State Highlights: PG&E Knew About Likelihood Of Flaws That Led To Calif. Fires, Report Says; San Francisco Proposes Sweeping Limits On E-Cigarette Sales

The New York Times: How PG&E Ignored California Fire Risks In Favor Of Profits
Tower 27/222 looms almost 100 feet tall in the Sierra Nevada foothills, a hunk of steel that has endured through 18 United States presidents. The transmission lines that it supports keep electricity flowing to much of California. On the morning of Nov. 8, a live wire broke free of its grip. A power failure occurred on the line, affecting a single customer. But 15 minutes later, a fire was observed nearby. Within hours, flames engulfed the region, ultimately killing 85 and destroying the town of Paradise. The equipment belonged to the state’s biggest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric. To the company’s critics, the tower and its vulnerability reflect a broken safety culture. (Penn, Eavis and Glanz, 3/18)

The Associated Press: San Francisco Floats Ban On E-Cigarettes Pending US Review
San Francisco is trying to crack down on electronic cigarettes that critics say aggressively target kids, with an official on Tuesday proposed what's believed to be the first U.S. ban on their sale until the federal government regulates vaping products. City Attorney Dennis Herrera said San Francisco, Chicago and New York sent a joint letter demanding that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration evaluate the effect of e-cigarettes on public health. (3/19)

KQED: San Francisco Officials Propose Sweeping New E-Cigarette Restrictions
“These companies may hide behind the veneer of harm reduction, but let’s be clear, their product is addiction," said Herrera. "They’re in the business of getting people addicted or keeping them addicted.” ...The bill's authors emphasize that it would not be an outright ban on e-cigarettes, but rather a "prohibition" against products that "haven’t been reviewed by the FDA to confirm that they are appropriate for the protection of public health." (Wolfe and Green, 3/19)

Modern Healthcare: CHI Franciscan Settles Antitrust Lawsuit With Washington
Tacoma-based CHI Franciscan and the state of Washington settled an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the not-for-profit health system's affiliation with two Kitsap County physician groups raised prices and decreased competition, according to court records. Details of the settlement have not been formalized, but CHI Franciscan said in a statement that its affiliations with WestSound Orthopaedics and the Doctors Clinic will remain in place. The court removed WestSound from the lawsuit, per a March 1 filing, and officially ended the trial March 15. (Kacik, 3/19)

Wyoming Public Radio: Wyoming's Flu Season Isn't Over Yet
Kim Deti with the Wyoming Department of Health said there's a continued high level of flu activity around the state. There have been flu-related hospitalizations and outbreaks in long-term care facilities, like nursing homes, Deti said. (Wheeler, 3/19)

KCUR: In Wyandotte County, Housing Is Eating Up Paychecks And Harming Health 
It turns out that nearly one in six Wyandotte County households spend more than half their income on housing, compared with just one in 11 Johnson County households. In Kansas as a whole, about one in 10 households spend more than half their income on housing costs. The figures come courtesy of the latest County Health Rankings report released Tuesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. The report looks at more than 30 measures to assess the overall health of nearly every county in the country. (Margolies, 3/19)

Los Angeles Times: Border Patrol Says Detention Centers Are Full — And Starts Releasing Migrants
The Border Patrol released 50 recently apprehended migrants here Tuesday, the first of several hundred border-crossers who officials say will soon be freed because there is no room to hold them. Normally, the Border Patrol would transfer the migrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be “processed” and in many cases placed in detention facilities. But officials said that both agencies have run out of space due to a recent influx of Central American families. (Hennessy-Fiske and O'Toole, 3/19)

Detroit Free Press: Beaumont Leads Henry Ford Health In Race To Build Hospital In Oxford
State regulators are allowing only one hospital to be built in Oxford, and Beaumont Health appears to be winning the race to build it. Beaumont Health has submitted a "certificate of need" application with the State of Michigan seeking approval to construct a $140-million, five-story, 117-bed hospital in the Oakland County community. The application's deadline was Feb. 1. (Reindl, 3/19)

Sacramento Bee: University Of California Workers To Strike For 3rd Time In 11 Months
Thousands of University of California workers are launching their third strike in less than a year Wednesday at 10 campuses and five medical centers statewide, saying their labor contract negotiations have stalled because UC leaders are not willing to address wage inequality and job security. Picketers will be marching all day at the UC Davis Medical Center campus along Sacramento’s Stockton Boulevard and near Toomey Field on the UC Davis campus. (Anderson, 3/19)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: More Moms And Kids Withdrawing From Nutrition Program Because Of Deportation Fears, Administrators Say
Low-income immigrant mothers are skipping the chance to get nutritious foods and help for their infants from a federal program because they fear deportation, or the loss of their children, according to the agencies that distribute those benefits. (Lubrano, 3/20)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Inmate Who Died In Detention Facility Complained Of Lack Of Care
A handwritten note complaining of a lack of care was found in the cell of an inmate who died at the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility, according to a medical examiner's report. William Leary, 51, was pronounced dead shortly after 3 p.m. Sunday at the state-run facility at 1015 N. 10th St. about two hours after being examined by a nurse, according to the report. (Garza, 3/19)

