First Edition: May 20, 2019

Kaiser Health News: Why Missouri’s The Last Holdout On A Statewide Rx Monitoring Program
Missouri retained its lonely title as the only state without a statewide prescription drug monitoring program — for the seventh year in a row — after the legislative session ended Friday. Patient advocates, politicians, experts and members of the medical community had hoped this would finally be the year Missouri would create a statewide electronic database designed to help spot the abuse of prescription drugs. After all, Republican Gov. Mike Parson had pushed for it and, more important, its longtime opponent was no longer in office to block it. (Weber, 5/20)

Kaiser Health News: Escalating Workplace Violence Rocks Hospitals
Across the country, many doctors, nurses and other health care workers have remained silent about what is being called an epidemic of violence against them. The violent outbursts come from patients and patients’ families. And for years, it has been considered part of the job. When you visit the Cleveland Clinic emergency department — whether as a patient, family member or friend — a large sign directs you toward a metal detector. (Harris-Taylor, 5/20)

Kaiser Health News: Opioid Prescriptions Drop Sharply Among State Workers
The agency that manages health care for California’s massive state workforce is reporting a major reduction in opioid prescriptions, reflecting a national trend of physicians cutting back on the addictive drugs. Insurance claims for opioids, which are prescribed to help people manage pain, decreased almost 19% in a single year among the 1.5 million Californians served by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. CalPERS manages health benefits for employees and retirees of state and local agencies and public schools, and their families. (Cone, 5/20)

The New York Times: Abortion Fight Or Strong Economy? For G.O.P., Cultural Issues Undercut 2020 Message
The unemployment rate is at a 50-year low, companies are adding jobs and the gross domestic product grew by 3.2 percent in the first quarter, undercutting predictions of a coming recession. Yet for all that political upside, Republicans demonstrated repeatedly last week that they were not positioning themselves to wage the 2020 election over the strength of the economy. President Trump and his top advisers sent mixed signals about a possible war with Iran. Mr. Trump outlined a hard-line immigration proposal that had little chance of passing, but refocused attention on the most incendiary issue of his presidency. (Martin and Burns, 5/19)

The Associated Press: Trump Tells Anti-Abortion Activists To Stay United For 2020
With Alabama's restrictive new abortion law stirring divisions on the right, President Donald Trump implored anti-abortion activists to stay united heading into the 2020 election even as he laid out where his personal views differ from the legislation. In a series of tweets posted just before midnight Saturday, Trump said gains by anti-abortion activists will "rapidly disappear" if, as he put it, "we are foolish and do not stay UNITED as one." (Superville, 5/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Signals GOP Discord On State Abortion Laws
The message from the president is an unexpected turn in a fight that has remained largely focused on incremental changes since the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision made access to abortion a constitutional right. Other Republicans besides Mr. Trump, including Utah Sen. Mitt Romney and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.), are warning that Republicans need to avoid what they call the extreme policies advocated by the party’s antiabortion-rights wing that could fragment support, particularly among more moderate and suburban voters, for GOP candidates in next year’s elections. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was also critical of the measure, both on policy and on legal rounds. (Rubin, 5/19)

Politico: ‘Strongly Pro-Life’ Trump Tweets On Abortion
“As most people know, and for those who would like to know, I am strongly Pro-Life, with the three exceptions — Rape, Incest and protecting the Life of the mother — the same position taken by Ronald Reagan,” the president wrote on Twitter. ... Trump’s statement about Reagan doesn’t precisely capture Reagan’s position on abortion. At the start of his term of governor in California in 1967, Reagan signed legislation that liberalized abortion laws. He subsequently became stridently anti-abortion though, as Trump pointed out, he said he would allow limited exceptions. (Cohen, 5/19)

The Washington Post: Trump, Republicans Distance Themselves From Alabama Abortion Law
By injecting himself into the debate over a new crop of strict antiabortion statutes, in Alabama and several other states, the president heightened the divisions emerging with the Republican Party over how far abortion opponents should go. The sudden spate of state laws — and Trump’s weekend reaction — has ratcheted up the prominence of the issue of reproductive rights in the 2020 presidential campaign. (Goldstein and Kim, 5/19)

