On the version of Hot off the Wire posted March 22 at 6 a.m. CT:

Each weekend Hot off the Wire looks at a variety of stories in business, science, health and more. This week's headlines include:

• As electric vehicle sales slow, the US relaxes plans for stricter auto emissions standards for a while.
• UN weather agency issues 'red alert' on climate change after record heat, ice-melt increases in 2023.
• Nearly 8 in 10 AAPI adults in US think abortion should be legal, AP-NORC poll finds.
• Inflation remains a headache for small business owners.
• Violent crime decreased in 2023, continuing to reverse pandemic-era spike, FBI data shows.
• A new Banksy mural sprouts beside a cropped tree in London. Many see an environmental message.
• Olympic law rewrite calls for public funding for SafeSport and federal grassroots sports office.
• One of the few remaining survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor has died at 102.
• Their WWII mission was secret for decades. Now the Ghost Army will get the Congressional Gold Medal.
• In Vermont, "Town Meeting" is democracy embodied. What can the rest of the country learn from it.
• The Associated Press traveled in February to southeast India to document working conditions in the country's booming shrimp industry.
• Sex trade to slavery: A UN agency says criminals reap $236B a year in profits from forced labor.

—The Associated Press

About this program

Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate.

Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.