Six minutes of news from around the nation.

A block party turns bloody in Georgia, with two men dead and 35 people wounded, and election integrity and safety under question by Ohio voters, and Scientists are now using drones to reshape remote Alaska healthcare.

TRANSCRIPT

The Public News Service daily newscast October the 5th, 2026.

I'm Mike Clifford.

It was a violent weekend in Georgia with two men killed and 35 people injured in a shooting at a block party early on Sunday.

Brett Walls, the coroner in Dooley County, said two men aged 20 and 23 have been pronounced dead at the scene in Vienna, Georgia.

It happened around 1.15 a.m.

New York Times notes the Georgia Bureau of Investigations said in a statement 35 people were injured.

It was not clear how many of the injuries were related to gunfire.

Meantime, voters in Ohio and across the nation are hearing conversations grow louder about intimidation tactics directed at voters during the fall election.

Speaking on an American community media panel recently, some voting rights activists representing Asian, Indigenous, Black and Hispanic populations discussed President Trump's hints of placing military personnel or ICE agents at polling sites located near or in their neighborhoods.

The barriers facing voters in marginalized communities are real, says John Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice.

And he does not want to minimize voters fear.

He says there are ways voters can respond if encountered by an ICE agent.

One of the things that generally you can do is just simply ask, am I being detained?

I am being stopped for some reason.

And unless they give you a clear reason for being stopped, you can always ask, am I free to go?

and they should allow you to leave.

Military troops or ICE agents' presence at the polls is, at this point, just rumors, he adds, and each culture's plan of action for dealing with conflict will differ.

Poll monitors will be on site to help maintain the integrity of elections and could step in to address any interference, he explains, to ensure everyone's right to vote.

I'm Terry Dee reporting.

And researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks have completed a 1,000-kilometer drone test flight to see if human blood stays stable in transit.

The Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration's nearly nine-hour flight near Nanana tested whether unmanned aircraft can rapidly transport blood samples without them degrading.

The center's Kathy Cahill says using the technology in the future can make delivering medicine and other essential health care safer and more efficient.

The community can get fogged in.

They might need blood because of a crash victim or some other emergency, how do we get that blood into that community safely and not put manned aircraft and pilots at risk?

Teams of EMS workers collected small blood samples from volunteers the day before the test flight, which were tested by an international agency for stability.

Cahill says commercial use of the technology is still a few years off.

I'm Mark Moran.

This is Public News Service.

Food safety is emerging as a potential political issue ahead of the midterms following multiple outbreaks of foodborne illnesses and recalls of imported meat.

At the same time, New Mexico is expanding its safety testing.

Earlier this month, the USDA finalized an agreement with the state to enhance meat and poultry food safety inspection, and some of that will be done by New Mexico State University's Food Safety Laboratory.

Lab Director Luis Sibion says improved infrastructure will give small and very small processors another pathway to meet safety requirements, at least equal to the federal level.

We'll provide the testing that supports the inspection program.

So we are bringing analytical capacity closer to the producers and processors rather than having to rely heavily on laboratories outside New Mexico.

Despite major foodborne illnesses across the U.S. this summer, cases in New Mexico were relatively low.

I'm Roz Brown.

Next to Oregon, where Democrats are planning to introduce legislation in 2027 to ban surveillance pricing in the state.

The term describes a practice where retailers use personal data and information to charge people different prices for the same products and services.

Companies are increasingly using information like scrolling habits, purchase history and location to figure out the maximum price consumers are willing to pay for a product.

Oregon Representative Willie Chotson is backing the new legislation to ban the practice.

He calls surveillance pricing creepy and says retailers are taking advantage of people.

You can imagine a rideshare company charging someone more money because their phone is close to running out of battery and they might be desperate to lock in that ride. an online company charging somebody more for Tylenol because they know that that mother has been up all night researching why her son is so sick.

Seattle recently became the first U.S. city to ban surveillance pricing, joining Maryland, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

I'm Isobel Charle.

Finally, for decades, citizen lawsuits have worked to ensure environmental laws are adhered to in Massachusetts, but the Department of Justice now argues it can dismiss these lawsuits in the interest of national defense.

A lawsuit brought by the NAACP alleges Elon Musk's company XAI is operating natural gas turbines in Mississippi without permits and sending toxic fumes into black communities nearby.

Government lawyers claim the lawsuit threatens national security because the turbines power one of Musk's data centers aiding operations at the Department of War.

Alexandria St. Pierre OJ's move is unprecedented and has no legal basis.

And they have a right to be able to require these companies to comply with the law.

I'm Katherine Carley.

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

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