Politico: Romney Says He Doesn't Support Alabama Abortion Law
Sen. Mitt Romney on Sunday said he doesn't support a recently enacted law prohibiting nearly all abortions at any point during pregnancy in Alabama. "I don't support the Alabama law," the Utah Republican and 2012 GOP nominee for president told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union." "I believe that there ought to be exceptions. I'm pro-life, but there ought to be exceptions for rape and incest and where the life of the mother is at risk." (Beavers, 5/19)

The New York Times: After Alabama Abortion Law, 3 Democrats Propose A New Strategy
Responding to a series of highly restrictive abortion laws aimed at overturning Roe v. Wade, several Democratic presidential candidates have called on Congress to codify abortion rights, signaling a newly aggressive approach in a debate whose terms have long been set by conservatives. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey was first out of the gate on Wednesday, telling BuzzFeed News that if elected president, he would pursue legislation to guarantee abortion rights nationwide, superseding state restrictions, even if the Supreme Court overturned Roe. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York promised the same on Thursday, and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts came forward Friday morning with a more detailed plan. The three senators also called for repealing the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding for abortions. (Astor, 5/17)

The Associated Press: Warren Unveils Abortion Rights Platform Following New Laws
Elizabeth Warren is calling for a series of targeted measures designed to safeguard abortion rights following a flurry of new state laws that dramatically restrict women's ability to terminate pregnancies, moves Democrats have decried as a planned effort to chip away at the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. (Schor, 5/17)

Reuters: Senator Warren Calls For Federal Laws Protecting Abortion Access
The issue of abortion has been thrust into the national dialogue in recent weeks after a series of states controlled by Republicans began passing legislation to enact hard line bans. Alabama signed into law on Wednesday the most drastic rollback yet. "This is a dark moment," Warren, who is running for president, wrote in a post on Medium on Friday morning outline her new proposal. "People are scared and angry. And they are right to be. But this isn’t a moment to back down – it’s time to fight back." (Gibson, 5/17)

The Associated Press: Louisiana Governor Breaks With Democratic Party On Abortion
Nearly three decades ago, when Democratic Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards' wife was 20 weeks pregnant with their first child, a doctor discovered their daughter had spina bifida and encouraged an abortion. The Edwardses refused. Now, daughter Samantha is married and working as a school counselor, and Edwards finds himself an outlier in polarized abortion politics. (DeSlatte, 5/17)

The New York Times: Inside The Network Of Anti-Abortion Activists Winning Across The U.S.
State after state is passing sweeping abortion restrictions this year, from Alabama’s near total abortion ban, to Ohio’s ban after a fetal heartbeat is detected, to Utah’s ban after a pregnancy reaches 18 weeks. Already, eight states have passed laws that could challenge federal protections for abortion, with more on the way, prompting jubilation on the right and fear on the left. The laws may appear to present a united front and a coordinated political campaign. Instead they reflect a sustained effort by a network of disparate activists, each with their own strategy honed over decades of work. (Dias, Tavernise and Blinder, 5/18)

The Associated Press: As States Pass Restrictive Abortion Laws, Questions Surface
As multiple states pass laws banning many abortions, questions have surfaced about what exactly that means for women who might seek an abortion. The short answer: nothing yet. Governors in Kentucky , Mississippi , Ohio and Georgia have recently approved bans on abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can happen in the sixth week of pregnancy, before many women know they're pregnant, and Alabama's governor signed a measure making the procedure a felony in nearly all cases. Missouri lawmakers passed an eight-week ban Friday. Other states, including Louisiana , are considering similarly restrictive laws. (Brumback, 5/19)

The Washington Post: Everything You Need To Know About The Abortion Ban News
The rush of Republican-controlled states to mount a challenge to the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion nationwide has sparked confusion about what these new laws actually do. Here’s what you need to know. Lawmakers in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Utah have passed new antiabortion bills, and similar measures are pending in other states. The new laws have prompted questions about whether women who have abortions could be punished and why some of the pieces of legislation are called “heartbeat bills,” among other topics. (Iati and Paul, 5/17)

