Bay Area News Group: 'Age Before Beauty'? California Bill Seeks To Ban Sales Of Anti-Aging Cosmetic Products To Children
While the proposal is a first for California, age-related cosmetic bans have been established in other places. In March, the Swedish pharmacy chain Apotek Hjärtat, which has about 390 pharmacies in Sweden, began restricting the sale of advanced skin care products including retinol and alpha hydroxy acids to customers under 15. (Lam, 5/8)

CapRadio: New California Bills Hope To Mitigate Health Impacts Linked To Living Near Oil, Gas Wells
Two years ago, California legislators passed a law requiring a 3,200 foot setback between new oil and gas wells and community areas like neighborhoods and schools. Prior to its passage, “buffer zones” or setbacks between wells and community areas varied in different parts of California, with many areas having no setbacks at all. Advocates said the law would help prevent health issues caused by living near leaking wells. (Secaira, 5/7)

Fox News: California Bill Pushes Schools To Dole Out Less Homework To Mitigate Student Mental Health Crisis 
A proposed California bill could lessen the load on students by asking schools to dole out less homework. AB 2999, also known as the "Healthy Homework Act," would require districts to update their homework guidelines and adopt an annual policy to be distributed to district officials and families. It encourages local boards to consider students' mental and physical health while taking perspectives from parents, guardians, teachers and students into account. (Penley, 5/7)

Politico: May Is The Make-Or-Break Month For California Ballot Measures 
The official deadline to qualify measures for California’s ballot does not arrive until the end of June, but the most important machinations that will determine what appears — or, in many cases, doesn’t appear — before voters this fall are happening in May. (Schultheis and McCarthy, 5/8)

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser Permanente Layoffs Hit 76 IT, Administrative Employees
Kaiser Permanente plans to lay off another 76 employees in late June, bringing the total to about 350 employees laid off since November. The most recent layoffs are effective June 21 and will include IT and marketing employees in California, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed April 22. Kaiser, which cited cost-cutting efforts, said in a statement Tuesday it will provide severance and career support for affected employees and help transition some to other roles. (Hudson, 5/7)

The Merced FOCUS: Merced County Employees Struggle As Healthcare Premiums Skyrocket. ‘We Have Become The Working Poor’
Marta Echevarria remembers when having a Merced County job meant being able to pay your bills and having affordable healthcare. Echevarria, 54, a family services representative with the Human Services Agency, has worked for the county for over 20 years. When she started, the county covered 100% of employees’ healthcare – and they paid no out-of-pocket costs. That’s no longer the case. Now, county employees, including Echevarria, say they are taking extreme measures to keep up with the ballooning costs of their insurance premiums. (Vaccari, 5/7)

Orange County Register: Medics From Southern California Stuck In Gaza Following Seizure Of Eastern Rafah Border Crossing
Omar Sabha, an operating room nurse who just returned from a volunteer medical mission in Gaza, is now worried for his brother and other medics from Southern California who are still in the war zone, following Israel’s seizure Tuesday of the Rafah border crossing. Several organizations, including the Palestinian American Medical Association and Humanity Auxilium, have partnered with medical professionals from around the world, some from Orange County, to send reinforcements into Gaza to help hospitals and healthcare providers treat civilians. (Torres, 5/7)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Delta Dental Contributes $5 Million To San Diego County Health Centers 
A $5 million grant from the nation’s largest dental insurance provider will help expand oral health care services for vulnerable seniors across San Diego County. (Sisson, 5/7)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Native American Health Clinic To Celebrate 45 Years Of Service During Annual Powwow
San Diego American Indian Health Center is celebrating 45 years of serving the community through medical, dental and mental health care during its annual powwow on Mother’s Day weekend. (Mapp, 5/7)

Modern Healthcare: Joint Commission Launches Rural Health Clinic Accreditation
The Joint Commission is launching a new accreditation program to standardize patient care practices and staff training at rural health clinics nationwide. The Rural Health Clinic Accreditation Program, which will open to applicants sometime this summer, is intended to help clinics in medically underserved, rural communities improve the safety and quality of primary care and personal health services, The Joint Commission announced Tuesday. (Devereaux, 5/7)

