Good morning! Happy Galentine’s Day to all the gals (and “Parks and Rec” fans) out there. It’s probably not a coincidence that today is also, at least according to Tillamook, National Cheddar Day. That’s why everyone’s favorite overpriced-but-delicious dairy brand is giving away nearly 2,000 pounds of cheese. May the best gal(s) win.

Lawsuits are flying over just how much control over the executive branch the president has. Federal district judges are demanding old webpages restored, pausing and then restoring Trump’s buyout offer for federal employees, and going both ways on his spending freeze. Accusations that this whole situation is causing a “constitutional crisis” are everywhere, though neither side seems to agree on who to blame for that.

WORLD

🪙 Bald man, short comedian want real estate deal

Could it be? President Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday and said negotiations to end Russia’s war in Ukraine will begin “immediately.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the plan to “stop Russian aggression and ensure a lasting, reliable peace.” He’ll meet with Vice President JD Vance on Friday in Germany.

• This could complicate the old plan (from allll the way back in last week) for continued U.S. military aid in exchange for access to Ukraine’s rare earth mineral deposits.

Zelenskyy wants to “swap territory” with Russia. But Ukraine controls just under 500 square miles of Russia while Russia controls about 50,000 square miles of Ukraine. So this won’t be an even bargain. According to U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Ukraine getting its old borders back is an “illusory goal.”

As for what a peace plan will look like? That’s TBD. Hegseth ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine and added that Europe will need to take responsibility for Ukraine’s security moving forward. But Zelenskyy himself noted that “Security guarantees without America are not real.” Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he plans to meet with Putin in Saudi Arabia sometime soon.

• Trump asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security advisor Mike Waltz, and special envoy Steve Witkoff to “lead the negotiations.”

• Also: American teacher Marc Fogel appeared at the White House on Tuesday after the State Department negotiated his release from Russia. He’d been detained in Russia since 2021.

Elsewhere in the world: President Trump said "all hell" will break loose if Hamas doesn't return the remaining Israeli hostages by Saturday and suggested the fragile ceasefire had run its course. Hamas blamed hostage swap delays on Israel and warned that U.S. threats mean nothing. As for Trump’s plan for U.S. control of Gaza? Well, the neighbors (Jordan and Egypt) aren’t super chill with that.

GOVERNMENT

🪙 President Trump’s order for the U.S. Mint to stop producing pennies may have a cost. Due to the rising cost of zinc (pennies are 97.5% zinc), pennies have cost more than 1 cent to make since 2006 (it’s 3.7 cents now), leading to longtime bipartisan support for their demise. Axing ‘em should save the Treasury $85 million. But, as Canadians experienced back in 2012, no more pennies means cash transactions are rounded to the nearest nickel. That means more nickels. Which cost 13.8 cents a pop… because they’re 75% copper.

🗺️ RIP, Gulf of Mexico. Your 475-year run is nothing to sneeze at. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) maintains the federal system that Apple and Google use for geographic names in their maps apps. Now that the Geographic Information Names System (GNIS) has updated the gulf’s name to Gulf of America, the tech giants have rolled with the change. Mexicans will still see the old name, however, and the rest of the world will see both names. What’s next? Waiting on GNIS to swap Denali’s name back to Mt. McKinley.

📈 The annual inflation rate jumped slightly to 3.0% in January according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That's up from 2.9% in December and is the highest rate since May. Analysts had expected a fall to 2.8%. The BLS measures inflation by tracking the prices of various consumer goods and services, called the consumer price index (CPI). Core inflation, which ignores volatile food and energy prices, rose 3.3% over the same period.

TRIVIA

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says there’s "not a snowball's chance in hell" that Canada joins the Union as the 51st state. On the off chance that he changes his mind, he should know that Canada wouldn’t have to stick with its current name (North Minnesota, anyone?). States can just… change their names. Rhode Island became the first to do it back in 2021. From 1776 to 2021, what was Rhode Island’s official name?

Hint: There were three extra words tacked onto the end.

POLITICS

🕵️ Senate confirms Tulsi Gabbard as intel chief

Tulsi Gabbard was sworn in as Trump’s new director of national intelligence on Wednesday shortly after the Senate gave her its official thumbs up in a 52-48 vote. Former majority leader Mitch McConnell was the only Republican to break ranks and side with Democrats in opposition.

She represented Hawaii in the House as a Democrat for eight years until retiring in 2020 to run for president. Other than a noted debate demolition of future VP Kamala Harris, that campaign didn't go so well. She dropped out and yadda, yadda, yadda, she became a Republican in 2024.

• She served as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee until resigning in 2016 to support Bernie Sanders' presidential bid.

• Gabbard's also a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, where she's served since 2003.

Many in D.C. aren't big fans of Tulsi Gabbard. Her secret 2017 meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad is a sticking point. Then there's the fact that she kinda sorta may have been raised in a cult.

What's this job all about? The director of national intelligence (DNI) leads the, get this, Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). The ODNI was created after 9/11 to serve as a sort of intel nerve center. It coordinates information from across allll 18 agencies of the U.S. intelligence community. That includes everything from the CIA's human intel to the NGA's maps to... whatever it is that Coast Guard Intelligence does. Since 2017, presidents have deemed the DNI a Cabinet-level role.

Elsewhere in Trump's new Cabinet: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is likely to get the Senate's final approval later today.

BRIEFS

● Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey hit it big in 2014 when he sold his company to Facebook for $2 billion at 21. Now his defense tech startup, Anduril Industries, has signed a $22 billion deal to provide high-tech battlefield goggles to the U.S. Army.

● After Trump’s order to release all remaining JFK assassination docs, the FBI casually discovered 2,400 new records on the ordeal. Meanwhile, the House has created a new task force on the “Declassification of Federal Secrets.”

● Echoing Biden's similar move in 2021, President Trump has fired the boards of visitors for the four big service academies. The president said the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard Academies had been "infiltrated by woke leftist ideologies.”

● President Trump since January has fired 19 inspectors general from their posts as auditors embedded in various agencies. Now eight of them are suing to get their jobs back. They argue Trump ignored rules set up to protect them from political retribution.

● Now that they’ve been designated terrorists, the U.S. military is upping its surveillance of Mexican drug cartels. Spy planes are soaring through a skinny stretch of international waters in the Gulf of California between Baja California and mainland Mexico.

QUOTE

ANSWER

For its first 245 years of statehood, America’s tiniest state was actually the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (technically that name goes back to its time as a colony in the 1600s). To dump any sketchy associations with slavery, the state legislature in 2020 set up a statewide vote on the matter. A similar vote failed spectacularly (with only 22% in favor) back in 2010. This time, 52.8% of voters agreed to the change and *poof* -and Providence Plantations was no more.