News from around the nation.

Clamming for workers: Maine boosts aquaculture training programs; Suspected Gunman Said He Was Willing to Fight and Die in Ukraine; Southern Arizona nonprofit removes invasive plants to restore riparian areas; State responds to federal bill inspired by Wyoming wolf abuse.

Transcript

The Public News Service Monday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

The University of Maine is helping to train the next generation of skilled aquaculture workers.

Designs for a new $10 million Sustainable Aquaculture Workforce Innovation Center on the Orono campus will begin this fall.

Associate Extension Professor Debbie Bouchard says students will gain real-world experience growing fish on land in recirculating tanks.

Giving the extra space to engage more students in systems that resemble those of commercial scale is going to be really exciting for us.

The Maine Aquaculture Association estimates more than 1,300 additional employees will be needed over the next 15 years.

I'm Catherine Karley reporting.

Next from the New York Times, Ryan Wesley Roth, the 58-year-old man who was arrested Sunday in connection with what the FBI described as an attempted assassination on former President Donald J.

Trump, had expressed a desire to fight and die in Ukraine.

The Times reports Mr. Roth's post on the social media site X revealed a penchant for violent rhetoric in the weeks after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, saying, "I'm willing to fly to Krakow and go to the border of Ukraine to volunteer and fight and die," he wrote.

Drought and decreasing water availability are growing problems throughout Arizona, and one nonprofit organization in Tucson is aiming to restore riparian areas by removing and removing invasive plant species that is harmful to the desert ecosystem, wildlife, and the city's groundwater supply.

Jim Washburn is with Watershed Management Group and leads the group's River Run Network.

He explains that arundo, commonly known as giant reed, is a non-native green leafy plant that sucks up three to four times the amount of water that native plants do.

He says in the Southwest, water loss can't be afforded.

The more water that this essentially loses to the atmosphere, the less that is available to riparian vegetation.

Washburn says arundo is not useful to any of the native plants or animals and adds that by removing it, riparian areas become healthier and more sustainable.

I'm Alex Gonzalez reporting.

This story produced with original reporting from Hunter 4 with Cronkite News.

And following the torture of a wolf by a Wyoming man, a state panel is seeking a bill to protect the killing of predators with vehicles, but federal lawmakers are pushing back.

The state's newly formed Treatment of Predators Working Group OK'd a bill clarifying that using vehicles to run over predators, a practice called whacking, is legal as long as all reasonable efforts to kill the injured animal are then taken.

Elaine Leslie is a recently retired biologist with the National Park Service.

The dialogue during that meeting was focused on, oh, we can't identify or articulate the exact meaning of the word humane or ethical, so let's take that out of the bill.

In an opposing move, Republican U.S. Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina last week introduced an act that would prohibit the intentional use of motor vehicles to harm wildlife on federal lands.

This is public news service.

It is pollution prevention week.

Advocates are renewing their call on one plastics manufacturer to clean up its act.

An August demonstration at Formosa Plastics New Jersey headquarters saw protesters demanding that the multinational company compensate victims of a 2016 environmental disaster in Vietnam, restore the impacted land and cancel proposed expansions in Texas and Louisiana.

Activists from around the country participated, including representatives from Green Faith, the multi-faith climate justice organization.

The Reverend Fletcher Harper is its executive director and says many Formosa Plastics manufacturing locations have a long and well-documented record of toxic contamination.

The pollution has severe health impact on residents of communities and the company does nothing to respond in terms of changing the way that it operates.

A statement via email, Formosa Plastics USA said it is committed to conducting business in a manner that is environmentally responsible and in compliance with applicable U.S. regulations.

Brett Pivito reporting.

Meantime, a U.S. Department of Justice investigation has found Kentucky is failing to provide access to community-based mental health services for people who need them and instead relies too heavily on psychiatric hospitals.

The report says the state is potentially in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA.

Licensed psychologist Sheila Schuster says years of budget cuts have reduced or eliminated the city's crisis centers, such as the living room, which opened its doors in 2018 and was shut down within a year due to lack of funding.

Three to four hundred people a month coming in and using the services and getting referrals and then boom, it's gone.

So that was May of 2019 and we don't have anything like it back in place.

The University of Louisville Hospital provides emergency psychiatric treatment to more than 2,200 adults with serious mental illness each year.

In a separate investigation last year, the Justice Department concluded the city and the Louisville Metro Police Department violated the ADA by subjecting people with mental illness to an unnecessary police response.

Nadia Romligon reporting.

Finally, from our Eric Tegethoff, tens of thousands of Oregonians set to see savings next year when prescription drug costs are capped.

According to a new report, it comes from AARP.

Starting in 2025, out-of-pocket prescription costs for people enrolled in the Medicare drug plan will top out at $2,000.

Stacy Larson with AARP Oregon says the number of people saving from this new law is expected to increase in coming years.

Here in Oregon, the people who are estimated to benefit from that new out-of-pocket cap every year will rise from an estimated $28,990 in 2025 to more than $37,000 by 2029.

This is Mike Clifford.

Thank you for starting your week with public news service.

Member and listener supported.

Here's on great radio stations, your favorite podcast platform.

Find your trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.