First Edition: October 7, 2019

Kaiser Health News: Federally Funded Obria Prescribes Abstinence To Stop The Spread Of STDs
Inside Obria Medical Clinics, conviction — not condoms — is summoned to stop the spread of chlamydia. The Christian medical chain, awarded $1.7 million in federal family planning funds for the first time this year, does not offer hormonal birth control or condoms; instead, its doctors and nurses teach patients when they’re likely to be fertile and counsel them in restraint. Reproductive health care providers have bristled over Obria’s inclusion in a federal program, known as Title X, established to help poor women avoid unwanted pregnancies. (Varney, 10/7)

Kaiser Health News: Extent Of Health Coverage Gains From California Gig Worker Law Uncertain
A new California law that reclassifies some independent contractors as employees, requiring they be offered a range of benefits and worker protections, will likely expand health insurance coverage in the state, health policy experts say. But it might end up harming some workers. That’s in part because the law, which takes effect Jan. 1, could cut two ways. While inducing many employers to extend health insurance to newly reclassified employees, it might prompt others to shift some workers from full-time to part-time status to avoid offering them health coverage, or — in the case of some small firms — to drop such benefits altogether. (Findlay, 10/7)

The New York Times: Nobel Prize In Medicine Awarded To 3 For Work On Cells
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to three scientists — William G. Kaelin Jr., Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza — for their work on how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability. The Nobel Assembly announced the prize at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm on Monday. (Specia and Wolgelenter, 10/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Nobel Prize In Medicine Awarded To U.S. And British Scientists
Oxygen sensing plays a key role in a large number of diseases. “The discoveries made by this year’s Nobel Prize laureates have fundamental importance for physiology and have paved the way for promising new strategies to fight anaemia, cancer and many other diseases,” the Nobel Prize committee said. Last year’s prize was shared by James P. Allison, professor at the University of Texas and Tasuku Honjo of Kyoto University, Japan, for discoveries that led to a new cancer therapy that uses the body’s immune system to attack tumors. (Chopping and Sugden, 10/7)

The New York Times: As The Supreme Court Gets Back To Work, Five Big Cases To Watch
The Supreme Court returns to the bench on Monday to start a term that will be studded with major cases on gay and transgender rights, immigration, abortion, guns and religion. The rulings will arrive by June, in the midst of an already divisive presidential campaign. That will thrust a court that has tried to keep a low profile back into the center of public attention. “It’s a very exciting term,” Lisa S. Blatt, a lawyer with Williams & Connolly, said. “Although the court will carry on with a sense of normalcy, it will be hard for them to ignore the polarization in the country on the issues of abortion, L.G.B.T. rights, guns and ‘Dreamers.’” (Liptak, 10/6)

The Associated Press: Abortion, Immigrants, LGBT Rights Top High Court's New Term
Abortion rights as well as protections for young immigrants and LGBT people top an election-year agenda for the Supreme Court. Its conservative majority will have ample opportunity to flex its muscle, testing Chief Justice John Roberts' attempts to keep the court clear of Washington partisan politics. Guns could be part of a term with plenty of high-profile cases and at least the prospect of the court's involvement in issues revolving around the possible impeachment of President Donald Trump and related disputes between the White House and congressional Democrats. (10/5)

The Washington Post: One Of The Most Politically Volatile Terms In Years Tests John Roberts And The Supreme Court
Two unknowns — the health of the court’s oldest member, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and whether the court will be drawn into legal controversies arising from the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into President Trump — add to the uncertainty. Resolution of the most contentious cases could happen in June, in the heat of a presidential campaign in which the future of the court has emerged as a galvanizing issue for conservatives and liberals. (Barnes, 10/6)

NPR: Supreme Court's New Term: Abortion, Guns, Gay Rights On The Table
The Supreme Court, by tradition, has tried to stay out of big controversies in an election year. But the justices, even if reticent, don't always have control over their docket. When the lower courts are divided on major questions, the justices cannot always escape their responsibility to be the final decider. (Totenberg, 10/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court To Weigh Hot-Button Issues Against Tense Political Backdrop
At the center sits Chief Justice Roberts, a thoroughly conservative jurist who heads perhaps the most conservative Supreme Court in 80 years. He is dealing with competing pressures: seizing the opportunity to implement the rightward legal vision that animated his career versus exercising the restraint many believe necessary to preserve the court’s credibility. The chief justice also is facing the prospect of presiding over any Senate impeachment trial of Mr. Trump. It is a “misperception” to view the court as a political body, Chief Justice Roberts said last month in New York. Of 19 cases resolved by 5-4 votes last term, only seven fell along perceived ideological lines, he noted. “It shouldn’t come as a surprise because we don’t go about our work in a political manner,” he said. (Kendall and Bravin, 10/6)

