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Federal officers appear to have lied about lead-up to immigrant shooting, ICE director says

February 13, 2026 9:54 PM UTC / Reuters

By Christian Martinez

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons attends a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 12, 2026. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

Feb 13 (Reuters) – Two federal officers appear to have lied about the events that led up to the shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis last month, acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons said Friday.

In a statement, Lyons said a review of video footage by ICE and the Department of Justice “has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements.”

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Both officers have been placed on administrative leave and the U.S. Attorney’s office is investigating the false statements, Lyons said.

“Upon conclusion of the investigation, the officers may face termination of employment, as well as potential criminal prosecution,” Lyons said.

The announcement comes a day after the Justice Department moved to drop charges against the Venezuelan immigrant, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, who was shot in the leg, and another man accused of assaulting a federal officer.

The top federal prosecutor in Minnesota, Daniel Rosen, asked a judge to dismiss the charges, writing “newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations.” Rosen sought the dismissal with prejudice, which means the charges cannot be reintroduced.

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ICE and federal agents have faced strong push back against their immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis during which two U.S. citizens have been killed. Earlier this week, President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said the surge would be winding down.

Reporting by Christian Martinez and Kristina Cooke; editing by Michelle Nichols

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Virginia high court clears way for congressional redistricting vote, boosting Democrats

February 13, 2026 7:35 PM UTC / Reuters

By Joseph Ax

Feb 13 (Reuters) – The Virginia Supreme Court said on Friday it would allow a Democratic-backed redistricting effort to head to a voter referendum in April, potentially paving the way for the party to flip as many as four Republican seats in the U.S. House of Representatives this fall.

A state judge last month blocked the Democrats’ redistricting effort, ruling that lawmakers had used an invalid process to advance it. In agreeing to hear Democrats’ appeal of that ruling on Friday, the high court also said an April 21 special election could move ahead in the meantime.

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A woman a her child walk past voting booths during an election at a polling site in New York City, U.S., November 4, 2025. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

While the court could still rule against the redistricting plan in the future, the decision to let the referendum proceed was a victory for Democrats, who have proposed a new House map that would give them the advantage in 10 of the state’s 11 districts. Currently, Democrats control six seats.

The battle in Virginia is part of a broader nationwide redistricting war that was triggered last summer, when President Donald Trump successfully urged his fellow Republicans in Texas to approve a new map targeting five Democratic seats.

Since then, both Democratic and Republican states have advanced new maps, with neither party emerging as a clear winner just yet. Redistricting typically occurs only at the start of each decade after the U.S. Census is completed.

Democrats have to flip only three Republican-held seats in November’s midterm elections to win a House majority.

Virginia’s constitution gives an independent commission the authority to draw congressional lines, forcing Democratic lawmakers to undertake a multi-step process to approve a constitutional amendment and seek voter approval before they can install a new map.

Reporting by Joseph Ax; editing by Diane Craft

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FDA’s Makary backs measles vaccinations as South Carolina cases rise

February 13, 2026 10:16 PM UTC / Reuters

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Martin Makary attends a press conference in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 12, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard [Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab]

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Feb 13 (Reuters) – U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Martin Makary, in an interview on Friday, urged Americans to get vaccinated for measles, as the country faces its largest measles surge in more than three decades.

“When we hear about cases of measles in an outbreak in South Carolina, that should serve as a good reminder for parents to make sure that their kids are vaccinated,” Makary said during an appearance on MS NOW’s “Chris Jansing Reports”.

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The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) two-shot protocol remains recommended at the federal level starting at 12 months of age, with a second at 4 to 6 years of age.

South Carolina reported 950 measles cases on Friday, including 17 new infections since Tuesday, according to state health officials. No deaths have been reported by the state.

Among those infected, a significant majority of 883 individuals were unvaccinated, and 19 were partially vaccinated with one of the recommended two-dose measles-mumps-rubella vaccines.

