Los Angeles Times: How George Tyndall Went From USC Gynecologist To The Center Of LAPD’s Largest-Ever Sex Abuse Investigation
Dr. George Tyndall arrived on the USC campus in the summer of 1989. The university had advertised for a full-time gynecologist for the student health center, and Tyndall, then 42, was an enthusiastic candidate. “My mission will be to do everything I can to help Trojan women avoid the many preventable catastrophes that I have seen,” Tyndall declared during the job interview, according to a written account he provided to The Times. “And I will do so for as long as I am mentally and physically able, hopefully well into my 80s.” (Hamilton and Ryan, 12/19)

Stat: Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Accusing Craig Venter Of Stealing Trade Secrets
A California judge has dismissed a suit in which genomics pioneer Craig Venter’s old company accused him of stealing trade secrets. The decision on Tuesday brings to a close a messy breakup between Venter, the 72-year-old celebrity scientist who helped sequence the human genome, and Human Longevity, the struggling San Diego genomics company that Venter founded in 2013 and departed this past spring. (Robbins, 12/19)

Capital Public Radio: A New Generation Of Trans Youth Faces Obstacles To Health Care 
A wave of young people is coming out as transgender, leaving the health system struggling to keep up. Trans teenager Michael Alongi was born in a female body and he wants to transition in a more permanent way, but he faces obstacles to gender-affirming care because of his age.He and his mother, Jeanne, join Insight to discuss why it’s important for kids like him to get access to appropriate health care. (Ruyak, 12/19)

Ventura County Star: Oxnard Hospital Fined For Needle Left In Patient After Surgery
A nearly 3-inch-long metal needle was left in a woman’s abdominal tissue during a 2014 open-heart surgery at St. John’s Regional Medical Center, triggering a $40,400 fine, state officials said this month. The needle broke just underneath the skin during a difficult operation that lasted several hours and involved dozens of needles and wires, said surgeon Dr. Bruce Toporoff. He described the incident as minor. But California Department of Public Health officials classified the error as carrying the potential to cause serious injury or death and said their first concern was to make sure such an incident doesn’t happen again. They said the needle was finally removed more than seven months after surgery when the patient came to St. John’s emergency room complaining of a burning pain. (Kisken, 12/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: Hunger Has Gotten Worse In San Francisco In The Past 5 Years, Despite $48 Million In Increased Spending 
Five years later, food insecurity has only gotten worse in San Francisco, according to a 200-page report released by the city’s Food Security Task Force Thursday. The city has increased spending on nutrition programs by $48 million in that time period; yet the extra meals and groceries are still not enough to meet the needs of the estimated 227,000 San Franciscans who are at high risk of food insecurity, according to the report. (Duggan, 12/20)

In other news from across the state —

Stat: University Of California Squares Off Against Major Publisher Elsevier
There’s a high-stakes fight in California that could shape the way that academic research gets read and published far beyond the West Coast. The battle is pitting the University of California system against Elsevier, the Netherlands-based publisher of academic journals. At issue is how open-access research gets paid for. (Robbins, 12/19)

Orange County Register: Santa Ana Woman Who Drowned Her 2-Month-Old Daughter Committed To State Hospital 
A Santa Ana woman who drowned her baby was committed Wednesday to a state hospital, three weeks after jurors found that she was insane at the time of the murder. Orange County Superior Court Judge Sheila Hanson, acting on the recommendation of mental health experts, ordered that Lucero Carrera spend at least 180 days receiving treatment at a state hospital. ...Carrera, who was living with her mother in Santa Ana, had a lengthy history of mental illness, including a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and several hospitalizations and suicide attempts. She often cycled through manic and depressive states, according to courtroom testimony, and shortly before the drowning had stopped taking her medication, worrying that it was making her drowsy when she wanted to be awake to care for the child. (Emery, 12/19)

Modesto Bee: Modesto Approves City’s First Eight Marijuana Dispensaries 
The Modesto City Council on Wednesday awarded its first-ever permits to eight retail marijuana businesses looking to sell cannabis products out of storefronts. The council held a special meeting Wednesday afternoon to discuss and then vote on approving the permits for the dispensaries. The public and the retail applicants were invited to attend and speak at the meeting. (Ahumada and Rowland, 12/19)

Los Angeles Times: More Than 15% Of Childhood Deaths In America Are Due To Guns, Study Says
More than 3,000 children and adolescents died of a gunshot wound in the United States in 2016, a new tally of childhood deaths finds. These episodes accounted for 15.4% of all Americans between the ages of 1 and 19 who died in 2016, and a quarter of those killed by injury rather than disease. As they inch their way back to rates last seen in 1999, childhood deaths attributed to firearms — 3,143 — generated 70% more grieving families than those produced by pediatric cancer — 1,853. Guns also broke the hearts of more than three times as many families than did childhood drownings — 995 — or the combined category of poisoning deaths and fatal drug overdoses — 982. (Healy, 12/19)

