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Thursday, February 19, 2026

Top 5 Center prospects in 2026 NFL Draft

February 19, 2026
Top 5 Center prospects in 2026 NFL Draft

Ahead of the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine, Field Level Media draft analysts ranked the top prospects at every position.

Field Level Media

Offensive linemen arrive in Indianapolis on Thursday to conduct interviews by request with teams and participate in medical exams.

Workouts begin Sunday, March 1, following media availability on Saturday, Feb. 28.

The top center prospects entering the combine are outlined below.

1. Connor Lew, Auburn

Lew is a technician, natural leader and has pro-level awareness. He started 25 consecutive games before an ACL injury in October 2025.

2. Brian Parker II, Duke

Transitioned from tackle to center. Polished blocker with easy movement in all directions. Has mental acuity and technical precision to become a great pro.

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3. Jake Slaughter, Florida

A multi-year starter and team captain with elite football IQ, refined technique and natural pass protection skills.

4. Logan Jones, Iowa

Very good athlete with movement skills to thrive in a zone-blocking scheme.

5. Matt Gulbin, Michigan State

Already 25 years old and average athletically, Gulbin is versatile with starts at guard and center.

--Field Level Media

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Everything to know about the first NCAA Women’s Wrestling Tournament

February 19, 2026
Everything to know about the first NCAA Women's Wrestling Tournament

For the first time ever this year, the NCAA will host a national championship for women's wrestling. For hundreds of women across the country, the road to securing a national title begins this weekend.

USA TODAY Sports

Before the national championship gets underway at Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa, next month, wrestlers will be sent to six regionals this weekend. Regional tournaments will be held Friday through Sunday in Elmira, New York; West Liberty, West Virginia; Franklin Springs, Georgia; Tiffin, Ohio; Indianola, Iowa; and Saint Charles, Missouri.

From each regional, 30 wrestlers — the top three in each of the 10 weight classes — will move on to Coralville to wrestle for a national title. There, each division will have an 18-woman bracket to determine its champion. The NCAA championship will be streamed live on ESPN+ March 6 and 7, and the finals will be reaired on ESPNU on March 8.

Ryan Tressel is the director of championships for the NCAA and he said designing the first women's wrestling tournament began about a year ago. After it graduated from the NCAA's Emerging Sports for Women program last January and became the 91st championship sport, women's wrestling formed a committee made up of six people from Division I, II and III to help shape the inaugural tournament.

Before women's wrestling was granted NCAA championship status, Xtream Arena had hosted the National Collegiate Women's Wrestling Championships — a non-NCAA-affiliated tournament. In preparation for this competition, Tressel and others from the NCAA went to last year's NCWWC and were impressed.

"Xtream did a tremendous job last year and it was like, let's build on that," Tressel told USA Today Sports. "It was a place where we could be confident they're going to do some great work and a great job there.

"It's just the right size for what we're going to be doing."

Combined divisions, for now

Iowa is one of six Division I teams that competes in women's wrestling at the varsity level, the only program in the Power 4. The Hawkeyes enter regionals as the No. 1 ranked team in the country. In the 145 weight class, Iowa's Reese Larramendy leads the nation in technical falls with 145. The Hawkeyes also feature Olympic silver medalist Kennedy Blades in the 160 weight class.

This season, more than 112 programs across all NCAA divisions compete in women's wrestling at the varsity level. For this year and next, the national tournament will be a combined one, featuring wrestlers from across all divisions.

In 2028, that will change. A good chunk of the NCAA programs that sponsor women's wrestling come from Division III — 55 of them this season — and they will have their own tournament. The change was approved at the NCAA convention in January, but organizers still have time to figure it out.

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"How that looks, that's what we're talking about now. Is there a way we can adjust, figure out the schedules where they're all in one spot still and they're handing out multiple trophies? We do that with rowing, for instance. Those are some of the questions that will come up," Tressel said. "For this year and for next year, we'll be all together, one big happy family."

What to watch

In addition to powerhouse Iowa, the other Division I schools competing in women's wrestling this year are Lehigh, Presbyterian, Delaware State, Lindenwood and Sacred Heart. Kent State and Mercyhurst will add teams in the coming seasons, and Oklahoma State is among those with a club team.

Lehigh has the top-ranked wrestler in the 110 weight class in Audrey Jimenez, who is 13-0 this season and won a gold medal at the 2025 Pan American Championships.

There are stars in other divisions too, like Division III North Central's Bella Mir. The daughter of former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir, she was named USA Wrestling Athlete of the Week earlier this month after posting a 10-0 tech fall 43 seconds into her match in a dual against Wartburg.

