With rising costs for health insurance purchased through the Affordable Care Act, Democrats in the Legislature are proposing another tactic to help more people afford health coverage.

Rep. Tara Johnson (D-Town of Shelby) announced legislation Tuesday that would enable members of the public buy into the state’s BadgerCare Plus health insurance plan.

BadgerCare Plus is Wisconsin’s name for Medicaid and is available to families and individuals with household incomes up to the federal poverty guideline — $15,960 for a single person and $33,000 for a family of three.

Johnson’s bill would expand BadgerCare’s coverage by creating a “public option” — allowing families with higher incomes to pay for the health plan out of pocket. Democrats in Wisconsin have offered similar proposals in the past that have not advanced. At the same time, the idea has been catching on in some other states, Stateline reports, although not all of them are connected to Medicaid. 

“When this law is passed, Wisconsinites will have an affordable option instead of the sky-high premiums and massive deductibles currently available from private insurance carriers,” Johnson said at a news conference in the Capitol Tuesday morning. “Public health care keeps prices down because it is not beholden to insurance company stockholders or bonuses for executives, and those savings will get passed on to Wisconsinites.”

“This will dramatically increase, for a large number of people, the number of affordable insurance options at a time when there is a crisis in affordability generally, and health care is one of the top reasons why,” said Robert Kraig, executive director of the advocacy group Wisconsin Citizens Action.

Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) said the bill would provide an affordable health care alternative for people who had relied on plans purchased through the federal marketplace, HealthCare.gov, that was created by the Affordable Care Act. Enhanced subsidies that had lowered the cost of policies bought through the marketplace expired at the end of 2025.

On HealthCare.gov policies, “average premiums more than doubled when Republicans in Congress allowed those enhanced subsidies to expire at the end of last year,” Larson said. The subsidies were eliminated for families with incomes of more than 400% of the federal poverty guideline — around $86,000 for a couple.

For a 55-year-old couple at that income level, the premiums on the second-tier of plans sold at HealthCare.gov would increase “from $601 a month to $2,311 per month this year,” Larson said — or about $20,000 a year.

The legislation would “move us closer to the point where we need to get, where health care is a right for all and anyone can get the care that they deserve without a speck of fear that they are going to go broke just so that they can survive,” Larson said. “The fact that that is an open question right now is shameful for our state. It’s shameful for our country.”

The bill also would allow small businesses with fewer than 50 employees to enroll in BadgerCare plans. Madison chef and restaurateur Evan Danells said some of his employees had relied on ACA plans but were also confronted with increased premiums that many would have trouble being able to afford. Danells is a member of Main Street Alliance, a small business group that has organized support for the ACA among other policies.

“One of the coolest things about having a public option is it allows people to go in and get affordable preventative care,” Danells said. As a result, “they don’t become wards of the state health care system when they’re all of a sudden broke and the problem has snowballed.”

Indiana Hauser of La Crosse said she works two part-time jobs, neither of which provides health insurance. Last year she was able to purchase health coverage for $12 a month with the enhanced subsidies. “This year it went up to $400 a month for worse coverage,” said Hauser, who is active with the advocacy group Citizens Action of Wisconsin.

Hauser said she has life-long health complications due to a traumatic brain injury when she was a teenager. Nevertheless, she said, she has had to go without insurance this year because she cannot afford it.

An affordable community clinic helps her, she added, but many communities don’t have such resources.  While rationing her medications and visits to the doctor, Hauser worries that she’s “one small accident away from a financial crisis,” she said.

“Across the state, there are people and families making life or death decisions, and it doesn’t have to be that way,” Hauser said. “The BadgerCare public option could change my life and the lives of people all across our state.”

Larson and Kraig said that due to changes made by the federal tax- and spending-cut bill that President Donald Trump signed in July 2025, the likely premiums people would pay for BadgerCare under the Public Option haven’t yet been calculated. A 2025 analysis by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau projected premiums could cost about $971 a month, but also noted that a variety of factors could increase or reduce that cost.

According to the Feb. 17, 2025, fiscal bureau memo, “It is possible that the purchase option population could be, on average, less costly, which could make the premium lower” compared with the medical needs of BadgerCare patients who qualify for Medicaid. “If, on the other hand, the purchase option attracts older individuals or individuals with more significant health conditions, the premiums may be similar to, or even higher than, the average cost of BadgerCare Plus coverage.”

With the legislation being introduced after the Assembly has already wrapped up its floor period for 2026, the proposal seems unlikely to advance this year.

“I would say it’s always a good idea to introduce good bills,” Johnson said when asked about the timing of the announcement. Gov. Tony Evers, she noted, earlier Tuesday called for a special session to pass a resolution against gerrymandering the state’s legislative maps.

“We have five days on the calendar in March. We have five days in the calendar in April, I think it’s three days in May,” Johnson said. “There’s no reason that we cannot take up this legislation.”

Then she corrected herself. “Well, there is one reason, and it’s because the speaker chooses not to call us into session,” Johnson said.

“A lot of these bills are sitting in Google Drives,” added Rep. Supreme Moore Omokunde (D-Milwaukee). “All this session, we have bills ready to go. It’s a matter of will they be heard? It’s a matter of what is the appetite to have the debate about them? We know that this is something that Wisconsinites care about. They want us to stay here. They want us to get this done.”

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Nearly two decades ago, progressives fought to include a so-called public option — a government-run health plan — in the broad health care overhaul known as Obamacare. That effort failed, defeated by heavy lobbying from the insurance industry and opponents who decried it as a government takeover of health care.

But the final Affordable Care Act, which President Barack Obama signed in 2010, didn’t bar states from adding a public option plan to their state-run insurance marketplaces. In recent years, several states have done so — and others might follow as rising health care costs, the expiration of federal subsidies and Medicaid cuts make coverage less affordable and available for millions of Americans.

This year Nevada became the third state, after Colorado in 2023 and Washington in 2021, to add a public option plan to its marketplace. So far, 10,762 people have signed up, according to figures provided by the Nevada Health Authority.

The goal of such efforts, said Christine Monahan, an assistant research professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, is to provide an alternative to profit-driven private insurance companies, “and to give people an option that doesn’t have that kind of capitalistic incentive in place.”

The results so far have been mixed, however. It’s still too early to say whether the states’ public option plans, which are public-private partnerships rather than purely government-run, will significantly lower costs for consumers or pay enough to providers to ensure their continued participation.

Meanwhile, other states’ efforts to create public options have stalled. In 2024, Minnesota delayed the creation of a public option amid concerns about the lack of a dedicated funding source. Efforts in Maine and New Mexico also have faltered.

“It’s really too early to see what the right combination of design of a public option is,” said Andrew Shermeyer, a doctoral candidate in health policy at the University of Minnesota and the author of a study on the Colorado plan. “We don’t know what works and what doesn’t. So that’s a real challenge for policy makers.”

Different approaches

As public-private partnerships, the public option plans in Washington, Colorado and Nevada rely on the participation of private insurers as well as health care providers. And they have to compete for customers with the purely private plans offered on the exchanges.

“We all know health insurance is extremely, extremely unaffordable and expensive. So the challenge behind it is you have to find something that’s attractive to consumers,” Shermeyer said. “You have to find something that insurers will comply with, and you have to find something that providers will feel adequately compensated for.”

States have used a combination of carrots and sticks to make sure those things happen.

In Washington state, private insurers that sell plans on the state marketplace can choose to offer the public option plan, which is called Cascade Select, but they don’t have to. To keep costs down and premiums low, the state mandates that participating insurers pay providers within a certain range.

In the first two years that Cascade Select plans were available, many providers were unwilling to participate. So in 2023, Washington began requiring that hospitals contract with at least one public option plan. The change has expanded the availability of Cascade Select plans — as of last year, they were available in every county — and boosted enrollment: Last year, about 30% of Washingtonians who purchased coverage on the marketplace enrolled in a Cascade Select plan, up from 1% in 2021.

Laura Kate Zaichkin, director of market competition and affordability at the Washington Health Benefit Exchange, said that figure is up to 40% this year. In 2021, Zaichkin said, Cascade Select premiums were a bit higher than for many other plans on the exchange. This year, they are about $100 per month cheaper, she said.

Zaichkin said the public option is more important than ever, because of the recent expiration of federal tax credits that had dramatically lowered the costs of purchasing marketplace coverage, as well as looming Medicaid cuts.

“I would say that it is a really important lever,” she said. “It always has been, and it is even more so right now, when individual market coverage is under threat and when customers cannot afford their premiums.”

Unlike in Washington, every private insurer that participates in Colorado’s marketplace must offer versions of the state’s public option plan, which is called the Colorado Option, in every county where it sells its own plans. Colorado Option plans all offer the same benefits across insurance carriers, so companies compete based on premiums, their networks of providers and customer service.

To keep premiums relatively low, participating health insurers are required to negotiate with providers to keep costs down. If state regulators think premiums are getting too high, they can take charge of the negotiations and mandate that hospitals or providers lower their reimbursement rates.

About 14% of marketplace enrollees chose the Colorado Option in 2023 when the plan launched. In 2025, the public option accounted for nearly half of the roughly 282,500 enrollees on the exchange, the state said.

But Julie Lonborg, senior vice president and chief of staff of the Colorado Hospital Association, said limiting payments to providers could end up reducing services and access to care for patients.

“Overall, enrollment continues to grow in the program, so it is having some success from the purchasers,” Lonborg said in an email. “But it is built on a fundamentally flawed policy of rate setting on hospitals that will result in consequences. Hospitals have felt pressured into rate reductions at a time when threats to health care funding are escalating.”

One of the arguments for a public option is that it introduces competition that pushes down premiums for all marketplace enrollees, no matter what plan they choose. But in his study of the Colorado marketplace, researcher Shermeyer said the Colorado Option only lowered premiums for people who were receiving the federal subsidies; unsubsidized enrollees saw higher prices compared with people living in other states.

Kyla Hoskins, a deputy commissioner who oversees the Colorado Option program at the state’s division of insurance, disputes that finding. Hoskins cited other research that found premiums across the state, even for private plans, declined by more than $100 after the Colorado Option was introduced.

She said more people are buying the Colorado Option plan because it’s more affordable and because of its simplicity.

“Your deductibles, your maximum out-of-pocket costs, the amount you pay when you see your primary care [provider] or fill a prescription — that cost sharing is the same no matter which health insurance company is offering the plan,” Hoskins said.

“And I think that clarity that standardization provides, has been a value to consumers,” Hoskins said.

Slow start in Nevada

Like in Washington, insurers in Nevada don’t have to offer a public option plan, called Battle Born State Plans (after the state’s nickname). However, the state has given them a strong incentive to do so by tying it to Medicaid.

Around 75% of Nevada’s Medicaid enrollees receive coverage through managed care. In order to remain eligible for Medicaid managed care contracts, insurers have to submit a bid to offer a public option plan that meets certain requirements.

Those Medicaid contracts are worth “millions if not billions to carriers,” said Stacie Weeks, director of the Nevada Health Authority, which oversees the state’s Medicaid program and its insurance marketplace. “Essentially, this new contractual arrangement leverages the state’s purchasing power with its Medicaid carriers to get a better deal for consumers in the private market.”

To ensure the participation of providers, Nevada’s law requires them to be in-network with at least one public option plan to remain eligible for Medicaid, public employee and workers’ compensation payments, according to the Century Foundation, a liberal-leaning think tank. Instead of regulating reimbursement rates, Nevada hopes to keep premiums low by mandating that they be at least 5% below those of private plans.

Nevertheless, enrollment has been slower than expected.

State officials predicted that around 35,000 people would sign up in the first enrollment period. The actual number is less than a third of that. And so far, only three out of the state’s eight health insurance companies on the state’s exchange have picked up the plan.

“We expect to see this number grow over time as public awareness increases and as Nevadans continue to seek quality coverage options that help reduce their monthly costs, regardless of their income,” Weeks said. She added that many Nevadans automatically reenrolled in their previous health plans, and may not know about the public option yet.

Stateline reporter Shalina Chatlani can be reached at schatlani@stateline.org.

The Milwaukee Police Department has explicitly banned officers from using masks or other facial coverings to hide their identities, Milwaukee Common Council members announced on Monday. 

“We met with the police chief, delivered the message of what our constituents were demanding, and he acted. This is about responsiveness, accountability and trust,” Alderperson JoCasta Zamarripa said in a statement that quoted four members of the council, including council president José Pérez.

The statement said the new policy is aligned with the council’s “ICE Out” public safety plan. 

Last month, officials announced a package of local ordinance proposals that aim to prepare the city for a possible surge in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. The package included a requirement for all ICE agents to be unmasked when interacting with the public in Milwaukee. 

The department updated the uniform requirements in its standard operating procedure, effective Monday. 

The Milwaukee Police Department procedure states that facial coverings and masks are allowed in certain circumstances. These include but are not limited to the following: protection to prevent exposure to hazardous materials, protection on assignments to prevent the spread of diseases or viruses and protection from cold or extreme weather during assignments that require a staff member to be outdoors for periods of time. 

“Note: Facial coverings and masks shall not be used for the purpose of concealing identity,” the procedure states. 

In a statement to the Examiner, the police department expressed gratitude to elected officials, the Milwaukee Police Association and the Milwaukee Police Supervisors Organization, who worked in collaboration to make the modification to the operating procedure, the unsigned statement said, adding, “We are always better together.”

