The World and Everything in It: March 25, 2026

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Good morning!

Border claims, ballot deadlines—and pressure on Iran, and at U.S. airports.

AUDIO: When you get a two or a three hour line in a place like Atlanta that becomes a soft target in and of itself

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday. Hunter Baker is standing by.

Also today, World Tour, a bishop charged with leading converts from Islam.

Later: Families on the frontlines fighting wildfire.

CARMEN: Everybody has a part to play and the wives that have to stay home are doing a lot of praying.

And commentator Cal Thomas on the great wealth migration.

MAST: It’s Wednesday, March 25th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

MAST: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Iran latest » President Trump said again on Tuesday that things are looking up … with regard to possibly ending the war in Iran soon.

TRUMP:  We're in negotiations right now. Uh, they're doing it along with Marco, JD. We have a number of people, uh, doing it. And the other side, I can tell you they'd like to make a deal.

The president referring there to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance.

He pointed to a goodwill gesture of some kind from Iran, which he said was “oil and gas related”... as evidence that his administration is now dealing with the right people.

TRUMP: The gift they made to us was very significant and they said they were gonna do it and it happened. And they're the only ones that could have done it.

Trump backed off a threat to order strikes on Iran's energy infrastructure because of what he said was Iran's willingness to make a deal that would end the country's nuclear program.

Iran initially denied that it's holding talks with the US but Iran's foreign minister has held separate calls with his counterparts in Egypt, Oman, Pakistan, and Turkey. Those are the same countries reportedly trying to mediate with the US to end the war.

That comes as the U.S. military is reportedly set to deploy around 1,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East in the coming days.

Iranian attacks in Israel » Meanwhile in Israel, a familiar sound:

SOUND: [Sirens in Israel]

Sirens blared over Tel Aviv yesterdayas an Iranian missile was spotted over central Israel.

SOUND: [Aftermath in Bnei Brak]

Crews picked through debris after a missile hit several residential buildings, injuring at least a dozen people.

But Israel's military says Iran is firing fewer and fewer missiles.

DEFRIN: [Speaking Hebrew]

Brigadier General Effie Defrin says Iran fired fewer than 100 missiles the first day of the conflict, half that the second day, and is now firing an average of about 10 per day.

Meanwhile, Israeli ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon issuing a challenge to other world leaders to tighten the screws on Iran.

DANON: Where are you? Where is the moral clarity? Where are the urgency? Where is your leadership? Israel is already in the arena. This is your moment to step up, to recognize the common enemy, to act now, before it's too late for your people to act with unity, with resolve and clarity.

Danon told reporters that Iran's recent missile launch toward the joint US – UK, military base on Diego Garcia, Island, and the Indian Ocean could demonstrate a greater strike range than previously acknowledged. And that, he said, makes Iran a global threat.

Possible DHS deal » At the White House:

BONDI: Raise your right hand and repeat after me. I do solemnly swear.

MULLIN: I do solemnly swear.

BONDI: Markwayne Mullin.

MULLIN: Markwayne Mullin…

Attorney General Pam Bondi administering the oath of office to newly confirmed Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

WORLD’s Harrison Watters has more from Washington.

HARRISON WATTERS: The Former Oklahoma GOP Senator takes over the Department of Homeland Security 40 days into a partial government shutdown.

Senate Republicans are optimistic about landing a deal to pass DHS funding later this week after meeting with President Trump on Monday,

Republicans are also talking about passing additional funding for ICE operations and some elements of the SAVE America Act through a process known as budget reconciliation. Mullin explains:

MULLIN: There's a framework that we can do through reconciliation, paying for it, put some of the policies that cost money in, because there's nothing more important than the SAVE America Act.

WATTERS: That legislation aims to require voter verification, including photo ID, in national elections.

Trump over the weekend said he would not support breaking up the DHS appropriations bill to handle ICE separately, but when asked about it on Tuesday, he told reporters the process is up to Congress.

Lawmakers are planning to fly home on Friday for a two week recess for Easter and Passover, so the incentive is strong to land a deal soon.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Harrison Watters in Washington.

