Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Heat And Violence Pose Twin Threats For Asylum-Seekers Waiting At Border
For Central American migrants who follow U.S. government rules for pursuing asylum, conditions on the Mexican side of the border are sweltering, filled with anxiety and illness. Few people have a clear timetable for when it will get any better. (Anna Maria Barry-Jester, )
Good morning! California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s expanded rule that protects health care worker who don’t want to perform certain procedures for moral or religious reasons. More on that below, but first here are your other top California health stories for the day.
Newsom’s Proposed $400M Plan To Battle Opioid Crisis In State Prisons Hits Possible Roadblock: In comparison to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s opioid plan for prisons, the proposal coming out of the Assembly is significantly scaled down. Instead of spending $398 million and hiring 430 people over three years for treatment programs at every prison in the state, as the governor's plan proposes, the Assembly subcommittee approved spending $64 million at just seven prisons. Staff members of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Public Safety said they didn't think state prison officials could effectively institute such a large program in such a short time frame. "CDCR has had significant challenges in implementing large-scale proposals in a relatively short period of time," the panel's staff wrote Monday. Newsom’s more ambitious plan has received support from a top lawmaker, inmate advocates and public health officials. Read more from Ted Goldberg of KQED.
Meanwhile, Newsom named Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas as a co-chairman to the task force he’s created to fight homelessness. The task force, whose remaining members will be announced in the coming weeks, will meet across the state and provide Newsom with at least one annual report highlighting successful homelessness prevention strategies. Read more from Phil Willon and Liam Dillon of the Los Angeles Times.
'Clean Water Flows Toward Power And Money': Why More Than One Million Californians Are Exposed To Unsafe Water Every Year: More than 300 public water systems in California serve unsafe drinking water, according to public compliance data compiled by the California State Water Resources Control Board. It is a slow-motion public health crisis that leaves more than one million Californians exposed to unsafe water each year, according to public health officials. Though water contamination is a problem up and down the state, the failing systems are most heavily concentrated in small towns and unincorporated communities in the Central and Salinas Valleys, the key centers of California agriculture. “Clean water flows toward power and money,” said Susana De Anda, a longtime water-rights organizer in the region. She is the daughter of lechugueros who worked in lettuce fields and helped make California one of the agricultural capitals of the world. “Homes, schools and clinics are supposed to be the safest places to go. But not in our world.” Read more from Jose A De Real of The New York Times.
Trump Administration Plan To Slash Firefighting Aid ‘Devastating’ To State Trying To Avoid Repeat Of Last Year’s Deadly Season: As California braces for what is expected to be another extreme fire year, the rising tensions between state and federal officials over firefighting assistant payments are alarming leaders in the state—which is still trying to recover from last year’s deadly blazes. “Around 60 percent of forested land in California is owned by the federal government. Wildfires don’t stop at jurisdictional boundaries, so a unified federal-state approach is the only way to properly protect lives and property,” Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein wrote in a May 14 letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and U.S. Forest Service Chief Vicky Christensen. The Forest Service has said that its audit found several areas where the CFAA is not being managed to ensure mutual benefit between the Forest Service and the State of California. The tension between the two parties isn’t new. California fire departments have been frustrated by the Forest Service’s slow pace of reimbursement in recent years. Read more from Emily Cadei of the Sacramento Bee and McClatchy.
Below, check out the full round-up of California Healthline original stories, state coverage and the best of the rest of the national news for the day.
