https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/us/politics/randy-fine-muslim-islamophobic-democrats.html

Representative Randy Fine, Republican of Florida, on Tuesday faced a barrage of calls for his resignation from Democrats — and silence from Republican leaders — after making an Islamophobic statement suggesting he prefers dogs to Muslims.

Mr. Fine, a Jewish first-term congressman who was known in the Florida Legislature as “The Hebrew Hammer” and often makes Islamophobic remarks on social media, made the statement in question on Sunday in response to a post from a Palestinian activist based in New York City.

Nerdeen Kiswani, a Palestinian Muslim New Yorker and organizer, said in a social media post that dung-filled snowdrifts in the city proved that dogs should not have a place in society as indoor pets because, she wrote, “like we’ve said all along, they are unclean.”

Mr. Fine responded: “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”

The comment prompted immediate and unequivocal condemnation from Democrats.

Matt Weston and Tabitha Stoecker clinched mixed team skeleton gold.

It came after Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale won the snowboard cross mixed team event earlier on Sunday.

Weston produced a stunning race to make more of his own history in Cortina - he is the first Briton to win two gold medals at a Winter Olympics having claimed individual gold just two days ago.

Stoecker, 25, had given Weston a tough task with her run of 1:00.77, 0.30 seconds off the pace of the Germans, with the British pair - ranked top seeds - the last to run.

"The individual event is amazing but doing it as a team when we're normally an individual sport is amazing," said Weston.

"To have my team-mate by my side as Olympic champions, two-time for me which is crazy. I'm looking forward to the celebrations!"

A second British team, Marcus Wyatt and Freya Tarbit, missed out on a medal by an agonising 0.01secs as the two German teams of Christopher Grotheer and Jacqueline Pfeifer and Axel Jungk and Susanne Kreher took silver and bronze, respectively.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/articles/cm2x7m17jydo

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz7genjx9njo
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has said it has released all of the files required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, but lawmakers have argued the release is insufficient.

A letter sent to members of the US Congress on Saturday from US Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy said all documents held by the DoJ had been released. It contained a list of names appearing in the files.

Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie, who co-wrote the law, called for the DoJ to also release internal memos outlining past decisions on whether to charge Jeffrey Epstein and his associates.

Millions of new files relating to the late sex offender Epstein were released by the DoJ earlier this month. At the time, the deputy attorney general said three million pages were not released.

This was due to the existence of personal medical files, graphic depictions of child abuse or other material that would jeopardise investigations, said Todd Blanche on the day of the documents dump.

In the latest letter, Bondi and Blanche wrote: "In accordance with the requirements of the Act, and as described in various Department submissions to the courts of the Southern District of New York assigned to the Epstein and Maxwell prosecutions and related orders, the Department released all 'records, documents, communications and investigative materials in the possession of the Department' that 'relate to' any of nine different categories."

No records were withheld from the DoJ's release "on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity", the letter added.

The individuals listed in the letter include people who "are or were a government official or politically exposed person", and whose name appeared at least once in the files, the letter says.

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/candace-owens-tpusa-charlie-kirk-death-conspiracy-theories-elijah-schaffer

TURNING POINT USA COMMUNICATIONS staffer Aubrey Laitsch was called into a meeting last month and abruptly told she was being fired, according to a video she posted online last week.

In her telling, the reason Laitsch was given for being let go involved a convoluted story about an Uber ride. It went like this:

A TPUSA executive had taken an Uber and asked his driver what he thought of the organization. The driver replied that he had heard it was in chaos in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination—and that no one inside TPUSA liked Erika Kirk, Kirk’s widow and now TPUSA’s CEO. Then the Uber driver revealed to the TPUSA executive that the source of his information was Laistch, who the driver claimed was a high school friend of his daughter’s.

A strange story, and one Laitsch said she didn’t buy. She then offered up another explanation—one she said didn’t come up during her discussion with TPUSA executives but which she sensed was a factor in her termination.

Laitsch, as she outlined in her video, seems to genuinely believe that her own organization had something to do with its founder’s murder or an ensuing coverup.

The unfounded claim that Charlie Kirk’s assassination was some sort of inside job is growing in popularity on the right after being promoted by YouTuber and former TPUSA employee Candace Owens. Laitsch claims that others at TPUSA are suspicious about Kirk’s murder too—and that they had been discussing among themselves how they couldn’t raise the issue internally.

Daily reminder the conspiracy theorists were always right.

> Thread theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq-knHXSKYY

> https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15545403/Epstein-jail-guards-used-fake-body-trick-media-waiting-outside-prison.html

Jail guards overseeing Jeffrey Epstein used a decoy body to mislead reporters gathered outside the prison after his death, while his real corpse was secretly removed in a separate vehicle, newly unsealed files claim.

According to an internal memo, a jail supervisor told FBI agents that staff at Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Center staged the ruse amid an intense media presence following Epstein's apparent suicide in 2019.

The files allege that boxes and sheets were arranged to resemble a human body and loaded into a white van marked as belonging to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, prompting reporters to follow it as it drove away.

