</a>.Others who have been skeptical of applying Section 3 to Trump have made an argument that the dissenting Colorado Supreme Court justices also found persuasive: The way the court went about finding that Trump violated Section 3 violated the former president’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-2024-14th-amendment-insurrection-colorado-280bc28e57a965a8d6e4d3329dc6aa07">due process rights</a>. They contend he was entitled to a structured legal process rather than a court in Colorado trying to figure out if the Constitution applied to him.That gets at the unprecedented nature of the cases. Section 3 has&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-trump-insurrection-14th-amendment-ballot-ca5a632f46066bc31349849fe60a781a">rarely been used</a>&nbsp;after an 1872 congressional amnesty excluded most former Confederates from it. The U.S. Supreme Court has never heard such a case.Arguments about legal precedents go back to a lone 1869 opinion from Chief Justice Salmon Chase, who was hearing an appeal as a circuit judge rather than for the high court.The Trump&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-14th-amendment-insurrection-supreme-court-colorado-2b9d5b628cb2779fc84212cdc651e4e7">case is historic</a>&nbsp;and is expected to create new law.ISN’T THIS JUST A PARTISAN CASE?Not really. A lot of Democrats are rooting for Trump to get kicked off the ballot and a lot of Republicans are angry about the campaign against him. The case was filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a left-leaning group.But some of the most vocal proponents of removing Trump from the ballot are conservative legal scholars who believe in following the strict words of the Constitution. There’s no way around the insurrection disqualification for Trump, they argue, adding it's there in the plain text and was intended by the authors. The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-insurrection-14th-amendment-2024-colorado-79373b5043976588b599fc00ede049e8">plaintiffs in Colorado</a>&nbsp;are all Republicans or unaffiliated voters.All seven of the justices on Colorado’s Supreme Court were appointed by Democrats. But they split 4-3 on the decision, a stark demonstration that this case doesn’t divide neatly along partisan lines.The majority quoted a ruling from Neil Gorsuch, one of Trump’s conservative Supreme Court nominees, from when he was a federal judge in Colorado. He ruled then that the state properly kept a naturalized citizen born in Guyana off the presidential ballot because the he didn’t meet the constitutional qualifications.In Maine, the Democratic secretary of state also&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/maine-trump-presidential-ballot-election-insurrection-081fd38ce1f20be9b8423cb2f8c66dee">removed Trump</a>&nbsp;from the ballot. But in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-14th-amendment-insurrection-ballot-illinois-8709a8dbf12f845ed30fce22c9bff469">Illinois</a>, a Republican retired judge serving as a hearing officer for the state Board of Election suggested keeping Trump on, but only because he thought courts should decide on eligibility. The retired judge found it was likely Trump was disqualified due to Section 3, making him a notable Republican to side with those trying to remove the former president.The U.S. Supreme Court is comprised of six justices nominating by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.huffpost.com/news/topic/republican-party">Republican presidents</a>, including three by Trump. Partly because this is completely new legal ground, it’s hard to predict how individual justices will rule based on their ideology.WHAT COULD THE COURT DO?Several outcomes are possible but they generally fall into three areas.The first is the court could uphold Colorado’s ruling. That would require wins for the plaintiffs on the whole array of Trump's defenses.The second is the court could rule that Trump cannot be disqualified under Section 3, period. There are a lot of ways the court could do this, but the result would be to end the case against him, as well as dozens of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-insurrection-14th-amendment-ballot-michigan-b2a870f98a60dffbe4c9566cfe97457c">similar challenges</a>&nbsp;filed across the country.The third possibility unnerves a lot of legal experts. The court could effectively punt and not make a final decision on whether Trump is qualified to serve as president. That could kick the question down the road to Jan. 6, 2025, if he wins the election and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-house-speaker-2024-election-certification-8cd7c5a9e6ae69635bbb4624cc78e5c5#:~:text=Mike%20Johnson%2C%20the%20Louisiana%20congressman,Biden's%202020%20presidential%20election%20win">Congress has to decide</a>&nbsp;whether to certify his victory.It also would keep alive many of the challenges across the country. A number of them are on hold because state courts are waiting to see what the U.S. Supreme Court will do. Places where a Trump challenge could be rekindled if the high court doesn’t squelch it include&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-14th-amendment-insurrection-ballot-illinois-8709a8dbf12f845ed30fce22c9bff469">Illinois</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-insurrection-election-president-f6b72c94bb351c1b870d4884e54f6a75">Minnesota</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-oregon-14th-amendment-supreme-court-f9e80393633c3f232c2225b91928e75a">Oregon</a>. It could add further pressure to challenge Trump’s position on the ballot in other Democratic strongholds such as California and New York, where there have been pushes to invalidate his candidacy that have been comparatively muted.While the Trump campaign says more than 60 Section 3 cases have been filed nationally, most are by low-profile figures and have generally been dismissed for procedural issues. Uncertainty from the nation's highest court could encourage a new wave of cases in those states, too.The lack of a clear ruling also could create counter-challenges. Republicans have warned that Section 3 also can be applied to Democrats.Some already have proposed filing against Biden under the theory that his inability to stem the flow of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border amounts to providing “aid and comfort” to the country’s enemies. Vice President Kamala Harris also could be targeted under the theory that her raising bail money for people arrested during the protests over George Floyd’s 2020 murder by Minneapolis police amounts to “engaging in insurrection.”

