NWPB Weekly News Now
Cuts to Federal Researchers in the NW and an Idaho Special Olympian: March 5, 2025
3/5/2025 | 3m 11sVideo has Closed Captions
Hosted by NWPB Multimedia News Director Tracci Dial.
NWPB continues to track federal cuts that impact the Northwest, including recent layoffs with USDA researchers in Prosser. Plus, a closer look at a new documentary profiling mysterious cattle mutilations in Oregon featuring our very own Anna King. And we meet one Special Olympian from North Idaho representing team USA this year in Italy.
NWPB Weekly News Now is a local public television program presented by NWPB
NWPB Weekly News Now
Cuts to Federal Researchers in the NW and an Idaho Special Olympian: March 5, 2025
3/5/2025 | 3m 11sVideo has Closed Captions
NWPB continues to track federal cuts that impact the Northwest, including recent layoffs with USDA researchers in Prosser. Plus, a closer look at a new documentary profiling mysterious cattle mutilations in Oregon featuring our very own Anna King. And we meet one Special Olympian from North Idaho representing team USA this year in Italy.
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NWPB is tracking federal job cuts around the northwest.
All part of the Trump administration's national plan to downsize government spending.
We've spoken with Forest Service workers, NOAA staff and research scientists.
Francisco Gonzalez was with the U.S. Department of Agriculture working out of Prosser.
His work focused on hops.
He tells us he has a lot of worries right now, big and small.
“My five year old is going to, a local church for, pre-K and so we have to pay for that monthly.
And that's an expense that we've had for several years.
And now we can I don't know, how are we going to pay for that.” One of many around the northwest and around the nation grappling with the new reality.
Articles on several industries affected by these cuts are up on our website.
“And this is all something you need to know, right?
Like what is the term of the rental?
Do you guys want to do a lease or do you want to do a month-to-month?” You heard Ricky Aguilar there.
He's a peer support specialist at the Walla Walla Alliance for the Homeless.
He's teaching a ready to rent class that prepares people to get out of homelessness.
The program was developed in Portland, and now the website says more than 60,000 people have completed the course.
Hear from someone going through the curriculum at NWPB.org.
Not One Drop of Blood.
That's the title of a new film debuting in Boise in March and NWPBs own Anna King is involved.
For years Anna has been watching the cases of cattle mutilations in rural Oregon.
The phenomenon has been discovered in other places, too, and over many years.
Some of her work caught the attention of a couple of filmmakers.
One of them is Jackson Devereaux.
“Once we saw Anna's article, we were captivated.
It was Annas way of writing, very lyrical, made this mystery sound beautiful and haunting at the same time, and that complexity intrigued us enough to reach out to her.” Not One Drop of Blood premieres in Boise, Idaho at Film Fort on March 28th.
That's part of the Tree Fort Music Festival.
An Idaho man will be strapping on his snowshoes and heading all the way to Italy.
He's competing in the Special Olympics, representing the team Special Olympics USA.
Jeff Greene lives in a small town, Peck, in north Idaho.
He has down syndrome and is well-loved.
His parents put a note in the local newspaper to invite the whole town to celebrate him.
And that's where we met him and his crowd of supporters.
After decades of competing, this big trip started with a phone call.
Here's Jeff's mom, Nancy Green.
“The CEO of Special Olympics Idaho, called me on a Friday morning and said, ‘do you think Jeff would be interested in going to Italy for the Winter games.” We talked to Jeff too.
You can hear from him in the full story online.
He'll be competing in that 25 and 50 meter snowshoe races at the games, which begin this week.
NWPB Weekly News Now is a local public television program presented by NWPB