News from around the nation.

Trump claims 'powerful mandate' after Fox News projects he has won the US presidency; experts express caution over post-election AI deepfakes; report: Colorado's housing crisis linked to billionaire investors; Election Day is over; now it's a waiting game.

Transcript

The Public News Service Daily Newscast, November the 6th, 2024.

I'm Mike Clifford.

Donald Trump will win the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina, CNN projects, shrinking Kamala Harris' possible paths to victory.

Trump and Harris each need at least 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.

Vote counting is still underway in key states, including the battleground states of Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada.

Republicans will win control of the Senate, a flip that shifts the balance of power in Washington.

Meantime, Reuters reports Trump claimed victory in the presidential contest after Fox News projected he had "defeated" Kamala Harris.

They quote Trump as saying, "America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate."

Now that the votes are being counted, experts warn people to be wary of videos that purport to show voting irregularities, because they could be AI or artificial intelligence generated deep fakes.

On Monday, three U.S. intelligence agencies said Russian internet trolls are behind a fake video claiming Arizona is changing voter rolls in Kamala Harris' favor.

Chris McIsaac is a governance fellow at the right-leaning think tank, R Street Initiative.

He says people should be skeptical of videos that seem shocking.

The key for people who are consuming information online is to remain suspicious of things that they see that garner an emotional response.

Just be sure to try to double check multiple sources to try to figure out what is true or what is false.

Just last week, the elections board in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, declared a widely seen video of someone destroying ballots marked "Donald Trump" to be fake.

In August, California lawmakers passed a bill that gives judges the power to order people who post AI deep fakes to take them down or face fines.

But the law is now on hold after the creator of a deep fake targeting Kamala Harris sued on constitutional grounds.

I'm Suzanne Potter.

And now that election day has come and gone, many want to know who will be our next president.

Experts say the answer could take some time.

In past presidential elections, a victor may have been called late on election night or early the following morning.

This year, the likelihood of that happening is slim.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have been neck and neck, especially in battleground states like Nevada.

Juan Rosa with the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund says despite potential hiccups in the election certification process, the system does work.

The system is supposed to work in a way that takes a few days and in some cases even weeks for states to go back and ensure that every vote that is cast on election day is counted appropriately and that then they can go ahead and certify the outcome of that election.

Rosa explains that each state in the country has their own way of carrying out elections, with some being quicker than others.

But there are also other things like recounts and legal challenges that can bog down the system.

I'm Alex Gonzalez reporting.

This is Public News Service.

We head next to Denver, where the homeless population hit an all-time high in 2024, but there is actually no shortage of available housing units.

That's according to a new report.

Denver's homeless population hit an all-time high in 2024, but there's actually no shortage of available housing units, according to a new report.

Co-author Omar Ocampo with the Institute for Policy Studies says much of the housing built over the past two decades is not homes for people.

Those units, many of which remain vacant, are being used by hedge funds and the wealthy as a safe and profitable place to park large sums of untaxed wealth.

We have seen over the past decade or so a boom in luxury real estate.

And basically the only people who can afford it are people who are ultra-high net worth or are at the top of the income distribution.

The report shows how corporations and wealthy investors from across the globe have amassed large tracts of single and multifamily residential units since the housing market crash in 2008.

The scale of these purchases has put upward pressure on prices, causing rents to skyrocket and putting home ownership out of reach for millions.

There are 16 million vacant homes across the U.S., which means there are 28 homes for every American experiencing homelessness.

I'm Eric Galatas.

The scores for Indiana's grade school students have reflected below average readiness.

The Indiana Department of Education supports a digital reading tool called Readable English.

It makes the English language phonetic with an embedded pronunciation guide while keeping the spelling intact.

Educator Tammy Miller says schools have used the program during the 2022-23 and 23-24 academic years.

The Department of Education in Indiana funded 27 schools to use Readable English at the middle school level in grades 5 through 8 and to take a look at that longitudinal data on the iLearn scores in order to determine if this could be a way to help our students actually catch up.

Schools are also using the program in Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, California, Georgia and Florida.

I'm Terry Dee reporting.

Finally, our Kathleen Shannon lets us know two South Dakota cities scored well this year on a national ranking of livable communities.

In AARP's 2024 Livability Index, Pierre ranked 15th in small communities and Sioux Falls ranked 14th in the large community category.

The platform scores towns based on indicators like housing, transportation, environment and health.

Pierre and Sioux Falls scored highest in the opportunity and engagement categories, which Lindsay Holmquist with AARP South Dakota says are often underestimated.

The piece that is often overlooked is that social connection piece.

It's important for people to feel connected to their community, their neighborhood.

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

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