Los Angeles Times: Californians Are Keeping Their Lawmakers' Phones Ringing: 'They Really Hate Donald Trump' 
Members of Congress have been inundated with phone calls and emails in the scant weeks since President Trump took office, with staff answering two to three times as many calls and emails as normal. Some are organic outpourings of concern from constituents concerned about the new administration. Others are inspired by the progressive groups that have formed as an outlet for angst about what the Republican-led Congress will do with a Republican White House. (Wire, 2/9)

Previous California Healthline coverage: Threat Of Losing Obamacare Turns Some Formerly Apolitical Californians Into Protesters

Los Angeles Times: Planned Parenthood's Political Arm Endorses Jimmy Gomez In Race To Replace Xavier Becerra
Planned Parenthood has endorsed Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles) in his campaign for the 34th Congressional District. The endorsement, made by the group's political advocacy wing, comes two days after a kerfuffle over the endorsement Gomez received from the California Democratic Party over the weekend. (Mai-Duc, 2/8)

KQED: Planned Parenthood Finds Friendly Ground In California 
The Republican-dominated Congress in Washington, D.C., has threatened to pull federal funding from Planned Parenthood by cutting grants and Medicaid reimbursements to the organization. But the nonprofit is on much friendlier terms with California’s Democratic-controlled state government. Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards met with state Senate Democrats on Tuesday. (Orr, 2/8)

Capital Public Radio/KXJZ: Will They Or Won't They? Physician Participation In End Of Life Option Act 
Physicians must now decide whether to assist patients asking for an end-of-life drug under the state’s new aid-in-dying law. But how does a doctor decide if they should participate in the practice? Dr. Lonny Shavelson has been seeing patients interested in California’s End of Life Option Act for the past four months. (Johnson, 2/8)

Los Angeles Times: Southern California Gas To Pay $8.5 Million To Settle Lawsuit Over Aliso Canyon Leak
Southern California Gas Co. will pay $8.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by air quality regulators over the Aliso Canyon gas leak and will fund a study of community health effects. The settlement with the South Coast Air Quality Management District, announced Wednesday, resolves a dispute over the months-long leak of methane from the gas company’s Aliso Canyon storage facility above the Porter Ranch neighborhood of Los Angeles. (Barboza, 2/8)

In other public health news —

The San Diego Union-Tribune: SD Flu Season Not Letting Up 
Hopes that the flu season may have peaked a few weeks ago are looking premature, according to San Diego’s latest public health report. Released Wednesday by the San Diego County Department of Health and Human Services, the weekly snapshot of influenza activity across the region shows that emergency room activity, the total number of confirmed cases and the total number of flu-related deaths all increased last week. Now standing at 39, the number of fatal cases reported to to the public health department by San Diego County hospitals is now nearly four times as high as it was last year and two more than the prior three-year average. (Sisson, 2/8)

KPBS: One Out Of Four American Adults Have Suffered Hearing Loss
Hearing loss affects 40 million Americans.A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals it is not only the elderly who are affected. In fact, the report finds 19 percent of Americans between the ages of 20 and 29 have lost some of their hearing. (Goldberg, 2/8)

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Sonoma County Names New Health Services Director
Sonoma County has named Barbie Robinson, a veteran health administrator who for nearly five months served as interim head of the county health department, as its director. The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday appointed Robinson director of health services, one of the county’s largest departments, with more than 700 staff members and an annual budget of $245.5 million. Robinson became interim director in September 2016 following the resignation of previous health director Dr. Stephan Betz. (Morris, 2/8)

In other news from across the state —

Fresno Bee: FUSD At Board Meeting Feb. 8 Approves Six New Student Health Centers 
Fresno Unified trustees approved a partnership Wednesday night with two health-care institutions for six new school-based health centers. And more could be on the horizon, but finding school nurses for the sites could be a challenge. Board members agreed with a partnership with Clinica Sierra Vista and Valley Children’s Healthcare for the six sites. Clinica will be responsible for operating the centers and Valley Children’s will be responsible for capital costs for buildings and equipment. (Anderson, 2/8)

