Sen. Bernie Sanders headed west to drum up support for his recently unveiled "Medicare for All" proposal Friday, but first trained his sights on the Obamacare repeal bill currently gripping Congress.

Sanders (I-Vt.), whose speech was the cornerstone of a California Nurses Assn. gathering in San Francisco, blasted the Republican plan led by Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina as "horrific legislation."

"How cruel, how immoral it is, to say to those millions of Americans, we are going to take away that health insurance that keeps you alive," Sanders said.

Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters has gotten a lot of attention this year as she's pushed back on the Trump administration, earning the nickname "Auntie Maxine." Now her words will be the theme of the new Women's Convention.

The two-day Women's Convention in Detroit is hoping to capitalize on the energy of January's Women's March, when hundreds of thousands of women marched in cities across the country the day after Trump's inauguration. It is scheduled for the end of October, and announced this week its theme will be "Reclaiming Our Time."

The theme refers to a heated exchange in July between Waters of Los Angeles and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin during a House Financial Services Committee hearing. It began when Waters asked Mnuchin why he hadn't responded to a letter Democrats sent him asking for information about President Trump. Committee members get a set amount of time to question a witness and Waters became frustrated that Mnuchin appeared to be skirting her question and using up her time. Waters over and over demanded "reclaiming my time" as Mnuchin tried to speak over her.

Healthcare advisors to Gov. Jerry Brown believe the latest effort on Capitol Hill to repeal the Affordable Care Act would blow a monstrous hole in the state budget, slashing federal health funds by $138.8-billion over a seven-year period.

The estimate, released Friday by the state Department of Healthcare Services, comes on the heels of increased focus on the Republican bill championed by Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.

It is the third time since President Trump took office that GOP lawmakers in Washington have proposed changes to federal health subsidies that would downsize California's share of federal funds. No firm estimates have been made of the number of state residents who might lose health coverage under the Cassidy-Graham proposal, though earlier efforts from congressional Republicans were estimated to put millions of Californians at risk.

In a rare court rebuke of the state Attorney General’s Office, a judge said Friday that the title and summary written for a proposed initiative is misleading — and that he'd do a rewrite himself to make it clear the measure would repeal recently approved increases to gas taxes and vehicle fees.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy M. Frawley said he would draft a new title and summary to be placed on petitions for the initiative after attorneys for the state and proponents of the ballot measure could not agree on compromise language.

“In this circumstance, I honestly believe that the circulated title and summary that has been prepared is misleading,” Frawley told attorneys during a court hearing Friday. He hopes to release the new title and summary by Monday.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom has made his most explicit endorsement yet of a controversial single-payer healthcare proposal that has roiled Democratic politics in California.

Newsom appeared Friday before the California Nurses Assn., the most ardent backers of SB 562, a stalled bill to establish a system in which the state would cover all residents' healthcare costs. 

"There’s no reason to wait around on universal healthcare and single-payer in California," Newsom said. "It's time to move 562. It's time to get it out of committee." The line prompted cheers and a standing ovation from the audience of about 1,500 members of the nurses' union.

The race to replace Jimmy Gomez, who was elected to Congress earlier this year, has so far been waged by mail and door-knocking in northeast Los Angeles. 

Most of the mailers feature local leaders and endorsements from groups including Planned Parenthood and the Sierra Club.

But one mailer that arrived in my mailbox Thursday has a much more familiar face — former President Barack Obama. While it might seem like one to the casual voter sorting through junk mail, this isn't an endorsement.

With the hyperpartisan politics surrounding healthcare stirred up by efforts to repeal Obamacare and calls for a single-payer system, both Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa are claiming the mantle of healthcare visionary.

On the campaign trail the two Democratic candidates for governor are touting their signature healthcare accomplishments from earlier in their political careers as their bona fides.

For Newsom, it’s about Healthy San Francisco, the nation’s first municipal universal healthcare program, approved while he was mayor; and for Villaraigosa, it’s Healthy Families, which provided healthcare coverage to the children of California’s working poor, legislation he authored as a California assemblyman.

Rep. Duncan Hunter said that the United States needs to launch a preemptive strike against North Korea in order to prevent the rogue nation from harming the U.S. first.

“You could assume, right now, that we have a nuclear missile aimed at the United States, and here in San Diego. Why would they not aim here, at Hawaii, Guam, our major naval bases?” Hunter, an Alpine Republican, said Thursday during an appearance on San Diego television station KUSI.

“The question is, do you wait for one of those? Or two? Do you preemptively strike them? And that’s what the president has to wrestle with. I would preemptively strike them. You could call it declaring war, call it whatever you want,” Hunter continued.

When Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders visited Beverly Hills last May, he made a full-throated appeal for California to “lead the country” and pass a pending state proposal to establish single-payer healthcare.

On Friday, he’ll return to California for a San Francisco speech trumpeting his own higher-stakes plan — a bill to drastically overhaul the nation’s healthcare system by covering everyone through Medicare.

The push for single-payer, in which the government pays for residents’ medical care, has already rattled California’s political landscape. Now, the Sanders measure brings an additional jolt, elevating the issue to a national debate that has implications for the future direction of the Democratic Party and early jockeying in the 2020 presidential race.

Republican Rep. Jeff Denham of Turlock still has at least nine challengers..

The Times’ California politics editors have ranked vulnerable districts like Denham's by the intensity of the fight ahead for 2018.