The Associated Press: California Judge: Coffee Needs Cancer Warnings
A Los Angeles judge ruled that California law requires coffee companies to carry an ominous cancer warning label because of a chemical produced in the roasting process. Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle wrote in a proposed ruling Wednesday that Starbucks and other coffee companies failed to show that the threat from the chemical was insignificant. (Malley, 3/29)

Bloomberg: Coffee Sellers Can't Dodge California Cancer-Warning Law, Judge Says
A California state judge in Los Angeles issued a tentative ruling in a lawsuit brought against dozens of companies, including Starbucks Corp., Target Corp., 7-Eleven Inc. and Whole Foods Market for their alleged failure to comply with the state’s required warnings. The companies failed to persuade the judge that “sound considerations of public health” support an exemption from California’s Proposition 65 warning for the chemical acrylamide in coffee. (Pettersson, 3/29)

The Washington Post: Starbucks, Other Coffee Companies Must Have Cancer Warning Label, California Judge Rules
In addition to the warning signs likely to result from the lawsuit, the Council for Education and Research on Toxics, which brought the lawsuit, has asked for fines as much as $2,500 for every person exposed to the chemical since 2002, potentially opening the door to massive settlements. Starbucks is the lead defendant in the case; others like 7-Eleven have already settled. Starbucks did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Rosenberg, 3/29)

The Wall Street Journal: California Judge Rules Coffee Must Carry Cancer Warning
Under Proposition 65, cancer warnings already appear in places as far-ranging as apartment-building lobbies, parking garages and restaurants. Businesses must warn about the presence of any of more than 900 chemicals on a list of those known to the state of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. Acrylamide, used for industrial processes like making paper and dyes, is also created during the cooking process for many baked and fried foods, including potato chips, bread and french fries. Many of those products also contain the cancer warnings as a result of litigation. (Randazzo, 3/29)

Los Angeles Times: Judge Rules Coffee Sold In California Requires Cancer Labels
Berle said scientists who testified on behalf of the coffee companies failed to prove that there was an acceptable level of acrylamide. Earlier in the trial, he also ruled that the coffee companies failed to show the chemical was not a significant risk or that requiring them to include the warnings would violate the 1st Amendment. "While Plaintiff offered evidence that consumption of coffee increases the risk of harm to the fetus, to infants, to children and to adults, Defendants' medical and epidemiology experts testified that they had no opinion on causation," he wrote. (Kim, 3/29)

San Francisco Chronicle: Discipline Based On Arrest Records Upheld For Health Care Professionals 
Doctors and other health professionals in California can be disciplined or lose their licenses for criminal conduct such as possession of illegal drugs even if they complete a pretrial treatment program and have the case erased from their record, under a ruling that has now become final. The state Supreme Court unanimously refused Wednesday to take up a physician’s appeal of a ruling that said a licensing agency, such as the California Medical Board, can rely on arrest records as evidence that a license-holder committed professional misconduct, even if the underlying criminal case no longer exists. That ruling, by a San Francisco appellate panel, is now a binding precedent for all trial courts in California. Besides doctors, it applies to other licensed medical professionals such as nurses and pharmacists. (Egelko, 3/29)

Stat: Students Push UCLA To Improve Access To A Cancer Drug Developed By Its Scientists
Students at UCLA are calling on the university to ease access to a prostate cancer drug developed on campus. The drug, Xtandi, is at the center of a legal battle in India over whether generic competitors can enter the market — a battle in which, students say, the university is on the wrong side. “Lives are at stake and UCLA can and must live up to its mission as a public research university,” Universities Allied for Essential Medicines wrote in a petition to the university system’s president, Janet Napolitano, earlier this month. “By filing this patent claim, UCLA is actively complicit in creating access barriers that are causing harm to prostate cancer patients worldwide.” (Cooney, 3/30)

San Diego Union-Tribune: iPhone Medical Record App Now Active For UCSD And Scripps Patients
Patients with two San Diego-area health systems are among the first in the nation to gain access to Apple Inc.’s new health records app. The upgrade arrives with the Cupertino-based technology company’s latest update to the iPhone’s system software, allowing those who get their health care from 40 different provider networks nationwide to download and review their records using the Health app installed on the vast majority of Apple smartphones in use today. (Sisson, 3/30)

