Thousands of Californians are spending the holidays deciding what to do next after devastating wildfires. The Camp Fire – in northern California – took out nearly an entire town, killing at least 86 people. And the Woolsey Fire, closer to home, left 3 people dead, chewing through nearly 100,000 acres in L.A. and Ventura Counties. Ken Pimlott knows those names all too well. He heads up the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and today is his last day on the job.

A look at how California's new governor may interact with the legislature.

Barring any unforeseen changes, there will be a new L.A. County Sheriff at the start of next week. Alex Villanueva defeated sitting Sheriff, Jim McDonnell, in this month’s midterms after running a partisan campaign that lead to the first ouster of a sitting Sheriff in more than a century. Villanueva told KCRW this week that his goal is to rid the department of officials that, he said, contributed to a corrupt culture under previous leadership. But there is a lot of concern about what that will look like and if recent reforms could be rolled back.

The fires rage on in our own backyard, and in Northern California, encompassing tens of thousands of acres each. In L-A and Ventura Counties, the Woolsey Fire has scorched everything in its path. To the north, in Butte County, the Camp Fire has charred and destroyed even more acreage, of trees, brush and everything else, north of Sacramento, and the town of Paradise is a scene of utter devastation and heartbreak.

Across the country, early voting for Tuesday's midterm election has been happening in record numbers, but here in California, the numbers aren’t that impressive. So, who can we count on to show up on Tuesday when polls open?

The measure that’s raked in the most money on California's November ballot is not over rent control or the state’s recently passed gas tax – it's about kidney dialysis

NPR's international correspondent Carrie Kahn and KPBS military reporter Steve Walsh join host Steve Chiotakis to give the latest from both sides of the wall.

The U.S. border with Mexico has become a linchpin in American politics under the administration of Donald Trump.

With key votes expected by Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins and West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, Brett Kavanaugh is likely to be confirmed as the next Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Two Senators who don’t support Kavanaugh represent California: Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris. And both have played pivotal, if limited, roles in the confirmation and hearing process up to this point.

Ten years ago this month, Wall Street – and every other economic barometer – was in free fall. And that financial crisis was also a housing crisis. Some of the worst areas hit were communities all along Southern California’s I-15 freeway, from Rancho Cucamonga in the north… to Lake Elsinore in the south. So what happened, and how's life along the 'Foreclosure Alley' now?