Stockton

One year after the discovery that golden mussels had invaded the Delta, thick colonies coat boats and piers and threaten water supplies for cities and farms. Yet the state has no specific funding or plans to tackle harms in the heart of the invasion.

Stockton struggles with an identity crisis, born out of geography and a distance that impedes everything: access to industry, audiences and opportunities.

The Delta faces a funding crisis to repair and maintain an aging network of 1,100 miles of levees. These earthen berms, mostly on private land, could rupture and endanger half a million people and flood thousands of acres of farmland.

Most ships discharging ballast water into California waters are inspected, but state officials have tested the water of only 16 ships. Experts say invaders like mussels are inevitable under current rules and enforcement.

Immigrants, tribes and other people of color rely on fish from San Francisco Bay and Delta rivers. California faces a federal discrimination probe for failing to protect them.

A final study on Stockton’s famous experiment giving low-income residents unconditional cash found the money improved some recipients’ mental health and financial stability – but only during “normative” economic conditions.

Mobile home parks are a last bastion of unsubsidized affordable housing in California. But when the health and safety of their residents is on the line, is the state doing enough to help?

Stockton's reputation for civic malfeasance took another hit in a searing audit of the city's school system.

State and local governments, and some private funders, are launching dozens of pilot projects making direct, monthly payments to low-income residents to help meet basic needs. Researchers will study what happens next. Key question: will this money add to, reform, or supplant current welfare programs?

California lawmakers OK funding programs to guarantee some people — especially foster youth and pregnant women — an income floor.