February 18, 2026
US union membership hits 16 year high
The Guardian - The number of workers covered under union contracts increased to a 16-year high in 2025, despite ongoing attempts by the Trump administration to wipe out collective bargaining agreements for tens of thousands of federal workers, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
About 16.5 million workers were covered by a union contract in 2025, up from 16 million in 2024 and the highest level since 2009. The increase stems from workers joining unions as members – 14.7 million US workers were union members in 2025, up from 14.2 million workers in 2024.
The percentage of all workers in the US covered by a union contracts ticked up to 11.2% in 2025, compared with 11.1% in 2024. Union membership increased from 9.9% in 2024 to 10% in 2025.
Union density in the US has declined drastically in recent decades from above 30% in the late 1940s and 50s. Despite the decline, public approval of labor unions has increased in recent years. Approval of unions now ranges between 67% and 71%, according to Gallup, levels last reached in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Polls
Reuters/Ipsos Poll
🚨Trump's disapproval hits 60%
🚨Trump's immigration approval hits -17%, a second-term low
🚨The poll shows support for Trump's handling of immigration has fallen significantly aming men in recent weeks
🚨Trump's economic approval falls to -23%
🚨Trump's disapproval hits 60%
🚨Trump's immigration approval hits -17%, a second-term low
🚨The poll shows support for Trump's handling of immigration has fallen significantly aming men in recent weeks
🚨Trump's economic approval falls to -23%
Independent, UK - Melania Trump has been named the second least popular first lady in recent history, but it was Trump rival Hillary Clinton who took home the honors of being the most disliked, a new poll has found.
According to YouGov, 2,255 U.S. citizens were asked earlier this month to rank the 11 most recent first ladies on a scale of “Outstanding” to “Poor.”
Thirty-six percent said Melania was “poor,” and another 10 percent rated her “below average.” Roughly 18 percent of people in the survey ranked Melania as “outstanding” with another 12 percent saying she was “above average.” That left her with a net approval rating of -16.
Car prices soar
Washington Post - It can be a shock shopping for a new car these days.
That’s helped push the average monthly payment to buy a new vehicle to an all-time high of a little over $800, according to J.D. Power.
The pandemic shortages are over. Dealer lots are stocked. Customers can find the colors and options they want.
But prices have never been higher — and the auto loans bigger and longer than ever to make it pencil out.
The average sticker price for a new car or truck now sits above $50,000 — about 30 percent more than in 2019. Even with incentives and specials, the out-the-door price reached above $50,000 for the first time in September and stood at $49,191 in January — a record for the typically sluggish sales month, according to Cox Automotive.
That’s helped push the average monthly payment to buy a new vehicle to an all-time high of a little over $800, according to J.D. Power.
Some customers go further. About 1 in 5 new auto loans have monthly payments of at least $1,000, S&P Global said, projecting that share could double by year’s end. More
Impaired waters
Yahoo - The Iowa Department of Natural Resources released a draft version of its 2026 biennial integrated report Tuesday, which listed more than 700 segments of rivers, lakes or wetlands in the state as impaired.
The impaired list looks at retroactive data and determines if a water segment meets, or fails to meet, designated criteria for uses like fishing, recreation or drinking water. Once a segment is listed as impaired, it triggers a restoration process under the federal Clean Water Act.
Defense Secretary in culture war with elite universities
The Hill - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is expanding his culture war into academia, threatening to pull service members’ tuition assistance at potentially dozens of top colleges and universities he views as biased against the armed forces.
The move is setting off alarm bells in the military and academic communities, who worry about cutting off a key pipeline to the officer corps.
“This is stunningly short-sighted of Hegseth, on multiple levels,” said Georgetown law professor and former Pentagon adviser Rosa Brooks. “Cutting off their access to the best universities in the country is just plain dumb, and suggests Hegseth thinks officers can’t be trusted to bring any critical thinking to their classes and academic work, distinguishing between opinion and fact.”
Hegseth’s effort was first alluded to in a video message last week that announced the Pentagon’s decision to cut all academic ties with Harvard University starting in the 2026/2027 school year, claiming it is “one of the red-hot centers of hate-America activism.”
The former Fox News host had a long list of criticisms for America’s oldest university. He asserted without evidence that “too many faculty members openly loathe our military,” cast the armed forces in a negative light and “squelch anyone who challenges their leftist political leanings.”
