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Feb. 12 (UPI) — A group of two dozen Buddhist monks completed a barefoot, 2,300-mile Walk of Peace across the United States at the Maryland State House in Annapolis on Thursday.

The monks conducted a much shorter walk of 1.5 miles on Thursday, from the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis to the State House, where a crowd of about 6,000 awaited them.

Theravada Buddhist monk Venerable Bhikkhu Paññākāra told the crowd: “Today is going to be my peaceful day.” The crowd repeated the words back at the monk’s urging.

“Peace is always with us,” Paññākāra continued. “It’s been with us, never left us, never leaves us,” he said, as reported by WMAR.

“We are way too busy chasing,” he added. “So, now, all we need to do is just slow down.”

Paññākāra said it’s important to do more than simply call for peace.

“Without practicing mindfulness, peace is just a saying,” Paññākāra said: “Peace is just a word. It will never happen.”

He said peace only happens when people make it happen.

“Don’t expect anybody to bring peace to us,” the monk said. “It will never happen, either.”

The monks initially did not plan to walk to Maryland’s Capitol building but agreed to do so after receiving an invitation from state officials.

Maryland Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller welcomed the monks after they had walked across 10 states and the nation’s capital, ending their march to promote global peace at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on Tuesday after walking for 109 days.

“Your walk is a reminder that peace and compassion begin within each of us every single day, one step at a time, one person at a time, one being at a time,” Miller told the monks.

Among the thousands who attended the gathering, Shannon Shea of Silver Spring, Md., who has followed the monks since their Walk of Peace began on Oct. 26 in Fort Worth, Texas, and estimated that she saw them 10 times.

Paññākāra’s words differed at each stop, but his message remained the same.

“It’s all about you, how you react to everything. It’s not what people do to you, it’s how you react to what they do,” Shea said.

“And that message has been clear over and over again,” she added. “It’s just been amazing.”

The monks initially intended to walk back to Fort Worth, but they agreed to take a bus so that they could return in time to participate in a special event.

Feb. 12 (UPI) — The Department of Homeland Security likely will shut down early Saturday after Senate Democrats blocked a funding bill Thursday.

The Senate voted 52-47 to approve House Resolution 7147, which would have funded the department through Sept. 30. The House narrowly approved the measure Wednesday.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., was the only Senate Democrat to vote in favor of the funding measure, which failed to muster the 60 votes needed to overcome the Senate’s filibuster rule.

Senate Republican leader John Thune of South Dakota voted against the measure to keep open a procedural mechanism that would enable the Senate to quickly revisit the measure in a floor vote.

During floor debate, Thune said the House and Senate three weeks ago reached a bipartisan agreement that would fund Homeland Security for the remainder of the 2026 fiscal year that started Oct. 1 and ends Sept. 30.

That agreement included requiring federal immigration enforcement officers to wear body cams and cease enforcement sweeps in favor of more targeted operations.

“It included funding for de-escalation training for ICE, and it included additional oversight for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol spending,” Thune said.

“And then Democrats reneged on the agreement,” he added. “And so, we are here.”

After defeating the funding measure, Senate Democrats in a statement “demanded Republicans get serious and work with Democrats to pass common sense reforms and rein in ICE and end the violence” that has occurred in Minneapolis.

“They need to sit down. They need to negotiate in good faith, produce legislation that actually reins in ICE and stops the violence,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday.

After the measure failed Thursday, Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., proposed extending the current short-term extension of the agency’s 2025 funding that expires at the end of the day Friday.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., opposed that effort, which effectively ended it.

The Department of Homeland Security shutdown would affect the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Science and Technology Directorate, Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which processes visa applications.

It also would affect the Coast Guard, Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration, Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE and the CBP would not shut down, though, as both were funded for three years via the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 and will continue enforcing federal immigration laws.

Feb. 12 (UPI) — Former Ohio State University board member Leslie Wexner must testify in federal lawsuits accusing the school of enabling sex abuse by Dr. Richard Strauss, a federal court ordered.

Wexner is neither a defendant nor a plaintiff in three lawsuits filed in the U.S. District Court of Southern Ohio, but a Jan. 13 subpoena seeks to depose him on the matter.

Wexner filed a motion to quash the deposition subpoena, which Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Preston Deavers and District Judge Michael Watson denied Wednesday.

They ordered Wexner to participate in a deposition within 60 days.

“Given the timing and length of Mr. Wexner’s tenure on the OSU Board of Trustees, including his time as vice chairman and chairman of the full board, as well as ranking positions on the board’s personnel committee, plaintiffs are entitled to discover what Mr. Wexner knew about Dr. Stauss and when he knew it,” Deavers and Watson said.

“Mr. Wexner’s testimony may also illuminate what the board did to monitor OSU’s sexual harassment compliance,” they wrote.

“If Mr. Wexner or the board had no knowledge about allegations surrounding Dr. Strauss, this would be evidence of OSU’s deliberate indifference,” they added.

Wexner argued he has no knowledge of the matter and never discussed allegations against Strauss while he was a board member or afterward, but the judges said that is insufficient cause for granting his motion to quash the deposition subpoena.

The three federal lawsuits filed by former students name Ohio State as the defendant and arise from the time that Strauss was the campus doctor from September 1978 to March 1998.

Strauss was accused of sexually abusing at least 177 OSU male student-athletes and chose to end his life by suicide in 2005.

His suicide prevented Strauss from being tried in court and potentially convicted of the alleged crimes.

His alleged victims last year held protests, during which they accused Wexner, his security staff and his attorney of preventing process servers from delivering the deposition subpoena to compel his testimony.

Watson issued the court deposition subpoena on Jan. 13 to negate the need for serving him with the prior subpoena, which Wexner’s legal team unsuccessfully sought to quash despite there being no accusations of wrongdoing on his part.

