San Francisco Chronicle: California Dems Trying To Flip The House Aren’t Running On Abortion Rights
Democratic Party leaders and progressive groups portray Judge Brett Kavanaugh as a threat to abortion rights, and they hope the fight over President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee will energize voters in California races that could decide who controls the House next year. ... Democrats running in the more conservative House districts that the party is trying to seize from Republicans aren’t rushing to make abortion their issue. (Garofoli, 7/15)

Capital Public Radio: Trump's Push For More Basic Insurance Plans Could Equal Big Changes For California Health Care 
The Trump administration has been pushing for the return of short-term health plans and association health plans, two types of coverage that are exempt from Affordable Care Act requirements and could offer an affordable alternative to consumers who feel priced out of the Obamacare marketplace. But some California advocates say these plans offer shoddy coverage and pose a threat to the stability of the healthcare system. (Caiola, 7/13)

The Desert Sun: Desert Is About To Have Several New Family Doctors Thanks To Partnership
A UCR School of Medicine residency program, designed to help address a severe shortage of doctors in the Coachella Valley, has graduated its first group of physicians – most of whom are staying to practice locally. The Family Medicine Residency Program, a partnership between Desert Regional Medical Center, Desert Healthcare District and the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine, welcomed its first class of seven residents three years ago. (Barkas, 7/14)

In other news on health care personnel —

Los Angeles Times: Glendale Community College Nursing Program Helps Fill Critical Care Gap
For eight weeks this summer, innovation meets enterprise at the Glendale Community College nursing program. The department is conducting a coveted critical care course that ends Aug. 15 and has drawn attention throughout the state. (Campa, 7/13)

Ventura County Star: Stanford Study Warns Of Doctor Burnout Leading To Medical Errors
Doctors say they don’t need to read an alarming new study on medical errors to understand how fatigue, depression and other symptoms of burnout can affect their work. “If your brain isn’t working right, you’re going to make errors,” said Dr. Ted Hole, a Ventura family practice doctor. “That’s what burnout does. It makes your brain not work right.” (Kisken, 7/14)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Human Longevity Names Interim CEO
Six weeks after genomics pioneer Craig Venter suddenly announced his retirement from Human Longevity Inc, the company has named Dr. David Karow as interim CEO. Karow, who previously was HLI’s Chief of Radiogenomics, will lead the company with Scott Sorensen, who was hired in March as the company’s chief technology officer. Sorensen will take on the duties of interim chief operations officer, HLI said Friday. (Fikes, 7/13)

The Desert Sun: West Nile Virus Confirmed In Indian Wells
Officials found this year’s first West Nile Virus-positive mosquitoes in the Coachella Valley in Indian Wells and again found more there this week, according to the Coachella Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District. The most recent mosquitoes were found in a trap near Fairway Drive and Cook Street, where the first infected mosquitoes were also discovered a month ago. (7/13)

In other public health news —

Los Angeles Times: Workers Claim Injuries All Over Their Bodies For Big Payouts — But Continue Their Active Lives
In fact, claims involving at least five injured body parts have become by far the most common in California, according to a Times data analysis of millions of workers’ compensation cases spanning nearly three decades. In the past, injuries to a single body part — a knee, a shoulder, the lower back — were the most prevalent, the data show. (Dolan, Menezes and Garcia-Roberts, 7/15)

WBUR: Not Just An Apple A Day: California Doctors Start Prescribing Medically Tailored Meals
In California, doctors are prescribing food as medicine to treat low-income patients with congestive heart failure. The program delivers medically tailored meals to 1,000 patients in eight counties across the state. (Young, 7/13)

KQED: Emergency Care Options Dwindle In The East Bay
For East Bay residents, access to emergency care might soon be getting even harder to come by. In 2016, Sutter Health, which owns Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley, announced it will close the emergency room and consolidate those services into its Oakland location at an unspecified time in the future. (Kovitz and Guo, 7/13)

In other news from across the state —

San Diego Union-Tribune: Two County Supervisors Ask Tri-City To Rethink Mental Health Unit Suspension
Two county supervisors are calling for reversal of a decision that would indefinitely suspend the mental health units at Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside. In a letter dated Tuesday, July 10, Kristin Gaspar, chair of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, and Bill Horn, whose district encompasses most of North County, call the Tri-City board’s suspension decision “a failure to the community.” (Sisson, 7/13)

