Los Angeles Times: Bonta To Defend California Immigrant, LGBTQ+ Students From Trump Orders
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta vowed Tuesday to defend state educators and their immigrant and LGBTQ+ students against Trump administration threats, saying California laws requiring inclusive school environments remain intact and that his office will go to bat for them. “California’s schools are and will remain a welcoming, inclusive and safe place for all, regardless of your sexual orientation, gender identity or immigration status,” Bonta said. “The federal government does not dictate what we teach, and does not write our curricula. We do that here in California.” (Rector and Blume, 2/4)

The New York Times: Judge Blocks Trump Effort To Move Trans Women To Men’s Prisons
A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Bureau of Prisons from enacting President Trump’s executive order to house transgender women with male inmates and stop medical treatment related to gender transitions. Judge Royce C. Lamberth, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said that three transgender prisoners who brought a suit to stop the order had “straightforwardly demonstrated that irreparable harm will follow” if their request for a restraining order were to be denied. (Dewan, 2/4)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Orders Halt To Transgender Health, Research Programs
The Trump administration is moving forward with its campaign to eradicate federal funding intended to improve the lives and health of transgender people, including by sending notices in recent days that terminate grants for transgender health services and research. The National Institutes of Health, for example, has demanded a halt to a large-scale study that was examining ways to prevent HIV infections in transgender youth of color before it could enroll participants this week. (Nirappil, 2/4)

Becker's Hospital Review: 30 Health Systems Urge Hospital-At-Home Extension
Thirty health systems [including Palo Alto-based Stanford Health Care] have signed on to a letter to congressional leaders urging them to pass a five-year extension for the hospital-at-home program.The CMS waiver for acute hospital care at home is set to expire March 31 without congressional action. A bill including the extension has been proposed as part of a new government spending package. (Bruce, 2/4)

MedPage Today: Physician Group Sues Trump Health Agencies Over Scrubbed Sites, Data
Physicians have launched a legal challenge against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and federal health agencies for removing webpages from health-related websites. Doctors for America filed a lawsuit in federal court against the OPM, CDC, FDA, and HHS over the removal of a "broad range of health-related data and other information used every day" by health professionals and researchers. The announcement was made on Tuesday by Public Citizen Litigation Group, the legal arm of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen. (Henderson, 2/4)

NBC News: Federal Health Workers Terrified After 'DEI' Website Publishes List Of 'Targets'
Federal health workers are expressing fear and alarm after a website called “DEI Watch List” published the photos, names and public information of a number of workers across health agencies, describing them at one point as “targets.” It’s unclear when the website, which lists mostly Black employees who work in agencies primarily within the Department of Health and Human Services, first appeared. “Offenses” for the workers listed on the website include working on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, donating to Democrats and using pronouns in their bios. (Lovelace Jr. and Edwards, 2/5)

MedPage Today: ACOG Will Host Contraceptive Guidance For Ob/Gyns Amid CDC Website Purge
Amid a political environment in which government websites are being gutted of vital health information, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has stepped up to host PDFs of government-issued ob/gyn-related guidance at risk of being purged. The organization has long listed and linked out to clinical guidance from the CDC and other medical professional associations that it endorses. (Robertson, 2/4)

Modern Healthcare: Moody’s Downgrades Insurance Credit Outlook
Moody’s Ratings downgraded its assessment of the health insurance sector from "stable" to "negative" on Friday. High medical costs and utilization are expected to continue challenging Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and commercial insurance carriers this year, Moody’s Ratings projects. A report published Friday cites inflation, pharmaceutical spending and higher mental health utilization as headwinds. (Berryman, 2/4)

Becker's Hospital Review: Ensign Group Scoops Up 5 Texas Nursing Homes
The Ensign Group, a publicly traded holding company based in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., has acquired five Texas nursing homes through its real estate company, Standard Bearer Healthcare REIT. Independent subsidiaries of the Ensign Group will continue to operate the facilities, according to a Feb. 3 news release from the company. (Gregerson, 2/4)

