San Francisco Chronicle: SCOTUS To Hear Water Pollution Fight Between San Francisco, EPA
The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear San Francisco’s appeal of a ruling that tightened offshore water pollution standards and said the city was failing to adequately protect swimmers and bathers from discharges of sewage into the Pacific. The ruling, due next year, could limit the authority of federal and state environmental agencies. The issue is whether — as San Francisco and other local governments contend — environmental laws require them only to limit water pollution to amounts set in advance, such as specific discharges per million parts of water. Federal and state regulators argued that the city was still violating its legal duty to prevent dangerous pollution from bacteria and other contaminants from flowing through its Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant into the ocean. (Egelko, 5/28)

Stat: Heat Waves Linked To Early Deliveries, Preterm Births In New Study 
Heat waves are becoming more frequent and more intense, posing more of a health risk around the world. High temperatures can be deadly, and are especially dangerous for those with cardiovascular and chronic disease — but they begin affecting human lives even before birth. (Merelli, 5/28)

KQED: Animal Sedative Linked To US Overdoses Spurs Call For More SF Drug Monitoring
As reports of overdoses involving a sedative often used by veterinarians rise on the East Coast, one San Francisco leader is urging the city to more closely monitor the local drug supply for its presence. Medetomidine, a synthetic depressant, is showing up more often in recreational drug markets around the U.S., according to an advisory this month from the Center for Forensic Science Research & Education and its early warning program, NPS Discovery. Among street drugs, it is most commonly detected as an adulterant in fentanyl. (Johnson, 5/28)

San Francisco Chronicle: What Does New Drug Emerging In Overdoses Through US Mean For SF?
Just as San Francisco is seeing a slight dip in fatal drug overdoses, a new powerful animal sedative has made its way into America’s illicit drug supply and is causing waves of overdoses across the country. Medetomidine is the latest street drug to appear alongside fentanyl. A synthetic drug used for veterinary anesthesia, medetomidine reportedly causes “heightened sedation” and “profound bradycardia,” or slowed heart rate, according to researchers. (Angst, 5/28)

Los Angeles Times: Matthew Perry And The Ketamine Boom: Expensive, Dangerous And Very 'En Vogue'
When Los Angeles County medical examiners worked last year to determine how Matthew Perry died, they discovered something startling. The amount of ketamine in Perry’s bloodstream was about the same as what would be used during general anesthesia, his autopsy showed. Perry’s death — now the subject of an investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration — is putting a spotlight on the growing use of ketamine. There are more prescriptions, dedicated clinics and a burgeoning black market that medical and law enforcement professionals say is being fueled by the wealthy. (Hernandez and Winton, 5/29)

Sacramento Bee: Nearly 200 Homeless Sacramentans Could Lose Housing Vouchers 
Sacramento’s low-income residents with a so-called “golden ticket to housing” face losing that Section 8 voucher if they fail to secure a rental in the coming months. Brenda and Shawn White are among the roughly 175 Section 8 voucher holders who are in the process the of finding housing. Voucher holders have always had four months to start using their benefit but extensions have been relatively easy to secure. The Whites have received extensions since getting their voucher 2022, Brenda White said. (Clift, 5/28)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego Will Again Try To Close The Golden Hall Homeless Shelter Downtown 
Nobody new is being admitted to San Diego’s Golden Hall homeless shelter as the city makes another run at shutting down the aging facility by the Civic Center downtown. (Nelson, 5/28)

Voice of OC: What’s It Like To Be Without A Home In Orange County?
More people are homeless than ever in Orange County, with many trying to get off the streets crammed into a series of shelters run by cities and local nonprofits as they wait for an affordable apartment to open up. But for the people stuck in shelters, they say it sometimes feels like a hurry-up-and-wait situation. Right now, county officials estimate there are over 3,000 people living in Orange County shelters, with over 4,000 more on the streets. (Biesiada, 5/28)