The Bakersfield Californian: Number Of Unclaimed Bodies In Kern County On Pace To Far Surpass Last Year's Number
Every year, dozens of bodies go unclaimed at the Kern County Coroner's Office. And this year, that number is on pace to far surpass the amount of unclaimed bodies from the year before.  According to officials at Historic Union Cemetery, the cemetery has received the cremated remains of 96 people from the coroner's office as of June 9, a number that includes both remains that went unclaimed by families and remains for which no surviving family member could be found. (7/12)

Fresno Bee: Redwood Springs Nursing Home In Visalia Fined For Patient Death
The California Department of Public Health has fined Redwood Springs Healthcare Center, a skilled nursing home in Visalia, $100,000 for a patient death. The 176-bed nursing home on East Houston Avenue received the most severe penalty possible under state law from the California Department of Public Health. (Anderson, 7/12)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Komen, Atkins Celebrate Elimination Of Cancer Treatment Limits
Breast and cervical cancer treatment can last up to 10 years, but caps on treatment for low-income California residents, many who are undocumented immigrants, meant that some were cut off from care after only 18 or 24 months. Those limits dropped away on July 1 with new funding in the state budget for anyone enrolled in California’s Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Program. (Sisson, 7/13)

The Desert Sun: Palm Desert's CV Link 'going To Save Lives' Following Design Approval
Palm Desert is one step closer to riding into the CV Link dream, which officials say will increase safety for bicyclists, pedestrians and drivers. The Palm Desert City Council approved during Thursday’s meeting the preliminary designs of the four-mile stretch of the bike/recreational pathway that will wind through the city. (Hayden, 7/13)

The Mercury News: Cannabis Delivery, Edibles And Ads Could Change Under New, Permanent California Regulations
Cannabis retailers soon may be able to deliver marijuana anywhere in California, no matter what city or county rules say. Also, it’s likely that medical marijuana patients will be allowed to buy edibles infused with cannabis more potent than currently permitted under state law. (Staggs, 7/14)

In other news on marijuana —

Ventura County Star: First Medical Marijuana Dispensary Operator Selected In Thousand Oaks
At the conclusion of a rigorous, months-long evaluation process, Legendary Organics has been selected by the Thousand Oaks City Council to operate the city’s first medical marijuana dispensary. Thousand Oaks-based Legendary, one of three finalists, got the nod over the other two, DBO Investments and Leaf Dispensary, in a 4-1 vote Tuesday night. Dissenting council member Rob McCoy favored Leaf. (Harris, 7/14)

Orange County Register: Israeli Marijuana Researchers To Open First U.S. Clinic In Laguna Woods 
Israel-based NiaMedic is promising to offer conventional medical care alongside what company leaders describe as research-backed cannabis treatment aimed at seniors. The focus will be on the use of cannabis to handle pain management, physical rehabilitation, insomnia and other conditions linked to aging. (Staggs, 7/13)

The Bakersfield Californian: Kern Public Health’s Lab Gets High-Tech Upgrade
There’s a new room in the Kern County Public Health building known as the “Ebola Room.”Only certain employees have access to the room. To get in, you must pass through two sets of doors, neither of which can be open at the same time. The ceiling and floor of the room are completely sealed. It’s clear the room is designed to keep anything that might find its way inside from getting out.“It allows us to be prepared for what is the unknown,” said Kern Public Health Director Matt Constantine. (Morgen, 7/15)

Politico: HHS Submits Updated Plan For Reuniting Migrant Children With Parents
U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw scolded the Health and Human Services Department Friday, saying it was using safety concerns as "cover" to avoid meeting his July 26 deadline to reunite with their parents all 2551 children aged 5 to 17 who were detained at the border. Sabraw previously ordered HHS to return to their parents by July 10 all 102 children under 5 who were detained at the border. In response, HHS reunited all but 46, saying these children were ineligible for reunificaiton because verification wasn’t complete or because of safety concerns. (Kullgren, 7/15)

The New York Times: Judge Criticizes Trump Administration For Response To Family Reunification Order
The Health and Human Services Department outlined a new, more accelerated plan to return nearly 3,000 migrant children to their parents by a July 26 deadline. But it also said that doing so required faster vetting procedures and would probably place the children in abusive environments or with adults falsely claiming to be their parents. In a court filing that included the new plan, Chris Meekins, the deputy assistant secretary of preparedness and response, said, “While I am fully committed to complying with this court’s order, I do not believe that the placing of children into such situations is consistent with the mission of H.H.S. or my core values.” The judge, Dana M. Sabraw of Federal District Court in San Diego, was not moved. (Dickerson, 7/14)

