News from around the nation.

Dozens of CA events this weekend honor Latino Conservation Week; Kamala Harris joins Oprah Winfrey in emotional campaign event; Report finds poor working conditions in Texas clean energy industry; AI puts on a lab coat, heads to technical schools.

Transcript

The Public News Service Friday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

Latino Conservation Week is now in full swing with 330 events across the U.S. and 90 in California alone.

The 11th annual event runs through Sunday.

The program is designed to draw people outside to enjoy public lands and encourage people to work to protect the nation's air, land, water and wildlife.

Jessica Godinez manages the event for Hispanic Access Foundation.

It was established to break down different barriers of access that the Latino community faces when it comes to accessing public lands and inspire the next generation of environmental stewards.

To find events in your area, check out the website latinoconservationweek.com.

I'm Suzanne Potter.

Latino Conservation Week was moved from July to September this year because of a record breaking heat wave that gripped California over the summer.

Next from Reuters, a star-studded virtual event hosted by Oprah Winfrey Thursday night to build enthusiasm for Kamala Harris' campaign was marked by cheering moments and celebrity endorsements drawing hundreds of thousands of viewers across social media.

Reuters reports that Winfrey hosted the Unite for America event with the activist group Win with Black Women that aimed to register people to vote and bolster Harris in states such as Pennsylvania, Georgia and Michigan.

In a recent Reuters poll, Harris led Trump 47 percent to 42 percent.

And new study shows that as Texas has emerged as a national leader in wind, turbine and solar energy installations, clean energy workers often face dangerous working conditions and unequal pay.

The report from a pair of advocacy groups finds few Texas job sites are unionized and workers often receive low pay and lack of access to benefits like health insurance, workers' compensation and retirement plans.

Beau Delp with the Texas Climate Jobs Project says with unions on the rise in Texas and elsewhere, clean energy job sites need to give workers a voice in determining their working conditions.

We know unionized workplaces have fewer accidents and have less income and racial inequality.

One of the things that's needed is for policymakers and for employers to lean in to that support for collective bargaining that we're seeing across the country.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says while union membership is on the rise in Texas, it remains one of the least unionized states.

I'm Mark Richardson.

And students enrolled at Wisconsin's technical colleges this fall might take a course where artificial intelligence is the star of the classroom.

Layla Merrifield, the president of the Wisconsin Technical College System, says manufacturers are making it clear they want a workforce that has the know-how in working with and programming machinery fitted with AI.

Here in Wisconsin, we really have a structural workforce shortage and our demographics are telling us that that will continue and what we're seeing, it's really upskilling the workforce.

Merrifield says schools in Wisconsin prioritize teaching students how to use AI ethically and appropriately.

This is Public News Service.

A new analysis of money contributed to the 2024 congressional candidates shows that women contribute about as frequently as men, but dollar amounts are significantly lower.

Kira Sanbhumatsu with the Center for American Women and Politics found women contribute more money to Democrats than Republican candidates and more money to women candidates than men.

Men have provided over 60 percent of all the money contributed to congressional candidates, 37 percent by women, and this reflects the larger contributions that men make.

She says men's contributions more often go to Republican candidates.

I'm Roz Brown.

Women are candidates in all three of New Mexico's congressional districts.

Some ballot initiatives this year have taken more than voter signatures to get on the ballot in Nebraska.

They've already withstood major court challenges.

More now from our Deborah Van Fleet.

This month, the Nebraska Supreme Court has served two legal challenges to an abortion-related ballot initiative, even though it got 200,000 signatures.

Both claim the initiative violated the state's single-subject rule.

A third lawsuit argued that neither of the two ballot initiatives on abortion violate the single-subject rule, suggesting both or neither should be on the ballot.

The justices allowed both to remain.

Attorney Josh Livingston with the firm that filed the third lawsuit says it's noteworthy the justices agreed on a single-subject rule issue, but stresses their comments about ballot initiatives are also noteworthy.

The opinion did say that the right of ballot initiatives is a protected right, and that needs to be democratically and liberally construed to allow for people to vote.

The Nebraska justices also rejected a lawsuit challenging a ballot initiative that would eliminate $10 million of state funding annually for private and parochial school scholarships.

Nebraska is the only state with two abortion questions on the ballot this year, and the only one with an initiative seeking to restrict abortion access.

Finally, Catherine Carley lets us know Maine officials are stepping up land conservation projects as climate change continues to alter the state's terrain.

New funding from the Land for Maine's Future program will preserve more than 3,500 acres of farmland, forests, and working waterfront.

Stephen Walker, executive director of the Brunswick-Topsom Land Trust, says the impacts of climate change make it more critical than ever to protect green spaces.

We really are excited about adding it to our list of spaces that will forever be open to the public and available for public recreation.

Walker says new funding will preserve more than 80 acres off West Baybridge Road in Topsom, including more than 4,000 feet of shoreline on the Muddy River Wetland Complex.

It's just one of a handful of land parcels identified as containing statewide ecological significance.

I'm Catherine Carley reporting.

Other recipients of the state funding include the Town of Wells Conservation Commission.

This is Mike Clifford.

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