California

As fires in Los Angeles County continue to burn, interest is piquing in the app run by a nonprofit in Northern California. Launched in 2021, it aggregates several relevant data streams and had 7.2 million users at year’s end.

In a high-level view of the 2025-2026 fiscal year state budget, Gov. Gavin Newsom highlighted technology work and reforms by the Office of Data and Innovation, which is helping lead California’s tech evolution.

A new state law aims to ensure that a human’s perspective cannot literally be removed from health-care decisions by prohibiting coverage denials made on the sole basis of artificial intelligence algorithms.

California saw some of its steepest reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector, which has long been the single largest source of climate-warming pollution. Meanwhile, its economy grew.

To make well-paying careers more accessible to those without four-year degrees, Gov. Gavin Newsom this week unveiled a California Master Plan for Career Education to encourage work-based learning and workforce training.

Artificial intelligence training should be mandatory for state employees to better prepare California for the anticipated growth of the new technology, a new report has recommended.

Big Basin Redwoods State Park is California's oldest, and it was 97 percent burned in 2020, when the CZU Lightning Complex Fire erupted in the Santa Cruz Mountains, incinerating tens of thousands of trees.

Of particular concern was a traffic snarl that wrapped around downtown Eureka, Calif., following the issuing of a statewide tsunami warning that sent people rushing to their cars to escape.

A new front in the battle over the benefits of AI versus its risks is opening up in law enforcement, where police are increasingly using the software to write up incident reports — to the concern of civil libertarians.

The report examines how the once-beleaguered state Department of Motor Vehicles has, under the leadership since 2019 of Director Steve Gordon, transformed many processes, migrated transactions online and eased public interactions.

Successfully weaning students off their phones will require a massive cultural shift. Some have argued that schools are the ideal places to attempt one, and California will be the nation's largest test case.

Jason Balderama, a county technology official, has started working as a consultant for the housing authority to coordinate the investigation and advise on how to strengthen its Internet defenses.

The new three-year technology road map will serve state government as a whole. It builds on the work of a previous plan, Vision 2023, said state CIO Liana Bailey-Crimmins, director of the California Department of Technology.

An industry group representing big tech is suing the state after the Legislature passed a law aiming to cut social media addiction among young people, the latest salvo in a legal battle centered on kids' online safety.

The California Air Resources Board approved changes to the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, to expand incentives for high-speed electric vehicle charging and advance the use of low-carbon fuels.

Officials with the fire department in Ventura County, which is northwest of Los Angeles, labeled the blaze very dangerous and encouraged residents to heed evacuation orders.

With a question-and-answer video on the Woodland, Calif., police department’s Facebook, Chief Ryan Kinnan discussed community policing, including advancements in tech and building trust with residents.

Texas-based Vistra Corp. has paused an application to build a 600 megawatt battery plant in Morro Bay, Calif., instead opting to participate in a new state process with the California Energy Commission.