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One-third of Missouri’s rural hospitals are at risk of closing, according to a report using newly updated federal data. A July report from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, a national policy group, found that 19 of Missouri’s 57 rural hospitals are at risk of shuttering because of “serious financial problems.” Many of those hospitals at risk of closure could sustain themselves financially for six to seven years, according to the report. (Bates, 8/1)

Nursing home residents and their loved ones told state health officials Tuesday that care in Connecticut facilities is woefully inadequate, leaving some people stranded for hours without trips to the bathroom, diaper changes or meals, and that neglect from understaffing has caused injury, infection and death. (Carlesso and Altimari, 8/1)

As Houston angles to become the next big biomedical powerhouse, Houston real estate developer McCord Development is aiming to tap into some of the region's life sciences growth with a 45-acre biomanufacturing hub northeast of downtown. McCord Development has been quietly laying the groundwork to develop a life-sciences cluster at its commercial district for the past few years. Two years ago, Generation Park was on the short list of potential sites slated for a $550 million biomanufacturing plant for pharmaceutical company Amgen. Instead Amgen picked North Carolina's Research Triangle, turning down about $110 million incentives offered by Texas, according to media reports. (Luck, 8/1)

Fears over Valley fever are ramping up as the California Department of Public Health warns our historically wet winter, followed by dry and dusty conditions could be the perfect storm for increased risk of contracting the virus. Valley fever, also known as coccidioidomycosis, is a disease caused by a fungus that grows in the soil and dirt. Hotbed areas are typically the Central Valley, but Dr. Stuart Cohen, the co-director for the Center for Valley Fever, said an upward trend in temperatures in recent years is contributing to a rise in Sacramento and the Northern California region. (Sowards, 8/1)

Minnesotans experiencing mental health crises are increasingly turning to texts for help. Texts to Minnesota's suicide prevention and mental health hotline have increased more than 900% in the 10 months since the hotline rebranded to 988 last summer, per Minnesota Department of Health data. (Van Oot, 8/1)

Last year, 64 police officers were fatally shot in the line of duty. There were 160 who took their own lives. The biggest threat to law enforcement officers — and often, their families — is not any armed criminal. It is themselves. (Pacenti, 8/1)

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell is asking members of the City Council who voted against adopting the state’s controlled substance law to consider an amended plan. Harrell is offering a proposal that would align the city’s code with new state law, making possession and public use of drugs such as fentanyl, a gross misdemeanor. But it would also emphasize diversion and health programs and spend $27 million to pay for opioid treatment and related facilities. Seattle saw a 72% increase in overdose deaths from 2021 to 2022. (8/1)

Supervisor Matt Dorsey likened San Francisco’s fentanyl crisis to the 1980s AIDS epidemic during a televised town hall Monday and pledged to work on “jail health” and intervention strategies to combat the deadly emergency that has already claimed more than 300 lives this year. (Toledo, 8/1)

St. Louis County recorded a decrease of almost 11% in drug-related deaths last year, marking its biggest year-over-year decrease in almost a decade. Data provided by the St. Louis County Medical Examiner’s Office showed the county’s first decrease in drug-related deaths since 2015, when it reported a drop of almost 8%. Since then, about one-third of the drug deaths in Missouri have come from the St. Louis region. (Vargas, 8/1)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Repeating History: California County Plugs Budget Gap With Opioid Settlement Cash

Over the past two years, as state attorneys general agreed to more than $50 billion in legal settlements with companies that made or sold opioids, they vowed the money would be spent on addiction treatment and prevention. They were determined to avoid the misdirection of the tobacco settlement of the 1990s, in which billions of dollars from cigarette companies went to plug budget gaps instead of funding programs to stop or prevent smoking. But in at least one California county, history is repeating itself. And across the country, many local leaders are finding themselves in similar positions: choosing between paying bills due today or investing in the fight against an ongoing crisis. (Pattani, 8/2)