Nearly 78% of surveyed almond farmers said they expected “a negative impact on tree health or harvest quantity/quality in 2014 due to the application of high saline groundwater.” Even as farmers overburden groundwater sources, they face heavy competition for surface water. For instance, they share water from the Klamath River up north with local tribes that rely on salmon runs for their livelihood.   read more

Stakeholders in California’s cap-and-trade program, which compels local companies that pollute the air to invest in enterprises worldwide that reduce pollution, expressed distress and fretted about the future of the innovative marketplace after state officials voided some carbon offset credits for the first time. At issue was an Arkansas facility that incinerated chlorofluorocarbons, which ran afoul of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),   read more

The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) traced the sad history of the fumigants—and their champions in government and the chemical industry—that transformed the succulent fruit into a $2.6-billion-a-year business in just a few years and put more than 100 California communities at risk.   read more

Ken Buesseler, an oceanographer and project organizer at Woods Hole, said the levels detected were so low, a person swimming in the water there for six hours would encounter radiation equivalent to having a dental x-ray. Put another way, the contamination level is 1,000 times lower than acceptable drinking water standards. But it’s not nothing and could become more concentrated over time.   read more

Los Angeles has 5,000 registered garment manufacturers and 50,000 to 60,000 cutting and sewing operators. In the past year, 221 investigations found that 1,549 garment workers were stiffed an average $1,900 each (more than a month’s pay) by their employers. That’s $3 million and only includes those workers who managed to get the attention of government investigators.   read more

Users would legally purchase bitcoins and transfer them to their Silk 2.0 accounts. They could make purchases from numerous vendors anonymously through the Tor network, while paying a commission to the site operator. An FBI agent noted drugs, fake Danish passports for sale, fake New Jersey driver’s licenses, website hacking services and e-mail hacking.   read more

As expected, California galloped off in the opposite direction from the rest of the country Tuesday night, electing Democrats to run government, voting for a less muscular approach to crime and supporting funds for rebuilding public infrastructure. Jerry Brown won his fourth term as governor and Democrats were leading all eight statewide races late into the night.   read more

At issue are so-called off-site signs, ones that advertise a product not available on-site. Courts in the past have upheld Los Angeles laws that treat a sign on McDonald’s differently than a sign advertising a McDonald’s 10 miles away. Judge Lavin said there was no difference: the advertiser is expressing his free speech right in both cases. His decision openly contradicted a decision in 2011 by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which he was neither “required nor inclined to follow.”   read more

Private information of nearly half the state’s residents was exposed in 2013, a six-fold increase over the previous year, according to the state’s 2014 California Data Breach Report. That hyperventilating-worthy 18.5 million-person figure was distorted by two massive breaches. But the 167 breaches by state agencies and companies in 2013 were 28% more than the previous year.   read more

The report found that active rigs along the coast were the best fisheries of any marine habitat studied (in scientific lingo) by an order of magnitude. That would be 10 times better than the next best competitor. The scientists attributed the popularity of the rigs to their verticality. Rockfish, for instance, tend to seek greater depths as they age, and oil and gas rigs offered the prospect of never having to move to a new locale.   read more

Georgia-based Aaron’s Furniture, with around 75 outlets in California, agreed to put up $25 million as reimbursement for an estimated 100,000 customers. The company will also pay the state $3.4 million in civil penalties and fees. The program logged keystrokes, captured screen shots and used a computer’s camera to take photographs. The information included passwords, medical records, Social Security numbers, financial information and pictures of the family in their most private moments.   read more

Online conservative websites lit up with complaints. “The damage this tyrant is causing America is incalculable,” one typical critic wrote. Presidents have named 110 national monuments, although not all of them retain the designation to this day. Republican President Teddy Roosevelt was the first in 1906. Sixteen presidents have gotten in on the action. Only Presidents Nixon, Reagan and George H.W. Bush have not.   read more

One out of every five K-12 students nationally who experienced homelessness in the 2012-2013 school year lived in California, according to a study by the California Homeless Youth Project. Those 270,000 students represent a 22.3% increase from just two years before. The 4% rate of homeless public school students in California is twice the national average and growing.   read more

U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller, in Sacramento, dismissed the case after ruling that the attorneys general for the states—Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Alabama, Kentucky and Iowa—had no standing because they represented the interests of egg farmers, rather than the people of the states. Mueller conceded that some of the producers could take a financial hit, but consumers in general might actually see a decrease in their prices.   read more

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) went operational with its Next Generation Identification System (NGI) earlier in the month, clearing the way for state and local authorities to hook up their growing databases of biometric information about residents—iris scans, photos for facial recognition, voice recordings, DNA profiles, fingerprints, etc—with the FBI, creating an awesome repository of data that will include people who have not been convicted of anything.   read more

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) waived its 2007 ban on commercial use of drones Thursday to allow six filmmaking companies to send cameras airborne on vehicles that have not been certified for flight. Secretary of Transportation Anthony R. Foxx made it clear it won’t be the last waiver granted.   read more