The Hill: Biden Administration Launches New National Initiative To Fight Homelessness 
The initiative, dubbed “House America,” will call on city, county, state and tribal government leaders throughout the country to publicly vow to decrease homelessness in their areas. The federal government will then provide guidance and support to help local jurisdictions supply permanent housing for individuals experiencing homelessness and construct new affordable housing options for people who are struggling, according to Bloomberg. (Schnell, 9/20)

Bloomberg: Biden And HUD Launch Moonshot Bid To Beat Homelessness 
The White House is launching a new national initiative to combat the rising tide of homelessness, a pact with local governments to commit resources and energy to the people suffering most due to the national housing crisis. With “House America,” the administration of President Joe Biden is asking leaders of city, county, state and tribal governments across the U.S. to make a public pledge to reduce homelessness. In turn, the federal government will provide guidance and support to achieve two goals: providing permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness and building new affordable units for those on the brink. (Capps, 9/20)

KQED: In One Week, Newsom Signed Three Major Housing Bills. Here's What They Mean
Less than a week has passed since the recall election and Gov. Gavin Newsom already has signed some of the biggest housing bills in years, including a measure that allows more than one house to be built on the single-family lots that comprise the vast majority of California’s developable land. “The housing affordability crisis is undermining the California Dream for families across the state, and threatens our long-term growth and prosperity,” Newsom said in a bill-signing statement on Sept. 16 . “Making a meaningful impact on this crisis will take bold investments, strong collaboration across sectors and political courage from our leaders and communities to do the right thing and build housing for all.” (Tobias, 9/20)

Bay Area News Group: The Bay Area's COVID Hotel Experiment: Successes And Uncertainty
Chavez is a success story of Project Roomkey, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s experimental program that so far has sheltered more than 42,000 unhoused Californians who are vulnerable to COVID in hotel rooms. Experts say the hotels played a big role in keeping COVID numbers down among homeless populations. They’ve also allowed people to stabilize chronic health conditions, obtain ID cards and other documents, sign up for Social Security benefits, and, in some cases, secure permanent housing. But there have been bumps in the road, particularly as the program winds down. Funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that was set to expire this month has been extended through the end of the year, leaving some Bay Area counties scrambling to try and keep their hotels open longer. Others, like San Mateo County, already have closed their programs, despite the ongoing threat of the delta variant. (Kendall, 9/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco Embraces First Tiny Cabin Village For Homeless People With Plans For SoMa
After years of resistance, San Francisco is finally jumping into the tiny homes technique for sheltering homeless people with plans to install them on two parking lots between Market and Mission streets, The Chronicle has learned. The lots at 33 Gough St. have been used since December as a city-sanctioned “safe sleeping village,” holding 44 tents for unhoused people while they get counseling aimed at routing them into permanent homes. Those tents will be replaced by late fall with 70 tiny homes, dubbed cabins, similar to those already in use for years in Oakland, the Peninsula and San Jose. (Fagan, 9/20)

Modesto Bee: Latinos Demand Turlock Build Housing, Help Shelter Homeless 
Calls for affordable housing sprouted again during a Turlock City Council meeting Tuesday as Latino advocates decried a lack of options, crowded living conditions and discrimination against its homeless population. Four members of Families de la Raza Unida de Turlock, a new organization fighting for low-cost housing in the region, said Latino and Black residents are disproportionately suffering from the inability to pay rent and afford their own homes. This is despite many being working adults and sharing housing with several people. (Briseño, 9/20)

Sacramento Bee: U.S. To Require Vaccination For International Travelers 
The United States will require all adult non-U.S. citizens to provide proof of vaccination and negative COVID-19 test results to enter the country, as part of a new set of rules for international air travel the White House announced on Monday. White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said Monday that the new rules, which will allow individuals from nations that are currently banned from entering the U.S., would go into effect starting in early November. (Chambers, 9/20)

Politico: U.S. To Lift Air Travel Restrictions For Fully Vaccinated Foreigners
The U.S. will lift air travel restrictions for foreign nationals who are fully vaccinated, with the Biden administration targeting early November for foreign travel to resume for the first time in more than a year. The head of the White House’s Covid-19 Response Team, Jeff Zients, announced Monday that foreign nationals must show proof of vaccination and proof of a negative Covid-19 test taken three days prior to boarding an airplane. Zients said the Center for Disease Control and Prevention will determine which vaccines will be accepted. (Pawlyk and Day, 9/20)

