skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

WV Senator Helps Advance Wheeler's EPA Nomination

play audio
Play

Wednesday, February 6, 2019   

WHEELING, W.Va. - With the help of a U.S. senator from West Virginia, Andrew Wheeler's nomination to head the Environmental Protection Agency is moving to the full Senate for a vote.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., is among those who had questioned Wheeler's stance on clean-water standards for toxic chemicals known as PFAS. Penny Dacks of Morgantown, a volunteer for the nonprofit Moms Clean Air Force, was at Wheeler's Senate nomination hearing and said she's disappointed that Capito got no hard answers from Wheeler on PFAS or the EPA's efforts to weaken mercury-pollution standards.

"I wish Sen. Capito was showing more leadership in the questions that she asked Wheeler publicly," said Dacks. "She seems to be ignoring West Virginia's health, and her own supposed concerns about these drinking-water issues, just so that she can toe the party line."

Capito is among those on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee who advanced Wheeler's nomination in a party-line vote. Capito said Wheeler had assured her privately that he would address her concerns about the PFAS standards, although critics have noted he has made no public concessions. A full Senate vote has not yet been scheduled.

As a mother and a neuroscientist, Dacks said she wants candid answers about how Wheeler's actions will affect the health of communities such as her own in West Virginia.

"We have an extraction industry, and I think many people in our state are proud that we can help power the country, and I think that they should be proud," she said. "But our families and our children should not be bearing the cost of so many different problems that come from toxins in our air, toxins in our water."

The EPA recently moved to roll back mercury emissions that can harm the brain and other organs, and the agency is reviewing its action plan to address PFAS, which have been found at unsafe levels in the tap water of at least 16 million Americans.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
A report from the Tennessee HealthCare Campaign recommended the federal government needs to strengthen 340B drug pricing and other federal negotiation mechanisms to make needed medicines more readily available and less expensive for hospitals to purchase and administer. (Spotmatikphoto/AdobeStock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

A recent report examined how some rural Tennessee hospitals have managed to stay afloat despite financial challenges. The report includes interviews …


Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…


Nearly 13 million Americans receive health coverage through unique plans under both Medicare and Medicaid. They are known as Dual-Eligible Special Needs Plans. (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Medicare and Medicaid are key sources of health coverage for many Americans and some people qualify for assistance under both programs. With lagging …

Social Issues

play sound

A mix of policy updates and staffing boosts has helped to put wage theft enforcement on the radar in Minnesota, and officials leading the efforts are …

More than six in 10 Americans favor keeping the abortion pill mifepristone available in the U.S. as a prescription drug, while over a third are opposed, according to a Gallup poll. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

New research shows more than six in 10 abortions in the U.S. last year were medically induced, and U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto - D-NV - is …

Social Issues

play sound

Colorado is working to boost the state's agricultural communities by getting more fresh, nutritious foods into school cafeterias - and a new online …

Social Issues

play sound

Missouri lawmakers are concerned with protecting people from the potential risks of the increasing accessibility of AI-generated images and videos…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021