The Bay Area Reporter: Newsom Signs Bill Requiring California Disaster Plans Include LGBTQ Needs
Disaster plans in the Golden State will now have to ensure they take into consideration the unique needs of LGBTQ+ communities across California. By January 1, 2027, the state's Office of Emergency Services, known as Cal-OES, must update the State Emergency Plan in consultation with LGBTQ+ organizations and community advocates. It is due to Governor Gavin Newsom signing into law Senate Bill 990 authored by gay state Senator Steve Padilla (D-San Diego). It was one of a number of bills Newsom signed September 20 and that his office announced late Friday night. (Bajko, 9/21)

KQED: Bill Would Mandate Greater Transparency From Nonprofits Serving Californians With Developmental Disabilities
A bill before Gov. Gavin Newsom would force the group of regional nonprofits that serve Californians with developmental disabilities to comply with the same transparency laws as state agencies, allowing nearly 450,000 people with disabilities to access certain records and information related to their care for the first time. The bill, AB 1147, passed the state Assembly and Senate without opposition at the end of August, after a 19-month fight in which many of its accountability measures were stripped out. (Egusa, 9/23)

Los Angeles Times: Looming Restrictions On THC Drinks And Gummies Alarm Hemp Industry 
Earlier this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed new emergency restrictions on California’s hemp industry, citing an urgent need to protect children. His concern: a class of loosely regulated products that contain intoxicating levels of THC, the compound known for causing cannabis highs. While many agree some changes are necessary, a number of business owners and consumers worry the governor’s new rules are too strict and will kneecap a nascent industry just as it’s hitting the mainstream. (Sheets, 9/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: War Over Trans Student Policies In California Schools Is Still Raging
A Southern California school district at the center of the state’s debate over parental notification policies, which require staff to report to parents when students identify as transgender, is pushing back against a recent court ruling that appears to strike down such policies as discriminatory. The San Bernardino County Superior Court earlier this month issued a ruling that permanently halts the parental notification policy in the Chino Valley Unified School District, which was the first district in the state to introduce such a rule. Critics refer to the approaches as “forced outing” policies because they require that some students be outed to their parents against their wishes. (Allday, 9/20)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Second-Term Agenda On LGBTQ Issues Alarms Civil Rights Groups 
Penny Nance slid a form across the table to Donald Trump at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. Her Christian nonprofit, Concerned Women for America, wanted Trump to pledge in writing that a person’s “gender identity” doesn’t “overrule their sex,” and that if he becomes president again, “all federal agencies will be directed to uphold this fact in every policy and program at home and abroad.” Such a promise would have wide-ranging implications, the form emphasized, affecting schools, prisons, shelters, health-care providers, the military and more. But it was an easy sell, Nance recalled of her June 2023 conversation, and Trump soon signed the pledge. On the trail a few days later, Trump marveled aloud at the crowd’s standing ovation for his promise to crack down on “transgender insanity.” (Knowles, 9/22)

Bay Area News Group: Public Health, Wellbeing On Berkeley's Ballot This November
Proponents of Measure HH, which needs a simple majority of votes to pass, say requiring the city to improve air quality in its buildings to tackle issues from airborne illnesses to wildfire smoke would save the city money in the long run by reducing health care costs, the number of sick days employees take and workers’ compensation. (Lopez, 9/23)

San Diego Union-Tribune: The Week That Changed The Conversation About The Crossborder Sewage Crisis 
It was the week that finally may have shifted the momentum to work collectively, rather than separately, to understand the health effects of the decades-long sewage crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. (Murga, 9/22)

Voice of San Diego: Scientists May Transform Border Sewage Crisis Into Air Pollution Crisis With Enormous Stakes
For years, San Diegans understood the environmental disaster that is sewage spilling from Tijuana into South Bay as a water quality problem. Experts in the emerging field of detecting how polluted water transfers bacteria, viruses and other bad stuff into the air have made it their mission to investigate the Tijuana River estuary. Whatever’s in the water can make its way into your mouth, lungs and gut, these scientists are saying. In other words, the stink that South Bay residents so intimately know could make you really sick. (Elmer, 9/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: Breed Says Homeless People Living In RVs In SF Face Towing
Mayor London Breed confirmed Friday that San Francisco is planning aggressive restrictions on overnight parking of recreational vehicles to tackle the surge of people living in them amid neighborhood resistance. Breed said people living out of RVs parked on San Francisco streets could soon see their vehicles towed if they turn down offers of shelter. The Chronicle reported on the overnight parking ban proposal last week based on planning documents after the media outlet El Tecolote first broke the news, but the mayor’s office didn’t confirm the plan until Friday. (Angst, 9/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: Homelessness Sweeps In Central Valley Intensify After SCOTUS Ruling
Mike Jones has been homeless for 20 of his 59 years of life, and as he watched a team of police and street cleaners throw away his pile of soggy tarps and trash last week, he shrugged. ... Jones’ ability to remain outside this city’s shelter system is about to get a lot harder. The same goes for every other homeless person in this rapidly growing town and virtually every other locality in the sprawling farmlands of the Central Valley. (Fagan, 9/23)

