News from around the nation.

Trump delivers profanity, below-the-belt digs at Catholic charity banquet; Poll finds Harris leads among Black voters in key states; Puerto Rican parish leverages solar power to build climate resilience hub; Tennessee expands SNAP assistance to residents post-Helene; New report offers solutions for Connecticut's 'disconnected' youth.

Transcript

The Public News Service Friday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump used remarks at a Catholic charity banquet Thursday to skewer prominent Democrats, often in off-color terms.

That's the take from The Washington Post.

He mispronounced Vice President Kamala Harris' name and said she had no intelligence whatsoever.

He made fun of her husband, Doug Emhoff, for an affair he acknowledged during a previous marriage.

The Post notes the only person off limits for Trump was himself.

Trump saying, "Tradition holds I'm supposed to tell a few self-deprecating jokes this evening.

So here it goes.

Nope, I've got nothing.

I've got nothing.

There's nothing to say."

Meantime, a new poll finds Kamala Harris continues to lead Donald Trump among black likely voters in battleground states.

The poll conducted by Howard University surveyed 981 black likely voters in swing states.

The results showed that 84 percent of respondents planned to vote for the VP.

Only 8 percent said they would support Trump.

Another 8 percent remained undecided.

And in preparation for future storms, a parish in Puerto Rico has installed a solar power system, positioning itself as a vital climate resilience hub for the local community.

We get the details in this Earthbeat Solutions Journalism Florida News Connection collaboration.

This coastal community is taking proactive steps to ensure it can remain a beacon of support during the increasing threats of hurricanes.

Speaking on a webinar, David Ortiz, Puerto Rico director of Solar United Neighbors, says there is a critical need for resilience following the devastation of Hurricane Maria in 2017.

There were over 4,600 deaths.

People lost electricity from three months to a year.

Many also lost water from three to six months.

Flooding devastating many towns and municipalities, including Cataño.

I’m Tramiel Gomes.

Meantime, Tennessee has expanded food assistance for Northeast Tennessee residents still cleaning up after Hurricane Helene.

What's known as the Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or DSNAP, is in effect for current SNAP recipients in eight counties affected.

Signe Anderson is with the Tennessee Justice Center.

With the knowledge that so many people lost power, there was major devastation.

The benefits are provided through an electronic debit card.

It can be used to purchase food items at grocery stores and other authorized retailers.

And a new report offers solutions for at least 119,000 young people in Connecticut who are described as being disconnected from work or school.

Disconnection means they've either dropped out or are close to dropping out of school.

It also applies to young people ages 18 to 26 who are unemployed or unemployable.

Kate Diaz with the Connecticut Education Association says the state making college a priority beyond high school may be a worthy goal, but it has also contributed to the disconnected issue.

We need to continue to evolve is the idea that there's a lot of opportunities.

The overall goal of the Young People First plan is to get 60,000 at-risk and disconnected youth ages 14 to 26 back on track by 2035.

I'm Edwin J. Vieira.

This is Public News Service.

Childhood poverty continues to plague the U.S., but with the election pending, families wonder how the outcome will affect their kids and their education.

We get the details on this YES Media.

Mississippi News Connection collaboration.

Nowhere is the problem of childhood poverty worse than in Mississippi, which leads all the states in the proportion of kids living below the poverty line.

Experts say recent history shows that federal, state, and local programs can successfully bridge the economic gap.

Michelle Bizar, a senior researcher at the Center for Early Learning Funding Equity at Northern Illinois University, says the early years are critical for kids from low-income households.

Children develop their most crucial social emotional, post-mortem, and early learning skills during the first five years of life.

But this is the time in the U.S. when we invest the least in children's care and education.

So the U.S. lags in early care and education and enrollment.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that in 2022, the nationwide poverty rate for children under 18 is 16.3 percent, with Mississippi in 50th place, with 26.4 percent of kids below the poverty line.

And artificial intelligence is changing how people learn and work.

Universities in North Carolina and across the country are racing to keep up.

William Peace University in Raleigh is one of them, taking part in a national program to help students develop the A.I. skills they need to thrive in the workplace.

Linda Szymanski from WPU says it's all about giving students real-world experience and preparing them for the demands of today's jobs.

The statistic that really struck me is 66 percent of the leaders said they would not hire someone without artificial intelligence skills.

And so we feel compelled to make sure our students have the skills that they need to be successful.

The latest Gallup poll finds 93 percent of Fortune 500 companies are already using A.I. in the workplace.

Shantia Hudson reporting.

Finally, our next takeoff flight to Stowe, October is National Seafood Month.

Offshore fish farming has come to dominate wild harvest in recent decades, with farm salmon making up 80 percent of global salmon supply.

Oregon doesn't have regulations that stop the practice.

And Johnny Fishmonger with Wild Salmon Nation says legislation proposed in Congress could make fish farming more prevalent in federal waters.

He compares large-scale fish farming practices to dairy and poultry farms.

It's like on land concentrated animal feedlot operations, capo.

So concentrated aquaculture feedlot operations where the fish are farmed intensively in high densities.

Fishmonger notes that sea lice infestations are common and devastating problems for fish farms.

The AQUA Act would allow aquaculture companies three miles offshore in federal waters.

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

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