Kern County

Capturing and storing carbon underground is a big part of California’s efforts to tackle climate change but community members and environmentalists say it prolongs the life of fossil fuels.

The slowdown comes as the governor lauds his record as tough on oil companies. His administration requested several more years to force companies to detect and fix leaks.

Kern County agrees to better protect free speech in a deal with the state Justice Department — inspired by the county’s’ 2020 squashing of COVID contracts to organizations that advocated defunding police.

A California grandmother fights to retrieve $30,000 taken by San Diego County from her grandchildren's survivor benefits. Counties take millions of dollars in federal benefits from foster children, says a lawmaker trying to stop it.

Newly acquired state data shows that the Corrections Department transferred patients with serious mental illnesses an average of five times over a six-year period, underscoring a CalMatters’ investigation this year that revealed the practice and raised questions about the harm it could cause.

A new report from a prisoners’ advocacy group finds Kings and Shasta counties have the state’s highest rates of residents incarcerated for crimes.

Kern County has had state’s highest homicide rate since 2016, with rival prison gangs warring on its rural northern border.

Whites make up a little more than a third of California’s population but nearly two-thirds of its Superior Court judges. Advocates are devising ways to get more people of color into law and onto the bench.

California authorized paying OptumServe up to $221 million. But the company has helped with only 1% of the state’s vaccinations since January.

Less than half of eligible people in 45 of the state’s 58 counties have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19. Marin and Alpine rank at the top with 69%, while Lassen, Mariposa and Kings are at the bottom with 25% or less.