Politico: Trump Keeps California Guessing
President Donald Trump is set to fly into Los Angeles today [Friday] to survey damage from the fires still burning there, but California officials don’t know much else. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday afternoon that he hadn’t heard from the president since the end of his first term, but that he’ll be waiting on the tarmac when Trump lands with “an open hand.” (Jones, Norman, Gardiner and Mason, 1/24)

AP: Trump Targets California Water Policy As He Prepares To Tour LA Fire Damage 
As President Donald Trump prepares to tour wildfire damage in California, he’s zeroing in on one of his frequent targets for criticism: State water policy. Since the fires broke out Jan. 7, Trump has used social media and interviews to accuse the state of sending too much water to the Pacific Ocean instead of south toward Los Angeles and highlighted how some hydrants ran dry in the early hours of the firefight in Pacific Palisades. (Taxin, 1/24)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County's Evacuation Alert System Broke Down During Fires. Why California Has Struggle To Do Better
When the federal government in 2012 launched Wireless Emergency Alerts — a new system that allowed officials to send loud, screeching alarms to cellphones across a large area — many local emergency management officers were wary of the technology. ... Jurisdictions across the state have adopted the up-to-date wireless alert technology. The federal system has also become more sophisticated, allowing operators to issue more precise, targeted warnings. But even with technological advances, problems remain. (Jarvie, 1/24)

San Francisco Chronicle: Gavin Newsom Signs $2.5 Billion Wildfire Aid Package Into Law
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law bills allocating more than $2.5 billion in state funding Thursday “as step one” toward recovery from the fires that have devastated Los Angeles for weeks. ... The legislation, approved unanimously by lawmakers Thursday morning, allocates money across two bills through adjustments to the state’s current budget. Up to $1 billion is included for local departments and agencies for disaster response and emergency operations. (Burke, 1/23)

Bay Area News Group: After Record Surge In Homelessness, Bay Area Counties Tackle New Count Of Unhoused Populations
After COVID-19 paused all homelessness counts in 2021, Santa Clara County, in an effort to better understand the impact of expiring eviction moratoriums and other emergency programs, counted in both 2022 and 2023 and now counts only during odd years. Meanwhile, Alameda, San Mateo, San Francisco, Marin and Solano resumed counting in even years. Contra Costa, Sonoma and Napa now count every year. (Varian, 1/24)

Times of San Diego: Volunteers Mobilize To Count People Experiencing Homelessness
Nearly 1,700 volunteers are preparing to aid the Regional Taskforce on Homelessness and local organizations for this year’s Point-in-Time Count beginning next Thursday. The annual count, by the San Diego Continuum of Care, identifies how many people are experiencing homelessness in the region and contributes to a national homelessness data archive. The count helps providers and policymakers to identify driving factors of homelessness and address the needs of the region’s homeless population. (Caspers, 1/23)

VC Star: Ventura County Sizes Up Homeless Population With Annual Count
Surveyors, led by the Ventura County Continuum of Care, still have seven days to complete the full count and will take several months to process and release the results. Jennifer Harkey, a program director for the county agency, said organizers are anticipating another drop thanks to supportive housing programs and new targeted developments like Oxnard's Casa Aliento. (Murtaugh, 1/23)

Los Angeles Times: Trump Is Pulling U.S. Out Of WHO. How It May Affect California's Infectious Disease Surveillance
The United States is ground zero for the H5N1 bird flu. Since March 2024, when the virus was first reported in a Texas dairy herd, the virus has killed one person, sickened scores more, contaminated the nation’s food supply, felled dozens of house pets, infected more than 900 dairy herds across 16 states, and caused the deaths of millions of wild animals and commercially raised chickens, ducks and turkeys. So how President Trump and his administration will deal with this widespread, potentially deadly virus, which scientists say is just a mutation or two away from becoming a full-blown human pandemic, is a question many health officials and infectious disease experts are now asking. (Rust, 1/23)

MedPage Today: Trump's Gag Order Halts CDC Publication
For the first time in its more than 60-year history, the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) did not go out as scheduled because of a communications pause at federal health agencies issued by the Trump administration. Past editors of MMWR and prior leaders of CDC lamented the lack of publication, and its potential impact on the distribution of vital public health information. (Robertson, 1/23)

