The Daily Rundown - July 28th, 2026
🩸 The American Red Cross has declared its second-ever national blood supply crisis after a four-year summer low in donations. The only other time the organization declared such a crisis was in January 2022.
The Red Cross has put prevention measures in place, including enhanced planning with hospitals to match their ongoing needs. Despite that and thousands of people still giving blood, the rate of donations isn’t keeping pace with hospital demands. Much of the lower donor turnout this summer has been attributed to extreme heat, poor air quality and widespread foodborne illnesses.
The Red Cross is urging all eligible donors, especially those with type O blood, to make an appointment as soon as possible. Currently, the Red Cross has less than a one-day national supply of type O positive blood — the most transfused blood type.
If at least three more donors made appointments at each eligible site this summer, the crisis could end and the blood supply could stabilize. Appointments can be booked using the Blood Donor App, by visiting redcrossblood.org or by calling 1-800-red-cross.
☀️ Waiting for a bus in 109-degree heat isn’t easy. It can also be dangerous. But for people who depend on public transportation, it’s a necessary risk.
“It’s devastating. I mean — the heat — there’s no relief,” Ebony Burnett said while waiting for her bus to arrive. Burnett uses the bus to get to her job as a home care provider in Las Vegas.
“You just gotta stay hydrated and try to find shade as best you can,” she said. At least there’s some relief from the heat at the city’s main transit station. Inside, there’s air conditioning. There’s plenty of shade, too. Still, the heat is always present.
In 2024, more than 500 people died due to heat exposure in Southern Nevada, according to the Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner. That’s one reason local officials secured federal funding to work on a heat response plan.
Andrew Kjellman, deputy CEO of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, says a top priority is a simple one: Add more shade to bus stops. It’s an effort supported by a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
In some parts of the metro area, it can be up to 11 degrees hotter. That’s according to the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada’s heat mapping study, developed in 2022 with a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
This kind of effort is taking place beyond Nevada. Cities in Arizona, including Phoenix and Tempe, have also conducted similar bus shade studies. Hear the full story by the Mountain West News Bureau’s Yvette Fernandez here.
🩺 The Nevada Health Authority has awarded UNR’s School of Medicine $4.5 million to expand residency programs in the northern part of the state.
The funding will go toward developing graduate medical education programs in multiple subspecialties. That includes general surgery residencies and a fellowship in pulmonary disease and critical care medicine.
The school’s new obstetrics and gynecology residency, which gained accreditation earlier this year, is also set to receive around $2 million. That residency is the first of its kind in the region. All three training programs are set to launch within the next three years.
According to industry analyst Becker’s Healthcare, Nevada’s patient-to-specialist ratio in 2022 was the third-worst in the nation. The state has only one specialist for every 3,300 residents.
📻 A year ago, President Trump drove a conservative backlash against NPR and PBS straight to Capitol Hill, where Congress stripped public radio and television stations of nearly all federal funding. When his signature turned that bill into law, Trump ended nearly six decades of bipartisan support for funding public media.
Since then, more than 500 public media staffers have been laid off, according to a tally by SemiPublic. And yet station officials across the country have reacted with a sense of urgency, hope and anxiety.
Urgency because change is being forced upon them. Hope because listeners, viewers and philanthropists stepped up.
“All of this exists because of viewers like you,” PBS CEO Paula Kerger said at an event at the Chautauqua Institution this summer. “We have said this on the air for many, many years. And I think, until this year, people didn’t quite fully realize what that means.”
Anxiety because station executives do not know how long that support will last. NPR’s David Folkenflik looked at how stations around the country have navigated these challenges. You can hear that story here.
⚾ The Vegas-bound Athletics have confirmed details of their latest investor. The team announced on July 26 that Team61, a Korean consortium, has invested $55 million. They plan to invest another $15 million after approval from Major League Baseball. The consortium is the first-ever Korean-based group to become part of the ownership of an MLB team.
Team61 is headed by Chan Ho Park, who became the first Korean MLB player in 1994. It also includes “The Hangover” actor Ken Jeong and Daniel Dae Kim, who starred in the TV series “Lost.” Park will also serve as a senior adviser to the A’s primary owner, John Fisher, and will help develop Korean players for the team.
Last week, it was announced that a private equity firm led by entrepreneur Mark Cuban had invested an undisclosed amount in the A’s. Fisher told The New York Times recently that the team has paused finding new investors for now.
Part of these stories are taken from KNPR's daily newscast segment. To hear more daily updates like these, tune in to 88.9 KNPR FM.
