The New York Times: Brett Kavanaugh Is Trump’s Pick For Supreme Court
President Trump on Monday nominated Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, a politically connected member of Washington’s conservative legal establishment, to fill Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s seat on the Supreme Court, setting up an epic confirmation battle and potentially cementing the court’s rightward tilt for a generation. (Landler and Haberman, 7/9)

The Washington Post: Trump Supreme Court Pick: Brett Kavanaugh
“In keeping with President Reagan’s legacy, I do not ask about a nominee’s personal opinions,” Trump said in an announcement in the East Room of the White House. “What matters is not a judge’s political views but whether they can set aside those views to do what the law and the Constitution require. I am pleased to say that I have found, without doubt, such a person.” (Costa, Barnes and Sonmez, 7/9)

Los Angeles Times: Brett Kavanaugh, A Washington Veteran, Is Trump's Second Pick For The Supreme Court
During the White House ceremony in which Trump named him, Kavanaugh declared that his “judicial philosophy is straightforward. A judge must be independent and must interpret the law, not make the law. A judge must interpret statutes as written. And a judge must interpret the Constitution as written, informed by history and tradition and precedent.” Critics said beneath that rhetoric is a highly conservative, partisan lawyer. Kavanaugh's extensive record in Washington will provide the opposition with ammunition. In the late 1990s, Kavanaugh played a lead role in the aggressive investigation of President Clinton led by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr. He was an author of the Starr Report, which urged the House to impeach the president for lying about a sexual affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. (Savage, 7/9)

The Wall Street Journal: President Trump Chooses Brett Kavanaugh For Supreme Court Vacancy
The prime-time announcement required Mr. Trump to set aside misgivings about Judge Kavanaugh’s ties to the George W. Bush administration that Mr. Trump has frequently criticized, according to people familiar with the process. He also restrained an impulse to make a flashier choice, these people said. Mr. Trump settled on the pick after a rapid-fire search that opened on June 27, when 81-year-old Justice Anthony Kennedy told the president he was stepping down, creating the second vacancy on the court during Mr. Trump’s presidency. (Radnofsky, Nicholas and Kendall, 7/10)

Politico: How A Private Meeting With Kennedy Helped Trump Get To ‘Yes’ On Kavanaugh
After Justice Anthony Kennedy told President Donald Trump he would relinquish his seat on the Supreme Court, the president emerged from his private meeting with the retiring jurist focused on one candidate to name as his successor: Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Kennedy’s former law clerk. Trump, according to confidants and aides close to the White House, has become increasingly convinced that “the judges,” as he puts it, or his administration’s remaking of the federal judiciary in its conservative image, is central to his legacy as president. And he credits Kennedy, who spent more than a decade at the center of power on the court, for helping give him the opportunity. (Cadelago, Cook and Restuccia, 7/9)

The New York Times: Brett Kavanaugh, A Conservative Stalwart In Political Fights And On The Bench
Brett Michael Kavanaugh was just 38 when he was first nominated to a federal appeals court in Washington. But he had already participated in an extraordinary number of political controversies, attracting powerful patrons and critics along the way. He served under Kenneth W. Starr, the independent counsel who investigated President Bill Clinton, examining the suicide of Vincent W. Foster Jr., the deputy White House counsel, and drafting parts of the report that led to Mr. Clinton’s impeachment. He worked on the 2000 Florida recount litigations that ended in a Supreme Court decision handing the presidency to George W. Bush. And he served as a White House lawyer and staff secretary to Mr. Bush, working on the selection of federal judges and legal issues arising from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. (Liptak, 7/9)

Reuters: Washington Insider Kavanaugh Boasts Conservative Credentials
Brett Kavanaugh, the consummate Washington insider picked by President Donald Trump on Monday for a lifetime seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, has viewed business regulations with skepticism in his 12 years as a judge and taken conservative positions on some divisive social issues. He joined the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2006. Appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, Kavanaugh, 53, on several occasions ruled against regulations issued under Democrat Barack Obama, who succeeded Bush in 2009. Kavanaugh faulted Obama-era environmental regulations, including some aimed at fighting climate change. (Hurley, 7/9)

Modern Healthcare: Trump Selects Kavanaugh To Be Next Supreme Court Justice
On the Affordable Care Act, Kavanaugh authored a ruling on the individual mandate from the D.C. Circuit that observers claim set the stage for the Supreme Court to uphold the law through the mandate, which Chief Justice John Roberts defined as a tax. Kavanaugh also sided with the Obama administration in Sissel v. HHS on upholding the ACA as a House-authored bill even though the case argued that the law did not appropriately originate in the House because the Senate had substituted its own language. (Luthi, 7/9)

CQ: Kavanaugh's Health Care Positions Hint At Future Views
The prior positions on health care cases by Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court, hint at his potential future positions if confirmed to the court. Kavanaugh, a conservative judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, has the support of anti-abortion groups and could play a key role in attempts to limit or overturn the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade case, as a number of abortion cases make their way through the lower courts. Roe v. Wade upheld the constitutional right to an abortion, with the court finding that a right to privacy extended to a woman’s right to an abortion. (Raman, 7/9)

