Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic state lawmakers have focused on pocketbook concerns this year, seeing their party’s national losses as a reckoning.

© Loren Elliott for The New York Times

Giant sequoias can live for thousands of years, but wildfires have killed staggering numbers of the trees in recent years.

© Noah Berger/Associated Press

A new generation of activists has used extreme tactics and viral video to challenge farmers in Sonoma County, a region known for some of the industry’s most humane practices.

© Rachel Bujalski for The New York Times

In the first Mass since an assailant attacked Annunciation Catholic Church, parishioners gathered to grieve and support one another.

© Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times