First Edition: September 18, 2019

Kaiser Health News: As Texas Cracks Down On Abortion, Austin Votes To Help Women Defray Costs
Austin is about to become the nation’s first city to fund groups that help women seeking abortions pay for related logistical costs, such as a babysitter, a hotel room or transportation. The move pushes back against a Texas law that took effect Sept. 1. The state law bans local governments from giving money to organizations that provide abortions — even if that money doesn’t pay for the procedure.Last week, the Austin City Council approved the related line item in the city’s latest budget. Starting Oct. 1, it sets aside $150,000 to be passed along to nonprofits that provide “logistical support services” for low-income women in the city seeking an abortion. (Lopez, 9/18)

California Healthline: Voices: How Should California Address The Needs Of Its Aging Population?
Demographers, gerontologists and government officials are counting down to 2030.That’s the year America’s youngest baby boomers will reach retirement age. The country already is feeling the effects of an aging population, but its most populous state is bracing for a hard hit as retirement collides with increasing poverty and the high cost of living. (Almendrala and Ibarra, 9/17)

Bloomberg: Health Insurance That Doesn’t Cover The Bills Has Flooded The Market Under Trump
Early one Friday morning two years ago, David Diaz woke up his wife, Marisia, and told her he didn’t feel right. He asked her to pray with him. Their son called 911, and within minutes, Marisia was tailing an ambulance down the dirt road away from the couple’s house on the outskirts of Phoenix to a hospital in the city. David had had a massive heart attack. Before being wheeled into surgery, he whispered the PIN for his bank card to Marisia, just in case. But the double-bypass operation was successful, and two weeks later he was discharged. (Faux, Mosendz and Tozzi, 9/17)

The Washington Post: Trump's Ban On Flavored Vaping Products Took A Well-Connected Industry By Surprise
Juul Labs did everything in the power players’ handbook to cement its status in Washington. The Silicon Valley start-up worked to make friends in the nation’s capital. It hired senior White House officials wired into President Trump and the first family. It sent politically connected officials to the West Wing to extol its products. It spent big on lawmakers in both parties. But last week, the e-cigarette giant along with the rest of the vaping industry, was caught off guard when President Trump decided to take drastic action, banning almost all flavored vaping products. “We can’t have our youth be so affected,” he said in the Oval Office. (McGinley, Satija, Dawsey and Abutaleb, 9/17)

The New York Times: States Rush To Limit Vaping, But Results Remain Uncertain
After a spate of illnesses linked to vaping, states are rushing to push through bans on e-cigarettes for anyone under 21. Governors are calling for prohibitions on flavors like bubble gum, cotton candy and banana split, which critics say are meant to entice young people into trying vaping. And in some states, lawmakers are contemplating raising taxes on vaping products as a way to discourage their use. Yet amid the flood of new measures from state leaders as well as mayors, experts said it was uncertain how much immediate or lasting effect the provisions would have on a broad and growing range of concerns about vaping. (Williams and Del Real, 9/17)

Reuters: New York State Ban On Flavored E-Cigarettes Given Final Approval 
New York became the second state to ban flavored e-cigarettes on Tuesday after its Democratic governor called for emergency action in response to concerns about their rising use among teens and a nationwide spate of lung illnesses. Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday called for an urgent meeting of the state's Public Health and Health Planning Council to consider the proposed ban. (Dobuzinskis, 9/17)

The Wall Street Journal: New York Bans Sale Of Flavored E-Cigarettes
Members of the state’s Public Health and Health Planning Council approved the ban, arguing it would help stem a rise in e-cigarette use among minors, which they called a public health crisis. Michigan has also banned the sale of flavored e-cigarettes. Some members of the Public Health and Health Planning Council said they were torn about approving the emergency measure, while others said it should have included a ban on menthol e-cigarettes. The ban went into effect immediately and is expected to last 90 days, with the expectation that it will be renewed absent a permanent legislative ban. (West, 9/17)

