Chart by Hannah Recht, Kaiser Health News As Medicaid "unwinds" from pandemic levels, millions of Americans have lost health care coverage primarily because of paperwork issues, not a lack of eligibility, reports Hannah Recht of KFF Health News. "Four out of every five people dropped so far either never returned the paperwork or omitted required documents, according to a KHN analysis of data from 11 states that provided details on recent cancellations. . . . Before the unwinding, more than 1 in 4 Americans — 93 million — were covered by Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Pro ..read more

Using law enforcement to push addicts into treatment was dismissed some years ago as ineffective, unsupportive and "not policing's role." In his idea piece for The Atlantic, Sam Quiñones, perhaps the leading journalist covering America's druig problem, suggests the extreme availability and potency of today's drugs have changed the game: "In a time of fentanyl and meth, we need to use law enforcement differently—and more often." Here's a condensation: In Louisville, Kentucky, not long ago, I heard the story of a woman named Mary. She grew up middle-class, cheerful at times, though she str ..read more

The Salmon Thirty Salmon (Simply Flying photo) Was that a salmon in the sky? "Alaska Airlines' 'Salmon Thirty Salmon' Boeing 737 is destined to be repainted, but first, "To celebrate one of the iconic livery's last flights, the carrier deployed the aircraft on a ceremonial milk-run service from Seattle to Anchorage," reports Steven Walker for Simply Flying. Susan Orlean of The New Yorker looks deeper at the plane's design: "At a glance, the jet didn't look like a plane at all but like a huge flying fish. The surreality continued when you boarded because the overhead bins were decorate ..read more

Church leaders discuss health and wellness outreach in rural Georgia. (Photo by Chamberlain Smith, UGA) Churches often serve as a rural area's central hub. Some in rural Georgia are adding a telehealth partnership to their community outreach, reports Leigh Beeson of the University of Georgia. The program "Fishers of Men" was developed to address lack of access to health care; its mission "is to create telehealth hubs at participating churches, with support from the UGA Archway Partnership. These hubs have widescreen TVs, computers, internet capabilities, and various other devices ..read more

(Photo by Camilla Forte, The Hechinger Report) Should adults be allowed to promote prayer in U.S. public schools? The hotly debated question has resurfaced as Christian legal campaigns seek to legalize the practice; schools in one Louisiana county may point to what other schools might expect, reports Linda K. Wertheimer for The Hechinger Report, which covers education. "In 2018, four parents sued Bossier Parish schools for promoting religion and coercing students to participate in prayer. They argued that the prayer was a violation of the First Amendment's establishment clause, which ..read more

Landon Heaton on his Oklahoma farm (Photo by Xcaret Nuñez, Harvest Radio) Bacon and eggs, high socks and baseball, or narwhals and unicorns; the world abounds with delightful twosomes. But for humans, finding a fantastic partner can be tricky, and if you're a rancher like Landon Heaton, making things OK at the corral can take up most of your time, and dating doesn't make the chore list. "Heaton lives alone on his 700-acre ranch near a small town called Coyle, about an hour outside of Oklahoma City," reports Xcaret Nuñez of Harvest Public Media. "The 35-year-old sa ..read more

"Earth has pushed past seven out of eight scientifically established safety limits and into “the danger zone,” not just for an overheating planet that’s losing its natural areas, but for the well-being of people living on it, according to a new study," reports Seth Bornstein of The Associated Press. The study was done by by the Sweden-based international scientist group Earth Commission and published in Wednesday’s peer-reviewed journal Nature. "It looks at climate, air pollution, phosphorus and nitrogen contamination of water from fertilizer overuse, groundwater supplies, fresh surface water ..read more

Purdue Pharma's headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut (Photo by Drew Angerer, Getty Images, via The New York Times) A federal appeals court has approved a settlement by Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, that protects its billionaire owners, the Sackler family, from future lawsuits. The Sacklers would give up the company, which would take the new name Knoa, "with its profits being sent to a fund to prevent and treat addiction," reports Geoff Mulvihill of The Associated Press. "Family members would also contribute $5.5 billion to $6 billion in cash over time, or about half of what ..read more

Gov. Jim Justice (Official photo) For more than a decade, Jim Justice, now West Virginia's governor, has been behind in paying fines for violations at his coal mines. Wednesday the Department of Justice sued 13 of his businesses to collect $5 million in penalties the Department of the Interior levied on them for strip-mine violations. It's not the first time Justice has sued Justice, but it's the first time the former Democrat has been a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia. “The Biden administration is aware of the fact that ..read more

A flash drought developed in a few weeks in 2019. (NASA Earth Observatory image) As Earth warms, flash droughts they are becoming more common and can have a devastating ripple effect; understanding where and when they might occur could help farmers and ranchers plan, Jeff Basara and Jordan Christian report for The Conversation, a platform for journalism by academics: "In a new study, we found that the risk of flash droughts, which can develop in the span of a few weeks, is on pace to rise in every major agriculture region around the world in the coming decades. . . . In Nort ..read more