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WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers said Tuesday after classified briefings on Capitol Hill they don’t intend to limit President Donald Trump’s ability to continue the war in Iran, though some said sending in ground troops would be a step too far. 

Democrats argued that military and administration officials shared no clear objectives or exit strategy for the war, making debate and a vote in Congress more important. 

“When there is no set plan … you end up with an endless war, you end up with mission creep, you end up with all kinds of problems,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said. “What’s really needed is a public debate so the American people, who already are very much against this, can see what we have seen.” 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said during an afternoon press conference before the briefing that he doesn’t believe Congress needs to declare or authorize the war.  

“No, I think the president has the authority that he needs to conduct the activities and the operations that are currently underway there,” he said. “As you know, there’s a lot of controversy around, questions around the War Powers Act. But I think the president is acting in the best interest of the nation and our national security interests by ensuring that he’s protecting Americans and American bases and installations in that region, as well as those of our allies.”

Lawmakers received closed-door briefings from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe.

Tim Kaine, Rand Paul push war powers vote

The Senate is expected to vote Wednesday on a War Powers Resolution co-sponsored by Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine and Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul that would direct the administration “to remove the United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Iran, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or a specific authorization for use of military force.” 

The House will vote later this week, likely Thursday, on a similar proposal from Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said that effort doesn’t have the support to take effect. 

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said as he was walking out of the afternoon briefing that the Trump administration will not rule out boots on the ground. 

Wicker said he doesn’t believe Congress would need to authorize U.S. troops in Iran, though he declined to answer a question about why he thinks the president holds the authority for a ground war not approved by lawmakers. 

A report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service notes that while Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution grants Congress the power to declare war, that authority “has been heavily debated.” 

“The Supreme Court has observed that only Congress has the power to declare war, but the implications of this exclusive assignment are not well-settled,” the report says. “In particular, the relationship between Congress’s power to declare war and the President’s war powers granted under Article II of the Constitution is the subject of significant disagreement.”

‘This is a massive operation and rapidly changing’

Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy said he doesn’t “think the American people want to see troops on the ground. I don’t think that’s the case. And although they left open that possibility, it seems not to be something they’re emphasizing.”

Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said he believes Congress would need to authorize U.S. troops on the ground in Iran, something he’s unlikely to support. 

“I find it difficult to imagine a scenario where I would,” he said. 

Hawley said the classified briefing left the impression the Trump administration’s war in Iran will continue for some time. 

“I think there’ll be a lot more to come, because one of the things I took away from this is, this is a massive operation and rapidly changing,” he said. 

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said it “was an important briefing that we had today and it is a situation that is clearly evolving rapidly.”

North Dakota Republican Sen. John Hoeven declined to answer a question about whether he would support Trump sending U.S. troops into Iran. 

“Well, again, that’s an option, and if and when it would occur, we could deal with it at that point,” he said. “But I think at this point, there’s no indication of that.”

Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin said that Hegseth is “not going to limit any options to the president” when asked about the possibility of U.S. troops on the ground in Iran.

Mullin described the role Congress plays in authorizing the administration’s offensive in Iran as “debatable.”

“We’re not going to take away the authority of the president of the United States to be able to be the commander-in-chief. … We don’t need 535 commanders,” Mullin said.

Lindsey Graham ‘never felt better about how this ends’

Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, a retired Navy captain, said the level of interceptor stockpiles is a “big concern.”

“We do not have an unlimited supply and the Iranians do have the ability to make a lot of Shahed drones, ballistic missiles, medium-range, short-range. And they’ve got a huge stockpile,” Kelly said. “So at some point, we’re probably already in this, this becomes a math problem. And how can we resupply air defense munitions? Where are they going to come from? How does that affect other theaters?”

The Trump administration pulling from the Indo-Pacific Command, for example, Kelly said, would leave troops in that region of the world “more vulnerable.”

“We don’t have an unlimited supply. They’re shooting a lot of stuff,” he said. “Certainly, the number has gone down somewhat over time. But the math on this currently seems to be an issue.”

Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., said the administration has yet to ask Congress to provide additional funding for the war. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., exited the briefing saying he “never felt better about how this ends.”

Graham said he spoke with Arab leaders by phone earlier in the day and “they’re going to get in the fight in a more direct way.”

Graham also spoke directly to the cameras, in case Trump was watching, he said, to encourage the president to join Israel in bombing Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.

“Not only take the mothership of Iran down, also take the proxy of Hezbollah. Settle the score,” Graham said.

Mike Johnson defends Trump constitutional authority

Johnson said Trump took advantage of “a narrow and unique opportunity” to attack Iran over the weekend, and that he was “well within his constitutional authority to do what he has done.”

“We had counsel from the (Department of Justice) here tonight, who said very well, very clearly — fell just short of citing the specific case law — but explained that this has been the tradition for decades.”

Johnson said the U.S. joint war with Israel in Iran has been “very effective thus far” and described the proposed War Powers Resolution as “dangerous.”

The U.S. mission in Iran “needs to be completed,” he said. “We don’t need Congress getting in the way of that.”

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, said she is a “no for now” on the Wars Powers Resolution vote later this week.

“But if this thing goes beyond a few weeks, I’m going to have a lot more concerns,” Mace said, adding that boots on the ground “would be a very different conversation.”

“That’s not where we are today. That’s not what I heard in the briefing,” Mace said, declining to provide more details from the classified meeting. “I feel very good and very confident about where we are roughly just over 100 hours into the strikes in this conflict.”

WASHINGTON — Republicans on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee mounted unusually blunt criticisms of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a tense five-hour hearing Tuesday, with North Carolina’s Thom Tillis threatening to obstruct the chamber’s business if Noem did not answer questions from his office about immigration enforcement. 

Tillis even revisited a book written by Noem in which she famously detailed shooting a pet dog as well as a goat, comparing her actions in that instance with drawing too-hasty conclusions in the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by immigration agents in Minneapolis.

The oversight hearing was Noem’s first appearance on Capitol Hill since the months-long immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis, during which agents of her department killed the two citizens and the surge was later scaled back amidst a national uproar.

Tillis, a Republican who is retiring rather than seeking reelection this year, focused his critique on Noem’s handling of immigration, while other GOP members raised separate concerns. At times, he raised his voice.

“We expect exceptional leadership and you’ve demonstrated anything but that,” Tillis said. “What we’ve seen is a disaster under your leadership. What we’ve seen is innocent people getting detained that turn out are American citizens.”

He castigated Noem for not admitting her mistake in labeling Renee Good, a poet and mother of three, and Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse, as domestic terrorists. Good and Pretti both died in January from gunshots fired by federal immigration agents.

Tillis called for Noem’s resignation, and threatened that if she did not answer multiple questions submitted by his office, he would hold up en bloc nominations that come to the floor and deny quorum in Senate committees. Tillis’ absence from committee markups could grind those panels’ work to a halt, pausing nominations and party line bills.

Democrats on the panel questioned Noem about the Minneapolis operation, racial profiling by immigration officers that has led to the arrests of U.S. citizens, and whether immigration agents will be at polling locations in the midterm elections.

Noem largely stood by her decisions, and, when she was grilled by senators about the aggressive tactics by her immigration agent, she pivoted to the families behind her, known as angel families, who have had loved ones killed by an immigrant in the country without legal authorization. 

“These poor angel families behind me will never have their children again, that’s one of my motivations every day,” Noem said.

Republicans John Kennedy of Louisiana and Josh Hawley of Missouri quizzed Noem on a $220 million advertising contract and the slow response from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for reimbursements and disaster assistance.

The dog and the goat

Tillis did not ask Noem any questions. Instead, for his full 10 minutes allocated for questions, he said he was giving her a “performance review,” during which he expressed multiple frustrations.

He criticized her handling of the operation in Minnesota.

“The fact that you can’t admit to a mistake, which looks like, under investigation, is going to prove that Miss Good and Mr. Pretti probably should not have been shot in the face and in the back,” Tillis said. 

After Pretti’s death, President Donald Trump instructed Tom Homan, the White House border czar who reports directly to the president and operates outside of DHS’ chain of command, to take over operations in Minneapolis. 

Tillis told Noem that he read her book, in which she details how she shot and killed a 14-month-old dog named Cricket for bad behavior. She also revealed she killed a goat for similar reasons. 

“You decided to kill that dog because you had not invested the appropriate time and training, and then you have the audacity to go into a book and say it’s a leadership lesson about tough choices,” Tillis said.

He also took issue with the goat.

“If you don’t castrate a goat, they behave badly,” he said. 

Research indicates that neutering a goat can lead to lower testosterone levels and mellow out an aggressive goat. 

“My point is, those are bad decisions made in the heat of the moment, not unlike what happened up in Minneapolis,” he said, referring to how quick Noem was to label Pretti and Good as domestic terrorists. 

Slow FEMA relief

Tillis pointed to how a policy Noem started at FEMA, in which she must personally approve any contract that is more than $100,000, has led to delay in his state that is still reeling from Hurricane Helene in 2024.

“This is what incompetent FEMA leadership looks like,” he said. “People are hurting in western North Carolina from the most significant storm they’ve ever experienced.”

Tillis said Noem had “failed at FEMA” and that he believes she is violating the Homeland Security Act of 2002  that he said “expressly prohibits the secretary of Homeland Security from restricting or diverting FEMA resources from the agency’s mission.”

Hawley also brought up an issue with FEMA.

He said following multiple deadly tornadoes in his state, FEMA was helping fund debris removal. Local officials have estimated roughly 10,000 homes qualify for the removal aid, but “some of the conditions that have been placed on the funds by FEMA mean that only (100) or 200 homes out of those 10,000 can actually get access to FEMA debris removal funds.” 

Noem said she would work with his office to address that issue. 

Advertising contract

Kennedy questioned Noem about her decision to award a no-bid contract for her ad campaign that costs $220 million. A ProPublica investigation found that Noem awarded the contract to the husband of former DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

“Look, we all have friends who are qualified, I’m not quibbling with that,” Kennedy said. “It troubles me, … a quarter of a billion dollars in taxpayer money when we’re scratching for every penny and we’re fighting over rescission packages, I just can’t agree with.”

Noem said she was not involved in approving the contract. 

‘They should be alive today’

Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar slammed Noem for the aggressive immigration enforcement operation in her state.

“Two of my constituents, Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed,” she said. “They should be alive today.”

Klobuchar asked Noem how many federal immigration officers are still in Minneapolis. The Trump administration sent more than 2,000 agents, dwarfing the city’s local police force that stands at roughly 600 officers.

Noem said about 650 immigration agents are still in the city. 

Klobuchar told Noem that she spoke to the parents of Pretti.

“When I spoke to Alex’s parents, they told me that you calling him a domestic terrorist… (was) one of the most hurtful things they could ever imagine was said by you about their son,” Klobuchar said. 

She asked Noem if she wanted to apologize to Pretti’s parents for calling him a domestic terrorist.

“I did not call him a domestic terrorist, I said it appeared to be an incident of domestic terrorism,” Noem said. 

Shutdown and Iran questions

Tuesday was day 17 of a partial shutdown of DHS. Senate Democrats forced the shutdown after the shootings of Good and Pretti.

The department is also now dealing with additional cybersecurity and counterterrorism risks after President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes on Iran.

Though Congress has not passed a fiscal 2026 funding bill for DHS, the department has a separate funding stream, from the tax cuts and spending package Republicans passed last year, to continue immigration enforcement. Nearly all of the department is considered essential, so its employees are continuing to work, some without pay. 

In the days following the Trump administration’s decision to launch an attack on Iran, senators pressed Noem on what security preparations the agency is taking amid the shutdown.

Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley of Iowa said he was concerned about potential terrorism due to the war in Iran. He asked Noem how she was vetting immigrants and intercepting potential acts of terrorism. 

Noem blamed the Biden administration for concerns of terrorism and said the agency was re-vetting all refugees and Afghan allies who fled to the U.S. after the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

“We are re-vetting some of the individuals and some of the programs that we may have concerns about, looking at social media, also going through those interviews that are necessary for some of our programs that the Biden administration abused and perverted under their time,” Noem said. 

Republican of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham asked Noem if she thought the threat level to the U.S. was up or down when it came to terrorism from Iran. 

Noem said it was up. 

Graham has been vocal in his push for the ousting of the current Iranian government. 

“We’re engaged in military action against the mothership of terrorism, Iran, which I hope will sink pretty soon,” Graham said. 

Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, the top Republican on the appropriations panel that funds DHS, asked Noem what the implications of her agency being shut down are.

Britt raised concern about the shooting in Austin, Texas, over the weekend that is being investigated as a possible act of terrorism. 

“We’re continuing to do that work and will every single day, but we need funding to make sure that all of our law enforcement agencies have the tools they (need) to bring them to justice,” Noem said.

Elections

Ahead of November’s midterm elections, Democrats have raised concerns the administration would send immigration officers to polling locations. 

Noem said Tuesday that elections were up to the states to run, but was evasive when asked to rule out sending DHS agents to monitor polling places. 

Sen. Chris Coons asked Noem if she would issue a directive telling ICE agents to not be at election sites. 

Noem didn’t answer the Delaware Democrat’s question but asked, “Do you plan on illegal aliens voting in our elections?”

It’s already illegal for a noncitizen to vote in a federal election and has only rarely happened. 

Trump is pushing for Congress to pass a law to require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

The U.S. Defense Department on Tuesday named four of the six U.S. soldiers killed by an Iranian drone strike, the first U.S. casualties of the war with Iran that President Donald Trump launched over the weekend.

