5 things to know on Tuesday
Biden visits Iowa for the first time since becoming president
President Joe Biden and the State of Iowa haven’t always been the best of friends. He lost the state to former President Donald Trump by eight points in the 2020 election and in 2008 dropped out of his presidential campaign after finishing fifth in the Democratic primary there. Despite the history and political peril he currently faces, Biden will travel to Iowa on Tuesday for the first time since becoming president. Biden is set to promote his economic plans to help rural families struggling with higher costs at the gas pump and elsewhere, while highlighting the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law signed into law last fall. Biden will visit a biofuel company in Menlo, a farming community west of Iowa’s capital Des Moines. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden “isn’t taking this trip through a political prism.” Rather, “he’s making the trip because Iowa is a rural state in the country that would benefit greatly from the president’s policies.”
Prefer to listen? Discover the podcast 5 things:
Inflation is still weighing on US consumers; the numbers are expected to increase further
The federal Department of Labor will provide an updated look at how inflation is pinching wallets on Tuesday when it releases the latest consumer price index. Last month’s CPI report showed inflation of 7.9% over the previous 12 months, the biggest year-on-year increase in decades. The index released on Tuesday is expected to show prices rose 8.4% from 12 months earlier, according to economists polled by data firm FactSet for an Associated Press report. The price hike was evident at the grocery store, where a recent report from the US Department of Agriculture warned that “all food prices are now expected to rise” in the coming months.
Blizzard, fires, storms, tornadoes: 18 states could see severe weather
A severe weather system will arrive in parts of the northern and central United States on Tuesday. According to the National Weather Service, a major spring snowstorm is heading for the northern plains. Meteorologists issued a blizzard warning for much of western North Dakota and smaller areas of South Dakota and Montana Tuesday through Thursday evening. The same system that brought the snow north will bring a multi-day weather outbreak to the central United States. Softball-sized hail and severe thunderstorms were reported Monday afternoon in Oklahoma and Arkansas and a tornado touched down in central Arkansas Monday night. By Tuesday, the severe storm threat zone will expand to include states from Iowa to Texas, where hail, wind and tornadoes are once again possible.
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard will face off again in libel lawsuit in Virginia
The venomous divorce of movie stars Johnny Depp, 58, and Amber Heard, 35, continues six years later, now in a $50 million (or more) defamation lawsuit that opened Monday in the Fairfax County, Virginia. A long list of witnesses includes actor Paul Bettany (for Depp) and actor James Franco and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk (for Heard). On Monday, a panel of 11 people – seven jurors and four alternates – was selected, according to Court TV, which broadcasts the trial. The petit jury is typical of civil trials in Virginia. Opening statements in the case are scheduled for Tuesday. Depp alleges that Heard defamed him in an opinion column she published in The Washington Post (which is printed in Fairfax County) in December 2018. In the column, she claimed to be a victim of domestic violence, a claim she first raised during their corrosive divorce proceedings in 2016. Heard never proved she was abused because their divorce was settled amid an outcry media.
NBA play-in tournament begins
The NBA regular season is over and the playoffs are about to begin, but first: the play-in tournament, which begins Tuesday. The play-in tournament is a win-win series featuring the 7-10 ranked teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences playing for the final two playoff spots. Tuesday’s tournament matchups feature a pair of games between the seventh and eighth seeds in each conference. Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets will host the Cleveland Cavaliers (7:30 p.m. ET, TNT) while the Los Angeles Clippers travel to Minnesota to face Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves (9:30 p.m.). ET, TNT). The winners of those games will advance to the playoffs, while the losers will have to play an extra game on Friday in hopes of moving on. For a full breakdown of how the play-in tournament works, check out this explainer.
Contribute: The Associated Press
USA Today
