Los Angeles Times: Monterey Park Shooter Voiced Repeated Paranoid Threats To Police 
Three decades before he shot 11 people to death in a Monterey Park ballroom, Huu Can Tran told police he believed relatives of a woman he’d been dating had threatened to kill him and were trying to lure him into a trap. Tran’s suspicions — which were apparently groundless — were laid out in documents obtained by The Times from the San Gabriel Police Department. The records provide some insight into what appears to be his paranoid worldview. Just this month, authorities said, he went twice to the police station in Hemet, where he’d moved into a trailer park, and claimed his family had defrauded and tried to poison him. (Ormseth and Tchekmedyian, 1/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: Farm At Center Of Half Moon Bay Shooting To Build New Worker Housing
California Terra Garden, one of the Half Moon Bay farms where a gunman killed seven workers earlier this month, said Monday it would construct new living quarters after its owners were widely lambasted for housing staff in squalid conditions without permits to do so. The announcement came in the wake of the mass shooting and following harsh rebukes from Gov. Gavin Newsom and others for housing workers in dismal conditions. (Mishanec, 1/30)

KQED: How Effective Are California's 'Red Flag' Gun Laws? San Francisco And San Diego Are Trying To Find Out
Three mass shootings in California this month have brought renewed attention to the state’s gun violence prevention laws, known as red flag laws, that allow courts to remove firearms from someone deemed a danger to themselves or others. But many California residents don’t know about the laws, according to researchers at UC Davis, limiting their potential. And it’s been a slow rollout training and staffing law enforcement agencies to enforce gun violence restraining orders, which temporarily prohibit someone from having a firearm. (Johnson, 1/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: After A Tragic Workplace Mass Shooting, One Bay Area City Got Tougher On Guns. Did It Work?
In the aftermath of mass shootings that leave communities grief stricken, cities take differing approaches. Some mandate new laws, some add to existing ones and some do nothing at all. In the Bay Area, San Jose and Gilroy took vastly different actions. (Narayan, 1/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: He Came To Oakland To Stop Homicides. Three Years Later, Violence Prevention Leader Is Leaving
The head of of Oakland’s violence prevention department is leaving in February amid a continuing spike in gun violence and the installation of a new mayor charged with confronting crime. Guillermo Cespedes spent three years in the position — central to the city’s public safety efforts — but his tenure coincided with a pandemic that saw violent crime spike in many cities throughout the country, including Oakland. (Ravani, 1/30)

Los Angeles Daily News: Asian Americans Grapple With Mental Health After Monterey Park Mass Shooting 
San Gabriel resident and community organizer Brittney Au is tired and angry. On Jan. 21, a Saturday night, Au had just come home from celebrating the Lunar New Year weekend with friends, when news broke that a gunman targeted a dance studio near where she lives in Monterey Park, killing 11 people. When asked if she was OK, Au, 31, said she “doesn’t know how to answer that question.” “It’s exhausting, mentally, physically, socially,” Au said. “I feel hopeless, helpless and powerless every time I hear about a new incident or attack. This hit so close to home.” (Vergara and Farzan, 1/30)

Los Angeles Times: First Hate Crimes, Now Mass Shootings. For Some Asian Americans, Feeling Safe Means Owning A Gun
Guns have always made Lynn Kim nervous. She had never considered firing — let alone buying — one herself. But that changed last week after two mass shootings in California, two days apart, carried out by older Asian American men who targeted fellow Asian Americans. After hearing the news, Kim, who is Korean American, told her husband: “It’s time. Honey, let’s research getting a gun.” (Park, Branson-Potts and Do, 1/30)

Bay Area News Group: Three Years Into COVID, Why Are So Many Californians Still Dying?
Three years after the first COVID cases were detected in the Bay Area, a vexing question persists that can no longer be explained by the terrifying arrival of a deadly novel coronavirus: Why are so many people still dying? (Rowan, 1/30)

