Kansas
Immigration reform can’t pass Congress. Here’s how that’s hurting Kansas, Missouri farmers
WASHINGTON — It’s difficult for Mark Fellwock to find workers for his dairy farm.
He’s competing against businesses in town, where the pay is often higher and the work is often easier. So it can be hard to find good, reliable workers to help keep the dairy operation up and running.
“Our daily struggle is labor,” Fellwock told The Star. “We fight it every day.”
Last year, Fellwock traveled to Washington hoping to change that. He spent time at the Capitol, asking lawmakers to support a bill to reform a program that allows farmers to bring in migrant workers on a short term basis – called the H-2A visa program.
Currently, the H-2A program is only open to seasonal workers. That doesn’t fit Fellowock’s needs. He wants the program to allow year-round workers, which would make his dairy eligible to hire people for parlor work – helping to milk the cows.
His appeal fell on deaf ears.
Congress has been unable to pass comprehensive immigration for decades. And as partisan politics harden divisions on issues like border security and legal pathways to citizenship, it has become even more difficult to reform programs where there appears to be some common ground, like the H-2A visa program.
“There are things we could agree on, that 60 votes in the Senate could be had, a majority of the House would support, a president would sign,” said Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican. “But we get stymied because we don’t do everything. And therefore we can’t do something.”
The inability to do something has left farmers in Kansas and Missouri struggling amid a lasting labor shortage in the agriculture industry. The two states are among the top agriculture producers in the country, yet employ far fewer migrant farm workers than states with less agricultural output.
In 2023, Kansas had 1,406 migrant workers under the H-2A visa program, employed by 220 businesses. Missouri had 906 migrant workers, employed by 116 businesses.
Both states have seen an increase in migrant farm workers since 2015, the farthest back the Department of Homeland Security keeps public state by state data on H-2A visas. The increase comes as the rural population has continued to decline and small farms are being bought out by larger, corporate farms.
But the program still doesn’t work for many of the farms common in Kansas and Missouri. Instead, it’s geared for farms that grow fruits and vegetables, like the apple orchards in Washington, the orange groves in Florida and the peach trees in Georgia.
Stephen Devadoss, an agricultural and applied economics professor at Texas Tech, said the program is mostly used by fruit and vegetable farmers for seasonal harvests, not the row crops like corn, wheat, soybeans and sorghum that are common in Kansas and Missouri.
Ryan Haffner, the owner of High Plains Agriculture, is one of the Kansas farmers who uses the H-2A visa program to harvest row crops. In 2023, he hired 22 migrant workers to drive tractors, combines and trucks to help harvest sorghum, wheat and corn.
Haffner’s labor pool generally doesn’t consist of the migrant workers from Mexico who often help pick vegetables. Instead, he largely relies on workers from South Africa or countries in Europe.
Under the program, Haffner is required to pay the travel cost for his workers, along with providing housing and meals during the time they work for him.
Every year, he has to go through the same process. He fills out paperwork, gets permission from the government to hire workers, then flies them from their home country to get to his farm. They work for a season, driving the tractors and combines and trucks. Then they go home and the next batch of workers comes in.
“It’s like Groundhog Day, every year,” Haffner told The Star. “We have to ship all our people home, we have to do this big application process, hope we get approved. Then when we do get approved, we have to bring all these people over. So we’re spending anywhere from $1,300 to $2,000 per person just for the flight.”
If Haffner could have his way, the H-2A visa program would be more flexible. Like Fellwock, he wishes that he could hire workers for a full year rather than just bringing them in for a season. And – because it’s difficult for him to find workers in the U.S. – he feels like he’s at the whim of the government when it comes to how he can operate his business.
Recently, Haffner said, the Biden administration wanted to remove trucking work from the H-2A program, which would make his business ineligible. Instead, the new Labor Department rule increased the wages for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers by about 43% between 2023 and 2024, significantly raising his labor costs.
“We just go along for the ride,” Haffner said. “You’re either in the program or you’re out of the program. And because of the labor shortage, if we’re out of the program, we’re out of business.”
