NewsBank is actually a collection of databases. Each NewsBank database features a set of newspapers with different themes and coverage: NewsBank-Major Metro Newspapers, NewsBank-Acceda Noticias (newspapers in Spanish), NewsBank-Special Reports, and so forth. For this class, we'll be using NewsBank-Access News World. Here's the link:
NewsBank-Access World News
You can also access NewsBank-Access World News by going to the "Databases" link in the library's home page, clicking "N" in the alphabet at the top of the page, and scrolling to NewsBank-Access World in the list of databases with titles beginning with N.
USING NEWSBANK-ACCESS WORLD NEWS TO FIND ARTICLES ABOUT STATE/LOCAL ISSUES
From the main NewsBank-AWN page, scroll down a bit. Look for the blue box marked "USA-California" and click.
From here, you can search by keywords in the headline or text of the article, or by source (the title of the newspaper you want to search), or other options.