Idalia strengthens to a hurricane; Amazon raising free-shipping minimums; Trump trial set; Joe the Plumber dies | Hot off the Wire podcast

On this version of Hot off the Wire:

» Idalia became a hurricane on Tuesday as it intensified on a path toward Florida’s Gulf coast, with the National Hurricane Center warning of an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and dangerous hurricane-force winds in Florida in the next two days.

» Police are searching for both the weapon and the motive in a shooting at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that left one faculty member dead and prompted an hours-long lockdown.

» The Norfolk Southern railroad is recovering from a “hardware-related technology outage” that impacted its rail systems Monday, but there may be lingering effects for at least a couple of weeks.

» The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t planning to attend the funeral of Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died last week in a plane crash two months after launching his brief rebellion.

» Amazon has been quietly raising the amount some customers must spend on its site to get free shipping. To qualify for no-cost deliveries, some Amazon customers who don’t have Prime memberships now need to spend $35, up from $25 previously.

» Baseball action favors the Braves, the Brewers, the Astros and the Rangers while Billy Jean King celebrates a historic moment at the US Open. Correspondent Chuck Freimund reports.

» Florida residents are evacuating from homes in low-lying areas along the Gulf Coast as forecasters predict that Tropical Storm Idalia will hit the state as a major hurricane by Wednesday.

» A judge has set a March 4, 2024, trial date for Donald Trump in the federal case in Washington charging the former president with trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

» A lead box believed to have been placed in the base of a West Point monument by cadets almost two centuries ago yielded no bombshells when unsealed during a livestreamed event, just silt.

» A medical rescue helicopter has crashed into an apartment complex near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, killing a fire captain and a woman on the ground.

» The man who became known as “Joe the Plumber” during the 2008 U.S. presidential election has died. He was 49 and had pancreatic cancer.

» Hawaii’s electric utility acknowledged Sunday night its power lines started a wildfire on Maui but faulted county firefighters for declaring the blaze contained and leaving the scene, only to have a second wildfire break out nearby and become the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century.

» The Russian authorities have announced an endeavor to boost production of movies glorifying Moscow’s actions in Ukraine this year.

» On this week’s AP religion roundup, amputees in Oregon can get their body parts back for spiritual reasons and oil activities encroach on sacred sites in Uganda.