2026 kicked off with an economic boom, pic not related
https://abcnews.com/Business/trump-economy-booming-2026/story?id=129990325
Hiring increased sharply at outset of 2026, blowing past economists' expectations
Wednesday's jobs report provided a key barometer of the U.S. economy.

Hiring increased sharply at the outset of 2026, the year's first jobs report said, blowing past economists' expectations and besting sluggish performance from the previous year.

The U.S. added 130,000 jobs in January, according to the report, which marked a sharp increase from 50,000 jobs added in the previous month.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/pam-bondi-hearing-jeffrey-epstein-trump-rcna258522

Attorney General Pam Bondi lashed out at judges and lawmakers in a contentious House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, with the department’s handling of its Jeffrey Epstein records and its attempts to prosecute critics of President Donald Trump causing the most tension.

The oversight hearing comes as Bondi and her agency face increased pressure from the White House to deliver victories on Trump’s agenda — and frustration, including from the president himself, at what they perceive to be the slow progress and a number of setbacks in the courts.

At times, Bondi’s performance on Wednesday seemed targeted specifically for Trump. She appeared to be reading off pre-written talking points on occasion and sang Trump’s praises, calling him “the greatest president in American history.”

Wednesday's hearing devolved into a series of shouting matches as Democrats peppered Bondi with questions about Epstein and survivors of his abuse, many of whom attended the proceedings.

In a press conference ahead of the hearing, Epstein survivors and their family members and tore into the department's handling of the case.

“The DOJ needs to do its job. Give us the rest of the files and start the investigations,” said one survivor, Dani Bensky.

Sky Roberts, the brother of Virginia Giuffre, explicitly took aim at Bondi, calling her handling of this “nothing short of a failure.” “Do your job, Pam,” said Roberts.

https://thefederalist.com/2026/02/10/successful-lawsuit-over-transgender-surgery-ends-a-decades-long-horror-story/

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.

The Epoch Times reported that Varian’s mother, Claire Deacon, was worried “her daughter would commit suicide if she didn’t get” the procedure and told the court that her daughter’s psychologist certainly “increased that worry.” This represents the deeply deceptive, “Would you rather have a dead daughter or a live son?” emotional blackmail.

This judgment has sent shockwaves through the medical and psychological community peddling this lie. They know more are coming. Independent reporter Benjamin Ryan has documented 27 other detransitioner lawsuits filed to date. And Manhattan Institute research from 2017 to 2023 found that a conservative minimum of 5,200 U.S. teen girls had their breasts removed, believing it would solve their transgender confusion.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/10/americas/canada-british-columbia-school-shooting-intl-hnk
At least nine people have been killed at a high school and a residential property in the Canadian province of British Columbia, police said Tuesday, in the country’s deadliest school shooting in decades.

Police found six people dead and dozens injured when they responded to reports of an active shooter at the school in Tumbler Ridge, a small rural town in the province’s northeast, around 1:20 p.m.

Another person died while being transported to hospital, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said.

Two more people were found dead at a residence believed to be connected to the incident, police said.

The suspected shooter was found deceased at the school with “what appears to be a self-inflicted injury,” said police.

The suspect was described as a brown-haired woman wearing a dress, in an emergency alert which went out to residents’ phones, according to CNN affiliate CBC News.

Two victims were airlifted from the school to hospital with serious or life-threatening injuries. About 25 other people with non-life-threatening injuries are being treated at a local medical centre, police said.

Tumbler Ridge Secondary School has 175 students from Grades 7 to 12, according to the province’s website.

Police have not yet determined a motive for the shooting, Superintendent Ken Floyd, North District commander, said in a press conference Tuesday.

“We are not in a place now to be able to understand why or what may have motivated this tragedy,” Floyd said.

“I think we will struggle to determine the ‘why,’ but we will try our best to determine what transpired,” he added.

It is not yet clear how many of the dead were children, or what, if any, their connections were to the shooter, Floyd said.

Police have identified the shooter but will not be releasing details for privacy reasons, Floyd said. He declined to say whether the shooter was a child.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/11/faa-el-paso-airport.html
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.”

The airport sits next to Biggs Army Airfield and is near the Mexican border, about 12 miles from Juarez, Mexico. The Pentagon referred a question about the nature of the security issue to the FAA.

Flights were initially halted until late Feb. 20 and the ban applied to a 10-nautical-mile area around the airport. The FAA hadn’t immediately disclosed what the security reasons for the temporary sudden halt were or why it was set for so long.

While the FAA regularly halts flights at airports for weather, traffic or even rocket launches, a security issue is highly unusual, as is announcing such a long effective airspace closure.

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Texas Democrat whose district includes much of El Paso, said the move to suddenly close airspace was “unprecedented” and said that “what my office and I have been able to gather overnight and early this morning, there is no immediate threat to the community or surrounding areas.”

“There was no advance notice provided to my office, the City of El Paso, or anyone involved in airport operations,” she said in a statement. “We have urged the FAA to immediately lift the Temporary Flight Restrictions placed on the El Paso area.”

Republicans promote common sense voting laws
Democrats defer to their think tank talking points and lies, because it makes it more difficult for them to rig elections
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5728702-gop-voting-bill-id-requirement/
GOP lawmaker says those without an ID ‘need’ to be able to get one free of charge to vote

Ahead of a vote on a GOP-backed voting requirement bill in the House, Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) said Sunday that those without IDs must be able to get one for free to vote.

“If there’s an individual [who] doesn’t have an ID, there 100 percent needs to be a mechanism for that person to get an ID without a charge,” Steil told host Chris Stirewalt on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday.”

“We want to make sure that more people are voting, not less,” he added. “And I think instilling this confidence [in elections] will actually result in more people coming to the polls.”