San Diego Union-Tribune: County Warns Of TB Exposure On Trolley Blue Line 
People who traveled on the San Diego Trolley Blue Line between Jan. 27 and Feb. 29, 2024, should be on the lookout for tuberculosis symptoms, according to a warning issued Tuesday by the county health department. (Sisson, 5/28)

CBS News: The Bird Flu Vaccine Is Made With Eggs. That Has Scientists Worried.
Even a peep of news about a new flu pandemic is enough to set scientists clucking about eggs. They worried about them in 2005, and in 2009, and they're worrying now. That's because millions of fertilized hen eggs are still the main ingredient in making vaccines that, hopefully, will protect people against the outbreak of a new flu strain. (Allen, 5/29)

Reuters: Bird Flu Vaccines For Laying Hens Prove Effective In Practice
Bird flu vaccines for laying hens are effective in practice, the Dutch government said on Tuesday, while confirming plans to vaccinate poultry against the virus that ravaged flocks around the world and is raising fears about human transmission. Research in the laboratory of Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR) early last year had already shown that two vaccines against bird flu, produced by France's Ceva Animal Health and Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim, were effective against the virus but there had been no experiment on a farm. (De La Hamaide, 5/28)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: New COVID Subvariants Are Circulating In Sonoma And Napa Counties. Here’s What We Know 
Summer in California has an uninvited guest tagging along — a set of COVID-19 subvariants being referred to as FLiRT. (Murphy, 5/28)

The New York Times: Health Officials Tried To Evade Public Records Laws, Lawmakers Say 
House Republicans on Tuesday accused officials at the National Institutes of Health of orchestrating “a conspiracy at the highest levels” of the agency to hide public records related to the origins of the Covid pandemic. And the lawmakers promised to expand an investigation that has turned up emails in which senior health officials talked openly about trying to evade federal records laws. The latest accusations — coming days before a House panel publicly questions Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, a former top N.I.H. official — represent one front of an intensifying push by lawmakers to link American research groups and the country’s premier medical research agency with the beginnings of the Covid pandemic. (Mueller, 5/28)

Reuters: Western States Push For Deal On Pandemic Response Rules At WHO Meeting 
Western countries led by the United States, France and Germany pushed for a deal to bolster pandemic response rules at a major World Health Organization meeting on Tuesday after states failed to finalize a pandemic treaty. (Farge, 5/28)

Los Angeles Times: The Newest Election Battlefield For Abortion: State Supreme Courts
As presidential candidates and state legislators campaign over the future of abortion in America, elections for the third branch of government have largely escaped scrutiny on the issue. Until now. Since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe vs. Wade, elections for state supreme court justices have become a new political frontier in the abortion fight, with interest groups pouring unusual amounts of money into typically little-known races. (Pinho, 5/29)

Politico: For 2028 Prospects, Abortion Is A Test-Run For A National Message
The prominent Democrats rallying support for abortion rights are doing more than boosting President Joe Biden — they’re positioning themselves for potential 2028 bids. Abortion offers a chance for Democratic up-and-comers to speak to new audiences and highlight their ability to protect and expand access to the procedure all while skewering former President Donald Trump and Republicans. (Bluth, Ollstein, Kapos and Cadelago, 5/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Exclusive: Democrats Plan $100 Million Push On Abortion Rights To Win House
The super PAC supporting Democrats’ effort to win back the House majority is launching a $100 million fund focused on abortion rights, the latest sign that the party is leaning heavily on the issue this fall to help counter concerns about the economy and immigration policy. In a memo to donors, the House Majority PAC outlined the Reproductive Freedom Accountability Fund, which it said will be spent in swing districts across the country for advertising and voter mobilization. The fund will also focus on voter outreach in House districts where there aren’t competitive presidential or Senate races, such as in New York, California, Oregon, Washington and Virginia. (Andrews, 5/29)

