JUDY WOODRUFF: In the day's other news:
U.S. public health leaders
pushed to shore up further the
number of COVID-19 vaccinations.
Infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony
Fauci told a U.S. Senate hearing that
maintaining the pace of vaccinations
is key to relaxing restrictions.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, Chief Medical Adviser
to President Biden: I feel confident that,
if we continue to vaccinate people
at the rate that we're doing,
that we will very soon have a
situation where we will have so
few infections in this country,
we will begin to return to normality
that all of us desire so much.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Meanwhile, the White
House announced a deal with Uber
and Lyft to give free rides to and
from inoculation sites until July 4.
Undocumented college students
will now have access to COVID
relief and reversing a Trump era
ban. Today's announcement
includes so-called dreamers
brought to the U.S. as children.
At the same time, the number of
migrant children in federal custody
more than doubled in the past
two months. The Associated Press
reports 21,000 kids are now being
held at more than 200 sites.
Federal and state officials moved today
to head off East Coast fuel shortages,
as the Colonial Pipeline
shutdown continues. A cyberattack
closed the line last Friday,
and more than 1,000 gas stations
in the Southeast have now run dry.
In Washington, U.S. Energy Secretary
Jennifer Granholm blamed panic buying.
JENNIFER GRANHOLM, U.S. Energy
Secretary: Much as there was no
cause for, say, hoarding toilet paper
at the beginning of the pandemic,
there should be no cause for
hoarding gasoline, especially
in light of the fact that the
pipeline should be substantially
operational by the end of this week.
JUDY WOODRUFF: We will take a closer
look at this story later in the program.
A Russian-speaking ransomware
gang is threatening to release
confidential data from Washington,
D.C.'s police force. The gang
says the city has offered
them only a small payment.
The data includes identities of
informants and police disciplinary files.
A federal judge in Dallas has
rejected the National Rifle
Association's bid for bankruptcy
protection. The ruling today
blocks the gun rights group from
reorganizing itself in Texas. The NRA
is now incorporated in New York,
where a state lawsuit seeks to
dissolve it for financial abuses.
The man accused of fatally shooting
eight people, mostly of Asian descent,
at massage businesses around Atlanta
was indicted today on murder charges.
Robert Aaron Long will also face counts of
hate crimes and a possible death penalty.
Also in Georgia, three men
accused of chasing down and
killing Ahmaud Arbery last
year pled not guilty to federal
hate crimes charges. They're
already accused of murder.
In Russia, a gunman attacked a
school today, killing seven students,
a teacher and another employee.
It happened in the city
of Kazan, east of Moscow,
in the Tatarstan Republic.
At least 21 people were
wounded, most of them children.
The regional governor said that the
19-year-old suspect was arrested.
GOV. RUSTAM MINNIKHANOV, Tatarstan
Republic, Russia (through translator):
First of all, it's a huge
disaster. We lost seven children,
eighth grade students. Obviously, any help
required will be provided to the school
and to the families. This is
a huge tragedy today for the
whole republic, for our country.
JUDY WOODRUFF: This was the
deadliest school shooting
in Russia since a college student
killed 20 people in Crimea in 2018.
There's word that President Biden
will nominate former Chicago Mayor
Rahm Emanuel to be ambassador
to Japan. The "NewsHour" confirmed
it today. An announcement is
expected later this month.
The president announced today
that one million Americans have
signed up for health insurance
under Obamacare during a
special enrollment period. He
reopened the online marketplace
in February for six months. New enrollees
also receive larger subsidies than before.
In economic news, U.S. employers
posted a record 8.1 million job
openings in March. That's the
most in 20 years. But inflation
worries weighed on Wall Street
today. The Dow Jones industrial
average lost 473 points to close
at 34269. The Nasdaq fell 12
points. The S&P 500 slipped 36.
And horse trainer Bob Baffert now says a
skin ointment may have caused his Kentucky
Derby winner to fail a drug test. Medina
Spirit could be stripped of the victory
over trace amounts of a banned steroid.
However, today, he was installed
as the early favorite in Saturday's
Preakness, subject to additional testing.
Still to come on the "NewsHour":
we discuss vaccinations
with the Republican governor
of a state with one of the
lowest rates in the country;
the ransomware attack on a major fuel
pipeline causes a surge in fuel prices;
the Senate begins deliberation
on a critical and contentious
voting rights bill; and much more.