News from around the nation.

Senate passes bill to partially reopen DHS; Rural IL pushes back on data centers; MN parents hopeful as social media giants see legal defeats; WA scientists sniff out better ways to repel mosquitoes.

Transcript

The Public News Service Thursday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

In a unanimous vote, the Senate Thursday approved a bill to partially reopen the Department of Homeland Security, a step toward ending the longest ever partial government shutdown.

The measure now goes back to the House, which last week declined to take it up.

CNN notes that House Republican leaders are expected to consider the measure this time after reaching an agreement with Senate Majority Leader John Thune to pursue a larger bill this spring that will include spending for the president's immigration and border agenda.

Meantime, as colleges compete in March Madness, advocates are calling on the NCAA to end its partnership with charter flight companies that also transport detained immigrants.

Schools in North Carolina, like UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University, have charter planes with companies that also help the government conduct deportation flights.

Last fall, the Service Employees International Union launched the De-Ice These Flights campaign, meant to pressure universities to sever their relationships with those companies and get them to stop deportation flights altogether.

Casey Helton, a steward with SCIU, says people deserve to enjoy sports without having to feel complicit in President Donald Trump's aggressive deportation efforts.

We do not want hate and division mixed in with our sports.

We want to be able to enjoy our sports independent of that.

And the best way to do that is to go after these companies and to say, no, we are not going to give you our business if you do this.

The campaign has yielded some success. as Zavello Airlines announced in January that it was cutting all ties with ICE.

I'm Zamone Perez.

Next, a new civic engagement venture called the Nevada Forum launches today in Las Vegas, dedicated to bringing people together across the political divide.

Our Suzanne Potter reports backers see it as a tool to help tackle some of the state's biggest problems.

The Nevada Forum is a project of The People, a national nonprofit with similar aims, supported by a diverse group of nonpartisan philanthropic funders.

Lead architect Andrew Hsu is a civic innovator and actor best known for his role in the TV series Melrose Place.

He started working on this project 10 years ago, troubled by the divisions paralyzing the U.S.

This is the first time ever we have a process for citizen-created legislation that really could become our way out of our divisions and our solution to the biggest problems of our day.

I'm Suzanne Potter.

And Urban Peak's new integrated campus known as The Mothership is helping Colorado young people experiencing homelessness find a pathway to housing and stability three times faster than historic averages, according to an independent analysis.

CEO Christina Carlson says reducing the amount of time spent between entering services and exiting homelessness is critical.

By shortening that time frame, we reduce overall harms that will also limit future returns to homelessness.

She says extended periods of homelessness can set back youth, brain development, and education and increase the risk of human trafficking.

This is Public News Service.

Next to rural Illinois, another area where tech companies are looking to build massive artificial intelligence data centers.

Communities there are split on whether they should welcome them.

A proposed $500 million data center by Cyrus One in Sangamon County that would utilize about 280 acres of farmland has sparked debate among residents, officials, and lawmakers.

Supporters highlight economic benefits like construction jobs, permanent employment, and local investment, while critics counter that there would be a limited number of local jobs and also raise concern about environmental impacts, rising electricity costs, and water usage.

Local with the Coalition for Springfield's Utility Future is calling for more scrutiny.

I'm not against data centers, but I must say the more I learn about them, the more concerned I am.

And I want our county board to do their due diligence to address all of these concerns and make sure they're not impacting their constituents.

The Sangamon County Board voted to postpone a final vote on the proposed project after hours of public opposition.

The decision delays the approval of what would be the county's first major data center.

I'm Judith Ruiz Branch reporting.

And social media regulation is entering a new phase after a pair of major tech companies were found liable for harms caused to youth.

Juries in two other states awarded civil penalties in the millions, one against Facebook parent company Meta over misleading claims about platform safety, and the other against YouTube for negligence by using addictive design features.

Minnesota mom Melissa Oaks is with the group Buzz Off Social, which encourages parents to delay social media use among their kids.

She feels the negative impacts are too dangerous for a child's developing brain.

It's taking parenting out of parents' hands, and it's not doing our kids any justice.

Aside from a proposal in Congress, a bipartisan bill is making its way through the Minnesota legislature that would enact tighter restrictions on platform accessibility for minors.

I'm Mike Moen.

Finally, mosquito populations are rising in the Northwest, as is the threat of diseases they carry.

A warming climate has lengthened mosquito season in the Northwest in some places by over a month.

Jeffrey Riffle at the University of Washington says the problem is not just that mosquito populations are increasing.

They are also becoming resistant to common insecticides.

These are chemicals like permethrin and others used to control local mosquito populations, or even ones that we spray on ourselves.

And so we really need to find ways to prevent mosquitoes.

Riffle says his international team has identified the receptor on mosquitoes antenna that detects borneal, a chemical used in natural insect repellents.

With this information, Riffle plans to identify new chemicals that could be even more repellent to the bugs.

I'm Isobel Charle.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

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