The Washington Post: Who Is Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's Nominee?
Brett M. Kavanaugh, the federal judge nominated by President Trump on Monday to the Supreme Court, has endorsed robust views of the powers of the president, consistently siding with arguments in favor of broad executive authority during his 12 years on the bench in Washington. He has called for restructuring the government’s consumer watchdog agency so the president could remove the director and has been a leading defender of the government’s position when it comes to using military commissions to prosecute terrorism suspects. (Marimow, 7/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Brett Kavanaugh Has Shown Deep Skepticism Of Regulatory State
Like Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, Judge Kavanaugh has questioned whether courts are giving administrative agencies too much latitude in disputes over statutory interpretation. Judge Kavanaugh’s vantage point—a bench with caseloads packed with challenges to federal agency authority—has allowed him to become an influential umpire of the administrative state. (Gershman, 7/9)

The Washington Post: Kavanaugh Supreme Court Nomination: Conservative Pick Will Need Senate Confirmation
Kavanaugh is likely to be far more conservative than Kennedy, who was known as a swing vote on the court. These ideological estimates of the current justices and Kavanaugh are based on the Judicial Common Space system developed by political science researchers Lee Epstien, Andrew D. Martin, Jeffrey A. Segal and Chad Westerland. The scores take into account the voting patterns of Supreme Court justices and a combination of factors for judges of lower courts, including clerkships and the political affiliation of the nominating president. Based on these scores, Kavanaugh would be on par with Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas at the conservative end of the court. That’s assuming he’s confirmed by the Senate, which can be a long process. (7/9)

The New York Times: A Conservative Court Push Decades In The Making, With Effects For Decades To Come
President Trump’s selection of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court on Monday culminates a three-decade project unparalleled in American history to install a reliable conservative majority on the nation’s highest tribunal, one that could shape the direction of the law for years to come. All of the years of vetting and grooming and lobbying and list-making by conservative legal figures frustrated by Republican appointees who drifted to the left arguably has come down to this moment, when they stand on the precipice of appointing a fifth justice who, they hope, will at last establish a bench firmly committed to their principles. (Baker, 7/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Judge Brett Kavanaugh: In His Own Words
Judge Kavanaugh, a nominee of President George W. Bush, has penned notable rulings on a host of topics, including environmental regulations, guns, the Affordable Care Act and abortion. Many, but not all of his rulings, have tipped right-of-center. (Jones, 7/9)

The Associated Press: A Look At Supreme Court Nominee Kavanaugh's Notable Opinions
Here are summaries of some of [Kavanaugh's] notable opinions

ProPublica: Who Is Brett Kavanaugh? A Supreme Court Reading Guide
President Trump on Monday night nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the seat on the U.S. Supreme Court that Justice Anthony Kennedy will vacate at the end of the month. Kavanaugh is a judge on the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Below, we’ve gathered some of the best reporting on Kavanaugh. (MacDougall, 7/9)

Politico: Republicans Brace For Brutal Supreme Court Fight
Mitch McConnell and his Republican Caucus are enthusiastic about the prospect of filling a Supreme Court vacancy before the midterm elections. But they don’t deny the enormity of the task at hand. (Everett and Schor, 7/9)

Politico: Senate Swing Votes Prepare For SCOTUS Onslaught
Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) were under intense scrutiny even before Trump tapped Kavanaugh, a veteran appeals court judge. But they quickly began feeling the pinch as more than a half-dozen prominent liberals in the caucus joined Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in opposing Kavanaugh as a hard-line conservative minutes after the nomination was rolled out — even as the White House and Senate Republicans began trumpeting the nominee as a “mainstream” pick. (Schor, 7/9)

The Washington Post: Trump Supreme Court Pick: How Key Senators Reacted
With Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) away from Capitol Hill as he undergoes treatment for brain cancer, Kavanaugh’s fortunes could hinge on a single vote. Here are two groups of senators who will play a pivotal role in the confirmation process, along with their reactions to Monday night’s news. (Sonmez, 7/9)

The Washington Post: With Trump’s Nominee Announced, The Battle For The Court Begins
Antiabortion activists plan to descend upon the home-state offices of three key Democratic senators on Tuesday. Liberals hope to take over Twitter with the #SaveSCOTUS hashtag while holding dozens of events across the country. And groups on both sides have prepared multimillion-dollar digital and television ad campaigns set to start Monday night. Even before President Trump’s announcement that Brett M. Kavanaugh will be his Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the battle plans were in place and the arguments had been framed. What happens next is a no-holds-barred fight for public opinion and Senate votes, which history suggests the president is heavily favored to win. (Scherer, 7/9)

The Associated Press: What To Expect In The Supreme Court Confirmation Battle
The stakes are enormous and advocacy groups that don’t have to disclose who is funding them are spending heavily to shape the fight. A look at what to expect. (Freking, 7/9)