In November, the Biden administration proposed a rule that would give migrant and seasonal workers more labor protections, including access to union protections, in an effort to empower workers afraid to speak out against abuse from employers who brought them overseas.
“The fear is if they were to report, then the employer would terminate their visa,” said Alexis Guild, the vice president for strategy and programs for Farmworkers Justice, a non-profit that advocates for seasonal and migrant farm workers. “And it could also impact future recruitment because many of the employers use recruiters and there’s fear of blacklisting.”
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach wrote a letter signed by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and 20 attorneys general opposing the rule.
While the Labor Department has the power to adjust wages and propose new rules for workers, it would be up to Congress to change the law to make it work better for employers like Fellwock and Haffner.
Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, said the issue has been on his radar since he was first elected to the House in 2016. He supported a House bill in his first term to reform the H-2A visa process that attracted bipartisan support.
The bill would have allowed for year-round workers and some migrant workers would be eligible for a three-year visa. But it also would have eliminated the requirement that farmers provide housing and meals for their workers. It failed to pass out of committee.
Marshall was among the Senators who helped kill a recent bipartisan immigration bill – which did not include significant reform to the H-2A visa program – for being insufficiently conservative.
He said that while he is very aware of the labor issues facing farmworkers – calling the lack of labor one of the top challenges facing Kansas farmers – he stressed that border security needed to be handled before any immigration bill.
“It just seems like the number one concern in the nation right now is this open southern border,” Marshall said. “All discussions are dead until we secure the border.”
Moran, on the other hand, is hoping Congress can do something to address the labor shortage, passing pieces of immigration reform where there’s bipartisan support. He said the rural communities in Kansas that have shown signs of growth in the past few decades are those that have embraced immigrants, like Garden City, which is now a majority minority city.
“We certainly need people who want to work,” Moran said. “Agriculture particularly needs greater labor. We are stymied in Kansas in growing our agribusinesses and in growing our farms because we need people to work.”
But, Moran said, when he asked Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas if he was willing to work on areas of immigration reform where there’s bipartisan consensus, the secretary said he wanted comprehensive reform.
Moran said he took that to mean that they weren’t going to do anything.
That hasn’t deterred Fellwock, the chairman of the Missouri Dairy Association. He’s hopeful that a bipartisan bill, called The Farm Workforce Modernization Act, can somehow make it through a divided Congress.
In the meantime, he’s at the whim of whoever pulls into his driveway.
“We’re starting to have a few come in wanting jobs, needing jobs,” Fellwock, the dairy farmer said. “And so we’re kind of encouraged with that. But boy, if we could have a visa program, where we could take advantage of those and be able to employ them through that, that would be tremendously helpful.”
Kansas
Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City Chiefs facing rebuild after missing NFL playoffs for first time since 2014
The NFL playoffs and the road to the Super Bowl will not feature the Kansas City Chiefs for the first time since 2014 this season. Does it mark the end of an era for one of the league’s great modern dynasty teams?
Andy Reid’s side were officially eliminated from playoff contention on Sunday following a 16-13 defeat to the Los Angeles Chargers, coupled with deciding victories for the Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans.
A miserable season was punctuated by a late injury to star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who was later ruled out for the remainder of the campaign with a torn ACL that will now disrupt preparations heading into next season.
Having reached five of the last six Super Bowls, the Chiefs face uncharted territory in the offseason.
“You look over the years, there’s a multitude of things (contributing to their downfall),” says Sky Sports NFL’s Phoebe Schecter. “They’ve had longer seasons than any other team and X amount of games every single year, emotionally, mentally, physically it’s taxing on a player.
“The Chiefs have never fully invested back into who they are drafting, free agency, they don’t have a ton of star receivers, you’re relying on people like Travis Kelce.
“There’s a lot of rebuilding that has to happen.
“It’s hard when you compare to a team like the Eagles, who are constantly staying ahead of it and building depth – I don’t think they’ve had a star receiver since Tyreek Hill.”
The Chiefs had entered the campaign on the back of reaching three straight Super Bowls, winning two in a row before being dismantled by the Philadelphia Eagles in New Orleans last February.
