California Weekly Roundup: Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026

Bay Area News Group: Marin Community Health Centers Warn Against Prop. 44

Marin County’s four federally qualified health centers are opposing an initiative on the Nov. 3 ballot that would require community health clinics to spend 90% of their revenue on program services. (Halstead, 10/17)

Los Angeles Blade: LGBTQ News, Rights, Politics, Entertainment: Immunology Gave HIV Survivors The Chance To Grow Old, Proposition 38 Is The Next Step

The Wall Las Memorias has joined Equality California and more than 60 patient advocacy, medical, & research organizations in supporting California's Proposition 38, the Immunology Medical Research & Cures Initiative. (Richard Zaldivar, 10/23)

CalMatters: CA Election To Decide If One Research Institute Gets $4 Billion

If California voters approve it, Prop 38 will direct $4 billion to one research institute. It has a fraction of the staff it is supposed to. (Zinshteyn, 10/20)

KQED: California Cancer Patients Disagree Over Whether Proposition 38 Will Help Them

Patients who stand to benefit from the $8.4 billion bond measure to fund immune-system research are divided over whether Californians should shoulder that burden instead of taxpayers across the U.S., and if so, whether Proposition 38 is the right way to do it. (Dembosky, 10/20)

Santa Clarita Valley Signal: DOJ Charges 15 In Alleged $2B California Health Care Fraud

The Department of Justice announced Thursday it charged 15 people with healthcare fraud in California over a combined $2 billion in alleged fraudulent claims submitted to government and private health care programs. (Gantert, 10/22)

CalMatters: California Falls Short On Medi-Cal Fraud, State Report Says

Medi-Cal fraud oversight falls short, a state report says. California has not investigated 26,000 of its 28,000 highest-risk providers. (Wiener, 10/16)

The Mendocino Voice: UnitedHealthcare's AARP Medicare Advantage Plan Leaves Mendocino County Jan. 1

UnitedHealthcare is pulling its AARP Medicare Advantage plan out of Mendocino County on Jan. 1, leaving only Imperial Health Plan of California selling Medicare Advantage plans here. (Coryell, 10/21)

TheStreet: Medicare Scam Calls Spike As Open Enrollment Begins

Medicare’s 2026 Open Enrollment period opened on Oct. 15, and so did the busiest season for fraud calls targeting beneficiaries. Scammers posing as government officials are flooding phone lines with fake card updates, genetic test offers, and threats to cancel coverage. (Esebame and Chatterjee, 10/18)

Los Angeles Blade: LGBTQ News, Rights, Politics, Entertainment: City Attorney Candidate Marissa Roy To Children’S Hospital L.A.: ‘You Still Have To Comply With State Law’

Roy said CHLA’s ending of trans healthcare could be illegal under California law that bars discrimination on the basis of gender identity. (Kaufman, 10/27)

Southern California News Group: Loma Linda University Health To Open New Children’s Clinics In Early 2027

The Children's Health Specialy Clinics features include clinical labs, radiology services, and 149 exam rooms. More than 21 pediatric specialties — from allergy testing and spina bifida care, to neurosurgery and speech pathology — will be offered under one roof. (Vergara, 10/16)

Imperial Valley Press: New Outpatient Imaging Center Opens, Combining Advanced Technology With Personalized Care

Imperial Valley Advanced Imaging has opened an outpatient diagnostic imaging facility at 1500 S. Imperial Ave., expanding access to fast, accurate diagnostic services for residents and healthcare providers across the region. (10/24)

Los Angeles Times: UCLA Health Expansion Raises Costs And Concerns

UCLA Health has rapidly expanded the number of hospitals and clinics it operates. Critics say the expansion is raising healthcare costs and question why it hasn’t included lower-income neighborhoods. (Petersen, 10/25)

The Union: Construction Underway On Future County Psychiatric Rehab Facility

The construction of the Deer Creek Behavioral Health Center, a 16-bed psychiatric and rehabilitation facility, is underway in Nevada City on the campus of the Nevada County Government Center. The facility is expected to be completed by September 2027. (Boll-See, 10/21)

San Francisco Examiner: New Behavioral Health Facility Slated For Treasure Island

A behavioral-health facility plans to break ground on Treasure Island before the end of the year. The 120-unit facility will have the capacity to hold up to 300 beds, the majority of which will be for people transitioning from inpatient substance use treatment to more independent living with outpatient treatment. (Gurevich, 10/20)

Southern California News Group: Historic Torrance Building To Be Transformed Into Community Health Clinic

Venice Family Health Clinic will operate the Pathway Torrance Community Health & Wellness Center on the ground floor of the historic building at 2300 W. Carson St., with Torrance leasing the second floor for administrative offices, housing and homelessness outreach staff. (Armstrong, 10/16)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Palomar, UCSD Discuss New Partnership, Increases In Cancer, Cardiac Care

Executives outline service increases, future initiatives, including plans for expanding mental health care services. (Sisson, 10/13)

Santa Cruz Sentinel: Watsonville Community Hospital Holds Community Meeting Amid Potential Closure Of Labor And Delivery Department

