Man armed with shotgun ran toward Capitol, apprehended by police
The US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — An 18-year-old man was apprehended after running toward the U.S. Capitol with a loaded shotgun, according to Capitol police.
Just after noon on Tuesday, the man parked a white Mercedes SUV, got out of the car and started running toward the Washington, D.C. building, Capitol Police Chief Michael Sullivan said at a news conference.
As he approached the building, officers with the Capitol police saw him and ordered him to drop the weapon, the chief said.
“He immediately complied,” Sullivan said, noting that the man put down the gun, got on the ground and was then taken into custody.
The man had additional rounds with him, as well as a tactical vest and tactical gloves, according to Sullivan. A Kevlar helmet and gas mask were found in his car, he added.
“Who knows what could’ve happened” if the officers were not standing guard, Sullivan said.
Officers cleared the area, which has since reopened, according to police.
“There does not appear to be any other suspects or ongoing threat,” authorities said.
Both chambers of Congress are out of session this week.
A motive is not clear, Sullivan noted.
The man, who does not live in the area, was not known to Capitol police, he said.
(NEW YORK) — More than 120 million people are on alert for a brutal storm that’s going to bring dangerous ice and snow to the South, bitter cold to the Midwest, and a massive snowfall to the Northeast.
South
The storm moves into the South on Friday afternoon. By the evening, Dallas will see a wintry mix and Oklahoma and Kansas will get some snow.
On Saturday morning, the temperature is forecast to fall to 27 degrees in Dallas; 8 degrees in Oklahoma City; 14 degrees in Little Rock, Arkansas; and 19 degrees in Nashville, Tennessee.
As temperatures drop on Saturday, extremely dangerous snow and ice will move in from Dallas to Little Rock to Memphis, Tennessee.
Residents should be prepared for dangerous travel conditions and widespread power outages, which could leave people without electricity or heat.
The lack of heat will be very dangerous in several major cities — including Dallas, Little Rock and Memphis — where the bitter cold is expected to continue well after the storm passes.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he was activating state emergency response resources, saying the freezing rain, sleet and snow “could create hazardous travel conditions into the weekend and cause impacts to infrastructure.”
By Saturday afternoon, the snow and ice could stretch as far east as Georgia and the Carolinas.
The governors of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina have declared states of emergency.
Midwest
This unforgiving arctic blast will strike the Midwest late Thursday into Friday, bringing extremely dangerous temperatures.
On Friday morning, the wind chill — what temperature it feels like — is forecast to plunge to minus 39 degrees in Minneapolis, minus 32 in Chicago and minus 39 in Madison and Green Bay, Wisconsin. In these conditions, frostbite can develop in just 10 minutes.
Northeast
The brutal cold will strike the Northeast on Friday night, with below-freezing temperatures expected for New York City and Philadelphia.
Then on Sunday, the storm will hit the Northeast, bringing likely plowable snow from Washington, D.C., to New York City to Boston.
The snow totals are not yet clear, but by the Monday morning commute, 6 to 12 inches is possible in some areas.
Airline travel alerts
Many airlines are issuing travel alerts and waiving rebooking fees ahead of the storm.
American Airlines and Delta Air Lines have waived rebooking fees, allowing passengers to rebook their flights at no additional cost.
United has issued travel waivers for cities expected to be affected, allowing those who bought tickets on or before Tuesday to rebook without a fee if their travel is affected.
Southwest said it’s monitoring the weather and will issue any advisories or make any changes as needed.
The sign of Department of Homeland Security is seen outside its headquarters on February 13, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Telesforo Cerero-Palacios isa home renovator in Minnesota who says he has no reported criminal history, so he was shocked to learn the Department of Homeland Security listed him as one of the “worst of the worst” detained immigrants in the U.S. who have serious offenses.
“What happened here? Why does their system say this about you?” Cerero-Palacios, 53, recalled after a relative saw him on the list.
The DHS website features thousands who the agency claims are the “worst” individuals, including a photo of Cerero-Palacios with his alleged crime, “dangerous drugs.”
However, a DHS government document showed that Cerero-Palacio has no criminal history. The document, reviewed by ABC News, is known as a “Record of Deportable/Inadmissible Alien,” which is created by the agency when individuals are detained.
Cerero-Palacios said he has never been accused of any drug-related offense and an ABC News review of criminal records in Minnesota found several traffic and parking tickets and one small claim case, but did not turn up any drug-related charges.
In an interview conducted in Spanish, Cerero-Palacios told ABC News that agents entered his home on April 7, 2025, looking to detain a relative, but that’s when he was asked about his immigration status. He said he told officials he was undocumented and was subsequently detained.
The DHS document appears to corroborate his account, stating that deportation officers working with the Drug Enforcement Agency were conducting fugitive operations at his address when they interviewed him about his immigration status.
“During the interview, CERERO freely admitted that he did not have any documents that would allow him to reside in the United States legally,” the document said.
It also states that in 1998, Cerero-Palacios was arrested for giving a police officer a false name, but the case was dismissed in 2000.
The document makes no mention that he’s ever been accused of any drug-related charges.
“CERERO claims and appears to be in good health and takes no medication. CERERO does not use narcotics,” the document says.