“I think everyone in this administration has been pretty clear that the best way to prevent measles is to get your kid vaccinated against measles,” Makary added.

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Earlier this week, National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya also expressed his support for Americans getting vaccinated against measles.

“The answer is yes,” Bhattacharya said about the vaccines when asked by Reuters about recent outbreaks.

On Sunday, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz also urged Americans to take the measles vaccine in an interview with CNN. “Take the vaccine, please,” he said.

Reporting by Sneha S K in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore

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US airlines must certify use of merit-based hiring for pilots, FAA says

February 13, 2026 10:22 PM UTC / Reuters

WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (Reuters) – The Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday that all U.S. airlines must certify they are conducting merit-based hiring for pilots or face a federal investigation.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the action was to address “allegations of airlines hiring based on race and sex,” and added under the directive “all U.S. carriers will be required to certify this practice is terminated.”

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Shortly after taking office in January 2025, President Donald Trump issued sweeping executive orders to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the United States and pressured the private sector to join the initiative.

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There is no evidence that any U.S. airline is employing unqualified pilots. The FAA notice Friday said airlines must “ensure pilot hiring is exclusively merit-based to fulfill its duty to provide the highest possible degree of safety.”

Airlines for America, which represents major passenger airlines including American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines said “safety is, and always will be, the top priority for U.S. airlines.” The group said its “carriers comply with all federal regulations and laws, including those related to qualifications, training and licensing.”

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U.S. airline pilots have historically been overwhelmingly white and male.

United, which in 2021 set a goal to train 5,000 new pilots by 2030 with at least half being women or people of color, said at the time that only about 7% of its roughly 12,000 pilots were women and 13% were people of color. The airline declined to comment on Friday.

Three weeks into the Trump administration, the FAA reversed a four-year-old decision to rename safety messages to pilots and reinstating the prior “Notice to Airmen” term.

In December 2021, the FAA under former President Joe Biden renamed the messages “Notices to Air Missions,” commonly known as NOTAMs, saying it was “inclusive of all aviators and missions.”

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Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese and Diane Craft

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The January CPI report is the best inflation news we’ve had in months. Here’s why.

February 13, 2026 / 4:00 PM EST / CBS News

The January inflation reading offered encouraging signs for consumers and the U.S. economy, with the Consumer Price Index coming in below Wall Street expectations and falling to its lowest level in nine months.

Although Americans continue to grapple with elevated prices and cost-of-living concerns, the trajectory of inflation in recent months offers some relief for consumers, experts said. Inflation rose at an average annual rate of 2.6% from November through January — down from nearly 2.9% from July through September. (October’s CPI report was canceled due to the government shutdown.)

“Inflation fell to the lowest level since May, and key items such as food, gas and rent are cooling off,” Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said in an email. “This will provide much-needed relief for middle-class and moderate-income families.”

Here are five takeaways from today’s CPI report, which tracks changes in prices of goods and services across the U.S.

Inflation came in cooler than expected

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Friday’s report showed that inflation in January dipped to 2.4% on an annual basis, a shade below economists’ forecasts of 2.5%.

The softer reading surprised some experts because January CPI data often comes in hotter than other months due to seasonal factors and more rapid price changes at the start of the year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston said in an analysis earlier this month.

To be sure, while inflation is cooling, prices continue to rise faster than economists and the Federal Reserve would like.

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“They’re going up at a slower pace, and that’s what we want, but they’re still going up,” Stephen Kates, a financial analyst at Bankrate, told CBS News ahead of the CPI release.

So-called core inflation, which strips out the more volatile food and energy prices, rose 2.5% year over year, a sign that prices remain somewhat sticky.

Some grocery costs eased

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Price hikes at the grocery store are easing, providing some relief for consumers. Food at home — a category that tracks food bought at grocery stores and other retailers for consumption at home — rose 2.1% from a year earlier, cooler than the overall CPI rate.

