News from around the nation.

The eye of Hurricane Melissa struck Cuba's Eastern end; Wyoming ratepayers hold 'people's hearing' on PacifiCorp plan; Ohio foster care pilot returns $4 for every $1 invested; Report: Consolidation harms private medical practices in rural WA. 

Transcript

The Public News Service Wednesday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

The Eye of Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Cuba early this morning.

Passing over the long, thin island's eastern shore, leaving Cubans huddled in the dark, many far from home, the country evacuated about 750,000 people.

That for the New York Times.

They report Tuesday Melissa Center sliced through Jamaica, where boats washed ashore, roofs blew away, and trees splintered. under one hundred eighty five mile per hour winds.

Officials reported catastrophic damage.

Most people there cut off from the Internet and major airports are closed.

Meantime, Rocky Mountain Power customers and clean energy advocates are gathering in Laramie today for a people's hearing on the utility's latest integrated resource plan.

The plan filed by the Parent Company Pacific Court commits to burning fossil fuels in Wyoming over the next twenty years.

While pulling back on solar and wind investment.

Laramie resident Tanner Ewalt says now is the time to take advantage of expiring federal tax credits.

Utility companies have until July of next year to begin construction on clean energy projects, but Tanner says Pacific.

Corps currently has no plans to break ground.

From what I understand, it's about $2 billion that Pacific Corps is missing out on.

That's $2 billion we're missing out on.

It feels downright foolish not to try to take advantage of that.

According to Sierra Club projections, extending the use of fossil fuels would leave more than 100,000 Wyomingites vulnerable to higher energy bills, largely due to volatile global coal and gas markets.

I'm Eric Galatas.

And an innovative foster care program in Northwest Ohio is saving taxpayer dollars while improving outcomes for children with complex needs.

A new study from Ohio University's Voinovich School finds the pilot program that began in Sandusky County generated more than $2 million in what it calls social value, or about four dollars for every dollar invested.

The initiative trains and licenses treatment level foster parents so kids in the system can remain near their families instead of being sent to distant group homes.

Melanie Allen, Director of Sandusky County Job and Family Services, says building this local network has changed everything for their region.

By licensing our own treatment foster homes, we were able to keep kids closer to home, avoid separating siblings, reduce caseworker travel, and reunify children with their parents more quickly.

Farah Sidiqi Reporting.

Next, nearly half of doctors' offices are now consolidated within hospital systems, a trend that's contributing to higher costs and fewer services, especially in rural areas.

Dr. Zavana Castori is with Northwest Endeavor Surgery in Richland, Washington.

We are just averaging things and cutting.

Things and figuring out how to make things work or cutting staff and take less salary.

There are a few months I had to go without pay to make these things work.

He says private practices like his are struggling in part because Medicare reimbursements have not kept up.

With the cost of providing services.

This is Public News Service.

As rural communities in Wisconsin grapple with the increasing uncertainty of federal policies and the government shutdown, local farmers are asking Congress and the administration.

To prioritize federal policies that support rural America.

A new rural policy action report offers suggestions for improving small-town life and businesses in the U.S.

Danielle Endvik with Wisconsin Farmers Union says rural communities offer.

Often feel overlooked by federal decisions.

She hopes the report will bring them back to the policymaking table by offering concrete solutions to problems that she says threaten the livelihood of rural Wisconsin.

At the crux of it, it shows that rural America deserves more than band-aids.

It's giving us a bolder blueprint of how we can address.

Fair competition, affordable health care and health insurance, better infrastructure, stewardship of our land.

The report also makes the case for lawmakers to rein in corporate power and do more to support workers, small businesses, and farmers, including re-establishing.

Publishing anti-discrimination policies and lending practices and investing in renewable energy.

I'm Judith Ruiz Branch Reporting.

Next to Central Kentucky, where immigrant and Spanish-speaking residents have had greater access to resources and support, that's ever since Centro de San Juan Diego opened in 2020.

Pub Its co-founder, Jim Bennett, says the demand for mental health and social work services has increased since the pandemic.

He adds the families who rely on the center often face overwhelming barriers to care. stress, depression, suicidal thoughts, domestic violence and abuse, sexual abuse, marital problems According to the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, around one hundred eighty thousand immigrants live in the Commonwealth and play an increasing role in the state's economy.

In 2022, immigrants made up two percent of both the workforce and business owners.

This is Nadia Romligan for Kentucky News Connection.

Finally, with the Trump administration's decision to allow food assistance to lapse in November, fears of hunger crisis are growing in North Carolina and across the country.

The White House says it will not distribute funds in November for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, because of the federal government's shutdown.

1.4 million North Carolinians rely on SNAP to put food on the table, Including more than 580,000 children.

Jason Kanawati-Stefani with the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina says communities in the state were facing the greatest hunger crisis in a generation, even before the shutdown and cuts to SNAP passed under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

He notes that four in five households participating in SNAP in North Carolina contain a child, senior or a person with a disability.

We're talking about a move by the federal government that is going to significantly increase hunger among our most vulnerable families here in North Carolina and across the country.

I'm Eric Tegethoff reported.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

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