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Tag: Politics

  • Will the Justice Department Even Try to Hold Epstein’s World Accountable?

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    The DoJ apparently has better things to do.
    Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

    The United States Department of Justice is getting lapped by both Congress and the British authorities on follow-up investigations around the Epstein files. There’s no excuse for either. As British police arrest astonishingly powerful men for their dealings with Jeffrey Epstein and the U.S. House of Representatives tries to force titans of finance and politics to answer tough questions, our Justice Department lags far behind. It’s not even clear the DoJ is doing anything at all.

    Over in the U.K., law-enforcement officials have arrested former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and former ambassador to the U.S. Peter Mandelson. (Technically, both have been arrested but not yet formally charged, under a wrinkle in British legal procedure.) The putative defendants reportedly face potential charges of “misconduct in public office” for allegedly providing confidential government documents, including sensitive financial information about investment opportunities, to Epstein. (British authorities have accused neither man of participation in Epstein’s child sex-trafficking ring.)

    The British case is based in part on emails contained in the U.S. Justice Department’s own Epstein files, which were released less than a month ago. In a matter of weeks, British police investigated and arrested a former prince (Andrew) and a lord (Mandelson); have subjected both men, and others around them, to extensive questioning; and have conducted searches at properties associated with the subjects. Meanwhile, the most memorable step taken by our Justice Department since the release of the files was Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s public-service announcement that “the American people need to understand that it isn’t a crime to party with Mr. Epstein.”

    The contrast extends to the tone at the top. King Charles — an actual monarch who wears a literal crown and carries a scepter to work — has told British investigators (in American parlance) to do what you gotta do. Or, in the proper King’s English: “What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities. In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and cooperation. Let me state clearly: The law must take its course.” Other heads of state should follow the king’s hands-off example — in a case against his own brother Andrew, no less.

    Our own president isn’t quite of the same mind. He has long dismissed the Epstein case as a hoax, though it’s unclear what exactly he claims is fake. And he recently urged the American public to just get over it already. “I think it’s time now for the country to maybe get onto something else, like health care,” Trump responded when asked about the Epstein matter.

    The DoJ has dutifully adopted Trump’s recommended approach: myopia blended with dissembling and a pinch of proactive excuse-making. As Blanche explained earlier this month, “There’s a lot of correspondence. There’s a lot of emails. There’s a lot of photographs. But that doesn’t allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody.” Not exactly the tenacious prosecutorial posture Blanche and I learned during our concurrent early days at the Southern District of New York. But hey, if our Justice Department isn’t going to make meaningful use of its own Epstein files, at least others will.

    And then there’s Congress, which has taken a flawed but aggressive approach to its Epstein investigation. While a bipartisan (but mostly Democratic) coalition of lawmakers forced passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee has pressed forward with a series of aggressive subpoenas for testimony. Yes, the subpoenas are largely for political show, and no, the House has not extracted any damning admissions — but it’s putting powerful people on the spot and making them face meaningful questioning under oath.

    Last week, billionaire Les Wexner — whose name the DoJ originally redacted from a document listing him as an unindicted “co-conspirator” but then unredacted after Representative Thomas Massie publicly called out the redaction — faced five hours of questioning from the Oversight Committee. Wexner, a close associate of Epstein’s, claimed no knowledge of his friend’s criminality. Wexner also denied allegations that he had sexually abused Virginia Giuffre, who testified in 2016 that, as a minor, she had been trafficked to have sex with Wexner multiple times. (She died by suicide in 2025.)

    The beauty of being a federal prosecutor is you don’t have to take a blanket denial as the final word, even from an arrogant billionaire. People disclaim wrongdoing all the time. Sometimes they’re telling the truth; other times they aren’t. So ordinarily, given the lead provided by Congress, DoJ prosecutors may take Wexner’s testimony and subject it to rigorous testing — talk to other witnesses, examine emails and texts, check out phone, financial, and travel records. Yet we’ve seen no indication of DoJ doing any such thing.

    This week, the Clintons take their turn at the Oversight Committee’s deposition table. After a prolonged back-and-forth during which they played themselves into a strategic corner, the former First Couple relented and agreed to testify under the looming threat of a contempt-of-Congress charge supported by some bipartisan votes.

    The Hillary Clinton subpoena was an obvious stretch by a congressional committee seeking to drag in a boldface name. She had nothing to do with Epstein; the best that Republican committee chair James Comer could do in defense of the subpoena was to note that — brace yourself — Clinton had hired Ghislaine Maxwell’s nephew to work on her 2008 presidential campaign and later at State. Yes, that’s the headliner. Clinton proceeded to tear the committee a new one with her opening statement on Thursday and, predictably, nothing of relevant substance came of her testimony.

    But Bill Clinton will have to squirm when he answers questions today. The committee surely will confront the former president — a frequent flier on Epstein’s private jet — with photographs that show him partying with Epstein (not a crime, remember, per the deputy AG); swimming in a pool with Maxwell and a female whose identity has been redacted, and reclining in a hot tub at night, hands behind his head, along with a female whose image has been blacked out.

    Meanwhile, we’ve seen no sign that the Justice Department has subpoenaed or otherwise sought to interview Wexner or Clinton or any other powerful Epstein associate — and certainly not the most powerful of all former Epstein pals, Trump himself. (Notably, even the aggressive House Oversight Committee hasn’t sought testimony from the current president.)

    The DoJ’s apparent inaction is particularly galling given that prosecutors hold far more potent investigative tools than Congress does. Prosecutors have the vast resources of the Justice Department and FBI at their disposal, while Congress must make do with minimal investigative staff. Prosecutors can obtain search warrants and wiretaps, while Congress can’t. And prosecutorial subpoenas generally can be broader in scope than congressional subpoenas and are enforced more rigorously by the courts.

    The Justice Department has been flailing for months now to justify its inactivity. Back in July 2025, top DoJ officials released a memo declaring that, after an exhaustive review of over 300 gigabytes of information, “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”

    Since then, the Justice Department has offered mixed messages (at best) about its ongoing investigative efforts. And while prosecutors could be moving stealthily behind the scenes, entirely undetectable to the public — I’m dubious, but it’s possible — we’ve seen zero public indication of actual in-the-field enforcement activity: no search warrants, no subpoenas, no interviews with key players, no arrests.

    Meanwhile, the British authorities and Congress forge ahead. It’s an embarrassing moment for our Justice Department’s leadership and a telling indictment of its own stubborn — and perhaps purposeful — indifference.


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    Elie Honig

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  • Anthropic refuses to bend to Pentagon on AI safeguards as dispute nears deadline

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    A public showdown between the Trump administration and Anthropic is hitting an impasse as military officials demand the artificial intelligence company bend its ethical policies by Friday or risk damaging its business.

    Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei drew a sharp red line 24 hours before the deadline, declaring his company “cannot in good conscience accede” to the Pentagon’s final demand to allow unrestricted use of its technology.

    Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude, can afford to lose a defense contract. But the ultimatum this week from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posed broader risks at the peak of the company’s meteoric rise from a little-known computer science research lab in San Francisco to one of the world’s most valuable startups.

    If Amodei doesn’t budge, military officials have warned they will not just pull Anthropic’s contract but also “deem them a supply chain risk,” a designation typically stamped on foreign adversaries that could derail the company’s critical partnerships with other businesses.

    And if Amodei were to cave, he could lose trust in the booming AI industry, particularly from top talent drawn to the company for its promises of responsibly building better-than-human AI that, without safeguards, could pose catastrophic risks.

    Anthropic said it sought narrow assurances from the Pentagon that Claude won’t be used for mass surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons. But after months of private talks exploded into public debate, it said in a Thursday statement that new contract language “framed as compromise was paired with legalese that would allow those safeguards to be disregarded at will.”

    That was after Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s top spokesman, posted on social media that “we will not let ANY company dictate the terms regarding how we make operational decisions” and added the company has “until 5:01 p.m. ET on Friday to decide” if it would meet the demands or face consequences.

    Emil Michael, the defense undersecretary for research and engineering, later lashed out at Amodei, alleging on X that he “has a God-complex” and “wants nothing more than to try to personally control the US Military and is ok putting our nation’s safety at risk.”

    That message hasn’t resonated in much of Silicon Valley, where a growing number of tech workers from Anthropic’s top rivals, OpenAI and Google, voiced support for Amodei’s stand late Thursday in an open letter.

    OpenAI and Google, along with Elon Musk’s xAI, also have contracts to supply their AI models to the military.

    “The Pentagon is negotiating with Google and OpenAI to try to get them to agree to what Anthropic has refused,” the open letter says. “They’re trying to divide each company with fear that the other will give in.”

    Also raising concerns about the Pentagon’s approach were Republican and Democratic lawmakers and a former leader of the Defense Department’s AI initiatives.

    “Painting a bullseye on Anthropic garners spicy headlines, but everyone loses in the end,” wrote retired Air Force Gen. Jack Shanahan in a social media post.

    Shanahan faced a different wave of tech worker opposition during the first Trump administration when he led Maven, a project to use AI technology to analyze drone footage and target weapons. So many Google employees protested its participation in Project Maven at the time that the tech giant declined to renew the contract and then pledged not to use AI in weaponry.

