Six minutes of news from around the nation.

Iran threatens to close the Strait of Hormuz indefinitely; Trump border czar says ICE to will airport security amid partial shutdown; Arizona business owners reeling from health care subsidy cuts; College graduation rate tops 50% in AR and students say the cost is worth it.

TRANSCRIPT

The Public News Service Daily Newscast, March the 23rd, 2026.

I'm Mike Clifford.

The price of oil jumped today after President Trump's 48-hour ultimatum for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz or face decimation of its energy infrastructure.

At the same time, Israel warned the war would continue for several more weeks.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard countered, saying Iran will completely shut the Strait if Trump proceeds with its threats to target Iranian energy facilities.

And the White House border czar Tom Homan said Sunday ICE agents will deploy to airports across the country this week to assist TSA officers with security at airport entrances and exits, where lines have been particularly long in recent weeks.

Meantime, Arizona small business owners are making difficult decisions about health insurance coverage since the Affordable Care Act premium subsidies expired in 2025 and their monthly costs spiked.

Our Mark Moran reports about 245,000 folks in Arizona received those health care insurance premium tax credits last year, more than 90 percent of them federal marketplace enrollees.

So far this year, the end of the premium subsidies and sharply higher costs have prompted more than 70,000 fewer Arizonans to enroll in the federal marketplace.

Phoenix area realtor Michelle Jernigan, a married mother of five, says she's had to buckle down to afford health care this year after her plan was no longer available on the marketplace.

Our costs now have gone up to $1,700 a month for our family.

So we've seen an increase of $700 monthly.

The U.S. House passed a bill to extend the premium subsidies at the end of last year, and the Senate was considering taking it up in January, but to date, that hasn't happened.

The Trump administration has said those subsidies were designed to help people get through the financial crisis caused by the COVID pandemic and were never intended to be permanent.

And students in Arkansas and across the nation still have confidence in their coursework and their professors, but public confidence in higher education is spiraling.

That's according to a new report from the Illumina Foundation and the pollster Gallup.

Arkansas has 85 colleges and universities across the state, 23 of which are accredited.

Courtney Brown with Lumina Foundation says roughly nine in 10 college students feel their degree will help them get a job after graduation.

They believe the cost is worth it, but they don't believe colleges are charging fair prices.

They believe in the value, they just can't access it because it's too expensive.

It's out of reach for them.

And so that's an area that we really need to pay attention to.

The average graduation rate for Arkansas universities and colleges for the 2023-24 academic year was almost 53 percent.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.

I'm Freda Ross reporting.

This is Public News Service.

Families planning for college might be worried about tuition sticker shock following decades of higher education cost hikes, but analysts believe affordability is more realistic these days than people might think.

A North Dakota leader agrees.

A new report published by the Brookings Institution says households with college-age students focus too much on the total tuition cost and not the net price, which is lowered by many forms of financial aid.

And over the past 10 years, the analysis shows those net prices have declined.

Lisa Johnson with the North Dakota A university system says despite the state's best efforts to promote financial assistance, affordability doubts are still out there.

You know, you still encounter families that were unaware of a scholarship that their son or daughter might be eligible for.

She points to the ND Career Builder Scholarship as an example.

She says until they got an injection of marketing money from the legislature, the program languished and many students didn't take advantage of it.

But she says it finally took off after they were able to promote the aid to larger audiences.

I'm Mike Moen.

Next, Colorado lawmakers are considering whether or not the state's Public Utilities Commission should stay open for business.

The PUC is set to terminate or sunset on September 1st, unless the General Assembly votes to reauthorize the agency that regulates energy and water utilities, gas pipelines, telecommunications, motor transport, and railroads.

Jamie Valdez with Green Latinos says in addition to home energy costs, decisions made by the PUC impact air quality in places like Pueblo, home to some of the state's largest industrial polluters.

Pueblo already has increased rates of asthma, COPD, and cardiovascular disease when compared to state averages.

And so we really need to protect our clean air because without those protections, it won't stay clean for long.

Legislation introduced this month would reauthorize the PUC until 2037.

I'm Eric Galatas.

Finally, Treasure Valley Community College near the Idaho-Oregon border is upgrading its nursing training center to help address the rural health care crisis.

The Evelyn S. Dame Nursing and Allied Health Profession Center on campus is a 30,000 square foot building set for completion in late May.

Mara Pointer, Executive Director of Nursing and Allied Health at the college, says the new center fully launches in the fall and will be state of the art.

We've been teaching nursing in our current space since the 1960s, so everything is going to be a full upgrade from simulation center to Zoom-ready classrooms.

Poynter says that new simulation center will give students a wide range of patient care experiences, preparing them for nursing jobs after graduation.

Idaho ranks 43rd in the nation for its number of nurses, at 7.3 nurses for every thousand residents.

I'm Laura Hatch reporting.

This is Mike Clifford, and thank you for starting a week with Public News Service.

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