News from around the nation.

Newsom formally asks Trump to pull National Guard out of L.A.; Experts examine ethics of lethal animal population control in CA; MA ranks high in child well-being but prices limit families' success; Dissecting MN's budget for climate change fighting funds.

Transcript

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

Stepping up his confrontation with the White House, Governor Gavin Newsom demanded Sunday that President Trump pull California National Guard troops off the streets and away from demonstrations unfolding in Los Angeles.

That from the New York Times, the report Newsom asserted on X that the deployment order was unlawful and called on the Trump administration to return the command of the Guard to his office.

The Times notes it is extremely rare for a president to call up a state's National Guard without the permission of that state's governor for the purpose of quelling unrest or enforcing law.

Meantime, government agencies kill more than a million animals each year, primarily to protect livestock or endangered species, but criticism against the practice is mounting.

In the old-growth forests of Northern California, Oregon and Washington, the U.S. Geological Survey has shot more than 3,000 barred owls because they threatened the endangered spotted owl.

U.S. wildlife biologist David Weins says they've been successful in stabilizing spotted owls.

The science was quite clear that lethal control of barred owls did arrest the long-term population declines of spotted owls.

However, we did not see an increase in spotted owl populations during the experiment.

This year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is planning to scale up the program to a 30-year cull of barred owls.

I'm Suzanne Potter.

Some experts say that lethal control programs may do more harm than good.

This story produced with original reporting from Amy McDermott for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Next, Massachusetts remains a top state for overall child well-being, but high housing prices are limiting families' ability to get ahead.

The 2025 Kids Count Data Book from the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows an uptick in the number of children living in poverty, with more than 30 percent living in cost-burdened households.

Adam Jones is a policy analyst with MassBudget.

We definitely are proud to be national leaders in health care.

We're proud to have a relatively strong public education system among states.

But we're concerned that families can't afford to stay and take advantage of those systems because they just can't afford bills.

Massachusetts continues to rank among the most expensive states for renters.

Jones says allowing towns to levy fees on high-end real estate transactions to pay for more affordable housing could help.

I'm Katherine Carley.

And Minnesota lawmakers are scheduled to be in special session today in hopes of adopting final budget agreements for 2026.

Ahead of the negotiations, lawmakers sent Governor Tim Walz some elements of the state's next spending plan.

It gives renewed support for specific programs under Minnesota's legacy amendment.

Anne Mulholland of the Nature Conservancy in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota was excited to see $33 million set aside for prairie conservation.

In Minnesota, we still have not much more than 1 percent of our native grasslands left.

So it's really important to protect what is left.

The fund draws from sales tax revenue to protect wetlands, forests and other natural resources.

This is Public News Service.

Next to New Mexico, where residents have until the end of today to comment on a draft of the new state wildlife action plan.

The plan identifies more than 500 species that require a need for conservation, more than double the number listed in the previous plan from 2017.

Ray Trejo's job as outreach coordinator for the New Mexico Wildlife Federation requires him to spend a lot of time outdoors in the southern half of the state.

He's seeing significant changes in the landscape due to ongoing drought and unprecedented dust storms.

Trejo points to mesquite shrubs, which both foxes and rabbits use for cover and shelter, not blooming on their previous schedule due to a changing climate.

Things work in the seagull system because of the diversity of the species that we have.

From our pollinators, vertebrates, habitat, it's one big family.

I'm Roz Brown.

And optimism is falling and pessimism is rising among business folks getting a read on the U.S. economy.

That's according to a new survey.

The findings are from the Center for Audit Quality, which gathered feedback from the nation's leading public company audit firms.

The firms serve clients in a wide range of industries from retail to mining.

The spring survey shows pessimism about the U.S. economy surged to 44 percent compared to just 10 percent last fall.

Meanwhile, optimism fell to 15 percent.

The Center's Julie Bell Lindsey says there are a handful of key factors behind those sentiments.

Concern about a recession, ongoing geopolitical instability and tariff uncertainty.

The Trump administration says it remains undeterred in applying broad-based tariffs in pursuit of fair trade.

Financial analysts say that approach creates less predictability for businesses with the potential for layoffs, adding some of the tariff policies have resulted in legal setbacks.

I'm Mike Moen.

Finally, as food insecurity rises in many states, groups fighting hunger are highlighting the need for food that is not only nutritious but culturally relevant.

Lealoha Kaula heads the nonprofit Kalo HCC, which serves Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities in Oregon and southwest Washington.

The organization started distributing food boxes during the pandemic, and Kaula says the food didn't always meet people's needs because it wasn't familiar or they didn't know how to use it.

In response, she says Kalo started including traditional foods in the boxes, like taro root and coconut.

It was not just hunger for food.

It was that hunger for culture.

It was that hunger for home.

That's what was filled.

Visits to food banks in the state have risen sharply in the last year, and data shows Pacific Islander Oregonians are twice as likely to experience hunger than their white neighbors.

Kaula says Kalo HCC has also started cultivating taro, a Native Hawaiian staple, and encouraging people to get involved in the project.

I'm Isabel Sharlay.

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

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