"Four workers suffered minor injuries after a large explosion Wednesday morning at the Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance [Calif.], according to an Exxon spokesman."

"For the past five weeks, volunteers have been desperately trying to nurse back to health more than a hundred sea lions found stranded along the state's beaches in a mystery that's threatening one of California's most lovable sea creatures."

"Apple has committed nearly $850 million to help build a solar energy farm in Monterey County that will generate power for its California facilities, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced Tuesday."

"California has proposed closing by October up to 140 oilfield wells that state regulators had allowed to inject into federally protected drinking water aquifers, state officials said Monday."

"Regulators in California, the country's third-largest oil-producing state, have authorized oil companies to inject production fluids and waste into what are now federally protected aquifers more than 2,500 times, risking contamination of underground water supplies that could be used for drinking water or irrigation, state records show."

"WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will help Fresno, Calif., plan a bike-share system to improve air quality and offer an inexpensive method of transportation as part of the Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities program."

"LOS ANGELES -- California has experienced one of the driest Januarys on record, and the lack of rain during a time of year when the weather is usually wet indicates the state is likely headed for a fourth straight year of drought, officials said."

"State workers performed a California winter ritual Thursday, poking hollow aluminum tubes into Sierra Nevada meadows to measure the snowpack. In what scientists see as a harbinger, they didn't find much."

"POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE, Calif. — The once-bustling oyster farm and sales shack at the end of the dirt road had the look of sudden abandonment."