ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Alaska’s congressional delegation had mixed reactions Wednesday on the legality of the Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela over the weekend, just a day before they’re set to vote on a bill ending “hostilities” in Venezuela.

It comes days after former Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro was captured by American forces and brought to the United States in handcuffs to face federal drug trafficking charges.

All U.S. Senators were to be briefed by the administration members at 10 a.m. ET Wednesday, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, according to CBS News.

Spokespersons for Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, say they were at that meeting, but from their responses, the two shared different takeaways.

Sullivan, who previously commended the Trump administration for the operation in Venezuela, told KDLL after his briefing that the next steps in Venezuela would be done in three phases.

“One is just stabilization. They don’t want chaos,” he said.

“The second is to have an economic recovery phase … and then finally, the third phase is a transition to conduct free and fair elections and perhaps install the real winner of the 2024 election there, which was not Maduro.”

Murkowski spokesperson Joe Plesha said she had similar takeaways to Sullivan on the ousting of Maduro, but still held concerns on the legality.

“Nicolás Maduro is a dictator who led a brutally oppressive regime, and Venezuela and the world are better places without him in power,” Plesha said in a statement Wednesday. “While [Murkowski] continues to question the legal and policy framework that led to the military operation, the bigger question now is what happens next.”

Thursday, the Senate will decide what happens next when they vote on a war powers resolution which would require congressional approval to “be engaged in hostilities within or against Venezuela,” and directs the president to terminate the use of armed forces against Venezuela, “unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force.”

Several House leaders have also received a briefing from the administration according to CBS News. A spokesperson for Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, said he received a House briefing and left believing the actions taken by the administration were legal.

“The information provided in today’s classified House briefing further confirmed that the actions taken by the Administration to obtain Maduro were necessary, time-dependent, and justified; and I applaud our military and the intelligence community for their exceptional work in executing this operation,” Begich said in a statement.

Looming vote

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-VA, authored the war powers resolution scheduled for debate Thursday at 11 a.m. ET — 7 a.m. AKST.

It’s a resolution which was one of the biggest topics of discussion on the chamber floors Wednesday.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, said on the Senate floor Wednesdya that the actions taken by the administration were an “act of war,” and the president’s capture of Maduro violated the checks and balances established in the constitution, ending his remarks by encouraging his colleagues to vote in favor of the resolution.

“The constitution is clear,” Paul said. “Only Congress can declare a war.”

If all Democrats and independents vote for the Kaine resolution, and Paul keeps to his support, the bill will need three more votes to pass. If there is a tie, the vice president is the deciding vote.

“It’s as if a magical dust of soma has descended through the ventilation systems of congressional office buildings,” Paul continued Wednesday, referring to a particular type of muscle relaxant.

“Vague faces in permanent smiles and obedient applause indicate the degree that the majority party has lost its grip and have become eunuchs in the thrall of presidential domination.”

Legality of actions under scrutiny

U.S. forces arrested Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their Caracas home in an overnight operation early Saturday morning, Alaska time. Strikes accompanying the capture killed about 75 people, including military personnel and civilians, according to U.S. government officials granted anonymity by The Washington Post.

Maduro pleaded not guilty Monday in a New York courtroom to drug trafficking charges that include leading the “Cartel of the Suns,” a narco-trafficking organization comprised of high-ranking Venezuelan officials. The U.S. offered a $50 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Whether the U.S. was legally able to capture Maduro under both domestic and international law has been scrutinized in the halls of Congress. Members of the administration, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have been open in defending what they say was a law enforcement operation carrying out an arrest warrant, The Hill reports. Lawmakers, like Paul or Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, say the actions were an act of war and a violation of the constitution.

While the president controls the military as commander in chief, Congress constitutionally has the power to declare wars. Congressional Democrats have accused Trump of skirting the Constitution by not seeking congressional authorization before the operation.

Murkowski has not outright condemned or supported the actions taken by the administration, saying in a statement she was hopeful the world was safer without Maduro in power, but the way the operation was handled is “important.”

Sullivan, on the other hand, commended Trump and those involved in the operation for forcing Maduro to “face American justice,” in an online statement.

Begich spokesperson Silver Prout told Alaska’s News Source Monday the Congressman believed the operation was “a lawful execution of a valid U.S. arrest warrant on longstanding criminal charges against Nicolás Maduro.”

The legality of U.S. military actions against Venezuela has taken significant focus in Washington over the past several months, highlighted by a “double-tap” strike — a second attack on the same target after an initial strike — which the Washington Post reported killed people clinging to the wreckage of a vessel after the military already struck it. The White House has confirmed the follow-up attack.

Sullivan, who saw classified video of the strike, previously told Alaska’s News Source in December he believed actions taken by the U.S. did not violate international law.

“I support them doing it, but they have to get it right,” he said. “I think so far they’re getting it right.”

Murkowski, who has not seen the video, previously said at an Anchorage press event the takeaways on that strike’s legality seem to be divided along party lines.

“I spoke to a colleague who is on the Intelligence Committee, a Republican, and I spoke to a colleague, a Democrat, who is on the Senate Armed Services Committee … their recollection or their retelling of what they saw [was] vastly different.”

