Los Angeles Times: Some Mentally Ill People Are Stuck In L.A. Jails, Report Says
People with mental illnesses who are in conservatorships are being held in Los Angeles County jails even after their criminal charges are dropped, according to a report released Tuesday by Disability Rights California. Similarly, they are staying months in county psychiatric hospitals after doctors have agreed that it’s safe for them to leave, the report said. The issue is partly one of capacity. (Cosgrove, 3/13)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Carlsbad Demands Tighter Security For 2-Year-Old, Low-Income Housing Project With Some Mentally Ill Tenants 
Additional security, more case management services, and an improved program to monitor guests should be added to the Windsor Pointe low-income housing project, Carlsbad City Council members said Tuesday. (Diehl, 3/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: Star Bay Area Athlete Didn't Want To Live, Now He's Helping Others
In June 2022, about a month after a suicide attempt, Myron Amey Jr. delivered friends goodbye letters explaining his intent to kill himself. What followed — a stint at a local psychiatric hospital, therapy sessions that helped him find self-worth beyond basketball, a renewed interest in his Christian faith — made him want to live again. Letourneau, 3/14)

Modesto Bee: Stanislaus County Will Have Cannabis Tax On November Ballot
Voters in Stanislaus County will decide on a cannabis tax in November that would apply to licensed businesses in unincorporated areas. If approved by a simple majority, the county would collect up to an 8% tax on gross retail sales of cannabis. The tax could be set between 1% and 4% for cultivation, or $1 to $8 per square foot, whichever is higher. Other rates would 1% to 4% for manufacturing, distribution and testing. (Carlson, 3/13)

Roll Call: Growing Teen THC Use Could Further Complicate Cannabis Policy
Adolescents are using an often unregulated, psychoactive derivative of cannabis, according to national data released Wednesday, as the Biden administration deliberates expanding access to marijuana at the federal level.  The data could complicate hemp regulation at the state level, as some states move to rein in THC use. It could also have ripple effects around efforts to legalize marijuana, which already operates under an extremely gray patchwork of regulations at the state level, where it’s often legal, and the federal level, where it’s not. (Raman and Clason, 3/14)

The Hill: Harris To Host Marijuana Reform Roundtable With Kentucky Governor, Rapper Fat Joe 
Vice President Harris will convene a roundtable on marijuana reform Friday with rapper Fat Joe, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and individuals who received pardons for marijuana convictions. A White House official said Harris will highlight actions the Biden administration has taken to pursue criminal justice reforms, including by pardoning tens of thousands of Americans with federal marijuana possession charges. (Samuels, 3/13)

ProPublica: Chinese Organized Crime Dominates America’s Illicit Marijuana Market 
A quadruple murder in Oklahoma shows how the Chinese underworld has come to dominate the booming illicit trade, fortifying its rise as a global powerhouse with alleged ties to China’s authoritarian regime. Rotella, Berg, Yalch and Adcock, 3/14)

Los Angeles Times: More California Parents Are Delaying Their Kids' Vaccines, And It's Alarming Pediatricians
As measles cases pop up across the country this winter — including several in California — one group of children is stirring deep concerns among pediatricians: the babies and toddlers of vaccine-hesitant parents who are delaying their child's measles-mumps-rubella shots. (Gold, 3/13)

CBS News: Going Abroad? Time To Check If You're Up To Date On Measles Immunity, CDC Says
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance Wednesday for travelers in the wake of a global rise in measles outbreaks, as cases have mounted across 17 states. Americans planning to travel abroad should consult their doctors at least six weeks before traveling if they are unsure about whether they are up to date on their vaccines, the agency now says, in order to avoid catching the highly contagious virus during their trip. The CDC previously said in November that travelers only needed to schedule an appointment at least one month before their trip, in order to have enough time to get vaccinated. (Tin, 3/13)

Vox: Measles In The US: Vaccines, Treatment, And What To Do To Protect Your Family
Unvaccinated children and immunocompromised people — especially those receiving certain cancer treatments — face the highest risk when measles is in circulation. “Even an uncomplicated case of measles is really awful,” said Sarah Lim, an infectious disease doctor and medical specialist at the Minnesota Department of Health, during a press conference on March 12. (Landman, 3/13)

Los Angeles Times: Older Californians Now Eligible For Another COVID-19 Vaccine Dose
Older Californians who received last autumn's updated COVID-19 vaccination can now get another shot, state health officials said. (Lin II, 3/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: Survey: COVID Fear Fades Even As Virus Remains A ‘Significant Threat’
As we enter the fifth year of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new survey reveals a notable shift in how Americans perceive the coronavirus. According to a Pew Research Center report published last week, only 20% of respondents now consider the coronavirus a significant threat to the health of the U.S. population, marking a substantial decline from the peak of public concern in 2020. A mere 10% expressed deep concern about the prospect of contracting the virus and ending up in the hospital. (Vaziri, 3/13)

The New York Times: Kamala Harris Will Visit Abortion Clinic, In Historic First 
Vice President Kamala Harris plans to meet with abortion providers and staff members on Thursday in the Twin Cities, a visit that is believed to be the first stop by a president or vice president to an abortion clinic. Ms. Harris plans on Thursday to tour the center with an abortion provider and highlight what the administration has done to try to preserve access to the procedure as conservative states enact growing restrictions. Minnesota has become a haven for abortion seekers since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ushering in restrictive laws and bans in neighboring states. (Lerer and Nehamas, 3/13)

