US is welcoming Ukrainians at the border but turning away others ...

CNN —

Groups of Ukrainian families at the US-Mexico border are getting the chance to do something most asylum-seeking migrants haven’t been allowed to do for years: cross legally into the United States.

A memo obtained by CNN instructs officers at the border to consider exempting Ukrainians on a case-by-case basis from the public health restrictions the US has used to block migrants from entering the country since the early days of the pandemic.

It’s significant that only Ukrainians were singled out in the recent Department of Homeland Security memo.

And it’s drawing attention from some immigrant rights advocates, who argue the way the US government is responding to the arrival of Ukrainians illustrates how political the US immigration system can be and highlights a racist double standard in how the US treats migrants.

“The disparate treatment is really mind-blowing. The cases that we’ve seen denied for Black and brown migrants are life-and-death cases,” says Erika Pinheiro, litigation and policy director of Al Otro Lado, an organization that provides aid to migrants and refugees. “We’re talking children who might die are being denied entry.”

Pinheiro and other advocates who spoke with CNN stress that Ukrainians fleeing war deserve the chance to seek safety in the United States. But so do many others in desperate circumstances.

“We support and welcome the Ukrainian community,” says Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance. “Our goal is to be able to make sure that the same humanity that is being afforded to our Ukrainian community members is afforded to other people as well.”

What witnesses describe at the border

Asked about allegations of a double standard, a DHS spokesperson says exemptions to the public health restrictions at the border have been – and still are – granted on a case-by-case basis “to particularly vulnerable individuals of all nationalities for humanitarian reasons.”

The memo that suggests considering Ukrainians for exemptions notes that “the unjustified Russian war of aggression in Ukraine has created a humanitarian crisis.”

Advocates say they’ve seen an uptick in Ukrainians showing up at the US-Mexico border over the past year. But the numbers are still far smaller than the millions of Ukrainian refugees who’ve been fleeing to European countries.

These Ukrainians trying to reach the United States have generally flown to Mexico, where it’s easy to obtain a visa to travel, and then gone to ports of entry along the US southern border, Jessica Bolter of the Migration Policy Institute told CNN earlier this month.

Vehicles are lined up at the San Ysidro Port of Entry to cross into the United States on March 21. Mario Tama/Getty Images

From October 2021 through February, CBP encountered just over 1,300 Ukrainians along the US southern border, according to agency data. Once taken into custody, the Ukrainians have largely been processed and allowed to remain in the US while they pursue their asylum claims.

We don’t yet have official statistics about how many Ukrainians have been allowed to cross at ports of entry in the past month – or how that data compares to other nationalities. DHS declined to provide that data to CNN, stating that those numbers will be released next month.

But in recent weeks, lawyers and advocates who work with migrants at the border say they repeatedly saw US authorities letting Ukrainians cross while turning away people of other nationalities. A CNN team in Tijuana also recently saw several Ukrainian families allowed to cross after being turned away earlier, while two Russian couples said they were turned away and told to wait.

She sees skin color as ‘a major factor’

For weeks human rights advocates and reporters who’ve documented the treatment of refugees in Europe have noted how many countries rolling out the welcome mat for Ukrainians have been indifferent at best, and hostile at worst, to Syrian refugees and others seeking safety.

Now advocates who work along the US-Mexico border are making similar observations.

Jozef says she couldn’t help but think of the disparities when she saw the new guidance issued about Ukrainians at the border, and how quickly the US government granted humanitarian deportation protection to Ukrainians.

She thought of the many Haitians she says have been stuck in Tijuana – some for months, some for years – facing discrimination and dangerous living conditions but blocked from crossing the border and getting help. She thought of the many thousands of other Haitians who’ve been sent back on deportation and expulsion flights since President Biden took office. And she thought of Cameroonians, their country also devastated by war, who’ve been pushing for the same humanitarian deportation protections for more than a year.

Haitian migrant Dor Louis Hermann holds his 3-year-old son Aadam Jr. at a makeshift camp near the pedestrian border bridge in Tijuana in July. Emilio Espejel/AP

“The little boy from Ukraine is a hero, but what of the 11-year-old from Haiti?” she says. “Skin color unfortunately is a major factor in who gets protected … Why do we have to continuously beg for validation of our humanity?”

Many Haitians, she says, have been forced to flee circumstances – including extreme poverty and violent crime – that she views as just as devastating as a military invasion.

“We have entire neighborhoods displaced due to gang and political violence…in addition to natural disasters and climate change,” she says.

Russians also have recently been turned away

In recent days at a border crossing in Tijuana, as an increasing number of Ukrainians and Russians have showed up, Erika Pinheiro says the scene has been striking.

“Once the Ukrainians and Russians get to Mexico, they help each other,” she says. “To me it’s really touching to see that, because they’re putting aside the fact that their countries are in conflict to keep each other safe.”

Ukrainian families, Pinheiro says, were generally allowed to cross in recent days, while migrants from numerous other countries were turned away. That included dozens of Russians, who camped near the port of entry and hoped officials would eventually let them through.

Video Ad Feedback 'An unreachable dream for many': How a Trump-era policy keeps Ukraine refugees stuck at the Mexican border 03:44 - Source: CNN

When a CNN team spoke with some of the Russians who’d been turned back at the border earlier this month, they said they feared persecution after speaking out against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government.

Pinheiro says the Russians were eventually forced to leave their encampment but were later allowed to cross the border. Other media reports have emerged in recent days of Russians being turned away.

DHS declined to provide data on how many Russians have been permitted to cross over the past month, or how many have been turned back, stating that those numbers would be released next month.

A public health policy at the border has led to more than 1 million expulsions

The Trump administration announced public health restrictions at its borders with Mexico and Canada in March 2020, claiming that the coronavirus pandemic made it necessary to block migrants from entering the country to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Since then, under the policy, known as “Title 42” for the US code invoked in its implementation, authorities say they’ve expelled would-be migrants at the border more than 1.7 million times. Exactly how many people have been impacted isn’t clear, since that figure includes people who’ve tried multiple times to cross.

Since its inception, immigrant rights groups have been decrying Title 42 as racist and xenophobic. They’ve argued officials are using the pandemic as a pretext to block migrants from seeking asylum in the United States – and that the vast majority of those impacted are people of color.

There’s been increasing pressure from immigrant rights groups and Democratic lawmakers to end it.

But the policy remains in place more than a year into Biden’s presidency. Recently behind the scenes, as the pandemic landscape evolves, discussions in the Biden administration about terminating the public health order have picked up speed, three sources familiar with the discussions told CNN.

Advocates argue it’s long past time to end the policy and overhaul the way migrants are being treated at the border, but it’s unclear whether that will happen any time soon.

We’ve seen disparate treatment of immigrants from different countries before

In the complex US immigration system, global politics are among many factors shaping the decisions officials make. And the United States has a long history of disparate treatment of immigrants from different parts of the world.

Sometimes policies have favored refugees from certain countries over others.

For decades, Cubans who stepped foot on US soil were immediately deemed to be in the country legally, no matter how they got here, with government policies granting them benefits like food stamps, Medicaid, housing assistance and work permits soon after their arrival. The Obama administration ended that policy in 2017.

Just last year, as Kabul fell under Taliban rule, the United States airlifted more than 70,000 Afghans into the country as part of Operation Allies Welcome.

In the 1980s, the US rejected many asylum applications from Central Americans fleeing right-wing governments backed by the United States. Religious leaders at the time formed the Sanctuary Movement to protect Salvadorans and Guatemalans from deportation when the US government failed to grant them refuge.

In addition to political considerations, advocates along the US-Mexico border say it’s impossible to ignore how race affects the way policies are shaped and laws are enforced.

Two families, two different responses at the border

Blaine Bookey says she’s currently representing two families who illustrate how differently cases at the border can be handled.

In one recent instance, she says she met a Ukrainian woman at the border who was crying after she and her three children were turned back.

Bookey, legal director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies in San Francisco, helped bring publicity to the case and says she also filed a written request to officials asking them to let the family cross.

As media coverage and public pressure mounted, that woman and her children were allowed to cross the next day, Bookey says. Now they’re living with family members in California, she says, and trying to sort out their next steps in the United States.

A woman from Ukraine stands with her children before crossing into the United States. U.S. authorities allowed the woman and her three children to seek asylum on March 10, a reversal from a day earlier when she was denied entry. Gregory Bull/AP

But Bookey says a Haitian family she met in Tijuana “in very similar circumstances” hasn’t been as lucky.

They were also fleeing dangerous conditions in their home country, she says, and also have family in the United States ready to receive them.

But late last year, before the Ukrainian family had even set out on their journey, the three Haitian children and their parents were turned away at the border after arriving, Bookey says. Recently, with Bookey’s help, they filed a new request for an exemption.

They remain stuck in Tijuana with no end in sight.

One daughter is suffering from a worsening skin condition, Bookey says, and needs medical attention.

“They’re not doing very well at all. They’re living in a shelter that’s totally squalid conditions. The daughter is really suffering. She’s crying, not sleeping. She has an infection and fevers,” Bookey says.

Why one advocate sees signs of hope

Bookey and other advocates who spoke with CNN stress that Ukrainians fleeing war and Russians fleeing a repressive government deserve the chance to seek safety in the United States.

“You see this kind of swift recognition of Ukrainians. We’re really happy about that. That was the right call,” Bookey says. “But then there’s all these other families that have been languishing there for months, some of which are even in more dire circumstances.”

Pinheiro says she sees signs of hope in the way officials appear to be handling Ukrainians’ cases.

“It demonstrates what’s possible when Americans can come together to welcome refugees,” she says.

The system, she says, actually could work for everyone. She hopes that soon it will.

Biden's immigration policy failures lead to frustration and finger ...

CNN —

The Department of Homeland Security put together a plan months ago to deal with thousands of migrants arriving at the border: flying some of them to cities deeper inside the US for processing.

But the plan is dead for now, officials tell CNN, in part after the White House grew hesitant over the complicated logistics.

It has been an endless cycle since President Joe Biden took office, according to multiple administration officials and sources close to the White House. Agency officials dream up a plan but then struggle to get White House approval, even as the problem compounds and Republicans step up their criticism.

Frustration is mounting, too, especially among those on the front lines.

“Everything seems to influence each other,” one Homeland Security official told CNN. “Things develop. People change their minds. They lose one battle, and they do this instead.”

“I think they’re at the point where it’s Hail Mary after Hail Mary,” the official added.

As border arrests remain high, officials are grappling with how to stem the flow of migration – resulting in a constant churn of ideas, including processing migrants further from the border.

“Interior assistance and community support is something the White House is only serious about discussing when encounter rates rise,” another Homeland Security official told CNN, adding that additional big policy changes aren’t expected until after the midterm election.

The process is often bogged down by a back and forth between the White House and DHS. The department, under pressure to mitigate the situation on the US-Mexico border, floats proposals to the White House, which in turn asks for additional information, fueling frustrations between the two, sources told CNN. Disagreements and questions over policy, including interior processing, also bubble up among officials within DHS.

“These are areas that have we have been working through together,” a source familiar with internal discussions said, adding that there may be varying opinions across agencies as well as within them.

“There are always differences of opinions to work through,” the source added.

And last week, one significant plan came to fruition: The administration announced a humanitarian parole program for Venezuelan migrants while also expanding the use of the controversial Trump-era pandemic emergency restriction on the border.

“Encouraging robust debate, hearing different ideas, and getting lots of expertise before making policy decisions that impact millions of lives is a feature, not a bug,” said Abdullah Hasan, a White House spokesperson, in a statement. “And it is through this smart, deliberative, and collaborative approach that we have seen significant progress in rebuilding the immigration system the prior Administration gutted.”

A DHS spokesperson maintained the administration is “unified,” and defended the administration’s response to what it called a “broken and dismantled immigration system” it inherited from the Trump administration.

“This Administration is unified in its commitment to enforce our laws and secure our border, while building a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system; discussion and a diversity of ideas are not just expected but essential as we develop real solutions on an issue of this complexity,” the spokesperson said.

“The administration has effectively managed an unprecedented number of noncitizens seeking to enter the United States, interdicted more drugs, and disrupted more smuggling operations than ever before, all while reversing the cruel and harmful policies of the prior administration,” the spokesperson added.

Ongoing political challenge for administration

Immigration was among the first issues Biden faced when a surge of unaccompanied minors caught the administration flatfooted in the first months of his presidency. That crisis, officials say, along with the growing number of migrants at the border continues to loom over the administration’s immigration agenda.

“The paralysis on the border has impacted their whole agenda,” one source close to the White House said.

Republican governors, meanwhile, have sent migrants to Democratic-led cities as an affront to Democrats and to the White House – bringing the issue of immigration to the forefront of national discussion and drawing fierce criticism from immigrant advocates, city officials and the Biden administration.

Immigrant advocates and Democrats have also slammed the administration over its increased emphasis on enforcement and most recently, moving to turn back thousands of Venezuelan migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border under the Trump-era Title 42.

“Expanding Title 42 to now include Venezuelans adds salt to an open wound while further eroding our asylum system that President Biden promised to restore,” said Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey in a statement.

Re-opening ports of entry to asylum seekers in an orderly way using, for example, a Customs and Border Protection application and opening centers that house multiple federal agencies to process migrants are among the other options that have been circulated for months, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

The White House has received briefings from DHS about plans for the joint processing centers, the source familiar with internal discussions told CNN, describing it as the normal course of business.

“You get an appropriation from Congress, you work to meet the directions of that appropriation in ways that also match with the priorities that the secretary of Homeland Security has set, likely or in some way in coordination with the White House,” the source said.

Other policies have moved forward, like a regulation that allows asylum officers to hear and decide asylum claims – cases that are usually assigned to immigration judges – when migrants present at the US southern border and a dedicated immigration court docket for migrant families. Both of those policies were laid out in an immigration blueprint released by the White House last year.

Surge in Venezuelan migrants

Concerns over increasing border arrests is in part based on mass movement across the Western Hemisphere, where thousands of migrants, particularly Venezuelans, are fleeing deteriorating conditions.

Poor economic conditions, food shortages and limited access to health care, for example, are increasingly pushing Venezuelans to leave, posing an urgent challenge for the Biden administration. More than 6 million Venezuelans have fled their country, matching Ukraine in the number of displaced people and surpassing Syria, according to the United Nations.

Over recent weeks, around 1,000 Venezuelans were apprehended along the US-Mexico border daily, according to a Homeland Security official. To compare, just under 1,000 Venezuelans arrived at the US southern border in the entire month of February 2021, US government data shows.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas reiterated last week that Venezuelan migrants shouldn’t cross the border unlawfully, citing instead the humanitarian parole program.

“These actions make clear that there is a lawful and orderly way for Venezuelans to enter the United States, and lawful entry is the only way,” he said in a statement. “Those who attempt to cross the southern border of the United States illegally will be returned to Mexico and will be ineligible for this process in the future.”

Administration officials have also been working closely with countries across the Western Hemisphere to try to manage the flow of migration north and set up protections closer to migrant origin countries.

But the myriad of considerations and federal agencies involved in immigration often results in an arduous decision-making process.

“A big challenge for this issue is that it sits on the cracks of a whole set of structures at the White House,” said a former Obama administration official. “It is a highly complicated process and that all is just dealing with logistic management of moving people around. Let alone, the expansion of alternative avenues for people to have access to relief.”

That’s become exacerbated by the politically charged environment and attention on solving the crisis in the near term.

“Much of the focus, and much of the public focus, is on the short-term emergency and how do you manage the movement of people,” said Cecilia Munoz, the former director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under President Barack Obama, noting that Congress also hasn’t provided any new tools to the government.

“Every decision is fraught because the Republicans have made it so clear that they intend to make political payout of the situation. No decision is just about the merits of the action contemplated. All of it has political resonance,” Munoz said.

'Remain in Mexico' expanding to Tucson border

TUCSON — President Donald Trump's administration is expanding its controversial Migrant Protection Protocols — more commonly known as "Remain in Mexico" — to the remaining portions of the Arizona-Mexico border near Tucson, the last major stretch of the southwestern U.S. border without the program.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection will begin busing asylum-seeking migrants apprehended in the Tucson Sector, which spans Cochise, Santa Cruz and Pima counties, for nearly 300 miles to El Paso.

From there, they will be processed and sent to neighboring Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to await the outcome of their asylum proceedings.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed the expansion Friday evening. In an emailed statement, the department said it was "strengthening" the program in the Tucson Sector in response to "emerging trends and threats" from smuggling groups at the border.

“We’re strengthening our MPP program in Tucson sector and Del Rio sector because what we’ve seen as we’ve tracked these flows is they’re going in these sectors where MPP is maybe not as strong as it could be,” Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said in a written statement.

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“So we’re continuing to reassess that and putting in and strengthening those measures, and we’ll see them move elsewhere, but that’s part of what Border Patrol does, what CBP does and what DHS does,” he said.

Still-unanswered questions remain about how the expansion will work. Chief among them, how many migrants will be bused to El Paso each day? Will the program apply only to migrants apprehended by Border Patrol in the Tucson Sector and not those who presented their claims at the ports of entry?

In a tweet Friday morning, after his visit to the Texas border in the Rio Grande Valley, Wolf also expressed his support for the program, saying it "works" and "is a game-changer" in addressing the ongoing border crisis.

"Great job by all who are helping make this program stronger," Wolf wrote.

The expansion, first reported by the Washington Post, has also been confirmed by nonprofits working with migrants in southern Arizona, such as the Kino Border Initiative in Ambos Nogales. They expressed their opposition, highlighting concerns over security and legal access for migrants sent back to Mexico through the program.

"CBP (Customs and Border Protection) is intentionally transferring people away from places where services exist and placing thousands of asylum-seekers in harm’s way, exposing them to suffering and danger, and blocking them from seeking safety," the nonprofit said in a written statement.

"This expansion of Remain in Mexico is another of the Trump administration’s many systematic attempts to block an individual’s right to seek asylum. The violations against asylum must be ended decisively and immediately," the statement continued.

More than 50,000 asylum seekers this year have been sent back to wait at one of six designated Mexican border cities. None of those cities is along Arizona's border with Mexico.

Agents in the Yuma Sector, which covers the western third of the state's border, have transported more than 4,830 migrants since March about 50 miles east to Calexico, California, to be sent back to Mexicali as part of "Remain in Mexico."

The expansion into the Tucson Sector means that the Trump administration will have effectively implemented the program at all of the busiest routes along the U.S.-Mexico border.

In the past year, border agents in the Tucson Sector have detained significantly fewer migrant families than agents in neighboring areas like El Paso and Yuma, both of which have the program.

