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Hundreds of thousands of California health care workers are poised to receive wage increases under a bill signed late Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom that will gradually raise the minimum wage for health industry workers to $25 an hour over the next several years. The legislation, introduced by State Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles, makes California the first state to enact a minimum wage for health industry workers. (Ho, 10/13)

Several city councils in California had already passed local laws to raise the minimum wage for health care workers. The health care industry then qualified referendums asking voters to block those increases. Labor unions responded by qualifying a ballot initiative in Los Angeles that would limit the maximum salaries for hospital executives. The law Newsom signed Friday would preempt those local minimum wage increases. (Beam, 10/13)

Gov. Gavin Newsom has finished off this year’s legislative session, signing 890 bills -- and rejecting 156 others -- over the last several weeks. In his final day of bill signings Friday — the deadline was midnight Saturday — Newsom vetoed just two bills, for a total of 890 signed and 156 vetoed in 2023. That’s a slight uptick in rejecting proposed legislation that reflects both his concerns about the state’s finances in an uncertain economy, as well as his national political ambitions. (Miolene, 10/14)

Kaiser Permanente has reached a tentative deal to resolve a labor dispute with more than 75,000 union workers. The Oakland, California-based health system and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions announced Friday that negotiators made a four-year agreement that averts further strikes. The unions had planned a second walkout for Nov. 1-8. (Devereaux, 10/13)

Kaiser Permanente’s $200 million settlement with the State of California for its repeated failures to provide patients with adequate and timely mental health care was a long while coming. The deficiencies themselves? Kaiser’s own employees say they’ve been hiding in plain sight. (Kreidler, 10/13)

Thirty-three years after the Food and Drug Administration banned the use of Red Dye No. 3 in red lipstick and other cosmetics by linking it to cancer, California has become the first state to ban the chemical in food. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed a law this month that outlawed the red dye and three other chemicals. Red No. 3 is used in Halloween treats and other foods, including private-label candy, cookies and frostings sold at national chains such as Walmart and Target. (Jewett and Creswell, 10/14)

From cutting-edge research on Alzheimer’s disease to an innovative effort to include environmental justice and community engagement in climate and sustainability science research and education, University of California, Irvine scholars, scientists and physicians are blazing new paths to help change the world. And the school’s impact keeps growing. In fiscal 2022-23, which ended June 30, UCI received the most research funding in campus history: $653 million in grants and contracts. (10/15)

Â鶹ŮÓÅ Health News: Listen: Inroads For Women In California’s Health Care Workforce 

Â鶹ŮÓÅ Health News senior correspondent Angela Hart moderated a panel about women in the health care workforce for an event hosted by Capitol Weekly on Sept. 28 in Sacramento. California faces a shortfall of health care workers, especially among women. Women account for 39% of doctors in the state, according to Â鶹ŮÓÅ, but are beginning to make critical gains. In 2022, the percentage of medical school graduates who were women had grown to 51% in the state while the percentage of male graduates had fallen, according to Kathryn Phillips, the California Health Care Foundation’s associate director for improving access. (Â鶹ŮÓÅ Health News publishes California Healthline, which is an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.) (10/16)