Trump's presidential ballot future set for Supreme Court hearing 

Nonbinding measure praises Texas governor’s defiant answer to immigrant ‘invasion’

BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/tim-carpenter/">TIM CARPENTER</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/">Kansas Reflector</a>

TOPEKA — The Kansas House struggled through lengthy debate on illegal immigration mired in issues of fentanyl poisoning, Marxist journalists, Texas’ governor, state sovereignty, razor wire, federal judicial power, the United Nations, the role of law enforcement, the Kansas National Guard, the presidential race and human trafficking.

When dust settled on the partisan back-and-forth a majority registered support for House Resolution 6035, which characterized influx of migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border as an “invasion” and encouraged Gov. Laura Kelly to offer “support and solidarity” with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s defiance of Biden administration directives and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Rep. Pat Proctor, a Leavenworth Republican, said the resolution sponsored by more than 60 House members made clear the federal government failed to protect southern border states in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

“Let us make no mistake, the state of Texas and all the states on our southern border with Mexico are being invaded,” Proctor said. “It’s not just those from Mexico looking for a better life. It’s people from all over the world, including military-age males from China and the Middle East.”

He said the incursion had a component of “chemical warfare” due to trafficking of chemicals from China used to manufacture fentanyl, a powerful drug flooding U.S. cities and killing about 100,000 people annually.

The resolution urged Kelly to give Abbott support from Kansas, including deployment to Texas of Kansas National Guard troops and Kansas law enforcement agents. The resolution also sought a formal Kansas-Texas agreement of “solidarity against future lawlessness by illegal immigrants and the detrimental actions or nonactions of the federal government.”

Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, said the resolution was unnecessary because the U.S. Senate was working on a bipartisan bill to increase border security. The legislation, endorsed by President Joe Biden and opposed by former President Donald Trump, authorized the executive branch to close the border if the flow of migrants exceeded certain levels, to hire more border agents and to reform the process of handling asylum claims.

“We do not need to pass this resolution because it is the responsibility of the United States Congress and the president to protect our borders,” Carmichael said. “We waste our time, the citizens’ time today with one more meaningless resolution expressing some member’s indignation at something that is, frankly, none of the Kansas Legislature’s concern.”

At that moment, Rep. Stephen Owens, R-Hesston, accused Carmichael of attacking motives of Proctor or other sponsors of the measure.

Democratic Rep. Ford Carr of Wichita made a motion to send the resolution to a House committee for standard vetting, public hearings and possible amendment.

“I would oppose this motion,” said Proctor, the lead sponsor. “We’re not going to get any more substantive discussion from a committee of a dozen people than we will from a committee of 125. It’s just a delay tactic.”

A majority of House members voted against shelving the resolution by sending it to the House Federal and State Affairs Committee.

House Minority Leader Vic Miller of Topeka said urgency displayed by Proctor and others seeking passage of the resolution one day after it was introduced should be remembered when amendments offered by Democrats on the House floor were deflected because they hadn’t be considered by a House committee. While engaged in the question-and-answer debate with Proctor, Miller pivoted to confront Wichita GOP Rep. Patrick Penn, who Miller said was offering commentary from his desk seat on the House floor.

