The New York Times: Suit Challenges U.S. Over Abortions And Birth Control For Immigrant Minors
The federal government is placing unaccompanied immigrant minors caught crossing the Southern border, including teenage girls who were raped on the journey north, in the care of religion-based agencies that refuse to provide legally required access to contraception and abortion, according to a lawsuit filed on Friday. Like the dispute over the requirement that health plans cover contraception, the lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against the Department of Health and Human Services, highlights a clash between federal rules and the beliefs of Roman Catholic and other groups that say they are exempt from the requirements on grounds of religious freedom. (Eckholm, 6/24)

Los Angeles Times: Meningococcal Outbreak In Los Angeles And Orange Counties Triggers Health Warning
A man’s death was linked to an invasive meningococcal outbreak affecting gay and bisexual men in Southern California, public health officials said Friday. The rare disease was first identified in May and since then, nine men in Los Angeles and Orange counties have fallen ill with a meningococcal infection, according to Dr. Karen Smith, public health officer for the California Department of Public Health. Most of the men were gay or bisexual. One of them has died from the infection. (Rocha, 6/14)

Orange County Register: State Health Officials Warn Of Southern California Meningococcal Outbreak
Nine cases of meningococcal disease have been detected in men in Orange and Los Angeles counties since May, including in one Orange County patient who died from the infection, health officials said Friday. In an advisory, the California Department of Public Health warned that the outbreak of the rare disease primarily shows up in adult gay and bisexual men, and that people with HIV are at particular risk. It can cause meningitis and bloodstream infections, said Dr. Matt Zahn, medical director of epidemiology and assessment at the Orange County Health Care Agency. (Bharath, 6/24)

San Francisco Chronicle: Meningococcal Outbreak Prompts SF Warning On Pride Weekend
A meningococcal outbreak in Southern California that has mostly infected gay men prompted San Francisco health officials Friday to issue a warning on the eve of Pride weekend and a plea for people to get inoculated against the disease. The warning came after state health officials announced that nine people in the Los Angeles and Orange County area have tested positive for the bacterial disease, which is spread through nose and throat secretions. One of them died from the infection. “Here in San Francisco it is Pride week, with lots of visitors from around the state, the country and the world coming to town to celebrate,” Dr. Naveena Bobba, deputy health officer for San Francisco, said in a statement. (Veklerov, 6/24)

LA Daily News: 1 Dead, 8 Others Infected In Recent SoCal Meningococcal Disease Outbreak
State and local health officials issued alerts Friday following an outbreak of invasive meningococcal disease across Southern California that has killed one man and infected eight others. Since the beginning of May, nine meningococcal disease cases have been identified in men living in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Most of the men identify as gay or bisexual, California public health officials said. Four of the nine cases were among men who live in Los Angeles County, while the five additional cases were reported from two neighboring health jurisdictions, officials with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health noted in their own alert. (Abram, 6/24)

Los Angeles Times: 35 Million Dead In 35 Years — And People Are Still Dying From HIV/AIDS
This month marks 35 years since the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first reported cases of a puzzling illness that was initially thought to primarily afflict gay men. The disease, which would eventually become a global pandemic known as HIV/AIDS, sparked widespread misunderstanding and fear. It remains a major public health issue, with no cure. But awareness about the disease is widespread, and effective treatment is helping those with HIV to extend their lives. (Simmons, 6/27)

Orange County Register: National HIV Testing Day Is June 27, But Free Testing Is Available Year-Round In O.C.
National HIV Testing Day, on Monday, is designed to encourage monitoring for the virus that attacks the body’s immune system. Clinics offer free testing most days of the week year-round throughout the county. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends routine HIV testing of teens, adults and pregnant women, noting that all Americans should get tested at least once. In 2015, 6,287 Orange County residents were living with HIV, with an estimated 801 unaware they were infected, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency. Among those tested, 300 people were diagnosed last year. (Perkes, 6/24)

