Sacramento Bee: Gavin Newsom, Ron DeSantis Get Personal In Their Fox News Debate
Govs. Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis, big-state governors with big national ambitions, clashed Thursday in a debate that quickly devolved into a slugfest of insults and accusations over abortion, crime, taxes and almost every other policy they champion. They called each other liars and bullies. Newsom, DeSantis said, was too cozy with President Joe Biden. DeSantis, Newsom said, was an extremist. DeSantis said California taxes are too high. Newsom warned that Florida’s abortion policy would make lots of women criminals. (Lightman, 12/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: Ron DeSantis Wields S.F. ‘Poop Map’ In Debate With Gavin Newsom
Conservative politicians have criticized San Francisco for its liberal politics and issues with homelessness and drug use, but Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has a stinkier reason to snub the city: its public poop. “This is a map of San Francisco,” DeSantis said, holding a map up for the cameras to see Thursday night as he debated Gov. Gavin Newsom on Fox News. (Munch, 11/30)

Bay Area News Group: Blue Shield Of California Members' Social Security Numbers, Other Data Stolen -- 'A Gold Mine For Thieves'
Sensitive data from Blue Shield of California vision policy holders — including Social Security numbers, birth dates and addresses — may be among confidential patient information accessed by criminal hackers, the Oakland-based health insurance giant announced this week. (Baron, 12/1)

Bay Area News Group: Victim Of Blue Shield Hack? Here's What Company, Feds Say You Should Do
Blue Shield of California members with vision coverage may have had highly sensitive personal information stolen in a hack, the insurer said. Blue Shield in letters to affected policy holders offered a year of free identity monitoring, and provided advice. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission also provides guidance for people worried they may have been victims of identity theft through stolen personal information. (Baron, 12/1)

Los Angeles Daily News: This Grief Therapist Draws On Her Own Experience With Loss To Help Others
Based in Santa Monica, Smith initially worked in hospice before starting a private practice as a grief therapist, now facilitating online grief support groups and in-person retreats. And she never stopped writing. (Bauter, 11/30)

Los Angeles Daily News: Can Top Neurologist Neil Martin Fight Dementia With Activities, Wise Eating? 
Q4 Active is the brainchild of Martin, who was at UCLA for 30 years including as chair of the Department of Neurology at the Geffen School of Medicine from 2008 to 2016. He is considered one of the leading skull base and neurovascular neurosurgeons in the country. Today he is a neurosurgeon at Pacific Neuroscience Institute and Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica. (Love, 11/30)

Los Angeles Daily News: Here’s How To Commemorate World AIDS Day In Los Angeles County This Friday 
Nonprofits, community organizations and local governments across Los Angeles County will commemorate World AIDS Day on Friday, Dec. 1, memorializing those who have died from the disease in a series of events. This is the 35th anniversary of World AIDS Day, which originally launched in 1988. (Hutchings, 11/30)

Los Angeles Blade: Biden Honors World AIDS Day 2023
President Joe Biden honored Friday’s World AIDS Day observance with a proclamation on Thursday night as the red ribbon was displayed at the White House to mark the occasion. Crediting the “enormous progress” that has been made in the fight against the disease, Biden noted that “about 39 million people continue to live with HIV, including more than one million people in the United States.” (Kane, 12/1)

Bay Area Reporter: Departing Head Of SF AIDS Legal Agency Reflects On Tenure 
When Bill Hirsh formally steps down as executive director of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel next month, he will leave the San Francisco-based nonprofit prepared for the future. ALRP, as it is known, has seen plenty of changes over Hirsh's 24-year tenure, but providing free or low-cost legal services to clients living with HIV/AIDS in the Bay Area remains at its core. Over the years, leaders of HIV/AIDS nonprofits in the city have come and gone yet Hirsh, a gay man, has remained at the helm of ALRP. He is one of the longest-serving executive directors of an HIV/AIDS service organization in San Francisco. But that will soon end. Hirsh announced earlier this year that he is retiring and will depart in late December. (Laird, 11/29)

