"In the pesticide-laden Salinas Valley, the new year brings a new requirement for schools and licensed child care centers."

"An effort to kill California's first-in-the-nation state ban on single-use plastic grocery bags advanced this week after bag makers spent several million dollars on a campaign to gather signatures for a proposed ballot initiative to overturn it."

"Loggers cutting down forests burned in wildfires could bring about the extinction of California spotted owls, wildlife advocates said Tuesday as they sought protection for the birds under the federal Endangered Species Act."

"LOS GATOS, Calif. — Three punishing years of drought have parched California streams, rivers and wetlands. One animal has the potential to restore these dry landscapes."

"Federal officials acted properly when they curtailed water extraction from California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect fish and orca species at the expense of farmers and other water users in central California, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Monday."

"The tropical weather system that trended on Twitter here as #hellastorm packed a punch Thursday. Winds conspired with drought-weakened roots to send trees toppling. Freeways and other roadways flooded. Schools shuttered. And more than 230 flights at San Francisco International Airport were delayed, while a restaurant workers’ strike left stranded travelers hungry and cranky."

"BERKELEY -- Oil trains that could roll through some Bay Area cities on their way to a Central Coast refinery will not carry volatile Bakken crude, but another type that comes with equally dire threats to the environment and public safety, environmentalists warn."

"California Republicans are going to have the chance to show their constituents that sending more water to the state's parched farmers and residents remains a priority for them, even after bicameral negotiations fell through last month."

"A third-straight day of rains awaited California on Thursday, and the thirsty state will take it."

"California's three-year drought threatens to wipe out the last of the Muir Woods coho salmon that make their way each year from the Pacific Ocean to spawn in a freshwater creek running through the redwoods near San Francisco, state officials said on Monday."