�鶹Ů��

A federal jury found a South Carolina man guilty Friday of killing a Black transgender woman, marking the first conviction at federal trial for a hate crime motivated by gender identity, according to authorities. The jury unanimously found Daqua Lameek Ritter guilty of a hate crime, a firearms charge and obstruction for the 2019 fatal shooting of Dime Doe, a 24-year-old transgender woman, the Justice Department announced Saturday. (Wu, 2/24)

Appointment cancellations and financial distress have become a constant at Bethesda Pediatrics, a nonprofit medical clinic in East Texas that is heavily dependent on Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor. On a recent Monday, the mother of a toddler who had a primary care appointment broke down in tears after learning the child had just lost Medicaid coverage, wondering how she could pay the bill. (Weiland, 2/24)

The New Hampshire House took up the first of several gun rights bills Thursday, rejecting a voluntary “do not sell” list and approving a new process for returning firearms after the expiration of a restraining order or bail conditions. Meanwhile, one of the year’s most closely watched bills is set to get its first vote by the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee Friday. House Bill 1711 would add certain mental health records to gun background checks to prevent people who are federally prohibited from buying guns from doing so. (Timmins, 2/23)

There are roughly 40 million people in the United States living with a hearing impairment. The average cost of hearing aids for those with severe impairments is between $4,000-6,000, which makes it difficult for low-income families to get the help they need. Wyoming is the only state in America that doesn't have a committee to advocate for the Deaf community. When members of that community called upon Laramie Senator Dan Furphy to fix that problem, he listened. (Dudley, 2/23)

Fearing the bill won’t have enough votes to pass, Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson said Friday that legislation to allow medically assisted suicide may meet its end in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. “This is not a bill that we’re going to be twisting arms on,” Ferguson, a Baltimore City Democrat, said at a news conference Friday morning. “This is one where it’s deeply personal, and people are taking a very personal look. And so we’ll want to know where the votes are before things move forward, but it’s going to be very tight, should it move forward.” (Gaskill, 2/23)

For years, veteran Texas sheriffs like Travis County’s Sally Hernandez have watched how countless tax dollars are spent to break the endless cycle of taking mentally ill or intoxicated individuals who commit minor crimes to treatment or the jail, only to see them released within hours. (Simpson, 2/26)

Proposition 1, the only statewide ballot measure in California’s March 5 primary, asks voters to make a fundamental choice about the state’s mental health system: Should California shift money away from preventative programs to spend more on intensive care for the most severe cases? ... Supporters argue the mental health crisis on California streets demands that more be spent on the people with the most severe problems. But opponents argue such a shift would cut important funding from prevention services, which they say save people from needing higher-level care in the first place. (Bollag, 2/23)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: California Gov. Newsom Wants Voters To Approve Billions More To Help The Homeless. Will It Help? 

California voters will decide March 5 whether to pump billions more dollars into combating the nation’s worst homelessness crisis, an investment Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom argues will finally provide the housing and treatment so badly needed by tens of thousands of homeless people. Newsom is spearheading Proposition 1, a $6.4 billion bond he says would fund 11,150 new beds and housing units for people living on the streets with untreated mental illness or addiction, and ongoing capacity for 26,700 additional outpatient appointments. It would also alter how $3 billion to $4 billion in existing annual tax funding for mental health services is spent, funneling a hefty portion of it into housing. (Hart, 2/26)