The United States men’s hockey team takes the ice for the first time in the 2026 Winter Olympics when it faces Latvia on Thursday. This Group C matchup will pit the world’s No. 1 ranked team in the Americans versus the 10th-ranked Latvians. Team USA won gold at the 2025 World Championships and finished fifth at the last Olympic Games, as it seeks its 12th Olympic medal. Latvia placed 10th at last year’s World Championships and was an 11th-place finisher at the 2022 Winter Olympics, as the Latvians are aiming for their first Olympic medal.
Opening faceoff is set for 3:10 p.m. ET from the Unipol Dome in Milan, Italy. The United States is the -2100 favorite (risk $2,100 to win $100) on the money line in the latest United States vs. Latvia odds from DraftKings Sportsbook, with Latvia at +1100. The over/under for total goals scored is 6.5. Before making any USA vs. Latvia picks, check out the 2026 Winter Olympics predictions and betting advice from SportsLine expert Mike Severance.
Severance is a well-connected writer and high-volume handicapper who has worked in the industry since 2005. After joining SportsLine, Matt quickly established himself as a top expert in multiple sports. He is SportsLine’s top NHL expert, going 28-12 (+1526) over his last 40 NHL money line picks. Anyone following his picks at sportsbooks and on betting apps could have seen strong returns.
Now, Severance has set his sights on United States vs. Latvia in men’s hockey at the Winter Olympics 2026. You can head to SportsLine now to see his picks. Here are the latest Winter Olympics odds and hockey betting trends for Latvia vs. United States:
Both squads are in the top 10 of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Ranking, with the U.S. as No. 1 and Latvia 10th. By virtue of its ranking, the U.S. automatically qualified for the 2026 Games, while Latvia won all three of its games in the final qualification tournament to earn its bid.
There are six current NHL players on the Latvian squad, with the country’s best tournament finish coming when it won bronze at the 2023 World Championships. Latvia’s best finish over its six prior Olympics is eighth place (2014), and it lost all four of its games at the 2022 Winter Olympics. As for the Americans, its entire squad is made up of NHL players as the U.S. seeks similar success to the gold medal it won at last year’s World Championships. Team USA has won two Olympic gold medals (1960, 1980) but hasn’t won any medal since taking silver at the 2010 Games.
These nations have faced off 13 times previously at either the Olympics or in the World Championships. The United States owns a 10-2-1 edge, with the one tie coming in their one prior Olympic matchup in 2006. The Americans prevailed, 6-3, when they last met in 2024, while Latvia’s only victory in the head-to-head series came at the 2014 World Championships. See Severance’s picks at SportsLine.
How to make USA vs. Latvia picks
Severance has analyzed the U.S. vs. Latvia matchup and has released his best bets, including hockey predictions on the puck line and with the over/under. You can see them only at SportsLine.
A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the Trump administration “trampled” on Sen. Mark Kelly’s First Amendment rights, blocking Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s efforts to punish the Arizona senator, a retired Naval officer.
“This Court has all it needs to conclude that Defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly’s First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees,” U.S. District Judge Richard Leon wrote. “After all, as Bob Dylan famously said, ‘You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.’ To say the least, our retired veterans deserve more respect from their Government, and our Constitution demands they receive it!”
“Rather than trying to shrink the First Amendment liberties of retired service members, Secretary Hegseth and his fellow Defendants might reflect and be grateful for the wisdom and expertise that retired service members have brought to public discussions and debate on military matters in our Nation over the past 250 years,” Leon wrote. “If so, they will more fully appreciate why the Founding Fathers made free speech the first Amendment in the Bill of Rights!”
He added, “Hopefully this injunction will in some small way help bring about a course correction in the Defense Department’s approach to these issues.”
The Defense Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hegseth said in January that the Pentagon was taking steps to downgrade Kelly’s military retirement rank and pay because of his “seditious statements,” referring to the video from Kelly and the other lawmakers, all of whom had previously served in the military or intelligence community.
Other than Kelly, the Democrats who appeared in the video are Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire and Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, and Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan.
In the video, the lawmakers said, “This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens. Like us, you all swore an oath to protect and defend this Constitution. Right now, the threats coming to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad but from right here at home. Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders,” they said. “No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.”
Kelly filed a lawsuit in January, arguing Hegseth’s actions violate Kelly’s First Amendment rights, as well as the Speech and Debate clause of the Constitution, which grants immunity to lawmakers for official acts.
