JOHNSON COUNTY —Earlier this week around 3 a.m., officers responded to a report of a prowler at a construction site near K-10 and K-7 highways, according to a soial media report from Lenexa Police. Officers quickly surrounded the area and deployed a drone to search from above.

The drone operator soon spotted someone hiding under heavy construction equipment. With a coordinated plan in place, a team of officers, along with a K9, moved in and took the suspect safely into custody.

Further investigation revealed stolen tools from a Lenexa business, along with meth and drug paraphernalia. This same individual had been arrested by Lenexa officers earlier this year in connection with another business burglary. The Johnson County District Attorney's Office has charged this suspect with crimes related to both cases.

Police did not release the name of the suspect.

JOHNSON COUNTY —Earlier this week around 3 a.m., officers responded to a report of a prowler at a construction site near K-10 and K-7 highways, according to a soial media report from Lenexa Police. Officers quickly surrounded the area and deployed a drone to search from above.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">Earlier this week around 3 a.m., officers responded to a report of a prowler at a construction site near K-10 and K-7 highways. Our officers quickly surrounded the area and deployed a drone to search from above. The drone operator soon spotted someone hiding under heavy… <a href="https://t.co/1GwDXurQnV">pic.twitter.com/1GwDXurQnV</a>&mdash; Lenexa Police (@LenexaPolice) <a href="https://twitter.com/LenexaPolice/status/1981451284919308713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 23, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>The drone operator soon spotted someone hiding under heavy construction equipment. With a coordinated plan in place, a team of officers, along with a K9, moved in and took the suspect safely into custody.Further investigation revealed stolen tools from a Lenexa business, along with meth and drug paraphernalia. This same individual had been arrested by Lenexa officers earlier this year in connection with another business burglary. The Johnson County District Attorney's Office has charged this suspect with crimes related to both cases.Police did not release the name of the suspect.

🎥Kansas burglary suspect was hiding under construction equipment

KANSAS CITY —Authorities are working to determine the cause of a 2-alarm apartment building fire in Kansas City, Missouri.

Just before 9:30a.m. Friday crews responded to a reported apartment fire in the 3500 block of Euclid in Kansas City, Missouri, according to Battalion Chief Michael Hopkins.

Crews reported heavy fire from a three-story vacant apartment building. Due to the amount of fire defensive operations were set up using multiple aerial ladder master streams. The size of the fire and the amount of heat being generated created an exposure risk to both the house to the north and to the south.

 A search of both houses came back all clear. The radiant heat ignited the home to the north and interior operations were initiated in that structure, but crews had to evacuate due to the potential collapse risk of the original apartment structure and its proximity to the exposer fire. 

Both fires were brought under control just before 11:00 am. The cause of the fire is under investigation by KCFD.&nbsp; &nbsp;Red Cross was ordered for 1 adult and 4 children.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1761336657778.png" alt="Photos Kansas City Fire Department" />
 <figcaption>Photos Kansas City Fire Department</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY —Authorities are working to determine the cause of a 2-alarm apartment building fire in Kansas City, Missouri.Just before 9:30a.m. Friday crews responded to a reported apartment fire in the 3500 block of Euclid in Kansas City, Missouri, according to Battalion Chief Michael Hopkins.Crews reported heavy fire from a three-story vacant apartment building. Due to the amount of fire defensive operations were set up using multiple aerial ladder master streams. The size of the fire and the amount of heat being generated created an exposure risk to both the house to the north and to the south.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1761336678659.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure> A search of both houses came back all clear. The radiant heat ignited the home to the north and interior operations were initiated in that structure, but crews had to evacuate due to the potential collapse risk of the original apartment structure and its proximity to the exposer fire. Both fires were brought under control just before 11:00 am. The cause of the fire is under investigation by KCFD.&nbsp; &nbsp;Red Cross was ordered for 1 adult and 4 children.&nbsp;

2-alarm apartment building fire in Kansas City

By:<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/shauneen-miranda/">Shauneen Miranda</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/ariana-figueroa/">Ariana Figueroa</a>

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26196837-usda-memo-102425/" target="_blank">a memo</a>&nbsp;Friday the agency’s contingency fund cannot legally be used to provide food assistance benefits for more than 42 million people in November, as the government shutdown drags on.

The position is a reversal from the department’s earlier stance, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26196921-fy2026-usda-lapse-plan-sept30/" target="_blank">a since-deleted copy</a>&nbsp;of the USDA’s Sept. 30 shutdown plan that said the department would use its multi-year contingency fund to continue paying&nbsp;Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,&nbsp;or SNAP, benefits during the ongoing shutdown.&nbsp;

SNAP&nbsp;has about $6 billion in the contingency fund — short of the roughly $9 billion needed to cover a full month of the program, putting November benefits in jeopardy.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/pay-trump-and-congress-continues-shutdown-unless-they-ask-it-be-held" target="_blank">Because of a stalemate</a>&nbsp;in Congress over a stopgap spending bill, the government shut down on Oct. 1 without new SNAP funding enacted.

The memo, which was first&nbsp;<a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/10/24/gov-shutdown-snap-payments-emergency-funds" target="_blank">reported by Axios</a>&nbsp;on Friday, said states would not be reimbursed if they use their own funds to cover the cost of the benefits.

“There is no provision or allowance under current law for States to cover the cost of benefits and be reimbursed,” the memo says, while also noting that “the best way for SNAP to continue is for the shutdown to end.”

The memo also says the contingency fund is meant for natural disasters and similar emergencies, not for a lack of appropriations.

But USDA’s Sept. 30 contingency plan contradicts that and appears to greenlight the use of SNAP’s contingency fund during a lapse in funding.

“Congressional intent is evident that SNAP’s operations should continue since the program has been provided with multi-year contingency funds that can be used for State Administrative Expenses to ensure that the State can also continue operations during a Federal Government shutdown,” according to the plan. “These multi-year contingency funds are also available to fund participant benefits in the event that a lapse occurs in the middle of the fiscal year.”

USDA’s contingency plan is no longer online, but is accessible through an internet archive.

After providing States Newsroom with the memo Friday afternoon, USDA did not immediately respond to a follow-up inquiry about the discrepancy between Friday’s memo and its contingency plan.

In the memo, USDA said transferring money toward SNAP from other sources “would pull away funding for school meals and infant formula.”&nbsp;

The agency said it has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/nutrition-program-women-infants-and-children-stay-afloat-through-end-month" target="_blank">shuffled funds to cover</a>&nbsp;several nutrition programs during the shutdown, including the&nbsp;Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, as well as the&nbsp;National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program.&nbsp;

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said last week the government would run out of funds to deliver November&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/SecRollins/status/1978984208975478809" target="_blank">SNAP benefits</a>&nbsp;as a result of the ongoing shutdown.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Friday morning, U.S. House Democrats, like nearly all of their Senate counterparts and the Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, urged Rollins to not only use the contingency fund, but to reprogram other money to cover a $3 billion shortfall.&nbsp;

“A potential lapse in benefits would be felt by Americans of all ages and affect every corner and congressional district in the country,” according to the letter from more than&nbsp;<a href="https://democrats-agriculture.house.gov/uploadedfiles/251024_-_letter_-_house_dems_to_usda_on_snap_shutdown.pdf?utm_campaign=2270-520" target="_blank">200 House Democrats.</a>

In a separate letter, 46 Senate Democrats&nbsp;<a href="https://www.booker.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_to_release_funding_to_continue_snap_into_novemberp.pdf" target="_blank">sent</a>&nbsp;to Rollins on Wednesday, voicing concerns that USDA told states to hold off on sending in SNAP benefits to be processed for November.&nbsp;

“We were deeply disturbed to hear that the USDA has instructed states to stop processing SNAP benefits for November and were surprised by your recent comments that the program will ‘run out of money in two weeks,’” according to the letter. “In fact, the USDA has several tools available which would enable SNAP benefits to be paid through or close to the end of November.”&nbsp;

The chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Republican Susan Collins of Maine, also urged Rollins in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.collins.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/102325mainesnaplettercollins.pdf" target="_blank">Thursday letter</a>&nbsp;to “consider all available options in accordance with federal law to ensure that this vital nutrition assistance continues, including the use of contingency funds and looking at the viability of partial payments or any transfer authority you may have.”&nbsp;

Benefits could be slow even if a deal reached

States have been told by the agency to hold off on submitting SNAP benefit requests to processing centers. Food banks and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/rhode-island-food-pantries-slammed-snap-beneficiaries-brace-funding-run-dry" target="_blank">pantries</a>&nbsp;are already bracing for the increased need, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/food-banks-prepare-lapse-snap-funding-unprecedented-need-due-government-shutdown" target="_blank">in Iowa</a>, where more than 270,000 Iowans rely on SNAP each month.

However, even if Congress immediately reached a deal to end the shutdown, the time needed to process the payments and make them available for recipients means SNAP benefits would likely be delayed. State officials have warned SNAP recipients of the possibility of delays.

In West Virginia,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/im-very-scared-snap-benefits-delay-worries-wv-elderly-who-use-it-feed-themselves-grandkids" target="_blank">officials said delays are expected</a>&nbsp;and told residents to seek assistance at local food pantries. Roughly 1 in 6 West Virginia residents rely on SNAP each month.&nbsp;

Sharon Parrott,&nbsp;a White House Office of Management and Budget official during the Obama administration who now leads a left-leaning think tank,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbpp.org/press/statements/trump-administration-is-legally-required-to-provide-snap-in-shutdown-contrary-to" target="_blank">said in a Thursday statement</a>&nbsp;that USDA is legally required to use its SNAP contingency funds.