In other news —

San Diego Union-Tribune: Scripps Research Ranked In Top 10 For Chemistry And Biology
The Scripps Research Institute ranks among the top 10 educational centers in the nation for chemistry and biology, according to a U.S. News & World Report survey. It’s yet another honor for the La Jolla nonprofit, highly regarded for its science. The Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Science ranked 6th for its chemistry program. It tied with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign along with Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. (Fikes, 3/30)

KPCC: 3 Ways SoCal Will Benefit From Boosts In Pentagon And VA Budgets
After months of budget showdowns, President Trump signed a $1.3 trillion spending deal last week to keep the lights on through the end of the 2018 fiscal year, September 30th. ... HUD-VASH vouchers are part of a joint permanent supportive housing program provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Veterans Affairs. ... The bill provides $40 million for additional HUD-VASH vouchers. ... In Los Angeles, the homelessness crisis has worsened recently. (Denkmann, 3/28)

In other veteran health care news —

Fresno Bee: Vietnam War Veterans Honored In Fresno On A Day Just For Them
The Veterans Administration hospital in Fresno held a commemoration Thursday morning to mark National Vietnam War Veterans Day. U.S. Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., introduced legislation in 2017 to honor Vietnam Veterans with a day on the anniversary of the 1973 withdrawal of military units from South Vietnam. President Donald Trump signed the Vietnam War Veterans Day Act on March 28, 2017, calling for U.S. flags to be flown on March 29 for those who served. (3/29)

Los Angeles Times: Opioid Overdose Deaths Are Still Rising In Nearly Every Segment Of The Country, CDC Says
At a time when the country seems hopelessly divided, health officials are here to remind us of something that unites Americans from all walks of life: deaths tied to opioid overdoses. A report issued Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presents some alarming new statistics about the opioid epidemic that claims the lives of 115 Americans each day. Researchers from the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control examined data on fatal overdoses from the 31 states that made reliable reports of drug-related causes of death to the CDC’s National Vital Statistics System. The District of Columbia was included as well. (Kaplan, 3/29)

Capital Public Radio: There Are Few Police Shooting Laws In California And Major Restrictions On What Officer Info Can Go Public 
California has few laws on the books when it comes to how police departments respond to officer shootings. There are major restrictions on what type of police information can be made public. (Bradford, 3/28)

In other news from across the state —

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento Lags The State In Embracing Recycled Drinking Water
Though the Sacramento area traditionally has among the highest per capita water use in California, there has been little interest among local water districts in using recycled water to augment local drinking water supplies. The reason? Local waterways such as the Sacramento and American rivers and Folsom Lake provide abundant and comparatively cheap water supplies. (Sabalow, 3/29)

KPCC: ACLU Alleges Pregnancy Discrimination At West Coast Ports 
A Los Angeles dockworker says she was penalized on the job for having a child — and attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union are now seeking workplace policy changes and monetary compensation for pregnant workers at 29 ports along the West Coast. Los Angeles port worker Tracy Plummer filed pregnancy discrimination charges Thursday with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (Wagner, 3/29)

Long Beach Press-Telegram: How 139 Flocks Of Sentinel Chickens Help Keep Californians Safe From Deadly Diseases
For decades, vector-control agencies in California, responsible for fighting insidious disease-carrying pests and rodents, have relied on the domesticated fowl as a surveillance tool to predict when human cases of West Nile Virus and St. Louis Encephalitis are likely to occur. They are, in a way, the perfect canary in the coal mine for such a task: They sit in coops throughout Southern California 24 hours a day, seven days a week, waiting to get bit. (Haire, 3/29)

KPBS: Oceanside Council Votes Against Medical Marijuana Dispensaries 
Following a nearly four-hour public hearing Wednesday night, the Oceanside City Council voted against an ordinance that would allow medical marijuana dispensaries in the city. The deciding vote against allowing dispensaries was cast by the city's newly appointed mayor, Peter Weiss. (St John, Ruth and Lipkin, 3/29)