Grocery items that dropped in price last month compared with a year ago include cheese, fresh fruit and eggs, with the latter declining 34%. To be sure, some foods are still seeing significant price hikes, including ground beef and roasted coffee, with the cost of both items up 17% in January from a year ago.

Prices at restaurants and other eateries rose 4% last month from a year earlier, exceeding the overall inflation rate.

Lower prices at the pump

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One standout from Friday’s report was energy prices, which showed a notable deceleration and helped lower the overall inflation reading, EY-Parthenon senior economist Lydia Boussour said in an email.

Within the energy category, gasoline prices dipped 7.5%.

By contrast, electricity prices continue to climb sharply, rising 6.3% year-over-year. That comes amid an increase in electricity demand, partly from data centers powering the spread of AI services, that has driven up consumers’ utility bills. Those price pressures are likely to persist. The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts residential electricity prices will rise nearly 4% in 2026.

Housing costs slowed

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Housing costs, categorized as “shelter” in the CPI, slowed in January. The category rose 3% from a year earlier, down from 3.2% in the prior month.

One caveat: Experts say that the year-over-year shelter figures have been softer in recent months, likely due to the lingering effects of the government shutdown in fall 2025, which disrupted federal data collection.

“The Bureau of Labor Statistics did not have data from October, and they had to impute what they think it was going to be, and that has very likely created some artificially low numbers on housing,” Kates explained, adding that he expects numbers to normalize around March or April.

Fed likely to hold off on March rate cut

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Many experts think the Federal Reserve will leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged at its March meeting, despite today’s CPI report showing inflation edging closer to the central bank’s goal of a 2% annual rate.

While January’s CPI data will be “welcome news for the Federal Reserve,” there may be concerns about some data distortions remaining from last fall’s government shutdown, noted Bernard Yaros, lead economist at Oxford Economics, in a Friday report.

Meanwhile, other inflation gauges suggest it’s too early for the central bank to declare victory. Although the latest CPI numbers show that core inflation is fading, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge — Personal Consumption Expenditures, another measure of consumer spending — remains stuck at nearly 3%, well above the central bank’s 2% annual target.

The Fed will also likely be monitoring the labor market for signs of stabilization, Yaros added. Oxford is forecasting two rate cuts in 2026, at the Fed’s June and September meetings.

Edited by Aimee Picchi

Attorney General Bondi deflected queries about Nancy Guthrie case and El Paso airport closure during brief Capitol Hill scrum

By Chad Pergram, Fox News

Published February 13, 2026 4:46pm EST

Attorney General Pam Bondi briefly answered questions from Fox News chief congressional correspondent Chad Pergram on Jeffrey Epstein, Nancy Guthrie and El Paso during a Capitol hallway exchange.

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The overstuffed white binders appeared a few moments before Attorney General Pam Bondi exited her motorcade, and strode through the horseshoe entrance of the Rayburn House Office Building.

Roll Call photographer Tom Williams and I stood in the hallway, negotiating our positions for Bondi’s entrance. Williams would position himself on the far side. I slid to the wall nearest the horseshoe entrance. Ali Vitali of MS NOW and Jay O’Brien of ABC worked the sidewall.

A coterie of Bondi’s aides appeared. One bogged down by the massive binders.

BONDI HEARING DEVOLVES INTO CHAOS OF SHOUTS AS AG ACCUSES TOP DEMOCRATS OF ‘THEATRICS’

Attorney General Pam Bondi arrives at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill and takes questions from Fox News chief congressional correspondent Chad Pergram ahead of a House hearing.(Tom Williams)

“Let her get into the room,” instructed the aide.

I politely reminded the aide that the corridor was an open hallway on Capitol Hill. It wasn’t closed off by the U.S. Capitol Police. So, tossing questions at the Attorney General was fair game.

And, thus began another dance between reporters, security details, the U.S. Capitol Police, aides and Cabinet members when they appear for major Congressional hearings.