Alan Armstrong replaces Sen. Mullin » And Oklahoma’s governor has chosen a temporary replacement for Markwayne Mullin in the Senate.

Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt has appointed energy executive Alan Armstrong to fill a newly vacant U.S. Senate seat through the end of the year.

STITT:  A few people have done more to Champion America. First agenda to keep Oklahoma at the center of domestic production, uh, so that we can deliver clean, reliable, and affordable energy to American citizens than Alan Armstrong.

Armstrong is the chairman and former CEO of Williams Companies, a major pipeline operator based in Tulsa.

ARMSTRONG:  I'll admit to you, I'm a, a little bit, like, I feel like I'm stepping off into the abyss with not exactly sure what I'm getting into, but, uh, but I'm confident, got great team around me, great support around me, and I look really do look forward to making a difference for the short time that, that I'm in the Senate.

Under Oklahoma law, Armstrong must agree not to run for a full term in November’s general election.

Moon base » America is not only aiming to go back to the moon, it’s planning to set up shop on the lunar surface.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman just announced a $20-billion-dollar plan to build a permanent base on the moon within seven years.

To free up resources, the agency is canceling its planned Lunar Gateway space station — which was designed to orbit the moon. And it will redirect those already-constructed components toward a surface base instead.

ISAACMAN:  America will never again give up the moon. That brings us to the next step. Building the moon base. It should not really surprise anyone that we are pausing Gateway in its current form and focusing on, uh, infrastructure that supports sustained operations on the lunar surface.

The first crewed moon landing is now targeted for Artemis IV in 2028, with annual lunar missions to follow. The urgency is driven in part by China, which is targeting its own crewed moon landing by 2030.

I'm Kent Covington. 

Straight ahead on Washington Wednesday: the political importance of two major Supreme Court cases. Hunter Baker is standing by. Plus, fighting wildfires becomes a family affair for Nebraska ranchers.

This is The World and Everything in It.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Wednesday, March 25th. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Time now for Washington Wednesday!

Joining us now is political scientist Hunter Baker. He is a WORLD Opinions Contributor and our regular Washington Wednesday political analyst. Good morning Hunter!

HUNTER BAKER: Good morning!

EICHER: Hunter, two really big Supreme Court cases—and we’ll cover the legal arguments in due course after our legal affairs team has had at them. But today I want to talk with you about the political importance of both, because whatever the Court decides, these are huge issues.

So let’s start with the most recent one first: asylum claims. The legal question turns on when someone has “arrived in the United States.” But politically, this is about control of the border. These claims can take years to resolve, and in the meantime people may be here in a kind of limbo—or simply beyond effective control.

So politically, is this case likely to re-ignite the immigration debate, regardless of which way it goes?

BAKER: It's just going to add to the the ongoing controversy. I mean, it's interesting that there are many of us above a certain age who can remember when immigration was a very minor issue in American politics, and that has obviously changed. It's become a really serious one. I mean, there was a time in the past when the border was relatively porous and people came and went, but now things are different, and part of that is because we have, you know, a much broader social safety net and more ways to provide for these people and and people are sending tons of money back across the border. So it has a much larger impact, not to mention the employment competition, than perhaps it once did.

And you know this case about asylum? Well, asylum laws make a ton of sense, particularly when you think about the old Cold War context. People might be seeking asylum, and we would want to help them. But I think that what's happened is is, like many parts of our immigration system, it's become unmanageable. You know, people have realized that claiming asylum is a sort of a magic key that opens the door to being here for some indefinite time, knowing that the administrative and judicial overload is there. It's going to be a long time before anybody is able to adjudicate it. And so now they're trying to decide, right? You know, can you, can you actually prevent people from stepping foot into the country and therefore making some kind of asylum claim? When is somebody actually in the country able to make such a claim?