The New York Times: Veterans Affairs Shake-Up Stirs New Fears Of Privatized Care
President Trump’s dismissal of David J. Shulkin, the secretary of veterans affairs — and the nomination of a man with no known policy views to take his place — has brought renewed focus to an increasingly contentious debate over whether to give veterans the option of using the benefits they earned through military service to see private doctors rather than going to government hospitals and clinics. (Fandos, 3/29)

Politico: White House: 'No One Is Talking About Privatizing The VA'
President Donald Trump said Thursday he fired Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin because he wanted to give veterans more choices, but a spokesperson said his actions did not signal a desire to privatize veterans' health services. "No one is talking about privatizing the VA," deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters said in an email. She also told pool reporters Thursday that the selection of Dr. Ronny Jackson, the White House doctor, to be Shulkin's replacement was not an indication of a privatization plan. (Lima, 3/29)

KPCC: With VA Secretary Out, LA Veterans Are Faced With Unanswered Questions 
Los Angeles County alone is home to over 300,000 veterans, the most in the country, and the West L.A. VA is the largest veterans center in the country. The director told KPCC last year that wait times here are lagging behind the national average. If the Veterans Choice program expanded, that could mean L.A. veterans could start to look for private care closer to home. (Denkmann, 3/29)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Pick To Head Veterans Department Faces Skepticism Over His Experience
The White House was thrown on the defensive Thursday over President Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Veterans ­Affairs, forcing officials to fend off mounting skepticism that Ronny L. Jackson has the experience to run the government’s second-largest agency. Trump announced by tweet late Wednesday that the White House physician would succeed ousted secretary David Shulkin, surprising veterans groups and lawmakers, who were not notified beforehand and scrambled to learn the policy views of someone whose positions on the chronic challenges facing VA are unknown. (Rein, Kim, Wax-Thibodeaux, and Dawsey, 3/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Lawmakers Respond Cautiously To Little-Known VA Pick Ronny Jackson
Capitol Hill lawmakers reacted guardedly to President Donald Trump’s nomination of the White House physician to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, with key members noting that they know little about him. Dr. Ronny Jackson, a U.S. Navy rear admiral who has served as a White House physician during the past three administrations, is slated to succeed Secretary David Shulkin, who was ousted Wednesday. Mr. Trump indicated on Thursday that he removed Dr. Shulkin because change at the agency was coming too slowly. The secretary had also been the subject of a travel-expenses scandal. (Radnofsky and Nicholas, 3/29)

Politico: Trump’s VA Pick Blindsides Staff, Deepens Agency Disarray
The timing of President Donald Trump’s announcement to name Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson to lead Veterans Affairs was a snap decision that surprised his own chief of staff and knocked the government's second-largest agency, already bedeviled by scandal, deeper into disarray. White House chief of staff John Kelly had spoken with David Shulkin by phone Wednesday morning, reassuring the now-former VA secretary that he wouldn’t be fired by tweet that afternoon. Hours later, Kelly had to phone Shulkin again telling him plans had changed. (Woellert, Johnson and O'Brien, 3/29)

Politico: No Longer Muzzled, Shulkin Takes On Trump’s White House
Ousted Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin is going down swinging. Instead of disappearing into obscurity like others who were summarily fired by President Donald Trump, Shulkin is using his dismissal as an opportunity to step into the spotlight. Freed from the constraints of serving in the Trump administration, Shulkin is publicly — and loudly — raising red flags about what he sees as a sinister plot to privatize veterans’ health care. (Restuccia and Nelson, 3/29)

The Associated Press: Fired VA Secretary Says Privatization Advocates Doomed Him
Former Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin is blaming his sudden ouster from the Trump administration on "political forces" that he says are bent on privatizing the agency and putting "companies with profits" over the care of veterans. Shulkin, the lone Obama administration holdover serving in President Donald Trump's Cabinet, blasted a "toxic" and "subversive" environment in Washington that made it impossible for him to lead. In a tweet late Wednesday, President Donald Trump fired Shulkin, who faced a mounting internal rebellion at VA and a bruising ethics scandal. (3/29)

