New details emerged from an incident involving a student with a handgun while riding a school bus in Kanawha County, West Virginia that led to a teacher’s aide also being arrested, reported Metro News.
St. Albans Police Department officers were called on Jan. 21 after a student at Hayes Middle School was discovered with a handgun on his school bus around 3:15 p.m. A school employee who was on board the bus confiscated the weapon and turned it over to school officials.
Police said the juvenile was later released into the custody of a guardian, who indicated they had no knowledge the student possessed a firearm. Authorities also revealed the handgun had been reported stolen the night before the incident.
As the investigation continued, police then arrested Heather Dawn Sherrod, 46, of St. Albans, a teacher’s aide at Hayes Middle School. Sherrod was charged with failing to report a firearm and was taken into custody.
A criminal complaint was filed in Kanawha County Magistrate Court. Investigators learned that Sherrod was informed by a student around 8:30 a.m. on Jan. 21 that a handgun had been pointed at another student. Police allege that despite being a mandated reporter, Sherrod did not report the incident. The complaint states Sherrod admitted she knew she was required to report the information but failed to do so.
Sherrod is currently being held at South Central Regional Jail on a $2,500 bond. The St. Albans Police Department continues to work closely with the Kanawha County Prosecutor’s Office as the investigation remains ongoing.
A Government Accountability Report (GAO) study of five federal programs for fraud prevention measures and oversight found the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Universal Service Program for Schools and Libraries, commonly known as E-Rate, to be the only one that met all nine requirements and leading practices to prevent fraud, waste and abuse.
Meanwhile, E-Rate opponents have often characterized the funding mechanism for discounted internet and telecommunications access in libraries, schools and until recently school buses as rampant with fraud. FCC in September voted 2-1 to revoke E-Rate eligibility for school bus Wi-Fi.
In addition to E-Rate, the GAO report released in December examined the policies and procedures of the Department of Commerce’s CHIPS for America Fund, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Center Program, and the Department of Energy’s Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs.
The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) administers E-Rate under FCC oversight and conducts biannual fraud risk assessments. The GAO report found USAC has implemented an entity-wide antifraud strategy, which includes measures to prevent, detect and respond to fraud, as well as ongoing monitoring and evaluation of fraud risk management activities.
GAO noted that E-Rate’s adherence to all nine requirements and leading practices, including maintaining risk profiles, documenting an antifraud strategy and conducting risk-based monitoring. Together, GAO said the requirements and leading practices set a high standard for other federal award programs. In fiscal year 2024, E-Rate obligated approximately $2.9 billion and disbursed $2.6 billion to help schools and libraries access affordable broadband services.
Michael Flood, founder of telecommunications consultant and strategist Alpine Frog, applauded what he called a “100-percent, A-plus score.”
“I would add that the E-Rate program is also widely recognized for continuously and consistently bringing down costs over its 30-year history due to a robust competitive bidding process and commitment to open data practices,” he commented. “E-Rate operates in an efficient and open market.”
The report also highlighted previous recommendations made by GAO to improve fraud risk management in FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). The FCC implemented all six recommendations, further strengthening its oversight capabilities.
While the report identified gaps in fraud prevention measures across other federal programs, it commended the FCC and E-Rate for their proactive approach to safeguarding taxpayer dollars and ensuring program integrity.
DUPAGE, Ill. – Durham School Services and Glenbard Township High School District 87 have started the year on a strong note with their newly formed partnership and successful start to the semester – a testament to Durham’s 109 years of expertise and safe and reliable service. The partnership will extend through July of 2027, and Durham will service a total of fifty regular routes and nine special education routes for the school district.
Durham and its sister brands currently provide student transportation for fifteen communities across Illinois, and through this partnership with Glenbard Township High School District 87, are excited to be able to expand our transportation services to another community in Illinois. Further, through our company-wide community outreach program, Partners Beyond the Bus, our team looks forward to supporting the Glenbard community and its students beyond providing transportation through various community activities and events.
“We appreciate the partnership we’ve established with Durham School Services with an emergency contract for transportation for Glenbard Township High School District 87,” said Jessica Santee, Superintendent, Glenbard Township High School District 87. “While changes of this scale and in this short timeline are extremely difficult, our shared commitment to student safety, reliability, and clear communication has helped us to start the semester off smoothly. Durham has worked closely with our district to address our needs, support drivers, and strengthen day-to-day operations. We value their responsiveness and commitment to our greater school community. We look forward to our continued partnership in providing dependable transportation services for our students and families.”
“What a great, positive way to begin 2026 by forging this partnership with Glenbard Township High School District 87,” said Tim Wertner, CEO, Durham School Services. “Even with the hustle and bustle of the holidays and New Years, our team stayed focused and worked in perfect tandem with the school district to keep the momentum going to ensure that we were prepped and ready for a successful start-up. Thank you, team, and Glenbard Township High School District 87, for all your efforts! We are off to an excellent start, and we’re thrilled to join and support the Glenbard community. We look forward to building strong bonds with the community and continuing our commitment to transport students to school safely, on time, and ready to learn every day.”
