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Alaska Airlines doesn't give in to purr-pressure -- that's what Alexandra Compton found out on a recent flight home for the holidays ... and she told TMZ it might be because they're dog people.

Alexandra -- a 35-year-old bartender now known as '2 Cat Karen' -- got into a standoff with airline staff in Las Vegas when they refused to let her board with her 2 cats in the same carrier.

She tells TMZ ... on December 21 she was travelling from Vegas to Portland to go back home for the holidays on a flight with her cats Phoenix and Blaze. According to Alexandra, the airline caused a fuss over the cats being in the same carrier, but she's travelled with Alaska Airlines in the same carrier many times before.

"A man in charge came down from an office and didn’t even look at the cats," Alexandra told us. "He made the decision I needed to book another seat and get another carrier or I couldn’t fly with them. Because he didn’t look at the cats, it made me think he was a dog person. It was giving he had a golden retriever at home."

Greg Biffle and his wife sent their holiday card in the mail before they died in a fatal plane crash ... and the season's greeting is just now showing up in mailboxes of relatives and friends.

One of Biffle's friends, a restaurant owner in North Carolina named Ron Herbert, says he checked his mail Sunday and found a holiday card from the Biffles.

Herbert shared the card on social media ... and it shows Greg, wife Cristina, his daughter Emma, and their son Ryder in matching outfits -- blue jeans and white shirts -- smiling and laughing in front of flocked Christmas trees.

Tatyana Remley -- an equestrian who pleaded guilty to plotting to have her estranged husband murdered -- committed suicide last week ... and TMZ has video of responders attempting to save her life.

Watch the just-released video ... you can see police huddled over her body while one performs rhythmic compressions on Tatyana's lifeless chest last Thursday. Her body is lying on a walkway adjacent to what seems to be the outdoor seating of a restaurant.

Passersby gawk at the scene as police try valiantly to save her life, but to no avail. TMZ can confirm Tatyana died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head outside a San Diego bar.

12:40 PM PT -- The DOJ has just released a statement on X that the FBI confirmed the letter from Jeffrey Epstein to Larry Nassar is "FAKE."

Jeffrey Epstein may have had a pedo pen pal in Larry Nassar ... and President Donald Trump is also in the mix as a lover of "nubile girls," according to new documents released by the Department of Justice.

The DOJ just dumped a new batch of Epstein Files, in which there's an August 2019 letter allegedly written by Epstein to Larry Nassar while both men were incarcerated in separate federal prisons.

Nassar had been convicted of sexually assaulting hundreds of young female gymnasts and sentenced to life behind bars. Epstein was awaiting trial at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in NYC for allegedly sex trafficking minors ... but he died by suicide the same month -- August 2019 -- he allegedly penned the missive to Nassar.

The letter opens, "We shared one thing ... our love & caring for young ladies and the hope they'd reach their full potential. Our president also shares our love of young, nubile girls."

Perhaps the most famous grandma on TikTok, Epic Gamer Grandma, has died.

Her passing was confirmed by her grandson Culsan in an Instagram post Tuesday. In it, Culsan listed her date of death as December 21.

According to Culsan, his grandmother passed away "holding the hand of her daughter, Pauline."

The woman who went viral for her drunken brawl with bartenders in San Francisco is seemingly letting the cocktail connoisseurs off the hook ... TMZ has learned.

Shireen Afkari has certainly made a name for herself ever since a multi-angled video shows her at a restaurant -- arguing with employees and getting physical with patrons filming her -- and we are now told the bartenders who body-slammed and tripped Shireen have not been arrested by cops.

SFPD PIO Robert Rueca tells TMZ ... there's no investigation into those two men for their actions in the video 'cause Shireen never filed a police report against them, even though footage shows them slamming her to the ground and seemingly tripping her on purpose.

Donald Trump flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet at least eight times ... according to an internal DOJ email written by an assistant U.S. attorney in January 2020.

The email -- which dropped in a new batch of Epstein docs Monday night -- says Trump was listed as a passenger on flights between 1993 and 1996, including at least four trips where Ghislaine Maxwell was also onboard.

One 1993 flight listed Trump and Epstein as the only passengers ... and another flight included just Epstein, Trump, and an unidentified person who was 20 years old at the time, according to the email. Marla Maples, Tiffany Trump and Eric Trump are also listed as passengers.

Hunter Biden may have issued a betrayal of Shakespearean proportions in an interview on "The Shawn Ryan Show" Monday ... he slammed his dad Joe Biden's presidency, calling part of it an "obvious f***ing failure."

In the 5-and-a-half-hour sitdown, Hunter heavily criticized his father's job on immigration and the withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan.

Hunter said, “We need vibrant immigration ... but we don’t want immigrants that are coming here illegally, draining us of resources, and being prioritized above people that are actual, literal heroes, that are still recovering from 21, 20 years of endless war -- or anybody else in our society.”

And while he was on the topic of our armed forces ... Hunter admitted the way the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan in 2021 "was an obvious f***ing failure."

New video shows the fatal car crash that killed "Call of Duty" video game creator Vincent Zampella ... and it looks like speed was definitely a factor.