Becker's Hospital Review: Travel Nurse Pay, By State
Average weekly travel nurse pay in the U.S. in January was $2,294.14, up 0.01% from December and down 3.57% from January 2024, according to data shared with Becker's from Vivian, a healthcare career marketplace. Here is the average weekly travel nurse pay for each state [California tops the list], as of January 2025, along with the percentage difference between January and December. (Gooch, 2/4)

Los Angeles Times: With Support Of Pivotal Senator, Panel Backs Kennedy As Health Secretary
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s nominee to lead the sprawling federal bureaucracy responsible for the healthcare of millions of Americans, received the backing of a key Senate committee on Tuesday despite his history of denying the science supporting vaccinations and support of disproved medical conspiracy theories. ... Kennedy’s nomination moved forward on a party-line vote of 14 to 13 in the Senate Finance Committee. (Mehta and Kaplan, 2/4)

AP: Doug Collins Confirmed As Trump's Veterans Affairs Secretary
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed Doug Collins as secretary of veterans affairs, putting the former congressman and Iraq War veteran at the helm of a department that provides crucial care to America’s veterans. Collins, a former Air Force chaplain, was confirmed on a 77-23 vote, becoming the latest addition to President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. (Brown, 2/4)

Time: Trump's Cabinet Will Have These Powers Over Abortion
While serving as Florida’s attorney general, Pam Bondi supported restrictions on abortion, such as mandatory waiting periods. And during her Senate confirmation hearing on Jan. 15, Bondi said she has “always been pro-life.” ... Experts say she could take steps to restrict abortion access through the Comstock Act, a 19th century anti-obscenity law. Under the Biden Administration, the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel released a letter reaffirming that the law doesn’t ban the mailing, delivery, or receipt of legal medication abortion, although anti-abortion activists expressed interest in using the law to do so. Under Bondi’s leadership, the DOJ could withdraw the Biden-era memo without issuing a new one. (Lee, 1/22)

The New York Times: Trump Officials To Put Almost All U.S.A.I.D. Workers On Leave
Nearly the entire global work force of the main American aid agency, known as U.S.A.I.D., will be put on leave by the end of Friday, according to an official memo the agency posted online Tuesday night. The notice said only a small subset of “designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs” would be exempt. (Demirjian, Wong and Crowley, 2/4)

Stat: NIH Resumes Grant Reviews After Trump Administration Pause 
On Tuesday morning, the National Institutes of Health hosted the first study section to review grant applications in over two weeks, following an abrupt and indefinite pause by the Trump administration on Jan. 22. Such meetings — in which expert scientists from around the country consider whether the agency should support proposed research projects — are a core part of how the NIH fulfills its mission to improve human health and reduce illness and disease. (Molteni and Oza, 2/4)

Politico: Device, Drug Makers Seek Tariff Exemptions
President Donald Trump reached a deal to put tariffs on Mexico and Canada on hold for a month on Monday, but health care firms are signaling they want exemptions from U.S. tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China he unveiled over the weekend. Makers of drugs and medical devices say the 25 percent tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico and 10 percent tariff on goods from China could have an outsized impact on American patients and the medical product supply chain. (Lim, 2/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area City Opening A Homeless Parking Site For Half Of What It Cost
San Francisco officials are shutting down the city’s only safe parking site for homeless people, a troubled project dubbed “by far the most expensive homeless response intervention.” Meanwhile, another Bay Area city is opening a similar project at about half the cost per vehicle, pointing to San Francisco’s ongoing struggle to provide homeless services at a reasonable price tag. San Jose in the coming weeks is set to open its second site for homeless vehicle dwellers at 1300 Berryessa Road with the capacity to hold 86 vehicles. (Angst, 2/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: Oakland Nonprofits Lose Critical Funding Amid City's Budget Woes
Nonprofit leaders were stunned when Oakland’s city administrator notified more than a dozen community organizations, including Meals on Wheels and other services for seniors, last week that the city would slash their funding to help balance its massive budget deficit. Thirteen organizations that provide violence prevention, youth and senior services will lose a total of $2.6 million in funding by the end of February. The move comes as the city grapples with a nearly $130 million budget deficit that is eviscerating basic services. (Ravani, 2/4)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Flooding Forces Evacuation Of Patients At Santa Rosa Medical Center 
Flooding due to the atmospheric river forced the evacuation of patients at a Santa Rosa medical center on Tuesday. (2/4)

San Diego Union-Tribune: LIVV Private Wellness Clinic Opens In Former Cardiff Post Office Space 
In Cardiff, a former post office has transformed into a members-only wellness mecca. The exclusive and elegant new LIVV Cardiff Natural clinic aims to be a one-stop-shop for naturopathic medicine and holistic health solutions, with a service menu that includes massage, vitamin IV drops, medical aesthetics like HydraFacials and performance treatments such as cold plunge pools and even a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. (Billing, 2/4)

Los Angeles Times: Suit Accuses Gynecologist At California Prison Of Abusing Patients
For seven years, the only full-time gynecologist at the California Institution for Women, a high-security prison facility in Chino, has been abusing his patients, according to a civil lawsuit filed this week by six women. Dr. Scott Lee, a 70-year-old licensed OB-GYN, acted with impunity at the Chino prison where he has treated hundreds of women since 2016, according to a civil complaint filed in the Central District of California federal court. (Sosa, 2/5)

San Francisco Chronicle: Flu In California Surging To Highest Levels In Years, Data Shows
The seasonal flu in California is surging to levels not seen in several years — though the reasons why aren’t entirely clear. Test positivity for influenza specimens at state laboratories hit 26% in the week ending Jan. 25 — notably higher than the peaks of the prior four seasons — and is still trending upward, according to the state’s most recent surveillance data on respiratory viruses. (Ho, 2/5)

ABC News: Black Kidney Patients Find Renewed Hope After Rules Change For Transplant List
Since the 1990s, a race-based method for assessing kidney function placed many Black patients lower on the transplant waitlist. However, thousands of these patients were moved up the list in recent years when a widely used lab test was found to calculate results differently for Black patients. "We have a long history in this country of actually biases against certain transplant candidates, in particular African Americans, because of the way that we calculate how bad the kidney function is," Dr. Edmund Pribitkin, a professor at Thomas Jefferson University, said. (Smith and Louallen, 2/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: Chocolate, Potato Chips And Broccoli Recalled Over ‘Deadly’ Risks
In recent weeks, several high-profile food recalls have sparked concerns over potential health risks linked to popular snack items and vegetables. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has classified several of these recalls as Class I, signaling a high risk of serious or even fatal health consequences. Here’s a closer look at the affected products and the potential dangers they pose. (Vaziri, 2/4)

The North Bay Business Journal: Novato Health Firm To Conduct Cardio Clinical Trial
Cyclarity Therapeutics received regulatory approval to start its first cardiac-related clinical trial on humans this week, the Novato-based company announced Jan. 7. The clinical trial allows for 12 patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) to gain access to treatment designed to relieve plaque buildup in arteries, a common culprit in heart blockages. (Wood, 2/4)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Santa Rosa Team Provides LA Firefighters ‘Promising’ Treatments 
If adopted, the new rules would make it more difficult for Californians to get the “Category 1” meds that have shown promise clearing toxins from the bodies of firefighters — but also treatments that give patients relief from such ailments as Lyme disease, long COVID, cancer, cystic fibrosis, chronic fatigue syndrome and others. (Murphy, 2/4)

MedPage Today: FDA OKs New Wearable Treatment For Parkinson's Disease
The FDA approved an apomorphine hydrochloride infusion device (Onapgo)opens in a new tab or window to treat motor fluctuations in adults with advanced Parkinson's disease, Supernus Pharmaceuticals announced on Tuesday. The wearable device is the first subcutaneous apomorphine infusion device for Parkinson's and provides continuous treatment during the day, Supernus noted. (George, 2/4)

Fox News: Common Cancer Type Could Be Detected With New Blood Test
A new blood test was found to detect colon cancer with more than 80% accuracy — and to rule it out for 90% of healthy people. The results were presented at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium held in San Francisco late last month. They were also published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. (Rudy, 2/4)