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Friday's storms were the latest in a series of so-called atmospheric rivers that have deluged California since late December. [1/5] A home on agricultural land is seen amid flooding from the Salinas River in Salinas, California, U.S., January 13, 2023. "It's a tremendous amount of water," said Monterey County Chief Public Information Officer Nick Pasculli, describing the slow rise of the Salinas River. Seven such weather systems have already hit the state over the past two weeks. Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California and Nathan Frandino in Salinas, California; Editing by Josie KaoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ California picks up debris from latest storm, braces for the next
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Sharon Bernstein | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

At least two more storm systems were set to pound California and the Pacific Northwest starting Friday and over the weekend, the National Weather Service said, including another atmospheric river, systems of dense moisture funneled into California from the tropical Pacific. The state has already been hit with seven such weather systems over the past two weeks. In Monterey County, water from prior storms continued to swell the Salinas River, officials said. The heavy rains have eased California's historic drought but not ended it, the U.S. Drought Monitor showed on Thursday. Even with more atmospheric rivers in the immediate forecast, the state's water system will remained strained in coming years without new infrastructure to capture more storm water, restore flood plains and recycle wastewater.

☆ Ex-classmate convicted of murdering long-missing California student Kristin Smart
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 18 (Reuters) - A former classmate of Kristin Smart, the California college freshman whose 1996 disappearance long stood as one of the state's most sensational unsolved crimes, was found guilty on Tuesday of murdering her, prosecutors said. The guilty verdict against Paul Flores, who was arrested and charged with Smart's death in April 2021, almost a quarter-century after she vanished, was returned by a jury in Monterey County Superior Court. A separate jury found his elderly father, Ruben Flores, not guilty on a charge of helping to hide Smart's body. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterThe murder verdict was announced on the Facebook page of the San Luis Obispo County district Attorney, Dan Dow. The trials were moved from San Luis Obispo County in a change of venue requested by defense lawyers because of intense pretrial publicity surrounding the investigation.

☆ California’s Tesla Battery Fire
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

As if California doesn’t have enough wildfire hazards, its drive to banish fossil fuels from the electric grid is creating another. On Tuesday a Tesla battery at a utility storage site in Monterey County caught fire, triggering the shutdown of the state’s scenic coastal highway and shelter-in-place warnings for local residents. California utilities have been installing large-scale batteries to back up renewables and provide power when the sun goes down. But now we’re learning that batteries have their own reliability problems. It’s not clear how utility PG&E ’s enormous 182.5 megawatt Tesla battery caught fire Tuesday, but the site had to be disconnected from the grid.

☆ PG&E's Tesla battery facility catches fire in California
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File PhotoSept 20 (Reuters) - A fire outbreak at PG&E Corp's (PCG.N) energy storage facility on Tuesday that uses battery packs made by Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) has shut down part of Highway 1 in California. This came about a year after another fire broke out in a Tesla's "Megapack" battery unit in Australia during testing of one of the world's biggest energy storage projects. read morePower producer PG&E said it was working with firefighters to stop the fire from spreading at the California facility, which is one of the biggest utility-owned, lithium-ion battery energy storage systems in the world. Tesla last year broke ground on its factory in Lathrop, California, to produce its large-scale, utility storage battery unit Megapack. PG&E in April announced the commissioning of its 182.5-megawatt (MW) Tesla Megapack battery energy storage system (BESS) – known as the Elkhorn Battery – located at its Moss Landing electric substation in Monterey County.

☆ Prosecutors try to prove 1996 killing as body of Kristin Smart remains missing
▼ + stars: | 2022-07-18 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

Opening statements are scheduled Monday in Monterey County Superior Court in Salinas in the trial of Paul Flores and his father, Ruben Flores, who is charged as an accessory. Paul Flores had long been considered a suspect in the killing, but prosecutors only arrested him and his father in 2021 after the investigation was revived. San Luis Obispo Sheriff Ian Parkinson acknowledged missteps by detectives over the years and he credited a popular podcast about Smart’s disappearance called “Your Own Backyard” for helping unearth new information and inspiring witnesses to speak with investigators. Prosecutors, defense lawyers and San Luis Obispo sheriff’s deputies are constrained by a court order prohibiting them from discussing the case. Attorney Harold Mesick, who represents Ruben Flores, previously said the evidence unearthed was ambiguous.

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