• ALABAMA ABORTION BILL NOW LAW: “Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has signed the bill to make abortion a felony in Alabama, the governor’s office announced. … The language in the bill says it will take effect in six months. But the sponsors said their intent was to trigger litigation that could lead to a challenge of abortion rights nationally.” (al.com)

• LOUISIANA, MISSOURI FOLLOW SUIT: According to the Associated Press, “A proposal to ban abortions in Louisiana as early as the sixth week of pregnancy continue[s] to speed through the state legislature.” Meanwhile, “Missouri’s Republican-led Senate has now passed a bill to ban abortions at eight weeks of pregnancy,” the AP also reports.

• IMMIGRATION PROPOSAL: “President Trump will roll out a new immigration proposal on Thursday… The plan … would create a ‘merit-based’ visa system that gives preference to migrants with coveted job skills instead of relatives of other immigrants. It also calls for new infrastructure at ports of entry to speed up commerce while cracking down on drug and human smuggling.” (The Hill)

• NEW YORKER CHALLENGES NEW YORKER: “New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, the twice-elected chief executive of the nation’s largest city, announced Thursday that he is joining the Democratic field of presidential candidates, pledging in a campaign video that he would ‘put working people first.’” (The Washington Post)

• NADLER REBUFFED: “The White House is rejecting the House Judiciary committee’s request to turn over documents on a broad range of topics mainly focused on key figures in the 2016 presidential election. ‘The White House will not participate in the Committee’s "investigation” that brushes aside the conclusions of the Department of Justice after a two-year-long effort in favor of political theater pre-ordained to reach a preconceived and false result,’ the letter sent from White House counsel Pat Cipollone reads.“ (ABC News)

• COMEY-BRENNAN BLAME GAME: "A potential rift is emerging between James Comey and John Brennan over who pushed to include information from the unverified Steele dossier in an intelligence community assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election.” (The Daily Caller)

• AUTO TARIFF DELAY? “The Trump administration plans to delay auto tariffs by up to six months, stopping itself for now from widening global trade disputes… The White House faces a Saturday deadline to decide whether to slap duties on car and auto part imports over national security concerns. After Saturday, the administration would have another 180 days to come to a decision as long as it is negotiating with its counterparts.” (CNBC)

• HUAWEI BLACKLISTED: “The Trump administration hit Chinese telecoms giant Huawei with severe sanctions on Wednesday… The Commerce Department said it was adding Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and 70 affiliates to its ‘Entity List’ — a move that bans the company from acquiring components and technology from U.S. firms without government approval.” (Reuters)

• NON-SECURITY BORDER SECURITY: “Border Patrol agents now spend less than half their time on duty actually patrolling the border and are instead baby-sitting illegal immigrant children and families, a top official revealed, putting new urgency behind efforts to solve the crisis.” (The Washington Times)

• FARMER AID: “As of Monday, the Trump administration has made $8.52 billion in direct payments to farmers through a 2018 aid program designed to counter losses stemming from the trade war with China, a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesperson said.” (Axios)

• DISCONNECTING ROBOCALLS: “Responding to widespread consumer complaints, the Federal Communications Commission says it will take steps to give phone companies permission to block unwanted robocalls.” (The Wall Street Journal)

• POLICY: The U.S.-Iran standoff is no cause for alarm (The Daily Signal)

• POLICY: Trump may save your air conditioner from the Deep State (The Daily Signal)

• HUMOR: Bunch of backward hicks in Alabama among first to ban most barbaric practice known to man (The Babylon Bee)

For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights.

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