Reuters: U.S. Supreme Court Takes Major Case That Could Curb Abortion Access
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to take up a major abortion case that could lead to new curbs on access to the procedure as it considers the legality of a Republican-backed Louisiana law that imposes restrictions on abortion doctors. The justices will hear an appeal by abortion provider Hope Medical Group for Women, which sued to try to block the law, of a lower court ruling upholding the measure. (Hurley, 10/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court Agrees To Review Louisiana Abortion Restrictions
The Louisiana law, enacted in 2014, says physicians performing abortions must hold admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles. Abortion-rights proponents who challenged the law say the restrictions provide no actual health and safety benefits for women seeking abortions and would leave the state with only one operating abortion clinic. The state disputes that claim, saying the law wouldn’t force the closure of any of the three clinics that operate within Louisiana, though it could cause short delays at one of them. (Kendall, 10/4)

The Hill: Supreme Court Abortion Case Poses Major Test For Trump Picks
It’s not clear where Kavanaugh and Gorsuch — both former circuit court judges — will land on the abortion issue; neither has ruled on such a case before. But the other conservative justices — Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas — dissented in the Texas case. (Hellmann, 10/5)

The Washington Post: Supreme Court Agrees To Review Louisiana’s Abortion Law That Could Limit Women’s Access
Leaders on both sides of the issue took news of the court’s action as momentous, even if the questions in the case are narrow. “The Supreme Court now has a chance in this case to reconsider, reverse, and return Roe v. Wade and the issue of abortion to the American people, which is long overdue,” Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins said in a statement. “States should absolutely have the right to pass their own health and safety standards designed to protect women inside abortion vendors.” (Barnes, 10/4)

NBC News: Supreme Court To Take Up Gay Rights, DACA, Religious Freedom In New Term
The court is also scheduled to hear its first case on gun rights in nearly a decade, a development that advocates of gun rights are hoping will lead to an expansion of Second Amendment freedoms. The legal dispute involves an ordinance unique to New York City that allowed residents with a handgun permit to transport the gun, but only to shooting ranges within city limits. Gun owners who wanted to practice at ranges outside the city sued and lost, so they appealed to the Supreme Court. But after the high court agreed to hear the case, New York promptly rescinded the law, taking it off the books. (Wililams, 10/7)

USA Today: Abortion, Immigration, Gays, Guns: Supreme Court Has Blockbuster Term
The justices will waste no time diving into a divisive issue: Gay rights. Three cases will test whether the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bans job discrimination on the basis of sex, applies to gay and transgender workers. The answer will be particularly important in 28 states that do not have their own protections. The cases pick up from where the same-sex marriage battle left off in 2015, when the court ruled 5-4 that states cannot ban gays and lesbians from getting married. But the author of that decision and others favoring gay rights, Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, retired last year and was succeeded by Kavanaugh, whose vote will be key. (Wolf, 10/7)

The Associated Press: US Supreme Court To Review Kansas' Lack Of Insanity Defense
The U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to consider how far states can go toward eliminating the insanity defense in criminal trials as it reviews the case of a Kansas man sentenced to die for killing four relatives. The high court planned to hear arguments Monday in James Kraig Kahler's case. He went to the home of his estranged wife's grandmother about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Topeka the weekend after Thanksgiving 2009 and fatally shot the two women and his two teenage daughters. (Hanna, 10/6)

The Associated Press: US Appeals Court To Hear Mississippi 15-Week Abortion Ban
Federal appeals court judges are set to hear arguments Monday over a Mississippi law that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. It is one of many laws pushed by conservative states in recent years, ultimately aimed at trying to persuade the increasingly conservative Supreme Court to further restrict the time abortion is legally available. (10/5)

