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Four members of the Oakland Fire Department’s Urban �Թϲ����� and Rescue Task Force removed a charred mattress spring and began combing through a mixture of ash, dirt, shredded wood and pieces of roofing tiles. Using their gloves to move around the blackened dirt, they looked for human remains. “This is hard,” one of the recovery workers said. “But we’re trying. Let everyone know we’re trying.” (Vives, 11/20)

Inside the cafeteria of Bidwell Junior High School, 63-year-old Deborah Laughlin sipped on coffee and scooped up some apple pie. A lot was on her mind. Laughlin said she lost her home in Paradise. She had been living at Evergreen Mobile Home Park. Since the evacuations, she has been at the middle school, where the Red Cross operates a shelter. She said she registered with FEMA and hopes she’ll be able to get housing. (Vives, 11/20)

A student at the University of Maryland died recently of an adenovirus-associated illness, the university said Tuesday. Eleven children have died recently in New Jersey after an adenovirus outbreak at a health center there. In a statement, U-Md. said it learned Nov. 1 of what it said was then an “isolated case” of adenovirus. However, the statement, issued by David McBride, head of the campus health center, said that since then five more cases have been reported of students with confirmed adenovirus-associated illness. (Weil, 11/20)

A freshman at the University of Maryland, College Park, died Sunday of complications from adenovirus, and her family is questioning whether the university — which has seen several cases of the illness — could have done more to prevent her death and whether it was related to a mold outbreak in some dorms. Olivia Paregol, an 18-year-old from Glenwood in Howard County, had been sick since early in the semester, when she first developed a cough. Her condition worsened and she contracted pneumonia. After leaving school, she was taken to the emergency room multiple times before she died at Johns Hopkins Hospital, said her father, Ian Paregol. (Meehan, 11/20)

As Illinois’ child welfare agency works to clear out its remaining patients at a Chicago psychiatric hospital beset by allegations of sexual abuse and assault, problems continue to emerge. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services on Monday opened an investigation into a 9-year-old girl’s allegation that a staff member at Aurora Chicago Lakeshore Hospital choked and restrained her. (Eldeib, 11/20)

For some in North Carolina, an extra month to apply for individual assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency could make all the difference as victims of Hurricane Florence struggle to settle back in. The 30-day extension, announced by FEMA earlier this month, will allow homeowners and renters in eligible counties to apply until Dec. 13. Jessica Slider Whichard, senior manager for communications at Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, said that 22 of the 34 counties her organization serves are now federal disaster areas. (Scarbrough, 11/21)

A federal judge in Detroit on Tuesday declared unconstitutional a U.S. law banning female genital mutilation, and also dismissed several charges against two doctors and others in the first U.S. criminal case of its kind. U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman said Congress lacked authority under the Commerce Clause to adopt the 1996 law, and that the power to outlaw female genital mutilation, or FGM, belonged to individual states. (11/20)

A legal challenge to the state’s Medicaid managed care patient-assignment system in Northwest Florida has been withdrawn. Lighthouse Health Plan, a provider-sponsored network affiliated with Pensacola-based Baptist Health Care, agreed to withdraw its administrative challenge to the assignment formula after the state approved making a series of changes to a five-year Medicaid managed care contract. (11/20)

She isn't alone. According to a study released earlier this month, about 1 in 3 U.S. college students sought mental health treatment in 2017. That's up from 1 in 5 just 10 years ago. The dramatic jump in demand has forced schools across the country to overhaul their offerings. In many cases, the progress on college campuses lagged behind similar efforts in other sectors. (Tamburin, 11/20)

A former state employee who claims she was wrongfully fired after requesting accommodations to breastfeed appeared in Superior Court on Tuesday, more than six years after her termination. Kate Frederick was fired from her position with N.H. Department of Health and Human Services in 2012 after she alleges supervisors denied her the ability to leave state offices during her break to breastfeed her then newborn son, who was in daycare less than a mile away. (Bookman, 11/20)

Iowa’s Department of Human Services says the state’s foster care system has come a long way in helping children in unsafe home situations, but there’s more that needs to be done. The state is embracing a federal law passed earlier this year that supports keeping families together.The Family First Prevention Services Act passed in February aims to provide services like mental health and substance abuse treatment to families before their child is pushed into the foster care system. (Peikes, 11/20)

Health officials in Florida have confirmed the state's first case of dengue. The Florida Department of Health said in a news release on Monday that the case emerged in Miami-Dade County. The agency didn't identify the person or their condition. Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease that causes fever, severe headache, along with muscle and joint pain. There is no treatment or vaccine. (11/20)

Authorities have identified the three people who died when an air ambulance plane crashed in western North Dakota. Morton County identified the victims as 48-year-old pilot Todd Lasky and 63-year-old nurse Bonnie Cook, both of Bismarck, and 47-year-old paramedic Chris Iverson, of Mandan. Lasky and Iverson worked for Bismarck Air Medical and Cook for CHI St. Alexius Health. (11/20)

A diabetes management firm is offering free “virtual” care to the first 1,000 Georgians with Type 2 diabetes to sign up for the program. The promotion by Onduo, announced Tuesday, is part of the Massachusetts-based company’s effort to honor Diabetes Awareness Month this month. (Miller, 11/20)

Governor Kim Reynolds' children's mental health board has new recommendations for how to better serve families with children who have a diagnosed mental illness. Under the plan being proposed, children would be routinely screened for mental health issues and services for children would be expanded. But, where will funding for the plan come from? (Moon and Kieffer, 11/20)

Dangerous slime, balloons, loud toys or smart devices that collect data on children have made a Texas consumer advocacy group’s naughty list this year. The Texas Public Interest Research Group’s 33rd annual list of toys it considers dangerous targets items that pose choking hazards, contain harmful chemicals and lack adequate labels.“Parents, don’t worry,” TxPIRG director Bay Scoggin said Tuesday, all that toy shopping requires is some common sense. (Bradshaw, 11/20)

The number of youth incarcerated in the state’s juvenile detention centers for minor offenses dropped significantly between 2015 and 2017, pulling Connecticut from its number two ranking in a national study tracking juvenile confinement. That study, released last month by Pew Charitable Trust, found there were 51 juveniles detained in Connecticut for technical offenses, such as violating probation orders or failing to show up for treatment, on a single day — Oct. 28 — in 2015. (Werth, 11/20)

Two stores in Massachusetts began selling recreational marijuana today, but police are reminding people in New Hampshire to be careful. State law says someone can be arrested if they have more than three quarters of an ounce of marijuana and charged with a felony if they have over an ounce with intent to distribute. (Gibson, 11/20)

Slowly, Louisiana's medical marijuana program is  gaining some traction toward getting products to patients. LSU AgCenter harvested its first crop of marijuana in October. And after more than a year of delays, Southern University's medical marijuana program is now under a new operator that says it will start the build out of a new facility starting early next year and could have crop available by the second quarter of 2019.  (Clark, 11/20)

The Milpitas City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to move toward permanently banning all cannabis businesses in the city, after a discussion in which many people expressed opposition to the businesses, and one woman was arrested. The council asked city staff to work up ordinances for both an urgency ban that would go into effect quickly, as well as a permanent ban that would follow. The vote was 4-0, and followed hours of comments from members of the public, many of whom were opposed to any kind of cannabis business in the city. (Geha, 11/21)