Celebratory Gunfire May Be Banned In Missouri After Parade Shooting
With the deadly shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade less than a week ago, the Republican-led Missouri House passed a bill to ban celebratory gunfire in cities. State Democrats are also pushing for stricter gun laws. Also in the news: San Francisco, New York, and elsewhere.
AP:
Missouri House Votes To Ban Celebratory Gunfire Days After Chiefs' Parade Shooting
Missouri’s Republican-led House on Monday passed a bill to ban celebratory gunfire in cities less than a week after a deadly shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade left some attending lawmakers hiding in bathrooms. Kansas City police have said the shooting appeared to stem from a dispute between several people and not celebratory gunfire. ... But the largely bipartisan-supported bill on celebratory gunfire represents a rare effort to regulate guns in a state with some of the most expansive laws on firearm ownership. (Ballentine, 2/20)
Kansas City Star:
Missouri Democrats Want Stricter Guns Laws After KC Shooting
Missouri House Democrats on Monday outlined a proposed state constitutional amendment that would allow Kansas City and other local governments to set stricter limits on guns following the mass shooting last week at the Chiefs Super Bowl victory rally. (Bayless, 2/19)
AP:
Louisiana Governor Urges Lawmakers To Pass Tough-On-Crime Legislation
As Louisiana’s crime-focused special legislative session kicked off Monday afternoon, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry urged the GOP-dominated Legislature to pass tough-on-crime policies, assuring lawmakers that he would sign the bills into law. Among the legislation on this short session’s agenda are proposals to expand methods to carry out death row executions, restrict parole eligibility, create harsher penalties for carjackings, allow concealed carry of firearms without a permit, give law enforcement officers “immunity from liability,” and lower the age of when someone charged with a felony can be tried as an adult to 17. (Cline, 2/20)
In other news from across the country —
San Francisco Chronicle:
Employee At S.F.’s Largest Drug Treatment Provider ODed At Work
An employee of San Francisco’s largest drug treatment provider, which is currently under investigation by the state, fatally overdosed while at work, according to nonprofit and city records. David Hamilton, who worked at a sober living facility run by HealthRight 360, overdosed on Oct. 4 at 214 Haight St. with fentanyl and cocaine in his system, according to records from the San Francisco Medical Examiner. Hamilton’s job was to dispense medications to clients in the facility. That included over-the-counter drugs like Ibuprofen to prescription drugs for health conditions, including opioid use disorder medications like Methadone — all of which are required to be turned over to staff when a client enters the facility. (Angst, 2/15)
AP:
New York Archdiocese Denounces Transgender Activist's Funeral Held At St. Patrick's Cathedral
The funeral of a renowned transgender activist in a New York cathedral elicited a denunciation of the event by a senior church official, who called the Mass a scandal within one of the preeminent houses of worship in U.S. Catholicism. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York condemned the funeral of Cecilia Gentili, which was held in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan and drew a large audience on Thursday. Gentili was known as a leading advocate for other transgender people, as well as sex workers and people with HIV. (Hannon, 2/19)
The New York Times:
Woman Arrested For DUI In Washington State Had A Brain Bleed
Driving home from work on the day her life changed forever, Nicole McClure could feel her feet tingling and her sense of direction faltering. Then she noticed colorful lights illuminating the early morning landscape.“Oh, pretty lights,” she remembers thinking, not realizing that a highway patrol car was coming up behind her. On what was supposed to be a simple drive home from her overnight job at Walmart near Olympia, Wash., Ms. McClure felt increasingly disoriented, and wound up crashing into two roundabouts before pulling over. (Baker, 2/18)
AP:
North Carolina Removes Children From A Nature Therapy Program's Care Amid A Probe Of A Boy's Death
North Carolina health officials said Friday that they are removing all children from the care of a nature-based therapy program nearly two weeks after the death of a 12-year-old New York boy. The Department of Health and Human Services said in a news release that while it cannot comment on specific details of its investigation of Trails Carolina, this action “needed to be taken to ensure the health and safety of the children.” Health officials declined to say how many children were involved, citing confidentiality rules, but Trails Carolina said later Friday that 18 children were forced to leave. (2/17)
The CT Mirror:
CT's Medicaid Reimbursement Rates Lower Than Peer States: Report
Connecticut’s Medicaid program pays providers less for specialist physician and behavioral health services compared to peer states, a report released by the Department of Social Services found. (Golvala, 2/19)
Minnesota Public Radio:
State Bill Would Mandate Insurance Coverage For Infertility
Lawmakers kicked off this year’s legislative session Monday. One bill that’s up for consideration would mandate insurance coverage for a spectrum of infertility treatments. (Crann and Bui, 2/16)
Also —
KFF Health News:
In California, Faceoff Between Major Insurer And Health System Shows Hazards Of Consolidation
For weeks, more than half a million Anthem Blue Cross enrollees who receive health care from the University of California were held in suspense. It wasn’t clear whether they would have to find new doctors or switch plans as the health system and one of its largest insurance partners struggled to reach agreement on a new contract. (Sciacca, 2/19)
