The New York Times: F.D.A. Cracks Down On ‘Unscrupulous’ Stem Cell Clinics
The Food and Drug Administration announced a crackdown on dangerous stem cell clinics on Monday, while at the same time pledging to ease the path to approval for companies and doctors with legitimate treatments in the growing field. The agency reported actions against two large stem cell clinics and a biotech company, saying that it was critical to shut down “unscrupulous actors” in regenerative medicine, a broad umbrella that includes stem cell and gene therapies and immunotherapies. (Kaplan and Grady, 8/28)

The Washington Post: FDA Cracks Down On Stem-Cell Clinics, Including One Using Smallpox Vaccine In Cancer Patients
The Food and Drug Administration on Monday announced a crackdown on stem-cell clinics offering on “unapproved and potentially dangerous" treatments, including an outfit in California that has been using the smallpox vaccine on seriously ill cancer patients. U.S. marshals on Friday raided San Diego-based StemImmune Inc. and seized the vaccine, which the FDA said had been combined with stem cells derived from fat to create an unapproved product. The concoction was injected intravenously and directly into patients' tumors at the California Stem Cell Treatment Centers in Rancho Mirage and Beverly Hills, the agency said. (McGinley, 8/28)

Stat: Unauthorized Smallpox Vaccine Used By Stem Cell Clinic Seized
Federal authorities raided a California stem cell clinic and seized a smallpox vaccine that is reserved only for the military and high-risk populations, as the Food and Drug Administration expressed “serious concerns” about how the clinic obtained access to the vaccine at all. The U.S. Marshals Service seized five vials of the smallpox vaccine, which is not commercially available, the FDA announced Monday. Four of the vials — which each hold 100 vaccine doses — were unused, but a portion of the fifth vial had been used. (Joseph, 8/28)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA To Expand Its Authority Over Stem-Cell Treatment Facilities
The FDA announced it was crafting rules to govern the development of treatments based on the cells. The FDA also said it was cracking down on a company and three clinics that sold stem-cell treatments the agency said were potentially dangerous. The moves signaled the FDA planned to extend its authority regulating drugs and medical devices to the field known as regenerative medicine, after spending years effectively watching it emerge. (Rockoff, 8/28)

NPR: FDA Takes Aim At Clinics Selling Unapproved Stem-Cell Treatments
"There are a small number of unscrupulous actors who have seized on the clinical promise of regenerative medicine, while exploiting the uncertainty, in order to make deceptive, and sometimes corrupt assurances to patients based on unproven and, in some cases, dangerously dubious products," FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement Monday. (Stein, 8/28)

KPBS: FDA Seizes Risky Smallpox Vaccine From San Diego Stem Cell Company 
A San Diego company has been using a risky smallpox vaccine as part of "unapproved and potentially dangerous" stem cell treatments, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FDA said on Monday it has seized five vials of the vaccine belonging to San Diego-based StemImmune Inc. (Wagner, 8/28)

The Mercury News: Bay Area Study: Liver Fat In Kids Reduced When Fructose Cut
Just nine days of cutting out fructose — the kind of sugar found in soft drinks, fruit juices and most processed foods — led to an unprecedented reduction in liver fat, a condition strongly linked to Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, a new Bay Area-based study shows. Scientists at Touro University in Vallejo and UC San Francisco who recorded a 20 percent drop in liver fat in children and adolescents they studied say the results offer a strategy that could slow the soaring global increase in chronic metabolic diseases. (Seipel, 8/28)

In other kids' health news —

KPCC: Pediatricians Group Urges Doctors To Study Up On Herbs, Supplements, Yoga 
Pediatricians should be familiar with evidence-based non-Western treatments parents are using for their children so they can offer advice about safe, effective and age-appropriate use of such things as herbal medicines, acupuncture and yoga, the American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending. The recommendations are in a new Academy clinical report that aims to help doctors navigate the popular but sometimes murky world of "complementary therapies." (Plevin, 8/29)

Marketplace: Study Shows Racial Disparities In Infant Intensive Care
New research out of Stanford finds African-American and Hispanic infants in California were more likely than white infants to receive low-quality care. The findings show white infants tend to get higher-quality care in the NICU than others, but the pattern is not uniform. (Gorenstein, 8/28)

San Francisco Chronicle: Babies’ Race Affects Quality Of Care In California Neonatal Intensive Care, Study Says
An infant’s race and ethnicity affect the quality of care they receive in California neonatal intensive care units, according to a study by the Stanford University School of Medicine. ... Researchers analyzed the quality of care for nearly 19,000 infants in 134 neonatal intensive care units across California — 90 percent of all units in the state — who were born between 2010 and 2014. (Ho, 8/27)

Sacramento Bee: Struggling With A Life-Threatening Illness? You Can Help Research For Cures
For anyone diagnosed with cancer, Alzheimer’s or AIDS, perhaps the best hope for finding cures lies in their own bodies – more specifically, in the cells traveling through their blood. Scientists at major universities and pharmaceutical companies need more of those cells to do their cutting-edge medical research, and Folsom’s StemExpress is leading the way nationwide. (Anderson, 8/28)