Arizona Republic: Hacienda Rape Suspect To Fight Court-Ordered HIV, STD Testing
The former Hacienda nurse accused of raping and impregnating an incapacitated woman plans to fight court-ordered testing for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases. Nathan Sutherland, who will turn 37 this month, stood silently beside his new attorney, Edward Molina, during what was essentially a housekeeping hearing Tuesday morning in Maricopa County Superior Court. (Burkitt, 3/19)

Miami Herald: 8 Florida Nurses Disciplined In March Over Alcohol Or Drugs
Substance abuse problems cost eight registered nurses or licensed practical nurses their licenses in the first 12 days of March, according to a Miami Herald check of Florida Department of Health discipline records. Licenses received either an emergency restriction order (ERO) or emergency suspension order (ESO). While an ERO usually isn’t as serious as an ESO, in these cases, each action prevented the person from legally working as a nurse. (Neal, 3/20)

San Jose Mercury News: San Jose Still Not Answering Emergency Calls Fast Enough
Despite some improvement in the past couple of years, San Jose’s fire and police departments still aren’t answering emergency calls fast enough. And when they do pick up the phone quickly, it comes at a cost: lots of overtime. That’s according to a recent audit from city auditor Sharon Erickson, who laid out a series of recommendations for improving emergency call answering times in a city grappling with both an increasing volume of reports and job vacancies that have proven tough to fill. (DeRuy, 3/19)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Akron’s Infant Mortality Rate Has Decreased By Nearly 9 Percent Since 2016, City Says
Greater Akron’s campaign against infant mortality, Full Term First Birthday, has released its three-year plan focusing on the social influences on health and the uncoordinated agendas of health-related agencies and community organizations. The plan was unveiled Tuesday at Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan’s third annual Health Equity Summit at the John S. Knight Center. (Goist, 3/19)

The Associated Press: Doctor Who Cheated Medicaid Of $5M Gets 7 Years In Prison
A Connecticut doctor who bilked Medicaid out of nearly $5 million and stashed some of the stolen money in a Swiss bank account has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison. Federal prosecutors say 49-year-old Ramil Mansourov was also ordered in federal court in New Haven on Monday to repay the money and surrender his federal controlled substances registration. (3/19)

The Washington Post: Fetal Macrosomia: Joy Buckley Gave Birth To A 15-Pound Baby In New York
In the final weeks of her pregnancy, Joy Buckley had been sleeping on the couch to avoid climbing the stairs to the bedroom. It had become harder to breathe. Her bladder was being squished. And, she said, she had to eat eight small meals a day because she could not fit much food in her stomach at one time. She knew her soon-to-be born daughter, Harper, was going to be large — the baby had run out of room, and Buckley had no more to give her. (Bever, 3/19)

Georgia Health News: Forsyth Still No. 1 As County Health Rankings Show Familiar Pattern
Once again, Forsyth County ranks as the healthiest county in Georgia. And the next four healthiest — Oconee, Cherokee, Fayette and Gwinnett — are the same as last year’s, in the newly released 2019 County Health Rankings. All five counties are suburban and in the northern half of the state. (Miller, 3/19)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Tulane Lakeside Hospital Changes Name, Adds Services For Adult Patients
Tulane Lakeside Hospital for Women and Children is changing its name and adding more services for adult patients, including a new intensive care unit. The Metairie-based hospital has changed its name to Tulane Lakeside Hospital to better reflect its expanded focus on adult services, according to a press release. Tulane Sports Medicine Institute will have a larger presence in the hospital campus with the development of a total knee and hip replacement center. The hospital is also investing in robotic surgery technology to increase the accuracy and precision of shoulder and knee replacements, according to the press release. (Clark, 3/19)

Texas Tribune: Deer Park Terminal Fire: What You Need To Know
A fire that broke out at a petrochemical storage facility over the weekend in the industrial Houston suburb of Deer Park continued to burn Tuesday after intensifying overnight. Despite the tall black plume that has billowed over the nation's fourth-largest city for two days, state and local officials have emphasized that monitoring data show the air is still safe to breath. (Collier, 3/19)