The New York Times: Missouri Lawmakers Pass Bill Criminalizing Abortion At About 8 Weeks Of Pregnancy
Missouri lawmakers passed a bill Friday to ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, the latest in a flurry of anti-abortion measures across the country intended to mount direct challenges to federal protections for the procedure. The Missouri House passed H.B. 126 in a 110-to-44 vote after hours of heated debate, including impassioned speeches by both Democratic and Republican legislators and angry shouts of “when you lie, people die” from those who opposed the bill. Those protesters were eventually removed by the police. (Tavernise and Hassan, 5/17)

Politico: Missouri Is Latest State To Pass Restrictive Abortion Law
Missouri’s bill states a woman may not be prosecuted for having an abortion but that the provider could face up to 15 years in prison. The legislation is more ambitious than some other states' because it offers federal courts the chance to decide at what point during a pregnancy abortion should be illegal. If the detection of a fetal heartbeat, usually at six weeks of pregnancy, is deemed too early, then it offers less restrictive time limits ranging from 14 weeks to 20 weeks. The bill also prohibits all abortions except in cases of medical emergency if Roe is overturned. (Goldberg, 5/17)

The Associated Press: Texas Passing Laws, But Not Leading Abortion Fight This Time
Sidestepping bigger abortion battles playing out elsewhere in the U.S., Texas Republicans on Friday pushed a bill toward Gov. Greg Abbott's desk that would ban the state's liberal capital city from leasing a downtown building to Planned Parenthood for just $1. For Texas, which has passed some of the nation's strictest anti-abortion laws over the past decade, the measure that was largely provoked by a single Planned Parenthood office in Austin is one of the few bills aimed at abortion providers that appears likely to pass the GOP-controlled Legislature before lawmakers adjourn this month. (Weber, 5/17)

The Associated Press: Hundreds Protest Alabama Abortion Ban: 'My Body, My Choice!'
Hundreds of demonstrators marched to the Alabama Capitol on Sunday to protest the state's newly approved abortion ban, chanting "my body, my choice!" and "vote them out!" The demonstration came days after Gov. Kay Ivey signed the most stringent abortion law in the nation— making performing an abortion a felony in nearly all cases unless necessary for the mother's health. The law provides no exception for rape and incest. (5/19)

The Associated Press: Female Lawmakers Speak About Rapes As Abortion Bills Advance
For more than two decades, Nancy Mace did not speak publicly about her rape. In April, when she finally broke her silence, she chose the most public of forums — before her colleagues in South Carolina's legislature. A bill was being debated that would ban all abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected; Mace, a Republican lawmaker, wanted to add an exception for rape and incest. When some of her colleagues in the House dismissed her amendment — some women invent rapes to justify seeking an abortion, they claimed — she could not restrain herself. (5/18)

The Associated Press: Trial Set To Begin In Case Targeting Virginia Abortion Laws
A trial is set to begin in a lawsuit filed by women's health groups seeking to overturn restrictions on abortion providers in Virginia. The lawsuit is among legal challenges filed in at least a dozen states over what abortion-rights groups call Targeted Restrictions on Abortion Providers. (5/20)

The New York Times: What Does It Really Mean To Be 6 Weeks Pregnant?
Now that several states have passed bills that effectively ban abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, the new laws are raising a lot of questions about early pregnancy and miscarriage treatments. The fetal heartbeat can typically be seen on an ultrasound at around six weeks into pregnancy, but many women have no idea they’re pregnant at that time. So when do women typically realize that they are pregnant? And how often are pregnancies unplanned? We’ll explain all of this and more. (Caron, 5/18)

The Washington Post: Women At Two Va. Universities Wanted More Access To The Morning-After Pill. So They Took ‘Matters Into Their Own Hands.’
The calls and text messages arrive directly to Michyah Thomas’s iPhone. They come from other students at Hampton University in need of the morning-after pill or in search of a ride to a health center or a hand to hold. They reach Thomas, a 21-year-old at Hampton, through a hotline she and another student, Alexandria Brown, created. Each time, the pair figures out a way to get students what they need, delivering the emergency contraception themselves or calling on a group of about a dozen volunteers to help with transportation. (Truong, 5/19)

