Reuters: Trump Imposes Rule Allowing U.S. To Detain Migrant Families Indefinitely
The Trump administration on Wednesday unveiled a rule that allows officials to detain migrant families indefinitely while judges consider whether to grant them asylum in the United States, abolishing a previous 20-day limit. The rule, which is certain to draw a legal challenge, would replace a 1997 court settlement that limits the amount of time U.S. immigration authorities can detain migrant children. That agreement is generally interpreted as meaning families must be released within 20 days. (Sullivan and Rosenberg, 8/21)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Moves To Terminate Court Agreement, Hold Migrant Children And Parents Longer
The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services will issue a rule Friday to withdraw from the Flores Settlement Agreement, the federal consent decree that has set basic standards for the detention of migrant children and teenagers by the United States since 1997. The new rule will need the approval of a federal judge, who declined the government’s request last year to expand detentions. Homeland Security officials said the rule would eliminate a 20-day cap for detaining migrant children and create a new license regime that would make it easier for federal officials to expand family detention nationwide. (Sacchetti, 8/21)

The New York Times: Migrant Families Would Face Indefinite Detention Under New Trump Rule
For more than a year, the White House has pressed the Department of Homeland Security to find a way to eliminate the agreement, known as the Flores settlement, which limits the time children can spend in detention and establishes minimum standards for the holding facilities for families and children. Immigration hard-liners inside the administration say the move is crucial to halting the flow of migrants across the southwestern border. The administration’s goal with the new rule is deterrence, and its message to families fleeing Central American is blunt: Come here and we will lock you up. Critics say it is the latest in a series of policies by President Trump meant to close off the United States from the rest of the world. (Shear and Kanno-Youngs, 8/21)

CNN: What Is The Flores Settlement?
The (Flores) settlement also required immigration officials to give detained minors a certain quality of life, including things such as food, drinking water, medical assistance in emergencies, toilets, sinks, temperature control, supervision and as much separation from unrelated adults as possible, according to a Congressional Research Service report. During the 1980s, the former government agency Immigration and Naturalization Service was accused of mistreating immigrant children, according to the Congressional Research Service report, resulting in a series of lawsuits that ended with the Flores settlement agreement. (Stracqualursi, Sands, Elkin and Rocha, 8/21)

Modern Healthcare: Immigrant Detention Limits Ended By Trump Administration
In describing the new system, the Trump administration Wednesday said the Flores agreement was always supposed to be temporary. "Beginning in 2005, prior administrations repeatedly announced plans for a rule," DHS said in its announcement of the rule. "No prior administration, however, issued a final rule. With this achievement now complete, the (Flores agreement) will terminate by its own terms, and the Trump administration will continue to work for a better immigration system." (Luthi, 8/21)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Seeks Longer Detentions For Migrant Families
Immigration-rights advocates are expected to challenge the rules in federal court, where they have blocked the administration before. A legal challenge would likely keep the policy from taking immediate effect. (Hackman, 8/21)

NPR: Immigration Advocate Weighs In On Trump Administration's Move To End Flores Agreement
NPR's Audie Cornish speaks with Wendy Young, president of the child advocacy organization KIND, about President Trump's moves to change requirements for the detention of migrant children. (8/21)

The New York Times Fact Check: Fact-Checking Trump’s Claim That He Didn’t Start Family Separations At Border
Questioned about the new policy, which is sure to be challenged in court, Mr. Trump continued his pattern of blaming “loopholes,” nonexistent laws and former presidents for his own administration’s practice of separating migrant families who cross illegally. President Barack Obama, in particular, has been wrongly cast as the instigator of the practice by Mr. Trump at least two dozen other times. Under Mr. Trump, the Justice Department announced its “zero-tolerance policy” for illegally entering the United States in April 2018, describing it as “new” and in response to an increase in unauthorized border crossings that spring. (Qiu, 8/21)

The Associated Press: Trump Signs Student Debt Forgiveness For Disabled Veterans
Hundreds of millions of dollars in federal student loan debt owed by tens of thousands of disabled military veterans will be erased under a directive President Donald Trump signed Wednesday. Trump ordered the Education Department to "eliminate every penny of federal student loan debt" owed by American veterans who are completely and permanently disabled. (Superville, 8/21)

Politico: Trump Eases Student Loan Forgiveness For Disabled Veterans
Trump said he was “taking executive action to ensure that our wounded warriors are not saddled with mountains of student debt,” vowing to “eliminate every penny of federal student loan debt owed by American veterans who are completely and permanently disabled.” “The debt of these disabled veterans will be entirely erased,” Trump said during remarks at a veterans convention in Louisville, Ky. “It will be gone.” The move will wipe out “hundreds of millions” in student loan debt owed by more than 25,000 disabled veterans, Trump said. The average amount forgiven would be about $30,000, he said. (Stratford, 8/21)

USA Today: Trump Signs Order To Eliminate Student Loan Debt For Disabled Vets
About half of the roughly 50,000 disabled veterans who are qualified to have their federal student loan debt forgiven have received the benefit because of an application process that has proven burdensome, the administration said. The memo directs the government to develop an "expedited" process, which the Department of Education said would mean loans are forgiven unless veterans opt out. (Behrmann and Kenning, 8/21)

Military Times: Trump Orders Easier Process To Forgive Disabled Vets’ Student Loans
Veterans who are 100 percent disabled are already eligible to have their federal student loan debt completely erased, but government officials have struggled to get all of that group to take advantage of the program. (Shane, 8/21)

Al.Com: Trump Administration To Forgive Student Debt For Disabled Vets
Last year, the U.S. Department of Education began a data matching process with the Veterans Administration to identify permanently disabled veterans who are eligible for student loan relief. The process has resulted in more than $650 million in student loan relief for more than 22,000 eligible veterans since April 2018. (Thornton, 8/21)

Politico Pro: Trump: I've instructed VA To Buy 'A Lot' Of J&J Drug To Treat Depression
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he has instructed the VA to buy “a lot” of an anti-depressant to help prevent suicide in veterans, but FDA hasn't approved that use for the drug, which comes with severe warnings that it could be dangerous for many users. The drug, Spravato is produced by Johnson & Johnson, founded by the great-grandfather of Woody Johnson, a major Trump fundraiser and current U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom. (Owermohle and Karlin-Smith, 8/21)

Military Times: Trump Orders VA To Buy Controversial Antidepressant In An Effort To Stem Veterans Suicide
The president said the drug — developed by a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical firm Johnson & Johnson — has shown a “tremendously positive” effect in early testing and he is optimistic it can help with mental health problems in the veterans community. VA research shows that nationwide, about 20 veterans a day die by suicide. “This is a form of a stimulant where, if someone is really in trouble from the standpoint of suicide, it can do something,” Trump said. “It’s pretty well known, it just came out. We have calls in to Johnson & Johnson now, we’ve been talking to them for two months on buying a lot of it.” (Shane, 8/21)

