Los Angeles Daily News: President Joe Biden To Visit Monterey Park During Imminent West Coast Swing 
President Joe Biden will travel to Monterey Park on Tuesday, where he will discuss his efforts to reduce gun violence in America, in the wake of the Lunar New Year dance-hall shooting in the San Gabriel Valley city that left 11 dead, the White House confirmed Wednesday, March 8. Details were scant on the visit — but it appears to be one stop on a larger West Coast swing as, according to reports, Biden gears up for a re-election run. (Carter, 3/8)

Los Angeles Times: Biden To Spotlight Gun Control In Monterey Park And Meet U.K., Australia Leaders In San Diego
President Biden will travel to California on Monday for a multiday visit that will include a stop in Monterey Park, the site of one of three mass shootings that rocked the state in January. Before visiting Monterey Park, Biden will meet Monday in San Diego with Prime Ministers Rishi Sunak of Britain and Anthony Albanese of Australia. (Subramanian, 3/8)

The New York Times: Biden To Visit California And Call For Tougher Gun Control Measures 
The official did not say if Mr. Biden planned to visit the site of the shooting or meet with Brandon Tsay, the young man who stopped Huu Can Tran, 72, from entering his family’s dance studio about 20 minutes after Mr. Tran killed 11 people at a nearby ballroom in January. Mr. Tsay was a guest at Mr. Biden’s State of the Union address last month, in which the president called for a ban on assault weapons. (Rogers, 3/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: ‘Nobody Understands What They’re Saying’: Walgreens Tries To Please Both Sides In Abortion Medication Fight
“Nobody understands what they’re saying,” Shaunna Thomas, executive director of the feminist group UltraViolet, said of Walgreens on Tuesday. She said the company “made the right decision by ‘clarifying’ its policy” but didn’t say nearly enough to “quell the fear and concern of those who are impacted.” Thomas said that a petition by her group calling on all pharmacies to continue providing mifepristone has drawn 75,000 signatures, and that UltraViolet will ask all the people who signed to stop doing business with Walgreens. (Egelko, 3/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: Antiabortion Activists Are Coming To California
When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last June, Melanie Salazar felt empowered to ramp up her fight against abortion. But her home state of Texas had already put in place laws to ban the procedure — her enthusiasm might be wasted there, she feared. “I was thinking, ‘Should I go to New Mexico? Should I go to D.C.?’ ” said Salazar, 24. Her fellow antiabortion activists suggested a bolder move: California, a state where abortion protection is enshrined in the Constitution and the governor has promised to make it a sanctuary for people from other states where the procedure is now outlawed. (Allday, 3/8)

Bay Area Reporter: As SF Moves To End Travel Ban, Gay Legislator Stands By State Policy 
With San Francisco officials moving to repeal their restriction on taxpayer-funded travel to conservative states, the author of California's travel ban policy has no plans to follow suit. Whereas the municipal "no fly" list covers states that have adopted anti-LGBTQ laws, abortion bans, or restricted voting access in recent years, the state's is only invoked when lawmakers in other states roll back LGBTQ rights. Gay Assemblymember Evan Low (D-Cupertino) authored the legislation that established the state travel ban, which took effect in 2016. It restricts the use of Californians' tax dollars to pay for non-emergency travel to states that have adopted discriminatory laws against LGBTQ people since June 26, 2015. (Bajko, 3/8)

Index-Tribune: Protesters Force Closure Of COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic At Sassarini Elementary In Sonoma
Three members of an anti-vaccine activist group forced the closure of a COVID-19 vaccine clinic March 2 at Sassarini Elementary School in Sonoma, police said Tuesday. (Hunter, 3/8)

The Jewish News of Northern California: In Our Annual Covid Checkup With Dr. Bob Wachter, It’s Time To Start Playing The Long Game
During the pandemic, UCSF Department of Medicine chair Dr. Bob Wachter emerged as one of the leading voices, both locally and nationally, that people could turn to for clear, concise information on the risks of Covid. On social media and in interviews, Wachter explained the data while humanizing the science by providing a look at his own personal decisions, from mask-wearing to whether to get on an airplane. On the three-year anniversary of California’s state of emergency declaration due to the spread of Covid-19, Wachter spoke to J. about where we are now. (Mirsky, 3/7)

