News from around the nation.

Gov. Abbott threatens to expel Democrats who fled Texas, escalating tensions; Health advocates: Medicaid cuts will cut access, raise costs in Nevada; ACLU files suit over Arizona panhandling ban; Kentucky residents could lose insurance when ACA expanded tax credits expire.

Transcript

The Public News Service Monday afternoon update, I'm Mike Clifford.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is threatening to remove Democratic lawmakers from office for fleeing the state and claiming they could be charged with crimes, escalating tensions overnight in a showdown over redrawing congressional lines ahead of the midterm elections.

That from the Washington Post.

They report most of the Democrats in the Texas Statehouse exited the state Sunday, many of whom arrived in Chicago in the evening to prevent Republicans from overhauling the state's map to give themselves five more safe GOP seats.

The post quotes from a letter from the governor to Democrats released on Sunday, "The truancy ends now," Abbott says.

Meantime, the cuts coming to Medicaid will make healthcare more expensive and harder to access for hundreds of thousands of low-income folks in Nevada, according to a new report from Georgetown University.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the cuts of about $1 trillion will cause 15 million people across the US to lose coverage over the next 10 years.

Georgetown professor Edwin Park says the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Republicans slashes the amount states are reimbursed and restricts provider taxes which help fund Medicaid.

This means the states cannot add new taxes or increase current taxes to help close budget shortfalls or finance various Medicaid improvement.

States are gonna have less funding for their Medicaid programs are going to have to make cuts across the board.

Right now, Nevada receives more than 4.3 billion dollars in Medicaid funding per year, which covers 77 percent of the cost of care.

I'm Suzanne Potter.

And three local residents are joining with the Arizona ACLU to sue the Phoenix suburb of Glendale over a ban on public panhandling, citing First Amendment rights.

The Glendale plaintiffs in the lawsuit call the bans unconstitutional and a direct threat to their ability to survive.

ACLU Arizona staff attorney Lauren Beall says the bans make an already challenging economic climate even worse.

Not only is an ordinance of this kind unconstitutional, it's also deeply unkind and cruel to make another reason to put folks in jail when they're just trying to get by.

Fines are up to $2,500 for violating either ban.

I'm Mark Moran.

And Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits are set to expire at the end of the year, leaving many Kentuckians wondering how they'll afford health insurance.

David Rode is a Kenton County resident who expects to pay more next year for coverage.

Most people really just can't afford essentially a thousand dollars increase or so of their monthly payment for their health insurance premium.

According to the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, the average resident with ACA coverage pays $134 per month and more than 8,000 people $10 or less per month.

Without the tax credit assistance, monthly premiums could skyrocket.

This is Public News Service.

Back to school is often a time of anxiety for students of all ages.

Experts are reminding New Jersey parents to check on kids' mental health.

In addition to first-day jitters and worries about new schools, students may have concerns about peers and academic pressure.

Meredith Mason Blount with the New Jersey chapter of The National Alliance on Mental Illness says you can help support their emotional health by keeping routines around dinner and bedtime.

Routines are hugely important, especially for younger kids because they know what to expect.

Sometimes it might feel counterintuitive that a rigid routine might make people feel restricted, but it actually can help comfort people too.

She says it's a good idea to get kids back on a school schedule and start waking them up early a couple of weeks before classes resume.

Brett Pivito reporting.

And the national shortage of air traffic controllers is putting pressure on flight safety and operations.

Ohio is stepping up to help.

Melanie Dickman, a lecturer at OSU's Center for Aviation Studies, says the goal is to create more pathways into the profession and ease strain on the system.

Ohio State's program will allow graduates to skip the first classroom phase of FAA Academy training.

Our goal is to achieve this enhanced CTI status within the next three years, if that assessor signs them off, then they can go directly into an actual facility.

So they can bypass the FAA Training Academy altogether.

Dickman says they hope to eventually offer an even more advanced track, what the FAA calls an enhanced CTI designation.

Because that's such a bottleneck right now, we are hoping that having some of these CTI programs throughout the country is gonna help alleviate that shortage a little bit.

The FAA Academy in Oklahoma City is currently the sole training site for most new controllers.

Only about 10 percent of applicants meet entry requirements and around 30 percent fail to complete the program.

This is Nadia Ramlagan for Ohio News Connection.

Finally, public health officials in Maine are criticizing the Trump administration's proposal and federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.

At issue is what's known as the government's endangerment finding, which provides the legal basis for climate regulations under the Clean Air Act.

Rebecca Bolas with the Maine Public Health Association says decades of data show pollution from vehicles and power plants are bad for the planet.

Our federal environmental protection agency seems to be more concerned with supporting the petroleum industry than supporting everyday Americans who are contending with and really paying for the costs of climate change.

EPA officials say the move will save Americans money and provide regulatory relief to the auto industry, but legal challenges are expected.

I'm Catherine Carley.

This is Mike Clifford and thank you for starting your week with Public News Service.

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