Bay Area News Group: Santa Clara County Offers $2 Million To Repair Dilapidated Mental Health Homes
Santa Clara County is offering $2 million to help landlords repair dilapidated group homes for people with mental health and addiction issues — an attempt to alleviate a longstanding problem across the South Bay. (Varian, 4/18)

CalMatters: What Happens When A Homeless Camping Case Goes To Trial?
Wickey Two Hands sat at the defense table on a recent Thursday morning, holding in his lap the red baseball cap he’d doffed out of respect for the judge. The 77-year-old homeless man was supposed to be the first person tried in court under an ordinance Fresno passed last year making it a crime to camp in all public places. Over the past six months, he’d spent hours in a courtroom, arriving early for each hearing. He’d packed up and moved his campsite multiple times, trying to find out-of-the-way spots where he could avoid getting arrested again. (Kendall, 4/18)

Times of San Diego: TrueCare Expands Services With New Vista Way Health Center
TrueCare, a nonprofit community health center serving North San Diego and Riverside counties, is opening its completed Vista Way Health Center. ...  “Our mission at TrueCare remains focused on improving the health status of our diverse communities through providing quality, comprehensive, affordable, and culturally sensitive health care,” said Michelle Gonzalez, CEO of TrueCare. (Sklar, 4/17)

Military Times: Nurses Rally Outside VA Hospitals To Highlight Staff Cuts, Vacancies
During a typical nursing shift at VA Medical Center San Diego, Andrea Johnson said she barely has time to catch her breath between room checks, family consults and patient requests. “What happens if you cut housekeeping staff, and it falls to us to get rooms cleaned?” she asked. “If dietary staff is cut, will nurses have to take on the responsibility to deliver meal trays? Who is going to handle scheduling to make sure a bed is available? (Shane III, 4/17)

Los Angeles Times: Most U.S. Stocks Rise, But UnitedHealth's Worst Day In Decades Keeps Wall Street In Check
Most U.S. stocks climbed Thursday, but the worst drop for UnitedHealth Group in a quarter of a century kept Wall Street in check. The Standard and Poor’s 500 index edged up by just 0.1%, even though 3 of every 4 stocks climbed in the index. ... Helping to lead the way higher on Wall Street was Eli Lilly, which jumped 14.3% after the drugmaker reported encouraging results for a once-daily pill that could help treat people with obesity and diabetes. (Choe, 4/17)

The Intersection: San Joaquin Valley Residents Have The Most To Lose With Planned Federal Cuts To Food Stamps
San Joaquin Valley residents already bracing for possible federal cuts to Medicaid could be hit with a one-two punch as Congressional Republicans plan to slash another $230 billion, much, or all, of which could come from the federal food stamps program. SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is called CalFresh in California helps low-income residents buy groceries. House Republicans approved a budget that strips $230 billion over the next decade from the Agriculture Committee, which oversees the SNAP program. (Rowland, 4/17)

Stat: Health Care Industry, Worried Millions Could Lose ACA Insurance, Pushes To Trump To Delay Changes
Hospitals, health insurers, and insurance agents are asking President Trump to pump the brakes on a regulation that would lead to potentially millions of people losing their health insurance. (Herman, 4/18)

The Desert Sun: California Seeks A Ban That Would Impact Pharmacy Ownership
Dozens of state attorneys general, including California, are calling for Congress to end a practice they say has "exacerbated the problem of manipulated prices and unavailability of certain prescription medications." (Barraza, 4/15)

Sacramento Bee: California Lawmakers Want More Oversight Of Sexual Assault Complaints At Women’s Prisons
A new budget proposal California lawmakers are considering would add 22 positions to the Office of the Inspector General to better oversee inmate complaints and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s investigatory process. (Wolffe, 4/17)