Reuters: Trump Administration To Appeal Ruling Blocking Price Disclosure For Drug Ads
The Trump administration is appealing a court ruling that struck down its plan to compel pharmaceutical companies to disclose wholesale prices of their drugs in televisions advertisements. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) filed a notice of appeal on Wednesday, as it prepares to challenge the July federal court ruling. (8/21)

The Hill: Trump Administration Appeals Drug Price Disclosure Ruling 
The appeal, announced in a court filing, gives President Trump and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) another chance to resurrect what was one of the administration’s key attempts at lowering prescription drug prices. Under the rule, which was announced by HHS Secretary Alex Azar in May, drug manufacturers would have to state the list price of a 30-day supply of any drug that is covered through Medicare and Medicaid and costs at least $35 a month. (Weixel, 8/21)

Stat: Appealing Court Ruling, Trump Administration Renews Fight To Require Drug Prices In TV Ads
The new court filing is the latest flare-up in an ongoing spat between the Trump administration and the pharmaceutical industry over the policy, and over drug prices more generally. Drug makers have argued the new rules would not provide consumers with useful information — since most consumers don’t actually pay the sticker price for their drugs — and the Trump administration has argued drug makers don’t want to advertise their prices because they’re ashamed. (Florko, 8/21)

The New York Times: Vaping Sicknesses Rising: 153 Cases Reported In 16 States
Sixteen states have now reported 153 cases of serious, vaping-related respiratory illnesses in the past two months, and many of the patients are teenagers or young adults. In a statement on Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that all of the cases occurred in people who acknowledged vaping either nicotine or tetrahydrocannabinol, known as THC, the high-inducing chemical in marijuana. (Kaplan, 8/21)

The Associated Press: Reported Illness Among Vapers Reaches 150 Possible Cases
Officials on Wednesday said the Food and Drug Administration has joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and states investigating reports from the last two months. All the illnesses were in teens or adults who had used an electronic cigarette or some other kind of vaping device. Doctors say the illnesses resemble an inhalation injury, with the lungs apparently reacting to a caustic substance. So far infectious diseases have been ruled out. (8/21)

KQED: 21 Cases Of Lung Disease Linked To Vaping Cannabis Bought On Street
For the past few months, doctors in Kings County, in California's Central Valley, saw a small but higher than normal number of patients with lung disease. At first, patients presented with characteristics of pneumonia or bronchitis, like weakness or shortness of breath. But when placed on standard antibiotic treatment, they did not improve. After their health further deteriorated, doctors determined that patients instead had a condition called acute respiratory distress syndrome, and the cause was something surprising, said Kings County public health officer Dr. Milton Teske. (Klivans, 8/21)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Cudahy OKs E-Cigarette Bans After Vaping-Related Hospitalizations
Following reports of vaping-related hospitalizations, Cudahy has passed an ordinance banning all electronic smoking devices in places where state law currently bans smoking. Those caught vaping in prohibited areas could face fines not less than $100 and not more than $250 for each violation — except that the forfeiture for a "person in charge" shall be $100 for all violations occurring on a single day, the ordinance states. (Hanley, 8/21)

Reuters: E-Cigarette Firms Probed Over Health Concerns By U.S. House Panel
Four dominant e-cigarette manufacturers face a probe into the health impacts of their products, as the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee asked on Wednesday about the firms' research and marketing practices. The committee sent letters to Juul Labs Inc, 35% owned by Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc, Fontem Ventures, Japan Tobacco Inc, and Reynolds American Inc, a unit of British American Tobacco Plc. (8/21)

The Hill: House Democratic Chairman Launches Probe Of E-Cigarette Makers
A top House Democrat is launching a probe into e-cigarette companies and their marketing practices in the wake of a mysterious new lung illness being reported in young people. Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) sent letters to the four dominant e-cigarette manufacturers, requesting information on their research into the public health impacts of their products, their marketing practices and their roles in the promotion of e-cigarette use by adolescents.  (Weixel, 8/21)

The Associated Press: North Carolina Schools Add E-Cigs To 'No Smoking' Signs
North Carolina public schools have added a picture of an electronic cigarette to their "no smoking" signs. News outlets report all public schools in the state are required to have a sign posted stating they're a tobacco-free zone, but this year a symbol has been added to also ban e-cigarette use, also called vaping. (8/21)

KSL.Com: Utah Lawmakers Recommend E-Cigarette Tax Bill To Reduce Vaping ‘Epidemic’ In Youth
State legislators are hoping to add to recent local and national efforts to curb the use of vape pens and e-cigarettes, particularly among youth. The Health and Human Services Interim Committee, chaired by Sen. Allen M. Christensen, R-North Ogden, and Rep. Brad M. Daw, R-Orem, unanimously agreed Wednesday to recommend a bill that would tax e-cigarettes. (Bojorquez, 8/21)

Reuters: Trump Says He Will Push To Close Background Check Loopholes For Gun Buys
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday his administration would seek to close background check loopholes for gun purchases after Democrats accused him of reversing course on gun control measures. Trump spoke with the leader of the National Rifle Association lobbying group, Wayne LaPierre, on Tuesday, a White House official said. Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump said he did not tell LaPierre, whose group strongly opposes increased gun restrictions, that he would avoid pursuing measures on background checks. (8/21)

USA Today: Trump Reverses Again On Gun Background Checks, Says He Backs Them And Never Told NRA Otherwise
Trump confirmed that he discussed background checks with Wayne LaPierre, head of the National Rifle Association, but he disputed news reports that he told LaPierre that background checks were off the table. “I have an appetite for background checks,” Trump said from the White House South Lawn as he departed for an event in Louisville, Kentucky. “We’re going to be doing background checks. ... We’re going to be filling in some of the loopholes.” (Wu, Collins and Fritze, 8/21)

The Associated Press: Trump: Again Open To Strengthening Gun Background Checks
Speaking to reporters as he departed the White House for Kentucky, the president said he considers gun violence a public health issue and is considering ways to make background checks more strict. But he also said, “You’re on that slope and all of a sudden nobody has any legal protection,” adding, “Our Second Amendment will remain strong.” Told the “slippery slope” argument is a National Rifle Association talking point, Trump said, “It’s a Trump talking point.” (Colvin and Kellman, 8/21)

Politico: Trump To Release Gun Control Proposals, Including Background Check Updates
The White House did not give a timetable for the proposals — which will likely include other legislation and executive actions addressing domestic terrorism, violent video games and mental health treatment — but suggested that the package would be timed to Congress's return in early September. The president received a formal briefing on Tuesday from his staff about the possible options, according to a White House official. (Kumar and Oprysko, 8/21)

Time: 'Let's Call Wayne.' Inside The White House Discussions On Guns
Among the proposals under consideration are so-called “red flag” provisions that would allow authorities to take guns away from people who pose a safety threat, an authority that might be paired with requirements that the person receive a mental health evaluation or be committed. (Bennett, 8/21)