Becker's Hospital Review: UC Riverside Med School To Create Curriculum On Substance Use Care
Researchers at the University of California Riverside School of Medicine are developing a curriculum to educate future physicians on caring for patients with substance use disorders. Typically, students receive a few lectures on the topic over the course of their four years in medical school. The new effort at UCR School of Medicine aims to integrate more in-depth education on substance use disorder throughout the entire curriculum. (Carbajal, 9/20)

Becker's Hospital Review: Drugmakers To Discontinue Fentanyl 'Lollipops': FDA
Drugmakers will discontinue the sales of a controversial class of fentanyl-based painkillers by the end of September, the FDA confirmed Sept. 16. The medications, known as transmucosal immediate release fentanyl, include products such as Actiq, a fentanyl lozenge on a stick often referred to as a "fentanyl lollipop," and fentora, a dissolvable tablet. These drugs, initially approved for managing breakthrough pain in cancer patients who are opioid tolerant, have been linked to fueling the opioid overdose crisis in the U.S., CBS News reported Sept. 19. (Murphy, 9/20)

The Washington Post: Racism, Other Social Factors May Affect Asian Americans’ Heart Health
Immigration status, structural racism and other social factors may contribute to disparities in cardiovascular health among Asian Americans, according to a statement prepared by a group of clinicians and researchers and published in the American Heart Association journal, Circulation. Asian Americans are less likely than White adults to have or die of heart disease, according to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health. But researchers in the Circulation article note that cardiovascular health can vary widely between subgroups of Asian Americans, and warn that combining different subgroups of people into a single “Asian” category could mask important differences. (Blakemore, 9/22)

Modern Healthcare: Cybersecurity Plan For Reducing Data Breaches Unveiled By CMS
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has developed a five-pronged plan geared toward reducing data breaches and ensuring accountability among healthcare organizations. The strategy, which will expand on policies CMS Principal Deputy Administrator Jonathan Blum shared Sept. 12 at Modern Healthcare's Leadership Symposium, will be introduced and implemented in the coming months, according to federal agency leaders. (Perna, 9/20)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Sets National Dates For Medicaid Enrollment Compliance
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is cracking down on state Medicaid programs after determining that widespread problems with enrollment still haven’t been fixed. Although the Medicaid unwinding process is essentially complete, CMS is not satisfied with its takeaways. Inappropriate disenrollments and applications backlogs skyrocketed when states resumed Medicaid eligibility checks in early 2023 after pausing them during the COVID-19 public health emergency, and CMS is concerned that some problems remain unresolved. (Early, 9/20)

Reuters: Challenge To US Drug Price Negotiation Program Revived By Appeals Court
A U.S. appeals court revived a lawsuit on Friday by healthcare and drug industry groups challenging the first-ever U.S. law requiring pharmaceutical companies to negotiate drug prices with the government's Medicare health insurance program that covers 66 million people. The decision from the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not address the merits of the case, which was brought by the nation's largest drug industry lobbying group, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and others. Instead, the court found only that a Texas judge was wrong to dismiss the case in February on the grounds that he did not have jurisdiction to hear it. (Pierson, 9/20)

Stat: Medicare Drug Price Negotiations: Study Predicts Drugs Up Next
The GLP-1 drug Wegovy tops the list of medications expected to be included in the next round of Medicare price negotiations, according to a paper in the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy. Last month, Medicare officials unveiled prices for the first 10 drugs chosen for negotiation. Now, all eyes are on which Part D drugs will be chosen for the next round of 15 drugs. (Wilkerson, 9/23)

The New York Times: F.T.C. Accuses Drug Middlemen Of Inflating Insulin Prices 
The Federal Trade Commission said on Friday that it had taken legal action against the three largest pharmacy benefit managers, accusing the drug middlemen of inflating insulin prices and steering patients toward higher-cost insulin products to increase their profits. The legal action targets CVS Health’s Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts and UnitedHealth’s Optum Rx and subsidiaries they’ve created to handle drug negotiations, agency officials said. The three collectively control 80 percent of prescriptions in the United States. (Abelson and Robbins, 9/20)

