First Edition: August 7, 2019

Kaiser Health News: Doctors Argue Plans To Remedy Surprise Medical Bills Will ‘Shred’ The Safety Net
Chances are, you or someone you know has gotten a surprise medical bill. One in six Americans have received these unexpected and often high charges after getting medical care from a doctor or hospital that isn’t in their insurance network. It’s become a hot-button issue in Congress, and high-profile legislation has been introduced in both the House and Senate to make the medical providers and insurers address the billing question and take the consumers out of the dispute. That means doctor specialty groups, hospitals and insurers are among the stakeholders that could be financially affected by the outcome. (Bluth, 8/7)

Kaiser Health News: The New West: Smoke In The Sky, A Purifier At Home
When the Camp Fire began to rage in Paradise, Calif., last November, the owners of the family-run Collier Hardware store in nearby Chico faced a situation unlike any they’d seen. A business that might welcome 200 customers on an average day, Collier was suddenly dealing with five times that number — “and they all wanted the same thing,” co-owner Steve Lucena said. (Kreidler, 8/7)

Kaiser Health News: The Differences Between ‘Medicare For All’ And A Public Option
Kaiser Health News’ senior Washington correspondent, Julie Rovner, appears on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” to explain the differences between key health programs being touted by Democratic presidential candidates: “Medicare for All” and an optional government health plan, often called a public option. You can see the program here. (8/6)

Kaiser Health News: Watch: What Happened To That $500K Dialysis Bill
After Sovereign Valentine suffered kidney failure, he got a $540,842 bill for 14 weeks of out-of-network dialysis care. Here, he and his wife, Dr. Jessica Valentine, described their experience. Their Bill of the Month story was told by KHN, NPR and CBS. (8/6)

The Associated Press: Plan To Boost 'Red Flag' Gun Laws Gains Momentum In Congress
Despite frequent mass shootings, Congress has proven unable to pass substantial gun violence legislation, in large part because of resistance from Republicans. But a bipartisan proposal by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is gaining momentum following weekend mass shootings in Texas and Ohio. The still-emerging plan would create a federal grant program to encourage states to adopt "red flag" laws to take guns away from people believed to be a danger to themselves or others. (Daly, 8/6)

The New York Times: ‘Red Flag’ Gun Control Bills Pick Up Momentum With G.O.P. In Congress
Such “red flag” laws might not be as momentous — or controversial — as the now-expired assault weapons ban or the instant background check system, both of which were enacted in 1994 as part of President Bill Clinton’s sprawling crime bill. The House, under Democratic control, passed far more ambitious bills in February that would require background checks for all gun purchasers, including those on the internet or at gun shows, and extend waiting limits for would-be gun buyers flagged by the instant check system. But those bills have run into a blockade that Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, has erected for House bills he opposes. (Stolberg, 8/6)

The New York Times: What Are ‘Red Flag’ Gun Laws, And How Do They Work?
With one mass shooting after another in recent years, political leaders have debated how to take preventive action without trampling on constitutional rights. Some states have tried, and more have debated, enacting measures called red flag laws, which are intended to restrict potentially dangerous people rather than dangerous weapons. That approach is seen as more likely to attract bipartisan support than many other gun control proposals. Here is what you need to know about those laws. (Williams, 8/6)

The Washington Post: Even With ‘Red Flags’ In Their Youth, Mass Shooters Often Slip Through The Cracks
Connor Betts, 24, who shot and killed nine people in Dayton, Ohio, before police killed him, was a deeply troubled young man. He had a history of violence against girlfriends and fantasized about murder, keeping a “hit list” of people he wanted to target. High school classmates said that school officials were aware of his behavior years ago, and that as a freshman, he was missing from school for months after police one day took him from a school bus. (Sullivan, Strauss and Davies, 8/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Portrait Of Dayton Shooter: ‘Uncontrollable Urges’ And Violent Talk Couched As Jokes
Caitlyn Johnson dated Connor Betts for several months until she broke up with him in May because she found his interest in mass shooting and other behaviors disturbing, she said. “I started to get uneasy when he called me drunk and was talking about wanting to hurt people,” the 24-year-old college student said, adding that she urged him to get help but could only do so much. Early Sunday morning, Betts killed nine people including his own 22-year-old sister, and injured more than two dozen others in a 30-second burst of gunfire before he was killed by police. (Maher, 8/6)