One difference between men's and women's wrestling at the NCAA level is that the women compete in freestyle wrestling, which matches the Olympics. The men compete in folkstyle. In women's freestyle, points are not awarded for escapes. They can earn a point for a step-out, when one wrestler pushes another out of the competition circle.

A path for other women's sports

With this being the first NCAA Tournament for women's wrestling, Tressel and his team will be watching the competition closely to find ways to improve.

"The student-athlete experience is our biggest thing," Tressel said. "How can we make that better? That's No. 1. And then there's other things operationally — how we're managing the mats and floor control and access and things like that."

Women's wrestling was added to the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program in 2020. By 2023, more than 40 schools sponsored the sport and it was awarded championship status in 2025.

That timeline could be similar for flag football,which was added to the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women programthis year.

"(NCAA President Charlie Baker) is really excited about this. It's starting this excitement, which is what I've felt," Tressel said. "You know, what's the future hold for other emerging sports out there too, with women's flag football coming on? There's a lot of great opportunities coming up for women's sports in the next number of years."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:2026 NCAA Women's Wrestling Tournament: Everything to know

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Longtime Eagles RT Lane Johnson reportedly returning for next season after injury-riddled 2025 campaign

February 19, 2026
Longtime Eagles RT Lane Johnson reportedly returning for next season after injury-riddled 2025 campaign

Philadelphia Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson is returning for the 2026 season, his 14th in the NFL,The Philadelphia Inquirer's Jeff McLanereported Thursday.

Yahoo Sports

Johnson, 35, missed the final eight games of his injury-riddled 2025 campaign, including the Eagles' wild-card playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers,because of a Lisfranc foot injury.

The 2013 No. 4 overall pick is a six-time Pro Bowler and five-time All-Pro who has helped Philly reach three Super Bowls and win its first two rings in franchise history.

Johnson is a cornerstone of the Eagles' offensive line and will offer valuable continuity up front as the team transitions to a new offenseunder 33-year-old coordinator Sean Mannion.

Longtime O-Line coachJeff Stoutland resigned earlier this month, and Chris Kuper — a former Denver Broncos guard who most recently coached with the Minnesota Vikings — will serve as his replacement.

With the scheme expected to change, and a new voice in the O-Line room, Johnson coming back is significant, particularly during an offseasonthat's also reportedly included 27-year-old left guard Landon Dickerson mulling retirementafter weathering a slew of injuries in his young career.

Johnson isn't just a locker room pillar, but he's likely a future Pro Football Hall of Famer as well.

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Consistently one of the NFL's best right tackles, Johnson has allowed just six total sacks since the start of the 2019 season, playoffs included, according to Pro Football Focus. He's a force in the run-blocking department, too, and played a role in Eagles running backs LeSean McCoy (1,607 rushing yards) and Saquon Barkley (2,005 rushing yards) leading the league on the ground in 2013 and 2024, respectively.

Barkley, of course, became the ninth back in NFL history to pile up more than 2,000 rushing yards in a single season.

This past season, though, Philadelphia's vaunted offensive line wasn't as dominant as usual. Injuries were certainly a factor, and so was a predictable offensethat then-OC Kevin Patullo called.

Barkley averaged just 4.1 yards per carry — 1.7 fewer than the previous season — and the Eagles plummeted from second in the NFL in rushing yards per game (179.3) in 2024 to 18th (116.9 per game) in 2025.

Johnson sustained his Lisfranc injury during a Week 11 "Sunday Night Football" win over the Detroit Lions. In Week 10, he injured his ankleamid the Eagles' "Monday Night Football"victory over the Green Bay Packers. All the way back in Week 3 against the Los Angeles Rams, he left the game with a stinger.

Johnson's presence makes a difference.

The Eagles were 8-2 in games he played in last season and just 3-5 in his absence,according to The Athletic, which reported that, since 2016, Philadelphia is 96-41-1 with Johnson on the field and a mere 15-28 when he doesn't play.

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Time to get control of court storming before something ugly happens

February 19, 2026
Time to get control of court storming before something ugly happens

Hey look, everyone. We're hand-wringing again!

USA TODAY Sports

Those mean coaches and players, fresh offa high-intensity gamewhere their very financial livelihood is dependent, are bullying the poor, misunderstoodclowns from the standsjust trying to post their latest TikTok and chase social cred, that's all.

Or as we like to say in these most wonderful United States, storming the (insert your playing surface).

