News from around the nation.

New report finds apprenticeships increasing for WA; TN nursing shortage slated to continue amid federal education changes; NC college students made away of on-campus resources to fight food insecurity; DOJ will miss deadline to release all Epstein files; new program provides glasses to visually impaired Virginians; Line 5 pipeline fight continues in Midwest states; and NY Gov. Kathy Hochul agrees to sign medical aid in dying bill in early 2026.

Transcript

The public news service Friday, December 19th, 2025.

Afternoon update.

I'm Edwin J. Viera.

The number of apprentices nationally and in Washington state has increased more than 70 percent in the past decade, according to a new report from the Washington Student Achievement Council.

Isabel Charlay reports.

Washington currently has close to 16,000 active apprentices who are paid to work while they receive classroom instruction.

Rachel McAloon is with the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries.

She says over the past decade, significant state and federal grant funding has helped expand registered apprenticeships.

Instead of taking on a bunch of debt and going to college and still having to figure out where you're going to work when you graduate, we provide the job and full time employment and benefits at the beginning of the program and then skill the worker up.

McAloon says about 80 percent of apprenticeship programs in the state are in the building and construction trades.

But she adds Washington has been a leader in expanding into non-traditional industries like IT, healthcare, education and cosmetology.

A proposal by the Trump administration could make it harder for people to become nurses, even as Tennessee and the nation face a severe nursing shortage.

Danielle Smith has more.

Nursing would no longer be classified as a professional degree, which would limit federal student loans to $100,000 for graduate programs and $200,000 for professional degrees.

Jennifer McGuire, head with Tennessee Nurses Association, says the move risks undoing years of work to rebuild the profession's image after COVID discouraged applicants.

Tennessee already short about 15,000 nurses and she warns the change could deepen the health crisis and leave patients waiting for care.

About 20 percent of nurses that are currently at the bedside have reported that they are going to leave the bedside within the next two years.

So we're going to lose one in five nurses.

So we really cannot afford to lose more.

Educational levels in the profession continue to rise with more than 73 percent of registered nurses holding at least a bachelor's degree.

With a new report showing North Carolina's higher education students are hungry, colleges and universities are letting people know on-campus resources are available.

Eric Tegethoff has that story.

Researchers surveyed more than 3,000 students at five North Carolina colleges and found about 30 percent are experiencing low or very low food security.

Among the colleges surveyed is East Carolina University.

Lauren Howard oversees ECU's Purple Pantry, which began in 2018 and has evolved since.

In the main campus student center, it serves all enrolled ECU students and we get probably roughly around 2,000 visits per academic year.

The other colleges included in the survey are Appalachian State University, Meredith College, Western Carolina University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel These schools also have food pantries available for students.

The Justice Department says it won't meet today's deadline to release all its files from its investigation of dead billionaire sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, putting it at odds with the Epstein Files Transparency Act President Donald Trump signed last month.

This is Public News Service.

The World Health Organization predicts that by 2050, two billion people will have vision impairment.

Advocates explain that the link between vision impairment and poverty means there must be a greater focus on accessible vision care.

More on that from Zimone Perez.

Currently, one billion people worldwide, including many in Virginia, need glasses but can't afford them.

Blair Wong with the group Good Vision says dependency created by vision impairment can affect entire families.

If that person is not able to make a living for themselves and be productive and then depend on others, it may even be the children.

So those children don't end up going to school because they're caring for their parents who have diminished vision.

In Virginia, only 15 percent of students will have their vision tested before they enter kindergarten, according to the Virginia Eye Care Center.

Midwest standoff over Canadian oil company Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline continues as advocates fight to protect the Great Lakes from potential spill risks and laws they say the pipeline's been violating for more than a decade.

Judith Ruiz Branch has more.

Originating near the Illinois and Wisconsin border, the Canadian oil company's aging pipeline runs through the Straits of Mackinac.

It delivers about 23 million gallons of oil and natural gas each day.

Beth Wallace with the National Wildlife Federation says environmental advocates have been calling for its shutdown for years.

She stresses the ongoing debate over protecting water or securing energy is ill-advised.

We have known that there are alternatives to Line 5 for over five years now.

So a decommissioning of Line 5 could mean an increase in jobs or an increase in utilizing other transportation sources to get the products to market.

She suggests another alternative is using existing pipelines that Enbridge operates that already have capacity.

A recent report outlines a range of options expected markets in the event of a Line 5 shutdown.

Wallace says they're calling on lawmakers to consider these alternatives as they would have no noticeable impacts and would boost U.S. energy supplies while upholding critical laws.

Just this week, a federal judge blocked an attempt by Michigan's governor to shut down the pipeline, finding that only the federal government can regulate interstate pipeline safety.

The latest threat to New York endangered species comes from Congress.

A U.S. House bill would update the 52-year-old Endangered Species Act so it can better achieve its goals.

However, what some lawmakers call an update is being seen more as a remake.

New York's piping plover began rebounding after being listed as endangered, though they still face continuous threats from coastal development and hunting.

Chris Allieri with the NYC Plover Project says the bill's name is a misnomer.

I think when people see ESA Amendment Act, it's like, oh, the law passed in 1973.

This sounds like something we do wanna update.

We do wanna make sure this is something that is being updated.

But at the same rate, this is not warranted.

It's not scientific.

It's not ethical.

The bill has made it through several House committees and is still awaiting a full vote.

Alieri notes, if Congress genuinely wants to reform the law, it should reverse funding cuts to wildlife and environmental agencies.

Polls show 84 percent of Americans want the U.S. to focus on preventing endangered species from becoming extinct.

I'm Edwin J. Viera for Public News Service, member and listener supported.

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