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By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Michael Romano spent more than 17 years at the Justice Department, eventually becoming a supervisor on the team that would prosecute more than 1,500 people charged in the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The moment he watched the largest investigation in department history get wiped away with the stroke of a pen — on President Donald Trump’s first day back in the White House — Romano knew he had to leave.

“I knew on January 20th, when the pardons were announced, that I needed to find my way out,” Romano said in an interview with The Associated Press weeks after his resignation from the Justice Department. “It would be untenable for me to stay, given the pardons and given the false narratives that were being spread about January 6.”

Now, Romano says he fears Trump’s decision to pardon even the most violent rioters — whom his own vice president once said “obviously” shouldn’t be pardoned — could embolden right-wing extremists and encourage future political violence.

“The way that the pardons have been received by the January 6th defendants and by other right-wing extremists, as I understand it, is to recognize that if you support the president and if you commit violence in support of the president, that he might insulate you from the consequences, that he might protect you from the criminal justice system,” Romano said. “And so that might encourage people to commit these sort of acts.”

Romano is among dozens of Justice Department lawyers who have resigned, been pushed out or fired in the weeks since Trump’s new leadership has taken over and begun making sweeping changes to align the law enforcement agency with the priorities of the Republican president whom the department once prosecuted.

Trump’s return to the White House has ushered in a dizzying change for many in the Justice Department, but perhaps few have felt it more than the lawyers who spent years working on the largest-scale serious attack on the Capitol since the war of 1812.

As a deputy chief of the now-disbanded Capitol Siege Section that prosecuted the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, Romano had a close-up view of the evidence, including harrowing videos and court testimony detailing the violence that unfolded when the pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol as lawmakers met to certify former President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.

Romano joined the Justice Department in 2007 straight out of law school, and was working in the section in Washington that handles public corruption cases on Jan. 6, 2021. He recalled watching the riot unfold on television, and quickly deciding he wanted to help with the prosecution of what he described as a “crime of historic proportions.”

Trump’s pardons cemented the president’s yearslong campaign to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 attack.

While vying to return to the White House, Trump repeatedly downplayed the violence that left more than 100 police officers injured, and lauded the rioters as patriots and hostages whom he contended were unfairly persecuted by the Justice Department for their political beliefs. Only two Capitol riot defendants were acquitted of all charges, which Trump supporters cited as evidence that Washington juries can’t be fair and impartial. Some Jan. 6 defendants are now considering running for office.

The scope of Trump’s clemency hours after the inauguration came as a surprise to many, considering the president had suggested in the weeks prior that instead of blanket pardons, he would look at the Jan. 6 defendants on a case-by-case basis. Trump’s proclamation described the prosecution as “a grave national injustice” and declared that the pardons would begin “a process of national reconciliation.”

Trump’s pardons led to the release from prison of the leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of orchestrating violent plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power as well as rioters convicted of brutal attacks on police — many of whose crimes were captured on camera and broadcast on live TV. Trump has defended his pardons, saying the sentences handed down for actions that day were “ridiculous and excessive” and that “these are people who actually love our country.”

Romano said the notion that the Jan. 6 defendants were not treated fairly by in the justice system or not given the due process they were entitled is “simply not true.” In many cases, he said prosecutors had overwhelming evidence because the defendants “filmed themselves proudly committing crimes.”

“They had the full protection of rights guaranteed to them by the American justice system and the Constitution,” Romano said. “It was my experience when dealing with these cases and seeing the way that the rioters and some of their attorneys behaved in court, that their take was that they should be treated like heroes and not prosecuted at all.”

Despite the pardons, Romano said he still believes that the Capitol Siege Section’s work was important because it left behind a “historical record” of what happened on Jan. 6 that cannot be changed.

“In light of the efforts to whitewash the history of that day, in light of the efforts for people to lie about that day for their own benefit, which is what’s happening, it’s important that people really understand the truth about what happened on January 6th,” he said.

By AAMER MADHANI

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ahead of his second go-around in the White House, President Donald Trump spoke with certainty about ending Russia’s war in Ukraine in the first 24 hours of his new administration and finding lasting peace from the devastating 18-month conflict in Gaza.

But as the Republican president nears the 100th day of his second term, he’s struggling to make good on two of his biggest foreign policy campaign promises and is not taking well to suggestions that he’s falling short. And after criticizing President Joe Biden during last year’s campaign for preventing Israel from carrying out strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, Trump now finds himself giving diplomacy a chance as he tries to curb Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.

“The war has been raging for three years. I just got here, and you say, ‘What’s taken so long?’” Trump bristled, when asked about the Ukraine war in a Time magazine interview about his first 100 days. As for the Gaza conflict, he insisted the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in 2023 that triggered the war “would have never happened. Ever. You then say, ‘What’s taking so long?’”

Measuring a U.S. president by his first 100 days in office is an arbitrary, albeit time-honored, tradition in Washington. And brokering peace deals between intractable warring parties is typically the work of years, not weeks.

But no other president has promised to do as much out of the gate as Trump, who is pursuing a seismic makeover of America’s approach to friends and foes during his second turn in the White House.

Trump has moved at dizzying speed to shift the rules-based world order that has formed the basis for global stability and security in the aftermath of World War II.

All sides have scrambled to acclimate as Trump launched a global tariff war and slashed U.S. foreign aid all while talking up the ideas of taking Greenland from NATO ally Denmark and making Canada the 51st state.

But Trump’s inability to broker deals in Ukraine and Gaza — at least to date — might be the most demonstrable evidence that his effort to quickly shake up U.S. foreign policy through sheer will could have its limits.

And Trump hasn’t obscured his frustration, particularly over the Ukraine war, which he’s long dismissed as a waste of U.S. taxpayer money and of lives lost in the conflict.

The president and his team have gone hot and cold about prospects for peace in Ukraine since Trump’s Oval Office blowup with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February.

In that encounter, both Trump and Vice President JD Vance lectured the Ukrainian leader for being insufficiently grateful for U.S. assistance in the fight to repel Russia’s invading forces before asking him to leave the White House grounds.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned that the White House is ready to walk away if Ukraine and Russia don’t make substantial progress toward a peace deal soon.

And Trump on back-to-back days this past week lambasted Zelenskyy for “prolonging” the “killing field” and then Russian President Vladimir Putin for complicating negotiations with “very bad timing” in launching brutal strikes that pummeled Kyiv.