Parrott, the president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the multi-year contingency fund is “billions of dollars that Congress provided for use when SNAP funding is inadequate that remain available during the shutdown — to fund November benefits for the 1 in 8 Americans who need SNAP to afford their grocery bill.”

Parrott said the Trump administration could use its legal transfer authority, just as it did with WIC funding, to “supplement the contingency reserves, which by themselves are not enough to fund families’ full benefits.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/7/1689674819900.png" alt=" " />
 <figcaption> </figcaption>
 </figure>By:<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/shauneen-miranda/">Shauneen Miranda</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/ariana-figueroa/">Ariana Figueroa</a>WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26196837-usda-memo-102425/" target="_blank">a memo</a>&nbsp;Friday the agency’s contingency fund cannot legally be used to provide food assistance benefits for more than 42 million people in November, as the government shutdown drags on.The position is a reversal from the department’s earlier stance, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26196921-fy2026-usda-lapse-plan-sept30/" target="_blank">a since-deleted copy</a>&nbsp;of the USDA’s Sept. 30 shutdown plan that said the department would use its multi-year contingency fund to continue paying&nbsp;Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,&nbsp;or SNAP, benefits during the ongoing shutdown.&nbsp;SNAP&nbsp;has about $6 billion in the contingency fund — short of the roughly $9 billion needed to cover a full month of the program, putting November benefits in jeopardy.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/pay-trump-and-congress-continues-shutdown-unless-they-ask-it-be-held" target="_blank">Because of a stalemate</a>&nbsp;in Congress over a stopgap spending bill, the government shut down on Oct. 1 without new SNAP funding enacted.The memo, which was first&nbsp;<a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/10/24/gov-shutdown-snap-payments-emergency-funds" target="_blank">reported by Axios</a>&nbsp;on Friday, said states would not be reimbursed if they use their own funds to cover the cost of the benefits.“There is no provision or allowance under current law for States to cover the cost of benefits and be reimbursed,” the memo says, while also noting that “the best way for SNAP to continue is for the shutdown to end.”<h2>Discrepancy with shutdown plan</h2>The memo also says the contingency fund is meant for natural disasters and similar emergencies, not for a lack of appropriations.But USDA’s Sept. 30 contingency plan contradicts that and appears to greenlight the use of SNAP’s contingency fund during a lapse in funding.“Congressional intent is evident that SNAP’s operations should continue since the program has been provided with multi-year contingency funds that can be used for State Administrative Expenses to ensure that the State can also continue operations during a Federal Government shutdown,” according to the plan. “These multi-year contingency funds are also available to fund participant benefits in the event that a lapse occurs in the middle of the fiscal year.”USDA’s contingency plan is no longer online, but is accessible through an internet archive.After providing States Newsroom with the memo Friday afternoon, USDA did not immediately respond to a follow-up inquiry about the discrepancy between Friday’s memo and its contingency plan.In the memo, USDA said transferring money toward SNAP from other sources “would pull away funding for school meals and infant formula.”&nbsp;The agency said it has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/nutrition-program-women-infants-and-children-stay-afloat-through-end-month" target="_blank">shuffled funds to cover</a>&nbsp;several nutrition programs during the shutdown, including the&nbsp;Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, as well as the&nbsp;National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program.&nbsp;<h2>Dems call on Rollins to tap into fund</h2>U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said last week the government would run out of funds to deliver November&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/SecRollins/status/1978984208975478809" target="_blank">SNAP benefits</a>&nbsp;as a result of the ongoing shutdown.&nbsp;&nbsp;Friday morning, U.S. House Democrats, like nearly all of their Senate counterparts and the Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, urged Rollins to not only use the contingency fund, but to reprogram other money to cover a $3 billion shortfall.&nbsp;“A potential lapse in benefits would be felt by Americans of all ages and affect every corner and congressional district in the country,” according to the letter from more than&nbsp;<a href="https://democrats-agriculture.house.gov/uploadedfiles/251024_-_letter_-_house_dems_to_usda_on_snap_shutdown.pdf?utm_campaign=2270-520" target="_blank">200 House Democrats.</a>In a separate letter, 46 Senate Democrats&nbsp;<a href="https://www.booker.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_to_release_funding_to_continue_snap_into_novemberp.pdf" target="_blank">sent</a>&nbsp;to Rollins on Wednesday, voicing concerns that USDA told states to hold off on sending in SNAP benefits to be processed for November.&nbsp;“We were deeply disturbed to hear that the USDA has instructed states to stop processing SNAP benefits for November and were surprised by your recent comments that the program will ‘run out of money in two weeks,’” according to the letter. “In fact, the USDA has several tools available which would enable SNAP benefits to be paid through or close to the end of November.”&nbsp;The chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Republican Susan Collins of Maine, also urged Rollins in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.collins.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/102325mainesnaplettercollins.pdf" target="_blank">Thursday letter</a>&nbsp;to “consider all available options in accordance with federal law to ensure that this vital nutrition assistance continues, including the use of contingency funds and looking at the viability of partial payments or any transfer authority you may have.”&nbsp;<h2>Benefits could be slow even if a deal reached</h2>States have been told by the agency to hold off on submitting SNAP benefit requests to processing centers. Food banks and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/rhode-island-food-pantries-slammed-snap-beneficiaries-brace-funding-run-dry" target="_blank">pantries</a>&nbsp;are already bracing for the increased need, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/food-banks-prepare-lapse-snap-funding-unprecedented-need-due-government-shutdown" target="_blank">in Iowa</a>, where more than 270,000 Iowans rely on SNAP each month.However, even if Congress immediately reached a deal to end the shutdown, the time needed to process the payments and make them available for recipients means SNAP benefits would likely be delayed. State officials have warned SNAP recipients of the possibility of delays.In West Virginia,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/im-very-scared-snap-benefits-delay-worries-wv-elderly-who-use-it-feed-themselves-grandkids" target="_blank">officials said delays are expected</a>&nbsp;and told residents to seek assistance at local food pantries. Roughly 1 in 6 West Virginia residents rely on SNAP each month.&nbsp;<h2>Legal requirement cited</h2>Sharon Parrott,&nbsp;a White House Office of Management and Budget official during the Obama administration who now leads a left-leaning think tank,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbpp.org/press/statements/trump-administration-is-legally-required-to-provide-snap-in-shutdown-contrary-to" target="_blank">said in a Thursday statement</a>&nbsp;that USDA is legally required to use its SNAP contingency funds.Parrott, the president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the multi-year contingency fund is “billions of dollars that Congress provided for use when SNAP funding is inadequate that remain available during the shutdown — to fund November benefits for the 1 in 8 Americans who need SNAP to afford their grocery bill.”Parrott said the Trump administration could use its legal transfer authority, just as it did with WIC funding, to “supplement the contingency reserves, which by themselves are not enough to fund families’ full benefits.”

USDA won’t shuffle funds to extend SNAP during shutdown, in about-face from earlier plan

DOUGLAS COUNTY—One person died in an accident just before 10:30p.m. Friday in Douglas County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Chevy Tahoe drive by a Eliseo J.&nbsp;Munoz, 23, Lawrence&nbsp;was westbound on U.S. 40 approximately two miles west of U.S. 59. The car traveled left of center and struck a 2019 Kia Forte driven by Michael T.&nbsp;Dieker, 41, Kansas City, Missouri, head-on.

Dieker was pronounced dead at the scene and was transported to&nbsp;Forensic Medical of Kansas. EMS transported Munoz&nbsp;Overland Park Regional Medical Center. Munoz was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

The South Lawrence Trafficway was closed between West 27th Street and Iowa Street until early Saturday morning to allow first responders to work the scene of the crash, according to the Douglas County Sheriff.

DOUGLAS COUNTY—One person died in an accident just before 10:30p.m. Friday in Douglas County.The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Chevy Tahoe drive by a Eliseo J.&nbsp;Munoz, 23, Lawrence&nbsp;was westbound on U.S. 40 approximately two miles west of U.S. 59. The car traveled left of center and struck a 2019 Kia Forte driven by Michael T.&nbsp;Dieker, 41, Kansas City, Missouri, head-on.Dieker was pronounced dead at the scene and was transported to&nbsp;Forensic Medical of Kansas. EMS transported Munoz&nbsp;Overland Park Regional Medical Center. Munoz was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.The South Lawrence Trafficway was closed between West 27th Street and Iowa Street until early Saturday morning to allow first responders to work the scene of the crash, according to the Douglas County Sheriff.

Missouri man dead after Kansas head-on crash

WYANDOTTE COUNTY —Law enforcement are investigating suspects in connection with a drug distribution ring and have seized a large amount of fentanyl.

On October 16, the Kansas City Kansas Police Department’s Narcotics and Special Operations Units served a warrant at a home in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, according to a media release.. Officers seized 9.2 lbs. of fentanyl, as well as guns and other drugs. 

“This was our biggest, if not the metro’s, biggest fentanyl seizure since we began tracking the drug in late 2020,” Captain Shawn Magee, KCKPD Narcotics Unit, said. 

“One kilogram of fentanyl has the potential to kill thousands of people. In this instance, police seized a little over four kilograms. You don’t need to be good at math to know, this one operation saved a lot of lives."

”One hundred times more potent than morphine, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid used for severe pain. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl is often mixed with other drugs, or pressed into counterfeit pills, that resemble prescription opioids."

"However, because of a lack of quality control, illicit fentanyl is often deadly. In 2025, the KCKPD Narcotics Unit has handled 79 overdose cases. Six of those cases involved juveniles, resulting in 21 fatalities. One juvenile died.

As a result of KCKPD’s operation, three individuals were arrested and booked on requested charges of conspiracy to distribute.

