The map and report on known greater sage grouse high-density breeding populations is a starting point that can be refined with the input of state fish and wildlife agencies. But you can use it right away as you cover various land use and environmental issues.
"California regulators approved a pesticide Wednesday for use by fruit and vegetable growers despite heavy opposition from environmental and farmworker groups that cited its links to cancer."
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday levied a $300,000 fine against a toxic waste dump near a Central California farming community plagued by birth defects for failing to properly manage carcinogenic polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs."
In California, recyclers are sending the discarded electronic devices they can not profitably reclaim toxic materials from to foreign countries -- where workers pick them apart by hand and are exposed to harmful substances.
"LOS ANGELES — This auto-obsessed city — a place where people love their cars almost as much as they hate the traffic — has embarked on the biggest expansion of its mass transit system in decades, an effort to change the way people navigate its sprawling and clogged streets and freeways."
"State health investigators have ruled out a toxic waste dump as the cause of severe birth defects including heart problems and facial deformities in the impoverished Central California farming community of Kettleman City, according to a draft report released Monday."
"High levels of perchlorate were found in the Mojave Desert city's water supply. Residents have been flocking to grocery stores to buy water, and the school district is prepared to provide students with bottled water when classes resume Monday."
"In the aftermath of a deadly gas explosion in San Bruno this year, a Sacramento school district is considering the unthinkable: Closing a school in the middle of the school year and transferring all its students to another campus or campuses."
Center for Health Reporting editor-in-chief David Westphal writes about the impact of the Center's four-day series “Burning Issue: Gasping for Breath,” which examined the scientific links between woodstove/fireplace smoke and asthma, chronic lung disease and heart problems and highlighted the state's failure to regulate wood smoke pollution.
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