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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — New U.S. House districts in Missouri backed by President Donald Trump can be used ahead of the midterm elections, despite the potential for a voter referendum on the new map, a judge ruled Friday.

The decision by Cole County Circuit Judge Brian Stumpe marked a triumph for Republicans, who hope the districts will help them win an additional congressional seat in the November midterm elections.

Opponents of the new districts asserted they should have been automatically suspended in December when more than 300,000 petition signatures were submitted calling for a statewide referendum on the plan.

But Stumpe said opponents lacked the legal grounds to sue, had done so too soon and were asking the court to get involved in a political question best left to the executive and legislative branches. He said the new map can be suspended only if it is ultimately determined that the referendum petition meets legal muster and contains enough valid signatures.

“Without verification requirements, any group could suspend legislation merely by submitting boxes of invalid signatures, signatures of unregistered voters, forged names, or other fraudulent submissions,” Stumpe wrote. “Clearly, the framers of Missouri’s Constitution could not have intended such an easily exploited system that would allow bad-faith actors to paralyze the legislative process.”

Under state law, Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins has until Aug. 4 — the date of Missouri’s primary election — to make a final determination on the validity of the referendum petition.

Missouri is one of several states engaged in a national redistricting battle that began last summer when Trump called upon Texas Republicans to redraw House districts to try to give the GOP an advantage in this year’s midterm elections. After Texas acted, California Democrats reciprocated with their own new districts, and a tit-for-tat redistricting clash soon spread among states.

The redistricting fight, so far, has resulted in only a slight edge for Republicans as they try to hold on to their narrow House majority. But voters in Virginia are deciding in an April 21 election whether to authorize a mid-decade redistricting that could help Democrats win several additional seats.

It’s uncertain whether all the manipulation of voting district boundaries ultimately will make a difference in which party wins control of the House. The party in power typically loses seats in the midterms and Trump faces negative approval ratings in polls.

Missouri currently is represented in the U.S. House by six Republicans and two Democrats under a map passed in 2022 based on the most recent census. At the time, Republican lawmakers turned back an attempt by some in the party to push a map giving Republicans a shot at winning seven seats. They cited concerns that it could spread Republicans too thin and backfire in losses if Democrats enjoyed a favorable election year.

But Republicans set aside those concerns last year under pressure from the White House to revise the districts for partisan advantage.

A new map passed during a September special legislative session was intended to help Republicans win a Kansas City-area seat currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. It reassigned portions of Kansas City to two neighboring districts represented by Republicans and stretched the remainder of his 5th Congressional District eastward into Republican-heavy rural areas.

The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a legal challenge asserting that mid-decade redistricting wasn’t allowed under the state constitution. A trial court also recently rejected a legal challenge asserting that the new districts violate constitutional requirements to be compact. Plaintiffs have appealed that case to the state Supreme Court.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The astronaut who prompted NASA’s first medical evacuation earlier this year said Friday that doctors still don’t know why he suddenly fell sick at the International Space Station.

Four-time space flier Mike Fincke said he was eating dinner on Jan. 7 after prepping for a spacewalk the next day when it happened. He couldn’t talk and remembers no pain, but his anxious crewmates jumped into action after seeing him in distress and requested help from flight surgeons on the ground.

“It was completely out of the blue. It was just amazingly quick,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press from Houston’s Johnson Space Center.

Fincke, 59, a retired Air Force colonel, said the episode lasted roughly 20 minutes and he felt fine afterward. He said he still does. He never experienced anything like that before or since.

Doctors have ruled out a heart attack and Fincke said he wasn’t choking, but everything else is still on the table and could be related to his 549 days of weightlessness. He was 5 ½ months into his latest space station stay when the problem struck like “a very, very fast lightning bolt.”

“My crewmates definitely saw that I was in distress,” he said, with all six gathering around him. “It was all hands on deck within just a matter of seconds.”

Fincke said he can’t provide any more details about his medical episode. The space agency wants to make sure that other astronauts do not feel that their medical privacy will be compromised if something happens to them, he said.

The space station’s ultrasound machine came in handy when the event occurred, he said, and he’s gone through numerous tests since returning to Earth. NASA is poring through other astronauts’ medical records to see if any related instances that might have occurred in space, he said.

Fincke identified himself late last month as the one who was sick to end the swirling public speculation.

