By JESSICA HILL

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The seven states that rely on the Colorado River to supply farms and cities across the U.S. West appear no closer to reaching a consensus on a long-term plan for sharing the dwindling resource.

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The river’s future was the center of discussions this week at the annual Colorado River Water Users Association conference in Las Vegas, where water leaders from California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming gathered alongside federal and tribal officials.

It comes after the states blew past a November deadline for a new plan to deal with drought and water shortages after 2026, when current guidelines expire. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has set a new deadline of Feb. 14.

Nevada’s lead negotiator said it is unlikely the states will reach agreement that quickly.

“As we sit here mid-December with a looming February deadline, I don’t see any clear path to a long-term deal, but I do see a path to the possibility of a shorter-term deal to keep us out of court,” John Entsminger of the Southern Nevada Water Authority told The Associated Press.

An essential resource

More than 40 million people across seven states, Mexico and Native American tribes depend on the water from the river. Farmers in California and Arizona use it to grow the nation’s winter vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage and carrots. It provides water and electricity to millions of homes and businesses across the basin.

But longstanding drought, chronic overuse and increasing temperatures have forced a reckoning on the river’s future. Existing water conservation agreements that determine who must use less in times of shortage expire in 2026. After two years of negotiating, states still haven’t reached a deal for what comes next.

The federal government continues to refrain from coming up with its own solution — preferring the seven basin states reach consensus themselves. If they don’t, a federally imposed plan could leave parties unhappy and result in costly, lengthy litigation.

Not only is this water fight between the upper and lower basins, individual municipalities, tribal nations and water agencies have their own stakes in this battle. California, which has the largest share of Colorado River water, has over 200 water agencies alone, each with their own customers.

“It’s a rabbit hole you can dive down in, and it is incredibly complex,” said Noah Garrison, a water researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles.

No deal emerges

During a Thursday panel of state negotiators, none appeared willing to bend on their demands. Each highlighted what their state has done to conserve water, from turf-removal projects to canal lining in order to reduce seepage, and they explained why their state can’t take on more. Instead, they said, others should bear the burden.

Entsminger, of Nevada, said he could see a short-term deal lasting five years that sets new rules around water releases and storage at Lakes Powell and Mead — two key reservoirs.

Lower Basin states pitched a reduction of 1.5 million acre-feet per year to cover a structural deficit that occurs when water evaporates or is absorbed into the ground as it flows downstream. An acre-foot is enough water to supply two to three households a year.

But they want to see a similar contribution from the Upper Basin. The Upper Basin states, however, don’t think they should have to make additional cuts because they already don’t use their full share of the water and are legally obligated to send a certain amount of water downstream.

“Our water users feel that pain,” said Estevan López, New Mexico’s representative for the Upper Colorado River Commission.

Upper Basin states want less water released from Lake Powell to Lake Mead.

But Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, said he hasn’t seen anything on the table from the Upper Basin that would compel him to ask Arizona lawmakers to approve those demands.

Within the coming weeks, the Bureau of Reclamation will release a range of possible proposals, but it will not identify a specific set of operating guidelines the federal government would prefer.

Scott Cameron, the bureau’s acting commissioner, implored the states to find compromise.

“Cooperation is better than litigation,” he said during the conference. “The only certainty around litigation in the Colorado River basin is a bunch of water lawyers are going to be able to put their children and grandchildren through graduate school. There are much better ways to spend several hundred million dollars.”

Former state lawmaker and chair of the Minnesota Republican Party, David Hann, is the latest candidate to enter the U.S. Senate race in Minnesota.

“I’m proud to announce my run for the U.S. Senate right here in my home state of Minnesota,” Hann wrote in a post on X on Thursday morning. “This is the place that has shaped who I am, and I’m stepping forward to serve it and fight for Minnesotans with everything I’ve got.”

Earlier this year, U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat, announced she is retiring at the end of her term.

Hann joins a crowded field seeking the GOP nomination, including former Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze, retired Navy officer Tom Weiler and former NBA player Royce White, among several others.

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and Billy Nord, a manager at a streaming company, are vying for the DFL endorsement.

Hann was a member of the Minnesota Senate, representing District 48 — which includes parts of Eden Prairie and Minnetonka — beginning in 2003, and served as Senate minority leader from 2013 to 2017. He then served as chair of the state Republican Party from 2021 to Jan. 1 of 2025.

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“While others have been on the sidelines, I’ve been in the Arena fighting for our way of life,” Hann wrote on X. “Change isn’t just needed, it’s long overdue.”

Both the DFL and the Republican parties will hold endorsing conventions in the spring. The primary is in August.

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH and JOSHUA GOODMAN

A Kansas tribe said it has walked away from a nearly $30 million federal contract to come up with preliminary designs for immigrant detention centers after facing a wave of online criticism.

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The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation ‘s announcement Wednesday night came just over a week after the economic development leaders who brokered the deal with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were fired.

With some Native Americans swept up and detained in recent ICE raids, the deal was derided online as “disgusting” and “cruel.” Many in Indian Country also questioned how a tribe whose own ancestors were uprooted two centuries ago from the Great Lakes region and corralled on a reservation south of Topeka could participate in the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts.

Tribal Chairman Joseph “Zeke” Rupnick nodded to the historic issues last week in a video address that called reservations “the government’s first attempts at detention centers.” In an update Wednesday, he announced that he was “happy to share that our Nation has successfully exited all third-party related interests affiliated with ICE.”

