By LISA MASCARO

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are rushing ahead on Wednesday on legislation that would impose strict new proof-of-citizenship requirements ahead of the midterm elections, a longshot Trump administration priority that faces sharp blowback in the Senate.

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The bill, called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America Act, would require Americans to prove they are citizens when they register to vote, mostly through a valid U.S. passport or birth certificate. It would also require a valid photo identification before voters can cast ballots, which some states already demand.

Republicans said the legislation is needed to prevent voter fraud, but Democrats warn it will disenfranchise millions of Americans by making it harder to vote. Federal law already requires that voters in national elections be U.S. citizens, but there’s no requirement to provide documentary proof. Experts said voter fraud is extremely rare, and very few noncitizens ever slip through the cracks. Fewer than one in 10 Americans have valid passports.

“Some of my colleagues will call this voter suppression or Jim Crow 2.0,” said Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., presenting the package at a committee hearing.

But he said “those allegations are false,” and he argued the bill is needed to enforce existing laws, particularly those that bar immigrants who are not citizens from voting. “The current law is not strong enough,” he said.

Election turmoil shadows the vote

The GOP’s sudden push to change voting rules at the start of the midterm election season is raising red flags, particularly because President Donald Trump has suggested he wants to nationalize U.S. elections, which, under the Constitution, are designed to be run by individual states.

The Trump administration recently seized ballots in Georgia from the 2020 election, which the president insists he won despite his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. The Department of Justice is demanding voter rolls from states, including Michigan, where a federal judge this week dismissed the department’s lawsuit seeking the voter files. Secretaries of state have raised concerns that voters’ personal data may be shared with Homeland Security to verify citizenship and could result in people being unlawfully purged from the rolls.

Information paper sits on a printer next to a touchscreen voting machine at New Chicago Voter Supersite in Chicago, Tuesday, Feb.10, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

“Let me be clear what this is about: It’s about Republicans trying to rig the next election,” said Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, during a hearing ahead of the floor vote. “Republicans are pushing the Save America Act because they want fewer Americans to vote. It’s that simple.”

The legislation is actually a do-over of a similar bill the House approved last year, which also sought to clamp down on fraudulent voting, particularly among noncitizens. It won the support of four House Democrats, but stalled in the Republican-led Senate.

This version toughens some of the requirements further, while creating a process for those whose names may have changed, particularly during marriage, to provide the paperwork necessary and further attest to their identity.

It also imposes requirement on states to share their voter information with the Department of Homeland Security, as a way to verify the citizenship of the names on the voter rolls. That has drawn pushback from elections officials as potentially intrusive on people’s privacy.

Warnings from state election officials

The new rules in the bill would take effect immediately, if the bill is passed by both chambers of Congress and signed into law.

But with primary elections getting underway next month, critics said the sudden shift would be difficult for state election officials to implement and potentially confuse voters.

Voting experts have warned that more than 20 million U.S. citizens of voting age do not have proof of their citizenship readily available. Almost half of Americans do not have a U.S. passport.

FILE – A Vote Here sign is posted amongst political signs as people arrive to vote at the Rutherford County Annex Building, an early voting site, Oct. 17, 2024, in Rutherfordton, N.C. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek, File)

“Election Day is fast approaching,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. “Imposing new federal requirements now, when states are deep into their preparations, would negatively impact election integrity by forcing election officials to scramble to adhere to new policies likely without the necessary resources.”

The fight ahead in the Senate

In the Senate, where Republicans also have majority control, there does not appear to be enough support to push the bill past the chamber’s filibuster rules, which largely require 60 votes to advance legislation.

That frustration has led some Republicans, led by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, to push for a process that would skip the 60-vote threshold in this case, and allow the bill to be debated through a so-called standing filibuster — a process that would open the door to potentially endless debate.

Lee made the case to GOP senators at a closed-door lunch this week, and some said afterward they are mulling the concept.

“I think most people’s minds are open,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., “My mind’s certainly open.”

But Murkowski of Alaska said she is flat out against the legislation.

“Not only does the U.S. Constitution clearly provide states the authority to regulate the ‘times, places, and manner’ of holding federal elections, but one-size-fits-all mandates from Washington, D.C., seldom work in places like Alaska,” she said.

Karen Brinson Bell of Advance Elections, a nonpartisan consulting firm, said the bill adds numerous requirements for state and local election officials with no additional funding.

“Election officials have a simple request of Congress — that you help share their burdens not add to them,” she said.

Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

It was 60 years ago that George Skelly moved to Roseville and joined the St. Paul Curling Club. He relocated from Winnipeg, Manitoba, to attend radiology school and was determined to continue the sports he grew up playing.