    “Since I was square in the middle of Project Maven & Google, it’s reasonable to assume I would take the Pentagon’s side here,” Shanahan wrote Thursday on social media. “Yet I’m sympathetic to Anthropic’s position. More so than I was to Google’s in 2018.”

    He said Claude is already being widely used across the government, including in classified settings, and Anthropic’s red lines are “reasonable.” He said the AI large language models that power chatbots like Claude are also “not ready for prime time in national security settings,” particularly not for fully autonomous weapons.

    “They’re not trying to play cute here,” he wrote.

    Parnell asserted Thursday that the Pentagon wants to “ use Anthropic’s model for all lawful purposes” and said opening up use of the technology would prevent the company from “jeopardizing critical military operations,” though neither he nor other officials have detailed how they want to use the technology.

    The military “has no interest in using AI to conduct mass surveillance of Americans (which is illegal) nor do we want to use AI to develop autonomous weapons that operate without human involvement,” Parnell wrote.

    When Hegseth and Amodei met Tuesday, military officials warned that they could designate Anthropic as a supply chain risk, cancel its contract or invoke a Cold War-era law called the Defense Production Act to give the military more sweeping authority to use its products, even if the company doesn’t approve.

    Amodei said Thursday that “those latter two threats are inherently contradictory: one labels us a security risk; the other labels Claude as essential to national security.” He said he hopes the Pentagon will reconsider given Claude’s value to the military, but, if not, Anthropic “will work to enable a smooth transition to another provider.”

    —-

    AP reporter Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report.

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  • Federal prosecutor admits ‘extraordinary’ timing in Abrego Garcia smuggling case charges

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    NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

    A federal prosecutor acknowledged Thursday that the decision to charge Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia two years after a routine traffic stop was “extraordinary,” while defending the human smuggling case as legally justified.

    Abrego Garcia, 31, has become a flashpoint in the national immigration debate since last March, when he was deported to El Salvador in violation of a 2019 court order in what Trump administration officials acknowledged was an “administrative error.” 

    The Supreme Court later ruled that the administration had to work to bring him back to the U.S.

    After returning in June, Abrego Garcia was taken into federal custody in Nashville and detained on human smuggling charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee.

    He has pleaded not guilty and is seeking dismissal of the charges on the grounds of vindictive and selective prosecution.

    Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura, left, are accompanied by Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, right, of We Are Casa, as they leave the federal courthouse, Thursday, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

    A 2019 court order prevents Abrego Garcia from being deported to El Salvador after an immigration judge determined he faced danger from a gang that had threatened his family. He immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager and has been under the supervision of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

    Abrego Garcia was accused in court records of repeated domestic violence against his wife, who alleged multiple incidents of physical abuse in protective order filings. She later withdrew the protective order request and has defended her husband publicly. 

    The Department of Homeland Security has also said he was living in the U.S. illegally and has alleged ties to MS-13, disputing portrayals of him as simply a “Maryland man.” His attorneys have denied the gang allegations.

    Tennessee Highway Patrol body camera footage from when Abrego Garcia was pulled over for speeding shows a calm exchange with officers. While officers discussed suspicions of smuggling among themselves — noting there were nine passengers in the vehicle — Abrego Garcia was issued only a warning.

    TENNESSEE BODYCAM OF ‘MARYLAND MAN’ TRAFFIC STOP SHOWS TROOPERS’ HANDS TIED DESPITE SMUGGLING CLUES

    A woman is seen holding a sign of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in front of the U.S. Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador's CECOT prison earlier this year, in what Trump administration officials described as an 'administrative error.' Photo via Getty Images

    A woman holds a sign in support of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in front of the U.S. District Court in Nashville. (Getty Images )

    First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Rob McGuire, who was acting U.S. attorney in April 2025, testified Thursday that his decision to charge Abrego Garcia was based on the evidence.

    “I had previously prosecuted several human smuggling cases,” McGuire said, noting that after seeing video of the traffic stop, “I was immediately struck by how similar what was being depicted in the body cam was to those investigations.”

    McGuire said Abrego Garcia’s vehicle belonged to someone with “a human smuggling background” and added that the route was “suspicious.”

    “It was a large number of individuals traveling in one SUV with a driver who spoke for the group. No one had luggage… the car had Texas plates… the route was suspicious,” McGuire said.

    DEM JUDGE IN HOT SEAT AFTER DHS EXPOSES ‘WHOLE NEW LEVEL’ OF ACTIVISM, SHELTERING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT

    Kilmar Abrego-Garcia arrives at the federal courthouse

    Kilmar Abrego Garcia arrived at the federal courthouse, Thursday, for a hearing on whether the charges against him should be dismissed. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

    During cross-examination, McGuire acknowledged that the timing of the charges, coming so long after the traffic stop, was “extraordinary.”

    He said he had not previously been aware of the traffic stop but reiterated that nobody in the Trump administration, including the White House or the Department of Justice, pressured him to seek the indictment.

    When asked about whether he might have felt pressure to prosecute the case, McGuire said, “I’m not going to do something that is wrong to keep my job.”

    DHS OFFICIAL RIPS KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA FOR ‘MAKING TIKTOKS’ WHILE AGENCY FACES GAG ORDER

    Kilmar Abrego-Garcia ICE Custody

    Kilmar Abrego Garcia, right, and his brother Cesar Abrego Garcia, center, arrive at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore, Aug. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

    McGuire also said timing factored into charging Abrego Garcia since he was being held in El Salvador and he did not want the indictment to go public before all senior officials were briefed on the matter.

    “I knew from the get-go that this was going to be a controversial matter,” McGuire said.

    U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw did not make a ruling Thursday and said he would wait to receive post-hearing briefs from attorneys by March 5 before determining whether another hearing is necessary.

    Crenshaw previously found some evidence that the prosecution “may be vindictive” and that prior statements by Trump administration officials “raise cause for concern.”

    CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

    Thursday’s court appearance came after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from re-arresting Abrego Garcia into federal immigration custody on Feb. 17.

    Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch and Jake Gibson, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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    Judge orders migrant deported in 'error' free from ICE custody with criminal case looming

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  • Deadly shooting in Cuban waters highlights obsessions with counter-revolution

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    MIAMI — Word from the Cuban government of a deadly encounter between its troops and a boat carrying armed expatriates is casting a spotlight on Cubans living in the U.S. who still harbor aspirations of a counter-revolution 67 years after a guerrilla uprising ushered in communism.

    Cuban soldiers confronted a speedboat carrying 10 people as the vessel approached the island and opened fire on the troops, who fired back, killing four and wounding six, Cuba’s government says.

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  • NTSB chair slams House aviation bill as ‘watered-down’ after 67 deaths near Washington

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    The head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday it’s misleading for members of the House to say their package of aviation safety reforms would address the recommendations that her agency made in January to prevent another midair collision like the one last year near Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people.NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said the House bill’s “watered-down” requirements wouldn’t do enough to prevent a future tragedy, and wouldn’t be nearly as effective as a Senate bill that came up just one vote short of passing in the House earlier this week. The full NTSB followed up Thursday afternoon with a formal letter to two key House committees, saying that they can’t support the bill right now“We can have disagreements over policy all day. But when something is sold as these are the NTSB recommendations and that is not factually accurate, we have a problem with that. Because now you’re using the NTSB and you’re using people who lost loved ones in terrible tragedies,” Homendy said. “You’re using their pain to move your agenda forward.”The key concern of Homendy and the families of the people who died in the crash on Jan. 29, 2005, is that they believe all aircraft should be required to have key locator systems that the NTSB has been recommending since 2008, which would allow the pilots to know more precisely where the traffic around them is flying. The Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast Out systems that broadcast an aircraft’s location are already required around busy airports. It’s the ADS-B In systems that can receive data about the locations of other aircraft that isn’t yet standard.The House bill would ask the Federal Aviation Administration to draft a rule to require the best locator technology instead of just requiring ADS-B In, and even when it does suggest that technology should be required, the bill exempts business jets and small planes in certain parts of the airspace. Homendy said the bill is also weak in other areas, such as limits on when the military will be able to turn those locator systems off and the steps they must take to ensure those systems are working.House leaders defend their billThe leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee declined to respond to Homendy’s criticism Thursday, but Reps. Sam Graves and Rick Larsen have said they believe the ALERT bill they crafted effectively addresses the 50 recommendations that NTSB made at the conclusion of their investigation into the collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter.They defended their bill and pledged to work with the families, the Senate and the industry to develop the best solution as soon as possible. The committee will likely markup the bill within the next few weeks.“From the beginning, we have stressed the importance of getting this right, and we are confident that we will achieve that goal,” Larsen and Graves said. House Speaker Mike Johnson also said he is committed to getting the bill done.Victims’ families say they can’t support the bill as writtenThe NTSB released a side-by-side comparison of its recommendations and the House bill to highlight all the ways the bill falls short of fully addressing the needed changes.Doug Lane, who lost his wife and son in the crash, and many of the other victims’ families said the House bill “is not really a serious attempt to address the NTSB recommendations.” He said the introduction of this bill just a few days before the vote on the ROTOR Act, which the Senate unanimously approved, seemed designed to “scuttle” that bill and send the ADS-B In recommendation into limbo to be considered in a lengthy rulemaking process.Matt Collins, who lost his younger brother Chris in the disaster, said that the bill must require ADS-B In to be acceptable to the families.“As far as the ALERT act — the way it’s written now, I can’t endorse the way its written now. It needs to include ADS-B In,” Collins said. “It’s non-negotiable for us as family members, extremely non-negotiable.”Missed warnings led to the crashThe NTSB cited systemic weaknesses and years of ignored warnings as the main causes of the crash, but Homendy has said that if both the plane and the Black Hawk had been equipped with ADS-B In and the systems had been turned on, the collision would have been prevented. The Army’s policy at the time of the crash mandated that its helicopters fly without that system on to conceal their locations, although the helicopter involved in this crash was on a training flight, not a sensitive mission.But Homendy said the House seemed to pick and choose what they wanted to include from the NTSB recommendations.“We were very explicit of what needed to occur,” Homendy said. “When we issue a recommendation, those recommendations are aimed at preventing a tragedy from happening again. And if you’re just going to give us half a loaf, it’s not going to do it. We’re not gonna save lives.”

