CalMatters: ICE Visits Startle CA Hospitals And Patients. Workers Want New Rules.
Federal immigration agents are more routinely showing up at California medical facilities as the Trump administration ramps up deportations. They may come to the emergency room, bringing in someone who’s suffering a medical crisis while being detained. They may wait in the lobby, as agents did for two weeks at an L.A.-area hospital waiting for a woman to be discharged. Or they may even chase people inside, as federal agents did at a Southern California surgical center. (Ibarra and Hwang, 8/26)

Becker's Hospital Review: Trump's Rollback Of Biden Competition Order Stirs CEO Debate
The healthcare industry is once again recalibrating after President Donald Trump revoked a Biden-era executive order aimed at limiting hospital consolidation. While some health system leaders see the move as a green light for growth and regional alignment, others remain skeptical, warning that systemic challenges ... still pose roadblocks to meaningful change. ... Chris Van Gorder, president and CEO of San Diego-based Scripps Health, believes regional mergers can be valuable for achieving economies of scale — particularly in response to payer and supplier consolidation — but uneven state and federal enforcement continue to be a barrier. (Condon and Gooch, 8/25)

CIDRAP: Despite Decolonization Efforts, Nursing Home Rooms Remain Contaminated With Resistant Organisms
A study conducted in three US nursing homes highlights the challenge of reducing environmental contamination with multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs). The study by researchers with the University of California Los Angeles Medical Center and the University of California Irvine School of Medicine, published last week in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, involved implementation of routine bathing/showering with chlorhexidine and nasal iodophor to reduce MDRO colonization in residents. (Dall, 8/25)

Axios: Fewer Qualified Doctors For Hire: Survey
Almost 2 in 3 physicians say there aren't enough qualified doctors to fill openings in their area, in another sign of how the health care workforce is straining to meet patient demand. (Bettelheim, 8/26)

Los Angeles Times: Expect Health Insurance Prices To Rise Next Year, Brokers And Experts Say
Pricey prescriptions and nagging medical costs are swamping some insurers and employers now. Patients may start paying for it next year. Health insurance will grow more expensive in many corners of the market in 2026, and coverage may shrink. That could leave patients paying more for doctor visits and dealing with prescription coverage changes. (Murphy, 8/25)

Capital & Main: Trump’s Policies Are Adding Up To A Hostile Work Environment
In California, crops have gone unharvested, as farmworkers stay home out of fear of immigration raids. Internal Revenue Service workers in Kansas City have found themselves jockeying over desks after remote workers were abruptly ordered back to the office. Tariffs are putting the brakes on hiring. President Donald Trump won a second term with a promise to support the working-class voters who backed him. But many workers now feel less secure and find their jobs harder to do — squeezed by immigration crackdowns, federal layoffs and funding cuts, and weakened labor protections. (Goodheart, 8/25)

Stat: HHS Terminates NIH Program Aimed At Diversifying Biomedical Workforce 
The Department of Health and Human Services is terminating a National Institutes of Health grant program that supports students from marginalized backgrounds in the biomedical sciences. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the elimination of the program — the Minority Biomedical Research Support Program — in a document posted to the Federal Register Monday. Kennedy cited the program’s failure to comply with the Trump administration’s executive orders that prevent federal agencies from supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion-related activities. (Paulus, 8/25)

NBC News: The 'Mozart Of Math' Rarely Speaks On Politics. The Wide-Ranging Cuts To Science Funding Made Him Change That.
Terence Tao, one of the world’s foremost mathematicians, who is often called the “Mozart of Math,” would rather not talk politics. “I do scientific research,” Tao said. “I vote, I sign a petition, but I don’t consider myself an activist.” But after the July suspension of $584 million in federal grants at UCLA, which he joined as a faculty member at age 20, Tao said he feels forced to speak out against what he views as “indiscriminate” cuts to science that could drive scientists away from the U.S., including himself, if trends continue. (Bush, 8/26)

Los Angeles Times: COVID Rising Fast In California, Fueled By New 'Stratus' Variant
COVID-19 is once again climbing to troubling levels in California — a worrying trend as health officials attempt to navigate a vaccine landscape thrown into uncertainty by delays and decisions from the Trump administration. Public health departments in Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties have reported jumps in the coronavirus concentrations detected in wastewater in recent weeks. L.A. County also has reported a small increase in patients hospitalized with COVID. (Lin II, 8/26)

Sacramento Bee: Cannabis Marketing To Children Raises Public Health Concerns
When California legalized recreational cannabis in 2016, voters were promised a safe, regulated market that would prioritize child safety. Nearly a decade later, a lack of clear state regulations and insufficient enforcement from the Department of Cannabis Control created a system that critics say is failing to protect the state’s most vulnerable. Public health experts are saying the problem starts with packaging. (Wu, 8/25)

The Bay Area Reporter: Almost 1% Of Americans Are Trans, Analysis Says
Nearly 3 million Americans, or 0.8% of the country’s population, are transgender, according to a data analysis from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. The LGBTQ think tank used data from the federal government to arrive at its findings. The data is sorted into adult and youth estimates. That 3 million figure includes 263,700 adult Californians, or 0.9% of the state’s adult population, among the 546,300 trans adults across the Western states, as well as 84,600 Californians ages 13-17, or 3.2% of the state’s youth population, among the 175,000 trans youth across the Western states. (Ferrannini, 8/25)