Army Reserve soldiers Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska; Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; and Sgt. Declan J. Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa, died March 1, a Pentagon statement said.

All were assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command in Des Moines. They were killed during a March 1 drone attack on a commercial port in Kuwait, a U.S. ally. 

The Defense Department has not released the names of the two other soldiers killed in the strike. The incident remains under investigation, the statement said.

The Pentagon did not mention Iran, but said the soldiers were supporting Operation Epic Fury, the administration’s name for the operation.

Trump and Cabinet officials have struggled since Saturday to articulate a cohesive rationale for the strikes, which U.S. forces conducted with Israel. 

Trump said Tuesday he “forced Israel’s hand” to launch the joint attack, contradicting Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s explanation a day earlier that the U.S. joined an Israeli operation.

The incident marks the second time in a matter of months that Iowa service members have been killed in the Middle East.

A lone gunman associated with ISIS killed two Iowa National Guard members, Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard of Marshalltown and Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar of Des Moines, in Syria in December.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Tuesday he “might have forced Israel’s hand” in launching the war on Iran that has already cost the lives of six American troops. 

Trump’s statement came less than a day after Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters the United States joined the campaign to protect American troops after Israel’s planned strike.

“We were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first,” Trump told reporters. “… and I didn’t want that to happen. So if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand, but Israel was ready, and we were ready, and we’ve had a very, very powerful impact, because virtually everything they have has been knocked out.”

Trump made the comments prior to a bilateral White House meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz as lawmakers on Capitol Hill scrambled to understand the sudden war. 

Merz said Germany is “on the same page in terms of getting this terrible regime in Tehran away” — though administration officials have maintained the conflict is not about regime change, but rather about destroying Iran’s conventional missile stockpiles and production, and thwarting any nuclear ambitions. 

Iran has launched numerous missiles and drones since the killing Saturday of its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The strikes have caused damage across the Middle East, including to the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia Tuesday, The Associated Press reported.

During a previously scheduled hearing Tuesday to question Undersecretary of Defense Policy Elbridge Colby on the administration’s national defense strategy, Senate Democrats pressed for the justification for war with Iran. 

Sen. Angus King, an independent of Maine who caucuses with Democrats, homed in on Rubio’s statements Monday that the U.S. joined the war to preempt retaliatory attacks on American troops in the region, following Israel’s planned strikes on Iran’s leadership compound. Earlier, administration officials said U.S. intelligence was heavily involved in planning Israel’s offensive.

“I find it very disturbing that we’re committing this nation to war based upon a decision by … a staunch ally, and I’m a supporter of Israel,” King said. “I don’t think anybody should drive our decision to go to war, but the interest of the United States.”

“The president made our decision,” Colby replied.

GOP falls in line

Congress, meanwhile, is poised to vote this week on a War Powers Act resolution that has drawn limited Republican support to stop Trump’s unilateral military actions in Iran without congressional authorization. 

Lawmakers are largely split along party lines in their support for the military action, with Republicans falling in line behind Trump.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Monday the measure will likely fail in the House. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., is the lone Republican sponsor of the House version of the legislation.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., defended the administration’s initiation of war in Iran and chastised “grandstanding” allegations that Trump broke the law in not first seeking congressional authorization.

“This is the first president in seven presidencies that actually did something about the thorn that constantly came after us. And now you criticize him, you say it’s illegal. It’s not,” Mullin said Tuesday during the Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing.

“How about we say, ‘thank you, Mr. President, for finally getting rid of this nuisance, this murderer, this sponsor of terror,’” Mullin said. 

Virginia’s Kaine says GOP ‘nervous about voting for a war’

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., lead sponsor of the Senate’s War Powers Act bill, criticized Mullin for suggesting “that the angst on this side of the aisle is because we don’t like President Trump.”

“He has misstated that concern. I think I can speak for most of my colleagues who have concerns, and say our concern is this, have we learned nothing from 25 years of war in the Middle East?” Kaine said.

Kaine said during a brief interview that Republicans who support Trump’s war in Iran should put an Authorization for the Use of Military Force, or AUMF, on the floor to formally give it Congress’ stamp of approval. 

“And the fact that there has been a reluctance to put AUMFs on the table tells me that while Republicans don’t want to be contrary to the president, they’re also nervous about voting for a war,” Kaine said. “If you’re nervous about voting for the war, well then, think what that says to the troops who are risking their lives. That anxiety should lead you to question whether it’s a good idea or not.”

Kaine said the 2001 AUMF, which Congress wrote somewhat broadly following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and is still in effect, doesn’t cover Trump’s military actions in Iran.  

“The president has not cited that,” he said. “And we all agree that Iran was not covered by the ‘01 AUMF. It was meant to cover non-state terrorist groups, not sovereign nations.”

Lawmakers were set to receive closed-door briefings on the war from administration officials later Tuesday.

The Joint Finance Committee voted to approve releasing funds for the Department of Public Instruction’s operations after putting it off last month. 

The committee approved the release of $1.75 million, including $750,000 for 2025-26 and $1 million for 2026-27. It is about $250,000 less than what was placed in a supplemental fund during the budget cycle as a part of a deal negotiated between lawmakers and Gov. Tony Evers. Republicans on the budget committee initially were going to cut the funding from the agency, but instead made it es a supplemental appropriation, requiring the JFC to release it before it was available to the agency.

JFC was scheduled to vote on the proposal last month, but the committee delayed action after a report from the Dairyland Sentinel, a nonprofit publication published by longtime GOP strategist Brian Fraley, that the agency spent over $368,000 on its standard setting meeting held at a water park in the Wisconsin Dells in 2024. It acquired the information through open records requests.

After the report and delayed vote, JFC co-chair Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said that lawmakers had been having conversations and having its answers answered by the agency. 

According to information released by DPI Tuesday, the meeting costs totaled about $219,225, which included lodging, meals, travel reimbursement, meeting expenses, laptops and hotspots. The remaining cost was for the work done by Data Recognition Corporation, the vendor DPI works with each year to update the assessment and ensure it is valid, reliable and up to date. The vendor planned and facilitated the meeting and wrote a final report.

The total cost of the standards setting work equated to about $30,740 per grade and subject. Similar work done by DRC for other states has ranged from $48,500 to $94,000 per grade/subject, according to DPI.

The $2 million makes up about 10% of the DPI operating budget, and the agency had warned that it could need to delay recruitment, continue to restrict travel, conference attendance and professional development participation, modify the replacement cycle for IT equipment and lay off staff.

A Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo to the budget committee said that approving just $1.75 million would ensure that there is sufficient funding for the projected staffing costs, but limit the amount available to cover supplies, services, professional development and other costs not directly related to staff.

Chris Bucher, director of communications for DPI, said in a statement that the funding is critical for the agency to serve students, educators, schools and libraries.

“While we received slightly less in the current fiscal year than we requested, our agency will make it through the year without layoffs or additional staffing reductions,” Bucher said. 

The committee voted unanimously to release the funds, though Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) criticized Republicans for not releasing the full $2 million.

“Every time we gather together as a body and there’s an opportunity to do the right thing and allocate money towards anything that helps public education, anything that helps our kids, the Republicans on this committee find a way to not do it, to offer less money than has been requested and needed, to fail once again to give our kids what they need,” Roys said.

Update: This story has been updated to include comment and additional information from DPI.

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Gov. Tony Evers signed an executive order Tuesday to call the state Legislature into a special session to vote on a constitutional amendment proposal that would ban partisan gerrymandering.

The proposed amendment would include language to expressly prohibit drawing districts that  give a disproportionate advantage or disadvantage to any political party. 

“There are no tricks, no gimmicks, no funny politics here,” Evers said at a press conference. “Just a straight up ban on partisan gerrymandering. Nothing more. Nothing less. I could not have made this vote any easier for the Legislature. With nine months left in the calendar year and the legislative session, we’ve got work to do.”  

The executive order calls for the special session on the proposal to be held at noon on April 14. During his two terms in office, the Legislature’s Republican leaders have repeatedly spurned Evers’ special session calls on a range of issues. 

Evers announced his intention to sign the order at his State of the State address last month. Constitutional amendments must pass two sessions of the state Legislature, then go to voters for consideration. If a proposal were to pass the Legislature in April, the next state Legislature, which could look very different after this year’s November elections, would need to vote on the proposal as well. Evers, who opted against running for office, would also not be in office to advocate further for the proposal.

Wisconsin adopted new state legislative maps in 2024 after the state Supreme Court ruled that the previous maps were an unconstitutional gerrymander and ordered new maps to be implemented. 

The adoption of the new maps did not change the process that Wisconsin uses to draw its legislative maps, which is currently done by state lawmakers. Wisconsin Democrats last held a trifecta in the 2009-2010 legislative session and did not pass legislation to adopt nonpartisan redistricting. In 2011, Wisconsin Republicans, who won a trifecta and took control of the state government, drew the state’s maps to heavily favor the GOP, and the maps drawn in 2021 further entrenched the gerrymander. 

Before passing the current maps in 2024, the state Assembly passed a proposal to implement what Republicans said was an Iowa-style nonpartisan redistricting mode. That proposal led to pushback from Democratic lawmakers, who contended it allowed for too much partisan influence on the process. When it passed the Senate, the bill had been amended to implement maps that would have protected Republican incumbents. Evers vetoed the bill.

Evers said that the maps adopted in 2024 have given each party a chance at winning control and ensured that every vote matters in battleground Wisconsin. 

States must engage in redistricting every 10 years. Wisconsin lawmakers will be in charge of the process next in 2031 and could engage in partisan gerrymandering, Evers said, unless gerrymandering is banned or a new process is adopted.

“If the Legislature doesn’t act now, our maps could go right back to being rigged. Wisconsinites could go right back to living under some of the most undemocratic maps in America,” Evers said. 

Evers added that he’s been “especially worried” due to recent actions being taken at the national level. President Donald Trump has pressured Republican-led states, including Texas, to engage in explicit partisan gerrymandering to ensure Republicans keep the majority in Congress in the upcoming midterm elections. In response, some Democratic-led states, including California, have redrawn or are considering redrawing their lines to combat the impact. 

The Evers proposal does not specify what process lawmakers would need to adopt to prevent  partisan gerrymandering, but leaves that up to lawmakers.

Nick Ramos, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said at the press conference that the state needs to take redistricting out of lawmakers’ hands altogether and make it a nonpartisan process.

“It’s about fairness. It’s about equity. It’s about honoring the principle that every voice in Wisconsin deserves an equal say, no matter where you live, who you are or who you vote for,” Ramos said. “Gerrymandering is bad public policy, no matter who’s doing it, what flag they wave.” 

Ramos said the constitutional amendment proposal is a “significant nod to one unifying truth that politics should stay out of redistricting from start to finish.” 

“Calling a special session is one thing. Taking meaningful action is another. If this Legislature is serious, they will take this special session and not gavel in and gavel out like they always do,” Ramos said. 

Evers, who is in his final year as governor, has called special sessions on a variety of issues over his time in office including abortion, gun violence and the state budget. The Republican-led Legislature has usually just immediately gaveled in and out of them without taking action or completely rewritten his proposals. 

Evers said that he would seek to raise public awareness of the issue and encourage people to call on their lawmakers to pressure them into not doing the same this time. 

“We’re going to work real hard in the meantime to make sure that the people of Wisconsin are talking to the legislators and making sure that they understand that this is the will of the people,” Evers said. 

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) expressed some openness to discussing a proposal to address partisan gerrymandering, but was skeptical about Evers’ proposed constitutional amendment.

“This one-sentence constitutional amendment provides no details as to how this would actually work. But we’re supportive of the governor’s concept and we would be more than happy to negotiate with him to develop a plan to be voted on by the entire Assembly,” Vos said. 

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) has not responded to a request for comment. 

Last week, Evers said that he had heard some pushback from members of his own party “through the grapevine.” He was joined at the press conference by 10 Democratic lawmakers, though neither Democratic legislative leader was present. Evers said that he hadn’t “taken a poll” but that he is confident that Democrats feel they are in a good position with fair maps. 

In statements on Tuesday, neither Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer or Senate Minority leader Dianne Hesselbein expressly said that they supported Evers’ proposal.

“Many of us as Legislative Democrats served under Republicans’ gerrymandered maps for years,” Neubauer said in a social media post. “We deeply understand the importance of competitive maps and remain committed to supporting a redistricting process where the voters’ voices are heard.”

“I have served in the Legislature under gerrymandered maps created by Republicans and have seen firsthand the damage they do to democracy and to good public policy. The fair maps we passed two years ago have made a difference in Wisconsin,” Hesselbein said. “I am a fighter and my commitment is to make sure the people of Wisconsin have a strong voice in their democracy and that Democrats have the resources and tools to fully participate in whatever redistricting processes may occur in the future.”

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The national average price of a gallon of regular gasoline topped $3 Tuesday for the first time this year, and is expected to keep going up.

The average price Tuesday was $3.11, up about 11 cents from Monday, according to AAA.

“The pump reaction is not only underway — it’s accelerating,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, which tracks prices.

Increases were already on tap even before Saturday’s U.S.-Israel strikes at Iran, as warmer weather usually means more demand and refiners start producing a summer-blend product.

But the attack adds new, powerful momentum to the price surge. The war makes it tough to forecast how long any increases will last or how big they could be. Recent experience does offer some hope that any big spike won’t last.