Politico: Shulkin: Trump Didn’t Mention Firing In Call Hours Before He Was Fired
Hours before he was ousted, former Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin discussed his progress in his position with President Donald Trump — who gave him no indication that he would later fire him. Shulkin said during an interview with MSNBC that he spoke on the phone to Trump on Wednesday about needing to focus on polices to help the VA. (Morin, 3/29)

California Healthline: Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ VA Secretary Out, Privatization In?
David Shulkin, the secretary of Veterans Affairs, was fired Wednesday night by President Donald Trump. To replace him, Trump will nominate his White House physician, naval Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson. Shulkin, however, is not going quietly. He took to The New York Times op-ed page to claim he was pushed out by those who want to privatize VA health services for profit. (3/29)

The Washington Post: In Emotional Speech, CDC’s New Leader Vows To Uphold Science
Robert Redfield Jr., the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gave a deeply personal agencywide address Thursday in which he repeatedly underscored the importance of science and data and said the CDC's most critical public health mission is to protect Americans “from that which we don't expect.” (Sun, 3/29)

Stat: U.S. Can End AIDS Epidemic Within Seven Years, CDC Director Says
The AIDS epidemic in the United States could be ended in the next few years, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Protection predicted Wednesday, saying that health officials have all the tools they need to prevent its spread. Dr. Robert Redfield, a former AIDS researcher who has spent decades treating people infected with HIV, made the remark in an all-hands meeting for CDC staff on his second full day at the Atlanta-based agency. Redfield is the agency’s 18th director. (Branswell, 3/29)

In other national health care news —

The Wall Street Journal: Walmart In Early-Stage Acquisition Talks With Humana
Walmart Inc. is in preliminary talks to buy insurer Humana Inc., according to people familiar with the matter, a deal that would mark a dramatic shift for the retail behemoth and the latest in a recent flurry of big deals in health-care services. It isn’t clear what terms the companies may be discussing, and there is no guarantee they will strike a deal. If they do, the deal would be big: Humana currently has a market value of about $37 billion. (Mattioli, Nassauer and Wilde Mathews, 3/29)

The Hill: Azar Taps Former CVS Executive To Help Lower Drug Prices
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is tapping a former CVS Caremark executive to lead the agency’s efforts to lower drug prices. According to HHS, Daniel Best will be Azar’s senior adviser for drug pricing reform. Best was most recently a vice president of industry relations for CVS’s Medicare Part D business. This included the company’s prescription drug plans, Medicare Part D plans and other clients. (Weixel, 3/29)

Stat: FDA Charts Biosimilars' Future — But Drug Makers Aren't All On Board
In his recent public appearances, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has sounded a repeating note: drug prices are too high, and especially prices for complicated protein-based drugs called biologics. The answer, he says, is in part encouraging generic biologics, called biosimilars, to enter the market. And one way in which the FDA can do so, Gottlieb told an assembled crowd of insurers at an industry conference earlier this month, is to set clearer standards for what these drugs have to prove to be considered equivalent — or interchangeable — to the originals. (Swetlitz, 3/30)

The Hill: Senate Dems Say Changes To Family Planning Program Could Undercut Access To Care
Recent changes to the Title X family planning program for low-income women and men could undercut access to reproductive health care, Senate Democrats argued in a letter to the Trump administration Thursday. In a funding announcement released last month, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said grantees should be able to provide primary health services, as well as reproductive health services. (Hellmann, 3/29)

Stat: Guidelines For Abortion Pill Were Properly Eased, Report Finds
A congressional watchdog agency has concluded the Food and Drug Administration properly conducted a review of the controversial Mifeprex abortion pill before relaxing usage guidelines two years ago, a move that prompted complaints by some lawmakers and anti-abortion activists that the shift was politically motivated. (Silverman, 3/29)

Sacramento Bee: Instead Of Single-Payer Pipe Dream, This Legislation Will Expand Health Care
The California Nurses Association claims a recent legislative package is a piecemeal approach to universal access to health care in California. This could not be further from the truth. Care4AllCA – a coalition of more than 50 consumer, community, labor, progressive and health care organizations – introduced a comprehensive approach to create a realistic pathway towards universal access. The California Medical Association supports key parts of this legislation, which unlike Senate Bill 562, include credible and far-reaching provisions to reduce costs, provide greater transparency and increase access to health care. (Theodore M. Mazer, 3/28)