Tony Nuñez, chairman of Pajaro Valley Health Care District’s Board of Directors, and Watsonville Community Hospital interim Chief Executive Officer Tim Moran gave a presentation about the hospital’s financial updates, saying that unless action is taken or drastic changes occur, the hospital is expected to close within six to 12 months. (Gillette, 10/23)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Sharp, UCSD Scramble To Manage Patient Expectations In North County

Tri-City Medical Center, Palomar Health do not yet have access to medical records. (Sisson, 10/18)

Imperial Valley Press: Imperial Clinic Overhauls Psychological Evaluations To Cut Two-Year Wait Times For Low-Income Families

Facing wait times of up to two years for critical neurodevelopmental evaluations, low-income and Spanish-speaking families in the Imperial Valley are gaining faster access to care through an innovative psychological assessment model developed at Innercare. (Bojorquez, 10/24)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Providence Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital Nurses Call Two-Day Strike After Contract Expires

Hundreds of registered nurses represented by the Staff Nurses Association authorized a two-day strike at Providence Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital through October 28, claiming the hospital has engaged in "bad faith negotiations" after their contract expired last month. (Hanson, 10/26)

The Santa Barbara Independent: Cottage Nurses Push For Union As Management Pushes Back

Cottage Health nurses are hoping to win better wages, stronger benefits, safer staffing, and something they say has been sorely missing from their workplace: a meaningful voice in how the organization operates. (Hayden, 10/21)

Chico Enterprise-Record: Hospital Gets New Officers, Trustees And Abandons Residency Program Plans

As part of its ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy case process, Oroville Hospital has appointed new co-chief medical officers, two new board members and withdrawn its application for an Internal Medicine Residency Program. (Gottesman, 10/20)

The Merced FOCUS: Merced College Paramedic Program Boosts Emergency Response

The city of Merced is improving its fleet of first responders, and it’s partly thanks to a partnership with the community college. (Livinal, 10/20)

The Sacramento Bee: CA Northstate University Hiring Pelvic Exam Actors For $55 An Hour

Applicants must be comfortable having medical students repeatedly examine the most intimate parts of their bodies as future doctors learn to perform pelvic, genital, breast, and rectal examinations. (Hunt, 10/18)

KQED: East Bay Immigration Arrest Raises Questions About ‘ICE-Free Zones,’ Training At Hospitals

Oakland’s Highland Hospital staff and community members expressed concerns after ICE agents allegedly brought a patient in with six fractured ribs last week. (Kennedy, 10/24)

San Francisco Examiner: Tenderloin Youth Center Receives $1 Million In Federal Funds

Larkin Street Youth Services, which addresses youth homelessness in the city, will use the funds to improve its main drop-in site, which includes therapy rooms and a health clinic as well as for off-site transitional-living houses and its shelter. (Gurevich, 10/21)

Chico Enterprise-Record: Chico Opens Homelessness Plan To Public Review

The five-year homelessness plan sets guidelines for improving coordination with Butte Countywide Homeless Continuum of Care and other partners; improving outreach, shelter and housing pathways; maintaining safe, healthy and accessible public spaces; preventing homelessness and increasing housing stability; intervening with people that have complex health, substance-use, justice and repeated-service needs; and measuring results for those actions. (Weber, 10/24)

inewsource: Encinitas, National City Officials Clash Over Homeless Shelter Deal

As the number of San Diego County residents who enter homelessness continues to outpace the number of locals who exit it every month, a lack of shelter options in North County is brewing a debate between two cities 30 miles apart. (Futterman and Niebla, 10/20)

inewsource: San Diego Emergency Housing Vouchers Get Federal Rescue

Families still getting emergency housing vouchers can be transitioned to another program called tenant protection vouchers, which allows people maintain access to assistance when other HUD programs end or change. (Kincaid, 10/16)

Chico Enterprise-Record: Chico OKs Anti-Camping Changes

The Chico City Council passed three laws with changes to protect the city’s chance at a $4.1 million state grant to fund the Genesis Emergency Non-congregate Housing Site. (Weber, 10/21)

Palo Alto Daily Post: Palo Alto Expands Controversial RV Ban

The Palo Alto City Council on Oct. 19 voted 6-1 to ban RVs within 100 feet of any home from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., despite a push from residents and business owners for the city to go further. (Cartwright, 10/19)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Rehab Centers Drugged Patients To Keep Insurance Money Flowing, Feds Allege

A father-and-son team from Southern California are accused by federal prosecutors of using their facilities to commit a shocking fraud, including drugging patients, preventing them from accessing their belongings and holding them against their will. (Winton, 10/27)

USA Today: L.A. County Sees First Death From New Synthetic Opioid Cychlorphine

Public health officials are issuing a warning after recording Los Angeles County's first death linked to N-propionitrile chlorphine, also known as cychlorphine, a new synthetic opioid that has made its way into Southern California's illicit drug supply. (Day, 10/16)

KQED: Death Linked To New Opioid Included In San Francisco’s Latest Overdose Snapshot

