by Ariana Figueroa, Alabama Reflector
August 15, 2025

WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice will rewrite an order from Attorney General Pam Bondi that initially placed a Trump administration official in charge of the District of Columbia’s police force, after an emergency hearing late Friday afternoon on a lawsuit filed by the district.

Attorneys on behalf of the Justice Department told District of Columbia Judge Ana C. Reyes they would rewrite Section 1 of Bondi’s order by a deadline the judge set of 6:30 p.m. Eastern Friday.

In that section, Bondi’s late Thursday order named Terry Cole, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, as head of the Metropolitan Police Department.

District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb called that move a “brazen usurpation of the district’s authority” in his suit filed early Friday against the Trump administration.

Reyes, who was nominated by former President Joe Biden, said if she did not receive the new order by the deadline, she would issue a temporary restraining order against the DOJ. She said she found that section of Bondi’s order “plainly contrary to statute” of the district’s Home Rule Act of 1973.

The exact changes to the order were not immediately available.

District filed suit Friday

Schwalb early Friday sued the Trump administration for taking control of the Metropolitan Police Department’s 3,400 officers.

The suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia argued that President Donald Trump’s Monday executive order to federalize the district’s police force “far exceeded” the president’s authority under the Home Rule Act of 1973 that allows Washingtonians to elect their local leaders, but gives Congress control over local laws and the district’s budget.

Trump has warned he may pursue similar action in other Democratic-led cities that he sees as having “totally out of control” crime, though experts have questioned the legality and mayors already have raised objections.

“This is the gravest threat to Home Rule DC has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it,” Schwalb, a Democrat elected in 2022, wrote on social media. “The Administration’s actions are brazenly unlawful. They go well beyond the bounds of the President’s limited authority and instead seek a hostile takeover of MPD.”

District Mayor Muriel Bowser pushed back on Bondi’s order, and wrote on social media that “there is no statute that conveys the District’s personnel authority to a federal official.”

“Let us be clear about what the law requires during a Presidential declared emergency: it requires the mayor of Washington, DC to provide the services of the Metropolitan Police Department for federal purposes at the request of the President,” she said. “We have followed the law.”

The suit asks for a judge to vacate Bondi’s order and an order to prevent the Trump administration from “from issuing any future orders or directives or taking any other action that attempts to place MPD under the control of anyone other than the Mayor and the Chief of Police, otherwise assert operational control over MPD, or otherwise attempt to direct local law enforcement activities.”

The suit does not challenge Trump’s decision to deploy 800 National Guard members to the district. Because the district, home to more than 700,000 residents, is not a state, the president has the sole authority over the National Guard members.

Carjacking preceded Trump order

Trump earlier this week declared a “crime emergency” after a former U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, official was injured on Aug. 3 in an attempted carjacking incident around 3 a.m. Eastern near the Logan Circle neighborhood. Two Maryland teenagers were arrested on charges of unarmed carjacking in connection with the incident.

Violent crime in the district is at a historic 30-year low.

The suit notes Trump’s previous comments about his plans for the district, from his time as a 2024 presidential candidate to his most recent remarks about taking over control of the district while at a February press conference.

“I think that we should govern the District of Columbia … I think that we should run it strong, run it with law and order, make it absolutely flawless … And I think we should take over Washington, D.C. … We should govern D.C. The federal government should take over the governance of D.C.,” Trump said in the court document.

Advocates and local leaders have criticized the president’s decision, arguing that the move is nothing more than an extension of the administration’s immigration crackdown. Checkpoints have popped up all over the city in communities with a high immigrant population. 

Additionally, the district’s police chief Thursday issued a new order to allow local police to aid federal officials in immigration enforcement for immigrants not in police custody.

Trump praised Thursday’s order, calling it “a very positive thing,” especially at checkpoints in the district.

“When they stop people, they find they’re illegal, they report them, they give them to us,” he said.

Last updated 4:33 p.m., Aug. 15, 2025

Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com.

The post District of Columbia sues Trump administration over ‘hostile takeover’ of police force appeared first on alabamareflector.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The content presents a critical perspective on former President Donald Trump’s actions regarding federal control over the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, emphasizing legal challenges and local opposition led by Democratic officials. While it includes factual details and statements from multiple sides, the framing highlights concerns about federal overreach and the defense of local governance, which aligns more closely with a center-left viewpoint. The article maintains a mostly neutral tone but leans toward skepticism of the Trump administration’s measures.

SUMMARY: An elderly couple in Hartsell lost their life savings after falling victim to a scam. Curtis Lemaster received a fake warning on his laptop instructing him to call a supposed Windows support number. The scammer threatened to report him to the police for alleged illegal activity on his computer. Over several hours, Curtis was coerced into spending $8,000 on Lowe’s gift cards. The Better Business Bureau warns of such scams, highlighting urgency and requests for gift cards as red flags. Police say recovery chances are slim. A GoFundMe has been set up to help the couple recover.

Curtis and Carolyn Lemaster lost the savings they built over 62 years of marriage to one phone call.

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by William Skipworth, Alabama Reflector
August 14, 2025

This story originally appeared on New Hampshire Bulletin. 

On Wednesday, Gov. Kelly Ayotte said New Hampshire has “open arms” for visitors from Canada. The data suggests that gesture hasn’t been enough to persuade them to cross the border.

New Hampshire business officials say tourism from Canada is down roughly 30% amid rising tension between the Trump administration and Canadian government.

“Absolutely the Canadian numbers are lower,” Taylor Caswell, commissioner of the state’s Department of Business and Economic Affairs, told the Governor and Executive Council during a meeting in the border town of Pittsburg last month. “I mean, they’re running at about 30% underneath what we’ve seen in prior years.”

Though the commissioner couldn’t say for sure what’s driving this decrease, he floated the strained relations between the U.S. and Canada as a possible culprit.

“It could be weather,” he said. “It could be basic economics. It could be gas prices. It could be, as we are seeing now, some difficulty and volatility between the Canadian government and the United States government.”

Customs and Border Protection data reflects this, too. The number of passenger vehicles traveling into New Hampshire, Vermont, or Maine from Canada was about 228,000 in July. That’s down about 105,000 vehicles over last year, a 32% drop. That number has been down from last year every single month since January. In total, the number of vehicles traveling into northern New England from October (the start of the agency’s fiscal year) through July was about 1.8 million. That same time period last fiscal year, it was 2.1 million.

New Hampshire’s outdoor recreation economy, particularly its mountains and lakes, have long brought tourists from both Massachusetts in the south and Canada in the north.

Since re-entering the White House in January, President Donald Trump has frequently floated the idea of annexing Canada as the “51st state,” at one point alluding to the possible use of military force. The idea has offended Canadians and prompted Prime Minister Mark Carney to rebuke it repeatedly.

At one point in a May Oval Office meeting between the two leaders, Carney told the American president Canada is “not for sale, won’t be for sale, ever,” to which Trump replied, “Never say never.”

Trump has also imposed hefty tariffs on Canada, as part of his controversial campaign to eliminate trade deficits with other countries. At the beginning of this month, Trump increased those tariffs from 25% to 35%. The tariffs are ostensibly meant to curb what Trump argues is a fentanyl and drug trafficking issue at the northern border. Goods that fall under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement are exempt from the 35% rate.

For her part, Ayotte is scheduled to visit Canada in September for a trade mission. Asked Wednesday about her level of concern about the hit to tourism, she emphasized that “we certainly welcome the tourists from Canada.”

“That’s one of the things I’m going to just continue to promote on behalf of New Hampshire,” she said. “Not only that they’re welcome here — the Canadians — but we have open arms to them.”

She said her team is also going to be emphasizing business opportunities and relationships between New Hampshire and Canada during her visit next month. The trip is scheduled for Sept. 7-11, and Caswell will be joining her.

New Hampshire Bulletin is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com.

Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com.

The post Number of Canadian tourists visiting New Hampshire down 30% this year, officials say appeared first on alabamareflector.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

The article centers on a Republican governor and outlines impacts attributed to the Trump administration’s policies, including tariffs and strained U.S.-Canada relations. While it presents factual information and quotes from officials without overt editorializing, the framing of Trump’s actions as “controversial” and the inclusion of criticism alongside government perspectives suggests a moderate critical stance toward the administration. The content primarily focuses on economic and regional issues without strong partisan language, aligning it closer to a Center-Right perspective that acknowledges Republican leadership while hinting at contentious policy effects.