State Highlights: Del. House Prepares For Vote On Bill Protecting Abortion Rights; Health Officials, Muslim Leaders Join Forces To Combat Minn. Measles Outbreak

The Associated Press: Delaware House Votes On Bill Protecting Abortion Rights
The state House is poised to vote on a bill ensuring that abortion remains legal in Delaware if Roe v. Wade is ever overturned. The bill, which narrowly cleared the Senate last month, was scheduled for a House vote Tuesday. Delaware’s current law allows abortions only if the mother’s health is at risk, if there is a substantial risk the child would be born with serious disabilities, or if pregnancy results from rape or incest. It also prohibits abortions beyond 20 weeks of pregnancy. (6/6)

MPR: Muslim, Health Leaders Team Up To Curb Measles Outbreak
Health care and religious leaders are working in tandem to control Minnesota's measles outbreak, which has stricken the state's majority-Muslim Somali community. With another three weeks of Ramadan and its numerous gatherings and prayers yet to come, officials face the challenge of getting through the holy month without the highly contagious disease spreading further. (Zdechlik, 6/5)

The Associated Press: Seattle City Council OKs Tax On Soda, Sugary Drinks
The Seattle City Council on Monday approved a new tax on soda and other sugary beverages as way to raise millions for healthy food and education programs. The ordinance calls for a tax of 1.75 cents per ounce to be paid by distributors of beverages such as Pepsi and Coke, sports drinks, energy drinks and other sweetened drinks. The tax excludes diet drinks. (Le, 6/5)

Boston Globe: Judge Says Falmouth Doctor Can Proceed With Lawsuit Seeking Mass. Right To Die
A retired Falmouth doctor who has metastatic prostate cancer can continue pursuing a lawsuit seeking the right to obtain a lethal dose of medication from his doctor and choose when he dies, a Suffolk Superior Court judge ruled. The judge refused to dismiss a case brought against the state by Dr. Roger M. Kligler, a longtime advocate of expanding end-of-life options laws nationwide, who asked a judge to affirm his right to die in this way and to prevent prosecution of doctors who assist. Dr. Alan Steinbach, a physician who wants the option to provide such medication to patients with terminal illnesses like Kligler, is also a plaintiff, the Globe reported in October. (Finucane and Ellement, 6/5)

Sacramento Bee: Lawsuit: Redding Police Beat, Suffocated Mentally Ill Chico Man
Matthew Clayton Robinson was off his medications and in the midst of a breakdown. In the back of a vehicle transporting him from a hospital in Chico to a mental facility in Redding on a July night in 2014, he began shouting that someone was following him. He bounced and flailed inside the van, equipped with a “cage” that separated him from the front seat. He broke an interior light fixture and used shards of plastic to shred the car’s upholstery. By the time the van arrived at Restpadd psychiatric facility, the driver had summoned police for help in removing Robinson. Within minutes, he was beaten and bloodied, pinned to the ground with a fabric “spit hood” pulled over his head. A Sacramento native and graduate of California State University, Chico, Robinson wound up in a coma and died seven days later. (Hubert, 6/5)

The Star Tribune: As Three Patients Languish In Jail, Judge Takes DHS Official To Task
A Hennepin County district judge ordered Minnesota’s top mental-health official to testify Monday on why state psychiatric hospitals are refusing to admit three men who have diagnoses of severe mental illnesses, instead leaving them to languish in Hennepin County jail. The hearing also surfaced ongoing tension between the state Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Hennepin County Sheriff. (Mannix, 6/6)

The Washington Post: A Virginia Imam Said Female Genital Mutilation Prevents ‘Hypersexuality,’ Leading To Calls For His Dismissal
A Virginia mosque has publicly condemned the words of its leading imam, highlighting lingering divisions among Muslim leaders over the controversial and widely rejected practice of female genital mutilation. The Board of Directors at the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church said Monday that Imam Shaker Elsayed’s seeming endorsement of the outlawed practice as “the honorable thing to do if needed” ran afoul of both U.S. and Islamic law. (Hauslohner, 6/5)

Health News Florida: Should Living Wage Rules Guarantee Viable Health Plan?
Javier Vivo helps carry passengers’ bags and pushes wheelchairs at Miami International airport’s J Terminal, welcoming international travelers to the area. When he was hired as a part time employee, he wasn’t given a choice whether to take his company’s health insurance or not. It was take it or leave the job. When Vivo tried to use his insurance at the emergency room to take care of a stomach issue, though, he found out the insurance card did not give him access to much of an insurance plan. (Sayre, 6/5)

