The Brief

The director of California’s mental health commission traveled to London this summer courtesy of a state vendor while he was helping to prevent a $360 million budget cut that would have defunded the company’s contract.

Emails and calendars reviewed by California Healthline show Toby Ewing, executive director of the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, made efforts to protect funding for Kooth, a London-based digital mental health company the state hired to develop a virtual tool to help tackle its youth mental health crisis. Ewing pressed key legislative staffers to maintain its contract, even as Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers proposed cuts in the face of California’s $45 billion deficit.

When Ewing and three commissioners — Mara Madrigal-Weiss, the commission chair; Bill Brown; and Steve Carnevale — left for London in June, Ewing wasn’t sure whether he had saved Kooth’s funding. On the second day of their trip, staff informed him that lawmakers had restored the money.

A few days later, he emailed Kooth Chief Operating Officer Kate Newhouse suggestions he had shared with Assembly and Senate staff to improve Kooth’s youth teletherapy app. “We expect you to be involved in whatever we dream up,” Ewing wrote to Newhouse in another email.

It’s unclear why Kooth picked up a $15,000 tab for state officials to travel to London. It’s also unclear why Ewing pushed to protect its app from a spending cut. The commission is a 16-member independent body appointed by various elected officials to help ensure funds from a millionaires tax are used appropriately and effectively by counties for mental health services. Kooth’s contract is with the Department of Health Care Services, which is separate from the commission.

Kooth last year signed a four-year $271 million contract to create Soluna, a free mental health app for California users ages 13 to 25. The app, along with another, by the company Brightline, for younger users, launched in January to fill a need for young Californians and their families to access professional telehealth free of charge. It’s one component of Newsom’s $4.7 billion youth mental health plan.

Ewing, who reports to the commission, started in 2015 and earned $175,026 in 2023, according to The Sacramento Bee. He was placed on paid administrative leave in September pending an investigation. Commission chief counsel Sandra Gallardo said the commission does not comment on personnel matters. Ewing did not respond to requests for comment.

Three commission employees filed whistleblower complaints against Ewing in September with the California State Auditor. They spoke with California Healthline on the condition that their names not be used due to fears of workplace retaliation. They say Ewing’s conduct advancing a private company’s agenda as a public official crossed a line.

The agenda for Thursday’s commission meeting listed a personnel matter to be discussed in closed session. The whistleblowers said Ewing is the subject of the discussion.

Madrigal-Weiss said she couldn’t comment on Ewing’s actions. However, she said the commission supports virtual mental health resources for youth.

“These resources are less expensive and have proven valuable for youth, especially those who struggle to access services in typical brick-and-mortar spaces,” said Madrigal-Weiss, who is also executive director of student wellness and school culture for the San Diego County Office of Education.

Brown and Carnevale didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Kooth is committed to advancing youth access to behavioral health services, said Caroline Curran, of Metis Communications, a public relations firm representing Kooth.

“As a leader in youth behavioral health services with over 20 years of experience in the United Kingdom and the United States, we regularly convene sector-leading organizations to facilitate learning through sharing expertise and diverse perspectives on youth behavioral health,” Curran said.

As California Healthline reported in April, the Kooth and Brightline app rollouts have been slow, with few children using them. In May, Newsom proposed a $140 million budget cut. DHCS Director Michelle Baass said in a hearing that it was due to low use, but the state expects more users to come on board over time.

She told lawmakers on May 16 that roughly 20,000 of the state’s more than 12.6 million children and young adults had registered on the apps, and they had been used for only about 2,800 coaching sessions.

State Sen. Caroline Menjivar (D-Van Nuys) asked Baass at the hearing whether “there’s room to get out” of the contract altogether. Senators later voted unanimously to cut the entire platform budget to save the state $360 million.

Ewing texted a colleague on June 3: “Kooth is freaking out. Is the cut coming from the Admin or the Leg.? Do we know if it’s a done deal?”

State lobbying records show Kooth has paid around $100,000 this year to the firm Capital Advocacy. At the same time, Ewing’s emails and calendars show that he pushed for Kooth’s funding to be retained. For instance, his June 4 calendar shows he was scheduled to meet with Laura Tully, an executive from Kooth USA, at a coffee shop near the Capitol.

The next day, a whistleblower said, Ewing met with key Senate staff members: Scott Ogus, deputy staff director of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, and Marjorie Swartz, a consultant for Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire. They said Ewing also discussed Kooth’s contract that week with Rosielyn Pulmano, a health policy consultant for Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas.