Voice Of San Diego: After The Vaccine, Republicans Became Far More Likely To Die With Covid-19 Than Democrats
America’s partisan divide isn’t only bitter. It’s deadly. During the first year of the pandemic, Democrats died at higher rates than Republicans. But during the second year, as Covid vaccines became widely available, Republicans in San Diego County began dying at significantly higher rates than Democrats, a new analysis by Voice of San Diego found. (Huntsberry and Marx, 1/30)

NPR: COVID-19 Is The Eighth Leading Cause Of Death Among Children In The U.S.
COVID-19 was the eighth leading cause of death among children in recent months, according to a study published Monday. In a yearlong period from August 2021 to July 2022, 821 children ages 0 to 19 died from COVID-19 at a rate of 1 per 100,000. Children's deaths of any kind are rare, researchers noted. (Archie, 1/31)

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID Experts And Dr. Wachter On Wearing Masks ‘Forever’ In Situations
In one of his now-trademark Twitter threads detailing his approach to living amid the COVID-19 pandemic, UCSF chair of medicine Dr. Bob Wachter recently shared with his thousands of followers that while he’s open to taking more risks as cases in the Bay Area come down, there are some situations in which he’ll almost always mask up — forever. In public transit and at large gatherings, he’ll “plan to wear a mask (always a KN95; why not wear a good mask if you’re going to mask?), likely forever,” he wrote. “I’m comfortable taking it off briefly to eat on a long flight, but will try to keep it on when I can.” (Echeverria, 1/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: Record Number Of Americans Missing Work Due To Illness
About 1.5 million Americans missed work due to illness in December, with over 1 million calling in sick every month for the past three years, according to the latest federal data. The last time the absentee number dipped below 1 million was in November 2019, according to a report from the Guardian that cites the prevalence of long COVID as contributing to increasing worker absences. (Vaziri and Beamish, 1/30)

Politico: Biden To End Covid Health Emergency Declarations In May 
The Biden administration will end the Covid-19 national and public health emergencies on May 11, the White House said Monday in a major step meant to signal that the crisis era of the pandemic is over. The move would restructure the federal government’s coronavirus response and unwind a sprawling set of flexibilities put in place nearly three years ago that paved the way for free Covid treatments and tests. The White House disclosed its plan in response to two House Republican measures aimed at immediately ending the emergencies, calling those proposals “a grave disservice to the American people.” (Cancryn, 1/30)

AP: President Biden To End COVID-19 Emergencies On May 11
The costs of COVID-19 vaccines are also expected to skyrocket once the government stops buying them, with Pfizer saying it will charge as much as $130 per dose. Only 15% of Americans have received the recommended, updated booster that has been offered since last fall. ... Free at-home COVID tests will also come to an end. And hospitals will not get extra payments for treating COVID patients. (Miller and Seitz, 1/31)

The Washington Post: Biden To End Covid National Emergencies In May 
Among the most notable effects of ending the state of emergency, according to the White House, would be the termination of Title 42, a public health measure that has limited the inflow of migrants at the border. The Biden administration has attempted to end Title 42, but that action has been held up in court. An administration official said because Title 42 is a public health order, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined there would no longer be a need for the measure once the coronavirus no longer presented a public health emergency. But some House Republicans lambasted the White House statement on Monday, arguing that Title 42 is not tied to the public health emergency and exists at the discretion of the president. Many in the GOP are in favor of keeping the Title 42 restrictions, saying that health concerns provide reasonable grounds for limiting immigration. (Pager and Sun, 1/30)

California Healthline: It’s ‘Telehealth Vs. No Care’: Doctors Say Congress Risks Leaving Patients Vulnerable
Congress’ $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package included a two-year extension of pandemic-era funding that helped telehealth services grow nationwide. But that cash bridge, embraced by those delivering services to patients in rural areas, doesn’t provide much certainty for the future of remote medicine. (Tribble, 1/31)

