Six minutes of news from around the nation.

The Iran war hits home for a Kentucky family; ICE faces pushback in MI to lease offices; California advocates press Congress to fund wildlife crossings; Students, parents sue Wisconsin Legislature over school funding; Samaritan workers in Oregon join SEIU, uniting 5 locations; and buffalo roam again in Texas.

TRANSCRIPT

The Public News Service Daily Newscast for Wednesday, March 11th, 2026.

I'm Edwin J. Vieira.

The war in Iran came home to the Commonwealth of Kentucky this week.

Nadia Ramlagan reports. 26-year-old Sergeant Benjamin Pennington of Glendale in Hardin County died of his wounds on Sunday as a result of injuries he sustained during an Iranian attack at the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, according to the Pentagon.

The community is mourning and Sgt.

Pennington came from a good family, was very service-minded and always wanted to be a soldier, says Hardin County Judge Executive Keith Tall.

I've communicated with the father, Tim Pennington.

I've known him for over 30 years.

They are heartbroken.

The dignified transfer for Sgt. Pennington's return to the U.S. took place at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Monday.

Vice President J.D. Vance joined Pennington's family for the transfer.

The military reports six other soldiers have been killed and 140 soldiers have been injured, at least eight seriously.

The city of Southfield is at the center of a new immigration dispute over plans to lease office space to lawyers for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and as Crystal Blair reports, residents are pushing back against those plans.

According to the building's owner, Reddico, the office would not house uniformed ICE agents but attorneys from ICE's Office of the Principal Legal Advisor who represent the federal government in immigration court proceedings.

However, members of the newly formed Southfield Neighbors Action Committee say they don't want any ICE presence in their community.

Cameron Fink is co-founder of the group.

The lawyers who are doing the bureaucratic work that decide the legal size for a cage for a child or for an adult and when they can arrest people, what third countries they can deport them to.

We feel like those are also equally wrong.

Supporters of immigration enforcement argue the agency's legal offices are a routine part of the federal immigration system and help process cases through immigration courts.

Fink says if the attorneys do move in, his group plans to continue protesting daily, and community members who have office space there say they plan to move out.

Congress is considering whether to renew a program that funds the construction of wildlife crossings in California and across the U.S. Suzanne Potter has more.

The culverts and overpass bridges help animals get past roads that block their migration in search of mates, food or water and seasonal habitat.

Mike Leahy with the National Wildlife Federation says the projects save the lives of animals and people alike by preventing collisions.

Wildlife vehicle collisions are a major problem.

They cost annually over $8 billion and they cause about 26,000 injuries and hundreds of deaths of humans.

A 2024 report from the UC Davis Road Ecology Center found the California Highway Patrol recorded more than 52,000 traffic incidents involving wildlife between 2009 and 2023.

This is Public News Service.

A coalition of Wisconsin students, parents and teachers has filed a lawsuit against the Wisconsin legislature, arguing the state's public school funding system is inadequate and unconstitutional.

Judith Ruiz Branch has that story.

The lawsuit argues state funding hasn't kept pace with rising education costs, forcing districts to rely heavily on local property taxes, and ask voters too often to help cover basic expenses.

It says the state's worsening funding imbalance affects student performance, with fourth grade reading and math proficiency dropping significantly since 2000.

Joshua Miller is a parent in the Eau Claire area school district.

He and his daughter are plaintiffs in the suit.

He says Wisconsin schools have had to scrape by year after year to survive.

The dire need for adequate funding has been made clear to lawmakers, but they have refused to hear our pleas.

The situation is sad, absurd, and infuriating.

Wisconsin's current school finance system is broken.

Rather than seeking monetary damages, the lawsuit asks an Eau Claire County court to declare that lawmakers have failed to meet their constitutional obligation to properly fund public schools and require them to fix the system.

Healthcare workers at Samaritan Lebanon voted to unionize with SEIU Local 49, bringing all five Samaritan locations under one union.

Isabel Charle reports.

About 180 Oregon workers, including nutrition services, housekeeping, and certified nursing assistants, voted overwhelmingly to join the 15,000-member union.

CNA Adilson Nunez has been organizing with his coworkers for years.

He says they have a good relationship with management and hopes this decision benefits both sides.

The union is something so cool because you can make decisions together with administrations and we both create something that is good for us as employees.

We work together for a purpose.

We work together for the same goal.

Nunez says workers are motivated to negotiate for better pay and health care.

He adds Samaritan has four other locations across the state, all of which now receive slightly higher wages and benefits as a result of unionizing.

Bison is again roaming land in South Texas, and Frida Ross reports it's due to the work of the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project.

The non-profit is the first Native woman-led organization in the Lone Star State.

It's part of a larger network dedicated to building Indigenous power.

CEO Lucille Contreras says they're working to reconnect all the tribes of Texas through a regenerative herd of American bison.

At one time, the buffalo was everything to our people, the Lipan Apache and so many others of the Plains tribe.

The buffalo was our home, our shelter, our food, our clothing, our medicine, our utensils.

She says they hope to heal generational trauma and revive suppressed histories through their work.

The group has 34 bison on 77 acres of land in Gonzales County.

It hosts an annual event where it butchers and harvests buffalo meat to donate to local food programs.

This story was produced with original reporting by Kim Cobersmith with The Daily Hondur.

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

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