The New York Times: Trump Administration Takes Step That Could Threaten Marijuana Legalization Movement
The viability of the multibillion-dollar marijuana legalization movement was thrown into new doubt on Thursday when the Trump administration freed prosecutors to more aggressively enforce federal laws against the drug in states that have decriminalized its production and sale, most recently California. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, long a vocal opponent of the legalization of marijuana, rescinded an Obama-era policy that discouraged federal prosecutors in most cases from bringing charges wherever the drug is legal under state laws. (Savage and Healy, 1/4)

The Associated Press: Federal Pot Policy Change Sparks Confusion, Crackdown Fears
Officials wouldn't say if federal prosecutors would target pot shops and legal growers, nor would they speculate on whether pot prosecutions would increase. The action by Attorney General Jeff Sessions was not unexpected given his longtime opposition to pot, but comes at a heady time for the industry as retail pot sales rolled out New Year's Day in California. (1/5)

The Associated Press: Q&A: What Does Sessions’ Policy Mean For The Future Of Weed?
A federal law blocks the Justice Department from interfering with medical marijuana programs in states where it is allowed. Justice Department officials said they would follow the law, but would not preclude the possibility of medical-marijuana related prosecutions. (Gurman, 1/4)

The New York Times: California Defiant In Face Of Federal Move To Get Tough On Marijuana
The sale of recreational cannabis became legal in California on New Year’s Day. Four days later, the Trump administration acted in effect to undermine that state law by allowing federal prosecutors to be more aggressive in prosecuting marijuana cases. A memo by Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday was widely interpreted in the nation’s most populous state as the latest example of Trump vs. California, a multifront battle of issues ranging from immigration to taxes to the environment. (Fuller, 1/4)

Sacramento Bee: California Moves To Protect Legal Cannabis From Sessions
California signaled its intent Thursday to defend the state’s voter-approved law legalizing recreational marijuana, hours after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo clearing the way for a federal crackdown on weed. Two state leaders – Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Bureau of Cannabis Control Chief Executive Lori Ajax – issued statements saying they’ll defend Proposition 64, the 2016 initiative that led to the opening of the state’s first retail cannabis stores this week. (Hart and Irby, 1/4)

California Healthline: Cloud Of Uncertainty Over Legalized Pot As Feds End Obama-Era Accommodation
California’s Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted that Sessions had “destructively doubled down on the failed, costly, and racially discriminatory war on drugs, ignoring facts and logic, and trampling on the will of CA voters.” Newsom pledged to “pursue all options to protect our reforms and rights.” (Gorman and Galewitz, 1/5)

San Francisco Chronicle: Jeff Sessions Ending Federal Policy That Let Legal Pot Flourish 
“The (Sessions) memo will mobilize us, mobilize the people around the country” who support legalization, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Costa Mesa (Orange County) Republican who has sponsored the budget amendments, said in a conference call by the House Cannabis Caucus. He said the federal government must “respect all of the decisions of the states when it comes to cannabis.” “We want to let Jeff Sessions know he cannot undercut, undermine the will of the American people,” said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, another caucus member. (Egelko and Fimrite, 1/4)

Los Angeles Times: California Bills Aim To Tackle Opioid Addiction By Curbing Excessive Prescriptions
Looking to combat the opioid abuse epidemic, a Silicon Valley legislator has introduced a slate of bills meant to clamp down on access to highly addictive prescription drugs. Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell) authored three measures meant to provide a better understanding of patients’ access to these medications, building on an existing state database tracking prescriptions in California. “I don’t think there’s enough attention at the issue at hand, which is the system is not working,” Low said. (Mason, 1/4)

The Mercury News: Vicious Influenza Strain Sweeps Bay Area, Deaths Up In State
The flu got off to an early start this season and has been on a vicious tear throughout the Bay Area and California. State health officials have confirmed 17 deaths of people younger than 65 statewide, though news reports from counties around the state indicate the death toll is in the dozens. There have been four reported deaths in Santa Clara County as of Dec. 30, and one in Monterey County as of Dec. 28. (Drummond, 1/4)

Ventura County Star: Flu Sweeps Across Ventura County, Sending Many To ERs
Waves of flu are rolling through Ventura County, bringing record-breaking visits to a Simi Valley hospital emergency room and surging patient admissions at a Thousand Oaks hospital. Across the county, flu appears to have contributed to at least five deaths, all reported since Christmas, according to public health officials. Four involved people 65 or older. The deaths are two more than the total of a flu season last year that ran into mid-May. The spike has also hit elderly care facilities, with three nursing homes and one assisted-living facility reporting outbreaks to Ventura County Public Health. (Kisken, 1/4)

