Six minutes of news from around the nation.

Supreme Court appears ready to limit mail-in balloting; TSA officer juggles bills, baby costs; Montana health care advocates rally to save rural hospitals; Pennsylvania removes 14 dams to boost public safety, restore river health; and an ancient spice becomes potential new cash crop for New Mexico.

TRANSCRIPT

The Public News Service daily newscast, March 24, 2026.

I'm Mike Clifford.

The nation's highest court Monday appeared likely to embrace a conservative challenge to tallying mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day.

A majority of Supreme Court justices seem ready to side with Republicans and libertarians who told the court the federal election law preempts Mississippi from counting ballots that arrive up to five days after the polls close.

And the investigation into that deadly collision between an Air Canada jet and a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport was initially slowed down by complications from the federal government shutdown.

The chair of the NTSB said long security lines at airports delayed the travel of some of the more than two dozen specialists will take part in the investigation.

Meantime, TSA workers at Indianapolis International Airport say the federal shutdown is hitting their paychecks and families hard.

Our Joe Ulory has the story.

About 350 TSA screeners and another 100 support workers have gone more than a month without pay.

This marks the third shutdown in about six months that's interrupted the income of these workers.

Veteran agent Brad Neal says rising costs and repeated shutdowns are making it harder to recover.

This is probably the worst it's ever been, in my opinion, because of how expensive everything has gotten.

And having three shutdowns back to back to back does not help.

Workers are expected to receive back pay if Congress passes a Homeland Security budget and President Donald Trump signs it into law.

In the meantime, some officers are cutting spending, staying home and looking for extra income just to get by.

This story was produced with original reporting from Kat Sandoval for Wish TV.

Next to Montana, where health care advocates are using the Affordable Care Act's 16th anniversary to spotlight potential Medicaid cuts.

They held a Save Our Hospitals rally at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula last week to protest the cuts and urge state lawmakers to protect rural hospitals.

Chet Phillips is a single dad of three kids on Medicaid, and he gets benefits through Montana's Medicaid expansion.

He wants lawmakers to protect those funds, especially after a recent health scare.

Without expanded Medicaid, I'd have had to worry about whether I could afford the care I needed to stay in this world and take care of the people who depend on me.

Advocates say two recent proposals could impact the state's Medicaid funding and hurt rural hospitals.

The first is Montana's plan to enforce federal Medicaid work requirements in Montana this summer, which they say would be costly and cut benefits for tens of thousands of Montanans.

The second is the state health department's announcement that it may not pay the 3 percent Medicaid provider rate increase the legislature passed last year.

The health department is predicting a $34 million budget shortfall this year.

I'm Laura Hatch reporting.

This is Public News Service.

Pennsylvania is a leader among 30 states boosting river health and safety by removing outdated dams.

In 2025, nationwide efforts reconnected nearly 4,900 miles of rivers, the largest amount ever restored in a single year.

Jessie Thomas-Blate with American Rivers says there's been 433 dams removed in Pennsylvania since 1912, including 14 last year, the most of any state.

She says removals can be done for various reasons.

Some of them were done for ecological reasons.

Some of them were done to benefit public safety.

Some of them were removed because the dams were just falling apart and needed to come out of the river.

So there's different motivations behind the project.

But ultimately, they all benefit the health of the river and the sustainability of the communities that they're in.

According to American Rivers, more than a quarter of the dams removed were dangerous low-hit dams, often referred to as drowning machines.

Danielle Smith reporting.

Next to rural Alabama, ambulance coverage can be a matter of life and death, but low reimbursement rates from insurers have made it difficult for providers to keep enough ambulances on the road.

A new bill in the state legislature would mandate that commercial insurers allow ambulance services into their networks and set minimum payment rates.

Stephen Wilson, director of operations for Hanes Ambulance, describes the coverage gaps in rural counties that often result in service delays.

You pick a rural county in Alabama, we typically have one, maybe sometimes two ambulances available in those counties.

And, you know, when one of those ambulances goes out on a call, then a second call comes in in that county.

We have to send an ambulance from one of our more urban areas.

The bill, which has passed in the Senate and cleared a House committee, would set new reimbursement rates for ambulance services and allow them to be paid for treating patients on scene, something they currently do for free.

I'm Tramiel Gomes.

Finally, saffron is not a common spice used in most U.S. homes, but that could change as farmers in New Mexico and other states experiment with crops that need less water.

As climate change increases water scarcity, researchers at New Mexico State University are exploring how saffron fares in central and southern parts of the state and how to integrate the crop with others already grown there.

Lead MSSU professor Saeed Zatab Salmasi says saffron is being cultivated in states such as Vermont and New Hampshire, but he thinks the land of enchantment has an advantage.

I believe New Mexico is better environment for growing saffron because this crop doesn't like much water.

On the other hand, New Mexico has a lot of sunshine and that could increase quality.

I'm Roz Brown.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

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