A shortage of star quality or reinvestment in as much was evident that day at the Superdome, and has emerged as a prevalent talking point in the decline of a team and, in particular, an offense that once looked untouchable.
“This is maybe the end of the first iteration of the Chiefs that we’ve seen,” said Sky Sports NFL’s Neil Reynolds. “This happened to Brady and the Patriots. They had a 10-year gap. Brady won three, ironically, his knee ligaments went, 10 years later they then won another three with New England.
“So this feels like the end of something with Kelce. Have the Chiefs in recent years failed Patrick Mahomes? Because I don’t know if they’ve got a number one wide receiver. They don’t have a star running back.
“I don’t want to play fantasy football, but that offense with George Pickens or Breece Hall in the backfield, I just wonder whether they have assumed Patrick Mahomes will bail them out, as he has done many times, and continue to do so, and it feels like they’ve run out of it this year.”
Mahomes endured, statistically, one of the worst seasons of his career on the way to the Super Bowl last year as the Chiefs largely leaned on Steve Spagnuolo’s defense to carry them through a series of one-score games.
The production has been marginally improved in 2025 but no less erratic or inconsistent, Mahomes constantly relied upon to create magic in the face of limited options.
“I think that’s true,” said Sky Sports NFL’s Jeff Reinebold. “I think that they have confidence in his ability to elevate everybody at the critical moments.
“I have such an appreciation for excellence. And sustained excellence is even held in a higher esteem to me because you know think about this, 2014 is a long time ago and it’s been that long that they’ve been in the playoffs every year and have been the team that you had to beat, so to have sustained excellence in a league that makes it just about as difficult as you can make it, maybe more difficult than any pro sports league, that is a credit to the Chiefs organisation, to Andy Reid, to Brett Veach.
“However, the reality is eventually it just runs out, you just run out of steam. You look at Kelce, he’s not the player that he once was, I thought he was really good today and competed his tail off but you know there are now guys that can match and make it really difficult.
“I agree about the receivers they’ve got, some guys with unique skill sets but I don’t know if they’ve got a true number one receiver.”
As defensive lineman Chris Jones took to the podium post-game, he had to ask reporters if the Chiefs were out of the playoffs. He didn’t know. Until it hit him.
The silence was deafening and a reflection of the unknown. This was a day that was always coming, and the reality of a major offseason shake-up hit.
“It’s hard to rebuild when you’ve been winning, it’s ‘what are we going to change?’,” said Sky Sports NFL’s Jason Bell.
“You have to get to the point where it falls apart and doesn’t work, but you never want to see Mahomes get hurt like that, it’s the worst-case scenario.”
After 10 straight playoff appearances, nine straight division titles and seven consecutive trips to the AFC Championship Game, the Chiefs’ dominance is no more.
Watch the 2025 NFL season live on Sky Sports, including every minute of the playoffs and Super Bowl LX; Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW.
The Kansas Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big. Here’s a look at Dec. 14, 2025, results for each game:
Winning Pick 3 numbers from Dec. 14 drawing
Midday: 9-9-6
Evening: 1-5-6
Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning 2 By 2 numbers from Dec. 14 drawing
Red Balls: 15-24, White Balls: 02-16
Check 2 By 2 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Lucky For Life numbers from Dec. 14 drawing
08-23-32-33-34, Lucky Ball: 15
Check Lucky For Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your lottery prize
All Kansas Lottery retailers will redeem prizes up to $599. For prizes over $599, winners can submit winning tickets through the mail or in person at select Kansas Lottery offices.
By mail, send a winner claim form and your signed lottery ticket to:
Kansas Lottery Headquarters
128 N Kansas Avenue
Topeka, KS 66603-3638
(785) 296-5700
To submit in person, sign the back of your ticket, fill out a claim form, and deliver the form along with your signed lottery ticket to Kansas Lottery headquarters. 128 N Kansas Avenue, Topeka, KS 66603-3638, (785) 296-5700. Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. This office can cash prizes of any amount.
Check previous winning numbers and payouts at Kansas Lottery.
When are the Kansas Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 10 p.m. CT Tuesday and Friday.
- Pick 3 Midday/Evening: 1:10 p.m. and 9:10 p.m. CT daily.
