Six minutes of news from around the nation.

ABC takes the Trump administration to federal court over threats to block TV licenses; HUD funding lags could hit rural Wisconsin the hardest; Election security concerns growing among Kentucky voters; Summit to confront Big Tobacco’s exploitation of Black communities.

TRANSCRIPT

The Public News Service Daily Newcast for August 18, 2026.

I'm Mike Clifford.

It is reminiscent of the phrase, turnabout is fair play.

ABC sued the Federal Communications Commission, accusing the agency of violating the First Amendment in its efforts to strip the network's local broadcasting licenses.

The New York Times notes on Tuesday the company asked a federal court to stop the FCC from pursuing the regulatory moves.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington was a rare example of a major media organization suing the Trump administration over its unrelenting campaign to punish the national press through lawsuits, reporting restrictions, and in the case of major networks, the regulatory power of the federal government.

Meantime, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council warns a disruption in federal funding could have an outsized impact on rural and small communities across Wisconsin.

The council provides services statewide and says rural areas face unique fair housing challenges.

CEO Erica Sanders says older housing stock in these areas create additional challenges for people with disabilities who need accessibility modifications.

People have the perception that rural communities are all white and therefore race discrimination doesn't happen in those communities.

But that's absolutely untrue, especially in areas where Hmong refugees have settled, especially where migrant workers have settled.

The council is awaiting its third year of grant funding from the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development that was supposed to begin in July.

Sanders says the delay could undermine its ability to investigate discrimination.

Meanwhile, federal officials say recent rule changes aim to improve transparency, accountability and oversight for federally funded grants.

Fair housing groups are legally challenging the proposed overhaul.

I'm Judith Ruiz Branch reporting.

In a statement, the Office of Management and Budget says the proposed changes reflect the Trump administration's commitment to ensuring American tax dollars are ultimately used to serve the needs of the American public.

In a new Gallup-Charles K. Federing Foundation poll finds more than 70 percent of Americans are worried about different parts of the election process.

Derek Barker, Senior Research Initiatives Program Officer for the foundation, says elected leaders must take these results seriously.

If large numbers of people start to doubt this fundamental process, you could see authoritarianism, political violence become more acceptable.

So we think this is a warning sign.

Last month, a federal judge dismissed a case brought against the Commonwealth by the Trump administration over the state's refusal to hand over voter information.

According to Campaign Legal Center, the Department of Justice continues to pressure states to sign agreements that would require them to remove voters from the voter rolls if they're flagged as ineligible by the federal government.

This is Nadia Ramlagan for Kentucky News Connection.

This is Public News Service.

Folks in Idaho strongly support protecting public lands regardless of their political views.

That's according to a new poll.

The Western Voter Views of Public Lands Issues Survey by the Nature Conservancy finds that 83% of Idahoans oppose selling public lands to private interests.

That's higher than the 80% opposed across the U.S.

West.

Bass Hargrove with the Nature Conservancy's Idaho chapter says the results make it clear that the Jim State cherishes its public lands.

Places like the Sawtoos or the Selkirks that are on public lands are where we take our children and grandchildren hunting, fishing, and camping.

We go there with our friends and selling them off means fewer opportunities for future generations to get outdoors.

The poll also shows 75 percent of Idahoans oppose staffing and funding cuts to federal land management and fewer than a third support transferring federal land management to the states.

I'm Laura Hatch reporting.

And Wyoming ranchers have been selling off pairs of cows and calves After this winter's record low snowpack led to severe statewide drought, in part because they didn't know how they would feed them.

When it became clear that water would be scarce, farmers in Carbon County were forced to grow hay instead of feed.

Climate and energy reporter Dustin Blyseffer says warmer than normal temperatures in spring sent snowpack downstream early, and it's been mostly dry ever since.

The kind of low snowpack situation in the winter really set the stage for low-flowing streams, reservoirs not filling.

Roughly 80% of the Cowboy State is experiencing severe drought, and nearly half of the state is experiencing extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

The Wyoming State Engineer's Office is enforcing water restrictions, even for parcels that have enjoyed primary access based on first-in-time, first-in-right ownership dating back to the 1800s.

Many small reservoirs have reached deadpool levels where water no longer flows downstream.

I'm Eric Galatas.

And black-led organizations will gather in Massachusetts this week to find ways to counter tobacco marketing in their communities, which has contributed to higher use and more tobacco-related disease.

For decades, Big Tobacco has used retail promotions, music events, and advertising in publications popular with black audiences to promote menthol cigarettes, which are considered easier to smoke but harder to quit.

Kendrick Dardis with the nonprofit public health organization Truth Initiative says more than 45,000 Black Americans die from smoking-related disease each year.

We know that this did not happen by accident, that these results are decades of targeted marketing and other practices that have disproportionately affected Black communities.

I'm Katherine Carley.

This is Mike Clifford Ford Public News Service.

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