NPR News: 09-06-2026 3PM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News in Washington, on Linda Kenyon. The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court again to clear the way for a U.S. Postal Service plan that could restrict mail-in voting for the midterm election. As NPR's Hansi LaWong reports, a Supreme Court ruling may come as soon as this Wednesday. This is the third emergency request the Trump administration has made at the Supreme Court for the president's attempt to limit mail-in voting. This time, the Supreme Court is set to weigh in on the legality of the U.S. Postal Services plan. Under that plan, U.S. P.S. would refuse to deliver mail-in ballots to voters in states where election officials do not turn over voter lists to the mailing agency and do not have certain barcodes in their ballot envelopes. We should note, U.S. P.S. is a financial supporter of NPR. A federal judge in Boston has blocked those requirements twice. After finding that U.S. P.S. has no authority to impose them on states, any whistleblower report claims that Postal Services' systems, when forcing those requirements, have not been properly tested and could derail mail-in voting for the midterm general election, which is just

1:01getting started in North Carolina. Hansi LaWong and P.R. News. The House Committee on Veterans Affairs has compelled testimony from Larry Allison, the head of Oracle. As NPR's Quill Lawrence reports, Oracle's project for handling health records at the Veterans Administration is $17 billion over budget. The VA's electronic health record or deal goes back decades, as technology changed and the military and VA failed to find an interoperable system. The latest deal is from President Trump's first term. $10 billion was supposed to get VA a working system from Oracle by 2028. Now Oracle says it will be $27 billion and three years late. Republican Mike Boss shares the House VA Committee. This has been the biggest boondoggle I've ever seen. And the frustration that we feel on this committee is beyond measure. Will decline a request to appear at a hearing this month and Democrats slammed the Trump administration for enriching Larry Allison, a close ally of the president.

2:03Allison has now been subpoenaed to come and answer their questions. Quill Lawrence and P.R. News. The US military says it struck three Iranian oil tankers yesterday after Iran fired at a U.S. aircraft carrier and destroyer. This latest flare-up is affecting energy markets. David Goldwyn and Energy Envoy during the Obama administration says the price of diesel, for example, is affecting the price of just about everything. 75% transportation is diesel in the United States. So as the price of diesel goes up and jet fuel also for air travel, everything that gets moved around the country and virtually everything in agriculture costs more. Diesel fuel prices hit a record high this morning. The average price is $589 per gallon. It was $371 this time last year. And the far right party known as the alternative for Germany is projected to win a strong victory in a regional election the first far right state government since World War II. You're listening to NPR News. New treatments for lung cancer are starting to improve survival rates and P.R. Yuki

3:05Noguchi reports on one man living at the cutting edge of treatment. Two years ago Stanford Medical Professor Bryant Lynn was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. A disease he spent his career fighting. As a patient Lynn has since benefited from a string of recently approved genetic therapies, new combination of drugs and immune boosting medicines prolonging his life. I think the future is really bright because we're creating all of these personalized, specialized precision therapeutics for lung cancer. My hope is before not able to cure lung cancer, we can at least turn it into a chronic disease. While the survival rate for lung cancer overall has doubled in three decades, it's still only a sobering 30% after five years. Yuki Noguchi NPR News. This is not a good time to be an ostrich. US ostrich farmers say people who have developed a rare red meat allergy triggered by tick bites are finding they can't eat beef anymore, but they can eat ostrich meat.

4:10ostrich meat is red when raw and it has a taste that is similar to beef, so it may be a good alternative for those who crave actual red meat. It may not be an economic alternative. The average cost per pound is 20 to 28 dollars. The average cost per pound of ground beef ranges between five to eight dollars. Presently there are only about 10 to 15 ostrich farms in the United States. I'm Linda Kenyon. NPR News in Washington. It's the political landscape shifts beneath our feet. We're all vulnerable to a well-funded distraction economy determined to take our eye off the ball. Our weekly politics series, if you can keep it, is here to help where our focus is not the horse race, but the state. We tackle the big political stories of the day and why they matter for our democracy. Join me Todd Zwilland and me Jen White on the 1A Podcast from WAMU and NPR.