The Associated Press: Panel Approves Ban On Sale Of Flavored E-Cigs In New York 
New York became the first state to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes Tuesday, a move that comes as federal health officials investigate a mysterious surge of severe breathing illnesses linked to vaping. The vote by the state Public Health and Health Planning Council means the prohibition, which covers flavored e-cigarettes and other vaping products except for menthol and tobacco flavors, goes into effect immediately. Retailers will have two weeks to remove merchandise from store shelves. (Hajela and Klepper, 9/17)

The Washington Post: D.C. Bills Would Block E-Cigarette Sales Without A Prescription, Ban Flavored Product
D.C. lawmakers on Tuesday proposed sweeping measures to curb the rise of youth vaping, including a ban on flavored e-cigarettes and requiring a prescription to buy other electronic smoking products. A bill introduced by D.C. Council Member Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7) would ban the sale of vaping products at any location that is not a medical marijuana dispensary or a pharmacy. The District would be the first U.S. jurisdiction with such stringent restrictions on e-cigarette sales. (Nirappil, 9/17)

The Associated Press: Vape Maker Overhauls Packaging To Counter Fakes
A short walk from police headquarters in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, a cluster of bustling shops are openly selling packaging and hardware that can be used to produce counterfeit marijuana vapes that have infected California’s cannabis market. Bootleggers eager to profit off unsuspecting consumers are mimicking popular, legal vape brands, pairing replica packaging churned out in Chinese factories with untested, possibly dangerous cannabis oil produced in the state’s vast underground market. (Blood, 9/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Juul’s Sales Halted In China, Days After Launch
E-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc.’s sales have been halted in China, days after the startup launched its products in the world’s biggest tobacco market. Juul’s sleek vaporizers went on sale early last week online on both JD.com Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. BABA 1.09% ’s Tmall, with refill pods in flavors such as mint, Virginia tobacco, mango and cream. But by the end of the week, they had been taken off both ecommerce sites. That left Juul at a loss as to why, according to people familiar with the matter. (Maloney, 9/17)

NPR: Vaping Illness: Questions And Answers About A Mysterious Outbreak
What seems to be causing the illness? The CDC suspects "chemical exposure," but experts have not yet identified a specific agent as the culprit. There is no definitive link to any brand of device, ingredient, flavor or substance. The outbreak has affected users of both THC- and nicotine-containing products, but it is more prevalent among THC vapers than users who self-report using only nicotine products. Because a large number of the patients reported combining nicotine products with THC or CBD products, some researchers are looking into whether the illness may be a result of mixing substances. (Vaughn, 9/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Smoking Ban Lights Up Sales At Rare Cigarette-Friendly Bars
At first glance, Karma Lounge looks like any dive bar in Manhattan’s East Village. It has a window box packed with plastic daffodils, a black-painted facade and the usual sidewalk board advertising $5 happy hour beers. The one surprise—a tiny door sign bearing a phrase seldom seen these days: “Smoking Permitted." New York City banned smoking in bars and restaurants back in 2003. But a number of establishments that generated at least 10% of their revenue from tobacco sales got an exemption. Today, just eight remain, all in Manhattan, offering a smoky retreat in an otherwise clean-air town. (Kadet, 9/17)

The Associated Press: 'Blood Money'? Purdue Settlement Would Rely On Opioid Sales
The tentative multibillion-dollar settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma would raise money to help clean up the opioid mess by ... selling more OxyContin. That would amount to blood money, in the opinion of some critics. And it's one reason two dozen states have rejected the deal. (Mulvihill and Galofaro, 9/17)

The Associated Press: Sackler Money Complicates Donation Policies For Museums
Ask the CEO and president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art whether he’s accepting money from the Sacklers, the billionaire dynasty notorious for its ties to the drug company Purdue Pharma, and the answer is somewhat complicated. For one thing, it depends on which Sackler. “There are people who have the name ‘Sackler’ who have nothing to do with the Purdue Pharma situation,” Daniel H. Weiss says. “If it’s someone tied up with the leadership at Purdue Pharma, we step away.” (Italie, 9/18)

