News from around the nation.

VA lawmakers demand Trump use emergency funds for food program; clean-energy groups slam Newsom's veto of virtual power plant bills and IN nursing shortage forces creative methods to fill jobs.

Transcript

The Public News Service Thursday afternoon update.

I'm Joe Ulery.

President Trump wants to import beef from Argentina to help lower U.S. meat prices, which are up 50 percent in five years and spiked again this year.

U.S. News & World Report reports the idea follows a $20 billion bailout for Argentina, But it's drawing backlash at home.

Cattle ranchers and several Republicans say it would undercut American producers already struggling with drought and high feed costs.

The U.S. cattle herd is at its lowest level since 1951.

The White House says it's now exploring ways to support ranchers instead. are calling on the Department of Agriculture to use emergency funds to pay for federal food assistance through November as the government shutdown enters its fourth week.

More from Simone Perez.

This month, the Department of Agriculture warned state agencies that if the government shutdown continues, there won't be funds to pay for SNAP benefits, called food stamps.

Republicans and Democrats have yet to reach an agreement on reopening the government.

Republicans have demanded a continuing resolution to fund the government at current levels, while Democrats demand extensions to Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies set to expire at the end of the year.

Virginia Democratic Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan.

We are fighting for the over hundreds of thousands of Virginians who are about to see their health insurance premiums spike if the Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits expire, and fighting for those who will be forced to choose between paying premiums, putting food on the table, or paying utility bills.

The Virginia Department of Social Services received a memo requesting that it hold snap files and delay transmission to state snap vendors for the foreseeable future.

More than 850,000 Virginians received snap benefits last month, representing nearly 10 percent of the Commonwealth's population.

I'm Zamone Perez.

Clean energy and climate change groups are speaking out against Governor Gavin Newsom's recent veto of three bills to advance proposed virtual power plants.

The plants would connect devices that store power, such as electric vehicles, battery storage units, solar panel systems, and smart thermostats so they could send power back to the grid in times of peak energy usage.

Ed Smeloff is with Vote Solar, a non-profit advocacy group that promotes clean energy.

Virtual power plants really have the potential to lower the cost of operating the grid.

It saves people money by avoiding the need to invest in costly distribution system upgrades, which then gets reflected in people's bills.

One recent study found that by 2030, virtual power plants could save California consumers between $3.7 and $13.7 billion.

I'm Suzanne Potter.

This is Public News Service.

A new poll finds more than three-quarters of people say they want Congress to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of the year.

Catherine Carley reports.

390,000 Massachusetts residents buy health insurance through the federal marketplace with more than 80 percent utilizing enhanced tax credits.

Ashley Kersinger with the nonpartisan health policy research polling and news organization KFF says without those subsidies insurance premiums could double.

And when we ask people who purchase this type of coverage what would you do if your premiums nearly doubled?

Four in ten said that they would go without health coverage.

She says the subsidies spurred a historic surge in ACA marketplace enrollment from roughly 11 million enrollees in 2020 to more than 24 million in 2025.

Local leaders say small businesses would face significant financial burdens.

Members of the North Carolina State University community are still seeking justice over cancer-causing toxins that caused the closure of one of its buildings.

The campus Community Alliance for Environmental Justice began its campaign in 2023 to spread awareness about the high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs found in Poe Hall after its closure.

Sandy Alford is a member of the group and alumni of the school who has breast cancer like hundreds of other workers and students who spent time in Poe Hall.

She remembers when she first heard about the PCB contamination in 2023 and thought of a PhD student she worked with who died at the age of 42 from a rare brain cancer.

That's why my former boss might have died.

This is why I have breast cancer.

I have a favorite professor from NC State who was in that building for 13 years and she has cancer as well as neurological damage.

Alford has gone through surgery and radiation for her cancer and says her disease followed a similar path as others from the building who have been diagnosed with cancer and other diseases.

Alford is one of the lead litigants suing NC State over the chemicals on behalf of more than 600 alumni and former staff.

I'm Eric Tegethoff reporting.

More nurses are needed to care for population.

One organization is seeking qualified nurses outside of U.S. borders to fill the gap.

Worldwide Health Staff Solutions Chief Nursing Officer Laura Massenio has worked in the profession for 34 years.

She says many nurses with decades of experience are leaving the field and there are not enough nursing schools in the United States to train their replacements.

Many of these, she adds, have several unfilled faculty positions.

There that have been developed outside of the traditional brick and mortar hospital settings that are drawing nurses out of the acute care setting and more so into the file realm.

I'm Terry Dee reporting.

This is Joe Ulari for Public News Service, member and listener supported.

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