In a statement posted to X on Thursday, Kelly said that the judge “made clear that Pete Hegseth violated the Constitution when he tried to punish me for something I said.”
“But this case was never just about me,” he said. “This administration was sending a message to millions of retired veterans that they, too, can be censured or demoted just for speaking out. That’s why I couldn’t let it stand.”
The Trump administration earlier this week also tried unsuccessfully to indict Kelly and the five other Democrats who appeared in the video, three sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.
Two sources familiar with the matter said that not a single grand juror found that the office of U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro had reached the probable cause threshold required to secure an indictment, meaning that they did not provide enough evidence to convince a reasonable person that a crime had been committed.
Gary Grumbach is an NBC News legal affairs reporter, based in Washington, D.C.
Ryan J. Reilly is a justice reporter for NBC News.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The Rotary Club of Rio Rancho is a community service organization that was started over 50 years ago. One of the things they do is help young students through their reading tutoring program. The reading tutoring program helps second and third grade students who do not read at grade-level. This year, the organization […]
Toby Keith came out of the gate swinging with his 1993 debut single, “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” a story song that spent two weeks atop the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and ultimately claimed its place as a ’90s country classic.
What Was Toby Keith’s Debut Single?
“Should’ve Been a Cowboy” was released on Feb. 12, 1993, as the leading single from Keith’s self-tilted debut album, which dropped about two months later.
Right off the bat, it established what fans would quickly learn were hallmarks of Keith’s career and musical identity. Strong songwriting, throwback values and old-school country traditionalism abound here, with a wistful narrator who wishes he was a little more like the rugged cowboys in his favorite Western films.
Who Wrote Toby Keith’s “Should’ve Been a Cowboy”?
Keith wrote the song solo, and sure enough, he was inspired by an old Western aesthetic: Specifically, he told the Boot in 2019, he had the television show Gunsmoke on his mind.
After a hunting trip in Kansas, the singer and about 20 of his hunting buddies rolled into a bar/restaurant combo for a bite to eat, and one man from Keith’s party decided to ask a girl in the restaurant if she wanted to dance.
“He jumps up, and he was probably 45 or 50 back then. And he runs over by a 25-year-old cowgirl, and he says he was gonna show how he can bust a move,” Keith recounted. “She turns him down, and then a few minutes later, he comes back and says she don’t dance. So they’re giving him a bunch of steam over it.”
“So that was not quite 15 minutes later, a young cowboy comes in, and off they go on the dance floor,” he explained. “Everybody’s making fun of him. And somebody says, ‘John, I guess you should’ve been a cowboy.'”
“Should’ve Been a Cowboy” became the first in a long list of successful country hits for Keith, who sent 20 singles to the No. 1 spot at country radio over the course of his career.
Keith is survived by Tricia Lucus, his wife of almost 40 years, and their three children, Shelley, Krystal and Stelen. He is also survived by multiple grandchildren and extended family.
See Photos From Toby Keith’s Final Shows in Las Vegas
Toby Keith played three shows to a sold-out crowd at Las Vegas’ Dolby Park on Dec. 10, Dec. 11 and Dec. 14, 2024. These shows would turn out to be his last. Amid his ongoing stomach cancer battle, the country legend died on Feb. 6 at the age of 62.
MILAN — Madison Chock and Evan Bates stood expressionless on the Olympic podium.
They had just received their silver medals in figure skating ice dance and now, inches away, France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron were bending down to get the gold medals Chock and Bates had so desperately wanted.
After 15 years together, Chock and Bates arrived in Italy looking for the fairy-tale ending to a storied career. It marked their fourth Olympic Games together, and Bates’ fifth appearance, and they had hinted it would be their last. In a partnership, on and off the ice, that had seen them win three world championships and seven national titles, in addition to securing their second Olympic team gold over the weekend, the individual gold medal was all that remained.
They had fought fiercely over the past four years, and had been the overwhelming favorites entering the competition. On Wednesday night, they were so close — 1.43 points and only one spot over on the podium — but it was not to be.
They graciously smiled for photographs, and congratulated Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron, as well as bronze medalists Piper Gilles and Paul Porrier of Canada, but their disappointment was palpable.
With her face stained with tears, and her voice cracking as she spoke to reporters, Chock called it “bittersweet” but said she wouldn’t change a thing.
