California's computer problems, which have already cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, have mounted as state officials cut short work on a $208-million DMV technology overhaul that is only half done. The project was intended to revamp the process for registering vehicles and issuing driver's licenses, with the entire overhaul scheduled to be finished this year. But state officials said they were canceling the vehicle registration component because little progress was being made. The decision is a setback for the Department of Motor Vehicles, which has a history of such stumbles.

California Entrepreneur Matt Davies, who set up above-board, taxpaying marijuana cultivation and distribution businesses that employed over 60 people is being prosecuted by the Justice department. The businesses were completely legal under California law, and Davies's lawyers, accountant, and other employees quoted in the article confirm this.

More than 200 school districts across California are taking a second look at the high price of the debt they've taken on using risky financial arrangements. Collectively, the districts have borrowed billions in loans that defer payments for years — leaving many districts owing far more than they borrowed.

Under California’s three strikes, a person convicted of a felony who has two or more prior convictions for certain offenses must be sentenced to at least 25 years to life in state prison, even if the third offense is nonviolent. Critics have argued it is the harshest sentencing law in the United States. Life sentences have been handed down for stealing a pair of pants, shoplifting, forging a check and breaking into a soup kitchen.

Shane Bauer was one of three Americans detained in 2009 while hiking in Iraq’s Kurdish region near the Iranian border. He and Josh Fattal were held for 26 months, and Sarah Shourd — now Bauer’s wife — was held for 13 months, much of it in solitary confinement. Seven months after being freed from prison in Iran, Bauer began investigating solitary confinement in the United States. Now, in his first major article since his release for Mother Jones magazine, Bauer finds California prisoners are being held for years in isolation based on allegations they are connected to prison gangs.