Members of a California family say they saved an elderly woman from losing her life savings of $10,000 she had hidden in a box of crackers. The Rogoff family of Irvine found the $10,000 in a box of Annie's Sour Cream and Onion Cheddar Bunny crackers. The Rogoffs never heard from the woman and didn't receive a reward, but Rogoff did return to Whole Foods a couple weeks later. More here: » www.breitbart.com/article.php?id···catnum=9comments?
Federal inspectors said Monday they will ratchet up scrutiny of the San Onofre nuclear power plant after discovering that a battery meant to power safety systems had been inoperative for four years. Plant personnel discovered in March that bolts connecting an emergency battery to a circuit breaker were loose, a problem the Nuclear Regulatory Commission attributed to poor maintenance. More here: Los Angeles Timescomments?
Early last year, Laguna Beach city officials set about addressing homelessness in the upscale enclave. They assembled a task force to study the issue, installed parking meters to collect change for social services and assigned a police officer as a liaison for the community's homeless. But on Tuesday, homeless advocates filed suit against the city, saying its real intent was to engage in a campaign of harassment while providing no long-term, city-sponsored shelters. More here: Los Angeles Timescomments?
Federal wildlife officials on Monday released new restrictions on pumping water from Northern California, further tightening the spigot on flows to Southern California cities and San Joaquin Valley farms. The curbs, intended to keep the tiny delta smelt from extinction and stem the ecological collapse of California's water crossroads, could in some years cut state water deliveries by half. More here: Los Angeles Timescomments?
Home foreclosures continued to drag home prices to new lows in November, as the Southern California median sales price slid to $285,000, its first dip below $300,000 since 2003. Falling prices have made homes affordable. A National Association of Home Builders quarterly index showed that at the end of September, about one-fifth of Los Angeles area residents could afford the median-priced home. During the height of the real estate boom in 2005 and 2006, only about 2 percent of Los Angeles area residents could afford a median priced home, the index showed. More here: Mercury News2 comments
California regulators adopted the nation's first comprehensive plan to slash greenhouse gases Thursday and characterized it as a model for President-elect Barack Obama, who has pledged an aggressive national and international effort to combat global warming. The ambitious blueprint by the world's eighth-largest economy would cut the state's emissions by 15% from today's level over the next 12 years, bringing them down to 1990 levels. More here: Los Angeles Timescomments?
Rumbling down California roads is a workhorse fleet of a million diesel trucks and buses. It's a mainstay industry that hauls produce from Central Valley farms, machinery to coastal ports and commuters to work.  story continues..comments?
Californians are now paying lower average gas prices than residents of 12 other states, including much of the Northeast as well as Nevada, Washington and Oregon," said Auto Club spokesperson Jeffrey Spring. "It's an unusual situation for this state to have prices within a dime of the national average, but it is a welcome bit of relief for Californians who have been particularly hard hit by the economic downturn. More here: » www.mydesert.com/article/2008120···6/news01comments?
Cleanup crews in the Santa Barbara Channel on Monday mopped up an oil slick a mile-and-a-half long and 200 feet wide -- a comparatively small leak from the same drilling platform where a 1969 oil disaster triggered the modern environmental movement. By day's end, most of the 1,134 gallons that escaped from Platform A had been skimmed off the sea's surface into tanks on waiting boats, said Carol Singleton, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Fish and Game's Office of Spill Prevention and Response. More here: Los Angeles Timescomments?
The integration of Southern California's suburban communities continued apace into the second half of the decade, driven by steadily growing numbers of Latinos and Asians moving into middle-class neighborhoods, according to detailed census data released Monday. More here: Los Angeles Timescomments?
An F-18 military jet approaching a Marine base crashed near a busy highway in a densely populated San Diego neighborhood Monday, sparking at least one house fire. More here: » news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081208/ap_···_crash_6comments?
Concerned that the island fox declines would lead to the extinction of the 3 island fox subspecies in the park, the National Park Service convened an Island Fox Recovery Team in April of 1999. This panel of experts identified golden eagle predation, parasites, and disease as serious threats to the fox's existence. The captive-bred programs on neighboring Santa Cruz Island to the southeast and San Miguel Island to the west were shut down in 2007, their wild populations rebounding rapidly from near extinction. Their recovery appears to be one of the swiftest recoveries of an endangered species in the history of the Endangered Species Act. More here: Ventura County Reportercomments?
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled an ambitious long-range plan Monday for securing enough solar power to meet one-tenth of the city's energy needs by 2020, a move aimed at making L.A. a hub of the solar-energy industry. More here: Los Angeles Timescomments?
SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proclaimed a state of emergency in Santa Barbara County, where a wildfire has destroyed more than 100 homes. The governor's declaration Friday dedicates state personnel and equipment to the firefighting effort in the celebrity enclave of Montecito and the town of Santa Barbara. More here: » news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081114/ap_···fires_33comments?
The church largely stays out of politics. But in this case, the Salt Lake City-based church has sent letters, held video conferences and in church meetings asked for volunteers to support the campaign. story continues..3 comments
This year's record-shredding spike in gasoline prices has finally ended, with prices throughout the country falling by more than a penny per day.
And American drivers can thank themselves for the drop. story continues..comments?
Shai Agassi, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, pledges that he can beat the spiraling cost of gasoline with the world's first mass-produced electric car. In January, Israel's government endorsed the Palo Alto businessman's ambitious joint venture between his startup company - Project Better Place - and Renault-Nissan. Agassi is banking on his electric-powered sedan revolutionizing life on the roads, cleaning up the environment and reducing dependence on oil. The cars are expected to have a range of up to 140 miles per charge and a top speed of 68 mph - the speed limit in Israel. » www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c···F1P.DTLcomments?
Federal prosecutors Monday charged 19 individuals, mainly from Southern California, with defrauding homeowners in trouble partly by using "foreclosure rescue pitches" and an equity-draining technique called equity stripping. Two indictments made public Monday accused Charles Head, 33, of La Habra; his brother, Jeremy Michael Head, 30, of Huntington Beach; and others of taking part in a nationwide mortgage scam that stole $12.6 million and fraudulently obtained the titles to more than 100 homes. More here: Los Angeles Timescomments?
California's nonpartisan fiscal watchdog on Wednesday said the state's budget shortfall has grown to $16 billion and offered an unprecedented and competing plan to close the gap by imposing both spending cuts and tax increases. Hill criticized the across-the-board budget cuts to most state agencies that Schwarzenegger proposed. Instead, she called for targeting and eliminating nonessential state services and raising tax revenue by cutting personal and corporate tax credits for families, businesses and motorists. More here: San Diego Union Tribunecomments?
Governator's green California dream( old news - 02:43PM Tuesday Feb 19 2008) By 2006, California was already employing 22,000 people in clean technology and had claimed more patents than any other state in the field. And the sector is growing fast. Last year, by some estimates, venture capital into "clean technology" in California doubled to nearly US$1.8 billion ($2.26 billion). Many, including Schwarzenegger, believe clean tech will prove the next big driver of California's economy. More here: New Zealand Heraldcomments?
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