The New York Times: Trump Condemns White Supremacy But Stops Short Of Major Gun Controls
President Trump on Monday denounced white supremacy in the wake of twin mass shootings over the weekend, and citing the threat of “racist hate,” he summoned the nation to address what he called a link between the recent carnage and violent video games, mental illness and internet bigotry. But he stopped well short of endorsing the kind of broad gun control measures that activists, Democrats and some Republicans have sought for years, such as tougher background checks for gun buyers and the banning of some weapons and accessories such as high-capacity magazines. And while he warned of “the perils of the internet and social media,” he offered no recognition of his own use of those platforms to promote his brand of divisive politics. (Crowley and Haberman, 8/5)

The Washington Post: Trump Condemns White Supremacy After El Paso, Dayton Shootings; Focuses On Mental Illness Over Gun-Control
“Mental illness and hatred pull the trigger. Not the gun,” said Trump, who was flanked by Vice President Pence and did not take questions from reporters. Trump also called for cultural changes, including stopping the “glorification of violence in our society” in video games and elsewhere. (Wagner and Sonmez, 8/5)

Reuters: Trump Denounces White Supremacy After Shootings, Cites Video Games And Internet
Trump said mental health laws should be reformed to better identify mentally disturbed individuals and he called for capital punishment for those who commit mass murder and hate crimes. He said he had directed the Justice Department to work with local authorities and social media companies to detect mass shooters before they strike. He said the Internet, social media and violent video games had helped radicalize people. Earlier on Monday, Trump had urged lawmakers in a tweet to put strong checks in place on potential gun buyers, suggesting action could be tied with immigration reform. In his remarks at the White House, however, he did not mention immigration. (8/5)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Jumble Of Ideas To Reduce Gun Violence Elicit Mixed Response
“While he is, in some ways, talking about gun violence, he continues to conflate gun violence to other things,” said Kyleanne Hunter, vice president of programs at Brady, which advocates for gun restrictions. “Almost every country has a mental-health problem. Every country has video games. Every country has immigrants and migrants and refugees. Hunter added: “America is alone in the fact that they have a gun violence problem.” (Kim, 8/5)

Los Angeles Times: Trump Denounces El Paso And Dayton Shootings, But Won’t Call For Stricter Gun Laws
Trump had endorsed gun law reforms, including expanded background checks, following the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., but quickly reversed himself after meeting with the National Rifle Assn. The co-sponsors of a bill to strengthen background checks, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), both spoke with Trump on Monday about taking up their legislation, which failed to garner the required 60 Senate votes to advance in 2013 months after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. “The president showed a willingness to work with us,” they said in a statement. (Stokols, 8/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Condemns Racism, Bigotry And White Supremacy After Weekend Shootings
While Mr. Trump called for bipartisan cooperation on gun violence, his proposals were focused on limiting access to guns for people with mental illnesses, and he didn’t call for sweeping restrictions on gun ownership. He didn’t mention a call he made earlier Monday on Twitter for lawmakers to come together to work on “strong background checks” possibly coupled with immigration reform. Nor did Mr. Trump address Democratic criticism that his own rhetoric on immigration had encouraged violence, as authorities investigate one of the shootings as a possible hate crime. The president’s defenders have said he shouldn’t be blamed for mass shootings, which have been a problem for decades. (Lucey, Ballhaus and Andrews, 8/5)

Politico: Trump Explores Executive Action On Guns
The specific moves under consideration this time aren’t yet clear, but Trump could draw from a long menu of potential options. Current 2020 candidates and past presidential hopefuls have proposed using executive action to enforce mandatory background checks for customers of gun sellers who deal beyond a certain annual threshold, increase fines for gun manufacturers who circumvent existing regulations, establish longer cooling-off periods for gun buyers and eliminating loopholes that, in some cases, allow individuals convicted of domestic abuse to purchase firearms. Of course, Trump could also reinstate an Obama-era regulation he undid in February 2017 that was intended to prevent mentally ill Americans from acquiring firearms. (Orr, 8/5)

Kansas City Star: Trump: Quick Death Penalty For Mass Shooters, No Guns For Those Who Pose ‘Grave Risk’
“Today, I’m also directing the Department of Justice to propose legislation to ensure that those who commit hate crimes and mass murders face the death penalty and that this capital punishment be delivered quickly and decisively without years of needless delay,” the president said. (Duncan and White, 8/5)

The New York Times: How The Trump Campaign Used Facebook Ads To Amplify His ‘Invasion’ Claim
President Trump’s re-election campaign has harnessed Facebook advertising to push the idea of an “invasion” at the southern border, amplifying the fear-inducing language about immigrants that he has also voiced at campaign rallies and on Twitter. Since January, Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign has posted more than 2,000 ads on Facebook that include the word “invasion” — part of a barrage of advertising focused on immigration, a dominant theme of his re-election messaging. A review of Mr. Trump’s tweets also found repeated references to an “invasion,” while his 2016 campaign advertising heavily featured dark warnings about immigrants breaching America’s borders. (Kaplan, 8/5)

The New York Times: Shootings Spur Debate On Extremism And Guns, With Trump On Defense
The politics of American gun violence follow a predictable pattern in most cases: outraged calls for action from the left, somber gestures of sympathy from the right, a subdued presidential statement delivered from a prepared text — and then, in a matter of days or even hours, a national turning of the page to other matters. But after a white supremacist gunman massacred 22 people in El Paso, the political world hurtled on Monday toward a more expansive, and potentially more turbulent, confrontation over racist extremism. Though the gun lobby was again on the defensive, it was not alone; so were social media companies and websites like 8chan that have become hives for toxic fantasies and violent ideas that have increasingly leaked into real life, with fatal consequences. (Burns, 8/5)

Reuters: El Paso Lands In Crossfire Of Debates Over Gun Violence And Immigration
The artist had planned to unveil his mural on Sunday at a community event in El Paso, the latest of his works to celebrate the life of his murdered son. The boy, fatally shot with 16 others in 2018 at a Parkland, Fla., high school, would have turned 19 on Sunday, artist Manuel Oliver said. Joaquin Oliver had been quietly devoted to the cause of immigrants, his father said, and the artist chose El Paso because he saw the border city as an immigration success story. But the slaughter of 20 people at a Walmart store on Saturday just happened to intervene, turning the gathering at Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center on Sunday into yet another terrible vigil. (8/5)

Texas Tribune: Hispanics Terrorized After El Paso Shooting And Racist Manifesto
To reconcile that white supremacy-fueled motive with everyday life in El Paso proved insurmountable to locals living in a city where the culture is a unique blend of Mexican and American, where the boundary between it and Ciudad Juárez is practically indistinguishable from a distance. It’s a community that has persevered for years — but especially in the last few — to welcome immigrants coming to the country seeking safety, asylum and opportunity. (Ura, 8/5)

The Associated Press: Experts: Mental Illness Not Main Driver Of Mass Shootings
Mental health experts repeated what they have said after previous mass shootings: Most people with mental illness are not violent, they are far more likely to be victims of violent crime than perpetrators, and access to firearms is a big part of the problem. "Until we begin to have our political leaders speaking more accurately to these issues, it's up to us to put the facts out there," said Arthur Evans, chief executive officer of the American Psychological Association. (Johnson, 8/5)

Modern Healthcare: Trump Seeks Mental Health Law Reform After Deadly Mass Shootings
One recent study published in Preventive Medicine this year examined the question of whether a person's mental health state was linked to gun violence. Instead, researchers found people with access to a gun were far more likely to have threatened others or to have carried the gun outside. People who could get their hands on a firearm were more than 18 times more likely to use a gun as a threat, as opposed to people with "high hostility" who were 3.5 times more likely. (Luthi, 8/5)

