Current Stories
Editor's Top Picks
San Francisco's health care a model
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
11/20/2009
San Francisco did not wait for Washington's health care overhaul. Most uninsured adults here are already reaping the benefits of a government-run health care program -- seeing doctors, filling prescriptions, and getting surgeries they could not otherwise afford.
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Give in on same-sex benefits, judge orders feds
San Francisco Chronicle
11/19/2009
The chief federal appeals court judge in San Francisco bluntly ordered the Obama administration Thursday to stop resisting his finding that the wife of a lesbian court employee was entitled to government insurance coverage.
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California rejects energy-hungry TVs
Los Angeles Times
11/18/2009
California moved to crack down on the sale of energy-gobbling big-screen television sets that now account for about 10 percent of a typical household's monthly power bill.
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Making sun, wind power more reliable
New York Times
11/19/2009
Technology and policy are coming together to promise electricity as abundant as sunshine and as freely available as the breeze -- and about as fickle. That could change.
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Home energy-efficiency startup wins CA green contest
San Francisco Chronicle
11/18/2009
Startup companies with ways to save energy and make plastic from wastewater took top honors Tuesday evening in the 2009 Cleantech Open, an annual contest to find and nurture California's promising environmental entrepreneurs.
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Health group finds high lead levels in toys
Seattle Times
11/17/2009
Children's toys carrying the Barbie and Disney logos have turned up with high levels of lead in them, according to a California-based advocacy group - a finding that may give consumers pause as they shop for the holiday season.
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San Francisco cyclists get techie
San Francisco Chronicle
11/17/2009
If you see bicyclists wobbling through the city streets with an iPhone in hand, don't assume they're playing Bejeweled or IMing their virtual pals while they pedal.
They may be using Cycle Tracks, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority's new - and first - application for the Apple iPhone.
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So you want a green career?
Los Angeles Times
11/15/2009
Although the recession has emptied shopping malls and filled jobless centers, the call has only gotten louder for renewable energy, environmentally gentle products and eco-friendly practices - and for people to make all of that happen. The giant push has even created job opportunities for those with little or no experience.
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Pacific garbage patch threatens birds, boats
USA Today
11/15/2009
Charles Moore has spent most of the past decade sailing through the Pacific. He could regale you with stories of sublime open-water majesty. Just not anytime soon. "It's a swirling plastic cesspool," says Moore of an area called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, where he became mired in it during a 1997 sailing expedition.
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Innovator and writer looks ahead
San Francisco Chronicle
11/15/2009
The founder of the Whole Earth Catalog lives on a tugboat with shrubbery on top and solar panels in front of the steering wheel. And yet he makes no apologies to the cow he just washed down with a frosty cup of ice cream. Stewart Brand's new book, "Whole Earth Discipline," thrusts him in the middle of the global climate debate, and not in an easily digestible way.
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Water package lacks clout to reverse Delta's decline
Sacramento Bee
11/15/2009
The momentous reform of California's water system signed into law last week is largely toothless where it matters most: Action to reverse the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta's environmental decline.
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New solar panel promises cheaper power
Sacramento Bee
11/12/2009
The roof of a North Sacramento plastics factory will host the biggest West Coast installation of a new type of solar panel that uses cells shaped like long fluorescent light tubes so they can harvest sunlight from any angle.
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Oregon one of 10 states in 'greatest fiscal peril'
Oregonian
11/11/2009
A report issued this morning by the Pew Center on the States names Oregon as one of 10 US states at greatest peril of following California over a state budgetary cliff.
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Panel backs no-fishing zones off CA coast
Los Angeles Times
11/11/2009
A state panel approved landmark fishing restrictions for Southern California, creating a patchwork of havens for marine life while leaving some waters open for anglers. Catches of rockfish, cod, lobster, sea urchin, squid sea bass, yellowtail and swordfish have been in steep decline, and fisheries scientists have argued some species could disappear entirely without no-fishing zones where breeding stocks can recover.
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Gore pushes for renewable energy
San Francisco Chronicle
11/10/2009
Al Gore and his crusade against global warming landed in the Bay Area this week with a call to arms and a message for those who still think the former vice president is tilting at windmills.
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First microbreweries, now micro-canneries flourish
Oregon Public Broadcasting
11/10/2009
You've heard of micro-breweries. How about "micro-canneries?" They specialize in locally-caught, hand-packed albacore and salmon. A growing number of commercial fishing families are choosing to can their catch themselves.
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Fishermen's association supports Klamath dam agreement
Eureka Times-Standard
11/10/2009
The West Coast's largest commercial fishermen's organization announced on Monday its support for an agreement to tear out four Klamath River dams. The dams were put in beginning in 1916, and have blocked salmon from reaching hundreds of miles of spawning grounds since then. They also contribute to severe water quality problems on the river.
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Oceans give warning signs
Tacoma News Tribune
11/08/2009
Off the coast of Washington state, mysterious algae mixed with sea foam have killed more than 8,000 seabirds. Garbage swirls in ocean vortexes, coastal dead zones appear and every eight months enough oil to fill the Exxon Valdez runs off the nation's streets into the sea. As the grim news mounts, a storm is brewing in Washington, D.C., over who should oversee ocean policies.
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A new lease on solar
USA Today
11/08/2009
California-based SolarCity has helped pioneer a way to bring solar to the masses and remove one of the biggest hurdles to its widespread adoption: up-front costs. Its residential customers can lease a system at no money down, and in many areas, save 10% to 15% a month on their combined electric and lease-payment bill.
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Target, Kmart and Toys-R-Us settle lead claims
Los Angeles Times
11/06/2009
Three major retailers have agreed to pay nearly half a million dollars to settle a lawsuit stemming from the companies' sale of toys containing excessive amounts of lead, the California attorney general's office said Thursday.
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Views: A CA water deal at long last
San Francisco Chronicle
11/06/2009
For decades, California's water wars have flared unabated - cities versus farms, north against south - while half measures left the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta drained and decimated. A solution involving all sides was only a dream. Until now.
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California water overhaul caps use
New York Times
11/04/2009
Prompted by a protracted drought -- which has reduced water supply, harmed the fishing industry, and contributed to crop loss -- environmentalists and agricultural interests have agreed to broad concessions in a package of water legislation approved Wednesday.
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Bay Area has high housing burden
Contra Costa Times
11/03/2009
A research group that promotes affordable housing has unveiled a new way of calculating what many already know: Housing and transportation costs eat up nearly 60 percent of the median income of Bay Area families.
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Converting garbage to fuel for CA garbage trucks
Contra Costa Times
11/02/2009
A new plant, which is operated by Waste Management, will take landfill-generated methane gas and turn it into liquefied natural gas to fuel garbage collection trucks.
Statewide, 495 trucks now are being supplied with garbage fuel from the new facility, which has been up-and-running for about two weeks. Of those, 49 are in the Bay Area.
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Clorox to stop using, transporting chlorine in US
San Francisco Chronicle
11/02/2009
Laws already bar transporting toxic materials, including substances that can vaporize, such as chlorine, through large cities.
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