San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego Federal Judge Rules — Again — That California's Ban On Assault Weapons Is Unconstitutional 
A federal judge in San Diego who has repeatedly struck down multiple California firearms laws issued a new ruling Thursday that again declared the state’s ban on assault weapons unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez, who previously made an identical ruling in the same case, issued a 10-day stay of his decision, giving California Attorney General Rob Bonta time to appeal the judge’s ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That means the current laws will remain in place during the stay. (Riggins, 10/19)

The Oaklandside: How A Father’s Grief Led To Decades Of Activism Against The Gun Industry
In 1994, 15-year-old Kenzo Dix was at his close friend Mark’s home in Berkeley when Mark decided to show off. Mark retrieved his father’s Beretta pistol, ejected the gun’s magazine, and loaded an empty one. Returning to where Kenzo was, Mark, age 14, raised the gun, and eager to impress his friend, pulled the trigger. The hammer didn’t just go “click.” Mark had made a terrible mistake, leaving a single live round in the gun’s chamber. The pistol fired with deafening force. The bullet struck Kenzo in his shoulder and lodged in his chest. Kenzo was rushed to Children’s Hospital Oakland where he died. The tragic shooting sent a shockwave through the Berkeley community. (BondGraham, 10/19)

Politico: Gov. Gavin Newsom To Travel To Israel 
Newsom’s office said that California will also be sending medical aid and supplies to the region, including Gaza, where Israel has launched a “complete siege” and cut off supplies of food, power and water in response to deadly attacks by the militant group Hamas on Oct 7. (Begert, 10/19)

Bay Area News Group: Martinez Refinery Official Apologizes To City County And Residents After Chemical Releases
On a night when the city passed a resolution castigating the Martinez Refining Company for their performance over the last 12 months, the refinery’s manager issued a set of apologies and an acknowledgment that if the company doesn’t get its act together soon, the consequences could be dire. (McCarthy, 10/19)

KVPR: Following Allegations Of Pesticide Drift, Judge Orders Bakersfield Applicator To Stop
A Bakersfield aviation company is facing allegations it caused harmful pesticide drift. On Tuesday, a judge temporarily ordered the company to stop aerially applying pesticides. ... According to the complaint, the six alleged incidents of illegal drift occurred in Tulare and Kern Counties between September 2022 and September 2023. Those chemicals allegedly damaged trees and pastures, and even struck people. One person reported nausea and burning skin. Agra Fly and its owner John Slykerman paid out fines in at least three of these incidents. (Klein, 10/19)

East Bay Times: What Killed 3 Million Honey Bees In Southern California? Beekeepers Fear The Answer Has Larger Ramifications
On the evening of Sept. 20, Dominic Peck and Paul Gunn, co-owners of the San Diego Bee Sanctuary, drove out to their hives in rural Valley Center assuming they were going to find an active, honey-making apiary as usual. Instead they found a mass graveyard. “There were just piles and piles of dead bees,” Peck said. ... Until the U.S. Department of Agriculture finishes testing samples investigators took last month at the sanctuary — and that process can take weeks — Gunn and Peck won’t know what killed the bees. And that has them not only worried about their business, but also for the symbiotic relationship between local pollinating bees, Southern California farmers and the national food supply. “If you don’t have things getting pollinated, you don’t have fruit or vegetables,” Gunn said. “Without bees there’s no you and me.” (Powells, 10/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: Poll Shows San Franciscans Support Mandatory Treatment For Drug Users
Nearly three-quarters of respondents in a new poll said homeless people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol should be required to enroll in treatment before obtaining housing or other services, a finding that implies strong support for a ballot measure proposed by San Francisco Mayor London Breed. The polling comes two days after Breed announced she would take a drug screening mandate proposal to the voters in next year’s election. (Toledo, 10/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: Robin Williams’ Friends Recall Grip Of Addiction: ‘He Was A Monster’
In the season premiere of Vice TV’s “Dark Side of Comedy,” friends of the late Bay Area comedian Robin Williams speak candidly about his struggles with addiction during the peak of his fame. “With drugs, he was a monster,” Mike Binder, a fellow comedian and close acquaintance, said of Williams in the latest episode of the docuseries, which first aired on Tuesday, Oct. 17. Williams, who died by suicide in 2014 at his Marin County home at age 63, openly discussed his fight against addiction, which escalated in the late 1970s during his rise to stardom on the hit television show “Mork & Mindy.” (Vaziri, 10/18)

Los Angeles Times: Man Pleads Guilty To Defrauding Millions From Deceased Malibu Doctor Using Drugs, Deception 
A 47-year-old Fresno man pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing millions of dollars with his former girlfriend from a Malibu doctor in an elaborate scheme involving deception and psychoactive drugs before his death in 2018. (Childs, 10/19)

