Times of San Diego: San Diego County Opens New Overnight Safe Parking In Grantville
San Diego County opened a new overnight safe parking site in Grantville on Thursday morning. ... Those looking to use the site can arrive as early as 5:30 p.m. and must leave by 7:30 a.m. the following morning. The parking site will serve 20 families and individuals experiencing homelessness in their vehicles. The parking lot is owned by the county, and it will later become 300 units of affordable housing, expected to break ground in late 2026. (Wallace, 8/7)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego’s Downtown Library Now Hosts A Homelessness Services Center 
A service center for homeless individuals has changed both its name and location in downtown San Diego, a shift that officials hope will boost response times for the hundreds of residents asking for aid each month. (Nelson, 8/7)

KQED: How An Unhoused San Francisco Resident Navigates A New Era Of Street Enforcement
When Armando Herrera got out of drug treatment last year, he returned to the streets of San Francisco — still unhoused, but in a better place than he’d been in years. He’d kicked his addiction to alcohol and meth, regained a sense of confidence and reconnected with his kids. Ten months away from the chaos of street life had given him something like stability. But back outside, he found the ground had shifted. (Rancaño, 8/8)

Los Angeles Times: Law Firm In L.A. Homeless Case Bills $1.8 Million For Two Weeks' Work 
A high-profile law firm representing the city of Los Angeles in a sweeping homelessness case submitted an $1.8-million invoice for two weeks of work in May, according to records reviewed by The Times. The invoice from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP comes as the city is already under serious financial pressure, caused in part by rapidly growing legal payouts. With at least 15 of Gibson Dunn’s lawyers billing at nearly $1,300 per hour, the price tag so far equates to just under $140,000 per day over a 13-day period. (Khouri and Zahniser, 8/8)

Becker's Hospital Review: Adventist Health Restructures Back-Office Services, 750 Workers Affected
[Roseville-based] Adventist Health launched a series of initiatives Aug. 6 aimed at achieving financial sustainability, including outsourcing select business functions to vendor partners. ... Adventist Health officials said the change affects approximately 750 employees, some of whom will take on new roles with the health system or its vendor partners. The health system also said it is implementing a return-to-office model for its corporate workforce, beginning January 2026. (Gooch, 8/7)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Kaiser Santa Rosa Opens New Bigger, Brighter Infusion Clinic For Cancer Patients 
Wesley Falatoonzadeh, a Kaiser Permanente oncology nurse, donned a blue chemotherapy gown this week and carefully prepped a syringe of bortezomib, a targeted cancer drug used to treat Barbara Coe’s multiple myeloma. (Espinoza, 8/7)

Becker's Hospital Review: Children's Hospital Los Angeles' Unique Model To Unite NICU Leaders And Elevate Care
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kathy Van Allen, MSN, RN, administrative director of the Fetal and Neonatal Institute at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, recognized a growing need for stronger support systems for NICU nurse leaders navigating extraordinary pressures. ... In response, she launched the Regional NICU Nursing Leadership Roundtable, a collaborative forum where NICU nurse managers, directors and clinical nurse specialists from CHLA and 20 community hospitals come together to share knowledge, address common issues and build confidence. (Carbajal, 8/7)

The Guardian: Senators Seek UnitedHealth Records On Push To Curb Nursing Home Hospitalizations
US lawmakers are asking UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest healthcare conglomerate, to disclose internal documents about its efforts to reduce hospital transfers for nursing home residents and the bonuses it has given to nursing homes which help it to do so. In a 6 August letter, the Democratic senators Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren asked UnitedHealth’s CEO, Stephen Hemsley, to hand over a trove of company records about a partnership program it has with nursing homes across the country, which aims to decrease hospitalizations and thereby coverage expenses for the conglomerate. The document demand letter follows a Guardian investigation into the initiative. (Joseh, 8/7)

Becker's Hospital Review: OpenAI Releases New Model With Health Focus
On Aug. 7, OpenAI released GPT-5 — its latest AI model — which the company says includes significant improvements in addressing health-related questions. The model performs considerably better than previous versions on HealthBench, a benchmark that uses real-world scenarios and physician-defined criteria, according to OpenAI. (Diaz, 8/7)