In the footage, obtained by TMZ, you see a red Ferrari come zooming out of a tunnel on the Angeles Crest Highway in Altadena, CA ... the sports car skids and crashes into the concrete barriers between the edge of the road and the San Gabriel Mountains.

Within a matter of seconds, a fireball erupts among the mangled car wreck ... and folks rush over and pull a body from the wreckage.

A group of second-year master's students at Brown University says the school should not be blamed for the on-campus shooting that killed two and injured several others.

The students, who live on and near campus and work on the east side of Providence, RI -- near Brown -- tell TMZ ... they don't agree with one narrative being spun that the Ivy League school is somehow to blame for the mass shooting.

Instead, the students say gun control and lack of access to mental health services are the real issues here ... and they say there's nothing Brown can do to control those things.

Travel influencer Anunay Sood died from a fatal mix and alcohol ... TMZ has learned.

The social media star's official cause of death is "combined fentanyl and ethanol toxicity" ... according to authorities in Clark County, Nevada, where he died.

We're told the manner of death is accidental.

6:19 PM PT -- Call of Duty said in a statement on X ... "Millions of us have been forever inspired by Vince Zampella’s work.  His legacy is enduring. Across all our Call of Duty teams and all across Activision, we offer our deepest condolences to Vince’s family, friends and fans on his tragic passing."

12:58 PM PT -- A rep for Electronic Arts tells TMZ ... "This is an unimaginable loss, and our hearts are with Vince’s family, his loved ones, and all those touched by his work. Vince’s influence on the video game industry was profound and far-reaching. A friend, colleague, leader and visionary creator, his work helped shape modern interactive entertainment and inspired millions of players and developers around the world. His legacy will continue to shape how games are made and how players connect for generations to come."

"Call of Duty" video game creator Vincent Zampella reportedly died in a car wreck on a mountainous stretch of highway near Los Angeles this weekend.

The California Highway Patrol says the single-car crash was reported around 12:45 PM Sunday afternoon near mile marker 62 on the Angeles Crest Highway in Altadena.

Two people were involved in the crash, according to the CHP, with one of the victims pronounced dead at the scene. NBC Los Angeles was the first to report that person was Vincent.

The video game developer was reportedly driving the car and was heading south when the car veered off the road and struck a concrete barrier ... igniting a fire.

Vincent was reportedly stuck inside the driver's seat as the car burned ... the passenger was ejected and later died at a hospital. No word on the passenger's identity.

A high school student got lit up with a Taser during a tense encounter with a cop on an Atlanta school bus ... and the disturbing moment was caught on camera.

The clip shows things spiraling fast -- 18-year-old Lanier Johnson-Hunt refuses to get off the school bus, despite repeated warnings from a school resource officer that he’ll be tased ... and after a brief scuffle, the threat turns real ... with the Taser deployed at point-blank range, right on the teen's chest, leaving him screaming in pain.

This is bananas ... a passenger at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport was caught trying to bring "nonhuman primate meat" through Customs.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said they seized the prohibited item along with some "unknown plants" and beans that were reportedly carrying pests. All the items were reportedly destroyed.

The passenger, from Congo, apparently didn't think anything of it.

Jourdin Pauline says she's stepping back from social media because of relentless cyberbullying ... posting a concerning message that also accuses people online of talking disrespectfully about her late sister.

Here's the deal ... the singer and influencer has recently made waves online after she accused Tylil James -- a member of the content creation collective Clover House -- of sexual assault. James categorically denied the claims ... and suggested he has evidence which will disprove Pauline's allegations. Fans of his immediately jumped to his defense ... and Pauline says they've taken to attacking her online.

Pauline wrote in a since-deleted tweet that the online hate has impacted her mental health ... and she's getting off social platforms to get away from the "lies, threats, and dehumanizing comments" about her.

3:53 PM PT -- A Waymo spokesperson tells TMZ ... “We are resuming ride-hailing service in the San Francisco Bay Area. Yesterday’s power outage was a widespread event that caused gridlock across San Francisco, with non-functioning traffic signals and transit disruptions. While the failure of the utility infrastructure was significant, we are committed to ensuring our technology adjusts to traffic flow during such events.

“Throughout the outage, we closely coordinated with San Francisco city officials. We are focused on rapidly integrating the lessons learned from this event, and are committed to earning and maintaining the trust of the communities we serve every day.”

San Francisco was hit with a major power outage Saturday night, turning the whole city into darkness and dangerously stalling a ton of self-driving Waymo taxis.

The citywide outage forced Waymo to halt its driverless car service, stranding the autonomous vehicles in the middle of the streets and intersections, according to pedestrians posting videos on X Saturday.

A Waymo spokesperson tells TMZ that ride-hailing services have been "temporarily suspended" due to the outage. They added, "Our teams are working diligently and in close coordination with city officials to monitor infrastructure stability, and we are hopeful to bring our services back online soon.”

SFGATE reports the company had to shut down its operation at around 8 p.m. due to the cars being unable to operate without traffic signals.

According to online footage, at least four Waymo vehicles were parked in the middle of an intersection with their hazards on, creating a large traffic jam at the busy intersection in the North Beach neighborhood.

SFGATE reports thousands of San Franciscans still remain without power on Sunday morning, as PG&E crews continue to work to restore electricity after a now nearly day-long outage.