Health and Homelessness reporter

Grant Stringer

Grant Stringer covers health, the business of health care, and homelessness for Bay Area News Group. A native of Oregon, he has freelanced for the Washington Post, the Oregonian and Inside Climate News. Stringer also was a staff reporter at The Sentinel in Aurora, Colorado, and a licensed private investigator. Coincidentally, "stringer" is newsroom slang for a freelance journalist. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado with a BA in political science.

Medical workers and their supporters walk a picket line outside of the Kaiser Oakland Medical Center on Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, in Oakland, Calif. Thousands of striking workers, who are represented by United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, are expected to strike indefinitely amid stalled labor negotiations. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)

Kaiser workers strike again in Bay Area, with no end in sight

January 27, 2026 at 11:52 a.m.

Kaiser health professionals took to picket lines again Monday for an open-ended strike.

Declawing cats is not a matter of just removing the nail. Instead, the last
joint on each toes is surgery removed, preventing the claw from growing
back and, some say, cause unnecessary pain, lifetime suffering and
behavioral issues.
(Getty Images)

Cats, guns and ICE: 7 new California laws in 2026

December 29, 2025 at 1:01 p.m.

Gavin Newsom and California Democrats passed a slew of new laws that go into effect in 2026.

A TSA agent gestures to the next traveler at a checkpoint screening station at the Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport in Oakland, Calif., as the busy holiday travel season begins on Friday, Nov. 19, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

Oakland Airport now offering ‘visitor passes’ through security

December 20, 2025 at 1:28 p.m.

Say hello, or goodbye, at an Oakland airport gate this holiday season.

Emma Kleck, of Santa Cruz, hugs her Diabetes alert dog Samantha, while at her home in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Friday, Dec.12, 2025. Kleck has type I diabetes since 2001. California is getting into the insulin business. In January, the state will begin selling a long-acting insulin for diabetes patients at $55 for roughly a month’s supply. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

‘California’ brand insulin is hitting the market

December 14, 2025 at 9:25 a.m.

California is making big moves to pull down the price of insulin.

Kathy Ford, 77, a lupus patient who has lived with the condition for more than 30 years, pauses from her home in Dixon, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

Stanford researchers link lupus to common virus in ‘breakthrough’ study

November 18, 2025 at 7:10 a.m.

More than a million Americans suffer with lupus. Researchers think they've finally found the cause.

Printed materials in support of Proposition 50 wait to be viewed and distributed by volunteers at Bushrod Park in Oakland, CA on Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025. The only statewide measure on the ballot, Prop 50 moves five congressional seats to favor Democrats in response to Texas Republicans doing the same in their state to keep control of the House. (Don Feria for Bay Area News Group)

Ballots pouring in for Nov. 4 special election

November 2, 2025 at 12:16 p.m.

About a quarter of the Bay's registered voters have cast their ballot so far.

Hoorain Habibi, 4, poses for a photograph with her mom Zulhija Khan at their home in Soledad, Calif., on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)

A Salinas Valley woman’s 3-year vigil to free husband from Afghanistan

September 20, 2025 at 12:54 p.m.

The Taliban arrested Zulhija Khan's husband, a U.S. citizen, after a CIA drone strike on al-Qaida's chief in 2022. Negotiations to free him are heating up.

Volunteers bag apples at the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano warehouse on Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023, in Concord, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)

California tied with Louisiana for highest U.S. poverty rate, think tank reports

September 14, 2025 at 1:10 p.m.

Poverty in California is still deeper than before the pandemic as inequality worsens.

A nurse loads a syringe with a COVID-19 booster vaccine at an inoculation station in Jackson, Mississippi, in 2022. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

California sees COVID-19 wave and ‘tremendous confusion’ about vaccines

September 8, 2025 at 12:21 p.m.

Pharmacies are offering the updated COVID-19 vaccine. Some will need a prescription -- and could pay out of pocket.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, seen here at the attorney general’s downtown Los Angeles office on March 11, 2025, has led the state’s efforts in court opposing actions by the Trump administration. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

California has sued this Trump administration way more than the last one. Here’s where cases stand

July 20, 2025 at 9:33 a.m.

Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, has relentlessly taken the Trump administration to court on behalf of California.

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