“While oil markets continue to react to potential tensions in the Middle East, history has shown that the price increases are temporary and quickly fall back,” said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist and principal at the consulting firm RSM US, on his Real Economy Blog.

President Donald Trump, speaking at a news conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday, sought to justify the strikes and said any price hikes would be temporary.

“People felt it’s something that had to be done,” he said. “So if we have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, I believe, lower than even before.”

Immediate market reaction

The market reaction to the Iran war so far has been swift.

Brent crude oil, considered the global standard, topped $80 a barrel early Monday, up from the low 70s last week.

Some analysts saw prices having the potential to go as high as $100 a barrel.

“The forecasts are wide-ranging from over $100/barrel to lower prices this week on new Iraqi oil hitting the market,” said Matt McCall, founder of NXT Wave Research, an investment and market analysis firm, in a tweet. “I see a spike to start the week…and then it depends on the longevity of the war. A quick war and oil does not stay elevated. What is almost certain is volatility.”

The surge in oil prices fueled an overall slide in U.S. stock markets Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down nearly 2% around midday.

Prices up across states

The increases were felt in state after state Tuesday, according to the AAA gasoline price survey.

The nation’s lowest gasoline prices tend to be in the South, from roughly Mississippi to Texas.

The price of a gallon of regular in Oklahoma, the least expensive of any state, was $2.62 Tuesday, up from about $2.47 Monday.

Other changes in the lowest price states:

• Mississippi: $2.64 Tuesday, $2.55 Monday.
• Kansas: $2.70 Tuesday, $2.57 Monday.
• Arkansas: $2.70 Tuesday, $2.61 Monday.
• Louisiana: $2.72 Tuesday, $2.58 Monday.
• Tennessee: $2.72 Tuesday, $2.61 Monday.
• Kentucky: $2.73 Tuesday, $2.63 Monday.
• Texas: $2.74 Tuesday, $2.62 Monday.

The highest-priced gasoline tended to be in Western states. California has in recent years topped the price chart, and did again Tuesday at $4.67 per gallon, up about 1.7 cents a gallon from Monday.

California’s higher prices are the result of several special factors. It has tough environmental standards, and the state has more trouble compensating for refinery shutdown from interstate pipelines.

It’s more difficult for California to make up refinery shortages from interstate pipelines because of its location.

Other Western states have localized reasons prices stay high, and they tended to be less volatile because of the strikes. Some of the higher state averages Tuesday:

• Hawaii: $4.40 Tuesday, $4.38 Monday.
• Washington: $4.38 Tuesday, $4.37 Monday.
• Oregon: $3.95 Tuesday, $3.92 Monday.
• Nevada: $3.73 Tuesday, $3.70 Monday.

Future prices uncertain

The future path of prices depends on some huge unknowns. The biggest could involve the fate of the Strait of Hormuz, where the Iranians can exercise control. One-fifth of the world’s oil passed through there in 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The strait is “one of the world’s most important oil chokepoints,” EIA said. Iranian officials said Tuesday the strait is closed, CNBC reported.

Most Iranian oil goes to China. Canada is the top importer of U.S. oil, followed by Mexico and Saudi Arabia, according to EIA. The U.S. sells more oil than it imports.

A prolonged change in Strait of Hormuz activity, or even the threat of change, is arguably already affecting oil prices. 

“Even without a sustained blockade, the new risk of closure is already changing behavior,” De Haan said. He listed ship rerouting, war-risk insurance premiums going up and “freight markets bracing for significant cost increases.”

Bottom line, he said: “Most drivers should prepare for gradual increases this week.”

OTTUMWA, Iowa — Leisa and Kent Walker recently received a disturbing notice: The private company managing their son’s Medicaid coverage intends to cut nearly 40% of what it spends for caregivers who help him live at home instead of in a nursing home.

Sam Walker, 35, has severe autism and other disabilities. He is deaf and cannot speak. Sometimes when he’s frustrated, he hits himself or others.

Medicaid provides about $8,500 a month for health workers who visit his apartment in the basement of his parents’ home. The staffers help him with everyday tasks, including dressing, bathing, and eating. They also take Walker on outings, such as dining at restaurants, volunteering at Goodwill, and exercising at a recreation center or on park trails. They stick to a strict routine, which soothes him.

His parents say that without the in-home services, their son would need to move to a specialized residential facility in another state. Sending him away would break their hearts and cost taxpayers much more money. They strive to keep him home because they know change makes him anxious.

“The last thing I want is to put him into some kind of care facility, where he’ll just get kicked out,” said his mother, Leisa. The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to KFF Health News’ questions about the Walkers’ case.

Federal cuts raise pressure

Patient advocates say state administrators in Iowa appear to be reining in Medicaid spending by cutting what are known as home and community-based services for people with disabilities, and they’ve heard of multiple families facing battles like the Walkers’.

Disability rights advocates expect the pressure to intensify as states respond to reductions in federal Medicaid funding called for under the Trump administration’s signature tax and spending law, which passed last year.

June Klein-Bacon, CEO of the Brain Injury Association of Iowa, said the cuts and proposed rule changes appear to be part of a quiet attempt to save money in response to the state’s budget deficit and expected reductions in federal Medicaid funding.

Medicaid, jointly financed by the federal and state governments, covers people with low incomes or disabilities. Walker is one of nearly 2 million people served by “Medicaid waiver” programs, which pay for care that allows people with disabilities or who are at least 65 to live at home.

Unlike most parts of Medicaid, waiver programs are optional for states. Idaho’s governor noted that fact in January, when he suggested legislators consider cutting them. Disability rights groups fear other states will do the same. Leaders in Colorado, Missouri, and Nebraska have considered such cuts this year.

Leisa Walker has heard Trump administration officials claim the national Medicaid cuts are intended to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse. That’s not how it will play out, she said. “These are real people, real families, and this causes real suffering when you do this to people,” she said. “It’s a very scary time.”

Iowa Total Care, a private insurance company that manages Sam Walker’s Medicaid benefits, intends to cut his in-home care coverage by about $3,200 per month, his mother said. Company leaders told a judge they are following state officials’ direction, but they did not dispute Leisa Walker’s math.

Walker has been on the waiver program for three decades. It covers assistance from workers known as “direct service providers” — one of whom has been with him for 25 years. His parents receive no pay for the hours they spend caring for him when the aides aren’t working.

On a February morning, Leisa and Kent Walker drove an hour and a half to Des Moines for an appeal hearing. An administrative law judge sat behind a wooden desk in a conference room as the Walkers and their lawyer faced off against three representatives from Iowa Total Care, a subsidiary of the national insurer Centene Corp.

Leisa testified that her son is 6 feet tall and weighs 230 pounds. Although he knows some sign language, he has trouble communicating, she said. When he becomes frustrated or his routine is interrupted, he sometimes wails and hits himself or other people. “It’s devastating to watch,” she testified.

He’s not a bad person, she said. “He doesn’t understand how strong he is.”

She said her family would try to keep his main caregiver employed under the planned Medicaid reduction but would have to drop others who cover nights and weekends. She said no residential facility near their southern Iowa home could address her son’s complicated needs. She said a case manager told her that a Florida facility might be the closest one that could safely handle him.

Leisa Walker testified that the state’s Medicaid program would pay about $22,000 per month to put him in an institution, more than double what the program spends on his home care.

Sam Walker’s longtime psychiatrist, Christopher Okiishi, testified that Walker’s family and their support staff spent years developing a “fragile” but stable existence for him.

Lori Palm, a senior manager for Iowa Total Care, testified that Sam Walker gets about 16 hours of daily assistance financed by Medicaid. Palm said much of that time amounts to “supervision.” She said state officials recently advised her company that the program should pay mainly for “skill-building” time, not supervision.

The Walkers showed the judge a 2018 document in which a previous Iowa Medicaid director stipulated that supervision of people with disabilities is an allowable service for workers paid under the program.

Judge Rachel Morgan asked the Iowa Total Care representatives if the recent policy change was made in writing by the state Department of Health and Human Services. They said it was not and that they couldn’t specify who at the department had given them the new guidance.

The judge suggested during the hearing that for someone like Sam Walker, learning to regulate emotions could be an important form of skill-building. Three days later, the judge ruled in the Walkers’ favor, writing that the insurer’s attempt to cut care hours was improper. The insurer appealed the decision to the director of the Iowa Department of Health Human Services, who could overrule it. The dispute could eventually wind up in district court.

Iowa Total Care and the state Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to questions about the reports that many other Iowans with disabilities face reductions in care hours covered by Medicaid. Department spokesperson Danielle Sample said in an email that the agency supports home and community-based services, which, she noted, help “states save money by avoiding expensive long-term facility care.”

Spokespeople for the federal Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Medicaid nationally, did not respond to a request for comment on the issue.

Medicaid waiver programs started in the 1980s, after President Ronald Reagan heard about an Iowa girl with a disability who was forced to live in a hospital for months because Medicaid wouldn’t pay for home care. The Republican president thought it was outrageous that the girl, Katie Beckett, had to live that way, even though home care would have been cheaper.

Members of Congress approved allowing states to use their Medicaid programs to pay for in-home care. But they made the change optional, to offer states flexibility and encourage innovation.

Designating such spending as optional “waiver programs” also made the change more politically palatable, said Kim Musheno, senior director of Medicaid policy for The Arc of the United States, which represents people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Prospects were much different for babies born with serious disabilities before the change, Musheno said. “Doctors instructed families to forget they existed, and to put them in an institution.”

Waivers have been cut before

All states have Medicaid waiver programs, but benefits and the number of people covered vary significantly. Applicants often wait months or years to get into the programs because of limited funding. More than 600,000 Americans were on waiting lists or “interest lists” for waiver services in 2025, according to KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News.

Disability rights advocates and care providers have fought for decades to maintain funding for the programs, but a national leader said the threat feels especially severe now.

“When Medicaid is cut, people with disabilities are at the center of the impact,” said Barbara Merrill, CEO of the American Network of Community Outcomes and Resources, which represents agencies that care for people with intellectual disabilities or autism.

That’s what happened after Congress reduced Medicaid funding in 2011, according to a recent paper published by Health Affairs.

States could again rein in waiver programs by limiting enrollment, reducing covered services, or cutting pay for caregivers, who already are in short supply.

However, states that try to cut the in-home care programs could face legal challenges, Musheno said. The U.S. Supreme Court declared in 1999 that people with disabilities have a right to live outside of institutions if possible. The decision, in the case of Olmstead v. L.C., has been cited in lawsuits against states that fail to provide care options apart from nursing homes and similar facilities.

Several Iowans who belong to a Facebook group for Medicaid participants have posted in recent weeks that their families were notified of impending cuts in coverage of home care services for people with disabilities.

Sam Walker’s main caregiver, Andy Koettel, has worked with him since Walker was in fourth grade. Koettel, who works full-time, knows how to keep Walker calm in most situations and soothe him during a blowup. Their relationship took years to build, and it is a key reason Walker can continue to live at home with his parents, Koettel said.

“If I was not there, it would be incredibly difficult for all of them,” he said.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated following the day’s ceremonies. 

COLUMBIA — Thousands of mourners came to South Carolina’s capital Monday to say “thank you” to the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the iconic civil rights figure whose activism helped change a nation.

Jackson died Feb. 17 at his home in Chicago at age 84. Though never an elected official himself, he inspired generations of Americans through his historic 1984 and 1988 campaigns for president. Two of his sons became congressmen: former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson of Illinois.

But it was at a segregated library in Greenville in 1960, while as a college student home from summer break, that their father’s leadership in the Civil Rights Movement began.

Both inside the Statehouse and later at a church ceremony, the audience declared “I am somebody” — the iconic phrase Jackson used to encourage and empower youth, whether with children on Sesame Street or to open a music festival in a Los Angeles coliseum.

“From the streets of South Carolina to the global stage, he carried a message rooted in faith and committed to expanding opportunity for all,” reads the program for a Statehouse ceremony “welcoming home a son of South Carolina.”

The tribute in his home state began with a mile-long procession of his casket on a horse-drawn wagon from Leevy’s Funeral Home to the Statehouse. On top of the dome the flags flew at half-mast in his honor from sunrise to sunset. His closed casket, draped with an American flag, was brought into the Statehouse shortly before 10 a.m.

By then, people had already been standing in line for nearly two hours.

They included Camden residents Shirley Stanley Gorham, 79, and Mary Stanley, 78, who attended the 1963 March on Washington, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. made his “I Have a Dream” speech. Jackson, also in the crowd, later marched alongside King and witnessed his 1968 assassination in Memphis.

Gorham’s daughter, Theresa Allen, said the voices of King and Jackson gave her hope and a belief in equality.

She came to the Statehouse to give him one last “ginormous ‘thank you’ for his service,” Allen, also of Camden, told the SC Daily Gazette. “Being here today is also saying to him, although you earned your wings, we’re still here to be that voice for you.”

Gentarra Williams, 30, of Columbia, watched the procession with her mother and 1-year-old nephew Jordan.

“We get to witness history,” Williams said. “I want my nephew to see a history book and see this picture and say, ‘Everybody, I was there. I saw it.’”

Jackson’s stop at the Statehouse was a “high and unusual honor,” said his eldest daughter, Santita Jackson.

He’s among only a dozen or so people to lie in honor in the Statehouse and likely the first who was not an elected official.