The New York Times: Trump’s Waffling On Gun Control Confuses Legislative Picture
After the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Senator Mitch McConnell had a message for his Kentucky constituents as his 2014 re-election fight loomed. “I want you to know that I will be doing everything in my power as Senate Republican leader, fighting tooth and nail, to protect your Second Amendment rights,” Mr. McConnell, a staunch opponent of limits on gun ownership, said in an automated call. He then helped quash expanded background check legislation backed by President Barack Obama and a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers. Responding to this month’s mass shootings in El Paso, Tex., and Dayton, Ohio, Mr. McConnell, his re-election fight again just ahead, was more measured. (Hulse, 8/21)

Politico: Republicans Start To Sour On Gun Control Laws After Trump's Reversal
Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson is casting major doubt on the prospects of significant gun regulations passing this fall, the latest sign that the effort to pass new firearm laws is starting to falter. The Wisconsin Republican said that a background checks measure based on the bill written by Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and a national "red flag" bill are both unlikely to pass. He was open to GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham’s bill that would establish a red flag grant program, but said the Senate would need to “attach to those grants very strict guidelines in terms of due process.” (Everett, 8/20)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Rep. Jim Jordan Warns Against Rushing New Gun Laws To President Trump
This month’s shootings in El Paso and Dayton haven’t moved Champaign County GOP Rep. Jim Jordan any closer to backing universal background checks for gun purchasers or red flag laws that would let authorities take guns from those deemed mentally unstable. The House Freedom Caucus co-founder on Wednesday published an opinion piece on the FoxNews website that shoots down those suggestions and others as “ineffective and misguided.” (Eaton, 8/21)

The New York Times: Parkland Shooting Survivors Release Ambitious Gun Control Plan
March for Our Lives, a group led by student survivors of last year’s mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., unveiled an ambitious gun control platform on Wednesday that would ban assault-style weapons, raise the minimum age for buying firearms, create a national gun registry and require gun owners to pay for new licenses each year. The plan would go well beyond gun control measures like “red flag” laws and expanded background checks, which have been openly discussed after 31 people were killed in recent mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso. (Hassan, 8/21)

USA Today: Parkland Students Announce Gun Control Plan, Aim To Halve Gun Violence Rate In 10 Years
The package, called a "Peace Plan for a Safer America," presents a six-part plan to address "the deadly epidemic of gun violence." The comprehensive gun control plan would aim to "halve the rate of gun deaths in 10 years" by passing national gun control legislation, starting FEC and IRS investigations into the National Rifle Association, and appointing a National Director of Gun Violence Prevention, among other provisions. (Wu, 8/21)

Los Angeles Times: After Trump Backtracks, Parkland Shooting Survivors Issue Sweeping Gun Control Plan
“The younger generations are disproportionately affected by gun violence. They should have a say in how their country solves this epidemic,” the proposal reads. “The federal government has failed in its responsibility to protect the safety and well-being of the public with regard to the nation’s gun violence epidemic. The time for comprehensive and sweeping reform is now.” (Diaz, 8/21)

Meanwhile —

The Washington Post: National Gun-Control Group Launches Campaign Against Suburban Republicans In Virginia
The national gun-control group Everytown for Gun Safety is beginning a digital advertising blitz in suburban swing districts in Virginia’s pivotal fall election, targeting Republican lawmakers in Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads. The Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund has launched $135,000 worth of online ads to kick off a promised $2.5 million in spending this year in Virginia, which the group views as a proving ground for the gun-control issue ahead of next year’s presidential election. (Schneider, 8/21)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine Announces New Safety Measures To Prevent School Shootings
Ohio will soon have a new state office dedicated to school safety and preventing school violence. Gov. Mike DeWine on Wednesday signed an executive order establishing the Ohio School Safety Center within the Ohio Homeland Security office. (Borchardt, 8/21)

The Washington Post: Sen. Bernie Sanders Changes How Medicare-For-All Plan Treats Union Contracts In Face Of Opposition By Organized Labor
Sen. Bernie Sanders announced a key change to his Medicare-for-all insurance plan Wednesday, a move meant to assuage fears on the part of organized labor, whose support is being heatedly sought by all of the candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination. Labor representatives have expressed concerns to candidates publicly and to campaign staffs privately that a single-payer system could negatively affect their benefits, which in many cases offer better coverage than private plans. (Janes, Weigel and Bailey, 8/21)

The Hill: Insurance Lobby Chief Says Biden, Sanders Health Plans 'Similarly Bad' 
The head of the nation’s health insurance lobby on Wednesday said he does not see much difference between “Medicare for All,” which is being championed by progressive Democratic presidential candidates, and the public option pushed by former Vice President Joe Biden.  Matt Eyles, president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), said Biden’s public option would still have too much government involvement in the health care system. (Weixel, 8/21)

The Hill: Head Of Health Insurance Lobby Responds To Sanders: 'We Disclose All Of Our Lobbying' 
The head of the health insurance lobby said his industry is taking "Medicare for All" “seriously” and discloses all of its lobbying in response to a letter from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) pressing him for how much he would spend opposing the proposal. ...Lobbying records show that AHIP spent about $5 million on lobbying in the first half of this year, though there are also additional avenues like campaign contributions and advertising spending. (Sullivan, 8/21) 

The New York Times: Opioid Treatment Is Used Vastly More In States That Expanded Medicaid
States that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act have seen a much bigger increase in prescriptions for a medication that treats opioid addiction than states that chose not to expand the program, a new study has found. The study, by researchers at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research group, adds to the evidence that the 2010 health care law is playing a significant role in addressing the opioid epidemic. (Goodnough, 8/21)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Report: Medicaid Prescriptions For Opioid Addiction Treatment Drug On The Rise In N.H.
The number of prescriptions for the opioid addiction treatment drug buprenorphine for people on Medicaid in New Hampshire has more than quadrupled since 2011, according to a new report. The report from the Urban Institute shows that in 2011, about 8,000 prescriptions for buprenorphine were written for people on Medicaid in New Hampshire. (Moon, 8/21)

In other news on the opioid crisis —

The Associated Press: Duo To Push Opioid Settlement Toward Hospitals
West Virginia University President Gordon Gee and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich are creating a nonprofit that will fight to steer cash from any national opioid settlement to hospitals, rather than to local and state governments already sparring for control of the dollars. Gee and Kasich say Citizens for Effective Opioid Treatment, a 501(c)4 organization to be announced Thursday, will educate policymakers and the public about the negative impact the opioid epidemic has had on health care infrastructure and advance health-related research solutions to the crisis. (Carr Smyth, 8/22)

