(CNBC) Wholesale prices rose sharply in February, providing another sign that inflation continues to percolate even aside from rising energy prices. The producer price index, a measure of pipeline costs that producers receive for their products, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.7% on the month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core PPI increased 0.5%. Excluding food, energy and trade services, PPI rose 0.5%. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for increases of 0.3% for both measures.

(The Guardian) With big oil companies poised to reap billions of dollars in profits from the war in Iran, Democratic lawmakers and progressive groups are calling for a windfall tax on major fossil fuel companies. The US-Israeli strikes on Iran have triggered the largest ever disruption to fuel supply, according to the International Energy Agency, sending crude costs surging over $100 per barrel in recent days. Those high prices have hit US pocketbooks, with average domestic gas prices topping $3.70 a gallon, and Americans spending more than an additional $2bn to fill their tanks in the past fortnight according to one estimate. As ordinary people struggle, corporations are seeing windfall gains.

(The Atlantic) NATO faces a “very bad” future if it doesn’t help clear the strait, Trump told the Financial Times. He has also said he is not asking but ordering seven countries to help. In Trump’s mind, these threats are justified: He has a problem right now, so he wants other countries to solve it. He doesn’t seem to remember or care what he said to their leaders last month or last year, nor does he know how his previous decisions shaped public opinion in their countries or harmed their interests. But they remember, they care, and they know. Specifically, they remember that for 14 months, the American president has tariffed them, mocked their security concerns, and repeatedly insulted them.

(Mediaite) Former National Security Advisor John Bolton told CNN he briefed President Donald Trump on multiple Iran retaliation scenarios during his first term, despite the president now claiming he’s “shocked” by Iran’s actions. Bolton, who served under Trump before a public falling out, joined CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday evening, where he was surprised to hear Trump had “indicated” he wasn’t made aware of the potential of retaliatory strikes Iran has since made against neighboring countries and the Strait of Hormuz, where a significant amount of the world’s oil moves through.

(Scripps News) Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is defending President Donald Trump's authority to take military action against Iran. "After carefully reviewing all the information before him, President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent threat and he took action based on that conclusion," Gabbard said in a post on social media. Gabbard released the statement hours after Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned over objections to the Iran war. Kent served under Gabbard within the U.S. intelligence community.

(Axios) House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) could get caught in the undertow of the very blue wave he hopes to ride into power this November as a growing number of Democratic candidates tell Axios they can't commit to backing his leadership. Axios reported last fall that more than 80 Democratic House candidates across the country were either non-committal on backing Jeffries' leadership or outright opposed to it. It's only gotten worse for him since then.

(Washington Post) A federal judge on Tuesday grilled Trump administration lawyers on the legal justification for the president’s $400 million White House ballroom plan, accusing the Justice Department of “shifting” arguments as historic preservationists urged him to halt the controversial project.

(CNN) President Donald Trump promised his endorsement was forthcoming in the GOP Texas Senate runoff and said he wanted whoever he didn’t pick to drop out. But now — preoccupied with the Iran war and a doomed voting bill — he’s missed a critical deadline. The decision hasn’t been on the president’s mind for days, White House officials told CNN Tuesday afternoon, noting that he was preoccupied by the war with Iran. Now, the deadline for either candidate to withdraw their name from the ballot has passed.

(The Independent) The Trump administration is considering cutting HIV relief to Zambia if the country fails to meet a list of demands, according to a new report. Key to those demands is the U.S. receiving more access to Zambia’s natural minerals, according to The New York Times. Under the draft proposal of the new deal, seen by the Times, the U.S. would provide Zambia with $1 billion in health funding over five years. That is less than half of the amount given to the southern African country for health assistance before Trump’s second term began.

(USA Today) A federal judge has permanently blocked several Arkansas school districts from implementing a state law requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments. Citing a landmark 1962 U.S. Supreme Court opinion over prayer in public schools, U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks ruled March 16 that the state "may have lost sight of the fact that 'a union of government and religion tends to destroy government and to degrade religion'" in passing Arkansas Act 573.