News from around the nation.

Francine slams Louisiana with wind, flooding rains - now affecting Mississippi; Coushatta Tribe works to overcome obstacles to recycling program; Sale of U.S. Steel to Japan's Nippon Steel may affect union workers, community; New study reveals shifting American views on free speech amid Israel-Hamas war.

Transcript

The Public News Service Thursday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

Francine was downgraded to a tropical storm today after slamming the Louisiana coast as a powerful category two hurricane Wednesday with 100 mile per hour winds that ripped roofs from buildings and trapped dozens of residents inside their homes amid rising flood waters due to torrential rain.

That from Fox weather.

The National Hurricane Center said Francine expected to take a gradual turn to the north.

On that track, the center of the tropical depression will move over portions of central and northern Mississippi through early Friday.

Meantime, members of the Cacheta tribe in South Central Louisiana decided a recycling program was a good way to fulfill their cultural pledge to take care of the earth, but they were not prepared for the challenges they would face.

With a half million dollar startup grant from the EPA, they were off and running in 2023.

However, educating people on how to recycle filled with long distances to processing facilities has made the operation difficult.

Kyler Burke is one of the program's organizers and says that has not deterred the tribe.

I think a lot of tribal members see what's happening.

They see the state of the world presently and they wanna make a change.

They're learning about recycling, they wanna make an effort, but ultimately as a tribe, it's up for us to give them the tools to do that.

I'm Mark Richardson.

This story was produced with original reporting from Taylor Dawn, Stagner, Fort Grist.

And a Pennsylvania environmental justice group is voicing concern about the potential sale of US Nippon Steel and the impact on the community and the future of its jobs.

Our Daniel Smith has the story.

Japan's Nippon Steel is buying US Steel for more than $14 billion.

Dr. Matthew Mihalik with the Breathe Project says prioritizing the health and wellbeing of Mon Valley residents over corporate profit would have to be included in their proposed agreement.

Then it would need approval from the Biden administration and the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States to avoid monopolies.

He adds that union jobs may also be impacted by the sale.

There's also arbitration happening with the United Steelworkers because their position is that they weren't consulted for the sale of the company and their current contract has a clause in there that would require that.

In a recent study out of Tennessee found Americans generally love free speech, but their views change occasionally.

One instance occurred during the protest at US universities about the Israel-Hamas war.

John Greer is a professor of political science at Vanderbilt University who says the study replicated a 1939 poll that asked about free speech's role in a democracy and people's commitment to free speech.

We were interested to see if in fact all those protests, for example, had led people to lessen or increase their commitment to free speech and you could imagine hypotheses in both directions.

Polling found that most Americans believe in unrestricted free speech.

There is a significant partisan divide with Republicans more likely than Democrats to oppose any restrictions.

This is Public News Service.

Next up, we head to New Mexico where houses cost less to buy than in many other states, but there's also less inventory.

Allie Wolfe with the data and consulting firm Zonda says in the three years leading up to the 2008 Great Recession, home builders started about 2 million homes a year.

Because the pandemic followed the financial crisis, she says housing starts never fully rebounded.

So we are seeing reasonable levels of growth, a lot more construction in the Southeast and the Southwest, but these regions are really trying to play catch up with the amount of in-migration that they've seen.

Since 2010, builders nationwide have started about 1 million new homes a year on average, far below the 1.6 million needed to keep up with population growth.

I'm Roz Brown.

If elected Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has promised financial assistance for both first-time home buyers and developers who build their housing.

And Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fortes testified before Congress on Wednesday about the state of our election system.

He says public confidence in the process has been discredited, leading to increased threats against election workers.

He adds that election administrators have not received sustained and dependable federal funding even after being declared critical infrastructure by the Department of Homeland Security.

Do the same for highways and dams and railroads and see what happens.

We implore you, please consider.

If this is such a big deal, and if it is so important that we continue to have free, fair and secure elections, fund them.

Despite the federal government having sought to improve election administration through a grant program called the Help America Vote Act, unpredictable funding levels have left state officials unable to adequately plan budgets.

Fontes says rising misinformation surrounding elections, as well as threats against election workers, make the grants especially important.

I'm Alex Gonzalez reporting.

Finally for Eric, Take It Off groups in Oregon are warning that wolf poaching poses a threat not just to the creatures targeted, but to people who enjoy the outdoors as well.

Poaching was a big issue in 2023 and again this year, especially through poisoning.

Bethany Cotton with Cascadia Wildlands says the wolf population didn't grow in 2023 for the first time since the species returned to the state and a high rate of deaths has continued in 2024, largely caused by humans.

In May, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife started warning recreationists to keep their dogs on leashes because of potential exposure to poisoning meant to illegally kill wolves.

Cotton says she decided against visiting Eastern Oregon because of this.

I have two rescue dogs and I was invited to some friends' property out there and to spend some time out there this summer and I chose not to go 'cause it's too high a risk.

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

Hear us on interesting radio stations, your favorite podcast platform.

Find our content and trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.