Six minutes of news from around the nation.

Trump administration will offer all 2 million federal workers a buyout to resign; IN pushes notification law for immigration arrests; CO lawmakers stand up for immigrants; Federal judge blocks Trump federal spending freeze after a day of chaos; NY & US face high costs if proposed Trump tariffs take effect.

Transcript

The Public News Service Daily Newscast, January 29, 2025.

I'm Mike Clifford.

President Donald Trump's administration is set to offer every single federal worker the chance to take a deferred resignation with a severance package of roughly eight months of pay and benefits.

That from NBC News.

A senior administration official told NBC they expect 5 to 10 percent of the federal workforce to quit, which they estimate could lead to about $100 billion in savings.

The offer is set to go out to the federal workforce through a new system the Trump administration set up that gives officials the ability to email all federal workers at once.

NBC notes in the email will be a draft resignation letter for them to review.

If a person wishes to resign, they will be able to reply with the word "resign."

Next to Indiana, where lawmakers are advancing a bill that would require police to notify federal authorities about certain arrests.

Our Joe Ulori explains.

House Bill 1393 moved forward after lawmakers made significant changes.

It applies when police arrest someone and suspect the person is in the country illegally.

Officers must notify the county sheriff, who then informs federal agencies.

The amended version raises the standard from reasonable suspicion to probable cause.

It also grants civil immunity to officers who act in good faith.

GOP Representative Garrett Bascom of Lawrenceburg said the bill balances enforcement with fairness.

The determination is only made after an individual has been arrested for that felony or misdemeanor.

Opponents, including civil rights groups, raised concerns about racial bias and confusion for officers.

And as President Trump advances efforts to deport immigrants who commit crimes, some Colorado lawmakers are standing up to protect immigrant families now living in fear.

Representative Nkwida Ricks of Aurora came to the U.S. with her parents during the first Liberian Civil War.

She says the daily contributions made by immigrants are deeply woven into the fabric of the communities they live and work in.

Immigrants are six times more likely to start their own businesses.

Immigrant workers here in Colorado make up about 30 percent of the construction workers that are building homes and businesses.

They're doctors.

We're lawyers.

The Trump administration has threatened to prosecute state or local officials if they interfere with plans to stop what they call an invasion of criminals, even though studies show immigrants are far less likely to commit crimes than people born in the U.S.

Colorado law bars local law enforcement from assisting ICE without a court order.

Constitutional scholars have noted that local law enforcement isn't obligated to assist federal agents on any issue, even bank robberies.

I'm Eric Galatas.

And a federal judge Tuesday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump from imposing a sweeping pause on trillions of dollars in federal spending.

That for The New York Times.

They report that capped a frenetic day of disruption to government programs that fund schools, provide housing, and ensure low-income Americans have access to health care.

This is Public News Service.

New research details the major impacts for New York and the nation if President Donald Trump's proposed tariffs take effect.

A Tax Foundation report finds tariffs Trump implemented in his first term have kept prices unreasonably high, tariffs former President Joe Biden maintained.

And a report from the Urban Institute's Tax Policy Center predicts the proposed tariffs would have a 5 to 10 percent impact on New York's gross domestic product.

Melinda St. Louis with the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen doesn't think President Trump is using tariffs effectively.

Tariffs can play a constructive role in protecting U.S. jobs and enforcing labor and environmental standards.

When they're part of a strategic industrial policy, but Trump is not doing that.

His approach is to use tariffs to bully countries.

She says the tariffs threatened against Mexico and Canada would have significant impacts since they are some of the largest importers of U.S. goods.

Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump proposed 25 percent tariffs on both countries.

The Tax Foundation's report estimates those and a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods would cut economic output and raise U.S. taxes by more than $1 trillion in the next decade.

I'm Edwin J. Vieira.

And data centers are driving the building of gas-powered plants in the Southeast, but it will leave ratepayers on the hook if those energy needs don't materialize.

That's according to a new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, which looked at utility and pipeline company plans in North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia.

Utilities in these states are expected to build 20,000 megawatts of natural gas power plants by 2040.

Report co-author Kathy Kunkel says that's despite relatively flat energy demand from consumers, meaning data centers will be using a lot of power.

Generally speaking, in the Southeast, data centers are responsible for anywhere between two-thirds to more than 85 percent of this projected demand growth.

Kunkel says there's a high risk that utility and pipeline companies will overbuild infrastructure because demand from data centers might not materialize.

I'm Eric Tegethoff reporting.

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Finally, earlier this month, the U.S.

Forest Service announced they would not be following through with the National Old Growth Amendment, which would have protected some of Oregon's iconic old-growth trees.

The amendment was the result of a Biden administration order to tally old-growth forests on federal lands and make a plan to protect them from climate-based threats.

For Brenna Bell, Forest Climate Manager with 350 PDX, pulling the plug may have been for the best.

While acknowledging the amendment offered protections, Bell says there were too many loopholes.

Old trees still would have been locked, except people might have believed that it was protected.

So not having it, and so people don't have that false sense of protection, might be a good thing.

The amendment would have prohibited commercial logging on about 25 million acres of old-growth forests.

I'm Isabel Charlet.

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

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