San Francisco Chronicle: Update Of Law On Toxic Chemicals, Years In The Making, A Victory
Last week, in a White House auditorium dotted with cancer survivors and widows and chemical industry lobbyists, President Obama signed into law the first update of the Toxic Substances Control Act, first signed by President Gerald Ford in 1976. The rare bipartisan achievement marks the first strengthening of a major federal environmental statute in two decades. Under the new version of the act, the government will slowly begin to require federal testing of industrial chemicals and could lead to a ban on asbestos, a known lethal carcinogen still in public commerce. (Lochhead, 6/24)

In other public health news —

Orange County Register: Health Care Agency Closes Part Of Dana Point Harbor To Swimmers Due To Sewage
The Orange County Health Care Agency issued a statement Thursday advising the public that there is to be no swimming in Dana Point Harbor between docks A through O due to a sewage spill. Bacteria levels in the ocean are also high in West Newport Bay’s Rhine Channel, Upper Newport Bay’s Pearson’s Port and in the area of Abalone Avenue Beach on the south side of Balboa Island. The agency is maintaining its longterm warning for Harbor Tower Marina at Pacific Coast Highway and Newport Boulevard, due to possible urban runoff. (Sudock, 6/24)

Orange County Register: Marijuana: Is It Safe? Is It Addictive? Answering Common Pot Questions
Is marijuana an addictive gateway drug that lowers IQs, triggers psychotic episodes and makes roads less safe? Or is it a miracle plant that can ease pain or provide a pleasant buzz with health risks on par with forgetting to floss? Clashing portrayals of cannabis have endured through decades of research and a gradual easing of public resistance to the drug’s use. (Edwards Staggs, 6/27)

Oakland Tribune: Grand Jury Report On Mentally Ill In Santa Clara County Jails Cites Several Problems
The Santa Clara County civil grand jury released a report on Thursday that cites lax oversight, outdated policies, short staffing and a lack of training as factors that may have contributed to the beating death of a mentally ill inmate last August. The grand jury -- a civil watchdog panel whose investigative oversight includes examining jails -- specifically honed in on what's going on related to mentally ill inmates in the wake of Michael Tyree's death, allegedly at the hands of three guards. Since the grand jury began its work in late October, the county has convened two special task forces related to jail reform: One wrapped up its six-month term in March while the other -- which has a goal of keeping mentally ill offenders out of jail in the first place -- is expected to conclude in December. (Kurhi, 6/25)

Los Angeles Times: San Diego County Unveils New Plan To Provide Shelter For Mentally Ill Homeless
San Diego County is moving forward with a new program that will provide long-term housing and care to as many as 1,250 mentally ill homeless people in the next two years. ... County government will work with 18 cities, six housing authorities and landlords to provide shelter and treatment. The program, which was approved unanimously last week by all five supervisors, is expected to cost $20 million in the upcoming annual budget, and $28 million the year after. (Stewart, 6/25)

KPCC: LA Hospital, Partner Seek To Jump Start Health Care Innovators
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles has teamed up with a startup accelerator to provide a boost to firms developing new products for the health care field. A key idea behind the effort is that providing access to medical and other experts who can give an invention a test run can make the difference between failure and success. The program, which Cedars recently launched with the global startup accelerator Techstars, runs for three months. (O'Neill, 6/27)

Sacramento Bee: Afghan Doctor Volunteers As A Lifeline For New Arrivals
Pirzada, 39, arrived from Afghanistan two years ago after working as an emergency room doctor, community health executive and protocol officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. He has emerged as a linchpin of Sacramento’s Afghan refugee community. Lacking a U.S. license to practice medicine, Pirzada earns $20 an hour as a part-time medical interpreter. (Magagnini, 6/26)

Los Angeles Times: Supreme Court Overturns Texas Abortion Restrictions
The justices, by a 5-3 vote, said Monday that Texas lawmakers went too far by imposing unnecessary regulations that had forced most of the state’s abortion clinics to go out of business. The decision is the court's clearest pronouncement since 1992 on abortion, and it makes clear that states may not impose health regulations that severely restrict the right to abortion.(Savage, 6/27)