The Hill: Psychological Association Warns Against 'Blaming Mass Shootings On Mental Illness' 
In a statement, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) said gun violence is a public health crisis, and noted that “the overwhelming majority of people with mental illness are not violent and far more likely to be victims of violent crime than perpetrators of violence.” The APA said that people with mental illness are being stigmatized. "Rhetoric that argues otherwise will further stigmatize and interfere with people accessing needed treatment. Individuals can also be emboldened to act violently by the public discourse and divisive rhetoric,” the organization said. (Weixel, 8/5)

The New York Times: Politicians Again Blame Video Games For Shootings, Despite Evidence
Armed with little and often unconvincing evidence, politicians have blamed violence on video games for decades. Their rhetoric quickly ramped up in the 1990s, after games like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom popularized the genre of violent first-person shooting games. Since then, video games have been blamed for shootings at Columbine High School in 1999 and at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, and many others in between. Researchers have extensively studied whether there is a causal link between video games and violent behavior, and while there isn’t quite a consensus, there is broad agreement that no such link exists. According to a policy statement from the media psychology division of the American Psychological Association, “Scant evidence has emerged that makes any causal or correlational connection between playing violent video games and actually committing violent activities.” (Draper, 8/5)

KCUR: Debunking The Video Games Cause Gun Violence Myth 
Andrew Przybylski is a professor of psychology at the University of Oxford and is the Director of Research for the Oxford Internet Institute. He and Dr. Netta Weinstein looked into whether violent video games were associated with aggressive behavior in adolescents. “We found a whole lot of nothing,” Przybylski said. “Basically, we found that having information about the kinds of video games people played, how violent they were, how much time they spent on them, there was no linear connection.” (Bandlamudi, 8/5)

The Washington Post: Are Video Games Or Mental Illness Causing America’s Mass Shootings? No, Research Shows.
Some mass shooters have a history of schizophrenia or psychosis, but many do not. Most studies of mass shooters have found that only a small fraction have mental health issues. And researchers have noted a host of other factors that are stronger predictors of someone becoming a mass shooter: a strong sense of resentment, desire for infamy, copycat study of other shooters, past domestic violence, narcissism and access to firearms. “It’s tempting to try to find one simple solution and point the finger at that,” said Jeffrey Swanson, a professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. “The fact that somebody would go out and massacre a bunch of strangers, that’s not the act of a healthy mind, but that doesn’t mean they have a mental illness.” (Wan and Bever, 8/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Isolation And Social Media Combine To Radicalize Violent Offenders
Recent mass-violence incidents in America share common threads: disaffected individuals who feel powerless, radical ideas that blame particular groups and the use of social-media platforms that bring these factors together and amplify them. Radicalization, researchers have found, is driven by a need to matter and be respected. Violence is often a means to that end, especially when it is in the name of a cause, like fighting against immigrants who are viewed as invaders upsetting white people’s dominance in the U.S. Social media is increasingly playing a role in that process, especially among lone actors like the ones responsible for the recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. (Hernandez and Olson, 8/5)

The New York Times: What Drives People To Mass Shootings?
On Monday morning, President Trump made his first televised statement about the mass murders committed over the weekend in El Paso, Tex., and Dayton, Ohio. He called for action to “stop mass killings before they start,” citing what he said were a number contributing factors: the contagious nature of mass murder; the glorification of violence in video games; and the need to act on “red flags” to identify and potentially confine the “mentally ill monsters” that he said commit the crimes. Many of these factors have been studied by scientists for decades. Here are answers to some of the most common questions about the causes of mass murder. (Carey, 8/5)

Politico: How Do You Solve A Problem Like 8chan?
President Donald Trump’s vow Monday to scour “the dark recesses of the internet” came as this weekend’s deadly gun violence provoked ire over fringe online platforms like 8chan, an anonymous message board that has hosted a racist manifesto linked to Saturday’s deadly shooting in El Paso, Texas. But any effort to curb dangerous extremism online will run into a host of obstacles: The Constitution and U.S. laws protect hateful speech, and obscure sites like 8chan are relatively immune to the kinds of political pressure that Washington is increasingly bringing to bear against mainstream platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google. (Scola, Lima and Levine, 8/5)

NPR: Gun Violence Causes More Deaths In U.S. Than In Many Other Countries
The United States has the 28th-highest rate of deaths from gun violence in the world: 4.43 deaths per 100,000 people in 2017 — far greater than what is seen in other wealthy countries. On a state-by-state calculation, the rates can be even higher. In the District of Columbia, the rate is 16.34 per 100,000 — the highest in the United States. In Louisiana, the rate is 10.68 per 100,000. In Texas and Ohio — the scene of two mass shootings at the beginning of August — the rates are close to the national average: 4.74 per 100,000 in Texas and 4.60 in Ohio. (Aizenman and Silver, 8/5)

AL.com: ‘We Are Not Violent': Those Struggling With Mental Illness Fight Stigma, Blame
People with mental illnesses are 10 times more likely to be victims of violent crimes, and only 3% to 5% of violent crimes can be linked to mental illnesses, according to national statistics. “It hits more,” said McClain Baxley, senior at Georgia Southern University, since being diagnosed with anxiety disorder, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The diagnosis is fresh on Baxley’s mind, but the pointed rhetoric surrounding this weekend’s mass shootings is fresher. (Jackson, 8/5)

NBC News: Trump Made It Easier For The Mentally Ill To Get Guns When He Rolled Back Obama Regulation
President Donald Trump responded to the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings by insisting Monday that “mental illness pulls the trigger not the gun,” but shortly after taking office he quietly rolled back an Obama-era regulation that would have made it harder for people with mental illness to buy guns. Trump did so without any fanfare. In fact, the news that Trump had signed the bill was at the bottom of a White House email that alerted the media to other legislation signed by the president. And it came after the House and Senate, both of which were Republican-controlled at the time, passed a bill, H.J. Res 40, which revoked the Obama-era regulation. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Sam Johnson, a Texas Republican who retired at the end of 2018. (Siemaszko, 8/5)

The Associated Press: After Shootings, Congress Again Weighs Gun Violence Response
Newtown. Charleston. Orlando. Parkland.And now after mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, Congress again is confronted with the question of what, if anything, lawmakers should do to combat the scourge of gun violence afflicting the country. While both parties are calling for action, the retreat to familiar political corners was swift. Democrats demanded quick approval of gun-control legislation — some of it already passed by the House — while Republicans looked elsewhere for answers, focusing on mental health and violent video games. (8/5)

USA Today: Mass Shootings: What Is Congress Doing About Gun Control?
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called on McConnell to cancel the Senate's summer recess and reconvene to pass gun control legislation. "@SenateMajLdr McConnell must call the Senate back for an emergency session to put the House-passed universal background checks legislation on the Senate floor for debate and a vote immediately," wrote Schumer on Twitter. The Kentucky Republican has blocked gun control legislation in the Senate that had previously passed the House by wide margins. McConnell had the bills placed on the Senate calendar, rather than having them referred to a committee to potentially be passed by the full Senate. Here's what that legislation would do. (Wu, 8/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Gun Measures Would Face Familiar Hurdles In Washington
Major gun-control legislation faces major challenges. Beyond the longstanding Republican opposition to past proposals, the timing of the most recent mass shootings also means that any sort of legislative debate soon on gun violence is unlikely. Lawmakers have just left Washington for a weeks long August recess. The national conversation may move on from the tragic deaths in El Paso and Dayton by the time they return—just as it did after 20 kindergartners were slaughtered at school in 2012 or 11 people were shot and killed at their synagogue last year. (Duehren, 8/5)

