Ricardo Lara

Election Day in California, turnout, Orange County, Legislature, supermajority, moderates, spending, death in childbirth, maternal mortality, greenwashing.

Several statewide races this year pit NorCal against SoCal, testing the political power and competing priorities of the Golden State’s two most populous regions.

Insurance commissioner candidate Steve Poizner is shunning partisanship in his bid to become the first no-party-preference candidate to win statewide office in California. But he is raising much of his campaign money from donors who gave to him when he ran for governor as a Republican.

California's school test scores, how the CURES opioid database happened, Jerry Brown's #MeToo bills, Orange County political money and teen pregnancy.

The conference featured promises to reduce greenhouse gases, vows to banish carbon, multilateral pacts and sincere handshakes.

Soaring claims for fire damage are driving up premiums in the Sierra foothills and other fire-prone areas. Legislators seem likely to adjourn for the year without real relief for homeowners who are unable to buy fire insurance.

Of all the constituencies clamoring for help as firenados ravage California, homeowners worried about their fire insurance seem among the least likely this year to get legislative relief.

An optimist might cheer the fact that lawmakers were doing their jobs. Others label it legal extortion.

An influential union wants the state to limit profits on privately owned dialysis clinics, where kidney patients receive life-sustaining treatment. Dialysis companies are fighting back.