TV News LIES

In January, part of a decades-old sewer line in Maryland collapsed by the Potomac River. Over the following days, the broken pipe dumped more than 200 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac near Washington, D.C.

Since then, the utility that manages the line, DC Water, has been setting up a system of pumps and a steel bulkhead to divert wastewater around the broken section of pipe so crews can begin repairs. The area's drinking water hasn't been contaminated, but scientists and environmental advocates say the damage could still be severe in a watershed that stretches to the Chesapeake Bay.

"There's a ton of nasty stuff in raw sewage. It's not just waste and bacteria, but you have all sorts of pharmaceuticals that end up in the pipe system. You have different chemicals that people pour down the sink or into drains," says Gary Belan, senior director of the clean water program at American Rivers, an advocacy group. "So a lot of that stuff can sink to the bottom of the river, have impacts on fish reproduction, bird reproduction, killing a lot of the insects, contaminating the soil."

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It might head out to sea, or it might be a 'blockbuster" late-weekend blizzard for the East Coast.

As of the afternoon of Feb. 17, top computer models continue to pore through weather data to determine the direction and strength of a storm that's still several days away from the East Coast. At the moment, the models don't agree.

"While confidence in a storm is fairly high, the timing, track, and exact ... weather impacts remain highly uncertain," the National Weather Service said in an online forecast discussion posted Feb. 17 at 2:29 p.m EST.

The weather service said that the latest European weather model shows a "farther south track with little to no precipitation for the Mid-Atlantic to the Northeast." However another model, the Europeans' AI model known as the EC-AIFS, "has been consistent in showing a fairly classic nor'easter set up for the region."

One forecaster, Weather Trader meteorologist Ryan Maue, in an email to USA TODAY, said the odds appear to be increasing for a major nor’easter with the potential for "blockbuster snowfall."

"A major storm is likely to develop out of the Southeast U.S. and emerge off the Mid-Atlantic and either head (1) east out to sea or (2) snuggle up nicely off New England," resulting in snow along the I-95 corridor, Maue said.

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Former President Barack Obama slammed the Trump administration's repeal of a landmark climate finding from the Democrat's presidency, saying the United States is "less safe" after President Donald Trump eliminated the legal basis for federal regulations targeting greenhouse gases.

In a major blow to federal efforts to combat climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency, at Trump's direction, rescinded the EPA's "endangerment finding" on Feb. 12, which was signed during the Obama administration in 2019.

The finding stated that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere "threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations," providing the legal underpinning for EPA actions during the Obama and Biden administrations to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. But with its elimination, greenhouse gases emitted from tailpipes on vehicles and factories are no longer subject to regulations from the federal government.

"Today, the Trump administration repealed the endangerment finding: the ruling that served as the basis for limits on tailpipe emissions and power plant rules," Obama said in a statement on X. "Without it, we’ll be less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change — all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money."

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The Concrete Jungle is about to feel like an Arctic tundra.

Bone-chilling temperatures will make staying outdoors a threat to life and health this weekend in the New York metro area, meteorologists and officials said.

According to the National Weather Service, New York City and surrounding areas are likely to experience the coldest temperatures of the year so far, especially Saturday night into Sunday. The agency has issued an extreme cold warning for that period.

NWS meteorologist David Stark said an “Arctic cold front” will move in Saturday morning, bringing a brief window of snowfall before the temperatures start to plummet.

“We're going to start the day in the lower 20s, and then it looks like by early evening we could be down [to] around 10 degrees,” he said.

Lows are predicted to be around 5 degrees by early Sunday morning. They’ll be made all the worse by high gusts.

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More than a dozen earthquakes rocked residents awake near San Ramon Monday morning, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The biggest quake was a notable 4.2-magnitude shaker just after 7 a.m. amid an hour-long swarm that began with a 3.9-magnitude earthquake at 6:30 a.m., according to USGS data.

Thousands of people felt the moderate shaking across the Bay Area, according to USGS’s “Did You It Feel It?” survey.

No injuries or property damage have been reported, according to KTVU..

San Ramon, located along the Calaveras Fault, has been a recent hotbed of geological activity, with more than 300 earthquakes reported there since Dec. 1, 2025, KTVU reported.

Two earthquakes were recorded on Friday and another in nearby Dublin, according to the USGS.

At least 19 earthquakes have been confirmed Monday as well as other smaller aftershocks.

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Several more beach homes have crashed into the ocean along North Carolina’s Outer Banks, littering the shoreline with hazardous debris while raising the total number of felled homes along the barrier island to 31 since 2020.

Video posted on social media shows entire homes buckling and bobbing away in the powerful surf along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore in the wake of a historic winter storm that brought high wind gusts and several inches of snow to the Carolinas.

As of Sunday, four homes in Buxton have fallen into the Atlantic. This brings the total number of homes lost to the surrounding ocean to 20 since September, and 31 since May of 2020, the National Park Service said.

All four of the privately owned homes were unoccupied at the time of their destruction, officials said.

Officials are trying to work with the property owners to develop a cleanup strategy, which has not been easy, said David Hallac, superintendent of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which is managed by the National Park Service.

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A powerful winter weather system — including an intense low-pressure "bomb cyclone" along the East Coast — is affecting a large swath of the country and driving extremely cold air deep into the Southeast.

Temperatures in southern Florida fell into the 20s on Sunday morning — it's the coldest it's been since 1989, according to the National Weather Service. A statement on the agency's website warned of freezing temperatures and "bitterly cold air" surging down the Florida Peninsula.

"All of our climate sites set new record lows for the date this morning," read a social media statement from the NWS office in Melbourne, Fla., "and most even set new monthly record lows for February!"

Though not unusually cold for much of the country, Florida isn't well-equipped for such temperatures, said Brian McNoldy, who studies cyclones at the University of Miami. " It's just something that people aren't used to," he said, "I mean, not every house even has heat, a lot of people don't have heavy coats."

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At least seven people are dead as the result of a monster winter storm in the US that has brought heavy snowfall and ice from the Gulf coast to the north-east, leaving more than one million in the south without power and cancelling more than 10,000 flights.

The Louisiana department of health confirmed two deaths related to the winter storm in Caddo parish. According to the agency, two men of unknown ages died of hypothermia.

New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani reported “at least five New Yorkers passed away and were found outside” on Saturday before it started snowing.

“While we do not yet know their causes of death, there is no more powerful reminder of the dangers of the extreme cold, and how vulnerable how many of our neighbors are, especially homeless New Yorkers,” Mamdani said.

He added the storm is bringing colder temperatures for a sustained period than New York City has experienced in eight years.

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