California

"California Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed helping utilities create a fund of up to $21 billion to compensate future victims of wildfires sparked by the companies’ equipment or employees, an aide said on Friday."

"California utility giant Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has agreed to pay $1 billion to 14 local governments throughout the state for the wildfire damage caused by its equipment and practices."

"The potentially deadly disease is caused by a soil-borne fungus made worse by rising rates of dust storms. In California’s Central Valley, farmworkers are bearing the brunt of the problem."

"A huge blob that appeared on the National Weather Service’s radar wasn’t a rain cloud, but a massive swarm of ladybugs over Southern California."

"Los Angeles County sued Monsanto Co on Thursday, seeking to force the unit of Germany’s Bayer AG to help pay for reducing PCB contamination in dozens of bodies of water."

"A half-million-acre national wildlife refuge would be established in California's Riverside County under a new bill introduced with bipartisan support."

"When Karen Cakebread was forced to evacuate her home in Calistoga, Calif., during the Tubbs fire in 2017 — and when she lost power at the winery she owns — she realized the danger frequent wildfires could pose to the electricity that powers her daily life."