Hopping in a Tesla and driving from San Francisco to downtown Los Angeles has gotten easier as charging stations along Interstate 5 rapidly expand. The trip now takes about eight hours, including two charging stops that double as meal and bathroom breaks.

But making the same road trip in another type of electric vehicle can be problematic due, in large part, to a lack of access to fast-charging stations, according to a new EV road trip planning tool The Chronicle launched Thursday.

The introduction frenzy is over. The Legislature’s deadline for introducing bills was Friday, meaning Senators and Assemblymembers now turn to the real business of the session — pushing their measures through the Capitol and hammering out a state budget. Lawmakers have more than 2,000 bills to consider, not mention a special session on oil company price gouging and a budget deficit of more than $22 billion. There is still a way to put new proposals into play.

Cristina Ochoa often worries if the food she's feeding her two young kids is safe, even after carefully reading ingredient labels. 

"Some ingredients I have no idea what they are, how to pronounce them," she said. "I want the best for my children. I would think that as a society we want the best for our children." 

Last week, Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D - Woodland Hills) announced new legislation that would address “range anxiety” and bolster consumer confidence by requiring all new and retrofitted electric vehicle (EV) chargers in California to be accessible to all types of electric vehicles. In particular, Assembly Bill (AB) 591, will mandate that all new and retrofitted EV chargers—other than those in private residences—include universal connectors and be publicly accessible to all types of EVs.

or several decades the West Valley Food Pantry has been feeding and aiding the San Fernando Valley’s food insecure from the Prince of Peace Episcopal Church’s parking lot, and now “we are finally going to have our own home,” rejoices executive director Debbie Decker.

After a deadly wave of mass shootings in the United States last year — including one in Buffalo, N.Y., and another at a school in Uvalde, Texas — that collectively killed 31, California’s Democratic-controlled Legislature responded by quickly passing more than a dozen laws meant to prevent gun violence in the Golden State.

Now, with California reeling from one mass shooting after another that claimed at least 24 lives in Monterey Park, Half Moon Bay and a Central Valley farming town, lawmakers are asking themselves once again what more they can do to stem the violence.