Note: This Wed. action is in lieu of NAG’s Friday morning action this week.
Memorial demonstration for US Airman Aaron Bushnell!
Wednesday, February 25, 10:30am - 12:30pm: Israeli Consulate, 456 Montgomery St. San Francisco, CA, between Sacramento and California.
(10 min. walk from Montgomery BART Station)
To honor US Airman Aaron Bushnell on the 2nd Anniversary of his self-immolation and death in protest of US complicity in genocide, Noisemakers Against Genocide (NAG)* will collaborate with Veterans for Peace (VFP), SF and Monterey chapters for this special event. Please spread the word and bring allies. We want a large turnout.
The Israeli consulate is NOT welcome in the Bay Area.
Please join us this coming WEDNESDAY!
US & Israel Out of Palestine! No US military bases in Palestine!”
*Noisemakers Against Genocide, an autonomous group of pro-Palestine activists, along with the Revolutionary Love Brigade street chalk artists, have been holding weekly vigils at the Israeli consulate for many months to oppose the ongoing US-Israeli led genocide in Gaza. Please bring drums, whistles, pots & pans, and other noisemaking objects, as well as keffiyehs, Palestinian flags, signs & banners. Justin Loza, President of the Monterey Chapter of Veterans For Peace, will do a public reading of Aaron Bushnell’s last words. Members of other organizations are encouraged to attend.
For more information on Aaron Bushnell's final act, please read this statement from the Veterans For Peace National Office:
https://www.veteransforpeace.org/pressroom/news/2024/02/26/veterans-peace-statement-about-aaron-bushnell-protesting-dea
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The Trump administration is escalating its attack on Cuba, cutting off the island’s access to oil in a deliberate attempt to induce famine and mass suffering. This is collective punishment, plain and simple.
In response, we’re releasing a public Call to Conscience, already signed by influential public figures, elected officials, artists, and organizations—including 22 members of the New York City Council, Kal Penn, Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, Alice Walker, 50501, Movement for Black Lives, The People’s Forum, IFCO Pastors for Peace, ANSWER Coalition, and many others—demanding an end to this brutal policy.
The letter is open for everyone to sign. Add your name today. Cutting off energy to an island nation is not policy—it is a tactic of starvation.
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Petition to Force Amazon to Cut ICE Contracts!
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-amazon-end-contracts-with-ice/?source=group-amazon-labor-union&referrer=group-amazon-labor-
Amazon Labor Union
Over 600,000 messages have already been sent directly to Amazon board members demanding one thing: Amazon must stop fueling deportations by ending its contracts with ICE and DHS.
ICE and DHS rely on the data infrastructure provided by Amazon Web Services. Their campaign against immigrants and those who stand with them depends on the logistical, financial, and political support of companies like Amazon.
But workers and communities have real power when we act collectively. That’s why we must expose Amazon’s role in the deportation machine. Help us reach 1 million messages and force Amazon to act by signing our petition with The Labor Force today:
Tell Amazon: End contracts with ICE!
On Cyber Monday 2025, Amazon workers rallied outside of Amazon’s NYC headquarters to demand that Amazon stop fueling mass deportations through Amazon Web Services’ contracts with ICE and DHS.
ICE cannot operate without corporate backing; its campaign against immigrants and those who stand with them depends on the logistical, financial, and political support of companies like Amazon. Mega-corporations may appear untouchable, but they are not. Anti-authoritarian movements have long understood that repression is sustained by a network of institutional enablers and when those enablers are disrupted, state violence weakens. Workers and communities have real power when they act collectively. That is why we must expose Amazon’s role in the deportation machine.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rely on Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its most commonly used cloud platform. DHS and ICE cannot wage their attack on immigrants without the critical data infrastructure that Amazon Web Services provide, allowing the agencies to collect, analyze, and store the massive amounts of data they need to do their dirty work. Without the power of AWS, ICE would not be able to track and target people at its current scale.
ICE and DHS use Amazon Web Services to collect and store massive amounts of purchased data on immigrants and their friends and family–everything from biometric data, DMV data, cellphone records, and more. And through its contracts with Palantir, DHS is able to scour regional, local, state, and federal databases and analyze and store this data on AWS. All of this information is ultimately used to target immigrants and other members of our communities.
No corporation should profit from oppression and abuse. Yet Amazon is raking in tens of millions of dollars to fuel DHS and ICE, while grossly exploiting its own workers. Can you sign our petition today, demanding that Amazon stop fueling deportations by ending its contracts with DHS and ICE, now?
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-amazon-end-contracts-with-ice/?source=group-amazon-labor-union&referrer=group-amazon-labor-
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End Texas Torture of Revolutionary Elder Xinachtli
Organization Support Letter
Letter to demand the immediate medical treatment and release of Chicano political prisoner Xinachtli (Alvaro Hernandez #00255735)
To the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,
We, the undersigned organizations, write to urge immediate action to protect the life, health, and human rights of Xinachtli (legal name Alvaro Hernandez). Xinachtli is 73-year-old Chicano community organizer from Texas who has spent 23 years in solitary confinement and 30 years incarcerated as part of a 50-year sentence. His health is now in a critical and life-threatening state and requires prompt and comprehensive medical intervention.
Since his conviction in 1997, Xinachtli has spent decades in conditions that have caused significant physical and psychological harm. As an elder in worsening health, these conditions have effectively become a de facto death sentence.
Xinachtli’s current medical condition is severe. His physical, mental, and overall well-being have declined rapidly in recent weeks. He now requires both a wheelchair and a walker, has experienced multiple falls, and is suffering from rapid weight loss. He is currently housed in the McConnell Unit infirmary, where he is receiving only palliative measures and is being denied a medical diagnosis, access to his medical records, and adequate diagnostic testing or treatment.
A virtual clinical visit with licensed medical doctor Dr. Dona Kim Murphey underscores the severity of his condition. In her report of the visit, she wrote: "Given the history of recent neck/back trauma and recurrent urinary tract infections with numbness, weakness, and bowel and bladder incontinence, I am concerned about nerve root or spinal cord injury and/or abscesses that can lead to permanent sensorimotor dysfunction."
Despite his age and visible disabilities, he remains in solitary confinement under the Security Threat Group designation as a 73-year-old. During his time in the infirmary, prison staff threw away all of his belongings and “lost” his commissary card, leaving him completely without basic necessities. He is experiencing hunger, and the lack of consistent nutrition is worsening his medical condition. McConnell Unit staff have also consistently given him incorrect forms, including forms for medical records and medical visitation, creating further barriers to care and communication.
A family visit on November 29 confirmed the seriousness of his condition. Xinachtli, who was once able to walk on his own, can no longer stand without assistance. He struggled to breathe, has lost more than 30 pounds, relied heavily on his wheelchair, and was in severe pain throughout the visit.
In light of these conditions, we, the undersigned organizations, demand that TDCJ take immediate action to save Xinachtli’s life and comply with its legal and ethical obligations.
