News from around the nation.

Harris holds first rally with VP pick Walz; Assessing Walz pick in Minnesota for tone, logistics; Project 2025 alarms New Mexico's teachers, human-rights advocates and conservationists; Historic connection: I-69 links Indianapolis and Evansville.

Transcript

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The Public News Service daily newscast, August the 7th, 2024.

I'm Mike Clifford.

Vice President Kamala Harris and her newly announced running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, held their first joint rally in Philadelphia before going on a tour of battleground states this week.

That from Siena.

They report Harris laid out her running mate's credentials and explained why she thinks he'd be an asset in the White House, saying he will be ready on day one.

Meantime, Trump running mate J.D. Vance campaigned in Philadelphia.

Vance said that Harris picking Walz highlights how radical she is.

The timing of the Walz pick comes amid conversations about whether voters have a bigger appetite for less divisive politics.

Analysts say policies deemed progressive that Walz assigned into law, such as a 100 percent carbon-free electricity standard, are things likely to be debated in the campaign.

He's also emphasized bolstering reproductive rights.

Hamlin University's David Schultz says those can get people motivated to vote, whether you're for or against such moves.

But some voters say Walz also represents a sense of normalcy.

And Schultz says there are signs the electorate wants common ground.

If you actually poll people on a variety of issues, you know, whether it's gun safety, helping the poor and so forth, then there's actually much broader consensus in America.

Walz also signed a law making school lunches free for all students regardless of income, a move that had bipartisan support.

Like other political scientists, Schultz says at the end of the day, the VP pick usually doesn't move the needle in determining the race for the White House.

As for what this means for leadership in Minnesota, Secretary of State Steve Simon says nothing changes for the time being.

Walz is still allowed to be governor while campaigning for vice president.

I'm Mike Moen.

Next, from education to the environment and immigration proposals in the 2025 document, alarm many folks in New Mexico promoting a more equal society.

The Heritage Foundation document promotes conservative and right-wing policies to reshape the government under a second Donald Trump presidential term, including elimination of the U.S. Department of Education.

Whitney Holland leads the state's chapter of the American Federation of Teachers and says efforts made to boost student test scores in a diverse state like New Mexico could be erased if nearly all education is privatized as proposed.

We know that educators, practitioners know education best, and so that alone is terrifying to me, to have these kind of evaluation, assessment, policy-making decisions not housed by people who know education.

On immigration, the former president previously said if reelected, he'd compel local police to enforce federal immigration law.

Going still further, the Heritage Foundation has stated its goal to have the biggest mass deportation system ever.

I'm Roz Brown.

This is Public News Service.

Next half a century after the goal was first conceived, Indianapolis and Evansville are now officially connected via an interstate highway.

The I-69 and I-465 interchange is opening this week on the southwest side of Indianapolis.

It's the sixth and final section between the two cities.

Crews broke ground on the I-69 extension in 2008 in southwest Indiana, but the dream of an interstate connecting Evansville to Indianapolis spanned decades.

Governor Eric Holcomb says the project completes a major economic vision for Indiana.

This was an investment in realizing our potential.

According to NDOT, I-69 finish lane features more than 26 miles of new interstate, more than 35 new lane miles of local access roads, 39 new bridges and 35 rebuilt/replaced bridges and the elimination of 14 traffic signals.

I'm Joe Olare, Public News Service.

Crews are working on the finishing touches.

I-69 now runs continuously from the Canadian border to Evansville.

It will eventually go all the way to the Mexican border.

Meantime, since the legalization of sports betting in Ohio last year, the state has seen a substantial increase in revenue and gambling activity, but that has led to some problems.

In the first year alone, Ohio generated over $936 million in tax revenue from sports betting.

Stephen Shapiro, a professor at the University of South Carolina, highlights the financial benefits.

The number-one driver is tax revenue opportunity.

In states where it's not legal, it's illegal gambling, and the state is seeing no benefit from that.

So that's revenue that didn't exist before, and it could be used for a variety of benefits for a state.

Despite these gains, the rise in sports betting has led to increased concerns about problem gambling.

The problem gambling helpline in Ohio received more than 10,000 calls in 2023, a significant jump from the previous year.

Farah Siddiqui reporting.

Apps like FanDuel and DraftKings allow people to make simultaneous sports bets in the 36 states where it's legal.

Finally, from Eric Tegethoff, voters in November will decide whether Oregon cannabis workers are allowed to unionize.

Measure 119 is the last initiative to qualify for the ballot in Oregon.

Miles Eshia, with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555, says that's an oversight from the initiative in 2014 that legalized marijuana for recreational use.

One of the things that it didn't do was set up the necessary protections for workers.

So states like New Jersey, California, and New York, when they legalized marijuana at the state level, they hadn't had a path for worker protections.

And Oregon simply doesn't.

UFCW pushed for a fix from lawmakers in Salem last year, but that ultimately failed.

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

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