Politico: Lawmaker Withdraws Sweeping California Bill To Expand Assisted Dying 
The author of a California bill that aimed to create the most expansive assisted dying law in the country has pulled the proposal, meaning it won’t be considered this year. San Diego area Sen. Catherine Blakespear confirmed after POLITICO first reported that she removed her proposal, Senate bill 1196, from consideration before its first hearing, which was supposed to be Monday. (Bluth, 4/17)

Los Angeles Times: Proposed Budget Would Deny Help To Many Autistic Californians
The state moved in 2021 to phase in higher reimbursement rates for the services provided to the developmentally disabled. This year, however, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed to delay the final increase to help reduce the state’s budget deficit. Advocates and families say such a delay would only leave essential services further out of families’ reach. (Garcia, 4/17)

Los Angeles Times: Supreme Court Tackles Homelessness Case Affecting California
The Supreme Court is poised to hear its most important case ever on the homelessness crisis, and to decide whether cities in California and the West may enforce laws against camping on sidewalks or other public property. Homelessness has often been cited as the most intractable problem for cities in the West, and it has grown worse in the last decade. (Savage, 4/18)

Los Angeles Times: Newsom Calls For Increased Oversight Of Local Homelessness Efforts
Frustrated over the lack of progress on homelessness in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom is calling for increased oversight of cities and counties that receive state funds in an effort to hold them accountable to deliver results. Newsom’s more aggressive stance is the latest example of the governor wanting local governments to do more to lessen homelessness, which has worsened in his tenure despite more than $20 billion in state funds spent on programs to help over the last five years. (Luna, 4/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F.’s Tiny Cabins For The Homeless With ‘Insane’ Cost Finally Open
A much anticipated tiny cabin village for homeless people is finally open in San Francisco’s Mission District after years of planning, delays and intense controversy over the project’s steep price tag. As of Tuesday, 10 unhoused people had moved into the village, located near the BART 16th Street Station, with plans to welcome an additional five people each day until all 60 cabins are occupied, according to Emily Cohen, spokesperson for the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. (Angst and Toledo, 4/17)

Voice of OC: Should Orange County Take A New Approach To Curbing Homelessness? 
Multiple Orange County leaders and activists are saying it’s time to reexamine how the county is tackling homelessness as there’s been little to no improvement over the past seven years, despite $1 billion being spent. Those calls for reform and more oversight of homeless programs come just weeks ahead of the county’s annual budget hearings, which will shape where over $9 billion in funding goes. (Biesiada, 4/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: Asian And White Californians Have The Best Health Care Access: Study
A new report on how well health care systems work for people of different races and ethnicities in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia finds that Asian Americans in California rank among the highest in the nation in health care access, quality and outcomes. The report, slated for release Thursday by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund, found that Asian Americans in California are in the 89th percentile among all racial and ethnic groups nationally, according to a scoring system based on 25 indicators of health including uninsured rates, death rates from common cancers, rates of smoking and obesity, vaccination rates and cancer screening rates. (Ho, 4/17)

Minnesota Public Radio: Mayo Clinic Study Asks Black And Brown Youth About Racism In Health Care 
The American Academy of Pediatrics says racism can negatively impact the health of children and adolescents, and the doctor’s office is one of the places where kids may experience racial bias. A team of Minnesota doctors asked Black and brown kids aged 11 to 18 about their experience in a recent study. Then, the researchers talked to their parents. (Bright and Elder, 4/17)

KQED: SF’s Equity Program Fails To Address Racial Disparities In Cannabis Industry
Mimi Cavalheiro was in the cannabis industry for over 20 years. She started working on cannabis farms in Humboldt County in the late 1990s. The county is part of the coastal region in Northern California known as The Emerald Triangle and includes Trinity and Mendocino counties. It was the center of cannabis production in the United States before recreational marijuana was legalized. (DeBenedetti, 4/18)

NPR: New Study Shows More Botched Executions For Black Prisoners
Studies of the death penalty have long shown racial inequality in its application, but a new report has found the disparity extends inside the death chamber itself. In an analysis of the more than 1,400 lethal injection executions conducted in the U.S. since 1982, researchers for the nonprofit Reprieve reported that states made significantly more mistakes during the executions of Black people than they did with prisoners of other races. (Eisner, 4/18)

CBS News: California Can Share Your Baby's DNA Sample Without Permission, But New Bill Could Force State To Publicly Reveal Who They're Giving It To
Genealogy companies like Ancestry.com and 23andMe have to get your permission before they store, use, or share your DNA, under the Genetic Information Privacy Act. However, the California Department of Public Health doesn't have to. In fact, the agency has been storing DNA samples from every baby born in California since the 1980s. Researchers can purchase those samples for state-approved studies and law enforcement can access them with a court order. (Watts, 4/17)