Politico: Republicans Hide Behind Trump In Gun Debate
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he would introduce legislation encouraging more states to adopt red flag laws, which allow local law enforcement officials to temporarily seize guns from people who may pose a risk to themselves or others. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had cited video games on Sunday as a potential cause of violence in the country. On Monday, the California Republican praised the president for condemning racism, bigotry and white supremacy in his Monday morning address. “Couldn’t agree more, Mr. President,” McCarthy said in a tweet that marked his only response to Trump’s comments. (Zanona, Levine and Ferris, 8/5)

BuzzFeed News: Congress Is Looking At Gun Control After Shootings In El Paso And Dayton. Here’s How They’ve Failed In The Past
After dozens of people were gunned down across two mass shootings over the weekend, pressure is on Congress to address gun violence. If recent history is any guide, it will not. “You can track every mass shooting that’s happened in the last five or six years and look to see what Congress has done, and the answer is probably nothing,” said Robin Lloyd, managing director at gun control advocacy group Giffords, named for the congresswoman who was shot along with 12 others in a Safeway parking lot in Arizona in 2011. (McLeod, 8/5)

Boston Globe: Two Gun Control Proposals Are Already Being Discussed In Congress. Will They Move Forward Now?
President Trump mentioned “strong background checks” and “red flag laws” as he condemned the mass shootings in Texas and Ohio that left 30 dead and dozens wounded. Proposals for both have been discussed in Congress. But do they have a better chance now that the divisive, controversial Republican president has mentioned them in a speech and promised to act with “urgent resolve”? (Finucane, 8/5)

Politico: The Next Big Vote On Gun Control May Be In The Supreme Court
After this weekend’s mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, pressure to reform gun laws has focused on Congress—and, as usual, Congress seems stymied about what to do. But with far less attention, an important strand of the debate has now landed in the Supreme Court. Last week, the gun-maker Remington, which had annual sales of approximately $600 million in 2017, asked the Supreme Court to overturn a Connecticut decision that gave Sandy Hook families the ability to sue the company over the way it marketed the weapon used in the 2014 school massacre. (Mariotti, 8/5)

KCUR: What Is A Red Flag Law? 
‘Red flag’ laws, or Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs) allow family members, law enforcement or other third parties to ask a court to temporarily remove a person’s guns if they’re concerned about the individual. If a judge finds that person is dangerous to himself or others, that person must surrender all firearms to the police for a specified period of time. During that period of time, the person is also not allowed to buy or sell guns. (Levinson and Dunn, 8/5)

USA Today: Dayton Shooting, El Paso Shooting: What Are Red Flag Laws?
The laws vary in different states. In Indiana, only law enforcement can request an order to remove weapons. But in Oregon, any person living with the person they're concerned about can petition the state. According to The Trace, lawmakers on both sides of the debate have embraced red flag policies. Red flag laws have been enacted in 17 states, 12 of which acted after the Parkland high school shooting in Feb. 2018 where 17 people died. The laws have been proposed in four states. (Lawrence, 8/5)

CNN: Trump Backs 'Red Flag' Gun Laws. What Do They Actually Do?
Before the Parkland shooting in 2018, five states had such laws: Connecticut (enacted in 1999), Indiana (2005), California (2014), Washington (2016) and Oregon (2017). After that, laws were passed in Florida, Vermont, Maryland, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts, Illinois, Washington, DC, New York, Nevada, Hawaii and Colorado. Among the states without red flag laws are Texas and Ohio, where this weekend's shootings took place. Opponents of red flag gun laws say they give authorities the right to seize people's guns without due process. (Dezenski, 8/5)

WBUR: Trump Calls For A 'Red Flag' Gun Law, Which Mass. Has Had For A Year
Massachusetts' red flag law -- enacted last year, months after the Parkland school shooting -- allows a relative or someone else with close ties to a legal gun owner to petition a court for an extreme risk protection order if the individual is exhibiting dangerous or unstable behavior. If granted, the gun owner's firearms can be taken away for up to a year. (Jarmanning, 8/5)

Kaiser Health News: Trump Wants To Take Guns Away From People In Crisis. Will That Work?
Trump said the shooter in the Parkland, Fla., massacre last year “had many red flags against him, and yet nobody took decisive action; nobody did anything. … We must make sure that those judged to pose a grave risk to public safety do not have access to firearms, and that if they do, those firearms can be taken through rapid due process.” About half of those who commit mass shootings show warning signs that they were a threat to themselves or others, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, which advocates for stricter measures to reduce gun violence. (Szabo, 8/5)

Psychology Today: Is It Guns Or Mental Illness?
Dr. Knoll and Mr. Annas state that laws focusing on screening out gun ownership for the mentally ill will not solve the problem of mass shootings. “Perpetrators of mass shootings are unlikely to have a history of involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations. Thus, databases intended to restrict access to guns and established by guns laws that broadly target people with mental illness will not capture this group of individuals.”  Furthermore, a significant number of mass shooters are in their late teens to early 20s, when signs of severe mental illness may not yet be observable. (Eddy, 8/5)

The Associated Press: Authorities Scour Leads In Mass Shootings That Left 31 Dead
Authorities in two U.S. cities scoured leads in a pair of weekend mass shootings that killed 31, trying to piece together the motives that led two young men to unleash violence on innocent people in crowded public places. In El Paso, Texas, the death toll creeped upward Monday from the shooting two days earlier at a Walmart store, with two additional victims succumbing to injuries. (Sedensky and Galvan, 8/6)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Dayton Shooting: Too Early To Tell Reasons Connor Betts Killed Sister
Among the mysteries that investigators into the mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio will seek to answer is whether the shooter meant to kill his sister or whether she was fatally shot trying to stop him. Megan Betts, 22, a student at Wright State University, was among nine people who died early Sunday in the Oregon District of bars and restaurants near Dayton’s downtown. (Saker, 8/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Death Toll From Mass Shootings Rises As Trump Speaks Out On Violence
In Dayton, the police chief called it problematic that the shooter could legally have so many rounds of military-grade ammunition that he was able to kill nine and injure at least 27 in 30 seconds early Sunday morning before being killed by police using special rifles that penetrate body armor. In El Paso, officials said so-called soft targets like a crowded Walmart allowed for more-serious injuries in Saturday’s attack that led to two more people dying in a local hospital Monday, bringing the death toll there to 22. And federal officials cited the difficulty of spotting red flags on social media such as the anti-immigrant manifesto purportedly posted by the suspect in El Paso. (Lucey, Elinson and West, 8/5)

Texas Tribune: Death Toll In El Paso Shooting Climbs To 22
The number of fatalities from Saturday’s deadly shooting rampage at a Walmart has climbed to 22, according to the El Paso Police Department and local hospital officials.“Sad to report that the number of fatalities increased by one. Victim passed early this morning at the hospital,” the department’s official Twitter account posted Monday. No other details about the victim were offered. (Aguilar, 8/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Dayton Shooter Used AR-15 Pistol, Smaller Version Of Popular Rifle
The gunman who killed nine and wounded at least 27 in Dayton, Ohio, used an AR-15 style pistol in his attack, according to police, a smaller variation on the popular gun that has been used in many of the deadliest mass shootings. The pistol, which has grown in popularity as major gun manufacturers started promoting it in the past few years, has a shorter barrel than an AR-style rifle, but it fires the same types of bullets and uses the same magazines. (Kesling and Elinson, 8/5)