San Francisco Chronicle: Lockdowns Reduced Virus Spread By 56% But At Steep Economic Cost, Study Finds
The lockdown orders issued at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic helped reduce the spread of the disease by an estimated 56%, according to a new study from researchers at USC, UC Riverside and other schools. But the lockdowns also took a heavy toll on the economy. (Vaziri, 3/8)

Science: Science Takes Back Seat To Politics In First House Hearing On Origin Of COVID-19 Pandemic
Members of the House of Representatives’ Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic mostly hammered home long-standing Republican or Democratic talking points, shedding no new light on the central question: Did SARS-CoV-2 naturally jump from animals to humans or did the virus somehow leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China? “It was very disappointing, and almost unbelievably divorced from the science,” says University of Arizona evolutionary biologist Michael Worobey, whose published research in Science supporting a natural “zoonotic” origin of the virus has been attacked by proponents of the lab-leak scenario. (Cohen, 3/8)

Nature: US COVID Origins Hearing Renews Debate Over Lab-Leak Hypothesis
One of the focal points for Republican committee members was the idea that Anthony Fauci, former director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, had steered the scientific community to dismiss a lab leak early in the pandemic. Ahead of the hearing, they released a memorandum suggesting that Fauci “prompted” a group of virologists in March 2020 to publish a correspondence in Nature Medicine1 concluding that a lab-leak scenario was not plausible. Fauci was not at the hearing to offer his perspective, but in a statement he responded to the memorandum, denying the accusations. He said his only goal was to encourage the virologists to evaluate the origins of SARS-CoV-2. “I have stated repeatedly that we must keep an open mind as to the origins of the virus.” (Lenharo and Wolf, 3/9)

Stat: Revamped Covid Panel Argues For Research Limits, Even Bans
Pathogen-altering research is back under fire here, as Republican lawmakers argue it should be banned until policymakers and scientists work out whether these types of studies have helped advance infectious disease research — or played a role in the global Covid-19 pandemic. (Owermohle, 3/8)

Politico: Trump’s CDC Director Says Fauci Shut Down Debate On Covid’s Origin 
Trump administration CDC Director Robert Redfield told a congressional committee Wednesday that his former colleague, Anthony Fauci, and former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins froze him out of discussions on Covid-19’s origins. The accusation came during a politically charged hearing Wednesday of the House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and stoked Republican claims that Fauci in early 2020 promoted the view that an infected animal spread the virus to humans to divert attention from research the U.S. sponsored at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology. (Paun, 3/8)

The Hill: House Democrats Denounce GOP COVID Witness As Having Racist Views 
A British author and former science editor of The New York Times was the subject of Democratic ire Wednesday when he testified during a congressional hearing on the origins of COVID-19. Nicholas Wade, who said he believes the virus originated in a research lab in Wuhan, China, came under fire by Democrats on the House coronavirus subcommittee for a controversial book he authored in 2014 that has been endorsed by white supremacists. (Weixel, 3/8)

Fresno Bee: Madera Hospital Former Employees Could Be Wage Theft Victims 
A Madera Community Hospital board member this week confirmed to The Bee that the hospital owes roughly $2 million to former employees the hospital couldn’t pay after it closed its doors in January. (Amaro, 3/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Woman Went To Hospital Hours Before Stillbirth At Tent Site
A homeless San Francisco woman who had a stillbirth in a portable bathroom at a city-sanctioned tent site outside City Hall was treated at a hospital the previous evening and was back at the site by the morning, records show. People close to her said she told them afterward that her full-term pregnancy was not detected. The woman told authorities at the site after she gave birth that she had not known she was pregnant, according to the city medical examiner’s report on the incident last year. The organization running the site, a person who helped the woman at the site and her neighbor at the site said they also didn’t know. (Moench, 3/8)

