Bay Area News Group: Health Care Clinic At Vietnamese Plaza In San Jose Nears Approval
The high-profile Vietnam Town commercial center near downtown San Jose is poised to add a medical services facility for senior citizens. An adult day care center is slated to be developed within a large, empty building in Vietnam Town, a well-known commercial complex in San Jose’s Little Saigon district that’s near the corner of McLaughlin Avenue and Story Road, documents on file with city planners show. (Avalos, 11/14)

Stat: UnitedHealth Used Algorithms To Deny Care, Staff Say 
The nation’s largest health insurance company pressured its medical staff to cut off payments for seriously ill patients in lockstep with a computer algorithm’s calculations, denying rehabilitation care for older and disabled Americans as profits soared, a STAT investigation has found. (Ross and Herman, 11/14)

Military Times: Vets Tap Businesses For VA Disability Claims Help, But There’s A Cost
When Navy veteran Melissa Washington wanted to reapply for an increase in her disability benefits, she selected a for-profit firm — Veterans Benefits Guide — to cut down on the paperwork and preparation she’d have to do herself. “I knew a lot of people who had already been through the process, and I wanted to try for myself,” said Washington, who runs the Women Veterans Alliance in Sacramento, Calif. ... The 51-year-old, who has been out of the service for almost 30 years, said the process cost her a few hundred dollars and just a few months of waiting. She said she will recommend the process to friends and clients interested in getting help with their claims. Veterans advocates say it’s illegal. (Shane III, 11/13)

Fresno Bee: Amazon Prime Members Can Now Access Health Care In CA 
Caught a cold? Battling allergies? Your Amazon Prime membership could help you with that now, too — and you don’t have to worry about shipping. The tech giant has a new members-only benefit: Health care. In-person options for One Medical are available in only a handful of states, including California. (Stark and The Sum, 11/13)

Los Angeles Times: Monterey Park Survivors Who Weren't Hurt Feel Left Out Of Funds
The survivors of the Monterey Park shooting who weren't injured asked to be included in the GoFundMe donation pool. Ultimately, the nonprofits behind it said no. (Lin, 11/13)

AP: 1 In 3 US Asians And Pacific Islanders Faced Racial Abuse This Year, AP-NORC/AAPI Data Poll Shows 
Despite ongoing advocacy and legislation to combat anti-Asian racism that arose after the pandemic, about a third of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders say they have experienced an act of abuse based on their race or ethnicity in the last year, including being on the receiving end of verbal harassment, slurs, physical threats or cyberbullying. A new poll from AAPI Data and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds 15% of Asian American and Pacific Islanders specifically say they believe they have ever been the victim of a hate crime. About half — 51% — believe racism is an “extremely” or “very serious” problem in the U.S. (Tang and Sanders, 11/14)

Military Times: Marines Grapple With Highest Suicide Rate Of All US Military Services
The Marine Corps had the highest rate of suicide among all the U.S. military branches in 2022 ― a sobering statistic for a service that has stepped up efforts in recent years to prevent these tragedies. The military has seen a gradual increase in suicide across the branches since 2011, the Defense Department’s annual report on suicide in the military found. In the Marine Corps’ active component, 34.9 out of 100,000 service members died by suicide in 2022, up from a rate of 23.9 in 2021 and higher than any other service. (Loewenson, 11/13)

Bay Area News Group: Oakland's New Fire Chief Promises Better Mental-Health Care
Living at his family’s home after college graduation and coming to accept that an NBA career was out of the question, Damon Covington was restless about how his life would proceed — until a voice in his head told him he should be a firefighter. (Mukherjee, 11/13)

CNN: Inside The ‘Pressure Cooker’: 4 Current And Former LA Sheriff’s Employees Die By Suicide In Less Than 24 Hours
 When former police officer Omar Delgado heard the news of four current and former members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department dying by suicide in less than 24 hours last week, he understood. “It’s kind of like a pressure cooker. If you don’t slowly let go of that steam little by little, when it does pop, it’s over because it’s going to be such a big explosion.” Delgado was one of the first officers on the scene of the Pulse nightclub attack in Orlando on June 12, 2016. He suffers post-traumatic stress disorder from that night, and has attempted to take his own life twice. (Tucker, 11/12)

The Washington Post: Supreme Court Denies Case Involving Prolonged Confinement Without Exercise 
Over the objections of its three liberal justices, the Supreme Court on Monday denied a petition from a prisoner confined for years without the chance to exercise outside his cell. The treatment of mentally unstable Illinois inmate Michael Johnson had previously divided the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. It rejected his lawsuit alleging that keeping him in his windowless cell except for an occasional trip for a shower violated the Constitution’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. (Barnes, 11/13)

Los Angeles Daily News: CSUN Is A Hub For WIC, ‘Women, Infants And Children,’ Aiming To Save Lives 
Supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, WIC has for nearly 50 years aimed to reduce disparities that impact the health of women and their children. (Love, 11/13)

The 19th: White House Announces New Focus On Research For Women’s Health 
President Joe Biden on Monday announced the first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, which will be led by First Lady Jill Biden and the White House Gender Policy Council. The new initiative will be chaired and coordinated by Dr. Carolyn Mazure, who recently joined the White House from the Yale School of Medicine. (Gerson, 11/13)

