The New York Times: Surgeon General Calls For Cancer Warnings On Alcohol
Alcohol is a leading preventable cause of cancer, and alcoholic beverages should carry a warning label as packs of cigarettes do, the U.S. surgeon general said on Friday.It is the latest salvo in a fierce debate about the risks and benefits of moderate drinking as the influential U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans are about to be updated. For decades, moderate drinking was said to help prevent heart attacks and strokes. (Caryn Rabin, 2/3)

California Healthline: Stimulant Users Are Caught In Fatal 'Fourth Wave' Of Opioid Epidemic
The migration of fentanyl into illicit stimulants such as cocaine is especially dangerous for people who are not regular opioid users. That’s because they have a low tolerance for opioids, putting them at greater risk of an overdose. They also often don’t take precautions — such as not using alone and carrying the opioid reversal medication naloxone — so they’re unprepared if they overdose. (Arditi, 2/3)

Orange County Register: Here’s What To Know About Bird Flu As Farms Fight Outbreaks In California 
The rise of bird flu across farms in California has raised questions about the virus and and its potential threat to humans. While the threat to humans is currently small, here is what you need to know about the state of bird flu. (Barragan, 1/2)

Newsweek: Bird Flu Warning Over New Virus Risk: 'Significant Public Health Concern'
Combined infection with bird flu and human flu could lead to mutations of new viruses that could have dangerous public health consequences, agencies have warned. ... The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises on their website that Americans, particularly those at high risk of bird flu such as farmworkers, should get the flu vaccine this season, even though it only prevents seasonal flu. (Willmoth, 1/2)

Minneapolis Star Tribune: As Bird Flu Increases, Officials Add Biosecurity Requirement For Farmers Looking For Reimbursement
Federal officials are cracking down on poultry operations looking for taxpayer relief from bird flu losses and will now require a biosecurity audit before insuring birds against future avian influenza outbreaks. The new requirement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture is an effort to stamp out the nearly 3-year-old outbreak that has claimed 128 million birds nationwide. Infections continue in several places, driving up the cost of eggs and meat. (1/2)

The New York Times: Biden Officials Prepare For Potential Bird Flu Outbreak With Added Money
The Biden administration, in a final push to shore up the nation’s pandemic preparedness before President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office, announced on Thursday that it would nearly double the amount of money it was committing to ward off a potential outbreak of bird flu in humans. Federal health officials have been keeping a close eye on H5N1, a strain of avian influenza that is highly contagious and lethal to chickens, and has spread to cattle. The virus has not yet demonstrated that it can spread efficiently among people. (Gay Stolberg, 1/2)

inewsource: San Diego 2025: A Budget Shortfall Could Stymie City’s Homeless Response
San Diego voters gave Mayor Todd Gloria another four years to lead the charge on the city’s worsening homelessness crisis, carry out his plans to expand shelter and move unhoused residents off the streets and on a path to housing. But in the face of a $258 million budget shortfall in the coming year, the road ahead appears challenging, and some are questioning the current direction. (Dulaney, 1/2)

Voice of San Diego: City's Housing Agency Won’t Issue Vouchers For New Projects
The city’s housing agency has decided it must shut off a key engine it has used to help deliver thousands of homes for homeless and low-income San Diegans. The San Diego Housing Commission’s decision presents a new hurdle for developers – including those behind the Midway Rising project – who counted on access to those vouchers to build homes for the city’s poorest residents. The change could have reverberations on housing production for especially vulnerable San Diegans for years to come. (Halverstadt, 1/2)

LAist: LA Officials Call On Landlords To Accept Housing Vouchers From Veterans Under New Streamlined Process
Los Angeles officials are making a new push to get unhoused veterans off the streets and into housing faster under a new initiative. The two-pronged approach announced Thursday in South L.A. aims to get more housing vouchers into veterans' hands while boosting the number of units available by partnering with property owners and landlords. But veterans and advocates are skeptical. (Sievertson, 1/2)

Military Times: Tricare West Beneficiaries Granted More Time For Payment Updates
Beneficiaries living in Tricare’s West Region who missed the Tuesday deadline to set up recurring payments with the new regional contractor, TriWest Healthcare Alliance, have been granted an extension. Beneficiaries enrolled in Tricare Young Adult, Tricare Reserve Select and Tricare Retired Reserve plans now have until Jan. 15 to set up recurring payments directly with TriWest, while those enrolled in Tricare Prime or Tricare Select have until Jan. 30, according to Tricare’s website. The requirement applies to those who pay enrollment fees or premiums by credit card, debit card or electronic funds transfer. (Jowers, 1/3)