Santita Jackson thanked Gov. Henry McMaster for the honor. The Republican governor approved the family’s request after the office of U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson denied a similar request that Jackson lie in state beneath the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. McMaster did not attend the morning ceremony but later stopped by the casket to pay his respects.

Monday’s events are part of a nationwide opportunity for people to say goodbye to Jackson, who learned directly from King before mentoring others and launching the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in Chicago that helped create the modern Democratic Party.

Celebrations of his life are also scheduled in Chicago and Washington, D.C.

It’s more fitting that Jackson lie in state in South Carolina anyway, said Jesse Jackson Jr.

“Our father was a South Carolina native. He began his fight for civil rights here. He brought meaningful change back to benefit his home state,” he said.

‘I am somebody’

Ahead of the doors opening to the public around noon, more than 100 people gathered inside the Statehouse to celebrate “a life well-lived and a job well-done,” said Rep. Jermaine Johnson, a Hopkins Democrat who’s running for governor.

Johnson, who emceed the hour and-a-half ceremony, was among scores of Black politicians, businessmen and activists who credited Jackson with paving the way for their successes.

Underscoring Jackson’s outsized impact was the celebrity-attendance at the invitation-only ceremony.

They included U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn; former U.S. Rep. Andrew Young of Georgia, a close confidante of King during the Civil Rights Movement; and University of South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley. Greg Mathis, of TV fame for the show “Judge Mathis,” credited Jackson with telling him to take his TV opportunity.

Legislators past and present attending both events included former Rep. James Felder. In 1970, he, I.S. Leevy Johnson and the late Herbert Fielding made history as the first Black South Carolinians elected to the House since 1902.

Felder said he first met Jackson when their schools took a field trip to the Statehouse. As Black students, however, they had to stay outside.

“He stood in the force of history and changed its course,” Felder said.

Clyburn said he too first met Jackson in high school. The two played for rival schools in football and basketball.

Jackson was his school’s starting quarterback, while Clyburn was “a prolific benchwarmer,” he said.

But Clyburn befriended Jackson’s mother, who supported Clyburn’s political career from the get-go. At her urging, Clyburn and Jackson became friends, and eventually their families grew so close that their children became friends, too.

“This is a friendship that spans generations,” Clyburn said.

State Rep. Chandra Dillard, a Greenville Democrat, and Greenville Mayor Knox White talked about Jackson’s work in his hometown.

That included organizing a July 1960 sit-in at the then-segregated Greenville County Public Library. The arrest of the Greenville Eight, as the group of students became known, prompted the library’s integration several months later.

Nearly half a century later, in 2005, Jackson led a march in his hometown to honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, as a way to highlight Greenville County’s status as the nation’s last to recognize MLK Day as a holiday for public workers. The County Council voted the next month to make MLK Day a holiday starting in January 2006.

That was six years after MLK Day became a permanent state holiday as part of a compromise that brought the Confederate flag off the Statehouse dome and put it on a 30-foot flagpole beside a monument along Columbia’s main thoroughfare. It was a compromise that neither Jackson nor the NAACP supported.

Jackson was back in the Statehouse in July 2015 to watch the Legislature vote to remove the battle flag from Statehouse grounds for good. He was among those who called for the flag to come down after an avowed white supremacist killed nine people at a historic Black church at the conclusion of a Wednesday night Bible study.

“He identified with the leftover, the lowdown and the mistreated,” Dillard said. “And he gave them a home by telling them that they were somebody.”

Because of him, “little boys like myself are able to say, ‘I am somebody,’” said Sen. Karl Allen, a Greenville Democrat and friend of Jackson’s.

Allen and politicians who followed his speech repeated Jackson’s mantra, declaring with the crowd: “I am somebody.”

Jackson often cited those words from a 1950s poem by an Atlanta pastor.

During a nearly three-hour memorial at Brookland Baptist in West Columbia, Jesse Jackson Jr. led the crowd of hundreds in a roaring call and response of the words he father often repeated and adapted.

“Respect me,” Jackson Jr. said, as the crowd chanted back each phrase. “Protect me. Never neglect me. I am somebody.”

Those inspirational phrases, as well as his father’s use of them, were more than political, he said.

“I believe dad’s contribution is psychological,” he said. “That ‘I am somebody’ restores the hope of a people who did not believe in themselves.”

Other civil rights leaders sharing their memories of Jackson included Cleveland Sellers, the former president of Voorhees College, a historically Black private school in Denmark.

Sellers worked as Jackson’s campaign coordinator for southeastern states. Their early activism required sacrifice, he said.

During the 1960s, peaceful protests in the South landed people in jail on trumped up charges, put them in harm’s way and often took them away from their families. But Jackson did it anyway, said Sellers, who also paid a price. He was the only person imprisoned for what became known as the 1968 Orangeburg Massacre, when state troopers killed three and injured 28 students who were protesting a whites-only bowling alley. Sellers, among the injured, received a one-year sentence for inciting a riot.

A formal apology from the state took 35 years, issued by Gov. Mark Sanford.

“It doesn’t look easy,” Sellers said. “It never was easy.”

Santita Jackson also talked about the family side of her father, who often brought her and her siblings with him on trips. He was daddy first, she said, before singing “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power” with the church choir’s backing.

Jackson’s children urged the audience to continue working toward the dream of equality.

“We thank God for this king, this son of South Carolina, this great man who will live forever and ever and ever, as long as you call his name and as long as you don’t just remember him but resemble him,” said Santita Jackson.

“Do the work,” she finished.

WASHINGTON — A federal judge Monday temporarily blocked a Department of Homeland Security policy that instituted a seven-day notice requirement for members of Congress to conduct oversight visits at facilities that hold immigrants, finding it likely violates appropriations law that allows for unannounced visits.

The order from Judge Jia Cobb of the District Court for the District of Columbia rejects initial arguments from the Trump administration that the separate funding stream from the tax cuts and spending package passed last year circumvents a 2019 appropriations law that allows for unannounced oversight visits to those facilities from lawmakers.

Members of Congress sued the government over the policy from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

“Throughout this litigation, Defendants have emphasized the vast amount of money appropriated to DHS and ICE under the (One Big Beautiful Bill Act). The Court agrees that these funds are indeed staggering,” Cobb said. “But the power of the purse rests with Congress, and even a deep-pocketed agency must comply with Congress’s restrictions on the permissible uses of appropriated funds.” 

The Department of Justice appealed the decision shortly after the order was given. 

DHS shutdown

Monday’s decision came amid a partial government shutdown of DHS over Democrats’ concerns about enforcement tactics used by immigration agents following the deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.  

The group representing the 13 members of Congress who filed suit, Democracy Forward, praised the decision.

“Today’s ruling makes it clear that Secretary Noem cannot operate detention facilities in the shadows or silence elected officials who are doing their jobs,” Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement. “The court has once again affirmed that oversight is not optional, transparency is not negotiable, and human rights do not disappear at the doors of a detention center.”

The 13 Democratic members of Congress who sued included: Joe Neguse of Colorado, Adriano Espaillat of New York, Kelly Morrison of Minnesota, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Robert Garcia of California, J. Luis Correa of California, Jason Crow of Colorado, Veronica Escobar of Texas, Dan Goldman of New York, Jimmy Gomez of California, Raul Ruiz of California, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and Norma Torres of California.

This policy is the third from Noem to require members of Congress to notify the agency to conduct an oversight visit. A 2019 appropriations law, referred to as Section 527, allows any member of Congress to carry out an unannounced visit to a federal facility that holds immigrants.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission has recommended that the Racine County District Attorney file charges against 13 people for unlawful irregularities in the petitions collected during a failed attempt to recall Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos in 2024. 

In a letter sent on Friday, WEC said that it was recommending charges against two people who collected signatures on behalf of the recall effort who had listed addresses that aren’t their residences on paperwork they submitted for  the signature drive. WEC recommended charges against another 11 people for turning in petition paperwork that listed signatures from people who later said they did not sign to support the recall. 

However WEC did not recommend charges against recall effort organizer Matthew Snorek. The letter states that in a complaint to WEC, Vos made “vague allegations” against Snorek, but they weren’t enough to confirm that he had broken a state law. 

The recall effort at the center of the allegations was the second failed recall drive against Vos in 2024. A faction of the Wisconsin Republican party, particularly around Vos’ Racine County district, has become especially engaged in conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election. The recall drives were started because of what organizers charged was Vos’  failure to adequately investigate claims that the 2020 election was stolen from President Donald Trump. 

This is also not the first time that conservatives have run afoul of the rules while opposing Vos. The state ethics commission alleged that during the 2022 primary elections, a political action committee connected to Trump, the Langlade County Republican Party and then-state Rep. Janel Brandtjen worked to illegally funnel $40,000 to the campaign of Vos’ primary challenger. 

Vos announced last month that he will not seek reelection this year, ending his time as the state’s longest serving Assembly Speaker. For the past eight years under Wisconsin’s divided government, he has been the most powerful Republican in the state. 

In a statement, Vos called the recommended charges “just another example of how these recall attempts were a complete waste of time and money when we hold regularly scheduled elections every two years.”

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WASHINGTON — A federal circuit court announced Monday it will hold oral arguments in May to determine whether a lower court erred when it blocked the Pentagon from downgrading Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly’s retirement rank and pay for appearing in the “Don’t Give Up The Ship” video. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s new schedule came just days after the Trump administration requested an expedited timeline.

“In light of the public’s unusual interest in prompt disposition of this appeal, the government respectfully requests that this Court set an expedited briefing schedule that will allow the Court to hear oral argument this Term, before the Court’s summer recess,” Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate wrote in a filing submitted Friday. 

The circuit court now expects the Trump administration to file a brief by March 20 explaining why it appealed the district court’s ruling and for Kelly’s legal team to file its reply brief by April 27. Attorneys for both sides would then present their oral arguments May 7. 

Karen LeCraft Henderson, nominated by President George H.W. Bush in 1990; Cornelia T.L. Pillard, nominated by President Barack Obama in 2013; and Florence Y. Pan, nominated by President Joe Biden in 2022, make up the three-judge panel that will rule on the appeal.  

90-second video

The Defense Department’s attempt to punish Kelly stems from when he and five other Democratic lawmakers posted a 90-second video last year, telling members of the military and those in the nation’s intelligence communities that they can and must refuse illegal orders. 

Kelly, a former Navy captain, was the only member of the group still subject to the military’s judicial system, leading Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to issue a letter of censure and initiate proceedings to downgrade the senator’s retirement rank and pay. 

Kelly filed a lawsuit in January, seeking to block those efforts on several fronts, including that it violated his constitutional rights. 

“The First Amendment forbids the government and its officials from punishing disfavored expression or retaliating against protected speech,” Kelly’s lawsuit stated. “That prohibition applies with particular force to legislators speaking on matters of public policy. As the Supreme Court held 60 years ago, the Constitution ‘requires that legislators be given the widest latitude to express their views on issues of policy,’ and the government may not recharacterize protected speech as supposed incitement in order to punish it.”

Judge rules for Kelly

Senior Judge Richard J. Leon of the District of Columbia District Court wrote in his 29-page ruling granting Kelly a preliminary injunction that “it is a particularly valuable asset for our country to have retired veterans contributing to public discussion on military matters and policy. 

“Given their ‘distinct perspective and specialized expertise,’ it is essential for retired veterans to contribute to our ‘public discourse’ on issues of military policy. Allowing Defendants’ actions against Senator Kelly to stand would further chill the speech of these retired servicemembers and thereby ‘impoverish public debate on critical issues relating to our military and its role in domestic and foreign affairs.’”

The Department of Justice had sought a grand jury indictment against Kelly, Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Colorado Rep. Jason Crow, Pennsylvania Reps. Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan and New Hampshire Rep. Maggie Goodlander for their participation in the video. But it was unsuccessful. 

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday he expects war with Iran will continue however long it takes to achieve his objectives, which include eliminating the country’s missile program, preventing its leaders from building a nuclear weapon and ensuring it cannot fund terrorism.

“Right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks,” he said at a Medal of Honor ceremony in the East Room of the White House. “But we have capability to go far longer than that. We’ll do it. Whatever.”

His remarks followed an early morning briefing by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who emphasized to those in attendance the U.S. war on Iran will continue unabated on Trump’s terms, with more troops on the way and more casualties expected.

Speaking in public for the first time since the United States and Israel launched a massive attack early Saturday, Hegseth would not specify a timeline or exit strategy for the mission.

“We will finish this on America first conditions of President Trump’s choosing, nobody else’s, as it should be,” Hegseth said.

By 4 p.m. Eastern, U.S. Central Command had updated the death toll of American service members to six, though little detail was provided. Their names, ranks and hometowns have not been disclosed.

Trump mentioned the U.S. military troops who had been killed as a reason to continue with his war.

“Today, we grieve for the … heroic American service members who have been killed in action, and send our love and support to their families,” he said. “In their memory, we continue this mission with ferocious, unyielding resolve to crush the threat this terrorist regime poses to the American people, and a threat, indeed it is.”

Trump said the objectives of the conflict with Iran “are clear.”

Military forces, he said, will destroy the country’s missile capabilities and its navy, prevent it from building a nuclear weapon and block its leaders from sponsoring terrorism.  

Trump did not say whether he would seek approval from Congress, which holds the power to declare war under the Constitution. And he did not take questions from reporters as he left the Medal of Honor ceremony about whether he would send U.S. ground troops into Iran.

