On the update version of Hot off the Wire (posted March 3 at 6:18 a.m. CT):

• South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh has been convicted of murder in the shooting deaths of his wife and son. The jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding Murdaugh guilty of two counts of murder Thursday. Murdaugh faces 30 years to life in prison without parole when he is sentenced Friday.
• Tornadoes touched down in Texas and Louisiana as a powerful storm system that dumped snow in California moved eastward. Forecasters said the storm system would the Ohio and Tennessee River valleys with severe weather Friday and bring snow to New England.
• A new crew from the United States, Russia and United Arab Emirates has arrived at the International Space Station.
• Former Vice President Mike Pence isn't saying whether he'd back Donald Trump if Trump were to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2024.
• Daniel Ellsberg, who copied and leaked documents that revealed secret details of U.S. strategy in the Vietnam War and became known as the Pentagon Papers, says he has terminal cancer and months to live.
• A German ice cream parlor has expanded its menu with a skin-crawling offering: cricket-flavored scoops with dried brown crickets on top. The unusual confection is available at Thomas Micolino’s store in southern Germany’s town of Rottenburg am Neckar, German news agency dpa reported Thursday.
• In sports, No. 1 Houston sheds another opponent, Pistol Pete is still top gun in college basketball scoring, Luca and Kyrie lead the Mavericks to a win, Patrick Kane debuts on Broadway, and the Bruins extend their historic season.

From the original version of Hot off the Wire (posted March 2 at 4 p.m. CT):

• The House Ethics Committee is launching an investigation into embattled Republican Rep. George Santos. The committee announced the probe Thursday of the New York congressman whose lies and embellishments about his resume and personal life have drawn deep scrutiny in Congress.
• The Justice Department says former President Donald Trump can be sued by injured Capitol Police officers and Democratic lawmakers over the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
• The judge has turned disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh's fate over the the jury in his double murder trial following closing arguments from the defense.
• Officials say a Lufthansa flight that experienced “significant turbulence” was diverted to Washington Dulles International Airport and seven people on board were taken to area hospitals.
• Legislation is heading to Tennessee’s Republican governor that would ensure drag shows cannot take place in public or in front of children.
• Republican senators says the Biden administration is taking $39 billion in federal money that's meant to build computer chip factories and using it to further “woke” ideas such as requiring some recipients to offer child care and encouraging the use of union labor.
• Joni Mitchell was this year’s recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
• An inquiry has found that Britain’s domestic intelligence agency missed a significant opportunity to prevent the suicide bombing that killed 22 people at a 2017 Ariana Grande concert in northwest England.
• Former President Barack Obama is marking the retirement of the South Carolina woman credited with popularizing the chant “Fired up, ready to go!” The chant came to epitomize Obama's two presidential campaigns.

—The Associated Press