San Jose Mercury News: Single Payer: California Lawmakers To Hold Hearings On Universal Health Care
After the swift rise and sudden crash of California’s ambitious single-payer legislation, complete with melodramatic fallout, universal health care is back — not on the floor, but on the table. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-South Gate — who in June famously blocked Senate Bill 562 from advancing in his chamber, calling the proposal “woefully incomplete” — announced on Thursday that a special committee would hold hearings on universal health care this fall, after the legislative session ends on Sept. 15. (Murphy, 8/24)

Capital Public Radio: Rendon Sets Assembly Hearings On Universal Health Care 
California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon has laid out a path forward for universal health care legislation – but not the single-payer bill he sidelined earlier this year. On Thursday, Rendon (D-Lakewood) announced a special committee would hold hearings this fall to develop legislation. (Adler, 8/24)

Sacramento Bee: Time To Get Serious About ‘Health Care For All,’ Says California Assembly Leader Who Blocked It Before
Rendon has been under fire from the California Nurses Association and supporters of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders for refusing to bring Senate Bill 562 to the Assembly floor earlier this year. The bill, by state Sens. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, and Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, sought to reorganize California’s health care financing under a government-run system operated by the state. Known as single-payer health care, the approach would eliminate the need for insurance companies. There would be no copays, deductibles or other out-of-pocket costs. (Hart, 8/24)

Politico Pro: California Lawmaker To Hold Hearings On Universal Health Care
"I have called for these hearings to determine what approach best gets us there — what gets us to ‘yes’ when it comes to health care for all,” Rendon said in Thursday's statement. No dates have been set, but the hearings will be held after Sept. 15, the last day for bills to be passed and the beginning of California's legislative interim. (Colliver, 8/24)

KPCC: Rendon Restarts California Single-Payer Debate, Critics Unimpressed 
Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), the bill’s champion in the state Senate, applauded Rendon’s announcement. Representatives from the California Nurses Association, the bill’s sponsor, didn’t share in his celebration. "Let’s be clear. He subverted the democratic process," Bonnie Castillo, associate executive director of the nurse’s union, said of Rendon. She called Thursday's announcement a "political stunt." (Faust, 8/24)

Los Angeles Times: Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, Who Shelved Single-Payer Measure, Announces Hearings To Study Universal Coverage
Nearly two months after shelving a single-payer healthcare measure earlier this summer — stirring activists' rage and a fledgling recall effort against him — Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) announced plans Thursday to hold hearings to discuss universal healthcare in California. The hearings, which will be held during the legislative interim that begins after Sept. 15, mark an attempt to redirect the energy around healthcare overhaul from a single bill, SB 562, to a broader conversation about ways to expand healthcare coverage in the state. (Mason, 8/24)

Los Angeles Times: Naked, Filthy And Strapped To A Chair For 46 Hours: A Mentally Ill Inmate's Last Days
For 46 hours, Andrew Holland’s legs and arms were shackled to a chair in the San Luis Obispo County jail. The inmate, who suffered from schizophrenia, was left in his own filth, eating and drinking almost nothing. He was naked, except for a helmet and mask covering his face and a blanket that slipped off his lap, exposing him to jail staff who passed by his glass-fronted cell. (St. John, 8/24)

In other mental health news —

KPCC: Civilian Panel Says LA Sheriff Needs More Mental Health Teams 
Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell needs to dramatically increase the number of special teams that deal with people with mental illness, according to a report issued Thursday by the department's civilian oversight panel. The report, the first independent look at the sheriff’s much vaunted Mental Evaluation Teams, said the department needs to move faster to train patrol deputies in distinguishing between someone who is dangerous and someone who is harmless but acting out because of a mental disorder. (Stoltze, 8/24)

KPBS: UC San Diego Launches New Program To Attract Students To Mental Health Career 
The U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration estimates the country needs to add 10,000 mental health professionals by the year 2025 to meet the growing demand for mental health care. To help fill some of that gap, UC San Diego is launching a new program that will let psychology majors do a clinical rotation through the School of Medicine. (Goldberg, 8/24)

KPCC: The Zika Virus Undermines Immune System
Since the 2015 Zika outbreak, scientists around the world have been focused on learning as much as they can about the devastating, previously obscure virus. They've learned a lot about how it's transmitted, how long it can stay in a host's system and that it can lead to devastating birth defects. But, there are still some major blind spots. "Zika virus has been very well studied for congenital disease, but we still do not know exactly what happens right after [the] mosquito bite," said Dr. Jae Jung, professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at USC and lead author of a new study in Nature Microbiology that aims to solve the mystery. (Margolis, 8/25)

