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Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh faced a whirlwind of new accusations on Wednesday that threatened to derail his nomination to the Supreme Court as key Republican senators wavered in their support and President Trump, in a rambling and combative news conference, acknowledged that he might be persuaded by the testimony of one of the judge’s female accusers. (Fandos and Shear, 9/26)

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday will take the extraordinary step of putting one of the most politically treacherous and emotionally charged congressional hearings in recent memory in the hands of an unknown career prosecutor from Arizona with little comparable experience. (Helderman, Kim, Dawsey and Farzan, 9/26)

Committee aides also were seeking on Wednesday to speak with the judge’s latest accuser, Julie Swetnick, who alleged that Judge Kavanaugh was at a party in the early 1980s when she was gang-raped and that he tried to get women drunk at several gatherings. She wasn’t scheduled to appear at the hearing. Mr. Kavanaugh has forcefully denied all of the allegations against him, saying at one point he felt like he was in the Twilight Zone. “This is crazy town—it’s a smear campaign,” Mr. Kavanaugh told committee aides. (Ballhaus and Viswanatha, 9/26)

California professor Christine Blasey Ford plans to tell senators Thursday that she is “no one’s pawn” and that an alleged 1982 sexual assault by now-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has “been seared into my memory and ... haunted me episodically as an adult.” In her opening statement for the high-stakes hearing, released Wednesday, Ford said a drunken Kavanaugh, then 17, pinned her to a bed at a party, groping her, trying to remove her clothes and placing his hand over her mouth when she tried to yell for help. (Haberkorn and Wire, 9/26)

Christine Blasey Ford has accused Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were in high school in the early 1980s. On Thursday the psychology professor is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Read her opening statement. (9/26)

Three Senate Republicans were already at the epicenter of the firestorm around Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court: Jeff Flake of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. But the trio, who have been lobbied heavily by outside groups, vocal constituents and their own colleagues, are now suddenly grappling with a new set of allegations brought by a third woman against Kavanaugh — accusations that are making an already tense confirmation fight even more combustible for the influential group of senators. (Kim, 9/26)

Lindsey Graham complained that Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers are making him out to be “Bill Cosby.” Orrin Hatch blasted “phony” accusations in The New Yorker. And John Cornyn urged the Senate to get on with a confirmation vote before more “reckless” allegations are lodged against the Supreme Court nominee. All three Republicans will be on the dais Thursday when Ford appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a hearing that will determine whether Kavanaugh lands on the high court. They've been Kavanaugh’s most aggressive defenders — and appear most at risk of appearing dismissive of Kavanaugh's initial accuser, Christine Blasey Ford. (Everett and Bresnahan, 9/26)

You’ll probably hear that there are many things we don’t know about sexual assault: who commits it and why, what impact it has on victims, how often it is falsely reported, and how accurately it’s remembered by those who talk about it years later. That is only half true. The people who devote their careers to investigating the subject always have unanswered questions: that’s what drives their research. But the study of sexual violence has matured in recent decades. At least 15 journals routinely publish scholarly findings on trauma and violence of all kinds, and a handful focus specifically on sexual violence. (Healy, 9/27)

The allegations of sexual assault against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh have a common element of binge drinking, and highlight the powerful effects alcohol can have on adolescents and their still-developing brains. Alcohol not only changes behavior — sometimes with disastrous consequences — it can also interfere with memory formation, creating gaps that experts refer to as blackouts. “In the moment, the person can be functioning normally, with no sign there’s going to be memory impairment. But because those memories never get consolidated and stored, it’s like they never occurred, so you can’t recall them later on,” said Kate Carey, a clinical psychologist at Brown University School of Public Health. “Which doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.” (Johnson and Achenbach, 9/26)

Congress has approved a bill keeping the government open through Dec. 7, as lawmakers move to avert a government shutdown looming next week. The $854 billion bill also funds the military and a host of civilian agencies for the next year. The House approved the bill, 361-61, on Wednesday, a week after the Senate approved it, 93-7. (Daly, 9/26)

The massive package includes some $675 billion to fund the Department of Defense for the full year ending on Sept. 30, 2019, as well as about $180 billion for the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Departments. (Zengerle, 9/26)

The bill also raises spending for the National Institutes of Health to $39 billion, a $2 billion increase, and provides a 1.6% bump in the maximum Pell grant award for college students with financial need. (Duehren, 9/26)