Politico: How Mike Pence Took Over HHS
Sweeping new protections for religious health care workers and an overhaul of family planning programs to effectively cut out Planned Parenthood represent something unusual in the Trump administration: a clear spotting of the fingerprints of Vice President Mike Pence. From topics ranging from trade to the president’s scorched-earth attacks against the Mueller investigation, Pence has been the loyal foot soldier while often appearing uncomfortable amid the administration’s biggest fights. (Pradhan and Ollstein, 5/20)

The Associated Press: Democrats Grapple With Fully Embracing Medicare For All
A half-dozen presidential candidates back "Medicare for All," a proposal that would put the government in charge of most health benefits. But some of the Democrats they're courting aren't sure that the nation's health care system should be overhauled so dramatically. After watching Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Medicare for All supporter, speak in a packed northeast Iowa tavern, 67-year-old Connie Suby said she backed the ambitious proposal as an ultimate goal. But she cautioned that "we're not ready for that as a country," urging "baby steps" that keep private health insurance in place. (Schor, Woodall and Jaffe, 5/20)

The New York Times: House Equality Act Extends Civil Rights Protections To Gay And Transgender People
The House passed sweeping legislation on Friday that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The bill, passed 236-173, comes as departments across the Trump administration have dismantled policies friendly to gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, like barring transgender recruits from serving in the military or formally rejecting complaints filed by transgender students who are barred from restrooms that match their gender identity. (Edmondson, 5/17)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Trump's Miscues On Trade And Drug Prices
President Donald Trump spoke this past week as if he's unaware that drug prices have gone up and tariffs came before him. His boast that the U.S. never collected a dime on goods from China until he imposed them marked a series of statements misrepresenting how trade works as the two countries escalated their dispute with new and retaliatory taxes on each other's products. (Yen, 5/18)

Modern Healthcare: Health Insurance Inflation Hits Highest Point In Five Years
The health insurance inflation rate hit a five-year peak in April, possibly because managed care is rising. The Consumer Price Index for health insurance in April spiked 10.7% over the previous 12 months—the largest increase since at least April 2014, according to a Modern Healthcare analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' unadjusted monthly Consumer Price Index data. (Livingston, 5/17)

The New York Times: E.P.A. Could Make Thousands Of Pollution Deaths Vanish By Changing Its Math
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to adopt a new method for projecting the future health risks of air pollution, one that experts said has never been peer-reviewed and is not scientifically sound, according to five people with knowledge of the agency’s plans. The immediate effect of the change would be to drastically lower an estimate last year by the Trump administration that projected as many as 1,400 additional premature deaths per year from a proposed new rule on emissions from coal plants. (Friedman, 5/20)

The New York Times: Citrus Farmers Facing Deadly Bacteria Turn To Antibiotics, Alarming Health Officials
A pernicious disease is eating away at Roy Petteway’s orange trees. The bacterial infection, transmitted by a tiny winged insect from China, has evaded all efforts to contain it, decimating Florida’s citrus industry and forcing scores of growers out of business. In a last-ditch attempt to slow the infection, Mr. Petteway revved up his industrial sprayer one recent afternoon and doused the trees with a novel pesticide: antibiotics used to treat syphilis, tuberculosis, urinary tract infections and a number of other illnesses in humans. (Jacobs, 5/17)

Stat: Seeking To Contain Drug Costs, CMS May Have ‘Killed’ A PBM Billing Practice
In another bid to attack high prescription drug costs, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released guidance this week to help states monitor so-called spread pricing that can unnecessarily increase what health care programs are paying for medicines. Despite the arcane-sounding name, spread pricing is an important, behind-the-scenes issue in the opaque pharmaceutical world. Basically, this refers to what pharmacy benefit managers pay pharmacies for medicines and then bill back to state Medicaid programs. Recently, though, a growing number of states are trying to clamp down on the practice after concerns surfaced about overcharging. (Silverman, 5/17)

