The New York Times: Trump Issues Executive Order Scaling Back Parts Of Obamacare
In his first executive order, President Trump on Friday directed government agencies to scale back as many aspects of the Affordable Care Act as possible, moving within hours of being sworn in to fulfill his pledge to eviscerate Barack Obama’s signature health care law. (Davis and Pear, 1/20)

The Washington Post: With Executive Order, Trump Tosses A ‘Bomb’ Into Fragile Health Insurance Markets
The practical implications of Trump’s action on Friday are harder to decipher. Its language instructs all federal agencies to “waive, defer, grant ­exemptions from or delay” any part of the law that imposes a financial or regulatory burden on those affected by it. That would cover consumers, doctors, hospitals and other providers, as well as insurers and drug companies. The prospect of what could flow from pulling back or eliminating administrative rules — including no longer enforcing the individual mandate, which requires Americans to get coverage or pay an annual penalty, and ending health plans’ “essential benefits” — could affect how many people sign up on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces before open enrollment ends Jan. 31 for 2017 coverage, as well as how many companies decide to participate next year. (Eilperin and Sullivan, 1/22)

The Associated Press: How Trump’s Executive Order Impacts Future Of ‘Obamacare’
The one-page directive gives agencies authority to grant waivers, exemptions and delays of provisions in the Affordable Care Act. But until it becomes clear what steps federal agencies take as a result, its full impact on Americans and their health insurance is uncertain. Here’s a look at Trump’s executive order. (Pace and Alonso-Zaldivar, 1/21)

Modern Healthcare: Trump's ACA Executive Order Heightens Insurance Market Jitters
It's possible that facilitating the ACA's collapse is Trump's goal. He tweeted earlier this month that Republicans should let Obamacare “fall of its own weight” and make “the Dems own the failed Obamacare disaster.” If he and the GOP can convince the public that the law unraveled on its own, that would make their job of repealing and replacing it politically easier. (Meyer, 1/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Donald Trump’s Health-Law Directive Spurs A Dash To Decode It
The executive order suggests the new administration intends to take swift action on its own if necessary, with a particular eye to the health law’s centerpiece requirement that most individuals buy insurance or pay a penalty. Removing that penalty would be popular in some quarters. It could also set in motion a chain of events that would hasten the collapse of the individual insurance market, and with it the health law, if no other steps were taken. Insurers losing a guaranteed customer base, while still being forced to insure sick people, could move to pull out of some markets or signal plans to dramatically increase premiums, with uncertain political consequences. (Radnofsky and Armour, 1/22)

NPR: Trump's Executive Order Could Dismantle Parts Of ACA Before Replacement Is Ready
Trump's order also pushes one of his favorite health care ideas — to allow insurance companies to sell policies across state lines — by encouraging "the development of a free and open market in interstate commerce for the offering of healthcare services and health insurance, with the goal of achieving and preserving maximum options for patients and consumers." (Kodjak, 1/21)

Stat: Trump Executive Order Puts Contraception Mandate At Risk
Much will depend on how the Department of Health and Human Services interprets Trump’s orders. The first order itself does not mandate any specific actions. But the contraception mandate would be an obvious target. It is widely loathed by conservatives, who allege it encroaches on religious freedoms, and the Obama administration enacted it through the broad regulatory authority that the law granted to HHS. It is not etched into law by the ACA itself. (Scott, 1/21)

Reuters: Trump Order Paves Way For Agencies To Weaken Health Law
Republican lawmakers, who are working on new legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare, praised the order as showing Trump’s commitment to gutting the program and lowering steep healthcare costs they blame on the law. Trump did not specify which parts of the program would be affected by his order, and any changes are unlikely to affect the government-funded or subsidized insurance plans covering more than 20 million people in 2017. (Morgan and Cornwell, 1/21)

Politico: How Trump Can Use Obamacare To Kill Obamacare
Conservatives who railed against Barack Obama's vast powers to build up the Affordable Care Act declared vindication Saturday with President Donald Trump’s executive order to tear it apart. "For me, it’s a mix of irony and schadenfreude," says Josh Blackman, a law professor who's written two books that criticized the Obama administration's implementation of the law. "I’ve warned for years that, with a new president in the White House, the exact same powers could be used for different purposes. That’s what we’re seeing now, to a T." (Diamond, 1/22)

CQ Roll Call: Trump Issues Executive Order On Obamacare
“It is heartening to see President Trump take immediate action to begin undoing the damage caused by Obamacare,” Energy and Commerce Chairman Greg Walden of Oregon said in a statement. “In the coming weeks, we will repeal Obamacare and begin rebuilding our broken health care system and cleaning up the mess left behind by the previous administration.” (Williams, 1/20)

Bloomberg: Trump Order Declares He’ll Seek ‘Prompt Repeal’ Of Obamacare
Topher Spiro, the vice president for health policy at the Democratic Party-aligned Center for American Progress, called the order “meaningless campaign messaging” in a statement. (Edney and Sink, 1/20)

CNN Money: Trump's Executive Order And Obamacare: Where We Go From Here
"It's a mix of symbolic arm waving (lacking more specific and targeted details) and directional guidance to empower Trump administration officials to lean against more regulation on the margin," said Tom Miller, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, which has long opposed Obamacare. "What remains unclear is how far they can go before they bump up against clearer statutory requirements and existing final regulations." (Luhby, 1/22)

The Hill: Trump Signs ObamaCare Executive Order 
In a separate move, Priebus signed a memo ordering a government-wide regulatory freeze until new Cabinet secretaries and agency heads are in place. (Fabian and Sullivan, 1/20)

Los Angeles Times: Here's What Trump's Executive Order Really Means For Obamacare
Has Obamacare been repealed? In a word, no. The healthcare law was a huge piece of legislation that included scores of legal requirements and provided hundreds of billions of dollars in assistance to help extend health coverage to millions of Americans. All that can only be repealed by another law, which would require an act of Congress, not just an executive order from the president. (Levey, 1/21)

