America’s Got Governance

I can smell it already: burnt coffee, diesel exhaust, and that special aroma of modern America where a family saves for a once-in-a-lifetime trip, then gets hit with an email that reads like a screen door on a submarine. One minute you are dreaming of glaciers and bald eagles. The next minute the cruise line is gone like a cheap burger at a tailgate.

Cruise line halts operations suddenly, leaving future trips in limbo

Alaskan Dream Cruises, a small-ship operator based in Sitka, Alaska, announced it was halting operations effective Feb. 4, 2026 and canceling future sailings. Guests with reservations were told they would be refunded. There was also mention of a transfer option with UnCruise Adventures for some travelers who still want to get out on the water.

The parent company, Allen Marine, is not vanishing into the fog. It is shifting focus to other parts of the business. The company framed the move as a strategic realignment for long-term sustainability. That is corporate-speak for: the math stopped mathing.

Small ships, big costs, and zero room for “vibes”

This was not a floating mega-mall with fourteen thousand buffet tongs. It was small vessels and an intimate Alaska experience, the kind of trip where you might actually hear nature instead of DJ Thunder-Pants remixing 1987 until your ears file a complaint.

That niche is special, and it is fragile. In Alaska, everything costs more: fuel, labor, maintenance, logistics, insurance, supplies. If the economy sneezes in Washington, a small operator in Sitka catches pneumonia.

Meanwhile, the cruise industry’s big numbers can look rosy. CLIA projected 37.7 million ocean-going cruise passengers in 2025, a record-level forecast. Yet a small Alaska operator still tapped out. Big tides do not lift every boat when the little boat has to pay every fee, every checkbox, and every cost spike up front.

Refunds are promised, but calendars are already wrecked

Fox News noted the company typically sailed May through September, so passengers were not currently aboard mid-closure. That helps, but it does not un-scramble a family calendar with time off approved, flights booked, and kids already bragging about seeing a whale the size of a school bus.

What people actually need right now

• Refunds for deposits or payments, with details communicated by email.
• Clear options for anyone eligible for a transfer.
• Less phone-tree purgatory for regular Americans trying to untangle plans.

Alaska Public Media reported Allen Marine employs hundreds of seasonal and year-round workers, and the cruise line closure meant it would not be hiring for the overnight boats this season. That is not theory. That is paychecks.

Refund the money, honor the customers, keep the shipyard lights on, and let Americans build and work without getting strangled by red tape like a hot dog in the hands of a toddler. Live free, grill hard, and demand an economy that runs on steel and sweat, not slogans.

The air in The Red Hat Saloon tastes like hickory smoke, cheap beer, and that special kind of stress you only get when a government agency starts acting like your cousin who shows up to the cookout empty-handed, then guards the leftovers like Fort Knox. Somehow the brisket is always “classified.”

Minnesota says the FBI is refusing to share evidence in the Alex Pretti shooting investigation

Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) Superintendent Drew Evans issued a statement dated Feb. 16, 2026: the FBI formally notified the BCA on Feb. 13 that it will not provide the BCA access to any information or evidence the FBI collected in the Jan. 24, 2026 shooting death of Alex Pretti.

Minnesota called the FBI’s lack of cooperation “concerning and unprecedented.” That is not bar-stool poetry. That is the state’s top investigators telling you something is off.

Fox News reported the FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment as of Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. So the public gets silence with a side of shrug.

What the state says happened, and what it says it cannot get

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety BCA previously said (Feb. 6, 2026) that the Minneapolis Police Department asked the BCA to investigate an incident involving federal agents on Jan. 24, 2026, just after 9 a.m., on the 2600 block of Nicollet Avenue South in Minneapolis.

• The BCA said Pretti was 37.
• The BCA said he was officially identified on Feb. 2, 2026 by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Fox News reported Pretti was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent. Fox also reported he was an ICU nurse at a VA hospital and that he was recording federal officers on a street in Minneapolis when he was shot.

Fox reported federal officials initially said Pretti approached immigration agents with a 9 mm handgun and resisted when they tried to disarm him, but eyewitness accounts and bystander video raised questions about the government’s version of events. Fox described civilians blowing whistles and shouting, while authorities told the crowd to stay on the sidewalk.

Now the BCA is trying to do an independent review, and the FBI is essentially saying: you cannot see what we have.

