MNA NAWAZ: In the day's other headlines: The state of Texas announced it's taking over public schools in the city of Houston.

It's the nation's eight largest system, with nearly 200,000 students.

The state's Republican education commissioner claimed the school board was rife with infighting and had failed for years to deal with low academic scores.

Democrats argued the move is purely political.

Parts of the Northeast and New England spent today digging out from a powerful winter storm.

Snow totals reached three feet in higher elevations, and some 113,000 households and businesses waited for the power to come back on.

For many, shoveling was the order of the day.

MICHAEL BARBIERI, Massachusetts Resident: After setting the clocks ahead this past weekend, we were all ready for springtime.

This is not what we wanted to do in the middle of March, but it's New England.

We will deal with that.

Hopefully, the ski areas get a few more days of good skiing in.

AMNA NAWAZ: In California, the 11th atmospheric river of this winter moved on today.

It left widespread power outages affecting thousands of people.

And flooding closed several miles of the Pacific Coast Highway south of Los Angeles.

The EPA has issued a final rule to curb smokestack emissions that bring smog to downwind areas.

The new regulation, issued today, will force nearly two dozen states to cut harmful emissions from power plants and other industrial sites.

The EPA says the rule will save thousands of lives.

The mining industry calls it part of a campaign to shut down coal-fired power plants.

Russia and the U.S. had high-level discussions today on the downing of a U.S. surveillance drone over the Black Sea.

It happened Tuesday off Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, which Russia controls.

The U.S. says a Russian warplane struck the drone.

Moscow denies it.

This afternoon at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he spoke with his Russian counterpart, but gave no details.

LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. Secretary of Defense: It's important that great powers be models of transparency and communication.

The United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows.

And it is incumbent upon Russia to operate its military aircraft in a safe and professional manner.

AMNA NAWAZ: The U.S. says the drone was in international airspace over international waters.

The Russians say they have declared parts of the Black Sea off-limits to air traffic during the Ukraine war.

In economic news, the rate of U.S. inflation at the wholesale level slowed last month, a further sign that price pressures may be easing.

The Labor Department reports wholesale prices were up 4.6 percent from a year earlier, but that was far less than the jump in January.

A separate report says retail sales dropped slightly last month after a surge in spending during January.

Federal regulators have approved the first major railroad merger in the U.S. in more than 20 years.

Today's announcement green-lights Canadian Pacific to buy Kansas City Southern for $31 billion.

They are the smallest of the seven major railroads operating in the U.S., but their merger creates the only rail link from Canada to Mexico.

And Americans have a new top dog, for the first time in three decades, the French bulldog.

The American Kennel Club says Frenchies took over the top spot among purebreds last year.

Labrador retrievers had held that position for a record 31 years.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": U.S. support for Ukraine becomes an increasingly divisive issue among Republicans; we examine the most competitive House seats as the 2024 campaign takes shape; Syrians mark 12 years of civil war, as they rebuild from a devastating earthquake; plus much more.