Politico: GOP Swimming In Obamacare Replacements, But No Consensus
Republican leaders want to get their Obamacare repeal effort back on track. There’s a big problem, though: They’re neck-deep in competing plans to replace the law. Nearly a half-dozen plans have been introduced or are coming — none with the broad support needed to get through Congress and win over the public. And that’s making it far more difficult to repeal a law the GOP has spent six years trying to kill. (Everett and Haberkorn, 2/9)

The Hill: Republicans Growing Impatient With Pace Of ObamaCare Repeal 
Republican lawmakers on Wednesday said they are not happy with the pace Congress is taking on repealing ObamaCare. In a meeting with reporters, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said he would like the healthcare law to be repealed within the next two or three months. "I don't think that we should allow it to go beyond that window, the repeal, because I think the American people are suffering." (Hellmann, 2/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Obamacare Provisions Gain Unexpected Backers As GOP Moves To Rewrite Law
When the Affordable Care Act was debated in 2010, the country’s biggest gynecologists’ group spoke out against it, saying it wouldn’t help doctors get paid more fairly or avoid frivolous malpractice lawsuits. Today, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is fighting efforts to fully repeal the law, pushing especially to keep a ban on charging women higher health insurance premiums than men. (Hackman, 2/8)

NPR: Indian Country's New Health Care Jobs Could Vanish With Obamacare Repeal
Since its founding in the 1950s, the Indian Health Service has provided medical care for many Native Americans. But the service has been chronically underfunded, so often pays for care only if someone is in immediate danger of losing life or limb. In recent years, the Affordable Care Act created new health coverage opportunities for more than half a million Native Americans and Alaska Natives — and created jobs in Indian country, too. (Whitney, 2/9)

In other national health care news —

USA Today: New Stock Questions Plague HHS Nominee Tom Price As Confirmation Vote Nears
President Trump's choice to be the top U.S. health official bought and sold health care company stocks often enough as a member of Congress to warrant probes by both federal securities regulators and the House ethics committee, former government ethics lawyers say. A USA TODAY analysis of stock trade reports by Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., also shows he often misstated the timing of stock purchases or failed to report them altogether. (O'Donnell, 2/8)

The Washington Post: More Than 350 Organizations Write Trump To Endorse Current Vaccines’ Safety
More than 350 organizations, including leading U.S. medical, advocacy and professional organizations, have sent a letter to President Trump expressing their “unequivocal support for the safety of vaccines.” The effort, organized by the American Academy of Pediatrics, reflects the growing alarm among a wide array of groups over Trump’s embrace of discredited claims about vaccine safety. After a meeting in January with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a proponent of the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism, a Trump spokeswoman said he was considering creation of a commission on autism. (Sun, 2/8)

Stat: Doctors' Antibiotics Guidance May Not Stand Test Of Time
You’ve heard it many times before from your doctor: If you’re taking antibiotics, don’t stop taking them until the pill vial is empty, even if you feel better. The rationale behind this commandment has always been that stopping treatment too soon would fuel the development of antibiotic resistance — the ability of bugs to evade these drugs. Information campaigns aimed at getting the public to take antibiotics properly have been driving home this message for decades. But the warning, a growing number of experts say, is misguided and may actually be exacerbating antibiotic resistance. (Branswell, 2/9)

NPR: From Measles To Syphilis, The Golden Age Of Germs
Ten thousand years ago, at the dawn of the agricultural revolution, many of our worst infectious diseases didn't exist. Here's what changed. With the rise of agriculture, for the first time in history humans were living in close contact with domesticated animals — milking them, taking care of them and, of course, eating them. All that touching and sharing gave animal germs plenty of chances to get inside us. (Poole, 2/9)