California

"Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's decision last week to close down Drakes Bay Oyster Co. was years in the making, costing his agency millions of dollars in research and potentially damaging the reputation of the National Park Service."

"About two months after the state's environmental agency ordered a major pet products retailer to immediately cease selling unregistered pesticide products, many of those products remain on the retailer's shelves and website."

"During the fall campaign, California's attention was focused on the presidential race and Gov. Jerry Brown's tax measure. But in a historic, largely overlooked environmental shift, the state's voters also triggered a multibillion-dollar tidal wave of new green spending."

"After more than a decade of deliberations, the San Diego County Water Authority voted Thursday to buy desalinated water from a $984 million project planned in Carlsbad. Officials hailed it as a historic step on the path to water self-sufficiency for the region."

"HAPPY CAMP, Calif. -- Weather officials are issuing flood warnings for much of Northern California as the second in a series of wet storms hits the state."

"Ken Salazar, the secretary of the interior, announced on Thursday that he would not extend the lease of an oyster farm in the Point Reyes National Seashore in Northern California, allowing the estuary there to become a wilderness area."

"A series of drenching, powerful storms is lining up from the Pacific Ocean and will roll onshore in the West Coast through the weekend."

"The Obama administration [Wednesday] released a final rule setting aside 9.6 million acres of critical habitat for the federally threatened northern spotted owl, a species whose population continues to slide despite decades of conservation efforts."