News from around the nation.

14 Tornados flatten homes and businesses in southern Mississippi;  Tennessee voting rights group opposes special session redistricting push; Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor slams Medicaid cuts as ‘cruelty with a price tag’; Data show Medicaid cuts put 22 Washington hospitals at risk of closure.

Transcript

The Public News Service Thursday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

Supercell storms spawned 14 tornadoes that flattened homes and businesses across central and southern Mississippi Wednesday night.

Weather Channel headline, just total devastation.

A spokesman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency told 16WAPT News Wednesday, as many as 815 buildings were damaged in Franklin and Lincoln counties, and the storm left debris and fallen power lines across some roads.

So far, about a dozen injuries, but no deaths reported.

Next, Tennessee Republicans have unveiled a new congressional map amid a special session on redistricting that began Tuesday, and a grassroots movement is now forming an opposition to the proposed map.

Leading a protest and rallying at the Tennessee Capitol during the special session, Amber Sherman, with Black Voters Matter, says the future of the 9th Congressional District, the state's only majority black district, is at risk.

She adds that the map would weaken that district and dilute black voting power.

The proposed maps that have been posted by politicians and shared by our governor and by the president would remove our congressional district.

I mean, it's unfair to us.

We all deserve fair representation no matter what Supreme Court ruling came out.

Congressman Steve Cohen, who represents Tennessee's 9th district, said he plans to fight the redistricting push using every political and legal option available.

Danielle Smith reporting.

Next to Wisconsin, where state officials are speaking out about the ramifications of sweeping federal health care cuts on the state and the 1.2 million residents who depend on BadgerCare, the state's Medicaid program.

Our Judith Rees branch lets us know an estimated 276,000 Wisconsinites could lose their Medicaid coverage over the next decade.

About 63,000 working adults whose jobs don't offer health insurance are at immediate risk.

Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez says that's enough people to fill Lambeau Field three times over.

Picture telling every single one of them that they're on their own.

And it's not just coverage, it's the hospitals themselves.

When the only hospital for 40 miles closes its doors, a heart attack becomes a death sentence.

A new report by Advocacy Group Protect Our Care finds nearly 1,000 hospitals nationwide are now closing or at risk of closing.

Meantime, an analysis from Public Citizen finds 22 hospitals in Washington are at heightened risk of closure due to the cuts, mostly in rural areas.

Chris Majors with Harbor Regional Health in Aberdeen says the hospital is already considering closing some services, including labor and delivery.

He calls the plans to cut Medicaid a tragedy.

You can't let this bill play out the way that it is.

It has to get changed.

It will kill people.

That's the reality.

There will be people who cannot get the services they need in time to save their lives if this continues.

This isn't just about making money.

Major says about 80 percent of the patients that Grays Harbor Hospital serves rely on Medicaid and Medicare.

This is Public News Service.

Many older transgender women informally adopt younger trans people and form a parent-child bond of choice.

This Mother's Day, trans advocates are celebrating the women who care for the whole community.

Jeanetta Johnson is CEO of the Miss Major Alexander L. Lee Black Trans Cultural Center in San Francisco, which runs the Transgender, Gender Variant, and Intersex Justice Project.

The program is named after Ms. Major Griffin Gracie, who took Janetta under her wing when she wanted to leave a life of drugs and prostitution behind.

I was 30-something years old, and I knew that I could potentially die on the streets.

She raised me, made me become an adult, made me find a safe way to live and to love myself.

Ms. Major, who passed away last year, was considered the matriarch of the trans community in San Francisco, always ready with a meal or some good advice.

I'm Suzanne Potter.

And fallen members of the military, firefighters, police officers, veterans, and their families are being honored this month through nationwide events sponsored by Dallas-based Carry the Load.

Co-founder Stephen Hawley says the nonprofit works to put the meaning of Memorial Day back into observances.

During Memorial May, 75 Carry the Load walks are taking place across Texas and the country, giving loved ones an opportunity to reflect.

That's the beautiful part of our events.

It's kind of open to interpretation of how you want to participate, whether it's a physical backpack or a lot of people bringing pictures of loved ones who made that ultimate sacrifice.

The observances will culminate with an event at Rivershawn Park in Dallas on May 24th and 25th.

A list of nationwide commemorations is available at the nonprofit's website.

I'm Freda Ross reporting.

Finally, the U.S. House has passed a version of the Farm Bill without an immunity shield for pesticide makers if their products are found to be carcinogenic.

Our Mark Moran reports.

Food and clean water advocates are encouraged that it doesn't contain a so-called cancer gag act, but it does make large cuts to food and nutrition assistance programs.

Last year, the Iowa legislature defeated a provision that would have provided chemical makers such as Bayer, which produces the glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup, immunity from cancer lawsuits.

In response, Bayer took its fight for immunity to the federal level.

Food and Water Watch, Iowa, organizer Jennifer Breon says public sentiment is catching up with science, suggesting that glyphosate is carcinogenic.

That's a validation of all the activism and all the work that Iowans have done to make sure that there was no Cancer Gag Act either in Iowa or at the federal level.

The Farm Bill, which was last rewritten in 2018, has been extended through the end of September.

It awaits action in the Senate.

Pesticide makers have said they are complying with current labeling laws with their products.

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

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