USA Today: Best Hospitals For Kids: US News Releases Rankings Amid Legal Scrutiny
U.S. News & World Report released its latest rankings for the country’s top children’s hospitals Wednesday, a day after a scathing letter criticized the media company for its annual rating system. San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu alleged U.S. News’ rankings system is fraught with bias, questionable methodology and undisclosed financing, according to a letter obtained by USA TODAY Tuesday. Chiu said the letter is "more than a heads up." (Rodriguez, 6/21)

U.S. News & World Report: Best Hospitals: U.S. News Hospital Rankings And Ratings 
US News Best Hospitals lists the top hospitals in the country in various medical specialties, such as cancer and orthopedics, as well as procedures and conditions, including hip and knee replacement. Find ranked hospitals by state, region, and metro area.

The Desert Sun: LifeStream Seeks Blood Donations To Help Boost Low Supply Levels
As of June 14, LifeStream Blood Bank has had less than two days worth of blood supply on hand. (Sasic, 6/20)

Capitol Weekly: Measure Tackling Ambulance Surprise Billing Moving Through The Legislature 
When his teen son had a seizure, Irvine resident Chuck Bock called for an ambulance to rush him to the hospital. While his son fortunately recovered, Bock was shocked a short while later to get a bill for $1,600 for the two-mile ambulance ride. He was fully insured by Blue Cross/Blue Shield and was stunned to realize that the health insurance company didn’t cover ambulance service. (Renner, 6/20)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Calling For Backup: Why Respite Care Is A Necessary Solution For Caregiving Burnout 
For years, whenever her mother asked who would care for her as she grew older, City Heights resident Teresa McInerney always happily volunteered. (Mapp, 6/20)

NBC News: Anxiety Screening Recommended For All Adults Under 65, Panel Says
All young and middle-age adults should be screened regularly for anxiety and depression, even if they don't have symptoms, an influential public health group said Tuesday. While the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has recommended doctors assess patients for depression since 2002, it is the first time the group has advocated for routine screening of anxiety in adults. Pregnant women and those who gave birth within the past year were highlighted as people who should be screened. (Edwards, 6/20)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Dealmaking Slows In 2023: PwC Report 
Inflation, rising interest rates and uncertainty about changes to government heath programs could drag healthcare dealmaking in 2023, despite renewed interest in hospital and physician groups, according to an analysis the consulting firm PwC published Tuesday. (Tepper, 6/20)

KQED: Lack Of Affordable Housing Is Driving Older Californians Into Homelessness
With modern home prices out of reach for many California residents on fixed incomes, older adults have become the fastest-growing segment of the unhoused population across the state, according to new research released Tuesday from UCSF. California makes up 30% of the nation’s unhoused population and is home to half of all the country’s unsheltered population, according to the landmark study, which looks at how people in the Golden State become unhoused, experience homelessness, and exit homelessness. Nearly half of all unhoused adults in the study were age 50 or older, and Black and Native American residents were “dramatically overrepresented,” the study shows. (Johnson, 6/20)

CalMatters: Income Loss, Rent Drove CA Homeless Growth: Survey
Losing income is the No. 1 reason Californians end up homeless – and the vast majority of them say a subsidy of as little as $300 a month could have kept them off the streets. That’s according to a new study out of UC San Francisco that provides the most comprehensive look yet at California’s homeless crisis. (Kendall, 6/20)

CapRadio: Sacramento Voters Approved A Ban On Homeless Encampments Last Fall. Here’s Why The City Has Been Slow To Enforce It.
Six months after Sacramento’s voter-approved ban on homeless encampments went into effect, supporters and critics of Measure O say the controversial new city law has done little to improve the crisis on streets. Some are hopeful that will change. Still, the lack of early progress is striking: City officials said they have yet to clear a single encampment, issued only one citation and connected just 55 people to shelter under the measure from January through May, the first five months for which the city has tracked data. (Nichols, 6/21)

Bay Area News Group: Blanket Of Ash Upends Decades Of Goodwill In Martinez
For more than a century, to live in Martinez, a city of 36,000 near San Pablo Bay, has been to co-exist with the silver smoke stacks of heavy industry. The risks go along with the fun runs the oil refinery hosts and its sponsorship of the Chamber of Commerce. But after the refinery dumped 20 tons of heavy-metal laden dust on surrounding neighborhoods in November, covering lawns and gardens with a fine white silt, some residents think that relationship has shifted. Perhaps for good. (McCarthy, 6/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: Cooking On Gas Stove Like Standing Over Car Tailpipe And Breathing In
Gas stoves, which are used in a majority of California households, can emit a chemical linked to cancer at levels higher than those caused by secondhand tobacco smoke, a new study from Stanford researchers found. The chemical benzene can spread far from the kitchen and linger inside for hours at levels that have prompted investigations when detected outdoors, according to the peer-reviewed study published last week in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. (Castro-Root, 6/21)

East Bay Times: Summer Warning: Prolonged Breath Holds Can Cause Shallow Water Blackouts
The story of her husband’s tragic death isn’t easy to tell, but Michelle Brislen knows the dangers of shallow water blackouts are an important message to share – especially as summer break gets underway. (Connelly, 6/20)

Fresno Bee: California Student Sues SLO University Over COVID-19 Rules 
A Cal Poly student who was barred from attending class in person after refusing to comply with COVID-19 regulations is suing the university and local health authorities. (Wilson, 6/20)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S.-Funded Scientist Among Three Chinese Researchers Who Fell Ill Amid Early Covid-19 Outbreak
A prominent scientist who worked on coronavirus projects funded by the U.S. government is one of three Chinese researchers who became sick with an unspecified illness during the initial outbreak of Covid-19, according to current and former U.S. officials. The identity and role of the researchers is one piece of intelligence that has been cited by proponents of the judgment that the pandemic originated with a lab leak, though the nature of their illness hasn’t been conclusively established. (Gordon and Strobel, 6/20)

