In a canyon 40 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, a fire is smoldering. Unlike the forest fires that erupt every year in Southern California, this fire is 30 feet underground. It’s been spewing toxi...

ExxonMobil is one of the world’s worst climate polluters, emitting more than 90 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2024. But that only accounts for its direct emissions from oil and gas drilli...

By Bill Walker Last year California shipped more than 156 million pounds of plastic waste to poor countries, with almost three-fourths sent to Mexico and another 44 million pounds sent to developing ...

In the years after World War II, the smog in Los Angeles was so thick that at times people could see no farther than three blocks. Despite efforts to limit emissions from power plants and oil refiner...

It’s later than you think, but it’s not too late.

Angels for sale. Only $1,000.

The most powerful man in the world is waging war on a tiny, almost extinct fish. The fish is the minnow-like delta smelt, less than three inches long with a lifespan of only a year. Its sole natural ...

By Bill Walker A driver entering an enclosed parking garage in California is greeted by a 20-by-20-inch sign declaring in 72-point type: WARNING: Breathing the air in this parking garage can expose ...

The struggling British energy company has seen its rivals streak ahead after it bet big on clean energy.

A new administration’s efforts to pressure the news media, punish political opponents and tame the nation’s tycoons evoke the early days of President Vladimir V. Putin’s reign in Russia.

The first lady’s documentary deal with Amazon, the president’s legal settlements and other transactions near $80 million so far, with the Trump library a major beneficiary.

Economics, culture, and media. Economics, culture, and media. Economics, culture, and media. Got it?

Donald Trump sat hunched over his desk while Elon Musk did all the talking.

It’s not just eggs. Many commonly purchased goods and services got more expensive in January, driving inflation in the wrong direction and to its highest rate since June of last year.

By Bill Walker The horrific fires that incinerated more than 40,000 acres in Southern California last month were still burning when newly-inaugurated President Trump flew in to view the devastation. At a Jan. 24 press briefing with local officials, he groused that he had heard people who lost their homes would not be allowed to rebuild for up to 18 months. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass pointed out that, first, burned lots had to be cleared of hazardous waste. “The most important thing is for people to be safe,” she said. “What's hazardous waste?” Trump retorted. “You're going to have to define that. Are we going to go through a whole series of questions on determining what's hazardous waste? I just think you have to allow people to go on their site and start the process tonight." Despite what Trump may think, federal regulators have established clear definitions of hazardous waste. When the Palisades and Eaton fires consumed more than 16,000 homes and other structures in the Los Angeles area, they left behind over 4.25 million tons of it. While the fires have been contained, exposure to dangerous toxins in that lingering waste and in the smoke that choked the region for more than three weeks will, over time, claim many more victims than the 29 lives lost in the flames. Heat, drought and the Santa Ana winds were the fires’ direct causes, but scientists say conditions were made worse by climate change. Park Williams, a hydroclimatologist at the University of California at Los Angeles, told NPR: “These fires are very likely more intense and dangerous … because of global warming." US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) workers in hazmat gear are racing against a Trump-ordered Feb. 25 deadline to inspect each burn site and perform an initial cleanup. "We have to move five times the speed based on the directives we are getting," an EPA official told Reuters. "Normally, this takes months."

It’s exhausting to watch poll-tested, donor-beholden congressional Democrats continue to be too old, too cloistered, and too bumbling to do anything as the government burns.

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