But as the numbers of family apprehensions decreased in those two areas, they began to increase in the Tucson Sector, according to statistics from Customs and Border Protection.

In October, Tucson was the only sector along the entire border that saw an increase in the arrival of families. Agents apprehended 2,373 migrants traveling as a family unit, slightly more than El Paso and almost six times more than in Yuma.

Shelter operators in Tucson who help migrants released by the federal government said on Friday they would wait a few weeks to see how the new policy change would impact them.

Earlier this year, those shelters began to receive migrant families that the Border Patrol bused from El Paso to Tucson, after the number of apprehensions overwhelmed officials there. That practice continued until the summer.

Teresa Cavendish is with Catholic Community Services of Southern Arizona, which operates Casa Alitas, the largest permanent shelter in Tucson. She said the shelter had seen an increase in the number of migrants released into its custody in the past few weeks, consistent with the increase in apprehensions at the border.

After hearing about the expansion, she contacted immigration and border officials she works with daily, who confirmed it.

Cavendish said she was deeply troubled by it, especially considering many of the hardships migrants face on the way to the United States, only to be sent back to Mexico. She also expressed health concerns as temperatures begin to drop along the border region.

"As we enter the flu season ... these migrant families ... are going to be exposed to things like the flu, like the chicken pox, like other things that could have been avoided if they had the opportunity to enter the United States," she said.

Gretchen Lopez, who runs the Inn Project, another permanent shelter for released migrants in Tucson, said she was still expecting to receive released migrants later in the day.

She said she also expected to see a decline in releases in the coming weeks as the program got underway in the Tucson area, and more migrants were instead bused to El Paso.

"It just sounds so horrible and it's so heartbreaking to me because like every day we're reading articles about how bad it is in Tijuana, how bad it is in Ciudad Juárez, how bad everything is in those places," Lopez said.

The Trump administration's Migrant Protection Protocols program has faced mounting criticism about the safety and security that returned migrants face in the Mexican border cities.

Reports of kidnappings, extortion and violence targeting migrants returned under the program have surfaced along the entire border.

Juárez, where migrants detained in the Tucson area would end up, has already received more than 15,000 migrants, the most of any Mexican border city. The local government opened a shelter for them at a former maquiladora earlier this year, but it hasn't been enough.

Thousands more migrants sent back under "Remain in Mexico" are staying at overflowing, smaller shelters mostly run by churches, or living in squalid conditions in poorer neighborhoods of the city.

Have any news tips or story ideas about the U.S.-Mexico border? Reach the reporter at rafael.carranza@arizonarepublic.com, or follow him on Twitter at @RafaelCarranza.

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COVID-19 border restrictions weigh on El Paso, Juarez

Blanca Escalante spends much of her time taking care of seniors, crisscrossing between work and family obligations on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The 53-year-old works weeknights assisting an elderly couple in El Paso, where she lives as a legal permanent resident. On weekends, she helps her sister in Juárez care for their 84-year-old mother — a commitment that has become increasingly onerous as travel restrictions at the border head into a seventh month.

"My mother and sister have a tourist visa and can't cross," Escalante said. "So I'm the one that has to go there.

"I don't go to drink beer. I don't go to shop," she said. "I go to take care of my mother. For me, it's essential. I can't not go."

As family and financial obligations mount for those whose lives bridge the U.S.-Mexico divide, so does the pressure to cross the border — even at the risk of unpredictable lines, record-long wait times and rapidly shifting border policies that some worry could leave them trapped on one side or the other.

The added misery on the border could endure until a COVID-19 vaccine is widely available, not expected until after mid-2021.

President Donald Trump first restricted travel at the U.S.-Mexico border March 21 to slow the spread of COVID-19, limiting crossings to U.S. citizens and permanent residents for "essential" visits only, for work, school or health care.

The partial closure has divided the lives of Borderland families in ways few could have imagined before the pandemic.

The sort of family visit Escalante makes doesn't fall into the U.S. government's category of "essential" travel, but she says her responsibilities weigh heavily.

"My son is afraid they'll close the bridges on me," she said. "We're all afraid. But it's my mother. I have to go see her."

Some trips across the border are worth the risk

Escalante and thousands of others continue to cross despite the anxiety and helplessness. A pesar del coraje — despite the fury — they feel at not knowing whether their commute home might be the equivalent of the 40 minutes from El Paso to Las Cruces or five hours to Lubbock.

More:Border wait times surge at El Paso crossing as CBP cracks down on 'non-essential' travel

Leonardo Escobosa, a 22-year-old economics graduate of the University of Texas at El Paso, fell in love a year ago with Yailin Espinoza, 23, who lives in Juárez. They spent five months of the pandemic apart, hoping the government would loosen the restrictions. Finally, in August, Escobosa decided to risk crossing.

He surprised Espinoza by arriving earlier than she expected at her mother's house, with flowers.

"We hugged each other for like five minutes there on the sidewalk," said Escobosa, who had almost zero physical contact with anyone since the pandemic set in. "I felt completely relieved. I needed a hug from my girlfriend."

More than once, 25-year-old Grecia Luna arrived late to work at an El Paso coffee shop after the restrictions made bridge wait times less predictable. The dual citizen found independence working on the U.S. side of the border while living with roommates in Juárez, where she grew up. The coffee shop, Fahrenheit 180, didn't survive the pandemic and she lost her job.

“It was a stressful situation from the moment I would leave my house,” Luna said. “You have to organize your time around the border crossing. When I’m there waiting, I feel as if I’m getting older.”

If there is a measure of how intertwined lives are in El Paso and Juárez and other border communities, it may be this: After U.S. Customs and Border Protection intensified the crackdown on "non-essential" crossings in August, wait times skyrocketed to six, seven or eight hours.

And crossings barely budged, according to CBP.

"The efforts to reduce non-essential travel are resulting in longer-than-normal wait times, especially during weekend and off-peak periods," said Hector Mancha, who oversees ports of entry as director of field operations for CBP's El Paso field office. "Despite this, it appears many members of our community continue to travel in numbers consistent to what we experienced before this initiative was implemented. We hope that members of our community reassess their need to cross the border and limit their trips accordingly for the common good."

August crossing data isn't yet available. But personal vehicle crossings at El Paso's international bridges dropped hard after the restrictions were put in place, to fewer than 400,000 crossings in April from a monthly average between 900,000 to 1.2 million, according to the Borderplex Business Barometer, a monthly analysis produced by UTEP researchers. By June, the latest month for which data is available, they were up to 550,000.

Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-El Paso) said she has been advocating for a binational testing strategy that would allow border communities to co-exist safely.

"The fact that this effort (to close bridge lanes) hasn’t worked proves how deeply interconnected our communities are," she said. "We should refocus our efforts on a bi-national COVID plan. Trying to create extra hardship for people isn’t going to solve the problem."

The weekend of the crackdown, Escalante endured an eight-hour bridge line overnight, with her daughter at the wheel. Escobosa spent Saturday with his girlfriend, then six hours on Sunday locked in his car, inching north toward the international line.

"It's a feeling of helplessness," Escalante said. "CBP didn't even ask why we went."

Escobosa said of Espinoza, "I love her and I want to spend as much time as I can with her. If it’s raining, if there’s lightning, if I have to make a 12-hour line, nothing is going to change. I will still want to spend time with her.”

'We thought it would be temporary'

On the second-to-last Friday in March, Downtown El Paso was breezy, cool and uncharacteristically empty.

The city's stay-at-home order was still four days off. But that morning, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would restrict travel at the U.S.-Mexico border, starting at midnight.

"It was shocking and we thought it would be temporary," said Estefanía Casteñeda Pérez, a PhD candidate at the University of California Los Angeles who conducts research on transborder communities. "People had to choose for the first time which side of the border they were going to stay in."

Overnight, the borderline — long regarded in border communities as little more than a threshold to home — suddenly hardened.

There was widespread confusion for days about whether Mexico had closed its border to U.S. citizens (it hadn't) or whether Juárez residents with a tourist card could cross to the U.S. for "essential" reasons (they couldn't).

The young couple, Escobosa and Espinoza, remained hopeful. “Time would go by and we would still hope to see each other next month,” Espinoza said.

In practice, six months on, the restrictions still bar most Mexican nationals from crossing the land border, including those who hold a tourist visa, while U.S. citizens and permanent residents face increased scrutiny by CBP at ports of entry.

But the restrictions didn't end there.

Since the pandemic began, the Trump administration has floated or taken additional measures to curb movement at the U.S.-Mexico border, using the contagion to justify reducing legal cross-border flows.

In July, the Trump administration threatened to bar international students from living in the U.S. while taking fall classes online, a policy it rescinded after facing a rash of lawsuits by universities. The University of Texas at El Paso vowed to defend its students' ability to stay in the U.S. — but fear kept many from daring to go home to Mexico or other countries.

More:Trump administration drops rule barring foreign students from taking online-only classes

Then, in mid-August, the Trump administration drafted a proposal that could have blocked U.S. citizens and permanent residents from returning to the U.S. at the Mexican border. That proposal, on dubious legal footing, never left the draft stage.

But 10 days later, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced it would crack down on non-essential travel at ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico border. In El Paso, CBP closed all but two lanes at three major international bridges on a weekend, catching many unawares and provoking wait times that ballooned to six, seven and eight hours.

Escalante said the changes — both threatened and real — make her nervous.

She isn't crossing as often as she used to, she said. She won't go to Juárez during weekdays for fear of missing work; but, in her experience since the crackdown, weekends are when the wait times are worst.

"Last weekend, I sent money to my mother," she said. "And I am praying that she doesn't fall ill."

Escobosa has resorted to logistical gymnastics to make his relationship work.

He plans for the uncertainty, he said — keeps the gas tank full, checks the oil in his car, thinks hours ahead about what awaits him.

“I don’t know if I’m going to cross in two hours or if I’m going to cross in six hours,” Escobosa said. “Why do we have to get to the point that I can’t eat or drink anything three hours before because I fear not knowing how long I’ll be there (at the bridge)?”

Luna, looking for a new job in El Paso despite the complications, doesn't know what to make of the future.

“I’m in the middle and I can’t control this situation,” Luna said. “I feel like less and less is in my hands to know where I will be able to work and live.”

No relief in sight

As the pandemic wears on, the "temporary" restrictions are renewed like clockwork. Each month the Department of Homeland Security extends them another month. The restrictions currently run through Oct. 21.

In El Paso, Mayor Dee Margo said he recognizes the toll the restrictions are taking on Borderland residents and the city's businesses, especially Downtown.

He said he has advocated for reducing wait times at the border but favors holding the restrictions in place until both sides have the pandemic under better control. He worries that tourist visa holders in Juárez would seek medical care in El Paso, where hospitals have been under intense strain for months.

"I’m very concerned," he said, about the ongoing impacts. "This pandemic has a physical cost, a financial cost and a mental health cost on both sides.

"Until we get our arms around the pandemic and we have a vaccine, I don’t know what we can do. Our hospital capacity is my concern here in El Paso," he said.

The decision to reduce or remove the restrictions lies at the federal level, in the hands of the Trump administration and Department of Homeland Security.

The Trump administration's premise of keeping COVID-19 out of the U.S. by locking down the land border — when the disease exists on both sides and flights are still moving between Mexico City and airports nationwide — is "completely irrational in public health terms," said Joe Heyman, director of the Center for Inter-American Border Studies at UTEP.

Heyman has reviewed policies on binational approaches to combating contagious disease at the border, including how Mexico and the U.S. handle tuberculosis.

"What we do with contagious diseases takes a lot of effort," he said. "It requires tracking individuals, quarantining individuals, and not whole countries or whole cities."

The partial closure, he said, "doesn’t constitute a meaningful health measure. It does make people at the border miserable."

Borderland residents are accustomed to adapting to the policies of governments in Washington, D.C., and Mexico City — policies that govern when and how El Pasoans and Juarenses can see each other.

Escobosa and Espinoza said they aren't giving up.

For the five months they spent apart, the couple said they felt as if they were in a long-distance relationship despite living less than 20 miles apart. They fill in the time spent apart with video calls and text messages.

“I feel a little bit guilty because in these times I can’t do a lot from my part,” Espinoza said, wishing she could still go to El Paso.

“Now it takes more money, more time and a bigger effort,” Escobosa said. “We’ve been together for one year and three months and despite all the trouble we’re trying to do everything possible to keep seeing each other.”

Lauren Villagran can be reached at lvillagran@elpasotimes.com.

Robot dogs could patrol the US-Mexico border | CNN

CNN —

The photos look like a scene out of science fiction: Robot dogs patrolling the US-Mexico border, climbing over harsh terrain to search for threats and contraband.

But these images are real.

The Department of Homeland Security recently released them as it revealed details about how it’s testing the technology.

Officials praised the robots’ potential as a “force multiplier” that could boost Border Patrol agents’ safety by reducing their exposure to life-threatening hazards. An article touting the tests on the DHS Science and Technology Directorate’s website notes that someday the dogs, officially known as Automated Ground Surveillance Vehicles, could become “a CBP agent or officer’s best friend.”

“Don’t be surprised,” it says, “if in the future we see robot ‘Fido’ out in the field, walking side-by-side with CBP personnel.”

But the details about the testing did seem to catch some people by surprise, sparking a flurry of reactions on social media comparing the images to dystopian scenes from sci-fi shows like “Black Mirror.”

“This really felt like a slap in the face,” says Vicki Gaubeca, director of the Southern Border Communities Coalition, an umbrella group that slams the initiative as an “alarming and outrageous” waste of taxpayer money that would be better spent developing systems to hold Border Patrol agents accountable.

Gaubeca describes herself as a lover of technology and dogs (she has five). But she says she sees nothing cute in the government’s recent descriptions of robot dogs lending a “helping paw.” For years her organization has warned that militarization along the border puts communities and migrants at risk. And this, she says, is just the latest troubling example.

“There are other technologies that they’re already using that we feel like they should cut back on, and yet they’re adding on another type of surveillance technology that’s frightening, to be honest,” Gaubeca says. “This certainly seems like it’s something that’s built for something very aggressive, like the theaters of war, rather than in a community.”

Ghost Robotics, the Philadelphia-based company that makes the robots DHS teams have been testing, says there’s nothing to be afraid of.

“We’re focused on doing the right thing. We want to do the right thing for the national security and for the country,” CEO Jiren Parikh says.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesman says the project remains in the research and development phase, with no timetable for the dogs’ deployment.

In the meantime, there are plenty of serious issues this technology is bringing to the surface.

There’s a difference between science fiction and reality

Sometimes cute and sometimes creepy, robot dogs have been captivating Americans’ imaginations for decades, long before videos of Boston Dynamics’ four-legged robots dancing to Motown and BTS started going viral.

They’ve been symbols of futuristic innovation – and ominous harbingers of what could happen if technology falls into the wrong hands.

In 1940, Westinghouse displayed a 60-pound aluminum-skinned dog at the World’s Fair named Sparko that could walk, bark and sit. In the 1960s, the Jetsons’ futuristic cartoon family briefly adopted a nuclear-powered electronic dog, Lectronimo, before deciding to donate him to the police department.

Menacing mechanical hounds hunted down fugitives in Ray Bradbury’s dystopian 1953 novel “Fahrenheit 451.” In 2017, an episode of “Black Mirror” featured terrifying robot guard dogs who chase and kill people.

But Parikh, Ghost Robotics’ CEO, says there’s a big gap between the way robot dogs are portrayed in science fiction – and sometimes skewered on social media – and the reality of the technology.

“It’s a battery-operated computer that moves around on four legs that literally stops operating in four hours. There’s no way they’re going to be taking over anything,” he says.

And, he notes, “it’s a robot that’s remotely controlled by a human in the middle.”

This handout image shows Ghost Robotics' Vision 60 robot dog along the US-Mexico border. Ghost Robotics/AFP/Getty Images

But still, Parikh says his company’s robots do provide a number of advantages in border zones. US Customs and Border Protection is patrolling a huge geographic area, he notes, often under harsh conditions.

“This is a good way of technology adding value,” he says, “filling in the holes.”

During testing of the 100-pound robots, different types of cameras and sensors were mounted on them, transmitting real-time data to humans operating them via laptop or hand-held remote, DHS said.

Teams first tested them on asphalt, grass and hills in Lorton, Virginia, then tested them in more realistic scenarios in El Paso, Texas, where they walked up hills, down ravines and over rocks. The El Paso testing simulated sentry duty and inspections. And exercises also included maneuvers in tight spaces, high heat and low-oxygen conditions, “situations that are especially dangerous for CBP agents and officers,” DHS said.

DHS Science & Technology program manager Brenda Long describes the dogs as a “great fit,” given CBP’s broad mission and the many risks its personnel face.

“The southern border can be an inhospitable place for man and beast, and that is exactly why a machine may excel there,” she said in the department’s press release.

Advocates at the border say they already felt under siege

Community advocates at the border have long accused the US government of militarizing the region and using excessive surveillance. And the announcement of the robot dog testing doesn’t help matters, Gaubeca says

“Border communities already feel over-surveilled, over-militarized, and yet they trot out this new technology and boast about it at a time when families are worried about how to get food on their tables and inflation,” she says. “And it completely disregards the border communities as a community. It’s like they fail to acknowledge that we’re human beings on both sides.”

For Gaubeca, it boils down to how resources are allocated.

“It’s a use of technology that creates more problems and doesn’t solve what we see as being the issue, which is how do we make this agency accountable, and how do we create a more humanitarian and efficient system at the border?” she says. “They should spend the money on something that is more humanitarian and effective, rather than intimidating.”

The Biden administration has said it wants to create a more efficient, humane, orderly system at the border, but “this completely contradicts that sentiment,” she says.

Ghost Robotics has partnered with the US Defense Department in the past. And Parikh noted he’d just gotten off the phone with Ukraine’s defense ministry before speaking with CNN this week. But he said the robot dogs on the US border aren’t part of a military effort – and any suggestion that they are is silly.

This image released by the US Air Force in 2020 shows US Air Force Staff Sgt Carmen Pontello introducing Hammer, a working dog, to the Ghost Robotics Vision 60 at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. Shannon Moorehead/US Air Force/AFP/Getty Images

“It’s just another sensor carrier. It’s really at a distance…. It’s really for sensing around the environment. It’s not really interacting with people. That’s not what it’s made for. There’s no weapons on it,” he says. “It’s not being militarized for the border. It’s not stopping people, saying ‘don’t go here.’ It can’t do that. It’s a small robot.”

The technology, he says, is designed to keep people safe. But could it ever be used against migrants at the border?

“That’s not even come up ever,” Parikh says. “It’s not even a remote use case that’s ever discussed or talked about.”

