Voice of OC: Governor Vows New Penalties For Huntington Beach Amidst Housing Fight 
Governor Gavin Newsom called out Surf City leaders today as he signed new laws aimed at expanding housing development in California, dubbing them “Exhibit A” for cities failing to do their part and vowing they’d soon face new penalties. “That is a city that’s performative in terms of their approach to addressing the crisis of affordability, not just in their city but in our state,” Newsom said at a press conference on Thursday. “For those that turn their back on this crisis, we’re turning up the heat." That heat is a package of new legislation Newsom signed on Thursday, with over two dozen new laws aimed at increasing penalties for cities that fight against state housing mandates and encourage housing development across California. (Biesiada, 9/19)

Los Angeles Times: Gov. Newsom Signs Package Of Bills To Spur More Affordable Housing
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed a package of bills designed to alleviate the state’s housing affordability crisis. The new laws aim to boost the availability of housing in a variety of ways, including streamlining the approval process for certain projects and requiring that local municipalities create plans to house the most vulnerable Californians. (Khouri, 9/19)

Times of San Diego: Chula Vista Council Approves Encampment Restrictions Near Schools, Parks, Transit
The Chula Vista City Council voted unanimously this week to restrict camping on public property, joining a growing number of California cities. The decision bans camping near schools, parks, transit stops and sensitive conservation areas. It also prohibits lying, sleeping and storing personal possessions in public areas. The vote follows a state executive order encouraging cities to clear encampments and a U.S. Supreme Court decision removing barriers to local anti-camping restrictions. (Sarup, 9/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: Fremont Weighs Aggressive Action Against Homeless Encampments And RVs
Fremont, the fourth largest city in the Bay Area, is weighing a ban on camping on public property and parking of large vehicles in residential areas — the latest city to consider changes to homelessness strategies in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling giving local governments greater leeway in addressing the crisis. City staff presented plans Tuesday that would make several changes to the municipal code, including parking rules that require people to move their cars after 72 hours, which the council could vote on in October. The ban on parking large vehicles in residential areas would not apply to construction and delivery trucks. No immediate timeline was given for when the council might consider action on the provisions. (Ravani, 9/19)

CapRadio: Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg Reflects On Homelessness, Community Collaboration In His Last State Of The City Address
In his final State of the City Address on Thursday, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg reflected on a range of issues and projects he prioritized over the past eight years, from reducing homelessness to promoting the forthcoming UC Davis Aggie Square science and tech hub. Unlike recent State of the City events, Steinberg didn’t announce any new proposals, but said he’s working on major downtown initiatives before leaving office in December. (Lam, 9/19)

CalMatters: What Happens To Homeless People After Encampment Sweeps? That’s On Cities, Gavin Newsom Says
Whose fault is the California homelessness crisis? According to Gov. Gavin Newsom, cities and counties are to blame for failing to get people off the street — despite all the money he’s given them to do so. That was the message the governor pushed today as he signed a package of housing and homelessness bills at an event in San Francisco with legislators, carpenters’ union members, and members of the press.  (Kendall, 9/19)

Military Times: Congress Approves $3B Lifeline To Prevent Delay In Vet Benefits
Senate lawmakers approved a $3 billion budget stopgap for the Department of Veterans Affairs on Thursday, preventing a threatened delay in the delivery of some veterans benefits checks next month. The move came just two days after House lawmakers advanced the same appropriations measure, which also mandates a report from department officials on the reasons behind the department’s budget shortfall within a month. The legislation is expected to be signed into law by President Joe Biden before the end of Friday. ... Through the first 10 months of fiscal 2024, VA staff granted disability compensation benefits to more than 1.1 million veterans and survivors, a new record. (Shane III, 9/19)

Military.com: Veterans At 5 VA Medical Facilities Will Have To Start Making Copayments On Prescriptions Again 
Thousands of veterans will resume paying a portion of their prescription medication cost following a two-year suspension of the requirement at five Veterans Affairs facilities served by the department's new electronic health records system. The VA is notifying affected patients in the Pacific Northwest and Ohio this week by letter and email of the impending change, which will go into effect Oct. 1. (Kime, 9/19)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento Sheriff Calls For Stricter Fentanyl Laws As Deadly Drug Is Smuggled Into The Jail
Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper on Thursday called for the California legislature to pass stricter laws that punishes those selling fentanyl as a large amount of the deadly synthetic opioid is smuggled into his jail facilities. The sheriff, who spoke at a news conference at the Main Jail in Downtown Sacramento, said his deputies have confiscated 500 grams of fentanyl that recently arrested inmates tried to smuggle into his two jail facilities this year. “That is enough fentanyl to kill the entire population of Elk Grove,” Cooper said about the confiscated fentanyl. (Ahumada, 9/19)

