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Texas is in the midst of a mental health workforce shortage. But where is the state short? Today, 246 of Texas’ 254 counties are wholly or partly designated by the federal government as “mental health professional shortage areas,” and that’s in a state where roughly 5 million people do not have health insurance. This has had a particularly dire effect in rural, border, and frontier counties in Texas, as some regions might have only one mental health professional or none. (Simpson and Nicholson-Messmer, 7/17)

Iman Cook was nervous as he addressed the Atlanta school board during a recent meeting. The 17-year-old Mays High School sophomore spoke about how mental health struggles can affect students’ academic performance and well-being. He made a request to the district’s elected officials. (Dalton, 7/16)

A Southern California school district involved in an ongoing legal battle with the state over the district’s gender-identity policy sued Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom Tuesday over a new law banning districts from requiring that parents be notified of their child’s gender identification change. The Chino Valley Unified School District and a handful of parents argued the law violates the rights of parents protected under the U.S. Constitution. (Austin, 7/17)

Tampa General Hospital says it will develop a colorectal cancer center after receiving a “transformational” donation from philanthropists John and Susan Sykes. The center, part of the TGH Cancer Institute, will support patient care, education and research as well as the colon/rectal surgery division with the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, the hospital’s teaching partner. (Mayer, 7/16)

Bird flu has infected six farmworkers in Colorado this month — the most in any state — as health officials stressed the importance of preparedness to contain the H5N1 virus spreading in dairy herds and poultry flocks across the country. ... During a news briefing Tuesday, federal officials said temperatures soaring above 104 degrees made it difficult for workers to wear the required full-body suits, goggles and N95 masks to protect them from the virus. (Sun, 7/16)

During a game of Red Rover when she was 16 years old, Rochelle “Roz” Siuvuq Ferry lost a front tooth. Ferry, who is Inupiaq, remembers having to get on a plane to get from her remote Alaskan village to the city of Nome to start the tooth replacement process. Traveling to Nome for dental care is what everyone in her community had to do — even for a toothache or a basic cleaning. There was no such service where they lived. (Hassanein, 7/17)

Suburban Community Hospital in Montgomery County converted to a micro-hospital Tuesday, resulting in layoffs for 23 nurses, their union said. Other nurses were reassigned in the hospital or to other hospitals in the area that are part of the same system. “It is devastating,” said Octavia Rumer, an emergency department nurse at Suburban. (Gutman, 7/16)

A normally prosaic budgeting process for proposed constitutional amendments in Florida ended in frustration — and legal threats — after Gov. Ron DeSantis and another state Republican leader tapped anti-abortion advocates to sit on a panel overseeing the state’s abortion-rights ballot measure that will be in front of voters in the fall. The fighting around obscure language related to the measure — which is Amendment 4 on November’s ballot — is just the latest battlefield in an incredibly contentious brawl over the procedure. (Sarkissian, 7/16)

Arkansas is being sued for rejecting petitions in favor of a proposed ballot measure to scale back the state’s abortion ban, with supporters asking the state Supreme Court on Tuesday to order officials to start counting more than 100,000 signatures from people who back amending the constitution. The ballot measure wouldn’t make abortion a constitutionally protected right, but it would limit when abortion can be banned. (DeMillo, 7/16)

For the past two weeks, abortion providers across Kansas have been required to ask patients why they’re terminating their pregnancy – a new rule providers say harasses women, but one that abortion opponents argue will yield valuable information. The new survey is required under a Kansas law that took effect July 1. But patients don’t have to answer the questions. (Barackman, 7/16)