Six minutes of news from around the nation.

Trump tells Cuba to 'make a deal, before it is too late'; Senate weighs ACA subsidies as enrollment deadline nears; Detroit educators fight for release of students held by ICE; WA min. wage, highest in the country, shows 'power of working people'; NM sticks with 'evidence-based' childhood vaccination schedule.

TRANSCRIPT

The Public News Service Daily Newscast, January the 12th, 2026.

I'm Mike Clifford.

President Trump has urged Cuba to make a deal or face consequences, warning that the flow of Venezuelan oil and money would now stop.

Back from the BBC, they report Trump has been turning his attention to Cuba since U.S. forces seized Venezuela's leader, Nicolas Maduro, in a January 3 raid on his capital.

Venezuela is a long-standing ally of Cuba and is believed to send about 35,000 barrels of oil a day to the island.

The BBC notes that Cuba's foreign minister responded by saying his nation retained the right to import fuel without interference, while its president said, "No one dictates what we do."

Meantime, open enrollment for health insurance through CoverMe.gov ends January 15, and help is still available for Mainers unsure of which plan to choose.

Trained Marketplace Navigators say it's important to get coverage despite the uncertain future of enhanced tax credits used by millions of Americans to lower their monthly premiums.

Patty Lovell, a Marketplace Navigator with Western Maine Community Action says not to wait.

The most disappointing part is when I have somebody call me on January 20th and they've decided to get health insurance and they don't qualify for a special enrollment period.

She says the original premium tax credits are still available to help lower costs and that navigators can help people determine their eligibility.

The US House has approved a three-year extension of the temporary enhanced subsidies which the US Senate is likely to debate this week.

I'm Katherine Carley.

State officials report ACA enrollment through coverme.gov is already down 7 percent compared to last year with nearly 6,000 people canceling their plans for 2026.

Next to Detroit where teachers are pushing for the release of immigrant students from Michigan, many of the minors who are being held by US Immigration Customs Enforcement.

Some were sent to out of state detention facilities.

Nationwide, ICE has taken over 65,000 people into custody and at least 600 children have been placed in federal detention this year.

Kristen Shuttle is an ESL teacher at Western International High School.

She the impact on students has been immediate and traumatic.

I have many students who are afraid to go to school.

For them, I've really just been sending them work through Teams.

I hear of students whose parents have been detained almost every day.

Shuttle says at least four students from her school are in ICE custody, and some were sent to a family detention center in Texas.

ICE officials maintain they're carrying out federal immigration law and that detention decisions are based on legal status and court processes, not school enrollment.

Crystal Blair reporting.

According to ICE, individuals in custody are given access to legal proceedings.

This is public news service.

Next to Washington State with the minimum wage is once again the highest in the country at $17.13 an hour.

Advocates for working families say it's worth celebrating. 19 states raised their wage floors this month, but Washington is one of only six with hourly minimum wages that top $16.

Jeffrey Gustavuson with Firelands Workers United says there's an affordability crisis across the country and raising the minimum wage is an important tool to counter it.

It ensures that people in the food industry and restaurants, retail, are able to keep up with rising costs, at least a little bit.

A minimum wage isn't the full solution, but something that Washington should be proud of people fought really hard for.

Washington state voters passed an initiative in 2016 to raise the state's minimum wage and tie future increases to inflation.

Gustavuson acknowledges the state has taken other steps to improve affordability, like implementing a capital gains tax and a rent stabilization bill.

But he says more needs to be done.

I'm Isabel Charlay.

And New Mexico will maintain its full childhood vaccination schedule, despite rollbacks by the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The state's chief medical officer, Miranda Durham, says New Mexico will stick with the 30-year-old evidence-based vaccination schedule, noting the state regularly is a flu hotspot, has a high rate of hospitalizations for respiratory illnesses, and logged more than 100 cases of measles last year.

For all those reasons, we felt that the AAP schedule, the American Academy of Pediatric Schedule, was the one that was best for us, and that's the one we've endorsed for years.

The current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has downgraded five vaccines as optional.

I'm Roz Brown.

Durham notes that the recent drop off in measles vaccines resulted in more than 2,000 cases nationwide last year, the highest number in a single year in more than three decades.

Finally, grocery shoppers can't help but feel frustration when a staple like egg sees rapid price swings.

Egg prices are trending lower since supplies recovered from bird flu outbreaks.

But Brittany Johnson says record highs from last year are still on her mind as she nears the first anniversary of the egg cooperative on her Northwestern Minnesota farm.

How it works is a member signs up for $10 a month and gets a dozen eggs each week.

Johnson says at $2.50 a carton, that gives community members peace of mind in case the market unravels.

For us, people like to know where their food is coming from and they like to support good companies, but those can be hard to come by for food products. so the natural solution is just to start your own and all of the co-op members have become my best friend so it's been really fun.

I'm Mike Moen.

This is Mike Clifford, thank you for starting your week with Public News Service.

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