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After working with the same prison medical company for 18 years, the Wyoming Department of Corrections is on the cusp of entering into a new partnership designed to serve the needs of inmates across the Cowboy State. (Dudley, 5/22)

Gov. Chris Sununu is at odds with the state’s hospitals over proposed changes to a key source of funding for Medicaid. The governor says his proposal would bring more federal dollars into the state to support Medicaid. It would also set aside more funding for certain community-based health services – including mental health, which Sununu has accused the hospitals of not doing enough on. (Cuno-Booth, 5/22)

Families of children killed in the mass shooting at an elementary school here two years ago and survivors filed a lawsuit Wednesday against 91 state police officers and the local school district, calling their response the “single greatest failure of law enforcement to confront an active shooter in American history.” Even in an era of frequent mass shootings, the Uvalde attack and failures of responding law enforcement to stop the killing shocked the nation. A gunman killed 19 fourth-graders and two teachers while nearly 400 officers from some two dozen state and federal agencies waited to intervene for more than an hour, even as children repeatedly called 911 from inside the classroom. (Findell, 5/22)

The future is uncertain for a Harris County initiative that sends social workers – rather than law enforcement officers – to respond to non-violent 911 calls, after members of Commissioners Court clashed Wednesday over whether to continue making payments to the contractor running the program. Following a lengthy and divisive debate, the court narrowly voted to withhold a $270,000 payment for work completed in February and March of this year. (Rice, 5/22)

A St. Louis-based organ transplant agency is exploring unmanned drones as a faster, cheaper method of moving blood samples and medical supplies across the Midwest. Leaders at Mid-America Transplant, the region’s coordinator for organ and tissue donations, said their first goal is to create a system to transport blood samples from potential organ donors to confirm eligibility, via drone. But they also want to eventually use the devices to move medications and supplies to and from rural areas. (Merrilees, 5/22)

Chloe Burke, a 25-year-old upcoming Miss Texas contestant, will be in Washington D.C. Thursday to lobby for the HEARTS Act and Access to AEDs Act. Access to AEDs (or Automated External Defibrillators) is a deeply personal issue to Burke, who suffered a cardiac arrest in 2019 at University of Houston while she was cheerleading at a football game. She remembers completing her stunt, and then collapsing on the ground. (Parekh, 5/23)