The Hill: New York Republican Becomes First GOP Member To Support Bill Protecting IVF 
Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.) announced Wednesday that he was cosponsoring a bill to protect access for in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments, becoming the first Republican to back the care. In a statement, Molinaro said he would be cosponsoring the Access to Family Building Act, with Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.). It had companion legislation introduced in the Senate by Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.). (Irwin, 3/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Dumps Large Amounts Of Sewage Into Creek, Group Says
When heavy rain overwhelms wastewater treatment plants in San Francisco, causing stormwater to overflow onto streets and into the bay, sewage is an unfortunate part of the mix. After heavy rain, the largest recipient of the potent brew of stormwater and sewage in the city is Mission Creek – a channel to the bay that is home to houseboats, walking trails and a kayak launch. At Mission Creek, Islais Creek, another channel at India Basin, and a few locations in between, the city discharges 1.2 billion gallons of “combined sewer discharges” in a typical year, according to the environmental group S.F. Baykeeper, which has notified the city it intends to sue over how such discharges impact the environment. (Duggan, 3/14)

The Washington Post: HHS Opens Probe Into UnitedHealth’s Cybersecurity As Hack Fallout Continues 
The Biden administration is opening an investigation into UnitedHealth Group following a cyberattack on a subsidiary that has crippled health-care payments and probably exposed millions of patients’ data. The Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday said its probe would focus on identifying the extent of the breach and compliance by UnitedHealth and its subsidiary, Change Healthcare, with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act — widely known as HIPAA — which is intended to protect patients’ private data. (Diamond, 3/13)

NPR: Blood Test Can Detect Colorectal Cancer Early, New Study Finds 
The results of a clinical trial, published Wednesday, in The New England Journal of Medicine, show that the blood-based screening test detects 83% of people with colorectal cancer. If the FDA approves it, the blood test would be another screening tool to detect the cancer at an early stage. ... Dr. Barbara Jung, president of the American Gastroenterological Association says the test could help improve early detection of colorectal cancer. "I do think having a blood draw versus undergoing an invasive test will reach more people, " she says. (Aubrey, 3/14)

NBC News: In Two Early Trials, Blood Cancer Treatment Appears Promising For Deadly Brain Tumor
Two early trials published Wednesday showed promise in treating one of the deadliest types of cancer, glioblastoma. The aggressive brain cancer, which took the lives of John McCain and Beau Biden, is only diagnosed at stage 4, and the five-year survival rate is around 10%. ... The two clinical trials published Wednesday were extremely small, conducted on just nine patients in total, and much more research is needed, with larger trials, to determine how effective the therapy might be in the long run. (Sullivan, 3/13)

Nature: First Cell Therapy For Solid Tumours Heads To The Clinic: What It Means For Cancer Treatment
More than 35 years after it was invented, a therapy that uses immune cells extracted from a person’s own tumour is finally hitting the clinic. At least 20 people with advanced melanoma have embarked on treatment with what are called tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), which target and kill cancer cells. The regimen, called lifileucel, is the first TIL therapy to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). And it is the first immune-cell therapy to win FDA approval for treating solid tumours such as melanoma. Doctors already deploy immune cells called CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T cells to treat cancer, but CAR-T therapy is used against only blood cancers such as leukaemia. (Reardon, 3/11)

CNN: This Risk Assessment Tool Helped Olivia Munn Discover Her Breast Cancer 
A tool that’s available as an online calculator played a key role in actress Olivia Munn’s discovery that she had breast cancer – even after she had “a normal mammogram,” according to a social media post. (Howard, 3/13)

Nature: Why Are So Many Young People Getting Cancer? What The Data Say
Of the many young people whom Cathy Eng has treated for cancer, the person who stood out the most was a young woman with a 65-year-old’s disease. The 16-year-old had flown from China to Texas to receive treatment for a gastrointestinal cancer that typically occurs in older adults. Her parents had sold their house to fund her care, but it was already too late. “She had such advanced disease, there was not much that I could do,” says Eng, now an oncologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. ... Thousands of miles away, in Mumbai, India, surgeon George Barreto had been noticing the same thing. (Ledford, 3/13)

Medical News Today: How Metabolic Syndrome Can Increase The Risk Of Developing Cancer
New research shows that worsening metabolic syndrome – which is present in more than a third of adults in the United States – carries with it an increased risk of developing cancer. Metabolic syndrome is not a single condition, but rather the term applied when a person has three or more of the following markers: central or abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high serum triglycerides, and low serum high-density lipoprotein. (Gray, 3/13)

Military Times: Nearly 200 Cancer Cases Surface Among Missileers In Air Force Study
Early data in a sweeping study of potential cancers in the Air Force’s nuclear missile community revealed fewer cases of most forms of the disease than expected, the service said Wednesday. But it cautioned a deeper dive is necessary before drawing any conclusions. The first phase of the Air Force’s analysis, which analyzed the electronic medical records of more than 2.2 million airmen who were treated at military medical facilities from 2001 to 2021, revealed 198 cancer cases among the missile community and 5,063 cases across the Air Force at large, according to data provided to reporters in early March. (Mabeus-Brown, 3/13)

Politico: Becerra Leaves The Door Open To Drug Testing Welfare Recipients 
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Wednesday didn’t shut the door to drug testing welfare recipients, a policy San Francisco voters approved earlier this month. Becerra, former California attorney general, said that he didn’t want to tell cities, counties or states what actions they should take but that all options should be on the table when considering how to address the drug crisis facing the nation. (Messerly, 3/13)

The Boston Globe: Potential TikTok Ban Passes House, But Some Say Worry It's Too Narrow
As TikTok users flooded Congress with calls opposing a bill that could ban the popular video app in the United States, Representative Jake Auchincloss said his office received one so disturbing that it convinced him the legislation was needed. “We got a voicemail from a young individual threatening suicide if we banned TikTok. That is a case in point . . . of the deleterious impact that these apps are having on our youth,” the Newton Democrat said. ... “I mean, Congress needs to get a grip on this.” (Puzzanghera, 3/13)