Health

The wild and suspenseful saga that is the winter of 2023 continues, with the latest chapter bringing rare snowfall to South Valley—not just once, but multiple times since last week—blanketing the hills above Morgan Hill, Gilroy and Hollister with accumulated frozen precipitation.  Some locations in...

UC Santa Cruz recently acquired and established the Strathearn Ranch Natural Reserve, a 2,400-acre oak-studded grassland property in San Benito County that will be used for field research and outdoor education for the university’s students, staff and researchers.  The UC Board of Regents approved the...

Thousands of volunteers flocked to the California coast and waterways on Sept. 21 to participate in the 40th annual California Coastal Cleanup Day.   The event, which is the largest single-day volunteer event in the world, according to Guinness World Records, invited eco-friendly volunteers across the...

California will lift its indoor mask requirements Tuesday for unvaccinated people and March 12 for schools and child care facilities, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Feb. 28. The changes will mark the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic began that both unvaccinated people and students will...

Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Sen. Nancy Skinner announced a proposal Dec. 5 to penalize oil companies in an effort to deter gas price gouging. The proposal would make it illegal for oil companies to charge excessive refining margins—the price difference between the cost of...

Every year,  lawmakers in Sacramento introduce a flurry of bills, most of which are eviscerated during the legislative process and end up on the Assembly or Senate trash heap. A select few make it to the governor’s desk, and assuming they dodge the veto...

The California State Assembly Select Committee on Fentanyl, Opioid Addiction and Overdose Prevention on Aug. 12 during an informational hearing discussed the urgency of combating the rise in overdose deaths among youth in recent years primarily due to ingesting fentanyl.  Between 2019 and 2021, drug...

More than 1,000 people have signed a petition to stop the construction of an Amazon Data Services data center in northeast Gilroy.  Although the project has already obtained all the permits and approvals it needs from the City of Gilroy, data center opponents are hoping...

Sunday's dry spell helped the greater Bay Area briefly recover from a powerful storm on New Year's weekend, but a Pineapple Express on the way will soak the region mid-week, forecasters said Monday. Mop-up efforts to bail out flooded basements and clear mudslides from roadways...

PG&E is encouraging customers around the Bay Area to prepare for excessive heat on Friday that could contribute to power outages.  PG&E spokesperson Tamar Sarkissian said in an email that this could be an “all-hands on deck event,” and said crews will be out and...