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11:35 AM ET, February 18, 2026

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Liz Dye / Public Notice:
CBS obeys in advance  —  PN is supported by paid subscribers.  Become one ⬇️  —  📡 Subscribe to PN 📡  —  On Monday night, the Trump administration made a hefty in-kind donation to a Senate candidate in Texas.  But the beneficiary wasn't incumbent Sen. John Cornyn …
RELATED:
Dan Rather / Steady:
Trump Doesn't Want You To See This  —  So, here you go!  —  Dan Rather and Team Steady
Mirna Alsharif / NBC News:
Stephen Colbert says CBS didn't air interview out of fear of FCC
Tess Patton / The Wrap:
Colbert's James Talarico Interview Hits 3 Million YouTube Views, Surpasses Bad Bunny Appearance
Lizzy Lawrence / STAT:
STAT+: FDA reverses course, agrees to review Moderna's flu vaccine  —  WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration reversed course and told Moderna it would review its application for a new flu vaccine, the company announced Wednesday.  —  The agency told Moderna earlier this month …
RELATED:
New York Times:
F.D.A. Reverses Decision and Agrees to Review Moderna's Flu Vaccine  —  Moderna said it had held further discussions with regulators and announced that the agency would accept the company's application for approval of its flu vaccine that uses mRNA technology.
Derek Hunter / The Hill:
Something is very wrong at the FDA
Discussion: MedPage Today and Raw Story
Paul Krugman:
Billionaires Gone Wild  —  Understanding the oligarchs' power grab and the dire threat to American democracy  —  A few stories about centibillionaires — men whose net worth exceeds $100 billion — and their role in our society:  —  · In 2022 Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, purchased Twitter.
RELATED:
Carol Ryan / Wall Street Journal:
Billionaires' Low Taxes Are Becoming a Problem for the Economy  —  Tax avoidance by the superwealthy is an economic issue as well as a political one  —  California's plan to hit its richest residents with a one-off wealth tax is a long shot, and its design has problems.
Discussion: The Guardian
Avery Lotz / Axios:
Vatican won't participate in Trump's Gaza “Board of Peace” … - The board is set to hold its inaugural meeting Thursday in Washington. … - One such concern, he said, “is that at the international level it should above all be the UN that manages these crisis situations.”
Keri Blakinger / ProPublica:
Amid Mass ICE Arrests, Trump Pardon Recipient Juan Orlando Hernández Given Special Treatment  —  After the former Honduran president was pardoned, ICE dropped its detainer on him, and he was whisked away to a luxury hotel in New York City.  —  Copy HTML
Greg Sargent / New Republic:
Angry Trump Humiliated as Effort to Prosecute Dems Backfires Again  —  Let's start with some good news: Donald Trump's efforts to jail his Democratic enemies have thus far mostly been marked by ham-fisted, buffoonish failure.  The targeting of people like Senator Adam Schiff …
Discussion: New York Times and Raw Story
Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Judges decry treatment of nursing and pregnant detainees in ICE custody … That crystallized over the weekend in Massachusetts, when Djeniffer Benvinda Semedo, a Cape Verdean national who is six months pregnant, was rushed to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for emergency care.
Discussion: Docket updates … and Raw Story
RELATED:
Stephanie Koithan / San Antonio Current:
Report: Staff at Dilley raiding cells to confiscate kids' letters and drawings detailing conditions inside  —  Staff at Dilley's South Texas Family Residential Center have begun raiding cells at the immigrant detention facility to confiscate letters from children detailing the conditions inside …
Discussion: Joe.My.God.
Russell Contreras / Axios:
Where Christian nationalism is most dominant in the U.S.  —  Christian nationalism is now deeply entrenched inside today's Republican Party, according to a sweeping 50-state survey. … - The divide reflects a broader clash over whether America's future is pluralistic or rooted in a singular religious-national identity.
RELATED:
Heather Cox Richardson / Letters from an American:   February 17, 2026  —  Trump's White House website welcomes visitors with a pop-up that reads: “WELCOME TO THE GOLDEN AGE!”
Mia McCarthy / Politico:
Republicans are eyeing major election changes.  Trump's mail voting crackdown isn't one of them. … But other Republicans don't see it that way — many of their own voters have voted by mail consistently for decades.  So far, the type of blanket ban on mail voting Trump wants has not gained traction …
RELATED:
Politico:   GOP sidesteps Trump's mail voting demands
Mariana Alfaro / Washington Post:
GOP congressman who says he supports dogs over Muslims faces calls to resign  —  House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) said Tuesday that Rep. Randy Fine (R-Florida) is “an Islamophobic, disgusting and unrepentant bigot.”  —  Democrats are demanding that Rep. Randy Fine (R-Florida) …
RELATED:
Sam Levine / The Guardian:
Judge declares mistrial in Texas ‘antifa’ protest case over attorney's T-shirt  —  Lawyer for defendants accused of terrorism at ICE protest decried by Trump appointee over shirt's potential for ‘bias’  —  A federal judge in Texas declared a mistrial on Tuesday after a defense lawyer wore …
Barak Ravid / Axios:
Trump moves closer to a major war with Iran  —  The Trump administration is closer to a major war in the Middle East than most Americans realize.  It could begin very soon. … - The sources noted it would likely be a joint U.S.-Israeli campaign that's much broader in scope …
Megan O'Matz / ProPublica:
Chlorine Dioxide, Raw Camel Milk: The FDA No Longer Warns Against These and Other Ineffective Autism Treatments  —  The warning on the government website was stark.  Some products and remedies claiming to treat or cure autism are being marketed deceptively and can be harmful.
Discussion: Joe.My.God.