Politico: Dems Pressure Congressional Leaders To Act On Gun Control And White Supremacy
House Democrats are demanding Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell immediately return to Washington so the Senate can vote on gun control legislation in the wake of two deadly mass shootings over the weekend that left at least 31 people dead. The move comes as a separate group of Democrats, led by Reps. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) and Veronica Escobar (D-Texas.), urged Congress to work on legislation to combat domestic terrorism — and suggested in a letter that Speaker Nancy Pelosi also cut recess short for House members. (Caygle and Ferris, 8/6)

Politico: Emotional Rob Portman Decries White Supremacy And Urges Support For Red Flag Laws
A shaken Sen. Rob Portman on Tuesday spoke out against white nationalism and expressed support for red flag laws, after horrific mass shootings over the weekend in Texas and his home state of Ohio. The Republican's endorsement of limited gun control comes one day after President Donald Trump called for such laws, which allow police and family members to block access to firearms for people who are an imminent threat to others or themselves. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Monday he would introduce legislation to encourage more states to adopt red flag laws. (Levine, 8/60)

The Washington Post: GOP Rep. Michael R. Turner Of Dayton Backs Assault-Weapon Ban, Magazine Limits
Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio), whose congressional district includes Dayton, where nine people were killed in a mass shooting over the weekend, endorsed a ban on military-style weapons Tuesday, going further than many of his GOP colleagues on stricter gun laws. The mass shooting, which came some 13 hours after the deadly shooting in El Paso, was personal for Turner, not only because it occurred in his district, but also because his daughter and a family friend were at a bar across the street from where the shooting began. (Itkowitz, 8/6)

The New York Times: A Long, Frustrated Push For Background Checks On Gun Sales
More than a half-century ago, the assassinations of a president, a senator and the nation’s foremost civil rights leader led to the passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968, a landmark measure that restricted some gun sales. But President Lyndon B. Johnson was not happy. He had wanted to require a registry for all guns and licenses for gun owners. (Hakim and McIntire, 8/6)

The Washington Post: Renewed Calls For Gun Control After Dual Massacres Test A Deeply Divided NRA
Fresh calls for gun control following massacres in two U.S. cities over the weekend are testing the resilience of the National Rifle Association at a time when the nation’s largest gun lobby is riven by leadership clashes and allegations of reckless spending. The NRA, which has blocked proposed restrictions after past mass shootings, including at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., has lost key veterans in recent months, including lobbyist Christopher Cox, who back-channeled with the White House and lawmakers during previous political crises. (Reinhard, 8/6)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Trump Distorting His Record On Gun Control
President Donald Trump is distorting his record when it comes to gun control. Speaking out this week against two mass shootings in Ohio and Texas, Trump asserted that his accomplishments in stemming gun violence stand out compared with previous presidents. He also suggested an unwavering commitment to improving mental health treatment. (Pane and Alonso-Zaldivar, 8/6)

Politico: Trump Quietly Used Regulations To Expand Gun Access
President Donald Trump this week said his administration has done “much more than most” to help curb mass shootings in the United States. While Trump boasts of action on firearms, his administration has actually eased gun restrictions over the past two and a half years. Federal agencies have implemented more than half a dozen policy changes — primarily through little-noticed regulatory moves — that expand access to guns by lifting firearms bans in certain locations and limiting the names on the national database designed to keep firearms away from dangerous people. (Kumar, 8/7)

Reuters: After Shootings, Trump Reins In His Attacks-For Now
After back-to-back mass shootings in two states over the weekend spurred widespread condemnation of his rhetoric and style, President Donald Trump chose to suppress his instinct to attack his rivals - at least for now. Trump has spent a large part of the summer engaged in attacks on four minority congresswomen and an African-American lawmaker from Baltimore. He has long railed against illegal immigrants, characterizing a surge of asylum seekers from Central America as an "invasion." (Rampton and Mason, 8/6)

