Bay Area News Group: Trump Administration Targets California Sex Ed Program 
California must submit its sex education curriculums to the Trump administration by Tuesday for an unusual “medical accuracy review” that some LGBTQ advocates fear is a move by the administration to find new ways to limit gender-affirming care. (Gibbs, 4/1)

Stat: HHS Will Not Enforce Gender And Sexual Orientation Requirements For Medical Records
The changes to medical records hit federal systems first. In February, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services removed sexual orientation and gender identity questions from enrollment forms for Medicare beneficiaries, and the U.S. DOGE Service said it had removed gender identity from the personal information pages of Veterans Health Administration patients. Now, the Trump administration’s efforts to strip these demographics from patient forms have reached the private sector. (Palmer, 4/1)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Moves To Withhold Title X Funding From Planned Parenthood 
The Trump administration will begin to withhold some federal funding from Planned Parenthood starting Tuesday, a move that will curtail access to services including cancer screenings and affordable birth control, the organization said. Planned Parenthood said Monday that nine of its affiliates had received notice from the administration that it would withhold funding from Title X, the nationwide family-planning program. Since 1970, Title X has provided federal funding to health centers for family planning aid and reproductive health care, including birth control and other nonabortion services — including about $286 million in the 2024 fiscal year. (Somasundaram, 3/31)

The Sacramento Bee: Anti-Abortion March For Life Demonstrators Rally At California Capitol 
Hundreds gathered outside the state Capitol on Monday afternoon for the California March for Life, an annual event advocating for an end to abortion. (Wolffe, 3/31)

Roll Call: Oz Opposes Abortion, Trans Care In Letter To GOP Senator 
Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, affirmed his opposition to abortion and gender-affirming care for trans people, including for minors, in a letter to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., that Hawley posted online Monday. The letter, which Hawley posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, came after Hawley pressed Oz on past comments Oz made on his television show “The Dr. Oz Show” supporting gender-affirming care for trans people and children. (Hellmann, 3/31)

San Diego Union-Tribune: What’s In Store For UCSD? With Campus Leaders Largely Mum, Faculty And Students Are On Edge
Is my research grant about to get cut? Will I have to lay off staff? Why am I in the dark about this? Anxious questions are dominating conversations at UC San Diego, where scant updates from campus leaders have left an information vacuum in the weeks since the school learned it could lose hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. (Robbins, 3/31)

Stat: NIH BRAIN Initiative Sees Big Funding Cuts, Faces Uncertain Future 
In 2021, scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, decoded brain signals from a man who hadn’t spoken in more than 15 years to generate words that flashed on a screen. This March, Medtronic, a medical device company, won regulatory approval for a first-of-its-kind therapy that delivers precise, adjustable pulses of electricity to the brains of people with Parkinson’s disease. (Wosen and Broderick, 4/1)

AP: Layoffs Begin At US Health Agencies 
Employees across the massive U.S. Health and Human Services Department began receiving notices of dismissal on Tuesday in an overhaul ultimately expected to lay off up to 10,000 people. (Johnson, 4/1)

Forbes: How The Layoff Of 10,000 Health Workers From HHS Could Affect Your Health
This degree of downsizing may slow the approval process for many lifesaving drugs and delay inspection of food processing facilities. As an example, once the application for a new drug is submitted to the FDA, the agency has six to 10 months to approve the drug. Fewer employees mean less manpower to evaluate the safety and efficacy of new drugs that could dramatically impact diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart failure—issues that affect millions of Americans. (Awan, 3/30)

The Washington Post: Some 1,900 Scientists Accuse Trump Of ‘Wholesale Assault’ On Science 
More than 1,900 scientists have signed a letter warning that the Trump administration is threatening scientific independence and urging it to “cease its wholesale assault on U.S. science.” Since taking office, President Donald Trump and his team have upended the country’s scientific research apparatus — slashing funding, terminating grants and attempting to weed out ideas deemed unacceptable, according to the letter, which was shared on Monday. (Ables, 4/1)