Modern Healthcare: President Trump's Healthcare Plate Is Full, And It Won't Go Down Easy
[As Trump] takes office, he faces the very real prospect that his first year in the White House could be dominated by complex and bitterly divisive healthcare issues, carrying big political risks for his presidency and his party. ... If he fails to fulfill his vow to repeal and replace the law with something much better, Republicans could be in a vulnerable position defending their control of Congress in the 2018 elections, putting the second half of Trump's presidency in jeopardy. A more immediate risk is that Trump's and congressional Republicans' broader agenda on taxes, the economy, trade, deregulation, immigration, military expansion and other issues could get derailed by health policy battles. (Meyer, 1/20)

Kaiser Health News: Trump Stays Silent On Health Law In Speech, Then Sets Tone For Repeal
President Donald Trump’s brief inaugural address mentioned many of the issues he raised repeatedly on the campaign trail — jobs, immigration and trade policy. But there was not even a brief mention of his plans to improve health care. The new White House website was similarly silent on anything health related. Under the “issues” section it includes energy, foreign policy, jobs, the military, law enforcement and trade. But no health section. (Rovner, 1/20)

The New York Times: Trump’s Health Plan Would Convert Medicaid To Block Grants, Aide Says
President Trump’s plan to replace the Affordable Care Act will propose giving each state a fixed amount of federal money in the form of a block grant to provide health care to low-income people on Medicaid, a top adviser to Mr. Trump said in an interview broadcast on Sunday. The adviser, Kellyanne Conway, who is Mr. Trump’s White House counselor, said that converting Medicaid to a block grant would ensure that “those who are closest to the people in need will be administering” the program. (Pear, 1/22)

NPR: Medicaid Block Grants Are Part Of Plan To Redo Obamacare 
"Those who are closest to the people in need will be administering it," Conway said in the interview, which was recorded the Thursday and Sunday. "You really cut out the fraud, waste and abuse, and you get the help directly to them." Medicaid is now funded by the federal government and states together and it has an open-ended funding stream, meaning it pays for all health costs to which its beneficiaries are entitled under the law. (Kodjak, 1/22)

CNN: Conway: Obamacare Replacement Includes Medicaid Block Grants
Senior Donald Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said Sunday part of the new administration's plans for repealing and replacing Obamacare would include converting federal funds for Medicaid into block grants to states. "The replacement plans, I think everybody knows what some of the contours are now," Conway said on NBC's "Sunday Today" show. "Block grant Medicaid to the states, so people who are closest to those in need through Medicaid -- which guarantees health insurance to the poor -- that they will -- that those who are closest to the people in need are really administering it. You really cut out the fraud, waste, and abuse, and you really help directly to them." (Wright, 1/23)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Trump Health Plan To Shift Medicaid Funding To Block Grants
Such a system will mark a drastic change in healthcare coverage for low-income people and a fight in Congress over the formulas that determine how much funding each state receives and what happens to those that have expanded their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act. (Bluestein, 1/23)

NPR: Meet The Republican Governors Who Don't Want To Repeal All Of Obamacare
As Congressional Republicans begin work on repealing the Affordable Care Act, many of the nation's governors want to make sure that their state budgets don't take a hit during the dismantling process. They're most concerned about Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor that's run jointly by the states and federal government. ... Among them is Ohio Gov. John Kasich who, along with several other Republican governors, met with GOP members of the Senate Finance Committee last week for a closed-door discussion about the healthcare law. Kasich has been anything but quiet on the subject. (Castele, 1/23)

Stateline: Republican States Look To Customize Medicaid Expansion, Not Eliminate It
Medicaid spending for all states was about $532 billion in 2015, with about 63 percent funded by the federal government and the rest by states. In expanding Medicaid under the ACA, Republicans in expansion states chose economics over politics, even though it meant cooperating with a law that nearly all conservatives abhor. That calculus won’t change with the transition in Washington, according to Matt Salo, who heads the National Association of Medicaid Directors. (Vestal, 1/23)

And in other news —

Forbes: Trump's Health Secretary Thinks Poor Should Pay More For Medicaid
Poor Americans insured by Medicaid will pay more out-of-pocket toward their healthcare services under proposals favored by Dr. Tom Price, Donald Trump’s pick to be U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. During the first of two committee hearings he faces before the U.S. Senate votes on whether to confirm him, Price said he supports a plan within Indiana’s Medicaid program that requires a copayment or premium to get a richer benefit package. Price, who goes before the Senate Finance committee this week, favors repealing the Affordable Care Act and its Medicaid expansion and his testimony offers ideas on what he may push to replace the law. (Japsen, 1/22)

Columbus Dispatch: Obamacare, Medicaid-Expansion Recipients In Ohio Fear Repeal
Nearly 1 million Ohioans, and 20 million nationwide, are covered under the law's expansion of Medicaid coverage and creation of an insurance exchange marketplace that offers federal subsidies to help many Americans pay premiums. While its potential repeal earned President Donald Trump a number of votes and thrills some people as his administration takes the reins in Washington, it also has left a number of Americans worried about what's next. (Candisky, Johnson and Viviano, 1/22)

KTVA (Anchorage, Alaska): What’s At Stake For Alaska If Trump Repeals ACA Medicaid Expansion?
“The single sector in which we project economic growth next year is health care,” said Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development commissioner Heidi Drygas in an economic trends report released this month. “And that sector is at risk if Congress repeals Medicaid expansion.” Most Americans enrolled in Medicaid are low-income families, people with disabilities and the elderly, according to CNN. Older Alaskans are a population which have become the main driver of the state’s healthcare growth, says Alaska Dept. of Labor economist Caroline Schultz. (Starks, 1/20)

Reuters: Trump May Not Enforce Individual Health Insurance Mandate: Aide 
The Trump administration may no longer enforce a rule requiring individual Americans to carry health insurance or pay a penalty if they do not, a senior White House official said on Sunday. Speaking on ABC's "This Week" program, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, said President Donald Trump "may stop enforcing the individual mandate." (Lange and Clarke, 1/22)

Bloomberg: Trump May End Obamacare Insurance Requirement, Conway Says 
Such a move would take the teeth out of former President Barack Obama’s health-care law and could destabilize insurance markets, analysts say. It was not clear from Conway’s remarks whether President Donald Trump would try to use his executive authority to make the change, which would be much faster than writing new regulations or waiting on lawmakers. (Tracer, 1/22)

The Hill: Trump May Stop Enforcing ObamaCare Mandate, Top Aide Says 
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated in December that repealing the mandate would cause ObamaCare premiums to increase by 20 percent. “Were the Trump administration to effectively repeal the mandate, it would certainly be sued,” law professor Timothy Jost wrote in Health Affairs on Friday. (Sullivan, 1/22)

