The U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense on Sunday for the first time transported a small nuclear reactor on a cargo plane from California to Utah to demonstrate the potential to quickly deploy nuclear power for military and civilian use. The agencies partnered with California-based Valar Atomics to fly one of the company’s Ward microreactors on a C-17 aircraft — without nuclear fuel — to Hill Air Force Base in Utah. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey were on the C-17 flight with the reactor and its components, and hailed the event as a breakthrough for U.S. nuclear energy and military logistics. “This gets us closer to deploy nuclear power when and where it is needed to give our nation’s warfighters the tools to win in battle,” Duffey said. President Donald Trump’s administration sees small nuclear reactors as one of several ways to expand U.S. energy production. Trump last May issued four executive orders aimed at boosting domestic nuclear deployment to meet growing demand for energy for national security and competitive AI advancements. The Energy Department in December issued two grants to help accelerate development of small modular reactors. Proponents of microreactors also have touted them as energy sources that can be sent to far-flung and remote places, offering an alternative to diesel generators which require frequent deliveries of fuel. But skeptics have argued that the industry has not proven that small nuclear reactors can generate power for a reasonable price. “There is no business case for microreactors, which — even if they work as designed — will produce electricity at a far higher cost than large nuclear reactors, not to mention renewables like wind or solar,” said Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists. The Energy Department plans to have three microreactors reach “criticality” — when a nuclear reaction can sustain itself — by July 4, Wright said. The microreactor in Sunday’s event, a little larger than a minivan, can generate up to 5 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 5,000 homes, according to Valar CEO Isaiah Taylor. It will start operating in July at 100 kilowatts and peak at 250 kilowatts this year before ramping up to full capacity, he said. Valar hopes to start selling power on a test basis in 2027 and become fully commercial in 2028. Although private industry funds its own development of nuclear technology, it also needs the federal government “doing some enabling actions to allow fuel fabrication here and uranium enrichment here,” he said. Fuel for Valar’s reactor will be transported from the Nevada National Security site to the San Rafael facility, Wright told reporters. However, even small generators result in a significant amount of radioactive waste, Lyman said. Other experts have said designers are not compelled to consider waste at inception, beyond a plan for how it will be managed. Although disposal of nuclear waste remains an unresolved issue, the Energy Department is in talks with a few states, including Utah, to host sites that could reprocess fuel or handle permanent disposal, Wright said. (Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Sergio Non and Lincoln Feast.)

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The most influential TV shows of the 1990s did more than entertain — they taught audiences how to engage. They reshaped storytelling, deepened emotional investment, and built habits that still define modern media consumption. The post The Most Influential TV Shows of the 1990s appeared first on The Retro Network.

THE DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—A Minnesota activist group encouraging protests against immigration enforcement will host a training to teach attendees to let guilty criminals walk. Defend the 612 will instruct viewers of the Feb. 23 virtual “Jury Nullification Training” on how to use false jury verdicts to fight “unjust laws and political persecution,” according to an event description on its website first reported by Alpha News. The Trump administration has charged hundreds of people with impeding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations around the country, including at Minneapolis protests during ICE’s enforcement surge in the Twin Cities that is now winding down after weeks of immigration arrests. Defend the 612 did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. NEW: Anti-ICE group Defend the 612 is hosting an upcoming "Jury Nullification Training" for activists. https://t.co/fzzkha3ITQ pic.twitter.com/5sRvOWInVZ— Hudson Crozier ?? (@Hudson_Crozier) February 16, 2026 “We will learn about jury nullification—or the people’s pardon—how it’s been used, ways it can stem authoritarian overreach, and how we can use it today,” Defend the 612’s event description says. The event will explore “how to legally use conscience in the courtroom to defend communities from unjust laws.” Jury nullification decisions cannot be overturned due to the Constitution’s Double Jeopardy clause, according to US Legal Forms. However, lawyers or judges could decide to keep potential jurors out of a trial during the jury selection process if they show signs of bias. Defend the 612, named after its Minneapolis area code, is sponsored by the tax-exempt group Cooperation Cannon River, the DCNF previously reported. Defend the 612’s supporters have encouraged risky confrontations with law enforcement and obstructing ICE operations at protests, City Journal reported Feb. 2. Clashes between activists and law enforcement led to two U.S. citizens dying in federal agent-involved