But by Friday, Trump was expressing optimism again after his special envoy Steve Witkoff met in Moscow with Putin. Following the talks, Trump declared that the two sides were “very close to a deal.”

Less than 24 hours later, Trump was once again downcast after he met with Zelenskyy on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral, expressing doubt in a social media post that Putin was serious about forging a deal.

“It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along,” Trump said of Putin and Russia’s ongoing bombardment of Ukraine.

Trump again expressed frustration with Putin in an exchange with reporters on Sunday evening. “I want him to stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal,” Trump said. “We have the confines of a deal, I believe. And I want him to sign it and be done with it.”

The Kremlin on Monday declared a ceasefire in Ukraine on May 8-10 as Russia marks Victory Day over Nazi Germany.

White House National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt said Trump remains committed to getting a deal done and is “closer to that objective than at any point during Joe Biden’s presidency.”

“Within 100 days, President Trump has gotten both Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table with the aim to bring this horrific war to a peaceful resolution,” Hewitt said. “It is no longer a question of if this war will end but when.”

Peace in Gaza remains elusive

Trump started his second term with some momentum on ending the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

His envoy Witkoff, a fellow New York real estate maverick turned high-stakes diplomat, teamed up with the outgoing Biden Middle East adviser Brett McGurk to get Israeli and Hamas officials to agree to a temporary ceasefire deal that went into effect one day before Trump’s inauguration. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

On the eve of his return to office, Trump took full credit for what he called an “epic” agreement that would lead to a “lasting peace” in the Middle East.

The temporary ceasefire led to the freeing of 33 hostages held in Gaza and the release of roughly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

But the truce collapsed in March, and fighting resumed, with the two sides unable to come to an agreement for the return of 59 remaining hostages, more that half of whom Israeli officials believe are dead.

Conditions in Gaza remain bleak. Israel has cut off all aid to the territory and its more than 2 million people. Israel has disputed that there is a shortage of aid in Gaza and says it’s entitled to block the assistance because, it claims, Hamas seizes the goods for its own use.

Trump, as he flew to Rome on Friday for the pope’s funeral, told reporters that he’s pressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “very hard” to get food and medicine into Gaza but dismissed questions about how the Israeli leader is responding to his appeal.

“Well, he knows all about it, OK?” Trump told reporters.

Hewitt, the National Security Council spokesman, pushed back on the notion that Trump has fallen short on his effort to find an endgame to the Gaza conflict, setting the blame squarely on Hamas.

“While we continue to work to secure the release of all remaining hostages, Hamas has chosen violence over peace, and President Trump has ensured that Hamas continues to face the gates of hell until it releases the hostages and disarms,” Hewitt said.

Trump’s team says the president has racked up more foreign policy wins than any other U.S. president this early in a term.

The White House counts among its early victories invoking a 1798 wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to deport Venezuelan migrants it accuses of being gang members, securing the release of at least 46 Americans detained abroad, and carrying out hundreds of military strikes in Yemen against Houthi militants who have been attacking commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea.

Trump hopeful for Iran nuclear deal breakthrough

The White House this month also launched direct talks with Iran over its nuclear program, a renewed push to solve another of the most delicate foreign policy issues facing the White House and the Middle East.

Trump says his administration is making progress in its effort to secure a deal with Iran to scupper Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.

Witkoff flew directly from meeting with Putin in Moscow to Muscat, Oman, to take part in talks on Saturday, the third engagement between U.S. and Iranian officials this month.

The U.S. and other world powers in 2015 reached a long-term, comprehensive nuclear agreement that limited Tehran’s enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. But Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear agreement in 2018, calling it the “worst deal ever.”

Since Trump pulled out of the Obama-era deal, Iran has accelerated its production of near weapons-grade uranium.

The president said on Friday that he’s open to meeting with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei or President Masoud Pezeshkian, while also indicating military action — something that U.S. ally Israel has advocated — remains an option.

As Trump increasingly expresses his preference for diplomacy rather than military action, Iran hawks at home are urging him to tread carefully in his hunt for a legacy-defining deal.

“The Iranians would have the talking point that they forced the same person who left the deal many years later, after them resisting maximum pressure, into an equal or worse deal,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

But Trump wants a solution, and fast.

“I think a deal is going to be made there,” Trump said Sunday “That’s going to happen pretty soon.”

By JACK BROOK, Associated Press/Report for America

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The textile mills that once served as the backbone of Mount Pleasant, North Carolina, have long been shuttered, and officials believed federal money would be key to the town’s overdue revitalization. They hoped an improved stormwater drainage system and secured electrical wires — funded through a program to help communities protect against natural disasters and climate change — would safeguard investments in new businesses like a renovated historic theater to spur the largely rural economy.

Mount Pleasant was about to receive $4 million when the Federal Emergency Management Agency eliminated the program. Officials say their plans — years in the making — and those of hundreds of communities nationwide supported by the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program have been upended.

“This is a generational set of infrastructure projects that would set us up for the next hundred years and it just — poof — went away,” said Erin Burris, assistant town manager for Mount Pleasant, 25 miles east of Charlotte.

FEMA’s elimination this month of the BRIC program revoked upwards of $3.6 billion in funding earmarked for communities like Mount Pleasant. Though President Donald Trump has openly questioned whether to shutter FEMA completely, local officials said they were blindsided by the move to end BRIC, established during the Republican president’s first term.

Many affected communities are in Republican-dominated, disaster-prone regions. FEMA called the BRIC grants “wasteful” and “politicized” tools, but officials and residents say they were a vital use of government resources to proactively protect lives, infrastructure and economies. Money would have gone toward strengthening electrical poles to withstand hurricane-force winds in Louisiana, relocating residents in Pennsylvania’s floodplains and safeguarding water supply lines in Oklahoma’s Tornado Alley.

Disasters affect the vast majority of Americans — 95% live in a county that has had a federally declared weather disaster since 2011, said Amy Chester, director of Rebuild by Design, a nonprofit focused on disaster prevention.

The BRIC program told communities, “We’re going to help your community be stronger ahead of time,” she said. “Cutting one of the sole sources of funding for that need is essentially telling Americans that it’s OK that they’re suffering.”

Officials call FEMA’s program imperfect but important

Across multiple states, officials said the BRIC program was far from perfect — they were often frustrated with the wait for funding.

