AP: House Republicans Are Pushing Trump’s Big Bill To The Brink Of Passage
House Republicans are preparing to vote on President Donald Trump’s $4.5 trillion tax breaks and spending cuts bill early Thursday, up all night as GOP leaders and the president himself worked to persuade skeptical holdouts to drop their opposition and deliver by their Fourth of July deadline. Final debates began in the predawn hours after another chaotic day, and night, at the Capitol. House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted the House would meet the holiday deadline. (Mascaro, Jalonick, Askarinam, Freking and Cappelletti, 7/3)

Politico: Jeffries Calls Out Republicans Over Medicaid Ahead Of Final Megabill Vote 
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is blasting Republican colleagues over Medicaid as he issues extended remarks ahead of the final GOP megabill vote. Jeffries is utilizing his so-called magic minute to read off letters sent in by individuals in each state who rely on benefits that potentially hang in the balance as a result of the megabill’s provisions. (Razor, 7/3)

The New York Times: Tax Cuts Now, Benefit Cuts Later: The Timeline In The Republican Megabill 
Republicans deferred some of their most painful spending cuts until after the midterm elections. (Romm, Duehren, Sanger-Katz, Plumer and Wood, 7/2)

ABC News: Former CDC Officials Warn Proposed Budget Cuts Could Cost American Lives In 2026
Proposed funding cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the fiscal year 2026 federal budget will lead to significant negative health impacts for millions of Americans, a coalition of former federal health officials said. These proposed funding cuts are not related to the "big, beautiful bill" that is making its way through Congress. (Benadjaoud and Davis, 7/3)

Roll Call: Rep. Carter, Seeking Georgia Senate Seat, Surrenders Health Gavel 
Rep. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter will step down as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, he announced Wednesday. Carter, a Georgia Republican who is challenging presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Jon Ossoff for Senate in 2026, made the announcement via a press release Wednesday as House Republicans prepared to take up the Senate-passed budget reconciliation bill. (Wehrman, 7/2)

The New York Times: How Health Care Remade The U.S. Economy 
For years, the United States labor market has been undergoing a structural transformation. As jobs in manufacturing have receded, slowly but steadily, the health care industry has more than replaced them. The change has been particularly visible over the past year, during which health care has been responsible for about a third of all employment growth, while other categories, like retail and manufacturing, have stayed essentially flat. (DePillis and Zhang, 7/3)

Voice of OC: As ICE Raids Continue In OC, Santa Ana Creates $100,000 Aid Fund For Impacted
Residents impacted by ICE raids in the heart of Orange County – where Latinos make up an overwhelming majority of the county’s only sanctuary city – are slated to get some aid from the City of Santa Ana. ... City council members voted unanimously at their Tuesday meeting to start a $100,000 temporary financial aid fund with money pulled from 10% of the city’s events budget to help immigrant families impacted by the visible uptick of ICE raids in Santa Ana. (Elattar and Custodio, 7/2)

AP: A Day Outside An LA Detention Center Shows Profound Impact Of ICE Raids On Families
At a federal immigration building in downtown Los Angeles guarded by U.S. Marines, daughters, sons, aunts, nieces and others make their way to an underground garage and line up at a door with a buzzer at the end of a dirty, dark stairwell. It’s here where families, some with lawyers, come to find their loved ones after they’ve been arrested by federal immigration agents. On a recent day, dozens of people arrived with medication, clothing and hope of seeing their loved one, if only briefly. After hours of waiting, many were turned away with no news, not even confirmation that their relative was inside. Some relayed reports of horrific conditions inside, including inmates who are so thirsty that they have been drinking from the toilets. ICE did not respond to emailed requests for comment. (Ding, 7/2)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. ‘Under Siege’: Federal Lawsuit Targets Rampant Immigration Raids
Masked, unidentified agents have been “systematically” cornering brown-skinned people in a show of force across Southern California, tackling those who attempt to leave, arresting them without probable cause and then placing them in “dungeon-like” conditions without access to lawyers, a federal lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit filed Wednesday by immigrant rights groups against the Trump administration describes the region as “under siege” by agents, some dressed in military-style clothing and carrying out “indiscriminate immigration raids flooding street corners, bus stops, parking lots, agricultural sites, day laborer corners.” It seeks to block the administration’s “ongoing pattern and practice of flouting the Constitution and federal law” during immigration raids in the L.A. area. (Uranga, Mejia and Buchanan, 7/2)