shootings in January, sparking further calls for protests. A conservative watchdog group asked the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in January to investigate CCR for sponsoring Defend the 612, accusing CCR of “illegal activity” over protesters’ tactics in Minnesota. Defend the 612 has also announced trainings on how to monitor ICE activity in the area and “protect” potential arrestees. “Due to security and safety concerns, we do not record these trainings,” the group said in a Jan. 26 Bluesky post. Originally published by The Daily Caller News Foundation. The post Lefty Radicals Concoct Strategy to Let Anti-ICE Agitators Get Off Scot-Free appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The American people’s confidence in mass media appears to be continuing its spiral downward, according to the results of a new Pew Research Center survey. The poll found that 57% of the public has little or no confidence “in journalists to act in the best interests of the public.” Some conservatives are pointing to dwindling public trust and legacy media layoffs as the last gasp of a dying empire, but analysts say, “Not so fast.” The Pew poll results, released Wednesday, revealed that just 6% of Americans have “a great deal of confidence” that journalists have the public’s best interest in mind, with 37% having “a fair amount of confidence” (the total of 43% who say they have confidence in journalism is down from 47% in last year’s Pew survey). Meanwhile, 40% said they had “not too much confidence” and 17% had “no confidence at all” in journalistic integrity. Notably, Democrats and Democrat-leaning Independents (61%) were over twice as likely to say they had confidence in journalists than Republicans and GOP leaners (25%). The Pew results are the latest in a steady stream of polls that indicate a growing distrust of the mainstream media. An October 2025 Gallup poll found that only 28% of Americans say they trust legacy outlets a “great deal” or a “fair amount” to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly, which was down from 31% the previous year. When Gallup began polling on the question of Americans’ trust in mass media in 1972, around 70% of respondents said that they had a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust. The number steadily declined over the next 50 years, dropping 42 percentage points. The public’s plunging confidence in journalist integrity of mass media and a shifting digital media landscape have sharply impacted the readership of legacy outlets. Over the last decade, Pew found that those who say they follow the news closely has dropped from 51% to 36%. In addition, online traffic to the nation’s top 100 newspapers has dropped by 45% over the last four years. The evaporating readership led The Washington Post, the nation’s third-largest newspaper, to lay off over 300 journalists last week, amounting to about 30% of its workforce. Other legacy media behemoths like NBC News have also made significant cuts to their staff in recent months. Do these ominous signs point to the impending downfall of the mainstream media? Conservative digital outlets, which have exploded in number, readership, and influence over the last two decades, have been predicting the demise of legacy media for years, citing heavy left-wing bias, the mass layoffs, and the loss of public trust via the spreading of outright lies through the Brett Kavanaugh hearing, Russiagate, COVID, the George Floyd/BLM riots, the Joe Biden senility coverup, and more. While all of this may be true, it is likely a bit premature to pronounce the death of legacy media. As veteran journalist and columnist Becket Adams pointed out in a recent National Review article, major outlets like The New York Times, the Post, and NBC, ABC, and CBS “still have institutional heft, power, and at least some perceived credibility, even if it’s not now what it once was.” Adams points to the recent fraud scandal involving Minnesota’s Somali community as an example of the power that heavyweights like The New York Times still have. Despite the fact that conservative outlets had been reporting on the scandal since at least 2018, and despite the fact that City Journal released a major report on the story in November, it wasn’t until the Times released its report on the story 10 days later that the scandal was “legitimized” in the eyes of the public and gained nationwide attention. What’s more, as Adams observes, even conservatives continue to use legacy outlets to legitimize big stories. When the scandal broke over texts Virginia Attorney General-elect Jay Jones (D) sent in which he fantasized about killing a Republican lawmaker and wishing that his children would die, a GOP ad on the subject began with, “The Washington Post confirms …” And despite the incredible rise and growing influence of conservative alternative media, few argue that they can compete with the reach, resources, and cultural influence of decades-old institutional behemoths like The New York Times (which employs 2,700 journalists) or the Associated Press (which has correspondents in 100 countries), or Reuters (which employs 2,500 global journalists). For international news in particular, it is chiefly legacy outlets that have reporters on the ground that alternative media rely on for facts. Still, as Washington Stand Editor-in-Chief Jared Bridges told TWS, the downsizing of mainstream media is a significant development. “I think what we’re seeing now is more along the lines of the legacy media taking a GLP-1 drug for weight loss. They’re trimming down quickly, but they’ll still be around, albeit in a leaner fashion. They’re necessarily a market entity, funded by ad sales and subscriptions, and we can’t ignore that they’re at the end of a significant market flex in a downward direction.” “As for the alternative media that have emerged or are still emerging, I don’t see us as a replacement,” Bridges continued. “We simply don’t have the infrastructure that’s taken decades and sometimes centuries to build. Hopefully, there will, in the long run, be some that can grow to that level, but for now, alternative media should be just that: a corrective alternative.” Originally published by The Washington Stand. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Plummeting Public Trust, Mass Layoffs: Is Legacy Media Becoming Irrelevant? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