Steil noted that the Wisconsin state Legislature implemented such a policy when it passed legislation requiring photo IDs to vote in 2011. Under that law, residents can obtain an ID from the state’s Department of Transportation for free to vote.

The House is set to vote this upcoming week on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which proposes requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and valid identification to cast a ballot.

The act says that proof of citizenship can be a valid passport, birth certificate or hospital record; a photo ID issued by a federal, state or tribal authority; or a military ID card together with a military record of service.

More than 80 percent of Americans, including 71 percent of Democrats, support requiring all individuals to show government-issued photo ID to vote, according to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center last year.

“Our legislation is built on commonsense principles that the American people support,” Steil added.

https://www.nbcsports.com/pressbox/press-releases/super-bowl-lx-is-second-most-watched-all-time-with-nearly-125-million-viewers-peaking-at-all-time-u-s-record-137-8-million-viewers-across-nbc-peacock-and-telemundo

Seahawks-Patriots is Most-Watched Show in History of NBC, Which Celebrates 100 Years in 2026

Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Featuring Global Superstar Bad Bunny Generates Over 4 Billion Social Views in First 24 Hours – up 137% - the Most-Consumed Halftime Show of All-Time on NFL Social Platforms

Telemundo Delivers Largest Spanish-Language NFL Game Audience Ever; Peacock Achieves Best Day Ever on Sunday

Sunday’s Milan Cortina Olympics Presentation Averages 42 Million Viewers, Marking Largest Winter Games Audience since Day 2 of 2014 Sochi Olympics

STAMFORD, Conn. – February 10, 2026 – NBC Sports’ presentation of Super Bowl LX set an all-time media record as 137.8 million viewers watched in the second quarter as the Seattle Seahawks led 6-0 over the New England Patriots – marking the highest peak viewership in U.S. TV history.

The Seahawks’ 29-13 victory over the Patriots averaged 124.9 million viewers on NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL+, based on official live + same day Nielsen Big Data + Panel, ranking as the second-most watched show in U.S. history (behind Super Bowl LIX on FOX in Feb. 2025).

Super Bowl LX is the most-watched show in the history of NBCUniversal, which celebrates 100 years of NBC in 2026.

“The Super Bowl and the NFL once again delivered a blockbuster audience across the NBC broadcast network, Peacock, and Telemundo, and provided an unprecedented lead-in to our Primetime in Milan coverage,” said Rick Cordella, President, NBC Sports. “The Super Bowl and the Olympics are the two most powerful events in the world, and we salute our talented production, tech, and announce teams who delivered best-in-class presentations for our viewers, stations, and partners.”

WASHINGTON (AP) —A grand jury has reportedly delivered another major rebuke to the Trump administration’s efforts to target the president’s political opponents.

On Tuesday, a grand jury declined to indict Democratic lawmakers who had made a video urging active duty troops to “refuse illegal orders,” according to multiple reports.

The failed indictment, which was sought by federal prosecutors at the Justice Department, was the latest example of a grand jury declining to back charges the administration had pursued against those who’d provoked President Donald Trump’s ire. In December, a grand jury also declined to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James after a judge tossed a prior case against her.

The lawmakers released the video last November to remind military members that they could “refuse illegal orders.” Since the video’s release, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Penn.), Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Penn.), Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.) and Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) have been the subject of Trump’s verbal and online attacks.

At one point, Trump described the lawmakers’ actions as “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has also targeted Kelly by opening a Defense Department investigation into him and threatening to demote his military rank.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-military-orders-democrats-video-e1435655587ad9715c4d1cc776edd545

House republicans vote to save america from election fraud, and in doing so, advance common sense voting laws supported by 80% of Americans, including 71% of Democrat voters, and 0% of Democrat politicians

The new regulations require a minimum of photo identification for voting as well as enable information sharing with the DHS so that it's more difficult for states like California to pad their voter rolls with dead people and illegals

Democrats are furious that their voter fraud schemes are being upturned
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/11/house-save-act-trump-elections-bill
House passes Save America Act, Trump-backed bill to impose new voting rules
Bill that requires proof of citizenship and would limit mail-in voting passes 218-213 but faces uphill battle in Senate

The House on Wednesday passed the Save America Act, which would dramatically change voting regulations by requiring proof of citizenship at voter registration and significantly curtail mail-in voting.

The legislation, which passed 218 to 213, faces an uphill battle in the Senate, close observers say.

“I’m skeptical that the Senate will vote on this bill, because this bill goes farther than the bill they’ve already sent to the Senate, [which] it hasn’t taken up,” said Shenna Bellows, Maine’s secretary of state and a Democratic candidate for governor.

One Democrat, Henry Cuellar of Texas, joined Republicans in passing the bill.

The Save America Act, introduced by Chip Roy of Texas this year, expands on changes to voting laws in the 2024 bill, adding a nationwide photo ID requirement to vote, with a list of acceptable identification that is stricter than many states that already have voter ID requirements. Student IDs are explicitly not allowed.

Implementation of the requirements in the original bill, including the proof of citizenship requirements, would take effect immediately, leaving states scrambling to align their voting systems to the new law.

The Labor Departments benchmark revisions to full-year 2025 data revealed that a labor market already viewed as soft actually performed worse than initially thought.

Revisions brought the total number of jobs added last year down by more than 403,000, to only 181,000 for the year – an exceptionally weak year by almost any standard. There are now real doubts about how long the broader economy can continue to power forward with the job market.

This is far fewer than the 1.46 million jobs that were added in 2024.

Wednesday’s reports further complicate the task for President Donald Trump and Republicans as they attempt to craft an economic narrative going into the 2026 midterm elections. Polls show that the president’s approval rating on the economy has declined, while consumer sentiment has been poor, particularly around the jobs market.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/january-jobs-revisions-trump-rcna258398