State Highlights: Holy Cross Hospital Opens $6.5M Unit In Chicago To Address Mental Health Needs; Rhode Island Studies Ways To Improve Troubled City Schools

Chicago Tribune: ’A Lack Of Mental Health Services Has Plagued Chicago For Decades’: Holy Cross Hospital Expanding To Fill That Void On The Southwest Side 
Now, Holy Cross Hospital on the city’s Southwest Side seeks to address the issue with the opening of a $6.5 million unit this week to treat patients experiencing mental health crises. The 12,000-square-foot unit, housed mostly in new construction on the east side of the hospital, can treat up to 32 patients at a time. It will accept patients brought by ambulances and police as well as walk-ins and people sent from the hospital’s emergency room. Patients will be able to get treatment in the unit for up to a day before being connected with other services or admitted to the hospital, if necessary. (Schencker, 7/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Rhode Island Looks To Lift Providence’s Failing School District
Brown tap water. Student brawls. Chronically absent teachers. Test scores that rank among the worst in the country. The public school district here is full of deplorable conditions, according to a recent scathing report by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy. Now the capital city, proud of its downtown renaissance, restaurants and arts scene, faces a painful reckoning as it debates what to do with a failing school system that serves 24,000 children, who are mostly poor and Hispanic. (Brody, 7/10)

North Carolina Health News: As Legislators Debate Medicaid Expansion, Josh Stein Defends The Law That Makes It Possible 
As North Carolina lawmakers focused on health care policy on the home-front for much of Tuesday, Josh Stein, the state attorney general, honed in on what’s happening on the national stage. Oral arguments began earlier that day in a federal courtroom in New Orleans over a Texas-based lawsuit that could ultimately bring an end the Affordable Care Act and cause mass upheaval in the health care industry. (Blythe, 7/10)

Seattle Times: Parents Of Seattle Children’s Patient Look For Reassurances As It Restarts Surgeries After Clearing Mold That Killed 1 
It wasn’t the first time the mold had appeared at Children’s: The hospital detected it last summer as well. When The Seattle Times inquired about the more recent operating-room closures, Children’s disclosed that since 2018, six surgical patients had been infected, one of whom died. Aspergillus is a common mold found outdoors and indoors, and people breathe it daily without getting sick, according to the CDC. But people with lung disease or weakened immune systems, and especially organ- or stem-cell-transplant patients, are at higher risk of developing aspergillosis, a disease caused by the mold. (Blethen, 7/9)

Reuters: Air Quality Plummets As Wildfire Smoke Hits Alaska's Most Populous Cities
Smoke and soot from central Alaska wildfires have afflicted the subarctic city of Fairbanks with some of the world's worst air pollution in recent days, forcing many residents indoors and prompting one hospital to set up a "clean air shelter." Fine particulate matter carried by smoke into the Fairbanks North Star Borough over the past two weeks has been measured at concentrations as high as more than double the minimum level deemed hazardous to human health, borough air quality manager Nick Czarnecki said. (7/9)

Los Angeles Times: Ex-USC Gynecologist Sold Sex Videos He Recorded In Foreign Hotel Rooms, Prosecutor Says
A former USC gynecologist charged with sexual abuse of patients also sold photographs and sex videos he took of young women he lured to his hotel rooms while traveling outside the U.S., a prosecutor said Tuesday. The allegation was raised at a downtown Los Angeles court hearing, during which the prosecutor tried to persuade a judge to keep George Tyndall’s bail at nearly $2.1 million, arguing that the doctor charged with sexual misconduct toward 16 former patients was a danger to the public and a flight risk. (Tchekmedyian, 7/9)

The Associated Press: Former USC Gynecologist's Bail Lowered In Sex Assaults Case
A Los Angeles judge reduced bail Tuesday for a former University of Southern California gynecologist accused of sexually assaulting 16 women. Superior Court Judge Teresa Sullivan lowered Dr. George Tyndall's bail from nearly $2.1 million to $1.6 million, which he may be able to post using his condominium as collateral. If he posts bail, he will be confined to house arrest with GPS monitoring. (7/9)

CALmatters: New CA Rules For Deadly Police Force Go To Governor's Desk
Aiming to reduce police shootings in a state that has more than 100 of them each year, the California legislature passed a bill Monday setting a tougher standard for police to use deadly force, allowing officers to fire their guns only “when necessary in defense of human life.” Gov. Gavin Newsom said he intends to sign Assembly Bill 392, likely putting an end to more than a year of emotional debate in the Capitol that began after Sacramento police killed an unarmed black man in his grandparents’ backyard. The heated testimony revealed the anguish of Californians whose relatives have been killed by police, as well as the energy of a national civil rights movement drawing attention to the disproportionate impact of police shootings in communities of color. (Rosenhall, 7/8)

