Posts on Wednesday, February 18, 2026
WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE) -- Several Kansas towns have been evacuated due to wildfires in the western part of the state.
Meteorologist Frank Waugh says the greatest threat will be across Western Kansas, where gusts could be close to (possibly over) 60 mph! These high wind gusts will linger through the afternoon and likely not drop below 50 mph until close to sunset.
Here's a look at the latest updates:
10:20
Comanche County Emergency Management:
The fire has burned 145,000 acres and traveled 65 miles from Oklahoma into Comanche County. It’s still active.
Crews are working to stop it from spreading east. Highway 1 and Highway 160 are open, but evacuations remain in effect.
The US military is ready for possible strikes on Iran as soon as this weekend, multiple news outlets reported Wednesday citing unnamed sources.
However, the reports said, Donald Trump has yet to make a final decision on whether to carry out an attack. Trump has repeatedly demanded Iran cease its nuclear program, and has warned he intends to use force if no deal is reached.
According to the New York Times, CBS News and CNN, the US military has assembled sufficient air and naval resources in the Middle East to launch an attack in the coming days.
Reuters, citing an unnamed senior US official, offered a slightly different timeline
This was the kind of prison break officials say could have changed the region, and perhaps even the world, overnight. Nearly 6,000 ISIS detainees, described by a senior U.S. intelligence official as "the worst of the worst," were being held in northern Syria as clashes and instability threatened the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the guards responsible for keeping the militants locked away and preventing a feared ISIS resurgence. U.S. officials believed that if the prisons collapsed in the chaos, the consequences would be immediate.
"If these 6,000 or so got out and returned to the battlefield, that would basically be the instant reconstitution of ISIS,"
A fierce Washington, DC, grandmother stole the show at President Trump’s Black History Month celebration, defending him against charges of racism.
Forlesia Cook, whose grandson was killed in a 2017 shooting, took to the stage to praise Trump’s tough stance on crime and fired back at those who would criticize his treatment of black Americans. “I love him. I don’t want to hear nothing you got to say about that racist stuff,” she said.(snip)Get off the man’s back. Let him do his job. He’s doing the right thing. Back off him.(snip)The crowd in the East Room of the White House went wild, applauding and cheering her. Trump expressed his gratitude
On February 17, U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman announced a mistrial during jury selection after deciding that the T-shirt under a blazer worn by defense attorney MarQuetta Clayton, which reportedly featured civil rights leaders, might unduly sway potential jurors.
Nine Antifa members were scheduled to face federal trial at the Eldon B. Mahon U.S. Courthouse in Fort Worth on February 17 for their alleged involvement in a 2025 ambush on an ICE detention center in Alvarado, as The Dallas Express reported. This doesn’t appear to be the first time Clayton has worn controversial attire. The Dallas Express obtained photos of Clayton on
The U.S. Postal Service system of handling and delivering mail ballots often leads to rejected or late ballots, election security advocates contend.
The Election Integrity Network issued two recent reports on the handling of mail ballots by postal employees and the use of regional mail processing centers across state lines. The reports claim that current practices could either result in delayed ballots or confusion over postmarks during an election.
In the 2022 election, 549,824 mail ballots were rejected, about 1.5% of all absentee/mail-in ballots, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission found. Common reasons for rejected ballots include non-matching signatures and missed deadlines.
The modern world runs on energy. Petroleum products heat homes and power cars, airplanes and ships. Electricity runs computers and appliances, produces light, and powers an increasing number of cars and a few trains.
Electricity is a “high” form of energy which can be used for almost anything. The least efficient use is to simply route it through a resistive wire to generate heat. It does that very well, but it’s a waste of this high form of energy. As a source of heat, electricity is about as effective as rubbing two sticks together.
WASHINGTON — The powerful House Oversight Committee is investigating a sadistic, nihilistic terror cult known as “764” that preys on minors and coerces them into sex acts, self-harm, animal torture, and other vile actions.
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Subcommittee on Federal and Government Reform Law Enforcement Chair Clay Higgins (R-La.) demanded Tuesday that the FBI give lawmakers a briefing on its efforts to undermine 764. “Reporting indicates the FBI has opened more than 250 investigations tied to the group, which preys on children and teenagers on popular online platforms,” Commer and Higgins told FBI Director Kash Patel in a letter obtained by The Post.