Here's what I call it: a world of no rules.

Not to mention reckless, dangerous and a false sense of security.

Yet with all of that, and even afteranother dolt from the standsshoved a phone in the face of Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg seconds after a loss to rival Iowa, and screamed at him; even after Hoiberg tried to knock the phone from said dolt, missed and his swing connected with an Iowa staffer in the handshake line, we refuse to end this nonsense with clear and unambiguous rules.

Save the cash:Kansas State is embarrassing itself not to protect basketball, but help football

Bracketology:Who is rising in latest March Madness predictions

If you storm the court (or field) before players and officials have exited, you'll be arrested and lose ticket privileges forever. Period.

Instead, university presidents have decided to fine each other. The ACC fined North Carolina $50,000 earlier this month when its fansstormed the courtafter beating rival Duke, and the Big Ten will no doubt fine Iowa for its latest breach of rules.

The same North Carolina that is currently fueling its football NIL to the tune of $20 million. That 50K might be a bridge too far, baby.

But as the NCAA (also, collection of university presidents) has shown decade after decade, having rules and enforcing them are two distinctly different things.

This isn't a matter of want, it's a mater of will.

Know why the NFL doesn't have problems with field storming? Because the most successful sport in the history of the planet doesn't put up with it.

There's a police presence, and there are rules. There's no gray area about what happens when you enter the field of play at an NFL stadium.

You'll spend the next few hours in the local lockup, for starters. And just might get a shoulder pad to the solar plexus by one of 100-plus players on the field before the cops toss you in the back of a wagon.

College sports has decided to fine the universities, not the actual perpetrators. College sports has decided to fine each other, and move more fungible money between schools within the conference, instead of targeting the offenders.

I'm shocked, absolutely shocked, something much worse hasn't happened on one of the many court and field stormings. Because the law of averages says it will, and when it does, college sports will do what it does best.

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Feign disbelief, and reactively make sweeping changes at the horror of it all.

Here's a novel idea: Try proactive steps to eliminate the problem. Not a dopey fine, or an announcement over the PA system.

This isn't about the "tradition" of storming the field, or running on the court at a buzzer-beater. This is a few hundred students on the field with phones lifted high, recording for prosperity.

Or Instagram. Whichever comes first.

This isn't about eliminating what makes college sports special, or the purity of college sports over homogenized professional sports. No one is taking away your precious look-at-me moment.

Just making you wait three minutes so players and officials can exit the joint. Hell, we'll throw a countdown clock with a horn into the equation, so everyone can run on the field or floor and get stupid at the same time.

TikTok to your heart's content, everybody.

Or we can keep doing dumb, and the next incident won't be so simple and eventually forgettable.

The next incident might be much closer to what happened three years ago, when Alabama wideout Jermaine Burton took a swing at a coed who ran by and yelled something at him after Tennessee beat the Tide in overtime.

Some player or coach somewhere will directly connect at some point, and when the clown holding the phone hits the deck and is seriously injured, we'll scream and yell about it for weeks, post about it on social media and demand change.

When we knew the answer all along.

There are rules, and there are consequences for those who don't follow rules. Despite what you may have heard, that's not a foreign concept.

Coaches ask players to compete like a pack of wild dogs on the court and field, expending every ounce of energy like you're livelihood depended on it. Because now, in the new era of NIL, it does.

But don't mind clowns with their phones, picking at the fresh wound during your lowest moment of the week or year.

They're just kids, and it's tradition.

There are no rules.

Matt Hayesis the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Network. Follow him on X at@MattHayesCFB.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:College basketball court stormings don't need to stop, just wait a minute

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Trump’s rationale is still opaque as he slides closer to war with Iran

February 19, 2026
Trump's rationale is still opaque as he slides closer to war with Iran

The United States may be on the cusp of launching military action that would mark the most decisive moment in its near half-century showdown with Iran.

CNN A billboard with a picture of Iran's flag on a building in Tehran, Iran, on January 24, 2026. - Majid Asgaripour/Wana News AgencyReuters

Yet there's little public debate about what could be a weekslong assault with consequences that are impossible to predict.

There's no full-court press from top national security officials. President Donald Trump is making hardly any effort to share the rationale for the potential or why military personnel might be asked to risk their lives. And the White House is giving no public sign that it knows what may unfold in Iran if its clerical regime is toppled, an eventuality that could cause enormous reverberations in the Middle East.

The president has made no final decisioneither way, sources told CNN.