President Trump pledged Wednesday that he would not allow the government to partially shut down next week, backing down from his demand that Congress appropriate billions of dollars for new construction of a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. Keeping the government open after Sunday would require Trump to sign a bipartisan spending bill from Congress, something he had resisted committing to for weeks. (Werner and Paletta, 9/26)

The House and Senate have reached agreement on a big package of measures to address the opioid epidemic. The legislation, backed by leaders of both parties, is a rare bipartisan achievement that lawmakers are eager to have in hand when they go home to campaign for the midterm elections. The 653-page bill contains a mix of law enforcement and public health measures, including one that aims to block deadly fentanyl from being imported through the mail and one that will allow more nurses to prescribe medication for opioid addiction. Another provision could make it easier for Medicaid recipients to get inpatient care for substance abuse over the next five years. (Goodnough, 9/26)

Eleven people including doctors have been charged in Southern California in an alleged insurance-fraud scheme involving an implant surgery that purportedly helps drug addicts and alcoholics, Orange County's top prosecutor said Wednesday. "Orange County's become what's known as the 'Rehab Riviera' due to the proliferation of insurance fraud and the attractiveness of our communities," District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said in announcing the case. (9/26)

Members of a task force convened earlier this week to identify the “top problems facing Loveland” and presented the City Council with some ways the city can address suicide, homelessness and opioid addiction. Convened by Councilor Steve Olson, the team of about 25 private, nonprofit and governmental organizations discussed what’s being done to address these issues and gaps in those services. (Rentsch, 9/26)

Child protection services nationwide have seen a surge in children removed from parents since 2012, around the time a heroin epidemic was first recognized. Ohio’s Public Children's Services Association is reporting a continuing “alarming” rise in children removed from their parents. (DeMio, 9/26)

Democrats say they will grill top Trump administration officials over what they say has been its efforts to “sabotage” ObamaCare, if they take back the House majority this fall and win committee chairmanships with subpoena power. While Democrats are unlikely to see significant health-care legislation enacted while President Trump is in the White House, they say they’ll work to advance several bills designed to “undo” the damage caused by the administration and build up the Affordable Care Act (ACA). (Hellmann, 9/27)

Kaiser Health News: Threat To The ACA Turns Up The Heat On Attorney General Races

For years, congressional Republicans have vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Now, in a case sending shock waves through midterm election campaigns, Republican attorneys general across the country may be poised to make good on that promise. The case, Texas v. United States, reveals just how high the stakes are for health care in this year’s attorney general races, elections that rarely receive much attention but have the power to reverberate through the lives of Americans. (Huetteman, 9/27)

Oregon’s rate of uninsured people is just a third of what it was before the Affordable Care Act in 2011. But it’s still higher than it could be, according to new data from the Oregon Health Authority. The state health agency found that many people who qualify for insurance don’t take advantage of it -- either because they don’t know they could, or they distrust the Oregon Health Plan. (Harbarger, 9/26)

Kansans seeking health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s federally run exchange will have the choice of three insurers in 2019. Kansas Insurance Commissioner Ken Selzer said in a statement that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, Medica Insurance Co. and Ambetter from Sunflower Health Plan will offer 23 separate plans for individuals through HealthCare.gov, the federal government exchange. Medica’s plans will be available in every county. Blue Cross’ plans will be available in every county except Johnson and Wyandotte. Ambetter’s plans will be available in Johnson, Wyandotte, Miami and Leavenworth counties. (Margolies, 9/26)

The enrollee share of premiums in the health-care program for federal employees and retirees will increase by 1.5 percent on average in 2019, although there will be decreases in some plans, including in the two Blue Cross and Blue Shield options that account for nearly two-thirds of enrollees, the government announced Wednesday. Further, Blue Cross and several other plans will offer a new third option in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, the largest employer-sponsored health insurance program in the nation, the Office of Personnel Management said. (Yoder, 9/26)

An estimated 80,000 Americans died of flu and its complications last winter — the disease's highest death toll in at least four decades. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, revealed the total in an interview Tuesday night with The Associated Press. Flu experts knew it was a very bad season, but at least one found the size of the estimate surprising. (9/26)