Sacramento Bee: Gavin Newsom Says He Lacks Time To Campaign Against Prop. 36 
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is an outspoken critic of Proposition 36, which would restore felony penalties for certain theft- and drug-related offenses. But don’t expect to see him campaigning on it between now and the election in November. In a Thursday press conference, the governor said that “it’s a question of bandwidth.” “I fear I can’t do everything. I’ve got, trying to get Kamala Harris elected President of the United States, trying to get through these 900 bills. I just pray, I really do, that people take a good look at Proposition 36,” he said. (Sheeler, 9/19)

Los Angeles Times: Rite Aid's Answer To Compton Retail Theft: Lock Up All Products
For years, stores across Southern California have been putting high-priced items behind lock and key to deter thieves. The Rite Aid on the corner of Long Beach and Compton boulevards, though, takes this approach to security to a new extreme. Customers there are greeted by rows and rows of shelved items — makeup, chips, baby formula, paper towels, lotion and juice — that are locked behind plexiglass. (Garcia, 9/19)

FiercePharma: Theratechnologies' HIV Med May Run Short Due To Contractor Issue 
Theratechnologies' reliance on a small pool of contract manufacturers has come back to bite the Quebecois biopharma, which announced Tuesday that supplies of its HIV med Egrifta SV could soon run short. Egrifta SV—approved to reduce excess abdominal fat in HIV patients with lipodystrophy—is at risk of facing a “temporary supply disruption” in early 2025, Theratechnologies warned in a release. (Kansteiner, 9/18)

The New York Times: Research That Led to Obesity Drugs Wins Major Medical Prize
The Lasker Awards, a prestigious set of prizes given for advances in medicine and public health research, were given on Thursday to scientists whose research helped lead to the discovery of a new class of obesity drugs, infectious disease specialists who worked on the drivers of H.I.V. infection and how to stop it, and a scientist who discovered a way the body protects itself from infectious diseases and cancer. The Laskers are highly regarded in the fields of biomedicine and are sometimes seen as foretelling recipients of the Nobel Prizes in the sciences. (Kolata and Nolen, 9/19)

Stat: Top GOP Senator Proposes Changes To Medicare Drug Price Negotiations
Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.), a key Republican senator with seats on the chamber’s health and finance committees, introduced a bill to let some small drugmakers avoid Medicare price negotiations. (Wilkerson, 9/19)

Becker's Hospital Review: The Keys To Building A Succession Runway, Per Cottage Health's CEO
Ron Werft, president and CEO of Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Cottage Health, will retire in 2025 after 24 years at the helm. And when it comes to succession planning, it is important to recognize it is a continuous process, he told Becker's. There has been a plan in place for years to have someone prepared to fill leadership roles if needed, he said. That strategy is presented to the system's board annually and helps hold the team accountable in that planning. (Kuchno, 9/20)

Becker's Hospital Review: Nurse Workplace Violence Reporting Increased 1,080% With New Tool
Making it easier to report workplace violence with quick-scan codes on walls and badges increased reporting by 1,080% in two months, according to a new study. The study, published in the September issue of The Journal of Emergency Nursing, analyzed workplace violence reports from nurses at an unnamed academic medical center. The researchers found the center averaged about two workplace violence reports a month, despite overall increased incidents of workplace violence. (Taylor, 9/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco Is On Pace For Its Lowest Number Of Homicides Since 1960
San Francisco is on track to have its lowest number of homicides in more than six decades. So far this year, San Francisco has had 24 killings — a 37% decrease compared with the same time period last year, according to SFPD data. Though circumstances could change in the next three months, San Francisco would see just 34 total homicides by the end of the year at the current pace. That would be the city’s lowest number since 1960, which saw 30 homicides, though the city had about 100,000 fewer people at that time. This decline in homicides is part of a national trend in 2024 but is unusually pronounced in San Francisco. (Echeverria, 9/20)

Bay Area News Group: 3 Charts That Explain The Rising Risk Of Valley Fever In California 
Public health experts in California are warning of a growing threat, concentrated in the San Joaquin Valley but spreading farther into the state. That threat is coccidioides, a fungus that is primarily found in the southwest and western parts of the country. The illness it can cause, called Valley fever, or coccidioidomycosis, has notably increased in California this year, compared to previous seasons. (Rowan, 9/20)

CapRadio: How To Talk To Your Kids About Vaping: Honest Insights From High School Students
Talking openly about vaping with your child can be uncomfortable, but it's the new reality many parents have to face. Nathan Bagwill, a father of a local Sacramento high school sophomore, found himself in this exact situation. “It’s definitely awkward," Bagwill admits. "I just kind of went for it... I asked, ‘Are people vaping at your school?’ And my son just casually said, ‘Oh yeah, it’s very common.’" (Rodriguez, 9/19)

