1. WATER:
National Academies deliver mixed message on Calif. delta dilemma

A highly anticipated study of water diversions in California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has found federal efforts to protect endangered fish "scientifically justified" but added that problems facing delta smelt and chinook salmon are not entirely caused by thirsty farms south of the estuary. With release of the study today, the National Academy of Sciences stepped into a battle over a pair of federal biological opinions that limit water for farmers to protect the fish. But what many had hoped would clear up controversy over water restrictions has been greeted as another mixed analysis of the region's overlapping environmental stressors. Go to story #1