Feb. 12 (UPI) — The Trump administration announced an end to greenhouse gas emission standards for all vehicles made in model year 2012 or later Thursday.

The administration revoked the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding and all other emission standards related to greenhouse gases. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a press release that the move will save taxpayers $1.3 trillion.

“The Endangerment Finding has been the source of 16 years of consumer choice restrictions and trillions of dollars of hidden costs for Americans,” Lee Zeldin, EPA administrator, said in a statement.

Zeldin was joined by President Donald Trump for the announcement in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.

The Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding set the legal basis for regulating pollution tied to climate change as part of the Clean Air Act, the primary federal air quality law enacted in 1963.

Climate advocates and lawmakers sounded the alarm about the decision, gathering outside of the EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

“This is corruption, plain and simple,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said at the gathering. “This is an agency that has been so infiltrated by the corrupt fossil fuel industry that it has turned an agency of government into the weapon of fossil fuel polluters.”

Critics of the Trump administration’s rollback on greenhouse gas emission regulation say it may lead to trillions in costs for climate damages and healthcare.

Manish Bapna, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Wednesday that her organization will take legal action.

Thursday’s move follows Trump signing an executive order on Wednesday directing the Pentagon to purchase coal-fired electricity in an effort to boost domestic coal production.

Feb. 12 (UPI) — Two U.S. Navy ships collided during a refueling operation in South America, injuring two people, U.S. Southern Command said.

The incident occurred on Wednesday when a Navy warship collided with a Navy supply vessel. Two people suffered minor injuries and are in stable condition.

The warship is the Arleigh Burke-class USS Truxtun guided missile destroyer. The other vessel is a Supply-class fast combat support ship, USNS Supply. Both ships remain operational and have continued to sail following the collision.

U.S. Southern Command did not specify the exact location where the crash took place. The cause of the crash was not specified either.

The supply ship has been recently posted in the Caribbean which falls under the purview of U.S. Southern Command. Southern Command presides over military operations throughout South America, Central America and the Caribbean.

The United States has increased its presence in Southern Command’s region in recent months as operations against alleged drug smuggling vessels have intensified.

Last month, President Donald Trump and members of his cabinet presided over the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro and his wife.

It is rare for U.S. Navy vessels to crash into each other. In 2017, 17 sailors were killed in two separate crashes between Navy ships in the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. Navy determined both crashes were avoidable.

Feb. 12 (UPI) — A United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket launched successfully Thursday morning while experiencing an issue with its booster.

An apparent burn-through could be seen near the nozzle of the rocket’s fuel booster about 20 seconds after liftoff. Despite this, the Vulcan Centaur’s launch was a success.

“We had an observation early during the flight on one of the four solid rocket motors,” ULA posted on X. “The team is currently reviewing the data.”

The rocket, carrying a classified payload for Space Force, launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 4:22 a.m. EST.

The launch marks the beginning of the USSF-87 mission. The mission is to collect data to support U.S. Space Command surveillance, U.S. Space Force says. The satellites communicate with Air Force Satellite Control Network ground stations.

Thursday’s payloads include two satellites used for the United States’ Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program.

Since the program started in 2014, six spacecraft have been put into place.

“They provide ‘neighborhood watch’ services in the geostationary Earth arena, improving flight safety for all spacefaring nations operating in orbit,” Space Force said in a statement.

Thursday’s launch marked the beginning of the Vulcan Centaur’s fourth mission to space.

Feb. 12 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has directed the Pentagon to purchase coal-fired electricity to boost domestic coal production, a move that has drawn staunch criticism from energy and environmental experts.

Trump issued the directive via an executive order that he signed Thursday at the end of a White House ceremony attended by coal executives called “The Champion of Coal Event.”

“We’re going to be buying a lot of coal through the military now,” he said. “And it’s going to be less expensive and actually much more effective than what we have been using for many, many years. And again, with the environmental progress that’s been made on coal, it’s going to be just as clean.”

The executive order directs the Department of Defense to approve agreements with coal-fired power facilities to serve its installations and other mission-critical facilities.

The order aligns with Trump’s domestic policy focus of reinvigorating the U.S. coal industry, which has declined over recent years due to environmental concerns.

“Kentucky coal is BACK — and it’s because President Trump fights for American energy,” Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., said in a statement.

Barr was at the White House for the ceremony, and said in a recorded statement that the Trump administration was ending the “war on coal” waged by the previous Democratic presidencies of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

“We’re putting our coal miners back to work to make America energy dominant again,” he said in a recorded statement, while describing Trump’s executive order as “great.”

During the ceremony at the East Room of the White House, Trump was given a trophy inscribed with the words “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal” by the Washington Coal Club lobby group.

After receiving the trophy, which is shaped like a miner, Trump signed the executive order.

While the Trump administration and Republicans champion the resource as “beautiful clean coal,” energy economists and environmental advocates broadly describe coal as a costly and highly polluting power source.

“Rather than helping people with their crippling electrical bills, Donald Trump is illegally bailing out his coal industry buddies with precious taxpayer dollars,” Laurie Williams, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, said in a statement.

“As energy bills and hospital bills stack up for everyday families, Americans have one man to blame: Donald Trump — the undisputed champion of expensive energy and deadly pollution.”

Julie McNamara, associate policy director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, lambasted the executive order as a wast of time, money and opportunity.

She said there are cheaper, cleaner and more efficient options at the president’s disposal, but he chose coal while ending development of new solar and wind projects and stopping investment to build out a modern grid infrastructure.

“Reality doesn’t lie: coal is a rapidly dwindling relic of the past, not a solution for the future,” McNamara said in a statement.

“The Trump administration’s failings come with real consequences,” she said, adding that forcing the use of aging coal plants risks power outages and will increase electricity costs.

Former Environmental Protection Agency scientist and vice president of federal policy Matthew Davis similarly said this plan risks driving up energy prices for Americans.