NPR: Addiction Clinics Market Unproven Infusion Treatments To Desperate Patients
Jason was hallucinating. He was withdrawing from drugs at an addiction treatment center near Indianapolis, and he had hardly slept for several days. "He was reaching for things, and he was talking to Bill Gates and he was talking to somebody else I'm just certain he hasn't met," his mother, Cheryl, says. She remembers finding Jason lying on the floor of the treatment center in late 2016. "I would just bring him blankets because they didn't have beds or anything." (Harper, 8/22)

The Associated Press: Planned Parenthood Sees Swift Fallout From Quitting Program
Planned Parenthood clinics in several states are charging new fees, tapping into financial reserves, intensifying fundraising and warning of more unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases in the wake of its decision to quit a $260 million federal family planning program in a dispute with the Trump administration over abortion. The fallout is especially intense in Utah, where Planned Parenthood has been the only provider participating in the nearly 50-year-old Title X program, and will now lose about $2 million yearly in federal funds that helped serve 39,000 mostly low-income, uninsured people. (Whitehurst and Crary, 8/22)

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Supreme Court Won't Hear Appeal By Dayton-Area Abortion Clinic Fighting To Stay Open
The Ohio Supreme Court narrowly refused Wednesday to hear an appeal from a Dayton-area abortion clinic fighting to stay open.The court voted 4-3 not to review the case, with Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Republican, and Democratic Justices Michael Donnelly and Melody Stewart voting to accept the case. The Women’s Med Center had asked the state’s high court to overturn a decision by Ohio’s 2nd District Court of Appeals upholding an order by the state Department of Health for the clinic to close because it failed to obtain a legally required written transfer agreement from a Dayton-area hospital. (Candisky, 8/21)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio Supreme Court Declines To Hear Dayton Abortion Clinic Case Over Transfer Agreements
Women’s Med Center of Dayton, the city’s only abortion provider, will not have to close its doors as a result of the decision, however, because it has a similar case in federal court in Cincinnati. That case is still proceeding through trial court. Additionally, the attorney for Women’s Med Center said she will ask the Supreme Court to reconsider. (Hancock, 8/21)

The Associated Press: Tennessee Abortion Waiting Period Lawsuit Headed For Trial
Opponents to a Tennessee law requiring women to wait 48 hours before getting an abortion argue that such restrictions help perpetuate negative stereotypes about gender. The argument is part of a lengthy lawsuit challenging the legality of the waiting period rule, which Tennessee's GOP-controlled Statehouse passed in 2015. (Kruesi, 8/21)

Stat: The Cost Of Diabetes Drugs Is Causing More Americans To Skip Their Meds
In response to the rising cost of medicines, a growing number of people with diabetes are spurning prescriptions and asking their physicians for lower-cost options, according to newly released government data. To wit, among adults who were prescribed a diabetes medication in the past 12 months, 13.2% skipped dosages, took fewer dosages, or delayed filling a prescription in order to save money. And 24.4% asked their doctor for a lower-cost alternative. (Silverman, 8/21)

The Hill: Study Finds About 1 In 7 People With Diabetes Ration Medicine Due To Cost 
The high cost of insulin has been one of the leading examples cited by advocates for lowering drug prices. In addition, the survey found that 24.4 percent of adults with diabetes asked their doctor for a lower-cost prescription. While skipping doses was most common among uninsured people, it was reported even among some people with health insurance: 14 percent of adults aged 18 to 64 with private health insurance reported not taking their medication as prescribed because of cost. (Sullivan, 8/21)

Stat: Gilead Contests Government Patents On A Controversial HIV Prevention Pill
In an unexpected move, Gilead Sciences (GILD) is challenging patents held by the federal government for using the Truvada pill to prevent HIV, a drug that has sparked controversy due to its cost and the extent to which taxpayer dollars funded crucial research. The drug maker said it asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to examine the patents, which AIDS activists have argued would entitle the government to collect royalties from Gilead and use the funds to combat the virus. However, a Gilead official said the company refused to agree to a license in talks with the Department of Health and Human Services over the past three years. (SIlverman, 8/21)

Oregon Live: Oregon’s 25 Most-Expensive Prescription Drugs 
The Oregon Division of Financial Regulation released a list of the top 25 most-expensive prescription drugs in Oregon this week. These are the drugs that “contribute the most to annual spending by health insurance companies.” According to insurance commissioner Andrew Stolfi, this and other lists released by the division “highlight the goal of the drug price transparency program.” (Acker, 8/21)

California Healthline: Shopping Abroad For Cheaper Medication? Here’s What You Need To Know
In its effort to temper the sky-high prices Americans pay for many vital medications, the Trump administration last month unveiled a plan that would legalize the importation of selected prescription drugs from countries where they sell for far less. But the plan addresses imports only at the wholesale level; it is silent about the transactions by millions of Americans who already buy their medications outside the United States. Americans routinely skirt federal law by crossing into Canada and Mexico or tapping online pharmacies abroad to buy prescription medications at a fraction of the price they would pay at home. (Wolfson, 8/22)

Boston Globe: Oncorus Raises $79.5M To Develop Solid Tumor Cancer Drug
Cambridge biotech Oncorus Inc. said Wednesday that it raised $79.5 million from new and existing investors to develop a new cancer treatment. Oncorus said this second round of funding for the startup was led by New-York based investment firms Cowen Healthcare Investments and Perceptive Advisors, along with investors from the previous round of financing including Cambridge-based MPM Capital. (Hagan, 8/21)

Modern Healthcare: Federal Health IT Office Working On App Privacy With Congress
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is working with Congress and the White House on ways to help patients understand when their health data is being used for secondary purposes. ...Patient privacy has been a particular point of concern for hospital groups as healthcare agencies have ramped up interest in using apps to connect patients with their health data. Application programming interfaces that connect IT systems with third-party apps were key parts of the ONC's and the CMS' companion interoperability proposals released in February. (Cohen, 8/21)

Politico Pro: HHS, White House And Congress Grapple With Health Data Privacy Questions
ONC officials are consulting with White House officials and members of Congress to help structure the evolving privacy landscape for the handling of patient data by apps, agency chief Don Rucker said Wednesday. But it appears many questions remain just that. (Ravindranath, 8/21)

Bloomberg: Robotic Nurse That Helps You Dress Could Aid Staff Shortage 
Amid a growing shortfall of qualified nurses in the U.K., students and professors at Imperial College London are developing a robot with dexterous 3D-printed fingers to assist the elderly or physically-challenged. A modified version of a robot nicknamed Baxter, the machine has two mechanical arms, an animated face, as well as sensors to help it analyze patterns and detect if a human user is struggling to lift or move a limb. (Ingersoll, 8/22)

Stat: 5 Burning Questions About Which AI For Drug Development Startups Will Thrive
About two years ago, Simon Smith started counting the startups trying to bring artificial intelligence to drug development. Smith, an AI startup executive himself, found about 30 of them. Now? His tally is up to 148. Smith’s list is incomplete — some companies are still in stealth mode, and others are hard to classify because they straddle the line between AI and traditional biotech — but its rapid growth is a clear sign of an industry on the rise. (Robbins, 8/22)

