San Diego Union-Tribune: Illumina Lays Off 151 San Diego Workers 
Illumina, a leading biotechnology company in DNA-sequencing, laid off 151 workers in San Diego as it tries to cut $100 million in costs this year. (Rocha, 8/17)

Becker's Hospital Review: University Hospitals Chief Medical Officer Exits For Tenet Role
William Brien, MD, has been named Chief Medical Officer of Tenet Healthcare's Desert Care Network in Palm Springs, Calif., overseeing quality improvement initiatives and clinical services at three hospitals. (Bean, 8/17)

KVPR: Doctor At Center Of Fraud Settlement Now Embroiled In Investigation At Coalinga Psychiatric Hospital
Dr. Francis Lagattuta, who recently paid $11.4 million to settle a case alleging Medi-Cal and Medicare insurance fraud at a system of pain clinics, is now at the center of an investigation into possible hepatitis C exposure at a pain clinic he operated at a state-run psychiatric hospital. (Klein, 8/11)

Bay Area Reporter: One Of 3 SFFD LGBTQ Discrimination Cases Settles 
The Black transgender San Francisco Fire Department paramedic who filed a discrimination suit against the city alleging discrimination, harassment, and retaliation has settled the case. Two other discrimination cases filed against the city by out fire personnel remain pending. The Board of Supervisors voted to approve a $149,000 settlement in the case of Ronnie Jones v. the City and County of San Francisco on May 9. San Francisco City Attorney spokesperson Jen Kwart stated to the Bay Area Reporter August 16, "We believe the settlement approved by the Board of Supervisors is an appropriate resolution given the inherent costs of continued litigation." (Ferrannini, 8/16)

Fresno Bee: Arias, Bredefeld Seek Oversight Of Medical Labs In Fresno To Avoid Repeat Of Secret Reedley Site
Two Fresno City Council members, frustrated with what they say is inaction and a lack of transparency from the county of Fresno over a Chinese-owned medical laboratory that operated illegally in Reedley, are proposing a new city ordinance to ensure public notice of any new labs seeking to locate in the city. (Sheehan, 8/17)

KQED: Worried About COVID Symptoms After Bay Area Celebrations? What To Do Now
“Is my sore throat, slight cough or runny nose COVID?” It’s a concern that’s familiar to many of us, after over three years of the ongoing pandemic. You go out, perhaps in a more crowded space than you’d normally brave, and a few days later, you start to feel … a little off. (Or maybe you just start to feel immediately sick and gross.) Since many folks in the Bay Area gathered with friends and chosen family this past weekend to attend the Outside Lands 2023 music festival, perhaps you’re one of those people waking up this morning wondering if you have COVID symptoms. Especially since there’s a new COVID variant — EG.5, unofficially called “Eris” — rising swiftly around the state. (Severn, 8/17)

Politico: Biden's Fall Covid Vaccine Rollout For The Uninsured Won't Include Pharmacies At First 
The Biden administration’s effort to provide free Covid-19 vaccines to the uninsured will not start at retail pharmacies until mid-October, weeks after the government plans to make an updated version of the shot available to the broader public. The gap in timing, which comes as Covid hospitalizations have ticked up in recent weeks, means that millions of Americans without health coverage will not be able to immediately get a no-cost vaccine at popular places like CVS and Walgreens, even as it will be widely available for those who have insurance. (Cancryn and Lim, 8/17)

CNBC: Moderna Covid Vaccine Effective Against Eris, Fornax Variants
Moderna’s new Covid vaccine generated a robust immune response against the now-dominant Eris variant and another rapidly spreading strain of the virus in an early clinical trial, the biotech company said Thursday. (Constantino, 8/17)

Reuters: Pfizer's Updated COVID Shot Effective Against 'Eris' Variant In Mice Study 
Pfizer Inc said on Thursday its updated COVID-19 shot, which is being tested against emerging variants, showed neutralizing activity against the "Eris" subvariant in a study conducted on mice. (8/17)

Los Angeles Times: Walker, Heart Monitor, Docs Trashed: Homeless People Sue Cities
While much of San Bernardino was asleep, 55-year-old Lenka John watched from her wheelchair as city employees pitched her medical records, heart monitor, walker and disability assistance paperwork into a trash truck. She pleaded with the workers to help retrieve her belongings from the compactor. But it was too late. “I felt violated,” John said. (Spencer, 8/18)

inewsource: San Diego Officials Used Misleading Data To Push Camping Ban
For weeks, top San Diego officials harped on unhoused people who set fires in canyons, parks and riverbeds as a strategy to drum up support for a controversial camping ban. Staff said before the vote encampments cause fires that threaten homes and lives, pointing to a dramatic spike in the number of “likely homeless vegetation fires” and reminding elected leaders that two of the largest wildfires in the last 20 years were here in San Diego County. (Dulaney and Niebla, 8/17)