But every day, and following the failure of histepid diplomacyto make breakthroughs so far, Trump is being dragged inexorably closer to a fateful decision point. The military has told the White House that it could be ready to launch an attack by the weekend, following a buildup of aerial and naval assets, CNN reported. But one source said that the president has privately argued for and against action and has polled advisers and allies on what he should do.

Given the stakes, and the potential risk to American personnel, the lack of a specific public rationale for any war with Iran seems surprising.

This narrative deficit was reflected in the White House briefing Wednesday, ironically on the eve of the first meeting ofthe president's Board of Peace. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked the pertinent question of why Trump might need to launch a strike on Iran's nuclear program, which he has insisted he alreadytotally obliteratedin a round-the-world bombing raid last year.

"Well, there's many reasons and arguments that one could make for a strike against Iran," Leavitt said, offering no specifics.

Trump's explanations extend only to repeated warnings that Iran will face the consequences if it doesn't make a "deal" with the United States. Last week, he saidregime change in Tehranmight be the "best thing" that could happen.

Ordering the military into battle is the most somber duty of presidents. Their assumption of the highest office comes with an obligation to explain why force might be necessary. And fuzzy thinking could imperil the mission.

Leavitt implied that Americans should just trust the president. "He's always thinking about what's in the best interests of the United States of America, of our military, of the American people," she said.

This would be a thin foundation on which to launch a major war that might end up costing billions of dollars and unknown numbers of American and Iranian lives, and that could trigger huge military and economic repercussions in the Middle East.

It could also worsen Trump's already stark domestic unpopularity in a midterm election year.

An emboldened Trump sizes up his tolerance for risk

US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio  sit in the Situation Room as they monitor the mission that took out three Iranian nuclear enrichment sites, at the White House in Washington DC, on June 21, 2025. - Daniel Torok/The White House/Getty Images

Trump wouldn't like any comparison with the Iraq war that began in 2003, given its disastrous aftermath. But before that conflict, the Bush administration spent months in a PR offensive designed to convince the country of its later-debunked rationale for the war. It also managed to win congressional authorization for the invasion — at least securing a domestic legal basis for its actions.

If Trump persists in failing to level with citizens and Congress and then takes military action, he will be prolonging a trend of his second term. And he will be leaving himself politically exposed in the event that strikes go wrong.

But it also appears that Trump is emboldened by his successful ouster of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in a spectacular operation last month that killed no US troops. His tolerance for risk may also be heightened because the US assassination of Iranian military and intelligence chief Qasem Soleimani in his first term failed to trigger the kind of regional conflagration and Iranian attacks on US allies that some experts predicted.

In recent weeks, Trump's strategy on Iran has seemed to mirror his playbook in Venezuela, where he amassed a huge naval armada and demanded concessions. This is 21st-century diplomacy backed by aircraft carrier groups and cruise missiles.

But he risks creating a box for himself that it will be difficult to exit with credibility intact if it turns out that his repeated claims that Iran wants a "deal" are wrong.

The kind of deal that Trump can offer Iran may be unacceptable to its clerical regime, whose top priority is perpetuating itself. And a deal Tehran could offer Trump may be one he'd never accept, since it doesn't want to talk about its ballistic missiles or regional proxy network, which he sees as red lines.

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Iranian concessions on a nuclear program that is already severely disrupted in return for sanctions relief would be unacceptable to Trump. He can't afford politically to emulate the nuclear deal agreed by the Obama administration that he trashed. And lifting sanctions could help the regime survive.

The New York Times quoted Iranian sources as saying that Iran has indicated willingness to suspend enrichment for three to five years in return for sanctions relief. But Dennis Ross, a former US Middle East peace envoy, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday that this was a symbolic concession. "It's pretty hard to see them enriching while Trump is still in office. And what they're seeking is the lifting of economic sanctions, which is a way of … giving them a kind of lease on life."

Why now might be the moment to strike Iran

People are seen standing in front of a currency exchange office as Iranâs national currency continues to lose value in Tehran, Iran, on January 28, 2026. - Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu/Getty Images

The White House may not be telling Americans why it might be time to go to war with Iran. But that doesn't mean there are not strategic rationales for doing so. In that sense, Leavitt is right.

Trump's obsession with naming buildings after himself and erecting new ones — such as the planned White House ballroom — suggest he's increasingly preoccupied with his legacy.

Ending the often-hot cold war with Iran that has bedeviled every American president since Jimmy Carter would secure him a true place in history. And it could put a historic capstone on an estrangement with revolutionary Iran that began with the humiliation of Americans held hostage in 1979-81, which scarred US global confidence and prestige.

