News from around the nation.

All three Mandami-backed candidates for Congress win in Tuesday’s Primary Election; Survivors of Texas extreme weather events seek support from lawmakers; Kentucky animal shelter rebuilds a year after tornadoes; Charlotte initiative aims to combat environmental injustice.

Transcript

The Public News Service Wednesday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

New York Mayor Zoran Bandami rolled the dice endorsing three progressive candidates for Congress, and he ran the table in Tuesday's primary voting.

The New York Times notes Bandami's candidates toppled a pair of incumbents backed by the city's political establishment, including major labor unions and the House Democratic leader.

Another candidate backed by the mayor won an open House seat, and a handful of Democratic Socialist challengers he supported were winning down the ballot.

Positions on Israel were a key factor.

At a victory party in Brooklyn, supporters chanted Free, Free Palestine and DSA.

Meantime, as the one-year anniversary of the deadly flooding at Camp Mystic in the Texas Hill Country approaches, stories of the flood are part of an exhibit in Washington, D.C.

Stalin's Summers, the next 250, is an immersive public art installation focusing on floods, fires, extreme heat, storms, and other disasters.

Kelly Raybon's son's Brock, who was at the time, and Brayden, who was nine, were attending camp when the floodwaters rose last year.

She says there were no policies in place to help them put their lives back together.

No one prepares you for how to talk to your kids after a near-death experience.

You literally pick your kid up from this devastating situation in which you never could have prepared for, and you walk away with no guidebook. 25 campers and two counselors were killed in the rising floodwaters.

I'm Freda Ross reporting.

And speaking of extreme weather, after tornadoes devastated western Kentucky communities last year, many pets were displaced or separated from their owners.

Arnadia Ramlagan explains now Hopkins County is building a new shelter large enough to house more than 100 dogs, thanks in part to a $50,000 grant from Humane World for Animals.

Hopkins County Humane Society Executive Director Doug Potenza says the funds will help offset the cost of a $120,000 facility currently in the works.

What we're doing now is an intake wait list, so as we have space available, we start working on that list to bring more animals in.

So we're always at max capacity at this current facility, but the community has been great in working with us and being very understanding in the whole situation.

The building will be much larger and more equipped to handle different types of animals.

And the City of Charlotte and environmental organizations are working to revitalize communities with clean energy infrastructure and other solutions to address pressing environmental issues.

Partnering with Clean Air and Sea and Soul Nation, the initiative asks residents of six corridors of opportunity about projects they'd like to see in their communities.

Kennedy Williams is with Clean Air and Sea.

People understand that we're in a climate crisis and I think that because of that they want to be able to equip their homes to be able to kind of be sustainable and be more green.

The Green Print Initiative aims to use community-based input to tackle environmental inequities across the city.

This is Public News Service.

Social Security trustees report payments for the program could be reduced by as much as 22% as early as 2032, leaving folks from Georgia who are retired uncertain.

Bill Sweeney with AARP says one in five Americans receive benefits, and it's the biggest source of income for people who can no longer work.

Sweeney cites recent polling showing that 8 in 10 people age 50 or older don't want lawmakers to cut Social Security in order to save it, like they did back in 1983.

Prices for everything are going up, and people are stretched so thin as to look at cutting Social Security even further.

What they need to do is shore up the finances without cutting the benefits that people have earned.

In Georgia, more than 1.9 million residents rely on Social Security, And the program keeps 515,000 elderly Georgians out of poverty.

Georgia does not tax Social Security benefits, making it more retirement-friendly than states that do.

Senator Bernie Sanders has reintroduced legislation that would expand benefits by $2,400 and make the program solvent for the next 75 years by removing the payroll tax cap.

I'm Tramiel Gomes.

And conservation advocates say America's national wildlife refugees deserve recognition as the U.S. prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary next week.

Congress established a National Wildlife Refuge System 60 years ago, which has grown to more than 570 sites.

Taylor Rush with Defenders of Wildlife says her passion for conservation began near Philadelphia at the John Hines National Wildlife Refuge, which she visited frequently.

She says as the Trump administration proposes changes to public land policies and rollback protections, it's important to preserve access to outdoor recreation and community connections to nature.

Animals and wildlife, they deserve to continue to exist and to be protected.

They have intrinsic value there and refuges in particular because they're established to protect wildlife.

Danielle Smith reporting.

And finally, as North Dakotans count down to the American 250th polling shows people across the country seem to be split on their outlook of the country as a whole.

A recent survey from the Public Religion Research Institute shows nearly 70 percent of Americans think the nation is in real danger of losing important democratic rights and freedoms.

Another poll from Pew Research Center shows people are divided on their optimism for the country's future.

Meg Bostrom with strategic advisory firm Topos said during a recent webinar that exhaustion has set in from political gridlock.

The people are disillusioned by the sense that the wealthy and powerful get to call all the shots.

But beneath that pessimism, there really is a persistent belief in America's highest ideals.

I'm Judith Ruiz Branch reporting.

This is Mike Clifford for Public News Service.

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