An all-American rescue: How the NYPD Harbor
Unit saved a bald eagle injured in the
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Unit saved a bald eagle injured in the
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NYPD Harbor Unit officers described on Wednesday the incredible moment they rescued an injured bald eagle clinging to ice in the Hudson River.
Freedom rang for the stranded bird on Tuesday afternoon when four eagle-eyed cops (pun intended) spotted it floating on some ice in the frosty waters. The officers were patrolling the area to check the ice flow when they sensed trouble and immediately made their way to the animal, which was squawking in pain.
“We used our binoculars, and we realized that it was a bird. As we got closer, we realized it was an American Eagle, and at that point, we had to kind of figure out what
The Florida state House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday afternoon that seeks to rename the Palm Beach County International Airport after President Donald Trump as a companion bill makes its way through the state Senate.The legislation passed the Republican-led House in an 81-30 split, according to the Florida Phoenix. The renaming effort, if passed by both chambers and signed by Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis, could cost as much as $5.5 million.Republicans in the state's lower chamber said the renaming is to honor Trump's impact on Palm Beach, which has gained prominence because it's the location of the president's Mar-a-Lago resort.
Tucker Carlson claimed that he and his staff were detained at an Israeli airport — but US Ambassador Mike Huckabee said it was merely a routine customs screening.
Carlson — a vocal critic of US-Israel policy who has been accused of using antisemitic language — has traveled to Israel to interview Huckabee, but refused to leave the Ben Gurion Airport complex.
“Men who identified themselves as airport security took our passports, hauled our executive producer into a side room and then demanded to know what we spoke to Ambassador Huckabee about,” the podcaster and ex Fox News host said in a statement to The Post. “It was bizarre. We’re now out
A man was arrested and charged for mowing down a family with his car and fatally shooting a couple’s 3-year-old girl. 21-year-old Alexander Lamar Banks Jr. ran down 3 adults and a child as they were walking on a sidewalk last Friday and then got out of his car and began shooting at them. Banks fatally shot the couple’s 3-year-old girl, Harlow. A Good Samaritan who tried to intervene was also seriously injured.(snip) Authorities charged Banks with 10 counts, including first-degree murder and attempted murder.
Report: Obama, Susan Rice ‘Broke Down
and Cried’ After Trump Defeated Hillary
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and Cried’ After Trump Defeated Hillary
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Former President Barack Obama and former White House adviser Susan Rice allegedly “broke down and cried” after President Donald Trump defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
In a post on X, RealClearInvestigations senior reporter Paul Sperry claimed that more than 1,000 “hours of new audio and video compiled by Columbia University in cooperation with the Obama Foundation” showed that Obama and Rice were allegedly “so distraught” over Trump’s win.
“BREAKING: President Obama and his National Security Adviser Susan Rice were so distraught after Trump won in 2016 they literally broke down and cried in front of White House staff, according to 1,100 hours of
Transportation Department Finds Nearly
20% Of Illinois Non-Domiciled CDLs Were
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20% Of Illinois Non-Domiciled CDLs Were
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The Transportation Department found that nearly 20% of Illinois' non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses were issued illegally. (snip) The audit found that Illinois illegally issued non-domiciled CDLs to drivers whose licenses were valid long after their lawful presence in the U.S. expired and those whose lawful presence in the U.S. was not verified. The DOT gave Illinois 30 days to come into compliance and revoke the illegally issued licenses, or else lose $128 million in federal highway funding.
Few have had as profound an effect on modern scientific understanding as Sir Isaac Newton.
Many people are familiar with the story of how a falling apple first inspired Newton to investigate the force that would come to be known as gravity, and as he later concluded in his seminal scientific treatise, “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy,” it is this same force that pulls a fruit to ground that keeps the planets in orbit.
While Newton undoubtedly possessed a keen sense of observation and an insatiable curiosity that enabled him to make some of the most influential mathematical and scientific discoveries in recorded history, his prolific notes and writings—especially the vast
U.S. Olympic figure skater Amber Glenn was a favorite for gold in the ladies’ singles competition in Milan Cortina, until she wasn’t. Though Glenn looked sharp as she opened her highly difficult short program, she committed a small but fateful error in her final jump of the night.
