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Democrats and Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee sparred over food aid on Thursday at the markup of the chamber’s version of the $1.5 trillion omnibus farm bill. The issue set off partisan fireworks at the contentious session, during which representatives from both sides of the aisle took to the dais to extol the virtues of bipartisanship while accusing their opposite numbers of throwing those values in the trash. (Elbein, 5/23)

The Illinois legislature has passed a bill that would cap patient costs for prescription inhalers at $25 a month. The bill’s passage follows years of outcry from patients with asthma and other lung conditions over the cost of inhalers, which can be hundreds of dollars a month. (Schencker, 5/23)

Gov. Tim Walz traveled Thursday to the rural town of Hoyt Lakes to sign a bill that will send $30 million to rural emergency medical services, a shot in the arm that providers had hoped would be even bigger. The legislation will provide $24 million in short-term emergency aid for EMS in greater Minnesota. The other $6 million will go towards creating a “Sprint Medic” pilot program to test the efficiency of roving paramedics in rural Minnesota. (Roth, 5/23)

Nursing home closures across New England could portend trouble nationwide as more facilities struggle financially and hospitals face challenges finding post-acute care for patients. New England has lost about 15% of its nursing homes since 2010, according to a study published last week by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. (Eastabrook, 5/23)

Working-age residents who died between 2011 and 2020 in Massachusetts were 35 percent more likely to have suffered fatal opioid-related overdoses if they had been hurt previously on the job, according to new data released Thursday by the state Department of Public Health. The report, which analyzed workers’ compensation claims and death certificates of more than 4,300 Massachusetts workers, is the first of its kind to show that residents injured on the job have a heightened risk of opioid addiction and overdose deaths, the public health department said. (Johnston, 5/23)

Computer scientists in Rolla are working with dermatologists on a project that uses artificial intelligence to help detect skin cancer. The scientists at Missouri University of Science and Technology received a $440,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health for the project. The money will fund updates to an International Skin Imaging Collaboration’s database, an enormous image collection of benign and cancerous moles. (Fentem, 5/24)