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CBS Denies Forcing Stephen Colbert to Not Air Interview With Democratic Candidate, Says It Provided 'Legal Guidance'

Feb 17, 2026 11:51am PT CBS said it did not force “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” to pull an interview with Texas state Rep. James Talarico from its TV broadcast Monday, contrary to the way the late-night host had framed it. Rather, according to CBS, its legal team provided “guidance” to “The Late Show” that Talarico’s appearance could “trigger the FCC’s equal-time rule.” In a statement Tuesday, CBS said, “‘The Late Show’ was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Re ...

highplainsdem

Bacteria Frozen Inside 5,000-Year-Old Ice Cave Is Crazy Resistant to Antibiotics

A study published Tuesday in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology describes Psychrobacter SC65A.3, a bacterial strain discovered frozen inside 5,000-year-old layers of cave ice in Romania. Testing revealed that SC65A.3 is resistant to 10 modern antibiotics and carries more than 100 genes linked to resistance despite never being exposed to these drugs. -snip- While exposure to antibiotics amplifies the prevalence of resistance genes, it does not imbue microbes with these protective traits. Tho ...

BumRushDaShow

Fulton County accuses Justice Department of misleading the judge who approved elections office search warrant

PUBLISHED Feb 17, 2026, 1:21 PM ET Officials in Fulton County, Georgia, accused the Justice Department of making "serious" omissions in the application the FBI filed to obtain a search warrant for 2020 election ballots last month. The local officials, who are seeking the return of the election materials, wrote in a court filing Tuesday that "instead of alleging probable cause to believe a crime has been committed," the FBI's application "does nothing more than describ ...

BumRushDaShow

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin to leave Trump administration

02/17/2026 11:01 AM EST One of the Trump administration’s most vocal defenders of its aggressive immigration crackdown is leaving as public opinion sours against the hardline approach, according to two DHS officials familiar with the move. Tricia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s spokesperson, is expected to inform colleagues Tuesday about her plans, according to the officials. She’s leaving DHS next week. McLaughlin did not immediately respond to a request ...

Wicked Blue

Armed man wearing tactical vest arrested outside the U.S. Capitol, police say

An 18-year-old man was arrested on Tuesday after he began rushing towards the U.S. Capitol with a loaded shotgun, police said. Officers challenged the man, who was wearing a tactical vest and gloves, and ordered him to drop his weapon, which he complied with, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Michael Sullivan told reporters. Sullivan said the man laid down the weapon and then lay down on the ground before being taken into custody by U.S. Capitol Police officers on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. ...

Ponietz

New Mexico approves comprehensive probe of Epstein's Zorro Ranch

(Reuters) New Mexico lawmakers on Monday passed legislation to launch what they said was the first full investigation into what happened at Zorro Ranch, where the late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is accused of trafficking and sexually assaulting girls and women. A bipartisan committee will seek testimony from survivors of alleged sexual abuse at the ranch, located about 30 miles south of Santa Fe, the state capital. Legislators are also urging local residents to testify.

BumRushDaShow

Rev. Jesse Jackson, civil rights icon and two-time presidential candidate, dies at 84

(NBC News) The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the longtime civil rights activist, Baptist minister and two-time presidential candidate, died Tuesday, his family said. He was 84. "Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said in a statement. “We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family. His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by.”

demmiblue

Colbert Says CBS Refused To Air His Interview With Democrat Candidate Fearing FCC Blowback

(Forbes) Late Show host Stephen Colbert on Monday said CBS refused to air his interview with James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate from Texas, due to the Federal Communications Commission’s recent decision to enforce its “equal time” mandate on talk shows. During a segment of his show on Monday night, Colbert told the audience Talarico was “supposed to be here” as a guest on the show, but CBS’s lawyers told the Late Show team “in no uncertain terms…that we could not have him on the broadcast.” Colbert said the network’s lawyers also told him he was not allowed to mention this issue on air, before adding: “because my network clearly doesn't want us to talk about this, let's talk about this.”

Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

FBI won't share evidence related to Alex Pretti shooting, state says

(USA Today) The FBI notified Minnesota state investigators that it will not share information or evidence related to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, the state's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said in a Feb. 16 statement. The news comes after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and other officials expressed hope that federal authorities would cooperate with the state in an investigation into the killing of Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse whose death triggered nationwide protests and bipartisan calls for an independent investigation.

KS Toronado

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White House names new pick for Nevada top federal prosecutor after confirmation trouble

13 min ago - Updated 6:24 PM EST, February 17, 2026 LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Trump administration has selected a new candidate for Nevada’s top federal prosecutor after challenges to its first pick’s eligibility, marking another setback in the presiden ... (AP)

Bayer reaches $7.25B settlement over Monsanto's Roundup accusations

41 min ago - 11 hours ago Bayer has agreed to a $7.25 billion deal to settle tens of thousands of lawsuits that its weedkiller Roundup caused cancer. The big picture: Bayer — which acquired Roundup when it bought Monsanto in 2018 — announced Tuesday tha ... (Axios)

Top Republican eyeing FDA overhaul

1 hr ago - 02/17/26 3:57 PM ET Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) on Tuesday unveiled his proposal for modernizing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), calling on the agency to reform some of its practices and embrace innovations in order to get more products approve ... (The Hill)

Hugh Hefner's widow warns images of underage girls are in late husband's scrapbooks, journals

2 hrs ago - Hugh Hefner's widow alleged Tuesday that a foundation set up by the Playboy founder may be in possession of a decades-old collection of sexual images, including some of underage girls that were taken without consent. Flanked by attorney Gloria Allred ... (LA Times)

Judge declares mistrial in Texas 'antifa' protest case over attorney's T-shirt

4 hrs ago - A federal judge in Texas declared a mistrial on Tuesday after a defense lawyer wore a shirt in court with images from the civil rights movement, delaying a closely watched case in which the Trump administration is accusing a group of protesters of be ... (The Guardian)

Special Ed Teacher dead after ICE initiates high speed chase

4 hrs ago - (CNN) -- What was supposed to be a quiet studentless staff planning day for teachers at a Georgia public school turned into a day of mourning when a man fleeing immigration agents crashed a car into a cherished educator's vehicle. Linda Davis, a spec ... (CNN)

California State University maintenance workers on strike, demand pay increase

6 hrs ago - Diana Lambert Tuesday, February 17, 2026 — 10:16 am Maintenance workers at California State University campuses are on strike, according to a media release from Teamsters Local 2010, which represents more than 1,100 workers across the state. The ... (Ed Source)

New subpoenas issued in inquiry on response to 2016 Russian election interference, AP sources say

7 hrs ago - WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has issued new subpoenas in a Florida-based investigation into perceived adversaries of President Donald Trump and the U.S. government's response to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, ... (AP)

Epstein files suggest acts that may amount to crimes against humanity, say UN experts

7 hrs ago - Millions of files related to the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein suggest the existence of a "global criminal enterprise" that carried out acts meeting the legal threshold of crimes against humanity, a panel of independent experts appoint ... (The Guardian)

Trump's new State Dept. nominee said lesbian union leader should get death penalty

7 hrs ago - Jeremy Carl, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, deleted thousands of social media posts before his nomination. One was a May 2023 post calling for the killing of Randi Weingarten, the lesbi ... (LGBTQ Nation)

PSA: YouTube is down, it's not just you

7 hrs ago - Yes, YouTube is down According to outage tracker Downdetector, complaints about the YouTube outage began shortly after 8 p.m. PT/5 p.m. PT. YouTube TV also appears to be suffering from an outage. The problems appear to primarily be affecting the YouT ... (9to5Mac)

US releases another $77 million in frozen New York tunnel funding

8 hrs ago - February 17, 2026 12:39 PM EST Updated 5 hours ago WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - The Trump administration has released another $77 million in frozen federal funding for the $16 billion Hudson Tunnel Project, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said on Tu ... (Reuters)

Trump's election bill tops 50 Senate votes, but Democrats could still block it

8 hrs ago - WASHINGTON — The SAVE America Act to require proof of citizenship nationwide to register to vote and overhaul voting laws has now topped 50 votes in the Republican-controlled Senate. The bill is supported by President Donald Trump and passed the ... (NBC News)

Warren Buffett's company invests in the New York Times six years after he sold all his newspapers

8 hrs ago - Updated 6:45 PM EST, February 17, 2026 OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Five years after Warren Buffett sold off all of Berkshire Hathaway’s newspapers and predicted unending declines for most of the industry, Berkshire disclosed a new $350 million inves ... (AP)

ICE reliance on Microsoft technology surged amid immigration crackdown, documents show

9 hrs ago - Tue 17 Feb 2026 13.06 EST Last modified on Tue 17 Feb 2026 13.17 EST Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deepened its reliance on Microsoft’s cloud technology last year as the agency ramped up arrest and deportation operations, leaked docu ... (The Guardian)

FCC Commissioner Slams CBS for 'Capitulation' Over Axed Colbert Interview With Democratic Candidate

9 hrs ago - February 17, 2026 @ 10:20 AM FCC commissioner Anna Gomez on Tuesday condemned CBS’ decision not to air Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show” interview with a Democratic political candidate amid ongoing pressure from her own agency, ca ... (The Wrap)

Florida gubernatorial hopeful James Fishback faces eligibility questions over D.C. Homestead claim

9 hrs ago - By Frank Kopylov 2:51 p.m. ET | Updated Feb. 17, 2026 TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback, who has raised significantly less than his rivals, is under renewed scrutiny after a new Washington, D.C., property t ... (flvoicenews.com)

GOP rep faces censure calls over anti-Muslim post

9 hrs ago - 8 hours ago Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) is facing mounting backlash from colleagues after suggesting in a post that he would choose dogs over Muslims. Why it matters: Fine is doubling down on his remarks, escalating a controversy that's fueling calls fo ... (Axios)

Mace asks CIA director for documents agency may have on Epstein, Maxwell

10 hrs ago - 02/17/26 4:26 PM ET Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) requested that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) release “any and all” documents it may possess related to convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in a Tuesday letter to ... (The Hill)

Pregnant Minnesotans postpone abortion appointments to avoid ICE

10 hrs ago - Published February 17, 2026 6:00AM (EST) Pregnant immigrants in Minnesota have been postponing their abortions, skipping aftercare, and delaying birth control visits and urgent cancer screening follow-ups to avoid coming in contact with federal immig ... (Salon)