News from around the nation.

Russia rains missiles on Ukraine after Trump names new envoy to conflict; Indiana-built, American-made sound rocks the world; Calls to LGBTQ+ helpline surge following Election Day; Watchdogs: NYS needs more robust ethics commission.

Transcript

The Public News Service Friday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

Hours after President-elect Donald Trump selected a new special envoy to tackle a top campaign promise of ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, Russia fired a new barrage of missiles at Ukraine's power grid, plunging parts of the country back into darkness.

That from the Washington Post.

They report the Moscow missile attack Thursday morning, which consisted of 199 missiles and drones, according to Ukraine's military, targeted the energy infrastructure in western Ukraine, causing power outages for at least one million people.

The Post notes that President Putin said the bombardment was in retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with U.S.-delivered missiles.

And a family-run business in Indiana strikes a chord worldwide with American-made craftsmanship.

The T.A. Weber Company launched 27 years ago, crafting custom speakers used by renowned musicians like John Fogerty, Joe Walsh and Dropkick Murphys.

The company's success amplifies the growing consumer movement favoring U.S.-made goods.

Weber says the handcrafted approach delivers unmatched quality and tonal precision, setting it apart from mass-produced competitors.

It's super custom.

A lot of the tonal quality is coming from the fact that we are building them one at a time and we can have a much tighter gap for the magnetic field, which causes the tonal range to increase.

The Alliance for American Manufacturing reports 77 percent of shoppers prefer American-made products, especially during the holidays.

I'm Joe Ulari, Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.

Meantime, members of the LGBTQ+ community in South Dakota are concerned about what a second Trump presidency could mean for their safety, rights and protections.

The Trevor Project's Zach Eisenstein says following Election Day, his organization saw a 700 percent increase in calls, texts and chats compared to weeks prior.

That's the biggest daily surge since they started offering 24/7 services in 2019.

Eisenstein says despite the real fear, he knows this community will be resilient.

We have to acknowledge this is a difficult time and there are many challenges that lie ahead, but this is not new for the LGBTQ+ community.

Throughout our history, our community has had to fight for our rights and we will continue to do so just as we always have.

I'm Kathleen Shannon.

The New York Good Government Group's Want a More Robust State Ethics Commission, Rachel Faus with Reinvent Albany, says one recommendation is to have lobby reports include a lobbyist and client position on legislation.

Right now you don't know when you look at the lobby filings.

What you see is that a person or a company lobbied on a bill, but you don't know if they were supporting or opposing it.

We think that's crucial information for the public to have.

Watchdog groups want the agency to implement several measures to improve ethics lobbying, oversight and transparency.

This is public news service.

Connecticut and the nation are working on lowering methane emissions, which means taking a closer look at agriculture.

Connecticut has cut methane emissions from agriculture and landfill decomposition, but these still account for up to 25 percent of the state's greenhouse gas emissions.

Nationally, livestock production is a top source of these emissions.

While solutions to mitigate methane exist, Fernanda Ferreira with the Clean Air Task Force says their lack of wider benefits make it harder for farmers to adopt these practices.

The very few solutions that we have available, it's not like they are going to adopt that solution.

It's going to reduce emissions, plus it's going to improve animal welfare, plus it's going to reduce their costs or improve milk production or wool production or meat production.

How farmers store manure can impact how much methane it generates.

Storing it in lagoons creates the ideal conditions for creating emissions.

Other storage methods, like using it as fertilizer, are beneficial but create other environmental hazards like runoff.

The environmental...

I'm Edwin J. Vieira.

This story was produced with original reporting by Seth Milstein for Sentinent.

And new changes in federal law will permit West Virginia and other states to use Medicaid dollars to pay for health care services for incarcerated youth beginning January 1.

In addition to helping kids get physical and dental health care, the new rules should give them needed resources to address mental and behavioral health challenges stemming from childhood trauma, explains Professor Elizabeth Crouch at the University of South Carolina.

She says mitigating adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, is a growing part of efforts to keep rural kids out of the juvenile justice system and detention.

A fifth of rural children are diagnosed with developmental behavioral mental health disorders.

And rural children are more likely to be diagnosed with developmental behavioral disorders, such as ADHD, than their urban counterpart.

About 45 percent of West Virginia children experience ACEs, a rate five points higher than the national average.

Nadia Ramligan reporting.

Finally, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to decide whether or not to protect the monarch butterfly under the Endangered Species Act within the next two weeks.

The service could choose to list the iconic orange and black butterfly as endangered or threatened or take no action at this time.

Rebecca Quinones-Piñon with the National Wildlife Federation says the Western monarch has declined by more than 90 percent from historical levels.

We have to act.

This is the moment when we must, if not reverse, at least stop that there is decline of many insect pollinators.

The annual Western monarch butterfly count is currently underway, with three major campaigns running through January.

Last year, experts estimated the population at about 233,000, compared with 4.5 million that used to migrate up the California coast each winter in the 1980s.

I'm Suzanne Potter.

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

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