“He was a great athlete,” said his daughter, Gaye Skelly-Peterson. That’s Gaye as in “Jay,” the way former Toronto Maple Leafs winger player James Gaye Stewart pronounced it.

United States’ skip Tabitha Peterson calls the sweep during a match against Japan at the World Women’s Curling Championship in Uijeongbu, South Korea, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Yes, Gaye is named after Stewart.

Skelly was a good curler and won the St. Paul Winter Carnival Curling Championship three times. His daughter became a good curler, as well, later matching her father’s feat by winning the Winter Carnival bonspiel in 2002, 2003 and 2004.

The accomplishments of Skelly, 96, and daughter Gaye, 67, remain etched in St. Paul curling annals, but their feats have been eclipsed somewhat by the family’s next generation.

Tara Peterson and Tabitha Peterson, daughters of Gaye and Sheldon Peterson, are in Cortina D’Ampezza, Italy, for another shot at an Olympic medal. Team Peterson, skipped by Tabatha, begins competition Thursday against South Korea and Sweden.

All told, it’s a pretty good athletic legacy for a cardiovascular surgeon.

“Yeah,” Tabitha said, “we wouldn’t be here today if (our grandfather) didn’t curl, for sure.”

Tabitha, 36 has skipped her own team since 2019, with Tara, 34, at second. This year’s team also includes lead Taylor Anderson-Heide, third Cory Thiesse and alternate Aileen Geving. Thiesse on Tuesday won a silver medal with partner Korey Dropkin in mixed doubles, becoming the first American woman to win an Olympic curling medal.

This is the third Olympics appearance for Tabitha and second for Tara. Between them, they have four junior national titles — sharing two — and Team Peterson won a bronze medal at the 2021 World Championships. Tabitha won a mixed doubles bronze in 2016 with partner Joe Polo.

United States’ Tara Peterson releases the stone during a match against Canada at the World Women’s Curling Championship in Uijeongbu, South Korea, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

But the U.S. women have yet to medal at the Olympics. Tabitha was part of the 2018 team that finished eighth in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and Team Peterson finished sixth at the 2022 Beijing Games.

Tara and Tabitha Peterson grew up in Burnsville and began curling at the SPCC before moving on to the national junior program and ultimately, USA Curling. After aging out of juniors, Tabitha said, she assumed she’d go to school, get a job and curl for fun.

And she did most of that, attending the University of Minnesota and becoming a hospital pharmacist. But Tabitha was asked to join the U.S. national team following the Vancouver Olympics in 2010.

“Lucky,” she said. Accepting was a “no-brainer.”

“They were all 10, 15 years older than I was, but they really made me feel part of the team, and I learned a ton from them,” Tabitha said.

It was then Peterson realized she could “make it far in this sport if I keep practicing and striving. Then I joined the USA Curling high-performance program, and I think things have elevated since then. They had all the resources that were not available to me as a junior, and I’ve learned even more in the last four years than I learned in the first four.”

Tabitha and Tara, a dentist with a White Bear Lake practice, both live in Eagan. They have been training and competing around their jobs — and, they note, the help of work colleagues — for a long time. New this time is the fact that the sisters each became mothers over the past two years, which raises the inevitable questions about how long they might continue to compete internationally.

Tabitha, in fact, said she had been thinking about it after Pyeongchang.

“We wanted to both grow families, too,” she said. “Even after 2018, I was thinking, ‘Was this enough? Am I satisfied with my career? Am I done? Do I want to go back and try to medal?

George “Doc” Skelly, right, curls at the St. Paul Curling Club in 1978. (Courtesy the Skelly-Peterson Family).

“Then at the end of Beijing (in 2022), I was sitting at the curling ceremonies and they showed a promo for the next Olympics, and it was Italy. And I was like, ‘Oh, my God, we’ve got to keep going.’ ”

For the Petersons, it’s only natural, and not just for the Olympians. Gaye and Sheldon are in Italy, just as they were in Beijing in 2022, and Sioux Falls for the U.S. trials in November and in British Columbia for the Olympic qualification event in December that earned Team Peterson another shot.

For this family, curling has been a way of life since Geoge Skelly moved his family from Winnipeg and joined the St. Paul Curling Club in the mid-’60s.

“I love the competition and the people and the travel,” Tara said. “There are so many great things about it. Maybe when the Olympics are done, I’ll take a break and have some free time. But when I’m off from work, and I have time off, I go curling.”

