California

"It came as a bittersweet surprise to biologists and government agencies monitoring the steadily shrinking Salton Sea’s slide toward death by choking dust storms and salt."

"PG&E has reached a $13.5 billion deal to settle claims stemming from recent catastrophic fires blamed on its equipment, marking a key milestone in the utility's plan to exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy."

"Despite alarms raised by EPA's watchdog office and legal staff, Chief of Staff Ryan Jackson switched a top political appointee's workplace from San Francisco to Los Angeles, moving him closer to home."

"A federal judge in Los Angeles refused to stop California from enforcing a voter-approved measure requiring farmers to provide more space for animals being raised for food.

U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder ruled on Friday that the North American Meat Institute, whose members include processors such as Tyson Foods and retailers including Walmart, did not deserve a preliminary injunction against enforcing the measure known as Proposition 12.

"Two months after two men were arrested at an illicit marijuana farm on public land deep in the Northern California wilderness, authorities are assessing the environmental impact and cleanup costs at the site where trees were clear-cut, waterways were diverted, and the ground was littered with open containers of fertilizer and rodenticide."

"Countries have called California’s cap-and-trade program the answer to climate change. But it is just as vulnerable to lobbying as any other legislation. The result: The state’s biggest oil and gas companies have actually polluted more since it started."

"Hunched over a tank inside the Bodega Marine Laboratory, alongside bubbling vats of seaweed and greenhouses filled with algae, Kristin Aquilino coaxed a baby white abalone onto her hand."

"Twenty-two mayors, as well as other city leaders, from across Northern California are behind a bold proposal to turn the region’s troubled Pacific Gas & Electric into a publicly owned cooperative."

"The fires that have ignited in California, leading to mass evacuations and seemingly otherworldly scenes, may have gotten their start from a surprising source."