“Coal power not only has one of the highest costs of any energy source, but also has the worst reliability record of any form of energy, with twice as many unplanned shutdowns and interruptions in generation as wind power,” he said in a statement.

“Instead of forcing the government to waste taxpayer dollars on dirty outdated coal, we should be focusing on increasing access to clean, reliable energy sources like wind and solar that are the fastest, cheapest way to deploy energy onto the grid.”

Feb. 12 (UPI) — In a rare rebuke of the Trump administration, the Republican-led House on Wednesday moved to block sweeping tariffs imposed on Canada by President Donald Trump.

In a 219-211 vote on Wednesday evening, House lawmakers approved legislation terminating a national emergency Trump declared early in his administration to slap tariffs on the United States’ northern neighbor.

Six Republicans joined their Democratic colleagues to pass the legislation into an uncertain future in the Senate. One Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, voted against terminating the emergency.

The legislation, however, could end up being only symbolic. Even if the GOP-led majority approves it, President Donald Trump would be expected to veto it.

Even as the resolution faces an uncertain future, Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and sponsor of H.J.Res.72, said Democrats, joined by several GOP lawmakers, forced the measure to the floor to put Republicans on record.

“The question was simple: stand with working families and lower costs, or keep prices high out of loyalty to Donald Trump?” Meeks, who has argued the tariffs have increased household costs, said in a statement following the vote.

“House Democrats will continue fighting to lower costs, even if most Republicans won’t.”

Tariffs have been a mechanism central to Trump’s trade and foreign policy, using economic measures to right what he sees as improper trade relations and to penalize nations he feels are doing him and the United States wrong.

On Feb. 1, Trump declared a national emergency with respect to Canada over drugs entering the United States across their shared border, alleging Ottawa was “failing to devote sufficient attention and resources or meaningfully coordinate with the United States law enforcement partners to effectively stem the tide of illicit drugs.”

Under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Trump imposed a sweeping 25% tariff on most Canadian goods and a 10% duty on Canadian energy products.

The tariffs have kicked off a trade war with Canada and have begun fraying the United States’ relations with Ottawa, which, in the months since, has sought to lessen its dependency on Washington.

Premier Doug Ford of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, on Wednesday night thanked the members of Congress who voted to terminate the emergency declaration, saying they “stood up in support of free trade and economic growth between our two great countries.”

“An important victory with more work ahead,” he said in a social media statement.

“Let’s end the tariffs and together build a more prosperous and secure future.”

Trump lashed out against House and Senate Republicans on Wednesday, warning that those who vote against his tariffs “will suffer the consequences come Election time,” suggesting that he could interfere with their chances of winning their next primary.

The president argued in a post on his Truth Social platform that tariffs improve the United States’ economic and national security “because the mere mention of the word has Countries agreeing to our strongest wishes.”

“Tariffs have given us Economic and National Security, and no Republican should be responsible for destroying this privilege,” he said. In a second post, Trump said Canada was taking advantage of the United States without providing proof, calling Ottawa “the worst in the World to deal with.”

“TARIFFS make a WIN for us, EASY,” he said. “Republicans must keep it that way!”

Democrats have criticized Trump’s tariffs since they were announced, and now point to economists’ estimates that say the measures — including those imposed against Canada — have increased household costs.

According to the Budget Lab at Yale University, income loss due to Trump’s tariffs, including those imposed on Canada, amounted to about $1,700 per American household last year. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation said the tariffs amount to an average tax increase per U.S. household of $1,000 in 2025 and $1,300 this year.

Though estimates vary, economists generally agree that the tariffs have raised costs for American households.

The U.S.-Canada relationship has greatly degraded during Trump’s second term. Threats to make Canada the United States’ 51st state, his imposition of tariffs and the shifting right of Washington’s foreign and domestic policies have prompted officials in Ottawa to look elsewhere for stable economic partnerships.

Last month, Trump threatened to impose a 100% tariff on Canadian imports in response to Canada seeking to forge a new trade deal with China.

Last October, the U.S. Senate passed a similar resolution to end the emergency declaration related to Canada, but the GOP-led House did not take it up before the end of the congressional session.

In the courts, the legality of Trump’s tariffs is being challenged by multiple lawsuits, with opponents, including states and companies, arguing that the president exceeded his authority in imposing the taxes, which historically are Congress’ responsibility as holder of the purse.

Feb. 11 (UPI) — The House of Representatives narrowly passed the SAVE America Act on Wednesday, but it faces a tough sell in the Senate.

The House approved the measure on Wednesday by a vote of 218-213, with one Democrat voting in favor of the proposed law that would require voters to provide a birth certificate or passport to prove their citizenship status when registering to vote and produce a valid photo ID to vote.

“It’s just common sense. Americans need an ID to drive, to open a bank account, to buy cold medicine [and] to file for government assistance,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told media. “So, why would voting be any different than that?”

Democrats oppose the measure, which Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called “Jim Crow 2.0.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called the proposed voting law a “desperate effort by Republicans to distract” without saying from what.

“The so-called SAVE Act is not about voter identification,” Jeffries continued. “It is about voter suppression, and they have zero credibility on this issue.”

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, was the lone Democrat to vote in favor of the measure, which now goes to the Senate for consideration. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, sponsored the bill.

Although Senate Republicans have a simple majority in the upper chamber, they likely lack the 60 votes needed to overcome the Senate’s filibuster rule.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Tuesday said he supports the proposed act but does not have the votes needed to change the filibuster rule to pass it with a simple majority.

The GOP controls 53 Senate seats, while Democrats control 47, including two held by independents who sit with the Senate Democratic Party’s caucus.

Some Republicans have suggested requiring a standing filibuster, which would require those opposing proposed legislation to physically engage in a non-stop filibuster instead of just announcing their intent to do so.

