There's a Hepatitis C Virus outbreak among millennials, a new development in a malady that until recently affected Baby Boomers.
Capitol Weekly's ALEX MATTHEWS: "Millennials haven’t inherited the best batch of goods from baby boomers. They got a housing crisis, a shaky job market, and some enormous student loans."
"But until recently, viral hepatitis was the burden of boomers alone to bear. Now, millennials are also facing an outbreak of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV)."
"There were nearly 2,000 opioid overdose deaths and over 4,000 hospitalizations for opioid overdoses in California in 2015"
Sen. Josh Newman has been allowed by the FPPC to receive unlimited campaign contributions for his recall election.
McClatchy's TARYN LUNA: "The state’s campaign finance watchdog voted Thursday to flip its longstanding opinion on contribution limits and allow legislators and other candidates to give unlimited sums of money to help Democratic Sen. Josh Newman fight a recall election."
"The move is a potential boost to Newman’s chances as Democrats try to hold a two-thirds supermajority that allows them to raise taxes and put constitutional amendments on the ballot without Republican support."
"A lawyer for Senate Democrats first appeared at a California Fair Political Practices Commission meeting in June to ask the agency to reconsider its 15-year-old opinion that state candidates are subject to limits when they contribute money to a politician facing a recall. Before the change, the FPPC interpreted campaign finance law to mean that candidates can’t give Newman, a Fullerton Democrat, more than $4,400 each."
There's a showdown between two agencies over data relating to the disciplining of California judges -- data the state auditor wants.
CYNTHIA DIZIKES in the Chronicle: "An unprecedented legal standoff between the state auditor and the agency that disciplines unethical judges in California came to a head Thursday as lawyers for both sides delivered spirited arguments in a case that has pitted the public agencies against each other for nearly a year."
"At issue is whether the San Francisco-based Commission on Judicial Performance will have to release thousands of confidential judicial complaints and investigations as part of a first-ever audit of the 57-year-old agency."
“It’s not about the CJP being immune from an audit,” said Michael von Loewenfeldt, a lawyer representing the commission. “The auditor has no right to see these documents under the commission’s rule.”
A fourth suspect has been arrested and second terror plot thwarted yesterday in Barcelona after a terror attack that left at least 14 dead and dozens injured.
LA Times' KATE LINTHICUM: "Police apprehended a fourth suspect in Spain’s terrorist attacks Friday as the death toll rose to 14 when a woman injured in the seaside resort of Cambrils died of her injuries."
"Meanwhile, on Friday a man reportedly was shot by police in Turku, Finland, after authorities say he stabbed several people. Southwest Finland Police Service confirmed through its Twitter account that several people had been stabbed and that one person was in custody."
"Catalan authorities did not say whether the person they arrested was the driver of the van that plowed into pedestrians Thursday evening on a popular promenade in Barcelona, killing 13 people and injuring more than 100. The driver fled, prompting a manhunt throughout the northeastern coast of Spain."
Speaking of Barcelona, a Bay Area man who went to that city on vacation remains missing.
LIZZIE JOHNSON in the Chronicle: "In the wake of Thursday’s terror attack in Barcelona, a Bay Area man remains missing."
"Jared Tucker, was vacationing in the city with his wife, Heidi Nunez, when the van-ramming terrorist attack happened in the Las Ramblas shopping district. The couple was separated, and Nunez has not heard from Tucker since."
"A family member told news outlets that Nunez had visited area hospitals and the local Red Cross in the search for her husband, but that it had not located him."
Former California governor and current Trump rival Arnold Schwarzenegger had something to say to Donald Trump about his Charlottesville response.
Sacramento Bee's NOEL HARRIS: "President Donald Trump said Tuesday that “there’s blame on both sides” regarding last weekend’s violence in Charlottesville, Va."
"California’s former governor wants the president to know that “there are not two sides” to social unrest."
"In a video message posted on ATTN’s Twitter page, Arnold Schwarzenegger takes on Trump, Nazis and racist organizations."
READ MORE related to White Supremacist Resurgence: After Virginia violence, far right and white nationalists turn to a familiar target: California -- LA Times' JAMES QUEALLY/PAIGE ST. JOHN; Trump defends Confederate statues, berates his critics -- AP's JONATHAN LEMIRE/DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Sutter is shifting 10,000 Anthem enrolllees to different primary care doctors at community health centers.
Sacramento Bee's CATHIE ANDERSON: "In Sacramento and Placer counties, roughly 10,000 adult Medi-Cal enrollees with Anthem Blue Cross are learning this summer that Sutter’s primary-care doctors will no longer see them."
"Instead, those patients are being shifted to primary-care doctors at community health centers such as Sacramento’s WellSpace Health or Auburn’s Chapa-De Indian Health, said Dr. Ken Ashley, the medical director for primary care at Sutter Medical Group. He said the change in providers will allow the patients to access more services."
"Some of the things that the (community health centers) can provide with the funding that they are receiving are things that sometimes we struggle to find for our Medi-Cal patients, things like optometry and dental, behavioral medicine,” Ashley said. “I feel like these patients are finally going to receive things I could not provide as their primary-care doctor. I’m OK with our partners helping to take care of these patients."
Another Calexit ballot measure seeks to separate California from the Union; will the third time be the charm?
McClatchy's JIM MILLER: "First there was Calexit. Then came Calexit II."
"On Thursday, people unhappy with California’s place in the United States filed yet another proposed ballot measure that could lead to the Golden State striking out on its own."
"This time, the goal is convening a U.S. constitutional convention to overhaul what proponents call a moldy national blueprint out of step with life in California."
Delta tunnels project needs the state's water agencies to pay for it, but some are reluctant.
Sacramento Bee's DALE KASLER/RYAN SABALOW: "If you live in Los Angeles, the cost of building the Delta tunnels might raise your water bill by as little as $2 a month or less – no more than a latte, to quote one of the project’s main cheerleaders in Southern California."
"But if you’re a farmer on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, the increase could be hundreds of dollars per acre-foot of water. And you could be looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional expenses every year, for decades, for a resource that’s as indispensable to farming as soil itself."
"As California water agencies prepare to vote next month on paying for the tunnels, which are supposed to improve water deliveries to the southern half of the state, the stark difference between urban and rural water users’ expected costs illustrates one of the project’s main stumbling blocks."
READ MORE related to Environment: NASA/PBS marking 40 years since Voyager spacecraft launches -- AP's MARCIA DUNN; UC Riverside scientists erase fear in mice, hope to help humans one day -- The Press-Enterprise's MARK MUCKENFUSS
California's police forces killed more than 150 people in 2016, and more than a third of them came from LA County.
AP: "California's attorney general says 157 people died during encounters with police in the state last year — and more than a third of those deaths occurred in L.A. County."
"A report released Thursday by state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra marks the first time California has publicly released statewide statistics on police use of force."
"The report said there were 782 incidents in 2016 in which a police officer either used force that resulted in serious injury or death, or fired their weapon. And more than a quarter of those incidents happened in L.A. County, with the vast majority involving either the Los Angeles Police Department or the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. (The Long Beach Police Department was the only other agency in double digits: 21.)"
