Sacramento Bee: California’s Poverty Rate Is Still The Highest In The US
Newly released federal estimates show California’s poverty rate remained the highest in the nation, despite a modest fall, and the state’s falling uninsured rate slowed for the first time since before Medicaid expansion. According to the Census Bureau, the share of Californians in poverty fell to 19 percent — a 1.4 percent decrease from last year. However, policy experts warned that in spite of the good news more than 7 million people still struggle to get by in the state. (Finch, 9/12)

Capital Public Radio: California Has One Of The Nation's Highest Poverty Rates, Again 
The supplemental poverty measure takes into account factors such as the cost of housing and health care. Under the Census’ standard poverty measure, which is based strictly on income, California’s poverty rate is 13.4 percent, closer to the national average of 12.9 percent. Sara Kimberlin, senior policy analyst at the nonprofit California Budget and Policy Center, said the supplemental rate is a more accurate measure because the cost of living is so different from state to state. And in California, she said rents are rising more quickly than earnings. (Caiola, 9/12)

California Healthline: California’s Uninsured Rate Declined Last Year Despite Federal Efforts To Roll Back ACA
The state’s uninsured rate edged down even as Republicans in Washington, D.C. sought to roll back the Affordable Care Act. The rate of uninsurance dropped in just two other two states: New York and Louisiana. In the Golden State, the rate of uninsured residents stood at 7.2 percent last year, compared with 7.3 percent in 2016. Since 2013, the year before the coverage-expanding provisions of the federal health law took effect, California’s uninsurance rate has dropped 10 percentage points — the largest decrease of any state, according to the Census Bureau. (Galewitz, 9/12)

The Mercury News: More Than Half Of Tech Workers Delay Kids, Blame Cost Of Living
Even Bay Area tech workers blame a lot of their problems on housing. The region’s sky-high rents and home prices are exacerbating their commutes, forcing their paychecks to stretch thinner, and, according to a new survey — keeping them childless longer. Though some residents blame the area’s highly paid tech workers for driving up the cost of housing, data increasingly shows that these days, even tech workers feel squeezed by the Bay Area’s scorching prices. Fifty-eight percent of tech workers surveyed recently said they have delayed starting a family due to the rising cost of living, according to a poll that included employees from Apple, Uber, Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Lyft and other Bay Area companies. (Kendall, 9/13)

The Mercury News: Juul Labs Co-Founders Want No Cigarette Smokers. Seriously.
Before the surging popularity of e-cigarettes, two Stanford University graduate students worked together on a product design master’s thesis that aimed to disrupt the long-established cigarette industry. Fourteen years later, they are the co-founders of Juul Labs — selling popular, but controversial e-cigarettes with flavored “pods.” The two, Chief Technology Officer Adam Bowen and Chief Product Officer James Monsees, say the pods — tiny capsules that store patented nicotine salts — are healthier and don’t contain the tar or carcinogens commonly found in regular cigarettes. Both say they had tried to quit smoking several times and see their products as helping others to kick the habit. (Lee and Sumagaysay, 9/13)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Cracks Down On Juul And E-Cigarette Retailers
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday declared that teenage use of electronic cigarettes has reached “an epidemic proportion,” and it put makers of the most popular devices on notice that they have just 60 days to prove they can keep their devices away from minors. The order was part of a sweeping government action that targeted both makers and sellers of e-cigarettes. If Juul Labs and four other major manufacturers fail to halt sales to minors, the agency said, it could remove their flavored products from the market. It also raised the possibility of civil or criminal charges if companies are allowing bulk sales through their websites. (Kaplan and Hoffman, 9/12)

The Associated Press: Calling Teen Vaping 'Epidemic,' Officials Weigh Flavor Ban
The warning from the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday cited recent data pointing to a sharp rise in underage use of the devices, including Juul, Vuse and others. It marks a shift in the agency's tone on e-cigarettes. Since 2017, FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb has discussed e-cigarettes as a potential tool to ween adult smokers off cigarettes, although that benefit hasn't been proven. (9/12)

The Washington Post: FDA Chief Calls Youth E-Cigarettes An ‘Epidemic’
The latest data, not yet published, show a 75 percent increase in e-cigarette use among high school students this year, compared with 2017. The FDA declined to publicly release the numbers, but people familiar with them said they were preliminary data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey, on which the agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collaborate. (McGinley, 9/12)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Chief Considers Ban Of All Flavored E-Cigarettes
Dr. Gottlieb said he believes that certain flavors make the products appealing to teens. “The availability of e-cigarettes cannot come at the expense of addicting a new generation of youth onto nicotine, and it won’t,” he said in an interview. The announcement marks an about-face for the agency, which in 2016 granted a grace period for e-cigarettes already on the market until the manufacturers submitted products for FDA review. Last year, Dr. Gottlieb extended that grace period to 2022, allowing Juul Labs Inc. and others to continue to sell their existing products. (Maloney, 9/12)