He still feels bad that his illness caused the spacewalk to be canceled — it would have been his 10th spacewalk but first for crewmate Zena Cardman — and resulted in an early return for her and their two other crewmates. SpaceX brought them back on Jan. 15, more than a month early, and they went straight to the hospital.

“I’ve been very lucky to be super healthy. So this was very surprising for everyone,” he said.

Fincke stopped apologizing to everybody after NASA’s new administrator Jared Isaacman ordered him to stop.

“This wasn’t you. This was space, right?” his colleagues assured him. “You didn’t let anybody down.”

Ever the optimist, he’s holding out hope that he can return to space one day.

AUSTIN (AP) – Less than half a percent of federal money spent on child care scholarships in Texas was considered “improper,” a new report ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott found.

Abbott’s directive followed allegations of a $110 million child care fraud scheme in Minnesota. Experts say the Minnesota allegations in December were unfounded. But they did follow years in which the state reported high rates of improper payments in its child care scholarship program, and those allegations came at a time when the state was beleaguered by fraud scandals in other programs.

Improper payments in Texas include any payment made of an incorrect amount — over or under — or they could be fraudulent.

The allegations in Minnesota caused a ripple across the country. The federal government froze funding for child care in five states, and states themselves turned inward to ensure their fraud prevention systems were up-to-date. Child care advocates worry fears of wide-spread fraud will cause regulators to tighten requirements for child care providers, which are already underfunded and struggling, making it impossible for them to operate effectively. Or worse, that regulators cut funding as a result of fears over fraudulent activity.

“While you do want to address the issue (of fraud), you also don’t want to over-correct and create issues where they currently do not exist,” said Radha Mohan, the executive director of the Early Care and Education Consortium, a national nonprofit association of child care providers.

The Texas Workforce Commission and Texas Health and Human Services Commission are two of four agencies that oversee Texas’ child care system — and were tagged with investigating payments by the governor. The report released in February by the two Texas agencies details the state’s ongoing safeguards to prevent, stop and prosecute fraud and what is being done to clamp down on it further. It also highlighted part of the last improper payment report submitted to federal regulators, that says Texas’ improper payment rate is .44% — equivalent to about $4.3 million of the more than $990 million budget.

“This report confirms that Texas maintains strong anti-fraud measures that have kept improper payments extraordinarily low compared to other states,” said Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott’s press secretary. “Governor Abbott will continue working to further enhance oversight, fraud reporting tools, and enforcement to ensure every taxpayer dollar serves its intended purpose.”
What child care looks like in Texas

The Texas child care subsidy program is notoriously overwhelmed.

More than 100,000 children were waiting for scholarships to cover the cost of preschool tuition in November of 2025. Tuition to attend preschools in Texas is, in many cases, more expensive than attending a four-year university.

The subsidy program, which spent more than $980 million in 2022, provides scholarships to families with incomes at 85% of the state’s median income and lower. It allows parents to go to work or school. The scholarships often cover only part of child care tuition.

And many communities in the state are “ child care deserts,” meaning there are few to no places actually available for kids to attend preschool.

The issue of cost and the lack of child care programs across the state prompted lawmakers to assign another $100 million to the child care subsidy program using leftover dollars from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Fund. It was an historic investment that was eaten up by rampant inflation before the end of 2025.

Federal dollars are also given to the Texas Workforce Commission, which then allocates the money to 28 local workforce development boards across the state. And they are, by no means, enough to meet the needs of families, Mohan said.

“Of the millions of children that qualify for Child Care and Development Block Grant, less than a quarter actually receive assistance through the program,” Mohan said. “The program is woefully underfunded at the federal level.”

Nobody wants to see that money be wasted on fraud, Mohan said. That’s why there was such a large reaction to allegations of fraud in Minnesota.

In December 2025, YouTuber Nick Shirley posted a video claiming child care centers run by Somalians in Minnesota had defrauded the state government of more than $110 million through this program. Shirley’s claims in Minnesota have not been verified.

In response to the video, however, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services froze access in January to the Child Care and Development Fund, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Social Services Block Grant — which can be used to subsidize child care — in five states: California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York.

Advocates have been walking a fine line since these allegations because of the heightened response by the federal government and state governments, including Texas.

“This is very delicate,” said Kim Kofron, the director of early childhood education with ChildrenatRisk, a child care advocacy and research group. “In Minnesota, there really wasn’t fraud. There were inconsistencies and errors — but that’s not fraud.”
What the report found

In response to the allegations in Minnesota, Abbott issued six directives to the state workforce and human services commissions to identify if Texas had a problem with improper payments, specifically with fraud.

