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A unanimous New Hampshire Senate gave preliminary approval Thursday to continuing the state’s expanded Medicaid program and making it permanent. The 24-0 vote to send the bill to the Finance Committee highlighted the Legislature’s evolution on what initially was a tough sell when lawmakers first considered expanding health care coverage for low-income residents. (Ramer, 3/9)

Wisconsin Republicans blocked Gov. Tony Evers’ plan Thursday to require student vaccinations against meningitis and tighten student chickenpox vaccination requirements. The Legislature’s GOP-controlled rules committee voted 6-4 to block the proposal. All six of the panel’s Republican members voted to stop the policy. The vote comes two days after a lengthy public hearing on the policy changes that saw parents complain that the new requirements trample their liberties. The committee blocked the proposal last legislative session as well. (Richmond, 3/9)

KHN: Montana Considers New Wave Of Legislation To Loosen Vaccination Rules 

When Deb Horning’s youngest daughter was 5, she got her measles, mumps, and rubella shot like many other kindergartners. But unlike many other moms, Horning had to stay away from her daughter for a week after the shot. Horning, 51, was diagnosed in 2014 with acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive cancer — the five-year survival rate for those older than 20 is 27%. Horning had been through chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, which severely weakened her immune system. Because the MMR vaccine contains live virus, she couldn’t get the vaccine herself and had to temporarily avoid her vaccinated daughter. (Larson, 3/10)

House Bill 2107 was advanced by the Oklahoma House of Representatives on Thursday and can now be heard in the Senate. Its author, state Rep. Daniel Pae, R-Lawton, said Texas already has adopted similar legislation, and it's also being considered in Montana, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Arizona. (Denwalt, 3/9)

Tammy Brady began her career as an Atlantic City casino dealer at the age of 18. Now 55, she has stage 2 breast cancer. “While I’m not sure we will ever know the exact cause of my illness, I can’t help but wonder if it would have happened if the casinos hadn’t forced me to work in second-hand smoke,” said Brady, who works at the Borgata casino. Holly Diebler, a craps dealer at Tropicana, is undergoing chemotherapy for throat cancer. “I don’t even know how long I’m going to live,” she said. “I love my job; I don’t want to leave it. But all my oncologists have told me this is a life-and-death choice.” (Parry, 3/9)

Families of patients at Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center, along with workers and community leaders, reacted with concern after the state’s announcement this week that it plans to relocate more than 120 residents from the troubled state-run facility in southern Illinois. Rita Burke, whose 53-year-old son has lived at Choate for more than 30 years, said Illinois Department of Human Services Secretary Grace Hou and two other senior state officials called her on Saturday evening to inform her of their plans. (Hundsdorfer and Parker, 3/9)

Norfolk Southern’s communication failures left emergency responders scrambling to prepare for a massive plume of toxic chemicals after a train operated by the company derailed and threatened to cause an explosion in East Palestine, Ohio, some witnesses and lawmakers told Congress on Thursday. Pressed by senators at a three-hour hearing on the Feb. 3 derailment, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan H. Shaw apologized for the disaster but stopped short of guaranteeing certain specific cleanup and safety measures, such as paid sick days for his employees or funding for East Palestine residents’ possible medical expenses. (McDaniel, Duncan, Wang and Dance, 3/9)

Medical guidance is sparse. The long-awaited state health clinic sent to East Palestine weeks after the spill at first offered only questionnaires and did not have a doctor on hand. Local primary care physicians, booked for weeks, say that without more toxicology data, they aren’t equipped to diagnose chemical poisoning, so they are simply treating symptoms with ibuprofen and ointment. (Baumgaertner, 3/9)

Scientists, lawmakers and government officials across the country are trying to figure out what to do about PFAS, a toxic cancer-causing chemical. In Indiana, that focus has primarily centered on firefighters. Those in the fire service have a higher risk of exposure to the harmful chemical: It's been found in their gear as well as foam they use to put out fires. Firefighters also have higher rates of cancer, particularly some types that are linked to PFAS exposure, compared to the general population. (Bowman, 3/10)