The Associated Press: Trump Signs Proclamation Restricting Visas For Uninsured
Immigrants applying for U.S. visas will be denied entry into the country unless they can prove they can afford health care, according to a proclamation signed Friday by President Donald Trump. The new rule applies to people seeking immigrant visas from abroad — not those in the U.S. already. It does not affect lawful permanent residents. It does not apply to asylum seekers, refugees or children. (Long, 10/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Immigrant-Visa Applicants Required To Show They Can Afford Health Care
The action, which is set to take effect in 30 days, would require applicants, including people with ties to family members in the U.S., to show they have health insurance or prove their financial ability to pay for medical care before being issued a visa that could lead to a green card. The proclamation wouldn’t apply to noncitizen children of U.S. citizens. Refugees and immigrants who won asylum are also excluded from the new requirement. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the proclamation shortly before it was released. (Hackman and Restuccia, 10/4)

Reuters: Trump Suspends Entry Of Immigrants Who Cannot Pay For Healthcare
Trump has made cutting legal and illegal immigration a centerpiece of his presidency. The Trump administration said last month that it planned to allow only 18,000 refugees to resettle in the United States in the 2020 fiscal year, the lowest number in the history of the modern refugee program. "While our healthcare system grapples with the challenges caused by uncompensated care, the United States Government is making the problem worse by admitting thousands of aliens who have not demonstrated any ability to pay for their healthcare costs," Trump said in the proclamation. (10/4)

Politico: Trump Moves To Suspend Visas For Uninsured Immigrants
The White House touted the proclamation as "protecting health care benefits for American citizens," arguing that uninsured immigrants create a financial burden for hospitals and doctors, forcing them to charge higher fees for Americans to cover the cost. "People who come here shouldn’t immediately be on public assistance," a senior administration official told POLITICO. "We should bring people here who contribute and not drain resources." (Hesson and Diamond, 10/4)

The New York Times: Trump Will Deny Immigrant Visas To Those Who Can’t Pay For Health Care
Immigration advocates were taken aback by the proclamation, noting there are already several steps that applicants for a green card must take to qualify, including passing background checks and health examinations. Elizabeth Jamae, an immigration lawyer at Pearl Law Group in San Francisco, said she doubted the assertion in the proclamation that lawful immigrants were about three times as likely as United States citizens to lack health insurance. (Shear and Jordan, 10/4)

CNN: President Trump Issues Proclamation To Deny Visas To Immigrants Who Can't Pay For Health Care
Doug Rand, a former Obama official who worked on immigration policy, told CNN on Saturday that the policy would apply to some half a million people seeking green cards from abroad -- most of whom will be the parents and spouses of US citizens. The proclamation sidesteps Congress, along with the normal executive branch regulatory process, and does not provide an opportunity for public comment, according to Rand. (Stracqualursi, 10/5)

The Hill: Immigrant Rights Groups Slam Trump Policy Requiring Migrant Health Insurance
The immigrant advocacy group United We Dream called it an "economic and racist attack." "Health insurance is hard enough for immigrants to access in this county; it's hard enough for citizens too. Our healthcare system is shot and the Trump Administration knows this. This is another economic and racist attack on a community who deserves healthcare in the first place," the group wrote. (Frazin, 10/5)

NPR: How Immigrants Use Health Care
NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks with Anne Dunkelberg of the Center for Public Policy Priorities about the new rule denying visas to immigrants without health insurance or funds to pay for health care. (10/6)

The Washington Post: Will Medicare-For-All Hurt The Middle Class? Elizabeth Warren And Bernie Sanders Struggle With Questions About Its Impact.
The two presidential candidates who have most strenuously backed Medicare-for-all are scrambling to ease concerns that it would create higher costs for many middle-class Americans. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are running on a multitrillion-dollar plan Sanders wrote to provide health insurance coverage to all Americans through the federal government, rather than from private insurers. Although they have frequently stressed that the middle class would see overall costs go down, a wide range of experts — including one whom Sanders has relied upon — say it is impossible to make those guarantees based on the plans that the candidates have outlined so far. (Viser and Sullivan, 10/5)

Stat: Buttigieg Unveils An Aggressive Plan For Lowering Drug Prices
South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Monday unveiled a sweeping plan aimed at lowering prescription drug prices — and though he’s one of the most moderate Democrats in the 2020 presidential race, the plan is anything but. Buttigieg’s proposal includes a number of drug pricing ideas once seen as radical, including a policy change that would force pharmaceutical manufacturers to forfeit as much as 95% of a drug’s revenue if the company refuses to negotiate prices. “Worst offender” drug companies could also forfeit their patent rights. (Florko and Facher, 10/7)

