State Highlights: Advocates Push N.Y. Lawmakers To Create First Ban On Tackle Football For Children; Family Sues Colorado Fertility Doctor For Using His Sperm

The Wall Street Journal: New York Lawmakers Debate A Tough Topic: Kids Playing Football
New York legislators heard from coaches, league officials, scientists and former football players during a Tuesday hearing to consider a bill banning children under age 13 from playing organized tackle football. All agreed that football involves blows to the head, and that sometimes such trauma eventually can lead to cognitive and behavioral disorders. (Vielkind, 10/29)

The Associated Press: Lawsuit: Fertility Doctor Used Own Sperm To Impregnate Woman
A family alleges in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that a Colorado fertility doctor used his own sperm instead of that of an anonymous donor to impregnate a woman without her consent. KUSA-TV reports that the lawsuit contends Dr. Paul Jones of Grand Junction committed fraud by using his own sperm to artificially inseminate Cheryl Emmons, allowing her to give birth to two daughters in 1980 and 1985, respectively. (10/29)

The Associated Press: Lyft, Uber Will Ask California Voters To Block Employee Law
Some of the country's largest ride-sharing companies proposed a California law on Tuesday that would let them continue to treat drivers as independent contractors while also guaranteeing them a minimum wage and money for health insurance. The state Legislature enacted legislation this year requiring ride-sharing companies to treat drivers as employees, which would let them form a union and entitle them to benefits like a minimum wage and workers compensation. (10/29)

Kansas City Star: KC Veteran Among Many From Iraq, Afghanistan War With Cancer
A McClatchy investigation of cancer among veterans during nearly two decades of war shows a significant increase in cancer cases —like Blair’s — treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs health care system. The review, based on VA health care data obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, found the rate of treatments for urinary cancers ⁠— which include bladder, kidney and ureter cancers ⁠— increased 61 percent from fiscal year 2000 to fiscal year 2018. (Gutierrez, 10/30)

The Associated Press: Potential Listeria Contamination Leads To Apples Recall
A county health department in Illinois says a Michigan company voluntarily is recalling nearly 2,300 cases of apples due to potential listeria contamination. Kane County health officials say Tuesday that North Bay Produce of Traverse City also is recalling two bulk bins of apples. (10/29)

North Carolina Health News: Does NC Help Children Affected By FASD? 
Larry Burd, director of the North Dakota Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Center at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Grand Fork, estimates that one in 20 people are affected by fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, referring to two recent studies looking at first-grade students to come to that conclusion. He compared the results of these studies to research estimating that one in 56 children have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Attention to autism research and program funding has flourished in recent decades. Meanwhile, he argues, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder likely affects more people but public knowledge and understanding of it are nowhere near the recognition level of autism. (Blythe, 10/30)

Texas Tribune: Austin ISD Sex Ed Battle Could Be Preview Of State-Level Debate
This marks the first time the district has evaluated its sex education curriculum in more than 10 years, and the lessons include topics like gender identity, reproductive anatomy, and body image, tailored for each grade. Opponents of the program, many organized by conservative statewide advocacy group Texas Values, said the curriculum violated Christian family values and included lessons — including on sexual orientation and sexual health — that parents should tackle at home. Proponents, who showed up to the meeting in smaller numbers, argued the lessons would be valuable tools to help LGBTQ students feel supported by teachers and administrators, and would help all students learn to build healthy relationships. (Swaby, 10/29)

New Hampshire Union Leader: Vast Differences For Poor Children Across New Hampshire 
A series of new reports on child poverty shows large disparities between counties. New Futures, a Concord-based public health advocacy organization, released reports on childhood poverty in each of New Hampshire’s 10 counties. ...Belknap County has the highest rate of premature birth in New Hampshire, with 9.3% of babies born before 37 weeks. The lowest rate, 6.4%, is in Grafton County. Grafton and Carroll counties have the highest rates of children without health insurance, at 6.2% and 6% respectively. Hillsborough County has the lowest rate of uninsured children, at 2.4%. Another New Futures reports said the rates of uninsured children have declined as more families got insurance through Medicaid and other public programs. (Albertson-Grove, 10/29)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Moving Inmate Medical Services To Milwaukee County Staff Loses Steam
Moving medical services for inmates held at the Milwaukee County Jail and House of Correction from a private vendor to county staff is seeming less likely — or at least less likely to move forward on its original timeline. A report prepared by leaders of five county departments found "significant additional costs and risks" of county workers taking over the services currently provided by contractor Wellpath. (Dirr, 10/29)

Texas Tribune: Texas Is Getting Ready To Move Homeless Camps Beneath Austin Highways
The Texas Department of Transportation will give move-out notices to people camping under several state overpasses throughout Austin before cleaning the locations next week, according to a spokesperson for Gov. Greg Abbott. ...The news, first reported by KXAN, comes three days before the Friday deadline Austin leaders had to show “consequential improvement” in dealing with homeless people camping in or near highly visible places before risking state intervention. (Rich, 10/29)

Texas Tribune and Grist: Alcoa Got Texas To Approve Lower Cleanup Standards For A Coal Mine
For at least the last two decades, the company has replaced thousands of tons of earth it had excavated to reach the coal seams, covered the land in clean soil and planted grass and other vegetation. And the Texas Railroad Commission, the state agency that oversees coal mining, has approved these remediation efforts. ...But a review of Railroad Commission records, as well as interviews with former agency employees, indicate the mine site may not be in the immaculate condition that the marketing materials describe. The description glosses over the fact that about 70% of the 32,000 acres were once part of a strip mine, where each year the company removed enough dirt and coal to fill the Panama canal and buried coal ash containing toxic heavy metals under hundreds of acres. (Collier and Sadasivam, 10/30)