The New York Times: Conservative And Liberal Groups Gird For Battle Over Kavanaugh
Even before Justice Anthony M. Kennedy announced his retirement, Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative advocacy group, had reserved more than two dozen internet domain names — one for each candidate on President Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court nominees. The idea, said Carrie Severino, the group’s chief counsel, was to create a website template: “ConfirmBlank.com.” Now, President Trump has filled in the blank with the name of Brett M. Kavanaugh. ConfirmKavanaugh.com is live, and Judicial Crisis Network is already running advertisements. (Stolberg and Martin, 7/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Outside Groups Plan Costly Campaigns For—Or Against—Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh
Among the biggest targets will be two Republican senators who back abortion rights: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. Though neither faces re-election this fall, liberal groups are expected to flood their states with ads urging them to press Judge Kavanaugh, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, about any possibility of challenging the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that guarantees the right to abortion. (Bykowicz, 7/9)

Politico: Airwaves About To Get Nasty As Supreme Court Fight Gets Underway
Unlike Gorsuch, who replaced Antonin Scalia, an already conservative member, Trump’s replacement for retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, viewed by many as the court’s swing vote, could significantly reshape the balance of the court. (Levine, 7/9)

NPR: Kavanaugh Nomination Sparks Partisan Uproar On Abortion Rights
Outside groups on both sides of the debate over abortion rights immediately issued predictions about what the nomination would mean for the future of Roe v. Wade. Dana Singiser, the vice president for public policy and government relations at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told reporters Monday night, "The right to access abortion safely and legally in this country is clearly on the line." Anti-abortion-rights activists do not disagree. Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the conservative Susan B. Anthony List, told reporters on a press call that the nomination of a fifth conservative justice is the culmination of years of work getting Republicans elected to all branches of government. (Snell, 7/10)

Politico: Anti-Abortion Groups Rally Around Trump’s SCOTUS Pick
“I have great hope that ... now there may be five judges to allow states under the authority of the 10th Amendment, to enact their own [policies] into law on the abortion issue,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List. Kavanaugh has passed up opportunities in legal opinions to stake out a position on the landmark 1973 decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion. And some conservative critics before the announcement raised fresh concerns about comments he made 12 years ago pledging to follow Roe, calling it the “binding precedent of the court.” (Cancryn, 7/9)

St. Louis Public Radio: Debate Over Reproductive Rights Heats Up Again In Missouri
President Donald Trump’s newest nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court simply adds to the latest round of heightened political tensions in Missouri over reproductive rights and abortion. And, as expected, it’s already become a key issue in the state’s closely watched U.S. Senate race. Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley is making the Supreme Court confirmation the centerpiece of the Republican U.S. Senate candidate’s first TV ad, which began airing Monday. (Mannies, 7/10)

Politico: Latest Obamacare Shake-Up Could Fuel Rate Hikes
The Trump administration’s latest blow to Obamacare is rattling health insurers as they draw up rate proposals, sparking new worries about huge premium increases just before midterm elections. The administration’s decision to freeze a $10 billion program designed to protect insurers from big losses in Obamacare injected more volatility into insurance marketplaces, which President Donald Trump’s health department has sought to undermine. And the move swiftly drew new warnings from insurers that higher premium increases could soon follow when enrollment reopens in November. (Demko, 7/9)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Risk-Adjustment Payment Freeze To Hit High-Cost Insurers Hardest 
The Trump administration's latest shock to the Obamacare system by freezing more than $10 billion in 2017 risk-adjustment transfers has even small companies that don't benefit from the program lambasting the CMS. The risk-adjustment program has long divided insurers, as larger plans with more-sophisticated data teams and a longer history in the market have raked in more money to pay for their higher-cost patients. But even smaller carriers are framing the move as an eleventh-hour, arbitrary whiplash for the exchanges. Some analysts worry the move also signals a shift away from the Affordable Care Act's core tenet of guaranteed issue as it threatens a financial toll for insurers with older, sicker enrollees. (Luthi, 7/9)

The Star Tribune: Without ACA Adjustment Pay, Minn. Health Plans Could Take $71.7M Hit 
In Minnesota, about 150,000 people this year are buying coverage in the individual market, which primarily serves people under age 65 who are self-employed or don't get coverage from an employer. About 310,000 state residents are covered by small employer health plans, which cover 50 people or less. Risk adjustment has been used for years by the federal government in making payments to private insurers that operate Medicare health plans. The idea is that payments from carriers with relatively healthy enrollees are directed by the government to insurers that happen to attract enrollees who use more medical care. (Snowbeck, 7/9)

Georgia Health News: Insurers Caught Off Guard By Feds’ Freeze Of ACA ‘Sickness’ Payments 
In a weekend announcement, the Trump administration said it’s freezing payments under an Affordable Care Act program aimed at protecting insurers who have sicker patients from financial losses. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said a federal court ruling that was handed down in February would force it to suspend what are known as risk-adjustment payments, worth about $10.4 billion for 2017. (Miller, 7/9)