The Hill: Sanders At Home In Vermont After Release From Hospital 
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has returned to Burlington, Vt., after suffering a heart attack in Las Vegas. Sanders tweeted of his homecoming Sunday, saying he is "recovering well and feeling much better." "I am more determined than ever to fight alongside you to make health care a human right," he said. (Coleman, 10/6)

The Washington Post: Republicans Make Mental Health A Platform Issue As Trump Calls For More Institutions
Wisconsin state Rep. Paul Tittl always thought mental illness was something that afflicted other families. But one year, the Republican lawmaker got what he called a triple “smack dab, slap in the face.” In 2013, the maid of honor in Tittl’s wedding committed suicide. Then his cousin committed suicide. Another relative was institutionalized with a serious mental illness that year. Now Tittl has joined the ranks of Republican lawmakers nationwide pushing to expand mental health treatment, a remarkable turnaround for a party that a few years ago was staking its reputation on cutting taxes and starving government budgets. (Craig, 10/6)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Plans To Delay Any Changes If The ACA Loses In Court
The Trump administration, with no viable plan for replacing critical health benefits for millions of Americans, plans to seek a stay if a federal appeals court invalidates all or part of the Affordable Care Act in the coming weeks — and may try to delay a potential Supreme Court hearing on the matter until after the 2020 presidential election, according to current and former administration officials. Senior administration officials say they have some ideas for replacing parts of the 2010 health-care law, “principles” crafted in part by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid administrator Seema Verma. (Cunningham and Abutaleb, 10/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Doctors, Once GOP Stalwarts, Now More Likely To Be Democrats
Doctors used to be America’s quintessential Republicans. During the 20th century, most were high-earning men who owned their own practices. They liked Republicans’ support for curbing medical malpractice lawsuits and limiting government’s role in health care. When Democrats proposed creating Medicare in the 1960s, the American Medical Association, the largest physician group then and now, opposed the idea with a campaign starring then-actor Ronald Reagan. In the decades that followed, medical schools started accepting greater numbers of women, who are more likely to be Democrats (women today account for nearly half of U.S. medical students). (Adamy and Overberg, 10/6)

The Associated Press: Victims Gain A Voice To Help Guide Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy
Victims of opioid addiction weren't in the room when OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma persuaded half the state attorneys general to settle claims over the company's role in the nationwide overdose epidemic. Now that Purdue is in federal bankruptcy court, four people whose lives were touched by addiction have important seats at the table — and could force fundamental changes to the tentative deal. They are part of a bankruptcy committee that will play a major role in deciding how much Purdue will pay and potentially how that money is to be spent. (10/6)

The Associated Press: Purdue Opioid Deal Blasted As Records Show $13B To Sacklers
Attorneys general representing nearly half the states and lawyers for more than 500 local governments on Friday blasted the terms of Purdue Pharma's offer to settle thousands of lawsuits over the nation's opioid crisis in court filings that also said the company had funneled up to $13 billion to its controlling family. Their legal filings said the tentative deal does not contain an admission of wrongdoing from members of the Sackler family, would not stop family members from future misconduct and wouldn't force them to repay money "they pocketed from their illegal conduct." (10/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Teens Ignored Vaping Warnings For Years. Now, Some Are Scared.
For years at Buffalo High School here outside Minneapolis, many students were defiant about vaping. Now, some of them are starting to get scared. Mounting deaths and mystery illnesses are beginning to raise new fears among kids. “I think it was supposed to be a healthier alternative to smoking cigarettes. That’s like not the case anymore,” said Nicole Odeen, a 17-year-old senior at Buffalo High in this town of nearly 16,000 located about 40 miles northwest of Minneapolis. “Hundreds are in the hospital. With anything you’re putting into your lungs, you’ve gotta know there’s got to be some downsides to it,” said junior Elle Kaiser, 16. (Petersen, 10/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Vaping’s Black Market Complicates Efforts To Combat Crises
U.S. health officials are confronting a sprawling black market for vaping products as they seek to combat two health crises, a mysterious lung illness and a surge in teen vaping. While the market-leading startup Juul Labs Inc. has become synonymous with vaping, it sells only nicotine liquids. There are hundreds of other vaping brands—containing nicotine, compounds derived from cannabis or other substances—sold online, in vape shops, convenience stores and marijuana dispensaries. Many of them are compatible with Juul vaporizers, though they haven’t been authorized by Juul. (Maloney and Hernandez, 10/6)