Hegseth at his briefing commented on the three U.S. service members whose deaths were announced Sunday. The secretary said that “a squirter” — apparently referring to an offensive missile or drone — was not intercepted by air defense systems.

“And in that particular case, (it) happened to hit a tactical operation center that was fortified, but these are powerful weapons,” Hegseth told reporters.

The Associated Press reported Sunday the troops were U.S. Army soldiers deployed to Kuwait.

Congress heads toward war powers votes

Votes are expected this week in both the U.S. Senate and House on war powers resolutions attempting to check Trump’s power to engage in armed conflict.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said during an afternoon floor speech that lawmakers need to “pick a side” this week, urging them to reject what he described as “a war of choice, not necessity.”  

“Donald Trump has just launched America into a full-scale conflict against one of our most fervent adversaries without a plan, without an end game and without authorization from Congress, or even a debate in full view of the American people,” he said. 

Instead of engaging in “military escapades,” Schumer said, Trump should focus on implementing policies that would bring down the cost of living and focus on ensuring Americans have good-paying jobs. 

“They don’t want a war that leads to lost American lives and that costs billions and billions of taxpayer dollars,” he said. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., was much more supportive of Trump’s military endeavors, saying the “administration relentlessly pursued a diplomatic solution to the threat posed by Iran,” but that country’s leaders “refused diplomatic off-ramps.” 

“Iran has relentlessly pursued the development of its own nuclear program despite repeated violations identified by the international atomic watchdog, the (International Atomic Energy Agency),” Thune said. “Iran is also aggressively growing the range and inventory of its ballistic missiles and launchers, an inventory that is already the largest in the region. Combine that with a navy that aims to threaten a key shipping channel and it is clear that Iran poses a serious risk to America’s national security interests as well as those of our allies and partners.”

Thune and Schumer both said their prayers were with the families, loved ones and fellow service members of the U.S. troops killed so far in the war. 

House war powers vote

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said following a closed-door briefing that he believes the vote on the House floor later this week will fail, allowing Trump to keep pursuing war in Iran. 

“I am certainly hopeful and I believe we do have the votes to put it down,” he said. “That’s going to be a good thing for our country and our security and civility.”

Johnson said he doesn’t believe that Trump needed to seek congressional authorization to begin the war, arguing that “the president was acting well within his authority” since he believes U.S. military actions were “defensive in nature and design and necessity.”

Johnson said that since Israel was going to strike Iran and that intelligence sources believed Iran would have retaliated by striking both Israel and the United States, Trump acted appropriately when he began the war without lawmakers’ sign off. 

There is a chance that if the war drags on the Trump administration will ask Congress to provide additional funding for military operations, but Johnson said “it will be some time before we can put a final number on it.”

Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, ranking member on the Intelligence Committee, said after the same briefing that there was “no imminent threat to the United States of America by the Iranians.

“There was a threat to Israel. If we equate a threat to Israel as the equivalent of an imminent threat to the United States then we are in uncharted territory.”

Rubio: ‘Hardest hits are yet to come’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Capitol Hill Monday afternoon that the administration has “complied with the law 100%” in briefing congressional leadership ahead of Saturday’s attack, and notifying all of Congress within 48 hours afterward.

“If they want to take a war powers vote, they can do that. They’ve done that. They’ve done that a bunch of times,” Rubio said. He added: “There’s no law that requires the president to have done anything with regards to this.”

The secretary told reporters “there absolutely was an imminent threat” that Iran would attack U.S. troops in the region upon Israel striking Tehran.

“We were not going to sit there and absorb a blow before we responded, because the Department of War assessed that if we did that … we would suffer more casualties and more deaths,” Rubio said. 

“We went proactively in a defensive way to prevent them from inflicting higher damage. Had we not done so, there would have been hearings on Capitol Hill about how we knew that this was going to happen and we didn’t act preemptively to prevent more casualties,” he said as he continued on his way to a classified briefing with the congressional leadership and heads of intelligence committees.

When pressed by a journalist on whether the U.S. was forced to act because of Israel, Rubio said, “no matter what, ultimately, this operation needed to happen.”

Rubio said the U.S. focus is narrowly on destroying Iran’s current conventional weapons capabilities, which he repeatedly claimed are a “shield where they can hide behind” as they continue to build up a nuclear weapons program.

“I’m not going to give away the details of our tactical efforts, but the hardest hits are yet to come from the US military. The next phase will be even more punishing on Iran than it is right now,” Rubio said.

Caine says more troops on the way

Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, at the briefing with Hegseth, said more U.S. troops and airpower were expected to arrive in the region Monday.

“This is not a single overnight operation. The military objectives that (U.S. Central Command) and the Joint Force have been tasked with will take some time to achieve, and in some cases will be difficult and gritty work. We expect to take additional losses, and as always, we will work to minimize U.S. losses,” Caine said.

Hegseth said the mission, dubbed by the administration as Operation Epic Fury, is “laser focused” on eliminating Iran’s nuclear ambitions by destroying its offensive missile stockpile and production facilities, as well as its naval and security infrastructure.

“We’re hitting them surgically, overwhelmingly, and unapologetically with every passing day. Our capabilities get stronger and Iran’s get weaker. We set the terms of this war from start to finish,” Hegseth said.

The secretary sidestepped a question on how much of Iran’s infrastructure has been destroyed since Saturday. Caine said assessing what remains of Iran’s long-range strike capabilities “will take some time.”

Trump reiterated that a bombing campaign he initiated earlier this year “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program, though he said the country’s leaders, many of whom are now dead, “ignored those warnings and refused to cease their pursuit of nuclear weapons.”

“In addition, the regime’s conventional ballistic missile program was growing rapidly and dramatically, and this posed a very clear, colossal threat to America and our forces stationed overseas,” he said. “The regime already had missiles capable of hitting Europe and our bases, both local and overseas, and would soon have had missiles capable of reaching our beautiful America.”

Iranians began rebuilding the facilities bombed by the U.S. and Israel in June, but  authorities had blocked international inspectors from assessing the areas, according to a PBS report citing an anonymous U.S. official.

Iran retaliation

The conflict rapidly spread Sunday and into Monday across the Middle East, as Iran launched retaliatory missiles and drones following the targeted fatal strike by Israeli defense forces and U.S. intelligence of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

On Monday, Iran attacked key energy infrastructure, interrupting oil and gas production in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, two of the world’s largest suppliers, according to international media outlets. 

Gulf nations, usually safe havens and luxury getaways in the volatile region, ground to a halt as strikes and debris from intercepted missiles damaged the United Arab Emirates’ Dubai International Airport, one of the world’s busiest, and nearby iconic tourist destinations, according to Reuters. 

The U.S. State Department issued directives for Americans in the region, including a shelter-in-place order Sunday for all U.S. embassy staff in Qatar as airspace remained closed.

Jets go down over Kuwait, deaths in Iran and Israel

No deaths were reported after three U.S. F-15 fighter jets crashed over Kuwait Monday in an apparent friendly fire incident, according to U.S. Central Command. Video of an apparent U.S. fighter jet falling from the sky circulated on social media Monday.

The fighting spread to Lebanon after Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters fired rockets into Israel. Israel returned fire, including in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut. Several media outlets reported casualties, citing Lebanon’s health officials.

Nine people were killed Sunday in central Israel after a missile hit a synagogue bomb shelter, The Associated Press reported.

The death toll across Iran hit at least 555 since the conflict began, according to Iranian Red Crescent Society figures cited by Al Jazeera. Iranian officials attributed more than 150 deaths to a strike Saturday on a school in southern Iran, according to numerous international reports.

Buildup of troops over past month

The administration began amassing thousands of troops, aircraft and naval ships over the past 30 days in the region, including relocating its largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, from its position in the southern hemisphere where U.S. troops apprehended Venezuela’s leader on Jan. 3.

The “rapid buildup,” Caine said, included service members from Wisconsin’s Army National Guard, which was operating in Kuwait and Iraq, and Air National Guard units from various states, including Vermont and Virginia.

Caine would not answer questions about the total number of U.S. troops involved.

Trump gave the final order for the attack on Friday, just before 4 p.m. Eastern, and joint strikes with Israel’s forces commenced overnight Saturday, at 9:45 a.m. Tehran time.

“The president directed, and I quote, ‘Operation Epic Fury is approved. No aborts, good luck,’” according to Caine.

Operations centers in Tampa, Florida and at the Pentagon directed strikes on more than 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours, Caine said.

WASHINGTON — Democratic lawmakers called Saturday for Congress to weigh in on President Donald Trump’s order launching “major combat operations” in Iran, while Republicans largely provided cautious support of the attacks.

Trump said in a video posted to social media at 2:30 a.m. Eastern that U.S. forces struck targets in the Islamic republic. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks were conducted in conjunction with Israel. 

Trump said, “Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people. Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world.”

Late Saturday afternoon, Trump said on his Truth Social platform that Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed in the strike. 

“This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS,” said Trump. “The heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!”

U.S. Senate leaders react

On Saturday morning, as word of the attack spread, numerous Democratic members of Congress were urging a vote on Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine’s War Powers Resolution.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he had “implored” Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a briefing this week to make a straightforward public case for any military operation in the Middle East.

The New York Democrat criticized the administration’s strategy, though he also had tough words about the Iranian regime. He called for an “immediate all-senators classified briefing” ahead of a vote on a War Powers Act resolution.

“The administration has not provided Congress and the American people with critical details about the scope and immediacy of the threat,” Schumer said in a statement. “Confronting Iran’s malign regional activities, nuclear ambitions, and harsh oppression of the Iranian people demands American strength, resolve, regional coordination, and strategic clarity. Unfortunately, President Trump’s fitful cycles of lashing out and risking wider conflict are not a viable strategy.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune praised Trump for taking action to deter Iran from expanding its nuclear program and supporting terrorist groups in the region.

The country poses “a clear and unacceptable threat to U.S. servicemembers, citizens in the region, and many of our allies,” the South Dakota Republican wrote in a statement. “Despite the dogged efforts of the president and his administration, the Iranian regime has refused the diplomatic off-ramps that would peacefully resolve these national security concerns.”

Thune added that administration officials would brief senators as the operation continued.

Nuclear weapon ambitions

Trump said in the early-morning video that the U.S. aims to prevent the Islamic Republic of Iran from ever obtaining nuclear weapons. “This regime will soon learn no one should challenge the strength and might of the United States armed forces,” said Trump. 

He acknowledged that “we may have casualties. That often happens in war. But we’re doing this not for now, we’re doing it for the future.”

Trump also encouraged the Iranian people to rise up against their government. “Finally, to the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take,” Trump said. “It will be probably your only chance for generations.”

Trump spoke from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where he flew Friday night following an appearance in Corpus Christi, Texas. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on social media Trump monitored the situation overnight with members of his national security team, and he spoke with Netanyahu by phone.

Prior to the attacks, dubbed “Operation Epic Fury,” Leavitt said Rubio notified both Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress.

Netanyahu in a statement on social media thanked Trump and echoed the U.S. president’s comments about nuclear arms.

“This murderous terrorist regime must not be allowed to arm itself with nuclear weapons that would enable it to threaten all of humanity,” Netanyahu said. “Our joint operation will create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their fate into their own hands.”

Iranians say they tried to prevent war

Iran Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi early Saturday afternoon wrote a letter to the secretary-general of the United Nations and the president of the U.N. Security Council that “strongly condemned the coordinated and extensive armed aggression by the United States and the Israeli regime against Iran’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” according to a statement on social media by the Foreign Ministry of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Foreign Ministry of the Islamic Republic of Iran also said that the attack came while the United States and Iran were in the midst of diplomatic talks, and vowed a response.

“Now the Iranian people are proud that they did everything necessary to prevent war,” the ministry said. “Now is the time to defend the homeland and confront the enemy’s military aggression. Just as we were ready for negotiations, we have been more prepared than ever for defense. The armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will respond to the aggressors with authority.”

The Associated Press said the first strikes appeared to target the compound of Khamenei in Tehran. The Reuters news service said the skies above Tehran were filled with smoke.

The strikes were not specifically authorized by Congress. Trump also ordered airstrikes in Venezuela and the capture of the country’s president earlier this year.

Some members of Congress expressed skepticism about that operation, saying it should have been brought to the legislative branch that is supposed to have war-making powers under the Constitution.

The United States and its allies have long debated how to approach Iran’s nuclear program. The country’s regime is strongly anti-American and the U.S. has imposed economic sanctions for the nearly half-century since a revolution installed a theocratic supreme leader.

Republicans echo Trump

Republicans largely laid responsibility for the attacks on the Iranian regime, saying its aggressive posture invited action.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina praised the move on social media early Saturday. “I echo President Trump’s call to the Iranian military, IRGC and security forces to lay down their arms. I echo his call to the Iranian people to take back their government,” said Graham.

“President Trump was right when he said he’s the first president in 47 years to stand with the people of Iran and give them the backing they need.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, a Florida Republican, said the strikes were “the inescapable response to 47 years of continuous and calculated aggression by the Ayatollah of Iran and all his generals against the United States, our allies, and the Iranian people.”

“Every day under this regime, the United States and our allies have been under imminent threat of attack by Iran and its terrorist arms across the globe,” Mast said. “They chanted ‘Death to America’ while seeking nuclear weapons and the missile technology to strike our homeland. The days of America waiting to be attacked by Iran are over.”

