News from around the nation.

Mariel Garza resigns from the LA Times over a blocked endorsement for Kamala Harris, while North Korea sends troops to support Russia, Trump and Harris remain tied in polls, and California faces rising breast cancer diagnoses among younger women.

Transcript

The Public News Service Daily Newscast for October 25th.

I'm Edwin J. Viere.

President Joe Biden is issuing a formal apology for the federal government's Native American boarding schools.

This comes after revelations about South Dakota's Flandro Indian School show kids were forced to take prescription drugs and threatened with punishment if they're refused.

A U.S. Interior Department study finds 973 kids of varying indigenous American descent died attending schools in the system.

Biden's apology is the first from a sitting president in response to a federal policy's impacts on tribal communities.

Meanwhile, oral arguments were heard this week in a legal fight over redistricting outcomes for North Dakota tribal lands.

Mike Moen reports.

About a year ago, North Dakota was ordered to adopt a new legislative map after the Spirit Lake Tribe and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, along with several voters, filed a lawsuit.

They claim the original map, updated after the 2020 census, illegally diluted Native American voting rights.

Attorney Samantha Blinke with the Native American Rights Fund says they're now trying to defend redistricting victories in the appeals process as state leaders push back on recent developments.

I think the big point here is these are extreme arguments that go against decades and decades of precedent.

Those arguments she referred to are from the North Dakota Secretary of State's office.

In its appeal of the decision to order new political boundaries, it contends private citizens can't pursue legal action under certain sections of the Voting Rights Act.

The state also says its efforts did not violate federal law.

Boeing's machinist union rejected a new contract offer extending an ongoing strike for another few weeks.

Not long before this, newly installed CEO Kelly Ortberg tried to reassure investors and workers that fundamental changes must be made to the company.

Boeing has been in dire straits of late, with Ortberg reporting a $6.1 billion loss for the quarter and plans made earlier to cut 10 percent of the company's workforce, or 17,000 jobs.

Labor unions in the battleground state of Pennsylvania say they could play a pivotal role in determining the outcome of this year's election.

In 2023, the state had 749,000 union members, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Anthony Ferreira, a retired federal worker and member of the American Federation of Government Employees, is among those mobilizing.

He says he's walking the neighborhoods, knocking on doors, and talking with voters in an effort to motivate them to go to the polls.

This year I'm making phone calls anywhere that any of the congressional or senators or anybody is.

We're at the rallies.

We were at the rally for Kamala and Wilkes-Barre probably a month ago.

We have people on our team that we're driving folks that came into the area last Saturday to knock on doors.

Ferreira points out their response has been positive even when folks don't support their candidates.

Pennsylvania's early voting option is available until Tuesday, October 29.

It's the last day to request a mail-in or absentee ballot for the November 5th general election.

Daniel Smith reporting.

This is Public News Service.

Washingtonians are voting on a measure that will decide the future of the state's climate law.

Opponents of the initiative say it could hurt the state's fight against increasingly severe wildfires.

Eric Tegethoff has more.

Initiative 2117 would repeal Washington's cap and trade law, known as the Climate Commitment Act, which invests in climate resiliency programs with funds from the state's largest carbon emitters.

Amanda Monti is a former wildland firefighter in the state and says a yes vote on the initiative repealing the Climate Commitment Act would damage efforts to protect against wildfires.

We're going to be essentially losing that $30 million in funding that's supporting things like prescribed fire, which helps reduce flammable vegetation, as well as manual treatments or mechanical treatments like using a chain saw to cut extra vegetation or any number of other things.

The Climate Commitment Act has raised more than $2 billion since it went into effect last year.

Opponents of the law, who are supporting Initiative 2117, call it a hidden gas tax for consumers and question where money raised from the law has gone.

The November elections are just 11 days away, and black and brown communities hit hardest by Hurricane Helene, particularly in areas like Western North Carolina and Augusta, Georgia, face significant barriers to voting.

Recovery efforts combined with political disinformation make it difficult for many survivors to focus on participating in the election.

Adam Mahoney, who originally reported this story for Capital B News, highlights how natural disasters can complicate civic engagement, particularly for vulnerable communities.

When we think about North Carolina and Georgia specifically, they're two major swing states, so it kind of spells trouble for people to be politically mobilized, particularly for black folks who are already disenfranchised.

Typically, black voter participation in North Carolina and Georgia is above the national average for this demographic group, but Mahoney says, based on a series of studies, there's an expectation that voting in the affected regions will decline by around 10 percent.

That was Shantia Hudson with original reporting from Adam Mahoney for a Capital B Rural News Network collaboration.

Animal rights advocates in Nevada and around the country are sounding the alarm about the living conditions and treatment of turkeys on large factory farms.

Alex Gonzalez has that story.

This week, the group PETA held a demonstration in Reno to raise awareness of the 46 million turkeys it says are killed each year for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The group's Delana Barrett says they're traveling to 30 states to educate folks at a time when bird flu cases are also on the rise in some parts of the country.

Barrett says commercial breeding and raising of animals can create hot spots for disease to spread.

Animal agriculture, turkeys, for instance, they live in filthy, overcrowded factory farms.

That's not healthy for them.

It's not healthy for us to consume.

Turkeys are slaughtered at just six months of age in factory farming.

Barrett says in the wild, turkeys can live between three to four years.

In neighboring California and Utah, commercial flocks are already being affected by bird flu, which is also spreading among dairy cows in California.

I'm Edwin J. Vieira for Public News Service.