Evans says the same cooperation problem is showing up in two other cases

Evans’ Feb. 16 statement also says the BCA reiterated requests for information, access to evidence, and cooperation in:

• The Jan. 7, 2026 shooting death of Renee Good
• The Jan. 14, 2026 shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis

The statement says it remains unclear whether there will be any cooperation or sharing of information in those two incidents, either. Fox reported Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis in early January, and authorities said she used her car to try to run over federal officers during an enforcement operation. Fox reported Sosa-Celis is a Venezuelan national accused of assaulting an ICE officer during a chaotic Minneapolis arrest last month.

What Minnesota says it will do anyway

The BCA says it remains committed to thorough, independent, and transparent investigations, even if it is hampered by lack of access to key information and evidence. It says it will present findings without recommendation to the appropriate prosecutorial authorities for review. It also says it is willing to share information with the FBI and DOJ if the FBI changes its stance, and that it will pursue legal avenues to obtain relevant information and evidence.

I want law and order. I also want a justice system that shows its work. Sunlight is not anti-law-enforcement. Sunlight is pro-truth. And truth, like good BBQ, can stand the heat.

Live free, grill hard, and demand receipts.

I was minding my own business, thinking about ribs and freedom, when Washington, DC did what it always does: it took a simple concept like “don’t bring a gun to the U.S. Capitol” and turned it into a full-volume panic parade.

What happened near the Capitol

On Tuesday, February 17, 2026, U.S. Capitol Police stopped and arrested an 18-year-old, Carter Camacho of Smyrna, Georgia, after he ran toward the U.S. Capitol with a loaded shotgun. It happened shortly after noon on the Lower West Terrace. The part everybody should tattoo on their brain is this: nobody was hurt.

The public first got hit with the early warning style alert: a person with “what appears to be a gun” near the West Front and a request to avoid the area. Later came the all-clear and the note that there did not appear to be any other suspects or an ongoing threat. Translation: the flashing lights got there before the full story did.

What police say they found

Capitol Police said officers located the suspect’s SUV in front of the U.S. Botanic Garden on Maryland Avenue SW. Inside the vehicle, police said a gas mask and helmet were visible. They also said the suspect had multiple rounds of ammunition and a tactical-style vest.

The Capitol grounds are not your personal stage

Let me holler this over the hum of an F-150: the Capitol is a sensitive federal space, and Capitol Police spell it out plainly. Firearms and ammunition are strictly prohibited on Capitol Grounds, even if something is legally registered somewhere else. That rule is not confusing, and it is not optional.

USCP Chief Michael Sullivan credited training for the quick response, noting that an active threat exercise had been held on the West Front in the same location and that these exercises are planned routinely. Boring competence does not trend, but it keeps people alive.

Charges and the unanswered question

Capitol Police said Camacho was arrested for:

• Unlawful Activities
• Carrying a Rifle without a License
• Unregistered Firearm
• Unregistered Ammunition

The USCP Threat Assessment Section is investigating to determine motive. Police said he was not on file with USCP. So no, you do not get a neat little narrative bow yet. You get charges, an investigation, and a reminder that sprinting toward the Capitol with a loaded shotgun is not a “whoopsie,” it is a serious problem.

Live free, grill hard, and quit testing the rules at the people’s house.

The Red Hat Saloon smelled like hickory smoke and bad decisions when I read the Fox News report and nearly tipped my stool: President Trump’s Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) logged 507 arrests in January during a nationwide “surge.” Not a symposium. Not a ribbon cutting. Actual cuffs, actual cases.

What Fox News reports happened in January

• 114 operations nationwide
• 507 arrested: 231 facing federal charges, 276 facing state charges
• 16 federal indictments secured
• 1,109 pounds of narcotics seized, including heroin, fentanyl, and meth
• Six weapons caches found
• 257 victims identified, including 27 children
• 52 victims received about $491,000 in restitution

Fox says the operation stretched across the Lower 48, from Atlantic City to San Diego, hitting places like Las Cruces, Raleigh, Miami, Buffalo, St. Paul, Wilmington (Delaware), Key West, and border towns including San Ysidro (California), Laredo (Texas), Nogales (Arizona), and Eagle Pass (Texas). That is pressure, like keeping steady heat on a brisket instead of flipping a burner for a photo and walking away.