To a casual fan, Glenn had done nothing wrong. She completed the third and final jump in her skate, landing cleanly without a fall. But for those with an understanding of the sport’s requirements, Glenn’s mistake was devastating. It would likely cost her an Olympic medal.
tates don't come much bluer than Maryland. My father-in-law, who lived much of his adult life in Maryland, was heavily involved in local politics there, as a conservative Democrat - there were some then, and in Maryland, even in the '60s and '70s, you registered Democrat, or you were shut out of the process. He has told me on numerous occasions that there wasn't an elected official in Maryland who had two IQ points to rub together.
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Case in point: Governor Wes Moore, who on Wednesday was eviscerated by Press Secretary Karolyn Leavitt for his action prohibiting local law enforcement from working with Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is becoming the new acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the NIH head, will also serve as acting CDC director, a Trump administration official told The Epoch Times on Feb. 18. Bhattacharya, 58, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He was approved by the Senate as the NIH director in early 2025 in a 53–47 party-line vote.Jim O'Neill, who had been serving as the acting CDC director in addition to his Senate-confirmed role of deputy health secretary, departed the administration on Feb. 13. The reason for O'Neill’s exit, and Bhattacharya’s expanded responsibilities, has not been provided.
Eight people are confirmed dead, with one more skier still missing in the horrific avalanche that happened just outside of Lake Tahoe. Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon provided the grim update on Wednesday, 24 hours after the avalanche was first reported. Moon stated four travel guides and 11 guests were caught in the avalanche. Among those 15, 6 had been rescued — one man and five women from ages 30-55. Moon said eight of the remaining nine are confirmed dead, and one is still missing.
At least a dozen House and Senate Democrats will skip President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address next week to instead attend a rally on the National Mall organized to protest the first year of his second term.
Several progressive leaders will use the “People’s State of the Union,” hosted by MoveOn and liberal media outlet MeidasTouch, to present an alternate vision for the country as Trump takes the podium for his second address before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night. That list includes Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), considered a 2028 presidential hopeful, as well as Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), the chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
The center-left Social Democrats (SPD), Germany's first political party, are struggling to muster their optimism in a year when five of Germany's 16 federal states are set to elect new parliaments. According to the latest opinion polls, the SPD could be voted out of power in two states that is has governed for decades. In two others, the SPD is polling in the single digits.
To understand what went wrong, we need to look back: The SPD was founded as a traditional workers party in 1863, which makes it the country's oldest political party. In that period, it aimed to be the political representative of factory workers, whose precarious lives
A lot of people are outraged over this case of an elderly woman who killed a family of four while driving on the wrong side of the road and far above the limit, got away clean, and then moved her property around to avoid civil liability.
A woman who prosecutors said killed a family of four while speeding down a residential San Francisco street will likely face no jail time or community service mandates after pleading no contest to four felony counts of gross vehicular manslaughter.
Mary Fong Lau, 80, changed her plea from not guilty to no contest Friday afternoon and
The Department of State revoked the visas of a record 100,000 foreign nationals with criminal backgrounds during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, pursuant to the administration’s goal of enhancing national security and public safety.
The figure is an all-time record, marking a 150 percent increase from 2024 under Joe Biden’s administration. "The United States has no obligation to host criminals who endanger the American people. A U.S. visa is a privilege, not a right,” the DOS wrote Tuesday on X.
The U.S. Air Force is repainting Air Force One and other aircraft in the executive fleet with President Donald Trump’s preferred color red, white, and dark blue color scheme.
The repainting of the executive of the executive fleet marks the first rebranding in more than six decades, marking a shift from the John F. Kennedy-era paint scheme.
“The Air Force is implementing a new paint scheme requirement (red, white and dark blue) for VC-25B as well as the additional executive airlift fleet, which will include the new 747-8i and four C-32 aircraft,” an Air Force spokesperson said in a statement.
This change would do away with the Kennedy-era light blue and white
CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin has never been one to show good judgement. When he’s not getting caught conducting “personal business” on a staff Zoom call, he’s accidentally admitting that there’s an ongoing leftist-led judicial coup designed to stymie President Trump’s agenda.
The serial self-pleasurer let the proverbial cat out of the bag in his Monday opinion column for The New York Times. Titled, “The Plan for a Radically Different Supreme Court Is Here,” the article purports to roll out a blueprint for countering conservative appointments of originalist judges to the bench but inadvertently discloses the existence of leftists’ efforts to weaponize the judicial system against Trump.