We urge the immediate implementation of the following actions:
Immediate re-instatement of his access to commissary to buy hygiene, food, and other critical items. Immediate transfer to the TDCJ hospital in Galveston for a full medical evaluation and treatment, including complete access to his medical records and full transparency regarding all procedures. Transfer to a geriatric and medical unit that is fully accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Xinachtli requests placement at the Richard P LeBlanc Unit in Beaumont, Texas. Approval of Medical Recommended Intensive Supervision, the release program for individuals with serious medical conditions and disabilities, in recognition of the severity and progression of his current health issues. Failure to act will result in the continued and foreseeable deterioration of Xinachtli’s health, amounting to state-sanctioned death. We urge TDCJ to take swift and decisive action to meet these requests and to fulfill its responsibility to safeguard his life and well-being.
We stand united in calling for immediate and decisive action. Xinachtli’s life depends on it.
Signed, Xinachtli Freedom Campaign and supporting organizations
Endorsing Organizations:
Al-Awda Houston; All African People’s Revolutionary Party; Anakbayan Houston; Anti-Imperialist Solidarity; Artists for Black Lives' Equality; Black Alliance for Peace - Solidarity Network; Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society; Community Liberation Programs; Community Powered ATX; Contra Gentrificación; Diaspora Pa’lante Collective; Down South; DSA Emerge; Entre nos kc; Fighting Racism Workshops; Frontera Water Protectors; GC Harm Reductionists; JERICHO MOVEMENT; Jericho Movement Providence; Montrose Anarchist Collective; NYC Jericho Movement; OC Focus; Palestine Solidarity TX; Partisan Defense Committee; Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida; PDX Anti-Repression; Red Star Texas; Root Cause; San Francisco Solidarity Collective; Shine White Support Team; Sunrise Columbia; UC San Diego Faculty for Justice in Palestine; Viva Palestina, EPTX; Water Justice and Technology Studio; Workshops4Gaza.
Sign the endorsement letter for your organization here:
https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/MiR1f+iLiRBJC7gSTyfhyxJoLIDhThxRafPatxdbMWI/
IMPORTANT LINKS TO MATERIALS FOR XINACHTLI FREEDOM CAMPAIGN:
PHONE BLAST: Your community can sign up for a 15-minute-long call shift here: bit.ly/xphoneblast
FUNDRAISER: Here is the link to Jericho's fundraiser for Xinachtli: http://givebutter.com/jerichomovement
CASE HISTORY: Learn more about Xinachtli and his case through our website: https://freealvaro.net
CONTACT INFO:
Follow us on Instagram: @freexinachtlinow
Email us:
xinachtlifreedomcampaign@protonmail.com
COALITION FOLDER:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/SP3KTC1RK4#KARGiPQVYIvR
In the folder you will find: Two pictures of Xinachtli from 2024; The latest updated graphics for the phone blast; The original TRO emergency motion filing; Maria Salazar's declaration; Dr. Murphy's report from her Dec. 9 medical visit; Letter from Amnesty International declaring Xinachtli's situation a human rights violation; Free Xinachtli zine (which gives background on him and his case); and The most recent press release detailing who Xinachtli is as well as his medical situation.
Write to:
Alvaro Hernandez CID #00255735
TDCJ-W.G. McConnell Unit
PO Box 660400
Dallas, TX 75266-0400
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Self-portrait by Kevin Cooper
Funds for Kevin Cooper
Kevin was transferred out of San Quentin and is now at a healthcare facility in Stockton. He has received some long overdue healthcare. The art program is very different from the one at San Quentin but we are hopeful that Kevin can get back to painting soon.
For 41 years, an innocent man has been on death row in California.
Kevin Cooper was wrongfully convicted of the brutal 1983 murders of the Ryen family and houseguest. The case has a long history of police and prosecutorial misconduct, evidence tampering, and numerous constitutional violations including many incidences of the prosecution withholding evidence of innocence from the defense. You can learn more here .
In December 2018 Gov. Brown ordered limited DNA testing and in February 2019, Gov. Newsom ordered additional DNA testing. Meanwhile, Kevin remains on Death Row at San Quentin Prison.
The funds raised will be used to help Kevin purchase art supplies for his paintings . Additionally, being in prison is expensive, and this money would help Kevin pay for stamps, books, paper, toiletries, supplies, supplementary food, printing materials to educate the public about his case and/or video calls.
Please help ease the daily struggle of an innocent man on death row!
An immediate act of solidarity we can all do right now is to write to Kevin and assure him of our continuing support in his fight for justice. Here’s his address:
Kevin Cooper #C65304
Cell 107, Unit E1C
California Health Care Facility, Stockton (CHCF)
P.O. Box 213040
Stockton, CA 95213
www.freekevincooper.org
Call California Governor Newsom:
1-(916) 445-2841
Press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish,
press 6 to speak with a representative and
wait for someone to answer
(Monday-Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. PST—12:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. EST)
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Dr. Atler Still Needs Our Help!
Please sign the petition today!
https://www.change.org/p/texas-state-university-give-tom-alter-his-job-back
What you can do to support:
—Donate to help Tom Alter and his family with living and legal expenses: https://gofund.me/27c72f26d
—Sign and share this petition demanding Tom Alter be given his job back: https://www.change.org/p/texas-state-university-give-tom-alter-his-job-back
—Write to and call the President and Provost at Texas State University demanding that Tom Alter be given his job back:
President Kelly Damphousse: president@txstate.edu
President’s Office Phone: 512-245-2121
Provost Pranesh Aswath: xrk25@txstate.edu
Provost Office Phone: 512-245-2205
For more information about the reason for the firing of Dr. Tom Alter, read:
"Fired for Advocating Socialism: Professor Tom Alter Speaks Out"
Ashley Smith Interviews Dr. Tom Alter
—CounterPunch, September 24, 2025
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 Russia Confirms Jailing of Antiwar Leader Boris Kagarlitsky In a secret trial on June 5, 2024, the Russian Supreme Court’s Military Chamber confirmed a sentence of five years in a penal colony for left-wing sociologist and online journalist Boris Kagarlitsky. His crime? “Justifying terrorism” — a sham charge used to silence opponents of Putin’s war on Ukraine. The court disregarded a plea for freedom sent by thirty-seven international luminaries. Kagarlitsky, a leading Marxist thinker in Russia’s post-Soviet period, recently addressed socialists who won’t criticize Putin: “To my Western colleagues, who…call for an understanding of Putin and his regime, I would like to ask a very simple question. [Would] you want to live in a country where there is no free press or independent courts? In a country where the police have the right to break into your house without a warrant? …In a country which…broadcasts appeals on TV to destroy Paris, London, Warsaw, with a nuclear strike?” Thousands of antiwar critics have been forced to flee Russia or are behind bars, swept up in Putin’s vicious crackdown on dissidents. Opposition to the war is consistently highest among the poorest workers. Recently, RusNews journalists Roman Ivanov and Maria Ponomarenko were sentenced to seven, and six years respectively, for reporting the military’s brutal assault on Ukraine. A massive global solidarity campaign that garnered support from thousands was launched at Kagarlitsky’s arrest. Now, it has been revived. This internationalism will bolster the repressed Russian left and Ukrainian resistance to Putin’s imperialism. To sign the online petition at freeboris.info —Freedom Socialist Party, August 2024 https://socialism.com/fs-article/russia-jails-prominent-antiwar-leader-boris-kagarlitsky/#:~:text=In%20a%20secret%20trial%20on,of%20Putin's%20war%20on%20Ukraine. Petition in Support of Boris KagarlitskyWe, the undersigned, were deeply shocked to learn that on February 13 the leading Russian socialist intellectual and antiwar activist Dr. Boris Kagarlitsky (65) was sentenced to five years in prison. Dr. Kagarlitsky was arrested on the absurd charge of 'justifying terrorism' in July last year. After a global campaign reflecting his worldwide reputation as a writer and critic of capitalism