Modesto Bee: Influenza Takes A Toll In Stanislaus County. Does The Vaccine Protect Residents? 
The most dominant flu virus this season is called H3N2, and it’s been widely reported the seasonal flu vaccine offers little protection against it. Health officials hope the vaccine is at least 30 percent effective as the flu season worsens in the Central Valley. (Carlson, 1/4)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Officials Confirm First Case Of Sexually Transmitted Zika Virus
L.A. County officials said Thursday that a woman had been infected with the Zika virus by her partner in the first case of sexually transmitted Zika virus in the county. A man who lives in L.A. County traveled to Mexico and became infected with the Zika virus in early November, and shortly afterward his female partner, who didn't travel to Mexico, also developed the infection, officials said. (Karlamangla, 1/4)

In other public health news —

Orange County Register: So Hooked On Video Games It’s A Mental Disorder? Cal State Fullerton Experts Say The Answer Is Multilevel
The World Health Organization is including “gaming disorder” in its latest International Classification of Diseases, used worldwide to diagnose health problems, provide health care and allocate resources. But don’t pull yourself away from “Call of Duty” for a trip to the therapist just yet, cautioned a Cal State Fullerton professor who specializes in addiction to video games and social media. (Fawthrop, 1/4)

Capital Public Radio: Patients Forgetting Medication Can Be Costly, Fatal. Is Tech The Answer? 
About 125,000 people die annually because they took their medications incorrectly, and the problem costs the healthcare system more than $100 billion a year, according to an analysis from health research institute IQVIA. Dr. Dean Schillinger, a primary care doctor at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco, said there are a lot of reasons behind what experts call “medication nonadherence.” (Caiola, 1/4)

Fresno Bee: Legionnaires' Disease At Fresno VA Home
A resident at the Veterans Home of California – Fresno has tested positive for Legionnaires’ disease and is being treated at the Fresno VA hospital. The veteran tested positive for the respiratory disease Wednesday, said June Iljana, deputy secretary for communication at the California Department of Veterans Affairs. No one else at the 300-bed long-term care facility in southwest Fresno has tested positive for the disease, Iljana said. The home opened in October 2013. (Anderson, 1/4)

In other health care news from across the state —

Oakland Tribune: Lawsuit Claims Pregnant Inmates Coerced To Abort
A federal lawsuit filed on behalf of six current and former female inmates at the Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County claims that pregnant inmates were coerced into abortions and inhumanely treated. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for California’s northern district, claims that female inmates had miscarriages while in custody and one gave birth in solitary confinement by herself, according to attorney Yolanda Huang. (Ruggiero, 1/4)

KPBS: More Than 70 Homeless Children Moving Into San Diego's Third Bridge Shelter 
Dozens of homeless families have started settling into a large industrial tent located behind Father Joe’s Villages in San Diego’s East Village. It’s the third tent the city has opened over the past several weeks. (Murphy, 1/4)

The New York Times: Trump Proposes New Health Plan Options For Small Businesses
The Trump administration on Thursday proposed sweeping new rules that could make it easier for small businesses to band together and create health insurance plans that would be exempt from many of the consumer protections mandated by the Affordable Care Act. As many as 11 million Americans “could find coverage under this proposal,” the Labor Department said in issuing the proposed rules, which carry out an executive order signed by President Trump on Oct. 12. The public will have 60 days to comment on the proposal before the Trump administration adopts final rules with the force of law. (Pear, 1/4)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Proposes Rules For Health Plans Without Certain ACA Protections
The proposal, issued by the Labor Department, would carry out the most significant part of an executive order that President Trump signed in October, directing the government to foster alternative types of insurance. Proponents say the association health plans would be less expensive and enhance consumer choice, while critics — including the insurance industry — fear they would promote substandard coverage and weaken the ACA’s already fragile insurance marketplaces. Specifically, the rules would allow such health plans to be reclassified so they no longer would have to include a set of 10 essential health benefits — including maternity care, prescription drugs and mental health services — that the ACA requires of insurance sold to individuals and small companies. (Goldstein, 1/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Proposal Would Exempt Small Businesses From Some ACA Rules
[A] senior official said there are nondiscrimination provisions in the rule, a draft of which was released on Thursday, that would prevent an association from cherry-picking employers with healthy workforces or charging higher premiums to less-healthy people. An association couldn’t charge different premiums to different small employers based on health factors, the official said. But allowing the plans not to cover the mandatory ACA benefits could enable associations to essentially exclude people by not offering coverage for specific treatments, such as chemotherapy, said Timothy Jost, an emeritus law professor at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. “There are plenty of opportunities for discrimination,” he said. (Armour, 1/4)