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By JIM MORRIS and ROB GILLIES

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Police have identified the suspect in a school shooting in Canada as an 18-year-old who had prior mental health calls to her home.

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Authorities shared Jesse Van Rootselaar’s name at a news conference Wednesday, a day after seven people were killed at a school in remote British Columbia and two others were killed at a nearby home in one of the country’s deadliest mass shootings.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald said Van Rootselaar, who was found dead, had a history of mental health contact with police, and that the suspect’s mother and stepbrother were also found dead.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Canadians were in shock Wednesday after authorities said seven people were killed at a school in remote British Columbia and two others were killed at a nearby home in one of the country’s deadliest mass shootings.

A woman who police believed was the shooter was found dead, apparently from a self-inflicted wound, police said. The motive remained unclear.

More than 25 people were wounded Tuesday in the attack in the small mountain community of Tumbler Ridge, including two with life-threatening injuries who were airlifted for medical care, police said.

The village of 2,700 people in the Canadian Rockies is more than 600 miles northeast of Vancouver, near the provincial border with Alberta.

A map showing the location of the Tumbler Ridge school shooting. (AP Digital Embed)

“Parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers in Tumbler Ridge will wake up without someone they love. The nation mourns with you, and Canada stands by you,” an emotional Prime Minister Mark Carney said as he arrived in Parliament.

The attack was Canada’s deadliest rampage since 2020, when a gunman in Nova Scotia killed 13 people and set fires that left another nine dead.

Carney said flags at government buildings will be flown at half-staff for seven days and added: “We will get through this.”

Shelley Quist said her neighbor across the street lost her 12-year-old. “We heard his mom. She was in the street crying. She wanted her son’s body,” Quist said.

Quist said her 17-year-old son, Darian, was on lockdown in the school for more than two hours. The provincial government website lists Tumbler Ridge Secondary School as having 175 students in grades 7 to 12.

“The grade sevens and eights, I think, were upstairs in the library, and that’s where the shooter went,” she said. Her son was in the library just 15 minutes prior to the attack.

Quist was working at the hospital down the street when the shooting started.

“I was about to go run down to the school, but my coworker held me back. And then I was able to get Darian on the phone to know he was OK,” she said.

The road is blocked off before the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., Canada, on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (Jesse Boily/The Canadian Press via AP)

School shootings are rare in Canada, which has strict gun-control laws. The government has responded to previous mass shootings with gun-control measures, including a recently broadened ban on all guns it considers assault weapons.

British Columbia Premier David Eby told reporters that police reached the school within two minutes.

A video showed students walking out with their hands raised as police vehicles surrounded the building and a helicopter circled overhead.

Police found six people dead, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Ken Floyd said. A seventh person died while being transported to a hospital, and two more were found dead at a residence that authorities believe was connected to the attack.

Floyd told reporters that investigators had identified the suspect but would not release a name. He said police were investigating the connection between the shooter and the victims.

Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka said it was “devastating” to learn how many had died in the community, which he called a “big family.”

“I broke down,” Krakowka said. “I have lived here for 18 years. I probably know every one of the victims.”

The Rev. George Rowe of the Tumbler Ridge Fellowship Baptist Church went to the recreation center where victims’ families were awaiting more information.

The Tumbler Ridge Health Centre in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., Canada, on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (Jesse Boily/The Canadian Press via AP)

“It was not a pretty sight. Families are still waiting to hear if it’s their child that’s deceased and because of protocol and procedure, the investigating team is very careful in releasing names,” Rowe said Tuesday.

Rowe once taught at the high school, and his three children graduated from there.

“To walk through the corridors of that school will never be the same again,” he said.

The school district said the high school and elementary school will be closed for the rest of the week.

Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks to reporters ahead of a caucus meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (Spencer Colby /The Canadian Press via AP)

Carney’s office said he called off a planned trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Munich, Germany. He had been set to announce a long-awaited defense industrial strategy Wednesday in Halifax before heading to Europe for the Munich Security Conference.

Eby on Tuesday said he had spoken to the prime minister about the “unimaginable tragedy.”

“I know it’s causing us all to hug our kids a little bit tighter tonight,” he said. “I’m asking the people of British Columbia to look after the people of Tumbler Ridge tonight.”

Gillies reported from Toronto.

There comes a time each year that some forget about until a young girl wearing a badge or tie appears at their door or grocery store sporting a cheerful smile and offering the treat they suddenly crave: Girl Scout Cookies.

Yes, it is indeed Girl Scout Cookie season, but this year will look different as many scouts will be selling cookies online rather than knocking door-to-door.