Police also seized 11 firearms, 2 with fully automatic switches; 4,186 grams of fentanyl; 64.6 grams of methamphetamine (2 ½ ounces); 232.8 grams of marijuana (half pound: and 786 miscellaneous pills, most will contain fentanyl.

There were no injuries. Police are not identifying the individuals arrested because this remains an ongoing investigation. The owner of the short-term rental cooperated with police in advance of the operation, and is not facing charges. 

“The owners are victims too,” Magee said. “This isn’t a crime-ridden neighborhood; they had no clue they were renting to drug dealers. Unfortunately, switching locations by booking different rentals is appealing to these dealers, because it creates a covert setting, making them more difficult to track. They are clever, but so are we.” 

Any resident of Kansas City, Kansas who suspects illegal drug activity in their neighborhood may report it anonymously by calling the KCKPD 24-Hour Narcotics Hotline at 913-573-6272 or by emailing narcotics@kckpd.org. 

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1761300430123.png" alt="Photo Kansas City, Kansas police" />
 <figcaption>Photo Kansas City, Kansas police</figcaption>
 </figure>WYANDOTTE COUNTY —Law enforcement are investigating suspects in connection with a drug distribution ring and have seized a large amount of fentanyl.On October 16, the Kansas City Kansas Police Department’s Narcotics and Special Operations Units served a warrant at a home in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, according to a media release.. Officers seized 9.2 lbs. of fentanyl, as well as guns and other drugs. “This was our biggest, if not the metro’s, biggest fentanyl seizure since we began tracking the drug in late 2020,” Captain Shawn Magee, KCKPD Narcotics Unit, said. “One kilogram of fentanyl has the potential to kill thousands of people. In this instance, police seized a little over four kilograms. You don’t need to be good at math to know, this one operation saved a lot of lives."”One hundred times more potent than morphine, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid used for severe pain. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl is often mixed with other drugs, or pressed into counterfeit pills, that resemble prescription opioids.""However, because of a lack of quality control, illicit fentanyl is often deadly. In 2025, the KCKPD Narcotics Unit has handled 79 overdose cases. Six of those cases involved juveniles, resulting in 21 fatalities. One juvenile died.As a result of KCKPD’s operation, three individuals were arrested and booked on requested charges of conspiracy to distribute.Police also seized 11 firearms, 2 with fully automatic switches; 4,186 grams of fentanyl; 64.6 grams of methamphetamine (2 ½ ounces); 232.8 grams of marijuana (half pound: and 786 miscellaneous pills, most will contain fentanyl.There were no injuries. Police are not identifying the individuals arrested because this remains an ongoing investigation. The owner of the short-term rental cooperated with police in advance of the operation, and is not facing charges. “The owners are victims too,” Magee said. “This isn’t a crime-ridden neighborhood; they had no clue they were renting to drug dealers. Unfortunately, switching locations by booking different rentals is appealing to these dealers, because it creates a covert setting, making them more difficult to track. They are clever, but so are we.” Any resident of Kansas City, Kansas who suspects illegal drug activity in their neighborhood may report it anonymously by calling the KCKPD 24-Hour Narcotics Hotline at 913-573-6272 or by emailing narcotics@kckpd.org.

Police seize over 9 pounds of fentanyl from Kan. rental home

WASHINGTON —In support of the President’s directive to dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) and counter narco-terrorism in defense of the Homeland, the Secretary of War has directed the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group and embarked carrier air wing to the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) area of responsibility (AOR), according to a statement from the Department of War.

'The enhanced U.S. force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere. These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle TCOs."

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/10/1696803172229.png" alt="File photo The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea in mid October 2024-photo U.S. Central Command" />
 <figcaption>File photo The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea in mid October 2024-photo U.S. Central Command</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON —In support of the President’s directive to dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) and counter narco-terrorism in defense of the Homeland, the Secretary of War has directed the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group and embarked carrier air wing to the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) area of responsibility (AOR), according to a statement from the Department of War.'The enhanced U.S. force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere. These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle TCOs."

Drug war: US sending aircraft carrier to Latin America 

JOHNSON COUNTY—A Kansas boy injured when a vehicle struck the electric scooter he was riding on October 13 has died.

<a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/prayers-and-support-for-duke-ommert">Click here to see the online fundraiser</a>

At approximately 6 p.m. on Monday, emergency crews responded to an injury crash on Lee Boulevard just north of W 103rd Street, according to a media release from Leawood Police.

Duke Ommert, a 4th grader at Brockwood Elementary in Leawood, was on an e-scooter crossing Lee Boulevard in Leawood after an afternoon of playing with friends when he was struck by a vehicle, according to the online fundraiser.

He had a severe head injury and a fractured leg from the crash. He was taken to an area hospital before being transferred to Children's Mercy. He died earlier this week, according to the online fundraiser.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1761301582903.png" alt="Duke Ommert-photo GoFundMe" />
 <figcaption>Duke Ommert-photo GoFundMe</figcaption>
 </figure>JOHNSON COUNTY—A Kansas boy injured when a vehicle struck the electric scooter he was riding on October 13 has died.<a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/prayers-and-support-for-duke-ommert">Click here to see the online fundraiser</a>At approximately 6 p.m. on Monday, emergency crews responded to an injury crash on Lee Boulevard just north of W 103rd Street, according to a media release from Leawood Police.Duke Ommert, a 4th grader at Brockwood Elementary in Leawood, was on an e-scooter crossing Lee Boulevard in Leawood after an afternoon of playing with friends when he was struck by a vehicle, according to the online fundraiser.He had a severe head injury and a fractured leg from the crash. He was taken to an area hospital before being transferred to Children's Mercy. He died earlier this week, according to the online fundraiser.

Kan. boy dies days after struck by a car while riding a scooter

Overnight, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO), trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean Sea, according to a social media report from the Seretary of War.

The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics. Six male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters—and was the first strike at night. All six terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike.

If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda. Day or NIGHT, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you.

(Click below to watch President Trump's answer on a possible declaration of war for the drug boat attacks)

Overnight, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO), trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean Sea, according to a social media report from the Seretary of War.The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics. Six male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters—and was the first strike at night. All six terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Overnight, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO), trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean Sea. The vessel was known by our… <a href="https://t.co/lVlw0FLBv4">pic.twitter.com/lVlw0FLBv4</a>&mdash; Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecWar/status/1981706596972372446?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 24, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda. Day or NIGHT, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you.(Click below to watch President Trump's answer on a possible declaration of war for the drug boat attacks)<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Drugs = Dead <a href="https://t.co/rbM8IgsOFU">pic.twitter.com/rbM8IgsOFU</a>&mdash; Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) <a href="https://twitter.com/PeteHegseth/status/1981553144099147809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 24, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>

🎥Trump: They're going to be like, dead; U.S. strikes another drug boat 

By:<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/ariana-figueroa/">Ariana Figueroa</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/ashley-murray/">Ashley Murray</a>

WASHINGTON — The Senate Thursday failed to advance a Republican measure and rejected unanimous agreements on two related bills from Democrats that would have paid federal employees and contractors who have continued to work amid the government shutdown, which entered day 23.&nbsp;

The stalemate constituted the latest example of how dug in to their arguments both parties are as the shutdown that began Oct. 1 drags out, as well as the heightened political tensions in the upper chamber when it comes to striking a deal to resume government funding.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Most federal employees will miss their first full paycheck on Friday or early next week. More than 42 million Americans, some 40% under the age of 17, are also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/shutdown-likely-halt-food-benefits-42-million-just-days" target="_blank">at risk of delayed food assistance</a>&nbsp;if Congress doesn’t address a funding shortfall expected by Nov. 1 in the&nbsp;Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.&nbsp;

Senate Democrats Wednesday&nbsp;<a href="https://www.booker.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_to_release_funding_to_continue_snap_into_novemberp.pdf" target="_blank">sent a letter</a>&nbsp;to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins over concerns that the agency has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/shutdown-likely-halt-food-benefits-42-million-just-days" target="_blank">warned states to hold off on processing SNAP benefits.</a>&nbsp;They contended the agency has the resources to keep payments flowing.

“We were deeply disturbed to hear that the USDA has instructed states to stop processing SNAP benefits for November and were surprised by your recent comments that the program will ‘run out of money in two weeks,’” according to the letter. “In fact, the USDA has several tools available which would enable SNAP benefits to be paid through or close to the end of November.”

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.,<a href="https://www.hawley.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Keep-SNAP-Funded-Act.pdf" target="_blank">&nbsp;introduced a bill</a>&nbsp;Wednesday to continue SNAP funding through the shutdown. During Thursday’s briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration would “absolutely support” the legislation.

In the Senate, a measure from Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson on a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1191/vote_119_1_00585.htm" target="_blank">54-45 vote</a>&nbsp;did not reach the 60-vote threshold needed to advance in the chamber. Its failure means that federal employees who have continued to work will not be paid until the shutdown ends.

Democratic senators who agreed to the measure included Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman and Georgia’s Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota changed his vote in order to reconsider the measure.&nbsp;

“I don’t think it makes sense to hold these federal workers hostage,” Warnock told States Newsroom in an interview on his vote Thursday. “If I could have a path to give some of these folks relief while fighting for health care, that’s what I decided to do.”

A separate measure from Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen also failed to move forward after Johnson objected. Van Hollen requested unanimous consent to approve his bill that would have also protected federal workers from mass Reductions in Force, or RIFs, that President Donald Trump has attempted during the shutdown.&nbsp;

A second Democratic bill, from Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., was narrower, only including pay for federal workers. But when he requested unanimous approval for his measure, it was also blocked by Johnson.