Unbeknown to the media, Epstein's actual body was instead placed into a black vehicle that left the facility 'unnoticed,' allowing officers to transport the corpse privately.

The alleged deception was carried out after an official warned guards about the large number of journalists gathered outside the jail and said he would arrive at the loading dock with a separate black vehicle to remove the body.

The records also reveal investigators highlighted a handwritten note found inside Epstein's cell at the time of his death, which was not treated as a suicide note by the medical examiner.

The note, which investigators said was 'difficult to read', appeared to list grievances about jail conditions, including complaints about food, showers and bugs.

The records, included in a tranche of three million newly released documents, describe how officers responded to the heavy media presence outside the jail in the hours after Epstein's death.

Democrat donor David Gadis (https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=David+gadis&cycle=&state=DC), CEO of DC Water is quite literally flooding the zone with shit. He has flooded the Potomac with 300 million gallons of liquid shit, elevating e coli levels to 10,000x above EPA levels.

According to his bio on DCWater.com, he was hired to do the exact opposite of this thing: Under his leadership, DC Water is delivering on its $2.7 billion commitment to build a massive system of deep tunnels and other infrastructure to nearly eliminate combined sewer overflows to the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers and Rock Creek in the nation’s capital.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5740260-potomac-sewage-collapse-repair/
What to know about the disastrous Potomac sewage spill

The spillage, which resulted from a section of the Potomac Interceptor sewer line collapsing last month, resulted in an overflow of roughly 243 million gallons of wastewater as of Feb. 6, according to DC Water.

Although public health officials have said the spillage did not impact drinking water quality, residents are still encouraged to avoid contact with the Potomac River.

President Trump weighed in on the matter in a Truth Social post Monday, blaming local and state Democratic officials in Maryland and saying he would direct federal efforts to assist in the operation.

Here is what to know:

On Jan. 19, a section of the Potomac Interceptor along the Clara Barton Parkway in Montgomery County, Md., collapsed. The DC Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) says the interceptor carries up to 60 million gallons of wastewater daily from Virginia and Maryland to Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant on the banks of the Potomac in southwest Washington.

The collapse resulted in a “significant quantity of untreated sewage” flowing into the Potomac, according to the DOEE.

Alleged Jeffery A. Martin connection with Epstein.

A detailed email to Jeffrey Epstein from a self-proclaimed high level "psychic": https://justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01040587.pdf

AI says 'Jeffery A. Martin' is a likely candidate. Allegedly. Mentioning his wish for some 'slave girls' as payment. What do you think?

https://nypost.com/2026/01/24/us-news/virginia-dems-propose-law-to-drop-mandatory-prison-time-for-rape-manslaughter/

A new bill proposed by Democrats in the Virginia state legislature is raising concerns regarding the removal of minimum prison sentences for various violent felony crimes.

Within days of Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger being sworn in, members of her party introduced a flurry of amendments looking to end mandatory minimum sentences for various crimes within the state.

According to Jason Miyares, the former Republican attorney general, House Bill 863 includes proposals to effectively eliminate minimum sentencing for manslaughter, rape, possession and distribution of child pornography, assaulting a law enforcement officer and other repeat violent felonies.

Additionally, Democrats are also looking to remove the mandatory five-day minimum sentence for certain first-time DUI offenders.

“HB 863 is a common-sense proposal that eliminates the requirement for one-size-fits-all minimum sentences for certain crimes,” Delegate Rae Cousins, who sponsored the bill, said, according to ABC 7.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15565931/Hockey-shooting-Rhode-Island-Robert-Dorgan-transgender.html
The gunman who opened fire on family members at a high school hockey match in Rhode Island also used a female name, cops say.

Robert Dorgan, 56, who went by the name 'Roberta' and used the last name 'Esposito,' fired at least a dozen shots in the stands at the Dennis M Lynch Arena in Pawtucket on Monday afternoon, killing two people before turning the gun on himself, Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said.

At least two people were killed in the shooting, which authorities have said stemmed from a 'family dispute,' including a family member and a family friend.

Three others were also left in critical condition.

Questions now remain about what may have driven Dorgan to open fire against his family members, but court document obtained by WPRI show Dorgan's gender identity was a source of contention within the family.

He reportedly told police in early 2020 that he had recently undergone gender reassignment surgery - and said his father-in-law wanted him kicked out of their home because of it.

Goncalves said that the suspect entered the ice rink Monday afternoon to watch the 'Senior Night' hockey game, which a 'relative' had been playing in when he opened fire at around 2.30pm.

Footage from the scene appeared to show a man in a white beanie walking down the stands and opening fire into the crowd.

The sound of gunshots soon led others in the stands to turn their heads and flee the scene as the gunman kept firing.

Livestream footage from the game also showed players starting to duck down on the sidelines after about six shots rang out at the rink.

After a total of about a dozen shots were fired as spectators could be heard screaming and crying.

Following the shooting, a woman told WCVB that her father was the shooter.

'He shot my family, and he's dead now,' the unidentified woman said, adding that he 'has mental health issues.'