Trump might never get a better opening. The regime has arguably never been weaker. Its regional proxies, like Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon — which were once an insurance policy against an outside attack — have been shredded by Israel.

Iran's government is facing its worst-ever domestic crisis. It's clouded by doubt over the revolutionary succession after 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dies. The economy is wrecked. Desperation recently drove protesters onto the streets amid food and water shortages and grinding economic conditions. The resulting crackdown may have killed thousands. Trump could make good on his pledge to protesters that the US was "locked and loaded" to defend them by toppling the clerical regime.

While Iran may not pose an immediate deadly threat to the US, it has killed scores of Americans in terror attacks and through militias during the Iraq war. Its leaders have long threatened to wipe Israel off the map — a threat that would become even more grave with nuclear weapons. And a stable, democratic and unthreatening Iran would boost the emergence of a new Middle East, powered by the growing global influence of US allies in the Gulf.

Trump would, of course, be a hero of Iranians if he delivered them from repression.

Why a strike against Iran would be such a risk

Members of Iranian militia forces (Basij) attend an anti-Israeli march in Tehran, Iran, on January 10, 2025. - Majid Asgaripour/Wana News Agency/Reuters

But there are many reasons why he might be smart to blink.

A serious attempt either to decapitate the Iranian regime or to devastate the military capacity of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij paramilitary militia would likely require a multi-day air campaign. This could lead to significant civilian casualties. It would raise the possibility of US combat deaths or the capture of US pilots, which could turn into a propaganda disaster.

While some critics have pointed to Trump's vows to wage no new wars in the Middle East, an Iran conflict would likely not lead to the kind of massive land invasion that turned Iraq into a morass. But as in that war, the best day for the US might be the one when it fires its first shock-and-awe volleys.

It's also unlikely that any strike against Iran's clerical leaders would be as clean as the special forces mission that spirited Maduro out of Venezuela.

There is also the problem of what might come next if the revolutionary government were to fall. Failing to anticipate the day after haunted US regime change efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya this century.

"My question is, after all is said and done, if this lasts for weeks, what happens next?" Colin Clarke, executive director of the Soufan Center told Isa Soares on CNN International. "Then you're dealing with a power vacuum, then you're dealing with the potential for insurgency. And, you know there's a range of states and non-state actors that would look to exploit that."

Iran, the seat of the ancient Persian civilization, is less plagued by sectarian divides than Iraq, which splintered after the US invasion. But the loss of central authority might be devastating. And the lack of a coherent umbrella leadership for protesters or organized internal opposition raises further questions about a smooth transition. Any US and Israeli joint military action would be certain to include wide-ranging attacks on IRGC facilities and forces. But sources told CNN this week that US intelligence community still believes that the most likely candidate to fill a leadership void would be the hardline guard corps. So ousting theocrats in Tehran might just lead to an equally radical anti-US replacement.

And longer and more complex military action in Iran than in Venezuela with uncertain consequences would increase political pressure on Trump at home amid multiple polls showing majorities of Americans oppose a new Middle East war. It could also test Trump's bond with the MAGA movement, since he's spent the last 10 years telling his base there will be no more foreign quagmires.

While officials said that forces would be positioned to strike Iran at the weekend, US action is not guaranteed. The start of the Muslim holy month Ramadan could augur a delay. So could Trump's annual State of the Union address Tuesday. Trump prizes the unpredictable, so Iran will be on full alert.

But unless Iran capitulates to terms that Trump is still yet to fully explain to the public, more time will not ease the most fateful dilemma yet of his second term.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account atCNN.com

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New Mexico probes allegation of bodies buried near Epstein ranch

February 19, 2026
New Mexico probes allegation of bodies buried near Epstein ranch

By Andrew Hay

Reuters

Feb 18 (Reuters) - New Mexico's Department of Justice said on Wednesday the state was investigating an allegation, which emerged from documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice, that the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein ordered the bodies of two foreign ‌girls buried outside his remote New Mexico ranch.

New Mexico Department of Justice spokesperson Lauren Rodriguez said it had requested from the U.S. ‌Justice Department an unredacted copy of an email in 2019 containing the allegation.

The U.S. Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The FBI declined comment.

"We are actively investigating ​this allegation and are conducting a broader review in light of the latest release from the U.S. Department of Justice," Rodriguez said in an emailed response to queries about the case.

