Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Voters Approve Deal That Paves Way For Sale Of Sebastopol Hospital
Voters in western Sonoma County approved a plan Tuesday that allows the financially strained health care district overseeing the former Palm Drive hospital in Sebastopol to lease or sell the property to a private, for-profit health care company to run as a long-term acute care facility. Support for Measure A appeared definitive in semi-final results, with a margin of 77 percent in favor and 23 percent against, based on returns from 40 of 40 precincts and mail-in ballots received by Monday. The nearly 7,000 tallied ballots represented a turnout of roughly 28 percent, with an unknown number of votes left to be counted. The special election asked voters to endorse a deal brokered by the majority of the Palm Drive Health Care District’s board of directors. It wants to lease or potentially sell the district-owned hospital to Modesto-based American Advanced Medical Group. (Fixler, 3/5)

The San Francisco Chronicle: California Wildfires: Report Names Priority Projects For Thinning Vegetation
Gov. Gavin Newsom should immediately allow the thinning of vegetation on almost 94,000 acres of state land in a bid to keep more than 200 communities safe, California fire officials said Tuesday as they released a list of the state’s 35 most critical fuel-reduction projects. (Gafni, 3/5)

KQED: Cal Fire Report Urges Quick Action To Protect High-Risk Towns From Wildfire Threats
With a total of 3 percent of California's land area having burned in 2017 and 2018 -- years that saw the biggest, deadliest and most destructive wildfires in the state's history -- Cal Fire on Tuesday released a plan to reduce the threat posed by wildland blazes to communities around the state. The Cal Fire recommendations call on state agencies to act quickly on a number of fronts, including launching projects to reduce fuels around dozens of the state's most wildfire-vulnerable communities and streamlining regulations so that needed vegetation management happens more rapidly. (Brekke, 3/5)

Capital Public Radio: Public Condemns Sacramento Police Over Response To East Sacramento Stephon Clark Protest
A large and passionate crowd packed the Sacramento’s City Council chambers Tuesday night, at one point causing the council to take a brief recess. Dozens attended the meeting and gathered outside to express their anger about a Monday night Stephon Clark protest in East Sacramento where Sacramento police arrested 84 people. Community members at the meeting said police officers antagonized them during a peaceful march through the affluent “Fab 40s” neighborhood. The protest came on the heels of an announcement by Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert that her office would not file criminal charges against the two officers who shot Clark last year. On Tuesday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced his office had reached the same conclusion. (Caiola, 3/5)

Los Angeles Times: When Measles Struck, Investigators Wanted Answers. Instead, Some Parents Lied
As a measles outbreak spread in Northern California last spring, public health workers called the family of a young boy who they feared had been exposed to the disease. The boy’s mother, however, said her 7-year-old already had his shots, so they need not worry. A month later, health investigators found out she had lied. The boy, who had since caught measles, spread it to his brother and uncle, said Dr. George Han, deputy health officer in Santa Clara County. (Karlamangla, 3/5)

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Sonoma County Declares Health Emergency Due To Hazardous Waste Left After The Flood
Sonoma County’s interim health officer, Dr. Karen Holbrook, declared a local health emergency Tuesday because of the volume of hazardous waste scattered by the worst flood since 1995, which affected 2,572 homes and businesses plus public infrastructure from Sebastopol to Monte Rio and caused an estimated $155 million in damage. The county has posted no-entry warnings on 35 homes and cautionary notices on 600 homes. Nail polish, paint, drain openers, lighter fluid, rat poison, batteries, adhesives, even thermometers — all of these items contain potentially hazardous ingredients that could cause health problems if ingested and shouldn’t be thrown away in the household trash. (Johnson, 3/5)

The Mercury News: Attorney For Santa Cruz Brain Surgeon Accused Of Child Rape Asks Court To Drop 17 Charges
Attorneys for James Kohut filed a motion to challenge 17 charges accusing the neurosurgeon of a conspiracy involving sex crimes against children. Last year, Superior Court Judge John Salazar dismissed 13 charges of copulation and other sexual acts by adults with children younger than 10 after reviewing videos of minors having sex — the children of Kohut’s codefendants: Rashel Brandon and Emily Stephens, Kohut’s girlfriend. Three other charges also were dropped. (Todd, 3/5)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, Who Fought Teenage Vaping, Resigns
Scott Gottlieb, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, known for his aggressive efforts to regulate the tobacco and e-cigarette industries, said on Tuesday that he would resign at the end of the month. The reason he gave was family and his weariness with commuting to see his wife and three children, who have remained in their Westport, Conn. home since he took office. But his announcement caught many in Washington and the industries he regulates by surprise and raised questions about whether his push to reduce teenage vaping and lower nicotine levels and ban menthol in cigarettes will continue in an administration that generally has a hands-off approach to business. (Kaplan and Hoffman, 3/5)

Reuters: U.S. FDA Chief Tough On E-Cigs Steps Down In Surprise Resignation
Gottlieb was well regarded by public health advocates and won bipartisan support for his efforts to curb use of flavored e-cigarettes by youths, speed approval times for cheap generic medicines to increase competition and bring down drug prices, and boost the use of cheaper versions of expensive biotech medicines called biosimilars. Unlike his predecessors, who said drug pricing was not the purview of the FDA, Gottlieb waded into the intensifying debate about the high cost of medicines for U.S. consumers and had the agency actively looking into possible solutions. (3/6)

