skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

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

Trump announces sweeping new tariffs to promote US manufacturing, risking inflation and trade wars; Arizonans experience some of the highest insurance premiums; U.S. immigration policy leaves trans migrants at TX-Mexico border in limbo; Repealing clean energy tax credits could raise American energy costs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

President Donald Trump announces worldwide tariffs. Democrats decry 'Liberation Day' as the economy adjusts to the news. And some Republicans break from Trump's trade stance.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Rural schools face budget woes even as White House aims to dismantle the Department of Education, postal carriers argue against proposed USPS changes, fiber networks to improve rural internet may be supplanted by Musk's satellites, and PLAY BALL!

Iowans asked to get busy counting beeezzz, please

play audio
Play

Monday, April 15, 2024   

The state Department of Natural Resources and Iowa State University are looking for volunteers to help create a new Bumble Bee Atlas.

Bees are an important part of the ecosystem, and scientists are figuring out their habitats to help them thrive.

Iowa is home to at least 14 species of bumble bees that help pollinate native wildflowers and flowering crops in farm fields and backyard gardens.

Iowa State University University Professor of Sustainable Agriculture and plant pathologist Matt O'Neal said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently listed several bee species as endangered.

"And that includes the Rusty Patch bumble bee," said O'Neal, "20% of what it used to be, and that includes parts of Iowa. There is also evidence that other bumble species are in decline and so, this survey will give us a chance to see where those bees are and how abundant they are."

With that information, O'Neal said scientists can work to protect the bees' habitats and create Iowa's Bumble Bee Atlas.

It's part of a larger project to map the bees and foster bee development nationwide. Sign up online to volunteer.

The national project is part of a collaboration with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.

Some 900 people have volunteered for the national atlas project, and counted more than 20,000 bumble bees - which O'Neal said face several major threats.

"Pesticide exposure, parasite and pathogens," said O'Neal, "and then the last 'P,' and probably the most important, is poor forage."

The researchers will work to alleviate those threats by knowing where the bees are.

Volunteers have discovered species thought to be gone from their states, contributed to new field guides, and improved scientists' understanding of bumble bee populations across the country.




get more stories like this via email

more stories
The Little Village Environmental Justice Organization has become as much as a landmark to the community as the Little Village Arch and was awarded the national Food Sovereignty Prize in 2024. (City of Chicago 2021)

Environment

play sound

By Angela Burke for Civil Eats.Broadcast version by Judith Ruiz-Branch for Illinois News Connection reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Pub…


Social Issues

play sound

More than 1,000 protests against the policies of President Donald Trump are set for Saturday across the country, with 117 planned in California alone…

Social Issues

play sound

A bill known as the Act for Civic Engagement did not make it out of committee in Olympia before the deadline but advocates for people who are incarcer…


Legislation regulating cryptocurrency kiosks is being considered in the Maryland House of Delegates. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

A bill in the Maryland General Assembly would regulate cryptocurrency kiosks, the more than 700 ATM-like machines for virtual currencies around the …

Social Issues

play sound

Registration is open for the next information session for the Doswell School of Aeronautical Sciences at Texas Woman's University in Denton, where …

Economists with the American Farm Bureau Federation said there are still unknowns but it is clear the escalating trade war will decrease demand for U.S. products in the second- and third-largest export markets for American farmers. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

The Trump administration announces its new wave of tariffs Wednesday, and with U.S. Department of Agriculture funding still a question mark, …

play sound

Educators at Iowa State University are creating a new major to meet what they see as a new and growing demand in the health care field: pairing medica…

Environment

play sound

Large, energy-intense buildings used in Bitcoin mining, cloud computing and artificial intelligence data processing industries could become more …

 

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