In other public health news —

KQED: Camp Fire Caused Nearly 2 Straight Weeks Of Bay Area's Worst Air Quality On Record
From Nov. 8 to Nov. 20, the region was choked by dangerously high levels of fine particulate matter, ranking among the worst periods of hazardous smoke since the Bay Area Air Quality Management District began keeping such records in 1999. All of the district's 17 monitoring stations — spread through eight Bay Area counties — detected high concentrations of the pollutant. (Goldberg, 12/19)

San Jose Mercury News: Whooping Cough Cases Spike Again In Marin County
Marin County’s Department of Health and Human Services reported 229 cases this year of pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough — the largest outbreak in the county since 2014. Statewide, 2,942 cases were reported since Jan. 1. Outbreaks commonly occur every three to five years, the department said. (Pera, 12/20)

The Associated Press: Obama Health Law Sign-Ups Beat Forecast Despite Headwinds
The Affordable Care Act has yet again beaten predictions of its downfall, as government figures released Wednesday showed unexpectedly solid sign-ups for health coverage next year. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said nearly 8.5 million people had enrolled as of last Saturday's deadline, with about a dozen states, including California and New York, still left to report. The preliminary number was down about 4 percent, when a much bigger loss had been expected. (12/19)

The New York Times: Despite Challenges, Health Exchange Enrollment Falls Only Slightly
In the open enrollment period that ended on Saturday, the number of sign-ups totaled 8.45 million, down from 8.82 million at the same point last year, a drop of about 367,000, or 4 percent, despite warnings that a more precipitous drop could be in the offing. Democrats have repeatedly accused President Trump of sabotaging the Affordable Care Act and its marketplace by promoting short-term health policies with skimpier coverage, substantially cutting enrollment promotion efforts and nearly eliminating funds for “navigators” who help potential enrollees through the process. Congress also zeroed out the health law’s penalty for not being covered, starting in 2019. But Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said that “enrollment remained steady through HealthCare.gov.” (Pear, 12/19)

Reuters: Sign-Ups For 2019 Obamacare Insurance Fall To 8.5 Million People
Enrollment had been running about 10 percent lower but picked up during the past week, reflecting a typical trend of last-minute shopping, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma said in a call with reporters. Verma said the decrease was due to increased employment, which typically means more people had employer-based health insurance, and that about 100,000 people with Obamacare insurance in Virginia became eligible for the expanded Medicaid program there. (12/19)

The Washington Post: Last-Minute Scramble For ACA Plans Appears Unaffected By Court Ruling
After just completing its sixth annual enrollment season, the federal insurance marketplace created under the ACA “is far from dead and remarkably resilient,” said Larry Levitt, senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health policy group. He noted, however, that the number of first-time enrollees dropped by 15 percent from last year. The number of returning customers was marginally higher than last year. (Goldstein, 12/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Affordable Care Act Sign-Ups Lag Behind Last Year’s
Analysts say many factors are behind the enrollment slowdown. They cite a general lack of public awareness about open enrollment; repeal of the federal penalty on people who don’t have health insurance; and the proliferation of health plans that don’t comply with the ACA. In addition, last week’s ruling by a Texas federal judge in Texas invalidating the ACA, at least for now—which came just before the busiest enrollment days—may have affected sign-ups. (Armour, 12/19)

Politico: Obamacare Sign-Ups See Late Surge
Though the federal judge's ruling against the health care law appears not to have dampened interest in the final day of open enrollment, Democratic lawmakers say it may have ramifications in the coming weeks. “Right now, a single mother who signed up for coverage during the open enrollment period is trying to make a decision about whether or not she ought to pay her premium," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Finance Committee. (Ollstein and Demko, 12/19)

The Washington Post: Why Republicans (Secretly) Want The ACA To Survive
A Texas judge’s decision to declare the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional has spooked Republicans who are unsure whether they have realized the long-sought victory celebrated by President Trump or stumbled into a nightmare that will haunt them through the next election cycle. They had already killed or softened its most loathed sections: The reviled penalty for not having health insurance was zeroed out as part of last year’s tax overhaul. The Trump administration had expanded access to far less robust — and much cheaper — insurance than the law mandated. It even allowed states to impose work rules on those eligible for expanded Medicaid benefits. (Johnson, 12/19)

The Hill: Senate GOP Blocks Bid To Intervene In ObamaCare Case 
Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a vote on a resolution that would have allowed the Senate to intervene in a federal lawsuit against ObamaCare. Democrats asked for unanimous consent to authorize the Senate legal counsel to defend ObamaCare in court after a district judge in Texas declared the entire law unconstitutional last week. The case is almost certainly headed for an appeal. (Hellmann, 12/19)

The Associated Press: 'A Moral Disaster': AP Reveals Scope Of Migrant Kids Program
Decades after the U.S. stopped institutionalizing kids because large and crowded orphanages were causing lasting trauma, it is happening again. The federal government has placed most of the 14,300 migrant toddlers, children and teens in its care in detention centers and residential facilities packed with hundreds, or thousands, of children. As the year draws to a close, some 5,400 detained migrant children in the U.S. are sleeping in shelters with more than 1,000 other children. Some 9,800 are in facilities with 100-plus total kids, according to confidential government data obtained and cross-checked by The Associated Press. (12/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Homeland Security Chief Set To Testify On Child’s Death At Border
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s scheduled testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday is set to offer a glimpse of the strict oversight to come from Democrats still fuming over the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy along the Southern border. Ms. Nielsen is expected to answer questions from lawmakers about the recent death of a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl, Jakelin Caal Maquin, who died this month at a hospital in El Paso, Texas. She died a little more than a day after she and her father were arrested with a group of about 160 people on Dec. 6 in Antelope Wells, N.M., a remote border crossing in southern New Mexico. (Jamerson, 12/20)