The task force is real, and the mission is spelled out

Trump’s executive order “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” directs the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish HSTFs nationwide. The stated objective is to end the presence of criminal cartels, foreign gangs, and transnational criminal organizations, dismantle cross-border smuggling and trafficking networks, with a particular focus on offenses involving children, and use all available law enforcement tools to execute immigration laws.

I went looking for a single neat DOJ, DHS, FBI, or ICE national release packaging the exact January totals the way Fox did, and I did not find one posted in that same tidy bundle. So I’m treating those exact month totals as Fox’s reporting.

About the “ISIS” line: Trump said it

On October 23, 2025, Trump said: the cartels are the “ISIS of the Western Hemisphere.” Say what you want about the phrase, but the point is not subtle: he’s treating cartel crime like a national security threat, not a sociology class.

Receipts from the ground level

A Coast Guard press release describes a Jan. 28, 2026 case in San Juan Harbor, Puerto Rico: partner agencies seized 10 bales of cocaine weighing 358 kgs (789.25 pounds), estimated at more than $5 million wholesale, with the suspect facing federal prosecution.

And the FBI’s Houston office announced on July 17, 2025 that HSI Houston and FBI Houston established a regional HSTF, with the heads of HSI Houston and FBI Houston set to co-lead, alongside a long list of participating agencies.

Keep it legal. Keep it nationwide. Keep the heat steady. Live free, grill hard, and don’t apologize.

I can smell it already: hot diesel, salt air, and that panic-sweat coming off the Beijing bureaucracy like damp charcoal that won’t light. Out in the Pacific, America just backed a deterrence rig into the driveway and left the keys on the hood.

What Fox reported, and why it matters

Fox News reported on February 17, 2026 that the U.S. is preparing to expand deployments of advanced missile systems in the northern Philippines, building on the U.S. Army’s Typhon system already positioned in northern Luzon.

• Typhon is described as a ground-based launcher that can fire Tomahawk cruise missiles and the Standard Missile-6.
• Reporting discusses a range of more than 1,000 miles from northern Luzon, which puts parts of southern China within reach.
• The move is framed as part of a broader U.S.-Philippine push to increase deployments of what the two sides called “cutting-edge missile and unmanned systems.”

Deterrence is not a dirty word. It is the smoke alarm over the grill. You check it before the whole patio goes up.

What’s verified, and what’s still fuzzy

Typhon is not internet folklore. Reporting notes it was first deployed to Luzon in April 2024, and the capabilities cited above are presented as the reason it is more than a photo-op.

There is also an anti-ship piece in the reporting: Fox News and the AP describe a U.S. deployment of the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) tied to the Philippines. Fox places a 2025 deployment on Batan Island in Batanes, facing the Bashi Channel just south of Taiwan.

What stays conveniently undefined in public reporting: how many additional systems, exactly which ones come next, and whether any of this becomes a permanent posture. If you want a neat spreadsheet with pins on a map, the public record is intentionally broad.

The rules, the tribunal, and the neighbor who ignores the referee

Fox notes a 2016 international tribunal ruling invalidated many of China’s sweeping South China Sea claims. Beijing’s response has been the classic magic trick: ignore the ref, keep playing, then act offended when somebody calls it what it is.

Alliance posture, shifting assets, and the point of land-based systems

A joint State Department statement tied to the 12th Philippines-U.S. Bilateral Strategic Dialogue in Manila on February 16, 2026 lays out plans to continue and work to increase deployments of U.S. cutting-edge missile and unmanned systems to the Philippines, alongside cyber cooperation, maritime security, and law enforcement coordination against things like cybercrime and online scam centers.

Fox also notes the Pentagon has been juggling multiple theaters, including moving the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group from the Indo-Pacific toward the Middle East in recent weeks. That context is the whole point: land-based, mobile systems on allied territory help keep deterrence credible even while major assets shift.

This is America installing a deadbolt on a door a certain neighbor keeps rattling at 3 a.m. Live free, grill hard, and keep the sea lanes honest.

The Red Hat Saloon smelled like hickory and hot oil, the kind of place where the TV volume is a civic duty. And Tuesday that TV was loud for one reason: U.S. Southern Command said three alleged drug-running boats got hit in three strikes, and 11 men died.

