Six minutes of news from around the nation.

Elon Musk may have violated Wisconsin election laws with his $1 million checks to voters; North Atlantic ‘cold blob’ signals slowdown in key ocean currents; Libraries helping Coloradans weather affordability crisis; Iowa hydrostations measure statewide soil moisture, help scientists.

TRANSCRIPT

The Public News Service Daily Newscast, July the 15th, 2026.

I'm Mike Clifford.

You may recall the $1 million checks that billionaire Elon Musk handed to voters in the Wisconsin 2025 Supreme Court election.

Now a bipartisan panel has found Musk likely broke state laws.

CNN notes the Wisconsin Elections Commission last week referred two complaints to the Brown County District Attorney's Office, which could choose to bring criminal charges over violating the state's laws against election bribery.

Prosecutors have 40 days to report back to the commission.

Meantime, scientists warn a mysterious cold patch in the North Atlantic may be a signal that human-induced climate change is disrupting global ocean currents.

While the rest of the ocean experiences record warming, a small section nicknamed the cold blob south of Greenland has cooled nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century.

Paul Majewski is the former director of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine.

He says fresh water from melting ice sheets is altering the ocean's salinity and slowing down an underwater conveyor belt which pulls warm water north.

There's absolutely no doubt that we live in a time period in which climate change, in this particular case greenhouse gas warming, is having a dramatic effect.

That conveyor belt is known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, and Majewski says changes to it could dramatically alter weather conditions in Europe and along the U.S. East Coast.

Scientists remain divided over whether the AMOC is heading towards a total collapse.

I'm Katherine Carley.

The Trump administration has proposed a more than 30 percent cut to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's 2027 budget and the closure of nearly all of the agency's climate research labs.

And as most Americans continue to struggle to afford necessities like food, health care and rent, Colorado's public libraries are offering some relief.

And you don't need to fill up the gas tank to get it.

Library card holders can access Canopy at their homes.

The streaming platform is similar to Netflix and others that charge a hefty monthly fee.

Elizabeth Bush with Mesa County Public Libraries in Grand Junction says Canopy has thousands of children's programs, television series, and major motion pictures you can stream on your TV, phone, or other devices.

They also have some blockbuster movies, for example, like Everything Everywhere All at Once is currently on Canopy.

They have a lot of kids' materials, the great courses.

There's a lot of documentaries, and all of them are free.

Canopy is free for library card holders, but libraries pay fees on a pay-per-view model, which helps pay content creators.

Support for this reporting was provided by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation, formerly Carnegie Corporation of New York.

I'm Eric Galatas.

This is Public News Service.

And rural farmers in Iowa are helping climate scientists get a better understanding of soil moisture levels across the state.

Data that's only been available at the local level up to now.

Lee Tesdell's great-grandfather, Siebert, who fought in the Civil War, settled the farm Lee now manages in Lincoln Township in Polk County.

For years, he's been measuring how much rain he gets with plastic gauges.

Now, a solar-powered hydro station, which stands about eight feet tall, can tell him exactly how much rain falls.

But he gets more information, too, which is sent to the statewide flood center in Iowa City.

They collect rainfall, they collect soil moisture, they collect soil temperature, and they collect shallow groundwater well water.

Soil moisture levels are collected and updated every 15 minutes, and that data is shared with other farmers and researchers in real time.

Tesdill calls it very Iowa to see neighbors helping neighbors.

I'm Mark Moran.

Workers at the Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland held an informational picket outside the hospital yesterday. calling on Providence Health Systems to settle a fair first union contract.

Caregivers represented by SCIU Local 49, including certified nursing assistants, housekeepers, and dietary staff have been bargaining since November.

Edward Cummings is on the bargaining team and works in environmental services.

He says the pay Providence offers falls short of what's needed to retain and recruit caregivers.

And some people in the thousand-person unit are making just above minimum wage.

We've lost some amazing people.

We've had people leave for fast food restaurants.

Working at a hospital, you'd think like, oh, wow, you work at a hospital.

That's pretty cool.

But when I tell them how much I make, they kind of laugh at me.

They're like, wow, really?

In a statement, Chief Executive of Providence St. Vincent, Dr. Ray Moreno calls their offer very competitive and says it reflects the market.

He adds it includes across-the-board raises and pay steps that recognize employees' years of experience.

I'm Isobel Charle.

And in communities across North Carolina and the country, queer youth are navigating an increasingly difficult landscape.

A recent Supreme Court decision gave the power to restrict protections for trans youth to individual states.

That set off a wave of laws limiting access to inclusive education, activities, and gender-affirming medical care.

Vanity Reed-Detterville with the LGBTQ Center of Durham fears it will prompt administrators and teachers to discriminate, bully, and out vulnerable kids.

That will have a health outcome impact that yields disparities greater than what we might be seeing in terms of lack of social inclusion, depression, and self-harm.

For many queer students, school has historically been a refuge when home is not.

I'm Mark Richardson.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

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