CAlifornia

Health & Safety

Should Medicaid pay to help someone find a home? California is trying it

5:01am November 15, 2023

California is making the nation's most ambitious effort yet to cover non-traditional health care services like housing and food for some of the state's sickest and most vulnerable residents.

Five years after one of the worst wildfires in American history, the town of Paradise, Calif., is slowly being rebuilt.

National

A California town wiped off the map by wildfire is still recovering 5 years on

4:58pm November 08, 2023

by Kirk Siegler

Five years after of one of America's worst wildfires, slow and expensive recovery continues in Paradise, Calif., which could be a portent for what's ahead on fire-stricken Maui.

Kris Perry (left) and Sandy Stier, two plaintiffs in the landmark 2010 lawsuit that overturned California's ban on same-sex marriage, share photographs from their wedding ceremony during an interview at the KQED offices in San Francisco on March 3. Stier and Perry came to the studio to watch clips of their testimony in federal court, which KQED had fought to get unsealed, for the first time.

This trial struck down California's same-sex marriage ban. Now you can see the tapes

8:00am November 04, 2023

by Scott Shafer

More than a decade after the trial to overturn Prop. 8 ended, trial videotapes remained sealed, until NPR member station KQED won a long legal battle that got the U.S. Supreme Court to unseal them.

A sign for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is displayed outside its offices in Silver Spring, Md., on Dec. 10, 2020. The FDA says it's considering banning brominated vegetable oil, a food additive.

Health & Safety

The FDA proposes banning a food additive that's been used for a century

3:49pm November 03, 2023

by Ayana Archie

Brominated vegetable oil is a food additive that studies show causes organ damage in rats and pigs. It was introduced in the 1920s and is used today in sodas and sports drinks.

National

A federal judge rules again that California's assault weapons ban is unconstitutional

9:31pm October 19, 2023

by The Associated Press

The judge conceded that weapons like AR-15s are commonly used by criminals, but said the guns are importantly also owned by people who obey the law and feel they need firearms to protect themselves.

Health & Safety

FDA faces pressure to act nationwide on red dye in food

12:46pm October 17, 2023

by Allison Aubrey

Red No. 3 was banned from cosmetics three decades ago. Consumer advocates question why it's still allowed in food products, including many popular with kids.

Powerball tickets are shown at a lottery agent, Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023, in Haverhill, Mass.

National

$1.73 billion Powerball jackpot goes to lucky lottery player in California

1:11am October 12, 2023

by The Associated Press

The jackpot is the world's second-largest lottery prize after rolling over for 36 consecutive drawings, since the last time someone won the top prize on July 19.

Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders members Suzette Shaw, left, holding photos of 10 victims, and Margaret Prescod, at podium, join relatives of victims speaking after the sentencing for Lonnie Franklin Jr., a convicted serial killer known as the "Grim Sleeper," in Los Angeles Superior Court in August 2016.

California creates nation's first 'Ebony Alert' to find missing Black children

7:01pm October 11, 2023

by Jonathan Franklin

The alert system will use electronic highway signs and encourage the use of TV, radio, social media and other platforms to spread information about the missing person.

National

California's governor rejects a bill to give unemployment checks to striking workers

11:23pm September 30, 2023

by The Associated Press

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said he vetoed the bill because the fund the state uses to pay unemployment benefits will be nearly $20 billion in debt by the end of the year.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during an interview in Sacramento, Calif., on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023. Newsom signed a bill on Monday, Sept. 25, 2023, to ban school boards from rejecting textbooks based on their teachings about the contributions of people from different racial backgrounds, sexual orientations and gender identities, calling the measure "long overdue."

New California law bars schoolbook bans based on racial and LGBTQ topics

6:17pm September 26, 2023

by Jonathan Franklin

Gov. Gavin Newsom called the new measure "long overdue," saying that the banning binge of diversity materials has to come to an end.