California Watch

The state's Environmental Protection Agency finalized a revision of a controversial K-12 environmental curriculum on plastic bags Friday.

FBI investigators used a court order authorizing access to cellphone customer data to quietly deploy a powerful surveillance technology known as "stingrays," privacy groups contend in a new court filing [PDF] that claims the devices are overly invasive.

While Gov. Jerry Brown cries foul over $11 million in unidentified money that recently infused the state ballot measure fight, federal races in California and around the country are awash in secret money, too.

The state's managed care watchdog has reached a settlement agreement with a Los Angeles physicians group that was accused of allowing business executives to decide whether patients get requested medical care.

In a taste test of new lunch items last year at the Long Beach Unified School District, the "fiesta salad" received a nearly 73 percent approval rating. One student even declared that the dish of pinto beans, cilantro, corn, tomatoes and cayenne pepper was "better than McDonald's." Yet the salad was a flop when the district put it on the menu this year.

Since the start of the 2010 school year, thirsty students at Turlock High School can visit a "hydration station," a state-of-the-art drinking fountain that provides filtered and chilled water.

While nearly 70 of California's state parks fought to escape closure from budget cuts, the crown jewel of the park system - Hearst Castle - waived $611,000 in private event fees over the last decade for select individuals and organizations, including the politically connected.

The Arizona group that dumped $11 million into California's ballot measure melee this week is led by a Republican activist who calls labor unions "the parasite that is killing our jobs."

The state medical board has revoked the license of an East Bay physician who prescribed high amounts of narcotic pain medications to indigent patients, three of whom died while under his care.

State regulators needto have more oversight of new types of companies that claim to have a social or environmental mission, legal experts say.

Women might use emoticons more than men, but men have a broader emoticon vocabulary.

The top 10 donors to November's state ballot measures - a smattering of extremely wealthy people, powerful unions and large corporations - have dumped more than $150 million into the fight so far, according to campaign finance tracker MapLight.org.

Cycling superstar Lance Armstrong earned his unprecedented seven victories in the Tour de France with the aid of a "sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program" on his racing team, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said today.

The swarm of earthquakes that rippled through Imperial County in late August has exposed more fissures in the state's system for identifying and fixing school buildings considered structurally unsound.

California has made gains in the early stages of children's academic trajectory but has failed to sustain them, a new assessment of kids' well-being has shown.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency case against cyclist Lance Armstrong is a mere publicity stunt that the anti-drugs regulator cannot back up with conclusive evidence, the seven-time Tour de France winner's attorney wrote in a letter to the agency today.

In June of last year, after being jobless and homeless for nearly two years, Orange County native Edwin Mankinen decided to apply for $239 in monthly general relief benefits, a cash payment also known as general assistance that is offered by each California county to indigent residents.

It's not just researchers who have noticed that people enjoy a nice glass of dark, red wine with their steaks.

Cyclist Lance Armstrong's recent fall from grace has been portrayed in books and news accounts as a thriller featuring teammate betrayals, motorcycle drug couriers and secret blood transfusions.

One day in March, a blind man was booked into the San Bernardino County jail.

In the week following Gov. Jerry Brown's deadline for passing or vetoing hundreds of bills, those affected are examining successes and defeats that touch on cancer care, emergency rooms, prescribing, elder care and compensation to victims of corporate fraud.

A consumer group that has reaped millions of dollars in fees from insurance companies thanks to a state initiative it wrote is facing a new wave of criticism from Democratic and Republican political consultants and lawmakers.

A new UC San Diego study suggests that the byproducts of a chemical used in plastic found in the lining of cans may disrupt human hormone function more than the chemical itself.

The Sierra Club is spending $625,000 to defeat a Republican lawmaker who has championed one of the environmental organization's most cherished goals - draining the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park.

Arguing that he did not want to "erode the independence and flexibility" of charter schools, Gov. Jerry Brown last weekend vetoed legislation that would have required charters to provide low-income students free or reduced-price meals.