Stat: Apple Watch's A-Fib History Cleared By FDA For Use In Clinical Trials
The Apple Watch has secured a new qualification from the Food and Drug Administration that could make the smartwatch an appealing tool for medical device companies hoping to illustrate the benefits of a common heart procedure. (Aguilar and Lawrence, 5/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: Can AI Accurately Triage ER Patients? UCSF Study Suggests Yes
In one of the first studies to test whether artificial intelligence can help triage real-world emergency room patients, new UCSF research suggests AI could one day help doctors make one of the most critical decisions in medicine: who to give urgent medical care to first. The study, published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open, found that an AI model can accurately prioritize the sickest patients 89% of the time. (Ho, 5/7)

USA Today: There's A New COVID-19 Variant Called FLiRT: Here's What You Need To Know About It
A new set of COVID-19 variants, nicknamed FLiRT, has been detected in wastewater surveillance, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From April 14 through April 27, the variant, labeled KP.2, makes up about 25% of the cases in the United States, according to the CDC. That makes it the new dominant variant in the country, overtaking JN.1. The JN.1 variant, which spread globally over the winter, made up 22% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. in the same two-week span.KP.1.1, another FLiRT variant that is circulating, made up about 7.5% of COVID-19 cases in that two-week span, according to CDC data. (Hauari, 5/7)

Reuters: AstraZeneca Says It Will Withdraw COVID-19 Vaccine Globally As Demand Dips 
AstraZeneca said on Tuesday it had initiated the worldwide withdrawal of its COVID-19 vaccine due to a "surplus of available updated vaccines" since the pandemic. The company also said it would proceed to withdraw the vaccine Vaxzevria's marketing authorizations within Europe. (5/7)

CIDRAP: USDA Reports More H5N1 Detections In Poultry, Wild Birds 
In its latest updates, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) reported more H5N1 avian flu detections in poultry and wild birds, including several pigeons in Michigan's Ionia County, an area where the virus has been reported in dairy cows. (Schnirring, 5/7)

CIDRAP: With H5N1 Avian Flu Silently Spreading In US Cattle, Wastewater Testing Could Be Key 
Over a year ago, Marc Johnson, PhD, of the University of Missouri, developed a probe to detect H5 avian influenza A virus (IAV) genetic material in city wastewater because he expected it to start popping up in routine surveillance—just not from cattle. "This cattle thing, that snuck up on us," he told CIDRAP News. "If this [probe] had been implemented nationally, we would've known about this in wastewater back in February, and they would have maybe gotten a lid on it sooner. It's really surprising that it became so widespread without anybody knowing." But the probe wasn't operationalized at that time because H5N1 wasn't recognized until some cattle started showing symptoms in late March. (Van Beusekom, 5/7)

Sacramento Bee: Study: Project Roomkey Helped Homeless Californians Stabilize
A pandemic program created to shelter California’s vulnerable homeless population during COVID-19 helped thousands of people stabilize and transition into housing, a new independent study has found. There’s just one problem: the program was expensive and the federal government is backing out of reimbursing local governments hundreds of millions of dollars for it. The program no longer operates in Sacramento County. (Nixon, 5/7)

The Mercury News: San Jose's Homelessness Plans Include Sanctioned Encampments, Bus Tickets Out Of Town
San Jose officials are proposing to spend $120 million over the next fiscal year to combat homelessness — about 2% of the city’s expected $5.3 billion budget. In addition to funding ongoing efforts such as building more tiny home shelters and providing outreach services, the money could help launch entirely new programs — from managed tent encampments to bus tickets to reunite homeless people with loved ones — in hopes of bringing many of the city’s estimated 4,400 unsheltered residents off the streets. (Varian, 5/7)