People can’t even agree about “a basic physical wall that’s made of concrete and metal,” he says.

“Do we really think we’re going to start weaponizing robots? It’s silly to do that. I don’t think that’s in the DNA of America either,” Parikh says. “We live in a country that has so many rules and regulatory requirements in place that things like this are just remote and virtually impossible without the say of the populace.”

Parikh says Ghost Robotics regularly works with legislators as well as government agencies.

“This is not done in a vacuum …. It has to go through processes and rules. Everything we do, everything, gets questioned. Everyone has the ability to question what we’re doing.”

This isn’t just about the border

When Greg Nojeim heard about the robot dogs, his mind filled with questions. Chief among them: Has anyone studied their impact on privacy?

“The border has become a testing ground for new and intrusive surveillance technology,” says Nojeim, co-director of the security and surveillance project at the Center for Democracy and Technology.

And in many cases, he says, the law hasn’t caught up with the developing technology.

“Once the platform becomes accepted, believe me, new uses will be developed. It’s inevitable. And I don’t think we’re ready as a society to say, this use is permissible, this is not. I don’t think that legislatures are ready to say this is permissible, this use is not. … I’m concerned that the technology is getting ahead of the law.”

A robot dog scans a desert landscape with its camera and sensor while on sentry duty in this handout photo provided by the Department of Homeland Security. DHS

He says when that happens, civil liberties suffer. And that, he says, should matter to everyone, whether you live near the border or not.

As a recent Los Angeles Times opinion column noted, surveillance technologies that start out at the border often make their way into other parts of the country.

Facial recognition technology is one recent example, Nojeim says.

“That technology has now spread to some police departments, and people are finding that it doesn’t identify people as well as it could, and that people of color are being misidentified at alarming rates,” he says.

If robot dogs start patrolling the border, Nojeim says, it’s only a matter of time before they could show up in your community, too.

Murder trial of a Border Patrol agent rekindles questions over agency

LAREDO, Texas – It’s the breakfast rush at La Finca Bruncheria & Cafe, and waiters hurry plates of pancakes and huevos rancheros to tables of Mexican businessmen in shiny suits, chatting families and locals.

Behind the bar, bartender Angie Martinez draws up latte art and pours glasses of papaya juice.

Asked about the U.S. Border Patrol agent about to go on trial for murder, she stops mid-pour.

“You mean the one who killed his girlfriend?” she says.

No, the other one.

“The one who killed the Guatemalan woman?”

Not that one, either.

“Oh, the one who killed the four women?”

Juan David Ortiz, 39, the former Border Patrol intel supervisor charged with killing four women over 12 days here in September 2018, is set to go on trial beginning Monday. The murders stunned this border community and raised questions about the agency’s ability to police its own ranks.

Ortiz's case, plus the string of other agents accused of murder just months before him, are not the only issues casting a shadow over the agency's longtime presence in Laredo.

His trial arrives as agents face historically high number of migrants crossing the Southwest border, especially in Texas. U.S. border authorities encountered more than 2 million migrants in fiscal 2022, some of whom repeatedly tried to cross the border – more than any other year on record, according to CBP statistics.

This month, Chris Magnus resigned as CBP commissioner after facing criticism from the Biden administration on how he was confronting the high number of crossings.

For years, CBP has also struggled with fully investigating and disciplining its own agents for using excessive force on the job, said Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. Federal law prohibits victims from successfully filing civil lawsuits against Border Patrol agents, making accountability of them even more difficult, she said.

A succession of cross-border shootings over the years has proven how challenging it is to punish Border Patrol agents for misdeeds, she said.

"There's lots to be concerned about," Altholz said.

While the string of deadly incidents involving border agents doesn't represent the hundreds of law-abiding employees of the Border Patrol’s Laredo Sector, it has darkened the city’s perception of the agency, said Jerry Thompson, a historian and author at Texas A&M International University in Laredo.

“It’s changed a lot,” Thompson said. “There’s less respect today than there was 20 years ago, less reverence, less admiration.”

A deadly year for Laredo

The Laredo Sector, which spans about 136 miles of riverfront on the Southwest border and encompasses 96 counties stretching to northeast Texas, was ensnared in a series of high-profile cases involving agents over a five-month period in 2018.

In April 2018, police arrested Ronald Anthony Burgos-Aviles, 33, a Border Patrol agent in Laredo, and charged him with the murders of Grizelda Hernandez, 27, and her 1-year-old son, Dominic. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty and his trial is tentatively set for January.

A month later, a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and killed Guatemalan migrant Claudia Patricia Gómez González, 20, after she crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and hid in a vacant lot with other migrants in the nearby enclave of Rio Bravo. The ACLU of Texas in 2020 filed a lawsuit against the agent on behalf of Gómez under the Federal Tort Claims Act for wrongful death, among other charges. The lawsuit was paused later that year when the FBI began investigating the incident.

Then, in September 2018, prosecutors allege, Ortiz picked up four women along Laredo’s San Bernardo Avenue, drove them out to remote corners of the county and shot them with his government-issued handgun before dumping their bodies along dirt roads. All the victims were U.S. citizens and alleged sex workers who lived and worked along San Bernardo.

Ortiz was arrested after a fifth would-be victim allegedly escaped from his vehicle and alerted police.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has been held in an isolated wing of the Webb County Jail. His trial begins on Monday in a San Antonio courtroom.

A spokeswoman with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees Border Patrol, declined to comment on the Ortiz trial, saying the agency doesn't comment on pending litigation. A representative with the Laredo chapter of the national Border Patrol union also did not respond to a request for comment.

More:Texas, Florida put migrants on buses to NYC. Here's what happens when they get there

Listen:A special podcast serial, 'Killed Through the Border Fence'

Border Patrol: A presence and an opportunity

In Laredo and other border communities, the dark-green-uniformed agents are omnipresent: Border Patrol agents are fathers, brothers, Little League coaches and churchgoers. They mentor area youth, participate in outreach programs at area schools and help out in local fundraisers.

In a city where the poverty rate is twice as high as the national average and high-paying jobs are hard to come by, a position with the Border Patrol is considered a coveted career. The uniformed agents are regularly seen lunching at local Pollo Palenque grilled chicken restaurants or pumping gas.

Maria Elena Guerra, who runs the online news portal LareDOSnews.com, has a nephew who works as a diesel mechanic for the Border Patrol and a niece who works in administration for the sector and knows several other people who work at the agency.

Though people didn’t automatically think all agents could be capable of such crimes, the case involving Ortiz did leave a strong impression on the community, she said.

“There was a huge amount of sympathy for the women [victims] and their families and how their lives were taken,” Guerra said. Ortiz “was very clever and intelligent, how he kept his cover while they were looking for him … He was somebody’s neighbor in a nice house in a nice neighborhood. That was the shocking part of it.”

The Ortiz murder trial

The stories of the four women and Ortiz’s alleged involvement with them will begin to unfurl Monday, as prosecutors argue their case and call witnesses in his trial – perhaps the most high-profile of the recent incidents involving Border Patrol agents in Laredo.

Ortiz was a 10-year veteran of the agency and a Navy corpsman who served in the Iraq war. In court filings, prosecutors allege he killed the four women – Melissa Ramirez, Claudine Luera, Guiselda Cantu and Janelle Ortiz – from Sept. 3 through 15 in 2018, befriending them, driving them out of town and shooting them with his agency-issued .40 caliber HK P2000 semiautomatic pistol. A motive is still unknown.

A fifth would-be victim – Ericka Peña – was similarly picked up but allegedly fought her way out of Ortiz’s pickup truck as he drew his gun on her and alerted a nearby state trooper. Ortiz was arrested a short while later.

The ensuing four years saw Ortiz switch defense teams, delays brought on by the pandemic and a litany of pre-trial motions, including a request for change of trial venue by Ortiz’s attorneys. The motion was granted, moving the trial from Laredo to San Antonio. Last month, prosecutors announced their intention to forgo the death penalty and instead pursue life in prison without parole.

A key part of the trial will focus on whether Ortiz used his position as an intel supervisor with Border Patrol to deflect the murder investigation and stay a step ahead of police.

Immigrant advocates will be watching the case closely to see whether Border Patrol officials could have done anything to prevent the killings, said Pedro Rios, a San Diego-based advocate with the American Friends Service Committee, an advocacy group.

"My concern would be whether (Ortiz) was involved with any type of behavior or took any action that should have raised alarms with colleagues," he said. "And if that took place, whether his colleagues could have stopped this murder spree from happening."

Sandra Rocha Taylor, owner of the PanAmerican Courts Inn & Café on San Bernardo Avenue, said several of the victims lived on her property, and she would see them on occasion. She's also married to a recently retired Border Patrol agent who spent more than three decades with the agency.

Like others in Laredo, she stressed that the actions of a few agents don’t represent the agency as a whole. But the back-to-back-to-back killings involving Border Patrol agents stunned the community, she said. “It caught everyone off guard,” Rocha Taylor said.

She followed the Ortiz case in its early stages, hoping answers would emerge to explain the crimes. The delay in having a trial has been frustrating, she said.

“It’s like someone died and you still can’t bury them,” Rocha Taylor said. “That’s how it feels.”

A community watches

Martinez, the bartender, said she began paying attention to the controversies surrounding Border Patrol after the arrest of Burgos-Aviles because the victim in that case lived a few blocks from her cousin’s house. The Ortiz case stunned her even more.

“Why would he kill them? You’re representing the United States government and you take those women’s lives?” she said. “We have less confidence today (in Border Patrol) than we did before.”

Not everyone agrees.

The vast majority of Border Patrol agents are law-abiding and risk their own lives on a daily basis to combat criminals and keep communities safe, said George Altgelt, a Laredo lawyer who represents Border Patrol agents in civil cases.

The agents he's spoken to don't support suspects like Ortiz or Burgos-Aviles and recoil from excessive violence to vulnerable populations, he said.

The agents work in dangerous conditions, often running into the brush at night to pursue smugglers or rescue stranded migrants, then return home to be law-abiding members of the community, he said.

"In the end, they end up rescuing so many more people than the general public knows about," Altgelt said.

Altgelt said he regularly rides his mountain bike along a wooded trail near the border and is comforted to see the green-uniformed agents patrolling the area.

"A lot of agents are our friends, our next door neighbors," he said. "There is a consensus that we’re glad we have law enforcement out here keeping an eye on things."

Thompson, the TAMIU professor, said he and a friend recently counted the number of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies with a presence in Laredo and came up with 13.

The strong presence of gun-wearing officers in town is generally accepted in Laredo. But when agents harm those they've vowed to protect, it causes resentment not easily reversed, Thompson said.

Distrust of Border Patrol deepened further last year, he said, when horse-mounted agents repelled Haitian families as they waded across the Rio Grande into the United States in nearby Del Rio, Texas, he said. The incident was captured by news photographers and drew widespread condemnation.

"Border patrol has been in deep doo-doo here time and time again," Thompson said.

Ana Sotelo, aunt of Cantu, one of the victims in the Ortiz case, has attended more than a dozen pre-trial hearings over the past four years. She, like other families of victims, said she's been frustrated by how long it's taken to bring the case to court.

A verdict will help her bring closure, she said. But the pain – toward Ortiz and Border Patrol in general – will linger.

"The feelings will still be there," she said, "and will be there for a long time."

Follow Jervis on Twitter: @MrRJervis.

Colorado is latest state to push Biden on drug imports from Canada

Phil Galewitz

Kaiser Health News

The Biden administration is facing mounting pressure from states to let them import medicine from Canada to help lower prescription drug costs.

Colorado on Dec. 5 became at least the fourth state to seek federal permission to use the strategy, following Florida, New Hampshire and New Mexico.

President Joe Biden has endorsed the approach, but his administration has yet to greenlight a state plan.

“States have done the work, and the only thing preventing them from going ahead is the Biden administration,” said Jane Horvath, a health policy consultant who has worked with states on importation plans.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told KHN on Dec. 5 that the Biden administration welcomed applications for drug importation programs from Colorado and other states. But he would not pledge that the FDA would rule on any application in 2023.

Asked what his message was to states, he said: “Sign up and submit an application, and we will take a look and see if you are able to get through the process.”

Buyers in the United States pay among the highest prices in the world for brand-name pharmaceuticals. Drugs are generally less expensive in neighboring Canada, where the government controls prices.

Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. government declared that importing drugs from Canada could be done safely — satisfying a condition spelled out in a 2003 federal drug importation law. The Trump administration finalized rules in September 2020 for states to apply.

More:Is prescription copay assistance contributing to rising drug prices? Why buyers should beware.

During his campaign for the White House, Biden said he would allow consumers to import prescription drugs from other countries if the federal government certified those drugs as safe.

After Biden took office in 2021, he ordered the FDA to work with states to import prescription drugs from Canada. In a speech last year about how he was going to reduce drug prices, he cited estimates by Colorado about how much money people in the state could save through importation.

Despite the administration’s public show of support, early applicants have been frustrated by the FDA’s inaction.

In August, almost two years after submitting its drug proposal, Florida sued the federal government, accusing the Biden administration of slow-walking its review. The federal government denied the accusation. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential Republican presidential contender for 2024, has championed the state’s effort.

In November, about three months after Florida sued, the FDA sent Florida a 15-page letter asking it to fill dozens of gaps in its plan. The letter asked whether the state wanted to withdraw its application and submit another.

In a December court filing, Florida said “suddenly conjuring so many supposed defects” in its proposal was another “stall tactic” by the government.

New Hampshire Health and Human Services Department spokesperson Jake Leon said New Hampshire’s proposal was rejected because it did not identify a Canadian wholesaler that would provide the drugs. He said the FDA told the state it could reapply when it found one.

New Mexico remains in discussions with the FDA, said David Morgan, a state Health Department spokesperson.

Other states have signaled interest in importation but have yet to seek federal approval.

The drug industry, wary that a government-organized importation program could eat into its profits, opposes the strategy and has argued it would circumvent controls that keep drugs safe in the United States.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the drug industry lobby known as PhRMA, sued the federal government in 2020 to block drug importation. That lawsuit is still pending. The Biden administration has argued in court that the lawsuit is invalid because it’s unclear when, if ever, the administration would approve a state’s importation plan.

Half of ambulance rides yield surprise medical bills. What's being done to protect people?

Many brand-name drugs sold in the U.S. are already made abroad. In addition, millions of Americans have purchased lower-priced drugs from Canada and overseas through online pharmacies and by visiting other countries.

Colorado officials said their proposal aims to save residents and employers an average of 65% off the cost of dozens of medications, including drugs for diabetes, asthma and cancer.

Kim Bimestefer, executive director of the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing, told KHN the state wants to disrupt the current drug pricing system in which manufacturers can charge as much as the market will bear. The FDA told state officials it would take the agency six months to review its proposal, she said.

Colorado’s proposed plan would use an Ontario, Canada, wholesaler to send drugs through the border at Buffalo, New York, to an importer headquartered in Boise, Idaho.

The drugs would be tested by an Ohio laboratory before being sent to pharmacies in Colorado and then sold to residents and employers.

Colorado will add safety checks for drugs brought in from Canada that go beyond those for drugs sold in the United States, Bimestefer said. “We are highly confident of their quality and bullish on the savings,” she said of the Canadian drugs.

Colorado’s application said the state’s importation strategy faces not only resistance from drug manufacturers but also concerns on the part of pharmacies and the Canadian government.

Canadian officials have opposed U.S. import plans because they fear the efforts could lead to drug shortages in Canada. However, Bimestefer said Colorado would bring in drugs only if ample supply exists for both countries.

The Colorado Business Group on Health, which includes large employers, strongly favors importation but realizes the Biden administration is under pressure from groups that profit from the status quo, said Robert Smith, the coalition’s executive director. He called concerns about patient safety a “red herring.”

“The one thing we know about health care is that it is driven by economic self-interests,” he said.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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100 days later: Road trip through a divided nation

Mike Kelly, Record Columnist, @MikeKellyColumn

How best to take the pulse of America as President Donald J. Trump completes his first 100 days in office?

The calculations of pollsters are one method. So are the judgments of pundits and the pronouncements of politicians from both parties.

Chris Pedota, a photographer and videographer for The Record and NorthJersey.com, and I adopted a different game plan when we left Northern New Jersey recently in a rental car packed with video cameras, recorders and laptops, and a GPS device mounted on the dashboard.

Our goal: To listen to the voices of ordinary people.

We drove to distinct corners of four states that offer unique windows into the current mood of America and the challenges facing Trump’s presidency ― Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and New Jersey. We traveled quickly, visiting five diverse communities in just six days, each one presenting a snapshot of the sometimes troubled, yet often uplifting heart of America.

FROM THE EDITOR:A note about '100 days later'

TRUMP'S FIRST 100 DAYS:The hits, the misses and the effect on NJ

MIKE KELLY:A journey through forgotten America

Our journey began in a café at the edge of the civil war battlefield in Gettysburg, Pa., only a few hundred yards from the cemetery where Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous 1863 address praising “government of the people, by the people, for the people” and just a mile from the conference center where Trump last October pledged to "heal the divisions" of the country and proposed an ambitious to-do list for his first 100 days in office.

In between, we spoke with cops and clerics, machinists and funeral planners, teachers and steel workers, coal miners and hot dog vendors, new parents and grandparents — close to 50 people in all. We met new immigrants who yearned for a place in America, and old immigrants and the children of immigrants who wondered where their nation is headed. Plenty of people echoed Trump’s slogan, “Make America great again.” We also heard others who felt Trump has been an abject failure so far.

What we found was a nation divided ― that’s for certain. But in connecting the dots of hope and unhappiness, we also discovered that America’s divisions are complicated and often blurred. It became clear that the simplistic red-blue, Republican-Democratic fissures that frame America’s national political dialogue ― and the strategies of most political campaigns ― don’t always mesh neatly with the dreams and disappointments of ordinary people.

Trump supporters and critics alike told us that America’s political establishment ― including the media ― failed to recognize the depth of voters’ dissatisfaction and, in some cases, hardened anger over where America was going. At the same time, however, we also discovered a “purple” nation of nuanced viewpoints that often blended elements of Trump’s vision with that of Hillary Clinton and other progressives.

In Wallington, for instance, we found a former illegal immigrant who became a citizen and now praises Trump’s get-tough immigration policies, including even the building of a border wall with Mexico ― but not if it means breaking up families. In Keyser, W.Va., we found an Army veteran who praised Trump’s promise to build up the military but not if it leads to more overseas deployments for U.S. soldiers.

In short, we traversed a complicated landscape ― one filled with a deep sadness, occasionally anchored in hope for better days. We encountered many people from across the political spectrum who yearn for change but aren’t sure how change will come and whether Trump can deliver it.

Gettysburg, Pa: The promise

Elizabeth “Betsy” Hower gazed across the lush grass of the Civil War battlefield at the edge of this southern Pennsylvania town.

She pointed to a row of trees where Union and Confederate soldiers clashed in what historians say was a turning point in the nation’s Civil War. For Hower, this was a personal story ― a story that still defines her vision of America.

“There,” she said, “that’s where one of my relatives was captured.”

Hower, 70, a substitute teacher in the local public schools here and a dyed-in-the-red Republican campaign volunteer, points out that nine of her relatives fought for the Union at Gettysburg ― including Aaron Dunkle, a soldier in a Philadelphia-based militia who was captured by Confederates and dispatched to a southern prisoner-of-war camp. Another eight ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War, she said, and her own son, a captain in the Army, was wounded in Baghdad during the Iraq war.

“I’m an American,” she said proudly.

That statement, Hower said, explains why she became an ardent supporter of Trump’s presidential campaign ― and still supports his “America First” pledge despite a lack of accomplishments in the first 100 days of his presidency.

Hower believes Trump embodies an important promise to bring basic values back to America.

Last October, she stood in the crowd at the Eisenhower Hotel and Conference Center in Gettysburg and listened as Trump shared his

“Contract with the American Voter,” a list of more than two dozen promises he planned to fulfill in his first 100 days in office.

“I am asking the American people to rise above the noise and the clutter of our broken politics and to embrace that great faith and optimism that has always been the central ingredient in the American character,” Trump told the crowd. “I am asking you to dream big.”

Hower dreamed that day. In Trump, she recognized a transformative figure with the potential to make history.

“I was thrilled,” Hower said.

Among the highlights of his contract, Trump promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare; to build a wall on the Mexican border; to block federal funds for so-called Sanctuary Cities; to bolster veterans’ services and child care; to enact tax measures that he said would create 25 million new jobs; to lift dozens of federal regulatory rules and to renegotiate or cancel several trade agreements.

Now, 100 days into Trump’s presidency, Hower shrugged as she considered how little Trump has actually accomplished.

Hower said Americans need to be patient with the new president ― and Trump seems to agree. Last week, he called the 100-day deadline “an artificial barrier” and “ridiculous standard” that is “not very meaningful.”

“He’s done an awesome job,” Hower said ― a sentiment that is reflected in national polls that show Trump still claims widespread support from his base.

But Hower acknowledged that Trump has stumbled in the early months of his term.

“He’s working. I’ll give him credit for that,” Hower said, then adding: “The man is learning on the job. Mr. Trump has never done this before.”

As for Trump’s record low approval ratings, Hower added: “I don’t believe in polls.”

A short walk from the battlefield, Graham Weaver, 73, pulled a book from a shelf in his home library of almost 9,000 volumes ― many on the Civil War. He knows all too well how combative politics can be. In the 1970s, he served as a Republican congressional aide. Now he is a Gettysburg borough councilman.

Weaver agrees that Trump has not started well, especially with his failed attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“But it’s not for lack of trying,” Weaver said.

Like Hower’s view, Weaver’s observations reflect a widespread belief among Trump’s base that the nation should be more patient with the new president. But Weaver offered a twist ― that Trump should ignore the 100-day standard and take more time on health care reform and other complicated measures.

“He’s been trying to do everything he can within a very short time frame,” Weaver said. “Haste makes waste.”

Weaver and his wife pay $1,300 a month in health care premiums. A neighbor, who is self-employed, pays $3,000 a month for himself, his wife and three young children.

“That’s $36,000 a year. That’s a huge whack for a family,” Weaver said ― and a monumental challenge for Trump, who has pledged to find a way to lower costs.

“I think he’s up to handling this,” Weaver said of Trump. “It takes a while to get up and running. I’m willing to give him more time.”

Across town, Zach Brillhart sat on the porch of a coffee shop a block from the rooming house where Lincoln reportedly tinkered with the final draft of his Gettysburg Address.

Brillhart understands the sense of history in his hometown ―and the historical nature of Trump’s presidency.

But he also sees his place in that story as a contradiction of sorts.

Brillhart, 20, a business student at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Md., is a founding member of Gettysburg’s Young Conservative’s club, which ardently supported Trump.

In Brillhart’s case, the moniker is somewhat misleading.

Brillhart is a fiscal conservative, but on several divisive social issues ― he supports abortion rights and gay marriage ― he could easily be mistaken for a progressive.

These sorts of nuanced views are not often reflected in national polls, especially surveys of young voters. Brillhart knows that.

He believes the Republican Party needs an overhaul. And he feels Trump is the kind of leader to do that.

But that sort of overhaul was not part of the “contract” that Trump outlined in Gettysburg last October, nor was a call for flexibility on social issues.

Brillhart knows that too. He sees his country heading in a new direction ― led, in part, by the adaptable views of his generation. But will Trump lead the party in that new direction or will he be a stumbling block?

Brillhart doesn’t know.

“The issues our country is facing,” he said, “now have consequences that will affect my generation for years to come.”

Keyser, W.Va.: Waiting for a savior

It’s almost 2 p.m., and Johnny Caffrey is sitting on the front porch of his rented rental home wondering about his future.

A tractor-trailer rumbled past, trailing a dusty whirlwind. Then it was quiet again. In the distance, Caffrey could hear the soft gurgling of the Potomac River.

Here in Keyser, a tiny hamlet of roughly 5,500 residents tucked into a narrow crease in the Appalachian Mountains, almost 43 percent of families live in poverty, earning less than $25,000 a year. As if that’s not bad enough, Keyser is also grappling with a rise in heroin addiction in a state that leads the nation in overdose deaths from prescription drugs.

Caffrey grew up in Paterson and moved to Keyser 16 years ago when his father landed a job in a chicken slaughterhouse. Now 31, married and the father of two daughters, Cafferty is looking for a new job after being laid off as mail sorter at a post office across the Potomac in Maryland.

Last fall, amid the hurly-burly of the presidential race, Caffrey saw Trump as a savior ― for his town and for himself.

“He’s a businessman, Caffrey said. “He knows how to make money. He can make money for people. That’s what we need for our country.”

Such faith in Trump’s image as a business mogul helped to propel him to the White House. But now, 100 days into Trump’s presidency, Caffrey is starting to wonder about the man in whom he invested so much hope.

Caffrey ticked off a litany of problems ― most of them obvious to anyone who has been following the news.

He mentioned health care, and Trump’s failure to unite Republicans in Congress behind his plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. He mentioned the firing of 59 missiles ― each costing more than $1 million ― at a Syrian Air Force base. Caffrey wondered if the missile strike was a waste of money ― money that could be spent on job training in Keyser, for instance.

And then he wondered where he will be in 10 years.

“Hopefully not here,” Caffrey said.

The brief conversation, on a balmy day as white and pink dogwoods bloomed along the narrow mountain roads, reflects the ingrown sense of despair and bitterness at how economic prosperity continues to elude poor communities like Keyser.

The town, which calls itself the “Friendliest Town in the U.S.A,” once was a haven for coal miners. Now, with mining jobs scarce and following layoffs at a paper mill and a factory that makes wooden pallets, the biggest employer is a Walmart at the edge of town.

“There is a big divide in our country, but that divide is between urban and rural people,” said Gary Howell. A Keyser native and a Republican member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, Howell helped run campaign efforts for Trump in Mineral County, where Keyser is the county seat. Only two decades ago, West Virginia was solidly Democratic. Today, both houses of the state legislature are controlled by Republicans after almost 80 years of Democratic rule. Republicans now also hold all three of the state’s congressional seats, along with one U.S. Senate seat. Democrats still hold the other Senate seat, along with the governorship.

To Howell, who runs a business that sells race car parts, the slow Democrat-to-Republican transformation reflects the sort of change that led to Trump’s election.

“A lot of it is the work issue,” he said. “When people don’t have a job, people despair and turn to drugs.”

At roughly 6 percent, unemployment in West Virginia is about two percentage points higher than the national average. That may seem small, but in a state where finding a high-paying job can be an odyssey, the sense of bitterness over shuttered factories and coal mines seems to color almost every conversation.

Like Johnny Caffrey, many residents talk of wanting to be somewhere else.

“I see myself in Ireland,” said Harley Schenck, 21, who concedes that he does not have the money for a flight.

Also like Caffrey, Schenck is looking for a job. As he daydreamed about moving to Ireland, he stood on a sidewalk outside the home of a friend, Paula Brooks, 24.

A dog named Daisy pulled on a leash attached to a broken porch post. Brooks’ year-old daughter, Angel, played in the dirt that once was a front lawn. Two other friends sat on a couch on the porch.

Brooks mentioned that thieves had broken into her home a few days earlier.

“They stole the copper wiring to my washing machine,” she said. “They sell it to buy drugs.”

Her voice trailed off and she looked at Angel.

“This is the same house that I grew up in,” Brooks said. “Years ago, my mom used to let me run around the streets. I can’t let my kid do that now. It’s not safe.”

More than 20 miles away, Austin Berg sat in the guard shack of a coal mine. Up the hill, a conveyor belt funneled coal into a pyramid-like pile that would later be loaded onto trucks and carried to a nearby power plant that supplies electricity to Washington, D.C.

The radio bristled. A voice from deep in the six miles of mine tunnels asked about the staffing of miners that day.

Berg, 22, the grandson of a coal miner, stuffed a wad of Copenhagen Wintergreen chewing tobacco into his cheek and listened.

When he was 19, Berg landed a job in another coal mine. A year later, he was laid off.

Berg bounced among a series of odd jobs, mostly as a construction laborer. A month after Trump’s inauguration, Berg was called to work at a coal mine, to the guard shack where he keeps track of visitors and trucks. He hopes to be working in the mine within a few months ― yearning, as he puts it, “to be back underground.”

He credits Trump for his good fortune.

“I support Trump,” he says. “He brings jobs.”

Back in Keyser, Sam and Mariah Sarver stopped by the former tavern they are converting into a bakery. The couple’s daughters ― Emma, 5, and Sophia, 3 ― sat at a table playing with dolls.

Mariah, 26, grew up in Keyser, then left for culinary school in Pittsburgh, where she met Sam, now 30, a Maryland state trooper. Returning to her hometown after a few years away was a shock, Mariah said.

Layoffs were common. Drug use was rampant. Main Street was now home to two thrift stores and a pawn shop amid a smattering of vacant storefronts.

The Sarvers blame President Barack Obama and political elites in Washington for the plight of small towns like Keyser.

Can Trump change things?

Mariah smiled and nodded.

“He a businessman,” Mariah said. “We need someone to take care of the smaller businesses. I think he’s going to make sure that the little guys are taken care of.

Youngstown, Ohio: The broken dream

The United Baptist Church was rocking with song ― and bitterness.

It was another Sunday in this faded steel town that Bruce Springsteen once eulogized. In the church sanctuary on the north side of the city, a trio of women walked forward and sang about finding “true love” from the “beauty in my brokenness.”

Up a flight of stairs, in an office where he was putting the final touches on his weekly sermon, the Rev. Michael Harrison bristled at the mention of Donald Trump. There is no beauty in Trump, he said ― or in Youngstown’s brokenness.

Once bursting with more than 800 members, the Union Baptist congregation is down to 400, mostly due to members leaving Youngstown in search of new jobs after the steel industry shut down, Harrison said.

Yes, President Trump promised to resurrect the steel plants along Youngstown’s Mahoning River and along the Ohio River ― a string of plants in towns such as Campbell, Struthers, Steubenville, Wellsville, Salineville, Tiltonsville and Yorkville that are now shuttered or demolished.

Riding through these communities now is like passing through ghost towns in the Old West. Weeds spring from vast parking lots at the shuttered factories and mills. Small trees grow through broken windows. A few railroad cars sit on rusting rails. Nearby, discarded pieces of rusty steel litter the dirt as if they were the bones of prehistoric animals that had been there for centuries.

And in the background ― empty factories stretching more than a half-mile along the waterfront.

To see this is numbing. For the Rev. Harrison, it’s also a deep source of anger.

“I don’t see Donald Trump's influence anywhere,” Harrison says. “I hear a lot of promises. He was promising steel would come back. But those promises don’t seem to have much credibility to them.”

How Youngstown died is a long story that transcends the decades of industrial collapse in what is now called America’s Rust Belt.

Trump won Ohio. But in cities like Youngstown, where he lost to Hillary Clinton, he is seen not as a savior but as a huckster. In Youngstown, residents have heard too many promises from politicians, both Republican and Democratic.

To Harrison, who grew up 55 miles to the east in Akron, Ohio — once a major hub of tire manufacturing, though most of the plants have since shuttered — Trump is just another rich guy who has little connection with people who are struggling.

“I don’t believe he can deliver,” said Harrison, who supported Clinton. “His agenda favors the rich and powerful rather than the common person. How can you run a nation and forget about the poorest of the poorest?”

A few hours after Harrison delivered his sermon, Ron George walked his Great Dane puppy, Cash, along the edge of the remains of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube factory in neighboring Campbell, Ohio ― a six-story, windowless hulk of a building that stretches almost a mile along the Mahoning River.

George landed his first job in the plant in 1964, raking in $14 an hour while working the coke ovens. Within a few years, he was making more than $20 an hour ― enough to buy a home.

As George described it, he was living the American Dream ― a steady job, a decent income and all manner of benefits.

In the 1970s, however, the dream began to fade. More than a half-dozen major steel plants closed. Dozens of ancillary factories closed, too.

George, whose grandparents immigrated from Syria, voted for Clinton ― “reluctantly,” he said. He favored her Democratic primary rival, Bernie Sanders, and even liked some of Trump’s policies.

But Trump’s promise to revive the steel industry strikes him as akin to the hot air that blew from the coke furnaces that George once worked.

“When the mills left this community, it was tragic,” George said. “A lot of people lost their homes. A lot of people didn’t know what to do. But that’s time gone by. You’re not going to bring the mills back. It’s not happening.”

Southward, down the Ohio River in Yorkville, Eleanor Puskas still dreams.

She is 81 now. And the old R.G. Steel plant still dominates her town ― only now it is an empty building of peeling paint and dusty walkways.

As she pushed a steel cart filled with groceries on a recent evening, Puskas stopped on a corner by the ripped and faded awning of Di Carlo’s Pizza.

There is no pizza now. Di Carlo’s closed years ago, along with Bob’s BBQ across the street. When the steel mill closed, the customers disappeared too.

Puskas’ father worked in the plant. So did her mother ― during World War II when most of the men served in the military.

She turned and pointed to a vacant lot ― the site of the restaurant her father opened after he retired. “Dad had his orchestra there,” she said, her voice falling off.

Puskas voted for Trump, believing that he might restore the kinds of factories that were the foundation of her town, and other towns in Ohio.

“I was a Democrat until I voted for Donald Trump,” she said. “I truly believe what he is promising. He’s going to make America the people’s America.”

Puskas pulled her black wool coat tighter to fight off the damp wind. She started to push her cart, then stopped after a few feet and looked back at the empty steel mill.

“It was the heart of our town,” she said. “Now it’s gone.”

Hazleton, Pa.: The immigration challenge

Edison Espinosa sees himself as part of a long tradition in Hazelton, Pa. ― another immigrant who worked hard and built a life for himself in a place that was named an “All-America City” a half-century ago because it found ways to adjust to change.

Espinosa just didn’t bargain on being part of massive social change in his new home.

Most American cities are magnets for immigrants ― a tradition that evokes images of the Statue of Liberty and ships teeming with what Emma Lazarus described as “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

But few communities have been affected as significantly as Hazleton.

Once a coal mining hub in central Pennsylvania’s hills, Hazleton bustled in the 1940s with the kind of social life and economic prosperity that seemed to drip off the canvas of a Norman Rockwell painting.

Vibrant stores lined the city’s business district. Church steeples poked above the city skyline. Crowds packed the local stadium for high school football games. And the city’s population ― 38,000 at its peak in the 1940s ― was overwhelmingly white, with many families tracing their ancestors to Eastern Europe.

After World War II, the coal mines closed or reduced their workforce. Hazleton’s population shrunk by half. By the turn of the century, however, Hazleton began to grow again ― but not with white coal miners.

With a meatpacking plant, chocolate factory and a string of warehouses dotting the surrounding hills, Hazleton became a magnet for Latino immigrants, many of whom had left Northern New Jersey in search of minimum-wage jobs.

Today, about half of Hazleton’s 25,200 residents are Latino. City officials say as many as 60 percent are Dominicans from Paterson or the Bronx, with a large influx of weekend visitors arriving on jitney buses.

One of the regular visitors is Paterson’s police director, Jerry Speziale, who also serves as Hazleton’s police chief.

“It’s the typical migration scenario,” Speziale said of the influx of Latinos to Hazleton. “As Italians went into West Paterson, they told other Italians. It’s the same with Hispanic immigrants in Hazleton.”

But this migration is also a story of two cultures ― a tale that plays out each day on Hazleton’s streets, where salsa music blares from cars that pass a Ukrainian Catholic Church or a locksmith with a distinctly Polish name on its sign, and then stop at a bodega that sells plantains and guava.

This new blending of cultures ― and the occasional clash ― takes place against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s call for tough regulations to curtail illegal immigration.

In the middle are people like Edison Espinosa. His immigration journey, he said, is a story of success that is not often reflected in America’s national debate over immigration.

Espinosa’s family came to America from the Dominican Republic in the 1990s with legal visas. After settling in the Bronx, the Espinosas moved to Hazleton in 2002 because homes were more affordable.

Espinosa’s father left the family and returned to the Dominican Republic. To make ends meet in Hazleton, Espinosa’s mother worked in the chocolate factory. When he was old enough, Espinosa landed a job there himself. Then he moved up to an office supplies factory.

Then, with a wife and an 18-month-old daughter to support, he opened his own business that installs tinted windows and custom stereos in cars.

Espinosa, 34, praises Trump’s promise of a national economic revival. He also agrees with Trump’s immigration policies ― up to a point.

Espinosa wants to crack down on undocumented immigration and criminals. “But I don’t think we should break up families,” he said.

That view might seem surprising given that polls suggest Latinos generally resent Trump’s immigration policies, with little of the variation that Espinosa offers.

But Espinosa’s position illustrates how America’s immigration debate may be more complicated than polls suggest ― and that even some immigrants support strict rules to stop people, particularly criminals, from entering the country illegally, but not to the point where the restrictions hurt children.

Just a short walk from Espinosa’s store, Joe and Lucille Nemeth settled into a booth at Jimmy’s Café.

Joe, who is 86 and the son of Czech immigrants, retired from a local foam-making factory. His father labored in a coal mine. Lucille, 88 and the daughter of Italian immigrants, worked in a school cafeteria. Her father also worked in a coal mine.

In many ways, the Nemeths' family history mirrors Edwin Espinosa’s immigrant experience. And like Espinosa, the Nemeths agree with Trump’s plan to crack down on illegal immigrants and criminals, but not if it means breaking up families.

In his second-floor office in City Hall, Mayor Jeff Cusat, the grandson of a Sicilian immigrant whose name was shortened from “Cusati” by a customs officer at Ellis Island, agrees that the nation’s immigration debate is far more complicated than Trump suggests, and that there is plenty of room for common ground.

Hillary Clinton won Hazleton ― but by less than 100 votes out of more than 8,000 votes cast. Perhaps reflecting the political divide in his city, Cusat, a Republican who presides over a Democratic City Council, declined to say whether he supported Trump in the presidential election.

“I never told anybody who I voted for,” he said. “It’s nobody’s business.

That said, Cusat is not worried about the political fissures of his nation or even the occasional culture clash in his suddenly diverse city.

“You need division or it wouldn’t be America,” he said.

As for the new immigrants in Hazleton, Cusat remembers his own family’s story of arriving from a foreign nation and having to learn a new language and new customs ― and then figure out how to make a living.

“To me it was exactly the same as it was 100 years ago,” he said. “History repeats itself."

Wallington, N.J.: A Democratic town flips for Trump

Once upon a time, the tiny southern Bergen County borough of Wallington was a Democratic bastion, delivering solid margins for the party in elections great and small.

Then came Donald Trump.

In last November’s presidential election, Trump carried Wallington by a margin of 14 percentage points, winning 54 percent of the votes to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 40 percent. It was the first time in decades that a Republican presidential nominee had carried the borough.

Trump’s victory in Wallington did not make national news. But it was significant nonetheless.

Only four years earlier, President Barack Obama took 54 percent of the town’s votes, beating Republican Mitt Romney by 12 percentage points.

What happened?

Wallington, which has a median household income of $55,547, epitomizes small-town America. It’s a community of corner delis, of neighborhood taverns, of monuments that list the names of all the residents who served in America’s wars.

But in some ways, Wallington also felt forgotten ― left behind as other parts of the nation prospered.

For years, the century-old Eighth Street bridge over the Passaic River rusted and decayed. In recent years, it vibrated violently when heavy trucks rolled over its steel span. But New Jersey’s government continually washed its hands of the problem, claiming there was no money to fix the bridge.

Then Trump was elected with a promise to repair the nation’s deteriorating bridges, roads, airports, rail lines and other infrastructure.

And then, money suddenly appeared to replace the Eighth Avenue bridge.

Trump played absolutely no role in helping to appropriate funds for the bridge repairs. But the symbolism was not lost on Wallington’s residents, many of whom said they supported Trump because they wanted a change in the way government responded to problems.

The demand for change is reflected in a wide variety of issues on voters’ minds, from immigration to tax relief, and residents here welcomed Trump’s outspoken political style. And while Trump has clearly experienced his share of troubles during his first 100 days, some of his supporters in the newly Republican town of Wallington are willing to forgive him.

Witold T. Baginski, the borough clerk since 1999, said he was not surprised that Wallington switched political allegiances. There was no great shift in attitude, he said, no massive social problem that caused voters to suddenly look at their own beliefs and then throw their support to another political party.

The reason, Baginski said, was simple.

“It was a need for change,” he said. “People wanted a change. They’re tired of the same old.”

Meet Jolanta Szyszko. She is 45 and the manager of a small tavern on the western edge of Wallington, only a few blocks from the Eighth Street bridge.

Szyszko immigrated to the United States from Poland in 1991 and did not wait long to swear her allegiance to her new homeland as an American citizen.

But she waited until last November to exercise her most basic right of citizenship ― to vote.

“It was Donald Trump,” she said on a recent afternoon. “I voted for him because this country needs change.”

“I want this country to be as good as it was before,” Szyszko added. “Right now it’s not good.”

Szyszko wonders if her son ― a 22-year-old computer programming student at Bergen Community College ― will have the same opportunities she had. She wonders whether America has become too protective of illegal immigrants. And she wonders if Trump’s critics are being too hard on him.

“He’s honest,” Szyszko said. “He doesn’t care what people say. He doesn’t care about the outcome if they like it or not. He says what he thinks. He might be making mistakes, but at least he’s honest about it.

That sense of forgiveness is common among Trump’s supporters, polls say. And in large measure, it may also explain why even some Democrats are willing to give Trump a degree of leeway in his first 100 days.

Democrats like Jose Heredia, for instance.

Heredia arrived in the United States from the Dominican Republic in 1992, a year after Jolanta Szyszko came from Poland.

Now 51, Heredia considers himself a success. He runs a tire repair business on Wallington’s south end.

He voted for Clinton last November, but he wasn’t entirely thrilled about her candidacy. For that reason, he said, he is willing to give Trump a chance.

“He talks a lot,” Heredia said of Trump. “But in some ways, I agree with him.”

Anyway, Heredia added, it was time for change.

“Something has to be changed in this country,” he said. “America has to be like it was before. Somebody has to do something different.”

As he spoke inside a noisy, cramped office at the back of his tire repair shop, Heredia sounded more like a Republican than a Democrat. He even agreed with some of Trump’s immigration policies.

“We have to control our borders,” he said. “We don’t know who is coming. If everything continues like this, we would be out of control.”

But Heredia does not agree with Trump’s plan for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Too much money,” he said.

And said he wished the new president wouldn’t tweet so much or speak off the cuff.

“Think about it,” he said, “before you talk.”

These first 100 days have been bumpy, but Heredia said there should be a lesson somewhere for Trump. Whether he will listen remains to be seen.

Email: kellym@northjersey.com

Diary of Trump's first 100 days: Highlights of an unconventional ...

USA TODAY

Day 1: Jan. 20

Trump is sworn in as president at noon on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. In his first Oval Office appearance, before heading to inaugural balls, he signs an executive order directing agencies to find ways to "ease the burden" of Obamacare.

Day 2: Jan. 21

Trump makes an appearance at CIA headquarters, expressing his support for the intelligence community while attacking the media for reporting that he had a "feud" with them over investigations into Russian hacking and the election. He also criticizes media coverage of his inauguration, echoed later by press secretary Sean Spicer in an angry briefing room debut. Meanwhile, millions of people join Women's March protests around the world, including in Washington.

Day 3: Jan. 22

Trump starts the day with tweets touting his inauguration TV ratings and weighing in on the weekend protests against him: "Watched protests yesterday but was under the impression that we just had an election! Why didn't these people vote?" Top aide Kellyanne Conway makes waves with a Meet the Press appearance in which she says Spicer "gave alternative facts" in his press briefing in regard to inauguration crowd sizes.

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

Day 4: Jan. 23

Trump signs three presidential directives: withdrawing U.S. support for a Pacific trade deal; imposing a hiring freeze in civilian agencies; and restoring the so-called Mexico City policy that prohibits U.S. aid from supporting international groups that promote abortion. In a meeting with congressional leaders, Trump revives claims of voter fraud, blaming his popular vote loss on 3 million to 5 million people voting illegally.

Day 5: Jan. 24

Trump signs five executive actions on energy and infrastructure projects, including two memoranda intended to expedite the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines. In a late-night tweet, he references plans to address one of his key campaign promises the following day: "Big day planned on NATIONAL SECURITY tomorrow. Among many other things, we will build the wall!"

Day 6: Jan. 25

Trump starts the day with tweets vowing a "major investigation" into alleged voter fraud. In the afternoon, he visits the Department of Homeland Security and signs executive actions aimed at building a wall on the Mexican border and clamping down on "sanctuary cities."

Day 7: Jan. 26

Trump floats a proposal for a 20% tax on imports from Mexico to pay for his planned border wall. His plans for the wall drive a divide between the two countries and lead Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to cancel a meeting between the two leaders. Trump takes his first Air Force One ride, traveling to Philadelphia to speak at the GOP congressional retreat.

Day 8: Jan. 27

Trump has an hourlong phone call with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. He has his first official meeting with a foreign leader, British Prime Minister Theresa May. During their news conference, Trump declines to say whether he supports a reduction of sanctions against Russia. He visits the Pentagon to charge his new Defense secretary with rebuilding the military and announce an executive action to clamp down on refugee admissions in the U.S.

Day 9: Jan. 28

Trump's executive order from the previous evening — which suspends the U.S. refugee program for 120 days, bans all immigrants from seven Muslim countries for 90 days, and orders the administration to develop "extreme vetting" measures — causes reverberations across the country, with stranded travelers, airport protests and legal challenges. The president makes a round of phone calls to world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump also signs more executive orders: one to reorganize the National Security Council, another to strengthen ethics rules for the executive branch, and a third directing the military to present him a plan to defeat the Islamic State.

Day 10: Jan. 29

Trump, the target of protests, lawsuits and global criticism over his new refugee policy, takes to social media to defend it as a counter-terrorism measure. Some congressional Republicans suggest the order may have been too broad and hastily written. The president also faces blowback after giving chief strategist Steve Bannon an elevated role on the National Security Council.

Day 11: Jan. 30

Amid continued criticism over his temporary travel ban, Trump says that stopping terrorism involves hard choices and adds that he's following through on campaign pledges. Former president Barack Obama's office releases a statement that applauds those protesting the ban. That evening, acting Attorney General Sally Yates, a holdover from the Obama administration, says she won't defend the president’s travel ban in court. Three hours later, the White House announces that she's been relieved of her duties.

Day 12: Jan. 31

The morning after firing his acting attorney general, Trump mocks his Democratic congressional critics and demands that the Senate confirm his attorney general pick, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions. He meets with drugmakers and pledges to cut taxes and streamline regulations for the pharmaceutical industry in a bid to drive down drug prices. The president caps off the day with his long-awaited Supreme Court nomination, announcing his selection of Neil Gorsuch to fill the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

Day 13: Feb. 1

Trump says the Senate should "go nuclear" and eliminate Democratic filibuster rights if that's what it takes to confirm Gorsuch. His nomination of Betsy DeVos for Education secretary takes a hit when two Republican senators say they'll vote against her. The president makes an unannounced trip to a Delaware military base to receive the remains of a Navy SEAL killed during a counter-terrorism raid.

Day 14: Feb. 2

In remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump references leaked conversations between himself and Mexican and Australian leaders, telling attendees not to worry about his "tough phone calls" and that the country has to be "tougher" in meeting its challenges. He raises eyebrows by also asking for prayers for his Apprentice successor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the show's ratings, which Trump said have gone "down the tubes" in his absence. And he vows to make good on his promise to overturn the so-called Johnson Amendment, which bans public charities — including churches — from campaigning for or against a candidate for elected office.

Day 15: Feb. 3

The Trump administration imposes new sanctions on Iranian individuals and companies, citing the Tehran government's missile tests and support for rebels in Yemen. The president signs executive actions rolling back key financial regulations of the Obama era, including restrictions on Wall Street banks and on financial advisers who sell clients expensive financial products with higher commissions.

Day 16: Feb. 4

Trump spends his weekend at Mar-a-Lago, the "Winter White House." He asks a federal court to overturn a Seattle judge’s injunction halting his immigration ban, after he criticized the judge’s ruling as “ridiculous” and a “terrible decision.” In excerpts of a Fox News interview with Bill O'Reilly set to air before the Super Bowl the following day, Trump reiterates his desire to improve relations with Russia and dismisses concerns that Putin is a “killer.”

Day 17: Feb 5

Trump continues to attack the federal judge who voided his travel ban. "Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril," he tweets. "If something happens blame him and court system. People pouring in. Bad!" As the Justice Department appeals the judge's decision, Trump also tweets that he has "instructed Homeland Security to check people coming into our country VERY CAREFULLY. The courts are making the job very difficult!"

Day 18: Feb. 6

As an appeals court reviews his travel ban, Trump claims that the public is with him, despite polls indicating otherwise. "Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election," Trump tweets. "Sorry, people want border security and extreme vetting." In a visit to the headquarters of the U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Trump tells troops he is 100% behind them in the fight against "radical Islamic terrorism" and claims that "in many cases the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report" on terrorist attacks.

Day 19: Feb. 7

Trump tells a group of county sheriffs that he will help them fight terrorism and illegal immigration, and he vows to take his travel ban all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary. DeVos is confirmed as Education secretary after a contentious battle in the Senate, with Vice President Pence breaking a 50-50 tie vote. Later that day, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hears oral arguments over a lower court's decision to halt Trump's travel ban.

Day 20: Feb. 8

Trump urges the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold his travel ban, arguing that national security is at stake and suggesting that judges sometimes act politically. The president attacks Nordstrom for dropping daughter Ivanka's fashion line, drawing criticism for mixing government and his family's business interests. The Senate debate on the Sessions attorney general nomination turns ugly after Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren is silenced by the GOP during a speech for "impugning" Sessions.

Day 21: Feb. 9

Trump accuses Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., of distorting what Gorsuch said about the president's attacks on judges, even though administration officials and fellow senators confirm the gist of Gorsuch's comments. The president also uses Twitter to attack Sen. John McCain over his criticism of the White House calling the Yemen raid a “huge success." Watchdog groups file ethics complaints against Conway for promoting Ivanka Trump's fashion line during a TV interview. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit weighs in that evening, refusing to reinstate Trump's travel ban.

Day 22: Feb. 10

In a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump reaffirms the U.S. commitment to the defense of Japan but says both countries need to contribute more to military cooperation. He says he’ll take action the following week to strengthen border security in the wake of the appeals court ruling against his travel ban, but he declines to specify what that action might be. Meanwhile, a federal judge in Virginia blasts his travel ban, citing a lack of evidence that travelers from the seven Muslim-majority countries represent a specific threat.

Day 23: Feb. 11

Trump golfs with Abe at Trump National Jupiter Golf Club in Florida, while Melania Trump and Abe’s wife, Akie, spend the morning touring the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Palm Beach County. It's a relatively quiet day for the president on Twitter, with Trump vowing that cost estimates for his border wall will "come WAY DOWN" once he is involved with design and negotiations.

Day 24: Feb. 12

Trump takes to Twitter in the morning to again defend his travel ban. In Sunday show appearances, policy adviser Stephen Miller says the president is assessing all of his legal options on the ban, ranging from appealing to the Supreme Court to revising the executive order.

Day 25: Feb. 13

After a day filled with mounting questions and criticism, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigns, citing "incomplete information" that he provided White House officials about his dealings with the Russian ambassador. Earlier that day, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits the White House. Trump pledges "bridges of commerce" with Canada and says he wants relatively minor changes to NAFTA, adding that most of his problems with the trade deal involve the third partner, Mexico.

Day 26: Feb. 14

In the aftermath of Flynn's exit, Spicer says Trump knew for more than two weeks that Flynn lied about his contact with a Russian ambassador and demanded his resignation because he could no longer trust him. That night, The New York Times reports that phone records and intercepted calls show members of Trump's campaign team "had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election."

Day 27: Feb. 15

Amid the renewed questions about contacts between Trump's associates and Russia regarding the 2016 election, the president denounces "conspiracy theories" about his relationship with the Russians and said "illegal" news leaks brought down Flynn. Trump hosts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House for a series of meetings. Andrew Puzder, the president’s embattled pick to become Labor secretary, withdraws his nomination.

Day 28: Feb. 16

In a lengthy, fiery, wide-ranging news conference, Trump defends his administration as a "fine-tuned machine," laments the "mess" he inherited from his predecessor and excoriates the "fake news" media. He says he asked Flynn to resign because he misled Pence about his phone calls to the Russian ambassador, but Trump says he didn't believe Flynn did anything wrong by making the calls and faults leakers for providing contents of the intercepted calls to the media.

Day 29: Feb. 17

The Associated Press reports on the details of an internal Department of Homeland Security memo from January that proposes calling up as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up undocumented immigrants; it draws an angry response from the White House, with Spicer calling the AP report "100% not true" and insisting the memo is “not a White House document.” Trump conducts his first presidential visit beyond the Beltway with a stop in the Boeing facility in North Charleston, S.C., where he stresses his "America First" trade and economic policies.

Day 30: Feb. 18

Trump kicks off his third straight weekend at Mar-a-Lago seeking to calm reports of turmoil within his administration. "Don't believe the main stream (fake news) media.The White House is running VERY WELL. I inherited a MESS and am in the process of fixing it," he tweets that morning. He holds a campaign-style rally in the evening in Melbourne, Fla.

Day 31: Feb. 19

Trump is ridiculed for apparently denouncing a non-existent terrorist attack in Sweden in his rally the night before but says he was referring to a Fox News report on violence in Sweden allegedly perpetrated by refugees. In New York City, more than a thousand people protest Trump's travel ban in the "I Am A Muslim Too" rally.

Day 32: Feb. 20

Across the country, anti-Trump activists mark Presidents Day with “Not My Presidents Day” protests. The president spends the holiday at Mar-a-Lago and announces that Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster will be his new national security adviser, replacing Flynn.

Day 33: Feb. 21

Trump speaks out against a series of bomb threats to Jewish community centers across the nation after coming under fire for sidestepping earlier opportunities to condemn several anti-Semitic acts since he took office. The Department of Homeland Security issues new directives to increase deportations among the country's 11 million undocumented immigrants.

Day 34: Feb. 22

Trump and his aides say they’ll roll out a proposed budget, a revamped health care plan and a new tax reform package over the following two months. The president, while meeting with budget officials, doesn't give specifics, but he tells reporters that "our moral duty to the taxpayer requires us to make our government leaner and more accountable” and “we must do a lot more with less.” Later that evening, the Trump administration issues new guidance on transgender students' restroom use, rolling back the policies put in place by the Obama administration last year.

Day 35: Feb. 23

Trump meets with manufacturing executives at the White House and later holds a listening session on human trafficking. The Conservative Political Action Conference kicks off just outside of Washington. White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Bannon make a joint appearance at the annual confab, in which they dispute media reports casting them as rivals and say they are working together to advance the president's agenda.

Day 36: Feb. 24

Trump starts off the day criticizing FBI "leakers" as he and aides push back on news reports that his chief of staff asked the bureau to "knock down" stories about investigations into possible contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russian officials. At his CPAC speech later that morning, Trump launches into a full-throated attack on journalism, saying some reporters make up unnamed sources for "fake news" and describing the media as "the enemy" of the American people. News organizations protest a White House decision that afternoon to hold a news briefing by invitation only.

Day 37: Feb. 25

The president takes to Twitter in the morning with further complaints about the media. “The media has not reported that the National Debt in my first month went down by $12 billion vs a $200 billion increase in Obama first mo,” he tweets. In the evening, he announces via Twitter that he will not attend the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in April.

Day 38: Feb. 26

The president tweets that the Democratic National Committee election "was of course, totally 'rigged' " and takes another swing at the media, tweeting, "Russia talk is FAKE NEWS put out by the Dems, and played up by the media, in order to mask the big election defeat and the illegal leaks!" In the evening, Trump hosts the nation's governors for an annual dinner at the White House.

Day 39: Feb. 27

Trump signs off on top-line numbers in a budget outline that bolsters military spending while making deep cuts to other federal agencies. "This defense spending increase will be offset and paid for by finding greater savings and efficiencies across the federal government," he says. "We're going to do more with less." The president rejects the idea of a special prosecutor to look into Russian connections during the election and says, “I haven’t called Russia in 10 years."

Day 40: Feb. 28

Trump uses his first address to Congress to proclaim American greatness and push an ambitious agenda of economic nationalism, declaring, "The time for small thinking is over. The time for trivial fights is behind us." He opens the possibility of a comprehensive immigration deal, pitches $1 trillion for "Buy American, Hire American" infrastructure spending, and says he will propose "historic" tax cuts. Earlier that day, the president signs executive orders targeting a water-protection rule and elevating an initiative on historically black colleges and universities.

Day 41: March 1

A day after Trump struck a more conciliatory tone in his address to Congress, critics predict he'll revert back to the more combative and divisive approach that characterized much of his first month in office. Aides, however, say the president is focused on enacting his campaign agenda. White House Deputy Counsel Stefan Passantino says in a letter that Conway did nothing "nefarious" when she promoted Ivanka Trump's fashion line on television and that a White House inquiry "concluded that Ms. Conway acted inadvertently and is highly unlikely to do so again."

Day 42: March 2

The news of Sessions' 2016 meetings with the Russian ambassador, contradicting his testimony during his confirmation hearing that he had no contact with the Russian government during the campaign, dominates the day. Trump says he "wasn't aware at all" of the meetings. Speaking to reporters during a tour of the USS Gerald Ford in Newport News, Va., the president says he still had "total" confidence in his attorney general. Later that afternoon, Session recuses himself from the Russia investigation.

Day 43: March 3

Seeking to get past stories about Sessions and Russia, Trump spends the day visiting a school in Florida. He uses Twitter to express his displeasure with Democrats, knocking them over his full Cabinet having not yet been approved and calling Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer a "hypocrite" in a tweet displaying a 2003 photo of Schumer and Putin.

Day 44: March 4

In a morning tweetstorm, Trump accuses Obama of wiretapping him at Trump Tower prior to the November election: "Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!" the president tweets. An Obama spokesman rejects the accusation as "simply false." Thousands of Trump supporters convene near Trump Tower and in other cities around the U.S. in what organizers bill as "March 4 Trump" demonstrations on behalf of the president.

Day 45: March 5

In the morning, the president calls for a congressional investigation of his claims that Obama had him wiretapped during the election — while critics accuse Trump of trying to distract from the investigation into his own relationship with Russia. That evening, news reports indicate that FBI Director James Comey over the weekend sought a public rebuke from the Justice Department of Trump's wiretapping claim.

Day 46: March 6

Trump issues the long-awaited revised version of his travel ban, which no longer restricts travel from Iraq, one of the seven majority Muslim countries listed in his original order. The new order, set to take effect 10 days afterward, includes Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen as part of the 90-day ban. Meanwhile, when White House deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders is asked on ABC's Good Morning America whether the president accepts Comey's statement that Obama did not authorize any wiretaps, she says: "You know, I don't think he does."

Day 47: March 7

Trump kicks off the day by using Twitter to again bash Obama — this time in a false claim about Guantanamo Bay prisoner releases. He also denies reports of dissension within his staff. "Don't let the FAKE NEWS tell you that there is big infighting in the Trump Admin," the president tweets. He praises the House GOP health care bill amid pushback from conservatives attacking the new plan. "We're going to do something that is great," the president says during a meeting with House deputy whips. The plan is "complicated, but it's very simple ... it's called good health care."

Day 48: March 8

While refusing to confirm or deny the authenticity of CIA documents released by WikiLeaks, Spicer says that "this alleged leak should concern every single American in terms of the impact it has on our national security" and says there's a "massive, massive difference" between exposing the emails of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and other Democratic officials, and leaking national security secrets. The president dines with former foe Sen. Ted Cruz. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Sheldon Whitehouse send a letter to the FBI director and acting deputy attorney general asking for specific information on Trump's wiretapping accusation against Obama.

Day 49: March 9

Trump meets with his National Economic Council and representatives of community banks. As GOP leaders try to quell concerns about the new health care legislation, the president tweets, "Despite what you hear in the press, healthcare is coming along great. We are talking to many groups and it will end in a beautiful picture!" Meanwhile, legal challenges mount from several states for Trump's revised travel ban.

Day 50: March 10

As the president reaches the halfway point of his first 100 days, administration officials kick off a plan to use social media and interviews to promote "50 days of action." Trump meets with House committee leaders and predicts a fairly rapid approval of the GOP health care bill. "This is the time we’re going to get it done," he says. "I think it’s just something that’s going to happen very shortly." He welcomes a better-than-expected jobs report showing that the economy added 235,000 jobs the previous month.

Day 51: March 11

Trump has lunch with a group of White House staff and Cabinet members at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va. His administration moves forward with plans to dismiss 46 U.S. attorneys held over from the Obama administration amid criticism, and news reports emerge that an intruder was arrested on the White House grounds after scaling a fence the previous evening.

Day 52: March 12

Trump administration officials mount a vigorous defense of their effort to repeal and replace Obamacare while bracing for what could be a skeptical assessment from the Congressional Budget Office the next day. Speaking on NBC's Meet the Press, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price says the bill would lead to "more people covered than are covered right now, and at an average cost that is less."

Day 53: March 13

The CBO releases its analysis of the GOP health plan, determining that the bill would lead to 14 million fewer Americans with insurance by 2018 and 24 million by 2026. Price calls the projections "just not believable." Trump launches an ambitious effort to reorganize the federal government, signing an executive order that he said would "make it less wasteful and more productive."

Day 54: March 14

A senior White House official confirms that Trump paid $38 million in taxes in 2005 on an income of more than $150 million. The rare acknowledgement came in anticipation of a report by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow in which she disclosed a portion of the return. The news capped off an otherwise relatively quite day for the president during which Spicer pushed back against the CBO analysis of the Obamacare repeal and Trump hosted the deputy crown prince of Saudi Arabia for lunch in the State Dining Room.

Day 55: March 15

A federal judge in Hawaii issues a nationwide halt to Trump's second travel ban. Earlier that day, the president spars on Twitter with journalist David Cay Johnston over the previous night's leaked tax return, tweeting, "Does anybody really believe that a reporter, who nobody ever heard of, 'went to his mailbox' and found my tax returns?" Trump also travels to Detroit to speak to autoworkers before heading to a rally in Nashville.

Day 56: March 16

In his first formal budget proposal to Congress, Trump seeks to increase defense spending by $54 billion and offsets that with cuts to non-defense spending, including steep cuts to education, environmental protection, health and human services and foreign aid. Senate Intelligence Committee leaders say in a statement that there are "no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance," a day after the House Intelligence panel offered a similar assessment. Trump also meets with Irish leader Enda Kenny and attends the Friends of Ireland Luncheon on Capitol Hill.

Day 57: March 17

Disputing media reports that the GOP health care bill is in political trouble, Trump says he is "100% behind" the plan and is working with skeptical conservatives. He welcomes German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the White House after months of back-and-forth between the two leaders. During their news conference, Trump again defends his surveillance allegations. "At least we have something in common, perhaps," he says, referencing past disclosures during the Obama administration that Merkel's cellphone had been monitored.

Day 58: March 18

The president spends the weekend at Mar-a-Lago. In a pair of morning tweets, Trump lashes out at the media and Germany: "Despite what you have heard from the FAKE NEWS, I had a GREAT meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Nevertheless, Germany owes ... vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!" Meanwhile, at the White House, the Secret Service apprehends a person who jumped a bike rack near the security perimeter.

Day 59: March 19

A day before a high-stakes hearing featuring Comey's testimony, the leaders of the House Intelligence Committee say on Sunday talk shows that there's no evidence to back Trump's claims that Obama wiretapped him, though the committee's chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes, says investigators are looking at other types of possible surveillance of Trump and his aides during the campaign.

Day 60: March 20

Appearing before the House Intelligence Committee, Comey says the FBI and DOJ have "no information to support’’ Trump’s assertions that Obama wiretapped him, and he also confirms for the first time publicly that the FBI is investigating Russian interference in the election. Trump heads to Kentucky to take part in a rally to build support for the GOP health care bill.

Day 61: March 21

The morning after congressional Republicans released a modified version of their health care legislation seeking to win more conservative votes, Trump meets with GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill, emphasizing how important it is that they stay united to pass the legislation. The president also signs a $19.5 billion bill to fund NASA programs and reaffirm what he called a "national commitment" to "human space exploration."

Day 62: March 22

The White House dismisses a report that Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, received a $10 million contract a decade ago to advance the interests of Putin. Nunes says communications involving members of Trump's transition group were "incidentally collected'' by intelligence officials after the election. The president meets with members of the Congressional Black Caucus, and negotiations continue over the looming health care vote in the House.

Day 63: March 23

In a setback to Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan's efforts to repeal Obamacare, the House postpones its vote on the bill as negotiations continue with both conservative and moderate groups. The president touts the House Intelligence chairman's assertion that spy agencies engaged in "incidental collection" of Trump associates' communications, saying it's evidence to support his claim that Obama "wiretapped" Trump Tower. Trump also holds a listening session on health care at the White House with truckers and trucking CEOs.

Day 64: March 24

As the Obamacare repeal bill bleeds GOP support ahead of its rescheduled vote, Ryan pulls the legislation from consideration — a major bump in the road for Trump's campaign promise to repeal and replace the health care law. The president blames the bill's failure on the lack of Democratic support. Earlier that day, Trump signs a permit to allow the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, calling it "a great day for American jobs."

Day 65: March 25

The morning after Republicans' Obamacare repeal plan fell apart in Congress, Trump tweets, "ObamaCare will explode and we will all get together and piece together a great healthcare plan for THE PEOPLE. Do not worry!" The president stays in the D.C. area for the weekend, venturing to Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va.

Day 66: March 26

Trump takes aim at the House Freedom Caucus in a morning tweet: "Democrats are smiling in D.C. that the Freedom Caucus, with the help of Club For Growth and Heritage, have saved Planned Parenthood & Ocare!" In Sunday show appearances, Priebus and budget director Mick Mulvaney say Trump has not blamed Ryan for the failure of the Obamacare repeal bill.

Day 67: March 27

Trump taps son-in-law Jared Kushner to lead a new White House office designed to bring ideas from the private sector into the federal government. The president rolls back more Obama-era regulations, signing four bills that reverse rules on education, land use and federal purchasing, and he holds a meeting at the White House with female small-business owners.

Day 68: March 28

Trump signs an executive order on energy independence, a sweeping repudiation of Obama-era environmental initiatives that substitutes a strategy of combating climate change through international cooperation for an America-first energy policy. Nunes faces pressure to recuse himself or step down as leader of the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Day 69: March 29

The president kicks off the day with complaints on Twitter about the media. "Remember when the failing @nytimes apologized to its subscribers, right after the election, because their coverage was so wrong. Now worse!" he tweets. Trump later holds an opioid abuse listening session, joined by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, leader of the White House's new commission to combat the opioid crisis.

Day 70: March 30

Trump takes to Twitter to threaten the conservative group that opposed him on health care: "The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don't get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018! " Later that day, The New York Times reports that two White House officials played a role in providing intelligence reports to Nunes. The president meets with Denmark’s prime minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen.

Day 71: March 31

While Trump encourages Flynn to offer testimony to investigators in exchange for immunity, congressional leaders investigating Russia's interference in the election signal that it's too early to consider such an agreement. Trump promises to crack down on "foreign importers that cheat" with two executive orders that he said would lead to a historic reversal of the nation's trade deficit.

Day 72: April 1

Trump kicks off another Saturday with tweets attacking the media, with NBC's Chuck Todd as the target: "When will Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd and @NBCNews start talking about the Obama SURVEILLANCE SCANDAL and stop with the Fake Trump/Russia story?" The president also uses Twitter to praise a New York Times article on Obamacare, though he still describes the newspaper as "failing."

Day 73: April 2

Trump expresses confidence, both on social media and at the golf course, that he and aides can resurrect their attempt to repeal Obamacare. Before hitting the links with one of his critics on health care, Republican Sen. Rand Paul, the president tweets: "Anybody (especially Fake News media) who thinks that Repeal & Replace of ObamaCare is dead does not know the love and strength in R Party!"

Day 74: April 3

Trump welcomes Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to the White House, praises him for doing a "fantastic job," and solicits his help in the fight against terrorism. The president donates $78,333.32 — his salary since taking office — to the National Park Service. Senate Democrats reach the threshold required to block Gorsuch's confirmation, setting up a major Senate rules change later in the week for the GOP to advance the Supreme Court nomination.

Day 75: April 4

Former national security adviser Susan Rice, appearing on MSNBC, says she didn't seek to "unmask" the names of Trump associates for political purposes. Meanwhile, in a statement on a chemical attack in Syria, Trump blames the Assad regime and calls it a consequence of the Obama administration’s “weakness and irresolution.” The president promotes his "America First" domestic plan at the North America’s Building Trades Unions national legislative conference.

Day 76: April 5

A senior White House official confirms Trump has removed Bannon from the National Security Council and says Bannon was given the post as a check on Flynn. In an interview with The New York Times, Trump floats the possibility that Rice committed a crime, but he provides no evidence. In a news conference with Jordan's King Abdullah, the president denounces the chemical attack in Syria and suggests his administration will develop a new policy toward Bashar al-Assad's government.

Day 77: April 6

Trump orders a cruise missile strike against Syria, saying "no child of God should ever suffer" the horror of the chemical weapons attack Syria launched on its own people. Earlier that day, Trump meets with Wounded Warriors at the White House before heading to Mar-a-Lago to host a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Senate Republicans invoke the "nuclear option" to strip Democrats of their power to block Trump's Supreme Court nominee from being confirmed.

Day 78: April 7

Trump's decision to strike Syria in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack draws wide political support, though some lawmakers say he should have consulted with Congress, while Russia said the strike would undermine international cooperation. The president concludes his meetings with the Chinese president at Mar-a-Lago, and his Supreme Court nominee is confirmed by the Senate.

Day 79: April 8

Trump does not rule out additional military action against Syria, telling Congress that he was acting "in the vital national security and foreign policy interests of the United States" when he ordered the launch of cruise missiles at a Syrian air field. He provides his justification in a letter to Congress under the War Powers Resolution. Kushner and Bannon hold a negotiation session to try to mend a rift that triggered speculation about a White House staff shakeup.

Day 80: April 9

Administration officials confirm that Trump will ask K.T. McFarland to step down as deputy national security adviser and serve instead as ambassador to Singapore, giving McMaster a chance to pick his own lieutenant. The president heads back to D.C. in the afternoon following a weekend at Mar-a-Lago.

Day 81: April 10

Trump takes part in the swearing-in ceremony for Gorsuch. The White House echoes its threat of additional missile strikes against Syria if Assad's government again uses chemical weapons, and Trump aides say the administration is reworking its tax reform plan and doesn't know whether it can put together a final proposal before Congress' August recess.

Day 82: April 11

Spicer makes waves during the daily briefing when he states, while comparing Assad and Adolf Hitler, that Hitler "didn't even use chemical weapons." He attempts to clarify by saying Hitler "was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing." In a second attempt to clarify, he says he was "trying to draw a contrast of the tactic of using airplanes to drop chemical weapons on innocent people." Meanwhile, the White House says there's overwhelming evidence that Syria used a sarin nerve agent to attack opponents of the government and that Russia is trying to help Assad's government cover up the illegal use of chemical weapons.

Day 83: April 12

Trump meets with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and says at a press conference afterward that he's satisfied that NATO has responded to the criticism he leveled at it during his campaign: "I said it was obsolete. It is no longer obsolete." He also says relations with Russia "may be at an all-time low" following Syria's use of chemical weapons the previous week and the U.S. airstrike that followed.

Day 84: April 13

The U.S. military announces an attack on an Islamic State tunnel complex in Afghanistan, and Trump says he endorsed the strike. Asked about the use of the "mother of all bombs," Trump says "what I do is I authorize my military. ... We have given them total authorization and that’s what they’re doing and frankly that’s why they’ve been so successful lately." The president tweets on foreign policy, including on North Korea: "I have great confidence that China will properly deal with North Korea. If they are unable to do so, the U.S., with its allies, will! U.S.A."

Day 85: April 14

Trump hits the golf course at Mar-a-Lago as he and his aides braced for what North Korea calls a "big event." Administration officials say they are hopeful that China can dissuade its communist neighbor from conducting a nuclear explosion or a missile test. The Trump administration says records of visitors to the White House will stay secret until at least five years after Trump leaves office, a reversal of policy quickly denounced by advocates of transparent government.

Day 86: April 15

North Korea attempts to launch a new missile, but the device blows up almost immediately. Pence arrives in Seoul hours after the failed missile test and says U.S. resolve to support and defend South Korea is unwavering "in these troubled times." Meanwhile, thousands of protesters gather in U.S. cities for Tax Day rallies and marches, demanding that Trump release his tax returns.

Day 87: April 16

The Trump administration takes a low-key approach to the previous day's failed missile test in North Korea and continues to express hope that China will rein in its nuclear-armed neighbor. The president says he's unimpressed with tax protests over the weekend and indicates he has no plans to release his tax returns anytime soon. "Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!" Trump tweets. He returns to D.C. after spending Easter weekend in Mar-a-Lago.

Day 88: April 17

Trump marks his first Easter Egg Roll by defending his record in office. "We will be stronger and bigger and better as a nation than ever before and we are right on track," he says during remarks on the South Portico balcony. The White House declines to detail Trump's future strategy toward North Korea, even as its government threatens more missile tests. "I think that the action that he took in Syria shows that when appropriate this president will take decisive action," Spicer says.