Sacramento Bee: Piecemeal Bills Will Not Fix California's Health Care
Last June, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon unilaterally blocked public hearings, amendments and legislative votes on Senate Bill 562, a Medicare-for-all proposal that had passed the state Senate and that would guarantee health care for all Californians without ever-rising premiums, deductibles and other costs. ...But in a telling admission, lobbyists for the California Medical Association characterized these bills as giving cover to Democrats not to support single payer as proposed by the California Nurses Association. (Deborah Burger, 3/26)

Los Angeles Times: Pit A Youth Movement For Firearms Regulation Against An Aging Gun Lobby — The Kids Will Ultimately Win
Those young people who marched for gun control all over the country showed this: The unyielding firearms lobby is in deep trouble with the next generation. No one can be sure how many marched Saturday — hundreds of thousands, millions? There were more than 800 rallies. ... It seems inevitable: Pit a growing youth movement for sensible national firearms regulation against an aging gun lobby with hardened arteries and the kids ultimately win. (George Skelton, 3/29)

Sacramento Bee: Why Police Don't Get Charged For Shootings Like Stephon Clark's
Clark, the most recent of these victims, was killed on March 18 by two Sacramento police officers who fired 20 times at him. The officers said that they saw a gun, but all that was found was a cellphone near Clark’s dead body. We must do a better job of understanding how this happens, of preventing it from occurring, and of holding police departments and police officers accountable when tragedies take place. (Erwin Chemerinsky, 3/27)

Sacramento Bee: A Good Investment To Keep California’s Seniors From Becoming Homeless
We are witnessing an awful reality that as California's senior population booms, so does the number of elderly and disabled adults who are abused, neglected or exploited. They often are forced into potentially life-threatening homelessness even after Adult Protective Services is alerted. Unfortunately, when APS was created two decades ago, it wasn't designed, nor was it ever funded, to deal with complicated housing issues. (Frank Mecca, 3/28)

Los Angeles Times: Southern California Has The Resources To Solve Homelessness. It Chooses Not To
Disdain for street people is nothing new. To Marcus Tullius Cicero, homeless Romans were "the poverty-stricken scum of the city," who ought to be "drained off to the colonies." Following Huntington Beach's recent mobilization of the city's paid legal staff to oppose a county plan to house 100 homeless people near Huntington Central Park, similar coarse statements appeared in newspaper comment sections. ... When one scratches deeper into the homelessness issue, these attitudes appear not just a byproduct of the problem but also a source of it. And while the sentiment dates to Cicero — and exists in Europe, Canada, South America and elsewhere — residents in Southern California seem to shout the loudest about grime, odors and plunging housing values linked to their homeless neighbors. (Erik Skindrud, 3/27)

Sacramento Bee: California Values All People — Until They Need Housing 
Assemblymember Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, has introduced legislation, Assembly Bill 2925, that would begin to address this by requiring landlords to show “just cause” before terminating anyone’s lease. His team is still working on the language, but it would create a set of valid reasons, such as failing to pay rent, that would have to be used as justification. It's a modest bill that, if nothing else, would add a layer of transparency to what is often a murky rental process, with tenants not understanding their rights. (Erika D. Smith, 3/25)

Los Angeles Times: It's Deceptively Called The Healthy Homes And Schools Act, And It's A Taxpayer Ripoff
What the person gathering signatures won't tell you is that the deceptively titled Healthy Homes and Schools Act is in fact a super-sneaky attempt by major paint companies to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in remediation for selling people products with toxic levels of lead. (David Lazarus, 3/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: Banning Transgender Troops Is Not The Answer
In a change from his earlier efforts to enact a ban, Trump’s new order allows the Pentagon to make exceptions allowing some transgender members to serve. The Pentagon hasn’t released official data about how many transgender people are currently serving, but a Rand Corp. study estimated that there are between 1,320 and 6,630 of transgender individuals out of a force of 1.3 million active-duty troops. (3/26)