The Washington Post: Democrats Take On Guns In Emotional Terms
The Democratic presidential candidates are increasingly speaking of gun violence in highly personal terms, recounting how shootings have stolen their own relatives and friends and providing an emotional underpinning to new gun-control proposals that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock has been talking about how his 11-year-old nephew was shot by a 10-year-old schoolmate. Former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper has recalled personally dealing with a massacre that killed 12 in a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. Former congressman Beto O’Rourke, who carries a photo of a shooting victim in his wallet, unleashed an expletive-laced response to a question about President Trump’s responsibility for the tragedy in El Paso, his hometown. (Sullivan, 8/6)

The Washington Post: After A Weekend Of Mass Shootings, Democrats Are Cursing Inaction On Guns — Literally
As President Trump addressed the nation after a weekend of mass shootings, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) was watching. Reading from a teleprompter, Trump condemned the “barbaric slaughters” but did not blame lax gun laws for the 31 deaths in El Paso and Dayton. In his closing, Trump asked God to “bless the memory of those who perished in Toledo,” naming the wrong Ohio city. Shortly thereafter, Ryan, who rushed to Dayton after the tragedy, took to Twitter. (Wang, 8/6)

Reuters: Factbox: Presidential Candidates Back Gun Restrictions In Wake Of Mass Shootings
Democratic presidential candidates have demanded action on proposals to curtail gun violence in the aftermath of two mass shootings that killed 31 people in Texas and Ohio over the weekend. Republican President Donald Trump - accused by Democrats and civil rights groups of stoking racial tensions with his rhetoric - also said he was open to "bipartisan solutions" to address violence but refrained from offering any new gun-control measures. Trump has insisted he is not a racist. (Whitesides and Gibson, 8/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Ohio Governor Proposes Gun Reform Package
In a press conference Tuesday at the state capitol, Mr. DeWine, a Republican, introduced more than a dozen proposals addressing gun violence and mental-health issues as the nation grapples with the aftermath of two back-to-back mass shootings in Ohio and Texas that killed 31 people in total. Along with background checks on nearly all firearm sales, Mr. DeWine proposed court-ordered firearm removal from potentially dangerous individuals and increased penalties for gun-related felonies and illegal firearm purchases. He also proposed more mental-health resources for school districts and plans to expand an existing school-safety tip line to report risks of violence. His package also includes plans for Ohio’s department of public safety to monitor potential threats on social media. (Calfas, 8/6)

The Associated Press: Ohio Republicans Again Faced With Calls To Enact Gun Reforms
Yet members of DeWine's own party have repeatedly blocked gun-control measures in the Legislature, leaving the fate of his proposals uncertain. Even the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history and the school massacre in Parkland, Florida, could not move Ohio Republicans to act on most elements of a gun-control package proposed last year by then-Gov. John Kasich, also a Republican. Republican lawmakers sought to expand gun-owner protections in a bill Kasich ultimately vetoed. (Carr Smyth, 8/6)

NPR: Mass Shootings Can Be Contagious, Research Shows
There were three high-profile shootings across the country in one week: The shooting in Gilroy, Calif., on July 28, and then the back-to-back shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, this past weekend. That's no surprise, say scientists who study mass shootings. Research shows that these incidents usually occur in clusters and tend to be contagious. Intensive media coverage seems to drive the contagion, the researchers say. (Chatterjee, 8/6)

The New York Times: ‘It Feels Like Being Hunted’: Latinos Across U.S. In Fear After El Paso Massacre
After 22 people were shot to death at a Walmart in El Paso over the weekend, a Florida retiree found herself imagining how her grandchildren could be killed. A daughter of Ecuadorean immigrants cried alone in her car. A Texas lawyer bought a gun to defend his family. For a number of Latinos across the United States, the shooting attack in El Paso felt like a turning point, calling into question everything they thought they knew about their place in American society. (Romero, Dickerson, Jordan and Mazzei, 8/6)

The Washington Post: University Medical Center Of El Paso Treats 15 Of The Most Critically Injured Patients
The first victim was conscious and described the carnage at the El Paso Walmart to doctors. Within moments, though, the emergency room at University Medical Center of El Paso devolved into controlled chaos: “EMS called two, three, four, five, six” patients en route, emergency medicine doctor Nancy Weber recalled. “At that point, we knew that, yes, this was a mass casualty incident — yes, we were going to be getting a lot of patients.” Suddenly, four operating rooms at the hospital were in use as teams of surgeons raced to save people at risk of bleeding to death from multiple gunshot wounds. (Abutaleb, 8/6)