The Baltimore Sun: Maryland Insurers Say Trump Administration To Cut Health Payments Destabilizes Market
Maryland’s health insurance companies are concerned that a Trump administration decision to suspend payments that help to cover the costs of the sickest patients will further destabilize the market and could push them to seek even higher premiums on plans consumers already say are too expensive. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced over the weekend that it was freezing billions of dollars in so-called risk adjustment payments for plans under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, because of a court decision earlier this year that deemed the formula for determining these payments unlawful. (McDaniels, 7/9)

California Healthline: Health Insurers Struggle With Sudden Freeze On ACA Payouts
Health insurers and Covered California officials are facing another curveball from the Trump administration on the Affordable Care Act that could rattle the insurance market. Over the weekend, Seema Verma, administrator for the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said she was suspending a $10-billion program that helps stabilize the insurance markets created under the health law. (7/10)

The Associated Press: Trump Says US Had Opposed Formula Limits, Not Breastfeeding
The U.S. opposed a World Health Assembly resolution to encourage breastfeeding because it called for limits on the promotion of infant formula, not because of objections to breastfeeding, President Donald Trump tweeted Monday. Trump criticized The New York Times for reporting that U.S. officials sought to remove language that urged governments to protect, promote and support breastfeeding, along with language calling on policymakers to limit the promotion of food products, such as infant formula, that can be harmful to young children. (7/9)

The New York Times: Trump Stance On Breast-Feeding And Formula Criticized By Medical Experts
The Trump administration’s aggressive attempts to water down an international resolution supporting breast-feeding go against decades of advice by most medical organizations and public health experts. The American Academy of Pediatrics calls human breast milk the “normative standard” for infant feeding, and recommends that mothers breast-feed their babies exclusively for six months. “Breast-feeding is one of the most cost-effective interventions for improving maternal and child health,” said Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. (Rabin, 7/9)

And this isn't the first time the U.S. has waded into this particular debate —

The Washington Post: U.S. Effort To Weaken An International Breast-Feeding Resolution Has A Long History
An aggressive effort by U.S. officials to weaken an international resolution to promote breast-feeding  this year is the latest example of the government taking an industry's side in global public health, advocates said. This spring, U.S. officials threatened negative trade consequences for Ecuador if the country introduced a resolution to the World Health Assembly to encourage breast-feeding, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly. That person said there had been significant lobbying of U.S. representatives in Switzerland by the infant-formula industry over the issue. Ecuador's Ministry of Health did not reply to a request for comment. (Johnson and Erickson, 7/9)

The New York Times: Judge Rejects Long Detentions Of Migrant Families, Dealing Trump Another Setback
The Trump administration on Monday lost a bid to persuade a federal court to allow long-term detention of migrant families, a significant legal setback to the president’s immigration agenda. In a ruling that countered nearly every argument posed by the Justice Department, Judge Dolly M. Gee of the Federal District Court in Los Angeles held that there was no basis to amend a longstanding consent decree that requires children to be released to licensed care programs within 20 days. The government said that long-term confinement was the only way to avoid separating families when parents were detained on criminal charges. (Jordan and Fernandez, 7/9)

Los Angeles Times: Judge Rejects Trump Administration Bid To Indefinitely Detain Immigrant Children With Parents
U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee issued an order lambasting the Justice Department for its request to modify a 1997 legal settlement that set rules for how the government can deal with immigrant children in its custody. Calling President Trump’s executive order on immigrants “ill-considered,” the judge accused the administration of attempting to shift blame to the courts for a crisis of Congress’ and the president’s making. Gee’s order came as Justice Department attorneys told a federal judge in San Diego they would miss Tuesday’s deadline for authorities to reunite parents and children younger than 5 who were forcibly separated at the border. (Kim and Davis, 7/9)

Politico: Judge Rejects Trump Request To Alter Agreement On Release Of Immigrant Kids
"Defendants seek to light a match to the Flores Agreement and ask this Court to upend the parties’ agreement by judicial fiat," wrote Gee, an appointee of President Barack Obama. "It is apparent that Defendants’ Application is a cynical attempt ... to shift responsibility to the Judiciary for over 20 years of Congressional inaction and ill-considered Executive action that have led to the current stalemate." (Gerstein, 7/9)

Texas Tribune: Detention Center For Immigrant Children In West Texas Will Remain Open
The immigration detention center at Tornillo used to hold undocumented immigrant children will remain open for at least 30 more days, a government spokesperson confirmed Monday. ...It houses undocumented minors who came to the United States alone or were separated from family members or guardians by U.S. immigration officials under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. (Aguilar, 7/9)

