KQED: Prison Workers To Be Excluded From Indoor Heat Protections By California Regulators
California workplace safety regulators are planning to carve out state prisons and other correctional facilities from proposed employer requirements to protect indoor workers from excessive heat — at least, for now. The compromise, unveiled Thursday at a state work-safety board meeting, comes after a previous version of the regulations was derailed from final approval last month over projected implementation costs for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. (Romero, 4/18)

Los Angeles Times: California In A Jam After Borrowing Billions To Pay Unemployment Benefits
California’s massive budget deficit, coupled with the state’s relatively high level of joblessness, has become a major barrier to reducing the billions of dollars of debt it has incurred to pay unemployment benefits. The surge in unemployment brought on by the COVID pandemic pushed the state’s unemployment insurance trust into insolvency. And over the last year California’s joblessness has been on the upswing again, reaching 5.3% in February, the highest among all states. The March job numbers come out Friday. (Lee, 4/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: Newsom Announces New Accountability Plan For Homeless Funding
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced new plans on Thursday to hold cities and counties to account — possibly by suing them — if they fail to use state homeless funding to get people off the streets.“ I’m not interested in funding failure any longer,” Newsom, a Democrat, said. “I want to see results.” It’s the latest instance of Newsom promising to hold local governments accountable for reducing homelessness. It comes on the heels of an audit that found the state failed to adequately track whether $24 billion in homeless funding over the last five years has actually improved the situation on California streets, something previous audits have also faulted the state for. California’s struggles with homelessness have made Newsom a frequent target of criticism from conservatives. (Bollag, 4/18)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Governor Announces $11.4 Million To Reduce Homelessness In Oceanside 
Oceanside’s programs to find shelter for the homeless will get an $11.4 million boost from a round of statewide grants that Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday. (Diehl, 4/18)

Voice of San Diego: Mayor, City Housing Agency Scramble For Homelessness Funding
Mayor Todd Gloria’s office wants the city’s Housing Commission to come up with $15 million to help plug the city’s budget deficit and minimize cuts to homeless services. Yet Gloria’s team doesn’t know where the money’s going to come from. Housing agency officials aren’t certain, either. They say there are strings attached to the various accounts that Gloria’s team initially thought they could tap. The housing agency is also dealing with another blow. Gloria’s proposed budget already includes a separate 11 percent year-over-year decrease in city money for homelessness programs overseen by the Housing Commission. These cuts assume that the housing agency will chip in $15 million. (Halverstadt, 4/18)

Capital & Main: Critical Audit Of California’s Efforts To Reduce Homelessness Has Silver Linings
A scathing new report by the California state auditor on governmental efforts to reduce homelessness put its emphasis where it needed to be. The auditor, Grant Parks, declared that he couldn’t really tell whether most homeless programs were working because so little useful data has been compiled on either spending or outcomes. Parks’ complaint renewed focus on one of the central problems of the state’s work on the issue: California’s attempts to combat homelessness are so multipronged, with so many funding sources going to so many places, that it often appears nobody knows what’s working or even what is being spent. Tighter oversight and accountability are mandatory. (Kreidler, 4/18)

Voice of San Diego: Council To Weigh In On Proposed Mega Shelter Lease In Closed Session
The San Diego City Council is set to have a closed-door discussion next week on the cost and terms of Mayor Todd Gloria’s proposal to lease a Middletown warehouse and make it a 1,000-bed homeless shelter. (Halverstadt, 4/18)

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. Activists say Orange County should focus on building permanent supportive housing instead of heavily concentrating on homeless shelters if they want to see people exit homelessness. (Biesiada, 4/18)

EdSource: ‘No Place Like This.’ L.A. Home Helps Young Adults Live Beyond Survival Mode 
Providing young adults with respite from the instability of homelessness is central to the mission of Los Angeles Room & Board, known as LAR&B, the nonprofit that owns and operates Dunamis House and three other homes in East Hollywood, West Adams and Westwood that serve the same purpose. The organization was founded in 2020 by Sam Prater, who credits his 14 years of working in university student housing, plus his own experience of homelessness as a young adult, as the inspiration behind LAR&B. (Rosales, 4/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: A Broken Elevator May Displace Residents Of S.F. Homeless Hotel
More than two dozen HIV-positive tenants living in a single-room-occupancy hotel in the Tenderloin are at risk of being displaced unless an elevator that has been broken for nearly two years is fixed. The owner of the Kinney Hotel on Eddy Street has failed to maintain the elevator, making living conditions there “untenable,” according to Emily Cohen, spokesperson for the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. The city is in discussions with a potential buyer that could repair the elevator. (Toledo, 4/19)