The Associated Press: El Paso Opens Healing Center As It Prepares For Trump Visit
El Paso opened a grief center on Tuesday to help people cope with last weekend's mass shooting at a Walmart, in which 22 people, nearly all with Latino last names, were killed and many others were wounded. The center opened a day before President Donald Trump was due to visit the border city, much to the chagrin of some Democrats and other residents who say his fiery rhetoric has fostered the kind of anti-immigrant hatred that may have motivated Saturday's attack. A protest rally was planned for Trump's arrival Wednesday that organizers said would confront white supremacy and demand gun control. (Galvan and Weber, 8/6)

NPR: After Mass Shootings, Other Nations Issue Caution About 'Gun Society' In U.S.
Japan's foreign ministry is cautioning its citizens residing in the United States to be alert to "the potential for gunfire incidents" after a spate of mass shootings in recent days. The concern came as at least two other nations – Uruguay and Venezuela — issued travel warnings for the U.S. in the wake of shootings in Gilroy, Calif., Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas, where at least 22 people were killed and some two dozen others wounded in an incident that authorities have said was a targeted attack on immigrants. (Neuman, 8/7)

The Associated Press: Death Penalty Questionable As A Deterrent To Mass Killing
President Donald Trump is calling for new death penalty legislation as an answer to hate crimes and mass killings. But whether that would deter shooters is questionable — especially since most don't live to face trial. More than half the perpetrators of mass shootings since 2006 have ended up dead at the scene of their crimes, either killed by others or dying by suicide, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University. (Long, 8/6)

Los Angeles Times: Gilroy Shooter's 'Target List' Spurs Domestic Terrorism Probe
Federal authorities on Tuesday said they had launched a domestic terrorism investigation into the shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival after officials discovered the gunman had a list of other potential targets. Among the targets were religious organizations, courthouses, federal buildings and political institutions involving both the Republican and Democratic parties, FBI special agent in charge John F. Bennett said during a news conference. (Fry and Winton, 8/6)

The Washington Post: Photos From Dayton And El Paso Illustrate The Grim Routine Of Mass Shootings
El Paso and Dayton, more than 1,500 miles apart, were nearly indistinguishable in the aftermath of two mass shootings. (8/6)

ProPublica/The Dallas Morning News: Are Trump’s Top Medicaid Regulators Ignoring Major Problems? Insurance Giant’s Tense Meeting With A Senator Adds To Growing Concern.
The ranking member of the Senate health committee has complained for months about the Trump administration’s failure to look into Medicaid contractors that have reaped big profits while sometimes failing to provide crucial patient services. So last week, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., called in the top boss of Centene, the nation’s largest Medicaid managed care company. He wanted to question the company about reports that its Texas subsidiary denied life-sustaining care to sick and disabled children — in one case, leaving a baby in foster care to suffer a catastrophic brain injury. (McSwane and Benning, 8/6)

Stateline: Trump Shift, Backed By States, Fuels Fear Of Too Few Medicaid Docs 
The Trump administration wants to drop an Obama-era rule designed to ensure that there are enough doctors to care for Medicaid patients. State health officials say the rule, which requires states to monitor whether Medicaid reimbursement rates are high enough to keep doctors in the program, forces them to spend a lot of time collecting and analyzing data with little benefit. Health care advocates, though, fear that dropping the regulation would enable states to set those payments at a level that would cause some of the 72 million Americans who rely on Medicaid to scramble for health care. Research shows that when reimbursement rates drop, fewer providers agree to accept low-income Medicaid patients. (Ollove, 8/7)

The Associated Press: FDA Says Novartis Withheld Data Problem Before Drug Approval
U.S. regulators want to know why Novartis didn't disclose a problem with testing data until after the Swiss drugmaker's $2.1 million gene therapy was approved. The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday the manipulated data involved testing in animals, not patients, and it's confident that the drug, called Zolgensma, should remain on the market. The agency said it's investigating and will consider criminal or civil penalties if appropriate. (Johnson, 8/6)

