Environmental Health

Homelessness has long been a serious problem in Anchorage, Alaska. The challenge for two reporters at Alaska Dispatch News was to find new ways to cut through old perceptions and debates to tell stories that showed their subjects’ enduring humanity. Here's how they did it.

A new study of kids in the Los Angeles basin found that as air quality “improved dramatically” in recent years, so did the capacity of children's lungs. The study's attributes the gains to more stringent emissions standards. But can the air quality gains continue amid a resurgent economy?

“Health care is what happens when things go wrong,” Dr. Anthony Iton says. “Health care doesn’t actually make you healthy — it prevents you from deteriorating rapidly.” The broader forces that really shape health, he argues, are what journalists and policymakers should really be focusing on.

Geographic boundaries can have a big impact on health insurance options, particularly for people living in rural regions. Rural residents tend to fare better on premiums and choices when their area is grouped with an urban neighbor.

As California's statewide figures drop, Del Norte County has seen its domestic violence rate skyrocket. That raises a question: How are domestic violence survivors in this rural community on the Northern California coast faring after reporting abuse?

My project will compare the health status of Valley Latinos living in a handful of urban communities to those living in rural towns.

In 1965, the deinstitutionalization of mental health treatment charted a path toward overcrowded prisons and a shortage of mental health treatment facilities. Today, Imperial County in California is dealing with both of those consequences.

If you are a Californian having a baby for the first time, choose your hospital wisely. You might even wish to move. A recent report from the California Hospital Assessment and Reporting Taskforce revealed alarming discrepancies in outcomes for low-risk pregnancies at high-performing and low-perform

According to dozens of interviews with housing rights lawyers, code enforcement officials and building inspectors, substandard housing conditions are rampant in Sonoma County's poorest neighborhoods. And landlords face little consequences for letting their properties fall into disrepair.

Beaches, sunshine, natural beauty, high-priced homes. In so many ways, Ventura County embodies the affluent, laid-back lifestyle of California’s coastal regions....