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The former chief medical officer of D.C.’s only public hospital has filed a lawsuit against the hospital and its management consultants, alleging that he was fired in retaliation for testifying before District lawmakers about problems at the facility. Julian Craig, who until December oversaw all clinical operations at United Medical Center in Southeast Washington, said in a complaint filed Thursday in D.C. federal court that he acted as a whistleblower to expose “malfeasance affecting patient health and safety” and “submission of fraudulent statements to Medicare and Medicaid.” (Jamison, 2/15)

Six years after North Carolina legislators eliminated funding for teen tobacco cessation programs, health officials are noting a sharp uptick in the number of kids using nicotine products. While the percent of high school students smoking cigarettes is at a historic low in the past four years, researchers from the Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch of the state Department of Health and Human Services have tracked a steady and increasingly steep climb in the number of kids using e-cigarettes. (Hoban, 2/15)

The number of Minnesota high school youth vaping e-cigarettes has risen nearly 50 percent in three years, a statistic state health officials described as alarming on Thursday. “These findings really should be a red flag for us, a worry,” said state Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm during a news conference to unveil results of the Minnesota Department of Health’s triennial Minnesota Youth Tobacco Survey. “E-cigarettes do pose a serious health concern for our youth, as nearly all of these products contain nicotine.” (Lundy, 2/15)

Paint companies have lost a California Supreme Court appeal and now face a court order to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the state to remove lead paint from older homes in 10 cities and counties, including San Francisco and Oakland. The companies, however, want the voters to shift the costs to the state. (Egelko, 2/15)

James Wadleigh, CEO of Connecticut’s health insurance exchange, Access Health CT, will step down from his post in April, Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman announced Thursday. Wadleigh has worked at Access Health CT since 2012. (Silber, 2/15)

Federal regulators and their counterparts in Illinois have greenlighted the proposed merger between Advocate Health Care and Aurora Health Care, paving the way for their $10.7 billion cross-state system to become a reality. (Bannow, 2/15)

A day after a UNC Health Care spokesperson said the health system couldn’t affect inflation or other variables related to health costs, he clarified his remarks. “I didn’t mean to imply that UNC Health Care has no influence on costs,” said Alan Wolf, a spokesperson for UNC Health Care, in response to an inquiry from North Carolina Health News. (Tosczak, 2/15)

An 81-year-old woman with a sore jaw died just weeks after a breathtaking mistake: Doctors at a Detroit-area hospital performed brain surgery on her because of a records mix-up. A jury awarded $20 million to Bimla Nayyar’s estate, but family members won’t see a dime. The verdict won by Geoffrey Fieger’s law firm was thrown out on very technical grounds that had nothing to do with the incredible blunder in 2012 at Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn. (White, 2/15)

Since hemp hasn’t been grown in Wisconsin in such a long time, and some of the products face legal challenges, it's unknown how many farmers will seek a hemp-growing permit from the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. State agriculture officials have a March 2 deadline to finish writing temporary rules for hemp production. (Barrett, 2/15)