USA Today: No Government Shutdown For Now: Congress Agrees On Temporary Funding Deal Into December
Congress has reached a deal to extend government funding through Dec. 20, leaders announced on Sunday, kicking the can down the road as lawmakers try to dodge a devastating shutdown. The agreement avoids the shutdown that was slated to begin at midnight on Sept. 30, ensuring Americans retain access to crucial government services and sidestepping an embarrassing political blunder with just weeks until the presidential election. The House is expected to vote on the funding extension, known as a continuing resolution or CR, on Wednesday. The deal struck between the GOP-controlled House and Democratic-controlled Senate came after House Speaker Mike Johnson tried and failed to pass a six-month extension that included a bill requiring people to show proof of citizenship to vote. The deal announced on Sunday didn't include the effort. (Beggin, 9/22)

Reuters: US Victims Of Food-Benefit Theft Could Lose Means Of Recovering Funds
Recipients of U.S. federal food aid whose benefits are stolen will soon have no way to recoup the lost funds unless Congress takes action by the end of September. Roughly 42 million Americans receive food aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The benefits are loaded onto electronic benefit transfer cards, akin to debit cards, and can be stolen when illegal devices on card-swiping machines copy the card data. Congress passed a law in 2022 that for the first time enabled states to replace stolen benefits. The provision expires on Sept. 30. (Douglas, 9/20)

Military.com: Veterans Not Covered By Toxic Hazards Legislation Wait Decades For VA Recognition, Report Finds
The passage of the PACT Act gave millions of veterans the chance at expedited disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs, but thousands of others exposed to environmental hazards in military service wait roughly 31 years to receive similar recognition from the VA, a new report has found. (Kime, 9/20)

Reuters: Background Checks Blocked Thousands Of Gun Sales To Youth, Domestic Abusers, White House Says 
Enhanced background checks have blocked thousands of gun sales to people under the age of 21 and those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence crimes in the past year, the White House said on Sunday, a year after President Joe Biden set up a new office to accelerate work on preventing gun violence. Homicides have dropped 17% in the period, building on the largest-ever drop in homicides in 2023, the White House said. It said data from the Gun Violence Archive showed that mass shootings were also down 20% to date in 2024 compared to a year earlier and would reach their lowest level this year since 2019. (Shalal, 9/22)

Stateline: Safe Storage And Minimum Age Gun Laws Would Curb Violence, Study Says
Gun policy has been a topic of debate in America for decades, and its prominence has increased as gun-related deaths and mass shootings have risen nearly every year since 2014, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks gun violence in the United States. Many Americans despair of ever taming the epidemic, but a new report says certain laws can make a difference. (Hernández, 9/20)

Sacramento Bee: Gun Violence In Sacramento: 5 Shootings, 5 Dead In 26 Hours 
Five people, including a 12-year-old boy, were killed and three people were wounded as gun violence gripped the city of Sacramento in 26 hours. The shootings took place in the city’s north, south, east and central districts and brought the year’s homicide toll to 34. (Hunt, 9/22)

San Francisco Chronicle: FDA Approves First Nasal Spray Flu Vaccine For At-Home Use
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first flu vaccine that comes in the form of a nasal spray and can be administered at home — a development that infectious disease experts hope will boost access to and uptake of influenza immunization. The vaccine FluMist, made by drug company AstraZeneca, has been approved in the United States since 2003 but its use was limited to health care settings such as flu clinics and hospitals. Starting in the fall of 2025, it will be available for in-home use with a prescription. (Ho, 9/20)

Los Angeles Times: COVID Subvariant XEC A Potential Winter Threat; Vaccinations Urged
A new coronavirus subvariant is gaining steam and drawing more attention as a potential threat heading into late autumn and winter — a development that threatens to reverse recent promising transmission trends and is prompting doctors to renew their calls for residents to get an updated vaccine. XEC, which was first detected in Germany, is gaining traction in Western Europe, said Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious diseases at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. Like virtually all coronavirus strains that have emerged in the past few years, it’s a member of the sprawling Omicron family — and a hybrid between two previously documented subvariants, KP.3 and KS.1.1. (Lin II, 9/23)

CNN: Whooping Cough Cases Are Soaring. Can Infecting People Help Test A Better Vaccine?
Whooping cough is surging in the United States, with cases now five times higher than they were at the same point last year, according to preliminary data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was reported Friday. It’s the highest number of whooping cough infections since 2014, “with no indication of slowing down,” said Dr. Susan Hariri of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, who presented the data Friday at a meeting of experts who advise the US Food and Drug Administration on its vaccine decisions. (Goodman and McPhillips, 9/20)