Friday, July 31st, 2026

The cancellation comes after two other Republican senators are withholding their support of Todd Blanche. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of taxes say they want written assurances from the Justice Department about Trump's IRS settlement. They say they'll only vote for Todd Blanche if it's clear a previously proposed nearly $1.8 billion fund for victims of Justice Department weaponization is abandoned. If either senator were to vote, no, Todd Blanche's nomination would fail. President Trump said he would keep lanch on as acting attorney general and renominate him after both the senators are out of office. Both John Cornyn and Thom Tillis are set to leave Congress in January. The Iowa DNR is finalizing an organic waste management plan for the state. It's part of a year's long effort to figure out how to reduce what ends up in landfills. A 2022 DNR study found food waste is the number one material disposed in Iowa's landfills. Jeff Phillips with SCS engineers helped lead a meeting this week with groups involved in developing strategies. All this work being done in the space, and here we are, we're just pulling on one of the really big threads. But it's only one of the threads, and it's organics. The Iowa Organic Waste Management Plan will focus on four areas, including food waste prevention and rescue, composting, and agricultural practices. One approach involves providing more support for facilities to manage food waste. A lot of the strategies involve education and outreach. The plan is expected to be finalized in a few weeks. It's here first from IPR. I'm Megan McKinney. High costs for fertilizer and fuel are straining farmers' checkbooks. And this year, many are also paying a lot more for something else, health insurance. In just a moment, we're going to hear about how the soaring cost of health care is affecting many farmers. Stay with us. The fatal shooting of a teenager at a protest in Seattle has gone unsolved for six years. This is open in your face. How are there no answers? Our investigation has uncovered new evidence and witnesses who say they've never talked to police. Did police ever call you? Not once. Listen to We Keep Us Safe, a new true crime series on the Embedded podcast from NPR. Welcome back. It's here first from my PR. I'm Megan McKinney. After Congress allowed the Affordable Care Act tax credits to lapse, health care premiums spiked for millions of self-employed Americans and part-time workers. Farmers and ranchers were among the group hit hardest, and they're already dealing with a tough agricultural economy. Harvest Public Media's Macy Byers tells us how health care costs are influencing decisions on the farm.

Ben Stephan is driving past fields of corn and soybeans on his farm in southeastern Nebraska. Crops growing fast and the weeds are growing faster. We pull up to a barn that's full of hay. It used to hold dairy cattle, but Stefan sold them a few years ago. Now he's focused on crops, but costs have been high this year as the war with Iran pushed up fertilizer and diesel prices. I mean, this is the most expensive crop we've ever put in the ground. And it's kind of breathtaking when you do this year after year and you keep seeing those numbers go up. On top of those high input costs for farming, Stefan and his wife, Paula Sue, are also dealing with higher costs for health care. They used to be part of a group health plan when they had employees handling the dairy operation. Since then, they've switched to an Affordable Care Act plan, or Obamacare. Last year, we paid around $13,000. net after we got our premium credit back. That was for the two of us. That was our out-of-pocket expense. And this year, we're on track to pay $32,000 a year. $32,000. That's about $2,700 a month, more than double what they were paying the year before. And that's one of the cheapest options. ACA plans are a common choice for people who can't access health care through a traditional employer. like farmers and ranchers. Congress allowed tax credits to expire this year that covered some of the health plan's costs. Now, premiums have doubled or even tripled for many users. It's scary because it's cutting into their bottom line. They didn't necessarily budget for this. They didn't plan for this. That's Nick Lewandowski, who leads the Kansas Farmers Union. And so therefore they've got to make difficult decisions around that. You know, I have heard of people who've just flat out dropped their insurance. Lewandowski, who also farms, says his own ACA premiums nearly tripled this year. Some lower-cost health options for farmers are offered through farm bureaus and unions, but the plans are limited. Many farm families have a spouse work off the farm to get health insurance. Dina van der Zalm works with the Missouri Rural Crisis Center. She says the organization advocated for the Affordable Care Act because it kept family members on the farm and helped farmers address medical issues earlier. Having access to insurance is super duper important for the farming community because that's protecting them from letting massive medical debt sink the farm, right? It's a layer of protection. The Missouri Rural Crisis Center and other groups are calling on Congress to bring back the ACA tax credits. In the meantime, Vanderzalm says farmers are dealing with razor-thin margins. It is a constant juggle, you know, we're still hearing from people of. Like, we're making choices on bill, we're paying minimums on things. We're setting up payment plans with doctors' offices, not just hospitals. She says farmers are used to unpredictable factors, like whether or how their harvest will turn out. But now it's a given that their health plan will be expensive. Even though the business is tough now, Ben and Paula Sue Stephan say they still wouldn't choose any other profession.

The freedom to being self-employed is undervalued and underappreciated. Our corns grow in three or four inches every day, it seems like, and you can just see the landscape changing. And it's a hopeful season. It's a hopeful business, really. And the 64-year-olds hope this will be there last year with high health costs as they plan to enroll in Medicare next year. For Harvest Public Media, I'm Macy Byers. This story is a part of Tough Times, a Harvest Public Media series looking at the economic stress that many American farmers are facing this year. Glad to have this story from Harvest Public Media. It's a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains, including IPR, covering ag, food systems, and rural life. I'm Megan McKinney. Thanks for listening to Hear First today. I hope you've had a great week and month. Today is the last day of July. Can you believe that? Have a great weekend. Talk on Monday.