The Washington Post: Supreme Court Strikes Down Texas Abortion Restrictions
The challenged Texas provisions required doctors who perform abortions at clinics to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital and said that clinics must meet hospital-like standards of surgical centers. Similar restrictions have been passed in other states, and officials say they protect patients. But abortion providers and medical associations say the rules are unnecessary and so expensive or hard to satisfy that they force clinics to close. (6/27)

USA Today: Supreme Court Strikes Down Abortion Restrictions
“We conclude,” Justice Breyer wrote, “that neither of these provisions offers medical benefits sufficient to justify the burdens upon access that each imposes. Each places a substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking a previability abortion, each constitutes an undue burden on abortion access, and each violates the Federal Constitution.” (Wolf, 6/27)

The New York Times: Supreme Court Strikes Down Texas Abortion Restrictions
Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. dissented. (Liptak, 6/27)

CNN: Supreme Court Strikes Down Texas Abortion Access Law
The ruling will have major reverberations on the presidential election, where the fate of the Supreme Court has been front-and-center after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February. Senate Republicans have refused to act on President Barack Obama's nomination of Judge Merrick Garland, leaving the court with eight justices. (de Vogue and Berman, 6/27)

The New York Times: When You Dial 911 And Wall Street Answers
The business of driving ambulances and operating fire brigades represents just one facet of a profound shift on Wall Street and Main Street alike, a New York Times investigation has found. Since the 2008 financial crisis, private equity firms, the “corporate raiders” of an earlier era, have increasingly taken over a wide array of civic and financial services that are central to American life. Today, people interact with private equity when they dial 911, pay their mortgage, play a round of golf or turn on the kitchen tap for a glass of water. Private equity put a unique stamp on these businesses. Unlike other for-profit companies, which often have years of experience making a product or offering a service, private equity is primarily skilled in making money. (Ivory, Protess and Bennett, 6/25)

In other national health care news —

Bloomberg: After 190 Tries, Are We Any Closer To A Cure For Alzheimer’s?
Eli Lilly has spent almost three decades working on drugs for Alzheimer’s disease with not much to show for it yet. This year the company began human tests using a totally new approach. Its latest drug targets an aberrant protein called tau that spreads through the brain as Alzheimer’s progresses, accumulating in telltale tangles that strangle brain cells. (Langreth and Koons, 6/27)

The Washington Post: You Have One Week To Tell The Government What To Do About Cancer
Have an idea about how to make progress against cancer? The federal government wants to know, but the suggestion box closes next Friday. For months, the National Cancer Institute has been gathering research ideas from the public and experts around the country via a special portal, CancerResearchIdeas.cancer.gov. The suggestions are being funneled to seven working groups looking for the best opportunities for speeding up progress against cancer. But the NCI is facing a series of deadlines, so the portal will be shut down at end of the next work week. (McGinley, 6/24)

The Wall Street Journal: The Difficult Ethics Of Organ Donations From Living Donors
Robert Osterrieder, a 52-year-old project manager, returned home to Pittsburgh from a business trip complaining about problems with his vision. Two days later, he was in the hospital on a ventilator. For the next five months, Mr. Osterrieder fought for his life. His brain swelled, and he underwent numerous medical procedures. He struggled with pneumonia and needed a feeding tube. Finally, as he lay in the hospital unconscious and with little likelihood of recovery, his family decided to remove his life support. But first, they wanted him to become an organ donor. Organ transplants are based on a longstanding rule: You can only take vital organs—a heart, for instance, or both kidneys—from someone who is dead. And removing any organ cannot be the cause of the donor’s death. (Dockser Marcus, 6/26)

NPR: Inside A Secret Government Warehouse Prepped For Health Catastrophes
When Greg Burel tells people he's in charge of some secret government warehouses, he often gets asked if they're like the one at the end of the Raiders of the Lost Ark, when the Ark of the Covenant gets packed away in a crate and hidden forever. "Well, no, not really," says Burel, director of a program called the Strategic National Stockpile at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Thousands of lives might someday depend on this stockpile, which holds all kinds of medical supplies that the officials would need in the wake of a terrorist attack with a chemical, biological or nuclear weapon. (Greenfieldboyce, 6/27)