Senators then left Capitol Hill for the weekend. On Wednesday, the Senate took&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/shutdown-day-22-sets-record-second-longest-us-history-no-sign-deal" target="_blank">a failed 12th vote</a>&nbsp;to provide the federal government and its services with flat funding through Nov. 21.

Senate Republicans have pressed Senate Democrats to approve the GOP-written stopgap measure. But Democrats have maintained that they will not support the House measure because it does not extend tax credits that will expire at the end of the year for people who buy their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace.

Van Hollen argued his bill would protect workers from the president’s targeting of certain federal agencies and programs.

“We certainly shouldn’t set up a system where the president of the United States gets to decide what agencies to shut down, what they can open, who to pay and who not to pay, who to punish and who not to punish,” Van Hollen said on the Senate floor before asking for unanimous consent to move the bill forward.

Johnson objected to including Van Hollen’s provision to ban federal worker layoffs during a shutdown.&nbsp;President Donald Trump’s efforts to lay off thousands of federal workers during the shutdown have been on hold since last week, after a federal judge&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/federal-judge-blocks-trump-carrying-out-thousands-layoffs-during-shutdown" target="_blank">issued a temporary restraining order</a>&nbsp;that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/federal-judge-broadens-order-blocking-trump-administration-layoffs-during-shutdown" target="_blank">was later expanded</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;

However, Johnson said he was willing to add into his own bill the provision from Van Hollen to pay furloughed workers.

“I’m more than happy to sit down with you. Maybe we should do that later today,” Van Hollen told Johnson during their debate on the floor.

Shortly after, Peters introduced a near-mirror version of Van Hollen’s bill, except that his measure would not prohibit layoffs — essentially what Johnson told Van Hollen he would agree to.

“We all say we agree on this, so let’s just pass this bill now,” the Michigan Democrat said before asking for unanimous consent to advance the legislation.

“It only solves a problem temporarily. We’re going to be right back in the same position,” Johnson said in an interview with States Newsroom about why he rejected Peters’ proposal.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Johnson said he talked with Peters and Van Hollen after the vote and “we’ll be talking beyond this.”

Even if the Senate passed the bill sponsored by Johnson or Van Hollen, it’s unlikely the House, which has been in recess since last month, would return to vote on either measure.

At a Thursday morning press conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson argued that Republicans already passed a stopgap measure to pay federal workers and that Senate Democrats should support that legislation.&nbsp;

Johnson said bringing back the House would be a “waste of time,” noting that Democrats would not vote on the Republican proposal.&nbsp;

“If I brought everybody back right now and we voted on a measure to do this, to pay essential workers, it would be spiked in the Senate,” said the Louisiana Republican. “So it would be a waste of our time.”

Duffy warns of flight delays due to shutdown

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy joined Johnson and House Republicans during their press conference.&nbsp;

He said that flight delays have increased due to staffing shortages.

More than 50,000 TSA agents and more than 13,000 air traffic controllers have continued to work without pay during the government shutdown.&nbsp;

“They’re angry,” Duffy said of air traffic controllers. “I’ve gone to a number of different towers over the course of the last week to 10 days. They’re frustrated.”

Next Tuesday, air traffic controllers will not receive their full paycheck for their work in October, Duffy said.

He added that the agency is already short-staffed — by up to 3,000 air traffic controllers.

“When we have lower staffing, what happens is, you’ll see delays or cancellations,” Duffy said.&nbsp;

The FlightAware tracker said there were 2,132 delays within, into or out of the United States of unspecified length reported by Thursday afternoon, compared to 4,175 on Wednesday, 3,846 on Tuesday and 6,792 on Monday.

A shortage of air traffic controllers helped play a role in ending the 2019 government shutdown, which lasted 35 days, after thousands of commercial flights were ground to a halt.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1761249362665.png" alt="Counting votes Thursday in the U.S. Senate -image courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>Counting votes Thursday in the U.S. Senate -image courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>By:<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/ariana-figueroa/">Ariana Figueroa</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/ashley-murray/">Ashley Murray</a>WASHINGTON — The Senate Thursday failed to advance a Republican measure and rejected unanimous agreements on two related bills from Democrats that would have paid federal employees and contractors who have continued to work amid the government shutdown, which entered day 23.&nbsp;The stalemate constituted the latest example of how dug in to their arguments both parties are as the shutdown that began Oct. 1 drags out, as well as the heightened political tensions in the upper chamber when it comes to striking a deal to resume government funding.&nbsp;&nbsp;Most federal employees will miss their first full paycheck on Friday or early next week. More than 42 million Americans, some 40% under the age of 17, are also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/shutdown-likely-halt-food-benefits-42-million-just-days" target="_blank">at risk of delayed food assistance</a>&nbsp;if Congress doesn’t address a funding shortfall expected by Nov. 1 in the&nbsp;Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.&nbsp;Senate Democrats Wednesday&nbsp;<a href="https://www.booker.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_to_release_funding_to_continue_snap_into_novemberp.pdf" target="_blank">sent a letter</a>&nbsp;to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins over concerns that the agency has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/shutdown-likely-halt-food-benefits-42-million-just-days" target="_blank">warned states to hold off on processing SNAP benefits.</a>&nbsp;They contended the agency has the resources to keep payments flowing.“We were deeply disturbed to hear that the USDA has instructed states to stop processing SNAP benefits for November and were surprised by your recent comments that the program will ‘run out of money in two weeks,’” according to the letter. “In fact, the USDA has several tools available which would enable SNAP benefits to be paid through or close to the end of November.”Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.,<a href="https://www.hawley.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Keep-SNAP-Funded-Act.pdf" target="_blank">&nbsp;introduced a bill</a>&nbsp;Wednesday to continue SNAP funding through the shutdown. During Thursday’s briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration would “absolutely support” the legislation.<h2>Deadlock on federal worker pay</h2>In the Senate, a measure from Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson on a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1191/vote_119_1_00585.htm" target="_blank">54-45 vote</a>&nbsp;did not reach the 60-vote threshold needed to advance in the chamber. Its failure means that federal employees who have continued to work will not be paid until the shutdown ends.Democratic senators who agreed to the measure included Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman and Georgia’s Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota changed his vote in order to reconsider the measure.&nbsp;“I don’t think it makes sense to hold these federal workers hostage,” Warnock told States Newsroom in an interview on his vote Thursday. “If I could have a path to give some of these folks relief while fighting for health care, that’s what I decided to do.”A separate measure from Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen also failed to move forward after Johnson objected. Van Hollen requested unanimous consent to approve his bill that would have also protected federal workers from mass Reductions in Force, or RIFs, that President Donald Trump has attempted during the shutdown.&nbsp;A second Democratic bill, from Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., was narrower, only including pay for federal workers. But when he requested unanimous approval for his measure, it was also blocked by Johnson.Senators then left Capitol Hill for the weekend. On Wednesday, the Senate took&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/shutdown-day-22-sets-record-second-longest-us-history-no-sign-deal" target="_blank">a failed 12th vote</a>&nbsp;to provide the federal government and its services with flat funding through Nov. 21.Senate Republicans have pressed Senate Democrats to approve the GOP-written stopgap measure. But Democrats have maintained that they will not support the House measure because it does not extend tax credits that will expire at the end of the year for people who buy their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace.<h2>Layoffs cited by Van Hollen</h2>Van Hollen argued his bill would protect workers from the president’s targeting of certain federal agencies and programs.“We certainly shouldn’t set up a system where the president of the United States gets to decide what agencies to shut down, what they can open, who to pay and who not to pay, who to punish and who not to punish,” Van Hollen said on the Senate floor before asking for unanimous consent to move the bill forward.Johnson objected to including Van Hollen’s provision to ban federal worker layoffs during a shutdown.&nbsp;President Donald Trump’s efforts to lay off thousands of federal workers during the shutdown have been on hold since last week, after a federal judge&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/federal-judge-blocks-trump-carrying-out-thousands-layoffs-during-shutdown" target="_blank">issued a temporary restraining order</a>&nbsp;that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/federal-judge-broadens-order-blocking-trump-administration-layoffs-during-shutdown" target="_blank">was later expanded</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;However, Johnson said he was willing to add into his own bill the provision from Van Hollen to pay furloughed workers.“I’m more than happy to sit down with you. Maybe we should do that later today,” Van Hollen told Johnson during their debate on the floor.Shortly after, Peters introduced a near-mirror version of Van Hollen’s bill, except that his measure would not prohibit layoffs — essentially what Johnson told Van Hollen he would agree to.“We all say we agree on this, so let’s just pass this bill now,” the Michigan Democrat said before asking for unanimous consent to advance the legislation.Johnson also objected to that proposal.“It only solves a problem temporarily. We’re going to be right back in the same position,” Johnson said in an interview with States Newsroom about why he rejected Peters’ proposal.&nbsp;&nbsp;Johnson said he talked with Peters and Van Hollen after the vote and “we’ll be talking beyond this.”<h2>‘Waste of time’ for House to meet</h2>Even if the Senate passed the bill sponsored by Johnson or Van Hollen, it’s unlikely the House, which has been in recess since last month, would return to vote on either measure.At a Thursday morning press conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson argued that Republicans already passed a stopgap measure to pay federal workers and that Senate Democrats should support that legislation.&nbsp;Johnson said bringing back the House would be a “waste of time,” noting that Democrats would not vote on the Republican proposal.&nbsp;“If I brought everybody back right now and we voted on a measure to do this, to pay essential workers, it would be spiked in the Senate,” said the Louisiana Republican. “So it would be a waste of our time.”<h2>Duffy warns of flight delays due to shutdown</h2>Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy joined Johnson and House Republicans during their press conference.&nbsp;He said that flight delays have increased due to staffing shortages.More than 50,000 TSA agents and more than 13,000 air traffic controllers have continued to work without pay during the government shutdown.&nbsp;“They’re angry,” Duffy said of air traffic controllers. “I’ve gone to a number of different towers over the course of the last week to 10 days. They’re frustrated.”Next Tuesday, air traffic controllers will not receive their full paycheck for their work in October, Duffy said.He added that the agency is already short-staffed — by up to 3,000 air traffic controllers.“When we have lower staffing, what happens is, you’ll see delays or cancellations,” Duffy said.&nbsp;The FlightAware tracker said there were 2,132 delays within, into or out of the United States of unspecified length reported by Thursday afternoon, compared to 4,175 on Wednesday, 3,846 on Tuesday and 6,792 on Monday.A shortage of air traffic controllers helped play a role in ending the 2019 government shutdown, which lasted 35 days, after thousands of commercial flights were ground to a halt.&nbsp;

US Senate fails to move ahead on bills extending pay to federal workers during shutdown

Update comes as district judge considers Friday whether to pause contract, which state attorneys say could harm Nebraska

By:<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/author/zachwendling/">Zach Wendling</a> <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/03/17/lincoln-senators-clash-over-nebraska-school-retirement-bill-as-school-leaders-weigh-in/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

LINCOLN — Gov. Jim Pillen announced Thursday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement inspectors have certified a Nebraska state prison to begin receiving federal detainees as it becomes a migrant detention facility.

