The Daily Briefing

YOUR MORNING NEWS ROUNDUP

Thu Feb 19 2026

Nicole Fallert
Newsletter Writer & SEO Editor

Thursday Olympics live coverage | Medal count | Skating or hockey?

Hi there! Welcome to the Daily Briefing. Here's what to know:

•	The reward in the search for Nancy Guthrie was increased.
•	A women's basketball player faces four felony charges.
•	A former Disney Channel star has cancer.

Nicole Fallert here, bringing you the news to know on Thursday, from an exclusive interview with Maryland's governor to the arrest of a former royal. Plus: An Olympian champions grief and gets a gold.

Maryland governor punches back on Potomac

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has a message for President Donald Trump after a collapsed sewer pipe caused wastewater to spew into the Potomac River: "Please start doing your job."

Trump put the blame on Democrats such as Moore for the spill that's polluted the river that cuts through Washington, D.C. and is near the White House. Trump, in a set of incendiary social media posts, has excluded Moore from a bipartisan event for the nation's governors.

In an exclusive interview with USA TODAY, the Maryland governor fired back, arguing that the break was in a DC pipe on federal land.

"How Maryland gets caught up in this, I have no idea. That is just some very creative facts from the president of the United States," Moore said to USA TODAY.

More news to know now

•	A former prince arrested. British police arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public life, according to multiple news outlets in the United Kingdom. The former prince has faced intense scrutiny over his friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein
•	Why did skiers go? A backcountry avalanche disaster is being called the deadliest avalanche in the U.S. in four decades. Several of the victims who died in California's Lake Tahoe Region were members of an elite skiing academy. As families grieve and crews come up with a plan to remove the bodies from the mountain when it's safe, the guiding company is facing a tough question: Given the known dangers, why did they still go?
•	MTG v. Trump looms. President Donald Trump is headlining a rally Thursday in Georgia's 14th Congressional District, where he hopes his preferred candidate — Clay Fuller, a state prosecutor — pulls off a dominant performance on March 10 in a special election to replace former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

2026 Winter Olympics

Grief and a gold

Mikaela Shiffrin reacts after winning the gold medal in the women's slalom on Feb. 18 in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.

Michael Madrid-Imagn Images

Mikaela Shiffrin wanted to win Olympic gold in women's slalom on Wednesday as much as she feared it. A feeling she's resisted every day since her father died in 2020. After she crossed the finish line, 1.50 seconds ahead of the next closest skier — an eternity in the sport — she dropped her chest to her knees and her head in her lap.

Health & Wellness

She won a discrimination lawsuit for endometriosis

Christian "Cece" Worley in 2025 won the first case in North Carolina to recognize endometriosis, an inflammatory disease where tissue similar to the uterine lining grows outside of the uterus, as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Worley, 27, represented herself in court. The verdict surprised everyone.