.Tom Gogola

A story popped up in the New York Times recently about a San Francisco company that has developed an algorithm to assist local district...

We're at the end of the tour, and nobody has the key to get into the lethal-injection chamber. That seems a little ironic in the moment. It has been a long day at San Quentin State Prison for reporters and corrections staff alike. The four-hour media tour of the death row facilities has gone on for six, and along the way, all day, there have been skeleton-type keys opening big metal-and-concrete doors, numerous ID checks, sign-ins and sign-outs at the three facilities that house the nation's largest population of the condemned.

The Charlie Hebdo terror attacks of Jan. 7 continue to stimulate conversation and debate here and abroad over the so-called limits of free speech—and it's raised important questions in this country about the state of American satire.

Predatory payday lenders have run rampant while the state looked away-now local governments are reining them in

Feds ignore First Amendment rights by stoking moral panic over prostitution

An A-Z guide to new Sacramento laws that could be headed our way p15