Fillibuster only posible block to GOP law that would slash number of those eligible to vote
NBC News - The Trump-supported SAVE America Act, which requires proof of citizenship nationwide to register to vote, has officially topped 50 votes in the Senate. The bill passed the House last week, and now the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster rule remains the only barrier to it becoming law.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, the bill's chief sponsor, is pushing Republicans to use existing rules to force Democrats to engage in a “talking filibuster” on the Senate floor, hoping to tire out anyone in opposition.
Republicans control 53 seats in the Senate, but some in the party have not signed on to the measure.
Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, called it an example of the “one-size-fits-all mandates from Washington,” while Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, has said states should run their own elections without federal intrusion.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the bill was designed to disenfranchise Americans who don’t readily have access to a birth certificate or passport.
And Majority Leader John Thune warned that there are “not even close” to enough votes for getting rid of the filibuster. If it remains intact, Democrats are certain to use every tool to block it. Full Story
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Artificial intelligence
The Guardian - Not long after the terms “996” and “grindcore” entered the popular lexicon, people started telling me stories about what was happening at startups in San Francisco, ground zero for the artificial intelligence economy. There was the one about the founder who hadn’t taken a weekend off in more than six months. The woman who joked that she’d given up her social life to work at a prestigious AI company. Or the employees who had started taking their shoes off in the office because, well, if you were going to be there for at least 12 hours a day, six days a week, wouldn’t you rather be wearing slippers?....
Startups have never been particularly glamorous. When I started reporting on the industry a decade ago, people were cashing in on the new mobile app economy, and coders were chugging Soylent to stay at their desks longer. Startups then, too, were defined by hustle culture, high-octane energy and the pursuit of growth at all costs – ideas that, to some extent, have remained in the bloodstream of the industry.
But in the last year, as the magic dust of artificial intelligence has settled in San Francisco, the vibe among tech workers does seem different. The excitement about a new epoch in tech – and all the money that comes with it – is now tempered with anxieties about the industry, and the economy. Some workers are going all in on AI while also questioning whether all that AI is good for the world. Others are effectively training machines to do their jobs better than they can. And many of the same workers who are racing to build the future are now wondering if the future they’re building has a place for them in it.
Meanwhile. . .
Bayer struck an agreement to pay $7.25 billion to settle tens of thousands of lawsuits that claimed the weedkiller Roundup caused non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. (NYT)
The experts said crimes outlined in documents released by the US justice department were committed against a backdrop of supremacist beliefs, racism, corruption and extreme misogyny. The crimes, they said, showed a commodification and dehumanisation of women and girls.
Climate
The Guardian - Excruciating tropical disease can now be transmitted in most of Europe, study finds ‘Shocking’ data shows the climate crisis and invasive mosquitos mean chikungunya could spread in 29 countries. Higher temperatures due to the climate crisis mean infections are now possible for more than six months of the year in Spain, Greece and other southern European countries, and for two months a year in south-east England. Continuing global heating means it is only a matter of time before the disease expands further northwards, the scientists said.
Roll Call - The EPA’s decision last week to repeal the 2009 endangerment finding establishing that greenhouse gas emissions are air pollutants harmful to public health will have immediate impacts on vehicle tailpipe emissions limits and start-stop technology incentives.
That finding, which required the agency to regulate the emissions as air pollutants posing a public health threat under its Clean Air Act authority, later became the basis for subsequent tailpipe emissions standards.
The EPA also said the rollback would benefit auto manufacturers in ways that consumers don’t necessarily see. Greenhouse gas testing and measurement; reporting and certification; and banking and trading provisions specific to greenhouse gas emissions would go away.
Social media effects on young people goes to court
| NPR - Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will take the stand in Los Angeles today in a trial that could reshape social media. The plaintiffs are accusing platforms like Instagram and Facebook of being intentionally designed to hook teenagers, sparking a nationwide youth mental health crisis. The case hinges on whether the tech companies engineer “defective products” to exploit vulnerabilities in young people's brains. |
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Best states for wildlife protection
SmileHub - With over 1,300 endangered and threatened species across the U.S. that need our support to survive, the non-profit organization SmileHub today released new reports on the Best Charities for Animals and the Best States for Wildlife Protection in 2026 to highlight leaders in conservation and inspire greater efforts to protect wildlife.
SmileHub compared each of the 50 states using 17 key metrics. The data set ranges from the number of animal charities per capita to the amount of state wildlife grant money per capita to the overexploitation of wild species.
SmileHub compared each of the 50 states using 17 key metrics. The data set ranges from the number of animal charities per capita to the amount of state wildlife grant money per capita to the overexploitation of wild species.