Bay Area News Group: California Sanctuary State Reacts To Trump Order To Prosecute Officials Who Defy Federal Immigration Policy
A Trump Administration order to investigate and prosecute state and local officials who defy its immigration enforcement policies spurred immediate and defiant pushback from California politicians, lawyers and immigration advocates Wednesday. (Sulek and Lopez, 1/24)

The New York Times: A Judge Halted Trump’s Plan To End Birthright Citizenship
A federal judge temporarily blocked President Trump’s executive order declaring that children born on U.S. soil to undocumented immigrants would no longer be treated as citizens. The judge, John Coughenour, sided with states that had sued Trump arguing that the president’s order violated the 14th Amendment. “This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” he said today. “Frankly,” Judge Coughenour, a Reagan appointee, added, “I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar would state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order. It just boggles my mind.” (Cullen, 1/23)

Modern Healthcare: RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearing Date Set For Jan. 29 
The controversial nomination of Robert Kennedy Jr. to be secretary of Health and Human Services is set to move forward next week when he will face questioning from a pair of Senate committees. Kennedy is among the least-certain of President Donald Trump's nominees to be confirmed. Democrats, who cannot block Kennedy on their own, are expected to largely but not unanimously oppose him, and some Republicans have expressed concerns about Kennedy's views on vaccines and his past support for abortion rights. (McAuliff, 1/23)

CBS News: Trump Administration Expected To Go Outside CDC For Acting Director
The Trump administration is expected to tap Susan Coller Monarez, the deputy director of a federal health research agency, to serve as the acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, multiple health officials tell CBS News. Picking Monarez would close an unprecedented leadership gap atop the CDC, which is tasked with tracking and responding to a myriad of emerging diseases and health emergencies. Other health agencies have also been operating without acting heads. (Tin, 1/23)

Becker's Hospital Review: US Sets WHO Exit Date
The United States will exit the World Health Organization on Jan. 22, 2026, Reuters reported Jan. 23. The planned exit comes after President Donald Trump signed a executive order Jan. 20 removing the U.S. from the WHO over "the organization's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member state," the order said. (Ashley, 1/23)

Military.Com: VA Declares 300,000 Health Care Jobs Exempt From Ordered Freeze On Federal Hiring
More than 300,000 Department of Veterans Affairs health care jobs are exempt from a federal hiring freeze instituted Jan. 20 by President Donald Trump. Acting Veterans Affairs Secretary Todd Hunter issued a memo Jan. 21 containing instructions for the department to comply with Trump's executive order, issued shortly after he was sworn into office. (Kime, 1/23)

The War Horse: Transgender Troops Prepare For Trump's Decision On Military Ban
President Trump made transgender issues a centerpiece of his campaign, promising to “stop the transgender lunacy” and “get transgender out of the military.” During his first term, Trump banned transgender people from serving in the military, though ultimately troops who had already transitioned ... were grandfathered in. That may not be the case this time. (Kehrt, 1/24)

The New York Times: Instagram And Facebook Blocked And Hid Abortion Pill Providers’ Posts
Instagram and Facebook have recently blurred, blocked or removed posts from two abortion pill providers. Instagram also suspended the accounts of several abortion pill providers and hid the providers from appearing in search and recommendations. The actions ramped up in the last two weeks, and were especially noticeable in the last two days, abortion pill providers said. Content from their accounts — or in some cases, their entire accounts — were no longer visible on Instagram. (Cain Miller, Conger and Isaac, 1/23)

Axios: Trump Pardons 23 Anti-Abortion Activists On March For Life Rally Eve
President Trump signed pardons on Thursday for 23 anti-abortion protesters who were convicted of illegally blockading a reproductive health clinic in Washington, D.C. "They should not have been prosecuted, it's a great honor to sign this," Trump said as he signed the order one day before he's due to speak via video at anti-abortion activists' annual March for Life rally at the national mall in D.C., which Vice President JD Vance is due to address in person. (Falconer, 1/24)

The Hill: Trump To Address March For Life Via Video, Vance To Speak In Person
President Trump will address the annual March for Life event on the National Mall via video message Friday, while Vice President Vance will speak to the crowd in person. The president is scheduled to visit North Carolina and California on Friday, so he will instead address the crowd via video message, organizers said. (Samuels, 1/23)

