News from around the nation.

Chief Justice John Roberts pauses order for Trump admin to pay $2 billion in foreign aid by midnight; NM Legislature advances appropriations bill with funding for wildlife corridors; Group warns livestock manure making MI Great Lakes not so great; Volunteer lobbyists to press Colorado lawmakers on homelessness.

Transcript

The Public News Service Thursday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

Chief Justice John Roberts Wednesday paused a court-imposed midnight deadline that would have required the Trump administration to release $2 billion in frozen foreign aid, a goal the government has claimed it is unable to meet.

That from CNN.

They report the emergency appeal marks the first time President Trump's efforts to drastically remake the federal government, including with deep cuts across government agencies, have reached the nation's highest court.

The case appears likely to put the justices on a collision course with Trump's sweeping efforts to consolidate power within the executive branch.

CNN notes Roberts' order does not resolve the underlying question raised by the case.

Rather, it imposed what is known as an administrative stay to give the court a few days to review written arguments in the case.

Meantime, the New Mexico State House of Representatives has advanced an appropriations bill, advancing funding for new wildlife mitigation corridors to keep large animals and vehicles out of each other's path.

The measure allots $50 million for constructing under and overpasses to allow elk, deer, bears, and other migrating animals to avoid crossing roadways.

Jim Hirsch with the New Mexico Department of Transportation says the crossings keep both drivers and animals out of harm's way.

Have a reduction of well over 95 percent in wildlife vehicle collisions.

Research with trail cameras have demonstrated that these structures are indeed used by a variety of wildlife.

There are at least 1,200 such crashes a year reported to law enforcement, costing drivers nearly $20 million in vehicle damage, emergency response, and hospital bills.

An adult male elk can weigh up to 600 pounds and do catastrophic damage to a car or truck in a collision.

Mark Richardson reporting.

And a new analysis reveals that a staggering amount of livestock waste is flowing through Michigan's waterways each year, equivalent to the sewage of 81 million people.

The nonprofit for love of water or FLOW released the analysis.

The waste from these concentrated animal operations, also called CAFOs, contains nitrogen and phosphorus, contributing to toxic algal blooms.

Chelsea Thompson of FLOW says legal challenges to the most recent 2020 CAFO permit left Michigan firms under an outdated 2015 permit.

I think something we can both agree on, both sides anyway, is that the 2020 permit as it was written was not in the best interest of either party.

Crystal Blair reporting.

We head next to Colorado, where folks who want to move the needle on homelessness are signing up for a lobbying day next Tuesday at the state capitol.

Kathy Alderman with the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless expects dozens of people to join.

Then we send people out in teams to go find legislators in their office.

Sometimes they're debating on the floor, sometimes they're in committee, and we encourage them to support our priorities.

Folks will meet up in the morning to hear from a couple of lawmakers, and they'll get a brief training on how to talk with lawmakers about bills that impact people experiencing homelessness.

This is public news service.

The lawsuit to halt the firing of probationary federal workers gets a hearing before a district court judge in San Francisco this afternoon, even as the Trump administration readies a new round of job cuts.

A coalition of unions and nonprofits is asking that thousands of federal workers be able to stay on the job while the matter is litigated.

Retired Yosemite superintendent Don Neubacher works with the coalition to protect America's national parks.

He says civil servants deserve better treatment.

They were told they were fired because they were bad employees, but the evidence so far is just the opposite.

They were good employees and it was just an excuse.

So we believe it was an illegal firing and they didn't follow a lawful process.

Yesterday, the Trump administration doubled down, indicating it will now seek to lay off people with civil service protections in order to cut costs.

I'm Suzanne Potter.

A dozen groups partied to the lawsuit, including the American Federation of Government Employees, Voter Vets, and the United Nurses Association of California.

Next, more than 14,000 incarcerated people in Washington are not able to vote.

Two bills in Olympia aim to change that.

One bill would make voting more accessible for people in jail by improving access to the voters pamphlet and voter registration forms.

Another bill would allow people in prison in Washington to vote for the first time in the state's history.

Charles Longshore is incarcerated at the Washington Correction Center for Men in Shelton.

He does advocacy work from prison and says that without the right to vote, it's not easy to get legislators' attention.

I've helped draft a bill that's before the legislature this session and leading on several other bills, but I find that it's difficult because you have no reason to be accountable to me.

Longshore is a Skokomish tribal member and says giving the vote to incarcerated people would help right historical wrongs against indigenous people who were not given the full right to vote until 1965.

Data shows Native Americans are vastly overrepresented in the criminal legal system.

I'm Isabel Charlay.

Next, Indiana's new budget does not include funding for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

The program sends free books to children from birth to age five.

It has helped Indiana's child literacy ranking rise from 19th to sixth nationwide.

Republican Governor Mike Braun is looking for solutions and appointed First Lady Maureen Braun to work with donors and state leaders.

He says their goal is to keep the program running in all 92 counties.

When you're engaging your wife to make sure that you find the private sector to be the main funder of stuff, 'cause we got a lot of other things, infrastructure, education, healthcare, that we have to do.

Without state funding.

I'm Joe Ulari, Public News Service.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service, member and listener supported.

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