My view is, is that we need to step back and re-look at the whole immigration system. I think that we probably need some kind of comprehensive legislation to address these problems. But until then, we're going to continue kind of piecemeal working through these issues. And of course, the Trump administration's approach has been just to make it real clear that it's not going to be easy to cross the border, and therefore to discourage a big part of that mass of people trying to come over.

MAST: Well, Hunter, similar thread, but different. I'd like to jump to the case argued Monday, that one was a case about mail in voting. The legal issue is going to revolve around deadlines, but this seems, again, like part of a much larger argument, not unlike the debate over the SAVE Act, election integrity, public confidence and what the rules of voting are supposed to guarantee. So again, regardless of what the court does, the court isn't going to settle the issue. It seems more likely it may reawaken it at some level. Don't you think it really could?

BAKER: I actually think that a ruling from the court on this will be welcome. You know, we've talked about the SAVE Act. We've talked about when you discuss the idea of a really solid voter ID plan for Americans. We all know that the polling has indicated the support is high in my time working with a political depolarization project, one of the things that we talked about was elections, and we gathered a diverse group of people, and one of the things that they were pretty united on was the idea of being able to have election integrity, to be sure that the result is a real result, to be sure that citizens are voting and to have voter ID.

So this is the same kind of a thing, right when we talk about votes that come in after an election, and when you have close elections, and we're having an awful lot of close elections these days. It's just devastating to have this idea that late ballots could come in and affect the outcome in some way, that we could have electoral votes of a state decided, you know effectively after the election, after we sort of think we already know the outcome. And so I think the court has taken a really hard look this idea of what, what is, what does election day really mean? And trying to, I think they have the opportunity to really improve the confidence of Americans in the electoral process.

There are other things, and the SAVE Act addresses some of those other things. But to me, this, this question of, How late are ballots going to be allowed to come in? This is a huge question. The court, I think, can really help us with this one.

EICHER: Shutdown deal in progress, we’ll see if they get it done before Easter recess. But we’ve reported about the pressure building as lines at airport security checkpoints grow. TSA reports that more than 400 agents have quit since the partial shutdown began. 41% called in sick Sunday in Atlanta, at one of the world’s busiest airports, and of course now President Trump has deployed ICE agents to help keep lines moving.

Former acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf served in the first Trump Administration, and he told FOX sending ICE in is all about security.

WOLF: When you get a two or a three hour line in a place like Atlanta or any other major airport, that becomes a soft target in and of itself, those baggage claims and a lot of the places where you see those lines are not secure areas of that airport, meaning anyone from the public can come into those areas. And so again, ICE is being surged into there, making sure that those travelers are safe before they even get into that secure part of the airport.

So Hunter, do a political risk assessment here. How does that work in a situation like this?

BAKER: First of all, I just want to say that you are talking to a three hours early to the airport guy.

EICHER: Even before, right?

BAKER: I think that the reason that I am that is because I remember that post 9/11 period when the security thing could really stretch out long. And so, you know, here I am, over 20 years later, still reacting to that. So it really affects people, and certainly people like me.

With regard to this question about putting ICE into the airports to help with TSA, I think this is kind of a political master stroke. I mean, it's a it's a different look for ICE. You've got them helping out in a situation that is very frustrating to a lot of people. So you know, here they are. They're present. They're they're helping to alleviate the the burden on the traveler and on those brave TSA agents who are showing up despite their paychecks not being delivered. And so this kind of takes the focus off of Minneapolis and gives you a different sort of a look, right? It kind of pushes the idea of ICE back into our vision of the regular Federal workforce, the regular law enforcement. You know, they're not just out there on those icy streets of Minneapolis, they're doing something that probably just about everybody is happy that they're doing now in terms of the broader issue of what's been going on with the shutdown.

I mean, I think that most Americans are probably deeply frustrated with government not taking care of business, not dealing with the nuts and bolts of what they're supposed to do. If the government cannot handle TSA, we could just as easily hand this over to some sort of a private workforce to handle. But instead, the government has taken control of this function, and now everybody is subject to when government breaks down.