“Given the community unrest and the instability in our communities, many of our Girl Scouts are choosing not to sell cookies in person,” Girl Scouts River Valley chief experience officer Susan Andersson said.

From now until March 29, Girl Scouts River Valleys’ cookie program will go digital. That includes 49 counties in Minnesota and Wisconsin plus Osceola County in Iowa.

The public can purchase cookies through specific troops, individual scouts, or by using the “cookie finder” feature on the Girl Scouts River Valleys website, girlscoutsrv.org.

Some scouts may continue to sell cookies door-to-door or at cookie booths in the state, though the public can anticipate seeing fewer scouts out and about than usual.

“There’s no playbook for what we’re going through right now, and it’s hard to forge the way forward when there is no precedent,” said Tammy Freese, senior director of product program. “That’s the most challenging thing is that we’re in a place that we haven’t been before. COVID was also full of uncertainties, but this just seems very, very different.”

Freese said the decision to go online was made to ensure the comfort of troop members and their families, who may not feel comfortable selling cookies in public during a time when immigration enforcement actions are going on.

“Girl Scouts has been around for 100-plus years, and one off-season won’t slow these girls down,” Girl Scouts River Valleys stated. “Cookie season remains the largest girl-led entrepreneurship program in the world, and it represents all girls, including daughters of immigrants, daughters of police officers, and girls from every kind of family and neighborhood.”

Digital Cookie

During the early COVID years, Girl Scouts used a platform called Smart Cookie to deliver online sales. In 2026, the organization is using Digital Cookie, an updated platform with “more bells and whistles,” according to Freese.

Girl Scouts with the new 2026 Exploremores cookies. The organization anticipates that many of its members will opt to sell cookies online instead of the traditional door-knocking method this year. (Courtesy of Girl Scouts)

With Digital Cookie, troops and individual Girl Scouts can create a personalized online storefront with information about the troop or Scout and what they’re raising money for. Scouts also have control over who sees their storefront and can choose to share a link to their business over social media, via text message and more. Once purchased, cookies can be shipped or directly delivered to the customer’s door, if the option is available.

“It’s a really great resource for Girl Scouts to learn real-world marketing and what it does take to be an entrepreneur these days,” Freese said.

Girl Scouts learn five main skills through the cookie program, Andersson said: goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics. Traditionally, the cookie program teaches scouts these skills through in-person learning opportunities, and though the season will have significantly less in-person social interaction, Andersson said the Digital Cookie program continues to foster the same kinds of lessons.

Anderson said these days, more and more customers shop online, and this change is one way for Girl Scouts to consider meeting a need. She said going digital opens accessibility to a wider range of people and allows the public to support Girl Scouts programs without needing to show up in person.

“Not only are our girls learning those five very important skills, but they’re also learning how to pivot when things don’t go as planned, and that is so very, very important, because life doesn’t always go as we plan it, and building up that resilience and that grit is so important,” Freese said.

Troop 2026

Freese said community members have reached out to ask how they can support those who feel particularly vulnerable during the immigration enforcement surge.

Inspired by a volunteer suggestion, Girl Scouts River Valleys created Troop 2026 through the Care to Share Program, which takes proceeds from cookie sales and distributes them to specific initiatives, like supporting veterans or food shelves. Troop 2026 consists of Girl Scouts whose cookie seasons have been “impacted by events in our communities,” according to Girl Scouts. Purchasing through Troop 2026 is one way people can support Girl Scouts during this challenging season, Freese said.

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“Care to Share, and Troop 2026, also educates girls about philanthropy, how giving back is really important,” Andersson said.

The cookie program helps to support and make Girl Scouts possible, Freese said. The proceeds fund Girl Scouts initiatives, learning opportunities, travel plans and more. A lot of troops depend on the cookie program to help them achieve their goals, she said.

“We want to make sure that we honor all decisions for folks that have maybe decided this is the year that they can’t participate in the cookie program, and make sure that they realize that, yes, you are not only a valued member of the troop, even if cookie participation has to be paused this year, but you’re also a valuable number of Girl Scouts River Valleys,” Freese said.

Getting Girl Scout Cookies

Individual Girl Scouts Digital Cookie storefronts went live Wednesday, Feb. 11, and will be active through the end of March.

Purchase cookies directly through a scout’s storefront or using the cookie finder on Girl Scouts River Valleys’ website, girlscoutsrv.org or by texting “cookies” to 59618.

Buy cookies from Troop 2026, a virtual troop made up of scouts impacted by immigration enforcement activity, search for Troop 2026 at girlscoutsrv.org.