San Francisco recorded 48 fatal drug overdoses in September, placing the total number of such accidental deaths this year at 399 — including the city’s first fatal overdose from a synthetic opioid sold at gas stations and convenience stores, officials said. (Stark, 10/23)

The Modesto Bee: Stanislaus Opioid Prescribing Rate Is Highest In California

Prescriptions for opioid pain medications have come down in Stanislaus County from alarming rates 10 years ago. But the rates are consistently higher than in other counties in California. (Carlson, 10/23)

Southern California News Group: Deaths Mount As West Nile Virus Hotspots Emerge In LA, Orange Counties

The two counties combined account for at least 63% of the 378 human infections reported this year by the California Department of Public Health, making the region a hotbed for the disease transmitted by the female Southern House mosquito. (Fobar and Saavedra, 10/21)

The Santa Barbara Independent: Veteran Santa Barbara Journalist, Humanitarian Hospitalized With West Nile Virus

ShelterBox communications director Paul Vercammen shares his experience to help spread awareness about the dangerous mosquito-borne virus, crediting the Red Cross with notifying him within days of a blood draw that he had a case of it. (Yamamura, 10/15)

inewsource: San Diego Airport Leads U.S. In Lead Pollution. 30 Schools Are Near.

Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport is the highest lead-polluting general aviation airport in the U.S. — lead is especially dangerous to children — and no targeted testing is being done in San Diego neighborhoods nearby. (Salata, 10/18)

CalMatters: LA Chemical Plant On Short Leash From State Regulators As Neighbors Continue To Protest Its Operations

The state board ordered regulators to rethink the Phibro-Tech permit, but the LA County hazardous waste plant stays open. (Reyes-Velarde, 10/24)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego County Officially Introduces Former Diplomat Bridget Premont As First Pollution Crisis Chief

San Diego County on Monday introduced former U.S. diplomat Bridget Premont as its first Pollution Crisis Chief, tapping her to lead its response to the Tijuana River sewage crisis as preliminary findings estimate the pollution costs the regional economy up to $503.5 million a year. (Armstrong, 10/20)

Daily Democrat: Yolo Food Bank Receives $14,870 Grant From The PG&E Foundation

With food insecurity affecting one in five Californians, the PG&E Corporation Foundation recently announced $1.32 million in grants to local organizations on the front lines of hunger relief, including a $14,870 grant to the Yolo Food Bank. (10/20)

The Willits News: North Bay Food Banks Under Strain As Federal SNAP Cuts Loom

As organizations that help feed California’s hungry brace for unprecedented federal cuts to food assistance, North Bay food banks say they are already seeing growing numbers of people at distribution sites who have lost their benefits or are feeling the burden of high food and gas prices. (Hanson, 10/20)

Central Valley Journalism Collaborative: ‘Not Everybody Will Go Hungry.’ Merced Food Rescue Group Aims To Fill In Gaps For Daycare Facilities

As food insecurity affects thousands of Merced County residents, Food Para Todos is using surplus groceries and a network of home daycares to bridge the gap between food waste and hunger. (Quintanilla, 10/12)

Los Angeles Times: California To Receive $6 Million In 23andMe Data Breach Settlement

After a 2023 data breach and a bankruptcy and sale process in 2025, genetic testing company 23andMe will pay $6 million to settle allegations it did not protect customers' data. (Petrow-Cohen, 10/20)

Santa Monica Daily Press: Santa Monica College Student Raises $8,500 For Breast Cancer Patients

A Santa Monica College student who founded a breast cancer nonprofit at 14 raised $8,500 for patients struggling to pay their bills during treatment at a dance benefit in Beverly Hills earlier this month. (Alin, 10/24)

Southern California News Group: Riverside-Based CARE Project Receives Donations Of Compression Garments For Breast Cancer Survivors

The CARE Project, whose mission is to reduce the financial and emotional burdens of people diagnosed with breast cancer, has received nearly $99,000 in donations of compression sleeves, gauntlets, and gloves from LympheDIVAs since 2017. (10/24)

Bay Area News Group: Wellness Nonprofit Buys "Jewel Box" Scottish Rite Center In Downtown Oakland

The new owner is an educational and humanitarian nonprofit that offers breathing techniques and meditation courses as paths to wellness. (Avalos, 10/27)

Santa Clarita Valley Signal: Children’s Hospital Data: E-Bike, E-Scooter Injuries Up Fourfold

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has released eye-opening data on injuries from e-bikes and e-scooters, a concern that local officials and state lawmakers are both working to address. (Smith, 10/16)

East Bay Times: Without Judgement: Bay Area Seniors Find Peace Among Horses

Bay Area seniors living with dementia and health challenges are finding healing and non-judgmental support through equine therapy. (Matemba-Mutasa, 10/20)

Imperial Valley Press Online: Calipatria Mental Health Team Brings ‘Family Feud’ Style Game To Incarcerated Population For Suicide Prevention Month

The seasonal initiative aimed to bridge the gap between incarcerated individuals and institutional mental health services, demonstrating that supportive care involves more than traditional clinical settings. (10/20)

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