While the Trump administration has threatened tariffs on a spate of Mexican goods, avocados have so far been spared.

Tammy Takara thought she had the flu. Instead she contracted the disease rising across Ventura County — valley fever.

Within hours, the wind-whipped fire that sprinted from its origins around Thomas Aquinas College had destroyed both of their Ventura hillside homes. Hillcrest Drive is a narrow, winding road where ...