News from around the nation.

Trump will name more conservative judges. He may even pick a majority of the Supreme Court; Both sides react as Missouri reverses near-total abortion ban Literacy initiative to implement 250 new early-education activations in Pennsylvania.

Transcript

The Public News Service Friday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

Republicans gearing up to lock in their remake of the judiciary under President-elect Donald Trump and a new Senate majority, including potentially installing several more conservative Supreme Court justices.

That's the take from NBC News.

They report already having picked three Supreme Court justices in his first term who are critical in overturning abortion rights.

Republicans have appointed a majority of the court if he lands two more.

Meantime, strong reactions pouring in from both sides as Missouri voters made history by adding abortion rights to the state constitution.

The decision to pass Amendment 3, the Right to Reproductive Freedom initiative, makes Missouri the first state to overturn a near-total statewide abortion ban.

Both advocates and opponents are gearing up for future battles.

Jamie Morris is a pro-life advocate and leader of the Missouri Catholic Conference in Jefferson City.

He's disappointed with the passage of Amendment 3, but emphasizes his organization's pride in the conference's efforts, despite limited resources.

And he vows that the fight is not over.

From the church's perspective, obviously, win or lose, we were going to continue to advocate for policy to help address the needs of women, to help them, you know, choose life to begin with, so that not only you're dealing with necessarily the supply of abortion, but also the demand.

In addition to abortion rights, Amendment 3 protects access to contraception and reproductive health services that are available.

Crystal Blair reporting.

And the early childhood development initiative Too Small to Fail is expanding in Pennsylvania to boost children's brain and language development, preparing them for kindergarten and beyond.

Our Daniel Smith has the story.

Nearly 60 percent of children in the United States begin kindergarten unprepared, lagging behind their peers in essential language and reading skills.

Peri Chenollai is managing director at Too Small to Fail with the Clinton Foundation.

She says her organization is partnering with the Barbara Bush Foundation and United Way of Pennsylvania to implement 250 new early education activations over the next two years.

We worked with laundromats and transforming laundromat spaces into literacy rich environments because we know that families are going to laundromats.

So how can we think about, you know, really encouraging talking, reading and singing in spaces where families are?

Chenollai adds the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy works with children in early learning all the way through school age and the Too Small to Fail focuses on zero to five.

The initiative has donated more than one point four million children's books to families in communities that are under resourced.

She says the campaigns will focus on training trusted messengers, transforming learning spaces and distributing resources.

This is public news service.

It is finally cooling down in Arizona.

That means more leaves on the ground as well as heightened use of lawn equipment to keep Arizona properties looking their best.

Arizona PIRG Education Fund has released an interactive map that shows the more than 200 policies and programs in Arizona and around the country that aim to slash air pollution and cut back on the noise produced from gas powered equipment.

The group's Diane Brown says programs in both Pima and Maricopa counties provide vouchers to residents who turn in their gas powered lawn equipment to be recycled.

They then can more easily purchase and make the switch to newer electric tools.

She adds that gas powered equipment has a significant and direct negative impact on air quality and public health.

One of the key findings that is important for Arizonans to know is that running a commercial gas leaf blower for just one hour produces as much smog forming pollution as driving a car from Phoenix to Dallas.

I'm Alex Gonzalez reporting.

Brown contends local and state governments should also create or bolster programs to help more commercial landscapers afford the upfront costs.

Next to Indiana where enrollment in the 21st Century Scholars Program has surged, reaching record levels.

The Indiana Commission for Higher Education reports the program has enrolled more than 90,000 students for 2027 and 2028, more than double previous numbers.

The boost follows a 2023 law allowing automatic enrollment for eligible students.

State Representative Earl Harris, a Democrat from East Chicago, authored the change.

He hopes it helps more low income students access a debt free college education by meeting academic requirements.

There are a lot of people that did not know it existed.

I would ask people when they asked me about ways to fund their children's education and I would mention 21st Century Scholars and almost 100 percent of the time the person would look at me and go, "What's that?"

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.

I'm Joe Ulari reporting.

Finally, Ross Brown lets us know if the election season made one thing clear, it's that neither side can hear what the other is saying.

And one expert believes it's because most of us weren't taught active listening in school.

Christine Miles says only about 2 percent of schools offer formal listening skill development programs which can handicap our success as adults.

Miles believes too many of us listen half-heartedly, keen to share our thoughts or arguments the minute the other person stops talking.

This is not new.

Since 1957, there's been talk about the fact that there's not formal education in schools on listening and the reason I think it hasn't been solved is because listening has been notoriously hard.

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

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