The Washington Post: Rise Of Far-Right Violence Leads Some To Call For Realignment Of Post-9/11 National Security Priorities
The United States continues to employ a staggering arsenal of armed forces, unmanned drones, intelligence agencies and sweeping domestic authorities to contain a threat — Islamist terrorism — that has claimed about 100 lives on American soil since the nation mobilized after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. No remotely comparable array of national power has been directed against the threat now emerging from the far right, a loose but lethal collection of ideologies whose adherents have killed roughly the same number of people in the United States, post-9/11, as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State combined. (Miller, 8/5)

Los Angeles Times: Trump Officials Have Redirected Resources From Countering Far-Right, Racism-Fueled Domestic Terrorism
In the aftermath of mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, President Trump vowed Monday to give federal law enforcement “whatever they need” to investigate and disrupt hate crimes and domestic terrorism. But the Department of Homeland Security, which is charged with identifying threats and preventing domestic terrorism, has sought to redirect resources away from countering anti-government, far-right and white supremacist groups. (O'Toole, 8/5)

The Associated Press: Ohio Governor Set To Talk Policy In Wake Of Mass Shootings
Facing pressure to take action after the latest mass shooting in the U.S., Ohio's Republican governor plans to outline his proposals designed to deal with gun violence and mental health. Gov. Mike DeWine said he'll discuss those ideas in detail on Tuesday, a little more than a day after hundreds of people chanted "Do something!" while he spoke at a vigil for nine people killed in Dayton over the weekend by a gunman with an AR-15 style gun. (Seewer, 8/6)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: After Dayton Mass Shooting, DeWine Open To Changing Gun Laws: Capitol Letter
“In the wake of Sunday morning’s mass shooting in Dayton that killed nine, Gov. Mike DeWine said “everything’s on the table” when it comes to discussing gun-policy changes – including expanded background checks,” writes cleveland.com’s Jeremy Pelzer. DeWine, however, said any changes must be consistent with the Second Amendment and must be able to pass the Republican-dominated legislature, which could be a tall order. (Hancock, 8/5)

NPR: 'Do Something!': Calls For Action After Mass Shootings In El Paso And Dayton
DeWine was also sharply criticized on Twitter, where he said that he and his wife, Fran, were "absolutely heartbroken over the horrible attack" and offered prayers to victims and their families of the Dayton attack, which happened less than 24 hours after a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas. That sentiment was met with a sharp retort. (Chappell and Gonzales, 8/5)

Columbus Dispatch: DeWine To Unveil Gun, Mental Health Proposals In Wake Of Dayton Massacre
DeWine has been talking for months with Republican legislative leaders about a “red flag” law to remove guns, under court order, from a person found to be dangerous, but no bill has surfaced. President Donald Trump called Monday for the implementation of “red flag” laws. Senate President Larry Obhof, R-Medina, told The Dispatch on Monday afternoon that the Senate has “talked numerous times with the governor about a ‘red flag’ provision and what that could look like. ... It’s an issue we can look at and might be able to work through.” (Wehrman and Ludlow, 8/5)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Dayton Shooting: Ohio Gov. DeWine Pitches Gun, Mental Health Changes. Do They Have A Chance?
GOP lawmakers who control the Ohio House and Senate opposed former Gov. John Kasich's attempt to pass a red flag law, saying his version would violate Ohioans' rights. Any proposal needs to be constitutional and needs to be effective for lawmakers to support it, Ohio Senate GOP spokesman John Fortney said. DeWine could address background checks on more gun sales. That wouldn't be new ground for DeWine, who voted for background checks on all sales at gun shows while in Congress. (Balmert, 8/5)

Columbus Dispatch: Gun Groups Pan Regulations That Could Surface After Dayton Shooting
Ohio Gun Owners Executive Director Chris Dorr used the shooting in Dayton, and the potential threat of regulation that would follow, as a fund-raising tool, saying in an email to members that “anti-gun activists are dancing in their blood and using this tragedy to hammer gun control into law right here in Ohio.” The e-mail asked for contributions ranging from $10 to $500. (Rouan, 8/5)

Meanwhile, in Texas —

Austin Statesman: More Mental Health Training, Funding Advised After Deadly Austin Police Shooting 
Members of the Austin Public Safety Commission on Monday unanimously approved a set of recommendations aimed at bolstering the ability of first responders to react to mental health cases with more positive outcomes. The recommendations touched on funding for mental health professionals and expansions of mental health programs at Austin-Travis County EMS and the Austin Police Department. (Wilson, 8/5)

Texas Tribune: In Honor Of El Paso Victims, Dozens Line Up To Donate Blood At Texas Capitol
More than 110 people stood in line outside the Texas Capitol on Monday to donate blood to honor victims of the recent mass shooting in El Paso. On Saturday, a gunman opened fire in a Walmart in El Paso, killing 22 and injuring dozens more. Less than 24 hours later in Dayton, Ohio, another gunman killed nine people in the city's entertainment district. (Korte, 8/5)

Los Angeles Times: In Wake Of Mass Shootings, California Considers New Ways To Fight Violent Extremism
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday proposed expanding a state task force to combat violent extremism following the three mass shootings that left at least 34 people dead in Texas, Ohio and California over the past week. The commission, created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, would seek ways to reduce the threat of similar violent attacks and increase safety at schools and major public events. (Willon, 8/5)

Politico: Why Are Most Shooters Male? Newsom Says Gender Must Be Part Of National Gun Control Discussion
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that gender must be part of the debate over how to address gun violence in America."These shootings overwhelmingly — almost exclusively — are males, boys, men. I do think that is missing in the national conversation," Newsom said in an emergency meeting with top school, health and public safety officials in Sacramento to discuss California's response following a spate of deadly mass shootings. "If there was anything more obvious, I don't know what is," Newsom said. "I think that goes deep to the issue of how we raise our boys to be men, goes deeply to values that we tend to hold dear — power, dominance, aggression, over empathy, care and collaboration." (Hart, 8/5)

The Associated Press: California Ammo Check Law Blocked 100 Sales In First Month
California's new ammunition background check law in its first month stopped more than 100 people from buying bullets illegally, officials said late Monday as they struggled to deter more of the mass shootings that have roiled California and other states over the last week. "Countless other prohibited persons were likely deterred from even trying to purchase ammunition that they cannot lawfully possess," Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a court filing. He disclosed the early results in response to a gun owners' rights group attempt to block the law that took effect July 1. (Thompson, 8/5)

Los Angeles Times: California Ammo Check Law Blocked 100-Plus Sales In First Month
Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra reported the numbers to a federal judge in arguing against an injunction sought by gun owner rights groups to block the law requiring background checks, which was approved by voters in Proposition 63 and through legislation. “The evidence shows that, in the absence of eligibility checks like the ones challenged here, prohibited persons regularly purchase ammunition from unwitting vendors,” said the written brief filed late Monday in federal court in San Diego. (McGreevy, 8/5)

New Hampshire Public Radio: 'You Can Take Action' - Gun Control Advocates Call On Sununu To Sign Gun-Related Bills
In the wake of this weekend’s mass shootings, gun-control advocates in New Hampshire are calling on Chris Sununu to sign off on three gun-related bills. During a rally today in Concord, supporters said the measures are the bare minimum the governor could do, but opponents say the laws are misguided. (Bookman, 8/5)