The nation's vast network of anti-terrorism "fusion centers" for law enforcement have produced shoddy, untimely and often useless intelligence reports that have done little to keep the U.S. safer, a scathing U.S. Senate report concludes.

A surprising number of Americans are supportive of controversial Bush-era tactics used to undermine terrorism, and are even open to more extreme measures like using nuclear weapons.

Lilia Avila has lived for a decade in the Garcia Mobile Home Park in the Eastern Coachella Valley with her husband and three children. Ask her to describe the park, surrounded by farmland and empty lots in the unincorporated town of Thermal, and she doesn't mince words: "It's a pigsty," she said.

A new survey is the second report in recent months indicating that what some have called an epidemic of prescription drug abuse is showing signs of tapering.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed two bills yesterday to require California's developmental centers to alert outside police and a disability protection organization when patients die under suspicious circumstances, are abused or are seriously injured.

The rate was startling: Nearly six in 10 teachers at California's lowest-performing schools were not properly credentialed for the classes they led. It's a rate California has worked to shrink for the past six years. It's also a rate that was wrong.

A large earthquake in one part of the globe can trigger earthquakes elsewhere, according to new research by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and UC Berkeley.

Once a promising source of green energy, high-tech biofuel is being eclipsed by skin cream and food products as manufacturers shift to more lucrative products.

A Los Angeles man was sentenced to six years in prison last week for his role in a power wheelchair scam, topping what prosecutors say has been a series of Medicare fraud cases.

As California's outdoor marijuana growing season nears its end for 2012, drug officials are reporting a sharp decline in crop seizures for the second year in a row.

Republican voter registration in California is in a long downward spiral. Still, in 31 of the state's 58 counties, the GOP still holds sway.

Super-hot summers, explosive storms and melting ice caps are the usual images that spring up when discussing climate change.

Airports in California could soon see the second generation of full-body scanners used to detect nonmetallic weapons and improvised explosive devices after earlier machines raised privacy and health concerns.

In a complaint filed with the Medical Board of California, a consumer advocacy group is claiming that a physician's use of a massage machine for weight loss is endangering patients.

Critics of political donations to school bond campaigns from companies that profit from the bonds are urging federal regulators to take bolder steps against what they call a "pay to play" practice.

A state court today ordered the California Department of Public Health to disclose uncensored copies of dozens of patient abuse cases at institutions for the developmentally disabled.

Tens of thousands of California schoolchildren ride aging school buses that emit harmful pollutants, an analysis of state data shows.

When a change to federal law meant many immigrants would lose access to certain welfare benefits, Santa Clara County faced having to absorb thousands of residents in local safety net programs. So the county pursued a way to keep immigrants eligible for federal benefits: citizenship.

Sifting through thousands of proteins, researchers have identified an antibody that not only prevents the influenza virus from taking hold of its victims' cells, but also cures already infected animals.

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by hospital chain Prime Healthcare Services that alleged Kaiser Permanente conspired with a health care workers union to drive Prime out of business.

State corrections officials are moving forward with a plan for handling prison gangs and other violent groups, including changing rules that have kept some inmates locked in special isolation units for decades.

Bain Capital, the private equity firm co-founded by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney - and portrayed by President Barack Obama's supporters as a gang of corporate raiders - has pumped nearly $4.5 million into Democratic campaigns and causes, public records show.

Not all of Facebook's 900 million global users are pleased with the mega-site's slow lurch toward what it calls Timeline, a new profile format that displays photos, updates, wall messages and more based on when the material was posted over the lifetime of the user.

The Academy of Art University has sued the California Student Aid Commission, arguing the state agency should not have ruled the San Francisco college's students ineligible for Cal Grants in the 2012-13 academic year.

Congress passed the Posse Comitatus Act more than 130 years ago to restrict the use of military personnel on U.S. soil, and the nation has long possessed an aversion to armed forces being relied upon for enforcement actions against civilians. But the spirit of the law since that time has been subject to different interpretations and is explored in depth in a recent report [PDF] by the Congressional Research Service.