AP: Monstrous Wildfires Blanket Southern California With Smoky Air, Threatening The Health Of Millions 
Massive wildfires burning in the Los Angeles area have filled the air with a thick cloud of smoke and ash, prompting air quality advisories across a vast stretch of Southern California. Three major fires broke out Tuesday amid dangerously high winds, killing at least five people and destroying more than 1,000 structures. Tens of thousands of people have been told to evacuate, many in harrowing conditions. In Altadena where one of the major fires raged, the smoke was so thick a person used a flashlight to see down the street. (1/8)

Los Angeles Times: Even After A Two-Day Nightmare, L.A. Girds For More Days Of Fire Weather
Much of Los Angeles County remains under a red flag warning, with forecasters warning of critical fire weather to last through Friday night. ... Officials urged people to still be vigilant. By Thursday afternoon, winds are expected to bump back up along the region’s Santa Ana wind corridors, with gusts from the northeast of up to 40 mph, and isolated gusts of up to 70 mph. (Castleman, Harter and Lin II, 1/9)

Los Angeles Times: What To Know About Watch Duty App Amid Eaton, Palisades Fires
As L.A. County fires continue to wreak havoc, a fire-tracking app run by a Bay Area nonprofit is gaining popularity. Watch Duty, launched in 2021, combines publicly available maps of fire incidents and evacuation order and warning zones — similar to what can be found on the Cal Fire website — with shelter locations, National Weather Service alerts and real-time text, photo and video updates, with the option to receive or turn off notifications about specific incidents. (Lee, 1/8)

Los Angeles Times: Hotels Reminded That California Law Limits Price Spikes Amid Fire Crisis
As thousands of Southern Californians flee fires to seek temporary lodging, a hotel room is suddenly a more valuable commodity — and hotel prices are big question. But California law is designed to keep the lodging rates flat at moments like these. ... The same law also bans price boosts for gas, transportation, food, emergency supplies, medical supplies and building supplies. Legal penalties could include up to a year in jail and $10,000 fine. (Reynolds, 1/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: Southern California Fires Reignite Tensions Between Newsom And Trump
Fires raging in Southern California have also sparked a flareup in the ongoing feud between Gov. Gavin Newsom and President-elect Donald Trump over California’s water policies. Politicians typically avoid overt political attacks amid tragedies like the one unfolding in Los Angeles County, where fires have burned more than a thousand homes and businesses and killed at least five people. But Trump eschewed tradition Wednesday morning and took to social media to denigrate Newsom. Calling the governor by his preferred insult, “Newscum,” Trump blamed him for the fires. (Bollag, 1/8)

Politico: Biden, A New Great-Grandfather, Visits Baby And Firefighters In California Detours 
President Joe Biden on Wednesday met his first great-grandchild — and then pledged full aid to California firefighters battling a series of disastrous wildfires just miles to the west. The back-to-back trips to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and a Santa Monica fire hall were unscheduled detours on one of final trips of Biden’s presidency. He traveled to California to name two new national monuments, but the event was canceled because of the surging Santa Ana winds. (Cancryn, 1/8)

CBS News: How To Help Victims Of California Wildfires Affecting Los Angeles County 
Nonprofit groups are working to distribute essential supplies to those impacted. (Rocha, 1/8)

ABC News: This Is How Climate Change Contributed To The California Wildfires 
Climate change has played a major role in the unprecedented wildfires that are raging through Southern California. While wildfires are a natural and necessary part of Earth's cycle, climate change and other more direct human influences have increased their likelihood. Climate change is making naturally occurring events more intense and more frequent, research shows. (Glasser and Jacobo, 1/8)

Becker's Hospital Review: Hack Affects Over 65,000 Dignity Health Patients
More than 65,000 patients of San Francisco-based Dignity Health may have had their protected health information compromised in a September hack. On Sept. 20, Dignity Health Lassen Clinics in California learned an unknown individual had breached its IT network, which was temporarily disabled before being restored the following day, according to a late December notice. (Bruce, 1/8)

