@DrewDad,
Me either, and checking the LA Times articles adds up (past 15 a month, money is due), and I try to keep tabs on LA. Maybe LA Weekly has covered that.
I think probably not, re drug resistant. We'd have heard about it.
Also, syphilis tests vary and some more sophisticated (aka more expensive) tests can rule out stuff that is an artifact in the more usual tests.
I had a positive test once. That made me freak. They tested me for it when they were doing rule-outs re my nightblindness, for which syphilis can be a cause. Luckily I knew the head of infectious disease at the university at the time (well, I'd met him, my boss knew him well) and he talked to me at length and told me what tests to ask the medical resident to order. Clean!
Criminy, that was a close one.