News from around the nation.

A major media takeover fight unfolds as Paramount challenges Netflix for control of WBD, while rural advocates, graduate workers, and housing officials highlight how consolidation, inflation, and state policy decisions are reshaping local economies and family stability across the U.S.

Transcript

The Public News Service, Monday, December 8th, 2025, afternoon update.

I'm Farah Siddiqui.

Paramount Skydance is taking a hostile $30 per share bid for Warner Brothers Discovery straight to shareholders, aiming to merge CBS Sports with TNT Sports and reshape the sports media landscape.

The move challenges a rival Netflix deal that excludes WBD's sports networks.

Rural advocates say Georgia communities are feeling the effects of rapid corporate consolidation agriculture industry.

Shantia Hudson reports.

In a national webinar on corporate agriculture's impact, Farm Action co-founder Joe Maxwell said factory farming extracts wealth from rural areas.

He says one of the clearest signs of consolidation's impact is how little the growers earn despite rising consumer prices.

Those farmers have only seen the price they get paid per egg go up a penny in the last decade.

Maxwell says the shift toward large corporate operations has made it harder for independent farmers survive.

After a five-year battle, a group of New Mexico University graduate student workers unionized to force the school to pay them a living wage.

But the student teachers say their paychecks aren't quite there yet.

Mark Richardson has details.

Graduate students who teach at U.N.M. formed a union in 2020 to bargain with the administration.

Lexi Kenness is a graduate student and president of United Grad Workers Local 14 66 in Albuquerque.

Most graduate workers are not paid for 12 months out of the year.

So people are bringing in maybe average at UNM is some $22,000 a year.

Guinness says since their first contract in December 2022, UNM graduate students have secured roughly a 30 percent cumulative raise.

But inflation and sharp rent increases have eroded those gains.

New Mexico ranks 31st among the 50 states in terms of how well it funds its public colleges and universities, according to a national survey.

A federal food program providing summer meals to hundreds of thousands of Tennessee children needs approval from Governor Bill Lee by January 1st of next year, but it's unclear if the state will participate.

Summer EBT provides $40 a month per child for food assistance when kids are out of school.

Signee Anderson with Tennessee Justice Center says the state opt out of the food program this year.

Instead, Governor Lee launched a state funded alternative program which provides $120 one-time payment directly to families.

She explains the initiative is limited.

It's served over 18,000 families.

It costs the state just as much targeting 15 counties versus 95.

Anderson notes that about 700,000 children received summer EBT benefits in 2024 and the program brought $80 million into Tennessee.

She says the support not only help families buy food, but also boosts the state's economy.

Danielle Smith reporting.

This is public news service.

Rural Iowans face rising energy costs as winter sets in, while utility companies continue to look for alternatives to coal for home heating.

Research shows there are market factors that could increase rates for natural gas customers.

Mark Moran reports.

Natural gas accounts for about 30 percent of Iowa's energy consumption.

As utilities move away from coal and construct more natural gas plants, Andrew Johnson with Clean Energy Districts of Iowa says the shift could lead to higher prices.

That demand for electricity plus the growing demand for exports, we worry, could significantly outstrip the growing supply and then you have the supply and demand problem.

Johnson says utilities are also considering renewable energy sources like wind and solar to meet the state's electricity needs.

Iowa already leads the nation in the percentage of power created by wind, which is especially helpful in rural areas.

New state legislation backed by the American Heart Association would require all Washington schools to have a cardiac emergency response plan in place known as a SERP.

Our Isabel Charlay has more.

Nationally, it's estimated that about 23,000 children under the age of 18 experience cardiac arrest outside of a hospital every year.

Ryan Schaefer is a registered nurse and works with Project Adam, which has been supporting Washington schools to put SERPs in place.

He says most schools in the state already have automated external defibrillators or AEDs.

Oftentimes we hear no one's been trained, no one oversees it, it hasn't been integrated into the EMS system.

And when an event happens, the AED just stands on the wall and nobody's really sure what to do with it. explains a SERP outlines how to maintain AEDs, serves as a blueprint for how those devices will get to where they're needed, and designates school staff to be part of a response team that is integrated with EMS.

House Bill 1863 is sponsored by Representative Alicia Ruhle.

And young people living in rural parts of Colorado are accessing oral health care at half the rate of the general population.

That's according to data from a new online dental dashboard created by the Center for improving value in healthcare in partnership with the Colorado Dental Association.

Lauren Harvey with the association says the new dashboard, which taps insurance data from the state's all payer claims database, provides key insights into communities that are missing out on important oral healthcare.

Oral health is a vital part of overall health and well-being.

If you have poor oral health, chances are you also will have other issues with your overall health that are going to impact you on your day-to-day life.

Untreated oral health conditions have been linked increased risk of Alzheimer's disease, asthma, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

Poor oral health can also reduce self-esteem, the ability to get and keep a job, and overall quality of life.

I'm Eric Galatas.

This is Farah Siddiqui for Public News Service.

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