After years of soaring rents and home prices and an enduring homelessness crisis, California is finally creating a state agency exclusively focused on housing.

Love the water? California is home to the No. 1 lake in the nation, according to USA Today readers.

A farmworker who fell from a greenhouse roof during a chaotic ICE raid this week at a California cannabis facility has died.

Investigators released the names on Saturday of the seven people who were killed in a massive pyrotechnics facility explosion in Northern California that took place days before the Fourth of July. The blast occurred in Esparto, about 40 miles from Sacramento, on July 1, triggering a series of massive explosions, according to the fire department.

When L.A. declared itself a “sanctuary city” for Central American migrants, he vowed to have Washington cut off the city’s federal funding. He took pride in arresting undocumented workers when they showed up to collect their lottery winnings.

“I really had no intention of being a restaurateur or leaving medicine. My mom wanted to kill me,” says Julian Hakim, the co-founder of the fast-casual, Tijuana-style Mexican chain The Taco Stand. “And I didn’t do it to make money.”

California frequently suffers some of the costliest disasters in the country. Now state officials fear they’ll be left to face them without federal funding.

An air quality advisory will remain in effect for the Bay Area through at least Monday, as smoke from wildfires burning in far Northern California drifts into the region.