Voice of OC: Nearly 200,000 Orange County Residents Could Lose Public Health Coverage
With a COVID-19 state of emergency terminated, the return of eligibility checks for people on public assistance in California is set to leave as many as 200,000 Orange County residents without money for doctor visits and medication refills. For the first time since the start of the pandemic, people covered under Medi-Cal must provide their income information to the state this year, which will determine between April of this year and May of next whether they can still enjoy free and low cost health services. (Pho, 6/1)

Sacramento Bee: Medi-Cal Rates For Eye Care Limit Options For Patients
Sabrina Navarro called her eye doctor in late January to make an appointment for the youngest of her four daughters. The 11-year-old’s glasses were broken. The receptionist told Navarro, 38, that the practice was no longer accepting Medi-Cal. Not even for longtime patients. “I was like, ‘Wait, what?’” Navarro said. “I feel so lost. Twelve years we’ve been going to you, and now I have to figure out where to go and what to do. I don’t even know where to start.” (Miller, 6/1)

California Healthline: As Medicaid Purge Begins, ‘Staggering Numbers’ Of Americans Lose Coverage
In what’s known as the Medicaid “unwinding,” states are combing through rolls to decide who stays and who goes. But the overwhelming majority of people who have lost coverage so far were dropped because of technicalities, not because officials determined they are no longer eligible. (Recht, 6/1)

Los Angeles Daily News: HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra Joins LA Mayor Bass To Address Homelessness 
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra joined Mayor Karen Bass in Los Angeles on Wednesday, May 31, 2023, where the two leaders agreed that the Biden Administration and officials in L.A. should together focus on root causes that leave people on the streets. (Tat, 5/31)

San Francisco Chronicle: SF Budget To Reach Record High. How Mayor Breed Wants To Spend Money
San Francisco’s budget is expected to reach $14.6 billion — a record high — for each of the next two fiscal years, even as it works to close a massive two-year deficit of about $780 million. The latest spending plan for the city and county, announced Wednesday by Mayor London Breed, increased from $14 billion in the current fiscal year because tax revenue is still growing year over year, as are the city’s expenses, including labor costs.  (Morris and Moench, 5/31)

EdSource: Amid Pockets Of Rising Student Homelessness, California Districts Tap Covid Funding To Help Families 
An injury forced the family of five to live in a leaky 1995 RV with a malfunctioning plumbing system during one of California’s wettest seasons in decades. Ana Franquis’ husband, Oscar, was fired about two years ago after injuring his back while working as a carpenter. Oscar provided their household’s sole income, so they applied for a pandemic-era rent support program. But they eventually received an eviction notice. Their children were 2, 10, and 12 years old — and they had three days to leave their apartment in Seaside. (Rosales, Gallegos and Willis, 6/1)

Voice Of San Diego: North County Report: Six Years Later, More Homeless Shelters Are Coming To North County 
San Diego County officials are prepared to release the region’s annual homeless census in a few weeks, and homeless service providers in North County anticipate an increase in the area’s homeless population after registering an increase in people seeking shelter and services.  For years though, the number of homeless shelters in North San Diego County has remained the same. (5/31)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Father Joe's Reveals Plans For Two Buildings For Homeless People
The next step in Father Joe’s Village’s mission to create 2,000 affordable housing units for homeless people was revealed Tuesday as the nonprofit provided renderings and details of two planned eight-story buildings. (Warth, 5/31)

Berkeleyside: After Decades Of Homelessness, He Had Finally Secured An Apartment In Berkeley. Now, He’s Being Evicted
After 40 years of experiencing homelessness, Maceo Clardy finally had a place of his own. It was last September when Clardy, 66, began his lease and received the keys to his new apartment. The unit was in a bright yellow South Berkeley senior housing complex. Clardy’s city caseworker helped him fill it with new furniture. Clardy said he was “the happiest guy in the world.” (Suzuki, 5/31)

San Gabriel Valley Tribune: Encino Hospital Medical Center Nurses Allege Lax Safety, Security 
As an emergency room nurse at Encino Hospital Medical Center, the 59-year-old Woodland Hills resident was used to dealing with patients who were anxious and sometimes erratic. But this time, something was different. (Smith, 5/31)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Sonoma County Interim Health Officer Kismet Baldwin-Santana Takes Job With San Mateo
Just two months after she took the job as Sonoma County’s interim health officer, Dr. Kismet Baldwin-Santana has been appointed health officer of San Mateo County. (Espinoza, 5/31)

Reuters: Exclusive: Roche Looking To Sell Or Shut Down California Biologic Drug Plant 
Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG plans to sell its 800-employee drug manufacturing plant in Vacaville, California, or it will shut the factory by 2029, according to e-mailed letters to workers seen by Reuters on Wednesday. Roche confirmed the divestiture plan in a statement, but did not address the potential closing of the plant or its timeline. (Erman, 5/31)

Bloomberg: J&J’s $8.9 Billion Talc Deal Faces Key Test In Oakland Trial
Johnson & Johnson’s first jury trial in nearly two years over allegations that its talc-based baby powder causes cancer could influence plaintiffs weighing the $8.9 billion settlement offer put forth by the company last month. (Feeley, 5/31)

The Washington Post: Medicare To Cover Alzheimer’s Drug Class That Includes Leqembi 
Medicare officials announced plans Thursday to broadly cover a new class of Alzheimer’s drugs following an intense lobbying campaign by patient advocates and drugmakers pressing for access to the first medications shown to slow cognitive decline from the disease. In a statement, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which runs the federal health program for seniors and those with disabilities, said it would cover the costly drugs — a move foreshadowed in previous agency statements — for anyone who was enrolled in the outpatient part of the program who meets the criteria for coverage. (McGinley and Roubein, 6/1)

AP: California Advances Fentanyl Bills Focused On Prevention, Increased Penalties
California lawmakers have advanced more than a dozen bills aiming to address the fentanyl crisis, including some that would impose harsher prison sentences for dealers, ahead of a critical deadline this week. Legislators in the Assembly and Senate debated measures on Wednesday as they tried to wrap up several hundred pieces of legislation before Friday — the last day a bill can pass out of its original chamber and get a chance to become law later this year. (Nguyen, Beam and Austin, 6/1)

Los Angeles Times: Homeless People Fight To Save Lives, And Stay Alive, As L.A.’s Fentanyl Crisis Worsens
Next to a row of tents covered with blue tarps on Skid Row, Jasmine Paredes watched a friend scribble a message on a lamppost with a pink Sharpie: L.A. — Fenty is #1 killa — may God help us all. Paredes had recently lost two friends to fentanyl overdoses. She prevented a third death by performing CPR and administering Narcan, a nasal spray that can reverse the effects of opioids — one of nearly a dozen times she has brought someone back from the brink, she said. (Vives, 5/31)

San Francisco Chronicle: Santa Rosa Mother Arrested After Child Overdoses On Fentanyl
A Santa Rosa mother was arrested early Tuesday morning after her 1-year-old child overdosed due to “fentanyl exposure,” Santa Rosa police said. Barbara Heywood, 39, was booked into Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of felony child abuse with serious injury, according to Sonoma County jail records. She remains in custody on $50,000 bail. (Umanzor, 5/31)

Times Of San Diego: Residents Warned To Avoid Water Contact At Lower Otay Reservoir
The city of San Diego Wednesday posted caution signs at its Lower Otay Reservoir alerting the public to avoid water contact due to an algae bloom. Visitors to the reservoir are advised not to expose their skin to the water while the cautionary alert is in effect. (Ireland, 5/31)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Judge: Sheriff Must Release Internal Records On Jail Deaths 
A federal judge ordered the sheriff’s department Wednesday to unseal internal records on people’s deaths in jails, siding with The San Diego Union-Tribune and other media outlets seeking documents previously turned over to a plaintiff’s lawyers in litigation that was recently settled. But the documents, which are related to deaths and injuries sustained by 12 people in San Diego County custody, will not be immediately released to the public. (Davis and McDonald, 5/31)