Pillen said ICE inspectors completed a final walkthrough of the former McCook&nbsp;<a href="https://corrections.nebraska.gov/facilities/work-ethic-camp" target="_blank">Work Ethic Camp</a>&nbsp;this week, and the timeline for the first detainees to come to Nebraska is still being coordinated. Pillen said getting the final pieces together had been “a moving target” with the federal shutdown now on day 23.

“Given the many tasks that had to be completed, including the transfer of remaining inmates, building modifications, training of staff and other components, we have made significant progress,” Pillen said in a statement.

Final security upgrades will continue in McCook “over the next day or so,” Pillen said, and additional modifications will allow the facility to house up to 300 detainees, from a maximum of about 200.

Pillen’s update comes less than 24 hours before a Red Willow County District Court judge will hear arguments on a&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/schimek-v-pillen_CI25137.pdf">lawsuit</a>&nbsp;seeking to temporarily stop the Nebraska-ICE partnership. The lawsuit is from 13 McCook residents and former State Sen. DiAnna Schimek of Lincoln. It argues the&nbsp;<a href="https://corrections.nebraska.gov/sites/default/files/Contract-NDCS-Department-of-Homeland-Security-ICE.pdf" target="_blank">Nebraska-ICE contract</a>&nbsp;is unconstitutional without legislative approval because of language they say&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/articles.php?article=IV-19" target="_blank">delegates management</a>&nbsp;of the state’s prisons to the Legislature.

The lawsuit also argues that lawmakers had specified and&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=72-801" target="_blank">funded</a>&nbsp;the purpose of the McCook facility in law. The detention center remains state-owned and operated.

Pillen and Rob Jeffreys, director of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, are named in the lawsuit.

The Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, on behalf of Pillen and Jeffreys in&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/schimek-v-pillen_MTD-state-brief.pdf">court filings</a>&nbsp;this week, asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed and all but said the train has left the station.&nbsp;

“Should the court void the state’s contract with the federal government, that would release the federal government from its obligations to compensate the state for this work. Taxpayers would therefore suffer a greater injury from preliminary relief than without it,” the brief states. “Not to mention the damage that preliminary relief would do to the state’s relationship with the federal government.”

Under the contract, ICE plans to pay Nebraska around $2.5 million monthly. Pillen’s office estimates the deal could net Nebraska $14.25 million annually. The contract was&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/10/23/pillens-office-defends-17-day-delay-in-releasing-nebraska-ice-detention-contract/">not publicly available until Oct. 17</a>. It was&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/10/17/nebraska-signed-contract-with-ice-on-sept-30-to-turn-state-prison-into-migrant-detention-center/">signed Sept. 30</a>. Pillen&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/08/21/what-we-know-about-nebraska-ice-plan-to-retool-mccook-work-ethic-camp-lawmaker-reactions/">announced the initial plan Aug. 19</a>. The lawsuit was&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/10/16/13-mccook-residents-former-lawmaker-sue-to-stop-nebraska-ice-detention-center/">filed Oct. 15</a>.

The AG’s Office said the Legislature “broadly” delegated the day-to-day operations of state facilities to the executive branch and said the contract doesn’t change McCook’s “overarching purpose” as a detention center, so “any change is one of degree, not kind.”

State attorneys said the McCook residents and Schimek are not best-suited to challenge the facility, suggesting a more proper lawsuit could come instead from the Legislature,&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/10/16/ags-office-all-inmates-moved-from-nebraskas-mccook-prison-planned-ice-detention-center/">state inmates transferred from the Work Ethic Camp</a>&nbsp;to other state facilities or federal detainees. The AG’s Office said a better “check” on separation of powers concerns is the Legislature and the political process, not by going through the courts or by “random taxpayers.”

“Taxpayers who object to the defendants’ actions have the same remedy as any other Nebraskan: the ballot box,” the AG’s Office wrote.

Nick Grandgenett, an attorney for the McCook residents and Schimek, framed the case last week as “not about immigration” but “our constitutional republican form of government.”

The AG’s Office criticized the lawsuit for not including all “indispensable parties” —&nbsp;the U.S. government, as well as a fencing company contracted to build a razor wire around the facility.

“Plaintiffs cannot use purportedly illegal expenditures related to the McCook facility — costs that the federal government will reimburse — as a bootstrap to obtain the standing necessary to present their real challenge, which is aimed at the entire cooperative agreements and federal immigration enforcement activity,” the state’s attorneys wrote.

Jeffreys, in a Thursday statement, said his department’s “attention to detail” at the Work Ethic Camp and a strong partnership and cooperation with ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security made certification possible.

“Passing these inspections is a testament to our team’s commitment to safety, security and professionalism,” Jeffreys said. He signed the initial two-year Nebraska-ICE contract Sept. 30 for the state.

Pillen said that once operational, the rebranded “Cornhusker Clink” will regionally support ICE officials “who are working tirelessly to identify illegal criminals and get them off our streets.”

“Every state is a border state,” Pillen said. “Nebraska is going to do its part to make sure that our nation and Nebraskans are safe and secure.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1761252952549.png" alt="The state’s Work Ethic Camp in McCook, Neb., is set to become a detention center for migrants facing deportation proceedings. State Sen. Margo Juarez of Omaha, a vocal opponent, drove more than four hours from her home district to learn more about the facility than has been shared with Democratic lawmakers. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)" />
 <figcaption>The state’s Work Ethic Camp in McCook, Neb., is set to become a detention center for migrants facing deportation proceedings. State Sen. Margo Juarez of Omaha, a vocal opponent, drove more than four hours from her home district to learn more about the facility than has been shared with Democratic lawmakers. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Update comes as district judge considers Friday whether to pause contract, which state attorneys say could harm Nebraska</h2>By:<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/author/zachwendling/">Zach Wendling</a> <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/03/17/lincoln-senators-clash-over-nebraska-school-retirement-bill-as-school-leaders-weigh-in/">Nebraska Examiner</a>LINCOLN — Gov. Jim Pillen announced Thursday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement inspectors have certified a Nebraska state prison to begin receiving federal detainees as it becomes a migrant detention facility.Pillen said ICE inspectors completed a final walkthrough of the former McCook&nbsp;<a href="https://corrections.nebraska.gov/facilities/work-ethic-camp" target="_blank">Work Ethic Camp</a>&nbsp;this week, and the timeline for the first detainees to come to Nebraska is still being coordinated. Pillen said getting the final pieces together had been “a moving target” with the federal shutdown now on day 23.“Given the many tasks that had to be completed, including the transfer of remaining inmates, building modifications, training of staff and other components, we have made significant progress,” Pillen said in a statement.Final security upgrades will continue in McCook “over the next day or so,” Pillen said, and additional modifications will allow the facility to house up to 300 detainees, from a maximum of about 200.Pillen’s update comes less than 24 hours before a Red Willow County District Court judge will hear arguments on a&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/schimek-v-pillen_CI25137.pdf">lawsuit</a>&nbsp;seeking to temporarily stop the Nebraska-ICE partnership. The lawsuit is from 13 McCook residents and former State Sen. DiAnna Schimek of Lincoln. It argues the&nbsp;<a href="https://corrections.nebraska.gov/sites/default/files/Contract-NDCS-Department-of-Homeland-Security-ICE.pdf" target="_blank">Nebraska-ICE contract</a>&nbsp;is unconstitutional without legislative approval because of language they say&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/articles.php?article=IV-19" target="_blank">delegates management</a>&nbsp;of the state’s prisons to the Legislature.The lawsuit also argues that lawmakers had specified and&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=72-801" target="_blank">funded</a>&nbsp;the purpose of the McCook facility in law. The detention center remains state-owned and operated.Pillen and Rob Jeffreys, director of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, are named in the lawsuit.<h2>Attorney General’s Office arguments</h2>The Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, on behalf of Pillen and Jeffreys in&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/schimek-v-pillen_MTD-state-brief.pdf">court filings</a>&nbsp;this week, asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed and all but said the train has left the station.&nbsp;“Should the court void the state’s contract with the federal government, that would release the federal government from its obligations to compensate the state for this work. Taxpayers would therefore suffer a greater injury from preliminary relief than without it,” the brief states. “Not to mention the damage that preliminary relief would do to the state’s relationship with the federal government.”Under the contract, ICE plans to pay Nebraska around $2.5 million monthly. Pillen’s office estimates the deal could net Nebraska $14.25 million annually. The contract was&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/10/23/pillens-office-defends-17-day-delay-in-releasing-nebraska-ice-detention-contract/">not publicly available until Oct. 17</a>. It was&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/10/17/nebraska-signed-contract-with-ice-on-sept-30-to-turn-state-prison-into-migrant-detention-center/">signed Sept. 30</a>. Pillen&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/08/21/what-we-know-about-nebraska-ice-plan-to-retool-mccook-work-ethic-camp-lawmaker-reactions/">announced the initial plan Aug. 19</a>. The lawsuit was&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/10/16/13-mccook-residents-former-lawmaker-sue-to-stop-nebraska-ice-detention-center/">filed Oct. 15</a>.The AG’s Office said the Legislature “broadly” delegated the day-to-day operations of state facilities to the executive branch and said the contract doesn’t change McCook’s “overarching purpose” as a detention center, so “any change is one of degree, not kind.”State attorneys said the McCook residents and Schimek are not best-suited to challenge the facility, suggesting a more proper lawsuit could come instead from the Legislature,&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/10/16/ags-office-all-inmates-moved-from-nebraskas-mccook-prison-planned-ice-detention-center/">state inmates transferred from the Work Ethic Camp</a>&nbsp;to other state facilities or federal detainees. The AG’s Office said a better “check” on separation of powers concerns is the Legislature and the political process, not by going through the courts or by “random taxpayers.”“Taxpayers who object to the defendants’ actions have the same remedy as any other Nebraskan: the ballot box,” the AG’s Office wrote.<h2>‘Every state is a border state’</h2>Nick Grandgenett, an attorney for the McCook residents and Schimek, framed the case last week as “not about immigration” but “our constitutional republican form of government.”The AG’s Office criticized the lawsuit for not including all “indispensable parties” —&nbsp;the U.S. government, as well as a fencing company contracted to build a razor wire around the facility.“Plaintiffs cannot use purportedly illegal expenditures related to the McCook facility — costs that the federal government will reimburse — as a bootstrap to obtain the standing necessary to present their real challenge, which is aimed at the entire cooperative agreements and federal immigration enforcement activity,” the state’s attorneys wrote.Jeffreys, in a Thursday statement, said his department’s “attention to detail” at the Work Ethic Camp and a strong partnership and cooperation with ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security made certification possible.“Passing these inspections is a testament to our team’s commitment to safety, security and professionalism,” Jeffreys said. He signed the initial two-year Nebraska-ICE contract Sept. 30 for the state.Pillen said that once operational, the rebranded “Cornhusker Clink” will regionally support ICE officials “who are working tirelessly to identify illegal criminals and get them off our streets.”“Every state is a border state,” Pillen said. “Nebraska is going to do its part to make sure that our nation and Nebraskans are safe and secure.”