and imperialism, his trial ended on December 12 with a guilty verdict and a fine of 609,000 roubles. The prosecution then appealed against the fine as 'unjust due to its excessive leniency' and claimed falsely that Dr. Kagarlitsky was unable to pay the fine and had failed to cooperate with the court. In fact, he had paid the fine in full and provided the court with everything it requested. On February 13 a military court of appeal sent him to prison for five years and banned him from running a website for two years after his release. The reversal of the original court decision is a deliberate insult to the many thousands of activists, academics, and artists around the world who respect Dr. Kagarlitsky and took part in the global campaign for his release. The section of Russian law used against Dr. Kagarlitsky effectively prohibits free expression. The decision to replace the fine with imprisonment was made under a completely trumped-up pretext. Undoubtedly, the court's action represents an attempt to silence criticism in the Russian Federation of the government's war in Ukraine, which is turning the country into a prison. The sham trial of Dr. Kagarlitsky is the latest in a wave of brutal repression against the left-wing movements in Russia. Organizations that have consistently criticized imperialism, Western and otherwise, are now under direct attack, many of them banned. Dozens of activists are already serving long terms simply because they disagree with the policies of the Russian government and have the courage to speak up. Many of them are tortured and subjected to life-threatening conditions in Russian penal colonies, deprived of basic medical care. Left-wing politicians are forced to flee Russia, facing criminal charges. International trade unions such as IndustriALL and the International Transport Federation are banned and any contact with them will result in long prison sentences. There is a clear reason for this crackdown on the Russian left. The heavy toll of the war gives rise to growing discontent among the mass of working people. The poor pay for this massacre with their lives and wellbeing, and opposition to war is consistently highest among the poorest. The left has the message and resolve to expose the connection between imperialist war and human suffering. Dr. Kagarlitsky has responded to the court's outrageous decision with calm and dignity: “We just need to live a little longer and survive this dark period for our country,” he said. Russia is nearing a period of radical change and upheaval, and freedom for Dr. Kagarlitsky and other activists is a condition for these changes to take a progressive course. We demand that Boris Kagarlitsky and all other antiwar prisoners be released immediately and unconditionally. We also call on the auth *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* *..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........* |
Mumia Abu-Jamal is Innocent!
FREE HIM NOW!
Write to Mumia at:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335
SCI Mahanoy
P.O. Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
Join the Fight for Mumia's Life
Since September, Mumia Abu-Jamal's health has been declining at a concerning rate. He has lost weight, is anemic, has high blood pressure and an extreme flair up of his psoriasis, and his hair has fallen out. In April 2021 Mumia underwent open heart surgery. Since then, he has been denied cardiac rehabilitation care including a healthy diet and exercise.
He still needs more complicated treatment from a retinal specialist for his right eye if his eyesight is to be saved:
Donate to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Emergency Legal and Medical
Defense Fund
Mumia has instructed PrisonRadio to set up this fund. Gifts donated here are designated for the Mumia Abu-Jamal Medical and Legal Defense Fund. If you are writing a check or making a donation in another way, note this in the memo line.
Send to:
Mumia Medical and Legal Fund c/o Prison Radio
P.O. Box 411074, San Francisco, CA 94103
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Resources for Resisting Federal Repression
https://www.nlg.org/federalrepressionresources/
Since June of 2020, activists have been subjected to an increasingly aggressive crackdown on protests by federal law enforcement. The federal response to the movement for Black Lives has included federal criminal charges for activists, door knocks by federal law enforcement agents, and increased use of federal troops to violently police protests.
The NLG National Office is releasing this resource page for activists who are resisting federal repression. It includes a link to our emergency hotline numbers, as well as our library of Know-Your-Rights materials, our recent federal repression webinar, and a list of some of our recommended resources for activists. We will continue to update this page.
Please visit the NLG Mass Defense Program page for general protest-related legal support hotlines run by NLG chapters.
Emergency Hotlines
If you are contacted by federal law enforcement, you should exercise all of your rights. It is always advisable to speak to an attorney before responding to federal authorities.
State and Local Hotlines
If you have been contacted by the FBI or other federal law enforcement, in one of the following areas, you may be able to get help or information from one of these local NLG hotlines for:
Portland, Oregon: (833) 680-1312
San Francisco, California: (415) 285-1041 or fbi_hotline@nlgsf.org
Seattle, Washington: (206) 658-7963
National Hotline
If you are located in an area with no hotline, you can call the following number:
National NLG Federal Defense Hotline: (212) 679-2811
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Articles
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1) Dozens of U.S. Planes Are at Jordan Base, Satellite Images and Flight Data Show
At least 60 attack aircraft are parked at the base, which has become a key hub for U.S. military planning for possible strikes on Iran.
By Riley Mellen, Christoph Koettl and Eric Schmitt, Published Feb. 20, 2026, Updated Feb. 21, 2026
New satellite imagery and flight tracking data show a base in central Jordan has become a key hub for the U.S. military’s planning for possible strikes on Iran.
Imagery captured on Friday shows more than 60 attack aircraft parked at the base, known as Muwaffaq Salti, roughly tripling the number of jets that are normally there. And at least 68 cargo planes have landed at the base since Sunday, according to flight tracking data. More fighter jets could be parked under shelters.
The satellite images also show more modern aircraft, including F-35 stealth jets, compared to the aircraft normally seen there. Several drones and helicopters are also seen.
Soldiers also installed new air defenses to protect the base from incoming Iranian missiles.
Jordanian officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, said that the American planes and equipment are deployed there as part of a defense agreement with the United States.
The changes at the base in Jordan are part of a large U.S. military buildup across the region, which comes amid negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. On Friday, President Trump told reporters he was considering a limited military strike to pressure Iran into a deal.
The Jordanian officials said they hoped negotiations between the United States and Iran lead to an agreement that would prevent war in the region. Over the past month, officials from Jordan — as well as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — praised the talks and said they barred attacks on Iran from their soil.
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1) Supreme Court Considers Fate of Docks and Other Assets Seized by Cuba in 1960
Amid rising tensions with Cuba, the Trump administration is backing lawsuits that would allow Americans to get compensation for property confiscated by Fidel Castro’s regime.
By Ann E. Marimow, Reporting from Washington, Feb. 23, 2026
“Before the Cuban revolution, American companies owned or controlled 90 percent of the island’s electricity generation, its telephone system, much of its mining industry, sugar-cane fields, and many oil refineries and warehouses. Most confiscated assets were transferred to state-owned companies controlled by the government.”
Revolutionaries confiscated the property of the Havana Docks Company in 1960.Havana Docks Company
More than 60 years ago, Fidel Castro rose to power in Cuba and began confiscating the assets of all American-owned businesses, including the Havana Docks Company. The port business was seized at gunpoint by revolutionaries and never compensated for its lost property.
