By DAVID DANELSKI, The Press-Enterprise

The U.S. Army, joining the push to turn Mojave Desert sunshine into electricity, plans to blanket as much as 21 square miles at Fort Irwin with solar mirrors and panels.

Federal officials plan next month to round up and trap 130 or more wild burros that roam in and around Death Valley National Park and the Army's Fort Irwin, part of a longtime effort to clear the animals from most government land in Southern California deserts.

Wild horse and burro advocates say the animals should be left alone.

Operators of an Arizona company are suspected of collecting $32.6 million in California beverage container redemptions by fraudulently cashing in truckloads of out-of-state plastic bottles.

Riverside officials have righted what many believe is a decades-old wrong.
For 48 years, "Wong Way" was the name on a short connector street near downtown Riverside.
Now, it is "Wong Street."

Less than six weeks after George W. Bush left office, clean-air advocates are wasting no time under the new administration to push for new and tougher regulations.

The U.S. Army has suspended plans to relocate more than 1,000 desert tortoises from areas around Fort Irwin this fall and next spring because at least 15 percent of the tortoises moved earlier this year have died.About 90 of the 556 tortoises moved in the spring are dead, mostly as a result of coyote attacks.

The federal government is evaluating more than 400,000 acres of public and private land -- including a major off-road vehicle recreation area -- for an expansion of the Marine Corps training center at Twentynine Palms in California. Marine Corps officials said they need more territory for weapons testing and live-ammunition exercises for 3,000 or more troops.

A new state law limiting a cancer-causing chemical from plywood and particle board -- products found in almost every home or business -- has lumber wholesalers worried that they will get stuck with millions of dollars' worth of products that can't be sold in California.

Dr. Julia Ljubimova found something disturbing when she probed the brains of rats exposed to air pollution: The dirty air appeared to trigger changes indicating the earliest stage of brain tumors.Ljubimova, an oncologist and researcher at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, stressed that she is not ready to say air pollution is a cause of brain cancer.

Mice subjected to Southern California's foul air developed changes in their brains similar to those found in people with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, a scientist said.