Castle Work News Today

The Washington Post and AP report on a new University of Hawaii study on the effects of the Lahaina wildfire. Researchers found, among other things, that up to 74% of the 679 people surveyed had elevated blood pressure levels, meaning a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. Other news from around the nation comes from California, Missouri, North Carolina, West Virginia, Connecticut, Colorado, Kentucky, Louisiana, and more.

Three years after adopting the most liberal drug laws in the nation, a new Oregon bill would reintroduce criminal penalties for drug use, while also allowing officials some latitude in pushing for treatment or jail for offenders. Other regional public health news is reported from Maryland, California, Colorado, and Texas.

A new study compares bureaucratic problems that beset private-sector hospitals to the more efficiently run Veterans Health Administration system. Also in the news: A major Brooklyn teaching hospital will shut; a medical helicopter crash kills three crew members in Oklahoma; and more.

At least 72 people have died, state officials say, and the number is likely to climb. Other state health news is from Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Montana, Missouri, Florida, and elsewhere.

Easy access to guns is a problem in Texas, say gun safety and mental health advocates. CDC data show the number of Texans who took their life with a gun last year was at a level not seen since 1999. Other reports say rising suicide among older men is worrying: It's a group hard to reach with support.

Fewer families in Minnesota will face the simultaneous burdens of major medical problems and financial distress. The Post Bulletin helped make this happen.

When Kyson Taylor, a junior at Rockville’s Richard Montgomery High School, winds the same path to his psychology class every day, he can feel the eyes following his movements. Despite having few direct interactions with his school resource officer — the police officer assigned to monitor Richard Montgomery — the man watched him intensely every […]

Asante Reflects on Tenure as Student Member of the Board During Pandemic Nick Asante, 18, is a long-time fan of singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. Although he joked that his friends make fun of him for it, he’s a proud “Swiftie” — so much so that he took to Reddit to pen an elaborate fan theory about Swift’s 2020 album “Folklore.” Asante, or tswiftconspiracist13 as he’s known on Reddit, gained popularity with his album analysis. Buzzfeed and Bustle even wrote articles about his 800...

Community Members Debate Police Removal From Schools The Montgomery County Board of Education (BOE) held a public hearing Tuesday in which community members shared pre-recorded statements debating the continued presence of police in schools, otherwise known as the School Resource Officer (SRO) program. The vast majority of speakers, 24 out of 31, emphatically called for the district to terminate the SRO program citing its inefficacy and harmfulness. They requested that the Board instead direct ...