So what I would say is I think that we're seeing that politics is eating government is taking the American people hostage with with what I think are ridiculous battles that should not be going on. If you want to change policy, don't use shutdowns to impose changes of policy campaign on your change make it obvious what the change is that you want and win elections. Don't create misery in the midst of an administration, but that's what's going on so far.

MAST: Well Hunter, the President said in the Oval Office yesterday that talks with Iran are ongoing…that leaders in Tehran agree to never have a nuclear weapon. He also indicated a deal might be near.

But the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the President will deploy 3,000 troops from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East. Officials the Journal talked to say that doesn’t mean there will be boots on the ground… but this also doesn’t seem to indicate we are nearing the end, either.

Is this boiling down to a test of who can outlast? If so, which side do you think has the will to keep going?

BAKER: Yeah, this is some very high wire stuff for the American president. I think that. I think that Donald Trump, when he managed to win that second term, after losing in 2020 comes back in 2024 and wins, I think that it just made him believe in himself more than he ever did before, and that was already a lot. And so, you know, he was able to take on this very ambitious plan of tariffs, and then Venezuela and Cuba, and now tackling the big bad guy, Iran. And you asked who could outlast? Well, that's for Iran, that's the only question, right? I mean, if this was a straight up military battle, they lose. It's over, right? Most of their military is destroyed. Much of their leadership has been killed. But that's not the game in the modern world. The game is an asymmetric one. And everybody understands that if you're going to beat the United States of America, you're going to do it in an asymmetric fashion by creating discomfort, particularly among American citizens, and facilitated by the American media. So that's the game. You're right. Who can outlast all of this pain and discomfort.

But one thing that our founders knew when they talked about the things that you had to take account of reason revelation and the law of fashion. And when I say the law of fashion, I do not mean you know, the length of skirts or the type of hats that men might wear. I mean public opinion. And Americans have always recognized that public opinion is a powerful force that may be the most powerful force that we deal with outside of the sovereignty of God. And have the American people been convinced? Not yet, it appears polling indicates that probably below 40% of people support the action. They may not like Iran. They may think it would be better if Iran was gone, destabilized, defeated, but they're not sure this was necessary. And so they're encountering pain in the pump, pain in the 401(k), and those gas prices will also eventually hit the stores if they haven't already.

So people need to believe in a successful ending of this thing. They've already been traumatized by our failures in the Middle East, and they're dying to believe that he's telling the truth about productive talks with Iran right now. If that happens, it's going to be a tremendous win. But if we're still where we are or anywhere close to it at the midterms, I can't even imagine how painful that will be for Trump and the Republicans.

EICHER: Hunter Baker is provost at North Greenville University. Thank you, Hunter. We’ll see you next week.

BAKER: Thank you.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour.

A Sudan-born convert is now leading an Anglican diocese of Muslim converts around the world … without restrictions of borders.

WORLD’s Africa reporter Onize Oduah brings us this special report.

ONIZE ODUAH: Bishop Yassir Eric vividly remembers when he lost his childhood. He was eight, and carted away to an Islamic school in Sudan without explanation.

YASSIR ERIC: We were beaten up every single day, because the education system there is not being done by educators.

He learned to memorize the Quran, though he barely understood the text. He waited for two years before his father finally returned to pick him up.

Eric comes from a reputable Islamic family in Sudan, and was trained to also follow the faith.

ERIC: I was not taught to tolerate. I was not taught to accept diversity within our community, but I was taught to hate Jews, to hate Christians, but even other sectors of Muslim, the Shia, because I was a Sunni Muslim.

That began to change after he visited a hospital where his cousin was gravely ill.

There, he met two Coptic Christians who asked to pray over the sick boy. He listened as they prayed with compassion and intimacy with God.

ERIC: I was watching all of this, and the minute they said, Amen, this child opened his eyes for the first time, and life came back into him.

But he says the biggest miracle that day was not the physical healing, but his change of heart.

ERIC: This was 1990 when I gave my life to Christ, and I said to Jesus, if you are really the one that this person speaks about, I would like you to come into my life and change me. And this is what he did.

But his conversion only marked the start of his journey.