Reuters: U.S. Seeks To Expand Birth Control Coverage Under Obamacare 
Women whose employers have opted out of covering contraceptives under their health insurance plans on religious grounds would gain no-cost access to birth control under a rule proposed by the Biden administration on Monday. The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, requires private insurance plans to cover recommended preventive services including contraception without any patient cost-sharing, but current regulations grant exemptions for religious or moral objections. If the new rule is implemented, women enrolled in plans governed by the ACA would gain birth control coverage regardless of employer exemption, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in a statement. (Aboulenein, 1/30)

CNN: Covid-19 'Baby Bump' Brought An Increased US Fertility Rate In 2021 -- But Also Record High Preterm Births 
The number of babies born each year in the United States has been steadily dropping since the Great Recession of 2008. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit and brought another burst of uncertainty, many expected an even steeper dropoff. (McPhillips, 1/31)

Axios: Deaths Jump Among Pregnant Women
The number of women who died during pregnancy or shortly after giving birth jumped in the first year of the pandemic, a study in JAMA Network Open shows. While pregnancy-associated causes were still the leading cause of death, the jump in mortality between 2019 and 2020 was largely not related to the pregnancies themselves. (Reed, 1/30)

California Healthline: Government Lets Health Plans That Ripped Off Medicare Keep The Money
Medicare Advantage plans for seniors dodged a major financial bullet Monday as government officials gave them a reprieve for returning hundreds of millions of dollars or more in government overpayments — some dating back a decade or more. The health insurance industry had long feared the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would demand repayment of billions of dollars in overcharges the popular health plans received as far back as 2011. (Schulte, 1/30)

Stat: Medicare Advantage Insurers To Repay Billions Under Audit Rule
The federal government will audit Medicare Advantage insurers aggressively under a rule finalized Monday, which is expected to result in billions of dollars in overpayments going back toward Medicare’s trust fund and patients over the next decade. (Herman and Bannow, 1/30)

AP: Feds Expect To Collect $4.7B In Insurance Fraud Penalties 
The Biden administration estimated Monday that it could collect as much as $4.7 billion from insurance companies with newer and tougher penalties for submitting improper charges on the taxpayers’ tab for Medicare Advantage care. Federal watchdogs have been sounding the alarm for years about questionable charges on the government’s private version of the Medicare program, with investigators raising the possibility that insurance companies may be bilking taxpayers of billions of dollars every year by claiming members are sicker than they really are to receive inflated payments. (Seitz, 1/30)

Bloomberg: Medicare Advantage Health Plans Face $4.7B Clawback From Federal Audit Rule
The rule, which governs audits of Medicare Advantage insurers by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is stricter than the industry had lobbied for. It finalized a 2018 proposal for auditing the private plans that administer programs for the agency, a move intended to recover excessive payments based on exaggerated claims of patient illness. (Tozzi, 1/30)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Home Caregivers Get $1-An-Hour Raises From San Diego County 
San Diego County home care workers will get $1-per-hour raises for the next three years under a new agreement union leaders say will make it easier to attract and retain caregivers. (Brennan, 1/30)

The Desert Sun: JFK Memorial Hospital CEO Gary Honts Retires; Karen Faulis Succeeds
Desert Care Network announced Monday that JFK Memorial Hospital CEO Gary Honts will retire after leading the Indio hospital for 10 years. (Sasic, 1/30)

CNN: US Spends Most On Health Care But Has Worst Health Outcomes Among High-Income Countries, New Report Finds 
The United States spends more on health care than any other high-income country but still has the lowest life expectancy at birth and the highest rate of people with multiple chronic diseases, according to a new report from The Commonwealth Fund, an independent research group. (Howard, 1/31)