NPR: FDA Takes Action Against Teen Vaping Epidemic
The announcement was immediately hailed by anti-tobacco advocates. "This is potentially the most important step FDA has taken to curtail youth use of e-cigarettes," said an emailed statement from Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "Today's announcement will represent a fundamental turning point, if but only if, FDA formally requires all manufactures to comply with these requirements and FDA reverses its policy and requires that all of these products undergo premarket review now, not four years from now." (Stein, 9/12)

Los Angeles Times: An 'Epidemic Of Nicotine Addiction' Among Kids Prompts FDA To Get Tough On E-Cigarette Makers
The actions were greeted with defiance and derision from the vaping industry. “Thousands of small-business vape shops across America do not engage in irresponsible marketing practices and don't even sell the products being targeted by the FDA with threatening letters,” said Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Assn., a nonprofit organization that advocates for what it calls sensible regulation. (Healy, 9/12)

Capital Public Radio: Chronic Loneliness Is A Major Cause Of Suicide For Seniors, Especially In Rural California 
Research shows that suicide rates among Hispanic adults, who are more likely to be protected by close-knit families and cultural traditions that reinforce the value of life, are significantly lower than most other groups. In Amador County, which is 80 percent white, the lack of nearby family or social services within walking distance can make residents feel abandoned. (Caiola, 9/12)

Medpage Today: Provider Groups Hit Back At California's Death Certificate Project
Leaders in organized medicine in California and nationally are expressing horror over the state medical board's "Death Certificate Project." "This is terrifying," said Barbara McAneny, MD, president of the American Medical Association and an Albuquerque, N.M., oncologist. It "will only discourage doctors from taking care of patients with pain." (Clark, 9/12)

The Mercury News: Toddler Left In Hot Car Dies
An 19-month-old girl died Tuesday after being left alone in the backseat of a car all day in Moraga, police said. The tragedy appears to be an accident, but police will know more after the investigation is complete, police Chief Jon King said. Confirmed by King on Wednesday, the death is the first of its kind in the Bay Area and third in California this year. “The family is devastated,” he said. (Hurd, 9/12)

The Mercury News: Death Of Child In Hot Car In East Bay Recalls Similar Tragedies
While the death of an 19-month-old girl who’d been left alone in the backseat of a car all day Tuesday in Moraga was an unspeakable tragedy, it sadly was not the first. California has seen a number of such incidents in recent years. Despite the heavy publicity that usually follows such tragedies — and the warnings by authorities to take steps to ensure that such accidents never happen — the cases seem to keep coming. Since 1998, 789 children have died due to pediatric vehicular carstroke, according to data at noheatstroke.org, a website run by Jan Null, a San Jose State professor and former meteorologist with the National Weather Service. (May, 9/12)

In other news from across the state —

The California Health Report: Jump In Sacramento Homeless Deaths Follows Statewide Trend
The number of homeless people dying in Sacramento County is up dramatically, according to a new report, reflecting a trend that’s engulfing the state as homelessness continues to rise. A total of 127 homeless people died in 2017, according to a report by the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness, which obtained figures from the county coroner’s office. That’s up from 71 deaths in 2016, a 75 percent increase. It’s also almost three times the average number of deaths of homeless people in the county between 2002 and 2013. Homeless people in Sacramento County are now five times more likely to die than people in the general population, the report stated.  They’re also 23 times more likely to be murdered, and 17 times more likely to commit suicide, figures showed. (Boyd-Barrett, 9/13)

The New York Times: Planned Parenthood Names Leana Wen, A Doctor, Its New President
Planned Parenthood, under fire from conservatives in Washington and state capitols, chose Leana Wen, an emergency room doctor whose family fled China when she was a child, as its next president Wednesday, picking a woman who won praise for her steadying hand as Baltimore’s health commissioner during the city’s convulsive protests in 2015. Dr. Wen, 35, grew up poor in Compton, Calif., after her family left China following the Tiananmen Square massacre just before her eighth birthday. She relied on Medicaid as a child, and in nearly four years in Baltimore has drawn acclaim for working with corporations and churches to close racial disparities in health care and sharply reducing infant mortality. (Zernike, 9/12)