The number of deaths last winter is higher than any flu season going back to 1976-1977, before which there is not easily available data, according to the AP. Last winter's flu was particularly active. “For the past three weeks, the entire country has been experiencing lots of flu all at the same time,” Dan Jernigan, a top CDC flu official, said in January. (Sullivan, 9/26)

The 2017-2018 season was also marked by high severity across all age groups -- the first season where the CDC found that to be the case.Overall, the effectiveness of the seasonal flu vaccine for last season was estimated to be 40%. This means the flu vaccine reduced a person's risk of having to seek medical care by 40%, the CDC found. (Scutti, 9/26)

The doctors tapped by the federal government to medically screen immigrants seeking green cards include dozens with a history of “egregious infractions,” according to a report from a federal watchdog agency. The report looked at more than 5,500 doctors across the country used by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services as of June 2017 to examine those seeking green cards. More than 130 had some background of wrongdoing, including one who sexually exploited female patients and another who tried to have a dissatisfied patient killed, the report said. (Zaveri, 9/26)

A small Arizona city has ended its role in an unusual contract that allowed the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to run a family detention center in Texas, where lawyers say a child became sick and died after her release. The city of Eloy already had an agreement with ICE and the private detention company CoreCivic for a detention facility when it entered the contract in 2014 involving the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley. (9/26)

Fewer New Jersey families are participating in federal nutrition and health programs, and New Jersey social service providers say they expect the numbers to continue to drop under a new Trump administration plan to deny green cards to immigrants who rely on public assistance. ...The new rule, which the administration announced over the weekend, could affect about 382,000 people a year nationally, according to the Department of Homeland Security. (Alvarado and Solis, 9/26)

A federal appeals court panel ruled Wednesday that a Louisiana law requiring that abortion providers have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals does not violate women's constitutional abortion rights. The 2-1 ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals notes a U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down an admitting privileges law in Texas — a case known as Whole Woman's Health. But, the majority said, Louisiana's law does not impose the same "substantial burden" on women as the Texas law. The ruling reversed a Baton Rouge-based federal judge's ruling in the case and ordered the lawsuit by opponents of the law dismissed. (McGill, 9/26)

"There is no evidence that any of the clinics will close as a result of the Act," the appeals court said in its ruling. The Texas law, whose language is similar to the Louisiana law, led to the closure of the majority of the state's abortion clinics and the number of women forced to drive over 150 miles to seek abortions increased by 350 percent, the appeals court said. (Herskovitz, 9/27)

An anti-abortion family planning group in Texas that served less than 5 percent of the clients it pledged to cover was awarded a third multimillion-dollar contract from the state. The Heidi Group served only 3,300 clients out of nearly 70,000 it told the state it would cover in fiscal year 2017, according to data from the Health and Human Services Commission that was first obtained by the Texas Observer. (Stone, 9/26)

The rate of suicide among young military veterans has increased substantially despite efforts by the Department of Veterans Affairs to curb the problem, though overall veteran suicides declined slightly, according to new data to be released Wednesday. The VA’s National Suicide Data Report paints a troubling picture for vets ages 18 to 34, for some troops who served in the National Guard or reserves, as well as female veterans. (Kesling, 9/26)

Veterans aged 18 to 34 have higher rates of suicide than any other age group, the VA says in its National Suicide Data Report. The rate for those young veterans increased to 45 suicide deaths per 100,000 population in 2016, up from 40.4 in 2015, even as the overall veteran suicide rate decreased slightly, according to a copy of the report reviewed by the Guardian. Many vets in that age group served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Durkin, 9/26)

An average of three veterans died by suicide each week in Tennessee in 2016, according to the latest figures released by the Department of Veterans Affairs.The data released Wednesday shows a 6 percent increase in suicides from 2015 and marks a disturbing trend for local veterans as the national rate declined slightly. (Jeong, 9/26)

United States veterans are committing suicide at alarming rates that are well above the national average, and the problem is especially evident in Oregon. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the suicide rate for veterans in Oregon in 2015, the most recent year data is available, was 37.2 percent, which was more than double the national average among non-veterans. (Gutierrez, 9/25)

The Minneapolis Veterans health care system has been cited by the VA Inspector General, after a patient died from suicide in the facility's parking lot. In February, the veteran who served at least one deployment in Iraq, called the VA crisis hotline. (Enger, 9/26)

