Six minutes of news from around the nation.

Fatalities confirmed after passenger plane collides with Army Black Hawk in DC; Advocate: Federal grant freeze would shake fair housing in Montana; Denver nonprofit tackles food waste, hunger; Nonprofit brings light to tribal lands in Arizona.

Transcript

The Public News Service Daily newscast for January 30, 2025.

I'm Mike Clifford.

A massive search operation underway after a passenger aircraft carrying 64 people collided midair with the U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter with three soldiers on board near Reagan National Airport outside of Washington, D.C.

CNN reports about 300 first responders are searching the freezing Potomac River where the aircraft crashed.

NBC reports elite American figure skaters were on board the flight.

Two Russian world champions were also among the passengers on the American Eagle flight.

That according to Russian state media.

U.S. figure skating said the athletes were returning from a training camp in Wichita, Kansas.

CNN reports fatalities have been confirmed and rescuers have yet to find any survivors.

Meantime, the Trump administration has rescinded a Monday memo to freeze federal grants, but an assistant to his press secretary claims the freeze is still in place.

This continued confusion leaves some groups uncertain about the future, including a Montana nonprofit.

Montana Fair Housing offers services to help combat housing discrimination without charge, including education, dispute resolution and enforcement related activities.

The work involves protections provided by the Federal Fair Housing Act as amended in 1988, and the organization relies on federal funding, which executive director Pam Bean says could be threatened.

We would have to markedly cut back on services provided to residents in Montana.

We could not provide the information and services we are currently doing at the level we are doing.

She says fair housing groups across the country were already unable to access their funding systems after the initial freeze, despite a judge's quick move to block it.

Along with housing assistance, it's unclear whether the order will affect programs including Medicaid, Head Start and free school meals.

I'm Kathleen Shannon.

And with one in nine folks in Colorado experiencing food insecurity, a Denver nonprofit is doubling down on efforts to save food before it ends up in a landfill.

We get more in this triple pundit Solutions Journalism Network Colorado News Connection collaboration.

An effort to prevent food waste that was launched in Denver using a single Volvo in 2009 has evolved into a full fledged nonprofit with a fleet of refrigerated trucks, a dedicated team of staff and volunteers and a 30,000 square foot facility.

Kyle Endres with We Don't Waste says the mission remains the same.

Food should go to people, not landfills.

So we recover unused food from the food industry and then redistribute it to communities that need it in partnership with other nonprofits as well as through our own mobile food markets, which are kind of like free farmers markets out in the community.

Last year, nearly 40 percent of the total food produced in the United States, totaling more than 91 million tons, went to landfills.

In addition to donations from grocery stores, we don't waste staff and volunteers pick up food that hasn't sold at a bakery, excess produce at a farm or leftovers at a convention center event.

I'm Eric Galatas.

This is public news service.

Next up, energy inequity is evident for Native American communities across Arizona.

It's estimated that 21 percent of Navajo homes and 35 percent of Hopi homes lack electricity.

Sixty two year old Leonard Celeste was a member of the Hopi tribe in Arizona and didn't have electricity in his house for years.

He adds that for much of his life, he adapted to an off grid world and found light in the sun, kerosene lamps, gas run generators, flashlights and other battery operated devices.

That was before native renewables came along.

It's a nonprofit that offers free solar energy systems on the Navajo and Hopi reservations.

They determined Celeste was home was eligible.

Systems carrying the TV, the DVD player and the small light.

We could watch movies all night and do actually something called a movie marathon if we wanted to.

Celeste says he's appreciative of native renewables for bringing light into his life.

I'm Alex Gonzalez reporting.

This story produced with original reporting from Yosena Funes with Almos and Americans working two jobs to help with living expenses and cover some extras has become the norm.

One study conducted by the company My Perfect Resume found that 71 percent of U.S. workers rely on a secondary income.

Career expert Jasmine Escalera says workers struggle to depend solely on their primary job to cover their basic necessities.

But juggling two jobs can remove opportunities for career advancement.

The biggest piece of data that we found is that 49 percent of people that were surveyed said that their secondary source of income is actually impacting their performance at their primary job.

So what we're seeing here is I need this, but even though I need this, I'm not doing a good job at my primary job.

She knows this imbalance decreases the ability to achieve a lifestyle that supports a work life balance.

I'm Terry Dee reporting.

Finally, people receive food benefits through the supplemental nutrition assistance program will no longer be reimbursed if their benefits are stolen.

Sarah Weber Ogden with Partners for Hunger Free Oregon says losing these protections will harm Oregon families.

She says skimming when a device on a card reader steals personal information is the main way benefits are stolen.

Ogden emphasizes that even though rates of skimming are very low, it can be devastating to victims.

I don't think that people who haven't experienced it really understand what it's like to suddenly find out you don't have any money for food.

It really is just a feeling of absolute helplessness.

President Joe Biden signed the protection into law in 2022 as part of the Farm Bill, but it was excluded from the latest version signed last year.

I'm Isabel Charlay.

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

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