The Hill: Conway On ObamaCare Repeal: 'People Will Not Go Without Coverage'
President Donald Trump's aide, Kellyanne Conway, in an interview broadcast Sunday expressed confidence that people covered under ObamaCare will continue to have coverage after the law is repealed and replaced. "President Trump has said that people will not go without coverage. And he means that," she said on "Sunday Today." (Savransky, 1/22)

The New York Times: Trump’s Vow To Repeal Health Law Revives Talk Of High-Risk Pools
Joanne Fitzgerald was getting divorced and was stressed out. When stomach pain kicked in, she saw a doctor to have it checked out.That was her mistake. The doctor diagnosed a mild form of gastritis, an inflammation of the stomach lining, and recommended some over-the-counter medicine. But when the divorce became final, in 2008, she lost health coverage from her husband’s employer, and insurer after insurer refused to cover her because of the condition. She was finally offered a policy that excluded coverage for anything related to her gastrointestinal tract. (Abelson, 1/22)

Politico: Obamacare Chief's New Mission: Save Obamacare
Andy Slavitt’s job was to run Obamacare. Now he’s trying to save it. Slavitt stepped down on Friday as acting administrator of CMS, the sprawling federal agency that oversees the Affordable Care Act. Later that day, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that could blow much of the law apart. (Kenen and Diamond, 1/23)

And media outlets report on the health law and what its possible repeal would mean to the industry and in the states —

Columbus Dispatch: Repeal Of Obamacare Without A Replacement Would Increase US Debt
Here is the problem Republicans face with their opposition to the 2010 health-care law signed by President Barack Obama: Getting rid of it without approving a substitute would increase the federal debt, provide wealthy people with a tax cut and cause as many as 20 million Americans to lose their health care. Although Vice President Mike Pence told CNN last week that "step one is to repeal the taxes and the mandates" in the law known as Obamacare and "at the same time pass a replacement bill," neither he nor congressional Republicans have provided specifics of a plan. (Torry, 1/22)

WBUR: Q&A: What Would End Of Obamacare Mean For Experiments With How Doctors Are Paid? 
It's wonky stuff, health care payment reform, but if you care about your spiraling medical costs, you have to care about attempts to change the $3 trillion health care system to bring them down while still improving your care. Among the dozens of other pieces of the sprawling Affordable Care Act, the law funneled hundreds of millions of dollars in support for such attempts through a federal agency called the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. It particularly buttressed "Accountable Care Organizations" or ACOs, a central payment reform idea that boils down to paying doctors for how well you do rather than just for each thing they do for you. (Goldberg, 1/20)

Kaiser Health News: Doctors’ Rights To Ask About Guns Not Affected By Health Law Provisions
Should gun owners have to share information with health professionals about their firearms and whether they’re stored safely at home? This controversial issue gets a nod in the federal health law. Tucked into the Affordable Care Act is a section that protects people from having to disclose information about guns they own to wellness programs and prohibits federal health law officials from collecting and keeping records about it. Insurers can’t factor gun ownership into health insurance premiums either under this section of the law. So gun owners may want to pay attention to the debate on revising Obamacare. (Andrews, 1/20)

The Philadelphia Inquirer/Philly.com: What's Next For Obamacare? Philly Experts Mull The Future
Americans are watching and waiting — with anxiety, skepticism, optimism and sometimes all of the above — to see what becomes of the Affordable Care Act, the mammoth health law that added 18-million people to the ranks of the insured. And even expert economists and physicians who have spent decades analyzing the complex system can't say with any certainty what could happen next. But watching the politics of "repeal and replace" can be just as painful for those in the know, said a panel of high-powered health policy authorities who gathered Thursday evening at the Inquirer to ponder the possibilities. (Wood, 1/20)

San Antonio Express-News: Study: Obamacare Repeal Could Mean Major Job Losses 
A repeal of the Affordable Care Act without a replacement could cost the nation 2.6 million jobs, with 36,000 of those coming in Connecticut. The study by The Commonwealth Fund and Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University focuses mainly on federal premium tax credits and payments to states for Medicaid expansion. Should the administration repeal those components and not replace them with “sound policies,” the study shows that job losses in the state would be large in both number and scope. But only 40 percent of the 36,000 lost jobs would come from the health care industry, a finding that surprised the authors of the study. (Bosak, 1/22)

Chicago Tribune: Health Care Law Changes Pros, Cons Eyed 
As Congress stands poised to repeal the Affordable Care Act in the early days of President Donald Trump's term, the debate for citizens continues over finding balance between maintaining good health and its cost. In Northwest Indiana, sentiments about the Affordable Care Act Indiana are mixed. Concerns have been raised about high monthly premiums and deductibles for those buying insurance through healthcare.gov. Concerns are also raised over fate of funding for federally qualified health centers, non-profits that typically provide services for people in underserved areas. (Webster, 1/20)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Obamacare Critics Want Tougher Insurance Mandate — For Drivers
Two Republican lawmakers who want the repeal of Obamacare are pressing to strengthen another government insurance mandate passed in Wisconsin around the same time — this one on drivers. As the Assembly Health Committee chairman, Rep. Joe Sanfelippo (R-West Allis) will help Wisconsin implement a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the federal health law that mandates Americans buy health coverage or face financial penalties. Sanfelippo sees the law as an unwarranted government intrusion into private markets. (Stein, 1/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: Obamacare’s Murky State Forces Bay Area Clinics To Scale Back 
For most of last year, Sherry Hirota, chief executive of Asian Health Services, was planning to convert two floors of offices in its Oakland Chinatown facility to clinic space to accommodate more patients. But that changed on Nov. 8. Soon after the election — as Republicans in Congress began taking steps to repeal the Affordable Care Act — uncertainty over the future of the health care law forced Hirota’s group to scale back those plans. They are now going to build out just one floor of new clinic space instead. That’s because Asian Health Services stands to lose $8 million, about 15 percent of its annual revenue, if the Affordable Care Act is repealed without a comparable replacement. (Ho, 1/21)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Potential Repeal Of Affordable Care Act Leaves Uncertainty For Nevada Lawmakers, Budget
Looming over the upcoming legislative session is the big unknown of whether Congress will repeal the Affordable Care Act and what it would mean for Nevada. It’s a worry for the administration and lawmakers, who have to build a two-year spending plan that could be blown to bits if the federal government yanks subsidies for Medicaid expansion and policies purchased through the state health exchange. Right now, there’s nothing they can do except wait. (Chereb, 1/22)

