News from around the nation.

Report says a second Trump term would add 4 billion tons of climate pollution; Trump predicts a bloodbath for the country if he is defeated in November's election; Nevada leaders discuss future of IVF, abortion in the Silver State; and anglers seek trawler buffer zone as Atlantic herring stock declines.

TRANSCRIPT

The Public News Service Daily Newscast, March the 18th, 2024.

I'm Mike Clifford.

As Americans begin to weigh their options in this year's presidential election, a new carbon brief analysis projects that a second Biden term would help reduce climate pollution, but the administration will still fall short of meeting its 2030 goals.

Report co-author Simon Evans says, by contrast, a second Trump term that successfully rolls back Biden initiatives, including the Inflation Reduction Act, as promised, would add 4 billion extra tons of fossil fuel pollution.

That's equivalent to the combined annual emissions of the EU and Japan.

That amount of extra emissions, 4 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, that would cause global climate damages worth something like $900 billion.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that climate change is a hoax and advanced policies that increased crude oil drilling in order to maintain American energy dominance.

Researchers project a second Trump term would wipe out all emission reduction gains made over the past five years by installing wind turbines, solar panels and other clean energy technologies across the globe twice over.

I'm Eric Galatas.

Meantime, President Joe Biden tore into Donald Trump's mental stability at a dinner in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, just as the former president was making verbal gaffes at a campaign rally in Ohio, as well as during remarks on the economy and the auto industry, predicting a bloodbath for the country if he met defeat in the November election.

They report that Trump confused the crowd at an appearance in Vandalia by insisting that Biden had beaten Barack Hussein Obama in elections nationally that never took place.

They add that freewheeling during a speech, Trump struggled to pronounce the words "bite" and "largest," and he left the crowd scratching their heads over the reference to Obama, whom Biden served as vice president from 2009 to 2017 before taking the Oval Office from Trump.

We head next to Nevada, where Representative Susan Lee wants women across the country to wake up as she contends far right extremists are wanting to restrict in vitro fertilization and other assisted reproductive technology.

Lee joined her Democratic colleagues in calling for the passage of the Access to Family Building Act, which would establish a legal right to IVF and other services, overriding the state's effort to limit or ban access as was achieved in Alabama.

As someone who used IVF to have her own family, Lee feels like it's an important piece of legislation.

I feel that any Republican who says we support IVF should be signing on to that.

Instead what we've seen are these non-binding resolutions.

Well, if you really believe that women should have a right and families should have a right, then sign on to the bill.

Lee says only one House Republican has signed on to support the Access to Family Building Act.

I'm Alex Gonzalez reporting.

This is Public News Service.

A new report brands Connecticut's tax system as regressive for low to middle income residents and uses a report from the state to make its point.

The Connecticut Voices for Children report reviews the state's tax incidence study where one of the biggest findings is how the property tax contributes to the regressive system.

This is because a town's mill rate doesn't adjust based on a tax filer's income and low to middle income residents spend more on housing as a percentage of their budget than those with higher incomes.

Report author Patrick O'Brien says Connecticut could have a more fair tax system by implementing a few policy changes.

One eliminate and/or close the state's tax gap, which we've shown likely primarily benefits high income and wealthy tax filers.

Two eliminate and/or reduce regressive tax expenditures.

And three, possibly increase personal income tax rates on high income and wealthy tax filers.

He adds that revenue could then be used to provide tax cuts for lower and middle income households and could help with creating a state-level child tax credit.

One thing to note is the state's report was based on data from 2020.

O'Brien notes the state has made changes to its tax system since then, but the Connecticut Voices for Children report shows despite the new cuts, the tax system is still regressive.

I'm Edwin J. Vieira.

And teachers spend hours with students every day and can have the greatest impact on their decision making and life choices.

A program in one Indiana school district is working to help educators develop leadership skills that inspire students to reach their fullest potential.

Nonprofit Teach Indy's strategy is to create a diverse teacher-centered community that focuses on teachers as problem solvers and elevates each instructor's expertise.

Executive Director Sarah Marshall says the organization now operates in the Lawrence Township School District in Marion County, but there are plans for expansion.

We are reimagining the teacher cohort as a one-year kind of cohort experience for teacher teams.

And the vision is that this will be at least a five-year program and will grow each year.

Marshall's vision is to potentially incorporate an Indianapolis public or charter school in order to engage teachers in a single teacher cohort.

I'm Terry Dee reporting.

Finally, from our Catherine Corley, recreational fishermen in New England say commercial trawlers are threatening the survival of smaller businesses that rely on a healthy stock of Atlantic herring.

The small forage fish is vital to both the marine food chain and the region's economy.

Rich Hittinger with the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association says years of overfishing depleted the population and continue to have negative impacts on the ocean ecosystem.

The predator fish, like the striped bass, they're scrounging for anything that they can eat and we often see fish that are long and thin because they're really not getting sufficient nutrition.

This is Mike Clifford.

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