"THERMAL – At one end of Avenue 54, a road slicing through some of the most fertile land in the United States, resides the California of the popular imagination: a place of Bermuda shorts, putting greens and picture-window champagne dinners overlooking the infinity pool.

"California approved one of the broadest and most controversial components of its landmark climate change law, pushing the state toward a low-carbon economy that relies less on imported foreign oil.

The California Air Resources Board on Thursday voted to adopt final rules that will regulate carbon emissions across a broad cross section of the state's economy, including oil and gas producers, utilities and transportation companies, farmers and the building industry.

"In a victory for environmentalists, a flame retardant common in furniture and baby products was officially listed yesterday by the state as a cancer-causing chemical."

"SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Governor Jerry Brown [Friday] signed legislation to ban the possession and sale of shark fins in California, saying shark finning for culinary purposes has led to substantial declines in shark populations worldwide."

"The National Park Service has released a draft assessment of a California oyster farm's impact on a wilderness area, concluding that the farm's continued operations would harm harbor seals."

"San Francisco -- The shipping companies responsible for the 2007 Cosco Busan oil spill, which polluted San Francisco Bay and killed thousands of birds and fish, have agreed to pay $44.4 million to restore habitat and reimburse the agencies that responded to the disaster, state and federal officials announced Monday."

"As rising sea levels eat away at the California coastline over the next century, the advancing ocean could cause hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to beach communities as tourism and tax revenue is swept away, according to a state-commissioned study released Tuesday."

"California’s former top pesticide regulatory official dismissed safety guidelines suggested by her own staff scientists on the grounds that they were 'excessive' and too onerous for the pesticide manufacturer, recently released internal documents show."

"More than 40 employees at a Woodland cannery were taken to Sacramento area hospitals and more than 800 people were evacuated shortly after noon Sunday when a chemical used in tomato processing leaked into a work area, authorities said."

Groundwater pollution from hexavalent chromium from Pacific Gas & Electric led to the "a $333-million-dollar, class-action settlement in 1996 -- one of the largest of all time -- and inspired the 2000 blockbuster movie bearing [Erin] Brockovich's name." Despite the settlement, PG&E has "done little to contain the plume of hexavalent chromium, which U.S. EPA deemed a likely carcinogen in a draft assessment last year."

"It is the nation's first public health goal for hexavalent chromium, made infamous in 'Erin Brockovich.' The goal isn't an enforceable standard but will help develop one, an official says."

'The cap-and-trade program, which would force industries to cut greenhouse gases by the end of the decade, continues to be challenged in court.'

"Odors are part of life in Mecca, a small farming community in the Southern California desert 140 miles east of Los Angeles."

"After the Navy complained that cargo ships were traveling through its testing area to avoid pollution regulations closer to shore, the California Air Resources Board votes to extend the clean-fuel zone."

"THERMAL, Calif. — Community activists in Southern California's Coachella Valley have been toiling for years along the eastern rim of this crescent-shaped breadbasket to spread the word about the abandoned waste dumps, shoddy migrant housing and overburdened recycling facilities that are a fact of life in this poor, farmworker community."