Los Angeles Times: 30 Years Later, A Family's Loss Gives Life To Others
For the Green family, the memory of Oct. 1, 1994 is many things at once: the date of their greatest pain and their finest hour; a day of unspeakable loss and life-giving gifts. It is the date their 7-year-old son, Nicholas, died in an Italian hospital, two days after being shot during an attempted robbery on a family vacation from California. Upon receiving the agonizing news, his parents, Reginald and Maggie, made an impromptu decision that would change their lives and those of countless others: they chose to donate his organs. (Purtill, 9/20)

Los Angeles Times: Social Media Companies Engaged In 'Vast Surveillance,' FTC Finds
Major social media platforms and video streaming services that gather a “staggering” amount of data from their users have failed to protect young people and safeguard online privacy, the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday. ... The agency, which is focused on protecting consumers and enforcing antitrust law, released a 129-page report that analyzes how some of the world’s largest social media platforms including Instagram, TikTok and YouTube collect and use vast troves of data they gather from users. The findings highlight the mounting scrutiny online platforms face from regulators and lawmakers seeking to combat technology’s potential harms as they become more deeply intertwined with people’s daily lives. (Wong, 9/19)

CNN: Covid-19: Analysis Of Samples From Wuhan’s Huanan Market Supports Its Role As Central Site Of Early Spread Of Virus
After an in-depth analysis of the genetic material from hundreds of swabs taken from the walls, floors, machines and drains inside the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China — a site that’s been described as an epicenter of early spread of Covid-19 — scientists say they now know exactly which species of animals were in the same area where investigators also found the most positive samples the virus that causes Covid-19. (Goodman, 9/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: Free At-Home COVID Tests From Government Are Back. How To Order
Americans will once again have the opportunity to request free coronavirus tests by mail, as authorities brace for a potential resurgence of COVID-19 cases. The federal program, offering each U.S. household four at-home test kits via the Postal Service since 2022, has distributed more than 1.8 billion tests nationwide. Despite previous pauses due to funding shortages, the Biden administration has revived the initiative multiple times, most recently ahead of last year’s respiratory virus season. (Vaziri, 9/19)

Modern Healthcare: How Healthcare Finances Are Affected By The COVID-19 Pandemic
Some industry players are still trying to move past the COVID-19 pandemic 4 1/2 years after health officials declared it a global health crisis, though the lingering effects are giving others a financial boost. Executives at health systems, insurers, home health agencies and virtual care companies have pointed to the pandemic's continuing impacts as they feel out the latest trajectories for labor costs, utilization rates and investment priorities during earnings calls, investor presentations and conferences. (Hudson, 9/19)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Gov. Newsom Must Protect Independent Physicians. Here’s How. 
Just minutes before the end of its session last month, the California Legislature green-lit a bill that could spell the end of independent physician practice in the Golden State. That would be disastrous for physicians and patients alike. (Ed Cohen and Aaron Spitz, 9/18)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: California Still Failing To Improve Kids’ Dental Health 
Eight years ago, the Little Hoover Commission, a state watchdog group, warned that California wasn’t doing enough to help children receive preventive dental care. As a result, the state had some of the worst youth dental health in the nation. (9/20)

Orange County Register: Gov. Newsom Must Reject AB 2527 And End Solitary Confinement For Pregnant Women 
How is it possible that we as a state believe it is appropriate to isolate a pregnant woman if they are threatened or endangered? How is that the only solution that is on the table? The bill does not require oversight by a doctor, or even the consent of the pregnant woman. In other words, the bill allows for correctional officers to lock pregnant women away based on their own unilateral decision, with no oversight or accountability. (Beverly Brewster, 9/17)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Community Colleges Make Becoming A Nurse Affordable. 
It’s a matter of public health. Which is why community colleges throughout California — including the San Diego and Imperial Counties Community Colleges Association — are urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign Senate Bill 895, bipartisan legislation authorizing a pilot program to create a California community college Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree at a time the state is facing a critical nursing shortage. (Lynn Ceresino Neault and Gregory Smith, 9/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: As A Chaplain, Religious Labels Aren’t What Matters. Compassion Does
Although interfaith chaplains can come from any religious or philosophical tradition, we are clinically trained in general psycho-social-spiritual methodologies. In other words, interfaith chaplains don’t administer care through our personal beliefs but rather through a shared training that focuses on serving the needs of the patient in the best way for them. But I know for some patients, or their families, who cut their eyes at my hijab the moment I enter their room, even providing that explanation won’t clarify for them why I was summoned when their request was for a chaplain. (Sondos Kholaki, 9/20)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Bring Transparency To Disability Centers
The nearly two dozen state-funded and state-established nonprofits that provide services to Californians with intellectual and developmental disabilities should never have been excluded from the state’s public records requirements. That’s become increasingly apparent as report after report finds serious shortcomings in the delivery of those services. (9/15)