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Frazier: New DWR Director Is ‘Too Beholden to Water Contractors She Must Regulate’

While Jerry Brown has been a genius at manipulating the media to portray him as a “green governor” and the state as the nation’s “green leader,” the regulators have in fact been captured by the regulated in California. This is particularly true when it comes to water and environmental policies.

Soggy Storm Boosts Bay Area Rainfall Totals, But Not Enough

Recent storms have dropped more than an inch of rain on San Francisco and blanketed the Sierra with snow, but water levels and snowpack around the state are still lagging far below normal. “It was a few drops in the bucket at least,” Scott Rowe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Monterey, said Saturday. In San Francisco, slightly more than 1.2 inches of rain have fallen since Wednesday, with almost 1.4 inches at San Francisco International Airport. Numbers were similar in the East Bay and South Bay: Oakland got 1.13 inches and San Jose Airport just over an inch.

Avalanche Strikes Crowded Mammoth Mountain: ‘Essentially, The Top Of The Mountain Came Loose’

An avalanche at Mammoth Mountain early Saturday forced the closure of the popular ski area and triggered search and rescue efforts, officials said. There were no reports of serious injuries or missing people, but emergency crews were activated, officials said. The ski patrol was conducting avalanche hazard mitigation work when the avalanche occurred about 10:15 a.m. on the upper part of the mountain near the High Five Express chairlift area, Lauren Burke, public relations manager for Mammoth Mountain, said in a statement. Such work usually involves the use of explosive devices to demolish dangerous snow piles.