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PNS - Thursday, March 6, 2025 - Activists work to protect immigrant communities as ICE reach expands, experts urge lawmakers to ramp up elder abuse protections in rural America, and a multistate arts initiative crafts ways to close the urban-rural divide.
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PNS - Thursday, March 6, 2025 - Medicaid and tribal health providers face possible cuts, corporations are accused of squeezing out independent farmers, and immigration lawyers say Hispanic motorists are being stopped based on how they look.
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PNS - Thursday, March 6, 2025 Trump admin plans to cut more than 70,000 jobs at Dept. of Veterans Affairs, memo says; Industrial farming in NC, US becomes breeding ground for bird flu; Possible closure of US Dept. of Education 'devastating' for VA; Jack Daniel's maker says Canada pulling US alcohol off shelves 'worse than tariff'; Cuts looming for WA tribal public-health funding.
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By Kathleen Shannon - Producer, Contact - News
Big Sky Connection - Montana Fair Housing is one of many private nonprofits across the nation that assist people facing discrimination in housing, which was outlawed decades ago. The organization was informed last week that its $425,000 federal grant has been terminated, effective immediately. Comments by Pam Bean, executive director, Montana Fair Housing.
Kathleen Shannon
March 5, 2025 - Since the Fair Housing Act was established in 1968 to make discrimination in housing illegal, nonprofits around the country have helped investigate cases and counsel victims.
But the Trump administration has cut federal grant funding to many of them, including Montana Fair Housing. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sent Montana Fair Housing a termination notice for a $425,000 annual grant.
Pam Bean, executive director of Montana Fair Housing, said the grant made up 83% of the organization's funding.
"We had no notice, nothing," Bean explained. "The letter indicated our grant 'no longer met the goals and priorities' of the organization."
The letter, dated Feb. 27, stated the termination is effective immediately and is at the direction of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk's government cost-slashing program. It comes weeks after HUD laid off hundreds of employees. Many are bracing for further cuts.
Bean pointed out Montana Fair Housing worked on 32 dispute resolutions last year, staving off as many legal complaints.
"Those services are going to be cut back as well," Bean noted. "That probably will lead to the filing of many more complaints."
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is working to change policies and legal definitions regarding sexual orientation and gender identity, a class of people protected by the Fair Housing Act. According to the National Fair Housing Alliance, there were more than 33,000 reported complaints of housing discrimination in the U.S. in 2023.
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