California

About a third of the city's 2,000 homeless deaths between April 2020 and March 2021 were from an overdose. The federal government says the highly addictive and lethal synthetic drug has become the deadliest drug in the nation.

Lori McClintock, the wife of U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock of California, died after ingesting white mulberry leaf, according to the Sacramento County coroner.

Dr. Simone Gold, serving a 60-day sentence for participating in the Jan. 6 protest at the U.S. Capitol, has opened an online medical practice based in Naples.

California offers a lens on the challenges officials face in persuading parents to embrace covid shots for young children. While the state has a strong showing in overall vaccination rates, just 59% of kids 12 to 17 — eligible for a shot since May — are fully vaccinated.

San Francisco's only In-N-Out location still hasn't reopened for indoor dining. The restaurant violated public health requirements by allowing customers to enter without showing proof of vaccination.

Fatal drug overdoses, including from meth, have soared. California is preparing to roll out a controversial but proven treatment that involves paying stimulant users small sums of money not to use.

A bicyclist competed in a race that could have landed him in the Olympics. Instead, he suffered the worst injuries in the 10 years he had raced on pro road teams. And then the bills came.

A year ago, WLRN and NPR member station KQED worked on a project to document decisions made at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Democratic-led California and Republican-led Florida. A year later, we wanted to understand how the pandemic progressed in our regions.

Urgent care OB-GYN clinics have begun popping up around the country in recent years, and the covid pandemic has increased demand.

In this discussion on NPR's "Morning Edition," Health News Florida reporter Stephanie Colombini and Jackie Fortier of NPR station KPCC in Los Angeles offer insights on the state's different approaches.