Six minutes of news from around the nation.

Biden allows Ukraine to strike Russia with long-range U.S. missiles. CA expert: Trump works to greatly expand presidential power. Group blames corporate greed for Montana food price gouging. Hunger Free Colorado celebrates 15th birthday.

Transcript

♪♪ -The Public News Service daily newscast, November the 18th, 2024.

I'm Mike Clifford.

President Joe Biden has authorized the first use of U.S.-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine for strikes inside Russia.

That from "The New York Times."

They report the weapons likely to be initially employed against Russian and North Korean troops in defense of Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region of Western Russia.

The Biden decision is a major change in U.S. policy that choice has divided its advisors, and a shift comes two months before President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office, having vowed to limit further support for Ukraine.

The "Times" notes allowing Ukrainians to use long-range missiles, known as the Army Tactical Missile System, came in response to Russia's surprise decision to bring North Korean troops into the fight.

Next to California, where good government experts are warning the expansion of presidential power under a second Trump administration could cast aside expertise and the public good to further purely political gains.

Over the past week, President-elect Donald Trump has nominated multiple candidates known more for their personal support for him than for relevant expertise.

Bill Resch, an associate professor at USC's Price School of Public Policy, says Trump appears to be following the blueprint set by Project 2025.

Project 2025 puts into place principles such as loyalty, first and foremost, to the president as a criterion for placement into these agencies, and often with the intention of undermining those missions.

Supporters of President-elect Trump say voters have given him a mandate to govern as he sees fit.

I'm Suzanne Potter.

This year, the U.S.

Supreme Court found that presidents cannot be prosecuted for most actions in office.

And come January, both houses of Congress will be controlled by the allies of President-elect Trump, and the president will be held accountable.

Meantime, farm advocates say price gouging on meat and poultry are taking a toll on folks in Montana.

A farm group cites U.S.

Department of Agriculture data as proof of corporate greed.

Companies faced massive supply chain disruptions during the pandemic, but Ag Department data show most of those problems are gone, and food prices in Montana haven't dropped.

Groceries here are 5 percent higher than the national average, last year, according to the Consumer Price Index.

Joe Maxwell with Farm Action says food producers are looking for ways to keep prices artificially inflated.

And it's just a part of their doing business now.

They find excuses in the markets to gouge that consumer.

It's not the farmer.

The farmer's getting squeezed just as much as is the consumer.

Food producers have blamed the supply chain, but also plant closures and a strain of avian flu for supply and demand issues, driving up production costs.

I'm Mark Moran.

This is Public News Service.

Next to Colorado, leading advocates for people experiencing hunger turns 15 this year, and a new report outlines key advances and persistent challenges facing residents all across the state.

Alyssa Hardy with Hunger Free Colorado cites its work on the Healthy School Meals for All program as a major win.

Students in schools that opt into the program can now get the nutrition they need to learn regardless of their parents' ability to pay.

She says it's also putting an end to practices such as lunch line shaming.

This really allowed for reduction in stigma and discrimination for those kids on low-cost food programs because then everyone was getting the meal.

Colorado became the third state in the nation to provide free nutritious breakfast and lunch for all public school students when voters approved Proposition FF in 2022.

I'm Eric Galatas.

And this coming Saturday is National Adoption Day.

It's a time to point out that kids who are older or have special needs face more difficulty in finding adoptive parents.

More than 113,000 children in foster care are eligible for adoption, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

About 4,000 of them are in Maryland.

And more than half enter the foster care system because of neglect.

Sara McKechnie with the Barker Adoption Foundation runs the Project Wait No Longer program, focused on finding adoptive homes for older children, groups of siblings, and those with special needs.

She says teens are the most vulnerable.

Families that are seeking to adopt are most often feeling most comfortable and most equipped or prepared to be able to adopt a younger child.

So that leaves fewer options for our older kiddos, you know, that are very much in need of family.

And we have few families that are stepping forward.

I'm Simone Perez.

Finally, an environmental group in Pennsylvania is among those backing a global plastics treaty set to be finalized by year's end.

More from our Daniel Smith, who lets us know it's estimated that 99 percent of plastics are made with fossil fuels, and Southwestern Pennsylvania is a hotspot for fracking.

Sara Martic with the Center for Coalfield Justice says she'll attend the treaty negotiations in South Korea and is urging the Biden-Harris administration to ratify it.

The U.S. initially supported production caps and timelines to curb plastic production, but recently withdrew that support.

Martic says countries that don't sign environmental agreements can't trade with those that do without causing global strain.

Right now, waste trade is such a huge issue.

And the United States, as both a producer and a consumer of a lot of plastic goods, exports a lot of our plastic waste to other countries.

And those other countries have more ambition in this treaty than we do.

So we're hopeful that there will be strong non-party provisions on trade here.

This is Mike Clifford, and thank you for starting your week with Public News Service.

We are a member and listener supported.

Hear us on interesting radio stations; on your favorite podcast platform.

Find our content and trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.