He wanted the two agencies to: review current data collection efforts to make sure they’re sufficient; identify high-risk providers and bring them into compliance; ensure all providers data on children receiving scholarships is accurate; make sure the state’s oversight process is upheld uniformly across the state; improve the online fraud reporting portal; and submit fraud investigations to state or federal prosecutors if necessary.

Of the approximately 7,500 child care providers who accept child care scholarships, 125 were flagged as high risk by the state agencies during this investigation.

Other fraud prevention measures include: regular, in-person assessments of child care providers; an attendance tracking system; a hotline and online portal for allegations of fraud, and a quick response to those allegations by state boards.

Sherry Durham, the senior director of Child Care for Workforce Solutions of Deep East Texas, said the regulations Texas has in place make sense and are easy enough to maintain. The state’s safeguards could be a model for other states, she said.

“First and foremost is child safety,” Durham said. “But then, also, if there’s money coming from the federal government, you want to be good stewards of it.”

These measures, many of which have been built upon since 2011, cut improper payments from 8.28% in 2007 to less than .5% in 2022, according to the latest report, which cited the federal improper payment report submitted to the Administration for Children and Families, the largest federal human services administration, every three years.

This national average for improper payments is 3.96%.

The last report submitted by Texas was in 2022. The next report is due later this year.
What’s next

The child care fraud report detailed the next steps Texas agencies are taking to further crack down on fraud. But experts worry these measures may add unnecessary burdens on an industry that is largely made up of small businesses.

As a result of the investigation, Texas began creating a monthly report that details high-risk providers to keep an eye on. The state also created more training opportunities for local agencies investigating fraud and added to state requirements for providers tracking child attendance in child care.

Kathlyn McHenry, the director of state government relations for the Early Care and Education Consortium, worries that additional requirements will make life harder for providers with no real benefit. For example, Texas is now requiring all providers to use one child care management system in an effort to improve attendance reporting.

Before this requirement, providers could use a child care management system that worked best for them, for their families, for their structure, McHenry said. Those systems usually integrated attendance with payment programs and updates for parents.

“Mandating one specific child care management system for thousands of providers removes their ability to choose the system that works best for them and their families,” McHenry said. “And it potentially creates an unfunded mandate on providers … when there really is no indication that this will prevent any additional fraud from occurring.”

In the future, there will be enhanced data sharing between state agencies regarding programs receiving child care scholarships, the state report said. Local boards will be required to withhold funding from parents who owe the state money. There will be improvements to the state’s online fraud reporting portal and the hotlines.

The Texas Senate Health and Human Services Committee is asking for public recommendations and ideas on fraud prevention in the child care and Medicaid system. The meeting is at 9 a.m., April 8, in the Capitol Extension Office. The notice does not indicate whether online participation will be permitted.

GRAPEVINE (AP) — A generational divide over the Iran war surfaced Thursday between older attendees and their political heirs at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, as the group’s leaders pleaded for unity in a challenging midterm election year for Republicans.

Younger conservatives spoke of disappointment and even “betrayal” over President Donald Trump’s launch of strikes against Iran, saying in interviews with The Associated Press that the president’s actions run counter to his many pledges to oppose foreign entanglements.

Meanwhile, older conservatives were looking past Trump’s campaign criticism of military action to topple foreign regimes, arguing the war in Iran is a pragmatic act forced by threats to the United States.

The bright dividing line emerged in conversations with a dozen participants on either end of the age spectrum who gathered for the annual meeting of conservatives, being held outside Dallas. That split could reflect flagging enthusiasm for Trump among some younger voters, a potentially troubling sign for Republicans heading into midterm elections and for the conservative movement as it looks to build beyond Trump’s tenure.

“We did not want to see more wars. We wanted actual America-first policies, and Trump was very explicit about that,” said Benjamin Williams, a 25-year-old marketing specialist for Young Americans for Liberty. “It does feel like a betrayal, for sure.”

Younger conservatives concerned about sending troops to Iran

Williams, from Austin, Texas, worries about his friends in the military, especially his Air Force officer brother. More broadly, he sees the war as an unnecessary disruption to the stability in the Middle East that could have long-term negative effects on the U.S. economy.

“Trump’s rhetoric was very important for people of my generation,” Williams said.

