News Wrap: Federal judge blocks subpoenas in DOJ's Powell probe

In the day's other headlines, the Justice Department charged a man identified as Kenya Chapman,

who they believe sold the weapon used in yesterday's shooting at Old Dominion University.

The alleged gunman, Mohamed Baylor Jalo, was barred from owning a firearm after pleading

guilty back in 2016 to attempting to aid the Islamic State group.

He had been released from prison early after completing a drug treatment program.

He said the gun's serial number was partially obliterated, making it hard to trace.

The FBI says Jalo shot and killed Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Shaw and wounded two others.

The gunman was subdued and killed by ROTC students who are being hailed as heroes.

Now, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. blocked a set of Justice Department subpoenas today

related to its investigation of Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

In his decision, Judge James Bozberg wrote that prosecutors presented essentially zero evidence

of a crime, adding that a mountain of evidence suggests that the government served these subpoenas

on the board to pressure its chair into voting for lower interest rates or resigning.

Last year, the U.S. Attorney's Office issued subpoenas believed to be related to Powell's

testimony to Congress about the Fed's renovation of its headquarters.

He has denied any wrongdoing.

Speaking at a news conference today, U.S. Attorney Janine Piro said she would appeal the ruling.

A range of weather extremes is hitting areas clear across the country, starting in the west,

where it's looking like summer in places like Los Angeles, even with one week technically left in winter.

Angelinos have been flocking to the beaches and to Santa Monica Pier with temperatures climbing to 90 degrees there.

Next week, we could see records in the triple digits from Southern California to Phoenix.

Even those more accustomed to the heat say this is not normal.

Especially in LA, this is not typical. I'm from Texas originally, so I'm always appreciative of the heat,

but this is definitely different from LA. So even for me, this is like, oh, this is kind of hot, right?

Like, we're sweating. Why are we sweating in early March? This is weird.

Meantime, from Washington State to the Great Lakes, more than 24 million Americans are under winter storm alerts,

and a polar vortex will bring another wallop of winter for much of the eastern half of the country,

including areas like Washington, D.C. that just saw record heat a few days ago.

Cuba's president confirmed today that his government has held talks with the Trump

administration as a U.S. oil blockade further cripples the island nation's economy.

At a political meeting today, President Miguel Diaz Canal said the talks were,

as he put it, aimed at finding solutions through dialogue.

His comments confirmed prior U.S. media reports that such discussions were taking place.

Last week, Cuba was plunged into darkness as a blackout left millions of people without power.

At a press conference broadcast on state TV, the Cuban President blamed that on the

ongoing U.S. blockade. We are generating electricity during daytime hours,

with domestic crude and our thermoelectric plants.

The fault is not the governments. The fault lies with the energy blockade that has been

imposed on us.

Diaz Canal also said a decision to release more than 50 prisoners in the coming days was not,

as he said, imposed by another country, even though yesterday's announcement was seen by some

outsiders as an effort to win favor with the Trump administration. There was new evidence today

that the U.S. economy is showing signs of strain even before the start of the war with Iran.

For one, the GDP grew at a slower pace at the end of last year than initially thought,

growing just 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter. Separately, the latest reading on core inflation

came in at 3.1 percent, that's well above the Fed's 2 percent target. But there was a bit of good

news from the labor market with job openings rising more than expected in January.

That mixed economic picture only added to the downbeat mood on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell nearly 120 points to end the week. The Nasdaq dropped more

than 200 points. The S&P 500 also ended in negative territory.

And John Burns, an award-winning foreign correspondent for The New York Times, has died.

Over a 40-year career, he reported on far-flung corners of the globe, from South Africa to the

Soviet Union, China and the Middle East. Burns won the first of his two Pulitzer prizes for his

coverage of the Bosnian conflict in the 1990s. He was also a frequent guest here on the

news hour, including this appearance in 2003 to discuss the Iraq War.

Life under Saddam is a life lived constantly in terror, in fear.

And in consequence of which, for correspondents like myself,

finding true voices in Iraq itself is not easy. It's not impossible. But they have a tremendous

yearning to tell that truth. And the truth is a terrible truth.

John Burns died of pneumonia while under care in his native England. He was 81 years old.

Still to come on the news hour, the wider war engulfs the border between Lebanon and Israel,

and the people living there. And David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart weigh in on the week's news.

This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubenstein Studio at WETA in Washington,

headquarters of PBS News.