The New York Times: Pill Causes Major Weight Loss In Eli Lilly Trial’s Results 
People who were overweight or had obesity lost a substantial amount of weight after taking a daily pill made by Eli Lilly, the company reported on Wednesday. The pharmaceutical manufacturer will be applying to the Food and Drug Administration by the end of this year for marketing approval for the medication, which would provide an alternative to injectable drugs that produce weight loss and are already on the market. Eli Lilly plans “a large investment,” in manufacturing the drug, orforglipron, said Kenneth Custer, executive vice president at Lilly and president of Lilly Cardiometabolic Health. (Kolata, 8/7)

Los Angeles Times: Homeowners Say The Army Corps And Its Contractors Mishandled L.A. Fire Debris Cleanup
After January’s wildfires reduced thousands of homes in Altadena and Pacific Palisades to heaps of ash and rubble, wildfire survivors hoped federal disaster workers would give them a fresh start on a rebuild-ready lot. But many residents say that has not been the reality. More than 800 complaints were submitted to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hotline dedicated to the agency’s debris removal efforts from March to mid-May, according to public records obtained by the Los Angeles Times. About a third of those reviewed by The Times allege that federal crews either didn’t thoroughly remove wildfire debris or failed to follow protocols. (Briscoe, 8/7)

Los Angeles Times: Canyon Fire Explodes To Nearly 5,000 Acres; Thousands Evacuated In L.A., Ventura Counties 
Firefighters Friday were trying to make progress after the Canyon fire exploded to nearly 5,000 acres, forcing residents in northern Los Angeles and Ventura counties to evacuate. “We’re trying to build a box around this fire and put it out before it gets into any of the potential communities that are currently under evacuation orders,” said Ventura County Fire Department spokesperson Andrew Dowd. (Harter and Toohey, 8/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: TB Exposure At Cache Creek Casino Prompts Health Alert
Cache Creek Casino Resort in Yolo County issued a public health alert after confirming a case of contagious tuberculosis linked to its property. In coordination with the California Department of Public Health and the Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency, the resort said it is conducting contact tracing to identify and notify people who may have been exposed. (Vaziri, 8/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Measles Treatments Once Deemed Unnecessary Are Research Focus As Vaccine Rates Fall 
As a record number of people in the U.S. are sickened with measles, researchers are resurrecting the search for something long-deemed redundant: treatments for the viral disease. After the measles vaccine was introduced in the 1960s, cases of the disease plummeted. By 2000, federal officials had declared measles eliminated from the U.S. This success led to little interest in the development of treatments. But now, as vaccination rates fall and infections rise, scientists are racing to develop drugs they say could prevent or treat the disease in vulnerable and unvaccinated people.  (Mosbergen, 8/8)

CNN: Beating MAHA To The Punch, The American Heart Association Releases Its Guidelines On Ultraprocessed Food 
Step aside, MAHA. The country’s largest heart-health organization has just released its long-awaited guidelines for the consumption of ultraprocessed foods, or UPFs. The new scientific advisory statement from the American Heart Association comes just days before the arrival of the second “Make America Healthy Again” or MAHA Commission report, spearheaded by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (LaMotte, 8/7)

San Francisco Chronicle: Here’s How Drug Screenings For S.F. Welfare Recipients Is Working
A controversial new program in San Francisco meant to push welfare recipients into getting sober has helped about 100 people engage in drug treatment during its first six months. The program, mandated by voters, requires adults who receive cash assistance from San Francisco and struggle with addiction to participate in a free treatment program or lose their welfare payments. Nearly two dozen people have lost their benefits as a result. (Angst, 8/8)

San Diego Union-Tribune: East County School District OKs New Sex-Ed Curriculum, After Battle With State Over LGBTQ+ Inclusion 
Cajon Valley Union School District has approved a new sexual health curriculum, months after the state found its old one illegally scrubbed mention of anything LGBTQ+ and then sued to force it to comply with state law. (Stephenson, 8/7)

Times of San Diego: Families Ask For Accountability On San Diego County Jail In-Custody Deaths
Saving Lives in Custody, a local nonprofit fighting for answers to deaths in San Diego County jails, held a press conference Thursday asking the Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board to take action. Saving Lives in Custody was joined by the family members and loved ones of individuals who died while in a county jail.  Leaders of the nonprofit demanded attention from the review board, or CLERB, which investigates citizen complaints against the San Diego County Sheriff’s and probation offices.  (Wallace, 8/7)