The Washington Post: Planned Parenthood Taps Baltimore Health Commissioner As President
Wen, 35, immigrated from China with her family as a child. Her family relied on Medicaid, food stamps and Planned Parenthood for health care as she grew up in California, she said. She succeeds Cecile Richards, who ran the organization for the past 12 years and whose background is more political. Richards was deputy chief of staff to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and is the daughter of former Texas governor Ann Richards. (Bernstein, 9/12)

Politico: Planned Parenthood Names Outspoken Trump Critic As President
Earlier this year, Wen and the Baltimore City Health Department successfully sued the Trump administration over federal funding cuts to teen pregnancy prevention programs. She also has spoken out against the administration's changes to Title X family planning grants and the proposed domestic gag rule that would limit information about abortion that providers receiving federal money could share with patients. Just this summer, Wen joined with other cities in another lawsuit against the Trump administration's cuts to open enrollment outreach and other changes the advocates say have sabotaged the Affordable Care Act's marketplaces. (Ollstein, 9/12)

The Associated Press: Planned Parenthood Picks Chinese-Born Doctor As New Leader
Wen graduated summa cum laude from California State University, Los Angeles and earned her medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine before becoming a Rhodes Scholar. Early in her tenure as Baltimore's health commissioner, she provided strong leadership as the city was wracked by violent protests related to disputed police actions. She expanded trauma and mental health services, and secured funding for a program designed to treat gun violence as a contagious disease. (9/12)

The Associated Press: The Apple Watch Is Inching Toward Becoming A Medical Device
Apple is trying to turn its smartwatch from a niche gadget into a lifeline to better health by slowly evolving it into a medical device. In its fourth incarnation, called the Series 4 and due out later this month, the Apple Watch will add features that allow it to take high-quality heart readings and detect falls. It's part of Apple's long-in-the-making strategy to give people a distinct reason to buy a wrist gadget that largely does things smartphones already do. (Liedtke, 9/13)

Los Angeles Times: Apple Unveils Big, $1,099 IPhone XS Max And Pitches Upgraded Apple Watch As Health Device
“The FDA worked closely with the company as they developed and tested these software products, which may help millions of users identify health concerns more quickly,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. Healthcare products on ubiquitous devices, such as smartwatches, may help users seek treatment earlier and empower them with more information about their health, he said. (Gurman, 9/12)

Stat: The New Apple Watch, With FDA's Blessing, Comes With An EKG App 
Theirs is the first electrocardiogram ever to be available over the counter, Apple’s COO Jeff Williams said. The Apple Watch Series 4 will cost at least $399. Apple wasn’t the only one bragging about the move Wednesday. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb also jumped in to tout his agency’s role in the clearance. (Sheridan, 9/12)

The New York Times: Apple Unveils Bigger IPhones At Higher Prices, And A Heart-Tracking Watch
Apple has long had a playbook for iPhones, its most important product: Keep rolling out bigger, faster and more expensive models. On Wednesday, it repeated that strategy by introducing another round of iPhones that are — you guessed it — bigger, faster and more expensive. ...More notable, perhaps, was how much Apple is now evolving its smart watch into a clearly health-related device. The company showed off a new Apple Watch with an electronic heart sensor approved by the Food and Drug Administration. That could lead to new implications for health care — and prove to be a major selling point for a device that has played second fiddle to the iPhone. (Chen, Nicas, Manjoo and Abelson, 9/12)

Reuters: Apple IPhones Get Bigger And Pricier, Watch Turns To Health
It is positioning the new watch as a more comprehensive health device, able to take an electrocardiogram to detect an irregular heartbeat and start an emergency call automatically if it detects a user falling down, potentially appealing to older customers. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it worked with Apple to develop apps for the Apple Watch and has been taking steps to ease the regulatory pathway for companies seeking to create digital healthcare products. (9/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Apple Adds Heart-Monitoring, Fall-Detection Features To Its Watch
The Apple Watch ECG “could be beneficial to lots of patients” by picking up intermittent rhythm problems, said C. Michael Valentine, president of the American College of Cardiology and a cardiologist with Centra Medical Group in Lynchburg, Va. Yet doctors also raised concerns about potential risks from relying on the app. Dr. John Mandrola, a cardiac electrophysiologist in Louisville, Ky., said the ECG feature could misdiagnose patients because of inaccurate readings, or lead to overtreatment of patients. The watch may also detect cases of low-risk atrial fibrillation that don’t need to be treated, said Eric Topol, a cardiologist and director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute. This could lead to unnecessary prescriptions for blood thinners that carry bleeding risks, he said. (Loftus and Mickle, 9/12)

