Friday’s Mini-Report, 2.13.26

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* At the deadline: “The White House spent the week projecting a willingness to negotiate over immigration enforcement policies while drawing a firm line against the central reforms Democrats say are needed to reach a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security — a posture that all but guarantees a partial government shutdown this weekend.”

* U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons acknowledged evidence of ICE agents allegedly making “untruthful statements” under oath: “Federal authorities have opened a criminal probe into whether two immigration officers lied under oath about a shooting in Minneapolis last month, as all charges were dropped against two Venezuelan men.”

* On a related note, the latest on Marimar Martinez: “Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into the Border Patrol agent accused of shooting a woman five times in Chicago in October, according to the woman’s lawyer.”

* Inching closer to another military offensive: “President Donald Trump said Friday that he decided to move a second aircraft carrier into the Middle East as he presses Iran to make a deal over its nuclear program. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, is being sent from the Caribbean Sea to the Mideast to join other warships and military assets the U.S. has built up in the region.”

* A step in the right direction on the consumer price index: “The cost of goods and services rose at a slower annual rate than expected in January, providing hope that the nagging U.S. inflation problem could be starting to ease.”

* Don Lemon’s plea: “Journalist Don Lemon pleaded not guilty Friday in federal court in Minnesota to charges stemming from his presence at a church protest against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.”

* Warehouses for human beings: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement expects to spend $38.3 billion on its plan to acquire warehouses across the country and retrofit them into immigrant detention centers that can hold tens of thousands of immigrants, according to agency documents provided to New Hampshire’s governor and published on the state’s website Thursday.”

* The offensive against blue states keeps failing in court: “A federal judge in Illinois on Thursday blocked the Trump administration’s plan to claw back $600 million in public health funds from four states led by Democrats, amid a wider effort by the federal government to pull funding from blue states.”

* If you’re looking for a pardon, it pays to be a celebrity: “President Donald Trump has pardoned five prominent former NFL players, including members of the pro football and college football halls of fame, for a variety of offenses.”

* The problem isn’t just that the crisis is getting worse, it’s that the crisis is getting worse faster: “According to a Washington Post analysis, the fastest warming rate on record occurred in the last 30 years. The Post used a dataset from NASA to analyze global average surface temperatures from 1880 to 2025. … Those data — combined with the last few years of record heat — have convinced many researchers that the world is seeing a decisive shift in how temperatures are rising.”

Have a safe weekend.

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”