Becker's Hospital Review: Kaiser Med School Extends Tuition Waiver To 7th Class
Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine in Pasadena, Calif., is again extending its tuition waiver policy for the 2026 matriculating class, waiving all tuition and fees (including disability insurance) for students who enroll. The July 29 decision marks the seventh consecutive cohort to receive a full tuition waiver, further cementing the school’s stated mission of “attract[ing] aspiring physicians from across the country who are dedicated to serving diverse communities,” according to the new release announcing the decision. (Gooch, 7/29)

Index-Tribune: Sonoma Philanthropists Pledge Millions For Cancer Research
A $100 million matching grant from Sonoma philanthropists Joan and Sanford “Sandy” I. Weill is launching a groundbreaking collaboration between two of California’s premier cancer centers — UCSF and Stanford Medicine — to accelerate cancer research and revolutionize treatment over the next 10 years. (Beer, 7/29)

Becker's Hospital Review: California Health System Saves Time With Oracle AI: 4 Notes
Torrance Memorial Physician Network, part of Torrance (Calif.) Memorial, is saving time with Oracle Health’s Clinical AI Agent.Here are four things to know. (Bruce, 7/29)

San Francisco Chronicle: EPA Moves To Undo Key Climate Rule; California Vows To Fight Back
The Environmental Protection Agency took a major step toward backing out of the business of fighting climate change on Tuesday, a move that California leaders vowed to push back on. The federal agency, after months of speculation, announced it was seeking to undo the scientific finding that authorizes greenhouse gas regulation. The “endangerment finding,” which asserts that greenhouse gases are harming humans and must be regulated, has helped spawn several federal policies that limit planet-warming pollution from vehicles, power plants and more. (Alexander, 7/29)

Berkeleyside: Digging, Even By Dogs, Banned At Berkeley’s Cesar Chavez Park
Digging dogs aren’t welcome in Berkeley’s Cesar Chavez Park these days. Dedicated volunteers tending the park’s native garden must keep their trowels — and fingers — out of the soil. City work crews also aren’t allowed to penetrate the park’s ground, be it with shovel or pick. And the park’s burrowing owls and squirrels are on city watch. A new set of regulations, started last month, aim to prevent disturbances of the soil or ground at the 90-acre park on the Berkeley Marina — at least temporarily. The rules, which some park users call overkill, are the latest layer in the city’s ongoing response to environmental problems related to Cesar Chavez’s 22-year history as a dump, closed more than four decades ago. (Darby Rauch, 7/29)

Scientific American: Hurricane Forecasters Keep Crucial Satellite Data Online After Threatened Cuts
Satellite data that are useful for weather forecasting—and particularly crucial to monitoring hurricanes—will not be cut off by the Department of Defense at the end of the month as originally planned. The data, which provide an x-ray-like view of a hurricane’s internal structure, will remain accessible to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the satellites’ lifespans, a NOAA spokesperson confirmed in an e-mail to Scientific American. These data are particularly useful for monitoring storms at night, when visible satellite imagery is unavailable, and for catching rapid intensification—when a storm’s winds jump by at least 35 miles per hour in 24 hours. The faster forecasters note a storm is quickly ramping up in intensity, the faster they can warn people in harm’s way. (Thompson, 7/29)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Supervisor Stirs LGBTQ Ire With Talk Of Repealing Landmark Law
San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey is facing criticism from the LGBTQ+ community as he considers dismantling a city law that guarantees equal contract benefits to domestic partnerships. Dorsey, who is gay, asked city officials on Tuesday to estimate the cost to taxpayers for the Equal Benefits Ordinance, a 1996 law that prohibits the city from doing business with contractors that don’t offer adequate domestic partner benefits. The law was aimed at ensuring gay couples, who could not marry at the time, had access to the same benefits as heterosexual couples. (Toledo, 7/29)

The Hill: FTC Eyes Probe Into Deceptive Practices Related To Gender-Affirming Care
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Monday launched a public inquiry into whether providers of gender-affirming health care are violating federal consumer protection laws. In a news release, the FTC said it opened the inquiry “to better understand how consumers may have been exposed to false or unsupported claims about ‘gender-affirming care’, especially as it relates to minors, and to gauge the harms consumers may be experiencing.” (Migdon, 7/29)

Times of San Diego: Rep. Mike Levin Vows To Fight For Restored Medicaid Coverage
United States Rep. Mike Levin held a press conference on Tuesday to speak out against cuts to Medicaid and other health care programs. One day before the 60th anniversary of Medicaid on July 30, Levin was joined by health care industry leaders and patients to share the budget bill’s ramifications on San Diego. (Wallace, 7/29)

Los Angeles Times: California, Other States Sue Trump Administration Over Bill Defunding Planned Parenthood
California and a coalition of other liberal-led states sued the Trump administration Tuesday over a provision in the “Big Beautiful Bill” that bars Planned Parenthood and other large nonprofit abortion providers from receiving Medicaid funding for a host of unrelated healthcare services. ... The states’ challenge comes one day after Planned Parenthood won a major victory in its own lawsuit over the measure in Boston, where a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking the ban from taking effect against Planned Parenthood affiliates nationwide. (Rector, 7/29)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Patients Experiencing Harm Events Go Unreported: OIG
Hospitals are falling short of federal and state harm reporting requirements, according to a report federal investigators published Tuesday. Nearly half of hospitals surveyed failed to identify “harm events” among hospitalized Medicare patients in October 2018, according to the Health and Human Services Department Office of Inspector General. Even fewer of those occurrences were investigated, the OIG found. (Early, 7/29)