Auburn University sophomore Sean O’Brien’s support for Trump has slipped, especially with talk of sending U.S. troops into the Middle East. “I’m not happy,” he said.

Sending troops into Iran, he said, “would be full betrayal.”

In light of the U.S. military preparing to deploy at least 1,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East in the coming days, O’Brien said, “That’s what keeps me up at night.”

Older attendees say Trump responded to a threat

Older CPAC participants were far more forgiving, describing Trump as wisely responsive to what they described as the threat Iran posed. Several, in fact, suggested Trump did not initiate the war, but that Iran had decades ago.

“I don’t believe he started a new war. He was acting in response to a 40-year-old war by Iran,” said 70-year-old retired defense contractor Joe Ropar of McKinney, Texas. “How long were we supposed to wait? I think he did what he had to do when he had to do it.”

“Do nothing? I’m not on board with that,” Ropar said.

Echoing a common theme from older participants, Kelle Phillips said Trump’s decision was a pragmatic reaction to a real threat that overrules the best hopes of campaign rhetoric.

“You campaign on what you want to do and then the world’s dynamics happen,” said Phillips, a 61-year-old author and religious instructor from Frisco, Texas. “I think the difference is if you have someone in the Iranian regime who wants to destroy America. You can’t reason with them.”

Trump’s goals in Iran, as James Scharre believes, are short-term and not a concern for those adverse to a long slog overseas.

Scharre, 61, also interprets Trump’s early campaign opposition to government overthrow as a preference, not an ironclad promise.

“I think he said he was against it,” he said. “Trump is a wise leader. He does what works. And I’m for it.”

Some prominent conservatives also are split on Iran

Cracks in the conservative coalition began appearing early in the war, led by influential opinion leaders like podcaster Tucker Carlson.

This month, Joe Kent, the director of the Center for Counterterrorism at the Department of Homeland Security, quit his Trump administration post, saying in his departure statement that “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran” and that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.”

Right-wing podcaster Steve Bannon, who is expected to speak at CPAC, has worried aloud that a protracted Mideast military engagement would cost Republicans support by pushing some conservatives to sit out the November midterms.

This comes at a time when Republicans’ hold on the U.S. House is in jeopardy and the GOP’s thin Senate majority is not as secure as it was a year ago.

A recent survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research indicates that while Trump’s approval rating is holding steady, the conflict could be turning into a major political liability for his administration. About 59% of Americans say U.S. military action in Iran has been excessive, the poll found.

Calls for unity

CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp acknowledged conservatives were divided over Iran and said the convention’s annual straw poll will include a question about it. The results will be released Saturday, the convention’s final day.

“Any consensus is still to be determined. I think people trust President Trump, so I don’t think there’s been any shaking of his support,” Schlapp told the AP. “But I think underneath there’s concern about where does this lead.”

Tiffany Krieger, a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh, said her onetime level-10 support for Trump has dipped to five over the war.

“It seems like the love for him is plateauing. We see our party splitting apart and we’re supposed to be united,” said Krieger, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “I think this issue with the war has put a line through the conservative movement.”

Almost if addressing Krieger directly, Mercedes Schlapp, senior fellow for the CPAC foundation, opened Thursday’s session of the conference in Texas with a direct appeal.

“We cannot divide from within,” she told an audience of hundreds from the stage at the convention center. Referring to political opponents, she added: “Let’s stay united. They want us divided.”

Many of the celebrations and holidays honoring the late farmworker labor leader César Chavez are being renamed, postponed or completely canceled in the wake of allegations that he sexually abused women and girls while at the helm of the United Farm Workers Union.

Labor rights activist Dolores Huerta revealed last week that she was among those who say they were abused by Chavez, who died more than three decades ago.

The allegations have prompted swift fallout, including from the United Farm Workers, which announced it would not take part in any events named after the organization’s former leader.
States and cities are canceling or renaming holidays

Several states previously recognized a day on or near Chavez’s March 31 birthday as an annual holiday, and in 2014 President Barack Obama signed a proclamation commemorating March 31 as César Chavez Day.

On Thursday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to rename César Chavez Day as Farmworkers Day. The state Senate approved the legislation earlier in the day with bipartisan support.

Minnesota lawmakers took similar action Thursday, sending a bill to Gov. Tim Walz that would strip Cesar Chavez Day from the state’s calendar.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced last week that his state would not observe the holiday this year, and he directed all state agency heads to comply with the change. Abbott also said he would work with legislators to remove the holiday from state law.