DENVER (KDVR) — Palantir Technologies announced Tuesday that it is moving its headquarters from near downtown Denver to Miami. Palantir Technologies is a data analytics company that specializes in building software that gathers and analyzes large amounts of data to provide “AI-driven decisions in critical government and commercial enterprises in the West,” according to the website. The company moved its headquarters from Palo Alto, California to Denver in August 2020, and on Tuesday the company announced in a post on X, “We have moved our headquarters to Miami, Florida.”
To me, it was the most undignified moment in modern American politics, and not surprisingly, it came from the divisive and bitter “Speaker Emerita,” Nancy Pelosi (CA-11). Serving as Speaker of the House at the time — February 2020 — the San Franciscan tore up her copy of Trump’s State of the Union speech (Snip) Of course, since they are not in control of the Oval Office, the Senate, or the House, Democrats now rely on obstruction, protests, and endless whining over imagined existential threats posed by the president. Will they stay classy, though, for a time-honored tradition, the State of the Union address, scheduled for February 24?
FORT WORTH, Texas — A mistrial has been declared on the first day of the historic first federal Antifa terrorism trial after a woke lawyer for one of the defendants engaged in misconduct.
U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman halted the jury selection process after noticing that MarQuetta Clayton, a BLM-activist attorney for one of the defendants, was wearing a politically-charged t-shirt with images of Martin Luther King, Jr. and messaging about civil rights.
Judge Pittman found her clothing could prejudice jurors. His ruling came on the first day of jury selection in Fort Worth, weeks after nine federal defendants were indicted on charges stemming from a July 4, 2025
The Obama Presidential Center has taken plenty of heat, mostly because it’s one of the ugliest buildings humanity has ever produced. Soviet architects would be in awe of the brutalist, menacing design of the $850 million ode to the 44th president.
But what some have termed a “Klingon prison” just got weirder and, if possible, less attractive with the addition of a colossal display on its sides with words from the former president’s 2015 speech in Selma, Alabama. It might be inspiring — if you could actually read it: (X) “Not the ideal design.” Well, that’s certainly a contestant for understatement of the year. “I gave up after developing a headache
Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison says he plans to "terminate" two officers after they contacted U.S. Customs and Border Protection during two separate traffic stops, adding that their actions were against the department's policy. In a Board of Police Commissioners' meeting on Thursday, Feb. 12, Bettison says that under policy, officers are prohibited from contacting federal agents for translation services. Bettison says the calls resulted in the individuals being detained by federal agents.
California’s Gasoline Prices Aren’t
a Jones Act Problem — They’re a California
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a Jones Act Problem — They’re a California
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When gasoline prices spike in California, commentators reflexively search for a villain that can be blamed without confronting the state’s own policy failures. The latest example is a Fortune article suggesting that recent supply disruptions — and California’s chronically high gas prices — are meaningfully driven by Jones Act compliance and shipping constraints. That claim is not merely misleading. It is wrong.
California’s gasoline prices have been higher than the national average for decades, long predating the current shipping disruptions cited in the article. The Jones Act, by contrast, has been federal law since 1920.
While the government of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has inked a trade agreement with China to accept cheap imported vehicles in exchange for Beijing purchasing some agricultural products, President Trump has promised those cheap Chinese EVs will never cross the border into the USA.
The Canadian polling on the issue has done a remarkable chang in the past few years. Now, the majority of Canadians are willing to purchase cheap Chinese EVs. As outlined by Bloomberg, “More than half of Canadians, or 53%, say that knowing an EV was made in China would have no effect on their purchasing decision, according to a new poll by Nanos Research Group
It is “not fair” that U.S. President Donald Trump more often calls on Ukraine to compromise to achieve peace than Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky said amid “difficult” two-day peace talks in Switzerland.
Two-day Ukraine War peace talks broke abruptly and apparently early on Wednesday morning, the second day’s session having lasted just two hours, amid remarks from both sides about how arduous progress had been so far. And even as the Ukrainian leader observed that he saw what could be a “final stage” in talks, he decried Russia for trying to further “drag out” progress and the United States for what he was was unfairly
Democratic politicians have found themselves indirectly defending Islam’s 7th-century hatred of man’s best friend, dogs.
Several Democrats have instinctively accused Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) of racism after he reacted to a New York-based Muslim advocate, Nerdeen Kiswani — who said house pet dogs will not be welcome in a non-secular, Islamic New York.