The Wall Street Journal: CVS Pulls Certain Cold Medicines From Shelves And Will Stop Selling Them 
CVS Health is pulling some of the most common decongestants from its shelves and will no longer sell them, after advisers to U.S. health regulators recently determined that an ingredient doesn’t work. The products contain oral phenylephrine, an almost-century-old ingredient in versions of decongestants and over-the-counter pills, syrups and liquids to clear up congested noses. ... Oral products that list phenylephrine as its only active ingredient include Sudafed PE. (Hopkins, 10/19)

Bloomberg: Sanofi’s Lantus Insulin To Sell For $35 Via GoodRx Site
Sanofi’s Lantus, its most commonly prescribed insulin, will sell for $35 a month through GoodRx Holdings Inc. in a deal that signals the drug-discount site’s growing business with large pharma companies. Under the agreement, GoodRx will sell Lantus supplies at the same price to both insured and uninsured patients, the companies said Thursday. While Sanofi said in March that it would lower list prices for Lantus and cap out-of-pocket costs for people with insurance at $35 a month starting next year, the GoodRx price goes into effect immediately for all customers. (LaPara and Tozzi, 10/19)

Military.com: VA Says It Performed 88 Abortions In The Past Year, But Congress Again Threatens Subpoenas In Pursuit Of More Details
The Department of Veterans Affairs provided 88 abortions in the first year that it offered the procedure, according to a document sent to Congress this month that was obtained by Military.com. The number was given to the House Veterans Affairs Committee after the Republican-led panel threatened to subpoena the VA if it did not provide detailed data on the abortions it has provided. (Kheel, 10/19)

Stateline: Many Women Can't Access Miscarriage Drug Because It's Also Used For Abortions 
Since losing her first pregnancy four months ago, 32-year-old Lulu has struggled to return to her body’s old rhythms. Lulu, who asked to be identified by her first name to protect her privacy, bled for six full weeks after her miscarriage and hasn’t had a normal menstrual cycle since. Such disruptions aren’t uncommon after miscarriage, which affects roughly 1 in 10 known pregnancies. But for Lulu, they’ve also served as a persistent reminder that she couldn’t access the drug mifepristone — her preferred method of care — to help her body pass the miscarriage. Instead, her doctor prescribed a drug called misoprostol, which on its own is less effective. “I recall clarifying with her about the kind of medication I would get,” Lulu said. “When she said misoprostol … I was really shocked. I made her repeat herself.” (Dewey, 10/20)

Becker's Hospital Review: 1st Study Finds Surge Of Weight Loss Drugs In Health System
A California health system has noted an "exponential" increase in patients using Wegovy, Mounjaro and other similar drugs for weight loss, according to a first-of-its-kind study. Researchers tracked 87,935 patients' EHRs throughout University of California Health, a six-hospital system, between 2014 and 2022. They evaluated medication fills for glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, which mimic a gut hormone that suppresses appetite and promotes a feeling of fullness.  (Twenter, 10/19)

Bloomberg: Ozempic Maker Is Testing Weight-Loss Drugs For Kids
Pharmaceutical companies are looking to get buzzy weight-loss shots approved for younger and younger patients. Eli Lilly & Co. is planning to test its diabetes drug Mounjaro for patients six and up with obesity, according to a person familiar with the trial who didn’t want to be named because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Novo Nordisk A/S is also testing Saxenda — an older and less powerful version of its blockbuster drugs Ozempic and Wegovy — in kids as young as six. (Muller, 10/20)

Reuters: Demand For Weight-Loss Drugs Fuels Global Rise In Counterfeits 
Extraordinary demand for Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and other drugs used for weight-loss is fueling a global surge in counterfeit versions, according to Reuters interviews with law enforcement, anti-counterfeiting and public health officials. The U.S.-based Pharmaceutical Security Institute (PSI), an industry-backed organization that counts drugmakers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly as members, said it is working with agencies, including Europol, Interpol and U.S. Homeland Security, as well as companies that help identify counterfeit products such as Israel’s BrandShield. (Wingrove and Fick, 10/20)

The Wall Street Journal: How Weight-Loss Drugs Are Rewriting The Playbook For Treating Obesity 
Medical organizations including the Obesity Society are writing new standards for treatment and addressing dilemmas. Should the drugs be prescribed to patients who haven’t tried losing weight before or who don’t have health problems? How much weight should you lose? What is the best way to maintain a lower weight? About half of the U.S. adult population technically qualifies for Wegovy, according to criteria in the drug’s label. That includes people with a body-mass index of 30 or more, or 27 and a health problem related to weight such as diabetes or high blood pressure. A BMI of 25 is the benchmark for normal weight. (McKay, 10/19)