Politico: Trump Administration To Notify Congress And Media About Border Deaths Within 24 Hours
U.S. Customs and Border Protection this week said that Congress and the media will be notified within 24 hours of any death that happens in custody following criticisms of the agency's delayed announcement of the death of a 7-year-old girl. "To secure and maintain the public trust, CBP's intent is to be accessible and transparent by providing appropriate information to the Congress and the public regarding any death occurring in custody," according to the guidelines. "Maintaining this trust is, in part, dependent on timely and sufficient notification to the extent permitted by law and CBP policy." (Morin, 12/19)

The New York Times: Congress Grills Head Of V.A. Over New Health Care Law
Foreshadowing a likely partisan battle next year, Robert L. Wilkie, the secretary of Veterans Affairs, faced sharp questioning from Democrats on Wednesday over how the department will carry out a new expansion of private-sector medical care for veterans. Lawmakers attending a joint House-Senate hearing scrutinized evolving standards at the V.A. that dictate how and when veterans can get care outside of the system’s 1,300 government hospitals and clinics. The Trump administration is expected to better define the standards next year, but some at the hearing were not satisfied. (Steinhauer, 12/19)

In other national health care news —

Stat: Trump Report Would Preclude Patent Seizures To Lower Drug Prices 
In a rebuke to Democratic lawmakers and advocacy groups, the U.S. Department of Commerce released a report earlier this month saying the federal government should not use so-called march-in rights, which involve seizing patents, as a tool to address high prices for prescription medicines. Under federal law, a government agency that funds private research — such as the National Institute of Health — can require a drug maker to license its patent to another party in order to “alleviate health and safety needs which are not being reasonably satisfied.” An agency can also do so when the benefits of a product, such as a medicine, are not available on “reasonable terms.” (Silverman, 12/19)

The New York Times: Juul May Get Billions In Deal With One Of World’s Largest Tobacco Companies
E-cigarette maker Juul, which has vowed to make cigarettes obsolete, is near to inking a deal to become business partners with Altria, one of the world’s largest tobacco companies. The union — which would create an alliance between one of public health’s greatest villains and the start-up that would upend it — entails cigarette giant Altria investing $12.8 billion for a 35 percent stake in Juul, at a $38 billion valuation, according to two people briefed on the negotiations. (Richtel and Kaplan, 12/19)

ProPublica and The New York Times: Top Cancer Doctor Resigns As Editor Of Medical Journal
Dr. José Baselga, the former chief medical officer of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, resigned under pressure on Wednesday as one of the editors in chief of Cancer Discovery, a prominent scientific journal, after he failed to accurately disclose his conflicts of interest in dozens of articles in medical journals. The American Association for Cancer Research, which publishes the journal, said a panel of experts and the group’s board of directors had concluded that “Dr. Baselga did not adhere to the high standards pertaining to conflict of interest disclosures that the AACR expects of its leadership.” (Ornstein and Thomas, 12/19)

Reuters: Exclusive: Big Pharma Returning To U.S. Price Hikes In January After Pause
Novartis AG and Bayer AG are among nearly 30 drugmakers that have taken steps to raise the U.S. prices of their medicines in January, ending a self-declared halt to increases made by a pharma industry under pressure from the Trump administration, according to documents seen by Reuters. Other drugmakers set to raise prices at the start of 2019 include Allergan Plc, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Amgen Inc, AstraZeneca Plc and Biogen Inc, the documents show. (12/19)

The New York Times: Heroin Addiction Explained: How Opioids Hijack The Brain
Getting hooked is nobody’s plan. Some turn to heroin because prescription painkillers are tough to get. Fentanyl, which is 50 times more potent than heroin, has snaked its way into other drugs like cocaine, Xanax and MDMA, widening the epidemic. To understand what goes through the minds and bodies of opioid users, The New York Times spent months interviewing users, family members and addiction experts. Using their insights, we created a visual representation of how the strong lure of these powerful drugs can hijack the brain. Dr. Pedro Mateu-Gelabert, one of the nation’s top opioid researchers, said this work brings “an emotional understanding” to the epidemic but “without glamorizing or oversimplifying.” (Sinha, 12/18)

The New York Times: Fewer Births, More Deaths Result In Lowest U.S. Growth Rate In Generations
The population of the United States grew at its slowest pace in more than eight decades, the Census Bureau said Wednesday, as the number of deaths increased and the number of births declined. Not since 1937, when the country was in the grips of the Great Depression and birthrates were down substantially, has it grown so slowly, with just a 0.62 percent gain between July 2017 and July 2018. With Americans getting older, fewer babies are being born and more people are dying, demographers said. (Tavernise, 12/19)