News from around the nation.

Tonight, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance will debate for vice president. California Gov. Gavin Newsom bans legacy preferences in college admissions. Purdue students are protesting for greater voting access, and a Pennsylvania program targets postpartum depression.

Transcript

The Public News Service Daily Newscast, Tuesday, October 1st, 2024.

I'm Farah Siddiqui.

This evening, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance will face off in the vice presidential debate, moderated by CBS News.

In other news, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law banning legacy and donor preferences in admissions at private non-profit colleges, promoting merit-based admissions and fairness.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military has conducted small ground raids against Hezbollah in targeted southern Lebanon, indicating a potential increase in military presence.

The U.S. confirmed that Israel informed them about these limited operations.

And now, Purdue University students are pushing back against Tippecanoe County's plan for limited voting access on campus.

Our Joe Ulery reports.

The county has announced only a 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. window on October 24th, leaving students without a full election day voting site.

Lila Vaid-Amani, a Purdue student and West Lafayette City Councilor, expressed her frustration.

Students should be able to vote on election day on campus and not have to walk to City Hall or find transportation to vote.

Tippecanoe County election officials opted against setting up a polling station on campus after reviewing data.

They observed a considerable decline in voter registrations from residents on or near campus.

About one in eight new mothers report symptoms of postpartum depression, according to the CDC.

A community-based organization works in Pennsylvania and Delaware to reduce that figure and infant mortality as well.

Our Danielle Smith has the story.

Mama Bill family therapy is one of the Maternity Care Coalition's programs.

Clinical Supervisor Louise Jones says they also include evidence-based home visiting, child care through early head start, and parenting education.

We also provide doula and lactation program.

We have doula trainings, which is one actually going on right now.

Once someone's complete the training, they can become certified.

Jones points out the collaboration between her group's home visitation advocates and family therapists is crucial.

The home visiting staff focuses on basic needs like health care, finances, and housing, while the therapists focus on clients' behavioral health concerns.

On the heels of warnings from federal health officials about parent burnout, school-linked programs in Minnesota are overhauling their approach so that families don't feel isolated.

The Surgeon General's office says 33 percent of parents nationwide report high levels of stress in the past month, compared with 20 percent of other adults.

Keem Anderson of the statewide Ignite After School initiative says it's something they've noticed.

We've been seeing parents struggling with their mental health, right, having to pick up a couple extra jobs because of this economy.

He says those added stressors, worsened by the pandemic, are negatively impacting parent engagement with a child's academic life, including out-of-school programs.

I'm Mike Moen.

This is Public News Service.

A dozen eastern Kentucky counties will receive a total of around 40 million federal dollars to connect working-age residents to resources and training for jobs in a region heavily impacted by the decline of coal mining.

More from Nadia Ramligan.

State data shows last year eastern Kentucky's unemployment rate was more than seven percent, far higher than the Commonwealth's overall rate of around four percent.

Brandon McBride with the Appalachian Regional Commission says federal investment is critical for boosting local workforce capacity.

We want to make sure that Appalachians have the skills and workforce training that they need to take advantage of new opportunities that might be coming into the region.

The non-profit Shaping Our Appalachian Region, or SOAR, is spearheading the project in collaboration with major local employers, Pikeville Medical Center and Appalachian Regional Health Care, to build new training facilities.

A new report looking at agribusiness consolidation finds decades of mergers have reduced competition, leading to higher costs for farmers and consumers in Maryland and nationwide.

Brett Pivito reports.

The report is titled "Kings Over the Necessaries of Life" and finds a smaller number of large companies are using their market power to dominate nearly all sectors of the food system, from inputs such as seed and pesticides all the way to grocers.

Antitrust attorney Basil Boucherbosch is the report's author and says the non-enforcement of the nation's anti-monopoly law since the 1980s has taken a toll.

We found that either a single firm or a small, tightly coordinated group of firms have a mass monopoly power, the power to control prices or exclude competitors from a given market.

In nearly every major industry that manufactures and sells farm inputs, that buys or processes farm crops, or that distributes food to the public.

Among other abuses, the report found companies have engineered shortages to keep prices high, as in the egg and fertilizer sectors.

Despite rising prices for beef, consolidation has reduced the share of the consumer's dollar going to cattle farmers, which fell from 70 percent in the 1970s to 30 percent today.

As cryptocurrency becomes more prevalent, it's also making its way into the political arena.

With millions of dollars being funneled into campaigns across the country, including in Ohio, questions are arising about the impact this new wave of funding will have on elections and, more importantly, what it means for voters.

Mark Hayes with Americans for Financial Reform says it's important for Ohioans and everyone across the country to be aware of the money's origination.

There's a small group of wealthy individuals tied to the crypto industry pouring unprecedented amounts of money into campaign spending to dictate policy outcomes that will help them to continue to profit from scammy and predatory practices.

Hayes highlights concerns that the influx of crypto money could sway political decisions to favor industry players.

This is Farah Siddiqui for Public News Service, member and listener supported, heard on interesting radio stations, your favorite podcast platform, and you can find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.