State Highlights: California’s First Surgeon General Spreads Word About Lifelong Effects Of Childhood Trauma; Federal Lawyers Assail Mississippi’s Efforts To Improve Mental Health System

NPR: Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris Warns Of Dangers Of Toxic Stress
Not long after she finished her medical residency at Stanford University about a decade ago, Nadine Burke Harris got to work as a pediatrician in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco. She founded and became CEO of a clinic there, focused on addressing health disparities in the community. It was in talking with those children and their families, she says, that she first realized how many of her patients experiencing the worst health outcomes — those with the highest levels of chronic asthma, for example — were also living with significant adversity, such as growing up in a household where a parent was mentally ill, abusive or substance dependent. (Stallings, 7/2)

The Associated Press: Judge Gets Challenge To Mississippi Mental Health System
A federal judge should intervene in Mississippi's mental health care system, a U.S. Justice Department lawyer argued Monday, saying the state has moved far too slowly to provide community alternatives to mental hospitals. "They could be living in more integrated settings, but they never get the chance, because the state does not make the necessary services available, lawyer Patrick Holkins said in closing arguments following a monthlong trial. "That is not just a policy failure, but a civil rights violation." (7/1)

Pioneer Press: Abortions In Minnesota Decreased Last Year, According To New State Report 
Minnesota health care providers performed fewer abortions last year even as more women came here from other states for the procedure, a new Department of Health report shows. There were 9,910 abortions in 2018, a 2 percent decrease from 2017. The number of abortions in the state dipped below 10,000 for just the third time since 1975, according to the report released Monday. The Minnesota branch of Planned Parenthood performed more than 60 percent of the abortions at its clinics in St. Paul and Rochester. (Faircloth, 7/1)

Boston Globe: As Partners HealthCare Rethinks Its Strategy, It’s Considering Whether To Change Its Name
The name Partners HealthCare is emblazoned on buildings and vehicles, medical bills and patient records, e-mail addresses and websites. But is it the right moniker for the state’s largest health care provider? As part of a corporate soul-searching process, executives at Boston-based Partners are considering ditching the name the system has used for 25 years and choosing one that they believe would better reflect the company’s greatest assets — its renowned academic medical centers. (McCluskey, 7/1)

The Associated Press: Glitches Snarl Start Of California's Ammo Background Checks
California's new ammunition background check law began Monday not with a bang but with a whimper from dealers who reported delays and glitches with the state's online system. But they said few customers were affected because most had stockpiled bullets or shotgun shells in the weeks before the new law took effect. Voters in 2016 approved requiring criminal background checks for every ammunition purchase. But the state's latest attempt to deter gun violence only took effect Monday. (7/1)

California Healthline: Want Ammo? Be Prepared For A Background Check
California has some of the strictest gun laws in the country — and one of the lowest gun death rates. Public health experts believe one leads to the other. But even with strong laws, 3,184 people died in gun-related incidents in California in 2017, up from 2,942 in 2014, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Roughly half of suicides nationwide are gun-related. (Ibarra, 7/1)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia's New Insurance Chief Takes Oath
Georgia has a state insurance commissioner again, seven weeks after the elected one, Jim Beck, was accused in a 38-count indictment of scheming to steal $2 million from his former employer, in part to fund his election campaign. John King, the longtime Doraville police chief, was sworn in as Beck’s at-least-temporary replacement by Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday at a Statehouse ceremony. (Salzer, 7/1)

The Washington Post: The Battle For Alabama’s Soul
This handsome north Alabama town, population 40,428, boasts two nationally acclaimed fashion designers of luxury togs, two boutique hotels, two hipster coffee shops, a regional state university, a Frank Lloyd Wright house, a sustainably sourced restaurant with a celebrated bourbon program, and an annual Shindig cultural festival in late August drawing Jack White and other artistic and artisanal talents near the verdant banks of the Tennessee River. Florence voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Democrat Sen. Doug Jones in the 2017 special election, in a county that went Republican both times. (Heller, 7/1)

Reuters: Former USC Gynecologist Pleads Not Guilty To Sexual Assault
A former University of Southern California gynecologist accused by hundreds of patients of molestation and other misconduct over the past three decades pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of sexually assaulting 16 students who were under his care. George Tyndall, 72, was also ordered to remain in custody in lieu of nearly $2.1 million bond, but Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Theresa Sullivan said she would review a defense request to slash his bail at another hearing set for Wednesday. (7/1)

Health News Florida: Several New Health Laws Take Effect
Florida’s record $90.98 billion spending plan for next fiscal year and more than 100 new laws will hit the books Monday. The new laws, passed by the Legislature this spring and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, deal with issues ranging from bans on vaping to a repeal of the state’s “certificate of need” process. (Turner, 7/1)