MPR: Health Department Investigating Illness For Lake Minnetonka Visitors
Hennepin County Public Health is investigating an illness outbreak among people who were on Lake Minnetonka over the Fourth of July holiday. Public Health Epidemiology Manager Dave Johnson says more than 100 people have called to report vomiting or diarrhea after being on the lake in recent days, especially in the Big Island area. The department has confirmed about 30 cases of illness. (Gunderson, 7/9)

WBUR: Section 35 Panel Recommends Mass. End Civil Commitments To Prisons, Jails
How Massachusetts involuntarily commits people to addiction treatment is likely to change after much debate about one of the most visible intersections of the public health and criminal justice systems. A state commission has released its final recommendations about the civil commitment process under the state law known as Section 35. (Becker, 7/9)

Detroit Free Press: Beaumont Health To Acquire Ohio's Summa Health System
Michigan's largest health care system is about to get bigger. Beaumont Health announced Tuesday that it has signed a letter of intent to acquire  Summa Health, an Akron, Ohio-based nonprofit hospital system that employs 7,000 people at four hospitals and community health centers in northeastern Ohio. Under the deal, Summa Health would become a subsidiary of Beaumont and would maintain local leadership and a local board. (Shamus, 7/9)

Arizona Republic: First Death In Maricopa County Recorded From Hepatitis A Outbreak
Maricopa County has recorded its first death attributed to a statewide hepatitis A outbreak that began late last year, officials said Tuesday. The death marked the third in Arizona since the outbreak began, according to the Maricopa County Public Health Department. (Rafford, 7/9)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Murder In Milwaukee: Segregation Shapes Racial Disparities In Crime
Violent crime in Milwaukee is unequal, victimizing African American residents more often than their white counterparts.Criminologists and other academics have long focused on individual choices and risk factors, such as illegally carrying a gun or selling drugs, when it came to explaining who gets shot and why — but a growing body of research is showing systemic factors may matter more. When public health experts wanted to figure out how violent crime is linked with structural racism, they looked at decades-old housing maps. (Luthern, 7/10)

Los Angeles Times: UCLA Employee May Have Spread Measles At Campus Food Court
A UCLA employee who contracted measles may have exposed students and others to the highly contagious disease, according to campus officials. A university employee was diagnosed with measles on Monday. But health officials say he may have infected students when he ate lunch at the Court of Sciences Student Center food court between 9 and 11:30 a.m. on July 2 and 3, according to health officials. (Karlamangla, 7/9)

Los Angeles Times: San Francisco Homeless Count Goes From Bad To Worse, Jumping 30% From 2017
Over the last several months, cities and counties across California have been releasing homeless counts. The results have been grim. San Francisco was no exception. In May, the city released data that showed homelessness had jumped 17%. That was bad enough. Last week, a more complete accounting, known as a point-in-time count, showed the problem was even worse. The count revealed that homelessness in a city that’s become a caricature of wealth inequality in the U.S. had actually increased by about 30% from 2017, when the last count took place. (Oreskes, 7/9)

PBS NewsHour: What Has Changed In States That Have Legalized Marijuana — And What Hasn’t
Across the country, more state laws are aligning with voter attitudes about recreational use of marijuana. The wave of cannabis legalization has had a significant influence on individuals, communities and governments, and driven the development of a burgeoning commercial industry. William Brangham begins our series on marijuana with a look at what has changed in states that have legalized it. (Brangham, 7/9)

Miami Herald: FL Law Limiting Medical Pot Companies Is Unconstitutional
A 1st District Court of Appeal decision in Tallahassee called the current, vertically integrated system unconstitutional for the way it caps licenses and charges companies with essentially being one-man bands — they must grow, process, package and sell medical marijuana without bringing in businesses to handle different parts of the process. Critics say licensees may not have the technical or business skills to be effective in all areas, making it an inefficient model for a burgeoning industry. (Gross, 7/9)

Boston Globe: As Mass. Debates Marijuana Cafes, Colorado’s Burgeoning Scene Offers Insights
The 11 states with legal recreational pot are grappling with how to handle public and social consumption. As in Massachusetts, people in Colorado are barred from smoking, vaping, or eating pot products anywhere besides private homes. That can pose a challenge for tourists, renters, and public housing residents who have nowhere to legally consume a legal substance. (Martin, 7/9)