Becker's Hospital Review: California Hospital Restores IT Network Following Cyber Incident
Watsonville Community Hospital in California has fully restored access to its IT network after a cyberattack in late November forced the facility to adopt downtime procedures. According to a Dec. 31 update on the hospital's website, the breach occurred around Nov. 29, and IT systems were restored by Dec. 12. During the incident, the 106-bed hospital was forced to rely on paper records due to disruptions affecting its internet, EHR system, and prescription notifications. (Diaz, 1/2)

Los Angeles Times: 107 More Women Accuse Ex-Cedars-Sinai Physician Of Sexual Misconduct
More than 100 women have filed a new lawsuit against obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Barry J. Brock and the facilities where he worked, claiming that Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and other medical practices knowingly concealed his alleged sexual abuses and medical misconduct. ... Brock, 74, has previously denied all allegations of impropriety. (Purtill, 1/2)

Times of San Diego: Statewide Expansion Of Involuntary Behavioral Holds Now In Effect
State Senate Bill 43 has now gone into effect in San Diego County. The bill — the largest and most comprehensive update to the state’s detention and conservatorship laws in decades — has modified the legal definition of “grave disability,” which can be used to evaluate a person with behavioral health issues. This means that now more people throughout the state, including in San Diego, may be involuntarily held or transported for evaluation and treatment. (Binkowski, 1/2)

Los Angeles Times: Her Mother's Killer Was Freed Because Of Cancer. She Wants To Change California's Laws
Advocates for compassionate release point to research that shows older people with advanced illness are unlikely to commit acts of violence, and releasing them is one way to cut down on California’s costly prison bills. But Shojai’s case shows how complicated those decisions can be, and how profoundly they affect the families left behind. (Mays, 1/3)

Reuters: Protecting Reproductive Health Data: State Laws Against Geofencing
In the aftermath of the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, and the subsequent rise in state-based legislation limiting individuals' access to abortion, contraceptive methods, and gender-affirming care, over a dozen states have enacted laws protecting or expanding individuals' reproductive health care rights. ... New state laws aimed at curbing the use, sale, or other disclosure of individually identifiable health data reflect growing concerns that existing federal privacy regulations fail to adequately protect such personal health data, and particularly reproductive health data, from third-party access and criminal investigation. (Xavier, Frey and Phillips, 1/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: Trial Led By UCSF Neurosurgeon May ID Needed Drugs For Brain Injuries
Matt Vann can’t recall much about the moment, four years ago, that changed the trajectory of his life. Vann, a San Francisco firefighter, was outside a building on Spear Street near the Embarcadero, responding to a high-rise fire. He was walking near a firehose when a Muni bus ran over the hose and kept driving, with the line still stuck around its tires. It knocked Vann off his feet and he hit the back of his head on the street — hard. (Ho, 1/3)

CalMatters: California Almost Legalized Psychedelics. Now, Supporters Are Looking For A Good Test Case 
Two states legalized psychedelic therapies since 2020 and President Biden signed a law supporting studies of how they might help veterans. Proposals like those keep dying in California. (Ibarra, 1/2)

Newsweek: Cancer Breakthrough As 'Speckles' May Reveal Best Treatment
Patterns of "speckles" in the heart of tumor cells could help predict how patients with a common form of kidney cancer will respond to different treatment options, according to research. Nuclear speckles—microscopic structures found in the nucleus of a cell—were first identified more than a century ago. They are believed to intermingle with DNA and play a role in regulating gene activity. "We found that different therapies are more or less effective depending on how the speckles look," said Professor Katherine Alexander of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York in a statement. (Randall, 1/2)

The Wall Street Journal: The Mystery Of What’s Causing Young People’s Cancer Leads To The Gut
Researchers have identified a focal point for the forces they suspect of driving up cancer cases in young people: the gut. They are searching people’s bodies and childhood histories for culprits. Rates of gastrointestinal cancers among people under 50 are increasing across the globe. In the U.S., colorectal cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in men under 50 and second for women behind breast cancer. Each generation born since the 1950s has had higher risk than the one before. (Abbott, 1/3)