The CT Mirror: Connecticut Democrats Rally For Tougher Gun Control Measures
Connecticut Democrats, led by Gov. Ned Lamont, rallied on the Capitol’s north steps Monday for stronger federal gun control measures in the wake of last weekend’s mass shootings in Texas and Ohio in which 31 people were killed and scores more were injured. Democrats took aim at President Donald Trump, accusing the Republican president of disseminating hate speech against immigrants and minorities that fueled the actions of the shooters, and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for refusing to call a vote on the universal background check bill that has already cleared the House of Representatives. (Phaneuf and Lyons, 8/5)

Boston Globe: Cardinal O’Malley Calls For Leaders To Act After ‘Unacceptable’ Mass Shootings
Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, is calling the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend “unacceptable in any society” and called for leaders to keep guns out of the hands “of those who would use them to inflict devastating harm.” O’Malley said in a statement released Monday that the attacks that claimed 31 lives and left dozens of others wounded were “fueled by hate and a disregard for human life.” (McDonald, 8/5)

The Associated Press: New Massacres A Jolt For Clergy Who Coped With Past Attacks
As Americans reel from back-to-back massacres in Texas and Ohio, religious leaders who have experienced violence in their houses of worship are venting their anger at the persisting violence and trying to help their congregants persevere. At the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, where a gunman killed 11 worshippers during services last October, emotions ran high Sunday as trustees of one of the synagogue's three congregations held their monthly meeting just hours after the shootings in El Paso and Dayton that claimed more than 30 lives. (Crary, 8/5)

Kansas City Star: How To Stop Gun Violence And Shootings: Leaders Offer Ideas
After a bloody week in Kansas City that left six people dead, a public conversation turned to ideas for stopping the violence, or at least slowing it down. Mayor Quinton Lucas suggested implementing a gun buyback program. First Friday officials have discussed closing their popular outdoor arts events earlier in the evening. (Moore, Nozicka and Rice, 8/6)

The Associated Press: New Jersey Enacts 3 Gun Violence Intervention Laws
New Jersey on Monday enacted three laws designed to help victims of gun violence avoid becoming hurt again by firearms or seeking out retaliation. The new laws add to New Jersey's growing list of at least 10 gun-related laws enacted in the last year and come after weekend firearm attacks in Texas and Ohio left 31 dead. But the new legislation's co-author, Democratic Assembly Majority Leader Louis Greenwald, said the timing of the enactments is purely a "tragic" coincidence. (8/5)

The Associated Press: Schools Increasingly Aim To Assess, Manage Student Threats
Schools around the country have been setting up teams to assess threats posed by students who display signs of violence like the former student who compiled a “hit list” years ago in high school and went on to kill nine people in a weekend shooting in Dayton, Ohio. Despite consensus on the approach’s benefits, school officials say they are limited in what they can do by privacy concerns, a lack of resources and limits on what they can communicate once a student leaves school. (Thompson and Waggoner, 8/6)

WLRN: Where To Find Mental Health, Trauma Support In South Florida After A Mass Shooting
In the aftermath of two mass shootings over the weekend—22 people killed in El Paso, Texas, Saturday and nine more killed in Dayton, Ohio, hours later—images and sounds circulating on social media and TV can trigger symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, in survivors of similar experiences. There are still resources available for those in South Florida affected by the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who may be having a hard time. (Switalski, 8/5)

CBS 17: Mental Health Professional: Don’t Let Information About Mass Shootings Consume You
The proximity of the mass shooting in Dayton could have you paying a little more attention to the news and wondering if you know anyone who was affected by the crime. According to Ohio State University mental health professional Dr. Kenneth Yeager, you could be subjecting yourself to being traumatized. “Mass shootings have been kind of distant from Ohio up to this point. So they’ve been kind of theoretical,” said Yeager. “When you have one in your back yard they become reality.” (8/5)

NPR: 'Tragedy Averted': Texas Grandma Praised For Stopping Alleged Planned Mass Shooting
As the U.S. reels from a weekend of two mass shootings, federal authorities have released details of what they say could have been another tragedy — which didn't happen because the suspect's grandmother managed to stop it. On Friday, federal prosecutors in Lubbock, Texas, said that they have charged a 19-year-old man with making false statements to a federally licensed firearms dealer and that William Patrick Williams was allegedly plotting a mass shooting. (Kennedy, 8/5)

Reuters: Drug Industry Urges Canada To Act Early On U.S. Import Plan
Canada's main pharmaceutical lobby group has urged the government not to wait for drug shortages before responding to U.S. plans to import Canadian drugs, according to documents seen by Reuters. The talking points were prepared last month by Innovative Medicines Canada (IMC) for its staff and member companies, before the Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it would allow U.S. states and other groups to start pilot programs importing cheap drugs from Canada in an effort to lower drug costs. (Martell, 8/5)

In other pharmaceutical news —

Stat: Amid Rising Concern, Pay-To-Play Clinical Trials Are Drawing Federal Scrutiny
These studies have caught the attention of federal regulators. The Food and Drug Administration recently asked a federal advisory committee to consider how the research community should think about such trials, an agency spokesperson confirmed. Members of that panel are now drafting recommendations on the issue. And the National Institutes of Health asked the committee to consider whether its existing resources to guide patients considering a clinical trial are adequate for scenarios in which they are being asked to pay, a spokesperson for that agency confirmed. (Robbins, 8/6)

The New York Times: States Clash With Cities Over Potential Opioids Settlement Payouts
Over the last 18 months, progress toward a settlement in the massive federal opioid litigation has stalled, even as the costs of the crisis continue to mount. Now, an inventive plan to jump-start negotiations, recently put forth by lawyers for the nearly 2,000 cities and counties that have brought cases, is facing attacks from an unlikely source. Pushback that could torpedo it is coming less from the corporate defendants than from the localities’ uneasy allies: the states. (Hoffman, 8/5)

Pioneer Press: Minnesota Lawsuit Takes Aim At Sackler Family’s Alleged Role In Opioid Crisis 
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison says the owners of the pharmaceutical company at the root of the opioid crisis were “motivated not by human dignity or the value of human life, but by unlimited greed.” That’s the argument at the heart of an updated lawsuit Minnesota has brought against Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family. Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia are suing the pharmaceutical company and its owners for allegedly lying about the addictive nature of powerful painkillers that caused a national addiction epidemic. (Magan, 8/5)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Gives States, MCOs Guidance On Tracking Medicaid Opioid Use
The CMS on Monday issued new guidance for states and Medicaid managed care programs to change up their Medicaid drug utilization review programs by the end of this year. Medicaid programs have been on the front lines fighting the opioid epidemic. The CMS' new mandates, which include setting opioid prescription limits and monitoring Medicaid patients for potential abuse, apply equally to state Medicaid fee for service programs and private managed care companies. (Luthi, 8/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Medicaid Funding For New York Caregivers Faces Uncertain Future
Yeccenia Nuez worried that her granddaughter was still suffering from a nasty stomach bug picked up during a visit to the Dominican Republic, and that the 13-month-old baby needed another trip to the emergency room. Ms. Nuez called pediatrician Vanessa Baracaldo, who assured her on the phone that such a trip wasn’t needed and instead encouraged her to come to her Harlem office the next day for an early-morning appointment. By the time Dr. Baracaldo examined the baby, the worst symptoms had largely subsided. (West, 8/5)

The Advocate: Louisiana Selects Four Companies To Manage Care For State's 1.7 Million Medicaid Enrollees 
The Louisiana Department of Health has picked four companies it intends to award multi-billion dollar contracts to in exchange for managing care for 1.7 million Medicaid patients in the state. The agency picked AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana, Community Care Health Plan of Louisiana (Healthy Blue), Humana Health Benefit Plan of Louisiana and United Healthcare Community Plan. The terms of the deals are still being worked out but are expected to begin in January. (Karlin, 8/5)

