Devastating Boles Blaze Leaves Weed Residents Without Homes
Many residents of the small town of Weed near Mt. Shasta are now homeless. Fire officials say more than 150 buildings were damaged or destroyed in a wildfire that swept through the town Monday. Weed is home to fewer than 3,000 people, and the fire burned less than 400 acres. But the speed of it, driven by 40-mile-per-hour winds, kept firefighters scrambling to get ahead.
Brown's Signature Marks Beginning of Groundwater Reform
California's historic drought deserves some credit for political action on longtime water needs in the state. That was the assessment of Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday, just after he signed a groundbreaking trio of laws regulating the use of groundwater.
As Groundwater Wells Go Dry, Stanislaus County Offers Homeowners Loans to Drill
The new rules to regulate California's groundwater supply will take years to implement. But in the meantime, as many as 1.5 million Californians rely on domestic groundwater wells for drinking water -- and some of them need help now, because those wells are starting to go dry. Drilling new wells may be their only option, and it's expensive.
