The coronavirus pandemic and the continued spread of illegal fentanyl took a devastating toll on drug users, experts said, as the government reported a staggering increase in fatalities.

My trusty spreadsheet says appraisers found appreciation 50% below jumps in the regional median sales price.

Since 2017, the average rent in Fresno has increased more than a third, with new high-end living options and even deeper struggles for low-income residents.

Some residents have left the state, but many others have just moved out of big cities in search of more space and lower prices, creating hot spots in the suburbs and the once-sleepy exurbs.

California’s wildfire season is already underway, and state investigators are looking into what ignited a 1,325-acre brush fire in Los Angeles County. The app Citizen set off a search by users, though, for a man baselessly accused of starting the blaze.

The huge number is a surprise, given the state was projected to see a budget deficit of up to $54 billion.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Organizers of the recall effort against California Gov. Gavin Newsom collected enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot, state election officials said Monday, likely triggering just the second such election in state history. “The people of California have done what the politicians thought would be impossible," said Orrin Heatlie, the retired county sheriff's sergeant who launched the recall effort last year. “Our work is just beginning. Now the real campaign is about to commence." Heatlie spearheaded the signature collection effort that began last June and then picked up momentum in the fall as frustration grew over Newsom's coronavirus-related actions. The California secretary of state's office said more than 1.6 million signatures had been deemed valid as of Monday, about 100,000 more than required.

"People have often reported on whistleblowing matter-of-factly as though we did it and moved on with our lives." But that couldn't be further from the truth.

The B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in Britain, is now the source of most new coronavirus infections in the United States, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

A solar battle in California could shift the state's trajectory on renewables and set a precedent for whether clean energy can scale up without creating inequitable costs, analysts say.