ICE certifies Nebraska prison to begin housing immigration detainees

MONTGOMERY COUNTY—Law enforcement are investigating a suspect on multiple allegations after an arrest following a pursuit.

Just before 10:30p.m.&nbsp;October 20, sheriff's deputies attempted to conduct a traffic stop on a vehicle near Main and Liberty Street in Cherryvale, Kansas, according to Sheriff Ron Wade.

The vehicle did not display a visible rear license plate. The driver failed to stop, and a short vehicle pursuit ensued. The vehicle eventually came to a stop at a residence in the 200 block of Neosho Street in Cherryvale. 

Deputies made contact with the driver, later identified as Jacob Hamilton, of Cherryvale, Kansas. Hamilton resisted arrest but was quickly taken into custody without further incident. He was transported to the Montgomery County Department of Corrections. During the investigation, deputies determined that Hamilton had discarded approximately 48 grams of methamphetamine from the vehicle during the pursuit. 

A loaded firearm was also located inside the vehicle. Deputies developed probable cause and obtained a narcotics search warrant for Hamilton’s residence. With the assistance of the Cherryvale Police Department, deputies executed the search warrant and located additional drug paraphernalia, evidence indicating narcotics had been destroyed, and multiple stolen items linked to thefts in Cherryvale, Coffeyville, Labette County, Wilson County, and Neosho County.

Hamilton was booked into the Montgomery County Department of Corrections on requested charges of Distribution of methamphetamine,&nbsp; Possession of drug paraphernalia, Interference with law enforcement, Fleeing and attempting to elude law enforcement, Transporting an open container, Failure to use a turn signal, No vehicle registration and No vehicle insurance.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1761254237537.png" alt="Hamilton photo Montgomery County" />
 <figcaption>Hamilton photo Montgomery County</figcaption>
 </figure>MONTGOMERY COUNTY—Law enforcement are investigating a suspect on multiple allegations after an arrest following a pursuit.Just before 10:30p.m.&nbsp;October 20, sheriff's deputies attempted to conduct a traffic stop on a vehicle near Main and Liberty Street in Cherryvale, Kansas, according to Sheriff Ron Wade.The vehicle did not display a visible rear license plate. The driver failed to stop, and a short vehicle pursuit ensued. The vehicle eventually came to a stop at a residence in the 200 block of Neosho Street in Cherryvale. Deputies made contact with the driver, later identified as Jacob Hamilton, of Cherryvale, Kansas. Hamilton resisted arrest but was quickly taken into custody without further incident. He was transported to the Montgomery County Department of Corrections. During the investigation, deputies determined that Hamilton had discarded approximately 48 grams of methamphetamine from the vehicle during the pursuit. A loaded firearm was also located inside the vehicle. Deputies developed probable cause and obtained a narcotics search warrant for Hamilton’s residence. With the assistance of the Cherryvale Police Department, deputies executed the search warrant and located additional drug paraphernalia, evidence indicating narcotics had been destroyed, and multiple stolen items linked to thefts in Cherryvale, Coffeyville, Labette County, Wilson County, and Neosho County.Hamilton was booked into the Montgomery County Department of Corrections on requested charges of Distribution of methamphetamine,&nbsp; Possession of drug paraphernalia, Interference with law enforcement, Fleeing and attempting to elude law enforcement, Transporting an open container, Failure to use a turn signal, No vehicle registration and No vehicle insurance.

Kan. man accused of throwing meth from vehicle during chase

BY:&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/rudi-keller/">RUDI KELLER</a> <a href="https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/missouri-senate-committee-advances-bill-to-ban-texting-while-driving/">Missouri Independent</a>

As Missouri lawmakers consider&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/10/21/missouri-house-committee-eyes-plan-to-silo-property-classes-for-taxation/">changes to property taxes</a>&nbsp;and look ahead to an election-year session where they again are likely to debate&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/02/27/bill-to-end-missouri-sales-tax-on-groceries-draws-resistance-from-local-agencies/">eliminating the sales tax</a>&nbsp;on groceries, they face the unanswered question of whether the constitution allows them to take away a source of local revenue.

Two southeast Missouri counties are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.courts.mo.gov/cnet/cases/newHeader.do?inputVO.caseNumber=25AC-CC07837&amp;inputVO.courtId=SMPDB0004_CT19&amp;inputVO.isTicket=false#header" target="_blank">asking the courts</a>&nbsp;to answer that question after losing one-fifth of their sales tax revenue because of an exemption enacted in 2021. In a bill designed to capture&nbsp;<a href="https://www.senate.mo.gov/21info/BTS_Web/Bill.aspx?SessionType=R&amp;BillID=54245348" target="_blank">sales tax from online purchases</a>, the legislature expanded an exemption for mines and factories, first enacted in 2007, for utilities and equipment purchases.

Ste. Genevieve County, which has five voter-approved sales taxes, saw its total revenue from the levies decline from $6.1 million in 2022, the last full year without the exemption, to $4.8 million in 2024. Iron County, which has a single half-cent sales tax for general revenue, saw a revenue decline 20%, to $1.1 million from $1.35 million.

In a case filed last week in Cole County, Ste. Genevieve and Iron counties accuse lawmakers of violating the Missouri Constitution by taking away revenue required for bond payments, reducing the funds available for state-mandated functions and adding excessive new tax burdens on Missourians without a statewide vote.

“If you look at the 115 counties in Missouri, there’s probably several other counties in a similar boat here,” attorney Stephen Jeffrey, who is representing the counties, said in an interview with The Independent.

There are no large retailers in Ste. Genevieve County, Presiding Commissioner Randy Ruzicka said. The county of about 18,500 people has sand and gravel mining. Not only did the exemption mean the county lost sales tax on utilities used in the operations, the companies no&nbsp; longer pay sales tax on equipment and maintenance supplies purchased locally.

Ste. Genevieve County is paying for a water park and community center financed by a $10 million bond issue in 2018. The revenue loss from the exemption means the tax dedicated to bond payments is $300,000 to $400,000 short of the funds needed to meet the debt service, Ruzicka said.

So far, he said, the payments have been made by tapping reserves. That can’t continue, he said.

“If every year you have to pull money out of what you have put aside, there comes that point where you don’t have any more money,” Ruzicka said.

It will likely be many months before the lawsuit comes to a resolution, so lawmakers will meet next year with the questions it raises pending.&nbsp;

“This would have an implication if the legislature tries to get rid of the local tax on food,” said Elias Tsapelas, director of state budget and fiscal policy for the Show-Me Institute, a conservative think tank. “Just more broadly, in the discussion of what to do with Missouri’s tax policy, I think it’s pretty big.”

In 2018, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/17-494_j4el.pdf" target="_blank">U.S. Supreme Court ruled</a>&nbsp;that states could require residents to pay sales tax on purchases shipped to them from retailers outside the state. The decision reversed earlier precedents that determined a retailer had to have a physical presence within a state before it had to collect tax on retail sales.