Roll Call: Military Obesity Rates Soar, Compounding Recruitment Challenges 
Obesity rates among active-duty servicemembers doubled in the past decade, and antiquated policies and incomplete data have complicated efforts to combat the trend, according to a new report from the American Security Project. Military obesity rates across the active duty jumped from 10.4 percent in 2012 to 21.6 percent in 2022, according to the study, the findings of which were released on Oct. 12. This mirrors a national trend that has shrunk the military’s recruitment pool and led to billions of dollars in associated health care costs. (Satter, 10/18)

San Diego Union-Tribune: District 4 Supervisor Candidates Debate Housing, Health Care And Other Issues In East County
District 4 supervisor candidates Monica Montgomery Steppe and Amy Reichert faced questions Wednesday night from East County residents on some of their region’s most pressing issues — from housing development to health care to long-awaited upgrades to a nightmarish freeway interchange — at a public forum Wednesday. (Alvarenga, 10/19)

Sacramento Bee: Parents Rights Groups Protest In Gavin Newsom’s Neighborhood 
A group of local organizers affiliated with national parents’ rights groups and anti-trans groups are marching to the governor’s home on Saturday as part of a “worldwide” Stop the War on Children rally. One of the protest’s main organizers is Gays Against Groomers, founded in 2022 by right-wing, 2020 election conspiracy theorist Jaimee Michell, a frequent guest on Fox News and One American News Network. Members of Gays Against Groomers have also been linked with the far-right Proud Boys. The group promotes the homophobic and transphobic conspiracy theory that members of the LGBTQ community are “grooming” young children. (Hatch, 10/18)

The Bakersfield Californian: Reintroducing A Lifesaver: 'The Vial Of Life Saves Lives.' 
John Surface has decades of experience as a paramedic, and he's been in countless situations in which the patient is unable to communicate and no one is there to provide information about the patient's medical history. "It's not unusual. It happens daily," said Surface, who is now the president and CEO of Hall Ambulance Service. (Mayer, 10/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: Pickleball Now More Popular Than Tennis, Finds Apple Watch Study
Pickleball has overtaken tennis in popularity for the first time among at least one demographic in the United States. Apple Watch owners tracking pickleball workouts on their devices during the summer surpassed those monitoring tennis activities, based on findings published Tuesday from the Apple Heart and Movement Study. (Vaziri, 10/19)

Fresno Bee: Gavin Newsom Veto Hurts California’s Vulnerable Foster Youth 
Gov. Gavin Newsom had to confront more than 1,000 bills this month that were approved by the Legislature and sent to him for signature. Of those, Newsom signed nearly 900 into law. Newsom backed liberal ideas for abortion access, gun control and environmental protection. But, in a move hard to understand, he vetoed a bill that would have provided financial assistance to one of the state’s most vulnerable groups — foster youth. (10/20)

Bloomberg: California Governor Gavin Newsom Has Right Homeless Idea But Wrong Plan
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s latest attempt to reduce homelessness by forcing those who are living on the streets and experiencing mental health issues or a substance use disorder into institutional treatment is bound to fail. (Claudia Sahm, 10/20)

East Bay Times: California Needs More Latino Physicians — 6% Isn't Enough
I’ve worked as a physician in California for 14 years — many in so-called Federally Qualified Health Centers in underserved areas. In California there is a lack of representation not only with Latino physicians, but Black physicians as well. This is a major barrier to achieving health equity. (Dr. Veronica Contreras, 10/20)

Fresno Bee: Covid Order In This California County Is A New Chance For GOP To Spread Fear And Lies
San Luis Obispo County’s Republican Party is at it again, trying to undermine County Health Officer Penny Borenstein for her handling of COVID-19. The county’s health chief recently issued an order requiring healthcare workers to either be vaccinated against flu and COVID or to wear a mask while working. (10/18)

Los Angeles Daily News: California’s Menthol Ban: New Report Reveals A Failed Experiment 
In 2021, California legislators banned the sale of menthol cigarettes, taking a prohibition approach to reducing tobacco usage. But a new report proves something we should’ve known from history: prohibition of widely available legal products does not work and often creates more problems than solutions. (Andrew Sarega, 10/19)

East Bay Times: Superbugs Threaten California. Here's How To Fight Them
Imagine a world without antimicrobial drugs. Perhaps you envisioned the days before penicillin when ordinary cuts and infections were often deadly. This scenario may not stay in our past. It will be our future, too, if we don’t address the growing crisis of antimicrobial resistance. (Mike Guerra, 10/19)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Breast Cancer Survivors, Experts Share Stories Of Fear, Hope 
Dealing with a cancer diagnosis is a wrenching experience all by itself, even without symptoms foreshadowing what grief the future may hold. Below, two survivors — including a local oncologist — detail their experiences, and a San Diego physician specializing in breast cancer writes about its growing prevalence among younger women. (10/18)