L.A. Times - Science

Horse trainer is on a ride for their lives

By Nita Lelyveld, Los Angeles Times — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:42:00 PST

Karin Hauenstein, 39, a 'hobo on horseback,' comes from campfires and corrals, not concrete. She's clip-clopped south from Santa Barbara County, traversing Hollywood on her Thoroughbred Glory to protest the commercial slaughter of equines.

When Karin Hauenstein led her three horses down Vine Street, the girls in short skirts stilled their stiletto-heeled sashays, the incense hawkers stopped calling out to passersby, and Trader Joe's shoppers gaped through the glass at the convoy clip-clopping up the far right lane.

Obama health chief visits L.A. clinic, announces plan to help students

By Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PST

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, on a visit to Eisner Pediatric and Family Medical Center, announces more than $9 million in funding to help medical students repay school loans if they agree to work in underserved areas.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius visited a health clinic in downtown Los Angeles on Monday and announced more than $9 million in funding to help medical students repay school loans if they agree to work in underserved areas.

L.A.'s trash industry gets ready to rumble

By Kate Linthicum and Jessica Garrison, Los Angeles Times — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 19:15:00 PST

A proposal from a labor-allied group would arrange the privately run portion of L.A.'s trash industry into 11 zones with exclusive contracts — a big change from the 140-plus haulers operating now.

A war over trash is about to break out at Los Angeles City Hall. And the ensuing lobbying is expected to be long and costly, with the outcome potentially affecting residents, businesses, workers and a quarter-billion-dollar-a-year industry across the city.

Testing pot in a legal vacuum

By Joe Mozingo, Los Angeles Times — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 11:19:00 PST

Few standards apply to quality of marijuana, because the federal government considers all use illegal.

The tech broke the bud of marijuana into small flakes, measuring 200 milligrams into a vial. He had picked up the strain, Ghost, earlier that day from a dispensary in the Valley and guessed by its pungency and visible resin glands that it was potent.

Permit approved for desalination plant at Huntington Beach

By Tony Barboza, Los Angeles Times — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:28:00 PST

The bid to build a sea water-to-drinking water facility at Huntington Beach is cleared by a regional water board. But environmentalists say the plan endangers sea creatures and risks fouling the ocean with discharge.

The bid to bring a large-scale desalination plant to Southern California cleared a major hurdle Friday when water regulators approved a permit for a Huntington Beach facility to turn seawater into drinking water.

Landfill's new odor patrols have the right scents ability

By Ann M. Simmons, Los Angeles Times — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 16:50:00 PST

In the face of numerous complaints and violations, Sunshine Canyon Landfill has organized an 'odor patrol team' to sniff out olfactory offenses in the Granada Hills North neighborhood. But its efforts haven't always passed residents' smell test.

Dennis Montano stood on a corner in Granada Hills one recent brisk morning, lifted his nose to the sky and sniffed.

Problems cast shadows of doubt on solar project

By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PST

The unexpected deaths of kit foxes and discovery of ancient human settlements threaten to delay or even cancel a $1-billion, 250-megawatt installation on federal land in the desert near Blythe.

Reporting from Blythe, Calif. -- One of California's showcase solar energy projects, under construction in the desert east of Los Angeles, is being threatened by a deadly outbreak of distemper among kit foxes and the discovery of a prehistoric human settlement on the work site.

Tejon Ranch to pay fine for killing mountain lions

By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PST

The corporation, which illegally killed at least 11 cats to keep them away from game wanted by high-paying trophy hunters, must pay $136,500, according to a settlement with the state fish and game agency.

The Tejon Ranch has agreed to pay $136,500 in fines and restitution for illegally killing at least 11 mountain lions to prevent them from competing for game with high-paying trophy hunters, the Kern County district attorney's office announced Friday.

Makeup of rain forest may have been altered by farmers

By Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:19:00 PST

Bantu farmers may have played a role in transforming the Central African rain forest into drier grasslands, French scientists say.

Deforestation and climate change may sound like familiar concerns to the modern ear. But a team of French scientists is arguing that even 3,000 years ago, humans may have played a role in transforming the Central African rain forest into the savannas we see today.

Obama plan seeks to defuse birth control debate

By Christi Parsons, Kathleen Hennessey, Washington Bureau — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:10:00 PST

President Obama offers an 'accommodation' in hopes of ending the debate over a mandate that religiously affiliated groups provide birth control coverage. Many critics welcome the move, but not all.

For days President Obama had been hammered over a regulation in the 2010 healthcare law that required religiously affiliated hospitals, charities and universities to provide birth control coverage for their female employees even if that conflicted with church teachings.