San Francisco Chronicle: Frustration, Anger In S.F.’s LGBTQ Community Over Government Response To Monkeypox Outbreak
As the city of San Francisco declared a state of emergency Thursday in response to rising cases of monkeypox, members of San Francisco’s LGBTQ community expressed frustration and anger over the government’s response. (Bravo and Vainshtein, 7/28)

KQED: Monkeypox In The San Francisco Bay Area: What We Know About Symptoms, Cases And Spread
Many Californians are getting ready for summer travel plans and others are celebrating the full return of large in-person gatherings for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. But public health officials are advising caution as COVID infections are on the rise once again in the Bay Area and now, new monkeypox cases are spreading across the region. Monkeypox has existed for decades — the first case among humans was registered in 1970 — but we're now seeing multiple outbreaks across the U.S. See how many cases have now been reported nationwide according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Severn, Cabrera-Lomelí, 7/28)

San Francisco Chronicle: How Bad Could Monkeypox Get In The Bay Area? Experts Weigh Trajectories
More than two months after the first case was detected in the United States, an outbreak of monkeypox virus is continuing to spread quickly nationwide and in the Bay Area, mostly among gay and bisexual men, and is showing no signs of slowing down. New cases could continue to rise at a faster pace for weeks, if not longer, and eradicating the disease altogether may prove difficult, infectious disease experts and local health officials say, though the exact trajectory is hard to predict. How quickly high-risk people can get vaccinated in large numbers — as well as how much behavioral changes can mitigate transmission in communities where it’s spreading the most — will shape how well and how fast the outbreak can be wrested under control. (Ho, 7/28)

Palm Springs Desert Sun: 10 More Probable Or Confirmed Monkeypox Cases Reported In Riverside County
Riverside County Public Health reported 10 new confirmed or probable monkeypox cases in east Riverside County on Thursday. (Sasic, 7/28)

Fresno Bee: More Monkeypox Cases, Vaccine Doses Arrive In Fresno County
Fresno County has received more doses of monkeypox vaccine, allowing county health officials to expand eligibility for the shots as more cases crop up. (Sheehan, 7/28)

CNN: Testing Is Crucial To Getting Monkeypox Under Control, But There's A 'Shocking' Lack Of Demand
Testing for monkeypox, a crucial part of containing the growing outbreak, has gotten off to a sluggish start at the five commercial laboratories that are doing nearly all of the nation’s testing, CNN has learned. (Cohen, 7/28)

Bay Area News Group: Parenting Helps Protect Against Severe COVID, Kaiser Study Finds
Youngsters’ germs may help fend off severe COVID-19 in their parents, according to a major new Kaiser Permanente study of Northern California patients, released this week. (Krieger, 7/28)

The New York Times: Biden Administration Plans To Offer Updated Booster Shots In September 
The Biden administration now expects to begin a COVID-19 booster campaign with retooled vaccines in September because Pfizer and Moderna have promised that they can deliver doses by then, according to people familiar with the deliberations. (Weiland and Lafraniere, 7/28)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Won't Impose New Mask Mandate As COVID Cases Drop
Los Angeles County will not reinstitute a universal indoor public mask mandate after marked improvements in the region’s coronavirus case and hospitalization rates. (Money, Lin II, Evans and Toohey, 7/28)

Los Angeles Daily News: Here’s What You Should Know About LA County’s Decision Not To Revive Indoor Mask Mandate 
It had a huge build-up. It appeared inevitable. But Los Angeles County’s rekindled mask mandate appears to have come to a halt. Or at least a pause. (7/28)

Los Angeles Times: Why Some Health Experts See Less Value In An L.A. Mask Mandate Right Now 
As successive waves of COVID-19 have swept across the Southland, Michael Matteo Rossi, a 35 year-old filmmaker who lives in Los Feliz, has gamely masked up whenever he shopped, ate out or visited with his parents, who are in their 70s. (Healy, 7/28)

San Francisco Chronicle: BART Reinstates Mask Mandate On Trains
Face masks will be required on BART trains for both riders and employees, effective immediately, until the start of October under a new mandate approved by the agency’s board of directors Thursday evening. (Talley, 7/28)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F.’s Laguna Honda Halts Controversial Patient Transfers After Outcry Over Deaths
After an outcry from supporters of San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center, the nursing home’s chief executive announced Thursday that state and federal officials will no longer force it to discharge its medically fragile patients. (Asimov, 7/28)

inewsource: DEA Investigating Second Death At Veterans Village Of San Diego
Another resident at San Diego’s esteemed rehab center for veterans has died of a suspected fentanyl overdose, prompting a second death investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration. On Tuesday evening, a client at Veterans Village of San Diego’s drug treatment program died on the campus. (Castellano, 7/29)

