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A $641 million settlement with people affected by Flint’s lead-contaminated water was reduced by $15 million Wednesday after a judge agreed that a hospital could cut its pledge. McLaren Health will pay $5 million instead of $20 million. It had the right to drop out completely if not enough claimants signed up for its share of the settlement. (10/20)

Two new lawsuits claim hundreds of children have been exposed to dangerous lead levels through the drinking water in Mississippi’s capital city, which has been facing water system problems for years. One lawsuit represents one child, while the other seeks to be a class action with about 600 children as plaintiffs. The suits, filed Tuesday in federal court in Jackson, say the city of Jackson and the state Health Department have made “conscience-shocking decisions and have shown deliberate indifference that have led to Plaintiffs’ exposure to toxic lead in Jackson’s drinking water.” (Pettus, 10/20)

New York City has reported an increase in human cases of leptospirosis, a bacterial disease that the city reports has been spread by rats. In a late September advisory, the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reported that 14 cases of human leptospirosis had been identified this year, a number it said was more than the total number reported to the city's health department in any previous year. Cases had been identified in all boroughs except Staten Island with "no obvious clustering." (Musto, 10/20)

The Montana attorney general is appealing a preliminary injunction by a Yellowstone County judge halting the implementation of three laws restricting access to abortions in Montana. District Court Judge Michael Moses issued the injunction earlier this month, blocking the laws while a legal challenge filed by Planned Parenthood of Montana seeking to permanently overturn them plays out. Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen filed the notice of appeal with the state Supreme Court on Tuesday. The office did not respond to an email Wednesday seeking comment about the filing. (Michels, 10/20)

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded more than $1 million to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources for maternal and child health services in the state. West Virginia’s U.S. senators, Democrat Joe Manchin and Republican Shelley Moore Capito, announced the award Wednesday. (10/21)

Drug overdose deaths among Nevadans under 25 nearly tripled from 2019 to 2020, while fatalities among the Hispanic community more than doubled, according to a recently released report from the state’s Division of Public Health and Behavioral Health. Last year, 106 Nevadans younger than 25 died of drug overdoses, compared with 38 in 2019, the report made public earlier this month stated. For Hispanics Nevadans death rose to 145 in 2020 from 66 the year prior. And the numbers continue to climb. (Torres-Cortez, 10/20)

In her final days as clinic administrator, Sheri Noble has a parting plea for the 400-odd patients she’s seen come through the Good Samaritan Care Clinic the past year: Apply for Medicaid. The rules have changed, she’s explained. And because the free clinic, run from a converted church parsonage for the last 17 years, is closing its doors next month, she wants them to be able to find another doctor they can afford to see. Financial straits caused by the pandemic are one reason for the closure, but so is Missouri’s recent expansion of Medicaid, which gives many patients a better health care option. (Kuang, 10/20)

KHN: DC’s Harllee Harper Is Using Public Health Tools To Prevent Gun Violence. Will It Work? 

After four people were murdered in one week in early September — all in the same Washington, D.C., neighborhood — residents made a plea for help. “We’ve been at funerals all week,” said Janeese Lewis George, a City Council member who represents the neighborhood. “What can we do as a community?” (Gomez, 10/21)