Ventura County Star: Step Up Ventura Partners With Magic Carousel For Homeless Preschoolers
Marcella White steps on the playground at Magic Carousel Preschool and Academy and notices a small boy, around 2 years old, crying after he fell down on the pavement. She squats down, opens her arms and asks the boy if he needs a hug. As her arms are open, other kids start to come over for an embrace. She knows them all by name and hugs and talks to each of the boys and girls individually. (D'Angelo, 8/24)

In other news —

Fresno Bee: Chronic Camping By Homeless People Gets Banned In Fresno
A law to ban chronic camping by homeless people on public property or on private property without the owner’s permission was approved Thursday by the Fresno City Council. The 6-1 vote came after Abré Conner, attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, cautioned the council against a law that she said could represent an unconstitutional violation of the civil rights of homeless individuals. But councilmen Garry Bredefeld, Oliver Baines, Paul Caprioglio, Clint Olivier and Luis Chavez joined the law’s author, Steve Brandau, in approving the measure. Councilwoman Esmeralda Soria was the lone vote against it. (Sheehan, 8/24)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego May Regulate Marijuana Cultivation More Strictly Than State
San Diego would regulate cultivation, manufacturing and testing of marijuana more aggressively than the state under a long list of rules proposed on Thursday by City Councilman Chris Cate. They include outlawing any signs on such businesses, requiring them to have a “positive impact” on the surrounding community and mandating they have a round-the-clock liaison to respond to any complaints. (Garrick, 8/24)

Meanwhile —

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento Councilwoman Says Smoke Shops Are A Crime Magnet, Calls For More Restrictions
After an armed robbery at a Natomas tobacco shop, Councilwoman Angelique Ashby is calling for more restrictions on businesses that specialize in tobacco and smoking paraphernalia. At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Ashby showed her fellow council members a photo of a masked assailant armed with a gun who allegedly was one of a trio that tied up a store employee during a Friday night robbery at the Tobacco Plus store on Club Center Drive in North Natomas. (Chabria, 8/24)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Sharp Chula Vista Hosting Free Heart Health Expo
On the morning of May 30, Chula Vista resident Pat Dolan woke up with what she thought was indigestion. “I knew something wasn’t right, but I didn’t think [at first] that I was having a heart attack,” she said. Dolan, 78, lives with her daughter, son-in-law and two granddaughters. (Sampite-Montecalvo, 8/24)

The Associated Press: Insurer Fills Last Hole In Health Law Marketplaces For 2018
The lone U.S. county still at risk of leaving shoppers with no choices next year on the federal health law's insurance marketplace has landed an insurer. Ohio-based insurer CareSource will step up to provide coverage in Paulding County, Ohio, in 2018, the company and the state Department of Insurance announced Thursday. (Smyth and Murphy, 8/24)

The Washington Post: The Nation’s Final Bare Spot For Affordable Care Act Health Plans Is Filled In
Although insurers could still defect in the next month, before they must sign federal contracts to sell ACA coverage for the coming year, the move by CareSource to sell marketplace health plans in Paulding County, on the western edge of Ohio, appears to end a recent scramble by officials in seven states to persuade insurance companies to participate in a total of 81 counties. Those potential bare spots emerged mainly as large, nationwide insurers have withdrawn from all or most of the ACA marketplaces they once served — a result of sicker and more expensive customers than they had expected and uncertainties bred by Republican efforts to overturn much of the 2010 health-care law. (Goldstein, 8/24)

The Wall Street Journal: All U.S. Counties To Have An ACA Plan After Ohio Plugs Last Gap
CareSource’s chief executive, Pamela Morris, said the decision “was the right thing to do as a mission-driven company.” CareSource was able to agree to offer exchange plans in Paulding County because it has a presence in a neighboring county in the adjacent state of Indiana and thus has a network of health-care providers there. Ms. Morris said CareSource, which offers exchange plans in four states, was “fully committed” to those marketplaces, despite uncertainty about federal decisions related to the health-law marketplaces. (Wilde Mathews, 8/24)

Sacramento Bee: A Statewide Tax Is An Unfair Path To Safe Drinking Water
For most Californians, safe drinking water is a given, thanks to extensive public investments in pipelines, reservoirs and treatment plants. Not so for some Californians who live in rural, low-income communities where water sources are contaminated by nitrates and arsenic and where treatment is financially out of reach. It’s unacceptable, and the situation will worsen without a strong state commitment. (Kathleen Tiegs and Brent Hastey, 8/18)

The Desert Sun: Safe Water Fund Bill SB 623 Deserves Legislators' Support
Accessing clean, safe drinking water is as simple as opening the kitchen tap for most of us in California. Yet for as many as 2 million residents – including many of our neighbors in more rural, often lower-income areas of the eastern Coachella Valley -- the Golden State’s 5-year-old stated policy that “every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable and accessible water” is not the reality. (8/24)