Los Angeles Times: Obamacare Repeal Would Also Affect Your Employer Health Insurance
Stephanie Blythe isn’t due to give birth until April, but she already ordered a breast pump through her insurance company because she’s worried about the future of the Affordable Care Act. “Once I have it, they can’t take it away from me,” said Blythe, 31. (Karlamangla, 1/22)

Charlotte Observer: Get Health Insurance At Work? Here’s How ACA Repeal Could Affect You 
Recent attention about the planned repeal of the Affordable Care Act has focused on the 20 million people who might lose their health insurance if President Barack Obama’s signature health care law is dismantled by Republicans in Congress. But people who get insurance through their employers – an estimated 150 million Americans – may also lose consumer protections they have come to expect from their job-based plans. Most people associate the ACA with the online marketplace that offers health plans, with premium subsidies, to people who don’t get employer-sponsored insurance. Many are pleased with that coverage, but some individuals who earn too much to qualify for subsidies have complained bitterly about rising premiums and deductibles. (Garloch, 1/20)

Past KHN Coverage:
Large Employer Health Plans Could Also See Some Impacts From Obamacare Overhaul
Health Law Sleepers: Six Surprising Health Items That Could Disappear With ACA Repeal

CNN: GOP Senators To Present Obamacare Alternative
Two Republican senators are set to introduce legislation Monday to replace Obamacare amid mounting pressure on the GOP to craft an alternative to the massive healthcare law. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana will unveil a bill that they are describing as an "Obamacare replacement plan." In a statement, the duo promised that the proposal would give more power to the states on health care policy, increase access to affordable insurance and help cover millions of Americans who are currently uninsured. (Lee, 1/23)

The Hill: GOP Waiting To Hear From Trump On ObamaCare 
Don’t expect President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to roll out their ObamaCare replacement plan next week at their joint House and Senate GOP retreat in Philadelphia. Healthcare is expected to dominate the three-day gathering that kicks off Wednesday. But GOP lawmakers attending Trump’s presidential inauguration Friday said they likely won’t settle on a complete replacement strategy by the time the retreat wraps up. (Wong, 1/21)

CQ Roll Call: Details Still Sparse On GOP Health Plan
Congressional Republicans appear no closer on Inauguration Day than in recent weeks to having a coherent strategy in place to achieve the incoming Trump administration’s goal to simultaneously repeal and replace the 2010 health care law. House and Senate Republicans hope to get more organized during a policy retreat next week in Philadelphia where health care is expected to be a significant topic. Several major questions—including what the GOP will do about the $9 billion or so that would be needed to fund cost-sharing subsidies for people covered by Obamacare plans, and whether to repeal the law’s Medicaid expansion—remain unanswered. (Williams, 1/20)

Roll Call: HHS Nominee Tom Price, Staff Aided Donors in Agency Battles
President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services has advocated over the years for companies with the federal agencies he may soon oversee. At least three of the companies aided by Rep. Tom Price and his staff contributed to his campaign funds. A CQ Roll Call review of more than 5,600 pages of congressional correspondence with HHS employees provides a picture of a lawmaker who has taken a deep interest in the workings of the Medicare entitlement program’s payments to the health industry. Price, a former surgeon, or his staff also pressured the Food and Drug Administration and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to heed requests and complaints he received from donors and constituents. The documents were released in batches over the past couple of days in response to a Freedom of Information Act filed last year. (Young and Siddons, 1/20)

Kaiser Health News: Trump’s HHS Pick Favored Drugmakers, Device Makers And Doctors
As Cabinet nominee Tom Price faces a Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, a newly released trove of documents sheds further light on how he interacted as a congressman with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, the massive agency he may soon oversee. Letters provided by CMS after an open records request show that the Health and Human Services pick has repeatedly stepped up in favor of drug firms, device manufacturers and higher physician payments, leading some experts to question whether he would be a reliable advocate for the public’s health. (Taylor and Jewett, 1/23)

And in other administration news —

Stat: Trump's Education Nominee Is A Theranos Investor
Billionaire Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of education, owns a stake in the blood-testing company Theranos — a one-time star of the biotech world that has been derailed by criminal and civil investigations. In documents filed with the Office of Government Ethics, DeVos disclosed a share of Theranos that she said was worth more than $1 million. Federal regulations don’t require any more specificity than that, so the exact size of DeVos’ stake is unclear. (Garde, 1/20)

Los Angeles Times: The Latest Battlefront In The Abortion Wars: Regulations To Bury Or Cremate Fetuses
Over the last two years, at least five states have introduced requirements that healthcare facilities bury or cremate the remains from abortions, and in some cases also from miscarriages and stillbirths. The rules in Arkansas and North Carolina have already taken effect. Texas, Louisiana and Indiana are embroiled in lawsuits challenging their regulations, with a decision in the Texas case expected as soon as this week. (Zavis, 1/23)

Roll Call: House Fits In Abortion Bill, Even With Short Schedule
It’s a short week for Congress in Washington, with Republicans in both the House and Senate heading out Wednesday for a retreat in Philadelphia, where they will strategize with the new administration about the year’s legislative agenda. Before leaving, though, they’ll wade into abortion politics with legislation in the House — just in time for Friday’s annual March for Life. ... Per its name, the legislation by New Jersey GOP Rep. Christopher H. Smith would prohibit federal funds, including those provided to the District of Columbia, from being used for abortions or for health benefits that cover abortions. The House has voted on a version of the bill in prior years as part of Republicans’ sustained targeting of Planned Parenthood. (McPherson, 1/23)

Raleigh News & Observer: Republicans Push To Cut Medicaid Funds To Planned Parenthood
Thousands of women across North Carolina could lose access to health care if Congress persuades President Donald Trump to halt federal Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood. ... “You already have an overtaxed, overburdened public health care system in America, of which Planned Parenthood is a critical part,” said Jenny Black, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, based in Raleigh. “When you take that away, the infrastructure is just not there to absorb those patients.” (Quillen, 1/22)

