"President Barack Obama declared a major disaster Tuesday in a Northern California wildfire that has destroyed at least 1,200 homes and killed at least three people."
"California’s historic drought is in its fourth year and gloom-and-doom scenarios of its impact on everything from killing the state’s vegetation and triggering bug infestation to destroying farming jobs have been trickling in daily."
"Clout can be defined in many ways. In California's parched Central Valley farmlands, it's the ability to secure water."
"California fire officials say at least 1,400 homes have been destroyed by two Northern California wildfires."
"California fishermen on Tuesday decried plans by U.S. fisheries managers to limit the number of endangered whales and turtles that can be inadvertently captured in drift gillnets used to catch swordfish in waters off San Diego and Los Angeles."
"The federal government has settled a decades-old lawsuit with the nation's largest irrigation district, which has agreed in a tentative deal to clean up contaminated water in California's fertile Central Valley."
"A third person was confirmed dead on Wednesday in the massive California wildfires that have destroyed more than 800 homes and forced the evacuation of 20,000 people, but crews appeared to turn a corner against the blazes as rain fell over the region."
"Federal investigators complained that secret meddling, arrogance and 'shady' conduct on the part of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. hindered their probe into the deadly San Bruno gas pipeline explosion, according to new court filings that shed light on prosecutors’ decision to seek a criminal obstruction-of-justice case against the company."
""It has been a record year for wildfires in California, and officials are warning that the end is not yet in sight."
"Researchers knew California’s drought was already a record breaker when they set out to find its exact place in history, but they were surprised by what they discovered: It has been 500 years since what is now the Golden State has been this dry."
