Six minutes of news from around the nation.

Supreme Court rejects call to overturn its decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide; NYS group intervenes in DOJ voter roll lawsuit; Environmental groups appeal ruling on factory farm air pollution; Hoosiers join Harrison site to honor veterans; SNAP disruptions could have lasting effects for ND, U.S.

TRANSCRIPT

The Public News Service Daily Newscast, November the 11th, 2025.

I'm Mike Clifford.

The Supreme Court Monday rejected a call to overturn its landmark decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, after the Associated Press.

They report the justices without comment turned away an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the high court's 2015 ruling.

The report Davis had been trying to get the court to overturn a lower court order for her to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney's fees to a couple denied a marriage license.

Meantime, New York voting rights groups are intervening in a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The DOJ's suit against the State Board of Elections seeks the state's private voter roll data, which has information such as driver's license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.

Erika Smitka with the League of Women Voters of New York State notes this information is beyond what's in publicly available voter data.

She worries about what this data could be used for.

They may work to attempt to force states to remove voters from the rolls based on that incomplete private data they are asking for.

They may use it to target political opponents.

We also know that they're working in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security, so they may use this for immigration enforcement.

Smitka also worries if the DOJ obtains this information, it will be used to spread false claims of voter fraud.

This is one of several lawsuits the DOJ has filed against states in an effort to get this information.

DOJ claims not turning it over violates the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.

I'm Edwin J. Vieira.

And a coalition of environmental groups is taking its fight for cleaner air to a federal appeals court aiming to force large-scale factory farms to report toxic emissions under the Federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.

The case could have implications for Florida, a state with a significant agricultural presence.

Ryan Mehar, a staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, says the legal battle highlights a conflict between industry practices and community right-to-know laws.

Toxic air pollution emitted from factory farms like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, it's really a transparency concern when it comes to controlling pollution from factory farms, requiring reporting when there's an emergency, when public health is at risk, is really the bare minimum."

While Florida's regulations exempt these farms from continuous air emissions monitoring, residents in the state's agricultural heartland like the Suwannee River Basin have filed numerous health complaints about persistent odor and respiratory issues.

The federal appeal seeks to override such exemptions by enforcing a national right-to-know standard.

Mahar says the next step is presenting arguments to the D.C.

Circuit Court of Appeals early next year and hopefully there will be a decision by the end of 2026.

We think the law is on our side first and foremost.

I'm Trimell Gomes.

This is Public News Service.

Indiana will pause together this Veterans Day to honor those who've worn the uniform.

We get more from our Joe Ulori.

The Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site in Indianapolis will host a one-minute tribute at sunset on Tuesday.

A bugler will play taps from the front porch of the 23rd president's home, and organizers invite Hoosiers across the state to step outside and join in.

Charles Hyde, executive director of the presidential site, says the idea began in 2020.

We started this in 2020 for the pandemic, but it was important to still have public commemoration.

That way any veterans across the state and beyond might hear the strains of taps being played, know that they were being remembered.

The event is live streamed on Facebook, allowing people across Indiana to reflect together.

Hyde says anyone, whether they play trumpet, clarinet, or trombone, can participate.

The site encourages all musicians to sound taps from their own front doors.

And signs did emerge this week of the government shutdown nearing an end, but hunger relief forces say even if food assistance is back to normal soon, SNAP's November pause could be felt for a while in North Dakota and elsewhere.

Backers of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program say it's uncharted territory because funds were never disrupted like this.

The shutdown resulted in a host of delays in court orders when the Trump administration argued it could only authorize partial payments.

North Dakota officials recently stated that some recipients could soon access partial benefits, but the Alliance to End Hungers Karen Aron says they might have already spent money meant for other expenses on food.

People who participate in SNAP probably do not have a lot in savings that they can draw on.

So this can impact their finances not only for November but into December.

Aarons, who has North Dakota roots, says this state previously had one of the lowest food insecurity rates, but she says it's no longer immune to hunger challenges made worse by higher food costs.

I'm Mike Moen.

Finally to Illinois where an artist is on a mission to bring awareness to an issue that kills billions of birds annually across North America by sawing one cloth bird at a time.

Window strikes killed nearly 1,000 birds in one incident in Chicago in 2023 when they collided with the McCormick Place Lakeside Center.

The building has enough windows to cover two football fields and birds can confuse the reflections for open natural space.

Artists and Syracuse University professor Holly Greenberg says she learned about the avion collisions while in Evanston volunteering to restore natural habitats.

This volunteer next to me said here we are planting all these native plants to build habitat for the birds and they just come and crash into our windows and I was like wait what?

I'm Judith Ruiz Branch reporting.

This story produced with original reporting by Kate Moths with Arts Midwest.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

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