On a spring day in the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur, a lone gunman shot an elderly couple at the inn they owned, 22 diners lunching at a nearby tourist spot, two tour bus drivers and several of their passengers, four occupants of a BMW, and two customers at a gas station. By the time the bullets stopped flying on April 28, 1996, 35 people were dead and another 23 were wounded. It was the worst mass shooting Australia had ever seen. In a matter of months, Australia rolled out the National Firearms Agreement, which banned the possession of automatic and semiautomatic firearms in all but “exceptional circumstances.” (Kaplan, 9/26)

Californians will have to undergo at least eight hours of training, including live-fire exercises, before carrying a concealed weapon, under one of several firearms bills acted on by Gov. Jerry Brown. The bill helps standardize the state's current patchwork requirements for obtaining concealed weapons permits. It was among dozens of bills that the Democratic governor announced signing or vetoing Wednesday. (9/26)

As its name indicates, the causes of CKDu are poorly understood. What’s not in question is that it’s deadly. Symptoms—including vomiting, exhaustion, and weight loss—often don’t appear until the disease is well advanced, by which time damage to the kidneys cannot be reversed. Without access to dialysis or a kidney transplant, there’s little hope of survival. CKDu first gained international recognition for its impact on sugar cane workers in Nicaragua, where it’s killed at least 20,000 young men in the past decade, according to experts who describe it as an epidemic. The disease has also cropped up in other developing countries, including Brazil, Egypt, India, Qatar, and Sri Lanka, predominantly among those such as field hands and construction workers who perform strenuous work outdoors. There’s no data on the number of cases worldwide. (Fernandez, 9/26)

The World Health Organization says governments have agreed to contribute $13 billion a year by 2022 to prevent and treat tuberculosis, a communicable disease that claimed at least 1.3 million lives last year. The agency said Wednesday that countries at a high-level meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly committed an additional $2 billion annually for research into TB. (9/26)

When Pascale Yola Gassant went to work as a pediatrician at a children’s hospital in Haiti in 2003, she saw patients with cancer—but could offer no specialists, drugs or radiation therapy to tackle their disease. Distraught, Dr. Gassant says she warned her manager at St. Damien Pediatric Hospital in Port-au-Prince: “These children were left on their own and they would die without care and without treatment.” (Lagnado, 9/26)

Charlie Arrowood does not identify as male or female. So in January, when a new New York City law takes effect, they plan to modify the sex recorded on their birth certificate to one that fits: “X,” a gender-neutral option. Mx. Arrowood, who is transgender, changed both their name and sex on the certificate last year. But putting “male” instead of “female” on the document did not feel quite right either. (Newman, 9/27)

Some benzyl chloride with your vanilla-scented lotion? Consumers may be surprised that their favorite scented products could contain some less-entrancing ingredients, according to a new report. A study released Wednesday by Breast Cancer Prevention Partners found a host of unlisted chemicals in commonly used products, with most coming from the scents used to boost their allure. Many bear celebrity labels or are sold to vulnerable populations, it said. (Coleman-Lochner, 9/26)

Researchers tied three behaviors to higher scores on tests of mental ability in children: at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day, nine to 11 hours of sleep a night, and no more than two hours a day of recreational screen time. The new study, in Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, included 4,524 children ages 8 to 11 who were assessed with six standard tests that measure language skills, memory, planning ability, and speed at completing mental tasks. (Bakalar, 9/26)

Following years of reformulating at McDonald's, most of the burgers it serves in the U.S. are now preservative-free. As of Wednesday, the world's largest burger chain says classics like the Big Mac and Quarter Pounder with Cheese are preservative-free, with reformulated buns and sauces. Pickles on the sandwiches still contain artificial preservatives, but customers can request sandwiches without pickles. (9/26)

The USDA has released a list of retail chains that received E.coli-infected ground beef. Tons of ground beef recalled from a Cargill Meat Solutions plant in Fort Morgan, Colorado, have been blamed for one death and 17 illnesses. According to the USDA, the meat had been shipped to retail locations of Target, Safeway, Albertson’s and Meijer’s, nationwide, as well as Aldi stores in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. (Haflich, 9/26)

The labor union sponsoring a ballot question to regulate nurse staffing in hospitals is slamming the state Health Policy Commission and questioning its role as an independent watchdog as the agency prepares a report on the costs of the ballot measure. In a letter sent late Tuesday, union officials accused the commission of having a bias in favor of hospitals, which are fighting the ballot question. (Dayal McCluskey, 9/26)