Bay Area News Group: Study Of Bay Area Vietnamese Refugees Probes War Impacts On Aging Brains 
Among Park’s projects is the Vietnamese Insights Into Aging Program, an unprecedented long-term study of Vietnamese refugees and immigrants 65 and up, led by principal investigator Oanh L. Meyer, a social psychology researcher at UC Davis whose refugee family has experienced dementia. (Jung, 8/8)

AP: US Air Force To Deny Retirement Pay To Transgender Service Members Being Separated From The Service
The U.S. Air Force said Thursday it would deny all transgender service members who have served between 15 and 18 years the option to retire early and would instead separate them without retirement benefits. One Air Force sergeant said he was “betrayed and devastated” by the move. The move means that transgender service members will now be faced with the choice of either taking a lump-sum separation payment offered to junior troops or be removed from the service. (Toropin, 8/7)

Military.com: VA To End Bargaining Agreement Contracts With Most Unions
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced Wednesday it was ending collective bargaining agreements with most federal unions -- a move that affects roughly 80% of its total workforce. Members of the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, the National Association of Government Employees, the National Federation of Federal Employees, the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United and the Service Employees International Union will no longer have the labor protections negotiated by their organizations. (Kime, 8/7)

MedPage Today: Trump Plan For Tariffs On Imported Drugs Draws Criticism On All Sides 
President Trump's plan to levy tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals is drawing criticism from all sides of the political spectrum. "Domestic manufacturing matters, but doing it by taxing patients through tariffs is the wrong move," Natasha Murphy, MSPH, director of health policy at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning Washington think tank, said in an email to MedPage Today. "These costs won't be eaten by drugmakers and instead will be passed on to families in the form of higher premiums and tighter formularies ... This is Trump's tariff-first playbook at work, and it puts affordability and access at risk." "All tariffs are a bad idea," Michael Baker, MS, director of healthcare policy at the American Action Forum, a right-leaning Washington think tank, said in a phone interview. (Frieden, 8/7)

Capital & Main: Health Care CEO Warns Of A System On The Brink
Jarrod McNaughton is nothing if not pragmatic. There’s no other way to run a health plan in Southern California that serves 1.5 million people — especially when nearly 95% of its members depend on Medi-Cal, a program about to face its greatest upheaval in memory. So when McNaughton describes health care infrastructure in the United States as “a Jenga puzzle,” he’s not being glib. “When you start removing those pieces,” McNaughton said this week, “you will start to see a collapse of the system. There is no way to make up for it.” (Mark Kreidler, 8/7)

Capitol Weekly: California Must Help Make Adoption More Affordable
In California, where tech wealth and extreme income inequality coexist, the idea that only the financially privileged can adopt should be deeply unsettling. When my parents adopted me from China in the 1990s, my father saved money from snow plowing driveways for months in order to adopt. As a single-income household, money was always tight — and I remember praying over the snowfall as a child, so that we could meet the income threshold required by China at the time to adopt my little sister. (Leah Sutterlin, 8/5)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Declining Access In California To Maternity Care A Growing Crisis
A few months ago, I worked my final night as an OB/GYN on labor and delivery at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale. I wanted my team of doctors, nurses and other staff to get together one last time and connect before we shut down the unit. (John McHugh, 8/8)

The Bay Area Reporter: Where’s Our City Hall Champion?
For the first time I can remember, the LGBTQ+ community does not have a champion in San Francisco City Hall. It’s stunning that the landmark equal benefits ordinance, or EBO, is on the chopping block and none of the supervisors from our community have stepped up to stop the destruction of this hard-won law. Even worse, not only is gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey leading the charge and gay board President Rafael Mandelman is non-committal, but the rationale for this change is that giving up our rights will save money. Freedom is not free. Have we forgotten that the fight for our rights cost Harvey Milk his life? (Jeff Sheehy, 8/6)

Times of San Diego: San Diego’s Nonprofits Are At A Crossroads — Let’s Help Them Thrive
Having served on more than 45 nonprofit boards — many here in San Diego — I’ve had a front-row seat to how the nonprofit landscape has evolved over time, both locally and beyond. From healthcare and youth development to leadership organizations and trade associations, I’ve seen firsthand the challenges nonprofits face and the incredible impact they can have when given the right support. (Maggie T. Watkins, 8/4)