Los Angeles Times: Congressmen Sound Alarm Over Data Privacy Following 23andMe Bankruptcy
Three congressmen from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce are raising concerns over data privacy weeks after the genetic testing company 23andMe filed for bankruptcy, putting millions of customers’ personal information up for sale. The Republican representatives — Brett Guthrie from Kentucky, Gus Bilirakis from Florida and Gary Palmer from Alaska — sent a letter to 23andMe interim Chief Executive Joe Selsavage on Thursday requesting answers to several questions by May 1. (Petrow-Cohen, 4/17)

Politico: House Committee Requests Probe Of Health Care Union’s Spending
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce is calling for an investigation into “improper financial practices” by the union 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, citing recent reporting by POLITICO. In a letter Thursday to a top federal labor official, committee Chair Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) expressed concern about “numerous troubling allegations” detailed in POLITICO’s investigation, which found union President George Gresham has for years used the organization’s funds to benefit himself, his family and political allies. (Kaufman, 4/17)

Bay Area News Group: California Students And Faculty Join National Protest Of Trump's Crackdown On Higher Education
The national day of action comes as the Trump administration has unveiled several executive orders and policies targeting higher education, ranging from revoking international student visas and cutting research funding to cracking down on transgender athlete participation and opening investigations into alleged antisemitism on campuses, including subpoenaing hundreds of faculty members at the University of California. (Gibbs and Lopez, 4/18)

Modern Healthcare: Draft White House Budget Expands Hospital Cost Report Auditing
Health systems would be subject to greater oversight under a White House proposal to expand hospital cost report audits. The White House Office of Management and Budget is seeking information from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as it weighs whether to increase funding for hospital cost report auditing, according to a leaked draft of its fiscal 2026 budget plan, dated April 10. (Early, 4/17)

The Washington Post: DOGE Pauses Health-Care Grants, Freezing Payments For Review
The U.S. DOGE Service is putting new curbs on billions of dollars in federal health-care grants, requiring government officials to manually review and approve previously routine payments — and paralyzing grant awards to tens of thousands of organizations, according to 12 people familiar with the new arrangements. The effort, which DOGE has dubbed “Defend the Spend,” has left thousands of payments backed up, including funding for doctors’ and nurses’ salaries at federal health centers for the poor. Some grantees are waiting on payments they expected last week. (Diamond, Johnson and Natanson, 4/17)

The Daily Beast: RFK Jr. Scrambles To Defuse Outrage Over His Autism Claims As Elizabeth Warren Calls For Resignation
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is in full damage-control mode after causing outrage with his comments about autism during his first official press briefing as health secretary. Kennedy’s remarks have caused national outrage, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) calling for Kennedy’s resignation. Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, attempted to dial back the controversy in a sit-down Thursday night with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. Kennedy attempted to clarify that he wasn’t referring to all people with diagnosed with autism, but only to those who are “nonverbal”, meaning that they do not communicate using spoken language. “Let me say this,” he told Hannity. “There are many kids with autism who are doing well. They’re holding down jobs, they’re getting pay checks, they’re living independently. But I was referring specifically to that 25 percent—the group that is nonverbal.” (Van Brugen, 4/18)

CBS News: FDA Making Plans To End Its Routine Food Safety Inspections, Sources Say
The Food and Drug Administration is drawing up plans that would end most of its routine food safety inspections work, multiple federal health officials tell CBS News, and effectively outsource this oversight to state and local authorities. The plans have not been finalized and might need congressional action to fully fund, said the officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly. Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, denied that the FDA was making plans to do this. (Tin, 4/17)

NBC News: A Deadly E. Coli Outbreak Hit 15 States, But The FDA Chose Not To Make The Details Public
An E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce ripped across 15 states in November, sickening dozens of people, including a 9-year-old boy in Indiana who nearly died of kidney failure and a 57-year-old Missouri woman who fell ill after attending a funeral lunch. One person died. But chances are you haven’t heard about it. The Food and Drug Administration indicated in February that it had closed the investigation without publicly detailing what had happened — or which companies were responsible for growing and processing the contaminated lettuce. (Khimm, 4/17)

