State Highlights: New Progressive Use-Of-Force Policy In Camden, N.J., Aims To Reduce Police Shootings; N.Y. Medical Ethicists Cite Invasion Of Privacy In Releasing Info On Fetus Burials

The Washington Post: Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson Announces Groundbreaking Use-Of-Force Policy
On Wednesday, the [Camden, New Jersey Police] department released its new policy, codifying what has been department practice for years. Experts are calling the document — drafted with members of New York University Law School’s Policing Project and vetted by both the New Jersey ACLU and the Fraternal Order of Police — the “most progressive” use-of-force policy to date.Since 2015, under Thomson’s stewardship, the Camden Police Department has adopted use-of-force training and procedures that promote de-escalation and make clear that force is a last resort. (Paul, 8/21)

The Wall Street Journal: New York City Has Been Releasing Burial Records Of Fetal Remains—And Names Of Women Linked To Them
For nearly a decade, New York City has made public the names of thousands of women who had either miscarriages, stillbirths or possibly abortions between 1981 and 2017, raising alarms among medical privacy experts. The information is included in burial records for Hart Island, one of the largest public cemeteries in the country and a potter’s field for unclaimed bodies and deceased low-income city residents. The city has been handing over the records since 2009 to an advocacy group, the Hart Island Project, which has compiled the information into a searchable online database meant to allow relatives to locate the remains of a loved one buried on the island. (Riski, 8/21)

The CT Mirror: CT Offers Limited Protections If ACA Is Tossed
If the Affordable Care Act is abolished as the result of a legal battle over the health care law, not only will more than 300,000 state residents lose coverage, but a majority of those in Connecticut could be affected. That’s because Connecticut laws aimed at protecting consumers apply only to a minority of health insurance policies that cover state residents, and are limited in their scope and effectiveness. (Radelat, 8/22)

Modern Healthcare: Judge Declines To Block Florida Law Limiting Doc Noncompete Contracts
A federal judge Tuesday rejected a large cancer care company's motion to block a controversial new Florida state law limiting the use of physician noncompete agreements. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker nixed the request by 21st Century Oncology for a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of the law, which he compared to the campy 1950s horror movie classic "Creature from the Black Lagoon," filmed 15 miles from the Tallahassee courthouse. (Meyer, 8/21)

Colorado Sun: How Much Does An ER Visit Cost In Colorado? It Depends On Where You Go.
It’s late at night, your kid is really sick and you need to go to the emergency room. How much are you going to be charged just to walk through the door? The answer, according to a new analysis by a Colorado nonprofit, varies widely depending on where you go and how serious the hospital thinks the situation is. It could be as little as $190 at the cheapest hospitals and for the least-serious conditions. Or it could be more than $4,500 at more expensive emergency rooms treating the most grave conditions. (Ingold, 8/21)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Dental Therapists Draw Support; Wisconsin Dental Association Opposed
The state Senate Committee on Health and Human Services held a lengthy hearing Wednesday on a bill by Sen. David Craig (R-Town of Vernon) and Rep. Mary Felzkowski (R-Irma) on whether Wisconsin should join those states. Supporters contend that dental therapists, who would work under the supervision of dentists, would help address one of the state’s more entrenched health problems: access to dental care in rural and urban areas for people who are covered by Badger Care Plus and other Medicaid programs and people who don’t have dental insurance. (Boulton, 8/21)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: What Can Be Done About Louisiana's Dying Mothers? Health Care Industry Gathers To Discuss Solutions
It’s not just Louisiana that has a problem with maternal mortality; the United States ranks 46th in maternal death rates, down from 41st in 2008, according to the World Health Organization, with a death rate of 20.7 women for every 100,000 births. In Louisiana, the death rate is 44.8. For black mothers, the disparity is alarming: The rate of death in Louisiana is 72.6 for every 100,000 births, which ranks it alongside North Korea, according to data published in The Lancet, a peer-reviewed medical journal. For every white mother that dies, four black mothers perish from pregnancy-related complications in Louisiana. (Woodruff, 8/21)

Los Angeles Times: Anti-Vaccine Activist Assaults California Vaccine Law Author, Police Say
An anti-vaccine activist was cited on suspicion of assault by the Sacramento Police Department on Wednesday after he livestreamed a physical confrontation with state Sen. Richard Pan, author of legislation to restrict vaccine exemptions. Pan, a Democrat from Sacramento, was pushed from behind by Kenneth Austin Bennett, who challenged the senator in the 2018 primary but did not qualify for the general election. Bennett filed a recall petition against Pan this year alleging the senator was committing treason by authoring bills to tighten vaccination requirements in the state. (Gutierrez, 8/21)

KQED: Anti-Vaccine Activist Assaults State Sen. Richard Pan, Posts Video To Facebook
Police arrested an anti-vaccine campaigner for allegedly assaulting state Sen. Richard Pan in Sacramento on Wednesday. Pan, a Democrat whose district covers most of central and suburban Sacramento, is the Legislature's leading advocate for vaccines. (Goldberg and Marks, 8/21)

