News from around the nation.

Senator Mitch McConnell releases more details about his health; Trump says he talked to Senator Lindsey Graham by phone, hours before he died; Drop in immigration could affect population growth in Virginia communities; North Dakota homeless advocates see promise in landmark housing law; Veterinarians oppose federal effort to upend a Massachusetts animal welfare law.

Transcript

The Public News Service Monday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

More details today in a statement from Senator Mitch McConnell.

The 84-year-old says he suffered a fall on June 14, which landed him in the hospital with polio that he suffered as a child, limiting his mobility as he ages.

McConnell says he did not break any bones or suffer any concussion as a result of the fall, but did come down with pneumonia shortly afterwards, leading to his extended hospitalization.

And President Donald Trump told NBC News Meet the Press Sunday that he spoke with Senator Lindsey Graham on Saturday night, hours before the senator died.

Trump said other than being tired, he was fine, adding he believed Graham's death was a quick end and maybe that's not the worst way to go.

Meantime, research suggests that major declines in immigration will affect population growth in rural and urban communities in Virginia and across the country.

A report from the Harvard Joint Center on Housing Studies finds that urban areas experience higher rates of domestic out-migration.

In contrast, rural areas tend to struggle with natural replacement rates, with more deaths than births.

Fairfax County, Alexandria, and large swaths of rural counties in Virginia are threatened by population decline.

Reardon Frost, with the center, says rural communities didn't see as large an influx of immigrants as other areas.

However, that small influx helped propel growth in rural areas.

Immigration was smaller than domestic migration in rural areas, but without it, there's really pretty marginal growth because in rural areas, there's really large natural loss, which means more deaths than births.

I'm Zamone Perez.

Next, advocates for unhoused people in North Dakota are hopeful a landmark federal housing bill that just became law will help the state address its growing housing crisis.

The bipartisan 21st Road to Housing Act aims to boost supply while limiting ownership by private equity firms.

Chandler Esslinger with the Fargo-Moorhead Coalition to End Homelessness says key provisions like streamlining housing voucher inspections and grant expansions to incentivize development will be especially helpful for rural states like North Dakota.

But I think it really does offer some unique opportunities to cut red tape, give communities more tools to meet the needs, and to support the continuum of housing that's required for a healthy housing ecosystem.

I'm Judith Ruiz-Branch reporting. and a growing number of veterinarians are voicing opposition to federal legislation aimed at overturning state animal welfare laws, including those in Massachusetts.

Tufts University Professor Emeritus, Dr. Nicholas Dottman, represents the state for the Humane Veterinary Medical Alliance.

He says confinement systems prevent animals from exhibiting their natural behaviors, costing them severe physical and mental harm.

The passing of the Massachusetts law was humane, a step in the right direction, and giving them back some of the freedoms that they deserved.

What's known as the Save Our Bacon Act would invalidate voter-backed initiatives in more than a dozen states, which block the use of metal gestation crates for mother pigs, veal crates, or battery cages for hens.

This is Public News Service.

Rural communities in West Virginia have stepped up local flood relief and long-term support, largely from lessons learned after the state's devastating floods of 2016 that left 23 people dead.

Arnady Romlingon reports that summer repeated rounds of rainfall moved over Clay, Greenbrier, Kanawha, and Nicholas counties.

Some areas experienced 8 to 10 feet of rain in less than 12 hours, what experts called an extremely rare thousand-year flood event.

In the aftermath, Dave Lumsden helped found West Virginia Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, a multi-county long-term disaster recovery committee.

That's a FEMA model that's recommended for communities to go ahead and address not just the immediate response and rescue, but how is it that you go about doing long-term recovery?

The 2016 floods caused more than $1 billion in damage and left thousands of people displaced or unhoused.

Next up, young adults who've been dropped out of high school could have fewer opportunities to earn a diploma and prepare for a career if proposed federal funding cuts to the Youth Build program are carried out.

Funded through For the U.S. Department of Labor, the program serves people ages 16 to 24 through education, job training, and leadership development.

Jarrell Morton leads JobPoint's YouthBuild program in Columbia.

He says the consequences of cuts to these types of programs could be very frightening.

You have individuals that were disengaged from the traditional education model, And we see that the pipeline to prison sort of feeds off of those that have been disconnected to traditional education.

Research shows youth bill participants are 47 percent more likely to earn a GED and 24 percent more likely to enroll in college than similar young adults receiving other services.

Crystal Blair reporting.

Finally, New Mexico's endangered species face a greater risk of extinction after the Trump administration finalized a rule removing habitat protections from legislation passed more than 50 years ago.

By narrowing the definition of harm, conservationists say places wildlife call home will now be open to logging, drilling, mining, real estate development, and more.

Lakin Jordahl with the Center for Biological Diversity says the landmark Endangered Species Act has been pivotal in safeguarding more than 1,300 U.S. species.

In ignoring this precedent, the Trump administration is opening the door for all kinds of industries to destroy the natural world and drive wildlife to extinction in the process.

For decades, federal agencies defined harm to include significant habitat modification or degradation that kills or injures animals by impairing their ability to eat, shelter, or breed.

I'm Roz Brown.

This is Mike Clifford.

Thank you for starting a week with Public News Service. member and listener supported, find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.