Health

Folic acid reduces the risk of birth defects and the FDA requires that bakers include it in enriched bread. California could extend the mandate to tortillas and foods made with corn masa flour.

Medical residents have a grueling job, typically working 60 to 80 hours a week. Now, early-career doctors at several California hospitals are forming unions as they press for better pay and working conditions.

After the death of a friend who was struck by a car in Berkeley last month, a safe street advocate says California lawmakers should pass two bills seeking to reduce vehicle speeds and protect pedestrians.

As California makes Medi-Cal available to all undocumented migrants, a health care researcher says the state should be cultivating private insurers if access to quality care is the ultimate goal.

California is one of four states that levies a tax penalty on uninsured households. Many people paying the fines are eligible for heavily subsidized health insurance through Covered California.

An emergency trip to the hospital turned disastrous for a Los Angeles-area family when Joshua Saeta’s condition deteriorated, leaving him permanently incapacitated. In a lawsuit, the family says nurses later told them the hospital was dangerously understaffed.

A popular program that doubles CalFresh benefits at farmers markets is on the chopping block as California leaders try to close a yawning budget deficit. In a moment when so many Californians are food insecure, slashing the program would be devastating.

Voters authorized the Legislature to go to standard or daylight saving time year-round, but nearly six years later no law is on the books. It takes a two-thirds vote, and also congressional action to go to daylight saving year-round.

Detainee says ICE officers flew him to Texas, where he was threatened with force-feeding and was made to end his fast with solid foods, causing illness.

California is undertaking an ambitious effort to improve mental health, while controversy surrounds how to address the fentanyl crisis.