But a change in policy during the first Trump administration allowed the company to sue major cruise lines for parking ships at the docks and bringing nearly a million people to Havana after rules were loosened in 2016 to allow tourism to the island. Filed in 2019, the case will be heard by the Supreme Court on Monday.
The case, and another involving similar claims from Exxon Mobile over its confiscated oil and gas assets, lands at a fraught time for U.S.-Cuba relations. The Trump administration has ratcheted up political and economic pressure on the communist country by crippling its tourism industry and cutting off access to fuel shipments.
The pair of cases involve discrete, narrow legal questions about the extent to which thousands of Americans can get compensation in U.S. courts from the entities that currently hold or profit from property taken by the Cuban government. But if the Supreme Court sides with the companies, it could also give the administration more leverage over Cuba.
“President Trump will be listening for the outcome,” said John S. Kavulich, the president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. A ruling that clears the way for the lawsuits, he added, could lead to less investment in the island and put “pressure on Cuba to make the changes Trump wants.”
Justice Department lawyers filed briefs in support of the port business and Exxon, telling the court that the suits, first authorized by Congress in the 1990s, have become an important foreign-policy tool for discouraging investment from Cuba.
The lawsuits “deter private actors from collaborating with that government to exploit expropriated property, deprive the Cuban government of funds that undermine the United States’ longstanding embargo of Cuba, and increase economic pressure to achieve democratic reforms in Cuba,” wrote D. John Sauer, the solicitor general.
The cruise industry says it acted lawfully and was following the lead of the Obama administration, which encouraged travel to Cuba during a brief period of renewed diplomatic relations starting in 2016. Cruise itineraries for Havana included visits to Ernest Hemingway’s home outside the city and outings to see dance performances. President Barack Obama declared the tours an opportunity for Americans to appreciate “the incredible history and culture of the Cuban people.”
A decade later, the Trump administration has taken a different tack, announcing tariffs against any country that sends oil to Cuba, stifling tourism and announcing that the communist government is “going down for the count.”
Before the Cuban revolution, American companies owned or controlled 90 percent of the island’s electricity generation, its telephone system, much of its mining industry, sugar-cane fields, and many oil refineries and warehouses. Most confiscated assets were transferred to state-owned companies controlled by the government.
After the seizures, American investors filed claims with the U.S. government through the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, an agency at the Department of Justice. In 1971, the commission certified Havana Docks’ claim of $9.1 million, or nearly $100 million adjusted for inflation, which remains unpaid. In total, the commission certified $1.9 billion in claims held by almost 6,000 claimants or about $9.3 billion in current value, according to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.
In 1996, Congress tightened the U.S. trade embargo after Cuban fighter jets shot down two planes flown by members of the Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Three U.S. citizens and one permanent resident were killed.
The Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, also known as the Helms-Burton law, also included language declaring that resolution of the property claims should be a key condition for restoring economic and diplomatic ties with Cuba. It included a provision at issue in Monday’s court cases that provided a path for Americans to sue in federal court over the “trafficking” or use of assets seized by the Cuban government. Known as Title III, it also allowed presidents to suspend the litigation stipulations, which were politically and diplomatically controversial.
Until 2019, presidents of both parties had suspended that provision. The Trump administration chose to activate it, opening the door to the lawsuits. The decision came despite an intensive lobbying effort by Carnival Corporation and a team that included Pam Bondi, then a lobbyist who had just finished her second term as Florida’s attorney general and had developed a close relationship with Mr. Trump. European officials also objected, arguing that the move would harm their businesses.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio reaffirmed the administration’s commitment to allowing such lawsuits early last year.
Mickael Behn, who succeeded his grandfather as president of Havana Docks, had been patiently waiting for just such an opening. For decades, the company continued to operate on paper, paying taxes, maintaining records and holding annual meetings in the hopes of someday getting the terminal back or getting compensated, court records show.
The company built, owned and operated Havana’s dock facilities in the early 20th century in exchange for a right to operate the docks until at least 2004, a 99-year agreement granted by the pre-Castro Cuban government. When the communist regime took over and seized the docks, the company still had 44 years left in its agreement.
Mr. Behn’s legal team, led by Roberto Martinez, a former U.S. attorney in Miami, says the company’s interest in the property did not “expire” in 2004 because it was confiscated before the clock ran out. Congress intended the 1996 law’s protections to “continue to this day,” the company said, because Cuba has never paid for the confiscated property.
From 2015 to 2019, cruise lines paid entities connected with the Cuban government at least $130 million to use the port facilities, according to court records.
Havana Docks notified the cruise lines of its claims, according to court filings, “but all four cruise lines proceeded to moor their ships and disembark their passengers on the very same piers and the very same terminal” seized from the company.
Ahead of Monday’s arguments, cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Carnival Corporation, said in court filings they cannot be on the hook to pay the port business because of the chronology of events.
The cruise ships did not set sail for Cuba or dock in Havana until 2016, after the Obama administration reopened travel to Cuba, their lawyers said, and also after Havana Docks’ rights to the pier complex ended.
“The notion that cruise lines should pay hundreds of millions of dollars for following the executive branch’s lead in reopening travel to Cuba defies both common sense and other aspects of the Helms-Burton Act,” the cruise line lawyers, led by the former solicitor general Paul Clement, told the justices.
A federal judge in the Southern District of Florida ruled against the cruise lines in 2022, rejecting their claim that the use of the docks amounted to lawful travel and ordering the four cruise lines to pay at least $110 million each.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit reversed the ruling, finding that the company’s rights to the pier property and operations had a time limit. Even if the confiscation had not occurred, the majority said the company’s interest would have ended in 2004.
In dissent, Judge Andrew L. Brasher characterized the majority opinion as “counterfactual,” because it asked what would have happened had the property not been seized in 1960.
In Exxon’s case, the company, then known as Standard Oil, had supplied, refined and distributed fuel throughout the island with more than 100 service stations, and its assets were abruptly confiscated by the Cuban government in 1960. Exxon sued three government-owned companies that it says have been exploiting its stolen refineries and service stations without compensation ever since. The company’s loss was valued at more than $70 million in 1969.
Foreign governments and the businesses they own are generally shielded from liability in U.S. courts under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. In ruling against Exxon, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said its case against the Cuban companies could not immediately move forward unless Exxon could meet one of the exceptions to the immunities law.
Lawyers for the Cuban companies, led by Michael R. Krinsky, urged the justices to send the case back to the lower courts to determine whether Exxon could essentially pierce the government’s traditional protection from liability. The 1996 law does not give the president the authority to sweep aside immunity protections, the companies said.
Exxon’s lawyers, led by a former acting solicitor general, Jeffrey B. Wall, urged the Supreme Court to find for the company, saying the appeals court majority “imposes yet another in a long line of barriers to recovery for victims of the Castro government’s illegal confiscations.”
The Trump administration agreed, telling the justices that the lower court ruling “upends Congress’s carefully calibrated authorization of private suits against Cuban agencies and instrumentalities and thwarts a critical foreign-policy tool.”
International law scholars, however, cautioned the court that embracing the position of Exxon and the administration could destabilize foreign relations by exposing other countries — including Brazil, China, Russia and Singapore — to liability if their state-owned companies export goods to Cuba, use its airports or finance projects.