“We really gave it our best,” she said. “And that’s what we set out to do coming to these Games. So I think we’ve got a lot to be proud of and a lot to be grateful for because we’ve had an incredible career and we’ve been so well supported by our families and our coaches by each other. And sometimes that’s just how it shakes out.”
Four years ago, Chock and Bates arrived in Beijing in search of a medal.
They had twice earned a medal at the world championships, and were fresh off their third national title but had never done better than ninth place at the Olympics.
In 2022, they had a chance and were among the legitimate contenders for not just a medal, but gold.
They did achieve it. Sort of.
Competing in the free dance portion of the team event — a competition they had been passed over for in 2014 and 2018 — the pair won their segment with a personal best score to help lift the United States to a silver medal. But the podium remained elusive.
A failed drug test by Kamila Valieva, a member of the gold medal-winning team representing the Russian Olympic Committee, was announced during the competition, resulting in the postponement of the medal ceremony. It would take nearly two years for the results to become official.
The ROC team had to drop Valieva’s scores and moved the U.S. from third to first. The United States team was declared Olympic gold medalists and received their gold medals at a ceremony in Paris in 2024 — 2½ years later.
But in the individual ice dance event, there would be no medal. They finished in fourth place after a disappointing rhythm dance ultimately kept them out of contention. “We are disappointed we didn’t medal, but we are still proud of our career and what we have achieved,” Chock said at the time.
Ice dance is a sport that often rewards longevity. There is added value in a pair being together for years, building not only trust, but also a visible connection — sometimes romantic — and a synchronicity. Chock and Bates have all of that in droves.
Though many thought 2022 would be their final Games, and they would perhaps retire after the world championships in 2023, they continued. As almost all of their biggest competitors, including gold medalists Gabriella Papadakis and Cizeron, and the top Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue who had won the Olympic bronze, walked away from the sport, it seemed as if it would finally be their turn.
For most of this four-year Olympic cycle, that was the case. Chock and Bates have been the dominant force, winning all three world championships and national titles, as well as three of the four Grand Prix finals, and just about everything else.
Throughout that stretch, perhaps the only team that had been viewed as a true rival — before the controversial pairing of Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron at the start of the current season — probably would have been Gilles and Porrier, the two-time world silver medalists.
But even Gilles credited them for bringing out the best level from her and Porrier.
“I’ve grown up with them and then now they’ve been competitors and we need that friendly competition to be able to skate our best because if we’re not pushing each other, what’s the fun in that? What’s the fun in just being like an easy chase?” Gilles said to ESPN.
They’ve also been anointed as the emotional leaders, and the heartbeat of the American contingent. Having won both of their segments during the team event Friday and Saturday, contributing 20 points to the team’s final total of 69 points, the two sat with the rest of their teammates for the men’s free skate, the final portion of the event.
Bates was seen with his arm around Amber Glenn, who had finished the women’s free skate portion earlier in the day in a disappointing third place, as they waited for the final scores, ready to console her if they ended up with the silver.
“We’re being led by Evan and Maddy, who are veterans, and I like to call them Mr. and Mrs. America,” Glenn told reporters during the team event. “They are absolutely incredible people and incredible athletes.”
Glenn previously told ESPN the pair had given her helpful advice throughout the season ahead of her first Olympic Games.
“They’ve told me to take it all in stride and just enjoy all of these fun opportunities I’m getting,” Glenn said. “Even things that are exhausting, I’ll still be able to look back on in 20 years and be like, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe I got to do that.’ It’s been great to be able to learn from them and their experiences.”
After the podium ceremony Wednesday, many fellow ice dancers, from the United States and elsewhere, came over to console them and offer their support. Chock was flocked, over the rinkside barrier, by several of her training mates. She appeared to be crying as they embraced her in a group hug.
“They’ve had an amazing career,” American teammate Emilea Zingas, who finished in fifth place with partner Vadym Kolesnik in their Olympic debut, said. “I’m in awe of [Chock] all the time, and I think they skated fabulously today. It’s disappointing to me that they didn’t get the gold, but they’re my favorites. If it was my gold to give, I’d give it to them.”
Chock and Bates did get their moment to stand atop the Olympic podium with Glenn, Ilia Malinin, Alysa Liu, Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea on Sunday.
But, in addition to harming their skates and requiring late blade alterations, Chock and Bates had to be back for the individual event the following day to start their quest for the last remaining piece in an otherwise completed puzzle.
On Monday night, less than 24 hours after the team event concluded, Chock and Bates were left stunned. Following a rhythm-dance program they were clearly happy with, the judges did the previously unthinkable. They scored them lower than Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron, who had taken the ice almost two hours earlier in one of the first groups.