The Hill: Trump Takes Heat From Right Over Vaping Crackdown 
The Trump administration is under fire from conservative groups and some GOP lawmakers, who are pushing back over its planned crackdown on e-cigarette flavors. They say the administration is overreaching, and the flavor ban will harm small businesses, a violation of core Republican free market principles. (Weixel, 10/6)

The Wall Street Journal: What Adult Vapers Should Do Now
As vaping-related illnesses and deaths mount, adults who vape are asking: What should I do now? The question is especially difficult for people who switched to vaping as a way to quit smoking. Once widely seen as safer than regular cigarettes, vaping is now spurring new worries. The number of confirmed and probable cases of vaping-associated illness has risen to 1,080 across 48 states and one U.S. territory, according to the CDC. Nineteen people have died. (Chaker, 10/5)

The Associated Press: Clampdown On Vaping Could Send Users Back Toward Cigarettes
Only two years ago, electronic cigarettes were viewed as a small industry with big potential to improve public health by offering a path to steer millions of smokers away from deadly cigarettes. That promise led U.S. regulators to take a hands-off approach to e-cigarette makers, including a Silicon Valley startup named Juul Labs, which was being praised for creating "the iPhone of e-cigarettes." (Perrone, 10/5)

The Associated Press: Judge Upholds State's Vaping Products Ban For Now
A federal judge upheld Massachusetts' four-month ban on the sale of vaping products on Friday, at least for now. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani denied the vaping industry's request for a temporary reprieve from the ban while their legal challenge plays out in Boston federal court, saying the plaintiffs did not show they would likely succeed on the merits of the case or that the "balance of hardships" weighs in their favor. (Marcelo, 10/4)

USA Today: Massachusetts Vaping Ban Allowed To Stand For Now Amid Court Challenge
But a broader legal challenge to the ban won't be decided until later this month. The judge set a hearing for Oct. 15 to take up the plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction to stop the ban, which Republican Gov. Charlie Baker announced Sept. 24. The judge's decision followed a morning hearing on the lawsuit brought by vape shops and vaping companies against Baker and the commonwealth of Massachusetts. (Garrison, 10/4)

The Associated Press: Oregon Imposes Temporary Ban On Some Vaping Products
"The safest option for Oregonians right now is to not use vaping products of any kind. Until we know more about what is causing this illness, please, do not vape," Brown said. The Oregon Health Authority had asked Brown for a six-month ban on sale and display of all vaping products, including tobacco, nicotine and cannabis. The agency also urged Oregonians to stop using all vaping products until federal and state officials have determined the cause of the illnesses. (Selsky, 10/4)

Los Angeles Times: Vape Shops In Los Angeles Fear Sales Declines Amid Health Crisis
The Ace Smoke Shop on a gentrifying strip of Lake Avenue in Altadena is a small business in every sense of the word — a tiny shack crammed with a variety of tobacco products that attracts a steady stream of customers in need of their nicotine fix. Local residents and workers stop in and grab a pack of Marlboros or a cigarillo, but what largely draws them these days is the bewildering array of e-liquids in flavors such as butterscotch, kiwi-strawberry, vanilla bean and variety of tropical fruits, as well as no-muss, no-fuss disposable e-cigarettes in mango and other varieties. (Darmiento, 10/6)

NPR: Worried Your Teen Is Vaping? How To Have A Tough Conversation
Vape pens are easy to conceal, they're easy to confuse with other electronic gadgets like USB flash drives, and they generally don't leave lingering smells on clothes. All these things make them appealing to underage users, and confounding to parents. Gone are the days when sniffing a teenager's jacket or gym bag counted as passive drug screening. Now if parents want to know if their teens are vaping nicotine or cannabis, their best bet is a good old fashioned conversation. (Vaughn, 10/6)