Berkleyside: Radiation Is Normal At Cesar Chavez Park, But It’s A Different Story Underground, Tests Show
Radiation testing of Cesar Chavez Park ordered by regional water regulators has found that bird watchers, morning walkers and dogs digging in the dirt have no cause for worry. (Kwok, 1/2)

Times of San Diego: Start New Year By Donating Blood On Jan. 9
San Diego County Credit Union is hosting a blood drive on Jan. 9, at seven locations: six in San Diego County and one in Riverside County. Historically, there is an extremely low inventory of blood during the busy holiday season and hospital shelves have a constant need, potentially affecting thousands of patients. (Sklar, 1/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: Why Some Bay Area Blind People Say Waymos Are Changing Their Lives
Jerry Kuns, 83, takes public transit as much as he can, but like many San Franciscans, he’ll opt for an Uber or a Lyft if he’s running late. But for Kuns, who is fully blind, taking a rideshare is like flipping a coin: at least half the time, Kuns says, his Uber or Lyft drivers won’t identify themselves clearly, even though he messages ahead of time asking them to. The car might be sitting across the street for minutes, but he wouldn’t know it. So increasingly, Kuns turns to a transit option he says is more accessible and makes him feel more independent: Waymo. (Ellis, 1/2)

The Washington Post: More Children Are Getting Kidney Stones. Experts Think It’s Their Diet
When Annabelle Pleskoff was 15, she woke up before school one morning with severe pain radiating from her right side. ... Now 25, Pleskoff, a Seattle native who has endured more than 30 kidney stones, is part of a troubling trend in pediatric health. Kidney stone cases are rising among children, and some medical professionals implicate a familiar culprit: ultra-processed foods. Other experts trace the increase to genetics, poor diet and insufficient water intake. (Malhi, 1/2)

Axios: Use Of Diabetes And Anti-Obesity Drugs Surges Nationwide
The number of prescriptions for GLP-1 drugs jumped roughly 10% in 2024, according to insurance claims data provided to Axios by health analytics company PurpleLab. The data, which shows double-digit growth in 23 states, offers a snapshot of the sustained growth in demand across the U.S. for the drugs hailed as game-changers in the fight against obesity. (Reed, 1/3)

Stat: Ozempic's Logistical Challenges Have Doctors Look To Team Approach 
Life was getting better for Carlos Campos, 72, a retired machinist who lives with his wife and daughter in Tukwila, Wash. Diagnosed about 20 years ago with type 2 diabetes, he was delighted to see his blood sugar levels improve dramatically about a year ago, when he started taking Ozempic. (Cooney, 1/3)

Reuters: Lilly Asks To Join Lawsuit Over Compounded Versions Of Its Weight-Loss Drugs
Eli Lilly has asked to join in opposing a lawsuit brought by compounding pharmacies against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over the agency's decision that Lilly's blockbuster weight-loss and diabetes drugs are no longer in short supply. In a motion filed in Fort Worth, Texas federal court late on Wednesday, Lilly said it could not rely on the FDA to fully defend its interests in the case, which will determine whether compounding pharmacies and facilities can keep selling cheaper versions of the company's weight-loss drug Zepbound and diabetes medicine Mounjaro, which have the same active ingredient, tirzepatide. (Pierson, 1/2)

Los Angeles Times: Think Twice Before Breaking Up The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority 
In the city and county of Los Angeles, various agencies have different pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that comprise the effort to end homelessness — whether it’s mental health services, outreach, permanent housing or interim housing. (1/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: If Killing Of CEO Brian Thompson Angered You, You’re Not Alone
On the day that UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was brutally murdered in New York City, I received a letter from my insurance company. About a month ago, and out of the clear blue sky, we learned that my son has a rare and particularly aggressive type of pediatric cancer. There is a tennis ball-sized tumor growing rapidly on the left side of his ribcage that will kill him if we don’t act quickly. To treat it, our doctors said, we need to know what it is, so our oncology team promptly ordered a series of genetic tests that would help identify both the type of cancer and the most effective way to cure it. Our insurance company, however, didn’t agree. (Joshua Pederson, 1/1)

East Bay Times: Trump's Deportations Threaten California Economy Built On Hypocrisy
This country has always had a hypocritical relationship with the undocumented workers who keep America’s agricultural, construction and hospitality industries humming. On one hand, we simply cannot function without them. On the other, xenophobic politicians whip up fear and mistrust of workers on the lowest economic rungs when it serves their purposes. (Robin Abcarian, 1/3)