Health department officials in the nation’s capital say a case of Legionnaire’s disease has been confirmed at a senior living community in Washington. News outlets report the health department has advised the Ingleside at Rock Creek retirement community to implement full water restrictions until filters can be installed on sinks and showers. A letter from the community’s executive director, Frank Beech, says residents are being provided bottled water and supplies in the meantime. (9/26)

The Woman's Hospital of Texas has been named a Level IV Advanced Neonatal Intensive Care Unit by the Texas Department of State Health Services, the hospital announced on Wednesday. The designation means the hospital is able to provide the highest level of acute care for premature and critically ill infants born earlier than 32 pounds and weighing less than 3.3 pounds. (Deam, 9/26)

The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday imposed an $82 million fine against a telemarketer who made more than 21 million unsolicited calls to consumers to try to sell health insurance and generate leads. Over a three-month period beginning in late 2016, Philip Roesel and his companies made more than 200,000 calls every day, the FCC said, using a technique known as spoofing in which a person’s caller ID displays a number that is different from the one the caller is using. (Shaban, 9/26)

LifePoint Health CEO Bill Carpenter will retire after the Brentwood, Tenn.-based health system completes its merger with RCCH HealthCare Partners, LifePoint announced Wednesday. David Dill, LifePoint's president and chief operating officer, will take over as CEO of the merged company. The merger, announced in July, is expected to close later this year. (Livingston, 9/26)

A federal appeals court heard arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by the families of coal miners who were denied benefits for black lung disease after a Johns Hopkins doctor insisted their X-rays did not show the disease. A federal judge in Maryland dismissed the lawsuit in 2017, finding that Dr. Paul Wheeler had immunity as an expert witness for coal companies under Maryland and federal law. (Lavoie, 9/26)

A venture fund at Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group is part of a $33 million fundraising round for an Iowa startup that’s developing an autonomous diagnostic system featuring artificial intelligence (AI). Called IDx, the company this year received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration to market the first medical device using AI to detect greater than a mild level of the eye disease diabetic retinopathy in adults with diabetes. (Snowbeck, 9/26)

The Environmental Protection Agency has decided how it plans to clean up the radioactive waste at the West Lake Landfill Superfund site. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported late Wednesday that the federal agency has chosen a solution that will remove about 70 percent of the site’s radioactivity, and the waste would be disposed at an off-site facility. (Chen 9/26)

The Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division’s board on Wednesday voted to contract with a for-profit company to provide inpatient care in a new hospital that would open in 2021. The pending contract with Universal Health Services, based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, will culminate a four-year search for an entity to provide care for patients now hospitalized at the Behavioral Health Division’s Mental Health Complex in Wauwatosa. (Boulton, 9/26)

Brad Simmons, the chief operating officer at UC Davis Medical Center, will take over as the interim chief executive officer of the teaching hospital as CEO Ann Madden Rice leaves to become president of Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis in mid-October. Simmons’ appointment is pending approval by the University of California Board of Regents. He has served as the second-in-command at the medical center since 2016. (Anderson, 9/26)

Knowing how danagerous the exposure to carcinogens at the workplace can can be, South Milwaukee Fire Chief Joseph Knitter has always taken the long-term health of his firefighters seriously. ...So his department receiving a donation of 35 particulate-barrier hoods, which are designed to reduce exposure to carcinogens released during fires, was a pleasant surprise. (Hughes, 9/26)

Community health workers across the state help to bridge the gap between the health care system and communities, said Tiffany Donelson, vice president of programs at Connecticut Health Foundation. ...Despite their value to the health care system and the underserved communities they reach, however, there is still no sustainable funding for the majority of the workforce because their services are not covered by insurance. (Werth, 9/26)

The Baker administration will hire an independent evaluator to conduct a sweeping safety study of the natural gas distribution networks in Massachusetts, a process that will be financed by the utilities under an emergency order linked to the fatal Merrimack Valley gas explosions. The push to hire the evaluator was announced Wednesday by the state Department of Public Utilities, the state agency in charge of overseeing natural gas distribution systems in Massachusetts. (Ellement and Chesto, 9/26)