The New York Times: Their Mothers Chose Donor Sperm. The Doctors Used Their Own.
Growing up in Nacogdoches, Tex., Eve Wiley learned at age 16 that she had been conceived through artificial insemination with donor sperm. Her mother, Margo Williams, now 65, had sought help from Dr. Kim McMorries, telling him that her husband was infertile. She asked the doctor to locate a sperm donor. He told Mrs. Williams that he had found one through a sperm bank in California. Mrs. Williams gave birth to a daughter, Eve. Now 32, Ms. Wiley is a stay-at-home mother in Dallas. In 2017 and 2018, like tens of millions of Americans, she took consumer DNA tests. (Mroz, 8/21)

Stat: Lyme Disease Vaccine, Antibody Face An Uncertain Market 
As the threat of Lyme disease grows and fears surrounding it spread faster than the ticks that carry the infection, researchers are developing two vaccine or vaccine-like approaches to prevent this increasingly problematic disease. But don’t expect to get one soon. They are at least three to five years away from clinical use, according to their developers. That may seem like a long time to wait, especially since there are several Lyme disease vaccines available for dogs. But it’s taken researchers almost two decades to get this close — for the second time. (Flaherty, 8/22)

NPR: Editing The DNA In Human Sperm With CRISPR Is Goal Of New York Lab
First it was human embryos. Now scientists are trying to develop another way to modify human DNA that can be passed on to future generations, NPR has learned. Reproductive biologists at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City are attempting to use the powerful gene-editing technique called CRISPR to alter genes in human sperm. NPR got exclusive access to watch the controversial experiments underway. (Stein, 8/22)

St. Louis Public Radio: Wash U Researchers Find Blood Test Can Detect Early Alzheimer's Symptoms
For years, doctors have used an expensive brain scan to detect symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. But researchers at Washington University have found that a simple blood test could be similarly effective, according to a study published this month in the journal Neurology. A blood test to diagnose early symptoms could help make finding a cure easy or cheaper and even guide treatment for the disease in the future, the study’s authors say. (Fentem, 8/21)

Modern Healthcare: Employee Wellness Programs Grow Quickly, But Their Worth Debated
Most employers are planning to boost spending on wellness programs this year despite the mixed results on their efficacy. More than 80% of employers said they are planning to increase their health and wellness budgets over the next three years, which is up sharply from 61% last year and more than double the 34% who planned to in 2009, according to an annual workplace study from UnitedHealth Group's Optum. (Kacik, 8/21)

Stat: NIH Study Participants Will Soon Receive Their Own Genetic Analysis 
The nearly 200,000 Americans who have trusted federal scientists with their DNA, their medical records, and detailed behavioral surveys will soon begin to receive the results of a genetic analysis performed by the National Institutes of Health, the agency announced Wednesday. The announcement marks a long-touted milestone for the NIH’s unprecedented “All of Us” precision medicine project. To date, researchers say, no government study has returned individualized genetic data to participants — especially one so large and diverse. (Facher, 8/21)

NPR: Poll: Nearly 1 In 5 Americans Says Pain Often Interferes With Daily Life
At some point nearly everyone has to deal with pain. How do Americans experience and cope with pain that makes everyday life harder? We asked in the latest NPR-IBM Watson Health Poll. First, we wanted to know how often pain interferes with people's ability to work, go to school or engage in other activities. Overall, 18% of Americans say that's often a problem for them. Almost a quarter – 24% — say it's sometimes the case. (Hensley, 8/21)

NPR: Why Cells In Mouse Brains Fall Short As Models For Human Drug Development
In mice, scientists have used a variety of drugs to treat brain disorders including murine versions of Alzheimer's disease, depression and schizophrenia. But in people, these same treatments usually fail. And now researchers are beginning to understand why. A detailed comparison of the cell types in mouse and human brain tissue found subtle but important differences that could affect the response to many drugs, a team reports Wednesday in the journal Nature. (Hamilton, 8/21)

The New York Times: Overcoming Fear Of Flying In The Bumpy Skies
Lately, at airport gates and security lines, I’m increasingly hearing other frequent fliers share stories of spilled coffee and sudden drops on planes. Threaded through nearly every conversation are questions about whether there has been an upswing in air turbulence, and whether climate change is to blame. Turbulence was never a concern for Ashwin Fernandes, who takes more than 200 flights per year as regional director to the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia for Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings, until a bad flight in 2013 left him spooked. (Stearns Bercaw, 8/22)

The Baltimore Sun: Maryland’s New Dental Insurance Program For Low-Income Residents Pays To Remove Teeth — But Not Replace Them 
Maryland is one of just 15 states that does not cover dental care for adults on Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income people. But now the state has launched a pilot program to cover a small number of them — those with limited incomes who also are disabled. About 33,000 are eligible for the Adult Dental Pilot Program, the first time in nearly 50 years that some adults on Medicaid in Maryland will have basic dental coverage. (Kim, 8/22)

The Star Tribune: Feds Order State To Give Improper Medicaid Payments Back 
Minnesota made improper payments to up to 100 chemical-dependency providers since 2014 and must return the money to Washington after federal officials issued a formal notice to the state Department of Human Services (DHS) in May. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which administers the federal-state Medicaid program, said that Minnesota “must immediately cease” the payments, according to a letter obtained by the Star Tribune. (Howatt, 8/22)

The Washington Post: Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson Announces Groundbreaking Use-Of-Force Policy
On Wednesday, the [Camden, New Jersey Police] department released its new policy, codifying what has been department practice for years. Experts are calling the document — drafted with members of New York University Law School’s Policing Project and vetted by both the New Jersey ACLU and the Fraternal Order of Police — the “most progressive” use-of-force policy to date.Since 2015, under Thomson’s stewardship, the Camden Police Department has adopted use-of-force training and procedures that promote de-escalation and make clear that force is a last resort. (Paul, 8/21)

The Wall Street Journal: New York City Has Been Releasing Burial Records Of Fetal Remains—And Names Of Women Linked To Them
For nearly a decade, New York City has made public the names of thousands of women who had either miscarriages, stillbirths or possibly abortions between 1981 and 2017, raising alarms among medical privacy experts. The information is included in burial records for Hart Island, one of the largest public cemeteries in the country and a potter’s field for unclaimed bodies and deceased low-income city residents. The city has been handing over the records since 2009 to an advocacy group, the Hart Island Project, which has compiled the information into a searchable online database meant to allow relatives to locate the remains of a loved one buried on the island. (Riski, 8/21)

