WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump made several significant moves on Thursday, February 12, 2026, including pardoning five former NFL players and rolling back environmental regulations. A federal judge also blocked the Trump administration from rescinding health grants to Democratic-led states.
Trump pardoned former NFL players Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry, and the late Billy Cannon, according to the Associated Press. The pardons, announced by White House pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson, were for crimes ranging from perjury to drug trafficking.
Simultaneously, the Trump administration faced legal challenges. A federal judge in Illinois ruled that the administration could not rescind $600 million in public health grants allocated to four Democratic-led states: California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota. These states had sued to block the planned funding cuts to programs that track disease outbreaks and study health outcomes, as reported by the Associated Press.
In a move that drew criticism from environmental groups, the Trump administration announced a rollback of the 2009 endangerment finding, which considered climate change a threat to Americans' health. According to Vox, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made the announcement, effectively dismantling a key pillar of climate regulation. "The Trump administration is shredding the federal government's ability to fight climate change," stated a Vox article.
Meanwhile, in Israel, authorities arrested several people and charged two with using classified information to place bets on the prediction market platform Polymarket, as reported by NPR News. Prosecutors accused a civilian and a military reservist of bribery and obstruction of justice, alleging they used classified information to wager on military operations.
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