- 2 By 2: 9:30 p.m. CT daily.
- Lucky for Life: 9:38 p.m. CT daily.
- Lotto America: 9:15 p.m. CT Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Super Kansas Cash: 9:10 p.m. CT Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Kansas editor. You can send feedback using this form.
NC State Game Notes | Kansas Game Notes
RALEIGH, N.C. – The NC State men’s basketball team hosts 19th-ranked Kansas Saturday evening inside Lenovo Center.
The game will feature the first-ever attempt at Stripe Out in the Lenovo Center. Click this link and put your seat information in and it will tell you what color to wear.
Tipoff against the Jayhawks is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. and the game will be televised on ESPN. NC State fans can also listen to Matt Chazanow and Chucky Brown call the action on the Wolfpack Sports Network.
Pack Notes
NC State dominated Liberty, 85-45, Wednesday night. Liberty entered the game as one of the best offenses in the nation through the first five weeks of the season. They led the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio, were second in the NCAA in fewest turnovers per game and field goal percentage, fourth in three-point field goal percentage and fifth in three-pointers per game. But the Pack’s defense stopped the Liberty attack from the beginning as the Flames made a season-low six three-pointers and shot season-lows in overall field goal percentage (35.3%) and three-point field goal percentage (21.4%). Liberty also had a season-high 17 turnovers in the loss.
The 45 points for Liberty are the fewest for an NC State opponent since the Pack held Jacksonville to 43 in a 79-43 win for the Pack on Nov. 20, 2014.
Ven-Allen Lubin and Matt Able tied for the team-high in scoring in the win over Liberty with each player scoring 13 points. After scoring in double figures just once in the Pack’s first three games this season, Lubin has now scored in double figures in seven consecutive games. He has shot over 50 percent from the field in every game this season and leads the ACC and ranks 10th in the NCAA in field goal percentage at 67.5 percent.
In the last four games, Lubin is averaging 17.8 points per game and is shooting 72.5 percent (29-of-40) from the field.
NC State ranks near the top in the ACC in scoring (3rd – 88.8 ppg), field goal percentage (2nd – 50.2%), 3-point percentage (1st – 40.0%) and free throw percentage (4th – 76.3%).
Pick Your Poison: NC State has had five different players score 20-plus points in a game this season, tied with Pitt for the most in the ACC. Four Wolfpack players (Quadir Copeland, Ven-Allen Lubin, Paul McNeil, Jr., and Darrion Williams) have reached the 20-point mark in multiple games—more than any other team in the conference.
Quadir Copeland was flirting with a triple-double on Wednesday as he finished with 11 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists. He checked out of the game with 9:57 to play and never came back in. Over his last four games, Copeland is averaging 18.5 points, 6.0 assists, and 2.0 steals per game while shooting 63.4 percent (26-of-41) from the field. The Philadelphia native has passed out 24 assists against just seven turnovers (3.43 asst-TO ratio) in the last four outings.
Saturday Storylines
– NC State’s 40-point victory over Liberty on Wednesday moved the Pack up 11 spots in the NET rankings to No. 30. NC State’s average opponent NET rank though 10 games is 133 which ranks as the best opponent NET ranking of any ACC team. Five of the Pack’s first 10 games this season are currently Q1 or Q2 games. NC State still has three non-conference games remaining and as of the current NET rankings will play one more Q1 game (Dec. 13 vs. Kansas) and one more Q2 game (neutral site game vs. Ole Miss on Dec. 21).
– Dating back to the 2016-17 season, NC State has a 72-3 (.960) record against non-conference opponents in regular season home games.
– Saturday’s game is the highest ranked non-conference opponent to visit Raleigh since seventh-ranked Auburn played at NC State on Dec. 19, 2018. The Pack defeated the eventual Final Four participant Tigers, 78-71, behind a then career-high 27 points from junior guard Markell Johnson. Saturday’s game against the Jayhawks is the Pack’s first home game against a ranked opponent since March 4, 2024 when NC State fell to ninth-ranked Duke, 79-64. That NC State team got revenge on Duke twice in the next three weeks, beating the Blue Devils in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament 10 days later and then knocking off Duke again in the Elite Eight to advance to the Final Four.
