Six minutes of news from around the nation.

Hurricane Melissa leaves trail of destruction across Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica; Young plaintiffs take federal climate fight to appeals court; Bill aims to protect VA federal employees from evictions, repossessions; MA families face double whammy of delayed heating and food aid; Colorado voters to decide fate of 'Healthy School Meals for All' program.

TRANSCRIPT

The Public News Service daily newscast October 30th, 2025.

Hurricane Melissa left at least a dozen dead amid Widespread destruction across Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica, where roofless homes, toppled utility poles, and waterlogged furniture dominated the landscape on Wednesday.

That from the Associated Press.

They report a landslide blocked the main roads of Santa Cruz at Jamaica's Saint Elizabeth Parish, where the streets reduced to mud pits.

Forecasters expect Melissa Nowa Category One hurricane to bring dangerous winds, flooding and storm surge to the Bahamas over the next twenty four hours.

Meantime, a federal lawsuit filed by twenty two young plaintiffs arguing President Donald Trump's executive orders violate their constitutional rights by accelerating climate change Has been appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Reporting from our news partners at KFF Health News found that while a Montana district court dismissed the case on procedural grounds, it made significant findings.

Nate Bellinger, a senior attorney with Our Children representing the plaintiffs says the court acknowledged the severe impact on youth.

The court found that the plaintiffs are being harmed by climate change and fossil fuel pollution, actually recognized that there's a children's health emergency right now, due to climate change.

And the court also found that the challenged executive orders are making climate change worse, are exacerbating the plaintiff's injuries.

The case Lighthizer v. Trump challenges three executive orders that the plaintiffs say are designed to increase fossil fuel use, block renewable energy, and dismantle climate science.

However, in court filings, the Trump administration has consistently held that these claims are political questions unfit for the judiciary.

I'm Trammell Gomes.

And as the government shutdown continues into its fifth week, federal employees face upcoming bills, from utilities to mortgages.

A new bill in the U.S. Senate wants to blunt the financial impacts on strained fits if passed.

The Federal Employee Civil Relief Act would protect federal employees, contractors, and their families from evictions, foreclosures, repossessions, and other kinds of defaults.

During a shutdown, the bill would also prevent negative impacts to credit scores and keep workers current on bills and insurance premiums.

Virginia Democratic Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner introduced the legislation.

Scott Robinson worked for the Transportation Security Administration for two decades and now works as a labor advocate.

He says the shutdown is already impacting employees, such as at TSA.

The officers, by and large, are paycheck to paycheck employees.

So you miss a single paycheck and dominoes start to topple and things can accelerate and become fairly bad or stressful for the officer fairly quickly.

More than one hundred forty thousand people in the Commonwealth work for the Federal Government, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Major labor unions representing Federal employees, such as the National Treasury Employees Union and American Federation of Government Employees, have endorsed the legislation.

I'm Zimone Perez.

This is Public News Service.

Community action agencies across Massachusetts are still taking applications for winter heating assistance, although Help may be delayed.

Annual funding for the low-income home energy assistance program is normally distributed to states by mid-October, but the continued government shutdown means vulnerable households will have to wait.

Lisa Spencer with the South Shore Community Action Council says the moratorium for utility shutoffs has already been implemented to protect those struggling to pay their bills.

So if someone was a household on fuel assistance last year They would be protected from shutoff.

So that'll be a big help.

The moratorium on service shutoffs also includes the state's roughly 45,000 federal workers.

Spencer says limited funds carried over from last year's program will help cover emergency situations only, including those homes with less than three days' supply of home heating oil.

I'm Katherine Carley.

And as the government shutdown poses immediate threats to food assistance programs, Colorado voters will have an opportunity to help fill some of the gaps by taxing residents earning over three hundred thousand dollars a year.

Propositions LL and MM would fully fund Colorado's Healthy School Meals for All program and allow the state to use any extra revenues to offset cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program under the GOP signature tax and spending bill.

Pablo Rivera, a visual art teacher at Denver South High School, supports both measures.

He says when all students have access to nutritious food, they can show up at their best in the classroom.

We've seen how successful this program is by just the number of students who are using it.

This is an opportunity for Colorado to remain a leader in the country of providing free and healthy foods for our students, the school meal program's unexpected popularity, alongside spending limitations under the state's taxpayers' Bill of Rights, has created a budget shortfall.

If approved by voters, Propositions LL and MM are expected to generate over $100 million for the program.

I'm Eric Galatas.

Finally, the new 2025 Conservation Scorecard from the Nevada Conservation League ranks state leaders on environmental progress.

The report gives Governor Joe Lombardo a C, citing his support for clean energy, but also his opposition to some public land protections.

The governor also vetoed a bill to ban Styrofoam and another to declare Indigenous Peoples Day a holiday.

Chrissy Cabrera-Jordson with the Nevada Conservation League says this sort of progress report provides accountability, which is important to a well-functioning democracy.

We want everyday Nevada's to be able to look at this, to reach out to their elected officials, thanks those who did well on their scorecard.

And maybe tell those who didn't do as well to do a little better next time.

Conservation advocates are celebrating the passage of 30 pro-environmental bills.

I'm Suzanne Potter.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

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