Stat: Allergan Wins A Novel Case Over False Ads By A Compounder, But Gets Just $48,500 For Its Trouble
In a closely watched case, Allergan (AGN) won a lawsuit in which it used a novel legal theory to blunt competition from a compounding pharmacy, although the victory came at a price. Here’s the backstory: The drug maker accused Imprimis Pharmaceuticals of falsely advertising compounded versions of its eye treatments for cataracts and glaucoma because the smaller company failed to follow federal regulations. (Silverman, 5/17)

Stat: Dana-Farber Prevails In Immunotherapy Dispute Over Patents
A leading cancer center on Friday prevailed in a lawsuit seeking to add its researcher’s name to patents for a form of cancer immunotherapy, a decision that will allow it to license the intellectual property behind the patents to companies developing new therapies. A U.S. District Court judge ruled in favor of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute on all six counts on which it was challenging the patents, which underlie the blockbuster cancer drug Opdivo. (Cooney, 5/17)

Stat: PatientsLikeMe Founder Frets U.S. Policy Could Chill Collaboration In Biotech
The result was an online health-tracking site, including a forum, that offered not just a new place for patients to communicate, but a source of scientific studies. In the past few years, PatientsLikeMe data have been used to run a study that indicated a soy-derived supplement did not benefit ALS patients, that financial hurdles made it difficult for patients with multiple sclerosis to access new medicine, and that being on a plane does not make it more likely that a person will cry during a movie. For drug companies, the database provided both scientific and health economic research; arrangements with industry made PatientsLikeMe money. (Herper, 5/20)

Reveal/The Associated Press: Elder Care Homes Rake In Profits As Workers Earn A Pittance
She alights from a black Ferrari convertible, her Christian Louboutin stilettos glinting in the sunlight. The lid of her black lacquer grand piano is propped open in the living room of her plush Beverly Hills home. "I own a chain of elderly care facilities," she says into the camera on Bravo's reality television show "The Millionaire Matchmaker." ''My net worth is $3 to $4 million, probably." (Gollan, 5/19)

The Associated Press: Vaccine Rates Rise On Long-Wary 'Hippie' Island Near Seattle
Sarah Day is a school nurse with "street cred" when it comes to the polarizing issue of vaccines on an idyllic island in Washington state known for its rural beauty, counterculture lifestyle and low immunization rates. Since she began communal living on Vashon Island more than 20 years ago, the registered nurse has been advocating for getting kids their shots against a loud contingent of anti-vaccine parents in the close-knit community of about 11,000 that's accessible only by ferry, a serene 20-minute ride from Seattle. (Ho, 5/20)

The New York Times: In Cities Where It Once Reigned, Heroin Is Disappearing
Heroin has ravaged this city since the early 1960s, fueling desperation and crime that remain endemic in many neighborhoods. But lately, despite heroin’s long, deep history here, users say it has become nearly impossible to find. Heroin’s presence is fading up and down the Eastern Seaboard, from New England mill towns to rural Appalachia, and in parts of the Midwest that were overwhelmed by it a few years back. It remains prevalent in many Western states, but even New York City, the nation’s biggest distribution hub for the drug, has seen less of it this year. (Goodnough, 5/18)

The New York Times: Millions Take Gabapentin For Pain. But There’s Scant Evidence It Works.
One of the most widely prescribed prescription drugs, gabapentin, is being taken by millions of patients despite little or no evidence that it can relieve their pain. In 2006, I wrote about gabapentin after discovering accidentally that it could counter hot flashes. The drug was initially approved 25 years ago to treat seizure disorders, but it is now commonly prescribed off-label to treat all kinds of pain, acute and chronic, in addition to hot flashes, chronic cough and a host of other medical problems. (Brody, 5/20)

NPR: Why Does The Brain Connect Pain With Emotions?
When Sterling Witt was a teenager in Missouri, he was diagnosed with scoliosis. Before long, the curvature of his spine started causing chronic pain. It was "this low-grade kind of menacing pain that ran through my spine and mostly my lower back and my upper right shoulder blade and then even into my neck a little bit," Witt says. The pain was bad. But the feeling of helplessness it produced in him was even worse. (Hamilton, 5/20)

