You are now in California and the U.S. category.

“Boxer slams water bill rider backed by Feinstein” (Dec. 6) is an unfortunate attack on a bill that California desperately needs to ensure its water operations are based on good science and which help construct a new and different water infrastructure. We’re a state of 40 million people relying on a water system built when only 16 million people lived here — that’s not sustainable. The water bill that Congress is now considering puts us on the right path.

The White House on Tuesday voiced doubts about controversial California water legislation that has already caused an unusually public split between the state’s two Democratic senators. Meeting with reporters, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the California provisions that span some 91 pages of often-technical text seemed problematic, though he cautioned that analysis continues. “Based on what we know so far, we don’t support the kinds of proposals that have been put forward to address some of the water resources issues in California right now,” Earnest said.

In his global evangelism about the threat of climate change, Gov. Jerry Brown has dismissed skeptics as “troglodytes” and “deniers of the obvious science.” But Brown, who in recent years has emerged as a premier climate warrior, has refused to ascribe those characteristics to Donald Trump since his election as president, despite the Republican businessman’s support for fossil fuels and repeated dismissals of climate change as a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. In brief remarks about the subject, Brown said Monday that it would be difficult for the U.S. to “go rogue” on climate change.

A new satellite parked 22,000 miles (35,000km) over the United States promises to deliver better storm forecasting for California and other Western states plagued by drought, floods and other weather extremes. The GOES-R satellite was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral on Nov. 19. It is the first in a new generation of weather satellites that will be able to scan the planet five times faster and offer four times better imaging resolution than the current technology.

Depending on your outlook, the proverbial glass of water is either half full or half empty. Not so for engineers in California.