News from around the nation.

Category 5 Hurricane Milton continues intensifying as new storm surge, hurricane warnings issued for Florida; MA educators: Down with anti-immigrant rhetoric, up with students; Concerned union voices put a spotlight on Project 2025; 250,000 Nebraskans stand to benefit from paid sick-leave ballot initiative.

Transcript

The Public News Service Daily Newscast, October the 8th, 2024.

I'm Mike Clifford.

Mandatory evacuations are underway across the west coast of Florida as millions of residents prepare for life-threatening impacts from Hurricane Milton, which continues to rapidly intensify over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and strengthened into a powerful Category 5 storm with winds of 180 miles an hour, that from Fox Weather.

They report the National Hurricane Center said Milton continues to explosively intensify and is urging residents to follow directions from local officials if told to leave.

At 180 miles an hour, Milton is the strongest Atlantic hurricane in five years since Hurricane Dorian in 2019.

Milton is also tied for the fourth strongest storm since record-keeping began.

Hurricane Allen, with 190 mile-an-hour winds, holds the record for the strongest Atlantic hurricane.

Meantime, many Massachusetts educators are denouncing the growing chorus of anti-immigration rhetoric this election season.

They cite an uptick in reports of bullying and concern among immigrant parents about whether their children are safe at school.

Lowell High School civics and history teacher Jessica Lander says there's nothing partisan about standing up for students.

We are sending a profound message to our students with the silence that they are not welcome, that they are not safe, that they don't belong.

Lander says immigrant students bring a tremendous amount of perseverance, grit, and skills from living in multiple cultures, which inspires others to learn.

Roughly 3,000 new immigrant students living in the state's emergency shelter system enrolled in more than 70 school districts statewide last year.

I'm Catherine Carley reporting.

And the November election is one month from today.

Minnesota is part of a new multi-state poll that draws feedback from rural voters.

The firm tapped by the Rural Democracy Initiative reached out to likely voters in 10 states, including Minnesota, and economic issues top the list of concerns.

Minnesota resident Sharon Gunderson lives in East Bethel, a small city north of Minneapolis.

She was not part of the poll, but says she plans to support Donald Trump this fall because of his economic vision.

She's still concerned about consumer prices, and she feels the current administration is pushing too hard on the transition to clean energy.

Electric vehicles, you should have everything electric.

We don't have the power grid to handle that.

And it takes common sense to know that.

But according to the poll, not all rural voters share the same views on specific aspects of the economy, and which candidate is best suited to handle them.

Kamala Harris holds a slight advantage when asked who is trusted to lower housing costs, support small businesses, and foster a tax structure that benefits the middle class.

Donald Trump has the overall edge among rural voters in this survey.

However, 73 percent of Democrats from smaller communities report feeling more enthusiastic than usual about voting, compared to 63 percent of Republicans.

I'm Mike Moen.

This is Public News Service.

We head next to Nebraska, one of three states with paid sick leave on the ballot next month.

The details from our Debra Van Fleet.

Nebraska women are disproportionately impacted by a lack of paid sick leave, since they're more apt to work part-time.

Only around 12 percent of the state's part-time workers receive paid sick leave.

Included in this relatively small percentage are employees of this major brewing company in Omaha.

Co-owner Lindsey Clements says everyone begins accruing sick leave their first day of training.

They implemented a paid sick leave policy in early 2023, after having trouble finding and retaining workers.

It really was a need for us to add more value for our employees, to attract some quality folks to come in and work for us.

We recognize we've got to do our part to take care of the folks that help operate our business from day to day.

The Paid Sick Leave for Nebraskans initiative is supported by more than 200 Nebraska businesses and dozens of organizations.

Employers with fewer than 20 employees would have to provide 40 hours of paid sick leave per year, and 56 hours for those with more than 20 employees.

Nearly a quarter of a million Nebraska workers currently lack paid sick leave.

And as worldwide demand for meat and dairy continues to grow, so does evidence showing animal agriculture as currently practiced is harming the environment.

Advocates are making the case that widespread adoption of a vegan diet, one that avoids animal products, would be better for individual health and the environment.

It's estimated that between 11 and 20 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide come from animal agriculture, and that livestock grazing has degraded upwards of 20 percent of the world's pastures.

University College London professor Dr.

Marco Springmann says a vegan diet would bring a number of benefits.

Adoption of a completely plant-based or vegan diet has many health, environmental, and even cost benefits.

And if more people adopted such a diet, it would result in general benefits for climate change, land use, as well as population health.

Brett Pivotow reporting.

This story based on original reporting by Seth Milstein at Sentiment.

Finally, our Edwin J. Vieira reports, though New York is slated to miss its climate goals, several county projects are bolstering renewable energy development.

Several large wind farm projects have been approved, including the Prattsburg Wind Farm, which will create 147 megawatts of electricity and will power 62,000 homes regionwide.

It's one of several wind farm projects keeping the state committed to clean energy.

James Johnson with the Steuben County Industrial Development Agency says the county will benefit greatly from these projects.

We've seen those projects generate significant revenue for the taxing entities that they are located in, both for the local municipality as well as county government and school districts on benefits substantially to the tune of millions of dollars of new tax revenue being pumped into the community.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

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