    The head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday it’s misleading for members of the House to say their package of aviation safety reforms would address the recommendations that her agency made in January to prevent another midair collision like the one last year near Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people.

    NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said the House bill’s “watered-down” requirements wouldn’t do enough to prevent a future tragedy, and wouldn’t be nearly as effective as a Senate bill that came up just one vote short of passing in the House earlier this week. The full NTSB followed up Thursday afternoon with a formal letter to two key House committees, saying that they can’t support the bill right now

    “We can have disagreements over policy all day. But when something is sold as these are the NTSB recommendations and that is not factually accurate, we have a problem with that. Because now you’re using the NTSB and you’re using people who lost loved ones in terrible tragedies,” Homendy said. “You’re using their pain to move your agenda forward.”

    The key concern of Homendy and the families of the people who died in the crash on Jan. 29, 2005, is that they believe all aircraft should be required to have key locator systems that the NTSB has been recommending since 2008, which would allow the pilots to know more precisely where the traffic around them is flying. The Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast Out systems that broadcast an aircraft’s location are already required around busy airports. It’s the ADS-B In systems that can receive data about the locations of other aircraft that isn’t yet standard.

    The House bill would ask the Federal Aviation Administration to draft a rule to require the best locator technology instead of just requiring ADS-B In, and even when it does suggest that technology should be required, the bill exempts business jets and small planes in certain parts of the airspace. Homendy said the bill is also weak in other areas, such as limits on when the military will be able to turn those locator systems off and the steps they must take to ensure those systems are working.

    House leaders defend their bill

    The leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee declined to respond to Homendy’s criticism Thursday, but Reps. Sam Graves and Rick Larsen have said they believe the ALERT bill they crafted effectively addresses the 50 recommendations that NTSB made at the conclusion of their investigation into the collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter.

    They defended their bill and pledged to work with the families, the Senate and the industry to develop the best solution as soon as possible. The committee will likely markup the bill within the next few weeks.

    “From the beginning, we have stressed the importance of getting this right, and we are confident that we will achieve that goal,” Larsen and Graves said. House Speaker Mike Johnson also said he is committed to getting the bill done.

    Victims’ families say they can’t support the bill as written

    The NTSB released a side-by-side comparison of its recommendations and the House bill to highlight all the ways the bill falls short of fully addressing the needed changes.

    Doug Lane, who lost his wife and son in the crash, and many of the other victims’ families said the House bill “is not really a serious attempt to address the NTSB recommendations.” He said the introduction of this bill just a few days before the vote on the ROTOR Act, which the Senate unanimously approved, seemed designed to “scuttle” that bill and send the ADS-B In recommendation into limbo to be considered in a lengthy rulemaking process.

    Matt Collins, who lost his younger brother Chris in the disaster, said that the bill must require ADS-B In to be acceptable to the families.

    “As far as the ALERT act — the way it’s written now, I can’t endorse the way its written now. It needs to include ADS-B In,” Collins said. “It’s non-negotiable for us as family members, extremely non-negotiable.”

    Missed warnings led to the crash

    The NTSB cited systemic weaknesses and years of ignored warnings as the main causes of the crash, but Homendy has said that if both the plane and the Black Hawk had been equipped with ADS-B In and the systems had been turned on, the collision would have been prevented. The Army’s policy at the time of the crash mandated that its helicopters fly without that system on to conceal their locations, although the helicopter involved in this crash was on a training flight, not a sensitive mission.

    But Homendy said the House seemed to pick and choose what they wanted to include from the NTSB recommendations.

    “We were very explicit of what needed to occur,” Homendy said. “When we issue a recommendation, those recommendations are aimed at preventing a tragedy from happening again. And if you’re just going to give us half a loaf, it’s not going to do it. We’re not gonna save lives.”

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  • WATCH: Dem senator who ditched Trump’s SOTU caught praising naked bike riders, ‘patriots’ in frog suits

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    Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who skipped President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address to attend Democrat counter-programming, hailed a group of frog-clad protesters as “patriots,” crediting them for defeating Trump’s anti-crime efforts in Portland, Oregon.

    “Boy, the frogs are rocking this town,” Wyden said Tuesday night. “I’m with the frogs, and I’m with all of you because political change starts at the grassroots.

    “For weeks, social media was flooded with these wonderful patriots. Videos of unicyclers, naked bike riders, the guy in the chicken suit and a whole lot of frogs.

    Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and protesters wearing inflatable frog costumes standing in a congressional office (Getty Images)

    “When Donald Trump sent his agents to the streets of Portland, we took on authoritarianism, and we won!”

    The frogs, part of an organization called the Portland Frog Brigade, use “inflatable animal costumes to practice the proven art of peaceful, creative dissent, exercising our right to free expression in defense of the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law,” according to its website.

    In September, as part of a crackdown on crime, the Trump administration announced it would send National Guard troops to Portland among other urban centers across the country. In Portland, the order sparked social unrest and protests, including backlash from local officials.

    “Portland is an American city, not a military target,” Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a post on social media.

    “President Trump has directed all necessary troops to Portland, Oregon. The number of necessary troops is zero.”

    Almost immediately, the state launched a legal challenge to the deployment in the case of Oregon v. Trump, arguing that the administration lacked the legal authority to use federal troops to combat local crime.

    US JUDGE EXTENDS ORDER BLOCKING TRUMP’S NATIONAL GUARD DEPLOYMENT IN PORTLAND

    Trump in Congress

    President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address included a handful of top moments, including awards to military veterans and Democrats’ outbursts.  (Kenny Holston/Pool/Getty Images)

    As that legal battle raged inside the courtroom, the city’s person-based crime — such as homicides, kidnappings, sexual offenses and vehicular manslaughter — has fallen marginally every month, according to data from Portland’s Police Bureau.

    From October 2025 to January 2026, person-related crimes are down 18%. Total crime, including property and social crimes like drug offenses, is down 8%.

    But in December, Trump began winding down his deployment to Portland as its legal battle began to run into a series of losses.

    As recently as Feb. 17, the Trump administration ended its efforts to overturn a 9th Circuit order halting Trump’s deployment of the guard to Portland.

    “Oregon National Guard members are currently in transit to Fort Bliss, Texas, where they will demobilize, and the demobilization process will take approximately 7 to 14 days to complete,” the court ruled on Jan. 8, 2026.

    OREGON RESIDENTS SUE HOMELAND SECURITY AFTER TEAR GAS USED ON ANTI-ICE PROTESTERS

    National Guard and protesters in Portland, Oregon

    Federal agents clash with anti-ICE protesters at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building Oct. 12, 2025, in Portland, Ore.  (Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty Images)

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    Wyden celebrated the decision.

    The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Wyden’s framing of the administration’s drawdown of the National Guard from Portland.

    Related Article

    Bare-bottomed bikers roll through rain to shout at feds in blue city's latest anti-ICE stunt

    Leo Briceno is a politics reporter for the congressional team at Fox News Digital. He was previously a reporter with World Magazine.

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  • What to know about the boat shooting in Cuban waters that killed 4

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    SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica — Cuban soldiers confronted a speedboat carrying 10 people as the vessel approached the island and opened fire on the troops, who fired back, killing four and wounding six, according to the Cuban government.

    The Cuban Ministry of the Interior said the people aboard the boat Wednesday were Cubans living in the U.S. and accused them of trying to infiltrate the country to engage in terrorism. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it was not a U.S. government operation.

    Here’s what to know about the confrontation that has resulted in investigations in both Cuba and the United States and could add to tensions between the two countries.

    Cuban president says island will defend itself

    Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Thursday that Cuba “does not attack or threaten.”

    “We have stated this repeatedly, and we reiterate it today: Cuba will defend itself with determination and firmness against any terrorist or mercenary aggression that seeks to undermine its sovereignty and national stability,” he wrote on X.