About Durham School Services: As an industry-leading student transportation provider, Durham School Services and its sister brands, Stock Transportation and Petermann Bus, are dedicated to the safety of our students and People. Collectively, for more than 100 years, we have been committed to Excellence and upholding our mission of getting students to school safely, on time, and ready to learn. Through this mission and a grassroots approach to our operations, Durham School Services and its sister brands have earned recognition as a trusted transportation provider among our Customers and the Communities they serve.
Flanked by Rev. Julia Burkey, left, and U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, right, Christine Neumann-Ortiz speaks at a press conference Thursday about plans to respond if federal immigration agents surge into Wisconsin. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)
A surge in Wisconsin of federal immigration enforcement will be met with an organized and peaceful resistance, the product of more than a year’s worth of planning and training, advocates vowed Thursday.
Voces de la Frontera, a statewide immigrant rights advocacy group based in Milwaukee, has established a 24-hour hotline to field calls from people concerned about the possible presence of federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as border patrol.
At an afternoon news conference with U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Black Earth) in a Madison church, Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces, said the hotline is “the starting point” for people who want to respond if they encounter a possible surge of ICE or border patrol agents.
Staffed around the clock by volunteers, the hotline was established to provide a centralized source of verified reports when there’s new ICE or border patrol activity around the state and to quickly dispel false reports that only increase fear.
Advocates and their allies are bracing for the possibility of a new federal surge in Wisconsin following what has now been more than two months of escalated federal activity in Minneapolis.
“It is not likely a question of if they’ll be coming into the community in a stronger way,” Pocan said. “It is a question of when they’ll be coming into the community.”
The Minnesota surge has led to the deaths of two people — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — who were killed by federal agents. In both instances, eyewitness accounts and videos refuted Trump administration claims that the victims had acted violently in the moments before they were shot.
“It’s not just the killings and the violence, but people are being separated and they’re also being held in dangerous and deadly conditions that are harder to see,” Neumann-Ortiz said — because federal officials have been “denying much oversight.”
Pocan authored a bill to abolish ICE during Trump’s first term, but acknowledged that even he has been taken aback by the agency’s actions in the last year.
“I don’t think people realized — nor did I — that we would ever get to this point where ICE was this rogue, this out of control,” Pocan said. “We have seen them going into communities and really having devastating consequences.”
He endorsed a description of the agencies as “a modern day Gestapo” that he attributed to New York Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler. “It’s treating the non-citizen and citizen alike with this disrespect.”
Pocan said Wisconsin can respond both forcefully and peacefully.
“Our message is that this is a community that’s going to be united,” he said. “We are going to fight back. And I do not mean physically fight back — I mean morally fight back — on what ICE is doing and how it’s treating our neighbors and our community, and what we’re seeing in Minneapolis and other places across the country.”
Rev. Julia Burkey, the senior pastor at Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ where the news conference was held, described the actions of the federal Department of Homeland Security as “terrorizing and killing innocent people, who are all beloved children of God, simply seeking to live their lives and make peace in their communities.”
She contrasted that with the response of Twin Cities residents who have turned out to support the immigrant community.
“We also are so inspired by the people of Minnesota and how they are loving their neighbors, how they’re singing songs of love and solidarity, how they’re protecting the most vulnerable people who are delivering church meals to those who are even afraid to go outside,” Burkey said. “What we’re seeing is a groundswell of neighborly love, and we have that groundswell of neighborly love here in Wisconsin, too.”
Voces and its allies have been preparing for a wave of federal anti-immigrant action since President Donald Trump was elected to his second term.
“In Wisconsin, we have been building — really since November 2024 — with other organizations, faith groups, unions, a statewide community defense network to stand in solidarity with immigrant families and to protect our collective democratic rights,” Neumann-Ortiz said. “This network exists to help people assert their constitutional rights through peaceful assembly to document ICE violations and expose the truth about what is happening in our communities.”
Neumann-Ortiz urged people not to post or share purported sightings of ICE or other federal agents that have not been verified, to avoid spreading needless fear and misinformation.
The Voces hotline has trained volunteers who can be dispatched to locations where the federal agencies are suspected of operating and document what they encounter.
Verifiers are trained to not interfere in federal options, Neumann-Ortiz said, but instead “observe, record and support impacted families, connecting them through another network of folks who can provide legal resources and mutual aid when necessary.”
Voces also coordinates a rapid response network of volunteers to peacefully protest and publicize “unlawful and abusive activity” by federal agents, she said. Tens of thousands of volunteers have been trained across the state in churches, schools, workplaces and other locations on their legal rights and on how to respond safely, nonviolently and effectively and in a spirit of “collective care,” she added.
“Everyone should know that you have the right to remain silent if you are questioned by ICE, you have the right to an attorney if you are arrested or detained, and you have the right to demand that ICE present a judicial warrant signed by a judge before giving them access to your home, workplace, or any other area that is considered a private area not open to the public,” Neumann-Ortiz said.