The Hill: New Study On Hunter-Gatherer Moms Suggests Western Child Care Has A Big Problem
Stressed out American parents who suspect that child-rearing used to be easier may be right. The average mother among one Congolese foraging people has at least 10 people to help hold her baby — and sometimes as many as 20, a paper published Monday has found. That high level of support means that mothers among the Mbendjele BaYaka people have someone else holding their baby at least half the time, according to research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. That is a level of care “a world away,” unheard of in wealthy industrialized countries — but one that may have been normal across most of human history, the researchers reported. (Elbein, 11/13)

Los Angeles Times: In Some Latin American Drug Cartels, Women Are New Overlords 
Standing alone at the front of a Chicago courtroom, Guadalupe Fernández Valencia wore orange prison coveralls. Her long light brown hair, streaked with gray, was pulled back into a tight ponytail at the nape of her neck. She wore no makeup. She was 60 years old. “I want to take advantage of this opportunity to ask forgiveness from my children and from my family,” said Guadalupe. It was August 2021, and she was about to be sentenced for a sobering litany of drug trafficking charges, including conspiracy to transport and distribute, and money laundering. (Bonello, 11/14)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento Effort To Support Homeless In Extreme Weather
One stormy night in January, Joyce Williams and Sharon Jones were shaken awake by a fellow unhoused woman at an encampment near the Sacramento River. They feared the floods would engulf them, their belongings and their dogs before they could escape. “It was dark and the water was coming in fast and hard, and there was so much debris,” Williams said. (Yee, 11/14)

East Bay Times: How Do California Senate Candidates Plan On Tackling Housing Affordability?
Ramos, a patient biller at the UC Irvine Medical Center, lives in Mira Loma in Riverside County with her parents and two children. For eight years, she’s been making the 80-mile round-trip trek to Anaheim that could take up to two hours one way when traffic is bad — which frequent 91 Freeway travelers know can be often. (Kang, 11/13)

Voice Of San Diego: Two Women, Facing Eviction, Are At The Mercy Of The City’s Housing Laws And Push For Density 
The smell from Mishele Stead’s coffee mingles with Pamela Peterson’s acidic wine as they chat on the back patio of their Golden Hill duplex. Peterson is smoking a cigarette, and each drag is punctuated by the women’s laughter. The two women started out as strangers, but they’ve been neighbors for 10 years and become incredibly close. Both women have found stability here. Stead, 53, has been sober for 15 years. She hosts meetings and Christmas parties for people in recovery in her home. Peterson, 75, is on a very fixed income. She relies on Stead, who brings her rotisserie chickens from Costco and anything else she needs. (Gray, 11/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: Flu Season Is Hitting The Bay Area Earlier Than Usual. What To Know
While COVID-19 infections have stabilized in recent weeks, flu season in California is escalating earlier than anticipated. The state reported its first influenza-related deaths this month, part of a nationwide surge in flu activity. According to the latest surveillance report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published Monday, influenza activity — such as hospital visits for respiratory illness that includes fever plus a cough or sore throat — is rising across most parts of the United States, surpassing baseline levels in three regions, including the West Coast. (Vaziri, 11/13)

Stat: Life Expectancy For Men In U.S. Falls To 73 Years — Six Years Less Than Women
The life expectancy of men in the U.S. is nearly six years shorter than that of women, according to new research published on Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine. At least partially as a consequence of over 1 million Covid-19 deaths, life expectancy in the U.S. has declined significantly over the past few years, falling from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77 in 2020 and 76.1 in 2022 — undoing over two decades of progress. This puts the country far behind its wealthy peers: Countries such as Japan, Korea, Portugal, the U.K., and Italy all enjoy a life expectancy of 80 years or more. Countries such as Turkey (78.6) and China (78.2) also fare better. (Merelli, 11/13)

USA Today: Cantaloupe Recall: Fruit Sold In 10 States Have Risk Of Salmonella
Sofia Produce LLC, which operates under the name Trufresh, is recalling all sizes of fresh cantaloupes due to a possible salmonella contamination, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced last Thursday. The company, which operates out of Arizona, said the cantaloupes were distributed directly to Arizona, California, Maryland, New Jersey, Tennessee, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Texas and Florida, as well as Canada. (Hauari, 11/13)

NPR: Lung Cancer Survival Rates Rise, Including Among People Of Color
Survival rates for lung cancer are improving, especially among historically marginalized communities of color, according to a new survey from the American Lung Association released Tuesday. The findings are a bright note amid deepening racial disparities in many areas in health care. The five-year lung cancer survival rate increased by 22% in the five years between 2015 to 2019. (Noguchi and Wroth, 11/14)

Military.com: Veterans, Advocates Want Blood Cancers Added To PACT Act List Of Burn Pit-Related Conditions 
Veterans' advocates are pushing to have several blood cancers added to the list of conditions considered to be service-connected under the PACT Act, a move that would make some Gulf War and post-9/11 veterans eligible for expedited health care and benefits. The Department of Veterans Affairs is conducting a scientific review to decide whether acute leukemias, chronic leukemias and multiple myeloma should be covered by the PACT Act, the landmark legislation passed last year that broadened benefit eligibility for veterans who served in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere and were exposed to burn pits or other battlefield pollutants. (Kime, 11/13)

Reuters: Accord Healthcare Resumes Production Of Cancer Drug Cisplatin Amid Shortages
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Monday that Accord Healthcare has resumed manufacturing of commonly used cancer drug cisplatin against the backdrop of ongoing drug shortages in the United States. Cisplatin is a type of chemotherapy drug used alone or in combination with other drugs to treat several advanced forms of cancer, including bladder, ovarian and testicular cancer. The FDA last week had reported on its website that Accord resumed production of another cancer drug methotrexate. (11/13)