The Associated Press: Senate Approves 1st Spending Bill To Avert Partial Shutdown
As a major hurricane menaces the East Coast, Congress is moving to avert a legislative disaster that could lead to a partial government shutdown just weeks before the November midterm elections. Senators approved a $147 billion package Wednesday night to fund the Energy Department, veterans' programs and the legislative branch. The bill is the first of three spending packages Congress hopes to approve this month to avoid a government shutdown when the new budget year begins Oct. 1. (9/12)

In other national health care news —

The Hill: Trump Officials Make It Easier To Avoid ObamaCare Mandate Penalty 
The Trump administration is making it easier for individuals to opt out of ObamaCare’s individual mandate. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) says it is streamlining the way taxpayers can claim “hardship exemptions” from the mandate, which requires everyone have health insurance or pay a fine. (Weixel, 9/12)

The Hill: Kavanaugh Explains 'Abortion-Inducing Drugs' Remark Amid Backlash 
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh told senators that he was summarizing the plaintiffs' views in an ObamaCare case when he referred to birth control as "abortion-inducing drugs." Kavanaugh's use of the phrase during his confirmation hearing sparked days of backlash from Democrats and progressive groups, who argued the Supreme Court pick was trying to signal his own views. (Carney, 9/12)

The New York Times: Detention Of Migrant Children Has Skyrocketed To Highest Levels Ever
Even though hundreds of children separated from their families after crossing the border have been released under court order, the overall number of detained migrant children has exploded to the highest ever recorded — a significant counternarrative to the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the number of undocumented families coming to the United States. (Dickerson, 9/12)

The Washington Post: Residents See A Failure At All Levels Of Government
Puerto Ricans sharply rebuke President Trump, along with the federal and local governments, for last year’s response to Hurricane Maria, a devastating storm that created an enduring humanitarian crisis affecting nearly all aspects of life on the island territory, according to a new Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll. (Clement, Zezima and Guskin, 9/12)

Politico: Trump Tries To Rewrite History On Maria As Hurricane Florence Approaches
Facing renewed criticism of his administration’s response to Hurricane Maria, President Donald Trump lashed out again on Wednesday, grousing about his administration’s “unappreciated great job” on the Puerto Rico recovery – despite the remoteness of the island, poor access to electricity and the “totally incompetent Mayor of San Juan.” “We are ready for the big one that is coming!” an exuberant Trump concluded, as a new storm spun toward the East Coast. (Cadelago and Restuccia, 9/12)

Stat: Many Americans Still Misuse Prescription Drugs, But Abuse Patterns 'Changing'
Although more than half of Americans misuse prescription drugs, the percentage that did so has held steady for four consecutive years, according to a new analysis. Meanwhile, though, there has also been a surge in the use of illicit drugs and medicines obtained without a prescription among patients being treated for substance use disorders. The overall rate at which drugs were misused was 52 percent last year, according to an analysis of approximately 3.9 million laboratory test results that were stripped of identifying patient information. (Silverman, 9/12)

Reuters: Cancer Deaths Rise To 9.6 Million As Populations Grow And Age
Cancer will claim the lives of 9.6 million people in 2018, accounting for one in eight of all deaths among men and one in 11 among women, the World Health Organization's cancer research agency said on Wednesday. In its GLOBOCAN report detailing prevalence and death rates from many different types of cancer, the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said the global cancer burden would rise to an estimated 18.1 million new cases this year. This was up from 14.1 million - and 8.2 million deaths - in 2012, when the last GLOBACAN survey was published. (9/12)

Stat: Study Cracks Open The Secrets Of The Cancer-Causing BRCA1 Gene 
Lawsuits didn’t do it, public shaming didn’t do it, patients and doctors banding together to “free the data” couldn’t do it: For 22 years Myriad Genetics, one of the oldest genetic testing companies, has refused to make public its proprietary database of BRCA1 variants, which lists more than 17,000 known misspellings in that major “cancer risk” gene, along with the medical significance of each. The database lists which mutations increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, which do not, and which have an unknown health effect. (Begley, 9/12)

The Washington Post: How Donor Sperm Is Creating Enormous Genetic Families Around The World
Kianni Arroyo clasps 8-year-old Sophia’s hands tightly as they spin around, giggling like mad. It’s late afternoon, and there are hot dogs on the grill, bubble wands on the lawn, balls flying through the air. The midsummer reunion in a suburb west of the city looks like any other, but these family ties can’t be described with standard labels. Instead, Arroyo, a 21-year-old waitress from Orlando, is here to meet “DNA-in-laws,” various “sister-moms” and especially people like Sophia, a cherished “donor-sibling.” (Cha, 9/12)