Democrats warn of long-term commitment 

Democrats, though, called out the administration for going around Congress. Many said Trump should be more focused on domestic issues.

“Though there is bipartisan support for stopping the development of nuclear weapons in Iran, there is no consensus for another interminable war in the Middle East,” Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois said. 

“A war in Iran with the goal of regime change could be another long-term military commitment with deadly consequences for thousands of American troops. The rash and unpredictable conduct of President Trump is a well-established worry in many ways but an impulsive commander in chief is a deadly combination.”

House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts blasted Trump for violating a campaign pledge of “no new wars” by launching the attack “under cloak of night, without congressional approval of even a clear rationale.”

“Families do not want another war,” she said. “They want a reasonable cost of living. They want health care they can afford. They want an end to (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)’s terror in their neighborhoods. And they do not want their sons and daughters placed in harm’s way by a reckless President. The people of this country deserve better.”

Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey called for an immediate vote on a war powers resolution.

“Americans don’t want to go to war with Iran,” Kim said on social media.

“By launching strikes, President Trump has made the same dangerous and foolish decision President Bush did a generation ago. He put Americans in harm’s way without clearly showing there’s an imminent threat to our national security. He put the Iranian people in harm’s way by calling on them to rise up without a broad coalition of partners to assist in their protection. And Trump once again started a cycle of violence that has already escalated and could spiral out of control. This is unacceptable.”

Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts said diplomatic talks should be continued. “Trump’s military attack on Iran is illegal and unconstitutional. It was not approved by Congress and holds dangers for all Americans. Trump’s illegal actions raise the threat of escalation into a wider regional war with grave risks for U.S. troops and civilians in the region,” Markey said in a statement.

Dennis Simmons didn’t expect that a regular visit to his probation officer would end in his arrest, and the prospect of being sent to prison. After a life spent in and out of the criminal justice system, Simmons was employed and trying to avoid trouble. “When I came in they arrested me and told me that I was being charged with robbery, battery, and carjacking,” the 28-year-old told Wisconsin Examiner, recalling that day in April 2025. “The detectives never came and questioned me to ask nothing, they just ended up charging me with it.”

Simmons learned that he was being accused of assaulting a man and stealing his car. But his attempts to explain that he had proof that the accusations were false fell on deaf ears, Simmons said. Instead, his probation agent planned on moving forward with revoking  Simmons’ release anyway. 

Had that happened, Simmons would have been among the over 8,100 people sent back to prison in 2025, according to Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) data. When you’re one of the over 64,000 Wisconsinites who are on probation or parole in Wisconsin, an unproven accusation is one of numerous things that can send you back to prison. Probation and parole agents wield immense power over their clients’ futures. 

Simmons told his agent, Laquisha Booker, that his accuser was the subject of a no-contact order with his mother due to a domestic violence case. The accusation against Simmons was false, he told her,   because there was video showing the man violating that no-contact order by arriving at his mother’s home in the very car Simmons’ had been accused of stealing, and attempting to break down the door. Simmons’ uncle, he said, fought the man off. 

“It don’t show me on the camera at all,” Simmons told the Wisconsin Examiner. Booker told the family to send her the footage, but then “acted like she never got the video,” said Simmons. “Well, she kept pushing forward with revocation the whole time. My uncle came in and gave her a statement, let her know what happened, that he was the one that got into the fight with him. And mom sent the video. Mom gave a statement and let them know what happened. My grandma gave a statement. And she still pushed forward with revocation.” 

Fighting against the stream of incarceration

Facing over five years imprisonment, Simmons was shocked and confused by Booker’s push to send him back. “How can you still go through with it?” He asked. “You got evidence showing that it ain’t true. And she, like, ‘Well, I’m pushing forward with revocation.” Simmons wanted to fight the revocation, but knew that it wouldn’t be easy to beat. For months he sat in the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility, a facility which held 637 people while Simmons was there in April 2025 despite only being designed to hold 418.  

Simmons found the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility  to be in a dire state. “They be short staff a lot, you know, so we be pretty much in the room all day,” Simmons told the Examiner. He recalled that people were let out of their rooms twice a day for a little  over an hour. 

“It’s kind of rough in there,” said Simmons. “So we pretty much in the room all day. Come out for a little bit. When you come out, you work out, get in the shower, and then try to make your phone calls, try to get everything did that you got to get did. Then you go back in the room. So it’s pretty much a stressful environment just being in there. Because you be in the room all day thinking, especially if you in there for something that you didn’t do and then you nervous. Like, I was actually kind of scared even though I didn’t do anything, like, they have my back against the wall so I’m like ‘five years, nine months, I got to fight it.’ But they like, ‘If  you lose you could get the whole seven years. And 90% of the people lose here.’ So I’m like, should I take a deal for something that I didn’t do?”

The people Simmons was housed with thought that would be his only option. “Everybody that been there for a while said that’s how it works,” Simmons told the Examiner. “It was stressful.” 

Prior to his final revocation hearing in September 2025, attorney May Lee — of the Lee Law Firm — intervened on Simmons’ behalf. In emails Lee shared with the Examiner, Booker  claimed that the videos sent by Simmons’ mother couldn’t be opened. “I emailed her back and told her to forward the videos to my supervisor,” Booker emailed Lee. “She never did. I won’t be using the videos in the rev hearing.” 

Lee shot back that Dennis’ mother had sent the videos “to your agency a total of three times, including once to your supervisor. She was unaware that you or your supervisor were unable to open the files and she is now locked out of her iCloud account, requiring Apple’s assistance to access those videos again.” Lee continued preparing for the revocation hearing, asking Booker to share the videos with her so she could try to open them, and to provide a supervisor’s contact information.

During the revocation hearing, Simmons’ uncle testified that his nephew was innocent and it was  he who had engaged in the fight leading to the accusation of assault. The uncle also testified to having already given Booker a statement that exonerated Simmons. Booker admitted during the hearing that she had lost the uncle’s statement, something which Lee said contradicted what the probation agent had told her in the days leading up to the hearing. According to a DOC human resources bureau review of Booker’s conduct, Lee had been told by Booker that the uncle never came to give a statement. 

After the Sept. 10 hearing, Lee emailed Booker to demand that the allegations against Simmons be dismissed given what came out during the hearing. Lee also noted that Booker’s supervisor was able to access the videos which Booker claimed didn’t work.  “The information you know to be true does not support the allegations against Dennis,” Lee emailed Booker. “I am hopeful you will consider doing the right thing here. I look forward to hearing from you.” 

The next day Booker responded that after talking with her supervisor, “the department is not going to withdraw the allegations against Mr. Simmons and will continue with the revocation hearing.” Emails obtained by Wisconsin Examiner show Booker’s supervisor asked her about the conflict over the uncle’s statement. Booker said that Lee was misunderstanding what she said, “I told her I reached out to [the uncle], we spoke but he never came in to give a statement. So I can see how she’s thinking I said he never gave a statement at all.” 

Later that day, Lee again asked Booker for her supervisor’s contact information. Otherwise, she said, she’d have to go above their heads to a DOC regional chief “and outline the blatant misrepresentations” made about Simmons. “We are expected to uphold justice, and I provided an opportunity to rectify this situation,” Lee emailed Booker. “As you have chosen not to, I have no other option but to escalate this matter.” Lee then notified DOC Regional Chief Niel Thoreson about her concerns. 

 

 

By Sept. 15, Thoreson and Lee were emailing about finally releasing Simmons. Although another agent was supposed to be assigned to Simmons, when he was released it was Booker he met with to review the rules of his conditional release. “It is unacceptable that she was allowed to meet with him after she attempted to use her own lie to strip away another five years of his life to lock him up as if his human life holds no value,” Lee emailed Thoreson on Sept. 22. “This was egregious due to the already six months he spent in custody because of those allegations.” Lee added,  “what is going on over there??” 

The tables turned 

Simmons recalled his last interaction with Booker. “When I came to the office the day I was released, I was actually excited, at the very least I was happy, and then I seen her,” said Simmons, adding that Booker told him that this wouldn’t have happened if she’d received the videos and statement from his uncle, essentially reverting to her original claims. “I was like yeah, this is crazy,” said Simmons. 

Booker was later interviewed by the DOC human resources department. She was  new to her job,  having started in January 2025. During her HR  interview, Booker was asked whether she received a statement from Simmons’ uncle. “Yes sir,” she began. “Well let me rephrase that, I didn’t have to. [The uncle] reached out to me and said he wanted to make a statement.” Booker said that he came to the office and that she gave him paper to write the statement. “I did not sit there and take his statement personally, but I did get a statement from him that he turned in to the front desk.” 

She went on to say, “I am being completely honest. From the time that reception told me that the statement is ready to pick up, I don’t remember if I went to get the statement from him or not or if I grabbed it and misplaced it sometime after that.” Booker said that she couldn’t recall whether she actually read the statement, or even if she’d picked the statement up from the desk. The statement wasn’t included in the packet prepared for Simmons’ revocation hearing because according to Booker, she didn’t have it. 

Booker denied telling Lee that she never took a statement from the uncle, but said that she admitted in court to having lost his statement. Booker couldn’t remember at what point she first realized she’d lost it, however. When asked during the human resources interview whether she ever told attorney Lee about the uncle’s statement Booker said, “Yes…I can’t recall. I have had many conversations with her at that time.” Booker said that her supervisor had told her that “we are proceeding with rev no matter what.”  

She added that, “I realize I made a mistake and that I tried to correct that violation and I understand that I messed up. No matter what my [supervisor] was proceeding with rev and I am a new agent and I talked to her to get alternatives because I knew mom and grandma were testifying and I tried to do other things. That was my first revocation hearing and I don’t even know how revocations go and I don’t have any rapport with the client because he was arrested before I even knew him…I am a new agent and I don’t have any information on that process or how it went.” 

The DOC found that Booker had potentially violated rules regarding falsifying records, insubordination, and negligence. The report asserts that Booker was aware of the statement clearing Simmons of wrongdoing, but that she didn’t tell her supervisor, and declined Lee’s attempts to provide her with another written statement. The HR report adds that Booker “knowingly provided false information” to Lee regarding her ability to access video footage sent by Simmons’ mother, and the uncle’s statement. 

A DOC spokesperson said that Booker resigned in November during her disciplinary investigation. For the first seven weeks of her time at DOC, Booker would have participated in the DOC’s basic training for agents, which all agents must graduate before working with clients. The training is intended to provide agents with baseline and foundational skills to help agents navigate tasks, make decisions, and understand the DOC’s expectations. 

Crushed hopes and an uncertain future 

The entire ordeal was a major blow to Simmons’ ability to settle back into civilian life after serving a seven-year sentence. “You’re not even giving me a chance,” said Simmons, “and I’m showing you what’s going on.” 

Simmons told the Examiner that he’s tired of the revolving door to prison in his life. “I had a mindset of I’m tired of going to jail, I don’t want to be in prison no more,” Simmons told the Examiner. “I’ve been doing this my whole life, I’m going to try something different. Because the way I’ve been doing it keep getting me in trouble, it’s not working. So I want to try a way to stay up out. So when I get out and I decide that I’m not doing nothing that can put me back in prison, and try to stay away from it, and then I get locked up for something I didn’t do, it just make me feel like, ‘Man like, it’s hopeless. Should I just be back in the streets?” 

Simmons said the experience “crushed all the hope I had for even trying to do something the right way. Like…I ain’t understand it.” He told the Examiner that it’s important not to judge people solely based on what they did in the past. “That’s not who they are, that’s who they was,” said Simmons, recalling that he started getting into trouble when he was 13 years old. “I’ve been in and out since I was a kid,” he said. 

Growing up, Simmons said he didn’t have many positive role models around. “So basically if you grow up around people, if your whole family is involved in certain things and they teach you that the right thing to do is live the street life — be in the streets, sell drugs, do whatever in the streets — that’s what you’re going to grow up believing is the right thing to do,” he explained. “Now a lot of my family…They breaking the cycle of being in and out of prison. My dad started his own business. My auntie started her own business. Everybody is breaking the cycle from getting in trouble and going back to jail.” 

It took Simmons until his last prison sentence to decide he had to break the cycle. Before the experience with Booker, Simmons was working with his uncle and staying away from old friends and bad influences. But when he spoke to the Examiner, Simmons was being held at Milwaukee’s Community Reintegration Center, after being charged with firearms-related offenses in December for which he has yet to be convicted, and remains presumed innocent until proven guilty. If he beats this new case, Simmons hopes to transfer his probation to Texas where he has family, and leave Milwaukee behind. The DOC has recommended that his supervision be revoked. 

“I made some mistakes, I did some things in the past, made some bad decisions, and that made me who I am today,” said Simmons. “Everything I went through made me want to do better and be better.”

 

In Johnson County, Iowa, the number of tuberculosis cases has increased in recent years — and so has the cost of containing it.

The cost of contact tracing and surveillance, traveling each day to patients’ homes to ensure they take their meds or booking hotel rooms to quarantine patients, has surged from $17,000 in 2020 to $65,000 last year.

That doesn’t include $13,000 spent last year for language translation, as many of the cases were among the local immigrant communities, said Danielle Pettit-Majewski, director of the Johnson County public health department. She said the rise in spending is directly tied to the increase in diagnoses since 2020, with latent infections tripling, from 27 that year to 90 last year.

Last week, the state informed the county that the greater number of cases had made it too costly to help pay for the home visits, forcing the county to pay for them on its own.

