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Monday’s Mini-Report, 2.16.26
February 17 2026, 08:00

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* The latest mass shooting in Rhode Island: “Three people are dead, including a suspected shooter, and three people are injured after a shooting at an ice rink in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, on Monday afternoon, according to the Pawtucket mayor’s office.”

* The 39th strike: “A U.S. military strike killed three people and blew up a boat in the Caribbean Sea on Friday, the U.S. Southern Command said, raising the death toll in the Trump administration’s five-month-old campaign against suspected drug smugglers at sea to 133. The attack was the first known strike in the Caribbean Sea since early November and the 39th disclosed by the U.S. government in the campaign, according to a tracker maintained by The New York Times.”

* The right call in Philadelphia: “A federal judge Monday ruled that the Trump administration wrongly removed slavery memorial panels that were placed at a historical Philadelphia site in 2002. The decision came after the Black activists who pushed the city to place the panels again organized in support of their presence last month.”

* When vaccine research is curtailed, the public suffers: “In Massachusetts, Moderna is pulling back on vaccine studies. In Texas, a small company canceled plans to build a factory that would have created new jobs manufacturing a technology used in vaccines. In San Diego, another manufacturing company laid off workers.”

* The deportation agenda: “In a secret deportation arrangement, the Trump administration flew nine people, nearly all of whom had been granted U.S. court protections from being sent back to their home countries, to the African nation of Cameroon in January. None of them are from Cameroon, according to government documents obtained by The New York Times and lawyers for the deportees, and the United States has not made any public deal with Cameroon to accept deportees who hail from other nations.”

* The White House’s ongoing crusade against Harvard: “The Justice Department sued Harvard University, saying the Ivy League college failed to comply with a federal investigation related to race and its admissions practices.”

* Trump’s EPA does it again: “The federal Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday that manufacturers would no longer earn a credit for installing engines that automatically turn off when vehicles come to a complete stop and restart when drivers take their feet off the brake pedal. The start-stop feature is meant to save fuel and reduce emissions, but the Trump administration rejected the scientific finding that the government used to support vehicle emission reduction regulations, making it possible to eliminate the credit.”

See you tomorrow.

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