Bay Area News Group: Contra Costa County Reports 26% Drop In Homelessness
Contra Costa County reported a 26% decline in homelessness from 2024, a remarkable drop, especially as most other parts of the Bay Area have seen steep increases in recent years. (Varian and Lauer, 7/3)

The Oaklandside: Should Alameda County Spend Measure W Money On Homelessness?
Hundreds of millions of Alameda County tax dollars should be freed up soon, but a struggle has been brewing over who should get it and how it should be used. The money comes from Measure W, a half-cent sales tax narrowly approved by voters in 2020. Election materials advertised that the revenue — up to $200 million per year — would be spent on housing and services for homeless people. (Orenstein, 7/2)

The Intersection: Transitional Housing Program Offers Kern County Mothers Path To Stability
It had been just a few months since Emily Miranda turned 18 and she was trying to find a place to live with her then 2-year-old son. She had been living with her mother at the time, working and covering household bills. ... Miranda and her son are one of just seven families living at Casa Esperanza. The home includes shared amenities, such as a kitchen, living room and dining room, and a backyard with a playground. Along with housing, the program provides mental and emotional health support, and educates women on financial wellness, parenting, career development, health and nutrition. (Barahona, 7/2)

Becker's Hospital Review: Keck Medicine Of USC Awards $100K To Top Nurses
This year, 10 nurses at Los Angeles-based Keck Medicine of USC received $10,000 each in recognition of their nursing excellence. The Simms/Mann Family Foundation’s Off the Chart: Rewarding Nursing Greatness program recognizes nurses for their leadership, ingenuity and expertise in caring for patients. (Taylor, 7/2)

MediaNews, Vacaville Reporter: 3 Bay Area Residents Charged In Massive Nationwide Health Fraud Crackdown
A Vacaville nurse is among the hundreds of people arrested in the massive nationwide health care fraud “takedown” announced this week by the Department of Justice. (Miller, 7/2)

Becker's Hospital Review: Workers At 6 Sharp HealthCare Medical Offices Unionize
Workers at Sharp HealthCare medical offices across the San Diego area have voted to form a union with SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West. The election, conducted in June by the National Labor Relations Board, covers approximately 40 front-line workers at six offices known as SharpCare in Coronado, Chula Vista, La Mesa, San Diego, Santee and Spring Valley, according to the union. (Gooch, 7/2)

Petaluma Argus-Courier: Petaluma And Santa Rosa Hospice Workers Kick Off 2-Day Strike Against Providence
Nearly 100 hospice workers and supporters protested in Petaluma and Santa Rosa on Wednesday as part of a two-day strike against what they call bad-faith bargaining with Providence as the health care giant joins forces with a private equity-backed hospice company. (Sawhney and Espinoza, 7/2)

Becker's Hospital Review: Astrana Health Acquires Prospect For $708M
Alhambra, Calif.-based Astrana Health acquired Los Angeles-based Prospect Health System on July 1 for $708 million. Astrana, formerly known as Apollo Medical Holdings, entered into a $745 million definitive agreement for the company in November. Prospect’s medical groups comprise more than 11,000 providers across Arizona, Southern California, Rhode Island and Texas. (Ashley, 7/3)

Los Angeles Times: Federal Contractors Dumped Wildfire Asbestos Waste At L.A. Landfills
Federal contractors tasked with clearing ash and debris from the Eaton and Palisades wildfires improperly sent truckloads of asbestos-tainted waste to nonhazardous landfills, including one where workers were not wearing respiratory protection, according to state and local records. (Briscoe, 7/3)

Newsweek: Never-Smokers' Lung Cancer May Worsen In Areas With Air Pollution
Lung cancer appears to mutate more in patients living in areas with higher levels of fine-particulate air pollution, such as that released by vehicles and air pollution. This is the conclusion of a study from the National Institutes of Health and the University of California, San Diego, which studied tumors in nearly 900 lung cancer patients who had never smoked. (Randall, 7/2)

CalMatters: CA Mental Health Support Centers Are Reeling From Budget Cuts
Phone lines that provide mental health support to tens of thousands of Californians say they are on the verge of shutting down or dramatically scaling back as a result of cuts in the state’s new budget. Representatives from the support lines, which are distinct from hotlines that serve people in crisis, say they help thousands of Californians with mental health needs each month. (Wiener, 7/3)

