Hot off the Wire: Listen to today’s top stories

President Joe Biden is calling on U.S. oil refiners to produce more gasoline and diesel. In a draft letter to refiners, Biden says their profits have tripled during a time of war between Russia and Ukraine as Americans struggle with record high prices at the pump.

Biden writes that the oil companies need to work with his administration to bring forward “near-term solutions that address the crisis.” Gas prices nationwide are averaging roughly $5 a gallon.

That’s an economic burden for many Americans and a political threat for the president’s fellow Democrats going into the midterm elections. Biden’s message that corporate greed is contributing to higher prices might resonate with voters.

Today the Fed will reveal how much they will raise interest rates. Experts believe it will increase by three quarter of a percentage point, more than triple what is typical.

Authorities say two police officers were shot and killed while investigating a possible stabbing in a Los Angeles suburb. It happened about 4:45 p.m. Tuesday at a motel in the city of El Monte.

Authorities say officers confronted a man in a motel room where shots rang out and the gunman then fled to the parking lot where more gunfire was exchanged. The gunman was shot and died.

The officers who died were described as a veteran with more than two decades of experience and a rookie with less than a year on the job. El Monte’s interim police chief called them heroes who died serving their community.

The National Weather Service is telling people to prepare for excessive heat in the the Midwest and Southeast with warnings from Michigan to Florida.

U.S. Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina has been ousted from Congress in his Republican primary after voting to impeach Donald Trump over the Jan. 6 insurrection. He is the first of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump to lose a reelection bid. 

U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner will remain in Russian custody through at least July 2 after her detention was extended for a third time, Russian state-run media has reported. The report gave no timeline for Griner’s trial, but cited a top Russian diplomat as saying that she will not be considered for detainee swaps until her case has been investigated.

The 31-year-old WNBA center was arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling after Russian airport authorities claimed in February to have found cannabis products in her luggage. Her supporters have expressed concern that Moscow will use her as a bargaining chip amid tensions over its war in Ukraine.

Lots of Major League action Tuesday night as the Cardinals rout the Pirates in a double header and Chris Bassitt pitches 8 innings to help the Mets beat the Brewers, meanwhile the Los Angeles Rams hang on to Travin Howard. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has announced his support for his chamber’s emerging bipartisan gun agreement. The Kentucky Republican’s endorsement Tuesday boosted momentum for modest but notable election-year action by Congress on an issue that’s deadlocked lawmakers for three decades.

An outline of the accord was released Sunday by 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans. Leaders hope it can be translated into legislation in days and voted on by Congress before lawmakers’ July 4 recess.

McConnell’s backing was the latest indication that last month’s gun massacres in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, had reconfigured the political calculations for some in the GOP.

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol has postponed a hearing that was to feature Trump-era Justice Department officials.

The hearing had been scheduled for Wednesday, but the committee on Tuesday morning said it had been delayed. A spokesman for the panel attributed the postponement to “a number of scheduling factors, including production timeline and availability of members and witnesses.”

Raging floodwaters that pulled houses into rivers and forced rescues by air and boat across the Yellowstone region in Montana have begun to recede. But tourists and others were still stranded Tuesday after roads and bridges were knocked out by torrential rains that swelled waterways to record levels.

Wall Street closed mostly lower on Tuesday, a day after tumbling into a bear market on worries that high inflation will push central banks to clamp the brakes too hard on the economy.

UPS has unveiled a battery-powered, four-wheeled cycle to more efficiently haul cargo in some of the world’s most congested streets and to reduce its carbon footprint. The company unveiled the tiny delivery vehicles Tuesday in New York City. It said a trial run is focused on the city and several places in Europe.

A decades-old dispute between Denmark and Canada over a tiny, barren and uninhabited rock in the Arctic has come to an end. A border will be drawn across the half-square-mile Hans Island in the waterway between the northwestern coast of Greenland and Canada’s Ellesmere Island.

President Joe Biden has told the largest federation of labor unions that he’s rebuilding the U.S. economy around workers. He’s drawing a contrast with Republicans who have increasingly attracted blue-collar votes.

Biden says, “We should encourage unions.” His speech Tuesday at the AFL-CIO convention in Philadelphia was an attempt to reset the debate on the economy. His approval ratings have slid as consumer prices and the cost of gasoline have surged.

U.S. producer prices surged 10.8% in May from a year earlier, underscoring the ongoing threat to the economy from a bout of inflation that shows no sign of slowing.

Tuesday’s report from the Labor Department showed that the producer price index — which measures inflation before it reaches consumers — rose at slightly slower pace last month than in April, when it jumped 10.9% from a year earlier, and is down from an 11.5% yearly gain in March.

Pope Francis has blasted the “ferocity and cruelty” of Russian troops in Ukraine while praising the “heroism” and “courage” of Ukrainians to defend their land. Francis also insisted there weren’t “good guys and bad guys” and that Russia was in some ways provoked by NATO’s expansion east.

A man once briefly married to Britney Spears has pleaded not guilty to felony stalking after showing up at the pop star’s wedding to her longtime boyfriend last week. Forty-year-old Jason Alexander pleaded not guilty to the charge, along with misdemeanor counts of trespassing, vandalism and battery. A California judge set his bail at $100,000 and ordered him to stay at least 100 yards from Spears for three years.

—The Associated Press