California

"San Francisco Bay and the delta are dying. Salmon runs are collapsing. Droughts are getting worse. And big agriculture still wants more water."

"The Station blaze [near L.A.] has destroyed more than 50 buildings and burned more than 105,000 acres of mountainous brush. Little hope of containment is seen as long as hot, dry conditions continue."

"The giant fire in Angeles National Forest continued its slow-motion rampage through the mountains Sunday, causing the deaths of two firefighters as it bore down on the semirural community of Acton and threatened to overrun Mt. Wilson."

"Northrop Grumman Corp on Thursday reached a settlement with U.S. environmental regulators that requires the aerospace giant to spend about $21 million to clean up groundwater pollution dating from World War II manufacturing through the 1980s."

"Bouts of extreme muggy heat lasting for days, once rare in California, are becoming more frequent and intense due to ocean patterns altered by climate change, scientists said in a study released on Tuesday."

"Fire crews were battling to save hundreds of homes that were threatened by two wildfires burning in dry, explosive brush near La Cañada Flintridge and on the Palos Verdes Peninsula."

The recent Los Padres fire exemplifies a growing trend: Mexican drug cartels setting up shop in California wilderness and parkland.

"In a long-awaited move designed to protect people from cancer, California officials on Thursday proposed a new health goal for chromium 6 in drinking water that is thousands of times lower than the amount contaminating some water supplies."

Lake Tahoe is being invaded by an exotic Asian clam that some fear could litter beaches with sharp shells and turn some sections of the lake a murky green.

Firefighters have largely contained many of the major fires that forced thousands of residents in various parts of California to flee their homes. Some are already returning.