In other news, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo moves to protect free contraception in the face of possible health law repeal —

The New York Times: Andrew Cuomo To Widen Access To Free Abortion And Contraception
Stepping into a period of intense anxiety over the future of the American health care system and reproductive rights, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo plans to announce on Saturday that his administration will require health insurers to cover medically necessary abortions and most forms of contraception at no cost — essentially safeguarding protections currently afforded to women. (Yee, 1/20)

Bloomberg: Cuomo Says Insurers To Cover Birth Control Despite Trump 
New York state ordered health insurers to cover birth control and abortions even if President Donald Trump signs a repeal of Obamacare that would lift federal mandates on the industry. The state will require commercial insurers to provide broad coverage of contraceptive drugs and devices, and cover medically necessary abortions at no cost to the patient, according to a statement on Saturday from the New York Department of Financial Services. (Tracer, 1/21)

Stat: Hospitals Train Emergency Doctors To Resist Prescribing Opioids
Emergency departments, in particular, feel a heavy responsibility to take action: Collectively, they’re one of the top prescribers of opioids nationwide, behind family and internal medicine practices. And so, this month in eastern Mississippi, Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle began limiting opioid pain medication only to patients in the most acute pain. St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in New Jersey, which has one of the nation’s biggest emergency departments, is pushing to replace opioids whenever possible with less addictive treatments, like nerve blocks to dull pain. The center has even hired a harpist to fill the noisy halls with calmer notes. (Blau, 1/23)

The Washington Post: The Search For A Painkiller That Works Without Danger Of Addiction
When did our nation’s opioid crisis begin? Pretty much as soon as a German pharmacist isolated morphine from opium in 1805. Within the century, “addiction among soldiers was reportedly prevalent enough to earn the moniker, ‘the soldier’s disease,’ ” writes Jon Kelvey on Smithsonian.com. But after more than 200 years of increased dependency and deaths, his article declares that “America’s Long-Overdue Opioid Revolution Is Finally Here.” Here’s the tantalizing prospect of the piece: New compounds may provide patients with opioid-level pain relief without the awful side effects. (Hallett, 1/22)

And from the states —

The Record: N.J. Attorney General Clamping Down On Painkillers
New Jersey Attorney General Chris Porrino is using emergency powers to impose some of the toughest restrictions in the United States on painkiller prescriptions, part of an aggressive campaign against drug addiction outlined by Gov. Chris Christie that could also include an investigation into relationships between doctors and drug manufacturers. In a letter to the Board of Medical Examiners last week, Porrino cited his emergency powers and said he would amend several state regulations on the practice of medicine to prevent "the tragic consequences of the prescription opioid and heroin epidemic." (Rizzo, 1/22)

New Hampshire Public Radio: How The Drug Crisis Is Reshaping One Busy New Hampshire Hospital 
Catholic Medical Center in Manchester is your typical general hospital: they deliver babies, set broken bones, perform heart surgery. And it might be as good a place as any to witness how the opioid epidemic is transforming healthcare in New Hampshire. As the opioids have taken a grip on the state, hospitals have been inundated with patients suffering from addiction. Not all those patients land in a hospital because of an overdose. They’re being treated everywhere – from the nursery to the operating room. (Rodolico, 1/20)

New Hampshire Public Radio: State Hopes Pharma Settlement Will Stop False Marketing Of Opioid Painkillers 
For over a year, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office has been trying to determine whether drug makers break the law in how they marketed opioid painkillers in the state. It’s a slow legal battle that could determine that pharmaceutical companies knew they were putting people at risk by overselling highly addictive painkillers. Many of those painkillers were abused – leading to an addiction and overdose epidemic. (Rodolico, 1/20)

The New York Times: Cervical Cancer Taking Deadlier Toll In U.S. Than Had Been Thought
The death rate from cervical cancer in the United States is considerably higher than previously estimated and the disparity in death rates between black women and white women is significantly wider, according to a study published Monday in the journal Cancer. (Hoffman, 1/23)

CNN: Cervical Cancer Death Rates Are Much Higher Than Thought
Black women are dying from cervical cancer at a rate 77% higher than previously thought and white women are dying at a rate 47% higher, according to a new study that published in the journal Cancer on Monday. (Howard, 1/23)

Arizona Republic: Want To Know The Secret To A Long, Healthy Life? Ask The Experts – 1,200 Old People
For 10 years, the researchers working at Banner’s Center for Healthy Aging have been studying longevity. They have asked the real experts — the 1,200 people ages 55 and up who have agreed to be tested, monitored and interviewed on a regular basis — about the psychosocial, cognitive, medical and physical factors contributing to healthy aging. The idea is to track common traits, behaviors and other factors common to those who live the longest and most healthily. The researchers hope what they learn could help prevent Alzheimer’s and other age-related diseases. (Bland, 1/20)

NPR: Kangaroo Care Eases Newborns' Entry Into The World
Kangaroo mother care has been widely used worldwide to care for premature babies, and it's gaining popularity in caring for healthy full term babies. It is as it sounds: Like a kangaroo's pouch, mothers hold their naked newborns on their bare chest for the first few hours of life. (Neighmond, 1/23)

The CT Mirror: A Prison Experiments With The Young, Reckless And Neuroscience
Despite all that, or maybe because of it, [Scott] Erfe is Correction Commissioner Scott Semple’s choice to host a pilot project to test the notion that pretty much every 18-to-25-year-old inmate has a malfunction: A brain whose frontal lobes, so crucial to executive functions like planning and impulse control, are not fully mature. A conclusion reached by scientists after brain imaging studies, this is not news to parents of adolescents. And it wasn’t shocking to the Connecticut Department of Correction. Inmates in the age group comprise less than 10 percent of the prison population, but Semple says they are responsible for a quarter or more of all disciplinary incidents. (Pazniokas, 1/23)

Kaiser Health News: Tackling Patients’ Social Problems Can Cut Health Costs
Donning a protective gown, rubber gloves and a face mask, Dayna Gurley looks like she’s heading into surgery. But Gurley is a medical social worker charged with figuring out why her client, a man who uses more health care services than almost anyone else in Houston, has been in three different hospitals in the last month. The patient, who asked not to be identified, has chronic massive ulcers, AIDS and auditory hallucinations. ... “It’s almost like self-sabotage,” Gurley said about her many attempts to steady her client’s life. (Varney, 1/23)