Kansas City Star: KanCare Inspector General Fraud Emails Went To Dead Account
For more than a year, dozens of complaints about KanCare fraud, waste and abuse went to an email account no one was checking, according to a report released Monday by the Kansas Attorney General’s Office. The Kansas Legislature voted in 2017 to move the long-vacant Medicaid Inspector General watchdog position out of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to the attorney general’s office. (Marso, 8/5)

Madison.Com: Wisconsin Democrats Try Again For Medicaid Expansion
Democratic state lawmakers said Monday they will try again to expand Medicaid as allowed under federal health law, a move the Republican-controlled Legislature has repeatedly opposed. Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-West Point, and Rep. Daniel Riemer, D-Milwaukee, said they would introduce a standalone bill to expand Medicaid eligibility to 133% of the federal poverty level and accept additional federal funding under the Affordable Care Act. (Wahlberg, 8/6)

KCUR: Parson Says ACA Waiver Task Force May Consider Expanding Medicaid 
Governor Mike Parson signed an executive order earlier this summer creating a task force to look into something that could bring big changes to how Missourians get—and pay for—their health care. The task force will look at applying for a waiver from the federal government on the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare.” These waivers allow states to bypass some federal rules and use their own creative ways to use the federal money in their states. (Moore, 8/5)

The New York Times: A Quarter Of Humanity Faces Looming Water Crises, Study Says
Countries that are home to one-fourth of Earth’s population face an increasingly urgent risk: The prospect of running out of water. From India to Iran to Botswana, 17 countries around the world are currently under extremely high water stress, meaning they are using almost all the water they have, the World Resources Institute said in a report published Tuesday. (Sengupta and Cai, 8/6)

Stat: Fans May Be Safe To Use During Heat Waves, Study Suggests 
As heat waves occur more frequently around the world, many cities are coping with the heat by establishing cooling centers, urging residents to find air-conditioned public buildings, and handing out free bottles of water — but they caution people to avoid using fans when temperatures exceed the high 90s. However, a preliminary study published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that using fans to cool off may be safer than previously thought — even when temperatures exceed 100 degrees. (Joseph and Hailu, 8/5)

California Healthline: Modern Wildfires Pose New Health Risks For Firefighters
As California’s wildfire season gets underway in earnest this month — with crews working to contain a 14,000-acre blaze in rugged Modoc County on the Oregon border — new research underscores the risks that modern wildfires pose to firefighters’ long-term health. Studies long have linked firefighters’ on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins in urban blazes with an increased risk of cancer. More recently, as urban-style development reaches into once remote stretches of California’s mountains and forests, wildfires are decimating not only vast swaths of forest but also whole communities of homes and businesses. (Feder Ostrov, 8/5)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: EPA To Hold Hearings Aug. 6 About How Georgia Manages Coal Ash
Georgia is positioned to become the second state in the nation to assume oversight of how it disposes of its coal ash through a statewide permit program. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says a state management program, first approved in Oklahoma, puts decision-making in the hands of those who best understand local issues surrounding coal ash. But local environmentalists are concerned that state oversight could make it harder for citizens to hold utilities accountable and challenge plans that could have long-term consequences on human health and the environment. (Rhone, 8/5)

The Associated Press: 32 Years After Poisoning, Cleanup Launched At Arsenic Site
The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing a Superfund cleanup of a neighborhood in New York contaminated with arsenic from a 19th-century mine. The contamination first came to the agency's attention in 1987 when two residents were hospitalized with arsenic poisoning from their well water in Kent, 50 miles north of New York City. (8/6)

The New York Times: These Medical Devices Are Inserted Into 500,000 Patients Each Year — But Are Tough To Sterilize
In hospitals around the world, the snakelike duodenoscope is regarded as an indispensable tool for diagnosing and treating diseases of the pancreas and bile ducts. But these fiber-optic devices have a remarkable drawback: Although they are inserted into the upper part of the small intestine through the mouth and constantly reused, they cannot be sterilized by the usual methods. Instead, they are hand-scrubbed and then put through dishwasher-like machines that use chemicals to kill microorganisms. (Rabin, 8/6)

Stateline: There Aren’t Enough Doctors To Treat HIV In The South 
The Trump administration is pushing to cut new HIV transmissions 90% nationwide by 2030, focusing its efforts on 48 urban counties and seven states, including Alabama, with disproportionately high rates of HIV occurrence. But in the South, which has more hotspots than any other region, HIV treatment providers describe an overwhelming load of patients because of the lack of new colleagues entering the field. (Blau, 8/5)

Stat: Alzheimer’s Patients Didn’t Decline After Getting Young Blood Cocktail
Alzheimer’s patients who received an experimental protein cocktail derived from young blood plasma maintained their performance on measures of cognition and function after six months, the biotech company behind the therapy, Alkahest, said on Monday. Alkahest’s announcement crucially did not include the release of any data — that’s planned for an Alzheimer’s research conference in December — but if the full results hold muster they could provide a boost for a controversial field of science that has captured the popular imagination. (Robbins, 8/5)

Reuters: U.S. Recorded Eight New Cases Of Measles Last Week
The United States recorded eight new measles cases last week, taking the total for the year to 1,172 in the worst outbreak since 1992, federal health officials said on Monday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had recorded cases of the highly contagious and sometimes deadly disease in 30 states as of Aug. 1. (8/5)

The Wall Street Journal: The Search For An Easier Way To Stop Taking Sleeping Pills
Debra Davis has had trouble sleeping for more than five years. Once she started taking a prescription sleep medication to help with her insomnia, it was hard to stop. “I was taking it daily for about a year,” says Ms. Davis, a 58-year-old nurse practitioner in Denver. Sleep doctors say this is a common problem: Medications intended as short-term fixes become a regular habit. And when patients stop taking the medications, anxiety takes over. (Reddy, 8/5)

Stat: Ann Curry Is Going To Air Patients’ Medical Mysteries On Live TV
A medical student with mysterious symptoms that mimic the signs of kidney failure. A man with debilitating pain that has lasted for over a decade and causes temporary paralysis. A young woman who gained 90 pounds in a year and started experiencing severe pain and gastrointestinal problems. All of the patients say their doctors haven’t been able to figure out what, exactly, is wrong. And they’re all hoping that a hive mind of television viewers might be able to help. The patients will be featured on “Chasing the Cure,” a new weekly show debuting this week on TNT and TBS that digs into undiagnosed or uncured medical conditions. (Thielking, 8/6)

The Wall Street Journal: In-Surgery Social Networks Aim To Curb Waiting-Room Anxiety
It’s a situation many parents know all too well: Whether they have an infant in the NICU or a child in surgery, the hours spent in that waiting room are completely nerve-racking. There are only so many crumpled magazines you can peruse and so many Instagram posts you can scroll through before you just want to yell, “What’s going on in there?” Startups and large health-care companies alike are developing tools aimed to give worried parents frequent updates on what’s happening to their children during surgeries or hospital stays. (Jargon, 8/6)

The Washington Post: Think You Have Athlete’s Foot? Here’s How To Treat It And Avoid More Serious Problems.
Perhaps the skin in between your toes is itchy. Or the skin on the sides of your feet is flaking and irritated. These are classic signs of athlete’s foot. Doctors call it tinea pedis and it’s a common fungal infection, affecting 15 to 25 percent of people at any one time. “It’s flaky dead skin overlying redness,” says Adam Friedman, a dermatologist at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Skin between the toes may look white and soggy, the soles of the foot are more likely to be dry and flaky, and reddening and blistering can appear anywhere. (Adams, 8/5)