Modern Healthcare: N.Y. Quality Improvement Initiative Widened Racial Health Disparities
A New York program requiring acute-care hospitals to develop sepsis protocols has improved detection and treatment, but the results weren't as pronounced in hospitals that serve higher proportions of black patients, according to a new study. Since the program started in 2014, the proportion of patients who underwent the sepsis protocol increased from 61% in 2014 to 72% in 2016, and in-hospital mortality fell from 25% to 21%, according to research published Monday in Health Affairs. (Johnson, 7/1)

Houston Chronicle: Houston's Episcopal Health Foundation Gives $17 Million In Grants
Houston' Episcopal Health Foundation announced $17 million in grants to help the state's community-based clinics offer more services, increase access, and go beyond just medical care to address underlying issues that can affect health for low-income and under-served Texans. More than 40 clinics and organizations will receive individual grants ranging from $100,000 to over $1 million. Twenty groups in the Houston area are among the recipients. (Deam, 7/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Philadelphia’s Hahnemann University Hospital Files For Bankruptcy
The owners of Hahnemann University Hospital, a historic, money-losing teaching hospital in Philadelphia, filed for bankruptcy late Sunday night after failed efforts to find a buyer and a closure announcement that triggered street protests and warnings from state health regulators. (Brickley, 7/1)

The CT Mirror: One Year After DOC Took Over Inmate Health Care, Troubles Persist
A year has passed since lofty promises were made to repair the financially struggling and volatile health care system that serves inmates at Connecticut’s 14 prisons, but Department of Correction staff say little has improved.Records show medical employees are working shifts that have stretched as long as 24 hours. State lawmakers recently pumped an extra $22 million into the system. And DOC leaders can’t say how services compare to the care offered in the private sector. (Carlesso and Lyons, 7/2)

St. Louis Public Radio: Webster U. Faces Federal Investigation Into Sexual Harassment Allegations
The investigation, confirmed by a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education, comes less than a month after students mounted a public campaign against the university's Title IX office in May. Students said the school failed to address complaints that game design professor Joshua Yates had sexually harassed a student. (Petrin, 7/1)

Modern Healthcare: Virtua Acquires Lourdes Health System From Trinity Health
Virtua, a not-for-profit health system in southern New Jersey, has purchased Camden, N.J.-based Lourdes Health System. Virtua on Monday assumed ownership of Lourdes Health System, closing out a yearlong process to acquire the not-for-profit health system from Pennsylvania-based Maxis Health System, part of national Catholic health system Trinity Health. Virtua signed a definitive agreement with Maxis Health to acquire Lourdes Health System in June of last year. (Cohen, 7/1)

San Jose Mercury News: Gov. Gavin Newsom Talked Big On Housing. How Has He Stacked Up So Far?
When Gov. Gavin Newsom took office in January, armed with big promises and bold ideas to fix the state’s drastic shortage of homes, housing advocates were so hopeful they were almost giddy. ...But reversing a housing crisis years in the making is a daunting task. And without new legislation to dramatically boost production, Newsom will have a hard time meeting his ambitious campaign pledge — to build 3.5 million homes by 2025. (Kendall, 7/1)

Texas Tribune: Why Homelessness Is Going Down In Houston But Up In Dallas
While redevelopment has maybe made homelessness more visible to the urban core's new residents, the numbers show a 53% decrease in the Houston area's homeless population since 2011. ...In the meantime, other Texas cities, like San Antonio, Fort Worth and Austin – which recently passed an ordinance that allows sitting and camping in public – are experiencing increases in the number of residents who don't have a home. And such an increase is especially dramatic in Dallas, which according the 2019 Point-in-Time count, saw its homeless population surpass Houston's. (Garnham, 7/2)

Columbus Dispatch: Advocates Push Ohio To Approve Marijuana For Autism, But Science Is Unclear
Ohio appears to be on the verge of allowing patients to buy medicinal marijuana to treat autism, even as researchers who conducted the studies cited by those promoting approval urge caution. The State Medical Board of Ohio is scheduled to vote on the issue July 10. The Medical Board’s expert review committee recommended in June adding autism to the list of qualifying conditions to get medical marijuana. (Cooley, 7/1)

Boston Globe: Massachusetts Says Hemp-Derived CBD Is Illegal — But CBD Stores Are Still Everywhere
Across Massachusetts, customers can find CBD everywhere, from the small shops selling CBD up and down Newbury Street to the products lining the shelves at national stores like Bed Bath & Beyond and Sephora. CBD has become so common that you can even buy gummies in the small corner store in the lobby of the office building that houses the Boston Globe. (Gans, 7/1)