State Highlights: Utah Family Sues After School Bars Diabetic Son From Attending; Attorney General Declares Public Safety Emergency In Rural Alaska

The New York Times: Utah Family Sues After Son With Diabetes Is Kept From School
The 8-year-old son of Caly and Wade Watkins is an active and happy Utah boy, they say. He fishes in a pond, sometimes landing a catfish, which he throws back. He rides his dirt bike for miles. He pores over his schoolwork, which in second grade included mastering multiplication tables. But at least four times a day, the Watkinses’s son, who has Type 1 diabetes, needs to test his blood sugar and take injections of insulin, including while in school. (Hauser, 6/29)

ProPublica: “Dire” Law Enforcement Crisis In Rural Alaska Prompts Emergency Declaration, New Federal Funding
U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr declared an emergency for public safety in rural Alaska on Friday and announced more than $10 million in funds as part of a sweeping plan to support law enforcement in Alaska Native villages. The U.S. Department of Justice will immediately provide $6 million to the state to hire, equip and train rural police, and for mobile holding cells. An additional $4.5 million will support 20 officer positions and be provided to Alaska Native organizations by the end of July. (Demarban, 6/28)

The Associated Press: Religious Discrimination Suit Involving Flu Shot Is Settled
A mid-Michigan health care system has agreed to pay almost $75,000 to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of a job candidate who was passed over because her beliefs preclude her from getting flu shots. The Lansing State Journal reports the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says Memorial Healthcare of Owosso rescinded its job offer for a medical transcriptionist position after learning of Yvonne Bair's Christian beliefs. Court records say Bair believed she must use "natural methods" for health. (6/28)

Boston Globe: Deemed Ineligible For Surgery, Transgender Man Files Discrimination Complaint
A transgender man from Western Massachusetts who says he was repeatedly denied insurance coverage for a gender-affirming surgery filed a complaint last week with the state’s commission against discrimination, according to his lawyer. ...According to CareOne’s plan, any treatment that changes “sex or sexual characteristics” — including surgical procedures, hormone therapies, and prosthetic devices — isn’t covered. (Kuznitz, 6/29)

North Carolina Health News: NC Health Department Would Face ‘Dramatic’ Cuts Under Proposed Budget 
As the state budget moves toward what looks to be an inevitable veto from Gov. Roy Cooper, state health leaders are raising alarm about some of the budget provisions drafted by Republican state lawmakers. Health and Human Services Sec. Mandy Cohen argues that some of the deep cuts could prevent her department from doing its job. Cohen has spent a lot of time at the legislative building in Raleigh this week, working the halls and talking to budget writers about her qualms with the budget. She’s also been making media appearances to reiterate her priorities and concerns. (Knopf and Hoban, 6/28)

New Hampshire Public Radio: To Fight Hepatitis Outbreak, Nashua's Health Workers Bring Vaccines To The Streets
New Hampshire is in the midst of an outbreak of hepatitis A. Since November, 142 people have been diagnosed with hepatitis A in the state and one person has died. In an average year in New Hampshire, just 7 people get the virus. In Nashua, public health officials say a proactive approach is keeping the outbreak from getting much worse. (Moon, 7/1)

The Associated Press: Top Kansas Court: Cities Can Raise Age For Buying Tobacco
Kansas' highest court ruled Friday that cities can raise the age for buying tobacco products even though state law sets it at 18, bolstering a public health movement driven in part by concerns about teenagers' use of e-cigarettes. The state Supreme Court's unanimous decision allows the city of Topeka to enforce an ordinance setting the age to buy tobacco products, e-cigarettes or liquid nicotine at 21. (6/28)

The Advocate: Months After Louisiana Legislature Nixes Raising Smoking Age To 21, Congress May Force The Issue 
The Louisiana Legislature rejected a proposal that would have raised the smoking age from 18 to 21 during its most recent session, but it may not have a choice on the issue if some members of Congress get their way. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and Sen. Tim Kaine, the Virginia Democrat who was Hillary Clinton's running mate in 2016, are pushing a change to federal law that would outlaw tobacco sales to anyone younger than 21. (Crisp, 6/30)