“Sir, if you’d like to talk to me you can come down here and do so,” Miller said. “You don’t need to sit at your desk and scream things at me and point at me.”

In midst of the debate, House Rules Committee members sorted out whether Miller had violated tradition, rules or protocol by holding a piece of paper — a copy of the immigration resolution — so it could be used as a visual aid when addressing the full House. Rep. Susan Humphries, R-Wichita, said Miller’s decision to hold a copy of the resolution was improper because custom defined the document as a prop while in Miller’s hand.

“The item itself, for instance a bill, is not necessarily a prop, but may be used as a prop,” she said. “Is a bill a prop? Not necessarily. The difference is how it is used.”

Miller asked Humphries whether the large button she was displaying on her jacket supporting the GOP’s flat-tax bill should be considered a prop under her interpretation of House rules. She didn’t fully answer his query.

“Did I use it as a prop? That is the question. How is it used? Did I call attention to it? What did I do with it? Did I hold it up?” Humphries said.

Fort Scott Republican Rep. Trevor Jacobs said states had the right to “shield by shield, sword by sword” self-defense against invaders and that constitutional right extended to consequences of so many undocumented people entering the United States. He expressed gratitude that Kansas House Republican leadership warmed to the threat posed by open borders months after he sounded an alarm.

“There is evidence of the UN being involved in this, bringing individuals over here,” Jacobs said. “The world is organizing an army against the United States of America. Once they get their green light, it’s going to be devastating.”

Jacobs said illegal immigrants were stealing U.S. tax dollars. The elderly and veterans were being kicked out of nursing homes to make room for undocumented migrants, he said. Organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Boko Haram, Hezbollah and Hamas were a threat to this country, he said. Illegal immigrants committed crimes, got a slap on the hand and paraded in front of the “Marxist media” to celebrate, he said.

“They’ve come not to embrace but to exploit our nation,” Jacobs said. “This federal government has completely failed the American people. I also think we need to address the president of the United States’ total negligence of our border. This is happening. Treason. When it comes down to it, we’re all border states. It’s coming. The flood is coming.”

Rep. Eric Smith, R-Burlington, also supported the resolution. He said the trafficking of fentanyl from Mexico into the United States had to be stopped because it could become the most deadly drug encountered by domestic law enforcement.

“We’re talking about things that are ending up right on our streets in our kids’ parties. We need to go to the source,” he said.&nbsp; “We have a security issue right here in the state that can be fought at that border.”

Democratic Rep. Angela Martinez, a third-generation Mexican-American from Wichita, said she was the product of the American dream as experienced by her immigrant grandfather during World War II.

“But, frankly, I’m appalled at some of the political games that we play with people’s lives,” she said. “I agree that we need to protect our borders. But we also need effective immigration. We can’t do that here in the Statehouse.”

Rep. Rui Xu, a Democrat from Mission Hills, said he was a first-generation immigrant. Arguing a resolution was useful to rebut the surge in fentanyl poisonings was disingenuous because a majority of the drug was brought into the United States by American citizens, he said.

