State Highlights: North Carolina Nursing Program Offers Loving Guidance To Low-Income Moms; Deadly Flu Outbreak In Minnesota Is On Track With Last Year

North Carolina Health News: Nurse Family Partnership Programs Guide First-Timers Through Transition To Motherhood 
When Denise Ward first moved to Charlotte in the summer of 2017, she was pregnant, jobless and homeless. She found a landing spot at the Florence Crittenden residential program for homeless pregnant women. Soon after, Ward joined the Nurse Family Partnership program offered by the community health nonprofit Care Ring. From that point, until her son turns two this month, a nurse from the program meets with her at least monthly to guide her through physical and mental changes of pregnancy, infancy and toddlerhood, support her toward independence, and educate her on parenthood. (Duong, 1/10)

The Star Tribune: Minnesota Flu Deaths Double To 16 So Far This Season 
Sixteen people have died of influenza so far this season in Minnesota, a number that puts the state about on track with the mortality rate this time last year and far lower than during the 2017-18 season, the Minnesota Department of Health said Thursday. According to the department's weekly influenza report, as of last week 16 people have died of flu so far this season. That's double the total of eight deaths that had been reported by the previous week. (1/9)

Modern Healthcare: Mayo Clinic To Create Patient Genetic Data Library
The Mayo Clinic has launched a project to create a genomic sequencing library that will include data on 100,000 of its patients, marking the latest effort by providers to integrate genetic testing into routine care delivery. The health system said Thursday it hopes to collect genetic data from 100,000 Mayo adult patients over the next five years. (Johnson, 1/9)

WBUR: Can Emergency Rooms Hold Psychiatric Patients Longer Than 3 Days? The Mass. High Court Will Decide
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court waded into the debate over psychiatric patients in hospital emergency rooms Thursday. The central question in this case is how long hospital emergency rooms can hold someone who is civilly committed to psychiatric treatment. (Becker, 1/10)

The Washington Post: This Teacher Was Worried Children Weren’t Getting Bedtime Stories. So She Began Reading Them — On Facebook.
Long after leaving the classroom and returning home, second-grade teacher Keisha Yearby of Chesapeake, Va., switches on a laptop in her spare bedroom to deliver to children a nighttime ritual she cherished as a little girl: a bedtime story. On Tuesdays, the B.M. Williams Primary schoolteacher logs on for a new episode of “Ms. Yearby’s Reading Adventures,” broadcast on Facebook Live, where viewers — often schoolchildren connecting through a parent’s account — can interact with her in real time by posting comments. (Balingit, 1/7)

The CT Mirror: Council Gets Input From Incarcerated People About Discrimination
According to a national study, those with criminal records face more than 550 barriers codified in state statute that make their lives harder after they’re released from prison. Thursday’s forum was a part of the council’s research into those forms of discrimination. Members asked those offering testimony to identify themselves by only their first names to ensure anonymity. (Lyons, 1/10)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Inspection Reports On Healthcare Facilities Now Back Online
A month after a glitch took the state’s healthcare facility website offline, the Georgia Department of Community Health on Thursday restored online access while launching a new version of the website with crucial licensing and inspection information for thousands of facilities. The new website is a retooled version of Georgia “Map2Care,” which has been hard to find and cumbersome to use. (Teegardin and Schrade, 1/9)

Politico Pro: New Jersey Senate Amends Anti-Vaccination Bill To Gain O’Scanlon Support; Vote Set For Monday
A last-minute deal Thursday between Democratic leaders and a moderate Republican lawmaker revived legislation that would eliminate the religious exemption for mandatory childhood vaccinations. As hundreds of religious freedom and anti-vaccination protesters rallied in the cold outside the Statehouse, Sen. Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth) announced his conditional support for the vaccination bill — so long as it’s amended to allow unvaccinated children to attend private day cares and schools. (Sutton, 1/9)

Boston Globe: Northeastern Student Diagnosed With Measles
A Northeastern University student who lives in Boston was diagnosed with measles on Wednesday, and health officials are warning that the individual was in several much-frequented spots in the city earlier this month where other people may have been exposed to the highly contagious virus. According to the Boston Public Health Commission, exposures at Northeastern occurred from Jan. 3 through Jan. 6. (McDonald, 1/9)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Fired Budget Director Warned Budish Of 'Critical’ Nursing, Crowding Issues In The Cuyahoga County Jail Month Before First Inmate Died, Email Shows
The now-terminated county budget director warned Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish and two of his aides about “critical” nursing issues at the Cuyahoga County Jail more than a month before the first of eight inmates died in 2018, an email attached to a Thursday court filing shows. The April 18, 2018 email from Maggie Keenan to Budish, then-Chief of Staff Earl Leiken and Fiscal Officer Dennis Kennedy includes bullet-points that outlined what Keenan said amounted to a “critical situation in the County Jail regarding nurses." (Shaffer, 1/9)

Texas Tribune: UT-Austin Acknowledges 17 Cases Of Sexual Misconduct By Employees
Seventeen employees at the University of Texas at Austin, including three faculty members and one research fellow, were found to have violated the flagship's sexual misconduct policies between November 2017 and December 2019, according to a university document released Thursday. One faculty member, a professor in the department of integrative biology, Johann Hofmann, “allegedly tried to start a consensual relationship” with a graduate student and “made inappropriate comments of a sexual nature” to the student, who contacted administrators in December 2017, the document shows. (Najmbadi, 1/9)

Miami Herald: Domestic Violence Nonprofit Is Target Of Bill To Change FL Law
Two state lawmakers filed bills this week to remove a required partnership with Florida’s largest domestic violence nonprofit from state law amid questions about the organization’s executive compensation and compliance with an audit conducted by the state’s social services agency. The bills — sponsored by Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, and Rep. Juan Fernandez-Barquin, D-Miami — would strip the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence of its contract long guaranteed in state statute. (Koh, 1/9)

WBUR: With Mass. Flu Season In Full Swing, Emergency Department Reports Crowding
High flu season has most definitely hit here in Massachusetts and nationally. The lines on the graphs showing flu-related doctor's visits are rising steeply, and the states on the national map are heating up to orange and red, meaning flu activity is high. (Goldberg, 1/9)

St. Louis Public Radio: 'I Got Used To It': Children Surrounded By Gun Violence Carry Its Impact Deep Inside
These students at Ashland Elementary School in north St. Louis — whose names St. Louis Public Radio is not using to protect their privacy discussing such a sensitive subject — have grown numb to the high rate of gun violence, their teachers say. The school is surrounded by more gun violence than nearly any other city school, according to St. Louis Metropolitan Police data. (Delaney, 1/10)

Miami Herald: Medical Debt Collectors Are Workers Comp Claimants
There are hundreds more like Maestre, according to South Florida consumer protection attorneys who frequently sue the debt collectors. But legal challenges so far haven’t slowed the medical debt companies down, the lawyers said, because the penalties they face under federal law aren’t high enough to interfere with their business strategy. (Conarck, 1/10)

Boston Globe: R.I.’s Congressional Delegation Divided Over Legalizing Marijuana At Federal Level
From covering pivotal hearings and key votes to fund-raisers and political maneuvering, the Globe wants to keep a close eye on what Rhode Island’s congressional delegation is doing here and in Washington. We’re launching a weekly feature that will hold our leaders accountable and highlight the work of Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and Representatives James Langevin and David Cicilline. (McGowan, 1/10)