The decision required each state to add language to its sales tax law to capture the revenue. Missouri was the last state to do so when the 2021 bill passed. Under the bill, Missourians who make online or catalog purchases must pay the state tax of 4.225%, while local governments were required to ask voters if they wanted to extend the sales tax to those goods.

The&nbsp;<a href="https://senate.mo.gov/FiscalNotes/2021-1/0752S.01I.ORG.pdf" target="_blank">fiscal note</a>, the legislature’s official estimate of each bill’s financial impact, pegged the additional state revenue from online sales at $111 million to $170 million annually, with local revenue expected to grow by $41 million to $62 million if enacted in every taxing jurisdiction.

As part of the deal to capture the new revenue, business lobbyists convinced lawmakers that they also had to extend every exemption from state sales tax to local sales taxes to simplify collections.

“One of the key parts of the United States Supreme Court decision in the Wayfair case was the fact that they have made it simple for businesses to comply,” said Ray McCarty, executive director of Associated Industries of Missouri.

That means local governments cannot tax anything that is not taxed at the state level, McCarty said.

The sales tax on food is an example. While the state does not impose the 3% general revenue sales tax on grocery purchases, it does collect a 1.225% tax — earmarked money for schools, conservation, state parks and soil conservation.

The 2021 bill did not have to include an exemption for food sales, McCarty said, because the state taxes it even if it is not the full tax imposed on other goods.

“You can imagine the complexity if you have different sales tax bases for state and local governments,” McCarty said. “If you’re not located in the state of Missouri, then you could have issues with that.”

Along with the exemption for purchases by manufacturers and mining companies, the bill enacting the online tax for Missouri extended state exemptions for purchases by broadcasters, defense contractors and commercial laundries to local sales taxes.

The Wayfair decision did not require any state to change how it levied sales tax or to make exemptions uniform, Jeffrey said.&nbsp;

“I have read the Wayfair decision on more than one occasion, and nowhere in the language, in that opinion, does it say a state must do this,” he said. “There is never this requirement that you have to do it this way.”

The case filed by Ste. Genevieve and Iron counties alleges three violations of the&nbsp;<a href="https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=X++++16&amp;bid=32052&amp;constit=y" target="_blank">Hancock Amendment</a>, the tax limitation provisions added to the Missouri Constitution in 1980.

Those provisions are the guarantee that local governments will be able to impose the taxes necessary to pay voter-approved bond debt, that the state cannot reduce its support for any state-financed service or activity and that the state enacted revenue increases that exceed the limits.

The lawsuit asks the courts to order lawmakers to make appropriations to replace the lost revenue and declare the legislation void, restoring the taxes.

The Hancock Amendment bars the legislature from imposing any new duties on local governments without an appropriation to pay the costs. But that hasn’t stopped lawmakers from doing so, said Jim Scaggs, presiding commissioner of Iron County.

The lawsuit lists some of those new duties without state support as “increasing compensation and training for officials, mandating law enforcement disciplinary proceedings, mandating assessment maintenance, and mandating administration of a new senior citizens property tax program.”

Any individual item “has not been that costly, but when we add them all together, the cost is pretty substantial,” Scaggs said.

At the same time that lawmakers are adding costs and taking away revenue, Scaggs and Ruzicka said, their small counties are losing businesses.

“My stores have closed down because they can’t compete with the big box stores,” Scaggs said. “So we just keep losing and losing.”

Ste. Genevieve, which once had three auto dealerships, lost its final one last year, Ruzicka said.

And neither has a marijuana dispensary, a substantial source of new revenue in many other locations, they said. Marijuana dispensaries pay regular sales taxes and a special tax just for pot sales.

Marijuana revenue, plus successful use tax elections, has spared some counties the pain as mining and manufacturing revenue is removed, Ruzicka said.

“A lot of other counties have, like our neighbors to the south Perryville, tons of retail,” he said. “They also have dispensaries, and there’s a 3% tax on dispensary stuff, so it has sort of papered over the problem for them.”

The lawsuit’s accusation that lawmakers exceeded their authority for increased taxes and fees is based on two bills, the Wayfair fix and an&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2021/10/02/motorists-give-mixed-reaction-to-refund-plan-for-missouri-fuel-tax-hike/">increase to the state gas tax</a>, also passed in 2021.

The constitutional limit for new taxes and fees in fiscal 2022 was $111.8 million, according&nbsp;<a href="https://auditor.mo.gov/AuditReport/CitzSummary?id=932" target="_blank">to the 2023</a>&nbsp;annual Hancock Amendment review from the state auditor. The allowable new revenue for fiscal 2024, according to a review&nbsp;<a href="https://auditor.mo.gov/AuditReport/CitzSummary?id=1038" target="_blank">issued earlier this year</a>, was $144 million.

The Wayfair revenue was about equal to the allowable revenue, the lawsuit states, and the gas tax — 12.5 cents per gallon, phased in over five years — pushed the total of new taxes above the limit.

Local governments will be watching the lawsuit, said Steve Hobbs, executive director of the Missouri Association of Counties, because the Wayfair bill represents a shift in how lawmakers interact with local governments.&nbsp;

In the past, large sales tax exemptions excluded local governments or gave them an option on whether to participate, such as on back-to-school tax holidays.

“Now we’re seeing a trend at the state level where they’re saying, ‘No, voluntarily is not enough, we’re going to tell you that you’re going to roll this revenue stream back, even though the local citizens have voted on it,’” he said. “That’s the biggest discussion we’re having in the General Assembly and in the state right now.”

The lawsuit was a last resort, Scaggs said.

If Iron County voters approved a use tax, it would about make up the shortfall, he said. But that represents a shift of the tax burden from businesses to individuals that he opposes, he said.

“This is not something I want to be involved in,” Scaggs said. “This is not good government, in my mind. But at the same time, we can’t continue to go down this road where these small, third class counties will not have enough revenue to support themselves.”

The biggest sales tax exemption on the books at the state level that is not allowed at the local level is for food sales in grocery stores. Enacted in 1999 when state revenues were exceeding the Hancock Amendment allowance, it removed the 3% general revenue portion of the tax.

The state continues to charge 1.225%, with 1% dedicated to public schools and the remainder for conservation, state parks and soil conservation. Local taxes are also charged at the grocery check-out.

Expanding the exemption would reduce funding available for schools by about $200 million annually. The loss to local governments, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://senate.mo.gov/FiscalNotes/2025-1/0134S.02I.ORG.pdf" target="_blank">a fiscal note</a>&nbsp;for a bill filed in this year’s session, would be about $850 million.

A loss like that would be devastating to local governments, Hobbs said.&nbsp;

“I am starting to wonder if the state believes that we actually need local services, like firefighters, ambulance districts, libraries, levy districts and special road districts,” Hobbs said.

Every attempt to expand the general revenue exemption to local taxes has been met with stiff resistance. It helps that there is unity among local governments large and small to lobby to protect that revenue, Ruzicka said.

