California

"Green energy offers the prospect of an economic boon, but some worry the environmental, cultural cost is too high."

"A little-spoken-of war is taking place behind California's fences and property lines – trespassing marijuana growers are setting booby traps, resorting to violence and vandalism, and spoiling the land by stealing water and spraying dangerous chemicals that leach into streams."

"It's gold vs. golden trout. And gold vs. coho salmon. And gold vs. Shasta crayfish. The California Department of Fish and Game is wrestling – under court order – with a new set of rules to control suction dredge mining in the state's rivers and streams."

"Tackle shops are restocking custom lures, guides are booking trips, and anglers are getting ready: Salmon are coming back to the Sacramento Valley."

"Mexican American school children in California are contaminated with seven times more flame retardants than children in Mexico and three times more than their own mothers, according to a new study. The 7-year-olds in the Salinas Valley had more of the chemicals in their bodies than almost all other people tested worldwide."

"Over the years, rat poison has spared [California] residents untold filth and disease. But a new generation of highly toxic, long-lasting poisons is killing not only rats, mice and ground squirrels, but whatever feeds on them, too."

"Japan's unfolding reactor crisis is fueling a battle over nuclear power across the Pacific, in earthquake-prone California."

"In a setback that could stall the rollout of California's landmark climate change law, a court in San Francisco has ruled that the state must spend more time studying alternatives to the measure's key feature -- a cap-and-trade program on greenhouse gas emissions -- before it goes into effect Jan. 1."