The Prairie Band Potawatomi has a range of businesses that provide health care management staffing, general contracting and even interior design. And Rupnick said in his latest address that tribal officials plan to meet in January about how to ensure “economic interests do not come into conflict with our values in the future.”

A tribal offshoot hired by ICE — KPB Services LLC — was established in April in Holton, Kansas, by Ernest C. Woodward Jr., a former naval officer who markets himself as a “go-to” adviser for tribes and affiliated companies seeking to land federal contracts.

The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation said in 2017 that Woodward’s firm advised it on its acquisition of another government contractor, Mill Creek LLC, which specializes in outfitting federal buildings and the military with office furniture and medical equipment.

Woodward also is listed as the chief operating officer of the Florida branch of Prairie Band Construction Inc., which was registered in September.

Attempts to locate Woodward were unsuccessful. A spokesperson for KPB said Woodward is no longer with the LLC but she declined to say whether he was terminated. Woodward did not respond to an email sent to another consulting firm he’s affiliated with, Virginia-based Chinkapin Partners LLC.

A spokesperson for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation said the tribe divested from KPB. While that company still has the contract, “Prairie Band no longer has a stake,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said Woodward is no longer with the tribe’s limited liability corporation, but she declined to say whether he was terminated.

The ICE contract initially was awarded in October for $19 million for unspecified “due diligence and concept designs” for processing centers and detention centers throughout the U.S., according to a one-sentence description of the work on the federal government’s real-time contracting database. It was modified a month later to increase the payout ceiling to $29.9 million.

Sole-source contracts above $30 million require additional justification under federal contracting rules.

Tribal leaders and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security haven’t responded to detailed questions about why the firm was selected for such a big contract without having to compete for the work as federal contracting normally requires. It’s also unclear what the Tribal Council knew about the contract.

“That process of internal auditing is really just beginning,” the tribal spokesperson said.

Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas, and Goodman from Miami.

The topic of pure progression has been a major talking point across the NFL this season.

In an attempt to explain what pure progression is in its most basic form, head coach Kevin O’Connell talked about how he recently showed the Vikings a few clips from a game plan put together by defensive coordinator Brian Flores.

Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell talks with Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy (9) between plays in the fourth quarter of an NFL football game against the Washington Commanders at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Sunday, Dec, 7, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

If somebody were to pause the tape at random while the quarterback was dropping back to pass, O’Connell noted that it would be nearly impossible to decipher which coverage Flores had his players in at any given moment.

That’s how good a lot of defenses have gotten at disguise. Not only do they shape shift before the snap, they shape shift after the snap. The goal is making sure the quarterback doesn’t know the coverage until it’s too late.

That’s what pure progression attempts to combat.

It’s rooted in giving quarterbacks less to think about when they drop back to pass. They are given a set of reads that dictate where to go with the ball, rather than having them read coverages in the heat of battle.

If the first read is open, the quarterback throws the ball to the receiver. If the first read is not open, the quarterback progresses to the second read. And so on.

“You attack voids and vacancies based upon the way the play is set up,” O’Connell said. “There’s a lot of layers to that, and it takes a lot of time to talk about.”

The pros and cons of pure progression have been discussed at length while young quarterback J.J. McCarthy has struggled to adapt to the highest level. There are some people that believe it’s the best way to go about it because theoretically it always lead a quarterback to an open receiver. Others believe it stunts the development while opening the door for more catastrophic plays.

Asked to explain what he thinks pure progression is at its core, McCarthy replied, “It’s a great way to have an answer against every single coverage.” His understanding of the concept hasn’t yet translated to sustained success.

Maybe that’s not all on McCarthy considering to the way veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins recently described pure progression. He got familiar with it while playing for the Vikings and had a lot to say about it now that he plays for the Atlanta Falcons.

“I can get on this soapbox,” Cousins told reporters. “Because I lived the jump.”

As he reflected on his career as a whole, Cousins went deep into how he learned the position almost exclusively through the lens of having to read coverages. He would go through something of a checklist before the snap — mostly taking into account where the safeties were lining up — then figure out where to go with the ball after the snap.

“Then what happened was defenses got so good at disguising it, and I would be so stressed going into games,” Cousins said. “The whole game plan is built on if it’s single high or split safety, and I can’t see if it’s single high or split safety.”

The implementation of pure progression under O’Connell helped relieve some of that stress Cousins was feeling. That doesn’t mean it was easy for him to grasp a new way of operating the offense.

“It was like, ‘Whoa,’ ” Cousins said. “It was a lot in my mind. I’m used to kind of simplifying it and cutting the field in half. I had to kind of work through that and get to where that was more natural.”

As difficult as it was for Cousins in the early stages, once he got used to pure progression, he started to see the benefits.

“You’re not stressing as much during the week about, ‘What if I can’t see coverage?’ ” Cousins said. “You say, ‘Well, it’s OK, I don’t have to see coverage.’ It’s more after the snap, ‘Where are they going?’ I can kind of progress through from there.”

There have been bright spots for McCarthy over the past couple of games that suggest he getting more comfortable with pure progression. He was solid in the win over the Washington Commanders, then followed it up with even better performance in the win over the Dallas Cowboys.

“I thought there were some great examples of decision making from J.J. trying to activate some play passes down the field,” O’Connell said. “We wanted to try to stay balanced enough to allow those explosives to come our way and we were able to do that.”

Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy runs into the end zone for a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

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