The Wall Street Journal: 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki Plans To Take Company Private
Anne Wojcicki is seeking to take her DNA-testing company 23andMe private after three years in public markets that saw the once-hot company’s valuation collapse from a high of $6 billion. Her intentions were revealed in a public filing late Wednesday, which stated that she is working with advisers to help craft a potential deal and intends to speak with potential partners and financing sources. The filing said she would oppose any other buyer taking over the company. (Winkler, 4/17)

Stat: Data Privacy Needed For Your Brain, Neurorights Foundation Says
Consumer neurotechnology is booming. You can buy a funky-looking headband for $500 on the internet if you want your own personal EEG to track your brain data. But before you click purchase, you might want to check out the device’s privacy policy. (Broderick, 4/17)

Modern Healthcare: Hospital Prices For Emergency Care Varied 16-Fold In 2023: JAMA
Prices for initiating care at hospital trauma centers vary wildly across hospitals, sometimes leading to patients with insurance paying more than those without coverage, according to a new study. Prices associated with readying doctors and other personnel for trauma cases varied 16-fold in 2023 across 761 hospitals studied, according to a peer-reviewed research letter published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Kacik, 4/17)

Bloomberg: PE-Owned Health Care Saw Bankruptcy Surge As Playbook Failed
Private equity-owned businesses accounted for a high number of bankruptcies in the health-care sector last year, and another wave of distress looms, according to a new report from an advocacy group that monitors the sector. PE-backed firms accounted for at least 17, or about a fifth, of the 80 bankruptcies of health-care companies last year, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project said in a report due to be released Wednesday. It called 2023 a “record year” for large health-care bankruptcies. (Coleman-Lochner, 4/17)

Modern Healthcare: Nursing Home Staff Mandate Draws Concerns At Senate Hearing
Nursing home workers and educators pushed back on the administration's staffing mandate at a Senate Aging Committee hearing Tuesday, as the industry waits for the final rule to drop. In September, CMS proposed staffing ratio requirements for long-term care facilities, which would require them to provide 0.55 hours of care from a registered nurse per resident per day and 2.45 hours of care from a nurse aide per resident per day. (DeSilva, 4/17)

Bay Area News Group: Amid Fentanyl Epidemic, California Bill Aims To Add More Sober Homeless Housing
In an effort to create more drug-free housing options, a new legislative bill from a Bay Area lawmaker aims to allow state agencies to set aside up to 25% of supportive housing funding for sober living facilities. Currently, state-funded permanent supportive housing sites can’t require residents to stay off drugs. (Varian, 4/18)

Los Angeles Times: As Avian Flu Spreads, A Disturbing Question: Is Our Food System Built On Poop?
If it’s true that you are what you eat, then most beef-eating Americans consist of a smattering of poultry feathers, urine, feces, wood chips and chicken saliva, among other food items. As epidemiologists scramble to figure out how dairy cows throughout the Midwest became infected with a strain of highly pathogenic avian flu — a disease that has decimated hundreds of millions of wild and farmed birds, as well as tens of thousands of mammals across the planet — they’re looking at a standard “recycling” practice employed by thousands of farmers across the country: The feeding of animal waste and parts to livestock raised for human consumption. (Rust, 4/18)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Tijuana River Named Among Most Endangered Rivers In America Due To Sewage Crisis 
The Tijuana River, with frequent flows of sewage and chemical-tainted waters, is among America’s top endangered rivers, according to a report released Tuesday that spotlights threats to clean water nationwide. American Rivers, a nonprofit focused on protecting the health of rivers in the U.S., compiled a list of the 10 most threatened waterways and listed the binational Tijuana River in ninth place. (Murga, 4/16)

Stacker: How Syringe Exchanges In California Reduce The Spread Of Disease 
Syringe services programs are one of the provenly effective methods for decreasing overdose deaths as well as the spread of infectious diseases like HIV and Hepatitis C. SSPs are operated by community-based prevention programs that can offer other services such as testing, counseling, and medical treatment/wound care. (4/17)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Medical Equipment Recycle Program Will Share Space With Child Parent Institute In Santa Rosa 
Sonoma County’s much-used, much-loved Medical Equipment Recycling Program has a new home. And just in time. (Benefield, 4/17)

KVPR: Amid Concerns About Kids And Guns, Some Say Training Is The Answer
Guns now kill more kids than car wrecks, a trend highlighting the growing concern about increased gun suicides and shootings among youth. What to do about it? Keeping guns out of children's hands is one way. Some people take a different approach: train kids to handle guns responsibly. (Kaste, 4/18)