At the time, we had no clue what was in the binders. But you couldn’t ignore the sheer size of them.

It’s not uncommon for aides to haul in briefing books for a principal when they testify. However, no one has seen binders like this since Kinko’s was still in business.

The contents of what the binders contained was about to play a central role in Bondi’s testimony to the House Judiciary Committee.

But the first charge of the morning was to query Bondi. There was so much going on. All of which were subjects that the Attorney General could address.

Speaking of files…

Bondi wasn’t there to testify about the Epstein files, per se. But Democrats – and one Republican – would make the Justice Department’s release of partially redacted documents the focus of the hearing. So there was plenty to ask Bondi about that.

DOJ’S EPSTEIN DISCLOSURE DRAWS FIRE FOR WEBSITE GLITCHES, MISSING DOCUMENTS, REDACTIONS

Attorney General Pam Bondi arrives at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill and takes questions from Fox News chief congressional correspondent Chad Pergram ahead of a House hearing.(Tom Williams)

However, there were overnight developments from Arizona. Authorities detained a person near the Mexico border in connection with the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie. What Bondi might know about the FBI’s role in this was worth a question.

Then, there was a cryptic alert that officials were shutting off the airport in El Paso to all air traffic for ten days. Was there a threat of terrorism? Something about cartels? Finally, a story broke overnight that the Justice Department sought to indict six Democratic lawmakers for their video telling service members they didn’t have to comply with unlawful orders. A District of Columbia grand jury refused to indict any of them.

So the press corps waited for Bondi and her security detail to breeze through the door. We’d have about a minute to pepper her with questions as she walked from the horseshoe entrance to a back anteroom.

Reporters must be strategic with such brief “walk-and-talks.” Rapid, Gatling gun-like questions. Succinct. Straight to the point. And agile enough to skip to the next line of inquiry if the figure arriving on Capitol Hill doesn’t answer or gives a brief response.

In another universe, I may have started with Epstein. But the Nancy Guthrie story has consumed the nation for weeks now. There was a development overnight. Nearly every story on the planet always occupies a lane somewhere on Capitol Hill. The Nancy Guthrie saga was no exception.

I had positioned myself on the inside track as we walked down the hall. Able to sidle up close to Bondi as she moved through the building.

“Madam Attorney General, any comment about the investigation of Guthrie? Any update on that right now?” I began, getting to Bondi first.

“Yeah, I can’t talk about that now. Praying for Savannah and her family,” replied Bondi.

Check. Moving on.

“What happened in El Paso? Why did they close off El Paso? Is that something you don’t know about? Or you just can’t comment?” I asked.

“I cant discuss it,” responded Bondi.

EPSTEIN FILES EXPLODE OPEN AS DOJ DETAILS DISCOVERY OF POWERFUL FIGURES AND MORE THAN 1,200 VICTIMS

Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Washington, as Jeffrey Epstein survivors, stand left.(Tom Brenner/AP Photo)

Then, the main event.

“And what about the Epstein files? A lot of members have been upset that some of these files have not been fully unredacted. What do you say to that?” I inquired.

“We’re going to discuss that today,” answered Bondi.

I backed off to allow my colleagues a chance to pose questions.

“But why was certain information redacted that’s against the nature of the law? Why was certain information redacted that’s against the law?” asked Vitali.

No response.

So I tagged back in, returning to the initial lines of questioning.

“Did you get any updates overnight on the Guthrie investigation? Were they keeping you informed overnight on that? And when did you first find out about the El Paso situation? When did you first hear about the El Paso situation, Madam Attorney General?”

Bondi was silent.

The scrum processed down the hall, camera operators and reporters bumping all over one another, edging backwards. A semi-blob of security personnel slightly shielded Bondi.

But the end was near. The throng approached the backdoor to the Judiciary Committee. Bondi would soon turn right and disappear inside.

Just enough time for one final topic.