Feb. 11 (UPI) — Gallup will stop measuring and publishing presidential approval ratings this year, the analytics firm announced on Wednesday.

The company said in a statement that it is getting out of tracking the approval ratings of politicians to focus its research on “issues and conditions that shape people’s lives.”

“That work will continue through the Gallup Poll Social Series, the Gallup Quarterly Business Review, the World Poll and our portfolio of U.S. and global research,” a spokesperson for Gallup said.

Gallup’s Presidential Job Approval Rating has been used to measure the public’s sentiment toward the president’s overall performance and performance on certain issues for decades. It began to report presidential approval ratings in 1938.

President Donald Trump‘s approval rating has fallen to 36% in his second term, Gallup’s December poll said. His average approval rating during his first term was 41.1%, lower than any president since Harry Truman, who was in office from 1945 to 1953.

Trump’s immigration enforcement and tariff policies are among the areas that the public has most disapproved of during his second term.

Gallup said that ending its presidential approval ratings was not in response to political pressure from the White House.

“This is a strategic shift based on Gallup’s research goals and priorities,” Gallup said.

Feb. 11 (UPI) — The Federal Aviation Administration ended what was initially announced as a 10-day suspension of all flights over El Paso, Texas on Wednesday, hours after closing the airspace.

The FAA stopped all incoming and outgoing flights over El Paso late Tuesday night, citing “special security reasons.” It warned that deadly force may be used against aircraft entering the airspace if they pose an “imminent security threat.”

The closure was triggered by military operations from Biggs Army Airfield in Fort Bliss, about seven miles away from El Paso.

CBS reported that Mexican cartel drones breached U.S. airspace, causing the Department of Defense to disable the drones.

“There is no threat to commercial aviation,” the FAA posted on social media. “All flights will resume as normal.”

When the airspace was closed, the FAA said that it was being classified as “national defense airspace.” The closure also halted medevac helicopters from flying.

“Just pass it on to everybody else, at 6:30 for the next 10 days, we’re all at a ground stop,” an air traffic controller informed pilots in audio recorded on LiveATC.net.

Some travelers received notifications from airlines about changes to their flights and offerings of travel waivers before the closure was lifted.

El Paso is home to the El Paso International Airport, which saw about 3.5 million travelers through the first 11 months of last year. The city has a population of about 700,000.

Feb. 11 (UPI) — About 90,000 undocumented students reach the end of high school each year and researchers say their opportunities to pursue higher education are rapidly shrinking.

The President’s Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration and the Migration Policy Institute found that about 75,000 students without legal status graduate annually. It is a milestone that has been encouraged by state and federal policy for decades as migrants seek citizenship in the United States, but rollbacks on tuition equity and other policies are making it harder for many of them to continue their education.

The study is based on U.S. Census Bureau and National Center for Education Statistics data from 2023, prior to President Donald Trump‘s return to the White House.

However, his more aggressive immigration enforcement tactics and pressure to end birthright citizenship and temporary protected status have made the future of these students one with even more challenges, Corinne Kentor, senior manager of research and policy with the President’s Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, told UPI.

“We’re seeing a lot of institutions who are trying very hard to retain services for students and also comply with a bunch of very confusing directives coming at the federal level,” Kentor said. “There’s a fear about keeping programs and services that are particularly geared toward the immigrant-origin students available because the institution wants to make sure that they’re in compliance with federal directives.”

Prior to 2024, 25 states and the District of Columbia had policies guaranteeing undocumented immigrant students access to in-state tuition. This granted a path for those students to receive financial aid services and made enrollment in local colleges and universities possible for many.

Kentor said these policies helped these students not just enroll in their degree programs but also finish them.

In the past year, that has begun to change.

Florida’s legislature repealed its in-state tuition policy that had been in place for 10 years. The Department of Justice followed with a lawsuit to repeal the Texas Dream Act after its state legislature shot down numerous similar attempts. A permanent injunction blocking in-state tuition access for an estimated 12,000 students each year was granted.

The Justice Department was also successful in a lawsuit against Oklahoma.

The Trump administration has filed similar lawsuits against California, Virginia, Illinois and Minnesota. Kentucky officials settled such a lawsuit by agreeing to end their tuition policy in September.

Texas, Florida, California and New York account for nearly half of all undocumented immigrants graduating each year. California has about 11,000 who graduate annually, Florida has about 8,000 and New York, about 4,000.

The lawsuits by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi claim that offering in-state tuition to non-citizen students is “illegally discriminating against American students.”

Kentor said this is a common misconception that leads people to oppose opportunities for immigrants in education as well as other places in society like the workplace.

“There’s this sense that if one person gets a spot, then another person doesn’t,” she said. “The reality is that welcoming immigrant students into higher education, into workplaces, into the communities that they’re already a part of, creates more opportunities for U.S. citizens. There’s this scarcity mindset that moves into a competition mindset when actually providing opportunities just opens up more spots.”

As legal battles and policy decisions play out in courtrooms, statehouses and government offices, the effects are being felt in classrooms, at bus stops and in homes.

The population of undocumented students reaching the end of high school has continued at similar levels each year but this year’s class is in a particularly precarious position. Immigration raids across the country have not just seniors but all immigrant students, regardless of legal status, facing fears of losing family members to detention and physical harm.

Jeanne Batalova, senior policy analyst and data manager for the Migration Policy Institute and its Data Hub, authored the organization’s report “Graduating into Uncertainty: Unauthorized Immigrant Students in U.S. High Schools.” She told UPI that current immigration crackdowns are also affecting the education students are receiving in K-12 schools.

Batalova said California reported a 22% increase in absences in January and February 2025 over 2024.

This was as Trump returned to office and issued a slate of executive orders directing ramped up immigration enforcement. Among his executive orders was a day one order to end the sensitive locations policy that barred immigration officials from doing enforcement activities at schools, hospitals, churches and community event sites.

