Electronics firms must use unique codes or force users to generate their own passwords for gadgets

Something for California to think about...

The Alameda County Sheriff's Office released mugshots of the seven suspects arrested in connection to a $1 million robbery scheme targeting Apple Stores. These crimes allegedly hit 19 counties, including the thefts in Santa Rosa, Emeryville, and Corte Madera over the last month. The Apple Store in Fresno was also hit.

California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a landmark bill into law on Friday aimed at banning the sale of cosmetics that have been tested on animals. The California Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act, authored by Democratic state Sen. Cathleen Galgiani, prohibits manufacturers to “import for profit, sell, or offer for sale” any cosmetic product that was developed or made using an animal test, if the test occurs after the law takes effect on Jan. 1, 2020.

Southern California went 87 days without a clean air day, the longest stretch of consecutive ozone pollution violations in at least 20 years. Regulators blame the persistence in pollution on hot, stagnant weather and are studying whether climate change is driving it.

Millions of Californians are waiting for Gov. Jerry Brown to affirm their call for a free and open Internet. After Congress reversed the Federal Communication Commission’s 2015 Open Internet Order, states have had to step up to ensure that all traffic on the Internet is treated equally. Gov. Brown’s signature would make California the fourth state to pass a law offering net neutrality protections to its residents.

What time is it in California? If voters decide to abolish the clock-changing practice in November, answering that could become more difficult.

California Governor Jerry Brown today signed net neutrality legislation into law, setting up a legal showdown pitting his state against Internet service providers and the US government. The California net neutrality bill, previously approved by the state Assembly and Senate despite protests from AT&T and cable lobbyists, imposes rules similar to those previously enforced by the FCC.

The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by Vinod Khosla, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist whose belief in property rights outweighed his affinity for a state access law.

The state's insurance agency sent a cease-and-desist order, saying the NRA isn't licenced to sell the product

Privates Beach is named not for its exclusivity but for its permissive stance on nude sunbathing. This small patch of paradise on the California coastline is adored by locals, and anyone is welcome to enjoy the clean and quiet spot. If, that is, they have a key costing $100 a year. A 9ft iron gate blocks the path to a beach staircase, set among expensive hillside homes in the tony surf town of Santa Cruz, south of San Francisco. Yet by California law, all the beaches along its 840 alluring miles of coastline belong to the people...

A well-known surgeon from Newport Beach and his girlfriend are accused of drugging and sexually assaulting two women, and Southern California authorities said they believe there could be many more victims. Grant William Robicheaux, 38, and Cerissa Laura Riley, 31, are charged with rape by use of drugs, oral copulation by anesthesia or controlled substance, assault with intent to commit sexual offense, and possession of a controlled substance for sale. Robicheaux is also accused of firearms violations.

The fight for our right to repair the stuff we own has suffered a huge setback. As anyone who repairs electronics knows, keeping a device in working order often means fixing both its hardware and software. But a big California farmers’ lobbying group just blithely signed away farmers’ right to access or modify the source code of any farm equipment software. As an organization representing 2.5 million California agriculture jobs, the California Farm Bureau gave up the right to purchase repair parts without going through a dealer

Two proposals by California legislators would establish the strongest net neutrality rules in the country, preventing internet service providers doing business in the state from blocking, speeding up or slowing down websites and video streams, or charging websites for faster speeds.

California is following in Hawaii's footsteps by committing to 100 percent clean energy. Lawmakers in the state have passed a bill that will see it moving entirely to clean electricity sources by 2045, CBS reported Tuesday. The vote comes as a report revealed Monday that California could lose up to two-thirds of its beaches and water supply due to climate change. Public polling showed the majority of Californians (about 72 percent) are supportive of the bill, although some business groups and utilities aren't in favour, citing job concerns.

California’s legislature has approved a bill being called the strongest net neutrality law in the US. The bill would ban internet providers from blocking and throttling legal content and prioritizing some sites and services over others. It would apply these restrictions to both home and mobile connections.

