Merced Sun-Star

There's a new annual price tag for breathing dirty air in the San Joaquin Valley: $6.3 billion, mostly because more than 800 people die years earlier than they should.

The state Department of Transportation announced Wednesday details of its plan to build a fog warning system on a 12-mile stretch of Highway 99 in southern Fresno County and northern Tulare County that could serve as a model for future warnings systems throughout the San Joaquin Valley.

WASHINGTON -- San Joaquin River restoration efforts, a roller-coaster ride if there ever was one, now have cleared what could be the last big hump prior to congressional approval.

California navel orange growers say they may have a promising season this year, if they can avoid a major freeze and dodge a citrus pest.

FRESNO -- A regional advisory panel moved Friday to strengthen a planned crackdown on urban sprawl in response to recent state laws attacking global climate change.

LOS ANGELES Backlash to the passage of an anti-gay-marriage law continued to sweep across California on Sunday, with hundreds of protesters rallying outside an Orange County megachurch whose popular pastor brought Barack Obama and John McCain together last summer for a "faith forum."

Much like it dominates the entrance to Yosemite Valley, El Capitan dominates Yosemite rock climbing. Climbers prefer the shortened version, El Cap, or its most common nickname, "The Captain." Three thousand feet of sheer, vertical granite that's as accessible as it is beautiful to look at.

The mystery of missing millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett may be coming to a conclusion.

Two large bones found Wednesday near a remote mountain site where his wrecked plane was earlier found are believed to be human, Madera County Sheriff John Anderson confirmed Thursday.

Searchers discovered the bones at a location more than a half-mile southeast of the aircraft wreckage in the Ansel Adams Wilderness of eastern Madera County.

"A layperson could probably identify them as human bones," Anderson said. He did not describe the bones found.

A search team consisting of three Madera County sheriff's deputies and five volunteers from the Mono County sheriff's search and rescue team found the bones almost immediately after they arrived in the area after a two-hour hike through steep terrain.

Before the day was done, they had also found credit cards, Fossett's Illinois driver's license and a pair of tennis shoes believed to be Fossett's, Anderson said.

The shoes and driver's license had "chew marks," Anderson said, theorizing that animals possibly moved the bones.

Debris from the crash was spread over three-quarters of a mile.

Madera County Sheriff John Anderson's news conference on the Steve Fossett investigation

McGregor W. Scott, who has served as U.S. attorney for California's eastern federal judicial district since March 2003, announced Thursday that he will leave office on Jan. 4.

Central Valley kiwi exporters are getting a boost from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is giving $321,800 to help pay for marketing.

WASHINGTON -- Uncle Sam is doubling down on an investment in California kiwifruit, with a new boost in funding for overseas ads and marketing.

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers are revisiting a San Joaquin River restoration plan even as it comes under sustained pressure over funding and how it would work.

When officials decided not to stop the Tehipite fire east of Fresno, they got three big payoffs -- a cheaper fire to manage, reduced risk for firefighters and cleanup of dangerously overgrown forest.