Gloria Hillard

Dr. Kwane Stewart is known as the "Street Vet." He makes rounds in Los Angeles' Skid Row and provides free care to homeless people's beloved pets.

One of Hawaii's most threatened seabirds, the Newell's shearwater, makes its home on the island of Kauai. Conservationists there are fighting to keep the iconic bird from disappearing.

Not all women in the commercial sex industry have been victims of sex trafficking. But that's where many victims of trafficking end up. One woman who got out has begun a program to help others.

The city's most recent homeless count showed that the veteran homeless population had declined 18 percent. But some advocates caution that veteran homelessness is an ever-changing dynamic.

One 51-year-old woman has been living on the streets for two years. "I've been raped, I've been stabbed, it's been hard out here for me," she says.

Pet stores in California will only be able to sell dogs, cats, and rabbits rescued from shelters — but that doesn't mean the so-called "puppy mills" are going away.

In the past, women seeking help from the American Widow Project were young women whose husbands had been killed in combat. Today, their husbands are dying on U.S. soil.

In the city of Santa Barbara, north of Los Angeles, the demand for senior housing is so great the wait list is now closed. For many of those seniors, their only safe living option is in their cars.

There are now 47,000 homeless people in and around Los Angeles. The number of homeless women living on the streets has increased dramatically, and many are at risk of violence and sexual assault.

In Southern California, a section of the high speed train linking San Francisco to Los Angeles would have to navigate through mountains, fault zones and what may be even more daunting: cowboy country.