Reuters: Oxycontin Maker Purdue Begins Bankruptcy In Push To Settle Opioid Lawsuits
Oxycontin maker Purdue Pharma LP on Tuesday told a bankruptcy judge it hopes to broaden support for a proposed settlement of 2,600 lawsuits alleging it fueled the U.S. opioid crisis, but opponents of the deal highlighted looming legal battles. A lawyer representing the company told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain in White Plains, New York that the case was an opportunity to end a "chaotic maelstrom" of litigation. (Hals and Raymond, 9/17)

The Associated Press: Purdue Pharma To Stay In Business As Bankruptcy Unfolds
A judge cleared the way Tuesday for OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma to stay in business while it pursues bankruptcy protection and settlement of more than 2,600 lawsuits filed against it in a reckoning over the opioid crisis. At the first court hearing since the Chapter 11 filing late Sunday, Purdue lawyers secured permission for the multibillion-dollar company based in Stamford, Connecticut, to maintain business as usual — paying employees and vendors, supplying pills to distributors, and keeping current on taxes and insurance. (Sisak, 9/17)

The Washington Post: Maryland Opioid Deaths: Decline In First Half 2019
While opioid-related deaths remain at nearly an all-time high in Maryland, preliminary data shows a decline in fatal overdoses for the second straight quarter — the first six-month drop in the last decade. State officials released a preliminary report Tuesday that found that there were 1,060 ­opioid-related deaths in Maryland in the first half of the year, 133 fewer — or an 11 percent decline — than in the first six months of 2018. (Wiggins, 9/17)

The Washington Post: Biden And Sanders Take Fight Over Health Care To Union Workers
Former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) clashed sharply over health care in separate appearances before union members on Tuesday, intensifying one of the central policy disputes in the Democratic presidential race. Speaking at a forum hosted by the Philadelphia Council of the AFL-CIO, Biden touted his plan to expand the Affordable Care Act with an optional public insurance program. Without naming Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), he eagerly criticized the competing proposal they have championed as injurious to organized labor. (Sullivan and Weigel, 9/17)

The Associated Press: Biden's Abortion Shift Tests The Politics Of His Faith
It was one of the first stress tests of Joe Biden's presidential campaign: A sudden reversal of his decades-long support for restricting federal funding of abortions. The move seemed sure to hurt the former vice president with Catholics, particularly those in the Midwest, whose support will be critical to winning the Democratic primary and the general election. But so far, Biden has faced little criticism over his shift on abortion funding relative to other aspects of his record, and polls show that he remains Catholic Democrats' overwhelming favorite in the presidential field. (Schor, 9/17)

The New York Times: Trump And California See Same Homeless Problem, But Not The Same Solutions
Open-air heroin use. Sidewalks smeared in human feces. Blocklong homeless camps and people with severe mental illnesses wading through traffic in socks and hospital clothes. You would be forgiven if you thought that those descriptions of California’s urban ills came from the mouth of the state’s biggest detractor, President Trump. After all, as the president jetted off to the Bay Area on Tuesday for a fund-raiser, he took a moment with reporters on Air Force One to fulminate against “people living in our best highways, our best streets, our best entrances to buildings.” (Dougherty, 9/17)

The Washington Post: Trump: Homeless People Hurt The ‘Prestige’ Of Los Angeles, San Francisco
President Trump maligned the problem of homelessness in California as he arrived in the nation’s most populous state Tuesday, arguing that people living on the streets here have ruined the “prestige” of two of the state’s most populous cities and suggesting the possibility of federal action. “We can’t let Los Angeles, San Francisco and numerous other cities destroy themselves by allowing what’s happening,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Silicon Valley, where he hosted a campaign fundraiser to kick off a two-day visit to California. (Rucker and Stein, 9/17)