The Associated Press: First Trial Over Roundup Weed Killer Cancer Claim Under Way
Lawyers for a school groundskeeper dying of cancer asked a San Francisco jury on Monday to find that agribusiness giant Monsanto's widely used weed killer Roundup likely caused his disease. Dewayne Johnson's lawsuit is the first case to go to trial among hundreds of lawsuits saying Roundup caused non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Johnson sprayed Roundup and a similar product, Ranger Pro, at his job as a pest control manager at a San Francisco Bay Area school district, according to his attorneys. (7/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: Does Roundup Cause Cancer? Patient’s Case Against Monsanto Goes To Trial In SF
Dewayne “Lee” Johnson, 46, a former groundskeeper for the Benicia Unified School District, accused Monsanto of hiding evidence over the past two decades that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, can cause cancer. Monsanto has steadfastly defended its product, pointing to a slew of studies that find no evidence of danger in glyphosate, and noting that the Environmental Protection Agency has never restricted Roundup. Johnson, a husband and father of three, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma four years ago. In 2016, he filed a lawsuit claiming that the cause was his exposure to glyphosate. (Fimrite, 7/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Vaping Doesn’t Often Help Smokers Quit, New Study Finds
Makers of electronic cigarettes and other vaping devices often tout their products as smoking cessation aids. But new research suggests that the devices haven’t helped many U.S. smokers quit. In a study published Monday in the journal PLOS One, researchers at Georgia State University found that U.S. adult smokers who didn’t use electronic vaping devices were more than twice as likely to quit as those who did. (McKay, 7/9)

The New York Times: Dying Organs Restored To Life In Novel Experiments
When Georgia Bowen was born by emergency cesarean on May 18, she took a breath, threw her arms in the air, cried twice, and went into cardiac arrest. The baby had had a heart attack, most likely while she was still in the womb. Her heart was profoundly damaged; a large portion of the muscle was dead, or nearly so, leading to the cardiac arrest. Doctors kept her alive with a cumbersome machine that did the work of her heart and lungs. (Kolata, 7/10)

Stat: Physicians’ Beliefs May Override Cancer Patients’ Wishes For End-Of-Life Care
[Dr. Nancy] Keating, also a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, studies how to deliver high-quality care to patients with cancer. Her latest work examines the factors that contribute to large hospital-by-hospital differences in end-of-life spending for cancer patients. The new study reveals that the variation in the intensity of treatment stems more from the availability of services and physicians’ discomfort navigating end-of-life choices than from patients’ wishes. From surveys, conducted between 2003 and 2005, Keating found that physicians in higher-spending areas reported less comfort addressing end-of-life issues. They felt less equipped to treat end-of-life symptoms, to discuss “do not resuscitate” status, and to present care options such as hospice to their patients. (Farber, 7/9)

Stat: Charity Launches $330M Initiative To Fund High-Risk Life Sciences Projects
One of the world’s largest biomedical research charities is setting up a new $330 million initiative to fund high-risk projects — an effort it hopes can help researchers challenge the status quo in the life sciences. The Wellcome Trust says that it is establishing what it is calling the Leap Fund — an independently run offshoot that will seek out and provide funding for outside-the-box science. (Branswell, 7/9)

PBS NewsHour: For Terminally Ill Cancer Patients, Where You Live Can Shape End-Of-Life Care
If you are a terminally ill cancer patient, where you live can determine how much it will cost for you to die. ...What drives those price differences? A physician’s medical philosophy and practice styles propelled higher medical bills, and patients in geographic areas with fewer primary doctors and hospices per capita also tended to have higher end-of-life costs, the study said. (Santhanam, 7/9)

The Wall Street Journal: New Effort For Lyme Disease Vaccine Draws Early Fire
Efforts to bring a vaccine for Lyme disease to the market have run aground amid heated debate over the years. Now, a European company is in the early stages of creating a vaccine for the increasingly common tick-borne disease. Lyme disease patient-advocacy groups—who disagree with the protocols used by most doctors for the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease—are already raising concerns. (Reddy, 7/9)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: College Students Train To Help Peers At Risk For Suicide, Depression And More
Training that prepares college students to recognize and respond to signs of mental distress among their peers is now found at hundreds of universities across the nation. College counselors say a growing number of students like Griffith-Gorgati are opting to learn how to help address issues ranging from sexual assault to depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. (Pattani, 7/10)

The Washington Post: Police Violence Affects African Americans’ Mental Health, A Study Says
“#IfIDieInPoliceCustody Know that the color of my skin was the only crime committed,” a woman tweeted in 2015, three days after Sandra Bland was found dead in her Texas jail cell. “Nothing will happen to the Police in the Freddie Gray case . . . ” a man tweeted three days after the death of a 25-year-old Baltimore man whose fatal spinal injury while in police custody in 2015 triggered protests throughout the nation. These sentiments — perception of a systemic unfairness and a loss of faith in institutions — are common among black people in the days and months following police killings of unarmed African Americans, according to a study published last month in the medical journal the Lancet. (Logan, 7/9)

The Washington Post: If You’ve Ever Been Hangry, This Is What Your Body May Be Telling You
Have you ever been grumpy, only to realize that you’re hungry? Many people feel more irritable, annoyed or negative when hungry — an experience colloquially called being “hangry.” The idea that hunger affects our feelings and behaviors is widespread. But surprisingly little research investigates how feeling hungry transforms into feeling hangry. (MacCormack, 7/9)

