WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is visiting corn-rich Iowa on Tuesday to announce he’ll suspend a federal rule preventing the sale of higher ethanol blend gasoline this summer, as his administration tries to tamp down prices at the pump that have spiked during Russia’s war with Ukraine.

Most gasoline sold in the U.S. is blended with 10% ethanol. The Environmental Protection Agency will issue an emergency waiver to allow widespread sale of 15% ethanol blend that is usually prohibited between June 1 and Sept. 15 because of concerns that it adds to smog in high temperatures.

Senior Biden administration officials said the move will save drivers an average of 10 cents per gallon at 2,300 gas stations. Those stations are mostly in the Midwest and the South, including Texas, according to industry groups.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday took fresh aim at ghost guns, the privately made firearms without serial numbers that are increasingly cropping up in violent crimes, as he struggles to break past gun-control opposition to address firearm deaths.

Speaking at the White House, Biden highlighted the Justice Department’s work to finalize new regulations to crack down on ghost guns, and announced the nomination of Steve Dettelbach, who served as a U.S. attorney in Ohio from 2009 to 2016, to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“Law enforcement is sounding the alarm,” Biden said of ghost guns, briefly holding one up for cameras to see in the Rose Garden. “Our communities are paying the price.”

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — On the eve of the House vote to pass a massive infrastructure bill last year, Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.) received a pointed call from a Donald Trump adviser: If he voted for the package, the former president would endorse his primary opponent.

But McKinley, a civil engineer by trade, had been waiting 11 years for this moment. He couldn’t be persuaded, setting into motion a contentious primary that is bound to break a big rule of politics no matter who wins on May 10.

Either McKinley loses after bringing home a major federal investment in crumbling local infrastructure, or he manages the rare feat of knocking off a Trump-endorsed candidate in a Republican primary — in this case, fellow GOP Rep. Alex Mooney, who was drawn into the same district as McKinley after West Virginia lost one of its three seats in redistricting.

Inflation soared over the past year at its fastest pace in more than 40 years, with costs for food, gasoline, housing and other necessities squeezing American consumers and wiping out the pay raises that many people have received.

The Labor Department said Tuesday that its consumer price index jumped 8.5 percent in March from 12 months earlier — the biggest year-over-year increase since December 1981. Prices have been driven up by bottlenecked supply chains, robust consumer demand and disruptions to global food and energy markets worsened by Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Consumer prices rose 1.2 percent in March and 8.5 percent over the past 12 months as the war in Ukraine drove inflation even higher, according to data released Tuesday by the Labor Department.

The Labor Department’s consumer price index (CPI), which tracks inflation, spiked in March as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered sharp price increases across the global economy. The March annual increase in inflation was the fastest since December 1981.

Economists expected the CPI to rise 1.2 percent in March and 8.4 percent over the year leading into last month, in line with the data released Tuesday.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) says he hasn’t decided whether to run for reelection in 2024, when he could be on the same ballot as Donald Trump if the former president seeks another bid for the White House.

Romney has cast several high-profile votes putting him at odds with the GOP base — including two votes to convict Trump on impeachment charges. He became the first senator in history to convict a president of his own party in an impeachment trial in 2020.

Just last week, Romney was one of only three Republicans to vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.

CNN —
New York Democratic Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin has been indicted on charges including bribery and related offenses in connection with his alleged participation in a scheme to obtain campaign contributions in exchange for securing a state grant, according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.

Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is expected to hold a news conference on the indictment at 12 p.m. ET. The office declined to comment further.

Benjamin was indicted on multiple counts, including bribery and honest services wire fraud conspiracy, bribery, honest services wire fraud and two counts of falsification of records, for an alleged conspiracy that took place while he was a state senator.