Best States for Wildlife Protection | States in Need of Improvement |
| 1. Vermont | 41. Delaware |
| 2. Wyoming | 42. Tennessee |
| 3. Oregon | 43. South Carolina |
| 4. Colorado | 44. North Carolina |
| 5. California | 45. Arizona |
| 6. Alaska | 46. Georgia |
| 7. Maine | 47. Ohio |
| 8. New Hampshire | 48. Kansas |
| 9. Washington | 49. Mississippi |
| 10. Montana | 50. Nevada |
Key Stats
- California has the most animal charities per capita – 8.6 times more than Delaware, which has the fewest charities.
- Alaska has the most state wildlife grant dollars per capita – 53.5 times more than California, which has the least.
- Alaska has the most state land designated for parks and wildlife – 77.6 times more than Iowa, which has the least.
Goldman Sachs to Drop D.E.I. Criteria for Board Members
NY Times - Goldman Sachs is taking another step away from the diversity mandates the Wall Street firm had long championed.
Goldman will no longer explicitly consider race, gender and sexual orientation when evaluating a potential board member at the firm, according to two people with knowledge of the bank’s decision who were unable to discuss it publicly because of the confidential nature of the move.
The decision is a result of a deal that Goldman struck with the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative nonprofit group that has been pressuring numerous companies to drop diversity, equity and inclusion mandates, the people said.
The group recently announced similar deals with American Express and the equipment manufacturer Deere & Company.
February 17, 2026
Donald & Melania Trump
Daily Beast - The first lady’s eponymous documentary continued to plummet on only its third weekend, suffering a 62.3-percent drop in attendance, according to data from IMDbPro. This puts the project on pace to gross $15.4 million in total, nowhere near the $40 million that Jeff Bezos’ Amazon spent to acquire it and an additional $35 million to promote it.
Is American constitutional democracy over?
Sam Smith – I covered my first Washington news story in 1957. Since then, in a period covering about a quarter of America’s official history, I’ve seen attempts to undermine democratic laws and principles but in no case did these match what is going on under the Trump regime.
In fact, the conventional media is even beginning to write stories about threats to our Constitution which used to be scribbled only by alternative journalists like me. Now conventional commentators are, for the first time, at least mentioning that the Constitution and democracy are under attack.
We have never had a president as dishonest and ill-directed as Donald Trump. And while it is a good sign that a few in the conventional media are realizing that our democracy is under serious assault, it’s not yet part of a general consciousness.
My father worked for Franklin Roosevelt so even as a kid I was aware of what a functioning democracy was like. Words like decency, cooperation and concern were more frequent than lie, illegal and offense. And certainly you didn’t have folk like me pondering whether we were in an era that could properly be called the Second Civil War,
Lately I’ve been trying to see what cultural factors have helped put us in this crisis-ladened period.
It seems that America started its downfall during the era of Ronald Reagan who had successfully taken the country’s mind off such shared activities as cooperation and assisting others.
But there were non-political changes as well such as the rise of TV and the Internet. As Wikipedia puts it:
The global internet took shape in academia by the second half of the 1980s, as well as many other computer networks of both academic and commercial use … By 1989, the Internet and the networks linked to it were a global system with extensive transoceanic satellite links and nodes in most developed countries. Based on earlier work, from 1980 onwards Tim Berners-Lee formalized the concept of the World Wide Web by 1989. Television viewing became commonplace in the Third World, with the number of TV sets in China and India increasing by 15 and 10 times respectively explains it.
One little discussed aspect of TV and the Internet is how they changed our relationship with friends and neighbors. What the ever wise Joe and Jackie down the street had to say had been replaced by the words online. Just one example; the final episode of M*A*S*H in 1983 had 60.2% of all households with television sets in the United States watching it.
Having spent major periods of my time split between local and national news I’m well aware that the latter doesn’t tell you enough about how life really works these days. Real people doing real things really matter.
And knowing our real status, which is now the collapse of constitutional democracy.
Male height surgery
NY Times - Limb-lengthening has been practiced by
orthopedic surgeons for decades as a means of correcting deformities or length
discrepancies. But in height surgery, also called stature-lengthening, it can
be used for patients who wish to add a few inches to their height. The cosmetic
procedure has grabbed more attention recently. Patient numbers are difficult to
track, but four clinics in the United States said that they had received an
uptick in interest over the past decade.
....The risks have made height
surgery a contentious topic, and the procedure is expensive. It can cost
between $70,000 and $150,000 in the United States, driving some people to seek
treatment abroad.
Meanwhile. . .
A proposed constitutional amendment giving Congress the power to block presidential pardons has gained its first House Republican cosponsor, Axios' Andrew Solender reports. Go deeper.
