State Highlights: Maryland Passes Bill Dodging Trump Family-Planning Rule; U.S. Lawmakers Probe Neglect At Oregon Homes For Disabled

The Associated Press: Maryland Passes Countermeasure To Trump Family-Planning Rule
In a countermeasure to a proposed Trump administration rule, Maryland would become the first state to stop participating in a federal family planning program known as Title X, under a bill that received final approval Wednesday in the Maryland General Assembly. The Maryland Senate voted 28-16 for the measure, sending the bill to Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, whose spokesman said the governor would review the bill before deciding whether to sign it. (4/3)

The Oregonian: U.S. Senate Launches Investigation Of Oregon Homes For People With Disabilities 
The U.S. Senate has launched an investigation into a national corporation’s homes for people with disabilities in response to a report in The Oregonian/OregonLive about substantiated abuse at one of the company’s Oregon facilities. The newsroom reported in January that Oregon regulators shuttered a Mentor Network home in Curry County following extensive evidence that a client had been severely neglected. State regulators found that managers repeatedly ignored caregivers’ concerns about the disabled person’s festering pressure wound, including that it smelled of “rotting flesh.” (Zarkhin, 4/3)

The Associated Press: 'Healthy Holly', Once Lucrative, Now Bane Of Baltimore Mayor 
"Healthy Holly" is a polite African American girl with devoted parents and a curious little brother. She loves exercise. She craves fresh fruit and vegetables. And she's now the bane of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh's existence. Since the state prosecutor's office began a criminal investigation into Pugh at the Maryland governor's request earlier this week, there's been a growing tide of examinations spurred by revelations that she was paid some $700,000 over roughly eight years for her self-published paperback series about the fictional "Healthy Holly." (4/3)

Health News Florida: New Surgeon General Faced Harassment Allegations
A doctor tapped by Gov. Ron DeSantis to become the state’s surgeon general has been embroiled in legal squabbles and investigations while working at the University of Florida. Scott Rivkees has been the subject of a university sexual harassment investigation, was found by a university auditor to have not properly filed financial-disclosure information and has sued a one-time colleague for libel and slander. (Sexton, 4/3)

Sacramento Bee: New California Surgeon General Launches Listening Tour In Capital
California’s new surgeon general made Sacramento the first stop on her statewide listening tour, and after Tuesday’s event, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris told The Bee that capital residents are powerfully grappling with the long-term impact childhood trauma has on their families and neighborhoods. Burke Harris said many of the 100 Sacramento-area residents she met with asked her to find ways to bring training, resources and support to families, educators, nonprofits and other community-based organizations, so they can better deal with the toxic stress that affects physical and neuro-development starting in childhood. (Anderson, 4/3)

Sacramento Bee: CA Baby Sex Surgery Bill: LGBT Groups Support, Doctors Oppose
Who should get to decide what to do when a baby is born with atypical genitals? That’s the question lawmakers are grappling with as they consider a measure that would ban doctors from performing genital-altering surgeries on infants unless deemed medically necessary. (Sheeler, 4/4)

Boston Globe: Six Years After Sandy Hook, Traumatic Grief Still Grips Newtown Every Day
In Newtown — maybe more than anyplace else in the country — the persistence of traumatic grief is widely recognized, a reality woven into the fabric of everyday life. That reality engulfed the town again last week, with the devastating news that Dr. Jeremy Richman had died by suicide. (Russell, 4/3)

CALmatters: Beyond The Tampon Tax: How Far Will California Go To End 'Menstrual Inequity'?
Annie Wang remembers the panic she felt being a freshman in a 500-person chemistry class at UC Davis when her period arrived and she didn’t have a tampon or pad. There was nowhere nearby to go, and leaving to find something meant missing the class. So she tried to focus on the lecture instead. “I stayed in my seat and prayed it would not be too bad. When I got up I had left a mark on UC Davis in a very bold way,” she said. “It was a very embarrassing moment for me.” (Aguilera, 4/3)

Modern Healthcare: Health Quest And Western Connecticut Health Network Are Now Nuvance Health
Health Quest and Western Connecticut Health Network have sealed their union to form what's now known as Nuvance Health. A little more than a year after first announcing the proposed deal, the two systems, based in LaGrangeville, N.Y., and Danbury, Conn., said they have received the necessary federal and state approvals and support from patients, donors and business and community leaders. (Bannow, 4/3)

New Hampshire Public Radio: N.H. Legislature Considers Bill To Mandate Suicide Prevention Training In Schools
A bill before the New Hampshire Legislature this session would require all school districts to provide suicide prevention training to faculty, staff, and volunteers. The bill has already passed the Senate and will move onto the House next week. (Cohen and Biello, 4/3)

