State Highlights: Texas District Spends $6.3 Million To Protect Students From Gun Violence; New Mexico Lawmakers Consider Aid-In-Dying Bill

The Wall Street Journal: One School District’s Security Upgrade: Facial Recognition, Tracking IDs And AR-15s
The school district here uses a facial recognition system to scan for people not allowed on school grounds. IDs track the whereabouts of students and staff. Teachers have cellphone panic buttons to alert police and soon will have special locks on classroom doors that can be activated remotely. A newly expanded security team keeps 22 AR-15 rifles in their offices. The district has spent $6.3 million in eight months on these and other security measures to keep students safe from potential shooters. (Hobbs, 2/3)

WBUR: New Mexico Lawmakers Weighing Physician-Assisted Death Bill
New Mexico could become the eighth state to allow physician-assisted death for the terminally ill, as lawmakers consider an aid-in-dying bill. About 20 years ago, a similar law went into effect in Oregon. At the time, University of New Mexico School of Law professor Robert Schwartz was concerned with the bill’s ethics and gray areas. (O’Dowd, 2/1)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: 1 Year After UH Embryo And Egg Loss, What Has Changed?
As the one-year anniversary of the UH fertility freezer failure approaches, the incident is still fresh in the minds of many. Patients still grieve. Attorneys continue to fight for answers. And regulators try to prevent something like this from happening again. Stricter fertility center protocols and the ongoing lawsuits against UH and equipment manufacturers are evidence the incident is serving as a wake-up call for many. (Washington, 2/3)

WBUR: Court Approves Historic Reforms To Chicago Police Department
The Chicago Police Department is about to undergo extensive changes to its practices and policies, after a federal judge approved a plan Thursday that attempts to reform the way the police department interacts with the public. The plan is the culmination of a multi-year process that began with the 2015 release of a video that showed a white police officer shooting at black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times. (Schwartz, 2/1)

Austin American-Statesman: Drug-Resistant Superbug On Rise In Travis County, Health Officials Say
A drug-resistant superbug is on the rise in Travis County, and Austin Public Health officials are warning medical professionals to take extra precautions since it’s typically found in hospitals and nursing homes. Carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae, also known as CRE, is one of the top drug-resistant organisms in the world today, and instances of people becoming infected have been increasing in Travis County in the past three years, health officials say. (Huber, 2/1)

Health News Florida: ‘Free Market’ Marijuana Changes Could Be Hard Sell
He’s not calling it a cartel, as Gov. Ron DeSantis did. But House Speaker José Oliva acknowledged this week that the state’s “vertically integrated” medical marijuana system – which requires operators to grow, process and dispense cannabis and related products – “isn’t terribly free market.” (Kam, 2/1)

Texas Tribune: Texas Optometrists Prepare For Legislative Fight Over Power To Treat Patients
Currently, Texas law requires optometrists — who go to optometry school instead of medical school — to refer patients to doctors for a second opinion if they find patients have glaucoma. Optometrists are also only allowed to prescribe antibiotics for a limited amount of time. (Evans, 2/4)

Kansas City Star: Leavenworth Judge Blames Children In Kansas Sex Abuse Case
Can children aged 13 and 14 years old be the aggressors in a sexual encounter with a 67-year-old man? A Leavenworth County judge recently said he thought so when he reduced the prison sentence for a man who paid for sex with young girls he solicited over the internet. (Rizzo, 2/3)

Columbus Dispatch: Feds Warn Mount Carmel Could Lose Medicare Funding Over Patient-Death Scandal
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have notified Mount Carmel Health that two of its hospitals involved in the patient-death scandal could be terminated from the Medicare program due to pharmaceutical-services deficiencies “so serious they constitute an immediate threat to patient health and safety.” Findings and details of surveys conducted for CMS by the Ohio Department of Health won’t be released until each hospital — Mount Carmel West and Mount Carmel St. Ann’s — has an opportunity to submit a plan of correction within five days of receipt of the notification letters and CMS approves each plan. (Bruner and Price, 2/1)

KQED: Volunteers Help Count San Mateo County’s Homeless
On Thursday, 300 volunteers across San Mateo County came out in the rain—arriving at 5 a.m. at places like Safe Harbor House in South San Francisco—to help put together this year’s point-in-time homeless count. Volunteers were divided into groups, and spent the day walking and driving along U.S. Census tracts, taking care not to disturb people who appeared to be sleeping. (Schiffer, 2/2)

St. Louis Public Radio: Cold Snap Inspires New Homeless Shelters And A Push For Policy Change
As Pride St. Louis and other organizations opened pop-up shelters for people needing reprieve from the record-breaking cold last week, activists and elected officials called on the City of St. Louis to develop new procedures for helping the homeless during harsh winter weather. Prompted by phone calls from citizens and activists, President of the Board of Aldermen Lewis Reed urged the city to “reevaluate all of the winter-outreach practices” in a letter to Mayor Lyda Krewson. (Petrin, 2/2)