Immigration
- The Trump administration has spent over $40 million on deporting people to the wrong country, only for most migrants to end up back in their nation of origin.
A 30-page report by the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, released on Friday, details the huge cost to American taxpayers of what one U.S. official called a “scare tactic” and a “hugely expensive deterrent” operation by the administration.
According to the report, more than $32 million has been paid to five countries—some with a history of corrupt governments and human rights abuses—as of January, to accept roughly 300 third-country nationals deported from the U.S. The term third country refers to the U.S. deporting migrants to nations that aren’t their own.
The American Revolution Started Over This Kind of Abuse
Hartmann Report - This fight isn’t really about immigration. It’s about whether the Constitution still restrains government power at all.
When elected officials call it a “nonstarter” to require federal agents to get a judicial warrant before kicking in doors, to give people bail or a trial before they face long-term prison, and to allow protests, they’re not debating border policy, they’re testing whether the Bill of Rights is still binding or has become merely decorative.
The Bill of Rights was written to put friction between the state’s power to use force and the people it governs. To restrain government.
If that friction can be removed so government can attack any one disfavored group, then constitutional rights stop being universal guarantees and turn into conditional privileges. And once that shift happens, history ... show us that the groups of people who’re unprotected never stays small for long.
This week’s news which highlights this crisis is that Republicans have shut down the Department of Homeland Security because they say Democrats’ call for ICE to follow the law and the Constitution is “a nonstarter.”
Seriously. Here’s the first sentence of the Democrats’ demand that Republicans say is so unreasonable:
... Right now, ICE is kicking in doors and smashing windows of cars in order to attack and arrest both citizens and non-citizens alike. They do it because they say they can. And to arrest, detain, and imprison people they claim they can issue their own phony, made-up “administrative warrants” and don’t need a judge or court to see any evidence or say a word.
This is complete bullshit, and it’s genuinely astonishing that Republicans are backing them up. The Fourth Amendment isn’t complicated. Here it is, in it’s entirety (notice it does NOT say “citizens” but says “people”):
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
That’s it. Every word. And it applies to any “person” who happens to be in the United States. Nonetheless, ignoring 250 years of American law and history, DHS General Counsel James Percival said:
“[I]llegal aliens aren’t entitled to the same Fourth Amendment protections as U.S. citizens.”
When elected officials call it a “nonstarter” to require federal agents to get a judicial warrant before kicking in doors, to give people bail or a trial before they face long-term prison, and to allow protests, they’re not debating border policy, they’re testing whether the Bill of Rights is still binding or has become merely decorative.
The Bill of Rights was written to put friction between the state’s power to use force and the people it governs. To restrain government.
If that friction can be removed so government can attack any one disfavored group, then constitutional rights stop being universal guarantees and turn into conditional privileges. And once that shift happens, history ... show us that the groups of people who’re unprotected never stays small for long.
This week’s news which highlights this crisis is that Republicans have shut down the Department of Homeland Security because they say Democrats’ call for ICE to follow the law and the Constitution is “a nonstarter.”
Seriously. Here’s the first sentence of the Democrats’ demand that Republicans say is so unreasonable:
... Right now, ICE is kicking in doors and smashing windows of cars in order to attack and arrest both citizens and non-citizens alike. They do it because they say they can. And to arrest, detain, and imprison people they claim they can issue their own phony, made-up “administrative warrants” and don’t need a judge or court to see any evidence or say a word.
This is complete bullshit, and it’s genuinely astonishing that Republicans are backing them up. The Fourth Amendment isn’t complicated. Here it is, in it’s entirety (notice it does NOT say “citizens” but says “people”):
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
That’s it. Every word. And it applies to any “person” who happens to be in the United States. Nonetheless, ignoring 250 years of American law and history, DHS General Counsel James Percival said:
“[I]llegal aliens aren’t entitled to the same Fourth Amendment protections as U.S. citizens.”
Kristi Noem
NBC News - Early in her tenure as homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem made some calls that rankled Coast Guard officials, including shifting resources away from a search and rescue mission to find a missing service member and putting them toward efforts to deport migrants, sources told NBC News.
The dynamic has only worsened in recent months, and in one contentious incident, Noem's top adviser Corey Lewandowski berated Coast Guard flight staff and threatened to fire them for taking off without one of the secretary's personal items on board: a heated blanket.
ICE
Time - Tens of thousands of people with no criminal record or pending criminal charges have been pulled off the streets by immigration agents and put into detention centers. If that pattern were to stop, the Trump Administration’s deportation stats would likely plummet.
“The apprehension of criminals moves more slowly than everyone else,” says John Sandweg, former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Obama administration....