The Washington Post: FDA Commissioner Gottlieb, Who Raised Alarms About Teen Vaping, Resigns
“It was a very hard decision,” Gottlieb said in an interview. “This is the best job I will ever have. I’m leaving because I need to spend time with my family. I get home late Friday, work on weekends and come back to Washington on Sunday. I did the job 100 percent." The resignation was not sought by the White House. A senior White House official said Gottlieb had spoken to President Trump, and that the president liked the FDA chief and did not want him to leave. (McGinley, Bernstein and Dawsey, 3/5)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Chief Scott Gottlieb To Leave Agency
A 46-year-old physician, Dr. Gottlieb joins a long list of other senior Trump administration officials who have left their roles. Dr. Gottlieb, who has been commuting to Washington from Connecticut during the workweek, has told those close to him he is resigning to reduce the strain on his wife and three young children. His exit will take effect sometime over the next month, after which he is likely to seek a post in the private sector, according to people familiar with his plans. “All of us at HHS are proud of the remarkable work Commissioner Gottlieb has done at the FDA,” Mr. Azar said. “He has been an exemplary public-health leader, aggressive advocate for American patients and passionate promoter of innovation.” (Burton and Maloney, 3/5)

The Associated Press: FDA Chief Scott Gottlieb Steps Down After Nearly 2 Years
President Donald Trump tapped Gottlieb in 2017 to “cut red tape” at the FDA. But Gottlieb bucked expectations by pushing the agency to expand its authorities in several key ways, including an unprecedented effort to make cigarettes less addictive by requiring lower nicotine levels. The 46-year-old physician and former conservative pundit advanced his agenda while managing to maintain the support of the president, Republicans and key Democrats in Congress. (Perrone, 3/5)

Politico: ‘Something Very Rare’: FDA’s Gottlieb Aggressively Tackled Difficult Issues
FDA leaders have typically focused much of their attention on a handful of medical topics, but Gottlieb has been active and aggressive on many issues as commissioner without hewing to a strictly conservative or liberal ideology. It’s an approach that’s won him praise from many in the health sector, while garnering criticism from several of the targeted businesses like tobacco companies and the fast-growing e-cigarette industries. “He was able to do something very rare: He never got embroiled in a scandal, never got labeled with a toxic administration brush and had a great relationship with the President all at the same time,” said one former White House official. (Owermohle, Karlin-Smith and Bottemiller Evich, 3/5)

The Associated Press: Trump Aims To Stem Vet Suicide With Outreach, Local Grants
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday aimed at stemming a persistently high number of veteran suicides, urging expanded outreach by awarding grants to community programs. The order creates a Cabinet-level task force that will seek to develop a national roadmap for suicide prevention, bringing in state and local organizations to raise awareness among the high-risk group. It directs the task force led by Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie to finalize a plan in 12 months. (3/5)

The Associated Press: FDA Allows Treatment Of Depression With Club Drug's Cousin
A mind-altering medication related to the club drug Special K won U.S. approval Tuesday for patients with hard-to-treat depression, the first in a series of long-overlooked substances being reconsidered for severe forms of mental illness. The nasal spray from Johnson & Johnson is a chemical cousin of ketamine, which has been used for decades as a powerful anesthetic to prepare patients for surgery. (3/5)

The New York Times: How To Quit Antidepressants: Very Slowly, Doctors Say
Thousands, perhaps millions, of people who try to quit antidepressant drugs experience stinging withdrawal symptoms that last for months to years: insomnia, surges of anxiety, even so-called brain zaps, sensations of electric shock in the brain. But doctors have dismissed or downplayed such symptoms, often attributing them to the recurrence of underlying mood problems. The striking contrast between the patients’ experience and their doctors’ judgment has stirred heated debate in Britain, where last year the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists publicly denied claims of lasting withdrawal in “the vast majority of patients.” (Carey, 3/5)

The New York Times: Border At ‘Breaking Point’ As More Than 76,000 Migrants Cross In A Month
The number of migrant families crossing the southwest border has once again broken records, with unauthorized entries nearly doubling what they were a year ago, suggesting that the Trump administration’s aggressive policies have not discouraged new migration to the United States. More than 76,000 migrants crossed the border without authorization in February, an 11-year high and a strong sign that stepped-up prosecutions, new controls on asylum and harsher detention policies have not reversed what remains a powerful lure for thousands of families fleeing violence and poverty. (Dickerson, 3/5)

The Washington Post: Planned Parenthood, American Medical Association Sue Trump Administration Over Abortion ‘Gag Rule’
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the American Medical Association have filed a lawsuit to block a new federal rule that would prohibit clinics participating in a program for low-income women from referring them for abortions. The groups argued in a filing in U.S. District Court in Oregon on Tuesday that the requirement would violate patients’ rights, force doctors to withhold information and harm the 4 million patients who rely on the Title X program for their health care. (Cha, 3/5)

The Washington Post: Measles Outbreak: Washington Health Secretary Calls For National Campaign To Combat Anti-Vaxxers
A Senate panel warned lawmakers Tuesday about the dangers of false information about vaccines and called for a national campaign, similar to the one against smoking, to counter the public health threat posed by anti-vaccine groups. Virtually all the witnesses and members of the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which held the hearing, endorsed the safety and importance of vaccines. But one senator, Rand Paul, (R-Ky.), struck a defiant note. (Sun, 3/5)

The Hill: Dem Campaign Chief: Medicare For All Price Tag 'a Little Scary' 
The House Democrats’ new campaign chief on Tuesday poured cold water on the progressive Medicare for All plan, dismissing it as just “one idea” out there and warning that its estimated $33 trillion price tag was “a little scary.” “The ‘Green New Deal’ is an idea. ‘Medicare for all’ is an idea. But there are many others that are out there,” Rep. Cheri Bustos (Ill.), the chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), said in an interview with The Hill. (Wong and Lillis, 3/6)