What SOUTHCOM says happened

Here is the official meat on the grill. In a Feb. 17, 2026 press release, U.S. Southern Command said that late on Feb. 16, Joint Task Force Southern Spear carried out three “lethal kinetic strikes” on three vessels it says were operated by “Designated Terrorist Organizations.” SOUTHCOM said intelligence confirmed the vessels were moving along known narco-trafficking routes and were engaged in narco-trafficking operations.

• Vessel 1: Eastern Pacific, SOUTHCOM says 4 men killed.
• Vessel 2: Eastern Pacific, SOUTHCOM says 4 men killed.
• Vessel 3: Caribbean, SOUTHCOM says 3 men killed.

SOUTHCOM also said no U.S. military forces were harmed.

Big labels, small details

SOUTHCOM used a heavyweight phrase, “Designated Terrorist Organizations,” and then left the public holding a plate with no name tags. The release did not publicly identify which organizations, which boats, which flags, which leaders, or exact locations beyond “Eastern Pacific” and “Caribbean.”

It also did not lay out public evidence of narcotics on board. The statement says intelligence confirmed the activity. That may be enough for an operational decision, but for Americans trying to understand what is being done in their name, the public-facing specifics stay limited. Fox News framed the report through the SOUTHCOM statement and noted it was posted to X, but the story stays anchored to the same core facts: three strikes, 11 dead, and a label attached to the operators.

Arrest mission or strike mission?

Here is where the legal class starts clutching pearls. People are used to thinking “drug interdiction” means cutters, arrests, and paperwork. SOUTHCOM described something else: lethal strikes in international waters.

The obvious question is how this is supposed to work: if these are smugglers, do you arrest them or strike them? If these are terrorists, what is the legal framework and who made the call? The SOUTHCOM release says the Feb. 16 strikes were directed by the commander of U.S. Southern Command, Marine Gen. Francis L. Donovan. It does not say President Trump ordered this specific action.

Americans are being asked to judge by crater size

Drug trafficking destroys lives, and it finances bad actors. I get the instinct when SOUTHCOM says these vessels were engaged in narco-trafficking operations: cut the hose. But if Washington wants this to be a serious strategy and not just a thermal-camera fireworks show, it has to connect the dots for the taxpayer. The Feb. 17 release announces strikes and fatalities, but it does not describe follow-on interdictions, rescues, or recovered contraband tied to these three boats.

Three strikes. Eleven dead. No U.S. forces harmed. Now open the lid and show the work. Live free, grill hard, and make America a terrible place for smugglers to do business.

I can smell it already: that hot mix of popcorn butter, street exhaust, and somebody’s brake pads squealing like a career bureaucrat hearing the words “common sense.” Charlotte is living. Washington is posturing. And Axios Charlotte just handed us a four-day reminder that a healthy country looks like people leaving the house on purpose.

Things to do in Charlotte Feb. 17-20, 2026

Axios’ lineup for Feb. 17-20 is simple and blessedly normal: a Lunar New Year celebration with Drum Tao (Tuesday), a sculpt class (Wednesday), a writing club in a used bookstore (Thursday), and Hornets basketball (Friday). No 47-page permission slip. Just a city calendar that doubles as a national mood check.

• Tue, Feb. 17: Drum Tao at the Carolina Theatre (8:00 PM, lobby 7:00 PM). Axios lists tickets at $37+.
• Wed: Sculpt class at Trio, 5:30 to 7:30 PM, listed at $33.56+ by Axios.
• Thu, Feb. 19: Writing Club at That’s Novel Books, 5:30 to 7:00 PM, free.
• Fri, Feb. 20: Charlotte Hornets vs. Cleveland Cavaliers at Spectrum Center, 7:00 PM. Axios lists tickets at $31.15.

Feb. 17: Drum Tao, and culture that hits like fireworks in a steel drum

The Carolina Theatre bills it as a Lunar New Year celebration and calls Drum Tao an internationally renowned musical group. Translation: this is not polite background noise. This is ribs-rattling, synchronized, athletic drumming. Axios says tickets start at $37. The Carolina Theatre page clearly shows the date and time, but the ticket price was not visible in the text I could view there.

