Wildfires tore across California’s record-hot hills and valleys Sunday, with blazes in both Santa Barbara County and Butte County destroying homes and forcing hundreds to flee.High temperatures, often in the triple digits, fanned at least 14 large fires, propelling about 5,000 firefighters into action statewide and confirming the start of a late but potentially dangerous fire season.“When it’s hot like this, things seem to start up,” said Lynnette Round, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “And because we had so much rain this year, it’s made the...…Wildfires tore across California’s record-hot hills and valleys Sunday, with blazes in both Santa Barbara County and Butte County destroying homes and forcing hundreds to flee.High temperatures, often in the triple digits, fanned at least 14 large fires, propelling about 5,000 firefighters into action statewide and confirming the start of a late but potentially dangerous fire season.“When it’s hot like this, things seem to start up,” said Lynnette Round, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “And because we had so much rain this year, it’s made the...WW…

After five months with only fog and wind rustling through the nation’s most famous penitentiary, Alcatraz Island will reopen to visitors Monday.The island’s reopening, which comes as state and local coronavirus restrictions begin to ease, marks one of the last national park sites to welcome back the public since the pandemic began. It also offers a bit of hope for San Francisco’s badly shaken tourist economy.The prison that once held Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly is now an international destination. It has historically drawn close to 6,000 people a day to the ferry docks, helping drive...…After five months with only fog and wind rustling through the nation’s most famous penitentiary, Alcatraz Island will reopen to visitors Monday.The island’s reopening, which comes as state and local coronavirus restrictions begin to ease, marks one of the last national park sites to welcome back the public since the pandemic began. It also offers a bit of hope for San Francisco’s badly shaken tourist economy.The prison that once held Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly is now an international destination. It has historically drawn close to 6,000 people a day to the ferry docks, helping drive...WW…

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateCalifornia rolled out its vision for high-speed trains between San Jose and San Francisco on Thursday, plotting a 30-or-so-minute ride on what would be one of the busiest stretches of the state’s proposed 520-mile rail system — even as the project is mired in financial uncertainty.The California High Speed Rail Authority is calling for 220-mph trains from the Central Valley to merge onto the Caltrain commuter line for a 49-mile jaunt up the Peninsula. Stops would be made at San Jose’s Diridon Station, Millbrae’s transit hub and...…This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateCalifornia rolled out its vision for high-speed trains between San Jose and San Francisco on Thursday, plotting a 30-or-so-minute ride on what would be one of the busiest stretches of the state’s proposed 520-mile rail system — even as the project is mired in financial uncertainty.The California High Speed Rail Authority is calling for 220-mph trains from the Central Valley to merge onto the Caltrain commuter line for a 49-mile jaunt up the Peninsula. Stops would be made at San Jose’s Diridon Station, Millbrae’s transit hub and...WW…

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateLike a lot of the rural West, Yosemite National Park stood as a safe haven from the coronavirus. No park employees or residents tested positive. No visitors reported being sick. The fresh air and open space seemed immune.That’s until local health officials started looking for the coronavirus in the park’s raw sewage — that’s right, the poop. This week, lab analysis of feces at two wastewater treatment plants serving Yosemite revealed the presence of the virus that causes COVID-19. Dozens of people in Yosemite Valley are believed...…This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateLike a lot of the rural West, Yosemite National Park stood as a safe haven from the coronavirus. No park employees or residents tested positive. No visitors reported being sick. The fresh air and open space seemed immune.That’s until local health officials started looking for the coronavirus in the park’s raw sewage — that’s right, the poop. This week, lab analysis of feces at two wastewater treatment plants serving Yosemite revealed the presence of the virus that causes COVID-19. Dozens of people in Yosemite Valley are believed...WW…

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateCalifornia’s crushing five-year drought came to a welcome end after record rain three winters ago. Or did it?Although forests are greener, reservoirs are fuller and widespread water restrictions are gone, many believe the past few years, in which there was pretty decent rainfall, were just a blip on a troubling long-term skid into drier times.A group of scientists now says that the American West, including California, has been in the midst of a prolonged drought since the beginning of the century — one on par with only four...…This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateCalifornia’s crushing five-year drought came to a welcome end after record rain three winters ago. Or did it?Although forests are greener, reservoirs are fuller and widespread water restrictions are gone, many believe the past few years, in which there was pretty decent rainfall, were just a blip on a troubling long-term skid into drier times.A group of scientists now says that the American West, including California, has been in the midst of a prolonged drought since the beginning of the century — one on par with only four...WW…

