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Opponents and proponents of Governor Gavin Newsom’s Prop. 1 mental health bond measure are seeking to correct rejected ballots from the March 5 primary — usually rejected due to a voter’s missing signature or a mismatched signature — as the fate of Prop. 1 hangs by a razor-thin margin. Prop. 1 was backed by 50.1% of voters and opposed by 49.9%, according to the March 16 update from the secretary of state’s office. ... The opposition campaign estimates that upwards of 110,000 disqualified ballots could be corrected and counted. (Harter, 3/19)

Alameda County health officials alerted the public Tuesday about a possible measles exposure at a San Leandro restaurant earlier this month. Health officials said the possible exposure occurred at Sons of Liberty Alehouse in San Leandro between the hours of 4:45 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on March 9. (Parker, 3/19)

Leaders in El Dorado County and the city of Placerville have found themselves at the center of a lawsuit filed against them by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Jennifer Bunshoft, representing the California Department of Public Health. The state is suing the county and city governments after both recently banned drug needle exchange programs.  (Sharp, 3/19)

Colorado lawmakers heard powerful testimony Tuesday about a bill aimed at saving lives. The measure would regulate a food preservative that is lethal in its concentrated form. The preservative, sodium nitrite, is primarily used - in a diluted form - by meat processing companies. But in recent years, it has also been increasingly used - in its pure form - as a suicide agent. (Boyd, 3/19)

Laurie Ayala works out of an office deep in Northwestern Medicine's Prentice Women's Hospital in Chicago, IL. Whenever the small, black landline phone on her desk rings, she answers. This phone is home base for Illinois' Perinatal Syphilis Warmline. Launched in November 2023, the phone line is designed to answer questions about perinatal syphilis from medical professionals across the state. ... There were roughly 4,000 babies born with syphilis in the United States in 2022 – in 2012, that number was 335. (Khera, Kwong, and Carlson, 3/20)

The Rhode Island Senate on Tuesday voted 28 to 7 for a bill requiring the safe storage of firearms, giving a boost to the gun bill that appears most likely to pass this legislative session. Senator Pamela J. Lauria, the Barrington Democrat who introduced the bill, emphasized that guns are the number one killer of children in the United States. “That bears repeating: not cancer, not motor vehicle accidents, but firearms are the number one killer of our children,” she said. (Fitzpatrick, 3/19)

The University of South Florida is preparing to launch a new degree program to train educational specialists in school psychology, amid what one national organization says is a shortage of psychologists at schools. (3/19)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Georgia’s Medicaid Work Requirements Costing Taxpayers Millions Despite Low Enrollment

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s plan for a conservative alternative to Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion has cost taxpayers at least $26 million so far, with more than 90% going toward administrative and consulting costs rather than medical care for low-income people. Kemp’s Georgia Pathways to Coverage offers government health insurance to people earning up to the federal poverty level — $15,060 for an individual adult — if they can document that they’re working, in school, or performing other qualifying activities. (Miller and Rayasam, 3/20)