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The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) today announced two more presumptive H5 avian flu positives in dairy workers, which if confirmed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), would raise the state’s total to five over the past few weeks. The two new possible cases were reported from the Central Valley, and so far there are no known links among the human cases, suggesting that only animal-to-human transmission is occurring in the state, the CDPH said in a statement. (Schnirring, 10/9)

New York officials denied a bankruptcy-court-authorized buyer’s application to acquire the Harborside on Long Island, upending the sale and again leaving hundreds of residents at the three-time-bankrupt retirement community at risk of losing their homes. The New York State Department of Health denied the application filed by the Harborside’s court-authorized new manager, an affiliate of major retirement-home operator Life Care Services Communities, according to a letter dated Oct. 3 obtained by The Wall Street Journal. (Matsuda, 10/9)

Two weeks ago, as the Adams administration was beginning its implosion, New York City’s health commissioner, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, announced that he would step down in January. ... Among his accomplishments, Dr. Vasan established HealthyNYC, an initiative to extend the life expectancy of New Yorkers to 83 by the end of the decade. ... While, on the face of it, a modest goal, it inevitably bumps up against the realities of an overburdened emergency-care system that further reveals the deficiencies of the city’s transportation policy in all of its life-or-death consequence. (Bellafante, 10/10)

Less than half of the likely electorate in Florida say they would vote for an amendment that would legalize abortion up to the point of fetal viability, according to a New York Times and Siena College poll published Tuesday. The survey, conducted from Sept. 29 to Oct. 6, found that among likely voters in the state, 46 percent said they would vote for Amendment 4, which would legalize abortions up to what is about the 24th week of pregnancy, while 38 percent they wouldn’t vote for it. (Ventura, 10/9)

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) called for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate youth residential treatment facilities operated by multiple national health care companies, alleging evidence of civil rights violations and Medicaid fraud. In two letters to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Wyden claimed evidence showed “civil rights violations of children and young people” as well as “abuse, neglect, and fraud” carried out by four operators of youth residential treatment facilities: Universal Health Services, Acadia Healthcare, Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health and Vivant Behavioral Healthcare. (Choi, 10/9)

For students experiencing homelessness, the start of a new academic year can be fraught with anxiety. Unstable housing, food insecurity and lack of transportation to and from school are just a few of the challenges they and their families may face. Federal law requires school districts to meet these challenges. But, as The Midwest Newsroom’s investigative series Unhoused/Unschooled found, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska school districts are undercounting students who are homeless, which means thousands are not getting the support they need. In many cases, school districts don’t even apply for available grants. (Mansouri and Wheaton, 10/9)

The City of St. Louis is seeing lower-than-expected revenue from the sale of recreational marijuana. Officials had projected the city would raise $2.4 million, or about $200,000 a month, from the 3% tax in the current fiscal year. But Budget Director Paul Payne told a meeting of the Board of Aldermen's appropriations committee on Wednesday that the numbers are lagging. (Lippmann, 10/9)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Montana Looks To Fast-Track Medicaid Access For Older Applicants

Montana is looking to fast-track Medicaid access for older adults who need help to stay in their homes or towns. Medicaid, the joint federal-state health care program for low-income Americans, opens the door to services such as paying for help to prepare meals or shower safely. But applying for and obtaining that coverage can take weeks or months, leaving aging people in a dangerous limbo: too vulnerable to live at home without assistance, but too healthy to merit a hospital or nursing home bed. (Houghton, 10/10)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Happening In Springfield: New Immigrants Offer Economic Promise, Health System Challenges

When Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance claimed Haitian immigrants had caused infectious-disease rates to “skyrocket” in Springfield, Ohio, local health commissioner Chris Cook checked the records. They showed that in 2023, for example, there were four active tuberculosis cases in Clark County, which includes Springfield, up from three in 2022. HIV cases had risen, but sexually transmitted illnesses overall were decreasing. (Armour, 10/10)