“I didn’t see that one coming,” Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic gold medalist, said on NBC after Monday’s scores were announced.
But, despite any confusion or frustration, they were not deterred and remained focused on their ultimate goal.
“The game is always on, and you should know us by now, we’re not changing anything,” a resolute Chock told reporters moments later in the crowded mixed zone. “We’ve got this locked in, we know ourselves, we know our routine, and we got this.”
On Wednesday night, with their moms seated in the front row filming seemingly every moment on their phones, the two were very much locked in. Skating a matador-themed program set to a flamenco version of “Paint It Black” by the Rolling Stones — she as the matador and he as the bull — the duo earned a season’s best score of 134.67 to take over the lead.
They then had to sit and wait, in reserved seats for the leaders, as Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron took the ice. Chock and Bates held hands as they anxiously looked on. When the final scores were announced, Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron screamed with excitement. Chock and Bates tried their best to smile.
For much of the rest of the night — on the podium, during photographs and when speaking to reporters — the two did their best to hold back their tears and often had stoic expressions on their tear-stained faces. Bates acknowledged to reporters in the mixed zone that even in their disappointment, he knew one day they would be “super proud” of what they had accomplished. He added they weren’t sure of their future in the sport.
After sitting silently and stone-faced, in between Bates and Cizeron, for most of the news conference featuring all of the medalists, Chock couldn’t help but show a glimpse of some of her signature fight, the one that has made her and Bates so successful over all these years.
If this is in fact the end of their story as competitive ice dancers, Chock made it clear they did everything they could for a fairy-tale finish and there was simply nothing else they could have done.
And that ending, while not as satisfying or as perfect, just might have to be enough.
“I think we put out our very best skates every time we took Olympic ice,” Chock said. “All four performances we had here at the Olympics, we’re very proud of. They were flawless for us. We couldn’t have skated any better and we’re super proud of how we took the ice, how we handled ourselves every time and the rest is out of our hands.”
The families of jailed Iranian protesters say the country’s rulers have proposed a cruel bargain: publicly celebrate the Islamic Revolution that brought them to power, or risk the lives of their loved ones.
Human rights organizations say more than 12,000 Iranians were arrested amid the wave of anti-regime protests that swept the country in early January.
Bazdasht Shodegan is an organization formed by former Iranian prisoners that offers online support for detainees and their families. It says the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Ministry of Intelligence contacted the families of some current prisoners offering what the group called “an inhumane dilemma” — either attend marches on Wednesday celebrating the 47th anniversary of the revolution, or put the lives of their children at risk.
Several other human rights groups that monitor events in Iran also reported the messages delivered to prisoners’ families.
Two military members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) stand guard as a schoolboy carries a national flag before participating in a pro-government rally in Azadi (Freedom) Square, in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 11, 2026. Attendance in the celebrations was mandatory for all government employees and students.
Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Getty
Holding families to ransom this way is not new. The Iranian regime has a long history of putting pressure on the families of anti-regime dissidents and demonstrators.
“On the one hand, a prisoner is forced to confess under brutal torture,” says Bazdasht Shodegan. “On the other hand, his family is forced to pretend to support the regime. This is a complete cycle of mental and physical torture.”
The families contacted recently were told that if they wanted their children — many of whom face long prison sentences or even the death penalty — released or spared the most severe punishments, they would have to join the pro-regime, state-organized revolutionary celebrations to prove their loyalty in public.
To add insult to injury, they were instructed to take videos of themselves displaying regime “loyalty” and send them to the security services.
These videos, along with statements by well known figures recanting their support for the January protests, amount to trophies for the regime — tools of humiliation and intimidation designed to head off future dissent.
One such figure is businessman Mohamed Saedinia.
He is famous in Iran as the owner of a chain of candy shops and buzzing cafes beloved by young liberals in Tehran. At the start of the uprising, Saedinia closed his shops and posted a social media message saying he stood in solidarity with other Iranians who had shut their businesses to register their anger at the catastrophic plunge in Iran’s currency.
Saedinia was subsequently arrested along with his son and accused of supporting “the rioters.” Iranian authorities warned that if he was convicted, the regime would seize his assets.
This week, Saedinia’s groveling U-turn was published by Fars, Iran’s semi-official pro-regime news service.