LAist 89.3 FM: 274 Prop HHH-Funded Apartments For Unhoused People Have Sat Empty For Two Months. Why?
Nearly 300 apartments built for unhoused people are sitting empty in the city of Los Angeles more than two months after being declared ready for move-in, largely due to longstanding bureaucratic rules. LAist Senior Reporter Nick Gerda, who covers unhoused communities, broke the story on Thursday. City data he reviewed shows 274 newly constructed apartments — each funded largely by a $1.2 billion voter-approved bond measure called Proposition HHH — had yet to have a resident as of Aug. 1, despite being declared “ready to occupy” by city officials more than 60 days prior. That number is down from 444 empty units in May and 354 in June. (LAist, 8/17)

CalMatters: Gavin Newsom Gives Ground On Mental Health Services Tax
In a major about-face, Gov. Gavin Newsom gave ground this week on his signature mental health plan, aiming to appease critics who have argued his overhaul would starve youth services and other county-run programs of millions of dollars of tax revenue. The proposal is the second time in as many years that Newsom has advocated for significant changes to the state’s behavioral health system, following the passage of last year’s controversial CARE Court law. This year’s proposal aims to update the Mental Health Services Act, a 20-year-old ballot initiative that has raised billions of dollars per year for mental health programs through a tax on high incomes. (Hwang, 8/17)

Politico: Why San Francisco Is Make Or Break For Gavin Newsom
Gavin Newsom hasn’t been mayor of San Francisco for more than a decade, but this spring he summoned his Cabinet for a meeting in the city’s troubled Tenderloin neighborhood. The California governor privately told them they all needed to feel responsible for the open-air drug markets and homeless camps surrounding his old City Hall office. The downtown blocks he toured have plunged deeper into despair over the past dozen years, with the pandemic emptying out offices that dot its skyline and a surge in fentanyl overdoses causing deaths on city streets. While he now oversees the world’s fifth-largest economy, Newsom has increasingly been moonlighting as a quasi-city executive of his hometown and approaching its woes as a litmus test for his success in Sacramento. (Cadelago and Mason, 8/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: Dianne Feinstein’s Family Feud Has Lessons On Elder Financial Abuse
Dianne Feinstein’s case involves millions of dollars and a complex estate but shares something in common with one of the fastest-growing crimes. (Said, 8/17)

Military.com: Six Months After New Abortion Leave Policy, Pentagon Doesn't Know How Many Troops Have Used It 
As an Alabama senator's ongoing protest over the Pentagon's abortion leave policy has left three service chief positions vacant, a key question remains: How many service members have actually used the policy to seek abortions? Nearly six months after it was implemented, the Pentagon can't answer that question. (Kime, 8/17)

NBC News: Sinema Calls For Biden Admin And Tuberville To Find 'Middle Ground' In Abortion Standoff
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the Arizona independent who left the Democratic Party last year, is calling on both the Biden administration and Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., to soften their positions and find a “middle ground” to end the Republican’s monthslong blockade of hundreds of military promotions over a Defense Department policy involving abortion. (Smith and Kapur, 8/17)

Voice Of San Diego: UCSD Researchers Are Studying Whether Magic Mushrooms Can Treat Phantom Limb Pain 
A research lab isn’t the first place many would want to take a 5 gram dose of mushrooms. But UC San Diego researcher Fadel Zeidan said, “A lot of our patients say, ‘I wouldn’t have done this if it wasn’t in a hospital setting.’ These aren’t necessarily psychonauts, these are people that are suffering.” (McWhinney, 8/17)

USA Today: Marijuana Usage And Binge Drinking Hit Historic Levels Among US Adults
Binge drinking, vaping, marijuana use, and hallucinogen consumption reached an all-time high among U.S. adults in 2022, showing a significant upward trajectory in substance use in recent years, according to a study released Thursday. New research from the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future (MTF) panel revealed that middle-aged adults, between the ages of 35 and 50, in the United States are using marijuana and hallucinogens at record levels. Binge drinking had also spiked to the "highest prevalence... ever recorded for this age group," according to the panel study. (Nguyen, 8/18)

The Hill: Senior Citizens Are The Fastest-Growing Cannabis Clientele
Seniors, and not the high-school kind, are the fastest-growing population of cannabis users, a trend that illustrates what a long, strange trip the legalization movement has been. The share of over-65 Americans who have used marijuana nearly tripled in a decade, from 11 percent in 2009 to 32 percent in 2019, according to a respected federal survey on drug use. More than half of the 60-64 demographic reported cannabis use, another sharp increase.  (De Vise, 8/18)

