"California last week became the first state to integrate green building practices .... not everyone is thrilled about it."

"A $40 million federal stimulus project to drill up to 50 new wells in California moves forward despite drying aquifers and community complaints."

"California scientists have identified clusters of autism, largely in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas, where children are twice as likely to have autism as children in surrounding areas. The 10 clusters were found mostly among children with highly educated parents, leading researchers to report that they probably can be explained by better access to medical experts who diagnose the disorder."

A plan for the world's largest solar array in California promises clean energy -- but critics say green energy isn't always green.

"A county board in central California approved the expansion of the largest toxic-waste dump in the West, despite concerns about an increase in birth defects in a nearby farming town."

"The protected areas would encompass 1 million acres containing wildlife, extinct volcanoes, sand dunes and ancient petroglyphs. The senator says the bill could be enacted in late 2010."

"Two degrees may be too much. That's the message from a delegation of ocean science and policy experts from Monterey's Center for Ocean Solutions and Stanford University, who traveled to Copenhagen to relay the staggering burdens of greenhouse gas emissions on the sea."

"In some hardscrabble East Bay neighborhoods, people die of heart disease and cancer at three times the rates found just a few miles away in more well-to-do communities. Children living near busy freeways in Oakland are hospitalized for asthma at 12 times the rate of young people in Lafayette's wooded housing tracts."

"Efforts are under way to reverse the deterioration of a major water source, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in California, which is sinking."

"Recycling centers across California are closing, and scores of troubled youths are being tossed from 'green' jobs onto unemployment rolls in the wake of Sacramento's raid on bottle deposit funds."

"California officials on Tuesday issued the nation's first blueprint for a broad-based cap-and-trade plan, an innovative and controversial effort to use market forces to control global warming."

"In a 5-0 vote, The California Energy Commission today approved the country's first efficiency regulations for TVs of up to 58 inches. The new Appliance Efficiency Regulations will require new televisions sold in California to consume 33 percent less electricity by 2011 and 49 percent less electricity by 2013."

"The Catalina Island Conservancy has been rounding up the herd so females can get a reversible contraceptive vaccine. The goal: Control the size of the herd to keep it and the environment healthier."

"At an emotional meeting, a state panel imposes the landmark restrictions to help restore species, catches of which have dropped up to 95%. The plan was forged out of contentious negotiations."

Some Salinas Valley residents worry that the drift of pesticides sprayed on fields near schools may endanger children, despite some controls.