News Wrap: Georgia holds special election to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene

Geoff Bennett:

We start the day's other headlines with the latest elections taking place in Mississippi and Georgia.

For the Democrats, a hotly contested primary race features Congressman Bennie Thompson, who's fighting off a challenge from newcomer Evan Turnage. The 78-year-old Thompson is widely expected to prevail against the 34-year-old Turnage, who's taken jabs at Thompson's age.

Meantime, in Georgia, it's a crowded field and a special election to replace former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Trump-backed Clay Fuller is considered the front-runner among Republicans in the deeply conservative district, though, Democrat Shawn Harris is expected to put in a strong showing in a race that political analysts say is largely defined by the economy.

Kerwin Swint, Kennesaw State University:

Virtually everywhere, and including this district, it's the pocketbook issues, it's affordability, it's prices, it's inflation, it's those things that everybody has to deal with on a daily basis. And so I think this is a real economics kind of election. We will see if the foreign policy issues or immigration cuts into that at all.

Geoff Bennett:

With 17 candidates in the race, it's unlikely anyone will top the 50 percent threshold to prevent a run-off next month.

Today's vote comes as Democrats sued the Trump administration over whether it plans to send armed federal agents to election sites this year. The Democratic National Committee alleges that three federal agencies failed to respond to nearly a dozen Freedom of Information Act requests on the subject.

The DNC says the requests must be fulfilled to -- quote -- "ensure that the American people obtain timely knowledge of potential threats to free and fair elections." President Trump has not discussed formal plans to deploy the military or federal agents to polling places this fall, but voting rights groups have raised concerns following the president's comments to, as he put it, nationalize elections and after FBI agents raided an election warehouse in Georgia early this year.

The FDA today approved a drug for a rare genetic disorder, but not for autism, as some officials had previously suggested. Back in September, top health officials in the Trump administration touted leucovorin as a potential breakthrough for treating autism.

Dr. Mehmet Oz Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: The FDA, the FDA, based on NIH research, is approving prescription leucovorin for treatment of autistic children.

Geoff Bennett:

In the months that followed, prescriptions for the drug reportedly surged among children. Today, the FDA approved leucovorin to treat a genetic condition that limits delivery of folate, a form of vitamin B, to the brain. But an FDA official said the agency does not yet have enough evidence to show the drug works more broadly for autism.

Alabama's governor has commuted the death sentence of a 75-year-old inmate just days before he was scheduled to die by nitrogen gas. Charles "Sonny" Burton was convicted for the shooting death of a man during a 1991 robbery, even though his accomplice fired the fatal shot, and he himself was not even in the building at the time.

The shooter was ultimately spared the death penalty, and Governor Ivey said so too should Burton, reducing his sentence to life in prison without parole. It's just the second time she has commuted such a sentence since taking office back in 2017.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the next round of talks aimed at ending the war has been postponed until next week. That comes as both Kyiv and Moscow are claiming battlefield advances and reporting casualties. The governor of Russia's Bryansk region says at least six civilians were killed and dozens of others were injured in a Ukrainian missile attack today. That follows a Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Slovyansk.

Officials there say three powerful Russian glide bombs struck the city center and killed at least four people.

On Wall Street today, stocks steadied a bit as investors looked for clues on how long the war with Iran might last. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped around 35 points, so almost flat. The Nasdaq also ended virtually unchanged. The S&P 500 posted a small loss on the day.

And a bit of spring is blooming in one of the most unlikely of places. Death Valley National Park is enjoying its most spectacular superbloom in a decade. That's according to the National Park Service, which says that steady rains last fall helped turn one of the hottest and driest places on earth into a bed of vibrant colors.

But the superbloom won't last long. Officials say the wildflowers in lower elevations could be gone by later this month, while those higher up are set to blossom through June.