Stat: CDC Panel Urges New Rules For Diagnosing High Lead Levels
More children across the US would likely be diagnosed with high lead levels under recommended guidelines approved this week by a federal advisory panel. The panel voted to lower by 30 percent, to 3.5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood, the threshold at which a child is considered to have elevated lead. It’s a sign of increased awareness and concern about how harmful even low levels of lead can be for growing kids. And it could allow public health agencies to identify more sources of lead contamination. (Robbins, 1/20)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio Lead Poisoning Cases Go Without Investigation, Follow Up Across The State
Health departments around the state for years have struggled to investigate childhood lead poisoning cases and make sure homes with dangerous levels of the heavy metal are fixed or remain vacant so they can't do more harm. According to data on the performance of more than a dozen of the state's health districts with authority to conduct lead poisoning investigations. (Dissell, 1/21)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Lead Poisoning Investigations, Follow Up A Mixed Bag In Ohio 
Cleveland isn't the only lead poisoning program in the state that's struggled to respond to lead poisoning cases. For the more than 2,500 cases that were investigated from 2011 to 2015, hazards were found more than 65 percent of the time and Lead Hazard Control orders were issued requiring the property owner to remediate the problem. Those orders were only followed about 35 percent of the time. (Dissell, 1/21)

Columbus Dispatch: Testing Drinking Water For Toxic Chemical C8 Urged Farther Down Ohio River
There is no measurable amount of C8 flowing from taps in the six Ohio River water districts that settled a lawsuit with DuPont over the toxic chemical that the company used to make Teflon. Along 75 miles of the Ohio River - from Parkersburg, West Virginia, to Pomeroy, Ohio - water from wells contaminated with C8, or perfluorooctanoic acid, is being filtered through granulated activated carbon before reaching taps in homes and businesses. That's good. The chemical has been tied to a number of cancers and health disorders. (Rinehart, 1/22)

Los Angeles Times: First Child Death From Flu Reported This Season In California As Cases Rise Sharply
Thousands of Californians have been showing up at doctors’ offices and hospitals sick with the flu this month, in what officials say could be a much more severe flu season than the last. “If you compare this time last year we’re seeing twice as many flu cases,” said Dr. Michael Neely, interim chief of infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “If it keeps going up at this rate and stays up then we will see a lot more cases this year.” (Karlamangla, 1/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: State’s Flu Season Taking Toll; Twice As Many Outbreaks As Normal
This flu season is shaping up to be among the worst in a decade, with more people infected far earlier than usual and more of them ending up hospitalized, state public health workers said Friday. California has recorded 14 flu-related deaths in people under age 65 — a marker for the severity of a flu season — including the death of a Santa Clara County resident announced Friday. That’s about normal for this date, officials said. But other markers of severity are much higher than usual, the state said. Hospitalization rates for flu-related causes are at their highest level in more than a decade, excluding the H1N1 pandemic in 2009 that caused extremely widespread illness. (Allday, 1/20)

San Jose Mercury News: Santa Clara County Reports First Flu-Related Death Of Season
As California public health officials on Friday announced that flu activity around the state is now more severe than last year, Santa Clara County reported its first flu death in a person under 65 — and Riverside County reported the state’s first flu death in a child under 18. (Seipel, 1/20)

The New York Times: Once A Leading Foe Of Tobacco, New York Lags Under De Blasio
In the 12 years that Michael R. Bloomberg spent as mayor of New York, he became known for pushing far-reaching health initiatives to curb smoking and change eating habits — challenging Big Tobacco, big sodas and, at times, the will of New Yorkers. The first three years of Bill de Blasio’s tenure as mayor have brought a different approach. (Neuman, 1/22)

Boston Globe: Rates Jumping For Long Term Care Insurance 
The state Division of Insurance has negotiated rate increases of up to 40 percent spread over four years with more than a dozen long-term care insurance companies in an effort to stabilize the troubled and shrinking market for this coverage. The state’s top insurance regulator took the unusual step Friday of approving rate increases at once for 16 companies providing coverage to nearly 55,000 state residents. Most existing policyholders will see rates increase 10 percent a year for the next four years. (Fernandes, 1/20)

The CT Mirror: CT Exchange Wants To Require Broker Commissions For Health Plans 
Officials at Connecticut’s health insurance exchange want to require insurance companies that sell health plans through the marketplace to pay commissions to agents and brokers next year, a move aimed at restoring the assistance for exchange customers. Last year, 40 percent of Access Health CT’s private insurance customers signed up through agents or brokers, who were paid a monthly fee by insurance companies. But insurance companies stopped the commissions for plans sold through Access Health in 2017. (Levin Becker, 1/20)

The Washington Post: For District Workers Caring For Adult Relatives, New Legislation Is A Godsend
Tanisha Vinson, a home-health-care aide in the District, was let go from her job last month after she took off too many days to care for her mother, who had recently undergone spine surgery. “My mother was in a bed and couldn’t get out, and she called me to come,” said Vinson, a single mother of three whose son has disabilities. She missed five days of work in two weeks, and since losing her position she hasn’t found work again. (Bahrampour, 1/21)

Richmond Times Dispatch: Va. Families Of People With Disabilities Criticize New Funding Structure
The SIS, as it’s called, is a tool the state has used for years to determine how much support disabled Virginians need, but this is the first year it has been tied to how much money is paid to caretakers for certain services. The change in funding models was part of a sweeping redesign of the Medicaid waiver system in Virginia, which was implemented in large part last year. Goodloe and several other parents and advocates have voiced concerns that the SIS assessment is not accurately capturing the needs of disabled Virginians and resulting in detrimental cuts that could lead to people with disabilities being placed in more institutional settings. (Kleiner, 1/22)

Richmond Times Dispatch: Advocates Want Every Virginia Child To Have Access To A Nurse While In School
Nurses, students and a legislator from Stafford County have joined forces to try to make sure every child in the state has access to a nurse while in school. The effort is being led by Del. L. Mark Dudenhefer, R-Stafford, who has sponsored legislation calling for every school board to employ at least one nurse at every elementary, middle and high school, or one for every 550 students. The bill, HB1757, was advanced out of the Elementary & Secondary Education Subcommittee on Wednesday and will be heard by the House Education Committee today. (Llovio, 1/20)