“This fear that anyone knocking on the door could be an [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] team busting through the door, I can only imagine the impact it is having on the entire family,” Batalova said. “When immigration enforcement ramped up at work sites during the first Trump administration, the impact on mental health was very noticeable. There was difficulty focusing on studying for children whose parents or family members were affected. At that time, kids themselves were not in the line of fire, so to speak.”

Ending policies like the sensitive locations policy and reversing course on pathways to higher education mark a change in direction from more than two decades of bipartisan support for paths to citizenship.

“For this particular population, education, both secondary and post-secondary education, has always been closely tied to their opportunity to legalize their status,” Batalova said. “A status that they themselves had no control over when they were first brought here as young children, and second, by policymakers in the United States.”

Batalova said education has been a “major engine for social and economic mobility” because it opens doors to new career opportunities and self-improvement. At a time when the president is offering a “gold card” for wealthy migrants to buy their way into U.S. citizenship, closing doors to undocumented children is a stark contrast.

“At a time of anti-immigrant rhetoric and stepped-up enforcement on the part of this administration, the future for the students is uncertain,” Batalova said. “Not only in terms of if they can go on to pursue a college degree because of state tuition. It’s if they can go outside to the library, to the university, as well as the mental impact of studying.”

Feb. 11 (UPI) — Authorities in Arizona have detained a person in the investigation of missing Nancy Guthrie, mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie.

The unidentified person was detained by deputies of the Pima County Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday, the department said.

“The subject is currently being questioned in connection to the Nancy Guthrie investigation,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement.

No other information was made immediately public, and the sheriff’s department later added that “no press conference would be scheduled at this time.”

DoorDash, the on-demand delivery platform, said it was “urgently investigating” to see if the detained individual was one of its drivers.

“We have reached out to law enforcement and are ready to support their critical investigation in any way we can,” the technology company said in a social media statement early Wednesday.

“Like tens of millions around the world, our hearts are with the Guthrie family during this heart-wrenching time.”

The development comes as the search for the 84-year-old woman enters its 11th day on Wednesday.

Authorities believe she was kidnapped from her Tucson, Ariz., home on the night of Jan. 31. She was last seen at about 9:45 p.m. MST that night and was reported missing the following day after she failed to arrive at a friend’s house to watch a church livestream. It was previously reported that she was to attend church in person.

Before the unidentified individual was detained on Tuesday, the FBI released images taken from doorbell footage at Guthrie’s front door the morning she disappeared that show a person tampering with the camera.

A $50,000 reward is being offered by the FBI for information leading to Guthrie’s recovery.

The federal law enforcement agency said there has been no contact between Guthrie’s family and the suspected kidnappers, despite a 5 p.m. Monday ransom deadline for them to pay $6 million in Bitcoin having elapsed.

The ransom was reportedly demanded in messages sent to several news outlets and has yet to be authenticated by law enforcement.

Feb. 10 (UPI) — A grand jury rejected the Justice Department’s effort to indict congressional Democrats for their recent online video telling military members they don’t have to obey illegal orders.

The grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday evening declined to indict the lawmakers, all of whom either are veterans or served in the national intelligence community, The New York Times reported.

The lawmakers are Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, along with Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, and Chrissy Houlahan and Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania.

Slotkin, a former CIA analyst, organized the video, which did not cite any specific orders or provide context. The video was published online after the Trump administration began carrying out deadly aerial strikes on alleged drug-running vessels in the Caribbean Sea in September.

It’s unclear if all or only some of the lawmakers were subject to the grand jury proceedings, according to NBC News.

The news outlet said the effort by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro is an example of the Justice Department targeting the president’s political enemies.

Slotkin described the grand jury that declined to indict her and her Democratic colleagues as “anonymous American citizens who upheld the rule of law.”

“Today wasn’t just an embarrassing day for the Administration. It was another sad day for our country,” she said in a social media statement Tuesday night.

“Because whether or not Pirro succeeded is not the point. It’s that President [Donald] Trump continues to weaponize our justice system against his perceived enemies. It’s the kind of thing you see in a foreign country, not the United States we know and love.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the effort to indict them was “a despicable, vindictive abuse of power” targeting lawmakers and veterans “because the administration didn’t like the content of their speech.”

In the video published online in mid-November, the six lawmakers all said military members can refuse to carry out illegal orders, and some said that “threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but right here at home.”

Trump called the video “seditious behavior” and suggested George Washington would have had all six hanged for treason.

The six lawmakers later said the FBI had contacted the respective House and Senate sergeants-at-arms to arrange interviews as part of a criminal investigation.

The four House members issued a joint statement in which they accused Trump of using the FBI to “intimidate and harass members of Congress.”

They said that “no amount of intimidation or harassment will ever stop us from doing our jobs and honoring our Constitution.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also tried to censure Kelly and seek to demote, the senator said in a lawsuit.

Feb. 10 (UPI) — The National Park Service removed a Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument in New York City.

The monument is in Greenwich Village, and it commemorates the Stonewall Inn, a Manhattan gay bar that was the epicenter of the 1969 Stonewall riots. The Stonewall uprising kicked off a new battle for gay rights.

Former President Barack Obama made Christopher Park, across the street from the bar, a national monument in 2016. The NPS has flown Pride flags since it became a monument.

A spokesperson for the parks service cited new rules requiring that “only the U.S. flag and other congressionally or departmentally authorized flags are flown on NPS-managed flagpoles, with limited exceptions,” the spokesperson told NBC News. “Any changes to flag displays are made to ensure consistency with that guidance. Stonewall National Monument continues to preserve and interpret the site’s historic significance through exhibits and programs.”

Gay City News first reported the removal, which took place Monday.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was outraged by the removal and vowed to protect the LGBTQ+ community in the city.

