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The high seas have their mysteries, and nowhere are they more mysterious than a little-known spot in the northeast corner of San Pablo Bay. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The push to reopen the economy is rife with hard choices over timing, scale and risk. No one is more familiar with this predicament than Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick who is backpedaling from a divisive decision to drop enforcement of COVID-19 health orders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sonoma County officials approved an $11.63 million proposal Monday aimed at providing housing, shelter and services to the hundreds of homeless people camped on county parkland in southwest Santa Rosa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While California contemplates new dams for its thirsty future, it's also thinking about taking out old ones. Along with advancing plans to demolish three dams atop the Klamath River, there's a movement to rethink and possibly take out a water and power dam in the Mendocino County back country. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

On Tuesday, the school board of the Dixie School District in San Rafael voted to change the district's name. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

California housing costs are spiraling so high that they are pushing the state's homelessness crisis into places it's never been before - sparsely populated rural counties. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A union-backed bill to pad local government payrolls has been steadily diminished by those with the clout to fend off organized labor and its numerous friends in the California Legislature. The state's cities got a reprieve from the bill en masse. So did San Francisco, the state's only city and county, and Santa Clara County. All that's left for the state Senate is to finish the job and kill this misbegotten bill altogether. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Before counties hire private contractors to provide public services, Democrats in Sacramento want them to meet a few conditions, including: [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Interior Department this week announced nearly half a billion dollars in subsidies for local government services on federally owned land, the largest share of which went to California. The department noted that the $465 million distribution is "the largest amount ever allocated in the program's 40-year history" and "continues to underscore the Trump administration's commitment to rural communities." "These investments," Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke went on, "are one of the ways the federal government is fulfilling its role of being a good land manager and good neighbor to local communities." [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BAKERSFIELD - The November election is far from over in the Central Valley. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When San Francisco city officials explain why their annual budgets are so huge - this year's totals $9.6 billion, an all-time record - there are usually two explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Wherever you live in California, your county probably doesn't fit you. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Across the nation, families, advocates, policymakers and social services organizations are leading conversations about the needs of some of society's most vulnerable - our kids - and the programs designed to support them. Too often, these concerns only hit the news when something terrible happens, leaving the public stunned and reactive, and policymakers scrambling to do something - often anything - to address the strong emotions that tragedies evoke. Outrage is a powerful motivator, but if we want to truly address the challenges faced by families and communities, we of course have to spend as much time talking about the solutions as we do about the problems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Gang membership, school dropout, juvenile delinquency and substance abuse are highly correlated with the chronic mental health disorders that affect 1 in every 5 children under the age of 17. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For Lady, a pit bull mix identified as a bad seed, and Angel, an aging corgi mix with health problems, animal rights activists in Contra Costa County provided a ticket out of town — and a second chance at life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A salary adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The toughest job in Alameda County is about to get a little easier. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Cutbacks in state funding for trial courts are about to have an impact in Santa Clara County, which is shutting down courthouses in Palo Alto and Morgan Hill that handle civil and small-claims cases and traffic tickets. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the Sierra foothills, where Gold Rush history still sparkles, Nevada County taxpayers fear their small, rural region is being drained of critical funding to help two residents fight state fraud charges. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the Sierra foothills, where Gold Rush history still sparkles, Nevada County taxpayers fear their small, rural region is being drained of critical funding to help two residents fight state fraud charges. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For years, a devoted band of San Francisco officials has tried, and failed, to create a public power agency that would supply renewable electricity to the city's residents. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Alameda and Santa Clara counties are the fastest-growing regions in California, in large part because of a plethora of middle-class housing units that are scarce elsewhere in the region, according to a state population report. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