Despite an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson citing his 1998 arrest in a statement shared with ABC News, DHS appears to have issued him a non-immigrant visa three times, until 2015, the document showed.
“This illegal alien was previously arrested for giving a false name to a peace officer. The FBI number connected to this drug charge is linked to multiple aliases, including Telesforo Cerero-Palacios. We will give you more information on this case shortly,” the ICE spokesperson told ABC News.
It’s unclear what drug charge the spokesperson was referring to. Days after ABC News began asking questions about its inclusion of Cerero-Palacios on its “worst of the worst” database, DHS appears to have removed Cerero-Palacios from the list.
DHS did not respond when asked if he was erroneously placed on the list and has not followed up with any additional information, despite repeated attempts by ABC News to obtain one.
Cerero-Palacios spent 16 days in immigration detention last year and was released after posting a bond, Cerero-Palacios’ attorney, Gloria Contreras Edin said.
“What is interesting is we come to find that he’s on ‘worst of the worst’ so it’s like, why is he on there,” Contreras Edintold ABC News. “They would have never released him if he had been a drug dealer. They would have never let him out on a bond and then I wonder how many other people are they doing that to.”
Cerero-Palacios told ABC News that his inclusion on the website prompted him to stay at home except to go to work.
“I was afraid to leave the home thinking that they might detain me again,” Cerero-Palacios said.
Contreras Edin shared a letter with ABC News from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension that said a background search using her client’s fingerprints, name, and date of birth “indicates that no record was found.”
The letter says the search does not preclude any information being available at the county or city level.
“I have to believe in my heart that it was an error or a mistake, but it’s such a significant error and such a significant mistake that it worries me that they may be doing this to other people,” Contreras Edin said.
DHS launched the “worst of the worst” website in December, promising to allow users to “search through some of the hundreds of thousands of criminal illegal aliens who have been arrested across all 50 states,” the agency said in a press release.
Since then, the database has grown to include more than 30,000 people. DHS has used the information on the website to justify its expansion of immigration enforcement operations such as “Operation Metro Surge” in Minnesota, where two U.S. citizens were fatally shot by federal agents during immigration operations.
Meanwhile, Cerero-Palacios is still in immigration proceedings and has a hearing about his case in April. He says the government’s claims about him have affected him profoundly.
“Imagine how many others have seen my photo? My reputation is ruined, they’ll say ‘Oh, I thought he was a hard worker, but he’s involved with drugs,'” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — Across three hours of oral arguments on Friday, a panel of judges appeared skeptical of a legal challenge to the 10% global tariff imposed by President Donald Trump after the Supreme Court struck down his first round of tariffs earlier this year.
The lengthy hearing centered on whether a 1974 law gives President Trump the power to impose the tariffs for 150 days without approval from Congress, based on the United States’ trade deficit.
The suit was brought by 24 states as well as the toy company behind Care Bears and Lincoln Logs, and a spice importer.
Brian Marshall, arguing for the plaintiffs, told the panel of three judges on the Court of International Trade that the Trump administration is misusing the law that allowed tariffs to account for a “balance of payments deficit” — which he said experts unanimously believe is distinct from a “trade deficit.”
Judge Timothy C. Stanceu repeatedly pushed back on that claim, remarking that a “balance of payments deficit” could be created by a trade imbalance.
“In other words, a fundamental international payments problem cannot be something where the United States has to pay out a lot of money. It can also be something where there is an imbalance created by large trade surpluses in which case they wanted to let more imports in,” Judge Stanceu said.
The judges also appeared skeptical that the states suing the Trump administration had the legal standing to bring the case, though they appeared more receptive to the two small businesses that also challenged the tariffs: Basic Fun, a toy company, and Burlap and Barrel, which sells single-origin kitchen spices.
“I think there’s a distinction, for example, between some of the private party plaintiffs where they said, ‘We know we have X number of containers that are coming in within a certain period of time.’ I’m not sure that I see the same degree of clarity with regard to the state plaintiffs other than we buy stuff,” said Chief Judge Mark A. Barnett.
However, the judges also appeared to push back on some of the arguments from the Trump administration, including the claim that earlier litigation related to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — which the Supreme Court concluded does not give the president the right to impose tariffs — suggested that the 1974 law now in question gives Trump that power.
“This case has nothing like that. This case has a statute that expressly allows the imposition of tariffs or quotas. So we’re in a whole different universe now,” said Stanceu. “This one turns on balance of payments deficits, a term that was not involved in the IEEPA case.”
Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate urged the court to affirm that the 1970s law gives Trump temporary tariff power, arguing Congress was clear in giving presidents broad latitude to address the deficits in question.
“The fundamental problem that exists today also existed in 1971, and that was the problem that Congress was trying to give presidents beyond President Nixon, the discretion to address by identifying balance of payments problems,” Shumate said.
The court did not signal when or how they might rule, though a decision is expected sometime in the coming months. Regardless of the ruling, tariffs are set to expire in July when the 150-day window expires.
According to the Yale Budget Lab, a nonpartisan policy research center, Trump’s tariffs — including the broad Section 122 tariffs, as well as metal and pharmaceutical tariffs imposed under different authorities — are estimated to cost every household between $760 and $940 if the Section 122 tariffs expire within 150 days. If Congress were to extend the tariffs, the price impact could be between $1,200 and $1,500 for each household.
