Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Physicians Weigh Possible Strike 
Physicians and dentists who work for hospitals and clinics run by Los Angeles County and who care for patients in its jails and juvenile facilities are weighing a possible strike over what union officials argue are inadequate benefits that have hampered employee retention and led to alarming levels of vacancies. The Union of American Physicians and Dentists said its members will begin voting Tuesday on whether to authorize a strike after more than two years of negotiations with the county failed to address their concerns. (Reyes, 11/7)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Sonoma County Names Reno Physician Executive As New Health Officer
Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday appointed an internal medicine physician and health care executive from Reno as the new health officer. (Espinoza, 11/7)

Los Angeles Daily News: Community Colleges Can Ease Healthcare Worker Shortage, Say Speakers At At El Camino Summit 
The California Community Colleges system has the opportunity to alleviate the health care worker shortage that continues to plague the industry post-pandemic. (Liu, 11/7)

Los Angeles Times: Mexico Doctors Fill Holes In California Farmworker Healthcare 
California health clinics have begun bringing in Mexican doctors to treat farmworkers in rural counties. It took 19 years to open the pipeline. (Gomez, 11/8)

Los Angeles Times: COVID Mask Orders Are Back In Parts Of California. Here's Where
Most San Francisco Bay Area counties are reinstituting mask requirements among workers in healthcare settings, timed to coincide with the arrival of the annual respiratory illness season and an expected late-year resurgence of COVID-19.To this point, however, Los Angeles County has not taken that same step. Rather, the county Department of Public Health issued a health order in September requiring healthcare workers to either get both the flu and updated COVID-19 vaccines or mask up when working in patient care areas. (Lin II, 11/8)

CIDRAP: RSV-Preventing Injection In Shortage As Respiratory Virus Season Begins 
Respiratory virus season is only starting, and demand has already outstripped supply for the newly approved and potentially lifesaving monoclonal antibody injection for preventing respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in children. David Margraf, PharmD, PhD, pharmaceutical research scientist at the Resilient Drug Supply Project (RDSP), said the nirsevimab-alip (Beyfortus) shortage is reminiscent of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. RDSP is part of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), publisher of CIDRAP News. (Van Beusekom, 11/7)

Los Angeles Times: Four L.A. Sheriff's Employees Died Of Suicide In 24 Hours 
The suicide deaths of four current and former Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department employees over a 24-hour span have prompted a plea from Sheriff Robert Luna urging deputies to check on the well-being of their colleagues and friends. “We are stunned to learn of these deaths, and it has sent shock waves of emotions throughout the department as we try and cope with the loss of not just one, but four beloved active and retired members of our department family,” Luna said in an emailed statement Tuesday. “During trying times like these it’s important for personnel regardless of rank or position to check on the well-being of other colleagues and friends.” (Jany and Winton, 11/7)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Assemblymember Waldron Renews Push For Psychedelics In Mental Health Treatment 
In November 2021, Assemblymember Marie Waldron went to a Veterans Day event at the Hotel del Coronado. It turned out to be an eye-opening experience. The Escondido Republican came in contact with the group Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions, which advocates for the emerging science of using naturally occurring psychedelics to treat post-traumatic stress syndrome, help prevent suicide and cope with traumatic brain injuries. (Smolens, 11/8)

Military.com: VA Suspends Debt Collection From Veterans Whom It Mistakenly Overpaid Due To Data Errors 
The Department of Veterans Affairs has suspended debt collections related to overpayments of pensions to low-income veterans or their survivors after the agency found it had mistakenly paid too much, in some cases, over a period of many years, department officials announced Friday. The VA provides pensions to some veterans or survivors based on self-reported income that is later verified by the department, using data reported from outside sources such as the Social Security Administration and other federal agencies. (Kime, 11/7)

Military Times: Some Tricare, Dental Plans May Cost More In 2024. Here’s What To Know.
Health care open season is about to get underway for military beneficiaries who are eligible for Tricare or the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program, known as FEDVIP. And there’s a new benefit for military families this year, the Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account, which allows families to set aside money before taxes for dependent care expenses. Families sign up for this new benefit during the federal benefits open season. (Jowers, 11/7)

Military Times: Troops’ Health Data Can Be Purchased For Pennies, Researchers Find
Funded by the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, researchers spent a year exploring the kinds of data on service members and veterans that brokers are collecting and selling, and whether foreign adversaries could exploit any of that information. ... “It is not difficult to obtain sensitive data about active duty members of the military, their families, and veterans, including non-public, individually identified and sensitive data, such as health data, financial data and information about religious practices,” according to the report. (Myers, 11/7)

CBS News: VA Says It's Open To Exploring The Use Of Psychedelics To Treat PTSD
Like other psychedelics, psilocybin is illegal under federal law and classified as a Schedule I drug, which the Drug Enforcement Administration says have a "high potential for abuse and no recognized medical value." As a result, there are roadblocks to research its effectiveness in treating PTSD and the VA is prohibited from prescribing or administering it. But local Congressman and Naval vet Chris Deluzio is supporting legislation to change that.  "I say let the science and medicine lead us here and if there are safe therapies that are helping veterans and helping people, we should be making those available to folks," Deluzio said. (Sheehan, 11/7)

Military.com: Military Hunger: New Study Shows 1 In 8 Military Families Turned To Food Banks During The Pandemic 
Around one military family out of eight turned to food banks during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new academic study led by a researcher at the University of Georgia has revealed. Researchers surveyed more than 8,000 military families who applied for child care subsidies from the National Military Family Association, a military-focused nonprofit, in the spring of 2021 and found that about 13% of those families had used a food pantry in the past year. (Toropin, 11/7)

