Six minutes of news from around the nation.

2 killed, 3 hospitalized in Pawtucket ice rink shooting; suspect also dead; IN ICE office raises community questions; ID groups to sue cities over wastewater plant violations; At-will employment hurts MD workers' rights, report finds.

TRANSCRIPT

The Public News Service daily newscast February the 17th, 2026.

I'm Mike Clifford.

The father of a North Providence high school senior shot five members of the student's family at a hockey game Monday, killing two and injuring three others before killing himself, Target 12 confirmed.

The student's mother was killed at the rink while a sibling died at the hospital according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the incident.

Pawtucket police chief said the shooting is believed to have stemmed from a targeted family dispute though she stressed it remains under investigation at this time.

Meantime Indiana officials confirm US Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to open new offices in Hamilton County bringing a larger federal immigration presence to Carmel.

Our Joe Ulori reports the move would give ICE additional space and staffing as the agency expands nationwide.

Community members say they are still trying to understand what the office will mean for safety and enforcement.

Community organizer Stuart Mora says families worry about how enforcement could affect their lives.

Even people who have legal status are terrified because of the racial profiling that they're seeing all across the country.

And when we talk about immigrants being detained and deported, sometimes we forget that those immigrants have U.S. citizen spouses, U.S. citizen siblings, U.S. citizen children.

Supporters of stronger enforcement say immigration laws still need to be followed and some workers say they support action focused on crime while protecting people who work and contribute locally.

This story was produced with original reporting from Jaden Reeves for Wish TV.

Next conservation groups have informed to Idaho cities that they intend to file lawsuits over repeated Clean Water Act violations at their wastewater treatment plants.

The Idaho Conservation League and the Snake River Waterkeeper are concerned with pollution from treatment plants in Burley and Rexburg.

The group cite repeated failures to comply with pollution limits over the past five years.

Will Tiedemann with the Idaho Conservation League says the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality is in charge of clean water at compliance, but has been slow to take action in cases like these.

Given the business and political climate that exists in Idaho, DEQ is not particularly aggressive at, from our point of view, holding people accountable.

So that's where we try to step in and do that work as citizens.

I'm Eric Tegethoff reporting.

And under a just cause standard, Maryland workers would have improved job security according to a new report that argues against at-will employment standards.

Kathy Laura is a policy analyst with the Oregon Center for Public Policy and author of the report.

The research also shows that workers then tend to accept unhealthy and hazardous workplace conditions.

They might deal with management hostility.

They might accept wage theft because they don't wanna be unjustly fired.

Most workers in the state can be fired almost any reason or no reason at all, even as Maryland reported thousands of layoffs, largely driven by a shrinking federal government.

This is Public News Service.

Advocates for children's online safety say that big tech platforms, including those powered by artificial intelligence, are built to keep users hooked.

And they say kids are paying the price.

In Michigan, Senate Democrats have introduced a package of bills known as Kids Over Clicks to strengthen online safety and privacy protections for children.

Jennifer Tuxel is director of the Michigan Parent Alliance for Safe Schools and member of the Michigan Kids Code Coalition.

She says the bills are aimed at rethinking how platforms for kids are designed.

This legislation focuses on safety by design standards for digital platforms used by minors.

Things like stronger privacy protections, reducing harmful algorithm application, and making sure companies consider child safety from the start.

The Kids Over Clicks bills were introduced in December are now moving through the Michigan legislature.

Supporters expected to come up for discussion very soon.

Crystal Blair reporting.

Next to New England, where schools are coming up with innovative ways to reduce continuously high rates of chronic absenteeism.

Roughly 28 percent of students nationwide continue to miss at least 10 percent of their school year, according to the most recent federal data.

Hedy Chang with the nonprofit Attendance Works says educators are transforming the culture around attendance, choosing to no longer shame students their absence but celebrate their arrival.

The key is helping kids feel a sense of belonging, connection, support and that they are wanted and that they see the value of what they're learning in school.

Some Portland, Maine students hold attendance raffles.

Educators in Connecticut and Rhode Island credit a home visiting program for getting kids to school.

Chang says research shows students care more about school climate and feeling safe than they did pre pandemic.

This story is based on original reporting by Riley Board with the Portland Press-Herald.

I'm Katherine Carley.

Finally, the success of individual trail projects has sparked the idea of growth to expand connectivity between some Missouri towns and counties.

Backers of these trail networks say the goal is to create healthier lifestyles and offer safer active transportation opportunities.

The Rail to Trails Conservancy is steering an accelerator program it calls Trail Nation, a first-of-its-kind project to help rural and small communities build connected trail networks throughout the state.

Technical assistance, capacity building and peer learning will be provided.

Program director Kelly Pack says the idea is to create better local connections from the towns to public lands in the area.

"We're really excited to be working with a group of community leaders in southeast Missouri in Van Buren and Poplar Bluff area and they are looking at closing some of the critical gaps to the Ozark Trail systems.

I'm Terry Dee reporting.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

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