By STEVE KARNOWSKI and GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press

The production lines at Indeed Brewing moved quickly, the cans filling not with beer, but with THC-infused seltzer. The product, which features the compound that gets cannabis users high, has been a lifeline at Indeed and other craft breweries as alcohol sales have fallen in recent years.

But that boom looks set to come to a crashing halt. Buried in the bill that ended the federal government shutdown this month was a provision to ban those drinks, along with other impairing beverages and snacks made from hemp, which have proliferated across the country in recent years. Now the $24 billion hemp industry is scrambling to save itself before the provision takes effect in November 2026.

“It’s a big deal,” said Ryan Bandy, Indeed’s chief business officer. “It would be a mess for our breweries, for our industry, and obviously for a lot of people who like these things.”

Ryan Bandy, chief business officer at Indeed Brewing in Minneapolis, stands outside a cooler for cans of seltzer containing THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his brewery’s taproom on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)

Here’s what to know about the looming ban on impairing products derived from hemp.

Congress opened the door in 2018

Marijuana and hemp are the same species. Marijuana is cultivated for high levels of THC in its flowers. Low-THC hemp is grown for its sturdy fibers, food or wellness products. “Rope, not dope” was long the motto of farmers who supported legalizing hemp.

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After states began legalizing marijuana for adult use over a decade ago, hemp advocates saw an opening at the federal level. As part of the 2018 farm bill, Congress legalized the cultivation of industrial hemp to give farmers, including in Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell’s home state of Kentucky, a new cash crop.

But the way that law defined hemp — as having less than 0.3% of a specific type of THC, called delta-9 — opened a huge loophole. Beverages or bags of snacks could meet that threshold and still contain more than enough THC to get people high. Businesses could further exploit the law by extracting a non-impairing compound, called CBD, and chemically changing it into other types of impairing THC, such as delta-8 or delta-10.

The result? Vape oil, gummy candies, chips, cookies, sodas and other unregulated, untested products laden with hemp-derived THC spread around the country. In many places, they have been available at gas stations or convenience stores, even to teens. In legal marijuana states, they undercut heavily taxed and regulated products. In others, they evaded the prohibition on recreational use of weed.

Some states, including Indiana, have reported spikes in calls to poison-control centers for pediatric exposure to THC.

A patchwork of state regulations

Dozens of states have since taken steps to regulate or ban impairing hemp products. In October, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill banning the sale of intoxicating hemp products outside the state’s legal marijuana system.

Texas, which has a massive hemp market, is moving to regulate sales of impairing hemp, such as by restricting them to those over 21. In Nebraska, lawmakers have instead considered a bill to criminalize the sale and possession of products containing hemp-based THC.

Washington state adopted a program to regulate hemp growing. But the number of licensed growers has cratered since the state banned intoxicating hemp products outside of the regulated cannabis market in 2023. Five years ago, there were 220, said Trecia Ehrlich, cannabis program manager with the state agriculture department. This year, there were 42, and with a federal ban looming, she expects that number to drop by about half next year.

Minnesota made infused beverages and foods legal in 2022 for people 21 and older. The products, which must be derived from legally certified hemp, have become so popular that Target is now offering THC drinks at some of its stores in the state.

They’ve also been a boon to liquor stores and to small Minneapolis brewers like Indeed, where THC drinks make up close to one-quarter of the business, Bandy said. At Bauhaus Brew Labs, a few blocks away, THC drinks account for 26% of their revenues from distributed products and 11% of revenues at the brewery’s taproom.

A powerful senator moves to close the loophole

None of that was what McConnell intended when he helped craft the 2018 farm bill. He finally closed the loophole by inserting a federal hemp THC ban in the measure to end the 43-day federal government shutdown, approved by the Senate on Nov. 10.

“It will keep these dangerous products out of the hands of children, while preserving the hemp industry for farmers,” McConnell said. “Industrial hemp and CBD will remain legal for industrial applications.”

Some in the legal marijuana industry celebrated, as the ban would end what they consider unfair competition.

They were joined by prohibitionists. “There’s really no good argument for allowing these dangerous products to be sold in our country,” said Kevin Sabet, president and CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

But the ban doesn’t take effect for a year. That has given the industry hope that there is still time to pass regulations that will improve the hemp THC industry — such as by banning synthetically derived THC, requiring age restrictions on sales, and prohibiting marketing to children — rather than eradicate it.

“We are very hopeful that cooler heads will prevail,” said Jonathan Miller, general counsel of the industry group U.S. Hemp Roundtable. “If they really thought there was a health emergency, there would be no year-long period.”

The federal ban would jeopardize more than 300,000 jobs while costing states $1.5 billion in lost tax money, the group says.

