News Wrap: U.S. frees cybercriminal Vinnik in Russian prisoner swap for Mark

Geoff Bennett:

The 63-year-old Fogel joined President Trump at the White House late last night, holding a can of Iron City Beer and draped in an American flag. Mr. Trump said the exchange could be an important part in ending the war in Ukraine.

A federal judge has cleared the way for President Trump’s plan to shrink the federal work force through a deferred resignation plan. U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. in Boston found a group of labor unions did not have legal standing in calling the program illegal. Eligible workers had initially faced a deadline last week to accept the offer commonly referred to as a buyout. Under the plan, they would be allowed to leave their jobs with the promise of pay through the end of September.

Eight government watchdogs are suing President Trump for abruptly firing them last month. The federal lawsuit argues the inspectors general, who all served during Mr. Trump’s first term, should get their jobs back. It states — quote — “President Trump’s attempt to eliminate a crucial and longstanding source of impartial nonpartisan oversight of his administration is contrary to the rule of law.”

They further argue that Mr. Trump was legally required to give Congress 30 days’ notice beforehand.

In Washington, D.C., the newly installed Board of Trustees at the Kennedy Center voted today to make President Trump its chairman. It comes days after Mr. Trump announced plans to overhaul the institution and after he replaced the board with his own appointees. The board also voted to fire the institution’s president, Deborah Rutter. She had initially planned to leave at the end of the year.

Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell will now be the interim president. President Trump has cited the center’s hosting drag performances as a reason for wanting to reshape its programming.

The Trump administration is scrapping a Biden policy that aimed to regulate name, image, and likeness payments to college athletes under Title IX rules. The guidance required that universities treat those funds the same as athletic scholarships, and that would have meant paying out the money proportionately to male and female athletes. A Trump official called that guidance overly burdensome.

More winter weather hit the Central U.S. today from Oklahoma to the Great Lakes. Further east, they’re digging out from a separate storm that cut its way from Kentucky to the nation’s capital. Clouds were out in Virginia today as much of the mid-Atlantic was blanketed in white. At one point, nearly 200,000 customers were without power there.

Meantime, in California, they’re bracing for an atmospheric river that will bring heavy rain. Forecasters say the flash flood risk is especially high for burned-out areas around Los Angeles.

Federal health agencies are restoring Web sites and data sets that had been forced offline due to a presidential order. That comes after a judge in Washington, D.C., ordered the content returned, saying their loss threatened the work of doctors and public health at large. The scrubbed material included information HIV monitoring, contraception, and the enrollment of women in clinical trials, among other things.

The site removals were apparently in keeping with an executive order from President Trump directing agencies to remove any indication of alleged gender ideology.

Consumer prices ticked higher last month, rising 3 percent when compared to the same time last year. That was due largely to higher costs for groceries, gasoline, and rent. Today’s reading is likely to give the U.S. Federal Reserve further reason to hold off on cutting interest rates.

President Trump made cutting prices a central part of his reelection bid, promising to reduce prices on day one. Instead, economists say his proposed tariffs could drive prices higher, even if temporarily.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell told a congressional committee today that the Fed will see how those policies play out before acting.