Bay Area News Group: California Has Investigated Catholic Priest Sex Abuse For Years. Victims Want Answers On What Was Found
After Pennsylvania authorities issued a bombshell report in 2018 detailing widespread sexual abuse of children and coverup in the Roman Catholic church, California’s attorney general invited victims here to share their stories. The next year, the state subpoenaed half of California’s Roman Catholic dioceses. What California authorities have learned since remains a mystery. (Woolfolk, 5/31)

Los Angeles Times: LAPD Found 700 'Ghost Guns' — Now It Is Getting $5 Million 
In 2020, over the course of numerous investigations, the Los Angeles Police Department recovered more than 700 “ghost guns” — weapons often having no serial numbers and built from components sold without background checks by Nevada-based company Polymer80, according to the Los Angeles city attorney’s office. Firearms assembled from the company’s components were used in the ambush of two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in Compton in 2020 and in a home invasion and triple murder in Glendale, the city attorney said. (Martinez, 5/31)

Capitol Weekly: The Complicated Birth Of The Lanterman-Petris-Short Act 
It is not hyperbole to call the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act of 1967 one of the most impactful pieces of California legislation of the last 60 years. The law, named for its three primary authors, fundamentally changed how this state deals with the mentally ill. The ramifications of those changes are now felt every day in virtually every community across California, for better and worse. In this piece, our Dan Morain offers an unvarnished look at the origins of this historic measure. (Morain, 5/30)

Military.Com: After 3 Years Of Delays, Army Has Again Paused Rewriting Suicide Prevention Policies 
Despite a website with vague guidance, PowerPoint presentations and at least five separate policies referencing behavioral health, the Army offers relatively few clear resources for how units are supposed to respond to soldiers who are at risk of suicide. The service has been promising to rewrite its suicide prevention policy for three years, but the effort has been repeatedly delayed. The most recent holdup is due to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's push for uniform prevention policies across the services, as recommended by an independent commission that finished work in February. (Beynon, 5/31)

CIDRAP: Study: Higher Veteran COVID Death Rate At Community Hospitals Than At VA Centers 
Most US Veterans Health Administration (VHA) enrollees aged 65 and older were treated for COVID-19 at community hospitals, which reported higher death rates for this group than VHA hospitals in 2020 and 2021, suggests an observational study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. (Van Beusekom, 5/31)

Stat: House Republicans Demand Scientist Explain Pathogen Research
House Republicans are ratcheting up pressure on federal agencies’ pandemic response with an unprecedented move: interrogating a career poxvirus scientist’s infectious disease work. In a letter to federal health officials Tuesday, top Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee asked longtime researcher Bernard Moss, who has worked for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for more than four decades, to sit for a videotaped interview about his work on mpox. (Owermohle, 5/31)

The New York Times: FDA Approves Pfizer’s RSV Vaccine For Adults 60 And Older 
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved Pfizer’s vaccine against the respiratory syncytial virus, or R.S.V., for adults age 60 and older, the second approval granted for shots offering protection from the virus this month. GSK was the first drugmaker to get the F.D.A.’s permission to market an R.S.V. vaccine on May 3. The vaccines are expected to be available in the fall before the winter R.S.V. season. (Jewett, 5/31)

Axios: Base Tan Myth: Tanning Before Vacation Isn't "Safe" Or "Protective"
The general advice that you should get a "protective" base tan before your beach vacation? It's not science-backed. Nearly 1 in 4 (24%) adults think getting a base tan will prevent sunburn, according to a new American Academy of Dermatology survey shared with Axios. You can still burn with a base tan, which offers minimal sun protection while also creating additional health risks. (Mallenbaum, 5/31)

NBC News: The Shape Of Your Brain May Strongly Influence Your Thoughts And Behavior, Study Finds
Though much about the brain remains a mystery, scientists have long surmised that our thoughts, feelings and behavior are the result of billions of interconnected neurons that transmit signals to each other, thereby enabling communication between regions of the brain. But a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature challenges that idea, suggesting instead that the shape of the brain — its size, curves and grooves — may exert a greater influence on how we think, feel and behave than the connections and signals between neurons. (Bendix, 5/31)