    Cuban authorities launched an investigation, the foreign minister said.

    Rubio said the American government was gathering its own information, including whether the people were U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

    The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said it was pursuing answers “through every legal and diplomatic channel available.”

    One man was obsessed with Cuban freedom

    The wounded people were detained, Cuban officials said, and the government identified seven of the 10 passengers.

    It said that two of them, Amijail Sánchez González and Leordan Enrique Cruz Gómez, are wanted by Cuban authorities “based on their involvement in the promotion, planning, organization, financing, support or commission” of terrorism.

    It identified the others as Conrado Galindo Sariol, José Manuel Rodríguez Castelló, Cristian Ernesto Acosta Guevara and Roberto Azcorra Consuegra.

    Cuba’s government said one of the four killed was Michel Ortega Casanova. His brother Misael Ortega Casanova told The Associated Press that his sibling had developed an “obsessive and diabolical” quest for Cuba’s freedom given the suffering they endured on the island before moving to the U.S. He said his brother was an American citizen who lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years.

    Meanwhile, Galindo Sariol, another passenger, was identified as a former political prisoner in a 2025 interview with Martí Noticias, a U.S.-based news site that has long called for a change of government in Cuba.

    The Cuban government said it was a Florida-registered speedboat and that officials who searched it found assault rifles, handguns, homemade explosives, bulletproof vests, telescopic sights and camouflage uniforms.

    The AP was unable to verify details because boat registrations are not public in Florida.

    Confrontations with US are not unusual, but deaths are rare

    The island’s foreign minister wrote Thursday on X that Cuba has faced “numerous terrorist and aggressive infiltrations” from the U.S. since 1959, “with a high cost in lives, injuries and material damage.”

    The most famous attempt involving Cuban exiles was the Bay of Pigs Invasion in April 1961.

    The CIA had trained a group of exiles under the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower that was led by José Miró Cardona, a former member of Fidel Castro ’s government and head of the Cuban Revolutionary Council in the U.S.

    The failed invasion that occurred under former President John F. Kennedy led to the surrender of some 1,200 exiles, while more than 100 others were killed.

    Another high-profile encounter occurred on Feb. 24, 1996, when Cuba’s air force shot down two unarmed civilian airplanes operated by Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based organization. Four men were killed following the attack that the International Civil Aviation Organization said occurred over international waters.

    According to the radio communications between the MiG-29 and a military control tower published by the Organization of American States, the MiG-29 celebrated upon striking the second plane: “Homeland or death, you bastards!” in a reference to the famed Cuban revolutionary cry.

    In 2022, several incidents were reported in Cuban waters involving an exchange of gunfire and arrests but no apparent casualties.

    It’s not unusual for skirmishes to erupt between Cuba’s Coast Guard and U.S.-flagged speedboats in Cuban waters, although deaths are rare. In past years, some of those U.S.-flagged boats were laden with unidentified cargo headed toward the island, or they were going to pick up Cubans to smuggle them into the U.S.

    The potential effects on US-Cuba relations

    The shooting threatens to increase tensions between the two countries after President Donald Trump ‘s administration has already having taken an increasingly aggressive stance toward Cuba.

    When the U.S. attacked Venezuela and arrested its leader on Jan. 3, oil shipments to Cuba that were largely keeping the island afloat were halted.

    Then Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 29 that would impose a tariff on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba, which recently implemented austere fuel-saving measures.

    William LeoGrande, an American University expert on Cuba, said there’s a risk that the Trump administration “uses this incident as some kind of an excuse to come up with even more sanctions.”

    “But if the Cuban government lays out all the guns that they captured and has some of these people confessing to what they were up to, that might put the issue to rest,” he told journalists Thursday in an online briefing.

    On Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department slightly eased restrictions on the sale of Venezuelan oil to Cuba, but the island’s energy and economic crisis is expected to persist.

    LeoGrande said Cuba’s private sector would not import enough oil “to really make a significant dent in the humanitarian crisis.”

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    Danica Coto

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  • IRS broke the law by disclosing confidential information to ICE 42,695 times: Judge

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    WASHINGTON — A federal judge said Thursday that the IRS broke the law by disclosing confidential taxpayer information “approximately 42,695 times” to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly found that the IRS had erroneously shared the taxpayer information of thousands of people with the Department of Homeland Security as part of the agencies’ controversial agreement to share information on immigrants for the purpose of identifying and deporting people illegally in the U.S.

    Her finding was based off a declaration filed earlier this month by Dottie Romo, IRS’ chief risk and control officer, which revealed that the IRS had provided DHS with information on 47,000 of the 1.28 million people that ICE requested — and, in most of those cases, gave ICE additional address information in violation of privacy rules created to protect taxpayer data.

    Kollar-Kotelly said in her Thursday decision that the agency violated IRS Code 6103, one of the strictest confidentiality laws in federal statute, “approximately 42,695 times by disclosing last known taxpayer addresses to ICE.” She called the Romo declaration “a significant development in this case.”

    “The IRS not only failed to ensure that ICE’s request for confidential taxpayer address information met the statutory requirements, but this failure led the IRS to disclose confidential taxpayer addresses to ICE in situations where ICE’s request for that information was patently deficient,” she wrote.

    The government is appealing the case, but the Thursday ruling is significant because Romo’s declaration supports the decision on appeal.

    Nina Olson, founder of the Center for Taxpayer Rights, which has sued the government over the disclosure, says “this confirms what we’ve been saying all along: that the IRS has an unlawful policy that violates the Internal Revenue Code’s protections by releasing these addresses in a way that violates the law’s requirements.”

    Representatives from the IRS and Treasury Department did not respond to Associated Press requests for comment.

    A data-sharing agreement signed last April by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem allows ICE to submit names and addresses of immigrants inside the U.S. illegally to the IRS for cross-verification against tax records. The deal led the then-acting commissioner of the IRS to resign.

    There are several ongoing cases that challenge the IRS-DHS agreement.

    Earlier this week, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit declined to issue a preliminary injunction for the immigrants’ rights group, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, and other nonprofits that are suing the federal government to stop implementation of the agreement.

    In declining the preliminary injunction request, Judge Harry T. Edwards wrote that the nonprofit groups “are unlikely to succeed on the merits of their claim,” since the information the agencies are sharing isn’t covered by the IRS privacy statute.

    Still, two separate court orders have blocked the agencies from massive transfers of taxpayer information and blocked ICE from acting upon any IRS data in its possession. Those preliminary injunctions are still in place.

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  • Lawmakers Seek Quieter Ads and Less … Free Speech?

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    State lawmakers are telling streamers to shhhhhh their ads. Online gamblers are flooding Florida help lines now that sports betting is legal. Some Sunshine State lawmakers want to target people based on their speech. The mighty state of Vermont steps up to help snowbound neighbors.

    As we mention here regularly, Decision Points primarily focuses on national and international news. But we also occasionally deliver a roundup of local, regional or under-the-radar news with a political dimension – something unusual or interesting, or that may illustrate a broader trend.

    Our guiding principle is that the definition of politics includes how a society organizes itself to allocate finite or scarce resources, manage internal disagreements and blunt external threats.

    Here’s this week’s look ‘round.

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    Netflix and Chill, Meet Hulu and Hush?

    Federal law stipulates that broadcast, cable and satellite advertisements can’t be louder than the programming they interrupt. Streamers are not subject to the same rules … for now. Via the always amazing Pluribus News, I learned this week that several states are trying to make the same rule apply across the board.

    “The bills in Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia follow the passage of a first-in-the-nation California law last year,” Pluribus reported. “There is also federal legislation.”

    Not a lot is getting through Congress these days, so states are stepping in on a range of policy issues. Streaming ad volume may not seem like an emergency, but it is a quality of life issue.

    Florida Bets on Gambling Help

    Via the Tampa Bay Times, we learn that calls to Florida’s problem gambling help line have more than doubled since the state legalized sports wagers in 2023.

    Last year, more than 2,400 Floridians sought help from the service provided by the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling, 1,400 for help with online gambling, making that the top reason for reaching out.

    In previous years, electronic machines like slots were the main cause of calls, the Tampa Bay Times said.

    • Sports betting is the primary problem, 73% of online gamblers told the council.
    • Callers are getting younger. Two-thirds are under 30, and the number under 21 has soared since sports betting was legalized.
    • “Almost half of those calling about sports betting reported having lost more than $25,000. Nearly 1 in 4 reported losing more than $100,000,” the newspaper said.

    Legalizing betting from basically anywhere, especially on sports, appears to be fueling a boom in gambling. And gambling creates a winner and a loser. Is this a public policy problem yet?

    Targeting Speech in ‘Free’ Florida?

    Via WGCU News comes word of sweeping state legislation that, at least at first blush, would seem to target people for surveillance based on their speech.

    HB 945 aims to create a new counterintelligence and counterterrorism unit inside the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

    What’s raising eyebrows is that the list of potential targets of new surveillance and other law enforcement activity includes people “whose demonstrated actions, views, or opinions are a threat or are inimical to the interests of this state and the United States of America.”

    Actions? OK. “Views or opinions”?