Reuters: AIDS Response 'Under Threat' Amid Human Rights Backlash - UN
The global response to AIDS is "under threat" because of an unprecedented backlash against human rights that is stigmatizing the groups most at risk of HIV infection, the head of the United Nations AIDS programme has warned. Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS, said countries where there are laws against LGBTQ people, or which criminalise sex work or personal drug use, are largely the places seeing a rise or plateau in new infections. ... "This pushback - anti-human rights, anti-democratic, anti-gender equality - has put our work under threat," she told Reuters in an interview in London ahead of the launch of a new report from the organization she leads. (Rigby, 11/28)

The Guardian: ‘A Moment To Fight Again’: US Activists Warn Of Backsliding On World AIDS Day
Kevin Robert Frost, the chief executive officer of the Foundation for Aids Research (Amfar), one of the world’s leading Aids research, treatment, and prevention non-profits, agreed with Johnson, saying: “Funding to treat and prevent this disease has become a political football in Washington.” ... Frost pointed to this year’s fight to reauthorize the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), a bipartisan, international program first authorized by president George W Bush in 2003. The program is widely acknowledged as having saved millions of lives across the world in the two decades since its inception by providing people in developing countries with free access to effective HIV/Aids treatment drugs. Earlier this year, the reauthorization of Pepfar was caught up in the national debates about abortion – despite US laws preventing any money under Pepfar from going toward abortions. (Neus and Albertario, 12/1)

ABC News: Hart Island, Site Of Thousands Of AIDS Burials, Opens To Public After Decades Of Stigma
New York City's Hart Island -- the burial site of more than 1 million people who were unclaimed, unidentified or unable to be buried elsewhere -- is opening to visitors after decades of being shrouded in mystery and stigma. For Elsie Soto, whose father died of AIDS complications in the '90s, the public tours being held on the island signal a step in the right direction toward shedding light on the stories of marginalized groups in New York City. Her father, Norberto, is one of potentially thousands of AIDS patients buried on Hart Island. (Alfonseca, 12/1)

BBC News: Preventative HIV Drug Highly Effective, Study Says
A drug which stops HIV infecting the body has proved to be a highly effective "real-world" preventative treatment, a study has confirmed. The results of the research on 24,000 people taking it across England, have been described as "reassuring". Thousands of people are already taking PrEP through sexual health clinics. (Foster, 11/30)

The New York Times: U.S. Rate Of Suicide By Firearm Reaches Record Level 
The rate of suicides involving guns in the United States has reached the highest level since officials began tracking it more than 50 years ago, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate increased by more than 10 percent in 2022 compared with 2019, and in some racial and ethnic groups, the rise was significantly steeper, especially among Native Americans. Overall, about 27,000 of 50,000 suicides were carried out by gun in 2022. (Baumgaertner, 11/30)

Los Angeles Times: He Died Training For L.A. Teen Crisis Hotline. His Parents Want All To Know The Number
Among the first things 16-year-old Donald “Trey” Brown III picked up while training at Teen Line in the spring was how to ask another child if they were contemplating suicide. This question is crucial, counselors at the youth-run crisis hotline say. Asking it directly saves lives, by naming the intense and often unspeakable desire to die that now haunts almost a quarter of American high school students, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “People who are not suicidal will be like, ‘No, no, no, no, I would never do that,’” said Mendez, 16, one of the crisis line’s volunteer “listeners,” whom the organization asked to be identified only by her first name. “But other people might say something like, ‘Well, maybe...,’” she went on. “A lot of people will test the waters to make sure you’re a safe person” to tell. (Sharp, 11/30)

Fox News: Depression Rates Higher Among College Students Than Their Peers, Study Suggests
College students may be at a greater risk of experiencing depression and anxiety compared to young people who are not in higher education, according to a new study published in The Lancet Public Health. Researchers from University College London analyzed data from two studies. The first study looked at 4,832 young people who were 18 and 19 years old between 2007 and 2009. (Rudy, 12/1)

CNN: From ‘Menty B’ To ‘Grippy Socks,’ Internet Slang Is Taking Over How We Talk About Mental Health 
In the midst of vacation planning, Natalie Williams was feeling overwhelmed. Life was hectic, and booking a trip was at the bottom of a to-do list already flooded with other various tasks and obligations. She wasn’t even sure if she still wanted to go. Still, her friends asked: When are we booking this? “When I get stressed, it can be pretty debilitating,” Williams told CNN. (Asmelash, 11/30)

