El Dorado County Local News

El Dorado Irrigation District Directors Alan Day and Lori Anzini tried for a motion to hike water rates 8 percent, but lost on a 2-3 vote.

A judge has refused to order the father and son duo charged with starting the 2021 Caldor Fire—which destroyed Grizzly Flat and burned across three Northern California counties—to face charges that they recklessly started the fire by target shooting.

Kern County agrees to better protect free speech in a deal with the state Justice Department—inspired by the county’s’ 2020 squashing of COVID contracts to organizations that advocated defunding police.

The closure of two locations in the Sacramento region is part of nationwide store shutdowns following Rite Aid’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The Placerville store is set to close Jan. 8, while the Auburn store will shutter Jan. 15.

Visitors can see the critically endangered Lord How Island stick insect, on display for the first time in North America, in a special habitat at the zoo’s Wildlife Explorers Basecamp.

After 30 years of public service, El Dorado Transit Operations Manager Scott Ousley is retiring effective Jan. 6.

Under new state laws, five cities will test cameras to catch speeding drivers and cruising bans will be lifted statewide. The first is supposed to improve road safety, but critics of the second say it will endanger the public.

Just as you might intend to change your diet or workout plan, resolve to make changes that will allow you to meet financial goals.

A dark-sky movement to save birds from window strikes is sweeping the San Francisco Bay Area. Several cities have passed or are drafting laws restricting light pollution while making windows easier for birds to see.

Prescribed burns, used to limit destructive wildfires, are growing in frequency at California State Parks. But as the smoke drifts into residential areas, it’s easy to see why many Californians are concerned about the health impacts.

In a report released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, researchers instead lay out a plan for what society might do to improve adolescents’ interactions with social media.

Under two new laws, employers in California can’t ask workers about their use of cannabis outside the workplace and can’t use hair or urine tests. Employees in construction are excluded, as are applicants for federal jobs with background checks.

Under a new law, employees in California are guaranteed five paid sick days a year, two days more than previously. Worker advocacy groups say the benefit is needed, but business groups warn of additional costs.

Novelist Jonathan Franzen looks at how trap-neuter-release policies in feral cat colonies have troubling consequences for city residents, local wildlife and even the felines themselves.

This past year, more than 1,000 bills went into effect, and most will become new laws in 2024. Plus, there are bills from previous years that are also scheduled to take effect after Jan. 1.

María Vela’s family has lived in East L.A. nearly 30 years, but new owners of her duplex asked her family to vacate by Christmas. Most evictions are due to nonpayment of rent, but owner move-ins also cause family displacement.

State audits of the University of California and the California State University found both systems have failed to comply with decades-old state and federal laws mandating the return of Native ancestral remains and cultural artifacts. Only UCLA and Cal State Long Beach have returned a majority of their collections.

A tribe’s bid for federal recognition is getting a boost from a member of Congress who introduced legislation to extend acknowledgement status to the Gabrielino/Tongva Nation and create a reservation within Los Angeles County.

Sarah Grimes investigates reports of dead marine mammals up and down the coast. So when she began finding the decapitated bodies of harbor seal pups just a few miles north of Fort Bragg in 2016, she was on the case. Grimes wasn’t able to pin down the culprit until last year, with the help of a UCSC student.

The Chico-based brewer has taken a more traditional approach to creating its non-alcoholic beer.