News from around the nation.

IN targets rural growth with $1 billion life sciences investment, NH students hopeful college planning program will be restored, MN task forces on lowering health care costs take flight , CO lawmakers consider banning wage garnishment for medical debt , Civil rights groups call on police to respect laws on use of force, WI support staff rally for respect and pay.

Transcript

The Public News Service, Wednesday, March 18, 2026, Afternoon Update.

I'm Edwin J. Viera.

Wisconsin public education advocates are joining a national push to raise awareness about widespread underpayments and poor working conditions for support staff.

Judith Ruiz Branch reports.

Educational support professionals, or ESPs, range from paraprofessionals and custodians to kitchen staff, bus drivers, and security personnel.

Amelia McConnell is a school secretary with the Verona Area School District.

She says support staff are usually hourly workers who often rely on multiple jobs to make ends meet.

Nearly 30 percent of ESPs make less than $25,000 a year.

What we're continuing to work on and grow is the message that one job should be enough, that as hourly workers it is increasingly difficult to continue to work in public education.

With the amount of passion we have, we would like to stay, but obviously many people have a hard time making that balance for their lives.

McConnell says they're looking to pass an ESP Bill of Rights in Wisconsin to ensure support staff are properly compensated and equipped to do their jobs safely and effectively.

The effort comes as Wisconsin continues to grapple with a K-12 funding crisis and a lawsuit challenging the state's public school funding system.

Amid concerning numbers for Minnesota's uninsured rate, a new statewide research project created by the legislature is connecting the dots in trying to make health care affordable for everyone.

Mike Moen has more.

Last week, the Minnesota Department of Health said the state's uninsured rate increased to 5.8 percent last year.

Alex Caldwell with the Center for Healthcare Affordability says it's one of the many reasons the state has to dig deeper in finding meaningful answers that get to the bottom of cost barriers.

Since its launch, Caldwell says the center has created a pair of task forces.

One is comprised of patients, consumers, and others who want to understand why people are reluctant to seek care.

I needed to get a surgery or I was in pain.

They're increasingly reporting year over year that they're foregoing that care.

She says she understands the urgency felt by health consumers struggling with mounting expenses who want solutions now.

But she says with federal spending cuts impacting assistance programs and other market forces still playing out, they need to see the whole picture before cementing certain ideas.

Academic counselors with a popular college and career planning program for low-income New Hampshire students say their hopeful federal funding will soon be restored.

Katherine Carley reports.

The Department of Education says it will comply with a court order and reimburse the Educational Talent Search Program, but it hasn't said exactly when the money will arrive.

Former Associate Director Adam Howard says every student deserves a chance to achieve their college dream.

Our students are successful because of their hard work.

They're just getting the kind of support that every student deserves.

The cuts impacted nearly 1,200 middle and high school students in 29 New Hampshire schools, close to 90 percent of seniors participated, enrolled in a post-secondary program, with most starting at a four-year college.

This story was produced with original reporting by Anne-Marie Timmons with New Hampshire Public Radio.

This is Public News Service.

As rising health insurance costs push more Colorado families to drop coverage altogether or pick cheaper but riskier plans with higher deductibles, lawmakers are considering a bill that would end the practice of garnishing worker paychecks to collect medical debt.

Eric Galatas has more.

House Bill 26-1267 would also require health providers to offer payment plans capped at a percentage of monthly income.

Dana Kennedy with the advocacy group Center for Health Progress says the measure would help patients set up a payment plan they can afford.

We know that it's only a small fraction of one percent of those bills that end up in collections, but for a patient, a thousand dollar bill may mean the difference between being able to pay for food for their family and not having any money in their bank account.

Medical debt is a leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S., and a recent KFF Health News investigation found that Colorado courts approve some 14,000 wage garnishment requests each year.

Debt collectors claim the proposed legislation poses an existential threat, especially for rural hospitals.

They also say the wage garnishment process is already highly regulated and includes consumer protections.

This story was produced with original reporting by Ray Ellen Bichelle for KFF Health News.

Indiana is tying its economic future to rural communities with a billion-dollar investment in life sciences.

Joe Ulery reports.

Governor Mike Braun says the plan aims to create 100,000 high-wage jobs over the next decade with a strong focus on rural counties still searching for economic growth.

Braun explains most of Indiana is rural and needs a new path forward.

We're a state that probably 70 of our 92 counties are rural would be heavily agricultural.

Almost all of them are trying to find that next act to rejuvenate their economies.

The initiative targets agriculture, animal health, biotech, and environmental innovation.

State leaders say those sectors already connect deeply to rural Indiana.

Supporters say the plan builds on Indiana's strengths in farming and research, but critics will be watching closely to see whether rural areas truly see the promised jobs and investments.

Nine months after the immigration crackdown in Los Angeles, peace activists are calling on local police agencies to follow the law on the use of force.

Suzanne Potter has the story.

Last month, two more protesters filed lawsuits against the LAPD and the Sheriff's Department, alleging they were shot in the head with so-called less lethal projectiles, despite not posing a threat.

The authorities say some people in the crowd threw objects while protesting ICE enforcement.

John Lindsay Poland, co-director of the California Healing Justice Program with the non-profit American Friends Service Committee, says police have also resorted to using tear gas and rubber bullets on peaceful protesters and journalists.

Militarized equipment has become very normalized.

Often it's made to sound like de-escalation tools.

I mean, that phrase is frequently used for armored vehicles and launchers of rubber bullets.

Police agencies say they need advanced weapons to fight drug gangs.

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

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.