The New York Times: Trump’s Science Policies Pose Long-Term Risk, Economists Warn
The Trump administration in recent weeks has canceled or frozen billions of dollars in federal grants made to researchers through the National Institutes of Health, and has moved to sharply curtail funding for academic medical centers and other institutions. It has also, through the initiative called the Department of Government Efficiency, tried to fire hundreds of workers at the National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency. And it has revoked the visas of hundreds of foreign-born students. To economists, the policies threaten to undermine U.S. competitiveness in emerging areas like artificial intelligence, and to leave Americans as a whole poorer, less healthy and less productive in the decades ahead. (Casselman, 3/31)

Politico: New FDA Commissioner Agreed To Oust Top Vaccine Regulator After Private Swearing-In 
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary signed off on the ouster of top vaccine official Peter Marks shortly after being quietly sworn in as the agency’s new leader late last week, four people familiar with the matter told POLITICO. The forced removal was Makary’s first major act as commissioner and sent a powerful signal to a stunned Washington that was already anxious about the role vaccine skepticism would play under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Health and Human Services Department. Makary and Kennedy had previously agreed to push out Marks, who led the FDA’s vaccine division for more than eight years, as part of a broader overhaul of HHS leadership. (Cancryn and Lim, 3/31)

The New York Times: Pentagon Eliminates Lower Fitness Standards for Women in Combat Roles
The Pentagon this week ordered the elimination of lower physical fitness standards for women in combat units, a move that is likely to hinder the recruitment and retention of women in particularly dangerous military jobs. An order by Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, dated Sunday and announced on Monday, mandated that all physical fitness requirements for combat arms positions — units likely to see significant fighting in wartime — be “sex-neutral,” which is likely to significantly reduce the number of women who meet the requirements. The order directs military leadership to implement the new fitness standards by the end of October. (Cameron, 3/31)

The Oaklandside: An Oakland Homeless Shelter Was Left In Shambles. Who’s To Blame?
Moldy mattresses and toilets. Crumbling ceilings. Cigarette butts, broken furniture, and thick dirt smeared on floors and walls. Nobody was living at the Lake Merritt Lodge anymore but the place was in shambles. And the owner of the building was livid. ... The yellow Harrison Street property, across from Lake Merritt, ... became transitional housing for homeless Oaklanders in 2021. (Orenstein, 3/31)

San Diego Union-Tribune: $44M To Fight San Diego Homelessness In Limbo As Trump Targets Undocumented Immigrants
In the city of San Diego, continuum of care grants amount to only about 3% of all homelessness spending for the current fiscal year, according to the Office of the Independent Budget Analyst. But the federal government is a major player in the region, particularly when it comes to rental aid programs that help keep formerly homeless people housed, and the delay in distributing funds has alarmed members of San Diego’s congressional delegation. (Nelson, 3/31)

LAist: Facing A Budget Deficit, LA County Slashes Funds For Program That Gets Unhoused People Jobs
The Los Angeles County homelessness budget approved last week included tens of millions in cuts to established services, including a 78% reduction in funding for the region’s main homeless workforce development program. LA:RISE provides services for people experiencing homelessness, county authorities said, but they do not specifically align with the county’s priorities for the next fiscal year, according to Cheri Todoroff, director of the Homeless Initiative, which manages the county’s spending. (Schrank, 3/31)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Homeless Agency Posted Solid Numbers. But It's Under Fire.
To its supporters, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority was just starting to hit its stride. Last summer, the little-known but well-funded agency announced that homelessness had effectively leveled off across Los Angeles County after years of increases. Results for the city of Los Angeles were even more encouraging, with the number of “unsheltered” homeless — people living on the street — falling by more than 10%. (Zahniser and Ellis, 3/31)

