Food banks are struggling to keep up with demands from their communities after federal funding cuts.
asserted
banks → struggle → cuts
Hurricane Isaias barrels toward the Gulf Coast.
asserted
Isaias → barrel → Coast
And Michigan Senate candidates Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers debate gas prices and tariffs.
asserted
Sayed → debate → prices
Hunger grips a rural community hit by Trump’s cuts
asserted
Hunger → grip → cuts
In Dunlow, West Virginia, Bill Likens stared down a half-mile-long line of cars and trucks that started forming before the sun came up over the Appalachian Mountains.
asserted
sun → star → Mountains
He had one job: figure out how to feed them all.
asserted
He → have → them
This is Morning Rundown, a weekday newsletter to start your day.
asserted
This → start → day
Some had driven more than 30 miles in aging vehicles.
asserted
Some → drive → vehicles
They sat silently as the temperature rose into the 80s, their engines turned off to preserve gas, waiting hours for a few boxes of food.
asserted
engines → sit → food
Likens, 51, counted cartons of eggs and sacks of potatoes to calculate how much of each waiting car could get — an algorithm of hunger he is constantly trying to solve.
uncertain
he → count → hunger
Increasingly, the job of feeding the nation’s hungry is falling on the shoulders of everyday Americans like Likens, who have become the last bulwark against hunger in a land of plenty.
asserted
who → feed → plenty
He and others on the front lines of feeding their neighbors say they face unprecedented challenges brought on by Washington.
asserted
they → feed → Washington
Food distribution programs are getting less supplies from federal programs to feed the hungry after cuts by the Trump administration.
asserted
programs → get → administration
At the same time, restrictions on food stamps from the Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill” have driven up demand, while rising gas prices because of the Iran war have cut into the budgets of households and food banks alike.
asserted
prices → drive → households
The challenges extend far beyond Appalachia, with many food banks saying more people are showing up to their doors.
asserted
people → extend → doors
NBC News surveyed 90 of the largest food banks across the country.
asserted
News → survey → country
The responses from 48 food banks, representing 35 states and Washington, D.C., were dire.
asserted
responses → represent → states
Hurricane Isaias strengthened to a Category 2 storm and could intensify to Category 3 before making landfall late tonight or early Saturday.
uncertain
Isaias → strengthen → landfall
The National Hurricane Center forecasts landfall between Mississippi and the Florida Panhandle, but warns that dangerous storm surge could affect a much wider area, stretching from southeast Louisiana to Florida’s Big Bend.
uncertain
surge → forecast → Bend
Forecasters are warning of dangerous and life-threatening conditions along parts of the Gulf Coast beginning today and into the weekend.
asserted
Forecasters → warn → weekend
Major oil companies, including Chevron and Shell, have already begun shutting down some production sites.
asserted
companies → include → sites
While the industry has well-established protocols for hurricane-related evacuations and shutdowns, the timing could hardly be worse, experts say, as Americans face rising prices at the pump for gasoline and diesel.
uncertain
Americans → have → gasoline
What a reduction in supplies would mean in the U.S.
El-Sayed and Rogers face off in Michigan Senate debate
Candidates in Michigan’s Senate race, one of the most competitive contests of the election cycle, clashed over gas prices, tariffs and the war in Iran, trading barbs in a debate that frequently turned personal.
asserted
that → mean → debate
Democrat Abdul El-Sayed sought to portray his Republican rival, former Rep. Mike Rogers, as a weak-willed loyalist to President Donald Trump who had changed his positions on some issues out of political necessity.
asserted
who → seek → necessity
Rogers tried to frame El-Sayed as a “con man” who will have to raise taxes or other costs to deliver on promises he has made, such as “Medicare for All.”
asserted
he → try → All
Both candidates said they would support pausing a federal tax on gas amid the war in Iran, but the question led into a deeper discussion about the conflict.
asserted
question → say → conflict
El-Sayed called out Rogers for initially supporting tariffs before he released an ad this week calling for an end to the trade war.
asserted
he → call → war
When pressed about his criticism of Israel, El-Sayed dodged the moderator’s question.
asserted
Sayed → press → question
More politics news:
- Texas Senate candidate James Talarico is expected to return to the campaign trail this weekend after he was forced to sit out for nearly two weeks because of the flu.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan will be livestreamed.
asserted
execution → expect → Hasan
- Democratic congressional candidate Bernadette Greene-Placentia said she was raped while putting out campaign signs in Arizona and told police her attackers might have recognized her as a political figure.
uncertain
attackers → say → figure
What’s next for Christa Pike?
asserted
What → ’ → Pike
Her fate hinges on critical questions
Could Tennessee try to execute Christa Pike again?
uncertain
Tennessee → hinge → Pike
Christa Pike was walking with assistance and had regained some movement in her arms, her lawyers said yesterday, a week after her botched execution in Tennessee.
asserted
lawyers → walk → Tennessee
Her lawyers had previously said she was suffering from pneumonia, but reported yesterday that her lungs were now clear.
asserted
lungs → say → pneumonia
She had also resumed eating a regular diet.
asserted
She → resume → diet
The state is now investigating what exactly happened.
asserted
what → investigate → ?
NBC News reviewed the protocol and spoke with medical experts and an anonymous source who witnessed the event to get a better comprehension of what took place.
asserted
what → review → place
What comes next for Pike?
asserted
What → come → Pike
The state could attempt to execute her again for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, setting the stage for legal challenges that could reach the Supreme Court.
uncertain
that → attempt → Court
Such a case would raise questions about double jeopardy and whether a second execution attempt would amount to cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.
asserted
attempt → raise → Amendment
…and 22 more, not listed.
The Aporia
