Is California merely robbing Peter to pay Paul with its voter-approved bond measure to house mentally ill homeless people? Places such as Tulare County could end up losing badly needed mental health funding.
In the final moments of Jontell Reedom's life, viewers see him jogging away from the officers. Moments later, officers would fire eight rounds into him, killing him.
Research suggests an alarming link between a common drug used for valley fever and birth defects. The disease also tends to be more severe in pregnant women.
Police officers agree there is a swelling tide of mental illness on the horizon and they are already beginning to feel its effects. But officers are finding themselves woefully underprepared.
This article was produced as a project for the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2018 California Fellowship.
In Tulare County, RV-like mobile units are trying to fill the need among Hispanic farm laborers for mental health care. But so far, the need far outstrips the supply of care.
Some kids born into the gangster lifestyle live to survive. If they want a different future, they will struggle to break free. One charter school aims to rehabilitate such students. This story is part of the Class Dismissed documentary from Capital Public Radio.
When I left for a week of reporting in rural California in late February, I didn't know I would come back with two stories about the devastating health consequences of isolation.
I'm not just talking about the geographic isolation one finds in a remote area. From the hilly evergreen landscape of eastern Shasta County, to the agricultural flatlands of Tulare County in the South Central Valley, I witnessed how isolation can leave people in the dark about keeping healthy, lead to emotional despair, and pose real barriers to quality of life.
Although California is the world’s 9th largest economy and a hub of tech innovation, some of the state’s residents live in communities that lack basic services like clean water and functioning sewage systems.
Nearly every day, Arleen Hernandez battles an aging septic tank that backs up into her toilet and shower. Upon moving to Parklawn in 1986, she didn’t realize her new neighborhood lacks basic public services.