“This resolution, let’s not kid ourselves, has nothing to do with fentanyl. It’s not going to do anything. Legal immigration has almost nothing to do with fentanyl,” Xu said.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/2/1707322902659.png" alt=" Rep. Pat Proctor, R-Leavenworth, successfully carried a nonbinding resolution asking Gov. Laura Kelly to consider deploying Kansas National Guard troops and Kansas law enforcement officers to the U.S.-Mexico border to show solidarity with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s fight with the Biden administration to secure the border. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption> Rep. Pat Proctor, R-Leavenworth, successfully carried a nonbinding resolution asking Gov. Laura Kelly to consider deploying Kansas National Guard troops and Kansas law enforcement officers to the U.S.-Mexico border to show solidarity with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s fight with the Biden administration to secure the border. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Nonbinding measure praises Texas governor’s defiant answer to immigrant ‘invasion’</h2>BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/tim-carpenter/">TIM CARPENTER</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/">Kansas Reflector</a>TOPEKA — The Kansas House struggled through lengthy debate on illegal immigration mired in issues of fentanyl poisoning, Marxist journalists, Texas’ governor, state sovereignty, razor wire, federal judicial power, the United Nations, the role of law enforcement, the Kansas National Guard, the presidential race and human trafficking.When dust settled on the partisan back-and-forth a majority registered support for House Resolution 6035, which characterized influx of migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border as an “invasion” and encouraged Gov. Laura Kelly to offer “support and solidarity” with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s defiance of Biden administration directives and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.Rep. Pat Proctor, a Leavenworth Republican, said the resolution sponsored by more than 60 House members made clear the federal government failed to protect southern border states in violation of the U.S. Constitution.“Let us make no mistake, the state of Texas and all the states on our southern border with Mexico are being invaded,” Proctor said. “It’s not just those from Mexico looking for a better life. It’s people from all over the world, including military-age males from China and the Middle East.”He said the incursion had a component of “chemical warfare” due to trafficking of chemicals from China used to manufacture fentanyl, a powerful drug flooding U.S. cities and killing about 100,000 people annually.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/2/1707322845123.png" alt=" Rep. John Carmichael, a Wichita Democrat, said House Resolution 6035 expressing support for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s border standoff with immigrants was a waste of the Kansas Legislature’s time. The resolution passed on a voice vote. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption> Rep. John Carmichael, a Wichita Democrat, said House Resolution 6035 expressing support for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s border standoff with immigrants was a waste of the Kansas Legislature’s time. The resolution passed on a voice vote. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>‘Waste our time’</h2>The resolution urged Kelly to give Abbott support from Kansas, including deployment to Texas of Kansas National Guard troops and Kansas law enforcement agents. The resolution also sought a formal Kansas-Texas agreement of “solidarity against future lawlessness by illegal immigrants and the detrimental actions or nonactions of the federal government.”Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, said the resolution was unnecessary because the U.S. Senate was working on a bipartisan bill to increase border security. The legislation, endorsed by President Joe Biden and opposed by former President Donald Trump, authorized the executive branch to close the border if the flow of migrants exceeded certain levels, to hire more border agents and to reform the process of handling asylum claims.“We do not need to pass this resolution because it is the responsibility of the United States Congress and the president to protect our borders,” Carmichael said. “We waste our time, the citizens’ time today with one more meaningless resolution expressing some member’s indignation at something that is, frankly, none of the Kansas Legislature’s concern.”At that moment, Rep. Stephen Owens, R-Hesston, accused Carmichael of attacking motives of Proctor or other sponsors of the measure.Democratic Rep. Ford Carr of Wichita made a motion to send the resolution to a House committee for standard vetting, public hearings and possible amendment.“I would oppose this motion,” said Proctor, the lead sponsor. “We’re not going to get any more substantive discussion from a committee of a dozen people than we will from a committee of 125. It’s just a delay tactic.”A majority of House members voted against shelving the resolution by sending it to the House Federal and State Affairs Committee.