“New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history,” Mamdani said in a post on X.

“Our city has a duty not just to honor this legacy, but to live up to it,” he said. “I will always fight for a New York City that invests in our LGBTQ+ community, defends their dignity, and protects every one of our neighbors — without exception.”

State Sen. Erik Bottcher emphasized the importance of the flag.

“The flag is more than just a flag, it represents the rich history of our community; it represents our struggle, it represents the rainbow of people within our community.”

In February 2025, the Trump administration removed mentions of “queer” and “transgender” from the website of the monument.

Feb. 10 (UPI) — The Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday it’s undertaking a review of the chemical preservative butylated hydroxyanisole to determine if the potentially carcinogenic substance is safe for continued use.

Health officials have aired concerns about BHA since its use was approved, and the National Institute of Health’s National Toxicology Program describes it as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen” based on studies using animals, according to the FDA.

The preservative, commonly referred to as BHA, is used to preserve food and as a food contact substance to prevent contamination for food packaging materials.

“BHA has remained in the food supply for decades despite being identified by the National Toxicology Program as ‘reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen’ based on animal studies,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday.

“This reassessment marks the end of the ‘trust us’ era in food safety,” Kennedy continued.

“If BHA cannot meet today’s gold-standard science for its current uses, we will remove it from the food supply and continue cleaning up food chemicals — starting where children face the greatest exposure,” he added.

The FDA has prioritized the study of BHA while the federal agency assesses various chemicals that are contained within the nation’s food supply.

It previously recognized BHA as safe in 1958 and approved its use as a food additive in 1961 to help preserve the oils and fats that commonly are found in many food products.

Such foods include frozen meals, breakfast cereals, meat products and many types of snacks.

The use of BHA has declined in recent years, but its use continues, including in food products that are marketed to children.

“The FDA is committed to ensuring the safety of chemicals in our food supply through rigorous, science-based evaluation,” said Kyle Diamantas, deputy commissioner for the FDA’s Human Foods Program.

“This comprehensive post-market assessment of BHA reflects our proactive approach to food safety and our dedication to protecting public health by continuously reviewing the latest scientific evidence,” he said.

The review is part of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again effort, which seeks to remove potentially harmful chemicals and other substances from the nation’s food supply.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 (UPI) — Some seven months after a Supreme Court Case gave parents sweeping rights to remove their children from lessons that violate religious beliefs, Republicans expresses concern Tuesday about school districts ignoring the ruling, while Democrats voiced fears that the ruling condoned discrimination.

​”In a world where new and controversial types of content are finding their way into classrooms, it is essential that parents maintain control over their child’s education,” Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., said in a congressional hearing of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education, which he chairs.

​In Mahmoud vs. Taylor, the high court ruled in June that Maryland parents had a First Amendment right to opt out their children from public school lessons involving LGBTQ+ themed storybooks that conflict with their religion. Tuesday’s hearing provided a venue for House members to reflect on how the ruling has changed classrooms.

Democrats, for example, voiced worries about the dangerous precedent it sets for censorship and exclusion.

​”Inclusion is not indoctrination,” said the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore. “Differences exist in the world around us. and part of a good education includes teaching students about tolerance and understanding.”

Bonamici said Republicans are using parental rights as another means to undermine public education.

One witness, Yeshiva University Assistant Professor of Law Zalman Rothschild, said he fears the decision could have broad implications and could be disruptive for education.

​”I have no idea how in any sense this can be bounded,” Rothschild said.

“For example, say a teacher tries to teach the value of nondiscrimination against religion and specifies its wrong to discriminate against Jews or against Muslims, and some parents have a problem with that because of their sincerely held religious beliefs, because Chapter 16 of Mark says that those who are not baptized are condemned,” he said.

Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., urged her Republican colleagues not take the ruling as permission to turn public schools into the “latest front in a culture war.”​

Grijalva said Republicans were hypocritical to encourage federal involvement in education when they call themselves “the party that wants things to go back to the local level.”​

“I want us to continue to support our duly locally elected school districts to make decisions about school curriculum,” Grijalva said.

Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., held up a children’s picture book from the Montgomery Area School District curriculum, “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding,” while she questioned witnesses. The story follows a young girl as she learns that her favorite uncle is getting married to his male partner, Jamie.

Lee said providing holistic education to American children became harder after the ruling.

“It’s about exploiting religious exemptions to shield children from the reality of queer people existing,” he said.

​Conservative education groups, however, applauded the power shift in schools after the ruling.

“Two of the story books, not only “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding” but “Pride Puppy!” addressed non-binary individuals, drag queens and pride parades. These are individuals who don’t have a clear sense of their identity regarding whether they want to be a firefighter or a fairy when they grow up. What we’re dealing with is a designed attempt to change minds on perspectives,” said Sarah Perry, vice president of Defending Education, a national advocacy group that supports more parental involvement in schools.

​Throughout the hearing, Bonamici tried to steer the conversation to “hearing topics that actually matter,” including ICE allegedly inflicting trauma in schools and the effects of the dismantling of the Department of Education.

She pointed out that the committee had yet to hold a hearing on gun violence in schools and that just Monday, a 16-year-old was shot at a Montgomery County Public School.

​”No one is arguing that parents should not be involved in their children’s education. We all agree on that,” Bonamici said. “Banning books or preventing students from learning about differences only serves to perpetuate a culture of hatred and fear.”

Feb. 10 (UPI) — FBI Director Kash Patel posted doorbell camera photos of a suspect in the Arizona search for Nancy Guthrie, mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie.

The post said the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department have been working to recover images from a disabled security camera at Nancy Guthrie’s home. It said that a video was recovered from residual data in backend systems.

“Working with our partners — as of this morning, law enforcement has uncovered these previously inaccessible new images showing an armed individual appearing to have tampered with the camera at Nancy Guthrie’s front door the morning of her disappearance,” the post said.