“That helps us, because they generally have the ear of the powers that be,” he said. “The small counties, it is kind of like, they nod and say whatever, and then it’s like, ‘just go away.’”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/9/1759143619646.jpeg" alt="- A new lawsuit filed in Cole County argues lawmakers violated the Constitution by creating a sales tax exemption used by manufacturers and&nbsp;mining companies (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent)." />
 <figcaption>- A new lawsuit filed in Cole County argues lawmakers violated the Constitution by creating a sales tax exemption used by manufacturers and&nbsp;mining companies (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).</figcaption>
 </figure>BY:&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/rudi-keller/">RUDI KELLER</a> <a href="https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/missouri-senate-committee-advances-bill-to-ban-texting-while-driving/">Missouri Independent</a>As Missouri lawmakers consider&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/10/21/missouri-house-committee-eyes-plan-to-silo-property-classes-for-taxation/">changes to property taxes</a>&nbsp;and look ahead to an election-year session where they again are likely to debate&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/02/27/bill-to-end-missouri-sales-tax-on-groceries-draws-resistance-from-local-agencies/">eliminating the sales tax</a>&nbsp;on groceries, they face the unanswered question of whether the constitution allows them to take away a source of local revenue.Two southeast Missouri counties are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.courts.mo.gov/cnet/cases/newHeader.do?inputVO.caseNumber=25AC-CC07837&amp;inputVO.courtId=SMPDB0004_CT19&amp;inputVO.isTicket=false#header" target="_blank">asking the courts</a>&nbsp;to answer that question after losing one-fifth of their sales tax revenue because of an exemption enacted in 2021. In a bill designed to capture&nbsp;<a href="https://www.senate.mo.gov/21info/BTS_Web/Bill.aspx?SessionType=R&amp;BillID=54245348" target="_blank">sales tax from online purchases</a>, the legislature expanded an exemption for mines and factories, first enacted in 2007, for utilities and equipment purchases.Ste. Genevieve County, which has five voter-approved sales taxes, saw its total revenue from the levies decline from $6.1 million in 2022, the last full year without the exemption, to $4.8 million in 2024. Iron County, which has a single half-cent sales tax for general revenue, saw a revenue decline 20%, to $1.1 million from $1.35 million.In a case filed last week in Cole County, Ste. Genevieve and Iron counties accuse lawmakers of violating the Missouri Constitution by taking away revenue required for bond payments, reducing the funds available for state-mandated functions and adding excessive new tax burdens on Missourians without a statewide vote.“If you look at the 115 counties in Missouri, there’s probably several other counties in a similar boat here,” attorney Stephen Jeffrey, who is representing the counties, said in an interview with The Independent.There are no large retailers in Ste. Genevieve County, Presiding Commissioner Randy Ruzicka said. The county of about 18,500 people has sand and gravel mining. Not only did the exemption mean the county lost sales tax on utilities used in the operations, the companies no&nbsp; longer pay sales tax on equipment and maintenance supplies purchased locally.Ste. Genevieve County is paying for a water park and community center financed by a $10 million bond issue in 2018. The revenue loss from the exemption means the tax dedicated to bond payments is $300,000 to $400,000 short of the funds needed to meet the debt service, Ruzicka said.So far, he said, the payments have been made by tapping reserves. That can’t continue, he said.“If every year you have to pull money out of what you have put aside, there comes that point where you don’t have any more money,” Ruzicka said.It will likely be many months before the lawsuit comes to a resolution, so lawmakers will meet next year with the questions it raises pending.&nbsp;“This would have an implication if the legislature tries to get rid of the local tax on food,” said Elias Tsapelas, director of state budget and fiscal policy for the Show-Me Institute, a conservative think tank. “Just more broadly, in the discussion of what to do with Missouri’s tax policy, I think it’s pretty big.”<h2>The ‘Wayfair fix’</h2>In 2018, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/17-494_j4el.pdf" target="_blank">U.S. Supreme Court ruled</a>&nbsp;that states could require residents to pay sales tax on purchases shipped to them from retailers outside the state. The decision reversed earlier precedents that determined a retailer had to have a physical presence within a state before it had to collect tax on retail sales.The decision required each state to add language to its sales tax law to capture the revenue. Missouri was the last state to do so when the 2021 bill passed. Under the bill, Missourians who make online or catalog purchases must pay the state tax of 4.225%, while local governments were required to ask voters if they wanted to extend the sales tax to those goods.The&nbsp;<a href="https://senate.mo.gov/FiscalNotes/2021-1/0752S.01I.ORG.pdf" target="_blank">fiscal note</a>, the legislature’s official estimate of each bill’s financial impact, pegged the additional state revenue from online sales at $111 million to $170 million annually, with local revenue expected to grow by $41 million to $62 million if enacted in every taxing jurisdiction.As part of the deal to capture the new revenue, business lobbyists convinced lawmakers that they also had to extend every exemption from state sales tax to local sales taxes to simplify collections.“One of the key parts of the United States Supreme Court decision in the Wayfair case was the fact that they have made it simple for businesses to comply,” said Ray McCarty, executive director of Associated Industries of Missouri.That means local governments cannot tax anything that is not taxed at the state level, McCarty said.The sales tax on food is an example. While the state does not impose the 3% general revenue sales tax on grocery purchases, it does collect a 1.225% tax — earmarked money for schools, conservation, state parks and soil conservation.The 2021 bill did not have to include an exemption for food sales, McCarty said, because the state taxes it even if it is not the full tax imposed on other goods.“You can imagine the complexity if you have different sales tax bases for state and local governments,” McCarty said. “If you’re not located in the state of Missouri, then you could have issues with that.”Along with the exemption for purchases by manufacturers and mining companies, the bill enacting the online tax for Missouri extended state exemptions for purchases by broadcasters, defense contractors and commercial laundries to local sales taxes.The Wayfair decision did not require any state to change how it levied sales tax or to make exemptions uniform, Jeffrey said.&nbsp;“I have read the Wayfair decision on more than one occasion, and nowhere in the language, in that opinion, does it say a state must do this,” he said. “There is never this requirement that you have to do it this way.”<h2>The lawsuit</h2>The case filed by Ste. Genevieve and Iron counties alleges three violations of the&nbsp;<a href="https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=X++++16&amp;bid=32052&amp;constit=y" target="_blank">Hancock Amendment</a>, the tax limitation provisions added to the Missouri Constitution in 1980.Those provisions are the guarantee that local governments will be able to impose the taxes necessary to pay voter-approved bond debt, that the state cannot reduce its support for any state-financed service or activity and that the state enacted revenue increases that exceed the limits.The lawsuit asks the courts to order lawmakers to make appropriations to replace the lost revenue and declare the legislation void, restoring the taxes.The Hancock Amendment bars the legislature from imposing any new duties on local governments without an appropriation to pay the costs. But that hasn’t stopped lawmakers from doing so, said Jim Scaggs, presiding commissioner of Iron County.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1761252636913.png" alt="Customers keep the fuel pumps flowing at a Columbia convenience store near Interstate 70 on the day a gas tax hike took effect Oct. 1, 2021 (Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent)." />
 <figcaption>Customers keep the fuel pumps flowing at a Columbia convenience store near Interstate 70 on the day a gas tax hike took effect Oct. 1, 2021 (Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent).</figcaption>
 </figure>The lawsuit lists some of those new duties without state support as “increasing compensation and training for officials, mandating law enforcement disciplinary proceedings, mandating assessment maintenance, and mandating administration of a new senior citizens property tax program.”Any individual item “has not been that costly, but when we add them all together, the cost is pretty substantial,” Scaggs said.At the same time that lawmakers are adding costs and taking away revenue, Scaggs and Ruzicka said, their small counties are losing businesses.“My stores have closed down because they can’t compete with the big box stores,” Scaggs said. “So we just keep losing and losing.”Ste. Genevieve, which once had three auto dealerships, lost its final one last year, Ruzicka said.And neither has a marijuana dispensary, a substantial source of new revenue in many other locations, they said. Marijuana dispensaries pay regular sales taxes and a special tax just for pot sales.Marijuana revenue, plus successful use tax elections, has spared some counties the pain as mining and manufacturing revenue is removed, Ruzicka said.“A lot of other counties have, like our neighbors to the south Perryville, tons of retail,” he said. “They also have dispensaries, and there’s a 3% tax on dispensary stuff, so it has sort of papered over the problem for them.”The lawsuit’s accusation that lawmakers exceeded their authority for increased taxes and fees is based on two bills, the Wayfair fix and an&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2021/10/02/motorists-give-mixed-reaction-to-refund-plan-for-missouri-fuel-tax-hike/">increase to the state gas tax</a>, also passed in 2021.The constitutional limit for new taxes and fees in fiscal 2022 was $111.8 million, according&nbsp;<a href="https://auditor.mo.gov/AuditReport/CitzSummary?id=932" target="_blank">to the 2023</a>&nbsp;annual Hancock Amendment review from the state auditor. The allowable new revenue for fiscal 2024, according to a review&nbsp;<a href="https://auditor.mo.gov/AuditReport/CitzSummary?id=1038" target="_blank">issued earlier this year</a>, was $144 million.The Wayfair revenue was about equal to the allowable revenue, the lawsuit states, and the gas tax — 12.5 cents per gallon, phased in over five years — pushed the total of new taxes above the limit.Local governments will be watching the lawsuit, said Steve Hobbs, executive director of the Missouri Association of Counties, because the Wayfair bill represents a shift in how lawmakers interact with local governments.&nbsp;In the past, large sales tax exemptions excluded local governments or gave them an option on whether to participate, such as on back-to-school tax holidays.“Now we’re seeing a trend at the state level where they’re saying, ‘No, voluntarily is not enough, we’re going to tell you that you’re going to roll this revenue stream back, even though the local citizens have voted on it,’” he said. “That’s the biggest discussion we’re having in the General Assembly and in the state right now.”The lawsuit was a last resort, Scaggs said.If Iron County voters approved a use tax, it would about make up the shortfall, he said. But that represents a shift of the tax burden from businesses to individuals that he opposes, he said.“This is not something I want to be involved in,” Scaggs said. “This is not good government, in my mind. But at the same time, we can’t continue to go down this road where these small, third class counties will not have enough revenue to support themselves.”<h2>Food sales and property taxes</h2>The biggest sales tax exemption on the books at the state level that is not allowed at the local level is for food sales in grocery stores. Enacted in 1999 when state revenues were exceeding the Hancock Amendment allowance, it removed the 3% general revenue portion of the tax.The state continues to charge 1.225%, with 1% dedicated to public schools and the remainder for conservation, state parks and soil conservation. Local taxes are also charged at the grocery check-out.Expanding the exemption would reduce funding available for schools by about $200 million annually. The loss to local governments, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://senate.mo.gov/FiscalNotes/2025-1/0134S.02I.ORG.pdf" target="_blank">a fiscal note</a>&nbsp;for a bill filed in this year’s session, would be about $850 million.A loss like that would be devastating to local governments, Hobbs said.&nbsp;“I am starting to wonder if the state believes that we actually need local services, like firefighters, ambulance districts, libraries, levy districts and special road districts,” Hobbs said.Every attempt to expand the general revenue exemption to local taxes has been met with stiff resistance. It helps that there is unity among local governments large and small to lobby to protect that revenue, Ruzicka said.“That helps us, because they generally have the ear of the powers that be,” he said. “The small counties, it is kind of like, they nod and say whatever, and then it’s like, ‘just go away.’”Legislative committees in both chambers are studying property taxes. The goal is to write legislation that can be enacted next year to make tax bills more predictable.There are some conservatives who have pushed to&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/07/23/bill-eigel-missouri-governor-immigration-budget-taxes/">eliminate personal property taxes</a>&nbsp;— the tax on vehicles and other high-value goods that are not real estate. That would eliminate about 20% of the statewide property tax base.Tax rates on other property would have to rise or local governments would have to do without the revenue if that is included in the final bill.“It’s going to get to the point where these counties are not going to be able to pave their roads or provide the services for their people,” Ruzicka said.The lawsuit over legislative powers to change taxes in ways that reduce revenue is flawed, McCarty said, because the taxes were created by the General Assembly and can be changed by it.“I do believe that the state has the ability to control what is included in the sales tax base, and the local ability to tax flows from the state,” McCarty said.The lawsuit, if it survives a motion for dismissal, could set a firm boundary for the legislature and how far its powers extend over local revenue.“Well,” Hobbs said, “it’s about time.”