A smaller vehicle operated by the Minneapolis Fire Department may begin responding to some health emergencies around downtown next year, one way the department is dealing with its growing volume of medical emergency calls. The move would also help the department get reimbursed for some of its work. The experiment, which could expand in the future, will be detailed at a City Council hearing on Thursday. (Roper, 9/26)

The Minneapolis City Council on Wednesday signed off on a plan that would relocate a growing homeless encampment along Hiawatha Avenue to property nearby owned by the Red Lake Band of Chippewa. Tribal leaders on Friday offered the land just south of the Franklin Avenue light rail station to use as a "navigation center" after the council delayed a decision on two other possible sites. (Nesterak, 9/26)

When a disturbed woman pulled a knife on Denise Deer earlier this month, she quickly herded her children into their tent. A nearby man stepped in and the woman was arrested, and within minutes, 8-year-old Shilo and 4-year-old Koda were back outside sitting on a sidewalk, playing with a train set and gobbling treats delivered by volunteers. (9/27)

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) on Wednesday celebrated the completion of the first of seven new shelters for homeless families, marking a major step in her ambitious and sometimes contentious plan to replace the rundown megashelter at the former D.C. General Hospital with a network of smaller lodgings scattered across the city. (Nirappil, 9/26)

Virginia regulators have picked five companies to open the state’s first medical cannabis dispensaries. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that after more than five hours of private discussion Tuesday, the Virginia Board of Pharmacy gave initial approval to five of the 51 applicants. Each of the state’s five health service areas will feature a dispensary. (9/26)

This month marked a defining moment for many individuals and families as Texas and 19 other states went to federal court in an effort to end health care protections for millions of people, including 4.9 million Texans living with pre-existing conditions. If this lawsuit succeeds, it could have a massive impact on eliminating health coverage under the Affordable Care Act for millions of Texans and their families. One of the most significant protections at risk under the ACA is health coverage for pre-existing conditions. Since the passing of the ACA, insurance companies have been prevented from denying services or charging more for people who have pre-existing conditions. However, this could all change if this protection is rescinded, leaving millions of people without coverage and unable to afford treatment or medications. (Bianca Ramirez, 9/26)

In the closely contested Missouri senatorial election, an important issue differentiates the two candidates: banning discrimination in insurance markets. Republican Josh Hawley supports a return to the bad old days. (Jonathan Gruber, 9/26)

Earlier this month, I flew to Washington, D.C., with a diverse delegation of eight Alaska women to urge Sen. Lisa Murkowski to oppose Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court.It took commitment for me to take time from my infant twins, my mental health care practice, and my ongoing U.S. Olympic Committee duties to fly across the country. But I wanted to convey to Sen. Murkowski in person just how devastating Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation would be for a constituency I care deeply about: Alaskans with pre-existing conditions, including those suffering with mental health conditions. (Holly Brooks, 9/26)

The next Supreme Court will make decisions on countless issues that impact the lives of all Ohioans, including on our access to quality, affordable health care. A lawsuit backed by Republican state attorneys general and Republicans in Washington that is moving through the courts would make it legal once again to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions. (David Pepper, 9/26)

Chronic pain exacts a terrible toll on human well-being. More than 10 percent of Americans suffer from pain every day, according to the National Institutes of Health, and many more suffer from it sporadically. Academic research has found that pain is one of the biggest sources of unhappiness. Pain sufferers, as the economist Alan Krueger told me, “typically lead more isolated lives, work less, and have lower life satisfaction.” (David Leonhardt, 9/26)

The ease of buying fentanyl — which is frequently laced into heroin or fake pain pills — is likely one reason it has replaced prescription opioids as the leading killer in drug overdoses. Deaths from synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, soared to 29,406 last year, up more than 50% from 2016. Another reason for the fentanyl explosion is that it's easy to ship to the United States. You don't even need drug mules. Much of it comes by express mail. Investigators found that sellers prefer to ship the illicit drugs through government-run services, such as the U.S. Postal Service, rather than commercial carriers such as FedEx or UPS. (9/26)

The opioid epidemic continues to be a long and painful tragedy for many Americans. According to the Centers for Disease Control, overdose deaths involving opioids, including those legally prescribed but misused and illegal opioids like heroin and illicit fentanyl, were five times higher in 2016 than in 1999. As former governors and secretaries of Health and Human Services, we have seen this scourge develop over the last several decades and we understand the challenges it poses to our country today and for generations to come. (Former Secretaries of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and Tommy Thompson, 9/26)