“Together, these efforts represent a model of community-based safety, rooted in solidarity, dignity, shared responsibility,” she said. “We believe that real security comes from people looking out for one another, not from militarized federal agencies. Our communities deserve safety without fear, justice without violence and dignity without conditions.”
White House Border Czar Tom Homan talks with reporters on the driveway outside the White House West Wing on March 17, 2025. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, cited “sanctuary” policies and the Biden administration’s ineffective border enforcement as the reason for the ongoing massive presence of immigration agents in Minnesota in a press conference Thursday morning.
Homan took over operations in Minnesota Monday from Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, who was demoted after his agents shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis over the weekend.
Three thousand immigration agents remain in Minnesota, Homan said, and a reduction in force depends on cooperation from elected officials.
Homan tacitly acknowledged the chaos, saying, “I’m not here because the federal government has carried out its mission perfectly.”
Despite agents’ frequent arrests of legal immigrants and those without criminal histories, Homan insisted that immigration operations in Minnesota are targeted on removing undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes.
A federal agent holds up a canister of tear gas as people gather near the scene of 26th Street West and Nicollet Avenue, where federal agents shot and killed a 37-year-old man Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, the third shooting in as many weeks. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
Homan, who reportedly was investigated for receiving $50,000 in cash from an undercover FBI agent in 2024 in an alleged bribery scheme, said state and local law enforcement agencies’ refusal to assist immigration agents is the reason for the prolonged federal presence in Minnesota.
“Give us access to the illegal alien public safety threat and the safety and security of a jail,” Homan said in the press conference.
Many of the “worst of the worst” immigrants convicted of crimes, whose names have been provided to media outlets, were handed over to immigration officials after finishing sentences in state prisons, according to an MPR News analysis. Eight local law enforcement agencies in Minnesota have signed agreements with ICE to allow access to jails, or assist in immigration enforcement in other ways.
Other Trump administration officials have given different explanations for the ongoing “surge” — and made other demands of elected officials. Initial reports suggested the operation would target Somali Americans. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said when the operation began in December that it was intended to “eradicate FRAUD.” Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz last week demanding the state hand over troves of Medicaid, nutrition assistance and voter data.
Homan said he has met with Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and local law enforcement leaders, and that those meetings have been “productive,” though he urged those elected officials to tone down their rhetoric.
“I’ve begged for the last two months on TV for the rhetoric to stop. I said in March if the rhetoric doesn’t stop, there’s going to be bloodshed. And there has been,” he said.
(He did not address Trump’s rhetoric; the president has called Somali Americans “garbage” and his political enemies “vermin.”)
Through a spokesperson, Frey responded to Homan’s news conference, saying “Any drawdown of ICE agents is a step in the right direction—but my ask remains the same: Operation Metro Surge must end.”
A spokesperson for Walz said “we need a drawdown in federal forces, impartial (Bureau of Criminal Apprehension) investigations, and an end to the campaign of retribution against Minnesota.”
Ellison did not immediately return requests for comment.
Homan seemed to take a shot at his predecessor, Bovino, who made frequent appearances in Minneapolis and at the Whipple Federal Building, surrounded by camerapeople.
“I didn’t come to seek photo ops or headlines,” Homan said. “I came here to seek solutions.”
Max Nesterak contributed reporting.
This story was originally produced by Minnesota Reformer, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Diana E. Murphy federal courthouse is shown in Minneapolis Friday, May 17, 2024. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
Patrick J. Schiltz, chief judge of the federal district court in Minnesota and a former clerk to conservative icon Antonin Scalia, ripped the Trump administration for ignoring dozens of court orders in a ruling Wednesday.
Schiltz had previously demanded to see U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons for a Friday contempt proceeding.
After ICE released a detainee identified in court documents as Juan T.R., Schiltz canceled the hearing but also blasted the government for undermining the rule of law by ignoring judicial orders.
“That does not end the court’s concerns, however,” he wrote, attaching an appendix identifying 96 court orders that ICE violated in 74 cases.
“The extent of ICE’s noncompliance is almost certainly substantially understated,” he continued. “This list should give pause to anyone — no matter his or her political beliefs — who cares about the rule of law.”
The last straw for Schiltz was the officials’ failure to follow a Jan. 14 order to grant a timely bond hearing for Juan T.R., who Schiltz said remained in custody as of Friday. The Monday order excoriated Lyons and his colleagues for causing “significant hardship” for Minnesota residents caught up in the federal dragnet, many of whom “have lawfully lived and worked in the United States for years and done absolutely nothing wrong,” he emphasized.
Schiltz described scenarios in which detainees were held longer than necessary; removed to detention facilities elsewhere in the country; or released hundreds or even thousands of miles from home with no arrangements made for their return.