Kaiser Health News: State Lawmakers Eye Federal Dollars To Boost Mental Health Counseling By Peers
It’s 1 p.m. on a balmy Oakland afternoon as residents of Great Expectations Residential Care, a home for people with mental illness, gather in an activity room for a game of bingo. Lee Frierson, an unpaid volunteer, introduces himself as he and his team leader, Charlie Jones, unpack chips, soda, batteries and shampoo that they will hand out as prizes.“I’m Lee with Reach Out,” Frierson says. “I’m a peer. I suffer from depression. It helps me to help you guys.” (Waters, 7/1)

The Associated Press: 7 Hurt When Gunfire Erupts At Louisiana Nightclub 
Police continued Sunday to investigate a shooting at a Baton Rouge nightclub that left seven people injured, even as officials in Louisiana's capital city pledged to do more to fight gun violence after several high-profile shootings. Local news outlets report gunfire strafed the inside and parking lot of the Stadium Ultralounge & Bar early Saturday, apparently after a fight in which video footage showed one man breaking a bottle over another man's head. (6/30)

KQED: Officials Launch Probes Into Potential Pesticide Drifts That Sickened Dozens Of Central Valley Farmworkers
The latest incident took place in Fresno County on Thursday morning when a group of farmworkers picking nectarines began feeling sick after several pesticides had been sprayed on a nearby field. That came nine days after several other farmworkers in Tulare County reported feeling ill at the end of their shift, possibly because of a chemical drift. (Goldberg, 6/28)

The Associated Press: Charter Renewed For Colorado School Where Shooting Happened
A Colorado school that was the site of a fatal shooting received a conditional five-year renewal of its charter on Saturday that requires it to meet certain reporting, staffing and safety requirements, such as the hiring of additional security personnel. (6/29)

New Hampshire Public Radio: N.H. Sharply Lowers Proposed PFAS Water Limits, Now Among Nation’s Strictest
State environmental officials on Friday proposed what would be some of the lowest limits in the country for four types of PFAS chemicals in public water supplies and groundwater. The numbers are far lower than what the state originally had planned, and lower than the federal advice New Hampshire currently uses as law. (Ropeik, 6/28)

Pioneer Press: Thefts From Seniors In Assisted Living Topped $117K, UMN Researcher Finds 
Minnesotans in assisted living facilities lost more than $117,000 to theft over the past five years, according to an analysis of state data. Eilon Caspi, a research associate at the University of Minnesota school of nursing, examined confirmed reports of theft between March 2013 and August 2018. He found 116 residents were victims of theft and $1,130 was the average amount lost by the 104 residents who provided that information to investigators. (Magan, 7/1)

North Carolina Health News: New Funds For Hepatitis C Prevention Available Until The End Of July 
North Carolina organizations providing harm reduction education and services can now apply for grants ranging from $25,000 to $150,000 with the national Harm Reduction Coalition through the end of July. As infection rates for hepatitis C continue to rise across the nation largely due to injection drug use, the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences — a major producer of hepatitis C treatment drugs — gave the Harm Reduction Coalition about $11 million to be doled out in grants to five Appalachian states with some of the highest infection rates. (Knopf, 7/1)

Boston Globe: Mother Recalls Final Visit With Child Who Died In DCF Care
Peter Smith-Gross Jr. is one of three children who died in separate incidents since mid-April, all while in the care of DCF. The Essex district attorney’s office announced Thursday that the three cases are under investigation. (Eppolito, 6/28)

The Washington Post: Driven From Paradise By Fire, Evacuees Worry That Gentrification Will Prevent Them From Coming Home
As heavy equipment hauls out mangled bedsprings, tree trunks and charred fireplace bricks, evidence of rebirth is emerging in this town scorched seven months ago by the most destructive fire in state history. Signs offering “Cash for your lot” are tacked up on telephone poles; real estate agents and developers in shiny SUVs are riding across the torched earth; and the frames of houses are taking shape, more modern and fire resistant than the ones that preceded them. (Sellers, 6/20)

Boston Globe: Bill Filed In Mass. House Would Make CBD Legal In Food, Cosmetics, And More
A bill filed in the Massachusetts House of Representatives on Thursday would clear up statewide confusion around the legality of CBD, putting to rest concerns from consumers and hemp cultivators that their CBD products could be seized or their growing licenses revoked. The legislation, if passed, would effectively reverse recent guidance from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources and Department of Public Health that have prohibited the use of hemp-derived CBD in food or in any products that make medicinal or therapeutic claims. (Gans, 6/28)