The New York Times: Sensing Political Support, Abortion Opponents Raise Ambitions
Anti-abortion activists are charging ahead with their ultimate mission to end all abortions nationwide, freshly emboldened by powerful allies in Washington, a continued Supreme Court majority and legislative opportunities in conservative states. At the March for Life on Friday, the three most powerful men in America are expected to give remarks: President Trump via recorded video, and Vice President JD Vance and Speaker Mike Johnson in person. On Thursday Mr. Trump pardoned 23 activists convicted of obstructing access to abortion clinics. (Dias and Lerer, 1/24)

The Hill: Republican Senators Introduce Bill To Ban Taxpayer Funding For Abortions
Republican lawmakers reintroduced a piece of legislation that would ban the use of federal funds for abortions or health coverage that includes abortion this week. If passed, the bill would essentially codify a decades-old policy called the Hyde Amendment which has banned the use of any federal dollars on abortions since 1977. There are two caveats, however. The Hyde Amendment does allow for federal funds to be spent on abortions if continuing a pregnancy endangers the life of the mother or if the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest. (O’Connell-Domenech, 1/23)

The New York Times: New Research Finds Potential Alternative To Abortion Pill Mifepristone
A new study suggests a possible alternative to the abortion pill mifepristone, a drug that continues to be a target of lawsuits and legislation from abortion opponents. But the potential substitute could further complicate the politics of reproductive health because it is also the key ingredient in a contraceptive morning-after pill. The new study, published Thursday in the journal NEJM Evidence, involved a drug called ulipristal acetate, the active ingredient in the prescription contraceptive Ella, one of two types of morning-after pills approved in the United States. (Belluck and Bazelon, 1/23)

The New York Times: Sacklers Up Their Offer To Settle Purdue Opioids Cases, With A New Condition 
Seven months after the Supreme Court struck down a deal that would have resolved thousands of opioid cases against Purdue Pharma, the company’s owners, members of the Sackler family, have increased their cash offer to settle the litigation — but with a novel catch. Under the framework for a new deal, the Sacklers would not receive immunity from future opioid lawsuits, a condition that they had long insisted upon but that the court ruled was impermissible. (Hoffman, 1/23)

The Bay Area Reporter: Trump Repudiates Trans People
Well, that didn't take long. Only hours after Donald Trump was sworn in as the nation's 47th president, he signed a slew of executive orders. He pardoned 1,500 people convicted in the January 6 insurrection, including those who attacked law enforcement officers; began to dismantle federal diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; and sought to end birthright citizenship for children of some non-U.S. citizens that's enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, among many, many others. The executive order that we're concerned about, however, seeks to repudiate transgender people, and, if it withstands legal scrutiny, will cancel nonbinary people, including as it pertains to federally-issued identification documents. Draconian does not begin to describe this order. (1/22)

VC Star: Trump Jumps Back Into California’s Water Wars With A Pro-Farmer Decree
It would be impossible to overstate the complexity of water supply management in California. Hundreds of federal, state and local agencies decree who or what is supplied with water, when and how much will be delivered, and the prices recipients must pay. (Dan Walters, 1/23)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Families On Both Sides Of The Border Share Tragedies And Solutions When It Comes To Addiction
Our beautiful county of San Diego is rich in culture and diversity as we share a border with Tijuana. Many of our citizens travel back and forth across the border daily for work and have family members living on both sides of the border. Our shared history, music and traditions are a part of our strength. In the past two decades, communities in Mexico and the United States have been experiencing devastating losses. (Gretchen Burns Bergman, 1/22)

Orange County Register: Santa Ana Will Not Allow Distribution Of Drug Supplies In The Name Of ‘Harm Reduction’
As mayor of Santa Ana, I firmly opposed the Harm Reduction Institute’s (HRI) application to distribute syringes and drug use supplies in our city. My position is based on consultations with city staff, law enforcement experts, and residents, as well as a thorough review of data and previous outcomes. (Valerie Amezcua, 1/23)

San Francisco Chronicle: It Took A Berkeley Woman 14 Months To Get A New Wheelchair. She Isn't The Only One Facing Extreme Delays
For Rosemary McDonnell-Horita, a disability advocate living in Berkeley, it’s been a yearlong fight to get a new wheelchair. McDonnell-Horita had been using the same chair for 11 years, and like most people, her body and its needs have changed over time. Most insurance plans allow a replacement chair every five years or so but the pandemic, and insurance issues, put her plans on hold. (Soleil Ho, 1/18)