NYT: The Epstein Light Grenade Hits Academia

Elon Musk pledged in September to help fund murals in remembrance of Iryna Zarutska, the Ukrainian woman who was randomly murdered on a public train in Charlotte, North Carolina. One such mural has appeared in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, as part of the Remember Iryna memorial project, led by Elizabeth Trykin. The mural measures 147 feet wide and 20 feet tall and is located near the intersection at Charleston and Las Vegas Boulevards. 'Evil doesn't see policy. Evil doesn't see left or right. Evil doesn't see any of that. Evil is just evil.' "The project has completed over 20 large-scale murals across multiple U.S. cities, now in Las Vegas, with many more installations under way. More than 900 artists have reached out to us to participate," Trykin said in a statement to KLAS-TV.Musk joined in the effort after it was proposed by Intercom CEO Eoghan McCabe, who also gave $500,000 of his own money. Many on the right have decried the lack of coverage for the brutal murder and aired suspicions that a political bias was to blame."I will contribute $1M," Musk said at the time.A spokesperson for McCabe later confirmed to the New York Post that McCabe and Musk both made good on their financial pledges.Graffiti artist Gear Duran, who painted the Vegas mural, says it's not meant to be a partisan political statement."I think it’s, like, unfortunate that everybody has to make things politicized and divisive and all that stuff," Duran said."What we really need is just to be able to come together and stop politicizing everything so much as far as, like, the demise of someone losing their life like that," he added. "It's like, why does that got to be political? It's like, that's just evil."RELATED: New butterfly species named in honor of Ukrainian woman brutally murdered on Charlotte light rail Decarlos Brown, 34, was charged with Zarutska's murder and could face the death penalty if he's found guilty. The horrific attack was captured on surveillance video from the public transit system. "Evil doesn't see policy. Evil doesn't see left or right. Evil doesn't see any of that. Evil is just evil," Duran continued. "I'm here trying to combat that, to bring awareness with this mural, just to bring some positivity and light to what happened." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

A judge sided with the city of Philadelphia in its lawsuit to restore slavery exhibits that were removed in January to a presidential home site.President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March 2025 titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History" which led to some exhibits at national monuments being taken down.'We encourage the City of Philadelphia to focus on getting their jobless rates down and ending their reckless cashless bail policy instead of filing frivolous lawsuits in the hopes of demeaning our brave Founding Fathers.'The city of Philadelphia objected to the removal of slavery information from exhibits at the President's House exhibit, where Presidents George Washington and John Adams once lived. The site is operated by the National Park Service.The lawsuit cited a previous agreement with the NPS that said "communication and consultation" standards must be met between the parties for changes to the site.On Monday, Senior Judge Cynthia M. Rufe ruled that the exhibits must be restored to their original state before the day of removal. She began the ruling with a quote from George Orwell's "1984." The lawsuit listed the National Park Service as a defendant, as well as Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, the Department of the Interior, and National Park Service Acting Director Jessica Bowron. "I strongly opposed the Trump administration's decision to remove these exhibits, and I welcome the federal court's ruling that they must be restored. ... I will continue fighting to ensure these exhibits are fully restored and accessible to the public," Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Penn.) said about the ruling.A spokesperson for the NPS lambasted the city after the lawsuit was filed."All federal agencies are to review interpretive materials to ensure accuracy, honesty, and alignment with shared national values. Following completion of the required review, the National Park Service is now taking appropriate action in accordance with the Order," reads the statement from the spokesperson."We encourage the City of Philadelphia to focus on getting their jobless rates down and ending their reckless cashless bail policy instead of filing frivolous lawsuits in the hopes of demeaning our brave Founding Fathers who set the brilliant road map for the greatest country in the world — the United States of America," the statement continues.RELATED: Actress Pam Grier gets demolished online for spewing nonsense claim about racial lynchings in Ohio on 'The View' Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia executive director Paul Steinke told CBS News that the removal was a "terrible day for American history.""The decision to do this appears to be made because the President's House Site memorialized the nine enslaved individuals that were held there against their will by President Washington and his wife, Martha," he said, "and this is the only federal historic site that commemorates the history of slavery in America."Rufe was appointed to the court by former President George W. Bush in 2002.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

