News from around the nation.

Supreme Court weighs transgender athletes ban: Trump slaps tariffs on Iran's partners; NY farmers, rural organizations receive grants amid financial challenges; CA officials declare U.S. moves in Venezuela a national security threat; NM loses $110M after feds roll back royalties on oil and gas leases.

Transcript

The Public News Service Tuesday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments today to later decide on the legality of states banning transgender athletes from participating in girls or women's sports.

The court is tackling two related questions, whether the ban violates the 14th Amendment to the Constitution or Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

That from NBC News.

And sticking with NBC News, they report President Donald Trump announced on True Social that countries doing business with Iran will pay a 25 percent tariff on any and all business being done with the United States of America.

It came after he repeatedly warned that the U.S. may intervene if authorities open fire on the anti-government demonstrations.

Meantime, the Trump administration's plan to take over Venezuela and its oil production is drawing criticism from environmental advocates.

One coalition of elected representatives says American actions in Venezuela would increase carbon emissions and further dependency on fossil fuels, which would in turn harm national security.

Alex Cornell-DeHue is an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco, a former legislator in Maine, and president of the non-profit Elected Officials to Protect America, or EOPA.

Taking military action to increase our oil dependency is going in the wrong direction when the best thing we can do is secure clean, distributed, renewable energy, because that's what actually makes the world more secure.

President Donald Trump initially said his moves in Venezuela were intended to hamper the drug trade and bring an illegitimate dictator to justice.

I'm Suzanne Potter.

And New York farms and rural organizations are receiving grants meant to give them a financial boost during challenging times.

The Farm Aid End of Year Grants provide more than one million dollars to farm and agricultural organizations. nationwide.

These will be used to improve equity in food systems and to ensure small farms and ag businesses have a voice in federal policies.

Sarah Katz with the Chester Agriculture Center says the grant they received will help grow their farming aggregator program.

The role of the aggregator is to offer shared facilities for cold storage, delivery, and coordinating sales and logistics on behalf of right now we're working with 16 farms and they're some of the smallest BIPOC-led farms right in our area.

The aggregator has been positively received by farmers since beginning in May 2024.

I'm Edwin J. Viera.

And New Mexico taxpayers will get less money for education, healthcare, infrastructure, and other priorities from the recent sale of oil and gas leases on federal lands.

That's thanks to President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Jesse DuBel, the executive director of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, estimates taxpayers will lose millions of dollars in future royalty revenues.

We recognize in New Mexico that oil and gas is a necessary industry, but unfortunately, New Mexico residents lost over $110 million in royalties from this sale alone.

The Bureau of Land Management typically holds lease sales quarterly.

This is public news service.

Tennessee's new State of the Child report shows some progress in 2025, but it also highlights the barriers faced by kids in the state.

The Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth report physical and mental health, education, family economics, child care and the state's child welfare and youth justice data.

Callie Graves, who works with the commission, says Tennessee's child poverty rate was 26.2 percent in 2014.

She notes the state saw a significant drop from 2019 to 2021.

This most recent year of data we have is 2024 and we decreased slightly so we're at 19.1 percent of Tennessee kids living in poverty.

Over the decade, the percent of children in poverty is going down.

However, we're still about one in five percent of Tennessee kids are in poverty.

The report is meant to provide policymakers, advocates, and the public with a data-informed view of the challenges and opportunities facing Tennessee children.

Danielle Smith reporting.

And supporters of Medicaid in Idaho gathered in the Capitol Monday to express their support for the program as the 2026 session opened up.

In his final State of the State address Monday, Governor Brad Little expressed his support for the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which will cut nearly a trillion dollars for Medicaid.

Hillary Matlock with Idaho Voices for Children says the state has made its own cuts to the service, including legislation that ends a program connecting kids on Medicaid with health care and a four percent cut to reimbursement rates for Medicaid providers.

She spoke to a crowd at the Capitol building.

We know some legislators are already threatening to repeal Medicaid expansion this legislative session contrary to the will of the voters just to balance a budget crisis.

At what cost do they do this and how many lives will be lost?

In his address Little praised the rural health transformation program contained within the one Big Beautiful Bill Act however Matlock says the funding will largely go to technology upgrades instead of keeping rural hospital doors open.

I'm Eric Tegethoff reporting.

Finally the American Postal Workers Union has released a statement opposing recent changes to the Postal Service, and calling for more transparency.

The USPS has ended the practice of transporting nearly all collected mail to processing facilities on the same day.

Now, especially in rural areas, much of the mail is not processed until the next morning or after several days if collected before a weekend or holiday.

Daniel Cortes with the Oregon Postal Workers Union says while the slowdown presents many problems, it is too soon to tell how it will impact Oregon's elections.

I have faith in Oregon's ability to figure this out.

I worry about what this means for the rest of the country.

Cortez advises people who are sending time-sensitive mail, especially from outside of city centers, to hand the letter directly to a window clerk and ask for a postmark to guarantee it gets one the same day.

I'm Isabel Charlay.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

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