Press-Telegram: Patient Smashes Window At Kaiser Hospital In Downey; Initial Reports Of Gunshots Were Unfounded
A restless patient in the psychiatric department at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Downey on Tuesday, Sept. 11, threw a chair through a window, witnesses said, touching off a panic that led to heavily armed police searching for a man who they initially believed was a shooter. Jesus Chavez, 34, of Lynwood, was arrested on suspicion of criminal threats, Downey police said. (Barnes and Murray, 9/12)

Los Angeles Times: Suspect Arrested After Gunshots Reported At Kaiser Permanente In Downey
Downey police received a call about 11:34 a.m. reporting a disturbance at the medical center at 9333 Imperial Highway. As officers were en route, the report was updated to shots fired, according to police Chief Carl Charles. (Mejia, Fry and Reyes-Velarde, 9/11)

In other news from across the state —

Los Angeles Times: UCLA Scientist Shares 2018 Lasker Prize For Figuring Out How Genes Turn On And Off
Michael Grunstein, a longtime professor of biological chemistry at UCLA who uncovered the key role that DNA’s “packing material” plays in turning genes on and off, has won the Albert Lasker award for basic medical research. He shares the prize with Rockefeller University biochemist C. David Allis, who extended Grunstein’s findings on how certain proteins modify gene expression and identified how one such route can lead to childhood cancers. (Healy, 9/11)

Capital Public Radio: Sacramento Mayor Says Stephon Clark Shooting Investigation Will Be Done ‘Very, Very Soon’
Sacramento and state law enforcement’s investigation into the fatal police shooting of Stephon Clark could conclude in the near future, according to Mayor Darrell Steinberg. ...Two police officers killed Clark on the night of March 18 in South Sacramento following a complaint about a man breaking car windows. They pursued Clark into a backyard, which was later discovered to be the home of Clark’s grandparents. (Miller, 9/11)

The Bakersfield Californian: Adventist Health To Build New Hospital In Northwest Bakersfield 
Adventist Health will be building a new hospital in Northwest Bakersfield. Sharlet Briggs, president/CEO of Adventist Health Bakersfield, said the hospital will be built off Coffee Road near Brimhall Road, next to what will become the Bakersfield Commons, a 250-acre mixed-use development that will include retail, residential, recreational and other types of space. Briggs said the new hospital, which will be the third in Kern County once the new Tehachapi hospital opens, is still in the early stages of planning, with construction work expected to start in 2021 for an opening in 2024. (Luiz, 9/11)

Capital Public Radio: Dying To Get Out: Stigma, ‘Copycat Effect’ Drive Youth Suicide In Rural Amador County 
Most teens dip into slumps, or even throw attitude, as they try to establish their identities. But in Amador County — a rural area that gathers around school sports, church events and patriotic values — many young people say they don’t have a healthy way to express feelings of being trapped and misunderstood. And teens who live in remote places are more likely to seek a fatal escape. (Caiola, 9/11)

In other public health news —

The Mercury News: Flu: Pediatrics Group OKs Nasal Spray For First Time In Three Years
Health officials are urging everyone over six months old to get their flu vaccine as soon as possible to help avoid another nasty season. And to encourage needle-phobic kids to get immunized, a leading pediatric group is softening its insistence that they get it in a shot rather than a painless nose spray. (Woolfolk, 9/11)

San Francisco Chronicle: Should School Start Later? Sleepy Kids, Logistics At Odds As Gov. Brown Weighs Legislation
Middle and high school students do better when they get an extra hour or so of sleep, according to research and, many parents would say, common sense. But many school districts resist a mandate on start times because it can inconvenience working parents and disrupt bus schedules. (McBride, 9/11)

Los Angeles Times: Shooters Are Twice As Deadly When A Semiautomatic Rifle Is In The Mix, Study Finds
In the United States, shootings that involved a semiautomatic rifle resulted in nearly twice as many deaths compared with shootings carried out with only handguns, shotguns or non-semiautomatic rifles, according to a report published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Nonfatal injuries were significantly higher as well. In other words, the study authors noted, the weapons work exactly as intended. “Semiautomatic rifles are designed for easy use, can accept large magazines, and fire high-velocity bullets, enabling active shooters to wound and kill more people per incident,” they wrote. (Kaplan, 9/11)

The Press Democrat: Broken: A Year In The Life Of Steve & Michelle
Loyalty and devotion held a homeless couple together for nine years, but the relentless struggle for survival on the streetshas left them with an uncertain future. (McConahey, 9/6)

KQED: Another Potential Climate Calamity
As climate change makes wildfires more intense, U.S. deaths from chronic inhalation of smoke could climb to 40,000 per year -- that's more than double the current number of 15,000 deaths per year, according to a recent study. While the study's co-author Jeff Pierce cautioned that more research must be done, he said the model shows "smoke concentrations will roughly double and this will counteract a lot of improvements gained from a reduction in emissions from human sources, such as power plants." (Fiore, 9/11)