Iowa Public Radio: The World's Smallest Pacemaker Comes To Cedar Rapids
Heart surgeons at St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids are beginning to use a revolutionary device in one of the most common heart procedures. The new technology is known as the “world’s smallest pacemaker.” Previously, pacemakers were inserted in the shoulder and required a long incision and wires leading to the heart. This device is put into the leg and carried to the heart by a vein. The director of the Arrhythmic Center at St. Luke’s, Dr. Mohit Chawla, says it makes a huge difference in how fast patients recover. (Dillard, 6/5)

The Associated Press: Autistic Man’s Family Sues Over Florida Police Shooting
The family of a Florida autistic man has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit over a 2016 police shooting in which the man’s caretaker was wounded. The lawsuit was filed Monday in Miami on behalf of 27-year-old Arnaldo Rios against the city of North Miami and five officers. It says Rios was improperly handcuffed and detained after the incident and includes claims of false imprisonment and battery. (6/5)

Richmond Times Dispatch: $40M Lawsuit Claims Hampton Roads Regional Jail Medical Staff, Corrections Officers Neglected Ill Inmate Who Died
The family of an inmate who died at Hampton Roads Regional Jail in 2016 filed a wrongful-death lawsuit Monday against the jail, its medical provider and nearly three dozen other defendants. Henry Clay Stewart, 60, died Aug. 6, 2016, of internal bleeding from a perforated ulcer in his intestines. He had lost 35 pounds between the time he was transferred to the jail on June 7, 2016, and the day his body was autopsied by the medical examiner, according to the lawsuit. (6/5)

Columbus Dispatch: Groups Consider 'Emergency Care Hub' For Mental Illness
A group of agencies that serve mental-health patients is considering opening a hub where they could work together to more quickly help people in crisis. Now, people who visit emergency departments with mental-health problems often have to wait hours until doctors can determine whether they should be admitted or sent home. (Viviano, 6/4)

Miami Herald: Miami Doctor Charged With Abusing Elderly Patients In The Keys
A Miami doctor was arrested at his Miami Beach home Monday morning and charged with elder abuse involving two unlicensed assisted-living facilities in the Upper Keys. The doctor, Raul Arcadio Tamayo, 66, is charged with two counts of neglect of an elderly or disabled adult. Bond was set at $200,000. The caregiver who worked under his supervision, Amarylis Maristan, 47, is wanted on the same charges, Deputy Becky Herrin said. (6/5)

San Jose Mercury News: Parents Say Bullying At California Elementary School Led To Son's Suicide Attempt
Parents of a Grand Terrace Elementary School third grader say that unaddressed bullying by another student led to their son attempting to commit suicide. “In kindergarten and first grade, he didn’t have a whole lot of problems,” said Kevin O’Rourke of his son’s classmate and alleged bully. “Most of the issues with this kid started in second grade.” (Yarbrough, 6/5)

North Carolina Health News: ECU Helps Expand Telemedicine At Duplin County Schools 
Starting this fall, Duplin County students can visit the school nurse’s office to see a primary care doctor, a behavioral health specialist, a dentist or a dietician. East Carolina University is teaming up with the county school system on a grant project to bring telemedicine into the schools. Not only will the telemedicine service help kids see a doctor when they are sick, but ECU staff will use the technology to conduct screenings to prevent chronic problems such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. ECU providers will also conduct mental health screenings for issues such as anxiety or depression. (Knopf, 6/6)

The CT Mirror: Pot Legalization Measure Bogs Down In Partisan Feud
The legislature provided the latest example from a dysfunctional session Monday as a bipartisan effort to legalize recreational marijuana broke down minutes before its public announcement. Reps. Josh Elliott, D-Hamden, and Melissa Ziobron, R-East Haddam, engaged in an argument a few feet from the podium in the Legislative Office Building hearing room where a press conference was scheduled to make the announcement. After 10 minutes, Ziobron left and Elliott conceded the marijuana measure was stalled — but not dead. (Phaneuf, 6/5)

Health News Florida: Legislators May Take Up Medical Marijuana During Special Session
Next week's special legislative session focused on funding for education and economic development won't include medical marijuana, at least for now. House and Senate leaders remained hopeful that they could strike a deal on the framework for carrying out a voter-approved constitutional amendment that broadly legalizing medical marijuana. But if they don't reach agreement before the special session ends, the Legislature is unlikely to take up the issue later this summer, according to a top senator. (6/5)