The Hill: CDC Schedules Briefing On Preparing For Nuclear Detonation 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has scheduled a briefing for later this month on how to plan and prepare for a nuclear detonation. The briefing, for CDC employees, is part of a monthly series at the agency meant to "further strengthen CDC's common scientific culture and foster discussion and debate on major public health issues." (Hellmann, 1/4)

Politico: CDC Briefing To Focus On Preparing For Nuclear War
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has posted a notice touting a Jan. 16 briefing about the work that federal, state and local governments are doing in case of a possible nuclear strike. “While a nuclear detonation is unlikely, it would have devastating results and there would be limited time to take critical protection steps,” the notice states. “Despite the fear surrounding such an event, planning and preparation can lessen deaths and illness.” (Ehley, 1/4)

Los Angeles Times: A New Year's Pledge: Don't Let Politicians And Pundits Say Social Security And Medicare 'Reforms' When They Mean 'Cuts'
Just before New Year's, economist Jared Bernstein published the second in what may be an annual feature: A plea to the media to call out politicians who try to conceal their intention to gut Social Security and Medicare by talking about "reforms" instead of "cuts." Bernstein, who served as chief economist for former Vice President Joe Biden, originally raised the alarm about this sort of weaseling a year ago. I seconded the motion then, and do so again now. (Michael Hiltzik, 1/2)

Sacramento Bee: Trump, Jeff Sessions Ought To Butt Out Of State Issues, And Focus On What Matters
At every turn, Republican Party leaders claim to believe in the right of people to make their own decisions and of states’ rights to govern themselves. And yet this week, President Donald Trump’s administration, implementing its skewed vision of Republican ideals, trashed that concept. ... Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded an Obama administration policy that restricted federal enforcement of marijuana laws. Sessions’ hopes federal prosecutors once again will bring criminal cases involving cannabis, overriding the will of people in California, Colorado and 27 other states where marijuana is legal in one form or another. (1/4)

Orange County Register: Historic Day As Recreational Cannabis Sales Begin In California
Celebrating a major shift in cultural attitudes about cannabis — or just looking to enjoy the right to get high without legal entanglements — Californians lined up at dispensaries up and down the state Monday morning to be among the first to purchase recreational marijuana, more than a year after the state’s voters passed Proposition 64. (Brooke Edwards Staggs, 1/1)

Los Angeles Times: The Lack Of Health Research Into Marijuana Makes It Hard To Tell People Whether It Is Safe
In advance of the legalization of recreational marijuana sales on Jan. 1, there have been lots of debates over the details of the cannabis business. How many feet should pot shops be from schools or daycare centers? How many acres may a marijuana farmer cultivate? Who should be eligible for a license to sell and who shouldn't? But there’s been much less discussion over an equally important question raised by the end of prohibition in California: What is the right public health message to send to adults who can now legally buy and use marijuana? (12/27)

The Mercury News: CHP Fatality Highlights Legal Marijuana Danger
The Christmas Eve death of a California Highway Patrol rookie officer serves as a tragic warning of the dangers ahead with the Jan. 1 legalization of marijuana. It reinforces the need for lawmakers to toughen the rules against driving under the influence of cannabis, and highlights the Legislature’s inaction of the past year. The answers are not simple. But lawmakers should not let the quest for perfect legal standards become the justification for doing nothing. They should send an unequivocal message that driving under the influence of marijuana will be prosecuted. (12/29)

Los Angeles Times: Allowing Employers A 'Moral Exemption' From Offering Birth Control Coverage Is Immoral
Without insurance, the price of some contraceptives can be daunting for many women. In a legal filing in November, several state attorneys general, including Xavier Becerra of California, said that since the requirement for insurance plans to cover contraception took effect in 2012, women across the country had saved $1.4 billion on birth control. (2/2)