“Toby kept saying that ‘California has to have a digital strategy,’” recalled the whistleblower, who attended both meetings. “He kept pushing Marjorie and Scott, saying that he would give them ideas to make the platform better.”

Ewing emailed ideas to the legislative aides on June 10 and 12.

About two weeks later, he and the commissioners left for the seven-day trip to the U.K. According to documents filed with the state Fair Political Practices Commission, receipts, and emails reviewed by California Healthline, Kooth covered the costs of four-star hotels, meals, train tickets, and international flights.

Public disclosure forms show Kooth paid expenses for Ewing, Madrigal-Weiss, and Brown. The forms do not show the company paid for Carnevale’s travel.

Under California law, state officials generally must report travel payments to the FPPC, which Ewing and his fellow commissioners did.

Kooth postponed a mental health investment conference in London in June, emails and documents show, but then organized new events for the California commissioners to attend instead.

On May 23, Newhouse informed Carnevale and Ewing in an email that Kooth needed to postpone the planned June event. Carnevale, a venture capitalist, described the news as “disappointing for all,” especially “because we have already booked trips, including family members of Commissioners who were planning to turn this into a holiday.”

Acknowledging the disruption, Newhouse told Carnevale that she “would like to think creatively as to whether we could try to arrange a meeting where you can talk about the CYBHI,” referring to Newsom’s Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative.

“I know though from our conversation that we need to cover the ‘purpose’ of your trip and not sure what is possible or not,” she wrote.

Curran, the Kooth spokesperson, said the company “adapted by holding a knowledge exchange between representatives from international policy institutes, research foundations, and non-profit organizations.”

Madrigal-Weiss defended the trip, which she said included meetings with “members of the government, service providers, education, and finance” who shared ideas on how “to enhance funds for public mental health needs” through private and philanthropic partnerships.

One of the whistleblowers said many of the commissioners back in California were not aware of the trip until their colleagues were halfway across the world. Sami Gallegos, a spokesperson for the California Health and Human Services Agency, said the Department of Health Care Services did not participate in the travel.

Ewing was put on leave before Kooth’s rescheduled conference this month in London.

Although it’s not unusual for state officials to travel overseas — often on the dime of private entities — it doesn’t look good, said Sean McMorris, a government ethics expert with California Common Cause, a nonprofit government watchdog group.

“It looks like undue influence,” McMorris said. “I think a lot of people would view something like this as a way to curry favor. You can connect the dots.”

Kooth has similarly gifted travel to state officials in Pennsylvania, where it had a $3 million contract with 30 school districts. In each case, Kooth invited the officials to speak to highlight their work. Pennsylvania has informed Kooth it intends to terminate the contract.

Two years ago, a judge freed Anthony Bailey after 27 years in the federal penitentiary, giving him a second chance at life.

And Bailey has been making the most of his early release. Between long hours driving a city bus in Indianapolis, attending barbecues and playing card games with family, Bailey has developed deep roots in his community.

Now, after a ruling from the Supreme Court and a legal move by the Justice Department, Bailey, 61, is facing a return to prison in a matter of weeks.

"I'm hoping and praying that everything turn out and I get my life back," Bailey said in an interview. "Today, right now, I'm a better person — I'm a productive citizen, I work hard."

Bailey's case is one of about a dozen that could be directly affected by a Supreme Court ruling in late May that limited how prisoners can use the compassionate release program to get out early.

The high court found that the compassionate release program, designed for extraordinary or compelling circumstances, is supposed to cover such things as severe illness or old age. The court majority said inmates serving much longer sentences than the punishments they would receive today were not automatically eligible for the program.

Retired federal Judge John Gleeson disagrees with that ruling.

"These are indefensibly long sentences, and they need to be corrected," he said. Gleeson launched a pro bono program that has helped more than 100 people in prison petition the courts for early release.

Most of those inmates are Black men who used a gun in connection with other crimes. Prosecutors added severe mandatory penalties to their cases, stacking those punishments, even if no shots were fired, to build prison terms of 50, 60 or even 100 years.

Anthony Bailey (left) poses with family members shortly after his release from prison in July 2024.

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Via Anthony Bailey

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"Productive member of society"

That's what happened in Bailey's case.

On Sept. 3, 1997, Bailey and two other men robbed a bank and then carried out two carjackings. Prosecutors said in court papers that his crimes were serious and put several people in danger, including a school-age girl.

