News from around the nation.

Michigan lawmakers target predatory loan companies; New York jury hears tape of Trump and Cohen Discussing Hush-Money Deal; flood-impacted Vermont households rebuild for climate resilience; film documents environmental battle with Colorado oil, gas industry.

TRANSCRIPT

The Public News Service Daily Newscast, May the 3rd, 2024.

I'm Mike Clifford.

Michigan lawmakers are tackling predatory lending practices, aiming to set standards for payday loans and maximum interest rates.

In Kent County alone, with a payday loan volume of $60 million, the House Insurance and Finance Services Committee discussed Senate Bill 632, sponsored by Senator Sarah Anthony, which seeks to cap annual interest rates at 36 percent compared to current rates reaching nearly 400 percent.

The bill has passed the Senate and is part of a legislative effort that includes House Bill 5290, sponsored by Representative Abraham Aiyash.

Dallas Lanier, executive director of Project Green, a grassroots economic empowerment network, highlights concerns about the exploitive nature of these loans.

Payday loans inevitably are designed in a fashion that is unaffordable for the majority of people who use those loans.

Lanier says many other states have already capped their interest rate or totally outlawed payday loans because of the financial damage they can cause to their citizens, and argues it's time for Michigan to do better.

Farah Siddiqui reporting.

And Donald Trump was back at the Manhattan criminal court for his hush money trial on Thursday after a campaign trail romp in battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan on the court's day off.

That from the independent.

The judge, Juan Mershon, is considering four more alleged violations of Trump's gag order after earlier fining him $9,000 and warning the defendant he could face incarceratory punishment if he persists in badmouthing key participants.

The Trump legal team said he is responding to attacks on him from former fixer Michael Cohen and President Joe Biden.

Next to Pennsylvania, among the states where massive protests and tent encampments opposing the war in Gaza are growing.

Danielle Smith explains.

Ellis Berson Shearer is a Jewish student at Bryn Mawr College who is at the free Gaza encampment on campus.

She explains there are about 44 tents full of students who have been sleeping there since Saturday night.

She spoke to Sonali Kahakar on the TV and radio show Yes, Rising Up with Sonali.

We are here because our college has $5 million of its endowment invested in Israeli technology.

And we know that this money is implicit in genocide of Palestinians.

Over 30,000 Palestinians have been murdered by the state of Israel.

Berson Shearer adds they are calling on the campus and the university president office to divest in Israeli holdings.

Protesters say they will be at the encampment indefinitely until their two demands are met.

This is Public News Service.

Next to Vermont where hundreds of households and businesses are taking advantage of energy rebate programs as they rebuild from last summer's historic floods.

We get more in this Energy News Network Solutions Journalism and Vermont News Service collaboration.

Residents can receive up to $10,000 per household to repair or replace damaged energy systems and appliances.

Matthew Smith with Efficiency Vermont says the utility is helping in recovery efforts in nearly every county.

It all starts with getting in touch with Efficiency Vermont.

We assess folks income and the damage to their home and we go from there to figure out what the next best step is.

Smith says households with lower incomes are often eligible for a 100 percent cost coverage program in which contractors are paid directly by the state, eliminating the need for any payments up front.

I'm Catherine Carley reporting.

And our Mike Mullen reports on a North Dakota petition drive for marijuana legislation.

A North Dakota group called New Economic Frontier is behind the ballot initiative.

If put before voters, it would be the third time they consider the idea.

The questions failed in 2018 and 2022.

Dickinson Mayor Scott Decker says if it wins this time, the state has to honor the will of the voters.

Whether or not his area would see economic benefits and new residents, he points out energy jobs have a big presence there and there is a potential conflict.

Individuals working in the energy sector are still going to have to pass drug tests.

That's just the standard in the industry.

Safety is paramount.

He also wonders about local police having enough resources to secure technology for field sobriety tests, especially if revenues don't trickle down to his city of nearly 25,000 people.

But Decker acknowledges other criminal justice aspects of legalization, noting there are too many people with low-level marijuana offenses who are incarcerated.

Finally, from Mark Richardson, a new film documents the 2018 battle between Colorado environmentalists and the oil and gas industry over proposed fracking regulations.

The film also documents a grassroots effort by Colorado Rising to pass a ballot initiative that would create a 2,500-foot setback for all hydraulic fracturing wells in the state, particularly in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Sarah Schulte is with the Boulder County Green Faith Organization, which recently previewed the film for about 100 members.

She says the film has a strong message.

What probably makes the film pretty dramatic and kind of shocking is the lengths to which oil and natural gas industries in Colorado set out to thwart them, not only with some of the tactics you might expect, but also some kind of more nefarious tactics.

The film Fracking the System, Colorado's Oil and Gas Wars 1, the Spirit of Activism Award at the Colorado Environmental Film Festival.

This is Mike Clifford.

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