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The state Health Department is investigating the spread of Legionnaires’ disease among nine residents in Passaic and Bergen counties, where a cluster of cases was detected last winter, acting state Health Commissioner Kaitlan Baston announced. ... In last year’s outbreak and in the current cluster of cases, the state declined to say where in Bergen and Passaic counties the affected people live. In March, the health department reported seven Legionnaire’s cases in Trenton, Ewing, and parts of Lawrence and Hopewell Township in Mercer County. All the homes were served by Trenton Water Works. Two people died. (Livio, 8/9)

While Washington state is still far from being the tick haven found in other parts of the country, climate change and warmer temperatures are expected to bring the blood-sucking parasites closer to home. Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department reported the state's second case of anaplasmosis, a tick-borne disease, last month. It was diagnosed in a woman who had spent time in wooded areas of Puyallup and Eatonville. (Clarridge, 8/9)

Dallas County officials are concerned after an Irving woman died from West Nile virus. It was the first death from the mosquito-borne virus in North Texas this year. The woman had been diagnosed with neuroinvasive disease, which, according to the CDC, occurs in less than 1% of those with West Nile. (Leach, 8/9)

Immunizations among school-age children continue to decline in Colorado, falling below 90% for the second year in a row. Colorado's vaccination rates remain among the nation's lowest, and public health officials are warning parents about the possibility of outbreaks in the upcoming school year. (Frank, 8/9)

Chicago has had some of the worst air quality, severe heat islands and leftover lead pipes in the country. Add noise pollution to the mix. Noise pollution is proven to take years off your life. A recent New York Times investigation shows chronic noise — as suffered by residents near flight paths — can shorten life spans. (Kaufmann, 8/9)

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the oldest member of Congress, fell in her home and went to a hospital for a short time, her office said on Wednesday. The 90-year-old California Democrat, who has faced mounting concerns about her health and her ability to perform the duties of a senator, “briefly went to the hospital yesterday afternoon as a precaution after a minor fall in her home,” her office said in a statement. All of her scans were clear, and she returned home later Tuesday, said her spokesman Adam Russell, who provided no further details. (8/9)

After days of confusion, the Florida education commissioner said in a letter sent late Wednesday that high schools may teach Advanced Placement Psychology without running afoul of Florida law — including material on sexual orientation and gender identity. Last week, Commissioner Manny Díaz Jr. told districts that the class could be offered, but only if material on those topics was excluded, according to district officials on a call with him. Large school districts across Florida responded by dropping the course and began a stressful process of quickly preparing instructors to teach new curriculum. (Meckler, 8/9)

Some arguments in favor of laws that restrict gender-affirming care claim that patients may some day regret any irreversible or semi-irreversible part of their transition, but a small new study found that satisfaction with one such surgery is significant, even over the long term. The study, published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Surgery, shows that people who had a gender-affirming mastectomy, sometimes called top surgery, had extremely low rates of decisional regret and extremely high levels of satisfaction with their decision to have the procedure. (Christensen, 8/9)