News from around the nation.

Trump announces Tom Homan as incoming border czar; Growing Gulf 'dead zone' may affect shrimp harvest; Older IL population has options for healthy meals; Proposed bill would fight the crisis of antibiotic-resistant infections.

Transcript

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

President-elect Donald Trump announced late Sunday that Tom Homan, the former acting director of U.S.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who backed his controversial "zero tolerance" policy, will be his administration's "border czar."

That from NBC News.

They quote Trump as saying, "I'm pleased to announce that the former ICE director and stalwart on border control, Tom Homan, will be joining the Trump administration in charge of our nation's borders, including but not limited to the southern border, the northern border or maritime and aviation security," Trump said on Truth Social.

Meantime, scientists sounding the alarm about growing dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico and beyond.

So-called "dead zones" are areas of water that have hypoxia, or dangerously low levels of oxygen.

Dead zones are caused by pollution, including fertilizer runoff from factory farms.

These nutrients cause algal blooms, which sink and decompose, and that process consumes oxygen on the ocean floor.

With this comes stratification, where differences in temperature, among other factors, prevent bottom waters from mixing with the oxygenated surface waters.

And NOAA oceanographer David Schurer says even short-term exposure can have impacts.

"Hypoxia can have what we call sublethal impacts instead of an outright fish kill.

They can affect the development of fish.

That can affect the ratio of males and females in the population, the fecundity of the species.

That can eventually translate into larger population effects down the line."

This year's hypoxic zone in the Gulf was larger than forecast.

The story is based on original reporting from Marlena Williams for Sentient.

Brett Pivito reporting.

And some Iowa farmers are putting a new spin on an old-age animal behavior.

They are using goats to remove weeds, overgrown brush, and non-native grasses.

Goats are pretty well known for producing milk and cheese.

They're even used to help practice yoga these days.

Matt Vermeersch is a member of Practical Farmers of Iowa, who farms about 170 acres near Red Oak near the Nebraska state line, and operates Goats on the Go, a side business stocked with herds of goats, hungry for woody vegetation.

"Things that they love are things like poison ivy, nettles, wild berry species with their thorns and more woody species like honeysuckle."

Vermeersch estimates his three Goats on the Go herds cleared about 120 acres of various vegetation this year.

I'm Mark Moran.

Next, experts say the system of developing new antibiotics is broken and doctors are running out of ways to treat deadly infections, so lawmakers have proposed the PASTEUR Act to fix the pipeline.

David Heien directs the Antibiotic Resistance Project at the Pew Charitable Trust.

"It delinks their revenue from the volume of sales and provides an upfront payment to the companies purely based on the public health value of the new antibiotic."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say patients in the U.S. contract 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections each year and more than 35,000 of them die.

This is public news service.

It turns out about one-third of the population of L.A. doesn't have reliable access to healthy food so leading philanthropic organizations are teaming up with Los Angeles County to launch a new Office of Health Equity.

Data from USC Dornsife show food insecurity is up 24 percent in 2022 linked to high food prices and to the end of a pandemic-era boost in CalFresh benefits.

Paula Daniels will head up the new office, which opens in January.

"We have a food insecurity rate of about 30 percent.

So you have that and yet you have that paradox that at the same time we are right next to the largest agricultural producing area in the country."

I'm Suzanne Potter.

The office will work to implement the multi-pronged action plan developed by the Los Angeles County Food Equity Roundtable.

Food book bans are on the rise in states like Maryland according to a new report from PEN America.

The non-profit tracks issues of free expression and says Maryland tied with South Carolina at ninth for the number of books banned during the last school year.

Three Maryland school districts tossed out a total of 64 books.

Carroll County was responsible for 59 due to a new policy there that bans titles with any sexually explicit content, a policy backed by Moms for Liberty, a national parental rights group.

A student who is a denizen with PEN America says parents have always had questions about books for their children and worked with librarians.

But now she says the motive behind bans is changing.

"There are people who don't want to read the titles, submit large challenges, 20, 30, 40 books at a time, and it's not about their child and their family.

It's about all the students.

And it's much more ideological and much more driven by political interests across the country."

Some of the titles banned in Maryland included notable works like The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.

I'm Simone Perez.

Finally, from our Daniel Smith, a Knoxville environmental group raising concerns now about the new uranium enrichment facility slated to be operated in Oak Ridge.

Unlike past sites operated by the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, this 750,000 square foot facility creating more than 300 jobs will be run by the private company Arano.

Tomve Cardillay with Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance says they are concerned with who will oversee safety regulations and environmental laws as the government traditionally handles these responsibilities, including conducting environmental analysis and reports for large projects.

"How do lawsuits arise against private companies?

So there's kind of this like different method of enforcement that's going to be operated and Arif is unsure about that.

And I feel like the public should also be concerned about that, especially because all these facilities have such a direct impact on public health."

This is Mike Clifford and thank you for starting your week with Public News Service.

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