KQED: Health Secretary Becerra On Running For Governor, Immigration And Cannabis
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra joined the Biden administration as the COVID-19 vaccine was rolling out. Scott Shafer talks with him at the Ideas Festival produced by CalMatters about issues ranging from cannabis policy to abortion, health disparities and climate change as a health issue. (Shafer, 6/6)

CalMatters: Why Increasing Penalties For Assaulting ER Workers Is Dividing California Democrats 
Before becoming a member of the California Assembly, Freddie Rodriguez spent 30 years as an emergency medical technician in the San Gabriel Valley. He’s wheeled untold numbers of patients on gurneys into hospital emergency departments. (Sabalow, 6/6)

Capitol Weekly: Capitol Briefs: Psychedelics Are Baaaack!
The effort to legalize the use of some psychedelics in the treatment of mental health disorders is not dead after all. On Thursday, Sens. Brian Jones (R-San Diego) and Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park) introduced a bill (SB 803) to establish a pilot program to allow the use of psilocybin or psilocyn for treating mental health disorders in military veterans and first responders. (6/6)

Sacramento Bee: CA Democrats Want To Fund Sober Living, Drug-Free Housing
For years, progressive California Democrats have championed a “Housing First” approach to homelessness and drug addiction that prioritizes getting people into housing first, and connecting them to necessary addiction and recovery services once they’re off the street. But a new bill, authored by Assemblyman Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, a member of the Legislative Progressive Caucus, seeks to complement that approach by redirecting some state housing funds to go toward drug-free sober living spaces — a practice California banned in 2016 with a law that bars the state from funding housing services that mandate sobriety. (Hatch, 6/7)

Los Angeles Times: California Lawmakers Are Giving Up A Bid To Repeal A Nearly 75-Year-Old Anti-Public-Housing Measure 
A nearly 75-year-old anti-public-housing rule will remain in California’s Constitution as lawmakers are planning to withdraw a measure from the November ballot that would have repealed it. State Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), who authored the repeal measure, said that the November ballot was too crowded with expensive tax, housing, bond and public safety campaigns to give his effort the best chance at succeeding. (Dillon, 6/6)

Los Angeles Times: $2.7 Million For Homeless Housing Ended Up At Nonprofit, Lawyers Say
When Gov. Gavin Newsom launched his $3.4-billion Project Homekey homeless housing program, L.A.-based real estate developer Shangri-La Industries and the Santa Monica nonprofit Step Up on Second Street were among the top recipients of its largesse. The organizations were awarded more than $114 million in Homekey funds to convert seven motels in San Bernardino, Ventura and Monterey counties into studio apartments for formerly homeless tenants. (Scott and Smith, 6/7)

Los Angeles Times: How L.A. Fentanyl Sales Boomed On Craigslist 
The open sale of drugs has been a long-standing problem on Craigslist. Over the last decade, a handful of people have overdosed and died after buying fentanyl through the site, yet until recent months The Times found ads for them remained commonplace, especially in Southern California. (Sheets and Blakinger, 6/7)

Los Angeles Times: Tyler Skaggs' Death Revisited: MLB Moves To Reduce Opioid Overdoses
It’s been nearly five years since Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs died of an accidental overdose of oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl in a Texas hotel room. Yet the impact of the tragedy and revelations during the ensuing trial of Angels employee Eric Kay that Skaggs and several other players were supplied with opioids is still being felt. Major League Baseball announced this week that its emergency medical procedures now require that naloxone be stored in clubhouses, weight rooms, dugouts and umpire dressing rooms at all major league and minor league ballparks. Also, all certified athletic trainers will be equipped with naloxone when teams travel. (Henson, 6/6)

CalMatters: Maternity Care: Why Many L.A. Hospitals Stopped Delivering Babies
Detranay Blankenship was 16 weeks pregnant when she found out she was expecting. The days passed quickly, and soon she was 7 centimeters dilated at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital. ... Blankenship lives just blocks away from MLK, where her labor was cozy and personalized. It was the kind of birth that many parents-to-be hope for, but a decade of widespread cutbacks to maternity care in California has made it almost a luxury. It’s available only because MLK’s leaders are fighting to keep maternity services despite steep financial losses. (Hwang, Ibarra and Yee, 6/6)

AARP: Adult Day Health Sector In Fiscal Crisis
As program director for his family-owned adult day health care center in Los Angeles, Richard Lee takes pride in the fact that he’s helping to meet the needs of his community’s aging population. But it’s not easy to keep the business afloat. Lee didn’t draw a paycheck in March and wasn’t able to make a rent payment on the center’s facility for at least two months this spring. “We’re basically the equivalent of a paycheck-to-paycheck business, and that’s how most centers are at this point,” says Lee, who helps run the Beverly Adult Day Health Care Center in Koreatown. (Kingsley-Wilson, 6/1)