The CT Mirror: CT Offers Limited Protections If ACA Is Tossed
If the Affordable Care Act is abolished as the result of a legal battle over the health care law, not only will more than 300,000 state residents lose coverage, but a majority of those in Connecticut could be affected. That’s because Connecticut laws aimed at protecting consumers apply only to a minority of health insurance policies that cover state residents, and are limited in their scope and effectiveness. (Radelat, 8/22)

Modern Healthcare: Judge Declines To Block Florida Law Limiting Doc Noncompete Contracts
A federal judge Tuesday rejected a large cancer care company's motion to block a controversial new Florida state law limiting the use of physician noncompete agreements. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker nixed the request by 21st Century Oncology for a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of the law, which he compared to the campy 1950s horror movie classic "Creature from the Black Lagoon," filmed 15 miles from the Tallahassee courthouse. (Meyer, 8/21)

Colorado Sun: How Much Does An ER Visit Cost In Colorado? It Depends On Where You Go.
It’s late at night, your kid is really sick and you need to go to the emergency room. How much are you going to be charged just to walk through the door? The answer, according to a new analysis by a Colorado nonprofit, varies widely depending on where you go and how serious the hospital thinks the situation is. It could be as little as $190 at the cheapest hospitals and for the least-serious conditions. Or it could be more than $4,500 at more expensive emergency rooms treating the most grave conditions. (Ingold, 8/21)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Dental Therapists Draw Support; Wisconsin Dental Association Opposed
The state Senate Committee on Health and Human Services held a lengthy hearing Wednesday on a bill by Sen. David Craig (R-Town of Vernon) and Rep. Mary Felzkowski (R-Irma) on whether Wisconsin should join those states. Supporters contend that dental therapists, who would work under the supervision of dentists, would help address one of the state’s more entrenched health problems: access to dental care in rural and urban areas for people who are covered by Badger Care Plus and other Medicaid programs and people who don’t have dental insurance. (Boulton, 8/21)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: What Can Be Done About Louisiana's Dying Mothers? Health Care Industry Gathers To Discuss Solutions
It’s not just Louisiana that has a problem with maternal mortality; the United States ranks 46th in maternal death rates, down from 41st in 2008, according to the World Health Organization, with a death rate of 20.7 women for every 100,000 births. In Louisiana, the death rate is 44.8. For black mothers, the disparity is alarming: The rate of death in Louisiana is 72.6 for every 100,000 births, which ranks it alongside North Korea, according to data published in The Lancet, a peer-reviewed medical journal. For every white mother that dies, four black mothers perish from pregnancy-related complications in Louisiana. (Woodruff, 8/21)

Los Angeles Times: Anti-Vaccine Activist Assaults California Vaccine Law Author, Police Say
An anti-vaccine activist was cited on suspicion of assault by the Sacramento Police Department on Wednesday after he livestreamed a physical confrontation with state Sen. Richard Pan, author of legislation to restrict vaccine exemptions. Pan, a Democrat from Sacramento, was pushed from behind by Kenneth Austin Bennett, who challenged the senator in the 2018 primary but did not qualify for the general election. Bennett filed a recall petition against Pan this year alleging the senator was committing treason by authoring bills to tighten vaccination requirements in the state. (Gutierrez, 8/21)

KQED: Anti-Vaccine Activist Assaults State Sen. Richard Pan, Posts Video To Facebook
Police arrested an anti-vaccine campaigner for allegedly assaulting state Sen. Richard Pan in Sacramento on Wednesday. Pan, a Democrat whose district covers most of central and suburban Sacramento, is the Legislature's leading advocate for vaccines. (Goldberg and Marks, 8/21)

Houston Chronicle: UH Unveils Renderings Of Planned Medical School
New renderings of the University of Houston's planned medical school depict a four-story modern building with lots of glass and a sleek, boxy design. The renderings were unveiled Wednesday, ahead of Gov. Greg Abbott's sign of a ceremonial bill establishing the UH College of Medicine. The Texas Legislature passed the bill in April. (Ackerman, 8/21)

The Washington Post: This Novel D.C. Academy Trains People With Disabilities To Provide Paid Support For Others Living With Disabilities.
For Antonio Myers, life with autism has always felt like sitting in a movie theater. Everyone is watching the same film, said Myers, a 25-year-old D.C. resident on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum. But he’s the only one wearing 3-D glasses. “I am able to see more, behind the scenes, which enables me to understand more of what’s in front of me,” Myers said. “It makes me able to see people as human before anything else” — which makes him “very good at compassionate grieving or just bearing with people.” (Natanson, 8/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: Critics Blast City’s Plan To Shuffle Mental Health Beds At SF General Hospital
As San Francisco struggles with a mental health and homeless crisis on its streets, city workers slammed a decision by the Department of Public Health to move long-term mental health treatment beds to make room for a temporary respite facility. Dozens of long-term beds sit empty at San Francisco General Hospital’s Adult Residential Facility every day, despite intense demand to create more long-term housing for the mentally ill and homeless. (Thadani, 8/21)

The Wall Street Journal: PG&E Power Line That Sparked Camp Fire Was Inspected Weeks Earlier
PG&E Corp. conducted an unusual inspection of the power line that sparked the deadliest wildfire in California history just weeks before it failed, a step the utility has said it normally takes only when it suspects a potential safety problem. The disclosure that workers climbed portions of the Caribou-Palermo line last fall, which PG&E noted in a recent court filing, suggests the company had concerns about the condition of its lines before the Camp Fire, which killed 86 people and destroyed the town of Paradise. (Gold, 8/22)

Los Angeles Times: To Prevent Wildfires, L.A. Wants To Make It Easier To Clear Homeless Encampments
With wildfire season underway, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Wednesday announced a plan to make it easier for authorities to clear homeless encampments in severe fire zones. The proposed ordinance, which will go before the City Council’s Public Safety Committee next week, would change the way the Los Angeles Police Department informs people that they must leave remote areas where the risk of a fire is most extreme. (Oreskes, 8/21)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: New Report: Georgia Programs For At-Risk Students Overlooks Thousands
In a report released this week, the Education Law Center says Georgia programs for at-risk students drastically underserve students who are not proficient on state assessments, and participation is inconsistent across districts. In a guest column, Mary McKillip and Danielle Farrie, researchers at the center, urge Georgia to take action. (Downey, 8/21)

KCUR: Applications For Medical Marijuana Facilities Pour In At Deadline 
With the deadline to submit an application for a medical marijuana business closed, more than 2,100 were received, bringing in more than $5.3 million in fees, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. On Thursday, the department announced it would extend the deadline to 4:30 p.m. Monday. Initially the cutoff was midnight Saturday, but with a slow start early in the application period, the department expected an influx toward the end. (Driscoll, 8/21)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Inside The Georgia Political Split Over How To Curb Toxic Gas Pollution
Shortly after a tense town hall meeting about cancer-causing pollution at the Sterigenics factory in Cobb County ended, Democratic lawmakers renewed their demands that Gov. Brian Kemp shut down the plant until more testing is complete. A day later on the other side of metro Atlanta, most of the politicians representing the BD Bard plant in Covington had a decidedly different response: A call for more air-quality sampling, but no insistence that the plant be shuttered. Those reactions are a snapshot of how lawmakers are grappling with a recent WebMD and Georgia Health News report that exposed the potential of increased long-term risk of cancer from ethylene oxide emissions around both facilities. (Bluestein, 8/22)

