en-us Copyright Sightline Daily - all rights reserved newsfeeds@sightline.org newsfeeds@sightline.org Most recent California headlines from Sightline Daily, the Northwest news that matters http://daily.sightline.org Plone http://daily.sightline.org/logo.gif 427 69 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. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-toys-settlement6-2009nov06,0,6735481.story Environment Pollution & Toxics California 11/06/2009 Los Angeles Times 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. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/06/EDP51AF923.DTL&feed=rss.opinion Environment Food & Farms Water Wildlife California 11/06/2009 San Francisco Chronicle 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. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/us/05water.html?partner=rss&emc=rss Water California 11/04/2009 New York Times 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. http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_13705136?source=rss Economy Sprawl & Transportation California 11/03/2009 Contra Costa Times 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. http://www.contracostatimes.com/environment/ci_13696048?source=rss Efficiency Energy Sprawl & Transportation California 11/02/2009 Contra Costa Times Laws already bar transporting toxic materials, including substances that can vaporize, such as chlorine, through large cities. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/11/02/financial/f153413S86.DTL&feed=rss.business Human Health Pollution & Toxics California 11/02/2009 San Francisco Chronicle San Francisco's transportation agency, anticipating a multi-million dollar deficit, is proposing a plan it says will help ease parking snafus. It wants to extend parking meter hours - up to midnight in the trendiest neighborhoods, and on Sundays everywhere. http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1110ap_us_san_francisco_parking_meters.html?source=rss Sprawl & Transportation California 11/01/2009 Seattle Post-Intelligencer Efforts to limit the damage from Friday's fuel spill in the San Francisco Bay focused Sunday on the Alameda shoreline, where rescue workers tried to save oiled birds that had beached themselves and painstakingly removed balls of sticky tar. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/01/BAR01ADPEI.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea Energy Pollution & Toxics Wildlife California 11/02/2009 San Francisco Chronicle One of the world's largest producers of electronic refuse, the US imposes no federal restrictions on what materials can be used to make electronic devices or how they can be discarded, leaving states to lead. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=electronic-waste-control Pollution & Toxics California United States 10/30/2009 Scientific American