NPR: White House Lifts Ban On Vaccinated Foreign Nationals Flying To The U.S. 
Jeffrey Zients, President Biden's COVID-19 response coordinator, announced the new policy Monday. It replaces a patchwork of travel bans on travelers, most of which began during the Trump administration. The travel bans, many in place for well over a year, separated families and negatively affected the tourism industry in the U.S., where international travel is a big part of business. A hashtag, #LoveIsNotTourism, took off on social media, with people advocating for an end to the travel bans, at least for those who are fully vaccinated. (Naylor, 9/20)

AP: Q&A: America's New COVID-19 Rules For International Travel
The Biden administration is rolling out new international travel policies affecting Americans and noncitizens alike who want to fly into the U.S. The goal is to restore more normal air travel after 18 months of disruption caused by COVID-19.The across-the-board rules, which will take effect in November, will replace a hodgepodge of confusing restrictions. Some details of the plan announced Monday are being worked out, but here are some questions and answers about what to expect. (Miller and Koenig, 9/21)

AP: Biden Launches Plan To Address 'Silent Killer': Extreme Heat
The Biden administration is moving to protect workers and communities from extreme heat after a dangerously hot summer that spurred an onslaught of drought-worsened wildfires and caused hundreds of deaths from the Pacific Northwest to hurricane-ravaged Louisiana. Under a plan announced Monday, the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and other federal agencies are launching actions intended to reduce heat-related illness and protect public health, including a proposed workplace heat standard. (Daly, 9/20)

The Washington Post: President Biden Launches Strategy To Combat Extreme Heat Linked To Climate Change, Including Labor Standards
Extreme heat has cost the lives of hundreds of Americans this summer and affected the health and livelihoods of many thousands more. It now ranks as the leading weather-related cause of death in the country, according to the National Weather Service. The push could lead to new federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards for employers, as well as more funding for cooling centers and other efforts to reduce heat-related illness and death. Nearly two-thirds of Americans live in places that experienced a multiday heat wave between June and August, according to a recent Washington Post analysis. (Joselow, 9/20)

Politico: Biden Administration To Write Workplace Safety Rule Tackling Heat Stress 
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported there were 43 work-related deaths due to environmental heat exposure in 2019, and at least 2,410 others suffered serious injuries and illnesses, but the Labor Department says heat illness is "largely preventable, and commonly under-reported." States such as California, Washington and Minnesota have heat-related standards in place to protect workers. "This new process is historic and will unquestionably mean fewer worker deaths while improving productivity," Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), who has sponsored legislation to create a federal heat standard, said in a statement. "I know because I have seen it work in California, where I introduced the country’s first worker protections from heat stress." (Colman, 9/20)

Stat: Covid Overtakes 1918 Spanish Flu As Deadliest Disease In U.S. History
The Covid-19 pandemic has become the deadliest disease event in American history, with a death toll surpassing that of the 1918 Spanish flu. The Spanish flu was previously the disease event that caused the biggest loss of life in the United States; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 675,000 Americans died during the 1918 pandemic, in waves of illness that stretched out over roughly two years in this country. According to STAT’s Covid-19 Tracker, Covid deaths stand at more than 675,400. (Branswell, 9/20)

CapRadio: COVID-19 Has Killed As Many Americans As The 1918 Flu 
COVID-19 has reached a grim milestone — the virus has now killed about as many Americans as the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, approximately 675,000. And similar to the worldwide scourge of a century ago, the coronavirus may never entirely disappear. Instead, scientists hope the virus that causes COVID-19 becomes a mild seasonal bug as human immunity strengthens through vaccination and repeated infection, according to the Associated Press. (9/20)

The Mercury News: California Has The Lowest Coronavirus Rate In The Nation
California has the lowest coronavirus case rate of any state, federal figures show, illustrating the progress made in the ongoing battle against the highly infectious delta variant. The state has been among the national leaders in that metric for the last week, as the number of newly confirmed coronavirus infections continues to tumble from a peak earlier this summer. But while infections have plummeted in highly-vaccinated Bay Area and Southern California, hospitals are struggling to keep up with a crush of cases in the Central Valley, underscoring how vaccines are so critical in combatting serious illness. (9/20)

Los Angeles Times: Monoclonal Antibody COVID Treatment Hard To Get In California 
Health officials in California are warning of shortages and distribution problems for a medical treatment that can keep COVID-19 patients from falling critically ill. Monoclonal antibodies have been developed as a treatment for COVID-19. They are thought to be a way to counteract the coronavirus before it can begin destroying the body’s organs, said Dr. Rais Vohra, the interim Fresno County health officer. The antibodies can be used to treat mild or moderate COVID-19 in patients who are not hospitalized. (Lin II and Money, 9/21)

