Bay Area News Group: Do I Need The New COVID-19 Booster? Vaccines Get An Overhaul From FDA
With COVID-19 a fading worry, the Food and Drug Administration made significant changes Tuesday in its vaccine authorization, eliminating the original formula, shifting to favor a single dose of the updated shot and allowing new boosters for older and sicker people. (Woolfolk, 4/18)

NBC News: FDA Authorizes 2nd Dose Of Updated Covid Booster For Older Adults
The FDA’s decision will now be handed off to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has scheduled a meeting with its panel of outside advisers for Wednesday. If the panel votes in favor of the additional boosters, and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, signs off, immunizations could begin immediately. (Lovelace Jr., 4/18)

Stat: FDA Allows New Booster Dose Of Covid Vaccine For Older Adults
In authorizing another dose for people in these demographics, the agency is following in the footsteps of Canada and the United Kingdom, which earlier announced that older adults, adults who live in care facilities, and people who are immunocompromised would have access to an additional booster of vaccine this spring. In the U.K., adults 75 and older are eligible; in Canada, adults must be 80 or older to receive an extra dose. (Branswell, 4/18)

Politico: Biden Administration Developing Plan To Get Covid Vaccines To The Uninsured 
The Biden administration plans to roll out a new initiative this week guaranteeing free Covid vaccines, treatments and tests for the uninsured into 2024, two people briefed on the matter told POLITICO. The program comes as the White House prepares to wind down its pandemic response operation. It also represents an effort to ensure vulnerable Americans can still access shots and treatments once the government shifts broader responsibility for Covid care to the private sector. (Cancryn, 4/18)

The Washington Post: Democrats Still Face Feinstein Dilemma As Replacement Bid Fails 
Democrats’ plan to replace an ailing senator on the Senate Judiciary Committee fell apart amid Republican opposition Tuesday, leaving the party still grappling with a dilemma over stalled judicial nominees that has inflamed some in the Democratic base and complicated the Senate race to succeed her in California. Republicans prevented Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) from temporarily replacing Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who has been absent since February while recovering from shingles, on the panel with another Democrat on Tuesday evening. (Goodwin, Reston and Wootson Jr., 4/18)

CapRadio: Calls For Senator Feinstein To Resign Raise ‘Difficult’ Questions About Aging.
The calls for California Senator Dianne Feinstein to step down are starting to increase and they are even coming from members of her own party. Last week, the 89-year-old moved to temporarily appoint Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to her role on the Judiciary Committee. Feinstein has missed nearly 60 meetings since early February, dealing with complications from a bout of shingles. (Gonzalez, 4/18)

The Washington Post: Xavier Becerra Violated Hatch Act By Voicing Support For Senator’s Election, Report Finds 
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra violated a law that restricts political activities of federal employees when he advocated for the election of Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) at a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute event in the fall, the Office of Special Counsel has determined. In a letter Tuesday relaying the finding to President Biden, Special Counsel Henry J. Kerner said that Becerra had violated the Hatch Act when he spoke “in his official capacity” at the institute’s annual awards gala in September. (Wagner, 4/18)

CapRadio: Why Fentanyl Bills Are Stalling In The California Legislature
Family members of people who have died from fentanyl overdose demanded greater urgency on the issue from state lawmakers on Tuesday, expressing frustration at the number of bills that have so far failed to advance this year. Among them is a bipartisan bill voted down in the Senate Public Safety Committee last month that would require people convicted of distributing certain illicit drugs be given a warning that they could be convicted of homicide if a person dies as a result of drugs that person furnishes. The state has a similar policy on DUIs. (Nixon, 4/18)

Capitol Weekly: Sens. Eggman And Niello: Reforming Lanterman-Petris-Short 
On this episode of the Capitol Weekly podcast, Rich Ehisen and Dan Morain welcome Sens. Susan Talamantes Eggman and Roger Niello, two of the three primary sponsors on SB 43, a bill that would add new criteria to the definition of what constitutes someone being considered “gravely disabled,” the standard by which a person can be involuntarily held for treatment. (4/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: There's Already An 'Enormous Rise' In SF Overdose Deaths In 2023
Fatal overdoses in San Francisco killed dozens more people in the first three months of this year compared to the same period last year. Two hundred people died from accidental drug overdoses, new medical examiner data shows, with the vast majority of deaths involving fentanyl. This year’s tally reflected a nearly 41% increase from the 142 deaths reported for the first three months last year. (Leonard, 4/19)

Times Of San Diego: (Not Quite) Magic Beans – $20M Of Fentanyl Buried In Shipment Of Green Beans At Border
Border officials have found yet another way to smuggle huge amounts of illegal drugs – hidden among green beans. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Otay Mesa on Monday intercepted more than 3.5 million fentanyl pills– with an estimated street value of $21.1 million – concealed within the vegetable shipment. (4/18)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Mayor's Budget Seeks More Cops, More Homeless Programs 
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass released the first budget proposal of her administration on Tuesday, calling for more police and greater spending on homelessness, anti-gang programs and the city’s struggling animal shelters. Bass renewed her call for the Los Angeles Police Department to increase its ranks by 400 officers, to about 9,500. She also revealed that her plan will rely on a key recruitment strategy: persuading 200 retired officers, many of whom left recently, to return for at least 12 months. (Zahniser, Wick and Smith, 4/18)

