A last-gasp FEMA camp for wildfire survivors tests the government’s obligations to the displaced.

Half a century ago, a legion of idealists dropped out of society and went back to the land, creating a patchwork of utopian communes across Northern California. Here, the last of those rogue souls offer a glimpse of their otherworldly residences—and the tail end of a grand social experiment.

An interview with Gabriela López, the head of the San Francisco Board of Education.

Here’s how a tiny brush fire became California’s deadliest wildfire.

A cross section of Angelenos consider ‘What’s next?’

The immersive mise en scène of a 2010 Hollister flagship store, redolent of California beach towns that don’t exist, “lazy, hygienic sexuality,” and weed.

How a fearsome, fast-talking union boss became a leading figure in cannabis legalization while shaking down the very people he was supposed to be helping.

Investigating one of the deadliest maritime disasters in U.S. history.

Tens of thousands of California’s poorest tenants have endured dangerous conditions in housing run by a single company: PAMA Management.

A year living in a shack in Oakland.

A homeless teen stumbles upon a strange house party.

A visit to the massive Northern California surf break.

Decades of greed, neglect, corruption, and bad politics led to last year’s Paradise fire, the worst in California history.

The California coast is disappearing under the rising sea. Our choices are grim.

A few miles north of San Francisco, off the coast of Sausalito, is Richardson Bay, a saltwater estuary where roughly one hundred people live out of sight from the world. Known as anchor-outs, they make their homes a quarter mile from the shore, on abandoned and unseaworthy vessels, doing their best, with little or no money, to survive.

Friends and their plans, big and small.

The Inglewood rapper has survived the death, deportation, and displacement of his family and friends.

Inside the most destructive fire in American history—and why the West’s cities and towns will keep on burning.

The true story of a ring of thieves who stole millions of dollars’ worth of luxury watches—and the special agent who brought them down.

Generations of the writer’s family experience the “romantic delusions and hazardous fortunes” of San Francisco.

How a group of hippie surfers and a former Spanish teacher built the largest weed-smuggling empire on the West Coast.

A profile of California’s governor at the end of more than 40 years in public life.

Stewart Resnick is the biggest farmer in the United States, a fact he has tried to keep hidden while he has shaped what we eat, transformed California’s landscape, and ruled entire towns. But the one thing he can’t control is what he’s most dependent on—water.

And why it’s making her a flash point in the Democratic Party.

Orange County’s first serial killer in 25 years stalked homeless men.