(AP) — A group opposed to marijuana legalization is concerned about this year’s Super Bowl between teams from the two states that have legalized pot.

Project SAM, for Smart Approaches to Marijuana, says it’s running ads on billboards near MetLife Stadium, where the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos will play on Sunday.

The game has been hyped in some quarters as the “Stoner Bowl,” and legalization advocates have paid for five nearby billboards, urging the NFL to allow players to use medical marijuana.

Project SAM responded Wednesday by announcing three billboard or digital reader board ads, two along Interstate 80 near the George Washington bridge, and one between I-78 and state route 22 for traffic heading toward Newark Airport.

The ads show a football player with the words, “motivation, perseverance, determination,” and then a marijuana leaf with the words, “None of the above.”

U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee and Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS), a member of the HELP Committee, today applauded unanimous Senate passage of a bipartisan bill that would make it easier for charities and cooperatives to continue to offer pensions to their employees. TheCooperative and Small Employer Charity Pension Flexibility Act of 2013 would ensure that charitable and cooperative associations are not swept into the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) funding rules, which would require them to divert funds from critical services and jeopardize their ability to provide pension benefits to their workers.  Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Al Franken (D-MN) were original cosponsors.

“Without Congressional action, the pensions of thousands of employees will be in jeopardy. This important, bipartisan bill will help many cooperative and small employer charities—including dozens of Iowa co-ops, private schools, and branches of nonprofits—many of whom struggle to continue to provide pension benefits and could be forced to reduce their services to the public,” Harkin said. “By giving these employers the necessary flexibility to continue offering benefits to their workers, this legislation will bolster these businesses and help the workers and families who rely on pensions to save for retirement and the future. I thank my colleagues in the Senate for acting unanimously to pass this vital measure and urge my colleagues in the House to do the same.”

“This bill provides a permanent solution to addresses the unique needs of rural cooperative and charity pension plans,” Roberts said. “Without this legislation, it would be increasingly difficult for these groups to provide pensions for thousands of Kansans. It could also reduce services many of these Cooperatives provide to their rural communities.”

Many charities and cooperative associations provide their employees with retirement benefits through defined benefit multiple employer pension plans, also known as CSEC plans.  The plans allow small, community-focused employers to pool their resources to achieve economies of scale otherwise only available to large employers.  When Congress passed PPA, which fundamentally changed the way most pension plans are funded in order to protect participants and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), it recognized that the new rules were not necessarily appropriate for rural cooperative multiple employer defined benefit plans because, by design, the plans pose little risk that they will be unable to pay benefits.

Consequently, Congress granted the plans a temporary exemption from PPA, which was later broadened to include eligible charities by the Pension Relief Act of 2010.  Without Congressional action, the temporary exemption will expire and CSEC plans will be forced to comply with PPA funding rules.  That will result in many small, non-profit employers being unable to continue to provide pension benefits to middle class families.

The Cooperative and Small Employer Charity Pension Flexibility Act of 2013 helps charities and cooperative associations by implementing pension funding rules that reflect the unique design of their CSEC plans and are protective of plan participants.  The rules are substantially similar to those that CSEC plans are currently subject to, with modifications to make them work better and result in far less volatility.  CSEC plans would have the flexibility to opt into PPA in 2014 if they want, and importantly, the Act imposes additional transparency requirements on CSEC plans so that participants have access to accurate information.

The bill will help 85 electric, agricultural, and broadband cooperatives in Iowa that are providing pension benefits to approximately 5,300 working Iowans; 20 private schools in Iowa that provide pension benefits to over 800 Iowans; the United Way of Central Iowa, which has 521 active plan participants; and the Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois, which has 78 employees in Iowa. It will also benefit 136 Kansas co-op employers with 9,870 active employees.

The bill has also been endorsed by Christian Schools International; UJA, United Jewish Appeal, Federation of New York; United Way Worldwide; The Jewish Federations of North America; National Rural Electric Cooperative Association; Hawkeye Insurance Association; Girl Scouts of America; NTCA, the Rural Broadband Association; and United Benefits Group.

A group of Kansas City religious leaders asked federal officials Wednesday to release a 41-year-old father of two who is being held for immigration violations and could face deportation from the U.S., where he has lived for more than a decade.

Josue Noe Sandoval-Perez was arrested earlier this month and has been held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since Jan. 22.

“Basically this comes down to: Are the interests of the U.S. served by breaking up this family?” Kling said. He said CCO is asking ICE to reconsider Sandoval-Perez’s case and release him to his family.

“The kids are one bad traffic stop away from becoming orphans,” he said.

In his State of the Union speech Tuesday, President Barack Obama renewed his pitch for legislation to overhaul U.S. immigration laws. But many Republicans oppose Obama’s plan for creating a pathway to citizenship for people like Sandoval-Perez and the 11 million other people already in the U.S. illegally. Bipartisan legislation has passed the Senate, but the House prefers a piecemeal approach. House Republicans are expected to outline their principles for an immigration overhaul this week.

ICE spokesman Shawn Neudauer said the immigrations agency is considering a formal request from Sandoval-Perez’s lawyer to stay his deportation. But he said Sandoval-Perez, who came into ICE custody after he was arrested by Kansas City police on Jan. 16 for alleged theft, is an ICE “enforcement priority,” because he was deported once in 1998 to Mexico and came back to the U.S. illegally.

“ICE is focused on sensible, effective immigration enforcement by implementing the following removal priorities: convicted criminals, those who re-entered the United States after having been previously removed, and those who have outstanding deportation orders,” Neudauer said in an email.

Several members of local churches, including Deacon Tom Powell of St. Anthony Parish, where the Sandoval-Perez family attends mass, on Wednesday presented a letter at the ICE office asking that Sandoval-Perez be released.

“Exemplary parents like Josue, who have been long-term members of our community and who enrich and contribute to our lives are not intended to be high priority of deported by ICE,” said the letter, which was signed by more than a dozen Kansas City area religious leaders.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The owners of an eastern Kansas construction framing company are going to prison for harboring workers who were in the United States illegally.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says 45-year-old James Humbert, 47-year-old Kimberly Humbert and 51-year-old Charles Stevens II were all sentenced Wednesday to a year and a day in federal prison.

The Humberts are married, and Stevens is Kimberly Humbert’s brother. Their Spring Hill company, Advantage Framing Systems, provided builders and contractors with flooring, wall and roof materials and crews to perform the framing.

All three pleaded guilty earlier to conspiring to harbor workers not legally in the U.S. for commercial advantage.

They admitted that the company paid about $4.6 million to framing crews despite their knowledge that some crew leaders and members were not in the U.S. legally.