Voice of San Diego: Council Majority Not Cool With Proposed Homeless, SDHC Cuts
A City Council majority is uncomfortable with Mayor Todd Gloria’s initial plan to balance the city’s budget in part with proposed homeless program cuts and $15 million from the city’s housing agency. During a Monday hearing, councilmembers expressed concerns about proposed cuts to city homeless initiatives overseen by the Housing Commission including homeless prevention and outreach programs and an East Village day center operated by Father Joe’s Villages that would limit access to showers, mail and other services. Multiple councilmembers also had questions about Gloria’s expectation that the commission hand over funds it says it doesn’t have available. (Halverstadt, 5/7)

LAist: LA Residents Are Furious Over Homelessness. Are They Fed Up Enough To Tax Themselves All Over Again?
Supporters of a new ballot initiative believe they can once again convince L.A. County voters to pay a higher sales tax to fund efforts to make progress on a homelessness crisis that remains top of mind for many Angelenos. An existing quarter-cent tax approved in 2017 would rise to a half-cent tax, with a focus on getting unhoused Angelenos off the streets and keeping vulnerable residents housed. (Wagner, 5/7)

The New York Times: RFK Jr. Says Doctors Found A Dead Worm In His Brain
In 2010, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was experiencing memory loss and mental fogginess so severe that a friend grew concerned he might have a brain tumor. Mr. Kennedy said he consulted several of the country’s top neurologists, many of whom had either treated or spoken to his uncle, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, before his death the previous year of brain cancer. Several doctors noticed a dark spot on the younger Mr. Kennedy’s brain scans and concluded that he had a tumor, he said in a 2012 deposition reviewed by The New York Times. Mr. Kennedy was immediately scheduled for a procedure at Duke University Medical Center by the same surgeon who had operated on his uncle, he said. While packing for the trip, he said, he received a call from a doctor at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital who had a different opinion: Mr. Kennedy, he believed, had a dead parasite in his head. (Craig, 5/8)

The Hill: RFK Jr. Pivots On Gender-Affirming Care For Minors, Says Treatment Should Be ‘Deferred Till Adulthood’
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears more amenable to restricting access to gender-affirming care for transgender minors, writing in a social media post that treatments including puberty blockers and hormone therapy should be reserved for individuals older than 18.“The more I learn, the more troubled I have become about giving puberty blockers to youth. Minors cannot drive, vote, join the army, get a tattoo, smoke, or drink, because we know that children do not fully understand the consequences of decisions with life-long ramifications,” Kennedy wrote late Monday in a post on the social platform X. (Migdon, 5/7)

NBC News: Biden Campaign Goes After Trump On Health Care In $14 Million Ad Boost
President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign on Wednesday announced $14 million in new spending across battleground states while launching an ad hitting former President Donald Trump on health care. A key component of the spending push is a new ad that lists Trump's past efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. (Korecki, 5/8)

Los Angeles Times: Supreme Court Poised To Enter Debate Over Transgender Care For Minors
After steering clear of the divisive issue for months, the Supreme Court may be on the verge of deciding whether to jump into the national debate over medical treatment for transgender youths. As soon as Thursday, justices may vote behind closed doors on whether to grant an appeal that seeks to block a new Tennessee law prohibiting medical treatments that enable a “minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex.” (Savage, 5/7)

Fresno Bee: A Three-Digit Mental Health Lifeline Gave Californians Hope, But A Big Issue Remains
California has received the most 988 calls of any state, according to data collected on the Lifeline. The 988 Lifeline is free and confidential and operates 24/7 with over 200 call centers across the country. There are 13 call centers in California, including one in Sacramento and another in Fresno. (Brassil, 5/7)

San Diego Union-Tribune: CDC Director Spotlights Mental Health Approach At Family Health Centers Of San Diego 
In the world of health care reform, the word “upstream” means investing in early intervention, treating small problems in clinic before they become large enough to require hospital stays. Family Health Centers of San Diego, the region’s largest community clinic network, has done so well in this regard with mental health care that the nation’s top public health official dropped in Tuesday to have a look around. (Sisson, 5/7)