Modern Healthcare: Kaufman Hall: Signs Of Hospital Margin Stability Emerging
Hospital operating margins continued to decline in 2022 as labor expenses climbed, but financial pressures may be easing, according to a new report. The median hospital operating margin dropped 39% from 2021 to 2022 as labor costs increased 9%, a monthly Kaufman Hall analysis of data from more than 900 hospitals found. However, expense growth slowed and inpatient volumes improved in December, which could signal a more stable financial outlook for early 2023, analysts said in the report. Here are five takeaways from the data. (Kacik, 1/30)

The Wall Street Journal: J&J’s Talc Bankruptcy Case Thrown Out By Appeals Court
A federal appeals court in Philadelphia rejected Johnson & Johnson ‘s use of chapter 11 bankruptcy to freeze roughly 40,000 lawsuits linking its talc products to cancer, blunting a strategy the consumer health giant and a handful of other profitable companies have used to sidestep jury trials. The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday dismissed the chapter 11 case of J&J subsidiary LTL Management LLC, which the company created in 2021 to move the talc injury lawsuits to bankruptcy court and freeze them in place. J&J is now exposed once again to talc-related cancer claims that have cost the company’s consumer business $4.5 billion in recent years and are expected to continue for decades. (Randles and Loftus, 1/30)

California Healthline: Some Addiction Treatment Centers Turn Big Profits By Scaling Back Care
Private equity groups are cashing in on rising rates of alcohol and drug addiction in the U.S. But they aren’t necessarily investing in centers with the best treatment standards, and they often cut extra services. (Rayasam and Farmer, 1/31)

Los Angeles Times: Uncertainty For Housing Seekers Amid Rapidly Changing Guidance
Donovan Henry was relaxing in his motel room in Long Beach last Wednesday when he received a panic-inducing text It was from his caseworker with the nonprofit NoHo Home Alliance. And it said that the county had announced that all emergency federal housing vouchers, such as the one he was issued last summer, would be suspended Jan. 31. (Sheets, 1/30)

The Mercury News: As California’s Climate Heats Up, Valley Fever Spikes
On a windy summer day a decade and a half ago, insidious fungal spores, each a tiny fraction of the width of a human hair, wafted through a Modesto orchard and into Jaime Gonzalez’s lungs. Several weeks later, Gonzalez grew weak and feverish. The spores had infected him with Valley fever, a little-known and often-misunderstood disease that causes him fatigue, chronic pain and skin ulcers to this day. Sometimes, he said, his legs fail him. “I try not to move from where I’m at because my feet will start to kill me,” said Gonzalez, 48. (Cummings, 1/30)

Modesto Bee: What Is Causing Stanislaus County’s High Cancer Death Rate?
While California has made progress in the last seven years decreasing the cancer mortality rate statewide, Stanislaus County has seen its rate remain stubbornly high, far exceeding the state’s. Medical experts say there are a host of possible culprits that contribute to the higher rate. They point to the higher-than-normal percentage of adults who use tobacco products, the San Joaquin Valley’s notorious air pollution and a decrease in early screenings due to fears as the COVID-19 pandemic raged. (Carlson, 1/30)

Los Angeles Times: California County To Pay $32 Million In Case Of Abused Baby
In the summer of 2020, a 10-month-old child, identified in court records only as J.G., was admitted to an Orange County hospital and was found to have suffered “profound brain damage due to severe malnourishment.” J.G. “will likely have the cognitive function of an infant for the rest of his life,” according to a lawsuit filed last year against Tulare County. (Martinez, 1/30)

Oaklandside: Listen: An Oakland Pastor And A Funeral Assistant Reflect On A Difficult Year
Death is a spontaneous occurrence, and that means the work of helping people cope in the aftermath of losing a loved one is, too. Sylvester Rutledge, the head pastor at North Oakland Missionary Baptist Church on 32nd Street, is used to working long, odd hours throughout the week. So is his friend, Todd Walker, a funeral assistant. The two met years ago while Walker oversaw a viewing ceremony at Rutledge’s church, and have continued to work together since. “It’s 24/7,” said Rutledge. (Rodas, 1/30)