This story was originally produced by Minnesota Reformer, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Bystanders watch as Washington, D.C., police and agents from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration make an arrest in August. Crime in major U.S. cities continued to decline in 2025, with homicides down 21% from 2024 and 44% from a peak in 2021, according to a new analysis by the Council on Criminal Justice. (Photo by Noelle Straub/Stateline)
Crime continued to decline in 2025, with homicides down 21% from 2024 and 44% from a peak in 2021, according to a new analysis of crime trends in 40 large U.S. cities released by the nonpartisan think tank Council on Criminal Justice.
If federal nationwide data, which is set to be released later this year, reflects similar trends, the national homicide rate could fall to its lowest level in more than a century.
The Council on Criminal Justice study analyzed 13 types of offenses — from homicides to drug crimes to shoplifting — in cities that have consistently published monthly data over the past eight years. Researchers found that 11 of the 13 offenses were lower in 2025 than in 2024, with nine dropping by 10% or more.
Drug offenses were the only category to rise, while sexual assaults remained unchanged.
Carjackings and shoplifting also declined sharply. Reported carjackings fell 61% from 2023, while reported shoplifting dropped 10% from 2024.
Among the 35 cities reporting homicides, nearly all recorded declines. Denver; Omaha, Nebraska; and Washington, D.C., saw homicide rates drop roughly 40%.
There were some modest increases, including in Little Rock, Arkansas; Fort Worth, Texas; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The homicide rate in El Paso, Texas, remained flat. Overall, 922 fewer homicides were reported across the cities in the sample.
The downward trends extend beyond homicides. In 2025, reported incidents of aggravated assaults fell 9%, gun assaults 22%, robberies 23%, residential burglaries 17%, nonresidential burglaries 18%, larcenies 11%, and domestic violence 2%.
Looking at longer-term trends, violent crime levels in most cities are at or below pre-pandemic levels, the analysis found. Homicides were 25% lower than in 2019, with Baltimore seeing the largest drop at 60%. Milwaukee had the largest increase in homicides, at 42%.
Robberies, carjackings, domestic violence incidents, gun assaults, aggravated assaults and sexual assaults also remained below 2019 levels. Only motor vehicle thefts and nonresidential burglaries remained slightly elevated.
Nonviolent crimes have shown varied trends over the past seven years. Burglaries fell 45%, larcenies 20%, drug offenses 19%, and shoplifting 4% compared with 2019 levels.
The Council on Criminal Justice also examined trends from recent peaks, finding substantial declines in all major offense categories. Homicides fell 44% from their 2021 peak, gun assaults fell 44%, aggravated assaults 19%, domestic violence 23%, robbery 39%, carjackings 61%, residential burglaries 51%, and motor vehicle thefts 43%.
Despite the downward trajectory, researchers caution that the reasons for the decline are uncertain. Changes in criminal justice policies, law enforcement practices, crime-fighting technology, social and economic conditions, and local violence prevention efforts could all be contributing factors, according to the analysis.
This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Four individuals were arrested in Ypsilanti on Tuesday, a spokesperson for ICE confirmed, after information from Ypsilanti Community Schools Superintendent Alena Zachery-Ross and Washtenaw County Sheriff Alyshia Dyer was shared Wednesday morning with community members about ICE arrests in the area.
Christine Sauvé, the Policy, Engagement, and Communications Manager for the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, confirmed to the Michigan Advance that three parents of Ypsilanti Community Schools students “were arrested by immigration agents while waiting to pick up their children at a bus stop when coming home from school.”
A spokesperson from ICE wrote in a statement that bus stops were not targeted in the arrests made, and that the arrests were made during a targeted vehicle stop.
“ICE does not target schools for enforcement actions or bus stop locations. To be clear, no children were present during these arrests,” the ICE spokesperson wrote.
Dyer wrote in an email to the Advance, “I have now been able to confirm after talking with immigration enforcement leadership they will not and do not target bus stops or schools and while they did make arrests in Washtenaw on Tuesday, they never did any of this intentionally near any school bus stop areas nor were they targeting bus stops.”
A Wednesday statement from Dyer on her Facebook page said, “Based on the information we currently have, ICE activity did not occur on any school grounds. However, it did take place near bus stops in the Ypsilanti community, and it appears that parents connected to local schools were targeted at a bus stop in Ypsilanti during student drop-off times.”
Sauvé said that the three individuals arrested in the first vehicle stop — two women from Honduras and one from Mexico, the latter of whom had a final order of removal, according to the ICE statement — are all currently detained at the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Mich., and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center has scheduled time with each to provide free legal services to them. Michigan Advance was able to independently confirm based on ICE data that one of the individuals was listed as detained at the center in Baldwin.
“Parents should be able to take their children to school without fear, and children should not have to worry their parents will be arrested at a bus stop,” Sauvé wrote. “This kind of trauma has been shown to have negative effects on children’s health and wellbeing. Community members are terrified but we are heartened by the strong community response.”
MLive reported on Thursday that within three miles of where Tuesday’s detention occurred, school campuses include Ypsilanti Puentes Multilingual School — a Ypsilanti Community Schools K-4 school with a Spanish-language immersion program — Washtenaw International High School, Ypsilanti International Elementary School, Ypsilanti Community High School and several other elementary and middle schools within the district.
