Court Tosses Flint Water Charges Against Former Governor, Others

AP: Court Kills Flint Water Charges Against Ex-Governor, Others 
The Michigan Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out charges against former Gov. Rick Snyder and others in the Flint water scandal, saying a judge sitting as a one-person grand jury had no power to issue indictments under rarely used state laws. It’s an astonishing defeat for Attorney General Dana Nessel, who took office in 2019, got rid of a special prosecutor and put together a new team to investigate whether crimes were committed when lead contaminated Flint’s water system in 2014-15. (White, 6/28)

In other environmental health news —

Stat: In Boston Homes, Potentially Harmful Compounds Leak From Stovetops
Natural gas — just by nature of being the most common residential energy source in the U.S. — has the sheen of being a relatively safe and clean kind of power. But increasingly, researchers are concerned we don’t have a firm enough handle on its potential health effects. Research suggests somewhere around 1% of natural gas — which is mostly methane — wafts out of stovetops unburned and untouched. Cooking or heating with natural gas also releases potentially toxic compounds into the air. A new study, published Tuesday in Environmental Science & Technology, underscores the scope of those concerns: In natural gas samples collected from 69 homes in the Boston area, researchers detected 21 federally-regulated hazardous air pollutants. (Chen, 6/28)

And more health news from across the U.S. —

The CT Mirror: Lamont Extends Public Health Emergency To Ensure Extra SNAP Funds
Gov. Ned Lamont announced Tuesday that he has signed a public health emergency declaration that will allow the state to continue to receive supplemental support from the federal government. The declaration means the state will continue to receive an extra $34 million through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program every month, said Deirdre Gifford, commissioner of the Department of Social Services. Gifford said the state has distributed about $748 million to SNAP recipients. The support will continue until Dec. 15, unless the federal government decides to end the program before that. (Bravo, 6/28)

Wyoming Public Radio: New Mexico To Join Other Mountain West States With Paid Sick Leave
On July 1, New Mexico will join a handful of other Mountain West states that require paid sick leave. Throughout the region, Colorado and Arizona already have paid sick leave; Nevada has a broader paid leave law. “Ultimately, what I would love to see is with enough state action that we would get something passed on a federal level, some federal protections, like we saw for the pandemic. It’s possible,” said Miles Tokunow, deputy director of OLÉ in New Mexico. The nonprofit advocates for issues impacting working families. The New Mexico law says employees of private businesses can accrue at least one hour of paid sick leave per 30 hours worked, or 64 hours of earned sick leave per year. (Gibson, 6/28)

North Carolina Health News: Yet Another Attempt To Expand Medicaid In NC 
For all those waiting with bated breath to find out whether Medicaid will be expanded to nearly 600,000 more North Carolinians, take a pause. Republicans in the state House of Representatives are not ready to embrace the policy whole hog. Instead, there will be one more study and more planning, while the lawmakers campaign for elections in November. The proposal to create a legislative committee with members from both chambers that will hear a Medicaid Modernization Plan to be developed by the state Department of Health and Human Services comes out of negotiations between state House and Senate leaders over a spending plan for the coming fiscal year. This committee comes on the heels of another, different, study committee that met six times from February to April of this year. (Blythe, 6/29)

The CT Mirror: Report: Insuring CT Undocumented Residents Could Cost, And Save, Millions
For Patricia Rosas and other undocumented residents without health insurance, going to a doctor is an expensive last resort. So, in the fall of 2019, after Rosas had been feeling an unfamiliar pain in her side for over a year, friends helped to raise $5,000 simply to get a diagnosis. “My concern is, what if I didn’t know all those people?” Rosas said. “My story is thousands of people’s stories.” A new study from the RAND corporation, though, suggests that extending HUSKY health coverage to all undocumented residents in Connecticut would cost 3% of the state’s annual Medicaid budget, putting quality health care within reach for more than 21,000 additional people. (Golvala and Kim, 6/29)

Houston Chronicle: Texas Puts $100 Million Into School Safety, Mental Health After Uvalde Massacre
Texas leaders directed more than $100 million to school safety initiatives and mental health services on Tuesday, about a month after a teenage gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at a Uvalde elementary school. The funds include $50 million for bulletproof shields for school police officers and $17 million for school districts to purchase silent panic alarms. The allocation marks legislators’ most direct response to the Uvalde shooting yet, as Gov. Greg Abbott has so far declined to call a special legislative session that would immediately bring lawmakers back to Austin to discuss appropriations and other legislative responses. (Harris, 6/28)

The Washington Post: D.C. Council Allows Adults Over 21 Easier Access To Medical Marijuana 
D.C. residents who are 21 and older will soon be able to self-certify their eligibility for medical marijuana under a proposal passed by the D.C. Council on Tuesday, which also approved measures allowing some minors to get certain vaccines without their parents’ consent and another bill to give residents at risk of foreclosure more time to access new funds. (Brice-Saddler, 6/28)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Supervisor Calls For Overdose Prevention Plan As City Prepares To Close Controversial Tenderloin Center
A San Francisco supervisor is pushing for the city to develop an overdose prevention plan in the wake of Mayor London Breed’s decision to close at year’s end the controversial Tenderloin Center — a city-run site meant to link people on the street to drug treatment, among other services. Officials allow visitors to use drugs at the site, and city and nonprofit workers have reversed more than 100 overdoses at the facility at U.N. Plaza. Supervisor Dean Preston aims to keep the center’s programs running, or find a suitable replacement. The hearing he requested would go before the Government Audit and Oversight Committee, which Preston chairs. (Swan, 6/28)

Also —

Kansas City Star: Missouri State Lawmaker Convicted In Medical Fraud Scheme
A federal trial jury on Tuesday convicted Missouri state Rep. Tricia Derges of multiple fraud charges, including making false claims about fake stem cell treatments at her medical clinics in southwest Missouri. Bookending a two-week trial in Springfield, Derges, a Nixa Republican, was convicted of 22 counts of wire fraud, illegal distribution of Oxycodone and Adderall and making false statements to investigators, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Derges held the unusual license of assistant physician at several medical clinics across southern Missouri. She was elected to the Missouri General Assembly in November 2020 and represents Christian County. (Bayless, 6/28)