LOCALIZE IT: Marching bands, equestrian units from several states featured in Rose Parade on Jan. 1

EDITORS/NEWS DIRECTORS:

The Rose Parade in sunny Southern California is back again to ring in the new year, bringing a floral spectacle to crowds of excited spectators, many of whom will camp out overnight for a prime-time viewing spot of the beloved parade.

The iconic New Year's Day tradition is now in its 137th year. It will feature floats celebrating the theme “The Magic in Teamwork” covered in festoons of roses, marching bands and equestrian groups.

Basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson will preside as grand marshal this year, joining a long line of athletes who’ve served as grand marshals, including Billie Jean King last year.

Parade officials asked Johnson to fill the role after hearing about his efforts to help survivors of the devastating Los Angeles wildfires in January. Johnson also helped launch LA Rises, a recovery initiative to bring together private sector leaders to help LA rebuild.

The parade will kick off with a live performance by Bishop Briggs and dancers for an opening spectacular presented by Honda. Explore Louisiana will present a mid-parade performance by rising country singer and American Idol runner-up, John Foster. Visit Mississippi will also present a mid-parade performance by country singer Charlie Worsham.

Country-pop trio Dek of Hearts, winner of The Voice’s “Mic Drop” competition, will also perform at the parade.

The tradition harkens back to efforts from the city of Pasadena’s Valley Hunt Club, who wanted to showcase the region’s abundance of flowers and beauty even in the midst of winter.

“In New York, people are buried in snow,” said Professor Charles F. Holder at a Club meeting, according to the parade website. “Here our flowers are blooming and our oranges are about to bear. Let’s hold a festival to tell the world about our paradise.”

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WHEN DOES THE PARADE START AND WHERE CAN YOU WATCH?

The parade will begin its 5.5 mile journey at 8 a.m. PT/11 a.m. ET and will be broadcast live in partnership with ABC, NBC, CNN, Fox, Telemundo, and more. It can be streamed on Christmas Plus, FanDuel Sports Network, Fubo, GFam+, Dooya, Pluto TV, and Samsung TV Plus.

WHEN DOES THE ROSE BOWL START AND WHOSE PLAYING?

After the parade, the Indiana Hoosiers will play in the college football playoff quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl Game at 1 p.m. PT/4 p.m. ET at the Rose Bowl Stadium. It will be broadcast at 1 p.m. PT, exclusively on ESPN.

Indiana will play the Alabama Crimson Tide. This will be the second-ever appearance in the Rose Bowl for the Hoosiers, following the 1968 match-up where they lost to the University of Southern California Trojans.

Known as “The Granddaddy of Them All,” the Rose Bowl is the oldest of America’s college football postseason bowl games and began in 1902. After being replaced by Roman-style chariot races for a few years, football made a comeback in 1916 and has been a New Year’s Day tradition since.

FIND YOUR STATE: BANDS AND EQUESTRIAN UNITS PARTICIPATING IN ROSE PARADE Equestrian units and marching bands are an integral part of the Rose Parade. We’ve arranged participating groups by state below. If there's both bands and equestrian units from a state, they are divided by a dashed line, with bands on top, equestrian units on bottom. Also listed are participants from Japan and Mexico. Check out the parade website to see more details on all these groups and participating floats.

ALABAMA

Homewood Patriot Band (Homewood, Alabama)

— — —

International Andalusian and Lusitano Horse Association (Birmingham, Alabama)

CALIFORNIA

Arcadia Apache Marching Band and Color Guard (Arcadia, California)

Los Angeles Unified School District All-District Honor Band (Los Angeles, California)

Pasadena City College Herald Trumpets (Pasadena, California)

Pasadena City College Tournament of Roses Honor Band (Pasadena, California)

The United States Marine Corps West Coast Composite Band (Camp Pendleton, California)

— — —

Blue Shadows Mounted Drill Team (Lake View Terrace, California)

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department - Sheriff's Museum Foundation (Los Angeles, California)

Los Angeles Police Department: Metropolitan Division Mounted Platoon (Los Angeles, California)

Los Hermanos Banuelos Charro Team (Altadena, California)

Merced County Sheriff's Posse (Merced, California)

Mini Therapy Horses (Calabasas, California)

Painted Ladies Rodeo Performers (Sacramento, California)

Scripps Miramar Ranch (San Diego, California)

Spirit of the West Riders (Arcadia, California)

The New Buffalo Soldiers (Shadow Hills, California)

The Norco Cowgirls Rodeo Drill Team (Norco, California)

The Valley Hunt Club (Pasadena, California)

United States Marine Corps Mounted Color Guard (Barstow, California)

Victorian Roses Ladies Riding Society (Alpine, California)

COLORADO

Arabian Horse Association Versatile Arabians (Greenwood Village, Colorado)

HAWAII

Hawaii Pa'u Riders (Waimanalo, Hawaii)

INDIANA

The 2026 Bands of America Honor Band (The organization, Bands of America, is based in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Bands of America Honor Band is a 300-piece national ensemble. The 2026 band performing at the Rose Parade will include members representing all 50 states).