Modern Healthcare: JP Morgan Increases Security For 2025 Conference Amid UnitedHealthcare Shooting, Other Attacks 
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is working to increase security at its healthcare conference next week in San Francisco, according to a source familiar with the planning. The 43rd annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference kicks off Monday at the Westin St. Francis. The conference attracts thousands of attendees each year from the provider, insurance, digital health and pharmaceutical sectors, including top executives from hundreds of companies and health systems such as Mayo Clinic, Walgreens, Centene and Pfizer. (Hudson and Kacik, 1/8)

Modern Healthcare: Blue Shield Of California Is Latest Blues Plan To Restructure
Blue Shield of California is following in the footsteps of other Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurers by reorganizing its corporate structure and rearranging its leadership team. The company created Ascendiun at the start of the year to serve as the nonprofit parent of its insurance arms, its clinical services division Altais and its healthcare startup studio Stellarus, Blue Shield of California announced in a news release Wednesday. (Tepper, 1/8)

Becker's Hospital Review: Prime To Acquire Central Maine Healthcare
Ontario, Calif.-based Prime Healthcare plans to acquire Lewiston-based Central Maine Healthcare by the end of the year. Under the agreement, announced Jan. 8, Prime would become the sole owner of Central Maine Healthcare, an integrated health system with three hospitals, a cancer center and network of physician practices across the state. (Carbajal, 1/8)

Becker's Hospital Review: California System Tees Up 12 Hospital Acquisitions
Ontario, Calif.-based Prime Healthcare has lined up plans to acquire 12 hospitals this year and is open to the possibility of further acquisitions should the opportunities make sense. The ​​​​​Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board in mid-December unanimously approved Prime's $375 million acquisition of nine Ascension hospitals in the state. The transaction is expected to be completed this quarter, pending approval from the Archdiocese of Chicago since St. Louis-based Ascension is a Catholic health system. (Condon, 1/9)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego, Orange County Children’s Hospitals Complete Merger 
On Tuesday, just before noon, executives from Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego and Children’s Hospital of Orange County jointly announced the completion of a merger that has been more than a year in the making. They also unveiled a new logo to memorialize Rady Children’s Health, the new name of the combined organization covering a Southern California region that is home to more than 6 million people, 1.3 million of them children. (Sisson, 1/8)

Bay Area News Group: Parent Sues Behavioral Health Organization, Alleging Negligence Allowing Sexual Abuse Of Minor In San Jose
The parent of a special needs girl filed a lawsuit on her behalf against a behavioral health organization alleging that negligence contributed to the sexual abuse of their daughter by a therapist in San Jose, according to a news release and court filings. (Pender, 1/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: Daniel Lurie Was Sworn In As S.F. Mayor. Here’s What He’ll Tackle Now
After being sworn in as San Francisco’s new mayor Wednesday, Daniel Lurie vowed to restore a sense of order and safety to a city beset by incessant public drug dealing, people in crisis on the streets and a declining downtown, even as he warned it will take him time to enact long-lasting change. Lurie took the oath of office under sunny skies on a blue stage erected in the middle of Civic Center Plaza, with City Hall’s iconic dome looming large behind him. Minutes later, he told the large crowd seated before him how he will focus the early efforts of his administration around a push to accelerate City Hall’s response to the fentanyl crisis and fulfill promises he made in his campaign last year. (Morris, 1/8)

Stat: Biden Administration Allows Larger Incentives For People Who Reduce Meth Use
The Biden administration on Wednesday eliminated a major barrier for health providers seeking to offer contingency management, a form of addiction treatment increasingly used to help reduce the use of stimulants, particularly methamphetamine. (Facher, 1/8)

Berkeleyside: 2025 Berkeley CERT Classes Open For Disaster, First Aid Training
Berkeley is offering free disaster readiness training for anyone looking to shore up safety precautions in their neighborhoods or just learn a little more about first aid and disaster response. Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training begins this month and will repeat throughout the year, according to the city’s website. (Gecan, 1/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: If California Wine Had A Cancer Warning, Would People Keep Drinking?
The U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, sent shockwaves through the California wine world last week when he recommended that alcohol should carry a cancer warning label, similar to those on cigarette packages. The already-reeling wine industry has widely received the advisory, which stated that alcohol is the nation’s third leading cause of preventable cancer, as a sweeping setback. The assumption seems to be that Murthy’s statement will compel swaths of Americans to cut back dramatically on their drinking or stop altogether. But will it? (Mobley, 1/9)

