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KHN: LA Mayoral Hopefuls Agree Addressing Homelessness Is Crucial But Disagree On How

As encampments multiply from Echo Park to Venice, homelessness has been the top issue in the L.A. mayoral race. And although Angelenos express broad support for building more housing for the homeless, the contenders say that can be only part of the solution. Several top candidates say the city must also expand services for people struggling with mental illness and drug addiction. Although city officials have said 29% of homeless people have behavioral or substance use disorders, that number is likely far too low. (Marsa, 4/29)

The state Department of Transportation is entitled to clear homeless encampments near Interstate 80 in Berkeley and Emeryville and is not required to provide other housing for the residents, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, overturning a judge’s order that had halted the removal. The decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals may not have an immediate impact on the 27 camp residents protected against eviction by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen’s injunction, which was issued in September and is due to expire on Saturday. But the appeals court noted that the injunction, originally scheduled to lapse on March 23, has already been extended once by Chen and, before Wednesday’s ruling, might have been renewed again — although a lawyer for the residents said Chen had ruled out any further extensions. (Egelko, 4/27)

Jeff Olivet, has been executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness for all of eight weeks. One of his first stops? Houston. “You slashed homelessness in this area by two thirds in a decade,” he said at a State of Homelessness conference hosted Thursday by the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston and Harris County. “That is extraordinary.” Houston, once called out in 2011 by the Department of Housing and Urban Development for the size of its homeless population, has since more than halved the number of people without homes in Harris and Fort Bend counties to 3,200 in 2022 from 8,500, even as the overall population in those two counties grew — and homeless populations in other major cities surged. (Schuetz, 4/28)

The director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Rahul Gupta, announced in Houston Thursday the allocation of $275 million as part of President Biden’s National Drug Control Strategy. The funds will be distributed among the 33 High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas in the country, including around $12 million for Houston, said Gupta at a press conference in Houston. “This funding supports President Biden’s new comprehensive strategy to go after two drivers of the overdose epidemic: untreated addiction and drug trafficking,” said Gupta, speaking at Houston Police Department headquarters. (Tallet, 4/28)

After just seven months, Dr. Catherine Gordon is no longer in her leadership posts at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. Mark A. Wallace, president and CEO at Texas Children’s, who initially hailed Gordon as “a gifted physician/scientist and renowned leader” upon her hiring, did not address Gordon by name in a news release. In a later statement, the hospital said she resigned. “We thank Dr. Gordon for her many contributions to Texas Children’s Hospital and our patients, and we wish her all the best in her next endeavors.” (Gill and Carballo, 4/28)

Tennessee Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey is leaving state government next month, Gov. Bill Lee said. The governor will name a successor in coming weeks, his office said Thursday. Piercey’s departure is effective May 31. Piercey joined the administration in January 2019 and was a member of the Governor’s Unified Command Group during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also led efforts to innovate public health operations in Tennessee and strengthened the workforce pipeline in health care, Lee’s office said. (4/29)

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday that a newly created cannabis research center won’t slow his review of whether he has the authority to singlehandedly legalize medical marijuana — a decision that’s likely to come this summer. The governor said he sees value in the cannabis center’s formation, but added some lawmakers used it as a tactic to successfully block a bill that would have made medical marijuana legal. Beshear said he won’t wait for the center to do cannabis studies before deciding whether to take action. (Schreiner, 4/28)

Lawmakers in Kansas on Thursday sustained Gov. Laura Kelly’s (D) veto of two bills accused of being discriminatory against LGBTQ+ people in the state. One of them, a transgender athlete ban, would have barred transgender women and girls from competing on school sports teams consistent with their gender identity. The other would have established a Parental Bill of Rights allowing parents to challenge classroom materials inconsistent with their personal beliefs. The state House of Representatives on Thursday voted to sustain Kelly’s veto of Senate Bill 160 – officially titled the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” – that would have required public schools from the elementary to the university level to designate sports teams by “biological sex,” or a student’s sex assigned at birth. (Migdon, 4/28)

Florida is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a long-running legal battle that stemmed from concerns about “medically fragile” children being placed in nursing homes. Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office last week filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to resolve the dispute. The petition came after a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2019 backed the U.S. Department of Justice’s authority to pursue a lawsuit under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. The full Atlanta-based appeals court declined in December 2021 to take up the case, prompting Florida to go to the Supreme Court. (4/28)

Ever since he got into politics, Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson has been a staunch opponent of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. "Freedom needs some encouragement because now that they've passed Obamacare our freedom is on life support," Johnson said during his first major speech at an April 15, 2010 tea party rally in Madison. "The only way Obamacare will ever be repealed is if we do it," the Oshkosh businessman told the audience assembled that day outside the state Capitol. (Glauber, 4/28)