Becker's Hospital Review: NIH To Pilot National Primary Care Research Network
The National Institutes of Health is allocating about $30 million over fiscal years 2024 and 2025 to create a national primary care research network. The Communities Advancing Research Equity for Health initiative — or CARE for Health — aims to bolster clinical research in communities that have been historically underrepresented in research or underserved in healthcare. (Bean, 6/6)

KVPR: Thinking Of Buying Wegovy Online. Here’s What To Know About Compounding Pharmacies
Jennie Smith, a seamstress at a ballet school in Kent, Ohio, had been trying to lose weight and keep it off for years. After losing 60 pounds through dieting only to gain 30 of it back, she wanted to try the new weight-loss drugs like Wegovy. But they cost more than $1,000 a month and she didn't think her insurance would cover it. So Smith did some research and found a cheaper version on one of dozens of online pharmacies that tout their own copies of these weight-loss drugs. (Lupkin, 6/7)

Reuters: US FDA Staff Raise No Major Concerns About Eli Lilly Alzheimer's Drug
An FDA analysis of trial data for Eli Lilly's experimental Alzheimer's drug donanemab released on Thursday revealed no red flags, but raised questions about safety of the treatment for patients with early-stage disease. The drug is a potential rival to Eisai and Biogen's Leqembi, which won approval last July. (Satija and Steenhuysen, 6/6)

Military.com: Nurses Rally At VA Headquarters In DC To Protest Staffing Reductions 
Nearly 70 Department of Veterans Affairs nurses rallied in front of the department's Washington, D.C., headquarters Thursday to protest staffing cuts they say are hurting the quality of veterans' medical care. The nurses, from 23 VA medical facilities across the country, called the expected reduction of 10,000 jobs in the Veterans Health Administration a "hiring freeze." However, VA officials have said the cuts are coming as a result of attrition and retirements and that hiring will continue for short-staffed, critical positions. (Kime, 6/6)

San Diego Union-Tribune: 'Filled To The Gills': San Diego's Domestic Violence Resource Center Badly Needs To Expand, City Says 
San Diego’s one-stop shop for domestic violence victims has outgrown its downtown headquarters and needs a larger spot to accommodate additional expansion plans and new social service partnerships. (Garrick, 6/7)

High Times: California Health Officials Issue Safety Warning About Mary Jones Weed Sodas
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has issued a notice warning consumers not to drink Mary Jones hemp-infused sodas, saying the products are illegal in the state and potentially dangerous. The health agency urged consumers who have purchased the sodas not to drink them and encouraged those who may have experienced ill effects from the products to seek the advice of their healthcare provider. The CDPH said that the Mary Jones hemp-infused sodas are mislabeled and contain ingredients that are prohibited by state law. Specifically, the agency maintains that eight varieties of hemp-infused sodas contain tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) isolate, an ingredient that the health department says is banned by California law. (Herrington, 6/6)

Becker's Hospital Review: Health Systems Should Screen Patients For Cannabis, Researchers Say
Similar to how clinicians routinely ask patients about their alcohol intake, UCLA researchers said health systems should also assess patients' cannabis use. Few health systems currently screen for cannabis use despite the drug's potential health effects, according to a UCLA-led study JAMA published June 5. (Twenter, 6/6)

ABC News: Mpox Public Health Campaign Was Successful But Cases Still Occur At Low Levels In US: Study
In summer 2022, the global mpox outbreak seemed poised to overwhelm the U.S. with cases rising exponentially every week and no signs of slowing. A successful public health campaign -- promoting behavior changes and vaccination -- helped cases drop dramatically. However, a new small study published Thursday and led by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) says that mpox cases are still circulating at low levels in the U.S. and primarily among unvaccinated high-risk groups. (Kekatos, 6/6)

The Washington Post: Whooping Cough Cases Double In The U.S., A Potential Legacy Of The Pandemic 
Whooping cough, a bacterial illness that poses an especially significant threat to infants, is surging in the United States — another potential legacy of the coronavirus pandemic. Federal disease trackers report that during the first five months of this year, about 5,000 whooping cough cases were reported, more than double the number for the same period last year. (Johnson and Malhi, 6/6)

Reuters: US Must Pay More Of Native American Tribes' Healthcare Costs, Supreme Court Rules
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday held that the federal government has been under-funding Native American tribes that administer their own healthcare programs for 30 years and must pay potentially hundreds of millions more going forward. In its 5-4 ruling, the court found that federal law requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to pay the overhead costs that tribes incur when spending money from Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers. The ruling is a victory for the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona and the Northern Arapaho Tribe in Wyoming, which had each sued over the funding. (Pierson, 6/6)