MPR: Minnesota Tightens Rules On 'Forever' Chemical In Drinking Water
Minnesota health officials are adjusting acceptable levels for two troublesome pollutants found in drinking water supplies in the east Twin Cities metro area, based on new scientific data. The chemicals are part of a family of compounds known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, found in products ranging from nonstick cookware to firefighting foam. (Marohn, 4/3)

California Healthline: Popular Weed Killer’s Alleged Link To Cancer Spreads Concern
Clumps of dandelions have popped up in your yard, so you reach for a bottle of Roundup, the popular weed killer. It is known for being very effective, but its main ingredient, glyphosate, is getting a lot of attention because of lawsuits alleging links to cancer. Last week, a federal jury ordered Monsanto, the maker of Roundup, to pay $80 million to a 70-year-old man with cancer who had used it for three decades on his 56 acres in Sonoma County, Calif. The jury found that Roundup was a “substantial factor” in his illness. Bayer AG, which bought Monsanto last year, said it would appeal the decision. (Cone, 4/3)

The New York Times: A Robotics Team Built A Toddler A Wheelchair. Now He’s Chasing His Corgis Around.
It took Rogue Robotics to get Cillian Jackson his wheels. At an age when most children are careening across the living room, 2-year-old Cillian was stuck, held back by a genetic condition that delays his physical and cognitive development and a Catch-22 requirement from his family’s insurance provider. Then a tip from Cillian’s physical therapist led his parents, Krissy and Tyler Jackson, who live in Farmington, Minn., to a website that provided a model for retrofitting toy cars to give mobility to children with disabilities. (Malkin, 4/3)

Des Moines Register: Sen. Chuck Grassley Launches Congressional Inquiry Of MENTOR Network, REM Iowa
A congressional committee launched an inquiry into a company named in multiple Iowa cases where abuse or neglect of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities is alleged. The MENTOR Network — specifically its subsidiaries REM Iowa and Mentor Oregon — were asked this week by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee for copies of previous or ongoing investigations in cases regarding suspected abuse. (Clayworth, 4/3)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Plans Underway To Launch Successful “HUB” Model To Combat Infant Mortality In Cleveland
Plans are underway to bring a successful “pay for performance” model called Pathways Community HUB to Cleveland to help combat infant mortality, according to the nonprofit healthcare improvement organization, Better Health Partnership. The organization is working with the city-county infant mortality coalition, First Year Cleveland, as well as other local public health agencies, to design a HUB for the city, Better Health Partnership said in its March newsletter. (Zeltner, 4/3)

KCUR: Kansas Mother Says There's 'No Other Option' To Save Her Daughter Beyond THC-Infused Oil 
She already has had to bury her 17-year-old daughter Claire. Gwen Hartley's mission now is to have Kansas lawmakers help save the life of her 12-year-old daughter Lola. Lola has up to 30 seizures a day due to spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, one of several conditions she suffers from. Hartley wants to try treating her with a cannabidiol (CBD) oil that contains tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, which is not legal in the state of Kansas. (Ruiz, 3/4)

Columbus Dispatch: Report: Ohio Still Lags Most States In Health Outcomes
An analysis released Wednesday that looks at more than 100 statistics related to health outcomes and health-care spending ranks Ohio 46th, the same as two years ago. The 2019 Heath Value Dashboard from the Health Policy Institute of Ohio, which compares Ohio with the 49 other states and the District of Columbia, follows similar dashboards released in 2017 and in 2014, when the state ranked 47th. (Viviano, 4/3)

The Washington Post: Maryland Legislature Agrees To Raise Minimum Smoking Age To 21
Spurred by a sharp rise in teen use of e-cigarettes, the Maryland legislature voted Wednesday to raise the legal age to buy tobacco from 18 to 21. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has not said whether he will sign the bill, which exempts members of the military. The proposed law is one of several similar measures advancing across the country this year and comes as the Food and Drug Administration has taken steps to crack down on flavored cigars and vaping cartridges popular with young people. Outgoing FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has said teen vaping use nationwide has become “an epidemic.” (Cox, 4/3)

Texas Tribune: Texas Banning Chaplains From Execution Chamber
New execution procedures signed Tuesday say that chaplains and ministers may "observe the execution only from the witness rooms." Currently, friends and family of the murder victims and prisoners, as well as media, are allowed to watch executions through a glass window in small rooms adjacent to the death chamber. (McCullough and Byrne, 4/3)

The Associated Press: Company Will Keep Using Toxic Chemical At Wisconsin Refinery
Husky Energy says it will invest more than $400 million to rebuild its oil refinery in Superior, Wisconsin, and continue its use of a highly toxic chemical that raised fears in the community of 27,000 after an explosion at the refinery last April. The blast injured 36 people and required the evacuation of much of Superior due in large part to the presence of hydrogen fluoride, which can be hazardous to human health. The tank containing the chemical was not damaged by the explosion. (4/3)