By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN
Associated Press

TIJUANA, Mexico — Migrants approaching the U.S. border from Mexico were enveloped with tear gas Sunday after a few tried to breach the fence separating the two countries.

U.S. agents shot the gas, according to an Associated Press reporter on the scene. Children were screaming and coughing in the mayhem.

Honduran migrant Ana Zuniga, 23, said she saw migrants open a small hole in concertina wire at a gap on the Mexican side of a levee, at which point U.S. agents fired tear gas at them.

“We ran, but when you run the gas asphyxiates you more,” she told the AP while cradling her 3-year-old daughter Valery in her arms.

Mexico’s Milenio TV also showed images of several migrants at the border trying to jump over the fence. A few yards away on the U.S. side, shoppers streamed in and out of an outlet mall.

U.S. Border Patrol helicopters flew overhead, while U.S. agents held vigil on foot beyond the wire fence in California. The Border Patrol office in San Diego said via Twitter that pedestrian crossings have been suspended at the San Ysidro port of entry at both the East and West facilities. All northbound and southbound traffic was halted.

Earlier Sunday, some Central American migrants pushed past a blockade of Mexican police who were standing guard near the international border crossing. They appeared to easily pass through without using violence, and some of the migrants called on each other to remain peaceful.

A second line of Mexican police carrying plastic riot shields stood guard outside a Mexican customs and immigration plaza.

That line of police had installed tall steel panels behind them outside the Chaparral crossing on the Mexican side of the border.

More than 5,000 migrants have been camped in and around a sports complex in Tijuana after making their way through Mexico in recent weeks via caravan. Many hope to apply for asylum in the U.S., but agents at the San Ysidro entry point are processing fewer than 100 asylum petitions a day.

Irineo Mujica, who has accompanied the migrants for weeks as part of the aid group Pueblo Sin Fronteras, said the aim of Sunday’s march toward the U.S. border was to make the migrants’ plight more visible to the governments of Mexico and the U.S.

“We can’t have all these people here,” Mujica told The Associated Press.

Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum on Friday declared a humanitarian crisis in his border city of 1.6 million, which he says is struggling to accommodate the crush of migrants.

Associated Press

Kansas officials are urging drivers to stay off the roads because of dangerous conditions across much of the state.

Gov. Jeff Colyer declared a state of emergency because of the winter storm moving across Kansas on Sunday that is creating blizzard conditions and slick roads. A section of Interstate 70 was closed Sunday morning between Salina and Wakeeny.

Colyer says travelers should consider delaying their trips until after the storm passes if possible. Anyone who must be on the road, should consult 511 road conditions hotlines and make sure their gas tank is full and cell phone fully charged.

In neighboring Missouri, Interstate 29 is closed near the Iowa border. Officials say additional road closures are likely during the storm.
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11:40 a.m.
Part of Interstate 80 is closed in eastern Nebraska because of multiple accidents after snow blanketed the area.
The Nebraska State Patrol closed westbound I-80 between Lincoln and Omaha because of the crashes on Sunday morning, which included semitrailer trucks jackknifed across the highway.
Strong winds and snow are expected to create blizzard conditions across much of Nebraska and parts of Kansas on Sunday. The National Weather Service is warning those conditions will make travel difficult in places.
Between 4 to 6 inches of snow is possible in the Kansas City area. Forecasters predict more than a foot of snow is likely in southeast Nebraska, northeast Kansas, northwest Missouri and southwest Iowa.
Several inches of snow are expected to fall in the Des Moines area Sunday, and difficult travel conditions are likely south of Interstate 80 in Iowa.
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11:15 a.m.
Nearly 500 flights have been cancelled on one of the busiest travel days of the year as a fast-moving winter storm bears down on much of the Midwest on the last day of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
The flight-tracking website FlightAware reported that 491 flights headed to or from the U.S. had been cancelled as of 11 a.m. Sunday.
The site reported that the majority of the cancellations are flights that were supposed to be routed through Chicago or Kansas City — two areas forecast to be hit hard by the storm.
The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for parts of Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa. Other parts of central plains and Great Lakes region are under a winter storm warning.
In total, the storm could dump a foot or more of snow in some places.
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10:42 a.m.
A fast-moving winter storm is expected to blanket much of the central Midwest with snow on the final day of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend — one of the busiest travel days of the year.
The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for parts of Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa. Other parts of central plains and Great Lakes region are under a winter storm warning. In total, the storm could dump a foot or more of snow in some places.
As of Sunday morning, the Federal Aviation Administration was reporting no flight delays in the region. But that is set to change later in the day, when the storm reaches the Chicago area. Chicago is home to one of the nation’s major airline hubs.

TOPEKA (AP) — The incoming Kansas governor will face a large task dealing with a struggling child welfare system recently hit with a class-action lawsuit alleging conditions were so poor that children suffered mentally or ran away from foster homes.

The lawsuit filed in federal court this month alleges that children have been trafficked for sex, sexually abused inside adoptive homes or raped inside a child welfare office, The Wichita Eagle reported .