Los Angeles Times: Is Trump Trying To Make This Historic Building A Homeless Shelter? Locals Are 'Baffled'
A week after hearing about federal officials swinging through a vacant office building close to Los Angeles International Airport, Hawthorne City Manager Arnold Shadbehr is still confused. Shadbehr hasn’t heard from the federal government or anyone else — other than reporters — about the visit to study homelessness in California. The Washington Post last week reported that officials with the administration of President Trump had “secretly” toured the one-time Federal Aviation Administration facility in Hawthorne as part of discussions about turning it into a government-run homeless shelter. (Smith, 9/17)

Los Angeles Times: Trump, In California, Says Homelessness Is Destroying Cities
While aboard Air Force One on Tuesday en route in San Francisco, he said he is considering the creation of an “individual task force” as a possible solution to homelessness, without providing more details. “We can’t let Los Angeles, San Francisco and numerous other cities destroy themselves by allowing what’s happening,” he said, adding that the homelessness crisis is prompting residents of those cities to leave the country. “They can’t believe what’s happening.” (Oreskes, Rust, Shalby and Cosgrove, 9/17)

Politico: As Trump Bemoans California Homelessness, Carson Reassures Locals
California’s homeless crisis came under a federal magnifying glass Tuesday, with President Donald Trump bemoaning conditions in San Francisco and Los Angeles as HUD Secretary Ben Carson downplayed fears of a law enforcement crackdown. As the numbers of people sleeping on California streets have soared — helping to push issues of housing and affordability to the top of the state’s political agenda — Trump has pointed to the growing crisis as evidence of failed leadership in a state that prides itself as a liberal counterweight to the president’s agenda. (White, 9/17)

The Associated Press: McConnell Says Congress In 'Holding Pattern' On Gun Control
Six weeks after a pair of mass shootings killed more than 30 people, Congress remains "in a holding pattern" on gun control as lawmakers await proposals from the White House, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday. While President Donald Trump has said he would veto a House-passed bill to expand background checks for gun purchases, McConnell said he is hopeful there are other gun-related proposals that Congress can approve and Trump can support. (9/17)

The Hill: Swing-State Voters Oppose 'Surprise' Medical Bill Legislation, Trump Pollster Warns
President Trump’s campaign pollster is warning that swing-state voters oppose a bipartisan bill meant to protect patients from “surprise” medical bills they receive when going out-of-network for emergency care, according to a polling memo obtained exclusively by The Hill. A survey of voters in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania conducted by Tony Fabrizio, the president’s campaign pollster, found that a majority of voters in three battleground states believe that health insurers should be on the hook when patients receive “surprise” medical bills for out-of-network emergencies. (Easley, 9/17)

The Hill: House Panel Delays Vote On Surprise Medical Bills Legislation
The House Education and Labor Committee has called off plans to vote on legislation this week to protect patients from "surprise" medical bills because of divisions among lawmakers on the panel, according to House aides and lobbyists. The panel had been planning to hold a markup on legislation to protect patients from getting massive medical bills when they go to the emergency room and one or more doctors treating them turn out to be outside of their insurance network, a problem that lawmakers in both parties say is a top priority. (Sullivan, 9/17)

The Associated Press: Tennessee Unveils $7.9B Block Grant Proposal For Medicaid 
Tennessee would become the first state in the nation to receive its Medicaid funding in a lump sum under a proposal seeking to drastically overhaul the program that provides health care services to low-income and disabled residents. Nearly four months after Gov. Bill Lee signed off on the idea, state officials released details of the estimated $7.9 billion Medicaid block grant plan Tuesday with the intent of submitting the final product to the federal government in November. (9/17)