Drew Hurst, president and chief operating officer at Bauhaus Brew Labs, has no doubt his company would be among the casualties.

“If this goes through as written currently, I don’t see a way at all that Bauhaus could stay in business,” Hurst said.

Drew Hurst, president and chief operating officer of Bauhaus Brew Labs in Minneapolis, stands outside a cooler for cans of seltzer containing THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his brewery’s taproom on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)

What comes next?

A number of lawmakers say they will push for regulation of the hemp THC industry. Kentucky’s second senator, Republican Rand Paul, introduced an amendment to strip McConnell’s hemp language from the crucial government-funding bill, but it failed on a lopsided 76-24 vote.

Minnesota’s Democratic U.S. senators, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, are among those strategizing to save the industry. Klobuchar noted at a recent news conference that the ban was inserted into the unrelated shutdown bill without a hearing. She suggested the federal government could allow states to develop their own regulatory frameworks, or that Minnesota’s strict regulations could be used as a national model.

Kevin Hilliard, co-founder of Insight Brewing in Minneapolis, said the hemp industry needs a solution before planting time next spring.

“If a farmer has uncertainty, they’re not going to plant,” Hilliard said.

Johnson reported from Seattle. AP congressional reporter Kevin Freking contributed from Washington, D.C.

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Black Friday bargains no longer tempt people to leave Thanksgiving tables for midnight mall runs. Brawls in store aisles over toys and TVs with limited-time discounts are spectacles of holidays past. Online shopping and retailers launching discounts weeks before the turkey feast subdued that kind of fervor.

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But the sales event still has enough enthusiasts to make the day after Thanksgiving the one when U.S. stores get the most shoppers coming in the door. For that reason, Black Friday still rules as the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season.

This year’s kickoff comes as consumer confidence in the U.S. economy fell this month in the aftermath of the federal government shutdown, weak hiring and stubborn inflation, according to a report The Conference Board issued Tuesday.

Many retail executives have reported customers becoming more discerning and increasingly focused on deals while at the same time remaining willing to splash out for important occasions like the start of the school year and the winter holidays, creating a halo effect.

“Consumers have been saying the economy is terrible while continuing to spend for years now, so the outlook is probably better than they are telling us,” Bill Adams, the chief economist at Comerica Bank, said this week of shoppers’ moods heading into Black Friday. “But business surveys also report consumers are being more sensitive to prices and selective in spending.”

While planning for the holidays in the spring and summer, retail companies were wrestling with the volatility of President Donald Trump ’s wide-ranging tariffs on imported goods. Many accelerated shipments of some merchandise before the tariffs took effect or decided to absorb some of the import tax costs instead of raising prices for customers.

Market research firm Circana said that 40% of all general merchandise sold in September saw a price increase of at least 5% compared with the first four months of the year.

People pass a display as they walks among early Black Friday sale items at Best Buy Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Toys, baby products, housewares, and team sports equipment were among the hardest hit categories. For example, 83% of toys sold in September saw an increase of at least 5%, Circana said. Industry group The Toy Association says nearly 80% of the toys sold in the U.S. are made in China, a country the Trump administration hit with especially high tariffs at various points this year.

Still, analysts and mall executives cited solid momentum heading into Black Friday week. At the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, foot traffic in recent weeks surpassed the numbers from pre-pandemic 2019, said Jill Renslow, the mall’s chief business development and marketing officer.

“We’re seeing a very positive start to the holiday season,” Renslow said. “The last few Saturdays in November have been very strong.”

The growth in online sales also has been robust so far. From Nov. 1 to Nov. 23, consumers spent $79.7 billion, according to web tracking and analysis platform Adobe Analytics. That represented a gain of 7.5% from a year earlier and was bigger than Adobe’s 5.3% growth forecast for the season.

Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks spending across all payment methods, predicted a 3.6% increase in holiday sales from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24. That compares with a 4.1% increase last year.

“Clearly, there’s uncertainty,” Mastercard Chief Economist Michelle Meyer said. “Clearly, consumers feel on edge. But at the moment, it doesn’t seem like it’s changing how they are showing up for this season.”

According to Adobe Analytics, Thanksgiving Day was the best time to shop online to get the deepest discount on sporting goods. But Black Friday will be the best time to buy TVs, toys and appliances online.

Cyber Monday, however, should be the best time to buy apparel and computers. Apparel discounts peaked at 12.2% off the suggested manufacturer’s price between Nov. 1 and Nov. 23 but are expected to hit 25% off on Cyber Monday, Adobe said.

