By JANET ZIMMERMAN and BEN GOAD, The Press-Enterprise

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., worked for years to reconcile the competing interests of environmentalists, renewable-energy developers and others before crafting her recent legislation to create two national monuments in the Mojave Desert.

But political obstacles and unresolved concerns about power-line routes remain.

CHINO, Calif. -- California animal-welfare officers alerted government officials to the inhumane treatment of cows at Hallmark Meat Co. in Chino more than a decade before a recent undercover investigation led to the plant's closure and the largest beef recall in U.S. history, records show.