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A federal judge has rejected a request by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration to conduct “mental examinations” on a pair of 12-year-olds who are plaintiffs in a challenge to a state rule prohibiting Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care. (Kam, 1/19)

The Republican-controlled Mississippi House voted Thursday to ban gender-confirming care for minors, joining about a dozen other conservative states in trying to restrict health care access for young transgender people. Republican Rep. Nick Bain said in response to Democrats’ questions during a debate that he knows no examples of such surgeries being done on people younger than 18 in Mississippi. (Wagster Pettus, 1/20)

LGBTQ+ youth say that state proposals restricting their rights in schools, sports and doctor’s offices are negatively affecting their mental health, leaving them angry, sad and stressed, according to a new online poll released Thursday by Morning Consult and the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ youth crisis organization. (Rummler, 1/19)

Advocates of the proposed Aid in Dying bill made an emotional plea to state legislators in Hartford on Wednesday to approve the legislation, introduced 15 times in Connecticut since 1994. (Srinivasan, 1/19)

About 160,000 of Florida's more than 1.5 million veterans are women -- that's the second most among U.S. states. And many of them may not be seeking the benefits they have earned. Now there's a statewide push to get more women to utilize those benefits. (Byrnes, 1/19)

The smoke billowing from the burning landfill 100 yards from Richard Harp’s house in central Alabama has, he said, given his young sons headaches and nosebleeds. Harp and his wife have battled fever and bouts of bronchitis brought on, his doctor told him, by breathing the acrid air. Like many of their neighbors, the family fled weeks ago. They have patched together stays in multiple hotels, in a short-term rental and with relatives out of state, waiting for the end to a disaster that never seems to come. ... On Wednesday, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) declared a state of emergency over the ongoing fire at the privately owned landfill in St. Clair County, northeast of Birmingham, which has inundated residents from miles around with smoke since at least Nov. 25, the day after Thanksgiving. (Dennis, 1/19)

Hody Childress was a farmer living off his meager retirement savings in the small town of Geraldine, Ala. About 10 years ago, he walked into Geraldine Drugs and pulled aside owner Brooke Walker to ask if there were families in town who couldn’t afford to pay for their medications. “I told him, ‘Yes, unfortunately that happens often,’” recalled Walker, 38. “And he handed me a $100 bill, all folded up.” (Free, 1/19)