“What about the attempt to prosecute the six lawmakers? Any comment on that failed grand jury indictment?” I hollered.

“I’ll refer that to U.S. Attorney Pirro,” replied Bondi, referring to U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeannine Pirro, who tried to indict the six.

HOW PAM BONDI AND THE DEMOCRATS TURNED A HEARING INTO HYSTERIA, RIGHT IN FRONT OF JEFFREY EPSTEIN’S VICTIMS

The Department of Justice released a trove of Epstein documents on Dec. 19 following President Trump’s signature on the Epstein Files Transparency Act in Nov. 2025.(Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

“Do you know why that went wrong?” I asked.

But that was it. The shot clock expired.

Bondi ignored the question, turning right with her security detail and retreating into the anteroom.

When he hosted Meet the Press on NBC, late host Tim Russert would sometimes boast that they had the Vice President or Secretary of State “for the whole hour.”

The exchanges with Bondi were a fraction of that, consuming a meager one minute and three seconds. From 9:42:03 am et until 9:43:06 am et. There was efficient questioning. And Bondi fielded the questions. But there wasn’t a lot which advanced any of the stories. Still, it’s important to pose the questions and get the exchanges on camera. That made it a productive exercise. Sometimes the Capitol press corps never even sees the big witnesses arrive. Or if we do, they don’t even respond to questions.

The group of aides ducked into the Judiciary Committee suite, one aide lugging the ginormous binders like a stack of Christmas presents.

These binders were about to become the most famous folios in American politics since former Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) proclaimed he had “binders full of women” during a 2012 debate with President Obama.

The hearing would start a few moments later, carried live on multiple TV networks. The purpose of the binders soon became clear. Each binder contained dossiers on every single Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. Bondi would turn to a specific section in each binder, mining for barbs to lob back at Democrats on the dais. Sometimes about their voting history. Sometimes about a law enforcement or immigration issue in their district. Bondi frequently lashed Democrats – and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) – with ad hominem attacks. She derided Massie as a “failed politician.” She called Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the top Democrat on the panel “a washed-up, loser lawyer.”

US Representative Thomas Massie, Republican from Kentucky, questions US Attorney General Pam Bondi before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on “Oversight of the Department of Justice” on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Feb. 11, 2026.(ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP via Getty)

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) tried to bait Bondi, asking her to “give me your best” bit of opposition research. The Florida Democrat would then grade what Bondi’s staff concocted.

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The hearing devolved into five hours of shouting, screaming and mayhem. One of the most chaotic, cacophonous hearings in recent memory. The spectacle spoke volumes.

All of which could fill a stack of overstuffed binders.

Chad Pergram currently serves as Chief Congressional Correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined the network in September 2007 and is based out of Washington, D.C.

Au pair gets 10-year sentence for scheme to kill lover’s wife and another man in Virginia

February 13, 2026 / 2:32 PM EST / CBS/AP

An au pair who schemed with her employer-turned-lover to kill his wife and another man received a 10-year sentence on Friday.

Prosecutors had recommended immediate release for Juliana Peres Magalhães in exchange for her guilty plea to a downgraded manslaughter charge in the February 2023 killing of Joseph Ryan. She testified that she fatally shot Ryan as Brendan Banfield was fatally stabbing his wife, Christine, in the couple’s bedroom.

Instead, Fairfax Chief Circuit Court Judge Penney S. Azcarate delivered the maximum possible sentence to the woman from Brazil, citing “an intentional and calculated level of violence that is the most serious manslaughter scenario that this court has ever seen.”

“Your actions were deliberate, self-serving, and demonstrated a profound disregard for human life,” Azcarate said at the sentencing on Friday, according to CBS affiliate WUSA. “So let’s get straight — you do not deserve anything other than incarceration and a life of reflection on what you have done to the victim in this family. May it weigh heavily on your soul.”

Magalhães had remained silent for months before agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors in their case against Banfield, who was convicted by a jury this month of aggravated murder in the deaths of his wife and Ryan. Prosecutors said they continued their affair for months after the killings.

