"SACRAMENTO -- Nearly five years after Peninsula cities first sued to block California's high-speed train from running along the Caltrain corridor, a judge has dismissed the case in a long-awaited victory for bullet train backers."

"SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California is poised to shatter an all-time weather record by notching the driest January-February period in recorded history across the northern Sierra Nevada."

"You're going to need a bigger fishbowl.

"Fresh off a wave of success in the California Capitol last year, animal welfare groups are taking aim at a new target this year: hunting with lead ammunition."

"In Carlsbad, the nation's largest desalination facility will require lots of energy — and money. It is expected to provide no more than a tenth of San Diego County ratepayers' overall water supply."

"SIMI VALLEY, Calif. -- NASA has agreed to an 'excessive and unnecessarily costly cleanup' of a former rocket test facility near Los Angeles that was the site of a partial nuclear meltdown in 1959, the space agency's watchdog said Thursday."

"A lab analysis released by federal investigators Wednesday confirmed suspicions that a Chevron firefighter's sharp, pole-mounted device punctured an already leaking oil pipe at the company's Richmond refinery before the line caught fire in August."

"FIREBAUGH, Calif. -- A $30 million water treatment plant rises slowly over this quiet prairie on the San Joaquin Valley's west side where nature has both blessed and cursed farmers."

"During the Gold Rush, the San Francisco Bay’s native oyster habitat was all but wiped out due to overharvesting and hydraulic mining washing sediment onto the bay floor. But a Richmond-based nonprofit has plans to restore the shellfish’s lost habitat along the Point Pinole shoreline."

"It's legal to catch the animals outside the national park. But critics say the trappers are after bobcats that often crisscross the invisible park boundaries."

"OAKLAND -- The pediatric inpatient unit was quiet, except for the deep, relentless coughing. It was the sound of asthma -- asthma out of control."

"GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- A federal report says removing four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River in Oregon and California and restoring ecosystems will produce a big increase in salmon harvests and boost farm revenues."

"A federal judge has ruled strongly in favor of a major energy firm that [San Diego] sued for roughly $250 million over its pollution cleanup efforts beneath 166-acre Qualcomm Stadium site."

California's Monterey Shale formation holds a vast reserve of oil -- on the verge of being tapped -- that could rain riches and controversy on the state.

"Chevron ignored potentially life-threatening dangers to workers at its Richmond refinery and should pay a record fine of nearly $1 million stemming from the fire there in August, state regulators said Wednesday."