News from around the nation.

Republicans and Democrats make their closing arguments with control of Congress at stake, residents demand the release of immigrants detained by ICE in Massachusetts and call for more support for impacted families,and lawmakers push for expanded solar tax credits to boost rooftop installations in the West.

Transcript

The Public News Service Wednesday afternoon update.

I'm Joe Ulori.

With the midterm election six days away, Republicans and Democrats are making their closing arguments as control of Congress hangs in the balance.

Voters continue to rank the cost of living among their biggest concerns, while Trump's approval rating sits at 32 percent in the latest Reuters Ipsos poll.

Massachusetts residents on the South Coast are calling for the release of immigrants detained by ICE in September and for state and local officials to offer impacted families greater support.

Our Catherine Carley reports.

Federal agents say they arrested 82 people during a targeted three-day operation in New Bedford, Fall River, and Taunton, but only identified seven men with criminal backgrounds.

Maroney Minter with the Massachusetts Immigrant and Advocacy Coalition says innocent people are being taken, including the mother of a U.S. Army captain.

We are hearing many stories of folks who have been here for many years and yes, who have working permits being targeted because of what they look like.

Community advocates say municipal leaders should refuse to cooperate with ICE and actively obstruct what they refer to as the agency's lawlessness.

The state's entire congressional delegation has requested an inspection of the ICE field office in Burlington to address concerns about the treatment of detainees.

Support for this reporting was provided by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation, formerly Carnegie Corporation of New York.

New Mexico remains a major fossil fuel producer, but renewable energy is growing quickly.

State Senator Mimi Stewart has pushed clean energy legislation for decades, including the 2019 Energy Transition Act.

She also put solar panels on her home and says she wants to make it easier for more New Mexicans to do the same. 10% of our rooftops have solar now in New Mexico, but I want to double and triple that.

So we're going to continue with trying to put in these tax credits again.

Wynn now accounts for roughly 45 percent of the state's generating capacity, helped by the new Sunzeo Wynn project.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine says the state's police officers will receive new training on how to respond to domestic violence and more accurately determine a survivor's risk for future incidents.

In addition, one million dollars in funding will be provided to shelters across the state.

The announcement comes as a new report shows that between 2025 and 2026, the number of such fatalities in Ohio reached a record high.

Maria York with the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, the group that released the annual report, says nearly half of survivors currently in shelters are children.

So we know that Ohio's kids are witnessing acts of violence horrifically.

They're witnessing their parent being murdered in front of them too.

The report also found the share of victims who were trying to leave the relationship or in the process of doing so has nearly doubled since 2024.

Last year, Ohio's statewide domestic violence coalition housed 9,500 survivors.

This is Nadia Ramlagan for Ohio News Connection.

This is Public News Service.

Imagine being too unhealthy to work but still being forced to out of necessity.

That's the dilemma facing a western Wisconsin family which says high out-of-pocket and changes to federal programs put more pressure on their budget.

Our Judith Rui's branch has the story.

Small business owners like Sarah Burns say it's now too difficult to find affordable coverage from ACA marketplace plans.

Her husband Rick, who has bipolar disorder and a history of suicide attempts, returned to work full-time, largely because the family needed health insurance after recently losing their BadgerCare coverage.

I don't think Rick would have taken a job if we didn't have to worry about health insurance.

She worries the demands of full-time work could undermine her husband's recovery after a previous mental health crisis forced him to leave his job.

Their tough choices coincide with pending Medicaid work requirements under a major federal policy law adopted by Republicans.

Significant spending cuts are forecast in the coming years.

Supporters say the changes reduce unnecessary spending and strengthen program accountability, but health care advocates warn higher costs will leave more people uninsured.

Seniors in Mississippi have the opportunity to make changes to their Medicare coverage plans right now.

Open enrollment runs until December 7th and recipients can change how they get coverage, switch drug plans, or adjust their Medicare Advantage plan.

Melinda Bertucci with AARP Mississippi says seniors should consider the four C's when making changes.

Those are coverage, cost, convenience, and customer service.

Medicare health and prescription drug plans are rated and how they perform in different categories such as responsiveness and care, member complaints, and customer service.

She adds many Medicare recipients simply let their coverage roll over from one year to the next and they could be paying too much or missing out on additional benefits.

Enthusiasm is growing among private landowners in Oregon to bring back the practice of prescribed burns thanks in part to the work of prescribed burns associations.

The associations are networks of landowners, community groups, and forest agencies that work together to make burning more accessible.

Micah Schmidt is a fire specialist with Oregon State University and helped establish the Northeast Oregon Prescribed Burn Association.

He says PBAs help landowners overcome barriers that make prescribed burning difficult.

We've got people really excited across the region to either burn on their land or to come help someone else burn.

It's hard for landowners to implement a burn of meaningful size on their own, and so it's a way to build collective capacity, build community ownership, and put fire back in the hands of the people.

Schmidt says most people burn their land to reduce wildfire risk.

Oregon land is adapted to burn every 5 to 20 years, and fire also controls invasive species and promotes wildlife habitat.

After Europeans colonized the area in the 19th century, Oregon largely banned controlled burns that Native Americans had practiced for millennia.

I'm Isobel Charle.

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

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