Federal Funding Cuts Ends Corporation for Public Broadcasting
After almost 60 years in operation, the board members of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) voted to dissolve the non-profit.
In a public statement, Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of CPB said, “For more than half a century, CPB existed to ensure that all Americans—regardless of geography, income, or background—had access to trusted news, educational programming, and local storytelling.” She added that the organization was constantly under attack as it was met with cuts to federal funding and vulnerability risk.
CPB was established under the Public Broadcasting Act six decades ago to support the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting, creating a nationwide public media system with more than 1,500 locally owned and operated radio and tv affiliates. The corporation provided funds to National Public Radio (NPR), Public Broadcast Service (PBS) and many others.
The Trump Administration intended to cut funding for public media and stated that PBS “spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.”
Although CPB is closing, the organization’s board chair said in a statement, “I am convinced that public media will survive, and that a new Congress will address public media’s role in our country because it is critical to our children’s education, our history, culture and democracy to do so.”
New Recommended Vaccine Schedule Raises Concerns by Public Health Experts
The Trump Administration’s latest decision lowers the recommended number of vaccines for every child, raising public health concerns by experts.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has intended to reduce the recommended number of shots in the United States for months now, hoping to rebuild trust in public health. The new list was updated effective immediately after Jim O’Neill, director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention made the changes.
Dr. Helen Chu, a physician and immunologist at the University of Washington in Seattle tells The New York Times, “The abrupt change to the entire U.S. childhood vaccine schedule is alarming, unnecessary, and will endanger the health of children in the United States.”
The routine shots lowered to 11 from 17, hepatitis A and B, influenza, rotavirus, COVID-19 and meningococcal disease from the recommended vaccination list.
Although the federal government has implemented these changes, states still have the sole authority to mandate vaccines.
Black Maternal Health Community Mourns Passing of Midwife Dr. Janell Green Smith
On New Year’s Day, Dr. Janell Green Smith, a woman who dedicated her life to advocating for Black maternal health, supporting hundreds of births in her role as a midwife, passed away due to childbirth complications.
The maternal health community raises the concern that Green Smith’s passing highlights the ongoing issue that Black women face while giving birth. The American College of Nurse-Midwives shared in a statement, “That a Black midwife and maternal health expert died after giving birth in the United States is both heartbreaking and unacceptable. Her death underscores the persistent and well-documented reality that Black women—regardless of education, income, or professional expertise—face disproportionate risks during pregnancy and childbirth due to systemic racism and failures in care.”
Green Smith has been a certified midwife since 2021 and completed her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree in 2024. As she experienced grief from the passing of her parents and brother, she thought her dreams of being a midwife would never happen.
She will be remembered as a leader, advocate and educator who changed lives through her passion of Black maternal health.
Huge Increase for 19 States’ Minimum Wages
As the federal minimum wage remains at $7.25 per hour, 19 states raise their minimum wage on New Year’s Day, mostly reaching $15 per hour or higher.
Washington State raises its state minimum for all workers to $17.13 among the highest increases next to New York and Connecticut. The National Employment Law Project’s latest report details increases and for higher wages.
- Arizona: $14.70 to $15.15
- California: $16.50 to $16.90
- Colorado: $14.81 to $15.16
- Connecticut: $16.35 to $16.94
- Hawaii: $14 to $16
- Maine: $14.65 to $15.10
- Michigan: $12.48 to $13.73
- Minnesota: $11.13 to $11.41
- Missouri: $13.75 to $15
- Montana: $10.55 to $10.85
- Nebraska: $13.50 to $15
- New Jersey: $15.49 to $15.92 ($18.92 for long-term care workers)
- New York: $16.50 to $17 in NYC metro; $15.50 to $16 upstate
- Ohio: $10.70 to $11
- Rhode Island: $15 to $16
- South Dakota: $11.50 to $11.85
- Vermont: $14.01 to $14.42
- Virginia: $12.41 to $12.77
- Washington State: $16.66 to $17.13
Tennessee State University Strengthens Financial Standing in Just One Year
Tennessee’s only public HBCU Tennessee State University (TSU) shifts its financial standing for the better with $13.2 million and increases its graduation rate up 10 percent.
The university’s new President Dwayne Tucker has spent the past year transforming TSU after a December 2024 discovery that the institution was out of money and unsure of its path forward. He tells News Channel 5 Nashville, “what a difference a year makes” as he spent the year focused on rebuilding relationships and identifying key leadership positions.
The state of Tennessee provided the university with a $96 million deal. “This is the beginning of transformation change for Tennessee State University,” Tucker adds in a sit down interview.