NPR News: 02-20-2026 7AM EST
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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. There's new NPR reporting on the Justice Department's Epstein files. This reveals a fuller picture of how sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell used a Michigan arts camp in the 1990s to prey on young girls.
What new insights does NPR provide about the Justice Department's Epstein files?
NPR's Ava Berger has more.
According to files released by the DOJ, Epstein donated more than $400,000 to Interlochen Center for the Arts. That included an on-campus lodge. He and Maxwell used it during brief stays for several summers between 1994 and 2000. They reportedly walked their small dog around campus, using it as an icebreaker to meet two young teenage girls. One of them, now an adult, spoke to NPR on the condition of anonymity. She said she experienced, quote, while unsupervised at Epstein's Lodge. Former Administrator Russ McMahon described the campus as open and welcoming at the time. In hindsight, mistakes may have been made. Today, the campus has significantly increased security. Eva Berger, NPR News, Washington.
President Trump flew to northwest Georgia yesterday to make remarks. He also campaigned. Early voting is underway for a special election to fill the seat of former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. There are 18 candidates in the race. From Georgia Public Broadcasting, Sarah Callis reports the president has endorsed one of them.
Trump gave his full endorsement to Clay Fuller, a northwest Georgia district attorney running to fill Green's seat. Clay Cooper lives in Rome, Georgia. He says he still hasn't decided who will get his vote yet. And while Trump's endorsement matters, it's not the only thing he's looking at. I don't just kind of blindly follow what he says. This race puts a spotlight on the challenge that Trump faces to keep his MAGA coalition intact. Marjorie Taylor Greene was famously a Trump ally until a very public split last year. Trump has a stake in ensuring that her successor will be a loyalist. The special election runs through March 10th. For NPR News, I'm Sarah Callis.
A major wildfire continues to burn out of control in two states. The Ranger Road wildfire started in rural Oklahoma this week. It crossed north into Kansas. It has scorched nearly 450 square miles and is about 15% contained. Some towns have been evacuated. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt told NPR about the resources his state is using to battle the fires.
I ended up bringing in some air assets to suppress the fires. We have all of forestry, all the state assets right now are trying to suppress them. But when we had 59 mile an hour gusty winds yesterday, and then this low humidity. And so really, it's super hard to contain those when it's that dry and that windy. So we're trying to get on top of them right now.
Forecasters say the winds have eased somewhat today, but there are warnings posted for critical fire weather conditions in the Oklahoma Panhandle and parts of Texas and New Mexico. This is NPR. President Trump says he has ordered the Pentagon and other federal agencies to find and release all material related to extraterrestrials and UFOs. He cited tremendous interest. Writing online, Trump claimed former President Barack Obama disclosed classified information when Obama suggested in a podcast recently that that aliens were real. Obama later clarified he had not seen evidence of this. Meanwhile, in 2019, then-President Trump published a photo taken from a spy satellite. Critics say that was classified at the time.
That photo was later officially declassified. Actor Eric Dane has died after a much-publicized ALS diagnosis less than a year ago. He was 53 years old. Dane starred in Grey's Anatomy and Euphoria. And Pierre's mother, Lita Barco, has more.
On TV's Grey's Anatomy, Eric Dane played a sexy plastic surgeon. McSteamy, right?
Is that what you call me now, McSteamy?
Later on the series Euphoria, Dane portrayed a deeply troubled father.
Living a double life, not my biggest regret.
The San Francisco-born actor also played a Navy captain in the TV drama The Last Ship and a bank-robbing mutant in the film X-Men The Last Stand.
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