The New York Times: A Rare Genetic Mutation Leads To Cancer. The Fix May Already Be In The Drugstore.
When Kelley Oliver Douglass got breast cancer, a genetic counselor posed an odd question: Do you and your children have trouble finding hats that fit? They did, and that gave the counselor a clue to the source of the cancer: a mutation in a gene called Pten. In addition to increasing head circumference, this rare mutation markedly raises the risk for several cancers, including prostate and breast cancer (the lifetime risk in carriers is 85 percent), as well as autism and schizophrenia in some individuals. (Kolata, 5/17)

The Washington Post: ‘This Terrible Disease’: Ovarian Cancer Is Deadly, But New Tests, Treatments Start To Emerge
For the past few years, as part of the University of Chicago Pritzker medical school obstetrics-gynecology rotation, med students at an optional lunchtime seminar hear from ovarian cancer survivors who share stories about the shock of diagnosis, painful treatments and constant worries about whether their cancer will come back. Last year, listening to the women’s experiences became a mandatory part of their medical education. The hope is that by humanizing the disease, this relatively rare cancer will be on the radar of a new generation of doctors and will change this common patient narrative: “My doctor didn’t take my symptoms seriously until it was too late.” (Richards, 5/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Robots Take A Turn Leading Autism Therapy In Schools
Two third grade students sit slumped in an office at Robert Waters Elementary School, a 2-foot robot named Milo on the table before them. Milo moves his hands and eyebrows, blinks and makes eye contact during a session that is used as part of their autism therapy. “Today we’re going to talk more about conversations between two people,” says Milo in a computer generated boy’s voice that’s 20% slower than normal. “A person in a conversation may ask the other person a question and then listen for their answer and then say something else.” (Reddy, 5/20)

NPR: Redefining Manhood: Men Look To Men For Healthier Norms
Sean Jin is 31 and says he'd not washed a dish until he was in his sophomore year of college. "Literally my mom and my grandma would ... tell me to stop doing dishes because I'm a man and I shouldn't be doing dishes." It was a long time, he says, before he realized their advice and that sensibility were "not OK." Now, as part of the Masculinity Action Project, a group of men in Philadelphia who regularly meet to discuss and promote what they see as a healthier masculinity, Jin has been thinking a lot about what men are "supposed to" do and not do. (Yu, 5/18)

NPR: Among Girls In The U.S., Suicide Rates Are Increasing And Catching Up To Boys
The number of people dying by suicide in the U.S. has been rising, and a new study shows that the suicide rate among girls ages 10 to 14 has been increasing faster than it has for boys of the same age. Boys are still more likely to take their own lives. But the study published Friday in JAMA Network Open finds that girls are steadily narrowing that gap.Researchers examined more than 85,000 youth suicides that occurred between 1975 and 2016. Donna Ruch, a researcher at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, who worked on the study, tells NPR that a major shift occurred after 2007. (Ingber and Chatterjee, 5/17)

The Washington Post: Living Longer Doesn't Mean Living Better
In 1900, the average life expectancy in the United States was just 47.3 years. Today, it is 78.6, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and many people will outstrip that average. But is that advance really worthwhile if it only means more time feeling old and infirm? In a feature article online and in the May 20 edition of the New Yorker, Adam Gopnik talks to researchers and innovators trying to make old age feel younger. (Blakemore, 5/18)

The New York Times: Is ‘Digital Addiction’ A Real Threat To Kids?
As we worriedly watch our children navigate the ever-changing digital landscape, there’s a great deal of talk these days about “digital addiction.” But several experts say we should teach kids to think of screens as something to handle in moderation, like food, rather than something without any healthy place in our lives, like meth or heroin. Children’s use of devices ranges along a continuum from healthy to compulsive to addictive, said Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis, the director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington. “I think the phenomenon of tech addiction is quite real,” he said. (Klass, 5/20)

The New York Times: Corroded Well Lining Caused Aliso Canyon Gas Leak That Displaced Thousands, Report Says
For more than 100 days in 2015 and 2016, gas leaked out of the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility near Los Angeles — the largest known leak of methane in United States history. More than 8,300 households were evacuated, and people exposed to the gas reported nosebleeds, dizziness and respiratory problems. This week, California regulators said they now knew why the environmental catastrophe happened. (Zaveri, 5/17)