A day earlier, New Mexico's legislature launched the first comprehensive investigation into accusations that Epstein sexually abused girls and women at the Zorro Ranch 30 miles (48 km) south of Santa Fe for more than two decades. Pressure from Democratic lawmakers to uncover Epstein's crimes has become a major political challenge for President ‌Donald Trump.

The redacted 2019 email, contained in the latest ⁠release of Epstein-related documents by the U.S. Justice Department, had been sent a few months after Epstein's death to Eddy Aragon, a New Mexico radio show host who had discussed the Zorro Ranch on his program.

The sender, claiming to be ⁠a former Zorro Ranch employee, requested payment of onebitcoinin return for videos that the email said had been taken from Epstein's house and showed the financier having sex with minors.

Aragon said in a phone interview that he believed the email to be legitimate and immediately forwarded it to the FBI. He said he did ​not ​receive any payment from or have any further contact with the sender, although he recently ​tried to respond to it for the first time but ‌the address was no longer functioning.

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The redacted email to Aragon said two foreign girls had been buried on Epstein's orders "somewhere in the hills outside the Zorro" and that the two had died "by strangulation during rough, fetish sex."

A 2021 FBI report, also contained in the latest Epstein file release, said Aragon visited an FBI office to report the email, which offered seven videos of sexual abuse and the location of two foreign girls buried on Zorro Ranch in return for one bitcoin.

A Reuters search of other documents among the Department of Justice's disclosures did not find any other references to the allegations in the redacted ‌email or what investigators made of its claims.

The Justice Department warned last year that some ​of the files it disclosed from its investigation of Epstein "contain untrue and sensationalist claims," and ​that they include anonymous accusations that investigators did not corroborate, or in ​some cases determined to be false.

In an interview on Wednesday, New Mexico State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard said her ‌office had found the redacted email during a recent search ​of the latest Epstein file release.

Garcia Richard, ​in a February 10 letter to the U.S. Justice Department and a statement, called on federal and state justice officials to fully investigate allegations of criminality on Epstein's ranch and state lands adjacent to it.

Epstein leased around 1,243 acres (503 hectares) of state lands around the ranch in ​1993. Garcia canceled the leases in September 2019 after ‌her office determined Epstein did not use the land for ranching or agriculture but as a privacy buffer around his ranch.

Epstein died ​in a New York jail in August 2019. His death was ruled a suicide.

(Reporting by Andrew Hay in New Mexico; Additional ​reporting by Brad Heath in Washington; Editing by Donna Bryson and Edmund Klamann)

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US orders restrictions on new FEMA disaster deployments during DHS shutdown

February 19, 2026
US orders restrictions on new FEMA disaster deployments during DHS shutdown

By Ted Hesson and Kanishka Singh

Reuters

WASHINGTON, Feb 18 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to suspend the ‌deployment of hundreds of aid workers to disaster-affected areas around the country while ‌the Department of Homeland Security is shut down, internal messages reviewed by Reuters showed.

DHS, which FEMA is ​part of, entered a partial shutdown on Saturday, but has largely continued to operate since most of its functions are deemed essential. The shutdown happened after Republicans and Democrats failed to reach a deal on immigration enforcement reforms.

"DHS has issued a stop-travel order for all ‌DHS funded travel, effecting 2/18/26, ⁠for the duration of the lapse in appropriation. Currently this DOES include disaster travel," according to an internal email sent by Kurt ⁠Weirich, a chief of staff at FEMA.

More than 300 FEMA disaster responders were preparing for upcoming assignments but were told to stand down, including some who are currently at a training ​facility, ​CNN reported earlier.

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The freeze comes after Trump said ​on Monday the federal government will ‌step in to protect the Potomac River following the collapse of a major sewer pipe in the Washington, D.C., region last month. A sewer line in Montgomery County, Maryland, collapsed on January 19, causing an overflow of more than 240 million gallons (909 million liters) of wastewater into the Potomac River.

Trump said FEMA, which has seen significant staff ‌cuts since he took office in January 2025, ​will coordinate the response. So far, however, FEMA ​has deployed few, if any, resources ​to assist with the sewage spill, CNN reported, citing three agency ‌officials.

A FEMA spokesperson told CNN restrictions on ​travel were "not a choice ​but are necessary to comply with federal law." The statement cited by CNN added that "FEMA travel related to active disasters is not cancelled."

FEMA's mission is to ​help people before, during ‌and after disasters, including hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and floods. It brings in emergency ​personnel, supplies and equipment to stricken areas.

(Reporting by Ted Hesson and Kanishka ​Singh in Washington; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

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