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/2/1707322796026.png" alt=" House Minority Leader Vic Miller of Topeka said Wichita GOP Rep. Patrick Penn, seated, offered audible commentary from his seat in the House while Miller discussed a resolution asking Gov. Laura Kelly to send Kansas National Guard troops to Texas. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption> House Minority Leader Vic Miller of Topeka said Wichita GOP Rep. Patrick Penn, seated, offered audible commentary from his seat in the House while Miller discussed a resolution asking Gov. Laura Kelly to send Kansas National Guard troops to Texas. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>What is a prop?</h2>House Minority Leader Vic Miller of Topeka said urgency displayed by Proctor and others seeking passage of the resolution one day after it was introduced should be remembered when amendments offered by Democrats on the House floor were deflected because they hadn’t be considered by a House committee. While engaged in the question-and-answer debate with Proctor, Miller pivoted to confront Wichita GOP Rep. Patrick Penn, who Miller said was offering commentary from his desk seat on the House floor.“Sir, if you’d like to talk to me you can come down here and do so,” Miller said. “You don’t need to sit at your desk and scream things at me and point at me.”In midst of the debate, House Rules Committee members sorted out whether Miller had violated tradition, rules or protocol by holding a piece of paper — a copy of the immigration resolution — so it could be used as a visual aid when addressing the full House. Rep. Susan Humphries, R-Wichita, said Miller’s decision to hold a copy of the resolution was improper because custom defined the document as a prop while in Miller’s hand.“The item itself, for instance a bill, is not necessarily a prop, but may be used as a prop,” she said. “Is a bill a prop? Not necessarily. The difference is how it is used.”Miller asked Humphries whether the large button she was displaying on her jacket supporting the GOP’s flat-tax bill should be considered a prop under her interpretation of House rules. She didn’t fully answer his query.“Did I use it as a prop? That is the question. How is it used? Did I call attention to it? What did I do with it? Did I hold it up?” Humphries said.“I love this place,” Miller said.<h2>‘Sword by sword’</h2>Fort Scott Republican Rep. Trevor Jacobs said states had the right to “shield by shield, sword by sword” self-defense against invaders and that constitutional right extended to consequences of so many undocumented people entering the United States. He expressed gratitude that Kansas House Republican leadership warmed to the threat posed by open borders months after he sounded an alarm.“There is evidence of the UN being involved in this, bringing individuals over here,” Jacobs said. “The world is organizing an army against the United States of America. Once they get their green light, it’s going to be devastating.”Jacobs said illegal immigrants were stealing U.S. tax dollars. The elderly and veterans were being kicked out of nursing homes to make room for undocumented migrants, he said. Organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Boko Haram, Hezbollah and Hamas were a threat to this country, he said. Illegal immigrants committed crimes, got a slap on the hand and paraded in front of the “Marxist media” to celebrate, he said.“They’ve come not to embrace but to exploit our nation,” Jacobs said. “This federal government has completely failed the American people. I also think we need to address the president of the United States’ total negligence of our border. This is happening. Treason. When it comes down to it, we’re all border states. It’s coming. The flood is coming.”Rep. Eric Smith, R-Burlington, also supported the resolution. He said the trafficking of fentanyl from Mexico into the United States had to be stopped because it could become the most deadly drug encountered by domestic law enforcement.“We’re talking about things that are ending up right on our streets in our kids’ parties. We need to go to the source,” he said.&nbsp; “We have a security issue right here in the state that can be fought at that border.”<h2>‘Political games’</h2>Democratic Rep. Angela Martinez, a third-generation Mexican-American from Wichita, said she was the product of the American dream as experienced by her immigrant grandfather during World War II.“But, frankly, I’m appalled at some of the political games that we play with people’s lives,” she said. “I agree that we need to protect our borders. But we also need effective immigration. We can’t do that here in the Statehouse.”Rep. Rui Xu, a Democrat from Mission Hills, said he was a first-generation immigrant. Arguing a resolution was useful to rebut the surge in fentanyl poisonings was disingenuous because a majority of the drug was brought into the United States by American citizens, he said.“This resolution, let’s not kid ourselves, has nothing to do with fentanyl. It’s not going to do anything. Legal immigration has almost nothing to do with fentanyl,” Xu said.

