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February 11, 2026

7 entries on this date.

Trump administration moved to rescind $600M in CDC health grants, targeting only 4 of 107 recipient states

The Office of Management and Budget ordered the CDC to cancel roughly $602 million in public health grants -- funding disease-outbreak tracking, workforce and infrastructure programs -- to California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota, effective February 11, 2026; the same directive also canceled $943 million in Department of Transportation funding to the same four states. All four states, led by Democratic governors, sued the next day, and a federal judge in Illinois granted a 14-day temporary restraining order on February 12 keeping the health funds flowing while the case proceeds.

White House fires court-appointed U.S. Attorney Donald Kinsella hours after judges seated him

After a federal court found the administration's prior U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York was serving unlawfully, the district's judges invoked 28 U.S.C. § 546 to appoint veteran prosecutor Donald T. Kinsella, who was sworn in on February 11, 2026. Within about five hours, the White House emailed Kinsella that the president had removed him, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche posted that "judges don't pick U.S. Attorneys, @POTUS does," telling Kinsella, "You are fired."

Attorney General Bondi told the House Judiciary Committee under oath that Maxwell was not moved to a lower-security prison

On February 11, 2026, Attorney General Pam Bondi testified before the House Judiciary Committee and, asked by Rep. Deborah Ross whether Ghislaine Maxwell had received special treatment in prison, answered that she did not know Maxwell was being transferred and that Maxwell "was not transferred to a lower-level facility," later repeating twice that it was a "same level" prison. The Bureau of Prisons, which falls under Bondi's department, classifies FCI Tallahassee — where Maxwell had been held — as low security and FPC Bryan, where the Justice Department moved her in August 2025 after she met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, as a minimum-security prison camp.

ICE detained pregnant Massachusetts woman in bedless holding cell, denied care until hospitalization forced her release

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Djeniffer Benvinda Ribeiro Semedo, a 22-year-old Cape Verdean national who was 24 weeks pregnant, at Brockton District Court on February 11, 2026 on an outstanding default warrant and held her at its Burlington field office in a bedless holding room, where she slept on a concrete bench. Her abdominal pain, nausea, and decreased fetal movement went unaddressed over roughly three days until she was transferred to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on February 13, where ICE agents continued to restrict her family's access to her.

U.S. House passes SAVE America Act (H.R. 22) requiring documentary proof of citizenship for federal voter registration

On February 11, 2026, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, H.R. 22 of the 119th Congress, on a near-party-line vote. The bill would require every American to produce documentary proof of U.S. citizenship — typically a birth certificate or passport — in order to register to vote or update voter registration information for federal elections. According to the Brennan Center for Justice and the ACLU, more than 21 million eligible American voters do not currently have ready access to the required documents. The bill is now in the Senate.

Former San Leandro councilmember Bryan Azevedo pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from the Duong family for housing-company votes

On February 11, 2026, former San Leandro City Council member Bryan Azevedo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and making false statements to federal investigators, admitting he accepted a paid 2023 Vietnam trip and set up an LLC in his wife's name to receive kickbacks from David Trung Duong and Andy Hung Duong in exchange for advocating city contracts and purchases for their company, Evolutionary Homes. Azevedo, who resigned from the council the day before his plea, is cooperating with prosecutors in the related federal bribery case against former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, in which the Duongs are also charged.

UT Knoxville Chancellor fired assistant professor Tamar Shirinian for Facebook post criticizing Charlie Kirk

On February 11, 2026, University of Tennessee Knoxville Chancellor Donde Plowman terminated anthropology assistant professor Tamar Shirinian, citing "misconduct" over Facebook comments she made about Charlie Kirk following his assassination in September 2025. Shirinian had written on a friend's private Facebook page that Kirk's children were "better off living in a world without a disgusting psychopath like him." Despite Shirinian's subsequent apology, Chancellor Plowman signed the termination letter in February after a months-long administrative investigation launched by UT System President Randy Boyd.