The Five States To Watch

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and CHRISTINE FERNANDO, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s new Justice Department leadership issued an order Friday to curtail prosecutions against people accused of blocking reproductive rights facilities, calling the cases an example of the “weaponization” of law enforcement. Justice Department chief of staff Chad Mizelle said in a memo obtained by The Associated Press that prosecutions and civil actions under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act or “FACE Act” will now be permitted only in “extraordinary circumstances” or in cases presenting ”significant aggravating factors.” Mizelle also ordered the immediate dismissal of three FACE Act cases related to 2021 blockades of clinics in Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

A Denver judge ordered the closure of a neglected apartment building in the Uptown neighborhood Thursday night, sending tenants to a hotel and temporarily shuttering a long-troubled property that lacked heat, hot water and working fire alarms. The William Penn apartments at 1644 Pennsylvania St. are controlled by CBZ Management, the owner of several infamous and rundown complexes in Denver and Aurora.

President Donald Trump made clear during his campaign that he wanted little to do with Project 2025, the sweeping and controversial conservative policy blueprint created by the Heritage Foundation. But just days into his second term, many of Trump’s early actions align with the Project 2025 agenda. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] An analysis by TIME found that nearly two-thirds of the executive actions Trump has issued so far mirror or partially mirror proposals from the 900-page document, ranging from sweeping deregulation measures to aggressive immigration reform.

CHICAGO — President Donald Trump announced Thursday he would pardon anti-abortion activists convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances. Trump called it “a great honor to sign this.” “They should not have been prosecuted,” he said as he signed pardons for “peaceful pro-life protesters.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The people pardoned were involved in the October 2020 invasion and blockade of a Washington clinic. Lauren Handy was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for leading the blockade by directing blockaders to link themselves together with locks and chains to block the clinic’s doors.

By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON, Associated Press President Donald Trump is poised to sign the first bill of his new administration, and it is named after a slain Georgia nursing student whose name became a rallying cry during his White House campaign. If signed into law, the Laken Riley Act would require the detention of unauthorized immigrants accused of theft and violent crimes.

SEATTLE — President Donald Trump’s executive order denying U. S. citizenship to the children of parents living in the country illegally has faced the first of what will be many legal tests. It didn’t fare well. A Justice Department lawyer had barely started making his arguments in a Seattle courtroom Thursday when U.