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By Alexia Underwood More than one million people in California suffer from mental illness – the largest number of any state. When the final phase of the new health care law starts in January of next year, more California residents than ever before...

By Mary Flynn California’s sweeping criminal justice reform plan, in place since October 2011, was meant to sharply reduce the state’s prison population. But the changes may have also had the unintended consequence of passing along the biggest p...

By Hannah Guzik Under the Affordable Care Act, health care providers are required to offer domestic-violence screening and counseling to all women, and health insurance companies are required pay for those services. Health care providers statewide h...

By Robin Urevich In 2000, California voters overwhelmingly approved Prop 36, a ballot measure that offers non-violent drug offenders treatment instead of jail. But now the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act is on life support, if not altogethe...

By Callie Shanafelt Right now, young people are generally benefitting from protective changes ushered in by Obama care. But many advocates and experts wonder if the Affordable Care Act will actually make care more affordable for young people – or ...

By Callie Shanafelt State prison reforms are supposed to reduce dangerously overcrowded prison populations and help to alleviate the state’s fiscal crisis. But trial courts in San Mateo are feeling the squeeze of the fiscal crisis and the reforms ...

Advocates for Native American survivors of intimate violence cheered when they won the right to prosecute non-Indian assailants in tribal court. That change came with a provision in the Violence Against Women Act earlier this year. On at least one slic...

By Callie Shanafelt Native American women are physically abused, raped and stalked more than women of any other racial group in the nation. A new provision in the Violence Against Women Act, passed in February, allows Native American courts to prose...

By Chris Richard As city planners consider lifting a five-year-old ban on new fast-food vendors in South Los Angeles, urban gardening activists say it's especially important to promote healthy eating habits by planting publicly available produce gar...

By Suzanne Potter Toxic waste dumps. Poor air quality. And the slow death of the Salton Sea. The Eastern Coachella Valley has serious environmental problems – and now locals are getting involved.