AP: Judge Blocks Worker Protections For Abortion And Fertility Care For Catholic Employers
More than 9,000 Catholic employers do not need to abide by federal regulations requiring accommodations for workers who seek abortions and fertility treatments, according to a ruling issued this week by a federal judge in North Dakota. The Catholic Benefits Association and the Bismarck Diocese filed a lawsuit last year challenging the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s regulations on implementing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for pregnancy and childbirth-related needs. The EEOC interpreted the statute to include abortion and fertility treatments as among those needs, which the Catholic groups argued violated their religious rights. (Dura, 4/17)

MedPage Today: Clinicians Worry About Loss Of A Critical CDC Contraceptive Guideline
The team behind CDC's U.S. Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use (MEC) was another casualty in the mass layoffs at HHS — and clinicians worry what losing this critical guideline will mean for patient care. The MEC details the safety of contraceptive types for people with different medical conditions, and was run by a slim eight-person team. The latest MEC guidelines and companion practice recommendations were released in August 2024. (Robertson, 4/17)

The New York Times: Trump Calls FSU Shooting A ‘Shame,’ But Signals No Shift In Gun Laws 
President Trump said on Thursday that the shooting at Florida State University in Tallahassee that killed two people and injured six was a “shame,” but suggested that it would not prompt him to support any new gun control legislation. “These things are terrible, but the gun doesn’t do the shooting — the people do,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “It’s, you know, a phrase that’s used probably too often. I will tell you that it’s a shame.” (Wolfe, 4/18)

Bloomberg: Luigi Mangione Indicted On Federal Murder Charges In Shooting Of Brian Thompson
Luigi Mangione was indicted on federal murder charges in the shooting of a UnitedHealth Group Inc. executive, paving the way for US prosecutors to pursue the death penalty against him. Mangione’s federal case has now been assigned to a US judge, who will rule on disputes in the case and oversee a trial. Mangione has separately been charged by New York state prosecutors with Brian Thompson’s murder and awaits trial. (Hurtado, Van Voris, and Voreacos, 4/17)

Orange County Register: Billions Over Budget. No Answers. Medi-Cal Needs An Audit.
Medi-Cal is broken. It’s billions over budget, and the patients who rely on it are struggling to get access to high-quality, reliable care. Just last month, Governor Gavin Newsom was forced to pour an additional $6.2 billion into Medi-Cal after it ran out of money. (James Gallagher and Carl Demaio, 4/12)

Los Angeles Times: The Scary But Lifesaving Truth About Latinas And Breast Cancer 
Last year, at 39 years old, I learned I had dense breasts. It was information told to me almost in passing as I received my first mammogram and ultrasound. What it meant and how it could affect me was not communicated to me; I learned about it the hard way, nine months later, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. In February, I was diagnosed with Stage 3A, Grade 3 invasive ductal carcinoma in my right breast, which had spread into some lymph nodes in my right armpit. After further testing, my team of doctors at City of Hope said I have inflammatory breast cancer, a rare and aggressive form of cancer. (Alex Zaragoza, 4/16)

San Diego Union-Tribune: The Polio Vaccine Changed The World. It Holds Lessons For Today. 
The polio virus once cast a long shadow over society, striking indiscriminately but disproportionately affecting children. At its height in the early 1950s, outbreaks left thousands paralyzed and claimed many lives. Families lived in fear, avoiding swimming pools, playgrounds, and other public places, unsure of where the invisible menace might strike next. (Gerald Joyce, 4/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: To Get Into College, I Had To Hide My Mental Health Challenges
As a high-achieving high school student aiming for admission into a top-tier university, I knew I had to play the game these institutions desired me to play. So, in my applications, I presented a polished version of myself. Doing so meant sidelining the most formative chapters of my life. My mental health challenges ramped up with the pandemic; COVID-19 didn’t just shut down the world — it trapped me, and millions of other teenagers, within the unsettling confines of our minds. This isolation reflected a broader national trend, as rates of suicidal ideation among adolescents jumped from 17% in 2017 to 37% during the pandemic. (Peter McGinnes, 4/18)