Wednesday’s sculpt class: paying to sweat is a sign of life

Axios lists a sculpt class at Trio, 5:30 to 7:30 PM, $33.56 and up. I attempted to open the linked booking page Axios points to, but it timed out, so I’m not adding anything beyond Axios’ listing. Still, the point stands: people budgeting for experiences is what an economy with a pulse looks like.

Feb. 19: Writing Club at That’s Novel Books, the quiet rebellion

That’s Novel Books hosts a Writing Club from 5:30 to 7:00 PM, listed as free. The description is wonderfully specific: two 25-minute silent writing sprints with a break in between, then time to chat, share work, and get feedback. Space is limited, and they ask folks to register. That is community infrastructure, just made of paper and nerve.

Feb. 20: Hornets vs. Cavaliers, and the arena test of normal

Ticketmaster’s event page shows the matchup, date, time, and venue at Spectrum Center. Axios pegs tickets at $31.15, but the Ticketmaster text view I accessed did not display a single fixed price. Either way, a Friday night tipoff is the ultimate referendum on normal America: families, coworkers, parking garages, and that stubborn belief a full night out is still worth it.

So no, this is not “fluff.” A local to-do list is the scoreboard. When a city can gather for drums, fitness, books, and basketball, the country is doing better than the professional panic class wants to admit. Live free, grill hard, and make normal America loud again.

I can smell it already: garlic snapping in hot oil like fireworks, lantern-light vibes, and some clipboard knight trying to measure joy with a ruler. That is the modern city in one picture. Regular humans chasing flavor and community, while the Permit Goblin creeps around like a raccoon in a dumpster behind a Whole Foods.

What’s happening at City Market

Axios Kansas City reported on February 16, 2026 that Kansas City’s City Market is distributing traditional Lunar New Year red envelopes as a teaser for a new festival: Asian Glow Fest KC.

• Red envelopes: Available at the farmers market on February 21, 2026, and again on February 28, 2026, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., while supplies last.
• Lunar New Year window cited: February 17 to February 27 this year.
• Some envelopes: Include vouchers redeemable at Asian Glow Fest KC.
• The festival: Scheduled for March 27 to March 28 at City Market, with free attendance.

South Asian or Southeast Asian? The reporting gets fuzzy

This is where the signal crackles like AM radio under a water tower. Axios frames Asian Glow Fest KC as a celebration of South Asian culture with food, art, and shopping. City Market’s own January 7, 2026 announcement describes it as a Southeast Asian night market style event celebrating Vietnamese and broader Southeast Asian food, creativity, and community.

Either way, the spine is solid: two nights, March 27 and 28, at City Market, and the public gets in free.

The real economy is people selling things people actually want

City Market says the festival will feature Asian street food, retail vendors, live music, and lion dance performances. That is not some abstract seminar. That is the small business economy doing pushups in the parking lot.

Who’s behind it

Axios notes the event is being organized by the people behind Saigon Night Market, described as a popular Florida street festival. Ott Keung, a co-founder and former Kansas Citian, said bringing it home honors his family and the sense of togetherness he grew up with.

They are partnering with Hella Good Deeds, described as a nonprofit arm of the Vietnamese coffee shop Café Cà Phê, which has put on local festivals before. Axios also names local collaborators: Dragon Wagon KC, Yummy Pho, and Made Mobb.

My only prayer: don’t smother it in red tape

Do the safety basics. Keep things clean. Make the rules clear and fair. Then back off. The reporting does not lay out exact costs for permits, security, insurance, or vendor fees, so that part is unclear. And that is exactly why the public should keep its eyes open. Sunlight is the best seasoning.

Hand out the red envelopes on February 21 and February 28. Let the vouchers point folks toward March 27 and March 28. Live free, grill hard, and let the lanterns glow.

No, George Washington didn’t have wooden teeth. Yes, he led the Siege of Boston. And if that sentence makes somebody with a clipboard and a feelings-degree flinch, good. History is supposed to have some bite.

The Washington Post (Feb. 16, 2026) walked through two things at once: a sticky myth Americans repeat like it’s gospel, and an early Revolutionary War win that deserves more respect than being shoved behind a Presidents Day mattress sale.

The actual story, not the cartoon

• After Lexington and Concord in April 1775, colonial militias bottled the British up in Boston.
• The Continental Congress picked Washington to command the new Continental Army.
• The Siege of Boston became his first campaign as commander-in-chief.
• The Post notes the siege bottled up as many as 11,000 British troops, plus loyalists.
• It ran nearly a year, driving toward the British evacuation on March 17, 1776, still celebrated in Boston as Evacuation Day.

