After growing up on the East Coast, there were a number of things that surprised me about the pace and lifestyle of people on the West Coast.

Similar incidents have happened in schools across the country as more states have legalized the medical and recreational use of marijuana.

For 47 million American households, cooking means a gas stove. Gas stoves generate gases that aren't good for people's health and the gas itself contributes to climate change.

At least 30 states from California to New York are on alert for heavy snow, blizzard conditions, damaging winds and fire threat.

New York residents are paying some of the highest taxes in the nation, ranking second only to California, according to a new study by WalletHub. The report, released ahead of Tax Day, found that New York has the 50th overall effective state and local tax rate, meaning it is the most burdensome in the country.

A government spreadsheet lists thousands of campsites and trails that could shutter for the summer because of federal government staff reductions and budget freezes.

The fourth-quarter patterns – derived from gaps in affordability, underwater mortgages, foreclosures and unemployment - revealed that two-thirds of the 50 counties around the U.S. considered most exposed to potential fallbacks were in California, Florida, Illinois and the New York City region.

Spieker Senior Development Partners recently proposed a new senior living community in Walnut Creek, California. The Evergreen Retirement Community plans to redevelop a former Kimberly-Clark Corporation building into senior living in Fox Crossing, Wisconsin.

As home to the world's biggest financial center, New York state is in a uniquely powerful position to hold banks to the climate pledges they now seem prepared to break.