CHICAGO -- I'm into "Missing una investigacion," the latest book by Chilean novelist Alberto Fuguet. I'm reading it in Spanish since I have to consciously practice my native language or it vanishes.  

In just five months, California will start to enroll millions of previously uninsured residents under the Affordable Care Act. Much uncertainty remains as the 58 counties of the most populous state in the nation take on the monumental task of reaching out to a new population.  

The people of San Leandro have made history and San Leandro Hospital will remain open for the foreseeable future. After enduring years of negotiation, lawsuits, threats of closure and nearing the point of no return, the hospital will remain open.  

Earlier this month, a remote-monitoring system in Hawaii recorded the first time in human history that the daily average for carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere averaged more than 400 parts per million (ppm).  

One of the most important functions the Legislature is to update laws that will ensure protection for all Californians. The time has come to do just that with the Car Buyers Bill of Rights.  

Since U.S. News & World Report began ranking colleges 30 years ago, that magazine has discovered a niche in the ratings industry. USN&WR ranks careers, hospitals, businesses and world leaders, but the magazine's biggest market has been its rankings of everything having to do with education  

The first time I held a gun I was 11. It was heavy and silver, a revolver. My older cousin was a pretty black girl in Oakland coming of age during the crack epidemic.  

Overseas factory workers should be helped to organize  

This paper's editorial board wants to stop California's Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) (Editorial, "Bay Area can't afford to lose Delta water fight" May 3).  

California may think it's saving big money by transferring children from Healthy Families to Medi-Cal, but it is missing the big picture.In October 2012, the state announced that it would shift about 860,000 children from Healthy Families, California's Children's Health Insurance Program, to  

It has been nearly 24 years since the Loma Prieta earthquake. Since then, we have known that the eastern span of the Bay Bridge will not withstand another large quake.  

The news in the Cincinnati Enquirer sounded dreadful. Someone who'd been suffering from "pulmonary peritonitis" had "died suddenly of pleurisy of the brain.  

April is a bittersweet month for many Jews like me. While commemorating occasions ranging from historical to current, and from grim to joyful, many of us experience different emotions.  

As Earth Day approaches, many of us will be thinking of ways we can lighten our footprint on the planet. Sometimes the task seems daunting. But New York Times columnist Mark Bittman has a powerful recommendation for not only protecting the planet, but protecting our health: eating a more  

First Fridays in downtown Oakland is a monthly event that fills the streets with food, music and dance. Full of life. One recent Friday, two groups of teenagers reportedly began an argument at the event.  

On Wednesday, the CalPERS Board of Administration will make a very important decision that will have billion-dollar impacts on state and local government budgets for two generations.  

Storing water has always been critical in California. Today the strategies are changing to meet a new generation of challenges. As our state moves forward with long-term plans to modernize our aging water system, expanding our water-storage capabilities is a central part of the equation.  

Collective carbon emission has been slowly killing the habitability of our planet, but its death grip is about to tighten. There are carbon contracts that, if fulfilled, will raise the temperature of Earth by 2 degrees.  

Every year, college basketball's March Madness gives us an underdog story and millions flock to a momentary allegiance with a college they could not locate on a map.  

To the outside observer, my neighbor Sasha probably looks like a homeless drug addict. On the surface, that's true. He's the first to admit it.For residents on our block, Sasha is also the one who takes out our garbage each week, rakes leaves, trims plants, cleans litter off the sidewalk and brings  

Californians should pass Proposition 34 in November, ending the death penalty in favor of life without the possibility of parole  

Californians have already voted twice to support the Citizens Redistricting Commission -- when they created it in 2008, and in 2010 when they agreed to include congressional districts -- but they need to do it again.