    Green Mighty State

    Permit me a little Vermont pride: My home state, never a stranger to blizzards, has sent snow-clearing equipment and crews to Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

    “Having Vermont come in to help out with their crews is really, really pivotal, and it just shows that we’re able to work across state lines,” said Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee, according to WJAR.

    The state’s Agency of Transportation “sent over 30 pieces of equipment and 33 employees to its neighbor to the south Tuesday to aid with snow removal, according to Greg Smith, the agency’s district transportation administrator for the capital region,” VTDigger reported.

    “The fleet included dump trucks, bucket loaders for scooping snow and, of course, plows,” the outlet said.

    It’s nice to see this kind of interstate cooperation. A blizzard is snow laughing matter.

    The Week in Cartoons Feb. 23-27

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  • DHS Agents Detain Student in Residence Building, Columbia Says

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    “Alma Mater” sculpture designed by Daniel Chester French in front of the library building on New York City’s Columbia University campus grounds. A symbol of academic pride since 1903.
    Photo: Getty Images

    Federal agents detained a Columbia University student in her university residence on Thursday morning, according to a statement from school leadership.

    In a letter to the school community, Columbia University acting president Claire Shipman said government agents provided false details in order to gain access to a university residential building where the student was detained. She did not identify the student in question or the reason given for their detention, but the Columbia Spectator reports that Ellie Aghayeva, a neuroscience student at the university, shared the message, “Dhs illegally arrested me. Please help,” on an Instagram Story. Aghayeva’s profile on the platform, which has 104,000 followers, largely features lifestyle content centered around her life as a Columbia student.

    “This morning at approximately 6:30 a.m., federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security entered a Columbia Residential building and detained a student,” Shipman said in a statement. “We are working to gather more information, working to reach the family, and providing legal support.”

    Continued Shipman, “Our understanding at this time is that the federal agents made misrepresentations to gain entry to the building to search for a ‘missing person.’ We are working to gather more details.”

    Shipman reemphasized that law-enforcement agents are required to have either a judicial warrant or subpoena to access nonpublic spaces on Columbia’s campus including classrooms, housing, and areas that require ID-swipe access. “An administrative warrant is not sufficient,” she said.

    In response to a request for comment, the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement confirming Aghayeva’s arrest. “ICE arrested Elmina Aghayeva, an illegal alien from Azerbaijan, whose student visa was terminated in 2016 under the Obama administration for failing to attend classes. The building manager and her roommate let officers into the apartment. She has no pending appeals or applications with DHS,” the agency said.

    City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Councilmember Shaun Abreu, whose district encompasses Columbia, issued a joint statement confirming that they were briefed on the incident. “ICE has no place in our schools and universities. These activities do not make our city or country safer, but rather drive mistrust and danger. As Columbia College alumni, our hearts are with the community there, and we have been in contact with the University to offer our assistance,” they said.

    Governor Kathy Hochul also weighed in, reemphasizing her push for legislation that would bar ICE from sensitive locations like dorms and schools. “Let’s be clear about what happened: ICE agents didn’t have the proper warrant, so they lied to gain access to a student’s private residence,” she said.

    Senator Chuck Schumer called the ICE agents’s actions “outrageous” in a statement. “This is unacceptable. We need immediate answers from ICE on the student’s whereabouts,” he said.

    The Columbia Spectator reports that dozens have gathered on Columbia’s campus for an emergency rally protesting the government’s actions, organized by the university’s chapter of the Sunrise Movement. The Intercept captured photos of the growing crowd:

    Last year, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Columbia graduate and activist Mahmoud Khalil at his university-owned apartment on allegations that he provided misleading information on his green-card application. Khalil was later held for months at an ICE detention center in Louisiana and missed the birth of his firstborn son as the Trump administration sought his deportation. A federal judge approved Khalil’s release, but the federal government continues to press for his deportation.


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  • Trump Administration Ends Protections for Rare Dancing Prairie Bird

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    FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — A ground-dwelling bird known for elaborate mating dances on the southern Great Plains will no longer be federally protected after the Trump administration agreed with arguments by three states and the beef and petroleum industries that the species was listed improperly.

    Thursday’s delisting by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service formalized a recent court ruling that acknowledged the federal agency has now sided with opponents of federal protections for the lesser prairie chicken.

    The ruling by a federal judge in Midland, Texas, in effect ended Endangered Species Act protections for the bird last summer. The protections required the energy industry and ranchers to take steps to avoid disrupting the birds’ habitat and especially their mating areas, called leks.

    The crow-sized birds once numbered in the millions. Habitat loss from energy and agriculture development has shrunk their population to about 30,000 across parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

    Wildlife watchers delight in the male birds’ spring dances and their warbling, clucking and stomping ruckus to attract mates. Native American tribes mimic the flamboyant displays — also a behavior of the more common greater prairie chicken — in some of their dances.

    The lesser prairie chicken has been federally protected twice in recent years. In 2015, a federal judge in U.S. District Court in Midland reversed the bird’s listing as a threatened species the year before, siding with petroleum developers who argued that sufficient protections were already in place.

    In 2022, President Joe Biden’s administration listed the lesser prairie chicken as threatened in the northern part of its range in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, and as endangered in a “distinct population segment” to the south in New Mexico and Texas.

    The listing prompted a lawsuit filed by Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas and groups including the Permian Basin Petroleum Association and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

    After President Donald Trump took office last year, the Fish and Wildlife Service reevaluated the bird and agreed with the states and groups that it lacked justification to classify the lesser prairie chicken into two distinctly different populations.

    Last August, another judge in U.S. District Court in Midland granted a Fish and Wildlife Service motion to reverse its Biden-era listings for the lesser prairie chicken.

    “Fish and Wildlife’s concession points to serious error at the very foundation of its rule,” District Judge David Counts wrote in his Aug. 12 ruling praised by Texas officials.

    Texas oil and gas regulatory officials including Texas Railroad Commission spokesperson Bryce Dubee and Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham welcomed the delisting.

    “It will ensure American oil and gas production in the Permian Basin remains robust and our economy steadfast,” Buckingham said in an emailed statement.

    Environmentalists vowed to fight on in court.

    “It’s shameful that the Trump administration sees fit to sacrifice these magnificent birds for oil and gas industry profit,” Jason Rylander, legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, said in a statement. “Lesser prairie chickens may be lost forever without Endangered Species Act protections.”

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Feb. 2026

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  • Fourth annual Day of Remembrance at SJSU emphasizes activism and solidarity

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    Gordon Yamate, who serves on the Los Gatos Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commission, spoke about inspiring solidarity and activism for a panel at this year’s Day of Remembrance of Japanese American incarceration at San Jose State University.

    Feb. 19 nationally commemorates the anniversary of Executive Order 9066, a 1942 decree that ordered the removal of all people of Japanese descent from the West Coast to camps in remote areas of California, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Arkansas. San Jose State held an event on that day to acknowledge the Japanese American experience and the campus’ connection to it. In 1942, Yoshihiro Uchida Hall, which used to be the university’s men’s gymnasium, was used as a registration center for Japanese Americans in Santa Clara County before they were sent to the incarceration camps.

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    Nollyanne Delacruz

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  • Hillary Clinton testifies in House committee probe into Jeffrey Epstein

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    Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are both scheduled to give testimony to the House Oversight Committee this week as part of the congressional committee’s probe into the late, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 

    What You Need To Know

    • Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are both scheduled to give testimony to the House Oversight Committee this week as part of the committee’s probe into the late, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein

    • Hillary Clinton is being deposed Thursday, with Bill Clinton’s testimony on the calendar for Friday. 

    • The former president had a well-documented relationship with Epstein in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and the Clintons have said they had no knowledge that Epstein was sexually abusing underage girls before his arrest

    • The Clintons had initially been scheduled to testify last year, but that was postponed, launching a months-long back-and-forth between the couple and committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky.

    Hillary Clinton is meeting with the committee Thursday, with Bill Clinton’s testimony on the calendar for Friday. Both are taking place in Chappaqua, New York, according to a spokesperson for the committee.

    On Thursday morning, committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said he expected Hillary Clinton’s deposition to be “long” and Bill Clinton’s to be “even longer.”

    “No one’s accusing at this moment the Clintons of any wrongdoing,” Comer said. “They’re going to have due process. But we have a lot of questions.The purpose of the whole investigation is to try to understand many things about Epstein. How did he accumulate so much wealth?
How was he able to surround himself with some of the most powerful men in the world?”

    Several photographs of Bill Clinton were included in the trove of files made public in December by the Justice Department. The former president had a well-documented relationship with Epstein in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Clintons have said they had no knowledge that Epstein was sexually abusing underage girls before his arrest.

    “We have a very clear record that we’ve been willing to talk about,” Hillary Clinton said in an interview with the BBC last week. “My husband has said, he took some rides on the airplane for his charitable work.
I don’t recall ever meeting (Epstein).”

    Epstein died by suicide in a New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Officials believe that the disgraced financier abused more than 1,000 girls and young women. 

    The Clintons had initially been scheduled to testify last year, but that was postponed, launching a monthslong back-and-forth between the couple and committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky. 

