�鶹Ů��

Mayor Eric Adams says that one of the four new community jails that were being built to replace Rikers will now be dedicated to inmates with mental health issues. The new facility will be part of the solution to closing Rikers Island. Adams has tapped his new First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro to build the new jail for those with mental health issues. (Kramer, 3/20)

State regulators have shot down a request by Endeavor Health to eliminate inpatient psychiatric services at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights. The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board voted 4-4 on Tuesday on Endeavor’s application for a certificate of exemption to close the 52-bed unit at Northwest Community Hospital — meaning the motion to grant the request failed, said John Kniery, administrator for the board. (Schencker, 3/20)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: US Judge Names Receiver To Take Over California Prisons’ Mental Health Program

A judge has initiated a federal court takeover of California’s troubled prison mental health system by naming the former head of the Federal Bureau of Prisons to serve as receiver, giving her four months to craft a plan to provide adequate care for tens of thousands of prisoners with serious mental illness. Senior U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller issued her order March 19, identifying Colette Peters as the nominated receiver. (Thompson, 3/20)

Two blocks from the Alabama Statehouse, a black wreath hung on the door of Adams Drugs — a symbol to draw attention to the number of neighborhood pharmacies that have closed, or are in danger of closing, across the state. Dozens of independent pharmacies have shuttered in Alabama over the last two years, according to the Alabama Independent Pharmacy Alliance. Pharmacists said that is because of financial pressures, in part, because it can often cost more to dispense a drug than they are reimbursed by pharmacy benefit managers. (Chandler, 3/21)

Alabama lawmakers on Thursday approved a bipartisan bill that would make teachers and state employees eligible for paid parental leave. The Republican dominated House of Representatives voted 94-2 to pass legislation that would offer up to eight weeks of maternity leave and two weeks of paternity leave after the birth, stillbirth or miscarriage of a child. The legislation now goes to Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, who endorsed the legislation in her annual state of the state speech in February. (3/20)

A new bill from California would seek to remove ultra-processed foods deemed “particularly harmful” to physical and mental health from school lunches by 2032, creating the first legal definition of ultra-processed foods in the U.S. and tasking state scientists and University of California experts with determining which additives pose the most risk in the process. (Todd, 3/19)

The New Hampshire School Board Association has advised schools to eliminate anti-discrimination policies for transgender students to comply with new federal mandates and safeguard their funding. But those mandates are prompting tense debate in some local districts — and warnings that transgender students’ safety could be at risk. (Timmins, 3/20)

Since at least April 2021, the Montana medical licensing board has had evidence, including thousands of pages of patient files and medical reviews, that Dr. Thomas C. Weiner, a popular Helena oncologist, had hurt and potentially killed patients, ProPublica and Montana Free Press have learned. Yet in that time, the board renewed his medical license — twice. Weiner directed the cancer center at St. Peter’s Health for 24 years before he was fired in 2020 and accused of overprescribing narcotics, treating people who didn’t have cancer with chemotherapy and providing substandard care. (McSwane and Silvers, 3/21)

As the first director of South Carolina’s newly organized health agency, Dr. Edward Simmer has a vision of reducing infant mortality, fighting childhood cancers and reducing drug overdoses. But his confirmation has instead turned into a referendum on how the state responded to COVID five years ago and residual anger over lockdowns and vaccines — even though Simmer didn’t start working in the state until February 2021. (Collins, 3/20)