Six minutes of news from around the nation.

Trump pardons reality show couple convicted of bank fraud, tax crimes; Medicaid cuts may threaten solvency of NY Community Health Centers; Oil and gas companies fail to disclose toxic chemicals at Colorado well sites; Notre Dame rallies leaders to shape social media; Lawsuits filed against National Park Service over Yellowstone bison plan.

Transcript

The Public News Service Daily Newscast, May the 28th, 2025.

I'm Mike Clifford.

President Donald Trump has signed full pardons for imprisoned reality show couple Todd and Julie Crisley, who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms in 2022 for a conspiracy to defraud banks out of more than $30 million, according to a White House official.

That from CNN.

They report in addition to the bank fraud convictions, they were also found guilty of several tax crimes, including attempting to defraud the Internal Revenue Service.

And from Politico, President Donald Trump Tuesday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of playing with fire as Moscow continues battering Ukraine in the face of Trump's attempts to broker a peace deal to end the war.

They quote Trump in a social media post saying, "What Vladimir Putin doesn't realize is that if it weren't for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean really bad.

He's playing with fire."

And with looming budget cuts to Medicaid, advocates are sounding the alarm about the potential impact on community health centers in New York and nationwide.

It's estimated the House budget cuts to Medicaid funding would mean more than 8 million people lose their health coverage across the nation, including as many as 1 million in New York.

These cuts would fall especially hard on community health centers or CHCs, the nonprofit safety net clinics created by Congress in 1965 for medically underserved communities, both urban and rural.

CHCs serve more than 30 million Americans a year and provide care regardless of a patient's ability to pay.

Joe Dunn with the National Association of Community Health Centers says over the long term, funding Medicaid is the cheaper option.

Medicaid services at health centers actually saves money in the long run because it reduces utilization of emergency departments and other kind of higher cost settings like inpatient hospitalization.

In New York, 63 CHCs serve more than 2 million people at over 800 clinic sites with more than half of patients covered by Medicaid.

Brett Pivito reporting.

Next to Colorado, a state which in 2022 passed a law requiring oil and gas operators to let the public know what chemicals were being used underground.

Chemicals are routinely used for drilling and fracking and many are considered hazardous to human health.

But a new report says as of May 1st of this year, 65 percent of operators have not disclosed the chemicals they use.

Dusty Horwitt with Physicians for Social Responsibility says people living near oil and gas wells disproportionately experience negative health impacts.

And so it's really critical for people living near oil and gas operations, for their health providers, for first responders to know what chemicals are going into the wells.

Chevron has come under increased scrutiny after an explosion in Weld County released a watery mix of chemicals and crude oil into surrounding properties and waterways for five days straight last month.

Chevron has not yet responded to a request for comment.

I'm Eric Galadas.

This is Public News Service.

Notre Dame is launching a major effort to shape the future of social media policy, and it could impact every corner of Indiana.

This week, the university is hosting lawmakers, tech leaders, and scholars to draft a national roadmap for regulating platforms like Facebook and YouTube.

They'll focus on how social media influences democracy, civic trust and everyday life.

David Campbell leads Notre Dame's Democracy initiative and says this meeting is just the beginning.

Our hope is the policy experts will hear from the scholars what the research says about the effects of social media and hopefully the two groups together can settle on concrete recommendations that can be made.

Campbell says online activity can affect Indiana communities, not just the nation.

The with a nonpartisan focus.

Joe Ulari, Public News Service.

And as Congress debates the federal budget, Republicans are looking to make deep cuts in the Medicaid program, which some experts warn could cripple Connecticut's rural healthcare system.

Birthing options are decreasing as many hospitals in rural areas have closed their labor and delivery units.

Joan Alker with the Georgetown Center for Children and Families says Medicaid covers one in four people outside of urban areas and cuts could remove up to 900,000 people from healthcare roles statewide.

Right now Congress is considering the largest cuts to Medicaid that certainly I've seen in my few decades of working on Medicaid.

And the reality is that these could be extremely pernicious and dangerous for rural communities.

Elker adds maternity care is expensive and cuts to Medicaid could harm rural providers putting the health of mothers and babies at risk.

GOP budget writers say the cuts are designed to remove waste, fraud and abuse from the Medicaid program.

The budget measure awaits action in the Senate.

I'm Edwin J. Vieira.

Finally, the National Park Service faces two lawsuits for its latest bison management plan for Yellowstone National Park, the first update released in about 25 years.

The new plan allows for a slightly larger bison population in the park, between 3,500 and 6,000 animals, as well as more space for them to roam and increased capacity for people to hunt them.

The state of Montana is suing, alleging a lack of cooperation in planning, and the Conservation Group Alliance for the Wild Rockies is also suing because as Executive Director Mike Garrity says, the plan's environmental impact statement doesn't follow the most current science.

We want the Park Service to do a new EIS that is honest and then we could have an intelligent discussion and debate about wild bison.

The plan aims to prevent the spread of brucellosis, a bacterial disease that can lower birth rates in cattle, a priority for local ranchers.

But a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine shows all recent cases of the disease in cattle were transmitted by wild elk, not bison.

I'm Kathleen Shannon.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

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