Michigan Immigrant Rights Center is not currently in contact with the fourth arrested individual, a man from Honduras, who was detained in a second vehicle stop in Ypsilanti, and that person’s detention location is not currently known.
ICE did not immediately respond to a follow-up inquiry about where each person is being detained.
This story was originally produced by Michigan Advance, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks with reporters and editors in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 29, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is preparing a response should the Trump administration surge federal immigration agents into the commonwealth, he said Thursday in Washington, D.C.
Recent deadly shootings of two Minneapolis residents by federal agents compelled the Democratic governor “to let the good people of Pennsylvania know my views on this, where I stand, and also let them know that I’m going to protect them,” he said.
Shapiro declined to provide details, saying it would “not be prudent” to share specifics on whether a response would be a law enforcement operation or confined to challenging the administration in the courtroom.
“We’re prepared on every level now. If the president of the United States seeks to impose his will, and the federal will, on our commonwealth, there may be some things that we can’t stop, but I can tell you, we’ve learned from the good example in other states,” Shapiro said, citing actions by other Democratic governors in California, Illinois, Minnesota and Maine.
D.C. stop for presidential hopefuls
Shapiro delivered the comments during an intimate brunch with the Washington press corps hosted by The Christian Science Monitor. The Monitor routinely hosts press events with elected officials and newsmakers, and has historically been a stop on the circuit for presidential hopefuls.
Shapiro brushed aside questions about a possible presidential bid in 2028, instead saying he’s running for reelection this year and believes that “no one should be looking past these midterms.”
“I don’t think we should be thinking about anything other than curtailing the chaos, the cruelty and the corruption of this administration, and the best way for voters to do that is by showing up in record numbers,” Shapiro said.
The Pennsylvania executive also expressed he is “deeply concerned” about the administration’s efforts to undermine the election.
“The administration demanded that I turn over all of the voter rolls for our commonwealth. We have roughly 9 million voters. … I have a legal responsibility to protect that information. I also do not trust this administration to use that for anything other than nefarious purposes, and so I refuse to share that information. They’ve sued us, and we’ll see them in court,” he said.
The Trump administration has sued more than 20 states to date for voter roll data, including personally identifying information, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The administration has said it plans to share the data with the Department of Homeland Security to search for noncitizens.
Among the states targeted alongside Pennsylvania: Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
New book
Shapiro told reporters he attended Thursday’s event to promote his new book, titled “Where We Keep the Light: Stories from a Life of Service,” which features stories about his faith, the process of being vetted as a potential 2024 vice presidential candidate for Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, and the “dark moment” in April 2025 when a lone man set fire to the governor’s mansion in an attempt on Shapiro’s life.
“We have to acknowledge political violence has been an issue for generations. I think it is also true that over the last several years, we’ve seen a rise,” he said, citing the recent attack on U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., the killings of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, as well as the assassination attempts of President Donald Trump on the campaign trail.
Elected leaders, he said, have a “responsibility to speak and act with moral clarity and to condemn that violence regardless of who’s targeted.”
“I must say, when the president of the United States fails to condemn acts of political violence because they’re targeting someone that he dislikes or disagrees with, that makes us all less safe,” he said.
The governor has been on a media blitz promoting his book, including an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” earlier this week.
He told the host it’s a “sad day in America that a governor of a commonwealth needs to prepare for a federal onslaught where they would send troops in to undermine the freedoms and constitutional rights of our citizens.”
In response to a request for comment, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said assaults on federal immigration agents are on the rise because of “untrue smears by elected Democrats.”
“Just the other day, an officer had his finger bitten off by a radical left-wing rioter. ICE officers act heroically to enforce the law and protect American communities and local officials should work with them, not against them. Anyone pointing the finger at law enforcement officers instead of the criminals is simply doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens,” Jackson said in a written statement.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 28, 2026. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate could vote as soon as Thursday night to approve a government funding package after Democrats brokered a deal with the White House to strip out the full-year spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security.
That bill will be replaced by a two-week stopgap for programs run out of DHS, which includes the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency — at a time when the agency is responding to a major winter storm — and the Secret Service.
The change is intended to give Republicans and Democrats more time to reach agreement on restrictions to federal immigration enforcement after the deadly shooting of a second U.S. citizen by immigration agents in Minneapolis on Saturday.
President Donald Trump wrote in a social media post that he wanted lawmakers to send him the reworked package in time to avoid a partial government shutdown, which would likely begin this weekend after a stopgap spending law expires.
“I am working hard with Congress to ensure that we are able to fully fund the Government, without delay,” Trump wrote. “Republicans and Democrats in Congress have come together to get the vast majority of the Government funded until September, while at the same time providing an extension to the Department of Homeland Security (including the very important Coast Guard, which we are expanding and rebuilding like never before). Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ Vote.”
Snow piled outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 29, 2026. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
The package, once through the Senate, will need to go back to the House for final approval, though GOP leaders in that chamber haven’t announced if they will bring lawmakers back before Monday, when members are scheduled to return to Capitol Hill from a weeklong break.