    Last month, the House Oversight Committee voted to recommend contempt of Congress charges for the Clintons, but less than two weeks later, Comer announced that the couple had “caved” and agreed to “appear for transcribed, filmed depositions.” The Kentucky Republican said that a recording of each deposition “would be made public” afterward.

    After that announcement, the Clintons called for their testimony to not take place behind closed doors. 

    “If they want answers, let’s stop the games & do this the right way: in a public hearing, where the American people can see for themselves what this is really about,” Bill Clinton said in a Feb. 6 post on X. 

    Comer accused the couple of “pushing a false narrative to play victim” in an interview the following day and indicated that the closed-door depositions would take place as planned.

    Clintons’ depositions follow testimony of others in House probe

    The Clintons’ deposition follows that of Victoria’s Secret co-founder Les Wexner, who spoke to lawmakers last week in New Albany, Ohio, as well as that of Epstein’s former girlfriend and longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, who was deposed by video from the Texas prison camp where she is currently serving her 20-year prison sentence on sex trafficking charges

    Comer has also indicated that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who has denied any wrongdoing, may be asked to testify as well. 

    As part of its investigation, the House Oversight Committee has made more than 30,000 documents public. Democrats on the congressional body in recent months have shared additional files, including photos of powerful men in Epstein’s orbit without corresponding caption information or context. The records have served to illustrate Epstein’s ties to high-profile figures in business, government and entertainment.

    The Justice Department’s disclosure of records

    The committee’s probe into Epstein is separate from the Justice Department’s release of millions of files, as required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act. 

    Under the law passed overwhelmingly by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump in November, prosecutors were required to make public all of the files in its investigation into Epstein by Dec. 19 and then provide Congress with a report identifying the categories of records released and withheld, as well as summarizing redactions and their corresponding legal bases.  

    Several batches of documents were shared in December, and then last month, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department was releasing more than 3 million additional pages, 2,000 videos and 180,000 images in its final Epstein disclosure.

    In response to the release, prosecutors have faced criticism that the trove of records has contained unredacted identifying information and images of sex abuse victims and that other names and documents were improperly redacted or withheld from the disclosures. 

    Among files reportedly missing from the trove are ones pertaining to a woman’s unverified accusation that Trump assaulted her when she was a minor in the 1980s, journalist Roger Sollenberger –– and subsequently NPR and The New York Times –– reported. 

    California Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said in a post on Bluesky on Tuesday that Democrats on the committee are opening a “parallel investigation into why these documents are missing.”

    In response to a request for comment about the files, the Justice Department directed Spectrum News to a post on its Rapid Response X account, which contended that “NOTHING has been deleted” and that “ALL responsive documents have been produced unless a document falls within one of the following categories: duplicates, privileged, or part of an ongoing federal investigation.”

    The White House referred any questions about the implementation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act to the DOJ, and pointed to a section of the department’s news release about its disclosure, which stated that “Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election.”

    Fallout continues in U.S. and U.K.

    Revelations stemming from the trove of records has led to fallout both in the U.S. and abroad. Most recently, Harvard University announced Wednesday that former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers will resign from his teaching role at the school amid a campus review of his ties to Epstein. 

    Meanwhile, in the U.K., British police arrested Peter Mandelson, a former U.K. ambassador to the United States, on Monday in a misconduct probe 

    Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who was stripped of his princely title last year due to revelations about his relationship with Epstein, was arrested last week on suspicion of misconduct in public office amid allegations that he shared confidential documents with the late financier during his time as trade envoy.

    Summers, Mandelson and Mountbatten-Windsor have all denied wrongdoing. 

    The Associated Press contributed to this reporting.

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    Christina Santucci

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  • Attorney asks Stetson Law School to denounce Pam Bondi

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    ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi is under fire about the way she handled the Epstein file release. And the people speaking out are some of her fellow attorneys and judges who are alumni of Stetson Law School.

    What You Need To Know

    • Attorney General Pam Bondi faces criticism for her handling of the Epstein file release

    • Stetson Law alumni, including judges and attorneys, call for the school to denounce Bondi

    • A letter initiated by attorney Johnny Bardine has gathered hundreds of signatures

    In a letter written to Stetson Law School officials, Bondi’s ethics were called into question and it asks the school to publicly denounce her.

    Like Bondi, attorney Johnny Bardine is a graduate of Stetson Law. He’s also the author of the letter that’s garnered about four hundred signatures and counting.

    “I was surprised by how many there were in a short amount of time,” he said. “We count among our numbers three retired members of the judiciary and a former county commissioner and hundreds more attorneys that span political differences.”

    He read part of the letter that was sent out on Feb. 23, 2026:

    “We write to you with grave concern about the conduct of one of our most prominent graduates, Pam Bondi,” he read.

    In the letter, attorney Bardine asks the law school to issue a public statement reaffirming the college of law’s commitment to ethical practice, transparency and the rule of law. It also requests the school to express formal disapproval of Bondi’s actions and to support efforts to hold positions of legal authority to the highest ethical standards.

    Bardine said there were several tense moments during a congressional hearing where Bondi testified.

    “You don’t tell me anything you washed up loser lawyer. You’re not even a lawyer,” Bondi said while being questioned in that hearing. “I have spent my entire career fighting for victims, and I will continue to do so. I am deeply sorry for what any victim has been through. Especially as a result of that monster.”

    Bardine says Bondi’s words didn’t appear to match her actions. There were several tense moments during the hearing, but there was a moment Bardine said he knew he had to say and do something.

    “In particular, in that testimony there was the moment in which she wouldn’t turn around and acknowledge the Epstein survivors and the sort of glib look on her face really struck a chord which is sort of immediately empathetical to the Florida oath of attorney which requires we handle ourselves with ethics and candor,” Bardine said.

    President Trump came to Bondi’s defense the day after the hearing in a Truth Social post saying she was under intense fire and was fantastic at the hearing on the never-ending saga of Jeffrey Epstien.

    Gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds told Spectrum Bay News 9’s partners at the Tampa Bay Times Bondi did the best she could with millions of pages of documents. He said the messaging kind of got a little off, but the files are out there.

    As an attorney and a Stetson Law graduate, Bardine says more is expected from anyone who took the oath.

    “At a minimum, attorneys are trusted to follow the law, and not one attorney is above the law. And prior to her testimony she had fallen short of the law. She’d been dilatory releasing these files and when she did, they were sloppily redacted,” Bardine said.

    At a 2013 Stetson Law School graduation, Bondi delivered a speech to graduates with a message about ethics and the law.

    “The value of Stetson is so much more than the degree you’re about to receive. My studies at Stetson taught me to understand, respect and love the law and speak up for what’s right,” Bondi said in that speech.

    The message she gave to students about doing the right thing is what Bardine said his letter is calling on Stetson administrators to do.

    “In a perfect world, I think the dean makes a statement that says this is not who we are. This is not who we stand for. Stetson has a long legacy of prizing ethical conduct and professional responsibility,” Bardine said.

    Spectrum News reached out to Stetson Law School about the letter that’s asking them to denounce Bondi, and they said they have no comment. Spectrum News is also still waiting to hear back from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. As for Bardine, he says he plans to continue collecting signatures and press officials at Stetson.

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    Saundra Weathers

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  • Most Americans See Iran as an Enemy but Doubt Trump’s Judgment on Military Force, AP-NORC Poll Finds

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — As the U.S. and Iran head into their next round of nuclear talks in Geneva, a new AP-NORC poll finds that many U.S. adults continue to view Iran’s nuclear program as a threat — but they also don’t have high trust in President Donald Trump’s judgment on the use of military force abroad.

    About half of U.S. adults are “extremely” or “very” concerned that Iran’s nuclear program poses a direct threat to the United States, according to the new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. About 3 in 10 are “moderately” concerned and only about 2 in 10 are “not very” concerned or “not concerned at all.”

    The survey was conducted Feb. 19-23, as military tensions built in the Middle East between the United States and Iran. The U.S. is seeking a deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program and ensure it does not develop nuclear weapons, while Iran says it is not pursuing weapons and has so far resisted demands that it halt uranium enrichment on its soil or hand over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

    Most Americans, 61%, say Iran is an “enemy” of the U.S., which is up slightly from a Pearson Institute/AP-NORC poll conducted in September 2023. But their confidence in the president’s judgment when it comes to relationships with adversaries and the use of military force abroad is low, the new poll shows, with only about 3 in 10 Americans saying they have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” trust in Trump.

    Even some Republicans — particularly younger Republicans — have reservations about Trump’s ability to make the right choices on these high-stakes issues.


    Most US adults have concerns about Trump’s judgment on military force

    The Trump administration this year has held two rounds of nuclear talks with Iran under Omani mediation, with a third round scheduled to begin Thursday. Similar talks last year between the U.S. and Iran about Iran’s nuclear program broke down after Israel launched what became the 12-day war in June.

    “We are in negotiations with them,” Trump said during his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, which took place after the poll was conducted. “They want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those secret words: We will never have a nuclear weapon.”