Stat: New Scientific Names For HIV, Covid Virus Raise Hackles 
Jens Kuhn wasn’t surprised people accused him, mockingly, of doing drugs. He’s used to hate mail. After all, he has the most despised job in virology: He’s a taxonomist, a categorizer of the viral world. “We have this joke,”  he said. “When you go to a nice dinner, you shall not discuss sex, politics, religion and taxonomy.” (Mast, 1/9)

The Washington Post: Meta’s Fact-Checking Overhaul Widens Global Rift On Disinformation
While Meta said the plan would be rolled out “first” in the United States, spokesman Andy Stone said the company has no immediate plans to extend the policies to other regions, such as Europe, where social platforms have come under increased legal pressure to increase rather than diminish content moderation. The company declined to comment on whether or when it would apply changes globally. (Lima-Strong, 1/8)

The Washington Post: Meta Embraces Fact-Checking ‘Community Notes.’ X Users Say It Has Problems. 
Before the November election, Walt Wang said he spent 10 to 20 hours a week debunking falsehoods on X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk. As election-related lies and propaganda spread throughout the site, he carefully crafted responses, backed by reputable sources, to counter the false claims before they reached millions of users. But often, he said, his efforts felt “similar to a game of whack-a-mole.” He spent hours debunking one conspiracy theory, only to watch another crop up moments later. (Thadani and Oremus, 1/8)

The New York Times: National Day Of Mourning For Jimmy Carter: What It Means, And What’s Closed
A national day of mourning will be observed on Thursday for Jimmy Carter, who died on Dec. 29 at 100 years old. The day of mourning will be held on the same day as Mr. Carter’s funeral at Washington National Cathedral. ... On Dec. 30, President Biden ordered that “all executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall be closed on Jan. 9,” except those necessary for “national security, defense, or other public need.” The Postal Service will suspend mail delivery and close post offices, but there will still be limited package delivery service, a spokesman said. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq will also be closed, as will the United States Supreme Court and other federal courts. (Mather, 1/6)

Modern Healthcare: ACA Subsidies Not Doomed Amid Incoming Trump Administration 
One of the big healthcare policy questions for 2025 is whether enhanced subsidies for health insurance exchange plans will survive Republican control of the federal government. After all, Donald Trump and a GOP-led Congress nearly repealed the Affordable Care Act of 2010 eight years ago during Trump's first term as president, and he continued to rail against "Obamacare" during his 2024 campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris. But it's not 2017 anymore. (McAuliff, 1/8)

Axios: Trump Could Derail Biden's Push To Police Medical Lab Tests
The Biden administration's contentious plan to increase federal regulation of diagnostic medical tests could be swiftly dialed back after President-elect Trump is sworn in. Lab-developed tests account for a global market worth more than $12 billion but haven't been subject to pre-market approvals or controls after they're made commercially available in the U.S. (Goldman, 1/9)

The 19th: What A GOP-Controlled Congress Means For Trans People
For two years, as states pushed anti-trans laws, Republicans in Congress filed dozens upon dozens of bills that would restrict transgender rights on a national scale — but most of those bills never advanced. Now, as a new GOP-controlled Congress signals that anti-trans legislation is a top priority and President-elect Donald Trump takes office, a wave of federal anti-trans laws and executive orders is on the horizon. (Rummler, 1/8)

The Hill: Senators Introduce Measure Making Daylight Saving Time Year-Round Standard
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) reintroduced legislation to make daylight saving time year-round on Tuesday, touting bipartisan support for the measure. “I hear from Americans constantly that they are sick and tired of changing their clocks twice a year – it’s an unnecessary, decades-old practice that’s more of an annoyance to families than benefit to them,” Scott said in a statement. (Fields, 1/8)