City of Cologne/Roman-Germanic Museum, Michael WiehenThe staircase was once connected to a praetorium, the official residence of the Roman governor. During excavations related to the construction of a new museum in Cologne, Germany, archaeologists have uncovered several remarkably well-preserved ruins from the city’s ancient Roman past. Beneath the foundation of an apse from the fourth century C.E., archaeologists found both a staircase and a shrine connected to the city’s Roman governor. Dating to the first and second centuries C.E., these finds are remarkable windows into Cologne’s Roman history — and an astounding example of how the long-gone past can remain hidden right beneath the surface of a modern city. The Ancient Roman Staircase And Shrine Uncovered Right Beneath The Center Of Cologne According to a statement from the City of Cologne, the Roman ruins were discovered during the construction of a new underground tour area related to the forthcoming MiQua LVR Jewish Museum. After reexamining an apse from a large 4th-century C.E. basilica in the Rathausplatz, which previously appeared to be just a mere dip in the pavement, archaeologists realized that there was more at the site than met than eye. City of Cologne/Roman-Germanic Museum, Michael WiehenThe starting point of the excavation was an apse from a 4th-century basilica, which archaeologists realized was much thicker than previously known. By looking at a cross section of the apse, archaeologists determined that it was more than 13 feet thick. It was not made of Roman cast concrete (opus caementicium), but instead a carefully crafted layer of volcanic stone, basalt, and limestone, which was then bonded with a mortar made of brick and gravel. This remained intact over many centuries perhaps because of strategic backfills of earth, possibly meant to even out the slope to the river bank. But the more impressive Roman ruins were found at even deeper archaeological levels. It was there that archaeologists uncovered a staircase from the first century C.E. and an altar (lararium) from the second century C.E. City of Cologne/Roman-Germanic Museum, Franziska BartzThe Roman staircase dates back to the first century C.E., and connected varying levels of the praetorium near the Rhine. Both of these discoveries were connected to a praetorium, the official residence of the Roman governor. The staircase connected a lower level of the Rhine to a higher level of the praetorium itself, though it’s unknown where exactly the original staircase ended. Meanwhile, the lararium is a niche in the wall dedicated to the household’s guardian deities, the Lares, who are represented by figurines. Here, worshippers could leave food or objects as offerings. Though all the ruins are exciting finds, the lararium is an especially astounding discovery. Still flecked with paint, it’s more comparable to shrines found in far-off locales like Pompeii than it is to anything found north of the Alps. The Rich Roman-Era History Of Cologne The Roman history of Cologne began some 2,000 years ago, when the Germanic Ubii tribe struck a deal with the Romans to settle on the left bank of the Rhine. Their original settlement, the modern-day site of the historic center of Cologne, was known as Oppidum Ubiorum. City of Cologne/Roman-Germanic Museum, Michael WiehenThe Roman shrine, or lararium, is an especially unique find for the region, with comparable examples found in faraway cities like Pompeii. The Ubii were ultimately relocated to the right bank of the Rhine, and Oppidum Ubiorum became an important Roman military base, settlement, and center of trade. In 50 C.E., the Roman emperor Claudius agreed to make the settlement a colonia upon the request of his wife, Agrippina the Younger, who was born in Oppidum Ubiorum. From that point on, the settlement became known as Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium. As a Roman colonia, it soon had stone buildings, temples, baths, aqueducts, paved streets, and official residences like the praetorium. Indeed, the city was important enough in the region that, in 90 C.E., it became the capital of the Roman province of Lower Germany, Germania Inferior. At the time, some 45,000 people lived there. Now, the discovery of the Roman staircase and shrines represent a fascinating reminder of Cologne’s early history, a time when the city was a new Roman colonia nestled in the far-flung reaches of the empire. After reading about the Roman staircase and shrine that were uncovered in Cologne, go inside the complicated question of when the Roman Empire actually fell. Then, discover the wild stories behind some of the worst Roman emperors, from Caligula to Caracalla. The post Museum Construction In Germany Just Turned Up An Ancient Roman Governor’s Palace And Basilica appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Harmeet Dhillon to Look Into Karen Who Reported TPUSA to Child Protective Services