Six minutes of news from around the nation.

As furloughs rise, Arizona officials call for ending government shutdown; WI teacher: Federal special-ed cuts another blow to struggling state and fight continues for justice over PCB exposure at NC State.

TRANSCRIPT

The Public News Service Daily Newscast for October 23rd, 2025.

I'm Joe Ulory.

The U.S. military carried out its eighth strike on a suspected drug boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing two people.

The Associated Press reports it's the first attack outside the Caribbean as the Trump administration expands its campaign against cartels in South America. say at least 34 people have died since the strikes began last month.

Lawmakers from both parties are questioning the legal authority and oversight of the ongoing military operations.

Rural Arizona families are feeling the impact of the government shutdown as tens of thousands of federal workers have lost their jobs amid the impasse.

Labor leaders and elected officials are asking for donations to help people make ends meet.

Nearly 35,000 federal workers in Arizona have been furloughed, which local labor leader Omar Algecira says is having a direct effect on people's ability to make ends meet.

He says that's especially true in rural parts of the state.

What we're trying to do is make sure that they have food to eat, that they have the essentials that they need in life so that they can continue to do what they need to do on a day-to-day basis.

Algecira says the American Federation of Government Employees has established donation sites at the Arizona Food Bank Network and Arizona AFL-CIO local offices to help furloughed workers meet their basic needs.

I'm Mark Moran.

A Wisconsin teacher is voicing significant concerns about the recent federal special education cuts and says it's an added blow to the state's budget deficit.

This month, the US Department of Education began laying off more than 450 employees, many of whom oversee special education management.

President of the Wisconsin Education Association County Council, Peggy Wirtz Olson, is also a high school teacher.

She says Wisconsin educators have already been sounding the alarm about the lack of special education funding and advocating for a higher reimbursement rate for special education needs.

She says the state cannot withstand what she describes as a federal attack on public education.

I look at these federal level cuts on top of the state struggling cuts.

We didn't get special education funding up where we wanted to get it. kind of a one-two punch.

Wisconsin reimbursed less than a quarter of a school district special education costs, one of the lowest reimbursement rates in the nation.

Wurtz Olson stresses implications from federal cuts could extend to students across the state, adding to the already large gap to fill.

About 15 billion dollars in special education funding is overseen by the affected offices that support services for an estimated seven and a half million and students with disabilities across the country.

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.

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

Ashley Kerzinger with the nonpartisan Health Policy Research Polling and News Organization, KFF, says without those subsidies, insurance premiums could double.

"And when we asked 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.

Alfred 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 Indiana's aging population.

One organization is seeking qualified nurses outside of US 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 has also been many new roles 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 Ulory for Public News Service, member and listener supported.

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