Nestle has been drawing 25 million gallons of water a year under a permit that expired three decades ago. Critics contend that the extraction — in the midst of California's drought — could harm the creek environment that supports sensitive species. The company pays the government a modest permit fee of about $500 a year and markets it as Arrowhead. Environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit demanding that the Forest Service halt Nestle's water withdrawals until a special use permit is issued.   read more

In the delta, a land of tree-lined river banks and pear orchards, signs saying, "Stop the Tunnels," hang on farm gates and shop walls. People fear the tunnels would let the state take too much water from the delta. "I do resent the fact they look at the delta as being sort of expendable to protect their farms," van Loben Sels said, driving a narrow river road that would be replaced by widened highways and massive water intakes. "It's just the destruction of the delta."   read more

If it is approved, Tribune would control 98% of daily English-language newspaper sales in Orange County and 81% in Riverside, the Justice Dept said. It would also likely bring job cuts, experts said. Media analyst Ken Doctor worried about local coverage suffering if the sale goes through: "Communities benefit by having different groups of editors looking out for them. When you essentially only have one newsroom leadership deciding what is news for [multiple counties], that is unprecedented."   read more

While the police were previously content to simply destroy homeless people's belongings, they have escalated their tactics to arresting people for lying or sitting on the sidewalk after dark. The plaintiffs claim that city workers treat people's belongings like de facto garbage, ripping open tents with knives and throwing away shoes, clothes, blankets, and even medications, walkers, and personal documents. Officers don't allow arrestees to pack up their property before they are taken to booking.   read more

Supporters say they don't know how many terminally ill patients have been waiting for the law to go into effect. One advocate, Christy O'Donnell, a single mother with lung cancer who sued the state to demand the right to life-ending medication, died last month before getting the option. Elizabeth Wallner, whose stage 4 colon cancer has spread to her liver and lungs, said she is relieved. "It gives me a great peace of mind to know that I will not be forced to die slowly and painfully," she said.   read more

The higher age limit won approval despite intense lobbying from tobacco interests and fierce opposition from many Republicans. The six bills that passed represented California's most substantial anti-tobacco effort in nearly two decades. "With California having such a huge population, it's going to be very impactful nationwide," said American Cancer Society's Cathy Callaway. Advocates noted that the vast majority of smokers start before they are 18.   read more

There were 692 felony convictions in California that were thrown out between 1989 and 2012 based on errors or misconduct by police, prosecutors, defense lawyers or judges, according to a new study. Those cases cost taxpayers more than $282 million for trials, appeals, imprisonment and compensation -- but that figure is probably a small fraction of the financial impact of mistakes in the state's justice system. It didn't include misdemeanor cases, which amount to about 80% of all prosecutions.   read more

David Chiu authored legislation that would require rape kits to be tracked by law enforcement so that the state can have a better understanding of how many kits go untested each year and why. Chiu's bill is sponsored by Attorney General Kamala Harris, who is also supporting a bill by Sen. Steve Glazer that requires all law enforcement agencies to use a central statewide DNA database to increase the likelihood of finding matches on cold cases.   read more

The state met the 25% savings goal in each of the first four months, but conservation rates have steadily declined since October. January's 17.1% is the lowest since the mandatory restrictions began in June. While Californians fell behind the cumulative savings threshold in January, average use per capita declined to 61 gallons - the lowest monthly per-person rate since reporting began in June 2014. More than 36 million Californians reside in drought areas.   read more

The leak had been gushing nonstop for two weeks when Conley was sent by the CEC to fly near Porter Ranch in his small plane outfitted to measure methane. As he took a pass through the invisible plume, he did a double-take at results that showed up on his laptop computer. The readings spiked at 50 parts per million over the San Fernando Valley. "What the hell is that?" he remembered thinking. It was no false alarm. "Before we went, no one had any idea the magnitude of it," Conley said.   read more

The panel said that U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley did not abuse his discretion in finding the gun shops were not entitled to the "extraordinary remedy" of an injunction, since the magnitude of potential harm faced by the dealers "is minimal due to the commercial nature of the speech and the limited scope of the restriction." While California's ban applies to depictions of handguns, gun shop owners remain free to advertise rifles and other firearms at will.   read more

The L.A. Water Quality Board claims the Corps of Engineers not only dredged 6.5 acres of the Los Angeles River without a permit, it didn't even tell the state it had done it until two months after the work was done. In doing so, the Corps pollutes the work areas with oil, grease and other pollutants, the water board says. It claims the Corps has a pattern of failing to obtain water quality certification before starting projects that have "consequential impacts" on the river and watershed.   read more

"What people are now talking about is we're going to end up with a 130-mile mound of dirt. They're going to run out of money sometime by 2017," said attorney Flashman, who represents plaintiffs in the suit against the state. "At that point they're not even going to be starting laying tracks. They're certainly not going to be having anything usable for trains." Critics argue that the train won't be able to travel from San Francisco to L.A. in two hours and 40 minutes as voters were told.   read more

The law - intended to reduce impulsive gun violence and to allow retailers sufficient time to conduct thorough background checks on purchasers - "imposes a modest time delay on acquisition of firearms, not a prohibition," state Deputy Attorney General Eisenberg said. He added that the length of the statutory waiting period has been fine-tuned over a period of more than 80 years since its adoption in 1923, and that "the Legislature should be applauded for doing that kind of modifying to the law."   read more

Hollywood Presbyterian paid the demanded ransom of 40 bitcoins after the network infiltration that began Feb. 5. The FBI is investigating the attack, often called "ransomware," where hackers encrypt a computer network's data to hold it "hostage," providing a digital decryption key to unlock it for a price. "The quickest and most efficient way to restore our systems and administrative functions was to pay the ransom and obtain the decryption key," Stefanek said.   read more

Attorney General Kamala Harris said Tuesday that there were 178 data breaches in California endangering 24 million records. The number of breaches held steady, but the number of records jumped sharply from about 4 million in 2014 and 18 million in 2013. Her report blames a few large breaches for most of the thefts. That includes records exposed by health insurer Anthem Inc. affecting more than 10 million Californians.   read more