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The first of several anticipated lawsuits challenging a recently passed New York state law that eliminated religious exemptions from school-vaccination rules was filed Wednesday in Albany. The suit, which was filed in state Supreme Court and seeks class-action status, says the law is unconstitutional and violates religious freedom. Fifty-five families who had used a religious exemption for their children are represented in the suit. (West, 7/10)

Researchers in the University of California system on Wednesday lost subscription access to the major publisher Elsevier, the result of a closely watched fight between the two parties over how academic research should get read and paid for. The UC system, one of the largest in the country, has long paid Elsevier so that its affiliates could access hundreds of Elsevier journals. (Robbins, 7/10)

A residential and educational facility for disabled students operated under “Dickensian” conditions, failing to provide children with required medication or appropriate supervision and attempting to cover up assaults, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the Maryland Attorney General’s office. AdvoServ Inc. ran a program for people and students with disabilities in Delaware. Dozens of Maryland children with cognitive disabilities and mental illnesses were sent to their facilities for treatment and education after the state determined their needs couldn’t be met at home or in their local schools. (Richman, 7/11)

A new contractor takes over the health-care needs of Arizona inmates this month, after years of accusations against Corizon for inadequate care. Lawsuits have accused Corizon of contributing to patients' deaths, and leaving at least one woman to give birth alone. (Castle, 7/10)

Kaiser Permanente therapists held a one-day strike on Wednesday to protest what they said were conditions that make it difficult for children and adults in San Francisco to access mental health care services, including staffing shortages and weeks-long waits for appointments. Chanting “What’s this about? Patient care!” a few dozen people, including psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers, protested outside Kaiser’s mental health clinic on Geary Boulevard— the hospital's only one in San Francisco. Several city supervisors observed, including board president Norman Yee. (Klivans, 7/10)

California's Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill that aims to boost not-for-profit health systems' public disclosure requirements for executives' deferred compensation. AB 1404, drafted by California state Assembly member Miguel Santiago, a Democrat, would close an alleged loophole that allows not-for-profit systems to hide deferred compensation when not-for-profit entities are used to provide a supplemental retirement plan to employees that work for a for-profit arm of the company. (Kacik, 7/10)

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has signed legislation for a broad ban on smoking and vaping in restaurants, bars, workplaces, the airport and many other public places in the city. The smoke-free ordinance takes effect Jan. 2, 2020. (Yamanouchi, 7/10)

As the days tick by since Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the state budget and there’s little movement on resolving some of his issues with the spending plan delivered by the Republican-led legislature, some lawmakers and advocates are working to mitigate the effects of the stalemate on vital health care policies and priorities. In years past, if there was no budget agreement by the July 1 start of North Carolina’s fiscal year, legislators would pass short term resolutions to continue the prior year’s budget while negotiations on a spending plan proceeded. (Hoban, 7/11)

After years of trying, a group of moderate Republicans in the state House of Representatives finally held a committee hearing on expanding the state’s Medicaid program to cover about a half million additional low-income residents. In a lopsided 25-6 vote both Republicans and Democrats moved the NC Health Care for Working Families Act through the House Health committee Tuesday morning after about an hour of presentations and debate. “This [bill] assumes about 300,000… who are working would take advantage of this product,” said Rep. Donny Lambeth (R-Winston-Salem), a former hospital president. He is also one of the four sponsors of House Bill 655, a version of which was first introduced in 2017. (Hoban, 7/10)

The state of Iowa has agreed to pay an additional $386 million in state and federal dollars to the two private insurance companies that manage the state’s Medicaid program for low-income and disabled residents. It’s a total 8.6 percent increase, more than the 8.4 percent agreed upon last year. (Sostaric and Krebs, 7/10)

With dirt, they can weigh hundreds of pounds. The makeshift planter boxes are Peter Mozgo’s creations — roughly 140 of them lined up on the sidewalk to prevent homeless people from pitching tents outside his business. Mozgo acquires the boxes from a Bell Gardens company that imports ginger, paints them firetruck red, pays $120 per cubic yard for dirt and then uses a $900 trailer to haul it all back to his neighborhood on the south end of downtown Los Angeles. (Oreskes, 7/10)

A group of San Francisco residents filed a lawsuit Wednesday to block construction of a 200-bed temporary homeless shelter, another instance of the state’s environmental laws being used to derail such projects. The coalition, Safe Embarcadero for All, had been threatening for months to bring the case as the planned homeless shelter, proposed for a parking lot on the Embarcadero, wound its way through the approval process. They raised at least $100,000 and organized robust protests at city meetings since Mayor London Breed first proposed it in March. (Oreskes, 7/10)

Five years after Oregon legalized recreational marijuana, its lawmakers now are trying to rein in production, fearing the state’s big weed surplus will tempt some licensed businesses to sell their products out of state or on the illegal market. Such diversions could invite a crackdown from the federal government and cast a pall over the legal pot industry. Last year, the U.S. attorney for the District of Oregon put the state on notice when he announced that curbing interstate trafficking was his top cannabis law enforcement priority. (Quinton, 7/11)

An independent investigator has found no evidence of police misconduct or racial bias in the arrest of a black patient who was accused by a white security officer of stealing equipment when he stepped outside a northern Illinois hospital last month while still attached to an IV stand, according to a report released Wednesday. (7/10)

An inmate who was suing her Virginia prison over allegations of poor medical treatment has died. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that 39-year-old Margie Ryder died Monday at a Richmond hospital. Ryder suffered from terminal pulmonary arterial hypertension, which causes high blood pressure in the lungs. (7/10)

A high school in Madison, Wisconsin, plans to offer students free condoms as part of a pilot program this year. The Wisconsin State Journal reports Madison West High School will provide condoms for free to students upon request. The Madison Metropolitan School District's health services coordinator, Sally Zirbel-Donisch, says students will be told about reproductive health, proper condom use and sexual consent when they request the contraceptives. (7/10)

A Florida appellate court ruled that the state's approach to regulating marijuana is unconstitutional, possibly allowing more providers to jump into a market positioned to become one of the country's most lucrative. If the ruling stands, it could force state officials to lift existing caps on how many medical marijuana treatment centers can operate in Florida. (7/10)