Kan. House adopts resolution asking Kelly to send National Guard to Texas border

SALINE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a burglary at a rural Kansas home.

On Tuesday afternoon, a woman at a home in the 7200 block of East Farrlley&nbsp; Road reported a suspect stole more than $10,000 in various American currency, according to Saline County Sheriff Rodger Soldan, 

The suspect escaped with $7,300 in cash, antique coins and $2 bills.

The homeowner had a collection of $2 bills, about 100 antique silver dollars, about 50 of the 1960s era silver dollars, $50 in loose change and then five 1841 silver dollars that were valued at $3,500, according to Soldan.

The burglary occurred between 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., when both residents were away from home.&nbsp;&nbsp;One of the residents had worked in his shop on the property in the morning and left around 2 p.m. for town. His wife arrived home at 5:30p.m., discovered the crime and contacted the Sheriff's Office.

Soldan said there was no evidence of forced entry, so the suspect may have entered through an unlocked door or window. The burglar damaged a few pieces of furniture, including a nightstand and chair.

The total loss due to the burglary is $11,020, with $10,900 in physical currency and $120 in property damage, according to Soldan.

SALINE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a burglary at a rural Kansas home.On Tuesday afternoon, a woman at a home in the 7200 block of East Farrlley&nbsp; Road reported a suspect stole more than $10,000 in various American currency, according to Saline County Sheriff Rodger Soldan, The suspect escaped with $7,300 in cash, antique coins and $2 bills.The homeowner had a collection of $2 bills, about 100 antique silver dollars, about 50 of the 1960s era silver dollars, $50 in loose change and then five 1841 silver dollars that were valued at $3,500, according to Soldan.The burglary occurred between 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., when both residents were away from home.&nbsp;&nbsp;One of the residents had worked in his shop on the property in the morning and left around 2 p.m. for town. His wife arrived home at 5:30p.m., discovered the crime and contacted the Sheriff's Office.Soldan said there was no evidence of forced entry, so the suspect may have entered through an unlocked door or window. The burglar damaged a few pieces of furniture, including a nightstand and chair.The total loss due to the burglary is $11,020, with $10,900 in physical currency and $120 in property damage, according to Soldan.

Sheriff: Silver dollars, $2 bill collection taken from Kan. home

KANSAS CITY —Authorities are working to determine the cause of a fire at the historic Warwick Theater in Kansas City.

Jusst before 5a.m., crew&nbsp;responded to the fire at 3927 Main Street, according to Battalion Chief Michael Hopkins.

First responders reported fire and smoke from the rear of the structure and after several minutes, due to conditions and type of roof, fire command made the decision to evacuate the building and went into defensive operations. 

The Warwick opened in 1912, according to the theater website. It closed in 1953 and is currently undergoing renovations and <a href="https://www.warwickkc.org/?fbclid=IwAR1_pfxPE82z2-zU_LCViOisax5-rFi2KbPA1a5IQvJ0fvBMweubzSldjUo">is home to</a> the&nbsp;the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/metkc.org/about">Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre</a> founded in 2005.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/2/1707313891150.png" alt="Photo courtesy KCTV" />
 <figcaption>Photo courtesy KCTV</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY —Authorities are working to determine the cause of a fire at the historic Warwick Theater in Kansas City.Jusst before 5a.m., crew&nbsp;responded to the fire at 3927 Main Street, according to Battalion Chief Michael Hopkins.First responders reported fire and smoke from the rear of the structure and after several minutes, due to conditions and type of roof, fire command made the decision to evacuate the building and went into defensive operations. There are no injuries reported.The Warwick opened in 1912, according to the theater website. It closed in 1953 and is currently undergoing renovations and <a href="https://www.warwickkc.org/?fbclid=IwAR1_pfxPE82z2-zU_LCViOisax5-rFi2KbPA1a5IQvJ0fvBMweubzSldjUo">is home to</a> the&nbsp;the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/metkc.org/about">Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre</a> founded in 2005.

Fire damages historic Kansas City theater

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a dramatic setback, House Republicans failed Tuesday to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, forced to shelve a high-profile priority — for now — after a few GOP lawmakers refused to go along with the party's plan.

The GOP members of the Kansas delegation voted for impeachment. Four Republicans did join Democrats in voting against the resolution to impeach.

On his social media account, Kansas U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, a longtime critic of Mayorkas, commented on outcome of the vote,&nbsp; "Disappointed in the House's showing tonight. However, the final vote belongs to the American people in November."

The stunning roll call fell just a single vote short of impeaching Mayorkas, stalling the Republicans' drive to punish the Biden administration over its handling of the U.S-Mexico border. With Democrats united against the charges, the Republicans needed almost every vote from their slim majority to approve the articles of impeachment.

A noisy, rowdy scene erupted on the House floor as the vote was tied for several tense minutes, 215-215. Several Republican lawmakers — led by the impeachment's chief sponsor, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — surrounded one of the holdouts, Wisconsin Republican Mike Gallagher, who refused to change his vote.

With the tally stuck, Democrats shouted for the gavel to close out the vote.

"Frustrated," said Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, "but we'll see it back again."

House Speaker Mike Johnson's spokesman Raj Shah said they "fully intend" to reconsider the articles of impeachment against Mayorkas "when we have the votes for passage."

But next steps are uncertain. In the end, three Republicans opposed the impeachment, and a fourth Republican switched his vote so the measure could be revisited. The final tally was 214-216.