Houston Chronicle: UH Unveils Renderings Of Planned Medical School
New renderings of the University of Houston's planned medical school depict a four-story modern building with lots of glass and a sleek, boxy design. The renderings were unveiled Wednesday, ahead of Gov. Greg Abbott's sign of a ceremonial bill establishing the UH College of Medicine. The Texas Legislature passed the bill in April. (Ackerman, 8/21)

The Washington Post: This Novel D.C. Academy Trains People With Disabilities To Provide Paid Support For Others Living With Disabilities.
For Antonio Myers, life with autism has always felt like sitting in a movie theater. Everyone is watching the same film, said Myers, a 25-year-old D.C. resident on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum. But he’s the only one wearing 3-D glasses. “I am able to see more, behind the scenes, which enables me to understand more of what’s in front of me,” Myers said. “It makes me able to see people as human before anything else” — which makes him “very good at compassionate grieving or just bearing with people.” (Natanson, 8/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: Critics Blast City’s Plan To Shuffle Mental Health Beds At SF General Hospital
As San Francisco struggles with a mental health and homeless crisis on its streets, city workers slammed a decision by the Department of Public Health to move long-term mental health treatment beds to make room for a temporary respite facility. Dozens of long-term beds sit empty at San Francisco General Hospital’s Adult Residential Facility every day, despite intense demand to create more long-term housing for the mentally ill and homeless. (Thadani, 8/21)

The Wall Street Journal: PG&E Power Line That Sparked Camp Fire Was Inspected Weeks Earlier
PG&E Corp. conducted an unusual inspection of the power line that sparked the deadliest wildfire in California history just weeks before it failed, a step the utility has said it normally takes only when it suspects a potential safety problem. The disclosure that workers climbed portions of the Caribou-Palermo line last fall, which PG&E noted in a recent court filing, suggests the company had concerns about the condition of its lines before the Camp Fire, which killed 86 people and destroyed the town of Paradise. (Gold, 8/22)

Los Angeles Times: To Prevent Wildfires, L.A. Wants To Make It Easier To Clear Homeless Encampments
With wildfire season underway, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Wednesday announced a plan to make it easier for authorities to clear homeless encampments in severe fire zones. The proposed ordinance, which will go before the City Council’s Public Safety Committee next week, would change the way the Los Angeles Police Department informs people that they must leave remote areas where the risk of a fire is most extreme. (Oreskes, 8/21)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: New Report: Georgia Programs For At-Risk Students Overlooks Thousands
In a report released this week, the Education Law Center says Georgia programs for at-risk students drastically underserve students who are not proficient on state assessments, and participation is inconsistent across districts. In a guest column, Mary McKillip and Danielle Farrie, researchers at the center, urge Georgia to take action. (Downey, 8/21)

KCUR: Applications For Medical Marijuana Facilities Pour In At Deadline 
With the deadline to submit an application for a medical marijuana business closed, more than 2,100 were received, bringing in more than $5.3 million in fees, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. On Thursday, the department announced it would extend the deadline to 4:30 p.m. Monday. Initially the cutoff was midnight Saturday, but with a slow start early in the application period, the department expected an influx toward the end. (Driscoll, 8/21)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Inside The Georgia Political Split Over How To Curb Toxic Gas Pollution
Shortly after a tense town hall meeting about cancer-causing pollution at the Sterigenics factory in Cobb County ended, Democratic lawmakers renewed their demands that Gov. Brian Kemp shut down the plant until more testing is complete. A day later on the other side of metro Atlanta, most of the politicians representing the BD Bard plant in Covington had a decidedly different response: A call for more air-quality sampling, but no insistence that the plant be shuttered. Those reactions are a snapshot of how lawmakers are grappling with a recent WebMD and Georgia Health News report that exposed the potential of increased long-term risk of cancer from ethylene oxide emissions around both facilities. (Bluestein, 8/22)

Georgia Health News: Clearing The Air? State’s Actions On Toxic Emissions Leave Confusion
In 2018, the EPA posted the results of the National Air Toxics Assessment on its website. The report, which used computer models to estimate the health effects from toxic air pollution, identified 109 census tracts around the U.S. where residents faced increased cancer risks, mainly from exposure to ethylene oxide. Three of those census tracts were in the metro Atlanta area. At the time, the agency did not put out a press release on the report and did not notify residents of its findings. (Goodman and Miller, 8/21)

Wyoming Public Radio: State Warns Residents About Toxic Algae Blooms
Several state departments are warning Wyoming residents about the risks of algal blooms. According to the Wyoming Departments of Health and Environmental Quality and the Wyoming Livestock Board, harmful cyanobacterial blooms (HBCs) are found in still or slow moving bodies of water like lakes and are more likely to be present with warmer temperatures. (Wheeler, 8/21)