News from around the nation.

Six skiers rescued, nine others still missing after group is caught in Sierra avalanche; Can a Millionaires Tax help fix WA's affordability 'crisis?' Facing doctor shortage, lawmakers in MI explore who can fill the gap; Federal cuts renew push for MA medical debt protections.

Transcript

The Public News Service Wednesday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

Six backcountry skiers were rescued Tuesday evening after an avalanche in the Sierra Nevada northwest of Lake Tahoe.

Officials said nine others remain missing.

The Nevada County Sheriff's Office said in a social media post late Tuesday, due to extreme weather conditions, it took several hours for rescue personnel to safely reach the skiers and transport them to safety, adding the search is ongoing pending weather conditions.

Meantime, the Washington State Senate passed a proposed millionaires tax on Monday.

Our Isabel Chollet lets us know the proposal is for a 9.9 percent tax on income over $1 million and would impact less than 1 percent of Washington households.

Annie Kuklik with the Economic Opportunity Institute says with nearly a third of residents in the state unable to afford their basic needs, the tax would help take the pressure off.

We are living in an affordability crisis for working people, and we are also living in in a time of great wealth.

Washington is wealthier than ever.

So the wealthy should pay more in taxes as a percent of their income so that working people can pay less.

Kuklic says currently the lowest income households in Washington pay nearly 14 percent of their income in taxes, a rate over three times higher than what the wealthiest residents pay.

State Republicans argue the millionaire's tax would open the door to more income taxes.

I'm Isabel Charlay.

Next, Michigan is facing a growing shortage of doctors, especially in primary care.

State researchers project a deficit of at least 800 primary care doctors by 2030 and a national report warns the US could be short up to 86,000 physicians by 2036.

Lawmakers are now considering whether expanding the role of nurse practitioners could help.

Nayla Russell, legislative committee chair with the Michigan Council of Nurse Practitioners says Michigan state law still limits what nurse practitioners can do without a doctor sign-off even when they're fully trained and licensed.

So while we are able to prescribe with our own licensed, non-controlled substances, we require delegation of prescriptive authority for controlled substances in the state of Michigan.

And that delegation has to be from a physician.

Michigan is considered a restricted practice state for nurse practitioners, meaning state law requires physician supervision or delegation.

This story with original reporting by Rebecca Sager with the Michigan Independent.

And despite having the highest insurance coverage rate in the nation, one in eight people in Massachusetts carry debt from medical expenses.

Marcella Lampoon with Care for All Massachusetts says no one should be left in financial ruin simply for getting sick.

People in Massachusetts are cutting into their savings.

They're taking out other loans or other types of debt like credit card debt to pay off their medical bills.

And in some severe cases, they're even filing for bankruptcy.

Massachusetts lawmakers are considering a bill that would ban medical debt from consumer credit reports, prevent debt collectors from selling medical debt other agencies and accept certain properties from seizure.

This is Public News Service.

The police department in North Carolina's capital has purchased tracking technology that critics say could violate people's rights.

The Raleigh Police Department has acquired technology from the private company StarChase, which the department says will make high-speed chases safer.

The technology uses a GPS tracker that is fired from the front of a police vehicle and attaches to the back of the moving vehicle they're pursuing.

Attorney and head of Emancipate N.C.

Don Blaygrove says attaching a device to someone's car is a form of search and therefore could infringe on protections against unreasonable searches under the Fourth Amendment.

The Raleigh Police Department requires much more extensive training and oversight before it be given the broad breadth of violating someone's constitutional rights by unilaterally deciding that they are going to deploy a tracking device that will track someone who is a suspect in a crime.

A more than $170,000 donation from the Raleigh Police Department Foundation is being used to purchase the technology.

I'm Eric Tegethoff reporting.

Next to Minnesota where the Public Utilities Commission meets tomorrow.

There's a request to reconsider regulators recent approval of the high-profile sale of Minnesota Power.

Last fall the PUC signed off on a deal for global infrastructure partners to purchase the utility as major owners.

The environmental group CURE petitioned the state to reconsider, claiming revelations about Minnesota powers linked to a controversial data center project at a winter meeting hosted by CURE.

Duluth community organizer Brandon Parker said he worries such projects will drive profit motivations. see a massive return on investments with increasing power consumption of hyperscale AI data centers.

The company filed a response ahead of this week's hearing arguing Cure's petition fails to meet the PUC standard for reconsideration.

I'm Mike Moen.

Finally vehicle collisions with wildlife injure and kill hundreds of people and animals each year in Utah.

Conservation groups say building more wildlife crossings could limit the cost and the carnage.

Bill pending in the Utah legislature would establish a fund dedicated to building wildlife crossings to keep animals off the state's highways.

His and Bill Lingenfelter with the Utah Wildlife Federation says these crossings are the most effective way to keep animals and cars apart.

The most obvious example is every year that we get a good hard snow we're starting to see elk come out on I-80 and it disrupts the traffic between Salt Lake and Park City which is a pretty important arterial.

Studies show that the thousands of animal collisions cost the state 137 million dollars a year in health care and property damage and they also hurt the hunting and agricultural industries.

Mark Richardson reporting.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

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