The New York Times: Novartis Hid Manipulated Data While Seeking Approval For $2.1 Million Treatment
Officials said the inaccurate data, which involved testing in mice of two different strengths of the treatment, did not affect the safety or efficacy of the therapy, Zolgensma, used to treat a rare, often fatal genetic disease called spinal muscular atrophy. Approved in May, the treatment’s price — set at $2.1 million — stoked concerns about the astronomical costs of potential cures for rare diseases and upset parents who initially could not get insurance coverage for the breakthrough treatment. The F.D.A. said patients were not at risk, and that the treatment could still be sold. (Thomas, 8/6)

The Washington Post: FDA Says Data Manipulated In Testing Of Novartis’ $2 Million Gene Therapy
Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said the inaccurate information involved mouse data and was a “small amount of the totality” that was submitted. The faulty data didn’t raise concerns about the safety and effectiveness of the treatment, he said. But he added the agency takes data integrity issues seriously and is continuing to investigate the situation. He said the FDA “will use its full authorities to take action, if appropriate, which may include civil or criminal penalties” against the manufacturer, AveXis Inc., a subsidiary of Novartis. (McGinley, 8/6)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Says Data Manipulated For Novartis Gene Therapy Drug
“At no time during the investigation did the findings indicate issues with product safety, efficacy or quality,” the company said, adding that it “is committed to taking appropriate action to prevent future incidents across its portfolio of development programs.” The company in the past has defended the lofty price by comparing it to another treatment that Novartis said would cost twice as much over a 10-year period. (Burton, 8/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Amazon Mail-Order Pharmacy Faces Pushback
Amazon.com Inc.s foray into the pharmacy business is causing the company to clash with entrenched industry incumbents that are putting roadblocks in front of the company’s growth plans. Last week, Surescripts LLC, a provider of the technology widely used to route electronic prescriptions, accused Amazon’s mail-order pharmacy subsidiary PillPack of receiving patient data that it had fraudulently obtained through a third party. Surescripts went public with the allegations in a news release. (Walker, 8/6)

The Hill: Conservatives Buck Trump Over Worries Of 'Socialist' Drug Pricing 
Conservatives are growing increasingly uneasy with the Trump administration's new drug pricing policy. President Trump is desperately seeking an elusive political win in his efforts to lower prescription drug costs, but he faces a hard sell to conservative groups and GOP lawmakers as he touts ideas traditionally favored by Democrats and presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). (Weixel, 8/7)

Reuters: U.S. Judge Expresses Support For Novel Opioid Settlement Talks Framework
A federal judge on Tuesday expressed support for a novel plan by lawyers representing cities and counties suing drug companies over the U.S. opioid epidemic that would bring every community nationally into their settlement talks despite objections from most states. U.S. District Judge Dan Polster during a hearing in Cleveland, Ohio said that while the idea was unprecedented, it could allow companies accused of fueling the epidemic in nearly 2,000 lawsuits before him an ability to obtain "global peace." (8/7)

The Wall Street Journal: In The Opioid Litigation, It’s Now States V. Cities
When tobacco companies agreed to pay states $206 billion two decades ago to settle litigation over the public-health costs of smoking, cities and counties eagerly awaited their share of the money. For the most part, it never came. Now, in similar litigation seeking to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable for the opioid crisis, local municipalities aren’t waiting around. Hundreds of cities, counties and Native American tribes have filed lawsuits directly, many suing before state attorneys general went to the courthouse to file their own actions. (Randazzo, 8/6)

The Associated Press: Boom In Overdose-Reversing Drug Is Tied To Fewer Drug Deaths
Prescriptions of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone are soaring, and experts say that could be a reason overdose deaths have stopped rising for the first time in nearly three decades. The number of naloxone prescriptions dispensed by U.S. retail pharmacies doubled from 2017 to last year, rising from 271,000 to 557,000, health officials reported Tuesday. (8/6)

Los Angeles Times: Decline In Opioid Deaths Tied To Growing Use Naloxone, CDC Says
“One could only hope that this extraordinary increase in prescribing of naloxone is contributing to that stabilization or even decline of the crisis,” said Katherine Keyes, a drug abuse expert at Columbia University. (Stobbe, 8/6)

