The Sacramento Bee: California Tobacco Bills Spurred Hardball Political Threats
Tobacco industry lobbyists threatened to scuttle unrelated ballot initiatives if California lawmakers passed sweeping anti-smoking measures, health advocates said on Friday. While lawmakers said bills now on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk to raise the tobacco-buying age to 21 and to regulate electronic cigarettes as tobacco products drew fierce industry opposition, they characterized the effort as a hard-to-trace background campaign. Assembly Speaker-elect Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, last week told reporters lawmakers had received “threats involving electoral efforts.” (White, 3/11)

The Seattle Times: Group Health Approves Acquisition By Kaiser Permanente
Rejecting critics and community concern, voting members of Seattle’s Group Health Cooperative have overwhelmingly agreed to join with the California health-care giant Kaiser Permanente. Voting 8,824 to 1,586 in mailed-in ballots, the members approved the move that essentially dissolves the iconic, home-grown cooperative, founded nearly 70 years ago with the mission of providing integrated health care and health coverage to Northwest residents. (Aleccia, 3/10)

The Associated Press: For Some Immigrants, An Easier Path To Professional Work
There were moments in nursing school when Hina Naveed was tempted to quit, not because she couldn't do the work, but because she wondered whether, as an undocumented immigrant, she'd be allowed to get a license once she graduated. California passed a law in 2014 that eased licensing restrictions in 40 professions for qualified persons regardless of immigration status. Florida is granting law licenses to DACA holders. Nevada opened up teaching licenses, said Tanya Broder of the National Immigration Law Center. (3/13)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Tri-City May Split With CEO
Tri-City Medical Center may soon part ways with CEO Tim Moran, less than two years after hiring him and despite his help to broker an important collaboration with UC San Diego Health System. Tri-City board chair James Dagostino confirmed Friday morning that, after meeting in closed session on March 3, he and his colleagues tentatively decided to exercise the “termination at will” provision in Moran’s contract which the executive, signed when he was hired in June 2014. (Sisson, 3/11)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Meningococcal Disease Is Increasingly Rare, But Still Deadly
It’s a mystery how Kyla Winters became infected with meningococcal disease. She was 37 when her neck started hurting — far removed from the infant, adolescent or young-adult age groups most commonly afflicted. She was not living in a community setting like a dorm. She was not missing her spleen, did not have a compromised immune system. She had not been to a region, such as sub-Saharan Africa, where the disease is much more common and the risk of infection is greater. (Sisson, 3/13)

In other public health news —

The Fresno Bee: Syphilis Cases Growing Exponentially In Fresno County
Fresno County syphilis cases are soaring – even though the sexually transmitted disease was nearly nonexistent here six years ago – which has led county health officials to seek help from state and federal officials. Medical workers from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have joined the county’s staff and the state Department of Public Health-Sexually Transmitted Disease Control Branch in seeking solutions to the county’s syphilis crisis, which may be linked to drug use and prostitution. (Benjamin, 3/12)

The Sacramento Bee: UC Davis Researcher Touts Synapse Health To Avoid Brain Function Decline
There is a burgeoning amount of research being done on synapses and their effect on the aging brain. Researchers are looking into whether there is a link between synapse health and inherited developmental brain disorders and into why structural changes in synapses leave neurons vulnerable to death. (Ortiz, 3/12)

The Sun: San Bernadino County Confirms First Zika Virus Case
Public health officials announced Friday that San Bernardino County has reported its first Zika virus case. As with all 20 confirmed cases in California, this victim, a woman in her 60s, was infected while traveling outside of the country, officials said. (Steinberg, 3/11)

KERO Bakersfield: After Being Banned Last Year, Spice Still Affecting Kern County Families
Despite being banned in Kern County last year, spice is still a prevalent and dangerous force around town, and it's having a grave effect on families. "Well it's greatly impacting my family life," says Rachel Darrah. "My son is currently addicted and throwing up blood." The drug, which looks marijuana, is sprayed with toxic chemicals. These chemicals are what make spice so dangerous. (Johansen, 3/11)

The Associated Press: Obama Credits Nancy Reagan With Spurring Medical Research
President Barack Obama is crediting the late Nancy Reagan with spurring research into Alzheimer’s and other diseases. He says no one understood the importance of pursuing potentially life-saving treatments than the former first lady. She was buried Friday alongside her husband at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. President Ronald Reagan died of Alzheimer’s in 2004. (3/12)

The Associated Press: Obama Health Law Missed 2015 Enrollment Target
Last year's final enrollment numbers under President Barack Obama's health care law fell just short of a target the administration had set, the government reported Friday. The report from the Health and Human Services Department said about 8.8 million consumers were still signed up and paying premiums at the end of last year. HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell had set a goal of having 9.1 million customers by then. So the administration didn't miss its target by much — about 3 percent. (3/11)

The Associated Press: ACA Co-Ops Lose Millions In 2015; Some Expect 2016 Profits
The Affordable Care Act's health insurance co-ops absorbed deep financial losses last year, and 2016 is shaping up to be a make-or-break year for these nonprofit alternatives to traditional insurers. Officially called Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans, these still-fledgling insurers were devised during the ACA's creation to inject competition into insurance markets. But they have struggled from the start to build a customer base from scratch and deal with higher-than-expected expenses, among other problems. (3/11)

In other national news —

The Washington Post: Rattled By Drug Price Increases, Hospitals Seek Ways To Stay On Guard
Doctors at the University Hospitals of Cleveland see an immediately recognizable symbol pop up alongside certain drugs when they sign in online these days to prescribe medications for patients: $$$$$. The dollar signs, affixed by hospital administrators, carry a not-so-subtle message: Think twice before using this drug. Pick an alternative if possible. The Zagat-like approach is just one of the strategies hospitals nationwide are using to try to counter drug costs. (Dennis, 3/13)

Los Angeles Times: Voter Anger Over Surging Prescription Drug Costs Has Generated A Campaign Issue
[The] concern about the cost of prescription drugs has emerged as a big issue in the presidential campaign, prompting candidates in both parties to sharpen their rhetoric against pharmaceutical companies and put curbing drug prices at the center of their healthcare plans. The message is particularly resonant here in Florida, which holds its primary Tuesday and where people over 60 make up more than a third of registered voters. At the Democratic debate in Miami on Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders repeatedly castigated drug companies for “ripping off” the American public. Hillary Clinton has vowed to rein in drug prices and is running an ad in Florida specifically focusing on the “predatory” pricing of one embattled pharmaceutical company, Valeant. (Mason, 3/11)

The New York Times: Test Of Zika-Fighting Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes Gets Tentative F.D.A. Approval
The federal government on Friday moved to clear the way for the release of genetically engineered mosquitoes into the wild for the first time in the United States, tentatively approving a field test that might help slow the spread of the Zika virus. The genetically engineered insects, which contain a gene that will kill their offspring, have already shown effectiveness in small tests in Brazil and other countries in suppressing the populations of the mosquitoes that transmit both Zika and dengue fever. (Pollack, 3/11)