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Voters in Kansas and Missouri have long filled their legislatures with Republican lawmakers who oppose abortion. Those same Kansans and Missourians, when given the choice, have also voted in favor of abortion rights. And though the word “abortion” did not appear on the ballot in either state on Tuesday, voters resoundingly shot down Republican-backed ballot measures that could have made it easier to ban the procedure in the future. In Kansas, voters rejected a proposal to start electing Supreme Court justices, and in Missouri, voters declined to make it harder for residents to amend the Constitution. (Smith and Klein, 8/5)

The Connecticut State Board of Education adopted new guidance Wednesday encouraging schools to implement bell-to-bell restrictions on cellphone and personal technology use. The new guidelines follow an unsuccessful attempt in the General Assembly this spring to impose a statewide bell-to-bell ban on cellphone use in public schools. (Peck-Suzuki, 8/5)

The Connecticut Department of Correction has agreed to end its longtime practice of in-cell restraints under a settlement announced Thursday, following years of criticism over the treatment of incarcerated people with mental illness in Connecticut. The settlement, reached with the American Civil Liberties Union and Disability Rights Connecticut, resolves a yearslong case challenging the department’s use of in-cell restraints on incarcerated people with mental illness. The agreement requires DOC to revise its policy, provide staff training on full-stationary restraints and report their use to the ACLU. (Chau, 8/5)

Advocates urged the state to invest in community-based alternatives to nursing homes for people with disabilities before attempting to enter Gov. JB Pritzker’s Chicago office in the West Loop on Wednesday. More than a dozen activists, mostly those in wheelchairs and on mobility scooters, raised a chant of “let us in” as they blocked the building’s doorway at 555 W. Monroe St. Illinois State Police pushed back, telling the crowd to leave. (Anastasakos, 8/5)

A Chicago lab owner pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring with fugitive ex-Loretto Hospital executive Anosh Ahmed in a COVID-19 testing fraud scheme that generated tens of millions of dollars in government reimbursements over a two-month period in 2021, much of which was for tests that were never performed. (Meisner, 8/5)

Dr. Masahide Kanayama, a Manhattan surgeon and an expert in endometriosis, received an 18-month suspended sentence after a court found him guilty of damaging the sites. (Notoya and Raj, 8/6)

�Թϲ�����: Medicaid Work Rule Leaves Homeless People In The Cold

Tywon Pugh has seizures that make it hard to find and keep a job. “They called me a ‘liability to the job site,’” Pugh said, recalling the words of his manager when a seizure cost him his last job at a fast-food restaurant in this western Montana city. When the 46-year-old lost work in the past, his wife of 10 years covered their rent and he tended to their home until he found another job. But his wife died last year. Soon after, Pugh became homeless. His problem with alcohol became worse, which made managing his seizures more difficult. (Houghton, 8/6)

A new specialty pharmacy serving senior living communities has opened in Roanoke. SpecialityRx packages medications and delivers them directly to nursing homes and assisted living facilities. (Schabacker, 8/6)

New Mexico health officials are warning that as summers grow longer and hotter, people living and working outside face mounting and often invisible risks. Emergency department visits for heat stress have doubled since the early 2010s, said according to state data and epidemiologist Daniella Matthews-Trigg, program manager for the Mobile Homeless Response a Program which is a part of the New Mexico Department of Health Environmental Health Epidemiology Bureau. (Kinsey, 8/5)

The Red Cross has declared a national blood supply crisis after blood donations fell to a four-year low this summer. Extreme heat is one environmental factor affecting donations. (Fernandez, 8/5)

A deer found near Stillwater, in Washington County, Minnesota, has tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD), marking the first case for that county, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced yesterday. A landowner reported the sick doe to the DNR, who retrieved it and had it tested after it died on July 16. The positive result was confirmed this week. (Van Beusekom, 8/5)