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Five years after becoming the first Southern state to legalize possession of marijuana, Virginia has approved a legal way to sell it to recreational users. State budget legislation enacted Monday will allow up to 350 cannabis shops to open across Virginia beginning July 1, 2027. The move marks the latest expansion of access to the drug — which remains illegal at the federal level — through state-level policymaking. (Rankin, 6/30)

Just before going into jail for the last time, Cynthia Haley snapped a picture of herself. At the time, she was living in Danville and struggling with addiction. Her substance use had evolved over the years, starting with marijuana in high school and eventually progressing into heroin, meth and crack cocaine, Haley said. (Schabacker, 6/30)

Arkansas is moving forward with its plan to ban government food aid from being used to buy candy and soda beginning on Wednesday, even though a federal judge ruled last week that similar restrictions in other states violated federal law. Announcing the plan on Monday, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited an urgent need to combat a “chronic disease epidemic” in America, including high rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. (Loller, 6/29)

Gov. Gavin Newsom and California lawmakers approved a $351.7 billion state budget Monday — the last one Newsom will sign as governor — that increases some business and health care taxes and bolsters the state’s reserve funds. The budget will also extend caps on corporate tax credits that would otherwise have expired in 2027. It also includes increased spending on housing and homeless aid, as well as money for county election offices to speed up vote counting. (Bollag, 6/29)

When Taylor Kiesel arrived at Change Academy at Lake of the Ozarks, a youth residential treatment center in Missouri, another student cautioned her. "Welcome to hell," the kid said. Kiesel, then 16, soon learned why. She and other former students said staff at the center, known as Calo, neglected and assaulted the children and teenagers whose developmental trauma they were tasked with healing. (6/29)

Sarah Gipson knew something was wrong when the normally chatty sonogram technician fell silent and called for the doctor. Gipson was in the 32nd week of her high-risk pregnancy, and she felt horrible. She was seeing stars, had constant ringing in her ears, and had been on bed rest for several weeks. (West, 6/29)

A bill to expand the use of involuntary psychiatric treatment in North Carolina, and further study the intersection of the state’s mental health and the justice systems, is well on its way to becoming law. While many praised the legislature’s attention to these issues, some lawmakers and experts question whether the bill does enough to address systemic problems that have accumulated and festered for decades. (Knopf, 6/30)

Former Louisiana death row inmate Jimmie “Chris” Duncan is officially a free man following a unanimous ruling Monday by the Louisiana Supreme Court. In the opinion, justices upheld a lower court’s decision to toss out Duncan’s 1998 conviction for killing his former girlfriend’s toddler, Haley Oliveaux, citing flawed forensics practices used to convict him. Justice Cade R. Cole wrote on behalf of the seven-member court that new evidence presented by Duncan’s legal team left no doubt that his conviction should be overturned. (Webster, 6/29)

For Kelly Migler, assistant dean for undergraduate nursing and teaching at Valparaiso University, Friday’s FarmHop tour by the Northwest Indiana Food Council was a way to network. With the tour’s theme “Local Food is Medicine,” Migler saw the value in connecting students with local farmers, including Al and Hakenah Hulitt, who own Hulitt Homestead on five acres in Portage. (Lavalley, 6/29)

Daveigh Chase, an actress known for voicing the character of Lilo in the hit animated film “Lilo & Stitch,” died in Los Angeles this month of AIDS, the county’s Department of Medical Examiner said on Monday. The case information for Ms. Chase, who was 35 and also known as Daveigh Schwallier, said her death at a hospital on June 16 was natural. It listed AIDS, which is caused by H.I.V., as the cause, and said that “chronic polysubstance use” — repeatedly using more than one drug or substance at the same time or within a short period of time — was a “significant condition.” (Stevens, 6/29)

Summer camps and other outdoor activities were canceled Monday as tens of millions of people across the Midwest endured a heat wave that is expected to spread eastward this week. Communities opened cooling centers and urged people to take it easy and stay hydrated. Forty-seven million people across big chunks of the Midwest and parts of the Ohio Valley are under an extreme heat warning through at least Tuesday. Temperatures are forecast to reach the 90s, with heat index values, or “feels-like” temperatures, expected to top 100 degrees (37.8 degrees Celsius) in the region, according to the National Weather Service. (Fingerhut and McCormack, 6/30)