The Washington Post: Tennessee Becomes First State With A Plan To Turn Medicaid Into A Block Grant 
If TennCare, as that state calls its Medicaid program, wins federal approval for its plan, it could embolden other Republican-led states to follow suit. It also almost certainly would ignite litigation over the legality of such a profound change to the country’s largest public insurance program without approval by Congress. Medicaid, originated as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society of the 1960s, is an entitlement program in which the government pays each state a certain percentage of the cost of care for anyone eligible for the health coverage. (Goldstein, 9/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Tennessee Unveils Draft Plan To Convert Medicaid To Block Grants
Democrats say the initiatives are an attack on safety net programs that would leave more people without health coverage, and advocacy groups could sue if block grants get approved. Republicans say the grants give states more autonomy and direct resources to beneficiaries who are most in need. “We’re pursuing what we believe the Trump administration wants us to pursue,” Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said in an interview. “Their goal is to give block-grant programs that deliver efficiency and innovation of services. If that happens across the country, the cost of Medicaid is lowered.” (Armour, 9/17)

The New York Times: America’s Abortion Rate Has Dropped To Its Lowest Ever
Abortion in the United States has decreased to record low levels, a decline that may be driven more by increased access to contraception and fewer women becoming pregnant than by the proliferation of laws restricting abortion in some states, according to new research. “Abortion rates decreased in almost every state and there’s no clear pattern linking these declines to new restrictions,” said Elizabeth Nash, senior state policy manager at the Guttmacher Institute, which issued the findings in a report and policy analysis on Wednesday. (Belluck, 9/18)

The Associated Press: Number Of Abortions In US Falls To Lowest Since 1973
Guttmacher is the only entity that strives to count all abortions in the U.S., making inquiries of individual providers. Federal data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention excludes California, Maryland and New Hampshire. The new report illustrates that abortions are decreasing in all parts of the country, whether in Republican-controlled states seeking to restrict abortion access or in Democratic-run states protecting abortion rights. Between 2011 and 2017, abortion rates increased in only five states and the District of Columbia. (9/18)

The Washington Post: The U.S. Abortion Rate Has Fallen To Lowest Levels Since Roe V. Wade -- But State Restrictions Are Not Main Driver
There appears to be no clear pattern between efforts to ban or restrict abortion and the continuing decline in abortion rates, which has been going on for nearly 40 years. The declines were seen across regions and in states that are more supportive of abortion rights as well as those that are more restrictive. “Antiabortion activists are going to try to take credit for this decline, but the facts don’t support their argument,” Rachel Jones, principal research scientist for Guttmacher, which supports abortion rights, said in a call with reporters. (Cha, 9/18)

Los Angeles Times: Abortion Rate In The U.S. Falls To A 46-Year Low, Data Show
Four states that enacted laws requiring clinics to have building and safety standards comparable to hospitals experienced some of the most significant declines in their abortion rate. Between 2011 and 2017, the abortion rate fell by 27% in Arizona and Ohio, by 30% in Texas and by 42% in Virginia. The number of clinics that provide abortion similarly fell in those states. While the Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that those requirements were illegal, the laws still led to the closure of clinics that did not reopen. (Haberkorn, 9/17)

NPR: Beyond Insulin: Insurance Rules Can Slow Delivery Of Crucial Diabetes Supplies
In the first three months after getting his Dexcom continuous glucose monitor, Ric Peralta managed to reduce his average blood sugar level by three percentage points. "It took me from not-very-well-managed blood sugar to something that was incredibly well managed," says Peralta, a 46-year-old optician in Whittier, Calif., who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2008. Peralta was so enthused that he became a "Dexcom Warrior," a sort of grassroots spokesman for the product. (Sable-Smith, 9/18)

Reuters: U.S. Senators Urge FTC To Scrutinize Multi-Billion Dollar Pharma Mergers
U.S. presidential hopeful Amy Klobuchar on Tuesday led a letter by U.S. senators that urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to closely scrutinize pharma mergers, raising concerns about the potential harm to customers. The U.S. healthcare industry has seen a string of multi-billion dollar deals and consolidation is expected to remain a major theme for the rest of the year. (9/17)

Stat: FDA To Streamline Some Cancer Therapy Reviews With Canada, Australia
In an effort to speed the process of getting drugs to patients around the world, the Food and Drug Administration and its counterparts in Canada and Australia on Tuesday unveiled a new pilot program that will allow the agencies to review — and potentially greenlight — cancer therapies at the same time. (Joseph, 9/17)

