News from around the nation.

Trump-backed Biggs wins Arizona Republican gubernatorial nomination; South Texas flood survivors frustrated by lack of action; Washington joins lawsuit over federal school counselor cuts; Ohio injection well operations stop after suspected leaks.

Transcript

The Public News Service Wednesday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

In Arizona, primary action Tuesday, House Freedom Caucus member Andy Biggs won the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

He had the backing of President Trump.

Biggs has endorsed the president's false claims about fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Yahoo News notes Democrats had their own high-profile House primary in Arizona's 4th District, where the incumbent Greg Stanton faced a significant primary challenge from the left.

He overcame progressive community organizer Kirk Newkirk, who had accused Stanton of failing to meet the moment during Trump's second term, particularly when it comes to the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

Meantime, as residents of Texas Hill Country try to clean up after last week's floods, many of them are also asking themselves what's next.

Two people were killed in nearly 600 homes and 100 businesses were damaged or destroyed across Kerr, Kendall and Comble counties.

The flooding occurred just a little over a year after floodwaters killed 135 people in the same area.

Kylie Nidover, with Extreme Weather Survivors, grew up in Hunt and says this type of flooding just isn't normal.

Flooding has always been a fact of life, but no one's home had ever flooded.

So now all of a sudden it's happened twice, and is it going to keep happening?

Texas Governor Greg Abbott says although the rain has stopped, flooding downstream remains a concern for some counties.

I'm Freda Ross reporting.

And attorneys general in 15 states, including Washington, are suing the Trump administration for canceling a program designed to help districts hire and train more school-based mental health professionals.

The lawsuit argues cutting the funding is unlawful and would harm students dealing with issues like loneliness, substance abuse, and fear of violence.

Lauren Mendez with the Washington School Counselor Association says rural and high-need school districts in the state have been struggling to recruit a mental health workforce.

These types of cuts typically impact our students who do not have access to private insurance, who have Medicaid.

School-based supports are often the most accessible source to each and every student.

The Trump administration argues the program conflicts with its policy at prioritizing merit and fairness in education.

I'm Isobel Charle.

Next to Ohio, where the owners of several injection wells in Washington County voluntarily agreed to stop using them after state officials warned they could be leaking, injection wells are used to pump toxic fluid waste from fracking deep into the earth as a disposal method.

The problem, says David Jeffrey, a petroleum geologist and professor of geology at Marietta College, is that the waste can migrate thousands of feet while underground, potentially spreading for miles.

We do have places where fluids that are the toxic injection fluids from the fracking erupting on the surface around wellhead.

He believes Ohio counties need stronger regulation and data transparency.

This is Public News Service.

Geo Group, a private company that operates immigrant detention centers, is set to expand its holding capacity in Colorado after signing a $529 million contract with ICE to open a new center just north of the Denver International Airport.

The move comes as Geo continues to deny health officials access to determine the extent of a tuberculosis outbreak reported in its Aurora facility.

Makila Goring with the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, which represents detained individuals, says Gio's mandate to create profit for shareholders is fundamentally at odds with the health and well-being of people being held.

Costs are cut in terms of the medical care that's provided to individuals and in terms of the provision of food and services.

You simply are not running a facility in the way that it would be run if profit wasn't the number one motive.

GEO told the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment by email that there were no active cases of tuberculosis, a highly contagious and potentially life-threatening disease, in its Aurora Center.

I'm Eric Galatas.

And a new analysis by KFF Health News and The Trace found that uninsured patients in Florida who are hospitalized for a gunshot wound spend significantly fewer days in the hospital than those with health insurance.

Analysts say uninsured victims stayed an average of about six days, only three quarters the time of patients with private insurance.

Aaliyah Bates is a survivor who was shot seven times in 2019 while delivering food.

She had no insurance and says she was discharged after just four days from Tallahassee Memorial Health Care.

They were pushing for me to leave on the second day.

I guess essentially once they stabilize you, that's really their only responsibility is to stabilize you and make sure you're going to live.

After that, they don't really have an obligation to keep you there once you're stabilized, especially if you don't have insurance.

This story was produced with original reporting from Daniel Chang, Fred Klassen-Kelly, and Olga Pierce.

The Trace for KFF Health News.

I'm Tramiel Gomes.

Finally, to Texas, where renewable energy developers hope to see new statewide rules for where and how projects are built.

A new report from Environment Texas Research and Policy Center says Texas needs to keep expanding wind, solar, and battery storage, while also protecting wildlife, water, air, and land.

The center's Luke Metzger says the state has become a clean energy powerhouse, but still fights an uphill battle against conservative lawmakers, fossil fuel advocates, and donor-backed think tanks.

As Texas has become the national leader in wind and solar and increasingly batteries, and the boom is getting bigger and bigger, we're starting to see some pushback on that development.

Political.

I'm Mark Richardson.

This is my Clifford Ford Public News Service.

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