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Top Tennessee health officials attempted to oust Planned Parenthood from a program designed to prevent and treat HIV before eventually deciding to forgo federal funding for the program, despite warnings that doing so will have a devastating impact on marginalized communities, documents show. The decision is the latest development in a ruby red state where abortion is already banned. Republicans leaders, however, have actively tried to cut off public ties with the organization for any other services, due to its long history of offering and defending abortion care. (Kruesi, 1/20)

The move stunned HIV experts. "I can't understand why the state would give back funds targeted toward health care," said Diane Duke, president and chief executive officer of Friends for Life, a Memphis group that provides services to people living with HIV. Friends for Life was among the groups that received notice from the state. "It's outrageous," she said. (Edwards, 1/21)

A bill under consideration in Washington would make it the second state in the country to lower the legal limit for a driver’s blood alcohol content from 0.08% to 0.05%. State Sen. John Lovick, D-Mill Creek, is Senate Bill 5002′s primary sponsor. The former state trooper and former Snohomish County sheriff said this week that of the more than 700 people killed on Washington roads last year, over half were DUI-related. (Baumann, 1/20)

Fewer people have gotten crucial medication for hepatitis C under Medi-Cal in recent years, troubling advocates who have pushed to expand the lifesaving treatment. Hepatitis C, a slow-moving virus that can lead to liver cancer, cirrhosis and death, can now be cured in most cases with a few months of direct-acting antiviral medication. California has taken steps to dismantle barriers to obtaining the pills under Medi-Cal, the California Medicaid program, including eliminating requirements for prior authorization. (Alpert Reyes, 1/22)

Colorado, in the middle of a mental health crisis for all ages, has about 3,200 psychologists statewide who provide addiction counseling and talk therapy. What they can’t do is prescribe medications. (Brown, 1/20)

Significant. Historical. Unprecedented. These are just some of the words state administrators, advocates and service providers use to describe recent investments in Nevada’s mental health services. A majority of those funds, which came from the American Rescue Plan Act, were approved by the Interim Finance Committee during its August and October meetings, totaling more than $59 million. (Avery, 1/20)

Like other parents, April Vazquez, a school nutrition specialist in Sioux Falls, S.D., is cutting coupons, buying in bulk and forgoing outings and restaurant meals. Still, a hot lunch in the school cafeteria for her three children is now a treat she has to carefully plan in her budget. The expiration of waivers that guaranteed free school meals for nearly 30 million students across the United States during the pandemic has meant that families like Ms. Vazquez’s who earn just over the income threshold no longer qualify for a federal program allowing children to eat at no cost. (Qiu, 1/22)

Four years ago, John O’Connell was told the water at his house was finally safe to drink. For more than a decade, an agricultural company had supplied him and some of his neighbors with bottled water while it attempted to clean the nitrate, herbicides and pesticides from the soil of its former location not far from O’Connell’s back yard. In December 2018, the now-Colorado company sent him a letter with “good news.” (Strong, 1/22)

A woman fatally shot her terminally ill husband inside a Florida hospital on Saturday and then barricaded herself in his room for four hours before surrendering, Daytona Beach officials said. Ellen Gilland, 76, told officers that her 77-year-old husband Jerry Gilland had been ill for some time and they had planned the shooting together, police spokeswoman Carrie McCallister said. (1/21)