California to stay drought-free
Tomo Chien
March 05, 2024
Good morning. It’s Tuesday, and I’m reading about how the first over-the-counter birth control pill will hit the shelves this month. Onto the five USC, Los Angeles and California stories you need to know for today.
1.
California will remain drought-free through at least 2025, meteorologists say. Thank two back-to-back blockbuster winters that have filled reservoirs well above their historic averages, and, most recently, dumped over 8 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada. It’s a remarkable turnaround for a state that’s spent much of the last two decades in an on-and-off drought, but experts warned officials not to ease conservation efforts: Drought will return, it’s just a question of when. “In California, water is as precious of a commodity as gold,” one meteorologist said.
2.
In the run-up to the hottest California Senate election in recent memory: Katie Porter campaigned out of her beat-up minivan. Adam Schiff rented a private jet to cover more ground. And Barbara Lee hit events across Southern California. Steve Garvey was nowhere to be seen. The Republican, though, is actually polling ahead of his Democratic challengers — a fitting development for the former baseball star turned political novice who’s managed to run a campaign without any substantive policy proposals or, erm, running much of a campaign at all. Voting today? Here’s a last-minute guide.
3.
A San Diego man is the first person in the U.S. to be charged with smuggling greenhouse gasses under a novel law. Michael Hart, 58, allegedly bought refrigerants in Mexico then smuggled them across the border to sell for profit on Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp. Those refrigerants contained hydrofluorocarbons — a potent greenhouse gas used in refrigerators and air conditioners — which are in most cases illegal to import into the country as regulators look to phase out the “super pollutant” that can be thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
4.
For years, investment firms poured money into California almond farms, fueling a boom of the lucrative crop that now covers a fifth of the state’s irrigated farm land. But now the industry’s in a nosedive. Prices for premium almonds have dropped from $4 a pound to less than $2. One of the largest almond conglomerates declared bankruptcy. And investors are saddled with debt. Not everybody is upset, though: Environmentalists have long railed against the notoriously thirsty crop, arguing that almond farming exacerbates an already dire groundwater shortage. “It’s possible that we have hit peak almond,” said one policy expert.
5.
A USC geneticist was named one of Time magazine’s “Women of the Year” for discovering a hormone produced by fetuses that triggers nausea and vomiting in pregnant women — otherwise known as morning sickness. Two decades ago, Dr. Marlena Fejzo experienced an extreme and dangerous version of that called hyperemesis gravidarum, which can cause dehydration, weight loss and electrolyte imbalances. But her doctors didn’t believe her. They said it was a bid for sympathy from her husband. Or a way to get attention from her parents. At 15 weeks, she lost the pregnancy. So she made it her life’s work to find the cause of her condition. “Hyperemesis is not the only condition that’s under-researched,” Fejzo said. “We just need more women scientists out there.”