At his trial, Magalhães testified that she and Banfield, an IRS agent, had created an account in the name of his wife, a pediatric intensive care nurse, on a social media platform for people interested in sexual fetishes. Ryan connected with the account and agreed to meet for a sexual encounter involving a knife.

Juliana Peres Magalhães testifies during the double murder trial for Brendan Banfield in Fairfax County Circuit Court, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Fairfax, Va. Tom Brenner / AP

Magalhães said she and Banfield took the couple’s 4-year-old child to the basement, and then entered the bedroom, where she said Banfield shot Ryan. When she saw Ryan moving, Magalhães said, she fired the second shot that killed him.

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Magalhães testified that she was in the room when Banfield killed Christine, but that she crouched behind the bed and covered her eyes and ears while Banfield repeatedly stabbed his wife, WUSA reported.

She wasn’t arrested until eight months later, and didn’t talk with investigators for more than a year, until she changed her mind as her own trial date approached. Banfield’s attorney scrutinized the former au pair’s motives during his trial, arguing that she was only saying what prosecutors wanted to hear.

Magalhães read a prepared statement before her sentencing.

“I know my remorse cannot bring you peace,” Magalhães said to the victims’ families. “I lost myself in a relationship, and left my morals and values behind.”

Ryan’s mother and aunt both gave victim impact statements. Christine’s family had letters prepared but were not allowed to speak because Magalhães was only charged in Ryan’s death, according to WUSA.

Brendan Banfield looks on during the double murder trial for Brendan Banfield in Fairfax County Circuit Court, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Fairfax, Virginia. Tom Brenner / AP

“Do I think or dare hope that there will be justice for Joe’s death? For my loss as his mother? I don’t believe that’s possible,” said Ryan’s mother, Dierdre Fisher. “What I do hope is that even for a moment, that the world and you, Judge, will say Joe meant more than nothing. That he was someone worthy of dignity and life who didn’t deserve to be used and thrown away, treated as utterly disposable.”

Banfield was found guilty of two counts of aggravated murder, one count of child endangerment, and one count of using a firearm in the commission of a murder, WUSA reported. Aggravated murder charges in Virginia carry a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole. He will be sentenced on May 8.

President Donald Trump recounted the military’s strength during the successful operation to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro during an event in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Friday honoring U.S. special forces and their families for their roles in the capture.

“It was in a matter of minutes before (Maduro) was on a helicopter being taken out of there. They had to go through steel doors,” Trump said Friday afternoon. “The steels were like it was like papier-maché. You know what papier-maché is? That’s weak paper.”

U.S. special operations forces carried out the successful capture of Maduro and his wife on sweeping narcotics charges. Trump celebrated that the mission did not kill any U.S. military personnel or damage U.S. military equipment in a nation that is heavily militarized, with Maduro himself living on a protected military base.

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[STATE DEPT CONFIRMS ‘LIMITED NUMBER’ OF PERSONNEL IN CARACAS WORKING TO RESUME VENEZUELA DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS]

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Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, left, waits for President Donald Trump to speak during a visit to the Army base in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Feb. 13, 2026.(Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

“These guys blasted through every door,” Trump continued Friday. “They got up to him before he got to the big safe. But that wouldn’t have worked either, because they had equipment that was going to knock that out in a matter of minutes, but he never got there. It went so fast.”

Trump continued that the operation had been “precise” and “incredible.”

[HEGSETH SIGNS OFF ON WOUNDED US TROOPS KEEPING BULLETS, SHRAPNEL REMOVED FROM THEIR BODIES AFTER MADURO RAID]

“Think of it in a matter of minutes,” he continued. “When people realize what happened, they’re looking up, and there’s the helicopter heading back to the aircraft carriers. So that night, the entire world saw what the full military might the U.S. military is capable of. And that was an unbelievable operation, but that was a smaller operation.”