LAist 89.3: People Want To Know What Mayor Bass Is Going To Do About Homelessness.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, in her first State of the City address, called for a massive ramp-up of a motel shelter program for unhoused people – including having the city buy motels and hotels – and separately asked for funding to hire hundreds more police officers. The mayor said her proposed budget will include scaling up her signature program offering motel shelter to unhoused people, known as Inside Safe, to $250 million. Today on AirTalk, we discuss what Bass said during her address Monday night with Frank Stoltze, civics and democracy correspondent for LAist 89.3, and Nick Gerda, senior reporter covering unhoused communities for LAist 89.3. (4/18)

Times Of San Diego: City Leaders Unveil Tenant Protection Ordinance To Combat Homelessness
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera Tuesday released a draft of an ordinance to provide protections to renters from eviction as long as they continue to pay rent and comply with their lease. The leaders said the Residential Tenant Protections Ordinance to Prevent Displacement and Homelessness is a step toward addressing the twin housing and homelessness crises the city faces. (Sklar, 4/18)

Fresno Bee: Community Health System’s Board Chair Farid Assemi Steps Down 
Community Health System board chair Farid Assemi has stepped down from the hospital board and has handed over the chair role to a person who lives out of state. (Amaro, 4/18)

Voice of OC: La Habra Keeps Security Guard At Skatepark To Enforce Helmet Rules
Skaters at La Habra’s La Bonita Skatepark want to remove their helmets  – a common occurrence at skateparks despite safety regulations – when they’re out there shredding and working on tricks like kickflips and 50-50 grinds. But under the watch of a city contracted security guard at the local park, skaters can’t ditch their helmets. Local skaters say enforcing the state’s skatepark helmet law is driving people to other skateparks in Orange County. (Elattar, 4/18)

Reuters: Biden, Facing Roadblocks In Congress, Signs Executive Order On Childcare, Eldercare 
U.S. President Joe Biden, facing congressional resistance to his "care economy" proposals, on Tuesday signed an executive order aimed at advancing free preschool and expanding affordable care for children, older Americans and those with disabilities. Biden signed the order, which includes over 50 specific actions, in the White House Rose Garden, flanked by family caregivers, people with disabilities, older adults and early childhood and long-term care workers. (Bose and Shalal, 4/18)

NBC News: DACA Recipients Await New Biden Rule Expanding Health Coverage
When Paloma Bouhid began working as a concierge at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida seven years ago, it was the first time she received health care insurance. But the lifeline she found through her job unexpectedly slipped away in 2020, when at 26 she lost her job during a round of mass layoffs. (Acevedo and Flores, 4/19)

Roll Call: Supreme Court Could Soon Rule On Abortion Drug
Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal advocacy group representing the medical groups, submitted its brief Tuesday ahead of a noon court deadline, opening the door for the Supreme Court to weigh in on the abortion drug less than a year after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturned the national right to an abortion. (Macagnone and Raman, 4/18)

The Washington Post: Abortion Pill Rulings Threaten FDA, Drug Companies Tell Supreme Court 
Pharmaceutical companies, among the most powerful interests in Washington, have mobilized against a pair of lower-court rulings restricting access to abortion pills that they contend go far beyond issues of reproductive health and pose a threat to the regulatory foundations of the U.S. drug industry. The warnings — contained in friend-of-the-court advisory briefs filed Friday with the U.S. Supreme Court — are harshly critical of rulings this month by a U.S. District Court judge in Texas and a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. (Rowland, 4/18)

The New York Times: Insurers Are Starting To Cover Telehealth Abortion 
The legal effort to ban mail-order abortion pills came along just as the fledgling telehealth industry became a more accepted and entrenched part of abortion care. This week, Hey Jane, one of more than a dozen virtual abortion providers that have no physical locations, began contracting with the insurers Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Connecticut, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield of New York and Sana, which provides health plans for small businesses nationwide. Hey Jane also already accepted Aetna in eight of the nine states in which it operates. (Miller and Sanger-Katz, 4/18)

Modern Healthcare: AAMC: Number Of OB-GYN Residency Applicants Plummets
Far fewer medical school graduates are pursuing obstetrics-gynecology residencies as the battle over reproductive healthcare and abortion rages, making an existing shortage of specialists in the field worse. There was a 5.2% decrease in senior OB-GYN residency applicants this year, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The drop in applicants more than doubled in 13 states with abortion bans. (Devereaux and Berryman, 4/18)

Military Times: Vet Affairs Agency Looking For Volunteers To Study Gulf War Syndrome
Veterans Affairs officials will launch a new five-year study into Gulf War Syndrome in an effort to better define and explain the symptoms for the mysterious illness. It’s a move that veterans groups say is overdue but also potentially beneficial to tens of thousands of Gulf War veterans. As many as 250,000 individuals who served in operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the early 1990s have reported a series of problems including joint pain, fatigue, rashes, memory issues and digestive problems, with no clear cause. (Shane III, 4/18)

Military Times: The Marine Corps Is Making Changes To Its Medical Training Requisites
As the Marine Corps prepares for a major future fight that may see small units dispersed and operating in hard-to-reach places, it’s also making changes to its military medical requirements regarding who gets medical training and what level of training various battlefield medical providers receive. The policy updates have to do with tactical combat casualty care, or TCCC, the combat lifesaving program developed by the Defense Health Agency. The first of a trio of changes, published in a July Marine administrative message, requires all Fleet Marine Force and supporting establishment Marines to receive certification in TCCC-All Service Member, the base level of the program, within 12 months of deploying. (Seck, 4/17)