The New York Times: Deadly Germ Research Is Shut Down At Army Lab Over Safety Concerns
Safety concerns at a prominent military germ lab have led the government to shut down research involving dangerous microbes like the Ebola virus. “Research is currently on hold,” the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, in Fort Detrick, Md., said in a statement on Friday. The shutdown is likely to last months, Caree Vander Linden, a spokeswoman, said in an interview. (Grady, 8/5)

Detroit Free Press: These Detroit Doctors Help Those With No Insurance, High Deductibles
Plum Health, which doesn't bill or accept health insurance, is one of roughly 15 direct primary care clinics in Michigan where doctors see fewer patients than in a typical primary care office, and can spend more time with each one. This type of service is called direct primary care because doctors deal directly with patients, without any insurance companies in the middle. It is similar yet distinct from so-called concierge care, a higher-end health care service with bigger fees that is more popular with wealthy people. (Reindl, 8/6)

The Washington Post: Victims Of Violence, Abuse Will Soon Have Help Keeping Their Addresses Private In D.C.
For nearly a decade after Jessica Tunon broke up with her boyfriend, the messages kept arriving. She moved across the country and asked him to stop contacting her. She changed her email address and phone number. She temporarily deleted her LinkedIn account. She filed a civil protection order against him, hoping it would finally bring an end to the stalking. (Schmidt, 8/5)

North Carolina Health News: NC Children’s Hospital ‘In Compliance,’ But Complex Pediatric Heart Surgeries Still On Hold 
The North Carolina Children’s Hospital got a bit of good news last week from a state agency that sent a team of investigators on-site for 11 days of questioning and review of the pediatric heart surgery program. The state Department of Health and Human Services says the program currently is in compliance with U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requirements. (Blythe, 8/5)

Sacramento Bee: Health Care Industry Groups Spend Millions To Protect Profits
Drug companies, hospitals and dialysis companies spent millions of dollars in the first half of the year fighting bills that would have hurt their bottom lines, according to lobbying reports filed last week. ...All involved agree on what’s at stake: California drug prices, the cost of hospital care and the rules governing of dialysis care. (Bollag, 8/5)

Boston Globe: Union, Republicans Agree On This: More Child Welfare Workers Needed In Rhode Island
Union leaders and Republican lawmakers find themselves in unusual agreement, calling for the state to hire more front-line child-welfare workers after a damning report about the death of an adopted 9-year-old who was left in a bathtub for up to eight hours. Union members in the state Department of Children, Youth and Families plan to hold a “caseload/workload crisis rally” on the State House steps at 4 p.m. Thursday — one hour before the House Oversight Committee meets to see what action DCYF has taken on the report’s recommendations.(Fitzpatrick, 8/6)

The Washington Post: Vision To Learn: Kids Get Free Eye Exams, Glasses From Nonprofit
Ja’karri was among two dozen children at the camp in Severn, Md., to get free vision screenings and exams from a mobile clinic operated by the national nonprofit Vision to Learn. With 25 mobile clinics in 13 states, the organization tries to help children learn by making sure they can see — one pair of glasses at a time. Vision to Learn was born in 2012 when philanthropist Austin Beutner, then the deputy mayor of Los Angeles, had lunch with state education leaders. When one of them mentioned some students struggled to see the boards in their classrooms because they didn’t have glasses, Beutner was surprised that the problem hadn’t already met a policy fix. He told The Washington Post that he and his wife, Virginia Beutner, bought an out-of-use mobile clinic from a hospital and staffed it with optometrists. Vision to Learn was born. (Iati, 8/5)

The Associated Press: Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against UCLA Gynecologist
Two women say in a federal class action lawsuit they were sexually assaulted by a former gynecologist who worked for the University of California, Los Angeles. The lawsuit says that Dr. James Heaps sexually assaulted the women and made sexually inappropriate comments during their appointments. The class action lawsuit is the latest lawsuit to be filed against Heaps and UCLA, though others have been pursued through state court. (8/5)

The CT Mirror: Twenty-Six Years After FMLA, Paid Leave Is Coming To CT
Today is the 26th anniversary of the implementation of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the landmark federal law that provides up to 12 weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave to eligible workers. Now, 26 years later, there’s something to celebrate: paid family and medical leave is on its way to Connecticut. (Granato, 8/5)

Miami Herald: Is The Homestead Detention Center Truly Shutting Down?
In less than four weeks, about 2,700 children were rapidly transferred to other detention centers across the country or reunited with a sponsor after a weather disturbance was detected in the Atlantic Ocean. As a result, per the government’s hurricane plan, the 200-plus children that remained there Friday were abruptly bused to airports in the middle of the night. Seeing the facility’s population dip to zero was a significant moment for people across the country, including members of Congress, presidential candidates and international leaders. (Madan, 8/5)

The Hill: New York Health Department Says Exposure To Criminal Justice System 'Associated With Lasting Harm' 
A report from the New York City Department of Health found contact with the criminal justice system, however brief, is associated with major health risks, according to BuzzFeed News. “The data show that involvement with the criminal justice system – even brief contact with the police or indirect exposure – is associated with lasting harm to people’s physical and mental health,” City Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot told the news outlet in a statement. (Budryk, 8/5)

The Advocate: Here's Where New Orleans Hospitality Workers Can Get Free Health Screenings Tomorrow 
Hospitality workers in New Orleans will have access to free health screenings and testings at a launch event tomorrow for the city’s new Healthy Hospitality initiative. The initiative is an effort by Mayor LaToya Cantrell, the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation (NOTMC) and health care nonprofit 504HealthNet to increase access to health care for hospitality workers. (Poche, 8/5)

North Carolina Health News: As The Rate Of Lifestyle Diseases Rises, One Obesity Prevention Strategy Is Gaining Ground 
Money for the park’s rehabilitation in 2017 came from an unlikely source. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant funded a partnership between North Carolina State University, N.C. State Extension and the community made a $12,000-facelift to the park possible. The Tarboro Department of Parks and Recreation contributed roughly $4,500 in materials and personnel, installing the new playground equipment, swing set, signage and more. The program, dubbed Health Matters, worked on dozens of similar initiatives across four North Carolina counties, creating environments that promote physical activity, healthy eating and recreation, with the goal of eventually decreasing obesity rates, said co-leader Annie Hardison-Moody, assistant professor and extension specialist at the N.C. State’s Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences. (Engel-Smith, 8/6)

Modern Healthcare: Beaumont Lays Off 175 In Ongoing Job Realignments, But Hiring Up As Well
Beaumont Health is the latest health system in Southeast Michigan to adjust to competitive pressures, laying off employees in some areas and hiring in others in a systemwide restructuring plan. At least 175 employees have been given pink slips over the past several months and more may be coming, Crain's has learned. The eight-hospital health system also says hiring is up by 3%, or 126 workers, this year compared with hirings during the same period in 2018. (Greene, 8/5)

Los Angeles Times: Two L.A. County Residents Are Sick With West Nile — The County's First Cases Of 2019
Two people in Los Angeles County have been diagnosed with West Nile virus, in what officials say are the first two cases in the county this year. Both people became ill with West Nile, which is transmitted to humans through a mosquito bite, late last month and are recovering, officials said Monday. One lives in the San Fernando Valley and the other in the southeastern region of L.A. County, they said. (Karlamangla, 8/5)