The Associated Press: Maryland Governor Signs Federal All-Payer Health Contract
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan signed a contract with the federal government on Monday to enact the state's unique all-payer health care model, which he said will create incentives to improve care while saving money. Hogan signed the five-year contract along with the administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Seema Verma. (7/9)

The Associated Press: Ethics Review Sought As Ex-Coaches At Ohio St. Defend Jordan
A watchdog group and a former special counsel to President Barack Obama are seeking an ethics review of U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan even as former colleagues back his statements that he didn't know about sexual abuse of wrestlers while coaching at Ohio State University. Some ex-wrestlers from the late 1980s and early 1990s say they were groped by team doctor Richard Strauss and that Jordan knew then about the alleged abuse as an assistant coach. Jordan, founder of the conservative Freedom Caucus and potential contender for House speaker, denies that and has said he and other coaches would have reported any alleged abuse brought to their attention. (7/9)

Sacramento Bee: Five Health Care Bills That Affect CA Health Care Workers
Among the hundreds of bills on the Legislature's agenda for August are ones that would make key changes in the lives of California health care workers. Here are five to watch. (Chen, 7/10)

The Associated Press: Former VA Pathologist Denies Being Impaired On Duty
A former pathologist denied he was impaired on duty amid an Arkansas Veterans Affairs hospital's investigation into more than 30,000 of his cases dating back to 2005. Dr. Robert Morris Levy of Fayetteville told the Associated Press that the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks fired him as Chief of Pathology because of a DUI which was ultimately dismissed. (7/9)

The New York Times: New Jersey Woman On Oxygen Dies After Electric Company Shuts Off Her Power
New Jersey officials said on Monday they were investigating why a utility company shut off power last week at the Newark home of a woman in hospice care who then died after her electric-powered oxygen tank stopped operating. Family members of the woman, Linda Daniels, said she gasped for air for hours on Thursday until she died of congestive heart failure. The company, Public Service Electric and Gas Company, had cut off power to her home that morning because of overdue bills. (Haag, 7/9)

Stateline: Food Stamp Work Requirements Would Force States To Provide Job Training. Many Aren’t Ready.
The House version of the food-stamp-to-work program Congress is considering this week would require recipients to enroll in job training programs if they can’t find work — but in many states, those programs won’t be fully available for at least another decade. This will have a big impact on the people who depend on food stamps, some 42 million in 2017. The average beneficiary receives about $125 a month, and a family of four must have an annual income of about $25,000 or less to qualify. Many are already working. (Wiltz, 7/10)

The Associated Press: Court: Kansas Did Not Violate Transgender Inmate’s Rights
A federal appeals court says Kansas prison officials aren’t deliberately indifferent to a transgender inmate who says her medical treatment is so poor it violates her constitutional rights. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld a lower court ruling in favor of prison officials in a dispute with Michelle Renee Lamb. Lamb was born male but has identified as female since a young age. She receives hormone treatment, testosterone-blocking medication and weekly counseling sessions in prison. But she wants greater doses of hormones and surgery. (7/9)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: New Opioid Report Finds Evidence Of Pill Mills And Doctor Shopping In Ohio
A report released Tuesday by the HHS Inspector General's office also found nearly 5,000 Medicaid recipients in Ohio getting large amounts of the drugs without cancer or hospice care diagnoses. It found more than 700 who appeared to be in serious danger of misusing or overdosing on the drugs. (Eaton, 7/10)

The Oregonian: Child In Clark County Suspected To Have Measles -- 3rd In Area In Two Weeks 
A child in Clark County is suspected of having measles, according to public health officials. They think the child got the infection from someone in Multnomah County, where two cases of measles were identified last week. ...Nine days after the first case, a second case was identified in a person who caught measles from a Gresham child care center the first person visited. There were about 40 people known to have been exposed who've not been immunized, county health officials said last Monday. (Harbarger, 7/9)

The Associated Press: Couple Who Prayed For Healing Plead Guilty In Baby’s Death
Two members of an Oregon church that shuns traditional medicine in favor of prayer and anointing the sick with oils pleaded guilty Monday to negligent homicide and criminal mistreatment in the death of their newborn daughter, who struggled to breathe for hours as family and friends prayed over her but did not seek medical care. Sarah Mitchell and her husband, Travis Lee Mitchell, had originally been charged with murder by neglect and criminal mistreatment in the 2017 death of the premature baby. They each were sentenced to almost seven years in prison, with credit for 13 months in custody awaiting trial and credit for good behavior. (7/9)

Reveal: This Cafe Serves Food Bought With Rehab Participants’ Food Stamps
Under federal law, some rehabs are allowed to use their clients’ food stamps to buy food for people in their program. ... But instead of buying food for their clients, Recovery Connections’ leaders, Phillip and Jennifer Warren, used the food stamps to purchase food for themselves, more than two dozen former participants said. (Harris and Walter, 7/9)