Ventura County Star: Spanish-Speaking Caregivers Get Help From Santa Paula Resource Center
Since opening its doors just over a year ago, the Family Caregiver Resource Center has helped ease the burden of almost 200 family caregivers, providing them with free medical equipment, home modifications and respite care, and connecting them to Spanish-language support groups, trainings and social services. Staff members even organize monthly medical checkups for caregivers at the center; give out free adult diapers and nutritional drinks; and direct people who need help with immigration issues, setting up a will or just accessing food. Run by Catholic Charities Ventura County and supported by an $80,000 federal grant channeled through the local Area Agency on Aging, the resource center is unique to Ventura County and possibly the state. While providing caregiver support is not a new concept, the Family Caregiver Resource Center’s exclusive focus on assisting the Spanish-speaking caregiver population makes it standout, said Program Manager Lisa Nagy. (Boyd-Barrett, 8/28)

In other news from across the state —

KPBS: Group Wants San Diego AIDS Memorial In Future Bankers Hill Park 
The San Diego AIDS Memorial Task Force has announced it is seeking to create an AIDS memorial on a parcel in Bankers Hill already due to become a city park. Plans for the Olive Street Park on a vacant lot at the corner of Olive Street and Third Avenue were included in the neighborhood's community plan update last year. (Bowen, 8/28)

Ventura County Star: Kaiser Complex Eyes December Opening
A 57,000 square-foot medical office building alongside Highway 101 in Ventura is expected to open Dec. 11, Kaiser Permanente officials said this week. The project is one of several medical complexes being built across Ventura County in a trend pushed by seismic regulations and a need for more space. Officials of Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura said their new six-story hospital, once projected to open in 2015, is now expected to open by April. (Kisken, 8/27)

Orange County Register: Anaheim Could Allow Portable Toilets For Homeless People At Santa Ana River Bed 
Anaheim may allow the return of portable toilets for use by homeless people living in encampments on the Santa Ana River bike trail. An item on the City Council agenda for Tuesday, Aug. 29, would authorize city staff to issue a conditional permit to advocates who want to locate three portable toilets at the river bed south of Angel Stadium. (Walker, 8/28)

KPCC: Anaheim To Consider Portable Toilets For Homeless Camp 
A months-long debate over whether to provide portable bathrooms to homeless people living along the Santa Ana River moves to the Anaheim City Council chambers this week. The seven-member council is expected to decide Tuesday whether to grant advocates for the homeless a license to put three portable toilets on city-owned land near the river south of Angel Stadium. (Replogle, 8/29)

The New York Times: Houston’s Hospitals Treat Storm Victims And Become Victims Themselves
Water poured into hospitals. Ambulances were caught up in roiling floodwaters. Medical transport helicopters were grounded by high winds. Houston’s world-renowned health care infrastructure found itself battered by Hurricane Harvey, struggling to treat storm victims while becoming a victim itself. The coming days will inevitably bring more hazards for storm-damaged hospitals and nursing homes, and their patients and staff. The scenes of turmoil across Texas raised the specter of the extreme flooding following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when dozens of hospital and nursing home patients died, and doctors awaiting rescue at one stranded, powerless hospital became so desperate, they intentionally hastened the deaths of their patients. (Fink and Blinder, 8/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Amid Harvey Flooding, Hospitals Offer ‘Islands Of Humanity’
Doctors waded miles through Houston’s flooded roads to reach their clinics. Other medical staff camped out at their hospitals for days, catching some sleep on cots between shifts. One medical facility was forced to evacuate patients by boat. The health-care system in the nation’s fourth-largest city strained to deliver care as floodwaters thwarted cancer and kidney-dialysis treatment, stalled ambulance traffic and left hospital officials worriedly monitoring dwindling supplies of food and medicines. (Evans, Walker and Loftus, 8/28)

The Associated Press: Flooding Disrupts Care At Houston Hospital, Cancer Center
One of the nation's busiest trauma centers began clearing space Monday for the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey even as the storm continued its days-long onslaught of rain. Ben Taub Hospital personnel transferred a handful of patients to other facilities and took much needed deliveries of food and fresh linens after spending the weekend short-staffed and with dwindling supplies, said Bryan McLeod, a spokesman for the Houston hospital's parent company, Harris Health System. (Marchione and Schmall, 8/29)

The Associated Press: Public Health Dangers Loom In Harvey-Hit Areas
The muddy floodwaters now soaking through drywall, carpeting, mattresses and furniture in Houston will pose a massive cleanup challenge with potential public health consequences. It's not known yet what kinds or how much sewage, chemicals and waterborne germs are mixed in the water. For now, health officials are more concerned about drownings, carbon monoxide poisoning from generators and hygiene at shelters. In the months and years to come, their worries will turn to the effects of trauma from Hurricane Harvey on mental health. (Merchant and Johnson, 8/28)

The Associated Press: ACLU Sues Trump Over Transgender Military Ban
Transgender soldiers, sailors, airmen and other members of the military, along with others who want to enlist, sued President Donald Trump on Monday, hoping the federal courts will stop him from preventing their service. One federal lawsuit was filed in Baltimore by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland on behalf of six transgender individuals currently serving in the Army, Navy, Air Force, National Guard and Naval Reserve. (Chase and Johnson, 8/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Donald Trump’s Transgender Military Ban Challenged By Civil-Liberties Lawsuits
The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland filed its suit in Baltimore on behalf of six currently serving transgender service members. Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN filed a separate suit Monday in Seattle on behalf of a currently serving transgender service member, two transgender people who wish to serve, including a male high-school student, and two advocacy groups, the Human Rights Campaign and the Gender Justice League. Both lawsuits list President Trump and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis among the defendants. The service members listed in the ACLU suit informed the military that they were transgender after President Barack Obama last year lifted a longstanding ban with an “open service” order. (Youssef, 8/28)