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Smoke from the raging wildfires in the West Coast was so severe that it created an air quality alert as far as Reno, Nevada, on Tuesday. Several Nevada counties reported their worst recorded air quality index numbers in the two decades they’ve been monitoring air quality. (Pereira, 8/25)

The air around Lake Tahoe in California and Reno, Nevada, is thick with brown smoke this week, and the region is experiencing the worst air quality in the country by far, as the Caldor Fire torches its way through the El Dorado National Forest. The wildfire smoke alone would be enough to trigger a health emergency, but combined with the spread of the coronavirus, health experts are concerned the region downwind from the Caldor Fire could be thrust into a crisis. (Ramirez, 8/25)

The Lake Tahoe region, the pristine getaway for generations of visitors from California's urban coast, is in the midst of a big-city problem of its own: terrible air quality. The culprit is the 126,182-acre Caldor Fire to the south, and possibly spot fires from the 82 percent-contained Tamarack Fire, also to the south, officials said. Purple Air, a company that sells home air quality monitors and publishes regional results from the resulting virtual network, reported Wednesday that the area had the worst air quality in the world. (Romero, 8/25)

A law that would limit the use of restraints on pregnant people who are incarcerated in North Carolina’s jails and prisons is one step closer to becoming law after it passed the North Carolina Senate on Wednesday. The Dignity for Women who are Incarcerated Act, primarily sponsored by House Reps. Kristin Baker (R-Concord), Ashton Wheeler Clemmons (D-Greensboro), Donna McDowell White (R-Clayton) and Kyle Hall (R-King), would limit prison and jail staff from shackling pregnant people in their second and third trimesters, labor and delivery, and during postpartum recovery. (Thompson, 8/26)

Three members of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s team have tested positive for the coronavirus and an alert went out to thousands of people who attended a political conference in Ocean City last week. “While we cannot disclose any personal health information, three members of Governor Hogan’s staff recently tested positive for COVID-19,” said Kata D. Hall, a spokeswoman for the Republican governor, in a statement Wednesday. “All those affected are feeling fine.” (Oxenden and Wood, 8/25)