MPR: Fixing The Bottlenecks In Minnesota's Mental Health Care
Mental health institutions in Minnesota are facing a growing line of patients who require treatment, but don't have the beds to serve them. This line is compounded by a priority admissions statute signed into law in 2013 which requires jail inmates to be transferred to a mental health institution within 48 hours of being committed by a state judge. (Kwan, 7/10)

St. Louis Public Radio: St. Louis County Syphilis Rates Continue To Rise With Highest Jump In 5 Years
The rate of syphilis cases in St. Louis County increased 42 percent between 2016 and 2017, the largest increase in at least five years, according to data released by the county’s health department. ...Experts attribute the increase to people practicing unsafe sex and not knowing enough about symptoms or treatments for the disease. (Fentem, 7/9)

The Baltimore Sun: WellDoc Adds Hypertension To Diabetes Management App 
WellDoc, a Columbia-based health care technology company, announced that it has integrated hypertension and weight management coaching into its BlueStar app, which helps people manage type 2 diabetes. People with diabetes and hypertension, common diseases that often occur together, have more than double the risk of stroke and heart attacks, and company officials say the app aims to help them better manage the chronic conditions. The diseases also increase risk of eye, kidney and nerve disease. (Cohn, 7/9)

Health News Florida: You Could Be Sharing Your Pet’s Medicine Soon To Combat Mosquito-Borne Illnesses
A recently published study suggests medicine used to kill fleas and ticks in household pets might be effective at stopping mosquito-borne outbreaks in humans. University of Florida’s Derrick Mathias says the drugs still need to pass safety tests in humans and animals. (Prieur, 7/10)

Seattle Times: Is Station 31 Making Seattle Firefighters Sick? Study Hopes To Find Answers About ‘Cancer House’ 
For years, firefighters at Seattle’s Station 31 have worried that the place where they barbecue steak and try to sleep between calls might be making them sick. Red flags were first raised in the early 2000s, after a string of firefighters were diagnosed with cancer. But a subsequent study found no link between the station and the illness. Studies have shown that firefighters, in general, are at greater risk of getting cancer than the general population because of their routine exposure to carcinogens. Nonetheless, the fear has remained, and Station 31 is still known as “Cancer House.” (Wu, 7/9)

Boston Globe: Marijuana Cultivators Expanding, But Supply Crunch Predicted
Calculating the amount of marijuana Massachusetts will consume — and, in turn, how much must be grown and the price for which it can be sold — is the daily work of a small army of consultants hired by cannabis operators. Their estimates span a surprisingly wide range, a reflection of the long list of variables in play as the industry gets underway. (Adams, 7/10)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Former NFL Player Gets 21 Years In Health Care Fraud Case: Report 
A former NFL player who starred as a linebacker for the University of Florida was sentenced Monday (July 9) to 21 years in prison for his role in a scheme to bilk about $20 million from the TRICARE program for U.S. military members, veterans and their families, the Gainesville Sun reported. Monte Grow, 46, was convicted in February by a Miami federal jury on 17 counts of health care fraud conspiracy and money laundering, the newspaper reported. In addition to the prison sentence, Grow was ordered to pay $18.8 million in restitution. (Chatelain, 7/9)

Los Angeles Times: What Brett Kavanaugh Could Mean For The Future Of Abortion, Marriage Equality And Much More
After a buildup worthy of a master of reality TV, President Trump has nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court vacancy created by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s retirement. This continues a run of almost 50 consecutive years when the court has had a majority of Republican appointees. Many commentators will rush to cast this nomination solely in terms of what it means for the rights to abortion and to marriage equality for same-sex couples. Although those issues are important, Kavanaugh likely will have the deciding vote on many other issues that have a profound impact on people’s daily lives. He should be assessed on what he would bring to the court on all these issues. (David A. Super, 7/9)

Boston Globe: Our Abortion Story
Parents’ ability to make the best choice for themselves and their family now faces the greatest threat in almost 50 years. With Justice Kennedy’s retirement, the future of the Supreme Court — and women’s right to choose — hangs in the balance. (Karen and Robbie Silverman, 7/10)

Bloomberg: The Test For Judge Kavanaugh
So it’s Judge Brett Kavanaugh. There will be time enough to explore the nominee’s views and record. Let’s step back a bit and get some perspective on the national debate that we are about to have. Those on the left fear, and those on the right hope, that Judge Kavanaugh will prove pivotal to an assortment of new constitutional rulings: protecting gun rights, overruling Roe v. Wade, invalidating affirmative action, crippling the regulatory state, striking down the Affordable Care Act, and allowing people with religious objections to discriminate against gays and lesbians. (Cass R. Sunstein, 7/9)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Why You Should Be Pro-Roe Even If You Are Anti-Choice
Prohibiting abortions does not mean they will stop; it just means women will seek perilous alternatives to get the care they need. The women who will continue to be disproportionately harmed by such prohibitions are women of low incomes and women of color who already struggle to access health care. (Madeline Ann Brezin, 7/9)