The New York Times: Brain Study Suggests Traumatic Memories Are Processed As Present Experience
At the root of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a memory that cannot be controlled. It may intrude on everyday activity, thrusting a person into the middle of a horrifying event, or surface as night terrors or flashbacks. Decades of treatment of military veterans and sexual assault survivors have left little doubt that traumatic memories function differently from other memories. A group of researchers at Yale University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai set out to find empirical evidence of those differences. (Barry, 11/30)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego Sheriff Confronts Yet Another Lawsuit Over A 2022 Death In Custody 
The family of another man who died in sheriff’s custody has filed a federal lawsuit against San Diego County and the officials who run the jail and its healthcare system. (McDonald, 11/30)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Drug Investigations Lead To Seizure Of 60,000 Counterfeit Fentanyl Pills, Warrants On Cannabis Storefronts 
Two investigations into alleged drug crimes led San Diego County law enforcement agencies to make a half dozen arrests and seize large amounts of drugs including 60,000 counterfeit fentanyl pills, San Diego police said. (Winkley, 11/30)

AP: Don’t Eat Pre-Cut Cantaloupe If Source Is Unknown, CDC Says
Consumers shouldn’t eat pre-cut cantaloupe if they don’t know the source, U.S. health officials said Thursday, as the number of illnesses and recalls tied to a deadly salmonella outbreak grows. At least 117 people in 34 U.S. states have been sickened by contaminated cantaloupe, including 61 who were hospitalized and two who died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Another 63 illnesses, 17 hospitalizations and one death tied to the same outbreak have been reported in Canada. The illnesses are severe, with more than half of infected people hospitalized, including residents of long-term care centers and children in day care, the CDC said. (Aleccia, 11/30)

San Diego Union-Tribune: How To Support San Diegans With HIV/AIDS 
Dec. 1, 2023, marks 35 years since the United Nations first designated World AIDS Day as a global, annual event to raise awareness of acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, which is caused by human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. Every year, for 35 years, this day has served as a reminder of the global struggle to end HIV-related stigma and an opportunity to honor loved ones we have lost to HIV and AIDS. Above all, it’s a rallying cry, driving us to work toward a day when HIV is no longer a public health threat. (Alberto Cortes, 11/29)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Affordable Care Act Could Become An Issue Again In San Diego Congressional Race 
Out of the blue, former President Donald Trump has raised the prospect of another election-year fight over the Affordable Care Act in battleground congressional districts such as San Diego’s 49th represented by Democrat Mike Levin. (Michael Smolens, 12/1)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Trump Just Gave Democrats A Health Care Gift
There are few topics that more effectively expose Donald Trump’s con than health care. (Francis Wilkinson, 12/1)

Los Angeles Times: California Limits Mental Health Care For Millions Of Residents In Need
Healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente reached a $200-million settlement in October with the state of California over long waits experienced by patients needing behavioral health services. Greg Adams, Kaiser’s chair and chief executive, cited a shortage of qualified care providers as a major reason for delays in treatment. Such shortages are prevalent statewide: In one survey, only 27% of Californians said their community has enough mental health professionals to serve the needs of local residents. Among adults in the state with any psychiatric illness, 63% said they received no mental health services in the past year. (Mimi Zheng, 12/1)

Los Angeles Daily News: LA County Wants To Raise Taxes Even More In The Name Of Fighting Homelessness 
Roughly five years after L.A. voters approved Measure HHH and Measure H to borrow more than $1 billion to build housing and raise the sales tax to provide services, the problem is worse than ever. So preparations are well underway to ask voters to approve even higher taxes for more of the same. (Susan Shelley, 11/28)

Fresno Bee: Fresno Woman Had Stopped Getting Regular Mammograms. Then Her Leg Ached
I am writing this column somewhat reluctantly, because it is so personal. But I feel I have to do it to help prevent a similar health situation for even one of you. Remember Mother’s Day? Well, I do, because it was then that I first felt a mild twinge in my right thigh. Oh, I must have pulled a muscle, I thought, and figured it would take a couple of weeks to heal. But it didn’t, and in fact became a little worse. So I thought it should be X-rayed. (Francine M. Farber, 11/29)