The data illustrates Trump’s commitment to mass deportations. The number of people arrested and detained by ICE who have no criminal convictions or pending charges has skyrocketed from 945, or 6% of all arrests, last January, to 26,044, or 44%, last month, according to data published by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. That spike reflects a dramatic transformation in how the country’s immigration system treats people who are in the country unlawfully, but have no criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.
States with the highest home and vehicle property taxes
WalletHub - To determine which residents face the highest property tax burden relative to their state, the personal finance company WalletHub released its 2026 Property Taxes by State report today, along with expert commentary. The report compares home and vehicle property taxes nationwide and includes insights from a panel of experts.
Key Stats:
| States with Highest Real-Estate Taxes | States with Highest Vehicle Property Taxes |
| 42. Iowa | 42. Kansas |
| 43. Wisconsin | 43. Connecticut |
| T-44. Nebraska | 44. Nevada |
| T-44. Texas | 45. Massachusetts |
| 46. New York | 46. Nebraska |
| 47. Vermont | 47. South Carolina |
| 48. New Hampshire | 48. Maine |
| 49. Connecticut | 49. Missouri |
| 50. Illinois | 50. Mississippi |
| 51. New Jersey | 51. Virginia |
Key Stats:
- Hawaii has the lowest real-estate tax, which is 7.9 times lower than in New Jersey, the state with the highest.
- Twenty-six states levy some form of vehicle property tax. Of those states, Louisiana has the lowest, which is 39.9 times lower than in Virginia, the state with the highest.
- Blue States have 27.02 percent higher real-estate property taxes, averaging $3,594, than Red States, averaging $2,830.
Anderson Cooper to leave 60 Minutes
The Guardian - Anderson Cooper will leave the CBS News program 60 Minutes after nearly two decades, he said on Monday, in the latest staffing shake-up to hit the storied news magazine amid broader newsroom changes under the new editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss.
...The editorial independence of CBS News, and its flagship investigative show 60 Minutes, has been in doubt since the network’s new owner, David Ellison, installed Weiss, an opinion writer and editor with no prior experience in broadcast television.
In December, Weiss ordered 60 Minutes to hold a report on the Cecot prison in El Salvador, where the Trump administration had sent immigrants from Venezuela to be jailed without due process, arguing that it lacked the perspective of the Trump administration, which had declined requests for comment.
Weather
NBC News - At least 11 million people in California are under flood watch as a torrential downpour is expected to bring at least 4 inches of rain across the state this week.
Urban crime in record breaking decline
The Hill - Violent crime fell dramatically in 2025, in what experts expect to be the year with the sharpest drop in homicides in recorded history. The decline, detailed in two recent reports of major U.S. cities, follows a trend that began in 2022, after the COVID-19 pandemic saw a record-breaking spike in homicides.
“This is the fourth year in a row of declines, and each year has gotten a little bigger than the year before. And this is the first time that we’ve seen it in all of the categories, I think seven of the eight categories fell by close to a record amount,” John Roman, director of the Center on Public Safety and Justice at NORC at the University of Chicago, said in an interview Monday, referring to the eight major crime categories that the FBI tracks.
...The FBI has not yet published its official crime statistics for 2025, but the findings are expected to align with recent reports from the Major Cities Chiefs Association’s (MCCA) violent crime survey, released earlier this month, and the Council on Criminal Justice’s (CCJ) year-end crime update, released late January.
The MCCA survey, including data from 67 of 68 responding agencies, shows from 2024 to 2025, homicide is down 19.3 percent, rape is down 8.8 percent, robbery is down 19.8 percent, and aggravated assault is down 9.7 percent.
The CCJ report — which includes data from 40 large American cities, though not every city reports data for every crime — shows from 2024 to 2025, homicides dropped by 21 percent, robbery decreased by 23 percent, and aggravated assault declined by 9 percent.
Many experts...say the primary driver of plummeting crime rates is the sharp increase in crime in 2020 and 2021.
...Some point to the investments in community violence intervention programs as successful, but others say it’s difficult to prove the effectiveness of those programs and the evidence has been mixed in their results.
Emily Owens, a professor of criminology and economics at the University of California, Irvine, agreed that the national trend suggests a larger reason.
“The consistency of the homicide decline, both across cities and over time, makes me inclined to think this has to do with larger social movements, temporarily disrupted by COVID-19 when the world turned upside down, than with any one particular thing one particular city might be doing,” Owens said in an analysis of the data.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson pushed back on suggestions that funding contributed to crime drop. The legislation, which included $350 billion for state and local governments, was signed by President Biden in 2021.
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