The Supreme Court, the scholars wrote in a brief to the justices, “should leave the choice of whether to embroil the United States in such tensions to the political branches.”
Frances Robles contributed reporting.
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2) Border Patrol Shoots Armed Person Near Canadian Border, Authorities Say
The F.B.I. said that the person, who was not killed, “allegedly fired at” a Border Patrol agent in Pittsburg, N.H., around 1 a.m. on Sunday.
By Madeleine Ngo, Reporting from Washington, Feb. 23, 2026
Outside the town of Pittsburg, N.H, in 2024. Federal authorities said that a Border Patrol agent shot an armed individual near the Canadian border in Pittsburg early on Sunday. Credit...John Tully for The New York Times
A Border Patrol agent shot a person who was armed near the Canadian border in Pittsburg, N.H., early on Sunday, according to federal authorities.
The F.B.I. said in a statement that the person “allegedly fired at the agent” before “the agent returned fire” at about 1 a.m. The person, who was not named, is receiving medical care at a nearby hospital, said Kristen Setera, a spokeswoman for the F.B.I. Boston field office, which is investigating the shooting.
The agency is collecting “all relevant evidence from the scene,” Ms. Setera said. The U.S. attorney’s office for the District of New Hampshire is also investigating the shooting, she said.
Rodney Scott, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, which oversees Border Patrol, said in a statement on Monday that the Border Patrol agent was not injured after firing his weapon “during an encounter with an armed subject.”
Shootings involving federal immigration agents have been under scrutiny in recent weeks amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration. Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen and intensive care nurse, was killed last month in Minneapolis after he was shot by a Border Patrol agent and a Customs and Border Protection officer.
Witness videos of that encounter appeared to show Mr. Pretti recording immigration officers on his phone and helping a civilian stand back up before several officers pinned him to the ground. His death came about two weeks after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Renee Good, a U.S. citizen, in Minneapolis.
Internal reports made public last week also showed that an ICE officer shot and killed another US. citizen in his car in South Texas in March, months before the deaths of Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti. The man, Ruben Ray Martinez, was shot multiple times after he did not follow commands to exit his vehicle, according to internal ICE documents reviewed by The New York Times. Lawyers for his family have said that eyewitness accounts were not consistent with the government’s report.
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3) Training for New ICE Agents Is ‘Deficient’ and ‘Broken,’ Whistle-Blower Says
The former official appeared with congressional Democrats, who also released documents indicating significant reductions in instructional hours for recruits.
By Nicholas Nehamas and Hamed Aleaziz, Reporting from Washington, Feb. 23, 2026
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement official who resigned this month from his job instructing new recruits came forward on Monday as a whistle-blower, describing what he said was a “deficient, defective and broken” training program with a pared-back curriculum as the Trump administration races to expand the agency.
The account by Ryan Schwank, a former ICE lawyer who worked at the federal government’s law enforcement training academy, coincided with the release by Senate Democrats of several dozen pages of internal ICE records that suggest the Trump administration has curtailed the agency’s basic training.
“For the last five months, I watched ICE dismantle the training program,” Mr. Schwank said at a forum held in Washington by congressional Democrats. “Cutting 240 hours of vital classes from a 584-hour program — classes that teach the Constitution, our legal system, firearms training, the use of force, lawful arrests, proper detention and the limits of officers’ authority.”
He added: “New cadets are graduating from the academy despite widespread concerns among training staff that even in the final days of training, the cadets cannot demonstrate a solid grasp of the tactics or the law required to perform their jobs.”
Some of the previously unreported documents released on Monday indicate that ICE officers are now training for significantly fewer hours than they did before President Trump’s hiring surge. Others suggest that several training classes appear to have been cut from the required syllabus, including one titled “Use of Force Simulation Training” and others on immigration law and ICE’s legal authorities.
Together, the new disclosures underscore concerns about the conduct and preparedness of Homeland Security Department agents, who have shot and killed at least three American citizens over the last year. Mr. Trump’s decision to order immigration officers into major American cities has led to a rise in violent encounters with members of the public, leading to fears that poor training for new agents will produce more chaos.
Lauren Bis, a spokeswoman for the department, said in a statement that training hours had not been reduced, adding, “Our officers receive extensive firearm training, are taught de-escalation tactics, and receive Fourth and Fifth Amendment comprehensive instruction.”
Mr. Schwank was hired as an ICE lawyer in 2021 and became an instructor last year at the federal government’s law enforcement training academy in Georgia, where he taught courses on the law. He resigned on Feb. 13 after he and another publicly unidentified person submitted a confidential whistle-blower complaint on a separate matter that has raised constitutional questions: a new ICE policy allowing deportation officers to enter homes and arrest people without a judicial warrant.
“ICE is teaching cadets to violate the Constitution,” he said on Monday at the event with congressional Democrats.
His account comes at a time when funding for the Homeland Security Department has lapsed as Democrats push for a range of new restrictions on immigration agents.
After a planned infusion of $75 billion over four years from Mr. Trump’s signature domestic policy bill, ICE has embarked on a massive hiring spree. So far, the agency said it has hired over 12,000 new officers and agents, more than double the existing number. Between October and late January, more than 800 ICE recruits graduated from the academy, according to the documents, which were released by Democrats on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Another 3,204 recruits are projected to graduate by the end of September.
But the surge of recruits threatened to overwhelm the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers, which trains most federal agents. In response, ICE officials scaled back the agency’s training regimen, a shift reflected in the newly disclosed documents.
The disclosures include syllabuses containing required courses and daily schedules for ICE basic training. A July 2025 syllabus shows recruits at that time received 584 hours of training over 72 days. A syllabus from this month, however, shows training reduced to eight hours per day over 42 days, which amounts to approximately 336 hours. That would be a roughly 40 percent decrease in training hours.
Todd Lyons, ICE’s acting director, told Congress this month that ICE recruits were now training for “six days a week, 12 hours a day.” He also said agents were receiving new training both before they reported to the training academy and once they showed up for their jobs.
“The meat of the training was never removed,” Mr. Lyons added after being pressed about whether ICE was lowering its standards.
In a fact sheet, the Homeland Security Department said that it had received an additional $750 million in funding for the training academy and that it had “streamlined training to cut redundancy and incorporate technology advancements, without sacrificing basic subject matter content.” The department also noted that many new ICE recruits are “experienced law enforcement officers who have already successfully completed a law enforcement academy.”
Administration officials had previously said the reduction in training time came largely from the elimination of Spanish-language classes. However, the documents show that a number of other classes listed as being required last year no longer appear in the February syllabus. They include courses on handling the property of detainees, filling out paperwork that alleges someone is in the United States without authorization, taking a “victim-centered approach” and “integrity awareness training.”
In addition, other documents show that ICE recruits must now complete only nine practical examinations to graduate from the training academy, compared with 25 exams that were listed in a training syllabus dated July 2021 that was also released by the Democrats.
Among the exams that are no longer listed as being required in an October 2025 syllabus are “Judgment Pistol Shooting” and “Determine Removability,” a reference to how agents decide if people they encounter have legal status in the United States. It was not clear from the documents when those exams were removed.
