Half Moon Bay Farms Cited For Safety Violations After Massacre: State regulators announced Monday they are fining two farms in Half Moon Bay – where a mass shooter killed 7 employees in January – after an investigation found the employers had no safety plans to evaluate the threat of violence. Cal/OSHA said California Terra Garden failed to immediately notify employees of an active shooter, and both employers failed to train workers on workplace violence in languages they could understand. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle. Keep scrolling for more about the gun violence epidemic.
California Assembly Advances Constitutional Amendment To Protect Marriage Equality: Assembly Constitutional Amendment 5 would amend the state Constitution to protect the fundamental freedom to marry and remove discriminatory language from Proposition 8. Doing so would help safeguard against future attempts to restrict marriage rights for same-sex or interracial couples. ACA 5 now heads to the Senate. Read more from the Los Angeles Blade.
Below, check out the roundup of California Healthline’s coverage. For today's national health news, read KFF Health News’ Morning Briefing.
More News From Across The State
Los Angeles Blade:
Newsom & Democratic Legislative Leaders Reach Budget Agreement
Governor Gavin Newsom, Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins, and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon agreed to a $310.8-billion 2023-24 state budget spending plan that will reduce investments in climate change and reflects a compromise on Newsom’s last-minute proposal to speed up infrastructure projects in the state. (Levesque, 6/26)
Los Angeles Times:
Takeaways From The California Budget Deal Between Newsom And Democratic Lawmakers
Doctors and other Medi-Cal providers have long argued that low reimbursement rates for services reduce access to care for nearly 16 million Californians, or one-third of the state population, who are covered by the state subsidized health plan. With the support of a broad coalition of doctors, community health centers, hospitals and unions, Newsom and lawmakers agreed to renew a tax on managed healthcare organizations, known as the MCO Tax, to fund Medi-Cal at a time when the state is expanding the pool of eligibility. The tax is expected to generate $19.4 billion in state revenue from 2023 through 2027. (Luna, 6/26)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Homelessness Vs. Children’s Mental Health: Newsom’s Budget Trade-Off
Come March, California voters will get the chance to weigh in on sweeping changes proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to the state’s mental health funding system — including a $4.68 billion bond measure to add treatment beds — but critics say the proposal pits children’s mental health services against the state’s ballooning homelessness crisis. Newsom announced his intent in March to divert nearly one-third of the state’s Mental Health Services Act money — roughly $1 billion — to housing homeless individuals with severe mental illness or drug addiction. (Hwang, 6/26)
The San Diego Union-Tribune:
Illumina Begins Cutting Jobs Amid Turmoil, Plans To Reduce Office Space In San Diego
Illumina, the market leader in DNA sequencing equipment, said Monday that it has begun layoffs and will reduce its San Diego real estate footprint as part of an effort to slash annual expenses by $100 million by the end of this year. The company announced the job cuts in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It called the move part of a multi-year plan to “realign” its operating expenses. (Freeman, /26)
The Wall Street Journal:
Magic Mushrooms. LSD. Ketamine. The Drugs That Power Silicon Valley.
“There are millions of people microdosing psychedelics right now,” said Karl Goldfield, a former sales and marketing consultant in San Francisco who informally counsels friends and colleagues across the tech world on calibrating the right small dose for maximum mindfulness. It is “the fastest path to opening your mind up and clearly seeing for yourself what’s going on,” said Goldfield. (Grind and Bindley, 6/27)
The Hill:
Move Over, Mounjaro: New Eli Lilly Drug Lost Patients 24 Percent Of Their Weight In Trials
A new Eli Lilly experimental drug has helped patients lose 24 percent of their weight, according to new mid-stage clinical trial results. The results, released on Monday, followed 338 adults, nearly 52 percent of whom were men, who were obese or overweight and had either received Eli Lilly’s retatrutide injection or a placebo treatment. (Oshin, 6/26)
Voice Of San Diego:
Palomar Health Is In A Bad Financial Position – And It May Get Worse
Palomar Health’s finances aren’t doing so good – and the prognosis isn’t much better. The North County public healthcare provider – which operates Palomar Medical Centers in Escondido and Poway – has $585 million in debt, according to a report from Palomar’s finance committee. And a June budget report showed operations income plunged from roughly $42 million in 2022 to $9 million in 2023. (Layne, 6/26)
Capital & Main:
How Deeply Does Our Health Care System Discriminate?