Cincinnati Enquirer: TriHealth Software Glitch Sent Mail To Previous Addresses Of Patients
TriHealth, the Cincinnati-based health care company, issued a statement Friday regarding a software glitch that inadvertently sent mail to the address of over 1,000 patients. "The majority of the correspondences were billing statements sent to the previous address of current patients," the statement said. No Social Security numbers, credit card numbers or any other financial institution information were disclosed in any of the mailings as a result of the glitch, which was discovered several weeks ago, officials said. (Kinight, 1/20)

The Star Tribune: Hennepin County Leads State In 24/7 Child Protection Response 
For years, some of the most seriously abused or neglected children in Minnesota couldn’t get help from a social worker for days. Across the state, child protection agencies would shut down on holidays, weekends and late at night. Calls for help would be forwarded to the police or a nonprofit under contract with the county, and information taken down to relay later to a social worker. Not anymore in Hennepin County, which according to the state has launched the only completely county-run child protection response system in Minnesota that’s operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. (Smith, 1/22)

California Healthline: From Its Counterculture Roots, Haight Ashbury Free Clinic Morphs Into Health Care Conglomerate
Since it opened 50 years ago, the Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic has been a refuge for everyone from flower children to famous rock stars to Vietnam War veterans returning home addicted to heroin. Strolling through the clinic, one of the first of its kind in the nation, founder Dr. David Smith points to a large collage that decorates a wall of an exam room affectionately referred to as the Psychedelic Wall of Fame. The 1967 relic shows a kaleidoscope of images of Jefferson Airplane and other legendary counterculture bands, floating in a dreamscape of creatures, nude goddesses, peace symbols and large loopy letters. (Udesky, 1/23)

New Hampshire Union Leader: Hampton Man Files Malpractice Suit Against Doctors After Wife Dies From Infection 
A Hampton man whose wife died from a severe infection after she sought treatment in Exeter Hospital’s emergency room has filed a medical malpractice suit against two of the doctors who treated her. Francis Chamberlin is suing Dr. Craig Maclean, Ohio-based U.S. Acute Care Solutions, Dr. Steven Kahan, and Core Physicians LLC following the death of his 67-year-old wife, Jacklyn Chamberlin, on Oct. 27, 2016. (Schreiber, 1/20)

Los Angeles Times: Measles Outbreak Grows In L.A.'s Orthodox Jewish Community Despite California'S Strict New Vaccination Law
Six months after California’s strict vaccine law took effect, a measles outbreak has infected 20 people, most of them in Los Angeles County, prompting a search for others who may have been exposed to the highly contagious virus.Most of the patients live in western areas of the county, including L.A.’s Westside, the Santa Monica Mountains and the San Fernando Valley. Santa Barbara and Ventura counties each reported one case. (Karlamangla, 1/21)

The Washington Post: His Mental Illness Left Him Homeless. Then A Unique Program Gave Him His Life Back. 
It’s a little after noon. Usually by this hour, David Weiss would be waking for the second time, still groggy from his antipsychotics. He’d have gotten up once at dawn, maybe made himself an egg with toast. He might have gone into the back bedroom to scan his ham radio or played a few chords on his guitar. Then he’d go back to sleep. But on this day, he had somewhere to be. It’s easier to get up on days like this, days with a purpose. (Itkowitz, 1/21)

Seattle Times: Tet In Seattle Offers Help For A Healthy New Year 
For the third year in a row, the Tet in Seattle Vietnamese celebration for the Lunar New Year has included a health fair to provide screenings, information and insurance enrollment for the community...Volunteers from Swedish Medical Center, the University of Washington, Seattle University, International Community Health Services and others offered free blood-pressure, cholesterol and blood-sugar-level checks, while providing nutritional information and insurance help. (Hansen, 1/22)

WBUR: Mass. Legislators Propose Limits On Legal Marijuana — Here Are The Key Points 
Just hours after polls closed on Nov. 8, 2016, leaders on Beacon Hill began talking about ways they might change the ballot question that made marijuana legal for adult use in Massachusetts. In December, without notifying all members, a handful of lawmakers voted to delay the start of retail sales. Now, as a new session begins, House and Senate leaders have filed dozens of bills that would make major changes in the recreational marijuana law. (Bebinger, 1/21)

The New York Times: The Republican Health Care Con
Republicans say the Affordable Care Act provides health insurance that manages to be both lousy and expensive. Whatever the flaws of these policies, the new Trump administration is trying to pull off a con by offering Americans coverage that is likely to be so much worse that it would barely deserve the name insurance. It would also leave many millions without the medical care they need. (1/21)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Repeal Obamacare
As its first act of 2017, Congress is set to repeal Obamacare through a process known as budget reconciliation. This will fulfill the promise made by congressional Republicans to reverse Obamacare’s higher health care costs, give patients better choices and finally end billions in wasteful spending. Repeal also is an opportunity for Congress to give Americans of all income levels more than a trillion dollars in lower taxes by repealing all of Obamacare’s new or higher taxes. Above all else, repeal of Obamacare should be hailed as a big win for middle-class families. (Grover Norquist and Brett Healy, 1/22)

USA Today: Obamacare Costs Way More Than It Should
When President Trump mentioned extending health insurance to everyone this month, it sounded like it could be pie in the sky — until you consider that the insurance he plans on replacing, Obamacare, is struggling under the weight of its own subsidies, regulations and restrictions. On his first day in office, Trump showed he recognized that with an executive order addressing just those issues. (Marc Siegel, 1/23)

Los Angeles Times: Donald Trump's Executive Order On Obamacare Will Cripple The Health Insurance Market
The day after the election I wrote that Republicans would find it hard to repeal Obamacare — but not so hard to vandalize it. In his first official action after being sworn in as president, Donald Trump applied the first smear of graffiti to a law that today brings health coverage to more than 20 million Americans. The executive order Trump signed at the White House gives the Department of Heath and Human Services and other government agencies broad latitude to start undermining the law. It encourages them “to waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay” any provision of the law that would “impose a fiscal burden” on pretty much anyone — state, hospital, doctor, or patient. (Michael Hiltzik, 1/21)

