Your State

California is the newest battleground state in the fracking fight that continues in states like Pennsylvania and New York. Why? The short answer is the Monterey Shale — a massive oil deposit that is trapped in the shale formations underneath Los Angeles and most of California's Central Coast and Central Valley regions. Should it matter that it's also where the majority of Southern California's water comes from?

Women have been hit especially hard by cuts to the Medi-Cal program in recent years. And access to care for women will be even more challenged in coming years if large corporations like Walmart continue to avoid their responsibility to pay a fair share of health care costs under the Affordable Care Act.

California Governor Brown’s coveted twin-tunnel project — 350 miles north of Los Angeles at an estimated price tag of $50 billion — would deliver more water to California’s biggest corporate agribusinesses and oil companies in the Central Valley, while Southern California taxpayers and ratepayers would get most of the bill and no new water. This, as the city's own water infrastructure was rated among the worst in the country.

Climate change is worsening wildfires, lengthening the wildfire season and increasing their size, the head of the nation's forest service warned Congress on Tuesday. "The largest issue we now face is how to adapt our management to anticipate climate change impacts and to mitigate their potential effects," Tidwell told the committee.

After Earth is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, about Scientology. And not "well, it could be interpreted as about Scientology, if you make some assumptions" or "well, its themes are common to all religions, not just Scientology". This was the Smith family's personal effort to spread the teachings of the Church of Scientology to a mass audience.

I'm not someone who believes that there are topics that should be off-limits to comedians. However, Daryl Cagle's cartoon crosses a line in equating the relationship between the American press and President Obama with that of an abused spouse.

Retaliation is part of a military-wide pattern that has prevented countless cases from being reported and investigated, exacerbating the epidemic, according to victims' advocates. A Pentagon report released earlier this month found 62 percent of sexual assault victims in the military who reported being attacked say they faced some kind of retaliation afterward.

In the midst of California's continued budget woes, once again it's the mentally ill and financially troubled citizens who are getting lost in the bureaucratic shuffle.

Will California Attorney General Kamala Harris hang tough in her new lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase, the first to target individual bankers accused of defrauding the public? If so, it would be the first time in five years that executives at a major bank have personally paid a price for their wrongdoings.

The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that cities and counties can ban medical marijuana dispensaries, a decision likely to further diminish the network of storefront pot shops and fuel efforts to have the state regulate the industry.

"While some counties and cities might consider themselves well-suited to accommodating medical marijuana dispensaries, conditions in other communities might lead to the reasonable decision that such facilities within their borders, even if carefully sited, well managed, and closely monitored, would present unacceptable local risks and burdens," Justice Marvin Baxter wrote for the seven-member court.

Go on. Sip your tea, wear funny hats, shoulder muskets, and carry placards with hateful slogans, because you and your ideas belong with the flintlock era. Once again, I salute you farewell and wish you and your ilk good riddance.

According to surveys, more than 90 percent of Americans support the labeling of genetically engineered foods. That is until a campaign comes along, dumps a bunch of cash into confusion, and suddenly things change.