Los Angeles Times

1 day ago | latimes.com | Clara Harter

The L.A. County Department of Public Health is offering its final free community blood testing event Friday to screen victims of January’s firestorms for possible exposure to lead, a dangerous neurotoxin commonly found in wildfire ash and debris. Although elevated lead levels have been found in the soil of the Eaton and Palisades fire burn scars, community testing thus far has shown very low levels of lead contamination in residents.

1 day ago | latimes.com | Matt Szabo

Jack Sun, who started as Hoag’s director of cardiovascular surgery at the Jeffrey M. Carlton Heart & Vascular Institute last month, spent nearly seven years as chief of cardiac surgery not too far away, at UC Irvine. “At UCI, I had always known about Hoag, and you never know what’s going on over there,” Sun said with a smile. “It’s kind of like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

1 day ago | latimes.com | Michael Hiltzik

Here’s how one of the well-laid plans of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went blooey. Earlier this month, Kennedy dismantled the all-important Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and remade it into the spearhead for his anti-vaccination campaigns. The rejiggered committee met for the first time Wednesday.

1 day ago | latimes.com | Clara Harter

For years after his service in Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S. Army Special Forces veteran Joe Hudak fought a daily battle against a voice inside his head screaming anxious, dark and dangerous thoughts. He lost multiple team members in combat during his two-decade career in the Green Berets and tried everything he could to treat his post-traumatic stress disorder — talk therapy, group therapy, medication and even swimming with dolphins.

2 days ago | latimes.com | Salvador Hernandez |Salvador Hernández |Laura J. Nelson

Federal authorities sued Orange County’s top elections official Wednesday, alleging the county registrar violated federal law by refusing to disclose detailed information about people who were removed from the voter rolls because they were not citizens.