“Deficient training can and will get people killed,” Mr. Schwank said on Monday. “It can and will lead to unlawful arrests, violations of constitutional rights and fundamental loss of public trust in law enforcement.”
In a statement, Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, encouraged other whistle-blowers to speak out.
“To anyone else who is repulsed by what you’re seeing or what authorities are asking you to do, please know that you can make a real difference by coming forward,” Mr. Blumenthal said.
Emily Powell and Kitty Bennett contributed research.
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4) It’s a Buyer’s Market, but Homeownership Eludes Many Americans
A growing split between low-to-middle-income families and wealthy households is changing who has access to homeownership now.
By Kailyn Rhone, Feb. 23, 2026
Ashlan and Kai McDaniel would love to buy their first home, but feel that market forces aren’t on their side. “It feels very overwhelming,” Ms. McDaniel said. Callaghan O'Hare for The New York Times
After getting engaged in 2023, Ashlan and Kai McDaniel heard the same advice from both sets of their home-owning parents: Stop renting and buy.
The couple, ages 28 and 29, soon began touring homes in and around Houston. Weeks into their search, they nearly made a purchase, but they said the process felt rushed, and they realized they didn’t understand the market well enough to commit. So they focused on their wedding in November and continued to pay $1,400 a month to rent their one-bedroom apartment.
Now, with the wedding behind them, they’re back in the market. The McDaniels are searching for an older brick home with updated appliances for no more than $300,000. But inventory in their price range feels thin, and most listings are new construction, they said, which they are wary of after a friend’s recent purchase required constant repairs.
“It feels very overwhelming,” said Ms. McDaniel, a workers’ compensation specialist. “Especially when people my age are on social media like, ‘Got my keys to my new house,’ and it’s like, ‘Wow. You know, I want that for us.’”
High down payments. Elevated interest rates. A lack of affordable homes. Even in what economists call a buyer’s market — where supply outpaces demand — many house hunters say the math still doesn’t work.
The biggest obstacle is affordability. Home prices have surged about 50 percent since the pandemic. Today, buyers need to earn roughly $93,000 to afford a typical home with a 20 percent down payment, up from the $52,000 needed in February 2020, according to data from the real estate marketplace Zillow. In a recent New York Times/Siena poll, more than half of voters under 30 said housing was the expense they worried most about affording.
As high prices push middle- and low-income buyers to the sidelines, the housing market is tilting more toward investors and high-income households. In 2025, investors accounted for 30.2 percent of all home purchases, a surge from 16.1 percent in 2020, during the beginning of the pandemic, according to data from Cotality, a property data and analytics firm. A report from Realtor.com noted that the shift was due not to a buying spree but to a retreat by traditional buyers.
The strain has become so intense that in November President Trump floated the idea of a 50-year mortgage to reduce buyers’ monthly payments, even though such a loan would add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost of a typical home. However, Mr. Trump also said in late January that he did not want home prices to fall and wanted to drive “housing prices up for people that own their homes.”
If this trend persists, it could likely keep construction levels low and force out first-time buyers — whose share has dropped to a record-low 21 percent, with the typical buyer now 40 years old, according to an annual survey from the National Association of Realtors. In 1987, data from the association showed, the typical first-time buyer was more than a decade younger — 29.
As a result, some buyers are waiting longer or getting more creative. Half of all buyers in 2025 said they had used at least two sources to fund their down payment, an increase from 2019, according to a Zillow report. That share rises to 57 percent for Gen Z and 56 percent for millennials.
Brandi Robinson, 27, and Joshua Barnes, 28, have been searching for a single-family home in Prince George’s County, Md., since July.
The married couple moved in with Mr. Barnes’s parents in November to save more money and have a budget of around $425,000. But they have been outbid multiple times, even on homes where they were willing to compromise on yard space, location or layout. Recently, they skipped touring a promising property after seeing five other families at an open house, convinced they wouldn’t stand a chance in the bidding.
“I think we just anticipated that it was going to go so much quicker than this,” said Ms. Robinson, a communications manager. “I feel like initially everyone was telling us that this is a buyer’s market — ‘It’s so good, and it’s going to be perfect for you’ — and it’s really not.”
Last week, Ms. Robinson and Mr. Barnes said they hoped to buy a single-family home in Charles County, outside their original plan and ideal location.
Buying a home today also looks different from the way it did to previous generations. In the past, the primary focus was saving for a down payment and covering the monthly mortgage, said Matthew Lyon, advice director at USAA. Today’s buyers face greater financial volatility — from layoffs and job insecurity to the fact that Americans stay in their homes longer than they did 20 years ago. Around 42 percent of Gen Z and 40 percent of millennials say they have delayed or changed other life goals because of housing costs, according to a survey by Intuit Credit Karma.
Younger and first-time buyers now are carefully weighing the full financial picture, not just the mortgage but taxes, insurance, homeowners’ association fees, utilities and maintenance repairs.
“It is less about stretching to get in and more about entering homeownership from a position of stability,” said Sam Diarbakerly, chief executive and private wealth adviser at Generation Capital Advisors.
The top actions that Americans take just to afford a down payment on a home include working extra hours, cutting expenses and delaying other major purchases, according to Credit Karma’s survey. Around 12 percent said they had to move in with family in order to save.
Sarah Eller, a 26-year-old single mother in Sierra Vista, Ariz., had to do all of this and more.
Two years ago, Ms. Eller and her 5-year-old daughter moved back in with her parents after she finished nursing school. When her parents took a monthlong trip in October, she realized the value of having privacy and her own space. She quickly set a goal to save for her own home and began cutting her spending.
After looking at home prices in her desired states (Texas, Colorado and Utah), she realized she was not nearly as prepared as she thought to enter the market this year. Since December, Ms. Eller, a registered nurse, has saved about $2,000 each month and was aiming to amass around $50,000 by late 2027.
But she recently began to question whether rushing into a purchase made sense. Instead, she decided to renovate her parents’ garage into her new home, delaying her homeownership plans until she paid off her $59,000 in student loan debt and saved up at least $100,000.
“When I get into the home, I don’t want to be broke, because anything could happen,” Ms. Eller said.
With about two-thirds of Americans already owning homes, the run-up in prices has generated trillions in wealth for existing homeowners, while locking out many first-time buyers. The divide is visible on the ground: Felise Eber, a real estate agent in South Florida, described the high-end market as “moving quite well,” while in New York City, Ashley Reidy Quinn, an agent there, said that even though most homes were selling below the listing price, discounting was especially pronounced in the $20 million-plus ultraluxury tier.
As mortgage rates are expected to ease this year, according to recent forecasts, the question is whether this shifting market will create openings for middle-income households or cement housing as an asset class dominated by the wealthy.
Sean Higgins, 27, and Caroline Rueve, 26, aren’t new to buying a home. They purchased a one-bedroom condominium in Chicago in 2022 while dating, thinking it was smarter to build equity than pay rent.
But now, with a wedding in June and plans to have children, the couple are hunting for a larger place. They sold their condo in November in just a week and moved into a short-term, $2,500-a-month rental while searching for a two-bedroom unit with an additional living area or a den.
“It’s kind of become my morning routine. Instead of waking up and checking Instagram, I wake up and check Realtor.com,” said Ms. Rueve, an account manager.