Stat: TV Personality Dr. Oz Is Now On The Board Of A Biotech Company
One biotech company’s newest director has a very familiar face. Dr. Mehmet Oz will be joining the board of directors of PanTheryx, a Colorado-based nutraceutical and biologics company, the company recently announced. Oz, the host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” commands a huge following. He has also drawn sharp criticism for his embrace of alternative medicine and for his “disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine,” as 10 physicians wrote in a 2015 letter to the dean of medicine at Columbia University, where Oz is a faculty member. (Sheridan, 9/17)

Stat: For Dementia Caregivers, A Place To Share With Strangers — And Be Honest
Barbara Metcalf and Mary Smallwood live 826 miles apart. They’ve never met in person. If not for a chance interaction on Facebook, they would have stayed strangers. But for months, the two women talked nearly every day, swapping stories and venting about their husbands, who both have dementia. Their husbands’ symptoms have manifested in particularly difficult, deeply isolating ways. They blamed their wives for their conditions. They blamed their wives for losing their jobs. They blamed their wives because they couldn’t drive anymore. They accused them of having affairs with the mailman or stealing their money. They urinated all over their houses, leaving the women cleaning for hours. (Thielking, 9/18)

Reuters: Caregivers Of Seriously Ill Spouses Find Life Improves More When The Partner Dies
For caregivers tending to a seriously ill spouse, quality of life may improve to a greater extent if the partner dies than if the partner recovers, a German study suggests. That paradoxical finding - that life becomes more satisfying when sick partners die than when they recover - may arise from the fact that on average, bereaved caregivers in the study had heavier caregiving burdens, with sicker spouses and more hours spent caring for their loved one until the caregiver role ended, said Laura Langner, a sociology researcher at the University of Oxford and Nuffield College in the UK who led the research. (Rapaport, 9/17)

The New York Times: Almost Everywhere, Fewer Children Are Dying
Two decades ago, nearly 10 million children did not live to see a 5th birthday. By 2017, that number — about 1 in every 16 children — was nearly cut in half, even as the world’s population increased by more than a billion people. The sharp decline in childhood mortality reflects work by governments and international aid groups to fight child poverty and the diseases that are most lethal to poor children: neonatal disorders, pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria. But the results are also highly imbalanced. (Katz, Parlapiano and Sanger-Katz, 9/17)

The Washington Post: ‘Do You Have White Teenage Sons? Listen Up.’ How White Supremacists Are Recruiting Boys Online.
At first, it wasn’t obvious that anything was amiss. Kids are naturally curious about the complicated world around them, so Joanna Schroeder wasn’t surprised when her 11- and 14-year-old boys recently started asking questions about timely topics such as cultural appropriation and transgender rights. But she sensed something off about the way they framed their questions, she says — tinged with a bias that didn’t reflect their family’s progressive values. (Gibson, 9/17)

The Associated Press: Study Finds Air Pollution Reaches Placenta During Pregnancy
A new study suggests when a pregnant woman breathes in air pollution, it can travel beyond her lungs to the placenta that guards her fetus. Pollution composed of tiny particles from car exhaust, factory smokestacks and other sources is dangerous to everyone's health, and during pregnancy it's been linked to premature births and low birth weight. (Neergaard, 9/17)

Reuters: U.S. Worker, Food-Safety Advocates Sound Alarm Over New Hog Slaughter Rules
U.S. food safety and the health of plant workers will be at risk from new federal rules that allow meat companies to slaughter hogs as fast as they want and shift the role of government inspectors, food and environmental advocates said on Tuesday. The warnings about the U.S. Department of Agriculture's first update of inspection procedures at hog slaughterhouses in more than 50 years come after several high-profile recalls in the meat sector. (Polansek, 9/17)

The New York Times: Alex Trebek Says He’s In A New Round Of Chemotherapy
Alex Trebek, the longtime host of “Jeopardy!” who announced in March he had Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, revealed on Tuesday that he was undergoing a new round of chemotherapy to treat the disease. Mr. Trebek disclosed the additional treatment in an interview with T.J. Holmes on “Good Morning America.” (Holson, 9/17)