Des Moines Register: Marshalltown's Hospital To Close Birthing Center, The 33rd Since 2000
Marshalltown will soon join the growing list of Iowa towns without birthing centers. The Marshalltown hospital announced Monday that it would close its obstetrics unit and women's health clinic in September. The hospital, purchased in 2017 by the UnityPoint system, said the facility can't afford to keep the unit open because too few women are choosing to have their babies there. (Leys, 8/5)

The Associated Press: Louisiana Launching Medical Marijuana After Years Of Waiting
Louisiana is becoming the first Deep South state to dispense medical marijuana on Tuesday, four years after state lawmakers agreed to give patients access to therapeutic cannabis. Nine pharmacies are licensed to dispense medical marijuana across Louisiana and most are expected to open this week. Louisiana joins more than 30 other states that allow medical marijuana in some form. And though marijuana is banned at the federal level, a congressional amendment blocks the Justice Department from interfering with states’ medical marijuana programs. (Deslatte, 8/6)

The Hill: Psychological Association Warns Against 'Blaming Mass Shootings On Mental Illness'
The country’s largest organization of psychiatrists on Monday pushed back against comments from politicians linking the most recent spate of mass shootings to mental illness. In a statement, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) said gun violence is a public health crisis, and noted that “the overwhelming majority of people with mental illness are not violent and far more likely to be victims of violent crime than perpetrators of violence.” The APA said that people with mental illness are being stigmatized. (Nathaniel Weixel, 8/5)

The Washington Post: To Honor Dayton And El Paso Victims, Trump Should Vow To Stop Using Racist, Hateful Speech
President Trump controls the greatest loudspeaker in the world. On Monday, he said from the White House that “our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy.” He added, “Hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart and devours the soul.” Well put. Unfortunately, Mr. Trump has recklessly used racism, bigotry and hatred for many years, in coded formulas and direct speech. To truly honor the victims of El Paso and Dayton, Mr. Trump should vow never again to spew his loathing from the bully pulpit. (8/5)

Fox News: After El Paso, Dayton Tragedies Trump Offers Real Reform That Deserves Bipartisan Support
While left-wing partisans scramble to politicize the tragic mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton that took 31 lives, President Trump proposed commonsense, bipartisan solutions that should be taken seriously. On Monday, President Trump categorically condemned “racism, bigotry and white supremacy” and stated in no uncertain terms that “hate has no place in America.” Additionally, the president laid out a number of concrete proposals to address mass shootings. The proposals ranged from instructing the Department of Justice to work with social media companies to “develop tools that can detect mass shooters before they strike” to pursuing the death penalty for these perpetrators. (Kayleigh McEnany, 8/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Politics And The Shooters 
Police in Dayton say they’re still seeking a motive for Connor Betts’ shooting spree that killed nine people, including his sister. But whatever turns up, we hope no one blames Elizabeth Warren. We say that because the news site Heavy.com, which gained access to Betts’ Twitter account before it was taken down, reports that his politics appear to have been left of center. The shooter recently tweeted that he would “happily” vote for Senator Warren. His Twitter profile also read: “he/him/anime fan/metalhead/leftist/i’m going to hell and i’m not coming back.” In December last he wrote: “This is America: Guns on every corner, guns in every house, no freedom but to kill.” A month before that, he wrote: “Vote blue for gods sake.” (8/5)

The Washington Post: No, Mr. Trump. Guns Are The Reason For Mass Shootings.
For a moment on Monday, President Trump offered a teasing hope that he would jolt the Republican Party into easing its roadblock on even the most obvious and popular gun-control measures. Following a grisly weekend of mass shootings, Mr. Trump tweeted in favor of “strong background checks” so that “something good, if not GREAT, [comes] out of these two tragic events!” Soon enough, the president subsided to form. He read a speech that focused on mental health issues, violent video games and the Internet as major factors in the nation’s increasingly bloody culture of gun violence. “Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger. Not the gun,” he said. (8/5)

The New York Times: The Nihilist In Chief
But the connection between the president and the young men with guns extends beyond Trump’s race-baiting to encompass a more essential feature of his public self — which is not the rhetoric or ideology that he deploys, but the obvious moral vacuum, the profound spiritual black hole, that lies beneath his persona and career. (Ross Douthat, 8/6)

The Washington Post: What Are Republicans Afraid Of?
It’s almost funny, in a twisted sort of way. Election after election, Republicans have based their core political appeal on fear. And yet — as dual gun massacres this weekend starkly illustrate — they refuse to offer solutions to any of the mortal threats Americans actually face. President Trump’s closing (losing) message in the midterms was “Be afraid, be very afraid”; he and his co-partisans have lately doubled down on it for 2020. Of course, the perils that Republicans promise to rescue us from are often fictional, or of their own making. (Catherine Rampell, 8/5)

The Washington Post: Republicans’ Thoughts And Prayers Have Become A Cruel Joke
Back-to-back massacres in El Paso and Dayton kill 31. Cue the thoughts and prayers! “Melania and I send our heartfelt thoughts and prayers,” tweeted President Trump, who vows to veto gun control. “Elaine’s and my prayers go out to the victims,” tweeted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who blocks votes on gun control. (Dana Milbank, 8/5)

Lexington Herald: Mitch McConnell Should Move Gun Bills. But He Probably Won’t.
They gathered in Washington, D.C. this past weekend,some 2,000 moms and activists who are determined to end the epidemic of gun violence in the United States. The annual Moms Demand Action conference got started Saturday by honoring victims when news of the El Paso shooting trickled across TV screens and phones. Twenty-two more people dead at the hands of another young white man with an assault weapon. “It was a devastating feeling,” said Lynsey Sugarman, who heads the Lexington chapter of Moms Demand Action. “We ended up putting on our red shirts and over 1,000 of us marched through the streets of Washington. By Sunday, they’d heard about Dayton, and by Monday, Sugarman and others were back in Lexington, organizing a rally to be held on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Lexington’s courthouse plaza. There’s elections coming, after all, and people can start showing exactly how they feel about constant and senseless death. (Linda Blackford, 8/5)

Louisville Courier-Journal: Mass Shootings Happen Because McConnell Won't Ban Automatic Weapons
PADUCAH, Ky. — I woke up in a hotel room in Paducah on Sunday morning to learn that there had been yet another mass shooting in America. This one, in Dayton, Ohio, left 9 victims dead and 27 injured.Paducah was the same city in which I awoke in hotel rooms for nearly a week in 1997 after Michael Carneal walked into Heath High School and killed three of his fellow students and wounded five others. Why, after all these years, after all these shootings, after all these deaths, do we allow these senseless mass killings to continue? (Joseph Gerth, 8/5)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Trump's Response Proves Only A Leadership Change Will Stop This Gun Carnage
In President Donald Trump’s message to the nation Monday, after horrific mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, he blamed mental illness, the internet, video games and just about everything except the guns. After initial comments hinting he might finally push back against the Republican Party’s intractable attitude that the saturation of firearms in America is an act of providence about which nothing can be done, all he did was reinforce it. Let this stand as the loudest warning yet that, as long as the GOP holds power over the national policy (or lack thereof) on guns, many more will die. (8/5)

The Washington Post: We Need To Talk About Why Mass Shooters Are Almost Always Men
It will sound either morbid or histrionic, but the students in the safe Midwestern town where I grew up spent a lot of high school talking about which of our fellow classmates were likely to one day kill us all. Or maybe they’d kill people outside of school — we allowed for that possibility, too — but whatever happened would involve someone bursting through a door with a gun. This was the era of Columbine, and that incident, 800 miles away but all over the news, had provided us a way to verbalize the erratic scariness that some young men emitted: the sense they might turn their resentment into horror. (Monica Hesse, 8/5)