Shea Stephens

President Trump says the United States has seized a Venezuelan oil tanker.

As NPR's Quill Lawrence reports, a Navy fleet is assembled in the Caribbean.

At least 30 oil companies, including Shell and BP, are offering $300 million for drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico.

The U.S.

Interior Department began taking bids on Wednesday for the first time in two years.

The Trump administration also plans to sell leases for new drilling projects off Florida and California for the first time in decades.

The Federal Reserve Board has lowered its key interest rate by another quarter point for the third time this year.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says that limited data suggests the outlook on inflation and the job market hasn't changed since the Fed's October meeting.

Powell says the Fed's inflation target remains at 2 percent.

U.S.

markets rose onward of another rate cut, but NPR's Maria Aspin reports that some Fed policymakers had reservations.

The Fed rate cut sent stocks higher on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones Industrials rose 497 points.

The Nasdaq gained 77 points and the S&P 500 added 46.

U.S.

futures are lower.

This is NPR.

A series of storms continue to dump heavy rain along the Pacific Northwest coast, causing flooding and the threat of landslides.

More than a foot of snow is possible in northwestern Wyoming from the same system.

Another storm, however, is gripping areas from the upper Midwest to New England, causing lake-effect snow and bitter cold.