The SWOT spacecraft is moved into a transport container inside the Astrotech facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base on Nov. 18, 2022. (Photo: USSF 30th Space Wing/Chris Okula)

NASA to conduct first global water survey from space

Data would bolster weather and climate forecasts

Los Angeles | Reuters — A NASA-led international satellite mission was set for blastoff from southern California early on Thursday on a major Earth science project to conduct a comprehensive survey of the world’s oceans, lakes and rivers for the first time. Dubbed SWOT, short for Surface Water and Ocean Topography, the advanced radar satellite […] Read more


Washington begins killing wolf pack for preying on livestock

Reuters — Wildlife agents authorized to eradicate a group of 11 wolves for repeated attacks on cattle in Washington state have hunted down and killed six animals from the condemned pack and are searching for the rest, a state game official said on Monday. State biologists fatally shot two members of the so-called Profanity Peak […] Read more


(PortOfLosAngeles.org)

U.S. farmers hit hard by labour strife at West Coast ports

Los Angeles | Reuters –– Protracted labour strife and shipping disruptions at U.S. West Coast ports have hit farmers especially hard, posing a major barrier to perishable goods headed to overseas markets and resulting in losses estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars a week. Foreign Pacific Rim customers facing chronic delays in shipments of […] Read more


U.S. West Coast ports undergo partial shutdown

Los Angeles | Reuters –– The 29 ports on the U.S. West Coast were effectively closed to cargo freighters for the second time in less than a week on Thursday under a partial shutdown imposed by shipping lines and terminal operators in an escalating labour dispute with the dockworkers’ union. The loading and unloading of […] Read more


California water allocation forecast hits record-low level

Los Angeles | Reuters — A worsening drought in California will likely force a first-ever complete cutoff this year in state-supplied water sold to 29 irrigation districts, public water agencies and municipalities up and down the state, officials said Friday. Although the state Water Resources Department typically ends up supplying more water than first projected […] Read more