State Highlights: In Calif., Gubernatorial Candidates Try To Prove Health Care Street Cred; Death Toll Rises In Fla. Nursing Home Tradgedy

Los Angeles Times: The Push For Single-Payer Health Care Just Went National. What Does That Mean For The California Effort?
When Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders visited Beverly Hills last May, he made a full-throated appeal for California to “lead the country” and pass a pending state proposal to establish single-payer health care. On Friday, he’ll return here for a San Francisco speech trumpeting his own higher-stakes plan — a bill to drastically overhaul the nation’s health-care system by covering everyone through Medicare. (Mason, 9/22)

Los Angeles Times: Two Top Candidates For California Governor Have Been Touting Their Healthcare Wins. Here's What They Really Did
Gavin Newsom and Antonio Villaraigosa are depicting themselves as Democratic healthcare visionaries as they campaign to become California’s next governor. To prove his healthcare mettle, Newsom points to Healthy San Francisco, a first-of-its-kind universal system adopted while he reigned as the city’s mayor in 2006. Newsom’s work on the program helped him land an endorsement from the influential California Nurses Association, and a boast or two will surely punctuate his speech at their convention on Friday as hyper-partisan politics intensify over efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and implement a national single-payer plan. (Willon, 9/22)

Reuters: Death Toll From Overheated Florida Nursing Home Rises To 10
A 10th elderly patient at a Miami-area nursing home has died after she was exposed to sweltering heat in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, police said on Thursday. The resident of the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills died on Wednesday, police in Hollywood, Florida, said in a statement, without giving details. (Simpson, 9/21)

Los Angeles Times: Multiple Cases Of West Nile Virus In Glendale Prompt Education Campaign
With eight cases of West Nile virus reported in Glendale so far this year, health officials took part in a door-to-door education campaign Wednesday, informing residents of what they can do to protect themselves from infection. Conducted by the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District, the effort informed residents in Glendale, Los Feliz and Atwater Village about the preventive measures they can take to reduce the risk of being bitten by mosquitoes. Levy Sun, a spokesman for vector control, said wearing insect repellent and dumping out any stagnant water near homes are measures people should take regularly. (Nguyen, 9/21)

Houston Chronicle: Residents Near Houston Superfund Site Await Answers After Hurricane Harvey
Bonner and others in Channelview, Baytown and Highlands neighborhoods along this industrial stretch of the river south of the Lake Houston dam worry about the toxicity of murky water, white dust and the foul-smelling sludge covering their properties. The question for dozens of people, who a week after the storm still guard wrecked riverfront properties from marauders seeking scrap, is whether their neighborhoods are now too contaminated to recover. (Olson, 9/22)

Chicago Sun-Times: Rauner, Lawmakers ‘Assessing’ Whether To Pull Trigger On Abortion Bill
The legislation, House Bill 40, would remove a “trigger provision” that would make abortions illegal in Illinois should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade. It would also allow women with Medicaid and state-employee health insurance to use their coverage for abortions.(Sfondeles, 9/21)

Philadelphia Inquirer: 'Talk About An Unholy Alliance': Lawyers, Doctors And Pharmacies
Three partners at [Pond Lehocky] and its chief financial officer are majority owners of a mail-order pharmacy in the Philadelphia suburbs that has teamed up with a secretive network of doctors that prescribes unproven and exorbitantly priced pain creams to injured workers — some creams costing more than $4,000 per tube. (Bender, 9/22)

Miami Herald: Dadeland Area Gets Its First Medical Marijuana Shop
Curaleaf, the new brand for Costa Farms’ cannabis operation, launched its first stand-alone store Thursday in the Dadeland area. The store at 9002 South Dadeland Blvd., Unit 1, is the second metropolitan-area pot shop to open in the county. (Smiley, 9/21)