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An investigation into fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs has broadened significantly, federal prosecutors said on Thursday. The prosecutors told reporters that they were investigating suspicious billing practices in 14 Medicaid-funded programs. Until now, the investigation had focused on only three safety net programs run by state agencies. (Londoño, 12/18)

Gov. Ned Lamont announced more than $41 million Thursday to aid residents losing nutrition assistance and offset vanishing federal funding for reproductive health services. The governor also expanded his own recent commitments to fight homelessness and provide relief for thousands losing federal assistance for health insurance. (Phaneuf and Carlesso, 12/18)

Massachusetts state officials have made drastic improvements to a long-term housing program for homeless families following a 2024 Globe article that highlighted how slow processing times and bureaucratic hurdles had resulted in delays for families and providers. The state program, called HomeBASE, pairs homeless families with landlords who have vacant units and then subsidizes rent and other expenses for up to three years. (Gross, 12/18)

OnPoint NYC, the nonprofit that was the first in the nation to openly offer supervised drug consumption services, celebrated its fourth anniversary Thursday by trumpeting its positive community impact, making its case triumphantly and with a touch of defiance following nearly a year of uncertainty and hostility from the federal government. (Facher, 12/18)

The Polk County Health Department identified the state's ninth case of measles this year in an infant who is too young to be vaccinated. Officials said Thursday that the child recently traveled to an area where the virus is spreading, and there are no known local public exposure locations. (Krebs, 12/18)

Five cases of measles have been identified in Fremont County, bringing the state’s total this year to 14. The Wyoming Department of Health says all five were close contacts and spread it to each other. The initial exposure happened out of state. (Ouellet, 12/18)

On the gun violence epidemic —

The body of a man suspected in the killing of two students at Brown University and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor was found in a storage unit in New Hampshire on Thursday night, law enforcement officials said. The authorities had swarmed the storage facility, in Salem, N.H., earlier in the evening in pursuit of a man wanted in connection with the two deadly attacks, which had stunned New England and set off days of frustrated searching. (Thrush, Marcius, Cramer and Blinder, 12/19)

Even as gun deaths in Hawaii have increased at a rate faster than most states over the past decade, the group meant to bring public health officials and law enforcement together to share and discuss trends hasn’t met in over a year. The Gun Violence and Violent Crimes Commission, created by lawmakers in 2020, has struggled to get off the ground. It’s never really been funded. There have even been several efforts to dissolve it, first by merging it with the also defunct Criminal Justice Data Sharing Working Group, then by moving the commission into a new state office for gun violence prevention. Both efforts failed. (Thompson, 12/17)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Guns Marketed For Personal Safety Fuel Public Health Crisis In Black Communities
Leon Harris, 35, is intimately familiar with the devastation guns can inflict. Robbers shot him in the back nearly two decades ago, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. The bullet remains lodged in his spine. “When you get shot,” he said, “you stop thinking about the future.” He is anchored by his wife and child and faith. He once wanted to work as a forklift driver but has built a stable career in information technology. He finds camaraderie with other gunshot survivors and in advocacy. (Clasen-Kelly and Chang, 12/19)