    Americans have significant reservations about Trump’s judgment on foreign conflicts, the AP-NORC poll shows. Only about 3 in 10 of U.S. adults have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of trust in Trump’s judgment on the use of military force, relationships with U.S. adversaries or the use of nuclear weapons. More than half trust him “only a little” or “not at all.”

    On each measure, Republicans are more likely than Democrats and Independents to trust that the president will make the right decisions. About 6 in 10 Republicans have a high level of trust in Trump, while roughly 9 in 10 Democrats have a low level of trust in him.

    But some Republicans’ confidence is more qualified. Younger Republicans — those under 45 — are less likely than older Republicans to say they trust Trump “a great deal” or “quite a bit” on his use of military force. About half of younger Republicans say this, compared to about two-thirds of older Republicans.


    Many view Iran’s nuclear program as a threat

    The new finding that 48% of U.S. adults are “extremely” or “very” concerned that Iran’s nuclear program poses a direct threat to their country is in line with an AP-NORC poll conducted in July 2025, indicating that even with recent escalations between the two countries, Americans have not changed their views.

    Before the June war, Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels. The U.N. nuclear watchdog — the International Atomic Energy Agency — had said Iran was the only country in the world to enrich to that level that wasn’t armed with the bomb.

    Iran has been refusing requests by the IAEA to inspect the sites bombed in the June war, raising the concerns of nonproliferation experts.

    Worries about Iran’s nuclear program cross party lines in the U.S., though Republicans are currently more concerned. Most Republicans — 56% — say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about Iran’s nuclear program, compared to 44% of Democrats.


    Younger Americans are less worried about Iran

    Americans generally hold a negative view of Iran, but the view is sharper among older Americans.

    About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say Iran is an “enemy” of the United States, up slightly from 53% from the Pearson/AP-NORC poll from 2023. Roughly 3 in 10 say the countries are “not friendly, but not enemies,” and only about 1 in 10 Americans consider Iran a country that is “friendly” or “close allies.”

    At the same time, only about half of U.S. adults under 45 say Iran is an enemy, compared to about 7 in 10 Americans ages 45 and older. There is also a wide generational divide in concern about Iran’s nuclear program, with only about one-third of Americans under 45 saying they are highly concerned, compared to about 6 in 10 older Americans.

    Tensions over Iran’s nuclear program have existed for decades, which may help explain why older Americans are more concerned. Nuclear talks had been deadlocked for years after Trump’s decision in 2018 to unilaterally withdraw the U.S. from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

    Liechtenstein reported from Vienna. AP reporter Jon Gambrell in Dubai contributed to this report.

    The AP-NORC poll of 1,133 adults was conducted Feb. 19-23 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Feb. 2026

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  • Bill would ban prop bets on sports apps in Colorado as lawmakers seek to curb gambling addictions

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    Colorado lawmakers who are concerned about rising gambling addiction and betting scandals in professional sports filed a bill Wednesday that would prohibit sports betting apps from offering proposition bets on individual athletes’ performances.

    The bipartisan responsible gaming bill — SB26-131 — would also attempt to slow down gambling habits by eliminating credit card usage on sports betting apps, limiting the number of deposits a person can make into an account, and banning push notifications to gamblers’ cellphones from betting companies such as DraftKings and FanDuel.

    “Frankly, the more I looked into i,t the more I became really, really alarmed by everything that has happened as a consequence of legalized sports betting and, in my view, placing very few restrictions on it,” said Sen. Matt Ball, D-Denver, one of the bill’s sponsors.

    Ball, who is sponsoring the bill with Sen. Byron Pelton, R-Sterling, said the rapid growth of sports betting in Colorado is causing unexpected problems — including financial debts — across the state, and the legislature needs to move to protect people and the integrity of professional and collegiate sports. The bill also has a Democratic and a Republican sponsor in the House.

    He cited studies that show more than half of 18-to-22-year-olds have engaged in some form of sports betting, and surveys of high school students that report that between 60% and 80% have gambled for money within the previous 12 months.

    “We just didn’t know what we didn’t know,” Ball said of Colorado’s quick entry into legalized sports betting. “It’s just exploded and it’s happened very fast. I think we can see the harm that’s happened very clearly.”

    Colorado voters legalized sports betting in 2019 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a law that previously had prohibited states from allowing it. It was one of the first states to launch online sports books in May 2020, just after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the country, including putting a pause on most sports. But the state’s residents quickly took to sports betting apps as the world returned to normal.

    The amount Colorado bettors have wagered has steadily increased each year, with people betting more than $6 billion on sports in 2025. At the same time, the number of people calling the state’s problem gambling hotline has risen, too. The hotline averaged about 350 calls per month in 2025, according to the Problem Gambling Coalition of Colorado.

    Joshua Ewing, executive director of Healthier Colorado, an advocacy group that pushes for better health policies in the state, said new studies are showing a growing rate of addiction among young men and boys who gamble, and addiction is causing financial debt, strained relationships and emotional stress.

    “It’s not about rolling back voter-approved betting. It’s about guardrails,” Ewing said of the bill. “The goal is smart policy, not prohibition.”

    The sports betting industry is prepared to push back on the legislation.

    “Colorado should seize this moment to strengthen its state-regulated market — not hand it back to illegal operators or chase bettors to federally regulated platforms,” said Joe Maloney, president of the Sports Betting Alliance. “This proposal undermines the very consumer protections it claims to advance, rewarding actors who openly flout Colorado law and contribute nothing to the state’s communities by way of tax revenues.”

    Maloney said the alliance will continue to engage elected leaders and regulators to reinforce consumer protections and responsible gaming standards that the industry already follows.

    Proposition bets, or prop bets, are the moneymakers for sports betting apps because they come with higher odds. In those bets, a gambler could bet on whether Denver Nuggets star Nicola Jokic will score 30 or more points in a game or whether Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix will throw more than one touchdown.

    Sports betting apps also allow gamblers to make multiple prop bets at one time to form parlays, which further increase odds in favor of the sportsbooks, but are wildly popular with gamblers.

    For example, Bet365 on Wednesday offered a parlay bet called “Joker x Jamal,” where a gambler would win if the Nuggets’ Jokic and Jamal Murray both scored more than 20 points, and if Murray had more than 10 assists and Jokic grabbed more than 10 rebounds. A $10 wager could earn $100 if all four things happened in the Nuggets game against the Celtics.

    Colorado already prohibits prop bets on college athletes, but Ball and the bill’s other sponsors want to prohibit all of these bets because of the temptation among athletes to take bribes to influence outcomes for gamblers.

    The bill also aims to curb the barrage of television advertisements and phone notifications that people see during sporting events.

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    Noelle Phillips

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  • Kalshi Touts Success in Closing MrBeast, Political Insider Trading Cases

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    Posted on: February 25, 2026, 04:37h. 

    Last updated on: February 25, 2026, 04:37h.

    • Prediction market operator is clamping down on insider trading
    • One case involved an editor working for social media star MrBeast
    • Another involved the California gubernatorial race

    Kalshi wants market participants and regulators to know it takes allegations of insider trading seriously with the prediction today highlighting success in closing two such cases.

    Kalshi word mark on a black background on a phone
    A Kalshi social media ad. The company successfully closed a pair of insider trading cases. (Image: Getty)

    One of the cases involved an editor working for YouTube personality MrBeast, who’s well-known in gaming circles. The other pertained alleged insider trading involving the California race for governor. The MrBeast staffer is said to have traded approximately $4,000 in YouTube markets on Kalshi.

    In both of these cases, our systems flagged the trades and our surveillance team froze the traders’ accounts. Neither trader withdrew any profits,” according to the prediction market operator. “These penalties are not indicative of future penalties – everything depends on the case, including amount traded and rules violated.”

    Kalshi levied a two-year suspension and a financial penalty equivalent to five times the trade size against the MrBeast employee.

    Not California Dreamin’ on Kalshi

    In the other case, Kalshi suspended Republican Kyle Langford who previously wagered on himself in the California governor’s race and posted about it on social media. He’s since dropped out of that contest and is running for congress in the state’s 26th district.

    “Punishment: 5-year ban + financial penalty (10 times the initial trade size). Note: this candidate recently announced he is no longer running for Governor and is now instead running for Congress,” adds Kalshi.

    Separately, Stephen Cloobeck, a significant donor to Democrat candidates and himself a former candidate for California’s top office, was barred from trading Kalshi event contracts on California’s gubernatorial after he touted making bets on friend Rep. Eric Swalwell (D).

    One of Cloobeck’s wagers was $1,000 on Swalwell to become the next governor of the Golden State. Another was $2,000 on the congressman to beat San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan (D) in the upcoming primary. Cloobeck has only been barred from trading the California gubernatorial market on Kalshi.

    The moves by Kalshi arrive as the prediction markets industry is under increasing scrutiny to better regulate insider trading. Currently, the industry isn’t beholden to the same protocols as traditional markets though some politicians are aiming to change that.

    CFTC Chimes In

    The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Enforcement issued an advisory, noting that while Kalshi handled the MrBeast and Langford cases internally, the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) grants the division authority to get involved if it sees fit.