More new residents flocked to Alameda and Santa Clara than any other two counties in the state last year, lured in part by a plethora of middle-class housing units that are scarce elsewhere in the region, according to a state population report. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The idea of letting a handful of rural northern counties break away to form their own state of Jefferson is a nonstarter among most Californians, but a full quarter of the state thinks the plan sounds just dandy, a new Field Poll shows. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Out of more than 3,100 convicted murderers on death rows nationwide, over a quarter have come from just 10 counties, which include Alameda County and four others in California, a new report says. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As the last customers trickled out of Costco on a recent Saturday evening, a young couple steered their Honda CR-V into the parking lot. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As the last customers trickled out of Costco on a recent Saturday evening, a young couple steered their Honda CR-V into the parking lot. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Counties' databases of every parcel of land within their borders - documents that let people monitor land use, taxes and housing policy - are public records that must be made available for a small copying charge, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In a case that could affect many low-paid home-care workers in California, the state Supreme Court has left intact a ruling allowing a caretaker to sue Sonoma County after her disabled client failed to pay her. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

California's overhaul of its prisons and jails has introduced a new form of justice by geography in which offenders, depending largely on their home county, spend varying amounts of time behind bars for the same crime, records show. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

California's overhaul of its prisons and jails has introduced a new form of justice by geography in which offenders, depending largely on their home county, spend varying amounts of time behind bars for the same crime, records show. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday said that the state should oversee the expansion of its Medi-Cal program as encouraged by the Affordable Care Act but that counties will have to give up funding used to care for low-income residents. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Alameda County must pay $1.7 million in damages and legal fees to a company whose plans to build a storage facility for boats and RVs was delayed for 2 1/2 years by officials' about-face on a growth-control law, a state appeals court has ruled. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

- When Jimmy Kimmel poked fun at Humboldt State University for having a campus institute dedicated to the study of marijuana, people in the community sent the late-night TV host baby redwood trees, flowers, hot sauce, even beer - everything either grown or made locally. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Chaos and uncertainty may reign in most of the world, but not for Estella Harris. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Californians with seriously mentally ill family members rejoiced when voters passed the Mental Health Services Act, which created a robust stream of tax revenues for their loved ones' treatment. Eight years later, the funding is a huge success, but the spending has proved a bait-and-switch. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Flooding, fallen trees, collapsed roadways - it's no wonder Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency Friday and cited a severe rainstorm threatening the people of San Mateo County. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

San Mateo County will switch to district elections for supervisors next year, ending its status as the lone holdout in California that still holds countywide votes, officials said Wednesday. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Citing a shortage of state funds, San Mateo County court officials say they're laying off 20 to 25 employees, including four court commissioners, and shutting down most of their courtroom operations in South San Francisco and San Mateo. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A state appeals court says San Mateo County isn't responsible for $20 million in losses suffered by a dozen school districts in a county-run investment fund that had holdings in Lehman Bros. when it collapsed in 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Castro Valley is among the quietest, friendliest pockets of the Bay Area. Unless you're talking about signs. Hell hath no fury like Castro Valley embroiled in a sign ruckus. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Gov. Jerry Brown has committed to expanding the state's Medicaid program for low-income residents as prescribed by the federal health law, but his suggestions for how to do that could put more of the expense of doing so onto counties. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

State officials say they're behind schedule in reducing prison overcrowding, so they've asked a federal court for a six-month extension of a June 2013 deadline to lower California's inmate population by 34,000 over two years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One thing that California's prolonged budgetary crisis has made clear is that this state can't afford its current incarceration system. Over the next few years, both state and local jurisdictions will have to rethink their inmate policies, which is for the best - as long as they make wise choices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Alameda County voters, who have a long tradition of taxing themselves to pay for transportation improvements, are being asked to double down on their investment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The water tower in this city in the heart of California's farm belt looks like it could use a fresh coat of paint, but there seems to be at least one thriving tree in front of each home. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In speeches and ads supporting Proposition 30, Gov. Jerry Brown has largely focused on the initiative's effect on public school and university funding. He says little, however, about Prop. 30's significant impacts on public safety and health care. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A local government can be bound by a past commitment to pay future retirement benefits to its employees even if it says it can no longer afford them, a state appeals court ruled Friday. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]