– Familiar with the Jayhawks – Saturday’s game will mark the third consecutive season that Darrion Williams has faced Kansas and he helped lead Texas Tech to wins over the Jayhawks each time. Last season he scored 14 points as Texas Tech won in Allen Fieldhouse for just the second time in school history. In the 2023-24 season, Williams was named Associated Press National Player of the Week after shooting a perfect 12-of-12 from the field on his way to a 30-point, 11-rebound double-double. He tied the Texas Tech and Big 12 records for single-game field goal percentage, being the first in Tech history and second in Big 12 history to go 12-for-12 from the field. According to ESPN Stats and Info after the game, Williams was also the first player in the last 25 seasons to have 30 points, 10 or more rebounds and shoot 100% against a ranked team.
– Ven has been unstoppable in second half of games this season: A missed shot midway through the second half against Liberty on Wednesday snapped a streak of 24 consecutive made second half field goals for Ven-Allen Lubin. His streak started with two makes against Boise State in the second half on Nov. 25, the next day he was 6-6 against Texas in the second half, he then went 3-3 at Auburn, 9-9 against UNC Asheville and made his first four second half field goal attempts against Liberty before finally missing a second half shot. In 10 games this season, Lubin is shooting 82.1 percent (32-of-39) from the field in the second half. He’s also made 14-of-his-15 free throw attempts in the final 20 minutes of games this season which means his second half shooting splits are 82.1/50/93.3.
– Second Half Pack: NC State is averaging 48.8 points and shooting 55 percent from the field in the second half of its 10 games this season. In addition to Lubin’s second half efforts mentioned above, Quadir Copeland has also been fantastic in the second half as he’s shot 69.4 percent (25-of-36) in the second half of games this season. Overall the Pack’s top five scorers in the second half (Quadir Copeland, Darrion Williams, Ven-Allen Lubin, Paul McNeil, Jr., and Tre Holloman) combine to shoot 60.8 percent from the field in the second half, including 51.2 percent (44-of-86) from three-point range.
– Pack’s starting unit is giving NC State a lethal offensive punch through the first 10 games. NC State’s normal starting lineup (Quadir Copeland, Tre Holloman, Ven-Allen Lubin, Paul McNeil, Jr., and Darrion Williams) are combining to average 66.2 points per game and shooting an efficient 53.9 percent (226-of-419) from the field, including 45 percent (76-of-169) from three-point range. Four of the Pack’s starters are shooting 50.7 percent or better from the field.
– Watch the foul trouble – NC State ranks last in the ACC and 309th nationally in fouls, averaging 19.9 per game. In the Pack’s seven wins, they’ve outscored opponents by a combined 29 points at the free throw line. But in their three losses, they’ve been outscored by 20 at the line and have lost those games by a combined 26 points.
– NC State outrebounded Liberty by 11 in the win on Wednesday and is now 6-0 when it outrebounds its opponent and just 1-3 when it doesn’t this season.
– NC State outscored Liberty, 42-24, in the paint on Wednesday and has now scored 40 or more paint points in half of its games this season. For the season, NC State is averaging 35.6 paint points per game and only once this season (vs. Seton Hall) has the Pack been outscored in the paint.
– Overall through 10 games, the Pack is +112 over its opponents in paint points.
NC State series with Kansas
– Saturday will be the 15th all-time meeting between NC State and Kansas. Kansas has a 13-1 advantage all-time against the Pack and have won the last 13 games between the two programs.
– Last Meeting (December 14, 2024): NC State dug itself into an early hole and never was able to fully recover in falling to Kansas, 75-60, in Lawrence last season. NC State had battled back from an early 19-3 deficit to trail by just seven, 48-41, on a Ben Middlebrooks lay-up with 14:04 to go in the game. On the ensuing possession the Pack got a steal and had a chance to cut further into the Jayhawks’ lead, but Middlebrooks jumper was off the mark and Kansas made a three-pointer on its next possession to push the lead back into double digits and the Pack never got within single digits again.
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