New legislation would require all publicly held companies based in California to have at least one woman on their boards starting next year.

A replacement bridge under construction at the second-busiest port in the U.S. isn't just a crucial route for cargo trucks and Southern California commuters — it's a concrete-and-steel science experiment for engineers and seismologists.

An 11-year-old girl is safe from an attempted kidnapping after her dog bit the attacker in the leg on Sunday morning. Pasadena Police said a man grabbed the girl by the arm and tried dragging her into a dark grey SUV near Willow Oaks Circle in central Pasadena. The beagle terrier mix, named Ray, bit the suspect in the leg and allowed the child to run away to safety, Pasadena Police said.

California is set to launch a satellite to track greenhouse gases, as former US Secretary of State John Kerry and island nation leaders warned that the world is far off course to avoid the worst effects of rising temperatures. Gov. Jerry Brown announced plans for the satellite on the last day of a climate change summit hosted by San Francisco, in a final rebuke to President Donald Trump’s denial of man-made warming.

Companies headquartered in California can no longer have all-male boards. That's according to a new law, enacted Sunday, which requires publicly traded firms in the state to place at least one woman on their board of directors by the end of 2019 — or face a penalty. It also requires companies with five directors to add two women by the end of 2021, and companies with six or more directors to add at least three more women by the end of the same year.

Are you talking to a real person online or a bot? In California, bots will need to identify themselves thanks to a new bill just signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown. The measure bans automated accounts from pretending to be real people in order to "incentivize a purchase or sale of goods or services in a commercial transaction or to influence a vote in an election," effective July 1, 2019.

Power to the people (who hate talking on phones).

The Japanese nuclear disaster bathed north America in a radioactive cloud. Now pharmacologists have found the telltale signature in California wine made at the time.

The Trump administration is planning a proposal that would seize control away from California regulators and prevent them from enforcing the state’s own emissions standards.

The West Coast is a growing target of foreign espionage. And it’s not ready to fight back.

Experts say the state’s increasingly ferocious wildfires are not an aberration – they are the new reality

Retracing the steps of a century-old wildlife survey, ecologists find that birds are making remarkable adaptations to climate change.

Catastrophic wildfires continue to ravage California, as one blaze nearly doubled in size over the last three days, making it the largest in the state's history. No one has been injured in the Mendocino Complex Fire, which consists of two fires -- the Ranch Fire and the River Fire -- burning around Clear Lake, in several counties in Northern California.

The Earth, in all its majesty and its tragedy, is the subject of images taken aboard the International Space Station. This image of the Carr and Ferguson fires was captured by European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst (@Astro_Alex), on August 3, 2018, from the station. "California burning. These fires are frightening to watch, even from space. Here's a shout-out from space to all firefighters on this planet, my former colleagues. Stay safe my friends!" Gerst, a geophysicist and volcanologist, wrote on his Twitter account.

It sounds ridiculous, but it’s an idea that's grounded in physics.

Tesla Inc and Chief Executive Elon Musk were sued twice on Friday by investors who said they fraudulently engineered a scheme to squeeze short-sellers, including through Musk’s proposal to take the electric car company private. The lawsuits were filed three days after Musk stunned investors by announcing on Twitter that he might take Tesla private in a record $72 billion transaction that valued the company at $420 per share, and that “funding” had been “secured.”

A US jury finds the company knew its Roundup weedkillers were dangerous, but Monsanto vows to appeal.

A California woman said she had to drive herself to the hospital to give birth alone, after her husband was arrested by agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or Ice. María del Carmen Venegas told a Spanish-language TV station, KMEX-TV, she and her husband, Joel Arrona–Lara, 36, were driving to the hospital for a planned C–section on Wednesday when they stopped for gas in San Bernardino, just east of Los Angeles.

California's green policy is so successful it needs to slow down for a bit.