Headlines Lost in the Chaos: What You Might Have Missed This Week
Week ending February 14, 2026
Wisconsin Senate Republicans passed a slate of anti-trans bills.
Wisconsin Senate Republicans passed a slate of anti-trans bills on Wednesday – bills that Democratic state Senator Mark Spreitzer said are being pushed in an effort to “legislate trans kids out of existence” in order to score political points ahead of the midterm election.
According to local reporting, “Among the five bills passed along party lines were measures that would block health care providers from performing gender transition surgeries on minors and allow people to sue hospitals for any “physical, psychological, emotional, or physiological injury” caused by such operations. Other bills would force K-12 schools and colleges to create policies blocking transgender students from playing on sports teams that don’t correspond with the gender on their birth certificates, prohibit male students from using female locker rooms and create a new avenue for female college students to sue campuses that don’t follow those policies.”
Investors on CoreCivic and GEO Group’s earnings calls expressed frustration that ICE’s record immigration detention numbers aren’t high enough.
Private prison contractors GEO Group and CoreCivic held their quarterly earnings calls this week and investors on the calls expressed concern and frustration that ICE’s immigration detention numbers aren’t high enough, despite recently reaching record highs.
The number of human beings being caged by ICE is at the highest figure since the agency’s creation in 2003 – more than 70,000.
At the same time, private prison corporations are experiencing skyrocketing revenue.
Even so, investors are concerned that the Trump administration’s goal of 100,000 people being detained at any given time has yet to be met, with others concerned that ICE’s claim to be “pulling out” of Minneapolis is an indicator that Trump’s immigration agenda is slowing down.
The Mississippi House passed a bill to force local governments and law enforcement to cooperate with ICE.
The Mississippi House of Representatives passed House Bill 538 on Thursday. The bill would expand Mississippi’s ban on ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions (even though there are none in the state) to require all state and local government entities and employees, including agencies, departments, officers and law enforcement, cooperate with federal and other governmental authorities in enforcing immigration laws.
Universities, community colleges and various other political subdivisions would be required to participate in federal immigration enforcement, if requested.
The bill would also waive “sovereign immunity,” a legal doctrine that protects federal and state governments from being sued, for entities violating it. It also would empower the state attorney general to investigate and prosecute violations of the law.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill into law that creates enhanced penalties for the disruption of a worship service.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt on Friday signed Senate Bill 743 into law, which creates enhanced penalties for the unlawful disruption of a worship service.
The new law makes it a crime to “willfully disturb, interrupt, or disquiet a group gathered for worship.”
Under the new law, anyone protesting within 100 feet of a place of worship is required to give worshipers a corridor of 8 feet, unless invited to approach. It also created penalties: a first offense would be a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in county jail and a $500 fine, while repeat offenses would rise to felony status with penalties of up to two years in state prison and a $1,000 fine.
The law became effective upon Stitt’s signature.
The Trump administration has been sending pregnant migrant girls to a shelter in Texas flagged as “medically inadequate.”
Texas Public Radio published an explosive report this week revealing that, despite objections from the administration’s own health and child welfare officials, the Trump administration is sending all pregnant unaccompanied minors apprehended by immigration enforcement to a single group shelter in South Texas.
According to seven sources who work at the Office of Refugee Resettlement within the Department of Health and Human Services, which handles the custody and care of children who cross the border without a parent or legal guardian, or are separated from family by immigration authorities, “both the facility and the region lack the specialized care the girls need.”
“Since late July, more than a dozen pregnant minors have been placed at the Texas facility, which is located in the small border city of San Benito. Some were as young as 13, and at least half of those taken in so far became pregnant as a result of rape, sources said. Their pregnancies are considered high risk by definition, particularly for the youngest girls.”
A bill was introduced in Missouri that would lower the minimum wage for minors.
Republican state Senator Joe Nicola introduced Senate Bill 1325 this week, which would lower the minimum wage for minors in the state.
The legislation would create a separate minimum wage for those under age 18 who are employed in Missouri.
The new minimum wage rate for minors would be $12.30 per hour, down from the state rate of $15 per hour.
Iowa Republicans have set a hearing on a bill that would ban all abortions and make performing one a crime punishable by life in prison for doctors.
On Tuesday, February 17, Iowa lawmakers will hold a subcommittee hearing on House File 2332, which would ban all abortion care in the state and make it a crime punishable by life in prison for doctors who provide such care.
The hearing comes on the heels of lawmakers in the state advancing Senate Study Bill 3115, which would restrict medication abortion in the state, as well as the introduction of House File 2316, which would criminalize abortion by classifying it as homicide under state law.
The Department of Justice moved to drop charges against two Minneapolis men that just weeks ago DHS accused of “attempting to murder” federal immigration agents.
Kristi Noem and the Department of Homeland Security have been caught in yet another lie about ICE-related incidents. This time, involving two men who the department accused of “attempting to murder” federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.
Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, who was shot in the leg by federal agents, and Alfredo Aljorna are no longer facing charges from the Department of Justice. Instead, the officers involved in the incident are now under federal investigation.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said that two federal officers appear “to have made untruthful statements” about the events leading up to Sosa-Celis being shot and both men being detained.
Trump’s CDC began canceling $600 million in HIV and STD funds to four Democrat-led states.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began $600 million in cuts to HIV and STD funding to California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota this week.
Trump administration health officials said the grants are “inconsistent with agency priorities” as the administration has “shifted away from supporting programs for specific populations.”
All four states sued in an attempt to block the cuts and, on Friday, U.S. District Judge Manish Shah stopped the cuts from taking effect for 14 days, saying in his order that the states “have shown that they would suffer irreparable harm from the agency action.”