The United States’ first 24/7 television channel for indigenous people has begun airing on a handful of public television stations across the country. The channel’s launch was limited, as producing station KVCR in San Bernardino, Calif., seeks a national distribution deal and additional funding. In addition to KVCR, FNX: First Nations Experience is carried by KEET in Eureka, Calif., LPTV in Bemidji, Minn., and Navajo Nation TV-5, which covers parts of New Mexico and Arizona. Chicago’s WYCC and Oklahoma’s CATV-47 plan to begin airing the channel soon. Meanwhile, technical difficulties with FNX equipment have delayed its launch on Wyoming PBS.

NPR rolled out Wednesday a leaner redesigned home page designed to scale easily to screens of all sizes. The change to the home page on NPR.org is the first redesign in four years and recognizes the growth in use of phones, tablets and other devices for consuming media. Gone are the previous design’s boxes, which divided up links to dozens of pages. The site now features a flowing main feed of top stories, accompanied by a second column with more links to news and multimedia elements. The top of the page highlights member stations, with the home station being co-branded with the option to change stations as well.

An award-winning 2011 NPR investigative series about Native American children in South Dakota’s foster-care system was seriously flawed and should not have aired, according to an 80-page report written by NPR’s ombudsman.

Public radio’s biggest fundraising group is offering an annual scholarship in honor of its recently deceased founder. Greater Public, formerly DEI, announced the Nate Shaw Scholarship during the 2013 Public Media Development and Marketing Conference (PMDMC) in July. The scholarship will be administered by YPpubmedia, the organization for young professionals in public media, and cover the cost for one individual to attend the annual conference. Shaw died May 29 at the age of 76. Throughout a career in public broadcasting, he helped develop new fundraising strategies for stations. Send tax-deductible contributions to DEI Scholarship Fund, 401 N. 3rd St., Suite 370, Minneapolis, MN 55401.

KCPT in Kansas City, Mo., is examining gun violence as a health-care epidemic in a live hourlong call-in show this week. “It’s one of those nagging issues that simply won’t go away,” Nick Haines, executive producer, said in a press release. “Why do we accept such an unacceptably high death toll in our inner city? It would be easy for us to ignore the problem as unfixable. But we feel obligated as a public TV station to spotlight the problem and make a concerted effort to seek answers.” Special Correspondent Sam Zeff will report on the city’s Aim4Peace program, which tracks violence, predicts where it may spread and then takes steps to prevent it.

Leaders of Kentucky’s public radio stations are considering how they might collaborate and consolidate operations, with a goal of cutting costs and boosting reporting on local and regional issues. Six of Kentucky’s seven public radio stations have enlisted Public Radio Capital to assess benefits of closer collaboration and to help advance the process if all agree to move ahead. Universities hold licenses to five of the stations and may need to join future negotiations as well. The state has some history of successful station mergers. In 1993, WUOL, licensed to the University of Louisville, and two stations operated by libraries merged under the auspices of the Public Radio Partnership, a newly formed community licensee.

The Digital Convergence Alliance, a master control centralcast hub in Jacksonville, Fla., that will serve more than 11 pubTV stations, should begin broadcasting in December, reports the Florida Times-Union. By the end of March 2014, all station streams should be up and running, WJCT President Michael Boylan told the newspaper. In June, CPB gave the alliance $7 million for the project.

Pacifica has laid off the entire news department of WBAI-FM and almost all paid staff effective Monday in an effort to keep the cash-strapped New York outlet solvent. Pacifica Interim Executive Director Summer Reese made the announcement on WBAI’s air Friday afternoon. Reese told listeners that she had arrived at the station by cab directly from negotiations with the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which represents WBAI staff. “We have not been able to fully recover  . . .  from many years of financial stress at this radio station,” Reese said. “And it’s with great sadness that I have to tell the WBAI listening audience here in New York and New Jersey and Connecticut that many of the voices that you have been listening to for many years will no longer be on the air as of next week.”

This item has been updated and reposted with additional information. Pacifica’s WBAI-FM is laying off its entire news department and almost all paid staff effective Monday as the cash-strapped New York outlet  fights to stay solvent. Pacifica interim executive director Summer Reese made the announcement on-air on Friday afternoon. Reese told the audience that she came to the station by cab directly from negotiations with the SAG-AFTRA union. “We have not been able to fully recover, not only from the hurricane, but from many years of financial stress at this radio station,” Reese said, on Friday. “And, it’s with great sadness that I have to tell the WBAI listening audience here in New York and New Jersey and Connecticut that many of the voices that you have been listening to for many years will no longer be on the air as of next week.”

PBS is commissioning a second scripted drama, Chief Programming Executive Beth Hoppe told Current at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour this week in Los Angeles. The latest script request is for a Civil War period piece, Hoppe said. “We’re really focusing on things that have historical accuracy and untold stories at their core, as we try to select what to bet on in the drama space,” she noted. “The Civil War is territory that PBS has a great track record for, so it’s a matter of finding that PBS twist.” She declined to discuss further details. In May, Variety reported that PBS had ordered a pilot script for Alta California, set in the 1800s and centering on an arranged marriage between two families, one Mexican-Californian and the other European American.

Citizen Koch, a documentary about the influence of money in politics, closed its 30-day Kickstarter campaign with more than double its initial fundraising goal.

PBS is the only broadcast network that is “dramatically up” in viewers 18 to 34 years old, as well as up in total viewers and holding steady in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic,  reports The Wrap, a digital news organization covering entertainment and media. Perhaps one explanation could be that PBS is putting as much content as possible online on YouTube, Netflix and Amazon. “It seems to act as a marketing tool for us to drive more television tune-in,” said Jason Seikin, PBS’s digital guru.