The New York Times: What Can Brain Scans Tell Us About Sex?
Men have a far greater appetite for sex and are more attracted to pornography than women are. This is the timeworn stereotype that science has long reinforced. Alfred Kinsey, America’s first prominent sexologist, published in the late 1940s and early 1950s his survey results confirming that men are aroused more easily and often by sexual imagery than women. It made sense, evolutionary psychologists theorized, that women’s erotic pleasure might be tempered by the potential burdens of pregnancy, birth and child rearing — that they would require a deeper emotional connection with a partner to feel turned on than men, whose primal urge is simply procreation. (Tingley, 9/18)

The New York Times: Women Poop. At Work. Get Over It.
There once was a woman who walked regularly from her office in Midtown Manhattan to a hotel across the street in order to use the restroom, and that woman may have been one of us. That woman had a friend, at another office job, who carried a book of matches and a can of air freshener in her purse — more willing to set off the office fire alarm than leave any hint of odor in a public lavatory. That friend had another friend, at another office job, who repeatedly forced her body to do the deed so quickly — racing from cubicle to bathroom and back, in an effort to deflect attention from what she might be doing in there — that it led to a semi-serious hemorrhoid problem. (Bennett and McCall, 9/17)

The New York Times: Troubled Children’s Hospital May Resume Heart Surgeries
A North Carolina children’s hospital that stopped performing complex heart surgeries in recent months after high death rates were disclosed may now resume the procedures, according to an advisory board that was examining the hospital’s practices. The board noted “significant investment and progress” had been made at North Carolina Children’s Hospital while suggesting areas for improvement, including increasing the number of surgeries performed, a factor associated with better outcomes. (Gabler, 9/17)

Politico: 'We Shall Overcome': California Anti-Vaccine Activists Claim Civil Rights Mantle
A chorus of mostly white women sang the gospel song “We Shall Overcome” in the California State Capitol, an anthem of the civil rights movement. Mothers rallied outside the governor's office and marched through Capitol corridors chanting “No segregation, no discrimination, yes on education for all!" Some wore T-shirts that read “Freedom Keepers." But this wasn't about racial equality. In the nation's most diverse state, protesters opposed to childhood vaccine mandates — many from affluent coastal areas — had co-opted the civil rights mantle from the 1960s, insisting that their plight is comparable to what African Americans have suffered from segregationist policies. (Mays, 9/18)

The Associated Press: Report Of Ant Infestation Pushes VA To Make Changes
An official has been put on leave and others reassigned following a report of a cancer patient bitten more than 100 times by ants at a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs living center in Georgia. Dr. Richard Stone, the Veterans Health Administration executive in charge, said in a news release Tuesday that the VA's Southeast regional director was placed on administrative leave. (9/17)

CalMatters: Disaster Days: How Megafires, Guns And Other 21st Century Crises Are Disrupting CA Schools
Each year, millions of Californians send their children to public K-12 classrooms, assuming that, from around Labor Day to early summer, there will be one given: A school day on a district’s calendar will mean a day of instruction in school. But that fixed point is changing, according to a CalMatters analysis of public school closures. From massive wildfires to mass shooting threats to dilapidated classrooms, the 21st century is disrupting class at a level that is unprecedented for California’s 6.2 million students. Last year, the state’s public schools closed their doors and sent kids home in what appear to be record numbers, mainly as a result of sweeping natural disasters. It was the third significant spike in four years. (Cano, 9/16)

Reuters: GM Stops Paying For Health Insurance For Striking Union Workers; Talks Continue
General Motors Co shifted health insurance costs for its striking workers to the United Auto Workers union as its members walked the picket line for the second day on Tuesday. The UAW on Monday launched the first company-wide strike at GM in 12 years, saying negotiations toward a new national agreement covering about 48,000 hourly workers had hit an impasse. (Woolston, 9/17)