The post asks anyone with information to contact 1-800-CALL-FBI or visit tips.fbi.gov.

Savannah Guthrie released a new video late Monday pleading for the public’s help in finding her kidnapped mother.

“I’m coming on just to ask you, not just for your prayers, but no matter where you are, even if you’re far from Tucson, if you see anything, you hear anything, if there’s anything at all that seems strange to you, that you report to law enforcement,” Savannah Guthrie said in a post on Instagram. “We are at an hour of desperation, and we need your help.”

Nancy Guthrie, 84, has been missing since Jan. 31, and police believe she was taken from her Tucson, Ariz., home. The Guthrie family, including Savannah Guthrie and her brother, Camron Guthrie, and sister, Annie Guthrie, have made three other videos pleading for their mother’s safe return.

Monday at 5 p.m. MST was a ransom deadline that was given in a note, but the time passed with no contact from the kidnappers. Police haven’t verified that the ransom note is authentic. It was sent to several news outlets and demanded $6 million in Bitcoin.

The FBI said there is no ongoing contact between the family and the believed kidnappers. It said in a statement that the FBI is “not aware of any continued communication between the Guthrie family and suspected kidnappers, nor have we identified a suspect or person of interest in this case at this time.”

The agency is sending staff to Tucson from other field offices.

“We are currently operating a 24-hour command post that includes crisis management experts, analytic support, and investigative teams. But we still need the public’s help.

“Someone has that one piece of information that can help us bring Nancy home. We need that person to share what they know. Please call us at 1-800-CALL-FBI.”

A source close to the family told NBC News that Nancy Guthrie had planned to go to a friend’s house the morning she went missing to watch a church service online. When she didn’t arrive on Feb. 1, friends called Annie Guthrie.

Michael Rudzena, pastor of Good Shepherd New York, told NBC’s Today show that Nancy Guthrie would visit the church before the pandemic. But during the lockdown, the church started streaming online services.

Nancy Guthrie is a “strong woman, and she is fiercely loving,” Rudzena said. “Over the years, we’ve gotten to know what makes her tick.”

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has said Nancy Guthrie does not have cognitive issues, calling her “sharp as a tack.” But she has limited mobility and needs to take medication daily, or “it could be fatal,” NBC News reported.

She has a pacemaker, but it disconnected from its monitoring app on her phone early Feb. 1.

Lance Leising, former FBI agent, told USA Today he noticed that in the video Savannah Guthrie shared on Monday that it focused on the plea for public help.

“That could indicate a transition away from the ransom note lead and back to traditional-lead investigation. I get a sense that investigators worry that the public is too focused on the ransom lead and if that is fraudulent, then the public is not providing tips,” he said.

Feb. 10 (UPI) — Officials for the Environmental Protection Agency said they are working to end a 2009 declaration that says climate change is a danger to public health.

During the weekend, EPA officials submitted to the Office of Management and Budget a proposed rule revoking the 2009 endangerment finding that guided U.S. climate and greenhouse gas regulations.

The EPA did not say when the endangerment finding officially would be revoked, but White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested it would happen this week.

“This week at the White House, President [Donald] Trump will be taking the most significant deregulatory actions in history to further unleash American energy dominance and drive down costs,” Leavitt said in a prepared statement.

Revoking the endangerment finding removes the EPA’s statutory authority to regulate motor vehicle emissions that was provided via Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act of 1970, an EPA spokesperson told The Hill.

The endangerment finding is “one of the most damaging decisions in modern history,” the Leavitt said.

The Clean Air Act forces the EPA to regulate vehicle emissions that produce any pollutant that are reasonably thought to pose a danger to public health or welfare.

A 2007 Supreme Court ruling determined that greenhouse gas emissions that are thought to contribute to global warming meet the standard for air pollutants that require regulation due to their potential for harming public health.

The Obama administration in 2009 issued the endangerment finding for greenhouse gas emissions, which the prior Supreme Court ruling said requires the EPA to regulate them.

The EPA that year decided that greenhouse gas emissions likely would cause widespread “serious adverse health effects in large-population areas” due to increased ambient ozone over many areas of the United States.

“The impact on mortality and morbidity associated with increases in average temperatures, which increase the likelihood of heat waves, also provides support for a public health endangerment finding,” the EPA said in its endangerment finding.

“The evidence concerning how human-induced climate change may alter extreme weather events also clearly supports a finding of endangerment,” the EPA said, while acknowledging that the conclusion was based on “consensus.”

The finding said carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases are fueling storms, drought, heat waves, wildfires and rising seas, which pose a threat to public health.

Because the finding determined emissions from the burning of coal, gas and oil were said to contribute to climate change, the EPA undertook regulations of power plants, vehicles and other sources of greenhouse gas emissions, including gas stoves, ovens, water heaters and heating systems.

Revoking the endangerment finding ends those regulations, which could be reversed if a future administration reinstates the finding.

Feb. 10 (UPI) — Paramount Skydance announced enhancements to its offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery as it tries to woo shareholders away from Netflix.

Paramount added a 25-cent-per-share ticking fee, adding up to $650 million cash value per quarter that the transaction doesn’t close beginning in January 2027. It also said it would pay the $2.8 billion termination fee that would be due to Netflix.

The sweetening of the Paramount deal is the latest in the ongoing battle against Netflix to buy the company, which includes Warner Bros. Studios, HBO and HBO Max, among other titles. WBD shareholders must vote to choose between Netflix and Paramount, and the merger must pass federal scrutiny.

In October, Warner Bros. said it was open to offers after getting unsolicited ones. On Dec. 5, after a bidding war between Netflix and Paramount Skydance, Warner Bros. said it would accept Netflix’s offer.

