Six minutes of news from around the nation.

'Inappropriate' comments about Charlie Kirk shooting lead to university firings; WA law ensures pay for immigration proceedings; Ohio voting reform advocates push for fair maps; Amid proposed research funding cuts IN cancer rates mirror national data.

TRANSCRIPT

The Public News Service Daily Newscast, September the 16th, 2025.

I'm Mike Clifford.

The backlash to inappropriate public comments made in the days following Charlie Kirk's death have sparked a new wave of firings and suspensions for the number of university employees disciplined for sharing their views.

That's a take from The Guardian.

They report it comes as some free speech advocates accuse Republicans of intimidation tactics and creating a culture of fear over the clampdown and using the response to the tragedy to stroke turmoil and inflame anger directed at their political opponents.

The Guardian notes a campaign by figures on the political far right to expose and punish those whose comments are deemed objectionable has reached extensively into college campuses around the country.

Meantime, Washington lawmakers have expanded the state's paid sick and safe leave time law to allow for workers to use earned paid leave to attend immigration-related proceedings.

The new law, which came into effect this summer, allows people to attend immigration hearings or meet with legal counsel for themselves or their family members without risking their income or employment.

Hannah Sabi-O'Howell is with Working Washington and the Fair Work Center, groups that organize low-wage workers such as farm workers and restaurant staff, many of which are part of immigrant communities.

Expanding our paid, sick, and safe time law is an important way of keeping our communities stable at a time when particularly undocumented workers and families are needing to defend their livelihoods and their wellbeing.

Sabia Howell notes this policy does not expand the amount of paid, sick, and safe hours that are available to workers, but rather the ways in which people can use them.

I'm Isabel Charlay.

And folks in Ohio are preparing for a major test of democracy this fall as lawmakers redraw the state's congressional map.

Fair map advocates say the process will shape representation for the next decade.

Bria Bennett, communications director with the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, says the stakes extend far beyond state lines.

What happens this year with the redrawing of our maps will affect us through the year 2032.

Ohio is the only state that is required to redraw a map.

All eyes are on Ohio.

What happens here will affect the landscape of Washington politically.

The congressional map drawn in 2022 was used only for two election cycles because it lacked bipartisan approval as required under the Ohio Constitution.

Advocates will rally at the Statehouse tomorrow, September 17th, for a Fair Maps Day organized by fair districts and equal districts.

Bennett says the goal is to remind lawmakers that communities across Ohio want transparency and equal representation.

Ohioans are sick of being cheated out of fair representation.

We're calling for transparency.

We're calling for community integrity.

We're calling for balanced representation.

We just want our politicians to do what's right.

For us at EQ Reporting, this story was produced in association with media in the public interest and funded in part by the George Gunn Foundation.

This is public news service.

Cancer research advocates are calling on the Congress to provide more funding to combat the disease amid uncertainty in the Trump administration.

But budget proposals from both House and Senate lawmakers offer increased funding for cancer research.

The 2021-22 Indiana Cancer Consortium Control Plan report indicates that two in five Hoosiers now living will eventually develop some form of cancer.

Mark Fleury is with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.

He says research funding is in a state of limbo that could dissuade people from entering the field.

If you're considering a career in scientific research and you see the environment in front of you, there would be a lot of reason to decide to take another path.

President Trump's science advisor Michael Kratzios has defended the administration's position, arguing that political bias, misguided professional culture, and a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion have caused the public to lose trust in researchers.

I'm Terry Dee reporting.

And despite the federal cutbacks, main officials say heat pump training programs will continue.

The state aims to have 275,000 pumps installed in homes and businesses by 2027 to help reduce emissions and lower energy prices.

Tawango Obomsowin with the governor's energy office says it's still too soon to know how cuts to federal grants and changes in clean energy policies will impact those plans.

Well there is some uncertainty out there.

The state's commitments to clean energy and strong policy and incentive environment are expected to continue to fuel job growth in the state.

She says heat pump installation is creating good paying jobs, especially in rural areas like Somerset County, where the number of clean energy workers has grown by more than 40 percent since 2020.

But officials warn the loss of federal tax incentives for heat pumps next year could lower demand and undercut a growing workforce.

This story was produced with original reporting from Christian Moravec with Maine Monitor.

I'm Catherine Carley.

Finally, as Congress moves to overturn federal land management plans in three states, a conservation expert says Wyoming is following the standard public process instead.

The U.S. House has passed resolutions under the Congressional Review Act to nullify resource management plans in Montana, North Dakota and Alaska.

While Wyoming has faced similar controversies over its plans in Rock Springs and Buffalo, it is not targeted by the current congressional action.

David Wilms with the National Wildlife Federation says the administration is working collaboratively to improve those plans.

And they're actually gonna work with the public and take public input and work on amending those plans to address some of the underlying concerns that they might have in the resource management plans there rather than taking this more extreme approach of using the Congressional Review Act.

I'm Trammell Gomes.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

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