In This Issue

I hope you had a fantastic Fourth of July weekend.

We begin this week's issue with a look at the work of the Black Treatment Advocates Network in my hometown, Chicago, where Evany Turk, a prevention and outreach counselor for the University of Chicago, received science, treatment and mobilization training and has used that education not only to help advocate for comprehensive sex education in Chicago Public Schools, but to support young people, as well.

Our friends at BuzzFeed share an in-depth feature story about Black gay college wrestler Michael Johnson, aka "Tiger Mandingo," being prosecuted under Missouri's HIV exposure laws. Steven Thrasher reports.

Some senators have proposed adding skimpier "copper" plans to the platinum, gold, silver and bronze offerings currently available on the Affordable Care Act's health insurance marketplace. Kaiser Health News reports on the pros and cons of adding plans with fewer features. And as we near this fall's open enrollment period for health plans offering coverage in 2015, the Department of Health and Human Services has announced plans to automatically re-enroll consumers who don't want to change their plans.

Finally, we run a piece from Colorlines about the structural factors that undermine young Black men's ability to find work. As you know, poverty is one of many social determinants of health and is an important driver of the HIV epidemic.

Yours in the struggle,

Phill