News from around the nation.

Democrats call for Pete Hegseth and Mike Waltz to resign; NOAA staff cuts could affect CO wildfire, avalanche, flash flood warnings; Facing funding hurdles, IL 'March for Meals' event moves forward; PA school support staffers push for $20 'living wage'; Judge orders U.S. to stop attempts to deport Columbia undergrad student.

Transcript

The Public News Service Wednesday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

President Donald Trump has signed a new executive order that he argues is aimed at tightening election rules ahead of the 2026 midterms, touching upon a claim he has frequently made without evidence of large-scale voter fraud.

The new order is titled "Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections."

That's from Al Jazeera.

They report to prevent non-Americans from voting in a federal election, an act that is already illegal and punishable by prison time and deportation.

The order requires voters to submit official proof of U.S. citizenship, such as a U.S. passport or birth certificate.

Federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, will be required to share data to help state officials identify non-citizens on voter rolls.

However, voting rights groups have raised concerns that the citizenship requirements could lead to voter disenfranchisement.

Meantime, as the Trump administration works to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, student loan borrowers are left wondering what it means for them.

The administration and the agency's new secretary, Linda McMahon, says it's all part of their drive to make the federal government more efficient.

But Kyle Southern with the Institute for College Access and Success says about half of the agency's staff has already been let go, hollowing out some of its core functions and making it harder for the department to fulfill its responsibilities.

He says that could be bad news for the 1.4 million federal student loan borrowers in North Carolina, along with another 150,000 private student loan borrowers.

What they're going to see is that they're going to have a harder time getting their questions answered about their loans, a harder time understanding when, how, and how much to pay.

They're going to have longer call wait times when they call their servicers.

The Department of Education oversees $1.6 trillion in student loans.

I'm Eric Tegethoff reporting.

Next setting aside funding for a new South Dakota prison is a thorny issue for state lawmakers this year.

There's also renewed talk about the state's recidivism rate.

The Prison Policy Initiative says South Dakota leads the U.S. and most democratic countries in the rate of people who are incarcerated.

It also ranks high when measuring the number of people who wind up back in the criminal justice system.

The University of South Dakota's Jenna Borseth says she feels state and federal policymakers don't let meaningful reform efforts breathe.

We're not actually following through with our ideas.

We're throwing it at the wall and if it doesn't stick immediately, we just throw it in the trash.

I'm Mike Moen.

And the organization Out Nebraska is holding an event not only to raise money for LGBTQ+ issues but to help people better understand the issues and their importance to the community.

The classy tacky ball is as much a friend-raiser as a fundraiser.

Abby Swatsworth is Executive Director of Out Nebraska.

Whether that is through, you know, volunteering for boards or commissions, voting in elections, how to contact your policymakers, how to talk to your local school board, those sorts of things.

The event is scheduled for April 5th in Lincoln.

This is Public News Service.

Amid a severe teacher and staff shortage, school support workers and their unions rallied Tuesday in Harrisburg for a better living wage.

Our Daniel Smith has the story.

The group says House Bill 777 would raise wages for more than 41,000 school staff members.

More than 100 people gathered on the Capitol steps and met with lawmakers to gauge their support for the bill.

Aaron Chafin with Pennsylvania State Education Association says it would raise the pay for support staff in public schools to a living wage of at least $20 per hour.

About 45 percent of our colleagues that are support professionals would benefit from a raising the wage to $20 an hour.

And unfortunately, so many of our educational support professionals, they're not able to make ends meet with the current salaries that they have.

Many of them have a second job.

The House bill has 22 co-sponsors, all Democrats.

Chafin says it would raise support staff wages by about $3 an hour.

And the U.S. plans to import 420 million eggs from Turkey in the hopes of combating nationwide egg shortages and sky-high prices.

But the Associated Dean of the School of Public Policy at UC Riverside, Bruce Babcock, says the move would only lower prices by a small percentage.

In order to lower egg prices by a significant amount, say 10 percent, the nation would need to import close to 2 billion eggs, an unlikely scenario.

Other countries don't have that many surplus eggs.

And if they did try to export that many eggs to the United States, their egg prices would rise dramatically.

As avian influenza continues to spread, each day resulting in the culling of thousands of chickens, the U.S. government is scrambling to keep costs low for consumers.

According to the website SoFiLearn, West Virginia ranks among the states with the lowest egg prices.

Nadia Ramlagan reporting.

Finally, wild lamb firefighting is a tough job, and the industry has long struggled with worker retention.

Trading boot camps have helped bring new firefighters, especially women, into the fold in recent years, but federal cuts could threaten that progress.

About 84 percent of federal wildland firefighters are men, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Boot camps targeting women have been popular.

Montana saw its first just last year.

Reva Duncan with Grassroots Wildland Firefighters worked in fire for over three decades and says the boot camps offered a safe environment to raise concerns.

Beyond the actual required training, just having discussions about, well, how do you address hygiene?

You know, what do I do if I feel like I'm being treated unfairly?

And those kind of questions that don't get covered in a classroom setting.

I'm Kathleen Shannon.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

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