But in southeastern Louisiana, Lafourche Parish President Archie Chaisson said despite his issues with FEMA’s bureaucracy, he’s seen firsthand that money invested to fortify homes and infrastructure works.

The hurricane-ravaged state receives the highest rate of federal disaster assistance per capita, with more than $8 billion pouring in since 2011, according to Rebuild by Design. Lafourche Parish has seen more than a dozen federally declared extreme weather disasters since 2011.

Lafourche had been set to receive more than $20 million from several grants to replace wooden electrical poles with steel and take other steps to lower the soaring costs of home insurance.

Chaisson, a Republican whose parish saw 80% of voters support Trump in November, said he backs efforts to streamline federal agencies — as long as funding continues to flow for disaster prevention.

“I’m hopeful that that’s what the president’s trying to do with this,” he said. “Is there some other way to get the money so we can continue to do these projects? … No matter where you sit on the political spectrum, the programs themselves and the dollars allocated make our communities more resilient.”

Research backs him up: A 2024 study funded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found every $1 invested in disaster preparation saved $13 in economic impact, damage and cleanup costs.

Democratic officials in states that lost money have publicly expressed outrage. Few Republicans have joined in at a national level, even though about two-thirds of the top 15 states in total FEMA funds received, spending per person and number of federally declared disasters lean heavily Republican.

An exception has been Louisiana’s senior U.S. senator, Bill Cassidy. He took to the Senate floor this month calling for BRIC’s reinstatement, saying it’s “a lifesaver and a cost-saver.”

About $185 million intended for Louisiana evaporated, and officials had to shelve dozens of applications for hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding, according to data compiled by state and federal agencies.

“This isn’t waste,” Cassidy said. “To do anything other than use that money to fund flood mitigation projects is to thwart the will of Congress.”

FEMA says more than $3.6 billion of BRIC funds will be returned to the federal Disaster Relief Fund, for disaster response and recovery, and an additional $882 million is being returned to the U.S. Treasury or reapportioned by Congress in the following fiscal year. Agency officials did not comment further for this story.

Some states fight to restore funds

Twenty-two mostly blue states and the District of Columbia have filed a lawsuit demanding the federal government release obligated funding, including FEMA grants.

The lawsuit highlights Grants Pass in conservative southern Oregon, where FEMA has refused to release BRIC funding awarded for a $50 million water treatment facility.

Flooding could knock out the water supply for 60,000 people for months, said Jason Canady, city public works director. Funding would have been used in part to build a modernized plant on higher ground.

“If you can’t provide drinking water, hospitals, groceries, restaurants are going to have trouble. Economically, it would be devastating,” he said. “It really is the cornerstone on which the community is built.”

In Stillwater, Oklahoma, Mayor Will Joyce spent two years working with FEMA on a BRIC application to overhaul and provide backup supply for a regional water system used by 100,000 people. Its 36-mile pipeline is at risk of damage from tornadoes and flooding. If it breaks, Stillwater has less than a day’s worth of reserve drinking water.

“We can’t just hope nothing bad happens,” Joyce said. “This project is a necessity.”

Without FEMA’s support, he said, Stillwater will have to double the cost of water for residents to fund the project.

In an open letter, U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan Jr., a northeast Pennsylvania Republican, urged FEMA to revive BRIC, saying communities in his district would struggle to fund disaster adaptation work, including relocating families in flooded homes.

Bresnahan wrote that “programs like BRIC are not wasteful, but well within the purview of federal coordination of disaster relief efforts” and noted that Trump “promised not to leave the forgotten men and women of America behind.”

Some towns fear their needs will be forgotten

In Mount Pleasant, Whit Moose, the fourth-generation owner of a downtown pharmacy, said few of his neighbors seem aware that funding disappeared, though his own business would have benefited.

“It was going to be a wonderful thing,” he said. “Now we just got to start over.”

Republican voters in the town embrace efforts to downsize government, but the perception is that cuts are focused on federal bureaucracy, related waste and redundancy, or diversity, equity and inclusion spending, said Jim Quick, vice chairman of the Cabarrus County Republican Party.

“It would be a surprise for us to learn that those budget cuts would be impacting a local municipality,” Quick said. “The reality is all of us have to trim back.”

Town voters are unlikely to retract their support for Trump, he said, noting that 80% supported him in November.

Burris, the assistant town manager, worries about flooding downtown. And she points to one vulnerable utility pole she’s nicknamed Atlas — after the Greek god carrying the world on his shoulders — holding up the electricity, internet and telecommunications for the town’s 1,700 people.

“It’s a special community, and it deserves good things,” Burris said, choking up. “I don’t know what was political about Mount Pleasant — little, teeny, tiny Mount Pleasant — getting a little bit of help with some stormwater flooding.”

Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

By CHRIS MEGERIAN and CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Since President Donald Trump returned to office, every week has been a whirlwind of activity to show Americans that his administration is relentlessly pursuing his promises.

With a compliant Republican-controlled Congress, Trump has had a free hand to begin overhauling the federal government and upending foreign policy.

As Trump hits his 100th day in office Tuesday, his imprint is everywhere. But will it last?

Very much unsettled is whether the Republican president has run up his scorecard lawfully. Trump has faced lawsuits over his attempts to surge deportations, punish law firms and slash the federal workforce. All of that and more is being adjudicated in courtrooms, meaning much of what he’s done could come undone.

Here’s a look at where progress on his promises stands:

He promised to beat inflation

“We’re going to get those prices down,” he told voters.

Prices have come down — before Trump took office and since. Inflation has been falling since a peak of 9.1% in 2022. It was at 3% in January, the month Trump was inaugurated, and 2.4% in March.

But the Federal Reserve has warned that the president’s tariff plans will most likely lead to higher prices by taxing foreign imports.

He’s cracked down on illegal immigration

Trump has clearly made progress on a signature promise to control the border.

The number of people trying to cross illegally into the United States from Mexico dropped steeply in President Joe Biden’s last year, from a high of 249,740 in December 2023 to 47,324 in December 2024. Under Trump, the numbers sank to only 8,346 in February and 7,181 in March.

For all the legal wrangling about Trump’s unorthodox and possibly illegal tactics to get immigrants out of the country, it’s unclear whether he’s matching Biden’s aggressive deportation record last year — the numbers are not yet in.