Bloomberg: Reunited Immigrant Families Face Difficult Choice To Split Again
Escaping gruesome violence at the hands of police and gangs in Honduras, a mother and her daughter arrived in the U.S. on June 8 near McAllen, Texas, and turned themselves in to federal agents. They were then separated and held in custody 1,555 miles apart, according to court filings. The 12-year-old daughter is now among a couple thousand migrant children that the U.S. is working to reunite with parents over the next two weeks following a federal judge’s order last month. (Mehrotra, 7/14)

The Hill: Dems Launch Pressure Campaign Over Migrant Families
Democratic lawmakers are trying to keep up the pressure on the Trump administration over its struggles to reunite families separated at the southern border under the "zero tolerance" immigration policy. Members of the House and Senate are using every hearing and markup of health-related legislation to push for amendments aimed at holding the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) accountable. (Weixel, 7/13)

Los Angeles Times: 'I'm Here. I’m Here.' Father Reunited With Son Amid Tears, Relief And Fear Of What's Next
Hermelindo Che Coc learned his son was coming home and immediately began to prepare for his arrival. Nearly two months had passed since he’d seen his 6-year-old boy after they were separated at the border while traveling from Guatemala to seek asylum. On Saturday, the father mopped floors and washed bed sheets at the home in the L.A. area where he was staying. He cooked a big pot of chicken soup, his son’s favorite. (Bermudez, 7/15)

The Wall Street Journal: After Immigrant Families Are Reunited, Scars Of Separation Remain
In the days after Ever Reyes Mejía was reunited with his 3-year-old son last Tuesday, the young father tried to make their lives seem normal again. The two kicked around a soccer ball and played with toy cars while staying at a volunteer’s home in Detroit. Mr. Reyes Mejía wrapped his son in tight embraces, promising he would never be alone again. Father and son were separated three months ago at a Texas migrant-detention center; the boy was sent to an agency in Michigan while Mr. Reyes Mejía was sent to another Texas facility. (Campo-Flores and West, 7/15)

The Associated Press: HHS Watchdog Slams Former Secretary Tom Price On Costly Travel
The government wasted at least $341,000 on travel by ousted Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, including booking charter flights without considering cheaper scheduled airlines, an agency watchdog said Friday. The HHS inspector general’s long-awaited report chastised the department for flouting federal travel rules, which require officials to book trips in the most cost-efficient way for taxpayers. (7/13)

The New York Times: Ex-Health Secretary Tom Price Wasted $341,000 On Improper Travel, Inquiry Finds
The total cost of the 21 trips was $1.2 million, the report said. The most expensive trips were an eight-day visit to Asia on military aircraft, which cost $432,400; a weeklong visit to Africa and Europe on military planes, which cost $234,400; and a charter flight from Seattle to Washington, D.C., which cost $121,500. Mr. Price took chartered aircraft to many cities in the United States when lower-cost commercial flights were available, Mr. Levinson said. He found that Mr. Price had spent $14,955 on a round-trip charter flight between Washington and Philadelphia. (Pear, 7/13)

The Wall Street Journal: HHS Watchdog Pushes To Recoup $341,000 Wasted By Ex-Secretary Price On Travel
Justifications for using charter flights were sometimes flimsy, the report concluded. In one case, Mr. Price’s office cited the possibility of a meeting at the White House on the morning of a scheduled trip to Nashville. Two days before the event, it was clear the meeting wouldn’t take place. The office chartered the flight anyway, at a cost of $17,760, the report said. For other trips, Dr. Price’s staff cited schedule constraints that could have been adjusted to enable him to fly commercial, the inspector general concluded. (Armour and Radnofsky, 7/13)

The Washington Post: Former HHS Secretary Tom Price’s Air Travel Wasted $341,000 In Government Funds, Watchdog Says
A spokesman for Price released a statement Friday noting that the former secretary was not interviewed by the inspector general’s office and highlighted Hargan’s remark that none of the travel was “unauthorized.” “Media coverage inaccurately states the report takes issue with Dr. Price’s actions,” the statement said. “In fact, the report addresses overall functions of Department staff charged with administering travel.” Price is among numerous current or former members of President Trump’s administration who have been the focus of complaints and investigations centered on their use of government funds and other behaviors in office. (Berman and Goldstein, 7/13)