The Washington Post: Suspicious Insulin Injections, Nearly A Dozen Deaths: Inside An Unfolding Investigation At A VA Hospital In West Virginia
Four months after Melanie Proctor’s father was buried with military honors for his combat service in Vietnam, she came home to her farm to find an unfamiliar tan SUV in the driveway. Two federal agents stepped out into the hot sun in August 2018. Proctor, a tax preparer, wondered whether one of her clients was in trouble. “We’re here about your father,” the FBI agent said. “We don’t believe he died of natural causes.” (Rein, 10/5)

ProPublica: Pharmaceutical Companies Are Luring Mexicans Across The U.S. Border To Donate Blood Plasma
Every week, thousands of Mexicans cross the border into the U.S. on temporary visas to sell their blood plasma to profit-making pharmaceutical companies that lure them with Facebook ads and colorful flyers promising hefty cash rewards. The donors, including some who say the payments are their only income, may take home up to $400 a month if they donate twice a week and earn various incentives, including “buddy bonuses” for recruiting friends or family. Unlike other nations that limit or forbid paid plasma donations at a high frequency out of concern for donor health and quality control, the U.S. allows companies to pay donors and has comparatively loose standards for monitoring their health. (Dodt, Strozyk and Lind, 10/4)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Approves New H.I.V.-Prevention Drug, But Not For Women
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved a new drug, Descovy, for prevention of infection with H.I.V., only the second drug approved for this purpose. The first, Truvada, has become a mainstay of government efforts to turn back the H.I.V. epidemic. But the F.D.A. approved Descovy for use only in men and transgender women, because its maker, Gilead Sciences, tested it only in those groups. (Mandavilli, 10/4)

The New York Times: Australia Just Had A Bad Flu Season. That May Be A Warning For The U.S.
Australia had an unusually early and fairly severe flu season this year. Since that may foretell a serious outbreak on its way in the United States, public health experts now are urging Americans to get their flu shots as soon as possible. “It’s too early to tell for sure, because sometimes Australia is predictive and sometimes it’s not,” said Dr. Daniel B. Jernigan, director of the influenza division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “But the best move is to get the vaccine right now.” (McNeil, 10/4)

The New York Times: Brain Stimulation Shows Promise In Treating Severe Depression
For more than a decade, doctors have been using brain-stimulating implants to treat severe depression in people who do not benefit from medication, talk therapy or electroshock sessions. The treatment is controversial — any psychosurgery is, given its checkered history — and the results have been mixed. Two major trials testing stimulating implant for depression were halted because of disappointing results, and the approach is not approved by federal health regulators. (Carey, 10/4)

The New York Times: Scientist Who Discredited Meat Guidelines Didn’t Report Past Food Industry Ties
A surprising new study challenged decades of nutrition advice and gave consumers the green light to eat more red and processed meat. But what the study didn’t say is that its lead author has past research ties to the meat and food industry. The new report, published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine, stunned scientists and public health officials because it contradicted longstanding nutrition guidelines about limiting consumption of red and processed meats. (Parker-Pope and O'Connor, 10/4)

The Washington Post: The Climate Is Changing, But Our Disaster-Response System Isn’t Keeping Up, Experts Say
After a fire killed 34 people in a dive boat off the coast of California last month, the National Transportation Safety Board began an immediate investigation. Within 10 days, the NTSB published a key finding — that all six crew members were asleep with nobody on watch when the fire broke out — and promised an in-depth inquiry and safety recommendations. Eleven months after fire obliterated Paradise, Calif., and left 85 people dead, there has been no such independent investigation. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, tasked with managing the government’s response, has not completed its after-action report. FEMA’s reports, designed to assess its own performance rather than make safety recommendations, are rarely made public. (Sellers, 10/5)

The New York Times: Is Your Child Struggling In School? Talk To Your Pediatrician
The American Academy of Pediatrics has just issued a report on what pediatricians can — and should — do to help “school-aged children who are not progressing academically.” Dr. Arthur Lavin, one of the lead authors of the report and the chairman of the A.A.P. committee on the psychosocial aspects of child and family health, said that pediatricians can play an important role in working with children who are struggling in school. He does so in his own practice in the Cleveland area and said it has emerged as a high priority among his patients because it is so common. (Klass, 10/7)