More News From Across The State
The Associated Press:
States Sue Over Rule Allowing Clinicians To Refuse Abortions
Two dozen states and municipalities sued the federal government Tuesday to stop a new rule that lets health care clinicians decline to provide abortions and other services that conflict with their moral or religious beliefs. A Manhattan federal court lawsuit asked a judge to declare the rule unconstitutional and say it was passed in an arbitrary and capricious manner. In a separate lawsuit in San Francisco federal court, California sued as well, saying there was no evidence that the impact on patients was considered. (5/21)
San Francisco Chronicle:
In Wake Of Restrictive Abortion Laws, Reproductive Rights Advocates Rally At City Hall
Pro-choice advocates held rallies against recent abortion bans in dozens of cities across the United States on Tuesday, including in San Francisco, Albuquerque, St. Louis and Orlando. San Francisco’s #StoptheBan event drew hundreds of protesters, including Planned Parenthood Northern California, city supervisors and officials. San Francisco Supervisor Vallie Brown called on the city to limit business with states that have enacted restrictive abortion laws. (Wu, 5/21)
Los Angeles Times:
Beverly Hills Votes To Ban Tobacco Sales, But Exempts Schwarzenegger’s Favorite Cigar Club
The city of Beverly Hills cleared the last hurdle to enact what officials say is the most stringent tobacco ban in the country Tuesday night, eliminating the sale of virtually all recreational nicotine products — with one very Beverly Hills exception. For an elite group of aficionados, hundreds of whom swamped committee meetings and wrote the city in protest, cigars will be spared — as long as they’re smoked inside one of three dedicated lounges. (Sharp, 5/21)
KQED:
With Growing Reports Of Sexual Violence, Santa Clara County Weighs $5 Million Fund To Help Survivors
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is weighing whether to create a $5 million reserve fund to prevent gender-based violence in the community and to help survivors, with law enforcement and local leaders saying reports of such attacks are on the rise. The board voted on Tuesday to send the proposal to the county administration, which will bring back options during the budget hearings in June. Recommendations for the funding include more shelters, a sexual assault survivor app and a pilot program with local law enforcement agencies to transport victims of strangulation to Valley Medical Center for a forensic medical exam. (Leitsinger and Shuler, 5/21)
Sacramento Bee:
NIH Gives UC Davis $9 Million To Test Gene Editing Tools’ Safety
Primate researchers at the University of California, Davis, will be testing the safety and efficacy of gene editing tools that they expect will have future applications in humans, work that the university said Monday is being financed by $9 million from the National Institutes of Health. While discoveries in genome editing, such as the well-known CRISPR/Cas9 system, now make it possible to change DNA code inside living cells, challenges still remain before such techniques can be widely used in patient care to treat genetic diseases, UC Davis researchers said. (Anderson, 5/21)
Sacramento Bee:
Workers Hit Kaiser Roseville In First Of 3 Local Protests
Hundreds of union-represented workers at Kaiser Permanente’s Roseville Medical Center used their lunch breaks to picket the health care giant, part of rallies organized at Kaiser facilities around California through June. Kaiser recently kicked off contract talks with Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, and the union says it is using the protests to send a message that it wants the company to respect how its members have partnered with management and physicians to solve problems and enhance quality and service in the nonprofit’s hospitals. (Anderson, 5/21)
KPBS:
DA Calls For De-Escalation Training For Police Who Encounter Mentally Ill
The more than 5,000 law enforcement officers in San Diego County will soon get training on how to better respond to people facing a mental crisis. A study by the San Diego County District Attorney found over the past 25 years 80% of officer-involved shootings included people who had drug or mental health issues. Last year there were more than 53,000 calls for service involving a mental health challenge. (Hoffman, 5/21)
Ventura County Star:
Medi-Cal Health Plan Leaders Refute Agenda Discrimination Complaint
Following an allegation of discrimination, leaders of the Gold Coast Health Plan say they'll investigate the possibility of providing more information about governing board meetings in Spanish and English. Gold Coast administers Medi-Cal health insurance to more than 190,000 Ventura County residents. About 36 percent of their members identify themselves as Spanish speaking. (Kisken, 5/21)
Graying California:
Depending On Family For Basic Care
Seniors will make up one-in-five Californians by 2030, and experts say there won’t be enough caregivers to help. As part of our series, Graying California, CALmatters Elizabeth Aguilera met a senior being cared for by his daughter. (Aguilera, 5/21)
KPBS:
California's Aging Population Is Growing, Quickly. Are We Ready?
