skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, October 11, 2024

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

Florida picks up the pieces after Hurricane Milton; Georgia elected officials say Hurricane Helene was a climate change wake-up call; Hosiers are getting better civic education; the Senate could flip to the GOP in November; New Mexico postal vans go electric; and Nebraska voters debate school vouchers.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Civil rights groups push for a voter registration deadline extension in Georgia, federal workers helping in hurricane recovery face misinformation and threats of violence, and Brown University rejects student divestment demands.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Hurricane Helene has some rural North Carolina towns worried larger communities might get more attention, mixed feelings about ranked choice voting on the Oregon ballot next month, and New York farmers earn money feeding school kids.

Report warns of Project 2025 effect on AR libraries

play audio
Play

Thursday, August 29, 2024   

Changes could be coming for libraries and the people who work there if Project 2025 goes into effect. The 900 page document outlines how agencies could be reshaped if Republicans win the presidential election, and states there should be more accountability when it comes to what's available in public libraries. Arkansas has 58 public library systems.
Peter Bromberg, associate director with the Every Library Institute, said the changes would restrict what's available.

"Librarians and teachers are highly trusted, and well known and well loved in their communities. It's really kind of a shocking and extreme attempt to twist our democratic society and our institutions into more of a totalitarian theocracy," he said.

Backers of Project 2025 say librarians need to be held accountable for what is on their shelves. A bill in Alabama that would have criminalized librarians for allowing content defined as "obscene" narrowly missed becoming law this year. A similar measure has already been filed for next session.

Bromberg explained that Project 2025 promotes book bans, restricts LGBTQ+ content and undermines the intellectual freedom and inclusivity that libraries are known for. He believes that would ultimately threaten a student's educational quality and could end the practice of libraries being open and inclusive spaces for people who want to learn.

"That's the bad news. The good news is, Americans are increasingly becoming aware of what's happening and organizing. And it doesn't often take very much in terms of organizing and pushback - on whether it's school boards or county councils - to get the books back on the shelves," Bromberg continued.

Project 2025 is a Heritage Fund initiative that goes well beyond libraries. It would reshape the federal government and consolidate executive power under the president.


get more stories like this via email
more stories
A 2022 University of Indiana report concludes recent studies on voucher programs show that students attending private schools through voucher programs have experienced "large, negative impacts" on their achievement. (sheilaf2002/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Nebraska is one of four states with measures about state funding of private-school vouchers on the ballot this year. Referendum 435 asks voters to …


Social Issues

play sound

As Ohio heads into a pivotal election season, the divide between rural and urban voters might seem deep - but one expert says the gap isn't as wide …

Social Issues

play sound

After 17 years, the state of New York is re-evaluating its school funding formula. The state budget agreement calls for the Rockefeller Institute to …


Eric Greenlee, a student from Georgia Tech, installs water-level sensors in lakes at Lac du Flambeau to help monitor wild rice beds. (Photo courtesy Naomi Blinick)

Social Issues

play sound

By Spoorthy Raman for Mongabay.Broadcast version by Mike Moen for Wisconsin News Connection reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News…

Environment

play sound

Savannah's leaders are pointing out the ways federal dollars are being used to boost the area's resilience against climate change. In the aftermath …

A recent report gave Wyoming low marks for its efforts to reduce exposure to lead in K-12 schools. (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Groups that advocate for clean water are applauding the Environmental Protection Agency's new rule on replacing lead pipes - but they warn that the dr…

Environment

play sound

Neighborhoods across New Mexico and other states will soon be cleaner and quieter as the U.S. Postal Service rolls out its new electric mail-delivery …

Social Issues

play sound

Voting may be a bit more confusing than expected in Utah this year, as two of the four amendments on the ballot have now been voided. The Utah …

 

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