Six minutes of news from around the nation.

Texas Republicans pass gerrymandered congressional map requested by Trump; Experts: Vaccines protect WA's Native American communities; In clean energy mad dash, union-scale jobs look for their place; AR soldiers could be affected by military changes to abortion services; Skipping PA's judicial elections could alter state s future trajectory.

TRANSCRIPT

The Public News Service Daily Newscast, August 21, 2025.

I'm Mike Clifford.

The Republican-controlled Texas House Wednesday approved a redrawn congressional map requested by President Donald Trump and fiercely opposed by Democrats, who led a weeks-long protest to stall the effort that kicked off a redistricting arms race between red and blue states.

That for the Guardian.

They report with the House's approval, the measure goes next to the Texas Senate, where it is expected to pass, possibly as soon as Thursday.

Before its passage, Democrats filed a series of amendments to the bill which were voted down, but used the process to raise objections to taking up redistricting for flood relief and to the proposal itself.

A mid-decade change, which Democrats argue, reduces the voting power of people of color and further gerrymanders the state at the cost of democracy.

Meantime, job seekers might be surprised to learn clean energy is among the fastest growing careers right now.

Labor leaders say developers are getting better at hiring union workers to build wind and solar farms, but they see room for improvement in North Dakota.

Industry analysts say the clean energy workforce has a union coverage rate just above 10 percent compared to 7 percent in the private sector.

Kevin Pranis is with the North Dakota arm of the Laborers International Union of North America.

He says momentum has developed over the past decade.

We've seen a really positive shift with good union jobs that pay the same rates that members would make on a conventional energy project.

In neighboring Minnesota, he says they've seen a substantial increase in developers hiring local union members for projects as opposed to out-of-state teams.

And while there's progress in North Dakota, he says on some projects, the percentage is still low.

He acknowledges changing the mindset is hard in a fossil fuel-heavy state, but adds developers can help by conveying the wage growth and renewables.

I'm Mike Moen.

And vaccination rates are declining across Washington.

Experts say this leaves Native American communities vulnerable to dangerous disease outbreaks, especially heading back to school.

According to the Washington State Department of Health, there have been 10 confirmed cases of measles in Washington in three counties this year.

Wendy Stevens is with the American Indian Health Commission, which formed the nation's first Tribal Immunization Coalition.

She cites data showing that the measles vaccine reduces people's chance of getting the disease by 97 percent. it's safe, it's effective, it prevents measles.

Getting measles immunization protects not only you but your family or community from spreading measles.

Vaccination rates have dropped to 87 percent among kindergartners in Washington.

This is well below the 95 percent threshold needed to prevent outbreaks according to the Washington Health Alliance.

While most measles infections are not severe, health complications can occur in about 30 percent of cases, with about one in a thousand infections leading to death.

I'm Isabelle Charlay.

This is public news service.

Enlisted personnel from Arkansas and other states could have to adhere to their state's abortion laws now that the Department of Veterans Affairs is moving forward with plans to end all abortion services at VA hospitals.

The move is subject to a 30-day comment period that ends in early September.

Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court, then-President Joe Biden changed rules allowing medical personnel at VA facilities to provide abortions in cases of rape, incest, or threats to the health or life of a mother.

Lindsay Church with Minority Veterans of America says veterans will now be at the mercy of their state's abortion laws.

Arkansas and 19 other states have greatly restricted or completely banned the medical procedure since Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Service members and veterans and their families are now going to have to figure out how to navigate state-level health care and state-level reproductive health services in order to access that care.

Republican lawmakers and the administration have argued the VA's focus should be on providing veterans with service-connected health care.

They also claim Biden's initial rule was motivated by politics, not by health care.

I'm Freda Ross reporting.

And this November, Pennsylvanians won't see presidential or congressional races, but voters will decide whether three state Supreme Court justices keep their seats.

All three are Democrats and losing even one could weaken the party's 5-2 majority.

Penn State Harrisburg Professor Daniel Malison says unlike the U.S. Supreme Court states choose judges in different ways and Pennsylvania uses elections.

He warns that with low turnout common in odd year elections, Republicans could gain ground and shift the balance of power in this key battleground state.

There's actually a lot of attention from particularly Republican election activists to try to unseat some of these justices.

Danielle Smith reporting.

Finally, the GOP so big beautiful bill included a lesser reported provision that rescinded hundreds of millions in already awarded federal grants for trails and active transportation.

In Jacksonville a 14.7 million dollar award from the neighborhood access and equity grant program was revoked.

Kay Ehouse whose organization is building the Emerald Trail says the funds were slated for 15 miles of trail design neighborhood revitalization plans and community engagement.

She says the loss is a significant hit to their plans.

It would have given us money to do seven neighborhood revitalization plans and it gave us 3.5 million which would have paid for project staff and community engagement expenses over six years.

I'm Tramell Gomes.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service, member and listener supported.

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