Six minutes of news from around the nation.

Joe Biden diagnosed with 'aggressive' prostate cancer; Tornado strikes Kentucky, leaving at least 18 dead; Proposed proof-of-citizenship bill could impact all registered voters in Texas; Challenges arise in efforts to track, stop spread of avian flu.

Transcript

The Public News Service daily newscast May the 19th, 2025.

I'm Mike Clifford.

Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, a statement from his office said on Sunday.

That from the BBC.

They report the 82-year-old Biden was diagnosed on Friday after he saw a doctor last week for urinary symptoms.

The cancer is a more aggressive form of the disease characterized by a Gleason score of 9 out of 10.

That means his illness is classified as high grade and that cancer cells could spread quickly according to Cancer Research UK.

The BBC notes that Biden and his family are said to be reviewing treatment options.

And after a devastating tornado ripped through southeastern Kentucky last Friday and Saturday, Governor Andy Beshear asked for a federal disaster declaration and he has spoken to the heads of U.S. Homeland Security and the Management Agency.

Beshear said the current death toll in southern Kentucky is 18, with victims ranging in age from 25 to 76. 17 of the deaths were in Laurel County and one in Pulaski County.

He said he expected the number to rise.

Among those killed was Major Roger Leslie Leatherman of the Laurel County Fire Department.

The major was in public service for 39 years and he died doing what first responders do every day, risking his own life for our safety.

Leatherman was fatally injured while responding to the tornado, according to the Laurel County Fire Department.

Beshear has declared a state of emergency and activated price gouging laws that keep costs down during crisis.

People who know of someone who is missing or unaccounted for in the regions hit by the tornado should speak to authorities at Faith Assembly of God Church in London.

Nadia Ramlagan reporting.

This story produced with original reporting from Liam Nymire and Jamie Luck for Kentucky Lantern.

We head next to Texas, where voting rights advocates are speaking out against a proof of citizenship bill before lawmakers.

Senate Bill 16 would require new registrants and some existing registered voters to prove they are US citizens.

Amy Mills with MOVE Texas Civic Fund says the requirement would be in addition to what the state already does to check someone's eligibility.

When you're completing a voter registration form, you do also have to submit either your driver's license number or your social security number.

And that's really important because that is how the state verifies who you are and that's a key indicator that they use to check their databases on the backend.

Even if you were born in the US, SB 16 could require you to show proof of citizenship with a passport or birth certificate that matches your current name.

According to the Secure Democracy Foundation, more than 38 percent of rural and small town Texans don't have a passport.

I'm Freda Ross reporting.

This is public news service.

Researchers across the US are closely following the spread of the avian flu, part of their efforts to stop the virus becoming the next pandemic.

Those efforts have been hampered in part by cuts to the US Department of Agriculture by the Department of Government Efficiency.

The USDA's milk testing program was tracking the spread of avian flu among cows, for instance, finding more than 1,000 herds have been infected so far.

Computational modeling has become a powerful tool in tracking the evolution of this virus.

Daniel Janies, professor of bioinformatics and genomics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, leads the fight against bird flu by analyzing possible mutations.

Now that we've got the software worked out in our custom workflow, we can do that very rapidly.

So if you give me a new virus tomorrow, I can probably give you an answer in a day or two.

In a paper published last month, Janies and other researchers found current avian flu strains are evolving to avoid immune responses.

The researchers say this is a worrying sign that shows the virus has the potential to move from epidemic to pandemic.

I'm Eric Tegethoff reporting.

And as Colorado moves to bar SNAP participants from using benefits to buy soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages, a new report spotlights how restrictions on benefits actually harm people.

Joelle McClurg, with Colorado Blueprint to End Hunger, says restricting what people can or can't purchase with SNAP dollars deepens existing racial and economic inequality.

He says it also opens the door for policy makers to cut already low benefits.

Now since you can only purchase a fraction of that, can't we have benefits at a much lower level, which is $6 a day on average right now.

It's not a lot.

So decreasing that would have very negative implications for people on the program.

Improving public health by eating better is central to U.S.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.

Kennedy Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again agenda.

I'm Eric Galatas.

Finally, every year racing fans look forward to Memorial Day weekend when 33 drivers compete on the world famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway track in the Indy 500.

While crashes and collisions with other racers are expected risks of the high speed sport, in the event of a crash, a team of professionals at the IU Health Emergency Medical Clinic is ready.

Indy 500 IMS Medical Director Dr. Julia Vizer says the public perception of their team is taken in good humor.

I think there's lots of jokes about emergency physicians out there, adrenaline junkies.

We need that dopamine hits.

We do love adrenaline and it's kind of what drives us.

The clinic, which was built in 1947 and renovated in 2023, is considered one of the best and busiest in the country.

It is staffed with surgeons specializing in neurology, trauma and orthopedics who treat life-threatening injuries a driver may sustain during an accident.

I'm Terry Dee reporting.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

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