AP: George Holliday, Who Filmed Rodney King Video, Dies Of COVID
George Holliday, the Los Angeles plumber who shot grainy video of four white police officers beating Black motorist Rodney King in 1991, has died of complications of COVID-19, a friend said Monday. Holliday, 61, died Sunday at a Los Angeles hospital, where he had been for more than a month, according to Robert Wollenweber, a longtime friend and former coworker. Holliday was not vaccinated and was on a ventilator in recent days after contracting pneumonia, Wollenweber said. (9/21)

Los Angeles Times: George Holliday, Man Who Filmed Rodney King Video That Forever Changed L.A., Dies
The video was less than nine minutes long, dark, grainy and badly out of focus. But it changed L.A. in ways that were unfathomable and dragged George Holliday into a life he never bargained for. Shot with a bulky Sony Handycam, the video of the Rodney King beating in 1991 tore open a city already heaving with racial tension, an era when the Los Angeles Police Department was all but an occupying force in the city’s Black neighborhoods, arriving with tanks, battering rams and brute force. (Marble, 9/20)

CNN: Two Dose Version Of Johnson & Johnson Shot 94% Effective Against Covid-19, Study Finds 
A two-dose version of Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine provides 94% protection against symptomatic infection, the company said Tuesday -- making a two-dose regimen of J&J's Janssen vaccine comparable to a two-dose regimen of Moderna's or Pfizer's. Plus, the company said, adding a booster dose to a single shot of the vaccine raised immunity even more, and should also protect people strongly against infection. (Fox, 9/21)

CNBC: J&J Covid Vaccine Booster 94% Effective When Given At Two Months, J&J Says
Johnson & Johnson said Tuesday its Covid-19 booster shot is 94% effective when administered two months after the first dose in the United States. It also said the booster increases antibody levels by four to six times compared with one shot alone. A J&J booster dose given six months out from the first shot appears to be potentially even more protective against Covid, the company said, generating antibodies twelvefold higher four weeks after the boost, regardless of age. (Lovelace Jr., 9/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: A 'Huge Relief' For Bay Area Parents As Pfizer Says COVID Vaccine Is Safe For Kids 5 To 11
The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine has been shown to be safe and highly effective in young children ages 5 to 11, the companies announced Monday. The news sets the stage for authorization of the vaccine for younger children, possibly before the end of October. Renee and Miguel Chavez, who enrolled their children in the Pfizer vaccine trial for elementary school-age kids at Stanford, said the news was a “huge relief.” (Mandavilli, 9/20)

Bay Area News Group: COVID-19 Vaccines For Kids: What You Need To Know
A COVID-19 vaccine could soon be available to children between the ages 5 through 11, easing anxieties of parents and expanding the nation’s protection from the pandemic. On Monday, Pfizer said it would file for emergency authorization of its vaccine for use in children after research demonstrated its safety and a strong immune response in youngsters. (Krieger, 9/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: What The Booster Rollout Will Look Like In The Bay Area
In early summer, when demand for coronavirus vaccine was low, Santa Clara County health officials closed the public vaccination clinic at Mountain View Community Center, a site that on its busiest days was administering 1,000 shots a day. This month, after the Biden administration began signaling booster shots could begin Sept. 20, county officials reopened the clinic and added others to accommodate a potential uptick in demand — not only from people seeking boosters, but also for children 5 to 11 years old who are poised to become eligible as soon as October. The two anticipated developments, plus seasonal flu shots going out around the same time, means a new wave of people could soon be lining up for shots. (Ho, 9/20)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Poway Unified Will Keep Board Meetings Virtual After Anti-Mask Protests 
After a group protesting mask-wearing mandates disrupted a Poway Unified School District board meeting earlier this month, district officials announced that future meetings will take place strictly online for the safety of staff and board members. The board plans to hold its next meeting virtually at 6 p.m. Oct. 14, district officials said. (Lopez-Villafana, 9/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: Maskless Mayor Breed: The Story Behind The Viral Story
Chronicle senior arts and entertainment editor Mariecar Mendoza meant to capture video of an impromptu Tony! Toni! Toné! reunion performance at the Black Cat in the Tenderloin last week. She knew she'd also caught Mayor London Breed happily singing and dancing along with the music, but only later did it dawn on her that the video showed Breed breaking her own health department's mask rules for indoor venues. After all, Mendoza was maskless at the time too. (9/21)