Then Paramount launched a hostile bid to buy WBD. The Warner Bros. board told shareholders not to accept the Paramount bid because Oracle creator Larry Ellison, father of Paramount CEO David Ellison, wasn’t backing the deal. On Dec. 22, Paramount said that it has Larry Ellison’s backing of $40 billion in equity. On Jan. 20, Netflix changed its offer to all cash to make it more attractive to shareholders.

In the new deal, Paramount would eliminate the potential $1.5 billion financing costs that would come with the debt exchange offer. Paramount would fully reimburse WBD shareholders for the $1.5 billion fee without reducing the $5.8 billion reverse termination fee if the deal doesn’t close.

Paramount said it will also cover WBD’s bridge loan if its financing sources won’t extend theirs, including covering the costs.

Paramount’s financing again includes an irrevocable personal guarantee from Larry Ellison of $43.3 billion, covering the equity financing for Paramount’s amended offer as well any damages claims against Paramount.

“The additional benefits of our superior $30 per share, all-cash offer clearly underscore our strong and unwavering commitment to delivering the full value WBD shareholders deserve for their investment,” said David Ellison, Paramount chair and CEO, in a statement. “We are making meaningful enhancements — backing this offer with billions of dollars, providing shareholders with certainty in value, a clear regulatory path, and protection against market volatility.”

On Feb. 4, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee on the merger. Paramount declined to participate.

Feb. 10 (UPI) — A federal appeals court has sided with the Trump administration’s effort to end deportation protections for Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal, a decision that could lead to the removal of tens of thousands of people living in the United States, some of whom have called the country home for up to two decades.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a stay pending appeal on Monday, granting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s emergency request to lift a lower court’s order blocking the Trump administration from ending Temporary Protected Status for nationals of those three countries.

“A win for the rule of law and vindication for the U.S. Constitution,” Noem said in a social media statement following the ruling on Monday. “TPS was never designed to be permanent, yet previous administrations have used it as a de facto amnesty program for decades.

“Given the improved situation in each of these countries, we are wisely concluding what was intended to be a temporary designation.”

The ruling comes in a protracted case pitting the Trump administration against immigration advocates, who filed the class action lawsuit in July against the federal government’s effort to end TPS for the three countries.

Jhony Silva, a Honduran TPS holder, nursing assistant, father and a plaintiff in the case, said in a statement that he is upset with the ruling but will not stop “fighting for justice.”

“I cannot bear the thought of being separated from my family. I have lived in this country since I was a toddler and I belong here,” he said. “My child does, too.”

Established by Congress in 1990, TPS is a mechanism to shield migrants in the United States from being deported to countries experiencing war, conflict or famine, ultimately preventing Washington from deporting people into a harmful environment.

Honduras and Nicaragua were granted TPS designations in January 1999, a year after the countries were devastated by Hurricane Mitch. Nepal was granted TPS in 2015, after it was hit by a destructive earthquake.

An estimated 60,000 people from the three countries currently in the United States are protected from being deported to those three countries.

Ending TPS designations has been a prong of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration and effort to deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants.

In canceling TPS protections for Nepal in June and Honduras and Nicaragua in July, Trump administration officials argued that the designation was only meant to be temporary and that conditions in the three nations have improved significantly enough that they are no longer warranted.

On July 7, the National TPS Alliance filed a class action lawsuit against the federal government, arguing the terminations were unconstitutional, arbitrary and capricious and conducted without following the necessary review process.

The National TPS Alliance argued the Trump administration’s decision to rescind TPS for the three countries was not based on a review of the conditions on the ground but on a predetermined political decision to dismantle the program, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.

Within that month, a district judge granted the immigration advocates a postponement of the termination, followed by the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals approving the Trump administration’s request for a stay pending appeal in mid-August.

In October, the plaintiffs filed a motion for summary judgment. On Dec. 31, a district judge granted the immigration advocates partial summary judgment on two of their three claims, staying the termination of the TPS designations — prompting the Trump administration to file for another emergency request with the appeals court.

In its six-page ruling, the appeals court said Monday that the federal government was likely to succeed on the merits of its appeal by either showing that the district court lacked jurisdiction to impose the stay or by prevailing on the argument that the federal government was not in violation of the APA.

“TPS holders deserve better than this,” Jessica Bansal, an attorney with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said in a statement.

“Today’s decision allows mothers, fathers, students and workers who have lived lawfully in this country for decades to be stripped of status without even acknowledging the devastation caused to them and their families or the contributions they have made to their communities.”

Feb. 9 (UPI) — The unions that represent flight attendants and pilots who work for American Airlines on Monday expressed frustration with the company’s CEO, and in one case issued a unanimous vote of non-confidence in him.

The unions, which represent 28,000 flight attendants and 16,000 pilots that work for the airline, said that the company’s leadership has set it on “an underperforming path” amid aviation experts noting that Delta and United, American’s primary competitors, have made better decisions in recent years, CBS News and The New York Times reported.

“From abysmal profits earned to operational failures that have front-line workers sleeping on floors, this airline must course-correct before it falls even further behind,” Julie Hedrick, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, said in a press release.

“This level of failure begins at the very top, with CEO Robert Isom,” she added.

The vote of no confidence from the AFPA comes as the airline has been pilloried by analysts and employees for its failure to increase reliability and its treatment of employees.

WFAA-TV reported that American Airlines directed reporters to a statement from Isom on an investor call last month, wherein he said that multi-year efforts are poised to deliver an improved, consistent customer experience and to maximize its network and fleet, with expectations that recent changes will “bear fruit” in 2026.

For its part, the Allied Pilots Association on Friday sent a letter to American’s board of directors calling for the company to reform its practices and better plan for the future.

“Our airline is on an underperforming path and has failed to define an identity or a strategy to correct course,” the union said in the letter. “Copying competitors’ initiatives and reactive repairs to the mistakes of the past is not a strategy that closes the gap between American and our premium competitors, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.”