News from around the nation.

99-mph winds bring night of terror as fires devastate SoCal communities; Tribes applaud as Biden announces two new national monuments in CA; Report highlights need for mental health reforms for MI youth; Could new legislation solve TN's anesthesiologist shortage? 

Transcript

The Public News Service Wednesday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

Extraordinarily powerful winds and gusts of up to 99 miles per hour have been reported as three major wildfires burn homes and businesses in Los Angeles County.

That from the LA Times.

The National Weather Service reported gusts Tuesday night of 99 miles per hour near Altadena and 98 miles per hour near Woodland Hills.

The New York Times reports firefighters battled into the night against wildfire that roared through the affluent Pacific Palisades neighborhood, destroying homes and forcing presidents to evacuate.

Officials have warned of devastating losses to come.

As of last report, 50,000 have been forced to evacuate and the fire is 0 percent contained.

Meantime, the White House has announced two new national monuments Tuesday in California, one just east of Palm Springs and the other near Shasta Lake.

A signing ceremony will take place next week as the unveiling event was postponed due to high winds.

Congressman Raul Ruiz, whose district includes parts of the new 624,000 acre Chukwala National Monument, says the lands will now be protected from mining, drilling and development.

This is one of these unique examples where you have both the conservation and tribal leaders as well as the renewable energy and utility companies all endorsing this enormous monument.

The area south of Joshua Tree National Park is crucial habitat for the Chukwala lizard, bighorn sheep and the endangered desert tortoise.

I'm Suzanne Potter.

And the Bipartisan Policy Center has released a new report on reforming the way youth mental health services are delivered nationwide.

We get this perspective from Michigan.

Recommendations from the Youth Mental Health and Substance Abuse Task Force include the need to grow the behavioral health workforce and make it easier for providers to join insurance networks.

The report reveals nationwide teen mental health worsened from 2013 to 2023, with young people reporting feelings of sadness and hopelessness rising from 30 percent to 40.

Michelle Gasta with the Bipartisan Policy Center shares the thought process behind the recommendations.

The things that work for adults getting into care may or may not work the same for kids and their families.

So part of what the task force set out to do is make sure that the recommendations were very actionable, that they can be achieved.

Crystal Blair reporting.

And some anesthesiologists hope this year Tennessee passes legislation to allow certified anesthesiologists, assistants or CAAs to practice.

Former Tennessean and CAA Sasi Jujirala says the state shortage delays surgeries.

After coming out of COVID, there's been just a huge backlog on necessary procedures and surgeries that need to be done.

And the mid-level anesthetist coming only from CRNA pool is just not enough to fill that gap.

CAAs are authorized to work in 20 states but not in Tennessee.

This is public news service.

The US Department of Labor is holding 6.8 million dollars in unpaid wages for more than 5,000 Maryland workers and says time is running out to claim those wages.

The Labor Department enforces the Fair Labor Standards Act, which includes regulations for minimum wage, overtime pay, record-keeping and youth employment.

A new study labels Maryland the worst state for wage theft with more than $2,200 of back wages per employee.

Nick Fiorello with the Labor Department says the agency may investigate a complaint from a worker or third party, but the department also looks into specific industries that are common wage theft culprits.

We also focus on certain priority industries, low-wage industries, construction industry, residential home care industry, restaurants, food service industry, landscaping.

Sometimes we're just initiating investigations out of one of those priorities that has nothing to do with complaint.

Workers can see if they are owed unpaid wages by going to the Department of Labor's database called Workers Owed Wages.

There, workers can look for their employer and their own name to see if they are owed unpaid wages.

I'm Zimone Perez.

And some University of Nebraska students are gaining career skills as they work to address the state's affordable housing shortage by making small, practical dwellings available in some of Omaha's most distressed areas.

The price of a new home in the U.S. has jumped from about $140,000 to more than $340,000 in the last two decades, making affordable homes harder to come by and leaving more people without a place to live.

University of Nebraska architecture professor Jeffrey Day says the city needs 30,000 additional housing units just to keep up with demand, and 60 percent have to qualify as affordable.

But the other challenge in Omaha is that 80 percent of the city's residentially zoned lands does not allow, you know, multifamily or even small multifamily housing.

It's really all zoned for single-family dwellings, which makes it very hard to, you know, increase density in the city in order to produce more units.

I'm Mark Moran.

Finally, Mainers who need coverage through the state's online health insurance marketplace have just one week left to apply.

The deadline is January 15th to sign up for coverage starting February 1st.

Rachel Colomar with Augusta based Consumers for Affordable Health Care says those who lack access to health or dental insurance through their employer, Medicare, or Main-Care can compare plans at CoverMe.gov.

No system is perfect, so if you wait until the last minute, if there's an error, that can be really scary.

Find someone who might be able to help you navigate the process.

Colomar says CoverMe.gov has a support tab which shows the main enrollment assisters and other brokers available statewide.

I'm Katherine Carley.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service, member and listener supported.

Hear us on interesting radio stations, your favorite podcast platform.

Find our content and trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.