News from around the nation.

Casey Means, critic of mainstream medicine, poised to become nation's top doctor; NYS takes steps to support youth mental health systems; Report: Arizona coal-fired power plant has grown inefficient; Professor: Rev. Jesse Jackson's ties to rural IL shaped his legacy.

Transcript

The Public News Service Wednesday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

Dr. Casey Means will appear before a Senate committee today to make her case to become the next Surgeon General.

The job would make her the face of the mainstream medical system which Dr.

Means, a wellness influencer and entrepreneur, has often criticized.

Parts of Dr. Means' resume make her seem like a natural fit.

She graduated from the Stanford School of Medicine and she worked as a biomedical researcher.

But the New York Times notes Dr. Means not have an active license to treat patients.

She is skeptical of some vaccines and has repeated the debunked claim that they could be linked to autism.

Meantime, New York State is working to implement improved youth mental health systems.

Our Edwin J. Viera tells us since the pandemic, the state has done studies and round tables to determine what young people need.

Reports show New York's existing youth mental health services don't adequately address early intervention for kids' behavioral health.

Valerie Weissler is a children's rights researcher and professor at Brooklyn College.

She says youth input on these systems is essential.

We are putting funding, time, and labor into place on a decision that is essentially solely riding on assumption without the contributions of the people with the lived experience that are going to be served by this effort.

The state's proposed 2027 budget builds on multi-year billion dollar funding for youth mental health systems and allocates new dollars to other programs impacting mental health.

I'm Edwin J. Viera.

And a coalition of three Arizona utility companies has elected to stop burning coal at the Springerville generating station in Southeast Arizona.

The plant is transitioning to gas, but scientists warn against relying on that source of energy in the future.

A new report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis says maintenance costs at Springerville are just one of the reasons that the plant is no longer viable.

The Institute's Dennis Womstead says it's outlived its usefulness.

Coal as a resource may have been that in the past and it is no longer that going forward.

It is too expensive, it is too unreliable, and it is too polluting to rely on going forward.

The Springerville closure is the latest in a series of coal plants to close.

Four others in the Mountain West were shut down last year.

I'm Mark Moran.

And as funeral services for Reverend Jesse Jackson begin this week, a professor says his early connections Illinois helped shape his civil rights legacy.

Associate Professor Marcia Barrett says she teaches about Jackson in a course called Hidden Political Figures.

I include him because young people they know the name Jesse Jackson but they're not really aware about why he was so prominent or how he left this major imprint on the Democratic Party.

Reverend Jackson who was born and raised in South Carolina spent his first year of college at the University of Illinois This is public news service.

Virginia workers and businesses are preparing for increases in the minimum wage to $15 an hour by the year 2028.

Legislation to increase the commonwealth's current $12.77 an hour minimum wage passed the state senate and house of delegates on largely party line votes.

Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger says she will sign the legislation into law.

The increases will be at the start of each year, with the rate going to $13.75 in 2027 and to $15 in 2028.

Ashley Kenneth with the Commonwealth Institute says working people are struggling with an affordability crisis.

We are in an affordability crisis.

We're consistently hearing from folks that they are having trouble making ends meet, putting food on the table, helping to care for their families and just pay for the necessities of life.

And we need to attack this affordability crisis from all angles.

Raising wages is one way to do that.

Opponents of raising the minimum wage argue that an increase in wages will strain small businesses and raise the cost of goods and services.

I'm Zamone Perez.

Next, a lawsuit has been filed in North Carolina challenging a ban on gender-affirming care for incarcerated people.

The ban is part of House Bill 805, which was passed by lawmakers in 2025, despite a veto from Governor Josh Stein.

The law includes other provisions that target transgender people.

The lawsuit was filed by the ACLU of North Carolina and Emancipate N.C.

Jacqueline Maffetore, senior staff attorney with the ACLU of North Carolina, says the state is responsible for people in custody.

Prisons have a constitutional obligation to provide everybody that they choose to punish by incarceration with all medically necessary health care, and failing to do so is a violation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

The groups have also filed a class action claim and are currently representing five plaintiffs.

Supporters of the provision in HB 805 say it's necessary for defending women in the state.

I'm Eric Tegethoff reporting.

Finally, upcoming changes to Medicaid eligibility will impact Kentucky's refugee and asylee populations, even those with green cards.

More than 60 percent of recently arrived refugees with health insurance have Medicaid health care coverage, according to federal data.

They've been invited to make a life in the U.S. and it's important to help them succeed, says Melissa Colston, partnership coordinator with Kentucky Refugee Ministries in Lexington.

Many of them have been through a lot of trauma, have injuries and disabilities from what they've been through.

They have some complex needs sometimes, and we want them to be able to participate in our society to the best of their abilities.

President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act removes refugees and asylees from the definition of qualified immigrants beginning on October 1st of this year.

This is Nadia Ramligan for Kentucky News Connection.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

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