Since before the country’s formation, unequal health based on race, from inferior care and treatment to shorter life spans, has been part and parcel of American history. Surveys in recent decades have enabled researchers to bring those disparities into sharper and sometimes harrowing focus. But identifying these issues hasn’t brought the country much closer to resolving them. And a new report underscores how truly intractable those problems are — because it brings race-based disparities right into the safest hospitals in the United States. (Kreidler, 6/22)
Modern Healthcare:
Physician-Owned Hospitals Have Lower Prices: Study
Physician-owned hospital prices were about a third lower than traditional hospitals in the same market, a study found, potentially fueling debate over legislation that would remove the ban on building more physician-owned hospitals. (Kacik, 6/26)
The Guardian:
‘Just Putting A Bandage On It’: One American Classroom’s Struggle With Daily Gun Violence
It was just before 11am on a Friday and the hallways of Stege elementary school in Richmond, California, were quiet save for the muffled sound of children’s voices coming through the classroom doors. Behind the heavy doors of Hannah Geitner’s fifth-grade classroom, 26 students were seated at small tables and on a cozy green rug. It was sunny and warm out, but inside, it was impossible to tell; the room’s windows had yellowed over the years.
KQED:
Growing Up With Gun Violence
A generation of young people has been traumatized by gun violence. Mass shootings year after year, especially at schools, draw international headlines. But students, and even young children, are also being exposed to everyday gun violence hat an alarming rate. In the city of Richmond — which is seen as a national model for gun violence prevention efforts — more than 80% of the documented gunshots fired in the past decade happened within a half mile of an elementary school, according to police data. (Guevarra, Esquinca, Montecillo, 6/26)
CNN:
Most Accidental Shooting Deaths Among Children Involve Guns Left Loaded And Unlocked, Study Finds
Most children in the US who die from an accidental shooting are playing around with guns at home or mistaking them for toys, according to a new study. And the research suggests that over 90% of guns used in such shooting deaths were left unlocked and loaded. The study, published Monday in the scientific journal Injury Epidemiology, looked at cases over a nearly a decade in which children under 15 accidentally killed themselves or another child with a gun. Most of the shootings happened at the victim’s home, where, in 8 out of 10 cases, the gun belonged to an older relative. (Viswanathan, 6/26)
Military Times:
VA’s Opioid Treatment Program Is Failing Veterans, IG Reports
Healthcare providers at the Department of Veterans of Affairs have consistently failed to identify and support service members suffering from opioid dependence as they transition out of the military, investigators have revealed. The VA Office of Inspector General report, published Wednesday, found that VA officials routinely missed — or struggled to check — prior opioid use disorder (OUD) diagnoses when developing treatment plans for troops leaving the service. These oversights, investigators warned, risked endangering the health and lives of veterans. (Moore-Carrillo, 626)
Los Angeles Times:
L.A. County Awarded $60 Million To Expand Skid Row Services
A $60-million state grant recently awarded to L.A. County’s Department of Health Services will jump-start a plan to provide interim housing and services for more than half of Skid Row’s homeless population over the next three years. The grant, awarded on June 14, will be directed toward the Skid Row Action Plan, a $280-million initiative aimed at improving life in the downtrodden neighborhood by addressing the need for more interim and permanent housing, behavioral health and substance use treatment, among other services. (Vives, 6/26)
Sacramento Bee:
California State Workers At Deaf School Seek Pay Raises
Mel Vezina wishes they didn’t have to live nearly 115 miles away from their work. They wish they didn’t have to choose between a four-hour round-trip commute every day and sleeping overnight in their car during the week, which they’ve been doing for the last 10 years. But, as a residence life counselor at California’s state-funded School for the Deaf in Fremont, Vezina says they can’t afford to live near their work on their state salary, which amounts to about $3,500 a month in take-home pay. (Miller, 6/27)
Los Angeles Times:
Sheriff's Department Gets $4 Billion In L.A. County Budget
Los Angeles County supervisors approved a $43.4-billion budget Monday, saying they hoped it will fix the failing jails and juvenile halls while acknowledging the board’s failures to successfully oversee the departments in the past. ... The budget approval followed hours of testimony, much of it urging funding cuts to the Sheriff’s Department, which is on track to have one of the deadliest years in its jails in recent history. The Probation Department has also had a perilous year with a surging number of overdoses and violent incidents. (Ellis, 6/26)
Los Angeles Daily News:
6 People Examined At Sherman Oaks Galleria Due To Unknown Odor
Paramedics took one person to a hospital and treated five others at the scene after they reported an unidentified odor at the Sherman Oaks Galleria midmorning on Monday, June 26, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. All six “had minor medical complaints, such as watery eyes, scratchy throats, etc.,” said Nicholas Prange, an LAFD spokesman, in a statement. The patients were all inside the Galleria at around 9:15 a.m. (Cain, 6/26)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Indigenous Healing Center Set For Former S.F. Cellspace Warehouse Site
A cultural arts hub and healing center focusing on Indigenous medicine is set to open on the site of a massive warehouse that once housed a thriving alternative art space in San Francisco’s Mission District, according to the nonprofit that will have its headquarters there. Cultura y Arte Nativa de las Américas, also known as CANA, the nonprofit that organizes the two-day Carnaval San Francisco festival celebrating the diversity of Latin American culture, plans to unveil the Indigenous Peoples Cultural Arts Healing Center in January 2024, CEO Roberto Hernández said. (Flores, 6/27)
Bloomberg:
Malaria Spreads In US For First Time In 20 Years
Malaria has spread from mosquitoes to humans inside the US for the first time in 20 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned. Four cases of mosquito-transmitted Plasmodium vivax malaria have been reported in Florida within the last two months, and a single case was also found in Texas. All patients were said to be improving after receiving treatment. The CDC said in a health advisory that Anopheles mosquitoes, which are found throughout many regions of the country, “are capable of transmitting malaria if they feed on a malaria-infected person.” However, it stressed, the risk of catching malaria in the US is “extremely low.” (Millson, 6/27)
Bloomberg:
Pickleball Injuries May Cost Americans Nearly $400 Million This Year, According To UBS
Earlier this month, shares of big health insurance companies fell after UnitedHealth Group Inc. warned that healthcare utilization rates were up. At a conference the company had said that it was seeing a higher-than-expected pace of hip replacements, knee surgeries and other elective procedures. (Weisenthal, 6/26)
Los Angeles Times:
Compressing Your Eating Day Is As Effective As Counting Calories, Study Finds
If you’re trying to lose weight and you’re sick of watching what you eat, researchers have some good news: You can watch the clock instead. In a yearlong study, people who didn’t change what they ate — but ate it all between noon and 8 p.m. — achieved significant, sustained weight loss that was comparable to people who paid close attention to their food choices in order to cut their daily calories by 25%. (Errico, 6/26)
Scientific American:
Modern Hunter-Gatherers Have Thriving Gut Microbiome, Compared With Californians
The human gut is teeming with trillions of microbes, but most studies of this vast community have focused on people living in urban regions. Now, a team of researchers has sequenced gut microbiomes from Hadza people — members of a hunter-gatherer society in northern Tanzania — and compared them with those from people in Nepal and California. The study has found not only that the Hadza tend to have more gut microorganisms than people in the other groups, but that a Western lifestyle seems to diminish the diversity of gut populations. (Conroy, 6/26)
The Washington Post:
Insomnia Linked To Up To 51 Percent Higher Risk Of Strokes
People suffering from insomnia may have as much as a 51 percent greater chance of having a stroke than those who do not have trouble sleeping, according to a study published in the journal Neurology. For nearly a decade, the study tracked 31,126 people, age 61 on average and with no history of stroke at the start of the study. In that time, 2,101 strokes were recorded. (Searing, 6/26)