By JOSH BOAK, Associated Press

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump says he wants to “permanently pause migration” from poorer nations and is promising to seek to expel millions of immigrants from the United States by revoking their legal status. He is blaming immigrants for problems from crime to housing shortages as part of “social dysfunction” in America and demanding “REVERSE MIGRATION.”

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His most severe social media post against immigration since returning to the Oval Office in January came after the shooting Wednesday of two National Guard members who were patrolling the streets of the nation’s capital under his orders. One died and the other is in critical condition.

A 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan War is facing charges. The suspect came to the U.S. as part of a program to resettle those who had helped American troops after U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Trump’s threat to stop immigration would be a serious blow to a nation that has long defined itself as welcoming immigrants.

Since the shooting not far from the White House, administration immigration authorities have pledged to reexamine millions of legal immigrants, building on a 10-month campaign to reduce the immigrant population. In a lengthy social media post late Thursday, the Republican president asserted that millions of people born outside the U.S. and now living in the country bore a large share of the blame for America’s societal ills.

“Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “Other than that, HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL, except those that hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything that America stands for — You won’t be here for long!”

Trump was elected on a promise to crack down on illegal migration, and raids and deportations undertaken by his administration have disrupted communities across the country. Construction sites and schools have been frequent targets. The prospect of more deportations could be economically dangerous as America’s foreign-born workers account for nearly 31 million jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The president said on Truth Social that “most” foreign-born U.S. residents “are on welfare, from failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels” as he blamed them for crime across the country that is predominantly committed by U.S. citizens.

The perception that immigration breeds crime “continues to falter under the weight of the evidence,” according to a review of academic literature last year in the Annual Review of Criminology.

“With few exceptions, studies conducted at both the aggregate and individual levels demonstrate that high concentrations of immigrants are not associated with increased levels of crime and delinquency across neighborhoods and cities in the United States,” it said.

A study by economists initially released in 2023 found immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than people born in the U.S. Immigrants have been imprisoned at lower rates for 150 years, the study found, adding to past research undermining Trump’s claims.

Trump seemed to have little interest in a policy debate in his post, which the White House, on its own rapid response social media account, called “one of the most important messages ever released by President Trump.”

He pledged to “terminate” millions of admissions to the country made during the term of his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden. He also wants to end federal benefits and subsidies for those who are not U.S. citizens, denaturalize people “who undermine domestic tranquility” and deport foreign nationals deemed “non-compatible with Western Civilization.”

Trump claimed immigrants from Somalia were “completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota” as he used a dated slur for intellectually disabled people to demean that state’s governor, Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee last year.

On Wednesday night, Trump called for the reinvestigation of all Afghan refugees who had entered under the Biden administration. On Thursday, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, said the agency would take additional steps to screen people from 19 “high-risk” countries “to the maximum degree possible.”

Edlow did not name the countries. But in June, the administration banned travel to the U.S. by citizens of 12 countries and restricted access from seven others, citing national security concerns.

The shooting of the two National Guard members appeared to trigger Trump’s anger over immigrants, yet he did not specifically refer to the event in his social media post.

The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is accused of driving across the country to the District of Columbia and shooting two West Virginia National Guard members, Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24. Beckstrom died on Thursday; Wolfe is in critical condition.

The suspect, currently in custody, was also shot and had wounds that were not believed to be life-threatening.

Trump was asked by a reporter Thursday if he blamed the shootings on all Afghans who came to the U.S.

“No, but we’ve had a lot of problems with Afghans,” the president said.

Jaylen Crocker-Johnson scored 23 points and Cade Tyson added 19 on a night the Gophers shot 51% from the floor and 45% from deep.

It wasn’t enough to win. Stanford survived Minnesota’s hot shooting, winning 72-68 in Thursday’s Acrisure Invitational in Palm Springs, California — thanks to its domination of the possession game.

The Gophers committed 14 turnovers to Stanford’s eight and were out-rebounded 36-25. Both teams made 25 field goals, but the Cardinal did it with the help of 22 more attempts.

Even with all that, Minnesota (4-3) reclaimed a 58-57 lead with seven minutes to play on a pair of Crocker-Johnson free-throws. But the Cardinal (5-1) responded with a 9-2 run over the next three minutes of play to build enough cushion to hold on at the end.

Minnesota trailed by four in the final 20 seconds of the game when Isaac Asuma hit a triple to bring the Gophers back within one. But, leading by three in the final 10 seconds, Stanford wisely fouled Minnesota with four seconds left, before it could get up a potential game-tying 3-point attempt.

Crocker-Johnson made the first attempt and missed the second, but the Gophers were unable to secure the ensuing rebound attempt.

Ebuka Okorie paced Stanford with 25 points. Minnesota closes out the event with an 8:30 p.m. Friday tilt against Santa Clara.

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