News from around the nation.

US admiral to brief lawmakers as bipartisan scrutiny grows over boat strike; Colorado worker wages siphoned to pay medical bills; Hoosiers pack Indiana Statehouse as map fight erupts; Rural FL maternity care gaps persist; fed funds may help.

Transcript

The Public News Service Tuesday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

A U.S. Navy Admiral will provide a classified briefing to lawmakers overseeing the military on Thursday as they investigate a U.S. attack on a boat in the Caribbean Sea, allegedly carrying drugs that included a second strike that killed any survivors.

That's from The Guardian.

The report White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt on Monday said the second strike was carried out in self-defense in accordance with the law's governing armed conflict.

Bipartisan scrutiny has mounted over a report that Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, issued a verbal order to strike the vessel a second time.

Democrats have said the allegations first reported last week by the Washington Post could amount to a war crime.

Meantime, Colorado courts allowed debt collectors to garnish people's wages for unpaid medical bills in roughly 14,000 cases a year.

That's according to reporting by KFF Health News.

Patients can be targeted for outstanding bills from $30 to over 30,000, and the interest on that debt can grow is 400 percent.

Before Patricia De Herrera's children and rifle received care at Grand River Health, she says she had to present proof of her Medicaid coverage, but the bill for that care didn't make it to Medicaid for reimbursement and eventually landed at a collection agency.

And then years later, A1 Collections took the father of my kids to court, and then he decided to stop paying them the payment that he was paying them.

So they sent a letter to my employer to garnish my wages.

After De Herrera appealed and presented evidence that she was in fact covered by Medicaid, state officials told A1 Collections and Grand River Health to stop what they called illegal billing action.

I'm Eric Galatas.

This story with the original reporting by Ray Ellen Bishel for KFF Health News.

Next, Indiana lawmakers returned to the statehouse weeks early Monday, taking up a controversial mid-decade redistricting plan that could would reshape the congressional representation.

Hoosiers filled the atrium and crowded the gallery to oppose the move, reacting during floor debate.

Democrats argued the House broke its own rules by returning before the previously scheduled January date.

That concern triggered some of the most heated remarks of the day from Democratic State Representative Ed Delaney of Indianapolis.

So you can't run roughshod from the speaker's chair over one of the parties.

And if you're ever so unlucky as to not be in a super majority, You're gonna get run roughshod over and you're setting a precedent.

The hell with the rule is what you're saying.

I'm Joe Ulori, Public News Service.

And 86 percent of rural Florida hospitals have stopped delivering babies.

That stunning statistic from the Florida Rural Health Association.

Clarissa Ortiz is with the Florida Association of Community Health Centers.

Rural areas have a severe shortage of family physicians, mental health providers, and we do also have severe shortages of obstetricians other specialty services.

With so many local labor and delivery ward shuttered families face long travel distances for basic maternity care.

This is public news service.

North Dakota now says it's on track to ensure all homes and businesses can connect to a high-speed internet service.

Even with some issues to sort out the rural centric state feels poised to lead the nation in closing the gaps.

North Dakota's Information Technology Office says with the federal approval of its latest plan to distribute broadband infrastructure grants, it could achieve 100 percent connectivity by 2028.

That could potentially make North Dakota the first state to do so.

Broadband Program Director Brian Newby adds that regional projects typically aren't the bare minimum in terms of required internet speed, giving customers more flexibility to take advantage of technology like telehealth.

"The telehealth could even emerge actually further from just a visit with a doctor to being able to show basically any kind of your health records or that sort of thing during the visit.

Telehealth is often cited in helping address the rural health care crisis.

I'm Mike Moen.

Next day Chicago family affected by federal immigration enforcement is hoping for a resolution that can reunite them this holiday season.

A student at DePaul University, Kaitlyn, who prefers her last name not be shared, says her father has been in a detention facility in Michigan since Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained him in September while he was on his way to work.

Although her family maintains daily communication with him and tries to visit on weekends, she says the lengthy process has weighed on her and her family.

Kaitlin, who is a college senior, says she's fallen behind at school and she and her family have had to fill the gap left by her father's absence.

We had to navigate the process of how it's like without having a father at home.

It came with more responsibilities, paying bills and how to pay credit cards for my dad.

I mentally was not focused."

Kaitlyn's father is from Belize and she says he was in the process of obtaining his green card when he was detained.

His next court date is scheduled for this week and she says the family is hoping for some good news that will move them closer to seeing him come home soon.

I'm Judith Ruiz Branch reporting.

Finally a University of Montana public health instructor credits persistence and self-advocacy for her health and possibly for her survival.

38 year old Katie Wagner says she started feeling some disturbing symptoms when she was 29, starting her long journey to figure out what was wrong.

She says cardiologists dismissed her shortness of breath and chest pain, even when they started getting worse.

The self-advocacy piece really comes in to play that I kept pushing for answers knowing something was wrong, right?

And knowing that it was more than anxiety, that unfortunately I think women in particular tend to hear that a lot and I do have anxiety around not being able to breathe.

After years of ER visits and seeing specialists, she says she finally found a cardiologist who put her on the right path.

I'm Laura Hatch reporting.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service, member and listener supported.

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