Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Opponents Concede That California's Mental Health Measure Likely Will Pass
Los Angeles Daily News: Opponents Of Newsom’s Prop. 1 Mental Health Bond Concede Likely Defeat
Governor Gavin Newsom’s mental health bond measure Proposition 1 continues to hang on to its narrow lead, prompting leaders of the opposition movement to concede likely defeat on Tuesday. The measure, which requires a simple majority to pass, was supported by 50.4% of voters and opposed by 49.6% as of Tuesday afternoon’s vote update. “We almost took down the bear, but it looks like we will fall short. Today, as the principal opponents of Proposition 1, we concede that it is almost certain to pass,” said Californians Against Proposition 1 in a Tuesday morning statement. (Harter, 3/12)
The Hill: Arkansas Rolls Back Gender-Neutral Driver’s License Policy
Arkansas will no longer allow drivers to use an “X” for their gender on driver’s licenses, state regulators said Tuesday, rolling back a policy that was inclusive to nonbinary people. The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration said the changes are being made to “safeguard” state IDs. The agency also announced it will make it more difficult for transgender people to change the gender listed on their ID. (Robertson, 3/12)
The Washington Post: Uvalde Police Chief To Resign After Report Defended Officers’ Shooting Response
The Uvalde, Tex., police chief, who was not present the day a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School, announced his resignation Tuesday morning, five days after an investigator hired by the city defended police officers’ response to the shooting in a report that drew fury from many of the victims’ families. Police Chief Daniel Rodriguez, who was away on vacation during the 2022 shooting, said he will step down April 6, after 26 years on the force. (Kaur, 3/12)
St. Louis Public Radio: Missouri EMTs To Give Addiction Meds In Pilot Program
Six emergency medical districts in Missouri will soon distribute an opioid addiction medication as part of a state-funded pilot program. EMS workers across the state are receiving training on how to give overdose victims a dose of buprenorphine, which manages cravings and withdrawal symptoms, after reviving them from an overdose with the overdose reversal drug naloxone. (Fentem, 3/12)
KFF Health News: West Virginia City Once Battered By Opioid Overdoses Confronts ‘Fourth Wave’
From 2006 through 2014, more than 81 million painkiller pills were shipped to this city and surrounding rural Cabell County. The arrival of prescription opioids onto seemingly every block of Huntington, a city of about 46,000 people, augured the first wave of an overdose crisis. Heroin followed, then fentanyl. Residents remember Aug. 15, 2016, as the darkest day because on that afternoon and evening, 28 people overdosed in the city. But Huntington had shouldered collective trauma before. (Sisk, 3/13)
Florida Trident: ‘Torture': State Of Health Care In U.S. Prisons Leads To Brutal Inmate Deaths
On Sept. 8, 2017, Craig Ridley, an inmate at Florida Department of Corrections’ Reception and Medical Center in Lake Butler for nine years, called his sister, Diane Ridley-Gatewood, for one of their regular talks. This time, he told her he was afraid for his life after filing a complaint against a prison guard who threatened him, she recalled. “Craig, if they start beating you,” she advised him, “you need to get into a fetal position so they won’t hit your internal organs.” Hours later, around 3:20 a.m., two corrections officers hurt 62-year-old Ridley so badly he was paralyzed from the neck down. (Neary, 3/11)
KFF Health News: Secret Contract Aims To Upend Landmark California Prison Litigation
California commissioned an exhaustive study of whether its prisons are providing sufficient mental health care, an effort officials said they could use to try to end a 34-year-old federal lawsuit over how the state treats inmates with mental illness. But corrections officials won’t disclose basic details of the now-stalled study — even the cost to taxpayers for two consulting firms and more than two dozen national experts retained to examine the issue in 2023. State lawyers cited attorney-client privilege and ongoing litigation in denying KFF Health News’ public records requests for the information. Independent legal experts questioned the blanket denials. (Thompson, 3/13)