San Francisco Chronicle: 5 Patients Cost S.F. $4 Million In Ambulance Rides: City’s Struggling Behavioral Health System Exposed In Hearing
Far too many people struggling with severe mental illness and addiction continue to cycle through San Francisco’s overburdened emergency rooms, failing to get long-term help, according to city officials. Frustrated city health care workers and public hospital leaders shed light on the crisis — which comes despite a slew of new programs and massive behavior health funding — during a public hearing Thursday. (Moench, 7/28)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Athena House, Santa Rosa Treatment Facility For Women, Shutting Its Doors Friday
A much-needed, women-only drug treatment facility is closing, and Shirlee Zane is furious. (Murphy, 7/28)

Southern California News Group: Fake Nurse Accused Of Kidnapping 2 Newborns Was Inside California Hospital 45 Minutes Handling Newborns
A woman accused of posing as a nurse and kidnapping two newborns at a Moreno Valley hospital spent at least 45 minutes inside, including 20 minutes in one patient’s room where she twice changed the baby’s diaper, and even had a conversation with a real nurse without being detected by employees, according to the attorney for one of the victims and a document filed in the criminal case. (Rokos, 7/29)

The Bakersfield Californian: Houchin Community Blood Bank Opens New Center On Bakersfield's Eastside
Houchin Community Blood Bank celebrated the opening of its new east Bakersfield location Thursday morning, an expansion that Houchin executives hope will bring in greater numbers of Hispanic donors. (Mayer, 7/28)

Press Telegram: 53 Permanent Supportive Housing Apartments Will Reside On Property Of LA Church
Ground was ceremonially broken for a 53-unit permanent supportive housing apartment building at Bethel AME Church on church-leased property on Thursday, July 28. (Murray, 7/28)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Is San Diego Doing Enough To Create Middle-Income Housing? 
Last year, developers built just 19 middle-income units in the city of San Diego.The lackluster production number comes on the heels of the city introducing a middle-income density bonus program in 2020 designed to boost construction of the needed units. (Van Grove, 7/29)

San Francisco Chronicle: A Downtown S.F. Development With ‘Mind-Blowing’ Amount Of Affordable Housing Earns Approval
A developer that was behind San Francisco’s Salesforce tower on Thursday got planning approval to increase the height of a residential tower near the Transbay Transit Center, a high rise that would add 681 units to a neighborhood that has struggled to regain its footing in a post-COVID landscape. (Dineen, 7/28)

San Francisco Chronicle: First There Were Fires. Now, Residents Of Oakland's Largest Homeless Encampment Face Eviction
Residents of the Wood Street encampment in West Oakland are fighting a pending eviction after a two-alarm fire broke out on CalTrans property at the site in mid-July. About 300 people live in the encampment, which spans roughly 25 city blocks and which advocates say has been neglected for years. (7/29)

CapRadio: Unsafe Drinking Water Is A Reality For Nearly A Million Californians, Especially In Central Valley, New Audit Finds
Nearly a million Californians have unsafe drinking water and the agency charged with helping them is ill-equipped to do so. That’s according to a new state audit of the California Water Resources Control Board, which says 920,000 residents are at increased risk of liver and kidney problems — and even cancer — because they get water from systems that fail to meet contaminant standards for safe drinking water. (Hagerty, 7/28)

KPCC: Postpartum Depression Rose During The Pandemic, What Care Is Available For New Parents?
One in three birthing parents experience postpartum depression, up from one in eight before the pandemic, according to a study from the University of Michigan. The study, conduct in 2020, is just on example of the increase in stress expecting and parents face during the birthing process. Prenatal and postnatal care have been a method to treat the issue but the care has been hard to come by for some. Today on AirTalk, we lay out the issue with Elly Yu, investigative reporter for KPCC & LAist who’s most recent piece is “Why The Pandemic Took An Especially High Mental Health Toll On New Parents.” We also discuss psychiatric assistance during the pre and postnatal process with Misty Richards, MD, assistant clinical professor and medical director of perinatal psychiatry at UCLA. (7/28)

KQED: Roxane Gay And Judith Butler On Why 'Pregnant People' And Other Gender-Inclusive Language Matters
In the wake of the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade, gender-inclusive language has begun to be used more often by medical, government and nonprofit organizations such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as allies for transgender people. The change in language reflects a larger desire to recognize different identities. However, there has been pushback by some feminists and others on using such terms as “pregnant people,” a phrase meant to include those who can bear children, but don’t identify as women. Some have argued that these terms muddle gender-specific violence against women. (Whitney and Kim, 7/28)