USA Today: Mental Health Number 988 Expands Text, Chat For LGBTQ Patients To 24/7
A government-backed 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline's LGBTQ pilot program is now offering text and online chat services 24/7. The 988 lifeline, (formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline), is a suicide prevention network of more than 200 crisis centers across the U.S. that provides round the clock service available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. (Neysa Alund, 3/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area County Issues Warning To Gardeners Living Near Refinery
Health officials have advised residents who live near a Contra Costa County oil refinery to avoid eating produce grown in the soil, which could be tainted by heavy metals that poured from the facility last Thanksgiving. The 20 tons of dust unleashed from the Martinez Refinery on Nov. 24 left a layer of fine white powder on cars, homes and backyards, later found to have “unusually high” levels of aluminum, chromium, barium, zinc, nickel and vanadium, top officers of Contra Costa Health Services said in a statement. (Swan, 3/7)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Millions Of Gallons Of Sewage Are Spewing Into San Diego Waters 
Sewage from Tijuana has overwhelmed the international treatment plant in San Diego — which is now discharging 30 million gallons a day of partially treated wastewater into the Pacific Ocean. (Smith, 3/8)

The Guardian: Revealed: The 10 Worst Places To Live In US For Air Pollution
The worst 10 hotspots for fine particle air pollution in the US have been revealed by The Guardian in an analysis using cutting-edge modeling. The Bakersfield area and South Los Angeles ranked No. 1 and 2, respectively. (McCormick and Witherspoon, 3/8)

Voice of OC: Something’s In The Air: Irvine Residents’ Yearslong Battle For Breathable Air 
Irvine city leaders have widely advertised their home as the safest city in America for years, but residents who live downwind of the All American Asphalt plant haven’t felt that after years of complaints over the plant’s emissions into their neighborhood were ignored, even downplayed. After four years of protests, studies, lawsuits and marathon city council meetings, a solution is finally on the horizon for the city to buy the factory and shut it down, with plans to turn the factory and surrounding land into a nature preserve. (Biesiada, 3/9)

Sacramento Bee: California Constitutional Amendment Creates Right To Housing 
Housing is California’s biggest challenge, but would a constitutional right to a place to live make a difference for state residents? Assemblyman Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, wants to give voters a chance to add an amendment guaranteeing housing. Haney’s measure would push state and local governments to “take progressive steps to fully realize that right,” according to a bill fact sheet. (Holden, 3/8)

Voice Of San Diego: North County Report: Lack Of Funding Shut Down Aid To Families On The Brink 
A homelessness prevention program for families in Escondido was discontinued because of a federal funding roadblock, now program leaders are looking to the city for help. Escondido Education COMPACT’s Families First program is a homelessness prevention initiative that provided families with financial assistance and helped them find alternative housing options. (Layne, 3/8)

Sacramento Bee: Fight Heating Up Over CA Social Media Liability Bill 
Last year, opponents deployed what one lawmaker called “a virtual armada” of lobbyists to successfully fend off a bill that would have held social media companies liable for addicting children to their content. With the recent introduction of a similar bill, SB 287, the armada is again on the horizon, gearing for another fight. (Hobbs, 3/8)

The New York Times: Biden Will Release Dead-On-Arrival Budget, Picking Fight With GOP 
President Biden will propose a budget on Thursday that has no chance of driving tax or spending decisions in Congress this year, but instead will serve as a statement of political priorities as he clashes with Republicans over the size of the federal government. Mr. Biden’s budget proposal, the third of his presidency, is an attempt to advance a narrative that the president is committed to investing in American manufacturing, fighting corporate profiteering, reducing budget deficits and fending off conservative attacks on safety-net programs. (Tankersley, 3/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Biden Budget To Propose Saving Hundreds Of Billions By Cutting Drug Prices, Fraud
President Biden’s budget blueprint will lay out plans to save hundreds of billions of dollars by seeking to lower drug prices, raising some business taxes, cracking down on fraud and cutting spending he sees as wasteful, according to White House officials. Mr. Biden is set to release his fiscal 2024 budget plan on Thursday. Administration officials said it would propose cutting federal budget deficits by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade. The proposal is unlikely to gain momentum, with Republicans expected to oppose many of Mr. Biden’s plans, and it will include some ideas that didn’t become law while Democrats controlled the House and Senate. But the release of the budget will kick off monthslong spending negotiations with lawmakers. (Restuccia, Rubin and Armour, 3/8)

