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Weekly News Roundup: A Toxic Spill, Dollars for Rural Doctors, and More

Shoppers at a gun show in Houston
M&R Glasgow via Flickr
Shoppers at a gun show in Houston

Wastewater Spill Dumps Toxins in a Colorado River, Turns it Orange

Last Friday, the EPA announced it had accidentally released one million gallons of water containing arsenic, lead, and other contaminants into the Animas River in southwestern Colorado. By Monday, the estimate had risen to 3 million gallons. Yesterday, the agency said the river has returned to normal, but some residents remain skeptical, as Colorado Public Radio reports. 

From Public Menace to Public Health Issue: Heroin and Race

In The Atlantic this week, legal analyst Andrew Cohen looks at today's heroin epidemic through the lens of the heroin epidemic of the '60s and the crack crisis of the '80s. How much does the public response - focused this time on recovery rather than punishment - have to do with the users' skin color? 

 

Can Cash Incentives Improve Rural Mental Health Access?

In rural Texas, there's a desperate shortage of psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers. A new law aims to draw more by helping them repay their student loans, as KERA News reports.  

 

Study Finds a Correlation Between Police Deaths and Gun Ownership

A study published online Thursday found officer homicides were higher in states where more people own guns. Side Effects' Jake Harper explains. 

 

Whistleblowers Accuse Texas Medicare Advantage Plans of Fraud

Allegations of faked Alzheimer's tests, doctors practicing without licenses or diagnosing patients just based on a chat arepart of the latest suit against private Medicare plans in Texas, as the Center for Public Integrity reportedthis week. 

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