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Captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro arrives at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport, New York, Jan. 5, 2026.(Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

[WIFE OF FORMER AMERICAN DETAINEE RELEASED AFTER MORE THAN A YEAR IN VENEZUELAN PRISON]

Maduro was whisked off on a helicopter, before he was brought to the U.S., where he faces federal charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine-trafficking conspiracy and weapons-related offenses. He’s being held in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York City.

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President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump traveled to North Carolina on Feb. 13, 2026, to meet with military members after the capture of Venezuela’s Maduro.(Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

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First lady Melania Trump joined the president on the trip to North Carolina, with Trump joking that they enjoy the area so much, they might move there in the future.

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“Maybe I’ll maybe I’ll move here with our great movie star,” Trump quipped, giving a nod to Melania Trump’s new documentary, “Melania.” “We’ll move here with our first lady. We’ll move to Fort Bragg. Would you like that, darling?She loves you. It’s a possibility.”

A Nebraska girl went looking for a date to a high school dance. One week later, she was murdered.

By Michael Loftus

February 13, 2026 / 5:43 PM EST / CBS News

On March 25, 1969, 17-year-old Mary Kay Heese never returned home from school in Wahoo, Nebraska. Hours later, her body was found beaten and stabbed to death on the side of the road outside of town.

Investigators tried to retrace Mary Kay’s last known whereabouts. One witness saw Mary Kay get into a car with two men on a street corner near her home. But investigators at the time were unable to figure out who was in that car. Weeks turned into months with no arrests. Mary Kay’s murder would remain unsolved for decades.

“48 Hours” correspondent Natalie Morales reports on how the murder was finally brought back into focus in “The Girl from Wahoo,” an all-new “48 Hours” airing Saturday, Feb. 14 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.

Mary Kay Heese Kathy Tull

In 2015, a new investigation was launched. Ted Green, a criminal investigator with the Saunders County Attorney’s Office, was assigned to the case.

“Every criminal investigation is a puzzle,” Green told “48 Hours.” For Green, part of figuring out that puzzle was learning more about Mary Kay Heese.

Mary Kay’s younger cousins, Mark Miller and Kathy Tull, remember Mary Kay as a happy person who always looked out for them. But they said that happiness was sometimes challenged by the struggles of adolescence.

Green learned Mary Kay came from a strict home under the eyes of watchful parents. It was a different situation at high school. “There was a group of girls that would get her together and put makeup on her at the beginning of the day and change her clothes out,” Green said.

“She wanted to fit in,” Miller told “48 Hours.”

Part of that desire to fit in was Mary Kay’s wish to attend the local Sadie Hawkins dance — a popular event at that time where the girls ask the boys to attend.

Tull told “48 Hours” that the shy Mary Kay struggled to find a date. Tull still has a letter from Mary Kay, written a week before her murder, asking her cousin Jerry to attend the dance with her.

“If we come over to get you on Friday the 28th or Saturday the 29th, will you go to the Sadie Hawkins dance with me?” Mary Kay wrote in the letter. “You can wear sportswear (not a tuxedo or anything) because it’s not a formal dance […] Don’t bring any money to get in because the girls are to pay for it all including the tickets and food.”

As Green learned more about Mary Kay, he came to one conclusion. “She wouldn’t get into a car with somebody that she didn’t know,” he said.

The pieces of the puzzle were coming together for Green, who focused on two names that kept coming up in the old case files: Joseph Ambroz and Wayne Greaser, both interviewed in the days following Mary Kay’s murder.

Joseph Ambroz, 22, was living in Wahoo and worked at a slaughterhouse at that time. He was also on parole after serving time for forgery and escaping custody.

Joseph Ambroz in 1968.

Greaser was friends with Ambroz. “He was just that wannabe kid who wa just following around Ambroz,” said Deputy Saunders County Attorney Richard Register, who worked on the case.