Meanwhile, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is arresting large numbers of people across the country. Many who assert their innocence have been deported without due process.

He promised to slash energy bills

Trump told voters he’ll reduce their energy costs by half to three-quarters in 12 to 18 months. That promise comes due next year.

He brought on the tariffs

Trump vowed in the campaign: “I will impose across-the-board tariffs on most foreign-made goods.”

He’s followed through, big time, though with frequently changing caveats.

Trump began by escalating tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, ostensibly as punishment for allowing fentanyl into the U.S. Then he announced even more widespread taxes on foreign imports on April 2, part of what he described as “Liberation Day.” Trump retreated from parts of that plan, choosing to pursue negotiations instead, but he left in place tariffs on China as high as 145%.

The stock market has whipsawed from the hefty import taxes and the erraticism in their application.

He failed to end a war as promised

At rally after rally last summer, Trump promised peace between Russia and Ukraine merely by winning the election. “Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, shortly after I win the presidency, I will have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine settled,” he told a Detroit conference in August. By then, he’d been making the same vow at least since May. It did not happen.

At times, he framed the promise differently, saying he would end the war in one day. That day has not come.

He promised big tax cuts

Trump has tested the limits of what he can do by decree, but he’ll need Congress to achieve his promised tax cuts.

He pledged to eliminate taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security payments, and he said he will make permanent the expiring tax cuts he enacted during his first term.

None of this has happened. And with big tariffs kicking in, the tax burden is on track to get worse before it possibly gets better. Trump is working with Republicans in Congress to push through legislation achieving the tax cuts, but his party has thin majorities.

He went after pillars of education

Trump’s threats to choke off billions in tax dollars to many universities flow from multiple promises in the campaign — to combat antisemitism on campuses, to take on diversity, equity and inclusion programs and to rid campuses of foreign students he considers hostile to American values.

After several other prominent schools signaled their willingness to comply with Trump’s demands, Harvard stood firm against the pressure.

In response, Trump has called for withdrawing Harvard’s tax-exempt status, has threatened to block it from enrolling foreign students — more than a quarter of its enrollments — and has frozen more than $2 billion in grants and contracts.

… and pillars of culture

Trump’s promised agenda against “woke” policy swept quickly through the government, as DEI programs from the Biden years were halted and references to diversity in federal communications were purged.

At the Pentagon, in particular, a messy revisionism ensued, as thousands of images on webpages and other online content were flagged for removal. An image of the Enola Gay bomber from World War II was flagged for deletion — because of the “gay” — as were materials paying tribute to Black and Navajo war heroes and pioneering women. Most of the targeted material ultimately survived.

An executive order from Trump on “restoring truth and sanity to American history” forbids federal money to Smithsonian programs that promote “improper ideology.”

He promised to roll back transgender rights

Trump campaigned against the participation of transgender athletes in sports and against broader moves in society, especially in Democratic-led jurisdictions, to accommodate views that gender is not inherently binary.

As president, he has signed executive orders to ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s teams, and he’s asked the Supreme Court to rule against lower courts that have blocked his attempt to remove transgender troops from the military.

He promised to pardon Jan. 6 rioters, and he did

In the campaign, Trump celebrated the Jan. 6 rioters as “patriots” and “hostages” of the justice system and promised, “I will sign their pardons on Day 1.” He did exactly that. Roughly 1,500 people, including those who attacked police officers, received pardons.

Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana and Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

First-time nominees Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker and Bad Company will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a class that also includes pop star Cyndi Lauper, the hip-hop pioneers Outkast, the rock duo the White Stripes and grunge masters Soundgarden.

Salt-N-Pepa, the first female rap act to achieve gold and platinum status, and the late singer-songwriter Warren Zevon will get the Musical Influence Award. The late record producer Thom Bell, pianist Nicky Hopkins and bassist Carol Kaye will each get the Musical Excellence Award.

The late Cocker, who sang at Woodstock and was best known for his cover of The Beatles With a Little Help From My Friends, had the backing of Billy Joel, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top and Pete Thomas, a member of Elvis Costello & The Attractions, who argued that Cocker is "about as rock and roll as it gets.

Soundgarden with the late Chris Cornell as singer get into the Hall on their third nomination. They follow two other grunge acts in the Hall Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Bad Company get in having become radio fixtures with such arena-rock staples as Feel Like Makin Love, Cant Get Enough and Rock n Roll Fantasy.

The Ahmet Ertegun Award given to nonperforming industry professionals who had a major influence on music will go to Lenny Waronker, a former head of Warner Bros. Records who signed Prince and R.E.M., and had a part in records from Madonna, Randy Newman, the Doobie Brothers, Rickie Lee Jones, Paul Simon and Gary Clark Jr.

Some nominees that didn't get in this year include Mariah Carey, Phish, Billy Idol, Joy Division/New Order, Man, the Black Crowes and Oasis.

Checkers recording of The Twist, and subsequent Lets Twist Again are considered among the most popular songs in the history of rock n roll. The 83-year-old has expressed frustration that he hadn't been granted entry before, including telling the AP in 2014: I dont want to get in there when Im 85 years old. Ill tell them to drop dead, so you better do it quick while Im still smiling.

Lauper rose to fame in the 1980s with hits such as Time After Time and Girls Just Want To Have Fun and went on to win a Tony Award for Kinky Boots. OutKast, made up of Andr 3000 and Big Boi, have six Grammys and a reputation for pushing the boundaries of hip-hop. The White Stripes made up of Jack White and Meg White were indie darlings in the early 2000s with such songs as Seven Nation Army.

Artists must have released their first commercial recording at least 25 years before theyre eligible for induction. The induction ceremony will take place in Los Angeles this fall.

Nominees were voted on by more than 1,200 artists, historians and music industry professionals. The selection criteria include an artists impact on other musicians, the scope and longevity of their career and body of work, as well as their innovation and excellence in style and technique.

Last year, Mary J. Blige,Cher, Foreigner, A Tribe Called Quest, Kool & The Gang, Ozzy Osbourne, Dave Matthews Band and singer-guitarist Peter Frampton all were inducted.

Today is Saturday, April 26, the 116th day of 2025. There are 249 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On April 26, 1986, in the worst nuclear disaster in history, an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine caused radioactive fallout to begin spewing into the atmosphere. Dozens of people were killed in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, while the long-term death toll from radiation poisoning is believed to number in the thousands.

