Privacy hacks
Democratic lawmakers in California are quietly attacking their own landmark privacy law The California Consumer Privacy Act was hailed as a milestone for reining in…
Read MoreArticles by Scott Thomas Anderson
The road to peace: New initiative sees signs of progress in combating gang killings in Sacramento
In 2018, the city of Sacramento managed to escape a grim statistic: It made it 12 months without a child being murdered. Now, an initiative…
The Chinese connection: Federal investigators map an international scheme to produce black market marijuana
A dozen arrests and 100 home seizures result from operations When federal agents finally looked inside the Cadillac, they saw multiple house keys, four garage door…
Midnight Burning: Three murders, three detectives and the remnants of a savage summer
Doyle Hemling was in his bedroom when a car door slammed in the darkness. Hemling lived on Annabelle Avenue, a one-way country road dipping through…
A Sacramento crime reporter compares notes with Scotland’s top crime novelist
Ian Rankin’s research and hardened realism has universal appeal I first learned of Scotland’s literary shadow weaver while strolling down Edinburgh’s Young Street in 2015. I’d…
What the bones say: Arrest in grisly murder made with luck, determination and a tale beyond the crime tape
The hikers stopped when they saw the skeleton splayed out along the manzanita and scrub brush. It was weather-beaten. A cervical vertebra was missing from…
The Man Who Saved Reading
Dana Gioia’s battle for the future of the Arts, literature and critical thinking in America Dana Gioia stepped through a Romanesque archway, looked at the…
Corporate cartel logic
Sacramento and Amador among 31 California counties claiming that Big Pharma companies perpetrated an organized criminal conspiracy For Chris, it started with a trip to…
A healing voice
Psychologist’s refugee story remains a motivating force behind her trauma work in Sacramento When Dr. Carolee Tran recalls her last glimpse of Vietnam as a child, the most…
After the war: Trauma still haunts California’s Hmong community
In 1976, Robert By Khang was lost in a city where no one spoke Hmong, where no one could tell him that he’d gotten on…
Nowhere to go: Crammed shelters, a seller’s market and financial challenges brew recipe for a domestic violence disaster
On March 10, Sacramento police Detective Michael Severi sat in a courtroom describing a crime scene from last summer, after officers rushed into a house to…
Gunning for the source: ATF’s gun-tracing investigations are solving crimes across California
A Roseville police officer shot in the face by a .45-caliber Glock in October 2013; a 13-year-old gunned down on the streets of Stockton with…
A Dark Development
Hidden money, weaponized disinformation and a strange turn in Folsom It was a cold night in February, and my car was inching through a rope of…
A Sleepless case: How detectives, prosecutors won groundbreaking Ambien double-murder trial
Placer County attorneys spent weeks battling over whether two teenagers were killed by a recklessly dangerous pill-popper or an accidental victim of Ambien-induced parasomnia. The…
The bling ring: Illegal gambling operation tied to ‘rich-as-f***’ gang in Sacramento
For the second time in four years, law enforcement has broken up an illegal gambling operation in California run by Israeli nationals. The latest investigation…
Ghost of a chance: Battle brews over new anti-ghost gun bill at the state Capitol
A former police officer looks to tackle untraceable assault weapons Mike Gipson smiled as he walked through a lamp-studded hallway inside the state Capitol. Not…
Flame Dreams: Jeremiah Tower remains a California enigma
Sapphire and pomegranate gem lights burn across the gilded waves of the Crest Theatre. A large, eager crowd is spilling into the seats. And then…