Green and Register told “48 Hours” Ambroz knew Mary Kay. They both frequented the same café and had mutual friends. Green and Register also believe Mary Kay thought Ambroz was not a threat, but an opportunity to fit in with the crowd.

Green believes Ambroz and Greaser took Mary Kay to a well-known party spot near town and at some point Mary Kay tried to flee the car. Green says he believes Ambroz went after her and eventually stabbed her to death.

“She just wanted to get a boy to go to the dance with her. And unfortunately, the dance she went to was her death,” Register said.

More than five decades after Mary Kay Heese was found dead, 77-year-old Joseph Ambroz was arrested for her murder.

In July 2025, Ambroz took a plea deal and pleaded no contest to conspiracy to commit first- degree murder. He was sentenced to two years in prison. Greaser, who had died by suicide in 1977, was named as the other person conspiring to kill Mary Kay.

For Mary Kay’s cousins, the plea deal and sentence were an injustice. They say Ambroz stole Mary Kay’s future.

“He got all these years to live, and Mary Kay never had the chance to live,” Miller told “48 Hours.”

Democrats take aim at Trump for shelving China tech measures

February 13, 2026 9:18 PM UTC / Reuters

U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) attends a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 4, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo [Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab]

• Summary
• Companies

• Democrats criticize Trump for prioritizing deals over national security
• Shelved measures include bans on Chinese date center equipment sales
• Concerns over Trump’s actions ahead of April meeting with Xi Jinping

WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Democratic lawmakers slammed the Trump administration for shelving key tech security measures aimed at Beijing ahead of an April meeting between the American and Chinese leaders, arguing the moves threaten U.S. national security.

The shelved measures, first reported by Reuters, include a ban on China Telecom’s [(601728.SS), opens new tab] U.S. operations and restrictions on sales of Chinese equipment for American data centers. They also include proposed bans on domestic sales of routers made by TP-Link and the U.S. internet business of China Unicom [(0762.HK), opens new tab] and China Mobile [(600941.SS), opens new tab], along with another measure that would bar sales of Chinese electric trucks and buses in the United States.

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节点运行失败

“The Trump administration has subordinated national security concerns to a haphazard and transactional approach, bowing to U.S. companies pursuing deals with (Chinese) companies-of-concern, granting licenses for export of sensitive U.S. technology, and permitting continued access to U.S. markets by (Chinese) national champions so long as it provides opportunities to enrich the president’s family and friends,” Senator Mark Warner, who serves as ranking member on the Intelligence committee, said in a statement on Friday.

“This is appeasement,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats, led by Gregory Meeks, said in a social media post on Friday. “Trump is making Americans less safe by sacrificing technology security,” it added.

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The White House, the Commerce Department and the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The pause comes as the Trump administration has sought to rein in U.S. government actions that could antagonize Beijing following a trade truce reached by Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump in October.

The administration has given the greenlight to Nvidia [(NVDA.O), opens new tab] exporting its second most advanced AI chips to China and postponed a rule that would have barred thousands of Chinese companies from buying U.S. technology.

The shelving of curbs raises questions among some Democrats over whether Trump “continues selling out American workers and security during his trip to China” in April to meet Chinese President Xi, Ro Khanna, the House China Select Committee’s top Democrat, said late Thursday.

Senator Jeff Merkley, who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations committee, late Thursday described the move as a “lose-lose” undermining the American tech industry and putting American data at risk.

Another Democrat, Senate Intelligence committee member Michael Bennet criticized the Trump administration’s “strategic incompetence,” a departure from Trump’s first term when he rightly identified risks posted by Chinese telecoms giant Huawei.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, the highest ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, tied the decisions to the ouster of key U.S. officials.

“First Trump pushed out career national security experts working to counter cyber threats posed by China. Now he’s shelving critical safeguards they put in place. Why is the Trump Administration so eager to do Beijing’s bidding?” she asked.

Reporting by Alexandra Alper; editing by Jonathan Oatis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab