ABC News: California Authorities Seize Enough Fentanyl In San Francisco To Kill City's Entire Population Nearly 3 Times Over
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced late Wednesday that the state's highway patrol has seized enough fentanyl in San Francisco in the past six weeks to kill the city's entire population nearly three times over. (Winsor, 6/14)

KRON4: Three People Given Nine Narcan Doses At BART Stations After Suspected Overdoses
Narcan was deployed three different times at two Bay Area Rapid Transit stations on Tuesday, and two took place at the San Francisco International Airport Station, according to BART police. (Gaines, 6/14)

The New York Times: San Francisco Mayor London Breed Discusses City Struggles 
"My perspective growing up in San Francisco is a lot different than the perspective of the people who have problems with my approach," said Mayor London Breed. "I have relationships with a lot of the people who are experiencing challenges every day and suffering with addiction. Addiction is a complicated thing. It requires tough love. It requires force to a certain extent, not tolerance." (Fuller, 6/14)

AP: Former California First Responder Sentenced For Selling Fatal Dose Of Fentanyl To Hospital Co-Worker
A Southern California first responder who sold a fatal dose of fentanyl to a co-worker was sentenced Wednesday to more than 30 years in prison, federal prosecutors said. Cruz Noel Quintero, 43, was convicted last September of distributing fentanyl resulting in death, along with multiple felony weapons charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release. ... In 2019, Quintero sold a white powder he claimed was cocaine for $100 to a co-worker in the parking lot outside the hospital’s emergency room, prosecutors said. The man was found dead in Las Vegas the following day, and toxicologists later determined he overdosed on fentanyl. (6/15)

Reuters: US Drug Overdose Deaths Top 109,000 In The Past Year 
More than 109,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending January 2023, a slight increase from the previous year, according to provisional data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released on Wednesday. The figure is up 0.7% from 108,825 overdoses recorded in the 12-month period ending January 2022, according to U.S. data. (Srinivasan and Mandowara, 6/14)

National Institutes Of Health: Men Died Of Overdose At 2-3 Times Greater A Rate Than Women In The U.S. In 2020-2021
Men were significantly more vulnerable than women to overdose deaths involving opioid and stimulant drugs in 2020-2021, according to a new study(link is external) analyzing death records data from across the United States. (6/14)

Los Angeles Times: Camp Pendleton Marine And Accomplice Charged With Firebombing Costa Mesa Planned Parenthood 
FBI agents and naval investigators arrested an active duty U.S. Marine and his alleged accomplice Wednesday on federal charges of firebombing a Costa Mesa Planned Parenthood clinic last year. Chance Brannon, 23, of San Juan Capistrano, a Marine stationed at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, and Tibet Ergul, 21, of Irvine are accused of being the two masked and hooded individuals who tossed a Molotov cocktail March 13, 2022, igniting a blaze. Both were taken into custody without incident early Wednesday and were slated to appear in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana later in the day. (Winton, 6/14)

The Hill: Google Hosts, Profits From Fake Abortion Clinic Ads: Report
Google is profiting from ads placed by anti-abortion groups for so-called crisis pregnancy centers that pose as reproductive healthcare clinics but aim to dissuade pregnant people from accessing abortion care, according to a report released Thursday. The report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate’s (CCDH), a non-profit that aims to counter online misinformation, found that Google earned an estimated $10.2 million from ads for the fake abortion clinics in the last two years. (Klar, 6/15)

The Washington Post: Documents Show How Conservative Doctors Influenced Abortion, Trans Rights
A small group of conservative doctors has sought to shape the nation’s most contentious policies on abortion and transgender rights by promoting views rejected by the medical establishment as scientific fact, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post that describe the group’s internal strategies. (Weber, Gilbert and Lorenz, 6/15)

NPR: Nearly A Year Later, Most Americans Oppose Supreme Court's Decision Overturning Roe
The data, released days before the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision that overturned decades of precedent, suggests continued growth in public support for abortion rights. It comes at a time when many states are implementing new restrictions, which often include only limited exceptions for medical emergencies. A year after Dobbs, 61% of respondents said overturning Roe was a "bad thing," while 38% said it was a "good thing." (McCammon, 6/14)

San Francisco Chronicle: Doc Accused Of Driving Car Over Cliff Banned From Practicing Medicine
A San Mateo County Superior Court judge ruled Monday that Dharmesh Patel, the Southern California doctor accused of intentionally driving his Tesla off a Devil’s Slide cliff with his family in the car, can no longer practice medicine while his attempted murder case is ongoing. The Medical Board of California asked the judge to intervene, calling Patel a “danger to the public,” according to court records. Judge Rachel Holt granted the request Monday, after postponing Patel’s preliminary hearing scheduled for that morning. (Gafni, 6/13)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Buckelew To Take Over Operation Of Sonoma County’s Orenda Center, Lone Live-In Detox Site For Low-Income Residents
Sonoma County health officials said Wednesday they are handing over operation of the Orenda Center — the county’s lone residential alcohol and drug detox center for low-income residents — to Buckelew Programs. (Espinoza, 6/14)

The Hill: Oncologists Urge Congress To Act On Cancer Drug Shortages 
The House Energy & Commerce subcommittee on health held a hearing on Tuesday to examine avenues for improving preparedness against public health security risks. The hearing occurred amid an ongoing shortage of chemotherapy drugs in the U.S. ... “Frustration and outright anger do not begin to describe how I feel in reading heartbreak stories of patients with cancer not being able to receive treatment due to shortages of decades-old, low-cost generic drugs,” Ted Okon, executive director of the Community Oncology Alliance, told the House panel on Tuesday. (Weixel and Choi, 6/14)