The Bay Area Reporter: South, North Bay LGBTQ Centers Go Through Changes
San Francisco may have one of the country’s highest concentrations of queer people, but the LGBTQ communities north and south of the city also have community centers to meet people’s needs. One of those, the San Mateo County Pride Center, is reckoning with limitations as its fiscal sponsor seeks a merger to survive. Southbound from San Francisco on Highway 101, the center at 1021 South El Camino Real in the city of San Mateo provides mental health and senior services, as well as peer groups for LGBTQ+ parents and gay men, plus a book club. The center just passed its eighth anniversary, having opened June 1, 2017. (Ferrannini, 7/2)

Los Angeles Times: Young Boy Now Blind And Quadriplegic — Authorities Blame His Parents' Extreme Health Views 
Parents who brought their unresponsive newborn to an Orange County hospital in 2020 were convicted of felony child abuse this week, on charges they exposed the baby to extreme heat and cold and failed to provide him necessary nourishment, causing severe brain damage that left the child a quadriplegic, and unable to talk or see. John Andres Gonzalez, 38, and Jaqueline Navarro, 45, were each convicted of felony child abuse and endangerment, with an enhancement for causing great bodily injury to a child under 5, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office. They each face a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison. (Toohey, 7/2)

AP: RSV Vaccine Access Expanded To Some People In Their 50s, According To CDC Website
The Trump administration appears to be expanding RSV vaccinations to some adults starting at age 50, down from 60, following the advice of a recently fired panel of government vaccine advisers. The decision appears on a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention webpage but as of Wednesday wasn’t on the agency’s official adult immunization schedule. In April, the CDC’s influential Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended expanding RSV vaccination to high-risk adults as young as 50, too. But the CDC lacks a director to decide whether to adopt that recommendation and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. didn’t immediately act. (Neergaard, 7/2)

AP: Trump Administration Official Restricted COVID Vaccine Approvals, Overruling FDA Staff
The government’s top vaccine official working under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently restricted the approval of two COVID-19 vaccines, disregarding recommendations from government scientists, according to federal documents released Wednesday. The new memos from the Food and Drug Administration show how the agency’s vaccine chief, Dr. Vinay Prasad, personally intervened to place restrictions on COVID shots from vaccine makers Novavax and Moderna. Both vaccines were approved by the FDA in May after months of analysis by rank-and-file FDA reviewers. (Perrone, 7/3)

Times of San Diego: San Diego's Families Will Pay The Price For The 'Big Beautiful Bill'
For more than 100 years, our goal at United Way of San Diego County has been to ensure every child gets the education they need to succeed and every family — no matter their income — has a fair shot at stability. We do this through community partnerships that help families access the financial resources they need, such as the EITC coalition and financial education workshops through our SparkPoint program. (Nancy L. Sasaki, 6/28)

San Francisco Chronicle: Trump’s Budget Threatens Programs For Developmentally Disabled Artists
The life of an artist, including those with a developmental disability, can be a solitary one, but Elana Cooper is part of a thriving community. Each day, a van picks her up and delivers her to her studio in San Francisco’s Mission District, where she joins dozens of other artists at work. Since 2013, Elana has been a member of Creativity Explored, a 42-year-old nonprofit studio and gallery based in San Francisco that serves artists with developmental disabilities. (Linda Johnson, 7/1)

Los Angeles Times: RFK Jr. Is Dismantling Trust In Vaccines, The Crown Jewel Of American Public Health
When it comes to vaccines, virtually nothing that comes out of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s mouth is true. The man in charge of the nation’s health and well being is impervious to science, expertise and knowledge. His brand of arrogance is not just dangerous, it is lethal. Undermining trust in vaccines, he will have the blood of children around the world on his hands. (Robin Abcarian, 6/29)

The Sacramento Bee: Angelique Ashby’s SB 802 Faces Backlash In Sacramento
When State Senator Angelique Ashby of Sacramento unveiled her plan to centralize the governance of homelessness in the county, it was not the result of endless negotiations with all of the impacted governments and non-profit organizations. For many, it appears to have been a complete surprise. (Tom Philp, 7/2)