Court preserves access to abortion pill; NPR quits Twitter; Prince Harry will attend father’s coronation | Hot off the Wire podcast

On this version of Hot off the Wire:

» A federal appeals court has preserved access to the abortion pill mifepristone for now but reduced the period of pregnancy when the drug can be used and said it could not be dispensed by mail.

» President Joe Biden is set to announce that his administration is expanding eligibility for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

» Ukraine is investigating a gruesome video that purportedly shows the beheading of one of its soldiers, in the latest accusation of atrocities said to have been committed by Russia since it invaded. 

» There is widespread flooding in Florida after torrential rainfall.

» U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California is asking to be temporarily replaced on the Judiciary Committee while she recovers from a case of shingles. Her announcement Wednesday came after two House Democrats called on her to resign because of her extended absence from Washington.

» In sports, the Chicago Bulls and Oklahoma City Thunder advanced in the NBA’s play-in tournament, the Tampa Bay Rays are one win away from history amid a 12-0 start, the Miami Marlins rallied past the NL champion Philadelphia Phillies in extra innings, and the New York Islanders clinched a playoff berth for a fifth straight season.

» Commissioners in Memphis have voted to reinstate the second of two Black Democrats kicked out of the Republican-led Tennessee House. The Shelby County Board of Commissioners voted Wednesday to send Justin Pearson back to the Legislature in Nashville.

» Frantic calls from witnesses reporting a mass shooting at a Louisville bank were released by police, including one from a woman who was on a virtual meeting and saw the shooter, as well as one from the man’s mother, who told a 911 operator that her son “currently has a gun and is heading toward” the bank.

» The calls were released Wednesday, hours before an interfaith vigil was scheduled to be held Wednesday in downtown Louisville to remember victims. The event at the Muhammad Ali Center is just a few blocks away from Old National Bank, where the gunman killed five and injured eight others on Monday before police fatally shot him.

» President Joe Biden received a rock star-like welcome on Wednesday in Dundalk, a town in the Irish county where his mother’s family was from. “I don’t know why the hell my ancestors left here. It’s beautiful,” Biden declared.

» Los Angeles prosecutors have charged two former police detectives in the 2020 shooting of an unarmed man that left him paralyzed from the waist down.

» Ukraine is investigating a gruesome video that purportedly shows the beheading of one of its soldiers, in the latest accusation of atrocities said to have been committed by Russia since it invaded.

» National Public Radio is quitting Twitter over the social media company’s recent actions under owner Elon Musk to stamp it with labels that NPR says undermine its credibility.

» New York Mayor Eric Adams has named a former school teacher as the city’s “rat czar,” tasked with leading the battle against the clawed vermin.

» Second base umpire and crew chief Larry Vanover was struck in the head with a throw on during a frightening moment in the sixth inning of the New York Yankees’ game against the Cleveland Guardians.

» U.S. consumer inflation eased in March, with less expensive gas and food providing some relief to households that have struggled under the weight of surging prices.

» Buckingham Palace says Prince Harry will attend the Coronation service of his father, King Charles III, at Westminster Abbey on May 6.

» The Biden administration is proposing strict new automobile pollution limits that would require up to two-thirds of new vehicles sold in the U.S. to be electric by 2032.

» Embattled electronic cigarette-maker Juul Labs Inc. will pay $462 million to six states and the District of Columbia.

» An album from Madonna, a carol from Mariah Carey and music from “Super Mario Bros.” are among the audio titles the US. National Recording Registry.

» Saying she is ready to share the “unfathomable” experience of being arrested and incarcerated in Russia, basketball star Brittney Griner is working on a memoir that is scheduled for spring 2024.