They haven’t found anything that fits their list yet. They want to stay in the city, where Mr. Higgins works as a sales engineer, and are budgeting up to $600,000.
The pair had hoped that their existing equity and prior home-buying experience would help them secure a property more quickly, but the market hasn’t made that possible, they said. Ideally, they would like to close on a home before April to avoid overlapping rent and mortgage payments. Given the market conditions, however, they said they might need to extend their lease.
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5) Trump’s Justice Department Sues New Jersey Governor Over ICE Enforcement
The lawsuit is the latest federal challenge to policies enacted in Democrat-led states. Similar suits have targeted laws in New York, Minnesota and California.
By Tracey Tully and Luis Ferré-Sadurní, Feb. 24, 2026
Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey signed an executive order limiting where federal immigration agents can conduct enforcement actions in the state. Bryan Anselm for The New York Times
The Justice Department announced on Tuesday that it had sued New Jersey and its Democratic governor, Mikie Sherrill, challenging an executive order she issued that limits where federal immigration agents can conduct enforcement actions in the state.
The executive order, signed on Feb. 11, bars federal immigration officers from conducting civil immigration arrests in areas of state-owned property that are not public, including office buildings and parking lots, without a judicial warrant. It also prohibits federal officers from using state property as a staging area for immigration raids.
The lawsuit argued that the executive order was unconstitutional, obstructed the federal government’s ability to enforce the immigration laws of the United States and discriminated against immigration officers. The suit was the latest filed by the Trump administration against Democrat-led states with laws and policies it argues are hindering its ability to carry out its mass deportation campaign.
“Federal agents are risking their lives to keep New Jersey citizens safe, and yet New Jersey’s leaders are enacting policies designed to obstruct and endanger law enforcement,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement on Tuesday.
Sean Higgins, a spokesman for Ms. Sherrill, who was sworn in as governor last month, had no immediate comment.
The Justice Department said that Ms. Sherrill’s order intentionally obstructs federal immigration agents and “celebrates thwarting the constitutional obligation of the president of the United States to take care that federal immigration law be faithfully executed.”
Ms. Sherrill’s surname is incorrectly spelled throughout the 20-page document.
So far, the Justice Department has been largely unsuccessful in convincing judges that local and state laws that place limits on efforts by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency are unconstitutional.
In June, the Trump administration filed a similar lawsuit against New York, challenging a state law and two executive orders that largely prohibit ICE officers from conducting arrests at local and state courthouses. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in November, finding that the measures were not unconstitutional.
A federal judge in Illinois also dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit last year against so-called sanctuary laws in the state, while a lawsuit against sanctuary policies in New York City is ongoing.
The lawsuit in New Jersey comes as immigration activists and local officials have reported a more visible presence by ICE officers in the state in recent months, with videos of ICE arrests circulating on social media on a weekly basis.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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6) Court Rules Against Justice Dept. Search of Reporter’s Computers
The judge said the court itself would search the devices, which were seized from a Washington Post reporter’s home last month.
By Erik Wemple, Feb. 24, 2026
The courthouse for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria, where a judge rejected an “unsupervised, wholesale” search by the federal government. Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times
A federal magistrate judge ruled on Tuesday that the court, and not the Justice Department, would search devices that the government seized from a Washington Post reporter’s home last month, resolving an impasse over how to handle the materials.
The judge, William B. Porter of the Eastern District of Virginia, came down against an “unsupervised, wholesale” search expedition conducted by the government.
“Allowing the government’s filter team to search a reporter’s work product — most of which consists of unrelated information from confidential sources — is the equivalent of leaving the government’s fox in charge of The Washington Post’s henhouse,” he wrote.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation obtained an iPhone, two computers and other devices when it searched the home of the reporter, Hannah Natanson, who covers the federal government for The Post.
The search stemmed from an investigation into a Maryland government contractor, Aurelio Perez-Lugones, who has been indicted on charges of transmitting and retaining classified national defense information. One issue in the search is just how much information from Ms. Natanson’s devices is relevant to the prosecution. The government, The Post has argued, has a “legitimate interest in only an infinitesimal fraction of the data it has seized.”
The Post, citing the First Amendment and attorney-client privilege, requested that the government refrain from reviewing the material on Ms. Natanson’s devices.
A hearing last week considered The Post’s request that all the devices be returned so that the company could sift through the information and provide relevant materials in compliance with a subpoena it had received on the day of the search. The government pushed for retention of the devices and the deployment of a so-called filter team to evaluate materials on them.
At the hearing, Judge Porter criticized Justice Department officials for failing to mention a 1980 law, the Privacy Protection Act, in seeking a search warrant of Ms. Natanson’s home. That law says a search for reporting materials “shall be unlawful” unless there is probable cause the reporter committed certain crimes to which the materials relate.
“How could you miss it? How could you think it doesn’t apply?” the judge asked a Justice Department lawyer.
In his ruling on Tuesday, Judge Porter noted that the court generally granted prosecutors some latitude on the issue, assuming that they have “satisfied their obligation to disclose controlling and relevant authority.”
Given the department’s omission, however, Judge Porter wrote, “The government’s conduct has disturbed that base-line posture of deference.”
Judge Porter will develop a process for reviewing the materials; a hearing on the case is scheduled for March 4.
In a statement, The Post said, “We applaud the court’s recognition of core First Amendment protections and its rejection of the government’s expansionist arguments for searching Hannah Natanson’s devices and work materials in their entirety and placing itself in charge of determining their relevance.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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7) Chicago’s Snowplow Naming Contest Got Political. The Pick: ‘Abolish ICE.’
An annual contest usually draws lighthearted quips. This year, Chicagoans chose a political pun.
By Julie Bosman, Feb. 24, 2026
Each winter, Chicago’s annual “You Name a Snowplow” contest brings out the creative, the cutesy, the sentimental, the painfully punny.
This year, the clear winner is political. The new snowplow is named “Abolish ICE.”
“Abolish ICE,” chosen soon after the Trump administration conducted an aggressive and broadly unpopular immigration crackdown in Chicago, came in first among more than 13,300 proposed snowplow names offered by the public, city officials said this week. Nearly 40,000 people cast votes on 25 finalists.
In second place was “Stephen Coldbert,” named after the talk-show host who spent his formative comedy years in Chicago. The third place was “Pope Frío XIV,” a homage to Pope Leo, who hails from the south suburbs of Chicago.
“Abolish ICE” will soon be stamped on the side of a snowplow truck and could be spotted around the streets of Chicago the next time a snowstorm hits. Chicago is divided into six “snow districts,” and each year, a new truck in each of the six districts is adorned with the name chosen by voters.
The contest, which began in 2023 under Mayor Lori Lightfoot, has never turned quite so newsy.
In previous years, the top entries have nodded to Chicago’s accomplishments in architecture (Mies van der Snow); city-leveling disasters (Mrs. O’Leary’s Plow); a popular landmark whose years-old name change remains unacknowledged by residents (Sears Plower); and heroic Polish-born figures of the Revolutionary War celebrated mostly in Chicago (Casimir Plowaski).
