Matt Kaminski stood on a road scarcely higher than the floodplain, glassy pools on all sides stretched out like something from a dream. In the distance, a storm lumbered over the Coast Ranges.

The marsh all around him, Kaminski said, was a window into the Central Valley’s past. Back then, the waterways that twist down from the Sierra Nevada ...Read more

Most cannabis dispensaries are cash-only businesses, constantly at risk of being robbed. Indoor growing facilities use harsh lighting, and plants get sprayed with pesticides.

Those conditions can create daily hazards for cannabis workers, which is why labor organizers are trying to unionize them as legalization spreads and the marijuana ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Over the past half-century, new housing has spread into ever more far-flung parts of California – from luxury estates perched on remote hillsides to tightly packed subdivisions stretched over rural flatlands.

The sprawl has allowed people to live closer to nature and buy homes in more affordable parts of the state where ...Read more

States are spending more money and creating new incentives to ease the severe child care crisis, with most federal pandemic aid set to dry up in September.

The child care shortage costs the United States $122 billion in lost earnings, productivity and revenue each year, according to ReadyNation, a consortium of business leaders under the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The United States has the dubious distinction of suffering the highest COVID-19 mortality rate among the world's high-income countries. But that national average — 372 deaths per 100,000 people as of last summer — hides the fact that pandemic outcomes differed greatly from state to state.

In a comparison that controlled for ...Read more

The oil tanker Turba normally should have been melted down by now.

The 26-year-old vessel hasn’t had a full inspection since 2017, according to a database dedicated to promoting safe shipping. It also lacks industry standard insurance and sails under the flag of country with a poor standing for the oversight of maritime safety.

But rather ...Read more

NEW YORK — The Manhattan grand jury hearing evidence on Donald Trump’s “hush money” payment to porn star Stormy Daniels returned to court Monday for more witness testimony as anticipation continued to build over a possible indictment against the former president.

The grand jury, which usually starts hearing evidence at 2 p.m., was in ...Read more

SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Jong Un said North Korea is ready to use nuclear weapons “anytime and anywhere,” delivering a new threat as a U.S. aircraft carrier group arrives in South Korea.

Kim made the comments while visiting a facility producing nuclear bombs, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday. State media released ...Read more

DENVER — Colorado Democrats’ full slate gun law reform is all but cleared to land on Gov. Jared Polis’ desk after two more bills passed key legislative hurdles Monday.

The two bills would limit all firearm purchases to 21 or older and institute a three-day waiting period on sales of firearms. The age limit passed its formal vote in the ...Read more

Flags at the White House and all other federal buildings will be flown at half-staff in honor of the Nashville shooting victims through Friday, under a new order from President Biden.

The declaration came Monday after the commander-in-chief lamented the massacre that claimed the lives of three young children and three adults at the Covenant ...Read more

Donald Trump’s first wife, Ivana, was under an FBI counterintelligence inquiry into allegations about her connections in her home country of Czechoslovakia in the 1990s, according to excerpts from her FBI file obtained by Bloomberg News.

The inquiry spanned several countries, with U.S. legal attaches in Canada and Europe instructed to inquire...Read more

ATLANTA — The Georgia Senate passed a bill Monday to ensure workers can take time off to cast a ballot either during early voting or on Election Day, sending the measure to Gov. Brian Kemp.

The Senate voted 46-3 to approve the legislation, Senate Bill 129, which would expand on an existing law that guarantees two hours of unpaid voting time ...Read more

NEW YORK — A former Fox News producer has altered her deposition testimony in the defamation case against the network, claiming she was coerced by company lawyers to give misleading answers.

Abby Grossberg was fired Friday by Fox News days after she filed her lawsuit in New York and Delaware that alleged discrimination based on gender, ...Read more

Vice President Kamala Harris surprised onlookers in Ghana when she stopped at a local recording studio joined by two famous actors.

Idris Elba and Sheryl Lee Ralph appeared alongside Harris on Monday to tour Vibrate Space, a community recording studio, in Accra, Ghana, as part of the vice president’s weeklong tour of Africa.

The event was ...Read more

The civil rights of a 2-year-old girl were violated when she was fatally shot by police last March in southeast Kansas, a federal lawsuit filed Friday alleges.

Clesslynn Crawford was killed by a round fired by a Joplin Police Department officer during a hostage situation on March 26, 2022, in Baxter Springs.

Her family is suing the City of ...Read more

State Department officials are consulting with Haitian grassroots organizations, academics and others to see how the United States can help tackle the country’s ongoing gang violence and instability.

The consultations, which have included discussions with over 230 individuals and organizations, are ongoing and part of the priority the country...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia officials say tap water from the Baxter treatment plant is safe to drink at least through 3:30 p.m. Tuesday as they continue to monitor the impact of a chemical spill from a plant upstream on the Delaware River.

So far, no contaminants related to Friday night’s inadvertent discharge of 8,100 gallons of tainted ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — In the final chapter for one of the most venerable landmarks along Monterey Bay, crews with excavators and other heavy equipment on Monday tore apart the 500-foot-long wooden pier at Seacliff State Beach in Aptos.

Popular with generations of beachgoers and anglers, the pier, built in 1930, was best known as the connection ...Read more