Posts on Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Job growth was stronger than expected to start 2026, providing some relief to concerns about the state of the U.S. labor market. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 130,000 for January, above the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 55,000, according to seasonally adjusted figures the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Wednesday. The total also was an improvement over December, which saw a gain of 48,000 after a slight downward revision. The unemployment rate edged lower to 4.3%, below the forecast to stay unchanged at 4.4% from the prior month. A more encompassing measure that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time positions for economic reasons slipped to 8%,

The Federal Aviation Administration abruptly grounded all flights in and out of El Paso International Airport in Texas for 10 days starting Wednesday morning, citing "special security" instructions, and then lifted the order hours later. A Trump administration official said the Department of Defense disabled Mexican cartel drones that had breached U.S. airspace and that there was no threat to commercial air travel currently. "The temporary closure of airspace over El Paso has been lifted," the FAA said in a post on X. "There is no threat to commercial aviation. All flights will resume as normal."

How stupid and offensive was the the Super Bowl halftime show? Here’s a game that has evolved over the decades to become an unofficial American holiday and long shared a patriotic spirit similar to that felt during Fourth of July celebrations. It has created and sustained tremendous brand value for the National Football League. But rather than protect that investment, Roger Goodell and the NFL lit it on fire for laughs.

North Carolina Republican state Rep. Allen Chesser said he was taken by surprise when a Democratic sheriff who has long opposed cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could not answer a basic question about how the government works. A North Carolina House Oversight Committee hearing spurred on by the recent killing of a young Ukrainian woman, Iryna Zarutska, in Charlotte, took an unexpected turn when Chesser asked Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden, "What branch of government do you operate under?" McFadden, who is the top law enforcement officer in the county where Zarutska was killed, simply answered, "Mecklenburg County,"

What happens to democracy when a major political party loses its way and loses its connection with the electorate? As an Israeli American and an independent U.S. voter, I’ve seen firsthand the damage that can be done in Israel, and now – if Democrats aren’t careful – in America. We can’t let the same mistakes happen here because a competitive party system is critical for a functioning democracy. The Democratic Party is facing a serious challenge from the far left that mirrors the dynamics which drove the Israeli Labor Party from absolutely dominant to afterthought by the beginning of this century.

It’s not sad in the least that the Washington Post has cut its climate “reporting” team down to five lonely reporters. It is, in fact, encouraging that maybe we’re seeing the winding down of decades of political and scientific villainy disguised as concern for our planet. Give us more, please. Not four years ago, the Washington Post announced it was “pleased to introduce” an “expansion of Climate coverage.” (Yes, Climate is so important to the Post that the “c” must be capitalized.) Readers were assured the newspaper was “a major investment that is commensurate with the story of climate (but no upper case here

For the first time ever, the Indian government has acted against the so-called "dark fleet" or "shadow fleet" tankers that carry sanctioned Russian, Venezuelan, and Iranian oil to global markets and particularly to China. Because that oil cannot be sold elsewhere, China essentially dictates how much it is willing to pay, rather than bidding in the global market. The Indian Coast Guard seized three tankers off Bombay, I'm sorry, Mumbai, on Monday. The three tankers were the 45,000-ton M/T Chiltern, the 16,820-ton M/T Asphalt Star, and the 6,200-ton M/T Stellar Ruby. All three of the tankers have been sanctioned by the U.S.

On Jan. 30, a New York State jury awarded a 22-year-old woman, Fox Varian, $2 million in damages for her 2019 “gender-affirming” double mastectomy, which she came to deeply regret. She was 16 years old at the time. This settlement against Varian’s psychologist and plastic surgeon is the first legal judgment imposed upon those performing such mutilations. In court testimony, Varian explained that following the removal of her healthy breasts, “I immediately had a thought that this was wrong, and it couldn’t be true,” adding, “Shame, I felt shame. It’s hard to face that you are disfigured for life.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s alleged phone call to the Palm Beach police chief in 2006, wherein Trump allegedly told him, “Thank goodness you’ re stopping [Epstein],” dismantles establishment narratives. Leavitt’s comments came at a White House press briefing after the Department of Justice released a document from a 2019 interview between former Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter and the FBI. Per the document, Reiter said Trump told him, “thank goodness you’ re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this,”