EdSource: How Schools Can Help Students Facing Homelessness Get To Class 
A quiet place to complete homework, free and stable transportation options, and not immediately being penalized for missed work are among the things that Te’yana Brown said could have helped her as she faced homelessness at different points between elementary and high school. Instead, Brown spent most mornings trying to figure out how to get to her high school. Sometimes, a family member could drive her the 45 minutes to an hour to school, while on other days she took the bus. She missed so much school at one point that she was deemed chronically absent, meaning she’d missed at least 10% of the school year. (Rosales, 4/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: Parents Sue S.F.’s Largest Treatment Provider After Son Dies In Rehab
The parents of Justin Cartwright, a man who was featured in the Chronicle after fatally overdosing inside San Francisco’s largest addiction treatment program, have sued the operator, HealthRight 360, alleging that it failed to ensure their son’s safety. The lawsuit, filed Thursday by Dawn Poole and Michael Cartwright in San Francisco Superior Court, accuses HealthRight 360 of breaching its “duty of care” and lacking meaningful oversight. It further alleges that “reckless conduct” by HealthRight 360 leadership in managing and operating its facilities created a “dangerous milieu where clients would fatally overdose due to known shortcomings” of the nonprofit. (Angst, 3/31)

Voice of OC: Another Orange County City Cracks Down On Sober Living Homes
City leaders in Mission Viejo are pushing forward new rules for sober living homes, requiring a new permitting process and distance requirements for these transitional facilities. Sober living homes — also called group homes — are meant to provide residential space for people with alcohol or drug addiction so they can stay clean and participate in a recovery program. However, these facilities can often draw complaints from locals about noise and other disturbances in residential neighborhoods. (Hicks, 4/1)

San Diego Union-Tribune: 9-Year-Old San Diego Girl Dies After Dental Surgery
San Diego police are investigating after a 9-year-old girl died hours after she had undergone dental surgery, officials said. (Figueroa, 3/31)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area Reports First Measles Case Of 2025
Bay Area health officials last week reported the region’s first confirmed measles case of the year. The case in San Mateo County, detected in February, was linked to an international traveler and authorities emphasized there is no ongoing public risk. However, with spring break travel and other international trips increasing, they urged residents to remain cautious. (Vaziri, 3/31)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego, Other Cities To Pay $11.4M For 2023 Sewage Spill Along San Diego Bay 
San Diego and several other local cities must pay an $11.4 million fine for a sewage spill in January 2023 that released 9.9 million gallons of wastewater at 30 locations between Point Loma and San Diego International Airport. (Garrick, 3/31)

Capital & Main: Residents Say Van Nuys Airport Is Making Them Sick
When Jarret Palmer moved to the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles four years ago, he thought he had found his dream home. But now, he’s regretting that decision. The roar of planes from nearby Van Nuys Airport is relentless, he said, adding that he fears the pollution from one of the nation’s busiest general aviation hubs is harming his family. Three years ago, his daughter was born underweight and spent days in the neonatal intensive care unit, he said. (Bibona and Dimapanat, 3/31)

Voice of OC: Two Anaheim High Schools Install Vape Detectors In Crackdown Efforts
Anaheim Union High School District officials are installing sensors in Cypress and Loara high schools in an effort to stop students from smoking and vaping. It comes after a drop in vaping among young people across the country, according to a report released late last year by the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Contreras and Wong, 3/31)

The Washington Post: Sandy Hook Promise ‘Say Something’ Tip Line Has Stopped 18 School Shootings 
The push to stop murders in classrooms by families who’ve experienced them continues to yield success stories even as the federal government is dismantling some tools aimed at preventing school shootings. The anonymous reporting system “Say Something” has stopped 18 people who planned to attack schools. (Jackman, 3/31)

The Oaklandside: It’s Not Just Trump: Oakland Students Are Organizing Against Guns And Other Local Ills
Earlier this month, middle school students at Lighthouse Community Charter School were in the middle of a unit on gun violence and its impacts on their communities when 15-year-old Derbing Jose Alvarado Gonzalez was shot and killed in an attempted robbery. It hit close to home for students, many of whom have had their own experiences with gun violence. One eighth grader drove past the scene with her parents soon after the shooting and mentioned it in class. Her teacher referred her to the counselor. (McBride, 3/31)