The New York Times: As Scotland’s ‘Trainspotting’ Generation Ages, The Dead Pile Up
Older, long-term opioid users account for much of the problem. Things are expected to only get worse. “We’re seeing diseases that you would associate with old age in a lot of these middle-aged men with a long history of drug use,” said Dr. Carole Hunter, the lead pharmacist for Glasgow Addiction Services. “What your body tolerates at 18 it doesn’t tolerate at 38 or 48.” Drug deaths aren’t new in Scotland. More than two decades ago, the grueling life of addiction in Edinburgh was the subject of the novel-turned-film “Trainspotting.” (McCann, 8/7)

The Associated Press: Federal Judge Continues Blocking 3 Arkansas Abortion Laws
A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that three Arkansas abortion restrictions she temporarily blocked will remain on hold while she considers a lawsuit challenging them. U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker granted a preliminary injunction preventing the state from enforcing the restrictions, which include a measure prohibiting abortion 18 weeks into pregnancy. (8/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Judge Temporarily Blocks Arkansas Laws Banning Abortion
U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday, two weeks after she granted a temporary restraining order and a few hours before the legislation was slated to take effect. The Arkansas laws are part of a wave of antiabortion legislation passed by states around the country this year. One of the Arkansas laws would have mandated physicians performing abortions be board-certified or board-eligible in obstetrics and gynecology—a requirement that would have led to the closure of the state’s last surgical abortion clinic. (Calfas, 8/6)

The Associated Press: Alabama 'Regrettably' Expects Injunction On Its Abortion Ban
Alabama said in a court filing Monday that U.S. Supreme Court precedent "regrettably requires" a federal judge to block the state's near-total ban on abortions from taking effect while a legal challenge plays out. Attorney General Steve Marshall's office gave that response after abortion clinics asked a judge for a preliminary injunction against the law, which would make performing an abortion a felony in almost all cases. One of the most stringent abortion laws in the nation, the ban is set to take effect in November unless blocked by the courts. (8/6)

The Washington Post: Lead Poisoning In Immigrant Families: How Ethnic Spices And Products Can Poison American Children
The homemade powder, called kumkum, that Venkat Rachakulla and Lakshmi Ginnela applied on their daughter’s forehead was meant to enhance her intuition. The yellow turmeric, which the couple bought from a local Indian grocer and sprinkled regularly into her food, was supposed to keep her healthy. And the tiny gold bangles were a gift from the baby’s grandparents in Hyderabad, India — a way for them to send good fortune. These items were meant to keep 1-year-old Vaishnavi safe. (Tan, 8/6)

The New York Times: After Two Deaths Days Apart, Boxing Examines Its Risks
Pat English, a lawyer with long and influential ties to boxing, was delivering a history lesson on various federal guidelines for the sport when he flashed a black-and-white photograph of a young fighter. The boxer’s name was Stephan Johnson, a junior middleweight who had fought three times (and most likely sustained at least one brain injury) in the seven months leading up to his United States Boxing Association title fight against Paul Vaden in November 1999. (Cacciola, 8/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Medical Schools Are Pushed To Train Doctors For Climate Change
More doctors, health organizations and students are pushing for medical education to include climate change, saying that physicians and other health-care workers need to prepare for the risks associated with rising global temperatures. The movement, recently backed by the American Medical Association, is showing emerging signs of impact. At the University of Minnesota, medical, nursing and pharmacy schools, among others, have added content or tweaked existing classes to incorporate climate-related topics. (Abbott, 8/7)

The New York Times: Exercise During Pregnancy May Have Lasting Benefits For Babies
Newborns whose mothers exercise during pregnancy may become physically coordinated a little earlier than other babies, according to a captivating new study of gestation, jogging and the varying ability of tiny infants to make a fist. The study’s findings add to growing evidence that physical activity during pregnancy can strengthen not just the mother but also her unborn children and might influence how well and willingly those children later move on their own. (Reynolds, 8/7)

The Associated Press: Official: 1 Death Linked To Legionnaires' Disease In Atlanta
The Georgia Department of Public Health has confirmed one death linked to a Legionnaires' outbreak at an Atlanta hotel. News outlets report 49-year-old Cameo Garrett died July 9 of coronary artery disease aggravated by Legionella. DeKalb County Medical Examiner Pat Bailey said Tuesday that Garrett had Legionnaires' disease when she died. (8/6)