Georgia Health News: Clearing The Air? State’s Actions On Toxic Emissions Leave Confusion
In 2018, the EPA posted the results of the National Air Toxics Assessment on its website. The report, which used computer models to estimate the health effects from toxic air pollution, identified 109 census tracts around the U.S. where residents faced increased cancer risks, mainly from exposure to ethylene oxide. Three of those census tracts were in the metro Atlanta area. At the time, the agency did not put out a press release on the report and did not notify residents of its findings. (Goodman and Miller, 8/21)

Wyoming Public Radio: State Warns Residents About Toxic Algae Blooms
Several state departments are warning Wyoming residents about the risks of algal blooms. According to the Wyoming Departments of Health and Environmental Quality and the Wyoming Livestock Board, harmful cyanobacterial blooms (HBCs) are found in still or slow moving bodies of water like lakes and are more likely to be present with warmer temperatures. (Wheeler, 8/21)

Health Affairs: Veterans Health Administration Investments In Primary Care And Mental Health Integration Improved Care Access
Aiming to increase care access, the national Primary Care–Mental Health Integration (PC-MHI) initiative of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) embedded specialists, care managers, or both in primary care clinics to collaboratively care for veterans with psychiatric illness. The initiative’s effects on health care use and cost patterns were examined among 5.4 million primary care patients in 396 VHA clinics in 2013–16. The median rate of patients who saw a PC-MHI provider was 6.3 percent. Each percentage-point increase in the proportion of clinic patients seen by these providers was associated with 11 percent more mental health and 40 percent more primary care visits but also with 9 percent higher average total costs per patient per year. At the mean, 2.5 integrated care visits substituted for each specialty-based mental health visit that did not occur. PC-MHI was associated with improved access to outpatient care, albeit at increased total cost to the VHA. Successful implementation of integrated care necessitates significant investment and multidisciplinary partnership within health systems. (Leung et al, 8/1)

JAMA Internal Medicine: Time-Series Analysis Of Health Care–Associated Infections In A New Hospital With All Private Rooms
In this time-series analysis of a move from a 417-bed hospital with ward-type rooms to a 350-bed facility with solely private rooms, the move was associated with reductions in the incidence of nosocomial vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus infection. However, no change in nosocomial Clostridioides difficile or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections was noted. (McDonald et al, 8/19)

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation: Enrollment In Individual Market Dips Slightly In Early 2019 After Repeal Of Individual Mandate Penalty
A new KFF analysis finds that overall enrollment in the individual market fell 5% to 13.7 million in the first quarter of 2019 following the repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate penalty. The analysis provides an early look at how the market is working following recent policy changes that some argued would spark dramatic upheaval among consumers who buy their own health insurance either through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces or through off-exchange plans. (8/21)

Urban Institute: State Variation In Medicaid Prescriptions For Opioid Use Disorder From 2011 To 2018
Expanding access to effective treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) is essential to staunching the opioid epidemic. Access to these treatments is particularly important in Medicaid, which covers a disproportionately large share of people with OUD (MACPAC 2017). Despite strong evidence supporting the effectiveness of pharmacotherapy for OUD (sometimes called medication-assisted treatment), research indicates that most people with OUD do not receive treatment (Clemans-Cope, Lynch, et al. 2019; Saloner and Karthikeyan 2015). Three medications—buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone—are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for OUD treatment and have well-documented benefits. This brief uses Medicaid State Drug Utilization Data (SDUD) to assess buprenorphine maintenance treatment in Medicaid. We estimated trends from 2011 to 2018 and patterns across states and the District of Columbia, which we consider a state for this analysis. (Clemans-Cope, Lunch, Winiski and Epstein, 8/21)

Commonwealth Fund: What Is Your State Doing To Affect Access To Health Insurance
Select a state on the map and an action above to learn what the individual insurance market stabilization strategies states may be pursuing. (8/12)

The New York Times: Flavonoids In Plants May Help Protect Against Major Killers
Consuming flavonoids, a large class of nutrients found in plant foods, may reduce the risk for cancer and cardiovascular death. Researchers used data on 56,048 Danes, following their diet and health prospectively for 23 years. During that time, 14,083 of them died. The study is in Nature Communications. After controlling for smoking, hypertension, cholesterol and many other health and dietary factors, they found that compared with people in the lowest one-fifth for flavonoid intake, those in the highest one-fifth had a 17 percent reduced risk for all-cause mortality, a 15 percent reduced risk for cardiovascular disease death, and a 20 percent reduced risk for cancer mortality. (Bakalar, 8/19)

Urban Institute: What Happens When We Forgive Debt From Child Support Payments?
In California, 70 percent of child support payments don't go to parents to support their children, but to reimburse the government for public assistance their children have received. If parents miss a payment or don’t pay the full amount due, they accrue  “public assistance payback debt” with 10 percent interest. Most parents who owe this debt earn under $15,000 a year. This public assistance payback policy involves additional stiff penalties: parents’ driver’s and professional licenses can be suspended, up to 65 percent of their paycheck can be garnished, and they can be jailed. (Hahn and Kuehn, 8/20)

Los Angeles Times: Trump's New Plan To Incarcerate Migrant Families Isn't Just Cruel, It's Unjustifiable 
The Trump administration announced its plan Wednesday for a network of detention centers to hold migrant families for potentially as long as it takes to process their applications for asylum. This is the same government, of course, that faces lawsuits and harsh internal criticism over how poorly it has managed adult detention centers — let’s be honest and call them prisons — and where, among other allegations, they left a man with a parasite in his brain linger for a year without medical attention. And it thinks it can build a better prison for families? Let’s be clear from the outset: It is harmful to children to incarcerate them with or without their parents and siblings . (8/21)

Fox News: New Regulation On Detaining Illegal Immigrants Will Reduce Child Abuse, Rapes, Assaults And Deaths
The announcement Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security that it will issue a regulation allowing families of illegal immigrants to be detained together longer while awaiting immigration hearings is welcome news that will end court-sanctioned child abuse and endangerment. The new regulation will strike a blow against criminal cartels that engage in human smuggling and will reduce the terrible death toll of migrants making the dangerous journey to enter the U.S. illegally from south of our border. By reducing illegal immigration, the regulation will also reduce the number of rapes and other assaults against migrants on their trek north. (Dan Stein, 8/22)