Eric describes the Islamic culture as a collective community, or ummah, where one gets identity but also pays the price for defying the norm.

ERIC: So I was cut off from the Ummah, from my family, and then I was also in prison because of my faith. But this is not only my story. This you could say the story of converts across the Muslim world, you know.

Eric eventually left for Kenya to study theology. He met a German family that eventually took him to their home country. He continued his studies there and now lectures at Columbia International University in Germany.

Eric is also tasked with leading a non-geographical province for Muslim Background Believers under the Global Anglican Communion, a group of conservative Anglicans.

The diocese is unusual, without a fixed location or cathedral. Its members run from West African nations like Senegal, to Central Asia and as far as Afghanistan. Some worship in underground house churches for their safety.

Eric says the community has become a spiritual lifeline for the Muslim converts.

ERIC: They would lose the Islamic community, but then the Christian community is not open to receive them for different reasons, sometimes security reasons, sometimes social reasons, sometimes also cultural reasons. And so you leave your ummah, you leave your home, and you belong nowhere. And for those people, God have called us to establish a home.

He says what he’s doing now is a natural extension of what was done for him.

ERIC: I’m talking to you today because of people who opened their homes, people who opened their hearts, people who accompanied me, who discipled me, and who showed me who Jesus Christ is. And what I'm doing now is exactly what I received. I'm just giving it back.

Eric says he isn’t so much leading a church, as he is integrating a family within the body of Christ.

That’s this week’s World Tour. I’m Onize Oduah, in Abuja, Nigeria.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Safety in Memphis.

NICK EICHER, HOST: The Tennessee city has long had a reputation as one of the most dangerous in the nation. Six months ago, the Memphis Safe Taskforce arrived in the city, and this week President Trump hosted a round table there to tout its success.

WORLD’s Mary Muncy reports.

MARY MUNCY: The FBI says Memphis had the highest violent crime rate of any city in the U.S. in 2024. It had been steadily climbing for a decade and reached an all-time high in 2023. And while it had been trending downward since then, it remained alarmingly high.

That spurred President Trump to launch the Memphis Safe Task Force. It’s the same tactic used by Washington, D.C. It combines the FBI, DEA, National Guard, and others to try to make the city safer.

SERRALTA: Without question, the public outlook in Memphis has improved dramatically, in the last six months collectively, our efforts have resulted in a 43 percent reduction in total serious crimes, 37 percent reduction in murder… 56 percent reduction in robbery.

Jay Krish has owned a convenience store in downtown Memphis for the last ten years. He sees the National Guard everywhere and says he thinks the increased presence is helping tourists feel safer.

KRISH: We got a new public safety guards. It's a new team, so they're doing a really good job right now. They've been helping every day, checking on the business, taking on the people, taking care of the tourists and everything.

Another Memphis worker told WORLD the difference in the last six months has been “night and day.”

But others see it differently, protesting the task force. Democratic state representative Justin Pearson told WMC-TV.

PEARSON: If we were given the money that they wasted on this unsafe task force, we could’ve provided more housing, improved our education, helped with medical expenses for families, and actually benefited our community. We need poverty eradication, not occupation.

Some people accused the task force of harassing minorities, and the mayor claims it’s having a chilling effect.

Others, like Democratic Congressman Steven Cohen, say the task force isn’t doing what Trump says it is.

COHEN: The taskforce came into Memphis is September 25, crime was already down 25 percent because of the good work of our Mayor Young and our police director David. They continue to do the good work.

In his view, the surge in FBI and DEA agents was helpful, but the National Guard and ICE need to go home.

Back at the roundtable, U.S. Marshal Service Director Gady Serralta says public events have gotten safer. He points to the Saint Jude marathon in December.

SERRALTA: Where 22,000 runners gathered without a single reported downtown burglary compared to multiple incidents in the prior year.

Meanwhile, President Trump says he wants to expand this tactic to other American cities.

TRUMP: In another two or three months, you could have like no crime.