The outcome was another dismal result for the House Republicans who have repeatedly been unable to use their majority power to accomplish political goals, or even to keep up with the basics of governing.

Johnson, who could afford only a few defections from his ranks, had said earlier he had personally spoken to Gallagher and another GOP holdout, acknowledging the "heavy, heavy" vote as he sought their support.

"It's an extreme measure," said Johnson, R-La. "But extreme times call for extreme measures."

Not since 1876 has a Cabinet secretary faced impeachment charges and it's the first time a sitting secretary is being impeached — 148 years ago, Secretary of War William Belknap resigned just before the vote.

The impeachment charges against Mayorkas come as border security is fast becoming a top political issue in the 2024 election, a particularly potent line of attack being leveled at President Joe Biden by Republicans, led by the party's front-runner for the presidential nomination, Donald Trump.

Record numbers of people have been arriving at the southern border, many fleeing countries around the world, in what Mayorkas calls an era of global migration. Many migrants are claiming asylum and being conditionally released into the U.S., arriving in cities that are underequipped to provide housing and other aid while they await judicial proceedings which can take years to determine whether they may remain.

The House Democrats united against the two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, calling the proceedings a sham designed to please Trump, charges that do not rise to the Constitution's bar of treason, bribery or "high crimes and misdemeanors."

"A bunch of garbage," said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. He called Mayorkas "a good man, a decent man," who is simply trying to do his job.

Even if Republicans are able to impeach Mayorkas, he is not expected to be convicted in a Senate trial since Republican senators have been cool to the effort. The Senate could simply refer the matter to a committee for its own investigation, delaying immediate action.