Annie Karni / New York Times:
Democrats Plan to Counter Trump's Speech to Congress With Rally  —  The House Democratic leader has asked rank-and-file members to sit quietly at the speech or skip it altogether, wary of creating a distraction.  —  Democrats knew in real time last year that they had bungled their response …
Discussion: The Hill, NewsMax.com and Raw Story
Rick Hasen / Election Law Blog:
National Review: “The SAVE Act's Virtuous Goals Are Not Worth the Cost”  —  National Review:  —  Republicans in Congress, supported vocally by the Trump administration, are pushing for passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act.  It now appears to have majority support in the Senate after passing the House.
Discussion: National Review
Punchbowl News:
2/18/26☀️ AM: … Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson has held out on redistricting even as the state House has passed the measure by overwhelming margins. … Over the last six months, D.C. Republicans unleashed a tidal wave of TV ads boosting Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).
Washington Free / The Washington Free Beacon:
Wes Moore 2028 Drowning in River of Bullshit  —  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.
Odette Yousef / NPR:
Extremist rhetoric is often found in government messaging.  Who's the target?  —  A recent social media post from an account belonging to President Trump prompted enough outcry over its use of a familiar racist trope that the White House deleted it.  The Truth Social post included an image …
Josh Christenson / New York Post:
Trump ‘taking an interest’ in social media bans for teens, daughter-in-law Lara tells ‘Pod Force One’  —  President Trump has been “taking an interest” in the effects of social media on youngsters and how other countries have been regulating its use, first daughter-in-law Lara Trump told the latest episode of …
Brian Kaylor / A Public Witness:
Doug Wilson Preaches at Pentagon, Compares Services to Day of Pentecost  —  Controversial Christian Nationalist preacher Doug Wilson stood at a podium inside the Pentagon on Tuesday (Feb. 17) as the guest preacher for the latest monthly Christian worship service held there for leaders of the U.S. military.
Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Our running list of judges who have ruled on ICE's mass detention policy … This “mandatory detention” push — an unprecedented reinterpretation of decades-old laws — has resulted in thousands of people, most without criminal records, being detained, even if they have lived in the country for decades without incident.
Discussion: Austin Kocher
William Kristol / The Bulwark:
We're All Minnesotans Now  —  How committed is the Trump administration to erasing the history of slavery?  Last month, the National Park Service removed exhibits about slavery from the Philadelphia site where George Washington—and some of the people he enslaved—and John Adams lived …
Jasper Ward / Reuters:
Allegations in Epstein files may amount to ‘crimes against humanity,’ UN experts say  —  Millions of files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein suggest the existence of a “global criminal enterprise” that carried out acts meeting the legal threshold of crimes against humanity …
Discussion: Al Jazeera
Jason Lange / Reuters:
Trump's immigration approval hits new low, according to Reuters/Ipsos poll  —  U.S. public approval of Donald Trump's immigration policies fell to the lowest level since his return to the White House, amid signs he is losing support among American men on the issue, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Discussion: The Hill, MS NOW and PoliticusUSA
Ashifa Kassam / The Guardian:
Credit cards cancelled, Google accounts closed: ICC judges on life under Trump sanctions  —  Kimberly Prost and Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza vow US reprisals will not affect work of international criminal court  —  When the Canadian Kimberly Prost learned Donald Trump's administration …
Discussion: Euronews and The Register
Richard Chumney / Stars & Stripes:
Deadly DC crash involving a US Army helicopter caused by ‘systemic failures,’ NTSB says  —  WASHINGTON — A series of systematic failures caused a U.S. Army helicopter to crash into a passenger jet near Washington, D.C. last year, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Discussion: New York Times and KVIA-TV
Michael Linhorst / New Republic:
The Mom-and-Pop Contractors Helping ICE Rapidly Expand … Assault training.  Blast-resistant window film.  Sniper programs.  Iris scanners.  With tens of billions of dollars in new funding, ICE can't seem to spend money fast enough, and first-time contractors from across the country …
Austin Kocher:
Seventh Immigrant Dies in ICE Custody This Year  —  Lorth Sim, a Cambodian national, died in ICE custody on Monday, the seventh since the start of the year and nearly the 40th since Trump took office.  ICE has not updated its website to reflect this latest detainee death as of the time of this writing.
 
 
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 More Items: 
Associated Press:
FBI and Minnesota police investigate ICE arrest that left man with broken skull
Camille Mumford / Emerson Polling:
California 2026 Poll: Hilton, Swalwell, Bianco Lead Nonpartisan Primary for Governor
Joe Miller / Financial Times:
Donald Trump's AI push fuels revolt in Maga heartlands
Jennifer Rubin / The Contrarian:
Jesse Jackson's Passing Should Stir the Democracy Movement
Discussion: Washington Post and Bloomberg
Jerusalem Demsas / The Argument:
Against thoughtless moderation  —  Welcome back to The Argument's poll series …
Eric Levitz / Vox:
Why voters hate Trump's (pretty decent) economy
 Earlier Items: 
Matthew Choi / Washington Post:
AIPAC accused of covert campaigning as Democratic support falters
Discussion: The Intercept and Jewish Insider
Washington Post:
As Israel takes steps to claim land in West Bank, U.S. stands by
Discussion: arabnews.jp
Natasha Korecki / NBC News:
Gov. JB Pritzker to propose suspending tax incentives for data centers in Illinois
Discussion: NOTUS, KSDK-TV and KARE-TV
Hannah Knowles / Washington Post:
Beshear is latest 2028 contender to write a book, focused on faith
Discussion: Washington Examiner
Garrett Shanley / Miami Herald:
‘Professor Uthmeier’: Inside Florida attorney general's $100k teaching job at UF