Also on this date:

In 1607, English colonists went ashore at present-day Cape Henry, Virginia, on an expedition to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere.

In 1865, John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, was surrounded by federal troops near Port Royal, Virginia, and killed.

In 1913, Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old worker at a Georgia pencil factory, was strangled; Leo Frank, the factory superintendent, was convicted of her murder and sentenced to death. (Frank’s death sentence was commuted, but he was lynched by an antisemitic mob in 1915.)

In 1964, the African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form what is now known as Tanzania.

In 1977, the legendary nightclub Studio 54 had its opening night in New York.

In 1994, voting began in South Africa’s first all-race elections, which resulted in victory for the African National Congress and the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president.

In 2000, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean signed the nation’s first bill allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions.

In 2012, former Liberian President Charles Taylor became the first head of state since World War II to be convicted by an international war crimes court as he was found guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, and the use of child soldiers. (Taylor was sentenced to 50 years in prison.)

In 2018, comedian Bill Cosby was convicted of drugging and molesting Temple University employee Andrea Constand at Cosby’s suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004. (Cosby was later sentenced to three to 10 years in prison, but Pennsylvania’s highest court threw out the conviction and released him from prison in June 2021, ruling that the prosecutor in the case was bound by his predecessor’s agreement not to charge Cosby.)

Today’s Birthdays:

• Actor-comedian Carol Burnett is 92.
• Composer-producer Giorgio Moroder is 85.
• Olympic swimming gold medalist Donna de Varona is 78.
• Actor Giancarlo Esposito is 67.
• Actor Joan Chen is 64.
• Actor Jet Li is 62.
• Actor-comedian Kevin James is 60.
• Former U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey is 59.
• Actor Marianne Jean-Baptiste is 58.
• First lady Melania Trump is 55.
• Singer Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins (TLC) is 55.
• Country musician Jay DeMarcus (Rascal Flatts) is 54.
• Actor Tom Welling is 48.
• Actor Pablo Schreiber is 47.
• Actor Jordana Brewster is 45.
• Actor Channing Tatum is 45.
• New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge is 33.

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Pope Francis died on Easter Monday at the age of 88. His death set off mourning across the Catholic world and days of ritual at the Vatican. Here are the key things to know about the funeral of the first Latin American pontiff in the church’s history:

When and where is his funeral being held?

His funeral is being held on Saturday in St. Peter’s Square. Francis will then be buried, according to his will: in a simple underground tomb at St. Mary Major Basilica. The church is home to his favorite icon of the Virgin Mary, to whom he was particularly devoted.

The sealing of the coffin

The night before the funeral, the camerlengo presided over the closing and sealing of the coffin, in the presence of other senior cardinals. A white cloth was placed over Francis’ face.

A bag containing coins minted during his papacy was placed in the coffin along with a one-page written account of his papacy — known in Italian as a “rogito,” a word indicating an official deed. It was read aloud by the master of liturgical ceremonies and then rolled up and slipped inside a cylindrical tube that was placed inside the coffin. Another copy is kept in the Vatican archives. The covers of both the zinc coffin and the wooden one bear a cross and Francis’ papal coat of arms.

Why not at the Vatican?

Francis had said he wanted to be buried not in St. Peter’s Basilica or its grottoes, where most popes are buried, but in the St. Mary Major Basilica across town. His choice reflects his veneration of an icon of the Virgin Mary that is located there, the Salus Populi Romani (Salvation of the people of Rome).

Before and after every foreign trip, Francis would go to the basilica to pray before the Byzantine-style painting that features an image of Mary, draped in a blue robe, holding the infant Jesus who in turn holds a jeweled golden book.

Which dignitaries are expected to attend?

Heads of state, including U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron, are among those expected for the funeral. Others dignitaries include: Prince William, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and European Council President António Costa.

How long did the pope serve?

Pope Francis had a 12-year papacy during which he charmed the world with his humility and concern for the poor. But the Argentina-born pope also alienated conservatives with critiques of capitalism and climate change.

So, how do they choose a new pope?

The death of a pope starts a centuries-old ritual to elect a new one, involving sacred oaths by the cardinals, the piercing of ballots with a needle and thread after they’re counted, and then burning them to produce either the white or black smoke to signal if there’s a new leader for the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

With the burial, the Catholic Church begins nine days of official mourning, known as the “novemdiales”. The date of the conclave to elect a new pope has not yet been announced.

In the conclave, the cardinals will vote in secret sessions, and the ballots will be burned in a special stove after each session. Black smoke indicates no pope has been elected; white smoke says the cardinals have chosen the next head of the Catholic Church.

Any baptized Catholic male is eligible, though only cardinals have been selected since 1378. The winner must receive at least two-thirds of the vote from those cardinals under age 80 who are eligible to participate.

Francis appointed the vast majority of electors, often tapping men who share his pastoral priorities, which suggests continuity rather than rupture.

While it’s impossible to predict who the next pope will be, some cardinals are considered to have better chances than others.

Is it like the movie?

Yes and no. “Conclave” the 2024 film, introduced many laypeople to the ancient selection process with its arcane rules and grand ceremony, albeit with a silver screen twist packed full of palace intrigue and surprise.

Vatican experts say the movie excels at re-creating the look and feel of a conclave. But there are discrepancies, errors and some outlandish storylines in the Hollywood version. And while the voting process was depicted accurately, the ballots are burned not after each vote, but after each session.

The legacy of Francis

Francis was known for his personal simplicity, from the choice of his name Francis in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, who renounced wealth to help the poor, to the outward symbols and priorities of his papacy.

He chose to live in the Vatican’s Domus Santa Marta hotel instead of the Apostolic Palace and wore his old orthotic shoes and not the red loafers of the papacy.

In his teachings, he focused on concern for refugees and other marginalized people. His first trip outside Rome as pope in 2013 was to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa to meet with newly arrived migrants. His plea for welcome put him at odds with U.S. and European policies.

He also also signaled a more welcoming stance toward LGBTQ+ people, while also making the fight against climate change a priority. Francis became the first pope to use scientific data in a major teaching document and made care for God’s creation a hallmark of his papacy.

