California’s key COVID and health advisor to step down

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s top health advisor during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic plans to step down.

The governor praised Dr. Mark Ghaly as the country’s “most transformative leader in the health space” in recent years after announcing that the secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency is leaving the cabinet position at the end of this month.

As CalMatters’ health reporters Ana B. Ibarra and Kristen Hwang explain, Ghaly has led the agency since 2019. (You might recall Ghaly as the one who administered the COVID vaccine to Newsom during a live broadcast in 2021.)

Though Newsom received pushback from some Californians for his handling of the pandemic — particularly for business lockdowns and school closures, which helped fuel an unsuccessful 2021 recall campaign — Newsom said Ghaly’s leadership during the time “saved countless lives.”

During Ghaly’s tenure, the state also undertook some notable overhauls in its public health policies, which advocates and community groups have pushed for decades. That includes revamping California’s public insurance program CalAIM; creating a framework for the state’s health care system to better serve elderly Californians; and launching CalRx to enable the state to distribute its own medications, such as insulin and naloxone.

Ghaly’s successor will be Kim Johnson, the current director of the California Department of Social Services, who will begin her new role Oct. 1. Unlike Ghaly, Johnson has no medical background; she has led the social services department since 2019.

Learn more about Ghaly’s time in office in Ana and Kristen’s story.

Reining in hemp: Ghaly also spoke alongside Newsom on Friday as the governor issued emergency regulations to restrict the sale of consumable hemp products, particularly to children and young adults. 

The new rules would ban the sale of food, beverages and other industrial hemp products that have detectable levels of tetrahydrocannabinol. Informally known as THC, the compound is derived from hemp and is linked to health risks in developing brains. The regulations also limit the serving and package size of hemp products, and establish the minimum age of 21 to purchase these products.

Newsom proposed the rules after a bill to restrict the sale of hemp products stalled in the Legislature. Marijuana and hemp are two varieties of the cannabis plant, but marijuana has higher levels of THC and is highly regulated.

Back on the stump: The governor is back on the presidential campaign trail supporting Vice President Kamala Harris. He left the state Sunday to do fundraisers and media appearances in New York, then he’ll make campaign stops in Pennsylvania before returning to California on Wednesday. Newsom was among President Joe Biden’s most visible backers earlier this summer, but he took a step back after Biden withdrew. Newsom endorsed Harris in late July and only made brief remarks on Harris’s behalf at the Democratic convention last month.

Gov. Newsom also announced his first post-session veto on Friday, and it was a big one: Assembly Bill 1840, which would have allowed undocumented Californians to apply for a state program that assists first-time homebuyers. The governor struck it down due to “finite funding.” 

The program, known as “Dream for All,” offers as much as $150,000 to help pay for down payments. A spokesperson for Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, a Fresno Democrat and author of the bill, said the proposal would have enabled undocumented residents to participate in the program if they meet all other eligibility and financial requirements. 

Republican state legislators have openly denounced the hot-button measure since its introduction, and praised their own efforts for its ultimate demise. Senate GOP leader Brian Jones of San Diego said the bill was “insulting and unfair,” and Assembly Republican leader James Gallagher of Chico said the party helped expose the bill as a “crazy idea.”

When the assistance program first launched in 2023, applicants claimed nearly all of the available $300 million in initial funding within 11 days. This year’s state budget has not appropriated any new funds for the program.

Another bill affecting undocumented Californians awaits Newsom’s decision: It would require the state’s employment department to draft a plan that would extend unemployment benefits to undocumented workers who lose their jobs.

Speaking of housing: CalMatters updated its comprehensive explainer on the state’s housing crisis. In it you’ll find information on why purchasing a housing has become so difficult in California; which California cities have the highest rents; and the relationship between high rents and homelessness rates. 

It also dives into the various challenges California faces in easing the crisis, including the methods neighborhood groups employ to slow or restrict building more places to live. Read more here.

After two key bills to address centuries of discrimination against Black Californians stalled in the final hours of the legislative session, proponents of reparations are divided over where their efforts should head next, reports CalMatters’ Wendy Fry.

The two proposals, authored by Democratic Sen. Steven Bradford of Inglewood, weren’t part of the 14-bill reparations package introduced by the California Legislative Black Caucus in January. One bill would have established a new state agency to help Black residents confirm their eligibility for reparations payments, while the other would have created a fund for reparations policies. On Aug. 31, the last day of session, the caucus prevented the proposals from coming to a vote in the Assembly, though several other measures in the bill package made it to Newsom’s desk.

The caucus, which seeks a less sweeping approach to reparations in the face of public pushback, said Bradford’s bills would be reintroduced next year. Assemblymember Lori Wilson, a Suisun City Democrat and caucus chairperson, said some bills were expected to take several legislative sessions to reach the finish line.

But supporters of Bradford’s bills argue that the defeat was a major setback for those who have worked for years to advance reparations in California. Some advocates are also considering trying to recall caucus members. 

Bradford says these threats are “totally unnecessary.”

Learn more about the reparations bill fallout in Wendy’s story.

More on reparations: CalMatters has a detailed explainer on the reparations debate and has also created an interactive tool to estimate how much someone might be owed in reparations for slavery and racism. Look it up here, watch a TikTok about it and see it on Instagram. 

Hate crimes rising: And CalMatters news intern Shaanth Nanguneri dives into rising anti-Indian hate crimes in California, particularly between Hindu and Sikh communities.

In 2023, three California Hindu houses of worship were vandalized and anti-Hindu hate crimes in the state hit a record-high of eight incidents. Members of the Sikh community also reported six hate crimes against them — the highest number since 2014, when the state’s justice department began displaying the data. 

The worrying trend is occuring amid increased tension between the two sects. Last year, the Legislature failed to advance two bills that drew major ire from some Hindu groups: One would have prohibited caste discrimination, and the other would have included India’s government as one of a handful of countries that engages in international political repression.

Read more about the issue in Shaanth’s story.

Fresno County’s proposed committee to review library books has become a battleground over censorship, parental rights and LGBTQ representation. CalMatters Capitol reporter Alexei Koseff and Director of Video Strategy Robert Meeks have a video segment on Alexei’s story on the state’s debate over book bans as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it here.

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.