"Something that I totally regrets — will never happen again, ever, in life," Bailey said.

He spent most of his time at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., where he worked as a barber — a job that gave him access to scissors and other sharp tools.

His record inside prison was clean for decades, with just one minor infraction mentioned in court filings.

Maryam Kanna is a pro bono lawyer for Bailey. She said he has already served more time than most people convicted of federal murder.

"He has a stable, happy life and is a really productive member of society, so I mean, the idea that he poses a danger is completely farcical," Kanna said.

Congress changed the law, but not retroactively

Prosecutors are now signaling that they could move soon to send Bailey back to serve the rest of his long sentence — one that would give him a release date in 2050, when he is nearly 86 years old.

Kelsie Clayton, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Indiana — where Bailey's case is pending — said the office speaks only through official court filings.

Congress has since lightened some of the harsh mandatory penalties that applied to Bailey and others convicted back in the 1990s. But lawmakers did not make that change retroactive, to apply to people already inside prison.

And the Supreme Court's ruling says that this means those people's punishments are not extraordinary or compelling, as the compassionate release program mandates.

Bailey said he would abide by the law. "OK, just got to keep fighting," he said.

He has been getting good marks from his probation officer, who told him before the Supreme Court decision that she'd recommend his early release from probation this fall.

Now, he's not sure where he'll be in September. He's making the most of his time, enjoying family barbecues and card games in the park and showing his 4-year-old grandson the ropes.

"He's a worker, you know. Everything I do — he sit there and just watch and then he [asks], 'We washing the car?' Or, 'We taking the trash out?' Like, yeah, c'mon."

He's teaching his grandson how to mow the lawn and, as a treat, taking him to enjoy the boy's favorite food: the french fries at McDonald's.
Copyright 2026 NPR

The Los Angeles Unified School Board unanimously approved a policy Tuesday to limit student screen time starting in August.

The decision follows a board vote in the spring that required the district to create a policy to set up guardrails on the amount of time students should spend in front of a digital device.

District officials said that since May they’ve received feedback from nearly 19,000 members in the community. “Student focus and attention were the most frequently cited concerns, along with mental health and wellbeing, online safety, and privacy,” they said.

What does the policy change?

The changes include eliminating use of district-issued digital devices, like tablets and laptops, in the early years, from preschool through 1st grade. And for every other grade level, there will be daily or weekly maximum screen time limits:

• Preschool to 1st grade: 0 minutes (beginning August 2026)
• 2nd to 3rd grade: 20 minutes per day or 100 minutes per week, including homework (beginning November 2026)
• 4th to 5th grade: 30 minutes per day or 150 minutes per week, including homework (beginning November 2026)
• 6th to 8th grade: 60 minutes per subject, per week, including homework, not to exceed 360 minutes per week (beginning January 2027)
• 9th to 12th grade: 90 minutes per subject, per week, not to exceed 600 minutes per week (beginning January 2027)

The policy allows exceptions for subject areas that heavily rely on computers, like computer science, graphic design, and yearbook, and for district and state assessments. It also allows unrestricted use when necessary for students with disabilities.

Board Member Nick Melvoin proposed a successful amendment to reduce the screen time limits for several grades and break up the limitations by subject starting in middle school.

“[It’s] much harder for teachers in secondary to coordinate across five or six subjects,” Melvoin said in explaining the change.

The policy also:

• Bans elementary and middle school students from using devices during lunch or recess, except for school-approved work
• Blocks streaming services like YouTube and “non-approved gaming platforms”
• Allows parents to opt-out of their students taking home a district device
• Encourages laptop cart use for upper elementary school grades
• Will be updated annually 

Board Vice President Rocío Rivas cautioned that the minute limits may discourage teachers from assigning multimedia projects, and adds the burden of monitoring student technology use.

“Schools may end up focusing on counting minutes, documenting usage, auditing classrooms instead of evaluating learning outcomes,” Rivas said.

How much will this cost? 

The district says it’ll cost $4.25 million in one-time costs to buy laptop carts for elementary school classrooms, if each class opts in. And it’ll cost another $1 million annually for software that would track screen time and block content.

How is this different from the cellphone ban?

This policy is about school-issued devices, like laptops and iPads — not student cellphones.

During the pandemic, the district had moved to equip every student with a digital device in an effort to close digital equity gaps.

District officials noted that when adopting the policy, “caution is advised that efforts to close the digital divide for highest needs populations will be negatively impacted.”