He eschewed the grandiose even in his departure, lying in state in a simple coffin made of wood.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — From some of the world’s most powerful leaders to those on society’s margins whom Pope Francis always made a point to minister to, hundreds of thousands of people were expected at the Vatican Saturday for the funeral rites for the late pontiff.

U.S. President Donald Trump and some 60 other heads of state and reigning sovereigns announced their plans to travel to Rome from around the globe. The Vatican said that “a group of the poor and the needy” would be on the steps of St. Mary Major Basilica to pay homage to the first Jesuit and first Latin American pope before his burial in the church.

The Holy See press office added that the poor had a special place in Francis’ heart. He had chosen for his papacy the name of the medieval Italian saint who famously renounced his family’s wealth when he joined the church.

Already, long lines of the faithful have paid their homage to Francis, who died Monday at age 88, over the three days that his body was lying in state in a simple wooden coffin inside St. Peter’s Basilica.

From the beginning of his papacy in 2013, Francis won over many around the world, Catholic or not, with his advocacy for migrants and the environment. His legacy was more mixed on the topics of clergy sexual abuse and LGBTQ+ outreach, which made waves for increasing inclusion but some criticized for not going far enough.

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press

ROME (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday was among more than 50 heads of state and other dignitaries attending the funeral of Pope Francis, where he’ll personally pay his respects to the Roman Catholic leader who pointedly disagreed with him on a variety of issues.

Trump arrived at the Vatican with his wife, first lady Melania Trump.

Trump told reporters on Friday as he flew to Rome that he was going to the funeral “out of respect” for the pontiff, who died Monday after suffering a stroke at the age of 88.

Francis sharply disagreed with Trump’s approach on issues including immigration, the treatment of migrants and climate change. The Argentine pontiff and the American president sparred early in their relationship over immigration. In 2016, Francis, alluding to then-candidate Trump and his campaign slogan of “Build the wall,” called anyone who builds a wall to keep out migrants “ not Christian.” Trump said the comment was “disgraceful.”

But after Francis’ death, the Republican president praised him as a “good man” who “worked hard” and “loved the world.” Trump also directed that U.S. flags be flown at half-staff in Francis’ honor.

Trump had said on a couple of occasions before leaving Washington that he would have “a lot” of meetings with counterparts on the sidelines of the funeral. But he seemed to back away from that as he flew to Rome.

“Frankly, it’s a little disrespectful to have meetings when you’re at the funeral of a pope,” the president told reporters accompanying him aboard Air Force One. Nonetheless, Trump said: “I’ll be talking to people. I’ll be seeing a lot of people.”

The leaders of France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Hungary and Argentina are among those expected to attend.

One person Trump didn’t expect to interact with is former President Joe Biden, who planned to attend the funeral with his wife, Jill. Trump said he wasn’t aware his Democratic predecessor would be at the funeral. Asked if they’d meet, Trump said: “It’s not high on my list. It’s really not.”

The pope’s funeral will not be one of those occasions that bring together the current and former U.S. presidents. Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush are not attending, their offices said. A spokesperson for former President Bill Clinton did not respond to an inquiry about his plans.

Trump didn’t elaborate when asked if he’d just be meeting leaders in passing or holding more in-depth talks. He suggested he might have meetings at Villa Taverna, the U.S. ambassador’s residence, where he spent the night.

“It’s a little tough because we don’t have much time,” Trump said, noting his late arrival in Rome. He was scheduled to head back to the United States immediately after the funeral.

“I think that we’re going to try and see a couple of people that are important in what we’re doing,” said Trump, who is trying to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine and negotiate trade agreements with multiple countries.

He posted on Truth Social shortly after arriving in Rome that Ukraine and Russia should meet for “very high level talks” on ending the bloody three-year war sparked by Russia’s invasion. His envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier Friday, and Trump said both sides were “very close to a deal.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Rome on Saturday to attend the funeral, his press office confirmed, joining first lady Olena Zelenska. Putin is not attending.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — As many as 200,000 people are expected to attend Pope Francis’ funeral in St. Peter’s Square as he is being laid to rest Saturday.

While dignitaries are to attend, prisoners and migrants will usher him into the basilica where he will be buried, reflecting his priorities as pope.

U.S. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, the U.N. chief and European Union leaders are joining Prince William and the Spanish royal family will be in attendance.

Francis is breaking with recent tradition and will be buried in the St. Mary Major Basilica, where a simple underground tomb awaits him with just his name: Franciscus.

The funeral is set to start at 10 a.m. local time.

Here is the latest:

Giant photographs of Carlo Acutis seen in St. Peter’s Square

Acutis was supposed to have been canonized on Sunday as the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint.

The Vatican suspended the ceremony after Pope Francis died, but many people who had made plans to be in Rome for the canonization came anyway to attend the funeral. Announcers asked all flags and banners be lowered as the funeral was getting underway.

Bells toll to signal the start of the procession

Francis’ coffin will be brought from St. Peter’s Basilica to the front of the altar in the square.

Mourners were instructed to refrain from waving flags or banners during the procession.

Mourners led in rosary prayer as dignitaries take their seats at Pope Francis’ funeral

World leaders and royalty were sitting to the right of the main altar.

EU Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and Argentine President Javier Milei have all made their way to their seating.

The Argentine and Italian leaders have place of pride in the seating order.

Trump arrives at funeral to pay respects to Pope Francis

The U.S. president clashed with the pope on immigration, climate and other issues.

Mourners remember Pope Francis

They spoke of the pontiff in emotional terms while lining up along Via della Conciliazione for Pope Francis’ funeral in St. Peter’s Square.

Miguel Vaca, a pilgrim from Peru, lined up at 7 a.m.

“He was a very charismatic pope, very human, very kind, above all very human,’’ Vaca said. “It’s a very great emotion to say goodbye to him.

Italian pilgrim Pasquale Vezza made his way to the square with his family. He said the pope “was a bit like everyone’s grandfather.”

“He will be greatly missed as a person, as a pope. … Now we hope that there will be a continuation, especially of his message of peace,” Vezza said.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy arrives in Rome for papal funeral

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Rome to attend the funeral of Pope Francis.

His press office confirmed his arrival, joining the first lady Olena Zelenska, who preceded him.

Zelenskyy’s presence was put in doubt after a recent missile attack.

Pope’s coffin will be placed on the back of a popemobile used on a Philippines trip

The pope will get one more ride past the faithful on one of his beloved popemobiles.