“I was kind of dumbfounded,” Pettit-Majewski said. “It was surprising.”

Tuberculosis cases have been rising nationwide since 2021, and in 2024 — the most recent year for which data is available — they reached the highest level since 2011. Thirty-four states and the District of Columbia reported increases in TB case counts and rates from 2023 to 2024, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2024, there were 10,347 reported cases nationwide, up 8% from the 9,622 cases reported the year before.

The case numbers for 2025 won’t be released until the end of March. But the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown last year might have dissuaded some people from seeking care, perhaps leading to fewer recorded diagnoses, some TB experts say.

Some states, however, are reporting preliminary data to the National Tuberculosis Coalition of America that shows that the number of cases grew from 2024 and 2025 by between 10% and 20%, said Donna Hope Wegener, the coalition’s executive director.

“There are a number of [tuberculosis] program managers that are reporting double-digit increases,” Wegener said, adding that the cost of antibiotics to treat TB is rising. “These back-to-back increases that states are contending with are certainly alarming.”

In San Antonio, Texas, case numbers have been steady, but the local public health department is still struggling to cover treatment costs.

Tommy Camden, health program manager at the City of San Antonio’s tuberculosis clinic, said the city has proposed eliminating a full-time specialist position that assists with TB contact tracing, blood draws and home visits.

Whatever the 2025 numbers show, many public health agencies are struggling to keep up, especially as they also contend with a growing measles outbreak that so far has affected 26 states.

Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection with both active and latent stages. A person with active tuberculosis disease, which can be deadly, can spread the disease. A person with a latent infection can’t, but they can develop the disease at any point.

Consistent, daily antibiotic treatment for four to nine months, with no skipped doses, is crucial to knocking it out. Skipping doses can allow the germs to mutate into drug-resistant TB, which is one reason health agencies spend so much to ensure patients take their medication.

In the U.S., the disease disproportionately affects people born in countries where it’s more common, as well as Hispanic, Black, Asian American, Pacific Islander and Indigenous communities, according to the CDC.

Immigrant communities tend to be disproportionately affected, in part because the disease can spread more easily in multigenerational households and other crowded home and work settings. Poverty, a lack of access to health care because of language, transportation and cultural barriers, and the stigma around the disease also can make those communities more vulnerable, Pettit-Majewski explained.

The California Department of Public Health says the cost of drugs to prevent a latent tuberculosis infection from turning into full-blown disease can be about $857 for what is usually three to four months of treatment. In contrast, diagnosing and treating one infected person who develops active tuberculosis disease can cost about $43,900.

While there is a vaccine for tuberculosis, it isn’t recommended for use in the U.S. because it can cause false positives in TB tests taken by skin sample. The vaccine also isn’t consistently effective against adult pulmonary tuberculosis.

Research has been underway for developing a new vaccine. But the Trump administration’s antipathy toward vaccines of all kinds is dampening investment in new products.

Immigration crackdown

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, tuberculosis was the world’s deadliest infectious disease, killing about 1.5 million people each year, according to the World Health Organization. It remains a leading infectious disease killer globally. Immigrants coming to the U.S. are screened for active TB and connected with treatment, and U.S. residents may be asked about travel abroad during routine checkups.

Many immigrants might be reluctant to seek care amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, said Dr. Michael Lauzardo, a University of Florida associate professor at the division of infectious diseases and global medicine and director of the Florida TB Physicians Network.

“I think the numbers will be lower because people are afraid,” Lauzardo said of the soon-to-be-released 2025 data. “A lot of the people at risk for TB are not seeking care, I suspect.”

Munira Maalimisaq, a family nurse practitioner in Minneapolis, said such fear has been rampant across immigrant communities in her area. After President Donald Trump was elected, a health care center where she worked had to drop a routine question on patient intake forms that asked where a patient is from, because people were scared to answer it. The question was meant to assess exposure to TB in countries where it’s more common.

“That was a big barrier, because people would just not answer that question, or would not even want to engage and say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’” said Maalimisaq, CEO of a nonprofit health care center in Minneapolis, Inspire Change Clinic.

She said such fear could cause more active cases later on, as people with latent TB may not get diagnosed or get care — increasing the risk that they’ll develop the disease and become contagious.

“The whole thing delays seeking care,” she said. “If I don’t get screened for it, there’s no way that my provider is going to diagnose me.”

In Iowa, Pettit-Majewski said she hopes that Johnson County residents won’t be scared to seek care.

“If you are a Johnson County resident, you are our neighbor, and it is our responsibility to keep you safe and healthy — and we take that very seriously,” said Pettit-Majewski. “We want to make sure that folks are able to get the best care, regardless of immigration status, regardless of where you came from.”

People in detention or correctional facilities also are disproportionately at risk of infection. In recent weeks, two tuberculosis cases cropped up at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in El Paso, Texas. Last year, California, Alaska and Arizona also saw cases at ICE detention facilities.

ICE didn’t respond to Stateline’s questions about the recent two cases at the El Paso facility. On a recent visit to the detention center, Democratic U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, who represents El Paso, said she saw agents go into a community pod, which can hold between 30 to 70 detainees, without protective attire.

“I was about to walk into a pod with the ICE agents, and the security guard said, ‘No, no, ma’am, you don’t want to walk in there. They’ve not been tested for TB yet,’” Escobar told Stateline.

“But I did see contractor staff coming in and out of the pod, and so I asked, ‘Why are they not wearing [personal protective equipment]? Why aren’t they wearing a mask?’ And my concerns were pretty much dismissed, and I was told it’s their choice and they don’t have to if they don’t want to.”

Cuts to public health funding 

Earlier this month, the Trump administration told Congress it intends to rescind $600 million in public health funds to four Democratic-led states: California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota. Many of the grants targeted HIV, and some also targeted tuberculosis.

The four states have sued to stop the cuts, arguing that the administration is targeting them with “devastating funding cuts to basic public health infrastructure based on political animus and disagreements about unrelated topics such as federal immigration enforcement.”

A federal judge has temporarily halted the cuts, saying the administration’s statements suggest “hostility to what the federal government calls ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’ or ‘sanctuary cities.’” An agency action, U.S. District Judge Manish S. Shah said, can’t be honored “if it is arbitrary or capricious.”

One of the California grants affected is a grant to the Tuberculosis Elimination Alliance, a partnership of community-based organizations that conduct outreach and education about tuberculosis.

The group received notice Feb. 11 that its grants were ending — putting in jeopardy $100,000 the alliance distributes to groups serving high-risk communities across California, Illinois, Washington state, the District of Columbia and U.S. island territories.

One of the largest tuberculosis outbreaks in recent weeks occurred at a San Francisco Bay Area high school, where latent TB was detected in more than 200 students and staff.

“It’s just such a scary and confusing time for our communities,” said Chibo Shinagawa, associate director of infectious diseases at the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations, which leads the Tuberculosis Elimination Alliance.

“The instability, the uncertainty right now — it’s such a disruption to public health, to the trust we’ve built in our communities.”

Stateline reporter Nada Hassanein can be reached at nhassanein@stateline.org.

Some Republican lawmakers have routinely proposed criminally prosecuting women for getting abortions since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, despite bipartisan condemnation and criticism from national anti-abortion organizations. 

These bills never made it to the finish line, but they keep circulating in legislatures across the country. So-called “abortion abolitionists” who believe that abortion should be classified as homicide, and that fetuses, embryos and zygotes should have the same legal protections as people are often behind these measures, States Newsroom reported. 

This year, the Foundation to Abolish Abortion praised Republican lawmakers in Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee who introduced bills that would punish people who get abortions. 

In Illinois, Republican Sen. Neil Anderson filed a bill that would have banned abortion from the moment of fertilization and classified abortion as homicide in the Democratic-led state. Anderson’s bill did not move past introduction, and he lost a leadership position in the chamber this month, Capitol News Illinois reported. 

In Tennessee, legislation concerning an anti-abortion monument was amended to criminalize abortion, potentially allowing women who seek abortion to be charged with murder. Sen. Mark Pody, the bill’s GOP sponsor, said he doesn’t have the votes in the Senate to pass the bill with the criminalization amendment, Tennessee Lookout reported. 

Elsewhere, proposals to crackdown on the availability of abortion medication — the most common way to terminate a pregnancy — are advancing in several Republican-led legislatures, while Democratic lawmakers are moving to fortify shield laws. 

Our reproductive rights reporting team will be tracking related bills through biweekly roundups as sessions continue this winter and into the spring. Depending on the partisan makeup of a state’s legislature and other state government officials, some bills have a better chance of passing and becoming law than others.

GOP legislators still introducing bills classifying abortion as homicide

Kentucky   

House Bill 714: Abortion is already illegal in Kentucky with no exceptions for victims of rape and incest. This bill, called the “Prenatal Equal Protection Act,” would go further by classifying abortion as homicide unless it’s needed to treat miscarriages or save a pregnant woman’s life. The penalties would be the same as those for killing a person, so violators could face anywhere from one year to life in prison. 

GOP Rep. Richard White introduced a similar bill last year that didn’t go anywhere. The Foundation to Abolish Abortion praised the new measure in a Tuesday news release. The organization criticized a Kentucky prosecutor’s decision last month to drop a fetal homicide charge against a woman who was accused of taking abortion medication.  

Status: Introduced in the House on Tuesday, Feb. 24, and sent to the Committee on Committees 

Sponsors: Republican Reps. Josh Calloway and Richard White  

South Carolina 

House Bill 3537: Legislation introduced by GOP Rep. Rob Harris would ban abortion from the moment of fertilization. Harris’ bill would also allow the prosecution of people who get abortions unless it’s necessary to manage miscarriages or save a pregnant person’s life. 

Harris filed this bill in previous legislative sessions, but it hasn’t gained traction, SC Daily Gazette reported. “Bills like these do nothing but terrify women out of wanting to get pregnant,” Tori Nardone, a woman who had to leave South Carolina to get an abortion for a fatal fetal anomaly, told lawmakers last month. “Please don’t make it worse than it already is.”

Status: Stalled in the House Judiciary Committee 

Sponsor: Republican Rep. Rob Harris 

South Dakota   

House Bill 1212: South Dakota bans abortion in most cases, but this bill would have codified abortion as fetal homicide in state law and defined abortion as a Class B felony, which carries punishment of up to life in prison and a fine of up to $50,000. The proposal included exceptions for miscarriage treatment or when a pregnant patient’s life is in danger.

The bill was deferred to the last day of the legislation session by the House Health and Human Services Committee, essentially preventing it from advancing.  

Status: Sidelined 

Sponsors: Rep. Tony Randolph and Sen. John Carley, Republicans 

Republican-led states push bills to crack down on abortion pills

Mississippi   

House Bill 1613: This legislation would make it illegal to sell, manufacture, distribute or dispense abortion-inducing drugs in the state, which bans all abortions unless the mother’s life or health is at risk, and if rape or incest is reported to law enforcement. 

Violators could face between one and 10 years in prison, and the state attorney general could enforce civil penalties against the person, too, Mississippi Free Press reported. The House passed the bill on Wednesday, Feb. 11. If the bill becomes law, it would take effect in July. 

Status: Referred to Senate Judiciary Committee last week 

Sponsors: Republican Reps. Kevin Horan and William Tracy Arnold 

South Dakota  

House Bill 1274: The state House passed a bill this week that would make dispensing, distributing, selling or advertising abortion pills and any other abortion-related “instrument” or “article” illegal, South Dakota Searchlight reported. 

Under the measure, the attorney general could seek penalties of up to $10,000 for each violation, and the money would go in a fund used to pursue anti-abortion litigation, according to Searchlight. South Dakota’s AG is already involved in a legal battle with a New York-based nonprofit over abortion medication ads it ran at gas stations across the state last year. 

Status: Approved in the House on Tuesday, Feb 24; in the Senate State Affairs committee 

Sponsors: Republican Reps. John Hughes and Greg Blanc 

Democratic lawmakers move to strengthen abortion-rights protections 

New Hampshire   

Senate Bill 551: New Hampshire, which has a Republican trifecta in government, is the only state in New England without a law that protects abortion providers and patients from out-of-state investigations into reproductive health care. Legislation introduced by Democratic Sen. Debra Altschiller in February would secure the right to reproductive health care and prohibit law enforcement from cooperating with investigations into related health care, New Hampshire Bulletin reported. 

The bill would make it illegal for the governor to comply with extradition requests for abortion providers and patients. It would also ban insurers from penalizing reproductive health care providers and let residents sue people or agencies that attempt to interfere with their reproductive rights, the Bulletin reported. 

Status: The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 3-2 on Tuesday, Feb. 17, that the bill was “inexpedient to legislate.” 

Sponsor: Democratic Sen. Debra Altschiller

Oregon   

House Bill 4088: An Oregon law approved in July 2023 protects providers who offer reproductive health care from losing their licenses, and shields patients and providers from related out-of-state investigations. Legislation introduced this year would beef up those safeguards. 

This bill would bar the governor from accepting extradition requests from other states against providers who offer legally protected reproductive health care and prohibit law enforcement from cooperating with interstate investigations into related care, Oregon Capital Chronicle reported. It would also block state officials from revoking midwifery licenses for people who face prosecution for reproductive health care in other states. 

Status: Approved by the House on Monday, Feb. 16; approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday, Feb. 25

Sponsors: Rep. Lisa Fragala and Sen. Lisa Reynolds, Democrats