PBS NewsHour: Urban Wildfires Bring Lingering Worries About What’s In The Ash And Air
For weeks, smoky, unhealthy air from large wildfires has plagued much of the West Coast and beyond. What's the public health impact of an increase of urban wildfires, in which homes and other structures burn? (Wise, 9/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Nearly 600 Russia-Linked Accounts Tweeted About The Health Law
On the March 23 anniversary of the Affordable Care Act becoming law, Democrats attacked Republicans for trying to sabotage the health law and praised the embattled legislation. So did Russian trolls. “8 years ago today, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law. Millions of Americans have gained access to health care. Thank you, Mr. President!” said a tweet linked to the Internet Research Agency, a Russian company engaged in an online influence campaign that typically seeks to pit one side against the other on controversial issues. (Armour and Overberg, 9/12)

The Hill: CBO: House GOP Bill Delaying Key Parts Of ObamaCare Will Cost Over $50 Billion
House GOP legislation that would delay or repeal certain parts of ObamaCare will cost $51.6 billion over the next decade, according to a new government analysis. The report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released Tuesday comes as the House plans to vote on the legislation later this week. (Weixel, 9/11)

And former President Barack Obama's numbers are fact checked —

The Associated Press Fact Check: Obama Doesn't Always Tell The Straight Story
Former President Barack Obama's recent denunciation of President Donald Trump's treatment of the press overlooks the aggressive steps the Justice Department took to keep information from the public during his administration. Obama also made a problematic claim that Republican "sabotage" has cost 3 million people their health insurance. With his return to the political donnybrook on behalf of Democrats in the November elections, Obama has brought a once-familiar style back into the discourse. It's measured, nuanced and distinct from the torrent of misstatements from Trump. That doesn't mean Obama always tells the story straight. (9/12)

The New York Times: Interest Groups Turn Up Pressure On Senators Before Kavanaugh Vote
Pressure is intensifying on undecided senators before a vote to confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, with one senator — Susan Collins, Republican of Maine — reporting that she and her staff have been targeted with a barrage of calls, including some using vulgar language and threats to push her to vote against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh. With last week’s confirmation hearings behind them, interest groups and advocates are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising to target both Ms. Collins and another undecided Republican who supports abortion rights: Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Also in the cross hairs are three vulnerable Democrats running for re-election in states won by President Trump. (Stolberg, Fandos and Edmondson, 9/11)

In other national health care news —

The Associated Press: Government To Expand, Extend Texas Tent Shelter For Children
The U.S. government will expand its tent shelter for immigrant minors crossing the southwest border to 3,800 beds and keep it open through the end of this year, an agency spokesman said Tuesday. The facility at Tornillo, Texas, which originally opened with a 360-bed capacity for 30 days, is being expanded based on how many children are in the care of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, agency spokesman Kenneth Wolfe said in a statement. (9/11)

Politico: What We Don’t Know About Bernie’s Favorite Healthcare Idea
Since Bernie Sanders made “Medicare-for-all” a central plank of his wildfire presidential campaign, support for a once-fringe idea has exploded. Democratic senators with eyes on the 2020 presidential contest – including Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris – have conspicuously lined up as co-sponsors of the “Medicare-for-all” legislation that Sanders introduced last year; a similar proposal in the House has 123 co-sponsors. All of those politicians are Democrats, but among voters, support appears to cross the aisle: A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that “Medicare-for-all” was supported by 70 percent of American adults, including a slight majority of Republicans. (Demko, 9/12)

The New York Times: It’s Not Just You: 2017 Was Rough For Humanity, Study Finds
Violence, bitter partisanship, an uncertain future. These are dark times. In fact, humanity just had its gloomiest year in more than a decade, according to a new survey of the emotional lives of more than 154,000 people around the world. More people reported negative experiences, defined as worry, stress, physical pain, anger or sadness, than at any point since 2005, when Gallup, the analytics and consulting company, introduced the survey. (Chokshi, 9/12)

The Hill: Drug Company CEO Calls 400 Percent Price Hike 'Moral Requirement' 
The CEO of a pharmaceutical company is facing criticism for describing a 400 percent price increase of an antibiotic as a "moral requirement." Nostrum Laboratories, based in Missouri, raised the price of nitrofurantoin last month from $474.74 a bottle to $2,393, according to the Financial Times newspaper. The drug treats urinary tract and bladder infections. (Hellmann, 9/11)

Stat: What’s In The Senate’s Opioid Package — And What's Not 
The Senate will vote this week on a bill to prevent illicit fentanyl trafficking, account for drug diversion in opioid manufacturing quotas, and improve access to addiction treatments via telemedicine. Many senators, soon to campaign for re-election in states hard-hit by the epidemic, say the bill is enough. Many advocates for better addiction treatment beg to differ. (Facher, 9/12)