California Connected Newsroom

The San Jose Mercury News’ Mark Emmons files part three of a five-part series on traumatic brain injuries suffered by Iraq War soldiers and the long, painful road to recovery. Today’s piece focuses on Michelle Sandoval, the wife of veteran Frank Sandoval. “There are pivotal moments in the recovery of every severely wounded service member, […]

The Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton says Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has shown great initiative in tackling the state’s aging levee system. “Give the guy credit,” Skelton writes. “If it weren’t for him, the ambitious $175-million project wouldn’t have been attempted. Not by the state, of course. Not by the feds, certainly, although it was […]

The Orange County Register reports that foreclosures are on the rise in Orange County. “Banks sent owners 665 notices of default in November, a 125 percent increase from a year ago and an 11 percent rise from October, DataQuick reported Wednesday,” the Register reports. “It’s the highest monthly total in more than seven years.” The […]

The San Jose Mercury News’ Mark Emmons files part of a five-part series today on traumatic brain injury, the signature wound of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Yesterday, Emmons focused on the story of survivor Frank Sandoval. Today, Emmons delves deeper into the medical science behind treating Sandoval’s injury.
“Military and VA doctors describe a […]

Wired News reports that Google is building “solar trees” on the parking lots and rooftops of its Mountain View headquarters, enough to power about 30 percent of the complex. “About a third of the 9,000 solar panels Google’s installing will take the form of overhanging parking shades at the million-square-foot campus in Mountain View,” Wired’s […]

Mercury News video of Frank and Michelle Sandoval at Ward 7D.
The San Jose Mercury News ran part one of a five-part series today on an Iraq War veteran struggling to recover from a traumatic brain injury at Acute Care Ward 7D in Palo Alto. The subject, Frank Sandoval, was one of the patients featured in […]

The Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News report that a federal judge has given California six more months to properly accommodate its bulging prison population. But if matters do not improve after that time, U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Karlton says he may be forced to impose a […]

The New York Times reports in-depth that power executives and economists are increasingly worried about global warming’s future impact on profits and society at large. To head off a crisis, more and more of them are calling for a federal pricing policy that taxes or caps carbon emissions and encourages technological innovation.
“Global warming can be […]

Computer model of Arctic ice vanishing in 40 years. (Animation Copyright UCAR.)
The New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle report on a new study that predicts the Arctic polar ice-cap could melt into open sea during summers in less than 40 years. “In the simulations, the shift seems to occur when a pulse of warm […]

Wired’s Rob Beschizza reports on a new debate between scientists and people who say they suffer from health problems caused by electro-magnetic frequencies beamed across wireless networks. Previous fears about cellphones and inconclusive links with cancer have caught the popular imagination. “Sufferers report headaches, nausea, stomach upsets, tinnitus, brain fog and short-term memory among the […]