More than 50 California hospitals stopped delivering babies in the past decade, limiting maternity care options in both rural and urban communities.

Californians in March will vote on a $6.4 billion bond to build thousands of housing units for people with serious mental health conditions. A 2018 ballot measure made similar promises, but Santa Clara County and the rest of the state are falling short.

Community college officials said that the UC and Cal State universities rejected nearly 30,000 eligible community college applicants in the fall of 2020 — more than enough transfers to meet the community colleges system’s goal.

State test results show California students overall performed much worse in math and English language arts than pre-pandemic, but a persistent achievement gap didn't worsen, as initially feared. The results left education officials and experts neither surprised nor hopeless.

Worsening droughts, competition for scarce supplies, sea level rise, groundwater contamination, earthquakes, wildfires and extreme weather all contribute to California water woes.

Expectations are high for a turnaround as experts say the federal relief alone could be enough to cut California’s child poverty in half.