WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer price increases from January to February still point to an elevated inflation rate that is posing a challenge for the Federal Reserve at a delicate moment for the financial system. The government said Tuesday that prices increased 0.4% last month, just below January’s 0.5% rise. Yet excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core prices rose 0.5% in February, slightly above January's 0.4% gain. The Fed pays particular attention to the core measure as a gauge of underlying inflation pressures.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Following threats and attacks on public officials, state lawmakers across the U.S. have stepped up efforts to shield personal information from being publicly disclosed about judges, police, elected officeholders and various public employees. The measures generally are winning widespread support in state capitols.

NEW YORK (AP) — You can see right through this little aquarium fish from Thailand: Its skin is almost completely transparent. But when the light hits it just right, its body flickers with shimmering rainbow colors. Now, scientists have figured out how this fish — called the ghost catfish — creates its iridescent glow.

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A large group of migrants in Mexico who were poised to barge into the U.S. over the weekend were blocked from crossing a bridge leading from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, to El Paso, Texas, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman said. The migrants were “posing a potential threat to make a mass entry,” and physical barriers were put up to restrict their entry at the Paso Del Norte International Bridge on Sunday afternoon, spokesman Roger Maier said in a statement to The Associated Press on Monday.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — At least eight people were killed when two migrant smuggling boats capsized in shallow but treacherous surf amid heavy fog, authorities said Sunday, marking one of the deadliest maritime human smuggling operations ever off of U.S. shores. A Spanish-speaking woman on one of the panga-style boats called 911 Saturday night to report the other vessel overturned in waves at Black's Beach, authorities said. She said there were 15 people on the capsized vessel and eight on hers.

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. government took extraordinary steps Sunday to stop a potential banking crisis after the historic failure of Silicon Valley Bank, assuring all depositors at the failed institution that they could access all their money quickly, even as another major bank was shut down.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Standard time comes to an end in most parts of the United States this weekend. You'll lose an hour of sleep for one night but gain more daylight in the evening in the months ahead. The transition to daylight saving time is official at 2 a.m. local time Sunday across much of the country. Then on March 20, winter sunsets and spring is sprung.

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — Evacuations were ordered Friday in Northern California after a new atmospheric river brought heavy rain, thunderstorms and strong winds, swelling rivers and creeks and flooding several major highways during the morning commute. In Santa Cruz County, a creek bloated by rain destroyed a portion of Main Street in Soquel, a town of 10,000 people, isolating several neighborhoods. Crews were working to remove trees and other debris and find a way for people to cross the creek, county officials said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted unanimously on Friday to declassify U.S. intelligence information about the origins of COVID-19, a sweeping show of bipartisan support near the third anniversary of the start of the deadly pandemic. The 419-0 vote was final approval of the bill, sending it to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law.

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — Frozen human embryos can legally be considered property, or “chattel,” a Virginia judge has ruled, basing his decision in part on a 19th century law governing the treatment of slaves.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House leaders say the impact of a hack of health insurance marketplace used by members of Congress “could be extraordinary,” exposing sensitive personal data of lawmakers, their employees and families. DC Health Link, which runs the exchange, said an unspecified number of customers were affected and it was notifying them and working with law enforcement to quantify the damage. It said it was offering identity theft service to those affected and extending credit monitoring to all customers.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Senate confirmed Daniel Werfel to serve as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service on Thursday by a vote of 54-42. Werfel, who pledged before senators not to expand tax audits on businesses and households making less than $400,000 per year, will serve a five-year term as leader of the federal tax collection agency.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Norfolk Southern's CEO apologized before Congress on Thursday and pledged millions of dollars to help East Palestine, Ohio, recover from the fiery, hazardous materials train derailment as senators investigate rail safety and the Biden administration’s response to the disaster. “I want to begin today by expressing how deeply sorry I am for the impact this derailment has had on the residents of East Palestine and the surrounding communities,” CEO Alan Shaw told the Senate Environment and Public Works panel hearing.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell suffered a concussion after a fall at a local hotel and remains hospitalized “for a few days of observation and treatment,” a spokesman said Thursday. The Kentucky senator, 81, was at a Wednesday evening dinner for the Senate Leadership Fund, a campaign committee aligned with him, when he tripped and fell. The dinner was at the Waldorf Astoria Washington DC.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Active-service members and veterans provided firsthand testimony Wednesday about the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, describing in harrowing detail the carnage and death they witnessed on the ground while imploring Congress to help the allies left behind.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The Justice Department announced Wednesday that it will review the Memphis Police Department policies on the use of force, de-escalation policies and specialized units in response to the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols during an arrest. The review was requested by the city's mayor and police chief, the department said.

BOSTON (AP) — A passenger who helped restrain a threatening man on a weekend flight from Los Angeles to Boston said Tuesday that the entire chaotic episode was over within seconds thanks to teamwork. Simik Ghookasian said in a telephone interview that he was seated several rows behind the man, who had quietly tried to open an airliner’s emergency door before trying to stab a flight attendant with a broken metal spoon, according to prosecutors.

CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico (AP) — Four Americans who traveled to Mexico last week to seek health care got caught in a deadly shootout and were kidnapped by heavily armed men who threw them in the back of a pickup truck, officials from both countries said Monday.

A storm system marched eastward Friday, threatening heavy snow in the Midwest and Northeast after spawning likely tornadoes in Texas and Louisiana that damaged homes, a university campus and left thousands without power. The storms will threaten the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys with tornadoes as they move toward New England, the Storm Prediction Center said.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A new crew arrived at the International Space Station on Friday for a six-month mission, after overcoming trouble with one of the capsule’s docking hooks. The SpaceX capsule and its four astronauts had to wait 65 feet from the orbiting lab, as flight controllers in California scrambled to come up with a software fix.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Thursday, including the first person from the Arab world going up for an extended monthslong stay. The Falcon rocket bolted from Kennedy Space Center shortly after midnight, illuminating the night sky as it headed up the East Coast.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A man was arrested after an explosive was found in a bag checked onto a Florida-bound flight at an eastern Pennsylvania airport, federal authorities said. Marc Muffley, 40, is charged with possessing an explosive in an airport and possessing or attempting to place an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft, according to a criminal complaint.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Nearly two years ago, a California parole board voted to free Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin, but the decision was later overturned by the governor. Sirhan Sirhan will once again appear before the board Wednesday at a hearing at a federal prison in San Diego County to ask to be let out.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Even for the Thunder Bay area, a perilous swath of northern Lake Huron off the Michigan coast that has devoured many a ship, the Ironton’s fate seems particularly cruel. The 191-foot cargo vessel collided with a grain hauler on a blustery night in September 1894, sinking both. The Ironton’s captain and six sailors clambered into a lifeboat but it was dragged to the bottom before they could detach it from the ship. Only two crewmen survived. The gravesite long eluded shipwreck hunters.

BOSTON (AP) — Heavy snow bookended the United States on Tuesday, with a late-season storm bringing a messy morning commute to the Northeast and California residents digging out, or in some cases simply stranded, after yet another storm. Schools across southern New England either closed for the day or delayed opening as the most significant snowfall of what has been a mild winter hit early Tuesday. As much as 7 or 8 inches of snow blanketed some communities by sunrise.