Nitrate contamination of well water has been a decades-long problem in the San Joaquin and Salinas valleys — and now stormwater has flushed more manure and fertilizer into sewers.
Accelerated by the COVID pandemic, a shift by state officials toward emails and written statements is making it more difficult for journalists to be watchdogs for Californians.
Attorney General Rob Bona, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and Superintentendent of Instruction Tony Thurmond are caught in new whirlwinds of controversy.
Long-simmering disputes with hospital employee unions over staffing are reaching crisis points, as almost a third of California hospitals report insufficient numbers of critical workers, including nurses, technicians and janitors.