Modern Healthcare: 5 Medicare Pay Rules Are Expected By Friday. Here's What To Know
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is set to reveal fiscal 2026 Medicare reimbursements for inpatient providers within days. Final rules detailing payment rates and new policies for inpatient hospitals, inpatient psychiatric hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, hospice providers and inpatient rehabilitation facilities are expected to be published as soon as Friday. (Early, 7/29)

CBS News: Senate Confirms Susan Monarez As CDC Director. Here's What She's Said About Vaccines, Fluoride And More
Susan Monarez has been serving as the acting head of the CDC since January, and previously worked as the head of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. She was viewed as somewhat surprising pick for the CDC role because unlike most recent CDC directors, she holds a Ph.D. but is not a medical doctor. ... "If I'm confirmed as CDC director, I look forward to supporting the secretary with science and evidence, and making sure that I am giving him the best information possible," Monarez said at her confirmation hearing. (Moniuszko, 7/29)

The New York Times: Top F.D.A. Official Vinay Prasad Resigns Under Pressure 
The Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine and gene therapy official resigned on Tuesday after a public campaign against him led by the right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, according to people familiar with the matter. Over the past week, Ms. Loomer had taken to social media to attack the official, Dr. Vinay Prasad, for a series of decisions denying approval of new drugs for rare diseases. She highlighted past statements of support he had made for prominent figures on the political left, including Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont. Andrew Nixon, a Department of Health and Human Services spokesman, confirmed the resignation Tuesday evening. (Jewett, 7/29)

The Washington Post: FDA Pushes To Restrict Synthetic Opioid Derived From Kratom Lea
Health officials announced they will seek to add 7-OH — a potent substance synthesized from a compound in the kratom leaf — to the tier of controlled substances reserved for the most addictive drugs, such as heroin and LSD. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said at a news conference that the agency is not asking to restrict natural products made from kratom, which contains trace amount of the compound. In a report released Tuesday, the agency said it maintains concerns about kratom broadly but needed to act urgently on 7-OH because of its risk of sedation, nausea, breathing problems and addiction. “We think it’s night and day in terms of the public health risk,” Makary said of 7-OH products. (Ovalle and Cunningham, 7/29)

Stat: RFK Jr. Could Remake Preventive Services Task Force 'Imminently'
Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could “imminently” overhaul a key federal advisory panel that recommends which preventive services insurers must pay for, according to a person familiar with the plans. (Cirruzzo, 7/29)

Politico: The Trump Administration Wants To 'Kill The Clipboard'
Roughly 60 entities in the health care sector will pledge to making patient data more accessible and speeding its delivery among patients, clinicians and payers, according to an HHS employee granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive plans. The White House and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are expected to announce the commitments on Wednesday, Ruth reported last week. The agency hopes the commitments will stoke companies to make it easier for patients to import their data into an app of their choice, where they can manage their day-to-day health and easily share their history with doctors. (Reader and Paun, 7/29)

Bay Area News Group: Bay Area AI Scientists Propose Potential COVID Treatment
That’s the case with the “Virtual Lab” of artificial intelligence scientists created by a group of human scientists from the San Francisco-based Chan Zuckerberg Biohub and Stanford University and tasked with doing original research on a potential treatment for COVID. (Zambrano, 7/30)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Summer COVID Cases On The Rise In Sonoma County Amid Concerns Over CDC’s Vaccine Guidance 
Sonoma County is experiencing a “mild summer surge” in COVID-19 infections, with most cases being treated in outpatient clinics, Dr. Gary Green, a Sutter Health infectious disease specialist, said Tuesday. (Espinoza, 7/29)

Los Angeles Times: July Is The Worst Month For Drug Overdose Deaths. Is Heat To Blame?
Despite the dramatic reduction in L.A. drug overdose deaths in the last few years, there’s a fly in the ointment: With 1,894 drug-related deaths over the last decade, July was the decade’s single deadliest month for overdoses in L.A., according to the county health department. “It’s very likely that a good chunk of those deaths are triggered by extreme heat exposure,” said Bharat Venkat, a UCLA professor and director of the university’s Heat Lab. (Magaña, 7/29)

Newsweek: Skin Cancer: Home Test Could Identify Melanoma
A simple skin patch and COVID-like test could soon allow people to test for melanoma in the comfort of their home—helping catch the most dangerous type of skin cancer early without the need for a biopsy or blood draw. With funding from the National Institutes of Health, researchers from the University of Michigan (U-M) developed a silicone patch with star-shaped microneedles called the 'ExoPatch'. (Millington, 7/29)

CNN: Ultraprocessed Foods May Be Linked To Increased Lung Cancer Risk, New Research Shows 
There are many reasons to avoid ultraprocessed foods, including a link with heart disease, diabetes and obesity, but an increased risk of lung cancer may be yet another, a new study suggests. (Holcombe, 7/29)

Stat: Alzheimer's Association Clears Way For New Diagnostic Blood Tests 
A major Alzheimer’s disease medical group is recommending that specialists may use certain blood tests to help diagnose patients with cognitive impairment in lieu of more complex and invasive tests, a move that could lead more people to get treated for the devastating disease. (Chen, 7/29)