Mireya Garcia, a mother and grandmother, told the board that her family shares a single computer at home.

“I don’t want them to lose access to tools that can help them read, to learn and to be successful,” Garcia said.

Board staff clarified the policy does not prevent students of any age from checking out a device for home use from their child’s school.

District analysts, however, also note research shows that device access alone doesn’t lead to better academic outcomes, but that it needs to be coupled with adult supervision and engagement.

“Because families vary widely in their ability to provide consistent supervision, unrestricted take-home devices raise equity concerns,” the district’s office of research and program evaluation wrote.

Some parents say the policy is not enough

Representatives for the parent advocacy group Schools Beyond Screens, which had advocated for the policy, say it’s a good step, but more needs to be done around artificial intelligence.

“We’re setting a new standard for the rest of the country,” said Lila Byock, who founded the group. “From Atlanta, to D.C., to Houston, they’re all trying to do what we’re doing here today.”

Byock and other LAUSD parents associated with Schools Beyond Screens called on the board to reduce the minute limits for students and to adopt a moratorium on AI use until there’s more guidance from the district’s ad hoc committee on the subject.

The Los Angeles City Council took a first step Tuesday to reinstate a law that bans new oil drilling and requires existing wells to be phased out over the next two decades.

The city’s first attempt to pass such a law was in 2022, but oil companies sued and the city had to repeal it. L.A. County has been going through a similar back-and-forth.

Now, with a new state law backing their authority, L.A. officials think they can cap the city’s more than 2,000 wells over the next 20 years — and end L.A.’s distinction as one of the largest urban oil fields in the nation.

“ In my district, we have hundreds of active wells, and our neighbors are ready to move into the next chapter,” District 5 Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky said Tuesday at the council meeting approving the ordinance’s reintroduction. "We know the industry will continue to fight us at every turn.”

For more than 10 years, local groups have pushed for an end to oil drilling near homes, childcare centers, parks and schools.

“ Neighborhood oil drilling is fundamentally incompatible with protecting public health,” said Wendy Miranda with Esperanza Community Housing in Historic South-Central. "We carry this evidence in our bodies. We have experienced countless nosebleeds and headaches, asthma and even cancer.”

Research has shown living near oil infrastructure elevates the risk of such health issues.

In the city of L.A. alone, about 75% of active oil or gas wells are located within 1,700 feet of “sensitive locations,” such as homes and schools. About one-third of all L.A. County residents live less than 1 mile from an active drilling site.

The L.A. City Council will vote again later this summer to finalize its oil phaseout law.

In a document more than 100 pages long, lawyers representing oil companies vowed to fight the law again, saying it violates the companies’ private property and due process rights, among other things.

Culver City and Santa Barbara have passed similar ordinances.

The L.A. City Council on Tuesday agreed to place a half-cent sales tax to fund the fire department on the November ballot. The vote was 14-0.

If approved by voters, the measure would raise $345 million in its first year and would remain in effect until repealed by voters.

United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, the labor union that represents firefighters, sponsored the measure. The union collected more than 225,000 petition signatures to qualify the measure.

“Due to decades of underinvestment, the LAFD currently operates with the same number of firefighters as in the 1960s, six fewer stations and five times the call load,” the union said in a statement issued before the vote.

According to national standards, emergency resources are expected to arrive at nearly all 911 calls within four minutes. Current LAFD response times are almost double this recommended average, according to the union.

The money would be spent on core functions, including hiring additional firefighters and paramedics, building new fire stations and repairing old stations, as well as modernizing equipment.

Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez said no part of L.A. is immune from the growing threat of fire, pointing to the Palisades Fire last year and the Boyle Heights fire currently affecting air quality throughout the region.

“When these emergencies happen, our constituents expect us to be prepared. They expect firefighters to have the staffing, equipment and resources they need to respond quickly and to keep people safe,” she said.

“As climate change and corporate negligence continue to make these emergencies more frequent and more severe, we have a responsibility to be honest about the conversation that it will take to protect our community,” Hernandez added. “This measure gives voters a chance to weigh in on that question directly.”

The current sales tax rate in the city of Los Angeles is 9.75%. The fire measure would increase it to 10.25%.

The measure says new revenue would not be able to replace existing general fund support for the fire department. It also creates a Citizen's Oversight Committee and annual public audits.

Susan Shelly of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association said if the city made the fire department a top funding priority, it wouldn’t need a tax increase.

“They should fund the fire department appropriately from the first dollar that's in the budget,” she said.