Day 89: April 18

Trump heads to Snap-On Tools in Kenosha, Wis., to speak about manufacturing and sign a "Buy American, Hire American" executive order. The order clamps down on guest worker visas and requires agencies to buy more goods and services from U.S. companies and workers. Watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington expands a lawsuit against the president, adding new plaintiffs who claim they are hurt by the "unfair" advantage he enjoys in the hotel and restaurant industry.

Day 90: April 19

With the closely watched special election in Georgia headed to a runoff, Trump pats himself on the back: "Despite major outside money, FAKE media support and eleven Republican candidates, BIG "R" win with runoff in Georgia. Glad to be of help!" he tweets. He signs the Veterans Choice Program Extension and Improvement Act and welcomes the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots to the White House.

Day 91: April 20

The Trump administration launches an investigation into whether steel imports threaten national security, a move aimed at China's growing dominance in steel production. The president welcomes Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni to the White House. During their joint press conference, Trump says he's confident he can block North Korea's nuclear program, get a health care bill though the House, and avoid a looming government shutdown.

Day 92: April 21

With a little over a week before Trump hits the 100-day mark of his presidency, he tweets, "No matter how much I accomplish during the ridiculous standard of the first 100 days, & it has been a lot (including S.C.), media will kill!" Trump aims to dismantle even more financial regulations with executive orders, directing Treasury officials to take another look at tax rules and oversight of "too big to fail" financial institutions. The president also says he intends to unveil a tax reform plan the following week.

Day 93: April 22

Trump announces his plans for the night of the annual dinner of White House correspondents — and the 100th day of his presidency. "Next Saturday night I will be holding a BIG rally in Pennsylvania. Look forward to it!" he tweets. He makes his his first official visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, awarding a Purple Heart to a soldier injured in Afghanistan. People take part in protests across the country as part of the the March for Science.

Day 94: April 23

As the 100-day mark approaches, Trump and his staff plan a busy week of events — including a new tax reform outline, a renewed effort to get a health care bill through the House, a high-profile National Rifle Association speech and a 100th day rally in Pennsylvania — all topped by the need for a new spending bill to keep the government open.

Day 95: April 24

Trump speaks with astronauts aboard the International Space Station, lauding NASA's work and praising a crew member who set a record for longest time spent in space. As his administration slaps new sanctions on Syria, Trump tells a group of U.N. diplomats that they need to work harder to confront the Syrian government and other "serious and growing threats" such as North Korea. He attempts to atone for past blunders on the history of the Holocaust with a strongly worded Week of Remembrance proclamation, pledging that "we must never forget" the annihilation of 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany.

Day 96: April 25

Trump vows to fight anti-Semitic violence during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol to commemorate the memory of the Holocaust. "Those who deny the Holocaust are an accomplice to this horrible evil, and we will never be silent," Trump says. Later that day, the president expresses confidence that he'll be able to build a wall along the Southwest border but stops short of saying whether he would insist that money to finance the barrier be included in a new spending bill to keep the government open past the end of the week.

Day 97: April 26

Trump signs an executive order calling into question the future of more than two dozen national monuments proclaimed by the last three presidents to set aside millions of acres from development. The administration pitches a tax reform outline calling for big corporate rate cuts, a simpler tax code and big increases in standard deductions. After briefing senators at a White House meeting, members of Trump's national security team said they're trying to coerce North Korea into giving up its nuclear weapons program by cutting off foreign money they need to finance it.

Day 98: April 27

Trump signs an executive order seeking to provide more protections to whistle-blowers at the Department of Veterans Affairs. A week after directing a wide-ranging investigation into whether foreign steel poses a threat to U.S. national security, Trump signs an order doing the same for aluminum. He welcomes Argentinian President Mauricio Macri and first lady Juliana Awada to the White House.

Day 99: April 28

Congress passes a stopgap funding bill to keep the government open another week, eliminating the threat of a shutdown starting on Trump's 100th day in office. He signs an executive order that could eventually open up Arctic waters and millions of coastal acres off U.S. shores to oil and gas drilling. He heads to Atlanta to speak at the National Rifle Association convention, where he vows to defend gun rights and reminisces about his election victory.

Day 100: April 29

Trump is set to hold a campaign rally in Harrisburg, Pa., as White House correspondents hold their annual dinner in Washington that is traditionally attended by the president.

Contributing: Katie Smith, David Jackson, Gregory Korte, Donovan Slack

USA TODAY coverage of Trump's first 100 days:

100 days into Trump presidency, Americans are united on this: They're divided

Trump’s 5 biggest wins and losses in Congress in his first 100 days

One Republican congressman's wild ride on the Trump train

In Gettysburg speech, Trump made 100 days of promises. Did he keep them?

Pence's first 100 days: He's stayed above the fray, but what does that say about his influence?

The Trump years: Hope, fear, elation and angst in 100 days

No regrets: 100% approval at 100 days from these Trump voters

Chuck Schumer, President Trump don't talk much in first 100 days

What did Trump tweet in his first 100 days?

Analysis: A bumpy 100 days for Trump? Just wait for the 1,361 to follow

Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump: Comparing first 100 days of last six presidents

USA TODAY roundtable: Advice for Trump? Take a deep breath

News from around our 50 states

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

Alabama

Cullman: An underwater forest with trees as tall as 60 feet has been hampering the search for the body of a woman who was thrown off a boat about two weeks ago. The Cullman Times reports many trees weren’t cut down as workers created Smith Lake near Birmingham more than 50 years ago. Phil Hutchens, a member of the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office dive team, says standing timber is now complicating the search for 26-year-old Kelsey Nicole Starling of Birmingham, who’s been missing since two boats collided on the night of July 4. Starling was thrown from one of them. One of the drivers is charged with boating under the influence. Teams haven’t been able to find any trace of Starling.

Alaska

Igiugig: This tiny Alaska Native village is adopting an emerging technology to transform the power of a local river into a renewable energy source. The village council in Igiugig is the first tribal entity in the nation licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to harness river water that’s not connected to a dam. An underwater generator will be installed in coming days in the Kvichak River, part of a salmon-rich system that also provides subsistence food for the community of 70. Officials with Portland, Maine-based Ocean Renewable Power Co. say a trial river run of the RivGen Power System gives them confidence the system will not harm adult fish. Igiugig Village Council President AlexAnna Salmon says the generator is expected to greatly reduce reliance on costly diesel fuel.

Arizona

Phoenix: Barbie – the iconic Mattel doll, arguably one of the world’s original influencers – is Instagramming her way across Arizona this week. The @BarbieStyle account has partnered with Visit Arizona to showcase travel in the Grand Canyon State. Her post Wednesday shows her and a pal visiting Antelope Canyon, on the Navajo Reservation just east of Page. Before that, she posed at the internationally famous Horseshoe Bend, a dramatic curve in the Colorado River that can be seen from an overlook a few miles south of Page. Barbie’s first stop in the state was the Phoenix area, where she lounged by the pool at Mountain Shadows Resort in Paradise Valley. Skyler Scott, spokeswoman for Mountain Shadows, says the Barbie photo taken there was not Photoshopped. A crew came to the resort, and Scott says it was fun to watch the detail and planning that went into the post.

Arkansas

Little Rock: A nonprofit plans to develop an online database of opioid-related overdoses in the state. Arkansas Drug Director Kirk Lane said Wednesday that the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care is spearheading the project. He noted the database will give policymakers accurate information they can use for grants and prevention efforts. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports the Justice Department awarded the state a nearly $1 million grant to fund the project. It’s expected the public database will be ready for use within six months. Gina Redford, the foundation’s analytics manager, said the database will only include information on overdoses involving opioids, which include prescription painkillers such as oxycodone and fentanyl along with heroin. Data out Wednesday from the Centers for Disease Control shows Arkansas had at least 433 fatal drug overdoses in 2018.

California

Oakland: An animal rescue group is asking for help caring for 89 baby snowy egrets and black-crowned night herons left homeless last week after a tree fell downtown. International Bird Rescue said Wednesday that it needs donations and volunteers to help feed and care for the baby birds rescued after an old ficus tree serving as a rookery split in half and partially fell last week, said JD Bergeron, the group’s executive director. The group is caring for 89 young birds and eggs rescued from the tree, including 50 snowy egrets and 22 black-crowned night herons. It also rescued 17 eggs that need intensive care and round-the-clock support. Another 20 birds died when the tree fell. The rescue group was already taking care of more than 200 Bay Area water birds at its busy hospital in the city of Fairfield, Bergeron said.

Colorado

Denver: Officials say greenhouse gas emissions in the state peaked in 2010 and have been in decline since. Colorado Air Pollution Control Division Director Gary Kaufman says the rate of decline has been small, but it’s expected to increase by 2030. The data is included in the Department of Public Health and Environment’s draft inventory of the state’s greenhouse gases. The report projects 125.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other gases will be emitted in the state in 2020. That’s down from nearly 127 million metric tons in 2015 and 133 million metric tons in 2010. A new state law aims to cut emissions to at least 90% of 2005 levels, or about 113 million metric tons, by 2050. Officials project the state will still be well above that goal in 2030.

Connecticut

Hartford: Prisons officials say errors by nurses at the state women’s prison have caused five inmate methadone overdoses in recent months. The Department of Correction tells the Hartford Courant none of the overdoses at the York Correctional Institution in East Lyme was fatal. Two inmates had to be revived with an opioid overdose reversal drug. One York nurse was fired in connection with two of the errors, and three overdoses remain under investigation. Agency spokeswoman Karen Martucci says 300 inmates at York were on methadone treatment last year. She says while the percentage of dosing errors “is extremely low,” the department is reviewing the methadone distribution program and adding safeguards to prevent similar incidents. Prison workers union officials have warned of dangerous understaffing at state prisons.

Delaware

Wilmington:Ladybug Music Festival, believed to be the country’s largest annual celebration of women in music, has kicked off, bringing with it a new local beer, along with almost 60 acts performing at 15 locations around town. The event Thursday and Friday includes a headlining set paying tribute to the “Ladybugs of Soul,” including Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston and Chaka Khan. To celebration the occasion, Stitch House Brewery has released its first canned beer, made in collaboration with Milford’s Mispillion River Brewing. Ladybug Rose Lager is an easy-drinking raspberry- and rose hip-infused lager with a light 4% ABV. The cans, which boast Ladybug’s eye-popping colors of pink and yellow, are also sold by the case or in four-packs.

District of Columbia

Washington: Protesters angered by the federal detainment of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border blocked access to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in the city this week and staged a sit-in. News outlets reports at least 10 sit-in demonstrators were arrested and charged with unlawful entry. Dozens marched from the National Mall to the agency’s site around lunchtime Tuesday, stopping federal workers from returning to their desks. The demonstration went on for hours as attendees sang and carried signs saying “Never again is now” and “Never again means close the concentration camps.” The protest was one in a string of similar demonstrations outside ICE facilities nationwide during which protesters called for the dissolution of ICE and an end to crowded detainment centers at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Florida

West Palm Beach: Officials are hoping a continuous loop of children’s songs played throughout the night will keep homeless people from sleeping on the patio of a city-owned rental banquet facility. West Palm Beach parks and recreation director Leah Rockwell tells the Palm Beach Post they’re trying to discourage people from sleeping outside the glass-walled Waterfront Lake Pavilion, which she says rakes in some $240,000 annually from events. The loop of “Baby Shark” and “Raining Tacos” is a temporary fix to keep homeless people off the patio. Rockwell says the city wants to formalize hours for the facility, which should make trespassing laws easier to enforce. Illaya Champion tells the Post “it’s wrong” to chase people away with music. He says he’ll still sleep there, but “it’s on and on, the same songs.”

Georgia

Savannah: Coastal Georgia’s largest county wants to help residents prepare for an emergency during hurricane season. The Chatham County Emergency Management Agency in Savannah plans to hold a free “Citizen Hurricane Academy” this weekend. The program includes presentations by meteorologists, local emergency planners and other experts on how evacuation decisions are made, how to prepare financially for a disaster and some basic first aid tips for use in emergencies. The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1 and runs until Dec. 1. Coastal Georgia evacuated for Hurricane Matthew in 2017 and Hurricane Irma in 2018. Both storms brought damaging wind and flooding to Georgia’s 100-mile coast. Hurricane Michael caused extensive damage farther inland last year.

Hawaii

Kailua-Kona: A developer has agreed to cancel a planned condominium project to preserve a surfing area. West Hawaii Today reports the landowner has agreed to work toward building a public space rather than the proposed five-story residence near the Banyans, a popular surfing spot on the north side of Holualoa Bay. Property owner Kilohana Makai LLC met in a second mediation session last week with people involved in a case challenging plans for the condominium. A spokesman says Kilohana Makai will work over the next year to 15 months to convert the 14,450-square-foot lot on the Big Island into a community space. Officials say Hawaii County could buy the property via a commission that maintains a list of properties considered “worthy of preservation.”

Idaho

Pocatello: Beekeepers and maintenance workers have removed roughly 30,000 bees that built a massive hive inside an Idaho State University campus landmark. The Idaho State Journal reports the bees were safely transported from the stone-and-wood Swanson Arch to a hive box at a nearby farm last Friday. Beekeeper Sarah Hofeldt says the bees were surprisingly docile, and no one was stung during the extraction. Hofeldt was safely able to remove the queen bee from the hive by hand without the use of smoke. She says the smokers can calm the bees but also can make it more difficult to move the bees into a transport container, which can increase bee fatalities. ISU students traditionally walk through the arch upon entering and graduating from the university.

Illinois

Springfield: A woman who recently got a 1993 postcard in her mailbox has tracked down the man who sent it to his children more than two decades ago. Kim Draper’s story about the mysterious Hong Kong postcard was first published in The State Journal-Register in Springfield. Masrour Kizilbash sent the postcard to his family while working overseas in 1993. He told the newspaper that he was “fascinated with the area” and wanted to share his experiences. Kizilbash’s family was living in Springfield at the time. He always figured they had received the postcard. With the help of social media, Draper learned that a son now lives in suburban Chicago. A reunion with the postcard is planned. Officials say it likely got tied up in Hong Kong or might have been stuck in old equipment.

Indiana

Indianapolis: The state’s attorney general has reversed himself and decided against appealing a federal judge’s decision to block a state law that would ban a second-trimester abortion procedure. A judge granted a preliminary injunction last month sought by doctors who perform dilation-and-evacuation abortions. Republican Attorney General Curtis Hill said after that ruling that he would try to have the injunction lifted, but he announced Wednesday that his office would concentrate on arguing that the law is constitutional. That decision means the law can’t be enforced while court proceedings continue. The law passed this spring by the Republican-dominated Legislature calls the abortion procedure “dismemberment abortion.”

Iowa

Iowa City: The director of the state’s social services agency was a huge fan of the late rapper Tupac Shakur, and he frequently let his subordinates know it. Emails obtained by the Associated Press show that Iowa Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven routinely sent messages to employees lauding Shakur’s music and lyrics even after at least one complained to lawmakers. Then last month, he sent another such email to all 4,300 agency employees. He was abruptly ousted from his job the next work day. Foxhoven, 66, told employees he had been a huge fan of the hip-hop artist for years. He hosted weekly “Tupac Fridays” to play his music in the office. He traded lyrics with employees and marked his own 65th birthday with Shakur-themed cookies, including ones decorated with the words “Thug life.”

Kansas

Wichita: Authorities say a lab technician “fudged” the test results of sewage treatment plant wastewater that is dumped into the Arkansas River. The Wichita Eagle reports Director of Public Works Alan King said Tuesday that the city caught the error during a spot check and immediately reported it to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The employee has since resigned. The problematic test results falsely reported how much organic and inorganic substance is floating in the water. It’s generally used as an indicator of sediment or silt in the water. King says Wichita’s permits shouldn’t be affected, and there was no danger to the public. Results from around the same time as the false one show that the city likely stayed within an acceptable range.

Kentucky

Frankfort: A new list of rankings from a high-profile polling organization is giving a big red thumbs-down to Gov. Matt Bevin. Kentucky’s chief executive is the least popular in the nation among voters in their own state, according to Morning Consult’s Q2 rankings, with a 56% disapproval rating vs. just 32% who approve. Bevin notably has ground to make up among voters in his own party, with an election looming in November. The governor faces a 40% disapproval rating among fellow Republicans in Kentucky, after a May primary election in which GOP challenger Robert Goforth, a state representative, scored 39% of the in-party vote to Bevin’s 52%. His net approval among Kentucky voters, according to the Morning Consult poll, sits at -24 overall, which breaks down to +11 among Republicans, -63 among Democrats and -26 among independents.

Louisiana

New Orleans: A favorite local confection is making a comeback seven years after a devastating fire. Louisiana’s economic development office announced Thursday that Hubig’s Pies will be produced again next year in suburban Jefferson Parish. Hubig’s made hand-sized turnovers with a glazed crust and fillings of chocolate, coconut or any of a variety of fruits. Wrapped in white paper labeled with a caricature of a chef known as Savory Simon, the pies were prominent for decades at retail checkout counters, including grocery and hardware stores. A 2012 fire gutted Hubig’s longtime bakery in New Orleans’ Marigny neighborhood. Production will resume in Jefferson Parish after a $1.37 million investment in a manufacturing facility. The state says Hubig’s will distribute pies from the Louisiana-Texas line to the Mobile, Alabama, area.

Maine

Kennebunkport: A curious visitor to a train museum that resembled a white throw pillow or perhaps a lost toupee turned out to be a rare albino porcupine. The young rodent turned up Tuesday at Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, perplexing the staff, who sought help identifying it via social media. The consensus was that it’s an albino porcupine. The Portland Press Herald reports the animal appeared to be a baby because its quills had not yet hardened. A spokeswoman for the museum said midday Wednesday that it hadn’t yet been seen again, but it was assumed to be lurking in the area. Porcupines are common in Maine, though albino ones certainly aren’t. About 1 in every 10,000 of the species is an albino porcupine.

Maryland

Baltimore: An audit says a possible infusion of $3.2 million in state funds and savings from a shortened season may not be enough to save the cash-strapped Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. The Baltimore Sun reports the SC&H Group audit released Tuesday says both methods would only temporarily help BSO unless additional revenue streams are established. It says it’s unclear if the orchestra will survive the year. The audit considered the possible state emergency funding, which Gov. Larry Hogan refused to partially release this year, citing concerns that the state could soon face a $961 million deficit. Hogan signaled in May that he might not release the first installment of the funds, leading the orchestra to abruptly cancel its summer series and lock out musicians amid ongoing contract negotiations.