Sacramento Bee: Masking In Public Should Be Mandatory, Even If California Officials Refuse To Take Action
The current COVID surge has put Sacramento County in a precarious position. The highly transmissible and evasive BA.5 subvariant is getting little resistance from a population that has largely abandoned basic precautions like mask-wearing that limited its spread. (7/26)

Los Angeles Times: Do We Get Our Lives Back Now, Or Are We Heading Back Down Into The COVID Hole? 
When Times reporters went to the Westfield Valencia Town Center in Santa Clarita last week they found the mall crowded with shoppers, virtually none of them wearing masks. Social distancing was forgotten. It was business as usual, the status quo ante. (Nicholas Goldberg, 7/28)

Los Angeles Times: The False Promise Of Gov. Gavin Newsom's CARE Courts
It’s only natural to scour Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed CARE Courts plan for enough redeeming features to make it worthwhile. Californians are desperate for solutions to help people struggling with debilitating mental illness because the state has failed utterly to provide sufficient mental health care. (7/26)

Los Angeles Times: Congress Failed The Nation On Family Policy. Will California Show The Way? 
If he wanted to, Gov. Gavin Newsom could run for reelection this year boasting that he enacted a suite of family-friendly policies that President Biden has been unable to muster from Congress. It could also be a good campaign message if his speculated flirtation with running for the Democratic presidential nomination evolves into reality. (7/28)

Los Angeles Times: If Homeless Women Have Trouble Getting Contraception, Why Not Bring It To Them? 
A new Los Angeles County effort could help young homeless women and people who don’t identify as female but are capable of getting pregnant have more agency over their reproductive lives. (7/25)

Modesto Bee: Abortion Reflects Religion And Should Not Depend On Law
You’ve got to hand it to anti-abortion activists in the Republican party and the Supreme Court justices now doing their bidding. At least they’re being consistent. If we grant that a newly-fertilized human ovum is a “person,” killing or otherwise terminating that life is indeed murder. And the fact that this potential human being was conceived through rape or incest does not mitigate the crime. It’s not the fault of the fertilized ovum that a drunken uncle brought it into existence. Even a 10-year-old rape victim must not be allowed to abort the person criminally implanted within her, right? (Mark Haskett, 7/24)

San Francisco Chronicle: Why Is S.F.’s Drug Crisis So Out Of Control? Stop Blaming Chesa And Look At Walgreens
Last year, Walgreens stores in San Francisco made national headlines after a tweet documenting a brazen act of theft went viral. In the now-famous video, security guards stood by as a man hastily filled a garbage bag with items from the shelves, before riding out of the front doors on a Lyft rental bike. The tweet’s author, a TV reporter from KGO, used the hashtag #NoConsequences and tagged then-District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Fox News covered the incident multiple times, lambasting the city’s shoplifting crisis. Then the Daily Mail chimed in. Breitbart News picked it up. Things died down, until Walgreens announced it was shuttering several of its San Francisco stores due to theft — and the stories started again. (Nuala Bishari, 7/23)

Sacramento Bee: Elk Grove’s Housing Denial Mocks Homeless ‘Compassion’ Claim
The juxtaposition of Elk Grove’s tough new anti-camping law and the City Council’s rejection of an affordable housing project contradicts the compassionate approach city leaders are trying to project. These moves are being dubiously sold to Elk Grove’s roughly 180,000 residents by politicians who claim they want to “change outcomes” but are pursuing the same failed policies that have shaped California’s housing and homelessness crises for decades. An ordinance that went into effect this week essentially bars camps of four or more people within city limits, especially near schools, day care facilities, playgrounds and youth centers. The council approved the enforcement measure last month at the behest of members Stephanie Nguyen and Pat Hume, who are seeking higher office in the state Assembly and Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, respectively. (Sacramento Bee Editorial Board, 7/29)

The Washington Post: Democrats Could Pass A Huge Achievement — If They Rally Behind This Measure 
Thanks partly to the fickle judgment of Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), the legislative package formerly known as BBB is now, apparently, a health-care bill. Technically, it was a health-care bill last year, too, but it was perceived as mostly a lots-of-other-things bill. (Catherine Rampell, 7/26)

East Bay Times: Vote No On Union's Prop. 29 Attack On Kidney Dialysis Firms
Proposition 29 is the worst kind of abuse of California’s election system. For the third time in five years, leaders of a large labor union are asking voters to approve unnecessary regulations for the kidney d)ialysis industry that would make it harder for patients to receive critical care. (7/28)