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TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Brayden Burries scored 28 points, Motiejus Krivas added a career-high 25 and No. 1 Arizona remained unbeaten with a 101-76 win over Kansas State on Wednesday night.

Arizona (15-0, 2-0 Big 12) is off to its best start since winning the first 21 games of the 2013-14 season. Arizona won by at least 18 points for the 10th consecutive game, matching a mark Michigan had earlier this season that tied for the longest such run since 2003-04.

Burries had his fifth 20-point game and matched his career high by going 12 for 16 from the field while adding nine rebounds. It was his 10th straight game in double figures, including at least 20 points in five of those, after just one over his first five.

Krivas was 7 of 10, making 11 of 13 free throws, and had 12 rebounds.

Koa Peat had 15 points and 10 rebounds and Tobe Awaka added nine and 11 as Arizona outrebounded Kansas State 55-32. Arizona shot 49.3% from the field but was just 3 of 16 from 3-point range.

Kansas State (9-6, 0-2) went 8 for 36 from deep and shot 33.8% overall. PJ Haggerty led the way with 19 points on 8-of-20 shooting, while Nate Johnson added 15 and Dorin Buca 12.

Down 15 at the half, Kansas State pulled within 58-49 with 16:09 left on a 3-pointer by Johnson. Arizona responded with a 6-0 run and kept the margin at least 12 the rest of the way. Back-to-back dunks by Burries and Peat and a corner 3-pointer by Jaden Bradley keyed a 13-0 run to put Arizona ahead 92-65 with 3:31 remaining.

It built a 10-point lead less than six minutes into the game and upped it to 20 with 2:52 left in the first half. Burries had 16 before halftime.

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It isn’t just billionaires leaving California.

Anecdotal data suggest there is also an exodus of regular people who load their belongings into rental trucks and lug them to another state.

U-Haul’s survey of the more than 2.5 million one-way trips using its vehicles in the U.S. last year showed that the gap between the number of people leaving and the number arriving was higher in California than in any other state.

While the Golden State also attracts a large number of newcomers, it has had the biggest net outflow for six years in a row.

Generally, the defectors don’t go far. The top five destinations for the diaspora using U-Haul’s trucks, trailers and boxes last year were Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Texas.

California experienced a net outflow of U-Haul users with an in-migration of 49.4%, and those leaving of 50.6%. Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Illinois also rank among the bottom five on the index.

U-Haul didn’t speculate on the reasons California continues to top the ranking.

“We continue to find that life circumstances — marriage, children, a death in the family, college, jobs and other events — dictate the need for most moves,” John Taylor, U-Haul International president, said in a press statement.

While California’s exodus was greater than any other state, the silver lining was that the state lost fewer residents to out-of-state migration in 2025 than in 2024.

U-Haul said that broadly the hotly debated issue of blue-to-red state migration, which became more pronounced after the pandemic of 2020, continues to be a discernible trend.

Though U-Haul did not specify the reasons for the exodus, California demographers tracking the trend point to the cost of living and housing affordability as the top reasons for leaving.

“Over the last dozen years or so, on a net basis, the flow out of the state because of housing [affordability] far exceeds other reasons people cite [including] jobs or family,” said Hans Johnson, senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California.

“This net out migration from California is a more than two-decade-long trend. And again, we’re a big state, so the net out numbers are big,” he said.

U-Haul data showed that there was a pretty even split between arrivals and departures. While the company declined to share absolute numbers, it said that 50.6% of its one-way customers in California were leaving, while 49.4% were arriving.

U-Haul’s network of 24,000 rental locations across the U.S. provides a near-real-time view of domestic migration dynamics, while official data on population movements often lags.

California’s population grew by a marginal 0.05% in the year ending July 2025, reaching 39.5 million people, according to the California Department of Finance.

After two consecutive years of population decline following the 2020 pandemic, California recorded its third year of population growth in 2025. While international migration has rebounded, the number of California residents moving out increased to 216,000, consistent with levels in 2018 and 2019.

Eric McGhee, senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, who researches the challenges facing California, said there’s growing evidence of political leanings shaping the state’s migration patterns, with those moving out of state more likely to be Republican and those moving in likely to be Democratic.

“Partisanship probably is not the most significant of these considerations, but it may be just the last straw that broke the camel’s back, on top of the other things that are more traditional drivers of migration … cost of living and family and friends and jobs,” McGhee said.

Living in California costs 12.6% more than the national average, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. One of the biggest pain points in the state is housing, which is 57.8% more expensive than what the average American pays.

The U-Haul study across all 50 states found that 7 of the top 10 growth states where people moved to have Republican governors. Nine of the states with the biggest net outflows had Democrat governors.

Texas, Florida and North Carolina were the top three growth states for U-Haul customers, with Dallas, Houston and Austin bagging the top spots for growth in metro regions.

A notable exception in California was San Diego and San Francisco, which were the only California cities in the top 25 metros with a net inflow of one-way U-Haul customers.