The Sound of Brownsburg (Brownsburg, Indiana)

MARYLAND

Magnificent Marching Machine (Baltimore, Maryland; an ensemble of Morgan State University's band program)

The Salvation Army Tournament of Roses Band (this year's band includes participants from Maryland and Virginia)

MISSOURI

Budweiser Clydesdales (St. Louis, Missouri)

OHIO

The Band Directors Marching Band (Pickerington, Ohio)

SOUTH CAROLINA

The Pride of Clover Marching Band (Clover, South Carolina)

TENNESSEE

Franklin High School Marching Band (Franklin, Tennessee)

TEXAS

Allen Eagle Escadrille (Allen, Texas)

— — —

First Cavalry Division, Horse Cavalry Detachment (Fort Cavazos, Texas)

VIRGINIA

The Salvation Army Tournament of Roses Band (this year’s band includes participants from Maryland and Virginia)

WASHINGTON

Northwest Spotted Drafts (Ferndale, Washington)

WISCONSIN

Greendale High School Marching Band (Greendale, Wisconsin)

JAPAN

The Mino Jiyu Gakuen High School Marching Band (Osaka, Japan)

MEXICO

Delfines Marching Band (Veracruz, Mexico)

Localize It is a resource produced regularly by The Associated Press for its customers’ use. Questions can be directed to the Local News Success team at localizeit@ap.org. View guides published in the last 30 days here.

FILE - A float carrying the 2024 Tournament of Roses Rose Court moves along the parade route at the 135th Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif., Jan. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

FILE - Basketball Hall of Famer Earvin "Magic" Johnson speaks after he was introduced as the grand marshal for the 137th Rose Parade, Oct. 8, 2025, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A newly unsealed order in the criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia reveals that high-level Justice Department officials pushed for his indictment, calling it a “top priority,” only after he was mistakenly deported and then ordered returned to the U.S.

Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty in federal court in Tennessee to charges of human smuggling. He is seeking to have the case dismissed on the grounds that the prosecution is vindictive — a way for President Donald Trump's administration to punish him for the embarrassment of his mistaken deportation.

To support that argument, he has asked the government to turn over documents that reveal how the decision was made to prosecute him in 2025 for an incident that had occurred nearly three years earlier. On Dec. 3, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw filed an order under seal that compelled the government to provide some documents to Abrego Garcia and his attorneys. That order was unsealed on Tuesday and sheds new light on the case.

Earlier, Crenshaw found that there was “some evidence” that the prosecution of Abrego Garcia could be vindictive. He specifically cited a statement by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on a Fox News program that seemed to suggest that the Department of Justice charged Abrego Garcia because he had won his wrongful deportation case.

Rob McGuire, who was the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee until late December, argued that those statements were irrelevant because he alone made the decision to prosecute, and he has no animus against Abrego Garcia.

In the newly unsealed order, Crenshaw writes, “Some of the documents suggest not only that McGuire was not a solitary decision-maker, but he in fact reported to others in DOJ and the decision to prosecute Abrego may have been a joint decision.”

The human smuggling charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee where Abrego Garcia was pulled over for speeding. There were nine passengers in the car, and state troopers discussed the possibility of human smuggling among themselves. However, he was ultimately allowed to leave with only a warning. The case was turned over to Homeland Security Investigations, but there is no record of any effort to charge him until April 2025, according to court records.

The order does not give a lot of detail on what is in the documents that were turned over to Abrego Garcia, but it shows that Aakash Singh, who works under Blanche in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, contacted McGuire about Abrego Garcia's case on April 27, the same day that McGuire received a file on the case from Homeland Security Investigations. That was several days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Abrego Garcia's favor on April 10.

On April 30, Singh said in an email to McGuire that the prosecution was a “top priority” for the Deputy Attorney General's Office, according to the order.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura leave the United States District Court District of Maryland, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Greenbelt, Md. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)