Los Angeles Times: The Hidden Costs Of Replacing Obamacare
Congressional Republicans set themselves on a fast track this month to repeal the tax and spending provisions of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. But President Trump and numerous GOP lawmakers are coming around to the view that it would be irresponsible, and possibly disastrous, to take that step without enacting a plan to replace the law at the same time. That change of heart has forced opponents of the act to focus on something they should have been focusing on for years now: What is the problem they’re trying to fix? Because repealing Obamacare won’t slow rising healthcare costs by itself, and it certainly won’t enable more Americans to obtain health insurance. (1/21)

The New York Times: What Does Trump’s Executive Order Against Obamacare Actually Do? 
Donald J. Trump ran on a campaign promise to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. So it should not come as a surprise that he has signed an executive order urging his administration to fight it as much as possible. But that order, alone, won’t allow President Trump to unwind the sprawling health law known as Obamacare. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 1/21)

Arizona Republic: Here's Our Plan To Replace Obamacare
As one of the first orders of business in the 115th Congress, we are repealing the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, to replace it with a more patient-centered alternative. President Obama and congressional Democrats forced the ACA on Americans with little debate and a severe lack of transparency. Today, increased costs, dwindling choices and decreased quality of care are hurting our constituents. Citizens throughout the country are looking to their representatives to fix these issues, and we will answer their calls. (Rep. Andy Biggs. R-Ariz., and Trent Franks, R-Ariz., 1/22)

Sacramento Bee: California Republicans: Why Wreck Obamacare And Planned Parenthood? 
As if it isn’t enough that the GOP Congress and the Trump administration have vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act – a plan that would disrupt or end health insurance for about 5 million people in this state, including hundreds of thousands in Republican districts – they also have greased the skids for defunding the state’s best known provider of women’s reproductive health care. (Shawn Hubler, 1/20)

Sacramento Bee: A Choice: Come To The Table Or Be On The Menu
The polls say we want our leaders to produce environmentally sensible and fiscally responsible solutions for our crumbling infrastructure, and a health system that fosters innovation and provides a safety net for those that need one. Polls say we want a tax code that is simple to understand and equally meted out, and an immigration system that is true to the timeless values on which our nation was built, and one that is rational and compassionate. ... How can we reach considered compromise? Let’s start with how not: labeling the ascendant party as illegitimate. Pledging, even before the new government assumes control, to fight it. (John Russell IV, 1/22)

Richmond Times Dispatch: A Bright Idea For Improving The Affordable Care Act 
But even as repeal is discussed, a better way forward for U.S. healthcare is contained in the ACA. Ironically, the opportunity is most obvious in the states — predominantly Republican-controlled — that didn’t take direct advantage of the subsidies offered through the law but instead took advantage of the 1115 Waiver Program. Through the waiver, states can have tailored Medicaid expansion on local terms. (Michael Williams, 1/21)

The (Columbia, S.C.) State: Maximize Medicaid Funds For S.C. Health, Economy
The governors know that Medicaid’s health insurance for low-income working Americans is not going away, but they expect ... that Congress and President Donald Trump will turn it into a block grant program to the states that will cap federal spending but give them much more flexibility in how they use the money. Their concern is that they could lose most or all of the billions of extra federal dollars they have been receiving compared to South Carolina and 18 other states that have not expanded Medicaid. That money is crucial to their state and local economies. (Frank Knapp Jr., 1/22)

JAMA Internal Medicine: Advancing The Needs Of Patients In The Trump Era
With the convening of the 115th Congress and the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th president on January 20, 2017, medicine and health care in the United States are in flux. ... The central questions remain of how to attain a health care system that is accessible to all Americans, that provides needed care while avoiding unnecessary care, and that delivers care at an affordable and sustainable price. The next steps are to build on the progress that has been made, which will require further improvements in health insurance coverage, the ability of people to obtain needed medical care regardless of income, and a continued shift away from fee-for-service medicine. (Robert Steinbrook, Mitchell H. Katz and Rita F. Redberg, 1/20)

San Antonio Press Express: Why You’ll Hate Medicaid Block Grants
Those Medicaid reimbursement cuts for children’s therapies — passed by the Legislature in 2015 but delayed as the courts took up legal challenges — have been severely criticized by parents, the media, community groups, and many of the same legislators, both Democrats and Republicans, who originally voted for them. But, if Congress goes through with plans to turn the entire Medicaid program into a block grant, we can all expect to meet many more vulnerable Texans who would suffer and fail to reach their potential due to further cuts. The cuts, either through a Medicaid block grant or a similar “per capita cap” policy, are high on the agenda as Congress and the new President get to work this month. (Peter Clark, 1/21)

Georgia Health News: Health Care Solutions We Can Embrace Now
There is no question that Georgia’s rural hospitals are struggling. ... Their struggles were one of the primary reasons cited for Medicaid expansion. But before we throw money at the problem, it’s important to understand one of the fundamental causes: a massive unfunded mandate from the federal government. In 1986, Congress passed, and President Ronald Reagan signed, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), requiring hospital emergency departments to treat and stabilize all patients regardless of their ability to pay. Unfortunately, Congress did not appropriate funding to cover the cost of new benefit. (Kelly McCutchen, 1/21)

And on other topics --

Los Angeles Times/Glendale News Press: Glendale Is Bad For Your Health
Like many current residents, I grew up in Glendale, attending Glendale High School. I decided to stay where I grew up — not least because my job kept me around, and I could stay close to family and friends. Glendale offers a good quality of life. It's a clean city with proximity to big-city life, while still being relatively affordable. However, one important parameter involved in quality of life — traffic control and safety — seems to decline inexorably every year. If you do a simple Google search, you will see that Glendale routinely makes headlines as among the nation's most dangerous cities in which to drive, and this danger is compounded for pedestrians and bicyclists. (Shant Minas, 1/19)

Boston Globe: Reform Booze Laws, But Don’t Forget Consumers 
State treasurer Deborah Goldberg has opened a sweeping review of alcohol laws in Massachusetts, and business interests — retailers, brewers, and distributors — are sure to make their voices heard as that process plays out. Profits are at stake for them. But what about consumers? The current system of alcohol regulation in Massachusetts reduces choices. And by requiring booze to pass through a gantlet of middlemen before reaching consumers, those regulations raise prices. In towns and cities, caps on the number of liquor licenses for restaurants can further limit options. (1/22)