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North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced Friday he would let the state budget bill that’s now reached his desk become law without his signature, opening the way for Medicaid coverage for 600,000 low-income adults, with some receiving the government health insurance soon. The Democratic governor unveiled his decision on the two-year spending plan minutes after the Republican-controlled General Assembly gave final legislative approval to the 625-page measure. (Robertson, 9/23)

State health officials have not yet announced when expansion will take effect, though they have previously suggested a Dec. 1 start date would be feasible. It represents a significant victory years in the making for Cooper, who will leave office in 2025. North Carolina is the 40th state to expand Medicaid since the Affordable Care Act permitted states to enroll people with incomes slightly above the poverty level. (Messerly, 9/22)

It almost seemed anti-climatic Thursday afternoon and early Friday morning when lawmakers voted on the nearly $30 billion state budget. The spending plan — flush with hundreds of millions of dollars for mental and behavioral health care, a new children’s hospital “somewhere in the Triangle,” crisis pregnancy centers, a new rural health program, enhancements to the medical examiner and autopsy system, health care workforce incentives, Medicaid expansion and more — was approved along party lines with little fanfare. To make it official, one more vote is needed by the Senate today before the bill is sent to the governor. (Blythe and Hoban, 9/22)

A recent study by UCLA and UCSF physicians found that among dozens of California workers who got silicosis from grinding countertops, nearly a fifth had died. Their median age at death was 46. More than half had suffered delays in getting diagnosed, as the disease was mistaken for bacterial pneumonia or tuberculosis, and over a third already had severe scarring in their lungs when they were diagnosed. Los Angeles County has been an epicenter of the debilitating disease, with 60 out of the 83 cases among countertop workers identified across the state since 2019 by the California Department of Public Health. (Alpert Reyes and Carcamo, 9/24)

Ben Phillips’ childhood memories include basketball games with friends, and neighbors gathering in the summer shade at their St. Louis housing complex. He also remembers watching men in hazmat suits scurry on the roofs of high-rise buildings as a dense material poured into the air. “I remember the mist,” Phillips, now 73, said. “I remember what we thought was smoke rising out of the chimneys. Then there were machines on top of the buildings that were spewing this mist.” (Salter, 9/24)

Areas of the Texas Gulf Coast are experiencing a red tide algae bloom that is causing dead fish to wash ashore and posing health risks to humans. The Brazoria County Parks Department released an alert Thursday that dead fish have been found along stretches of beach at Follett's Island, Surfside and Quintana Island. They also announced the red tide is tracking to the Southwest and is moving along Brazoria County coastlines and into the San Bernard River delta regions. (Nickerson, 9/22)

More than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court sent abortion policy back to the states, Ohio's Republican-dominated Legislature has not passed any new laws to ban abortion here. ... Republicans control state government and abortion is still legal in Ohio up until 21 weeks and six days gestation because of a court order. Rather than passing new laws, abortion opponents say they are laser-focused on defeating a proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot to enshrine abortion and other reproductive rights in the Ohio Constitution. (Balmert, 9/24)

The health-focused targets are referred to as “95-95-95.” It means 95% of people living with HIV knowing their status; 95% of people with HIV taking anti-viral medicine; and 95% who are being treated are virally suppressed. It’s a lofty goal, but for local governments around the globe — and some in Missouri — it’s one they’ve vowed to achieve by 2030. And if they do, the decades-long HIV-AIDS epidemic could be sharply curtailed, if not ended. (Landis, 9/24)

Patricia Tatum said she thinks about her son from the time she wakes up to the time she goes to sleep. She feels helpless. “There’s nothing I can do,” she said. “I have no information.” Her son, 47-year-old Derrick Williams, sits in the Clay County Detention Center in Missouri — hundreds of miles away from her home in Alabama. He’s been there since January 2022 on charges of robbery and armed criminal action after allegedly stealing a belt from a Walmart in Clay County. A judge last year ruled that Williams, who has schizophrenia according to his attorney, was not competent enough to stand trial “as a result of mental disease or defect” and should receive treatment at a mental health facility. (Bayless, 9/24)

Minneapolis officials intend to transfer two city-owned properties to the Red Lake Band of Chippewa, which plans to build an addiction treatment center at the site. Mayor Jacob Frey announced the plan Thursday to sell the two parcels to the Red Lake Band for $1 each, noting the Native American community is disproportionately affected by addiction. (9/22)

America’s hottest metro area is on track to set an annual record for heat-associated deaths after a sweltering summer, particularly in Phoenix. Public health officials in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix and Arizona’s most populous county, said Friday that 289 heat associated deaths were confirmed as of Sept. 16, with another 262 deaths under investigation. (Snow, 9/23)