Six minutes of news from around the nation.

Snow and ice put up final stand in Northeast as brutal cold slides in behind storm; 'we're in a scary moment': Minnesotans process latest ICE shooting Florida farms squeezed by worker fear and new E-Verify mandate; NYers want more done to address housing costs, challenges; sales of antibiotics for farm animals spiked in 2024.

TRANSCRIPT

The public news service daily newscast, January the 26th, 2026.

I'm Mike Clifford.

At least seven people have died in the coldest temperatures of the winter.

The brutal cold will linger into the week, raising fears for those without shelter or power for days.

That from CNN.

They report the massive winter storms damaging ice knocked out power to over 1 million customers across the mid-Atlantic and South.

Outages could last for days in hard-hit Nashville, Mississippi and beyond.

Sunday was the worst day for flight cancellations since the pandemic.

Over 17,000 flights, an extraordinary amount, have been canceled overall during the storm.

CNN notes that schools in major cities have canceled classes or moved to remote learning from one day.

Meantime, Minnesotans are coming to grips with another fatal shooting carried out by federal immigration officers.

Local voices say they're balancing grief with a strong will to keep defending the constitutional rights of their neighbors and surrounding communities.

Saturday's fatal shooting of Alex Pretty in Minneapolis came a little more than two weeks after the Rene Good tragedy.

The descriptions by Trump administration officials of both shootings have been widely criticized by the public for falsehoods, with many claiming video evidence contradicts statements that defend officers’ actions.

The Minnesota-based Communities Organizing Latino Power in Action says the deaths are the result of a reckless ICE operation.

Executive neighborhoods are walking a tightrope right now.

We're now in a very scary moment and the balance between being fearful and finding courage it goes day by day.

He says the growing unity in Minnesota, including a large-scale protest last Friday, shows communities are standing firm no matter the exhaustion that's felt.

I'm Mike Moen.

Next to Florida, where farms and seasonal businesses which lead the nation in using H-2A visa workers face a new challenge.

The leaders report media coverage of immigration enforcement is creating fear, making it harder to recruit local seasonal workers.

Concurrently, the state legislature is advancing a bill to mandate universal E-Verify.

Which is a federally operated employment verification system.

It passed the House this week, but must still navigate the Senate.

Chris Ball, CEO of the national workforce provider Mass Labor, explains that Florida's strict existing laws already shape the labor market.

Part of the reason why Florida has the highest participation rate in the HGAA program is it's hard to hire legalists.

Very hard to do it.

You're gonna have to pay them cash, you're gonna have to be pretty sneaky on how to do it because you can't do it illegal.

And that's why Florida has the highest.

Bull's company provides about 50,000 foreign seasonal workers annually to US businesses, half in agriculture.

A 2025 Small Business Administration report finds more than 475,000 small businesses in in Florida have fewer than 20 employees, highlighting the scale of the potential new mandate.

I'm Tramiel Gomes.

This is public news service.

Some New Yorkers want the state to do more to address housing issues.

Governor Kathy Hochul is proposing regulatory reforms to speed up housing construction.

But advocates for affordable housing note little is being said about increasing the state's housing access voucher program or expanding rent stabilization beyond New York City.

Sumathi Kumar with Housing Justice for All says upstate cities like Kingston face challenges in using rent stabilization protections.

Landlords have constantly sued the city over minute bureaucratic details.

What ends up happening is the tenants who are supposed to be rent stabilized are left in limbo, not sure if their protections are gonna go away one day or continue.

She's eager to see lawmakers in Albany pass a bill known as the REST Act to allow most other municipalities to enact rent stabilization without such issues.

Several cities attempts at implementing rent stabilization have been blocked by lawsuits.

Despite pushback from the real estate industry, the bill received positive feedback at a 2025 New York Assembly hearing.

I'm Edwin J. Viera.

And Missouri education leaders are taking a new approach to help students battling substance use disorders stay in school and on track for their future.

State data suggests nearly 4 percent of Missouri kids between ages 12 and 17 are dealing with addiction or have recently been in treatment, a challenge that recovery high schools are designed to meet head-on.

Lisa Sorino, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, explains what sets a recovery high school apart.

It provides comprehensive high school curriculum and educational services.

It provides wraparound services for students who are experiencing substance abuse and co-occurring related disorders.

Missouri allows the board to approve up to four recovery high schools in metropolitan areas.

Three newly approved schools, including one sponsored by Vivo St. Louis, are expected to open in the fall of this year.

Crystal Blair reporting.

Finally, antibiotic use in farm animals has moderated over the last decade, but new Food and Drug Administration and data show a large increase.

In 2015, US farmers bought over 10,000 tons of antibiotics, the same kinds used on humans for their chickens, pigs, and cattle.

Growing public concern over antibiotic resistance brought a decrease in use and changes in federal regulations.

By 2017, farm antibiotic use had been cut in half and it remained there until 2024, when sales climbed by 16 percent.

Steve Roach with the Food Animal Concerns Trust says it's the fastest increase they've ever seen.

You look in a little bit more detail at the specific animals.

On the chicken industry, it was totally unprecedented.

But for all of them, it's much higher than it's ever been in any year since we started collecting data.

This story was produced with original reporting from Lisa Held for Civil Eats.

I'm Brett Pivitto.

This is Mike Clifford.

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