Lawmakers in Colorado are considering a bill to rename the voluntary state holiday there to Farm Workers Day. Denver renamed its annual celebration “Si Se Puede Day” while removing a bust of Chavez from a city park. Grand Junction, Colorado, officials renamed an event there the “Si, Se Puede Celebration.”

“Sí, Se Puede” translates into the farmworkers movement’s rallying cry — Yes We Can.

The César Chavez Peace and Justice Committee of Denver canceled a celebration set for April 11.

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson’s office said the state won’t recognize Cesar Chavez Day, instead focusing on Dolores Huerta Day on April 10, her birthday.

Utah recognizes Cesar Chavez Day, but the state’s legislative session ended at the start of March, before the sexual abuse allegations came to light. Eliminating or renaming the holiday would require a change to state law.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has declined to recognize March 31 as César Chavez Day as she has in the two prior years, Hobbs’ spokesperson Liliana Soto said last week. While it is not a state holiday, some Arizona municipalities recognize it, closing schools or government offices. Officials in Phoenix voted unanimously Wednesday to rename the city holiday Farmworkers Day.
Events are being canceled across the US

The city of Lansing, Michigan, canceled its Legacy of César Chavez Dinner on March 25. The featured speaker was to be Chavez granddaughter Julie Chavez Rodriguez, who was campaign manager for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in 2024.

“We remain committed to honoring the Latino community, and the service, dignity, and rights of farmworkers. We will be working on further events and celebrations in the future,” the city said.

The city of Milwaukee also canceled its annual celebration.

The Coconino County Hispanic Advisory Council in Arizona postponed an annual César E. Chavez Community Breakfast, with plans to reschedule it to focus on the contributions and achievements of Hispanic residents in the county.

The city of Tucson, Arizona renamed its annual celebration the “Comunidad y Labor Unity Fair.”

San Jose, the largest city in Northern California, is canceling its César Chavez celebration, the mayor announced on March 18. Matt Mahan said the city would identify ways to honor the legacy of the farmworker movement without celebrating “individuals who caused such profound harm to the community.”

The Hispanic Advocates and Business Leaders of Austin, Texas, announced that an annual march honoring Chavez set for March 28 would no longer take place. Several Austin city leaders also announced that they support the renaming of César Chavez Street.

Officials at the AFL-CIO said the allegations came as a shock and that the federation of unions would not participate or endorse any activities for César Chavez Day.

“Our thoughts are first and foremost with any victims of assault and abuse who have described experiencing what no one — especially children — should ever have to survive,” AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler and secretary-treasurer Fred Redmond said in a statement. “No legacy can excuse it.”

The organization continues to support farmworkers and said the rights they have won “cannot be erased by the horrific actions of one person.”
Calls for name changes
are increasing

Dozens of schools, streets and other locations across the United States are named for Chavez, including the César E. Chávez National Monument in Keene, California.

Dennis Arguelles, the director of the National Parks Conservation Association in Southern California, said renaming the national monument would require an act of Congress. He said the site should continue to honor the farmworker movement and leaders who fought for dignity, better working conditions and fair wages.

The Los Angeles Unified school board on Tuesday approved plans to rename schools and to recognize Farmworkers Day on March 31 rather than César Chavez Day. The Los Angeles County Board of Commissioners approved similar plans.

The Lubbock Democratic Party in Texas on Wednesday called on city leaders to rename César Chavez Drive to honor Dolores Huerta.

In Wisconsin, Milwaukee City Alderperson JoCasta Zamarripa said discussions will begin soon on what to do about a street named after Chavez.

Portland, Oregon, city councilor Candace Avalos said she would start a petition to rename a city boulevard after Huerta. City rules require 2,500 signatures to start a renaming effort, Avalos wrote on social media, urging her constituents to stay tuned for ways to help with the effort.

U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, a New Mexico Democrat, issued a statement Wednesday saying abuse of any kind, especially against children, is indefensible and a betrayal of the values that Latino leaders have championed for generations.

“His name should be removed from landmarks, institutions and honors,” Luján said of Chavez. “We cannot celebrate someone who carried out such disturbing harm.” ___ Associated Press reporters around the United States contributed.

