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This is the story of the one as an H Vac technician, he and his digital multimeter are in high demand. So when a noisy office H Vac turns out to be a failing blower motor, he doesn't break a sweat. With Grainger's easy to use website and product information, he selects the product he needs to keep everything humming right along. Call 1-800-GRAINGER clickranger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.
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The US And Russia will resume high level military talks. That's where we're starting the Seven from the Washington Post, I'm Hannah Jewell. It's Friday, February 6th. Let's get you caught up with today's seven stories. The US ended military to military dialogue with Russia in late 2021. That was when Russia was amassing a large force outside Ukraine's borders before invading it. Since then, relations between the US And Russia have cratered as the US and its European allies provided Ukraine with weapons to defend itself. Russia has responded with nuclear threats and aggressive strikes against Ukraine's civilian infrastructure. President Donald Trump vowed to quickly end the conflict. That hasn't happened, but officials said yesterday that the US Will resume regular dialogue with Moscow that will enable the countries to have talks on security topics outside of the Ukraine war. The decision risks further roiling leaders in Europe. They have bristled at Trump's approach to Russian President Vladimir Putin. School officials said a missing Minneapolis girl was seen in ice detention in Texas. That's number two. An elementary school principal in suburban Minneapolis feared the worst when he lost contact with a fifth grade student early last month. The girl stopped coming to class. When school officials reached out to her family, there was no answer. And when the family's landlord went to their house, no one was there. It took a month and a chance encounter more than a thousand miles away for the school to learn that the missing girl and her family were being held by immigration authorities in a Texas detention center. School officials said two of the girl's classmates recognized her in the detention center's cafeteria. Those two boys had also been sent to Texas with their mother when they were released on a judge's order and returned to Minnesota this week, the boys told their principal they had seen the missing girl. This is just one case. As federal agents have swept through neighborhoods in Minneapolis, tracking down families who have gone silent has become a harrowing challenge for school staff. Number three President Trump launched a website that he says will lower drug prices for patients. Yesterday, The President launched TrumpRx.gov it's a website aimed at helping Americans purchase medications at discounted prices. Trump yesterday called it one of the most transformative healthcare initiatives of all time.
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There's never been anything like it. Starting tonight, dozens of the most commonly used prescription drugs will be available at dramatic discounts for all consumers throughout a new website. It's called trumprx.gov that's trumprx.gov the drug.
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Pricing initiative has been one of Trump's top political priorities ahead of this year's midterm elections. He has argued his drug pricing plan should win us the midterms. Some health policy experts have acknowledged that Trump's plans could lower drug prices for some and expand access to medications. But many have said that the public pledges are vague, and some experts say that the program will likely be constrained by the courts. Four files show that Jeffrey Epstein Tried to Meet Vladimir Putin Last week, the Justice Department released millions of files related to its investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Putin's name appears more than a thousand times in the files. The majority of those references come from news clippings and media digests that Epstein received, rather than his personal correspondence. Epstein's private emails, however, show repeated attempts in the 2010s to arrange a meeting with the Russian president. There is no evidence in the Justice Department files that such a meeting ever took place, but the documents do reveal that several high profile Russians met and corresponded directly with Epstein. This week, Poland opened an inquiry into possible links between Epstein and Russian intelligence services. Democrats are feeling hopeful for the midterms after a big win in Texas. That's our fifth story. On Saturday, Democrat Taylor Rimette flipped a deep red state Senate district in a special election in the Dallas Fort Worth area. President Trump had won in that district by 17 percentage points in the 2024 election, but Ramet defeated his Republican opponent by 14 points despite being heavily outspent.
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This isn't red versus blue. This is right versus wrong. This is, this is about school, public school funding. This is about helping working folks. This is about lowering costs.
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That's Ramit talking to local NBC affiliate KXAS after his victory.
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Feels good. I'm honored to be able to do it. This is, you know, I've served my country, I serve in my workers union, and I cannot wait to serve as the senator for Senate District 9.
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Ramette's win has emboldened Democrats ahead of the midterm elections in November. They want to score upset wins in five Texas congressional districts that have been redrawn to favor Republicans. The Texas races are among those that will be key to determining which party controls the U.S. house. Republicans currently have a razor thin majority. The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies are today. That's number six. The first events of these Winter Games actually got underway on Wednesday, so if you're a real Winter Olympics head, you might already be deeply invested in how the curling and luge competitions are going for the rest of us. Things officially kick off at the opening ceremony at 2pm Eastern today. One athlete to watch in these Games is American skier Lindsey Vaughan. She plans to compete in Sunday's downhill race despite tearing her ACL in a crash last week in Switzerland. At 41, Vaughn is attempting to compete in a fifth Olympics after returning last season from a five year retirement. For a full schedule of events, check out our newsletter today. Find that where it always is in our show notes. And at number seven Efforts to Save the Bees Ended Up Saving the Wrong Bees for years, Americans have heard urgent pleas to save the honeybees. Celebrities and regular people have set up backyard hives to boost their numbers after a crash in the honeybee population 20 years ago. Thanks to those efforts, there are a record high number of honeybee colonies in the U.S. here's the problem. Honeybees are not native insects or even really wild insects. They can spread diseases and they tend to be pollen hogs. Their success has accelerated the decline of native bee species, of which there are around 4,000 in the US and those guys are crucial pollinators too. But there are things you can do to save all the bees. Instead of keeping honeybee hives, let your lawn get long and leave some bare earth for ground nesting native bees. You can also grow plants that are native to your region and always avoid insecticides. So go ahead and save the bees as long as you're saving all of them. That's the show for this week. Unfortunately, the credits sound a little different Today. Associate producer Taylor White and producer host Christina Quinn have been with the Seven podcast since day one. More recently, Rennie Sfornofsky has been a huge help with hosting, producing and mixing the show. A true triple threat. This was the last week at the Post for all three. They will all be severely missed. And by the way, if I was looking to launch a hot new podcast, these are the three people I would turn to first. As for the rest of us, the staff writers of the Seven are Jamie Ross, Izzn Akabow and me. Special thanks to Rena Flores. John Taylor is our editor. Copyediting by Melissa Ngo and Thomas Haliba. Mixing and sound design is by Jim Briggs and Justin Garish. Our theme music is by Edith Mudge. I'm Hannah Jewell. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend. I'll meet you back here on.