Cold weather, hot steel: Knox and the Ticonderoga cannons

One of the biggest pushes that helped crack the stalemate came from cannons hauled from Fort Ticonderoga by Henry Knox in the dead of winter. Not magic. Logistics. The kind of grind that wins wars while the myth-factory is busy carving toothpick legends.

Washington ran his headquarters out of what is now Longfellow House in Cambridge, a National Park Service site that still stands. Real rooms. Real maps. Real mud.

Dorchester Heights: high ground does not care about your excuses

The turning point lives at Dorchester Heights, where American fortifications and cannons overlooked Boston and left the British with a nasty choice: take the hit or take the harbor route out. On March 17, 1776, they evacuated by ship. Some reports put it at roughly 11,000 British troops and about 1,000 Loyalists departing for Halifax, Nova Scotia.

And yes, in 2026 the National Park Service is marking the 250th commemoration of Evacuation Day at Dorchester Heights on Tuesday, March 17, with ceremonies and public programming.

About those teeth, and the bigger problem with lazy myths

Mount Vernon’s historical materials are clear: Washington had dentures made from materials like ivory and metal, and even human teeth, but not wood. The myth likely stuck because aged ivory can stain and look grainy.

The Post also doesn’t dodge the hard parts: Washington was a slave owner. His will called for freeing the enslaved people he owned after Martha Washington’s death, while he could not legally free all enslaved people at Mount Vernon because he did not own all of them. That contradiction is exactly why the truth matters.

Stop treating Presidents Day like a clearance rack

Presidents Day started as Washington’s birthday celebration and now gets treated like the Super Bowl of discounts. Meanwhile, Washington’s real resume gets ignored: farmer, land speculator, and after the presidency he built a whiskey distillery at Mount Vernon that became one of the largest in the country.

Remember the real story. Keep the history honest. Live free, grill hard, and don’t apologize.

The smell of charcoal is in the air, my F-150 is idling like it pays property tax, and half the country is treating a Monday like it is a sacred relic. Presidents Day rolls in and America splits into two tribes: the Closed Sign People and the Open Sign People.

What the holiday actually is (and when it hits)

Presidents Day falls on Monday, February 16, 2026, officially Washington’s Birthday. And like the Associated Press laid out, the day is less about powdered wigs and more about who answers the phone.

Closed: the paperwork kingdom takes the day off

• Federal and state government offices: closed.
• Courts: closed. Federal courts treat Washington’s Birthday as a holiday. One example: the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California lists Feb. 16, 2026 as closed, reopening Tuesday, Feb. 17.
• Most schools: closed.

This is the modern ritual. We honor presidents by shutting down the places where the law gets enforced and the paperwork gets worshiped. Then we act surprised when everything moves slower than brisket in February.

Closed: Wall Street and banks

• U.S. stock markets: closed on Feb. 16, reopening Feb. 17 (per market holiday schedules like Nasdaq’s).
• Banks: generally closed for Washington’s Birthday (consistent with Federal Reserve holiday schedules that banks commonly follow).

The economy might still “feel” online, but the traditional gears are not turning that Monday.

Open: big retail keeps humming

Most big retailers and other businesses stay open. Of course they do. The cash register does not observe solemn reflection. It observes inventory, foot traffic, and the holy sacrament of “limited time.”

Open: national parks, plus the fee-free calendar twist

National parks are open on Presidents Day, and entrance is fee-free for U.S. residents that day. The National Park Service’s 2026 list also includes June 14 as a fee-free day, labeled Flag Day and President Trump’s birthday.

That same 2026 list does not include Martin Luther King Jr. Day or Juneteenth as fee-free entrance days, which differs from a Department of the Interior post about 2025 fee-free days that included Jan. 20, 2025 (MLK Day) and June 19, 2025 (Juneteenth). The NPS notes that beginning in 2026, those fee-free days are for U.S. citizens and residents, while nonresidents pay regular entrance fees and any applicable nonresident fees.

If the courthouse is closed and the trading floor is asleep, do something that does not come with a push notification. Take your people outside. Live free, grill hard, and do not let the Closed Sign People tell you America is closed.