Problems at U.S. airports could worsen beyond hours-long security lines and missed flights if Congress does not agree on a way to pay Transportation Security Administration officers. Federal officials have warned that staffing shortages may close some smaller airports to passengers and commercial flights.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the TSA’s acting leaders said they expected more airport screeners to quit or call out of work after Friday, when TSA personnel were set to miss their second full paychecks since mid-February.

Johnny Jones, the leader of the labor union that represents TSA officers, said Thursday that the agency created a list of about 75 airports that could be closed to free up officers to send to major hubs with long security wait times. Jones suggested that could mean that flights at decent-sized airports surrounding large hubs could be grounded if the security officers are reassigned. Previously most of the speculation had focused on tiny airports with only a few officers operating a single checkpoint.

Jones said he hasn’t seen the list, and the airports on it haven’t been made public.

But President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will sign an emergency order to pay TSA officers as Congress struggles to reach a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

The officers have been required to work without pay since funding for DHS, which the TSA falls under, lapsed on Feb. 14. If Trump succeeds in finding a way to pay them, that may bring an end to the recent extreme security delays at airports.

“This level of disruption is unprecedented,” Ha Nguyen McNeill, the agency’s acting administrator, said of the financial strain on TSA workers leading to high absentee rates. “We are being forced to consolidate lanes, and may have to close smaller airports if we do not have enough officers.”

McNeill, who spoke during a House committee hearing on Wednesday, did not specify at what point closures might occur. She said the TSA officer staffing shortages were “a fluid, challenging and unpredictable situation.”

“The agency has to look at it as, ‘Wow man, at the end of the day, we still have to do essential work and protect the American people.’ It becomes very difficult to do when you have this going on,” said Jones, the secretary and treasurer for Council 100 of the American Federation of Government Employees.

Jones added that officers who fear they could be reassigned are worrying about how they would adjust. It could mean spending more money on longer commutes, or temporarily upending their lives to stay in a faraway city.

About 11% of officers nationwide missed scheduled shifts this week, but at some airports, the share has topped 40% on some days, according to DHS. Passengers standing in massive security lines have filled terminal lobbies and stretched out the door at times in Houston, New Orleans and Atlanta.

Here are some things to know about the DHS funding lapse’s impact on air travel and the questions that remain:
How likely is it that the funding lapse will lead to airport closures?

With few confirmed details, it’s hard to say. But officials have suggested that the possibility of closing airports will become more likely the longer TSA workers go without pay.

Aviation security expert Sheldon Jacobson, whose research contributed to the design of TSA PreCheck, said that Trump administration officials appear to be floating the possibility of closed airports in an effort to pressure Congress to reach an agreement on funding DHS.

“This is a situation that, once again, the politicians are trying to move the needle to get people to compromise by making threats. Are these threats realistic? Yes. Are they a good idea? No,” Jacobson said.

Jacobson and other aviation experts said the messaging also suggests that sending federal immigration officers to help out at airports with security staffing problems hasn’t been a successful solution.

The White House has said ICE officers helped reduce lines by monitoring crowds and checking IDs. TSA union leaders and other critics have called the move ineffective, arguing that immigration officers don’t have the required expertise and experience.
Which airports are the most at risk for closures?

Larger airports with hundreds of officers can close some of their checkpoints and even their TSA PreCheck lanes and continue operating. The smallest of the 440 U.S. airports with security screeners don’t have that option.

Smaller airports that only have a single checkpoint might have to shut down temporarily if they can’t get enough officers to operate them. That could happen if a number of their officers don’t report for any given shift.

Small airports have “a smaller pool of people that you can draw from to keep the airport open,” explained Eric Chaffee, a Case Western Reserve law professor who studies risk management, including in the aviation industry. Larger airports, by contrast, are often “much better able to absorb a handful of people calling out.”

The closing of these airports would likely be “uneven,” Chaffee said — potentially affecting facilities ranging from airports with just a few gates to small regional hubs. But, he warned, that any temporary closure of small airports could cascade through the broader air traffic network because it is a “highly interconnected web.”
What would be the impact of small airport closures?

Experts stressed there would be consequences for the aviation system as a whole.

“Every airport, no matter its size, has some impact to the National Airspace System,” said airport security expert Jeff Price.

Jacobson, who is a professor at the University of Illinois, said airlines rely on passengers from small airports to fill out their flights at major hubs.

Others point to ripple effects for the communities smaller airports serve.

“Despite the fact that we’re talking about small regional airports, this is a big deal,” Chaffee said, pointing to disruptions for both businesses and travelers. “Ultimately, if this does occur, having to drive a half hour to an airport is a lot different than having to drive three hours to an airport.”

