Here's what's happening in the Bay Area, curated by KALW news:
California drought: State water board passes first mandatory urban water limits in state history // San Jose Mercury News
Bringing California's historic drought directly to every home and business in the state, the administration of Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday imposed the first mandatory urban water conservation rules in state history.
The rules take effect June 1 and will remain in effect until next February. Although the impacts will vary by community, generally speaking they will result in broad new water restrictions for most of the state's 38 million residents, including limits on lawn watering, bans on various types of water use such as washing cars or filling pools in some places and, in some communities, water cops writing tickets for people who waste water or water their lawns on the wrong days.
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Housing activists shut down Oakland City Council meeting // KTVU News
Affordable housing activists angry over a proposed high-rise near Lake Merritt shut down an Oakland City Council meeting Tuesday evening, forcing the Council to shout over singing protesters just to adjourn the disrupted meeting.
The activists arrived to protest the proposed $5 million sale of a parcel of city-owned land to a development firm for the construction of a 24-story apartment tower.
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San Jose City Council Cracks Down on Wage Theft // NBC Bay Area
San Jose city council wants to crack down on companies that don’t pay their workers. The council approved an ordinance to not do business with companies that have wage judgments against them.
This follows multiple NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit reports that found companies in Santa Clara County owed workers more than $30 million in back wages over the last five years. Statewide, the total is around $274 million.
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Artificial Photosynthesis Breakthrough Aims to Save Us All From Global Warming // Entrepreneur
I know, let's take one of the most harmful gasses on Earth and transform it into useful stuff like biofuel or even plastics? Sounds easier said than done, but one group of researchers has accomplished the impossible -- using science that essentially copycats Mother Nature herself.
Allow me to explain. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy and the University of California, Berkeley, could have just solved climate change-- what many believe is one of the worst threats to the future of humanity. The researchers created an artificial photosynthesis prototype system. Sounds like a mouthful, right? Essentially, the system uses solar energy to trap carbon dioxide and synthesize it into acetate, a basic building block for organic compounds. The acetate could then be used to create cleaner, greener versions of things, like pharmaceuticals, plastics and, most importantly, renewable biofuels.
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East Bay property owners rent goats for fire prevention // Oakland North
California is very, very dry these days. And with fire season around the corner, some property owners in the East Bay are turning to an unusual fire prevention technique: goats. Thousands of rented goats roam the hills about Berkeley and Oakland, working through the days and nights to prevent the spread of wildfires.
