News from around the nation.

The Justice Department seeks to halt the counting of thousands of California mail-in ballots, New York lawmakers move to permanently ban traveling animal acts, and Meta runs hundreds of ads containing child sexual abuse material.

Transcript

The Public News Service Friday afternoon update.

I'm Joe Ulori.

The Justice Department is asking a federal appeals court to stop California from counting mail-in ballots tied to more than 20,000 voters the Trump administration says are likely non-citizens.

The administration wants their citizenship verified before the ballots are counted.

A federal judge has not yet ruled on the request and has scheduled a hearing next week.

A New York state bill would permanently end traveling animal acts.

The legislation would end the use of bears, large cats, non-human primates, and other wild animals in traveling acts.

Several parts of the state, like New York City and Westchester and Suffolk County, have bans on these kinds of acts.

Opponents of the bill argue these displays promote conservation.

But Brian Shapiro with The Humane World of Animals says that's an antiquated notion.

Decades ago, we did not have the knowledge and understanding the complex nature of these animals. understanding their inherent value in the world by them just existing and supporting real conservation.

A 2026 poll about the bill shows most New Yorkers view these acts as entertainment, not education.

The state legislature approved the bill with bipartisan support, though it's been considered in every legislative session since 2017.

Shapiro notes that's due to laws taking a long time to pass in New York, not a lack of support.

The bill now awaits either a signature or veto from Governor Kathy Hochul.

I'm Edwin J. Viera.

Meta ran more than 330 paid ads containing AI-generated or real child sexual abuse material, according to the non-profit Tech Transparency Project.

The ads appeared on Facebook and Instagram for more than 10 months and reached at least 29,000 accounts worldwide.

Executive Director Katie Paul says Meta claims ads are reviewed before they run, but these still made it through.

Each of them generate billions of dollars in advertising revenue a year for Meta, so much so that the company whitelists them and lets these advertisers get a pass on otherwise violating content that you or I would not be able to upload as an ad.

Advocates for Equity in Education are speaking out after San Francisco Unified School District decided to rezone its schools.

The district plans to replace the current school choice lottery system with a guarantee that kids will be offered a spot at a neighborhood school starting in the fall of 2028.

Rachel Jones, Youth Justice Director with the nonprofit Coleman Advocates, says families are worried that schools in low-income areas will end up closing in the next three to five years.

And that's why Coleman and students and families showed up with pacifiers, because we're not going to be pacified.

We know that this plan is centered around school closures.

We know that it's not centered for equitable schools.

Jones says right now, many families in SFUSD have given up on local public schools and are sending their kids to publicly funded charter schools instead.

I'm Suzanne Potter.

This is Public News Service.

North Carolina ranks last in the country for workers, according to a new report from Oxfam.

The group scores states on wages, worker protections, and the right to organize.

North Carolina received fewer than five points out of 100, even as the state ranks second nationally for business.

Claremont Ripley with the North Carolina Justice Center says weak labor protections are part of what makes the state attractive to some employers.

Some people in power and with influence in North Carolina believe that it is important to limit protections for working people, to basically offer the bare minimum because that seems attractive to business.

Ripley says North Carolina could strengthen worker protections without sacrificing its business climate.

She points to Virginia, which has a higher minimum wage and paid family and medical leave, while ranking third nationally for business.

Critics argue those policies can increase costs for small businesses.

The U.S. Space Force is scrambling to find new ways to launch military satellites as SpaceX phases out its Falcon 9 rocket.

SpaceX plans to shift to its larger Starship system, but many military satellites were not designed for it.

Other rocket companies have faced delays, leaving the Pentagon with fewer launch options.

SpaceX handled about 85% of U.S. launches last year.

Rural fire departments across Indiana are increasingly concerned about finding enough people willing to volunteer.

For generations, many small communities have relied on neighbors to answer the page and leave home or work to respond to fires, crashes, and medical emergencies.

But fire officials say that pool of volunteers is getting harder to maintain.

Daleville Fire Chief Glenn Tomlinson says the demands do not stop when the emergency is over.

There's virtually no pay.

There's long nights.

You know, there's a lot of events where they'll come in here and be in here all night long and then go right to work the next morning.

That makes recruitment difficult, especially as departments compete with full-time jobs, family responsibilities, and other demands on people's time.

The future of Washington's gray wolf is promising, with population numbers surging following near eradication in the 1930s due to predator control programs.

The first modern resident pack was documented in Okanagan County in 2008.

By last year, the estimated population reached its highest level since record-keeping began.

This is National Wolf Awareness Week, which Katie Schneider with Defenders of Wildlife says is a time to educate the public about wolf ecology and their vital role as keystone predators.

A chance to get more curious about what's really going on.

Where have we come?

Where do we still need to go to really see wolves be recovered?

According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the state's gray wolf population has rebounded to a minimum of 270 across 49 packs and 23 breeding pairs.

I'm Roz Brown.

This is Joe Ulori for Public News Service, member and listener supported.

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