If flights stop operating at some smaller airports, it could hit nearby communities and their economies hard, especially businesses operating in hospitality and tourism. It could also jeopardize airport workers’ jobs, such as janitors and employees of restaurants and shops that serve travelers.

Meanwhile, financial strains would continue to pile up for TSA officers going without pay.

With there being a slew of potential economic repercussions from air travel disruptions, Jacobson said “We are playing with fire right now when we are threatening such a large contributor to our GDP.”

___

AP Airlines and Travel Writer Rio Yamat contributed to this story.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Separate natural gas explosions in January 2024 that destroyed two homes in Jackson, Mississippi resulted from underground pipes pulling loose from their fittings as spongy clay soil expanded and contracted with rainfall, according to a federal report released Thursday.

The first explosion killed Clara Barbour, 82.

The National Transportation Safety Board found that the natural gas utility in the city, Dallas-based Atmos Energy Corp., had detected the leaks before the explosions, but didn’t evaluate them as severe enough for quick repair. The board also found that Atmos didn’t do enough to assess risks and make repairs to its pipeline system and didn’t do enough to educate the public or emergency officials about how to respond to natural gas leaks. It urged regulators to take a closer look at the company.

“Atmos has had significant safety shortfalls in recent years,” the board wrote “Thus, Atmos’s multistate operations require broader oversight.”

Company spokesperson Bobby Morgan said safety remains “our highest priority.”

“We will work diligently in the coming days and weeks to evaluate the findings as part of our ongoing safety efforts to further our vision to be the safest provider of natural gas services,” Morgan said in a statement.

The company distributes natural gas in Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

One explosion and fire in south Jackson on Jan. 24 killed the elderly woman Barbour and slightly injured her husband, Johnny Barbour. Three days later and three-quarters of a mile (1.1 kilometers) away, another explosion leveled one home and burned a neighboring home. No one was injured there.

Investigators found that in both cases, gas pipes feeding the homes had pulled loose from their couplings as soil expanded and contracted, allowing dangerous levels of gas to build up, setting the stage for the explosions.

Much of the Jackson area is built atop a soil layer known as Yazoo clay that expands in wet weather and contracts in times of drought. Besides causing building foundations to crack and roadways to heave, the expansion and contraction can cause pipes to disconnect, and the pipe couplings that an Atmos predecessor installed are not resistant to pulling out, the board found. Investigators recommended that Atmos find and replace all those couplings.

The leak at the Barbour home had been detected Nov. 17, 2023, after the homeowner smelled an odor compound that is inserted into methane gas. An Atmos technician declared the leak nonhazardous, meaning Atmos might not repair it for a year or more. The leak at the second home was detected Dec. 1, but Atmos evaluated it as even less hazardous, scheduling it for repair within three years.

The report indicates the company re-evaluated leaks in Jackson following the explosion and found others that were more serious than initially reported.

The safety board faulted Atmos for not doing more to identify threats posed by expansive soils, noting regulators had been warning about the issue since 2008 and that the NTSB identified expansive soils as a factor in a 2018 Atmos explosion in Dallas that killed one and injured four.

Investigators said Atmos had different safety procedures in different states and that if stricter state rules in Kansas had been followed in Mississippi, the explosions could have been prevented.

“Atmos’s siloed state operations, including leak monitoring procedures that differed by state, demonstrate that Atmos has not applied lessons learned in one state to the other states it operates in,” the board wrote.

DALLAS, Texas (KETK) – Two children at the center of an AMBER ALERT issued on Thursday have been found, according to the Dallas Police Department.

The Dallas Police Department had issued an AMBER ALERT for 1-year-old Ky’aire Epperson and 8-year-old Sariah Roy-Ford, who were last seen in Dallas on Thursday.

According to the alert, Ky’aire is a 1-year-old Black boy who weighs around 20 pounds, is around 2-foot 5-inches tall and has black hair and brown eyes. Sariah is an 8-year-old Black girl with a black braided ponytail and brown eyes who’s around 4’8? and weighs around 70 pounds.

Ky’aire and Sariah were last seen in the 6400 block of Maple Avenue in Dallas at around 3:04 p.m. on Thursday. Ky’aire was last seen wearing a brown onesie with an animal print, green shorts and white socks. Sariah was last seen wearing a blue shirt, pink shorts and blue shoes.