Once the House clears the package, it will head to Trump for his signature.
Senators did not change or remove the Defense, Financial Services and General Government, Labor-HHS-Education, National Security-State and Transportation-HUD appropriations bills from the package.
Congress previously approved half of the dozen annual spending bills, so once this package becomes law, the Department of Homeland Security will be the only division of the federal government without its full-year funding bill.
List of Democratic demands
Democrats and Republicans reached consensus on some changes to the Homeland Security appropriations bill after the Jan. 7 shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good, including funding for body cameras and additional oversight of detention facilities.
The House approved that bill last week and sent it to the Senate as part of the larger package.
But Border Patrol agents’ shooting and killing of Alex Pretti led Democrats to call for the DHS spending bill to be pulled to give lawmakers time to negotiate additional guardrails on federal immigration actions.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., outlined a list of proposed changes Tuesday that included:
The end of roving patrols;
Tightening the rules governing the use of warrants;
Requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement to coordinate with state and local law enforcement;
Implementing a uniform code of conduct that holds federal law enforcement to the same set of standards that apply to state and local agencies;
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Thursday morning that “there’s a path to consider some of” the changes to federal immigration during bipartisan negotiations.
But he expressed doubt later in the day that a two-week stopgap bill for DHS would give lawmakers enough time to find agreement on changes to immigration enforcement, saying there’s “no way you could do it that fast.”
“At some point we want to fund the government,” Thune said. “Obviously the two-week (continuing resolution) probably means there’s going to be another two-week CR and maybe another two-week CR after that. I don’t know why they’re doing it that way.”
Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Katie Britt, R-Ala., also expressed doubt a two-week stopgap would provide enough time for negotiators to broker a bipartisan deal and hold votes in each chamber.
“I think, obviously, four weeks would be much better when you’re looking at what’s in front of us,” she said.
Britt said she’d decide on any counter-proposals to Democrats after the government was funded.
“We’re going to land this plane and then we’re going to figure it out,” she said.
Homan comments please Tillis
In response to immigration agents killing Pretti, the president directed his border czar, Tom Homan, to head to Minneapolis.
Homan said during a morning press conference that immigration enforcement would only end if state officials cooperate and aid the federal government in the Trump administration’s immigration campaign. States and localities are not required to enforce immigration law, as it’s a federal responsibility.
Homan did not specify how long he would remain in Minnesota, only “until the problem’s gone.”
North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said in the afternoon that he had messaged Trump to express his appreciation for sending Homan to Minneapolis, saying it led to a “sea change.”
“I texted the president and said, ‘great job,’” Tillis said. “You know, I can’t imagine we would be in this place if he’d been there to begin with.”
Tillis said he thought Homan’s press conference had been “perfect.”
“He said at least twice he wasn’t there for a photo op and he was there to de-escalate,” Tillis said. “That’s what happens when you put a professional law enforcement officer in the role versus people who have no experience in it.”
People whistle and film as federal agents block an alley near 35th Street and Chicago Avenue while they break a car window to detain a man and his young daughter Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
Less than an hour after the Saturday morning killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents in south Minneapolis, conservative influencer Cam Higby took to social media with a sensational claim: Higby had “infiltrated” the group chats fueling local resistance to Operation Metro Surge.
On Monday, FBI director Kash Patel said he had “opened an investigation” into the chats. Many are said to be hosted on Signal, the encrypted messaging app.
“You cannot create a scenario that illegally entraps and puts law enforcement in harm’s way,” Patel said in a podcast interview with Benny Johnson, another conservative influencer. Johnson’s title for the episode’s YouTube stream, “Kash Patel Announces FBI Crack-Down of Left-Wing Minnesota Terrorist Network LIVE: ‘Tim Walz Next…’,” left little to the imagination.
In response to emailed questions about the nature of its investigation, the FBI declined to comment.
First Amendment lawyers and national security experts expressed deep skepticism that any charges stemming from it will stick, however.
“As a general proposition, reporting on things you are observing and sharing those observations is absolutely legal,” Jane Kirtley, professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota Law School, said in an interview.
A guide that Higby described as “the watered down opsec version” of a “TRAINING MANUAL for domestic terrorist patrols chasing ICE agents in Minneapolis” instructs observers to draw attention to suspected ICE activity using whistles and car horns — but specifically warns against impeding officers.
Kirtley said Patel’s statements to date have been too vague to support firm conclusions about what the FBI will actually investigate or what charges, if any, the United States Department of Justice would bring as a result. The sorts of loaded terms that influencers like Higby and President Trump himself have used to describe organizers’ activities — such as “conspiracy” or “insurrection” — are formal legal concepts that require certain standards to be met, she added.
Jason Marisam, a constitutional law professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, said any prosecution would likely need to pass a two-part test established in a nearly 60-year-old U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Brandenburg v. Ohio.