CNBC: Pfizer, Moderna And Novavax Gear Up For Fall Covid Vaccine Rollout With An Important Head Start
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Covid strain selection for the next round of shots puts Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax on track to deliver new jabs in time for the fall — a decisive win for the vaccine makers as they gear up to compete against one another. ... The FDA’s strain selection means the companies won’t have to scramble to manufacture shots targeting an entirely different strain, which would delay the timing of delivery. (Constantino, 6/20)

The Guardian: Air Pollution ‘Aged’ Hospital Covid Patients By 10 Years, Study Shows 
People exposed to air pollution experienced Covid-19 as if they were 10 years older, according to research. It found people recently exposed to dirtier air before contracting the illness spent four days longer in hospital, the same impact as on those 10 years their senior. The Belgian study also showed that air pollution levels measured in patients’ blood were linked to a 36% increase in the risk of needing intensive care treatment. A separate study in Denmark showed air pollution exposure was linked to a 23% increase in the risk of death from Covid-19. In both studies, the level of air pollution was below legal EU standards. (Carrington, 6/21)

AP: Outgoing CDC Director Says Resignation Spurred By Sense Of Accomplishment And Exhaustion
The outgoing head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday her reasons for stepping down were complicated, driven in part by a desire to take a break from the frenetic pace of the job during a pandemic. Dr. Rochelle Walensky surprised many in public health circles last month by announcing her departure after two years and five months — one of the shortest tenures for a CDC director in recent decades. She resigned as the pandemic’s national public health emergency was winding down. “I did what I came to do — which was get us through the darkest days of a pandemic,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press. (Stobbe, 6/20)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Hundreds Of Thousands Face A 'Massive Benefits Cliff'. San Diego Food Banks Are Scrambling To Keep Up.
Beginning in March, CalFresh recipients saw a sudden and dramatic drop in food allowances as they reverted back to pre-pandemic levels, slashing the average recipient’s monthly grocery budget by about $100 for individuals and $200 for families. The decrease was even steeper for seniors, some of whose monthly benefits dropped from $281 to as low as $23. (Alvarenga, 6/20)

KQED: Bay Area Food Banks, Feeding More People Than Ever, Face Lack Of Volunteers
Inflation, a shortage of volunteers and a lack of funding have led to a crisis for Bay Area food banks — organizations that were already under heavy strain due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rachelle Mesheau, marketing and communications manager at the Redwood Empire Food Bank, said that she’s seeing more daily participation now than at the height of the pandemic. (Garnett, 6/21)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Sheriff Agrees To Reforms To Improve Jail Conditions For Disabled People In Custody
San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez has agreed to a series of reforms to better protect disabled people in department custody, days before a federal court hearing on efforts to improve their living conditions in county jails. (McDonald and Davis, 6/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Senate Confirms Abortion-Rights Lawyer To U.S. Appeals Court 
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed abortion-rights lawyer Julie Rikelman to a U.S. appeals court, resolving a high-profile nomination by President Biden that had been pending nearly a year. Rikelman, 51 years old, will join the Boston-based First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over four northeastern states, plus Puerto Rico. She has worked as an advocate for abortion rights for more than a decade, most recently leading U.S. litigation for the Center for Reproductive Rights.  (Kusisto, 6/20)

The Hill: Democrats Fed Up With Tuberville Want To Change Senate Rules 
Senate Democrats say they’re ready to take another look at rules reform to break through the blockade Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) has put in place against more than 200 military promotions to protest the Pentagon’s abortion policy. (Bolton, 6/20)

Politico: The Sleeper Legal Strategy That Could Topple Abortion Bans 
As the nation nears the one year anniversary of the fall of Roe, a Missouri case is one of nearly a dozen challenges to abortion restrictions filed by clergy members and practitioners of everything from Judaism to Satanism that are now making their way through state and federal courts — a strategy that aims to restore access to the procedure and chip away at the assumption that all religious people oppose abortion. (Ollstein, 6/21)

ABC News: Majority Of OBGYNs Believe Overturning Roe Led To More Maternal Deaths: Survey
A majority of OBGYNs say the overturning of Roe v. Wade last summer is linked to more maternal deaths, according to a new survey released early Wednesday from KFF. The decision -- known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization -- determined there is no constitutional right to an abortion and gave individual states full power to regulate abortion. Since then, at least 15 states have ceased nearly all abortion services, according to an ABC News tally. (Kekatos, 6/21)

The Washington Post: White House Meets With Drug Firms On Cost Of Overdose-Reversal Drugs 
White House officials met with pharmaceutical company representatives Tuesday in an effort to address long-standing concerns about the affordability of overdose-reversal drugs that the Biden administration views as crucial to saving lives amid the nation’s raging opioid crisis. The meeting was held with representatives from 10 companies, including Emergent BioSolutions, which later this summer will start selling without a prescription an overdose-reversal drug called naloxone. Critics have slammed Emergent for plans to price the nasal spray, sold under the brand name Narcan, at “less than $50” per two-dose kit, which they say is too expensive for many people, let alone those who regularly use drugs. (Ovalle, 6/20)

Stat: Xylazine, Or ‘Tranq,’ Is Making Opioid Overdoses Harder To Reverse
For years, public health guidance about opioid overdoses has been relatively simple: Administer naloxone, then call 911. But the days of simply spraying naloxone into an overdose victim’s nose, then watching that person resume breathing and wake up within minutes, are over. (Facher, 6/21)