Los Angeles Times: Will Ozempic Bankrupt The U.S. Healthcare System?
An April 24 letter from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to the CEO of Novo Nordisk began with heartfelt thanks to the Danish drugmaker for inventing Ozempic and Wegovy, two medications poised to improve the health of tens of millions of Americans with obesity and related diseases. But the senator’s grateful tone faded rapidly.“ As important as these drugs are, they will not do any good for the millions of patients who cannot afford them,” Sanders wrote. “Further, if the prices for these products are not substantially reduced they also have the potential to bankrupt Medicare, Medicaid, and our entire health care system.” (Kaplan, 5/29)

Axios: Warnings Grow About Unlicensed Cosmetic Treatment Providers
The increasing demand for cosmetic procedures like Botox injections, dermal fillers and fat-dissolving treatments at popular medical spas has raised growing alarm about risky care from unlicensed providers. (Reed, 5/29)

The Washington Post: Babies Exposed To Peanuts Less Likely To Be Allergic At 12, Study Finds 
Children who consume peanut products from infancy are significantly less likely to develop peanut allergies by early adolescence, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal NEJM Evidence. The study, which followed more than 500 participants until the age of 12, confirmed what previous research has found but tracked the children for longer than most previous work. (Vinall, 5/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Ancient Egyptians Were First to Treat Cancer
Ancient Egyptian doctors were the first to explore and treat cancer, according to scientists who examined two skulls with tumors and found evidence they had been operated on. The older of the two, both discovered in Giza, Egypt, belonged to a man between the ages of 30 and 35 who died more than 4,000 years ago. While the cause of death remains uncertain, the man’s skull and jaw had over 30 cancerous bone lesions. Microscopic analysis of the bone and micro-CT scans revealed cut marks made by a sharp, metal instrument, likely a knife, in the areas around the tumors. (Woodward, 5/29)

San Francisco Chronicle: Kids Sickened By Training At SF Jail May Have Ingested Old Chemicals
The law enforcement training exercise that unintentionally exposed San Bruno elementary school children to powerful riot-control agents last week may have included chemical weapons that expired decades ago. A person familiar with the incident said that prior to the training at the San Francisco County Jail on Moreland Drive in San Bruno, officers from UC Berkeley and UCSF were invited to bring any chemical agents in the campus police forces’ inventory so they could be disposed of during the exercise. (Cassidy, 5/29)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Effort To Train 1 Million In Bystander CPR Crosses 100,000 Mark 
High school students practiced hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation in downtown San Diego on Thursday, their efforts literally pushing toward the goal of training 1 million people across the county in lifesaving techniques that new findings from UC San Diego estimate could save nearly 500 local lives over five years. (Sisson, 5/28)

Times of San Diego: San Diego Ranked Among Top-10 U.S. Cities For Raising A Family
San Diego may have expensive housing, but it still ranks as one of the 10 best U.S. cities for raising a family, according to the financial services website WalletHub. The Miami-based company ranked 182 U.S. cities — including the 150 most populous, plus at least two cities from each state — on five measures:  affordability, education, health, socio-economics and family fun opportunities. San Diego came in 8th, with measures of education and family fun outweighing affordability. Five of the ten best cities were in California, including top-ranked Fremont, Irvine, San Diego, San Jose and Huntington Beach. Only one city in California’s arch-rival Texas — Plano — made the top ten. Pembroke Pines was the top city in Florida, coming in at 40. (Jennewein, 5/28)

Modesto Bee: Workshops Expose Underprivileged Modesto Students To Art
In Modesto, many kids struggle with their mental health. While art therapy can help reduce stress and anxiety, it isn’t always accessible. In response, Modesto City Schools introduced art creation as a way to heal students in disadvantaged areas. During the school year, art-making sessions were conducted at schools, offering students a platform to explore their emotions through music, poetry and painting. The project focused on schools in economically disadvantaged communities, as determined by the California Healthy Place Index (HPI). (Bisharyan, 5/29)