Brandenburg prohibits speech only if it is “directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action,” such as violence against law enforcement officers, and “is likely to incite or produce such action,” according to a summary by Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute.
Brandenburgis “a very high bar,” Marisam said. Speech that only indirectly led to “lawless action,” such as coordinating a protest that later turned violent, would likely not meet it, he added.
“The use of encryption to keep government authorities from getting access to our private communications is literally as American as apple pie.”
– Patrick G. Eddington
Marisam said Brandenburg, incidentally,is the same standard that former special counsel Jack Smith would have needed to meet had his January 6th prosecution against President Trump gone to trial, Marisam added. That case was mooted after Trump won a second term and subsequently oversaw a campaign of professional retribution against the career prosecutors on Smith’s team.
Marisam said narrowing or overturning Brandenburghas not yet been a priority for conservatives in the judiciary, despite self-evident benefits for Trump’s efforts to quell dissent and consolidate power. But he acknowledged that the “politics of free speech” can change depending on who’s in charge in Washington.
For instance, Trump supporters castigated what they perceived to be limits on free speech during the Biden years, but have remained silent in the face of a student’s deportation for writing an op-ed.
Still, Patel’s apparent interest in Twin Cities observers’ encrypted chats is likely less the opening move of a well-thought-out legal strategy than an effort to discourage legally permissible activity, Marisam said.
“It seems to me that (Patel’s) announcement is meant to chill speech ahead of time,” he said.
In a blog post published Tuesday, Patrick Eddington, a senior fellow with the libertarian Cato Institute, said federal prosecutors would likewise struggle to make hay out of Twin Cities observers’ use of the encrypted messaging apps themselves.
Trump officials and right-wing pundits have pointed to Signal’s popularity within the observer networks as evidence that participants want to evade legal accountability for their actions. Signal uses end-to-end encryption, meaning messages sent on properly secured devices kept in their owners’ possession are effectively impossible for third parties to see. Signal itself can’t access messages or calls sent over the app, the company says, though messages on a user’s device can be read if it is hacked or stolen. (Or, if the wrong person is added to a Signal chat, as when senior national security figures in the Trump administration — including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth — sent information about military operations to the editor of The Atlantic magazine after he’d been accidentally included.)
Eddington, who works on homeland security and civil liberties issues for Cato, said the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ 1999 ruling in Bernstein v. United States Department of Justice established ordinary citizens’ rights to use encrypted channels for communication they wish to keep private. Government efforts to curtail encryption could impede individuals’ rights under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits “unreasonable search and seizure.”
Eddington cited a much earlier precedent that may well have informed the Constitution’s privacy protections, though its contemporary legal relevance is unclear. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and other members of America’s founding generation used “codes and ciphers” to communicate before, during and after the Revolutionary War, Eddington wrote.
“The use of encryption to keep government authorities from getting access to our private communications is literally as American as apple pie,” he wrote.
This story was originally produced by Minnesota Reformer, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Lincoln Hills, the troubled youth detention facility, ended court-ordered monitoring Wednesday. | Photo courtesy Wisconsin Department of Corrections
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge James Peterson ended mandated oversight of the Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake youth prisons. A court-mandated monitoring program for the juvenile detention facilities found them to be in “substantial compliance” with reforms sought in a 2018 class action settlement, marking a new chapter in their troubled history.
Teresa Abreu, the court-appointed monitor, praised the progress both facilities have made in the latest report. “This accomplishment reflects years of deliberate and meaningful reform, including the elimination of OC spray, the removal of punitive room confinement, the reduction of restraint usage and confinement in general, the use of MANDT, the implementation of a robust behavior management system and programming efforts to reduce idleness, and a strong emphasis on staff wellness.”
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
For years, the Lincoln Hills School for Boys and the Copper Lake School for Girls were notorious among the nation’s largest juvenile prisons. Children and teens incarcerated there, most of them from Milwaukee, described being subjected to pepper spray, solitary confinement, and man-handling by guards. Guards also reported experiencing violence and injuries caused by incarcerated youth.
Those reports culminated in a lawsuit filed in 2017 by the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, the Juvenile Law Center, and the Milwaukee-based law firm Quarles & Brady LLP over conditions in both corrections facilities. A settlement agreement was eventually reached, and included a consent decree which mandated that policies, practices, and conditions improve at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake, while also appointing a monitor to ensure that the facilities came into compliance with the settlement.
“When we started this lawsuit in 2017, the use of pepper spray on children, solitary confinement, shackling, and strip searches were rampant at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake,” Tim Muth, staff attorney at the ACLU of Wisconsin said in a statement. “Today, those practices have been eliminated or significantly restricted at the facilities, and the reforms codified into binding regulations.”
Gov. Tony Evers praised the facilities’ progress. “This has been a goal a decade in the making, and it’s tremendous to be able to celebrate the completion of reforms at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake schools today…This is a win for our state, a win for youth in our care, and a win for those who dedicate their time and energy to supporting the needed advancement of our justice system.”