Massachusetts

Cape Cod: A citizens group is calling for eliminating federal protections for seals as officials seek ways to protect beachgoers from great white sharks. Peter Howell, a founder of the Seal Action Committee, says the Nantucket-based group wants Congress to amend the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act so that species can be removed from the law’s list of protected animals if their populations have sufficiently rebounded. “We’re not anti-seal. We’re not trying to eliminate them. We’re just trying to manage them in the interest of the larger ecosystem,” he said Wednesday as the group spoke before the Barnstable County Commissioners, which oversees Cape Cod’s regional government. The region’s seal population – estimated in the hundreds of thousands – has been blamed for drawing droves of great white sharks in recent years. Seals are the favored meal for the powerful predators.

Michigan

Traverse City: Three historic Great Lakes lighthouses owned by the federal government are going on the auction block. They include Lake Huron’s Poe Reef Lighthouse, 6 miles east of Cheboygan, Michigan, which guides ships through a hazardous channel. The Ontonagon Breakwater Lighthouse is the westernmost lighthouse in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, perched at the entrance of the channel leading to the Ontonagon River from Lake Superior. The Superior Entry Lighthouse sits on a sandbar between Superior, Wisconsin, and Duluth, Minnesota. The U.S. General Services Administration is offering the lighthouses through an online auction. Their lighting mechanisms will continue aiding navigation and will remain the U.S. Coast Guard’s property. Proceeds from public lighthouse sales help pay to preserve and maintain those that remain active.

Minnesota

St. Paul: The developers of a proposed copper-nickel mine near the Boundary Waters plan to use a potentially safer dry method of storing mine waste instead of the kind of wet tailings pond more common in the industry. Twin Metals Minnesota said Thursday that its underground mine near Ely would use “dry stack” storage for waste rock, calling it the most environmentally friendly approach for the site. The method contrasts with the conventional tailings basin at the planned PolyMet mine, which will be contained by an earthen dam. While environmentalists pushed for dry stack storage at PolyMet, they’re criticizing Twin Metals because the waste would sit just a couple of miles upstream from the Boundary Waters. Twin Metals plans to release its formal mine plan in the coming months, triggering a lengthy environmental review.

Mississippi

Jackson: The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi is asking 16 cities to eliminate local laws that penalize panhandling. The organization says in a news release that the request is part of a national effort that includes work by the National Law Center of Homelessness & Poverty. A federal appeals court in 2015 ruled that an ordinance in Springfield, Illinois, that penalized people for begging for money in public places is unconstitutional. ACLU of Mississippi says that since last year, four cities in the state have repealed panhandling ordinances – Ridgeland, Meridian, Starkville and Southaven. It’s asking other cities to do the same – Brandon, Clarksdale, Cleveland, Clinton, Corinth, Greenville, Greenwood, Grenada, Gulfport, Horn Lake, Jackson, Long Beach, Natchez, Olive Branch, Pascagoula and Vicksburg.

Missouri

Kansas City: The U.S. Department of Agriculture now says less than 40% of the researchers whose jobs are being transferred from Washington, D.C., to Kansas City will make the move to the Midwest. The Kansas City Star reports U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced in June that the USDA would move more than 550 jobs to Kansas City. A USDA spokesperson told The Star on Tuesday that 145 workers will follow their jobs to Kansas City, while 250 will leave the agency. Members of the Kansas and Missouri congressional delegations and the states’ governors praised the USDA’s move, saying the research agencies are a good fit for their region. But critics argued that moving them will make it harder for federal policymakers to get objective research.

Montana

Billings: Wildlife officials say evidence of an invasive clam that can out-compete native species has been found for the first time in a state water body. Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials say Asian clam shells were recently found near the boat ramp at Lake Elmo State Park in Billings. The discovery was made by participants in a training session on the detection of aquatic invasive species. No live clams were found. The quarter-sized mollusks are smaller than native clams that live in Montana. In large enough numbers, officials say they can clog screens on irrigation pumps or other water intakes. Since being discovered in Washington state’s Columbia River in 1938, Asian clams have spread to almost every state.

Nebraska

Lincoln: Plant science students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are still taught to phenotype by hand, wading into muddy fields to record the differences in physical characteristics between varying corn hybrids with a small set of tools and a pen and notebook. But technology is on track to render that human work obsolete. A team of UNL plant scientists and biological systems engineers have built an automated system capable of detecting an individual corn leaf and grasping it with robotic precision to screen its temperature, chlorophyll and water content in less than a minute, the Lincoln Journal Star reports. Building a robot to automate the processes took years, as the team had to build a system that could identify the leaf from a corn or soybean plant, then direct a robotic arm where to reach and how to grab it for a battery of measurements, says Abbas Atefi, a Ph.D. candidate in biological systems engineering.

Nevada

Reno: Lake Tahoe is almost entirely full. For weeks, the roughly 1,644-foot-deep alpine lake – the second deepest in the U.S. – has been within an inch of its maximum allowed surface elevation of 6,229.1 feet above sea level. As of late last week, its surface elevation was 6,229.03 feet above sea level. For Chad Blanchard, the federal water master in Reno responsible for managing Tahoe’s waters, it’s the longest he’s ever seen the lake stay this high. “This is a rare year,” he says. “I’ve been doing this for 26 years, and we’ve had big (snow) years, but this one is unique as far as being up within an inch of being full, and it’s just hanging there ... it’s a product of still having so much snow up there.” Despite a good amount of snow still coating the peaks around Tahoe, Blanchard doesn’t expect the lake level to rise much more, with summertime surface evaporation starting to pick up.

New Hampshire

Milan: The Nansen Ski Jump has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built in 1938, the 65-meter ski jump was the largest in the U.S. at the time, and it retains most of its original design. Officials said Wednesday that it was placed on the register because of its architecture and its place in U.S. sports history. Over the decades, Nansen was site of National Ski Jumping Championships, Olympic Ski Jumping qualifying events and U.S. Nordic combined championships. The ski jump was part of a planned bid by New Hampshire to host the 1944 Winter Olympics with cross-country skiing in Berlin, alpine events at Cannon, figure skating in Conway and bobsledding on Mount Madison. The games were canceled due to World War II.

New Jersey

East Newark: Famed restaurant Tops Diner will soon be demolished and rebuilt in the same spot, with new space three times the current size. Tops, which opened in 1942, has been approved for expansion by the Hudson County Planning Board. Owners Jimmy and John Golemis, whose father, George, bought the diner in 1972, could not be reached for comment on the expansion. Tops Diner has been named the “most iconic” restaurant in New Jersey by Thrillist; was ranked the best diner in the country by Time Out magazine; and was listed as the most famous restaurant in the state by Insider. According to reports from NJ.com and The Jersey Journal, the new space will feature 296 seats (up from 180), 160 parking spaces and outdoor seating. Tops Diner says construction will take at minimum four to six weeks, during which Tops will be closed.

New Mexico

Santa Fe: Thousands of small campaign contributions have helped propel former CIA operative and author Valerie Plame to the financial lead in a crowded primary for an open congressional seat in 2020. The Democrat raised $236,000 in May and June, according to disclosure forms and a statement from the campaign. Among notable donors were actor Bryan Cranston of “Breaking Bad” and Naomi Watts, who portrayed Plame in the 2010 film about her involvement in political jousting at the start of the Iraq War under President George W. Bush. In a field of eight primary contenders, Plame is the only national figure. Her identity as a CIA operative was leaked by an official in President George W. Bush’s administration in an effort to discredit her then-husband, diplomat Joe Wilson, a critic of the war in Iraq.

New York

Vernon: Woodstock 50 organizers have applied again for a permit to hold their festival at an upstate horse track, a day after losing an appeal for a previous denial. Town of Vernon officials say the application was submitted Wednesday. Woodstock 50 was previously denied a permit twice last week by the town. An appeal of the denial was upheld Tuesday night by the central New York town’s planning board. The Vernon Downs racetrack and casino became a possible alternative site for Woodstock 50 after the original venue, Watkins Glen International, pulled out. Woodstock 50 did not respond to a request for comment. Oneida County Sheriff Robert Maciol warned Thursday that “there is no practical or logistical possibility that this event could occur without significant risk to public safety.”

North Carolina

Hatteras: Sea turtles have again set a record for nesting at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. A news release from the National Park Service says that with more than a month to go before the nesting season typically winds down, rangers discovered the 326th nest Monday. The previous record of 325 was set in 2016. As of Tuesday, there are 317 loggerhead nests, 11 green sea turtle nests and one Kemp’s Ridley nest. Tracy Ziegler, chief of resource management and science for National Parks of Eastern North Carolina, says it’s estimated that almost 11,000 sea turtle eggs have been deposited in beaches on Bodie, Hatteras and Ocracoke islands.

North Dakota

Bismarck: The state has sued the federal government to recover the $38 million the state spent policing protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline. Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says he filed the lawsuit Thursday against the Army Corps of Engineers. He says the agency didn’t respond to an administrative claim he filed one year ago. The agency did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Stenehjem says the Corps allowed protesters to illegally camp without a permit on federal land along the Missouri River in southern North Dakota and failed to maintain law and order. The Corps has said protesters weren’t evicted due to free speech reasons. The pipeline carries oil from North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois.

Ohio

Columbus: The Republican-led Legislature has passed a measure that would allow farmers and university researchers to grow industrial hemp and would legalize sales of hemp-derived cannabidiol oil, or CBD. Federal legislation last year removed hemp from the list of federally controlled substances and now treats the low-THC version of the cannabis plant like other agricultural crops. But existing Ohio law doesn’t differentiate between marijuana and hemp. The newly passed Ohio legislation would allow for cultivation of hemp as long as it contains less than 0.3% THC, the cannabis compound that gives marijuana its high. It would be regulated by the state. The measure was sent to GOP Gov. Mike DeWine for consideration. It would take effect immediately if he signs it.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City: Oklahoma County has joined over 50 other cities and counties in the state to prosecute drug companies for damages caused by the opioid epidemic. The Oklahoman reports that all three county commissioners voted Wednesday to approve a contract with the Fulmer Sill law firm to sue opioid manufacturers. The decision comes at the end of the state’s trial against consumer products giant Johnson & Johnson, which alleges the company and its subsidiaries created a public nuisance by aggressively promoting the highly addictive drugs. Oklahoma could receive up to $17.5 billion in abatement costs. Commissioner Kevin Calvey says the opioid crisis has increased the county’s costs in policing, jailing and providing treatment services to residents. Fulmer Sill lawyers say they expect to pursue “tens of millions of dollars” for the county.

Oregon

Keizer: Four scorpions were brought to the Keizer Fire District after a woman found the abandoned arachnids inside a Red Vines licorice container near a playground at an area park Wednesday. A mother picked them up around noon and brought them to the fire district. Keizer Fire District Chief Jeff Cowan says the arachnids were confirmed to be Pacific Northwest forest scorpions, a species native to the Willamette Valley. The species is not aggressive. Though they can sting, they prefer to play dead when disturbed. The scorpions were then given to the Oregon Department of Agriculture, which maintains a staff of professional entomologists. Cowan says under the entomologists’ care, the scorpions will travel for outreach events such as the Oregon State Fair.

Pennsylvania

Wilkes-Barre: City officials have removed a public monument that included a recently added brick sponsored by a Ku Klux Klan affiliate. The Citizens’ Voice reports the column monument in Public Square was taken down three weeks after a brick was placed on it bearing the name of the East Coast Knights, a KKK chapter that has recruited in Wilkes-Barre. Harrisburg citizen activist Gene Stilp tried to chisel it off last week, resulting in a disorderly conduct charge, which he says he plans to fight. The monument was installed in 2008. Supporters could purchase engraved bricks for $35. Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tony George tells the paper it was time to tear down the monument, which he says wouldn’t have survived ongoing renovations to Public Square.

Rhode Island

Cranston: The state’s prison population is continuing to shrink as the percentage of older inmates rises. WPRI reports a 2018 Department of Corrections Population Report indicates 1 in 4 adults in the state’s correctional institutions in 2018 was over the age of 50, with more than 7% over 60. The 2009 population report disclosed that 17% of inmates were over 50, and 5% were over 60. The department says it categorizes inmates 50 and older as geriatric. The American Civil Liberties Union is also watching the aging prison population closely. Steve Brown, executive director of the ACLU of Rhode Island, says everyone “should be concerned as taxpayers.” Data compiled by the nonprofit projects the number of elderly inmates to triple in the next 15 years.

South Carolina

Greenville: The Greenville County Council has moved forward on a roughly $40million plan to relocate state offices from some expensive real estate downtown to a pair of office buildings near Haywood Mall. The decision at Tuesday night’s council meeting means the county is moving forward with the $1 billion commercial and residential redevelopment of County Square that council members first approved more than a year ago. The purchase price for the buildings, formerly part of the Fluor Corp. campus, will be $33.1 million, according to council members. The county will spend an additional $5 million to $8 million up-fitting the buildings for county and state services, according to a memo circulated to council members last March.

South Dakota

Sioux Falls: Dozens of children up to age 5 in the Sioux Falls School District and five rural districts now have access to mental health support in a way they never did before thanks to a $2 million grant given to Southeastern Behavioral Healthcare. The five-year grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration establishes the South Dakota Early Childhood Mental Health Collaborative to help Southeast Behavioral Health therapists reach an under-served population, what some call a “mental health desert,” through a partnership with South Dakota State University and federal school readiness programs like Head Start. And it will also develop some of the state’s first fully certified specialists in play therapy to help children discover healthy social and emotional coping skills, Southeastern officials said.

Tennessee

Memphis: If famed local dive bar Earnestine & Hazel’s didn’t have enough haunted lore swirling around it already, bones of an unknown origin tumbling out of the walls and landing at the feet of construction crews serve as one more paranormal episode the historic bar can now tout. Diversified Builders crews have resumed restoration work after a Wednesday night scare when bones fell out of a wall they were repairing. The contracting company’s vice president, Chris Tigner, says word got out quickly, and someone alerted police and inaccurately told them a body was in the bar. Police and fire crews swarmed the site about 11 p.m., Tigner says. There was no body, and no one can say with certainty what organism the bones originated from. Caitlin Chittom, owner of Earnestine & Hazel’s, says they’ve been sent away for identification.

Texas

Austin: A former judge who served on the state’s highest criminal court has denounced President Donald Trump in announcing her decision to leave the Republican Party. The Austin American-Statesman reports retired Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Elsa Alcala announced her decision on Facebook. Alcala said in the Facebook post that even accepting that Trump has had some successes, “at his core, his ideology is racism.” Alcala said she can no longer support the GOP and will be voting in the 2020 Democratic primary. She was appointed to the court by Gov. Rick Perry in 2011 and spent 20 years as a GOP judge. Alcala’s announcement follows Trump’s tweets that four Democratic freshmen should “go back” to their home countries – though all are citizens, and three were born in the United States.

Utah

Salt Lake City: Wildlife officials say reports of bears coming down from the mountains and rummaging through backyards and campgrounds throughout the state have more than doubled this year. Faith Jolley with the Division of Wildlife Resources said Wednesday that her agency has already received more than 25 reports of black bears getting into trash cans and campsites, mostly in central Utah. In 2018 the DWR recorded 27 total bear encounters. None resulted in serious injury. The sharp increase can be attributed to a larger bear population and a wet spring that kept the bears hibernating longer than usual. State biologists say these factors have made bears bolder in searching for food. Jolley says residents can “bearproof” their surroundings by regularly cleaning their trash cans and storing food in locked cars while camping.

Vermont

Burlington: The Vermont Mozart Festival will not have a summer concert series this year. WCAX-TV reports that the organization said in a Facebook post this week that it is “currently reviewing opportunities and evaluating all options for the future, but will not have a summer season this year.” It didn’t say why. The festival, which celebrates the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, has struggled in recent years. It shut down in 2010 due to financial troubles. Then it was revived under new leadership, with partnership with communities and including food offerings and youth sports.

Virginia

Richmond: A limited-edition license plate is being offered to celebrate the University of Virginia men’s basketball team’s 2019 national championship. The state Department of Motor Vehicles worked with UVA to offer a license plate featuring the national champion’s logo. The plate is now available for purchase at any DMV customer service center, mobile office or online. It costs $25 annually, plus the cost of the registration, and can be personalized for $10. UVA license plates are part of the DMV’s revenue-sharing program, with $15 of the $25 fee returned to the university to support student scholarships. UVA has received more than $1.9 million from the program since it was established in 1992. The DMV also offers license plates as ornamental souvenirs. The $10 plates cannot be used on motor vehicles.

Washington

Olympia: The state Transportation Commission is expected to vote this year on a proposal to replace the gas tax with a pay-per-mile system. The vote will take place Dec. 17, after the commission is expected to receive a report in October from a panel that has studied the new type of tax, The Olympian reports. Any recommendation voted on by the commission will then be passed on to the Legislature to consider during its next session, which starts in January. Commission chairman Jerry Litt says he expects many state residents would pay more under a pay-per-mile tax, which the state calls a “road usage charge.” Sen. Rebecca Saldana, vice chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee, says the state is considering such a charge because she says more fuel-efficient vehicles have eroded the state’s ability to rely long term on the gas tax for transportation needs.

West Virginia

Charleston: A permanent prescription drug disposal site is being placed at the Capitol so people wanting to dispose of medication can do so all year. There has already been a collection site at the Capitol for National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, but the new location is permanent. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced the plan Wednesday and said it is in collaboration with the Capitol Police. Morrisey says the use of disposal sites can affect substance abuse rates by reducing the number of available pills. This disposal site is at the Division of Protective Services Office in Building 1, Room 152-A.

Wisconsin

Madison: Gov. Tony Evers has signed a bill that creates new tiers of sign language interpreters. The bill he signed Wednesday establishes criteria for new advanced and intermediate licenses for both deaf and hearing interpreters and requires the state Department of Public Safety to determine the scope of practice for each level. One of the bill’s chief Assembly sponsors, Democrat Jonathan Brostoff, refused to cut his hair for a year and a half as a stunt to pressure Republican legislative leaders to consider the proposal. His hair had ballooned into a thick, curly mop by the time the Assembly and Senate passed the proposal in June. He cut his hair days later.

Wyoming

Thermopolis: The skeleton of a nearly 3-foot-tall cousin of the velociraptor is now on display at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center. The Rock Springs Rocket-Miner reports the museum in Thermopolis opened a new permanent exhibit featuring the fossils and full-size reproduction of the dinosaur informally known as Lori. Paleontologists discovered Lori, whose scientific name is Hesperornithoides miessleri, in a formation dating to the late Jurassic period near Douglas in 2001. Center paleontologist Bill Wahl says Lori is the earliest troodontid that has been found in North America. It’s also the smallest dinosaur that has been found in Wyoming. Troodontids are bird-like predators that have sickle-like claws.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports