San Mateo
Brendan Heydinger, 14, visits the Aquarium of the Pacific on its first day of reopening to public in Long Beach, Calif., Tuesday, March 16, 2021. California has been on a reopening roll since a deadly winter surge that saw skyrocketing hospitalizations and positivity rates. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
90% of California can dine indoors, go to movies, hit a gym

By Janie Har And Jocelyn Gecker Mar. 16, 2021 03:34 PM EDT

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, center, with Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, District 51, left, and Los Angeles City Council member Kevin de Leon, right, visit the Ramona Gardens Recreation Center in Los Angeles to discuss the state's efforts to vaccinate hard-to-reach and disproportionately impacted communities in Los Angeles Sunday, Feb. 21, 2021. California's new system of delivering, tracking and scheduling coronavirus vaccines is being rolled out in select counties, a first step in Gov. Gavin Newsom's plan to smooth out what has been a confusing and disjointed rollout hampered by limited national supply. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
5 California counties advance to fewer virus restrictions

By Don Thompson Feb. 23, 2021 04:44 PM EST

A fire alert flag flies in strong Santa Ana winds at the intersection of Silverado Canyon Road and Santiago Canyon Road in Silverado, Calif., early on Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 19, 2021, as winds picked up throughout Orange County and Southern California. (Mark Rightmire/The Orange County Register/SCNG via AP)
Fierce California winds fan fires, topple trees and trucks

Jan. 19, 2021 05:50 PM EST

A couple dines outdoors at Scoma's restaurant Friday, Dec. 4, 2020, in Sausalito, Calif. The health officers in six San Francisco Bay Area regions have issued a new stay-at-home order as the number of virus cases surge and hospitals fill. The changes announced Friday will take effect in most of the area at 10 p.m. Sunday and last through Jan. 4. It means restaurants will have to close to indoor and outdoor dining, bars and wineries must close along with hair and nail salons and playgrounds. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
San Francisco Bay Area issues new stay-at-home order

By Olga R. Rodriguez And Juliet Williams Dec. 04, 2020 04:18 PM EST

FILE - In this May 28, 2020, file photo, hikers utilize the Innsdale Trail near the famed Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles. The "safer at home" public health order announced Friday, Nov. 27 in Los Angeles County calls for 10 million residents to stay home "as much as possible" and bars them from gathering with people outside of their household for public or private occasions. Schools that currently are holding in-person classes also mainly will be allowed to remain open, as will beaches, parks and trails.(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
California counties enact tighter COVID-19 restrictions

By Stefanie Dazio Nov. 30, 2020 10:20 AM EST

Melrose Mac Service coordinator, Josh Smart, left, helps out customer Eric Hall, Monster Lighting general manager, to make a contact-less purchase through a plexiglass wall at the store in Burbank, Calif., Friday, Nov. 27, 2020. Los Angeles County has announced a new stay-home order as coronavirus cases surge out of control in the nation's most populous county. The three-3 week order take effect Monday, Nov. 30, 2020. The order advises residents to stay home "as much as possible" and to wear a face covering when they go out. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
More California counties ratchet up measures amid surge

By Daisy Nguyen Nov. 28, 2020 12:01 AM EST

FILE - This May 11, 2018, file photo, from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, shows Scott Peterson. A California prosecutor says someone has filed an unemployment claim in the name of convicted murderer Peterson. Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said it is one of at least 35,000 unemployment claims made on behalf of prison inmates between March and August 2020. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via AP, File)
California OK'd aid in name of Scott Peterson, other killers

By Adam Beam Nov. 24, 2020 05:39 PM EST

FILE - This May 11, 2018 photo from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shows Scott Peterson. A California judge will decide on Friday, Nov. 13, 2020, if Peterson should be retried in the slayings of his pregnant wife and unborn child. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via AP,File)
Scott Peterson to stay at San Quentin as judge mulls retrial

By Don Thompson Nov. 13, 2020 03:29 PM EST

This May 11, 2018 photo from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shows Scott Peterson. Northern California prosecutors said Friday, Oct. 23, 2020 they will again seek the death penalty for Peterson in the slaying of his pregnant wife and unborn son nearly 19 years ago, even as a county judge considers throwing out his underlying conviction because of a tainted juror. Stanislaus County District Attorney Birgit Fladager acted after the California Supreme Court in August overturned Peterson's 2005 death sentence in a case that attracted worldwide attention. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via AP)
California prosecutors again seek death for Scott Peterson

By Don Thompson Oct. 23, 2020 02:47 PM EDT

A construction worker wears a mask Thursday, May 14, 2020, in Los Angeles. Everyone must wear a mask when outside their homes in the city of Los Angeles under new orders intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus as easing of other restrictions allows more people to return to work and recreation. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Walking in LA? Mayor says people must have a mask with them

By Christopher Weber, Olga R. Rodriguez And Amy Taxin May. 14, 2020 11:19 AM EDT

FILE - In this March 16, 2020, file photo, Tomas Aragon, health officer for the city and county of San Francisco, speaks during a press conference headed by public health directors spanning six Bay Area counties in San Jose, Calif. On the morning of March 15, as Italy became the epicenter of the global coronavirus pandemic, a half dozen high-ranking California health officials held an emergency conference call to discuss a united effort to contain the spread of the virus in the San Francisco Bay Area. That call and the bold decisions that came in the hours afterward have helped California avoid the kind of devastation from the virus in parts of Europe and New York City. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group, File)
Fast decisions in Bay Area helped slow virus spread

By Olga R. Rodriguez Apr. 19, 2020 11:38 AM EDT