Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democratic-controlled Legislature passed a budget last year that was built on a rickety foundation of false hopes. If that wasn't apparent at the time, it is now that the budget deficit has ballooned to $15.7 billion, up from Brown's $9.2 billion estimate from only four ...

(AP) -- A wayward dolphin that has spent two days in a narrow wetlands channel along the southern California coast was on its way out to the ocean Saturday when it suddenly turned tail and swam back to shallow waters.

A new idea elbowed its way into the familiar pile of health care legislation in the Senate Committee on Health yesterday. A nursing home model -- the "Green House Project" -- bucks the cold, institutional feel of many long-term care facilities. ... The idea is to have a small facility ...

(AP) -- Boats and helicopters scoured the Southern California waters Wednesday for a 40-foot gray whale that became tangled in fishing line while migrating the wrong way.

In 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state, alleging that it was violating patients' rights by heavily drugging and improperly restraining them and failing to provide appropriate treatment. The state settled, agreeing to an extensive court-supervised improvement plan at four hospitals with more than 4,000 patients. But a ...

California Assemblyman Bill Monning, chair of the Assembly Committee on Health introduced AB 1453, which laid out a plan for what essential benefits will be covered in California under the Affordable Care Act. The proposed set of benefits is modeled on the Kaiser small group HMO plan

A new push to reshape health care in greater Portland is reminiscent, its biggest booster says, of the race to land a man on the moon. Erstwhile health care competitors hope to set aside their differences to care for the region's 200,000 Oregon Health Plan members, says Legacy Health ...

(AP) -- Rescuers in a small boat chased a migrating gray whale along the coast of Southern California for hours Thursday before they were able to cut off fishing traps, lines and debris wrapped around its tail.

Maryland is launching a health care reform website to educate residents on how they can use benefits in the health law. In California, health reform already affects most residents while the state gets set to offer a version of its own "public option" to buy health insurance.

A roundup of health policy news from Minnesota, California, Kansas, Connecticut, Oregon, Missouri, Washington D.C. and Colorado.

A relatively new tax credit is available to certain small businesses and charities to help offset the cost of providing health insurance to their workers. But tens of thousands of businesses in Minnesota and across the nation are leaving money on the table, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

A Ventura County commission is trying to keep secret the details of a state-ordered investigation into the management and claims procedures of a healthcare plan designed to serve the county's neediest residents. Complaints about alleged late payments and poor management prompted the Department of Health Care Services to request that ...