AP: Biden’s New Title IX Rules Protect LGBTQ+ Students, But Transgender Sports Rule Still On Hold 
The rights of LGBTQ+ students will be protected by federal law and victims of campus sexual assault will gain new safeguards under rules finalized Friday by the Biden administration. The new provisions are part of a revised Title IX regulation issued by the Education Department, fulfilling a campaign pledge by President Joe Biden. He had promised to dismantle rules created by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who added new protections for students accused of sexual misconduct. Notably absent from Biden’s policy, however, is any mention of transgender athletes. (Binkley, 4/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: How Trump Could Undo California’s Abortion, Trans Health Protections
The specter of a second Donald Trump presidency has transgender individuals preparing their passports, and abortion-rights supporters worried about an obscure postal obscenity ban. Even California, a self-declared haven for people affected by out-of-state legislation attacking transgender rights and abortion access, may not be able to provide robust protections if Trump is re-elected and carries through on promises he’s made in this campaign and his previous four years in office. (Stein and Allday, 4/19)

Los Angeles Times: Calexico Recalls First Transgender Mayor And A Council Ally 
Voters in Calexico have resoundingly ousted the first out transgender member of the City Council and her council ally after a bitter recall campaign rife with accusations of transphobia and political cronyism in the struggling city on the U.S.-Mexico border. (Branson-Potts, 4/18)

CBS News: El Dorado Hills Clinic Is Expanding. Here's What That Means For Patients
A local hospital is expanding its services to not only provide care to a wider range of people but also attract more talent. "Population health in Marshall is us taking responsibility for the whole of our community so particularly our patients but really the whole community," Martin Entwistle, Associate Chief Medical Officer, said. (Reilly, 4/18)

LAist: Black Moms Bring Questions, Accountability (And A Party Bus) To LA Hospitals
On a recent Friday morning, a group of Black women with pregnant bellies step onto a party bus in Leimert Park. They’re headed on a tour of birthing centers and hospitals around Los Angeles, in style: leather seats, good music, mood lighting that shifts colors. “This program is essentially an opportunity for you all to get resources, connect, build a village… because it takes a village,” says guide Gabrielle Brown, a program coordinator with Black Women For Wellness, as the group takes off. Her organization created the expedition. (Yu, 4/19)

Stat: Medicare Says Breakthrough Device Reimbursement Rule To Come By Summer
A federal rule aiming to make reimbursement for breakthrough devices easier is slated for early summer, a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services official said on Thursday. (Lawrence, 4/19)

Modern Healthcare: Feds Launch Healthcare Antitrust Reporting Portal
The Federal Trade Commission, Justice Department and Health and Human Services Department have created an online portal for the general public to report potentially anticompetitive practices in the healthcare sector. The portal, HealthyCompetition.gov, is the latest effort from government agencies and the Biden administration to bolster competition in healthcare markets with the hope of lowering care and prescription drug costs, according to an FTC news release Thursday. (DeSilva, 4/18)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego Biotech Company Making Melanoma Skin Test Patch Cuts 56% Of Its Workforce
DermTech, the San Diego-based company that developed a noninvasive skin sticker to detect melanoma, is cutting its workforce in half and exploring a possible sale. (Rocha, 4/18)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Scripps Research Reports Progress Toward Xylazine Vaccine 
Scripps Research in La Jolla says it has taken a promising step toward developing a vaccine to fight the effects of xylazine, an animal tranquilizer that’s illicitly added to fentanyl and heroin, triggering a rise in overdose deaths. (Robbins, 4/18)

NBC News: Zepbound Weight Loss Drug Shortage Has No Immediate End In Sight, Eli Lilly Says
Despite Eli Lilly’s assurances about an ample supply of its new weight loss drug Zepbound, the company is now facing widespread shortages just months after its approval. While the drugmaker is working to resolve the issue, a quick fix is unlikely, it says, with no immediate end to the shortage in sight. ... As of Wednesday, all but one dosage was listed as in “limited availability” through the end of June on the FDA’s website. (Lovelace Jr., Romans and Herzberg, 4/18)

Southern California News Group: Embryos Were Accidentally Destroyed At California Fertility Clinic, Lawsuits Claim
An Orange County fertility clinic accidentally destroyed embryos after they came in contact with hydrogen peroxide while an employee was cleaning an incubator, according to a pair of lawsuits filed by two couples on Thursday, April 18. (Percy, 4/19)

Reuters: Supreme Court Considers EMTALA Preemption Of State Abortion Bans
On April 24, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Idaho v. United States and Moyle v. United States, consolidated cases asking whether the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) preempts, under certain emergency circumstances, an Idaho law banning most abortions. The Supreme Court's decision may chart a course for numerous federal and state cases brought in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that question the interplay between state laws limiting abortion, medical exceptions to those laws, and EMTALA. (4/18)

AP: As Syphilis Cases Among US Newborns Soar, Doctors Group Advises More Screening During Pregnancy
With syphilis cases in U.S. newborns skyrocketing, a doctors group now recommends that all pregnant patients be screened three times for the sexually transmitted infection. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued new guidance on Thursday saying the screening should be done at the first prenatal visit, during the third trimester and at birth. Though the screening isn’t required, health professionals generally follow the group’s recommendations. (Ungar, 4/18)

