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A Wyoming judge has blocked a new state law that bans abortions beyond the earliest stages of pregnancy while a lawsuit challenging the provision moves ahead. It’s the first court ruling affecting the legal status of abortion in Wyoming since the state Supreme Court struck down sweeping abortion and abortion pill bans in January, finding that the laws violated the state constitution. The new law, which would ban abortion after embryonic cardiac activity can be detected, is likely to be overturned on similar grounds, Natrona County District Judge Dan Forgey wrote in granting a temporary restraining order against it Friday. (Gruver, 4/27)

Nebraska on Friday will become the first state to enforce work, volunteer or education requirements for new Medicaid applicants, eight months before the federally mandated requirements kick in. Advocates worry that the state is launching so rapidly that key details remain unresolved and some people who are eligible for coverage will lose it. State officials say they’re prepared, training staff and sending letters, emails and texts to people who could be impacted. Health policy experts, advocates and other states will be watching closely. (Mulvihill and Beck, 4/28)

Democrats and Republicans are at odds over a consequential health care policy embedded in last year’s tax cut law. Democrats say the law’s Medicaid work requirements will create red tape that leads to people losing their coverage. Republicans say the measure encourages work. (Wilkerson, 4/28)

For 30 minutes, Brian Tracey lay naked and unable to breathe on the floor of the medical ward at the St. Johns County Detention Center, a low-roofed building south of Jacksonville, Florida. It was Dec. 15, 2023, the day Tracey was supposed to be released from jail. By the time deputies noticed him, it was too late. His girlfriend, who’d posted bond for Tracey after nine days, waited outside for him but was instead greeted by a deputy and chaplain, who told her Tracey was dead. (Manna, 4/28)

Asked by the Texas Legislature to investigate last summer’s deadly flood at Camp Mystic, Casey Garrett recounted the harrowing early-morning hours as the Guadalupe River surged through cabins and reached deadly heights. Lawmakers at the Capitol hearing sat attentive Monday as Garrett methodically offered one of the most detailed accounts to date of the horrors of July 4 at the camp. (Foxhall, 4/27)

When Halle Middleton arrived for her first day at The Hole in the Wall Gang camp in Ashford, Connecticut, she said she was excited and a little frightened. “It was my first time at sleepaway camp and my first time being away from my family for so long,” Middleton told camp supporters at the March 21 dedication of the infirmary of a new camp opening in Queenstown, Maryland. (Hille, 4/25)