People who nominated the six winning entries will be offered city-themed swag at an unveiling event at a salt dome, a facility for storage of road salt, and the chance to pose with the snowplow they named. The names of those who proposed this year’s winning entries have yet to be made public.
Ryan Gage, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation, referred questions about the “Abolish ICE” entry to the mayor’s office.
The annual contest, he said, is “a great opportunity to showcase the unmatched creativity and civic pride from Chicagoans and highlight the hard work of the city staff in clearing the roads of ice and snow.”
Chicago’s fleet of powder-blue snow-fighting vehicles is robust and organized, a welcome sight on the city’s streets throughout the winter. There are more than 300 trucks that clear snow and dump salt on thousands of miles of roads around Chicago, and more than 400,000 tons of salt is kept in strategically placed piles around the city, the streets department said.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, who has said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement should be abolished, thanked Chicagoans for joining the contest so enthusiastically.
“We are grateful and inspired by the record-breaking participation in the contest this year,” Mr. Johnson, a Democrat, said in a statement.
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8) Casey Means, Critic of Mainstream Medicine, Poised to Become Nation’s Top Doctor
Dr. Means, a wellness influencer and President Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, is appearing before a Senate committee Wednesday.
By Dani Blum, Feb. 25, 2026
Deanna Donegan/The New York Times; Photographs by Getty
Dr. Casey Means is appearing before a Senate committee Wednesday to make her case to become the next surgeon general. The job would make her the face of the mainstream medical system — which Dr. Means, a wellness influencer and entrepreneur, has vehemently criticized.
Parts of Dr. Means’s résumé make her seem like a natural fit. She graduated from the Stanford School of Medicine and has worked as a biomedical researcher. She championed healthy eating and exercise as essential for good health, long before Make America Healthy Again became a political movement. And with hundreds of thousands of social media followers and a popular newsletter, Dr. Means is well versed in communicating with the public about health.
But Dr. Means has also repeatedly railed against the conventional medical system. She dropped out of her medical residency and does not have an active license to treat patients. She is skeptical of some vaccines and has repeated the debunked claim that they could be linked to autism. She has spoken out against bans on raw milk, which can contain dangerous bacteria. She has frequently told Americans not to trust the medical system, titling one chapter of her best-selling book: “Trust Yourself, Not Your Doctor.”
Dr. Means did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
“We actually have to figure out new approaches to medicine, and that’s the kind of leadership that she’s going to bring to our country,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Fox News after President Trump nominated Dr. Means for surgeon general.
The Senate is expected to confirm Dr. Means for the role. While the surgeon general cannot shape or enforce health policy directly, the position carries sizable influence over how Americans think and talk about health. Past surgeons general have pushed to slash smoking rates in America, beat back the stigma around AIDS and change the way the public talks about loneliness and mental health.
For decades, people have listened to the surgeon general’s voice because it “was speaking for what we knew from the best available science,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a science communication researcher and the director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. “And it wasn’t saying, ‘Don’t trust your doctor, trust yourself,’” she said. “It was saying, ‘I’m a doctor you can trust. I’m speaking for a kind of science that is grounded in our traditional understanding of how science works.’”
Sign up to get Dani Blum's articles emailed to you. Dani Blum is a health reporter focusing on news and trends.
Dr. Jamieson added: “Now imagine that in this context, that voice was being used to say, ‘Drink raw milk.’”
The fact that Dr. Means is not a practicing physician and that she did not complete her medical training is also a sticking point. Critics say she is ill-equipped to take on the role, which involves issuing public health advisories and coordinating responses to public health threats, as well as leading the more than 6,000 health professionals who make up the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
To her supporters, Dr. Means’ focus on chronic disease, and her rejection of the medical establishment, is precisely what will allow her to improve Americans’ health.
“She’s not a career bureaucrat. She’s not a pharma spokesperson. She understands biomarkers, lifestyle drivers, environmental impacts, nutrition, how they all connect,” said Alex Clark, the host of the popular Turning Point USA wellness podcast “Culture Apothecary.”
How we choose health experts to talk to. Times reporters often spend weeks interviewing doctors, researchers and other health professionals to help report an article. We seek leaders in their fields, watch out for conflicts of interest and try to get a variety of viewpoints.
Some of what Dr. Means calls for is uncontroversial. Nearly every doctor would say Americans should eat better and move more. Many would agree the medical establishment, which Dr. Means has called a “sick care” system that focuses more on treating disease than preventing it, is not adequately serving the public. Dr. Means has said she wants to see warning labels on most ultraprocessed foods, which have been linked to a range of health problems and which nutritionists widely recommend avoiding.
Dr. Means has said she dropped out of her surgical residency in 2018 because she was frustrated and alarmed that she was cutting people open instead of understanding why they were sick in the first place.
“The system is rigged against the American patient to create diseases and then profit off of them,” Dr. Means said on Tucker Carlson’s podcast.
In 2019, she started a small functional medicine practice in Portland, Ore., focused on what she calls the “root causes” of illness. (She has said she started “phasing out” that practice a year later and let her license become inactive in 2024, because she was no longer seeing patients.)
Dr. Means describes what she believes those root causes to be in her book “Good Energy,” which she wrote with her brother, Calley Means, a prominent adviser to Mr. Kennedy. In it, the siblings argue that cancer, infertility, diabetes, depression and many other chronic health issues can be blamed on diet, chemical exposures, prescription medications and Americans’ stressed-out and sedentary modern lifestyles.
While Dr. Means says that doctors can be helpful in an acute crisis, she has also suggested that getting more sleep, sunlight, time in nature, exercise and whole foods could help alleviate these health issues without the aid of traditional physicians. She has also said that the more prescription medicines Americans take, the sicker they get.
She regularly echoes these points on podcasts and in her newsletter, where she has also promoted supplements and other wellness products that are not always backed by rigorous science, including those sold by companies that paid to sponsor her newsletter. Dr. Means is also the co-founder of Levels, a company that offers wearable glucose monitors. (She has pledged to divest from her wellness interests.)
While Dr. Means positions herself as a truth-teller, critics say she sometimes uses her medical background to sell unscientific ideas.
“What Casey Means and MAHA do so well is take those little pieces of truth and really just turn them into something they’re not, turn them into a reason to find fault or to distrust scientific expertise and medical expertise,” said Matthew Motta, an associate professor of health law, policy and management at the Boston University School of Public Health. He said that her confirmation could sow further distrust at a time when the public’s confidence in government health authorities has already plummeted.
Dr. Richard Carmona, who served as the surgeon general under President George W. Bush, said that he thought Dr. Means lacked the credentials for the role. He had been a practicing physician for over 20 years when he stepped into the role, which involved spending time overseas to coordinate emergency plans with other countries.
“They saw me as bringing the best information from the United States forward and understanding it, so that we can make prudent decisions for the health, safety and security of the world,” he said.
Dr. Motta also worried that having Dr. Means in a role as prominent as surgeon general will add “an element of legitimacy” to her past statements that have strayed far from the established science, like her skepticism of the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns or her condemnation of birth control pills.
To Dr. Means, though, straying from the mainstream is a badge of honor.
Americans need to “start really being the CEO of our health,” she told Megyn Kelly in a 2024 interview, “and not just fully outsourcing our health data to ‘Daddy Doctor.’”
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