Six minutes of news from around the nation.

SCOTUS rules against Colorado's LGBTQ conversion therapy ban; Poll finds shifting attitudes among Ohio social workers; Clean energy advocates warn of effects of gas plants on North Carolina river; Tennessee schools deprived of critical funding, report finds.

TRANSCRIPT

The Public News Service Doha newscast, April 1st, 2026.

I'm Mike Clifford.

A U.S. District Judge temporarily halted President Donald Trump's White House ballroom construction project, ruling that the proper procedures were not followed before the project began.

Judge Richard Leon wrote, I have concluded the National Trust is likely to succeed on the merits because no statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have.

The BBC notes that Trump criticized the ruling on a social media platform.

He said the project is going well and will be the finest building of its kind anywhere in the world.

Meantime, on Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of therapist Callie Childs, who challenged a Colorado law banning conversion therapy for minors, a process counselors used to try to change a child's sexual orientation or gender identity.

The nation's highest court called Colorado's law an egregious assault on First Amendment free speech protections that apply to talk therapy.

Angela Dallara with the advocacy group GLAD says it's important to remember that the verdict wasn't about whether the practice is safe or effective.

Conversion practices are proven to be dangerous and have been discredited for decades, not only because they're ineffective, but because those who undergo it suffer devastating harm to their relationships with family and with their faith communities.

Childs claimed that Colorado's law blocked her from being able to work with minors who want to live a life consistent with their faith.

Childs was represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, which has worked to undo rights to reproductive freedom, ban marriage equality, and prohibit equal protections for transgender people.

I'm Eric Galatas.

Next, social workers have complex feelings about achieving legal permanency for children in foster care.

And as the National Week of Social Work Month draws to a close, advocates are reviewing updated poll results from 2024.

Child welfare professionals often face burnout, long hours and legal barriers, but many working in the foster care system still believe it's possible for a child to find a happy home.

Rita Sornan with the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption says the Harris poll conducted by her organization two years ago showed widespread discouragement among workers in the field.

But then we began to see a dip when we said, is it possible?

Is legal permanency possible?

Legal permanency is legal adoption, legal guardianship, reunification or reinstatement of parental rights.

Sornan adds, in some cases, the attitudes of judges, attorneys, social workers, or others involved in the foster care system may become a barrier to permanency for a child.

The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption first commissioned the Harris Poll in 2022 to survey child welfare professionals across the United States on their perspectives surrounding legal permanency.

In 2024, the foundation re-administered the survey with new questions to gain additional insights.

This is Nadia Ramlagan for Ohio News Connection.

This is Public News Service.

A report says Tennessee has shortchanged public schools by hundreds of billions of dollars over the last decade and widening longstanding inequities for students.

The report finds 42 states devote less money to education than they did 20 years ago.

Nationwide, that decline in effort amounted to nearly $600 billion in lost state and local revenue from 2016 to 2023.

Bruce Baker of the University of Miami says Tennessee's most affluent districts spend about 1 percent more than needed to reach outcomes that match the national average, while the highest need districts spend almost 40 percent less.

He says students are worse off for it.

One of the findings in our state reports is that the percent of students in below adequate districts in Tennessee is 83.1 percent of students are in below adequate districts.

Put in Tennessee, 43rd among states.

Danielle Smith reporting.

Next says New England public schools work to improve their students' reading test scores.

Some small rural districts in New Hampshire are sharing the secrets to their success.

Eight of the state's top-scoring schools had fewer than 100 students tested last year, with many located in low- and medium-income parts of the state.

Kristen Kevila is the superintendent of the Mason School District and principal to its Lone Elementary School, which has a reading proficiency rate of 84 percent.

She says trusting teachers and giving them flexibility within their job is key.

They teach Common Core standards, and however they need to teach that, they teach it.

So they have curriculum that's a resource, but they're not expected to use every piece of it.

She says teachers spent the last three years revamping their writing curriculum, which they developed themselves based on their own students' needs.

Each student is also eligible for specialized services, whether they're identified as needing them or not.

This story is based on original reporting by Jeremy Margolis with the Concord Monitor.

I'm Katherine Carley.

Finally, today is National Walking Day.

The American Heart Association is calling on folks in Washington to hit the ground walking.

Research shows only one in five adults and teens get enough exercise to maintain good health.

Clinical exercise physiologist Lindsay Olson says adults need 30 minutes a day of moderate intensity aerobic exercise, at least five days a week.

If that feels like a stretch, she advises people to break the time into smaller pieces and build up.

You want to start feeling confident in your body again.

You don't want to say, oh, if I can't do 30 minutes, I'm not going to exercise at all.

Even starting with five or 10 minutes is great.

And doing that several times during the day and then building up from there.

Olson recommends brisk walking for exercise because it works a lot of muscles at once and people can easily adjust the intensity and time.

I'm Isobel Charle.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

Member and listener supported.

You can find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.