Six minutes of news from around the nation.

U.S. stock futures plunge ahead of Monday open as Trump tariff shock continues; AZ voting rights advocates oppose Trump's election order; OR hunger-fighting groups call USDA food program cuts 'cruel;' Debate over school vouchers in TX moves to House floor.

Transcript

The Public News Service Daily Newscast, April the 7th, 2025.

I'm Mike Clifford.

U.S. stock futures plunge Sunday evening, an indication that the market turmoil that began last week will continue when trading opens today.

Looming over the markets, the retaliatory actions other countries are expected to enact, as the American tariffs announced last week, take effect.

That's the take from NBC News.

They report as of early Sunday evening, the S&P 500 futures had fallen 4 percent.

Futures in the tech-heavy Nasdaq also fell 4.4 percent, while futures for the Dow Industrial Average declined 1,400 point in volatile trading.

NBC notes that the price of Bitcoin, which showed signs Friday of having resisted the wider market downturn, fell as much as 5 percent, its lowest level since April 2021.

Meantime, a number of lawsuits have been filed in opposition to President Trump's executive order that would reshape how U.S. elections are run, and the League of Women Voters of Arizona is one of the groups fighting back.

Penny Sheran with the Arizona-based voting rights group says democracy isn't just on the line, it's actively being broken.

Trump's executive order would usher in new requirements such as having voters provide in-person documentary proof of citizenship and identity.

Sheran calls the president's action unconstitutional and illegal.

Even the state serving as a buttress against the breaking of democracy is greatly under threat in Arizona specifically.

The White House has defended the president's executive order and called the measures common sense and all objections insane.

I'm Alex Gonzalez reporting.

Next, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is cutting two federal programs that provide over $1 billion annually to support schools and food banks in purchasing local food.

Sarah Weber Ogden with Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon says both programs are very popular.

With one in six children facing food insecurity combined with rising food prices, she says these cuts could not come at a worse time.

These programs feed hungry folks in our communities.

They support local growers and producers.

And so this decision represents cruelty from my perspective.

Oregon Food Bank says it was expecting to receive about 90 truckloads of food this year from the USDA through the local food purchase assistance program, but the orders have been canceled.

The organization reported a record number of visits last year, nearly a third more than the previous year.

I'm Isabel Charlay.

And House GOP leaders told members Sunday they still plan on muscling a reworked Senate budget blueprint through the House this week, even as fiscal hawks say there is enough opposition to tank the measure should it come to a vote.

Now from Politico.

They report several House Republicans have vowed in recent days to oppose the Senate framework, including Representative Chip Roy of Texas, a leader of the hard-right bloc and some other members of the House Freedom Caucus.

This is Public News Service.

We head next to Texas where after several weeks of public comment, bills addressing school finance will be presented to the House of Representatives there.

House Bill 2 is the public school funding bill and Senate Bill 2 is the voucher proposal.

Chandra Villanueva with the nonprofit Every Texan says the proposed voucher initiative, which would provide students $10,000 to help pay for private school, would hurt public schools and low-income families.

Our schools are funded based on attendance.

So when kids leave the system, the schools will get less money.

Until you can actually close the campus, you still have all of your same fixed costs around utilities, teachers.

Hackers of school vouchers, including Governor Greg Abbott, say public schools will not be negatively affected.

This is the second legislative session where Abbott has made a voucher program his top priority.

I'm Freda Ross reporting.

And Virginians who work at low-wage jobs often don't have a workplace retirement plan so they can save money through payroll deductions.

The research by the Economic Innovation Group finds rural workers are less likely to have an employer-based retirement account compared to their urban counterparts.

Among high-income workers in both areas, the disparity narrows.

But overall, Sarah Eckhart with the Economic Innovation Group says the gap between people in rural and urban settings who are offered a workplace retirement account is wide.

Over half of full-time workers in rural areas do not have access to any kind of employer-based retirement plan.

This number is only 40 percent for people who live in urban areas.

This is quite substantial and becomes even more salient when you look at the amount that people are actually able to save.

Eckhart's group is urging Congress to take up the Retirement Savings for Americans Act.

The bill would create a retirement account for employees without one and offer tax credits for lower-income workers as a matching contribution.

I'm Zimone Perez.

Finally, Minnesota is considered a leader for community solar opportunities, but a successful state program expanding solar access would end in the next few years if a bill is signed into law.

Minnesota launched its Community Solar Garden program in 2013, allowing people to link up to a shared array of exiled energy solar panels and receive credits on their monthly energy bills.

North Mankato Democrat Senator Nick Friend supports a bill that would end the initiative in 2028.

He says he still wants the state to use more renewable energy, but feels continuing the program doesn't make economic sense.

Given Minnesota's commitment to 100 percent clean energy by 2040, we want clean energy technologies to compete on price and reliability.

Friend says the community solar program still relies on above-market rates, despite the decrease in cost of solar power.

I'm Mike Moen.

This is Mike Clifford.

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