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateState and federal water officials have delivered their most dire warning yet of California’s deepening drought, announcing that water supply shortages are imminent and calling for quick conservation.Among a handful of drastic actions this week, the powerful State Water Board on Monday began sending notices to California’s 40,000 water users, from small farms to big cities like San Francisco, telling them to brace for cuts. It’s a preliminary step before the possibility of ordering their water draws to stop entirely.The move is the...…This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateState and federal water officials have delivered their most dire warning yet of California’s deepening drought, announcing that water supply shortages are imminent and calling for quick conservation.Among a handful of drastic actions this week, the powerful State Water Board on Monday began sending notices to California’s 40,000 water users, from small farms to big cities like San Francisco, telling them to brace for cuts. It’s a preliminary step before the possibility of ordering their water draws to stop entirely.The move is the...WW…

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateThe California Attorney General’s Office joined two lawsuits against San Diego County on Wednesday, alleging leaders there are moving forward with a pair of giant housing projects that will pose extraordinary fire danger to residents.The suits, which target two separate expansions of the Otay Ranch Resort Village in the dry scrublands outside of Chula Vista, are the latest show of force in the state’s crackdown on development in fire-prone places.Attorney General Xavier Becerra has taken issue with a handful of proposed...…This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateThe California Attorney General’s Office joined two lawsuits against San Diego County on Wednesday, alleging leaders there are moving forward with a pair of giant housing projects that will pose extraordinary fire danger to residents.The suits, which target two separate expansions of the Otay Ranch Resort Village in the dry scrublands outside of Chula Vista, are the latest show of force in the state’s crackdown on development in fire-prone places.Attorney General Xavier Becerra has taken issue with a handful of proposed...WW…

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateIt’s not just San Francisco’s Millennium Tower that’s sinking.The entire Bay Area is plunging downward under the weight of its own sprawl. And that’s a concern as sea levels rise and cities try to figure out how they’ll stay above water in the coming decades.Tom Parsons, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, documented the problem recently. He calculated the weight of every building in the Bay Area and found the total to be so great, about 3.5 trillion pounds or the equivalent of more than 7 million Boeing 747s, that...…This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateIt’s not just San Francisco’s Millennium Tower that’s sinking.The entire Bay Area is plunging downward under the weight of its own sprawl. And that’s a concern as sea levels rise and cities try to figure out how they’ll stay above water in the coming decades.Tom Parsons, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, documented the problem recently. He calculated the weight of every building in the Bay Area and found the total to be so great, about 3.5 trillion pounds or the equivalent of more than 7 million Boeing 747s, that...WW…

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateSanta Cruz County didn’t used to be a place where you’d see a lot of sharks.The cool but inviting waters of the Monterey Bay have long been the cherished turf of carefree surfers and relaxing beachgoers and, of course, seals, seabirds and the occasional humpback.But a few years ago, surprising numbers of young great white sharks began showing up. The apex predators converged largely off the coast of the community of Aptos, swimming so close to shore that sometimes the long, dark frames of a half dozen great whites could be...…This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateSanta Cruz County didn’t used to be a place where you’d see a lot of sharks.The cool but inviting waters of the Monterey Bay have long been the cherished turf of carefree surfers and relaxing beachgoers and, of course, seals, seabirds and the occasional humpback.But a few years ago, surprising numbers of young great white sharks began showing up. The apex predators converged largely off the coast of the community of Aptos, swimming so close to shore that sometimes the long, dark frames of a half dozen great whites could be...WW…

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigatePresident’s Trump’s push to abolish or shrink some of the country’s national monuments won support this week in a small section of the southern Sierra Nevada, where the National Monument is one of several California sites in the crosshairs.The voted Tuesday to send a letter to the Trump administration urging it to reduce the 328,000-acre Giant Sequoia monument to 90,000 acres.A similar request before the fell short. The board decided Tuesday to take no position on the monument amid a groundswell of public opposition to any...…This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigatePresident’s Trump’s push to abolish or shrink some of the country’s national monuments won support this week in a small section of the southern Sierra Nevada, where the National Monument is one of several California sites in the crosshairs.The voted Tuesday to send a letter to the Trump administration urging it to reduce the 328,000-acre Giant Sequoia monument to 90,000 acres.A similar request before the fell short. The board decided Tuesday to take no position on the monument amid a groundswell of public opposition to any...WW…