Reuters: California Utility In Big 2015 Gas Leak Had Failed To Probe Leaks For Decades
The California utility responsible for a massive, 4-month-long gas leak near Los Angeles in 2015 failed to investigate dozens of leaks over decades at the natural gas storage facility, according to a state report released on Friday. The long-awaited report found that groundwater corroded a 7-inch well casing and made it to rupture, causing the leak. Because Southern California Gas, a unit of Sempra Energy, had failed to investigate and analyze leaks since the 1970s, the consequences of such corrosion were not understood, leading to the 2015 incident, the report found. (Groom, 5/17)

ProPublica/Houston Chronicle: Blistering Report Details Serious Safety Lapses At St. Luke’s In Houston
When government inspectors descended on Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in March, they found a once-renowned hospital system beset with problems threatening the health and safety of patients. It was a place where some people were given medications not ordered by their doctors, where objects had been mistakenly left in patients after surgery, and where sewage backed up into a kitchen stocked with moldy vegetables. (Hixenbaugh, 5/17)

ProPublica/Anchorage Daily News: Lawless
Village Police Officer Annie Reed heard her VHF radio crackle to life in the spring of 2018 with the familiar voice of an elder. I need help at my house, the woman said. Reed, who doesn’t wear a uniform because everyone in this Arctic Circle village of 421 can spot her ambling gait and bell of salt-and-pepper hair at a distance, steered her four-wheeler across town. There had been a home invasion, she learned. One of the local sex offenders, who outnumber Reed 7-to-1, had pried open a window and crawled inside, she said. The man then tore the clothes from the elder’s daughter, who had been sleeping, gripped her throat and raped her, according to the charges filed against him in state court. (Hopkins, 5/16)

Reuters: Nearly 180 Former Ohio State University Students Claim Sexual Abuse By Doctor
Nearly 180 men who attended Ohio State University claim they were sexually abused more than two decades ago by a now-deceased doctor, and university staff who knew of the abuse failed to act, a report released by the school on Friday said. Dr. Richard Strauss was accused of abusing at least 177 male students when he worked as a physician for the university's athletic department and the student health center from 1978 to 1998, the report said, detailing the findings of a year-long independent investigation. (O'Brien, 5/17)

The Associated Press: Prison Health Care Provider Resolves Disabilities Lawsuit
Two companies that provide health care in jails and prisons across the United States have agreed to pay $950,000 to resolve a lawsuit that alleged it discriminated against employees with disabilities by failing to accommodate them, requiring them to be fully healed before they can return to work, and firing them. A consent-decree agreement signed by a judge on Wednesday requires Corizon Health Inc. and Corizon LLC to provide annual training to employees who qualify under the Americans With Disabilities Act, review its policies and, if necessary, make changes to ensure equal employment opportunities are available to all employees and job applicants with disabilities. (5/17)

The Associated Press: Amid #MeToo, States Debate Teaching Consent To Kids
Inside a Catholic school in Portland, Oregon, high school sophomores break into groups to discuss some once-taboo topics: abusive relationships and consent. At one desk, a girl with banana-colored fingernails begins jotting down some of the hallmarks of abuse: Physically hurting you, verbally abusive, can be one-sided. She pauses to seek input from her classmates, boys and girls alike, before continuing: “It messes up your mentality and your, like, confidence.” (Dale, 5/20)

The Washington Post: D.C. Produce Rx Vouchers Are Latest Attempt To Treat Healthy Food As Medicine
Adrienne Dove pulled up to the checkout line of the Giant grocery store in Southeast Washington with a cart filled with cabbage, bananas and bagged string beans. The register rang $20.60. Instead of cash or card, Dove paid with a Produce Rx voucher from the store pharmacy. The Giant in the most impoverished part of the District is the latest frontier in the “food as medicine” movement. (Nirappil, 5/17)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Juvenile Halls Are So Chaotic, Officers Are Afraid To Go To Work
The detention officer’s email described “chaos” inside one of Los Angeles County’s juvenile halls. Her words were desperate, describing unruly, violent youth and fed up detention officers — enough to prompt a surprise visit by Joe Gardner, president of the county’s volunteer advisory panel, the Probation Commission. (Stiles, 5/19)