KQED: ‘A Place For Us, By Us’: San Francisco’s Disability Cultural Center Breaks New Ground
Nearly five decades ago, frustration over the government’s lack of urgency to make public buildings more accessible reached a flashpoint. It was April 1977, and more than 100 disabled protesters staged a nearly month-long sit-in at a federal building in San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza. After 26 days, and with support from groups like the Black Panthers and allies including then-Mayor George Moscone, the activists successfully convinced the country’s secretary of health, education and welfare to implement the long-delayed Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. (Johnson, 8/25)

CapRadio: Colorful Experiment At UC Davis Explores How Lighting Can Reduce Stress
Feelings of stress can bubble up everywhere, caused by everything from public speaking to cramming for an upcoming test. To combat this anxiety many people will turn to meditation, deep breathing exercises and other self-care activities. But recently, a team of researchers at UC Davis looked at whether the built environment that surrounds us can help cut down stress — specifically by changing the color of lighting. (Gonzalez and Laschinsky, 8/25)

Higher Ed Dive: Half Of College Students Say Their Mental Health Is ‘Fair’ To ‘Terrible,’ Survey Finds
Half of college students rate their mental health as fair, poor, or terrible, according to a recent survey from The Steve Fund, a nonprofit that focused on the mental health of young people of color. The survey also found about 40% of students were “very or extremely stressed about maintaining their mental health” while in college. About 1 in 5 students said the same about connecting with other students and finding their niche in college. (McLean, 8/26)

AP: AI Inconsistent In Handling Suicide-Related Queries, Study Says
A study of how three popular artificial intelligence chatbots respond to queries about suicide found that they generally avoid answering questions that pose the highest risk to the user, such as for specific how-to guidance. But they are inconsistent in their replies to less extreme prompts that could still harm people. The study in the medical journal Psychiatric Services, published Tuesday by the American Psychiatric Association, found a need for “further refinement” in OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude. (Ortutay and O’Brien, 8/26)

Los Angeles Times: Why LA Wildfire Survivors Are Still In Limbo Months Later
When Marianne Wisner first returned to her Pacific Palisades home after the Palisades fire, she was happy to see her house still standing, but it still had damage that made it clear the fire hadn’t left her home totally untouched. “We went back to the house and discovered a lot of smoke, soot, damage,” Wisner said. She assumed clean-up would be a straightforward process. Instead, it has become months of frustration and uncertainty, as she goes back and forth with insurance adjusters, contractors, and testing specialists who don’t offer clear answers to help her get back home quickly. (Yap, 8/25)

Capital & Main: Forest Service Cuts Leave Firefighters Mowing Lawns While Morale Craters
After mass layoffs and deferred resignation offers hollowed out a large part of the U.S. Forest Service earlier this year, federal firefighters have been left to pick up the slack — some now clean toilets while others mow lawns around ranger stations. Some employees said firefighters have been prevented from joining fire suppression efforts because of these new responsibilities. The Forest Service currently lacks the manpower it needs to manage the worsening wildfire crisis, according to its own website. (Lindenfeld, 8/25)

Los Angeles Times: State Farm's Handling Of Fire Claims Draws Rebuke From State Lawmakers
Legislators representing Altadena-area fire victims called Monday for Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara to crack down on alleged misconduct by insurers and to halt any rate increase for State Farm General. In a news conference held at an Altadena library, the legislators, led by Assemblyman John Harabedian (D-Pasadena), said too many fire victims were still grappling with their insurers more than six months after the Jan. 7 fires. (Darmiento, 8/25)

San Francisco Chronicle: Marin County Plans To Build A Homeless Shelter Next To Point Reyes
Marin County is racing to develop a homeless shelter near the coast to house dozens of workers and their families who will be displaced from jobs and housing when 12 dairies and ranches in Point Reyes National Seashore close early next year. On Tuesday, the Marin County Board of Supervisors is expected to approve the purchase of a vacant lot in Point Reyes Station for a homeless shelter, property that would eventually be used for permanent affordable housing. (Duggan, 8/25)

The Oaklandside: Maya Motel In Temescal Will Become Homeless Housing
The modest Maya Motel in Temescal will be converted into supportive housing for formerly homeless residents using $17.6 million in state, city, and county funds. The project is the 10th in Oakland to receive funding through California’s Homekey program. Launched early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Homekey supports the redevelopment of hotels and other existing buildings into permanent supportive housing. (Orenstein, 8/25)

Newsweek: RFK Jr.'s MAHA Strategy Blasted By Farm Group That Endorsed Him 
Farm Action, a nonpartisan, farmer-led watchdog organization that advocates for accountability from the government and large corporations within the agricultural sector, rated the contents of a recent leaked draft of the MAHA strategy a "D+," saying, "It recognizes some of the right priorities and even overlaps with our recommendations in places, but the execution is timid and avoids the structural reforms needed to truly deliver on the MAHA Commission's own diagnosis of the problem." (Mordowanec, 8/25)

The Wall Street Journal: The Costly Ingredient That Big Food Companies Are Processing: MAHA 
Executives at big processed-food makers are trying to determine how much of what Kennedy and MAHA want will actually happen, and how it could affect their bottom lines. Their challenge is to balance his push for what he sees as healthier food with their need to make products that consumers will buy. Some companies have assembled special teams to navigate MAHA, drawing up lists and “heat maps” to track ingredients coming under scrutiny, and assessing which ones they might have to remove or label. Executives have compared dealing with MAHA to battling the mythical Hydra—cut off one head and two more spring up. (Newman and Tucker-Smith, 8/25)