    “In appropriate cases, the Division will investigate and prosecute violations, as it always has with respect to conduct occurring on designated contract markets (DCMs),” notes the division. “The Division continues to coordinate with DCMs regarding their enforcement dockets and referral of appropriate potential violations to the Division for investigation.”

    The CFTC is the federal regulator of prediction markets.

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    Todd Shriber

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  • Cornyn’s Nasty Attack on Paxton May Haunt Texas Republicans

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    Photo-Illustration: Cornyn Lonestar Victory Fund

    In many years of observing politics, I’ve seen a lot of nasty, negative ads between primary opponents who belong to the same party. But for sheer volume of vitriol, the latest John Cornyn ad against Ken Paxton, his opponent in the Texas GOP Senate primary, is hard to top:

    As Inside Elections reporter Jacob Rubashkin points out, this wildly negative ad is co-sponsored by the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, whose fundamental purpose is to maintain GOP control of the upper chamber. Cornyn’s seat is one that could very well become the key to a Democratic takeover of the Senate, which was thought to be highly improbable just months ago. So the very people running this ad calling Paxton a despicable family-wrecking, corrupt, and LGBTQ-loving piece of garbage may soon be backing his general-election candidacy to the absolute hilt. Paxton is the favorite in a toxic contest that will almost certainly go to a May runoff, in which his brand of fierce MAGA conservatives are likely to dominate turnout.

    Democrats have their own issues in this race: U.S. representative Jasmine Crockett and state legislator James Talarico are locked in a close and increasingly fractious primary of their own. But at least Democrats are very likely to know the identity of their Senate nominee six days from now (barring a virtual tie that allows a minor candidate’s vote to deny either major candidate a majority). They will have many months to heal their divisions as Cornyn and Paxton drag each other to the bottom of the sea like sharks taking down their prey.

    It’s unclear how effective the savage (and lavishly funded) attacks by Cornyn and his D.C. friends will be in eroding or eliminating Paxton’s long-standing lead in this race. The intensely combative attorney general’s many ethics issues involving both his personal life and his finances are very well known. Republican voters may have already discounted them, much like Donald Trump’s many vices, as acceptable considering his longtime service to right-wing causes like stamping out abortion and blowing up public education in favor of private (and often religious) schools.

    The Texas GOP is in the midst of an ideological revolution against a “Republican Establishment” typified by Cornyn. In 2024 Paxton, along with Texas governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, led a high-profile primary purge of Republican legislators who resisted a school-voucher push and voted to impeach Paxton on corruption grounds (he was acquitted by the Texas Senate). To put it simply, the Texas party is racing to the right at an amazing pace, and the four-term incumbent simply hasn’t been able to keep up. Worse yet, Cornyn looks and sounds like a stereotypical senator, making him a “swamp” creature in the eyes of Washington-hating Texas Republicans (his self-depiction in his latest ad as a cowboy-hat-wearing “Texas Workhouse” probably inspires as much derision as admiration).

    Team Cornyn had hoped his bacon might be saved by a Trump endorsement, but the president chose to endorse all three major candidates in the race (Cornyn, Paxton, and U.S. representative Wesley Hunt), a familiar tactic that operates as a permission slip for MAGA diehards in Texas to follow their own preferences. Any way the wind blows, the GOP is going to have a major restoration project come May to bring supporters of either the empty-suit RINO Cornyn or the adulterous “Crooked Ken” back into the party corral during what could be a very difficult midterm election for the party.


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    Ed Kilgore

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  • Feds give record $27B in loans for utility expansion in Georgia and Alabama

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    ATLANTA — Federal energy officials on Wednesday announced a record $27 billion loan to electric utilities in Georgia and Alabama, saying the loan will save customers money as the companies undertake a huge expansion driven by demand from computer data centers.

    A total of $22.4 billion will go to Georgia Power and $4.1 billion to Alabama Power. Both are subsidiaries of Atlanta-based Southern Company, one of the nation’s largest utilities. The companies plan to use the cash to build new natural-gas fueled power plants, build new transmission lines and upgrade existing power plants.

    Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the loan will result in more than $7 billion in savings over decades from a lower, federally subsidized interest rate.

    “We’re focused on driving down costs,” Wright said. He added that the loan would help ensure Southern customers “have access to affordable, reliable and secure energy for decades to come.”

    Wright and President Donald Trump have frequently made the case for their fossil fuel-friendly policies — including orders over the past nine months to keep some coal-fired plants open past planned retirement dates — as necessary to ensure reliability of the nation’s electric grid.

    Wright says the orders have saved utility customers millions of dollars and helped keep lights on during last month’s winter storm. Critics say the orders are unnecessary and have raised electric bills as utilities keep older, more expensive plants operating.

    “These loans will help lower the cost of investments in our grid that will enhance reliability and resilience for the benefit of our customers,” said Chris Womack, Southern’s chairman, president and CEO.

    The new loan comes amid scrutiny on rising utility bills, with electricity prices increasing faster than inflation in many states. There is also widespread opposition to new data centers for artificial intelligence.

    Trump in his State of the Union Tuesday announced a “ratepayer protection pledge” against higher utility bills tied to AI. He said tech companies will provide their own power as they build data centers. Trump didn’t provide details but claimed prices will go down.

    It is unclear whether any tech companies have signed pledges to build their own power plants, but Wright said on a call with reporters Wednesday that “every name you know that’s developing a data center has been in dialogue with us.”

    He cited “cooperation” from giants such as Microsoft, Google and Meta, but he didn’t specify any written agreements.

    Federal officials have long given utility loans, including $12 billion in loans that the first Trump administration and President Barack Obama’s administration guaranteed for two costly nuclear reactors at Georgia’s Plant Vogtle, partially owned by Georgia Power.

    Trump’s tax and budget bill last year reshaped the loan program to focus on increasing capacity to generate and transmit electricity. Loan guarantees under President Joe Biden focused on green energy goals.

    Gregory Beard, who directs the newly renamed Office of Energy Dominance Financing, said Wednesday that cutting interest rates and discarding Biden’s policy “will get us back on the right track in terms of affordability.”

    The loan office will review individual projects to ensure they’re financially viable, he said. “We’re not going to build this plant or deploy this capital until we are sure that it’s the right thing to do for the local community, for the local ratepayer,” Beard said in an interview.

    Those requirements don’t seem to be laid out in loan agreements that Southern released Wednesday. Jennifer Whitfield, an attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center who represented Georgia Power expansion opponents, said the loans will save money for Georgians, but questioned their wisdom.

    “As a taxpayer, it’s hard to avoid the fact that this is a bailout paid for by every taxpaying citizen of the United States,” she said.

    Any savings for customers must be approved by the elected Public Service Commissions in Alabama and Georgia. Commissioners last July approved a three-year rate freeze requested by Georgia Power, while commissioners in Alabama approved a two-year rate freeze in December. Company officials tout the freezes when utilities nationwide have been seeking record increases. But opponents complain company-friendly regulators locked in high prices and high utility profits.

    Voters booted two Republican incumbents off the Georgia commission in November amid complaints about rising bills.

    Commissioner Peter Hubbard, one of two new Democrats, unsuccessfully tried to roll back approval for Georgia Power’s expansion in recent weeks. He said Wednesday that the declining costs of solar, wind and battery power could make new natural gas plants uneconomic over time.

    “It’s locking us into a costlier option,” he said of the federal loan. ”And so I think it just is not meeting the moment of affordability.”

    ___

    Daly reported from Washington.

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  • Federal Judge in Texas Allows Lawsuit Against California Attorney General Over ExxonMobil Remarks

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    SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge in Texas has ruled that ExxonMobil can bring a defamation lawsuit against California’s attorney general over comments about the company’s plastic recycling efforts.

    U.S. District Judge Michael J. Truncale in the Eastern District of Texas said in a ruling earlier this month that California Attorney General Rob Bonta cannot claim official immunity in regards to several statements he made, including one in a campaign email sent to Texas residents.

    Bonta sued Exxon in September 2024, saying that the oil giant encouraged consumers to purchase plastics products with the promise that the products would be recycled. He said less than 5% of plastic is recycled into another plastic product, and that recycling processes touted by Exxon don’t work. Exxon said the problem is with California’s recycling system.

    Exxon later sued Bonta in his individual capacity and environmental groups for defamation, saying that the comments harmed current and future business contracts. The lawsuit was filed in Texas, near its principal place of business.

    Truncale dismissed the lawsuit against the environmental groups but allowed it to proceed against Bonta.

    The judge pointed to a campaign email Bonta sent to Texas residents saying that only 5% is recycled and the rest ends up in the environment and in our bodies: “Exxon Mobil knew, and Exxon Mobil lied.” Bonta, a Democrat, argued he was simply updating email recipients on his office’s activities.

    But Truncale said a campaign contribution link on the email turned the communication into a campaign activity not protected by immunity in Bonta’s official capacity as attorney general.

    “Here, the contribution request betrays the email’s true nature: a campaign promotion. Campaigning is not within Bonta’s scope of employment,” the judge wrote.

    Bonta’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    ExxonMobil said in a statement that the “campaign of lies designed to derail our advanced recycling business must stop.”

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Feb. 2026

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