Sacramento Bee: Trump Abortion War Gags Doctors, Stacks Supreme Court
Not content to merely stack the judiciary according to social conservatives’ Mad Men-era playbook, President Donald Trump last month announced a new rule that would make it significantly harder to avoid unwanted pregnancies for poor Californians. It is, to be blunt, a gag rule that would yank federal subsidies for contraceptives and other care from providers who even discuss abortion with patients. (7/9)

The Washington Post: Brett Kavanaugh Could Take An Ax To Obamacare
Hours before President Trump revealed his Supreme Court nominee Monday night, the White House made a curious announcement. A Trump spokesman said that the “Sherpa” charged with leading Trump’s nominee to confirmation in the Senate would be former Republican senator Jon Kyl, a big-time lobbyist for the pharmaceuticals industry. Why would the White House put the nomination battle in the hands of a man who famously mocked the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that health insurance cover maternal health by saying “I don’t need maternity care” — and who as recently as last year was a lobbyist for those fighting to keep drug prices high? (Dana Milbank, 7/9)

The New York Times: Why Breast-Feeding Scares Donald Trump
[I]t’s just one of several recent examples of the administration’s zeal for badgering weaker countries into tossing public health concerns aside to serve powerful business interests. The baby formula industry is worth $70 billion and, as breast-feeding has become more popular in more developed countries, it has pinned its hopes for growth on developing ones. (7/9)

Houston Chronicle: Spoiled Milk
When it comes to important global missions like fighting drug traffickers, promoting democracy or hunting terrorists, one of the United States’ most formidable weapons is our wide-reaching soft power. The ability to cut off bank accounts, manipulate trade and roll back military aid can often shape the international order more effectively than any military platoon. Recently, U.S. delegates at the World Health Assembly threatened to unholster a veritable howitzer of soft power in opposition to a policy that wouldn’t seem to merit such aggression: We tried to block a resolution in support of breastfeeding. (7/10)

Los Angeles Times: The U.S. Bullied The World To Stop A Pro-Breastfeeding Resolution? That's The American Way
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce last week denounced the Trump administration for imposing tariffs that may result in retaliation and an economy-wide trade war. But they haven’t said much about its recent use of trade threats on behalf of multinational corporations. According to a New York Times report, the administration tried to deep-six a resolution at the World Health Assembly to encourage breastfeeding. It warned smaller nations such as Ecuador that it would face trade sanctions and withdrawal of military aid if it introduced the pro-breastfeeding resolution. Countries succumbed one by one to U.S. intimidation until Russia intervened to stop the bullying, and the resolution finally passed. Even then, U.S. negotiators pulled language that would have urged the World Health Organization to support countries seeking to improve infant nutrition. (David Dayen, 7/9)

The Washington Post: Repealing Obamacare Didn’t Work. So Republicans Are Trying Sabotage.
Last year, Republicans learned that conspicuously ripping health insurance from millions of poor and sick people would probably cost them votes. So instead, they pursued a sneakier strategy: sabotage. Undermining Obamacare can be nearly as effective as repealing Obamacare, after all. And relative to a big, splashy legislative vote, boring-sounding administrative actions are much more likely to fly under the radar. (Catherine Rampell, 7/9)

The Hill: The Pipeline To Primary Care Is Drying Up
Last week, a study published in science posited that there is no ceiling in sight for the  human lifespan. I am not sure whether to be thrilled or frightened. But I do wonder if I am going to have a primary care provider (PCP) helping me navigate this uncharted territory ten years from now, let alone when I am really old. Another medical school class walked across the graduation stage recently, and though at my institution a quarter of the class entered a primary care field at the end of their residencies, most in internal medicine and about half of those going into pediatrics, will subspecialize or go into hospital Medicine. (Roshini Pinto-Powell, 7/9)

Louisville Courier-Journal: Transparency, Public Input Key Protections In Medicaid Changes
Kentucky’s Medicaid beneficiaries and providers recently woke up to a surprising new reality: Dental, vision and medical transportation services were no longer to be covered. How did we get here? (Angela M. Koch, 7/9)

Stat: What India Can Teach The U.S. About Driving Down The Cost Of Health Care
With the Affordable Care Act under attack and all eyes on Dr. Atul Gawande as he starts this week as CEO of the new Amazon, JPMorgan, and Berkshire Hathaway venture, health care in the United States is more top of mind than ever. Surprisingly, a solution to reducing costs without government intervention and without reducing quality might be found in an unlikely place: India. We have visited more than two dozen hospitals and interviewed more than 125 executives across India and the U.S. We learned that some of the most proactive hospitals in the West are adopting the world-class innovations of Indian health care institutions in order to boost quality, lower costs, and expand access to the underserved — goals that have eluded U.S. policy makers for decades. This trend — which we call “reverse innovation” because the health care innovations flow from a poor country to a wealthier one rather than the other way around — may come as a surprise to many Americans. (Vijay Govindarajan and Ravi Ramamurti, 7/10)