"This baseless impeachment should never have moved forward," said Mia Ehrenberg, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/2/1707265437141.png" alt="House Speaker Mike Johnson announcing the final vote totals -image courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>House Speaker Mike Johnson announcing the final vote totals -image courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — In a dramatic setback, House Republicans failed Tuesday to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, forced to shelve a high-profile priority — for now — after a few GOP lawmakers refused to go along with the party's plan.The GOP members of the Kansas delegation voted for impeachment. Four Republicans did join Democrats in voting against the resolution to impeach.On his social media account, Kansas U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, a longtime critic of Mayorkas, commented on outcome of the vote,&nbsp; "Disappointed in the House's showing tonight. However, the final vote belongs to the American people in November."<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Joe Biden has the powers to secure the border, but instead he has decided to break the law and allow for an INVASION into our country. If he will not protect Americans, each state must be allowed to take matters into their own hands. <a href="https://t.co/EetbRGlxQY">pic.twitter.com/EetbRGlxQY</a>&mdash; Dr. Roger Marshall (@RogerMarshallMD) <a href="https://twitter.com/RogerMarshallMD/status/1755000980662313052?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>The stunning roll call fell just a single vote short of impeaching Mayorkas, stalling the Republicans' drive to punish the Biden administration over its handling of the U.S-Mexico border. With Democrats united against the charges, the Republicans needed almost every vote from their slim majority to approve the articles of impeachment.A noisy, rowdy scene erupted on the House floor as the vote was tied for several tense minutes, 215-215. Several Republican lawmakers — led by the impeachment's chief sponsor, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — surrounded one of the holdouts, Wisconsin Republican Mike Gallagher, who refused to change his vote.With the tally stuck, Democrats shouted for the gavel to close out the vote."Frustrated," said Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, "but we'll see it back again."House Speaker Mike Johnson's spokesman Raj Shah said they "fully intend" to reconsider the articles of impeachment against Mayorkas "when we have the votes for passage."<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/10/1698796524154.png" alt="File-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas-image courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>File-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas-image courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>But next steps are uncertain. In the end, three Republicans opposed the impeachment, and a fourth Republican switched his vote so the measure could be revisited. The final tally was 214-216.The outcome was another dismal result for the House Republicans who have repeatedly been unable to use their majority power to accomplish political goals, or even to keep up with the basics of governing.Johnson, who could afford only a few defections from his ranks, had said earlier he had personally spoken to Gallagher and another GOP holdout, acknowledging the "heavy, heavy" vote as he sought their support."It's an extreme measure," said Johnson, R-La. "But extreme times call for extreme measures."Not since 1876 has a Cabinet secretary faced impeachment charges and it's the first time a sitting secretary is being impeached — 148 years ago, Secretary of War William Belknap resigned just before the vote.The impeachment charges against Mayorkas come as border security is fast becoming a top political issue in the 2024 election, a particularly potent line of attack being leveled at President Joe Biden by Republicans, led by the party's front-runner for the presidential nomination, Donald Trump.Record numbers of people have been arriving at the southern border, many fleeing countries around the world, in what Mayorkas calls an era of global migration. Many migrants are claiming asylum and being conditionally released into the U.S., arriving in cities that are underequipped to provide housing and other aid while they await judicial proceedings which can take years to determine whether they may remain.The House Democrats united against the two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, calling the proceedings a sham designed to please Trump, charges that do not rise to the Constitution's bar of treason, bribery or "high crimes and misdemeanors.""A bunch of garbage," said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. He called Mayorkas "a good man, a decent man," who is simply trying to do his job.Even if Republicans are able to impeach Mayorkas, he is not expected to be convicted in a Senate trial since Republican senators have been cool to the effort. The Senate could simply refer the matter to a committee for its own investigation, delaying immediate action."This baseless impeachment should never have moved forward," said Mia Ehrenberg, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security.If House Republicans are "serious about border security, they should abandon these political games," she said.The impeachment of Mayorkas landed quickly onto the House agenda after Republican efforts to impeach Biden over the business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden, hit a lull, and the investigation into the Biden family dragged.The Committee on Homeland Security under Chairman Green had been investigating the secretary for much of the past year, including probing the flow of deadly fentanyl into the U.S. But a resolution from Georgia Rep. Greene pushed it to the fore. The panel swiftly held a pair of hearings in January before announcing the two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas.Unlike other moments in impeachment history, the afternoon's debate played out to an almost empty chamber, without the fervor or solemnity of past proceedings.Greene, who was named to be one of the impeachment managers if there is a Senate trial, rose to blame Mayorkas for the "invasion" of migrants coming to the U.S.Republican Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona said Mayorkas had committed a "dereliction of duty."Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the Mayorkas impeachment vote was a stunt designed by Republicans to sow "chaos and confusion" and appease Trump — rather than to govern."No reasonable American can conclude that you're making life better for them by this sham impeachment," Jeffries said.It was only as the roll call came to a standstill that the chamber burst into an angry, boisterous scene as tempers flared and the vote failed.The three Republicans opposing impeachment were Gallagher, Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado and Tom McClintock of California. Republican Rep. Blake Moore of Utah was the Republican who switched his vote on procedural grounds.At one point, Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas, who had missed votes earlier in the day, arrived from the hospital to cast his vote against the impeachment. Green told NBC News that he had gone to the emergency room and had surgery.McClintock, in a memo, said the charges "fail to identify an impeachable crime that Mayorkas has committed." He said the articles of impeachment from the committee explain the problems at the border under Biden's watch. But, he said, "they stretch and distort the Constitution."Tuesday's vote arrived at a politically odd juncture for Mayorkas, who has been negotiating a bipartisan border security package in the Senate, earning high marks from a group of senators involved.But that legislation, which emerged Sunday as one of the most ambitious immigration overhauls in years, collapsed Tuesday as Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged that the deal was dead.. Trump had sharply criticized the bipartisan effort and Speaker Johnson said it was "dead on arrival."Impeachment, once rare in the U.S., has been used as both a constitutional check on the executive and increasingly as a political weapon.Experts have argued that Mayorkas has simply been snared in a policy dispute with Republicans who disapprove of the Biden administration's approach to the border situation.Three former secretaries of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, Janet Napolitano and Jeh Johnson, said in a letter Tuesday that impeaching the Cabinet official over policy disputes would "jeopardize our national security."Trump as president was twice impeached — first in 2019 on abuse of power over his phone call with the Ukrainian president seeking a favor to dig up dirt on then-rival Biden, and later on the charge of inciting the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol. He was acquitted on both impeachments in the Senate.___Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Farnoush Amiri, Mary Clare Jalonick and Rebecca Santana contributed to this story.