News from around the nation.

U.S. allies refuse to join Trump's Strait of Hormuz blockade; Swalwell exits California governor’s race after assault allegations; Ohio families who rely on in-home Medicaid services fear cuts; Report: Marylanders still face a rent affordability crisis as prices cool; SD nonprofit loses millions after U.S. pulls land access grants.

Transcript

The Public News Service Monday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

The United States NATO allies said Monday they would not get involved in President Trump's blockade of the state of Hormuz.

Trump said U.S. military would work with other countries to block all maritime traffic in the waterway after the weekend talks failed to reach an agreement to end the six-week conflict with Iran.

And Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell's abrupt exit from the race for California governor left his rival scrambling to lock down his former supporters in a crowded contest with no clear leader.

Swalwell's decision to suspend his campaign Sunday followed allegations he sexually assaulted a woman that were published Friday in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Meantime, a critical Medicaid program providing in-home services for people with disabilities could potentially be cut or reduced amid budget constraints.

Cleveland mom and advocate with the disability rights group Little Lobbyist Family Alliance.

Lindsay Sulzer has a young daughter who became severely disabled after a traumatic brain injury at four years old and requires around-the-clock care.

She says the community and home-based services program pays for equipment and provides critical support for everyday tasks.

This provides aides and nurses.

That is a benefit that almost no private insurance covers.

By 2034, under the cuts in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, an additional 254,000 residents are expected to lose coverage, according to data from the think tank RAND.

This is Nadia Ramlagan.

And rental prices in Maryland and across the country are cooling, but folks in Maryland of all incomes continue to struggle with rental affordability, according to a new report.

Our Zamone Perez lets us know research from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies finds that after a period of rent growth in the post-pandemic years, Rental increases nationally hovered near zero.

At professionally managed apartment complexes, asking rent prices declined by more than half a percent.

But more renters, including those with high income, are more rent burdened than ever before.

Whitney Ergodobricki with the center says affordability challenges among Maryland renters are at historic highs.

Seeing rents coming down, especially in markets where there was a lot of new construction.

But at the same time, we're going into these conditions with really, really challenging affordability circumstances.

And so we're now at a record high number of renter households who are experiencing cost burden.

In 2001, Marylanders only paid a quarter of their income toward rent.

Now, renters pay more than 31 percent of their income toward housing.

I'm Zamone Perez.

And a South Dakota nonprofit has lost millions of dollars after the federal government pulled grants designed to help underserved farmers and ranchers.

The Four Brands Community Fund in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, planned to use its funds to provide loans to people on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation.

Dakota Vogel is the fund's executive director.

It was going to help them purchase land and put the ownership of the land into their name so they could create wealth for their families.

Vogel says the government told them the grants didn't fit the Trump administration's anti-DEI initiatives.

This is Public News Service.

When Congress returns to Washington this week, debate is expected to resume on the Safeguard America Voter Eligibility or Save America Act.

All Texas GOP members of the House of Representatives and Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar voted in support of the latest version of the legislation, which requires proof of citizenship for voter registration.

Joyce LeBombard with the League of Women Voters in Texas says if passed, the current version of the bill would require everyone have a passport or birth certificate to register to vote.

She says that would make it harder for everyday citizens.

Women, people with disabilities, rural people, people that have been impacted by natural disaster, people of tribal backgrounds, and people of color have more difficulty or are less likely to have those documents.

Supporters of the legislation say it will prevent non-citizens from registering to vote.

I'm Freda Ross reporting.

And a coalition of folks in Louisiana who have harvested shellfish for generations say global investment bankers are responsible for the environmental damage caused by the liquefied natural gas industry.

They say LNG development over the past two decades has all but destroyed their ability to make a living in southwest Louisiana.

Robin Thigpen is executive director of fishermen involved in sustaining our heritage.

It's destroying our coastline.

It's destroying the commercial fishing industry.

We are fisher folks, tempers, oyster men, crappers who have worked these Louisiana coastal orders for generations.

Thigpen adds a large group of major banks, including U.S. investors such as JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, have invested billions of dollars in LNG facilities throughout Louisiana.

Trade groups claim that LNG terminals support over 220,000 jobs, help make the U.S. energy independent, and contribute $44 billion to the GDP.

Mark Richardson reporting.

Finally, researchers in Washington State are working to find nature-based and community-centered solutions to prevent flooding.

After the South Park neighborhood in Seattle experienced an unprecedented flood in 2022 along the Duwamish River, scientists joined forces with a local nonprofit to explore flood adaptation strategies through the Living with Water Project.

B.J. Cummings, researcher with the University of Washington, says this is a chance to try out cutting-edge, nature-based solutions to flooding that also benefit the community.

As devastating as that experience was, it's a really terrific opportunity to do a demonstration of what this could look like and then actually measure the health benefits, the economic benefits, the environmental benefits that we get out of that project.

I'm Isobel Charle.

This is Mike Clifford.

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