Bloomberg: The Artful Dodge That Saved Kavanaugh From Supreme Court Doom
In 2011, Judge Brett Kavanaugh was selected at random to rule on whether President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act, was constitutional. It was a career-defining moment for the aspiring Supreme Court justice, who was 46 at the time. The case promised to be a political bomb splitting two powerful forces. On one side was the Republican Party, which made Kavanaugh a judge and wanted to see the law invalidated under a limited vision of federal authority to regulate interstate commerce. On the other were millions of Americans poised to gain access to health insurance -- in some cases for the first time ever -- backed by scholars who said axing the law would be a grave error of judicial activism and taint the courts. Kavanaugh ducked the issue. (Kapur, 7/16)

In other national health care news —

The New York Times: Drug To Treat Smallpox Approved By F.D.A., A Move Against Bioterrorism
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first drug intended to treat smallpox — a move that could halt a lethal pandemic if the virus were to be released as a terrorist bioweapon or through a laboratory accident. The antiviral pill, tecovirimat, also known as Tpoxx, has never been tested in humans with smallpox because the disease was declared eradicated in 1980, three years after the last known case. (McNeil, 7/13)

The New York Times: Breast-Feeding Or Formula? For Americans, It’s Complicated
For as long as there have been babies, there have been debates over how to feed them. Wet nursing, which began as early as 2000 B.C., was once a widely accepted option for mothers who could not or did not want to breast-feed, but it faced criticism during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The profession eventually declined with the introduction of the infant feeding bottle in the 19th century. (Caron, 7/14)

The New York Times: McDonald’s Removes Salads Linked To Intestinal Parasite Outbreak In Midwest
McDonald’s pulled salads from 3,000 restaurants in the Midwest after health experts announced that more than 100 people had been infected by an intestinal parasite in recent weeks. Public health officials in Illinois and Iowa have reported a surge in cases of cyclosporiasis, with at least 15 infections in Iowa and 90 others in Illinois. Everyone who became ill in Iowa and about a quarter of those who became sick in Illinois said they had eaten McDonald’s salads in the days before symptoms appeared, according to the states’ health departments. (Haag, 7/13)

Stat: Novartis, Michael Cohen Contacts More Extensive Than Disclosed Earlier
The relationship between President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and Novartis was more extensive than the drug maker previously disclosed, and the company issued misleading statements about the relationship, according to a report issued by Senate Democrats on Friday. Dozens of emails and other documents revealed that the agreement between Cohen and Novartis was longer and more detailed than had been previously stated. Moreover, Novartis explicitly sought to hire Cohen to gain access to “key policymakers” and provided him with ideas for lowering drug costs, which later appeared in the Trump administration blueprint that was developed to address the issue. (Silverman, 7/13)

The Hill: Ex-Novartis CEO Sent Drug Pricing Proposal To Cohen
In an email dated June 5, 2017, ex-Novartis CEO Joe Jimenez sent Cohen an email with a document attached called "drug pricing initiatives." "Based on our conversation last week, I am forwarding you some ideas to lower drug costs in the US," Jimenez wrote. Cohen responded a few hours later: "Received and I will forward to you their suggestions." (Hellmann, 7/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Novartis Played Down Ties To Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen, Report Says
The report also reveals Mr. Cohen’s advocacy for another pharmaceutical company, one the report says has ties to an investment firm associated with Viktor Vekselberg, a wealthy Russian businessman now under U.S. sanctions. The $1.2 million consulting deal with Novartis came to light in May. Then the Switzerland-based drug company said it hired Mr. Cohen for insight into how “the Trump administration might approach U.S. health-care policy matters,” but that executives realized from their first meeting with him in March 2017 that he wouldn’t be helpful and stopped engaging with him. (Palazzolo and Rothfeld, 7/13)

Stat: Novartis Needed A Consultant. The CEO's Friend Called Trump's Lawyer
Shortly after the 2016 election, Novartis chief executive Joe Jimenez was looking for a consultant to help understand how the Trump administration would approach health policy. So, when a friend suggested Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, Jimenez took the call, and personally suggested following up, according to a letter Novartis sent to senators in June and publicly released Friday. (Swetlitz, 7/13)