KVPR: Wildfire Smoke Contributes To Thousands Of Deaths Each Year In The U.S.
New research shows that the health consequences of wildfire smoke exposure stretch well beyond the smoky days themselves, contributing to nearly 16,000 deaths each year across the U.S., according to a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) analysis released in April. The analysis warns that number could grow to nearly 30,000 deaths a year by the middle of the century as human-driven climate change increases the likelihood of large, intense, smoke-spewing wildfires in the Western U.S. and beyond. (Borunda, 4/18)

CBS News: Pesticides Pose A Significant Risk In 20% Of Fruits And Vegetables, Consumer Reports Finds
A healthy diet includes ample portions of fruits and vegetables, but not the unhealthy dose of pesticides found in about one in five of the produce examined by Consumer Reports. An examination of 59 common fruits and vegetables found pesticides posed significant risks in 20% of them, from bell peppers, blueberries and green beans to potatoes and strawberries, according to findings published Thursday by the nonprofit consumer advocacy group. (Gibson, 4/18)

The Denver Post: National Jewish Study Looks To Sand As Possible Explanation For Combat Veterans’ Breathing Problems
A new study at Denver’s National Jewish Health found an unexpected potential culprit for lung disease in some combat veterans: silica, which is one of the most common elements in dust, soil and sand. (Wingerter, 4/18)

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)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Pediatric Dental Initiative’s Make Kids Smile Awards Dinner A Huge Success 
More than 150 people dined April 12 at Santa Rosa’s Balletto Vineyards to celebrate local heroes who’ve helped a Sonoma County initiative provide underserved children with healthy smiles through dental work and education. (Swanson, 4/18)

CIDRAP: Global Health Groups Propose New Terminology For Pathogens That Spread Through The Air 
Well into the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were reluctant to use terms like "airborne," "airborne transmission," and "aerosol transmission" to describe the spread of the virus through the air, while other experts used various definitions to describe the phenomenon, sowing confusion about how the disease was circulating. An international group has been grappling with the issue, and today the experts laid out their deliberations in a report and proposed new agreed-on terminology for pathogens that transmit "through the air," which include not only SARS-CoV-2, but also influenza, measles, MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus), SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), and tuberculosis. (Schnirring, 4/18)

Wired: Unruly Gut Fungi Can Make Your Covid Worse
In research published in Nature Immunology, researchers discovered that in patients with severe Covid, certain strains of gut fungi—knocked off-kilter by the virus—set off a prolonged immune response that could last long after the initial infection. (Chen, 4/19)

CIDRAP: Study Highlights Heavy Global Burden Of Infectious Diseases 
A study published this week in The Lancet Infectious Diseases highlights the substantial impact of infectious diseases on global health. The analysis of data from 204 countries by researchers with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates that 85 pathogens accounted for 704 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs)—the number of years lost from ill health, disability, or early deaths—globally in 2019. That figure accounts for 28% of 2.54 billion DALYs attributed to all causes in the 2019 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. (Dall, 4/18)

The Desert Sun: Desert Healthcare District Should Re-Up Tenet Lease, Stat
Desert Healthcare District, which has been stalling since September on a final decision for the future of Desert Regional, must renew another 30-year lease with Tenet Healthcare. This must happen because there is no plan B. (4/14)

The Desert Sun: A California Court's Liability Pretzel Logic Will Hurt Patients
We've all heard of product liability cases, in which plaintiffs sue manufacturers over products that have caused harm. These cases help ensure that companies thoroughly vet their wares for safety by protecting consumers from defective products. But now, the California Court of Appeal has turned the concept of product liability on its head. Earlier this year, it said plaintiffs could sue the pharmaceutical company, Gilead, even though they are not accusing the company of putting a defective or dangerous product onto the market. (Peter J. Pitts, 4/18)

CalMatters: Much Of California's Homeless Population Is Stuck In Cycles Of Substance Abuse. These Strategies Can Help
This is a growing crisis, with the number of people who began experiencing homelessness growing nearly 7% between 2022 and 2023. Nearly 10,000 people became unhoused in California last year. Without the proper support and care, their cycle will continue. (Kimberly Knopik, 4/16)

San Diego Union-Tribune: I Went From Grad School To Being Homeless. Here's My Story. 
There are currently more than 650,000 people experiencing homelessness in our country; 10,000 in San Diego County alone. I was once among them. (Sandy Myskowski, 4/17)

CalMatters: California Schools Aren't Equipped To Handle Mental Health Issues. That Needs To Change
The youth mental health crisis is well documented, yet most California schools lack the resources, training and capacity to identify concerns and respond. Greater investment, including funds to hire more school counselors, could make a difference. (Rebecca Pariso, 4/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: Religious Freedom Is Sacred In America. Abortion Bans Strip That Right
As a Jew living in a country in which church and state are constitutionally separated, I’m stunned by how that wall is being breached by recent legislation and court decisions. My fear stems from personal experience. I have had a varied and fulfilling career in which I think I’ve made meaningful contributions to the world. With access to contraception, I was able to determine when to become a parent. It wasn’t until my mid-40s that I felt ready to have a child. But, by then, I had scarring in my fallopian tubes and was able to conceive only through in vitro fertilization. (Georgette F. Bennett, 4/17)