People age 65 and older are the fastest growing age group in California. By the year 2030, the senior population is expected to grow from 6 to 9 million residents. That will have a significant impact on everything from health care to transportation and housing. (Cabrera and Cavanaugh, 5/21)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Oakland Council Urges Alameda County To Pay For Audit Of Sheriff’s Office
The Oakland City Council passed a resolution Tuesday calling for an independent audit of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office budget after a number of inmate deaths at the county jail, complaints by pregnant inmates and revelations that deputies had illegally recorded juveniles. The resolution, introduced by Councilwoman Nikki Fortunato Bas, calls on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to allocate funding for an independent performance and financial audit of the sheriff’s budget. (Ravani, 5/21)
Los Angeles Times:
Orange County Nonprofit Sues Santa Ana, Alleging City Violated Affordable Housing Law
An Orange County nonprofit filed a lawsuit Monday alleging Santa Ana is offering land to commercial developers in violation of a state law that requires the city to first consider the parcels for affordable housing and open space. Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development, an advocacy group for the working-class, filed the complaint amid public outcry from community groups. (Brazil, 5/21)
Capital Public Radio:
As Riverside Becomes First California County To Allow Vendors To Sell Home-Cooked Meals, Other Counties Wait And See
Starting in early June, home cooks in Riverside County will be the first in California to be able to sell meals prepared in their own kitchens.A law legalizing "micro-enterprise kitchens" in California went into effect in January. But it’s up to each county to decide whether to opt into the law by putting its own health and safety regulations in place. (Mitric, 5/21)
Sacramento Bee:
Marshall Miles’ Family Sues Sacramento County For Wrongful Death
Marshall Miles’ family has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging the deputies who subdued the Sacramento man inside the county’s jail last October ignored his cries that he could not breathe, suffocated Miles until he lost consciousness then left him to lay face down and alone in his cell before seeking help. Three days later, on Nov. 1, Miles was pronounced dead at a Sacramento hospital. He was 36. (Smith and Sullivan, 5/21)
Modern Healthcare:
Federal Judge Signals Reluctance To Block Short-Term Plans
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon heard a second round of arguments in the lawsuit over the Trump administration's reversal of the Obama administration's cap on short-term plans. The not-for-profit Association for Community Affiliated Plans first sued to block the rule last year. It was finalized in August and went into effect in early October. In the first set of oral arguments, Leon told the plaintiffs they sought relief prematurely, before they could show proof that the Trump administration's regulation would deal them a financial blow. (Luthi, 5/21)
The Hill:
2020 Democratic Presidential Candidates Rally In Support Of Abortion Rights
Democratic presidential candidates rallied on the steps of the Supreme Court Tuesday against a rash of state abortion bans they say have been encouraged by President Trump and his administration. ...A large crowd of abortion rights protestors held signs reading “abortion is a human right” and “protect safe, legal abortion" as attendees loudly cheered on Gillibrand and Cory Booker (D-N.J.). (Hellmann, 5/21)
The New York Times:
As Some States Limit Abortion, Others Move To Protect Abortion Rights
As conservatives in states like Alabama, Georgia, and Missouri race to pass some of the strictest limits on abortions in decades, a pushback is developing as well. In Democratic-held or Democratic-leaning states, abortion rights supporters who are alarmed by the new laws and by the threat represented by a more conservative Supreme Court are trying to repeal abortion restrictions or limit the government’s say over women’s reproductive decisions. (Taylor and Turkewitz, 5/21)
The New York Times:
Google Changes Abortion Ad Policy
Advertisers planning to run ads on Google referring to abortion services in the United States, Britain and Ireland must first get clearance from the search giant, the company said in an online post. After outrage over recent reports of misleading abortion-related ads, Google said it would require advertisers dealing with the topic to be certified as abortion providers or non-providers. Starting in June, abortion ads will include disclosures that identify whether or not the advertiser provides abortions. Companies and organizations can apply for certification starting now. (Hsu, 5/21)
The Hill:
Biden Says Congress Must Move To Protect Abortion Rights
Former Vice President Joe Biden believes Congress must move to enshrine abortion rights into federal law following several controversial bills passed by state legislatures around the country, his presidential campaign team confirmed to The Hill on Tuesday. "Vice President Biden firmly believes that Roe v. Wade is the law of the land and should not be overturned," a campaign spokesperson said in a statement. "Georgia, Alabama, and Missouri are passing extreme laws in order to prevent a woman to be able to have an abortion under virtually any circumstance. Roe v. Wade lays out a constitutional guarantee that a woman can, in fact, make a choice between she and her doctor. Biden believes that codifying Roe through legislation must be pursued." (Conradis, 5/21)
The Associated Press:
Harris' Bill Seeks To Address Racial Bias In Maternal Care
U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris is offering a new bill to address racial disparities in maternal health care, one of several plans by 2020 Democratic presidential candidates on the issue. Harris' bill, first introduced in 2018, would create some $150 million in grant programs to medical schools and states to fight implicit racial bias in health care for women. The legislation, co-sponsored in the House by Rep. Alma Adams, D-N.C., is aimed at improving medical care for groups of women who, research suggests, might be denied first rate care because of their race. (5/22)
USA Today:
Episiotomy Vs Tearing: Moms Cut During Childbirth Despite Guidelines
It’s a surgical cut made during childbirth that doctors have been officially warned for more than a decade does more harm to women than good. Mothers who receive episiotomies – an incision at the vaginal opening to create more room as a baby’s head appears – are more likely to suffer severe complications than if they had been allowed to tear naturally. (Young and Kelly, 5/21)
The Associated Press:
Cholesterol Improves In US Kids Despite High Obesity Rates
Cholesterol levels in children and teens improved in the latest analysis of U.S. health surveys, yet only half of them had readings considered ideal. Overall, 7% of kids had high cholesterol in surveys from 2009 to 2016. That was down from 10% a decade earlier. In children, high levels mean 200 or above and ideal measures are below 170. The results were published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (5/21)