“Unfortunately, due to problems that occurred in the market,” said the statement attributed to Saedinia, “my son mistakenly closed our shops in line with the [actions of other Tehran businesses]. Both he and I realize our mistake.”
“Therefore, we … apologize to the dear people of Iran and will show our obedience to our beloved leader and our disgust with criminal America by participating in the march to celebrate the anniversary of the revolution.”
No one in Iran may believe it, but everyone will get the message.
The quick response of a middle school basketball coach in Massachusetts saved the life of an opposing coach who was having a heart attack during a game last Thursday night.Belmont Middle School coach Ian Haffer was on the sidelines during a boys basketball game against John F. Kennedy Middle School when coach Ronnie Poirier fell face down about three minutes into the game.”Everyone was just unsure of what was going on,” Haffer said. “I noticed his lips were purple; he wasn’t breathing, you know, I kind of said, ‘We need an AED, we need to call 911.'”Haffer’s training as a doctor immediately kicked in as he removed Poirier’s shirt and put the AED pads on Poirier’s chest.”I was on with the dispatcher and the dispatcher was talking me through it, and goes, ‘Okay, get the AED,'” said Reed Bundy, a parent. “And before I could even tell them to do that, Ian had already done that.”Officials confirm Poirier had suffered a heart attack and credit Haffer’s quick action for saving the Waltham coach’s life.Although Poirier is still recovering at the hospital, he said he’s “beyond grateful” for Haffer and the support he’s received. Poirier told sister station WCVB he’s waiting on some more hospital testing before he’s released
BELMONT, Mass. —
The quick response of a middle school basketball coach in Massachusetts saved the life of an opposing coach who was having a heart attack during a game last Thursday night.
Belmont Middle School coach Ian Haffer was on the sidelines during a boys basketball game against John F. Kennedy Middle School when coach Ronnie Poirier fell face down about three minutes into the game.
“Everyone was just unsure of what was going on,” Haffer said. “I noticed his lips were purple; he wasn’t breathing, you know, I kind of said, ‘We need an AED, we need to call 911.'”
Haffer’s training as a doctor immediately kicked in as he removed Poirier’s shirt and put the AED pads on Poirier’s chest.
“I was on with the dispatcher and the dispatcher was talking me through it, and goes, ‘Okay, get the AED,'” said Reed Bundy, a parent. “And before I could even tell them to do that, Ian had already done that.”
Officials confirm Poirier had suffered a heart attack and credit Haffer’s quick action for saving the Waltham coach’s life.
Although Poirier is still recovering at the hospital, he said he’s “beyond grateful” for Haffer and the support he’s received.
Poirier told sister station WCVB he’s waiting on some more hospital testing before he’s released
The comedian plays a guy in search of a woman he met on a bus in the country-rock band’s tale of redemption
Comedian Matt Rife meets a woman on a bus, forges a bond, and then lets her get away in the music video for the Red Clay Strays’ new song “If I Didn’t Know You.”
Directed by Matthew Coleman, the brother of Strays frontman Brandon Coleman, the video becomes a Sliding Doors-like search for the couple, with both Rife and his interest, played by Mariah Morse, struggling in vain to find the other: One is walking into a bookshop while the other is walking out. At one point, he chases down the bus he sees her board and finally is reunited.
“The music video for ‘If I Didn’t Know You’ is pretty much about a guy who feels kind of lost and alone, not really sure what he’s supposed to do with his life or who he’s going to spend it with. One lonely day, he’s on the bus and this woman – played by Mariah Morse – walks on and just seems to be the answer to everything he’s been missing,” Rife says in a statement. “They have an immediate spark on this very short bus ride and then get off without really finalizing their interaction. So then my character kind of goes on this quest to find this woman who made him feel the way that she did, and hopes that she feels the same way.”
Strays guitarist Drew Nix wrote “If I Didn’t Know You.” In a statement, he says it’s inspired by his own love story with his wife.
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“One day, I was thinking about how thankful I am to have someone who made me want to, as Johnny Cash put it, ‘Walk the Line.’ I was quite the heathen before my calling, and some of those qualities stayed with me until my wife…made me want to become a better man,” he says. “She had high expectations of what her husband should be, and I finally decided to grow up. I don’t know what my life would look like if I’d never known her, and honestly, I never want to find out.”
The Red Clay Strays, who broke out in 2024 with the viral hit “Wondering Why,” will play Stagecoach festival in April and also headline Madison Square Garden in August, along with two shows at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena in October.
