KQED's The California Report

The number of L.A. residents dying from fentanyl overdoses shot up 1600% over the past six years. A record 3,220 people died of drug overdoses in Los Angeles County in 2022. Fentanyl surpassed methamphetamine to become the most common drug in fatal overdoses. Reporter: Jackie Fortier, LAistThe state’s poorest children are having to wait for weeks, sometimes months, to receive urgent mental health care. When someone calls to make an urgent psychiatric appointment for a child, the state standard is for that appointment to be within four days. A new audit found that’s not happening for 40% of kids - some have to wait months to get an appointment.Reporter: Kate Wolffe, CapRadioThe often glaring health disparities between Black and white Americans are known, like African Americans having an average lifespan that’s six years shorter compared to white people. But now research points to another disparity, involving grief and bereavement. Reporter: April Dembosky, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The border wall that separates the U.S. and Mexico has long been controversial, but the barrier also causes real physical injuries when people fall from it. And with the border wall nearly twice as tall as it used to be in many places, the injuries keep getting worse. Reporter: Gustavo Solis, KPBSThe state agency that lost billions to pandemic unemployment fraud has a new plan to pay out benefits. Employment Development Department officials hope the updates will help stop scammers from stealing peoples’ money. Reporter: Lauren Hepler, CalMatters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Four decades ago, California went to war against an enemy that wasn't human. The adversary was the Mediterranean fruit fly, an invasive pest that threatened to destroy California's agricultural economy. To fight the fly, the state launched controversial aerial pesticide spraying campaigns and set up roadblocks and quarantine zones. Fast forward to today and the fruit fly threat to California is back.Guest: Bodil Cass, Professor on Entomology, UC RiversideFaculty members at four California State University campuses are staging a series of single day strikes starting Monday. It comes after months of bargaining.Reporter: Juan Carlos Lara, KQEDFor the first time, the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife is returning land to an indigenous tribe. The Fort Independence Indian Community will get back 40 acres of sacred land in Inyo County.Reporter: Izzy Bloom, The California Report  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Merced County has the highest rate of homicide in the state. It’s also severely lacking deputies. Sheriff Vernon Warnke says the shortage is so bad, he's disassembling units, like for gang enforcement, just to cover everyday patrol.Reporter: Elizabeth Arakelian, KVPRThe housing crisis in California can be felt in all parts of the state. That includes at colleges and universities, where more and more students are struggling to find on campus housing. At Cal Poly Humboldt, some students have turned to sleeping in their cars. And now they're being fined for doing so.Guest: Jillian Wells, Reporter, The Lumberjack  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Governor Gavin Newsom is not running for president, but for some reason, Thursday night in Georgia, he will face off in a debate with a man who is in the 2024 race: Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis. What do both have to gain from the debate?Guest: Marisa Lagos, KQEDThe California Public Utilities Commission will vote Thursday on whether to settle their enforcement against PG&E for the utility’s involvement in the 2021 Dixie Fire.Reporter: Danielle Venton, KQEDMore than 3,000 California pharmacies have stopped flavoring medication as of this month. That leaves just 50 statewide that will add flavors like bubble gum or strawberry to make it easier for some children to take medicine.Reporter: Shreya Agrawal, CalMatters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There is still hope that Madera Community Hospital will reopen. It shut down and filed for bankruptcy a year ago, leaving patients with virtually no other options.  Earlier this month, a deal to save the facility fell through. But two more suitors are eyeing the hospital.Reporter: Kerry Klein, KVPRIn the Bay Area, a unique childbirth education program for and by Black people is improving birth outcomes and patient experiences. That’s why the agency that oversees Medi-Cal is looking into how it can bring this program to other public hospitals in California.Reporter: Daisy Nguyen, KQED  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Imperial Valley residents are hoping to get their cut of the profit from the future lithium industry. For them that means well paid and sustainable jobs.Reporter: Philip Salata, inewsource Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In one of the many low income rural communities struck by flooding earlier this year, residents and local officials are still wrangling over how to spend recovery money. At issue is $20 million in state funds for the Central Valley town of Planada.Reporter: Nicole Foy, CalMattersA few hundred hospice nurses, chaplains and grief counselors met in Los Angeles this month at the End Well gathering. Think of it as the TEDx conference for end of life issues. But this year, the organizers invited actors writers and producers from Hollywood to attend, too.Reporter: April Dembosky, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's the start of holiday season, and for some that means getting together with family or loved ones and sharing a nice meal together. But for many, the holidays can amplify feelings of loneliness. The COVID 19 pandemic has changed how we interact with each other and experience events, making this time even more challenging and feelings of loneliness more common.Guest: Kory Floyd, Professor of Interpersonal Communication, University of Arizona and the author of The Loneliness CureGrowing numbers of asylum seekers are arriving in San Diego County. And government resources are not keeping up.Reporter: Katie Hyson, KPBSCalifornia K-12 students will soon be taught how to recognize fake news. That’s because of a new law that requires schools to teach media literacy skills starting in 2024. Reporter: Carolyn Jones, CalMatters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The history of Native Americans fighting for their land is as old as attempts to take it. But efforts to reclaim ancestral lands have become more visible in recent years. In California more than a dozen efforts have already succeeded.Reporter: Vanessa Rancaño, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices