State Highlights: NYC Increases Mental Health Outreach To Homeless After Murders; D.C. Considers One Of Nation’s Highest Taxes On Sugary Drinks

The Wall Street Journal: New York City Boosts Homeless Outreach After Four Men Are Killed
New York City will increase its mental-health outreach to the homeless in Manhattan’s Chinatown after four homeless men were bludgeoned to death in the neighborhood, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday. Psychiatrists and clinicians from the city’s Department of Health and its Thrive mental-health program will perform street evaluations and provide substance-abuse resources to the homeless as part of the new push, officials said. (Honan and Blint-Welsh, 10/7)

The Washington Post: D.C. May Approve One Of The Highest Soda Taxes In The Country.
A majority of the D.C. Council wants to impose one of the highest taxes on sugary drinks in the nation, driving up the cost of a soda in the capital city. A bill announced Monday would levy a 1.5 cent-per-ounce excise tax on sweetened beverages, adding one dollar to the price of a two-liter bottle. The tax applies to sugary drinks with any “natural common sweeteners,” sweeping up beverages such as Ga­tor­ade, sweetened iced coffee and orange juice with added sugar. (Nirappil, 10/7)

Wyoming Public Radio: How Changes To Title X Are Affecting Wyoming's Family Planning Clinics
Gillette Reproductive Health is like any other doctor's office. There are people waiting, a TV is playing, and there are stacks of magazines. But this clinic is a Title X clinic, and Julie Price is its executive director. She said Title X clinics provide reproductive health care for low-income and uninsured people, though people with insurance can also go there. (Wheeler, 10/4)

Los Angeles Times: $600,000 For Homeless Housing? Audit Suggests Spending Money On Shelters Instead
With the costs of building housing on the rise, Los Angeles City Controller Ron Galperin is recommending that some projects be reevaluated to see if their budgets can be cut to use less of the city’s $1.2-billion homeless housing bond. In an audit that will be released Tuesday, Galperin found that more than 1,000 units of housing approved for funding through Proposition HHH could top $600,000 apiece. (Smith, 10/7)

Georgia Health News: Rebate Time: Thousands Of Ambetter Clients To Get Money Back
About 190,000 Georgians with health care policies from Ambetter of Peach State are getting rebates of $314 each. The payouts are required under a rule in the Affordable Care Act. The insurer owes a total of $59.8 million to its individual policyholders in Georgia, according to newly released federal figures. That’s a large chunk of the more than $65 million that must be paid by Georgia insurers. (Miller, 10/7)

Boston Globe: Charlie Baker Pushes Bill That Would Target Stoned Driving
Governor Charlie Baker ramped up his push for a proposal targeting stoned drivers Monday, framing it as change that should go “hand-in-hand” with marijuana cafes potentially entering the state’s nascent legalized landscape. The Republican’s latest pitch comes less than two weeks after state marijuana regulators cleared the way for marijuana deliveries to begin in Massachusetts, and, pending a change in state law, for a pilot program allowing for so-called social consumption sites. (Stout and Martin, 10/7)

Arizona Republic: Doctor Of Incapacitated Patient Who Gave Birth Won't Be Disciplined
The Arizona Medical Board on Monday dismissed a complaint case against the doctor who cared for a woman with severe disabilities who was raped and gave birth at Hacienda HealthCare in Phoenix. The board voted 5-4 to dismiss the case against Dr. Thanh Nguyen, who was named in a $45 million notice of claim against the state as the doctor who had cared for the 29-year-old patient for four months before she gave birth to a boy. The patient is non-verbal and cannot walk on her own. (Innes, 10/7)

The Associated Press: Iowa Board Approves Payment For Student Suicide Jury Verdict
A state panel that signs off on legal settlements for the state of Iowa has approved payment of $315,000 to the parents of an Iowa State University student who died by suicide in November 2015. A jury in August found the state partially liable for the death of Dane Schussler. (10/7)

Houston Chronicle: Houston Doctor Convicted Of Fraudulently Billing Medicare $16 Million 
A Houston physician who owned and ran a local clinic was convicted Monday by a federal jury of falsely billing Medicare $16 million for home health care services that were not medically necessary or provided, according to a Justice Department news release. After a five-day trial and roughly one day of deliberations, the jury found Dr. Yolanda Hamilton, M.D., 56, guilty of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, conspiracy to solicit and receive health care kickbacks and two counts of making false statements related to health care matters. (Banks, 10/7)

The Baltimore Sun: Baltimore County To Sue Monsanto For Alleged Water Contamination 
Baltimore County is going to ask a federal judge to force agriculture chemical company Monsanto to pay for the cleanup of environmental toxins submerged in the county’s water bodies. The County Council on Monday night approved the county’s contract with three law firms to represent the county in a lawsuit to be filed against the company. ...The county alleges residents “have and will” experience a “health impact” from PCB exposure by eating PCB-contaminated fish and shellfish. County Councilwoman Cathy Bevins, a Middle River Democrat, said she was never told to warn her constituents to avoid eating the fish or crabs from the waterways they live on. (Nobles, 10/7)

Boston Globe: State Health Officials Urge People To Get Flu Vaccine
State health officials are urging Massachusetts residents to get a flu vaccine as soon as possible and there are already confirmed cases in the state, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health said. The department has confirmed 82 cases of the flu since Sept. 1, which is a normal amount for this time of year, the department said in a statement. (Lukpat, 10/7)

The Baltimore Sun: Jordan McNair Family, Baltimore City Council President Scott Tout Legislation To Improve Youth Sports Safety 
The family of the University of Maryland football player who died of heatstroke in June 2018 joined city officials in touting newly passed legislation they say will help protect children enrolled in youth sports programs throughout Baltimore. Passed during Monday night’s City Council meeting, the legislation will require anyone applying for a permit to run a youth sports league at one of the city’s youth recreation centers to receive training in six areas — concussion, heat exhaustion, heatstroke, using a defibrillator, cardiac arrest and child abuse — to identify medical conditions as well as signs of abuse. (Davis, 10/7)

The Washington Post: ‘A Way To Find The Peace I Lost’: This Maryland Nonprofit Is Teaching People With Disabilities How To Sail Boats
[April] Schrock is one of more than 600 people with disabilities (and hundreds of their family members and friends) who have benefited from CRAB’s programming this year, said Paul Bollinger Jr., the group’s executive director. In the roughly 30 years since CRAB’s founding, that number probably stretches “easily” into the tens of thousands, though 2019 will set an annual record, he said. Plus, Bollinger added, the group is poised to significantly expand and diversify its fleet of sailboats (currently around a half-dozen, with a bonus canoe). (Natanson, 10/4)

Boston Globe: Finger-Pointing As Marijuana Producers Pressure CCC To Loosen Lab Testing Rules
Good old-fashioned weed — or flower, in industry parlance — is the backbone of practically every regulated marijuana market on Earth. Going to a dispensary and discovering it’s out of flower would be like arriving at a restaurant hungry for dinner, only to realize it’s one of those weird sit-down, dessert-only places that everyone went to that one time in 2008. (Adams, 10/7)