Axios: Gen Z, Millennials Increasingly View Alcohol Use As Unhealthy, Poll Says
More than half of young adults in the U.S. see even moderate drinking — one or two drinks a day — as unhealthy, new Gallup polling found. Views on alcohol and drugs are shifting rapidly, especially among millennials and Gen Z. Americans overall now see booze as more harmful than marijuana. A record-high 39% of Americans believe moderate drinking is detrimental to health, up 11 points since 2018. (Rubin, 8/17)

Financial Times: Anti-Binge-Drinking App Shown To Help Students Cut Down On Alcohol
A smartphone app helped students reduce their heavy drinking habits, a study in Switzerland has shown, raising hopes that technology can help reduce harmful levels of alcohol consumption. Researchers from Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, working with colleagues in the UK, Canada and US, assessed the effectiveness of targeted intervention to encourage healthier drinking habits in students, with the results showing a 10 per cent decline in average consumption levels. The findings, which were published in the BMJ on Wednesday. (Scott, 8/16)

Capital & Main: Black Angelenos Care For Alzheimer’s Patients — And Each Other
Peggy Melancon, known as Mother Peggy, got on the wrong bus in South L.A. She didn’t recognize her hairdresser. She kept losing her keys. These were the signs of her illness that daughters Jeanie Harris and Sharon Melancon recognized only after Mother Peggy was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, a degenerative brain disease. Mother Peggy would need someone with her all the time, and Harris, Melancon and other family members would alternate being that someone. This wasn’t the first time for Harris and Melancon: Their cousin, Lorraine M. Jackson, whom they called Aunt Lorraine, had already been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. (Sanchez-Tello, 8/17)

KTLA: Firearm Homicide Rate In California 33% Lower Than National Average, Report Finds
The newly formed California Department of Justice’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention (OGVP) released a first-of-its-kind Gun Violence Prevention Data Report Tuesday, state Attorney General Rob Bonta announced. According to the OGVP, the report helps highlight the policies that are working and where more work is needed.  (DuBose and Rivera, 8/15)

Bay Area News Group: Interactive Map: Where 12,800 California Gun Homicides Happened
Gun homicides killed nearly 13,000 people in California from 2014 through 2022. This new map is a grim memorial of sorts for those lives taken by gun violence, each life lost a dot on the map. (Rowan, 8/17)

Axios: "Clean Air Centers" Are Sprouting Up, But Can They Help?
States, cities and counties across the country — led by California — are setting up "clean air centers," where residents can find respite from wildfire smoke and other airborne pollutants. But traveling to them could expose people to the very hazards they're escaping. And questions remain over whether these centers — which federal grants and legislation increasingly support — are more helpful than wearing a good-fitting N95 mask, and can attract enough people to make them worthwhile. (Kingson, 8/18)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: St. Helena Taking ‘Emergency Action’ To Address Discolored Tap Water
While an investigation into discolored water coming out of some faucets in St. Helena continues, city officials said they are taking “emergency actions” to address the problem. That’s according to a community alert Tuesday night sent by Andrew Bradley, assistant to the city manager. (Booth, 8/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: Women’s Health Has Long Been Underfunded. Women Deserve Better
Propped on my desk is a cherished photo, taken after my daughter was born in 2018. I’m sitting next to my mother and grandmother with my newborn swaddled in my arms. We’re wearing matching headbands and beaming with happiness. I was too sleep deprived at the time to fully appreciate the scene, but five years later, I know I’m lucky to have captured that moment: four generations of females in my family enjoying each other, featuring our new baby girl. (Deena Emera, 8/13)

Fresno Bee: Illegal Chinese-Owned Lab In Reedley Shows Need For Oversight 
In Reedley, a code enforcement officer responding to a tip about unusual activity, in what’s supposed to be an empty warehouse, sees a green garden hose sticking out of the back of the building. This violation leads to the discovery of an illicit medical lab owned by dodgy Chinese nationals containing dozens of refrigerators stuffed with mice suspected of being genetically modified to carry and transmit COVID. (Marek Warszawski, 8/15)

Fresno Bee: With SB 731 Law Delayed, CA Must Push For Fair Chance Hiring
The state’s final budget pushed the implementation deadline for Senate Bill 731 — the most significant clean slate initiative in the country — to July 1 of next year, and more than a million Californians hoping to be free of the lasting stigma of their past arrests or convictions records see their dream deferred for another year. (Ken Oliver, 8/17)

Fresno Bee: 105 Degrees In Fresno School's Gym? That's Crazy Hot, Even For Strong Teen Athletes
Unfortunately, not all high school facilities are as stout as the young people competing. Case in point: Bullard High’s North Gym. That was where Bullard High’s girls volleyball team was to take on Redwood High of Visalia in a nonleague match Tuesday night. (8/17)

Los Angeles Times: Americans Have Forgotten How To Behave. And It’s Time To Stop Blaming The Pandemic
To be sure, most people continue to behave as reasonable human beings who understand the basic expectations of communal behavior. But a growing number of people apparently do not. (McNamara, 8/17)