News from around the nation.

Vance questions authority of US judges to challenge Trump; UAW contract negotiations at VW focus on higher wages, health care, retirement; Report highlights how Georgia can unlock rural infrastructure, broadband; Leftover fish parts could help keep industrial fishing waste low.

Transcript

The Public News Service Monday afternoon update, I'm Mike Clifford.

Vice President J.D. Vance has suggested the power of U.S. judges is beginning to reach its limit as the White House responds to a flurry of lawsuits that aim to stall its agenda.

Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power, he wrote on X.

The BBC reports Vance's remarks Sunday came less than 24 hours after a judge blocked members of Trump's newly created advisory body, the Department of Government Efficiency, from accessing sensitive Treasury Department systems.

Speaking to ABC on Sunday, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy suggested Trump's dramatic cost cutting, including for its main overseas agency, USAID, amounted to the most serious constitutional crisis the country has faced, certainly since Watergate.

And United Auto Workers are negotiating for their first union contract with Volkswagen at its Chattanooga plant, covering more than 4,000 UAW members.

We get the details from our Daniel Smith.

The union says its key demands include higher wages, affordable health benefits and retirement protections.

Stephen Cochran co-chairs the bargaining committee for the UAW and Volkswagen.

He says the workers should have the same pay structure as the other auto groups recognized and bargained by the United Auto Workers.

Right now, at the end of the big three's contract, compared to what we have now, it's 24 percent higher.

So we're asking for right at about 24 percent pay raise over the length of our contract just to get us equal with the big three.

Cochran notes that Volkswagen has offered a 16.5 percent raise over four years, leaving them several percentage points behind the current rates of the big three automakers.

Next a new report highlights how regional commissions are helping improve infrastructure in rural America.

The report says in Georgia and surrounding states, the commission has been a vital resource since 1965, completing 91 percent of its goal to build highways through the Appalachian Mountains.

Now, the commission says it's shifting its focus to modern priorities such as broadband.

Federal co-chair Gail Manchin calls broadband the second highway, underscoring its role in expanding education, health care and economic opportunities in rural communities.

When our children were sent home to go to school virtually, they had no internet in which to do that.

Parents could not go home and work.

There was no telehealth.

That has become obviously the second highway system that we are building.

Shantia Hudson reporting.

And fisheries around the world catch millions of pounds of fish to feed other fish.

But researchers in Maryland have found that possibly using leftover fish parts from the fishing industry could cut down on waste as well as competition for wild caught fish.

Dr. Dave Love is with the John Hopkins University Center for a Livable Future.

When you make a fillet, about 50 percent of the fish goes to the human food supply, about 50 percent goes to other uses.

Fish meal and fish oil are typically made from catching fish such as anchovies, sardines and manhattan, which are crucial to the Chesapeake Bay's ecosystem.

This is Public News Service.

Military borrowers pay higher costs and face greater financial risks than civilian borrowers when taking out credit to buy a car, according to a new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The report found service members tend to borrow larger sums at higher interest rates over longer terms.

Rosemary Sheahan with the Sacramento-based non-profit Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety says yo-yo scams are common where the victim signs an initial contract on good terms but then the dealer claims the financing fell through.

Then they say if you don't agree to sign this other contract where we're charging you for a lot of worthless add-ons and a higher interest rate, then we'll report the vehicle stolen and it'll ruin your career.

The report finds many service members are young and far from family members who might help them negotiate a large purchase.

I'm Suzanne Potter.

And community action agencies in Massachusetts are asking state lawmakers to boost anti-poverty programs that, as federal aid, remains in limbo.

Governor Maura Healey chose not to fund the agency's line item in her proposed budget, putting critical services for people coping with food and housing insecurity at risk.

President of the Massachusetts Association for Community Action Pam Keechler says a loss of funding would impact food pantries that families rely on statewide.

Things have not gotten better for folks and so we'll have to reduce the number of days.

We'll probably have to reduce the amount of food that we're able to distribute.

Keechler says her agency's food pantry in New Bedford helped nearly 14,000 people last year alone.

The agencies are requesting $7.5 million for the more than 600,000 people in Massachusetts they serve.

I'm Catherine Carley.

Finally, groups working to protect Iowa's air and water quality rallied at the state capitol this afternoon against a bill they say would protect pesticide companies from lawsuits if their products make people sick.

Iowa Senate study bill 1051, the so-called Cancer Gag Act, provides defense from civil liability tied to the use of pesticides as long as their labeling meets Environmental Protection Agency standards, which can be 15 years old.

Iowa Food and Water Watch organizer McAlen Mankell says the measure would essentially change the law to protect pesticide companies from accountability in a state that's already facing a public health crisis.

We have rising cancer rates.

We're the only state in the nation where incidents of cancer are increasing and we rank second in the nation for rates of cancer.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer has said that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic to humans, but the EPA says there's no evidence to support that.

I'm Mark Moran.

This is Mark Clifford for Public News Service.

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