The Vatican says for Saturday’s burial procession, his coffin will be placed on the back of a popemobile used during his 2015 trip to the Philippines.

The vehicle has been modified so the coffin will be visible to mourners along the nearly 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) route from St. Peter’s Basilica to his place of burial.

The pope reveled in being driven through crowds of faithful whether in St. Peter’s Square or on one of his many foreign trips. His last was on Easter Sunday, when he looped around St. Peter’s Square to the delight of the faithful who had followed his 5-week hospitalization for pneumonia and his recovery at the Vatican.

A Calabria parish group camped out all night to get a good spot

The 13 spent the night in a nearby square. They were already coming to Rome for the planned canonization of the first millennial saint on Sunday, which was suspended by Francis’ death. Instead, they drove up a day early for his funeral.

“The Lord wanted it this way, so we came all the same,’’ said Sandra De Felice of Anoia in the Calabria region. “For me, this is a sign that we need to be truly humble and charitable. Otherwise, we are nothing.”

Mourners race to find a spot in St Peter’s Square

Ordinary mourners streamed Saturday to get a spot in standing room near the rear of the square surrounding the ancient obelisk, behind VIP seating. The area to the left of the main altar, up the basilica steps, is reserved for celebrants and Catholic hierarchy, while world leaders and royalty will be seated on the right.

Many ran toward the square as barricades opened. Some carried banners for the Jubilee Holy Year that Francis opened in December and will continue despite his death Monday following a stroke.

By NICOLE WINFIELD and COLLEEN BARRY, Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Tens of thousands of people poured into St. Peter’s Square starting at dawn Saturday to honor Pope Francis with a farewell ceremony reflecting his priorities as pope and wishes as pastor: Presidents and princes will attend his funeral Mass at the Vatican, but prisoners and migrants will welcome him into the basilica across town where he will be laid to rest.

As many as 200,000 people are expected to attend the funeral, which Francis choreographed himself when he revised and simplified the Vatican’s rites and rituals last year. His aim was to emphasize the pope’s role as a mere pastor and not “a powerful man of this world.”

It was a reflection of Francis’ 12-year project to radically reform the papacy, to stress priests as servants and to construct “a poor church for the poor.” He articulated the mission just days after his 2013 election and it explained the name he chose as pope, honoring St. Francis of Assisi “who had the heart of the poor of the world,” according to the official decree of the pope’s life that was placed in his simple wooden coffin before it was sealed Friday night.

Despite Francis’ focus on the powerless, the powerful will be at his funeral. U.S. President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, and European Union leaders are joining Prince William and European royals leading more than 160 official delegations. Argentine President Javier Milei had the pride of place given Francis’ nationality, even if the two didn’t particularly get along and the pope alienated many Argentines by never returning home.

The white facade of St. Peter’s Basilica glowed pink as the sun rose Saturday and hordes of mourners rushed into the square hours before the funeral. Giant television screens were set up along the surrounding streets for those who couldn’t get close. The Mass and funeral procession — with Francis’ coffin carried on the open-topped popemobile he used during his 2015 trip to the Philippines — is also being broadcast live around the world.

Some mourners spent the night camped out in surrounding piazzas, and the mood was almost festive as helicopters whirled overhead. Italy has deployed more than 2,500 police and 1,500 soldiers to provide security, which also includes stationing a torpedo ship off the coast, Italian media reported.

Many mourners had planned to be in Rome anyway this weekend for the now-postponed Holy Year canonization of the first millennial saint, Carlo Acutis, and groups of scouts and youth church groups nearly outnumbered the gaggles of nuns and seminarians.

“He was a very charismatic pope, very human, very kind, above all very human,” said Miguel Vaca, a pilgrim from Peru who said he had camped out near the piazza. “It is a very great emotion to say goodbye to him.”

The poor and marginalized welcome him

Francis, the first Latin American and first Jesuit pope, died Easter Monday at age 88 after suffering a stroke while recovering at home from pneumonia.

Following his funeral, preparations will begin in earnest to launch the centuries-old process of electing a new pope, a conclave that will likely begin in the first week of May. In the interim, the Vatican is being run by a handful of cardinals, key among them Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the 91-year-old dean of the College of Cardinals who is presiding at the funeral and organizing the secret voting in the Sistine Chapel.

Francis is breaking with recent tradition and will be laid to rest in St. Mary Major Basilica, near Rome’s main train station, where a simple tomb awaits him with just his name: Franciscus. As many as 300,000 people are expected to line the 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) motorcade route that will bring Francis’ coffin from the Vatican through the center of Rome to the basilica after the funeral.

Forty special guests, organized by the Vatican’s Caritas charity and the Sant’Egidio community, will greet his coffin at the basilica, honoring the marginalized groups Francis prioritized as pope: homeless people and migrants, prisoners and transgender people.

“The poor have a privileged place in the heart of God,” the Vatican quoted Francis as saying in explaining the choice.

A special relationship with the basilica

Even before he became pope, Francis had a particular affection for St. Mary Major, home to a Byzantine-style icon of the Madonna, the Salus Populi Romani, to which Francis was particularly devoted. He would pray before it before and after each of his foreign trips as pope.

The choice of the basilica is also symbolically significant given its ties to Francis’ Jesuit religious order. St. Ignatius Loyola, who founded the Jesuits, celebrated his first Mass in the basilica on Christmas Day in 1538.

Crowds waited hours to bid farewell to Francis

Over three days this week, more than 250,000 people stood for hours in line to pay their final respects while Francis’ body lay in state in St. Peter’s Basilica. The Vatican kept the basilica open through the night to accommodate them, but it wasn’t enough. When the doors closed to the general public at 7 p.m. on Friday, mourners were turned away in droves.

By dawn Saturday, they were back and ready to say a final farwell, some recalling the words he uttered the very first night of his election and throughout his papacy.

“We are here to honor him because he always said ‘don’t forget to pray for me,’” said Sister Christiana Neenwata from Biafrana, Nigeria. “So we are also here to give to him this love that he gave to us.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is poised to crack down on leaks of information to the news media, authorizing prosecutors to issue subpoenas to news organizations as part of leak investigations, serve search warrants when appropriate and force journalists to testify about their sources.

New regulations, announced by Attorney General Pam Bondi in a memo to the workforce obtained by The Associated Press on Friday, rescind a Biden administration policy that protected journalists from having their phone records secretly seized during leak investigations — a practice long decried by news organizations and press freedom groups.

The new regulations assert that news organizations must respond to subpoenas “when authorized at the appropriate level of the Department of Justice” and also allow for prosecutors to use court orders and search warrants to “compel production of information and testimony by and relating to the news media.”

The memo says members of the press are “presumptively entitled to advance notice of such investigative activities,” and subpoenas are to be “narrowly drawn.” Warrants must also include “protocols designed to limit the scope of intrusion into potentially protected materials or newsgathering activities,” the memo states.

“The Justice Department will not tolerate unauthorized disclosures that undermine President Trump’s policies, victimize government agencies, and cause harm to the American people,” Bondi wrote.

The regulations come as the Trump administration has complained about a series of news stories that have pulled back the curtain on internal decision-making, intelligence assessments and the activities of prominent officials such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, said Wednesday that she was making a trio of referrals to the Justice Department over disclosures to the media.

The policy that Bondi is rescinding was created in 2021 by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland in the wake of revelations that the Justice Department officials ls alerted reporters at three news organizations — The Washington Post, CNN and The New York Times — that their phone records had been obtained in the final year of the Trump administration.

The new regulations from Garland marked a startling reversal concerning a practice that has persisted across multiple presidential administrations. The Obama Justice Department, under then-Attorney General Eric Holder, alerted The Associated Press in 2013 that it had secretly obtained two months of phone records of reporters and editors in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into newsgathering activities.

After blowback, Holder announced a revised set of guidelines for leak investigations, including requiring the authorization of the highest levels of the department before subpoenas for news media records could be issued.

But the department preserved its prerogative to seize journalists’ records, and the recent disclosures to the news media organizations show that the practice continued in the Trump Justice Department as part of multiple investigations.

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from implementing an executive order that a labor union says would cancel collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal employees.

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman ruled that a key part of President Donald Trump’s March 27 order can’t be enforced at roughly three dozen agencies and departments where employees are represented by the National Treasury Employees Union.

The union, which represents nearly 160,000 federal government employees workers, sued to challenge Trump’s order. The union said it would lose more than half of its revenue and over two-thirds of its membership if the judge denied its request for a preliminary injunction.

Friedman said he would issue an opinion in several days to explain his two-page order. The ruling isn’t the final word in the lawsuit. He gave the attorneys until May 2 to submit a proposal for how the case should proceed.

Some agencies, including the FBI, are exempt from a law requiring federal agencies to bargain with labor organizations over employment matters. Presidents can apply the exemption to agencies that have a “primary function” of performing intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative or national security work.

But no president before Trump tried to use the national security exemption to exclude an entire cabinet-level agency from the law’s requirements, according to the employees’ union. It said Trump’s order is designed to facilitate mass firings and exact “political vengeance” against federal unions opposed to his agenda.

“The President’s use of the Statute’s narrow national security exemption to undo the bulk of the Statute’s coverage is plainly at odds with Congress’s expressed intent,” union attorneys wrote.

Government lawyers argued that the court order requested by the union would interfere with the president’s duty to ensure federal workers are prepared to help protect national security.

“It is vital that agencies with a primary purpose of national security are responsive and accountable to the American people.” Justice Department attorneys wrote.

The IRS is the largest bargaining unit represented by the National Treasury Employees Union. A day after Trump signed his order, the administration sued a union chapter in Kentucky to seek a ruling that it can terminate the collective bargaining agreement for the IRS.

The union says the administration has “effectively conceded” that its members don’t do national security work. The union members affected by the executive order also include employees of the Health and Human Services Department, the Energy Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Communications Commission.

The union said it will lose approximately $25 million in dues revenue over the next year. Some agencies, it says, already have stopped deducting union dues from employees’ pay.

“In the absence of preliminary injunctive relief, NTEU may no longer be able to exist in a manner that is meaningful to the federal workers for whom it fights,” union lawyers wrote.

Government attorneys argued that the courts typically defer to the president’s judgment on national security matters.

“Executive actions that are facially valid — that is, within the lawful authority of the executive — are entitled to a presumption of regularity,” they wrote.

By HOLLY RAMER

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Nineteen states that refused to comply with a Trump administration directive aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public schools went a step further Friday, filing a federal lawsuit challenging what they consider an illegal threat to cut federal funding.

The lawsuit filed in Massachusetts by Democratic attorneys general seeks to block the Department of Education from withholding money based on its April 3 directive ordering states to certify their compliance with civil rights laws, including the rejection of what the federal government calls “illegal DEI practices.” States also were told to gather signatures from local school systems certifying their compliance by April 24.

Instead, the plaintiffs informed the government that they stand by their prior certifications of compliance with the law but refuse to abandon policies that promote equal access to education.

“Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are legal efforts that help students feel safe, supported and respected. The Trump administration’s threats to withhold critical education funding due to the use of these initiatives are not only unlawful, but harmful to our children, families, and schools,” said Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell.

The new lawsuit comes a day after judges in three states ruled against the Trump administration in separate but related cases.

A Maryland judge postponed the effective date of a Feb. 14 memo in which the education department told schools and colleges they needed to end any practice that differentiates people based on their race. A judge in Washington, D.C., granted a preliminary injunction against the April certification letter. And in New Hampshire, a judge ruled that the department can not enforce either document against the plaintiffs in that case, which includes one of the nation’s largest teachers’ unions.

All three lawsuits argue that the guidance limits academic freedom and is so vague that it leaves schools and educators in limbo about what they may do, such as whether voluntary student groups for minority students are still allowed.

The new lawsuit accuses the administration of imperiling more than $13.8 billion, including money used to serve students with disabilities.

“Plaintiffs are left with an impossible choice: either certify compliance with an ambiguous and unconstitutional federal directive — threatening to chill polices, programs and speech – or risk losing indispensable funds that serve their most vulnerable student populations,” the lawsuit states.

In addition to Campbell, the plaintiffs are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The education department did not respond to a request for comment Friday. President Donald Trump’s education secretary, Linda McMahon, has warned of potential funding cuts if states do not return the certification forms.

In a Tuesday interview on the Fox Business Network, McMahon said that states that refuse to sign could “risk some defunding in their districts.” The purpose of the form is “to make sure there’s no discrimination that’s happening in any of the schools,” she said.

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