Amy Coney Barrett's Senate Confirmation Vote

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump pumped his fist and waved as he departed the White House on Marine One Wednesday for the last time as president, leaving behind a legacy of chaos and tumult and a nation bitterly divided. Four years after standing on stage at his own inauguration and painting a dire picture of “American carnage,” Trump departed the office twice impeached, with millions more out of work and 400,000 dead from the coronavirus.

The transition of presidential power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden in Washington, D. C., on Wednesday will happen thousands of miles away from Colorado, in front of pandemic-thinned crowds and extraordinary security, which puts all sorts of distance between the event and everyday life. While no Coloradans made it into Biden’s top Cabinet spots, there are plenty of things that are expected to shift in the state and affect lives under the Democrat — some sooner than later, especially when it comes to COVID-19 and climate policies. Here’s a quick glance at the top sectors — immigration, education, health care, environment and energy — that Coloradans anticipate will undergo significant changes, one way or another, under the Biden administration. Andy Cross, The Denver PostThousands of people participate in a rally held against the Trump administration’s zero tolerance immigration policy in Civic Center Park on Jun 30, 2018. Immigration Biden plans to introduce comprehensive immigration reform as a means of following through on a campaign promise to provide a legal path to citizenship for all immigrants. More than 10.5 million people were living in the country illegally in 2017, according to the Pew Research Center.

Good morning and welcome to the inauguration of Joe Biden. Today’s ceremony, which will look starkly different from previous inaugurations in light of the pandemic, kicks off at 12 p.m. ET. Unprecedented security measures are in place following the murderous attack on the Capitol exactly two weeks ago, with 25,000 National Guard troops—roughly five times the number of service members currently stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan—patrolling the area. Donald Trump is, of course, snubbing the festivities.

The morning of January 8, employees gathered in the lobby at LiveWell, a nonprofit long-term care facility in central Connecticut, to receive their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Armed with fresh N95 masks and face shields, they trooped upstairs in 15-minute increments to get their shots, then returned to cheers and applause from their colleagues.

On the final full day of Donald Trump’s presidency, the United States reached another grim milestone during four years marked by plenty of grim milestones. By most measures, 400,000 people in the US now have died from the coronavirus. It’s the highest death toll in the world—but tragically unsurprising given the trajectory of the past year.

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump pardoned former chief strategist Steve Bannon as part of a flurry of clemency action in the final hours of his White House term that benefited more than 140 people, including rap performers, ex-members of Congress and other allies of him and his family. The last-minute clemency, announced Wednesday morning, follows separate waves of pardons over the past month for Trump associates convicted in the FBI’s Russia investigation as well as for the father of his son-in-law.