The New York Times: A Heartbreaking Choice For Moms: Food Or A Family’s Future
Between 2012 and 2017, as part of a study of how low-income mothers feed their children, we talked with women who had moved from Mexico and Central America to the United States. They came here because they wanted to be able to offer their children more than they’d had growing up, including a full belly at the end of every day. Over the course of our research — amid increasing ICE raids, tightened work restrictions and growing anti-immigrant sentiment stoked by President Trump’s rhetoric — we found that many families became afraid to apply for food assistance programs. The Trump administration’s new “public charge” rule will intensify this kind of fear for immigrant families, including those who are in this country legally. One result will be more hungry families and children. (Sarah Brown, Sinikka Elliott and Annie Hardison-Moody, 8/210

Los Angeles Times: Trump Wants Guatemalans Like Me To Stay Home. Here's Why So Many Don't
I recently went to a parents’ meeting at my children’s elementary school in the rural town of Aguacatán, Guatemala, a few hours from the Mexico border. As usual, I was one of the only men there.This disparity has nothing to do with machismo or Latin gender roles; it’s that there just aren’t many men in Aguacatán. They’re all in places like North Carolina, Florida and the state of Washington. It has been this way for years; what’s new now is that there are getting to be fewer women and children, too. They are also heading north. ... Now, however, for the first time my wife and I are considering trying to get to the United States, too. We wake up early most mornings and watch our three young kids sleeping, wondering what future awaits them here. It increasingly feels like there isn’t one. (William Lopez, 8/22)

The Washington Post: Why 2020 Democrats Are Backing Off Medicare-For-All, In Four Charts
A notable number of the 2020 presidential candidates (save Sen. Bernie Sanders) who endorsed Medicare-for-all are starting to say it’s a long-term ambition rather than a practical policy proposal they would enact when in the White House. “I finally was like, ‘I can’t make this circle fit into a square,’ ” said Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), who is one of the five senators running for president who endorsed Sanders’s Medicare-for-all bill in the Senate. (Sanders is one of the five.) The Washington Post’s Chelsea Janes and Michael Scherer reported more on how she and others are now backing away from the idea. (Amber Phillips, 8/21)

The Hill: A Public Health Approach To Preventing Mass Violence
We believe that the problem of mass violence in the United States can and should be addressed in part from a public health perspective and that the tools of public health research and practice should be fully deployed to help end it.Just as there is no single intervention to reduce tobacco use or obesity, there is no single solution or “silver bullet” to end our nation’s epidemic of mass violence. Instead, successful interventions will come from all of us working together with community leaders, business leaders, government leaders, and public health leaders to create workable and effective solutions within neighborhoods, communities, states, and across the nation. (Nathaniel Smith and Michael R. Fraser, 8/21)

Stat: A Community-Guided Genome Editing Project Can Fight Lyme Disease
The epidemic of Lyme disease is an ecological problem of our own making: We have inadvertently altered our environment to maximize the number of infected ticks. The question today is whether we should consider altering the genomes of wild animals to undo that mistake. If so, we should find the most minimal intervention that might solve the problem. We should actively invite suggestions, concerns, and guidance from interested local communities who know their own environments best. And we should initially observe the effects on mostly uninhabited islands. (Kevin M. Esvelt, 8/22)

Stat: Gene Editing To Stop Lyme Disease: Caution Is Warranted
Mosquitoes that carry malaria and other disease-causing pathogens are the focus of several gene-editing efforts. Now the white-footed mice of New England are another target. The persistence of Lyme disease depends on intricate ecological relationships among ticks, small mammals, and deer. Many researchers consider white-footed mice to be a major reservoir for Lyme disease because they harbor the bacteria that cause it, are very abundant, and are often bitten by deer ticks, which then infect people. Esvelt and his collaborators hope to engineer mice to make them resistant to Borrelia burgdorferi, the microbe that causes Lyme disease, and possibly to deer ticks as well. Their ultimate goal is to release thousands of these genetically engineered mice, first on largely uninhabited islands. If the experiment works, they would then replicate it on Nantucket and/or Martha’s Vineyard, and possibly the mainland — pending, of course, sufficient research progress, regulatory approvals, and public support. (Allison Snow, 8/22)

The Washington Post: Three Signs Your Food Or Activity Tracker Is Doing More Harm Than Good
A calorie-counting monitor almost ruined spin class for me. Before the devices were installed on the bikes’ handlebars, I would lose myself completely during a session, grooving to the beat of the music and the sweaty, heart-thumping, endorphin-induced entrancement of the experience. After class, I would feel powerful, happy and accomplished. But the numbers on the monitor changed the game. Glancing at them throughout the class killed my euphoria and made me feel like a loser who couldn’t keep up. Instead of the post-class afterglow, I found myself defeated, plagued by self-criticism. I would think, “Why did I only burn 375 calories when the riders on both sides of me burned nearly twice that? I’m so lame.” Luckily, I realized the danger being posed to my workout and my self-worth before it got too far. Now I cover my bike monitor with a towel. (Ellie Krieger, 8/21)

San Jose Mercury News: Trump's Abortion Rule Is Devastating To Women's Health
At issue in the latest move is federal funding from Title X, a family-planning program signed into law by President Nixon in 1970 to provide birth control and other reproductive health care services for women. The Trump administration has issued a new rule prohibiting providers who receive Title X money from referring patients to an abortion service even upon request. It constitutes a gag order on doctors wanting to have candid conversations with patients about all of their legal care options. (8/21)

The Washington Post: I Am Not A ‘Fighter’ Because I Survived Cancer At 19
I am not a “fighter” because I survived Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 19. I am lucky among the unlucky. In the face of serious illness, especially cancer, we immediately declare patients as “fighters,” or talk about “winning” or “losing” the battle with the disease. That stock phrasing shows up in news headlines and charity campaigns; it’s spoken by politicians, celebrities and well-meaning acquaintances alike. Each person has the right to describe their experience of their disease as they see fit, but it often feels impossible to avoid terms like “attack,” “invade,” and “fight,” which are so deeply embedded in cancer culture. (Dvorak, 8/21)

Sacramento Bee: Assisted Living Is Health Care, Not Just Simple Housing
The graying of California has been a boon for assisted living programs, as families look for alternatives to traditional nursing homes for loved ones who are living longer. Assisted living centers appear attractive because they more closely resemble homes than hospitals, with comfortable living spaces, social programs and other amenities. (Ed Dudensing and Anthony Chicotel, 8/21)

The Washington Post: Homeless Children In D.C. Hotels Are Struggling To Get To School, And They Hope The City Will Help.
Before a month’s worth of rain fell in the nation’s capital in a single hour, flooding her apartment and destroying most of her family’s belongings, Christina Gaddis had a home that offered a washer and dryer and one other important comfort: She could walk her two young sons to their elementary school. Now, she and her children live in a hotel on New York Avenue that houses other homeless families, and she is dreading the commute that starts Monday, the first day of school. (Theresa Vargas, 8/21)