Rachel Scheier

Nurse Laura Johnson administers a dose of the HPV vaccine to Abby Major, 13, at an Illinois health clinic. A California lawmaker wants all incoming college students to get an HPV vaccine, as part of a push to drive up vaccination rates and prevent cervical cancer. (JOHN J. KIM / CHICAGO TRIBUNE / TNS VIA GETTY IMAGES)

California bill would mandate HPV vaccine for incoming college students

April 13, 2023 at 10:33 a.m.

When she was a college freshman, Joslyn Chaiprasert-Paguio was told by a doctor she had a common sexually transmitted infection called the human papillomavirus but not to worry. Four years...

A graphic novel by Kathleen Founds follows an angst-ridden bear on his quest for mental health treatment. The author drew on her own experience with bipolar disorder.

California author uses dark humor — and a bear — to highlight flawed health system

January 31, 2023 at 10:39 a.m.

The book, published in November, follows Theodore, an intelligent but angst-ridden bear, on his quest for treatment for his own manic-depressive illness.

A staff member works at a library in San Francisco on May 3, 2021. (Photo: Li Jianguo/Xinhua via Getty Images)

From book stacks to psychosis and food stamps, librarians confront a new workplace

August 23, 2022 at 11:24 a.m.

As public libraries morph into support hubs for homeless people with mental illness or addiction, librarians are struggling to reconcile their shifting roles.

Parents rise up against drug deaths

May 23, 2022 at 12:39 p.m.

Life as he knew it ended for Matt Capelouto two days before Christmas in 2019, when he found his 20-year-old daughter, Alexandra, dead in her childhood bedroom in Temecula, California....

The group Mothers Against Drug Deaths paid for a billboard in San Francisco that urges officials to crack down on drug sales in the city. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The New MADD Movement: Parents Rise Up Against Drug Deaths

May 20, 2022 at 9:28 a.m.

A nationwide movement of parents-turned-activists is fighting the increasingly deadly drug crisis — and one California organization is challenging the state doctrine that drugs should be treated as a health...

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