CalMatters: Special Education Halted For Some California Students
Across the state, other parents are being placed in a similar position after more than a year of distance learning during which students with disabilities fell behind disproportionately. Meanwhile, the legislators who designed the recently passed independent study laws say this form of remote learning might not be able to accommodate all students’ needs. Last year, California’s public schools offered remote instruction through distance learning in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Teachers were required to provide “daily live interaction.” (Hong, 9/20)

Los Angeles Times: LAUSD COVID-19 Cases: Tracking The Spread And Outbreaks 
As of September 19, there were 1,456 active cases detected by the district’s massive testing regimen. Of those, there were 12 cases linked to spread at four schools. L.A. Unified serves more than 460,000 students. (Lee, 9/20)

Orange County Register: UC Irvine To Add $50 Million Health Science Facility, The Campus’s Largest Research Center 
Adding to a “health sciences district” taking shape on the southwest side of campus, UC Irvine announced it will build a new 200,0000-square-foot facility for collaborative research on cancer, neuroscience, regenerative medicine and other specialties. Called the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building, it will be the largest research building on campus and one of the largest in the western U.S., UCI officials said. It will be funded by a $30 million donation from the Huntington Beach-based foundation of the same name and $20 million in other private contributions. (Robinson, 9/20)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Santa Rosa Psychiatric Hospital Agrees To $2.85 Million Settlement Over Workplace Conditions
The owners of Sonoma County’s only psychiatric hospital, Aurora Santa Rosa Hospital, have agreed to pay $2.85 million to settle a lawsuit that alleges a number of state labor code violations, including significant understaffing that led to unsafe working conditions for nurses and other staff. The lawsuit, which names as defendant former director of nursing Teresa Brooke, was filed in 2018 by private attorneys on behalf of the state’s Labor & Workforce Development Agency through the Private Attorney General Act, or PAGA. (Espinoza, 9/20)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego Concerned New Ambulance Company Struggling To Hire, Secure New Vehicles 
The company scheduled to become San Diego’s new ambulance provider over Thanksgiving weekend is struggling to hire paramedics and secure new ambulances, prompting city officials to express concerns about the transition. Falck, a Danish company that handles ambulance service in many cities around the world, is scheduled to replace longtime city ambulance provider American Medical Response at 8 a.m. Nov. 27, Fire Chief Colin Stowell said. (Garrick, 9/21)

Sacramento Bee: Dignity Nurses OK Labor Deal With 13.5% Raises Over 4 Years
A union representing more than 14,000 registered nurses at Dignity Health reported Monday that its membership had voted to ratify a new contract with wage increases of 13.5% over a four-year term. The California Nurses Association also touted new provisions in the contract that would strengthen prevention measures the company must take against infectious diseases. This issue has been one nurses have repeatedly raised amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a respiratory disease that has killed more than 670,000 U.S. citizens. (Anderson, 9/20)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego Biotech Raises $199M In Arms Race Against Cancer 
Carlsbad biotech Tyra Biosciences has raised $199 million and gone public in a quest to create cancer drugs that precisely target the tumors of patients who aren’t responding to current therapies. The firm closed its initial public offering Friday, selling 12.4 million shares for $16 a share. Those shares began trading last Wednesday on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol TYRA. (Wosen, 9/0)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area Spare The Air Alert Issued For Tuesday, But Not For Wildfire Smoke. Here's What's Going On
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued a Spare the Air Alert for ozone starting Tuesday, as air quality is expected to be unhealthy for sensitive groups in some areas. Parts of the East Bay, including sections of Solano, Contra Costa, Alameda and Santa Clara counties, could see higher-than-normal levels of ozone in the atmosphere, which could cause problems for people with respiratory issues such as asthma and emphysema. (Picon, 9/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: Dreamforce Tech Extravaganza Returns To S.F. With Daily COVID Tests, Masks And Foo Fighters
San Francisco’s Howard Street has been transformed once again into a high-tech summer camp, as Dreamforce returns after a year of being virtual due to the pandemic. The giant tech conference that brings together the greater Salesforce community runs Tuesday through Thursday and will be much smaller this year, with only around 1,000 attendees, down sharply from the 171,000-person sellout crowd of 2019. It’s one of the first in-person conferences since the pandemic started, and an economic lift for a local economy that’s recovering slowly, particularly in the tourism industry. (Li, 9/21)