News from around the nation.

Trump: Iranian negotiators ‘better get serious soon’; MN ag co-ops fight climate change, manage growing pains; Federal bill aims to reverse clean energy cuts raising prices in ME; Hyper-local organizing for 'No Kings' in Oregon.

Transcript

The Public News Service Thursday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

President Trump Thursday urged Iranian negotiators that they better get serious soon as efforts for a ceasefire in the Middle East appear to be faltering.

Trump previously said the two countries were close to a deal, but wrote in a post on True Social that the Islamic Republic negotiators were very different and strange.

Tripp wrote they are begging us to make a deal, which they should be doing, since they have been militarily obliterated with zero chance of a comeback, and yet they publicly state they're only looking at our proposal.

He wrote wrong.

Meantime, Minnesota farming communities face a tall task in protecting themselves from the worst of climate change.

A new report checks in on how co-ops are faring in testing out solutions using startup dollars.

The Minnesota Farmers Union Foundation launched a grant program in 2023 to help new cooperatives pursuing climate resiliency.

Co-ops are owned and controlled by their members who share resources to meet economic and social needs.

Hannah Bernhardt raises grass-fed beef in East Central Minnesota.

She says with like-minded farmers in her area needing more freezer space, the grant allowed them to do things they don't always have time for, like a feasibility study.

Farmers are already farming.

We're pretty busy already.

And so the challenge with a co-op is that you're then also asking farmers to gather the information.

I'm Mike Moen.

And as electricity prices rise in Maine, new federal legislation aims to reverse cuts to clean energy programs and help lower household energy bills.

The Energy Bills Relief Act would undo many of the policies implemented through last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act and re-incentivize the adoption of renewable energy technologies.

Matthew Davis, with the League of Conservation Voters, says it would restore historic tax credits for ratepayers and speed up the permitting process for solar and wind power projects.

Clean energy, of course, is the most affordable form of electricity that we have, and we need a lot more of it.

The bill is sponsored by more than half of House Democrats who say it will increase grid reliability and ensure large consumers of energy, like data centers, pay their fair share.

The Trump administration argues clean energy is unreliable and has steered federal investments towards domestic fossil fuels.

I'm Catherine Carley.

Dozens of No Kings events are set to take place across Oregon this Saturday.

Keir Carson is with Indivisible Oregon, the grassroots group, co-organizing the events.

He says Saturday will be focused around the theme. everybody, everywhere, all at once.

The idea was occupy your corner, but occupy your corner, everybody, everywhere, all at once, so that you cannot drive through the Portland metropolitan area without seeing someone on the corner with a sign of resistance.

The events are part of a National Day of Action expected to draw tens of thousands of people rallying against what organizers describe as rising fascism in the country.

This is Public News Service.

New York has been granted final approval to reduce the state health insurance coverage for low-income residents, known as the Essential Plan.

Governor Kathy Hochul has called for lowering the eligibility for people with incomes from 250 to 200 percent of the federal poverty line.

This means more than one million New Yorkers will keep their coverage, but 470,000 will be dropped unless the state intervenes before July.

Michael Knukin with the Fiscal Policy Institute says New York can and should provide an alternative for people losing this coverage.

Even without raising taxes in this fiscal year, the state is in a position with existing money we have on hand that we were going to use for a different purpose.

We can repurpose that money to completely protect this entire population.

He says funds were set aside in Governor Hochul's 2027 budget proposal, which includes $2.5 billion to help essential plan enrollees if the state had not gotten approval to shrink the plan.

A Community Service Society of New York report finds that would be just enough to guarantee this population would maintain health coverage.

The budget should be finalized by April 1st.

I'm Edwin J. Viera.

And a coalition of Jewish and Palestinian human rights advocates has successfully pressured the Washington State Treasurer's Office to divest $53 million in investments in the equipment company Caterpillar.

The group, Pet Ties with Genocide, charges that for 60 years, the Israeli military has used caterpillar bulldozers to tear down homes in Gaza and other Palestinian territories.

Ray Levine, an organizer with Jewish Voices for Peace in Seattle, says state officials listened to them and took action.

They initiated their environmental social governance guidelines back in 2021 and digested from fossil fuel companies.

Their portfolio hasn't included weapons companies, but we pointed out that they did hold a Caterpillar bond.

Caterpillar released a statement saying it does not condone the illegal or immoral use of any Caterpillar equipment, but did not say whether it would stop selling to Israel.

I'm Mark Richardson.

Finally, if the Save America Act now being debated in the Congress becomes law, it will require many rural Nevada voters to drive great distances to register to vote in person or at the county seat.

A new analysis from the Center for American Progress shows, for example, that voters in parts of Nye County would have to drive more than four hours round trip on a weekday.

And voters in Clark, Elko, Humboldt, Lincoln, and White Pine counties could have to drive between two and three and a half hours.

Greta Betikovics with the Center for American Progress says this bill isn't just about identification at the polls.

This bill has asked people to either have a passport, pay $165 to get one, or to have an original certified copy of their birth certificate.

This is really not voter ID, and it's critical that Americans understand that.

I'm Suzanne Potter.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

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