How much more callous can President Trump’s immigration policies get? The latest outrage is that immigrants — including legal immigrants — across Massachusetts are dropping their health coverage, believing that new Trump policies require them to choose between affordable health care or a green card. (9/26)

In 1962, the renowned epidemiologist George Comstock had a realization that would help rid modern America of one of the world’s enduring scourges. Despite the advent of antibiotics, tuberculosis had remained endemic in parts of the country. Those miracle drugs were good at curing individual cases of TB, but people could pass the disease on to others long before they developed obvious symptoms, received proper diagnoses or were effectively cured. (9/26)

Medical students have higher rates of depression, suicidal ideation, and burnout than the general population. Schools have begun revisiting their procedures to ensure that they are doing everything possible to meet the mental health care needs of their students. (Jordan F. Karp and Arthur S. Levine, 9/26)

For too long, now, it seems to be open season for killing young black men. Our black sons are being targeted in two ways — through drive-by shootings and by police officers who shoot first and ask questions later. (Bea Hines, 9/26)

Across the lake, Michigan is attempting an unlikely transformation. In the wake of the ongoing Flint water crisis, the state has been appropriately seen as a drinking-water horror story. But, believe it or not, Michigan has become a leader in the battle against lead contamination in drinking water, putting in place the strongest protections in the country — more strict than any other state or federal statutes. Granted, that title is a low bar given the weak protections available nationally. And the new law does not come anywhere close to making up for the horror of Flint. But there is much to learn from the Great Lakes state. (Henry Henderson, 9/26)

As the parent of a child who reported her sexual assault at age 15, I am disgusted by the response to the sexual assault allegations brought forward by Christine Blasey Ford about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. My daughter Chessy was a freshman at St. Paul’s School, a prep school in New Hampshire, when senior Owen Labrie sexually assaulted her in a locked mechanical room in 2014. In spite of progress we have made with #MeToo and #IHaveTheRightTo, it appears that rape culture and its playbook are still very much alive in our culture. (Susan Prout, 9/26)  

Does anyone remember how difficult it was to talk about sexual assault 40 years ago? I do.I was raped in 1978, four years before Christine Blasey Ford alleges she was assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh. I was 19, on summer break after my sophomore year at UC Santa Cruz, helping my sister move across the country. Our car broke down. After the mechanic fixed it, I went for a drink with him. It was night by then and my sister and I had rented a motel room. I drank a Scotch, he drank a beer. On our way back, he swerved his truck into a cornfield. We fought. He broke a bottle of beer and held the jagged glass up to my face. I thought I would die, or be cut and disfigured, so I gave in. Then, he said, “I wouldn’t be embarrassed to take you anywhere,” as if this were a date. (Gabrielle Selz, 9/26)

The #WhyIDidntReport is an outgrowth of #MeToo, a response to the criticism of Ford for waiting so long to come forward with her accusations against Kavanaugh. Of course, as users of the #WhyIDidntReport hashtag make clear, many women, not just (Christine Blasey) Ford, decide not to talk about an incident at the time it happened. Ford was young and scared. There would likely be social repercussions to accusing someone in her social circle. She didn’t have proof. Perhaps she feared being blamed for instigating the event herself, which remains a common occurrence for victims. But the main reason she waited is that, until now, (Brett) Kavanaugh wasn’t in the running for one of the most powerful decision-making posts in the nation. His nomination can only have led her to believe she had a responsibility to share information that, if true, would have a direct bearing on the judge’s character. But there’s another critical factor. The #MeToo movement has shown Women that they can hold powerful men to account. As Victor Hugo wrote, “greater than the tread of mighty armies is an idea whose time has come.” (Kara Alaimo, 9/26)

What the (Brett) Kavanaugh case has revealed this week is that himpathy can, at its most extreme, become full-blown gendered sociopathy: a pathological moral tendency to feel sorry exclusively for the alleged male perpetrator — it was too long ago; he was just a boy; it was a case of mistaken identity — while relentlessly casting suspicion upon the female accusers. It also reveals the far-ranging repercussions of this worldview: It’s no coincidence that many of those who himpathize with Judge Kavanaugh to the exclusion of Dr. Blasey are also avid abortion opponents, a position that requires a refusal to empathize with girls and women facing an unwanted pregnancy. (Kate Manne, 9/26)