Courthouse News Service: Supreme Court Lets Insurer Object To Asbestos Bankruptcy Plan 
In a ruling on Thursday, the Supreme Court expanded who can object to bankruptcy settlements, giving an insurance company a say in how to settle asbestos injury claims. The unanimous ruling said Truck Insurance Exchange could object to a construction company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan. “An insurer with financial responsibility for bankruptcy claims can be directly and adversely affected by the reorganization proceedings in these and many other ways, making it a ‘party in interest’ in those proceedings,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the court. The Barack Obama appointee said Truck will have to pay the vast majority of its liability claims — up to $500,000 per claim for thousands of asbestos-injury claims. The current plan, Sotomayor said, would leave Truck alone in carrying that financial burden. (Reichmann, 6/6)

The Washington Post: Conservatives Tied To Trump Want To Limit Insurance Coverage For Abortions 
Conservative policymakers influential with former president Donald Trump are discussing how to use a little-known labor law to impose sweeping restrictions on private-employer-covered abortions, according to a public statement and two people with direct knowledge of labor policy discussions among Trump advisers. Although Trump has not formally committed to anything and talks are ongoing, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has publicly called for using federal labor law to limit the ability of private employers to provide coverage that includes abortions in states with abortion restrictions. (Gurley and Stein, 6/6)

NBC News: FDA Reverses Marketing Ban On Juul E-Cigarettes
The Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday that it has reversed its ban on Juul e-cigarettes while it reviews new court decisions and considers updated information provided by the vape maker. The FDA first ordered the company to stop selling its products in 2022, but they have stayed on shelves pending an appeal. Juul has maintained its status as the No. 2 e-cigarette maker in the U.S. during this time. Now, the FDA says Juul's products are back under agency review. (Wile, 6/6)

The Washington Post: Sugar Substitute Xylitol Linked To Increased Risk Of Heart Attack, Stroke 
The popular sugar substitute xylitol, commonly used by those wanting to lose weight or who are diabetic, is associated with an increased risk of a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack and stroke, according to a study published in the European Heart Journal on Thursday. (Chesler, 6/6)

The Washington Post: A Salty Diet May Increase Eczema In Adults, Study Finds 
Adults who eat a salty diet appear to have a higher risk for eczema, according to a study by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco. An estimated 1 in 10 Americans will develop eczema, or atopic dermatitis, which causes the skin to become irritated, inflamed and itchy. But according to the National Institutes of Health, the cause of the rash remains unknown. Dermatologists say the study, published on Wednesday in JAMA Dermatology, will lead to further research regarding how salt may play a role in the skin condition. (Amenabar, 6/6)

ABC News: Study Finds 1 In 5 Young Athletes Meet Criteria For Pre-Hypertension
Up to one in five young athletes ages 10 to 31 may have pre-hypertension, a precursor to high blood pressure, according to a new preliminary study. More than 20% of athletes studied met the criteria for having high blood pressure, which can increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease. Teenage boys appeared to be more at risk than teenage girls, according to the study, with more than double the rates of stage 1 and stage 2 hypertension. (March and Rahman, 6/6)

Scientific American: Should Blood Pressure Guidelines Be Different for Women and Men?
A growing body of research suggests that high blood pressure, or hypertension, affects men and women in different ways. Emerging research suggests that women may have an increased risk of heart attack and stroke at a lower blood pressure than men, even when their blood pressure falls in the range that is currently considered healthy. Although the evidence is far from definitive, some scientists are calling for additional studies to learn whether guidelines on hypertension need to be updated to include different recommendations for men and women. (Szabo, 6/6)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Climate Change Likely Didn't Cause The Heat Wave, But May Be Making It Worse 
The triple-digit heat that has descended upon the West again has made national news. There’s been something of a disconnect in much of San Diego, however, where a low-pressure system at sea has kept coastal cities mild, even chilly at times .Some shrugged at the heat wave; others were a bit smug about it. (Michael Smolens, 6/7)

East Bay Times: How Interim Housing Could Solve California’s Homeless Crisis
About 181,000 Californians are uncertain if they will have a place to sleep tonight, and two-thirds of them are unsheltered, meaning they are especially exposed to extreme weather, infectious diseases and physical abuse. Nationally, only one-fifth of homeless individuals are unsheltered, and in New York City, only one in twenty. The unsheltered homelessness crisis is a disproportionately and shameful California nightmare. (Josh Becker and Ethan Deitcher, 6/7)

The Sacramento Bee: The Steep Drops In Sacramento’s Homeless Population Seem Way Too Good To Be True 
Sacramento has had a 29% drop in its homeless population since 2022. Does that sound right to you? Because it doesn’t sound right to me, it doesn’t sound right to homeless advocates at Loaves & Fishes, and it doesn’t sound right to an academic who has analyzed homeless data in Sacramento before. (Robin Epley, 6/7)