Study: Global Warming Intensifying California's Drought
This drought is being made a lot worse by human-made global warming. How much worse? Somewhere between 8-27 percent. That's the takeaway in a new study from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. The study found that although California's drought was inevitable regardless of global warming, the heat made it worse by sucking up precious moisture from soil and plants.
Air Regulators Give Central Valley Farmers a Break on Dust Control
We've heard a lot about how the drought is creating a "dust bowl" in Central Valley farm country. In fact, dust kicked up by farm machinery has long contributed to air pollution in this region, which already deals with high rates of asthma. Now, air regulators are giving farmers a break when it comes to controlling dust with water.
Common Core Brings New Standards for Reading in Kindergarten
It's back to school time for the more than 6 million public school kids in California. This year, what they learn and how they learn will be radically different. That's because all schools must now teach a new set of academic standards called Common Core. The standards call for kindergartners to learn more vocabulary words and read short sentences fluently.