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Wyoming’s ban on gender-affirming care went into effect July 1, restricting medical treatment like puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender youth. The Equality State is one of 25 states to pass such a law — part of a flurry of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation introduced in recent years. (Merzbach, 7/1)

Starting Monday, students on West Virginia University's campus were allowed to carry guns on campus grounds and all college campuses throughout West Virginia. It's thanks to the West Virginia Campus Self-Defense Act. "Personally, I think it's a great idea. I was having a conversation with some of my buddies, and we all thought that was something that would occur in the near future, and we all thought that was a good idea," said West Virginia student Bryce Biggs. (Pintar, 7/1)

In an initiative that appears to be the first of its kind nationwide, N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper and state health officials unveiled a plan today to boost federal payouts to hospitals that take specific steps to ease the burden of medical debt for low-income patients. (Crouch, 7/1)

Nick Craciun believes he talked to aliens and saw the devil himself. Yet despite criminal charges, homelessness, and inpatient psychiatric care for treatment of bipolar disorder, the 22-year-old denies having mental illness and refuses medication, his parents say. He’s now in a jail cell in Billerica, charged with assaulting his father. (Laughlin, 7/1)

For people who can’t afford safe housing or nutritious food, doctor visits and hospital stays can only do so much to fix health problems. That’s the premise behind a plan to allow Colorado’s Medicaid program, which provides government-funded health insurance for people with low incomes, to cover the costs of housing and nutrition services. (Brown, 7/1)

A federal judge on Monday blocked Mississippi from enforcing a new law that requires users of social media platforms to verify their ages and restricts access by minors to their sites if they lack parental consent, saying it was likely unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Halil Suleyman Ozerden in Gulfport, Mississippi, sided with tech industry trade group NetChoice in finding the law unduly restricted its users' free speech rights in violation of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. (Raymond, 7/1)

While serving time in a Wisconsin prison in 2021, Darnell Price watched a golf-ball-size lump on his thigh grow as large as a football. Mr. Price pressed for a thorough examination, he said, but the prison’s physician, Dr. Joan Hannula, did not order a biopsy. Months later, when Mr. Price moved to another prison, a different doctor ordered the test and diagnosed him with Stage 4 soft-tissue cancer. Soon after, the state’s Department of Corrections took the extraordinary step of granting him compassionate release, a measure reserved for the terminally ill or elderly. (Koran, 7/2)