He also encouraged Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton to keep focusing on “tough-on-crime” bills. Some of those measures include denying bail to some violent offenders, and increasing penalties for both adult and juvenile offenders.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Opening Day for Major League Baseball.

Yes, baseball is back, and with it, one more branded interruption.

MLB is rolling out for 20-26 an all-new ABS challenge — automated balls and strikes — each team receiving two chances a game to show-up the ump without getting kicked out.

Only the batter, pitcher, or catcher can challenge — by tapping his helmet or cap. Then the system tracks the questionable call, the scoreboard shows the result ,and we all get a little closer to living inside a video game.

They even tried it out at last year’s All-Star Game:

AUDIO: “Ball down.”

“What do you think?”

“Yeah, I like that.”

“Automated balls and strikes powered by [duck and fade] T-Mobile’s network.”

There it is: yet another revenue opportunity ,brought to you by your name here.”

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, March 25th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Fire in America’s Heartland.

Last week, Nebraska experienced the biggest wildfire in its history. The Morrill Fire decimated an area the size of Rhode Island, burning up the food supply of roughly 35,000 head of cattle.

WORLD correspondent Elizabeth Shenk spoke with a ranch family on the frontlines, fighting back the fire for days until help arrived.

ELIZABETH SHENK: Christine Mulloy’s 6 kids know how to do what they’re told.

CHRISTINE: A lot of kids out here are raised to listen to their parents really well because of safety.

Christine is loading hers into ATVs on the family farm in Angora, Nebraska, each armed with a shovel. Her husband Coote is leading a search to find the fire edge. That’s where they’ll begin working—their second day in a row. The family documented everything with videos.

This fire started on March 12th, when hurricane force winds downed a power pole. That lit the Sandhills grasslands about six miles from the family’s ranch. It raced 12 miles in the first 10 minutes and kept growing

NEWS ANCHOR: No containment on this fire. No containment on this fire.

The fire blew through 5 counties over four days. The only thing that stood between the area ranches and that fire were the people who lived there. And the best thing they had to douse it was dirt.

COOTE: We put out a whole bunch and then came back over the hill and what we'd already put out had flared back up 'cause something smoldered and took off again. So we had to put it all out again.

For the older generations, it’s nothing new. Since just after the Civil War, generations of Mulloys have fought off fires on this stretch of native prairie—-perfect for grazing cattle but easily decimated by fire and wind. Carmen Mulloy is Coote’s mother.

CARMEN: Everybody has a part to play and the wives that have to stay home are doing a lot of praying and trying not to worry. Will my man get hurt? Will my child get hurt? Okay. I'm getting emotional.

Coote volunteers with the Bridgeport Fire Department, and he trains all of his kids–Carmen’s grandkids. 11-year-old Cameo:

CAMEO:  You take your shovel and if there's anything smoldering by the edges where there's grass, you wanna kick this stuff back.

...this is Cameo’s second fire…

CAMEO: So then it's at least three feet and that might still not even be enough because the wind, so you also put dirt on it…

…and she says it was worse than her first…

CAMEO: It was scarier 'cause it was bigger, but then you think about it and it's like, you feel so good that you helped your neighbors instead of sitting at home.

It was Cameo’s 15-year-old cousin Megan Thurow’s first fire.

THUROW: I kept on dreaming about that. We had to get the fire out 'cause it was coming towards our house and then I kept on waking up.

Nebraska ranks right behind Texas in beef production, and much of that comes from these family-owned ranches. Half of the ranchland in Nebraska is in the burn zone, an area roughly the size of Maryland.

About thirty neighbors and volunteer firefighters worked alongside Coote and his family, dredging up dirt with shovels and tractors to cover burning yucca, soapweed, sage, and cow dung.

COOTE: But the tractors can't go very fast especially where it's real hilly.

There’s no time to lose in a fire like this. Lives and livelihoods are at stake.

One elderly woman died trying to flee the fire. The total cattle loss is being tallied. The land can’t be grazed for one to two years. Those who can’t afford to feed their cows will have to sell them.