Abreu’s most recent assessment noted that the overall climate, safety and culture at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake had seen “a demonstrable improvement,” but stressed that sustaining reforms to the facilities “must remain a top priority, not just to protect youth and staff but also to ensure continued compliance with the Consent Decree, which has now been codified by the Wisconsin Administrative Code.”
Kate Burdick, senior attorney at the Juvenile Law Center, commended Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake as being a “far cry from where we started” in a statement. “Yet we know that no child should grow up in prison — even an improved one. Across Wisconsin, the focus should be on building up alternatives to incarceration that support young people and help them thrive at home and in their own communities.”
Today there are 112 youth incarcerated by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections according to the most recent population report. That number includes 71 boys at Lincoln Hills and 22 girls at Copper Lake. While improvements have been made to both facilities, plans to eventually close the two prisons have been stalled by years of legislative debate and local pushback from communities that don’t want new juvenile prisons built in their backyards.
In 2024, Lincoln Hills was engulfed by a new wave of controversy after a staff member died from injuries he’d received during an assault. One of the involved teens, 18-year-old Rian Nyblom, pleaded guilty last year, and a trial for 17-year-old Javarius Hurd has been delayed. Hurd pleaded guilty to homicide and battery charges, but has argued that he was not responsible due to mental illness
Abreu stressed in her monitoring report more improvements are needed at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake. “Despite this progress, critical work remains,” the monitor wrote. “The Defendants must establish a comprehensive, long-term strategy for youth who are not suited for a juvenile correctional setting. As the Monitor has consistently advised, greater emphasis must be placed on transferring youth from [Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake] to more appropriate placements or diverting them from confinement altogether. The opening of new facilities should not result in increased incarceration; rather, it should advance the vision of placing youth closer to home and ultimately closing [Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake].”
Rep. Andrew Hysell said Wisconsin’s state level officials need to act when the federal government is “failing” people. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Wisconsin’s freshman Democratic lawmakers are calling for the state’s constitution to be amended to include an explicit protection for Wisconsinites’ fundamental right to privacy.
“For months, we have seen agents of the federal government run roughshod over the law and the Constitution. Doing so is harming and even killing Americans,” Rep. Andrew Hysell (D-Sun Prairie) said at a press conference. “Not surprisingly, people here in Wisconsin are very afraid. If members of ICE can kill with impunity, how can anyone feel safe? This should not be happening in the United States.”
The recent shooting of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse from Green Bay, by federal Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis has prompted an array of reactions from Wisconsin politicians including Gov. Tony Evers, who joined a lawsuit challenging the presence of federal immigration agents in the Twin Cities, and candidates for governor, including U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who said that “cooperation is how you avoid tragic consequences.”
Hysell said Wisconsin’s state level officials need to act when the federal government is “failing” people.
“When federal agents operate outside the limits set by the United States Constitution, state constitutions become the last meaningful line of defense for individual liberty,” Hysell said.
Hysell said that elevating an individual right to privacy in Wisconsin would place clear constitutional limits on government intrusion, including administrative warrants issued by enforcement agencies rather than judges, civil detentions that function as criminal restraints without criminal process, pretextual entry into homes and the collection or use of personal data and location information without individualized judicial review.
Hysell said a constitutional amendment would act as a stronger protection than a change in state law.
“A fundamental right flips the script in court. Instead of you having to plead to the judge that the government has done something wrong, the government has to justify how it had the power to do it in the first place,” Hysell said. “Wisconsin has a statutory right to privacy that provides some protection, but it’s not enough. Elevating the right to privacy to a constitutional level here in Wisconsin gives us protection from governmental overreach and abuse, exactly the kind of things we’ve seen in Minneapolis.”
Hysell said the bill has the support of all 23 first-term Democratic representatives.
“It’s actually quite simple,” Sen. Melissa Ratcliff (D-Cottage Grove) said. “It affirms Wisconsinites constitutional right to privacy. It’s very simple in language, and it’s a fundamental promise that deeply personal decisions belong to individuals and families — not politicians or the government.”
Constitutional amendments in Wisconsin have to pass two consecutive sessions of the state Legislature and receive approval from a majority of voters to become law.
Wisconsin voters have decided on 10 constitutional amendment questions in the last five years. There are likely to be three on deck, including one to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, on the ballot in November alongside Wisconsin’s open race for governor, Congressional races and state legislative races.
“Wisconsin constitutional amendments used to mean something, but now they have become weaponized by the Republican majority and used as a way to circumvent the governor’s desk all while debasing our state constitution,” Ratcliff said. “Today’s proposed Wisconsin constitutional right to privacy amendment is not political theater or abstract language. It’s about ensuring that government power has clear limits, that individuals are protected from unreasonable intrusion and that all of our core liberties are upheld.”
Hysell said there are 11 other states, including Montana and Alaska, that have privacy rights covered in their state constitutions.
The proposal will face a difficult path in the Republican-led Legislature.
Hysell said in response to a question about getting Republicans on board that “this really should be a nonpartisan issue because it’s about protecting all Americans.”
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