The Washington Post: On YouTube, People With Disabilities Create Content To Show And Normalize Their Experiences
Ruby Ardolf, 14, has her own YouTube channel, featuring familiar aspects of a teen’s daily life and merchandise with messages of kindness and inclusion. But Ruby is not a typical teen vlogger. She is disabled — one of 12 people worldwide with a genetic condition called Stromme syndrome, which results in microcephaly (small brain), and impaired vision and motor functioning. (Chiu, 10/6)

The New York Times: Relief For Children’s Migraine Headaches
My grandson Stefan was about 8 years old when he began to get migraine headaches. As soon as he could after getting home from school, he would lie down and go to sleep, awakening an hour or two later, usually with the headache gone. But before the pain abated, he sometimes vomited, prompting him and his relatives to keep barf bags handy at all times. Then as Stefan approached puberty, these debilitating headaches stopped as mysteriously as they had begun. (Brody, 10/7)

The New York Times: Addicted To Screens? That’s Really A You Problem
Nir Eyal does not for a second regret writing Silicon Valley’s tech engagement how-to, “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products,” even as he now has a new book out on how to free ourselves of that same addiction. In his original manual for building enthralling smartphone apps, Mr. Eyal laid out the tricks “to subtly encourage customer behavior” and “bring users back again and again.” He toured tech companies speaking about the Hook Model, his four-step plan to grab and keep people with enticements like variable rewards, or pleasures that come at unpredictable intervals. (Bowles, 10/6)

The Associated Press: Verbal Autopsies Used In Push To Better Track Global Deaths
One afternoon last month, a young woman with a tablet computer sat next to Alphonsine Umurerwa on the living room couch, asking questions, listening carefully. She learned that the woman’s 23-year-old daughter, Sandrine Umwungeri, had been very sick for about a year, gradually becoming so weak she stopped leaving their tin-roofed home in a hilly section of Rwanda’s capital city. The family thought she had malaria. Medicines from a local pharmacy didn’t help. In March, she died. (Larson and Stobbe, 10/6)

The Washington Post: Worried You Ingested Something Deadly? This Virtual Poison Control Website Can Be A Lifesaving Tool.
You swallowed. You were splashed. You got stung. But was it harmful? If you aren’t sure, head to Webpoisoncontrol.org. That’s the online home of a project supported by 18 accredited poison control centers nationwide and operated under the auspices of the National Capital Poison Center in Washington. (Blakemore, 10/5)

The New York Times: How A Murderous Rampage Reveals Perils For City’s Street Homeless
A 24-year-old homeless man, Randy Santos, was charged on Sunday with four counts of murder. Mr. Santos’s criminal history suggests he had been caught in a downward spiral for months before the attacks, accused of biting a worker at an employment agency in the garment district in Manhattan last October and punching a stranger in the eye on a Q subway train four days later, the police said. The deaths of the four men brought the dangers of living on the street into full public view, renewing attention on the unsheltered homeless, who make up only about 5 percent of the estimated 79,000 homeless people in New York City. (Stewart and Van Syckle, 10/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Homeless Man Charged In Killing Of Four Others
Advocates for the homeless said the incident serves as a reminder of dangerous conditions faced by homeless people in New York City. According to a report published by the nonprofit Coalition for the Homeless, there were 61,674 homeless people in New York City in August. Coalition for the Homeless Policy Director Giselle Routhier said in an interview that a shortage of affordable housing is behind the problem. “We’re not addressing the root causes,” Ms. Routhier said. “The government needs to provide people with homes because the housing market isn’t doing it.” (Chapman, 10/6)

Los Angeles Times: Are Many Homeless People In L.A. Mentally Ill? New Findings Back The Public’s Perception
Mental illness, substance abuse and physical disabilities are much more pervasive in Los Angeles County’s homeless population than officials have previously reported, a Times analysis has found. The Times examined more than 4,000 questionnaires taken as part of this year’s point-in-time count and found that about 76% of individuals living outside on the streets reported being, or were observed to be, affected by mental illness, substance abuse, poor health or a physical disability. (Smith and Oreskes, 10/7)

The Associated Press: 6 Plead Guilty In $48M Drug Treatment Fraud Scheme
Federal authorities say six people have pleaded guilty to charges involving a $48 million Medicaid fraud scheme involving an Ohio addiction services company. Among those who entered pleas Friday in Youngstown was 39-year-old Ryan Sheridan, of Leetonia, the owner of Braking Point Recovery Center, which operated drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities outside Youngstown and Columbus. (10/5)