Sacramento Bee: Ag Industry Is Stepping Up For Safe Drinking Water
If there’s one thing a farmer knows, it’s the importance of water. Access to clean, safe drinking water ought to be a fundamental right for all Californians. But there are about 300 unsafe drinking-water systems across the state, many of them in the Salinas Valley or in the Central Valley’s Tulare Lake Basin. These 1 million Californians must buy or obtain drinking water in jugs or bottles. (Tim Johnson, 8/18)

The Mercury News: California Water Tax Can Provide Safe Water To Poor
In 2012, California became one of the first states in the nation to establish access to clean, safe drinking water as a legal right. Yet five years later, far too many California residents, including children, are still exposed to contaminated water. (Monning and Steyer, 8/24)

Los Angeles Times: Here's How Expanding Medicare Could Set Us On The Path To Universal Health Coverage
With the near-complete collapse of the Republican attack on the Affordable Care Act having locked away the GOP’s traditional repeal-or-nothing stance, the path to a clear-eyed assessment of how to improve American health coverage.That has given the idea of single-payer a jump-start. But it hasn’t done much to clarify the most important question: How do we get there from here? (Michael Hiltzik, 8/18)

Stat: Why Did HHS Pull The Plug On Programs To Prevent Teen Pregnancy?
A month ago, the federal government sent a “Dear John” letter to the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “Due to changes in program priorities,” the letter began, “it has been determined that it is in the best interest of the Federal government to no longer continue funding” the grant for one of our hospital’s teen pregnancy prevention programs. This one-page form letter, sent from the Department of Health and Human Services, arrived almost a year to the day that HHS initially approved our five-year project with glowing reviews about how the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is “recognized for innovative service and training models, leadership in community collaboration, and research regarding adolescent issues” and has “over 50 years of experience in implementing programs in safe and supportive environments for youth and their families.” (Marvin E. Belzer and Arlene Schneir, 8/23)

Los Angeles Times: How Many Nurses Does It Take To Change A Patient's Blood? 
The rising demand for dialysis has led to a boom in outpatient clinics that specialize in it. ... Those centers and their profits are now the subject of a pitched battle in Sacramento over proposals to supplement federal regulations on the centers with new state requirements. Unfortunately, the proposals would raise the cost of dialysis without necessarily improving it. (8/21)

San Diego Union-Times: How Mental Health Laws Can Harm Severely Ill
The recent opinion pieces on mental health (”Five years after Aurora,” July 23) did not address the biggest roadblock to getting people with severe mental illness the help they need: mandatory medication. Our current system places civil rights laws over the right of a delusional person to achieve mental health, which hurts them, their families and society. (Linda L. Mimms, 8/24)

Sacramento Bee: Union Bill Threatens Dialysis Patients
The United Healthcare Workers West union is in all-out attack mode against California dialysis clinics and providers in its attempt to unionize dialysis workers. But in its war, dialysis patients are the ones who will be harmed. (Naveen Atray, 8/23)

Los Angeles Times: Lawmakers, Activists Say Nursing-Home Residents Must Have Right To Sue
Healthcare, tax reform and the debt ceiling probably will be among the highest-profile issues when Congress returns from a monthlong recess Sept. 5. But Democratic lawmakers and consumer advocates already have served notice that they’re also going to keep a spotlight on protecting people’s right to sue nursing homes for neglect or abuse of elderly patients. (David Lazarus, 8/22)

Orange County Register: Orange County Needs To Invest In Senior Care
Orange County seniors need our support now more than ever. With the impending cuts in health care on the national level, we will see an increase in the number of seniors requiring care. For Orange County, that means we need to see more from our Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, or PACE. It is a program that is not currently reaching enough of our senior population, but could provide vital benefits for all participants. Over the next two decades, California’s senior population is expected to grow by nearly two-thirds. Indeed, by 2035, nearly one in four Californians will be age 60 or older, and today in Orange County, 622,907 of our residents are already there. (Reuben D. Franco, 8/24)

The Mercury News: Why It Took A Foreign-Born Doctor To Blow The Whistle On The NFL's Concussion Epidemic
It’s difficult to believe now, but concussion awareness was a thing even before Dr. Bennet Omalu came to the United States. During the early 1990s, you didn’t have to say “please” to get super-agent Leigh Steinberg to address the risks faced by his oft-concussed super-clients, quarterbacks Steve Young of the 49ers and Troy Aikman of the Cowboys. This at a time when Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach and Jets receiver Al Toon had been famously chased from the game after multiple concussive events. (Gary Peterson, 8/24)