Axios: Medicare Surge To Drive Health Care Spending Past $7 Trillion
A surge of Medicare spending on hospitals and other services later this decade will push U.S. health care expenditures to outpace inflation and top $7.2 trillion by 2031, federal actuaries said on Wednesday. (Bettelheim, 6/15)

Roll Call: CDC Alerts States Of Cuts To STI Workforce, Blames Debt Deal
The CDC told states on Tuesday that it was reducing funding for workers who fight sexually transmitted infections by $400 million, according to an email obtained by CQ Roll Call. The spending cuts are caused by the recently passed debt ceiling deal. (Cohen, 6/14)

San Francisco Chronicle: ‘Game Changer’: 5 Long COVID Treatments Researchers Are Excited About
Three-plus years after the start of the pandemic, COVID may finally be starting to feel like a distant memory for many people. But for those suffering from long COVID, each day is a reminder that the effects of the disease can linger long after it’s gone. (Castro-Root, 6/15)

CNN: FDA Advisers To Vote On Composition Of Fall Covid-19 Boosters
A panel of outside advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration will vote Thursday on the composition of updated Covid-19 vaccines that are expected to roll out in the fall, as the pandemic continues to recede from daily life but the coronavirus shows no signs of slowing its evolution. In documents posted this week, the FDA said available evidence suggests that the new vaccine should protect against just one strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus – a departure from the currently available bivalent vaccines – and should target one of three that are currently circulating in the US. Called XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16 and XBB.2.3, they’re all sublineages of the Omicron variant. (Tirrell, 6/15)

CIDRAP: Monoclonal Antibody Injection Shown To Prevent COVID-19 During Delta, Omicron
A single injection of the monoclonal antibody (mAb), adintrevimab prevented COVID-19 in the phase 2/3 EVADE trial, finds a study yesterday in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.The randomized controlled trial measured outcomes among 2,582 vaccine-naive participants ages 12 years and older who received either a single 300-milligram intramuscular injection of adintrevimab or placebo. ... There were no serious side effects reported during the study. (Soucheray, 6/14)

EdSource: Many California Districts Yet To Spend Federal Covid Relief Despite Deep, Widespread Learning Loss
California school districts so far have used only a third of the $2.7 billion that the federal government set aside to address the well-documented learning setbacks caused by Covid, state data show. (Fensterwald and Willis, 6/14)

EdSource: Amounts California Districts Were Allotted And Spent In Federal Covid Aid
See our chart of allocations and expenditures from California school districts. (Willis, 6/14)

Sacramento Bee: California School District Considers Policy Of Outing Transgender Students To Parents
Chino Valley Unified School District staff would be required to out transgender children to their parents or guardians, under a proposal being considered by the school board Thursday. If approved, that policy would put the school district at direct odds with the California Department of Education, which has issued guidance to school districts to protect the privacy of transgender students who may not be out at home. (Sheeler, 6/14)

The Washington Post: LGBTQ Americans Have Stronger Support Than Ever Amid Legislative Attacks 
Across the country, LGBTQ activists say they have told themselves one thing over and over this year: We’ve been here before. Though some might think social progress is a straight line up, historian Hugh Ryan said policymakers have often moved to curtail rights after periods of social liberation. Ryan, the author of LGBTQ history books including “When Brooklyn Was Queer,” noted that New York passed its first specifically anti-gay law, a cruising ban, 100 years ago, “immediately after [a] moment that is so progressive, it is still referred to as the Progressive Era.” (Parks, 6/14)

AP: Suicides And Homicides Among Young Americans Jumped Early In Pandemic, Study Says 
The homicide rate for older U.S. teenagers rose to its highest point in nearly 25 years during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the suicide rate for adults in their early 20s was the worst in more than 50 years, government researchers said Thursday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report examined the homicide and suicide rates among 10- to 24-year-olds from 2001 to 2021. (Stobbe, 6/15)

Big Think: Most Americans Unaware Of 988 Mental Health Helpline
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline relaunched last year with a new number, yet few Americans are aware of the helpline and its purpose. (Dickinson, 6/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Reparations For Black Californians Face Uphill Climb In State Legislature 
The first task force in the nation exploring how a state could make reparations to Black Americans hurt by slavery and discrimination is set to issue a nearly-1,000 page report to California’s legislature later this month. Following two years of work, California’s task force is likely to suggest dozens of measures that could cost hundreds of billions of dollars. State political leaders, including Black legislators who support reparations, say it could take years for many of the task force’s recommendations to be adopted. Direct financial compensation to Black Californians, they said, may not happen at all. (Mai-Duc, 6/14)

San Francisco Chronicle: Fecal Bacteria Is Polluting Some Of California’s Beaches. Five Of The Dirtiest Are In The Bay Area
Five of the 10 dirtiest beaches in California are in San Mateo County, with Linda Mar Beach in Pacifica ranking third worst, according to an annual report from an environmental group. While Linda Mar faces the Pacific Ocean, the other San Mateo County beaches that scored poorly were all located in enclosed areas or along the bay with poor water circulation, according to the 2022-23 report by the nonprofit organization Heal the Bay. The report looks at water quality at beaches from the Tijuana, Mexico, area to Washington state. (Duggan, 6/14)

Los Angeles Times: These Are California’s Dirtiest Beaches. Is Your Favorite On The List?
Most of the time, California’s waves are safe for swimmers and surfers to enjoy, but water quality experts warn there are certain times — and certain spots — that beachgoers may want to avoid. Heal the Bay outlines those locations in its annual report card of the state’s beaches. The results reflect California’s wild winter — with multiple rain-triggered sewage spills — which led to only two beaches meeting the highest clean-water standards for the entire year. (Toohey, 6/14)