Lawmakers, experts and advocates say Democratic governor-elect Laura Kelly must significantly invest in the state’s Department for Children and Families to improve the system. Kelly will become governor on Jan. 14.

Kelly said the department will be “a high priority” for her administration. She said the agency has lacked resources for almost a decade.

“I will take the same approach to DCF, though, that we’re going to take to every agency, which is to during the transition time to dig deep and figure out where the issues are, what’s working, what’s not working, and then set a course for fixing whatever we find that needs to be fixed,” she said.

Many advocates said they believe Kelly’s experience as a member of a legislative task forced aimed at improving the child welfare system will help her make progress on the issues.

“She really works on that task force,” said Lori Burns-Bucklew, a Kansas City attorney and accredited child welfare law specialist. “She doesn’t just show up.”

The task force will deliver its recommendations in January and could possibly provide lawmakers with a road map on how to improve the system.

But Burns-Bucklew said Kelly faces a big challenge.

“She’s inheriting an under-resourced system,” she said. “This system has been stripped bare over the years. They haven’t just cut to the bone. They’ve cut into the bone.”

The task force has examined issues such as improving the agency’s outdated computer systems and its work force, which has seen high turnover and high caseloads.

By LISA MASCARO and MARY CLARE JALONICK
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Whatever happened to trying to impeach President Donald Trump?

As House Democrats begin laying out the vision for their new majority, that item is noticeably missing from the to-do list and firmly on the margins.

The agenda for now includes spending on public works projects, lowering health care costs and increasing oversight of the administration.

It’s the balance that Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi is trying to strike in the new Congress between those on her party’s left flank who are eager to confront the president, and her instinct to prioritize the kitchen-table promises that Democrats made to voters who elected them to office.

“We shouldn’t impeach the president for political reasons and we shouldn’t not impeach the president for political reasons,” Pelosi recently told The Associated Press.

The California lawmaker, who hopes to lead Democrats as House speaker come January, calls impeachment a “divisive activity” that needs to be approached with bipartisanship.

“If the case is there, then that should be self-evident to Democrats and Republicans,” she said.

Those pressing for impeachment acknowledge they don’t expect action on Day One of the new majority, but they do want to see Democrats start laying the groundwork for proceedings.

“We’re for impeachment. We’re not for get-sworn-in-on-Jan.-1-and-start-taking-votes,” said Kevin Mack, the lead strategist for billionaire Tom Steyer’s Need to Impeach campaign. “Our argument is the Constitution outlines a process to remove a lawless president.”

In a new ad, Steyer says Democrats “just need the will” to act. He says he’s calling on Americans to join the 6 million who have already signed on to his group to “give Congress the courage to act.”

“The American people are tired of being told to wait,” Mack said. “Our argument to Congress is you are a co-equal branch of government. It’s time to do what is morally correct.”

Twice over the past two years since Trump was elected, Democrats have tried to force votes on impeachment proceedings, winning a high-water mark of more than 60 supporters, far from the 218 needed.

Republicans are counting on, and possibly even hoping for, impeachment fervor to overtake Democrats, leading them astray from campaign promises or dealmaking with Trump.

“We know the Democrats have a plan: They want to disrupt, they want to try to impeach,” said GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California after winning the GOP’s internal election to serve as minority leader in the new Congress. He warned that Democrats were laying the groundwork to impeach Trump.

Pelosi has made it clear the new majority will not engage in what she calls a “scattershot” approach to investigating the administration.

Instead, the incoming Democratic leaders of House committees will conduct oversight of the president’s business and White House dealings. Democrats are also trying to ensure special counsel Robert Mueller completes his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. They may try to add legislation to protect that probe to the must-pass spending bill in December to help fund the government. They want Mueller’s findings made public.

“You have to be very reluctant to do an impeachment,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., the incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said recently on ABC. Nadler, who served on the committee during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, cited “the trauma of an impeachment process.”

Democratic leaders also know that moving quickly on impeachment would not sit well with their newly elected members, who helped the party win a House majority in the recent midterms. Many come from swing districts where impeachment could prove unpopular.

“I didn’t work 18 months listening to people in my district to get involved in a political back and forth for the next 18 months,” said Rep.-elect Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. “People want to talk about health care. It’s not a coincidence that most of us who won in tough districts, we won because we talked about issues, not because we talked about internal Washington stuff.”

For now, outside liberal groups are largely standing by Pelosi’s approach, putting their emphasis on pushing Democrats to chart a bold agenda on the domestic pocketbook concerns that won over voters.

Pelosi has some experience with impeachment, serving as a newer lawmaker when Republicans led impeachment proceedings against Clinton. When she became House speaker in 2007 she resisted pressure from her liberal flank to launch impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush over the Iraq War.

Pelosi believes that if Democrats had tried to impeach Bush when she was speaker, voters may never have elected Barack Obama as president in 2008.

Politically, Democrats may be right. In 1974, Americans only came to agree that President Richard Nixon should be removed from office on the eve of his resignation, according to Pew research. Voters responded to Clinton’s impeachment by electing more Democrats to the House.

“If we had gone down that path, I doubt we would have won the White House,” she said. “People have to see we’re working there for them.”