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Public health officials in Arizona’s most populous county on Wednesday reported they confirmed a staggering 645 heat-associated deaths last year — more than 50% higher than 2022 and another consecutive annual record in arid metro Phoenix. The numbers in the preliminary report by the Maricopa County Department of Public Health alarmed officials in America’s hottest big metro, raising concerns about how to better protect vulnerable groups such as homeless people and older adults from the blistering summer heat. (Snow, 3/13)

Changes to a pair of Illinois programs that offer health care coverage to undocumented — and some documented — residents will mean thousands of people stand to lose their health insurance. (Degman, 3/13)

The Nebraska Legislature could not override Gov. Jim Pillen’s veto of a “safe needles” bill on Tuesday, losing by just three votes. Thirty supporters were needed to override the veto, but only 27 voted to do so despite previous broad bipartisan support for the bill that would’ve established a syringe service program (SSP) to reduce HIV and other blood-borne infections by distributing clean syringes and creating touchpoints to access addiction treatment. (Marchel Hoff, 3/13)

People with mental illnesses who are in conservatorships are being held in Los Angeles County jails even after their criminal charges are dropped, according to a report released Tuesday by Disability Rights California. Similarly, they are staying months in county psychiatric hospitals after doctors have agreed that it’s safe for them to leave, the report said. The issue is partly one of capacity. (Cosgrove, 3/13)

Operation Warrior Resolution is seeing success treating post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues with a holistic method called brain-based healing. (Owens, 3/13)

A new select committee on happiness holds its first hearing to figure out how to make Californians happier. (La, 3/12)

A New Hampshire House committee is recommending passage of a bill that would add people who are involuntarily committed to psychiatric facilities or found incompetent to stand trial to the FBI’s gun background check database. New Hampshire is currently one of just a handful of states that does not share similar data with the FBI. (Bookman and Cuno-Booth, 3/13)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: They Were Injured At The Super Bowl Parade. A Month Later, They Feel Forgotten

Jason Barton didn’t want to attend the Super Bowl parade this year. He told a co-worker the night before that he worried about a mass shooting. But it was Valentine’s Day, his wife is a Kansas City Chiefs superfan, and he couldn’t afford to take her to games. ... So Barton drove 50 miles from Osawatomie, Kansas, to downtown Kansas City, Missouri, with his wife, Bridget, her 13-year-old daughter, Gabriella, and Gabriella’s school friend. When they finally arrived home that night, they cleaned blood from Gabriella’s sneakers and found a bullet in Bridget’s backpack. (Sable-Smith and Lowe, 3/14)