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In the bluest of blue cities, it can be hard to tell political candidates apart. The four front-runners in the June 5 San Francisco mayoral election, all Democrats, talk about the importance of protecting immigrants and the pernicious effects of income inequality. It goes without saying that they support gay rights, legalized marijuana and more funding for public transportation. Ron Turner, a book publisher and longtime San Francisco resident, compares the election to “trying to pick a leader at a family picnic.” (Fuller, 5/30)

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's unveiling of the first new public bathrooms on skid row in more than a decade was seen as a possible turning point for the homeless enclave, which remains mired in misery even as downtown development closes in around it. But after more than three months of operation, the trailers with toilets and showers shut down in late March for a planned expansion and now are gone. Across town, bathroom access for Venice's homeless people is hung up over approvals from other agencies. (Holland, 5/29)

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has designated nine hospitals in St. Louis County as priority heart attack centers to ensure that the most at-risk patients receive help as fast as possible. (Fentem, 5/29)

One of the principal figures in a large-scale health care fraud scheme is scheduled to be sentenced in New Jersey. Craig Nordman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribe doctors and money laundering for his role in a yearslong scheme in which New Jersey-based Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services bribed doctors to send them blood samples for testing that often was unnecessary. (5/30)

The man who led the efforts to allow the use of medical marijuana in Florida two years ago implored Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday to drop the state's opposition to letting patients smoke it. Leon County Circuit Court Judge Karen Gievers ruled Friday that the state's ban on smokable medical marijuana is unconstitutional. Less than an hour after the ruling, the Department of Health filed an appeal that is currently in the state's 1st District Court of Appeal. (5/29)

Attorney General Xavier Becerra uses a well-worn refrain to describe his role as the state’s chief law enforcement officer: to defend California’s values.“If that translates into fighting Donald Trump, then so be it,” he said in a recent interview. Becerra has been one of the leading voices in California’s charge against the federal government, filing more than 30 lawsuits on health care and other issues since taking office in January of last year. (Gorman, 5/25)

Despite a 2013 law aimed at boosting immunization rates, the statewide rate for nonmedical exemptions to mandatory kindergarten vaccinations hit a record high this school year, according to the Oregon Health Authority. The nonmedical exemption rate rose to 7.5 percent this year, higher than the 7 percent rate during the 2013-2014 school year when the law was passed to address declining vaccination rates among the state’s nearly 700,000 schoolchildren. (Achen, 5/29)

A retired army general and a health care investment strategist have joined the board of Tenet Healthcare, a Dallas-based hospital company that is undergoing a series of major revamps to turn its business around. Under pressure from investors Tenet, one of the country’s largest hospital operators, launched an aggressive effort last year to slash $250 million in expenses. The plan has included layoffs and putting one of its more profitable businesses up for sale. The company also aims to improve accountability and transparency on its board of directors. (Rice, 5/29)

Michigan is in the throes of the largest hepatitis A outbreak in the USA, a flareup that began in August 2016 and has killed 27 people, state health officials say. The hepatitis A virus, which attacks the liver, is highly contagious. (Shamus, 5/29)

The Renton, Wash.-based health system is offering a new advanced directive online toolkit—available in multiple languages and tailored for each of the seven states where the health system operates—that helps patients choose what type of end-of-life care they want, accessible through Providence St. Joseph's electronic health record. The EHR will alert doctors if treatments contradict a patient's requests and refer patients to goals-of-care plans and advance directives. The organization is training its physicians and staff across its 51-hospital network to help them broach these end-of-life conversations and clarify realistic outcomes prior to potentially burdensome treatments. (Kacik, 5/29)

Earlier planning for the end of life is one element of a $750,000 grant-funded partnership between the North Shore Physicians Group and Care Dimensions, a nonprofit that offers hospice and palliative care. ... Emergency room visits and readmissions after hospitalizations are both down, based on the first few months of data. With those two changes, the $750,000 project grant from the state’s Health Policy Commission (HPC) is expected to save $7.2 million over the project's duration. (Bebinger, 5/30)

Hazelden has signed contracts with two national health insurers this year that give more health-plan subscribers access to services from the Center City-based addiction treatment provider at in-network rates. The agreements with Minnetonka-based UnitedHealthcare and Kentucky-based Humana continue a strategy shift in which Hazelden relies on a growing share of patients with insurance coverage as opposed to patients who pay their own way. (Snowbeck, 5/29)