Congress approves deal to avoid shutdown; IRS launches crackdown on wealthy non-filers; Putin issues warning over Ukraine

Episode Description

On the version of Hot off the Wire posted March 1 at 6:15 a.m. CT:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress has passed another short-term spending measure that would keep one set of federal agencies operating through March 8 and another set through March 22. The extension averts a shutdown for parts of the federal government that would otherwise have kicked in at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. The short-term extension is the fourth in recent months. Lawmakers are voicing increased optimism that it'll be the last before Congress approves two separate spending packages totaling more than $1.6 trillion for the full fiscal year. The renewed focus on this year’s spending bills doesn’t include a separate effort to provide military aid to Ukraine and Israel.

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — The federal judge overseeing the classified documents prosecution of Donald Trump is expected to set a trial date. It's a crucial decision that could affect whether the former president and leading Republican candidate faces a jury this year on charges that he hoarded top secret records and hid them from government investigators.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Three hundred miles apart, on the bank of the same winding Rio Grande, President Joe Biden and GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Thursday surveyed the U.S.-Mexico border. They then tussled from a distance over who was to blame for the nation’s broken immigration system and how to fix it.

STINNETT, Texas (AP) — The largest wildfire in Texas history has killed two people and left behind a desolate landscape of scorched prairie, dead cattle and burned-out homes in the Texas Panhandle.

Hundreds of people have said farewell to Alexei Navalny at a funeral in Moscow under a heavy police presence. It comes after a battle with authorities over the release of his body following his still-unexplained death in an Arctic penal colony.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS plans to go after 125,000 high-income earners who did not file tax returns going back to 2017. The agency says hundreds of millions of dollars of unpaid taxes are involved in these cases. Beginning this week, the agency will start sending out noncompliance letters to more than 25,000 people who earn more than $1 million per year and 100,000 people with incomes between $400,000 and $1 million who failed to pay their taxes between 2017 and 2021.

In other news:

Pentagon chief is put on the defensive: Lawmakers confront Lloyd Austin about his secret hospital stay
Judge blocks Texas law that gives police broad powers to arrest migrants who illegally enter the U.S.
A former career diplomat admits secretly spying for Cuban intelligence for decades.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warns that sending Western troops to Ukraine risks a global nuclear war.
Adults fracture along party lines in support for Ukraine military funding, an AP-NORC poll finds.
Excitement in the NBA, hockey has its share of highlights, too, a major female college star is turning pro and an NFL owner receives some personal bad news. Also: Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani says he is married and his bride is Japanese.
The Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge picked up last month in sign of still-elevated prices.
Applications for jobless benefits rise but remain historically low despite recent layoffs.

—The Associated Press

About this program

Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate.

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Hot Off The Wire is a collection of news, sports and entertainment reports. The program is produced by Lee Enterprises with audio provided by The Associated Press.