San Francisco Chronicle: Are SF’s Street Crisis Teams Working? Here's What An Audit Finds
Some of San Francisco’s network of street outreach teams are either failing to effectively help vulnerable people struggling with homelessness, addiction and mental health crises or failing to track if they’re meeting their goals, a new audit has found. (Toledo, 11/7)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego County Moves To Find Homes For 100 People In Rehab, Review All Homelessness Contracts 
County officials have advanced a proposal to house a large group of people who are living on local streets while being treated for substance abuse disorders and approved a sweeping review of all contracts and programs related to homelessness. (Nelson, 11/7)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Supervisors Approve 4% Cap On Rent Increases Through June
Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to extend — and slightly increase to 4% — a soon-to-expire cap on rent increases, sparing tenants in unincorporated areas from a big rent hike for an additional six months. (Ellis, 11/7)

Berkeleyside: Berkeley Police Arrest 2 At West Berkeley Homeless Camp Closure
Berkeley police arrested two people — one encampment resident and one observer — while closing and clearing out an encampment at Seventh and Harrison streets in West Berkeley on Tuesday. The closure came after a judge lifted a temporary restraining order against clearing the encampment at the end of September in an ongoing lawsuit against the city of Berkeley for destroying residents’ possessions. (Yelimeli, 11/7)

Sacramento Bee: CA Flavored Tobacco Ban Leads To Increase In Online Searches 
Last year, Californians voted to ban flavored tobacco products from being sold in the state. But a new study found that Californians appear to be skirting the ban by shopping online. The study, from the University of California San Diego and published in the journal Tobacco Control, found that online shopping queries were 194% higher than expected for cigarettes and 162% higher for vape products. (Sheeler, 11/7)

The Hill: Marijuana Use Increases Risk Of Heart Attacks, New Studies Suggest
Two new studies suggest that regular use of marijuana could be linked to a higher risk of heart failure or heart attack, especially among older people. The preliminary findings of the studies, which have yet to be published, will be presented next week at the American Heart Association’s (AHA) Scientific Sessions 2023 in Philadelphia. (Fortinsky, 11/6)

Bay Area News Group: Pacific Autism Center For Education Wants To Sell One Of Its Group Homes. Cupertino Won't Allow It.
It was at the height of the pandemic when Katrina Watters and her husband Scott made the difficult decision to place their then-10-year-old autistic son Matthew in a group home run by the Pacific Center for Autism Education. (Hase, 11/8)

Voice of OC: Another Orange County City Cracks Down On Street Vendors
Taco street vendors, paleteros – pushcart vendors who sell packaged food like ice cream – and food truck owners will soon have to follow new regulations and get permits if they want to keep selling in Placentia. City council members voted unanimously at their Tuesday meeting to introduce a new law regulating food truck owners and street vendors in Placentia as officials across Orange County tighten the rules on these types of businesses. (Elattar, 11/8)

The Wall Street Journal: A Skeptical Supreme Court Considers Whether Domestic Abusers Have Gun Rights 
Supreme Court justices showed little sympathy Tuesday for a violent domestic abuser arguing he had a Second Amendment right to keep a semiautomatic rifle and a .45 caliber pistol at home, in arguments over the scope of a 2022 precedent holding gun regulations unconstitutional unless they are analogous to those in force in the founding era.   “You don’t have any doubt that your client’s a dangerous person, do you?” Chief Justice John Roberts asked Matthew Wright, a federal public defender representing Zackey Rahimi, who was sentenced to more than six years for violating a federal law prohibiting people under domestic-violence protective orders from possessing firearms. (Bravin, 11/7)

Politico: Supreme Court Looks Poised To Uphold Ban On Guns For Accused Domestic Abusers 
Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett — two conservatives who may provide key votes in the case — did not seem particularly troubled by the domestic-abuser restriction Congress adopted in 1994, even as they expressed concerns that some government efforts to deny guns to people deemed dangerous could run afoul of the Second Amendment or of due process rights. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, another potentially pivotal vote, was fairly quiet during the argument, though he did raise the prospect that striking down the law could imperil portions of a federal background-check system. (Gerstein, 11/7)

The New York Times: Senate Confirms Monica Bertagnolli As NIH Director
The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Dr. Monica M. Bertagnolli, a cancer surgeon who currently leads the National Cancer Institute, as the next director of the National Institutes of Health, overriding the objections of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the chairman of the Senate health committee. The vote was 62 to 36, with Mr. Sanders voting no. In a statement last month, he said that while Dr. Bertagnolli was an “intelligent and caring person,” he would vote against her because she “has not convinced me that she is prepared to take on the greed and power of the drug companies and health care industry.” (Stolberg, 11/7)

The Washington Post: Bertagnolli Confirmed As New Head Of National Institutes Of Health 
Bertagnolli will be the second woman ever to lead the nearly $48 billion agency, which plays a central role in the U.S. scientific agenda by funding grants to hundreds of thousands of researchers, overseeing clinical trials on its Maryland campus, and supporting other endeavors to develop drugs and therapeutics. NIH has not had a permanent director since December 2021, with Lawrence A. Tabak, a longtime NIH official, serving as the agency’s acting leader. (Diamond, 11/7)

Axios: New NIH Director Faces Battles Over Virus And Drug Research
Newly confirmed National Institutes of Health director Monica Bertagnolli is taking the helm of the biomedical research agency at a critical moment, with budgets tightening and lingering questions about its stewardship of high-risk virus research and role in keeping drugs affordable. (Bettelheim and Millman, 11/8)