The Hill: Here’s What To Watch For In Biden’s Budget 
While the budget isn’t set for release until Wednesday afternoon, some details have already begun to trickle out around what the request will entail, including reports of plans to tackle the country’s deficits by trillions over the next decade as Biden teases tax hikes targeting wealthier Americans. ... The plan seeks to extend the lifetime for Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund by at least 25 years, as the fund is projected to become insolvent by 2028. But to do so, the proposal also calls for a higher tax rate “on earned and unearned income above $400,000.” (Folley, 3/8)

Axios: Biden's Medicare Budget Proposal To Lower Drug Prices May Have Some Bite
President Biden's push to let Medicare negotiate the prices of more drugs sooner after they come to market won't become law any time soon. But some experts say even raising the topic could scare off investment into new treatments. (Owens, 3/9)

Stat: Medicare Chief On The New Drug Price Negotiation Program’s Operations, Hiring, And Timelines
Medicare officials are still hammering out the technical specifics of how the massive program will start to negotiate drug prices — let alone the substantive ones, Medicare chief Meena Seshamani said at a STAT event Tuesday. (Wilkerson, 3/8)

Politico: Republicans Take Aim At Medicaid As Budget Talks Heat Up
Senior Republicans in the House and Senate are proposing deep cuts to Medicaid as talks around reducing the deficit intensify ahead of a budget showdown between President Joe Biden and House leaders. As outside conservative groups make a case for cuts in closed-door briefings and calls, members point to pledges from party leaders on both sides not to touch Social Security or Medicare as a key reason the health insurance program for low-income Americans is on the chopping block. (Ollstein, 3/8)

NBC News: Opioids Were Most Common Cause Of Child Poisoning, Study Found
Opioids were the most common substance contributing to the poisoning deaths of children ages 5 and younger, according to a new study. The research, published Wednesday in the journal Pediatrics, found that opioids accounted for more than 47% of the poisoning deaths among children in that age group between 2005 and 2018 — 346 of 731 total deaths reported to the National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention. (McShane, 3/8)

The New York Times: Opioids Are Leading Cause Of Child Poisoning Deaths, Study Finds 
About 41 percent of these poisoning deaths resulted from accidental overdoses, according to the study, which described 18 percent as “deliberate” poisonings. And over the 14-year period from 2005 to 2018, the frequency of pediatric opioid poisonings steadily rose, accounting for more than half of child poisoning fatalities in 2018, the authors concluded. (Chung, 3/8)

CNN: Young Children Are Increasingly Victims Of Opioid Epidemic, Study Finds 
“It truly is striking to see, looking at this data, how different the proportions were between 2005 and 2018,” said study co-author Dr. Christopher Gaw, an associate fellow at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia whose research primarily focuses on pediatric injury and poisoning. The number of deadly poisonings in this age group had been decreasing since the passage of the Poison Prevention Packaging Act in 1970, when harder-to-open childproof packaging became a standard for many medicines, other studies have shown. Gaw thinks that people’s preferences for particular drugs have shifted and that that has had an impact on fatality numbers. (Christensen, 3/8)

Stat: Health Secretary Signals Support For New Rule On Buprenorphine
A federal proposal to impose new restrictions on a key addiction-treatment medication has caused an uproar in certain segments of the medical community. But health secretary Xavier Becerra seems to be on board. (Facher, 3/8)

Reuters: U.S. FDA Approves Amphastar Pharma's Nasal Spray For Opioid Overdose
Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Inc said on Wednesday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved its nasal spray for emergency treatment of known or suspected opioid overdose. (3/8)