“NYC is coming to Islam,” said a February 12 tweet from Kiswani, referring to the November electoral victory of Zohran Mamdani, the Ugandan-born, Indian-origin, immigrant, populist, and Muslim Mayor of New York. [snip] Fine responded three days later, on February 15: “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”
Democrat Wes Moore's presidential ambitions imploded over the past 10 weeks, but you'd have to be a pretty close student of the Maryland governor to know it, since most of the mainstream press is in cahoots with the aspiring 2028 Democratic presidential cohort.
Our Andrew Kerr has published two blockbuster investigative reports about Moore that undercut key elements of his life story—first, his boasts about being some kind of a "foremost expert" on radical Islam, based on an Oxford University graduate thesis that he can't produce and that the school doesn't have on file in its library, and second, his oft-repeated tale that his great-grandfather was chased out of the country
Keep Firing Federal Freeloaders
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Federal employment is at its lowest since the mid-1960s. Has the country fallen apart without the Washington bureaucracy holding it all together? Hardly.
Donald Trump was elected to accomplish a number of objectives. One of them was to cut, and hard, the federal administrative state. The mission has not been accomplished, but after a year, the federal workforce has fallen from more than 3 million to about 2.7 million, roughly where it was six decades ago, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Like a thousand lawyers at the bottom of the ocean, it’s a good start. But
"Late Show" host Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night called CBS's denial of his claim that it blocked the broadcast of his interview with Texas state Rep. James Talarico "c--p" -- and urged the network and its parent, Paramount Skydance, to stand up to the "bullies" in the Trump administration. Colbert's broadcast came hours after CBS issued a statement on the controversy. (Snip) He then pulled a plastic doggy bag from behind his desk, picked up the statement, tied a knot, and mimed throwing it away before cutting to commercial.
The Kansas House has drawn a clear line with House Bill 2448. The measure would require every driver's license in the state to list the holder’s citizenship status, with a different design for noncitizens, and it has passed the House over loud objections from Democrats and advocacy groups. Supporters say it is about election integrity and basic clarity in government records, and they are right.
This is not some sweeping crackdown on people who are here legally. Kansas already verifies legal presence when it issues licenses, and noncitizens can receive temporary licenses under current law. What the bill does is close a real administrative gap.
President Joe Biden not only allowed 6 million to 10 million illegal aliens to walk across the border during his term — he also granted a “quiet amnesty” to nearly 1 million.
We’re only learning this now, as the Department of Justice revealed Biden officials improperly “terminated,” “dismissed” or “closed” that many cases before the nation’s immigration tribunals.
The tool for this deception was the DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review — “EOIR,” pronounced like Winnie the Pooh’s sad donkey friend — which oversees deportation cases.
The trip that former President Ronald Reagan took to Europe in June of 1987 culminated in one of the greatest speeches of the last century -- but its first major moment was a visit to the Vatican.
On June 3, 1987, Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan flew to Venice, Italy. Shortly before midnight, they arrived at the Villa Condulmer, where they would stay for several days.
"Finished evening with old John Wayne movie," Reagan wrote the next day in his diary.
The day after that, he delivered a television address broadcast in Western Europe by the U.S. Information Agency on its WORLDNET satellite television channels.
A good catch by Chuck Ross at WFB drawing attention to the latest Amici curiae appointed to the FISA Court.Adding to a string of leftist ‘advisors to the court’ Jennifer Daskal has been appointed by FISA Court Presiding Judge Anthony Trenga.
Daskal was the Biden administration principal deputy general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security who launched the Disinformation Governance Board (Ministry of Truth) ultimately led by Nina Jankowicz.
Jennifer Daskal’s career has centers around controlling information from a leftist perspective and was one of the core officials who used the term dis-mis-mal-information to censor speech on social media platforms around COVID-19 and the vaccination protocol.
“The bottom line is this: voter ID is not controversial in this country,” Harry Enten, the chief data analyst for CNN, recently reported. Nor is it controversial in virtually any other country in the world. Yet despite massive support among both Democrats (71%) and Republicans (95%), only one Democratic member of the House and one in the Senate are supporting the SAVE Act. Unless seven more of the 47 Senate Democrats step forward, their filibuster will kill the bill. (snip) If banning voter IDs is a hallmark of democracy, Democrats will need to start castigating virtually all the other countries in the world as anti-democratic nations.