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Legislation allowing certain terminally ill patients to have quicker access to life-ending medications under the state’s first-in-the-nation assisted suicide law has been signed into law, Gov. Kate Brown’s office announced Wednesday. The law allows those with 15 days left to live to bypass a 15-day waiting period required under the Death with Dignity Act, something proponents say will reduce bureaucracy and bring relief to gravely ill people. (Zimmerman, 7/24)

The Trump administration is proposing tightened requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — also known as food stamps — that could end food assistance for more than 3 million Americans and jeopardize assistance for thousands of Texans. The proposed rule would curb states’ abilities to set eligibility requirements for the food assistance program that helps feed millions of Americans each month. (Korte, 7/24)

According to new reports, the number of adults and children with mental illness waiting to get into New Hampshire Hospital has fallen over the past year, ending the long streak in what had become an out-of-control system. Gov. Chris Sununu, his administration and legislative leaders from both parties celebrated the new, much-lower numbers in contrast to just two years ago when as many as 72 adults and 27 children were left without a bed in the Concord-based program. (Landrigan, 7/24)

An operator of hospitals and clinics began offering free DNA testing on Wednesday to 10,000 Floridians in a partnership with a private genomics company. Some biomedical ethicists warn that participants need to realize their data can be used for purposes other than their health care. Researchers at AdventHealth in Orlando said the DNA test screens for an inherited condition that can lead to high cholesterol and heart attacks if left untreated. (7/24)

Former Iowa Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven said Wednesday that shortly before Gov. Kim Reynolds ousted him, he objected to having his agency continue to pay an administrator who had transferred to the governor's office. The governor's spokesman said Foxhoven never raised such a concern, and was not asked to sign the pay-shifting agreement for the staffer. The governor asked Foxhoven to resign June 17 as head of the state's largest agency. She has declined to specify why. Her spokesman, Pat Garrett, said Wednesday that the pay-shifting issue was not the reason the governor asked Foxhoven to resign. (Leys and Gruber-Miller, 7/24)

Weight management, mental health and substance abuse are among the top health concerns for people living in Hillsborough County, according to a recent countywide survey of residents. Health care professionals and advocates gathered at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa Wednesday morning to discuss those and other findings in the survey, conducted every five years by the Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County. More than 5,300 people responded as officials sought input from residents with varied ages, locations and backgrounds. (Griffin, 7/24)

Facing community opposition, a Colorado school district said on Wednesday that it would drop a proposal to tear down Columbine High School, which has been confronting growing threats and thousands of curious trespassers since the 1999 massacre there. In June, the Jefferson County Public Schools in suburban Denver asked for community input on what, to many, was a radical idea to reduce Columbine’s morbid allure. (Healy, 7/24)

The Minnesota Historical Society is something like the state’s memory, preserving the state’s past. The society is also taking on the role of helping Minnesotans whose memories are waning because of dementia. (Cox, 7/25)

Enter the Hmong American Farmers Association and HealthEast. Since 2016, they’ve partnered to provide fresh fruit and vegetable boxes to patients, giving people the opportunity to eat healthier on a regular basis. In turn the Veggie Rx partnership supports local Hmong farmers and helps doctors build stronger relationships with their patients. (Yang, 7/25)

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine and the University of Alabama at Birmingham will study of a condition that mysteriously began ramping up in 2014 and has caused paralysis in hundreds of children around the world as well as in Maryland. Acute flaccid myelitis has been called polio-like, but doctors don’t know what causes it, though they suspect it’s a rare response to common enteroviruses that normally lead to far more mild infections. (Cohn, 7/24)

On Thursday, the anti-poverty nonprofit Tipping Point Community will debut a new campaign called “All In.” It aims to secure 1,100 new permanent supportive housing units throughout San Francisco within two years. The goal is to add 100 units to each of the city’s 11 supervisorial districts. (Knight, 7/24)

The North Carolina Council of Churches has been traveling around the state hosting these clergy breakfasts, wherever they’re invited, to discuss the opioid crisis and introduce harm reduction principles to the faith community. Just over 200 people have come to the breakfasts across 12 cities. Established in 1935, the council is comprised of 6,200 congregations and 18 denominations across North Carolina. Their clergy breakfasts are facilitated by Chris Pernell, the coordinator for their program Partners in Health and Wholeness, and Elizabeth Brewington, coordinator of their opioid response program. (Davis, 7/25)

Bright Health, the Minneapolis startup designed for the fast-changing U.S. insurance market, plans to double the number of U.S. markets where it will sell health coverage next year.The company said Wednesday that it plans to expand to 22 markets in 12 states, including offering insurance products for the first time in Chicago, Cleveland and Orlando. (Carson, 7/24)