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Republican Gov. Jim Justice on Wednesday broke with West Virginia’s GOP-majority Legislature to veto a bill that would have loosened one of the country’s strictest school vaccination policies. West Virginia is only one of a handful of states in the U.S. that offers only medical exemptions to vaccine requirements. ... The governor said ... he had to defer to the licensed medical professionals who “overwhelmingly” spoke out in opposition to the legislation. (Willingham, 3/28)

Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop promised to scrutinize hospital “monopolies” and the state’s largest health insurer if he’s elected governor. Fulop, who is one of three declared Democratic candidates seeking to succeed Gov. Phil Murphy, presented his health care and human services agenda on Tuesday. The mayor’s proposals are part of a broader effort to define his candidacy as one based around issues. He's released white papers over several months on issues ranging from housing to transportation. (Han, 3/27)

America’s first experiment in treating hard drugs as a public health problem, rather than one for the police, looks like it’s about to end. The Oregon Legislature has voted to repeal the state's three-year-old law decriminalizing drug possession for personal use this month, joining cities from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., that are adopting new tough-on-drugs policies. Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek is expected to sign the bill, passed after a surge in fatal overdoses and public drug use, in the coming days. (Paun and Herbández-Morales, 3/27)

A new public service ad warning parents of cannabis edibles that are illegally packaged to look like common kid snacks is now running in Connecticut. (Srinivasan, 3/27)

A St. Louis aldermanic committee has given its approval to a bill that would use federal money to pay the medical debt of thousands of St. Louisans. The five-member Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee voted this week to send the bill to the full Board of Aldermen with the recommendation of “do pass.” (Fentem, 3/28)

Carly Edwards found out at just about the worst time possible that her oldest daughter is allergic to eggs. It was Elsie Jane’s first birthday. And shortly after the birthday girl dived head-first into her smash cake, the allergic reaction hit: hives, vomiting. (Ingold, 3/28)

Having HIV will no longer automatically disqualify someone from serving as a Metropolitan Nashville Police Officer, the Tennessee city agreed in a legal settlement on Friday. The agreement settles a federal discrimination lawsuit filed last year by a former Memphis police officer of the year. The officer, who filed under the pseudonym John Doe, said Nashville police rescinded a job offer in 2020 upon learning that he had HIV. (Loller, 3/27)

In 2000, few of Minnesota’s public school students had access to mental health therapy within the school building. Today, over half of students do. A new study, published in the Journal of Human Resources, quantifies how many lives these embedded therapists may have saved. Researchers calculated that suicide attempts decreased by 15 percent across 263 Hennepin County schools that implemented school-based mental health. (Eldred, 3/27)

After Bella Grumet, a UNC Chapel Hill senior majoring in neuroscience, lost a close friend to an overdose last year, she was motivated to become an advocate for harm reduction strategies in hopes of preventing more drug-related deaths among college students. (Long, 3/28)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: California Is Expanding Insurance Access For Teenagers Seeking Therapy On Their Own

When she was in ninth grade, Fiona Lu fell into a depression. She had trouble adjusting to her new high school in Orange County, California, and felt so isolated and exhausted that she cried every morning. Lu wanted to get help, but her Medi-Cal plan wouldn’t cover therapy unless she had permission from a parent or guardian. Her mother — a single parent and an immigrant from China — worked long hours to provide for Fiona, her brother, and her grandmother. Finding time to explain to her mom what therapy was, and why she needed it, felt like too much of an obstacle. (Dembosky, 3/28)