News from around the nation.

Republicans win closer-than-expected Tennessee election. Report: AL court fees can trap people in long-term debt; Bill to sell off NV public lands in Clark County heard in U.S. Senate; Report: CT bird conservation work slows due to funding cuts.

Transcript

The Public News Service Wednesday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

Republicans have won a hotly contested congressional election in Tennessee.

Media outlets are projecting after a race that was viewed as a test of whether Democrats can mount a national comeback next year.

That from the BBC.

The report with all counties now reporting results, Republican Matt Van Epps is on course to beat Democrat Afton Benn by around 9 percentage points.

That will ensure Republicans retain their slender majority in the House of Representatives, but their margin of victory is set to be less than half of what it was last time, just over a year ago.

Reacting to the result, Republican Senator Ted Cruz said it was dangerous.

Meantime in Alabama, court fines and fees are meant to help fund the justice system and discourage future offenses.

But a new report finds the way those cuts are structured can trap people in years of debt and return less revenue than expected.

Leah Nelson with the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama reviewed five years Jefferson County court data.

She explains that lower fines and fees resulted in more money paid while higher debts tended to escalate over time, keeping people tied to the system instead of completing their sentence requirement.

That's not a good way to raise revenue and it's also unjust to punish people in a way that they'll never be done with because we now have evidence that a very large number of people just never finished paying.

One be applied when someone falls 90 days behind on payment.

Shantia Hudson reporting.

And a bill to sell off 25,000 acres of federal land in Clark County to developers got a hearing Tuesday in the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

The Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act, also known as the Clark County Lands Bill, is intended to free up land for housing to help increase supply and bring down prices.

But Olivia Tanager, director of the Sierra Club Toyabe chapter says converting public land to urban sprawl would be bad for native species and people alike.

It would allow developers to develop that land for housing or warehouses and would be a huge drain on our water resources, would exacerbate the urban heat island effect, and disproportionately impact communities of color and low-income communities that already live in southern Nevada.

Nevada Democrats are divided on the bill.

I'm Suzanne Potter.

Next to Connecticut where conservation groups are working to improve bird population statewide and a new report says they're making some headway.

The 2025 Connecticut State of Birds report says a variety of projects in Connecticut are helping avian species thrive during a challenging time for wildlife conservation but Tom Anderson with the Connecticut Audubon Society says federal funding cuts will have long-term consequences.

By interrupting federal funding now we're really creating sort of a lost generation of scientists.

Even if programs that will be negatively impacted by the cuts include projects helping osprey populations rebound and protecting forests that some bird species call home.

This is public news service.

As New England high schools work to expand their vocational training programs, many are taking cues from one New York City high school student-centered approach.

DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx offers a dozen career and college pathways which allow students to gain industry certifications as well as college credits and even a paycheck.

Principal Pierre Orby says an initial listening tour found the majority of students needed to work to help provide for their families.

He says on campus internships have helped boost attendance and get them excited to learn.

For many students they would take an opportunity to work here in a confine that they were safer than to be outside trying to make ends meet.

He says the school hired teachers from industries that students wanted to work in themselves including nursing, music production and commercial art.

The a decade ago.

This story is based on original reporting from Elizabeth Hubeck with Education Week.

I'm Catherine Carley.

And food share funds may have been restored in Wisconsin, but local organizations are speaking out about how program disruptions caused by the government shutdown are still preventing some residents from being able to access healthy food.

Grow It Forward in Manitowoc County operates multiple food access programs.

CEO Amber Dogg says while the state supplemental nutrition assistance program has resumed, the government shutdown delayed the approval of their application to accept food share at their Winters Farmers Market until at least February or March.

She says some regional farmers looking to accept food share at their farm stands are experiencing similar delays.

So this prevents small rural farmers but also grocers from being able to have the necessary funding and resources to keep their shelves stocked and their purveyors paid and their staff employed.

Dogg says for every food share dollar that is spent it provides nearly double that in economic impact.

Last year Manitowoc County ranked third in Wisconsin for the percentage of farmers market sales made using food share.

I'm Judith Ruiz Branch reporting.

Finally, optometrists have provided free vision care to around 50,000 folks in Kentucky through the Kentucky Vision project, but access to eye care remains out of reach for many in low income households.

The American Optometric Association says one in every four kids has a vision disorder that requires diagnosis and treatment.

Executive director of the nonprofit Good Vision USA, Matt Janino, says when kids are struggling with their eyesight, poor academic performance follows.

They're less likely to attend school, they're less likely to complete school.

Students with a vision impairment that are unaddressed lose between two and four of learning every year.

Kentucky ranks among the top states in the nation for the highest rates of vision acuity loss, according to the CDC.

Nadia Ramlagan for Kentucky News Connection.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

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