Thirty-eight miles away, Naomi Loomis is considered a neighbor. While she was fighting fire at another ranch, flames swept through her yard. The Mulloy kids showed up the next morning.

LOOMIS:  They're just so willing to help us put that fire out because that the wind did change and we did need their assistance for sure.

The Loomis’ lost everything around their house and barn. Neighbors and friends are bringing semi-loads of hay so they can feed their livestock.

LOOMIS: They're just there because they love you. They love you because of Jesus, and they want to help you. They've read the Bible. They know we're friends in Christ, so that is so uplifting…

Over the weekend, locals raised funds for the volunteer fire departments. Today, the fire is at 98% containment. Christine Mulloy again:

CHRISTINE: It would've burned to Lincoln if we would've waited. It would've burned clear to Kansas. It just would've kept going.

And while the smoke clears, another generation of tough Nebraska ranchers has been tested by fire and come out more confident in themselves, and each other.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Elizabeth Shenk.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. The latest IRS data simply confirm what we’ve all known: upper-income people are leaving high-tax states and heading for lower-tax states. Here’s commentary from WORLD’s Cal Thomas.

CAL THOMAS: New York Governor Kathy Hochul has provided one of the clearest demonstrations in recent memory of what happens when political rhetoric collides with economic reality.

Back in 2022, campaigning against Republicans, Hochul had this to say:

HOCHUL: The era of Trump and Zeldin and Molinaro, just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong. Okay, get out of town. Get out of town because you don’t read. You don’t represent our values. You are not New Yorkers.

That was then.

Here is Hochul last week:

HOCHUL: I need people who are high net worth to support the generous social programs that we want to have in our state. Right? … maybe the first step should be go down to Palm Beach and see who you can bring back home, because our tax base has been eroded.

So this is how you woo people back?

First you tell them they do not represent your values and do not belong. Then, when their departure begins to pinch the treasury, you demand they come back to resume paying the bills.

I cannot imagine that sales pitch succeeding with many people.

Perhaps Albany should try something more realistic: learning to live on a tighter budget, like everyone else.

Even someone with a rudimentary understanding of economics should know that if you tax a business or an individual beyond the level of tolerance, many of them will pack up and leave for a state with lower taxes and a friendlier climate for success. One cannot escape the long arm of federal taxes, but at the state level people have choices, and many are making them.

The latest IRS migration data, highlighted by the group Unleash Prosperity, show the pattern continuing: income is still flowing out of high-tax states and into states with lower taxes. California leads the list of states losing tax revenue to migration. New York is a close number two, followed by Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The destinations are familiar, too: Florida, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Arizona.

None of this should surprise anyone except politicians living in denial who cannot seem to help themselves when it comes to squeezing more money out of successful individuals and businesses.

The only surprise is they’re saying the quiet part out loud—come back and fund the welfare state.

But that is precisely the point.

For government to grow and spending to rise, somebody must pay. And if the people expected to pay decide they have paid enough and leave, that starves the tax-and-spend machine.

This is not complicated.

Incentives matter. People respond to them. Businesses and investors do, too.

Democrats in Washington state seem determined to learn this lesson the hard way. They have adopted a 9.9 percent state tax scheduled to take effect in 2028.

That gives those affected ample time to study a map and call a realtor.

As this is the centenary year of our 30th president, Calvin Coolidge, his words remain instructive:

“A government which requires of the people the contribution of the bulk of their substance and rewards cannot be classed as a free government, or long remain as such.”

That may sound old-fashioned in an age of ever-expanding government, but it has the advantage of being true.

A state may raise taxes. It may expand programs. It may even convince voters that both are necessary.

But it cannot insult productive citizens, drive them away, and then plead for their return once the going gets tough.

For WORLD, I’m Cal Thomas.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Tomorrow: End-of-life chaplains prepare to respond as assisted suicide becomes more prevalant. We’ll have a report. And, members of a tight-knit community cope with a soldier’s death in Operation Epic Fury. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Bible says, “He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.” —Psalm 78:5-7

Go now in grace and peace.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.